MARKETING IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM (SM31)

Introduction

Tourism has become very common in present world because people have started to travel from one place to another at a rapid rate. In order to spend quality time that is different from regular lifestyle, people travel to every corner of world. This helps them to remain mentally and physically fit for any undertaking any type of stress. Sometimes, travel occurs due to business purposes also. It is important for travel and tourism sector to conduct their business in such a way; masses do not get into any kind of trouble during their travel. From mode of travel to staying in tourist destination, every aspect regarding travel is arranged by this industry. This industry is biggest service providers for people in present world. In this study, travel with Thomas Cook is taken as an example for knowing more about this sector. Thomas Cook was a business entrepreneur that has started a travel agency in 18th Century. It has become one of the popular travel agency in UK in these years.

Figure 1: Logo of Thomas Cook

(Source: Thomascook.in, 2017)

Task 1

LO 1

P1.1 Discussing core concepts of marketing in travel and tourism sector

Core concepts of marketing in travel and tourism sector are providing proper services to travelers so that their satisfaction can be achieved properly (Kotler et al. 2014, p.558). Moreover, orientation of customers, their demands and needs are required to be considered for ensuring profitable results in business of travel tourism. Being an Assistant Marketing Manager of Thomas Cook, it is important to understand value of products and services of this company to service users. This will lead to taking suitable steps in planning trip to Morocco and Egypt. Effective policies and strategies are needed to be made for conducting business properly. In order to make effective plan, core element of marketing like price, promotion, product and place need to be analysed from initial stage only. Kotler (2012, p.345) mentioned that essential factors that are important for understanding concept of marketing are customer requirements, products or services, and exchange process.

Customer requirements: Thomas Cook needs to set their priorities initially for making a successful travel in Morocco and Egypt. According to needs of customers, different offers can be provided to them. Persons can travel either for business purpose or for recreation purpose. Offers can be set accurately according to requirements of service users.

Services provided: Services provided to people need to be aligned towards recent trends of travel. Facilities provided during stay of customers need to be very developed and must of reasonable price for attracting more customers.

Exchange Process: Kotler and Armstrong (2013, p.245) stated that exchange process is a way of connecting both customers and service providers. Proper exchange of money will lead to bring more innovativeness in products.

In travel and tourism sector, great reformation has been made in process of marketing. Thomas Cook needs to comply with such change and plan their trip accordingly (Thomascook.in, 2017).

Figure 2: Core concept of marketing

(Source: Xu et al. 2017, p.246)

P1.2 Assessing influence of marketing environment on individual travel and tourism business in Thomas Cook and tourist destination

Morrison (2013, p.654) opined that marketing environment is segmented into two parts namely micro environment and macro environment. Micro environment comprises of tourism venture, suppliers, intermediaries, customers as well as competitors. Macro environment includes demography, economy, society, technology, politics, culture and tourism systems.

Suppliers and tourism ventures: These are important part of any travel because they organise entire travel sequence properly.

Intermediaries: Intermediaries includes travel agencies and other places of stay in tourist locations (Morrison, 2010, p.987). Thomas Cook needs to maintain proper coordination with intermediaries for ensuring better results.

Customers and competitors: Demand of customers need to be fulfilled correctly and arrangement needs to done in such a way that a big leap can be taken among competitors. This company needs to understand this environment suitably for better results.

Demography, culture and tourism systems: Culture of a particular place needs to be determined before planning for travel. In what way, natives of that place will react to any travel matter need to be analysed properly. Thomas Cook needs to manage its tourism system suitably so that services users do not raise any complaint.

Political	This company had to understand political facts of place of travel so that no impact is left upon travelers.
Economic	Economy of a place needs to be determined for proper planning of tourism
Social	Social factors like type of people, their beliefs and their way of living need to be ascertained before organising trip.
Technological	This orgnisation needs to grow make advancement in technological ground for easing travel of people.

Table 1: PEST Analysis

(Source: Kotler et al. 2014, p.478)

P1.3 Discussing factors affecting consumer motivation as well as demand in tourism unit

Huang et al. (2017, p.149) stated that there are important factors that affect in motivating customers and their decisions suitably in duration of travel. Behaviour of customers and behaviour of buyers need to be considered for execution of plan in businesses. Value of customers and their satisfaction needs to be determined for ensuring proper planning. Models of customer behaviour include loyalty, sociology and Psychology. Customers’ loyalty towards a particular brand needs to be understood for planning travel for them. Sociology means purchasing trend of customers towards any products or services (Xu et al. 2017, p.245). This business firm needs to consider this fact and deliver services accordingly.

