National Tourist Offices in North America: an analysis

S U T T E R W O R T H E I N E M A N N

0261-5177(95)0008.3--6

Tourism Management, Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 605-617, 1995 Copyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd

Printed in Great Britain. All rights rcserved 0261-5177/95 SIlL(X) + 0.00

National Tourist Offices in North America: an analysis

Alastair M Morrison, Carl G Braunlich, Nordina Kamaruddin and Liping A Cai Department of Restaurant, Hotel, Institutional, and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA

This article reports on a study of National Tourist Offices (NTOs) located in the USA and Canada. It begins with a general discussion of the types of NTOs and their roles and activities, reviewing the research on these organizations to date. A review is made of recent trends in NTO marketing. The study's results provide a profile of North American NTOs and their senior executives. The marketing priorities of North American NTOs are also discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for future research on foreign-based NTO locations.

Keywords : na t iona l tour is t admin i s t r a t i on , na t iona l tour is t office, pull s t ra tegy , push s t r a t egy

Almost every nation in the world has a national organization officially responsible for tourism, often operated as part of the national government or as a special independent body created by legislative act. Examples include the Australian Tourist Commis- sion, British Tourist Authority, Deutsche Zentrale fur Tourismus (DZT) , New Zealand Tourism Board, Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, and the US Travel and Tourism Administration. These are often referred to as either National Tourist Offices (NTOs) or National Tourism Administrations (NTAs). It should also be noted that some authors use the acronym NTO to mean national tourist

• 1-3 organization " and others use PTO (public tourist office). 4 Generally, these organizations play a leadership role for tourism in their respective countries, drawing together the fragmented pieces of the industry and the often loosely coordinated national, state, regional and local government bodies. According to one source, there are approximately 175 NTOs worldwide. 5 Another source estimated that these NTOs operated between 500 and 700 foreign branch offices worldwide in 1983. 6

Many of these organizations have both international and domestic responsibilities in tourism policy, planning, development and marketing. Often these activities require substantial budgets; for example, the Australian Tourist Commission spent A$ 104.9 million in its fiscal year ending June, 1993. 7 Germany's D Z T had a total budget of DM 50.3 million for 1992, ~ and the British Tourist Authori ty

had a budget of around £31 million in 1992. 9 Despite the great responsibility and significant budgets of these organizations, they have not been the subject of much academic research to date, especially with respect to their international operations. As Choy has pointed out, very few previous studies have at tempted to analyze NTOs (t p 357).

The present study was motivated by the desire to fill an information gap concerning the operation of the foreign offices of NTOs. Specifically, it describes the NTOs of foreign countries within the United States and Canada, and the activities emphasized in their marketing programs. It was also designed to determine the characteristics of the senior executives of foreign offices of NTOs in North America.

P r e v i o u s r e s e a r c h o n N T O s

The research material available on NTOs is quite meagre, consisting of a handful of articles based on surveys of NTOs, and book chapters or sections of books describing the roles and activities of these types of organizations. The most frequently quoted sources are two World Tourism Organization publications: Aims, Activities, and Fields of Competence of National Tourism Organizations (1975) and Role and Structure of National Tourism Administrations (1979). 1°'11 The latter publication was based on a survey of 100 national tourism administrations. The research-based articles include Choy's analysis of five organizations (Hawaii, Hong Kong, Japan,

605

National tourist offices in North America: A M Morrison et al.

Singapore and Thailand) and Baum's survey of 112 NTOs with offices located in Europe. ~'3 Choy's focus was on the roles of NTOs, while Baum consi- dered only the NTO's policy development role. Lavery analysed the financing and structure of NTOs by reviewing the annual reports of NTOs from selected countries. 5

The textbooks that have devoted the most attention to NTOs include those by Pearce, 2 Middleton,12 and Mill and Morrison. ~3 Pearce's coverage is the most extensive and reviews the NTOs in the USA, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland and New Zea- land, as well as the main tourism organizations in Hawaii and Scotland. Middleton's marketing book, with the chapter entitled 'Marketing countries as destinations', draws mainly on the experience of the British Tourist Authority, while Mill and Morrison's coverage is again marketing-oriented and focuses greatest attention on the operations of the US Travel and Tourism Administration and Tourism Canada.

In addition to these works, several other authors have written about individual NTOs and the budgets of NTOs. For example, Hotel & Motel Management recently published an article listing the budgets of 23 separate NTOs including the US Travel and Tourism Administrat ion. ~4 The greatest shortcomings of these works and the textbook materials is the nar- rowness of their focus and the lack of empirically based research.

One obvious conclusion that can be drawn from these collective works is the great variety of NTOs that exist worldwide. This variety is reflected in different organizational names (eg authorities, com- missions, boards, tourist organizations, bureaux, tourist offices, corporations, departments, councils, ministries, etc), relationships to national govern- ments, budget levels, tourism policies, goals, objectives, responsibilities and foreign office locations. It is clear that no typical 'model ' for an NTO can be suggested because of the great diversity that there is in existing organizational types.

The roles and activities of national tourist offices NTOs have existed for many decades and their roles and activities have evolved over the years. The New Zealand Depar tment of Tourism claims to have been the first-established national tourism administration in 1901. However , it appears that the majority of NTOs have been established since the Second World War, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s (2 p 7). Before explaining the roles and activities of NTOs, a definition is provided.

