The initiative of Advances in Tourism Marketing Conference (ATMC) started in 2005 with the first international conference in Akyaka ( Turkey ), in which more than 70 researchers and practitioners from more than 15 different countries took part. In the second edition, hosted by the University of València ( Spain ), we met with around 160 researchers and representatives of companies and institutions from 5 continents.

Acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of tourism, we would like to stress in ATMC the definition of marketing, as released by the American Marketing Association AMA and extended by applying it to tourism. Tourism Marketing thus focuses on the functions and processes of the tourist system in order to create, communicate and deliver value with customers (tourists, host communities and other firms) and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organisation and its stakeholders, emphasising sustainability.

During the ATMC 2007 conference, our keynote speaker, Prof. Evert Gummesson, challenged the new definition of marketing as published by the AMA. We would like to support this challenge and offer both the original (with added words underlined and changed words struck out) followed by the complete revised version. In line with the ATMC 2007 conference theme, the definition considers the fact that marketing occurs between networks of firms and consumers and is a co-created bundle of benefits.

"Marketing is a culture, an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to with customers and for managing interacting in a network of customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization, its customers and its other stakeholders".

“Marketing is a culture, an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value with customers and for interacting in a network of relationships in ways that benefit the organization, its customers and other stakeholders”.

Taking into account the premise that the aim of ATMC is to focus -biannually- on updating and discussing topical issues in international tourism marketing. The specific theme will be drawn from the conclusions of the preceding meeting, trends in the tourism industry, and priorities in tourism marketing research. All in all, the ATMC represents an attempt to:

•  Explore, analyze, and evaluate the state of the art in tourism marketing from an international perspective.

•  Bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners, providing a forum for the discussion and dissemination of themes related to the tourism system under a marketing approach.

Therefore, the initiative Advances in Tourism Marketing Conference represents an important contribution for the tourism marketing research arena and tourism industry. The general outcome of the ATMC focuses on facilitating the analysis and interchange of sustainable approaches and international practices as a basis for the knowledge and innovation management in tourism marketing.