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378 marketing audit
Calver, S. �1994) Marketing in Hospitality and
Tourism:A Consumer Focus, London: Cassell.
�Discusses recent tools for analysis and planning
and their use in managerial decision making.)
Witt, S.F. and Moutinho, L. �eds) �1995) Tourism
Marketing and Management Handbook �Student Edition),
London: Prentice Hall. �Contains a collection
of major marketing issues particularly
relevant for the tourism industry.)
marketing audit
JOSEFA.MAZANEC,AUSTRIA
A marketing audit is a comprehensive, systematic,
independent and periodic examination of a
company's �or business unit's) marketing environment
and activities. The intent is to determine
problem areas and opportunities and to recommend
an action plan to improve the company's
marketing performance. This is a thorough and
objective evaluation of a tourism organisation's
marketing philosophy, goals, policies, tactics, practices
and results. Such a comprehensive procedure
can provide a valuable ± and sometimes disquieting
± perspective on the performance of the tourism
company's marketing plans. A periodic review of
marketing plans is invaluable both in identifying
the tasks that the organisation does well and in
highlighting its failures. Periodic review, criticism
and self-analysis are crucial to the vitality of any
operation. Marketing audits are especially valuable
in pointing out areas in which managerial perceptions
differ sharply from reality. Methods of
conducting audits are almost as diverse as the
tourism companies that use them. Some audits
follow only informal procedures. Others involve
elaborate checklists, questionnaires, profiles, tests
and related research instruments, which go beyond
the normal control system. They are applicable to
all tourism organisations, large or small, for profit
or not.
The marketing audit consists of examining six
major components of the tourism company's
marketing situation: marketing environment audit,
marketing strategy audit, marketing organisation
audit, marketing systems audit, marketing productivity
audit and marketing function audit. Insiders
or outsiders can perform the task. External
consultants can add objectivity, impartiality, continuity
and breadth of experience. The greatest
potential is as part of a regular auditing process in
the organisation. In this way, comparison can be
made between the results of each audit so that
performance trends can be monitored and used as
the basis for target setting, appraisal and reward
schemes linked to management development
and training. A common approach is to use a
checklist of diagnostic questions. This approach
provides a reliable short-cut in assembling information
and an insurance that within the broad
span that comprises corporate policy, no vital issue
or question is omitted. Apart from providing clear
guidelines as to the actions a tourism entity might
undertake to improve its position, checklists have
the advantage of comprehensively identifying
marketing resources.
Further reading
Brownlie, D.T. �1994) `Marketing audit', in S.F.
Witt and L. Moutinho �eds), Tourism Marketing and
Management Handbook, 2nd edn, Hemel Hempstead:
Prentice Hall, 453±9.
Wilson, A. �1984) The Marketing Audit Checklists, New
York: McGraw-Hill.
marketing communication see
communication mix
marketing, destination
LUIZ MOUTINHO, UK
Destination marketing is practised around the
world at both national and local levels, or wherever
organisations responsible for a defined area seek to
attract and influence visitors. Traditionally concerned
with the overall promotion of appealing
images to attract tourists, destination marketing
is increasingly concerned with segmentation and
managing the balance between tourism and the
environment �see also market segmentation).
At national level, destination marketing is
typically carried out by national tourism organisa-