In the last 20 years sales promotion has become such an important component of marketing practice that it is now demanding greater attention from marketing academics.
Promotional techniques are now being studied individually and their appropriateness for different markets and marketing tasks is being discussed.
Tourism and travel markets are one of the few service sectors to make widespread use of a variety of promotional techniques. Price-based promotions have been the most popular in tourism and travel, as in many other markets, but there is growing awareness that non-price based promotions can add value for the consumer while meeting a range of marketing communications objectives. This article looks at the use of consumer competitions, one of the most popular non-price promotional tools, with a survey of 52 competitions run by tourism and travel services providers.
