marketing tourism definition

Tourism Marketing

Travel and tourism marketing is the systematic and coordinated execution of business policies by the both private or public and public sector tourism organizations operating at the local, regional, national, or international level to achieve the optimal satisfaction of the needs of identifiable tourist groups, and in doing so to achieve an appropriate return .

Travel agencies in the pre-deregulation, pre-liberalization, and pre-globalization era were often contended to take whatever business that come along this way and sold them on a straight commission basis without bothering about the extensive marketing. Moreover, their scope of the operation was small and was not much complex, sophisticated and competitive.

But today the travel companies are becoming larger, more sophisticated and more automated in management.  Similarly, the clients/tourists are also becoming more trained, experienced, erudite and demanding higher quality services and packages.

Therefore, in this volatile travel business environment, marketing knowledge and skill are more necessary ingredients than the product knowledge and enthusiasm, for a travel agency’s long-term survival and growth. Thus, this has led to the use of tourism marketing which is recent phenomena.

History of Tourism Marketing

The ‘ marketing concept ‘ is not very old. I came into the scene in the 2nd half of the 20th century. In the beginning, it was linked with the number of closely associated factors for achieving volume sales.

The development of the marketing concept, in fact, is the outcome of political, technological, social, economic and business pressures. However, the importance of marketing within travel and tourism industry has been the level of economic and business growth throughout the 20th century, which has led to the improvement in living standards, an enlargement of the population and an increase in discretionary income and time.

These changes have also led to the construction of infrastructure, accommodation, transport , and other recreational facilities. Within a very short period, travel and tourism have become one of the most important and leading industry in the world.

Modern tourism marketing has evolved as a business reaction to changes in the Socio-Economic environment, with the most successful tourism companies or tourism bodies have demonstrated a keen sense of providing the right of organizational structure and products offer for the visitors/tourists.

Interestingly, the tourism companies have recognized the significance of key factors such as needs, wants, and satisfaction in the planning and designing of the tourism product. In the tourism industry, every tourist wants to be treated as a special client and any organization catering to this attitude of the tourist will naturally be head of other competitions.

Definitions of Tourism Marketing

According to Kotler, ” Marketing is a social and managerial process by which consumers obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging product services and values with other .” He has emphasized more on wants, needs, satisfaction, demand, and marketers.

According to the British Chartered Institute of Marketing, ” It is the management process responsible for the identification, anticipating, assessing and satisfying the customer’s client’s requirements profitable .”

The modern marketing concept is not limited only to the identification and satisfaction of customers. It is a comprehensive process which encompasses research and analysis of society’s as well as consumer’s needs, asserts the company’s resources and marketplace and delivers the products/services to those whose experience provides a set of satisfactions which are preferable to those of the competitors.

Krippendorf defines tourism marketing,” as the systematic and coordinated execution of business policies by both private or public sector tourism organizations operated at the local, regional, national, or international level to achieve the optimal satisfaction of the needs of identifiable tourist groups, and in doing so to achieve an appropriate return .”

According to Paynter (1993), ” tour marketing is a systematic process consisting of marketing objective, strategies, schedules, marketing media, focused on the specific market segment and based on a substantial return on investment. ”

World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) at Ottawa Seminar, has defined tourism marketing as,” a management philosophy which, in the light of tourist demand, makes it possible through research, forecasting and selection of tourism products/services from suppliers, on the line with organization’s purpose and tourist satisfaction .”

The following aspects can be identified from the above definitions:

• Tourism marketing is a thought-provoking process.
• Identification and selection of the target market.
• Positioning and product lifecycle is important.
• Future tourism marketing strategies.
• Innovative/proactive marketing.

Unique Features of Tourism Marketing

Tour package as a specialized product creates a number of significant considerations which need to be fully analyzed. The management of tour package cannot be divorced from the management of service and quality. Thus, the marketing of the tour package is different from other products because the tour package is a service product where instead of selling physical goods an intangible experience is sold.

An understanding of the complexity of the tourism product concept is an essential pre-requisite for effective tour package marketing in this context. The specific features of tourism marketing are:

• The demand for tour package is highly elastic and seasonal in nature.
• Tour package is a combination of various service ingredient.
• Designing, developing and marketing of tour package a number of intermediaries are involved. Bed experience at one level can spoil the entire image of the package as well as the tour operator .
• A tourist does not only by the tour package in advance because it is consumed and felt at the same time at a particular destination.

It is not possible to evaluate/demonstrate/sample the tour package in advance because it is consumed and felt at the same time at a particular destination.

Tour Package Marketing

A tour marketing plan is a structured guide for carrying out marketing operations. It provides a common structure and focuses on all the company’s management activities. The purposes of a marketing plan include:

• It provides a clear direction for marketing operations.
• It coordinates the resources of the organization in order to eliminate confusion and misunderstanding and achieving cooperation.
• Identifying different market segments.
• Setting targets/goals.
• Identifying the organization’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Corporate mission and goals.
• External and Internal Audit.
• Business situation analysis.
• Creating the objectives.
• Providing an effective marketing mix strategy.
• Monitoring the plan.

Thus, it has become imperative to discuss the tour marketing segment, tourist generating market, and tour marketing mix before developing a tour marketing plan.

Tour Market Segmentation

It involves a division of the prospective market into identifiable groups. The reasoning behind this is that a tour package can be sold more effectively if efforts are concentrated towards those groups which are most potential.

According to Middleton, “ Market segmentation is the process whereby producers organize their knowledge of customer groups and select for particular attention those whose needs and wants they are best able to meet their product .”

The main purpose of tour market segmentation in tourism marketing are:

• Segment the tourists generating markets.
• Identify the network of intermediaries.
• Identify the nature of demand for one’s product.
• Identify the prospective tourists.

An effective market strategy will determine exactly what the target market will be and to attempt to reach only those markets. The target market is that segment of a total potential market to which the tourist attraction would be most saleable.

Targets markets are defined geographically, demographically and so forth market segmentation must be employed in the marketing programmes to both the long-term strategies. Every tourism attraction can appeal to a multitude of market segments, and the market segment can overlap a great deal. The tour manager must look at market segments and determines which one offer the promising potential for his/her service.

Tour market segment further categories into the following types:

• Geographic Segment
• Demographic Segment
• Psychographic Segment
• Socio-Economic Segment
• Price Segment

Geographic Tourism Market Segmentation

This segment is based on the idea that customer needs differ according to geographic regions.

Demographic Segmentation

Under this segmentation, the tourism market is divided into various groups, keeping in view the demographic variables such as age, income, sex family size, occupation, education, religion etc.

Behavioral Segmentation

In this segmentation, prospective tourists are segmented on the basis of their knowledge, attitude, use or response to the tour product. Under this segmentation, the marketing strategies of a four-company include:

• User Status
• Loyalty Status
• Buyer Readiness Stages

Psychographic Segmentation

Under this, the tourists are divided into different group on the basis of their social status, lifestyles, and personality characteristics. For example, upper class, upper middle, lower classes, product preferences, adventure sports, etc.

Price Segmentation

Price ranges often come in handy in segmenting the tourist markets, such as

• Those who want to take a low priced vacation.
• Those who may take a moderately priced vacation.

Price ranges communicate to the tourists the quality expectation of a product along with the producer’s image. While determining the price of a tour package a tour planner must understand the paying capacity of the tourist.

Tour Marketing Mix

In the competitive tourism marketplace, a tour operator can be successful if it’s complete marketing mix offer matches what the tourist wants. It is planned and coordinated by marketers so that the input can be contributed in such a way that the company will be able to maximize demand and satisfaction of the tourists.

The concept of the tour marketing mix is equally relevant in the case of tourism products as it is in the case of other services and goods. Tour marketing manager must constantly search for the right marketing mix, the right combination of elements that will produce a profit. The marketing mix is composed of every factor that influences marketing efforts such as:

• BrandsPricing – In the Ratio of quality and value
• Product features
• Channels of distribution – both international and national
• Advertising
• Selling techniques
• Public relation

The fundamental starting point for the creation of a successful tour marketing mix to ensure that the target market is clearly defined. The target market is the focus of all marketing mix activities. Generally, the marketing mix constitutes four P’s . These four P’s are following as:

However, besides these four P’s in the tourism industry fifth P – People, Process, Physical evidence is also of most relevance.

Developing Tour Marketing Plan

The marketing of the package tour is materially different than the marketing of other tourism products. The reasoning behind this is that the type of tours offered by one tour company and another are different, and the marketing strategies also differ from company to company.

Each company has a wide range of tours and marketing strategies. No other travel and tourism industry component have such a wide range of specialization.

This fact should be recognized, that the effective and profitable marketing strategies are based on the tour marketing plan which is a complete ‘mechanism’ for the success of a tour company. The mechanism includes several components. These component and stages of making a tourism marketing plan are following as:

Developing a tour marketing plan

Marketing Budget

Plan Strategies

Prepare Plan Schedules

Decide Media Plan

Developing Advertising Plan

Developing Public Relation Plan

Preparing an Annual Sales Plan

Feedback and Evaluation Plan

Marketing91

What is Tourism Marketing? 15 Strategies in 2023

March 22, 2023 | By Hitesh Bhasin | Filed Under: Marketing

From hotels and other types of accommodation to car rental services, airlines , restaurants, entertainment spots, and travel agents – tourism marketing encompasses a wide range of advertising and marketing strategies often used by companies in the tourism and travel industry themselves. All these various marketing efforts are put together under one collective name – Tourism Marketing!

Tourism marketing is an essential tool for a business to ensure they are standing apart from its competitors, garnering customers, and creating brand recognition. Nowadays, various digital marketing platforms such as websites, online ads, email marketing campaigns , and social media marketing outlets have become vital components of modern tourism marketing initiatives for businesses.

Table of Contents

What is Tourism Marketing?

Tourism marketing is a type of marketing used by businesses operating in the travel and tourism industry to attract tourists to a business name or particular location which can be a state, a city, a particular heritage site or tourist destination spot, a hotel, or a convention center anything.

Achieving success in the travel and tourism industry requires thoughtful Tourism Marketing campaigns that are designed to generate brand awareness , create both, reach the most target audience or potential customers, drive traffic, foster loyalty among existing clients, and create a captivating customer experience . By utilizing these strategies, businesses can effectively engage with travelers while generating more sales opportunities.

Tourism Marketing has been profoundly impacted in recent years by digital development, as well as changes in consumer attitudes and desires. Crafting successful Tourism marketing messages today entails taking advantage of social media platforms, featuring user generated content, leveraging online reviews and search engines to your benefit, collaborating with influencers to drive traffic and expand reach, and experimenting with various channels for targeted messaging to attract travelers and optimize their customer journey in a way to convert them into loyal customers.

Why is Tourism Marketing Important?

To make a tourism business thrive, savvy marketing is an absolute must. By staying up-to-date with current trends and launching impactful campaigns, businesses can boost the recognition of their brand, gain customer loyalty and attract travellers. Moreover, tourism marketing holds promise for contributing to the economic growth of the region by driving tourists towards local enterprises.

The tourism industry is one of the biggest in the world and therefore highly competitive. To succeed, businesses must differentiate themselves from their competitors by promoting and advertising what makes them unique, showcasing why they’re the best option for tourists, and advertising and highlighting any special features that set them apart.

To allow businesses to gain a competitive advantage , marketing is essential. Many of the top tourism marketing approaches concentrate on highlighting a business’ unique selling point and broadcasting it effectively. Moreover, marketers must keep abreast with current trends to generate an effective promotional mix and deploy the most viable methods for disseminating their message across all channels.

Understanding the concept of Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing is associated with most businesses, with marketing strategies in the field of tourism.  Today there are many countries in the world, where the tourism industry plays a major role in economic development , enhancing their GDP.

In such cases, tourism and digital marketing become important things. Many of the places are generally the hotspot for tourists like the Taj Mahal in India. Now places like these are considered the perfect areas where one can boost tourism through digital marketing.

The places which are more likely to be the major spots for attracting tourists are the places where tourism marketing flourishes the most. Now tourism marketing is all about applying several marketing techniques and strategies to create and boost the tourism industry of that place.

For successful tourism marketing to take place, the thing that is required the most is that the brands should speak for themselves in such a way that makes sense that their voices can be heard in the targeted markets.  This way they will be able to generate the cleanest successfully. Also, they need to be really careful in providing services to clients.

This is because if the customers are happy with the services chances they will spread the word and this may bring them more customers.  In the case of tourism marketing, it becomes easy to find the right audiences and create content to draw the attention of the targeted customers to the website by providing encouraging content.  Thus strategic planning , content marketing, and branding is the key to effective tourism marketing.

With it being carried out by keeping these two points in mind, chances are that the company that is involved in tourism marketing will be able to gain the advantage over their existing customers in no time and become a monopoly in the tourism industry.

What are the different ways in which Tourism Marketing Can Be Done in 2023?

Now various methods are applied for tourism marketing to flourish.  Below are some of the important ways in which the tourism marking of any place is given a boost.

1) Location marketing

In this type of marketing strategy , the main focus of tourism marketing is one bringing people’s attention to a specific location. In this strategy , no recommendations are made with respect to a particular site or any accommodation. Now some locations are already so popular all over the world that tourism marketers don’t have to make many efforts to attract their attention to such places.

All they need to do to attract customers is remind them of such locations and chances are that the consumer can easily get convinced to spend money and visit any such place. For example, Las Vegas is popular for its undying charm and full of life kind of prospects.

Now there s also a popular slogan related to Las Vegas which is ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’. This slogan has gained worldwide popularity and almost everyone wants to visit Las Vegas at least once.

So here the tourism marketers have to simply remind people of how amazing this city is and what are the different ways in which they can have the time of their lives here. Another example that can be taken in Florida.

They use a more ‘benefit-oriented’ approach. Their slogan and website are ‘The Sunshine State’.  This way they are presenting their state with a joyous and charming climate and as a perfect place for beach and football lovers.  Also with their slogan and website, they are successfully able to present their state as an ideal ‘summer vacation’ destination and are definitely a dream for many to visit this place.

Thus location marketing is one of the simplest forms of tourism marketing in which without even putting much effort, with the brand value and the popularity of some specific location, the customers can be attracted.

2) Activity marketing

Now, this type of tourism is carried out keeping in mind both the location and the activities that are performed in such places.  This type of tourism marketing strategy usually keeps in mind travelers who are adventure lovers or activity freaks.

There are many other sites and locations all over the world that are famous for some specific activities. Like Alaska is famous for snowboarding, Yellowstone national park is famous for thrilling activities like hiking, and camping and is a perfect place for all nature lovers, similarly, there is ‘Colonial Williamsburg’ which attracts all history lovers.

Thus depending on the target audience and the type of activity that a particular place is famous for, tourism marketing can be carried out. Some people may be adventure lovers, some people may be looking for art and culture some people love hunting, depending upon their area of expertise and interest, the tourism markers can segment the groups of potential visitors and customers and approach them.

Thus activity marketing is a form of tourism making and social media marketing that emphasizes the booking process and bringing the attention of a customer to particular places on the basis of the activities that are performed there.

3) Corporate marketing

This is quite an interesting approach to tourism marketing. Now it has been found that a large number of people working in corporate sectors have to travel to different places to attend a conference or a meeting.

Then according to research, it was found these locations were ideal for tourists, and a number of people came to attend those places. Also, they brought their families and their loved ones as well. Now considering these scenarios’ latest trends in mind, corporate influencer marketing can contribute a lot to tourism marketing as it has significant potential.

Here the tourism marketers take advantage of the fact that by planning the business meeting in touristy places, people come in large numbers thus they can make a lot of profit out of it.

What are the four basic pillars of Tourism Marketing?

The foundation of tourism marketing stands firmly on four of its important pillars which are the product , the price, the place, email marketing, and the promotion.

Let us understand each of these separately as to how they contribute to tourism marketing!

Marketing Mix of Tourism

1) product in tourism marketing.

One of the most important aspects of the tourism marketing strategy is to determine the effect of the selling benefits and the other types of benefits that are re-obtained by competing with their rivals in the same market .

Tourism marketers need to focus more on such destinations that provide both business advantages to travel brands and pleasure to their customers. These pleasures depend on several factors like the ease of traveling, facilities of the sites and the hotels, the nightlife of that place, activities offered, and the overall culture of that place.

Thus by considering these factors, tourism marketers will understand the areas that have to focus more on, so that marketing can be done effectively.

2) Price in Tourism Marketing

The price point is yet another important aspect of tourism marketing. Now many people avoid traveling due to money-related issues.  And this is where tourism marketing comes in to save the day.  Today so many mobile apps have been developed, on which if a person books a hotel r a transport like a flight or a train, they get discounts. This attracts a lot of customers.

Along with the free referral marketing, they also try to give value-added services to their customers. Some hotels also offer free shuttle services to their visitors. Also depending on whether it is a high season or an offseason, the prices are altered.  

3) Place in Tourism Marketing

Now for tourism marketing to earn a profit, deciding the location where they want to perform the marketing can play a key role in how far they can go. The place refers to the area where the products and services can be distributed.

Now in tourism and destination marketing, the location and the destination marketers offer their products and services to their customers through travel agents, tour operators, inside sales teas, etc.  The distribution of their products and services to visitors can be done through catalogs, online, sites, mobile devices, websites, stores, etc.

4) Promotion

In this numerous different strategies and technologies are used for the promotion of any specific area or tourist destination.  In fact, trade magazines and meeting planners are also efficient ways for promotion purposes.

These often come with many other forms of discount coupons, brochures, etc. also they try their target customers to come across the ads that pop up on the website to make them aware of the various tourist places.

15 Tourism Marketing Strategies in 2023

1. prioritising hygiene and safety via marketing communication.

Tourism marketers must now prioritize safety and hygiene to give their customers peace of mind when they travel. By highlighting the protocols that are being taken, tourists can rest assured knowing they will be protected while visiting.

2. Developing Loyalty Programmes

Loyalty programs are the ideal way to demonstrate your appreciation for existing customers and stimulate repeated patronage. Tourism marketers should construct loyalty programs that will not only retain existing customers but also appeal to fresh audiences.

3. Capitalising on Voice Search

In the age of voice search, it is essential for tourism marketers to create content that can be quickly found and accessed. Optimizing your site and content for this new technology will bolster your site for visibility and success in the long term.

4. Facilitating User-Generated Content

User-generated content, such as ratings and reviews on social media, is critical in helping customers make informed decisions. User-generated social media content is one of the key tourism marketing trends.

5. Deploying Artificial Intelligence:

AI technology is a valuable asset for Tourism marketers, allowing them to track customer behavior and create personalized brand experiences tailored to each individual. This can help customers find the brand information they need quicker and more easily than ever before.

6. Not Neglect Review Marketing

Reviews and ratings are a critical resource for Tourism companies, making them an invaluable asset in swaying potential customer decisions. Any Tourism marketer must recognize the importance of reviews if they wish to stay competitive.

7. Enhancing the Guest Experience & Satisfaction Through Chatbots

Chatbots can be a vital tool in creating an effortless, tailored experience for all customers. Chatbot technology should be a top priority for the hospitality and tourism industry to provide quick customer service and support, as well as respond promptly to any inquiries.

8. Investing in Remarketing Efforts

Maximizing your Tourism business’ potential by tapping into already engaged customers is a surefire way of increasing sales. Leverage the power of remarketing to maximize your potential and gain more qualified leads.

9. Utilising Augmented Reality Technology

Augmented reality provides the ideal platform for tourism businesses to build mesmerizing and unforgettable experiences for their customers.

10. Prioritising Personalisation

Customization is a crucial element of this form of marketing. By personalizing content and messages to the target audience’s wants and needs, Tourism marketers can engineer and create an experience that will ensure positive word-of-mouth publicity for their business or brand.

11. Exploring Metaverse

The metaverse is becoming more and more popular with tourism companies, as it allows them to give their customers an unparalleled, immersive experience.

12. Using NFTs

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are quickly becoming a widely recognized trend. Tourism companies can harness this technology to propel their marketing campaigns and draw in more visitors.

13. Promoting Virtual Reality (VR) Tours

Allow your customers to explore new destinations without even having to leave their homes – with VR tours, the possibilities are endless!

14. Focusing on the Customer Experience

Crafting an exceptional customer experience should be the primary focus of any Tourism promotional strategy . Optimizing customer experiences on all marketing channels is crucial.

