Ambo University Marketing

Management

Chapter One: Introduction to hospitality and tourism marketing

Introduction
Marketing became a buzzword in the world of business when the competition to gain market
share began among businesses. Marketing has evolved from simple trade to production
orientation, to sales orientation. When businesses realized that production was increasing,
they began competing for recognition within the market. The customer has become king and
building relationships with them has become the heart of any successful business enterprise.
With the rise of relationship marketing and social media marketing, the rules of the game
have changed.

Tourism is one of the leading industries of the future. Next to information technology and
telecommunications, tourism contributes largely to the generation of jobs and the
strengthening of economies. Much attention has been given to how tourism can continually
grow. Just like any other business, marketing plays an integral role in its continuing growth.

Tourism has become one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries. Many new
destinations emerging apart from traditional favorites – Europe and North America. These
new destinations are hopeful for the economic gains that tourism can bring, which include an
increase in trade, infrastructure, and job generation. In figures, tourism contributes 10.3% to
the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), provides one out of 10 jobs and generates exports
amounting to $1.7 trillion (WTTC 2019). Despite a few setbacks, tourism has displayed
uninterrupted growth from 25 million international tourists in 1950 to 1.4 billion in 2018. It
was projected that a total of 1.8 billion visitors will be travelling internationally by 2030
(UNWTO 2019). The success of any business in the travel and hospitality industry is highly
dependent on its marketing efforts.

Activity 1.1
How do you define and understand the term tourism and hospitality marketing?

1.1 Marketing in hospitality and tourism

Marketing must be understood in the sense of satisfying customer needs. If the marketer
understands customer needs; develops products that provide superior customer value; and
prices, distributes, and promotes them effectively, these products will sell easily. Here is the
definition of marketing: Marketing is the process by which companies create value for
customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from the
customers in return.

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Marketing also has been defined as ‘the process of planning and executing the conception,
pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that
satisfy individual (customer) and organizational objectives. The marketing concept is a
business philosophy that defines marketing as a process intended to find, satisfy, and retain
customers while the business makes a profit. Central to both these definitions is the role of
the customer and the customer’s relationship to the product, whether that product is goods, a
service, or an idea.

The tourism and hospitality sector, like other service sectors, involves a combination of
tangible and intangible products. A hotel is a mixture of goods (beds, food, telephone, and
communication systems) that are linked with a range of services (front desk, housekeeping,
room service, finance, and accounting). A tourist attraction such as a national park is a
combination of facilities (hotels, shops, visitor centres) situated within a physical attraction
(the mountains, forests, or rivers, for example), offering a range of services (guided tours,
interpretation, education, etc.). This whole package of tangible and intangible products is
perceived by the tourist as an experience, and represents the core of the tourism product.

In the hotel industry, marketing and sales are often thought to be the same, and no wonder:
The sales department is one of the most visible in the hotel. Sales managers provide
prospective clients with tours and entertain them in the hotel’s food and beverage outlets.
Thus, the sales function is highly visible, whereas most of the non-promotional areas of the
marketing function take place behind closed doors.

Tourism Marketing

According to Kotler, “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which consumers

obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging product services and values
with other.” He has emphasized more on wants, needs, satisfaction, demand, and marketers.
He has highlights more on wants, needs, satisfaction, demand, and
marketers.

Mathieson and Wall (1982) define tourism as follows:

"The temporary movement of people to destinations outside their usual places of work and
residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the facilities
created to cater to their needs."

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World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) at Ottawa Seminar, has defined tourism marketing
as, “a management philosophy which, in the light of tourist demand, makes it possible
through research, forecasting and selection of tourism products/services from suppliers, on
the line with organization’s purpose and tourist satisfaction.”

From the above definitions it is clear that:

 Tourism marketing is a thought-provoking process.
 Identification and selection of the target market.
 Positioning and product lifecycle is important.
 Future tourism marketing strategies.
 Innovative/proactive marketing.

