THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN THE ASPECT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT

The tourism industry is a very important sector in the global economy, and marketing management plays a crucial role in the success of the tourism business. This study aims to analyze the main aspects of marketing management in the tourism industry. This study uses a descriptive-analytical approach by analyzing related literature and case studies in the tourism industry. Some of the main aspects of marketing management discussed include market segmentation, targeting and positioning; product development and innovation; promotion and marketing communications; and managing customer relationships. The research results show that effective market segmentation enables tourism companies to identify the right target groups and develop relevant marketing strategies. In addition, product development and innovation are important factors in meeting the changing needs and preferences of consumers. Effective promotion and marketing communications play an important role in introducing tourism destinations to potential tourists and influencing their decisions. In addition, managing customer relationships through positive experiences and good service can build long-term customer loyalty. This research provides a better understanding of the importance of marketing management in the tourism industry. The results of this research can serve as a guide for tourism companies in planning and implementing effective marketing strategies to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable business growth.


Introduction
Tourism is one of the economic activities that has a major influence on a tourist destination area, especially in improving the community's economy.The greater the number of tourist visits to a tourism destination, the greater the amount of revenue from their expenditure, which has implications for improving the community's economy.Tourism is recognized as capable of being one of the driving forces of the world economy because tourism activities have significantly contributed to state revenues.
A tourist destination will be able to provide benefits to the community if tourism activities are well planned.One of the successes of tourism activities can be seen from the country's income in the tourism sector which can encourage the development of other sectors.An increase in the number of tourist arrivals from year to year in an area or country indicates a successful tourism activity.An ever-increasing number of tourists will be created if the destination can provide satisfaction to tourists through various attributes from managers offered to tourist visitors.
According to Som and Badarleh (2011), if tourists feel satisfied they tend to be loyal to repeat their visits in the future, and can motivate them to recommend friends or relatives to visit the same place.The rapid growth of urban tourism is also an indicator of increasing tourism trends.Therefore, greater efforts are needed by tourist destinations to prepare themselves to optimize these opportunities.The increasingly rapid development of the tourism industry means that the process of bringing in tourists is no longer an easy thing because managers of tourist destinations are faced with increasingly fierce competition at the national and international levels.More and more offers of tourist destinations make many choices of destinations for tourists.So that various competitive strategies are needed for tourism destinations to win the competition.One of the ultimate goals that must be achieved by tourist destinations is to win competition, and to achieve this final goal a series of activities is needed in making offers, bringing in visitors and other supporting activities.
Tourism plays an important role in national development, namely as a foreign exchange earner, equalizing and increasing employment opportunities and people's income.Development taxes obtained from the tourism sector have proven to be the main focus of local revenue (PAD).
This encourages to open tourism areas in order to increase local revenue.Thus it is clear that tourism has links with the development of other sectors.Considering that development is essentially the use of resources to improve welfare, tourism development is one of the efforts to accelerate economic growth.Building the tourism sector needs to be done in phases according to a certain time frame.It must be admitted, over the past five years, the development of the tourism sector has begun to produce results, even though there are still shortcomings, the achievements in the past have actually been on the right track.The concept of the Development Trilogy which consists of economic growth, political stability and equal distribution of income among various groups in society is the main support for the development of other sectors.
