Marketing concept in tourism of Pokhara

Tourism is the sum total of activities arisen from the travel and stay of people from out of their usual environment (Bhatia 2004). However, a tourist cannot decide to travel places until and unless he or she knows and  remains  updated  about  the  tourist  destinations.  In  this  regard,

here comes the  vital  role  of  marketing and  promotion.  Marketing is also advertising which constitutes one of the 6As as six major tools like attractions, accessibility, amenities, accommodations, activities and advertisement. These factors are prerequisites for the development of a tourist destination.

Among these factors, advertisement is one of the very effective tools of tourism marketing and promotion. For instance, even if a destination has all of the six factors except advertisement, it remains really challenging to promote tourism and attract tourists’ visitations. Tourism is a complex industry because of the amalgam of various sub-sectors which are not only separate but also complete, and sometimes even independent on their own. Such examples can be taken with the enterprises like lodging and transport (Shrestha 2000). It is also complex because of the combination of the multifaceted elements like sustainable tourism products, responsible tourism activities by guests and hosts, and responsible marketing (Upadhayaya and Khatiwada 2012). Its complexity furthermore lies in the fact that tourism promotion in its various forms has to be directed at large number of people in various lands of different socio-economic structures, having different needs, tastes, attitudes, expectations and behavioral patterns.  It  is  only  the  efficient  marketing  strategy,  which  not  only allows the potential clients for their easy access on general travel related decisions, but also helps to understand marketers of tourist destinations to understand people's tastes and preferences for travel. Thus, marketing is conceptually vital and important in tourism industry (Godahewa 2011).

Marketing of tourist products has certain peculiar characteristics like intangibility of tourist products, inseparability of guests and hosts including production and consumption of tourists’ services, instability of the demands of tourist products, dominance of the intermediaries on selling products, etc (Paudyal 2012).

In fact, market research, product formulation and development, market segmentation of target markets, distribution network and product promotions are the main marketing functions in tourism. Those functions are materialized amidst the seven core variables of marketing mix up such as product, price, promotion, place, people, physical evidence and process (Bhatia 2004).

Globalization and the increased competition in tourism markets after the 1980s have changed the progressive and competitive landscape of tourism, driving enterprises, communities, nations and government to

rethink their tourism strategies, policy, planning, management, and also allow them to restructure, operate and promote destination successfully in a boundary-less world. Globalization has required a continuous improvement in marketing efforts to the needs and wants of the demand factors, international and domestic tourists and local people (Sharma

2006).