The Reality of Tourism Marketing and its Impact on the Iraqi Economy, the City of Karbala as a Model
By: Mohammed Falah Abd Ali
Supervised by: Lect. Dr. Dhiaa Radhi Al-Safi
The economic growth of any country whose economy depends primarily on tourism as an important element in attracting foreign currency depends to a large extent on this country’s choice of appropriate marketing mix elements and the marketing strategies associated with these elements, considering that these elements are important tools used by countries to influence their competitive position and what is associated with this competitive position of the ability to attract numbers of tourists from all over the world and their satisfaction to increase the volume of foreign currency to achieve the goal of economic growth.
Tourism marketing in general aims to build a positive mental image of the country as a tourist destination among the different countries of the world, in light of the existence of global competition from different countries that have a competitive advantage in the field of tourism attraction, which is characterized by a suitable climate, attractive natural geographical areas, competitive prices and high-quality services.
The trend towards improving the quality of tourism services is a major concern for many countries with the aim of economic growth, as it can only be achieved by establishing the foundations and rules of the tourism industry infrastructure, based on the elements of the marketing mix that helps the country, especially its tourism organizations, to achieve a higher level of tourist consumer satisfaction, as they work hard to attract larger numbers of tourists, with the aim of achieving the highest economic growth rate.
The tourism sector is one of the service sectors in relation to the service sector of any country’s economy, due to the increasing role of the service sector in most countries’ economies, which has led to the world’s transformation from the industrial sector to the service sector as one of the largest economic sectors generating income, job opportunities and attracting foreign currency.
Tourism is also one of the main pillars of the global economy due to its significant contribution to driving the wheel of development at the micro and macro levels of the country. This is due to the prevalence of positive concepts of globalization based on the freedom of movement of human resources, capital, information and technology without any restrictions that limit this freedom. Accordingly, the freedom of movement of human resources has made tourism the sector that benefits most from this, bypassing the restrictions and routine procedures imposed by many countries on travel. Note that I addressed the research methodology in the first section, and in the second section I indicated the theoretical framework of the research, and in the third section I mentioned the applied aspect, and in the fourth section I mentioned the conclusions and recommendations.
