Travel and Tourism Marketing as we all know is one of the fastest growing sectors amongst all the other sectors of modern business. The increasing demands of the people and the increasing interest of the people along with the changing priorities of the people have favored a paradigm shift towards the growth in the travel and tourism business (Xiang, Magnini, & Fesenmaier, 2015). The tourism industry has been a force in the national growth and economic development of any country. There are many countries in the world that are totally dependent on Tourism for their economic and social development. According to reports conducted by leading tourist organizations global tourism has seen a huge rise in the last couple of years. The governments of different countries have been leaving no stones unturned to increase the attractiveness of the country by promoting various forms of tourism (Becker, 2016). Proper organization, planning and implementation of the principles in the right way are essential for the presentation of a complete tour package (Tan, Habibullah, & Choon, 2017). The time is perfectly ripe for the different tourism business operators to take the opportunity and invest wisely in the sector.
Marketing is the study and the management of relationship exchange. It is aimed at satisfying as well as attracting new customers to the fold of the business. The core concept of marketing is management and thus it can be termed as the premier concept of Business Management. It can be also defined as the activity and the process of communicating, delivering and exchanging different values for the customers as well as the products and services of the customers, clients and partners. According to Philip Kotler marketing can be defined as the act of satisfying the needs and wants of the customers by means of exchanging. Thus a sum total of all the different definitions available on marketing, it can be defined as the process by which the business organizations or persons communicate with each other and convince them about the best value of the different types of products and services that are provided to the company by the organization.
The tourism industry is totally different from the other kinds of industry as because it does not involve the direct selling of the products rather it involves the selling of a particular place, attractions of the place and the things that the place offers. The competition is with the entire world when the company promotes different kinds of tourism activities. Thus each and every of the organizations needs a proper and creative approach to attract more and more customers to their fold. Some of the most common ways by which the tourism companies arise interests among the customers are;
The marketing department of Thomas Cook is assigned with the task of identifying and planning holidays to meet the demands of the potential clients and also to ensure the company offers the right type of holidays at the right price for the clients. The marketing team of the company has also segmented the market according to a number of different segmentations to continue provide the benefits from the existing cost savings and improvement plans that are already adopted by Thomas Cook so that they will be able to grow revenues in the existing and new market segments and to deliver efficiencies from being part of a much larger group. The segmentation of the market helps the organization to grow revenues in the existing and new market segments and to deliver efficiencies from being part of the larger group. The marketing strategy of the mentioned Travel Agency focuses on some of the key marketing features that are namely;
The following report has been prepared by the researcher considering Thomas Cook as the tourism operator. The case is based on the creation of a new summer 2018 holiday brochure for visiting the African states of Morocco and Egypt. The consideration of the following company has helped the researcher to make the report a compact one.
Thomas Cook Group plc is a British global travel organization that has a number of different products and services to offer to the vast range of customers worldwide. This includes package holidays, Hotels and Resorts, Cruise line holidays, chartered flights and many more such similar features that are offered to the customers. The company was founded in England in the year 2007 and since then had curved out a successful success story. Headquartered in Peterborough in England it has a large number of regional and local offices both in its native country as well as outside the country. The annual revenue of the company is estimated at a healthy sum of more than pound 7000 million and employs more than 20,000 people all across the world. The example of a large company like Thomas Cook is sure to have a positive impact on the report.
The core concepts of Marketing are very much definite, clear, relevant and acceptable to get the basic knowledge of the marketing process of a particular organization (Dubey, 2016). Marketing in general is composed of five main concepts or the core concepts as it is popularly called. The needs, wants and demands of the customers are one of the main considerations that determine on how the product is to be packaged by the organization. The product and services of the organization are made on the basis of the demands and wants of the customers. The three of them are totally different from each other in terms of marketing. They are as follows;
The marketing environment of the organization involves both the micro and macro environment analysis of the business. Both the micro and Macro environment have an impact on the company’s business and destination places namely Morocco and Egypt.
Micro Environment
Customers- The business of the mentioned organization will have a considerable impact on the needs and demands of the customers. The customers may opt for a long tour of 8 to 9 days while visiting these particular places while the company has the tour package for just 5 days. The management of the company in such case have to change the plan of the tour and structure it according to the popular demand. The long tour planning will help the customers to visit almost all the different types of attractive places in both the countries (Tan, Habibullah, & Choon, 2017)..
