Analysis of Tourism Marketing and Management Studies

The provided document is an academic assignment that involves analyzing several research papers and publications related to tourism marketing and management. The assignment includes a list of references from reputable sources such as journals, books, and online articles. It appears to be a comprehensive study of the topic, covering various aspects of tourism marketing and management, including destination competitiveness, safety and security in tourism, social media impact on consumer decision-making, and more. The assignment is likely intended for students pursuing higher education in tourism or related fields.

MarketingMarketing
InIn
Travel And TourismTravel And Tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1.1 Discuss the core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector..........................1
1.2 Assess the impact of the marketing environment on individual travel and tourism
businesses....................................................................................................................................2
1.3 Factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism sector..........3
1.4 Principals of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Significance of strategic marketing planning .......................................................................4
2.2 Relevance of marketing research and market informations..................................................5
2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society.......................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing mix..................................7
3.2 Assess the importance of service sector mix elements to travel sector.................................8
3.3 Apply the concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism.............................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Assess the integrated nature and role of the promotional mix............................................10
4.2 Covered in poster................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism is a need of person to heel his body from his regular pressurized
working schedule, it provides a relief to tourist and charge them to work better with proper focus.
(Ashworth and Goodall . eds., 2012) Travel and tourism is a fast growing sector and most of the
big business groups are attracting towards it to be a part of the sector. Marketing is a need of
each and every industry to attract customers towards it. This report is based on the TUI group
which is planning for next tours for Turkey and Spain. This report will describe the marketing
concept and it's impact on the customers. Different factors which impact on the customers
motivation for tours and market segmentation for the company in these tours. In the next task it
will explain significance of strategic marketing planning, marketing research and impact of
marketing on society. After it will describe marketing mix, service sector mix, and concept of
total tourism. At the last of this report promotional mix roles and nature in the marketing and
organisational context which can help to the company to be in the position.
TASK 1
P1.1 Discuss the core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector
Here to understand the concepts of marketing plans for the travel and tourism industry, it
is necessary to understand different part of this concept separately like first to understand the
concept of marketing and then tour and travel sector, and finally explanation of their
relationships. Lets first start with the concept of Marketing, it is the strategies made by managers
and tour & travel sectors for selling their product to its potential customer's. So marketing
involves various models helps Thomson to understand their internal and external strength
(Buhalis and Foerste, 2015). Marketing also helps in analysing competitors strength and
strategies, so before launching any plan overall analyses of market and competitor is advisory by
experts. Now lets understand about tours & travels sectors, these sectors specially deals in
tourism and services which are divided into various sectors like: Business travel, Luxuriousness,
Mass market, Railways, Cruise, Ski and Niche markets, etc. so these different sectors are
organises by different types of companies which are: Tour operator, Tour organiser, Retail and
travel agency, Brokers and flight consolidators, and finally suppliers. Thus Thomson lies under
travel agency, which is a private and public service providers through travel and tourism to the
public. They gives the services as a representative of suppliers of airlines, car rentals, cruise,
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hotels, travel insurance, etc. Thus from this two different concepts given above, it can be
concluded that Marketing plays a major role for tour and travel sectors like Thomson travel
agency. Companies requires to make a marketing plans through analysing various models such
as: Ans-off model, SWOT analysis, 5 P's of marketing, PESTEL analysis, etc (Goeldner and
Ritchie, 2012). before implementing any action. Thomson has to be focused on providing better
services before and after sale of the product to its customer's for maintaining its good
impressions. So Thomson needs an effective marketing plan for targetting its customers.
1.2 Assess the impact of the marketing environment on individual travel and tourism businesses
Marketing environment has huge impact on travel and tourism businesses, as it is an
external factor which is not in control of any companies (Dasgupta, D., 2011). Some of the
external factors are: changes in government policy, changes in laws and policies, changes in
government taste and preferences, inflation and deflation, war, political issues, etc. so these
factors are not controllable, but its impact can be reduced through some smart business decisions
or precautions.
Some of the various impacts of marketing strategies on Thomson's are as follows:
 Macro Environment: The company doesn't have any control over this external factors.
