Development of a merchandising article for a selected tourism destination/attraction

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,7, Stralsund University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: Every company has its entrepreneurial aims such as market share, increasing profit, growth, enhanced image, satisfied and loyal customers. In the leisure and tourism industry the satisfaction of customer's needs and expectations through delivering benefits both tangibles and intangibles at a high quality is more important than anywhere else. The desires and expectations of the customers are changing very quickly. The number of competitors is rising. The competition for customers is getting harder and harder. In order to balance the customer's expected benefits with the company's economic goals there is the marketing department which is responsible for satisfied, loyal customers and profit generation by implementing a certain strategy and conducting diverse activities. On the fact of boosting sales one part of marketing becomes very important: merchandising. With the help of merchandising- knowledge a company can create extra-value to their products and services to "catch" customers and increase sales. This can be done by supporting promotional actions, special events, incentives or single products with a certain value. In the leisure and tourism industry this is in most cases related to attractions and destinations. It offers the chance to give a tangible to the customer that will remind him of the experience he/she have just made. It can also help to attract new customers or to represent your business/ your attraction on fairs. We are living in an experience economy. Leisure and tourism products are experiences. Story-telling becomes a part of the marketing activities. That is why merchandising is situated in the broad context of selling experiences. On the following pages a merchandising article for long-term and short-term sales increases for a selected attraction will be presented. Therefore it is essential to define merchandising and its position in the marketing-mix, first. Then the selected attraction will be introduced shortly. The questions of "Who is the target group the merchandising article is made for?", "How can this article be implemented and promoted?" and in the end "Why is this a success-promising merchandising article?" will be answered.