DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW

DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW DESTINATION MARKETING SESSION1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11| 12 | 13 | 14

SESSION 2 PREVIEW DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW What is a destination? What does it mean to “market” a destination? What does destination competitiveness involve? DESTINATION MARKETING SESSION 1|2| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

SESSION 2 PREVIEW DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW What is a destination? DESTINATION MARKETING SESSION 1|2| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

What is a destination ? Places that have some form of actual or perceived boundary, such as the physical boundary of an island, political boundaries, or even market-created boundaries • A single entity – one product • Many products – comprising of every kind of tourism organisation and operation • Socio-cultural entity – its history, people, traditions, way of life • A concept – in the minds of tourists and potential visitors

Destination as a Concept • A destination may not be a single place, but a conceptual entity which incorporates several destinations and locations e.g. Route 66 in USA e.g. Finnish Lake Region

Characteristics of Destinations

Prime attractor? • Built environment? • Supporting supply services? • Socio-cultural dimensions?

Classifications of Destinations

In-Class Exercise: Characteristics of a destination Step 1: Work with your Special Interest Tourism (SIT) team Step 2: For your assigned destination classification, search (online) for an example that has a visitor guide Step 3: Identify each of the four characteristics of your destination based on what you see in the visitor guide Step 4: Post your findings to MyCourses, including a link to the visitor guide. Step 5: When the prof calls time, share your findings with the rest of the class. • DESTINATION CHARACTERISTICS • Prime attractors • Built environment • Supporting supply services • Socio-cultural dimensions

In-Class Exercise: Example Destination Classification: Day trip destination Destination & Link: Ft. Worth Stockyards http://www.fortworthstockyards.org/ • Destination Characteristics • Prime attractors • Cattle drive • Built environment • Livestock corrals • Supporting supply services • Cowboy bar (Billy Bob’s) • Walking tours • Restaurants & Shopping • Socio-cultural dimensions • Cowboys • Country music • The “Old West”

SESSION 2 PREVIEW DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW What is a destination? What does it mean to “market” a destination? DESTINATION MARKETING SESSION 1|2| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Destination Marketing Goals Growing customer value and profitability by… Ensuring satisfactory visitor experiences (ideally expectations will be exceeded) Optimizing the profitability objectives of the business Optimizing the economic, social and environmental impacts by ensuring a responsible and sustainable balance between economic, socio-cultural and environmental interests

Destination Marketing Strategies • Positioning and differentiating the destination and image management are key factors • Knowledge and understanding of the needs of our target markets and the new tourist • Providing “through-the-chain” positive visitor experiences • Continuously adapting to the dynamically changing macro, competitive and market environments • Product innovation and management • Professionalism in service levelsand overall HR management • Creating meaningful public-private sector partnerships • Capitalizing on opportunities provided by new technologies • Balancingthe strategic goals of the stakeholders and optimizing the economic, social and impacts on the destination

Important Terms in Destination Marketing Tourism • the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one year for leisure, business, or other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited Tourism Destination • “A local tourism destination is a physical space in which a tourist spends at least one overnight. It includes tourism products such as support services and attractions and tourist resources within one day’s return travel time. • It has physical and administrative boundaries defining its management, and images and perceptions defining its market competitiveness. Local destinations incorporate various stakeholders often including a host community, and can nest and network to form larger destinations.” • WTO Think –Tank 2-4 December 2002 Madrid Tourism market • a market that reflects the demands of consumers for a wide range of travel and hospitality products and services

Important Terms in Destination Marketing Tourism Value Chain

(Destination) Marketing Concept? ‘Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfyingcustomer requirements profitably.’ (Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK)

The Traditional Marketing Mix • List price • Discounts • Commissions • Surcharges • Extras • Design • Quality • Range • Brand name • Features • Distribution channels • Methods of distribution • Coverage • Location • Advertising • Sales promotion • Salesmanship • Publicity

7P’s of Destination / Tourism / Services Marketing

The tourism product differs from other products due to the wide range it covers, including such areas as accommodations, transportation, food, recreation and attractions. Often the product includes intangibles such as history, culture and natural beauty. Many times the hospitality or tourism product is viewed as more of a service in the customer’s eyes. The closer we can determine how to satisfy the customer’s needs, the more successful the destination will be. Product