This company can provide stay of customers in Morocco and Egypt in a luxurious hotel brand at reasonable price. This will help in maintaining competition in market and attracting customers towards them. Psychology means want of people to buy some products. This psychology can be determined by satisfying suitable needs of customers. Thomas Cook can undertake new strategies for meeting their needs. Motivation of customers is determined by impact of customers upon decision-making and impact upon resolving conflicts of customers. If flexibility in services is provided by this company, users can change their decision and switch from other brands. Services of this business house need to be unique and different from others so that no confusion arises while using services of this company.

P1.4 Analysing principles of market segmentation as well as its usage in marketing planning

According to Wolf et al. (2017, p.2), segmentation in market needs to be done in order to reach huge base of customers and satisfy them properly. This is helpful for preparing an accurate plan for marketing of products and services. This business house needs to target customers in terms of demographic, geographic and behavioural attributes. Requirement of service users, their lifestyle, personality and class need to be determined before planning marketing of services. Competition has increased at a rapid rate in market. Services offered by this enterprise needs to be unique and non-identical than other service providers. This will help in gaining attention of every section of people in society. Packages for segmented customer base can be different so that they find interest in using such services. Urge of using such services will enhance business processes of this entity. Nationality, Gender and family background needs to be considered by every business venture for marketing their products suitably to targeted customers (Che et al. 2017, p.720). This will lead to enhancing needs of customers suitably without any issues. Income and class of people need to be determined before delivering products to people. This will enhance chances of profit in summer tour of this venture to Morocco and Egypt.

Task 2

LO 2

P2.1 Analysing importance of strategic marketing planning for Thomas Cook or tourist destination

As per Lim (2017, p.40), strategic marketing planning for business firms are taken for earning huge profits in business and meet needs of customers greatly. Strategy needs to be effective so that fruitful results can be ensured in businesses. For Thomas Cook, strategy can be bringing different packages like diamond, gold and silver package at a suitable price so that people would like to use package according to their desire. In diamond package, every place of tourist attraction in Morocco and Egypt will be covered and also stay will be in a luxurious room with unlimited foods. In gold package, tourist attraction places and luxurious rooms will be included but unlimited foods will be excluded. In silver package, tourist attraction places will be included along with semi-luxurious rooms. This will help in attracting large base of customers.

SWOT Analysis

Strength ·         Company is very popular and has created brand awareness among people.	Weakness ·         Budget is high for every service so low-class people cannot afford it.
Opportunities ·         New package system will help in providing tough answer to peers in competitive market.	Threats ·         Huge competition in market and every competitor is good in making innovative strategies.

Table 2: SWOT Analysis

(Source: Henderson, 2017, p.90)

Porter's Five Forces

Threat of alternatives: Customers are shifting to local trip because of getting cheap holiday packages.

Competition among rivalries: Skills of different rivals and their new strategies might help this company to take proper measure to sustain competition in market

Purchaser’s negotiating powers: Exclusive deals need to be prepared by this company for buyers so that they do not negotiate with prices.

Power of suppliers: Good relation need to be present with suppliers for better outcomes in business.

Threat of new entries: This Company is very popular in market and people expect a lot more from Thomas Cook. That is why; threat for new entry is less (Refer to appendix 1).

Figure 3: Product Life Cycle (PLC)

(Source: Wolf et al. 2017, p.2)

P2.2 Discussing relevance of marketing research as well as market information to managers of travel and tourism

Williams et al. (2017, p.1479) informed that relevant knowledge regarding marketing of products and services of several ventures need to be known for better aftermaths. In order to make huge progression in business of this company, market research is helpful. Demand forecasting has to be determined properly for maintaining good business practices. Research need to be done by this venture so that managers get proper information regarding sales, product quality and requirements of users. Huge numbers of peers are providing similar products at reasonable price. It is essential for this venture to add uniqueness in its services so that people become gainer and get attracted towards this brand. Top management and managers of this entity can discuss together regarding products and services. In what way, it affected customers and how different measures can be taken to reach more numbers of masses. Appropriate information will help in increasing market revenue in a very short tenure (Gong and Tung, 2017, p.420). As a result, market research is very realistic and providing suitable information to managers is equally significant.

