Marketing in travel and tourism article. Specificity of marketing in tourism. Key functions of marketing in tourism
Introduction 3
1 The concept of marketing in tourism industry 5
2 Tourism product structure 12
2.1 Types and purposes of marketing research 15
2.2 Stages of marketing 19
3 Elements of the marketing strategy of Russian tourist enterprises 22
23
25
3.3 Distribution channels 28
3.3 Demand stimulation methods 31
4 Analysis of the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage" 35
Conclusion 42
Literature 43
Introduction
Tourism is one of the leading and most dynamically developing sectors of the world economy. The relevance of the topic is that tourism today plays one of the main roles in the global economy and is currently one of the most profitable businesses in the world. For its rapid growth, it is recognized as an economic phenomenon of the past century and a bright future is predicted for it in the coming century. According to the forecast of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the growth of the tourism industry will be irreversible in the 21st century, and by 2020 the number of international tourist visits will be 1.6 billion units.
Tourism in its main characteristics does not have any fundamental differences from other forms economic activity, therefore, all the main provisions of modern marketing can be fully applied in this area. At the same time, tourism has certain features associated with the nature of the services provided, labor, forms of sales, etc. Because of this, marketing in tourism has a number of characteristics that distinguish it not only from trade in goods, but also from other forms of trade in services. There is trade in both services and goods (according to experts, the share of services in tourism is 75%, goods - 25%), as well as the special nature of the consumption of tourism services and goods at the place of their production and in a certain situation. The marketing complex in tourism has its own characteristics that must be considered when doing business in this industry.
The main components of tourism services marketing are: designing services, developing them organizational framework(the relationship between the production process and the sale of services), the price of services, advertising, sale and promotion of services ( commercial work).
The main thing that marketing methods of tourism services should be aimed at is identifying the possibilities for the most complete satisfaction of people's needs in terms of psychological and social factors, as well as determining the optimal ways of financial activities of travel companies, based on available resources.
Tourism services are a special “invisible” product. Relationships to be its implementation are varied and specific. The distribution system, and luggage distribution channels are much different through the material distribution of physical goods.
The successful business of an enterprise depends not only through the manufactured product. It is not enough to produce a quality product, it is forced to meet its consumer. Meeting a product with a potential consumer is the most important condition for its implementation. Therefore, some manufacturers offer bait products to the market through intermediaries, forming their own distribution channels.
Marketing in tourism is the continuous matching of the offered services with the services that are in demand in the market and that the travel agency is able to offer profitably and more efficiently than competitors do.
The purpose of the study: analysis of the features of tourism marketing. Analysis of the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage"
The following tasks follow from this:
Consider the concept of marketing in the tourism industry, the structure of the tourism product.
To study the types and goals of marketing research .
Consider the elements of the marketing strategy of Russian tourist enterprises.
To analyze the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage".
1 The concept of marketing in the tourism industry
Tourism marketing is often used in one of the following three meanings.
Marketing is advertising, sales promotion and pressure on the buyer, in other words, a set of especially aggressive sales tools used to capture existing tourism markets. In this, the most mercantile sense of the word, marketing is considered mainly in relation to the mass consumer market and, to a much lesser extent, to the sectors of high technology, financial, social and cultural services.
Marketing is a set of market analysis tools (such as sales forecasting methods, simulation models, and market research) available only to large enterprises, where they are used to develop a forward-looking and more scientific approach to analyzing needs and demand.
Marketing is the architect of the consumer society, i.e. a market system where sellers commercially exploit consumers.
Behind all these complex thoughts lie three aspects of the marketing concept: the active aspect - market penetration; analytical aspect - understanding the markets; ideological aspect - way of thinking.
Most often, one can observe the tendency to reduce the concept of marketing to its active dimension, i.e. to a number of sales techniques, and an extreme underestimation of its analytical aspect.
Such a vision of the role of marketing is based on the fact that with the help of marketing (and really - sales promotion) and advertising, you can force the market to accept anything. However, this is very flawed, since such sales methods are often developed without taking into account the real needs of potential buyers, but only on the basis of the desire of the seller to make a record number of sales.
In fact, the marketing ideology is completely different. It is based, in essence, on the theory of individual choice, based on the principle of consumer priority. Within the framework of this approach, marketing is nothing more than the social expression and translation into operational terms of the principles of management put forward by classical economics at the end of the 18th century. These principles were formulated by Adam Smith and form the basis market economy. They can be reduced to the following: "... the prosperity of society is the result not so much of altruistic behavior as of ensuring that the mutual interests of the buyer and seller through competitive exchange" .
A. Smith considered human society, first of all, as an exchange union, which is based on the exchange of various types of labor. He considered the propensity to exchange to be a fundamental property of human nature, considering it ahistorically, regardless of the stage of social development.
Although the basic principle introduced by Adam Smith has been adjusted in modern economics, it nevertheless remains the main principle that governs the economic activities of an efficient firm operating in a free competitive market. Moreover, it is now clearer than ever that countries that rejected the ideas of Adam Smith are finding themselves lagging behind in economic terms. Recent turmoil in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union clearly demonstrate this lag in many areas.
At the heart of the market economy we find four central ideas.
People strive to get rewards from life. It is the pursuit of self-interest that motivates people to work, is the engine of growth, individual development and determines the general welfare.
The nature of the remuneration is determined by individual preferences, which depend on tastes, culture, values, etc.
It is through free and competitive exchange that the people and organizations with which they interact achieve their goals in the best possible way. If the exchange is free, it will occur only if its conditions create utility for both parties, and if it is competitive, then the risk of abuse of their market position by producers is limited.
The mechanisms of the market economy are based on the principle of individual freedom and, in particular, on the principle of consumer priority. The moral justification of systems is based on the recognition of the fact that people are responsible for their own actions and are able to decide what is good for them and what is not.
It should be recognized that there is a big gap between what marketing "in theory" declares and what it is in real life. However, the concept of marketing is the ideal that every firm should strive for. Even if this is a myth, the myth is guiding, orienting the firm in its actions.
From the principles listed above follows a philosophy of action that is significant for any organization that is engaged in satisfying the needs of customers. The scope of this marketing activity can be divided into three main areas:
1) consumer marketing, when transactions are carried out between firms and end consumers, individuals or families;
2) industrial, or intercompany, marketing, when organizations act as two parties in the exchange process;
3) social marketing, covering the areas of activity of non-profit organizations such as museums, universities, etc.
The concept of marketing assumes that all activities of the company should have the main goal of satisfying the needs of users, since this is the best way to achieve their own growth goals and increase the income of the enterprise.
This philosophy of action assumes two directions of activity of the firm.
Systematic and ongoing analysis of the needs and requirements of key customer groups, as well as the development of new product or service concepts that allow the company to serve selected customer groups better than competitors, and thereby achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. These tasks combine strategic marketing.
Organization of sales, sales and communication policies to inform potential buyers and demonstrate the distinctive qualities of the product while reducing the cost of finding buyers. Such tasks are assigned to operational marketing.
Thus, the vast majority of Russian tourist companies adhere to the positions of operational marketing. Strategic marketing is a very expensive activity, and therefore it remains so far only the lot of large tourist companies, corporations and hotel holdings. Among Russian companies the hospitality industry involved in strategic developments can be called VAO "Intourist", GLO "Moscow", OJSC "Aeroflot", state executive bodies and some others. Some Russian tourist companies resort to the help of specialized marketing companies that carry out market research on order. However, as a rule, these studies are carried out in order to determine only the potential of the market for an already finished product, and only a small number of orders provide for a preliminary study of the market and identification of its needs.
Strategic and operational marketing complement each other and find their concrete embodiment within the framework of the company's marketing policy. Thus, by combining the two approaches, we can offer the following definition of marketing.
Marketing is a social process aimed at satisfying the needs and desires of people and organizations by providing a free competitive exchange of goods and services of value to the buyer.
In other words, if the marketer has done a good job of identifying consumer needs, designing the right product or service, setting the right price for it, setting up distribution systems, and effectively promoting it, then such goods or services are likely to find a buyer easily. This is the basic elements of marketing.
In today's competitive environment, no one really disputes the importance of marketing. Hardly anyone doubts that the direction of the whole business activity to the needs of the buyer or user is the only way to do business. Despite the general agreement, many companies in practice are limited only to operational marketing (in fact, the organization and promotion of sales), leaving no attention to other components of marketing. It is one thing to understand the concept of marketing, quite another to follow this philosophy.
A company that adopts this philosophy will be faced with the need to build a market-driven organization whose behavior and actions are correlated with the concept of marketing. Creating superior customer value while making a profit is more than a marketing function. This is the goal of all activities of the organization, not just one department. In other words, strategic marketing is very important to the organization as a whole and should not be viewed as a purely functional unit of commercial services.
To achieve above-average performance, an organization must achieve sustainable competitive advantage. It can be achieved by four key components of market orientation: customer orientation, intermediate customer orientation, competitor orientation, and cross-functional coordination.
Focus on end user means the focus of efforts at all levels of the organization on creating value for the consumer, understanding and anticipating his needs.
Orientation to the intermediate client implies a willingness to treat trading firms not as mere intermediaries, but as their clients, i.e. trying to accommodate their specific needs.
Competitive targeting involves understanding the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, calculating their strategy and quickly responding to their actions.
Cross-functional coordination means disseminating market information within the organization, functional integration in formulating strategy, and using the vision and knowledge of different departments, not just the marketing department, to assess customer needs and concerns.
A fifth component of a market-driven organization should be added, environmental monitoring. In other words, it is a constant review of alternative technologies, social change, and government regulations that may represent opportunities or threats to the firm.
In the tourism and hospitality industry, the fifth component of the organization is of particular importance, since the industry is very susceptible to the external environment, its changes, both internal and external, it reacts sharply and very quickly to them, and an incorrect or untimely assessment can sometimes lead to negative consequences. up to ruin.
Relationship marketing is also important in the hospitality industry. Professionals and company managers are constantly working to establish good relationships with valuable customers, distributors, suppliers and representatives of the communications media. The fate of the company or enterprise largely depends on their work in this direction. After all, the result of building relationships will be the conclusion of profitable transactions for the company.
Thus, marketing covers an area much wider than the traditional sphere of management, since it includes the organizational culture and climate that most effectively stimulates the behavior necessary for the successful implementation of the marketing concept.
2 Tourism product structure
Tourism in its main characteristics does not have any fundamental differences from other forms of economic activity. Therefore, all the essential provisions of modern marketing can be fully applied in tourism. At the same time, tourism has its own specifics that distinguish it not only from trade in goods, but also from other forms of trade in services. There is trade in both services and goods (according to experts, the share of services in tourism is 75%, goods - 25%), as well as the special nature of the consumption of tourism services and goods at the place of their production, moreover, in a certain situation .
In traditional production, which has a specific result of labor, the concept of marketing has a more specific content. In tourism, the result of activity is reduced to a tourist product. In fact, a tourism product is any service that satisfies certain needs of tourists and is subject to payment by them. Tourist services include hotel, transport, excursion, translation, household, communal, intermediary and others. At the same time, the “tourism product” can be viewed in a narrow and broad sense. A tourism product in the narrow sense is the services of each specific sector of the tourism industry (for example, a hotel product, a tour operator's tourism product, a transport company, and so on). In a broad sense, a tourist product is a complex of goods and services that together form a tourist trip (tour) or is directly related to it. The main tourism product is a comprehensive service, i.e. a standard set of services sold to tourists in one "package".
