WE TOUR Project Course 1 - Module 3 - International Tourism Marketing

1. TRAINING PROGRAM COURSE 1:
MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT
IN TOURISM
MODULE 3: INTERNATIONAL
TOURISM MARKETING

2. 1) International tourism market
2) Internationalization as a key strategy for your business
3) International Tourism Marketing Plan
4) Digital Marketing
5) Traditional Marketing
6) Doing Business Internationally
7) Cooperation

3. International tourism market
Supply
attractions
transportation
accommodation
amenities
food and beverages
Demand
guests
needs and preferences
services offered

4. Tourism
Inbound
product
promotion
VALUE PROPOSITON : WHAT IS
NEW OR INNOVATIVE IN IT?
place
context
Outbound
price
interest

5. Segmentation
Income
Age
Family
composition
Gender
Group
dynamics
Education
Occupation
Traveler
type
Interest

6. Internationalisation as a key strategy for your business
Design context specific products
Design market specific strategy
Ensure inclusivity
Establish strong local, regional and international networks
Make sure the tourism offer is sustainable, community based and
as green as possible
Build skills
GO DIGITAL !

7. International Tourism
Marketing Plan
• Map the local, regional, national assets
• Map the stakeholders in the value chain
• Map the competitors
• Make your SWOT analysis
• Identify your target market: who is the primary
buyer of your unique product or service?
• Know the target group in the market:
demographics, travel and tourism habits and
preferences, the unique selling point for this
segment, their motivations to travel and their
means of booking and traveling

8. • Gather the available data about your
destination, and your target markets
• Study the analysis and forecasts
• Read the available reports on trends and
customer preferences for tourism
• Try to keep a competitive and innovative
edge

9. International Tourism Marketing Strategy
• Have one online and one offline stragety
• Have a strategy for each of your offer types
• Are you digitally ready? Optimise your booking and
secure payment infrastructure
• Are you on Google? Use the search engine optimization
to your advantage
• Experience sells. Focus on the experience you will provide
• Use influencer marketing

10. International Tourism Communication Strategy
• Are you market ready? Design your message, hook line,
materials for online tools and channels
• Always be clear and simple in message and language
• Optimize your blog, website and the information you provide
for desktop and mobile – 40% of travellers from the USA, UK
and the EU prefer to search and book online
• Use social media well, use multiple channels and know which
channel or tool your target segment prefers: Instagram, video
streaming, blogs, online destination platforms, TripAdvisor,
AirBnB, etc

11. Approaches for International
Tourism Marketing
Location marketing
Activity marketing
Corporate marketing
Destination marketing

12. 4Ps of Tourism Marketing
People
Price
Place
Promotion

13. Digital Marketing Tips
ensure the perfect match between your target group and their
choices
use online data and socil media to assess your target group
tell a good story
be realistic in pricing
aim for those hearts and stars!
use the advantages of advance booking
provide accurate, timely, thorough information on your digital tools

14. Have an online presence on popular apps: easy booking, available discounts, services and
products with the best ratings, environmentally friendly compared to traditional tools
Some popular apps from 2022: Airbnb, All Trails, Culture Trip, Google Flights, Lounge Buddy
Some tips for your own website or app:
social media account sign-up: profile the user segment
search and filters: finding what is needed is easy
navigation and geolocation: amenities, attractions, assets
user notification services: deals, discounts, new products, services

15. Traditional Marketing
Media
Travel exhibitions
Fam and press trips
WoM

16. Doing Business Internationally
Understand the visitor’s profile
Honesty, clarity, precision
USP: unique selling point
Create experiences, promote
internationally
Price your offer wisely

17. Cooperation: the advantages of a DMO
• plan, diversify, internationalise the offer
• promotion and marketing of the destination
• attract visitors from target markets and assess new markets
• provide information and data for tourism businesses
• providing information for the visitors on the local offer and
the unique value proposition
• relationships and networks w/national and international
tour operators and agents

18. Cooperation: the advantages of a DMO - 2
• promote social capital and collaborative use of pooled resources
• designing targeted marketing tools
• facilitate access to finance by the stakeholders
• inclusion and participation of local communities and NGOs
• local economic development, poverty reduction and asset
protection
• teaming up w/local partners
• joining tourism bodies
• advocacy, project development, implementation
• provision of market intel

19. Cooperation: the advantages of a DMO – 3
A destination management plan:
• Tourism performance and impacts
• Working structures and communication
• Overall appeal: access, infrastructure and visitor services
• Destination image, branding and promotion (marketing)
• Product mix – development needs and opportunities
• Strategic direction for the destination
• Prioritised actions within an annual programme
• Identifying stakeholders responsible for their delivery.

