The determination of the position of the tourist destination on the market can be done, first of all, by analyzing the surrounding, the market and the competition, that is, by analyzing those tourist destinations that can be competitive in various respects. Everyday and constant changes take place in the surrounding. The need for their constant observation and recording is a prerequisite for the successful development of the tourist destination. At the same tame, it is very important to understand and accept the changes as a starting point of the marketing management activities for the development of the tourist destination.
The broader surrounding of the tourist destination has a great influence on the desires and needs of the tourist, and consequently on the creation of the tourist product the destination and the way of its selling. Therefore, the observation of the changes is of great importance, especially because the ignoring of these changes could result in complete failure of the tourist destination.
Of the various and numerous components of the macro-surrounding, the economic surrounding no doubt has the utmost influence on the marketing-management of the tourist destination. Within this surrounding indicators can be pointed out that stimulate or inhibit the tourist travels, and depending on the degree of the demand have a positive or negative influence on the development of the tourist destination. The influence of the tourism on the development of the tourist destination is reflected in the inflow of foreign currencies which contributes to the improvement of the structure of the payment balance of the country, the degree of employment, the emphasis on the multiple role of tourism etc. One the other hand, certain factors such as the rate of inflation, the currency course, has an inhibiting influence on the tourist travels.
The social and cultural surrounding-and especially the demographic characteristic of the tourists bring about numerous changes. The choice of the tourist destination is largely influenced by the life-style of the tourist, their education, age structure, sex etc. The tame of traveling, the duration of the stay, the structure of the expenditure also depend on these factors. In the tourist destination, an encounter between the native inhabitants and the tourist takes place which results in an exchange of information about their different cultures, habits, customs etc.
The political surrounding also has an important influence on the tourist destination. Building up a good reputation of the tourist destination greatly depends on the activities undertaken by the state (government), which means establishment and maintenance of a stable climate and development of the tourism by means of determine the parity of the national currency, the visa regime, the planning and protecting of the resources etc.
The technological surrounding refers to the technological achievements that bring about enormous changes. These changes refer to the possibility of increasing the degree of automation in the process of offering services, which is application of the latest technological achievements in furnishing the accommodation capacities, the latest achievements in the tourist mediation, the means of transport etc.
The natural surrounding is becoming more and more significant, as a result of the tourists’ need to visit destination that have never been touched by a human hand, destinations that have remained authentic and therefore have enormous tourist value and draw enormous attention. In times of massive and rapid urbanization, much greater interest arouses that tourist destination, the offer of which is created in a way that enables the tourists to find themselves in an another world, quite different from the every day world.
The ecological surrounding is an imperative in the marketing-management of the tourist destination. The fact is that as a result of the increased human negligence and the uncontrolled exploitation of the environment, that is, the resources, the tourist destinations are brought to an unseen ecological condition. Therefore, there is a need for an appropriate management of the marketing activities with the aim of influencing and directing human conduct, which is with the aim of arousing human conscience in order to stimulate the positive and minimize the negative influence on the environment. This means that a care has to be taken of protection of certain natural environments that have tremendous importance to the development of tourism, the protection of the cultural and historical monuments, the quality of the surrounding etc.
Nevertheless, above all human consciousness and conduct have to be influenced in order to decrease and control the water and air pollution, the clamor, to control the destruction of the natural and anthropological treasure of the tourist destination etc. Generally speaking, the influence of the broader environment (surrounding) of the tourist destination on the creation and quality of the tourist product of the destination, is of great importance. Therefore the marketing-management activities should put a stress on those attributes that give the tourist destination a comparative advantage and influence the correction of the negative impacts.
[1] Bakić, O. (1988). Strategijsko planiranje turističkog proizvoda, Naučna knjiga, Beograd
The need for quality
Quality as an essential attribute to life has the need of application into all areas of business existence. Having in mind the specifics of tourism, the need for quality there is particularly expressed due to several reasons, including:
- the previously mentioned complexity of the tourist product;
- the tourist product demand at a time intended for rest and relaxation, indicating its character for the need of a higher order;
- providing quality of the total functioning of the industry, which is a precondition for quality of the product as a final result[1].
Thought the theoretical beginnings of the Total Quality Management movement happened somewhere after the Second World War and are connected with Edwards W. Deming, the true revolution in quality management occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, caused primarily by the increased competition in the world market. This need for practical application of the Total Quality Management –TQM, which is determined as a philosophy of work, imposing the obligation of constant improvement of the work of the enterprise, by focusing on team work, increasing of the customer’s satisfaction and reduction of expenses, is upgraded and complemented with corresponding demands and needs in the area in which it is practiced.
