Promotion activities of tourism establishments during periods: Case of cruise tourism and Kuşadası

Cruise tourism has been developed rapidly in the world in recent years. The size and passenger capacity of cruise ships have been increasing over the years, the services offered on the vessels have been diversifying and the number of tourism participants has been increasing significantly. Because the participants are usually from the middle and upper income groups, the ports and the people living in these regions would obtain a significant economic return. However, the last crisis in cruise tourism in our country affected the sector in negative direction in terms of economic. This research was performed in Kuşadası, where is one of the most visited cruise ship ports in Turkey, with 13 small-scale establishment located on the shopping itinerary of tourists traveling with cruise. In the study, semi-structured interview method consisting of open-ended questions was used as data collection technique. The survey focused on the questions of who the current and target market of the interviewed businesses were, how crucial the tourists were important for businesses, how businesses were affected by the crisis, and what promotional activities were undertaken during the pre-crisis and crisis periods. Interview data was analyzed by content analysis and compared with the results of a comprehensive literature survey. Findings indicated that the current and target markets of the interviewed businesses were primarily consist of the tourists with the top income, travelling with cruise ships. It was observed that business owners were caught unprepared by the crisis, had hard time in terms of economic and had serious difficulties in maintaining existence of their business. Findings also showed that promotion activities of some businesses in pre-crisis period only intended for the tourists travelling with cruise ships. Since the businesses did not engage any marketing activities during the pre-crisis and the crisis period, this research aimed to offer suggestions to businesses on the marketing specific activities. Keywords: Cruise Tourism, Marine Tourism, Crisis, Promotion, Kuşadası, Promotoion in Cruise Tourism.