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Promotional Strategies of Andhra Pradesh Tourism
Development Corporation
Mr. Hemant Kumar Shastry
(Research Scholar, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad -500033 (A.P.), India)
Cell 09989114576 hkshastry@gmail.com
Dr. I. ANAND PAWAR
(Dept. of Commerce, Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad -500033 (A.P) India)
Abstract: Tourism marketing and promotional efforts are the basic activities to link the product
with the potential tourist market both at state and national levels. Promotional strategy is the
function of informing, persuading, and influencing a tourist decision. Despite of various
resources and potential of satisfying the needs and motives of almost every class of visitor, the
state of Andhra Pradesh have not been able to attract more and more tourists, particularly
international tourists. The present study is designed to make an attempt to understand about the
promotional strategies adopted by APTDC and to examine critically.
INTRODUCTION
Promotion is a marketing function, which communicates to the tourist about the
availability of the products, services and their prices as well as delivery system and
terms attached to the offer. Promotion helps to keep the gap between promise making
and promise keeping. Promise making is when you are alerting the tourist that you can
offer something to them. Promise keeping is the real performance of what was
promised. Promotion is such a vital tool that links the two domains (promise making
and keeping).Promotion is the communicative activity of marketing. It fills the
perceptual and informational gaps that exist between suppliers of tourism (industry)
and the tourists (market). Promotion involves the creation and dissimulation of
information that the tourist need to take a purchase and consumption decision.
Promotional strategy is a controlled integrated programme of communication methods
and materials designed to present an organization and its products to prospective
customers; to communicate need satisfying attributes of product to facilitate sales and
therefore give a long-run-profit performance.
ROLE OF PROMOTION IN TOURISM
Tourism business at all levels are becoming increasingly competitive, due to emergence
of new destinations, rapid and affordable modes of transport, new marketing strategies
and tools, changing trends etc. One of the 4P’s of tourism marketing mix is tourism
promotion also known as tourism marketing communication. Tourism being a very
competitive industry requires a coordinated management and marketing approach,
based on a collective vision and strong partnership among stakeholder including
governmental bodies and state and central people. Tourism businesses will succeed
with the help of a strong marketing organization for tourism product or service. In
promotion of tourism product or service, the role of social media plays a vital role. Now
a day’s more travellers use online resources to learn about travel destinations, service

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providers, and pricing options to inform and make their purchases. Effective use of
social media is probably the best tool for destinations for raising awareness about the
destination. It’s cheap and effective. But it requires time, planning, good strategy and
innovation.
BRIEF PROFILE OF APTDC
Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) is a state government
agency which promotes tourism in Andhra Pradesh, India. APTDC is a body of the
Government of Andhra Pradesh responsible for development of tourism in the state.
APTDC was incorporated in 1976 and carries out commercial operations with a focus
on creation of tourism infrastructure and products. The information centers provide
information on various historical and religious sites, APTDC complexes (for tourist
accommodation) at different locations as well as information about festivals and fairs
celebrations in the state. The State Tourism Department, in addition to the Tourism
Director Office in Hyderabad, has opened Tourism information centers at Chennai,
New Delhi, Bangalore, Goa, Mumbai and Kolkata. Besides, APTDC has also set up
several tourist complexes and 53 Haritha Hotels, which provide quality accommodation
to the tourists at affordable rates. Over the last few years, APTDC has added an array of
function to its lists of tasks, with a determination to show commendable performance.
From just providing information to tourists, it has gone into serious business like
accommodation, catering, & such other service that have become essential for ensuring
tourist infrastructure & service.
LITERATURE REVIEW
National Tourist Organizations’ engage in sales promotion activities in an attempt to
persuade potential tourists to visit the destination, and these activities may take various
forms including media advertising and public relations (Witt and Witt, 1995).Promoted
image brand should always reflect the reality of a destination (Maurice N.M,2007). A
tendency among companies not to take sales promotions seriously enough when
developing and implementing their marketing strategy (Ken Peattie & Sue Peattie,
1996). Destination managers and marketers require this understanding in the marketing
and promotion of destinations (Bassey Benjamin Esu, 2010). Having reviewed previous
research studies, it is found that many of the researchers have focused their attention on
sales promotion activities related with tourism industry, brand image in tourism
industry, etc. No specific research study has covered intensively on the promotional
strategy of APTDC, which required for promotion to increase its presence in Andhra
Pradesh. As APTDC is the state tourism corporation in the field of tourism in Andhra
Pradesh. It is therefore, the researcher has selected APTDC.
NEED FOR THE STUDY
Tourism in India is going through a significant phase of growth and development. The
growth in Indian tourism industry both in terms of Tourist arrival and foreign exchange
earnings is notable. India has a lot of potential in the field of tourism and travel as
compared to some of the other countries like Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong

