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Enhancing tourists’ visits through experiential marketing
Tourism is one of the most important economic sectors supporting the global economy. This is due to the tourist industry's linkages with many other sectors, such as hospitality, transportation, food and beverages and other service industries.
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ourism is one of the most important economic sectors supporting the global economy. This is due to the tourist industry's linkages with many other sectors, such as hospitality, transportation, food and beverages and other service industries. This industry has a positive impact both on business expansion and employment opportunities, so to improve the welfare of the community, tourist activities really need to be supported. Public interest in traveling has increased after the world began recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years. In Indonesia, the tourist sector is the largest foreign exchange earner after oil and gas and currently Bali remains on the top of people’s minds when considering Indonesian tourism, where 50 percent of the revenue earned comes from Bali’s tourism.
In 2021, the Bali administration prepared a strategy to welcome back foreign tourists in line with the growing number of tourists coming directly to the province. With an increase in the number of visits followed by an increase in the number of hotels, the competition in the world of tourism is also getting more intense, coupled with ever-evolving marketing strategies. This requires tourist industry players to prepare appropriate planning in creating marketing strategies that are able to attract tourists. Many companies are racing to keep this momentum to awake the region from the slump caused by the pandemic.
In the midst of various challenges arising from the competition, hotel industry players must be able to deliver products or services offered as attractively as possible. One strategy is through the creation of a brand image using experiential marketing. Experiential marketing is a marketing communication strategy where information is provided through emotionally stimulating tourists before they make a decision. In tourist marketing, this strategy prioritizes managing experiences in the minds of customers that can be used as important drivers of long-term competitive advantage and commercial success. This strategy focuses more on effective factors related to moods, emotions, feelings and attitudes that are offered to tourists after being on a vacation. It is proven that nowadays tourists are more likely to seek new experiences and unforgettable emotional memories during their vacation time. Experiential marketing seeks to provide an experience that will leave an impression on the hearts of tourists.
Experiential marketing has shown that a company's long-term competitive advantage in the form of brand image can be obtained by continuously exceeding the cognitive, emotional and sensory expectations of customers. In experiential marketing, there are several indicators that have been tested empirically to be used as a guide in developing marketing strategies. The first indicator is "sense", which relates to the style of tangible aspects that can be captured by the five human senses. Using technology, marketers can build familiarity that arouse tourists' feelings through online media. One method can be through a virtual tour. The second is "feel", by influencing customers starting from a gentle mood to strong emotions. This can be done by digging deeper into the meaning of the hotel offered in order to be able to provide specific information that will make tourists more interested and impressed. Next is "think", which aims to create cognition such as raising the history, environmental background or uniqueness of a hotel to arouse deeper thoughts from the tourists. The next indicator is "act", which is a strategy that invites tourists to try something new. This can be done by inviting tourists to participate in an activity to create and convey concepts related to tourism. The last is "relate" where marketers must be able to create a social identity, which can be done by identifying the products and services offered as well as the intended target market so that marketers can determine similarities between the two.
The ability of marketers to apply experiential marketing can greatly impact the image of the hotel. This ensures that, through experiential marketing, a hotel will be easier to remember and recognize because it has its own uniqueness and charm. In the end, this created brand image becomes a weapon in competition, encouraging tourists to explore more information about the hotel. Appropriate tourist marketing planning can help meet and satisfy tourists’ needs so that their travel experience is unforgettable, with the potential to encourage sustainable tourism development – one of tourism's roles in supporting Bali's tourism development.
Writer: Nyoman Yudhana, Master’s of Management student at Warmadewa University
