Experts say, "Marketing is an art and a science". And tourism is about the provision of good services. Designing the services in accordance with the expectations of tourists is the success of the tourism marketing strategies, which results in connecting people, places and culture.
Thanks to the innovation of new communication technologies, visiting around the world one destination after other is simpler than ever before. Without taking advantage of the new technological tools, it is impossible to attract the world towards our cultural and natural resources. Online social networks, social media, and Blog writers are effective tools for the marketing of cultural tourism in Pakistan.
A travel website is an online travel market, which helps to built relationship between vacationers and travel marketers. Designing travel promoting websites, consisting of pictures and graphics of different places and locations, descriptions of historical and significant events, and travel forum, attracts both local and foreign visitors. Tourism department should hire the services of professional travel writers. Sharing their travelling experiences and knowledge of domestic cultural aspects via Blogs can influence visitors in making decisions to visit the country.
Sharing photos, having discussions and passing of related information with other members on social networks are effective marketing tools for promoting tourism in Pakistan. Publishing videos of tourist's attracted destinations are added benefits of these social network sites. Advertising on Facebook, Tweeter, and YouTube is essential to connect people around the world with Pakistan's culture and traditions. Facebook also invite people to make groups. Giving incentives to educated people especially youth to discuss Pakistani culture, cuisine and history on Facebook can be a source of motivation for travel lovers to make our country their next destination.
Tourism department of every province should hire the services of online travel companies for marketing tourism in its region. The responsibility of the company will be to pass on latest development news and information about the facilities and comforts available for tourists there. It will guide tourists which places are worth seeing.
There should be facilities of the online reservation system. Booking of flights and trips should be the matter of one click to grab the confidence of the tourists. It not only saves their time, but also creates good impression of tourist department.
Pakistan has locations, monuments, tombs, and buildings of historic value which are still waiting to be explored by the world, the effective marketing strategies can make them destination sites. According to a study conducting by European commission, 60% European tourists are interested in cultural inventions in the process of their journeys. Tourism department should organise international societies with the collaboration of Pakistanis living abroad, to promote cultural resources such as museum, art galleries, festivals, architectural buildings, and lifestyle of inhabitants of different regions of the country.
Few months back, Sindh Folk Festival has been organised by Sindh Culture Ministry and Lok Virsa in Islamabad. At the festival the lovely sounds of musical instruments of Sindh amazed the guests. The mystical performances of local vocalists and musicians stole the show. Increasing number of such shows in other parts of the country surely motivate people to expose the great traditions and cultures of our region.
Craft fairs, local cuisines, museums, folk dances, local gatherings and story tellers are cultural resources which can keep the traveler's interested in the location for long. Organisers and our embassies in foreign countries should arrange musical and crafts shows and food festivals as well as caravans in big cities to attract future travellers to visit Pakistan. Cultural activities and festivals are attempts to recall the past to keep it alive. Inviting celebrities to attend these functions will help to divert media and public attention towards these cultural activities.
The participants of the festivals should be the vocalists, craftsmen, and expert chefs from the interior of every province. Pottery, embroidery, and metal crafts are effective tourism products and surely give incentives to foreigners to visit the remarkable home country of these crafts. Pakistani fashion designers too have remarkable skills to combine traditional Pakistani embroidery and needle works with new trendy dresses to attract foreign visitors. But sufficient budget and sponsorship is needed for attracting tourists.
It is essential to use the power of international media for putting our destinations on the global map of tourism. Nowadays channels like "National Geographic Society" and "Discovery" present documentaries and travel guides to generate the interest of potential travellers. Telecasting documentaries of natural and cultural resources to these channels surely get noticed by the viewers. Printing stamps having pictures of cultural backgrounds and natural resources of every province will prove as the mobile travelling ambassadors.
Advertisements in local and international travel magazines and newspapers are excellent means of promoting tourism in Pakistan. The advertisements should make it clear that tourism authorities will provide the tourist guiding services. These guides will have complete cultural and heritage knowledge of the visiting areas. They will also help foreigners who know nothing about local language to contact with local people.
Before visiting new destination, a tourist is willing to know about the new information of the culture and historic events of that area. Fortunately, all historic sites are connected with the emotional and tribal events and folk stories. The legendry love stories of Sassi Punho, Umer Marvi, and Moomal Rano, Heer Ranjha and other tribal events can be interpreted and presented on international media as effective marketing tools. Dramatizing these events on TV channels and stage surely evoke people's interest to view the places of these events.
