Published by: SAJMMR: S o u t h A s i a n J o u r n a l o f M a r k e t i n g & M a n a g e m e n t R e s e a r c h A STUDY ON MARKETING OF TOURISM PRODUCTS IN TAMILNADU ABSTRACT K.KANNAN*; P.VIJAYAKUMAR** *Assistant Professor, RVS Institute of Management Studies, Coimbatore, India. **Research Scholar, Karpagam University, Coimbatore, India. Tourism industry is helping the improvement of the socio and economic conditions of the tour and travel operators, hoteliers, guides and other dependents. The tourism sector helps by making an efficient contribution to the state economy. Hence it is mandatory to make a proper policy on tourism by the state and central governments. Therefore, the development of tourism sector, each and every state has its own responsibility for making the proper rules and policy on tourism in order to attract more number of tourists in their respective states. In order to give new look to the Tamilnadu tourism industry, in the year 2010-2011the new tourism policy was approved by the government which helps to provide full potential employment, to increase revenues of the economy. It is understood that the new policy should avoid the drawbacks of early tourism policy and it should create new opportunities, above all it should be friendly and risk free. INTRODUCTION AN OVERVIEW OF INDIAN AND TAMILNADU TOURISM INDIAN TOURISM: The Central government and state government of India helps in increasing the inflow of Foreign and domestic tourists in the recent years. In the year 2010, out of 11 Million international tourist arrivals into South-Asia sub region, India had attracted 6 million Foreign Tourist Arrivals. The growth of tourism in South Asia region was increasing (World Tourism Organisation s International Tourism - 2011 Database). Due to the increasing in attention of the global tourists, it is the responsibility 172
of the state governments to prepare a policy in a way that attracts more tourists and foreign exchange. TAMILNADU TOURISM: Tamilnadu is the hub of tourism. The state is the spot of various tourism products. The domestic and foreign tourists prefer this state for its positive attitude towards foreign tourists and nationals. The tourism policy as tourist friendly will attract more number of tourists to the state. Hence the tourists arrival to the state is continuously increasing. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of Tamilnadu, expects 820.63 lakhs domestic and 6.37 lakhs foreign tourists by 2020. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To analyze the Tamilnadu Tourism Policy. 2. To analyze the various tourism products introduced by the Government of Tamilnadu. 3. To find the strategies adopted by the State government in marketing of tourism products. LITERATURE REVIEW UNCTAD Series (2010) The Tourism Industry: Trends and Opportunities analyzed the concentration of FDI in few activities such as accommodation, restaurants and car rentals. Finally, the study has stressed on the necessary of FDI in infrastructural development in the tourism industry. UNESCAP (2011) on promotion of investment in tourism infrastructure has focused on the position of infrastructure tourism in India such as hotels, restaurants, all forms of transport and communication infrastructure development and has suggested measures for creating a favourable atmosphere for such investment. THE HINDU (2010) on Indian industry has traced the initiations of Government of India in marketing of tourism products to the domestic as well as foreign tourists. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The present study is focused on the strategies adopted by the state government in marketing of tourism products by its new policy on tourism 2009-2014. PERIOD OF THE STUDY: To know the marketing skills and strategies adopted in the policy, the study was done in the year of implementation of new tourism policy in the financial year 2009-10. DATA COLLECTION: The study is purely based on Secondary Data. The main sources of data are the publications of Ministry of Tourism Government of India, Government of Tamilnadu. The data is also collected from UNCTAD, UN ESCAP, UNWTO and various studies/research works already published in journals, books, magazines and newspapers have used to support the work. 173
ANALYSIS OF TAMILNADU TOURISM POLICY 2009-14 Tamilnadu Tourism Policy has the following views Types of Tourism Zones Green Police Home Stay Policy Theme Park Health Tourism Rural Tourism Adventure Tourism Eco-Tourism Highway Tourism Cruise Tourism ANALYSIS OF TAMILNADU TOURISM POLICY 2009-14 FROM MARKETING POINT OF VIEW The new policy helps to attract a large share of tourism to the Southern region, it is planned to set up South India Tourism Council based on Co-operation. The new tourism policy of Tamilnadu helps to increase both Foreign and domestic tourists and to increase full potential employment, revenue generation and growth prospects of tourism TABLE 1: FOREIGN TOURIST ARRIVALS IN INDIA, (2000 TO 2011) YEAR FTA S (IN MILLIONS) 2000 2.18 2001 2.26 2002 2.16 2003 2.52 2004 3.20 2005 3.85 174
2006 4.23 2007 5.10 2008 5.30 2009 5.78 2010 6.01 2011 6.56 (Source: Tourism Annual Report 2010-2011, p.80 India tourism) Tamilnadu Tourism Policy 2009-14, for the financial year 2009-10. The new tourism policy of the state aims to highlight various objectives like: To focus on customer brand strategy and positioning source marketing. To make tourist by segmented customer approach. To create a new culture for Tamilnadu tourism industry with active involvement of all the stakeholders. To increase the full employment and revenue generation. TABLE 2: FORIGN EXCHANGE EARNINGS FROM TOURISM IN INDIA, (2000 TO 2011) YEAR FEE (IN MILLION US $) 2000 3500 2001 3110 2002 3000 2003 4500 2004 6200 2005 7560 2006 8630 2007 10400 175
2008 11525 2009 11775 2010 12020 2011 12530 (Source: Tourism Annual Report 2010-2011, p.80 India tourism) TABLE 3: GOVERNMENT OF TAMILNADU PROJECTION ON TOURISM OF THE STATE PROJECTIONS 2011 2020 Arrival of Foreign Tourists 6.56 6.37 ( in Lakhs) Employment Generation by Tourism (in Lakhs) Arrival of Domestic Tourism (in Lakhs) 5.80 9.82 450.32 820.63 Revenue due to Tourism(in Lakhs) 56140 125412 (Source: Govt. of India, Department of Tourism final report on 20 years plan for Tourism in Tamilnadu) MAJOR FINDINGS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN TAMILNADU Lack of infrastructural facilities Working in a single window system An improper mix of all four P S of marketing POLICY IMPLICATIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN TAMILNADU Green Police Concessions for Registration & Hotel Industry Eco-Friendly Vehicle at Heritage Places 176
SUGGESTIONS The problem faced by the tourism sector is the off- season problem. It should be rectify by providing uniform applicability of luxury tax on accommodation during off-season. Promotion mix is very important in marketing the product or a services, hence proper promotional mix are needed to market the rural tourism. Both state and central government of India has to take the remedial actions to improve the infrastructural facilities in order to increase the rate of foreign tourists to our country. In the present scenario it is very important to strengthening of the single window system of clearing the projects to give the expected results. REFERENCES 1. UNCTAD Series (2010) The Tourism Industry: Trends and Opportunities. 2. UNESCAP (2011) on promotion of investment in tourism infrastructure. 3. THE HINDU SURVEY ON INDIAN INDUSTRY 2010. 4. WWW.Tamilnadutourism.gov.in 5. WWW.incredibleindia.org 6. WWW.ministryoftourism.gov.in 177