STRATEGIC TOURISM MARKETING OF A SMALL TOWN : Case: The Town of Pietarsaari/Jakobstad

Pietarsaari is a small town, which is situated in the Ostrobothnia region of western Finland on the gulf of Bothnia of Finland. It is renowned as an important port and industrial center. However, it is regarded as a small town but it has many tourism resources. In spite of many potentialities, the tourism industry of this town has not developed as much as it should be today. It could be said that the biggest reason behind this is a lack of proper strategic tourism marketing. The aim of this thesis was to describe the current situation of Pietarsaari including all tourism resources accommodation, transportation, attractions and events. Furthermore, the objective of research is to develop a strategic marketing plan for the tourism market of Pietarsaari. The new strategic marketing plan for Pietarsaari is developed in order to attract more tourists to travel to this town for further developing the tourism industry in Pietarsaari. The theoretical part of this thesis included of literature that is directly linked to the thesis theme involving tourism marketing, the elements of strategic tourism marketing, tourism marketing procedure, tourism product packaging, and tourism market of Pietarsaari. In the empirical part, qualitative research methods are applied as semi-structured interviews with various persons and a text analysis based on town website and brochure. After the research, it was found that tourism marketing of a small town is not an easy process. It will require solid plans and putting them into action. The good news are Pietarsaari has good tourism services as well as rich tourism resources, which is the main reason for tourists to come and visit Pietarsaari