Now that tourism marketers have an understanding of what their city has to offer to potential tourists, they may be eager to begin promotion. In their enthusiasm to promote their city as a tourist destination, those responsible for developing the marketing plan may come to the conclusion that all potential tourists will be eager to visit. This conclusion is understandable, for everyone believes their city is the best. However, because promotion is expensive, though tourism marketers should welcome everyone, they should not attempt to promote to everyone. Because of limited staff and financial resources available to tourism marketers it only makes sense for them to promote the city to those potential tourists who can be motivated to visit.

The process of choosing the potential tourists most likely to respond is called segmentation and targeting. Segmentation groups tourists into segments based on similar characteristics. Targeting chooses from among these segments the one or more that are most likely to respond positively to a promotional message on the city's features and benefits. This process of segmentation and targeting is not intended to discourage other tourists from visiting. Instead it is used to communicate the promotional message about the city's benefits to those who will be easiest to motive to visit.