Hello Athula,

There is no so called best in marketing strategies. The answer depends on who you are, what the competitors are like; the customers’ preferences and capabilities and the environmental factors.

Generally speaking, these factors need to be considered:

Target the segments that can afford an island destination

Position yourself against the similar islands (what are your unique attributes) and create a unique image

Define your SCA - sustainable competitive advantages: (things that you have, others do not have, very hard to copy, very long time to develop).

Best wishes

All marketing is about helping the prospective customer imagine themselves successfully using your product.  In your case, it means imaging themselves enjoying an island vacation. 

All of your words, images and videos must reinforce this image in their imagination.  

Tourism Marketing can be helpful. But i also agree with the senior researchers that there is no best strategy in marketing. Marketing is all about customer focused strategies.

Dear All,

Thank you very much for your valuable comments

Promoting public safety.

Hai Athula Gnanapala Sir, 

Yes, Sir. As pointed out by many, there is nothing like Best strategy or second best strategy etc. Because marketing strategy depends on the specific situations and changing customer expectations. Tourism marketing strategies that are relevant to the context, based on the feedback from the tourists themselves (and other stakeholders, like, tourism service providers, tourist agents / guides etc.). Suitable STP (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning) of the product, defining your specific SCA etc. are important. Equally important is factors like public safety, maintaining the environmental cleanliness / purity, provision of adequate infrastructure facilities including ICT-based services (online booking etc.).

Suggestions / remarks by Kaleel Rahman Sir, Michael W Marek Sir, Peter F Colwell Sir, Naveed Ahmed Sir..all are noteworthy. Additionally note that preservation of 'Environment & Ecology' should definitely form part and parcel of any tourism strategy, particularly for island tourism destinations. It is essential for its long term sustainability.

With regards

Dr. MANOJ P K, CUSAT, KERALA, INDIA.    

As pointed out by many experts in the field of tourism, there are many considerations while formulating the tourism strategy. Changing customer expectations, factors like SCA, concerns like public safety, preservation of environment & ecology etc. are some of them.  

Hi, Athula:

Perhaps the following three recent research studies will add value to your current exploration:

First,  a recent research study (Okumus et al., 2013) compared how four Caribbean small islands—Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Martinique—use their authentic cuisines to promote their destinations. Brochures, catalogs, websites, and other promotional materials for each destination were content analyzed. Although all four destinations seem to use their authentic cuisines for tourism promotion, key differences exist among these islands in their marketing and promotional strategies. Martinique appears to use its local cuisine most aggressively, using a combination of locally prepared foods, cocktails, rum, fruits, and vegetables to visually portray this aspect of the country's heritage. Jamaica, in contrast, uses mainly fruit and vegetable imagery. The study findings suggest a need for these four Caribbean island destinations to develop expertise in culinary tourism, followed by promotion through brochures, catalogs, websites, and other marketing materials!

Second, this research study (Croes, 2011) measured and explained competitiveness among small island destinations. Current measures of competitiveness do not respond to the special needs of small island destinations. An alternative measurement suggests a more suitable Tourism Competitiveness Index (TCI), and through the application of panel regression analysis, tracks the most important factors affecting competitiveness among island destinations. The findings imply likelihood that more expensive destinations obtain a larger share of regional tourism revenues. The study concludes that providing a high-quality product may allow destinations to become and remain competitive!

Third, in this study Machado & Almeida (2014) analyzed the effect of tourism experience-related variables on Nordic visitors’ interest in Madeira as a potential second home destination, within the framework of the reinvention of classic tourism destinations as attractive residential areas and tourism hot spots.

• Okumus, F., Kock, G., Scantlebury, M. G., & Okumus, B. (2013). Using Local Cuisines when Promoting Small Caribbean Island Destinations. Journal Of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(4), 410-429.
• Croes, R. (2011). Measuring and Explaining Competitiveness in the Context of Small Island Destinations. Journal Of Travel Research, 50(4), 431-442.
• Machado, L. P., & Almeida, A. (2014). The On-going Process of Reinventing Classic Tourism Destinations – The Case of Nordic Tourists in Madeira Island. Scandinavian Journal Of Hospitality & Tourism, 1324-43.

Hope this helps!

Kind Regards, Nadeem

Hello Athula,

Please take a look at our papers.  We have two models (papers) and conference presentation for gastro-tourism as an economic development tool. 

We have also begun a survey, which you may find very useful

Please get back to me if I can help. 

Robert

[email protected]

To promote island destinations could redesign local food product with PDO/PGI or TSG under local individual brands, and then they could position at local retailers.  

 According to the other senior researchers in order to find the best strategy, you need to analyze the market and customers behavior. In other word, you should consider the market segmentation; who are your customer, why they need to spend their time there rather than other places, what is their prominent reason?! In addition, you need to find out customer expectation. In my view, it will be useful if we look at the values which are perceived by them; Utilitarian & hedonic.  

According to the consumers' purchase attitudes in each segment, the marketing tactic and strategies should be designed in terms of their visual and gastronomic tourism tendencies