Hospitality and Tourism Marketing| Definition | importance |

What is Hospitality and Tourism Marketing?

In the hotel industry, marketing and sales are often thought to be the same, and no wonder: The sales department is one of the most visible in the hotel. Sales manager provide prospective clients with tours and entrtain them is the hotel's food and beverage outlets. Thus the sales function is highly visible, whereas most of the non-promotional. It is not uncommon to hear restaurant managers say that they "do not believe in marketing". When they actually mean that they are disappointed with the impact of their advertising. In reality, selling and advertising are only two marketing functions and often not the most important. Advertising and sales are components of the promotional element of the marketing mix. Other marketing mix elements include product, price, and distribution. Marketing also includes research, information systems and planning. 

      The four-P framework calls on marketing professionals to decide on the product and its characteristics, set the price, decide how to distribute their product, and choose methods for promoting their product. For example McDonald's has a fast-food product. It uses quality ingredients and developed products that it can sell at price people expect to pay for Fast-food. Most people will not spend more than 15 minutes to travel to a McDonald's restaurant. As part of its distribution plan, McDonald's must have restaurants that are conveniently located to its target market. Finally, McDonald's appeals to different market segmentation and has many units throughout a city. This allow McDonald's to make effective use of mass media, such as television. The marketing mix must be just that - a mix of ingredients to create an effective product/service package for the target market.

    If marketers do a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing a good product, and pricing, distributing and promoting it effectively, the result will be attractive product and satisfied coustomers Marriott developed Moxy hotels Darden designed the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. They designed differentiated products, offering new consumer benefits. Marketing means "hitting the mark." Peter Drucker, a leading management thinker, put it this way: " the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim is to know and understand customers so well that the product or service fits them and sells itsef.

      This does not mean that selling and promotion are unimportant, but rather that they are the part of the larger marketing mix, a set of marketing tools that work together to produce satisfied customers. They only way selling and promoting will be effective is if we first define our target market, understand their wants and then prepare an easily accessible and available value package.