Marketing in tourism. The concept of tourism marketing and its features Tourism marketing system

Introduction 3

1 The concept of marketing in tourism industry 5

2 Tourism product structure 12

2.1 Types and purposes of marketing research 15

2.2 Stages of marketing 19

3 Elements of the marketing strategy of Russian tourist enterprises 22

3.3 Distribution channels 28

3.3 Demand stimulation methods 31

4 Analysis of the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage" 35

Conclusion 42

Literature 43

Introduction

Tourism is one of the leading and most dynamically developing sectors of the world economy. The relevance of the topic is that tourism today plays one of the main roles in the global economy and is currently one of the most profitable businesses in the world. For its rapid growth, it is recognized as an economic phenomenon of the past century and a bright future is predicted for it in the coming century. According to the forecast of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the growth of the tourism industry will be irreversible in the 21st century, and by 2020 the number of international tourist visits will be 1.6 billion units.

Tourism in its main characteristics does not have any fundamental differences from other forms economic activity, therefore, all the main provisions of modern marketing can be fully applied in this area. At the same time, tourism has certain features associated with the nature of the services provided, labor, forms of sales, etc. Because of this, marketing in tourism has a number of characteristics that distinguish it not only from trade in goods, but also from other forms of trade in services. There is trade in both services and goods (according to experts, the share of services in tourism is 75%, goods - 25%), as well as the special nature of the consumption of tourism services and goods at the place of their production and in certain situation. The marketing complex in tourism has its own characteristics that must be taken into account when doing business in this industry.

The main components of tourism services marketing are: designing services, developing their organizational foundations (the relationship between the production process and the sale of services), the price of services, advertising, sales and promotion of services (commercial work).

The main thing that marketing methods of tourist services should be aimed at is to identify the possibilities for the most complete satisfaction of people's needs in terms of psychological and social factors, as well as determining the optimal ways of financial activities of travel companies, based on available resources.

Tourism services are a special “invisible” product. Relationships to be its implementation are varied and specific. The marketing system, and luggage distribution channels are much different through the material distribution of physical goods.

The successful business of an enterprise depends not only through the manufactured product. It is not enough to produce a quality product, it is forced to meet its consumer. Meeting a product with a potential consumer is the most important condition for its implementation. Therefore, some manufacturers offer bait products to the market through intermediaries, forming their own distribution channels.

Marketing in tourism is the continuous matching of the offered services with the services that are in demand in the market and that the travel agency is able to offer profitably and more efficiently than competitors do.

The purpose of the study: analysis of the features of tourism marketing. Analysis of the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage"

The following tasks follow from this:

Consider the concept of marketing in the tourism industry, the structure of the tourism product.

To study the types and goals of marketing research .

Consider elements marketing strategy tourist companies in Russia.

To analyze the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage".

1 The concept of marketing in the tourism industry

Tourism marketing is often used in one of the following three meanings.

Marketing is advertising, sales promotion and pressure on the buyer, in other words, a set of especially aggressive sales tools used to capture existing tourism markets. In this, the most mercantile sense of the word, marketing is considered mainly in relation to the mass consumer market and, to a much lesser extent, to the sectors of high technology, financial, social and cultural services.

Marketing is a set of market analysis tools (such as sales forecasting methods, simulation models, and market research) available only to large enterprises, where they are used to develop a forward-looking and more scientific approach to analyzing needs and demand.

Marketing is the architect of the consumer society, i.e. a market system where sellers commercially exploit consumers.

Behind all these complex thoughts lie three aspects of the marketing concept: the active aspect - market penetration; analytical aspect - understanding the markets; ideological aspect - way of thinking.

Most often, one can observe the tendency to reduce the concept of marketing to its active dimension, i.e. to a number of sales techniques, and an extreme underestimation of its analytical aspect.

Such a vision of the role of marketing is based on the fact that with the help of marketing (and really - sales promotion) and advertising, you can force the market to accept anything. However, this is very flawed, since such sales methods are often developed without taking into account the real needs of potential buyers, but only on the basis of the desire of the seller to make a record number of sales.

In fact, the marketing ideology is completely different. It is based, in essence, on the theory of individual choice, based on the principle of consumer priority. Within the framework of this approach, marketing is nothing more than the social expression and translation into operational terms of the principles of management put forward by classical economics at the end of the 18th century. These principles were formulated by Adam Smith and form the basis of the market economy. They can be reduced to the following: "... the prosperity of society is the result not so much of altruistic behavior as of ensuring that the mutual interests of the buyer and seller through competitive exchange" .

A. Smith considered human society, first of all, as an exchange union, which is based on the exchange various types labor. He considered the propensity to exchange to be a fundamental property of human nature, considering it ahistorically, regardless of the stage of social development.

Although the basic principle introduced by Adam Smith has been adjusted in modern economics, it nevertheless remains the main principle that governs the economic activities of an efficient firm operating in a free competitive market. Moreover, it is now clearer than ever that the countries that rejected the ideas of Adam Smith are finding themselves behind economically. The recent turmoil in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union clearly demonstrates this lag on many fronts.

At the heart of the market economy we find four central ideas.

People seek rewards from life. It is the pursuit of self-interest that motivates people to work, is the engine of growth, individual development and determines the general welfare.

The nature of the remuneration is determined by individual preferences, which depend on tastes, culture, values, etc.

It is through free and competitive exchange that the people and organizations with which they interact achieve their goals. the best way. If the exchange is free, it will occur only if its conditions create utility for both parties, and if it is competitive, then the risk of abuse of their market position by producers is limited.

The mechanisms of the market economy are based on the principle of individual freedom and, in particular, on the principle of consumer priority. The moral justification of systems is based on the recognition of the fact that people are responsible for their own actions and are able to decide what is good for them and what is not.

It should be recognized that there is a big gap between what marketing "in theory" declares and what it is in real life. However, the concept of marketing is the ideal that every firm should strive for. Even if this is a myth, the myth is guiding, orienting the firm in its actions.

From the principles listed above follows a philosophy of action that is significant for any organization that is engaged in satisfying the needs of customers. The scope of this marketing activity can be divided into three main areas:

1) consumer marketing, when transactions are carried out between firms and end consumers, individuals or families;

2) industrial, or intercompany, marketing, when organizations act as two parties in the exchange process;

3) social marketing, covering the areas of activity of non-profit organizations such as museums, universities, etc.

The concept of marketing assumes that all activities of the company should have the main goal of satisfying the needs of users, since this the best way achieve their own growth goals and increase the income of the enterprise.

This philosophy of action assumes two directions of activity of the firm.

Systematic and ongoing analysis of the needs and requirements of key customer groups, as well as the development of new product or service concepts that allow the company to serve selected customer groups better than competitors, and thereby achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. These tasks combines strategic marketing.

Organization of sales, sales and communication policies to inform potential buyers and demonstrate the distinctive qualities of the product while reducing the cost of finding buyers. Such tasks are assigned to operational marketing.

Thus, the vast majority of Russian tourist companies adhere to the positions of operational marketing. Strategic marketing is a very expensive activity, and therefore it remains for the time being only the lot of large tourist companies, corporations and hotel holdings. Among Russian companies the hospitality industry involved in strategic developments can be called VAO "Intourist", GLO "Moscow", OJSC "Aeroflot", state executive authorities and some others. Some Russian tourist companies resort to the help of specialized marketing companies that carry out market research on order. However, as a rule, these studies are carried out in order to determine only the potential of the market for an already finished product, and only a small number of orders provide for a preliminary study of the market and identification of its needs.

Strategic and operational marketing complement each other and find their concrete embodiment within the framework of the company's marketing policy. Thus, by combining the two approaches, we can offer the following definition of marketing.

Marketing is a social process aimed at satisfying the needs and desires of people and organizations by providing a free competitive exchange of goods and services of value to the buyer.

In other words, if the marketer has done a good job of identifying consumer needs, designing the right product or service, setting the right price for it, setting up distribution systems, and effectively promoting it, then such goods or services are likely to find a buyer easily. This is the basic elements of marketing.

In today's competitive environment, no one really disputes the importance of marketing. Hardly anyone doubts that the direction of the entire business activity to the needs of the buyer or user is the only way to do business. Despite the general agreement, many companies in practice are limited only to operational marketing (in fact, the organization and promotion of sales), leaving no attention to other components of marketing. It is one thing to understand the concept of marketing, quite another to follow this philosophy.

A company that adopts this philosophy will be faced with the need to build a market-driven organization whose behavior and actions are correlated with the concept of marketing. Creating superior customer value while making a profit is more than a marketing function. This is the goal of all activities of the organization, not just one department. In other words, strategic marketing is very important to the organization as a whole and should not be viewed as a purely functional unit of commercial services.

To achieve above-average performance, an organization must achieve sustainable competitive advantage. It can be achieved by four key components of market orientation: customer orientation, intermediate customer orientation, competitor orientation, and cross-functional coordination.

Orientation to the end consumer means the focus of efforts at all levels of the organization on creating value for the consumer, understanding and anticipating his needs.

Orientation to the intermediate client implies a willingness to treat trading firms not as mere intermediaries, but as their clients, i.e. trying to accommodate their specific needs.

Competitive targeting involves understanding the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, calculating their strategy and quickly responding to their actions.

Cross-functional coordination means disseminating market information within the organization, functional integration in formulating strategy, and using the vision and knowledge of different departments, not just the marketing department, to assess customer needs and concerns.

A fifth component of a market-driven organization should be added, environmental monitoring. In other words, it is a constant review of alternative technologies, social change, and government regulations that may represent opportunities or threats to the firm.

In the tourism and hospitality industry, the fifth component of the organization is of particular importance, since the industry is very susceptible to the external environment, its changes, both internal and external, it reacts sharply and very quickly to them, and an incorrect or untimely assessment can sometimes lead to negative consequences. up to ruin.

Relationship marketing is also important in the hospitality industry. Specialists and company managers are constantly working to establish good relationships with valuable customers, distributors, suppliers and representatives of the communications media. The fate of a firm or enterprise largely depends on their work in this direction. After all, the result of building relationships will be the conclusion of profitable transactions for the company.

Thus, marketing covers an area much wider than the traditional sphere of management, since it includes the organizational culture and climate that most effectively stimulates the behavior necessary for the successful implementation of the marketing concept.

2 Tourism product structure

Tourism in its main characteristics does not have any fundamental differences from other forms of economic activity. Therefore, all the essential provisions of modern marketing can be fully applied in tourism. At the same time, tourism has its own specifics that distinguish it not only from trade in goods, but also from other forms of trade in services. There is trade in both services and goods (according to experts, the share of services in tourism is 75%, goods - 25%), as well as the special nature of the consumption of tourism services and goods at the place of their production, moreover, in a certain situation .

In traditional production, which has a specific result of labor, the concept of marketing has a more specific content. In tourism, the result of activity is reduced to a tourist product. In fact, a tourism product is any service that satisfies certain needs of tourists and is subject to payment by them. Tourist services include hotel, transport, excursion, translation, household, communal, intermediary and others. At the same time, the “tourism product” can be considered in a narrow and broad sense. A tourism product in the narrow sense is the services of each specific sector of the tourism industry (for example, a hotel product, a tour operator's tourism product, a transport company, and so on). In a broad sense, a tourist product is a complex of goods and services that together form a tourist trip (tour) or is directly related to it. The main tourism product is a comprehensive service, i.e. a standard set of services sold to tourists in one "package".

The tourism product, along with the general specific characteristics of services, has its own distinctive features.

This is a complex of services and goods, characterized by a complex system of relationships between various components.

Tourism services have seven distinguishing characteristics:

2. Intangibility of services. There are no measured values for evaluating a tourist product: it is impossible to have an idea of the quality of a product before it is purchased and consumed. In this regard, the image of the company in the market, the prestige of its goods (services) is of particular importance for consumers when buying.