15. Embracing content and influencer marketing

Content and influencer marketing are essential building blocks of any successful tourism strategy. It helps in optimizing the presence of a travel business in the search engine.

Thus, tourism and travel agency marketing are one of the branches of marketing that deal with the tourism and travel industry only.

It is essential to carry out efficient tourism marketing, as one can make a lot of money through this because there are so many people in this world who love traveling, and this can help the tourism marketing industry to flourish their business.

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About Hitesh Bhasin

Hitesh Bhasin is the CEO of Marketing91 and has over a decade of experience in the marketing field. He is an accomplished author of thousands of insightful articles, including in-depth analyses of brands and companies. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Hitesh manages several offline ventures, where he applies all the concepts of Marketing that he writes about.

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This was a great article! Now I’m interested in a career in tourism marketing. How do I start? I already write travel content/copywriting blogs for an agency. Where would I go from there?

this article really helped me in conducting research on tourism. Thank you very much

This article helped me alot on my academic research

Hello,the article is highly assisting and I am seriously having interest in studying Tourism Marketing.

This information was very helpful

hey! This is a good and interesting article about tourism marketing. I am a second degree student in tourism business administration,the program is all about tourism as a business perspective.if you can possible,please post such relevant articles via email address that i have attached below the space provided.

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What Is Tourism Marketing?

Published: December 12, 2023

Modified: December 28, 2023

by Oneida Gruber

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Introduction

In today’s fast-paced and interconnected world, the tourism industry has become increasingly competitive. To stay ahead and attract travelers, destinations, tour operators, and hoteliers need to implement effective marketing strategies. This is where tourism marketing plays a vital role.

Tourism marketing encompasses a range of activities aimed at promoting and selling travel services, experiences, and destinations to potential customers. It involves understanding consumer behaviors, identifying target markets, creating compelling messages, and deploying various promotional tactics to reach and engage with the right audience.

With the rise of the internet and social media, the tourism industry has witnessed a significant shift in how marketing is conducted. Digital platforms have opened up new avenues for reaching and engaging with travelers, providing ample opportunities to showcase destinations, attractions, and services.

The primary goal of tourism marketing is to increase awareness, generate interest, and drive bookings or visits. It is about inspiring and influencing travelers to choose a particular destination, tour package, or accommodation option. By effectively marketing their offerings, tourism businesses can enhance their revenue, grow their customer base, and build long-term relationships with their target audience.

However, effective tourism marketing goes beyond simply promoting travel products. It involves creating a holistic and immersive experience for travelers, reflecting the unique qualities and appeal of a destination. This requires a deep understanding of the target market’s needs, preferences, and aspirations, as well as the ability to effectively communicate the value and benefits of the travel experience.

Moreover, tourism marketing is not limited to tourism boards or large travel companies. It is also essential for small and medium-sized businesses within the industry, such as local tour operators, boutique hotels, and restaurants. By implementing targeted marketing strategies, even smaller players can compete on a global scale and attract their ideal customers.

Definition of Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing can be defined as the strategic planning and implementation of activities that aim to promote and sell travel-related products and services. It involves understanding consumer behavior, identifying target markets, creating compelling messages, and deploying various marketing tactics to reach and engage with potential travelers.

At its core, tourism marketing is about showcasing the unique experiences and attractions that a destination has to offer. It involves leveraging the distinctive cultural, natural, and historical aspects of a place to appeal to travelers’ interests and desires.

One of the key objectives of tourism marketing is to create awareness and generate interest in a particular destination or travel experience. This can be achieved through a variety of marketing channels, including digital platforms, traditional advertising, public relations, and partnerships with travel agents and tour operators.

In addition to promoting destinations, tourism marketing also encompasses the marketing of travel services such as accommodation, transportation, activities, and tours. It involves highlighting the unique features, amenities, and benefits of these services to differentiate them in a crowded marketplace.

Moreover, tourism marketing often involves segmenting the target market based on various factors such as demographics, psychographics, and travel preferences. This allows marketers to tailor their messages and marketing strategies to specific customer segments, increasing the chances of attracting the right travelers.

Effective tourism marketing requires staying updated with the latest trends and leveraging technological advancements. With the rise of the internet and social media, digital marketing has become a crucial aspect of tourism marketing. This includes activities such as search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media advertising, influencer marketing, and online reputation management.

In summary, tourism marketing is the strategic promotion and selling of travel-related products and experiences. It involves understanding consumer behavior, creating compelling messages, and deploying various marketing tactics to reach and engage with potential travelers. By effectively marketing destinations and travel services, tourism businesses can attract more visitors and drive growth in the industry.

Importance of Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing plays a crucial role in the success and growth of the tourism industry. Here are several reasons why tourism marketing is important:

• Increasing Destination Awareness: Effective tourism marketing helps to create awareness about destinations. It showcases the unique attractions, cultural heritage, and natural beauty of a place, encouraging travelers to consider it as a potential travel destination.
• Attracting More Visitors: Through targeted marketing strategies and promotional campaigns, tourism businesses can attract more visitors to their destinations, hotels, and tour packages. By effectively communicating the value and benefits of a travel experience, marketing efforts can inspire and influence travelers to choose a specific destination.
• Boosting Local Economy: The tourism industry is a significant economic driver in many regions. By promoting tourism and attracting more visitors, tourism marketing helps to generate revenue for local businesses, create jobs, and stimulate economic growth.
• Enhancing Competitiveness: In a highly competitive tourism industry, effective marketing can give destinations and businesses a competitive edge. By promoting unique selling points and differentiating offerings, tourism businesses can stand out from the competition and attract their ideal customers.
• Cultivating Repeat Visitors: Marketing efforts, such as personalized email campaigns or loyalty programs, help to cultivate repeat visitors. By nurturing relationships with past visitors, tourism businesses can encourage them to come back and explore more of what the destination has to offer.
• Driving Collaboration: Tourism marketing often involves collaboration among stakeholders within the industry. Destination marketing organizations, hotels, tour operators, and local businesses work together to promote the destination as a whole, leveraging each other’s strengths and resources for a more impactful marketing strategy.
• Creating Positive Perception: Effective tourism marketing not only promotes destinations and travel services but also helps create a positive perception of a place. Through storytelling and compelling narratives, marketing efforts can shape and enhance the reputation of a destination, making it more appealing to potential travelers.

In a nutshell, tourism marketing is essential for raising destination awareness, attracting visitors, boosting the local economy, enhancing competitiveness, fostering repeat business, driving collaboration, and creating a positive perception of a destination. By investing in well-planned marketing strategies, tourism businesses can thrive in a highly competitive industry and contribute to the overall growth and development of the tourism sector.

Components of Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing involves various components that work together to create effective promotional strategies. Here are the key components of tourism marketing:

• Market Research: Market research is an essential component of tourism marketing. It involves gathering and analyzing data to understand consumer behavior, travel trends, market demand, and competitor strategies. This helps tourism businesses identify their target market, tailor their marketing messages, and make informed decisions.
• Segmentation and Targeting: Segmenting the target market is crucial to deliver tailored marketing messages. Tourism marketers divide the market into specific segments based on demographics, psychographics, and travel preferences. This enables them to customize their marketing efforts and reach the right audience with the right message.
• Positioning: Positioning refers to how a destination or travel service is perceived in the minds of consumers. Tourism marketers define a unique selling proposition (USP) and create a positioning strategy to differentiate their offerings from competitors. This involves highlighting the unique features, benefits, and experiences that set them apart from others.
• Branding: Branding plays a crucial role in tourism marketing. It involves creating a distinct brand identity, including a logo, tagline, and visual elements, that represents the destination or travel service. A strong and consistent brand helps build trust, recognition, and loyalty among travelers.
• Advertising and Promotion: Advertising and promotion are key components of tourism marketing. This includes traditional advertising such as television, radio, and print ads, as well as digital advertising through search engines, social media platforms, and display networks. Promotional tactics may also include public relations, partnerships with travel influencers, and participation in travel fairs and events.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable and informative content to attract and engage potential travelers. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, and social media posts that showcase the destination, provide travel tips, and inspire wanderlust. Content marketing helps build brand credibility, increase website traffic, and foster customer loyalty.
• Online Presence and Website Optimization: A strong online presence is crucial in tourism marketing. It includes having a visually appealing and user-friendly website that provides relevant information, easy navigation, and online booking options. Website optimization, including search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX) optimization, helps improve visibility in search engines and enhances the overall online presence.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Effective customer relationship management involves building and maintaining strong relationships with past, present, and potential customers. This can include personalized email marketing, loyalty programs, and customer feedback management. CRM helps nurture repeat business, encourage positive reviews, and strengthen customer loyalty.

By integrating these components into their marketing strategies, tourism businesses can create comprehensive and effective campaigns that resonate with their target audience and drive bookings and visits to their destinations and services.

Strategies and Tactics in Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing involves a range of strategies and tactics to effectively promote destinations, travel services, and experiences. Here are some commonly used strategies and tactics in tourism marketing:

• Targeted Advertising: Tourism marketers utilize targeted advertising to reach specific demographics and interests. This includes running targeted ads on social media platforms, search engines, and travel-related websites to reach potential travelers who are most likely to be interested in a specific destination or travel service.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing involves creating and sharing informative and engaging content to attract and engage potential travelers. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, and social media posts that inspire and educate travelers about destinations, travel tips, and experiences. Effective content marketing builds brand credibility and connects with the target audience on a deeper level.
• Social Media Marketing: Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become powerful tools in tourism marketing. By creating compelling visual content, engaging with followers, and running targeted ads, tourism businesses can reach a wide audience and generate brand awareness. Influencer partnerships and user-generated content also play a significant role in social media marketing.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A well-optimized website is crucial for tourism marketing. SEO involves optimizing website content, meta tags, and other on-page elements to improve search engine rankings. A higher ranking in search results increases visibility and organic traffic to the website, ultimately leading to more bookings and visits.
• Online Reputation Management: Online reviews and ratings have a significant impact on travelers’ decision-making process. Tourism businesses need to actively manage their online reputation by encouraging positive reviews, responding to negative feedback, and addressing customer concerns promptly and professionally.
• Partnerships and Collaborations: Collaborating with influencers, local businesses, and other tourism stakeholders can amplify marketing efforts. Partnerships can include influencer campaigns, joint advertising initiatives, and cross-promotion to reach a wider audience and provide added value to travelers.
• Personalization and Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Personalization is a powerful tactic in tourism marketing. By collecting and analyzing customer data, tourism businesses can deliver personalized marketing messages, custom offers, and tailored experiences to individual travelers. CRM tools and strategies help manage customer relationships, nurture loyalty, and drive repeat business.
• Event and Experience Marketing: Hosting or sponsoring events and creating unique experiences can be highly effective in tourism marketing. This can include cultural festivals, adventure challenges, or themed tours that attract attention and create a buzz around a destination or travel service.

It’s important for tourism marketers to employ a combination of these strategies and tactics, tailored to their target audience and marketing goals. By implementing a comprehensive and integrated approach, tourism businesses can effectively engage with travelers, drive bookings, and ultimately succeed in a competitive industry.

Digital Marketing in Tourism

Digital marketing has revolutionized the way tourism businesses promote their offerings and engage with travelers. With the proliferation of the internet and social media, digital marketing has become a crucial component of tourism marketing strategies. Here are some key aspects of digital marketing in the tourism industry:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is essential for improving a tourism website’s visibility in search engine results. By optimizing website content, meta tags, and backlinks, tourism businesses can rank higher in search results and attract organic traffic.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing is a powerful tool in the digital landscape. By creating high-quality and valuable content, such as blog posts, articles, and videos, tourism businesses can attract and engage potential travelers, build brand credibility, and drive organic traffic to their websites.
• Social Media Marketing: Social media platforms provide tourism businesses with a direct way to connect and engage with travelers. Through strategic social media marketing, businesses can build a strong online presence, cultivate a loyal following, and showcase their destinations, services, and experiences.
• Online Advertising: Online advertising, including search engine marketing (SEM) and social media advertising, allows tourism businesses to reach a targeted audience. By running well-crafted ads, businesses can increase brand visibility, drive traffic to their websites, and generate bookings or inquiries.
• Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with travel influencers can be highly effective in digital marketing. By partnering with influencers who have a large and engaged following, tourism businesses can tap into their influence and reach, showcasing their offerings to a wider audience and gaining credibility through authentic recommendations.
• Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): OTAs such as Expedia, Booking.com, and Airbnb have become prominent players in the digital marketing landscape. Tourism businesses can leverage these platforms by listing their offerings and optimizing their presence to reach travelers who use OTAs for travel bookings.
• Email Marketing: Email marketing allows tourism businesses to nurture relationships with past and potential customers. By sending personalized and targeted emails, businesses can provide relevant offers, travel updates, and exclusive deals to encourage bookings and foster customer loyalty.
• Website Optimization and User Experience (UX): A well-designed and user-friendly website is crucial for digital marketing success. Ensuring fast loading times, easy navigation, mobile responsiveness, and clear call-to-action buttons can significantly improve user experience and boost conversion rates.

Implementing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy can give tourism businesses a competitive advantage in reaching and engaging with the modern traveler. By leveraging digital channels effectively, businesses can increase their online visibility, attract more visitors, and ultimately drive bookings and revenue.

Challenges and Trends in Tourism Marketing

The tourism industry is constantly evolving, and with it comes new challenges and emerging trends in tourism marketing. Here are some of the key challenges and trends that tourism businesses need to be aware of:

• Rising Competition: The tourism industry is becoming more competitive with the rise of digital marketing and the ease of global travel. Tourism businesses need to find innovative ways to differentiate themselves and stand out from the competition.
• Managing Online Reputation: With the increasing influence of online reviews and social media, tourism businesses need to actively manage their online reputation. Addressing customer concerns, responding to reviews, and providing excellent customer service are crucial for maintaining a positive online image.
• Changing Consumer Behavior: Consumer behavior is continuously evolving, with travelers becoming more tech-savvy and seeking personalized and unique experiences. Tourism businesses need to adapt their marketing strategies to cater to the changing preferences and expectations of travelers.
• Data Privacy and Security: With the collection and use of customer data for marketing purposes, data privacy and security have become significant concerns. Tourism businesses must comply with privacy regulations and ensure the security of customer information to maintain trust and protect sensitive data.
• Sustainability and Responsible Tourism: The growing importance of sustainability and responsible tourism has led to a shift in consumer attitudes. Travelers are increasingly seeking environmentally friendly and socially responsible travel options. Tourism businesses need to incorporate sustainability practices and communicate their commitment to responsible tourism in their marketing efforts.
• Technological Advancements: Emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the tourism industry. Tourism businesses need to stay updated with these advancements and explore ways to incorporate them into their marketing strategies to provide immersive and personalized experiences to travelers.
• Shift towards Experiential Travel: Travelers are seeking more authentic and experiential travel experiences. This has led to a shift from traditional sightseeing to immersive and meaningful experiences. Tourism businesses can capitalize on this trend by designing unique experiences and crafting compelling storytelling in their marketing campaigns.
• Influence of Social Media and Influencers: Social media platforms and travel influencers have a significant impact on consumers’ travel choices. Tourism businesses need to harness the power of social media and build relationships with influencers to effectively engage with their target audience and tap into their influence.

By acknowledging and adapting to these challenges and trends, tourism businesses can stay ahead of the curve and create effective marketing strategies that resonate with today’s travelers. Embracing technology, promoting sustainability, and delivering personalized and experiential travel offerings are key to success in the dynamic tourism industry.

Tourism marketing plays a vital role in the success and growth of the tourism industry. It encompasses various strategies and tactics aimed at promoting destinations, travel services, and experiences to potential travelers. In today’s digital age, digital marketing has become an integral part of tourism marketing, allowing businesses to reach and engage with travelers on a global scale.

Effective tourism marketing is essential for raising destination awareness, attracting visitors, boosting the local economy, enhancing competitiveness, fostering repeat business, driving collaboration, and creating a positive perception of a destination. By implementing well-planned marketing strategies, tourism businesses can thrive in a highly competitive industry and contribute to the overall growth and development of the tourism sector.

However, tourism marketing also faces various challenges, including rising competition, managing online reputation, changing consumer behavior, data privacy concerns, and the emergence of new technologies. It is crucial for tourism businesses to stay updated with the latest trends and adapt their marketing strategies to meet the evolving needs and expectations of travelers.

Looking ahead, sustainability, experiential travel, technological advancements, and the influence of social media and influencers will continue to shape the tourism industry. Tourism businesses that embrace these trends and incorporate them into their marketing strategies will be better positioned to attract and engage with modern travelers.

In conclusion, tourism marketing is a dynamic and ever-evolving field that requires creativity, adaptability, and a deep understanding of consumer behavior. By leveraging targeted strategies, embracing digital marketing channels, and staying ahead of industry trends, tourism businesses can effectively promote their offerings, attract visitors, and contribute to the growth and success of the tourism industry.

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The Definition of Tourism Marketing

by Steve Milano

Published on 25 Jan 2019

In its broadest sense, tourism marketing is the business discipline of attracting visitors to a specific location . Hotels, cities, states, consumer attractions, convention centers and other sites and locations associated with consumer and business travel all apply basic marketing strategies to specific techniques designed to increase visits.

Location Marketing

In many cases, tourism marketing centers on attracting people to a specific location without recommending specific sites or accommodations. For some locations, the attractions are so well-known, the tourism marketer simply needs to remind consumers that the area offers a good time. Las Vegas, for example, uses the slogan, “What Happens In Vegas, Stays in Vegas.” Florida takes a more benefit-oriented tack, marketing itself as “The Sunshine State,” promising an attractive climate to those who want a beach, golf or other warm-weather vacation.

Activity Marketing

Some areas market themselves based on their attractions. For example, Williamsburg, Virginia, markets “Colonial Williamsburg” hoping to attract families and individuals interested in history. The National Park Service promotes destinations such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park as camping, hiking and nature vacations. Resort communities such as Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, segment the tourism market, creating different campaigns to attract golfers, tennis players and individuals and families looking for a beach destination. Other tourism activities marketed to consumers include hunting, annual festivals and theme parks.

Corporate Marketing

More than 225 million people attended some type of corporate meeting in 2012, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. There were more than 1.8 million such meetings that year. To attract attendees, convention and trade show planners often consider the tourism aspect of their location . More attendees might be willing to come if they can bring partners or families members and enjoy the locale. Tourism marketers tout the fact that they can provide both the business and pleasure aspects of their locations to meeting planners.

The Four Ps

Basic marketing addresses four pillars of creating and selling a product or service: product, price, place and promotion. In tourism marketing, the four Ps are often applied in the following ways:

Tourism marketing includes determining the unique selling benefit or benefits one area has over its competition. A destination might offer people looking to combine business and pleasure ease of travel to and from the area, ample convention halls and hotels, interesting nightlife, and activities for adult partners and children.

When trying to attract tourists, locales often use discounts, loss leaders and bundling to draw visitors. For example, a local chamber of commerce might solicit money from local businesses to hold a free concert, sporting event or festival that generates hotel stays, restaurant visits and other consumer spending. A hotel might offer discount coupons to a local restaurant. The restaurant gets free referral marketing, while the hotel offers a value-added service to its guests. Some hotels and resorts offer guests free shuttle service. Tourist centers carefully analyze tourism trends and raise and lower their prices based on a busy or “high” season and an off-season, and based on what their competitors are offering, to maximize occupancy rates.

The “place” in the four Ps refers to where a business distributes its product or service , such as in a store, online, using catalogs or through wholesalers. In tourism sales, location and destination marketers sell through tour operators, travel agents, inside sales teams and by setting up websites and phone operators to handle incoming inquiries. Spring break cities are well known for working with packaged vacation tour companies that bring college students to specific hotels by the busload. Destinations often offer free “site visits” to meeting planners , providing free rooms at different hotels, meals, golf, tennis and guided tours to vetted business professionals who select the location of meetings, seminars, retreats, conventions and trade shows.

Tourism marketing uses a wide variety of communications strategies and techniques to promote areas and destinations. A convention center might purchase advertisements in trade magazines for meeting planners and send direct mail materials to corporations that hold events. They might place ads in tennis or golf magazines to attract those consumers. Destinations build websites and place ads in consumer publications read by their target customers. Chambers of commerce are involved in promoting their areas generally and the businesses within their areas specifically. This often includes offering potential visitors packets filled with brochures, discount coupons and other materials.