Tourism marketing is the collective name given to the various marketing strategies used by
businesses within the tourism industry. This includes, for example, hotels and other forms of
accommodation, along with airlines, car rental services, restaurants, entertainment venues,
travel agents and tour operators.

Travel and tourism marketing is the systematic and coordinated execution of business
policies by the both private or public and public sector tourism organizations operating at the
local, regional, national, or international level to achieve the optimal satisfaction of the needs
of tourist groups, and to achieve an appropriate return. Marketing knowledge and skill are
more
necessary for a travel agency’s long-term survival and growth.

The two main industries that comprise the activities we call tourism are the hospitality and
travel industries. The travel industry, as we define it, includes those organizations outside of
the hospitality industry that provide travel services. These organizations include travel
agencies, providers of land transportation for tourists, tour operators, resort retailing,
entertainment activities for tourists, and convention centres. Hospitality and travel industries
are linked, and thus, making a clear demarcation between the two is difficult. The distinction
between the two industries is not as important as realizing both industries are highly
dependent on each other. Meeting planners choose destinations based on the cost of getting to
the destination, the value of the hotels, the quality of restaurants, and evening activities for
their attendees.

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The tourism companies have recognized the significance of key factors such as needs, wants,
and satisfaction in the planning and designing of the tourism product. In the tourism industry,
every tourist wants to be treated as a special client and any organization catering to this
attitude of the tourist will naturally be head of other competitions.
Tourism involves the activities of people travelling and staying in a place away from their
home environment for leisure, business or other purposes.
Who are the tourists?
Persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for more than 24
hours but not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.
Factors that motivate people to travel:
The most common reasons for the people to travel away from home are:
 To spend holidays leisurely
 To visit friends and relatives
 To attend business and professional engagements
 To get health treatment
 To undertake religious pilgrimages
 Any other personal motives.
Difference between just travelling and tourism:
Travelling is going from the place of residence or work to another distant or a neighboring
place by any means of transport. Routine commutation can be termed as travelling.
Tourism is travelling with an objective. All tourism necessarily include travel but all travel
does not necessarily include tourism. We can say, travelling is a subset of tourism. One
similarity between travel and tourism is, they both are temporary movements.
Hospitality Marketing
Hospitality marketing is a practical technique that is focused on bringing guests through the
doors of hospitality businesses. This might include hotels, restaurants, pubs, clubs, theme
parks, convention centers and more.

Hospitality marketing is crucial for businesses in this competitive industry, serving as the
bridge between a hotel, restaurant, or travel service and its potential guests. At its core,
effective marketing helps attract new customers by showing what makes a business unique
whether it's exceptional service, a stunning location, or exclusive offerings. Through targeted
campaigns or other marketing strategies, businesses can draw attention to their brand, making
them top picks when travellers seek accommodations or dining options.

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Effective hospitality marketing relies on a few simple but powerful strategies. Building a
strong online presence, using social media and influencers can help more people find you.
Offering unique guest experiences, creating valuable content, and using data to understand
customer preferences help keep guests engaged. When combined, these strategies can drive
growth and set your business up for success.

Types of tourism:

i. Mass Tourism It involves tourism of organized large groups of people to special tourist
locations. It is a traditional way where the daily program is fixed by the tour organizer. It
is a social activity. The tourists generally desire for souvenirs and site-seeing. For
example, religious places, theme parks, boat cruises, resort towns.
ii. Alternative Tourism It includes individually organized tours to find first-hand
information about a place, local culture, and environment. For example, biking tour
planned by an individual while accommodation is catered for on the go.
iii. Business: It is touring for conducting business transactions, attending business meetings,
workshops, or conferences. The objective of business tourism is mainly professional.
iv. Pleasure: It includes tourism for improving one’s physical or spiritual well-being. For
example, vacation at a Yoga or rehabilitation centre.
v. Nature: It is tourism at places famous for pristine nature and serene beauty. The main
objective is to experience and enjoy nature such as farms and wildlife. Ecotourism is a
part of nature tourism.
vi. Cultural: This type of tourism has an objective of understanding the local history of the
place, foods, local productions, and local culture.
vii. Social: It includes tours conducted among relatives, friends, and others.
viii. Recreational Tourism: It includes travelling to escape from routine life. This is often
done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure. For example, Camping or beach visit.
ix. Active Tourism: It is conducted with a clear objective such as climbing a mountain,
touring around the world, or learning local culinary arts or languages.
x. Sports Tourism: It is tourism for attending some sports event such as World Cup
Cricket Match, FIFA, or Olympics.

