Hospitality Industry Marketing Analysis

This assignment requires students to delve into the current landscape of hospitality marketing. It asks them to examine various aspects such as the influence of social media, strategies for building customer loyalty, and emerging trends shaping the industry. Students are expected to synthesize information from provided academic sources, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of contemporary hospitality marketing principles and practices.

MARKETING IN TTM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................3
1.1...............................................................................................................................................................3
1.2...............................................................................................................................................................4
1.3...............................................................................................................................................................5
1.4...............................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................................6
2.1...............................................................................................................................................................6
2.2...............................................................................................................................................................7
2.3...............................................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................................9
4.1...............................................................................................................................................................9
4.2.............................................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is the process through which an organization promotes its goods and services in
market place. The purpose of this report is to make aware learner about key concept and principles of
marketing in travel and tourism sector. The study is based on various marketing activities used by
Thomas Cook Group to promote its new product i.e. summer 2018 holiday package (Yoo, Lee and Bai,
2011). Thomas Cook Group is a tourism and hospitality company which facilitates various products like
holiday packages, hotels and resorts, cruise lines, chartered and schedule passenger airlines. This report
will help reader to understand various elementelements of various marketing mix and their impacts on
travel and tourism sector.
TASK 1
1.1
Marketing is all about recognizing the needs and wants of consumers by analyzing market. To
know the level of satisfaction and loyalty of customers, marketing become very essential in every sector.
Thomas Cook Group is a traveling agency or company and to promote its services marketing plays a
significant role. It is very crucial to understand present and future trends of people which can have both
positive and negative impact on tourism industry. Generally an organization establishes with an aim to
earn profits by fulfilling needs and desires of its customers. So, it is very important to identify wants and
requirements of users to generate revenue in travel and tourism industry. At present time, it is one of the
most popular and profitable industry in market (Chan and Guillet, 2011). This sector has a great
importance in present scenario. It plays a significant role in uplifting and growth of developing countries’
economy because it is one of the best method of foreign exchange.
In every nation travel and tourism sector plays an effective role so, it is necessary to prosper an
effectual marketing strategy by each country. An establishment required to make a proper planning to
achieve any target and goal. Therefore, companies involved in this sector also required to outline an
appropriate marketing planning to become successful in market place. Growth and development of
tourism is depends on effectual creation of networks through which goals and objectives of corporation
are achieved. Tourism marketing is consists of some rules, principles, techniques and methods, with the
use of those tourism of nation is promoted (Bharwani and Jauhari, 2013). There are some important
concepts of marketing which must be used by every travel and tourism organization such as fulfilling
needs and requirements of consumers, increase sales of entity by use of effective promotional methods,
by creating good customer relations, and by offering products and services to users as complimentary of
at low rates. For instance, Thomas Cook is offering a holiday package this summer in two cities i.e.

Morocco and Egypt. Before facilitating this, it required to identify needs and demands of customers and
methods through which their requirements will be fulfilled.
1.2
There are two environments which influence the marketing activities of Thomas Cook Group i.e.
macro and micro environments. Both of these environments are explained below.
Micro
It includes factors which have direct impact of the functioning of Thomas Cook Group. These are
directly linked with enterprise. These are as follows:
 Employees: Employees play a very important role in tourism sector. In Thomas Cook Group,
workers and staff members has a responsibility to treat their customers with full respect and serve
them properly (Bowie and Buttle, 2013). These people of organization can create a positive or
negative image in front of their consumers.
 Customers: They are users of products and services which are facilitate by Thomas Cook Group.
Their changing buying behavior, preferences and tastes have a direct affect on marketing of this
entity.
 Suppliers: In travel and tourism sector, there are number of suppliers involved who supply
various products to Thomas Cook Group. This enterprise is not a manufacturing unit so it
required to buy product to provide various facilities and services to its customers.
 Competitors: Competitors of Thomas Cook Group also influence various operations of business
which may have negative impact on growth of it.
Macro
It involved factors which does not have a direct impact but indirectly affect on marketing of
Thomas Cook Group. These are explained as under:
 Political: Various acts, laws, provisions, rules and regulations made by government of country
have a great impact on performance of Thomas Cook Group (Pike, 2015). The entity necessarily
required to adopt these laws and acts made by government.
 Culture: Culture of people also affects the functioning of Thomas Cook Group. As this enterprise
is a travel company of UK which generally facilitates tourist destinations near by its nation like
Morocco and Egypt.