The tourism product, along with the general specific characteristics of services, has its own distinctive features.
It is a set of services and goods characterized by complex system relationships between different components.
Tourism services have seven distinguishing characteristics:
1. Failure to store. Seats in a hotel or on an airplane, if there is no demand for them at the moment, cannot be stored for the purpose of selling them in the future. Therefore, managers need to make an effort to stimulate demand for these services in this short term.
2. Intangibility of services. There are no measured values for evaluating a tourism product: it is impossible to have an idea of the quality of a product before it is purchased and consumed. In this regard, the image of the company in the market, the prestige of its goods (services) is of particular importance for consumers when buying.
3. Exposure to seasonal fluctuations. The marketing activities of the travel agency will be different during the peak season and off-season. In the off-season, additional measures to stimulate demand are needed: low prices, various additional services, variation in various types of tourism (diversification of supply).
4. Significant static character, attachment to a certain place (hostel, airport, since they cannot be moved to another place).
5. Mismatch in time between the sale of the tourist service and its consumption. The purchase of goods (services) of tourism is made weeks or months before the start of their consumption. In this case, advertising printed materials play an important role, providing visual information about the purchased tourist product and allowing you to create a sense of the benefits that can be derived from its consumption in the future. At the stage of selling a tourist product, great importance is attached to the degree of reliability of information, as well as the reliability of the product (correspondence of the quality of the product to its price).
6. Territorial disunity of consumer and producer in the tourist market. Information and promotion activities at a broader (international) level are important.
7. The buyer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption, and not vice versa.
Demand for tourism services is highly elastic with respect to income levels and prices, but is highly dependent on political and social conditions. The consumer, as a rule, cannot see the tourist product before its consumption, and the consumption itself in most cases is carried out directly at the place of production of the tourist service. The consumer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption, and not vice versa. The tourist product depends on such variables as space and time, it is characterized by fluctuations in demand. The tourism product is created by the efforts of many enterprises, each of which has its own working methods, specific needs and different commercial goals. A high quality of tourist services cannot be achieved in the presence of even minor shortcomings, since tourist service consists of these very little things and small details. The quality of tourism services is influenced by external factors of force majeure (natural conditions, weather, tourism policy, international events, etc.).
These specific features of the tourism product have a significant impact on tourism marketing. Some authors invest in the concept of marketing in tourism global content, such as, for example, the Swiss specialist J. Kripendorf: international plans. The purpose of such changes is to best meet the needs of certain consumer groups, while taking into account the possibility of obtaining an appropriate profit.
The constituent elements of the overall marketing system in the tourism industry are: the state, local authorities, national and local (regional) tourism organizations and enterprises.
Western experience shows that the joint efforts of private firms and official government tourism organizations in promoting the tourism industry give the greatest effect.
There is a close relationship between the various levels of marketing: the state, local authorities and associations take market data, including information from enterprises, and enterprises, in turn, base their marketing concepts on national and local tourism concepts. Marketing developments of the state are not a directive, but a recommendation, a guideline for the enterprise.
The functions of national organizations and regional levels are as follows:
Carrying out marketing research at the national level;
Legal and investment support for the development of tourism infrastructure;
Consulting services on the implementation of the marketing concept;
Assistance in organizing public relations and advertising events (exhibitions and fairs, brochures);
Creating a positive image of the country, promoting the country as an attractive tourist destination for foreign tourists.
2.1 Types and purposes of marketing research
Marketing research is essential for a particular firm in the process of systematic collection and analysis of information in order to identify threats, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities of the tourism market, as well as to develop an appropriate marketing strategy for business success.
Research conducted in tourism provides an information base for making the right management decisions by tourism managers. Research reveals:
Problems hindering the effective conduct of business;
Causes of problems and possible ways their permissions;
Future trends in the tourism market.
Research also allows: to see new opportunities; determine effective ways of doing business; better understand the demands of the market and reduce the likelihood of risk in accordance with the changes that are constantly taking place there.
Research that reduces risk in the decision-making process largely determines the success of the tourism enterprise.
Thus, managers can plan, implement and control tourism activities more successfully if they have the necessary information.
All management decisions should be made taking into account the data obtained during marketing research.
The intensive growth of tourism in Russia has not contributed to the conduct of marketing research and planning of marketing activities. However, the crisis has forced many businesses to reevaluate how they operate in order to survive in the face of crisis and competition. When making a management decision, managers pursue the goal of making a profit. But, as long-term practice of working in the European tourist market shows, the main tasks of any tourist enterprise, if it sets as its strategic goal to obtain long-term profit and maintain demand for its goods and services, are to determine the needs of consumers and meet their needs. The marketing concept of doing business, which arose in the late 70s in the Western market, involves conducting market research and planning marketing activities at the very beginning of the development of a tourist product: firms need to know the needs of potential customers, determine the possible number of buyers of a product or service, how and where they want is to buy, at what price and what they expect from the purchased product or service. To obtain such information, there are certain research technologies. Tourist enterprises choose the most acceptable from many different approaches.
Marketing research is necessary at all stages of the company's activity - from product development and promotion to sales and after-sales service.
Firms can conduct two types of research:
1) ongoing research carried out constantly in order to identify all the changes and trends taking place in the tourism market (even minor changes in the firm's environment can affect the results of managerial decisions);
2) study of one specific situation (problem) in order to test the assumption or analyze changes in the tourism market.
The company conducts a comprehensive study of the tourism market in order to assess the current general situation, the problems and threats arising from it, and the emerging opportunities. The firm may also allocate resources to conduct research on one or more problem situations that have developed in the course of the day-to-day operation of the enterprise. In addition, the company investigates external and internal factors of influence, studies the effectiveness advertising campaign, market potential, trends in business development.
The objectives of marketing research in tourism:
1. Identification of significant problems. The intensity of daily business activities leaves little time for performers to concentrate on problematic areas of activity that are an obstacle to the successful functioning of the enterprise. Identifying the causes and problems that cause business inefficiencies is often one of the many simple contributions that research makes to the management process.
2. Maintaining the connection of the enterprise with its target markets. Tourism research provides an opportunity to identify future trends, better understand market demands and track changes in markets in order to develop appropriate policies. Research reduces the likelihood of risk arising from unexpected changes in the markets. To a certain extent, the study provides a guarantee that the company will not produce a product that, due to changes in the market, has already become obsolete for this market.
3. Cost reduction. The study helps to identify the most effective business practices and eliminate inefficient ones.
4. Development of new sources of profit. Research can lead to the discovery of new markets, new products, and new uses for products already on the market.
5. Help in stimulating sales. The results of the study are interesting not only for a particular company, but also for society as a whole and can be used in advertising campaigns and to stimulate sales. This primarily concerns studies of consumer attitudes towards a product, service, and those studies in which consumers are asked to evaluate certain goods and services.
6. Create a favorable attitude from buyers. Consumers respond well to tourism enterprises conducting research. They believe that the companies that do this kind of work really care about them and are putting in the effort to create a product or service that meets their needs. So, if the purpose of the survey, such as improving the quality of service, is indicated in the preamble to the questionnaire, customers will be more willing to respond to the questionnaire and they will create a favorable impression of the company as caring about maintaining or improving the quality of services provided.
2.2 Stages of marketing
Tourism research takes many forms, from the primitive to the more complex, from the simple collection of facts to the use of complex, mathematical models.
The process of conducting tourism research is represented by the following stages:
1. Problem definition. First, it is necessary to define or identify the existing problem and formulate the objectives of the study. Goals can be search, involving the collection of some preliminary data that shed light on the problem, and possibly help develop a hypothesis; descriptive, that is, explaining certain phenomena; experimental, providing for testing the hypothesis of some kind of causal relationship.
2. Conducting a situational analysis. At this stage, all available information related to this problem is collected and processed. The purpose of this stage is to find out if any other company has already had similar situations or to check if the information that contains a ready-made solution to this problem has not been omitted.
A situational analysis is a thorough search for all data related to a given company, a particular product, industry, market, competitors, advertising, consumers, product and service providers, technology, economy, political climate, and other similar data. Knowing all the information about the problem helps to identify the possible causes of its occurrence. The organization will get more from the result of research if its internal environment and goals, strategies, aspirations, available resources, as well as the limits that it should not go beyond in its activities, are clearly defined.
In addition to obtaining the necessary information on this issue from available sources, it is necessary to extract useful information from conversations with customers, distributors and other key figures in the tourism industry. During situational analysis and information gathering, assumptions are made, which then need to be tested.
3. Development of a research scheme. After collecting relevant data and identifying the problem, it is necessary to develop a certain procedure (or structure) according to which the research will be carried out. At this stage, which is the core of the research process, hypotheses are developed to be tested, the type and sources of the necessary information are determined. If it is determined that a field study is required, then a sample should be developed for conducting a survey, questionnaire, or other form of information collection, as well as instruction sheets and coding and tabulation methods. Finally, an auxiliary study must be carried out to check all the previous elements. The results are presented in the form of a detailed plan, which is designed to serve as a guide in the research process, and any qualified research participant must adhere to this plan.
4. Data collection. When data can be obtained from sources of secondary information, desk research of all existing information is carried out. When collecting primary information, however, actual field research is used, the main methods of which are observation, questioning or experiment. The success of data collection depends on the quality of the field research, the quality of the work of the interviewers or people conducting the field research, and the skill level of the researchers.
5. Presentation of information in tables and analysis. Once the data has been collected, the information must be coded, tabulated and analyzed. This and the previous steps must be carried out with the greatest care, otherwise, if the process of collection, tabulation and analysis is not carried out properly, many erroneous conclusions can be drawn. For example, if the survey method is used in data collection, the interviewers must be carefully selected, trained and supervised. The presentation of information in tables is carried out using a computer.
6. Data interpretation. The result of the presentation of data in tables is a lot of computer inferences and a number of statistical conclusions. The data obtained is interpreted in order to find the best solution or to develop a set of specific recommendations for determining the actions of a firm or organization. The transition from interpreting information to making recommendations is the most difficult task in the research process.
7. Reporting. The presentation of the results of the study is very important. All the labor and expense of conducting research will be in vain if the data obtained is not presented in a form that helps the manager act in accordance with them. At this stage of the research process, a full report should be produced with approved recommendations for solving a particular problem situation.
8. Control. Research work is considered incomplete until the results of the research are put into action. Research is money invested and time spent.
3 Elements of the marketing strategy of Russian tourist enterprises
A marketing mix (marketing program) is a set of controllable marketing variables that a firm uses in combination to elicit a desired response from a target market. The tourism marketing manager must constantly create a marketing mix - the right combination of elements that provide profit through the most complete satisfaction of consumers and in a more effective way than competitors.
Numerous elements of the marketing mix have been reduced to the concept of "four P", which includes Product (product), Place (place), Promotion (demand stimulation) and Price (price). This concept is a simple and precise formula that represents all marketing activities and makes it easy to draw up a marketing program.