Few terms that are frequently used in the tourism industries:

• Attraction: It is a physical or cultural feature of a place that can satisfy tourists’ leisure-
based need.

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• Cultural Heritage: It is an expression of the manner of living

developed by a community and passed on from one generation to the
next. It includes customs, practices, places, objects, artistic
expressions and values.
• Dark Tourism: (Black or Grief tourism) It is the tourism involving
travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy.
• Destination: It is a place the tourist visits and stays there for at least
24 hours. The destination supports staying facilities, attractions, and
tourist resources.
• Ecotourism: It involves maintenance and enhancement of natural
systems such as water, air, woods and forests, and flora and fauna
through tourism.
• Excursionist: Persons traveling for pleasure in a period less than 24
hours
• Foreign Tourist: Any person visiting a country, other than that in
which he/she usually resides, for a period of at least 24 hours.
• Hiking: A long and vigorous walk on the trail.
• Intermediaries: They are the intermediate links between the form of
goods and services tourists do not require and the form of goods and
services the tourists’ demand.
• Itinerary: A documented plan of the tour.
• Leisure: The free time when obligations are at a minimum and one
can relax. • Recreation: The activities carried out during leisure time.
• Site: It is a particular place bound by physical or cultural
characteristics
• Skiing: It is a recreational activity and competitive winter sport in
which the participant uses skis to glide on snow.
• Snorkelling: It is the practice of swimming on or through a water
body while being equipped with a diving mask composed of a shaped
tube called a snorkel.
• Terrain: It is a stretch of land, especially with regard to its physical
features

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• Travel: The act of moving outside one's home community for business
or pleasure but not for commuting or traveling to or from usual places.

Types of Tourists

There are different types of tourists:

a. Intrinsic Tourists: They are into holidaying for the sake of enjoyment.
b. Extrinsic Tourists: They have reward-oriented motivation. These tourists are
susceptible to the activities where performance is evaluated.
c. Adventurers: They give very little importance to relaxation. They are always up to
exploring places and taking challenges. Mainly youths and singles from both genders
carrying zest of life largely contribute to this type of tourism.
d. Budget Travelers: They are economy-oriented tourists. Their touring decisions about
places, travelling mode, and other related factors are largely dependent on their
financial status.
e. Homebodies: They are mainly relaxed tourists. They do not get into adventure. The
tourists aged above 45 to 50 years belong to this type. The busy professionals under
45 years also belong to this type.
f. Moderates: They plan their tour ahead, have a high inclination towards tourism but
they do not get into sports or adventure activities.
g. Vacationers: They plan touring during vacations such as summer break or Christmas
break. They are not always sure of where and why they wish to visit.

1.2 Hospitality marketing mix

The term marketing mix is used to describe the tools that the marketer uses to influence
demand. The marketing mix is a core concept in marketing. The hospitality marketing mix
adopted in this text is based on the eight marketing activities shown below.