3. Exposure to seasonal fluctuations. The marketing activities of the travel agency will be different during the peak season and off-season. In the off-season, additional measures to stimulate demand are needed: low prices, various Additional services, variation by different types of tourism (supply diversification).

4. Significant static character, attachment to a certain place (hostel, airport, since they cannot be moved to another place).

5. Mismatch in time between the sale of the tourist service and its consumption. The purchase of goods (services) of tourism is carried out weeks or months before the start of their consumption. In this case big role promotional printed materials play, providing visual information about the purchased tourist product and allowing you to create a sense of the benefits that can be derived from its consumption in the future. At the stage of selling a tourist product, great importance is attached to the degree of reliability of information, as well as the reliability of the product (correspondence of the quality of the product to its price).

6. Territorial disunity of consumer and producer on tourist market. Information and promotion activities at a broader (international) level are important.

7. The buyer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption, and not vice versa.

Demand for tourism services is highly elastic with respect to income levels and prices, but is highly dependent on political and social conditions. The consumer, as a rule, cannot see the tourist product before its consumption, and the consumption itself in most cases is carried out directly at the place of production of the tourist service. The consumer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption, and not vice versa. The tourist product depends on such variables as space and time, it is characterized by fluctuations in demand. The tourism product is created by the efforts of many enterprises, each of which has its own working methods, specific needs and different commercial goals. A high quality of tourist services cannot be achieved in the presence of even minor shortcomings, since tourist service consists of these very little things and small details. The quality of tourism services is affected external factors that are of a force majeure nature (natural conditions, weather, tourism policy, international events, etc.).

These specific features of the tourism product have a significant impact on tourism marketing. Some authors invest in the concept of marketing in tourism global content, such as, for example, the Swiss specialist Y. Kripendorf: “Tourism marketing is a systematic change and coordination of the activities of tourism enterprises, as well as private and public policy in the field of tourism carried out according to regional, national or international plans. The purpose of such changes is to best meet the needs of certain consumer groups, while taking into account the possibility of obtaining an appropriate profit.

The constituent elements of the overall marketing system in the tourism area are: the state, local authorities authorities, national and local (regional) tourism organizations and enterprises.

Western experience shows that the joint efforts of private firms and official government tourism organizations in promoting the tourism industry give the greatest effect.

There is a close relationship between the various levels of marketing: the state, local authorities and associations take market data, including information from enterprises, and enterprises, in turn, base their marketing concepts on national and local tourism concepts. Marketing developments of the state are not a directive, but a recommendation, a guideline for the enterprise.

The functions of national organizations and regional levels are as follows:

Carrying out marketing research at the national level;

Legal and investment support for the development of tourism infrastructure;

Consulting services on the implementation of the marketing concept;

Assistance in organizing public relations and advertising events (exhibitions and fairs, brochures);

Creating a positive image of the country, promoting the country as an attractive tourist destination for foreign tourists.

2.1 Types and purposes of marketing research

Marketing research is essential for a particular firm in the process of systematic collection and analysis of information in order to identify threats, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities of the tourism market, as well as to develop an appropriate marketing strategy for business success.

Research conducted in tourism provides an information base for making the right management decisions by tourism managers. Research reveals:

Problems hindering the effective conduct of business;

Causes of problems and possible ways to resolve them;

Future trends in the tourism market.

Research also allows: to see new opportunities; determine effective ways of doing business; better understand the demands of the market and reduce the likelihood of risk in accordance with the changes that are constantly taking place there.

Research that reduces risk in the decision-making process largely determines the success of the tourism enterprise.

Thus, managers can plan, implement and control tourism activities more successfully if they have the necessary information.

All management decisions should be made taking into account the data obtained during marketing research.

The intensive growth of tourism in Russia has not contributed to marketing research and planning marketing activities. However, the crisis has forced many enterprises to reevaluate the way they operate in order to survive in a crisis and competition. When making a management decision, managers pursue the goal of making a profit. But, as long-term practice of working in the European tourist market shows, the main tasks of any tourist enterprise, if it sets its strategic goal obtaining long-term profits and maintaining demand for their goods and services, is to determine the needs of consumers and meet their needs. The marketing concept of doing business, which arose in the late 70s in the Western market, involves conducting market research and planning marketing activities at the very beginning of the development of a tourism product: firms need to know the needs potential clients, determine the possible number of buyers of a product or service, how and where they want to buy it, at what price and what they expect from the purchased product or service. To obtain such information, there are certain research technologies. Tourist enterprises from a variety of different approaches choose the most appropriate.

Marketing research is necessary at all stages of the company's activity - from product development and promotion to sales and after-sales service.

Firms can conduct two types of research:

2) study of one specific situation (problem) in order to test the assumption or analyze changes in the tourism market.

The company conducts a comprehensive study of the tourism market in order to assess the current general situation, the problems and threats arising from it, and the emerging opportunities. The firm may also allocate resources to conduct research on one or more problem situations that have developed in the course of the day-to-day operation of the enterprise. In addition, the company investigates external and internal factors of influence, studies the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, market potential, and business development trends.

The objectives of marketing research in tourism:

2. Maintaining the connection of the enterprise with its target markets. Tourism research provides an opportunity to identify future trends, better understand market demands and track changes in markets in order to develop appropriate policies. Research reduces the likelihood of risk arising from unexpected changes in the markets. To a certain extent, the study provides a guarantee that the company will not produce a product that, due to changes in the market, has already become obsolete for this market.

3. Cost reduction. Research helps to identify the most effective business practices and eliminate inefficient ones.

4. Development of new sources of profit. Research can lead to the discovery of new markets, new products, and new uses for products already on the market.

5. Help in stimulating sales. The results of the study are interesting not only for a particular company, but also for society as a whole and can be used in advertising campaigns and to stimulate sales. This primarily concerns studies of consumer attitudes towards a product, service, and those studies in which consumers are asked to evaluate certain goods and services.

6. Create a favorable attitude from buyers. Consumers respond well to tourism enterprises conducting research. They believe that the companies that do this kind of work really care about them and are putting in the effort to create a product or service that meets their needs. So, if the purpose of the survey, such as improving the quality of service, is indicated in the preamble to the questionnaire, customers will be more willing to respond to the questionnaire and they will create a favorable impression of the company as caring about maintaining or improving the quality of services provided.

2.2 Stages of marketing

Tourism research takes many forms, from the primitive to the more complex, from the simple collection of facts to the use of complex, mathematical models.

The process of conducting tourism research is represented by the following stages:

1. Problem definition. First, it is necessary to define or identify the existing problem and formulate the objectives of the study. Goals can be search, involving the collection of some preliminary data that shed light on the problem, and possibly help develop a hypothesis; descriptive, that is, explaining certain phenomena; experimental, providing for testing the hypothesis of some kind of causal relationship.

2. Conducting a situational analysis. At this stage, all available information related to this problem is collected and processed. The purpose of this stage is to find out if any other company has already had similar situations or to check if the information that contains a ready-made solution to this problem has not been omitted.

A situational analysis is a thorough search for all data related to a given company, a particular product, industry, market, competitors, advertising, consumers, product and service providers, technology, economy, political climate, and other similar data. Knowing all the information about the problem helps to identify the possible causes of its occurrence. The organization will get more from the result of research if its internal environment and goals, strategies, aspirations, available resources, as well as the limits that it should not go beyond in its activities, are clearly defined.

In addition to obtaining the necessary information on this problem from available sources, it is necessary to extract useful information also from conversations with clients, distributors and other key figures in the travel industry. During situational analysis and information gathering, assumptions are made, which then need to be tested.

3. Development of a research scheme. After collecting relevant data and identifying the problem, it is necessary to develop a certain procedure (or structure) according to which the research will be carried out. At this stage, which is the core of the research process, hypotheses are developed that will be tested, the type and sources of the necessary information are determined. If it is determined that a field survey is required, then a sample should be developed for conducting a survey, questionnaire, or other form of information collection, as well as instruction sheets and coding and tabulation methods. Finally, an auxiliary study must be carried out to check all the previous elements. The results are presented in the form of a detailed plan, which is designed to serve as a guide in the research process, and any qualified research participant must adhere to this plan.

4. Data collection. When data can be obtained from sources of secondary information, desk research of all existing information is carried out. When collecting primary information, however, actual field research is used, the main methods of which are observation, questioning or experiment. The success of data collection depends on the quality of the field research, the quality of the work of the interviewers or people conducting the field research, and the skill level of the researchers.

5. Presentation of information in tables and analysis. Once the data has been collected, the information must be coded, tabulated and analyzed. This and the previous steps must be carried out with the utmost care, otherwise, if the process of collection, tabulation and analysis is not carried out properly, many erroneous conclusions can be drawn. For example, if data collection uses a survey method, then interviewers must be carefully selected, trained and supervised. The presentation of information in tables is carried out using a computer.

6. Data interpretation. The result of presenting data in tables is a set of computer inferences and a number of statistical conclusions. The data obtained is interpreted in order to find the best solution or to develop a set of specific recommendations for determining the actions of a firm or organization. The transition from interpreting information to making recommendations is the most difficult task in the research process.

7. Reporting. The presentation of the research results is very important. All the labor and expense of conducting research will be in vain if the data obtained is not presented in a form that helps the manager act in accordance with them. At this stage of the research process, a full report should be produced with approved recommendations for solving a particular problem situation.

8. Control. Research work is considered incomplete until the results of the research are put into action. Research is money invested and time spent.

3 Elements of the marketing strategy of Russian tourist enterprises

A marketing mix (marketing program) is a set of controllable marketing variables that a firm uses in combination to elicit a desired response from a target market. The tourism marketing manager must constantly create a marketing mix - the right combination of elements that provide profit through the most complete satisfaction of consumers and in a more effective way than competitors.

Numerous elements of the marketing mix have been reduced to the concept of "four P", which includes Product (product), Place (place), Promotion (demand stimulation) and Price (price). This concept is a simple and precise formula that represents all marketing activities and makes it easy to draw up a marketing program.

A product refers not only to its physical characteristics, but also to the planning and development of a new product or service. Here decisions are made regarding the diversity of the product range, appropriation trademarks and packaging. When planning the creation of a product (goods, services), all these aspects should be taken into account.

Place refers to making decisions about the appropriate methods of distribution, i.e. which channels and in what manner of distribution should be used to create the easiest access for consumers to the goods and services of producers.

Incentive methods are all kinds of activities of the firm to disseminate information about the merits of its product and convince target consumers to buy it. Promotion methods include not only advertising but also personal selling techniques, sales promotion activities, and public relations.

Price is a very important variable in the marketing mix. It must satisfy consumers and at the same time correspond to the goal of making a profit by the enterprise. The price charged by the firm must match the value proposition, otherwise buyers will buy competitors' products.

The starting point for effective marketing is the consumer. After identifying and analyzing a specific group of consumers, the manager, using all four elements of a marketing tool, provides effective service to this segment. Since consumer orientation is important, it is customary to consider the people themselves (consumers of the tourism product) as the fifth element of the marketing mix, since they are the central point of the marketing program (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Elements of the marketing mix

3.1 Tourism product planning and development

The goal of most travel agencies is to run a profitable and sustainable business. To achieve this goal, companies need to produce the product or service that would satisfy the needs of potential buyers and thereby ensure business growth. Product planning is an important component in developing a profitable and sustainable business. It is often referred to as "five rules" planning—planning to create the right product, deliver it to the right place, at the right time, at the right price, and in the right (right) quantity.

On fig. 2 shows the life phases that a tourist product goes through: launching a product on the market, growth, maturity, saturation, decline. Due to the rapid changes in people's lifestyles and technological changes, the life cycle of individual products and services has become shorter than it used to be, so the concept of product life cycle plays an important role in strategic planning, and each stage of the product life cycle also has certain tasks for marketing.

