Management of the Digital Tourist Brand of the Republic of Armenia

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Saint Petersburg School of Economics and Management

Department of Management

Master's thesis

Management of the Digital Tourist Brand of the Republic of Armenia

In the field 38.04.02 Management

Lusine Harutyunyan

Saint- Petersburg - 2020

Факультет Санкт-Петербургская школа экономики и менеджмента

Национального исследовательского университета «Высшая школа экономики»

Выпускная квалификационная работа

Управление цифровым туристическим брендом Республики Армении

по направлению подготовки 38.04.02 «Менеджмент»

Арутюнян Лусине

Санкт-Петербург - 2020

Preface

Master's thesis was prepared for the journal “Journal of marketing channels” publishing by “Taylor and Francis”. Journal is indexed in Scopus and included in the “white list” of the university. This research edition is characterized in following subject areas and categories: Business, management and accounting (Marketing - Q3).

In accordance with the journal rules the structure of the article should contain the following elements and sections: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list). It is possible to merge several sections into one.

The publisher sets technical requirements for the article font- Times New Roman, register- 12 point, line spaces- double-line spaces, fields- at least 2,5 cm.

It is essential to accomplish professional marketing performance for tourism development. In accordance with the desire to develop Armenian tourism, it is necessary to establish an intensive and coherent use of new technologies, including the most modern platforms. The purpose of the paper is to form recommendations for effective promotion of Armenian tourism brand in a digital environment among Russian-speaking tourists.

Various management and marketing research methods were used to study different target groups, which helped to form a semantic core that will help to effectively promote the products and their websites and break ahead in competition.

During the research Armenian top professionals of the tourism industry were questioned concerning Russian speaking tourists, their preferences and needs, how their company is promoting their product in the digital environment and which channels they think are more effective.

Аннотация

digital travel brand

Для развития туризма важно выполнять профессиональные маркетинговые мероприятия. С целью развития туризма в Армении необходимо интенсивное и последовательное использование новейших технологий, включая наиболее современные платформы.

Цель данной работы заключается в формировании рекомендаций для эффективного продвижения армянского туристического бренда в цифровой среде среди русскоязычных туристов. Для изучения разных целевых групп были использованы различные методы управления и маркетинга, что помогло в формировании семантического ядра, что в свою очередь поможет эффективному продвижению продуктов и их сайтов и позволит вырваться вперед в конкурентной борьбе. В процессе исследования был проведен опрос среди лучших профессионалов сферы туризма Армении относительно русскоязычных туристов, их нужд и предпочтений, о том, как их компании продвигают свой продукт в цифровой среде, и какие каналы, по их мнению, являются наиболее эффективными. Работа показывает, что комплексный и систематический подход поднимет конкурентоспособность сферы туризма в Армении за границей и в регионе.

Introduction

Nowadays the Republic of Armenia is faced with the task of introducing itself to the world, and before conducting in-depth studies, it is necessary to understand what Armenia is known abroad, and especially, with what it is presented to the world. Even without deep research, it can be stated that today Armenia is known in the world primarily as the first country to adopt Christianity.

In essence, branding a country improves its profile and reputation, thereby enabling it to attract foreign direct investments while making it an ideal destination for tourism and trade. For this reason, governmental entities are beginning to employ branding strategies to sell their regions and countries to the rest of the world. This phenomenon has resulted in a new concept of marketing called place branding. (Mary and Misiani, Bus Eco J 2017)

According to the data of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, if there is a competent national brand of Armenia and its successful implementation, an average annual growth of tourist flow by 10% is forecasted in the coming years. In early 2014, it was published that an american company helps to determine the national brand and branding Strategy of Armenia. (Sputnik-Georgia, 2014)

As we were informed from the Tourism committee of the Republic of Armenia, the project was stopped and they have no information yet, when the project will resume.

Nowadays the usage of the internet and customer involvement in the web is increasing. So we need to concentrate more on targeting the audience, proceeding various analyses which will lead to forming strategies and brand positioning.

As our research shows, very few marketing studies are conducted in the tourism market of Armenia, which should be aimed at identifying target groups and their needs. The gap of the study is the lack of statistical and analytical data conducted in tourism marketing in Armenia.

Our previous studies have shown the actual situation in the digital environment of travel agencies in Armenia and we are going to conduct several analyses to dig deeper and find strategic solutions for better promotion of Armenia as a brand in digital platforms.

