TOU302A - San Diego: Destination Management and Marketing Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of San Diego as a tourist destination, outlining a marketing strategy to enhance its appeal and attract more visitors. It begins with a destination analysis, examining the socio-cultural, economic, physical, and political environments that influence tourism in San Diego. A SWOT analysis identifies the city's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to tourism. The report details key components of San Diego's attractions, including its beaches, parks, and cultural sites, justifying their importance in attracting tourists. Existing promotion materials are reviewed, followed by a competitive analysis comparing San Diego to other major tourist destinations like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. The report defines the target market as students and leisure travelers from countries like Canada, India, Mexico, China, and South Korea, with specific demographic, behavioral, and psychographic characteristics. Market objectives are outlined with SMART goals, focusing on enhancing San Diego's international image and increasing tourist arrivals. The report also touches upon branding, promotional campaigns, cooperative elements, budget allocation, and evaluation methods for the marketing strategy. This document, contributed by a student, is available on Desklib, offering valuable insights and resources for students.

Running Head: DESTINATION MANAGEMENT 1
Destination Management: San Diego

DESTINATION MANAGEMENT 2
Executive Summary
Destination Management is the process of analyzing and managing a specific destination to
improve local resources, infrastructure, attraction, transportation, logistics, events etc. This is the
most effective way to increase the tourist arrival to that country or city. The major goals of this
planning is to bring all the stakeholders together and give them with tools to work mutually to
transform the services, activities and attractions into an attractive and compelling travel
experience. Under this, the government has to focus on a specific region. The primary objective
of this report is to include the destination management about a top destination in United States
i.e. San Diego. San Diego is the city that is located on the coast of Pacific Ocean in Southern
California, around 120 miles south of Los Angeles and nearby the border with Mexico. The
report includes the destination analysis about the city along with its SWOT analysis. It discusses
various factors which affect the tourism system in the city. The city has implemented various
promotion materials to advertise the destination among visitors and students. At the end, it
includes the budget and evaluation of the marketing and promotional campaign of San Diego. It
can assist to promote the destination and attract more visitors.

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Table of Contents
Introduction to Destination.........................................................................................................................2
Destination Analysis.....................................................................................................................................3
Prevailing the Environments....................................................................................................................3
Socio-cultural.......................................................................................................................................3
Economic.............................................................................................................................................3
Physical................................................................................................................................................3
Political................................................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................................................................3
Strengths..............................................................................................................................................3
Weaknesses.........................................................................................................................................3
Opportunities.......................................................................................................................................4
Threats.................................................................................................................................................4
Key Components......................................................................................................................................4
Justification.............................................................................................................................................6
Existing Promotion Materials...................................................................................................................6
Competitive Analysis................................................................................................................................6
Market Information: Target Market............................................................................................................6
Justification..............................................................................................................................................7
Target Market..........................................................................................................................................7
Market Objectives.......................................................................................................................................7
SMART Objectives:...................................................................................................................................7
Branding......................................................................................................................................................8
Promotional Campaign................................................................................................................................8
Cooperative Elements..................................................................................................................................9
Budget.........................................................................................................................................................9
Evaluation..................................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction to Destination
San Diego is a city on the Pacific coast of
California which is most popular for its
parks, beaches and warm climate. It is
considered as the 8th largest place in Unite
States and 2nd largest in California. It has the
citywide population of approximately 1.3
million people (Landvoigt, Piazzesi, &
Schneider, 2015). The city is situated in
Southern California, around 190 km south of
Los Angeles and nearby to the Mexico’s
border. San Diego is the tenth most tourism
attracting place all over the world. It has 18
combined cities and other charming
neighborhoods and societies.
Destination Analysis
Prevailing the Environments
Socio-cultural
The culture of San Diego is affected heavily
by Mexican and America culture because of
its placement as border town, its Hispanic
population and its history as part of Mexico
and Spanish America. The socio-culture
factors of San Diego include several tourist
and historical attractions, a booming
theatrical and musical scene, special cultural
events and varied cuisine. In the city, there
are Spanish and Mexican heritage that
reflects the historic sites in the city. It has
positive impact on the Tourist Generating
Region (TGR) and Tourist Destination
Region (TDR) as the number of tourist
arrival is increasing due to its attractions
(Alonso, & Ogle, 2010).
Economic
The economic system of San Diego is well-
developed and it gains its strengths from its
tourism and service industry. The economy
of this city slowed from 3% growth in the
year 2013 to only 0.4% by 2015 and 0.3% in
the year 2016. The unemployment rate in the
city is approximately 5% with the job
growth of 2.22% (Sandiego.org., 2018).
Tourism plays an important role in the
economic growth of this city. About 32
million visitors are visiting the place every
year and they spent 8$ billion in the city.
From its total population, 160,000 people
are working in tourism system of San Diego
(Ardahaey, 2011).
Physical
Physical environment of a city includes all
the factors of nature like air, water, food,
trees, lakes, vegetation and ocean. The
people in San Diego enjoy good health and
expect to live full life. The coastal
environment of San Diego is very unique

