Marketing of Barcelona's Tourism Industry

Destination Marketing

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the Barcelona’s current marketing provision and market position. Secondary research has been conducted on the marketing provisions, marketing campaign and their delivery methods of their promotions. Research has shown that Social media, destination websites and Television have been the medium of choices. The report shows the number of consumers attracted and how effective social media is in this current generation. However, the report also notes the issues facing Barcelona concerning the over excessive tourist numbers that are impacting the destination negatively. The recommendations discussed include; introducing premium pricing, negative advertising to reduce mass tourism, promoting niche tourism and increase daily expenditure per tourist

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Barcelona is the capital of the autonomous community of Catalonia, with a population of 1.6 million inhabitants and approximately 32 million visitors just last year (LaGrave, 2017). It is the 5^th most visited city in Europe after London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, and ranks within the top ten most visited cities of the world Hosteltur Special WTM 2011). The purpose of this report is to critically evaluate Barcelona’s marketing provision and market position; linking to generic and destination-specific marketing theories. Firstly, the report will define the role of a DMO and the concept of destination marketing. The report will then explain the market provisions in Barcelona including analyzing the marketing campaign currently in use, as well as the target market and motivations. The report will address the issues currently facing Barcelona, which include the increasing tourist numbers caused by the all-inclusive package holidays or mass tourism. Finally, recommendations in the different strategies that suit the destinations current environment.

Destination management Organizations (DMOs)  

Buhalis defined destination as an ‘amalgam of tourism products offering an integrated experience to consumers’ (2000). Destinations play a key role in any modelling of the tourist system, a place consumers travel to temporarily, from tourist generating regions to the destination region, creating a tourism flow (Pike and Page, 2014) as illustrated in Leiper’s (1979) model (Appendix 1). DMO’s are ‘organisations responsible for the marketing of an identifiable destination at any level’ (Pike, 2004). Most DMOs have no direct control of the tourism products they promote or the results achieved, however they do have influence over tourism marketing.

Destination marketing

The first definition of tourism destination marketing is “the management process through which the National Tourist Organisations and/or tourist enterprises identify their target market and communicate with them to determine and influence their needs and motivations; in order to formulate and adapt their tourist products accordingly in view of achieving optimal tourist satisfaction” (Wahab, Crampon and Rothfield, 1976, cited in Pike & Page, 2014: 204). In this current increasingly globalized and competitive market, destination marketing is recognized as a pillar of growth and sustainability of tourist destinations (UNWTO, 2011). Destination marketing is related to activities associated with distribution of products to potential target markets by focusing on responding to consumer demands and competitive positioning (UNWTO, 2004).

Destination – Barcelona

Barcelona is among the world’s main urban tourist destinations (TurismeBcn, 2015), an unexpected success which continues to break records in spite of the economic crises (TurismeBcn, 2015). In 1992 Barcelona hosted the Olympic Games which resulted in a steady growth in tourist numbers and the development of the citizen based city model. The 90’s Games enabled resources to be raised to turn the model into reality, while providing the city with the best global publicity campaigns (TurismeBcn, 2015). In October 2008, Barcelona City Council drew up a Municipal Action Programme (MAP) for the period of 2008-2011 with the mission to strengthen the cities appeal as a tourist destination and its position worldwide; highlighting the features that set the destination apart and boosting tourism quality (TurismeBcn, 2015).

Marketing Provisions

The current marketing provisions for Barcelona include various methods of tourism destination advertising, online personal selling, public relationships, direct marketing, sponsoring events and/or sales promotional activities. Tourism destination advertising is considered one of the most visible and significant marketing practices used to attract tourists to a destination (Choe, Stienmetz and Fesenmaier, 2017). Barcelona has been using promotional campaigns for advertising via Television adverts, social media and YouTube to reach a wider audience.

Marketing Mix

Authors Kotler and Keller defined marketing an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders” (Kotler & Keller, 2009). McCarthy elaborated on the most well-known marketing implementation tool in 1960, the marketing mix consisting of the four P’s (Appendix 2). The marketing mix tool is implemented in marketing of the majority of various sized business. Due to the progressive broadening of the marketing concept, marketing has been applied to geographical entities arising the concept of destination marketing (Balaencourt and Zafra, 2012). In destination marketing ‘the product’ is a service which consists of five specific characteristics intangibility, perishability, variability, inseparability and lack of ownership (Cowell, 1984 Appendix 3). According to Pike (2004) DMO’s have no control over pricing and place, however they institute measures to monitor perceptions of value held by the target market.

Promotional mix

Marketing campaign

Turespaña launched the current new digital media campaign “Spain Addict” in 2010; merely part of the larger campaign “I Need Spain” (Hosteltur Special WTM 2011). I Need Spain was launched within the framework of Turespaña’s global marketing strategy campaign, whose main objective is to reposition the Spain tourism brand and make it a unique, aspirational, experiential, global and premium leading destination.