Rice. 2. Product life cycle

The stage of bringing the product to market. This phase of the life cycle requires the cost of stimulating demand (this is the best time to advertise a new product or service). This stage is characterized by high costs, slow sales growth and advertising campaigns to stimulate initial demand.

Growth stage. In this period, the novelty (if it is in demand in the market) satisfies the interests of the market, which is reflected in the growth of sales and profits. Profit growth can make the market attractive to competitors. A firm's sales promotion costs remain high, but the focus here is on motivating purposeful selection and purchase of a particular firm's product rather than on motivating consumers to buy and try the product. During the growth phase, the number of retail outlets for a product or service usually increases. In this period, the market becomes attractive to competitors, but due to the effect of economies of scale, prices for a product (service) may decrease.

stage of maturity. A mature product is a product or service that is already firmly established in the market. Its sales rates may continue to increase, but at a slower pace. Then they gradually level out. At this stage of the product life cycle, many retail outlets selling a product or service are very competitive. Firms are trying to find ways to maintain their market share. Ski resorts are the most appropriate example of a mature product.

saturation stage. At this stage, sales volumes reach their highest point, the product penetrates the market as much as possible.

Mass production and the use of new technologies make it possible to reduce the price level and make the product more accessible to everyone.

Decline stage. Many tourism products remain at the saturation stage for several years. However, many of them become obsolete over time and new products are introduced to the market to replace the old ones. At the stage of decline, the demand for the product is reduced, advertising costs are reduced. As demand and profits fall, firms that cannot withstand competition leave the market.

3.2 Tourism Product Pricing Strategies

One of the most important marketing solutions is a decision regarding the establishment of a price for a product or service. The price reflects how consumers perceive the product. It strongly influences other marketing mix variables as well.

The costs associated with the production, promotion, distribution and sale of the tourist product, as well as the rate of return, must be included in the price. In order to establish the correct price for a tourist product, it is necessary to analyze many factors.

When setting the price, first of all, the nature of competition in this tourist market and the analysis pricing policy competitors.

In a purely competitive market, no single buyer or seller has much influence on the level of current market prices. Businesses in this market do not spend much time developing a marketing strategy.

In the market of monopolistic competition, enterprises set prices for their goods in a wide range, since the offers of various tourist enterprises differ from each other in quality and special properties. Businesses develop different offerings for different segments and make extensive use of branding, advertising, and personal selling techniques.

The oligopolistic market consists of a small number of tourist enterprises. It is difficult for new applicants to enter this market. Each manufacturer is sensitive to the strategy and actions of competitors. The oligopolistic nature of competition has developed in the more mature Western tourist market. Here, as a rule, several large travel agencies dominate. For example, in Germany in 1955, the three largest firms controlled 57% of the tourist market.

At pure monopoly There is only one seller on the market. It can be a state monopoly, a private unregulated monopoly and a private regulated monopoly. In each case, pricing is different. The state monopoly can be on tourist sites of unique quality (the Moscow Kremlin).

In pricing decisions, firms have a choice of one of three product pricing strategies:

1. Firms may decide to sell their product at the market price, i.e., at a price generally accepted in the market. In this case, firms are considered to operate in conditions of non-price competition.

2. Firms may charge a lower price than current market prices. Firms that practice this kind of discounting policy create a reputation for asking low prices and thereby trying to achieve higher sales than their competitors.

3. Setting a price above the market. The use of an inflated pricing strategy should be driven by the best quality in the industry or backed by various attractive benefits and uniqueness of the product in order to justify the high price. This approach focuses on quality, which many customers believe is a function of price. Quality generates more costs.

Another basis for making a pricing decision is the level of demand for a tourism product.

When setting a price for a product, it is necessary to take into account the type and number of potential consumers. If a price decrease of 1% increases demand, and a price increase of 1% it decreases significantly, then demand is price elastic. If the market has a small number of consumers, then the price should be high enough to compensate for the limited market. However, shopping habits and purchasing power must also be taken into account.

The price must include the gross cost of production. The profit embedded in the price of the product must remain to offset the business risk after payment of liabilities to all contract partners and after payment of all taxes.

Travel agents make a premium on the tour operator's selling price, thereby covering their overheads and making a profit. Tour operators determine a floor price level below which travel agents are not allowed to lower prices.

In addition to these factors, you must also consider:

1. Availability of substitute products from competitors. If competitors sell tour packages in the same direction, then with a significant increase in the price of the product, you can lose your customers.

2. Income, the degree of saturation of the needs of your target market, changes in environment(political, economic, legal). All this must be constantly analyzed.

3. Product quality. The quality of a product reflects the price-value relationship.

4. Distinctive characteristics of the product.

5. Competitors. When pricing a product that is similar to a competitor's product, the prices of competitors' products must be taken into account.

6. Seasonality. When developing the price of a product, the time aspect must be taken into account.

7. Psychological features. Consumers have been found to respond psychologically well to odd-numbered prices, and there seems to be something magical about prices that end in 9.

For the market of tourist services, the fact of a gap in time between the moment of price setting and the moment of purchase and sale of a tourist product is not uncommon.

3.3 Distribution channels

Another difficult decision that the marketing manager must make is the selection of suitable tourism intermediaries that connect consumers of tourism goods and services with the producers of these services (airlines, hotels, car rental firms, etc.).

When choosing one or another channel for the distribution of goods and services, it is necessary to carry out:

Product analysis;

Characterization and determination of the size of the market;

Analysis of distribution channels in terms of sales, costs and profits;

Determination of the assistance that can be expected from this channel in the sale of goods and services;

Determining the assistance that will need to be provided to this channel in the distribution of goods and services;

Determining the number of retail outlets.

American market researchers who have studied tourism intermediaries have identified three main categories of distribution channels: tour operators, travel agents, and specialized distribution channels. The category of specialized channels includes incentive travel agencies; persons involved in the planning of meetings and conferences; hotel representatives, association executives; corporate travel agencies, etc. (Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. The system of distribution of goods and services in tourism

Intermediaries can influence when, where and how people travel. To some extent, they control what percentage of the business an airline, hotel, cruise line, or car rental company gets.

Each vertical link in Fig. 4 represents a possible intermediary linking tourists with tourism service providers. The leftmost link shows that consumers themselves book places on a vehicle, a hotel room and organize their holidays directly with manufacturers (suppliers) of travel services. Each of the subsequent links is not a direct connection, but mediated by one or more intermediaries. All of these links must be examined by the tourism marketing manager in order to select the best channel or combination of distribution channels in order to successfully promote the company's goods and services on the market. The manager must also be always aware of the changes that occur in the distribution system. The entry of new competitors into the system always requires additional methods of distribution of goods and services.

Rice. 4. Channels of distribution of tourist goods and services of different levels.

In the Russian tourist market, there are two main forms of selling a tourist product: through a tour operator and through a travel agent. Tour operator - a tourist enterprise that develops tourist routes and completes tours, ensures their operation, organizes advertising, calculates prices for tours along these routes in accordance with applicable regulations, and sells tours to travel agents for the issuance and sale of vouchers under their licenses . A travel agent is a company that purchases tours developed by a tour operator, issues vouchers for these tours and sells them to the consumer.

3.3 Demand stimulation methods

The purpose of promoting goods and services is to create demand for these goods and services.

The use of means to stimulate demand in the field of tourism is aimed not only at the end consumer, but also at numerous producers of travel services, intermediaries (travel agents, tour operators), as well as their contact “audiences” (mass media, financial and insurance companies, public organizations) .

In order to sell a product, you must:

Attract the attention of potential consumers;

Arouse consumer interest in the product;

Make consumers want to buy this product;

Encourage buyers to take real action.

Both forms of personal selling and advertising are highly effective. But the most effective is to use these two forms together. Advertising is ideal for drawing attention and creating interest among potential buyers for a particular product or service.

In tourism, such means of stimulating demand as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and propaganda are widely used.

Advertising. Advertising can be defined as a form of non-personal communication with customers for the presentation of goods, ideas and services, carried out through paid media, with a clearly identified source of funding.

Each travel company chooses in advance the form of appeal, even when the advertising campaign is commissioned by advertising agencies or media personnel.

Distinguish between commercial and communicative effectiveness of advertising. The sales effectiveness of advertising is determined by the increase in the percentage of sales before and after the start of promotional activities. The communicative effectiveness of advertising is determined by research methods and questionnaires.

The main advertising media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, signs, catalogs, booklets, stands, leaflets, billboards, announcements on vehicles. They have the following advantages and disadvantages.

Promotion of a new tourist center on the market will require more funds than maintaining the image of an object already mastered by tourists. The distribution of the advertising budget between advertising and sales promotion depends on each specific situation.

A travel agency cannot spend more than 10% of its turnover on an advertising campaign. The specificity of tourist advertising is that the advertising messages of tourist organizations should be more targeted than advertising in other sectors of the economy.

Research. Successful tourism marketing relies heavily on research. Activities to stimulate tourist demand without proper research are just a waste of time and effort. Advertising costs will not be productive if it is not known in advance: the contingent of customers, their addresses and travel and leisure preferences, their interests; which tourist destinations they prefer. These questions can only be answered through research.

Personal Selling Techniques. This is the oldest and most widely used method of creating customer demand, the most persuasive and effective type of sales promotion, since the seller in this case has direct contact with buyers. Unlike advertising, which is not a personal means of communication, personal selling is an individual, personal communication between the seller and the consumer. Many organizations spend more money on personal selling (8 to 15% of sales) than on advertising.

Sales promotion is the use of a variety of incentives designed to hasten or enhance market response.

Incentives (competitions, coupons, bonuses, commissions) have three characteristic qualities:

1) attract attention and contain information that can lead the consumer to the product;

2) imply a concession, benefit, assistance that are of value to the consumer;

Organization of public opinion (public relations), go propaganda. Public opinion activities have several objectives, including giving the firm a favorable publicity, creating an image of it as an organization with high corporate responsibility, and preventing the spread of unfavorable rumors and information about it. Public relations can be defined as the social consciousness of the firm, where in the process of making any decision, the public interest is a priority. Public relations permeate the entire tourism organization, including relationships with many structures such as customers, company employees, suppliers and local residents.

Constant communication with your customers is the basis for creating or maintaining a favorable image of the company. The reputation and image of a travel company is largely determined by the way to resolve disputes that arise with customers and partners, as well as the procedure for resolving complaints. Tourist organizations that care about maintaining their positive reputation are trying not to bring the situation to court, but to resolve everything peacefully. In disseminating favorable information about a travel organization, it is necessary to provide consumers with only reliable and complete information about a product or service. False information for a long time or even forever will create an unfavorable image of the company in the minds of society.

Survival in the market requires the use of a direct marketing strategy, the essence of which is the individualization of sales, establishing direct contacts directly with a specific consumer, with each potential client.

The concept of direct marketing involves:

Identification of target groups to which marketing activities should be directed;

Development of a set of measures to stimulate the sale of tourist services;

Creation of a data bank on the clientele of the company;

Creation of an effective system of stable feedback and quick response of the travel services provider to complaints and claims from the client.

4 Analysis of the marketing of tourist services of the company "Sacvoyage"

Travel company "SAKVOYAZH" was founded on February 29, 1996. Currently a member of the Russian Association of Travel Agencies (RATA)

Travel agency "SAKVOYAZH" 450000, g. Ufa, Lenin street 44/46

Sale of tours in the following directions:

Turkey, Egypt, UAE, Tunisia, Greece, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Thailand, Cyprus, Malta, Andorra, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Scandinavia, Russia, and Bashkiria

Bus tours in Europe

sea cruises

VIP and individual tours

hot tours.

Travel company "Sacvoyage" has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most reliable travel agencies in Ufa. The work of managers in the office is maximally interconnected and automated. Full computerization and a well-functioning system of work do not allow any loss of information. This allows you to smoothly and clearly serve your tourists even at the peak of the tourist season.