21. 1
TRAINING PROGRAM COURSE 1: MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT IN TOURISM
MODULE 3: INTERNATIONAL TOURISM MARKETING
Contents
Section 1: What is International Tourism Market?.......................................................................................1
Section 2. Internationalisation as a key strategy for your business .........................................................2
Section 3. International Tourism Marketing Plan.....................................................................................2
Section 4. Digital Marketing......................................................................................................................6
Section 5. Traditional Marketing...............................................................................................................7
Section 6. Doing Business Internationally.................................................................................................8
Section 7. Cooperation............................................................................................................................12
The aim of this module is to give to the participants an idea of international tourism market, the
forms of international tourism marketing and prepare them to do business and cooperate
internationally.
Expected learning outcomes include developed knowledge of:
1) International Tourism Market
2) Internationalization as a key strategy for your business
3) International Tourism Marketing Plan
4) Digital Marketing
5) Traditional Marketing
6) Doing Business Internationally
7) Cooperation
Section 1: What is International Tourism Market?
This section looks into the definitions in relation to the tourism market.
International Tourism Market
A market system is the network of actors involved in the trade of a certain product or service.
The actors producers, buyers, consumers. As such, tourism market is a system of supply and
demand that encompasses all services and products as well as persons and businesses that buy
and sell these tourism services and products. The supply side covers the subjects of consumption

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in tourism activity such as attractions, activities, amenities, transportation, food and beverages
and accommodation. The demand for tourism services depends on the context in the receiving
destination (health, security, safety), the match of the demand for the destination’s offer/supply,
the number of people who travel, and their needs for services in their time during the travel.
The tourism market can be divided as domestic, inbound and outbound, i.e. people travelling in
their own country, those incoming from other countries, and those travelling outside of their
residential country. We will focus on inbound segment for this section. The international tourist
chooses a destination as there is something different and interesting for them that is not
available in their country, or that has a competitive edge in terms of the 4Ps; product, price, place
and promotion. Marketing for international tourism shares certain basics with domestic tourism.
The most important difference is the value proposition, where the offer/supply is new,
innovative, different, and shares the same values as the visitor.
Your international market consists of individuals, groups or tours choosing the supply of your
country and/or destination, travelling from neighboring countries or overseas. Your strategies
towards their customer satisfaction will vary according to their destinations of origin,
demographics, socio-economic segment and preferences.
Section 2. Internationalisation as a key strategy for your business
This section looks at the strategic decision of internaitoanlisation from a destination and MSME
perspective.
Internationalization for tourism industry and businesses requires designing the supply (product
or service) to be consumed by different countries, serving different demand segments. If you are
looking to internationalise your business, you need a very good understanding of the inbound
market and the visitor. As sustainable tourism market grows, the inbound segment is more and
more important for sustainable tourism businesses and social enterprises. To succeed, you must
assess both the destination offer and the target market. Your internationalisation strategy is
embedded in your marketing strategy.
What is not in your marketing plan/strategy is the networks. You must be a part of your local
tourism and community networks to harness the benefits of acting and marketing together. If
there is a destination management organization in your region, utilize its international networks.
If not, as an entrepreneur, be proactive and create a network, be a part of sector and actor
networks, and keep in touch with other destinations. Become a member of the local chambers,
associations, agencies and utilise their international networks to internationalise and enhance
your business and your market.
Section 3. International Tourism Marketing Plan
This section summarises the key factors in an international marketing plan
International Marketing Plan

