Report on Aspects of Destination Marketing

DESTINATION
MARKETING
(NICARAGUAN)
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Discussion about target market....................................................................................................3
A discussion about the selected marketing strategy ...................................................................4
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11
2

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a kind of communication between organization and its customers with the
aim of selling products and services to them. The travel and tourism sector is highest growing
segment at present which also contribute maximum to the GDP of country (Nguyen, 2014). With
the help of destination marketing, tourism can be increased towards a particular location.
Destination marketing is important concept that help particular government, organization etc. in
promoting a town, nation, city or region etc and thus develop brand image of specific destination.
This facilitate the development and promotion of a tourist destination, considering on sales,
tourism merchandising and other related offerings. In this report, various aspects of destination
marketing will be studied with regards to Nicaragua. It is the largest nation in the Central
American Isthmus (Heeley, 2016). It is also a leading travel destination, where one can explore
volcano landscape and enjoy sports events like volcano boarding. Nicaragua have a live volcano,
Cerro Negro. The tourism in Nicaragua is enhancing at 12-10% every year. In this report,
marketing strategy for Nicaragua will be designed with the help of SMART objectives.
Thereafter, tactical marketing campaign will be designed with special reference to promotional
mix tactics (Mwaura, Acquaye and Jargal, 2013).
TASK 1
Discussion about target market
Nicaraguan is a nation in Central America having population of more than 6,071,045. The
major languages spoken in Nicaraguan are Spanish, British and English. The country is also
regarded as peaceful one having low crime rate and threat of terrorism etc. The major issues
faced by Nicaragua is that it is among poorest nation in Central America (Heeley, 2015). The
major reason of this are, high poverty , unemployment etc. The economy of country is mostly
dependent upon travel and tourism. There are large number of tourism destination in Nicaragua
out of which major are, Cerro Negro; live volcano, colonial towns, wildlife sanctuaries and
reserve parks, beaches, coffee parks, nightlife etc. The country is best known for providing
budget travel packages (Dioko, 2016). The country has core competence in terms of volcano
boarding as it is only volcano whose surface and weather conditions are constant which is
favorable for volcano boarding. It means hiking at volcano and than sailing down all the way
with the help of board after wearing all the safety devices (Nguyen 2014). The Republic of
3

Nicaragua supports tourism in the country. The major benefit of tourism will be that it will
enhance employment opportunities for local people by generating income and thereby improving
their standard of living. The tourism in Nicaragua infused 377 million dollars into the nations
economy (Soteriades, 2012).
Tourism of nation further supports economic development by generating foreign
exchange revenues which further help in balancing the payments. In addition to this, poverty is
reduced and more job possibilities for individuals is increased with the help of tourism. Other
than this, major income of tourism are from export of coffee, meat etc. More than 1.3 million
travelers visited Nicaraguan in year 2013 out of which major visitors were from, Central
America, 65.3%, North America, 24.4% (Destinations in Nicaragua, 2006). The major reason is
that U.S citizens are not required to hold Visa to visit Nicaraguan. Then major tourist
destinations of Nicaragua are namely, Bluefields, Granada (colonial town), Leon (volcanos),
Montelimar beach, San Juan del Sur (for beach, surfing, fishing), Esteli (natural reserves), Indio
Maiz biological reserve showcasing rich biodiversity, Ometepe for adventures sports like,
mountain biking, kayaking, and hiking on volcanaoes etc. According to Los Angeles Times,
Nicaragua can be better refereed as tropical paradise (Eco Tourism in Nicaragua, 2016). There is
large demand of ecological tourism in Nicaraguan as it is economically and socially rich nation,
with emphasis on local culture, biodiversity and adventure sports. The country also holds. The
nation also have a serene lake which have more than 700 species of birds (Woodside, Mir and
Duque, 2011). Therefore, there are wide opportunities for Nicaragua to boost tourism of nation
by targeting visitors from Central America. Specifically, travelers from North USA can be
targeted as distance is less and budget of travel is cheap. For this aspect, country can adopt
various marketing tactics and strategy. This will help in increasing the footfall of visitors in the
Nicaragua. Therefore, country can target customer group between 25-48 (Sevin, 2013). Hence,
Nicaragua is leading destination for adventure tourist, backpackers and interested individuals in
culture, Eco-tourism etc.
A discussion about the selected marketing strategy
Destination marketing is important approach that help in selling the tourism products and
services offered in Nicaragua by managing various functions. It further uses wide range of
promotional tools that are integrated by tourism entities and employed to communicate with its
4