Managing Consumption and Evaluation of the Tourism Product:

Effective marketing in the tourism industry and leisure travel business requires an organizational focus on the tourist as a consumer. In this context, the tourism product is more appropriately viewed as an experience rather than a service or facility. Management of that experience is both a challenge and an opportunity for the marketing -conscious tourist organizations in identifying important features of the touristic experience that can be managed to enhance the consumer's evaluation of it and to meet organizational objectives. Implicit in the discussion is a challenge to the tourism industry to expand its definition of the tourism product and capitalized on the opportunities that are available for managing the consumer's involvement in and evaluation of the product.