DESTINATION MANAGEMENT AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS 2022

Running head: DESTINATION MANAGEMENT
DESTINATION MANAGEMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author notes

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Table of Contents
Section 1: Who is Responsible for Tourism?.............................................................................2
1.1. Strengths and Weaknesses of the DMO (Marketing Cheltenham).................................2
1.2. Discussion of three key stakeholders..............................................................................3
Section 2: Market Analysis........................................................................................................4
2.1. An overview of your chosen country target market........................................................4
2.2. Evaluation of your choice of market segment.................................................................4
Section 3: What Have We Got?.................................................................................................5
3.1. Evaluation of Tourism Product Portfolio – A discussion of your chosen Core Products
and Key Themes.....................................................................................................................5
3.2. Strengths and weaknesses with infrastructure and supporting product..........................7
Section 4: Image and Branding..................................................................................................8
4.1. Key Image of Cheltenham and their Consistency...........................................................8
4.2. Fulfilment of the destination Expectation.......................................................................8
Section 5: Conclusions...............................................................................................................9
5.1. SWOT Analysis..............................................................................................................9
5.2. Two key recommendations for Marketing Cheltenham................................................11
5.3. Final Thoughts..............................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13

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Section 1: Who is Responsible for Tourism?
1.1. Strengths and Weaknesses of the DMO (Marketing Cheltenham)
Strengths
1. Government Aided Organisation
The Marketing Cheltenham is the organisation that is aided by the Cheltenham Borough
Council of UK government (marketingcheltenham.co.uk 2019). Therefore, the organisation
gets developmental resources and supports from the council. This accelerates the progress of
the city development along with the promotional and marketing aspects.
2. Tourism Development in Cheltenham
The number of tourist in UK are increasing every year. This opens a great marketing and
tourism development scopes for destination marketing of Cheltenham. The city development
as a tourist destination is designed to improve the tourist economy of the place. The place is
well connected with most of tourist attraction of the place and is culturally rich.
Weaknesses
1. Funding Problems
The development of the city is depended on the funds collected from the local businessmen.
Recently, the projects under Marketing Cheltenham is experiencing some issues in their
funding mostly because of the crunch in UK economy.
2. Strategic Leadership problems
The Marketing Cheltenham is aimed for the overall development of the destination tourism in
Cheltenham. The 5 year strategy of the organisation need to be handled with effective
leadership. The responsibilities are led on the shoulder of five members and this number is

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quite small for the project management. This is why, the organisation faces some
communication and leadership issues.
1.2. Discussion of three key stakeholders
Three most important stakeholders for Marketing Cheltenham are the tourists, local
community and the government.
Tourists
Among the primary stakeholders of the organisation the tourist that are going to visit the city,
would be in pivotal position. The Marketing Cheltenham is the destination marketing
organisation. Hence, the primary target of the company would be to provide exceptional
experience to the tourists so that they would show their interest in staying at the city more
and visit more frequently (Brouder et al. 2016). Any development in the city for tourism
would directly affect the tourist more than anyone.
Local people
Expansion of the local tourism business would benefit the local community. The increasing
number of tourists in the spot would result into the improved economic condition of the
place. The local people are the one who have the capacity to provide the tourists cheerful
experiences (Koo et al. 2016).
Government
The Marketing Cheltenham is established by Cheltenham Borough Council and it would get
the benefits directly from the organisation (marketingcheltenham.co.uk 2019). With the
development of the city as destination tourist spot, the government can make profit from the
tourism revenue.

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Section 2: Market Analysis
2.1. An overview of your chosen country target market
The target markets are the decider of the strategic management aspects of any organisational
operations. This is why the companies in tourism business give huge importance in choosing
the right target market so that they can address the tourism issues accordingly. In the case of
Cheltenham, USA would be the best choice for selling the destination tourism. The tourists
from the USA should be given priority in the strategic marketing of the organisation (Stylos
et al. 2016). The reason is that, the tourists from this country usually visit places for having
holiday experiences. The plus factors of the city of Cheltenham are the culture, activities and
food that the American tourists will enjoy and come to visits again. The tourists of other
countries are more into the adventurous destination and might not show that much interest in
the cultural and social spots like Cheltenham. Hence choosing the USA as the priority market
would be effective decision for Marketing Cheltenham.
2.2. Evaluation of your choice of market segment
Choosing the target market for the destination tourism is important because the marketing
strategies are set according to the demand of this section. Marketing Cheltenham would target
the families and couples for their marketing strategy.
The families that have people and children in it, are always in search of a spot where they can
spend their leisure peacefully along with something new to experience. These segments of the
tourists are not much interested in the adventurous sports of too much thrilling experience
(Mathew and Sreejesh 2017). They prefer to have a tour where they have things to learn and
spend some quality time together. Some of the couples have same kind of interest.
Key motivators

