"customer buy the service, by having the staff with the positive attitude, skills and appearance arenecessary. (Booms & Bitner, 1981).2.1.5 ProcessProcess is defined as the actual procedures, mechanist and flow of activities by which servicesare delivered (Fifield, 1998). The process is the series of events that 21dynamically combine todeliver a service to the consumer. The flow of the activities that will be encountered by servicecustomers are also worthy of specific attention. The number of steps comprise of service and theextent to which customer involvement is necessary in the process to be considered. (Booms &Bitner, 1981) The service provider needs smooth, efficient customer-friendly procedures. (Brassington &Pettitt, 2005).Process is a key element that needs to be monitored in the service oriented businesses. The actualdelivery of service the customer experiences or the operational flow of the service will alsoprovide customers with evidence on which to judge the service. There are many different typesof processes involved in tourism, it’s important to ensure that these processes are planned andcarried out properly so that operations run smoothly and problems are corrected quickly. Dealingwith staff turnover, sick leave, suppliers and the distribution channels all have an impact on howservice is delivered. Implementing clear procedures will ensure all that the best possible serviceis delivered at all times.2.2 MARKETING AND SMTESIt is generally realized that SMTEs have a limited capacity when it comes to marketing,and they find it therefore difficult to live up to requirements for quality, development of pricingpolicy together with cost control, as well as being able to act quickly to changes in tourismdemand (Wanhill, 1996). Often, marketing for SMTEs equals advertising; and this refers often toadvertising on impulse, and without neither clear knowledge of the effect that may be expected,nor a follow-up upon the actual effect it has had. The choice of advertising medium is generallyimpeded by a large number of various publications, which are produced locally, and without any11 real impact, as they also are distributed locally, and therefore create local competition, but nobroad attraction of customers from source markets.Many SMTEs suffer poor financial performance (Sundgaard, 1996). A situation that isattributed to external factors, however, without having specific knowledge of these externalfactors and how to handle changes in demand for the services they provide. In other words,SMTEs have only little knowledge of market trends, as the cost of obtaining this knowledge isconsidered a major barrier. This prevents them from acting accordingly in a market-orientatedenvironment, and instead acting cost-orientated (Kotas and Wanhill, 1981). This induces abehavior pattern, which can be described as closely approximating to survival or designating alife-style for the owner that keeps going year after year. Only few are prepared to admit that theirown suspect, if any, development strategies lack of business acumen and faulty appraisals mighthave been the cause for difficulties in performing well as a business. Profit-maximization oreconomic growth is not the overall aim for SMEs or micro-businesses, but to have a sensibleliving of one's business to make a living for the family (Ateljevic and Doome, 2000).Developing a strategic involve anlysing2.2.1 Product MixThe formulation of the product mix involves examining the components of the tourismproduct. These can be described with the help of the five as: Accessibility; Attractions;Accommodation; Amenities; Ancillary services; a concept adapted from Cooper et al. (1993),speaking of four As. The packaging of these components in the various styles desired by theidentified market segments in a variety and capacity that is most profitable to the destination orsupplier of the product is considered the individualized tourism offer. Service providers, inparticular incoming agents or tour operators, generally take care of product mix formulation.This is seldom within the scope of a DMO, as the DMO does not control the individual parts ofthe mix2.2.2 Pricing PolicyA general viewpoint on pricing is that it attempts to balance supply and demand at theoptimum price, thus maximizing total contribution or profit. In practice; however, it may be12 necessary to modify this viewpoint by several considerations and constraints (based on Kotler,1988 and Kotler et al., 1999):2.2.3 Distribution policyDistribution in tourism denotes the option to buy, as consumption takes place at the sametime as the parts of the product are being produced. The structure of the distribution channels,which equals the travel trade, requires an understanding of how tourists are influenced bythetrade in their purchase decision, this is vital for a destination or individual businesses, if thesubstantial budgets of the key intermediaries in the markets are to be exploited in their favor. Inrecent years, these intermediaries have lost terrain to electronic distribution directly to theconsumer via the