Tourism marketing activities started with travel and
hospitality management in Europe in the nineteenth century. Then these
activities increased in the following last five decades. Before the Second
World War, tourism activities were considered to be a luxury for particular
communities. After industrial revolution, tourism activities started gradually
spreading in the World. Through increasing of purchasing power of consumers,
tourism activities has been seen as international activities. Since 1936,
companies allow paid leave right for their workers. Then workers started travel
activities at weekends (Pehlivan, 2009: 34).
The number of people who travel have been increasing
year by year. The average number of people going holiday amount to 60 percent
of all population in Europe. At macro level, countries and at micro level
tourism companies have developed marketing strategies in order to increase
demand for travelling. After the 70s, countries and tourism companies started
to prioritize market research in order to steer demand (Hacıoğlu, 1997: 9)
The development of tourism marketing levelled off.
In other words, the idea of marketing tourism has been neglected for years
(Rızaoğlu, 2004: 15). According to İçöz (1996: 22), the reasons for this
neglect may include the following factors:
-
increase in the individual income reflected on
tourism much later that it did so on other properties and services because
people prioritize covering their essential needs. The share of the tourism in
the individual income started to increase only after the 1950s.
-
it has become an important challenge to find
staff who are qualified for marketing in tourism sector.
-
the introduction of the developing technology
into tourism has taken longer time compared to the other sectors, thus leading
to delayed mass production.
-
tourism sector being a seasonal economic one
naturally led to a decreased interest by entrepreneurs.
Marketing has been defined in a number of ways in
the literature. For example, Kotler has traditionally defined the marketing
concept as follows: “The marketing concept
holds that the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining
the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions
more effectively and efficiently than competitors”
(Kotler, 1991: 16).
Similarly,
marketing is defined as “a societal process
by which individuals and groups obtain what they needs and want through
creating, offering and freely exchanging products and services of value with
others”(Cooper, et al., 2008: 514). Bennet
and Strydom (2001: 2) also define marketing as “the
process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual needs and organizational goals”.
On the other hand, according to British Chartered
Institute, “marketing is the management
process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers’
requirements profitably” (Cooper, et. al.,
2008: 514).
In 1975, tourism marketing was first defined by WTO
as “tourism marketing is a management
philosophy that targets research, prediction, and selection about a particular
tourism product by considering the characteristics of demands to provide a
prominent place for a product in the market.”
The ultimate aim in marketing is to maximize the income of a tourism company
(İçöz, 1996: 21). Another definition describes tourism marketing as “a set of systematic and harmonic efforts of
national tourism organizations and tourism enterprises to satisfy the needs of
tourists at national and international levels”
(Hacıoğlu 1997: 10).
Similarly, according to Akat (1990:
8), ‘‘tourism marketing is based on consumer satisfaction in order to ensure
tourism supply and tourism demand adaptation’’.
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