Suppliers- The suppliers of the mentioned company provide accommodation services, transport services, food and lodging facilities in the holiday package. The business practices of Thomas Cook are also impacted by the organization. The company is responsible for providing the best quality of services to the customers during the tour. The company promises to make the tour one of the very best. The success of the suppliers will have a direct impact on the company as because their success will directly make the organization gain the trust of the customers and thus they will be able to attract more and more customers to avail their service (Tan, Habibullah, & Choon, 2017).
Macro Environment
Technology- Technology is one of the most important factors that contribute to the success of the modern organizations. The use of the most advanced forms of technologies has enabled the management of Thomas Cook to establish a reputed brand presence in the tourism market. The creation of an advanced website using the latest forms of software processes has helped the customers to get a detailed idea of all the tour packages of Morocco and Egypt including the facilities offered too them and the online booking policies. The customers can easily book their berths using the advanced website without even visiting the office of the company. The company has appointed eminent experts from the software field to make the organization one of the best in the business (Dolnicar & Ring, 2014).
Economics- Economic conditions of the business is one of the key factors to the proper formulation of the tour scheduling and planning. The different types of economic factor include bank rates, interest rates, conditions of the market, demands of the organization and the difference in the demands of the specific customers. The more the rate of interest is high the more is the chance of decrease in the consumer demand (Camilleri, 2018).
Politics-Before booking their trips with the global tour company the customers are in a fix whether or not the political condition of the country is stable or not. Since the countries of Africa have a long history of political turmoil the customers wants to make it confirm whether or not the company has adequate arrangements of security in case of any emergency. It is the task of the tour manager as well as the other members of the management to make the people understand the safety that the company provides to make them avail the tour with them (Armstrong et al., 2015).
Demography- Demography is one of the main considerations as the company must operate the business at the most suitable places that offer great profitability. A market research before the establishment of the operations like the type os people, choices of people, income of people, social backgrounds of people and other important considerations that may affect the operations of the mentioned company.
A number of different factors affect the motivation and demand of the tourism sector. This includes;
Cultural factors-The cultural factors involve the culture, sub-culture and the social class of the different customers who uses the services of Thomas Cook organization. The culture of a particular person can be determined by his willingness to explore and respect the culture of other countries like Morocco and Egypt. The sub culture of the countries includes the tradition, custom and religion off the country (Buhalis & Foerste, 2015).
Personal Factors- The personal reasons and the factors motivate the customer to travel to the two African countries (Law et al., 2015). Personal reasons may include business purposes, educational purposes, financial needs and many other similar purposes. The tourists are interested to know the history and the importance of the different historical structures like the pyramids in Egypt.
Social Factors- The social factors are of no less importance in motivating customers to avail the particular trip to Morocco and Egypt. The architecture of the different historical structures, the camel ride to the natural deserts are enjoyed and described to the other persons after the tourists return to their houses. This makes the other persons more curious to visit the places and in turn increasing the sales of the particular tour package (Tan, Habibullah, & Choon, 2017).
Psychological factors- Motivation, perception, knowledge learning and attitudes are all comprised to form this particular factor. The particular perception helps the persons visiting the places to interpret the particular visit easily. The psychological factors help the organizations to increase the demand for visiting the places (Standing, Tang-Taye & Boyer, 2014).
Thomas Cook offers a number of different products and services for their customers to avail. The products are unique in nature and differ completely from the range of products of other companies available in the market. The products vary from holiday travel, foreign exchange, visa and passport services. The company also offers a wide range of different other services that includes the likes of travel insurance, travel education and tourism education.
The company creates value through all these different products and services offered by the organization.
Market Segmentation is a particular type of marketing activity which categorizes the broad market into much smaller segments which involves consumers of same traits. The different types of marketing segmentation are described below;
The management of Thomas Cook can target customers according to the age, income, lifestyle, gender and many other different segmentation features. Segmentation process helps the organization to get a proper idea about the different types of customers and their wants and demands. The marketing activities have been designed by the customers according to the marketing segmentation of the customers. The company has a number of different tour packages for Morocco and Egypt for different customers (Tan, Habibullah, & Choon, 2017). The parties who opt for an educational tour in these two countries are provided with the educational tour planner package which includes the visit to the historical places, study of the local culture and other facilities that caters to the educational needs of the customers. On the other hand the package offered by the management for tourists are totally different and includes visit to attractive places, historical places, getting a real experience of local cuisine, local culture and ride on the camel and shopping facilities. Therefore it can be said that the difference in the packaging of the tour programs helps to properly cater to the exact needs of the business (Choi et al., 2017).
