Long Tail Tourism: New Geographies For Marketing Niche Tourism Products

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The Long Tail concept refers to the Internet‐based economy that has enabled company success through a focus on highly specialized services and products that are not in high volume demand, but maybe in high‐value demand. The concept of the post‐tourist, for example, is a Long Tail phenomenon. Long Tail marketing approaches are proving success due to advances in communication technology and social networking that have given more people access to a broader range of goods and services and information. The Long Tail is not without its challenges, including increased global competition, and it has not abandoned geographic considerations. Geography, in fact, can help to differentiate niche products and must still be overcome to consummate the tourist experience.

Portions of this article were originally published in: Lew, A. A. (2006). Long tail tourism: Implications of the distributed business model for the tourism and travel industry. In N. Othman (Ed.), Conference Proceedings: The 2nd Tourism Outlook Conference—Tourism Edge and Beyond (pp. 26–38). Shah Alam, Malaysia: Universiti Teknologi MARA.

Keywords:

• The Long Tail
• social software
• marketing
• geography
• the Internet

Notes

Portions of this article were originally published in: Lew, A. A. (2006). Long tail tourism: Implications of the distributed business model for the tourism and travel industry. In N. Othman (Ed.), Conference Proceedings: The 2nd Tourism Outlook Conference—Tourism Edge and Beyond (pp. 26–38). Shah Alam, Malaysia: Universiti Teknologi MARA.