Marketing Little Known destinations the island of Saaremaa, Estonia Essay

Marketing Little Known destinations the island of Saaremaa, Estonia - Essay Example One key question that needs to be addressed when thinking of the marketing efforts is whether to prioritize their marketing efforts at the established markets or look at newer markets such as distant European countries. As per the context established by the case, the tourism industry is changing very rapidly. The tourists are much more open to traveling to distant places to discover new and little known, but exotic destinations (Yong, 2006). Therefore, with regard to Saaremaa, the marketing efforts should be prioritized to build new markets. Europe is well known for exotic and small destinations and hence, the level of competition is high. Therefore, to attract customers from a new market, it is necessary to have a high focus on building the brand, ensuring sustainability as well as in targeting the right market segment. For example, Saaremaa is famous for its natural beauty, its rich history as well as the sweet-sour bread and beer. Hence, the brand Saaremaa for tourism should adequ ately encompass these different aspects. The initial marketing efforts can center on advertising Saaremaa to create awareness and the subsequent efforts can center on introducing specific theme related holidays such as an exotic theme that centers on the sweet-sour bread and beer in the food category or a historical theme holiday destination. Focusing on new markets will also make the destination popular among a wider set of customers who have various preferences of holidays and hence, it would open Saaremaa’s uniqueness to customers who prefer such destinations. However, it should be ensured that any steps of market expansion should not result in overcrowding. In addition, any word of mouth marketing may already work in the existing markets which will ensure that there is a steady flow of tourists from the already established markets. Therefore, prioritizing the new market will bring in customers from newer markets and at the same time, the customers from the existing market s will continue to visit because of the existing efforts and word of mouth (Holloway, 2004). 2. Should Saaremaa improve access by ferry or plan on the construction of a bridge to the mainland, as a means of expanding tourism? Or, conversely, should the island authorities aim to limit the appeal of the island in its existing isolation, by aiming to boost income from a smaller base of visitors to this island destination? One of the highlights of Saaremaa is how it is exotic and little known, but extremely beautiful and a perfect holiday get away. Therefore, on one hand it is important to build the tourism sector, it should be done in such a way that the pristine surroundings are not disturbed and the serenity of the place is not at risk because of overcrowding. Therefore, to sustain this exoticness and serenity, it is necessary to ensure that the place does not degrade in standard because of overcrowding. Overcrowding may mean more revenue because of increased crowd influx, but it als o can result in pollution, higher crime rates, more buildings and development (Doan, 2000). It can also mean that the natural beauty as well as tourist spots no longer provides peace and tranquility, thereby taking away the charm from the place. Hence, it is recommended that appeal of the island should be maintained by ensuring that there is some amount of isolation. In such cases, the challenge is how to improve the tourism industry without