Many definitions of national tourist offices can be found in the academic literature. One such definition is that an NTO is the organization officially responsible for the development and marketing of tourism for a country (13 p 435). Another is that the

NTO formulates and implements national tourism policy, j5 The World Tourism Organization (WTO) has identified planning, research and promotion as three key roles of national tourism administrations.lJ In his book Tourist Organizations, Pearce lists an NTO's functions as research, statistics, planning, inventory of tourist resources and measures for their protection, developments of tourist facilities, man- power developments, regulation of tourist enterprises and travel, facilitation of travel, and international cooperation in tourism (2 p 7). Like Middleton (~2 pp 209-225), however, the same author acknow- ledges that the most dominant role of an NTO is marketing,

Some countries have taken the step to split the tasks of marketing and policy/planning/development between two different agencies. The first of these agencies usually is referred to as the National Tour- ist Office (NTO) and is given the responsibility, among other things, for administering the country's international tourism marketing offices. An NTO often has little or not responsibility for marketing domestic tourism, as is the case with the US Travel and Tourism Administration and the Australian Tourist Commission. NTOs many also have no policy, planning or development roles; against the ATC is an example here. Some NTOs are established as statutory bodies or non-profit corporations by special legislative acts, and therefore are not directly responsible to national government ministries or departments. The second organization type is the National Tourism Administration (NTA) which tends to be given the rest of the tasks and typically has offices located only in the national capital. NTAs are normally set up within government ministries or departments. According to a World Tourism Organization survey of 100 NTOs, two-thirds were government ministries or departments (NTAs), and the other third were 20 separate legal entities. 1 i

Australia provides a good example of this type of division of responsibilities. Its NTO is the Australian Tourist Commission (ATC), a statutory authority established under the Australian Tourist Commis- sion Act of 1987. The ATC's main role is that of encouraging inbound, international travel to Austra- lia with three principal objectives: (1) increase the number of visitors to Australia from overseas; (2) maximize the benefits to Australia from overseas visitors; (3) ensure Australia is protected from adverse environmental and social impacts of international tourism. Australia's NTA is the Federal Gov- ernment 's Commonwealth Depar tment of Tourism located in Canberra, Its main responsibility is to establish tourism policies for Australia and to assist the tourism initiatives of the Commonwealth Gov- ernment with Australia. For example, in 1994 the Commonwealth Depar tment of Tourism published a National Ecotourism Strategy. Similarly, Japan's

606 Tourism Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 8

NTO is the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) and its NTA is the Department of Tourism (n pp 360-361).

In general, the six common objectives of NTOs abroad are as follows:*

• to increase the availability of the tourist product(s) of the destination by increasing the number of new tour programs and packaged vacations and the capacity of existing ones, or to maintain at targeted levels the number and capacities of such programs (Package and Tour Development Role);

• to secure maximum promotional exposure for the product-service mix of the destination (Prom- otional Role);

• to promote a favourable image of the country as a tourism destination and to maintain or enhance this image (Image Creation and Enhancement Role);

• to play a leadership role in the development of marketing and promotional partnerships between carriers, suppliers, travel trade intermediaries and other businesses in the host country and the originating countries (Partnership Development Role);

• to familiarize travel-trade distribution channels with the destination's services and products and stimulate them to increase sales (Travel Trade Marketing Role);

• to increase and make more effective the supply of information on the tourism services and products of the destination (Literature Distribution/ Fulfilment Role).

The roles of NTOs abroad have evolved and changed in the past 20 to 30 years. The distribution of literature to consumers (objective number 6 above) has always been a 'mainstay' function of these offices. ~6 Historically, this role was rather a passive one, with NTOs merely acting as 'order takers' and sending out literature about their countries when requested. With increased competition from other destinations and travel options (eg cruises, theme parks, casino gambling destinations), it is believed that NTOs have had to become more aggressive in creating consumer and travel trade interest in their countries. Another market trend that has affected how NTOs operate has been the growth in the popularity of tours and packaged vacations. Since these are assembled by tour operators and often booked through travel agents, NTOs have had to shift some of their emphasis from individual and independent travelers to the travel trade intermediaries. Thus, travel trade marketing and promotion by NTOs has been increasingly emphasized.

* Adapted from Mill and Morrison, op cit, Ref 13, p 455. Note that role labels were developed by author.


Another trend in the role of NTOs has been their increasing involvement in facilitating marketing partnerships in the private sector and in public- private cooperative efforts. In this way, NTOs provide 'added value' by bringing together tourism interests in the host and origin countries in specific cooperative ventures such as cooperative advertising, sales promotions and merchandising (eg travel/ trade show exhibits, consumer/trade contests, brochure/collateral development), personal selling efforts (eg sales 'blitzes'), and PR/publicity campaigns. The Australian Tourist Commission's 'Part- nership Australia' program is a good example of this, as is the USTTA's cooperative marketing with state tourism offices, airlines and hotel chains in overseas countries.

The establishment and maintenance of computerized consumer and travel trade databases is another emerging role of NTOs abroad. Traditionally, NTOs merely received enquiries and fulfilled the requests for literature without maintaining records on those enquiring. With the trend toward 'relationship marketing' (developing longer term relationships with individual clients), organizations are now realizing the benefits of capturing more detailed demographic and preference information on each customer. For example, in magazines advertising the availability of its traveler's guide, the Australian Tourist Commission asked those requesting the guides for information on past visits to Australia plus age, education, household income, accommodation preferences and preferences for packaged vs non- packaged travel. Geo-demographic and psychographic/ lifestyle analyses of potential travelers through zip/ postal code analysis of enquiries has become another useful database application for NTOs. While these types of database analyses are now becoming accepted ongoing research roles of NTOs, the databases also represent a valuable resource that can be passed on to others to follow up (eg airlines, hotels/ resorts, travel agents, tour operators, state tourist offices, etc)

Locations of NTOs abroad

Central to an NTO's marketing strategy is its choice of countries and cities in which to locate foreign offices. Most developed nations have five or more offices, and some have as many as 10 to 20 offices, mostly located in other developed countries. For example, Germany's DZT has 'branch offices' in 14 foreign locations: Amsterdam, London, New York, Zurich, Copenhagen, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm, Brussels, Los Angeles, Vienna, Milan, Toronto and Madrid. Australia's ATC has nine foreign offices in Auckland, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Osaka, Singapore and Tokyo. The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board has 13 foreign offices (Auckland, Chicago, Frankfurt,

Tourism Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 8 607


Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Osaka, Paris, Perth, Seoul, Sydney and Taipei).