Brochures, maps, guides and souvenirs are all promotional materials. They should be informative, accurate, attractive and presentable. They should reflect cultural and heritage aspects of the region. A brochure is a first impression on tourist and helps him to choose the right destination according to his budget. It should have all the details of accommodation, rental cars, and information about catering facilities. There should be tourist information centers in Pakistani embassies to provide up-to-date information about discounts on holiday packages and other available facilities.
Tourism is all about travel and without good travelling resources it is impossible to achieve the target. An efficient reliable and cost effective transport infrastructure service is an integral factor in the development of tourism. Many countries have a crystal clear transport policies and highly developed infrastructure of aviation to promote their tourism industries.
Without a comprehensive transport management system no marketing strategy gets successful. Many of country's historic destinations are unknown to tourist due to lack of good transport facilities such as Kot Deji (3000Bc old fortified town), Ranikot (world's largest fort), Makli graveyard (world's oldest and well planned cemetery) and remains of Buddhist stupa etc. For travelling to distant areas it is important to provide facilities of fuel stations, motels and rest facilities for travellers. Friendly atmosphere, hospitality, comfort of passengers can make the travelling experience pleasant and motivate them to decide to visit that destination again.
Uniform arrival and departure schedule, strict vigilance to follow these schedules and effective traffic control to avoid traffic jams and discomfort of passengers are part of effective transport management system.
Decorated travelling buses surely are mobile marketing tools for the promotion of tourism. Well ornamented automobiles exercise good impacts on travellers. In many parts of the world decorated buses have increased the number of day trips and proven as a successful marketing tool. These buses should be decorated with paintings and poetry depicting cultural heritage of the region.
Beaches of Sindh are combination of sea and sun. Indus valley has rich landscapes, clear lakes, and outstanding natural beauty. The coastal areas of Sindh are spread over 200 miles with sandy, muddy and rocky seashores such as Hawks Bay, Sandspit, Paradise Point etc. Mancher Lake is the largest fresh water lake in Asia. It is considered as the best place for duck hunting during winter.
Sailing on Mancher Lake, and River Sindh could be an unforgettable pleasant travelling experience. A tour operator should have lucrative holiday packages to offer tourists. These packages consist of attractive travel charges, relaxing accommodation and good catering services.
Foods play an important role in marketing strategy of tourism. It is a fact that about 70% of tourists have crave for tasting traditional dishes and local specialties. For example: Shikarpur is famous for its pickles, Hyderabad for Rabri, Mirpurkhas for Sindhi beverages, Larkana for sweets, Lahore is famous for Lassi, Seri paya, nan, Peshawar for Chapple Kababs, and the list is long. Improving the quality of foods and its packaging is an effective way of utilising culinary experience of tourists. Local government should give incentives to food producers to make quality food products. It should be remembered that every tourist is a source of marketing of food product which in turn attract futures travellers.
Nature blesses the country with seasonal fruits such as mangoes and dates of high quality. Every year mangoes and dates shows are arranged by the local authorities. Buyers came from foreign countries to participate in these shows. The number of visitors can be increased by proper advertisements in local and international media.
Our tourism department should understand that encouraging contractors to build high quality food restaurants in visiting areas is beneficial in attracting tourists. Often, contractors are unwilling to start food business in distant areas. By giving them applicable incentives, historic places can be hot destinations for tourist attraction.
The significance of sports activities in the marketing of tourism has generated global interest in sports tourism, for example, scuba diving in Kenya, tracking in Nepal and cycle race in France attract tourists from all around the world. Sports tourism is a new phenomenon and many countries are offering graduates and post graduates courses on the subject of sport tourism. The latest examples are Common Wealth games in India, and football cup competition in South Africa etc. Sindh has a long deserted area which is ideal for car racing events. Arranging Polo tournaments, Malakhra competitions also attract visitors to come and enjoy the sport activities.
The security measures of fragile areas of the country should also be the matter of concern. Internal conflicts and riots cause devastating impact on tourism industry.
"Tourists are scared away from destinations caught in the glare of round-the-clock disaster coverage, causing communities dependent on tourism to lose their source of livelihood," Mr Frangialli, general Secretary of UNWTO said.
Proper security arrangements are needed there should be high alert security staff to deal with the crisis. Efforts and enthusiasm of the Tourism Ministry as well as private sector can make tourism in Pakistan popular among domestic and foreign vacationers.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.