Abstract:
During the past decades, Sri Lanka has reported a dramatic increment on their hotel establishments.
As a result, huge competition exists among hotels in marketing themselves. Hence, hotel
management needs to be more customer-oriented and competitive by adopting marketing mix
strategies in order to reach its target customers. Therefore, this paper aims to comparatively analyze
the usage of different marketing strategies used by themed hotels and traditional hotels in Southern
Province of Sri Lanka. In compliance with this trend, this paper investigated theme hotels and
traditional hotels in marketing strategies development. Furthermore, it figures out the difference
between themed hotels and traditional hotels, with regards to marketing mix strategies. The sample to
the study being managerial employees in 7 theme hotels and 6 traditional hotels, data was collected
through semi-structured interviews. In the empirical data, the researcher collected data from
interviews with hotel managers through the combination theories of seven P‟s of marketing mix
strategies, and resource-based view. Data was analysed through content analysis. According to the
results, it has been highlighted that the theme hotels prioritize internal design, premium price,
experiential environment, narrow advertising tools, exclusive greeting patterns in developing
marketing strategies, meanwhile traditional hotels focus on standard facilities and amenities, seasonal
pricing, broad advertising tools, personalized service, comfortable environment. But, both types of
hotels depend on products and physical evidence in marketing their properties. Specifically, the study
suggests spreading the marketing campaigns of themed hotels via digital platforms and developing
experiential strategies in marketing plans by traditional hotels.
Keywords: Marketing Strategies; Resource based view; Marketing mix strategies; Accommodation
industry; Competitive market