There appears to be no readily available formula for selecting office locations, although these locations are generally placed in the country's leading tourist-generating markets. Germany's DZT, for example, states that it determines its most important foreign markets by volume, sales, potential and projected growth. In its most important country markets, Germany establishes 'branch offices' with between five and eight employees providing a full range of services to consumers and the travel trade. Australia follows a similar strategy with its nine offices located in seven of its eight largest tourist- generating markets (Japan, New Zealand, UK, USA (2), Singapore, Germany and Hong Kong). Selecting in-country locations for an NTO is often a complex and difficult decision. It seems that such offices are normally located in the most heavily populated cities within a country. However , there are no rules of thumb available as to how large a city must be to 'support ' a fully staffed NTO.

Office locations can be influenced by the decision to serve a multi-country market, rather than just one country. For example, several NTOs in North America attempt to appeal to the Canadian market through US office locations; Australia's ATC recently closed its Toronto office, and now serves the Canadian market from offices in New York and Los Angeles. Others service the Mexican, Central and South American markets through their US offices, including both Australia and New Zealand. Similar types of arrangements are commonly made with the Scandinavian nations and German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). While it would obviously be better from a marketing perspec- tive to have individual offices in each country within a region, an NTO achieves considerable economies by serving two or more countries from one office.

Foreign NTO locations also seem to be influenced by the geographic distribution of key travel trade intermediaries. For example, in the USA, a north- eastern location such as New York may be favoured over a western city such as Los Angeles because of the greater concentration of major tour operators and convention, meeting and incentive planners in the north-eastern part of the country. The locations of host countries and the gateway airports for direct flights also seem to affect where NTOs are situated. For example, European countries seem to favour east-coast locations in North America, while Asia- Pacific countries favour west-coast locations.

Great care must be taken when identifying foreign NTOs because of the considerable variety of formats employed. In their book, T o u r i s m in C o n t e m p o r a r y S o c i e t y , Hudman and Hawkins append a list of approximately 120 NTOs located in the U S A . Iv

However , not all of these locations are full-service NTOs with at least one person with full-time respon-

sibility for general tourism promotion for the country. In situations where countries, particularly the smaller, developing nations, cannot afford the costs of a full-service NTO, other less expensive alternatives are employed. These include using the office of the national airline as a contact point for tourist information on the country (eg Ecuador and Ecuatoriana Airlines), using the services of a sales representative or travel agent/tour operator (eg Bhutan and Bhutan Travel, Inc), or providing tourist information via the consular services in an embassy or consulate. Even the developed countries, including Germany's DZT, sometimes operate two-tiered foreign office systems consisting of full-service NTOs and representative or consular offices. Another practice is the use of regional tourist organization offices that act on behalf of several individual countries, eg the Scandinavian Tourist Boards for Den- mark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in the USA.

Funding of NTOs abroad Confirming the primacy of the NTO's marketing role, marketing costs generally represent their major expense category. For example, Germany's D ZT estimated its 1992 marketing expenses (excluding staff salaries) at 54.8% of total expenses. 8 The Australian Tourist Commission indicated that its marketing costs, again excluding staff salaries, were approximately 74% of its total operating expenses in 1992-93, with advertising costs representing 46% and promotions/publicity at 17%. 18 Choy, in ex- amining the NTOs of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Thailand, found that they devoted between 54% and 74% of their budgets to promotion (~ p 361). An estimated 69% of Maison de la France's total budget is devoted to promotion and publicity. 19 Middleton, quoting WTO data, states that marketing usually accounts for between a half and two-thirds of an NTO's total budget, which the previously quoted figures tend to confirm (~2 p 211). Generally, it appears as in ATC's case, that the majority of an NTO's marketing and promotional expenses are accounted for by advertising.

Although not much is known about the actual costs of establishing and maintaining foreign NTOs, there is little doubt that the costs are substantial, and account for the major proportion of an NTO's marketing budget. These costs include the salaries and benefits of NTO employees, office rental and other office-related costs, advertising expenditures, literature production and fulfilment costs, and other promotional expenses. One source, now almost 20 years old, estimated that the operation of NTOs abroad accounted for 40% of the typical NTO's total budget. Head office costs were lower than this, estimated at 34% of the total NTO operating costs. 2°

608 Tour&m Management 1995 Volume 16 Number 8

Consumer vs travel trade marketing One of the key marketing issues facing foreign-based offices of NTOs, particularly in a market the size of North America, is the relative emphasis that they should place on consumer versus travel trade marketing. Some would refer to this decision as the choice between a 'pull' and 'push' strategy, with the 'pull' strategy placing greatest emphasis on marketing to consumers, and the 'push' strategy emphasiz- ing travel trade marketing. According to Kotler, a push strategy uses trade promotion and personal selling to induce channel intermediaries to promote the producer's (NTO's) services to end users (consumers). A pull strategy involves consumer advertising and sales promotions to induce consumers to ask intermediaries about the producer 's (NTO's) services.2

As mentioned earlier, it appears that NTOs are placing greater relative emphasis on travel trade marketing (push strategy) in recent years. This has been caused mainly by the increasing power and influence of travel trade intermediaries in the travel marketplace. There is also the simpler logic that reaching hundreds or even thousands of travel trade intermediaries can be more efficient than appealing to millions of individual consumers.

The choice between consumer and trade marketing is affected by a variety of country-specific factors such as the relative size, complexity and power of the travel trade intermediaries, and their influence on outbound travel decisions. For example, the tour operating business is highly concentrated in both Germany and Japan, with both countries having relatively small numbers of very powerful tour operators. Although the business is also concentrated in the USA, the major tour operators are less powerful and there are, therefore, many more tour operator companies to target. The relative costs of consumer and travel trade advertising and other promotions (eg trade/travel shows and exhibitions) represent another key decision variable. In addition to the country-specific factors, certain NTO characteristics seem to affect the relative wisdom of adopting either a push or a pull strategy. The larger, well-funded NTOs can usually afford a combination of consumer and trade promotion. However, NTOs with small budgets may not be able to engage in consumer advertising and promotion (pull strategy), but have to settle for travel trade marketing (push strategy) and literature fulfulment.

