Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function in travel and tourism

This report discusses the key roles and responsibilities of marketing function in the travel and tourism industry, focusing on XL Leisure Group. It explores the interrelationship between marketing and other business functions. Additionally, it compares the marketing mix of XL Leisure Group with that of Booking.com.

Marketing essentials
for travel and tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function .......................................................1
P2 How these roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to wider organisational context 3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................4
P3 Comparison of marketing mix of two companies ............................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P4. Produce a basic marketing plan .......................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is defined as a term which is used for managing and controlling activities
related to advertising and promotions of the product. The main objective of this department is to
advertise products in an effective manner so that more customers are attracted towards products
offered by the company. In the present report, a travel and tourism company of UK is considered
which is XL Leisure Group. This is a major tour operating company of UK. This has charted and
scheduled airlines, flight only operators and holiday companies. This company also operates in
other countries like France and Australia. The following report consists of roles and
responsibilities of marketing function (Yan, and et. al., 2019). The interrelationship between
these departments is given in this discussion. There is comparison of marketing mix of two travel
and tourism companies of UK. At last, marketing plan is provided for this company that includes
size, scope, vision mission, etc.
TASK 1
P1 Key roles and responsibilities of marketing function
The main objective of marketing is to identify needs and demands of marketing. This
defines, measures and quantify size of market and potential for profit. This tells which segment
of the organisation can provide best service and promotes quality services and product.
1.1 Marketing Definition - Marketing is all about conducting activities and practices that interact
and persuade customers for creating awareness about services and products. This is connected
with market size of XL Leisure Group. The main target of this is to achieve objectives and goals
of marketing.
The various concepts of marketing activities have transformed within time and
companies have been using new way of advertising. The development in marketing and role &
responsibilities of marketing managers are listed below -
1.2 Development of Marketing concept – The main objective of marketers is to analyse needs
and demands of customers and provide them products and services accordingly. The marketing
managers adopt different approaches for satisfying their customers. This can be explained by an
example – Nowadays customers are using internet for doing their activities and tasks. So travel
and tourism companies are providing their service on internet/website.
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Product concept – Consumers need high quality in products and they want that they get
products and services at affordable rates with high quality (Williams, 2017). In context of XL
Leisure Group, it is analysed by the marketers that customers are more attracted towards budget
plan trips, Combo offers of travelling, etc. Thus, this company provides attractive discounts and
offers on tours in order to attract more number of customers.
Production concept – This is associated with utilisation of costs effectively so that
production is maximised. The resources are used appropriately in the organisation for providing
good services. The travel and tourism company, XL Leisure Group is utilising it's resources in an
effective manner so that it can provide satisfactory services to customers.
Selling concept – This means organisations sell their products on the basis of tactics,
measures and strategies. Customers are attracted towards products and services when
organisations are using strong strategies. XL Leisure group uses cost effective approach while
serving it's customers.
Societal marketing concept – This includes providing benefits to people while earning
profits. This helps people to have good standard of living by using service provided to
customers. XL Leisure group offers donations to poor people by deducting a very small amount
of money from fare of customers.
Product development – This is marketing's role in which special deals are offered to
customers. This is responsibility of marketing department to pay higher if thy want high quality.
XL Leisure takes feedback of customers for improving their service.
Research – This is role of marketing function in which relevant information is collected
for making decisions that are related to customer preferences, choices, demands, needs, etc. This
is an activity by which marketers make correct decisions for achieving goals and objectives.
Brand management - Brand is identity of any company or organisation. The
maintenance of brand is most important thing for organisations when it comes to sustainability of
organisation in market (Werner, and Tang, 2017). XL Leisure Group provides good services to
customers. They can enjoy tours through online travelling at affordable prices. This is helpful in
establishing good brand image.
1.3 Interrelatedness of marketing with other business functions
Marketing is defined as art and science that is used for creation, exploration and
delivering value for satisfying needs of market. The function of marketing involves within entity
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and are inter connected in nature with entity. This kind of connection and relation helps them in
maintaining better coordination and performing tasks with efficiency. Working of nexus is
mentioned below:
Marketing and Sales- Sole purpose of marketing department is for creating schemes of
attracting many customers and create a image for making them loyal towards organisation. Plus
they always influence new buyers and customers as well for making increase in purchase. This is
the exact reason through which organisations produce more goods for achieving target created by
them. In working for creating more fan base for brand they should apply new schemes and plans
for increasing customer, this leads to increase in sales. This department should keep an updated
data about customers and new trends to full fill market requirements. This is performed after a
detailed market research plus this helps in performing better as compared to competitors in same
field ( Uhl, and Gollenia, 2016). Customers these days are more attracted towards customisation
and making proper influence over them though strategies. The XL Leisure group can establish
several packages as per requirement of customers, which gives higher satisfaction leading to
enhance in sales.