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Whether you start a business from square one, looking to expand your business, or expand your
markets, it is essential to carry efficient tourism marketing. Following the term “global village”,
the world is more and more integrated, and people choose their travel destination regardless of
borders – depending on how easy and safe it is to travel to a country. To be able to reach out to
potential visitors out there, you need to have a good marketing strategy for your supply/offer.
To be able to design a strategy, you need to have a plan. An international tourism marketing plan
typically includes the items below.
• Map the local, regional, national assets
• Map the stakeholders in the value chain
• Map the competitors
• Make your SWOT analysis
• Identify your target market: who is the primary buyer of your unique product or service?
• Know the target group in the market: demographics, travel and tourism habits and
preferences, the unique selling point for this segment, their motivations to travel and
their means of booking and traveling
Question: How many visitor profiles have you reached?
• Gather the available data about your destination, and your target markets
• Study the analysis and forecasts
• Read the available reports on trends and customer preferences for tourism
• Try to keep a competitive and innovative edge
Once you have planned how you will formulate your informed strategy, then you can start with
the strategy itself.
• Develop your marketing strategy for each customer type: have one online and one offline
plan
• Develop your marketing strategy for each of your offer types
• Are you market ready? Design your message, hook line, materials for online tools and
channels
• Always be clear and simple in message and language
• Optimize your blog, website and the information you provide for desktop and mobile –
40% of travellers from the USA, UK and the EU prefer to search and book online
• Use social media well, use multiple channels and know which channel or tool your target
segment prefers: Instagram, video streaming, blogs, online destination platforms,
TripAdvisor, AirBnB, etc
• Are you digitally ready? Optimise your booking and secure payment infrastructure
• Are you on Google? Use the search engine optimization to your advantage – travellers
search for destinations, accommodation, transport, activities and tours on Google. Stay
on top to get ahead. Try using Google MyBusiness

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• Experience sells. Focus on the experience you will provide. Tell a good story that they can
confirm when they arrive. Experiential marketing is a tool for small businesses to interact
with the potential visitor
• Use influencer marketing. The popular names and fces in your target market will help you
get known. It is harder for entrepreneurs to access the influencer, and that is where the
destination marketing social capital kicks. In. You can use common marketing tools for
your destination.
Upon this plan, as you identify a marketing strategy, you also need to have clear goals in
marketing and communication. This will help you monitor the change, evaluate the outcomes
and re-design your strategy as needed. It will be needed, because your target market, the
demand or your offer, the policy context, travel requirements will change. If you can, use a
common market data, assessment, M&E tool with the destination. This will help you both with
your business and marketing strategy.
Approaches for International Tourism Marketing
There are various marketing approaches you can choose based on the assets and supply. Are you
in a location that is usually marketed as a destination? Does your location have one specific asset
that you can market with supplementary tourism products, i.e. Pisa town in Italy? Do you plan to
attract visitors for activities, i.e. diving, hiking, festivals, medical conference? Do you target a
specific group, i.e. families with children, third age groups, photographers or nature enthusiasts?
Location marketing
In this approach, the location already enjoys a brand value and basically markets itself. The
entrepreneur needs to advertise the added value so the guest will choose the services or
products provided by that specific business.
Activity marketing
Let us describe this approach by an example. Bansko is a ski destination, and visitors choose this
location for the activity. Sharm El Sheikh is a popular diving destination. As an entrepreneur, what
you can do is select your niche, position your unique selling point and base your marketing
strategy on this.
Corporate marketing
There are thousands of international meetings, conferences and training programs each year
hosted by different destinations. Many attendees stay overnight, in some cases up to a week in
a destination. A good percentage travels with family. In this case, sustainable event management
is a niche for tourism enterprises, and these events are opportunities for other tourism and
hospitality entrepreneurs alike.

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Destination marketing
Destination management is a comprehensive approach that encompasses all assets, all tourism
types in offer in an area or a groups of areas; and all actors in the tourism value chain. Usually
managed by a destination management organisation, destination marketing is a sub section of
destination management. It allows for common marketing activities and tools including digital
services and platforms, facilitates access to resources and networks, and provides capacity
development activities for small entrepreneurs. All actors in the destination are natural parts of
it, and it is very beneficial to be a proactive member and exploit all the organization can provide
for you to succeed.
Question: which approach is more feasible for your business, product, service or destination, and
why?
The 4P’s of tourism marketing takes fair pricing as an important way of establishing a credible, long-
lasting and sustainable relationship with your markets, international or domestic. You can price your
offer based on competitors and the local market, but this is a highly misguiding pricing strategy.
Remember, your target market uses digital media very efficiently to compare offers and prices, and they
now when they are overcharged – they certainly reflect this in their comments for other potential
visitors to see.
The 4Ps of tourism marketing, product, price, place, promotion; will also help you design your
strategy.
Place
The supply, or the product is how you position your enterprise, your unique selling point, and
your competitive and innovative edge against the rival entrepreneurs. Knowing your and your
team’s strengths
As a sustainable tourism entrepreneur/social entrepreneur, you can assume a market selectivity
approach. Your target segment should be from the segment that appreciates and respects local
assets. This approach is usually selected in nature, culture or heritage tourism, and the marketing
strategy will attract the proper demand. Using social media and digital platforms for booking,
discount packages for early birds, families, certain accommodation types and activities will help
you attract more guests. A very good example in price marketing for a sustainable tourism
business is providing discount for travelers who choose to travel in more environmentally friendly
ways.
Price
In the current economic situation around the globe, and travel restrictions slowly easing, pricing
is a very important aspect of tourism marketing. A very good way is working with the local public
tourism bodies and associations for price setting. Right prices will be beneficial for both the visitor
in selecting your business or services, and for you as a product or service provider to be on the