The North American market The sheer size of the North American market, with a population of around 285 million people (USA and Canada) tens of thousands of potential travel trade 'partners', presents a great marketing challenge for foreign NTOs located there. Added to the large

National tourist offices in North America: A M Morr&on et al.

market size and the complexity of the distribution system, there is a belief among NTOs that the USA and Canada are expensive in terms of media 'buys' for advertising campaigns. Despite these marketing challenges, the USA and Canada represent one of the most affluent developed country markets in the world and provide substantial opportunities for potential visitors.

The vast numbers of travel agents (more than 32 000 in the USA) and tour operators in North America have motivated several NTOs to develop selective approaches in their travel trade marketing strategies. Many NTOs have developed special training programs, seminars and other qualification programs for travel agents resulting in specific travel agents being named as 'specialists' in arranging travel for the respective countries. These NTOs include the Australian Tourist Commission ('Aussie Specialist'), Jamaica Tourist Board ('JTB Travel Specialist'), New Zealand Tourism Board ('Kea travel agency' network), Scandinavian Tourist Boards ('Scandinavian Travel Agents' Registry'), and Scottish Tourist Board ('SCOTS' network). These programs help NTOs to identify and educate the most qualified and potentially productive travel agencies, and should increase the effectiveness of their travel trade marketing efforts.

Purposes of study The overall goal of this study was to develop, for the first time, a profile of foreign NTOs operating in the USA and Canada and to obtain directors' opinions and attitudes regarding the key marketing activities and operating issues of national tourist offices in North America.

Method Subjects. The subjects in this study were the senior executives or directors of all NTOs with offices in the USA and Canada. All initial mailing list of NTOs was prepared using the Travel Industry Per- sonnel Directory 22 supplemented by other director- ies prepared by various travel trade magazines. Once an initial mailing list was prepared, telephone calls were placed to each NTO to confirm the names and titles of their senior executives, and their mailing addresses. It should be noted that the initial mailing list required substantial updating once the telephone calling campaign was completed. In total, 84 questionnaires were mailed out.

Questionnaire design. A draft survey instrument (questionnaire) was designed to reflect the three purposes of this study. The initial draft was pretested with representatives from the Malaysian Tourist Development Corporation and the New Zealand Tourism Board. Following this, some changes were



Table 1 Overseas locations of NTOs

Location %

Europe Germany 91.9 UK 86.5 France 59.5 Italy 40.5 Netherlands 32.4 Spain 32.4 Austria 29.7 Belgium 21.6 Denmark 21.6 Sweden 21.6 Switzerland 21.6 Finland 8.1 Greece 8.1 Ireland 5.4 Czech Republic 2.7 Hungary 2.7 Norway 2.7 Poland 2.7 Portugal 2.7

Asia and Australasia Japan 56.8 Australia 37.8 Singapore 21.6 Hong Kong 16.2 Korea 16.2 Taiwan 13.5 Thailand 13.5 New Zealand 5.4

Central and South America Argentina 10.8 Brazil 8.1 Mexico 2.7

Middle East Israel 5.4

Africa South Africa 8.1

Note: Multiple responses

made to the questionnaire. The final questionnaire contained some 27 questions. Because of the large geographic distances between the respondents, it was decided to distribute questionnaires by mail, with respondents being asked to return them in postage-paid, return-address envelopes. The initial mailing of questionnaires took place in early 1994.

Procedures. The procedures used for the questionnaire design and for follow-up were those recom-

23 mended by Dillman. - Personahsed cover letters and envelopes were prepared for each respondent, and the questionnaire was specially developed to fit 'Total Design Method' guidelines. Two different follow-ups were used in an attempt to ensure the highest possible response rate.

Response rate. A total of 40 complete questionnaires was received. After deducting for questionnaires returned by the Post Office because of changes of

address, the final adjusted response rate was approximately 50%.

Profile of NTOs

The first purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of foreign NTOs operating in the USA and Canada. The characteristics that were measured were office locations, year of first office opening, years of office operation, budgets, employment levels, volumes of consumer and travel trade enquiries, procedures for handling enquiries, and office goals and objectives.

North American Locations. The three most popular locations for North American offices, in order, were New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Other US cities with offices included San Francisco, Washing- ton DC, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami and Boston. The leading office location in Canada was by far Toron- to. Other Canadian cities with NTOs were Mon- treal, Vancouver and Ottawa. Several of the NTOs had east- and west-coast locations in the USA and these offices tended to be located in New York and Los Angeles, eg the Australian Tourist Commission, New Zealand Tourism Board and the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board. If there was a third US office, it tended to be located in Chicago. If a fourth North American office was available, this was usually in Toronto. Generally, the respondents with only one North American office location had this office in New York City.

Overseas locations. The three leading overseas locations for NTOs were in Europe: Germany (91.9%), UK (86.5%) and France (59.9%) (Table 1). The leading non-European location was Japan, with 56.8% of the NTOs having offices there. Other popular country locations were Italy (40.5%), Au- stralia (37.8%), The Netherlands (32.4%) and Spain (32.4%).

Year of opening of first North American office. A majority (71.1%) of the first North American offices of the NTOs responding to this survey had opened in the 1960s or later (Table 2). Only 21% of the NTOs' first North American offices were opened prior to 1950. The median year of the first North American office opening was 1968.

Years of operation. The average number of years of operation of these NTOs' first offices was approximately 30 years (Table 2).

Budgets. The respondents were asked to supply budget figures for their own offices and for all their country's North American offices as a whole. In both cases, there were large ranges in budget figures from less than US$100 000 to more than $5 million.


Table 2 Years of opening of first North American NTO office

Opening date %

1900-09 2.6 1910-19 0.0 1920-29 2.6 19311-39 2.6 1940M9 l 3.2 1950-59 7.8 1960-69 18.5 1970-79 36.8 19811-89 13.2 19911-94 2.6

Notes: Median = 1968 Average years of operation of first North American office = 29.5

years Sample size (n) : 38

The average budget for the responding NTOs was approximately $1 316 000, but this figure were skewed toward the larger NTO budgets (Table 3). In fact, some 59.4% of the responding offices had budgets of less than $1 million.

