Tourism Marketing

Course	V-840-TOMA
Semester	20241
ETCS	7,5
Core	No

Year	1. year
Semester	Spring 2024
Level of course	N/A
Type of course	Elective
Prerequisites	No prerequisites.
Schedule	No schedule found.
Lecturer	Ramón Diaz-Bernardo
Content
There are basically two main perspectives within the Tourism Marketing field: the public side and the private side. The public side of Tourism Marketing covers the efforts done from the public institutions (usually National Tourism Organizations) to develop, brand, marketing and promote a country, a region or a city as a tourism destination. The private side of Tourism Marketing has to be with developing, branding, marketing and promoting the different businesses related to the tourism industry, like hotels, airlines, restaurants, parks, museums, etc. The objective of the course is to introduce the central concepts of Tourism Marketing involved in defining and implementing a marketing strategy both from a public and a private side perspective. In order to introduce the main concepts of public tourism marketing we will analyse the relevance of the tourism industry in the economy and also the positive effects of tourism for society in general. We will also elaborate on the way a place is developed as a tourism destination and the different marketing tools to be used in branding, marketing and promoting a place as a tourism destination with different examples and case discussions. Specifically we will explore and discuss the case of Iceland as a tourism destination. The topic of private tourism marketing will be covered by defining the two main objectives of any tourism marketing campaign: customer attraction and customer retention. Customer attraction meaning developing marketing strategies to attract new customers to your tourism business (a hotel, a restaurant, an airline, etc). Customer retention meaning developing loyalty among the customers that you already have in your tourism business. Both customer attraction and customer retention will be covered by analysing cases, best practices and experiences of different hospitality and tourism leaders. Another aspect that will be covered extensively in the course is digital marketing and the digital transformation that it is occurring today in the tourism industry. Finally we will dedicate time to understand better the main trends that are happening now in the hospitality industry, specifically trends related to hotel management contracts and franchising. In summary, different tourism marketing strategies would be discussed and compared including the implications for budget allocation and return on marketing investment. The final take away of the course will be doing a full marketing plan for a tourism business (a hotel) combining the two main challenges of any tourism business today: attract new customers and increase loyalty among the customers that we have.
Learning outcome - Objectives
Collection of facts, concepts, theories and techniques acquired by the degree holder. Knowledge can both be theoretical and applied. The student should be able to:• Describe the two main sides of tourism marketing, the public side and the private side. • Describe and apply the concept of marketing strategy in the tourism field. • Describe the marketing process and apply it to the tourism area. • Describe the different elements of the markeitng mix in the context of the tourism industry. • Describe and apply the changes digital marketing is bringing to the tourism industry. The ability to apply knowledge to different tasks of the tourism marketing process. The student should be able to:• Critically asses the relevance of tourism marketing in different social and economic contexts. • Identify the differences between tourism marketing and marketing in other areas or industries. • Propose different digital marketing strategies in the tourism industry area. • Construct a full marketing plan for a tourism business or institution, including digital marketing actions Entail the ability to apply knowledge and skills to tourism marketing. The student should be able to:• Develop marketing strategies applicable to the tourism sector both in the private and public environments. • Propose different marketing mix strategies in the tourism industry context. • Present and defend his or her own solution to different tourism marketing cases. • Work with a diverse team of people with different backgrounds and opinions.
Course assessment
• 20% Group Case Presentations: For every case to be discussed in this course students will work in groups to prepare the case solution and present it to the class. The evaluation of the case presentation will be based more on the content than on the aesthetics of the presentation.• 20% Individual Participation: Active participation during lectures, workshops and case discussion is expected from all the participants and will be evaluated based on the quality and on the quantity of the contributions.• 60% Final Individual Assignment:  The objective of the final individual assignment is to put in practice your learnings by analyzing a tourism marketing plan case about a destination or about a tourism business. The final case and its preparation questions would be handed to the students on the last session of the course and the students would have 1 week to submit their case analysis and solution.
Reading material
No reading material found.
Teaching and learning activities
The course consists of:1. Lecture/discussion session that stress fundamental tourism marketing concepts and structure operational approaches for tourism marketing decision making and problem solving. The readings assigned to each session are recommended as background information to support the discussions.2. Unstructured problem solving sessions using cases where participants integrate the concepts and methods discussed to frame, analyse, and resolve representative tourism marketing problems.This twin stress on concepts as well as their application is designed to enable participants to not only understand the basic principles and tools of tourism marketing management, but also to gain experience in their actual use.Each case provides a detailed description of a marketing situation faced by a real marketing manager.  Participants should prepare each case with an action orientation – what would you do if you were the manager?  And, just as important, why would you do it?  Your participation in the case discussion should show the analysis you have used to come to your recommendation.
Language of instruction	English