Marketing in Travel and Tourism: A Strategic Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing principles within the travel and tourism sector. It begins by outlining core marketing concepts, including product, production, social, and selling concepts, and their application within the industry, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer needs and market segmentation. The report then explores the impact of the marketing environment, both micro and macro, on travel businesses, alongside factors influencing consumer motivation and demand. It highlights the significance of strategic marketing planning, market research, and the role of marketing in society. Furthermore, the report examines the marketing mix elements (product, price, place, and promotion) within the travel industry, emphasizing the concept of a total tourism product. The report also incorporates a SWOT analysis of Thomas Cook, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and discusses real-time examples of marketing strategies employed by travel businesses. Overall, the report offers a detailed understanding of the challenges and opportunities in marketing within the travel and tourism industry.

MARKETING IN TRAVEL
AND TOURISM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Core concepts of marketing in travel and tourism sector.................................................1
1.2 Impact of marketing environment on travel and tourism business...................................4
1.3 Factors that affect the consumer motivation and demand in tourism sector....................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Importance of strategic marketing planning.....................................................................5
2.2 Relevance of marketing research and market information to managers..........................6
2.3 Influence of marketing on society....................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Issues related to product, price, place of marketing mix..................................................7
3.2 Importance of mix elements of service sector to the travel industry................................8
3.3 Concept of total tourism product to an individual tourism business................................9
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
Covered in Poster...................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Every one like travelling these days so as many businesses are in the market for
facilitating. There are different types of businesses within the industry of travel and tourism. If
we see the current status it is one of the fastest growing industry all around the world. It is one of
the industry many countries are focusing (Buhalis, D., 1998).
There are different type of people targeted in travel and tourism industry. Hitting the right
audience is a really important factor in travel and tourism business. Currently, if we see people
need time off from their work; everyone needs a vacation the person who is working all year
needs some time off his work for some days off. The best will be he go to a tourist sport and
enjoy. There are people who love to explore places in world just as a hobby and there are some
people who just want to travel. Many, companies are encouraging these days to give paid trips to
its employees to increase motivation and different training needs. So, overall tourism and travel
industry is doing a great business throughout the year summers or winter depends on the
location. Suppose if we take example of the United Kingdom the travel and tourism industry is at
its peak in summers, New Year’s Eve and even on bank holidays and Easter period all though
over all the year it’s not a bad business comparative to many industries (Fick, G.R. and Brent
Ritchie, J.R., 1991).
In this assignment we will discusses various businesses related to travel and tourism and
specially the businesses operating locally and small scale businesses which can give us a real
time example how are they operating and what are the challenges they are facing in marketing
their businesses. We will focus on our main expel of Thomas Cook supporting the concepts with
other examples.
TASK 1
1.1 Core concepts of marketing in travel and tourism sector
Marketing which is very important for every company because it is that philosophy
which helps in identifying the needs and wants of consumers. There are many marketing
concept which are very profitable for Thomas Cook which are given below-
 Product concept- According to this concept, it is assumed that Thomas Cook will
provide the best quality of services to its users so that their needs can be satisfied and will
become a loyal customers.
1

 Production concept- As per this, company should contain superior features in their
products or services and should not harm to anyone while using its facilities.
 Social marketing concept- While offering any types of services, organisation should
provide the benefit to the society such as employment and healthcare facilities.
 Selling concept- How the company is selling its products in the market whether the
product carry any kind of offer or discount that can help to overcome to buy it for second
times.
Marketing is an important factor in any business because we need to consider many
factors in business which are to be answered by concepts in marketing. When we run a business
we need to take care of demand and needs of customer and we need to amend our businesses
accordingly. Gaining customer loyalty and customer satisfaction is these day businesses are
making strategies for. Branding the business and brand image are also quite important factors
(Morrison, A.M., 1996). Need identification and expectation of demand is the part of the initial
marketing process and one can’t analyse the demand by until he knows and has done a proper
market research.
Travel and tourism industry is not different it is same as other industries and work on the
same principles of marketing as other industries. But in this industry we need to focus on the
demand of the customer and needs and expectation of the customer. There is loads of
competition in market as there are many companies which are operating in this industry from big
to small-scale businesses. There are travel operators and there are popular air companies. Even
there are seasonal places which are open during the specific period of year to do the business
(Buhalis, D., 1998). So it’s just about need recognition that in which time period the place and
the type of services they want to offer.
Taking the example of some ticket booking websites like skyscanner,net you can see the
details of places the country or city you are planning to visit even if we see they give the options
of hotels booking which is else than sponsored ads so you can see all on one website rather going
to different than websites. So, sky scanner has identified that people travelling will need a hotel
booking as well. So marketing concepts are quite important when we consider travel and tourism
industry.
Just like other companies like Jet air Thomas Cook an air company provide all the
travelling solutions and now all around the world we will first identify the need of the customers
2

