Let’s get this out of the way right now. Despite this post’s title, Ziggy Stardust did most emphatically NOT write a book about hospitality marketing.

For that matter, neither did the Laughing Gnome or the Thin White Duke. The Goblin King couldn’t be reached for comment, since contacting him involves negotiating a labyrinth of obstacles.

The David Bowie in question here has over a quarter-century of experience in working as a restaurateur, hotel manager, and marketing consultant. The book that he co-authored, featured below, is but one resource at your disposal for learning the ins and outs of hospitality marketing.

What Exactly Is Hospitality Marketing, Anyway?
Hospitality marketing is the means by which hotels, resorts, restaurants, theme and amusement parks, and other businesses in the fields of entertainment or accommodation promote their services and products.

It’s more important than ever for hospitality professionals to sharpen their skills in marketing. With all sort of innovations like social media and mobile computing out there, hospitality professionals need to experiment with new approaches and strategies, especially ones that embrace today’s tech.

For instance, in the article “How Big Data Is Changing the Hospitality Industry”, you can see how data on customer habits and buying trends, culled by social network activity, helps determine marketing strategy.

Now that we’re clear on the idea of hospitality marketing, let’s move on …

Hospitality Marketing: Principles and Practice
This useful book is written by David Bowie, MBA and Chartered Marketer, and Francis Buttle, PhD. Bowie teaches hospitality and tourism, and has developed a number of hospitality marketing case studies. Buttle has degrees in management science, marketing, and communication. Clearly, this book has a good pedigree.

The textbook is primarily aimed at students taking marketing modules within a hospitality course. The book shows the reader how to apply marketing principles specifically within the hospitality industry. It covers issues like corporate social responsibility, relationship marketing, and sustainable marketing. Naturally, our good friend the Internet gets its fair share of mention.

Hotel News Resource
This website is another cornucopia of information resources for the travel and hospitality industry professional who wants to keep up with the latest news. It offers content management and delivery, press release distribution, and advertising opportunities. In addition to hospitality news, the site offers trends, and articles that are shared on social networks.

RezStream
On the other hand, if you’d rather have someone else do the heavy lifting in terms of marketing, there’s always RezStream, which specializes in hospitality solutions especially for independent hotels, inns, bed and breakfasts, and the like. They offer not only reservation software and booking engine services, but also digital marketing and website design.

RezStream offers several levels of services, including a free marketing analysis. This is perfect for the hospitality industry professional who, while convinced of the importance of marketing, doesn’t have the time and energy to take it on themselves.

These resources are a good start for expanding your knowledge in the field of hospitality marketing. Once you’ve gone through all of the above, and granted that will take a while, check out others online and keep increasing your marketing acumen.

After all, you can be sure that your competitors are doing it.

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This article was contributed by John Terra. John has been a freelance writer since 1985. He thinks the only way one can top having David Bowie writing a book on hospitality marketing is by having Keith Richards write a book on diet and exercise.