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Cheltenham as a destination town has the concept of “The Festival Town”. The city is
aspiring to be the most attractive and liveable town in UK. The families that have children’s
holiday to spend or have some quality time activities would be more interested in visiting the
city. Hence, the strategies of the organisation should be directed for this section of the
market.
Demographic Information
Sections of demographic information are related to the age, race, gender, family size and
income (Sato et al. 2018). The target consumer of the project would be the family that have
parents and children. The couples without children would also be taken into consideration.
Age group would be 10 to 60 or more. That means a huge range of people would be in the
target market. The income of the family group could be moderate to high as they have to pay
some amount extra for the stay and activities planned for their entertainment. Both male and
female would be included in the target consumers.
Psychographic Information
The psychographic segments are decided according to the personality traits, lifestyles,
attitudes, interests and values of the target consumers (Chiang et al. 2015). For the tourism
planning of Cheltenham, the families would be the main target. People with hectic lifestyle,
interested in spending slow and peaceful holiday or travelling would be preferred. The
consumers who have a moderate lifestyles and positive attitude towards enjoying culture and
good food would be targeted by the organisation.

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Section 3: What Have We Got?
3.1. Evaluation of Tourism Product Portfolio – A discussion of your chosen Core
Products and Key Themes
The resources of Cheltenham town that would attract the attention of the tourist are the food,
culture and the famous festival. The main strategic objective of Marketing Cheltenham is to
develop the destination tourism on the basis of the events (Jovicic 2019). This is why the
three major themes for the target segment of the tourists are based on the place and its
eventful lives. These themes are discussed below.
Individual attraction- Food and beautiful house stay
The target segment for the Cheltenham tourism are the families from USA who have the
primary interest to have a chilled and peaceful holiday. The buildings and the establishments
of the city would be retouched and redesigned (Wu 2016). The basic requirement of the
strategy would be to provide a warm environment for the tourist. The home stays would be
planned and the food served would be inspired by the local cuisine. The personalised
packages for food and home stay would increase the individual attraction quotient of the
place.
Activities- Community and Cultural Interactions
Usually, the families prefer to have a cultural connection with the place they are going to
visit. The local culture of the Cheltenham city is quite cheerful and active. The tourists would
experience the connection with the cultural aspects with the help of the local community. The
community people would interact with the tourists through the home stay and sightseeing.
There can be some fun activities designed for the tourists and the children long with the local
community. The key product in this theme would be the community interaction session and
the sightseeing.

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Events- Cheltenham Festival
Spa Town and the Cheltenham festival are the main two things that the city is known for.
Therefore, the key product in event development would be surrounded by the Cheltenham
festival. This festival happens in the March and Marketing Cheltenham would concentrate the
most in the tourists who come at this time of the year. This event of Cheltenham festival is
the 4 days festival of horse jumping. During this time, the infrastructure of the place would be
changed and the tourists would have the scope to explore the festival in their own way.
The whole process might bring some challenges for the operations of the company. As the
destination marketing organisation, arrangement of the vents and making it plausible for the
tourists is a great challenge (Andrades and Dimanche 2017). For example, the organisation
might find it difficult to accommodate the huge number of tourists during the festival time.
Again the space in the place of festival is limited. Therefore, if the crowd for the festival
season increases too much, the organisation then have to think about the alternative places for
stay for the tourists.
3.2. Strengths and weaknesses with infrastructure and supporting product
Strengths of the city infrastructure is that it is well connected with all major location and
transportation in the country. The city is well known as the festival city. The house stays of
the place are liked by the tourists (Avraham 2015). This is the reason that, in recent years, the
number of tourists visiting Cheltenham and staying at night has increased to six percent in
2019. The availability of the transports are quite remarkable. The day tourists can easily
travel from the place to any other major cities of the country. The local and the international
travellers, both visit the place at the time of festival.
There are also some problems going on with this place. First is the growing pollution index.
The city councils has been unable to control the pollution of Cheltenham. The tourists take it

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as a negative aspects of the place. Other than that, the retail chains of the city are going down
constantly. For any city, retails business is connected and correlated with the tourism
development. The case is the same with Cheltenham. But the fall in the number of retail
chains have decreased the number of long stay tourists in the city.
Section 4: Image and Branding
4.1. Key Image of Cheltenham and their Consistency
Cheltenham is known for its festival and old architectures. The city is projected as place
where one can find cultural qualities. Warm community interaction and the beautiful gardens
are the USP for the tourism business. The place is also known for the holding like Regency
buildings- Pittville Pump Room. This is the remnant of the past history of Cheltenham as a
Spa town. Each year by the time of March, the city welcomes a huge crowd from all over the
world because of its festival for horse jumping. Most of tourist agencies describe it as a
beautiful city that is full of heritage building and flowers. The people of the place are said to
be sensitive and friendly.
The projection of the place is quite the same by all the travel agencies. This place is designed
for the families and the people who have interest in peaceful and cultural environment
(Papadimitriou, Apostolopoulou and Kaplanidou 2015). The travel agencies that have
Cheltenham in their travel packages describe it as the place of greenery and festival. The
festivity is at the heart of marketing for any company. This way one can say that, the image
of the place is quite the same for the travel agencies.
4.2. Fulfilment of the destination Expectation
There are some aspects of the destination tourism in Cheltenham that need to be changed or
revised. The place has been successful to maintain its heritage and beauty. But in recent
times, this is facing challenges like pollution and closing of retail chains and so on (Morrison