Development of tourist objects and new tourist attraction facilities for regency/municipal areas is very important, especially for areas that are still poor in tourism objects and tourist attraction facilities.Indeed, the development of tourist objects and new facilities requires substantial funds and is a long-term investment that cannot include a sizable regional original income (PAD) in a short time.However, it should be remembered that the function of tourist objects and tourism facilities is very large and complex for a district/city area, including first , providing public space services for reactions, entertainment and leisure sports.Second, provide employment opportunities and business opportunities in the tourism sector for communities around objects in various sectors, including trade, transportation, entertainment, services, telecommunications and so on.Third , as a place for the development of education and knowledge or research, out bounds and so on.Fourth, Fostering an exemplary sense of love for the motherland and regional pride.Fifth, as a place for fostering and developing regional arts and culture through art competitions or performances.Sixth , as an effort to add valuable regional assets for long-term investment as a source of PAD in the framework of regional autonomy.Seventh As a source of PAD which is increasing every year, and Eighth As a promising source of tax revenue in the tourism sector, including hotel taxes, restaurant taxes, entertainment taxes and so on.
Regional autonomy was enacted on January 1, 2001.For tourism ranks, planning for regional autonomy means that the central government (Ministry of Culture and Tourism) will only act as a facilitator, the Department's duties are limited to selling image, while those selling tourism industry products are the Regions.II With the enactment of the two Laws no.32 of 2004 concerning Regional Government, where the Regency and City Regional Government system is an Autonomous Region based on the principle of decentralization.In the general provisions of the Law it is explained that an Autonomous Region, hereinafter referred to as a Region, is a legal community unit that has certain regional boundaries, has the authority to regulate and manage the interests of the local community according to its own initiative based on the aspirations of the people within the bonds of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and Law No. 33 of 2004 concerning financial balances between the Central and Regional Governments, the Level II Regions have authority, not only in tourism development planning, but also in marketing and promotion planning which has so far been carried out by the central government.
The problem that arises is that the Level II Regions are unprepared to accept the delegation of authority, including in terms of the still limited human resources (HR) in the tourism sector who are expected to be able to carry out aspects of marketing strategic planning, which so far have been the responsibility of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in Jakarta, as well as b there are no guidelines that can be guided about things that need to be prioritized for Level II Regions in tourism development after regional autonomy is enacted, and what forms, patterns of marketing and promotion of tourist destination areas (DTW) are ideal after regional autonomy, especially in facing the era of globalization that has been enacted (AFTA 2003).The tourism sector must provide added value by getting a touch of science, technology and information starting from market analysis.To analyze the tourism market information is needed.Processing of this information is closely related to consumer behavior.Consumer behavior can be known through the Theory of Reasoned Action or the Reasoned Action Model in Ajzen and Fishbein (1980).
From this model it can be seen the behavior of consumers (tourists) visiting DTWs which will provide both positive and negative information about tourist attractions in the Regency/City, as well as people or objects that influence tourists to visit DTWs.By understanding the behavior of tourists, it is hoped that they can formulate appropriate strategies to improve tourist attractiveness, the overall marketing mix that will be decided by the District/City Government.

