Developing a market-oriented strategy for a Bulgarian rural tourism enterprise

Plachkov, Atanas ; Ivanov, Stoyan

4. term

Tourism, Master

2013

2013-07-26

243 pages

Marketing research is vital for businesses to successfully thrive in the ever more changing market environment. To do so, entrepreneurs have come to acknowledge the prerequisite need to understand consumers’ behavior and decision making processes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Danish market potential as a source of outbound tourism to rural areas of Bulgaria. The St. Nikola guest house in the region of Plovdiv, Bulgaria is used as a case study, however, the research findings are broadly applicable to other rural accommodation establishments. A total number of 412 selfadministrated questionnaires were gathered in Copenhagen and data are analyzed by Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The test results outlined life cycle as most appropriate criteria for segmenting the market. Therefore the study segregates the Danish market into ‘young tourists’, ‘family tourists’, and ‘elderly tourists’ segments. Each segment is analyzed and discussed in order to draw practical implications for successful promotional targeting. The paper recommends ‘elderly tourists’ as a target group for the case study and propose mission and vision statements.

rural tourism ; marketing strategy ; questionnaire ; danish market ; bulgaria

Download
View record in AAU Student Projects