The use of search engine marketing "SEM" in the Egyptian hotel industry : an exploratory study

الملخص EN

Search engine marketing (SEM) is currently the most popular form of online marketing.

As such, a strong presence in these engines could prove essential to the success of numerous commercial organizations, including hotels.

Major organizations in the world invest significant resources in trying to influence their visibility among online search results.

In addition to paying for sponsored links, they invest in methods known as search engine optimization (SEO) that improve the ranking of a site among the search results without improving its quality.

In this respect, hotels should consider SEM as an important approach in their business to take competitive advantage from the global markets.

The adoption of SEM has been associated with an array of potential benefits such as market expansion and cost reduction.

Nevertheless, little is known about how hotels perceive and use SEM.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore how hotels use SEM as a marketing strategy and gain more understanding and knowledge about how it could be done successfully.

In order to attain this aim, the study attempts to: 1) explore the current use of SEM techniques within the hotel sector in Egypt; 2) examine factors that affect the choice between various SEM techniques and 3) determine the most appropriate metrics of SEM evaluation.

To do that, a multi-methods approach methodology was employed using Delphi and survey techniques.

The research setting is the major five-star hotel chains in Greater Cairo, which are characterized by the extensive use of Web technologies and the fierce market competition.

The findings of this study revealed that though all hotels have a website, they do not exploit SEM efficiently, which may be attributable to poor marketing planning and lack of control of their websites.

The study also identified some important metrics that can be used to measure the SEM performance.

Those hotels who are interested in promoting their business online may find these results helpful in guiding their efforts