Literature Review
The tourism industry is a complex industry because it is related to other industries.Tourism itself is a social phenomenon that has human complexity in terms of psychological, sociological, economic, ecological and so on.Of all these aspects, the one that gets the most attention because it involves the survival of many people is the economic aspect.Although there are various definitions and indicators of tourism as an industry, the existence of tourism can be seen from the existence of forms of tourism businesses that depend on tourist visits.(Mill, RC, & Morrison, A.M: 2009).tourism, because there are parties who are served or fulfilled their needs and desires.
The tourism sector has a very large role in the economic growth of a country, so it is important to pay attention to its development.The results also show that there is a positive influence from tourism receipts on economic growth, which means that an increase in tourism receipts increases economic growth.Chiu & Yeh presented the TLG (Tourism Led-Growth) hypothesis, which states that tourism development can provide jobs, stimulate other industries related to tourism, generate foreign exchange earnings, spur competition in the local tourism industry, and stimulate research and development and spur investment in new infrastructure.So, leading to an increase in economic growth (Chiu, YB, & Yeh, LT: 2017).
Basically marketing is the science of how people or institutions market all kinds of product offerings, including offering tourist destinations to consumers.The definition of marketing according to Gundlach and Wilkie: ." Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large".(AMA in Gundlach and Wilkie, 2009).
Based on this definition it can be concluded that marketing is an activity, both activities carried out by institutions and individuals that are carried out through institutions that aim to earn profits or non-profit organizations.This marketing activity is carried out through a process to create, communicate, deliver and exchange offers that are of value to consumers, as well as provide benefits and responsibilities to the wider community.
If the context is adjusted to tourism destination marketing, it can be interpreted that tourism destination marketing is an activity to create, communicate, convey and exchange all offers made by tourism destinations for all tourism products that have value for tourists, and can provide benefits accompanied by responsibility to the community. .Marketing activities can function and be carried out effectively and efficiently if these functions are managed properly or what is called marketing management .Kotler & Keller defines marketing management as follows: Marketing Management as the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior value (Kotler & Keller: 2016).
Thus the scope of management of tourism destination business marketing is all tourism destination activities which include strategies for selecting target markets, acquiring, retaining and growing selected tourists.Selection of the target market as the first activity is carried out by creating, delivering and communicating all tourism destination offerings that can satisfy tourists with results above competitors.According to Hidayah ( 2019), what is meant by the market here includes customers, areas, competitors and or partners.In selecting target markets, tourism destinations must focus on the most potential selected markets.
The demand for consumption and investment needs created by tourism activities will lead to the production of goods and services.Transactions that occur during a tour bring about demand for goods and services, which indirectly raises a demand for capital and raw materials for production to meet tourists' demand for these goods and services.In order to meet tourist demand, investment is needed in the fields of communication, transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, consumer product industries, craft industries and service industries.(Spillane, J.J: 2001).
The investment itself is also referred to as investment, which aims to increase the ability to produce goods and services in the economy.(Sukirno, S: 2002).The advantages and uniqueness possessed by a tourist area such as natural beauty, local wisdom in the form of community cultural values, as well as artifacts such as historic buildings, can generate investment opportunities.Not only the government is expected to play a role in tourism development, but also private investors from within and outside the country.According to Pambudi and Chandra, countries with more advanced economies generally want to expand their market more quickly, for example through the implementation of a Free Trade Area.Conversely, countries with relatively lower economies take advantage of FTAs or free trade areas with other, larger countries to attract foreign investment (Pam Budi, D., & Chandra, A. C: 2006).
Besides that, relationship marketing, creating connections or long-term involvement with consumers, relationship marketing can be defined as attracting, maintaining and -in multi-service organizations improving customer relationships (Chadiq, 2015).There are many benefits of creating and maintaining customer relationships.Among them are (1) the cost of retaining existing customers is lower than the cost of attracting new customers; (2) managers who know what their customers are like can satisfy them more; (3) engaged customers spread positive word of mouth and can powerfully promote the destination to others.The concept of relationship marketing has played a major role in transforming marketing theory and practice over the last three decades (Berry: 2002).
Today, creating and maintaining long-term relationships with customers is considered one of the most important tasks of marketing managers, regardless of whether their products are tangible goods, intangible services, or a combination thereof (Hery, 2019).Thus, Relationship Marketing should be a guiding principle for hospitality and tourism managers, because not only are tangible benefits derived from returning visitors, but even when it is likely that a tourist will only visit once, maintaining a long-term good relationship will pay off in positive recommendations to people.others (Melati & Nurwulandari, 2019).Moreover, in a crowded tourism market, successful relationship marketing must provide a strong competitive advantage for its practitioners (Utama, 2019).
Relationship marketing has stimulated various managerial innovations since its inception.This includes an emphasis on relationships not only with customers, but with all important stakeholders, such as suppliers and distributors (Wijaya, 2020).This idea is particularly important in the tourism business, where many different institutions, companies and service providers may be involved in the overall destination experience.Relationship marketing also draws attention to the main idea of customer lifetime value.This means that companies must view customers as a stream of revenue, a source of profit, over a series of long-term repeating transactions.Building relationships with customers can increase their lifetime profitability (Hertati, et al, 2020).
This managerial insight has also drawn attention to the importance of attracting and retaining the most profitable customers.Thus, attracting the most profitable customers has become one of the most important objectives of tourism marketing strategies (Nurwulandari et al, 2021).Additionally, the imperative to form relationships has given rise to an entire industry centered around the idea of Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
This broad term means different things to different people, but the comprehensive definition put forward by Chen & Popovich (2005) argues that CRM includes at least three related perspectives.The first stems from a narrow information technology (IT) focus that emphasizes using IT to solve specific problems related to managing customer relationships.The second meaning of CRM appears to be a variety of customer-oriented IT and Internet solutions.Currently many tourism managers use such applications.Finally, CRM can mean an overall organizational perspective that recommends managing all the company's functions and activities to satisfy and retain customers.Since the main goal of Relationship Marketing and CRM in particular is to create value for customers, it is important to understand what customer value actually is in tourism (Bull, 2003).

