RAISING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TOURISM MARKETING AND BRANDING: EVIDENCE FROM ARMENIA.

This research paper is a summary of the arguments and counterarguments about the scientific discussion on the issue of tourism marketing. The research aims at analysing tourism marketing in Armenia, find out the main gaps and suggest ways for raising its effectiveness. The analysis of the available literature sources and approaches for solving the problem indicates that the essence of tourism marketing is to understand and meet the needs of tourists. The importance of this scientific problem is that using marketing strategies is the primary mean to develop tourism. Also, destination branding is discussed, which may reflect the identity of a destination. Nowadays, the rise of the Internet gives various opportunities to present a country as an attractive tourism destination by using different marketing strategies and involve international tourists. Investigation of the topic of marketing and branding in the paper is carried out in the following rational arrangement. The essence and significance of tourism marketing and branding available in the literature are discussed, the main activities of tourism marketing in Armenia are analysed, and as a result, some suggestions are made for improving tourism marketing performance in Armenia. Besides, tourism brand of Armenia is processed, which reflects the history and culture of the country. Mainly qualitative methods were used in the research. The results of the empirical analysis are presented in the paper, which showed that having a good country brand strategy is a critical factor for achieving a high level of awareness among international tourists. The research analytically affirms that effective marketing and branding is the basis of tourism development. Armenian tourism stage in the tourism life cycle model is evaluated between involvement and development, so here marketing activities are necessary as well. The research results may be useful for state organs of the sphere for their marketing and branding strategic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]