1. The Special Characteristics of Travel and Tourism Marketing
Chapter 3
The Special Characteristics of Travel and Tourism Marketing

2. Objectives
The vital distinction between the marketing of goods, from which much of the theory of marketing developed in the 20th century and the marketing of services that now dominates the economics of developed countries
The significance of marketing for large-scale operations
The differences between services provided by larger organizations and the preponderance of small and micro –businesses that comprises the world’s visitor economy
The significance of micro-businesses in most visitors’ experiences, especially in leisure tourism
The special characteristics of the service products provided by travel and tourism organisations
The influence of those characteristic on the ways in which marketing decisions are made in practice in the sectors of the visitors economy noted in chapter 1, especially the focus on influencing and managing customer demand

3. Factors that increase the demand for service marketing
Economic growth
Increasing levels of consumers’ disposable income
The development of rapid transport communications within and between countries
The growth of telecommunications
The emergence of modern information communications technology (ICT)
Recognition of economies of scale in service operations
Franchising, acquisitions and alliances
IT and e-commerce

4. Common characteristics of commercial operations
Production, sale and distribution of purpose-designed, repeatable, quality controlled service products- all operation managed and controlled using modern ICT
Continuous production and availability throughout the year in multiple sites
Products typically heavily branded with advertising support and bearing standard prices
Products available on-line via corporate websites and multiple outlets
Most marketing is undertaken by corporate head offices, which control and direct the activities at individual production/delivery units

5. Not to be confused with mass consumption
The production on a large scale no longer has to mean the mass production of undifferentiated products for the mass market
Market segmentation and product differentiation are as relevant to service markets as they are to manufacturers of physical goods
IT is opening up new opportunities for businesses to interact with customers on a one –to-one basis and that is shifting service marketing to a customer centric approach rather than traditional business centric approach
A primary reason for the growth of service organisations is the search for lower unit costs of production and delivery
From a cost efficiency point its important that continuous production on a large scale is effective along with product design and quality control of standardized operations
Once there is no technical problem for production, the focus is on the promotion of continuous consumption

6. Some marketing implications of micro-businesses
Most micro-businesses have had no formal management education training
Traditionally most have had little engagement in marketing

7. Disadvantages of micro-businesses
Around one-third of the total micro-businesses may be damaging the environment of the destinations in which they are located and so reducing visitor satisfaction levels and the perceived quality of the overall visitor experience

8. Services and their characteristics
Services unlike goods are performances
Buying services does not offer ownership (intangibility)
In most cases services cannot be held and can perform on a once only basis (perishability)

9. Table 3-1

10. Two other characteristics
Heterogeneity or variability
Every service performance is unique to each customer
Intangibility
Most services can not easily be measured, touched or evaluated at the point of sale

11. Particular characteristics of travel and tourism services
Seasonality and other major variations in the patterns of demand
High fixed costs of operations, allied to fixed capacity at any point in time
Interdependence of tourism products

12. Definitions
A fixed cost is one that has to be paid for in advance in order for a business to be open to receive customer
A variable cost is one that is incurred in relation to the number of customers received at any given point in time

13. Does Marketing in travel and tourism differ from other forms of Marketing?
Is shaped and determined by the nature of the demand for tourism
The operating characteristic of supplying industries
Promotion and distribution have their own particular characteristics