Integrated Tourism- Why you should combine your regions marketing efforts

Links between tourism and local and regional resources, activities, products and communities are key success factors for integrated tourism development

The increasing communication options in recent years have contributed to the clutter the world is experiencing today. This has made it important for marketers to integrate their marketing communication and break through the barrier of noise to reach the target market (Torberg, 2003).

Marketing overload is causing regions to have to shout even louder, which consumers resent, therefore warranting greater interaction in promotion (Keller, 2001). Integration of separate areas helps provide a uniform message where these areas are not competing with one another it is addressing the problems faced in marketing an intangible product (a destination). This is due to the high bargaining power of travellers, whereby a greater area offers more tangible justifications (what Brittany does not have, Normandy might).

Tourism organizations may need to go beyond coordinating their own operations around a certain event or practical goal; they may want to develop a joint strategy or common set of strategies for working collectively toward a shared purpose. In this collaborative relationship, each person or organization wants to help not only themselves but also their partners, to become better at what they do.

Congestion
Tourists are located to places in the hypothetical space where natural or cultural resources and stay in these places provided that the density of tourists in these places is not greater than a given threshold (congestion) and the local host-community members are in favour of tourism development. Otherwise, they move to another place. If a new tourist cannot be assigned by the algorithm to any place that satisfies his/her expectations, it is assumed that he/she leaves the area and does not return. Hence the negative effects of congestion. Therefore by integrating areas this limits the risk of congestion.


Co-ordination
Fyall and Garrod (2004) used the term coordination and described it as a process whereby two or more organizations create and/or use existing decision rules that have been established to deal collectively with their shared task environment. The central coastal area of Western Australian demonstrated a clear gap between State level policy and regional-level implementation.

Western Australian Nature- Based Tourism Strategy is based on the principles of sustainability, and the document recognises the Central Coast Region as part of a zone of opportunity for nature-based tourism development. However, local regions although explicitly aware of issues, and the solutions they recommended were predominantly aligned with the strategy, they felt they had insufficient recourses to implement them. While an element of competition was emerging.

Coordination was therefore necessary to avoid duplication of resources between the various government tourism bodies and the private sector, as well as to develop effective regional tourism strategies. The use of Co-ordination in promotion budget allowed for much more efficient advertising, in particular the use of a single ‘champion’ creating synergy and ultimately increasing tourist footfall.

Competition or Cooperation?

Krackover, 2007, studied competing Amish Country tourist associations, concludes it is essential to have some umbrella messages sent out about the area. He also noted people will be more prepared to travel if you offer a bigger picture because people are more concerned by the cost of travel since the recession. By collaborating regions you provide more of a compelling argument to travel. “The entire area must compliment itself”.

Why The Trade Academy used Google Ad Words:

Website visibility is principally very poor, vast keyword searches yield a low and in most cases non-existent Google Page Rank. Although searching ‘the trade academy’ gives a fifth place result, ‘plumbing course’ or ‘plumbing training’ or even ‘plumbing academy’ fails to show any form of meaningful result. This infinitesimal share of voice dictates that a large proportion of the companies target audience therefore remains un-penetrated.

Prominent presence on jobsites provides nearly all their site traffic. Typically The Trade Academy is ranked highly on the aforementioned searches within these sites. However, competition is rife on these sites and high presence dictates high cost, while potential consumers hit several gatekeepers in their search.

Once the enquiry form has been filled by a potential customer, their data becomes invaluable. Direct marketing to consumers who do not sign up to a course immediately, in the form of promotional e-mails, offers personalised contact and builds customer relationships. Beyond the website enquiry form, course sign up is principally offline; nonetheless, this medium remains by far the most successful method of consumer sourcing, unsurprising, especially when you consider their demographic target.

Great Ad!

Google Ad Words

The initiation of keyword advertising has had a remarkable effect on online advertising, Internet marketing, search engines, and Web sites that earn advertising revenue. In a discerning article, Rust and Varki (1996) argued that “interactive media, particularly the Internet, would change the traditional paradigm of mass media advertising to heterogeneous audiences”. Among their forecasts, they claimed interactive media would allow individual consumers to access pertinent information easily, non-sequentially, and on demand. Interactive advertising would be targeted, by invitation, and accountable. Keyword advertising exemplifies this very prediction because the advertisements a user sees are targeted on the basis of specific keywords. The user accepts the invitation to see the advertiser's Web site by clicking on the ad, and every click is accountable.

New media tends to emulate earlier media, and just as early television broadcasts resembled radio broadcasts (Bezjian-Avery et al, 1998), early Web site advertising resembled traditional mass media advertising. Online advertising charged according to impressions, that is, how many people could possibly see an advertising banner on a Web page. This model stemmed from the mass media concept of cost per thousand (CPM), and rates ranged from $10 to $100 per thousand impressions (McCarthy, 2008). Yet CPM ignores whether the Web site visitor saw, or clicked, the ad banner.

Celebrity Endorsement

From terrible endorsement to great... nice turnaround... Shows that there is still a blatant need to be creative, and a celebrity can't simply provide a brand with credibility without the right execution.

Culture Slamming

Dave and I's attempt at mimicking on-line culture in this viral....