It is a fact that can be attested to that tourism industry has taken an upward trend in most economies of the world. In this regard, tourism in Nepal has not been left behind. There had been a lurk luster approach to advertising and marketing regarding tourism and tourism products in world but since the idea of global village crept in, many nations of the world have scaled their efforts in terms of advertising their tour and travel destinations. Countries and individual companies have invested heavily in marketing their companies so as to stay afloat. In Nepal too, individual companies and public companies in the tours and travel industry have invested heavily in vibrant marketing strategies that are geared to see them remain competitive in the market. It has been shown by the recent statistics that tourism in Nepal is becoming one of the leading employers in the country a scenario which also plays out globally. It is being estimated that the sector could also be one of the leading sources of foreign exchange as well as local revenue. Many are the people who are employed in the sector in various capacities. Some are employed as drivers, translators while others as tour guides among others. If all these are things to go by, then it is compelling to conclude that tours and travel has led to enhancement of quality of life of the people of Nepal.
Among the companies in Nepal which is keeping abreast with the heightened competition in Nepal is called Hands on Development tours. This company has been in the industry for a period spanning about five years and is proud to have grown to be one of the best tours and travel companies in Nepal. Most tour and travel lovers have been able to identify with it due to its unique and attractive services. Apart from that they also treat their customers to a rich menu of best tour sites which include animal sanctuaries, game parks, and unique cultural places among others. This company has drawn a lot of its strength from the fact that it had frequent visits to a center called seven women which is an organization that deals with women empowerment in the society. This tour company also traces its roots from seven women since the founder of this tour company was the founder of seven women organization. For this reason, the seven women center has earned reputation far and wide across Nepal and is now one of the most admired tour sites.
Since its establishment the trend has shown that most of its clients are students from high schools, colleges and universities. It has been noticed with a lot of concern that the students in various education institutions in Nepal are very adventurous and they form the largest portion of customer base when it comes to visiting tourist sites. Despite this scenario, there has been a unique change creeping in gradually. More women have been seen to be increasing in number when it comes to touring and travelling. These women research shows that most of them are between the age of 45 years to 60 years. This has not only been experienced in Hands on Organization tour but also in the whole country. It is for this reason that this tour company has reverted to seeking for better marketing strategies to win more customers since going by the current trend of more women coming in, there is still great potential of increasing customer base. Hands on Tour Company has therefore decided to carry out a research study that focuses on identifying its real market and to also come up with responsive methods of marketing their services within the country and internationally.
Title
The title for the research that Hands on Tour Company wants to undertake is, “Identifying responsive and robust marketing methods and ways to improve the services”
The aim of any established company is to be able to make good revenues and through attracting more customers using appropriate advertising and marketing strategies. In this regard Hands on Tour and Travel Company has not been left behind in Nepal. When it was established about five years ago, majority of its customers were students who were drawn from the institutions across the capital city of Nepal. To add on, the students were also of a particular characteristic; they come from almost the same age group which was between 18 years to 24 years. The paradigm shift that has lately been witnessed in the industry cannot be ignored. As discussed above, many other people are coming as tours apart from the students. The most evident group has been the women. This has raised more questions than answers among the top management of Hands on Organization tours. There could be a possibility that the industry is changing due to competition. And if this is true, there is also a possibility that the company could be at risk of losing its customers. Something has to be done by the management of this company to save it from a probable loses. It therefore against this background that the management of Hands on Organization Tours has selected a committee to undertake a research study that could come up with the best marketing strategies and also identify the various products that endear tourists to other companies other than Hands on. The results of this study is hoped to be implemented by the company so as to enable it edge out its competitors in the market and remain on top of the business in Nepal.
Some of the best research proposals usually have the main objective of the study and specific objectives of the study. The main objective of the research is that single question that any research usually seeks to find an answer to while specific objectives are those that support the main objective of the research. In respect to that, this research study also has the main research objective and specific research objectives.
Main Objectives
The major aim of the study will be to establish best marketing strategies that would lead Hands on Development Tours to attract more customers and solidify their base in Nepal as one of the best tour companies.