DESTINATION MANAGEMENT 5
and attractive landscape of physical
structures including beaches, parks and zoo.
This is the major reason behind the tourist
arrival to San Diego. It has positive impact
on TDR as people stay here to visit its
physical attractions.
Political
San Diego has a democratic set up and
effective laws with the elections which are
considered transparent and fair (George,
Mair & Reid, 2009). The country has
political stability that is good for the tourism
system. In the environment free of chaos,
the tourism is flourishing in San Diego city.
Local government and tourism agencies are
working together to enhance the image of
destination as TGR and TDR.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Situated on the coast of Pacific
Ocean in California, San Diego is the
popular as the finest city of America.
 The city is very famous for its miles
of white-sand beaches and wonderful
weather and it provides an
abundance of fun attractions for the
travellers of all ages.
 San Diego County is made up of 18
towns and cities along with other
fascinating communities and
neighbourhoods (Agarwal, Grassl &
Pahl, 2012).
 It is well-known for its climate that
is considered as warm, mild winters
and dry summers with most of yearly
participation falling between
December and March.
Weaknesses
 The rent of accommodation property
is comparatively higher in San
Diego. It is a desirable place for the
visitors and realtors. So, Landlords
an hotels have increased the cost of
renting a place.
 One of the major weaknesses of San
Diego is its public transportation and
infrastructure. The people have to
drive their own cars as public

DESTINATION MANAGEMENT 6
transportation is not very reliable. It
is the home to the worst roads to
drive on.
 Due to increased and significant
tourist arrival, San Diego has
experienced traffic and
overcrowding.
Opportunities
 San Diego is a fast growing county
in United States so it has several
opportunities which will enhance the
economy and infrastructure of the
city.
 It can make the place cheaper for
foreign travellers by making changes
in currency exchange rates.
 The government can focus on its
infrastructure and transportation to
attract more tourists to San Diego.
 San Diego is the favourite vacation
destination for the travellers. Tourist
agencies can develop their services
and provide information and
resources on tours, hotels,
attractions, lift transportation so that
they can enjoy their trip to the fullest
(Sandiego.org., 2018).
Threats
 There are various external factors
like environmental, physical and
economic factors which may have
adverse impact on this destination.
 San Diego is one of the most
expensive cities to live in United
States of America.
 The city has been ranked as the
worst city in the United States for
creating wealth. The reason behind
this is that wages are very low in the
city and cost of living is high.
 The environmental crisis has affected
the tourist decision making to travel
to San Diego.
Key Components
San Diego is identified as the 10th most
tourist attracted place all over the world
(Woodside and Martin 2008). To become
one of the top destinations in the world, here
are some major components of San Diego’s
attraction:
Tourist Attraction and Sites
 Balboa Park
 San Diego Zoo and Safari Park
 USS Midway Museum
 La Jolla Cove
 Cabrillo National Monument
 Gaslamp Quarter
Education
 University of California
 University of San Diego

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 San Diego State University
 San Diego Mesa College
 Ashford University
Transport
 Airport
 Train
 Busses
Hotels and Accommodations
 Hotels
 Guest Houses
 Resorts
 Apartments
Beaches
 Coronado Beach
 Mission Beach and Pacific Beach
 Sunset Cliffs
Events
 CityBeat Festival of Beers
 La Jolla Half Marathon
 Comic-con International
 Seaworld’s Seven Seas Food
Festival
 Kaaboo Del Mar Festival
Justification
San Diego is one of the most vibrant and
connected cities in the world. With the
forecasted population of 1,406,630 as of 1
July 2016, San Diego is the 8th largest city in
the United States and second largest in
California. It has been known as the “birth
of California”. As a leading global city, San
Diego is one of the destinations of the first
choice for the students, tourists, business
professionals and international companies.
In the year 2017, total 34.9 million travellers
visited and the figures are increasing with
year over year (San Francisco Travel, 2017).
Moreover, the visitor spending throughout
San Diego also arrived all time high i.e. $
10.4$ billion (Sandiego.org., 2018). The
above mentioned attractions are the major
reason behind the tourist arrival to San
Diego. However, the number of
international students is less in the city but
this figure is increasing year over year. The
University of San Diego is considered to
have one of the best schools in the world.
Most of the international students are
arriving from China, India and South Korea.
The above components are the major reason
behind the popularity of San Diego.

