Bandung - Promotion Strategy - Essay Example

The report focuses on attracting the Australian outbound tourists and hence data concerned with their characteristics and preferences have been evaluated. Endowed with natural beauty, Bandung is the third city in the world with art decoration architecture. SWOT and PEST analysis attached in the Appendices indicate that Bandung offers tremendous potential to receive more visitors. However, the destination lacks marketing and promotion strategy as well as the infrastructure necessary for the growth of tourism. 2. Marketing Research Marketing research is critical to any decision or strategy in business as it provides relevant, accurate and timely (RAT) information (Aaker, Kumar & Day, 2001).

For every decision relevant information is essential and these can be obtained through marketing research. Thus marketing research has been defined as an information input to decision and not simply the evaluation of decisions made. Again, gathering information through market research is not sufficient; intelligent use of market research is the key to success. Marketing research plays a vital role in destination marketing strategy. It helps to position the tourism destination and positioning for such products is more than just image creation.

A destination is a brand, a combination of all products and services, and experiences provided locally. Positioning helps distinguish similar tourism destinations which facilitates the process of selection for the tourists. Therefore, any tourism destination has to be analyzed based on the Six As framework which includes Attractions, Accessibility, Amenities, Available packages, Activities and Ancillary services (Buhalis, 2000). While the destination management is complex the tourist perceives of the destination as a brand and before visiting they develop an image and a set of expectations based on information gathered from the press, the media, word-of-mouth, and common beliefs.

They “consume” a destination as a comprehensive experience (Aaker, Kumar & Day, 2001) and hence it becomes essential to gather information and project the destination based on the Six A’s framework. This is known as marketing research process. The marketing research strategy determines how the information will be gathered. Secondary data is readily available on any destination through different sources such as government statistics, airlines and hotels. Secondary data helps segment the target market and devise the marketing strategy.

Thus, secondary data on Bandung as a destination and on the prospective visitors has been gathered and the key findings presented below. 3. Key Findings Currently Bandung receives the highest number of tourists from Malaysia followed by Singapore and China. Bandung being a low-cost destination, mostly the lower to middle-income groups comprise of the visitors. Based on age demographics, secondary research demonstrates that the young adults and the older adults form the main visitor segment which mainly comprises of young singles and young couples or full nest.

The purpose of visit is either for a vacation or to visit friends and relatives. While the male tourists focus on sport activities, the female tourists prefer shopping or cultural activities. Overall, the tourists are intellectually curious and hence try to explore new areas and engage in novel activities. Very few tourists demonstrate inclination for nature-based tourism while the destinati