Public relations are an important promotional technique. It involves measures designed to improve the image of a service, to create a more favourable climate for its advertising and sales support activities.
It covers such a wide range of activities and is used for so many different aims that it is not easy to define it. Public relations is the “art and science of planning and implementing communication and understanding between a company and the many different groups with which it is concerned in the course of its operation.”
Public relations may also be defined as the continuous and consistent representation of an organizations’ policies to the public at large and to sections of the public who have a special interest in the organization’s activities, e.g., to various strata of employees, shareholders, actual and potential customers as well as its local and national government.
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A positive attitude to public relations in an organization’s activities is evidence that it recognises a duty to keep the public aware of those activities, and of their impact upon society and its environments.
From the definitions of public relations, it is evident that its main function is to inform public about the activities of an organization. In other words it is a part of a firm’s or an organization’s total communication effort.
Its purpose is to create best possible reputation for the firm or the organization by way of presenting facts. In a climate of favourable public opinion, an organization’s or a firm’s goals can be achieved more effectively.
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In the field of travel and tourism, the need for making information and facts available to both potential and actual tourists assumes special significance.
It involves measures designed to create and improve the image of the tourist product, create a more favourable climate for its advertising and sales support activities, especially in regard to travel trade intermediaries and news media. Favourable acceptance of any tourist destination by the public is of utmost importance.
In fact, no business is more concerned with human relations than the business of tourism. Public relations in tourism used to create and maintain a positive image for a country, a tourist destination in the minds of people who are in a position to influence public opinion (journalists, editors, travel writers, etc.), or in the minds of sales intermediaries (travel agents, tour operators, etc.).
It is oriented towards creating and maintaining an atmosphere whereby travelling public at large is convinced of the advantages of visiting the country concerned.
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Public relations are one of the important functions of the official tourist organization. In fact, tourist organizations primarily are public relations organizations.
The objectives of public relations in the field of tourism may be divided in two parts: the dissemination of information and the creation of a favourable image for the tourist product.