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Existing Promotion Materials
America’s Finest City Now!
San Diego is one of the top leading tourist
destinations in United States. The tourism
industry in California is growing with a
significant rate (Upton, Teal, & Felan,
2010). There are some promotional factors
which are the major reason behind this
growth:
 Food and Brewery Tourism
 San Diego Weekend Couples Retreat
Giveaway
 Kids programs
The objective of marketing strategy is to
enhance the international image of San
Diego as the most appropriate place to visit
and stay and to utilize effective promotional
tools with stakeholders like travel agencies,
airports, fun attractions to enhance the
travellers’ experiences. The major focus of
this promotion material is on promotion in
China, India and South Korea.

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Competitive Analysis
Los Angeles Las Vegas San Francisco
 Los Angeles is the second
most populous city in the
United States with
3,976,322 (Tore, 2018).
 It is financial, commercial and
cultural centre of Southern
California.
 Mediterranean climate
 Transportation: Seaports,
Airports and Transit System
 48.3 million Tourist arrival in
2017 (Tore, 2018).
 Las Vegas is resort city that
is renowned for its
nightlife, 24*7 casinos and
other entertainment
options.
 28th most populous city in
USA
 Subtropical hot desert
climate
 39.01 million Tourist arrival
in 2017 (The Statistics
Portal, 2018).
 San Francisco is the
California Pacific coast
port city that is
recognized as 4th largest
population city in
California.
 It is the largest financial
centre in Western US.
 Home to several cultures.
 Subtropical Mediterranean
climate.
 25.2 million Tourist
arrival in 2016
(Weisberg, 2017).
Market Information: Target
Market
Justification
The major targeted audiences of San Diego
are students and the people who are
travelling to the city for leisure and visiting
purpose. In 2017, total 34.9 million people
arrived that indicates that people are arriving
to San Diego to enjoy its holiday
destinations and attractions (San Francisco
Travel, 2017). Most of the visitors are from
Canada, India, Mexico, China and South
Korea. This is the biggest segment through
which San Diego generates revenues as a
tourist destination. Apart from this, students
are the key customers as this city is
attractive to foreign students as it contains
various universities and better education
(San Diego Education, 2018). In this way, it
is justified to target these customers for San
Diego.

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Target Market
San Diego can emphasize on the students and holiday travellers by considering their below given
characteristics:
Characteristics Target Customers
Demographic Age: Students
Age: 25 years to 55 years old people
Higher Level income group
Behavioural Leisure travellers
Business travellers
To explore the city with their friends and
families
Psychographic Medium and upper classes
Better life style
Experience seekers

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Market Objectives
Market objectives of San Diego are:
 To promote the travel brand of San
Diego and market the destinations to
travellers all over the world.
 To enhance the domestic economy
by promoting San Diego and its
attractions.
 To develop tour programs and
enhance the sales through tourism
programs.
 To focus on the quality issues so that
they may have positive impact on
travellers.
SMART Objectives:
Specific
The marketing objective of San Diego is
really specific because it provides the city
more international recognition and visitors.
By enhancing its own economy, it can
attract more international visitors
(Sandiego.org., 2018).
Measurable
The objectives can be measured by
considering the increased number of tourist
arrival to San Diego. In this, city will focus
on the number of travellers who are arriving
for education and leisure purposes. It will
consider data and figures of tourist agencies
in San Diego.
Achievable
For a top destination, there is nothing that
cannot be attained (Mariani, Di Felice, and
Mura, 2016). Through the marketing and
promotional campaigns, the city will be able
to attain the objectives.
Realistic
The above mentioned objectives are realistic
and they can be attained by developing an
effective marketing plan and promotional
campaign in San Diego.
Timely
To achieve these marketing objectives, a
time frame will be created which will
include all the marketing processes and
activities with their specified timeframe.

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Branding
New branding of San Diego will present the
attractive, bright and energetic images to the
markets. It will use the branding that will
attract the youth and leisure travellers
towards the destination. This new branding
will make every effort to show the San
Diego the best option for holiday and
education with various cities and better
environment (Mariani, Di Felice, and Mura,
2016). It will include the pictures of famous
destinations in the city and their discounted
offers.

