ABSTRACT:

Tourism sector has turned out to be a major source of revenue for the nations worldwide. Its contributions to India’s GDP and employment generation in second to none. Buoyed by its tremendous growth and immense potential, all the states in the country have set up their respective state tourism corporation to shape up its economy with this booming phenomenon. In the present time, role of marketing has become very important. Marketing is the most potent weapon in the armory of an organisation. India is full of tourist attractions including archaeology and historically important places, pilgrimage centers, beaches, vast landscapes, hills and terrains etc. Marketing of tourism services include marketing of both domestic and foreign tourists. In order to make people aware regarding the tourist attractions of the country, the states needs to have effective marketing strategies in place. Efficient marketing can take any organisation to great heights while insufficient and inefficient marketing may take it to doom. The researcher has made an attempt to study and analyse the marketing practices being adopted by the selected tourism corporations of northern India viz Haryana Tourism Corporation (HTC), Punjab Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC). The study primarily attempts to find out the effectiveness of marketing practices of the three corporations by analyzing the seven P’s of marketing mix and find out the loopholes in it, if any.