Marketing and Human resource- Human resources department in any organisation has
to be roles and many responsibilities which are related to recruiting and selecting different
candidates as per the skill requirement in organisation. Human capital is the most crucial skill
which has to be maintained by all such employees and have to perform any such kinds of issues
which are regarding achieving correct capabilities and knowledge in matter of contributing as per
ground levels of contributing success to companies. In case of a scenario where the company
requires to have urgent need of maintaining correct assessment in of choosing people in perfect
department and nature. In case there is crucial need of such XL Leisure group, in which
candidates have to maintain their criteria aspects and perform skills with correct qualification in
nature (Uchino, 2018). This was to maintain correct code of conduct and started to right
workforce in any HR department and have to perform a right workforce in which proper
attainment shall be done. This shall be performed as per guidelines and instructions of XL
Leisure group.
Marketing and Finance- The finance department is directly related to maintaining all
resources of finance which is related to either short spam of time and long spam of time period.
There is direct nexus which is between finance and marketing department of organisation. Their
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are many numbers of activities which can be performed as per guidelines in such regulations and
planning and utilising funds of company. This includes basic function is of creating,a budget for
making all such activities. All resources which are allocated in this have to be as per resources
required in this matter. This is connected on other hand marketing and many responses which are
connected with promotion and advertising many products and services to customers. This
marketing function helps them in creating all such sorts of creating customer base in market. To
understand inter-relationship between in using all marketing strategies which are as per
mainta9ining awareness about any new product or service launched. Hence all issues which are
related to funds and budgets which are required by communicating financial department. This is
done for passing all such funds as quickly as possible.
TASK 2
2. Comparison of marketing mix of two companies
Marketing mix is defined as tool for evaluating brand or company and this covers
different factors like Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Place, Physical evidence and
Process(Spiteri, Olstad, and Woods, 2018). This is useful for analysing advertising, distribution
strategy and pricing used by the organisation. The marketing mix of XL Leisure Group and
booking.com is given below -
Elements of
Marketing Mix
XL Leisure group Booking.com
Product This is defined as product or service
offered by the company. The main
factor on which any organisation
works is it's service or product. The
strategy used by XL Leisure group is
diversification of products and
services. Different types of services
are provided by it to attract the
customers. Another strategy used by
Booking.com is uses customer-
based service development. This
strategy is adopted by the company
in order to attract more number of
customers. The various services
offered by Booking.com are
accommodation services such as
Hotels, guest houses, etc.
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this company is differentiation
(Rowley, 2016). In this context,
products and services offered by this
company are different from it's
competitors. through which it can
make the services look different from
its competitors. The services provided
by this organisation are tour
packages, airline bookings, holiday
packages, etc.
Price This is defined as price or rate at
which the company offers services to
people. This is important for
companies to keep their prices less
than competitors. Being a small travel
and tourism organisation, XL leisure
group uses discount pricing. As per
this strategy, there is reduction in
price for product and services offered
by this company.
Booking.com has shifted it's
operations from physical dealing to
online working. Thus it offers it's
products by using variable pricing.
According to this strategy, pricing
varies with respect to the variation
in features of the product.
Place This is termed as the place where
company is present for offering
products to different people. XL
Leisure operates in different countries
such as UK, Ireland, France, Cyprus,
Germany, etc. this has developed
good image among customers by
providing good services in different
countries.
Booking.com is a company which
has undergone digital
transformation. Since, majority of
the population use internet service,
which has pushed selling of
services online (Routledge.Ramos,
2018). It emphasizes on providing
the services through a mobile
application which is designed
exclusively for the company. It is
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used for communicating and
interacting with existing as well as
potential customers. One can avail
the services with this app. But, it
also has physical stores where
people can get the basic services
related to travel and tourism
Promotion This is intended for informing
customers regarding products that
creates good image of product and
position the product within market
(Nguyen, and Wait, 2015). There are
different ways of promoting tourism
products. The promotional way used
by XL Leisure group is advertising
products on newspapers, TV
commercials, website and radios.
Another strategy used for promotion
is Point of sale i.e. POS which is
displayed at various places like retail
stores, malls, petrol pumps, shopping
malls, etc.