and place all the promotional activities on every resort possible to visit in local. As we want to
promote the trip of morocco to Egypt we will target every tourist spot in around the world
especially in Morocco. We will try to make it a promotional activity the people using our
services already. Making it surer they use our other services as well as like booking a hotel or
hiring our cabs or coach services for local travel in Egypt and Morocco. We can even link the
trips of people travelling to Morocco and giving them a chance to get it on cheap prices to travel
to Egypt in summers. Evening highlighting the trips in Egypt we can even highlight the festivals
happening in Cairo or we can link directly to the tourism companies or hotels in Egypt to
promote it.
The best will be contacting all the old travellers’ traveling in year 2017 summer with
Thomas Cook and providing them special discounts for next year. And people who are planning
to travel to other destinations or using our other services should be offered the same benefit.
Market segmentation -Market segmentation is dividing a broad consumer into small
groups sharing same characteristics it can be done on geographic, demographics, psychographics
gender or any other. Market segmentation helps in taking care of people with same needs which
can help us to keep them motivated and taking care of the demands.
The best example to support Market segmentation and travel and tourism industry will be
student’s packages. Some tour operators give really cheap prices to students when they need to
arrange a trip. If you want to travel from Chester to London it will cost you about £30 through
train but if you will go on student trip you can get it for almost £20 return and will give equal
profit because students will come more on trips. In short we are catering the needs of students.
So the company is doing segmentation on the bases of profession and keeping the normal people
and students happy and satisfied.
Just like that we will segment the market according to the geographic and demographics
as well. We will see the number of travellers traveling with us and offers made in order to give
discounts. Especially we will target people travelling from Morocco to different destinations or
people who are whiling to travel to Morocco in 2018 summer. We will offer the people who are
travelling to Morocco in 2018 to extend their trip to Egypt. It will be on the basis of the old trips
they have made and the total spending they have done in their old trips.
3

1.2 Impact of marketing environment on travel and tourism business
Marketing environment includes those factors which influence the business operations
and create hurdles while carrying out its activities. So, Thomas Cook should consider these
elements before taking any decision. It includes two types of environment which are given as
below-
Micro environment- It influences the internal business environment which are given below-
 Customers- Consumers are very important for every company so company should
maintain better relation with them so that they will remain in the firm. Thomas Cook
should design its marketing plan according to the requirement of users.
 Employees- Thomas Cook should hire skilled manpower so that they can contribute in
the success of firm.
Macro environment-
 Legal factor- In UK, there are large number of legal laws and regulations which have to
followed by every firm. If they do not follow it then it will create disturbance in the
business activities.
 Technological change- For providing better quality of services to its consumers, Thomas
Cook should adopt the latest technology.
1.3 Factors that affect the consumer motivation and demand in tourism sector
While designing any strategy, company should consider the following factors-
 Culture- Every person wants to take services or goods according to their culture so while
designing any product, firm should evaluate the perception and traditions of its target
market.
 Personal factors- It includes income, age and living standard of people which affects the
motivation of consumers. If their income will be high then it will motivate them for
purchasing good or services (Fick and Brent Ritchie, 1991).
 Company's services- If Thomas Cook will provide unique services to its users then it
will motivate the people for taking services from it.
4

TASK 2
2.1 Importance of strategic marketing planning
Strategic marketing is a process by which company can achieve its objective in an
effective way. It helps in identifying company’s strengths weaknesses and opportunities (Fick
and Brent Ritchie, 1991).
Strategic marketing planning is a process which is used by company for implementing
tactics related to market. Thomas Cook is a multinational company which provides better quality
of services to its customers. For strategic planning, firstly it should evaluate its strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats which can be known through SWOT analysis.
 Strengths-
◦ It has a large market share that is achieved by merging itself with My Travel and
Kuoni.
◦ It has a good product folio like flights, financial services, etc.
 Weaknesses-
◦ Fluctuating financial rates that result is the loss to Thomas group.
◦ It has many debt obligations.
 Opportunities-
◦ Increasing demand of travel and tourism globally.
◦ It has good financial resources by which it can expand their business.
 Threats-
◦ Economic uncertainty like market fluctuation and change in policies
◦ Increasing number of competitors in the market
If we see the main threat to travelling company like Thomas Cook is the current situation
political or economic situation of the country they are making travel. Even the natural weather
condition which can vary may lose customers interest in travelling and will might go for refunds.
So threats can be so dreadful threats in tourism and travelling industry which can change the
situations and sales of the company.
5