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Kong and Mauritius which earn more foreign exchange than India. As it is a matter of
concern, however, that a country which supports more than sixteen per cent of the
world population had just one per cent share of the global tourist arrival. Tourism,
however, has become a fiercely competitive business for tourism destinations all over
the world. However, India’s tourism growth is blocked by specific factors such as poor
perception of the security and safety of tourists when travelling in India, a lack of
adequate international and domestic marketing, shortages of well-trained, tourism-
friendly staff, restrictions on international flights, weak linkages within the private and
public sectors, and fragmentation within the sector itself.
Promotional strategy is a controlled integrated programme of communication methods
and materials designed to present an organization and its products to prospective
customers. Understanding consumers’ needs and wants is fundamental. It is important
to know why consumers’ prefer one destination against another cites that the finding
might ease promotional strategy. Tourism is promoted by the government both state
and national level because it supposedly contributes to creating wealth at the national
and local levels. In many developing countries tourism have moved as the best method
for earning the foreign exchange. This means that tourism is the only way to attract
people throughout the world to a country. Tourism also generates enough revenue to
maintain and preserve the heritage and historical monuments which would otherwise
have fallen into rapid disintegrate.
Andhra Pradesh is the southern state of India. It is fondly referred as ‘Kohinoor of
India’. Andhra Pradesh enjoys unique features that have made it one of the most
sought-after tourist destinations in Asia. The tourism sector in Andhra Pradesh has seen
a tremendous growth in the last few years. However faces competition from a number
of states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamilnadu etc. Tourist flow to Andhra
Pradesh is no doubt growing, but it is growing slowly. As APTDC is the state tourism
corporation in the field of tourism in Andhra Pradesh. It is therefore, the researcher has
selected APTDC as a case study the relevance and the design of strategies in meeting
the competitors not only from other tour operators, travel agents but also from Hotels,
Car Rentals etc. Hence there is a need for designing promotional strategies not only to
meet the needs of tourist, but also to overcome the effects of competition prevailing
between the APTDC and tour operators as well as travel agencies.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
To examine the existing promotional activities adopted by APTDC to promote tourist
destinations in Andhra Pradesh.
Hypothesis (Ho)
There is no significant relationship between promotional activity of APTDC and image
of tourist destination.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research is a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information. The main aim of
research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered as
yet or refinement over the existing findings of the earlier research work. Marketing mix
for APTDC is the comprehension blending of 7P’s strategy elements of marketing
decision making as mentioned by Zeithmal and Bitner. The promotional strategy is
analyzed.
Methods of data collection: The task of data collection begins after a research problem
has been identified. The study is basically empirical in nature. The required data for the
study was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary source of data
was collected with the help of well-structured questionnaires. Separate questionnaires
were prepared and circulated among (i) Tourists. The questionnaires contained both
types of questions i.e. open ended and closed ended.
Tools for data analysis: The objective of empirical analysis is to present the perceptions
of the respondents (tourist). The views were obtained and summarized by
administrating a well-structured questionnaire. In addition direct personal interviews
with few respondents were also conducted.
Chi-square test (χ2)
Chi-square test (χ2), perhaps the most commonly used test in dealing with social
behavioural data, is used to evaluate whether or not frequencies which have been
empirically observed differ significantly from those which would be expected under a
certain set of theoretical assumptions. This is applicable to test the hypothesis of
variance of the normal population. Goodness of theoretical distribution is tested to
observe the frequency distributions one-way classification have ‘k’ category, Formula:
The chi-square (χ2) test is given by the formula,
χ2 = Σ (O-E) 2/ E
Where, O = Observed frequency; E = Expected frequency.
It is a statement of universe and it is of two types.
 Null Hypotheses (H0): The attributes are independent.
 Alternative Hypotheses (H1): The attributes are not independent.
Degree of freedom: As χ2 is used to test a contingency table; Degree of freedom “dof”=
(r-1) (c-1); Where, r = the number of rows; c = the number of columns in the table.
Accept or Reject criterion
Decision arrived from the test is based on calculated value and comparing with the
critical value (table value), if the calculated value is higher, we accept the alternative
hypotheses. Similarly, if the calculated value is less than the table value, we accept the
null hypothesis.

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Table-1 Promotional activity adopted by APTDC
Opinion Respondents Percentage (%)
Advertising (print and electronic media) 125 35.71
Seminars and workshops 95 27.14
Fairs and exhibitions 35 10.00
Tourism by heritage walk and mobile museum 56 16.00
Tourism by printing of brochures 39 11.14
Total 350 100
Source: Field data
Table-2 Publicity and to enhance image of AP as tourist destination
Opinion No. of Respondents Percentage (%)
Strongly Disagree 33 9.43
Disagree 30 8.57
Neutral 64 18.29
Agree 125 35.71
Strongly Agree 98 28.00
Total 350 100
Source: Primary Data
CHI-SQUARE TEST
Null Hypotheses (H0): There is no significant relationship between promotional
activities of APTDC and image of tourist destination.
Table -3 Cross Tabulation
(Table- 1 Image of tourist destination & 2 Promotional activity of APTDC)
Image of tourist
destination Advertisi
ng
Seminars
&
Worksho
ps
Fairs &
Exhibitions
Heritage
walk &
mobile
museum
Printing
brochures
Tota
lPromotional
activity
SDA 15 12 12 38 48 125
12.00 9.60 9.60 30.40 38.40
DA
6 5 12 40 32 95
6.32 5.26 12.63 42.11 33.68
Neutral 4 3 11 9 8 35
11.43 8.57 31.43 25.71 22.86
Agree
5 6 16 19 10 56
8.93 10.71 28.57 33.93 17.86
SA
3 4 13 19 0 39
7.69 10.26 33.33 48.72 0.00
Total 33 30 64 125 98 350