 Tourism destination: Destination also affects the business of Thomas Cook Group. If tourism
destination is very famous then this corporation will earn more profits because more people with
like to visit such place and vise versa.
 Technology: Today technology plays a vital role in this sector because with the use of latest
technology tourists plan their holidays and travel trough out the world to enjoy and fun (McCabe,
2010). Latest technology attracts more customers while old one reduces it.
Both macro and micro environment has a great impact on Thomas Cook Group. As this summer
this company is providing an exciting holiday package at Morocco and Egypt, so these two above
environments will have both positive and negative impacts on it.
1.3
There are following factors which influence demand and motivation of consumers in travel and
tourism industry:
 Personal factors: These are also known as psychological factors or personal explicative variables
which directly related to tourism consumer. It includes tourists’ personality, self image,
motivations, life style, age, attitudes, perceptions, family, profession, etc. Personality of tourist
includes characteristics, convictions, beliefs and habits which differentiate a person from another.
Usually travel firms use promotional methods as per the personality of their clients. Attitude of
consumers will directly affects the tourism products of the company. People generally motivates
through two motivations such as conscious and unconscious. Conscious motivation is related to
previous experience of person and under unconscious, it is identified through indirect
psychological investigation by individuals.
 Social factors: It includes family, culture, social class, reference groups, etc. Culture is all about
traditions, values, taboos, and basic attitudes of society. Society is such place where people
develop their life styles. Persons belong to different cultures and society have different attitudes
and views about travel and tourism. People who belong to medium or inferior class spend a small
amount of time and money on travel and tourism. While on other side, individuals in higher
society spend a huge amount over their trips. In a family, opinion and attitude about travel and
tourism in every member can be easily transmitted. Needs and wants of individuals changes
according to their age groups. For example, a person is moving from childhood to bachelor or
bachelor to adulthood clearly reflects difference in their preferences, tastes and priorities.
 Situational factors: Along with the personal and social needs, individual’s needs are some time
affected by current situations. The time gap between the purchase and making payment for

tourism product also influence the buying behavior of consumers. Different situations usually
occur by presence of persons’ relatives, friends, work colleagues, etc. For example a person will
react in different way in presence of his friend, and in presence of his boss or colleagues, etc.
because views about different tourism destinations vary from person to person. Similarly different
people have different views about destinations i.e. Morocco and Egypt.
 Economy of world: Usually, travel is treated as a luxury expenditure which is not affordable by
all types of people. Persons who earn less or are struggling in their lives can not think to go on a
luxurious trip or holiday. This all depends on economy of that country where those people reside.
In present time, there is a huge downfall in global economy and travel and tourism sector got
affected very badly through this. Individuals want to save more money for their future
expenditures and requirements instead of expending money on travel and tourism (Wearne and
Morrison, 2013). Due to recession, a major downfall has seen by this industry which will be
improved by substantial growth in world economy.
 Internet and social media: Today, internet and social media become an important part of human
beings’ life. Most of people spent their lots of time on this. Through use of internet individuals
get an idea about various tourist places in world. It is one of the beast method or source to attract
more and more tourists towards various tourist destinations all over the world. Thomas Cook
Group also uses this method to gain attention of users by facilitating several offers and coupons.
People can easily book tickets and arrange their accommodation over the internet at any time. So
this factor also affects the demand and motivation of users or tourists.
 Personal budget: Personal budget is another factor which has both positive and negative impact
on decisions of customers towards travel and tourism (Hyun, 2010). There are some individuals
or groups of persons for whom condition of economy does not make any difference. If there is
any downfall in economy of country, then also they want to travel and explore the world.
Therefore, budget of tourists of person also have a great impact on travel industry.
1.4
Marketing segmentation is the process of dividing whole market into small parts and groups. This
is very important for Thomas Cook Group to divide its market into various parts. When a market is
segmented then one thing come into mind that which method is used by firm to segment it. Generally this
is done by major enterprises where they separate different types of customers according to their
requirements and desires. A proper segmentation may improve alignment between product, marketing
and its sales which focuses on availability of resources and facilitates opportunities for growth. There are
two methods of segmentation i.e. priori and post hoc method. There are a number of bases on which