P2.3 Assessing impact of marketing in society

As stated by Battour et al. (2017, p.51), positive as well as negative impacts of marketing is left upon society that affects directly business operations. Marketing can assist in identifying most important customers so that they can be targeted for enhancing rate of sale of products. Several groups of business sector conducting marketing and uses marketing mix accordingly in order to encounter with numerous customers. This helps in creating awareness regarding brands, which is essential in businesses. Ethics and social responsibility are followed by marketing because society expects more from different organisation. Sustainability can be ensured if marketing practices are followed properly in business ventures. Thomas Cook maintains their responsibility towards society and environment.

This enterprise does not use any ill measures that can affect environment adversely. Rules and regulations are suitably followed by this venture in order to conduct fair business processes. This company needs to maintain huge competition in market and this can be possible when customer numbers can be increased rapidly. In order to reach customers, marketing is easiest way because it brings efficient results (Ponnapureddy et al. 2017, p.15). Marketing sometimes, adds more value to a product or service. Consumerism is also brought by marketing because it assists buyers to purchase products without thinking twice. It can help in motivating buyers that are very significant for any business sector.

Task 4

LO 4

P4.1 Assessing integrated nature and role of promotional mix

Several methods of promotion in order to interact with customers are advertising, public relations, direct marketing, sale promotion and personal selling (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017, p.41). This promotional mix helps in conduction of activities that will support in advertising of products by enterprises. It leads to persuade customers to use such services of ventures. Besides, it emphasizes on building strong relation with new customers. Promotional mix for this venture will aid in bringing earning great profit for this entity.

Advertising: In the opinion of Ormond and Sulianti (2017, p.95), advertising is a way of promoting ideas or services of companies with usage of media. This company has used brochures, web pages, posters, television and Social media for promoting their services. This has led to increased numbers of users thereby, leading to profit margin advancement.

Direct Marketing: Direct marketing has aided this hospitality sector to conduct marketing by reaching customers using advertisements. This company has sent anonymous emails, promotional letters and brochures to people via internet.

Sales promotion: In order to increase rate of sales, promotion is being done to earn more profit percentage. This entity has launched new travel packages for people so that they can conduct promotion via company’s own promotional activities. Moreover, discounts are also being provided for ensuring beneficial outcomes.

Public relations: As mentioned by Decrop et al. (2017, p.10), good policies need to be opted for maintaining proper relationship with common people. Thomas Cook needs to consider relations with customers as a matter of serious concern. This will help in creating good image for this entity.

P4.2 Planning and justifying an integrated promotional campaign for a travel and tourism business

Promotional campaign leads to bring more consciousness among services users regarding products and services of every individual business unit (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017, p.45). This hospitality unit has launched a summer trip to Egypt and Morocco as new product for gaining extra competitive advantages. In order to survive competition in market, promotional campaign is being designed by this entity for accurate results. It has started to provide discounts in its packages for a particular time. Interested users can book those packages within that stipulated time for availing such discounts. Promotion of such products has been done in both television and social media. This has helped in gaining attention of more numbers of customers. Moreover, service quality has been maintained very high because staffs of this venture are inclined to attract customers with their behaviour. This plan would bring huge people get involved in using services of Thomas Cook thereby, maintaining great competition in market. Along with this, profits will be maximised and satisfaction level in buyers will also see furtherance.

Conclusion

Marketing is an important task of every business sector and they need to evolve with unique marketing techniques. This will help every entity to attain success in their business. Every business unit had to undertake innovative strategies for marketing their products. As a result, it can be a reason behind inclining more customers towards their products. In this study, it has been seen that whenever new product or services are launched, proper marketing needs to be done. This will lead to bringing great success in business ventures. It is significant that employees and top management are required to work collectively for attracting customers. Such policies will assist in increasing profit for every enterprise. Marketing mix needs to be done properly for satisfying demands of service users. Therefore, products specification can be changed suitably according to requirements of users. Satisfying buyers are motives of each business units, which can be possible if requirements of customers are met accurately.