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Observed values
Image of tourist
destination
Advertising
Seminars
&
workshops
Fairs &
Exhibitions
Heritage
walk &
mobile
museum)
Printing
brochures
Total
Promotional
activity
SDA 15 12 12 38 48 125
DA 6 5 12 40 32 95
Neutral 4 3 11 9 8 35
Agree 5 6 16 19 10 56
SA 3 4 13 19 0 39
Total 33 30 64 125 98 350
Expected frequencies
Image of
tourist
destination Advertising
Seminars
&
workshops
Fairs &
Exhibitions
Heritage
walk &
mobile
museum
Printing
brochures
Total
Promotional
activity
SDA 12 11 23 45 35 125
DA 9 8 17 34 27 95
Neutral 3 3 6 13 10 35
Agree 5 5 10 20 16 56
SA 4 3 7 14 11 39
Total 33 30 64 125 98 350
Table showing calculation of χ2– value
Oi Ei Oi- Ei (Oi-Ei)2 (Oi-Ei)2/Ei
15 12 3 10 0.8766
12 11 1 2 0.1543
12 23 -11 118 5.1571
38 45 -7 44 0.9885
48 35 13 169 4.8286
6 9 -3 9 0.9763
5 8 -3 10 1.2130
12 17 -5 29 1.6609
40 34 6 37 1.0865
32 27 5 29 1.0962
4 3 1 0 0.1485
3 3 0 0 0.0000
11 6 5 21 3.3063
9 13 -4 12 0.9800
8 10 -2 3 0.3306

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5 5 0 0 0.0148
6 5 1 1 0.3000
16 10 6 33 3.2400
19 20 -1 1 0.0500
10 16 -6 32 2.0576
3 4 -1 0 0.1247
4 3 1 0 0.1292
13 7 6 34 4.8293
19 14 5 26 1.8465
0 11 -11 119 10.9200
χ2 46.32
Calculated value of Chi-Square = 46.32
Degree of Freedom = (r-1)(c-1) = (5-1)(5-1) = 4*4 = 16
Table value of χ2 for dof = 16 @ 5% level of significance = 34.27
Result: Calculated value of χ2 (46.32) is greater than the table value of χ2 (34.27). Hence,
H0 is rejected and it is concluded that there is a significant relationship between
promotional activity of APTDC and image of tourist destination.
CONCLUSION
There are many promotional mix methods that are developed over the years. Promotion
is a marketing function, which communicates to the tourist about the availability of the
products, services and their prices as well as delivery system and terms attached to the
offer. Promotion helps to keep the gap between promise making and promise keeping.
Promotion and communication efforts in tourism marketing strategy are directed at
accomplishing brand awareness, brand loyalty and increase in market share. The
increase in market share is characterized by effective advertising; secured channels of
distribution, retail outlets and other forms of communication and other promotion
variables. Advertising is the promotion tool of a company's products and services that
are carried out primarily to increase the sales of the products and services. Direct
marketing messages give emphasis and a focus on the customer, data, and
accountability. The product marketing mix consists of the 4 P’s which are Product,
Pricing, Promotions and Placement.
SUGGESTIONS
1. It is suggested to promote tourism by organizing road shows, campaigns, events
and festivals. Promoting tourism through movies is one of the best options that
can be explored. Celebrities TV advertising campaign will attract more tourists.
Showing clippings of culture, heritage and destinations during cricket match is
one of the viable options. It is suggested to provide comprehensive and clear
information to enable Tourists to plan a travel itinerary.

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2. It is suggested that the website needs to be more focused, product driven and
clear so that travelers can decide their destination and can compare Andhra
Pradesh vis-à-vis other competitive states or countries. The Campaign should be
focused more to lure the intending travelers to “Visit Andhra Pradesh “rather
than simply describing about Andhra Pradesh.
3. There is a need to show more destination specific visuals/ campaigns defining
the products and its unique features need to be devised and promoted. Rather
than marketing Andhra Pradesh or just one destination to the trade, focus should
be on marketing a product /activity/ event. Under the umbrella of brand
Andhra Pradesh new tourist circuits need to be created to attract different type of
travelers.
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