M.A. / Integrated marketing communications has developed . in response to the fragmentation of old rules and realities within global marketing. Client sovereignty rules the marketplace of the nineties and coupled with this, we are entering into an information era where technology is the buzz word. The need for dialogue between organisations and their customers, in order to realise customer needs, resulted in the development of relationship marketing. Through this, organisations created added-value for their products and services to establish product differentiation within a product parity environment. One of the best means whereby an organisation can create product differentiation and positioning, is by establishing perceived service quality. South Africa wants to ensure a more stable economy. For this reason the successful functioning of the tourism industry in South Africa is of the utmost importance in order to stimulate the influx of foreign exchange and to create more job opportunities. The best way to create this is to institute a more sensitive service orientation and therefore this study examines the client services of the South-African tourism industry, with specific reference to the Kruger National Park. Due to the technology explosion and the information era that currently being experienced, terms such as niche marketing and mass-customisation are of paramount importance. Customers personal needs are being recorded and their products and services designed accordingly. This progression produced a strong competitive edge for organisations because of the higher perceived service quality. An organisation's quality image is the function of its ability to consistently meet or conform with their customer's expectations. Consistent quality could lead to customer loyalty that is essential for a service suppliers long-term profitability and survival. For the purposes of this study the SERVQUAL-instrument was used, to measure service quality. Although there are various other instruments to measure service quality, the author noticed that the complexity of the term service quality is causing a lot of problems and many a researcher is still struggling to conceptualise and operationalise it. In the search for the best suited measuringinstrument, the researcher realised the importance of defining service quality in the most understanding and measurable ways possible. Considering this knowledge the author is of the opinion that the SERVQUAL-instrument would describe service quality the best within this context. Within the context of this study the SERVQUAL was used to determine the service quality of the Kruger National Park as perceived by their foreign visitors. The results of the research suggested that die service quality of the Kruger National Park did not meet their customer's expectations.

Game ranching offers an economic alternative to conventional stock farming and is a means of supplementing income derived from agricultural activities. Competition is intensifying as ranchers continuously look for ways to improve and expand their businesses and gain a competitive advantage. Ranchers consequently have to find strategies that can ensure growth. Since a reciprocal relationship and dependency exists between a game ranch and the environment in which it operates, it is essential that ranchers take cognizance of aspects in the marketing environment that can either limit, and hence encumber the choice of growth strategy, or stimulate the growth potential of game ranches. As the objective of marketing is to offer customers superior value, it is pertinent for ranchers to know and understand the needs, requirements and motivations of visitors. Failure to do so will cause visitors to patronise other game ranches, or alternative tourism offerings that meet their expectations. A literature review was conducted to define strategy and assist in identifying growth strategies available to a game ranch. The literature review assisted in categorising elements in the external, internal and customer analysis phases of strategic marketing management. Surveys were conducted by means of self-completion questionnaires which were distributed throughout South Africa. Two sets of questionnaires were distributed - one to respondents with prior experience of a game ranch, and one to respondents with no-prior experience. A qualifying question directed the fieldworker to decide which questionnaire should be completed by the respondent. The surveys were constructed in such a way as to determine to what extent various factors would persuade respondents to visit a ranch or extend their stay. Based on a factor analysis, an eight factor structure emerged which represented the personal values of respondents and their levels of expectation for each of the factors. The eight factors were stimulation, universalism, tradition, security, hedonism, power, socialisation, and self-direction. The study revealed the following. - The majority of respondents with no-prior experience of a game ranch is either unaware of the offerings of game ranches, or perceives them as too expensive. - The sustainable use of natural resources is not only essential for the existence of a game ranch, but is also an important motivator for respondents to either visit a game ranch or extend their stay at a ranch. - Staff play a critical role in the overall experience of visitors and act as an important motivator to either visit/revisit a game ranch or extend their stay at the ranch. - Clean and comfortable overnight facilities are deemed important by all respondents. - Respondents have a strong desire to relax and spend time with family and friends. A decision-making framework from which game ranches can select applicable growth strategies resulted from the study. The decision-making framework comprises a three-phase process; phase 1 is the identification of a game ranch's target market; phase 2 is the use of a simplistic framework to determine a possible growth strategy for a game ranch; phase 3 is the identification of ways to implement the selected strategy. As the game ranch industry makes significant contributions to the economic, social and ecological welfare of South Africa, this study added to the body of knowledge of game ranching in South Africa, particularly with regard to the growth options available to game ranches. Recommendations for consideration of future research included the following. - As the current study investigated hunting and tourism, future research on growth strategies for game ranches could also include other aspects of game ranching such as the sale of live game and game products. - More focused empirical research into external and internal strategic analysis should be considered to supplement the empirical research into customer analysis resulting from the current study. - Finally, additional information obtained on the external and internal strategic analysis process could lead to expanding the decision-making framework developed in this study into a more holistic tool to be used in selecting a growth strategy, or combination of strategies for a game ranch3.