To date, the staff of the company is 15 people.

Contacts have been established with all the leading hotels of the city, as well as the largest sanatoriums of Bashkortostan. The company's office organizes the sale of air tickets to all directions for flights of Russian and foreign airlines. According to the results of the 2008 season, the travel company "Sacvoyage" is one of the leading travel companies in the city of Ufa.

Key parameters of the market and its target segments.

Market segmentation is the breakdown of the market into clear groups of buyers, each of which may require separate products and / or marketing mixes. Most often, socio-economic criteria are used for market segmentation, such as: age, gender, income level, education, profession, family size, and others.

Employees of "Sacvoyage" determine the target segment according to the following characteristics:

Age - 40-45 years

Income level - average and above average

Education - usually higher, but does not play a role

Marital status - usually a family of two to four people

Work, profession - most often - private entrepreneurs

Geography

Life style - an energetic, active person, engaged in commercial or managerial activities, often working on weekends and holidays, monitors his image, feels a lack of time for rest and family, receptive to new products, skeptical of advertising.

The motive for traveling is the desire to relax with the family, the desire to relax abroad, the desire to receive treatment abroad, the desire to visit an exotic country (entertainment + novelty).

This is how the main segment on which Sakvoyazh operates is described.

Of course, this does not mean that absolutely all of the company's clients are of exactly this age or status, but most of them fit this definition, and it is this group of consumers that allows you to quickly recoup the costs of producing and promoting a tour product. On the other hand, almost all tour companies are focused on the same segment. This means that the firm must strive to win the customer's favor and trust.

All marketing efforts should be aimed at creating strong and lasting preferences among current and potential customers.

The task is to divert a large number of customers from the already existing market, to attract new categories of customers.

2. Assessment of the competitive strategy of the enterprise

Hundreds or even thousands of dollars are spent on advertising and other marketing activities, because it is high-quality advertising that guarantees the competitiveness of an enterprise. Advertisers want to know if these costs are justified. This can only be known by conducting evaluation studies.

While advertising is about image building, and it takes time to do so, channel management is about promotion leading to immediate action, preferably a sale. On the other hand, they perform a common task, which is to increase the number of consumers and more use of the tour product by consumers.

Sales support is the offer of an additional motive for buying. Its main advantage lies in the variety and flexibility of methods. Most often, various discounts are used by firms to promote tours. "Sacvoyage" offers the following system of discounts:

Holiday discounts

Family discounts

Group

Baby

Special (for those who own a discount coupon or for clients who bring a new client to the firm)

Another effective way to promote a tour product are various contests and lotteries. These strategies attract people by promising free benefits and offering impressive prizes. In 1996, "Sacvoyage" established cooperation with the newspaper. Once every six months, they hold a joint game dedicated to tourism and a win-win lottery.

Various printed products are used by tour companies to stimulate sales directly in the office. At the moment when a client hesitates in choosing a travel agent, vacation spot, hotel or mode of transport, a colorful prospectus outlining all the advantages of this vacation spot, hotel, etc. will help push him to buy. Various calendars, stands, brochures, magazines and catalogs of their own publication not only attract the client with their appearance, but also offer more detailed information about the route. Their production is relatively inexpensive - it depends on the amount of printed information, the cost of paper, the cost of printed media, and the salaries of designers. It is possible to order such products in specialized firms, which is much more profitable with single copies or in small batches.

The next stage in the management of the distribution channel is participation in the work of various tourist exhibitions and fairs. Exhibitions and fairs are of great importance in terms of finding partners and establishing business relationships. This type of promotion refers to sales promotion aimed at intermediaries. Exhibitions of this kind are held annually not only in Moscow, but also in other cities, both Russian and international. In 1998, for the first time, the company acted as a tour operator in the summer program "To Spain Directly from Ufa". In the same year, the company was awarded a diploma of the International Exhibition Center "InterSib" for professional work. In 1997, for the first time, own tourist programs in Bashkortostan were proposed, which received recognition from Ufa, nonresident and foreign tourists.

"Sacvoyage" publishes booklets related to their own projects in order to attract more tourists to these services.

All booklets are printed in the printing house on good quality paper, which shows respect for customers. In addition, all booklets are colorfully designed.

In these advertising booklets, the visual effect is provided by photographs of these projects. Photos recreate the atmosphere of these tours. They give the potential client the main idea of what awaits him.

Television has ample opportunity to have a targeted impact and cause the desired response from the audience.

Television provides wide coverage. So, to promote the holiday program "March 8 in the sanatorium" Abzakovo ", advertising was given on television, on weekends, during the display of interesting programs and feature films on the BST channel, when the maximum number of potential customers were at their TVs. The advertisement that was placed in this newspaper was simple, short, drawing the attention of readers. Due to its efficiency, repeatability, wide market coverage, the press is one of the most effective means of advertising distribution, so Sakvoyazh most often uses the services of the press to advertise its services.

Corporate identity is a set of color, graphic, verbal, typographic design permanent elements that provide visual and semantic unity of goods (services), all information coming from the company, its internal and external design.

Travel company "Sacvoyage" has developed its own corporate identity, which allows the consumer to quickly and accurately find the company's product, allows the company to bring its new products to the market at a lower cost, and which increases the effectiveness of advertising. The corporate style elements are:

Trademark;

Corporate type inscription (logo);

Corporate block;

Corporate slogan (slogan);

corporate color;

So, from the foregoing, it can be seen that the travel company "Sacvoyage" actively promotes its services with the help of various types of advertising. However, we have considered only certain types of advertising. But, it should be noted that "Sacvoyage" also uses other types of advertising, such as: audiovisual advertising, flyers, outdoor advertising, postal advertising, and so on.

3. Conclusions and suggestions for improving the marketing activities of the enterprise.

So, marketing ensures not only the effective satisfaction of market needs, but also the success of the enterprise in the competitive struggle.

Originating in the manufacturing sector, marketing is quite long time did not find appropriate application in the field of tourism. However, the increase in competition, the commercialization of tourism activities have led to the need for the earliest possible introduction of the main elements of marketing into the practice of a tourism enterprise. At the same time, tourism has certain features associated with the nature of the services provided, forms of sales, and so on. In order to really use marketing as a reliable tool for achieving success in the market, specialists in tourism enterprises need to master its methodology and the ability to apply it depending on the specific situation. Employees of the travel company "Sacvoyage" are trying to apply marketing in their activities, studying the supply and demand for specific tourist services, setting prices for a new project, advertising their services, and so on. And here marketing acts as a compass that allows the company to conduct its activities towards the intended goal in a safer way, but as mentioned earlier, they lack a specialized marketing service department, in order to best promote the company and conquer new frontiers, in my opinion, the creation of such a structure as a separate independently functioning body will not only help to conquer new frontiers, but also to occupy a leading position in this market sector for a very long time.

Conclusion

The modern concept of marketing in tourism requires taking into account the holistic and comprehensive nature of the tourism business. To implement such a concept, it is necessary to develop a mechanism for coordinating the marketing of various organizations in the field of tourism.

More effective scientific research is needed. To conduct the most in-depth comprehensive research, it is necessary to invite specialists or create your own marketing department with qualified personnel. It is advisable for small and medium-sized tour operators to unite to conduct joint marketing activities and market research in order to reduce the cost of attracting marketing specialists and specialized marketing companies.

The specific nature of marketing in the Russian tourist market is determined by the fact that the prevailing number of Russian tour operators limit their marketing activities to advertising campaigns, mainly in the form of print advertising. A variety of forms of advertising is needed.

Tourism marketing should be addressed not only to end consumers - tourists, but also to intermediate instances - travel agencies, partners, public tourism associations, state bodies for tourism regulation.

Tourism of the 21st century is, first of all, tourism focused on the client as a consumer of tourist goods and services. A successful and profitable tourism business of the future is a business based on knowledge of international legal norms and rules, tourism management and marketing, tourism market conditions, on a complete and comprehensive knowledge of the needs and demands of the tourist.

Literature

Basovsky E.L. Marketing. - M.: INFRA-M, 2006.

Voskolovich, N. A. Marketing of tourist services. – M.: UNITI, 2009.

Durovich A.P., Kopanev A.S. Marketing in tourism.-M.: Ekonompress, 2000.

Kvartalnov V.A. Tourism. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002.

Kotler F., Bowen D., Makenz D. Marketing. Hospitality. Tourism. – M.: Unity, 2000.

Nikolashina V. N. Marketing of tourist services - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2008.

Noriganova O.A. Methodology for assessing tourist services as a market category // Culture of the peoples of the Black Sea region. - 2002 - N36.

Papiryan G.A. Economics of tourism.-M.: Finance and statistics, 2005.

Palchuk M.I. Features of tourism marketing // Culture of the peoples of the Black Sea region. - 2003. - No. 38.

Saak A.E., Pshenichnykh Yu.A. Management in socio - cultural service and tourism: Textbook - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.

Saprunova V.B. Tourism: evolution, structure, marketing.-M.: INFRA-M, 2004.

www. tourmarketportal.ru

hospitality industry and tourism in the hotel business marketing often identified with...

In any activity, especially related to international transactions, the most relevant is the issue of definitions, i.e. definitions, concepts, terms agreed upon and accepted as a basis, allowing to adequately interpret the subject, object and terms of the transaction, principles and provisions of normative acts. Discrepancies in the interpretation of the terms used can have the most adverse consequences in the practical actions of the subjects of tourism activities.

Tourism terminology is undergoing significant changes in accordance with the rapid pace of development and formation of both social relations and tourism, its industries and types. The interpretation of tourist terms is the subject of fierce discussions among apologists for the theory of tourism.

When we talk about tourism, we mean people who visit friends and relatives, take vacations and just have a good time. In their free time, they can do various sports, sunbathe, ride horses, go hiking, read, talk and, finally, just enjoy the world around them.

Can be included in our definition of tourism and people who take part in various conventions, conferences or other types of business and professional activity, go on study tours or do research.

These people (let's call them tourists) Schwalbe K. Marketing practice for small and medium enterprises. M.: Respublika, 2005. They use various types of transport when traveling: from bicycles to jet flights. Many people travel by car, bus, train or even motorbike.

In order to establish the significance of tourism and more fully describe the scope of its activities, it is necessary first of all to highlight various groups entities that interact in tourism.

1. Tourists. These are people who experience various mental and physical needs, the nature of which determines the directions and types of participation of these people in tourism activities.
2. Organizations providing goods and services to tourists. These are entrepreneurs who see tourism as an opportunity to make a profit by providing goods and services, taking into account the demand in the tourism market.
3. Local authorities. They consider tourism as an important factor in the economy, associated with the income that local citizens can receive from this business in the form of taxes that go to the local budget.
4. Host. The local population perceives tourism primarily as a factor in employment. For this group, the result of interaction with tourists, including foreign ones, is important.

Thus, tourism can be defined as a set of phenomena and relationships that arise from the interaction of tourists, suppliers, local authorities and the local population in the process of tourism activities. Travel, tourism is a complex of related business areas. The profession closest to tourism is the distribution of tours, that is, the work of travel agencies. Airlines, car rental companies, railways, buses, hotels and restaurants are directly involved in tourism. Related types of business can also include financial structures that finance the development of the service sector, etc.

A life modern society characterized by an increase in the role and importance of the service sector. The higher the level of economic development of the country, the greater the share of spending on services in overall structure consumer spending. With the development of interstate contacts, the service sector has gone beyond the boundaries of individual countries and has become one of the most important types of world economy. Nearly? world trade is trade in various services.

The last decades are characterized by a rapid increase in the demand of the population of developed countries for tourism services. As a result, not only the absolute size of tourism expenditures is constantly increasing, but also their specific gravity in the general structure of consumer spending of the population. The increase in people's free time, the growth of their money income in many countries of the world, the increase in the level of education and culture contribute to the growth of their need for tourism. Tourist travel has now moved into the category of primary needs, which are difficult to refuse even in the face of increased economic difficulties. All these factors have led to the transformation of tourism into one of the important sectors of the economy.

