Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When examining promotion strategies, the study focuses on the change in marketing and public relations strategies based on the incorporation of information and communication technologies and, in particular, the use of the internet.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws on a qualitative analysis of the different strategies used by traditional agencies and online agencies in Spain from the mid-19th century to the present. This analysis shows how traditional communication strategies survived at the beginning of the 21st century, together with other more innovative ones, while some disappeared, being eliminated by the new online travel agencies, which created a particular conception of marketing and communication. This paper is divided into the following parts: the introduction; the beginnings of travel agency promotion in the 20th century; the evolution of promotion in travel agencies since the late 20th century; communication innovation at the beginning of the 21st century; online travel agencies; and conclusions.

Findings

This study shows that although online agencies did not manage to position themselves with a large turnover, they generated advantages and sharpened their imagination to create a new, more economical advertising model, eliminating the costs of public relations and advertising campaigns. In addition, they allowed clients to have greater independence when making their reservations, while enabling them to monitor the tastes of potential and real clients and add blogs so that consumers could express their degree of satisfaction with the product or services provided by the agency.

Originality/value

The focus of attention is the travel agency sector in Spain and, more specifically, communication. Studies on travel agencies and their marketing have been very scarce and partial, impeding professionals in the tourism sector from having a broad vision to direct their promotional and public relations actions. The originality of this article lies in its making a comparison between two different visions of tourism marketing and, specifically, of travel agencies, that is, the traditional vision and the innovative one. It thus helps all professionals in the sector to value and improve their marketing and communication strategies.

中文翻译：

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20世纪至今西班牙旅行社的推广

目的

本文的目的是调查 20 世纪末至 21 世纪西班牙旅行社历史演变中未被探索的部分。在审查促销策略时，本研究重点关注基于信息和通信技术，特别是互联网的使用的营销和公共关系策略的变化。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究对 19 世纪中叶至今西班牙传统机构和在线机构所使用的不同策略进行了定性分析。这项分析显示了传统的传播策略如何在 21 世纪初与其他更具创新性的传播策略一起生存下来，同时也有一些策略消失了，并被新的在线旅行社所淘汰，从而创造了一种特殊的营销和传播概念。本文分为以下几个部分：引言；20世纪旅行社促销活动的开始；20世纪末以来旅行社促销活动的演变；21世纪初的传播创新；在线旅行社；和结论。

发现

这项研究表明，尽管在线广告公司未能以高营业额定位自己，但它们创造了优势并增强了想象力，创造了一种新的、更经济的广告模式，消除了公共关系和广告活动的成本。此外，他们允许客户在预订时拥有更大的独立性，同时使他们能够监控潜在客户和真实客户的品味，并添加博客，以便消费者可以表达他们对代理机构提供的产品或服务的满意度。

原创性/价值

人们关注的焦点是西班牙的旅行社行业，更具体地说是通讯行业。对旅行社及其营销的研究非常缺乏和片面，阻碍了旅游部门的专业人士以广阔的视野来指导他们的促销和公共关系行动。本文的原创性在于比较了旅游营销，特别是旅行社的两种不同愿景，即传统愿景和创新愿景。因此，它可以帮助该行业的所有专业人士重视和改进他们的营销和传播策略。