An Outlook on “all Inclusive” System as a Product Diversification Strategy in Terms of Consumer Attitudes

With the increase in capacity and number of accommodation enterprises since 2000s, especially in the coastal areas of Turkey, an intensive competitive environment has been formed. These enterprises turned towards diversifying and differentiating their product and price strategies in order to gain advantage in competition. The starting point, basis and even the heart of marketing programs (marketing mix) and plans are constituted by the product, which is produced or to be produced, and services. Products are the primary variables that determine the position of the company in the market (Tek, 1999:340). Accommodation enterprises have been making marketing efforts for consumers, who take place in socio-economic market segment, by adding a product type known as “all inclusive” system in their product mix. In the literature review, it was seen that there are various positive and negative critique for “all inclusive” product/service scope, which has been preferred commonly in recent years. In this research, a questionnaire was conducted to determine consumer attitudes towards “all inclusive” system applied in accommodation enterprises. 400 consumers, who made use of “all inclusive” product/service type before, were included in the research, and a factor analysis was done on the data obtained regarding their attitudes. With the factors obtained, it was tried to determine the correlation between the demographic characteristics and purchasing behaviors of the consumers. According to the results of the research, various strategy suggestions were developed for accommodation enterprises concerning the application of “all inclusive” system.