A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON MARKETING OF FOREIGN TOURISM DESTINATIONS OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES

As the competition in tourism industry becomes severer by day,more and more tourism stakeholders,wholesalers,travel agencies,governmental organizations and scholars start to stress ascending importance on how to apply appropriate marketing approaches in the information era to obtain maximum tourism output.In order to summarize western researches on tourism destination marketing,after reading heaps of academic research papers from Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management,the authors sort the previous researches into four main branches.They are tourism market research,tourism destination marketing body and approaches,tourism destination image and the information techniques and channels of tourism destination marketing respectively.Tourism market research forms the first part which is clarified from four aspects,namely,tourist motivation,tourist decision making,tourists' information searching behavior and methods of tourism market segmentation.Market segmentation methods are developing in the same time with ANNs as a leading analysis tool,which provides an effective tool for market positioning.Every political and geographical unit has its own historical background,traditions,lifestyles and means to reach goals.And every tourist destination has its unique community values and characteristics which require a custom-made marketing approach.Inner scattering and needs support from a variety of relevant industries are features of tourism industry.Therefore,destination marketing needs painstaking efforts from multilateral coordination and cooperation on a high level.In the second part tourism destination marketing body and approaches,destination marketing alliances are emphasized which embrace marketing alliance within single tourism destination and the alliance among several adjacent tourism destination countries.Studies show that destination marketing alliances are on the trend and are strongly recommended by regional tourism associations.The research on destination image forms the third part which analyzes basic theories of destination image,factors in the formation of a tourism destination image and the relationship between destination images and tourists' behavior.Documents on destination image and its correlationship with tourists' behavior are found in large quantity which show a mature research focus.The fourth part concentrates on techniques and channels of tourism destination marketing,and embraces the latest technologies,theories and practices.It serves as an enlightening and practical source for the Chinese counterparts.Finally,suggestions for future researches are given in the fifth part as a summary of the whole article and an outlook for a better future.