A product refers not only to its physical characteristics, but also to the planning and development of a new product or service. Here decisions are made regarding the diversity of the product range, appropriation trademarks and packaging. When planning the creation of a product (goods, services), all these aspects should be taken into account.
Place refers to making decisions about the appropriate methods of distribution, i.e. which channels and in what manner of distribution should be used to create the easiest access for consumers to the goods and services of producers.
Incentive methods are all kinds of activities of the firm to disseminate information about the merits of its product and convince target consumers to buy it. Promotion methods include not only advertising but also personal selling techniques, sales promotion activities, and public relations.
Price is a very important variable in the marketing mix. It must satisfy consumers and at the same time correspond to the goal of making a profit by the enterprise. The price charged by the firm must match the value proposition, otherwise buyers will buy competitors' products.
The starting point for effective marketing is the consumer. After identifying and analyzing a specific group of consumers, the manager, using all four elements of a marketing tool, provides effective service to this segment. Since consumer orientation is important, it is customary to consider the people themselves (consumers of the tourism product) as the fifth element of the marketing mix, since they are the central point of the marketing program (Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Elements of the marketing mix
3.1 Planning and development tourism product
The goal of most travel agencies is to run a profitable and sustainable business. To achieve this goal, companies need to produce the product or service that would satisfy the needs of potential buyers and thereby ensure business growth. Product planning is an important component in developing a profitable and sustainable business. It is often referred to as "five rules" planning - planning to create the right product, deliver it to right place, at the right time, at the right price and in the right (right) quantity.
On fig. 2 shows the life phases that a tourist product goes through: launching a product on the market, growth, maturity, saturation, decline. Due to the rapid changes in people's lifestyles and technological changes, the life cycle of individual goods and services has become shorter than it used to be, so the concept life cycle product plays important role in strategic planning and each stage of the product life cycle also has specific tasks for marketing.
Rice. 2. Product life cycle
The stage of bringing the product to market. This phase of the life cycle requires promotional spending (this is the best time to advertise a new product or service). This stage is characterized by high costs, slow sales growth and advertising campaigns to stimulate initial demand.
Growth stage. In this period, the novelty (if it is in demand in the market) satisfies the interests of the market, which is reflected in the growth of sales and profits. Profit growth can make the market attractive to competitors. A firm's sales promotion costs remain high, but the emphasis here is on motivating purposeful selection and purchase of a particular firm's product rather than on motivating consumers to buy and try the product. During the growth phase, the number of retail outlets for a product or service usually increases. In this period, the market becomes attractive to competitors, but due to the effect of economies of scale, prices for a product (service) may decrease.
stage of maturity. A mature product is a product or service that is already firmly established in the market. Its sales rates may continue to increase, but at a slower pace. Then they gradually level off. At this stage of the product life cycle, many retail outlets selling a product or service are very competitive. Firms are trying to find ways to maintain their market share. Ski resorts are the most appropriate example of a mature product.
saturation stage. At this stage, sales volumes reach their highest point, the product penetrates the market as much as possible.
Mass production and the use of new technologies make it possible to reduce the price level and make the product more accessible to everyone.
Decline stage. Many tourism products remain at the saturation stage for several years. However, many of them become obsolete over time and new products are introduced to the market to replace the old ones. At the stage of decline, the demand for the product is reduced, advertising costs are reduced. As demand and profits fall, firms that cannot withstand competition leave the market.
3.2 Tourism Product Pricing Strategies
One of the most important marketing solutions is a decision regarding the establishment of a price for a product or service. The price reflects how consumers perceive the product. It strongly influences other marketing mix variables as well.
The costs associated with the production, promotion, distribution and sale of the tourist product, as well as the rate of return, must be included in the price. In order to establish the correct price for a tourist product, it is necessary to analyze many factors.
When setting the price, first of all, the nature of competition in this tourist market and the analysis of the pricing policy of competitors are taken into account.
On the market pure competition no single buyer or seller has much influence on the level of current market prices. Businesses in this market do not spend much time developing a marketing strategy.
In the market of monopolistic competition, enterprises set prices for their goods in a wide range, since the offers of various tourist enterprises differ from each other in quality and special properties. Businesses develop different offerings for different segments and make extensive use of branding, advertising, and personal selling techniques.
The oligopolistic market consists of a small number of tourist enterprises. It is difficult for new applicants to enter this market. Each manufacturer is sensitive to the strategy and actions of competitors. The oligopolistic nature of competition has developed in the more mature Western tourist market. Here, as a rule, several large travel agencies dominate. For example, in Germany in 1955, the three largest firms controlled 57% of the tourist market.
At pure monopoly There is only one seller on the market. It can be a state monopoly, a private unregulated monopoly and a private regulated monopoly. In each case, pricing is different. The state monopoly can be on tourist sites of unique quality (the Moscow Kremlin).
In pricing decisions, firms have a choice of one of three product pricing strategies:
1. Firms may decide to sell their product at the market price, i.e., at a price generally accepted in the market. In this case, firms are considered to operate in conditions of non-price competition.
2. Firms may charge a lower price than current market prices. Firms that practice this kind of discounting policy create a reputation for asking low prices and thereby trying to achieve higher sales than their competitors.
3. Setting a price above the market. The use of an inflated pricing strategy should be driven by the best quality product in the industry or backed by various attractive benefits and uniqueness of the product in order to justify the high price. This approach focuses on quality, which many customers believe is a function of price. Quality generates more costs.
Another basis for making a pricing decision is the level of demand for a tourism product.
When setting a price for a product, it is necessary to take into account the type and number of potential consumers. If a price decrease of 1% increases demand, and a price increase of 1% it decreases significantly, then demand is price elastic. If the market has a small number of consumers, then the price should be high enough to compensate for the limited market. However, shopping habits and purchasing power must also be taken into account.
The price must include the gross cost of production. The profit embedded in the price of the product must remain to offset the business risk after payment of liabilities to all contract partners and after payment of all taxes.
Travel agents make a premium on the tour operator's selling price, thereby covering their overheads and making a profit. Tour operators determine a floor price level below which travel agents are not allowed to lower prices.
In addition to these factors, you must also consider:
1. Availability of substitute products from competitors. If competitors sell tour packages in the same direction, then with a significant increase in the price of the product, you can lose your customers.
2. Income, the degree of saturation of the needs of its target market, changes in the environment (political, economic, legal). All this must be constantly analyzed.
3. Product quality. The quality of a product reflects the price-value relationship.
4. Distinctive characteristics of the product.
5. Competitors. When pricing a product that is similar to a competitor's product, the prices of competitors' products must be taken into account.
6. Seasonality. When developing the price of a product, the time aspect must be taken into account.
7. Psychological features. Consumers have been found to respond psychologically well to odd-numbered prices, and there seems to be something magical about prices that end in 9.
For the market tourism services it is not uncommon for there to be a gap in time between the moment of price setting and the moment of purchase and sale of the tourist product.
3.3 Distribution channels
Another difficult decision that the marketing manager must make is the selection of suitable tourism intermediaries that connect consumers of tourism goods and services with the producers of these services (airlines, hotels, car rental firms, etc.).
When choosing one or another channel for the distribution of goods and services, it is necessary to carry out:
Product analysis;
Characterization and determination of the size of the market;
Analysis of distribution channels in terms of sales, costs and profits;
Determination of the assistance that can be expected from this channel in the sale of goods and services;
Determining the assistance that will need to be provided to this channel in the distribution of goods and services;
Determining the number of retail outlets.
American market researchers who have studied tourism intermediaries have identified three main categories of distribution channels: tour operators, travel agents, and specialized distribution channels. The category of specialized channels includes incentive travel agencies; persons involved in the planning of meetings and conferences; hotel representatives, association executives; corporate travel agencies, etc. (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. The system of distribution of goods and services in tourism
Intermediaries can influence when, where and how people travel. To some extent, they control what percentage of the business an airline, hotel, cruise line, or car rental company gets.
Each vertical link in Fig. 4 represents a possible intermediary linking tourists with tourism service providers. The leftmost link shows that consumers themselves book places on a vehicle, a hotel room and organize their holidays directly with manufacturers (suppliers) of travel services. Each of the subsequent links is not a direct connection, but mediated by one or more intermediaries. All of these links must be examined by the tourism marketing manager in order to select the best channel or combination of distribution channels in order to successfully promote the company's goods and services on the market. The manager must also be always aware of the changes that occur in the distribution system. The entry of new competitors into the system always requires additional methods of distribution of goods and services.
Rice. 4. Channels of distribution of tourist goods and services of different levels.
In the Russian tourist market, there are two main forms of selling a tourist product: through a tour operator and through a travel agent. Tour operator - a tourist enterprise that develops tourist routes and completes tours, ensures their operation, organizes advertising, calculates prices for tours along these routes in accordance with applicable regulations, and sells tours to travel agents for the issuance and sale of vouchers under their licenses . A travel agent is a company that purchases tours developed by a tour operator, issues vouchers for these tours and sells them to the consumer.
3.3 Demand stimulation methods
The purpose of promoting goods and services is to create demand for these goods and services.
The use of means to stimulate demand in the field of tourism is aimed not only at the end consumer, but also at numerous producers of travel services, intermediaries (travel agents, tour operators), as well as their contact “audiences” (mass media, financial and insurance companies, public organizations) .
In order to sell a product, you must:
Attract the attention of potential consumers;
Arouse consumer interest in the product;
Make consumers want to buy this product;
Encourage buyers to take real action.
Both forms of personal selling and advertising are highly effective. But the most effective is to use these two forms together. Advertising is ideal for drawing attention and creating interest among potential buyers for a particular product or service.
In tourism, such means of stimulating demand as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and propaganda are widely used.
Advertising. Advertising can be defined as a form of non-personal communication with customers for the presentation of goods, ideas and services, carried out through paid media, with a clearly identified source of funding.
Each travel company chooses in advance the form of appeal, even when the advertising campaign is commissioned by advertising agencies or media personnel.
Distinguish between commercial and communicative effectiveness of advertising. The sales effectiveness of advertising is determined by the increase in the percentage of sales before and after the start of promotional activities. The communicative effectiveness of advertising is determined by research methods and questionnaires.
The main advertising media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, signs, catalogs, booklets, stands, leaflets, billboards, announcements on vehicles. They have the following advantages and disadvantages.
Promotion of a new tourist center on the market will require more funds than maintaining the image of an object already mastered by tourists. The distribution of the advertising budget between advertising and sales promotion depends on each specific situation.
A travel agency cannot spend more than 10% of its turnover on an advertising campaign. The specificity of tourist advertising is that the advertising messages of tourist organizations should be more targeted than advertising in other sectors of the economy.
Research. Successful tourism marketing relies heavily on research. Activities to stimulate tourist demand without proper research are just a waste of time and effort. Advertising costs will not be productive if it is not known in advance: the contingent of customers, their addresses and travel and leisure preferences, their interests; which tourist destinations they prefer. These questions can only be answered through research.
Personal Selling Techniques. This is the oldest and most widely used method of creating customer demand, the most persuasive and effective type of sales promotion, since the seller in this case has direct contact with buyers. Unlike advertising, which is not a personal means of communication, personal selling is an individual, personal communication between the seller and the consumer. Many organizations spend more money on personal selling (8 to 15% of sales) than on advertising.
Sales promotion is the use of a variety of incentives designed to hasten or enhance market response.
Incentives (competitions, coupons, bonuses, commissions) have three characteristic qualities:
1) attract attention and contain information that can lead the consumer to the product;
2) imply a concession, benefit, assistance that are of value to the consumer;
Organization of public opinion (public relations), go propaganda. Public opinion activities have several objectives, including giving the firm a favorable publicity, creating an image of it as an organization with high corporate responsibility, and preventing the spread of unfavorable rumors and information about it. Public relations can be defined as the social consciousness of the firm, where the public interest is a priority in the process of making any decision. Public relations permeates the entire tourism organization, including relationships with many structures such as customers, company employees, suppliers and local residents.
Constant communication with your customers is the basis for creating or maintaining a favorable image of the company. The reputation and image of a travel company is largely determined by the way of resolving disputes that arise with customers and partners, as well as the procedure for resolving complaints. Tourist organizations that care about maintaining their positive reputation are trying not to bring the situation to court, but to resolve everything peacefully. In disseminating favorable information about a travel organization, it is necessary to provide consumers with only reliable and complete information about a product or service. False information for a long time or even forever will create an unfavorable image of the company in the minds of society.
Survival in the market requires the use of a direct marketing strategy, the essence of which is the individualization of sales, establishing direct contacts directly with a specific consumer, with each potential client.
The concept of direct marketing involves:
Identification of target groups to which marketing activities should be directed;
Development of a set of measures to stimulate the sale of tourist services;
Creation of a data bank on the clientele of the company;
Creation of an effective system of stable feedback and quick response of the travel services provider to complaints and claims from the client.
4 Analysis of the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage"
Travel company "SAKVOYAZH" was founded on February 29, 1996. Currently a member of the Russian Association of Travel Agencies (RATA)
Travel agency "SAKVOYAZH" 450000, g. Ufa, Lenin street 44/46
Sale of tours in the following directions:
Turkey, Egypt, UAE, Tunisia, Greece, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Thailand, Cyprus, Malta, Andorra, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Scandinavia, Russia, and Bashkiria
Bus tours in Europe
sea cruises
VIP and individual tours
hot tours.
Travel company "Sacvoyage" has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most reliable travel agencies in Ufa. The work of managers in the office is maximally interconnected and automated. Full computerization and a well-functioning system of work do not allow any loss of information. This allows you to smoothly and clearly serve your tourists even at the peak of the tourist season.
To date, the staff of the company is 15 people.
Contacts have been established with all the leading hotels of the city, as well as the largest sanatoriums of Bashkortostan. The company's office organizes the sale of air tickets to all directions for flights of Russian and foreign airlines. According to the results of the 2008 season, the travel company "Sakvoyage" is one of the leading travel companies in the city of Ufa.
Key parameters of the market and its target segments.
Market segmentation is the breakdown of the market into clear groups of buyers, each of which may require separate products and / or marketing mixes. Most often, socio-economic criteria are used for market segmentation, such as: age, gender, income level, education, profession, family size, and others.
Employees of "Sacvoyage" determine the target segment according to the following characteristics:
Age - 40-45 years
Income level - average and above average
Education - usually higher, but does not play a role
Marital status - usually a family of two to four people
Work, profession - most often - private entrepreneurs
Geography
Life style - an energetic, active person, engaged in commercial or managerial activities, often working on weekends and holidays, monitors his image, feels a lack of time for rest and family, receptive to new products, skeptical of advertising.
The motive for traveling is the desire to relax with the family, the desire to relax abroad, the desire to receive treatment abroad, the desire to visit an exotic country (entertainment + novelty).
This is how the main segment on which Sakvoyazh operates is described.
Of course, this does not mean that absolutely all of the company's clients are of exactly this age or status, but most of them fit this definition, and it is this group of consumers that allows you to quickly recoup the costs of producing and promoting a tour product. On the other hand, almost all tour companies are focused on the same segment. This means that the firm must strive to win the customer's favor and trust.
All marketing efforts should be aimed at creating strong and lasting preferences among current and potential customers.
The task is to divert a large number of customers from the already existing market, to attract new categories of customers.
2. Assessment of the competitive strategy of the enterprise
Hundreds or even thousands of dollars are spent on advertising and other marketing activities, because it is high-quality advertising that guarantees the competitiveness of an enterprise. Advertisers want to know if these costs are justified. This can only be known by conducting evaluation studies.
While advertising is about image building, and it takes time to do so, channel management is about promotion leading to immediate action, preferably a sale. On the other hand, they perform a common task, which is to increase the number of consumers and more use of the tour product by consumers.
Sales support is the offer of an additional motive for buying. Its main advantage lies in the variety and flexibility of methods. Most often, various discounts are used by firms to promote tours. "Sacvoyage" offers the following system of discounts:
Holiday discounts
Family Discounts
Group
Baby
Special (for those who own a discount coupon or for clients who bring a new client to the firm)
Another effective way to promote a tour product are various contests and lotteries. These strategies attract people by promising free benefits and offering impressive prizes. In 1996, "Sacvoyage" established cooperation with the newspaper. Once every six months, they hold a joint game dedicated to tourism and a win-win lottery.
Various printed products are used by tour companies to stimulate sales directly in the office. At the moment when a client hesitates in choosing a travel agent, vacation spot, hotel or mode of transport, a colorful prospectus outlining all the advantages of this vacation spot, hotel, etc. will help push him to buy. Various calendars, stands, brochures, magazines and catalogs of their own publication not only attract the client with their appearance, but also offer more detailed information about the route. Their production is relatively inexpensive - it depends on the amount of printed information, the cost of paper, the cost of printed media, and the salaries of designers. It is possible to order such products in specialized firms, which is much more profitable with single copies or in small batches.
The next stage in the management of the distribution channel is participation in the work of various tourist exhibitions and fairs. Exhibitions and fairs are of great importance in terms of finding partners and establishing business relationships. This type Promotion refers to sales promotion directed at intermediaries. Exhibitions of this kind are held annually not only in Moscow, but also in other cities, both Russian and international. In 1998, for the first time, the company acted as a tour operator in the summer program "To Spain Directly from Ufa". In the same year, the company was awarded a diploma of the International Exhibition Center "InterSib" for professional work. In 1997, for the first time, own tourist programs in Bashkortostan were proposed, which received recognition from Ufa, nonresident and foreign tourists.
"Sacvoyage" publishes booklets related to their own projects in order to attract more tourists to these services.
All booklets are printed in the printing house on good, high-quality paper, which shows respect for customers. In addition, all booklets are colorfully designed.
In these advertising booklets, the visual effect is provided by photographs of these projects. Photos recreate the atmosphere of these tours. They give the potential client the main idea of what awaits him.
Television has ample opportunity to have a targeted impact and cause the desired response from the audience.
Television provides wide coverage. So, to promote the holiday program "March 8 in the sanatorium" Abzakovo ", advertising was given on television, on weekends, during the display of interesting programs and feature films on the BST channel, when the maximum number of potential customers were at their TVs. The advertisement that was placed in this newspaper was simple, short, drawing the attention of readers. Due to its efficiency, repeatability, wide market coverage, the press is one of the most effective means of advertising distribution, so Sakvoyazh most often uses the services of the press to advertise its services.
Corporate identity is a set of color, graphic, verbal, typographic design permanent elements that provide visual and semantic unity of goods (services), all information coming from the company, its internal and external design.
Travel company "Sacvoyage" has developed its own corporate identity, which allows the consumer to quickly and accurately find the company's product, allows the company to bring its new products to the market at a lower cost, and which increases the effectiveness of advertising. The corporate style elements are:
Trademark;
Corporate type inscription (logo);
Corporate block;
Corporate slogan (slogan);
corporate color;
So, from the foregoing, it can be seen that the travel company "Sacvoyage" actively promotes its services with the help of various kinds advertising. However, we have only considered certain types advertising. But, it should be noted that "Sacvoyage" also uses other types of advertising, such as: audiovisual advertising, flyers, outdoor advertising, postal advertising, and so on.
3. Conclusions and suggestions for improving the marketing activities of the enterprise.
So, marketing ensures not only the effective satisfaction of market needs, but also the success of the enterprise in the competitive struggle.
Having originated in the manufacturing sector, marketing has not found appropriate application in the tourism sector for quite a long time. However, the increase in competition, the commercialization of tourism activities have led to the need for the earliest possible introduction of the main elements of marketing into the practice of a tourism enterprise. At the same time, tourism has certain features related to the nature of the services provided, forms of sales, and so on. In order to really use marketing as a reliable tool for achieving success in the market, specialists in tourism enterprises need to master its methodology and the ability to apply it depending on the specific situation. Staff travel company"Sacvoyage" are trying to apply marketing in their activities, studying supply and demand for specific tourist services, setting prices for a new project, advertising their services, and so on. And here marketing acts as a compass that allows the company to conduct its activities towards the intended goal in a safer way, but as mentioned earlier, they lack a specialized marketing service department, in order to best promote the company and conquer new frontiers, in my opinion, the creation of such a structure as a separate independently functioning body will not only help to conquer new frontiers, but also to occupy a leading position in this market sector for a very long time.
Conclusion
The modern concept of marketing in tourism requires taking into account the holistic and comprehensive nature of the tourism business. To implement such a concept, it is necessary to develop a mechanism for coordinating the marketing of various organizations in the field of tourism.
More effective scientific research is needed. To conduct the most in-depth comprehensive research, it is necessary to invite specialists or create your own marketing department with qualified personnel. It is advisable for small and medium-sized tour operators to unite to conduct joint marketing activities and market research in order to reduce the cost of attracting marketing specialists and specialized marketing companies.
The specific nature of marketing in the Russian tourist market is determined by the fact that the prevailing number of Russian tour operators limit their marketing activities to advertising campaigns, mainly in the form of print advertising. A variety of forms of advertising is needed.
Tourism marketing should be addressed not only to end consumers - tourists, but also to intermediate instances - travel agencies, partners, public tourism associations, government agencies for regulating tourism.
Tourism of the 21st century is, first of all, tourism focused on the client as a consumer of tourist goods and services. A successful and profitable tourism business of the future is a business based on knowledge of international legal norms and rules, tourism management and marketing, tourism market conditions, on a complete and comprehensive knowledge of the needs and demands of the tourist.
Literature
Basovsky E.L. Marketing. - M.: INFRA-M, 2006.
Voskolovich, N. A. Marketing of tourist services. – M.: UNITI, 2009.
Durovich A.P., Kopanev A.S. Marketing in tourism.-M.: Ekonompress, 2000.
Kvartalnov V.A. Tourism. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002.
Kotler F., Bowen D., Makenz D. Marketing. Hospitality. Tourism. – M.: Unity, 2000.
Nikolashina V. N. Marketing of tourist services - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2008.
Noriganova O.A. Methodology for assessing tourist services as a market category // Culture of the peoples of the Black Sea region. - 2002 - N36.
