CHAPTER 3: TOURISM PROMOTION

Chapter objectives:

1. Explain the travel decision-making process.

2. Identify the importance of segmenting the tourism market.
3. Describe the tourism promotion mix

Lesson 1: The Travel-Decision Making Process

1. Recognizing the Need to Travel- in this phase, a potential tourist would recognize their need to travel.
Once the recognition is accepted, the traveler would set the criteria they believe would best satisfy their
need.
2. Information Gathering- this step of the decision making process involves collecting information from the
external (i.e. commercials, friends’ posts on social media, recommendation from friends and family) and
internal (i.e. experiences, personal motivations, desires, financial capacity, etc.) environment to make a
decision.
3. Establish Alternatives- during information gathering, a tourist would start determining alternative tourist
destinations. These alternatives would include different spots that combines different aspects to satisfy
the potential traveler’s need. For example, if a tourist wants to go to the beach, she would list alternative
beaches that she can visit and would ask herself is she would want to go to a beach she has already visited
or explore new ones. The consideration for the alternatives would also include facilities, accessibility and
even affordability.
4. Evaluation of Alternatives and Selection- in this phase, the tourist would gauge the options available to
them and select the best one which can satisfy their needs.
5. Preparation and Planning for the Trip- the planning trip varies for every tourist. Some tourist would
prefer to create their own itinerary while others would just purchase a pre-packaged tour.
6. Purchase- the tourist would purchase and make the trip.
7. Evaluation- after the trip, the tourist would evaluate it based on their expectations to determine whether
they were satisfied or not. This evaluation becomes a factor that would influence their future travel
decisions. The evaluation can occur simultaneously with the purchase.

Lesson 2: Tourist Motivations

a. Types of Tourists Based on their Motivations

1. Intrinsic Tourists – tourists who are into vacationing for the sake of enjoyment.
2. Extrinsic Tourists – Tourists who have reward oriented motivation. These type of tourists are more likely
to seek activities where performance is evaluated.
3. Adventurers – type of tourists that give very little importance to relaxation. They are always up to
exploring places and taking challenges. These type of tourists are mostly youths and singles from both
genders carrying “zest of life” qualities.
4. Budget Travelers − They are economy-oriented tourists. Their travel decisions are largely dependent on
their financial status.
5. Homebodies − They are mainly relaxed tourists. They do not prioritize adventure as part of their
vacation. These are tourists typically aged above 45 to 50 years. In some cases, busy professionals under
45 years also belong to this type.
6. Moderates – These travelers plan their tour ahead; they have a high inclination towards tourism but
they do not get into sports or adventure activities.
 7. Vacationers − They plan touring during vacations such as summer break or Christmas break. They are
not always sure of where and why they wish to visit.

b. Internal Factors of Motivation:

1. Intrinsic motivation- For many people, tourism is a way to satisfy their psychological needs such as
travelling, leisure, exploring new experiences, self-expression and self-assurance, creativity,
competition, relaxation, and belongingness. This pertain to assuring one’s capabilities on different
emotional levels. Intrinsic motivation seeks intangible rewards such as fun, assurance, and other
emotional needs.
2. Attitudes of Tourist- this pertains to the individual’s knowledge of a person, place, or object in
combination with feelings, both positive and negative, about them.
3. Tourist’s Perception − By observing, listening, or getting knowledge, a tourist forms the perception
about a place, person, or an object.
4. Values or Beliefs − A tourist believes or values a specific mode of conduct which is acceptable personally
or socially.
5. Personality of the Tourist − The nature and physique of a tourist plays an important role towards
motivation in tourism.