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profitable side. Too high prices will get you less visitors or footfall while too low prices to attract
guests will result in lower quality service, losing customers or even losing money.
Place
Profitability, ease of doing business, attracting multiple visitor segments and new markets all
depend on location. Ease of access to the location, from the location to attractions and amenities,
and accessibility are very important for travelers with children, third age groups, people with
disabilities, youth groups or corporate travelers; whereas certain activity groups (i.e. yoga),
couples, nature and adventure enthusiasts choose places with less footfall and closer to nature
than urban, rural or crowded settings. Where you offer your product or service is key to the
design of your offer, access to available networks, value chain actors, select your market and
target segment.
Promotion
There are multiple methods and channels. These can be either based on new social media trends,
or traditional ones.s You have to select the appropriate channels and methods of communication
for your target group visitors. This may vary according to age, location and personal choice.
Destination management organisations use multiple channels, so it is best to use these channels
and use common tools. If you are going solo, you have to go digital. Know your data. Check the
number of people using social and digital tools for selecting tourism destinations and supply,
footfall in destinations, capacities of competitors, and gaps. Gaps will be your main domain to
explore to create unique value.
Section 4. Digital Marketing
This section focuses on digital marketing as an approach to promoting and selling tourism
products or services; and social media apps as efficient tools.
Digital Tools
You need to ensure the perfect match between your target group and their choices in selecting
where to next. It is fairly easy now with available data on social and digital tools and traveler
profies. We live in an experience market – experience sells. What people look mostly for are good
prices for travel and accommodation, how to find their way around on arrival, what kind of
people they will be meeting as a host, what experiences they will be introduced to, what they
will take home-tangible and intangible. And when they use your product or service, and when
they arrive back home, their reviews for you will certainly have an impact on your business – we
also live in a world of rating services, products, places, experiences.
Advance booking is a survival kit for the industry. This business model requires a very well
designed infrastructure, and most of the time the (sustainable) entrepreneur will not have the
resources to design an app. This tangible service is offered by multiple digital entrepreneurs, and
it is crucial to provide accurate, timely, thorough information while using these apps as a
business. Because the people who use the same platform as a guest will be deciding upon this

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information, on your rating, and they will surely approve/disapprove of this information and will
rate you for it.
There are some very popular apps, and for international tourism marketing you will want to be
on them. A mobile app is good marketing tool as it allows for easy booking, shows available
discounts, shows the services and products with the best ratings and comments from real
customer experience. It also is very environmentally friendly compared to traditional tools.
Below are some very popular app examples for 2022. These are not the only ones of course, and
the rest are yours to explore. It is important you select the right one for your business.
• Airbnb – Best Travel App for Homestays
• All Trails – Best Travel App For Trails In Unknown Places
• Culture Trip – Best Travel App to Know The Local Culture
• Google Flights – Best Travel App for Flight Booking App
• Lounge Buddy – Lounge Finder App
• 4 Must-Have Features In Your Travel And Tourism Apps
If you are a digital entrepreneur in tourism, and looking to design an app, or you are looking for
a good app, some features you can look for are the ability to create an account with social media
sign up so you can profile the user segment (your potential consumer), search and filters enabled
to help the customer find what they want easily, navigation and geolocation to show them the
amenities, attractions, assets around you, ratings and reviews to follow up the market and
competitors, and user notification services on deals, discounts, new products, services or
accommodations.
Section 5. Traditional Marketing
Although less popular, traditional marketing tools are still widely used for tourism offer.
Traditional marketing usually talks to an offline target group and common tools include pieces on
print and broadcast media (newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, etc), media ads on these channels,
event marketing (tourism fairs), outdoor (billboards, bus/taxi wraps, posters), telemarketing (calls
or text messages), window display and signs and Word of mouth (WOM).
Media
While social media enables people to share their travel experience with a large group, old school
media still has some affluence. It is a tried and true method, and everyone encounters some sort
of media marketing in their everyday lives on TV or the daily paper. It is important in reaching
out to local and national market and the consumers of broadcast or print media will have access