Because any changes in economic development, political plans and policies, and social
scenario's creates the need for marketing approach. The company should understand and
examine the consequences of doing business in the countries where there is rapid change
in macro and external environment (Evans, Stonehouse and Campbell, 2012). As without
examination it can face a huge loss which can impact the company to shutter down its
business.
 Micro environment: These are under controllable factors as it is related to the internal
environment of every businesses. But still it can avoid the impact of this on entire
business, as any decision taken by top management can effect the business structures and
approaches for a long time.
 Market environment: It is a mix-up of both the above factors or it can be taken as third
component that affects complete operations of Thomson. Market environment involves
suppliers, customers, speculators and third party who is related with Thomson either
directly or indirectly. It can impact a business either in positive way or in a negative way.
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1.3 Factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism sector
Consumer demand is very sensitive as sometimes it seems to be hard for any market
analyst to predict the market trends either present and future (Goodall and Ashworth. eds., 2013).
Because consumers are the humans only which is full of emotions, so it can't be predict about
their emotions because it is affected by internal as well as external factors. But these days
feedback system helps Thomson to get an idea about what a customer are looking for, on the
basis of these ideas it can predict the approximate. But this prediction doesn't hold 100% surety.
So there are numerous factors which affects consumer demands and motivation for Thomson's
products:
 Web: This the major factor which affects consumers demand, as now a days consumers
first check the companies status online to get surety about its genuineness, and also they
check the feedback of other customers about the company, to better know is to be good to
experience their services or not. So Thomson needs to manage their webpage well and
also keep an eye on any negative comments by any customers as it can destroy the whole
companies image.
 Safety issues: The another factor which impacts consumer demands are safety matters, as
after the incident of 9/11, there was highly declined in population of tourists. So where
the consumer feel he is safe there will be more demand.
 Price of the service: As Thomson is not the only tourist company who offers tourism in
Turkey and Spain, so here price of their services matters. For instance customer will be
moved to those companies which are offering same services in less price.
 Quality of service: Sometimes alone pricing factors can't force customer's to be rude
with Thomson, but quality matters a lot (Hahm and Wang, 2011). So if Thomson fails to
provide better services than customer will move to that company which is offering better
services to them.
1.4 Principals of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning
Market segmentation means targetting the customer according to there demand and
preferences, as it directly relates to market choice of product (Hall , 2013). So expert says if the
specific product is delivered to those place where people really wants this product than chances
of growth increases. Hence there are several principles of market segmentation in marketing
planning;
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 Identify the bases for segmenting the market: This principals states that, Thomson
should identify the bases for segmenting first before launching any marketing plans. The
basis includes demographic, age, preference, culture, gender, etc (Hall, Timothy and
Duval, 2012). This identification and examination will help Thomson to make a market
planning which most suitable according to the market conditions, also the chances of
success increases.
 Develop profiles of resulting segments: This principals says that only identification of
segments are not enough but making a profile of what outcomes has received after
several research and development on particular segments is also necessary. So that it can
refer this studies in setting their marketing planning. This practice will help Thomson to
avoid extra consuming of time on research and analysis.
Some of the uses of market segmentation in marketing planning are:
 It helps in targetting the genuine customer's only like according to their preference, age
and requirement.
 It will help Thomson to identify those persons who are not using their services and
identify the reasons behind this.
 This can reduce the probability of failure of any marketing plan, as it already targetted the
desired and genuine customer's who really wants their services.
 This can help Thomson in expansion of its businesses step by step.
TASK 2
2.1 Significance of strategic marketing planning
Strategic marketing planning is having huge significance in the business, it can help to
the company to make a better change in their position in their targeted market (Hudson and Thal,
2013). Strategic marketing planning is a combination of different steps of marketing which can
help to the company to work on a particular issue and project. Significance of strategic marketing
planning is here in the below mentioned points for the TUI for their tour of Spain:
 Define the target market: Market analysis is the first step of the strategic marketing
planning which can help to the company to determine that which market has a huge
potential to deliver a them great profits for their tour in the Spain. Company can make a
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proper market segmentation by using the market analysis and this analysis will help to the
organisation to set their next steps in the product planning accordingly.
 Ascertain customers needs: It can help to the company to find out needs of people
which wants to go on this tour. It is essential to provide all types of services which are
needed by their targeted customers which can help to the company to create a positive
impact on their targeted customers (Hussein, Ennew and Kortam, 2012). By analysing the
needs and demands of their targeted market, the company can provide therm appropriate
product (package) according to their needs.
