Destination Marketing as a Source of Competitive Advantage - Term Paper Example

Destination marketing as a Source of competitive Advantage Introduction According to World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism was the worlds largest industry in 1991, while the past few years have also indicated a steep rise in international travel, and alongside this growth, the number of tourist destination places have also expanded significantly propelling many policy makers to recognize the value of tourism to their local economies. To some extend this particular increase in travel, can be attributed to increase in advertisement spend because these policy makers want their region to tap into the vast array of opportunities being brought about by tourisms. For instance, in 1987, Canada and Australia increased their advertisements spending marketing their tourism services in Japan, and as a result, Japanese visitors increased by 55% and 33% respectively. Often destinations are perceived by tourists as the outwardly facing element of a tourisms service where the real consumption occurs. At the global level, the booming of both domestic and international tourism has propelled an exponential expansion of regions which want to showcase their tourism potential. Unlikely and unattractive places are not exceptions, and such areas have nurtured their own tourism economy based on the principles of creating a destination and a demand for products and services that they offer. Destination marketing has a very vital role to play to ensure that the destination lifecycle does not get itself into a stage of natural saturation or decline, in communicating with their target markets at various stages of development. The destinations should persuade visitors to come in and enjoy the available facilities at the maturity and saturation stage, and at the same time the destination should find ways of retaining visitor’s numbers while introducing new markets in the declining stages. Destinations should compete with other competing destinations, but in most cases destinations are constrained by one critical constraint, resource base and sustainability, because when a particular resource base is destroyed, it becomes extremely difficult to revive it. In addition, destination marketing has to come up with very critical decisions pertaining to strategic issues which are related to the distribution, price, and promotion of a product, because the lifecycle means that the destination is constantly evolving and changing, hence strategic marketing becoming a necessity. In some extreme scenarios, destinations that are overrun by visitors will be forced to embrace marketing so that these destinations can de-market themselves by dissuading potential tourists from visiting during peak times. Destinations an also be classified along a continuum, and at the initial stages of a certain destination development, the destination tends to achieve a status whereby its unique attributes or rather attractions cannot be substituted, therefore consumer willingliness and the urge to visit the place becomes extremely high. As time passes by, while the destination develops and other similar competing destinations get on stream, the decision to visit the marketed destination is likely to be based on price competitiveness and high spending tourists are not likely to get attracted with it. As a result of this, the destination ends up achieving a commodity status. In some rare cases, destinations have managed to nurture niche markets as a part of their continuous innovation initiative, so that these very destinations can diversify their market base while remaining competitive, hence retaining their unique appeal. Business Events Sydney This particular bureau provides professional, unbiased, and obligation free support to event planners. It is a non-profit making partnership between the government of New South Wales, destination New South Wales, and over 200 leading tourist’s attractions, suppliers, and conference organizers. is the main convention organizations in Sydney, and the organization prides itself by offering highest level of local expertise and knowledge ranging from welcome destination packs for delegates, digital imagery, postcards, promotional collateral, support, and bid assistance among others. Sydney Australia’s convention bureau has the has the capacity to facilitate various on ground arrangements such as site inspections and quotes through a network of service providers, and local venues. Sydney is the most populous city in Australia that is located on the South-East coast of the Tasman Sea. The city is developed around the hills which surround Port Jackson commonly referred to as Sydney harbor, where the Habour Bridge and Sydney Opera house feature prominently. Its hinterland is surrounded by national parks, and the coastal regions features an abundance of beaches, inlets, rivers, and bays. The city ranks among top global cities, and in 2010 it was ranked the 7th in Asia and 28th worldwide by top 100 economic innovation cities. It also ranks among the top 10 livable cities, and also among the top 10 global university cities. Sydney is popular with major international sporting events such as 1938 British empire games and the 2000 summer Olympic games. Sydney lies on a submergent coastline where ocean level has already risen and flooded the deep river valleys. It urban area which covers an estimated 1,687Km2 boasts of 70 Habour and ocean beaches. Sydney has temperate climate with warm summer and mil winters, and rainfall is evenly spread