We have previously researched 50 travel agencies in Armenia who work with russian speaking tourists to reveal the readiness to serve the russian speaking audience, which means the translations of the web-page. We have also checked in which social platforms they have pages to promote their product. All the studies have shown that the travel agencies are very inactive in russian digital platforms and not all the pages have russian translation.

Research problem of the topic is that there is a mismatch between the demand of Russian speaking tourists in Armenia and targeted marketing promotion steps from the stakeholders- hotels, travel agencies and there is no specific group engagement strategy.

The purpose of the paper is the formation of recommendations for managing the promotion of the tourism brand of Armenia.

A number of tasks were set to answer the research question.

The research object can be defined as the management decisions on the development of target areas. The research subject is the needs of different target groups.

Hypothesis - For the successful promotion of the tourism brand among Russian-speaking tourists, it is necessary to concentrate the resources in Russian-language platforms.

To study the case deeply, to confirm or refute the hypothesis, the following methods of study have been chosen- quantitative analysis conducted through a survey questionnaire, marketing theoretical analysis, management systematic analysis.

Literature review

The words `brand' and `branding' are used, broadly speaking, in three ways: a popular way, a simple way and an advanced way. The popular understanding of branding is the least precise: it is used as a vague con?ation of several marketing disciplines, and often interchangeably with advertising, marketing, PR and sales promotion. It is believed to be a marketing buzzword which refers in a general way to all modern selling activities.

The simple understanding of branding is used by marketing services ?rms and their clients and refers to a designed visual identity -- name, logo, slogan, corporate livery. It is the way in which the identity of the company, product or service is dressed, and thus recognised. In a subtle way, this dress is also understood to be a channel of communication; the style and content of the design implies something about the nature and personality of the product, and consequently its desired target audience.

The advanced de?nition of branding includes the simple de?nition but goes on to cover a wide area of corporate strategy, consumer and stakeholder motivation and behaviour, internal and external communications, ethics and purpose.

`Destination branding', a term often used to indicate a modern form of tourism promotion, is frequently con?ated with nation branding, but this is misleading, as Hugh Davidson points out in his book review in this issue. Tourism is just one component of the city, nation or region (readers may recall my use of the `nation-branding hexagon' to illustrate this relationship), and, unlike the nation as a whole, is a `product' which needs to be `sold' in the global marketplace. In this context, simple branding is not only possible but also necessary, and the whole panoply of visual identity, slogans, design and advertising plays a critical role in selling the product.

Big changes in the social and political fabric of modern society make the more `public-oriented' approach of place branding a necessity in the 21st century. This is not a question of governments `playing to the gallery' or a strategy for legitimising state propaganda, but simply a growing acknowledgement of the in?uence of peoples on international affairs.

For places to achieve the bene?ts which the better-run companies derive from branding, the whole edi?ce of statecraft needs to be jacked up and underpinned with the learnings and techniques which commerce, over the last century and more, has acquired. Much of what has served so well to build shareholder value can, with care, build citizen value too; and citizen value is the keynote of governance in the modern world. (Simon Anholt. Place Branding 1744-070X (2005) Vol. 1, 2, 116-121)

Simon Anholt, who fathered the concept of nation branding, values the nation brand as the most important resource of a state as it contributes to obtaining a competitive advantage and a consolidated position in the international marketplace.

We are living in an era of an information economy where knowledge and information is the biggest source of competitive advantage.

The Internet has altered the way customers/users have access to information about products and services, their pricing, availability and constituent information. The search engine marketers are using various algorithms and data mining tools to capture and analyze interaction data, visualize information search behavior and linking them to desired suppliers of information on their online platforms. By using these web mining tools and algorithms, they are able to route traffic to desired websites and predict likely behavioral patterns of customers. This in turn is helping online marketing companies to proactively guide customers' enquiry into a purchase process. This user-driven knowledge discovery process has been able to build a market of both search engine companies as well as strong online retailers.

More and more customers are resorting to the web for their information search. Web-based information search and social media marketing has galvanized information empowerment to customers.

Statistics of search engines is the most important factor determining the strategy of website promotion. Indeed, it is important to know the audience of users of search engines, thereby understanding which promotion in which search engine (Yandex, Google, Bing, etc.) is more “profitable”, will bring more visitors, conversions, profits. An incorrectly chosen promotion strategy can significantly affect financial costs when promoting projects.