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 Product
In the manufacturing industry, once a product is made in the factory and shipped to the retail
shop, there is always not much of contact between the customers and the manufacturer after
that. However, in the hospitality industry, it is not so clear cut. We involve customers in the
process of service delivery and sales transaction.
Hospitality products and services are primarily designed to satisfy the needs and wants of
business and leisure travellers. Examples include:
 Accommodation – a bed, bedroom, cabin or suite, in a hotel, inn, chalet, apartment,
time-share, cruise ship, hospital
 Food and beverage – a drink, sandwich, fast food, family meal, gourmet dinner, in a
café, cafeteria, restaurant, bar or pub, aeroplane, motorway service station or ship, at
an attraction or leisure centre
 Business services – a meeting, conference, communication bureau, in a hotel or
conference centre
 Leisure – a short break, domestic holiday or international holiday, in a hotel, resort,
self-catering accommodation, camping and caravan site, or a cruise.
All products have tangible and intangible aspects. The tangible part of the product is the
physical object that you can touch and feel and take it with you, such as buying a pair of
shoes from a department store or a plasma TV. When you buy a car, you are getting the
tangible part of product, the car. So, you look for the product features primarily. But you may
also look or go for certain brand because of its good after-sale service aspect as an add-on (or

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peripheral) feature. So, a reputable car manufacturer, like BMW or Porsche, is known to
provide good service to its car owners.

However, in the service industry like hospitality and tourism, what we offer in terms of
product is largely intangible. In fact, in the hospitality industry, our products are mainly in the
form of services, which make the product of the industry quite unique as compares to other
industries. This is the experience and service that you have paid for, for example, taking a
vacation trip to Europe. Once the trip is over, you are unable to take the product away except
the pleasant experience that lingers on. This is the same when you go to a fancy restaurant in
the IFC (International Finance Centre) Mall or having high tea in the Peninsula lobby, you are
not only buying the meal (Product) but also experience, the ambience, decor and the service
that are provided by the restaurant.
Marketing, working with operations, should play a role in developing the product and service
offers to ensure that the needs of customers are the focus of planning and product
development.
 Place

After the product, Place is another important aspect in the marketing distribution channel.
Once a product is made and is available for sale to consumers, ‘where to sell’ becomes a
critical decision. Imagine this: You may have the best product in the world, but nobody can
access to the remote Place where the product is sold, you still would not have any transaction.
Thus, Place is where an organization selects to place its product and service so that its target
consumers can easily get hold of it.

In the hospitality and tourism industries, one would often hear the expression of “location,
location, location” which is critical to the business’s success. Take a guess: Where is the most
expensive rental for a shop in Addis Ababa? You guess it! It is a small shop in Causeway. The
owner pays a premium-plus rental monthly because it locates in the intersection of a street
with a very heavy pedestrian traffic. After paying the high rental cost, he still makes a good
profit because of the businesses that brings in by this superb location.

The decision on the Product and Service to sell determines the location that you select. For
example, you would only find Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in major gateway cities
around the world. Why? This is because only these cities can afford enough rich clientele that
appreciate its product and services and willing to pay the premium. Similarly, for a restaurant

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that locates in a prime “A” location is definitely attracts more foot traffic than a “B” location
on a side street.

On the other hand, there are also times that location determines the product or service that
you would offer. Hotels built as centre city hotel, resort hotel, airport hotel or a motel along
the highway are pretty much determined by the locations that they are on. This in turn
dictates the type of clientele that these hotels will attract.

There are many factors to consider when we determine the right location for our hotels,
restaurants or theme parks. These factors include, accessibility, traffic pattern, supporting
infrastructure establishments (e.g. Hospitals, schools, office buildings, residential and etc.) in
the vicinity, demographics and income distribution of the people living in the area. If you
choose to put your restaurant next to an office building, a factory, a hospital or even a school,
you are guaranteed to have businesses from these establishments. We also need to consider
number of direct competitors in the radius where you want to draw your customers. For
example, picture an exotic resort locates at a remote area where there is no good
infrastructure to support it. People cannot get to it easily, surely it will not be as crowded as it
wishes to attract.