The company takes the helps of
social media to promote its
packages and services which are
offered by it. Most of the people
are active on platforms like
Facebook, Instagram etc. which are
widely used (Uhl and Gollenia,
2016). This is the most common
mode of advertising the services
and new deals to the final
customers. In addition to this, it
also uses radio and television for
promoting the services so
asBooking.com is a company
which has undergone digital
transformation. Since, majority of
the population use internet service,
which has pushed selling of
services online. It emphasizes on
providing the services through a
mobile application which is
designed exclusively for the
company. It is used for
communicating and interacting
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with existing as well as potential
customers. One can avail the
services with this app. But, it also
has physical stores where people
can get the basic services related to
travel and tourism.
People It is the target people to whom goods
or service are sold in order to earn
profit (Misni, Nor, and Ahmad,
2017). The perceptions and views of
employees are very important and this
includes changing the services
provided by the company accordingly
There is diverse workforce working
in the company in different fields
such as customer relationship
management,sales, etc.
There are appraisal programmes,
training sessions, development
programmes etc. used within
organisation. These are helpful for
developing employee's capabilities
and skills. This is the way by
which people are engaged and
participated in the organizational
operations and activities.
Process The process is defined as different
ways by which business operations
are done within the organisation.
Consumer are approached by using
this method. There are more than one
processes which are adopted in XL
Leisure Group for managing services
and making them available for end
consumers. Such processes are
utilised for attaining goals and
objectives of the organisation. The
main objective of company to to
provide safe and secure environment
Booking.com is an organisation
which is using easy and simple
process. This is helpful for
understanding and using the
process and techniques in an
effective manner (Kovačević,
2018). This organisation has given
services to various hotels which
extends to 30million. For making
services in an effective manner.
This is using sole platform that is
used for building channels. These
are used for making information
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to customer. Also, users are
approached for providing customers
their valuable viewpoint and
thoughts. Feedback is taken from the
customers that is used for preparing
decisions.
flow easier and in this way
communication can be done
effectively.
Physical evidence This is defined as surroundings of
marketing in which there is
interaction between customer and
firm. XL Leisure group is offering
packaging of its products within its
retail shops (Gregg, 2015). This also
has website for users on which they
offer services to customers.
Personalisation is applied in this
organisation. In this context,
consumers can choose their
services like accommodation,
holiday packages, etc. This is done
according to the demands and
needs of of buyers availing this
services.
TASK 3
3. Produce a basic marketing plan
Marketing plan is referred as document which includes strategies used for advertising
and promoting products and services. This means it includes vision, mission, scope of the
organisation and plans for synchronising these to attain organisational goals and objectives.
Basic marketing plan is used for making the services popular among the people in the target
market. A strategic marketing plan is useful for achieving the strategic goals and objectives and
enhancing competitive advantage.
In context of XL Leisure Group, they are providing various services that includes charter
and scheduled airlines, flight tours and holiday packages. This organisation provides services on
it's website. Customers can use this online facility and book their required offer. The online
booking service helps in reducing waiting time. This facilitates fast check-ins, in flight
engagement etc. The marketing plan of XL Leisure group is mentioned below -
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Offerings: The variety of services will range from tour packages from personalised
services. This can be done through website as well as physical outlets (Kakarot-Handtke, 2015).
The main aim of this organisation is to provide effective airline bookings to people.
Target market: It is useful to identify the target market for selling the services.
Therefore, STP analysis has been conducted which is as follows: segmentation- This includes segmentation and according to this market is divided into
category (Kakarot-Handtke, 2015). In this customers are targeted on the basis of
demographical and geographical factors. Customers are divided on the basis of locations,
age, gender, income etc. Targeting- XL Leisure group is targeting customers who are earning high income.
 Positioning- It has business presence online as well as physical outlets. This also includes
social media platforms and mobile applications.
Monitoring: Marketing plan is monitored by different measures. Marketers uses Key
Performance Indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of their marketing plan (Hair Jr, and et.
al., 2015). This is helpful in analysing whether the marketing plan is able to meet the set
standards or not.
3.1 Difference between a basic (tactical) marketing plan and strategic marketing plan
Strategic marketing plan needs a deep understanding of trends within the hospitality
sector, competitive position and demographics as well as buying behaviour of customers. In this
marketing plan, strategy is the road map which is helpful for achieving goals and objectives
which comprises financial plan entailing marketing budget. On the other hand, tactical marketing
plan includes community building, advertising and sales promotion. Advertising is done through
radio, television, radio, print marketing ,etc. This is communication of brand image and
informing target customers about existence within market and promotional events. Benchmarks
are set for production of revenue and adjustment of strategic assumptions are done.
