The Role and Importance of Territorial Marketing in the Development and Arrangement of Tourist Destinations

Abstract

In the contemporary conditions, territorial marketing is based on the innovatory understanding of roles and functions of territorial management bodies and it supports representatives of executive power to effectively manage territorial sources, fully and completely satisfy citizens’, tourists’, businessmen’s and different clients’ requirements and meet their needs. Thus, the attractiveness of the area for living and doing business is increasing tremendously. At a particular stage, the tourism industry becomes the main "consumer" of territorial marketing and, particularly, of place branding ideas. It is significant for any territory to create a favorable image in the external space in order to attract the maximum number of tourists, that surely leads to the improvement of both economic and political positions of the territory. If in a certain area there are unique natural objects, historical cultural attractions, etc., so, the place has tourist potential and proper efforts are needed to develop and realize this potential. To say simply, that is territory marketing. In order to study how the principles of territorial marketing are used in the planning and development of tourist destinations in Kutaisi, a marketing research was performed at Akaki Tsereteli State University, using the proper questionnaire survey method. 136 respondents were interviewed. Respondents were chosen based on the statistical methods, both on the principle of probability and non-probability sampling. The interviewing process of the respondents was conducted throughout Kutaisi. Based on the research, in conclusion, that territorial marketing ensures consideration of the interests of citizens of the territory in the process of managing the territory, which creates prerequisites for effective management and also allows evaluating the quality of the executive authority's activities. Territorial product is a set of values that exist in the form of specific products and services that are produced and available for consumption at the given moment, that is an effective tool for tourism development. Keywords: tourist potential, territorial marketing, management, image, tourist industry.