Strategic marketing refers to the proper combination of the marketing goals of the mentioned tour organization and citing the ways and means of achieving them with ease. The SOSTAC model is one of the very best for Thomas Cook and the new manager can use the following tool to achieve success in the business.
Situation Analysis- PESTLE and SWOT analysis is a must for the mentioned company to analyze the current market situation (Baker, 2014). The current market position along with the exact economic condition along with the current economic condition will help to plan the holiday schedule of Morocco and Egypt accordingly.
Objective Setting- The management of the company must set a certain set of objectives on what will be their aim for the new project and what do they want to achieve from such a plan. To continue receiving profit from the business the company must go on innovate the tour package by adding latest and most best innovative facilities for the customers (Proctor, 2014).
Strategy Development- The most important task of the business is to make sure that the management forms an effective, creative and innovative strategy for attracting more and more customers under its fold (West, Ford & Ibrahim, 2015). The strategy development of the business helps the organization to focus on the delivery of a prompt and smart tour service to the customers.
Tactical Development- The manager of the company must ensure to carry on new market surveys and researches to get an idea or different information regarding the new tour planner for the mentioned African countries (Dubey, 2016).
Action- The Company can come into mutual agreements with air service providers and Hotels in the respective countries to facilitate easy transportation of the customers.
Control- The management of Thomas cook with the help of the tour manager must make sure to carry revise and check on a timely basis on whether the customers are receiving proper services or not (Becker, 2016).
Importance
The importance of strategic marketing planning is as follows;
The PEST Analysis of Thomas Cook categorizes environmental influences into four main types which are political, social, economical and technological. This following analysis will be helpful to determine the impact of the factors upon the organization. The managers of the company are able to understand the key drivers of the change and determine their strategies accordingly.
Product- As mentioned earlier product forms an important part of the marketing mix of the organization (Strauss, 2016). The products of Thomas Cook for this particular assignment are the different tour packages and tour programs for the business.
Price- It can be said that pricing of the packages provided by Thomas Cook is an integral factor of marketing mix. One of the factors for deciding the type of customers to be targeted for a particular package is the price of such travel package provided by Thomas Cook. The company can even undercut rival companies and their offerings by fixing the prices of the travel packages aggressively (Chernev, 2014).
Place- Place is one of the important areas of the travel and tourism industries which assist marketing communication. Providing relevant information about Egypt to the potential customers can help the company attract more customers. As the conventional marketing places are changing with technological advancements the travel and tourism industries must switch to World Wide Web and related channels for imparting information about their travel and tourism packages (Camilleri, 2018). It can be said that the practice of inbound marketing needs to be used as the core component of marketing. This is however, different from the outbound marketing which is traditional in nature. The focus of traditional outbound marketing lies mainly on making the business easy to find in the internet and online spaces. It aims to direct customers to the website of the company by the use of interesting and relevant contents. Even social media can have a positive effect on the marketing of a business or a company.
People – It can be mentioned that people are one of the main components of the service marketing mix. People in the marketing mix can be classified as the front end executives, professionals belonging to the company who interact with the consumers at the time of the sales process. It can be said that the behavior of employees of a company and the way they deal with people are essential and instrumental in building a loyal client base (Mariani et al., 2014). Therefore it can be said that people as a resource has the potential to make as well break the reputation of the company in the eyes of the consumers.
Physical evidence- It is to be said that most travel and tourism companies offer services to the consumers which are intangible in nature. Therefore developing a good customer experience is crucial for development of good reputation of the company (Dolnicar, & Ring, 2014). However, travel and tourism companies can add several tangible elements to their service. Such tangible elements can be considered to the physical evidence provided by the company. Physical evidence can be used as an advantage by Thomas cook over the other rival companies as a part of its service marketing. It is to be mentioned that physical evidence of the tourism industry includes tokens of service, the type of hotels arranged by the company for the customers to stay, type of food offered by such travel and Tourism Company.
The market segmentation principles include;
References
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