throughout the year, and extreme temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs. Its warmest month is January averaging 18.6-25.8 degrees Celsius, while the coldest month is in July with temperatures averaging 8.0-16.2 Degrees Celsius. Even though rainfall is evenly spread out through the year, it is slightly higher during the first half of the year due to the easterly winds, and the average rainfall is normally around 1,217mm. Urban Structure The city has a careful planned urban structure with the central business district (CBD) extending southwards for about some 3 kilometers, and the extensive area that is covered by urban Sydney is formally segregated into some 649 suburbs mainly used in addressing and postal purposes, and these very areas are administered as 40 local government areas. Parks and open spaces The city is beautifully endowed with open space and natural access to waterways, and within the CBD there are numerous attractions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Domain, Hyde park, Sydney park, and Chinese garden of Friendship among others. Architecture The city boasts of various heritages listed buildings such as the Australian museum, parliament house, Queen Victoria building, and Sydney town hall among others. However, there is no predominant architectural style that characterizes the city, and some of the prominent styles include; Queen Anne, Second Empire, Edwardian, Federation, Italianate, Romanesque, Classical, Georgian, and Gothic revival among other contemporary designs. Economy Sydney is being heralded as the economic and financial hub of Australia whereby some of the largest economic sectors within the city include tourism, business services, retail, manufacturing, and health community services. Since the 80’s jobs within the city have shifted from manufacturing to the services sector, and due to the heightened industrial activity, the city contributes approximately 25% to Australia’s economy. Key institutions such as Reserve bank of Australia, Australia Securities Exchange, and approximately 90 banks, and more than half of Aussies top 50 companies, have their headquarters in Sydney. The city also boasts of being headquarters to some foreign financial subsidiaries such as Deutsche bank, HSBC, Mizuho, UBS, and Citigroup. Demographics According to 2006 population census, Sydney has an estimated 4,120,000 inhabitants whereby an estimated 3,640,000 live in the city’s urban centre, whereas the there are 4,023 inhabitants per square kilometer living in inner Sydney which is also one of the most densely populated areas in Australia. According to the 2006 population Census, 64% of residents in Sydney identified themselves as Christians, 14.1% had no religion, 10% chose not to answer the question, 4.4% identified themselves as Muslims, 3.7% were Buddhists, 1.7% Hindu, 0.9% Jewish, and 0.4% Bahai. Sydney boasts of a median age of 34 years, and it is just 12% of the entire population who are over 65years old. Approximately 15% of the residents hold a bachelors degree. Tourism In the financial year ending March 2008, Sydney managed to receive a whooping 2.7 million international tourists, and some of the most popular spots that these visitors have been consistently attracted with are the Sydney tower, beaches, Luna Park, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney Habour Bridge, and the Sydney Opera House. Tourist’s demographics There are different Sydney Travel mindsets, and from the research that has been conducted by Roy Morgan (2004), it has been revealed that some of the available segments include; Peer group travelers, Adventure travelers, Touring travelers, Family travelers, and Luxury travelers. Domestic Overnight Travel Sydney in 2011 managed to receive approximately more than 7.7 million tourists whereby the visitors managed to spend around 21.5 million nights. Sydney managed to attract approximately 32.1% of the entire tourists who came to Australia and recorded some 26.6% of nights. Purpose of the visits Amongst the most common reason for tour was visiting friends and relatives which accounted for approximately 36.6%, and this was closely followed by business trips which stood at 30.1%, followed by holiday seeking at 27.8%. It has also been revealed that visiting friends and relatives also accounted for 42.3% in terms of nights spent in the region, and it was closely followed by leisure at 27.8% and business at 23.7%. Accommodation During domestic visits friends or relatives property are amongst the most popular form of accommodation that is being used with such group of tourists. Accommodation from friends and relatives is the most popular with 49.6% of the domestic travelers having cited to have used, followed by standard hotel below 4 stars accommodating 17.3% of the visitors, and the remaining 17.3% of the visitors were accommodated in either 4 or 5 star hotels. Origin of Visitors New South Wales has been the largest source of visitors to Sydney standing at 42.7% of all visitors, and the region was followed by Victoria at 18.8%, followed by Queensland at 14.9%. New south Wales is also the largest source market (36.4%) in terms of nights spent by visitors from this very region, and the area was followed by Victoria at 22.6%, and Queensland at 17.2%. Expenditure Inclusive of Transport and accommodation Domestic travelers to Sydney city in 2011 spend roughly over $4.9 Billion in Sydney city and on average each visitor was spending an estimated $229 per night in the region. This figure is increasingly high and it just depicts the potential