Marketing Tourism Destinations
Research Problem
Tourism demand evolved rapidly in the 1990s altering conventional wisdom and changing a whole range of factors influencing tourism planning and management. Attempting to interpret tourism phenomena and forecast the future of international activity is similar to reading the crystal ball. Tourism has grown enormously in the last half century and become the world's largest industry. It has also developed a multidimensional and multidisciplinary character making the analysis of both demand and supply a complex task. The globalization experienced alters the competitiveness of destination regions and provokes a whole range of new activities and requirements from the demand side. Increasingly people are becoming more aware of their limited time and are looking for both values for time and value for money (Coleman & Crang 2002). Tourism destinations, enterprises and organizations will need to undertake thorough segmentation in order to ensure that they design suitable tourist products, use proper communication media and charge acceptable prices. Moreover, segmentation is essential for treating seasonality problems, as well as for mitigating tourism impacts at destinations. Tourism providers need to seduce tourists through the development and delivery of offerings and marketing mixes which reflect consumers' feelings at a particular moment and satisfy their entire range of needs and wants. The inconsistency and unpredictability of tourism consumers, which is emerging due to the dynamic nature of modern life and the overexposure of consumers to the media, illustrates that tourism marketing will become much more difficult for the future (Cooper & Wahab 2001).This proposed paper wants to analyze the importance of marketing to tourism and its industry.
Importance of the research
This paper will help in understanding how marketing assist tourism. The proposed paper will determine how marketing is connected to tourism and what marketing does to make the tourism industry a successful one. The proposed paper will guide the leaders in the tourism industry to determine how they can use marketing for their industry.
Literature review
Tourists are increasingly frequent travelers, linguistically and technologically skilled and can function in multicultural and demanding environments overseas. The Internet empowered the new type of tourist to become more knowledgeable and to seek exceptional value for money and time. New consumers are more culturally and environmentally aware and they often would like a greater involvement with the local society. Traditional destinations have been victims of their own success. They grew to attract a large amount of people and inevitably have become overcrowded. The development of facilities and services, which cater for the mass markets, has forced them to lose parts of their character and has reduced their appeal (Eadington & Smith 1992). Operating on low margins also prevented principals from reinvesting and regenerating their products. Hence, mass tourism products are often regarded as responsible for both the aesthetic and environmental degradation of various destinations. Failure to control tourism development and practices has had disastrous impacts on well-known resorts. Thus, traditional tourism products and destinations have become outdated and have lost their ability to attract their intended market segments. Instead, they can attract consumers by reducing their prices and by developing a volume based product. Hence, they jeopardize their resources further and are unable to generate the positive impacts attributed to tourism. Marketing can therefore assist the management of tourism behaviour at the destination. New specialized tourism products are marketed and distributed differently from ordinary offerings. Advertising will primarily be carried out in specialized media, while direct selling and relationship marketing will be utilized for understanding the consumer needs and promoting specialized products. The Internet and technology in general will facilitate one-to-one marketing, as specialized products will be distributed directly to the right market segments. Offering specialized products on-line will not only improve the specialization of the industry, but it will also enable the reduction of the brochure used for the promotion of tourism products, reducing both the printing cost as well as the environmental damage caused from the production and distribution (Beirman 2003).
Methodology
Qualitative method will be used in the study. Qualitative method thrives on understanding data through giving emphasis on determining people’s words and actions. Qualitative method has an orientation that it should gather data that can be acquired through quantitative methods. The tasks of understanding and presenting qualitative research can be very demanding and can be compared to the task of understanding statistics. In qualitative research, the researcher creates a natural setting which he/she can use to understand a phenomenon of interest. Even if the focus is on a smaller case, qualitative research usually unearths a very big amount of information from the respondent.
References
Beirman, D 2003, Restoring tourism destinations in crisis: A
strategic marketing approach, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, N.S.W.
Coleman, S & Crang, M (eds.) 2002, Tourism: Between place and
performance, Berghahn Books, New York.
Cooper, C & Wahab, S 2001, Tourism in the age of globalization,
Routledge, London.
Eadington, WR & Smith, VL (eds.) 1992, Tourism alternatives:
Potentials and problems in the development of tourism,
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Board urges backing of cities; would fund countywide promotion
NAPA— The Napa County Board of Supervisors is backing formation of a Tourism Business Improvement District meant to attract more visitors via an aggressive, countywide marketing campaign that would promote more than just the wineries.
Hotels, restaurants, caterers and wedding planners, among others, all stand to benefit from the TBID, which would assess a 2 percent tax on visitors’ hotel fees, supporters said. The board is encouraging the counties’ cities to join in the effort.
According to Clay Gregory, CEO of the Napa Valley Destination Council, the fee would raise $3.5 million annually and would be distributed as such: three quarters to countywide marketing efforts and the remaining quarter — or 0.05 percent — to the individual cities of Napa County for their own promotions.
Mr. Gregory and others in favor of the TBID said the Wine Definition Ordinance of 1990 should be amended to allow events such as weddings and corporate retreats. In its current form, the WDO establishes a precise definition for marketing in Napa County as “not for profit and mainly for the trade, previous customers and education.”
Mr. Gregory and others are hopeful that definition will be eased, thus clearing the way for the TBID to market the region more aggressively.
Proponents argue that a balance must be struck between the oft-competing interests of the agricultural business and the WDO — put in place initially to prevent Napa from becoming a wine “Disneyland” — and the hospitality industry so that the region can sustain itself amid the sharp economic downturn that has affected tourism throughout the area.
Rex Stults of the Napa Valley Vintners Association, which represents 375 wineries in Napa, said the association is “100 percent supportive” of the TBID. “There needs to be a countywide effort,” he said, noting that Napa’s nearest competitor, Sonoma, has a distinct advantage with tourism because it already has a TBID in place and promotes more than just the wineries themselves.
“This is the rising tide that raises all ships,” he said.
“Sonoma has learned from us with the conjunctive labeling, and Napa is learning from Sonoma” when it comes to broader, countywide strategies, Mr. Stults added. Whereas Sonoma County allocated $1.5 million in 2009 to countywide marketing, Napa contributed $437,000 to the Napa Valley Destination Council.
Gregory said the biggest hurdle now is convincing the various city councils of Napa to support the TBID. American Canyon Mayor Leon Garcia recently voiced support for the TBID, and Mr. Gregory said plans are in place to meet with Napa, St. Helena, Yountville and Calistoga in March. Mr. Gregory and Mr. Stults both stressed that the 2 percent fee imposed on hotels would not be redirected into cities’ general funds, and by law those revenues must go back into the marketing campaigns.
Mr. Gregory hopes to have the TBID implemented in Napa by July 1.
