Tourism Marketing - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 434

forums. Used wisely and in the right place, social media can be integrated into a marketing plan and
become a part of your marketing strategy for brand building, networking, customer service,
promotion, and public relations.

Mobile Marketing

The next big thing in tourism marketing is mobile marketing. Instead of thinking Internet first, one will
think of mobile first. It will be the combination of the two that will create a powerful force. One of the
biggest keys to newmarketing opportunities is the smart phone. A smart phone is a mobile phone that
offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a typical mobile phone. They are best
thought of as handheld computers integrated within a mobile phone that can run many applications. A
ChangeWave Research survey press release dated July 14, 2010, reports smart phones are expected to
be in the hands of half the U.S. mobile users by the end of 2011. 8
Mobile technology today allows the user to access the Internet, to search, take photos, play videos,
check in at the airport, and access GPS service, online mapping, location-based search, and geotagging.
Mobile social networking sites join a mobile to the Internet via applications. Service providers such as
Every Trail, Joobil, RightNow, Trazzler, and Next Step allow users to share experiences with others in
the same network. For travelers and travel companies, Twitter has launched a geotagging service
providing location-based search and socializing. Consumer expectations of mobile Internet use
continue to rise.
Simplistic wireless application protocol (WAP) pages are increasingly being replaced by more
sophisticated mobile Web sites. These mobile Web sites offer relevant and immediate content and
services frequently replicating the functionality of online Web sites. Hotels such as Marriott, Hilton,
and Fairmont offer booking via their mobile Web sites. It has been predicted that in time the number of
Web-enabled phones in the United States will exceed the number of PCs.
With the new devices and formats, U.S. mobile advertising spending is expected to grow
dramatically. eMarketer forecasts more than $1.1 billion spending in 2011, growing to $2.5 billion
in 2014. 9 The new devices and ad inventory that Apple and Google have introduced have given mobile
advertising new legitimacy.
The new applications and the growth of 24/7 access to the Internet via mobile phones has
signi cant marketing implications. It is expected that the mobile will reach every segment of society
and become the most common Internet access tool for the majority of the population by 2020.
Currently it is estimated that over one-third of the U.S. population has smart phones and growth is
rapid. Nokia forecasts that the total number of world mobile subscribers will rise from 4 billion in 2009
to 5 billion in 2015 and mobile data traf c will increase 300 fold by 2015. 10
Today, a fraction of consumer travel transactions are via mobile with the majority being done on
the PC. The future will see this reverse and the travel industry will adapt its offerings to serve the
mobile user.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

The strategy of recognizes that few vacation destination areas are universally

acceptable and desired. Therefore, rather than dissipate promotion resources by trying to please all
travelers, one should aim the promotional efforts speci cally to the wants and needs of likely
prospects. One of the early steps in marketing tourism, then, is to divide the present and potential
market on the basis of meaningful characteristics and concentrate promotion, product, and pricing
efforts on serving the most prominent portions of the market

market segmentation

.
An effective market strategy will determine exactly what the target markets will be and attempt to
reach only those markets. The target market is that segment of a total potential market to which the
tourism attraction would be most salable. Target markets are de ned geographically, demographically

— the target markets