The Impact of Digital Marketing on Tourism Promotion in IraqAn Applied Study on the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities and a Number of Tourism Companies in Iraq

The current research examines the importance of digital marketing in the promotion of tourism in Iraq through an applied study of the Iraqi Tourism Authority and four tourism companies. Although Iraq is blessed with abundant nature, religion, history, and culture-related resources, this sector suffers from lack of investments and low number of visitors. Digital marketing tools like social networks, websites, mobile applications, and advertisements offer a cheap way to connect with the local and international audiences, raise their awareness about Iraqi tourism attractions and attract tourists and investors. Descriptive-analytical approach was used in the current study through a survey composed of 15 questions distributed among 140 employees and managers. Data collected were analyzed through SPSS software version 26 in order to determine frequencies, percentages, means and relative weights. There were ten items falling in the Agree category and five items falling in the Neutral category. The most agreed item concerns the fact that Iraq is now better represented in its tourism contents on the Internet (mean = 4.00), while the least agreed items are concerned with the utilization of paid advertisement (mean = 2.96) and digital contents as the primary tool for tourists' planning (mean = 2.84).