The role of tour operators in marketing destinations
Date
2013
Authors
Thubei, Marie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Tourism growth is driven by emerging markets and developing economies. While mature
markets remain the leading destinations in the world, there is faster growth in developing
countries. In the year 2012, destinations spent $1,480 billion on both capital and recurrent
expenditures to attract tourists to their countries. The key organizations at a tourism
destination can be classified into tourism promoters and tourism services suppliers.
Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are tourism promoters and are often
given the central role in marketing a destination because they are created with the overall
responsibility of promoting tourism and attracting visitors to the place or region defined
as their domain. DMOs are often publicly funded, have modest budgets, with little or no
opportunity to generate income on their own. In addition, because they are not tourism
service suppliers, they do not own visitor attractions or hotels and have little or no
interaction with the tourists. Tour operators are also tourism promoters and are important
stakeholders in the tourism industry. The purpose of this study was to determine the
significance of the role of tour operators in destination marketing. The research was
designed to examine the role of the tour operator in destination marketing, assess the
effect of alignment of activities of KTB and tour operators in enhancing destination
marketing and establish how the destination marketing role of government agencies and
tour operators can be integrated and harmonized. The study adopted an exploratory
design making the study both qualitative and quantitative. The purposive method was
used for sampling. A sample size of 57 respondents was selected, with the target
population being tour operators who are members of the Kenya Association of Tour
Operators (KATO). Data was collected using questionnaires, which had open-ended and
closed questions. Data analysis was done using SPSS. Data was also collected from
destination marketing representatives of KTB using a group interview. This was done to
determine their key marketing activities. The study concludes that tour operators are
important links in the tourism value chain given their central role in marketing tourist
destinations and creating tourism packages. The study therefore recommends that tour operators and KTB align their destination marketing activities for greater impact. Further
study is recommended on the role of the other tourism players in destination marketing.
Description
A Thesis Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Award of Degree of Master of Business Administration
Keywords
destination marketing, tour operators, critical stakeholders