Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
21
Tourism promotion is an important element of the tourism marketing mix; it includes
branding/ integrated marketing, traditional advertising, digital promotion, public relations and
sales promotion activities.
Traditional advertising refers to the typical venues for media placement, which involves
advertising through methods including paper print advertising, outdoor advertising, brochures,
telemarketing, and direct mail. Traditional promotion typically costs an amount associated with
the size of the ad and medium where it is published. More recently, print publishing has been
facing a decline with marketers shifting focus to digital marketing channels. This can be seen
through North American media ad spending, which was expected to grow by 5.2 percent in 2015,
but is actually growing at 4.5 percent, due to lower expenditures on TV, newspaper, radio and
magazines.11 Still, some tourism products and services providers may use traditional media to
target specific segments with customized messages. For example, Carnival Corporation’s brand
Princess, offers cruise ships that are customized for specific customer segments. Princess cruises
use newspaper and magazine ads in different markets highlighting relaxation for American
consumers and activities for Chinese consumers, who have been understood to be more active
and appreciate more activities offered by the Princess brand. 12
Digital promotion refers to the use of web-enabled technologies and the internet to reach and
engage consumers through various promotional activities. Digital promotion examples include
search engine optimization, email, mobile, social media, blogs and wearable or virtual reality
marketing.. Digital promotion represents the strongest market growth segment, which can be
seen as Digital Ad Spending accounted for 29.9 percent of total Media Ad spending worldwide in
2015, which is expected to increase to 39.3 percent in 2019. 13
Examples of the use of digital promotion in the tourism industry include;
 Hilton Hotels and Resorts launched a mobile video ad campaign to boost direct bookings.
The travel videos feature 360-degree virtual reality experiences. 14
 Four Seasons Hotels aims to market themselves as a lifestyle brand and has launched a
social media campaign, which integrates wellness into branding. The social campaign
features a collection of spa treatment and healthy food plans and has used the hashtag
#30daysofenergy on Instagram to promote wellness.
 Discover Los Angeles is a local tourism board in California, which uses social media
engagement with twitter branded hashtags to attract visitors. Popular hashtags include
#discoverLA and #LostinLA
Public relations activities are the professional maintenance of relationships between a
company and the public managed by an organization. Examples include press releases,
sponsorships, advertorials, conferences and familiarization tours. Examples of the use of public
relations in the tourism industry include;
11 ”Total Media Ad Spending Growth Slows Worldwide.” eMarketer. 15 Sept. 2015
12 Doland, Angela. “How Princess Cruises Went Upscale for China, With Tango and Afternoon Tea.” Web. 8 Mar. 2016
13 Global Digital Ad Spending by Industry Report 2015, eMarketer
14 Ting, Deanna. ”Hilton Launches a New Video Ad Campaign to Push Direct Bookings.” Skift. 26 Apr. 2016