What Is Tourism Marketing?

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Internet Marketing for Tourism

Marketing strategies for small towns, advertising ideas for christmas.

• Importance of Advertising for a Restaurant
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When you go on summer vacation and spend days shopping in antique stores, hiking in a national park, eating local food and taking in a musical at the amphitheater, you are being a tourist. Tourism occurs when you leave your normal surroundings where you live and work to go to a place to engage in activities there, regardless of how close or how far it is. You are a visitor, and what you do while visiting is tourism. Individuals and organizations at your destination promote those activities through advertising or other forms of marketing.

Tourism Marketing Plan

Every marketing effort should begin with a plan, and tourism marketing is no different. The marketing plan is your road map and details the attractions in your area. It forces you to set a budget on your promotional spending. At the end of each tourism season, you can use your marketing plan to set goals and make changes for next year.

For example, if revenue at one attraction did not meet expectations, perhaps it needs product development – some upgrades to make it more appealing to visitors – or better advertising.

Partnerships Among Local Businesses

Tourism marketing can be expensive, particularly if you want to attract national or international tourists. Typical funding sources are state tourism agencies and taxes, including hotel taxes. To stretch tourism dollars, public/private partnerships often form among local and regional businesses and chambers of commerce.

For example, if there are several tourist attractions in a specific county – or across several neighboring counties – the entire area can be marketed to potential visitors as an appealing weeklong destination by combining advertising and other marketing activities. Partnerships can provide tourists with a fuller travel experience.

Characteristics of Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing has distinct characteristics from other marketing plans. Because tourists are temporary, they are exposed to an area's goods and services for shorter periods. But tourists are counting on having a good time, so marketers should consider strategies that appeal to the emotions, such as treating kids to a memorable experience.

Tourism-dependent businesses rely on other organizations: One example of leveraging this dependence would be a musical venue offering discount coupons for meals at a nearby restaurant.

Combining Tourism with other Opportunities

Combining tourism with volunteer opportunities is another tourism marketing strategy that appeals to many tourists. Popular both domestically and abroad, such volunteer tourism can range from repairing schools on American Indian reservations to installing water systems in poor communities.

Promoting sustainable tourism efforts also appeals to environmentally conscious travelers. Sustainable tourism emphasizes a balance on tourist activities and the effect it has on its surroundings, such as the environment. Practices include such things as energy-saving upgrades, environmentally friendly products and signs and even limiting the number of visitors to outdoor areas.

• American Marketing Association: Definition of Marketing
• University of South Carolina College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management: Tourism Marketing in an Era of Paradigm Shift
• VolunTourism: VolunTourism FAQs
• Global Volunteers: FAQs
• University of South Carolina, Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management -- State Tourism Funding: Equity, Consensus, and Accountability Models
• Sustainable Tourism
• Tourism Insights: Segmenting the Tourism Marketing
• Rural Tourism Marketing
• Medical Tourism Association: Medical Tourism FAQs

Based in Central Texas, Karen S. Johnson is a marketing professional with more than 30 years' experience and specializes in business and equestrian topics. Her articles have appeared in several trade and business publications such as the Houston Chronicle. Johnson also co-authored a series of communications publications for the U.S. Agency for International Development. She holds a Bachelor of Science in speech from UT-Austin.

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Home - Blog - Tourism Marketing Strategy: Boosting Your Destination’s Appeal in 2024

Tourism Marketing Strategy: Boosting Your Destination’s Appeal in 2024

David Ciccarelli

January 18, 2024

In this article

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In the dynamic realm of travel and tourism, leaving your marketing efforts to chance is akin to setting sail without a compass. It is crucial to understand the pulse of the market, from shifting trends and algorithm changes to staff turnover and technological advancements. Without a strategic framework, you could squander valuable resources, lag behind competitors, and miss out on potential growth opportunities.

Having a structured tourism marketing strategy is not just beneficial but essential. It serves as the foundation upon which you can build and refine your marketing initiatives, ensuring that experimentation comes with direction and purpose. In a sector where every click could translate to a booking and every shared experience could lead to a loyal customer, it’s vital that your marketing plan isn’t left to random acts but is a deliberate storyboard of success.

Crafting Your Tourism Marketing Strategy

Imagine you’re the captain of a ship; your tourism marketing strategy is the map that guides you through the vast ocean of the travel industry. It’s a well-thought-out plan that aims to pinpoint your current standing in the marketplace and chart a course for future achievements.

Think of it as your navigational chart through the competitive seas, geared with tools to keep you on course and to adapt when unexpected waves hit. Here’s what you can expect to incorporate:

• SWOT Analysis : Assess your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to stay two steps ahead.
• Unique Value Proposition : Clearly define what makes your offering irresistibly attractive.
• Customer Personas : Know your audience as if they were your travel buddies.
• Competitor Insights : Keep an eye on fellow voyagers, learning from their adventures and missteps.
• Marketing Mix : Blend the perfect cocktail of price, product, promotion, and place.
• Budget & Resources : Allocate your treasures wisely for a prosperous journey.
• Objectives & Metrics : Set clear destinations and measure the nautical miles you’ve covered.
• Marketing Itinerary : Outline the routes and stops of your promotional exertions.

Crafting a Strategic Framework for Tourism Promotion

Assessing Your Tourism Business Through SWOT Analysis

Embarking on a SWOT Analysis sets the groundwork for a robust tourism marketing plan. Dive into a thorough examination of internal and external elements that could impact your success. Evaluate your team’s expertise, location perks, and resource availability , considering them your enterprise’s strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, pinpoint external opportunities and threats stemming from market trends and competitive actions. Engage diverse team members for a well-rounded perspective, culminating your insights into a visual SWOT grid.

Clarifying Your Unique Tourist Attraction Proposition

Unearth your company’s unique allure by distilling your strengths into a captivating value proposition. This clear, persuasive statement should spell out why travelers should choose your offerings. Focus on attributes that distinguish your service in the marketplace, and ensure that this key message is a prominent fixture on your digital storefront.

Painting a Portrait of Your Ideal Visitor

Narrow down your ideal market segment to avoid the pitfalls of overly generic marketing. Fashion a detailed guest persona that answers critical questions about demographics, psychographics, and online behaviors. Surveys and analytics tools are your allies in crafting this persona, helping you to personalize your communications and align your tactics with your audience’s preferences.

Benchmarking Against Your Competition

A nuanced understanding of your competitors arms you with the knowledge to outmaneuver them. Compile profiles of top competitors, including their marketing strategies , audience, and unique selling points. Stay informed of their movements through online alerts and social monitoring, allowing you to anticipate industry shifts and adapt your strategies accordingly.

Piecing Together Your Tourism Marketing Framework

Construct a tourism marketing strategy that takes into account the nuances of your services. This mix should involve a strategic selection of your offerings, ideal booking avenues, pricing mechanisms, and promotional activities. Additionally, weigh in on the personal touch your team brings and the operational plans in place to ensure memorable experiences.

Allocating Finances and Resources Wisely

Your strategy’s effectiveness hinges on a realistic assessment of your financial capacity and available assets. Budgeting forms the cornerstone of your plan, influencing which marketing activities you pursue. Strike a balance between ambitious goals and the practicalities of your resource pool to ensure sustainable execution of your strategy.

Setting Clear Objectives and Success Metrics

Anchor your tourism marketing plan with specific, measurable goals. Define what success looks like with a set of key performance indicators, and outline the steps necessary to reach these milestones. This goal-oriented approach ensures focused efforts and a clear understanding of what constitutes progress.

Laying Out Your Strategic Marketing Roadmap

Your marketing roadmap translates your strategy into tangible steps over time. It should consider long-term aspirations and short-term actions, integrating content strategy, digital marketing, and social media engagement . Construct a timeline that maps out brand awareness campaigns, conversion tactics, and opportunities for customer advocacy, ensuring that you navigate the journey from awareness to inspiration to booking with clear direction.

Streamlining your marketing efforts with a structured plan creates a clear path for captivating and converting your target audience, propelling your tourism business toward sustained growth and success.

Where to go from here?

You’ve reached a pivotal moment! Flexibility is key in any marketing plan, especially when reflecting on the unpredictable nature of events like COVID-19. Haven’t we all learned that lesson?

Adapt and Overcome:

• Reassess Regularly : Circumstances change; ensure to regularly evaluate your progress.
• Be Prepared for Challenges : Unforeseen events may prompt shifts in tactics.

Remember, your strategy is living and breathing—adjust as needed! Keep pushing forward with eyes on your goals, and modify your approach when necessary. Isn’t it exciting to think on your feet?

Elevate Your Tourism Tactics

Leverage your tourism enterprise by harnessing a powerful, results-driven marketing approach. With the right blend of the tourism marketing mix, strategic partnerships, and an efficient booking system, you can magnify your market presence.

• Tourism Marketing Mix: Tailor your services to the traveler’s needs and desires.
• Partnerships: Collaborate with complementary businesses to broaden your reach.
• Booking System: Simplify reservations with a user-friendly booking system.

Common Questions Regarding Tourism Marketing Tactics

Utilizing the Fundamental Aspects of Tourism Marketing for Effective Campaigns

Understanding the 4 A’s of tourism marketing—Accessibility, Accommodation, Attractions, and Amenities —is vital for shaping successful campaigns.

• Accessibility : How easily can tourists access the destination?
• Accommodation: Are there adequate facilities for different budgets and preferences?
• Attractions: What are the unique, must-see places or events?
• Amenities : Are the necessary services available to enhance the visitor experience?

Incorporating these elements ensures each aspect of a visitor’s experience is considered.

Success Stories in Tourism Marketing

One standout example is the “Share a Coke” campaign by Coca-Cola which, although not exclusively a tourism strategy, inspired destination marketing with its personalized approach. You can see how personalization creates a connection with audiences globally, inviting them to be part of the experience.

Key Steps for Crafting a Tourism Marketing Plan

For crafting a well-rounded tourism marketing plan, pivotal steps include:

• Market Research: Understand your audience and competition.
• Establish Objectives: Set clear, measurable goals.
• Budgeting: Allocate your financial resources efficiently.
• Strategic Development: Choose the appropriate marketing channels and tactics.
• Implementation: Deploy the strategy with precision.
• Monitoring: Track progress against objectives regularly.

Adapting Marketing Tactics to Current Tourism Trends

Modern marketing strategies stay aligned with the current trends by being flexible and responsive. Whether it is the rise of eco-conscious travel or the growing emphasis on local experiences, making adaptations to these evolving preferences is fundamental to remain relevant.

Influence of Marketing Mix on Campaign Efficacy

The tourism marketing mix—Product, Price, Place, Promotion—significantly influences the success of a campaign. Balancing these elements ensures that the offering is attractive, communicated effectively, and priced competitively, thereby influencing a traveler’s decision-making process.

Cutting-edge Strategies for Marketing Tourism Destinations

Innovative strategies for this year include leveraging user-generated content, virtual reality experiences, and sustainable travel incentives. Embracing digital transformation has also been key, as seen in destinations using data analytics to understand traveler behavior and personalize marketing efforts.

Engaging with the audience on a personal level and utilizing technology to enhance traditional marketing efforts are at the forefront of successful strategies today.

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David Ciccarelli, is the Founder and CEO of Lake. He is based in Toronto, Canada, and is an expert in management, business administration, strategy, product development, and customer experience. His educational achievements include the Owner President Management Program at Harvard Business School (2019-2022) and the QuantumShift Program at Ivey Business School in 2017, aimed at CEOs of growing businesses.

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What is destination marketing?

Firstly, let's answer the question "What is destination marketing?". Destination marketing is a type of marketing that promotes a destination (town, city, region, country) with a purpose to increase the number of visitors. In other words, destination marketing is tourism advertising for a specific location. Unlike product marketing, where the products are delivered to customers through distribution channels, accoriding to destination marketing meaning, consumers travel to the destinations. Which bring some peculiarities to the ways of promotion.

Why destination marketing?

Over the last few years, travellers have discovered the places they were going to visit, book hotels and transportation, plan trips and share their emotions and memories with friends online. The main answer to the question ‘what destination marketing is for?’ – is to stay competitive.

The primary challenge is to make your consumers interested in your location before they arrive using social media marketing and search engine optimisation . For this:

• Show the privileges of your country (region, city, town etc)
• Create and share the story about the destination you promote
• Care about customer experience (CX) – be sure your website is attractive, convenient, and fast-loading.
• Create Google Posts via Google My Business profile about the best sightseeing, magnificent places, or traditional holidays. These will appear in the top search results with images enhancing your overall SEO for free.

However, depending on the purpose and destination, you should use different online tools. For instance, to promote a country it is better to concentrate on contextual ads, search engine ads and social media (within your targeted region, i.e. the region you would like to target).

‍ To promote a town or a city , pay attention to testimonials services (as most likely, your potential customers would like to check references concerning accommodation facilities, activities, and your location accessibility).

‍ And the most useful tool to promote a region will be search engine ads and social media (pay attention to cultural and natural attractions, region peculiarities and features). Find out more about the aforementioned tools here or contact our representative .

How to succeed?

According to the Travel trends Report 2018, 9 of 10 travellers consider it essential to read online reviews . Moreover, 95% of travellers always trust tour & activity reviews on third-party sites such as TripAdvisor. However, if the destination is not that popular yet – travel consumers are looking for video and photo material to find out what to expect from the location they would like to visit. However, the first step in country promotion is to highlight a particular destination or to draw attention to it. To succeed in tourism advertising, you should analyse the ‘product’ and focus your marketing activities on:

• Identifying the right audience (in other words answer the questions “Who are those people who want to see your destination?”, “How old are they?”, “How do they travel?”, “Do they travel with their families?”, “What are their needs?”)
• Finding their motivation (“Why would they like to see the destination?”, “What are they going to do there?”, “How much are they going to spend?”, “What do they want to get?”)
• Matching your audience ‘needs’ with ‘wants’.

A piece of advice here would be to cooperate with government officials of the country you are going to promote to get the most objective data for your research and to get a better understanding of the specificity of the promoted region.

To delve deeper into destination marketing, we asked our digital marketing expert, who was involved in promoting tourism in Georgia, to answer the most common questions about destination marketing.

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How to start promoting a destination if the brand has not been promoted before?

To create online destination marketing campaigns, we need to segment users who plan a trip or are looking for tours at the moment. For this, we use segments of interests, related to airline tickets, tours, summer and family vacations.

To improve the quality of this audience, we need to narrow down such targeting to interests in a specific destination. It can be historical, cultural spots or even cuisine.

You should decide whether to narrow interests or use broad targeting under specific socio-demographic data, based on your primary goals. Please remember that the narrower the audience, the more expensive such a campaign can cost.

Besides, you should determine the age category of users who will be interested in a potential trip to the promoted destination. Also, consider the conditions that other destinations offer consumers, as well as options for spending time there, for example, active/passive leisure.

Since one group can be interested in a calm vacation with their children, and another one can’t imagine their life without extreme. Based on this, it may be worthwhile to exclude the audience of minor users from showing ads.

Also, depending on the goals and KPIs , you can segment the audience by gender and age. For example, select groups of men aged 18-24 years, women aged 25-36 years old, and so on.

Do not forget about ad creatives and their impact on different gender and age groups of consumers.

What are the strategies for destination marketing? And how to develop a promotion strategy?

Determine competitive aspects and advantages. You should consider that not a physical place in and of itself attracts a tourist, but what natural, cultural, historical sights they can find there. Tourists also pay special attention to infrastructure.

• Define the goals of your advertising campaigns. Understanding the benefits of your product and destination, you can set realistic goals and clear KPIs.
• Identify and analyse your audience before the campaign launch. Think over the creatives for each segment of users.
• Choose marketing tools that can solve your tasks and help you achieve initial KPIs.
• Develop a media plan according to your KPIs. If you promote the destination for the first time, this can be a difficult task. For this, you need to research the market, connect your expertise in similar projects.
• Develop creatives and textual content in all necessary formats. If we talk about media placement, then creatives can play both a decisive role in achieving your goal and be one of the reasons for advertising campaign failure. You also need to pay attention to the ad textual content. If you target your ad for several countries at once, then translation and adaptation of texts to specific regions may be required.
• Create an ad campaign. Collect semantics and configure the audience.
• Launch an ad campaign. We would highlight, that you need to check all the ad campaign settings before the launch. Especially if there are several countries in your geo settings.
• Monitor and adjust. Advertising campaigns need to be optimised during the performance. We would recommend paying attention to these stages:
• Identification of ineffective audiences, targeting.
• Work with search queries to save budget and attract more targeted traffic.
• A / B testing of creatives. You need to remember that your banners may “burnout”: at a high frequency, do not use the same creatives for more than two weeks. A marketing strategy aimed at strong memorising of one particular video or banner can be an exception.

What are the most effective channels for destination marketing?

Media channels are the most effective for destination marketing strategies. This is advertising on social networks, YouTube, native advertising. It is often better to “sell” a destination to a user and bring them to a final information resource with an image or video.

We are talking about relaxing, so a beautiful creative can take a person to a state of serenity and could potentially cause interest.

Paid search advertising can be launched, but only for narrowly targeted queries, for example, “vacation in Georgia”. The queries like “Georgia” can bring a lot of irrelevant traffic, even if you indicated negative keywords.

Be free to run remarketing campaigns in all channels, because advertising campaigns can last several months, and remarketing allows you to re-interact with an already “warm” audience.

Which ad format is best for social networks?

Instagram stories is a more engaging format. The image occupies 100% of the screen, but this does not mean that you need to refuse ads in the feed. According to Facebook insights, campaigns that use auto-placement give the best results – the ability of the system itself to determine where and at what time to show your ad. In each of these formats, we recommend testing both video and graphic creatives. Most studies suggest that users perceive video better, but it may turn out differently in your case, so you need to set aside some test period at the start to evaluate performance.

Should you promote your destination using only digital marketing tools, or enhance the strategy with offline advertising?

Offline promotion, TV or out-of-home advertising, will improve brand awareness and increase audience reach, attracting the users who might have missed online ads. It is essential to determine the places for advertising offline, which will be relevant to the portrait of the desired target audience.

How to set proper KPIs for evaluating the performance of destination marketing campaigns?

Here are the most common KPIs for destination marketing campaigns:

• Customer inquiries;
• Newsletter subscription;
• Video views;
• Other conversions actions on site

How does it work in practice?

Promodo completed a project providing destination marketing services for the Georgian National Tourism Administration to promote tourism in Georgia. Our aim was marketing the country and increase the number of tourists choosing this destination. We took the data provided by the Georgian National Tourism Administration and made a deep analysis of the target audience and their needs. ‍

The results we obtained were as follows:

We answered the question “Who is our target audience?” – and found out that tourists aged 25-54 make 75.4% of all the tourists (which meant our target audience most likely use the Internet and social networks).

With whom do they travel? According to our research, 49.1% are independent travellers and 70% of travellers organised their trips by themselves (which meant they used testimonials services and Google or Yandex search).

What are they going to do? 39.5% were supposed to come to Georgia for tourism and recreation (which meant they are either for the first time in Georgia or would like to discover more attractions, i.e. they would like to see the video or pictures of those attractions).

What do they want to receive? How much are they going to spend? (this information was helpful in order to use proper keywords for the ads). Based on the analysis we created the online marketing strategy to promote Georgia. To obtain the best results and meet the needs of our target audience, we used the Vkontakte social network, YouTube channel, and two of the most popular search engines in the targeted region(Google and Yandex).

For Google and Yandex, we used the following kinds of ads:

As for the Vkontakte social network, we targeted our ads to travellers, interested in leisure, health and culture, and those, who were the members of specific thematic communities (travels, air tickets, travel deals etc.). As a result, the campaign has shown a growth of interest in Georgia as a travel destination (see the Google Trends results).

We were also increased in the number of tourists by 14% during the campaign period (summer 2015) and received high involvement of users through the tools used.

Read the detailed case study on How we Promoted Georgia as a Tourist Country – here .

PPC Team Lead at Promodo

Serhiy has been engaged in PPC for more than 8 years.

Worked with many top Ukrainian clients.

Now manages his own team.