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2018). The city council is trying to change the tourism aspects by introducing new
environmental policies to the city. The expectation of the tourists of having a green space full
with retail chains, both international and local retailers are not completely fulfilled. The
extended marketing and lack of accommodation has made the place a bit clumsy for the
tourists.
The huge number of tourists are also influencing the lifestyle of the local people. The local
community are offering their houses for the tourist but are failed to fulfil all the expectations
of the tourists. Some of the changes required for the place are the pollution check. The
council has already started to check on the pollution part of the city. Another important aspect
is the retail chain closing (Cucculelli and Goffi 2016). The retail chains need to be supported
by the government so that they can have business from the tourists. Along with that the
organisation must try to control the mass tourism in the festival season. The accommodations
need to be increased and the number of night stay tourists need to be increased through the
strategic development.
Section 5: Conclusions
5.1. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 The city is known for its festive heritage and this is the main attraction for the tourists.
The Cheltenham Festival is held once in a year, but the name and reputation if it has
made the place an attraction for all kind of people.
 Both the national and the international tourists visit the place. The place has strong
culture and heritage buildings. This is an advantages for the tourism organisation.
This attracts the attention and interest of the tourists to the place (Gretzel et al. 2016).

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 The Market Cheltenham is the organisation that is aided by the government councils.
This gives it an extra edge is solving the issues or problems fast and more effectively.
 The transport and connectivity if the city is quite remarkable. This is the reason that
the local tourists also show interest for a one day trip to the place. The day trips are as
famous as the night stay trips in Cheltenham.
Weaknesses
 Retail chains in the place are gradually decreasing. The loss in the business is said to
be the main reason behind this. The retailers are finding it problematic to grow in the
city. The day tourism is increasing than the long stay ones (Höpken et al. 2015). This
is resulting into loss of business for the national and international retail chains. The
loss of the retailers are becoming the reason of tourist disinterest.
 The funding for the development is the main problem for the Marketing Cheltenham.
Local people are not showing much interest in funding the development of the palce.
 Another problem of the place is the high pollution is recent year. Growth of tourism
can be the reason for the growing pollution as well. This is again reducing the number
of tourists in the city.
Opportunities
 There are limited number of tourists spot in UK that have the same attractive feature
like that of the Cheltenham city. Therefore, the city can explore its scope to became
the ideal tourist city and the most ‘liveable place” in UK.
 The heritage buildings of the place can be an instrument to attract the attention of the
tourist.
 If the Marketing Cheltenham is able to attract more long-stay tourists, the place would
become a financially sustainable tourist spot.

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Threats
 Fall in the number of business in the area can be a negative signal for the tourism (Li
et al. 2018).
 The economic recession of the UK can affect the number of tourists in the city.
 Increased number of tourists at the same place same time can harm the environment
of the place.
5.2. Two key recommendations for Marketing Cheltenham
Focusing and increasing the revenue from the Long stay tourists
The Cheltenham city is famous for its aesthetic and cultural appeal among the visitors. There
are two types of visitors of the place- day visitors and the night stay visitors. The statistics say
that most of the tourists visiting the place prefer to stay for a short time of one day time and
go back to different neighbouring areas to spend the night. The organisation has to make sure
that more tourists are staying at the city. This will increase the revenue earned from the
tourism and at the same time will increase the business benefits of the local people (Pike
2015). The hospitality industry of the place would grow if the tourists start to stay for long
time at the city. For this, the activities and events need to be increased. The local people can
have more interactions with the people staying at their place to increase their personal
communicational aspects. The organisation can also arrange some training program for the
local hospitality business owners to provide positive experience for the long stay tourists.
Controlling the pollution and mass tourism during Festival
Tourists are visiting the place where they can have more clean air and environment. The
pollution index of the Cheltenham city is continuously increasing. This can be the result of
the increased tourism in the place. This can be controlled by taking some effective measures.
The greenery of the place can be increased by plantation, use of plastics need to be banned,

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again, the retail owners of the city need to do more responsible business. The organisation
need to be working with some NGOs who work for the same mission. The local people
awareness camps can also be effective in this aspect. This way, the organisation would be
able to manage the problem of increased pollution in the place.
5.3. Final Thoughts
The Cheltenham city could be a great attraction point for the family people and the couples
who are in search of a beautiful and cultural holiday. The place has several competitive
advantages in itself. The beauty of the place, the flower gardens, the old heritage building and
the famous Cheltenham festival- makes it different from all other competitors in the country.
The tourism in UK is mainly based on the adventurous tours or the urbanised cities. The
Cheltenham is the place that can gain the attention of the tourists because of its unique
features and cultural connections.

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