If we see there is loads of opportunity in Market many people are preferring travelling to
Egypt in summers due to different festivals and some festivals which are traditional and some
which are celebrated worldwide by Muslims like there Eid. So they can encourage people to go
on those dates which can improve the hotel rates and other effective things.
2.2 Relevance of marketing research and market information to managers
Marketing research is very important for a company because it provides important data of
consumers. In research process, manager collects information about its users, competitors or
market situation which assists in making an effective strategy. Market research will help in
identifying the need and demand of customers which aids in satisfying the requirement of
consumers and evaluating the threat which is to the trip of Thomas Cook to Morocco to Egypt. It
is helpful in analysing the trip by evaluating the people who are travelling with us in 2017 and
are they interested in travelling on trip to Egypt to Morocco on cheaper hotel rates and cheaper
travelling (Fick and Brent Ritchie, 1991). Company need to see how many people travel to
Egypt from Morocco other connecting destinations from morocco to Egypt. Firstly, This
information is very useful for the following purpose which is given as below-
 Identifying, refinement and evaluation of market option that are available to Thomas
Cook Group
 Monitoring and controlling the performance of market
 It improves the understanding of manager related to entire marketing process
2.3 Influence of marketing on society
It is right to be said that marketing activities have a great influence on society in the
following manner-
 Advising to the consumers- With the help of marketing activities, company provides
knowledge to people about its products or services. For example: Thomas Cook can tell
about their holiday packages or other offers through marketing.
 Assessing requirement of users- Marketing is very helpful in identifying the needs and
wants of consumers which assist in serving them according to their requirements.
 Modelling behaviour- Marketing is very helpful in influencing the potential consumers
so that they become ready for purchasing goods or services.
So if it is seen that website of Thomas Cook is promoting a lot of tourism in different
areas and is one of the company which is even the cause of supporting different locations on
6

cheaper rates. Though if it make it in couple of trips on different date like it can even introduce
it in Easter break of 2018 where people will like to travel to Egypt connecting to Morocco. It
will customize trips from all around the trip which may lead the chances of promoting its
Morocco to Egypt trip.
As the Thomas Cook is in direct contact to the local traveling in different towns they are
making sure that they promote different services provided by Thomas Cook. They can even
promote the trip of Morocco to Egypt on their different places in different holiday resorts which
are pre booked by them. Thomas Cook can make a deal to different companies around to make
trip to their employees which may reduce the cost as well.
If we see there facebook page plays a quite important role in this new era marketing so
we can even use our facebook page promoting the trip through different traditional pictures and
different options of different trips for next summer and also offering that tourist travelling this
summer with Thomas Cook will get some extra discounts.
Competitive edge
The biggest competitive edge Thomas Cook is having over its competitors will be that no one
has yet launched such a promotional activity that if you will travel this year with Thomas Cook
to any destination your will get a discount in trip to Morocco to Egypt. The next competitive
advantage is that Thomas Cook is having good contacts with local travelling companies which
will help them in spreading the word of mouth for the trip (Sernovitz, A., Godin, S. and
Kawasaki, G., 2006).
TASK 3
3.1 Issues related to product, price, place of marketing mix
Marketing mix helps us to know the basis of the business. What’s our product and what
should be the price and what should be the place and how we can promote this helps in analysing
the target market. In this taking example of Thomas Cook:
 Product:
The product is simple we are arranging a trip from Morocco to Egypt in summers 2018.
Yes the main thing is innovation in this trip so Morocco can be a connecting point as well to
travel to Egypt from different locations of the world. Bringing the innovation will offer us a huge
target market and we will be able to cater two trips hence more profits. Plus we can even
7

customise the trips from different ways either a road trip or by air or even by cruise which will
make more sense and more innovation in our product and services. Even we can offer free
services provided at Egypt when they get over there (Gössling, Scott and Hall, 2015).
 Price and promotion- Just like other services this will be costly but yes we can reduce
the cost through different promotional activities. We can analyse the price by looking at
the response of the customers if there are more customer’s means keeping the standard
price rates if there are less so we can promote it by different promotional activities.
Special discounts to be made for regular travellers and for the travellers traveling in
summer 2017 with Thomas Cook.
 Place- When we talk about travel and tourism the most important factor among all is
place. Just because no one will come if the place is quite ordinary or is not having any
facilities. Though it would be wrong to say that places of Morocco or Egypt are not fine
they are one of the most desirable locations to be visited due to some of their natural
beauty, religious associations, and traditions. Egypt is popular for its food heritage and
History specifically which may attract the customer the most. The big pyramids is one of
the main attractions to travel to Egypt (Ferrell, O.C., 2005).
3.2 Importance of mix elements of service sector to the travel industry
Service marketing mix includes various elements which can be used by Thomas Cook
which is helpful in creating awareness about its brand as well as about its products and services.
Marketing mix contains 4 “Ps” which are product, price, place and promotion. Travel and
tourism sector provides various types of services to its target market which are unique in nature
and also includes recreational experience and hospitality. Second element is place where goods
are available to the customers. Thirdly, company should keep their product’s prices according to
the target market so that they can easily afford these services. Last one is promotion which is
very important for every company because it creates awareness about the firm and its goods or
services along with helping in increasing the sales or revenue of company (Li and et.al., 2011).
3.3 Concept of total tourism product to an individual tourism business
Total tourism products include tangible as well as intangible items which are totally
based on the activities of particular destination. It creates luxurious travel experience for
travellers so that they will remain in company for a long period of time. If Thomas Cook wants
8