segmentation of market can be conducted (Ong, 2012). It involves many things such as preferences of
people, their attitude, buying behavior, attitude of brand selection, product class behavior, etc.
The segmentation process is compressed of three elements i.e. market segmentation, targeting and
product positioning. Under segmentation different groups of customers are identified as per their needs
and requirements. For example, some people demand for speed and well performance of company while
others are more concern about safety and roominess. Sometimes travel agencies treat all consumers as
same while sometime they differentiate people according to their age, culture, preferences, religion, etc.
In next step i.e. targeting, where specific segment or segments are selected which will be serve by firm. It
is quite difficult process to select target customers for the product of entity. Thomas Cook usually target
specific customers based on past purchases, magazine subscriptions, and demographic variables.
Positioning is the last step where implementation of selected segment is to be done. It includes product,
pricing, promotion and distribution of goods to the number of customers who are selected or listed in
above stage. This summer Thomas Cook is going to provide a holiday package to Morocco and Egypt for
which it required to segment its customers on the following basis.
There are following factors which evaluate uses of marketing segmentation in planning of marketing:
 Accessibility: Accessibility plays a vital role in segmentation of market. An entity engaged in
travel and tourism sector can not have an access over the persons who reside in different corners
of world (Tresidder and Hirst, 2012). It is not possible until the travel and tourism company is
popular over the world like Thomas Cook Group.
 Identifiable feature: There are so many customers exists who have common and similar tastes
and preferences; so, it is necessary for management of Thomas Cook Group to identify such
certain needs and desires of its consumers to become successful in market.
 Substantial feature: The segmentation of market must be based on strong wants and
requirements of individuals because they play a significant role in marketing of travel and
tourism sector. For example, while offering summer holiday package in Morocco and Egypt,
Thomas Cook needs to divide its customers who have very strong demands while traveling.
 Affordability: It is also an important element which should be kept in mind while segmenting
market. Prices of products and services offered by Thomas Cook Group should not be available at
higher rate because goods of higher prices are targeted to people of high income. Therefore,
customers should be divided on the basis of their income levels. As Morocco and Egypt is quite
expensive tourism destinations, so Thomas Cook required to divide its consumers on basis of
their incomes and affordability.

TASK 2
2.1
A strategic marketing planning has a great importance in travel and tourism sector. There are
following factors which describe the significance of strategic marketing planning for Thomas Cook
Group:
 Refining value proposition: Strategic planning of marketing helps Thomas Cook Group to
recognize the real purpose and aim of business for which it has incorporated ( Rishi and Gaur,
2012). It also assist in comparing this entity with another company like Thomson Holiday’s, etc.
Through this planning Thomas Cook Group can refine its value proposition. For example, unique
proposition of Thomas Cook Group is that, this undertaking is more capable to offer tour and
holidays’ package at economical rates compare to its competitors.
 To identify needs of customers: Generally, a strategic planning is done by an enterprise with an
aim for proper functioning of business and which can be done by meeting expectation of market.
As Thomas Cook Group is a travel and tour company, so, its main aim is to satisfy needs of
people and this strategic planning helps in fulfilling all requirements and desires of its consumers.
It also helps in recognizing target customers of firm, that means persons who are positively
affected by products and services offered by Thomas Cook Group (Ariffin and Maghzi, 2012). As
this summer this company is offering a holiday package in two places i.e. Egypt and Morocco, so
the strategic marketing planning will help management to identify target customers and their
demands effectively in order to achieve goals of this firm. Today, more than 80% of individuals
actively use internet and they get information related to travel and tourism over the internet only.
 Cost effective: As Thomas Cook Group is popular travelling organization which does not require
much marketing efforts. It spends very less amount on marketing of its products and services and
which gives in turn a huge return. Thomas Cook Group allocates its resources very actively and
wisely which costs very less to firm and helps in cost saving that facilitates higher efficiency.
 Identification of opportunities: The strategic marketing planning helps Thomas Cook Group to
look over various day to day clutters and also identify new opportunities which this firm should
adopt for its betterment. For example, Thomas Cook facilitates various holiday packages at
different places which usually people like to visit. Effective strategic planning facilitates scope
for business by offering unique holiday packages at totally new and different places. Therefore,
strategic marketing planning helped management in offering summer 2018 holiday package in
Morocco and Egypt.