A previous study was conducted in June 2018 and showed an increasing share of the Google search engine and a drop in the share of the Yandex search engine. Let's evaluate what happened this year.

Raw data is taken from the open access statistics of Liveinternet. According to the latest net market share report the share of Russian-speaking Google users is growing every year, as of August 2019, it is 56.4% and significantly exceeds the Yandex share of 41%. This is due to the fact that in Russian-speaking countries of the near abroad, Yandex is not used as a search engine.

If in 2018 Yandex was more popular among users of Russia, then already in 2019, 50.7% of Russians used Google as a search engine. The share of Yandex was only 46.6% percent. (Dr. Max, 2019)

Google being the most popular and the most powerful search engine of them all, integrates many advanced algorithms along with machine learning making their AI system a state of the art technology that not only understands what the user needs but also suggests information that blends their need and taste to provide the most accurate result for the query.

SEM is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites to increase their visibility on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) through the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid placements, contextual advertising and paid inclusion. There are various online marketing tools to acquire an audience like opt in, viral marketing, banner advertising, search placement and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or keyword marketing. (Boughton, 2007).

Search Engine Optimization is an art of optimizing the website in order to increase the popularity of the webpage against all the other competitors. (Tapan Panda, 2013) Search Engine Optimization has many factors that help in improving the visibility of the webpage. One of the main objectives of gaining ranks among the tops is to increase the traffic rate, page authority and the domain authority of a website. (Santhosh R. & Suhail I. S., 2018)

Search Engine Optimization is categorized into two:

* On-Page SEO On-page SEO is also known as On-Site SEO, is basically optimizing the data or content on the website itself

* Off-Page SEO Off-page SEO is also known as Off-Site SEO, is basically optimizing the links that are being followed or are being redirected from some source other than the website itself (Zlatin George, 2019).

On-Page Search Engine Optimization is directly involved with the webpage itself. On-Page

Search Engine Optimization deals with the optimization of individual web pages. It can be very well referred to both the content and the source code of the webpage that is being intended to be optimized (Zlatin George, 2019).

Unlike On-page SEO, Off-Page Search Engine Optimization is not directly involved with the webpage however it involves all the links that are being redirected from or are being redirected to. There are mainly two factors that affect the optimization of the webpage, they are as follows (Zlatin George, 2019):

* InterLinks are also known as backlinks. These interlinks help the website in generating traffic by getting redirected from other related websites. Many users, however, buy these backlinks to strengthen their domain authority even though it's considered illegal by Google's search engine. However, the user from whom the page is being redirected to can restrict the flow or the crawling of data by telling search engines not to count some of their links to other pages with the help of the “nofollow” tag.

* Social Links helps the website in generating traffic by getting traffic from social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. When a user clicks on any ads or links that are posted online on social websites, it gains them page authority as they are all being redirected to their target page.

A stream of research reveals that the way information is displayed can influence human decision-making processes by affecting the ease with which various decision processes are carried out (e.g., Bettman et al. 1986; Jarvenpaa and Dickson 1988). According to Kleinmuntz and Schkade (1993), there are three fundamental characteristics of information display: the form of the individual information items, the organization of the displayed items into meaningful groups, and the sequence of individual information items. Among these three display features, sequence (or order) significantly influences the way information gets processed (Hogarth and Einhorn 1992; Russo and Rosen 1975).

Marketing is essentially the management process by which companies identify, anticipate and satisfy their customers' needs and wants, while simultaneously making a profit (Kotler 1973).

Today's marketers are expected to anticipate their individual customers' needs and wants; to ensure their long-term value, over time. This, of course, requires extensive market research and analysis. Hence, it is imperative that companies carry out a rigorous process of customer and market analysis. It is in their interest to investigate the present market, the needs and wants of customers and how they may satisfy them. It is necessary to investigate possible competition and to anticipate market developments through market research. Market research may be defined as the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing a company (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012)

The processing and analysis of information obtained through market research provides them with a relevant knowledge base on which they can make better decisions about the development of a product or a service. (Camilleri, 2018)

Materials and methods

In the current research we have used a package of marketing analysis as well as management analysis with systematic approach, quantitative, correlation and regression analysis to reveal the target audience, their needs and furtherly to analyze and forecast their actions. The full research framework is presented in table 2.

