ABSTRACT
This chapter traces briefly the historical links between transport supply and tourism demand, and the increasing orientation of transport systems to travel for leisure and recreation purposes. It proceeds by defining the nature of transport systems and their products, identifying the powerfully binding constraints that exist on their marketing decisions. Passenger transport marketing decisions, more than any other in travel and tourism sectors, are unusually dominated by factors in the external and internal operating environment. The sector’s marketing costs are also generally much higher as a proportion of revenue earned than those in other sectors, and it is the combination of pressures in the business environment and from marketing costs that explains the strategic and tactical marketing tasks for passenger transport operators that are covered in the second half of the chapter.
