An assessment of external promotional action in tourism from the perspective of brand positioning: The sample of republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism

Today, tourism is one of the leading sectors which bring revenue.International tourism departures display a dynamic structure and thenumbers of people traveling for the purpose of tourism and tourism revenuesshow an increasing trend year by year. In this case, countries carry onactivities in order to increase tourism demands and get much more share ingrowing tourism market.Countries have realized that they should differentiate themselves fromother rival countries, develop their image in tourism market, and takepositions which create positive associations in tourists? minds in order toreach their aims. The only way to realize all these things is branding.Countries try to take a brand position by following strategies and carrying onprofessional activities. At that point, promotion activities become a part of thisprocess. These promotion activities enable countries to reach existing andpotential tourists and direct tourists? attitudes and behaviors in favor of them.This situation shows the importance of promotion activities in the brandpositioning. Therefore, this study appears to evaluate the affect of promotionactivities on brand positioning.From this point, in the first part of thesis the phenomenon of tourismand the importance of it are emphasized and also the elements of it such astourism product and tourism demand are discussed. In the second part, thephenomenon of tourism is examined together with external promotion activityin tourism. In the third part in which give attention to the concept of brand atthe same time the concepts of brand management and brand positioning arediscussed. The fourth one is the part in which external promotion activities intourism constituting the aim of the study are evaluated on the basis of brandpositioning. The fifth part which is also the last part of the thesis is devoted tothe promotion activities of Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture andTourism which is the sample of the thesis. At that part of thesis, theimportance of tourism in Turkey is evaluated together with the position ofTurkey in the world tourism market and the activities of the ministry are triedto examine on the basis of positioning of Turkey in the world tourism marketas a brand.At the end of the study, it is concluded that brand positions wanted toplace are determined in promotion strategies and branding activities arecarried on by the support of promotional activities. Furthermore, it appearsthat the Ministry of Culture and Tourism tires to full fill the aim of positioningTurkey as a brand destination by carrying on promotional activities.