c. External Factors of Motivations

1. Extrinsic Motivation − a tourist gets motivated by external factors such as money and the need to feel
competent on the scale of expenditure and performance.
2. Place of Origin − The grooming of the tourist depends upon their place of its origin. For example, for the
Indian married women, the tourism might come last in the list of preferential things they wish to do
whereas for American ladies, tourism would acquire much higher rank.
3. Family and Age − The family background matters when it comes to the structure and the income of a
tourist. Today, the families with nuclear structure and double income tend to opt for long distance,
extravagant tourism while joint families or families with single earning member would be more
interested in visiting domestic places. The tourists also have different preferences of places according to
their age. For example, tourists in the age group of 5 to 45 years might enjoy visiting destination in the
USA such as Disneyland more than the senior citizens.
4. Culture or Social Class − Tourists of different cultures prefer different places, events, and different types
of tourism. In addition, if friends and families who have visited a place earlier spread the first hand
information that motivates the others to visit the place too.
5. Market − Ever-changing market variables alter tourism. Changes in value of currency, political situations,
and economic well-being of the country influence the decisions of a tourist.

d. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

- A theory created by American psychologist Abraham Maslow that depicts the five basic motivational
needs any human being has. They are:

Activity: Illustrate Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need. Explain each level and relate it to how it influences a
tourist’s motivation.
e. Factors Affecting Tourist Behaviors
1. Geographical Factors− Some physical factors like geographical and climatic conditions, facilities and
amenities, and the accessibility of the destination affects the tourist’s decision aking process.
2. Social Factors− A person’s social network, which provide firsthand information about a place can alter a
person’s perception of that place, thus, influencing their decision to visit it or not.
3. Place of Origin− There can be a broad spectrum of tourist behavior depending upon the place they
belong to. For example, North Americans like to follow their own cultural framework while Japanese
and Korean tourists like to visit places in groups.
4. Tourism Destination− It is a major contributing factor altering tourist behavior. If a destination has all
basic provisions such as electricity, water, clean surroundings, proper accessibility, amenities, and has its
own significance, it largely attracts tourists.
5. Education of Tourist− The more educated the tourist is, the wider range of choices, curiosity, and the
knowledge of places he would have. This drives the decision making when it comes to choosing a
destination.

Lesson 3: Market Segmentation for the Tourism Industry

a. Market Segmentation
- Market segmentation is simply dividing the total consumer market into groups to be able to
communicate with them and provide their specific needs. In our previous lessons, we have seen that
tourists’ needs and wants vary because they are influenced by internal and external factors.

b. Purpose of Tourism Market Segmentation

- It helps the tourism sector to understand the demands of specific consumers.
- It helps to allocate marketing expenses efficiently.
- It helps to create effective marketing strategies to target specific market segments.

c. Tourism Market Segmentation

1. Geographic
- Geographic market segmentation is done by considering factors such as tourists’ place of origin. This
factor is important as the tourists belonging to different places are brought up with different cultures
and show different traits of behavior. It is the most basic type of segmentation.
2. Demographic
 - This segmentation is done by considering the tourist’s gender, age, marital status, ethnicity,
occupation, religion, income, education, and family members.
3. Psychographic
- The marketing people do this segmentation by taking into account the psyche of the tourists. They
gather information about the tourists’ interests, attitudes, their way of living life, opinions, and overall
personality.

d. Common Classifications of Tourists

1. Tourists Travelling with Families
- The tourists who visit places with their families. One person, generally the head of the tourist family is
the decision maker. The families generally travel for holidays and leisure and tend to save money and
expect receiving the best services for what they have paid. They tend to carry more luggage and look
for activities that may interest every member of the family.
2. Single Tourists
- They travel alone and are independent. They are alone but not lonely; as tourism is what they pursue
as a hobby. The gap year travelers, unmarried persons, widows/widowers, backpackers, and solitary
tourists travel on their own. They decide for themselves and tend to be more willing to spend more.
They tend to carry less things on the journey and are more flexible in terms of schedules and activities.
3. Groups of Tourists
- Students from schools and universities as members of educational tours, fellows of various
organizations and associations with common interests, groups of newly-weds, or senior citizens.
4. Tourists Visiting Friends and Relatives
- These tourists travel to meet friends or relatives, or to attend a celebration or gatherings. These
tourists generally plan their tours in the breaks such as Christmas holidays, summer breaks or any kind
of long break when most of the people don’t have work or school.
5. Business Tourists
- They are the professional tourists on the business trips. They decide for themselves but do not spend
much money. For example, a sales or a marketing person travels to another city to attend a business
fair, and business manager travels to another country for business deals.
6. Incentive Tourists
- They tour for consuming the reward they received in the form of a few days’ family holiday package at
some hotel or resort. Such rewards are generally distributed if an employee performs outstanding to
achieve the goals.
7. Health Tourists
- These tourists travel to places with the agenda of health on their mind. They travel to avail some
special medical treatment, operation, surgery, medication, or inexpensive aesthetic surgeries available
in different country. Some tourists in this category also travel if they are receiving some illness from
the climate at their residence such as Asthma.