Research Methodology
This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach.Descriptive research is research based on data from status, circumstances, attitudes, relationships or systems of thought of a problem which is the object of research.After obtaining the data obtained in this study, the next step is to process the collected data by analyzing the data, describing the data, and drawing conclusions.Data analysis in this study uses qualitative data analysis techniques, because the data obtained is a collection of information.The process of data analysis begins by examining all available data from various sources, namely through observation, interviews, and documentation (Soegiyono, 2005).

Target Market
Today it is seen that the demand for choosing a target market is mostly carried out by business actors, because they realize that it is impossible to serve all customers in that market.The activity of choosing a market is actually not solely for choosing consumers, but also determining which market to enter and allowing us to excel in the competition, because in the market we will choose there are competitors that we must beat.Besides that, in choosing a market we also need to see opportunities to get partners who can support our business.
In principle, getting a target market or target market is preceded by the activity of choosing which market to enter as an area to compete with competitors in a superior manner.If we have got the target market, the next step is to maintain the target market's loyalty and continue to develop potential and actual customers.The method that must be taken in this stage is to create, convey and communicate all tourist destination offers that can satisfy tourists while at the same time creating competitive advantages.
Customer satisfaction can be realized if all the offers provided by the destination can meet what is expected (expectation), even if it can exceed what the customer expects (exceed the expectation).With customer satisfaction provided by destinations, it can keep tourists visiting again and those who are satisfied will tell and recommend to others.

Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is an activity of dividing the market based on the nature and characteristics of the market or according to consumer behavior based on geographic, socioprofessional and motivational factors.The reasons for market segmentation include (1) heterogeneous markets, (2) to explore potential sales and profits, and (3) to determine sales intensity.The benefits of conducting market segmentation are that marketing activities can be carried out in a directed manner and the utilization of resources effectively and efficiently so that customer satisfaction is achieved.
Market segmentation in the tourism industry classifies the tourism market into tourist segments explicitly, and each selected market segment will be set as a target to be influenced by the marketing mix strategy (Kotler in Yoeti, 2002).According to Kotler et al (2002), there are several variables that serve as the basis for market segmentation: (1).Geographical segmentation, namely grouping markets based on geographic units, including countries, provinces, districts/cities, villages and so on, (2).Demographic segmentation, namely grouping the market into several segments based on demographic factors, such as age, gender, income, education level, religion, occupation and so on.(3).Psychographic Segmentation, namely dividing consumers into several groups based on social level, lifestyle, purchase motives, and so on.(4).Behavioral segmentation is done by separating the market into several segments based on knowledge, attitudes, and responses to a product.
According to Hidayah (2019), optimization of tourism destination marketing will occur if the destination concentrates on pursuing specific market segments rather than serving the broad market (mass market), which is certainly difficult to do.The reasons for a more effective destination in determining potential market segments include: (1) Limited resources, (2) The wider the market reach, the more impersonal, and (3) Entering a general and broad market facing increasingly fierce competition.By conducting market segmentation, the attention of tourism destinations will be more concentrated on segments that have high market potential and are more easily adapted to existing internal strengths.In market segmentation, apart from dividing the market, it also includes the competitive arena (market place) and competitors (competitors).

Target Market Determination
The activity of determining the target market is assessing and selecting one or more market segments to be entered as targets.Market determination is a strategy in targeting markets that have been sorted or previously grouped in segmentation.In principle, determining the target market is an activity to determine which segments will be targeted and which segments will not be targeted or which segments will receive priority to enter and which will not.The first step taken in determining the target market segment is to assess the potential of each market segment to generate profits.
The ability of marketers regarding methods and techniques for forecasting future demand along with potential profits is very much needed.Before it is decided to determine certain segments, the market is grouped into priority main market segments, each main segment is evaluated, and it is decided to set it as a target market.Factors that influence in determining the target market for tourism destinations include: 1) Competence of the management who will manage the market segment that will be targeted.2) Availability of resources, quantity, quality, and types of products owned by tourist destinations.3) Competitive advantages of tourist destinations which include the uniqueness of tourism products and the most competitive prices.4) Product/market cycle (product or market trend).
Marketing Mix One of the tourism destination strategies in the field of marketing related to determining and how to deliver product offers to the segments selected as targets is the marketing mix.Marketing mix is a strategic combination of several marketing variables that are controlled so that companies that use it can achieve optimal sales levels.The basic components in the marketing mix are product formulations that suit the needs of the target market, appropriate prices used to manage sales volume, promotions that can stimulate potential markets to make purchases, and distribution that functions to distribute products to consumers.
The four variable marketing mix is known as the 4 P's approach.The four elements in the marketing program are carried out so that the marketing strategy and positioning that has been determined can be implemented properly.For product marketing in the form of goods, the marketing program which consists of the four marketing variables can run well, but not good enough for service marketing.We realize that the development of the service industry today is increasingly widespread, so the 4 P's marketing program is developed into the 7 P's, namely Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process.(Booms & Bitner, 1981).Other developments, especially in the marketing of tourism destinations, the marketing of the 4 P's was developed into the 8 P's.
According to Morrison (2013) the 8 P's of tourism destination marketing are Product, Price, Place Promotion, Packaging, Programming, Partnership and People .