 Product determination: It has a huge significance in the package planning of the TUI
for their targeted market, in which they can determine that which kind travel medium will
be used according to the customers demands e.g. Aviation or Cruise ships etc. this will
help to maintain the customers charm and interest in the tour package which can help to
the company to get sale out their all tickets for the Spain.
So on the basis of the above mentioned points it can be said that TUI group has to use
strategic planning which can help to them to make a better business.
2.2 Relevance of marketing research and market informations
Market research is an important part for a company which is planning for a product, it
helps to set and implement all qualities in the product which are needed by the customers in their
product (Kayar and Kozak, 2010). Market information is the outcome of the market research
which is help full for an organisation to make a better change in their products and services for
their particular targeted customers. In the context of the TUI group which is planning for the
Spain and Turkey. As the company is planning for tours so marketing research is having a huge
importance for the marketing managers for the Thomson group because they are having a need
of the market information which can help to the company to make a better planning for their
projects. Relevance of market research and information for marketing manager are given in the
below mentioned points in the context of the Thomson Group;
 Defining in the market: Marketing research and information supports to the marketing
managers to define and set their target market for which they have to determine their
promotional strategies. Promotional strategies can help to the company to promote their
product in a better manner.
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 Market information system: Both market research and information are supportive to
take decision related to marketing decisions which can help to the company to provide a
better customers satisfaction by the side of organisation.
 Measuring current market demands: Mainly market informations will provide market
demands which can help to the company to set their products quantity accordingly. These
marketing informations can help to the company to make a better change in their market
position by providing products according to customers demands which finally impacts
positively on the sales of the products. market research supports to the marketing
manager to analyse the current trends in the tourism which can help to the company to
make a better tour packages for their targeted market.
So above mentioned points shown the relation of market research and information for marketing
managers for the Thomson Group which can help to them to take a better decision in product
planning for the company which has all qualities to accomplish the needs of target market.
2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society
Marketing in general term is the process of promoting goods and services to the
consumers (Molina, Gómez and Martín-Consuegra, 2010). For example McDonald needs proper
marketing plan to advertise its Big Mac in such a way that a customer really think it is required
in lunch. But for doing this, Thomson needs many research on consumer behaviour so that it can
create a product which is related to their emotions. Society is basically defined as the
environment where different people having different nature and characteristics live together for
mutual benefits. As we also live in different societies, so interaction with different societies gives
different different implications. Thus marketing can influence a society wither in a negative or
positive ways: Positive impact of marketing on society:
◦ Informing Consumers: It can benefit society in directly or indirectly way. As
marketing gives mutual benefits to both Thomson's and the society both at a time.
Like for instance, if Thomson gives the service to the newly married couple with
pleasant experiences than it will benefit them to remember a great memory of their
honeymoon.
◦ Managing consumer expectations: Businesses applies marketing tools to make
consumers aware of major changes happens inside and outside the company like;
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merger, acquisitions, transfers, etc. this helps Thomson in managing customer
expectations as they will be aware of these changes and these news will not shock
them.
◦ Economic Benefit: Marketing not only benefits its consumers but it also benefits
countries economic factors by increasing the employment through expansion of its
businesses which results from high sales. It also helps government in collecting
higher tax revenues from expansion of companies business and thus economic growth
also get improved.
Apart from this there are several negative impacts of marketing on societies:
 It creates false wants which increases the sales which are not genuine.
 It gives power to several big companies to control the economies of the country
 It produces culture pollution by discriminating their products by targetting their specific
cultures
 It promotes artificial materials, not the natural one which is good for health for the
society.
TASK 3
3.1 Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing mix
As Thomson has planned some marketing plan which will be launched in 2019, but the
success factor of this plans is depended on its 5 P's of marketing mix. Now a days 2 more
marketing mix is also added. These 7 P's are the elements of marketing mix, which is used both
at the time of launching a product and making marketing policies (Morrison, 2013). But
Thomson has faced several issues in 3 elements of the marketing mix which are price, product
and place. These issues are explained as follows:
 Product: This element is core element of any marketing mix, as it has to be used by the
consumers. Services also comes in product category, so this element is very essential to
increase the revenues for Thomson. But in case of Thomson it tries to introduce those
products in the form of packages which are not according to the demand of consumers.
