Faculty of Business: Leisure, Sport and Tourism
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level: Postgraduate

Result Type: Grade and marks

Handbook description

Marketing is seen as a key function in tourism management, with a growing specialist literature. This subject provides basic grounding for tourism management students. Topics include: introduction to marketing; marketing systems and their elements; tourism environments; marketing practice; and case history analysis.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, should be able to:

1. Understand personal services marketing concepts, theories, terminology, processes, and practices as applicable to tourism;
2. Understand factors influencing tourism flows and the effects of unpredictable tourism environments;
3. Analyse the critical nature of the collaborative linkages that exist in contemporary tourism marketing
4. Establish the critical factors influencing demand for particular tourism products and services
5. Identify the key sources of information on tourism flows, and forecasts, and to interpret them appropriately
6. Critically analyse particular strategies of tourism industry firms
7. Recognise the diversity of global tourism demand, tourism firms and tourism business environments,
8. Identify and logically argue possible solutions to situations in writing and in oral presentations.

Contribution to graduate profile

This subject makes a major contribution to this course in two aspects. Firstly, it requires students to critically review the marketing strategy of a tourism industry firm, and provide recommendations to improve their marketing effectiveness in the context of the current market environment. Secondly, it requires the students to present orally, and in written form, their review and analysis using the highest professional standards. Leading up to this analysis, students will be exposed to generic marketing concepts and their applicability to various types of firms within the tourism industry. Particular emphasis in this subject is placed on the collaborative linkages that are critical to the provision of the complete tourist experience for a consumer.

Teaching and learning strategies

The subject involves two hours of lectures and one hour of seminar / tutorial work each week. The sessions will include lectures, tutorials, presentations by industry practitioners and case history seminars. Students will also be required to participate in tutorial discussions on UTSOnline.

Content

• Introduction to Tourism Marketing and Services Marketing
• Tourist demand and consumer choice Processes
• Strategic planning in tourism including segmentation and positioning strategies
• The tourism product: the tourist destination; the amalgam nature of a tourist package
• Distribution: direct, indirect; electronic
• Pricing and Promotion
• Cross-national differences in market structures.

Assessment

Examination (Individual)	40%
This addresses objectives 3-5.
Theoretical review (Individual)	30%
This addresses objectives 1, 2, 4 and 5.
Strategy Analysis (Group)	30%
This addresses objectives 2-5.

The examination will be conducted under University examination conditions, and hence thoroughly address concerns regarding secure assessment. The examination involves randomised selection from a large item bank each semester, and the re-ordering of responses for questions that are re-used. The theoretical review will be secure through a combination of continual revising of topics across semesters and multiple topic choice within each semester. Individuals are required to submit reference lists for their own work for each assessment task, which reduces the possibility for plagiarism. The group project (Strategy Analysis) will be secure through a combination of continually revising assessment tasks across semesters and peer verification of individual contributions.

Recommended text(s)

Middleton, V T C and Clarke, J, Marketing in Travel and Tourism, 3rd edn, Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001

Indicative references

Buhalis, D. (2003), eTourism: Information Technologies for Strategic Tourism Management. Harlow, Essex, UK: Pearson Education.

Crotts, J. C., Buhalis, D. & March, R. (eds) (2000), Global Alliances in Tourism and Hospitality Management. Binghamton, NY: Haworth.

Lovelock, C. H., Patterson P. G. & Walker, R.H. (2001), Services Marketing: an Asia-Pacific Perspective, 2nd edition. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia.

Moutinho, L. (ed) (2000), Strategic Management in Tourism. Wallingford, UK: CABI.

Swarbrooke, J. & Horner, S. (1999), Consumer Behaviour in Tourism. Oxford, UK: Heinemann.