Internet (Marcussen, 1997). Especially, in continental Europe, direct sell hasbeen fairly common, and here in many cases the travel retailer has been taken over by theInternet as the key outlet (DB, 2001). On the other hand, the increased importance of the Internetas distribution channel enables the DMO to facilitate distribution, without becoming actual`product owner'2.2.4 Sales PolicyThe contents of a sales policy basically relate to the volume of sales representation,which might be deemed necessary in order to ensure that retail outlets, continue to giveprominent shelf space to the place product in question, that they are aware of the range and newinnovations, know the benefits of the product, and can communicate its qualities to the customer.Any larger individual business will have sales representation, e. g. carriers, hotels etc., but alsohave sales representatives, and NTOs will also be selling to the trade (Hansen, P. J., 2001), but israther uncommon for smaller RTOs.2.2.5 Promotion PolicyPromotion is the way by which the merits of the tourism place product are communicatedto the chosen market segments. The promotion plan is a sub-set of the general marketing planand it is at the same time an action programmer to achieve through communicating the objectivesof the marketing plan. The majority of work carried out by DMOs can be related to promotionalefforts (Middleton, 2001; Jeffries, 2001).13 2.3 FORMULATING A STRATEGYA strategy can be a plan for moving in a certain direction. A plan that can be rathersimple, but also very sophisticated. Therefore, when developing a strategy three importantquestions need to be addressed:1. Where to go? (Vision and aim)2. How to get there? (Strategies and actions)3. Who are to involveAdditionally, it is important to ensure that it is possible to establish the achievement ofthe desired target (Mintzberg, 1987). In other words, targets set in a strategy need to bemeasurable in some way in order to be able to ascertain the effect of the plan developed. In thescope of this rather simplistic definition, no consideration has been given to the various levels ofplanning within a business. It is generally accepted that we deal with an operational, tactic andstrategic level (Kotler, 1986). Here, operational denotes the day-to-day planning and tactics dealwith a particular problem, the strategic level is normally considered to be more comprehensivethan tactics. A corporate strategy is thus a general strategy that steers the overall organization, atthe sometime there can be additional strategies for individual business units at other levels. Inthis relation, it is also adequate to distinct between an aim and a target. An aim denotes a clearlydirected intention or purpose, whereas a target is a goal to be achieved2.4 THE MARKETING PROCESSThis is a process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customerrelationships in order to capture value from customers in return.The following steps outline the process of marketing management.Step One: Understand the market place, customer needs and wantsDone through an initial Market researchAchieved through availing the desired market offerStep Two: Design a customer driven marketing strategyA Marketing Strategy defines how a business unit expects to achieve its marketing objectives in14 a specific target market.It consist of developing and designing the Marketing MixStep Three: Construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior valueCheck customer location, size and buying criteriaDevelop a competitive product positioningStep Four: Build profitable relationships and create customer delightCustomer Relationship Management is about delivering superior customer values andsatisfaction.Step Five: Capture value from customers to create profits and customer equityDesign the marketing organization such that the entire marketing effort is profitable to theorganization.2.5 ConclusionBasically having your organisation well established in terms of profit making lies in thehands of how best your marketing strategies are plus the quality of the services offered. The rightmarketing strategies is determined by knowing your target so as to design marketing strategiesthat will get them, knowing the attractions within then the destination also helps in knowingexactly what you are communicating to the customers. Good manager evaluates what the touristneed through conducting the interviews. Analyzing the marketing environment where thebusiness operates is as well very important in marketing field these marketing environmentconsists of factors and forces that may affect marketing management’s ability to build andmaintain successful relationship with customers.The marketing environment offers both opportunities and threats. Successful companies arethose that adapt to the environmental changes quickly and turn the threats to opportunities ofgrowth.Marketers understand their environments by conducting environmental scanning. Environmentalscanning is the practice of keeping track of external changes that can affect markets including the15 "