Chapter 12. Services Marketing
12.6 Bringing it All Together
The Role of Destination Canada
The role of Destination Canada is to “promote Canada as a premier four-season leisure and business tourism destination around the country and world in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States”. (Destination Canada, 2021). As we learned in the last chapter, this destination marketing organization has been mandated to fulfill several key marketing and leadership responsibilities critical to the long-term sustainable growth of the tourism industry.
Take a Closer Look: Online Reputation Management
This guide from Destination BC’s Tourism Business Essentials series helps businesses understand how to manage their online reputation and includes tips for responding to reviews and other best practice. To get a copy of the guide, visit the Online Reputation Management Guide [PDF].
Market Segmentation
Tourism marketers, choose target markets for their efforts through market segmentation techniques, where potential visitors are separated by:
- Demographics
- Countries of origin
- Trip purposes
- Trip planning and arrangements
- Psychographics and lifestyles
- Special interests
- Technology uses
Destination Canada’s award-winning Explorer Quotient program provides tourism marketers with detailed psychographic and travel motivations information (Destination Canada, 2013). It allows destinations and experiences to market themselves to target audiences based on psychographic profiles (their psychological tendencies) rather than geographic segments.
Take a Closer Look: EQ (Explorer Quotient)
Destination Canada’s EQ tool allows businesses to segment their customers in a new and innovative way. EQ offers a range of online resources from an EQ Quiz (so you can identify what type of traveller you are) to business toolkits and more. Explore this new tourism marketing tool by visiting the Explorer Quotient toolkit [PDF].
Spotlight On: Indigenous Tourism BC
As cited on their website: Indigenous Tourism BC (ITBC) honours the value of Indigenous knowledge in tourism. More than 200 distinct Indigenous communities, with more than 30 living languages, offer unique perspectives and thriving Indigenous businesses ready to host visitors in major urban centres, down fast rivers, before hereditary totem poles, in award-winning cafes and restaurants, and on pristine beaches under the stars. Indigenous tourism hosts in British Columbia invite visitors to come and share their love for this land. Recognizing that indigenous tourism experiences are a primary draw for many visitors, ITBC aims to grow this industry in a “sustainable, authentic, and culturally rich” way. For more information, visit the Indigenous Tourism BC website.
Effective planning, research, customer understanding, integrated marketing communications, and using online customer service strategies to support effective marketing are fundamental requirements for successful services marketing. However, it is critical that marketers understand the key trends and issues that will help to identify tomorrow’s marketing strategies (Government of Canada, 2012).
Also known as a destination management organization; includes national tourism boards, state/provincial tourism offices, and community convention and visitor bureaus.
Specific groups of people with a similar profile, allowing marketers to target their messaging.
Psychological characteristics, such as an individuals attitudes, beliefs, values, motivations, and behaviours.
The organization responsible for developing and marketing Indigenous tourism experiences in B.C. in a strategic way. Marketing stakeholder members are over 51% owned and operated by First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.