The campaign reinforces the Spain tourism brand in international markets by encouraging visitors who have visited the country to advertise their experiences of their vacations themselves, user’s contributions. The campaign was launched in the press and on television and according to Hosteltur Special WTM (2011) viewed by 470 million people. “Spain’s World Cup victory 2010 was very positive for tourism,” the executive director of the Madrid-based United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) (Eturbonews.com, 2017). The win reinforced the positive image of Spain and the campaign. 

Social media

Barcelona’s social media presence has enhanced since the campaign launched. The launch was conducted in two stages with the aim of Consolidating traditional markets and attracting others (Hosteltur Special WTM 2011). They concentrated on emerging marketing such as Russia, China and Japan, where the motivation index for travelling to Spain is around 99%, 98% and 90% (Hosteltur Special WTM 2011). That is why the video ad is represented in Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Asian languages (Hosteltur Special WTM 2011). The social media promotion also became a Word Of Mouth (WOM) advertising which was reached millions of people and cost nothing for the DMO by making the tourists who visit Spain WOM or PC-to-PC promoters. In this media lead society, this media campaign surpassed mature markets such as the UK, France, Germany and Italy resulting in boosted levels of motivation for visiting Barcelona. (Hosteltur Special WTM 2011)The campaign is linked to the Turespaña’s website, spain.info, a site with over eight million annual visitors and other social media sites. The use of Social media was the mote effective way to promote barcelona because the internet and social reaches a wider range of consumers. Consumers actively social media to talk about good and bad travel experiences. For most airlines Twitter has become a crucial communication channel. The TV ads also used for the campaign where effective because it is the easiest way to reach a large number of customers, but is the most expensive medium. Finally, the destination websites used as part of the promotional mix are relatively cheap and interactive. However, the issues with websites is that they are difficult to draw or attract customers.

Target Market

Identifying target markets is the first step in developing profitable customer relationships (Pike, 2004). One of Barcelona’s prominent traits is the diversification of markets. The destination is characterized for attracting different visitor segments in relation to country of origin and reasons for travelling. According to Ajuntament de Barcelona (2014) the prominent markets related to tourism typology are cultural, professional, medical, incentive, educational, LGBT, sport, business, luxury, gastronomy, cruise ship tourism etc. However, Barcelona’s cheap all-inclusive package holidays promote mass tourism and attract the type of tourist mentioned in Cohen’s (1972) and Plog (1974) Tourist typology (Appendix 4) The authors linked their concepts to Butlers (1980) evolution of a destination lifecycle (Appendix 5). Butler assumes that as a tourist area evolves, the range of tourist types present will change according to changes to the tourism area (Ho and McKercher, 2015). Plog and Butlers models provide identifiers of tourist alignment changes in destinations suggesting that various stages in its life cycle appealing to different types of tourists (Ho and McKercher, 2015).

Motivations

According to Ritchie (1996) tourism motivations theories are theoretical rather that pragmatic. One theory linked to Barcelona and related to tourism motivation is Maslow’s (1943) theory of motivations. Mill and Morrison (1992) suggested recognizing travel as need and want satisfiers was the key to understanding tourism motivations (Pike, 2004 Barcelona’s tourist demand is encompassed of diverse geographic and motivational markets, a fact that contributes to the vibrancy of an industry that must continuously adapt and reinvent itself in order to satisfy visitors (Horwath HTL, 2015). In terms is demand, Barcelona is Multi-motivational due to diversity of segments and a combination of interests and motivations. The behavior of tourism demand in Barcelona is generally de-seasonalised even if during the peak seasons when tourist activity grows by a significant amount. This can be explained by the diversity of motivations and origins of the tourists who visit Barcelona for cultural, pleasure, business, professional, medical and educational reasons, among many others. According to research conducted by Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona’s tourism activity: development and management) in 2013, 50.6% of tourists travelled to Barcelona for holiday, 30.8% stated their main motivation was business, and 10.1% came for trade fairs and congresses. This shows that professional motives are especially important with the growing role of the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) segment in the tourism industry of Barcelona.

Issues

The key issues facing Barcelona as a result of their marketing provisions is was ‘too successful’. Their marketing campaign was accepted through the world aimed at different markets. This ensured success, however the main problem now is that there are too many visitors in Barcelona. According to the director general of the Barcelona Hotel Association, “Of the 32 million people who visited Barcelona last year, only eight million stayed in hotels” (LaGrave, 2017) The sudden growth in the industry also attributed by the weak Euro, attracting more tourisits. However, the increase in tourist has a negative social impact on the city and many local feel that the social impacts outweigh the financial benefits of tourism. (McClain, 2015).

