Gamification as a Creative Tool for the Egyptian Tourism Destination Marketing

Al-Azab, Mahmoud; Abdellah, Mahmoud

doi:10.21608/mfth.2019.71107

Gamification as a Creative Tool for the Egyptian Tourism Destination Marketing

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, University of Sadat City

10.21608/mfth.2019.71107

Abstract

Gamification is one of the ICT applications, which can be applied in the tourism marketing globally.Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. The study attempts to clarify how to implement gamification in marketing of the Egyptian tourist destination through its effective elements, its advantages in tourism marketing, in addition the challenges that prevent the success of gamification mechanism. The application of gamification requires the cooperation between specialists and experts in the fields of technology and programming, tourism and travel industry, marketing, and experts in psychology and consumer behavior. The study found that there is a significant statistical relationship between the elements of effective gamification and the benefits of using it as a marketing tool. Marketers who insist on using the traditional ways of marketing are the most prominent obstacles to apply gamification mechanism. The study recommended the necessity of establishing a partnership between the Egyptian general authority for tourism and game design companies in order to design gamification applications to improve the mental image of the Egyptian tourist destination or to offer the Egyptian tourist product in an attractive way or to help potential customers plan their trips to Egypt.

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