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What is destination marketing.

In Blog , Travel Industry .

By Tom Mcloughlin, Founder, SEO Travel .

There are plenty of different tried-and-tested marketing strategies out there in the travel industry, from email campaigns to influencer collaborations and wacky PR stunts. If you’re a travel business that offers holiday experiences or services in one specific area, likely, you may already have heard of destination marketing, which is one targeted approach that can make a big difference to business growth.

In recent years, destination marketing has occasionally fallen out of favour as certain locations have become overcrowded or saturated with tourists to the point where local people can no longer enjoy their hometowns and cities in peace.

However, when done correctly, destination marketing is a very effective marketing approach that is particularly beneficial to smaller travel companies who are looking for a way to increase visibility and carve out a space in the market.

In this article:

Destination Marketing Defined

What are the benefits of destination marketing, 8 successful destination marketing strategies.

• Summary of Destination Marketing

Destination marketing is a marketing approach in the travel industry that involves promoting a specific location and its benefits instead of the product or service that a company offers. This could be a country, a town or city, or even a specific holiday resort or attraction.

The purpose of destination marketing is to increase customer awareness of a certain destination so that they start to think about visiting, or to help them remember the location when they are ready to book a holiday. By slipping in subtle calls to action and mentions of a brand’s offering, the idea is that potential customers will decide to book a holiday to that destination through the company that is promoting it.

Destination marketing is also often used by the tourist boards of certain countries or regions as a way to try and bring more visitors to the area to boost the local economy and establish themselves as a desirable holiday destination.

The main aim of destination marketing is to make the customer aware of and interested in the target location before they arrive. You want to spark an emotional desire to see and experience the place you are offering, as this makes the likelihood of paying for a holiday much higher.

One of the key benefits of destination marketing is that it tends to use an emotional hook to engage potential customers, which leads to much higher conversion rates. The whole approach is about selling the experience and benefits of a location by showing customers what their travel experience could be like if they visit, encouraging people to imagine a holiday there and planting a seed of intrigue in their minds.

Not only does engaging your target audience’s emotions make them more likely to convert, but it is also likely to build more affinity with your brand. Techniques used in destination marketing include things like video content, offering exclusive guides and recommendations and sharing customer testimonials, all of which will make your company seem more ‘human’ and build a relationship of trust with your audience.

Another benefit of destination marketing is that it focuses on the offering of a location instead of the specific holiday packages or travel experiences that your brand sells. By producing marketing material that is not explicitly pushing a product, your target audience will trust the recommendations and advice you share and view you as a true expert for your target destination, instead of just a company trying to sell holidays.

Finally, a wider benefit of destination marketing is that it improves the reputation and increases the interest in the location that you offer travel experiences. This will encourage more tourism and boost the area’s local economy, which in turn will create more business for your company.

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Whilst the majority of marketing techniques can be used as part of a destination marketing strategy, several approaches work particularly well. Here are 8 strategies to consider if your brand decides to focus on promoting a destination as part of its marketing plan.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

This is a piece of advice that you’ll likely have heard countless times when it comes to successful marketing in the travel industry. If you want to get your target audience’s attention, you need to understand what they care about and what they want to engage with.

In destination marketing, this approach is particularly important. If you just highlight generic benefits or features of your target destination, you’re not going to appeal to anyone in particular and your advertising material is going to have much less of an impact.

Before you think about what attractions and experiences you’re going to focus on in your destination marketing strategy, first go back to the segments of the audience that your travel brand targets. Identify what they’re looking for from travel and holiday experiences, whether that’s specific activities or personal benefits.

Then, use these focal points to decide what elements of the destination you’re going to highlight in your marketing campaigns.

2. Target Pain Points

Leading on from that last point, you should also ensure that you’re using the benefits of your destination to solve your target audience’s pain points.

This is a particularly successful approach because destination marketing is a strategy that engages potential customers’ emotions by tapping into their desires and offering an experience instead of just a product. You can take this emotional response even further by targeting their pain points and offering a solution through the destination.

An example of this may be that a key pain point for your target audience is finding holidays that include meaningful experiences instead of just mindless rest and relaxation. You could target this by creating advertising content that showcases the different cultural attractions in your destination or the opportunities to learn about the area’s history, promising a holiday that is enriching and enlightening.

3. Identify USPs

The start of every destination marketing campaign should begin by listing all of the unique selling points of wherever you are focusing on. This approach is all about standing out from other popular destinations, and the only way to do this is to shout about what makes your location so special.

You don’t need to be subtle about showcasing the unique qualities of a destination either. In fact, many well-known travel marketing campaigns have been so successful because they’ve taken a specific and often bizarre quality about a location and turned it into the key attraction for visiting wherever they are promoting.

For example, the Faroe Islands tourism board capitalised on the destination’s remote quality, and the fact that it has such a high population of sheep, to create the ‘ Sheep View ’ marketing campaign, which massively boosted the islands’ popularity with travellers.

4. Analyse Your Competitors

We’re not just talking about analysing other destinations that are frequently pitted against yours when we talk about competitors, although this is something to consider when analysing the business landscape. We suggest going even more specific and identifying other travel brands that market your chosen destination, particularly ones of a similar size to your business.

If you want to stand out in the industry and build a customer base of dedicated travel enthusiasts, you need to ensure that your marketing content is advertising a totally unique experience. Before you come up with a destination marketing strategy of your own, take time to see what’s already out there and ensure that you’re not going to be targeting a niche that has already been taken care of.

5. Use Video

This is one of the most common techniques used in destination marketing, but for good reason. There’s no better way to showcase a destination and give a glimpse of the kinds of experiences on offer than through video content, whether you’re making full-length guides to a place or just adding little snippets of video to your website and social media profiles.

Sometimes, it can be enough just to shoot stunning visuals of a location, accompanied by simple captions or overlayed text, to catch potential customers’ attention and start to inspire their wanderlust. Or you can take a more direct approach and create video testimonials from previous customers, introductions to attractions or accommodation from staff, or even vlogs and short video diaries illustrating a first-hand experience of a trip to your destination.

6. Focus on Visuals

Whilst video is probably the most effective content format you can use in destination marketing, anything visual is going to have an impact. From the photos you use on your website to the images shared on social media and graphics included in press releases or email newsletters, having a strong visual identity is a key part of marketing for a specific destination.

Not only do you want to inspire and engage your audience with every piece of visual content you share, but you also want to establish a “look” that becomes synonymous with your brand. That way, potential customers are more likely to remember you and start associating your company with a particular destination, which means they’re more likely to think of you first when it comes to booking a holiday there.

7. Collaborate With Influencers

Influencer marketing has taken off in the travel industry in the last couple of years, and it’s a technique that works really well as part of a destination marketing campaign. There’s no better way to showcase what a trip to a location is really like than showing a real person’s experience, and working with an influencer is perfect for this.

The type of influencer campaign you run will depend on the kind of travel business you are part of, your brand’s offering and your target audience. Some companies offer free holidays in exchange for an influencer to share their experience across their own channels, whilst others will work with influencers to create informative, promotional content that is shared by the brand themselves.

8. Go Beyond Stereotypes

When coming up with ideas for destination marketing campaigns, it can be tempting to fall back on stereotypes of what locations in certain parts of the world are like, or what the benefits of popular holiday experiences are. Whilst these kinds of stereotypes tend to be based on truth, they are much less likely to make an impact on potential customers, as they’re likely just showcasing features that have been seen before.

Instead of relying on predictable visuals, formats, and slogans, try and offer your audience something genuinely valuable and unique with your content. Don’t fall into predictable patterns with what you advertise (eg: safaris in Africa, beach holidays on tropical islands, winter holidays in classic ski locations) and instead think about undiscovered areas of the market you can conquer.

Destination marketing is an essential part of the travel industry and is an approach used by everyone from large tourism companies to small travel brands. By focusing on the benefits and offering of a location instead of a specific holiday package or travel deal, businesses can build up more authority as an expert provider for a specific destination — also appealing to a wider audience with marketing content that inspires and engages instead of steamrolling with a hard sell.

If you need more information or help with your travel marketing strategy or want to find out more about approaches like destination marketing, get in touch with SEO Travel for a chat and to find out more about the range of marketing services that we offer.

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Chapter 8. Services Marketing

Ray Freeman and Kelley Glazer

Learning Objectives

• Explain the meaning of services marketing
• Describe the differences between marketing services and marketing products
• Describe the characteristics of a marketing orientation and its benefits
• Define key services marketing terminology
• Explain the PRICE concept of marketing
• Provide examples of the 8 Ps of services marketing
• Gain knowledge of key service marketing issues and trends

Marketing is   a continuous, sequential process through which management plans, researches, implements, controls, and evaluates activities designed to satisfy the customers’ needs and wants, and meet the organization’s objectives. According to Morrison (2010), services marketing  “is a concept based on a recognition of the uniqueness of all services; it is a branch of marketing that specifically applies to the service industries”(p. 767).

Marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry requires an understanding of the differences between marketing goods and marketing services. To be successful in tourism marketing, organizations need to understand the unique characteristics of their tourism experiences, the motivations and behaviours of travelling consumers, and the fundamental differences between marketing goods and services.

The Evolution of Marketing

Until the 1930s, the primary objective of businesses was manufacturing, with little thought given to sales or marketing. In the 1930s, a focus on sales became more important; technological advances meant that multiple companies could produce similar goods, creating increased competition. Even as companies began to understand the importance of sales, the needs and wants of the customer remained a secondary consideration (Morrison, 2010).

In 1944, the first television commercial, for Bulova watches, reached 4,000 sets (Davis, 2013). The decades that followed, the 1950s and 1960s, are known as an era when marketing began to truly take off, with the number of mediums expanding and TV ad spending going from 5% of total TV revenues in 1953 to 15% just one year later (Davis, 2013).

The era from approximately 1950 to around 1970 was known as a time of marketing orientation (Morrison, 2010). Customers had more choice in product, this required companies to shift focus to ensure that consumers knew how their products matched specific needs. This was also the time where quality of service and customer satisfaction became part of organizational strategy. We began to see companies develop internal marketing departments, and in the 1960s, the first full-service advertising agencies began to emerge.

Societal marketing emerged in the 1970s when organizations began to recognize their place in society and their responsibility to citizens (or at least the appearance thereof). This change is demonstrated, for example, by natural resource extraction companies supporting environmental management issues and implementing more transparent policies. This decade saw the emergence of media we are familiar with today (the first hand-held mobile phone was launched in 1973) and the decline of traditional marketing through vehicles such as print; the latter evidenced by the closure of LIFE Magazine in 1972 amid complaints that TV advertising was too difficult to compete with (Davis, 2013).

The mid-1990s ushered in the start of the online marketing era. E-commerce (electronic commerce) revolutionized every industry, perhaps impacting the travel industry most of all. Tourism and hospitality service providers began making use of this technology to optimize marketing to consumers; manage reservations; facilitate transactions; partner and package itineraries; provide (multiple) customer feedback channels; collect, mine, analyze, and sell data; and automate functions. The marketing opportunities of this era appear limitless. Table 8.1 summarizes the evolution of marketing over the last century.

Typically, the progression of marketing in tourism and hospitality has been 10 to 20 years behind other sectors. Some in the industry attribute this to the traditional career path in the tourism and hospitality industry where managers and executives worked their way up the ranks (e.g., from bellhop to general manager) rather than through a postsecondary business education. It was commonly believed that to be a leader in this industry one had to understand the operations inside-out, so training and development of managers was based on technical and functional capabilities, rather than marketing savvy. And, as we’ll learn next, marketing services and experiences is distinct and sometimes more challenging than marketing goods. For these reasons, most businesses in the industry have been developing marketing skills for only about 30 years (Morrison, 2010).

Differences Between Goods and Services

There are four key differences between goods and services. According to numerous scholars (Regan; Rathmell; Shostack; Zeithaml et al. in Wolak, Kalafatis, & Harris, 1998) services are:

• Heterogeneous
• Inseparable (simultaneously produced and consumed)

The rest of this section details what these concepts mean.

Intangibility

Tangible goods are ones the customer can see, feel, and/or taste ahead of payment. Intangible services, on the other hand, cannot be “touched” beforehand. An airplane flight is an example of an intangible service because a customer purchases it in advance and doesn’t “experience” or “consume” the product until he or she is on the plane.

Heterogeneity

While most goods may be replicated identically, services are never exactly the same; they are heterogeneous . Variability in experiences may be caused by location, time, topography, season, the environment, amenities, events, and service providers. Because human beings factor so largely in the provision of services, the quality and level of service may differ between vendors or may even be inconsistent within one provider. We will discuss quality and level of service further in Chapter 9.

Inseparability

A physical good may last for an extended period of time (in some cases for many years). In contrast, a service is produced and consumed at the same time. A service exists only at the moment or during the period in which a person is engaged and immersed in the experience.

Perishability

Services and experiences cannot be stored; they are highly perishable . In contrast, goods may be held in physical inventory in a lot, warehouse, or a store until purchased, then used and stored at a person’s home or place of work. If a service is not sold when available, it disappears forever. Using the airline example, once the airplane takes off, the opportunity to sell tickets on that flight is lost forever, and any empty seats represent revenue lost.

Planning for Services Marketing

To ensure effective services marketing, tourism marketers need to be strategic in their planning process. Using a tourism marketing system  requires carefully evaluating multiple alternatives, choosing the right activities for specific markets, anticipating challenges, adapting to these challenges, and measuring success (Morrison, 2010). Tourism marketers can choose to follow a strategic management process called the PRICE concept , where they:

• P: plan (where are we now?)
• R: research (where would we like to be?)
• 
I: implement (how do we get there?)
• C: control (how do we make sure we get there?)
• E: evaluate (how do we know if we got there?)

In this way, marketers can be more assured they are strategically satisfying both the customer’s needs and the organization’s objectives (Morrison, 2010). The relationship between company, employees, and customers in the services marketing context can be described as a services marketing triangle (Morrison, 2010), which is illustrated in Figure 8.5.

In traditional marketing, a business broadcasts messaging directly to the consumer. In contrast, in services marketing, employees play an integral component. The communications between the three groups can be summarized as follows (Morrison, 2010):

• External marketing: promotional efforts aimed at potential customers and guests (creating a promise between the organization and the guest)
• Internal marketing: training, culture, and internal communications (enabling employees to deliver on the promise)
• Interactive marketing: direct exchanges between employees and guests (delivering the promise)

The direct and indirect ways that a company or destination reaches its potential customers or guests can be grouped into eight concepts known as the 8 Ps of services marketing .

8 Ps of Services Marketing

The 8 Ps are best described as the specific components required to reach selected markets. In traditional marketing, there are four Ps: price, product, place, and promotion. In services marketing, the list expands to the following (Morrison, 2010):

• Product: the range of product and service mix offered to customers
• Place: how the product will be made available to consumers in the market, selection of distribution channels, and partners
• Promotion: specific combination of marketing techniques (advertising, personal sales, public relations, etc.)
• Pricing: part of a comprehensive revenue management and pricing plan
• People: developing human resources plans and strategies to support positive interactions between hosts and guests
• Programming: customer-oriented activities (special events, festivals, or special activities) designed to increase customer spending or length of stay, or to add to the appeal of packages
• Partnership: also known as cooperative marketing, increasing the reach and impact of marketing efforts
• Physical evidence: ways in which businesses can demonstrate their marketing claims and customers can document their experience such as stories, reviews, blog posts, or in-location signage and components

It’s important that these components all work together in a seamless set of messages and activities known as integrated marketing communications, or IMC, to ensure the guests receive a clear message and an experience that meets their expectations.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated marketing communications (IMC)  involves   planning and coordinating all the promotional mix elements (including online and social media components) to be as consistent and mutually supportive as possible. This approach is much superior to using each element separately and independently.

Tour operators, attractions, hotels, and destination marketing organizations will often break down marketing into separate departments, losing the opportunity to ensure each activity is aligned with a common goal. Sometimes a potential visitor or guest is bombarded with messaging about independent destinations within a region, or businesses within a city, rather than one consistent set of messages about the core attributes of that destination.

It’s important to consider how consumers use various and multiple channels of communication and reach out to them in a comprehensive and coherent fashion. As a concept, IMC is not new, but it is more challenging than ever due to the numerous social media and unconventional communication channels now available. Each channel must be well maintained and aligned around the same messages, and selected with the visitor in mind. Too often businesses and destinations deploy multiple channels and end up neglecting some of these, rather than ensuring key platforms are well maintained (Eliason, 2014).

In order to better understand our guests, and the best ways to reach them, let’s take a closer look at the consumer as the starting and focal point of any marketing plan.

Consumer Behaviour in Tourism and Hospitality

Customers use their senses to see, hear, smell, and touch (and sometimes taste) to decipher messages from businesses, deciding on a product or service based on their perception of the facts rather than, at times, the actual facts. A number of factors have been shown to impact the choices the consumer makes, including personal factors, which reflect needs, wants, motivations, previous experience, and a person’s lifestyle, and  interpersonal factors, such as culture, social class, family, and opinion leaders.

Perception Is Reality

The area of perception can be further broken down to screens and filters, biases, selective retention, and closure (Morrison, 2010). Let’s look at these concepts in more detail.

The world is filled with things that stimulate people. People are exposed to thousands of messages every day. Some stimuli come from the people around us; for example, a person on the bus might be wearing a branded cap, the bus may have advertising pasted all over it, and free newspapers distributed at the bus station could be filled with advertising. The human brain cannot absorb and remember all of these messages; people will screen out most of the stimuli they are exposed to. They may remember a piece or segment of a message they have seen or heard.

Take a Closer Look: 100 BC Moments Vending Machine 

As part of a 2012 integrated campaign, Destination BC (then operating as Tourism BC) created a vending machine that offered users the opportunity to experience moments that could be part of their visit to British Columbia. At 14 feet tall, this vending machine dispensed free items like bikes, surfboards, and discounts on flights to encourage people to travel British Columbia. This experiential innovation was a way to provide a tangible element to intangible services. It was complemented by an online and social media campaign using the hashtag #100BCMoments and special web landing page at 100BCMoments.com. A video of the San Fransisco installation earned hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube; cutting through the clutter both in person and online. Watch it here:  Giant Tourism BC Vending Machine comes to San Francisco : www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWbQtK4N8cM

Perceptual Biases

Everyone has perceptual biases; each person sees things from his or her own unique view of the world. An advertising message can be received and changed to something very different from the marketer’s intended statement.

Selective Retention

Once messages have made it through the screens, filters, and biases, they still may not be retained for long. Customers will practise selective retention, holding on only to the information that supports their beliefs and attitudes.

The brain does not like incomplete images. There is a state of psychological tension present until the image is complete (closure). Where information is unavailable to round out the images, the mind adds the missing data. Over time, through the use of imagery and music (such as jingles), messages are ingrained in a customer’s mind, and he or she automatically adds the company’s name, whether it is mentioned or not.

Applying Psychology to Marketing

Marketers may determine a degree of predictability about customer perceptions. 

Customers are likely to:

• Screen out information that they are already familiar with
• Notice and retain information to satisfy a need they are aware of (want)
• Purchase services that reflect the image they perceive themselves to project
• Notice and retain things out of the norm
• Attach credibility to personal information rather than commercially generated information

Customers are less likely to:

• Use perceptual biases to distort information received on an interpersonal basis
• Absorb complicated information that requires effort to comprehend
• Notice and retain information about a competitive service or product if they are satisfied with another brand

Tourism marketers are in the business of reminding and making customers aware of their needs. Customers have to be motivated to act on satisfying their wants and needs, while marketers need to trigger the process by supplying objectives and potential motives.

Spotlight On: Tourism Victoria’s Visitor Centre

Tourism Victoria’s Visitor Centre is a member of the Visitor Centre Network. Staff are available to provide travellers with tourist information, assistance, and advice. The Tourism Victoria Visitor Centre provides travellers with a wide range of services, including professional visitor counselling, helpful travel information and literature, and accommodation reservations (Tourism Victoria, 2015).

Consumer Decision-Making Process

In 1968, Kollat, Blackwell and Engel released the first edition of a book called Consumer Behavior where they identified a distinct five-step pattern for consumer decision-making (1972). These steps are: need recognition, information search, pre-purchase evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase evaluation.