3.2 The 2030 marketing Plan for XL Leisure Ltd.
ANALYSIS
 Destination mission and vision – The vision of XL Leisure group is to become
benchmark for other tour companies by giving excellent performance in market.
Mission of this company is to provide a convenient and safe travel experience to its customers.
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 Situation analysis (environmental scanning)
Environmental scanning is defined as the process of collecting information regarding events and
relationships within the company's external and internal environment. This helps management in
taking effective decisions for launching a new service or product.
 Environmental scan (PESTLE analysis)
The PESTEL analysis is defined as market analysis done for analysing the various factors of
business environment that can affect functioning of business operations. In context of travel and
tourism company it is important to analyse all factors before providing service in market. The
elements of PESTLE in context of the tour and travel organisation is given below -
Political factors
The political stability is important for
estimating image of destinations in regions that
attract tourists. It is ensured by the company
that it is not offering tour service in countries
where there is there are cases of terrorism,
violence and warfare
Environmental factors
The main concern of tour and travel industry is
to use fuel and wastage of oil in aspect of
travelling.
Social factors
There are few characteristics of travel industry
which plays an essential role in making
organisations popular. There must be new
innovations within travel and tour service for
attracting new customers.
Technological factors
The travel organisations are adopting new
technologies for providing effective service to
clients and customers. This includes
enhancement in booking services, boarding
services, etc.
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Economical factors
Travel industry is one of the best industries of
the world. Customer satisfaction is key factor
for sustenance of this business.
Legal factors
Travel and tour companies follow different
regulations and rules set by government in
which travel company is working.
 Destination analysis (SWOT analysis, PLC analysis)
The PLC analysis is defined as cycle by which products offered by the company goes from
introduction to the withdrawal demise. The stages of this model in context of XL Leisure group
is listed below -
Introduction - This is defined as the entry stage where products are just introduced in the
market. In this stage, heavy marketing and promotion is required by the company.
Growth – This is defined as the next stage where the new product or service is enhanced within
market. This is profit making stage and stabilisation of market share takes place.
Maturity – This includes sales growth at slow rate and then finally there is stabilisation. Here
product differentiation takes place.
Decline – If the new product or service is not making enough money then the offering of that
product or service is stopped.
SWOT analysis
Strength Weakness
XL Leisure provides services to places that are
attractive and have comfortable weather
conditions.
There is skilled workforce working in this
organisation.
There is higher intervention of government.
This organisation provides good
accommodation facilities.
Opportunity Threat
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Opportunity for improving security and
economy in the country development and
research.
There is high competition in market so this
organisation has to develop strong marketing
strategies to capture wide range of customers.
 Competitive analysis
 Positioning analysis (image research)
 USP's Identification
The travel and tourism organisation, i.e. XL Leisure organisation has unique selling proposition.
It provides attractive and affordable packages of vacation across the world at affordable prices.
PLANNING
Marketing objectives
 Marketing goals XL Leisure group is planning to achieve a goal of raising overall
profitability by 10% within 9 months
 Increase in customer base by 9% within 3 months
IMPLEMENTATION '
 Marketing Budget
PARTICULARS I II III IV V
Start-Up Capital 5400 11000 12450 13030 17140
Investment 4300 7800 5500 4465 8636
TOTAL 9700 18800 17950 17495 25776
MARKETING
OUTLAY
Marketing 6500 7800 6900 12700 13660
Publicity 8800 12100 9900 10500 12200
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TOTAL 15300 19900 16800 23200 25860
MONITORING
 Performance measures/Indicators - Key Performance Indicators or "KPIs" form an
important part of the data that companies need to explain how they're
progressing towards their marketing and business goals. XL Leisure will
measure it's performance by checking the level of customer satisfaction.
CONCLUSION
It is analysed from the above report that marketing function helps in creating good brand
image of organisation within market. The concept of marketing is referred as collecting relevant
information by the help of which companies can achieve organisational goals and objectives in
less time. The aspect of marketing means organisations have to implement effective strategies in
order to attract customers. Marketing department is connected to other departments of the
company. The collaboration within these departments helps in achieving organisational goals in
appropriate manner. Marketing mix of different organisations is compared for developing
effective strategies and tactics adopted by companies. A strategic marketing plan helps in
creating opportunities for marketers to create and develop new offerings to customers.
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