Unit 6: The marketing and promotion of visitor services Flashcards
How visitor services are managed
- Size (scale of operation) and organisational structure (including relationship with other providers) : An organisational structure is a written description to show the various organisations involved in visitor services work together so is presented in a chart which shows the hierarchical structure of how tourism and visitor services are managed.
- Sources of funding: Visitor services funded through the ministries of tourism. Revenue may also be raised through the advertisement of privately owned tourist facilities and attractions via national tourist board websites and print materials.
- Channels of communication : How information is passed between various departments, organisations and customers. Two general ways of delivering the information: through formal or informal communication channels.
- Responsibility/accountability: Levels of responsibility and accountability will be attributed to the various job roles associated with the provision of visitor services. Accountability occurs when a person or position has to ensure that tasks are completed on-time and in a manner which meets all expectations for it.
ROLE AND FUNCTION OF TOURIST BOARDS AND TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRES
- Marketing and Promotion: Marketing travel and tourism products, services and destinations to both the domestic market and to overseas customers.
- Research: Is expensive and time consuming if all the different providers within the destination carry out their own market research. Instead, this is often carried out centrally by the visitor service industry via tourist boards and tourist information centres.
- Information services: National tourist boards collect and collate information about the range of products and services available across the country they represent. At a tourist information centre, the staff is able to answer questions, and provide directions to a range of tourist locations.
- Advice and consultation : Tourists often head to the information centre upon arrival in a new destination and have the expectation that the staff will be able to answer their queries and help them put together an informal itinerary of attractions to see, restaurants to visit, with personal recommendations about the best places to shop etc.
- Quality standards (for staff working within the industry, licensing arrangements for tourism operators, classification of accommodation): In many countries, accommodation and catering provisions are inspected on a regular basis and graded against strict pre-set criteria. The staff receives relevant and appropriate customer service training and may have to perform skill-based assessments to update their expertise.
THE PROVISION OF TOURIST PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Range of products available:
• guide books and maps, leaflets, events calendars
• souvenirs
Range of services:
• information services (e.g. websites, leaflets, touch screen displays, mobile technology) • reservations systems (e.g. Book-a-Bed-Ahead, concert/theatre tickets)
• destination management systems including park-and-ride schemes
• guiding service
Why marketing and promotion are important to travel and tourism providers
Increased sales/usage/profitability
-Marketing is important to increase the number of sales and increase organisational profitability
-Thus Organisations increase the size of their customer base - i.e. to continue to attract existing customers as well as to try and appeal to new customers. In a profit-seeking organisation, the larger the customer base, the more likely the organisation will be in boosting the value and the
volume of its sales.
Competitive advantage
-Marketing plays an important role, in helping organisations or destinations to attract more customers than their rivals, in order to survive in this competitive business environment.
Positive organisational and product image
- Marketing is essential in creating an association of a certain product or service of a certain product or service in the customer’s mind
- Organisations that can create a positive image for themselves through a range of marketing and promotional techniques are likely to be most successful.
- A product or service with a positive image will gain more customers than products and services which are less well perceived.
Customer satisfaction
- By offering products and services which meet the needs and wants of the customers.
- Thus customers are more likely to return for repeat business purposes and are also more likely to tell their recommend the products and services to others, attracting new customers.
Contribution that tourist boards and TIC make towards the business travel market.
Tourist boards and tourist information centres help plan, prepare and promote products and services that will be beneficial to the business travel market.
