Building effective digital marketing strategies for promoting public services in the tourism sector with application to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC)

The principal focus of the study is to provide a thorough understanding of digital marketing strategies and techniques, especially in the tourism industry. The paper also tries to identify the advantages of using the digital marketing model for image building and promotion of products and services provided by public sectors. In other words, the research aims to put together a general picture regarding this concept, its emergence, types, tools and tactics, benefits and challenges posed by the specific conditions of public administration.
Both deductive and inductive approaches are utilized together in this study. Indeed, it uses a descriptive analytical method for its theoretical intents, whereas empirically it explores the adoption of public sector’s digital marketing methods in the tourism industry in Egypt among a meaningful sample of NMEC's visitors, and then it examines the impact of applying those strategies and techniques on the marketing of services offered by the Museum from their perspective. Survey-based data was collected by analyzing questionnaires of (400) respondents.
The results show that digital marketing is very important for any public service organization, but it does not completely substitute other traditional communication media; is that a marketing combination strategy is always perfectly preferred. Besides, findings indicate that digital marketing strategies and techniques are already used by NMEC for disseminating branding and promotion information of touristic services. Finally, conclusions and implications to the academia, public executives, and marketers are drawn, specifically in the tourism industry and within the Egyptian scenario. Additionally, future research opportunities are also highlighted.