Quantitative analysis

The first phase of our work includes a quantitative study which is carried out by a survey questionnaire. It aims to facilitate the investigation of Russian speaking tourists' characteristics, preferences, target groups and other aspects to feel the gap of lack of statistics in travel agencies. (See appendices from 1 to 12)

16 questions in total have been included in the questionnaire. It has been sent to the key professionals of the tourism industry in Armenia, who work with Russian market. Total 43 respondents have filled the questionnaire, 33 female and 10 male respondents. Mostly the 55.8% has from 1-5 year experience, 27.9% 6-10 year and 16.3% which is 7 respondents have 10+ year experience in the tourism industry.

Received data show that mostly tourists aged 35-55 arrive in Armenia from Russia (39 respondents have chosen this group), as well as families with kids (according to the opinion of 20 responders).

According to the respondents, the high season months are from May to September or October. A large percentage is noticeable also in January.

Senior citizens often travel in May, August, September and October.

Regarding the gender of Russian tourists approximately 67.4% believe that male and female tourists equally travel to Armenia from Russia and 20.9% believe that female tourists travel more.

97.7% of respondents believe that Russian tourists come to Armenia by plane, since this is the most convenient and fastest way to get to Armenia, as Russia does not border with Armenia.

From the chart (See appendix 9) we can see that, according to respondents, 3-5 * hotels are more popular among Russian tourists than hostels and apartments.

Over the past 5 years, there has been an increase among tourists aged 35-55.

36 respondents think that Russian tourists prefer more sightseeing tours than other types, 23 respondents think that they chose wine tours.

We have also asked about the most effective promotion channels for Russian tourists, as well as those that they themselves use. Respondents believe that the most effective channels for Russians are Instagram and VKontakte, as well as responses like the company's website and personal connections have also collected high rank.

Despite this, the respondents themselves use more Instagram and Facebook.

Marketing analysis

Abraham Maslow may be the most “iconic figure in the history of management ideas”. The pyramid or triangle of human needs is likely the most famous image in management studies.

It's important for marketing and customer experience leaders to understand that lower level customer experience needs don't disappear once they have been initially satisfied. They must continue to be satisfied, or they will again become customers' primary focus.

If marketers know the wants and needs of their target market, then this can be used as a selling point to influence (Cooke, Mills, & Kelley, 2005: 133).

Today, Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) is a familiar strategic approach in Modern Marketing. It is one of the most commonly applied marketing models in practice. The popularity is relatively recent since previously, marketing approaches were based more around products rather than customers. (Lancaster G. and Massingham, L. 1988). Through segmentation, you can identify niches with specific needs, mature markets to find new customers, deliver more focused and effective marketing messages.You can segment your existing markets based on nearly any variable, as long as it's effective. (Smith, W. R. 1956)

For analysis, we studied the relevance between needs and target groups, needs and products, target groups and promotion, products and promotion, target groups and product. (appendix 13)

Needs

Target groups

Product

Promotion channels

We evaluated the significance of each category. As a result we identified key groups, needs, products and promotion channels.

According to the analysis, the key target groups are families with children of any age, as well as tourists aged 35-55.

The key needs for the destination are the availability of hotels of different class and price level, the ability to serve a tourist who does not know the local language and price-quality ratio.

Main promotion channels are promotion of information on the website, social media and word of mouth.

All these needs must be taken into account when forming the country's development strategy as a tourist destination.

Formation of the semantic core

Organic search is the most effective source of attracting traffic. To use it and make the site visible to visitors of Yandex and Google, it is enough to determine what your audience is interested in and how it is looking for information. This problem is solved by building a semantic core. The semantic core is a set of words and phrases that reflect the theme and structure of the website.

Composing the semantic core, you answer the global question: what information can be found on the website. Since customer focus is considered one of the main principles of business and marketing, the creation of a semantic core can be viewed from the other side. You need to determine what search queries users are looking for that should be published on the website.

Keys are words or phrases that potential customers use to find the information they need.

Keywords are classified according to several criteria. By popularity, high-, medium- and low-frequency queries are distinguished. According to various sources, search phrases are grouped as follows:

According to statistics, approximately two-thirds of all search queries are low-frequency. Therefore, you need to have the broadest possible semantic core, which should constantly expand due to low-frequency phrases. (Dmitry Dementiy. What is the semantic core and how to compose it. 2019)

For the base of the core we selected the key needs that were identified as a result of expert evaluation.

