Publicity Strategy Used by the Dot in Bukidnon

Promotional tool is defined as a communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyers purchasing decision retrieved from wikipedia. This will help the product to be well- known to the public. Promotional tool is to very important in commercial and non commercial industries like hospitals, school and universities to arouse their marketing interest. Televisions, radio, newspapers, internet and word-of-mouth are some common forms used in promotion. A very good promotional tool will help a particular business to gain more profit because of the market popularity about the product. The more familiar the product is the more possibility that he market will demand on it, that is why promotional tool of particular firm should be well developed, convenient to the public and applicable to the market. Business industries are one of the sectors in the industry that uses promotional tool for the awareness of the market and their product. Aside from that is the tourism industry. Tourism may be defined as a travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes (wikipedia). Tourism brings money to the public by tourist spots. A very good tourist spots will lead to a progressive living, as what Sec. Ace Durano (said) â€Å"kung maraming turismo maraming trabaho† and that is really true, because a single tourist spot can give profit to many businesses. An example is a tourist who dines in restaurant could give benefit to the restaurant and the restaurant will purchase new ingredients from the market which will give the market a profit, and the market will buy again supplies from the farmers. And that is the greatest effect of tourism in the country and the most important tool for a good and progressive tourism in promoting. Bukidnon became very well known because of its asset which is tourism. Philippines is not rich financially but it’s abundant in natural tourist spots. There are many tourist spots in the different regions of the country. These tourist spots become familiar to other countries because of a good promotional tool that the government used. Tourism really developed, if a good promotional tool will be used. The Department of Tourism (DOT) uses internet, televisions, newspapers, brochures, and even in some appliances like the very well known Magic Sing which uses the different tourist spots in the Philippines as its background. Those are some of the advertising techniques that they used. The researchers, being the residents of Bukidnon, want to know the promotional tool used by the Department of Tourism of Buidnon’s tourist spots. It has been observed that tourist spots in Bukidnon do not even know other tourist spots in Bukidnon and even on the location of the tourist spots. The researcher focuses on the promotional tool used in tourism industry in Bukidnon to know the reasons why it is not familiar, and conduct a study to know the specific rules and approaches used in solving problem on the not well known tourist spots in Bukidnon. Conceptual Framework This study is based on the concept of Libed (1980), that region X has been singled out of te major tourist destinations in 1979. It was reported that 179 international tourist had been recorded to have visited the province. By that, promotional tools are focused on this study to promote Bukidnon natural tourist spots. According to McDonough and Ackert (2002), Promotion is the activities of people to communicate with others about business. In tourism, this includes wide variety of activities including brochures, billboards and newspaper ads. Promotion also includes careful planning. Accordingly there are four main promotional tools: advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity. Developing an effective promotional strategy demands more than just being aware of the tools of promotion. Promotion is an ongoing process that requires much planning. And a strategy is a careful plan. The schematic diagram in Fig. 1 illustrates the four main promotional tools and its effectiveness. The first frame shows the promotional tools. Under promotional tools first is publicity. Publicity strategy generates new tourist and increase sales, creates awareness of products by providing information about new or unique aspects (retrieved from publicity ship. com). Advertising is a form of communication that intends to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some actions upon products. These include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers, radio, cinema, television ads, web banner, magazines, newspapers and etc. Personal selling is an oral communication with potential buyers with the intention in making sale. The personal seller may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will ultimately end with an attempt to â€Å"close the sales†. This may include negotiation on same travel and for operators. Sales promotion, a media or non-media marketing communication are employed or pre-determined and limited time to determine customer demand. Examples are contest, point of purchase displays, rebate, free travel such as free flights. The second frame is on the effectiveness of the tools used by the Department of Tourism. This will be identified through distributing questionnaires to the respondents. Showing the list of natural tourist spots and the different promotional tools that are possibly used. The respondents may identify the questionnaire of particular tourist spots if familiar or not. Fig. 1 Schematic diagram showing the variables of the study. Statement of the Problem. This study investigates publicity strategies used by the Department of Tourism to promote the tourist spots of Bukidnon. Specifically, this study aims to answer the following questions. What are the promotional tools used by the Department of Tourism in promoting Bukidnon’s natural tourist spots? How effective are the strategies used by the Department of Tourism in promoting the popularity of the Bukidnon’s tourist spots. Significance of the Study As this research is concerned with the promotional tool used by the Tourism, this study will refresh the ideas and strategies in promotion. This study is hope to shed light to the following. Department of Tourism of Bukidnon shall have an action towards promoting natural tourist spots. However, this study is one way to make province of Bukidnon show its hidden land of magnificent and infinitely varied scenery of mountains, caves, forests, lakes, waterfalls, rivers and streams. For the Department of Tourism and staff and officials, this study will provide them an information and ideas how they promote natural tourist spots of the said province. It also serves as a basis to provide them on how to maintain and manage the promotional tool in order that it will remain its identity as one of the most visited spots in the country. For the people in the community who receive the indirect benefit of the study , this study will help them to start their simple source of income. It will help lessen the number of overseas workers. It will help the economic stability of the province as it increases its per capita income. It will also increase the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), increase in foreign revenue and develop small industries. For the student whose inclinations are in tourism industry, this will help them in the different promotional tools used by the DOT. Consequently, they will learn how these promotion strategies are done. Delimitation of the Study This study is delimited to the DOT’s promotional tools for Bukinon’s tourist spots for years 2010-2011. It is further delimited to the promotion of natural tourist spots that need to be promoted domestically and internationally. To gather needed data, a self-made questionnaire will be used. It will be distributed to number of respondents, computed by slovin’s formula. Definition of Terms The following terms are defined theoretically or operationally. Promotional tool. This term is one of the elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, and distribution). It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing or persuading a potential buyer’s purchasing decision. In this study promotional tool is a strategy used by the DOT to promote Bukidnon’s natural tourist spots. Tourist spots. These are places of interest where tourists visit typically for inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities (Reyn Ramas).