European marketing concepts have changed in parallel with the transformation of the market - this is the stage of the "enterprise oriented to production". The market was ready to absorb the offered products, sales did not present any particular problems. The absolute preponderance of demand over supply.

Tour operators offered mainly tour packages, domestic tourism prevailed, although there were also tours abroad. * 60s - the time of the enterprise, "focused on financing and organizational restructuring." Approval of mass (conveyor) production and marketing. Capital and organizational structures were needed to produce the required number of tours "on the assembly line". The beginning of the emergence of tourist concerns, phases of concentration processes that are still ongoing.

The modern stage is the time of the "marketing-oriented" enterprise. The entire enterprise, with all its functions, must be adapted to the needs of the market and driven by the market. This means not blindly adjusting to the desires and needs of the client, but exercising an active and purposeful influence on them. In addition, awareness is needed, and this applies primarily to tourism enterprises, of responsibility towards the social and environmental environment. Marketing today is a function of the enterprise, the strategy and tactics of its behavior in the market. At the same time, the goal of marketing is to recognize the needs and requirements of the market in a timely manner and create its own strategy of behavior in the market, taking into account the requirements of society and the environment.

Features of tourism marketing are determined primarily by the characteristics of the tourism product, as well as the specific features of producers and consumers of tourism services. According to the definition of X. Krippendorf, "tourism marketing is a systematic change and coordination of the activities of tourism enterprises, as well as private and public policies in the field of tourism. The purpose of such changes is to best meet the needs of certain consumer groups, while taking into account the possibility of obtaining corresponding profits"

A tourist product in a broad sense is a complex of services and goods that together form a tourist trip (tour) or are directly related to it (for example, tourist equipment is also a tourist product, although it is a product, not a service). Due to the fact that the range of services of the tourism industry is very diverse, it makes sense, apparently, to also talk about the tourism product in the narrow sense in relation to each specific sector of the tourism industry (for example, tourism product hotel enterprise, tour operator, travel agent, tourist equipment manufacturing enterprise, etc.).

The tourism product also has the following features.

* This is a complex of services and goods (tangible and intangible components), which has a complex system of relationships between various types or components of the tourism product.
* Tourist services cannot be stored or stored, they cannot be presented in the form of commercial samples. To evaluate the tourism product, there are no measured values, such as dimensions, weight, volume, power, etc. An objective assessment is possible only for individual components of services.
* The consumer, as a rule, cannot see the tourist product before its consumption, and in most cases consumption is carried out directly at the place of production of the tourist service.
* The buyer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption of the latter, and not vice versa.
* Tourism product depends on variables such as time and space. The seasonality factor is of great importance. The marketing activities of the travel agency will be different during the peak season and off-season. In the off-season, for example, additional measures to stimulate demand are needed - low prices, various additional services, variation in various types of tourism, etc. In addition, the proposal is characterized by significant static nature: for example, attachment to a specific place (hostel, airport, etc. cannot be moved to another place).
* A significant impact on the quality of travel services is exerted by external factors of a force majeure nature, that is, not dependent on the will and actions of the seller and buyer: weather, natural conditions, tourism policy, international events, etc.
* Contradiction between static supply and dynamic demand. The proposal is tied to a place (for example, a specific tourist center), has an unchanging landscape, climate, organically formed orientation of the tourist infrastructure.

The assessment of the quality of travel services is quite subjective: external factors or persons that are not directly related to the package of purchased services (for example, local residents, other vacationers, members of the tour group, etc.) have a great influence on the consumer's assessment. Tourism marketing is often addressed not only to "end consumers" - tourists, but also to intermediate instances - travel agencies, state bodies for regulating tourism, public tourism associations, etc.

The features of the producers of travel services include the following: producers of travel services are a significant number of independent and various travel enterprises in terms of profile and specialization with correspondingly different goals (for example, a tour operator, travel agency, restaurant, hotel, travel agency, etc.). There are several levels of marketing: government agencies and public organizations, enterprises.

Each type of tourist enterprise has its own specialized marketing. Since tourism is a complex system, a symbiosis of economics, politics, sociology, ecology and culture, to achieve a positive marketing effect here, more than anywhere else, close coordination of marketing of various organizations and enterprises operating in this field is necessary.

The concept of marketing has here more than anywhere else a holistic and comprehensive character. Based on the foregoing, the following features of tourism marketing can be distinguished.

1. For marketing in tourism, the task of stimulating demand is less important. Demand for tourism services is constantly growing, and the tourism industry is less dependent on fluctuations in economic conditions than many other industries. For tourism marketing, the task of "directing demand" in the right direction is more important.
2. Of great importance is a reliable information policy in relation to the client, especially at the stage of selling services, as well as thoroughness in the development of a tourist product.
3. Taking into account the special role of the subjective factor in the process of buying exactly travel services, travel agencies should pay great attention to protecting the rights of the client - the consumer of travel services.
4. The influence of the seasonality factor necessitates the diversification of travel services or special attention to marketing activities in the off-season in order to make the company less dependent on the time factor.
5. In the process of marketing management, one should take into account, to a greater extent than in other industries, not only material aspects, but also psychology, spiritual and emotional state and characteristics of the consumer.
6. Due to the fact that the tourism product is, as a rule, a complex set of material and ideal components, it is of great importance to achieve the optimal final effect of marketing activities is the coordination of marketing of all participants in the production of tourism services, tourism centers, government agencies for regulating tourism, public associations.

Briefly, the features of tourism marketing can be formulated as follows:

* not stimulating demand, but managing demand;
* high degree of reliability of information about the tourist product;
* protection of consumer rights;
* the special role of marketing in the off-season (diversification of the tourism product);
* the central role of psycho-behavioral and social features consumer;
* coordination of marketing of participants of the market of tourist services.

Tourism marketing is addressed not only to "end consumers" - tourists, but also to intermediate instances - travel agencies, partners, public tourism associations, government agencies for regulating tourism.

In order to establish the significance of tourism and more fully describe the scope of its activities, it is necessary first of all to identify the various groups of entities that interact in tourism.

1. Tourists. These are people who experience various mental and physical needs, the nature of which determines the directions and types of participation of these people in tourism activities.
2. Organizations providing goods and services to tourists. These are entrepreneurs who see tourism as an opportunity to make a profit by providing goods and services, taking into account the demand in the tourism market.
3. Local authorities. They consider tourism as an important factor in the economy, associated with the income that local citizens can receive from this business in the form of taxes that go to the local budget.
4. Host. The local population perceives tourism primarily as a factor in employment. For this group, the result of interaction with tourists, including foreign ones, is important.

At the same time, tourism has a specificity that distinguishes it not only from trade in goods, but also from other forms of trade in services. Here there is both trade in services and goods (according to experts, the share of services in tourism is 75%, goods - 25%), as well as the special nature of the consumption of tourist services and goods at the place of their production, moreover, in a certain situation.

Marketing, translated from English, means research and organization of activities in the market of goods, services, valuable papers aimed at ensuring sales, promotion of goods from the manufacturer to the consumer.

Marketing in tourism is a system of continuous coordination of the offered services with the services that are in demand in the market and that the tourist enterprise is able to offer profitably and more efficiently than competitors do.

So, marketing is a system for managing the trade and production activities of a travel company in a market economy.

There are many other definitions of marketing. Let us dwell on the most acceptable definition of its main goal- recognize, identify and evaluate the existing or latent demand for tourist services that the travel agency can offer to the consumer, and direct its efforts to the development, production, promotion and sale of these services in order to obtain optimal profit.

Answering the question why travel agencies need marketing, let's say that their activities in the market and competition are always associated with more or less financial risk, the degree of which increases especially in foreign economic activity, including in the field of tourism. In 1995-2000 many travel agencies, due to mistakes made in their work, suffered a financial collapse and were forced to stop their activities.

Speaking about the concept of marketing, such concepts as "marketing position", "marketing process" and "marketing technology" are used.

The marketing position is based on the fact that in the conditions of the market and competition, demand determines supply. Therefore, the success of an enterprise depends on its ability to offer tourist services in such quantity and quality, in such a place and at such a price, that would correspond to actual and potential demand.

Thus, the starting position of marketing is the presence of a certain market and consumer demand for travel services. There is a demand for travel services, which means that the company can actively develop a marketing strategy and plans for its implementation, and if there is no demand, then you must either look for it elsewhere.

The marketing process is a series of interrelated activities that begins with market and demand identification and includes the planning, development, production, distribution, and sale of goods and services to consumers.

Marketing technology is managerial methods used by the entrepreneur in the process of identifying and studying demand, planning the production and sale of tourism services and goods.

In other words, marketing is a system of interrelated techniques and measures that allow a travel agency to achieve positive results in the travel services market.

The concept of marketing has here more than anywhere else a holistic and comprehensive character. Based on the foregoing, the following features of tourism marketing can be distinguished:

1. For marketing in tourism, the task of stimulating demand is less important. Demand for tourism services is constantly growing, and the tourism industry is less dependent on fluctuations in economic conditions. For tourism marketing, it is more important to "channel demand" in the right direction.
2. Of great importance is a reliable information policy in relation to the client, especially at the stage of selling services, as well as thoroughness in the development of a tourist product.
3. Taking into account the special role of the subjective factor in the process of buying exactly travel services, travel agencies should pay great attention to protecting the rights of the client - the consumer of travel services.
4. The influence of the seasonality factor necessitates the variability of travel services or special attention to marketing activities during the off-season period in order to make the company less dependent on the time factor.
5. The process of marketing management should take into account, to a greater extent than in other industries, not only material aspects, but also

Briefly, the features of tourism marketing can be formulated as follows:

* not stimulating demand, but managing demand;
* high degree of reliability of information about the tourist product;
* protection of consumer rights;
* the special role of marketing in the off-season (diversification of the tourism product);
* the central role of the psychological, behavioral and social characteristics of the consumer;

This rather lengthy definition of "tourism marketing" contains a number of ideas that we will explore in more detail.

The first point that requires attention is that marketing is not a separate action, but a system of activities. In other words, this is a sequence of actions of a tourism enterprise that must be combined to achieve its goals. Therefore, marketing is not only advertising and selling services, or simply developing services. This is a system in which all functions and activities must be combined in accordance with the concept of marketing.

This circumstance fundamentally distinguishes marketing from commercial work. If commercial work is to use all forces and means to enhance sales, then the goal of marketing is an interconnected process of production and sale of services in accordance with consumer demand.

The second point to note in our definition is that marketing does not end with one action. You can't think of it as a monotonous process, whether it's the date of the introduction of a new tourism product or the introduction of a new price. The fact is that the market is constantly in motion, in dynamics. For example, under the influence of various factors, consumer demand changes, competitors are also working to introduce new services to the market. These examples show that marketing is indeed a continuous process and the tourism enterprise must be continuously involved in it. Marketing, therefore, involves looking to the future, and not just focusing on the present.

The third point concerns agreement. It is necessary to coordinate actions within the tourist enterprise with the conditions external environment. If all this is considered separately, it is impossible to achieve the intended goals. The secret lies in aligning activities within the firm with information received from outside. This means that a decision must be made in order to use all the functions and tools of marketing to achieve this alignment.

The fourth idea, which is embedded in our definition, concerns understanding what the service offered by the firm actually is.

The fifth point in this definition gives the concept of what marketing does to satisfy the needs of the buyer. This implies not only what the client is buying at the moment, but also what he would buy under other circumstances (for example, with an increase in income). Marketing, as already noted, must be an activity of foresight. It involves predicting, or at least getting the right idea of what consumers might need the most.

Thus, the concept of marketing is a focus on the needs and requirements of consumers, backed up by an integrated effort aimed at consumer satisfaction.