Strategic marketing planning is a proactive attempt to shape a positive future by establishing a meaningful and accurate position in the minds of the target market (Pike, 2004). When developing a strategic marketing plan, the first step is the situation analysis, which consists of several methods of analysis, one of which is a SWOT analysis or matrix (Appendix ..). Then there is the environmental scanning which analysis the key issues, trends and drivers that affect tourism using STEEPL analysis tool. Then there is the destination’s goals and objectives, general statements of intent that relate to the destinations mission and brand (Johnson & Scholes, 2002). The objects have to be SMART quantifiable targets of the goals (Tribe, 1997). Then there is the strategy formulation, followed by the marketing positioning and defining the marketing mix. Finally, there will be the implementation and monitoring phase. The most common method of monitoring visitor metrics is visitor monitor programs.

Tourist Statistics

Turisme de Barcelona, Barcelona City Council and Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Council) have been publishing statistical date on tourist activity in Barcelona since 1989. The most recent publications states that in 2015, the total number of tourists in Barcelona is 8,988,038, a 6.4% increase since 2014 (Designer, 2017). According to tourism review, tourist numbers in Barcelona have increased by 12% in a city of 1.6 million inhabitants (Moor, 2016).

• Promote the importance of local traditions and cultures as a product differentiator to what makes Barcelona unique such as the Catalan language, its status as regional capital, unique architectural heritage and Catalan cuisine (Turismebcn, 2015).
• To promote a tourism model which will strengthen the balance between local residents and tourists, while preserving the identity values of the city (Turismebcn, 2015).
• We will promote tourism that includes civic-minded attitudes as a value for coexistence (Turismebcn, 2015).

The recommended strategy for Barcelona is a de-marketing strategy, Beeton (2001) argued that to achieve greater management efficiency and sustainability, de-marketing strategies have to be incorporated into the marketing mix. Venice is a good example of a destination that implemented de-marketing strategies by introducing premium pricing and negative advertising to reduce mass tourism(Pike,2004). The sudden growth in the industry is attributed by the weak Euro, attracting more tourisits. However, the increase in tourist has a negative social impact on the city and many local feel that the social impacts outweigh the financial benefits of tourism. (McClain, 2015). Barcelona’s policy makers are considering implementing a new tourist tax to charge visitors who spend less than 24 hours and those in town on a cruise (LaGrave, 2017). This tourist tax is a de-marketing strategy that is recommended and will restrict tourist numbers. Another de-marketing strategy currently in place is a moratorium on licenses for rentals like Airbnbs and restrictions on building new hotels rooms building new hotels in the efforts of restrict tourist numbers (LaGrave, 2017). Benfield and Beeton (in Beeton,2001) mentioned the strategies below being adopted (Pike, 2004):

• Increasing Prices
• Increasing advertising that warns of capacity limitations
• Reducing promotion expenditure
• Reducing sales reps’ selling time
• Curtailing advertising spend
• Eliminating trade discounts
• Adding to the time and expense of the purchaser

Suggested marketing Positioning and Marketing Mix

Product Analysis

Destinations are made up of both tangible and intangible assets (Qu 2011 in Schaar, 2013). The tangible assets include geographical features and the intangible assets include culture, customs, and history. Barcelona is an urban territory in Catalan that offer experiences all year round with a strong modern, cosmopolitan component.

Price

According to a report on Mintel all-inclusive package holiday growth has surpassed far independently booked holidays over the past holidays. This encourages mass tourism and that is the last thing Barcelona need going forwards. It is recommended to increase prices of package holidays or reduce the package holidays and introduced more high end products to target high spending target groups and brands and international markets. Another strategy is to promote niche tourism and increase daily expenditure per tourist

Promotional Mix (Appendix 6)

The recommended promotional mix for Barcelona include advertising, personal selling, direct marketing and public relations. The most effective and recommend is however is websites and social media. Websites are relatively cheap and do not draw an excessive amount to customers. Which works well into the demarking strategy. Social media is cheaper, almost free and can reach a wider range of customers. It allows personal selling, direct marketing, adverting and public relations online via Social Networking Sites, Picture Sites, Video Sites, Forums/Message Boards and Blogs/Microblogs for free. It allows interpersonal communication to broadcasting, and if the chosen destination message is funny, controversial or information that people want to share then there is a chance it will go viral and spreads on the web through sharing.

In conclusion, Barcelona current marketing provisions for include various methods of destination marketing mix including advertising, online personal selling, public relationships, direct marketing, sponsoring events and/or sales promotional activities. Barcelona has been using promotional campaigns for advertising via Television adverts, social media and YouTube to reach a wider audience. As a result, their tourist numbers have increased to the point of excessive. The marketing strategy recommended for Barcelona is a de-marketing strategy which should be incorporated into the marketing mix to achieve greater tourist management efficiency and sustainability.

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