Marketing communications in tourism ? trends and reality

The aim of the article. The aim of the paper is to evaluate current trends in marketing communication and their application in the field of tourism in the tourist area of Jesenky-East (Czech Republic), on the basis of the primary and secondary research conducted by the authors.The results of the analysis. The paper describes the basic world trends in the field of marketing communication, including the expected trends. This part of the paper is based on the existing theoretical sources, using both foreign and domestic resources. The paper is resulted from an extensive research, which was carried out in two interconnected projects in 2012 and then in 2014 and 2015. The first research (2012) was executed by the method of poll interviewing (focus groups), where the opinions, attitudes and motivation of target groups (Czech clients) were tracked in connection with a visit to the tourist area. Focus group poll interviewing was, if necessary, supplemented by individual interviews. The aim of this part of the research was to identify barriers to the development of tourism in the tourist area of Jesenky-East from the perspective of tourism actors (especially the providers of relevant services and operators of relevant activities related to tourism) and guest attendance assessment (quantity, structure) of the tourist area. In the framework of the research there were scheduled approximately 60-minute structured in-depth interviews with the persons involved who are in the area for a long time and they can expertly answer questions prepared by the research team. On the basis of this research, recommendations were formulated for the submitter of the research. The second research (carried out repeatedly in 2014 and 2015) was focused on foreign clientele to the tourist area, specifically to the motivation for the visit and satisfaction with services, due to the previous survey had pointed to a decline in this segment of visitors. The basic method used for data collection was an interviewing. Research technique represented a printed questionnaire (PAPI). The questionnaire was in accordance with the contracting specification processed in four languages versions-in Polish (for Polish clients), German (for German-speaking clientele), English (for visitors from other countries) and Czech (for the visitors from Slovakia). The selection of respondents was conducted randomly with the fact that all respondents had the same probability of getting into the respondent sample. A total of 250 questionnaires were handed out (140 in Polish language, 45 in German language, 45 in English language, 20 in Czech), 165 completed questionnaires were returned. The data obtained from the questionnaire were processed by the SPSS IBM Statistics. To examine the relationships between variables and statistical processing of data were used descriptive statistics methods (table of frequency, calculation of mean values, margins of quantity). The results of the primary research were in both research studies subsequently compared with secondary data (the Czech Statistical Office, Czech Tourism, visitor monitoring and other).Conclusions and directions of further researches. On the basis of combination of outputs of qualitative survey and analysis of destinations based on secondary data it can be noted a significant degree of consensus between the outputs and insights from both forms of research. From the results, it is clear that in the monitored areas there have not been used trend marketing communication tools; rather, it is about the use of traditional instruments. The research results were communicated to the contracting authority of the research, presented in the form of workshops and seminars with actors of the tourist area and now they have still been consulting. In addition to the obtained data, the research methodology appears as valuable and in practice proven in the tourist areas of the Czech Republic, which has already been used for research of the tourist areas as Pood and the Beskydy Mountains.