Why should we know the tourism marketing strategy?
Is it worth it to know what is the meaning of tourism?
What is the strategy we need for it?
How can we market for your destination?
Tourism is an important source of income for any country, it’s a luxury but it’s also irresistible.
It’s a passion for many people being curious to know the culture, traditions, and habits of the other countries.
So, they’re having a completely different and unique experience.
They may like the country and they may not, they’ll get engaged with different people.
So, it’s worth living whatever was the purpose of their traveling.
What is tourism marketing?
It’s known that there is traditional marketing and digital marketing, both of them are very effective and efficient.
Digital marketing doesn’t cost a lot. However, it becomes the most important tool that people use however they want, whenever they need and wherever they are.
You can market using Social Media, E-mail marketing, Search engine marketing whether it was SEO or PPC.
Regarding offline marketing, it costs a lot of money and you spend too much time and effort besides.
It would work as a tourist attraction tool and it will be a great tourism marketing strategy, but it will be super costly.
So, Tourism marketing is promoting your tourist attractions, tours, destinations, accommodations, activities, and services whether it will be for a country or a city by using especially digital marketing.
What is tourism strategy?
Tourism means visiting a country or a city temporarily that is completely different from yours for a specific reason.
Strategy means the action steps or plans you take or put to achieve a goal but it’s a long-term plan.
So, tourism strategy is the action steps you take or the plan you put to achieve a specific goal related to tourism.
What is the tourism marketing strategy?
It is the plans or the action steps you take to promote your destination creatively and correctly so you get the attention of the foreigners effectively and easily.
What is tourism promotion?
Tourism promotion is the operations, activities you do, the actions you take, and the expenditures you pay for your destination to become a touristic haven and to attract tourists.
Before explaining the “4 P’s” of the marketing mix you should know the “5 A’s” of tourism.
What are the “5 A’s” of tourism?
Amenities
The services you present to them to facilitate everything to them, this will help them to feel safe and comfortable.
For example, it would be a guide that contains the price of the food, transportation, and basic needs mainly, how can they move from the “region (A)” to “region (B)” and the continuous following up with them during their journey.
They will feel that you have their back.
Accessibility
The way or the method they can reach the destination they need whether it was the accommodation or the attraction places or any place they necessarily need such as a supermarket or a pharmacy.
Accommodations
I consider it to be the most important element of them.
If it was unbearable it will certainly affect tourism because later on, they’ll give bad feedback as a review.
So, you’ve to set expectations with them and you should send them the pictures of the accommodation they will stay at.
For example, if you are launching a project for exploring the whole country which means that they’ll have different accommodations so they have to know the standards of the accommodation they will stay.
Attractions
The elements or the factors that attract the tourist and make him feel excited to visit the destination.
It could be nature as forests, mountains, seas, oceans, and monuments.
Activities
The activities they do during their trip.
For example, watching the sunset in the mountains or trying desert racing or diving underwater.
What is the difference between promotion and marketing?
Promotion is part of the 4-marketing mix which is product price, place, and promotion.
We usually use the promotion to increase reach so the customer becomes aware of what are you.
We also use the promotion to attract therefore they are connected because if we reach our customers effectively and efficiently.
They will pay attention to our product or service and they will be willing to buy our product or use the service.
So, the 4-marketing mix is a strong tool that will help you to put the right tactics for your marketing campaigns.
The 4 P’s of marketing
They will help you in the tourism marketing strategy, as they are the unique pearl for any business.
Price
It’s the most important element in traveling.
You’ve two options, the first is to put a stable price for any country whether the price was high or low and whether the country was economically advanced or not and you won’t change anything in the price.
The second is to put the price according to the state of the country you’re targeting, although it’s not professional and efficient.
Place
It’s how the customer will reserve or use your service, whether having an office or online website for reservation.
Promotion
As I mentioned before, you can do it online, it won’t cost you much and you can do it offline, but it will cost you a lot.
So, you can do something that won’t cost you a lot which is an event.
For example, you’ll create an event on Facebook, this event will be held at any center.
You’ll target the tourists that are already in your country and will ask them to make a video.
They will be speaking about their experience and talking about the country, about how they feel, what they do and why should the other foreigners choose it as a first travel experience.
You also can use these videoes as a marketing tool.
If the tourists become satisfied they definitely will become brand advocates.
Product
Mainly, you’re offering a service that would be the guide and the tips you give to them and the product is the destination.
These will help you to create an effective plan that will help you to achieve your goal.
How can you market for your destination?
Marketing your destination is the most effective part of a tourism marketing strategy, but it doesn’t mean you’ll do this on your own, you’ll need help for sure.
You’ll need sponsors and partners such as the sponsors and partners of the SDGs.
They will support you a lot and make the process much easier than before.
Targeting your audience
You should target or segment your audience effectively and carefully.
This segmentation could be according to interested, age, gender, needs, location, income, and job as the normal one.
But, people don’t have the same mentality and opinion.
