چكيده لاتين :
The present paper aims to present an appropriate framework to explain
the position of each marketing concept and determine the significance
of tourism marketing among marketing concepts in terms of approach,
technique, and paradigm. In the first step, functional and important
concepts of marketing were identified using the ultra-combination
method. The multiple-stage Delphi technique was employed in the next
step and determining the position of tourism marketing among
marketing concepts. The research population consists of a mixture of
academic experts in marketing in and outside the country. Sampling
was carried out via judgment and snowball methods, and the sample
size in the second phase of the study was determined to be 26. Finally,
through data analyses via single-variable t-test and Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test, the concepts were classified based on methodological
levels. Tourism marketing was placed in the paradigm category based
on the conducted tests and the experts' opinions. Then, using TOPSIS, tourism marketing was determined concerning other concepts in the
paradigm category.
Introduction
Today, marketing can be used at various levels, from small businesses
and startups to international levels. All businesses, industries, and firms
involved in economics are also involved in marketing. It is noteworthy
that marketing takes on an executive form at each marketing level,
particular to that level. One of the concepts related to marketing is
tourism marketing. The concept of tourism marketing involves
identifying and predicting customer needs for tourism services and
products and providing services and products to meet those needs, as
well as informing the customer and motivating them to buy, which
results in satisfying the customer and the organization's goals. Various
concepts have been introduced to the marketing area, without any
specific measure being presented to explain them. Hence, the marketing
discipline seems to face unbridledness and overlap with other
disciplines (Gronross, 2007).
One of the challenges in tourism marketing is that in the definitions of
tourism marketing, this field has been considered a business in which
customer orientation is emphasized. However, but given that tourism is
an industry that goes beyond a business, in which different factors play
a role, the current definition of tourism marketing must be extended to
include features of an industry rather than a business. Hence, necessary
infrastructures must be provided so that tourism marketing can be
considered at the macro level. Accordingly, what exists in the current
definitions of tourism marketing is inconsistent with what exists in the
real world. On the other hand, the effectiveness of marketing sciences, like other
cognitive disciplines, depends on various factors, including its
methodology. One common methodology is affected by the philosophy
of science and methods of science. Many terms and concepts, including
technique, approach, and paradigm, have been introduced from this
discipline into marketing literature (Lebedev, 2016). Hence, upon the
expert's suggestion, the current paper seeks to design a methodological
pattern for marketing concepts, adopting them from the philosophy of science and applying them to marketing studies methodology, and
locating the status of tourism marketing in marketing among marketing
concepts. Hence, a new methodological pattern is presented in
marketing studies. Every marketing concept will match a position based
on its methodological meaning to eliminate the chaos induced by
turbulent concepts.
Method
The current paper aims to locate tourism marketing among marketing
concepts. To do so, Barroso and Sandelowski's meta-combination
method was used. The statistical population of the research consists of
a total of 3243 scientific papers and studies published in Google
Scholar, Emerald, Science Direct, and Magiran. According to research
purpose and scope, 157 eligible sources for the study were identified,
determined as a statistical sample. Then a questionnaire was sent to
domestic and foreign experts to screen the concepts and confirm their
validity. In the next stage, the data from the questionnaires were
analyzed using SPSS and the binomial distribution test. Finally, 55
concepts were selected as practical concepts. In the next step, to
categorize the concepts based on methodological levels, the Delphi
technique was conducted among 26 Delphi Expert Panel sample
members. Conclusions
Findings show that advertising and marketing programs in tourism
require localization appropriate to this field; so, different methods
should be used for tourism advertising and marketing. Moreover, given
that the type of customer in tourism marketing is different from other
services, concepts related to customer relationships should be
considered differently from other services.
Field studies in the area of tourism show that experiences in marketing
are always ahead of academic research in this field, indicating that in
the field of tourism theorizing, researchers have not acted as actively as
they should and seem to be far away from market behaviors. Instances
of this claim include new tourism businesses such as virtual tourism,
shared businesses (Airbnb), and digital marketing topics in tourism. Although these ideas have been realized in practice, they have been left
unnoticed in the academic environment, probably because tourism
marketing concepts are not examined in a specialized way, and
marketing concepts rather influence tourism marketing in other areas.
Therefore, it is recommended to examine tourism marketing concepts
specifically in the form of a paradigm to be academically theorized.
Accordingly, tourism marketing mixes must be identified, and tourism
marketing processes should be reviewed.
