An investigation of the impact of destination marketing on tourist satisfaction: A case of Pakistan tourism industry.

Tourism is a well-known business concept worldwide, however, extremely underrated andunderexplored in Pakistan. A country plagued with terrorism is how Pakistan is seen as inmost Western countries in the world. Pakistan is home to 8 out of world’s 20 highestmountain peaks. Not only that, it has some of the best preserved world heritage sites,beaches, cultural and religious monuments and mouth-watering food. Then why is it thatPakistan isn’t on people’s mind when they plan a trip? Is it just bad marketing or is it thatthe country really is what the media says? There are many questions that need answeringin order to get to the bottm of this issue. For instance, Maldives derives 32% of it’s GDPfrom tourism alone, Macau gets 50% of their GDP from tourism and Aruba 32%.This research contains primary and secondary research, primary research in form of faceto-face and online interviews as well as survey questionnaires. Secondary research in formof literature review. This study used survey questionnaires as the source of collecting datafrom 339 respondents that were handed out to people within various settings to ensure agood mix of backgrounds used to gain different perceptions. The questionnaire responseswere analysed using the SPSS statistical software, then quanified and scrutinised. Inaddition to quantitive research, semi-structured interviews of 10 tourism providers wereconducted, the goal behind the interviews was to gain understading of tourism ins and outsfrom the perspective of business owners and employees. This type of research is called‘mixed-method’ research, and mixed-method research helped in determining the coreissues facing the tourism industry in Pakistan.The findings of this research produced very useful information for the local businesses aswell as tourism decision makers for various touristic spots within Pakistan The findingsindicate that most people who have visited Pakistan, for leisure purposes, have thoroughlyenjoyed their visits, however, there are some issues that still need to be addressed. As perthe findings it is essential that tourism providers focus on providing a range of recreationalactivities, take measures to ensure their customers feel safe during their visit, and work onproviding a generally pleasurable tour, the local authorities should ensure that the maintourist attraction locations in the country have impeccable facilities as the research belowindicates that word-of-mouth marketing is perhaps the most influencial forms of marketing.The findings of this study can be used by tourism providers and local tourism businessesto successfully establish a sustainable business. These findings have practical uses formarketers, business owners, local tourism representatives as well as future researchers.This study can be used as a stepping stone to further research within the field of destinationbrand and destination marketing.