Tourism Destination Marketing

Introduction

The Bay of islands is one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand and has 144 islands. It can also claim to be the birth place of New Zealand. The Bay Island with its warm climate and water based activities is a popular destination for New Zealand holiday makers and international tourist. The bay has many interesting historic towns including Pahia, Russell, Waitangi and Kari Keri. There is a broad range of accommodation in the bay of island, as well as attractions and activities, place to eat, and entrainment of all age.

Tourists are more dependable on website to get the information and overview of destination. Therefore one of the website of bay of island is www.tourism.net.nz, which gives complete information. In this assignment, we will mainly discuss about marketing mix, customer wants, creating value for the customer, destination location and tangible experience from tourism marketing perspective.

Marketing Mix

1) Product

A service is something that cannot be touched. This means that it is harder to market, than a physical Product. Its quality cannot be perceived before it is used. This can complicate convincing a potential tourist to acquire the service and to choose one service offering over any other.

Many of the services/products that Bay of Islands offers could easily be offered by other destinations in New Zealand or even abroad. What distinguishes Bay of Islands is that they were first to the market with this type of nature and culture-based tourism product in New Zealand. This is a simple rule of business and it applies greatly in the case of New Zealand. Bay of Islands has managed to carve out some sort of niche product for itself in the north of New Zealand. It is seen as the exemplar of the natural, adventure and heritage product that New Zealand has to offer.

2) Price

A very important factor in the marketing mix is the price. Since a service is not physical, its value must be carefully thought out. The price is sometimes the first thing which tourists look at. Depending on the type of service, perceptions of value differ. The price can act as an indicator of quality. A low price may seem as an attempt to cheat the customer in some way. People expect quality to cost and are willing to pay a higher price for it. That is why the service provider must be aware of how much people would pay for his service and why. Different visitors have different price expectations and Bay of Islands seems to have a variety of price related offerings across the board:

Accommodation is available at all prices and levels. Since the opening of the new luxury hotels in the city, new price levels and expectations are felt in the city. Motels, backpackers and B&Bs are in abundance to suit any price conscious tourist.

Entertainment is available free in pubs and on the street, but there is also night clubs and drama which cost more. Paihia, the main town of Bay of Islands is very well known as “party-town”.

In the case of Bay of Islands, price is naturally also an issue, though not the most important one. Even though it needs to be competitive in price, in a market where the competitors are increasing the price for their own motives, a lot of focus needs to be put on quality as well. For Bay of Islands, this means that even though their service and product offering should not be too expensive, many tourists will compare the service more on a qualitative level. Bay of Islands seems to have met well these considerations: it seems to have a product offering at all prices to suit all income/socio-economic conditions of the tourist.

3) Promotion

A third variable in the marketing mix is the promotion. It is a necessary tool for a service sector because it is a way of communicating the "product's" quality. Sometimes, in order to do this, it is good to use tangibles.

Bay of Islands uses information and references as a promotional tool. It publishes development reports featuring details about the tourism industry background, strategy and services, the technology, the marketing, the employees and even the competition. This is useful for the tourist to assess the Bay of Islands but this says little to the tourist about the services and product offered.

The website is a powerful marketing tool for Bay of Islands. Internet marketing has not completely revolutionised the concept of Marketing, but has incorporated it and expanded the opportunities available to marketers. Internet Marketing still uses the traditional concepts of the marketing mix (4 P's), but the logic of them has changed. Promotion with traditional marketing businesses used a one to