Digital Marketing of a Regional Park and Its Impact on Destination Recognition

The diploma thesis examines the role of digital marketing in building the recognition of Kozjanski Park as a tourist destination. In the theoretical part, I first present the fundamental concepts of digital marketing and its development, followed by the role of social media as a marketing tool and the specifics of digital marketing for tourist destinations, with emphasis on protected areas where promotional objectives intertwine with nature conservation and educational missions.

I also present Kozjanski Park – its history, tourist offer, marketing activities and digital presence.

The diploma thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter defines the research problem and purpose of the thesis, presents five formulated research hypotheses and the research methods used, whilst also highlighting the assumptions and limitations of the research.

The second chapter presents the theoretical foundations of digital marketing and its application in tourism, with emphasis on social media and destination marketing. The third chapter presents Kozjanski Park – its history, tourist offer, marketing activities and digital presence. The fourth chapter of the diploma thesis is dedicated to empirical analysis and presents the results of a survey conducted amongst visitors to Kozjanski Park (n = 50) and a separate survey amongst employees (n = 14), both carried out via the 1KA tool, with which I tested five formulated hypotheses – concerning the source of first acquaintance with the destination, the influence of social media on the decision to visit, differences in digital behaviour between age groups, assessment of the quality of digital content, and the impact of new technologies on the operation of the public institution.

One hypothesis was clearly confirmed, two were borderline or partially confirmed, one was not confirmed, and one remained inconclusive due to the small sample size. The fifth chapter formulates concrete proposals for improving the digital marketing of Kozjanski Park – from content calendars and video content to monitoring indicators and collaboration with partners – and classifies them into short-term, medium-term and long-term frameworks.

The sixth chapter summarises the key findings of the empirical part, assesses which of the five hypotheses were confirmed, and indicates directions for further research. At the end of the diploma thesis, the survey questionnaires used in the research are also appended.