A.  Know Your Customers

Most tourism businesses seek patronage from a number of different target audiences, or ‘market segments’, to use the marketers’ terminology.  Knowing about each of your target audiences, both current customers and prospective ones, can be very helpful in making sure you are on track to develop business from them and meet their expectations.  The questions and suggestions to follow should be addressed separately for each of your important target audiences.

Developing information on your target audiences will provide a number of benefits:

1. You can tailor your offerings to best suit each audience.
2. You can better establish competitive advantages and the right price-value combination.
3. You can reach them more effectively in your marketing.
4. You can adjust your offerings based on customer feedback, thereby improving customer satisfaction, as well as encouraging repeat visitation and positive referrals.

The questions to follow are designed to prompt you to think about how you might learn more about your customers, and how the information might be useful to your business planning

A1.   Know Your Current Customers

A1.1    Do you know who your customers are?

1. Where they live?
2. What age group or life-stage they are in?
3. What was the main purpose of their trip?
4. When they travel?
5. Who they travel with?

A1.2    Do you know how your customers normally plan and book their travel?

• Directly by phone, email or on-line
• Through a third party such as a travel agent or a central reservations service
• Via the Internet through an on-line tour operator such as Expedia

A1.3    Do you know how your customers heard about your business?

A2.   Understand Their Expectations

A2.1    Do you know what is important to your customers?

• The experience?
• The facilities?
• The service?
• The price?
• The value?
• The quality?

A2.2    Do you know why your customers buy from you? 

A2.3    Are you fulfilling their expectations? 

• Did your customers receive from you what they expected?
• Do your customers return? If so, DO YOU KNOW what brings them back? 
• If they don’t return, DO YOU KNOW why not?

A3.   Identify Other Customer Segments Offering Opportunities for Your Business

A3.1    Have you identified the key market segments available to your business?

A3.2    Are there market segments that…

1. You are not receiving enough business from, but your competitors are? Do you know why?
2. Used to be important for you, but have declined in recent years?  Do you know why?
3. You see as emerging growth markets that might be a good fit for your business?