e. Tourism Marketing Mix

1. Product- Tourism is a service sold to the customers and the tourist experience is the product, which is
intangible, and non-storable. The quality of the tourist experience as a product is directly proportional
to the quality of the service a tourism business provides. The product must be designed to highlight its
features and to satisfy the tourist’s needs. If the product is branded, the customers find it more reliable.
2. Price-Determining the price of the product requires consideration of three key factors −
a. Operating costs − Operating costs include both fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs remain same
regardless of the sales which involve building, insurance, and equipment costs. Variable costs
include costs for wages, gas, electricity, cleaning, maintenance, repairing, materials used in
production, office stationery, linen, food, petrol, machinery, uniforms, bank fees, and expenses for
advertisements, promotions, and brochures.
 b. Profit Margins − This is determined by comparing your own products with the competitors’ offers.
Profit margins are set without compromising the competitive advantage and quality.
c. Commissions of Intermediaries − Working with intermediaries incurs commissions. Commissions
are the fees paid to the intermediaries to distribute and sell your product such as travel agents.
- Pricing Strategies:
a. Discount Pricing − This strategy calls for reducing the basic price of a product or services.
b. Variable Pricing – The pricing of a product or service varies with respect to the features of a
product. For example, a tour package that would bring you to 8 tourist spots would obviously be
more expensive that a tour package that only includes 5 tourist spots.
c. Loss Leader Pricing − It is a strategy of selling products at prices lower than the actual prices. It
helps to settle the loss by attracting customers to buy more number of products since it is
cheaper.
d. Promotional Pricing − It involves giving a product for free with another paid product with the
objective of promoting the free product. Customer interest is generated through the use the free
product thereby increasing the sale.

3. Place-The place is where the tourists visit and stay. The potential of a tourist destination lies in its
attractiveness or aesthetic value, accessibility, and the facilities it provides to the tourists. The tourists
also seek a place highly for the activities it offers, the amenities and skilled workforce it provides, and
its location.
4. Promotion- Promotion is intended to inform the customers about the products, create an image about
the product, and position the products in the market. There are various effective ways of promoting the
tourism products:
a. Advertising the products on television commercials, newspapers, radio stations, and websites.
b. Distributing promotional material such as brochures, keychains, purses, water bottles, pens, or any
small gift item designed for promoting the product.
c. Setting Point of Sale (POS) displays at various places such as retail stores, shops, malls, or petrol
pumps.
d. Promoting tourism products in local fairs, exhibits and events.
e. Promoting the products with their attractive features on the website of the tourism enterprise.
f. Conducting programs of sponsorships, or promoting products by offering them as incentives.

References:

Cruz, Z.L. (2013). Principles of Tourism Part II. Rex Book Store, Inc. Philippines.
Moser, T. (2013, June 9). Travel Decision Making Process. Retrieved from
https://issuu.com/mosthom/docs/travel_decision_making_process_-_th
Tutorials Point (n.d.). Tourism Management - Marketing Mix. Retrieved from
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/tourism_management/tourism_management_marketing_mix.htm.
Tutorials Point (n.d.). Market Segmentation. Retrieved from
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/tourism_management/tourism_management_market_segmentation.h
tm.