Yacht Tourism and Internet Marketing Applications

The Internet is a network of computer networks that make it possible for firms and individuals to publish and exchange information and conduct transaction and exchanges worldwide. People can obtain valuable information about companies, markets, products on the Web. Internet marketing and sales on-line are highly increasing each year. Marketing for yacht tourism is complicated since it deals with a specific and sophisticated target market with special needs and it should provide clients with options and alternative ways to accomplish their goals. In yacht tourism which consists of yacht and marine world, effective and efficient marketing can be an art form and subject to the variables of the yacht itself (location, age, condition, etc.), the characteristics of marinas, the services provided by them and the quality and education level of human resources. In Turkey, the rapid increase in internet applications for destination marketing, direct lodging and travel registrations / sales, has given rise to development of electronic tourism markets, which is one of the most important application domains in the World Wide Web. Since tourism is an important industry for Turkey, which carries the country to the global top 10 in international tourism receipts and arrivals, Turkey needs to adopt new means of responding the customers' changing needs at new alternative types as yacht tourism and means as internet marketing. One of the most important applications that could help for such differentiation is through Internet marketing may be an excellent tool for yacht tourism due to its flexibility, speed, place and time availability that it provides to users. This paper consists of two parts. First part is about the basics of internet usage in yacht tourism. It covers topics of; internet usage in yacht tourism, success and failure factors in internet marketing in yacht tourism, things to consider when establishing Web sites for yacht tourism. The second part of the study is a practical part, where, 45 boat owners that are the customers of yacht tourism are interviewed about their special expectancies from internet marketing.