Strategic Communication Strategies for Travel and Tourism Industry

A mobile application for better services and experience is proposed, which will enable customers to book hotels and airline tickets. This app will reduce time consumption of both customers and the firm. Additionally, it can provide location-based services. The effectiveness of media in a travel and tourism organization was also evaluated. It was found that public relations (PR) and promotional skills are essential for success in business. Effective communication and creativity were identified as key skills for PR personnel to develop innovative ways to overcome issues. A conclusion was drawn that public relations is a significant tool to promote the services of travel and tourism.

Public Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ASSIGNMENT 1 PLANNING A PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PROMOTION CAMPAIGN
FOR A DESTINATION..................................................................................................................1
Introduction to London................................................................................................................1
Task 1...........................................................................................................................................1
A. Role and Scope of public relation as a promotional tool........................................................1
B Analysis and discussion of the diversity of publics, tourists and other stakeholder with in
travel and tourism........................................................................................................................2
Task 2 Undertake an audit of the internal and external environments within the context of
setting relevant goals and objectives for the campaign using a range of PR and promotion
skills.............................................................................................................................................4
Task 3 Public Relation Plan with appropriate objectives and strategies to achieve the PR
objective Public Relation Plan.....................................................................................................5
ASSIGNMENT 2 IMPLEMENTATION OF MEDIA STRATEGY FOR A UK BASED
TRAVEL AND TOURISM ORGANISATION..............................................................................6
Introduction to TUI......................................................................................................................6
TASK A Identify and analyze a range of media suitable for the public relations campaign for
your chosen firm and assess the relationship between public relations in the travel and tourism
sector and the media....................................................................................................................6
Task (B) Apply your PR and promotional skills and evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen
media for the use in the chosen travel and tourism organization................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Public relation is the process through which an company make efforts to establish cordial
business relations with their customers and clients. It is essential for the firms to understand the
needs and wants of the customers so that they can design their services as per them in the travel
and tourism industry (Beaver, 2005). This report discusses the role, scope and importance of
public relations as a promotional tool for marketing and promotion in tourist destination like
London in the international market. The second assignment is about application of PR and
promotional tools used by TUI organization in order to promote their tourism services.
ASSIGNMENT 1 PLANNING A PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PROMOTION
CAMPAIGN FOR A DESTINATION
Introduction to London
London is the capital city of the England and the United Kingdom. It is the highly
populated city in UK. It is a leading global city having strengths in field of arts, education,
media, fashion and tourism. It is also known as the world's cultural capital. In terms of
international arrivals, it is world's most visited city. Along with that it is also having the world's
largest city airport system. It became the first ever city to conduct the modern summer Olympic
games three times. The city is also enclosed with people from different cultures and backgrounds
and more than 300 languages are spoken within it. London is having four world heritage sites
which are greater sites of attraction and these includes Tower of London, the Palace of
Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church (The Economy, 2014). It is a very
popular destination for tourism and it is one of its major revenue generating industry. It attracts
over 14 million international visitors every year, tagging it as the most visited city of Europe.
British Museum, Madam Tussauds etc are legend destinations in the history of tourism in
London.
Task 1
A. Role and Scope of public relation as a promotional tool
Public relation in travel and tourism plays an essential role because these tools are used
extensively in strategic marketing activities and is integrated with marketing communications.
Visit Britain, a tourist board of Great Britain is acting as a public relation tool for the promotion
of tourism service in London. It is incorporated under the Development of Tourism Act 1969.
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Government of the London has been using this promotional tool since many years and it has
helped then in gaining the attention of the tourists from different parts of the world (Butterick,
2011). The Visit Britain is making all possible efforts to establish rules and provisions which can
enhance the value of then tourists visiting the nation. It is helping in building the value of
inbound tourism to London. It is acting as a strategic body for inbound tourism and the national
tourism agency. It is funded by department for culture, media and sport. It is playing unique role
in raising London’s profile worldwide, increasing the value of tourism exports and developing
Britain’s visitor economy. It is making favourable perceptions about the London destination
because the success of the industry relies on different sectors.
All different companies along with the government create positive relationship with the
public with the public by using promotional medium such as Facebook, YouTube and blogs
(Kumar, 2012). All these tools are used to promote the destination and to create a positive image
in the minds of the existing and incoming tourists. Different types of travel and tourism
companies had also added their contribution in the promoting London as the most renowned
tourist destinations. Their role is to establish healthy and fine relations with the customers so that
they can be motivated to visit London again and again (Jefkins, 2007).
Through public relations customers can be informed about the new services and
destinations. It is very similar to the advertising and it facilitates to create more awareness about
the destination and hence this increased the business and revenue for the economy. In order to
meet the needs and aspirations of the tourists, the government of London is required to use
public relation as a tool for marketing and promotion (Henslowe, 2003). In the present context
there are numerous destinations where the people can go and enjoy the tourism services hence it
will not be wrong to say that the level of competition is high in this industry. This tool will play
significant role in promoting London as famous tourist destination in the international market
(Bowen, 2014). The PR strategy not only helps in attracting the visitors towards the destination
but also keeps them happy and satisfied so that they can wish to visit the place again. Further it
identifies the target market segment for the government and travel & tourism firms. Hence the
role and scope of public relation as promotional tool is enclosed with central and crucial
importance.