The working teams are trained and authorized to make decisions which will enable the enterprise to achieve higher quality standards. One of the essential changes is the fact that the quality control departments and the formal systems of control are no longer holders of the primary responsibility for control. The companies which advocate quality improvement reduce the authorizations of the control departments, and train their employees to take care of the quality achieved themselves, and they trust them on that issue.
This change will probably be the cause for uneasiness and worries with traditional managers, since their traditional means of control are disappearing. Again, this is particularly evident in tourism, where the most direct and immediate contact with the consumers of the tourist product is established by the employees from the lower managerial or non-managerial level. Total control also signifies movement from the bureaucratic towards a decentralized method of control. However, one has to have in mind the fact that even though TQM puts the accent on the quality of the final products, which is evident at the end of the process i.e. in the control function, still the quality movement refers to the quality of all management activities, and not only to the final products. More precisely, TQM is only means for achieving a quality
product at the end of the process. In order to obtain that, numerous changes are needed in planning, organizing, motivating, coordinating and controlling, i.e. in the whole management process. This complete change in the behavior of the enterprise doesn’t only reflect in the obtaining of a quality product or service, but also offers other privileges for the enterprise, such as:
- improvement of the enterprise image;
- reduction of costs and increase of the market presence, and
- growth of profit.
In order to achieve this, four basic elements of management are crucial for total quality: inclusion of the employees in the processes for quality achievement; focusing on the consumers; benchmarking i.e. assessment of the leader results and attempt to follow those and have a constant improvement. The inclusion of the employees implies their wide participation in the quality control. The workers are trained, included and authorized to take part in the control. Usually, this is done through the establishing of groups of workers (quality circles) which identify operational problems, establish high production goals and respond to the quality expectations of the consumers.
Focusing on the consumers signifies that the enterprises, by implementing TQM, work on discovering what consumers want. In that sense, they are market oriented and use marketing principles. The market research itself demands extra working expenses, but the essence is to optimize the relation between the costs and the effects to be achieved. In this process various working techniques are used, including production by order. It is a case of products and services which completely correspond with the preferences and wishes of the consumers, and are sold in the market with utmost certainty, thus avoiding the market risk. Benchmarking as an assessment of the leader results within the area or branch and the attempt to follow those represents a process in which the enterprises are directed towards the discovering why others perform certain activities better. When using this procedure the enterprises must “sincerely” question the actions and procedures they use and the possibilities for their improvement and at the same time to carefully choose the enterprise whose experience to follow. The fourth and very important moment in the efforts for total quality refers to the constant improvement.
This means that TQM is not “instaled” immediately, which means that the efforts for quality are realized gradually. Constant improvement can be observed through numerous small improvements in all areas of the business in the enterprise, based on changes applied.
The programs for quality improvement expect all the employees to take part in initiating changes in their scope of activities. The basic philosophy is that the greatest probability for success is contained in small improvements which happen in the right moment, the whole time. There is no end to the improvement process. The improvements occur continuously, and the changes following them give the enterprise a significant competitive advantage.
Quality is the basic condition for a long-term success[2], as a primary strategy for competitive differentiation. Still, one has to have in mind the fact that the quality programs are conditioned by many factors, some positive, others negative. The positive factors primarily include: the demand for advanced skills from the managers and employees; the quality insistence which enriches the work and motivates the employees; all employees develop the ability to solve problems; participation and team work is used as a way of facing current problems; constant improvement is applied. Nevertheless, there are negativities which have to be considered: the expectations can be unrealistically high; mid-level managers can be unsatisfied due to the feeling of reduced authority; workers may be unsatisfied by other aspects of the organization; leaders can find themselves in a situation to be out of the quality control discussions; managers may expect huge, dramatic innovations.
One of the positive factors refers to the working skills the tasks demand from the employees. When advanced skills are required from the employees, then the quality cycle continues to increase productivity. On the contrary, when task are simple and demand lesser skills, they have smaller effect on the output.
The success of Quality Control – QC will also increase if the program offers work enrichment and improvement of the employees’ motivation. When the program increases the
employees’ ability to solve problems, it again increases productivity. Employees’ participation and team work are used to solve considerable problems, and not those which are
simple and routine. The quality program has the greatest chance of success in an environment
of corporative culture which accentuates constant improvement as a way of life and existence.
The quality program can develop problems every time the managers’ expectations are too high. They quickly get disappointed if they expect sharp changes in quality. Quality improvement comes gradually, in series of small, insignificant but constant changes. Mid and high level managers must also be dissatisfied with the approach to give part of the problem solving to lower level employees. This is one of the factors which have a negative effect on the success of the quality programs. Also, when workers are not satisfied with their life within the enterprise, the quality programs have small chances of success. In the end, corporative culture expecting huge, dramatic innovations may witness fairly small success of its quality program for achieving considerable improvement of productivity and output, opposite those that expect permanent and gradual improvement.