So there's product issue, which a Thomson should modify according the suitability of the
consumer demands and preferences.
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 Price: The other element of marketing mix is price, Thomson wants to give those
services to the customer which they don't requires at higher price (Moutinho. ed., 2011).
So the chances of failure of marketing strategy of Thomson is maximum. Thus if it wants
to give extra services to the customer's than it should set the reasonable price which
should not create any burden on consumers.
 Place: In this element of marketing mix, Thomson has chooses Turkey for tourism which
has faces many terrorist attacks. So usually consumer will not be entertain from this
package. Thomson requires to add some safety and protection to this tourism to solve this
issue. Consumers only prefers piece and riots free places for tourism as they wants to
enjoy their holidays without facing any problems.
3.2 Assess the importance of service sector mix elements to travel sector
Service marketing mix refers to mixed of various elements of services which a marketing
department of a company is used to communicate their brands to the tourists. Services are
various characteristics such as it is intangible, heterogeneous, consumes at the same time of
delivering it, it is perishable, etc (Park and Oh, 2012). So every service mix consists of 7P's or
say seven P's which are product, price, place, promotion, people, processes and physical
evidence. In this the last two P's processes and physical evidence has been added later. Travel
marketing is a service marketing mix where it aims to delivers unique products for travel and
tourism sectors businesses and it consists of hospitality and kindness experiences by the
customers. Some of the importance of service sector mix elements to travel sectors are: Place: In service industry like Thomson, this element can be achieved through
customization of services to meet a given requirements of the customer's to satisfy their
demands. Price: This elements decides which customer has to be targetted, and customers also
decide whether to avail this service or not on the basis of the price of the service. So the
pricing strategy for services is important to analyse and identify the direction of supply
and demand and it also gives competitive edge to Thomson over its competitors. As the
place strategy provides important information related to the location to consumers before
travel to that place. Promotion: This elements aims at addressing and communicating accurate and timely
information to the customers through advertisements. So promotion is necessary to
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convey about any latest information regarding new products and service launch by
Thomson.
 Physical Evidence: This element lets the consumer to feel travel experience and compare
it to their post purchase experiences, so if their travel experience is greater than post
purchase experiences than consumer will be very happy. And if it less than it will prove
to be his worse experience which influence him to not to try that product again.
Hence service promotion mix not only identifies organizational performance but also the
consumers brand loyalty for the product (Saraniemi and Kylänen, 2011). At last it can be said
that service marketing is also important because it creates brand awareness which helps
consumers to make a choices between whether to purchase particular product or not.
3.3 Apply the concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism
Total tourism product refers to all the factors whether intangible or tangible components
which are related to set of activities done at specific destination (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel.
eds., 2012). So Thomson can avail luxurious travel experiences by organising specific activities
at different destinations, which will help the customers to consume duo means at a time.
Therefore it can be clearly evaluated from above points that total product are all the set of
activities and things which a tourists consumes on their planned trips. We can relate total tourism
product to McDonald's combo pack, which allows food lovers to choose their favourite combo at
reasonable price. So it can be proved to be successful factor for Thomson to give extra with their
product. It can be understand through this case, Thomson can give additional services like pick
up and drop off to airport, to give their tourists convenience and also no tourists want to take
burden of thinking about availability of taxi and address to their destination place. So tourist's
just wants to be relax and free of all type of worries. So from the above case Thomson can make
its total tourism product attractive through including this things: Taxi services, food &
beverages, transport facility, medical facility, child care facilities, credit facilities, etc.
TASK 4
4.1 Assess the integrated nature and role of the promotional mix
Promotional mix is one of the elements of marketing mix, in which it involves media,
advertisement, awareness, poster making, etc (Stankov, Lazic and Dragicevic, 2010). So the
objective of marketing here is to promote the business by integrating different ways and make a
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combination in such a way that optimum result will get. Thus promotional mix is a part of
promotional strategies where different sources and media's are used to publicise the business to
promote it among the people so that it can increase its sales and revenues. Here are some of the
sources of promotional mix which are discussed below:
 Media: It plays the major role in promotion of Thomson, the probability of success to
reach many people is totally based on the type of sources used by Thomson. Some of
these sources are: Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc.
