ABSTRACT
Demarketing has long been regarded as a special case of social marketing, particularly with respect to reducing consumption (Peattie and Peattie 2009; Gössling 2010), and its application in tourism has been surprisingly limited (Beeton and Benfield 2002; Armstrong and Kern 2011; Truong and Hall 2013), especially given that tourism was one of the examples used in the original article by Kotler and Levy (1971). Although demarketing has been interpreted by some tourism commentators as meaning a reduction in visitor numbers to a destination or attraction it is actually a far more sophisticated concept that refers to reducing and managing demand while still achieving economic and other goals. Beeton and Benfield (2002: 499) with respect to its use as a visitor and environmental management tool suggest that demarketing ‘has the potential to provide planners and managers with a range of constructive tools and techniques that, when applied to areas in a proactive manner, can result in positive and successful results’. After an introduction to the concept of demarketing this chapter provides a number of cases on demarketing from the tourism literature. Table 6.1 provides an overview of the social marketing context of the cases studies. Cases are provided at different scales and include Sissinghurst Castle in the UK, Cyprus, and the Blue Mountains and Uluru National Parks in Australia. Overview of demarketing cases discussed in Chapter 6 https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Case
System stage(s) of tourism
Behaviour change goal
Audience research and segmentation
Social marketing mix
Exchange
Downstream (customer)/upstream focus
Competition
Theory of behaviour change
Long-term effectiveness
Sissinghurst Castle Garden (National Trust attraction)
Destination (at attraction)
Consumer decision making
Better allocation of visitor numbers in the garden by demarketing
Visitor survey
Reduction in promotion of garden as an attraction
Use of promotion
Improved experience of the garden as a result of lower number of visitors
Customer
None in a narrow sense
Communication and education
Good; the approach has been very successful in managing the high visitor demands
Cyprus (national government)
Destination
Consumer decision making
Change nature of market by focusing more on high-end tourists
Market research
All four Ps were applied
Customer
Some concern for communities
Other destinations
None
Blue
Mountains
National
Park (state government)
Destination (at attraction)
Spread visitor pressures more evenly in park and improve visitor experience
Some market research available
Promotion (via signage)
Improved visitor experience
Customer
None in a narrow sense
Communication and education
Marginal, as it was a latent form of demarketing
Uluru, Uluru National Park (national parks agency)
Destination (at attraction)
Encourage visitors not to climb Uluru
Target audiences identified for future demarketing campaigns
Primarily product and promotion. Also significant broad policy issues
Satisfaction of knowing that not climbing Uluru meets Aboriginal cultural concerns
Customer with some potential to market tour companies and encourage them to provide appropriate advice to visitors
Experience of reaching the top of Uluru
Behavioural learning? Communication and education
Potentially good though change will take a long time while voluntary