The average combined budget of all North Amer- ican offices of all responding NTOs was approximately $2 899 000. Again, this mean value was skewed toward the higher-budget NTOs. Some 40%

Table 3 Budgets of North American NTOs (US$)

Budget category %

Total budget: all offices" Under 100 0013 100 000-249 999 250 000-499 999 500 000-749 999 750 000-999 999 1 000 000-1 999 999 2 001) 000-2 999 999 3 000 0011-3 999 999 4 000 001~4 999 999 5 000 000 or more

Budget for responding office ~' Under 100 000 100 I)00-249 999 250 01)0-499 999 500 000-749 999 750 000-999 999 1 000 000-1 999 999 2 000 000--2 999 999 3 000 000-3 999 999 4 000 000-4 999 999 5 000 000 or more

4.0 8.0

12.0 4.0

12.0 12.0

8.0 20.0

4.0 16.0

9.4 15.6 18.8 15.6 9.4 6.2 9.4 3.1 3.1 9.4

Notes: " Mean = $2 898 627

Median = $1 200 000 Total North American budgets = $72 465 663 Sample size (n) = 25

b Mean = $1 315 991 Median = $558 150 Total office budgets = $42 111 700 Sample size (n) ~- 32


of the countries had total North American office budgets of less than $l million.

Staff employed. On average, the total number of staff members employed by the North American NTOs was just under eight persons (Table 4). Most of the employees (an average of 6.6 people) were on a full-time basis. A majority of the NTOs (57.5%) employed a total of five or less people. In total, the 40 North American NTOs employed 284 people.

Citizens employed. The average number of citizens of the country represented employed in the North American NTOs was approximately five (Table 4). Some 70.3% of the total full- and part-time employees at the responding NTOs were citizens of their respective countries. On average, approximately two of the citizens in each office were in the senior management ranks.

Table 4 Staff employed by North American NTOs

Staff categories %

Full-time staff" One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten 11-20

Part-time staff ~ One Two Three Four

Total staff= One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten 11-20

0.0 12.8 17.9 17.9 7.7

12.8 2.6 0.0 2.6

10.3 15.4

76.5 11.8 5.9 5.9

2.5 5.0

12.5 17.5 20.0 10.0 5.0 0.0 2.5 7.5

17.5

Notes: Mean = 6.64 persons Median = 5 persons Sample size (n) = 39

~' Mean = 1.41 Median = 1 person Sample size (n) = 17

"Mean = 1.71 persons Median = 5 persons Total employees (# ) = 284 persons Sample size (n) = 40



Table 5 Citizens employed by North American NTOs

Number of country citizens %

Total no o f citizens employed ~ One 7.7 Two 20.5 Three 23. l Four 12.8 Five 7.7 Six 5.1 Seven 2.6 Eight 0.0 Nine 2.6 Ten 2.6 11-18 15.4

Number o f citizens in senior management ~ One 47.4 Two 26.3 Three 10.5 Four 5.3 Five 5.3 Six 0.0 Seven 2.6 Eight 0.0 Nine 2.6

Notes: a Mean = 5.1 persons

Median = 3 persons Total citizens employed = 199 Percentage of citizens to total employed = 70.3% Sample size (n) = 39

CMean = 2.2 persons Median = 2 persons Total citizens employed = 84 Percentage of citizens to total employed = 43.3% Sample size (n) = 38

Volume of enquiries. The major source of enquiries was via the telephone, with consumer enquiries outnumber ing those from travel trade intermediaries. On a weekly basis, NTOs received an average of 717 telephone enquiries, 316 mail and fax enquiries, and 73 walk-in enquiries (Table 6). For 1993, the average total number of enquiries received per office was 41 259.

Table 6 Average numbers of enquiries received at North American NTOs

Time period Consumer Travel trade All

Weekly enquiries Walk-ins na na 73

(34) Telephone 546 202 717

(35) (35) (40) Mail and fax 202 66 316

(34) (35) (39)

Annual enquiries Total enquiries (1993) 19 742 9 186 41 259

(39) (25) (33)

Note: Sample sizes shown in parentheses

Table 7 Methods of handling enquiries at North American NTOs

Methods/procedures %

Use o f outside f irms to handle telephone enquiries a Yes 8.6 No 91.4

Use o f outside f irms to handle literature fulf i lment b Yes 21.9 No 78.1

Time to send out literature in response to enquiries c Sent on day of enquiry 22.5 Within 1-2 days 35.0 Within 3-4 days 25.0 Within 5-7 days 10.0 Within 8-10 days 7.5

Notes: " Sample size (n) = 35 b Sample size (n) = 32

Sample size (n) = 40

Methods of handling enquiries. The majority of the NTOs (57.7%) indicated that their policy was to send out requested literature within two days of receiving enquiries (Table 7). Another 35% stated that literature fulfilment usually took between three and seven days. It was most common for the NTOs not to use the services of outside firms to handle telephone enquiries and literature fulfulment. However, a significant 21.9% of the NTOs used outside firms for literature fulfilment.

Most important goals. The respondents were asked to list the three most important goals or objectives of their offices. The most frequently supplied goal/ objective was that of promoting the country of destination, mentioned by approximately two-thirds of the respondents (Table 8). Other frequently mentioned goals/objectives related to marketing, educat- ing and assisting the travel trade, and enhancing the image and awareness of countries.

