BEST Education Network (BESTEN) - Sustainable Tourism Marketing Module

Marketing is an important component of the implementation of sustainable tourism principles and practices. The aim of the marketing module is to introduce, discuss, and analyse sustainable tourism as applied to tourism and hospitality marketing. “Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others” (Kotler, Bowen, Makens, 2003:13). It is concerned with determining consumer needs and preferences, creating appropriate products, providing useful information about products to consumers and advertising their benefits. The knowledge and attitudes of stakeholders can have a major effect on the achievement of sustainable tourism objectives within individual businesses and within the broader tourism destination.

Students will explore the ways in which tourism and hospitality marketing can play a more responsible part in tourism sustainability. This module takes, as its foundation, the potential positive and negative outcomes of marketing activity, and aims to help the student to create a favourable mix of these outcomes for destination and business marketing. It takes a theoretical approach to the main concepts behind sustainable tourism development and how they can be integrated into the marketing of tourism destinations and tourism enterprises.

The module is designed for use by teachers of marketing and tourism hospitality, either in an academic setting or in industry. It is not designed to be a comprehensive introduction to the subject but rather emphasizes how the principles of sustainable tourism can be incorporated into tourism marketing. The module will be best used as a supplement to existing marketing lectures rather than as a stand-alone course. It is designed to be presented over eight 1-hour sessions with each ‘Key Stage’ taking approximately two sessions.