28. 8
to your message. Daily local and national papers, periodic magazines, TV spots, and and features
as well as short documentaries on your destination are among the media channels you can use.
Travel Exhibitions
There are over 700 tourism exhibitions and fairs worldwide every year. These events attract
tourism professionals, academics and media from all over the world. Using these as a marketing
tool is not feasible for an entrepreneurs per appropriate size and segment. However, it is always
useful to provide up-to-date and sufficient material for events that appeal to your target market,
to your local destination management organization, local public tourism bodies, associations and
agencies that participate in these evets.
Fam and Press Trips
Familiarity and press trips are a very good way to market your service, product or destination.
The most likely channels these will end up are traditional print and broadcast media and their
websites or blogs. But they will make sure your supply/offer is known by the media’s target
consumer – if they also are your target group. For example getting a feature on your national
newspaper’s weekend supplement by a popular reporter will get you a lot of attention. A very
good example is Kuyucak in Isparta, Turkey. After receiving funding from a UNDP and private
sector donor project, the village received a lot of capacity building support, attention and both
traditional and digital media outreach, and now is a very popular destination for sustainable
tourism with multiple small and social sustainable tourism enterprises. However, this also is a
high cost method for an enterprise, and it is more efficient to utilize the benefits of social capital,
common marketing, and the destination management organization if you have one..
Word of Mouth
It is a hybrid and no-cost way of marketing. Also calls WOM in short, word-of-mouth marketing
is when either your guest is highly satisfied with the product or service, or they are very much
interested in the product or service they have seen or heard of from digital or traditional
channels, friends or family. It is mostly the first item, and depends on “the experience”, when
that is exactly what they were hoping for or goes beyond their expectation. Smaller enterprises
have an upper hand here with the advantage of one-to-one consumer-to-marketer/owner
communication and personalised experience. WOM marketing is a section of buzz, viral, blog,
emotional, and social media marketing.
Section 6. Doing Business Internationally
This section will look into the musts of an enterprise who is interested in internationalizing their
business.
Understand the visitor’s profile

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Usually referred to as the ideal customer profile (ICP) in marketing, this group is the main
recipient, consumer, visitor that you aim to attract – they are your main target group. They come
from your target market, so you need to understand the market systems and dynamics as well
as the profile(s) of your target group(s). Are you aiming for the EU market, white collar
professionals with families and green lifestyles? Are you aiming for the neighbors, who are
looking to travel short distances for something familiar and yet different? Do you seek to supply
for a demand that has gourmet tastes? Your ideal visitor profile is the perfect customer for what
your supply/offer, and you need to choose selective marketing to be able to reach directly at this
group. Do you need them to be equally concerned for your local heritage and assets for you?
Then you will seek for that segment and the market where they originate from.
Knowledge and information are both assets and success factors. You need in-depth knowledge
of your local and regional tangible and intangible product and assets (nature, species,
architecture, cuisine, history, culture, heritage etc). You need up-to-date information about the
target market needs, current trends and opportunities, future expectations, available support
structures, local market structure and value chain actors, available as well as possible tourism
types (nature, culture, adventure, heritage, 3S, family, religious, etc) and products (tours, daily
activities, child, elderly, disability, vegan, etc friendly services, festivals, local produce, activities
to benefit local businesses and makers, products that support local women’s cooperatives,
initiatives or entrepreneurship) to understand the dynamics, (re-)position and sustain your
business. From the entrepreneur’s perspective, you have to be creative and actively consuming
information. From a business perspective, you need access to data from a paid service, local
provider or destination management organization.
Honesty, clarity and precision in relationships with international networks
Internationalising a business will need resources and networks. These networks are expected to
support your business growth and expansion as well as success in international markets. The
contacts you have made through international exhibitions, fairs and events, the tour companies
or agents that bring you or your destination guests from abroad, your visitor pool (international
guests who have returned home with a positive experience) are those who will facilitate this
growth. You can even become business partners with some destinations or travel agencies.
To be able to sustain and utilize the good networks you can improve your professional
communication skills – being concise, precise, clear and accurate are important in two way
communications. Be honest and clear with the information you provide to strengthen your
business relationships. Make this a selling point.
To establish better communication, it will be important to understand the cultural context and
business culture in the country of origin of your guest or your business counterparts. By
proactively establishing well-grounded communications, you can develop stronger international
business relationships that facilitate rapid response to market opportunities and challenges.