Attitudes and opinions of NTO directors Another purpose of the present study was to gain directors' attitudes and opinions on the importance

Table 8 Most important goals of North American NTOs

Goals/objectives %

Promote tourism of country/dest ination Increase knowledge of country/awareness Help educate and facilitate travel trade Market ing of destination to tourists Strengthen image of dest ination/country Increase number of tourists to destination Encourage more tourist spending Increase length of stay of visitors

67.6 37.8 29.7 29.7 21.6 18.9 10.8 8.1

Notes: Multiple responses Sample size (n) = 37


Table 9 Relative importance of marketing activities among North American NTOs

Marketing activities Mean rank

Distributing promotional literature to travel trade intermediaries (eg travel agents, tour operators) (n = 39) 9.03 Distributing promotional literature to consumers (n = 40) 8.78 Organizing educational/training seminars/ workshops for the travel trade (n = 36) 8.69 Developing new packages with the travel trade (n = 31) 8.55 Arranging familiarization trips for travel writers (n = 38) 8.03 Advertising in consumer travel magazines/ newspapers (n = 32) 7.94 Arranging familiarization trips for travel trade intermediaries (n = 37) 7.54 Making sales calls on travel trade intermediaries (n = 35) 7.51 Maintaining a computerized database of enquiries (n = 29) 7.45 Exhibiting at travel trade shows (n = 40) 7.40 Advertising in travel trade magazines/newspapers (n = 35) 7.17 Exhibiting at consumer travel shows (n = 31) 5.48 Making sales calls on consumers (eg groups) (n = 24) 5.24

of var ious marke t ing activities to their respect ive offices. Some in fo rmat ion was also ga thered on staffing issues conce rn ing NTOs .

Relat ive impor tance o f marke t ing activities. The responden t s were suppl ied with a list of 13 different marke t ing activities and asked to rate the import - ance of each of them on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1O being the highest level of impor tance . Based on their responses , it can be conc luded that the most important marke t ing activity involves the d is t r ibut ion of p romot iona l l i te ra ture to the travel t rade and to individual consumers (with m e a n rankings of 9.03 and 8.78 respectively) (Table 9). Next in impor t ance came two o ther travel t rade liaison activities, organizing educa t iona l / t r a in ing seminars or workshops for the t rade t rade (mean = 8.69) and developing new packages with the travel t rade (mean = 8.55). The fifth and sixth h ighes t - ranking activities were a r r ang ing fami l ia r iza t ion trips for t ravel writers (mean = 8.03) and advertis.ing in c o n s u m e r travel magaz ines /newspapers (mean = 7.94). Genera l ly , with the except ion of magaz ine and newspaper adver t is ing, activities involving the travel t rade were r anked of grea ter impor t ance than those for consumers.

The two marke t ing activities that received the lowest impor t ance rank ings were exhibi t ing at consumer travel shows (mean = 5.48) and making sales calls on consumers (mean = 5.42).

Opin ions on issues regarding of f ice operations. The r e sponden t s were asked for their op in ions on 10


different issues suppl ied by the researchers . These issues were main ly re la ted to N T O marke t ing , but some c o n c e r n e d N T O employee educa t ion and t ra ining. The N T O directors were asked to rank each of the 10 s ta tements on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 represen t ing ' s t rongly agree ' and 5 represen t ing ' s t rongly disagree ' .

The two s ta tements drawing the highest level of ag reemen t were ' jo in t ven tures with o ther travel- re la ted businesses in the US and C a n a d a increase the effect iveness of your coun t ry ' s p romot iona l efforts ' ( me a n = 1.23) and 'fast responses to consumer and travel t rade enqui r ies are essential for an N T O to increase tourist arrivals ' (mean = 1.45) (Table 10).

D i s c u s s i o n

Geographical representation

N T O s loca te fo re ign o p e r a t i o n s where severa l na t iona l marke ts share the same language or marke t s t ructure in order to exploit all ma jo r oppor tun i t i e s and to service d i f fe ren t local m a r k e t needs . 7"8 Al though there is no typical strategy for choosing locat ions by the host count ry , an analysis of N T O

Table 10 NTO directors' opinions on issues regarding the operation of North American NTOs

Statements Mean rank

Joint ventures or cooperation with other travel- 1.23 related businesses (hotels, wholesalers, airlines, travel agencies, etc) in the USA and Canada increase the effectiveness of your country's promotional efforts (n = 40) Fast responses to consumer and travel trade enquiries are essential for an NTO to increase tourist arrivals (n = 40 1.45 Database marketing is an essential step in effective 1.75 NTO promotions in North America (n - 40) It is essential that an NTO places advertisements 1.82 about its country in consumer travel magazines (eg Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler) (n = 40) Employees should have training in marketing or sales in order to work in an NTO office (n = 39) 1.90 Employees should have formal education in tourism 2.40 to qualify for positions with NTOs (eg university degree, travel-related certification) (n = 40) In North America, it is more effective for an NTO to work closely with travel trade intermediaries rather than concentrating on consumer advertising (n = 39) 2.67 Joint ventures or cooperation with non-travel 2.73 businesses (eg manufacturers) in the USA and Canada increase the effectiveness of your country's promotional efforts (n = 40 It is not essential that an NTO places 3.72 advertisements about its country in North American travel trade magazines/newspapers (eg) Travel Weekly) (n = 40) It is not important for NTO employees to have prior 3.72 work experience in tourism before joining an NTO (n = 39)



locations and dates of openings raises several implications.

Although most NTOs (89.5%) opened their first offices in the 50 years between 1940 and 1990, over half (55.3%) were sited during the two decades between 1960 and 1980. NTOs opening offices during this time showed a definite trend in geographic priority when choosing locations. The data show that nearly all of these NTOs opened their first office in New York, then later chose a west coast location (either Los Angeles or San Francisco); if a third location was opened, it was either in Chicago or Toronto.

Another 13.2% of the NTOs did not choose the same locations as NTOs that opened during the previous 20 years. Offices were less likely to be opened in New York and Los Angeles, and more likely to be opened in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto) , Washington DC, Miami and other cities. Responden ts indicated that seven offices were closed during the 1980s, typically in cities not located on the east or west coast. Clearly, downsizing and reorganization occurred in NTO structures during this decade.

This phenomenon may be explained by the changing nature of NTO's primary functions. As stated earlier, the major objective of NTOs 20 years ago was the dissemination of literature and promotion of the country. As such, it appears that the predomi- nant site location strategy at that time was to locate in major centres of population and, correspondingly, markets for international travel. Most requests for literature fulfilment originated from these cities. Personal contacts, telephone communication and literature fulfilment were more cost-effective with geographical representation.