Moreover, location does not mean that it has to be stationary and permanent. We need to
remember that a good location at the time when you open for business may not be a good
location for ever. You must constantly monitor trends in the town planning to keep track of
any changes that may affect you. Take the example of Regal Hotel at the old Kai Tak Airport.
Built across the old airport, the hotel was established to target to the tourists that used the
airport and did a good business then. As soon the new airport at Chek Lap Kok opened in
1997 and the old airport at Kai Tak stopped operation, Regal Hotel has lost its competitive
advantage and is forced to change its target market to survive.

Activity 1.5
In Ethiopia most of the five-star hotels such as Sheraton and Hilton are found only in Addis
Ababa, what do you think is the reason?

 Price
The pricing decisions a hospitality organization makes include:
 Setting the tariff, or rack rates
 Agreeing the level of discounts for key accounts

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 Pricing all-inclusive packages (conferences, functions and leisure breaks)

 Developing special priced promotions to increase sales during low season periods.
Pricing decisions influence demand, are crucial in driving profitability, and play an important
role in presenting the ‘image’ the hospitality firms want to project to customers and
stakeholders.
 Distribution
In most textbooks, distribution decisions are generally discussed with location under the
heading ‘Place’. Distribution in hospitality is concerned with how a company can make it
timely and convenient for a potential customer to book hospitality products directly from the
hospitality company or through intermediaries. The impact of ICT and the Internet has
transformed the distribution channel, and is changing relationships between hospitality
providers and travel agents, tour operators, conference placement houses and incentive
houses.
 Marketing communications
Originally called ‘promotion’ and now popularly described as ‘marcom’, marketing
communication covers all the tools that hospitality firms can use to communicate with
customers, employees and other stakeholders. This is the function of most marketing and
sales departments. The key elements of marketing communications in hospitality are:
 Brand/corporate identity
 Personal selling (the sales team)
 Print and publicity material (e.g. brochures)
 Advertising
 Direct mail (often part of a broader database marketing or direct marketing effort)
 Sales promotion
 Public relations
 Merchandising
 Sponsorship
 Website design.
 Physical environment
The physical environment (or physical evidence) consists of the tangible features of the
hospitality offer – the external appearance of the premises (the landscaping, lighting and
signage) and the internal layout (appropriate decor, furniture and furnishings). Intangible
factors are intimately linked to physical evidence – the ambience or atmosphere – and clearly

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the success of a hospitality product is dependent upon the appeal of the physical environment
to the customers.
 Process
Because of the simultaneous production and consumption prevalent in hospitality services,
the processes through which customers buy and consume hospitality products are crucial to
marketers. Important processes include booking, checking in and checking out, queuing
systems and service operations. Marketers need to ensure that the organization’s service
delivery processes are efficient, customer friendly and competitive.
 People
In the services marketing mix, ‘people’ includes both customers and employees. We have
already discussed how hospitality customers interact with each other whilst on the premises –
indeed, in certain hotel and holiday environments a good rapport between customers is an
essential ingredient of the successful product. Managing the customer mix and ensuring that
target markets are compatible plays a key role in delivering customer satisfaction.
Hospitality is a service where the interaction between customers and employees is also a
critical element of the customer experience. Marketing therefore needs to have an input into
human resources aspects of the operation, and this is called internal marketing.
1.3 Implementing the marketing approach
After undertaking the situational analysis and identifying potential opportunities, threats,
strengths, and weaknesses, operational strategies are used by marketing managers to
implement actions that will move an organization from its current position to where it wants
to be. Such strategies allow the organization to match its products and services to the relevant
target markets, to the goals of sustainable tourism, and to allocate resources to generate
consumer demand for such products. Translating sustainable tourism development goals and
objectives into marketing terms is a major undertaking that will affect the entire organization.
This involves determining any modifications that should be made to the organization’s
existing marketing activities and processes in order to ensure that day-to-day activities are
performed in a manner consistent with sustainable tourism objectives.
The key operational marketing strategies used during the implementation stage include:
 Target market strategy
 Product strategy
 Competitive strategy
 Market strategy