In the field of travel and tourism, scholars with interest in consumer behavior studies have explored different variables and linked them with the individual's behavior. Variables such as destination image, environmental awareness, service perception, preferences, and motivations for travel are commonly used to understand and predict destination selections and travel behavior. There is also enough evidence to suggest that healthy-living is positively associated with travel behavior. If any, little empirical research has been done to explore and examine the relationship between healthy-living and travel behavior. The guidelines to healthy-living have not been introduced in the literature of travel and tourism. This study is intended to shed some light on this issue and contribute to knowledge in this area. The objective of this study was twofold: (1) to develop a healthy-living attitudinal construct, and (2) examine the relationship between healthy-living behavioral and attitudinal constructs and selected travel behavior variables. Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis was undertaken to test the relationship between healthy-living and travel behavior variables. In addition, using ANOVA, the study examined if there were differences between healthy-living (behavioral and attitudinal) and socio-demographic variables; and by using Tukey's multiple comparison test, significant differences between the different groups were revealed. Finally, multiple regression analysis was undertaken with the objective to find the degree with which healthy-living alone influences travel behavior while socio-demographic variables are constant or controlled for. The overall findings of the study revealed that there seems to be a relationship between a healthy-living lifestyle and the individual travel behavior. However, the direction and strength of this relationship shows variations with respect to different dimensions of the healthy-living construct and selected travel behavior questions. The perceived importance of the interaction between healthy-living behavior and travel also implies that certain habits and practices of individuals may correspond to certain benefits and expectations that are both valued and obtained from travel experiences and at the destination site. Such information combined with demographic information may be of great help in understanding better the behavior of travelers to destinations. This research contributes to lifestyle studies in tourism and sheds further light on the complex nature of travel behavior. / Ph. D.

A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial of the requirements for course-work Master of Arts degree in the Centre for Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1998. / After the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, South Africa was heartily welcomed into the family of nations of the world. Likewise, South Africa should extend a warm welcome to peoples of the world to its shores. South Africa must take full advantage of its political popularity under the democratically elected government. Besides, South Africa has an abundance of natural resources and is rich in history because of its racial diversity. The cultures of its indigenous people of South Africa can make this region one of the most sought after tourist destinations of the world. Tourism, like all other industries in this country, has been badly affected by sanctions, violence, crime and internal political conflict. Furthermore, the media has created a turbulent atmosphere through its exaggeration of incidents that are common to all countries of the world. These have dissuaded thousands of people who would otherwise have chosen to visit South Africa especially the Black townships and rural areas. Tourism has, unfortunately, received little attention, from both the previous and the present governments compared to other industries. A number of projects and programmes have been directed at alleviating problems of Black communities with the ultimate aim of improving their standard of living. In most cases, these programmes have failed to achieve this objective. Instead, in tourism, it is the wealthy hoteliers who have been beneficiaries and not the target population. South Africa has engaged in a number of tourism forms with the objective of including and involving Blacks such that they benefit from tourism development. Presently very few Blacks have been properly involved in tourism in a positive way. This study focuses on establishing a Tourist Information Centre in Umlazi that will provide information concerning tourism that may be required by potential tourists. Tourism needs much more than providing information to tourists, it also needs that the infrastructure available should be of a suitable standard. The development of such infrastructure in Umlazi and neighbouring townships has lagged behind in the past because of the policies that were in operation. Tourist Information Centres will help develop a high level of awareness of the potential benefits available in Umlazi Township for both the tourists and the host communities. It has been found from the tourism workshop held in May 1998 to orientate the people of Umlazi in tourism. that tourism awareness campaign seems to be the only criterion that can be used to answer all the questions and challenges pertaining to tourism industry. The survey conducted re-iterated the need for tourism education and, also revealed that the majority of Umlazi community would love to see a Tourist Information Centre materialising. The opinion survey showed that the support from the community cannot be doubted.

