Marketing and Promotion in Tourism

Marketing

Every day of our life we can see examples of travel and tourism marketing around us – adverts on TV, adverts in newspapers and magazines, brochures in travel agencies, internet pages, posters in stations, etc. This is because all tourism businesses need to market their products if they hope to be successful. But marketing is not just advertising; it is about researching and identifying the needs of a specific group of customers, and then creating a product that satisfies them.

Once the company has the right product, it will use different promotional techniques to let its clients know about it. All travel and tourism products need good marketing. The marketing process includes four stages:

1. customers’ needs and wants;

2. create your products and services;

3. promote your products and services;

4. obtain and evaluate feedback.

The marketing process does not end after a product has been sold, however. Customers might not be happy with it, and, of course, people’s tastes change with time. Because of this, it is essential to evaluate how customers feel about a product. It is then possible to improve your product, and in this way continue to meet your customers’ expectations.

Promotion

The idea of promotion is to sell your product. How do we do this? The answer begins with awareness, with making the customer aware that the product exists. It’s also about creating a demand. Another use of promotion is to make customers understand that your product is better than other similar products.

Creating a demand is a question of promotional techniques. Advertising is one of the things we do in promotion, but it’s not the only technique. Apart from advertising – you know, magazines, TV, the media in general – there’s also PR. There’s also what we call direct marketing. The provider – that could be a tour operator with a package holiday, or an airline with a special offer – the provider contacts the customer directly, usually by mailing information and news directly to the customers on their database. A lot of small tour operators use email, but for most big companies, direct marketing is letters through your door. There’s also personal selling. It is a travel agent sitting with a client. Personal selling’s your smile. It’s the human touch.

Tourist attractions and events

Tourist attractions usually belong to one of four categories;

• natural attractions;

• built attractions;

• festivals and events;

• entertainment and leisure.

Natural attractions like the landscapes, mountains, rivers, or coasts are often also protected areas such as regional or national parks. Sometimes the animals, birds, or vegetation will be as important as the landscape itself.

Built attractions include historic sites, monuments, museums, and theme parks, theme parks are purpose-built – the designers created them thinking primarily about tourism. Monuments and historic sites were built for a different purpose, but in time have become tourists attractions.

Festivals and events are like built attractions. Many were not originally aimed at tourists. This is the case with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and with countless religious festivals around the world, which often include a procession through the local streets. A parade is similar to a procession, but without a strong religious element.

Theatres, nightclubs, zoos and shopping centers are examples of entertainment and leisure facilities. Frequently, they are intended for use by the local population, but tourists use them while on holiday, in major tourist resorts like Las Vegas, this situation may be reversed.

In the past, sightseeing meant locating an attraction, taking photos, and going on the next one. Nowadays, tourist authorities work hard to bring attractions to life. As a historic site there may be animators – actors dressed in period costumes that try to help visitors capture the flavour of the past.

The tourist is always looking for new attractions, and the ‘attractions industry’ has to keep on changing.