TOURISM MARKETING

Tourism Marketing



Tourism Marketing

Introduction

Travel and tourism have become a global industry and are widely considered to be one of the fastest growing industries, if not the fastest growing industry in the world (WTTC, 2005). It ranks as the largest industry in the world in terms of employment (one out of every 16 employees worldwide) and ranks in the top two or three industries in almost every country on nearly every measure (Mowlana and Smith, 2003). Thus the travel and tourism industry has become a major contributor to the gross national product of many nations, with marketing tourist destinations and its products becoming a widely recognised practice for both public and private sector organisations.

However, the literature provides scant guidance about how public and private travel and tourism organisations develop marketing and distribution strategies to deal with the special characteristics of and changes within long-haul markets. It provides general models, concepts and techniques for strategic marketing but there is no academic analysis of their application to the marketing of a country as a tourist destination. Thus the purpose of this research is to examine how international tourist destinations like Greenwich and New Zealand should be marketed strategically by national travel and tourism authorities, with particular reference to intermediaries and target markets in the UK and Germany.

Marketing management in travel and tourism

Marketing's contribution to travel and tourism has been undervalued by both policy makers and practitioners, leading to a misunderstanding of the nature and value of the marketing discipline for the travel and tourism industry (March, 2004). Several authors have noted the lack of detailed work in relation to strategic issues in travel and tourism marketing and distribution processes which require a more rigorous analysis of contextual factors (e.g. Bagnall, 2006; Chon and Olsen, 2000; Faulkner, 2003a,b). Indeed, there seems to be a need to emphasise a more strategic approach to international travel and tourism, so that, for instance, a competitive advantage can be established in overseas markets (Boyd et al., 2005; Go and Haywood, 2000; Mazanec, 2004; Papadopoulos, 2007, 2009). Similarly, other authors have argued that the marketing concept is based on a “long-term commitment” to the satisfaction of travellers' needs and motives (Haywood, 2000) and for a more strategic approach to marketing instead of relying on operational measures such as marketing communication (Faulkner, 2003b).

The consumer-oriented approach

Consider the first approach to strategy. Within the scope of this consumer-oriented approach, organisations can focus on two core marketing strategies (Day, 2000; Kotler, 2008):

(1) an undifferentiated marketing strategy (full product/market coverage); or

(2) a differentiated marketing strategy (product specialisation, market specialisation, or product/market specialisation).

Undifferentiated strategic marketing focuses on the average expectations of target markets: marketing efforts concentrate on the common interests of the target segments' needs and behaviour rather than their variances. In contrast, differentiated strategic marketing aims to identify the characteristics of diverse consumer groups through the use of marketing instruments directed at specific targets in order to create and implement a marketing approach and program that suits particular segments' needs and expectations (Kotler ...