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Setting clear expectations from your business counterparts such as target groups or visitor
numbers will help them match the ideal visitor profile with you. Considering them a part of your
team and being transparent will help you sustain an honest and efficient business relationship –
talk to them about the opportunities and challenges of high and low seasons for your offer,
location specific challenges, ask for their opinions and solutions. Being positive, staying in
frequent contact, reaching out in a culturally appropriate manner will help you maintain
credibility, professionalism and fruitful business relations. Good international partners are assets
in travel and tourism businesses.
Supporting your offer with local resources and community as much as possible also creates win-
win situations. Partnering with local small businesses, community tourism NGOs promotes and
provides a sincere and unique visitor experience and benefits local communities. The community
based and sustainable tourism approaches are very popular tourism niche for international
markets. and market their locales effectively. Enhancing local tourism business capacities and in
return helping safeguard the area’s assets including nature, culture, history, cuisine, and crafts is
among the goals of sustainable tourism – it also is a very much preferred approach by
international markets and specific consumer segments as more and more people build
awareness of sustainability, community based practices, people, planet and our common future.
Remember also localization is a good strategy in marketing and promotion, but not in service
provision in tourism. You need to place the product or service in the language of your target
market to be able to win them, but your product and service has to be authentic – people do not
travel for finding the same breakfast at home served to them in another country any more. A bad
example for this is the Mediterrannean destinations offering English breakfasts, Russian dishes
and Dutch and German experiences, which is completely against the idea of community based
tourism and experience tourism.
Create a Unique Selling Point
What is your value proposition, your unique selling point (USP)? In today’s experience market,
what unique experience and values are you offering? What is new, innovative in your supply that
is designed directly for your target group? They will seek the answer to these questions – what’s
new with it? What’s in it for me?
Market intel will only benefit you if your services or products have a match in consumer
segments, i.e. if it is marketable. A good entrepreneur is the one that can transform a good idea
into a profitable business that generates the desired value. To be able to achieve this, you have
to utilize, and if possible, to generate the need for your product or service. Knowing the
demographics, socio-cultural structure, economic segmentation, cultural values, consumption
habits, the maekup of your target market will help you design and position a marketable product
or service, to your business survives and thrives.
What we need to ask here is, “ideation: what can I offer?” “target group mapping: to whom do I
offer this?” “consumer value: what’s in it for my target group?” “social value: what are the gains

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for the local community, the environment and other tourism assets” “product value: what is new,
innovative, creative about it” “unique selling point: what is the one factor in my business that
makes it desirable?” “competitive edge: what makes my idea/my business competitive against
competitors?” “resilience: how will I ensure my business is still alive, generates value for the
community, and is profitable past the initial 3 years?” “strength: what are the current assets that
ensure my business will succeed?”
The key (and this is probably new) is to not aim for “green aware markets” by advertising your
product or service as green or sustainable. Rather, successful sustainability entrepreneurs and
business owners focus on offering comfortable, convenient, high value for money products or
services to the mass market. In other words, characteristics which holiday makers are actually
looking for at the point of purchase (very few travellers purchase “sustainability”).
Create Experiences and Promote Internationally
If you expand your business to international markets, in the case of tourism, you have decided to
design products, services or experiences for visitors from other countries, you need to establish
an international presence. Having a website and translating it to other languages is no longer a
valid or sufficient way of doing this. You need to design the digital presence in line with your
specific marketing strategy for each country, factoring in their preferences, cultural values,
information consumption habits and preferred channels – websites, blogs, Instagram,
tripadvisor, etc…
These decisions define how your product, service, business is presented to international markets
and target groups. You need to consider the international traffic on digital platforms and the
digital footfall. Some of these are potential customers. Do You need to make sure you are able
to overcome barriers such as language, payment methods, etc – aither with your own human
capital, thirs party service providers or through the pooled support of the local destination
management organization, local public tourism promotion agencies and institutions.
If you have different products or services for different markets, for example nature tourism for
guests and visitors from Europe, gastronomy products and services for USA, you need different
pages, posts, channels or hashtags. The information and the user experience on your website or
social media channel should be easy, fun, accessible - user friendly. Use the larger actors if you
need to – why create a second channel when there is more traffic on a bigger platform? Advertise
on booking.com instead of or as well as your platform. Use a trusted local platform for your
destination or business, even the local destination management organization in your target
market. Partnering up is a win-win situation.
Pricing your offer/supply