to earn more profit then it should focus on the quality of services so that it can satisfy the needs
of users.
Firm should collect feedback from the customers so that it can know about the drawback
of its services. It is very helpful in improving their facilities. Company can take feedback by
conducting survey and seminars. The total tourism product has different functions such as it
attracts visitors to get engaged with activities at the time of travel and can really enjoy the tour. It
is also helpful in creating total tourism experience in order to generate many visitors. It makes
better transportation facility from one place to another. It creates the social reputation of
company in the market and also expanded its market growth. Total tourism products also foster
the arrangement of travels so that passengers can get quality services and goods (Mariani and
et.al., 2014).
TASK 4
Covered in Poster
CONCLUSION
Thomas Cook being a big brand don’t need to work that hard to convince people about its
quality while travelling but yes they need to make people aware about the trips they are planning
and the quality of tourism they are promoting at different locations.
Using marketing tools effectively is quite important when we talk about tourism and
travelling industry. Competition is quite high I the market and there is a war between big giants
and small medium enterprises in travelling industry. The most important point is that Thomas
Cook whenever launches a trip need to give something innovative which can give them
competitive edge and it can be achieve through different marketing tools like promotional
activities, discounts and paying for brand loyalty to its loyal customers. They just need to focus
on maintaining the quality and maintain the most of the customers and retaining them by using
Marketing tools effectively which may make 2018 summer more successful than 2017.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Alavi, J. and Yasin, M. M., 2000. A systematic approach to tourism policy. Journal of Business
Research. 48(2). pp.147-156.
9

Brent Ritchie, J.R., Wing Sun Tung, V. and JB Ritchie, R., 2011. Tourism experience
management research: Emergence, evolution and future directions. International Journal
of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 23(4). pp.419-438.
Buhalis, D., 1998. Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry. Tourism
management. 19(5). pp.409-421.
Dibb, S., Simkin, L., Pride, W. M. and Ferrell, O. C., 2005. Marketing: Concepts and strategies
(p. 850). Houghton Mifflin.
E.J., Herlihy, E. and Bicker, M., 2011. Selling medical travel to US patient-consumers: the
cultural appeal of website marketing messages. Anthropology and Medicine. 18(1).
pp.119-136.
Fick, G. R. and Brent Ritchie, J. R., 1991. Measuring service quality in the travel and tourism
industry. Journal of travel research. 30(2), pp.2-9.
Gössling, S., Scott, D. and Hall, C.M., 2015. Inter-market variability in CO 2 emission-
intensities in tourism: Implications for destination marketing and carbon management.
Tourism Management. 46. pp.203-212.
Li, X.R. And et.al., 2011. When east meets west: An exploratory study on Chinese outbound
tourists’ travel expectations. Tourism Management. 32(4). pp.741-749.Sobo,
Mariani, M.M. And et.al., 2014. Managing change in tourism destinations: Key issues and
current trends. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 2(4). pp.269-272.
Morrison, A. M., 1996. Hospitality and travel marketing (No. Ed. 2). Delmar Publishers.
Otto, J. E. and Ritchie, J. B., 1996. The service experience in tourism. Tourism management.
17(3). pp.165-174.
Pracejus, J. W. and Olsen, G. D., 2004. The role of brand/cause fit in the effectiveness of cause-
related marketing campaigns. Journal of Business Research. 57(6). pp.635-640.
Sernovitz, A., Godin, S. and Kawasaki, G., 2006. Word of mouth marketing: How smart
companies get people talking. Kaplan Pub..
Sun, X., Jiao, Y. and Tian, P., 2011. Marketing research and revenue optimization for the cruise
industry: A concise review. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 30(3).
pp.746-755.
Tham, A., Croy, G. and Mair, J., 2013. Social media in destination choice: Distinctive electronic
word-of-mouth dimensions. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 30(1-2). pp.144-
155.
Online
10