M. Tech. (Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Faculty of Human Sciences) Vaal University of Technology. / Given that the competition in the tourism industry has intensified worldwide, there is a need for more effective tourism marketing. Tourism marketing lies in designing the marketing strategies and communications appropriate for target markets so that profits can be generated. Through tourism marketing, tourism establishments could also attract more tourists, anticipate and satisfy the existing and potential tourists’ needs and wants. This study therefore, determines the key success factors (KSFs) for marketing of tourism establishments in Lesotho. KSFs are factors that allow tourism establishments to compete effectively and to attract more tourists. The primary objective of this study was to determine the KSFs for marketing of tourism establishments in Lesotho. To achieve the primary objective of this study, two secondary objectives were identified in Chapter1 and achieved in the subsequent chapters. The first objective was to analyse the KSFs for marketing of tourism establishments in by means of an in-depth literature review. This objective was achieved in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Chapter 2 provided an overview of marketing and the following were discussed: marketing in tourism, characteristics of service marketing in tourism, specific features in services, importance of marketing, description of marketing as a process and a marketing strategy, market as well as the marketing mix. In Chapter 3, various KSFs for marketing tourism establishments were discussed. The second objective was to assess empirically the KSFs for marketing tourism establishments in Lesotho. This objective was met in Chapter 5 by means of descriptive statistics, which included biographic information of the respondents in this study. In addition, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the marketing-related aspects implemented by tourism establishments in Lesotho and to identify the KSFs for marketing tourism establishments in Lesotho. Last but not least this objective was also achieved by making recommendations based on the KSFs for marketing. A quantitative approach was employed for this study. The sampling consisted of two phases: During the first phase, convenience sampling, a non-probability sampling method, were used to identify the regions in Lesotho that formed part of this study and the following regions were selected to be part of the study, namely Maseru, Leribe, Berea and Mafeteng. During the second phase of the sampling, all tourism establishments in the specified regions that appeared on a list provided by the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC) were selected to be part of the study.137 questionnaires were distributed and completed by either the managers or marketers of the establishment between June and July 2017. The questionnaire included sections about biographic profile of tourism establishments in Lesotho that participated in this study, implementation of KSFs, importance of KSFs, questions about establishments’ marketing information and comments or suggestions of the respondents from the following sectors: airline, travel trade, attraction and accommodation. Data were captured and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20.0 (SPSS). The data analysis for this study was done in two phases. Phase 1 included descriptive statistics and Phase 2 consisted of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to summarise data on the KSFs for marketing of tourism establishments in Lesotho. The factor analysis for this study was run with Oblim with Kaiser Normalisation as a rotation method and the principal component analysis as an extraction method for better interpretation of results. The eigenvalues criterion was also used to determine the number of principal components based on the assumption that only eigenvalues greater than 1. The data were tested using the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin 0.801(KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett test of sphericity. From the results a total of ten KSFs for marketing of tourism establishments in Lesotho were identified. These include the following: conduct thorough marketing planning, enhance the attractiveness of the tourism establishment, effectively advertise the establishment, ensure the accessibility of the tourism establishment, and perform strategic marketing management to improve tourist satisfaction, conduct marketing research, manage service quality, effectively communicate with staff and tourists, promote the tourism establishment through different marketing mediums and achieve tourist loyalty. All ten factors accounted for 71% of the total variance. It was recommended that the tourism establishments in Lesotho implement these KSFs in order to successfully address the needs and requirements of their target markets. In addition results revealed the KSFs that are implemented by tourism establishments in Lesotho namely: conduct thorough marketing planning, enhance customer relationship through effective communication, advertise the establishment, manage customer satisfaction, manage customer loyalty and monitor business environments. All six factors accounted for 53% of variance. It was also recommended that this research be repeated annually, as the findings would assist tourism managers or marketers of tourism establishments in Lesotho with the KSFs for marketing to better market their tourism products both nationally and globally. This study is of value not only for clear understanding of the KSFs for marketing of tourism establishments but also for improving the profitability and overall success of tourism establishments.

Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Marketing practitioners and academics are increasingly applying the concepts and techniques of products or services branding to the branding of destinations. To date, most of these studies focussed on using product and services branding concepts for branding destinations on the level of an individual resort, city or country. This thesis extends this trend by considering to what degree these destination branding ideas can also be used to brand an entire region consisting of several countries with multiple destinations. The specific focus is on developing such a regional branding framework for the tourism industry of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). First the state of tourism within the SADC region was described, including the establishment of RETOSA and the tourism performance of the region. On the basis of this overview, opportunities for regional destination branding were then considered. Secondly, the core concepts of product branding and their application to destination branding were discussed. Four theoretical frameworks for branding were reviewed and then used to compare product and destination branding. Thirdly, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was used as a case study of a region that has attempted regional destination branding initiatives, with a view to what the SADC-region may learn from this experience. In conclusion a regional destination branding framework is proposed for the SADC region. The following list makes up the elements of this framework: the vision and mission, the destination brand and its proposition, core values of the destination and its brand identity, brand image, clear view of the market, audience and competitors, brand personality, brand positioning, stakeholder consultation process and tourism marketing research. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Bemarkingspraktisyns en akademici pas toenemend die konsepte en tegnieke van produk- en dienste-bemarking op die bemarking van destinasies toe. Tot op hede was die focus van die meeste studies om bemarkingskonsepte toe te pas op destinasies soos `n individuele oort, stad of land. Hierdie tesis gaan verder as dit en oorweeg ook on watter mate hierdie bemarkingsidees ook gebruik kan word om `n hele streek, wat uit verskeie lande bestaan, te bemark. Daar word spesifiek gepoog om `n streeksbemarkingsraamwerk vir die toerismebedryf van die Suid-Afrikaanse Ontwikkelingsgemeenskap (SADC) daar te stel. Eerstens word die stand van toerisme in die SADC-streek beskryf, insluitend die ontwikkeling van SADC en die Streekstoerisme Organisasie van Suider-Afrika (RETOSA). Hierdie oorsig is gebruik om geleenthede vir streeksbemarking te oorweeg. Tweedens worddie kernkonsepte van produkbemarking en hulle toepassing op streeksbemarking bespreek. Vier teoretiese raamwerke vir bemarking word beskou en gebruik om produk- en destinasie-bemarking te vergelyk. Derdens word die Assosiasie van Suidoos-Asiatiese Lande (ASEAN) as `n gevallestudie van `n streek wat sulke bemarkingsinisiatiewe reeds geïmplimenteer het, bestudeer om te sien wat SADC daaruit kan leer. Laastens word `n streeksbemarkingsraamwerk vir die SADC-streek voorgestel. Die elemente waaruit die raamwerk beslaan, sluit die volgende in: die visie en misie, die streekshandelsmerk en sy proposisie, die kernwaardes van die streek en handelsmerkidentiteit, handelsmerkbeeld, oorsig oor die mark, toeskouers en kompetisie, handelsmerkpersoonlikheid, posisionering, insethouer konsultasieproses en toerismemarknavorsing.

Social tourism aims to allow traveling to those who are disabled or disadvantaged for any reason. That means especially the young people, seniors, families with children and persons with handicaps or disabilities. Diploma thesis "Social Marketing of tourism in Italy," provides an overview of Italian organizations and their products in mentioned area. Thesis is divided into the three parts. The first part describes basic principles of social tourism. The second part contains detailed analysis of the market situation of social tourism in Italy, including the marketing mix and SWOT analysis. The last part contains an assessment of current situation and proposal of recommendations that would enable wider application of the policy of social tourism in Italy.

The Master Thesis "Analysis of Marketing Activities of the Capital City of Prague" is mainly focused on already executed activities and campaigns which were supposed to support the incoming tourism to Prague. It presents the most important communication campaigns as well as subjects participating in marketing activities.At the end there are introduced some suggestions which may be helpful for new campaingns and activities, especially for municipal authorities.

The diploma thesis deals with the marketing mix of a three-star hotel in Prague. Its goal is to analyse marketing tools and to suggest possible measures to improve the current hotel situation. A sub-goal is to discover guest satisfaction with quality of hotel services, criteria for choosing this hotel and a way of booking hotel rooms. Results should serve to improve the quality of hotel services and to better meet guest needs. The contribution of this work can be seen in the practise of the specific hotel.

The first theoretical part of the work describes in general tourism, terminology and briefly the historical development of tourism. The second theoretical part is focused on marketing, marketing researches, marketing mix 8 P, segmentation of the market, marketing instruments and marketing strategies. The practical part is given to analysis of the travel agency Travel Support taking Czech fisherman to Norway, then to analysis of its market environment, to analysis of its target group, to analysis of competition and of previous marketing and communication strategy. SWOT analysis is made up on the grounds of these researches. Particular, concrete recommendations building the new marketing strategy for next two years were defined according to the founded results.