Contributions of tourist guides to marketing information systems of travel agencies: case of aegean region (Turkey)

In Turkish tourism, a common point of view has been shared concerning the inadequacy of marketing efforts. This opinion is supported by lower figures of tourist arrivals and receipts in Turkey than some tourism destinations having similar tourism attractions such as Spain and France. Tourism service is based on intra-human relations and aims to create continous interest. Systematic monitoring of tourism movements is an increasingly important topic for tourism companies and destinations. The ambiguity about planning of tourism marketing tasks is related with decisions of who will do what, with which resources and how. In general, tourism professionals complain about insufficient promotion of Turkey. However, thinking marketing and sales as the same concept leads marketing managers to faults. Sales, promotion, marketing communicationm new customer creation are all parts of the marketing department tasks. If marketing manager can not generate his own holistic point of view about the past, present and future of his industry, and if he does not possess the details of the business environment the success becomes a matter of chance. Marketing information system is an application that facilitates decisional processes, but this application is not widely understood by small tourism enterprises. This study aims to produce theoretical base about the importance and the utility of marketing information system (MkiS) concept in relation with marketing management in travel agencies. Tourist guides and their contributions to marketing information systems in travel agencies are questioned. Furthermore, the design process of typical marketing information system is explained step-by-step. Finally; the study includes a survey realized in Aegean Region of Turkey among tourist guides and travel agencies. This survey examined the contributions of tourist guides to the data collection stages of marketing information systems in travel agencies. Recommendations are developed following the data analysis. Keywords: 1-Marketing Information System, 2- Travel Agency, 3-Tourist Guide, 4-Decision Making, 5- Aegean Region (Turkey).