Here are some critical components at each stage:

• Need recognition: For this process to start there needs to be a stimulus; a need must be triggered and identified.
• Information search: The customer begins to consult different sources of information; personal (marketer dominated) and intrapersonal (non-marketer) factors will likely be used.
• Pre-purchase evaluation: After researching the choices, the customer starts to evaluate options using both objective criteria, such as price and location, and subjective criteria, such as the perceived status of the product or service.
• Purchase: The customer intends to buy the product or service that best matches the criteria, although he or she can still be influenced by a number of factors, such as friends and family who disagree with the purchase, or a change in personal finances.
• Post-purchase evaluation: After use, the customer evaluates the purchase against expectations; if these don’t match, the customer will be either dissatisfied (expectations not met) or impressed (expectations exceeded). For this reason, it’s best for hospitality and tourism providers to “under promise” and “over deliver.”

Spotlight On: BC Ferries Vacations

BC Ferries Vacations offers over 70 unique travel packages to 40 destinations, connecting travellers to unbeatable scenery, accommodations, and activities. With world-class hotels, activities, and adventures to choose from, travellers can experience BC’s pristine wildlife or urban coastal culture with each customized vacation package. BC Ferries Vacations travel experts help travellers create a personalized vacation complete with ferry reservations to bring all-in-one convenience, quality, and value. And, in partnership with some of BC’s best hotels, BC Ferries Vacations is able to provide customers with the best rates, customer service, and overall experiences, whether travelling to Vancouver, Victoria, the north coast, or to remote and amazing destinations in-between (BC Ferries Services, 2015).

In order to reach consumers and stimulate need, tourism marketers can employ a number of traditional and online channels. These are detailed in the next section.

Reaching the Consumer

Marketers have more choices than ever when it comes to broadcasting their message to consumers. Potential travellers and guests will respond, in varying degrees, to traditional channels and emerging online communications tools. There are many choices in marketing and communication channels, each with strengths and weaknesses. Determining the right mix, frequency, and message depends heavily on establishing objectives, completing research, performing a situational analysis, and creating a positioning approach (Morrison, 2010). Let’s take a closer look at communications channels that may form part of the marketing mix.

Traditional Channels

Mass media is best described as the use of channels that reach very large markets. Examples include national newspapers and radio or television advertising. The immediate advantage of using mass media is the ability to reach multiple target markets in significant numbers. Disadvantages include the high expense and difficulty in effective target marketing and measuring return.

Out-Of-Home (OOH)

Out-of-home (OOH) channels refer to four major categories: billboards, transit, alternative outdoor, and street furniture.  OOH advertising plays an important role in the tourism and hospitality industry as it provides an opportunity to inform travellers in unfamiliar territory. Transit advertising includes airports, rail, and taxi displays. Alternative outdoor refers to arenas, stadiums, and digital media. Street furniture includes bus shelters, kiosks, and shopping malls.

Print Media

Print media includes newspapers, magazines, journals, and directories. There is an increased trend away from traditional purchased print advertising toward editorial features, as these are more trusted by consumers. A print ad and an editorial feature created together is known as an  advertorial .

Spotlight On: The Tartan Group

Founded in the 1990s in Victoria, The Tartan Group is a public relations firm focusing on tourism and hospitality clients including Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, Harmony Hotel, Inn at Laurel Point, and Hotel Zed. The staff have extensive experience working in the industry, and the organization has relationships with multiple tourism associations and press groups. For more information, visit the Tartan Group website : www.tartangroup.ca

Online Channels

As discussed in Chapter 7, the internet is nearly twice as important as travel agents as an information source for travel (Deloitte, 2015). There are an estimated 3 billion people around the globe with internet access, and social media has become truly integrated into the travel and hospitality industry. TripAdvisor and similar sites have become the customer’s first point of connection with tourism and hospitality products and experiences. This can be both an opportunity and a threat: an opportunity to open the channels of communication, but a threat if negative information about the travel or hospitality organization is widely spread. As online distribution expands, empowered and savvy travellers are unbundling the booking component and self-booking directly (Deloitte, 2015).

Internet and mobile technology are referred to as interactive media . For tourism and hospitality businesses, there are significant advantages to creating an online presence: it’s cost effective, it provides global reach, it allows a business to be available 24/7, and it provides a reciprocal communication platform for customers.

Social Media and Reputation Management

There are also challenges with online marketing, including being noticed within the volume of information customers are exposed to, and loss of control in delivering a message. Despite these challenges, as more consumers seek real-time information online, tourism marketers are responding with increasingly sophisticated online marketing strategies. This section draws from resources and expertise provided by WorldHost Training Services (2013).

Social Media

Social media is a broad term that refers to web-based and mobile applications used for social interaction and the exchange of content. Social networking is the act of using social media. Unlike traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, and television, social media is largely powered by user-generated content. This refers to content created and shared by consumers rather than by marketers, journalists, experts, and other paid professionals, although they too contribute to social networks.

Word of Mouth in the Age of Social Media

Social networking has transformed how many people interact with businesses and share experiences with others, in a communication channel known as word of mouth where customers share directly with each other. Consumers now have a variety of channels on which to express likes and dislikes, many of which have large audiences. Some of this commentary is made in real time, on a smartphone, while the customer is still in the business (WorldHost, 2013).

Advertising and Trust

Social networks, and review sites in particular, are used more and more to seek information and advice on things to do and products and services to purchase. Travellers and locals alike check out these sites for ideas on where to stay, eat, relax, shop, and explore. These channels are highly trusted. A survey of over 28,000 consumers in 56 countries found that consumers trust the advice of people they know (92%) and consumer opinions posted online (70%) more than any other advertising source (Nielsen, 2012).

Online Reviews = Business Success

Research shows a direct correlation between consumer reviews and purchase decisions. A 2011 survey by Phocuswright found that three in four active travellers cite reviews and photos as influential in choosing activities (PR Newswire, 2011). A 2011 study conducted by Harvard Business School found that, for independent restaurants, a one-star increase in Yelp ratings led to a 5% to 9% increase in revenue (Luca, 2011). And, according to a study by the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research, if a hotel increases its review score on Travelocity by 1 point on a 5-point scale, it can raise its price by 11.2% without affecting demand (Anderson, 2012).

Understanding Customer Needs

As we have discussed, service plays an important role in shaping customer impressions, where the ultimate goal of a tourism or hospitality business is to exceed expectations. Every customer has different wants and needs, but virtually all customers expect the following basic needs to be taken care of:

• Convenience
• Good service

To fully satisfy customers, businesses must deliver in all four areas. If they meet the basic needs listed above, they’ll create a  passive customer — one who is satisfied, but not likely to write a review or mention a business to others.

On the other hand, failure to deliver on the promise can result in a disappointed customer undoing all the efforts of the marketing plan. For this reason, the entire process must be well coordinated and well executed.

Bringing it All Together

The role of destination bc.

Destination BC is responsible for executing key components of the provincial government’s tourism strategy (British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, 2011). As we learned in the last chapter, this provincial destination marketing organization has been mandated to fulfill several key marketing and leadership responsibilities critical to the long-term sustainable growth of the provincial tourism industry. This includes marketing British Columbia domestically, nationally, and internationally as a tourist destination (Destination BC, n.d.). Its first three-year corporate and marketing strategy was released in November 2014 articulating its new vision, mission, and goals.

Take a Closer Look: Online Reputation Management

This guide from Destination BC’s Tourism Business Essentials series helps businesses understand how to manage their online reputation and includes tips for responding to reviews and other best practice. To get a copy of the guide, visit the Online Reputation Management Guide [PDF] : www.destinationbc.ca/getattachment/Programs/Guides-Workshops-and-Webinars/Guides/Tourism-Business-Essentials-Guides/TBE-Guide-Online-Reputation-Management-2nd-Edition-Sep-2014-(2).pdf.aspx

Market Segmentation

Tourism marketers, including the team at Destination BC, choose target markets for their efforts through market segmentation techniques, where potential visitors are separated by:

• Demographics
• Countries of origin
• Trip purposes
• Trip planning and arrangements
• Psychographics and lifestyles
• Special interests
• Technology uses

The Canadian Tourism Commission’s award-winning Explorer Quotient program provides tourism marketers with detailed psychographic and travel motivations information (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2008; 2012). It allows destinations and experiences to market themselves to target audiences based on psychographic profiles (their psychological tendencies) rather than geographic segments.

Take a Closer Look: EQ (Explorer Quotient)

Destination Canada’s EQ tool allows businesses to segment their customers in a new and innovative way. EQ offers a range of online resources from an EQ Quiz (so you can identify what type of traveller you are) to business toolkits and more. Explore this new tourism marketing tool by visiting the Explorer Quotient tool : http://en.destinationcanada.com/resources-industry/explorer-quotient

BC’s Tourism and Hospitality Key Markets

BC’s key target tourism markets can be broken down into three main categories: nearby markets, top priority markets, and emerging markets (BC Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation, 2011).

Nearby markets are BC, Alberta, and Washington State, which are characterized by high volume and strong repeat visitation. Marketing activities to these areas are led by the regions, communities, and/or sectors such as ski. Top priority markets of Ontario, California, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia are characterized by high revenue and high spending per visitor. Marketing efforts here are led by Destination BC. Emerging markets , which include China, India, and Mexico, are monitored and explored by Destination BC.

Performance Measurement and Evaluation

In order to measure its success in the realm of destination marketing, Destination BC has introduced a tool called the  net promoter score (NPS) , a metric designed to monitor customer engagement. The NPS indicates the likelihood of travellers recommending a destination to friends, family, or colleagues. NPS is based on responses to the question, How likely are you to recommend [British Columbia] as a travel destination to a friend, family member, or colleague? Responses are scored from 0 = “not at all likely” to 10 = “extremely likely.” Respondents are divided into three categories:

• Detractors (scores of 0 to 6): Unhappy visitors, unlikely to tell others to visit and might even damage the reputation of a destination through negative word of mouth
• Passives (scores of 7 or 8): Marginally satisfied visitors not excited enough to tell others about their travel experience
• Promoters (scores of 9 or 10): Loyal enthusiasts likely to return and rave about their travel experience

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters: NPS = % of detractors — % of supporters. The intention to recommend a travel destination, reported by the NPS, is a proxy measure of overall satisfaction with the travel experience. Satisfaction with the travel experience and the intention to recommend greatly increase the likelihood of a return visit to British Columbia. And word-of-mouth advocacy, either face-to-face or through social media, is critical for attracting first-time visitors to British Columbia.

Destination BC uses NPS as a performance measurement tool (among others) to help determine the overall effectiveness of online and integrated marketing communications strategies (Destination BC, 2013). Furthermore, Destination BC has developed the Remarkable Experiences program to “enable tourism operators to become experts in areas such as service design and digital marketing” (Destination BC, 2014).

Spotlight On: Aboriginal Travel Services

Aboriginal Travel Services (ATS) is BC’s first Aboriginal-owned travel agency, focusing on business and leisure needs of companies, First Nations bands, and individual tourists. Located on Coast Salish territories in downtown Vancouver, ATS reinvests profits into Aboriginal communities by way of youth scholarships in tourism and hospitality. The agency was developed as a social enterprise, with the dual purpose of selling travel services that provide cultural and economic opportunities to the communities it serves and committing to investing in the Aboriginal communities and tourism initiatives (Aboriginal Travel Services, 2015). For more information, visit the Aboriginal Travel Services website : www.aboriginaltravelservices.com

Effective planning, research, customer understanding, integrated marketing communications, and using online customer service strategies to support effective marketing are fundamental requirements for successful services marketing. However, it is critical that marketers understand the key trends and issues that will help to identify tomorrow’s marketing strategies (Government of Canada, 2013).

Trends and Issues

Tourism marketers in BC need to monitor trends in the following areas that may impact the success of their marketing efforts:

• Demographic shifts (aging population, the rise of millennials), and socioeconomics (cultural changes, economic decline/growth)
• Political, economic, and geographic changes (emerging or declining economies)
• Trip purpose (growth of multipurpose trips)
• Psychographic changes (special interests, healthy lifestyles, sustainability)
• Behavioural adaptations (free independent travel, decreasing brand loyalty)
• Product-related trends (emerging niches)
• Distribution channels (online travel agencies, virtual travel)

Remaining abreast of information in these areas is critical to the success of any services marketing plan, which should be continually monitored and adapted as the landscape changes.

Effective services marketing in the tourism and hospitality sector requires marketers to gain a solid understanding of the differences between the marketing of goods and services. Successful organizations use market research to learn the preferences and behaviours of key customer segments. Through a strategic planning process, organizations and destinations develop a marketing orientation designed to identify customer needs and trigger their wants, while striving to meet organizational objectives. Activities are designed to support integrated marketing communications across multiple platforms with reciprocal communications — that is, not just broadcasting information, but having conversations with customers. Savvy marketers will leverage these conversations to keep up with evolving customer interests while seeking an understanding of emerging trends in order to anticipate needs and wants. Engaged marketers also know that social media and integrated marketing communications must be complemented with remarkable customer service, which ultimately supports successful marketing strategy.

Chapter 9 will delve further into the components of delivering exceptional customer service as a key component of industry success.

• 8 Ps of services marketing: refers to product, place, promotion, pricing, people, programming, partnership, and physical evidence
• Advertorial: print content (sometimes now appearing online) that is a combination of an editorial feature and paid advertising
• Customer needs: gaps between what customers have and what they would like to have
• Customer wants: needs of which customers are aware
• E-commerce: electronic commerce; performing business transactions online while collecting rich data about consumers
• Emerging markets: markets for BC that are monitored and explored by Destination BC — China, India, and Mexico
• Heterogeneous:  variable, a generic difference shared by all services
• Intangible:  untouchable, a characteristic shared by all services
• Integrated marketing communications (IMC):  planning and coordinating all the promotional mix elements and internet marketing so they are as consistent and as mutually supportive as possible
• Interactive media: online and mobile platforms
• Interpersonal factors: the influence of cultures, social classes, family, and opinion leaders on consumers
• Marketing: a continuous, sequential process through which management plans, researches, implements, controls, and evaluates activities designed to satisfy the customers’ needs and wants, and its own organization’s objectives
• Marketing orientation: the understanding that a company needs to engage with its markets in order to refine its products and services, and promotional efforts
• Market segmentation: specific groups of people with a similar profile, allowing marketers to target their messaging
• Mass media:  the use of channels that reach very large markets
• Nearby markets:  markets for BC, identified by Destination BC as BC, Alberta, and Washington State, characterized by high volume and strong repeat visitation
• Net promoter score (NPS):  a metric designed to monitor customer engagement, reflecting the likelihood that travellers will recommend a destination to friends, family, or colleagues
• Out-of-home (OOH):  channels in four major categories: billboards, transit, alternative outdoor, and street furniture
• Passive customer: a guest who is satisfied (won’t complain, but won’t celebrate the business either)
• Perishable : something that is only good for a short period of time, a characteristic shared by all services
• Personal factors:  the needs, wants, motivations, previous experiences, and objectives of consumers that they bring into the decision-making process
• PRICE concept: an acronym that helps marketers remember the need to plan, research, implement, control, and evaluate the components of their marketing plan
• Print media:  newspapers, magazines, journals, and directories
• Services marketing: marketing that specifically applies to services such as those provided by the tourism and hospitality industries; differs from the marketing of goods
• Services marketing triangle: a model for understanding the relationship between the company, its employees, and the customer; differs from traditional marketing where the business speaks directly to the consumer
• Social media:  refers to web-based and mobile applications used for social interaction and the exchange of content
• Societal marketing: marketing that recognizes a company’s place in society and its responsibility to citizens (or at least the appearance thereof)
• Tangible: goods the customer can see, feel, and/or taste ahead of payment
• Top priority markets: markets for BC identified as a top priority for Destination BC — Ontario, California, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, South Korea, Australia — which are characterized by high revenue and high spend per visitor
• Tourism marketing system: an approach that guides the planning, execution, and evaluation of tourism marketing efforts (PRICE concept is an approach to this)
• Word of mouth: information about a service experience passed along orally or through other social information sources from past customers to potential customers
• Should services be marketed exactly the same as manufactured products and packaged goods? Why or why not?
• Name at least three reasons for tourism marketers to do marketing research.
• Why is segmentation so important to effective marketing?
• What does integrated marketing communications achieve?
• What stages do customers usually go through when they make decisions about buying travel services?
• Name the three types of market priorities for British Columbia’s tourism experiences (according to Destination BC). What geographic segments are found in each?
• What is the net promoter score (NPS) for a destination with 20% detractors and 80% supporters?
• Why is delivering great experiences an important part of services marketing? Give five reasons.
• What characteristics do you agree with, which ones do you not? Why?
• Select one of the experiences (preferably in BC) matched to your profile and determine how it fits your type.
• How does the website of that company market to your traveller type? What visuals or key words do they use to get your attention?

Case Study: The Wickaninnish Inn

Located in Tofino, the Wickaninnish Inn (or “the Wick,” as it’s affectionately known) is a world-recognized high-end property famous for offering four seasons of luxury experiences on BC’s “wild coast.” But how does the Wick stay top-of-mind with tourism consumers? A quick look at their marketing mix offers some answers:

• Product: The inn has long been a leader in offering experiences that go above and beyond a room in a luxury hotel, starting with their storm-watching packages in the late fall, a time that was once their off-season.
• Place: Reservations can be made online on the inn’s website, via a toll-free number, through OTA sites including TripAdvisor (where reviews are constantly monitored in order to engage with customers), and other reservation services including the HelloBC program. The staff constantly engages with, and monitors their customers, tracking trends in traveller purchasing behaviour to ensure it is front and centre with the inn’s target markets.
• Promotion: The inn has a well-maintained, visually rich website and social media presence on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, and Flickr (a presence that shifts constantly depending on where consumers can be found online). Its site features a media page with blogs, press releases, and high-resolution photos and videos to ensure journalists can easily post a story at any time.
• Pricing: The inn has a comprehensive revenue management and pricing plan that includes packaging and promotions for all seasons. The pricing reflects offering value to guests, while confidently staying at the higher end of the scale.
• People: Not only does the inn attract and train staff who deliver on its promise of exceptional experiences, the Wick also has a multi-person team responsible for sales, marketing, and media (blogging, press releases, photography, hosting familiarization tours).
• Programming: Programs include packaging under themes such as elopement, natural, seasonal, romantic, spa, and culinary. Many packages include the involvement of hotel personnel such as an elopement coordinator or concierge to help guests plan specific value-added and memorable components of their experience, such as a last-minute wedding (Wickaninnish Inn, 2015).
• Partnership: The Wick partners with other experience providers and events such as the Tofino Saltwater Classic — a fishing tournament hosted by Brendan Morrison of the Vancouver Canucks. By supporting the event as a platinum sponsor (Tofino Saltwater Classic, 2014), the representatives from the inn meet new potential guests and solidifies its place in the community.
• Physical evidence: In addition to familiarization tours (see Chapter 7 for definition), the media team ensures the inn is considered for a number of high-profile awards, and celebrates wins by broadcasting these as they occur (e.g., Travel and Leisure Awards World’s Best Winner 2014). Prize logos are placed on the inn’s home page online, in print ads, and in physical locations on the property. The inn also has a regular consumer newsletter that celebrates achievements and shares promotions with past and future guests.

Thinking about this example, answer the following questions:

• Imagine the inn received a review on TripAdvisor that showed a customer was not satisfied. How might it deal with this?
• Visit the company’s website at  www.wickinn.com . Who are the target customers? How is this conveyed on the site?
• What are the prices for packages and accommodations? What does the price signal to you about the experience you might have at this hotel?
• Do an online search for “Wick Inn” using your favourite search engine. What are the first five links that come up? How do these present the property? What hand does the inn’s staff have in these results?
• Look at the community of Tofino as it is presented online and name five potential partners for the Wick.

