Nowadays, marketing in tourism has gone beyond the creation of a quality product, determining the optimal price and attracting target buyers.
Another important task for a travel company is to establish strong connections with existing and potential clients. Accordingly, any travel company is forced to communicate and find ways to market services.
In this case, communication home owner data package must be carried out in accordance with a clear plan. To achieve the desired result, companies resort to the services of advertising agencies, specialists in sales promotion and development of a strategy for promoting a tourist product, as well as PR companies whose activities are aimed at forming a corporate image. In any case, in addition to choosing the directions of communication, it is necessary to determine the amount of required financial investments and the procedure for implementing the idea.
Marketing communications in tourism
Tourism companies are characterized by a ramified network of marketing communications. The company actively contacts partners, customers and third-party observers.
4 Basic Methods of Marketing Communications
In general, marketing communications involve 4 methods of influence:
advertising;
propaganda;
sales promotion;
personal selling.
Advertising is the most important component of the communications system. Due to its effective impact on the audience, it largely determines the general communications policy of the enterprise and requires the greatest expenditure.
Being the basis of the entire communication process, advertising performs several functions at once: conveying information about a product to consumers, forming a desire in the target audience to purchase a specific one, encouraging current customers, etc.
According to experts, advertising in the tourism sector should perform the following main tasks:
Provide a clear description of each element of the service, giving the potential client a clear idea of the product being offered.
To guarantee a benefit or a solution to a problem.
Focus on the unique properties of the product that competitors do not have.
Create favorable conditions for the company's employees responsible for implementing proposals made to clients.
Encourage customers to spread the word about the company.
Among the latest trends in business, which have also affected the tourism services sector, are such areas of communication activities as public relations and publicity. In some cases, expenses on related events for tourism companies make up half of the advertising budget (over 20 years, the share of these expenses has increased 2-3 times). This is quite logical: establishing public relations provides enormous opportunities and sometimes gives a greater effect in promotion compared to advertising.