Business Organizations, Business Economics or other similar course of business introduction

The objective of this course is that the student should acquired an adecuate understanding of the significance, extension, importance and content of Marketing, specially, in the area of tourism. It should provide a general framework to understand how marketing activities are undertaken within organizations. In order to reach this objective, the student must acquire the following knowledges, capabilities, skills and actitudes. In regard to knowledge, once the course in finished, students should be capable of: - To know the specifities of the marketing of services, and within this, the marketing of tourist services and products. - To understand the different phases of a tourist market research project and also the behaviour of the tourist consumer, mainly from his/her decision and purchasing making process, to the implementation and development of a marketing plan. - To know and identify the decision making process for tourist products and services. - To analyze the concept of consumer satisfaction within the business of tourism. - To evaluate and sythetize the commercial and competitive information to establish competitive policies and marketing plans for any company, and specially, for the corporations and institutions in the tourism business. - To develop a marketing plan with the tourism sector. Students should apply all knowledge acquired in this marketing plan. In regard to capabilites, these can be classified in two different groups: specific capabilites and more generic capabilities or skills. In terms of specifici capabilities, once the course is finished, the student should be able to: - To identify the relevant dimesions of the commercial environment for the company. - To know and utlize the most appropiate instruments to understand the whole business environment. - To understand the different variables for the marketing decision within the marketing mix, and its relationship with the company marketing strategy. In regard to the general skills, during the course, work will be focused on: - Develop the skills to search for appropiate information in regard to the academic materials, and specifically, in tourism. - Develop personnal capabilities to work in group and acomplished team work related projects, as well as to make personal presentations within the group presentation. - To be able to summarize in a final document the group project for the semester: a full marketing plan. - Skills to make a diagnostic and full recommendations for commercial actions in terms of companies, sectors or institutions. - To develop the necessary actitudes and skills to be able to work individually as well as in a group, applying the analysis and practical application of the conceptual and empirical knowledge acquired during the course. In regard to the actitudes and other skills, once the course in finished, the student should be able to: * Be creative to confront recomendations and actions, based on theoretical foundation

1. Marketing Concepts: Strategic Marketing vs Operational marketing 2. The Market environment and its dynamics. 3. The Marketing Environmnent: Micro-environment. Competitive analysis 4. Market research for service. 5. Consumer Behaviour 6. Market segmentation and tourist consumers 7. Positionig policy and strategy. 8. The Marketing Plan 9. Marketing mix: Product and Brand Strategies and policies 10. Price policy 11 Communication and promotion strategy 12 Retail and Distribution policies 13. Digital marketing

Competencies, actitudes and skills will be acquired by students through teaching sessions, individual case study with brief case analysis, analysis of web pages of different tourism corporations and institutions, as well as the development with a work group of a final marketing project, which will be a tourist marketing plan. Skills in regard to the diagnosis and recommendations of actions, and the capability to syntetize the ideas, concepts and results, will be developed along the semester within the work group marketing project, which will be compulsory and will have an important work load withing the full course. It will also have an important weight within the final couse grade. The course will have the following struture: - Students will have the information about the bibliografic material, which will be stated in the recommende bibliografy. They will also have the teaching materials prepared by the professor for the course. - Tourist companies brief cases, mainly derived fromo profesional journals and magazines within the tourist sector. This material will be the basis for class discussion. These brief cases will be done either as individual work and as group work, depending on the case and theme. - A full guide to develop the semester final marketing project: a marketing plan for a tourist company or institution. The different cases, either those done individualistic or those done in group, will be given to the professor in due date. The 6 ECTS credits will be structured as follows: Teaching classes for theory and concepts: 3 ECTS Individual cases: 1 ECTS Group cases and final marketing project: 2 ECTS The theoretical and conceptual classes will allow students to adecuately develop the proposed competencies, and specially, to know the specific caratheristics of the tourism sector, specially in regard to the commercial and marketing activities. Cases and groupo related activities will allow students to focus in diagnostic, evaluation capabilities, as well as develop their skills to work in a group and to acquired the responsability to comply to deadlines and group objectives.