Tourism Marketing

TOURISM MARKETING Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its shareholders. According to Kotler (2003), marketing is not only a short-term sales activity, but also a long-term one. long-term business that requires investment. This is a process that must begin before the company or product even enters the market and must extend long after the sale. According to Peter Drucker (1973), known as the father of modern management, marketing must make sales redundant. To make it easier to understand, McCarthy (1960) created the '4P' approach to marketing, which acts as its foundation: 1. Products Goods that will be targeted for marketing activities. These goods will be placed and promoted in certain markets at certain prices. 2. Place Determine the location where marketing activities are developed and the distribution channels through which the product will reach customers. There may be a primary location and a secondary location. 3. Price Determining the selling price of an item to be sold on the market. 4. Promotion Actions designed to encourage the spread and commercialization of products now available on the market. Lovelock and Wirtz (2006) found that the 4Ps of marketing are inadequate for the service sector where tourism and recreation are located. That's because the most frequently marketed products aimed at in tourism and recreation are services (e.g. airline tickets, hotel nights, performing arts), and not necessarily goods. Thus they suggest expanding the list to the 8Ps of service management: 1. Product or Service (Product/service) Physical characteristics, packaging and product labels to support or complement services. This doesn't just refer to goods; The service is part of the item because it becomes a product when consumed. 2. Place and time (moment) Location of delivery services and when they will occur, including business hours. 3. Process (Process) Organizing the sequence of activities required for service delivery. 4. Productivity and quality (Productivity and quality) Establishment of adequate levels to be offered in service delivery. 5. People (People) Management of relationships between everyone involved in providing services: customers, employees, etc. 6. Promotion and Education (Promotion and education) Although more difficult to understand, services must be promoted and customers taught how best to use what they receive, etc. 7. Physical environment (Physical environment) All physical evidence is related to the delivery of the service and its perception by the customer, from the visual aspects of the facade, windows and uniforms, to the decoration, fleet and space to move, circulate and so on, which is made more important by the intangibility of the service itself. 8. Price and other service costs (Price and other service costs) The amount to be received depends on the type of service provided. credit and financing conditions, and the value perceived by customers. Other authors no longer accept the idea of 4Ps (Wymer et al., 2006; Morrison, 2013) and have proposals to expand this number to 20Ps (Pearson, 2014). In tourism, the topic has become so important that 30% of the articles published between 2008 and 2012 in the three most important English language journals in the region (Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management) were about tourism marketing (Dolnicar and Ring , 2014). One subtopic that has attracted greater interest from researchers and business owners in the tourism sector is the use of information technology to source tourism products (Filieri and Mcleay, 2014; Wang et al., 2014). Tourism marketing opens an important communication channel between companies and those interested in them, whether they are part of the internal or external audience. So, starting with a marketing philosophy and the marketing decisions adopted, tourism companies can define their product, the location where they will operate, their specific audience and the price of their product, among other aspects. Buhalis (2000) states that destination marketing supports the implementation of tourism policies which must be coordinated with regional strategic development plans. For Buhalis, a tourist destination is a mix of tourist services and experiences and as such must be managed through marketing strategies. The concepts of marketing and markets are closely related because the exchanges that characterize marketing occur in markets: this is where supply and demand meet. Although the market concept refers to a geographic location where vendors display their products and consumers analyze, bargain, and decide whether to purchase, more complex and detailed analyzes based on economic concepts lead to the understanding that a tourist market does not exist in a specific location. It can be defined as the relationship between tourism demand and supply, namely between customers (tourists) and tourism goods and services. Since it is impossible to reach the entire audience willing to consume tourism products, tourism companies use market segmentation to reach potential consumers in a more reliable and effective way. Segmentation is a marketing strategy that divides consumers based on various criteria to optimize available resources, namely between demand and supply. Because, it will be very difficult to reach all consumers who have an interest in different tourism products. Therefore, with segmentation, tourism managers can reach all consumers in a better and more effective way. Segmentation according to Seaton and Bennett (1996), Hudson (2000), Wedel and Kamakura (2000), Chen (2003), World Tourism Organization and European Travel Commission (2007), and Panosso Netto and Ansarah (2015), tourism is very possible for build many tourism segments like the example table below. This table briefly explains some of the segments provided. Segments Bases for segmentation Children, youths, middle-aged, elderly, the oldest old Age Social, popular, middle class, luxury Economics Walking, cycling, air, road, rail, ocean, river/lake Means of transport Short term, medium term, long term Length of stay Local, regional, national, continental, intercontinental Distance from the consumer market Single, couples, families, groups Type of group Outbond, inbond Direction of tourism flow Agritourism, ecotourism, beach, mountain, snow, heritage, Geographic condition of the urban tourism destination Scientific, congressional, cultural, student, exchange, Cultural aspect educational, linguistic Community, large cities, small cities Degree of urbanization of the tourism destination Backpacker, wine tourism, commercial, adventure, winter Motivation for travel sports, events, virtual, romantic Segmentation can be used to better meet consumer demand. Therefore, by identifying each type of tourist's special characteristics, as well as their interests and needs, they can adapt and offer their products to consumers. Then, tourism marketing is very important to build relationships between consumers, destination managers and service providers. Apart from that, it will make tourists make repeat visits and will spread their good experiences through word of mouth. In 2019, the tourism board of the state of Queensland in Australia held a campaign regarding tourism marketing, where this campaign was successful and attracted attention from various media around the world because of Queensland's natural beauty. This campaign is entitled "Best Job in The World" with the aim of promoting and publicizing Queensland through the content created. The job given is as administrator of an island for a period of six months with a salary of $150,000 and provided luxury home accommodation. This campaign involves many partners to promote Australia-wide.