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 Positioning strategy.
The principles of sustainable tourism can be incorporated into each of these strategies in
order to influence consumer behaviour to being more sustainable.
1.3.1. Target Market Strategy
Effective forms of visitor management commence by targeting appropriate and desirable
market segments that exhibit characteristics compatible with the goals of sustainable tourism.
According to Middleton and Hawkins (1998), two guiding principles of sustainability should
drive any marketing initiatives aimed at changing the existing practices of an organization or
overall destination, in order to incorporate more sustainable tourism practices in the day-to-
day operation. These guiding principles relate to the need to:
 Understand the nature of market segments at any given destination and target those that
maximize environmental benefits and minimize environmental damage (including
physical, social, and cultural environments)
 Develop specific management techniques to achieve the optimum sustainable balance
of segments at the destination. These must respond to the known behaviour patterns of
the particular segments that visit specific destinations for particular purposes at specific
times.
Marketing activities should consider customers’ needs regarding sustainability. This will
require changes to the organization’s market research efforts. This feedback can affect the
way products are designed, produced, packaged, marketed, and promoted. In some cases, new
markets may be added or existing markets redefined (IISD, 1994).
1.3.2. Product Strategy
The essence of marketing is to design a product to fit the market. A product strategy is
“concerned with the offering of different products and services to satisfy market needs”
(Lewis et al. 1995). Research suggests that there is a growing demand for quality tourism
products that are sensitive to their surrounding cultural and physical environments. Therefore,
product strategies should be directed at developing more sustainable tourism products that
cater for this demand.
As many sectors of the travel and tourism industry are faced with increasing competition it
will become necessary for firms to develop products that are differentiated from their
competitors’ offerings. One way to do this is to identify the unique attributes of the local
environment in which they operate and capitalize on them in a way that maximizes benefits
for the local area without degrading the physical, social, and, cultural environments.

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1.3.3. Competitive Strategy

In developing a competitive strategy, the firm chooses its competition including when and
where it will compete. Based on objective situational analysis of where it is now, where it
wants to be and how it can get there. In order to succeed, it is important to find a market
where there is clear advantage and matching the product strengths with the chosen market
(Lewis et al. 1995).
In choosing where to compete, tourism firms should adopt a long-term view. There are
numerous examples of firms that have opted for a short-term view, focusing on attracting the
maximum number of visitors and associated expenditure in the shortest period of time. Such
a short-term outlook has resulted in many firms contributing to the degradation of the
attractions at the destination that appealed to tourists in the first place leading to a decline in
tourist visitation and revenue in the long term. Such an outlook is incompatible with
sustainable tourism operations.
Porter (1980) suggested that firms compete using one of three generic strategies: cost
leadership, differentiation, and focus or niche marketing. In marketing for sustainable
tourism, firms need to consider how each of these strategies might impact upon the
achievement of sustainable tourism objectives.
Cost leadership
Cost leadership is a strategy commonly used by tourism firms aimed at reducing operating
costs and in turn product prices in an attempt to increase the volume of tourist visitation. To
ensure that such a strategy is consistent with the sustainable tourism objectives of the
business, managers should consider how their pricing strategy will impact not only on tourist
demand for their products but also on the environments at the destination. Issues for
consideration here include:
 The volume of tourist flow that is deemed appropriate
 The types of tourists being attracted
 The activities undertaken by such tourists&
 The compatibility of these factors with the goals of the local community.
A strategy to be a cost leader involves reducing operational costs through the identification of
suitable suppliers, which offer competitive prices, so that such savings can be passed on to
the consumer. Therefore, it is important that a firm’s procurement procedures adhere to the
overall sustainable tourism objectives of the business. As such, suppliers with sustainable