From these expressions, a database of synonyms was formed, in total of 35 words, and a database of search queries from Yandex Wordstat was collected over 3 years since April 2017. Correlation and regression analyzes were performed with the present data.

Correlation and regression analysis

Correlation is a statistical technique that measures the relationship between two variables.

Some people believe that the main idea of forecasting is to predict the future as accurately as possible. In fact, the main idea of forecasting is to reduce uncertainty about the future. After all, the future is not predetermined, we never know what exactly will happen, when and how. But with the help of forecasting methods, we can at least say what is not worth waiting for and outline the area in which the event is likely to occur.

Any event that we want to consider from the point of view of forecasting can be represented by some systematic component, which can be described using some model, as well as a random component.

Regression analysis is a quantitative research method which is used when the study involves modelling and analysing several variables, where the relationship includes a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. In simple terms, regression analysis is a quantitative method used to test the nature of relationships between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. (John Dudovskiy, 2018)

Regression model, basically, specifies the relation of dependent variable (Y) to a function combination of independent variables (X) and unknown parameters (в)

Compliance (Fact As Range, Model As Range) -- The function calculates the value of the coefficient of correspondence of the non-linear model function of the actual from the point of view of deviations from the average. In the case of linear, the result will be similar to R2.

Accord (Fact As Range, Model As Range) -- The function calculates the value of the coefficient of agreement in the dynamics, the equivalent coefficient of concordance, but only in the dynamics.

Approxf (Fact As Range, Model As Range) -- The function calculates the average relative approximation error through the standard deviation.

Approxs (Fact As Range, Model As Range) -- The function calculates the value of the average relative approximation error through the RMS modules. (Ivan Svetunkov, 2019)

From the data collected previously, we calculated the autocorrelation coefficients, based on them we determined the autoregression order and built the corresponding model.

Based on the conducted research, we have created a semantic core for 3 months- January, May and June. The words are the most preferable ones to use for promoting the website for travel agencies in Armenia or the main website of the country. They can be used for the website creation, in the posts, headlines and advertisements in social media. (See table 3)

SWOT analysis

SWOT Analysis is a tool used for strategic planning and strategic management in organizations. It can be used effectively to build organizational strategy and competitive strategy. In accordance with the System Approach, organizations are wholes that are in interaction with their environments and consist of various sub-systems. In this sense, an organization exists in two environments, one being in itself and the other being outside. It is a necessity to analyse these environments for strategic management practices. This process of examining the organization and its environment is termed SWOT Analysis. (Emet Gurel, 2017)

External factor evaluation (EFE) matrix (appendix 15)

The first part of the SWOT analysis requires looking outside our business at issues that we cannot control but can manage to enhance or reduce their impact on our business. External factor evaluation (EFE) matrix is a strategic-management tool often used for assessment of the current business conditions. It is a good tool used to visualize and prioritize the opportunities and threats that a business is facing. (Emet Gurel, 2017)

The EFE matrix process uses the following five steps:

1. List factors: The first step is to gather a list of external factors and divide them into two groups: opportunities and threats.

2. Assign weights: Weight is assigned to each factor. The value of each weight should be between 0 and 10. Zero means the factor is not important, while 10 means the factor is the most influential.

3. Rate factors: Rating is assigned to each factor, and is between 1 and 4. Rating indicates how effective the firm's current strategies respond to the factor. Rating captures whether the factor represents a major threat (rating = 1), a minor threat (rating = 2), a minor opportunity (rating = 3), or a major opportunity (rating = 4). If rating scale 1 to 4 is used, then strengths must receive a 4 or 3 rating and weaknesses must receive a 1 or 2 rating.

4. Multiply weights by ratings: Multiply each factor weight with its rating in order to calculate its weighted score.

5. Total all weighted scores: Add all the weighted scores of each factor, in order to calculate the company's total weighted score.

Internal factor evaluation (IFE) matrix (appendix 16)

Internal factor evaluation (IFE) matrix is a strategic management tool used for evaluating strengths and weaknesses in functional areas of a business.

