THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNET MARKETING IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY

Ubrzani tehnološki napredak je uvelike utjecao na promjenu životnog stila čovjeka i današnji digitalni svijet se u potpunosti razlikuje od svijeta prije pojave interneta. Uvođenje interneta u svakodnevni život uzrokovalo je uklanjanje mnogih zapreka poput vremenskih i geografskih barijera. Njegova je popularnost i korisnost u hotelijerstvu razvojem internetskog marketinga dovela do mnogih koristi osobito u olakšanom poslovanju, smanjenju financijskih troškova kod oglašavanja i promocije, ubrzanoj komunikaciji i interakciji s ljudima te praćenju konkurencije na globalnom tržištu ponude i potražnje. Zahvaljujući društvenim medijima, koji su jedan od najbržih i najpopularnijih komunikacijskih kanala današnjice, omogućena je dostupnost informacija svim korisnicima u vrlo kratkom vremenu i na bilo kojem mjestu. Ovaj oblik marketinga je dobio na značenju još više u vrijeme pandemije kada tradicionalni marketinški kanali nisu mogli pružiti optimalan povrat vrijednosti. Hotelijeri zahvaljujući njemu imaju pristup praćenja i analiziranja navika svojih gostiju, a različitim marketinškim strategijama ostvaruju pozitivne poslovne rezultate te izgrađuju imidž važan među konkurencijom. S ciljem istraživanja važnosti i značaja internet marketinga provedeno je empirijsko istraživanje temeljem kojeg je zaključeno kako su se turistička industrija i hotelijerstvo pojavom internet marketinga dramatično promijenili na bolje te da je sektor hotelijerstva to iskoristio na najbolji mogući način postižući maksimum u svom povratu na investiciju (ROI). Iz istog proizlazi kako još uvijek ima velikog prostora za razvoj jer marketing treba gledati kao ulaganje, a ne kao trošak.Accelerated technological progress has influenced a lot to a change in human lifestyle and today's digital world is completely different from the world before the advent of the Internet. The introduction of the Internet into everyday life caused the removal of many obstacles such as time and geographical barriers. Its popularity and usefulness in the hotel industry through the development of Internet marketing has led to many benefits, especially in easier business, reduction of financial costs in advertising and promotion, accelerated communication and interaction with people, and monitoring competition on the global supply and demand market. Thanks to social media, which are one of the fastest and most popular communication channels nowadays, information is available to all users in a very short time and at any place. This form of marketing gained even more importance during the pandemic when traditional marketing channels could not provide optimal return on value. Hoteliers therefore have access to monitoring and analyzing the habits of their guests, and with different marketing strategies they achieve positive business results and build an important image among the competition. With the aim of researching the importance of Internet marketing, an empirical study was conducted based on which it was concluded that the tourism industry and the hotel industry have changed dramatically for the better with the advent of Internet marketing, and that the hotel sector has used this in the best possible way, achieving the maximum return on investment (ROI). ). It follows from the same that there is still a lot of space for development because marketing should be seen as an investment, not as an expense