2.2
Marketing research is an activity which is done either by corporation or an external agency hired
by company to get more information about market. In short, marketing research is the deep study of
market by researchers to know about the current situations and up and downs in marketplace (Pechlaner
and Volgger, 2012). It is very helpful in knowing and understanding the tastes and preferences of
customers. In travel and tourism sector this plays a vital role which guide management of entity to get
more knowledge about existence of various types of people and their wants and needs. Before offering
summer 2018 holiday package in Morocco and Egypt, Thomas Cook required to do market research to
know the preference and interest of its customers. It is beneficial for company in both present and future
aspects. Here is the following discussion of relevancy of market research:
 Marketing research works like a guide for management before committing any future plan and
function (Nunkoo, Gursoy and Ramkissoon, 2013). Thomas Cook Group should invest more
money on market research because it will helps firm to understand market well and it will help in
attracting more people.
 Research done by Thomas Cook Group must be meaningful, means it should be done with a
specific and particular purpose and motive. A meaningful research helps organization to get better
results.
 Information collected under research must be compared, interpreted and analyzed by experts
before coming on any conclusion.
 Marketing research is an important task of every business enterprise which assists in determining
future course of action. It helps not only in decision making but also in obtaining competitive
advantage over its competitors.
 It facilitates a huge pool of information which is essential for Thomas Cook Group to gather such
information and use it effectively for future benefits of firm.
 Marketing research also helpful in testing the concepts and helps in understanding the future
actions of competitors.
2.3
Marketing is an activity which is not only important for an enterprise but also has a significant
impact on society. Generally, the target customers of Thomas Cook Group are part of society only and
various promotional activities of entity have direct or indirect impact on society. There are following
aspects which influence the society:

 Psychological influence: Promotional campaign is a part of marketing activity. Usually,
corporations carried out a long term or duration or period campaign for specific number of
products and services. Duration of campaign has a great psychological impact on target
customers (Line and Runyan, 2012). Generally, the purpose of long term campaign is to create an
image and awareness of brand in mind of general public. This helps Thomas Cook Group to
attract more customers towards its products and services. For example, Thomas Cook Group has
realized that in touirismtourism market, people are not willing to explore new destinations and
like to visit only few selected and popular places. So, Thomas Cook Group has new launched a
summer holiday package for 2018 with top most eight tourist destinations. This strategy of
company has a psychological impact on its consumers. Therefore, this tour operator is making
many effective efforts to fulfill demands and desires of its customers.
 Purchasing power: From the above discussion it is clear that marketing has a great impact on
customers and their buying behavior. Campaigning done by Thomas Cook Group indirectly
influence users to purchase its products and services. Therefore, target marketing campaign helps
organization to affect the decision of people to buy a particular product and service.
 Negative impact: Marketing activity also has a negative impact on society. A poor marketing
campaign done by Thomas Cook Group may lead this entity to suffer loss and will have a
negative impact on its users (Morritt and Weinstein, 2012). So, it is very necessary for Thomas
Cook Group to choose, plan and develop an effective marketing strategy to get positive results.
TASK 3
Presented in PPT
TASK 4
4.1
Promotion is the fourth element of marketing mix which is the method through which products of
company are promoted. There are following five aspects of promotion mix:
 Advertising: It is one of the common methods which is used by every firm or organization. It is
related to the promoting and presenting products and services of Thomas Cook Group. This
process includes the sponsor who engaged in advertising product of firm by various means or
methods (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel, 2012). It can be done through several ways like radio,
television, mail, ads on web pages printing ads, magazines, brochures, etc.
 Personal selling: This is a type of selling goods and services on personal basis. Here, people are
persuading to purchase goods on personal basis which concluded various meetings and sales