Specific Objectives
The following are the specific objectives to this research study that supports the main objectives;
Research Hypothesis
A research hypothesis is an experimental statement that always maintains the status quo on the outcomes of various phenomena before the results of the experiment. This research proposal had three hypotheses to be tested. They include the following;
Comparing tourism industry in the world today with tourism fifty years ago, it can be arguably said that it has grown so fast to be one of the largest industry in the world. An assertion made by (WTTC, 1995). It adds that tourism industry is one of the leading employers in the whole world, especially in nations which are endowed with rich tourist attraction sites and culture. Research shows it that about 6% of the whole population in the world is employed in the tourism sector doing different jobs. People have been employed as drivers, translators, tour guides and even as hoteliers. According to (Mowlana, 2003) and (March, 2009), tourism industry is a major income earner to many economies of the world beginning with developing countries in Africa to the most developed countries in Europe and America. Countries have been able to earn foreign exchange and also get local revenues courtesy of the industry. The development witnessed in this industry today is attributed to the strategic marketing plans that have been put up by various stakeholders in the industry.
It seemed less important but the tour industry has woken up to realize that marketing in tours and travel has got a lot of impact than it was thought to have. Initially there was a point of departure between stakeholders in the industry as to which marketing methods should be employed and whether in deed marketing had an impact in improving the business in the sector (Bagnal, 2006). A research done by (Haywood, 2000) and (Yin, 2004) advices that marketing in this sector should be the longer objective that will be geared to unraveling the finer demands of the customers in this sector so as to satisfy them fully.
Since marketing the industry has been an issue of grave weight, researchers have been working round the clock to get the best approach to this matter. Finally, a research conducted by (Faulkner, 2003), came up with a trio strategy or approach that if implemented accordingly can lead to immense results in the sector or to any particular company. One of the approaches has been embraced by many public and private tour companies as it is seen as the most effective and relevant strategy. This approach is known as the “The Consumer-Oriented Approach”. The second approach seems to revolve around competition. This is according to (Porter, 2000) and (Toyne, 2003). These two researchers however argue that do not have a place for the intermediaries in the industry. They do not touch on the functions played by the intermediaries. This raised suspicion and led to the incorporation of the approach number three which is called “The trade-Oriented approach”. This approach somehow combines the roles played by the first two approaches. It uniquely catered for the intermediaries. It recognizes their importance in the industry and therefore regards them as indispensable elements in the whole issue of marketing. It underscores the importance of respecting the demands and the desires of the intermediaries as they are the ones that link the companies and the customers. They warn that there is a caveat that comes with the three approaches though; that they must not solely be depended upon singly. Rather, they should be molded into one robust approach. The individual approaches are discussed in details below.
1. Consumer-Oriented Approach
The consumer-oriented method is a multi-facet approach as it involves two methods. The methods are known as “the undifferentiated market strategy” and “the differentiated market strategy”.
The undifferentiated market strategy puts more emphasis on target market expectations. So, more of its activities seek to attend to the common demand of the market. It does not pay any attention to the differences in the target market. The second approach which is the differentiated strategy identifies a target market then uses various research tools to know their characteristics and with that in come up with an approach that is responsive and unique to that particular target market (Kotler, 2004) and (Romano, 2009).
2. Competitor Oriented Approach
Technology has re-invigorated every sector of the economy nowadays. Many businesses have embraced technology (Hodgson, 2007) thereby making their work easier and efficient. The end result of it is that businesses which have embraced this technology experience drastic and better growth. This has brought a lot of competition in the tourism industry as a lot of their operations from bookings to payments have been computerized. The competitor-oriented approach therefore comes in handy to ensure that the competition brought about by technology does not edge out the company out of existence but rather seizes the opportunity brought by the very technology to spring to greater heights in terms of business (Brett, 1992) and (Websters, 2002).
3. Trade –Oriented Approach
Trade-oriented approach serves to ensure that the role of the intermediaries in the industry sector as safeguarded as they are the one that forms the link between the tourist and the companies. They have a lot of information about the local customers that is very important for the tour and travel companies. In short they form an important cog in the supply chain in the tour industry. In the chain of distribution, the intermediaries help to move products and services from the service and product providers who are the tour companies in this case to the tourist who is now the local consumer of the goods and the services. According to (Poon, 2003) if a strategy is developed that takes into consideration and gives importance the role played by the intermediaries, then that is the best strategy to be adopted to help tour companies get relevant information about the best marketing methods to improve their businesses.
Research Design
This research study will be interested with a population of specific attributes. It will only deal with individuals who have done tours and travel in the country of Nepal. This is because they are the only ones who have got the right information concerning tour and travel industry in Nepal. For this reason, the study will employ purposive sampling method while recruiting the respondents (Miles, 2004). Purposive sampling is a non-probability sampling where the researcher targets only the person who has the characteristics that the research is interested in. it does not rely on chance (Kothari, 2004). If the research would use a probability sampling method such as for example simple random sampling, the research study might end up with a population which is not a representative of the tourist population thereby ending up with biased data and hence findings.
A mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches will be used in this study. It will be qualitative in that it will seek to have customers’ opinions, ideas, and perceptions and may be feelings yet all these cannot be captured numerically. It will be quantitative also since the study will also want to measure relationships between variables. For example it will want to know the number of times an individual had toured with the company or the age of the participant. According to (Zikmund, 2005) and (Papadopoulos, 2000), the mix usually produces a very rich research report. On the other hand, (Kumar, 2006) asserts that qualitative approach usually describes the data exhaustively.
Data collection
Since this research study will be interested in both qualitative and qualitative data, both primary and secondary methods will be used in collection of data. Interviews and observations will be used to collect qualitative data while questionnaires will be used to collect quantitative data. Some quantitative data will also be collected from secondary sources such as journals, textbooks and from social media.
Sample and sampling process
First, non-probability approach will be employed to identify members of the population who are tour lovers and thereafter use non-probability approaches to select individuals to provide certain answers to specific questions during discussions.
Data Analysis
Reponses collected from the questionnaires that are qualitative in nature will be organized, coded and entered into the SPSS software for the purpose of analysis. The coding of qualitative data is done so as to give it a numeric value so that it can be analyzed easily. Descriptive statistics will be employed to analyze variables such as education standards of the respondents, age and gender. The results will be summarized in form of tables and graphs so that meaningful conclusions could be drawn out of them. Apart from descriptive statistics, inferential statistics will be employed to establish associations and correlations.
Ethical issues
In any research ethics is nowadays a matter of great concern. Before the commencement of any social research or a research that would involve human subjects as participants, it is paramount that there is a well laid plan on how the samples will be recruited and treated throughout the entire period of study. As the ethics standards in research demands, this research study will come up with a consent document whose aim will be help the study recruit the participants in the required manner. The form will explain the main objective of the study as well as tell the expected participant of whom the researchers are. The potential participant will be required to read and confirm his or her understanding of the document by signing it. Signing the ethics document will be a sign of acceptance of terms and conditions of the research. Importantly to note is that any respondent will be free to withdraw from the study when he or she will feel unsatisfied by the exercise. Moreover, the respondent will not be subjected to any kind of force or inducement to produce information.
Since the research will explore an area where not much research has been done in Nepal, its results will be a very important resource as it will help the stake holders in the tourism industry to have an in-depth understanding of the whole process of marketing the industry and its impacts. This research will also strengthen the weaknesses of the previous researches done on the same topic touching on tourism in Nepal. The study’s results will also be an important addition to academic literature in tours and travels and will be able to be used by students and tutors in universities and colleges as a reference material. Lastly, the study itself will present an opportunity for other researchers to critique it thereby exposing its weaknesses and therefore prompting further research that will address those particular weaknesses.
References
Bagnall, D. (2006), “Razor gang creates tourism jitters”, The Bulletin, 25 June, p. 46.
Brett, P. (1992), “The development of tourism”, Tourism Management, Vol. 13 No. 1,
Faulkner, H.W. (2003), “Marketing that takes the long-term perspective”, Tourism & Travel Review, Vol. 1 No. 8, pp. 10-11.
Haywood, K.M. (2000), “Revising and implementing the marketing concept as applies to tourism”, Tourism Management, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 195-205.
Hodgson, A. (1987), “The concept of strategy within the travel industry”, in Hodgson, A. (Ed.) The Travel and Tourism Industries: Strategies for the Future, Pergamon Press, and Oxford.
Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology methods and techniques (2nd Edn). New Delhi: New Age International Publisher.
Kotler, P. (2004), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
March, R. (2009), “Tourism marketing myopia”, Tourism Management, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 411-15.
Miles, M.B. (2004), Qualitative Data Analysis ± a Sourcebook of New Methods, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Mowlana, H. and Smith, G. (2003), “Tourism in a global context: the case of frequent traveler programs”, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 20-27.
Papadopoulos, S.I. (2009), “Strategic development and implementation of tourism marketing plans: part 2”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 37-47.
Poon, A. (2003), Tourism, Technology and Competitive Strategies, Redwood Books, Trowbridge
Porter, M.E. (2000), Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, The Free Press, New York, NY.
Romano, C. (2009), “Research strategies for small business: a case study”, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 35-43.
Toyne, B. and Walters, P.G.P. (2003), Global Marketing Management: A Strategic Perspective, 2nd ed., Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA.
Webster, F. (2002), “The changing role of marketing in the corporation”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 4, pp. 1-17.
Yin, R.K. (2004), Case Study Research ± Design and Methods, Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 5, rev. ed., Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
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