The need for quality of the tourist product
The tourist product is a complex and integral aggregate of a great number of services demanded by and available to tourists. It is a complex and heterogeneous composition of boarding and non-boarding services, its basic component being the hotel product. The spatial, organizational, technical and technological characteristics of the hotel enterprises form the hotel product as a final result of labor, efforts and the art of hotel workers.
For the guest as a consumer, the hotel product is a cluster of tangible and intangible elements which he himself creates as a result of his frame of mind, wishes and needs. This means that there is always the possibility of including into the product new content and attractiveness, within the “productive” possibilities of the hotel’s material and human resources capacities.
Starting from their demands and interests, the tourists in the process of services consumption constantly grade their quality, ready to turn to new, better and more attractive hotel package deal. As especially creative subjects, looking for a higher quality of services, tourists stimulate the quality development of the hotel product. Referring to the definition of the International Organization for Standardization according to which the quality is a “sum of the features and characteristics of a product, process or a service, which refer to the possibility of satisfying established or indirect needs” (ISO 8402, 1986, Quality – Vocabulary), the quality of hotel business can be defined as the compatibility of hotel services with the guests expectations. It is a result of the caterers’ ability to satisfy the tourist’s demands.
It comprises of the quality of all separate services offered by the hotel, determined by prescribed international standards. Today the tourist is looking for a richer hotel product and the goal of the hotel shouldn’t only be to reach that, but also to exceed the expectations. Thus, when designing the total hotel product one has to have in mind all its elements, because the guest doesn’t evaluate the quality of his stay based only on tangible physical elements, but to him the relationship in the communication of hotel workers with guests, hospitality, speed and manner of serving, comfort, pleasant atmosphere, security etc., carry special significance.
This, on the other hand, leads to the conclusion that the creating of a quality hotel product is possible if managers have a good knowledge of the market and its three basic parameters: the current and the potential consumer, their own product and the competition. Based on that information, the following steps are necessary in securing the quality:
- introduction and realization of quality standards;
- survey of guest’s satisfaction;
- implementation of the guest’s wishes and demands in one’s products;
- constant control of the enterprise performances[3].
It is indisputable that the quality is a basic precondition for survival and long-term development. The difficulties concerning its quantitative presentation and the high degree of subjectivity additionally complicate the activities around its achievement and recognition. This is especially true about tourism and its product, where one has numerous possibilities for innovations and creativity of all people involved, in the direction of improving the quality and more appropriate satisfaction of the psychological motives for the holiday, the relaxation and exploration of new areas.
However, the quality is built both from the aspect of the tourists as consumers of that product, and it represents the degree of satisfying their demands and wishes. Considering the fact that consumers are the sole judges of quality, managing the quality signifies a constant adaptation of the working in tourism according to the expectations of tourists.
Managing the quality in the tourist business is prescribed by international standards, and they themselves represent a prescribed quality, but also a measure of achieving quality. The economic benefit from implementing the standards in the tourist industry can be seen in: growth of income, increase in profitability of the tourist subject, limiting total costs, improvement of service quality, increase in management efficiency, improvement in work organization, increase of tourist satisfaction, but also of employees etc.
References
- Bakić, O. (1988). Strategijsko planiranje turističkog proizvoda, (Strategic planning of tourist product) Naučna knjiga, Beograd
- Bakić, O. (2002). Marketing menadžment turističke destinacije, (Marketing management of tourist destination) Ekonomski fakultet u Beogradu, CID, Beograd
- Čačić, K. (1980). Izbor kanala prodaje, (How to choose distribution channel) Jugoštampa, Beograd
- Fyall, A., Garrod, B. (2005). Tourism Marketing, A Collaborative Approach, Aspects
of Tourism: 18, Cromwell Press, Great Britain.
- ISO 9004, (1987), Quality Management and Quality System Elements.
- James, P. (1996), Total Quality Management, Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead.
- Kotler, Philip (1989) Principles of Marketing. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall
- Lumsdon, L. (1997). Tourism Marketing, International Thomson Business Press, London.
- Ray, M. (1982), Advertising and Communication Management, Englewood Cliffs, New York, Prentice Hall.
- World Tourism Organization (2007). A Practical Guide to Tourism Destination Management, 1st printing, Madrid, Spain.
[1] Ray, M. (1982), Advertising and Communication Management, Englewood Cliffs, New York, Prentice Hall.
[2] ISO 9004, (1987), Quality Management and Quality System Elements.
[3] James, P. (1996), Total Quality Management, Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead.