Marketing is a business function that specifies the product/experience sold to visitors,
the price of that product, and how and what to communicate to customers. A business
cannot function without marketing of some type. Marketing generates sales, awareness
and communications about the tourism experience and destination among consumers
in the marketplace. Marketing is about demonstrating the features and benefits of an
experience, business and/or destination and how it can satisfy the customer's needs.
Given visitors often select a destination first and then the experiences within it, a well-
established mantra in the tourism industry is "Sell your destination first and then your
business". An essential part of tourism business is that it demonstrates key messages
that have a call to action on how, where, when and why consumers should choose an
experience.
Contemporary marketing can be via traditional methods (such as advertising in the
travel section of the printed newspapers), but it is increasingly focused on online via the
Internet (for example, Facebook advertising and banner advertisements on websites).
In addition to advertising, marketing activities also include market research, branding,
publicity, pricing (including setting a price, discounting and value added incentives),
public relations, social media, direct marketing (such as direct email to consumers) and
sales (such as sales booths, consumer and travel trade shows). Figure 12 overviews these
activities.
Sustainable
tourism
enterprise
Visitor experience
design and
deliver
Consumer
marketing
communications
Public
relations and
publicity
Target markets
and
branding
Partnerships
and
networks
Travel trade
(distributing
your offer)
Market research
and
intelligence
88
Figure 12. Tourism enterprise marketing principles
