Tourism Marketing Concepts

Travel Agency Chapter 3 Part 1

• This chapter covers travel intermediaries and agencies marketing.
• The table of contents lists travel intermediaries and agencies marketing.

Travel Intermediaries

• Travel intermediaries are crucial in connecting travelers with services and products.
• They assist in booking processes, providing information and coordinating trip details.
• Common types include travel agents and tour operators.
• Travel agents assist individuals and groups in trip planning and booking. Examples include Expedia.
• Tour operators design and organize packaged tours, often specializing in specific destinations or travel types, such as Andalusia Tours.
• Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) are digital platforms for searching, comparing, and booking travel products and services. Examples include Booking.com and Airbnb, which provide lodging options like vacation rentals.
• Travel Meta Search engines aggregate information from different sources to help travelers compare prices and availability of flights, hotels, etc. Kayak is an example.
• Destination Management Companies (DMCs) are local experts providing destination-specific services like ground transportation, tours, and event planning. Abercrombie & Kent is an example of a luxury DMC.

Agencies Marketing

• The desire for travel is fundamental to human nature, driven by curiosity and adventure.
• Tourism is a complex industry encompassing various activities forming the "tourist product".
• Strategic efforts by tourism organizations focus on improving tourist satisfaction and supporting sustainable growth.
• Modern marketing in the tourism sector is based on the marketing concept, emphasizing designing products/services catering to customer needs, targeting specific customer segments, and aligning marketing strategies with broader business objectives.

Marketing for Tourism Products/Services

• Tourism products include the entire experience, from leaving home to return. Basic raw materials for tourism are natural beauty, climate, history, culture, and people.
• The tourist product is a composite of attractions, transportation, accommodation, and entertainment.

Marketing Mix for Tourism Services

• Characteristics of marketing for services include ownership, perishability, and intangibility.
• Characteristics of marketing for services include inseparability and heterogeneity.

Market Segmentation in Tourism

• Market segmentation is the first step in a firm's total marketing strategy.
• Segments of the market include vacation tourists (easily affected by price changes), business tourists (giving least preference for price), and common interest tourists (visiting relatives, friends, or for pilgrimage).

Marketing Plan

• Developing a comprehensive marketing plan is essential in the tourism industry.
• The plan should include market research, defining clear objectives, identifying the target audience, determining a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), developing various marketing strategies (online and offline), budget allocation, ongoing measurement and evaluation, and consider using a customer relationship management system (CRM).

Sales and Promotion

• Sales promotion has unique features, different from other marketing tools.
• The primary goal is generating immediate increases in sales.
• It primarily targets later stages of the purchasing process, often directed at a specific audience instead of across all media channels.
• It does not rely on media channels.
• Factors influencing the design of tour packages include tour purpose, tourists' budgets, destination choice, tour duration, and seasonal variations.

Advertising

• Advertising is a paid form of mass communication to inform or persuade people about a product or message.
• For the tourism industry, advertising is important to drive economic growth.
• Advertisers must carefully identify their target audience, and use slogans to gain strong impressions.

Publicity

• Publicity is about spreading information and creating awareness about products or services through media channels.
• Unlike marketing, publicity does not explain benefits - it focuses on making a brand visible and building awareness.
• Its purpose is to enhance public image, support sales activities, and improve relationships with the local community.

Personal Selling

• Personal selling, though not always viewed as part of marketing, focuses on direct personal contact with customers.
• It can be highly targeted and flexible, permitting two-way communication.
• It strengthens relationships and helps generate information.

Public Relations (PR)

• PR builds and maintains a positive relationship between an organization and its public.
• Within tourism, PR helps create the desire to travel by showcasing destination or service images favorably.
• PR activities promote relationships between tourism organizations and other entities.
• PR plays a key role in connecting with the audience, sometimes more effectively than other forms of marketing.

Merchandising

• Merchandising includes techniques like displays, free samples, demonstrations, and special offers.
• Effective merchandising considers the customer's needs by presenting displays attractively and efficiently.
• Using themes, good lighting, and avoiding clutter are vital for effective displays.