A study of the Albanian Car Rental Industry in the Impact of Digital Marketing Strategies to Generate Customer Purchase
Authors
Pernaska, Laid
Issue Date
2025.17.12
Degree
Master of Business Administration
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Open Access
Abstract
The subject of this thesis is to look at how digital marketing strategies are changing the way customer acquisition is approached within the Albanian car rental industry, which is directly related to the growing tourism market in Albania. A qualitative approach has been applied with an interpretivist philosophical base, alongside semi-structured interviews of owners and managers of small/medium car-rental businesses. The analysis of data was conducted having in mind the six step framework of Braun and Clarke (2006). One core theme with four sub-themes was identified: dependence on online travel agents (OTAs), lack of digital presence and marketing expertise, consumer trust, methods of payment, as well as resource and skills constraints. The results show that transparency regarding visibility as well as limited profitability and brand building capabilities are characteristic of OTAs and that both low-trust levels and digital knowledge gaps are holding back any direct online channel adoption. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the AIDA, the study aims to promote the prototyping of a professional, search engine optimized, multilingual web sites that can help overcome the dependency on OTA, develop consumer trust and increase the competitiveness of SMEs.