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tourism objectives of their own should be chosen over suppliers that demonstrate little
concern for sustainable tourism.
Differentiation
Differentiation means differentiating a product or service from those of other firms in the
entire potential market (Lewis et al. 1995). If a business can distinguish its product or service
from that of its competitors, then it is assumed that the customer will perceive greater utility,
better price/value, or better problem solution in the firm’s product, and this will result in
increased demand for the product.
Tourism firms can differentiate their product by offering a sustainable alternative to existing
products on the market. Differentiation may be through attributes of the product itself such as
environmentally friendly features, or through advertising and promotion, which emphasizes
the benefits of using sustainable alternatives.
Focus/niche marketing
This strategy involves a business seeking out a unique market niche so as to avoid
confrontation with other large competitors. Here the firm dedicates itself to serving one
tourist market or focusing on one specific tourist activity so as to reduce the amount of
overall direct competition. Ongoing market research can allude to emerging sustainable
tourism markets and associated needs and demands upon which individual firms can choose
to focus their marketing efforts so as to create new products.
1.3.4. Market Strategy
Market strategy is concerned with reaching the market with the product. This can be done by
taking the product to the market or by getting the market to the product. A market strategy is
important because if a business cannot reach the desired market, then even the best product
and most well-defined strategy will fail (Lewis et al. 1995).
Taking the product to the market
Incorporating sustainable tourism principles into this strategy would involve using the
distribution system to take the sustainable tourism product to the market. Once appropriate
markets have been identified, this strategy involves making the new more sustainable tourism
products more accessible for these markets and, as such, location is an important factor here.
It may involve a business forming new cooperative relationships with travel intermediaries to
distribute the new products.
In developing countries, in particular, tour operators are a powerful influence over the type of
tourist attracted, when they visit and the activities they undertake. Therefore, it is important

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that the objectives of these tour operators are in accordance with the sustainable tourism
objectives of the business.
This strategy may also involve using new or different types of distribution channels such as
the Internet, which involves a reduced level of resource consumption and enables the
business to be accessible to a greater number of potential tourists irrespective of where they
are located.
Getting the market to the product
This strategy involves marketers choosing appropriate tools from the promotional mix to
reach potential tourist markets with relevant images, messages and information about
sustainable tourism product alternatives. Increasingly this will involve taking advantage of
new technologies such as the Internet, to increase the awareness of potential tourists of new
sustainable tourism products, allowing them to make online reservations, and to disseminate
pre-trip information aimed at educating potential tourists about the benefits of choosing a
more sustainable tourism product.
1.3.5. Positioning Strategy
Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct
and valued place in the target customer’s minds (Kotler, Ang, Leong, Tan, 1996).
It involves the company deciding how many differences and which differences to promote to
the target customers. Many of the demand patterns in tourism reflect the unsustainable
lifestyles of industrialized consumer societies. The over consumption of resources by tourists
and tourism infrastructure is incompatible with sustainable tourism development.
Tourists often lack information and awareness about their impact in a different culture and
environment, about their impacts on socio-economic and socio-cultural development and
about the environmental costs of tourism. Firms are often unaware of inappropriate behaviour
and have little guidance on how to improve them. This is where tourism marketers have a role
to play in increasing awareness of sustainable tourism principles. The mass media are
increasingly influential on travel decisions and consumer behaviour in the destination region.
Consumer behaviour can and must be influenced by addressing unsustainable forms of
tourism, and promoting tourism activities and behaviour that is sensitive to the principles of
sustainable development. Marketing managers can assist this process by creating tourist
awareness of responsible behaviour and promoting examples of best practice in this area.
Buyers tend to remember “number one‟ messages or positions, such as “best quality‟, “best
service‟, and “lowest price‟. At a time when there is increasing consumer concern for the

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environment firms can also position themselves in the minds of their target customers by
emphasizing “best environmental practice‟. If a tourism firm continues to reinforce this
position and convincingly delivers on it, it will probably be best known and recalled for this
strength.
Activity 1.9

Discuss the role of the above five strategies in achieving sustainable tourism development
in practice.

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