engleski

A marketing Approach to Creating Clients in Tourism and the Hotel Industry

Used in a narrower sense than the term “ customer” , the term “ client” generally refers to a physical or legal person engaged, for instance, with a company in an ongoing business relationship, generally in which the company is personally familiar with the physical or legal person. Where the buyer/customer may remain anonymous to the company, the client cannot. Where the buyer/customer is treated as a part of a multitude or a larger segment, the client is treated on a one-to-one basis. In Croatia, however, it is not possible to speak of clients in this sense in the majority of economic branches, including tourism and the hotel industry, due to objective reasons. Instead, we can only speak of customers in the broadest meaning of the word. Conceptually an offshoot of an older marketing “ movement” , that is, relationship marketing, CRM (customer relationship management) incorporates the instruments of electronic business to reinforce customer relations, improve customer services, and reduce the costs of retaining customers, thus increasing profitability – all in the sense of the saying “ customer once, client forever” . This paper attempts to suggest how this could be achieved in tourism and the hotel industry.

client; customer; customer loyalty; customer relationship management; tourism

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