However , over the past two decades, the activities of NTOs have changed. They now have a priority of marketing the country as a destination in addition to disseminating literature. Because of this change in strategic direction, and due to technological adv- ances, mainly in communications, geographical representation is less critical than it once was. For example, the Australian Tourist Commission operations in North America were restructured in 1993. The Los Angeles office gained responsibility for all consumer marketing activities in the Americas. The New York office now focuses on trade development and support, as well as the meetings, conventions and incentive markets. The Chicago and Toronto offices were closed and resources were redeployed into direct marketing activities. 7

Dur ing the past two decades , technological advancements in communications have decreased the need to be geographically 'close' to the customer. Telephone technologies, and the operating costs of such technologies, such as 800 toll-free numbers, local calls that are routed to regional centres, and the wide use of facsimile machines, have made it

possible to service national markets at a level that was once possible only by locating in a specific market location. The development of electronic media, such as CD ROMs with text, sounds and video clips, allows an NTO to mail a large amount of information to prospective travellers from a national centre at a very low cost. Finally, computer technologies, including electronic bulletin boards and the Internet, are increasingly being utilized to provide databases of travel destination information and literature that can be ordered without any contact with NTO personnel whatsoever.

The marketing activities and literature fulfilment objectives of NTOs within the North American market now can be effectively accomplished with one or two national offices. The approach of locating these offices within other government offices of the country, such as embassies or national airlines, would appear to be an increasingly cost-effective strategy as these technological alternatives to geographical representation continue to develop.

Costs and benefits of representative office strategies The means of $1.3 million for individual NTOs and $2.9 million for NTO North American budgets indicate a substantial investment in representat ive offices. What kind of results accrue to NTOs from this investment?

From information provided voluntarily by respondents, and from personal conversations with NTO directors, the investigators determined that North American budgets range from 8% to 23% of total NTO budgets worldwide. As stated by the DZT, the strategy of allocating NTO resources to various branch offices is based on 'each foreign market in terms of volume, potential, spending level, and estimated future growth, as a basis for rating the market and deciding on a strategy of market pre- servation or market expansion' (s p 9). The D Z T allocates its resources and and provides strategic direction to its branch offices abroad on this basis.

The 1993 Annual Report of the Australian Tourist Commission 7 provides an example of how closely NTO investments relate to market performance. North American offices of the ATC received 13.3% of total fiscal year 1993 operating expenses. Arrivals in Australia from North America during the same period were 11.5% of total arrivals, spending 12.3% of the total expenditures by visitors. Of 114 total staff members working for the ATC as of 10 June 1993, 15 (seven in Los Angeles and eight in New York) or 13.2% of total staff were located in North America. 7

Spending levels by tourists from foreign markets appear to be a critical driver in allocating resources for NTOs abroad. In 1991 there were 27.7 million tourist arrivals in the Federal Republic of Germany, with 2.8 million from overseas. The number of these visitors originating in the United States was 1.7


million, or 6.1% of total visitors and 61% of visitors from overseas. However , travellers from the USA continue to be one of the most important visitor groups to the D Z T , accounting for 8% of all travel industry receipts in Germany . Investments in N T O efforts within the USA are projected to increase over the next few years. ~

Organization and activities of NTOs The results of the study portray the average NTO director as a college educated 46-year-old male with citizenship of the N T O country, earning a salary of over $50 000. The director has been in the position for five years and has an 18-year history of various positions within the tourism industry.

These offices typically employ six or seven full- time staff, and one or two part- t ime staff, with five staff members having citizenship of the NTO country. Two of these staff have a senior management role. These staff handle on average 140 phone calls per day requesting information; 100 from consumers and 40 from the travel trade. They receive 53 mail and fax requests per day, 40 from consumers and 14 from the travel trade. Assuming five staff members handle this workload (total staff of seven, less two management personnel) , each employee responds to approximately 28 phone calls and 10 faxes or pieces of mail per day. Handling these enquiries is a substantial workload for the typical N T O staff. The average office space is just over 232 m 2 (2500 ft2), a minimum amount of space for this number of staff and storage requirements for literature inventories.

The irony of this situation is that, in many cases, servicing information requests has become a secon- dary priority for NTOs. The Director of the Swiss NTO recently remarked that consumers and travel intermediaries have high expectations for tourist offices to have immediate answers to any questions that a caller may have. The demands of answering numerous enquiries have diverted staff from com- pleting longer term market ing and promotional p rogrammes , which the Director believes brings a greater return from staffing expenses. The long-term solution, according to this Director , is to create a means to service these enquiries effectively without tying up N T O staff resources (personal conversation with Joseph Buhler, December 1994).

Almost one-quar ter (22%) of the NTOs appear to be following this strategy by contracting outside firms to handle literature fulfilment. NTOs typically do not use outside firms to handle te lephone enquiries, but there appears to be a growing trend to relay orders for brochures and promotional materials to distribution centres. For example, all NTO members of the Car ibbean Tourism Association use a mailing service located on Long Island, New York for the fulfilment of literature requests. The economies of scale of such an ar rangement reduce the costs of servicing literature requests. Travel Corn-


panions, a subsidiary of American Express Travel Company , offers such a distribution service to NTOs. The company maintains inventories of promotional materials and markets their availability through various channels, including American Ex- press Travel offices and electronic bulletin boards. The names and addresses of individuals ordering an NTO' s materials are forwarded to the N T O for inclusion in the NTO database and sales lead programmes.

The subcontracting of literature fulfilment by an overburdened N T O staff may positively affect an important pa ramete r of NTO service marketing, namely, the timeliness of response to requests for information. According to respondents in this study, most NTOs try to get literature requests sent off within one week. The NTO directors in this study felt strongly that fast responses to consumer and travel trade enquiries are essential for an N T O to increase tourist arrivals. These directors also consi- dered the distribution of promotional literature one of the most important market ing activities among North American NTOs.

A study of responsiveness for requests for in- 24 formation from NTOs found an unusually high rate

of non-response ranging from 21% for call requests to 29% for written requests. Apparent ly , the de- mand for information is so overwhelming for some NTOs that replies are not made at all. For the 59 NTOs that did respond to phone calls in the study, the average number of days for the information to arrive was 12.5. Most NTOs surveyed in the present study claimed that literature is sent out within seven days of receiving the enquiry. The difference of five days, representing transit t ime in the mail system, is a reasonable amount of t ime expected for third-class mail to be sent across the country from a national office.