In addition to the basic provisions of marketing, it is worth considering the fact that tourism business has its own specific features.

As such, tourism marketing has no general fundamental differences from any iconic marketing rules in general. It is for this reason that all the main provisions of modern marketing may well be applied in the field of tourism. But it is worth considering the fact that the tourism business has its own specific features. Let's analyze them in more detail.

In the tourism sector, both services and goods are traded. According to experts, the share of services is more than ?, while goods account for everything? from the volume of all works.

For traditional types commercial activities that have a specific result of labor, and the very concept of marketing has such a specific content. IN tourism activities as a result of labor is a tourism product. This term is commonly understood as any service provided to tourists (household, hotel, transport, excursion, etc.). A tourist product can also be understood as a system of goods and services, which together constitute a tourist trip.

This is what determines the features of marketing in this area:

it is a system of services / goods, which is characterized by a complex set of relationships;
flexible demand depending on consumer income, political and social conditions;
the impossibility of the consumer of the tourist product to see it until the moment of payment;
the presence of some distance from the product and the place of its consumption;
several organizations participate in the creation of a tourist product, each of which has its own methods, needs and commercial purposes;
there is a high probability of occurrence of various force majeure circumstances.

All this must be taken into account when properly organizing a marketing campaign in the field of tourism, namely:

pay special attention to stimulating demand;
high degree of reliability of information policy;
high degree of protection of the client's rights;
taking into account the seasonality of demand for tourism products;
a high degree of marketing coordination of all the creators of the tourism product.

Thus, the most optimal marketing program of a travel agency will be one that takes into account and observes such conditions as successful positioning among target audience, constant increase qualifications of travel agency employees, the right choice of an advertising campaign for the target segment.

If we follow the results of numerous marketing studies in the field of tourism, we can make a reasonable conclusion that physical motivation takes the first place for the consumer of travel services. It, in turn, can be divided into recreation, sports, health care.

Psychological motivation should also be taken into account, which consists in the desire of people to visit new places, get acquainted with the way of life of people, and just have fun. In third place is cultural motivation, the so-called interest in art.

Taking into account all these factors, it is necessary to make such tours with the offer of a complex of services that would maximally satisfy one or another target segment. For example, for young people, physical motivation will play a major role. This is due to the high activity of young people and their need for inexpensive services. For middle-aged people or businessmen, it is more important to provide quality services, the availability of cultural programs, a certain elitism, prestige. For the elderly, services that satisfy the cognitive and cultural motivation, health improvement are important.

More recently, tourist network marketing was in high demand. Offers like: “Come to a new travel network company” met literally at every turn. To join this type of organization, you had to pay an entrance fee, invite 2 or more participants and earn a discount. The opportunity to earn and travel much cheaper was guaranteed.

But life itself put everything in its place. And now this type of tourism business, and, consequently, network tourism marketing has practically become obsolete. This is due to two factors. Firstly, almost all companies that use network marketing by now are either recognized as pyramid schemes or are approaching such an event. Secondly, when working on the Internet, the basic principle of network marketing almost does not work - duplication. It is for these reasons that tourism network marketing is currently ineffective.

The tourism industry is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the economy. According to WTO data, in the past twenty years, the average annual growth rate of foreign tourism was 5.1%, and the average annual growth rate of foreign exchange earnings from international tourism was 14%; in 1993 international tourist arrivals were 576 million and international tourism receipts reached $372 billion. By 2010, the number of international trips is expected to increase to 937 million. Many highly developed countries, such as Switzerland, Austria, France, have built a significant proportion of their wealth on tourism income. IN Western countries tourism is recognized as a profitable sector of the economy, which is supported by the state.

In Russia, tourism is not yet perceived as a full-fledged segment of the economy and the subject of scientific analysis. The Russian tourism industry is going through a period of its formation as an independent economic sector. Every year the need for qualified personnel in the field of tourism increases, numerous higher educational establishments and refresher courses that train the tourism workforce.

In the rapidly developing tourism market in Russia, marketing activities play an important role: research, strategy and planning. In tourism (both in Russia and in European markets), marketing is not given enough attention, as entrepreneurs are mainly practice-oriented and act in accordance with their experience. The most important reason for this state of affairs is the fact that, until recently, most tourist enterprises could, without much effort and marketing research, constantly increase and expand the clientele and production volumes of tourist services. The extensive growth in demand for tourism services in Russia, due to the huge quantitative potential, the high level of education of the population, the willingness to spend money on vacations and the traditional generosity of Russian tourists during vacations in the recent past were not incentives to intensify the marketing activities of tourism enterprises.

At the same time, the individualization of consumer demand, the use of both mass-standardized and differentiated offers of tourist goods and services, the concentration of capital and technological processes in the tourism industry necessitate increased attention to the problems of marketing research, strategies and planning. In Russia, this practice began to develop on the eve of the 21st century, especially in the most developed geographical areas, for example, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Nizhny Novgorod.

However, unlike the marketing of many consumer goods, marketing in tourism has its own specific features, which arise primarily due to the specific nature of tourist services.

The relevance of marketing research is due to the fact that in the process of intensive development of the tourism industry and the ever-increasing role of tourism in the global economy, it becomes necessary to generalize various scientific developments in the field of tourism, experience and methods of work of Western and Russian entrepreneurs in the field of tourism. The relevance is also determined by the rapid development of the tourist services market, the characteristic features of which today are internationalization, integration and regionalization to the same extent as dynamic changes in tourist demand and supply. In these conditions modern market Tourism role and place of marketing are continuously increasing. A deep study of marketing activities and the peculiarities of their use by Russian tourism enterprises is required.

Chapter 13

§ 1. Specificity and complex nature of tourism marketing

Marketing- is the activity of promoting goods and services from the producer to the consumer. There are many definitions of marketing as the process of directing the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer or user. Marketing is a broader concept than sales and advertising activities. Sales and advertising activities are just one aspect of marketing. Marketing is a targeted, strategic and managed activity that goes through all stages - from the development of a product, its promotion on the market to sale and after-sales service. Marketing is the complete process of moving products and services from producer to consumer.

Marketing in any organization is the management activity of planning and executing the decisions made related to the production and sale of certain goods and services in order to meet the needs of a certain group of people who have set a specific goal. Marketing is the standard of society's life.

Marketing plays an important role in the activities of all organizations, whether they are non-profit educational institutions, resorts or manufacturers of tourist goods and services in order to extract their own profit. The essence of marketing is to provide at the right time and in right place the right product or service at the right price.

Marketing events include product planning and development, pricing, product distribution methods, sales promotion, and promotion of goods and services.

The need for marketing activities is determined by:

The existence of free competition between organizations;
- the possibility for buyers to choose similar goods and services from different manufacturers;
- good consumer awareness of other available goods and services;
- the objectives of the organization, which can be expressed in measurable terms.

Marketing arises and exists as a response of the organization in conditions of free market competition in the presence of relative freedom of choice for buyers.

Marketing activities aimed at:

1) marketing analysis and planning with subsequent identification of groups of potential buyers;
2) production of goods or provision of relevant services for these target groups;
3) coordination of the organization's activities to achieve the most advantageous position in the market;
4) determination of ways to control the conduct of business in accordance with predetermined goals.

So, marketing is the strategic philosophy of the company, which establishes which goods and services and for which group of consumers should be produced. Marketing defines goals and evaluates their achievement, thus coordinating the activities of the enterprise. Marketing establishes discipline within the organization through goal setting and control to ensure its effective functioning.

The most important task of marketing management is to influence the level, time and nature of demand in one or more target markets of the enterprise. The most effective demand management requires an organization to be customer-focused and systematically apply marketing technologies and tools.

Marketing in tourism is the activity of planning and developing tourist goods and services, selling, promoting goods and services, stimulating demand for them and pricing.

This activity helps to promote goods or services from producer to consumer in order to obtain maximum profit with the most effective satisfaction of the needs of the target group of tourists.

The specific nature of marketing in tourism is determined by the features and distinctive characteristics of the tourist product (in comparison with other consumer goods and services), as well as the characteristics of consumers and producers of tourist goods and services.

Tourist product is a set of tangible (physical goods) and intangible (in the form of services) consumer values necessary to meet the needs of a tourist that arose during his trip. Tourist product consists of three parts: tour (tourist trip along a certain route); tourist and excursion services (accommodation, meals, transportation, excursion programs and other services on the route related to the purpose of travel) and consumer goods.

Tourist services have 7 distinctive characteristics:

1. Failure to store. Seats in a hotel or on an airplane, if there is no demand for them at the moment, cannot be stored for the purpose of selling them in the future. Therefore, managers need to make an effort to stimulate demand for these services in this short term.
2. Intangibility of services. There are no measured values for evaluating a tourist product: it is impossible to have an idea of the quality of a product before it is purchased and consumed. In this regard, the image of the company in the market, the prestige of its goods (services) is of particular importance for consumers when buying.
3. Exposure to seasonal fluctuations. The marketing activities of the travel agency will be different during the peak season and off-season. In the off-season, additional measures to stimulate demand are needed: low prices, various additional services, variation in various types of tourism (diversification of supply).
4. Significant static character, attachment to a certain place (hostel, airport, since they cannot be moved to another place).
5. Mismatch in time between the sale of the tourist service and its consumption. The purchase of goods (services) of tourism is carried out weeks or months before the start of their consumption. In this case, advertising printed materials play an important role, providing visual information about the purchased tourist product and allowing you to create a sense of the benefits that can be derived from its consumption in the future. At the stage of selling a tourist product, great importance is attached to the degree of reliability of information, as well as the reliability of the product (correspondence of the quality of the product to its price).
6. Territorial disunity of the consumer and the producer in the tourist market. Information and promotion activities at a broader (international) level are important.
7. The buyer overcomes the distance separating him from the product and the place of consumption, and not vice versa.

Producers and consumers of tourist services also have their own specific features. Demand for tourism services is highly elastic depending on market conditions, income, level of education, advertising, and prices. The assessment of the quality of travel services is quite subjective: external factors or persons that are not directly related to the package of purchased services (local residents, other vacationers, members of the tour group, family members) have a great influence on the assessment of the consumer.

Tourist marketing is addressed not only to "end consumers" - tourists, but also to intermediate instances - travel agencies, partners, public tourism associations, state bodies for regulating tourism.

The features of the producers of travel services include such distinctive properties as complementarity, interaction with each other. This relationship is especially visible in the long term, reflecting the composite nature of the tour product: profitability transport companies depends on the load and quality of accommodation facilities, and their survival in the market is determined by the quality of attractions and the degree of attendance of this direction.

In the short term, in the development of their marketing programs, various providers of travel services do not take into account the interests of each other. Practice shows the predominance of such a short-term orientation in the development of marketing strategies.

Producers in tourism- this is a significant number of independent and different in profile and specialization travel enterprises (tour operator, travel agency, hotel, restaurant, travel agency) with different purposes.

There are several levels of marketing: enterprises, public organizations and government agencies. Tourism is a complex system, a symbiosis of economics, politics, sociology, ecology and culture, therefore, to achieve a positive marketing effect, close coordination of marketing of various organizations in the tourism sector is necessary.

The constituent elements of the overall marketing system in the tourism industry are: the state, local authorities, national and local (regional) tourism organizations and enterprises.

Western experience shows that the joint efforts of private firms and official government tourism organizations in promoting the tourism industry give the greatest effect.

The functions of national organizations and regional levels are as follows:

Carrying out marketing research at the national level;
- development of marketing concepts with recommendations for their implementation for enterprises;
- legal and investment support for the development of tourism infrastructure;
- consulting services on the implementation of the marketing concept;
- assistance in carrying out public relations and advertising events (exhibitions and fairs, brochures);
- creating a positive image of the country, promoting the country as an attractive tourist destination for foreign tourists.