Aboriginal Travel Services. (2015). Aboriginal Travel Services. Retrieved from www.aboriginaltravelservices.com

Anderson, C. (2012). The impact of social media on lodging performance. Retrieved from www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-16421.html

BC Ferries Services. (2015). BC Ferries vacations. Retrieved from: www.bcferriesvacations.com

British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. (2011). Gaining the edge: A five year strategy for tourism in British Columbia. [PDF] Retrieved from: www.jtst.gov.bc.ca/tourismstrategy/documents/mjti_tourismstrategyreport_fnl.pdf

Canadian Tourism Commission. (2008). The explorer quotient: A deeper understanding of the modern traveller . [PDF] Retrieved from: www.ttracanada.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/ctc._the_explorer_quotient_-_a_deeper_understanding_of_the_m.pdf

Canadian Tourism Commission. (2012). EQ profiles . [PDF] Retrieved from: https://en-corporate.canada.travel/sites/default/files/pdf/Resources/ctc_eq_profiles_2012-eng-lowres.pdf

Davis, K. (2013, July 17). A (kind of) brief history of marketing (infographic). Entrepreneur. Retrieved from www.entrepreneur.com/article/227438

Deloitte. (2015). Hospitality 2015 game changers or spectators? Retrieved from www2.deloitte.com/ie/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/hospitality-2015.html

Destination BC. (n.d.). About us . Retrieved from: www.destinationbc.ca/About-Us.aspx

Destination BC. (2013). Net promoter score. Retrieved from: www.destinationbc.ca/Resources/Monitoring-and-Evaluation/Net-Promoter-Score.aspx#.VOZd1_nF9Z9

Destination BC. (2014).  Remarkable experiences program . Retrieved from: http://strategy.destinationbc.ca/how-we-will-win/foster-remarkable-experiences/remarkable-experiences-program/

Eliason, K. (2014, December 23). The importance of integrated marketing communications. Retrieved from www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/raining-marketing-importance-integrated-marketing-communications.htm

Government of Canada. (2013). FedNor: A guide to using market research and marketing measurement for successful tourism destination marketing . Retrieved from:
http://fednor.gc.ca/eic/site/fednor-fednor.nsf/eng/fn03327.html

Kollat, D., Blackwell, R., & Engel, J. (1972). The current status of consumer behavior research: Developments during the 1968-1972 period. Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Consumer Research. Chicago, IL : Association for Consumer Research, pp. 576-585.

Luca, M. (2011, September 16). Reviews, reputation, and revenue: The case of Yelp.com . [PDF] Retrieved from www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/12-016_0464f20e-35b2-492e-a328-fb14a325f718.pdf

Morrison, A. M. (2010). Hospitality & travel marketing (4th ed., international ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.

Nielsen. (2012, April 10). Global consumers’ trust in ‘earned’ advertising grows in importance. Retrieved from www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html

PR Newswire. (2011, January 11). Smart phones, social media and local search create marketing mojo in the travel industry, new report says . Retrieved from www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smart-phones-social-media-and-local-search-create-marketing-mojo-in-the-travel-industry-new-report-says-113262519.html

Tofino Saltwater Classic. (2014). Tofino saltwater classic . Retrieved from www.tofinosaltwaterclassic.com

Tourism Victoria. (2015). Visitors centre . Retrieved from: www.tourismvictoria.com/plan/visitor-centre

Wickaninnish Inn. (2015). Elopement wedding packages . Retrieved from www.wickinn.com/package-type/elopement

Wolak, R., Kalafatis, S., & Harris, P. (1998). An investigation into four characteristics of services. [PDF]   Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science, 3 , 22-43. Retrieved from http://members.byronsharp.com/empgens/emp1.pdf

WorldHost Training Services. (2013). Remarkable service in the age of social media . 
Retrieved from: www.worldhosttraining.com/elearning/

Attributions

Figure 8.1   Vintage Ad #1,203: This Cheap Hotel Does Not Compute  by Jamie is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Figure 8.2   1970s Advertising – Poster – Peter Max Don’t Smoke Cigarettes (USA) by Daniel Anyes Arroyo is used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license.

Figure 8.3   British Columbia Parliament Christmas Lights by James Wheeler  is used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 8.4   Empty Flight by Rex Roof  is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Figure 8.5   Services Marketing Triangle by LinkBC  is used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 8.6   Pacific Centre igloo by Janis Behan   is used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 8.7   Army Photography Contest – 2007 – FMWRC – Arts and Crafts – Eye of the Holder by US Army is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Figure 8.8  BC Tourism Vending Machine by davitydave is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Figure 8.9  Precious Treasure by Dave Sutherland  is used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Figure 8.10   Victoria’s Inner Harbour at Night 2012 by Gord McKenna is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0  license.

Figure 8.11   Out of Home Advertising for Grouse Mountain by LinkBC  is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Figure 8.12   Fairmont Empress and Helijet Partnership by  LinkBC  is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Figure 8.13   Wreath makin’ – an unhappy customer (pas moi) by Katy  is used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.

Figure 8.14   Twitter escultura de arena by Rosaura Ochoa  is used under a CC BY 2.0 license.

Long Descriptions

Figure 8.1 long description: A man holds up a calculator looking confused. He says, “Are you kidding me? A big double bed, television, air conditioning, and only $12.95 a night? It doesn’t compute.” [Return to Figure 8.1]

Figure 8.5 long description: Internal marketing is used between the company and its employees. External marketing is used between the company and its customers. Interactive marketing is used between the employees and the customers. [Return to Figure 8.5]

Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality in BC Copyright © 2015 by Ray Freeman and Kelley Glazer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Tourism Marketing and Promotion

General overview.

Marketing and promotion are essentially figuring out what message(s) you need to sell a product and how to communicate to potential buyers. To use the famous quote from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams “if you build it they will come” is NOT how tourism works, marketing and promoting is essential to be successful. But, marketing and promoting tourism is very different than other tangible products and services. Destination CVBs are marketing and promoting an entire destination with numerous “products” and services.

Tourism Marketing

The American Marketing Association (2022) indicates “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/). There are common elements of marketing used for all products, but tourism marketing is unique. In marketing in general there are the common 4-Ps:

• Product – Whatever is being sold (in tourism it is the experience).
• Price – Cost of the product (in tourism it includes everything you purchase for the experience).
• Place – Where you purchase the product. Also known as how the product is distributed.
• Promotion – How the company or organization communicates the product to the consumer(s).

Marketing tourism is very unique compared to other products. Shoemaker and Shaw (2008) provide four primary ways marketing tourism is different than other products:

• Intangibility – Tourism is an experience, not a physical product (e.g., computer). Tourists will have memories of the experience they may share with others (e.g., family, friends).
• Perishability – The supplier cannot stockpile the product and resell it. For example, an empty seat on an airplane cannot be resold on a different flight. Each plane has a limited number of seats. An airline cannot add a seat unsold on the first plane to the second plane.
• Heterogeneity – The experience is not likely to be the same for consumers. Unlike physical products (e.g., computer), tourism experiences cannot be mass produced.
• Inseparability of production and consumption – Tourism experiences are consumed as they are produced. Other products can be produced in one city, state, etc. and sold in another. In tourism, the consumer (tourist) has to go to the product (i.e., destination). With tangible goods they can be purchased in a store and taken home or shipped to the consumer.

For tourism marketing there are an additional 4-Ps (Morrison et al., 2018):

• Packaging – A way to purchase some, many, all of the tourism product together (often through intermediaries such as Travelocity, Expedia, etc.).
• Programming – Ability of the destination to change themes, delivery of the product, and when the programs are available (e.g., destinations may have a special program around certain holidays).
• People – Tourism focuses on people. Destinations strive to provide a good experience and people are needed who can provide the experience. Although technology is changing some aspects of tourism, people will likely always be required.
• Partnerships – When businesses, organizations, etc. work together or collaborate deliver the tourism experience.

Marketing Orientation

Marketing orientation is essentially a guide for marketers. Morrison et al. (2018) suggest the following orientations

• Production – Focuses on what the product is and how it might fulfill needs and expectations of tourists.
• Sales – Focuses on selling more. So, increasing the volume of travelers, getting day-trip tourists to stay overnight are two examples of selling more.
• Marketing – First the needs and expectations of tourists are identified. Then, marketing tries to find a way to fulfill those needs and expectations.
• Societal – This orientation considers the society and local community and finds sustainable and/or responsible ways to market. This is a perspective or orientation that can minimize the negative social/cultural impacts.

In addition and similar to other topics covered (e.g., planning, development), marketing needs to be adaptable. Remember, tourism is season in many destinations, which might mean different target markets, different programming and events, and other issues to consider. As discussed from several perspectives, marketing needs to be adaptable because of challenges such as the economy, natural disasters, and other challenges.

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation in tourism is a way to group tourists according to characteristics they have in common since they are not exactly alike (Morrison, 2010). Some of the simple ways to segment the tourism market includes by demographics (e.g., age, household income, education, marital status). However, by combining such variables and looking at life cycle tourism marketers can be much more targeted and strategic. Another important consideration is geographic, or where actual and/or potential tourists reside. Another option is purpose of trip (e.g., business or leisure; group, family, individual). Behaviors of travelers can also be used to segment tourists. For example, marketers might segment based on travelers’ motivation or benefit they seek from taking a leisure trip/vacation. Psychographics (e.g., attitudes, interests, opinions) is a valuable segmentation tool which Strategic Business Insights (2009-2023) uses to group travelers into lifestyles (there is a survey you can complete to find out what type of VALS traveler you are) .

An example of segmenting a group of travelers is Shoemaker’s (1989) study that segments based on senior travelers reasons for traveling using cluster analysis, which is a statistical technique to segment a sample into groups based on a set of survey questions (Brochado, 2021). Shoemaker (1989) segmented based on reasons seniors traveled, including rest/relaxation, festivals/special events, experience new things, visit new places, escape daily routine, intellectual, and a number of other items. This study identified that there are sub-markets of the broader senior travel market. For example, Shoemaker (1989) identified three clusters: “Family Travelers” who enjoy spending time with immediate family; “Active Resters” travel to escape daily routine, intellectual enrichment such as visit historical sights, and participate in physical activities; and “Older Set” whose main differentiating characteristics is they are older then the other two groups and enjoy staying at all inclusive resorts, and participating in activities such as visiting historical sites.

When selecting target markets there are several criteria to consider according to Morrison et al. (2018). First, the need to be measurable, meaning you can estimate how many exist in the target market. This is essential because you want your broad or mass marketing to reach a sizable number of potential visitors. Next, the target market(s) need to be accessible, meaning you can reach them with your message. The next criteria is they need to substantial enough to justify the time and money that will be spent. Fourth, the target market(s) need to be defensible or make sense that they are likely to visit. The defensible criteria includes recognizing if they are a separate target market than other target markets or are they enough alike another that they are not truly distinct. Durability of a target market implies they will continue to exist over time and not just be a short-term or one occurrence. The destination also needs to ensure they can compete with other destinations for the target market. Homogeneity of the target market is the criteria that there are enough similarities with the target market. Finally, each target market needs to be compatible with the other target markets, as well or residents or locals to minimize negative social/cultural impacts.

Morrison et al. (2018) also identifies concerns the destination needs to consider when identifying target markets. First, do they have enough income to travel now and in the future and will they potentially spend enough money at the destination to make they a worthwhile target market. The destination also needs to be confident they can be competitive with other destinations marketing to the same or similar target markets. Another important concern is to ensure the investment needed to offer the product(s)/service(s) to attract the target market and to market/promote to them is worthwhile. Finally, does the destination have sufficient financial and other services to design and promote at necessary levels.

Destinations should also consider internal marketing within the destination. This includes to members of a CVB and/or other businesses within the destination system. Other internal stakeholders should be included such as politicians and community leaders, service providers (e.g., police, fire, EMT/healthcare) who are included in the important infrastructure component of a destination system. External marketing should not only done for visitors, but also intermediaries, suppliers, media, and other potential groups who can help with a destination’s efforts.

Branding and Positioning

Branding is applied quite a bit for products and services. However, in tourism it is more complex to brand a destination. Until relatively recently, CVBs would use the full phrase and/or acronym in the name of the organization (e.g., Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau). These long and often similar names for the organizations could make it difficult to differentiate from other destinations. Many CVBs began developing shorter, more attractive names such as Visit Houston and have various logos and other branding to differentiate themselves from competitors.

A key element of branding, logos “can facilitate many DMO marketing activities to establish brand image and identity, particularly relevant before the actual visitor experience” (Blain et al., 2005). Branding is critical for developing a destination’s image because of increased competition among destinations (Jetter & Chen, 2011). Branding and brand identity help a destination position themselves or establish an image as a travel destination.

All brands have a value generated by the name, icon, or other identification, which represent brand equity. Williams (2021) the brand equity concept is complex. For tourism with so many stakeholders involved it is way more complex than single brands. So, destinations need to figure out what represents the overall  tourism product of their destination. Kim and Lee (2018) found that characteristics such as price and work of mouth influence perceptions of perceived quality, brand awareness and image, which then help a destination’s brand equity.

Marketing Plan

Within a destination’s marketing plan should be both strategic and tactical elements (Morrison et al., 2018). Strategic activities are more related to long-term goals, which might include developing relationships and or partnerships with and between tourism related organizations (e.g., CVB, sports commission, hotel association, etc.). These types of strategies help a destination be cohesive and develop long-term value, which can lead to repeat visitation. The relationships and partnerships can help a destination manage the impacts (i.e., economic, environmental, social) as well. The tactical elements are shorter term, but help the destination with long-term goals. Examples include public relations campaigns, social media efforts, and the foci of convention and meeting sales, which can include booking short-term meetings to fill in the gaps for the destination around larger conventions, trade shows, and other large events that are booked and confirmed much further in advance.

The marketing planning process as explained by Morrison et al. (2018) should address the following questions:

• Use situation and or SWOT analysis (i.e., strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). This analysis(es) should consider who current visitors are, what the destination offers. To reflect how all of the modules for this class interact, a destination might identify an opportunity to develop a new attraction. Also consider environmental scanning, which assesses legal (e.g., travel restrictions), technological (e.g., smartphones), accessibility to and within the destination, economic, and macro-level competition for consumers discretionary income.
• Evaluate the entire tourism system components (i.e., attractions, facilities, infrastructure, transportation, hospitality)
• Assess visitor market, including current target markets, as well as potential target markets.
• Compare and contrast the destination with competitor destinations, which can include but not limited to their image and their marketing plan.
• Through out all this process strengths and weaknesses should be clearly identified. Through weaknesses a destination might identify opportunities or things that can be done better.
• Vision and mission statement. The vision statement is very much future oriented. The mission statement is essentially what the organization does and its’ values.
• Establish marketing goals to get to where the destination would like to be, which might include number of visitors, economic impact, visitor satisfaction, and/or various other possible ways to measure if the destination gets there. Remember, most or all CVBs are at least partially funded by the hotel occupancy tax, so hotel tax might be a goal to set.
• Using the segmentation ideas and criteria (e.g., measurable, accessible, etc.) above, the destination needs to identify target markets.
• Create – if destination does not have a positioning approach.
• Change – if positioning has not resulted in the desired image the approach likely needs to be changed.
• Reinforce – perhaps target markets have forgotten or the image they have of the destination is not as strong as it used to be. In this case finding a way to reinforce or remind visitors is needed.
• Establish objectives that the destination can measure, including within target markets. These should be very specific and result from all the analysis performed throughout the marketing planning process.
• By implementing the marketing plan. Typically have sub-marketing plans for each target market because of various potential differences between them. The differences would include the marketing mix or 4-Ps of marketing (i.e., product, place, price, promotion).
• Monitor along the way so the destination can adapt if needed. Remember the objectives are stepping stones toward the longer term goals. So, if objectives are not being achieved something(s) likely need to be adapted.
• Research and statistics. It depends on what the measurable goals (and objectives) are as to how to measure.

Tourism Promotion

Promotion is essentially communicating or making consumers aware of a product, which can be verbal, written, and/or visual. Walker and Walker (2018) provide sequential steps of how promotion affects the buying process labeling each with one word descriptions:

• Provider creates awareness of the product to consumers (awareness).
• Consumer needs to become aware of how the product will fulfill or affect their needs (knowledge)
• Hopefully this knowledge creates a positive disposition for the product (liking).
• Hopefully the positive disposition lead to the consumer preferring the product over those of the competitors (preference).
• Finally, this should increase the probability of the consumer purchasing the product (probability).

Remember, the tourism product is very different and more complex than other products. One, the product is intangible and two it is derived of many aspects (i.e., attractions, accommodations, built facilities, transportation, infrastructure, hospitality).

Since promotion is a communication tool, there is a sender and a receiver. The sender for destinations as a whole are typically the CVB or DMO and the receivers are potential travelers/consumers. Messages/promotions can be sent through a variety of channels (e.g., billboards, television, newspaper, magazines, internet, email newsletters, etc.). However, not all promotions reach the intended recipient(s). Morrison et al. (2018) explains the following issues related to promotions and reaching the intended recipient(s):

• Barriers – ways consumers can block messages, such as Do Not Call Registry and recording television shows to be able to fast forward through commercials.
• Filters – deleting emails from companies and people not known to the recipient.
• Noise – any distraction keeping the recipient(s) from the promotional message.
• Permission – can be explicitly or implicitly. An example of explicitly is subscribing to a CVB e-newsletter. An example of implicitly is the organization pays for a message, such as on Facebook or a television commercial.

Morrison et al. (2018) also suggest even if the intended recipient(s) receives the promotion, it does not mean they hear, understand, and/or believe the message. It is important to send a message that people can understand and is realistic or believable. Ideally, the sender of messages will be able to receive feedback from the recipient(s). For example, number of recipients who click a link to get more information, number of sales of the product, a follow up survey to find out what the recipient(s) thought of the promotion to name a few.

Promotion Goals and Types

There might be various goals a CVB or DMO has for their promotions. One very obvious goal is to get consumers to purchase or book a trip. Other potential goals would be to entice travelers to upgrade to more expensive packages, stay longer, convert day visitors to overnight tourists, and be repeat visitors. In order to potentially achieve these goals it is important to understand the visitor buying process in order to establish goals and to influence purchasing behaviors. Inherently, consumers need information to consider any purchase, including travel. The general consumer decision-making process according to The Sales Optimization Company. (2009-2022) includes the following stages:

• Awareness – consumer becomes aware they need a product, in the case of leisure tourism it could be a weekend getaway, family vacation, a day trip to a community event or other activity in another destination than where they reside, and many other possibilities.
• Research – the consumer will search for information about possible options. A destination should have their promotional materials in multiple sources to be as visible as possible.
• Consideration – the consumer through the research stage may have numerous possibilities to consider.
• Conversion – the purchase decision is made. This could include deciding not the take the trip, perhaps for various reasons (e.g., do not have enough money for the desired trip).
• Re-purchase – consideration if the trip or product fulfilled their need and would buy again, or take a trip to the same destination again.

Morrison et al. (2018) suggest thee are three goals of promotions. You might also consider these strategies to try to modify consumers’ behaviors. The first is inform, which is relevant for the awareness and research stages of the consumer decision-making process. Next is persuade, which is relevant to the consideration and conversion stages of the consumer decision-making process. Last, remind is a strategy to use as consumers contemplate the potential re-purchase stage of the consumer decision-making process.

Promotional Tools

The ‘place’ component of the 4-Ps of marketing provide what Morrison et al. (2018) refer to as ‘the promotional toolbox’. Many references (e.g., Morrison, et al., 2018; Walker & Walker, 2018) regarding promotional tools highlight and explain the following

• Advertising -primary source for promoting to the mass market for leisure travel (e.g., television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, internet (banner ads).
• Personal selling – primarily used to promote a destination for the meetings and events sector where a small number of people decide on the destination and venue, but the event brings many people.
• Merchandising – travelers may purchase souvenirs when they travel. This is a good promotional tool where the traveler pays for it and is a reminder of the trip later one. For example, someone might use a coffee cup from a trip and be reminded of their experience. If it was a good experience it might influence them to consider visiting again. Another example, someone might wear a shirt or hat they purchase from a destination. A friend or even someone they do not know might ask them about their experience. This is free word-of-mouth promotion that a business or organization benefited financially since the tourist paid for it.
• Digital marketing – websites, social media, e-mail, e-newsletters.
• Sales promotion – a form of promotion that is typically separate from the broader advertising that takes place pretty much all of the time. Sales promotion offers an extra incentive to purchase and is more likely for a limited time.
• Public relations – this promotional tool is important because they deal with the media. Think about when large events have been announced for a city, like the Super Bowl or FIFA World Cup. The local news channels might interview someone from the planning committee. A public relations person would handle arranging that and any inquiry from the media.