The IFE matrix together with the EFE matrix is a strategy formulation tool that can be utilized to evaluate the performance of a company with regards to the identified internal strengths and weaknesses of a company. (Emet Gurel, 2017)

The IFE matrix can be created using the following 3 steps:

1. Key internal factors: The first step is to identify strengths and weaknesses.

2. Weights: IFE matrix assigns a weight that ranges from 0 to 10 for each factor. The weight assigned to a given factor indicates the relative importance of the factor. Zero means not important, while 10 indicates very important.

3. Rating: Practitioners usually use rating on a scale from 1 to 4. Rating captures whether the factor represents a major weakness (rating = 1), a minor weakness (rating = 2), a minor strength (rating = 3), or a major strength (rating = 4).

Strategic position and action evaluation (SPACE) matrix (appendix 17)

The strategic position and action evaluation (SPACE) matrix is a management tool used to analyze a company's business. It is used to determine what type of strategy a business should undertake. The SPACE matrix is broken down into four quadrants, where each quadrant suggests a different type or nature of strategy: aggressive, conservative, defensive and competitive. However, the SPACE matrix analysis functions upon two internal and two external strategic dimensions.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) matrix (table 4)

SWOT is the first step оf planning and it helps planners to focus оn key subjects. SWOT method is a key tооl used in businesses to fоrmulate strategic plans. SWOT matrix cоmprises four strategic groups:

1) Hоw strengths are used to take advantage of opportunities.

2) Hоw weaknesses are reduced by taking advantage of opportunities.

3) Hоw strengths are used to reduce the impact of threats.

4) Hоw weaknesses that will make these threats a reality are addressed.

Based on SPACE matrix, grоup III strategies (defensive) are the suggested strategies.

Management analysis

Today, at the stage of market transformations, great importance is given to management analysis, which is the main functional feature of the implementation of management accounting (Semina A., 2019). Management usually presupposes influencing the system to ensure its functioning, aimed at maintaining its key quality in the conditions of either the changing environment or the implementation of a certain program providing sustainability and achieving a particular aim. Management activities are inseparably connected with the system approach. It is the necessity of solving management tasks that enables to use system ideas and bring them to the level of technological management schemes. Management needs are the key motivating power of the system approach development. Consistency in management has several application aspects, the most important of which are: system conception of the object and subject of management, system conception of management as well as the use of system method of management. (Surmin U. 2003)

For the next step a management analysis was carried out, based on the analysis which has revealed the customer needs and the targeted groups. For the analysis only the needs with a high rate of significance have been chosen. Managerial characteristics and actions have been prescribed for each target group to show how we can manage and control each need before, during and after using the service. After collecting a base of actions and characteristics, we have conducted a content analysis using manual coding.

By manual coding we have collected the expressions with high semantic meaning and counted their quantity used in the text. Afterwards, top 20 expressions have been highlighted to show the leading and subsequent expressions. (Appendix 18)

Discussions and recommendations

Our research shows how important it is to use marketing analysis and conduct detailed research of its results in order to build a better concept of a successful strategy. This approach allows you to get consistency in the long-term management of the destination.

The research has shown the importance of pre-forming a certain image of the country for the tourist brand of the country and to have a structured approach for the introduction of the brand in the international market. According to the article, we realized how important it is to use modern digital tools to promote a brand in a digital environment. Currently, digital marketing is a rapidly developing field, and it is very important to pay more attention to it.

As a result of the research, a list of recommendations for promoting Armenia as an international brand for Russian-speaking tourists was formed.

1. The government should take appropriate steps and to form a tourism brand in Armenia

2. Learn more about your audience and their needs

3. Promotions in social networks and word of mouth as well as information on the company's websites that is carried out using SEO optimization

4. Focus on target groups and run targeted ads. Our analysis shows that the main groups for Armenia are middle-aged people and families with children.

5. Illustrate and promote various categories of hotels, from top class 4-5* to hostels and apartments

6. It is very important that tourists travel to a country where they are easily understood and where they can move without any difficulties.

7. Develop the entertainment industry, organize major festivals and attract individual tourists of a younger age.

8. Promote your country also on Russian channels such as Vkontakte and Telegram

References

Appendix

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

Appendix 6

Appendix 7

Appendix 8

Appendix 9

Appendix 10

Appendix 11

Appendix 12

Appendix 13. STP analysis, Targeted groups, Sales technologies and Products

Appendix 14. STP analysis, Target groups, Needs and Products

Appendix 15. External factor evaluation (EFE) matrix