Push Marketing Strategies for Travel Agencies

This assignment examines the role of push marketing in the travel agency sector. It highlights the challenges faced by travel agencies due to evolving consumer behavior and increased online research. The document proposes strategies, such as leveraging Google's advertising services and focusing on relevant keywords, to enhance push marketing efforts and ensure future growth for travel agencies.

Running head: PUSH MARKETING 0
Emerging Issues in Hospitality and Tourism

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Table of Contents
Push Marketing Issues in Tourism Industry...............................................................................2
Analysis of Push Marketing Issues............................................................................................2
Recommendations......................................................................................................................3
Focus towards Pull Marketing Strategy.................................................................................3
Customer engagement............................................................................................................4
Increasing Online Presence....................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Push Marketing Issues in Tourism Industry
Tourism industry is continuously influenced by the implementation of the latest technology
which results in changing its operations. Internet and online based services have transformed
the method of marketing for tourism companies. Most of the tourist agencies use ‘push
marketing’ to advertise their services and offers to the customers. Push marketing is defined
as an advertising approach which is implemented by corporations to advertise their product to
potential customers even when they do not have any desire or interest to purchase the product
or services. The example of push marketing includes showing up uninvited at home for
selling products, short commercials before YouTube videos, newspaper advertisements,
online floating banner advertisements, and unsolicited telephone calls (Ryan, 2013). The
issues with these marketing styles are that customers are not interested in such
advertisements. Instead of attracting, these advertisements annoy the customers which
decrease company’s sales.
Billboards, newspaper advertisements, posters, pamphlets, television commercials, and
telephone calls are some of the techniques use by travel agencies to target their potential
customers. Due to the popularity of the internet and online-based services, the number of
online travel agencies has grown substantially, and these companies use online platforms
such as social media sites, YouTube, and other websites to display their advertisements.
Another issue with push marketing is that companies are in charge of the advertisements
rather than customers. The advertisements of travel agencies might come to strong on
customers which frustrate them (Goodall and Ashworth, 2013). The expenses of push
marketing are also considerably high than compared to other marketing methods because
travel agencies have to display their advertisements on various sources such as billboards,
websites, television, pamphlets, social media sites and others. The corporations also face the
difficulty of irregular traffic because there are a larger number of organisations which use
push marketing for attracting customers and it is difficult for a firm to stand out from the
crowd (Jaafar et al., 2011).
Analysis of Push Marketing Issues
Satisfied customers are the key to business success, and they assist in sustaining travel
agencies’ future growth. It is necessary that travel companies satisfy their customers’

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demands and requirements, so they select them again during their travel requirements. In the
21st century, people did not prefer push marketing because it frustrates and annoys them
(Veerasoontorn and Beise-Zee, 2010). The population of “pull marketing” has grown
substantially due to the popularity of internet services. Pull marketing takes an opposite
approach than push marketing; the goal is to attract customers towards the company instead
of pushing advertisements over them. Most of the modern corporations’ use ‘pull marketing’
approach because it increases their reputation and maintains a positive brand image
(Mohammad and Som, 2010). Organisations use ‘pull marketing’ by recognising their target
audience, making information available to them and providing them incentives which attract
them to select their services.
The growing popularity of social media sites has increased the role of pull marketing, and
customers prefer the travel agencies which uses this method. The issues in push marketing
are detrimental for travel corporations’ future development because it reduces sales and
creates a bad brand reputation of the enterprise (Kassean and Gassita, 2013). The firms which
use push marketing find it difficult to attract a large number of customers and making them
loyal towards the company. Push marketing can also frustrate customers and disrupt their
vacation which is detrimental to corporation’s growth because it annoys customers, and they
started avoiding company’s services. The travel agencies also require maintaining large and
complex amount of data in push marketing strategy which increases their expenses and
reduce profits. The competition in the tourism industry is fierce, and corporations implement
strategic policies to maintain customers’ loyalty (Pesonen et al., 2011). Therefore, the travel
agencies are require to strategically implement policies to address the issues relating to ‘push
marketing’ in order to sustain their future development.
Recommendations
Following recommendations can be implemented by the traveling agencies to address the
issues relating to ‘push marketing’ strategy that can assist in the sustainable development of
the enterprises and the industry.
Focus towards Pull Marketing Strategy
Internet and social media sites have connected people throughout the world with each other
and corporations use these platforms to engage with their customers. People did not prefer
push marketing methods because they feel annoyed and frustrated by the constant

