International Tourism Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

International Tourism Marketing - Essay Example This number represented a growth of 6.6 percent when compared to that of 2009. Receipts for international tourism grew by $919 billion in 2010, a number that corresponded to a rise in real terms of 4.7 percent (Corigliano and Baggio, 2004:301). Many countries around the world used to depend solely on other means of generating income. Introduction However, as time went by and economic analysts realized what tourism and its related businesses could do for a country’s growth, they initiated measures that aimed at encouraging intensive investment in tourism. In contrast to those other economic activities, tourism bases on competitive advantages and has the potent ability of creating additional income, growth, and job opportunities for many decades to come (Au, 2010:4). Estimates depict that international tourist arrivals will be more than 1.6 billion in 2020. International tourism suffered a setback due to the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11 that pushed the US ec onomy and indeed many others into recession. The September 11 terrorism attacks led to erosion of consumer confidence in travel (Akehurst, 2009:52). This traumatic blow delivered directly to the US tourism and leisure travel as well as domestic travel had no comparison even to the Kosovo or the Gulf War. As a result, the US economy took longer than projected as opposed to Germany and Britain (Fayal and Garrard, 2005:47). Given the tremendous results of international tourism as well as the possible challenges affecting its growth, this paper will seek to analyze the significance of social media in international tourism marketing. As of today, the behavior of consumers in tourism is different due to the hyperactive competition, digitization of the world economy, and the effects of globalization. This trend is becoming a multidimensional concept whereby people view it as an outcome of a dynamic system based on relations between the processes involved in motivation, attitude, effective manifestation, information, and perception (Corigliano and Baggio, 2004:302). With this respect, to research certain dimensions those are congruent to consumer behavior in international tourism in order to determine the consumption and purchasing pattern of the respective customers is essential. This helps in tailoring and catering for the customers’ needs and wants, which in turn translates to return or repeat business (Akehurst, 2009:53). As this essay depends highly on international tourism market and the diversity ascribing to this market, this sector requires bidders to put much focus niche marketing. Simultaneously, market segmentation becomes a subject with an attractive strategy, viability, and high as well as potential rates of profitability in this framework. The role of marketing research in international tourism market segmentation With the main objective of every company being to satisfy their customers, companies with a strong orientation pay special attention t o the behavior of consumers whereby they capitalize on the information that they obtain with the view of attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones (Corigliano and Baggio, 2004:303). In this context, it is agreeable that the complexity of international tourism marketing puts more emphasis on the importance for market segmentatio