presentations. This selling is more effective because it involves face to face interaction between
buyer and seller. Today, this type of selling is not used by many undertakings because it
consumes more time and money (Brotherton, 2012). It is used by Thomas Cook Group to
promote its services and goods by using telemarketing method. It includes sales presentation to
users, sales meeting, training and development program, etc.
 Sales promotion: It is another method of selling items by promoting their sales through media or
non media type of marketing. It is a short term promotion of goods. It is generally used for
promotion of newly launched of introduced products and services in market. It is the method to
make aware people about new or latest launch of product. This is used by Thomas Cook Group to
promote its summer 2018 holiday package which is new in market (Dev, Buschman and Bowen,
2010). Here, management of this entity offers this package at very low or moderate prices to
attract more and more customers.
 Public relations: It is a cashless process of promoting products of Thomas Cook Group. When
this enterprise create a good relation with its consumers then they will communicate the various
facilities provided by this entity to their friends, family or other persons which may gain attention
of more people towards its products.
 Direct marketing: It is such method of promotion where producer of the establishment directly
sale its goods and commodities to end users. Here, producer directly communicates with its
customers and public. Techniques involves in this method are messaging, email, social media,
outdoor advertising, promotional letters, etc.

Thomas Cook Travel Ltd delivers consumers everything they want and demand for their trip.
It facilitates widest selections of travel products and services like airlines, accommodation,
holiday packages, cruise lines, etc. TCTL provides best deals at lower rates.
BOOK NOW
(301)5672431
4.2
An integrated promotional campaign is the method which includes almost all elements of
promotional mix i.e. direct marketing, sales promotion, personal selling, email, digital selling, in store
promotion, etc. It should promote its new package on social media as it is the best method to aware public
about its new launch. This campaign ensures that the message will be reach to various persons or people
Thomas Cook Group required to launch a campaign where it can communicate about its summer 2018
holiday package to maximum number of individuals and groups.
In this campaign, Thomas Cook Group needs to launch a logo for its company to promote its
brand image. It should offer this package at economy range to attract more and more travelers to come on
this trip or tour. It also required to announce various complementary benefits provided by this
company during this trip. A full or detailed process of this package must be explained publically on
radio, or television or through internet because public usually more attracted through these means.
Thomas Cook Group should offer a special summer discount to traveler who will register or book the
package in winter season. It will facilitates attention of more persons and will register fast to enjoy
special discount. It will assist Thomas Cook Group to increase in number of customers. Therefore,

this enterprise required to use this campaign to get attention of more people. Here is the following
poster prepared by Thomas Cook for its summer holiday package:
TO
MOROCCO & EGYPT
Enjoy the grand tour with us
Book Now
(301)5672431

CONCLUSION
The above report concluded that marketing plays a significant role in travel and tourism sector.
This report focused on various aspects and principle of marketing which are used in performing various
marketing activities for Thomas Cook Group. A proper planning and strategy must be develop by
management of this entity to perform several marketing activities. Marketing research must be done by
marketers or researchers to know needs or desires of its customers, because consumers play very
important role in this industry. It needs to conduct a proper marketing campaign to attract individuals in
large numbers towards its summer 2018 holiday package.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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management. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. 51(1). pp.53-67.
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Influences of personal and hotel factors. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 31(1).
pp.191-198.
Bharwani, S. and Jauhari, V., 2013. An exploratory study of competencies required to co-create
memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. International Journal of
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Brotherton, B. ed., 2012. International Hospitality Industry. Routledge.
Chan, N.L. and Guillet, B.D., 2011. Investigation of social media marketing: how does the hotel industry
in Hong Kong perform in marketing on social media websites?. Journal of Travel & Tourism
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Dev, C.S., Buschman, J.D. and Bowen, J.T., 2010. Hospitality marketing: A retrospective analysis (1960-
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Ong, B.S., 2012. The perceived influence of user reviews in the hospitality industry. Journal of
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Wearne, N. and Morrison, A., 2013. Hospitality marketing. Routledge.
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