Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management

Senses in Hospitality: How Do Hotels Appeal to Them?
Nisan Yozukmaz, Cafer Topaloğlu

Abstract
Sensory marketing is one of the modern marketing approaches which has been used in various sectors for a long time. It has been applied in tourism industry, too, especially in destination and hotel marketing. Hospitality sector is very appropriate for sensory marketing applications, even though the fact that there are not many hotels which use this approach in their marketing policies. The purpose of this study is to explore and reveal sensory marketing applications in 5-Star hotels operating in Bodrum, Mugla. With the method of complete sampling, all the hotels were included in this study. In this qualitative study, the methods applied for data collection were interview, observation and document analysis. The data were collected via a question form for interviews, field notes and photos taken through observations at the hotels and analyzed with a qualitative analysis software program. As a result, it was determined that sensory marketing applications appealing to guests’ senses were being used at the hotels in Bodrum; visual marketing was the one used mostly at the hotels among other sensory marketing types; though the majority of the hotels did not apply these sensory practices strategically, the rest using this marketing approach in a strategic and planned way got many positive feedbacks from their customers.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jthm.v4n2a4