Marketing communications and promotion. Tourists are the target group, marketing activities have as a goal to attract tourists, information is the key of attraction - information as communication and promotion.
A marketing information system is normally a software system of capturing data (and thereby information) which a company can gather and populate in order to help them segment markets (eg CRM software).
From the analysis and segmentation of this information, strategies can be put in place at specific identified target markets (and thus various activities) to position their products and offerings directed at those markets/segments with a compelling message.
Empirical data suggests a link between marketing information systems and tourism marketing. It has been noted that tourist organisations attempt to maximise their potential by utilising marketing information systems. Tourism organisations utilise informal marketing information systems that primarily focus on internal and immediate operating environment data. Important broader market intelligence is underused, owing mostly to the limited resources of these smaller enterprises. Despite the benefits of delivering much of the essential data more rapidly and at a lower cost than traditional methods, extensive usage of the internet can be regarded a key source of market intelligence.