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advertisements. Instead of using push marketing, travel agencies should focus on
implementing pull marketing strategy in order to increase their sales and create a loyal
customers base. According to a study conducted by GE Capital Retail Bank, more than 81
percent of the customers look for products online before deciding on buying them
(Charbonneau, 2013).
As per the 2015 study of Expedia Media Solutions, the number of sites leisure travels visit
before selecting their travel package has dropped 88 percent due to various factors (Hotel
Marketing, 2017). Now, the sites are consolidated which means single travel site provides
multiple traveling facilities; the services of travel sites have also improved, and Google’s
services have become smarter, and they provide recommendations based on customers’
preferences. These studies prove that customers prefer to check offers before buying a
traveling plan; therefore, travel agencies should focus on pull marketing instead of push
marketing.
Customer engagement
With the populations of social media sites, the role of customer engagement has grown
between modern corporations, and they use it to sustain their future development. Many
corporations use social media sites to engage with their customers which assist them in
resolving their quarries, collect feedback, and improve their brand image. Starbucks is a good
example; the corporation uses social media sites to engage with their customers that increase
their brand image and create a loyal customer base which sustains their future development.
Starbucks post advertisements through social media accounts which automatically target
interested customers who follow the company and it reduces marketing expenses (Chua and
Banerjee, 2013). Similarly, travel agencies should establish a dedicated customer engagement
program on social media sites in which employees interact with customers to resolve their
quarries and collect their feedbacks.
The data collected through customer engagement can assist travel agencies in creating new
offers for their customers based on their requirements which increase company’s sales. The
corporations can also create a loyal customer base by engaging with their customers and
listening to their quarries and instantly solving them. This strategy can assist travel agencies
in marketing their products through word-to-mouth advertisement and by posting their new
offers through social media sites (Cabiddu, De Carlo and Piccoli, 2014). Customer
engagement program also improve company’s online rating; any customer looking for a

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travel agency online will prefer to choose a highly rated company which increases firm’s
sales.
Increasing Online Presence
Travel agencies should invest heavily in positively improving their online presence since it
assists them in addressing the issues relating to ‘push marketing’. Instead of advertising to
random people, travel agencies should target their specific customers who are genuinely
interested in their products. The company can use social media sites and Google analytics to
find their loyal customer bases and use push marketing strategy to target them. The
advertisement should be based on customers’ requirements, and the firm should use click
baits, discounts, incentives or attractive offers to attract customers (Smith, Costello and
Muenchen, 2010). Travel agencies should increase their push marketing budget and use
Google’s services to show their advertisements when people search for travel-related
keywords. By implementing these policies, travel agencies can address the issues of push
marketing and use it to sustain their future growth.

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References
Cabiddu, F., De Carlo, M. and Piccoli, G. (2014) Social media affordances: Enabling
customer engagement. Annals of Tourism Research, 48, pp.175-192.
Charbonneau, K. (2013) 81% of shoppers research online before buying. [Online] Thornley
Fallis. Available at https://thornleyfallis.com/81-of-shoppers-research-online-before-buying/
[Accessed 13th January 2018].
Chua, A.Y. and Banerjee, S. (2013) Customer knowledge management via social media: the
case of Starbucks. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(2), pp.237-249.
Goodall, B. and Ashworth, G. eds. (2013) Marketing in the Tourism Industry (RLE Tourism):
The Promotion of Destination Regions. Routledge.
Hotel Marketing. (2017) Number of sites leisure travellers visit before booking drops by
88%. [Online] Hotel Marketing. Available at
http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/number_of_sites_leisure_travelers_visit_
before_booking_drops_by_88 [Accessed 13th January 2018].
Jaafar, M., Abdul-Aziz, A.R., Maideen, S.A. and Mohd, S.Z. (2011) Entrepreneurship in the
tourism industry: Issues in developing countries. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 30(4), pp.827-835.
Kassean, H. and Gassita, R. (2013) Exploring tourists push and pull motivations to visit
Mauritius as a tourist destination. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 2(3),
pp.1-13.
Mohammad, B. and Som, A. (2010) An analysis of push and pull travel motivations of
foreign tourists to Jordan. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(12), p.41.
Pesonen, J., Komppula, R., Kronenberg, C. and Peters, M. (2011) Understanding the
relationship between push and pull motivations in rural tourism. Tourism Review, 66(3),
pp.32-49.
Ryan, C. (2013) Pull Marketing vs. Push Marketing – The Shifting Battleground. [Online]
Fusion Marketing Partners. Available at https://greatb2bmarketing.com/pull-marketing/pull-
marketing-vs-push-marketing-the-shifting-battleground/ [Accessed 13th January 2018].

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Smith, S., Costello, C. and Muenchen, R.A. (2010) Influence of push and pull motivations on
satisfaction and behavioral intentions within a culinary tourism event. Journal of Quality
Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 11(1), pp.17-35.
Veerasoontorn, R. and Beise-Zee, R. (2010) International hospital outshopping: a staged
model of push and pull factors. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare
Marketing, 4(3), pp.247-264.