Devre mülk turizm pazarlaması ve Türkiye`deki uygulama

Abstract

ÖZET Bu tez çalışması yılın belli bir döneminde tatil amaçlı olmak üzere belli bir konaklama biriminde belli bir süre kalmak üzere konaklama birimine doğru yapılan seyahatler ve kalınan yerde konaklamadan doğan ihtiyaçların karşılanması ile ilgili faaliyetleri içeren devre mülk turizmi ve pazarlama uygulamalarını incelemektedir. Birinci bölümde turizmin tanımı yapılmış ve çağlar boyunca turizmin gelişimi ve günümüzdeki durum anlatılmıştır. İkinci bölümde turizm pazarlamasının tanımı yapılmış ve turizm pazarlamasının diğer ürünlerden farklı özellikleri incelenmiştir. Üçüncü bölümde devre mülk turizmi tanımlanmış, dünyada gelişimi ve devre mülk pazarı hakkında ayrıntılı bilgiler verilmiştir. Ayrıca devre mülk turizm pazarlamasının farklı özellikleri ortaya konulmuş tur. Dördüncü bölümde devre mülk turizm pazarlaması bileşeni ayrıntılarıyla kapsamlı bir şekilde incelenmiş, özellikle dünyadaki uygulamalar ile Türkiye'deki uygulamalar bir arada değinilmiştir. Beşinci bölüm Türkiye'deki devre mülk turizm uygulamalarına ayrılmıştır. Önce devre mülk turizminin Türkiye'deki geçmişi anlatılmış, pazardaki işletmeler grup halinde incelenmiş daha sonra pazar lama ve yasal uygulamalar belirtilmiştir. Altıncı bölümde uluslararası tatil değişiminin işleyişi ve değişim organizasyonları R.C.I. ve I. I hakkında bilgiler verilmiş değişim sistemleri ayrı ayrı incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmanın sonucunda gelecekte devre mülk turizminin turizm sektörü içerisindeki payının çok daha fazla olacağı ve Türkiye ve dünyada yaygınlaşacağı ortaya çıkmıştır.

RESORT TIMESHARE TOURISM MARKETING and ITS APPLICATIONS IN TURKEY SUMMARY This study aims at identifying what the resort timeshare marke ting is in a tourism perspective, how the resort timeshare tourism marketing mix can be developed and what state resort timesharing in dustry is in the world and considerably in Turkey at present. Tourism has been recognized as a fast growing industry and the world's largest industry in 1990s. On the other hand, timeshare is a major and rapidly increasing holiday alternative in the world. Tourism can be defined as any activity concerned with the temporary short-term movement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work, and the stay at these destinations. Tourism marketing is the systematic and co-ordinated execution of business policy by tourist undertakings, whether private or state owned, at local, regional, national or international level, to achieve the optimal satisfaction of the needs of identifiable consumer groups, and in doing so to achieve an appropriate return. The differences with traditional product marketing and tourism marketing are the result of the characteristics of tourism supply and demand. Tourism first of all is a service. An intangible experience is being sold not a physical good that can be inspected prior to purchase. Because it is a service; production and consumption take place at the same time. Tourism supply can not be stored. Tourism demand has fluctuations greatly between seasons of the year. The resort timesharing concept is less than 30 years old. It is any activity concerned with interval movement of people who has an ownership of a unit at resort where outside the places they live and work, and their activities during the stay at these resorts. In 1970s during a building-industry crisis, people did not want to invest in holiday property any more. Prices were too high and nobody wanted to be paying out year-round for a holiday flat used only a few days each year. As a result of this, tourism demand began vmto search the new alternatives and timeshare concept was the most suitable alternative for them because of having two weeks a year for vacation was sufficient and having opportunity to own at affordable price and finally with exchange opportunity spending holidays all around the world were in mi mumum cost. The resort timesharing industry was relatively slow to expand, especially on a global basis. As late as 1980 only about 155.000 households throughout the world owned a timeshare interval in about 500 resorts. However the industry expanded tremendously during the 1980s especially in the first three years, due primarily to the accompanying extensive public awareness and marketing campaigns. When looked at in a worldwide perspective recent overall growth has been tremendous. Some important findings of the worldwide resort timesharing industry are as the follows : - About 3,050 timeshare resort now exist, - About 2,400,000 households now own a timeshare interval, - About 440,000 timeshare intervals were sold in 1991, about 340% more than in 1980 (about 100,000), - Gross sales volume in 1991 was about $ 3.7 billion, over 650% more than in 1980 ( $ 490,000 million ). Timeshare resorts are located in 75 countries and timeshare owners reside in 157 countries. Currently the United States is the leader in the worldwide resort timesharing market containing 43.6% (1329) of the resorts, 53.2% (1,258,000) of the `owners owning in the area` which means owners who