Tourism Marketing
WHAT IS TOURISM MARKETING? DEFINITION
Tourism Marketing (TMA) is defined as “ the activity of planning, developing, selling, promoting, pricing tourism products and services and stimulating their demand”.
According to Kotler, Bowen and Makens, TMA is a process by which the needs of tourists and the goals of tourism organizations can be balanced.
The rapid development of the tourism sector, the high degree of competition in the tourism market, the constant change in the structure of tourism products, and the growing needs of travelers, assured the urgent need for activating and focusing on TMA to promote and implement tourism services.
WHAT MAKES TOURISM MARKETING DIFFERENT?
How does TMA differ other types of marketing?
TMA differs from other types of marketing in that it concentrates on intangible services (see also:
7 Ps of services marketing) which are characterized by:
- The non-material nature of services means that they cannot be seen and felt;
- Continuity of production and consumption, as they are produced in the process of consumption;
- Qualitative change of services, depending on who and where they are provided;
- Inability to store, since travel services cannot be stored for subsequent sale;
- The overall assessment of the quality of service dependence on each tourist;
- The impact of many external factors on the quality of services (for example, weather, international events, etc.) ;
- Inelastic demand for travel services depending on the season, people's incomes, prices, etc.
OBJECTIVES OF TOURISM MARKETING
What are TMA objectives/goals?
Most researchers involved in the study of TMA, define its objectives as the following:
- The satisfaction of tourists: the main purpose of applying the principles of marketing in the provision of tourism services is customer satisfaction;
- Gaining profits: tourism marketing aims to help a tourism organization make a profit. This is undoubtedly a long-term goal, while it is believed that the development of the market and the creation of a new image of a tourism organization are necessary to achieve profit;
- Creating a clear image: tourism marketing aims to help the tourism organization give a concrete idea of the service and get rid of any bad impressions that tourists may have in the target markets;
- Superiority over competitors: today the competition is more serious and influential than before. tourism marketing practices facilitate the adoption of appropriate strategies so that the goal is achieved by the organization;
- Conducting market research to study the state of the market, the structure of supply and demand of macro and microenvironment factors, as well as analyzing and evaluating the wishes of tourists;
- Developing a marketing strategy;
- Providing high-quality tourist service.
FUNCTIONS OF TOURISM MARKETING
The World Tourism Organization identifies several main functions of TMA:
- Establishing contacts with customers;
- Development of a company, business;
- Analysis and planning - continuous monitoring of the marketing environment, consumer preferences, competitors, identifying groups of potential buyers and choosing target markets;
- Gaining control over a market segment.
References:
Kotler, P., Bowen, J.T., & Makens, J.C. (2009). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. Prentice-Hall.
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