The Role of Market Segmentation and Target Marketing Strategies to Increase Occupancy Rates and Sales Opportunities of Hotel Enterprises

Hotel enterprises, having facilities to respond customers’ high level of expectations, are profit oriented accommodation organizations in tourism sector. Changes in customers’ needs, expectations and wishes, competition, and changes in the market increase the necessity for hotels to become more customer and market-oriented. Hotels learn the unknown about customers and the market through market segmentation implementations and can define appropriate target market for their marketing strategies by segmenting the market into homogeneous groups. The theoretical basis of this study aims to reveal that the effect of market segmentation applications and target market determination strategy on their sales and occupancy in hotel enterprises. Based on the literature review, hotels applying market segmentation in their strategic marketing plans, have positive changes in their occupancy. The failure to apply with the market segmentation practices and target market strategies systematically and consciously, negatively affects the occupancy which is an indicator of the sales of hotels.