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Tourism:
Identifying
Natural Target
Groups
By Michael Alan Hamlin
February 12, 2001
Newly appointed secretary of tourism
Richard Gordon vows to do to tourism what no one before him as done:
put the Philippines at least on par with its neighbors that have
grown tourism into a major contributor to economic growth. To do
that, Mr. Gordon should begin by systematically determining who,
and why, the Philippines should target for its promotions.
In Marketing Places Asia, co-authors Philip Kotler,
Irving Rein, and I suggest that place marketing can use two methods
to identify natural target groups. The first approach is to collect
information about current tourists: Where do they come from? Why
do they come to this place? What are their demographic characteristics?
How satisfied are they? How many are repeat tourists? How much do
they spend? By examining these and other questions, the place can
determine which tourists are worth attracting.
The second approach is to audit the place’s attractions
and conjecture about the types of tourists who would have a natural
interest in these attractions. The aim is to identify new sources
of tourists. One cannot assume that the current tourists reflect
all the potentially interested target groups. For example, if Western
Tien-Shan in Uzbekistan only promoted skiing, the region would miss
other target groups interested in summer hiking, camel riding trips,
hunting, and rafting.
Different place features attract different tourists.
The local tourist board or other units must ask questions keyed
to segmentation variables. These variables — attractions sought,
market areas or locations, customer characteristics, and/or benefits
sought — can help to define the best tourist prospects to attract.
After a place identifies a natural target market, the
tourist board must research where these tourists are found. Which
countries, non-Asian and Asian, contain a large number of citizens
who have the means and motivation to enjoy the particular place?
For example, religious tourism involves the movement of about 100
million people per year (1991). Among the Asian countries that lead
in this target market are India, Tibet, and China, which offer a
variety of religious tours. It is important to know where the various
target markets are for Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.
An analysis can uncover too many or too few potential
target markets. If too many are identified, the tourist board must
calculate the potential profit from attracting each segment. The
potential profit of a target tourist segment is the difference between
the amount that the tourist segment would spend and the cost of
attracting and serving this segment. The attraction cost depends
on the marketing plan. The serving cost depends on the infrastructure
requirements. Ultimately, the tourist board ranks the potential
tourist segments in order of their profitability and concentrates
on attracting those segments highest on its list.
If the analysis identifies too few natural tourist
segments, the tourist board must undertake investment marketing.
A natural market is attracted by the existing features of the place;
an investment market is attracted by new features that might be
added to a place. Investment marketing consists of allocating money
towards infrastructure improvements (hotels, transportation, etc.)
and attractions that can potentially attract new types of tourists.
The payoff from investment marketing comes some years later, but
this investment is necessary if the place cannot identify a sufficient
number of natural tourist segments.
Whatever tourist segment a place aims at, it needs
to be very specific. True, a ski area attracts skiers; swimming
and natural reefs attract snorklers and divers; art attracts the
culture seekers; gambling attracts gaming tourists. Yet, even with
such givens, places must segment tourists according to additional
characteristics. Tourists to Fiji, for example, are offered very
specific target packages. Although Fiji is mainly sun and sand,
there are a wide variety of resorts that specialize in such activities
as diving, surfing, golfing, honeymoons, weddings, camping, and
backpacking, among others. There are resorts to fit the lifestyle
of any tourist: small, family, island, and budget resorts, villas,
apartments and eco-friendly living places. Many exclusive and luxury
resorts are concentrated on the Northern Islands, which offer high-level
tourism. But segmentation will go much further in the future. The
Fijian region, composed of 300 islands, can be described on a map
full of additional characteristics related to various places. Thus,
various places can distinguish themselves by marketing bicycle-riding,
horse-riding, health spas, theme parks, and so on.
Markets and attractions change over time. However,
some places manage to keep the same tourist image for decades. One
such example is the Island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, which
many people visit repeatedly decade after decade. Tahiti markets
itself via famous persons having lived and visited the island. Among
them is French painter Paul Gaugin who captured the beauty of the
island in his work. His is a household name, and a cruise around
the island and a museum have been named after him.
Other celebrities include Marlon Brando, who owns an
island in Tahiti, Dudley Moore, Meg Ryan and Rod Stewart. Writer
Somerset Maugham describes Tahiti in his book The Moon and Sixpence,
by saying: "I looked up and I saw the outline of the island.
And I knew right away that there was the place I’d been looking
for all of my life." The joie de vivre or joy of living of
Tahitians is famous worldwide and is the reason for the many festivals
throughout the year. Its most famous is the month-long Heiva I Tahiti,
which involves sporting and competition. Tahiti exemplifies a certain
degree of stability in a place market subject to intensifying competition.
Tahiti must maintain its hard-won turf. Festivals and special events
are popularly marketed on all types of themes: music instruments,
canoe racing, carnival, flowers, golf, and island tours. Tourists
can pick and choose.
And unfortunately for the Philippines, they’ve
mostly been picking other places. But that can change. If the Philippines
is marketed — and resources developed — intelligently.
(Mr. Hamlin is managing director of the consultancy
TeamAsia and the author of two books on Asian economies and managing
in Asia. His latest book is The New Asian Corporation: Managing
for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia. His e-mail address is mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.)
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