Papiryan G.A. Economics of tourism.-M.: Finance and statistics, 2005.
Palchuk M.I. Features of tourism marketing // Culture of the peoples of the Black Sea region. - 2003. - No. 38.
Saak A.E., Pshenichnykh Yu.A. Management in socio - cultural service and tourism: Textbook - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.
Saprunova V.B. Tourism: evolution, structure, marketing.-M.: INFRA-M, 2004.
www. tourmarketportal.ru
hospitality industry and tourism in the hotel business marketing often identified with...
In accordance with the recommendations of the World Tourism Organization (WTO)1, there are three main functions of tourism marketing
Tourism marketing is a complex and capacious concept, which is why it has not yet received an accurate and final formulation. There are many definitions, including
However, it is clear that in any case, tourism marketing is a system of continuously offered services in the leisure market with the aim of making a profit by a tourism enterprise and satisfying the needs of its customers. The system of activity of such an enterprise includes the design of services, the development of their organizational foundations (the relationship between the production process and the sale of services), promotional activities, sale of services (commercial work).
The peculiarity of tourism marketing is that the market is in constant dynamic change. Demand for tourism services is changing under the influence of not only, for example, weather conditions, but also the introduction of new prices and competition. Marketing in this regard is presented as a continuous process. Therefore, the marketing strategy of any travel company includes the projection of the distant, and most importantly, the near future. Travel company, outlining long-term plans, coordinates them with environmental factors, i.e. uses all possible marketing tools to achieve future goals.
The classical types of tourism services in the marketing system are filled with new content, as the company's resources (financial, material, human) open up more and more potential opportunities. By purchasing a travel package, the consumer thereby buys a set of certified services, while the company receives a well-deserved profit, which makes tourism marketing an exclusively economic category.
Levels of tourism marketing in a competitive environment
List the main functions of tourism marketing.
In recent decades, interesting experience of regions and cities of various countries has begun to accumulate in using the potential of marketing in order to increase the tourist and commercial attractiveness of the regions.
In addition to a deep understanding of the core values of buyers trade organizations also need to know how and why customer-organizations make purchases. This is all the more necessary in view of the fact that the mechanism of purchase inevitably affects the nature of the needs of buyers. Knowledge of the buying process helps companies to direct their marketing efforts in such a way that they most effectively influence the decision to purchase a product. For example, travel companies know that purchasing a tour is a long process and all family members are involved in the decision. Therefore, it makes sense to print detailed brochures to serve as a basis for family discussion. Plus personal service by travel agents who can answer any outstanding questions. In short, knowing the buying process, merchants and service providers can create a better marketing mix (product, price, distribution, promotion, and personnel) for target buyers.
Marketing differs by types of goods and services. In particular, marketing of consumer goods and industrial goods, banking and financial marketing, trade marketing, marketing of services, agricultural marketing, marketing of construction, marketing of tourism business, scientific and technical marketing, marketing of ideas, etc.
The reliability of services can be improved by setting higher service standards and linking employee pay and promotion to the quality of their work. Peripheral services are often used to complement and reinforce core services to create and maintain competitive advantage. For example, while a tourist hotel is marketing rooms, it also needs an adequate reservation system, staff responsible for keeping the car park clean, recreational facilities, restaurants, and communication with transport facilities.
Due to the high degree of interconnection and interdependence between countries in economic terms, there is a very extensive international market that allows you to import and export various products (import is the process of acquiring a product in another country and moving it to your own for the purpose of subsequent sale, and export is the export of a product manufactured in one country to another for subsequent sale). And here, for enterprises (companies) oriented in their activities to the export of goods or services (this can be, for example, cosmetic or travel companies), there are additional requirements in the field of marketing, firstly, the compliance of the quality of goods, packaging, design, advertising with international standards, and the production complex - to the modern scientific and technical level; secondly, the ability to establish close ties with foreign representatives and organize international trades, exhibitions, fairs, conferences, etc. at a high professional level. In addition, the import-export policy requires a specific approach to maintaining the competitiveness of the enterprise, both in terms of quantity and quality.
From the point of view of marketing, tourism is the travel of citizens for tourism purposes and a complex of industries serving such trips. As defined by the rules of the World Tourism Organization, tourism trips are classified as follows
The functions of the employees of the department for the organization of intermediary operations of international tourism are reduced to the work of planning and implementing tourist trips on the basis of dealer agreements with tour operators. Any tourist season begins with the discovery of data on demand and market conditions. They are provided by the marketing department, on their basis a plan is drawn up for recruiting groups of tourists in various directions, after which the request is sent to the tour operator for the provision of individual tours for a certain period. The same department conducts all the work to ensure the agreement; formation of groups; selection of leaders and guides-translators; provision of guides with the necessary information, as well as lists of groups; visa processing and insurance.
At the heart of business interactions between the firm and the client are contractual relations between them. They develop as a relationship between the buyer (customer) and the seller (executor). Marketing theory considers the concept of a tourist service as the provision of a special service by a company to a client. This, in essence, is a tourist product purchased from a travel company by a client. Entering into a contractual relationship with the company, the tourist expects to eventually receive the set of services he needs. The company provides him, as a rule, not yet the services themselves, but the rights (guarantees) to receive at a certain time in a certain place services directly carried out by other companies that do not have direct contractual relations with this tourist, but are in contractual relations with the sending travel company . The tourist also acquires guarantees for the provision of certain types of services by the sending company itself. The totality of these rights is displayed in the voucher, which is
In some cases, the agreement provides for the introduction of a clause obliging the agent not to enter into business relationship with other firms, as well as clauses on the exclusive right to sell individual travel services. On the one hand, this form of activity makes it possible to work without having large expenses for advertising, marketing, organizing tours and receiving commissions, but on the other hand, it prevents significant expansion and large profits. In addition, the agent is often too dependent on the tour operator and, in fact, lacks independence.
The most ardent proponents of online marketing believe that it will bring significant changes to all areas of the economy. The possibility of direct consumer ordering will affect many commercial entities, in particular travel agencies, brokerage firms, insurance agents, car dealers and bookstore owners. Many functions will be performed by online services. At the same time, there will be a reorganization of mediation in the form of the emergence and increase in the number of online
Regional marketing. To a large extent, it solves the same problems and uses the same tools as country marketing, but at the appropriate level. In recent decades, interesting experience of the regions of various countries has begun to accumulate in applying the potential of marketing in order to increase the tourist and commercial attractiveness of the regions.
Lottery (from French lot - lottery) in marketing involves the distribution of tickets to potential consumers, the receipt of which for them is associated with participation in a sales promotion campaign, and the determination of winners among them according to a random law. For example, numbered invitation cards are sent out by mail to the opening of a new store, upon completion official events a lottery is held on tickets, in which a tourist trip for two to Australia is played. The winner is determined from all those who arrived at the opening on a random basis, he does not need special knowledge, it is enough to be present at a certain place at a specified time.
Abroad, in the system of tourism marketing, the relationship between the tour operator and the travel agent is most often built on the basis of an agency agreement on granting the first to the second the right to sell the tourist product formed by the tour operator. This circumstance explains the fact that when organizing tours, travel companies cooperate with insurance companies. The insurance premium is included in the cost of the tour, and its amount depends on the fare. Varieties of tariffs are based on the following factors conditions of embassies, which can determine the minimum amount of the sum insured, for example, for Western Europe it is about 30 US dollars. The duration of the trip number of people in the group (discounts from 5 to 20% are possible) age (if the client is over 60 years old) , the sum insured can be doubled).
This is the second, revised and supplemented, edition of the textbook "Marketing" (1st ed. - UNITI, 1998). The textbook is supplemented with new chapters, which reveal the principles and methods of publishing, tourism and environmental marketing, as well as the organization of the marketing activities of an industrial enterprise, the specifics of marketing means of production.
S market-oriented management, aimed at achieving the goals of the enterprise by meeting the needs of tourists more effectively than competitors, marketing can be used both at the level of an individual travel company and in the activities of travel concerns, holdings, including at the international level1.
Let's assume that the airbus is designed for 300 seats, the average load factor is 80%. In the case of an undifferentiated strategy, when there is no division of the cabin by passenger classes in an airliner, in order to reach a given occupancy rate, the ticket price should not exceed 250, and the profit will be 200. However, marketing service managers believe that the price of 250 is the upper limit for those who do not have significant means of vacationers, but entrepreneurs and wealthy clients are willing to pay a large amount for high quality service and comfort. The marketing department invites the company's management to go to
Tourism is one of the leading and most dynamic industries in the global service sector. Due to its rapid growth, tourism has been recognized as an economic phenomenon of the 20th century. The Russian tourism market is also developing.
The volume of the Russian tourism market has been progressively increasing throughout the last decade. In 2012, its volume (compared to 2011) increased by 14% (or by 149 billion rubles), exceeding 1 trillion rubles (about 1.7% of Russia's GDP). If the current growth rate is maintained, in 2013 the tourist services market will reach 1.35 trillion rubles.
Rice.
The prerequisites for the positive dynamics of the tourism market in the Russian Federation are the growth of the solvency of the population and the consistent development of tourism infrastructure, the growth in the level of penetration of remote banking services, the Internet and Internet services in our country.
The tourism industry is one of the brightest examples of the introduction, development and active use of information and communication technologies in the world. Book tickets, choose and pay for a hotel room in any city around the world at any time, anywhere using a mobile device using electronic ways payment is becoming commonplace for tourists of all ages with a wide range of income levels.
The tourism services market is moving towards greater transparency and accessibility for the end consumer. According to Aviation EXplorer 1, the growth in the share of travel services processed on the Internet was recognized as the most noticeable trend in Russian market in 2012. The structure of demand is changing, shifting towards self-registration tourist services on the Internet by the population.
The development of the tourism market in the Russian Federation will inevitably lead to an increase in the level of competition in this sector of the economy, which, in turn, will require companies operating in the tourism industry to reconsider their attitude to the role of marketing in the company. In order to remain competitive in the new environment, travel industry companies need to move from a consumer-oriented culture to a market-oriented one.
At present, a unified approach to the definition of marketing in tourism has not yet been developed. Therefore, we will consider different views on the problem.
- ? formation of contacts with consumers of tourist services;
- ? development of contacts through innovation;
- ? control over the results of the service.
Establishing contacts with clients aims to convince them that the proposed holiday destination and the services, attractions and expected benefits that exist there are fully consistent with what the clients themselves want to receive.
The development of contacts involves the design of innovations that can provide new sales opportunities. Such innovations should meet the needs and preferences of potential customers.
- 1 http://www.aex.ru
- 2 Adopted at the international WTO conference in Budapest in February 1993.
Control involves the analysis of the results of activities for the promotion of goods and services on the market and verification of the extent to which the results reflect the full and successful use opportunities available in the tourism sector, comparative analysis expenses for promotional marketing activities and income generated.