Product
Product is something that can be offered in an effort to achieve company goals by fulfilling consumer needs and desires.Considering that tourism products are abstract in nature and there is no standard for evaluation, tourism products must be unique, distinctive, different and quality must always be maintained.Maintaining the authenticity of tourism products really needs to be done so that tourists can only see and enjoy them in that place naturally.Tourist destinations must be able to define and maintain their uniqueness so that their competitors do not imitate them.Besides the uniqueness of the product, service factors to tourists should be provided with a different appearance.If the products offered are valued the same by tourists, the difference that can be taken is the added value of the 'product appearance' they have.Like other products, tourism products also have a life cycle so that tourism products also have a certain age.A tourism product that is initially in demand by consumers at a certain point will experience a decline and consumers may abandon it, so tourism destinations must rejuvenate before experiencing stagnation.Tourist destinations must always try to achieve compatibility between the tourism products offered and the needs of tourists.

Price
Pricing policies cannot be separated from decisions about services being marketed.Usually, when tourists travel, they will adjust the costs that must be incurred.Tourist destinations in determining price policies by offering products that are affordable for tourists.Pricing deemed appropriate will have an optimal impact on tourist satisfaction.According to George ( 2001), several things that must be considered in pricing policy are external marketing factors which include the nature of demand, consumer perceptions, price elasticity and competition.

Place (Distribution)
The decision to determine the place and distribution that will be used in providing services to consumers requires thinking about how to provide services to consumers and where it will be carried out.The thing that distinguishes the marketing of tourism services and the marketing of goods is the nature of the distribution system and the distribution process.For service businesses with only one production unit, such as small tourist attractions, lodging, restaurants, the main consideration in choosing a location is a place that guarantees consumers can reach the location quickly.Therefore the right location to become the main point of sale is the place of production.The concept of distribution of tourism services is related to telephone communication for ordering as a distribution channel.

Promotions
Promotional activities are efforts to inform, influence, and remind consumers about products or brands using various approaches, both directly and indirectly.From the perspective of tourism promotion, the target market will be tourists.Besides tourists, tourism marketers also need to prospect travel agents and opinion makers such as travel journalists to play a role in creating and disseminating information and opinions to influence potential tourists.The forms of promotion that can be done are advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and publicity.

People
In the context of promotion, people are parties that provide goods and services to serve consumers who have three things, namely service personnel, the product themselves, and local residents.According to George ( 2001), tourism can be described as an industry that is very dominant in human relations with humans as its hallmark to differentiate itself in gaining competitive advantage in the market.In welcoming and serving tourists who come to a tourism destination there will be interaction between people who play an important role as an entity in the tourism marketing mix.As with delivery services, it can be developed to provide real-time promotional services, and a service culture through internal marketing.

Packaging
Packaging or packaging is a grouping of two or more elements of a product experience into a product.Packaging is a combination of service and product attractiveness related to product price offerings.An interesting experience for tourists will be formed by offering products that are packaged and sold in an attractive way.

Programming
Programming or programming is the development of certain interesting activities, events or programs that can stimulate spending, or add value to products.This programming is related to packaging which involves events, activities and special programs of a product that make the product attractive and diverse.

Partnerships
Partnership as an activity creates profits by establishing good relations with various parties, both similar and non-similar businesses.

Competitive Strategy
Competitive strategies are planned or unplanned strategic steps in order to gain competitive advantage in order to attract consumers' attention, strengthen their market position, and suppress competition.Therefore, a competitive strategy can work effectively if a tourism destination is able to demonstrate its value as an advantage over its competitors.
Tourism destinations that have competitive advantages can make it easier to achieve greater profits and have the opportunity to live longer in competition.To determine and run competition, three stages of compiling a competitive strategy are needed: 1) Deciding the position of the company that has the greatest opportunity in the competition.2) Develop product and service attributes that have the power of attraction to consumers.3) Neutralize competition from competitors.
According to Miles and Snow, there are four kinds of competitive strategies, namely: 1) Prospector Strategy, which is a strategy that prioritizes the company's success in innovating, creating new products and new opportunities in the market.2) Defensive Strategy, which is a strategy that prioritizes a stable target market.This strategy is suitable for companies with few product lines and narrow market segments, so the company only focuses on maintaining the market rather than developing it.3) Analyzer Strategy, which is a strategy that prioritizes the analysis of new business ideas before the company enters the business.4) Reactor strategy, which is a strategy that prioritizes reactions to environmental changes.New reactions are carried out when there is pressure from the environment that forces them to change.

