When you hear the term ‘target audience’ immediately the potential consumer comes to mind. However, as reminded by Ylva French, author of Public Relations for Leisure and Tourism, there are a wide range of other stakeholders to consider including investors, competitors, the local community, pressure groups, existing and potential sponsors, the media and local government officials. (French, 1994, p. 6) So let’s not say anything that will ‘get their knickers in a bunch.’
It is important to thoroughly understand your destination and what it has to offer. This will enable you to determine who would be interested in visiting your city/ country and selectively choose media that attracts the largest portion of your target. It’s a sad fact that not everyone wants to visit your destination as people travel for a range of reasons. (French, 1994, p. 40)
According to author Bonita Kolb, ‘developing tourism requires segmenting potential visitors into different groups and then deciding which segments could be most easily persuaded to visit.’ A tourist board may decide to target more than one group, which creates a need for developing different messages. (Kolb, 2006, p. 16)
In tourism, the two main target groups include visitors and travel intermediaries. Visitors can be segmented in four ways: demographically, according to age, gender, income, ethnicity; geographically, including local, regional and international areas; in terms of psychographics such as nightlife, adventure, romance and finally by usage, differentiating business travellers from day visitors and traditional tourists. (Kolb, 2006, p. 17)
South Beach, for example, targets art deco lovers during its annual Art Deco Weekend while Tourism Australia (2007) develops campaigns aimed at backpackers. Apparently when you get together a bunch and I mean a big bunch of poor, struggling backpackers, we make a difference in boosting tourism revenue. Touche Australia, touche!
Finally, tourism marketers and PR officials make their lives easier by giving their work to someone else! Tourism authorities partner with recognized tour operators, trade associations and corporate travel divisions, which in turn, directly promote the destination to individuals and companies. (Kolb, 2006, p. 17-18)
Next post: getting the media to care about you
References
French, Y., (1994). Public Relations for Leisure and Tourism. Essex: Longman Group Limited.
Kolb, B., (2006). Tourism Marketing for Cities and Towns: Using Branding and Events to Attract Tourists. Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Tourism Australia, (2007). Tourism White Paper- Niche Markets. [online] Available from: <http://www.tourism.australia.com/AboutUs.asp?lang=EN&sub=0304&al=152> [Accessed 4 January 2009]
Recently there was a case of a British couple who were arrested in Dubai for "indecent conduct" on the beach. At an interview they claims that they were very drunk, and denies any indecency.
ReplyDeleteThey then went on to say that the city markets to western tourists and have many bars and cheap alcoholic beverages but the law of the land is very strict with regards to being drunk in public. He actually seemed surprised at the fact that the law would suggest that you are not allowed to be drunk in public.
Did he not realize he was in an Islamic country?
My point is that although a country my want to attract a specific target market, they must also ensure that that target market understand the law of the land and show the respect due to the local population who live and work their.
Many countries have suffered bad press due to UK and USA visitors having a bad experience, which I my opinion can largely be contributed to their own lack of respect for the country. Tourist boards I feel, should make in clear to tourist that yes you are here on vacation, but this is not a free for all country ( unless you head to specific hotels in Negril, which also have very strict rules and regulations about visitor conduct).
This issue has turned into a finger pointing match. Whose responsibility is it to inform tourists about the laws of the countries they choose to visit? Should the travelling tourists themselves learn about what is acceptable behaviour in the destinations they go to? Is the tourist board that promotes the region? Or perhaps it’s the local authorities who are in responsible for maintaining order?
ReplyDeleteWhatever the answer may be, it can be agreed that there does exist a communication lull as it relates tourists’ knowledge of destination laws. All too often, visitors find themselves accosted or detained for offences, which, ‘unbeknownst’ to them, were illegal.