Chapter 1

Introduction to tourism marketing

Tourism in the experience
economy
• From service economy to experience
economy
• Tourism experience – core value of
service delivery in tourism
• Tourism system: demand, travel,
destination, marketing
• Destination mix: FAITH
Concepts related to customer
experience

• Customer expectation
• Customer perception
• Customer satisfaction
• Customer value
The evolution of marketing
concepts
• Production orientation
• Sales orientation
• Marketing orientation
• Personal marketing orientation
 Production orientation

• Dominated business operation

approaches until mid 1950s
• Concerned with product supply issues
• Supply shortage comparing to mass
demand
• Common belief: supply creates its own
demand
 Sales orientation

• Mid 1950s to early 1970s

• More business efforts on sales
promotion strategies and
advertisements
• Still lack of attention to customers’
needs
 Marketing orientation

• Starting from early 1970s

• Competitive business environment
• Unprecedented attention to
consumer needs and wants
• Customer centred and market-
driven business practices
Personal marketing orientation

• Propelled by technology
• Tailor marketing programs to the
individual
• Mass customisation
• Customer relationship management
(CRM)
• Database marketing
 What is marketing?

• Definitions of marketing
• Marketing mix
 Definitions of marketing (1)

• Philip Kotler (2003): a societal

process by which individuals and
groups obtain what they need and
want through creating, offering, and
freely exchanging products and
services of value with others
 Definitions of marketing (2)

• American Marketing Association

(AMA) (1995): the process of
planning and executing the
conception, pricing, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods, and
services to create exchanges that
satisfy individual and organisational
goals.
Definitions of marketing (3)

• AMA (2004): an organizational

function and a set of processes for
creating, communicating and
delivering value to customers and for
managing customer relationships in
ways that benefit the organization
and its stakeholders.
 Marketing mix

• Four Ps: Product, price, place, and

promotion
• Four Cs: customer solution, customer
cost, convenience, and
communication
• Seven Ps: Product, price, place,
promotion, people, process, and
physical evidence
Characteristics of tourism
services
• Characteristics of services
• Special features of travel and
tourism
 Characteristics of services

• Intangibility
• Inseparability
• Variability
• Perishability
Special features of travel and
tourism
• Seasonality
• Unclear ownership
• Interdependence
• Sensitivity to crises
• Fixed capacity
• Shorter exposure to services
• More emotional buying appeals
 Special features of travel and
tourism
• Greater emphasis on stature and
imagery
• More variety and types of distribution
channels
• Easier copying of services
• Difficulty of differentiating tourism,
travel and hospitality services
 The importance of tourism
marketing
• World economic development
• Consumer movement patterns
• Limited destination information before
trip
• Multiple service segments in tourism
• Marketing – everybody’s
responsibility
 Destination marketing
organisations
• National tourism organisations
(NTOs)/ national tourism
administrations NTAs)
• International tourism organisations
• Inter- and intra-organisational
collaboration
 NTOs/NTAs

• Responsible for many aspects of a

nation’s tourism development
• Destination marketing as a major or
sole function
• Branch offices in major source
markets
 International tourism
organisations
• World Tourism Organisation
(UNWTO)
• World Travel and Tourism Council
(WTTC)
• Pacific Asia Travel Association
(PATA)
 Inter- and intra-
organisational collaboration

• International marketing collaboration:

E.g., UNWTO Silk Road Project
• Inter-organisational collaborations
within a destination
• Departmental collaboration and
cooperation within a tourism company
 Summary

• Nature of tourism in the experience

economy
• Customer experience related concepts
• Evolution of marketing concepts
• Definitions of marketing
• Characteristics of tourism services
• Importance of tourism marketing
• Destination marketing organisations