Relationship Marketing Goals
One way to summarize the importance of CRM is to present it as a set of interrelated goals that bring together the many different ideas that make it up.Goldsmith (2010) proposes that these objectives represent five sequential stages in managing customer relationships.The first stage is getting customers.Like most marketing strategies, tourism marketing often begins with advertising, promotion and word of mouth intended to attract visitors to destinations.Relationship marketing shares this goal with traditional and transactional marketing, but instead of stopping here, proceeding with customer acquisition as just the first step, using the usual promotion strategies and tactics (Sefudin & Darwin, 2020).
It is important to note that feedback from later stages in the CRM process enhances customer acquisition by enabling managers to target customers effectively and motivate them to try the product.This capability is an important aspect of the Relationship management / CRM approach that differentiates it from transactional marketing.Perhaps the core of CRM and the area most connected with relational marketing is the objective / second stage.Once they get customers, companies must retain them.Customer retention is an ongoing active relationship with customers that generates a revenue stream from the initial sale of a product or service (Jiwa, 2018).
The concept of customer retention goes beyond the traditional notion of customer loyalty which focuses on loyalty as a result of managerial actions that create satisfaction and emotional attachment to brands.The growth of the concept of customer or brand engagement is a direct result of the Relationship Marketing revolution because in order to create relationships and drive loyalty, companies find that they must promote conscious emotional and cognitive involvement or reactions to marketing stimuli (Esti et al, 2014).
Retaining customers in a tourism context suggests repeat visits.An example of a successful customer retention strategy, for example, can be seen in the case of several hotels that use rewards, rebates, rewards, partnerships and affinity programs to engage their visitors and encourage their loyalty (Tauriana & Arisani, 2012).Beyond the critical role played by satisfaction in securing repeat purchases.Repeat visits by the same tourists inevitably imply developing new experiences and benefits that will entice them to return.The third stage of the model, development, proposes that firms and customers can benefit when managers engage more fully with their customers by offering them additional benefits associated with the main product (Redjeki et al, 2021).
It goes beyond the tried and true tactics of bundling, up selling, and cross selling to imply that customers should be given the opportunity to buy additional products, especially if they can make them together (Sumartha et al, 2017).For example, cruises have long promoted spending on board, and many destinations feature a variety of additional or add-on experiences for tourists.These experiences not only provide additional income, but are also an important part of the value created by the tourism experience.The fourth stage of the model, customer consulting, is consistent with recent theoretical developments in marketing management theory, which emphasizes the key role of customer participation in creating product value, which is called co-creation (Setiawan et al, 2020).
Marketers have long been urged to seek input from customers to help them develop new products and improve existing products.Tourism studies show that many customers actively participate in creating tourism products.For example, Dwivedi (2009) analyzes online posting to show that 'consumers actively create their own destination images that are shared via the internet and made available to a large audience via search engines'.The latest manifestation of this recommendation is to actually allow customers to participate in product creation, following a personalization strategy.
The final stage in the model, customer conversion, builds on the practice of some companies to solicit some of their customers as fanatics, evangelists or missionaries who go on to convert other consumers into customers.As some customers become highly engaged with brands and more involved with their development, management and marketing, they take ownership of the brand as co-creators and promoters.Because the influence of other customers is often stronger than that of a marketing campaign, these individual efforts can have a large impact on brand sales.
In the tourism context, a strategy that enables and encourages satisfied visitors to 'spread the word' and promotes the destination should reap huge profits for sponsoring the destination.Evangelism activities by engaged tourists are particularly important given the growing importance of social media in all aspects of contemporary consumer behavior.For example, websites like Trip Advisor allow travelers to leave comments about their trips that can greatly influence other travelers.Destination managers should proactively try to create an online travel community of engaged visitors that will create positive word of mouth that encourages other visitors.

