Strategical marketing planning in destinastions: Example of Selçuk

The developments in the transportation sector, globally caused a decrease on both lengths and fees of travel. As it gets easier to travel farther destinations, more substitutes have been available for destinations' products and the competition between destinations has spread to larger areas. Destinations were competing only with their substitudes which located in their vicinity before but now in this new competitive environment they are obliged to compete all their substitudes from all around the world. The changing state of the market has brought many new risks and threats with it. As a result of that, it has been a necessity for destinations to develop marketing strategies which contain a more comprehensive planning process to keep their market shares. The aim of this thesis is to detect the disadvantages in marketing Selçuk Province of İzmir by collecting and analysing qualitative data and proposing a strategical marketing plan for the province according to the data analysed. Keywords: Destination, Destinastion Marketing, Strategic Marketing Planning