Planning Promotions

Morrison et al. (2018) suggest there is a “big P” and “little p(s)”. The big P is the overarching promotional plan for the organization, which is derived of the little ps. Examples of little ps will be the convention sales team’s plan, the leisure sales plan, sporting events, any other categories a destination provides or focuses on. Convention sales might be trying to promote a period of time where they currently do not have conventions or meetings and need to fill in the gap. Sporting events might focus on a specific sport.

Promotions Planning Process

Tourism promotions planning process asks the same questions as marketing planning process. Essentially at this stage, you are implementing the marketing plan:

• Where are we now? – this question is guided by identifying target markets and the promotional tools a destination will use to promote to specific target markets. The target markets should include not only different visitor groups, but also travel trade intermediaries, local community, and media/press.
• Where would we like to be? – this question is used to identify or establish measurable objectives (e.g., number of people to click on the promotion icon, number of overnight stays generated). These objectives are specific to the little ps and include goals of the promotion (i.e., inform, persuade, remind).
• This question also identifies the budget for the specific promotion and potential partnerships to pool resources (e.g., funding, talent and knowledge of people).
• This question also helps determine the message idea, which may require research, focus groups, and other forms if feedback to assess consumers’ interest and refine the promotion.
• The message format needs to be created to ensure it is understandable, distinct from competitors, and believable (i.e., destination really can provide what it is promoting).
• In terms of financial resources, there are various measures that help to determine the promotional reach (e.g., cost per contact, cost per inquiry, geographic – how many people in a designated market area you might reach). (There are various others in the PowerPoint we will discuss in more detail, including tradeoffs with specific promotional tools.)

American Marketing Association. (2022). Definitions of marketing. https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/

Blain, C., Levy, S. E., & Ritchie, J. R. B. (2005). Destination branding: Insights and practices from destination management organizations. Journal of Travel Research, 43 , 328-338.

Brochado, A. (2021). Cluster analysis. In R. P. S. Kaurav, D. Gursoy, & N. Chowdhary (Eds.), An SPSS guide for tourism, hospitality and events researchers (pp. 284-303). Routledge.

Jetter, L. G., & Chen, R. J. C. (2011). Destination branding and images: Perceptions and practices from tourism industry professionals [Article]. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 12 (2), 174-187. http://ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hjh&AN=60294280&site=ehost-live

Kim, H.-K., & Lee, T. L. (2018). Brand equity of a tourist destination. Sustainability, 10 . https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020431

Morrison, A. M. (2010). Hospitality & travel marketing (4th ed.). Delmar.

Morrison, A. M., Lehto, X. Y., & Day, J. G. (2018). The tourism system (8th ed.). Kendall Hunt.

Shoemaker, S. (1989). Segmentation of the senior pleasure travel market. Journal of Travel Research, 27 (3), 14-21.

Shoemaker, S., & Shaw, M. (2008). Marketing essentials in hospitality and tourism: Foundations and practices . Pearson Education, Inc.

Strategic Business Insights. (2009-2023). http://www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/ustypes.shtml

The Sales Optimization Company. (2009-2022). Understanding the consumers decision-making process in sales . https://www.socoselling.com/understanding-the-decision-making-process/

Walker, J. R., & Walker, C. J. (2018). Tourism: Concepts and practices (2nd ed.). Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Williams, A. (2021, December 8). What is brand equity? The Branding Journal . https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2021/02/brand-equity/

GHL 2365 - Tourism Copyright © 2024 by Jason Draper is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Glossary of tourism terms

Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors (which may be either tourists or excursionists; residents or non-residents) and tourism has to do with their activities, some of which involve tourism expenditure.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Activity/activities : In tourism statistics, the term activities represent the actions and behaviors of people in preparation for and during a trip in their capacity as consumers ( IRTS 2008, 1.2 ).

Activity (principal): The principal activity of a producer unit is the activity whose value added exceeds that of any other activity carried out within the same unit ( SNA 2008, 5.8 ).

Activity (productive): The (productive) activity carried out by a statistical unit is the type of production in which it engages. It has to be understood as a process, i.e. the combination of actions that result in a certain set of products. The classification of productive activities is determined by their principal output.

Administrative data : Administrative data is the set of units and data derived from an administrative source. This is a data holding information collected and maintained for the purpose of implementing one or more administrative regulations.

Adventure tourism : Adventure tourism is a type of tourism which usually takes place in destinations with specific geographic features and landscape and tends to be associated with a physical activity, cultural exchange, interaction and engagement with nature. This experience may involve some kind of real or perceived risk and may require significant physical and/or mental effort. Adventure tourism generally includes outdoor activities such as mountaineering, trekking, bungee jumping, rock climbing, rafting, canoeing, kayaking, canyoning, mountain biking, bush walking, scuba diving. Likewise, some indoor adventure tourism activities may also be practiced.

Aggregated data : The result of transforming unit level data into quantitative measures for a set of characteristics of a population.

Aggregation : A process that transforms microdata into aggregate-level information by using an aggregation function such as count, sum average, standard deviation, etc.

Analytical unit : Entity created by statisticians, by splitting or combining observation units with the help of estimations and imputations.

Balance of payments : The balance of payments is a statistical statement that summarizes transactions between residents and non-residents during a period. It consists of the goods and services account, the primary income account, the secondary income account, the capital account, and the financial account ( BPM6, 2.12 ).

Bias : An effect which deprives a statistical result of representativeness by systematically distorting it, as distinct from a random error which may distort on any one occasion but balances out on the average.

Business and professional purpose (of a tourism trip): The business and professional purpose of a tourism trip includes the activities of the self-employed and employees, as long as they do not correspond to an implicit or explicit employer-employee relationship with a resident producer in the country or place visited, those of investors, businessmen, etc. ( IRTS 2008, 3.17.2 ).

Business tourism : Business tourism is a type of tourism activity in which visitors travel for a specific professional and/or business purpose to a place outside their workplace and residence with the aim of attending a meeting, an activity or an event. The key components of business tourism are meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions. The term "meetings industry" within the context of business tourism recognizes the industrial nature of such activities. Business tourism can be combined with any other tourism type during the same trip.

Business visitor : A business visitor is a visitor whose main purpose for a tourism trip corresponds to the business and professional category of purpose ( IRTS 2008, 3.17.2 ).

Central Product Classification : The Central Product Classification (CPC) constitutes a complete product classification covering goods and services. It is intended to serve as an international standard for assembling and tabulating all kinds of data requiring product detail, including industrial production, national accounts, service industries, domestic and foreign commodity trade, international trade in services, balance of payments, consumption and price statistics. Other basic aims are to provide a framework for international comparison and promote harmonization of various types of statistics dealing with goods and services.

Census : A census is the complete enumeration of a population or groups at a point in time with respect to well defined characteristics: for example, Population, Production, Traffic on particular roads.

Coastal, maritime and inland water tourism : Coastal tourism refers to land-based tourism activities such as swimming, surfing, sunbathing and other coastal leisure, recreation and sports activities which take place on the shore of a sea, lake or river. Proximity to the coast is also a condition for services and facilities that support coastal tourism. Maritime tourism refers to sea-based activities such as cruising, yachting, boating and nautical sports and includes their respective land-based services and infrastructure. Inland water tourism refers to tourism activities such as cruising, yachting, boating and nautical sports which take place in aquatic- influenced environments located within land boundaries and include lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, groundwater, springs, cave waters and others traditionally grouped as inland wetlands.

Coherence : Adequacy of statistics to be combined in different ways and for various uses.

Competitiveness of a tourism destination : The competitiveness of a tourism destination is the ability of the destination to use its natural, cultural, human, man-made and capital resources efficiently to develop and deliver quality, innovative, ethical and attractive tourism products and services in order to achieve a sustainable growth within its overall vision and strategic goals, increase the added value of the tourism sector, improve and diversify its market components and optimize its attractiveness and benefits both for visitors and the local community in a sustainable perspective.

Consistency : Logical and numerical coherence.

Country of reference : The country of reference refers to the country for which the measurement is done. ( IRTS 2008, 2.15 ).

Country of residence : The country of residence of a household is determined according to the centre of predominant economic interest of its members. If a person resides (or intends to reside) for more than one year in a given country and has there his/her centre of economic interest (for example, where the predominant amount of time is spent), he/she is considered as a resident of this country.

Country-specific tourism characteristic products and activities : To be determined by each country by applying the criteria of IRTS 2008, 5.10 in their own context; for these products, the activities producing them will be considered as tourism characteristic, and the industries in which the principal activity is tourism-characteristic will be called tourism industries ( IRTS 2008, 5.16 ).

Cultural tourism : Cultural tourism is a type of tourism activity in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the tangible and intangible cultural attractions/products in a tourism destination. These attractions/products relate to a set of distinctive material, intellectual, spiritual and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries and the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.

Data checking : Activity whereby the correctness conditions of the data are verified. It also includes the specification of the type of error or of the condition not met, and the qualification of the data and their division into "error-free data" and "erroneous data".

Data collection : Systematic process of gathering data for official statistics.

Data compilation : Operations performed on data to derive new information according to a given set of rules.

Data confrontation : The process of comparing data that has generally been derived from different surveys or other sources, especially those of different frequencies, in order to assess and possibly improve their coherency, and identify the reasons for any differences.

Data processing : Data processing is the operation performed on data by the organization, institute, agency, etc., responsible for undertaking the collection, tabulation, manipulation and preparation of data and metadata output.

Data reconciliation : The process of adjusting data derived from two different sources to remove, or at least reduce, the impact of differences identified.

Destination (main destination of a trip): The main destination of a tourism trip is defined as the place visited that is central to the decision to take the trip. See also purpose of a tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.31 ).

Destination management / marketing organization (DMO) : A destination management/marketing organization (DMO) is the leading organizational entity which may encompass the various authorities, stakeholders and professionals and facilitates tourism sector partnerships towards a collective destination vision. The governance structures of DMOs vary from a single public authority to a public/ private partnership model with the key role of initiating, coordinating and managing certain activities such as implementation of tourism policies, strategic planning, product development, promotion and marketing and convention bureau activities. The functions of the DMOs may vary from national to regional and local levels depending on the current and potential needs as well as on the decentralization level of public administration. Not every tourism destination has a DMO.

Documentation: Processes and procedures for imputation,  weighting,  confidentiality  and suppression rules, outlier treatment and data capture should be fully documented by the  survey provider.  Such documentation should be made available to at least  the body financing the survey.

Domestic tourism : Domestic tourism comprises the activities of a resident visitor within the country of reference, either as part of a domestic tourism trip or part of an outbound tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.39 ).

Domestic tourism consumption : Domestic tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of a resident visitor within the economy of reference ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Domestic tourism expenditure : Domestic tourism expenditure is the tourism expenditure of a resident visitor within the economy of reference, (IRTS 2008, 4.15(a)).

Domestic tourism trip : A domestic tourism trip is one with a main destination within the country of residence of the visitor (IRTS 2008, 2.32).

Domestic visitor : As a visitor travels within his/her country of residence, he/she is a domestic visitor and his/her activities are part of domestic tourism.

Durable consumer goods : Durable consumer goods are goods that may be used repeatedly or continuously over a period of a year or more, assuming a normal or average rate of physical usage. When acquired by producers, these are considered to be capital goods used for production processes, as is the case of vehicles, computers, etc. When acquired by households, they are considered to be consumer durable goods ( TSA:RMF 2008, 2.39 ). This definition is identical to the definition of SNA 2008, 9.42 : A consumer durable is a goodthat may be used for purposes of consumption repeatedly or continuously over a period of a year or more.

Dwellings : Each household has a principal dwelling (sometimes also designated as main or primary home), usually defined with reference to time spent there, whose location defines the country of residence and place of usual residence of this household and of all its members. All other dwellings (owned or leased by the household) are considered secondary dwellings ( IRTS 2008, 2.26 ).

Ecotourism : Ecotourism is a type of nature-based tourism activity in which the visitor's essential motivation is to observe, learn, discover, experience and appreciate biological and cultural diversity with a responsible attitude to protect the integrity of the ecosystem and enhance the well-being of the local community. Ecotourism increases awareness towards the conservation of biodiversity, natural environment and cultural assets both among locals and the visitors and requires special management processes to minimize the negative impact on the ecosystem.

Economic analysis : Tourism generates directly and indirectly an increase in economic activity in the places visited (and beyond), mainly due to demand for goods and services thatneed to be produced and provided. In the economic analysis of tourism, one may distinguish between tourism's 'economic contribution' which refers to the direct effect of tourism and is measurable by means of the TSA, and tourism's 'economic impact' which is a much broader concept encapsulating the direct, indirect and induced effects of tourism and which must be estimated by applying models. Economic impact studies aim to quantify economic benefits, that is, the net increase in the wealth of residents resulting from tourism, measured in monetary terms, over and above the levels that would prevail in its absence.

Economic territory : The term "economic territory" is a geographical reference and points to the country for which the measurement is done (country of reference) ( IRTS 2008, 2.15 ).

Economically active population : The economically active population or labour force comprises all persons of either sex who furnish the supply of labour for the production of goods and services as defined by the system of national accounts during a specified time-reference period (ILO, Thirteenth ICLS, 6.18).

Economy (of reference): "Economy" (or "economy of reference") is an economic reference defined in the same way as in the balance of payments and in the system of national accounts: it refers to the economic agents that are resident in the country of reference ( IRTS 2008, 2.15 ).

Education tourism : Education tourism covers those types of tourism which have as a primary motivation the tourist's engagement and experience in learning, self-improvement, intellectual growth and skills development. Education Tourism represents a broad range of products and services related to academic studies, skill enhancement holidays, school trips, sports training, career development courses and language courses, among others.

Employees : Employees are all those workers who hold the type of job defined as "paid employment" (ILO, Fifteenth ICLS, pp. 20-22).

Employer-employee relationship : An employer-employee relationship exists when there is an agreement, which may be formal or informal, between an entity and an individual, normally entered into voluntarily by both parties, whereby the individual works for the entity in return for remuneration in cash or in kind ( BPM6, 11.11 ).

Employers : Employers are those workers who, working on their own account with one or more partners, hold the type of job defined as a "self-employment job" and, in this capacity, on a continuous basis (including the reference period) have engaged one or more persons to work for them in their business as "employee(s)" (ILO, Fifteenth ICLS, pp. 20-22).

Employment : Persons in employment are all persons above a specified age who, during a specified brief period, either one week or one day, were in paid employment or self-employment (OECD GST, p. 170).

Employment in tourism industries : Employment in tourism industries may be measured as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in any of their jobs, as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in their main job, or as a count of the jobs in tourism industries ( IRTS 2008, 7.9 ).

Enterprise : An enterprise is an institutional unit engaged in production of goods and/or services. It may be a corporation, a non-profit institution, or an unincorporated enterprise. Corporate enterprises and non-profit institutions are complete institutional units. An unincorporated enterprise, however, refers to an institutional unit —a household or government unit —only in its capacity as a producer of goods and services (OECD BD4, p. 232)

Establishment : An establishment is an enterprise, or part of an enterprise, that is situated in a single location and in which only a single productive activity is carried out or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value added ( SNA 2008, 5.14 ).

Estimation : Estimation is concerned with inference about the numerical value of unknown population values from incomplete data such as a sample. If a single figure is calculated for each unknown parameter the process is called "point estimation". If an interval is calculated within which the parameter is likely, in some sense, to lie, the process is called "interval estimation".

Exports of goods and services : Exports of goods and services consist of sales, barter, or gifts or grants, of goods and services from residents to non-residents (OECD GST, p. 194)

Frame : A list, map or other specification of the units which define a population to be completely enumerated or sampled.

Forms of tourism : There are three basic forms of tourism: domestic tourism, inbound tourism, and outbound tourism. These can be combined in various ways to derive the following additional forms of tourism: internal tourism, national tourism and international tourism.

Gastronomy tourism :  Gastronomy tourism is a type of tourism activity which is characterized by the visitor's experience linked with food and related products and activities while travelling. Along with authentic, traditional, and/or innovative culinary experiences, Gastronomy Tourism may also involve other related activities such as visiting the local producers, participating in food festivals and attending cooking classes. Eno-tourism (wine tourism), as a sub-type of gastronomy tourism, refers to tourism whose purpose is visiting vineyards, wineries, tasting, consuming and/or purchasing wine, often at or near the source.

Goods : Goods are physical, produced objects for which a demand exists, over which ownership rights can be established and whose ownership can be transferred from one institutional unit to another by engaging in transactions on markets ( SNA 2008, p. 623 ).

Gross fixed capital formation : Gross fixed capital formation is defined as the value of institutional units' acquisitions less disposals of fixed assets. Fixed assets are produced assets (such as machinery, equipment, buildings or other structures) that are used repeatedly or continuously in production over several accounting periods (more than one year) ( SNA 2008, 1.52 ).

Gross margin : The gross margin of a provider of reservation services is the difference between the value at which the intermediated service is sold and the value accrued to the provider of reservation services for this intermediated service.

Gross value added : Gross value added is the value of output less the value of intermediate consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, 3.32 ).

Gross value added of tourism industries : Gross value added of tourism industries (GVATI) is the total gross value added of all establishments belonging to tourism industries, regardless of whether all their output is provided to visitors and the degree of specialization of their production process ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.86 ).

Grossing up : Activity aimed at transforming, based on statistical methodology, micro-data from samples into aggregate-level information representative of the target population.

Health tourism : Health tourism covers those types of tourism which have as a primary motivation, the contribution to physical, mental and/or spiritual health through medical and wellness-based activities which increase the capacity of individuals to satisfy their own needs and function better as individuals in their environment and society. Health tourism is the umbrella term for the subtypes wellness tourism and medical tourism.

Imputation : Procedure for entering a value for a specific data item where the response is missing or unusable.

Inbound tourism : Inbound tourism comprises the activities of a non-resident visitor within the country of reference on an inbound tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.39 ).

Inbound tourism consumption : Inbound tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Inbound tourism expenditure : Inbound tourism expenditure is the tourism expenditure of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference ( IRTS 2008, 4.15(b) ).

Innovation in tourism : Innovation in tourism is the introduction of a new or improved component which intends to bring tangible and intangible benefits to tourism stakeholders and the local community, improve the value of the tourism experience and the core competencies of the tourism sector and hence enhance tourism competitiveness and /or sustainability. Innovation in tourism may cover potential areas, such as tourism destinations, tourism products, technology, processes, organizations and business models, skills, architecture, services, tools and/or practices for management, marketing, communication, operation, quality assurance and pricing.

Institutional sector : An aggregation of institutional units on the basis of the type of producer and depending on their principal activity and function, which are considered to be indicative of their economic behaviour.

Institutional unit : The elementary economic decision-making centre characterised by uniformity of behaviour and decision-making autonomy in the exercise of its principal function.

Intermediate consumption : Intermediate consumption consists of the value of the goods and services consumed as inputs by a process of production, excluding fixed assets whose consumption is recorded as consumption of fixed capital ( SNA 2008, 6.213 ).

Internal tourism : Internal tourism comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident and non-resident visitors within the country of reference as part of domestic or international tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.40(a) ).

Internal tourism consumption : Internal tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of both resident and non-resident visitors within the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism consumption and inbound tourism consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Internal tourism expenditure : Internal tourism expenditure comprises all tourism expenditure of visitors, both resident and non-resident, within the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism expenditure and inbound tourism expenditure. It includes acquisition of goods and services imported into the country of reference and sold to visitors. This indicator provides the most comprehensive measurement of tourism expenditure in the economy of reference ( IRTS 2008, 4.20(a) ).

International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities : The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) consists of a coherent and consistent classification structure of economic activities based on a set of internationally agreed concepts, definitions, principles and classification rules. It provides a comprehensive framework within which economic data can be collected and reported in a format that is designed for purposes of economic analysis, decision-taking and policymaking. The classification structure represents a standard format to organize detailed information about the state of an economy according to economic principles and perceptions (ISIC, Rev.4, 1).

International tourism : International tourism comprises inbound tourism and outbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident visitors outside the country of reference, either as part of domestic or outbound tourism trips and the activities of non-resident visitors within the country of reference on inbound tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.40(c) ).

