Characteristics of tourism marketing

Hassan Abbas Jabbar
Dr. Diaa Radhi Al-Safi

Jeffris (1971) says that marketing is one for all industries and activities and in any place. On this basis, tourism marketing is no different from other concepts of marketing other products. However, he points out that there are some problems specific to tourism marketing, which are often represented in collecting information on the basis that tourism is a complex mix of services, supervised by many different bodies distributed between the private and public sectors.

The following is an explanation of the most important characteristics and features that the field of tourism marketing enjoys:
1- Tourism is an intangible product
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, tourism falls under the classification of commodity marketing, because tourism products, which are represented by various services, or facilities that provide these services, in addition to providing pleasure, relaxation and recreation, are therefore products that are not manufactured and cannot be seen.
2- Tourism products cannot be owned
This characteristic is related to the previous characteristic, as tourism products are intangible and are a set of services, so they cannot be owned as a product, meaning that the consumer or customer pays to obtain a service and not own it. For example, the tourist pays for staying in a hotel room, not owning it.
3-No link between consumption and production
The process of providing tourism products does not require an actual production process, as a new product is not manufactured, due to the nature of these products that are built on attraction factors. For example, when travel agencies provide their services, they do not actually manufacture them, nor do they own them or store them, as these products only appear when the customer requests them and is present to complete them. From this, we can clarify another characteristic directly related to this characteristic, which is that once the customer obtains one of the tourism products or services, he cannot cancel it, withdraw from it, or consume it in stages. Once the customer starts this service, it will continue until its time ends.