Developing a Marketing Plan
Marketing plans may be long or short, and they will vary among organisations/regions.
Whatever their length of character, they are valued as a tool for effective planning and
assessment of productivity. The following are some general guidelines for developing a
marketing plan. Your Marketing Plan can be more comprehensive than the example but it
should include at least the following chapters.
1. Executive Summary
Summary is one of the most important parts of the marketing plan. The objective is to give
clear understanding what this marketing plan is about without getting into details. Although
the summary is located under the first chapter, it is usually completed last after the whole
plan is complete.
The lengths of a summary should be approximately 2-3 pages.
2. Situation Analysis
First, an organisation needs to assess its present situation. This assessment will explore the
realities of the industry, the community, the travel product, the economic environment and
the potential or present visitors. For tourism marketing, some of the following questions
should be asked, the answers to which will give an organisation a better understanding of its
current situation.
a) What is the present demand for tourism activities and attractions in your
community?
b) What facilities and resources do you have to market to visitors?
c) What is your community known for? What kind of image does the destinations have
to outsiders? And to people who live there?
d) What are your strengths and weaknesses as a community and how do they impact
your tourism markets?
e) What changes do you anticipate in the next five years, and will they impact your
ability to attract visitors to your destination?
f) What other trends might impact your community/destination?
g) How responsive is your community to having visitors?
Developing a situation analysis is fundamental to better understand the capabilities,
potential and interest that may exist for visitors within a destination.

understands the characteristics of various market segments. There are several ways of
examining market segments through demographics, psychographics and geographic
analysis.
Demographic variables most commonly used to identify groups include age, sex, income,
expenditure patterns, occupation, education, household size, marital status and ethnic
background.
Psychographics pertains to an individual’s underlying motivations for travel. We can talk
about hunters and skiers, which is a means of defining market segments on the basis of
behaviours. Psychographic research (or personality research) goes beyond demographics
and asks why people behave or select travel products in a certain way. It wants to get at the
root of their decision making process, it wants to find out why some select one destination
over another or one mode of transportation over another and why different people travel.
Psychographic research can measure which population segments will travel, what motives
can be identified to increase their potential to travel, what kinds of destinations are
preferred, what activities they wish to engage in upon arrival, and what kind of marketing
themes need to be creatively developed to focus on their motives and needs.
Geography is another means of defining a market segment; for example, an organisation
may find that it has a potential market for daytime or overnight tours from group operators
within a five-hour drive of that destination. Specific events or activities, such as antique
fairs, cultural events or special pageants may be interest to those tour operators who have
groups that wish to spend only a day away from their homes. Geographically, this opens a
new market segment for an organisation.
5. Marketing Strategies
The fourth element in a marketing plan is that of identifying and selecting the appropriate
and most productive marketing strategies for the targeted market. There are an abundance of
techniques available to an organisation; asking some of these questions will provide
guidelines for selecting the best techniques for each market segment.
a) Which selected marketing strategies will be the most effective for an identified
market segment? What are the strengths and weaknesses of a strategy? Who are
affected by a selected strategy?

return on investment. This may not always be the case, especially in the travel trade.
8. Assessment
Last, an organisation has to be able to assess the effectiveness of its marketing programs.
This does not always mean change; in fact, if a program continues to prove of value, then
there may be little reason to change it. On the other hand, if a marketing effort seems to
fizzle, being able to make an evaluation then is imperative.
a) What kinds of results are being sought in a specific marketing effort? Are the results
quantified?
b) What kinds of criteria have been established against which to assess a marketing
program?
c) What kinds of contingencies have been developed for a program that may prove less
effective that intended?
Because of the diversity of market segments, which compose the tourism industry, a marketing
plan is much like a navigational chart. The marketing plan requires a look at all the relevant
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activities, define goals, identifies markets, selects strategies, makes assessments and determines
results. Navigation likewise plots courses, charts status and aims for the final destination. The
development of a marketing plan does not require intensive scholarly work; it is an attitude that
will govern and influence the directions an organisation intends to go. The investment of time is
critical to the most efficient use of organisation’s resources.
These guidelines are based on “Destination Marketing” by Richard B. Gartrell.
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