Abstract:
Travelling was an essential factor of everyday life of people from ancient to modern day. There are lots of different methods and types of travelling. With the introduction of new communication and technologies, travel has become easier, cheaper and safer. As a result of this, travelling for pleasure purposes have rocketed in recent past. People with similar interest and who are familiar with each other tend to travel together. Considerable amount of people get middleman to make easier, safer and cheaper of the tour for them to travel. This marks the increase of purchasing tour packages. There are many travel agencies and tour packages available to tourists. To gain a competitive edge and survive in the market, a travel agent has to must implement a careful marketing strategy. In the last two decades conventional marketing methods has dropped and electronic marketing has become the primary method of marketing. Since e - Marketing is critical in modern marketing, the main purpose of this study to identify the impact of e - marketing mix elements on European tourists' tour package selection decision. A conceptual framework has been developed based on previous researches. The research mainly depend on primary data collected through European packaged tourists. Convenience sampling method used to collect data from 200 European packaged tourists who visit Anuradhapura, Ella, Hikkaduwa and Yala. Descriptive statistics, Karl Pearson coefficient of correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis used to analyze the data collected. Results disclosed all e - Marketing mix elements have positive relationship with European tourists' tour package selection decision.
Key words: e - Marketing, Travel agencies, European tourists, Tour package selection