French scientists R. Lankar and R. Ollier give the following definition of tourism marketing: “Tourist marketing is a series of basic methods and techniques developed for research, analysis and solving the tasks. The main thing to which these methods and techniques should be directed is to identify the possibilities for the most complete satisfaction of people's needs in terms of psychological and social factors, as well as to determine the ways of the most rational business management from a financial point of view by tourist organizations (enterprises, bureaus or associations), allowing to take into account the identified or hidden needs for tourism services. These kinds of needs can be determined either by recreational motives (entertainment, vacation, health, education, religion and sports) or by other motives that are often found in business groups, families, various missions and unions.
The Swiss specialist E. Krieendorf puts a more complete content into the concept of tourism marketing: “Tourist marketing is a systematic change and coordination of the activities of tourism enterprises, as well as private and public policies in the field of tourism, carried out according to regional, national or international plans. The purpose of such changes is to best meet the needs of certain consumer groups, while taking into account the possibility of obtaining an appropriate profit.
The concept of marketing in the field of tourism is developing in accordance with current trends development of marketing theory and service marketing theory.
The tourism product has the distinctive characteristics inherent in the service described in the previous paragraph, namely, intangibility, inseparability from the source, perishability and variability of quality (4 "NOTs"). The four "NOTs" of the tourism service as a product seriously affect the specifics of tourism activities. .
To the traditional elements of the marketing mix: Product - price - place - promotion, used in traditional marketing as a set of company-controlled strategies for influencing the consumer, in tourism it is recommended to use additional strategies for the marketing mix of services. These include:
- ? material environment ( physical evidence),
- ? maintenance process ( process) and staff (People).
Material environment ( physical evidence)(the atmosphere of a hotel, restaurant, office of a travel agency) involves working on the impact on the sensory channels of perception of customers: visual (organization of space, lighting, color), auditory (volume and tempo of music accompaniment), olfactory (ventilation of the room), tactile (room temperature) one .
Maintenance Process (Process) guests, customers can be developed using diagrammatic design methods, common ground, customer scenario and reengineering 2 .
Staff (People) contact staff is the staff of the company, which simultaneously produces and sells a tourist service. Therefore, contact personnel in service marketing are sometimes called "part-time marketers" (part time marketers) 3 .
Together with the rest of the marketing mix strategies (product, price, distribution channels, promotion), these additional three elements form the tourism marketing mix.
The result of activity in tourism is a tourist product, which has its own distinctive features:
- ? the demand for tourism services is elastic in relation to the level of income of the consumer and prices, subject to seasonal fluctuations;
- ? the dependence of the tourism product on such variables as space and time;
- ? the offered tourist services are divided geographically: booking a tour in a travel agency, booking a hotel or air tickets via the Internet, tourists receive in the place of their permanent residence, transport services can be obtained during a tourist trip, hotel accommodation, participation in festivals, excursion services, meals - in the place temporary stay;
- ? tourism product offering is characterized by inflexible production. Hotels, airports, museums, theme parks cannot be moved at the end of the tourist season to another region to accommodate changing demand and seasonality;
- ? assessment of the quality of the tourist product is highly subjective. Local residents, members of the tourist group can influence the perception of the quality of tourist service;
- 1 Innovators E. Features of behavior of consumers of services. Zh-l "Sales Management", 2003.
- 2 Ibid.
- 3 Ibid.
- ? the assessment of the quality of a tourist product can be influenced by such factors as weather and natural conditions, political events.
The problem of defining a tourist product remains debatable. Consider the most common definitions of a tourist product presented in Table 1.
Tourism product definitions
Table 1
|
Tourism product definition |
|
|
The policy of a tourist product can be considered and conducted from two positions: a certain territory and a certain enterprise. |
|
|
Medlik S „ 1995 |
Tourist product in the narrow sense ( sensustricto) and in a broad sense ( sensulargo). Tourist product in the narrow sense - everything that tourists buy separately (for example, transport service, hotel reservation) or in the form of a service package. The tourism product in a broad sense covers the totality of the impressions received from the moment of departure from home until the moment of return. |
|
Middleton V.T.C., 1996 |
A tourism product is a combination of three main components: attractiveness, tourism infrastructure, and their accessibility. |
|
Middleton V.T.C., 1996 |
From point of view potential client considering any form of travel, a product can be defined as a package of tangible and intangible |
|
Holloway J. Ch., Robinson Ch., 1997 |
A tourism product is a complex product that encompasses a place, services, and some tangible products. |
|
Golembski G., 1998 |
A tourism product combines all goods and services created and acquired in connection with leaving one's place of permanent residence and before the start of the trip, and during the trip, and while staying outside one's home area. |
|
Mazurkiewicz L., 2002 |
Tourism product - an arbitrary combination of place services and tourism services |
|
Nowakowska A., 2002 |
A tourist product can be called a package of tangible and intangible components available on the market that allows realizing the purpose of a tourist trip. |
As can be seen from Table 1, most often in approaches to the definition of a tourist product, a structural or component approach can be traced, where, along with material objects, various services, images, places, ideas, ideas are considered.
Less common are definitions of a tourism product that focus on meeting the needs and expectations of tourists (Middleton V.T.C.).
S. Medlik for the first time made an attempt to combine two points of view on the tourism product, considering it in a narrow and broad sense.
Thus, the tourism product can be considered from three positions:
- 1) from the position of a tour operator company (intermediation area);
- 2) from the position of territorial authorities (the scope of supply);
- 3) from the position of the client (the sphere of demand).
According to Federal Law No. 132-FZ "On the basics of tourism activities in Russian Federation"tourist product - a set of transportation and accommodation services provided for a total price (regardless of the inclusion in the total price of the cost of excursion services and (or) other services) under an agreement on the sale of a tourist product."
According to this definition, a tourist product is identified with the concept of a tour. They should be distinguished. The tour is an integral part of the tourism product. It is a set of primary services that a tour operator provides on a specific route and in a specific period of time. As a rule, the tour includes transportation, accommodation and meals according to the type chosen by the tourist. Tourist product is a much broader definition.
Let's consider a simplified classification of tourist products according to the characteristic elements that determine the essence of the tourist product (Table 2).
As you can see, the tourism product is diverse and is created by the efforts of many enterprises and organizations, each of which has its own methods of work, technologies, specific goals and objectives for the creation, promotion and implementation of a tourism product, using various marketing policy tools. This objectively creates great organizational difficulties in coordinating actions in the production, supply and sale of a tourist product and ensuring a high level of tourist service. At the same time, it should also be taken into account that the ultimate goals and content of the marketing process for enterprises involved in the creation, promotion and sale of a tourist product are also different. There are several levels of marketing organization in tourism:
- ? marketing at the level of tour operators and travel agents;
- ? marketing at the level of territories and regions - tourist destinations.
Classification of tourism products
table 2
|
tourist product |
An example of a tourism product |
|
|
Tourist |
Material object - a guidebook, a tourist map, tourist equipment, souvenirs, multimedia products: multimedia city plans, guides to museums and historical sites, presentations of regions on Internet sites, mobile applications |
Virtual travels of the Kizhi Museum Reserve (http://kizhi.karelia.ru/); virtual walks the Russian Museum (http:// www:virtualrm.spb.ru/) Virtual tours through the streets of London (http://virtualizacija.ru/) |
|
Tourist product - service |
Single service - hotel, gastronomic, transport, excursion, etc. |
Booking a hotel room, lunch in a restaurant, air ticket, etc. |
|
Tourist product - event |
Thematic focus of the event, specific localization in time and space |
Tourist exhibitions - WorldTravelMarket (London), ITB (Berlin), MITT (Moscow), INTURMARKET (Moscow); Oktoberfest (Wiesn, Munich); Olympic Games Sochi-2014; Cartoon Festival (http://www.multfest.ru/); music festival "White Nights" in St. Petersburg, etc. |
|
Tourist |
A tour that includes a certain set of services (transportation, accommodation, meals, excursions |
"All Spain" (http://www.natalie-tours.ru/); Music Festival |
Ending
|
tourist product |
Characteristics of the tourism product |
An example of a tourism product |
|
etc.), the total sale value of which is equal to the value of its elements |
in Sanremo (http://www.tez-tour.com); "Petersburg every day", etc. |
|
|
Tourist product - display object |
The presence of one main attraction (service) and several additional services located in one place - a museum, a historical monument, a natural monument, etc. |
St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin in Moscow, Madame Tussauds in London |
|
Tourist product - route |
Several places or objects united by a certain idea and interconnected by a specially marked route (pedestrian, water, automobile), with a developed infrastructure, the elements of which are located along the route |
"Golden Ring" (Russia), Wine and gastronomic tour (Nice - Avignon - Marseille), Die Goldene Strasse (Nuremberg - Pilsen - Prague) |
|
Tourist product - place |
Region, locality, national park, etc., identified on the basis of a specific spatial localization and having the character of a tourist attraction |
Paris, Disneyland, Carinthia - the land of lakes |
At the same time, marketing at the level of tour operators and travel agents and marketing at the level of tourism service providers belong to the field of commercial marketing, and marketing at the level of the national tourism administration and marketing at the level of territories belong to the field of non-commercial marketing.
The comprehensive nature of the concept of marketing in tourism involves consideration of the marketing process at various levels of management of the creation, formation, promotion and implementation of a tourist product. The subjects of the marketing process are not only commercial enterprises, but also bodies state power in the field of tourism, as well as the territory.
On fig. Figure 9 presents an approach to the concept of marketing in tourism as a system based on a three-dimensional coordinate system.
Rice. nine.
On a functional basis at all levels of formation of a tourist product, it is necessary to use the tools of strategic and tactical (operational) marketing.
Strategic and operational marketing complement each other and find their concrete expression within the marketing policy.
Operational marketing focuses on such variables as price, distribution system, sales, advertising and promotion of goods, strategic marketing focuses on selection commodity markets where the company has a competitive advantage and the forecast of total demand in each of the target markets. Based on this forecast, operational marketing sets goals for the development of market share, as well as the marketing budget necessary for this.
No matter how powerful an operational marketing plan is, it cannot create demand where there is no need and cannot sustain a line of business that is doomed to disappear. Therefore, to be profitable, operational marketing must be based on strategic marketing, which, in turn, is based on the needs of the market and its expected evolution.
Market orientation is the main condition that determines sustainable the economic growth companies operating in the tourism industry.
On a structural basis in the field of tourism, marketing of goods and marketing of services can be distinguished. The combination of trade in services and trade in goods in tourism, according to experts, is 75% and 25%, respectively.
When developing marketing strategies for companies operating in the field of tourism - travel agencies, hotels, catering establishments, tourist display facilities, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the "intangible" product. The development of a marketing program should not only build on the traditional elements of the marketing mix, but also need to involve additional elements - the service delivery process, contact personnel (personnel working in direct contact with guests and customers) and the physical environment.
Experience of international hotel chains such as Hyatt, FourSeasons, Marriott, Intercontinental and others, large tour operators - TUI, Carlson tourism indicates that the key competence in the field of tourism is the strategy of "precautionary and perfect service".
Creating a system of perfect service that meets the values of the clients of tourism enterprises is a long-term competitive advantage that cannot be copied.
In this regard, the main task is to establish a connection between the needs and expectations of customers and internal processes creating a value model for customers in the tourism industry, aimed at meeting these needs.