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The 4P’s of tourism marketing takes fair pricing as an important way of establishing a credible,
long-lasting and sustainable relationship with your markets, international or domestic. You can
price your offer based on competitors and the local market, but this is a highly misguiding pricing
strategy. Remember, your target market uses digital media very efficiently to compare offers and
prices, and they now when they are overcharged – they certainly reflect this in their comments
for other potential visitors to see.
Like in every sector there are different pricing strategies in travel and tourism industry to use for
different packages, seasons, last minutes, campaigns and last minutes to remain competitive.
There also are internal and external factors for pricing. Marketing strategy is an internal factor,
cost structure and cost decision mechanisms are also among internal factors whereas market
structure, demand structure, competitor pricing, value chains, local context, local policy and legal
frameworks. In a volatile environment such as this, a hybrid pricing strategy that is updated
annually per low, high, and shoulder seasons, product and demand is advisable. While your costs
and profits heavily impact your pricing strategy, the compatibility of your prices with the market
demand is a key component of your strategy.
Another very important component of your presence and pricing strategy in the digital tourism
market is the payment methods you will accept. Once you identify your target markets and
segments, look into the preferred payment methods in your target countries and among your
target groups for optimal services provision. The potential guest should be able to select from
payment methods and currencies. Not only do you need to set up your online sales channels to
accept these currencies and methods, but also you need to make sure the secure transfers using
known and trusted third party software. Most preferred method of payment is not credit cards
contrary to widespread assumption. The French market prefers Carte Blue, IDEAL is popular in
the Netherlands, Japan prefers to pay with Konbinis, China uses AliPay, PayPal is preferred by the
customers in US but it is not allowed in Turkey; bank transfers are preferred by German and
Swedish markets.
As discussed in the “know your market” section, your pricing strategy will also help you access
the opportunities in specific markets to offer discounts and campaigns. Following up the market
demand, supply and pricing of competitors will help you design a realistic pricing strategy. Also
difference of seasons between different hemispheres are good opportunities to offer seasonal
products.
Section 7. Cooperation
This section will look into the strengths to be reaped through cooperation from a destination
management perspective.
Destination Management is a most efficient way for planning, managing and marketing tourism.
It is built around social capital, trusts the social fabric, uses common resources and in return
provides multiple benefits for stakeholders and assets alike. For this training session, we will
approach destination management from a sustainable tourism perspective.

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Destination Management is an approach to local and regional tourism planning planning,
marketing and management. It is a process based on cooperative and collaborative actions to
facilitate the development of tourism sector for local economic development, poverty reduction,
promotion of local natural, historic, cultural tourism assets and various other aims. It is either
planned and implemented by a non-profit company, local tourism board, association or local
tourism authorities. The reasons of existence for a DMO include, but are not limited to:
• to plan and if possible diversify and internationalise the offer if when when feasible,
• promotion and marketing of the destination,
• attract visitors from target markets and assess new markets,
• provide information data for tourism businesses,
• providing information for the visitors on the local offer and the unique value proposition,
• establishing and sustaining relationships and networks with national and international
tour operators and agents
• promote social capital and collaborative use of pooled resources, i.e. common marketing
tools and facilities
• designing targeted marketing tools
• facilitate access to finance by the stakeholders, specifically MSMEs and social enterprises,
• inclusion and participation of local communities and NGOs
• support local economic development, poverty reduction and asset protection
As of 2022, a main duty of a DMO is also be honest, risk averse about crisis such as Covid-2019,
support the resilience of value chains through different strategies and produce appropriate
marketing and promotion messages.
A destination management organization (DMO) requires coordinated action by its stakeholders
in an inclusive and participatory manner towards a common aim: the successful positioning of
the destination assuring its sustainability, profitability and competitiveness. Local NGOs and
communities are integral parts for destination planning to ensure sustainable and community
based practices. The inclusiveness of the DMO guarantees local economic development and
poverty reduction as well as protection, conservation and sustainability of assets. The role of the
DMO is also following trends, foreseeing and mitigating risks, and providing guidance towards
opportunities to its stakeholders.
The funding of this cooperation structure comes from a variety of resources including hotel
transient taxes, membership fees, partners and sponsors, advertising revenues, donor funding
including loans and grants.
Sustainable tourism is commonly defined as “Tourism that takes full account of its current and
future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry,
the environment, and host communities”. Sustainable destination management takes into
account the principles of sustainable tourism, encompassing community based tourism, which
can be defined, assessed, measured and certified through various institutions, the strongest ones

