Marketing in Travel and Tourism

Marketing in Travel and Tourism

Table of Contents

Task 1        

1.1 Core Competencies of Marketing        

1.2 Impact of Marketing Environment on travel and tourism Business and destination        

1.3 The factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism sector        

1.4 The principles of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning        

1.5 Summary        

Task 2        

2.1 The importance of strategic marketing planning for a selected travel and tourism business or tourist destination        

2.2 The relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in the travel and tourism sector        

2.3 The influence of marketing on society        

2.4 Summary        

Task 3        

3.1 Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing mix        

3.2 The importance of service sector mix elements to the travel sector        

3.3 The concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism business – London Gatwick airport        

3.4 Summary        

Task 4        

Promotion Mix        

4.1 The integrated nature and role of the promotional mix        

4.2 Plan and justify an integrated promotional campaign for the Sheraton hotel.        

4.3 Summary        

References        

Task 1

As an assistant marketing manager of Thomson Holidays I have to create the 6 days package for tour to Denmark, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Porto. For making this the first step is to make the detailed report on various factors affecting the marketing.

Thomson holiday is a United Kingdom based travel operator and is a part of TUI Travels. The headquarters are located in Luton, England. It also operates its own cruise line around Europe. They have around 18000 people in their staff and have the aim of making the travel pleasurable and accessible for everybody. The company provides the exclusive packages and is important part of travel industry in United Kingdom.

Marketing is the core of every business and it contributes to the core ability of business to succeed. Marketing is the process of planning, execution, pricing, promotion, distribution for satisfying the customers and achieving the goal of an organisation (American Marketing Association, 1988).

1.1 Core Competencies of Marketing

Demand: For creating the package, the first thing to be considered is the demand of the customer. Since this is the cultural package, so customer would like the package that is inclusive of the special cultural program of all the destinations. The demand is also dependent on various other factors like income of the customer etc. These factors are equally important.

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(Source: Self Study)

Services and Cost: The second important factor for making the package is Services included and cost attached to the services. This is crucial for the success of the package as the services and cost should satisfy the customer as well as it should be better than the competitor’s prices.

Exchange of services: The third factor is the exchange of services and for that the proper marketing is to be planned so that the customers are attracted towards the package. Here the relationship marketing is also important.

These are the core concepts of the marketing that are crucial for the package designing of the Thomson holidays. All business operates within an environment that affects it directly or indirectly. The environmental factors are often not controllable, but the marketing professional can make the plans and strategies to deal with these environmental factors effectively (Kotler, 2009).

1.2 Impact of Marketing Environment on travel and tourism Business and destination

The tourism industry is growing with rapid speed and is giving the endless opportunities. Marketing plays very important role in the tourism industry as the correct marketing strategies helps in getting the potential clients.  Marketing environment has the following impact on the travel and tourism business:

Tourism Branding: A successful tourism business requires a brand that speaks to its target markets, content that successfully generates potential clients and a level of service that listens to customers’ demands, all within ever diminishing budget constraints.

Content Strategy:  This is important for making the available services popular and making them popular among the customers. For attracting the customers it is important to send the emails, pop up advertisements so that they get to know about the latest packages and services (Porter, 1998).

Social Media Campaign: Destinations and tourism products can be made popular with the social media sites. Campaigns on social networking give faster results as compared to other means of marketing. This is probably a new field but has the greatest impact on the business.

Public Relations: This involves understanding the tourism trends and news, maintaining relationships with the travel press and understanding how to navigate and integrate traditional and social media PR methods.

Trade marketing: One of the best ways to market and sell a destination is through the travel trade. Tourism businesses and destinations need to implement a trade marketing and sales strategy that focuses on both electronic and physical channels in order to reach their target clientele