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Promotional Campaign
Where When How
California 1/5/2018 to 1/7/2018 Advertising and
promotion
Las Vegas 1-7-2018 to 1-8-2018 Public Relations
International Markets
(China, India, South
Korea)
1-8-2018 to 1-12-2018 Social media and
internet campaign

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To promote the destination, different marketing tools will be used, which are given below:
Social Media Advertising The destination will be promoted by creating a
page on social media sites like Facebook,
Instagram etc. This is the most effective way to
approach international visitors and students
(Luttrell, 2016).
Public Relations The tourism agencies will make mutual
relationships with the people in domestic and
international markets.
Sales Promotion The destination will provide some beneficial
and discounted offers to the visitors and
travellers (Mariani, Di Felice, and Mura,
2016). It will make efforts to develop loyalty
among visitors.
Cooperative Elements
There are some opportunities to local
operators to participate in promotional
campaign:
 To increase the number of their
registered tourists in San Diego.
 To provide the discounted offers for
specific customer segments.
 To increase their own profits and
revenues
 To generate awareness about their
products and services.

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Budget
To promote the destination, a budget will be created that will include all the elements with the
costs:
Budget
Elements Amount
Promotional Tools
Campaign Funding $50,000
Trip Giveaways $60,000
Brochures $10,000
Total Promotional Funds $120,000
Printing & Press $7,000
Merchandize $20,000
Website Management $50,000
Staff Employed (Salaries) $60,000
Total Estimated Budget $257,000

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Evaluation
After the implementation of promotional
plan, it will be evaluated by considering the
attainment of marketing objectives. The plan
will be evaluated after the one year of
implementation and it will be analyzed by
the tourism authorities of San Diego (Scott,
2015). The tourism authorities will analyze
the arrival of targeted markets to San Diego
in last one year. By doing this, they will be
able to analyze the effectiveness of
marketing and promotional campaign of San
Diego.

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References
Agarwal, R., Grassl, W. and Pahl, J, 2012, SWOT: introducing a new strategic planning tool.
Journal of Business Strategy, 33, pp. 12.
Alonso, A. D., and Ogle, A., 2010, Tourism and hospitality small and medium enterprises and
environmental sustainability. Management Research Review, 33 pp. 818-826.
Ardahaey, F.T., 2011, Economic Impacts of Tourism Industry. International Journal of Business
andManagement, 6, pp. 206-215.
George, E.W., Mair, H. and Reid, D.G., 2009, Rural Tourism Development: Localism and
Cultural Change. UK: Channel View Publications.
Landvoigt, T., Piazzesi, M., and Schneider, M., 2015, The housing market (s) of
SanDiego. American Economic Review, 105, pp. 1371-1407.
Luttrell, R., 2016, Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect, US: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Mariani, M.M., Di Felice, M. and Mura, M., 2016. Facebook as a destination marketing tool:
Evidence from Italian regional Destination Management Organizations. Tourism Management,
54, pp. 321-343.
San Diego Education, 2018, San Diego Continuing Education [Online]. Available from:
http://www.sdce.edu/. (Accessed 7 April 2018).
San Francisco Travel, 2017, San Francisco Travel Presents Tourism Forecast for 2017, [Online].
Available from: http://www.sftravel.com/article/san-francisco-travel-presents-tourism-forecast-
2017. (Accessed 7 April 2018).
Sandiego.org., 2018, Top Things to Do. [Online]. Available at:
https://www.sandiego.org/explore/things-to-do.aspx. (Accessed 7 April 2018).
Scott, D.M., 2015. The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online video,
mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. US:
John Wiley & Sons.

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The Statistics Portal, 2018, Las Vegas: visitors 2017 | Statistic. [Online]. Available from:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/221042/visitors-to-las-vegas/. (Accessed 7 April 2018).
Tore, O., 2018, Los Angeles Welcomes Record number of Visitors in 2017. [Online]. Available
from https://ftnnews.com/other-news/33608-los-angeles-welcomes-record-number-of-visitors-in-
2017.html. (Accessed 7 April 2018).
Upton, N., Teal, E.J. and Felan, J.T., 2010, Strategic and Business Planning Practices of Fast
Growth Family Firms. Journal of Small Business Management.
Weisberg, L., 2017, San Diego Attracted Record Number Of Visitors In 2016 [Online].
Available from http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/sd-fi-tourism-record-
20170217-story.html. (Accessed 7 April 2018).
Woodside. A.G. and Martin, D., 2008, Tourism Management: Analysis, Behaviour and Strategy.
UK: CABI Publications.

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