The customer value model includes five main elements that determine the customer's perception of value and level of satisfaction. These are the quality of the product itself, the quality of service through the technology of its provision, the image of the enterprise, the price and the relationship between the service provider, the client and the contact staff of the tourism company.
The implementation of the customer value model is facilitated by the internal marketing assets of the tourism company, which include:
- ? the image of a tourism enterprise, the level of its corporate culture;
- ? technology for organizing the process of quality customer service, a system of service quality indicators;
- ? the customer base of the tourism company and the information system of data on the opinions and preferences of customers;
- ? a system of service quality indicators, a system for tracking customer complaints;
- ? control system by human resourses, including the principles of training the personnel of a tourism company, empowering personnel, studying the degree of satisfaction of personnel with their work, i.e. Availability of qualified and motivated staff.
Each of these elements is a direct result of the work of various processes within a tourism company.
Providing quality customer service will:
- ? stand out from competitors;
- ? enhance the attractiveness of your image in the eyes of customers;
- ? minimize sensitivity to price changes;
- ? increase the profitability of the work;
- ? improve customer satisfaction and retention;
- ? to gain the maximum number of supporters of the tourism company who promote its services;
- ? raise your reputation;
- ? increase the degree of staff loyalty.
Achieving a sustainable competitive advantage by a tourism company is possible through the introduction of the concept of internal marketing.
The concept of internal marketing is to combine the motivation of employees and the formation of their professional knowledge for the identity of the brand of the tourism company. The motivation and high level of knowledge of employees is the source of high quality services.
The implementation of the concept of internal marketing will allow building the relationship "loyal staff - loyal customer - company profitability". The output of this process will be the developed technology of quality customer service and control over it, a system of indicators for evaluating the work of personnel depending on customer satisfaction, a marketing information system of a tourism company that gives staff the opportunity to provide quality customer service, as well as education loyal employees providing excellent service.
This approach differs from the traditional promotion of a product in the field of tourism, since it is aimed not at solving current issues of attracting and retaining customers, but at building a system of relationships with customers on a long-term basis.
The implementation of external marketing strategies implies organizational changes within the tourism company, primarily related to the distribution of resources, organizational structure and building relationships with clients. Thus, the most careful attention should be paid to working on the organizational environment through internal marketing in order to achieve the goals of the company as a whole.
In the service marketing models discussed in Section 1.2, Western marketers recognize the need to use internal marketing as an additional strategy. A characteristic feature of these models is the attitude to the personnel of the service sector enterprise as to an internal client. Motivation of personnel, satisfaction of their needs contribute to the growth of the quality of customer service of the company.
Internal marketing has the same theoretical base as traditional marketing. A feature is the object and subject of study of the concept of internal marketing.
The object of internal marketing are the employees of the tourism company and its internal environment, considered in terms of the expectations and perceptions of the client.
The task of internal marketing is to create an environment within the company that is as customer-oriented as possible.
By subjective can be distinguished:
- ? marketing at the level of public tourism organizations - national tourism administrations (NTAs); tourist information centers, public associations in the field of tourism;
- ? marketing at the level of territories and regions - tourist destinations;
- ? marketing at the level of producers of tourist services - accommodation facilities, catering enterprises, transport enterprises, excursion service enterprises, etc.;
- ? marketing of tour operators and travel agents.
The presence of a marketing strategy is a necessary element not only in the activities of individual companies in the tourism industry, but also in coordinating and regulatory bodies and organizations in this area.
The tourism marketing strategy within the state is to implement its tourism policy. Tourism policy of the state - a set of government measures and activities that determine the conditions for the development of the tourism industry, the rational use of tourism resources, increasing the contribution of the tourism industry to the country's GDP.
The tourism marketing strategy at the state level is reflected in the adoption of relevant legislation, state long-term programs and plans. The state, entering the international tourism market, enters into a system of competitive relations with other states and regions of the world. The role and place of the state in the global tourism market depends on how correctly and effectively the strategy of tourism marketing is built and implemented. The state tourism marketing strategy is aimed at creating, promoting and selling a national tourism product in the global tourism market and within the country, i.e. aims to develop international and domestic tourism. A state entering the international tourism market enters into a system of competitive relations with other states, entire world regions. The tourism marketing strategy is reflected in the adoption of relevant legislation, state long-term programs and plans. The role and place of a particular state in the global tourism market depends on how correctly and effectively the tourism marketing strategy is built and implemented.
1 Karpova G.BUT.,Khoreva L.V. Economics and management of tourism activities: tutorial in 2 parts. Part 1. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House of St. Petersburg State University of Economics, 2011.
The national tourism product is a set of available natural, climatic, natural, historical, architectural and cultural resources attracted and used in tourism activities, tourism and related infrastructure, as well as the activities of tourism companies, expressed in the creation, promotion and implementation of specific tourism products aimed at to attract tourists from other states and regions of the world.
In the activities of the state, the concept of marketing in tourism is based on the analysis of market opportunities, the choice of target markets, and the development of a marketing mix. The implementation of these components allows you to correctly develop the tourism policy of the state, i.e. state tourism marketing strategy. The main link in the implementation of state tourism marketing is government agency responsible for the state and development of tourism in general - the national tourism administration (NTA). In the Russian Federation, this role is played by federal agency for Tourism of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
The tourist policy of the state is based on strategy and tactics.
Tourism strategy - the development of a general concept for the development of tourism in the international and domestic markets, targeted programs, the implementation of which requires time and large financial resources. For example, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation on July 28, 2011, the Federal Target Program “Development of Internal and inbound tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2018)”. The implementation of the Program will increase the competitiveness of the domestic tourism market, create conditions for the development of tourism infrastructure, and attract investment in the industry. The activities of the Program are also aimed at increasing the efficiency of promoting the national tourism product in the domestic and international markets. This program is an example of Russia's strategy in the field of tourism.
To implement this strategy, a number of measures (tourist tactics) are proposed, including:
- ? zoning of the territory of tourism in the state;
- ? creation of a regulatory and legal framework for the development of tourism, consistent with international practice;
- ? formation of economic mechanisms to stimulate the development of foreign and domestic tourism;
- ? attracting investments in this area, etc.
The main objective of the state tourism marketing concept is the creation of a national tourism product and its promotion in the global and domestic tourism markets. Implementation of marketing tourism concept begins with an analysis of market opportunities, where we understand the state as a producer, a national tourist product as a product, other states or world regions as competitors, and tourists from other countries as consumers.
At the territorial level, there is a refinement of the national strategy for promoting the tourist product, the specification of projects, territories and tourist destinations is determined. The main attention is paid to the development of a general policy and strategy for development programs, marketing, for example:
- ? creation of major transport systems for the transportation of tourists to and from the country, as well as through its territory;
- ? protection of landmarks such as state reserves and National parks;
- ? creation of an information and advertising system dedicated to the promotion of destinations and countries as tourist centers.
The tourist essence of each region can be revealed more deeply and its tourist product is promoted more efficiently when different types of tourist products are allocated within the region by destination.
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, UNWTO) singles out tourist destinations as the main elements in the tourism system that attracts a tourist to make a trip and where he spends some time 1 . Tourist destination includes tourist attractions, tourist infrastructure, related services.
In the context of global competition, when tourist destinations become products - substitutes, destination management bodies are included in the competition for the attention of tourists and investment resources for the development of the destination.
Destination marketing can be defined as a management process in which destination management bodies and businesses identify target groups of tourists, establish communications with them in order to find out the preferences of tourists, their expectations, motivation for choosing a travel destination in order to adapt the tourist product in accordance with the expectations of tourists for achieve their maximum satisfaction.
UNWTO data show that in order to additionally attract one foreign tourist, providing an average of 1,000 euros to the country's economy, the state spends from 3 to 10 euros on non-commercial advertising of a tourist product. In accordance with this, the average amount of budgetary funds allocated in European countries for the promotion of a tourism product is 31.7 million euros 2 .
- 1 Pike S. Destination branding. An integrated marketing communication approach. - Oxford: Elsevier, 2008.
- 2 Page S.J., Connell J. Tourism: a Modern Synthesis. - London: Cengage Learning EMEL, 2009.
Tourism destination marketing is part of a broader concept of territory management - territorial marketing. Territorial marketing is marketing in the interests of the territory, its internal subjects, as well as external subjects, in whose attention and actions the territory is interested. Territorial marketing is carried out with the aim of creating, maintaining or changing the opinions, intentions and behavior of residents and non-residents in the person of individuals and companies regarding a given territory. The founder of the concept of territorial marketing is Philip Kotler. In his work Marketingplaces, he notes that location marketing is successful when the main target audiences - residents and businesses - are satisfied with their region, and when the region meets the expectations and needs of visitors and investors. This is the philosophy of territory management, which contributes to its socio-economic development by meeting the needs of individuals and economic entities in resources for the purpose of living and (or) doing business in the territory, regardless of the specific level of territorial formation - region, country, city.
Before the emergence of the concept of territory marketing and destination marketing as its integral part, "selling territories" was the dominant form of promotion of regions. However, destination marketing is part of the general concept of the development of the territory and works for an integrated sustainable socio-economic development.
The basis of the marketing approach to destination management is the consideration of a tourist destination as a complex tourist product, consisting of:
- ? destination attractions - what directly attracts tourists (natural, cultural, historical attractions);
- ? tourist infrastructure (accommodation facilities, catering establishments, tour agencies, museums, souvenir shops, etc.);
- ? accessibility (transport, visa, etc.);
- ? event calendar;
- ? support services (banks, telecommunications, security system, healthcare system);
- ? the presence of marketing intermediaries - tour operators, travel agents, etc.
Destination marketing approach involves the development of a complex destination product. And here it is important to understand that a tourist is not going to visit a hotel, a beach, a restaurant. He travels to get new sensations, the opportunity for intercultural enrichment, for the sake of improving health, etc. Tourists are attracted not by the characteristics of the destination, but by their functional ability to satisfy certain needs.
The destination marketing strategy should determine what tourism resources the destination has, what tourism product can be developed based on them, who this tourism product is aimed at, how it will be promoted and what resources are needed for this.
The destination marketing strategy is an integral part of the region's marketing strategy for the development of tourism, which includes the development of infrastructure, the optimization of local legislation in relation to the tourism sector in the region, the distribution financial flows, attraction of investments, development of public-private partnership in the field of tourism.
Tourism enterprises producing various services - hotel business, catering, excursion activities - are an integral part of the complex tourist product of the destination, as well as a sphere of joint interests of business and local authorities on the implementation of projects on the construction of hotels, theme parks, the development of a food system, etc. on the terms of public-private partnership.
test questions
- 1. Give the characteristic of the market of tourist services.
- 2. Describe the concept of "tourist product".
- 3. Types of tourism products.
- 4. What are the features of the formation of the concept of marketing in tourism?
- 5. Describe the levels of formation of the tourist product.
- 6. Why is the tourist destination the basis of the tourism system?
- http://www.gks.ru Kiryanova L.G. Destination Marketing as modern approach to the management of the tourist region. - Bulletin of the Tomsk Polytechnic University, 2010.
As such, tourism marketing has no general fundamental differences from any iconic marketing rules in general. It is for this reason that all the main provisions of modern marketing may well be applied in the field of tourism.