Government body- Ministry Russian Federation for physical culture, sports and tourism, according to its position, should carry out marketing research at the national level, collect statistical data on tourism, advertise and promote Russian tourism products on the world market (for this, foreign representations have been created abroad). Considering the importance of increasing tourism revenues, as well as the role played by the Russian regions in this, the Ministry of Sports of Russia, in order to promote the Russian tourism product, provides regional tourism offices with free places at the stands international exhibitions in London, Berlin and Moscow.

Regional representations The Russian Ministry of Sports and local tourism committees 1 are called upon to represent the interests and develop tourism in their regions. Not only the traditional routes - Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also numerous regions have something to offer Russian and foreign tourists. However, having great tourism potential, most regions have a poorly developed tourism infrastructure, as there is no legal and financial support. Tourism is a profitable industry, so it is necessary to create representative offices and tourism committees in the regions, attract financial resources for investing in infrastructure development, and represent the region in the national and world markets.

An example successful work Committee on Tourism can be considered the activities of the Committee on Tourism, Resorts and International Relations under the administration of the Tver Region. If in the early 90s the recreation centers located near Seliger were not in demand, then for the summer season of 1999 it was difficult to get a ticket there. To improve the situation with the hotel infrastructure, the committee agreed with 20 small German travel agencies to sponsor the construction of a small Osnabrück hotel, which began to work at almost 100% load and was soon able to pay for itself. In the future, the regional administration plans to build several similar hotels. The development of tourism in the region is facilitated by an extensive network of roads and a modern airport for servicing domestic and, possibly, international flights. In addition, considerable attention is paid to the training of personnel for the tourism industry. The priority areas of tourism are ecological, medical, pilgrimage, recreation on rivers and lakes, as well as winter types of tourism.

In 1998, the region received 37 thousand foreign tourists from 41 countries of the world. In terms of domestic tourism, the priority markets for the Tver region are Moscow and St. Petersburg. To attract this category of tourists, weekend tours with a rest on Seliger, in the upper reaches of the Volga, were developed. In 1997, the region's budget received tourism income in the amount of 300 thousand rubles, and in 1998 - 340 thousand rubles. The number of travel agencies increased from 6 to 30, and as a result of the crisis (August 1998), only two firms ceased their activities 2 . Thus, thanks to the efforts of the regional administration and the tourism committee, tourism has become a profitable area of activity for the region, which can also create jobs.

Under Russian law, tourism committees do not have the right to earn funds for the maintenance and development of tourism in the regions, so they are in favor of amending the law on tourism in order to be able to receive funds for advertising, participation in exhibitions and for other purposes.

Tourism enterprises are engaged in new product development, tour programs, pricing, product quality improvement, as well as developments in the field of tourism product sales and the implementation of national and local marketing concepts.

The state plays a specific role in supporting and developing tourism at the state and international levels. An experience different countries shows that the success of tourism development directly depends on how this industry is perceived at the state level, how much it enjoys state support. State programs developed in a number of countries to stimulate inbound tourism provide for tax benefits, simplification of the border and customs regime, the creation of favorable conditions for investment in tourism, an increase in budget allocations for infrastructure development, advertising in foreign markets, and training.

An example of such a country is Turkey, which provides benefits to local and foreign investors and tour operators. Thanks to the financial support of the state and local authorities, the tourism industry in Turkey is on the rise. If in 1994 the number of tourists amounted to 6.7 million people, then in 1998 this figure reached 9.2 million, and the income for the year amounted to 8 billion 300 million US dollars 3 .

In Russia, there is a lack of necessary tax support for tourism from both federal and local authorities. The formation of market relations in Russia, the opening of the market for foreign firms - all this led to a radical change in the ratio of export-import operations in the system of international tourism. Russia has become a country of predominantly outbound tourism. At the same time, the number of foreign tourists visiting Russia every year is at the level of 1986.

The reduction in the volume of domestic tourism and the reorientation to outbound tourism reduce revenues as Russian manufacturers tourism services, and local and state budgets.

Under the current conditions, it is necessary to stimulate the development of domestic tourism by improving the quality of service and competitive pricing, since the great demand of Russian residents for holidays abroad is due to the offer of better service at reasonable prices.

To improve the quality, it is important to look for ways to invest in the development of the material and technical base of domestic tourism. The current state of domestic tour business enterprises indicates that they themselves are not able to fully finance their own modernization.

In order to develop inbound tourism that is beneficial for the state budget, legal support is required, as well as measures to create a positive image of the country and promote Russia as an attractive tourist region for foreign tourists. Russia's income from this sector of the economy and the number of arrivals of foreign tourists in 1998 is significantly less than in most countries of Western Europe (in France, income from inbound tourism amounted to 29 billion 700 million, in Spain - 29 billion 585 million, in Germany - 16 billion 840 million, in Austria - 12 billion 164 million, in Poland - 8 billion 400 million, in Russia - 7 billion 107 million US dollars 4).

§ 2. Types and objectives of marketing research

Tourism research provides information base for making the right management decisions by tourism managers. Research reveals:

Problems hindering the effective conduct of business;
- causes of problems and possible ways to resolve them;
- future trends in the tourism market.

Research that reduces risk in the decision-making process largely determines the success of the tourism enterprise.

Thus, managers can plan, implement and control tourism activities more successfully if they have the necessary information.

All management decisions should be made taking into account the data obtained during marketing research.

The intensive growth of tourism in Russia has not contributed to the conduct of marketing research and planning of marketing activities. However, the August crisis of 1998 forced many enterprises to reevaluate the way they operate in order to survive in a crisis and competition. When making a management decision, managers pursue the goal of making a profit. But, as long-term practice of working in the European tourist market shows, the main tasks of any tourist enterprise, if it sets as its strategic goal to obtain long-term profit and maintain demand for its goods and services, are to determine the needs of consumers and meet their needs. The marketing concept of doing business, which arose in the late 70s in the Western market, involves conducting market research and planning marketing activities at the very beginning of the development of a tourist product: firms need to know the needs of potential customers, determine the possible number of buyers of a product or service, how and where they want is to buy, at what price and what they expect from the purchased product or service. To obtain such information, there are certain research technologies. Tourist enterprises from a variety of different approaches choose the most appropriate.

Marketing research is necessary at all stages of the company's activity - from product development and promotion to sales and after-sales service.

Firms can conduct two types of research:

1) current research, carried out constantly in order to identify all the changes and trends taking place in the tourism market (even minor changes in the company's environment can affect the results of management decisions);
2) study of one specific situation (problem) in order to test the assumption or analyze changes in the tourism market.

Goals marketing research in tourism:

1. Identification of significant problems. The intensity of daily business activities leaves little time for performers to concentrate on problematic areas of activity that are an obstacle to the successful functioning of the enterprise. Identifying the causes and problems that cause business inefficiencies is often one of the many simple contributions that research makes to the management process.
2. Maintaining the connection of the enterprise with its target markets. Tourism research provides an opportunity to identify future trends, better understand market demands and track changes in markets in order to develop appropriate policies. Research reduces the likelihood of risk arising from unexpected changes in the markets. To a certain extent, the study provides a guarantee that the company will not produce a product that, due to changes in the market, has already become obsolete for this market.
3. Cost reduction. Research helps to identify the most effective business practices and eliminate inefficient ones.
4. Development of new sources of profit. Research can lead to the discovery of new markets, new products, and new uses for products already on the market.
5. Help in stimulating sales. The results of the study are interesting not only for a particular firm, but also for society as a whole and can be used in advertising campaigns and to stimulate sales. This primarily concerns studies of consumer attitudes towards a product, service, and those studies in which consumers are asked to evaluate certain goods and services.
6. Create a favorable attitude from buyers. Consumers respond well to tourism enterprises conducting research. They believe that the companies that do this kind of work really care about them and are putting in the effort to create a product or service that meets their needs. So, if the purpose of the survey, such as improving the quality of service, is indicated in the preamble to the questionnaire, customers will be more willing to respond to the questionnaire and they will create a favorable impression of the company as caring about maintaining or improving the quality of services provided.

§ 3. Stages of marketing

Tourism research takes many forms, from the primitive to the more complex, from the simple collection of facts to the use of complex, mathematical models.

The process of conducting tourism research is represented by the following stages:

situational analysis- is a thorough search of all data related to a given company, a particular product, industry, market, competitors, advertising, consumers, product and service providers, technology, economy, political climate and other similar data. Knowing all the information about the problem helps to identify possible reasons its occurrence. The organization will get more from the result of research if its internal environment and goals, strategies, aspirations, available resources, as well as the limits that it should not go beyond in its activities, are clearly defined.

In addition to obtaining the necessary information on this issue from available sources, it is necessary to extract useful information from conversations with customers, distributors and other key figures in the tourism industry. During situational analysis and information gathering, assumptions are made, which then need to be tested.

8. Control. Research work is considered incomplete until the results of the research are put into action. Research is money invested and time spent. The task of the researcher is also to ensure that the investment of money and time invested yields good results.

§ 4. Sources of information

In research work, both primary and secondary data can be used. Primary- this is data collected for the first time specifically with the aim of solving a specific problem in the tourism environment. Secondary- data previously collected for other purposes, which can be obtained simply by visiting a library or other secondary data repositories. When researchers survey cruise passengers to determine their attitudes and opinions, they are collecting raw data. When they refer to statistics obtained from previous surveys and passenger surveys, they are using secondary data.

It is a mistake to conduct tourism research aimed at obtaining primary data without verifying the necessary information from available secondary sources. Only when, after examining all relevant secondary sources of information, there is not enough data to solve the problem, one can turn to primary sources.

Secondary data are collected through desk research. Over the past 10 years, a large amount of information has accumulated on tourism, travel, recreation and leisure. Competent researchers in the field of tourism should be familiar with these sources and how to find them.

Secondary sources of information are divided into internal and external.

TO internal sources include: profit and loss statements; balance sheets; sales reports of travel agents and other distribution channels; traveling salesmen reports; invoices; previous research reports.

By analyzing internal company documents, the manager can identify new opportunities and emerging threats and problems. From internal sources, you can get historical data that will help you see important trends and patterns. Historical data may contain information: on the market (capacity, market share); about the marketing activities of the enterprise (history of advertising campaigns, pricing policy); on costs and profits; relating to changes in technology; in the region of legal regulation; about demographic trends and other useful information about the external environment.

The income statement provides information about the company's sales volume, cost products sold and costs at a given point in time. By examining successive periods of business performance reports, an entity can identify the occurrence of favorable or unfavorable trends and take appropriate action.

Analyzing sales performance indicators will help managers take appropriate action. For example, if sales in one region are more effective than in others, the manager may resort to the following measures: organize an advertising campaign, activate incentives for regions lagging behind in terms of more effective sales activities.

Comparison of actual and planned indicators can be made from detailed sales forecasts: by territories; products; buyers and travel agents. Forecasts set a sales target against which actual results are then compared. Sales analysis is one of the cheapest and most important sources of marketing information.

TO external sources information includes: officially published internal reports of firms on sales figures, prices (price lists); publications of state bodies on tourism; books and periodicals (newspapers and magazines, such as "Tourinfo", "TTG", "Tourism and Travel: Practice, Problems, Prospects", "Tourist Business", "Extra-M", "Foreigner", "5 Stars" , "Voyage", etc.); official statistical materials providing data on demographic (population census), economic, social and other aspects; hotel association publications; advertising materials about the services of commercial organizations.

The publications provide data on market size, market shares of various companies, consumer preferences and behavior, as well as booklets and brochures on travel destinations, hotels, carriers. The use of government statistics provides the firm with information about potential consumers, their purchasing power, market size, socio-demographic characteristics of the population (income per person).

The secondary data serve as the starting point for the study. If suitable secondary sources of information are found, a large amount of money and time can be saved. The low cost of secondary information is an indisputable advantage of this source. When secondary sources are available, there is no need to write and print questionnaires, hire interviewers, pay for transportation costs and coding information. Secondary data can also be collected much faster than primary data. When conducting actual field studies, data can be collected in at least 60-90 days; secondary data can be obtained from the library within a few days.