For example, targeting a family won’t be as targeting seniors or couples as well.
You won’t put the same plan and activities for them.
Types of tourists
There are different types of tourism which are Adventure tourism, health/medical tourism, recreating tourism, religious tourism, cultural tourism, sports tourism, and nature tourism.
Targeting your audience isn’t easy at all because it doesn’t depend on the normal segmentation that was mentioned before.
There is a budget traveler, this kind of traveler will ask about every single detail in the country and almost all of them don’t stay at the hotel.
They prefer hostile or host families as they don’t mind staying with strangers.
The free spirit, this kind of traveler prefers having the experience on their own they love getting engaged with people from different cultures.
The photojournalist, this type of traveler has a talent they always love taking pictures
tourism marketing strategy2The selfie traveler, this type of traveler, loves taking pictures using selfie-stick.
The Luxury traveler, this type of traveler doesn’t care about the cost of the trip at all.
They always stay at 4 stars hotel or any hotel with high quality, they also do much shopping, go to cinemas and having fun without caring about the budget.
The foodies, these types of travelers are inspired by the food so, they love trying the food of every country whether it will be bad or good.
The tag-along, this type of tourists don’t prefer traveling alone, they love traveling with their family or their friends.
The adventure, this type of traveler loves exploring each part in the country.
He/She is always inspired by forests, mountains, and oceans.
Social media channels
Every country has its traditions and customs.
Also, Each country has its most used social media channel.
For example, In Egypt, they use Facebook and Instagram, while in Dubai, they use Instagram and twitter so you have to know the most used social media channel in each country.
However, social media channels are very important because they are the most popular and used channels in digital marketing.
In my opinion, Instagram will be your best friend on social media channels.
You’ll be able to put the perfect pictures that will promote and market for your destination.
Choosing lovely influencers
Influencers are very effective and efficient marketing tools.
You can pay to influencers to promote your destination especially the online ones such as bloggers, vloggers, and YouTubers.
They can do this by posting a post on Instagram, Facebook, twitter with a very catchy content.
It won’t cost you a lot as it will be a win-win situation because they will have a good and new experience in a different country.
Influencers have a big number of followers and people get affected by them. However, they aren’t actors, singers, footballers, etc…
Creating a Booklet is a must
Creating a booklet or a guide is very important as you’ll avoid a specific type of travel who is the lost one.
It happens that many tourists don’t have a guide so they hot lost in the country.
Yes, they find their destination at last but we should avoid that.
you can make the Booklet with a beautiful and catchy design.
It will cost you a lot if you do it as a book or paper or whatever.
So, it could be effective if you do it online using, for example, google slides.
This booklet should include professional and catchy pictures of the country or city that contain historic places, traditions, festivals, and nature.
It also should contain pictures of accommodation and food.
Finally, it must include the prices of the most important points such as transportation, accommodation, food, and tours and This is a very important standard to put it into consideration.
Why should they choose you?
It simply means what makes you different and unique
You should have different, funny, and activities that attract tourists.
For example, I’m a tourist who is inspired by nature life and when I search on google, I found that Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and china have amazing and charming nature life but I’ve hesitated and I don’t where should I go.
So, if we want the tourist to choose us we’ll do perfect promotion by thinking out of the box.
Launching awareness and reach campaigns, you can make videos talking about your country or your city.
For example, What should they do and what should they avoid and you also should talk about safety.
It’s like presenting helpful tips instead of writing because most of the people prefer watching than reading.
Paid campaigns and unpaid campaigns for tourism marketing strategy
It’s like online Ads whether it would be on social media or websites.
These tips should be put into consideration.
- Your website should be optimized
- You’ve got a unique opportunity which is SEO in which you can promote for all your services and products without paying any money.
- You can make open discussion such as Online chatting and start asking them about their expectations, what do they want to see or know or have? ask them to express their opinions.
- You also can create a challenge between them.
For example, we found out that we have two photojournalist travelers.
The one who can take catchy and charming pictures and writing a perfect will have a tour for free.
Finally, if you’ve done all these previous tips, you’ll be able to put a perfect tourism marketing strategy and you’ll also have loyal customers that will talk about through word of mouth.
Conclusion
Tourism is essential in each country and it’s also indispensable for many people.
So, the following points will help you to find out many things about tourism to put a perfect tourism marketing strategy
First, the “4 P’s” of marketing
Second, the “5 A’s” of tourism
Third, the types of tourists
Finally, how can you market for your destination?
FAQs
What is tourism marketing strategy?
The action steps you take or the plan you put to achieve a specific goal related to tourism.
What are the 5 A's of tourism?
They are Amenities, Accommodations, Activities, Accessibility, and Attractions.
How can you market for your destination?
You can market through the following steps which are
1) Target your Audience
2) Social media channels
3) Choosing lovely influencers
4) Creating a booklet is a must
5) Why should they choose you?
6) Paid campaigns and unpaid campaigns