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being UNWTO, ILO and Global sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). UNWTO defines key concepts
and methodologies while ILO focuses on decent work, local community involvement, local
economic development; whereas GSTC identifies monitoring and evaluation criteria and certifies
destinations, hotels, tour operators. There are multiple international and national m&e and
certification systems. You need to select the most appropriate and realistic one for the
capabilities and size of your business and/or destination not to use credibility.
Teaming up with local partners
DMOs should0 enables and promotes participation and involvement of local communities, public and
private sector and academia participation in sustainable destination planning, marketing and
management. DMOs have the capacity to reap and amplify the benefits of sustainable tourism
opportunities and mitigate risks and challenges. A strength of DMS is to support the capacity and resilience
building of local stakeholders. By fostering cooperation sand partnership and promoting social capital,
DMOs have a responsibility to ensure the stakeholders can access the opportunities of cooperation and
active participation in the DMO including positioning statements, branding campaigns, market
research, product development, effective communication with stakeholders common marketing,
promotion, access to data, resources and financial tools, attracting investment, mobilizing
sponsorships and planning multiple-destination tours.
Joining local tourism boards, tourism business associations and the destination management
association
All stakeholders involved have certain roles and shared responsibilities in a DMO. As it is a multi-
stakeholder body, all stakeholders need to share the vision. In a context that requires more and more
measures towards green economy, sustainability, community based approaches and economic viability,
a DMO acts as an agent for the development of nurturing policies and programmes. This makes the
government agencies and public institutions an integral part of a DMO as providers of infrastructure,
national and regional level plans and strategies. NGOs and networks are another stakeholder, whether
they are professional associations or grassroots organisations – they provide access to all segments and
stakeholders, represent their interests into account, providing advocacy and support and supporting
implementation of programs and projects. Academia and training bodies as a stakeholder groups provide
skills trainings, capacity building actions, research and data on the market, trends and competitors, and
consultancy. Private sector is a key actor in a DMO, they are the innovators, pioneers, risk takers and
investors. The guests, visitors, target groups are an essential stakeholder as the recipients and consumers
of information, services, products. They are an agent of marketing, also agents that disseminate
information about a destination, how to respect and protect national and cultural assets. They also avoid
fragmentation of action, whish is an obstacle to the success of destinations.
Planning together creates the social capital, generates trust and facilitates ownership. A public-private
dialogue (PPD) mechanism is a most helpful way to plan and implement destination management
strategies. There are some key questions such as What do we expect from am DMO, who are the
target groups what are the assets, what are key marketing strategies, who needs to be involved
and what are the tasks, what is our carrying capacity, what are our skills, capabilities and gaps, is
all of this feasible and appropriate for the offer and the destination?

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Being a proactive part of your local DMO is critical for the successful operation of your business.
Seek advice
A destination management plan (DMP) is shaped by the stakeholders, implemented by
designated actors, monitored by internal and external systems for success, viability, sustainability
and profitability. The DMP “should cover all the fundamental aspects of destination management,
including:
• Tourism performance and impacts
• Working structures and communication
• Overall appeal and appearance, access, infrastructure and visitor services
• Destination image, branding and promotion (marketing)
• Product mix – development needs and opportunities
• Set a strategic direction for the destination over period of up to 5 years
• Contain prioritised actions within an annual rolling programme, identifying stakeholders
responsible for their delivery.” As stated by visitbritain.org
As such, seeking the advice of your DMO, and knowing the DMP closely will strengthen your
business, help you design your offer, your value proposition, access target markets and segments,
ensure viability, resilience and sustainability of your business, enable international and national
visitors alike to find and contact you.

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Citations
Global Marketing Strategies
UNWTO – Policy and Destination Management
Tourism 2030 – DestiNet Services
Revfine – Destination Marketing Strategies
Solimar International – Destination Management
Global Sustainable Tourism Council – Destination Management Criteria
www.visitbritain.org