Secondary data also has its drawbacks, the main of which is their obsolescence. For example, a population census is carried out every 10 years; by the end of this period, population data may change and no longer be as useful.

When it is not possible to obtain information from available secondary sources, or when the available information is outdated or insufficient to solve the problem under study, or there is doubt about its reliability, it is necessary to turn to primary (first-hand) data. If it is necessary to obtain information regarding the opinions of travelers, then it is advisable to refer to the primary source, that is, to interview the travelers directly. As noted earlier, it is necessary to resort to the collection of primary data only after all the information available on this problem from secondary sources has been studied.

§ 5. Methods of collecting information

After determining the need to collect primary data, you need to choose a method for obtaining them. The most widely used method of collecting information is the survey. Other common methods are observation and experiment.

The collection of primary information requires significant costs, but the data obtained have a greater effect in solving the problem. During the collection of primary information, secondary data are periodically updated. Necessary amendments are made to them.

Poll method(survey technique) collects information through asking questions and includes factual interviews, opinion polls, and explanatory polls. Surveys can be conducted through personal interviews, by mail or telephone.

Actual Poll. An analysis of all types of survey shows that the actual survey has more advantages. The question "When and where did you spend your holidays with your family last year?" requires the respondent to answer accurately. The actual survey produces excellent results, despite the fact that the data may be subject to inaccuracies due to the poor memory of the respondents or their desire to make the best impression.

Consumer Opinion Survey. Using this method Respondents are asked to express their opinion, to make an assessment of something. For example, a respondent will be asked which tour product was attractive to him: A or B, or which product was advertised better? This opinion poll can bring valuable results.

Explanatory survey. Here the respondents act as reporters. For example, they are asked to explain why they made this particular decision (i.e. why they took part in this particular recreational activity), why they chose the indicated airline, why they chose this country (region) for their holiday, why they chose this is the accommodation.

If the question "what" is answered accurately and without delay, then the answer to the question "why" sometimes leads to confusion. Thus, it can be concluded that it is advisable to obtain data using the survey method, using an actual survey or opinion poll and using more in-depth interviewing or psychological research in order to obtain answers to the question "why".

As mentioned above, consumer surveys can be carried out using personal (personal) or group interviews, by phone or by mail. The purpose of the study is to collect data by interviewing a specific group of people (sample, i.e., a segment of the population that is called upon to represent the population as a whole at the moment). When analyzing the main research methods, it is possible to identify advantages and disadvantages.

Personal interview. It comes in two forms: the pre-planned and organized interview and the street interview. When conducting a pre-arranged interview, the respondents are selected randomly, at random, the survey is conducted by phone or in person. The second type of interview involves interviewing people on the streets.

An interview is a more convenient way of collecting data than a survey by mail or telephone, since the interviewer can adapt the questions to a specific situation, to the respondent, and give the necessary clarifications during the interview. Much more information can be obtained through interviews than through mail or telephone surveys, which tend to be relatively time-limited. The person conducting face-to-face interviews can make the necessary observations on the spot and at the same time ask questions. For example, a home interviewer can collect information about the socioeconomic status of interviewees through direct interviews, supplementing the results of the interview with their own personal observations. The method of personal interview allows better control over compliance with the sample than other survey methods.

The main limitation in the use of face-to-face interviews is the relatively high cost of doing so. This method is the most cost-intensive of all three methods and requires significantly more time to complete. A negative point is also the possibility of the interviewer influencing the answers of the respondents.

group interview. When conducting a group interview, 6-10 people gather. The interviewer must be objective, otherwise the results will be incorrect. Interview participants are usually paid a small amount of money for participating. The interview is conducted in a pleasant and non-distracting environment. The interviewer organizes a light, informal discussion, hoping that the answers of the respondents will reveal their deeper feelings and opinions, directs the discussion in the right direction. The interview is recorded in video or audio recordings. The records are carefully studied in order to ascertain the opinions, beliefs and better understanding of the behavior of the respondents. In order to find out the attitude of customers to a particular product, a tourist enterprise may ask its foreign partners - the local travel agency of the host country of tourists - to ask the opinion of consumers of the tour product directly on the spot during and at the end of the consumption of the product. An enterprise may hire part-time people, such as students, as interviewers. The group interview is becoming one of the main marketing research tools, allowing a deeper understanding of the thoughts and feelings of consumers.

Poll by phone. Telephone surveys tend to be shorter in time and more labor intensive than face-to-face and group interviews. The negative point here is that not enough time is given for clarifications to the questions asked, they are not as convenient as in the case of personal contact. The telephone interview should be short, concise and non-personal. Another disadvantage of this method may be that not every potential respondent has a telephone. The main advantages of a telephone survey are the speed of data collection and the low cost of conducting it.

Polls by mail. This method of research does not require large expenditures. Typically, the mail-in survey procedure begins with the compilation and mailing of a questionnaire to a group of respondents who are asked to return the completed questionnaires to the address on the envelope. This method has a significant advantage when it is necessary to interview geographically dispersed groups of respondents and when it is difficult to interview them by other methods. Another positive feature this approach consists in the absence of influence on the answers of the respondents, as happens in the case of a personal interview. Thus, respondents fill out survey sheets or questionnaires at their own discretion.

The main task in conducting a survey by mail is to clearly draft the questionnaire in order to receive accurate answers. The next thing to pay attention to when conducting this type of survey is the number of questions in the questionnaire. Although it is possible to ask more questions when sending a questionnaire by mail than when sending a telephone survey, nevertheless, they should not be many. Mail questionnaires require simple, well-defined questions that won't confuse the responders. To increase the number of questionnaires received, the following steps are usually taken: give a subscription to some printed publication and send a free number; a letter with questionnaires is sent to the director of the organization where the respondents work, so that he can control the return of completed questionnaires; a paid envelope with a return address is put into the envelope with the questionnaire; attractively design the questionnaire.

Before conducting a survey, it is necessary to determine the sample. When collecting primary information, it is necessary to draw up a sampling plan, thanks to which the selected population would meet the objectives of the study. To do this, you need to define:

Sample composition: who to interview? The target population needs to be identified. Decide whether to include only business people or vacationers in the sample, or maybe it will consist of both. Decide what information is needed and who has it;
- sample size: how many people should be interviewed? Large samples are more reliable than small ones. However, to achieve more accurate data, it is not necessary to include a large number of people in the sample. With a good definition of the composition of the sample, a survey of no more than 1% of the population can give good results;
- the method of determining the participants in the sample. To do this, you can use the method of random selection. You can select survey participants based on belonging to a particular group or category, such as age group, or according to where they live. The selection may be based on intuition, the feeling that these people can be a good source of information.

Observation Method consists in direct observation of people and situations in the process of collecting data. A tourism enterprise may, for example, ask travel agents or other intermediaries working with its competitors to observe their work and the reactions of their customers, reward suppliers of goods and services for reporting on the affairs of competitors and how they solve their problems. Finally, representatives of the tour company themselves can fly by plane, stay in a hotel or buy a tour of a competing organization in order to evaluate the level of service, see the reactions of customers and identify some advantages, and if they lead to achieving a competitive position in the market, then introduce them at your enterprise. If competitors make mistakes, the company must take them into account in order to avoid them in its activities.

The method of observing people's actions is more impartial than using the survey method. When using this method, information can be collected through either personal observation or observation by mechanical means.

The advantage of the observation method is that it contributes to the collection of more accurate information and describes the behavior of consumers. It also prevents the interviewer from influencing the responses. The disadvantage of the method is that it is more expensive than the polling method and that it may not be possible to apply it in some cases. The method of observation describes the behavior of people, but does not reveal the reasons that prompt them to behave in one way or another.

Observation is not able to delve into the motives of behavior and attitudes of people to something, it is not able to reveal the opinions of consumers. Thus, if it is necessary to find out the causes of behavior and answer the question "why", observation represents the worst method for achieving this goal.

An experiment involves conducting tests to identify cause-and-effect relationships. Experimental studies require the selection of comparable groups of subjects, creating different environments for these groups, controlling variable components, and establishing the degree of significance of the observed differences. With proper control, this method gives the most convincing data. The conclusions of an experiment can be relied upon to the extent that its design and execution exclude alternative assumptions by which one could explain the results obtained. In tourism, it is difficult to conduct experimental studies, as it can be difficult to control the constancy of variable components. However, resort regions or tourist enterprises may conduct promotional or price experiments to help managers make management decisions.

For example, a tour operator on the "Golden Ring of Russia" needs to establish how a decrease in the price of a tourist product will affect an increase in its sales. Suppose that the original price for the tour was 560 rubles. Then the company decided to reduce the price of the tour in the same period of time to 490 rubles. If, as a result, the number of customers who applied to the firm remained the same, then nothing depends on the price. If the flow of tourists has increased significantly, then we can conclude that the number of tourists depends on the change in the price of the tour product.

The main instruments of research in tourism are the questionnaire and mechanical devices. A widely used tool in the collection of primary information is a questionnaire, or questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of a series of questions to which the respondent must answer. The questionnaire is a very flexible research tool, as questions can be asked in a variety of ways.

It must be carefully designed, tested, all identified shortcomings of the questionnaire must be eliminated before its widespread use. When preparing a questionnaire, tourism organizations can contact a marketing specialist or specialized marketing research companies who will help select the necessary questions, their form, the correct wording and placement of questions. by the most common mistakes when compiling a questionnaire, there are: asking questions that cannot be answered, that they will not want to answer and that do not require an answer, and the absence of questions that should definitely be answered. Each question must be checked for compliance with the purpose of the study. Questions, which are not so important for the purposes of the study should be omitted, as they delay the procedure and annoy the interviewees.

The form of the question can also influence the response of the respondents. There are two types of questions in marketing research: closed questions and open questions.

closed question includes all possible answers. The respondent simply selects one of them.

Open question gives respondents the opportunity to answer in their own words. Open-ended questions can be presented in various forms. They give a greater result, since the respondents are not limited in any way when answering questions. This type of question is especially useful in the exploratory phase of research, when it is necessary to establish what people think without determining how many of them think one way or another. On the other hand, closed questions help to get answers that are easy to interpret and tabulate.

It is important to pay attention to the wording of the questions. In this case, you need to use simple, unambiguous words that do not affect the direction of the answer. Questions must be tested (before the questionnaire is completed).

Particular attention is also required to determine the sequence of constructing questions in the questionnaire. The first questions should generate interest among the respondents, difficult and personal questions should be asked at the end, so that the respondents do not have time to withdraw into themselves. Questions should go in a logical sequence.

The crisis of 1998 forced many tourist enterprises to reconsider their methods of work, change their strategy in order to survive in the face of fierce competition. More attention was paid to marketing planning and market research.

The specifics of marketing research in the Russian tourism market is that market research is limited only to conducting desk research using secondary information, but some of the information is already outdated, and some may simply not be suitable for solving the problem situation that has arisen.

The results of the analysis of the activities of the largest Russian tour operator in Spain, Natalie Tours, show that market research has allowed the company to identify target segments, choose permanent reliable partners, and significantly increase sales and market share. This determined the most efficient functioning of the company and allowed it to become a leader in the Spanish direction.

To conduct the most in-depth marketing research, complex techniques, various statistical techniques and decision-making models based on computer technology are used. To conduct such research, it is necessary to involve marketing specialists and specialized marketing research companies.

The most common marketing research tool for Russian firms is a questionnaire that allows you to identify opinions, preferences and other characteristics of target markets.

Marketing research requires significant financial investments and is often inaccessible to small and medium business tour operators. Therefore, it is advisable for them to unite to conduct joint marketing activities, including market research in order to reduce costs and attract marketers and specialized companies.