Choice of focus on consumers or intermediaries The choice of focus by NTOs between consumer and trade market ing is not made clear by this study's results. Equal importance was assigned to consumers and intermediaries in the stated objectives of the NTOs and the opinions of N T O directors. There was no clear emphasis by large or small NTOs on either consumers or intermediaries.

The difficulties in analysing the choice of focus is illustrated by a review of the 1993 operating expenses of the Australian Tourist Commission for the North Amer ican market . Monies spent by obtaining key consumer objectives represented 87.5% of expenses, with 12.5% of expenses going toward trade intermediaries. Of the total expenses for North America, 69.4% went toward print, television and direct mail advertising aimed at the consumer. The high proport ion of N T O resources allocated to the consumer market may indicate a pull strategy versus a push strategy, and a focus on consumers. On the



other hand, these expenses may only reflect the high relative cost of consumer travel advertising and may obscure an actual operating focus on travel intermediaries, where costs are less substantial.

From the authors' follow-up interviews with selected NTO directors, it is clear that consumer advertising in the USA is indeed relatively expensive and is perceived as being so by NTOs. This is especially true of the two most persuasive advertising media vehicles in destination marketing: television and consumer trade magazines. The high minimum investment required to advertise a country in these media precludes many smaller and low- budgeted NTOs from consumer advertising in the USA. Many NTOs which cannot afford these high- cost media are forced to seek out less expensive promotional vehicles and into a heavier reliance on push strategies using the travel trade intermediaries. There may also be a greater tendency among these smaller NTOs to view their role more narrowly as that of handling enquiries and information dissemination. A study by Ogilvy and Mather indicated that only 19 countries or regional groupings spent over $1 million in US consumer advertising in 1991. These included Mexico, Canada, six Caribbean nations, seven European destinations (the ETC, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Spain and the UK), Australia, New Zealand, India and Malaysia. 25 The implication based on further analysis, therefore, is that the relative emphasis placed between push and pull strategies is not a free choice, but one directly influenced by the absolute size of the NTO's North American budget.

Growing importance of niche marketing strategies The North American travel market is becoming increasingly fragmented and, as such, susceptible to a variety of market segmentation approaches. With- in the USA, the size and importance of specific ethnic and national groups is increasing, particularly the African-American, Hispanic and Asian populations. This demographic trend toward 'minority' populations has opened the door for niche marketing strategies by smaller, lower budget NTOs that can more effectively appeal to these groups of US residents. For example, some African nations including Ghana have effectively tapped the 'search for roots' market among African-Americans. The growing importance of specialized media (television programmes, magazines, newspapers, etc) provides more highly targeted media vehicles for reaching ethnic/national markets in the USA.

NTO niching strategies are also possible based on the attractions or activities possible within specific countries. For example, Costa Rica and Belize have gained great recognition in the USA as unique 'ecotourism' destinations. By clearly focusing on their nature-based attractions, they have effectively differentiated themselves from other destinations in

the Americas. Niching in this way allows the smaller, low-budget NTOs to narrow their focus onto special- interest groups that can be more effectively pin- pointed and reached at a relatively low cost.

Conclusion This article has provided a comprehensive profile of North American NTOs and their marketing priorities. Above all, it has shown that there is great diversity in these organizations in such key factors as organizational structure, budget support and staff employment. Locational strategies based on geographical representation in regional markets are yielding to strategies of fewer offices using advanced communication technology.

The role of NTOs in foreign countries is evolving and changing. For example, the increasing importance of travel trade marketing by NTOs located within North America has been confirmed through this research. The foreign-based NTO's role in developing computerized databases of consumer and travel trade contacts is also growing in acceptance. While it is clear that the traditional literature distribution and fulfilment role of these organizations remains the most important, this study suggests that the NTO's role is becoming more diversified and increasingly proactive.

There is a great need for more empirical research on NTOs and especially their foreign offices. Many of the operating data available on these organizations is now dated, having been collected between 10 and 15 years ago. More recent research has been piecemeal and has not provided a truly global pers- pective on NTO operations. The most important research requirement is for a comprehensive study on the estimated 175-200 NTOs worldwide to determine their operating expenditures, funding sources, employment levels, roles and activities, criteria for selecting foreign office locations and the expenditures in respect of these foreign offices. There is also ample evidence to suggest that the roles and activities of NTOs are changing and that a better under- standing of these changes is required.

Much of the recent research on NTOs has concentrated almost exclusively on the NTOs from developed countries. Developing country NTOs have been largely overlooked, possibly because of their small budgets and inability to support large networks of foreign offices. The topic of how the developing countries can acquire effective representation and exposure in their major tourist-generating markets needs much more attention in the scholarly literature. New models of permanent representation, such as multi-country, regional tourist information cen- ters, need to be explored further. Existing communications and computer technologies, incorpo- rated into NTO marketing programs, may allow development of these regional centres and offer


cost-effective alternatives to traditional literature fulfilment and information dissemination. Regional offices may also become a more viable option for developed-country NTOs in the future if the costs of maintaining individual country offices continue to escalate at the pace seen in the recent past. Indeed, the regionalized approach may better match the needs of those travellers visiting several country destinations on individual trips.

For tourism marketers in general, this research has important implications. As a growing tide of tourism marketers, including such industry leaders as Club Med and Hyatt Hotels, are developing their own 'electronic brochures' and 'home pages' on the lnternet, how important will local representation in markets be in the 21st century? Will potential visitors in increasing numbers eschew traditional print brochures for their new electronic cousins? Will travel information be browsed with the click of the mouse rather than a flick of the pages? While this article has not provided a definitive answer to these questions, it does highlight that the electronic distribution of travel information is on the rise, and that the traditional ways of requesting and disseminating this information are changing. NTOs and other travel organizations need to get ready to adapt to these changes, or pay the consequences of being left behind by both competitors and customers.

R e f e r e n c e s

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National Tourist Offices in North America: an analysis

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