 Press Conference: Media is not enough to promote a business, so press conference plays
a major role in it. For example before launching any model of I-phone it promote it
through organizing press conference. As it is very effective because queries related to the
products are solved there.
 Posters: It is important for Thomson to master in skills of making posters, as through
posters it can put those items in it which are highly demand-able by the consumers or
which can attract their eyes towards it. Posters are much cheaper than above sources but
it requires creativity and innovative skills to make an effective posters.
Hence there are many ways by which Thomson can promote its business but at the first stage it
has to decide the amount of dollars it is ready to invest. Promotional mix is the supporting
marketing to aware the customers about companies product (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier,
2015.). Sometimes company can get unexpected result in minimum cost, depends on conditions
and situations,
4.2 Covered in poster
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that Thomson should analyse various marketing mix and should
analyse the various sources of marketing mix. Marketing mix includes those elements which a
company should choose after proper evaluation and examinations. Total tourism product is
overall activities and services which a Thomson can use to make its product attractive. Thomson
should update itself with the competitors strategies of pricing and it should be aware of new
technologies available in the market. Success of Thomson's product is dependent on its skill of
how effectively it can mould its companies structure to get maximum benefits from it.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ashworth, G. and Goodall, B. eds., 2012. Marketing tourism places (Vol. 2). Routledge.
Buhalis, D. and Foerste, M., 2015. SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-
creation of value. Journal of destination marketing & management. 4(3). pp.151-161.
Dasgupta, D., 2011. Tourism marketing. Pearson.
Evans, N., Stonehouse, G. and Campbell, D., 2012. Strategic management for travel and
tourism. Taylor & Francis.
Goeldner, C. R. and Ritchie, J. B., 2012. Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies (No. Ed.
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Goodall, B. and Ashworth, G. eds., 2013. Marketing in the Tourism Industry (RLE Tourism):
The Promotion of Destination Regions. Routledge.
Hahm, J. and Wang, Y., 2011. Film-induced tourism as a vehicle for destination marketing: Is it
worth the efforts?. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 28(2). pp.165-179.
Hall, C. M., 2013. Wine, food, and tourism marketing. Routledge.
Hall, C. M., Timothy, D. J. and Duval, D. T., 2012. Safety and security in tourism: relationships,
management, and marketing. Routledge.
Hudson, S. and Thal, K., 2013. The impact of social media on the consumer decision process:
Implications for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2).
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Hussein, R., Ennew, C. and Kortam, W., 2012. The adoption of web-based marketing in the
travel and tourism industry: an empirical investigation in Egypt. Journal of Innovation
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Kayar, Ç. H. and Kozak, N., 2010. Measuring destination competitiveness: an application of the
travel and tourism competitiveness index (2007). Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management. 19(3). pp.203-216.
Molina, A., Gómez, M. and Martín-Consuegra, D., 2010. Tourism marketing information and
destination image management. African Journal of Business Management. 4(5). p.722.
Morrison, A. M., 2013. Marketing and managing tourism destinations. Routledge.
Moutinho, L. ed., 2011. Strategic management in tourism. Cabi.
Park, J. and Oh, I. K., 2012. A case study of social media marketing by travel agency: The
salience of social media marketing in the tourism industry. International Journal of
Tourism Sciences. 12(1). pp.93-106.
Saraniemi, S. and Kylänen, M., 2011. Problematizing the concept of tourism destination: An
analysis of different theoretical approaches. Journal of Travel Research. 50(2). pp.133-
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Sigala, M., Christou, E. and Gretzel, U. eds., 2012. Social media in travel, tourism and
hospitality: Theory, practice and cases. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
Stankov, U., Lazic, L. and Dragicevic, V., 2010. The extent of use of basic Facebook user-
generated content by the national tourism organizations in Europe. European Journal of
Tourism Research. 3(2). p.105.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V. P. and Fesenmaier, D. R., 2015. Information technology and consumer
behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal
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Marketing Terms. 2017. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.knowthis.com/more/marketing-terms>. [Accessed on 28th
October 2017].
Basic marketing terms. 2017. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.americanhues.com/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&
id=26:marketingterms&catid=29:the-cms&Itemid=40>. [Accessed on 28th October
2017]
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