TOURISM MARKETING AND STRATEGY

Tourism Marketing and Strategy of Saaremaa

Tourism Marketing and Strategy of Saaremaa

Introduction

The planet is Earth in spite of various conflicts, violence and wars has managed to keep its beauty and charm intact. The planet still has various destinations whose breath taking beauty can stun its viewers. However, the unfortunate fact is many of these beautiful and unique landmarks remain unexplored and undiscovered. There are still a number of locations that are shy of attention and appreciation. The infinite sceneries and nature's masterpieces of these locations still awaits visitors and tourists for appreciation and exploring. The basic reason of many of these regions to remain unexplored and unknown could partially be the isolation of their geographical location. Ineffective foreign policies can also contribute towards such isolation. However, in most cases it is the lack of ambition of the governments of various countries to not adapt effective tourism strategies in order to promote the natural beauty, beaches or various other features and activities a country has to offer to its visitors.

Discussion

The most obvious victims of such case scenarios are usually the islands that are relatively isolated from the outer world. One of such unexplored Island is the Saaremaa Island. Full of stunning sceneries and landscapes, the island lacks a great deal in its tourism sector and department as a result of insufficient marketing and promotional strategies and campaigns.

Saaremaa is known to be the largest island, with respect to geographical area, in Estonia. It measures around 2,673 km² approximately. The island accommodates over 39,000 inhabitants approximately. Taking under its radius approximately 15,000 inhabitants, Kuressaare is the proud capital of this extra ordinary Island.

Mission Statement

The mission statement of Saaremaa Island is to improve and boost its tourism with the help of available resources, affective planning and developmental strategies and useful advertisement campaigns.

Current Situation Analysis

Saaremaa's Links with the Outer World

The Virtsu on the mainland of Estonia maintains a direct link to Kuivastu located on Muhu Island. This route can connect any passenger to Saaremaa with help of a ferry. Vainatamm also has a link to Saaremaa though Muhu Island with ferry being the sole source of transportation. This route also provides an ice road journey between the two destinations. Another link to Saaremaa (Triigi) is from Soru, on the Hiiumaa Island using a ferry. Tuule Laevad holds the responsibility of monitoring the traffic of both these routes. A passenger service maintains a link from Abruka Island to Roomassaare. Operated and maintained by Estonian Air, there are regular flights to Tallinn from an airport in Kuressaare.

Effective Solutions and Methodologies

Therefore, it is obvious that besides a few indirect by road routes and an airport with flights scheduled for limited destinations, the sole means of transportation for traveling “to and from” Saaremaa is the ferry. This is a huge obstacle in the promotion of tourism of the Island. The direct access of a handful of countries to the Island acts a hindrance for many of the visitors who would even consider the possibility ...