Destination Marketing Is Services Marketing • Tourism is a service. • Services differ from physical products, • This needs to be taken into account when marketing them • Unique characteristics of services • Intangibility • Heterogeneity • Perishability • Inseparability

Intangibility • Not the physical portion (tangible) of the product • Performance or experience rendered by the service provider to the service consumer • Most tourism products are a mixture of tangible and intangible

Inseparability • Services are usually produced and consumed at the same time • Think of a restaurant meal • This can make it difficult to separate the provider of the service from the service itself. • Ownership - Service customers usually only have access to or use a facility where a service is performed • Use of a hotel room for a holiday – you occupy the space only and have temporary use of the facilities

Perishability • Services cannot be saved or stored as they expire during their simultaneous production and consumption • No such thing as a “services inventory”

Heterogeneity • Standardisation • Difficult to achieve in a people-based service industry • Quality control plays an important part • What forms of standardization can you think of? • Zero defects • Zero defections

Place The place where the customer buys the tourism product can vary greatly. Travel agents, tour operators and tour wholesalers are a few examples of the distribution points for tourism products.

Price • This refers to the amount customers pay for the product or service provided. A quality tourism experience at a fair price is what the customer is looking for in most cases. • Pricing should be based upon clear-cut goals and objectives: survival, profit maximization, market share, competition or positioning.

Promotion • A range of activities can be used to convince customers to buy the product, including information kits, web sites, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, travel shows, and public relation • Utilize tourist information centers, such as welcome centers. • Participation with state, regional and local tourism offices and associations.

People • The people who sell and service tourism product are an extremely important part of tourism marketing and can make or break a tourism business. • Because much of the tourism industry is based upon word of mouth advertising particularly about the service received- what your customers say after they depart can thrust your business forward or send it into a downward spiral.

Process • Process denotes the way in which a particular action is carried out. Tourism marketing should take care of all the procedures, schedules, mechanisms, activities and routines which are practiced when the tour is on. The processes followed form a part of the service delivery system and the customers often do not differentiate between the processes and the product. • For example, if a tourist is made to wait for an undue length of time to get information from a tourism office, she tends to remain dissatisfied even if she gets all the required information at the end of delay.

Physical Evidence Physical Evidence is that which can be easily associated with the product by the customer. As the tourism product is highly intangible, the place, the decor, the people, and everything else in the tourism office maybe related to the experience in store. For example, when tourists visit a historic place for the first time, they carry home not only the memories of beautiful structure, but they also remember all other factors like transport facilities available, the surrounding markets, the people's behavior, etc. as one whole experience.

Conclusion: How destination marketing differs • Tourism is more supply-led than other services All ready have the product then research which market might be interested in purchasing it. • Mikkeli the destination is already here for whomever wants to visit. • Destination product involves the co-operation of multiple suppliers. e.g. Package holiday • Tourism is a complex, extended product experience with no predictable critical evaluation point. Pre trip anticipation and post trip reflection While trips to the same destination may be the same different variables can make the trip different – and hard to evaluate against • Tourism is a high-involvement, high-risk product to its consumers • Involves committing large sums of money to something reasonably unknown • Tourism is a product partly constituted by the dreams and fantasies of its customers. • Unlike banking and car repair, tourism is not consumed for rational, functional purposes. • Tourism is a fragile industry susceptible to external forces beyond the control of its suppliers • Tourism organisations sometimes have to make rapid responses to crises in the form of product redesign, price reductions or promotional damage limitation.

Destination Competitiveness • The quest for competitive advantage: to grow the tourism pie and attract the biggest slice • Rationale: establishing a position of sustainable advantage over rival destinations • Goals: Grow, outwit, outsmart, survive… • Strategy in the absence of competitive thinking = competing in a race without an achievement in mind • Never stagnant: mapping the direction in an ever-changing tourism landscape • Often messy: requires flexibility, team effort, alliances, success dependent upon all stakeholders • Solving the customer’s problem better than the next best alternative available

Destination Competitiveness Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report – World Economic Forum • Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011 https://youtu.be/_q6iGhA4mbA • Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 • http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TTCR_2017_web_0401.pdf

Destination Competitiveness • Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report - Top 10 for 2017

Questions

DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW DESTINATION MARKETING SESSION1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11| 12 | 13 | 14

DESTINATIONS & MARKETING OVERVIEW