have actually purchased a timeshare interval in the area in question, regardless of where they live and 59.7% (1,411,000) of the `owners residing in the area` which means owners who live in the area in question, regardless of where they own their timeshare interval. The second most dominant area for timeshare is Europe, containing 27.5% of the resort, 18.1% of the owners owning in the area and 17.9% of the owners residing in the area. After the timeshare industry has been examined, the timeshare marketing mix can be stated. The first component is the timeshare tourist product. Timeshare tourist product covers the benefits of timeshare unit, the experiences at resort facilities and exchange opportunities. Timeshare unit is fully furnished and equipped to a hairdryer in bathroom. Timeshare units containes room/studio/suites or one bedroom or more bedrooms. Timeshare owner don't pay any accommodati on charge during his stayings at the unit after he bought the unit for a specific interval which can be high, middle or the low season of the year forever or for 30, 40, 99 years. IXResort facilities are catering services, entertainment and rec reation that timeshare owner can benefit from them during his sta- yings also. Exchange opportunity is a another service of international ti mesharing ownership that timeshare owner can have vacations all aro und the world without any accommadition charge at any time of the year. A marketing mix can be devoloped that will meet the needs of the target after the target market is selected. Target segments will be defined in demographic, product-related, psychographic, or geographic terms. Demographic segmentation offers the best way to determine the accessibility of the market. Age and income have been very successful predictors of timesharing purchasing. Median ages of timeshare owners center around 44 to 46 years. The average household income of timeshare consumers was $ 49.700 in 1989 while $ 28.500 was in 1978 in U.S. Product-related segmentation has the advantage that the information gained is directly related to the particular product in question. In all surveys the most frequently stated motivation for purchasing has been the exchange opportunity with other resorts with the second most frequently stated motivation almost always being the opportunity to save money on future vacation costs. In psychographic segmentation information about an individual's attitudes, interest and opinions give a much closer picture of the segment being described. Geographic considerations are very important to timehsharing. For example `the destination of owners` countries are basically small, sun and surf countries with a limited number of income eligible households. The `origin of owners` countries are basically colder, densely population countries with large numbers of income eligible households. Several factors influence the pricing policy set as part of the marketing mix. In purely economic terms, price is a result of supply and demand. When supply exceeds demand, price will tend to decrease. Timeshare is a luxury product that is less susceptible to changes in price and tends to be price inelastic. The price changes are influenced by the competition. If the firm's offerings are esentially the same as those of its competi tors, its prices must be similar to theirs. Pricing policy is also related to the needs of the market that is served. If a timeshareresort is seen as serving the needs and wants are perceived as being important to the numbers of the market segment, those members will be willing to pay a higher price for timeshare units. The third component of marketing mix is promotion. Promotion may be the most important part of the timeshare marketing mix. Beca use the timeshare concept is new and has some negative public image, promotional activities are the means that we should make the public be aware for the advantages of timesharing. Promotion strategies can be stated in four sub-headings as re gards ; advertising, promotion activities of international exchange organisations, public relations and finally sales strategies. Advertising can be defined as paid public messages designed to describe or praise a destination area. This can be done through the use of posters, newspapers, magazines, radio or other media. In advertising there are some important points such as setting the advertising objectives, choosing an agency, determining the ad vertising budget and finally decision on the type of advertising. When we consider the type of advertising, direct mail or media advertising or word-of-mouth can be distinguished. Direct mail ad vertising has the advantage of preselection of prospects. The adver tising message goes directly to the right person privately and per sonally. And it is popular especially in U.S. otherwise in Turkey. Media advertising is the most expensive way of advertising where as it is not so efficient way of reaching prospects. International exchange organisations as R.C.I, and I.I can pro mote the resorts or countries in some ways such as resort directory, industry related magazines or media advertising. Public