Application of Relationship Marketing in Tourism
Tourism is at the forefront of other industries adopting relationship marketing.Several studies published recently prove the growing importance of relational marketing in the hospitality and tourism industry.Research on CRM in tourism focuses on the level that tourism companies have implemented CRM strategies, on company-to-consumer relationships and on business-tobusiness relationships (Redjeki et al, 2021).Sofi et al (2020) studied the use of the Internet as a tool to facilitate CRM in the hotel sector in Kashmir.They categorize CRM into four levels: (1) information provision, (2) database collection, (3) personalization and (4) community relations.They found that the majority of Kashmiri hotels were at 'level 2', the database collection stage.They also examined the relationship between online CRM levels and the hotel's star rating, number of rooms, and locality of the hotel's web domain.Their findings show that online CRM adoption rates are positively related to hotel ratings and number of rooms, but negatively related to local web domains.Kesuma et al (2013) analyzed the level of relationship management implantation in two different destinations.Their study concluded that 'destination product specificity complicates building relationships with tourists and reduces the appropriateness and value of the effort, while promoting the greater value of inter-organizational collaboration'.Similarly, Sigala (2008) studied the adoption and use of electronic customer relationship management (eCRM 2.0) among tourism companies to determine usage and readiness to implement.He identified five styles of co-creation that enable and encourage customers to participate in the tourist value creation process.This is prosumerism (eg creating and sharing travel videos, reviews); team-based co-learning (eg collaborative creation of travel guides); mutual innovation (eg company and customer collaboration in activities such as building a new hotel); creative communities (eg social networking websites and blogs); and shared intellectual property (eg mash-ups: combining resources from different partners for new business development).
According to Sutejo et al ( 2017), the Relationship Marketing literature proposes that an 'eCRM 2.0 strategy should aim to exploit the network and social intelligence/customer knowledge of Web 2.0 applications by integrating and engaging customers and their communities (i.e., as comarketers, co-producers)., co-designer) along the value chain' operations.However, its empirical findings reveal low levels of adoption of all types of eCRM practices by Greek tourism companies, and those implementing them seem to focus more on defensive practices than proactive ones.Changing this situation requires greater investment in IT as well as cultural and managerial changes by these businesses.Although Relationship Marketing in terms of developing loyal customers to a destination or hotel or restaurant is considered a limitation of the tourism sector as tourists seek new experiences, several studies report that many tourists choose to repeat their holiday destinations, indicating a certain level of loyalty.According to this study, five factors determine loyalty behavior: risk reduction, meeting the same people, emotional attachment to a particular place, exploration of a better place and the desire to show that place to others.Loyalty programs appear to enhance such company-customer relationships, as a study of hotel chains around the world has shown.
Given the importance of this strategic management tool, we are likely to witness a continued growth in the number of companies adopting some form of CRM as part of their marketing strategy.In addition, CRM policies and practices tend to spread to smaller and smaller hospitality and tourism companies as they struggle to compete with larger ones.Simplified, easier to use and less expensive CRM products will facilitate this deployment.
Another CRM change that started in other commercial areas but has not yet spread widely in the hospitality and tourism space is called CRM 2.0 or Social CRM.These developments adapt and incorporate the recent growth of the social web in its various forms, to form a new type of CRM.While there are various definitions of Social CRM, all tap into the main idea that it is an extension of the traditional CRM strategy that incorporates the Internet-enabled aspects of social networking to facilitate relationships with customers.
Social CRM seeks collaborative conversations with customers, recognizing that they are responsible, to increase product value for customers, lower costs for the company, drive loyalty and promote word of mouth.Social CRM engages customers to build their trust and request their co-creation of products.Social CRM seems to fit well with strategic management objectives in the hospitality and tourism industry due to the heavy involvement of customers in creating tourism experiences.As more and more destination managers adopt sophisticated management strategies, Social CRM should become a standard component .

Conclusion
A tourism destination that is able to maintain and increase the number of visitors amidst its competitors is a tourist destination that is successful in establishing its marketing strategy and competitive strategy.In determining the marketing strategy for tourism destinations, it is appropriate to pay attention to the situation and conditions of the tourist destinations themselves, both internal conditions or the micro environment, as well as external conditions or the macro environment.Competitive strategy determination needs to be carried out in tourism destination marketing in order to get consumer attention, strengthen its position in the market, and withstand pressure from competitors.Competitive strategies can be carried out effectively if tourism destination managers are able to explain their added value as an advantage over competitors.By having a competitive advantage it will make it easier to increase greater profits and provide opportunities to live longer in competition.