In addition to the basic provisions of marketing, it is worth considering the fact that tourism business has its own specific features.
As such, tourism marketing has no general fundamental differences from any iconic marketing rules in general. It is for this reason that all the main provisions of modern marketing may well be applied in the field of tourism. But it is worth considering the fact that the tourism business has its own specific features. Let's analyze them in more detail.
In the tourism sector, both services and goods are traded. According to experts, the share of services is more than ?, while goods account for everything? from the volume of all works.
For traditional types commercial activities that have a specific result of labor, and the very concept of marketing has such a specific content. In tourism activities, a tourism product is the result of labor. Under this term it is customary to understand any service provided to tourists (household, hotel, transport, excursion, etc.). A tourist product can also be understood as a system of goods and services, which together constitute a tourist trip.
This is what determines the features of marketing in this area:
- it is a system of services / goods, which is characterized by a complex set of relationships;
- flexible demand depending on consumer income, political and social conditions;
- the impossibility of the consumer of the tourist product to see it until the moment of payment;
- the presence of some distance from the product and the place of its consumption;
- several organizations participate in the creation of a tourist product, each of which has its own methods, needs and commercial goals;
- there is a high probability of occurrence of various force majeure circumstances.
All this must be taken into account when proper organization marketing campaign in the field of tourism, namely:
- pay special attention to stimulating demand;
- high degree of reliability of information policy;
- high degree of protection of the client's rights;
- taking into account the seasonality of demand for tourism products;
- a high degree of marketing coordination of all the creators of the tourism product.
Thus, the most optimal marketing program of a travel agency will be one that takes into account and observes such conditions as successful positioning among target audience, continuous professional development of employees of the travel agency, right choice advertising campaign for the target segment.
If we follow the results of numerous marketing studies in the field of tourism, we can make a reasonable conclusion that physical motivation takes the first place for the consumer of travel services. It, in turn, can be divided into recreation, sports, health care.
Psychological motivation should also be taken into account, which consists in the desire of people to visit new places, get acquainted with the way of life of people, and just have fun. In third place is cultural motivation, the so-called interest in art.
Taking into account all these factors, it is necessary to make such tours with the offer of a complex of services that would maximally satisfy one or another target segment. For example, for young people, physical motivation will play a major role. This is due to the high activity of young people and their need for inexpensive services. For middle-aged people or businessmen, it is more important to provide quality services, the availability of cultural programs, a certain elitism, prestige. For the elderly, services that satisfy the cognitive and cultural motivation, health improvement are important.
More recently, tourist network marketing was in high demand. Offers like: “Come to a new travel network company” met literally at every turn. To join this type of organization, one had to pay an entrance fee, invite 2 or more participants and earn a discount. The opportunity to earn and travel much cheaper was guaranteed.
But life itself put everything in its place. And now this type of tourism business, and, consequently, network tourism marketing has practically become obsolete. This is due to two factors. Firstly, almost all companies that use network marketing by now are either recognized as pyramid schemes or are approaching such an event. Secondly, when working on the Internet, the basic principle of network marketing almost does not work - duplication. It is for these reasons that tourism network marketing is currently ineffective.
Tourism in its main characteristics does not have any fundamental differences from other forms of economic activity. Therefore, all the essential provisions of modern marketing can be fully applied in tourism.
At the same time, tourism has its own specifics that distinguish it not only from trade in goods, but also from other forms of trade in services. There is trade in both services and goods (according to experts, the share of services in tourism is 75%, goods - 25%), as well as the special nature of the consumption of tourist services and goods at the place of their production, moreover, in a certain situation .
In traditional production, which has a specific result of labor (goods in material form), the concept of marketing has a more specific content. In tourism, the result of activity is reduced to a tourist product. In fact, a tourist product is any service that satisfies certain needs of tourists and is subject to payment by their side. Tourist services include hotel, transport, excursion, translation, household, communal, intermediary, etc.
The main tourism product is comprehensive service, i.e. a standard set of services sold to tourists in one “package”, abroad they are often called package tours.
The tourism product has its own distinctive features:
Firstly, it is a complex of services and goods (tangible and intangible components), characterized by a complex system of relationships between various components.
Secondly, the demand for tourism services is extremely elastic with respect to income levels and prices, but largely depends on political and social conditions.
Thirdly, the consumer, as a rule, cannot see the tourist product before its consumption, and the consumption itself in most cases is carried out directly at the place of production of the tourist service.
Fourth, the consumer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption, and not vice versa.
Fifthly, the tourist product depends on such variables as space and time, it is characterized by fluctuations in demand.
Sixth, the supply of tourism services is characterized by inflexible production. They can only be consumed directly on site. A hotel, airport, recreation center cannot be transferred at the end of the season to another region. They cannot adjust in time and space to changing demand.
Seventh, the tourism product is created by the efforts of many enterprises, each of which has its own working methods, specific needs and different commercial goals.
Eighth, a high quality of tourist services cannot be achieved in the presence of even minor shortcomings, since tourist service consists of these little things and small details.
Ninth, the assessment of the quality of tourist services is highly subjective: a great influence on the assessment of the consumer is exerted by persons who are not directly related to the package of purchased services (for example, local residents, members of the tourist group).
Tenth, the quality of tourism services is influenced by external factors of a force majeure nature (natural conditions, weather, tourism policy, international events, etc.)
These specific features of the tourism product have a significant impact on tourism marketing.
Tourism marketing is a complex and capacious concept, which is why it has not yet received an accurate and final formulation. There are many definitions, including:
Methods and techniques aimed at identifying and satisfying the needs of people caused by recreational motives - the cognitive aspect, recreation, entertainment, treatment, etc. - and the organization of travel agencies or associations that can rationally satisfy these needs;
State and private activities of tourism enterprises, carried out according to international, national and regional plans in order to meet the needs of certain groups of tourists;
The system of trade and production activities, which aims to meet the individual needs of each consumer on the basis of identifying and studying consumer demand in order to maximize profits;
Market-oriented management aimed at achieving the goals of the enterprise of the goals of the enterprise by meeting the needs of tourists more efficiently than competitors; marketing can be used both at the level of a separate travel company, and separately of travel concerns, holdings, including at the international level.
The World Tourism Organization identifies three main functions of marketing in tourism:
1) establishing contacts with clients aims to convince them that the proposed holiday destination and the services, attractions and expected benefits that exist there are fully consistent with what the clients themselves want to receive;
2) development involves the design of innovations that can provide new sales opportunities, in turn, such innovations must meet the needs and preferences of potential customers;
3) control provides for the analysis of the results of activities for the promotion of services on the market and the verification of the extent to which these results reflect the truly full and successful use of the opportunities available in the tourism sector.
A tourist product should be a good purchase. In this regard, marketing is a consistent action of tourism enterprises aimed at achieving such a goal. Therefore, the following definition of marketing is quite logical and reasonable.
Marketing in tourism is a system of continuous coordination of the offered services with the services that are in demand in the market and that the tourist enterprise is able to offer profitably and more efficiently than competitors do.
This rather lengthy definition contains a number of ideas that we will explore in more detail.
The first point to be noted is that marketing is not a single action, but a system of activities. In other words, it is a sequence of actions of a tourism enterprise that must be combined to achieve its goals. Therefore, marketing is not only advertising and selling services, or simply developing services. This is a system in which all functions and activities must be combined in accordance with the concept of marketing.
This circumstance fundamentally distinguishes marketing from commercial work. If commercial work is to use all forces and means to enhance sales, then the goal of marketing is an interconnected process of production and sale of services in accordance with consumer demand.
The second point to note in our definition is that marketing does not end with one action. You can't think of it as a monotonous process, whether it's a new product introduction date or a product launch date. new price. The fact is that the market is constantly in motion, in dynamics. For example, under the influence of various factors, consumer demand changes, competitors are also working to introduce new services to the market. These examples show that marketing is really continuous process , and the tourism enterprise must be continuously involved in it. Marketing, therefore, involves looking to the future, and not just focusing on the present.
The third point concerns agreement. It is necessary to coordinate actions within the tourism enterprise with the conditions of the external environment. If all this is considered separately, it is impossible to achieve the intended goals. This means that a decision must be made in order to use all marketing tools to achieve this alignment.
The fourth idea, which is embedded in our definition, concerns understanding, What is the actual service offered by the company?. The classic question that must be asked to underline this point is: “What kind of business are we really in?” such a statement of the question makes the company look at its services from the point of view of the consumer. Another answer to this question will be related to the consideration of the company's resources and what else can be done with them (material, human). Many firms are surprised to find new opportunities that are opening up.
The fifth point in our definition gives the notion that What does marketing do to satisfy customer needs?. This refers not only to what the client is currently purchasing, but also to what he would buy under other circumstances (for example, with an increase in income). Marketing should be a foresight activity. It involves predicting, or at least getting the right idea of what consumers might need the most. It also provides an opportunity to assess whether non-customers of the firm can be persuaded to use the services offered by the firm.
The sixth point of our definition emphasizes that marketing allows you to identify and implement means to increase profits. This makes it an exclusively economic category. The goals of travel companies should be realized through the qualitative satisfaction of customer needs in a sufficiently long time period.
The marketing mix is a set of means of influencing consumers of the target market in order to evoke the desired response from them. The main elements of a successfully functioning marketing mix of a travel company are shown in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 Basic elements of the marketing mix
In relation to tourism, there are several more components of the marketing mix:
Personnel, their qualifications and training;
Service delivery process;
Environment.
The tourism business is unique in the sense that the personnel of enterprises are part of the tourism product. Hospitality, goodwill - the main condition for all comers, and not just specialists in direct customer service. Marketing should be an integral part of the philosophy of the entire organization, and marketing functions should be performed by all employees. The key factor in the competitiveness of a tourist enterprise is the measures (activities) to mobilize the creative activity of the team.
An important factor in high-quality customer service is the environment - appearance buildings, office decoration, furniture, equipment, office equipment, etc. The atmosphere of a product offering (the physical environment) is perceived through the senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch) and influences purchasing behavior in four ways:
1) can serve as a carrier of information for potential consumers;
2) can serve as a means of attracting the attention of customers;
3) can be a carrier of a certain effect (colors, sounds and properties of the surfaces of the objects surrounding the client affect his consciousness and encourage him to buy);
4) can create a certain mood.
To ensure the effectiveness of marketing management, the development of its auxiliary systems is required:
marketing information;
organization of marketing;
marketing control.
Marketing Information System ensures the receipt, systematization, evaluation and use of information characterizing the state of the external environment and internal environment tourism enterprise. Without objective, relevant, sufficiently complete marketing information, it is impossible to make operational and strategic decisions.
Marketing organization system is aimed at creating an appropriate organizational structure of a tourist enterprise that ensures the implementation of marketing activities.
To constantly monitor the implementation of marketing strategies and programs, a marketing control system.
In practice, the technology for implementing the concept of marketing is very elastic. It can change both its structure and the place of individual stages depending on the characteristics of the enterprise, the degree of market development, the goals, objectives and market conditions. However, all these elements are closely interrelated. None of them can be excluded from the system without violating its integrity.
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