of tourisms within the region. International Arrivals Sydney managed to receive approximately 2.6 million international overnight visitors, and these people who are also being perceived to be heavy spenders managed to spend approximately 56.9 million nights within the region. These same visitors managed to spend over $5.8 billion in Sydney alone, and each visitor was spending an average of $102 per night in the city. Purpose of visits These visitors came from different countries across the globe, however, the biggest numbers coming from key markets which comprises of Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Europe, United Kingdom, and North America. The visitors had different purposes which brought them in the country and holiday making was the largest reason with approximately 54.4% of the entire visitors being holiday makers, followed by 22.1% of the visitors who had come to visit friends and relatives, and 15.1% who had come for business purposes. Table: Depicting share of visitors to the region Accommodation International tourists who visit Sydney prefer to either stay in rented houses, or apartments, with the figure standing at around 44.4%, followed by the preference to live in a relative or a friend’s home at 28.4%. Top Sydney Competitors Sydney city is experiencing an upsurge of competition coming from other neighboring top tourists areas within Australia. Below, we are going to list these regions, and at the same time provide some snapshots on some of the reasons why these cities are giving Sydney a run for its money. Brisbane The city is a top competitor for Sydney in terms of tourism due to its numerous highlights and attractions. The area offer tourists some unique environment where visitors can use to conduct their business in a vibrant and engaging manner. In 2010 alone the city received well over 5,220,000 international and domestic visitors (Brisbane Marketing, 2010). Brisbane like other tourist destination offers visitors wide array of holiday attractions, world class exhibition, cultural activities, events, holiday attractions, and live music with natural splendor of Country valley, beautiful scenic Rim, Islands and Moreton Bay. The city is accessible coupled by the fact that it is home to top 25 airports in the world with Brisbane airport being the third busiest airport in Australia with more than 19 million passengers annually. The city boasts of an elaborate first class network of travel and transport links, with a simple and cost-effective public transportations system. Tourisms within Brisbane employ approximately 36,100 Queenslanders who contribute some $2.8 billion (AUD) to the local economy, and at the same time generate for the city some $1.36 Billion (AUD) as an exporter earner. Brisbane is located on the east coast of Australia and it is also the gateway to iconic tourist destination such as the Gold Coast and Sunshine coast. The city is also a popular destination for international students with local institutions in 2010 alone receiving an estimated 82,000 international students. Tasmania It is an island that resembles a natural paradise that is small in size yet big in events and experiences. At Tasmania visitors are accorded the opportunity to engage with wilderness and wildlife at a gentle pace while walking along the pristine deserted beaches to the inspirational view of the resort spa. Visitors also get to experience unique flavors from the different cities within Tasmania and tourists will also be accorded the opportunity to relish the awesome ciders, beers, wines, and fine food among other delicacies. The coast line, rivers, and waterways are exceptional (Discover Tasmania, 2011). Perth This particular city provides essential ingredients that are ideal in making a perfect holiday. Perth boasts of some of the country’s best beaches, inner city parks, bustling markets, plenty of nightlife, and amazing marine adventure. The city enjoys 3,000 hours of sunshine annually, and this is among the reason it has received an accolade as one of the most livable city on earth. Some of the common activities here include surfing, fishing, and boating. Adelaide It is being regarded as Australia’s most liveable city that has a population of slightly more than a million people. It is also known as the “20 minute city” with the airport just being some 7 kilometers from the city center. Key tourists attractions such as the major beaches and Adelaide hills are only less than half an hour drive. Within Adelaide area there are astonishing features such as the Kangaroo Island which is being regarded as the crown jewel of Adelaide tourism. This particular island comprises of unique wildlife with pristine beaches, and it is only two hours drive and a short ferry ride southwards. There are also international event attractions as well and this involves the WOMADelaide, Adelaide Fringe, and Adelaide Festival among others. Conclusion Tourism is a key sector in the Australians economy contributing a whooping over $68 billion to the country’s GDP, and employing close to a million people either directly or indirectly, which represents 8.3 percent of the total workforce in the country. References http://archive.tourism.nsw.gov.au/Sites/SiteID6/objLib18/Sydney-YE-Sep-11.pdf Brisbane Marketing (2010). Brisbane competitive advantage, retrieved 18th May, 2012 from http://www.brisbanemarketing.com.au/Business/Tourism-in-Brisbane/pages/Competitive-advantage Discover Tasmania (2011). Tasmania Island of Inspiration. Retrieved 18th May, 2012 from http://www.discovertasmania.com.au/ Read More