relations is also important in marketing mix. When advertising a firm must buy the media space or time to present information to a reading, listening, or viewing auidience. In public relations, however, the media accepts and uses a firm's press releases and announcements when they consider these items newsworthy and of interest to their audience. Public relations can be grouped as relations with media and the direct relations with target market. The final sub-heading of promotion is concerned with sales strategies. Timeshare industry participants and observers have felt the poor public image results more from the marketing and sales pro cess then from the experiences of ownership. xiPersonal selling as one of the sales methods has some rules. At first sales personel should have some basic qualities such as per sistence, empathy, communication ability and product involvement. In more sophisticated selling situations distinctive qualities become increasingly important such as self management, drive, imagination, patience, and social intelligence. Sales procedure consists of six stages: prospecting process, gaining the interview, sales presentation, closing the sale, hand ling the objections, follow up. Prospecting process consists of a search for suspects and qualifying of these suspects and prospects. The resources for prospecting are media advertising, referrals (current member's friends), reloads (owners buying additional weeks), exchangers (consumer members of I.I or R.C.I who come to the resort as exchange guests), sales guests (hotel prospects brought in by tour operators and wholesalers). Initial contact with prospect can be made by direct personal, letter or telephone call due to gain the interview. If salesperson knows the prospect personally, gaining the interview will be easy. Sales presentation may be in on-site sales office ( at resort) or off-site sales office. Sales office should not be poorly designed, over crowded, and noisy space. Demonstration tools may be model, pictures, video, slides or the product itself. During the sales presentation salesperson should tell all aspects of the product. A hard closing style, particularly the use of take over and drops in sales prices accompanied by statements such as `these discounts are only for you` and `it applies only if you buy today` should not be applied by salesperson. And salesperson should be informative with no pressure at all. An objection can be defined as any negative behaviour by the prospect. Salesperson should show interest and understanding the prospect so as to handle the objections. Follow-up is very important for salesperson. He presents the product //ery well however if he doesn't follow up the prospect, he will not be successful in sale. Telemarketing is the second sales method in timesharing marke ting. Telemarketers who employ 800 numbers use them commonly in spa ce ads, broadcast ad (both radio and tv), direct mail, catalogues and cable tv. Telemarketing can offer mini vacations at resorts by toll free phone call. Telemarketing initially play a larger role in Xllthe sales strategy when the resort is new or under construction, and have no large owner base from derive reloads and referrals. The fourth and final component of the marketing mix is distribu tion channels. In timeshare marketing prospects may come by wholesa lers, tour operators or by agency or representatives. Agencies have authority to sale, whereas representatives are only authoritized to give information about the resort. Off -premise-contact (OPS) representatives at tourist information booths make appointments for prospects to attend a sales presentation and the resort sends a van to bring the prospects from their hotel. The timesharing industry in Turkey expanded in the late 1970s. Some firms which existed during the 1980s offered timeshare vacati ons for small prices in a local level within the units containing no luxury equipment. By these years the industry faced some marketing problems until 1985 when the timeshare law released because of lacking legislation. During this transient period the public image of timesharing in Tur key was a negative and poor holiday alternative for submiddle econo mic group. Since 1990 resort timesharing firms have appeared that offers international exchange service for the first time in Turkey with mo re luxury and more quality for high prices than the local ones. Mo- rover, the number of these resorts are exceeded 15 at present and heavy competition among these resorts have begun. However, the in dustry are expanding slowly due considerably to the lack of the pub lic awareness about the timeshare concept. The final part of this study is concerned with international exchange system in the world. It is examined R.C.I, and I.I that the biggest firms in the world performing this kind of service. The exc hange systems of these firms are also presented in detail. In summary, resort timesharing industry will be canditate for the most useful holiday alternative in Turkey in the near future while succeding of public awareness and big marketing campaigns are essential. xm