This study was undertaken to firstly provide a better understanding of the general principles of tourism marketing and secondly to examine the effectiveness of the current approaches to marketing in the tourism sector using the airline industry in Taiwan as a model. A common marketing technique widely adopted in the airline industry-Frequent Flyer Programmers (FFPs) have been investigated to explore the characteristics of marketing management in the tourism field, with a particular focus on issues related to the extensive utilization of FFPs by the airline industry.The fundamental rationale for utilizing the concept of FFPs as a major marketing technique has been examined and identified through an extensive literature review and surveys conducted with various tourism agencies in Taiwan. A questionnaire specifically developed for this study has been employed to gather data along with interviews with selected executives of airlines and their partners. The data gathered have been analyzed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the concept of FFPs within the context of marketing in the tourism field. The factors affecting the success and/or failure of the FFPs from the viewpoints of both carriers as well as the passengers, the role of FFP partners, economic implications of the FFPs and the role of technology for effective implementation of FFPs are discussed.The results clearly indicate the importance of FFPs as an effective marketing technique in the airline industry with positive implications for the financial performance of the carriers involved and their partners.