International visitor : An international traveller qualifies as an international visitor with respect to the country of reference if: (a) he/she is on a tourism trip and (b) he/she is a non-resident travelling in the country of reference or a resident travelling outside of it ( IRTS 2008, 2.42 ).

Job : The agreement between an employee and the employer defines a job and each self-employed person has a job ( SNA 2008, 19.30 ).

Measurement error : Error in reading, calculating or recording numerical value.

Medical tourism : Medical tourism is a type of tourism activity which involves the use of evidence-based medical healing resources and services (both invasive and non-invasive). This may include diagnosis, treatment, cure, prevention and rehabilitation.

Meetings industry : To highlight purposes relevant to the meetings industry, if a trip's main purpose is business/professional, it can be further subdivided into "attending meetings, conferences or congresses, trade fairs and exhibitions" and "other business and professional purposes". The term meetings industry is preferred by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and Reed Travel over the acronym MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) which does not recognize the industrial nature of such activities.

Metadata : Data that defines and describes other data and processes.

MICE : See meetings industry.

Microdata : Non-aggregated observations, or measurements of characteristics of individual units.

Mirror statistics : Mirror statistics are used to conduct bilateral comparisons of two basic measures of a trade flow and are a traditional tool for detecting the causes of asymmetries in statistics (OECD GST, p. 335).

Mountain tourism : Mountain tourism is a type of tourism activity which takes place in a defined and limited geographical space such as hills or mountains with distinctive characteristics and attributes that are inherent to a specific landscape, topography, climate, biodiversity (flora and fauna) and local community. It encompasses a broad range of outdoor leisure and sports activities.

National tourism : National tourism comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident visitors within and outside the country of reference, either as part of domestic or outbound tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.40(b) ).

National tourism consumption : National tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of resident visitors, within and outside the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism consumption and outbound tourism consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

National tourism expenditure : National tourism expenditure comprises all tourism expenditure of resident visitors within and outside the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism expenditure and outbound tourism expenditure ( IRTS 2008, 4.20(b) ).

Nationality : The concept of "country of residence" of a traveller is different from that of his/her nationality or citizenship ( IRTS 2008, 2.19 ).

Non-monetary indicators : Data measured in physical or other non-monetary units should not be considered a secondary part of a satellite account. They are essential components, both for the information they provide directly and in order to analyse the monetary data adequately ( SNA 2008, 29.84 ).

Observation unit : entity on which information is received and statistics are compiled.

Outbound tourism : Outbound tourism comprises the activities of a resident visitor outside the country of reference, either as part of an outbound tourism trip or as part of a domestic tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.39(c) ).

Outbound tourism consumption : Outbound tourism consumption is the tourism consumption of a resident visitor outside the economy of reference ( TSA:RMF 2008, figure 2.1 ).

Outbound tourism expenditure : Outbound tourism expenditure is the tourism expenditure of a resident visitor outside the economy of reference ( IRTS 2008, 4.15(c) ).

Output : Output is defined as the goods and services produced by an establishment, a) excluding the value of any goods and services used in an activity for which the establishment does not assume the risk of using the products in production, and b) excluding the value of goods and services consumed by the same establishment except for goods and services used for capital formation (fixed capital or changes in inventories) or own final consumption ( SNA 2008, 6.89 ).

Output (main): The main output of a (productive) activity should be determined by reference to the value added of the goods sold or services rendered (ISIC rev.4, 114).

Pilot survey : The aim of a pilot survey is to test the questionnaire (pertinence of the questions, understanding of questions by those being interviewed, duration of the interview) and to check various potential sources for sampling and non-sampling errors: for instance, the place in which the surveys are carried out and the method used, the identification of any omitted answers and the reason for the omission, problems of communicating in various languages, translation, the mechanics of data collection, the organization of field work, etc.

Place of usual residence : The place of usual residence is the geographical place where the enumerated person usually resides, and is defined by the location of his/her principal dwelling (Principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses of the United Nations, 2.20 to 2.24).

Probability sample : A sample selected by a method based on the theory of probability (random process), that is, by a method involving knowledge of the likelihood of any unit being selected.

Production account : The production account records the activity of producing goods and services as defined within the SNA. Its balancing item, gross value added, is defined as the value of output less the value of intermediate consumption and is a measure of the contribution to GDP made by an individual producer, industry or sector. Gross value added is the source from which the primary incomes of the SNA are generated and is therefore carried forward into the primary distribution of income account. Value added and GDP may also be measured net by deducting consumption of fixed capital, a figure representing the decline in value during the period of the fixed capital used in a production process ( SNA 2008, 1.17 ).

Production : Economic production may be defined as an activity carried out under the control and responsibility of an institutional unit that uses inputs of labour, capital, and goods and services to produce outputs of goods or services ( SNA 2008, 6.24. ).

Purpose of a tourism trip (main): The main purpose of a tourism trip is defined as the purpose in the absence of which the trip would not have taken place ( IRTS 2008, 3.10. ). Classification of tourism trips according to the main purpose refers to nine categories: this typology allows the identification of different subsets of visitors (business visitors, transit visitors, etc.) See also destination of a tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 3.14 ).

Quality of a tourism destination : Quality of a tourism destination is the result of a process which implies the satisfaction of all tourism product and service needs, requirements and expectations of the consumer at an acceptable price, in conformity with mutually accepted contractual conditions and the implicit underlying factors such as safety and security, hygiene, accessibility, communication, infrastructure and public amenities and services. It also involves aspects of ethics, transparency and respect towards the human, natural and cultural environment. Quality, as one of the key drivers of tourism competitiveness, is also a professional tool for organizational, operational and perception purposes for tourism suppliers.

Questionnaire and Questionnaire design : Questionnaire is a group or sequence of questions designed to elicit information on a subject, or sequence of subjects, from a reporting unit or from another producer of official statistics. Questionnaire design is the design (text, order, and conditions for skipping) of the questions used to obtain the data needed for the survey.

Reference period : The period of time or point in time to which the measured observation is intended to refer.

Relevance : The degree to which statistics meet current and potential users' needs.

Reliability : Closeness of the initial estimated value to the subsequent estimated value.

Reporting unit : Unit that supplies the data for a given survey instance, like a questionnaire or interview. Reporting units may, or may not, be the same as the observation unit.

Residents/non-residents : The residents of a country are individuals whose centre of predominant economic interest is located in its economic territory. For a country, the non-residents are individuals whose centre of predominant economic interest is located outside its economic territory.

Response and non-response : Response and non-response to various elements of a survey entail potential errors.

Response error : Response errors may be defined as those arising from the interviewing process. Such errors may be due to a number of circumstances, such as inadequate concepts or questions; inadequate training; interviewer failures; respondent failures.

Rural tourism : Rural tourism is a type of tourism activity in which the visitor's experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle / culture, angling and sightseeing. Rural tourism activities take place in non-urban (rural) areas with the following characteristics:

• Low population density;
• Landscape and land-use dominated by agriculture and forestry; and
• Traditional social structure and lifestyle

Same-day visitor (or excursionist): A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise ( IRTS 2008, 2.13 ).

Sample : A subset of a frame where elements are selected based on a process with a known probability of selection.

Sample survey : A survey which is carried out using a sampling method.

Sampling error : That part of the difference between a population value and an estimate thereof, derived from a random sample, which is due to the fact that only a subset of the population is enumerated.

Satellite accounts : There are two types of satellite accounts, serving two different functions. The first type, sometimes called an internal satellite, takes the full set of accounting rules and conventions of the SNA but focuses on a particular aspect of interest by moving away from the standard classifications and hierarchies. Examples are tourism, coffee production and environmental protection expenditure. The second type, called an external satellite, may add non-economic data or vary some of the accounting conventions or both. It is a particularly suitable way to explore new areas in a research context. An example may be the role of volunteer labour in the economy ( SNA 2008, 29.85 ).

SDMX, Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange : Set of technical standards and content-oriented guidelines, together with an IT architecture and tools, to be used for the efficient exchange and sharing of statistical data and metadata (SDMX).

Seasonal adjustment : Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique to remove the effects of seasonal calendar influences on a series. Seasonal effects usually reflect the influence of the seasons themselves, either directly or through production series related to them, or social conventions. Other types of calendar variation occur as a result of influences such as number of days in the calendar period, the accounting or recording practices adopted or the incidence of moving holidays.

Self-employment job : Self-employment jobs are those jobs where remuneration is directly dependent upon the profits (or the potential of profits) derived from the goods or services produced.

Self-employed with paid employees : Self-employed with paid employees are classified as employers.

Self-employed without employees : Self-employed without employees are classified as own-account workers.

Services : Services are the result of a production activity that changes the conditions of the consuming units, or facilitates the exchange of products or financial assets. They cannot be traded separately from their production. By the time their production is completed, they must have been provided to the consumers ( SNA 2008, 6.17 ).

Social transfers in kind : A special case of transfers in kind is that of social transfers in kind. These consist of goods and services provided by general government and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISHs) that are delivered to individual households. Health and education services are the prime examples. Rather than provide a specified amount of money to be used to purchase medical and educational services, the services are often provided in kind to make sure that the need for the services is met. (Sometimes the recipient purchases the service and is reimbursed by the insurance or assistance scheme. Such a transaction is still treated as being in kind because the recipient is merely acting as the agent of the insurance scheme) (SNA 2008, 3.83).

Sports tourism : Sports tourism is a type of tourism activity which refers to the travel experience of the tourist who either observes as a spectator or actively participates in a sporting event generally involving commercial and non-commercial activities of a competitive nature.

Standard classification : Classifications that follow prescribed rules and are generally recommended and accepted.

Statistical error : The unknown difference between the retained value and the true value.

Statistical indicator : A data element that represents statistical data for a specified time, place, and other characteristics, and is corrected for at least one dimension (usually size) to allow for meaningful comparisons.

Statistical metadata : Data about statistical data.

Statistical unit : Entity about which information is sought and about which statistics are compiled. Statistical units may be identifiable legal or physical entities or statistical constructs.

Survey : An investigation about the characteristics of a given population by means of collecting data from a sample of that population and estimating their characteristics through the systematic use of statistical methodology.

System of National Accounts : The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard set of recommendations on how to compile measures of economic activity in accordance with strict accounting conventions based on economic principles. The recommendations are expressed in terms of a set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules that comprise the internationally agreed standard for measuring indicators of economic performance. The accounting framework of the SNA allows economic data to be compiled and presented in a format that is designed for purposes of economic analysis, decision-taking and policymaking ( SNA 2008, 1.1 ).

Total tourism internal demand : Total tourism internal demand, is the sum of internal tourism consumption, tourism gross fixed capital formation and tourism collective consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.114 ). It does not include outbound tourism consumption.

Tourism : Tourism refers to the activity of visitors ( IRTS 2008, 2.9 ).

Tourism characteristic activities : Tourism characteristic activities are the activities that typically produce tourism characteristic products. As the industrial origin of a product (the ISIC industry that produces it) is not a criterion for the aggregation of products within a similar CPC category, there is no strict one-to-one relationship between products and the industries producing them as their principal outputs ( IRTS 2008, 5.11 ).

Tourism characteristic products : Tourism characteristic products are those that satisfy one or both of the following criteria: a) Tourism expenditure on the product should represent a significant share total tourism expenditure (share-of-expenditure/demand condition); b) Tourism expenditure on the product should represent a significant share of the supply of the product in the economy (share-of-supply condition). This criterion implies that the supply of a tourism characteristic product would cease to exist in meaningful quantity in the absence of visitors ( IRTS 2008, 5.10 ).

Tourism connected products : Their significance within tourism analysis for the economy of reference is recognized although their link to tourism is very limited worldwide. Consequently, lists of such products will be country-specific ( IRTS 2008, 5.12 ).

Tourism consumption : Tourism consumption has the same formal definition as tourism expenditure. Nevertheless, the concept of tourism consumption used in the Tourism Satellite Account goes beyond that of tourism expenditure. Besides the amount paid for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips, which corresponds to monetary transactions (the focus of tourism expenditure), it also includes services associated with vacation accommodation on own account, tourism social transfers in kind and other imputed consumption. These transactions need to be estimated using sources different from information collected directly from the visitors, such as reports on home exchanges, estimations of rents associated with vacation homes, calculations of financial intermediation services indirectly measured (FISIM), etc. ( TSA:RMF 2008, 2.25 ).

Tourism destination : A tourism destination is a physical space with or without administrative and/or analytical boundaries in which a visitor can spend an overnight. It is the cluster (co-location) of products and services, and of activities and experiences along the tourism value chain and a basic unit of analysis of tourism. A destination incorporates various stakeholders and can network to form larger destinations. It is also intangible with its image and identity which may influence its market competitiveness.

Tourism direct gross domestic product : Tourism direct gross domestic product (TDGDP) is the sum of the part of gross value added (at basic prices) generated by all industries in response to internal tourism consumption plus the amount of net taxes on products and imports included within the value of this expenditure at purchasers' prices ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.96 ).

Tourism direct gross value added : Tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA) is the part of gross value added generated by tourism industries and other industries of the economy that directly serve visitors in response to internal tourism consumption ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.88 ).

Tourism expenditure : Tourism expenditure refers to the amount paid for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables, for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips. It includes expenditures by visitors themselves, as well as expenses that are paid for or reimbursed by others ( IRTS 2008, 4.2 ).

Tourism industries : The tourism industries comprise all establishments for which the principal activity is a tourism characteristic activity. Tourism industries (also referred to as tourism activities) are the activities that typically producetourism characteristic products. The term tourism industries is equivalent to tourism characteristic activities and the two terms are sometimes used synonymously in the IRTS 2008, 5.10, 5.11 and figure 5.1 .

Tourism product : A tourism product is a combination of tangible and intangible elements, such as natural, cultural and man-made resources, attractions, facilities, services and activities around a specific center of interest which represents the core of the destination marketing mix and creates an overall visitor experience including emotional aspects for the potential customers. A tourism product is priced and sold through distribution channels and it has a life-cycle.

Tourism ratio : For each variable of supply in the Tourism Satellite Account, the tourism ratiois the ratio between the total value of tourism share and total value of the corresponding variable in the Tourism Satellite Account expressed in percentage form ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.56 ). (See also Tourism share).

Tourism Satellite Account : The Tourism Satellite Account is the second international standard on tourism statistics (Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework 2008 –TSA:RMF 2008) that has been developed in order to present economic data relative to tourism within a framework of internal and external consistency with the rest of the statistical system through its link to the System of National Accounts. It is the basic reconciliation framework of tourism statistics. As a statistical tool for the economic accounting of tourism, the TSA can be seen as a set of 10 summary tables, each with their underlying data and representing a different aspect of the economic data relative to tourism: inbound, domestic tourism and outbound tourism expenditure, internal tourism expenditure, production accounts of tourism industries, the Gross Value Added (GVA) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) attributable to tourism demand, employment, investment, government consumption, and non-monetary indicators.

Tourism Satellite Account aggregates : The compilation of the following aggregates, which represent a set of relevant indicators of the size of tourism in an economy is recommended ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.81 ):

• Internal tourism expenditure;
• Internal tourism consumption;
• Gross value added of tourism industries (GVATI);
• Tourism direct gross value added (TDGVA);
• Tourism direct gross domestic product (TDGDP).

Tourism sector : The tourism sector, as contemplated in the TSA, is the cluster of production units in different industries that provide consumption goods and services demanded by visitors. Such industries are called tourism industries because visitor acquisition represents such a significant share of their supply that, in the absence of visitors, their production of these would cease to exist in meaningful quantity.

Tourism share : Tourism share is the share of the corresponding fraction of internal tourism consumption in each component of supply ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.51 ). For each industry, the tourism share of output (in value), is the sum of the tourism share corresponding to each product component of its output ( TSA:RMF 2008, 4.55 ). (See also Tourism ratio ).

Tourism single-purpose consumer durable goods : Tourism single-purpose consumer durables is a specific category of consumer durable goods that include durable goods that are used exclusively, or almost exclusively, by individuals while on tourism trips ( TSA:RMF 2008 , 2.41 and Annex 5 ).

Tourism trip : Trips taken by visitors are tourism trips ( IRTS 2008, 2.29 ).

Tourist (or overnight visitor): A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise ( IRTS 2008, 2.13 ).

Tourism value chain : The tourism value chain is the sequence of primary and support activities which are strategically fundamental for the performance of the tourism sector. Linked processes such as policy making and integrated planning, product development and packaging, promotion and marketing, distribution and sales and destination operations and services are the key primary activities of the tourism value chain. Support activities involve transport and infrastructure, human resource development, technology and systems development and other complementary goods and services which may not be related to core tourism businesses but have a high impact on the value of tourism.

Travel / traveller : Travel refers to the activity of travellers. A traveller is someone who moves between different geographic locations, for any purpose and any duration ( IRTS 2008, 2.4 ). The visitor is a particular type of traveller and consequently tourism is a subset of travel.

Travel group : A travel group is made up of individuals or travel parties travelling together: examples are people travelling on the same package tour or youngsters attending a summer camp ( IRTS 2008, 3.5 ).

Travel item (in balance of payments): Travel is an item of the goods and services account of the balance of payments: travel credits cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from an economy by non-residents during visits to that economy. Travel debits cover goods and services for own use or to give away acquired from other economies by residents during visits to other economies ( BPM6, 10.86 ).

Travel party : A travel party is defined as visitors travelling together on a trip and whose expenditures are pooled ( IRTS 2008, 3.2 ).

Trip : A trip refers to the travel by a person from the time of departure from his/her usual residence until he/she returns: it thus refers to a round trip. Trips taken by visitors are tourism trips.

Urban/city tourism : Urban/city tourism is a type of tourism activity which takes place in an urban space with its inherent attributes characterized by non-agricultural based economy such as administration, manufacturing, trade and services and by being nodal points of transport. Urban/city destinations offer a broad and heterogeneous range of cultural, architectural, technological, social and natural experiences and products for leisure and business.

Usual environment: The usual environment of an individual, a key concept in tourism, is defined as the geographical area (though not necessarily a contiguous one) within which an individual conducts his/her regular life routines ( IRTS 2008, 2.21 ).

Usual residence : The place of usual residence is the geographical place where the enumerated person usually resides (Principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses of the United Nations, 2.16 to 2.18).

Vacation home : A vacation home (sometimes also designated as a holiday home) is a secondary dwelling that is visited by the members of the household mostly for purposes of recreation, vacation or any other form of leisure ( IRTS 2008, 2.27 ).

Valuables : Valuables are produced goods of considerable value that are not used primarily for purposes of production or consumption but are held as stores of value over time ( SNA 2008, 10.13 ).

Visit : A trip is made up of visits to different places.The term "tourism visit" refers to a stay in a place visited during a tourism trip ( IRTS 2008, 2.7 and 2.33 ).

Visitor : A visitor is a traveller taking a trip to a main destination outside his/her usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited ( IRTS 2008, 2.9 ). A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise ( IRTS 2008, 2.13 ).

Wellness tourism : Wellness tourism is a type of tourism activity which aims to improve and balance all of the main domains of human life including physical, mental, emotional, occupational, intellectual and spiritual. The primary motivation for the wellness tourist is to engage in preventive, proactive, lifestyle-enhancing activities such as fitness, healthy eating, relaxation, pampering and healing treatments.

Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Planning

• First Online: 09 May 2021

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• Richard George 2  

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This chapter examines the tools used in tourism and hospitality marketing planning. It begins with a definition of marketing planning and an explanation of why planning is important to both the tourism marketer and the organisation. The chapter then discusses the differences between a firm’s strategic marketing and its tactical marketing. Further, the chapter examines the stages of the marketing planning process. These stages are analysis, planning, implementation, and monitoring. Within the stages of this process, the various strategic analysis tools, such as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and General Electric Company (GEC) grids are briefly discussed. Next, several techniques for making strategic choices, including Porter’s generic strategies, the price/quality matrix, and the Ansoff matrix are introduced. Finally, the elements necessary to construct a marketing plan are outlined. The chapter’s case study applies the principles of marketing planning to Marine Dynamics Shark Tours in South Africa.

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George, R. (2021). Tourism and Hospitality Marketing Planning. In: Marketing Tourism and Hospitality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64111-5_5

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64111-5_5

Published : 09 May 2021

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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Online ISBN : 978-3-030-64111-5

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