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B Analysis and discussion of the diversity of publics, tourists and other stakeholder with in travel
and tourism
In the travel and tourism sector it is important to develop mutual understanding with the
public including government, media, general public, tourism departments. It is evident that
people from all parts of the country tend to visit London for travelling and business purposes.
These people belong to different caste, regional and ethnic groups (Becker, Sprigg and Cosmas
2014).
Table 1: Top 10 visitors to London over last 10 years nation wise
2003 2013
U.S.A. 2234 U.S.A. 1884
France 1191 France 1873
Germany 892 Germany 1338
Irish Republic 624 Irish Republic 619
Netherlands 619 Netherlands 696
Italy 601 Italy 1091
Spain 527 Spain 843
Australia 451 Australia 696
Canada 317 Belgium 533
Sweden 308 Sweden 523
(Source: Office for National Statistics, 2013)
The above table shows the number of visitors arrived in London for the period of last ten
years. Business of travel and tourism in the nation has grown by ups and downs over the years.
16.8 million people, travelled to the country in gaining a 43.5% increase in the year 2013. Hence
this clearly shows that country provides tourism services to a very wide and diversified customer
base. It can be seen that there is a hardcore rise in the tourists from Germany, France and Italy.
Apart from the tourists, there are different types of pressure groups, policymakers and the
suppliers of service components (Lages and Simkin, 2013). In order to boost the tourism profile
it is essential to integrate with the activities with the expectations of the locals and to strengthen
the relationship building at the grassroots level. Various type of tourist departments are
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established at different places of London. These departments help in solving the queries and
complain of the visitors. This also contributes towards creating a positive image in the minds of
the tourists related to the destination (Marcotte and Bourdeau 2012). Further there are tourism
companies which design the tours and packages of the tourists. They also make effective efforts
to give exceptional and amazing tourism experiences to their clients.
Task 2 Undertake an audit of the internal and external environments within the context of setting
relevant goals and objectives for the campaign using a range of PR and promotion skills
Environmental analysis of London
 Political – London is a part of UK which is one of the most prosperous and influential
countries across the world. It has a large role to play in relation to globalization. Political
factors such as governmental laws & regulations related to travel & tourism affects the
London tourism industry.
 Economic – Factors such as GDP, purchasing power, living standard, income level,
inflation, recession etc affects the London as a tourism destination. UK is still in the
clutches of 2008 financial crisis.
 Social – London faces number of challenges with respect to maintaining the level of
tourism services. People from different nations, culture, religion, background etc also
visits London in search of leisure hence it puts an impact on tourism services in the
destination.
 Technology – At present social media marketing and mobile marketing is in focus.
Tourism authorities in London have to make use of these promotional tools in order to
reach large number of tourists.
 Legal – It is also essential to maintain control and discipline in the tourism services. It
can be done by framing laws and regulations which can improve the tourism services.
The various internal goals of the Public relation are as follows:
 To acts as a strategic instrument which can help the business in estimating how much
they can spend on the particular public relation activities.
 To help the firms in setting business strategies so that they can run for long period of time
in the market (Capriotti and Moreno 2007).
 To allow the firms to coordinate with the internal tourism department so that they can
know all the issue and difficulties that they are facing.
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 To define and measures the results of different types of tourism activities within the firm
 To perform all the activities within the budget in order to reflect efficiency
 To focus on the social programs (Cho and Huh, 2010)
External goals of the Public relations:
 To ensure the firms to make response to the editorial inquiries and requests in proactive
manner in order to manager all the resources adequately.
 To circulate better and advanced information in the market so that more and more people
can be alerted (Carneiro, 2011)
 To offer extraordinary and exceptional tourism services so that visitors feel great to come
 To allows the firms to evaluate different plans which are very much required for the
market maximization through creating better services (Gürel 2010).
PR shows the application of different methods that the company can easily use to provide
all the information about their products, services and existing image in front of the customers,
employees and other stakeholders. One of the major aim of public relation tool is to influence the
people so that they can easily establish good relations about the company and its offerings (Hill,
2013). It has been seen that advertising is similar with the PR because it is related with
promoting and gaining the acceptance of the public from all the services and products of the
firms. But still PR is little different because the main goal is to establish good relations with the
masses. There are different steps to perform public relation activity which starts when a specific
travel and tourism company make efforts to gain all the factors which affect the perceptions of
the travel and tourism sector (Meng, 2014). In the next step, all the policies in the context of the
campaign are introduced so that it can be performed in most appropriate manner. In the next
stage all the strategies and approaches are stated and defined so that desired outcomes can be
achieved. In the next stage communications with the public is made by using different type of
mediums such as press conferencing, social media etc (Steyn, 2007). In the next stage entities
make efforts to receive feedbacks from the public so that they can design their services according
to the wants of the people. At the last stage company implements the changes.
Task 3 Public Relation Plan with appropriate objectives and strategies to achieve the PR
objective Public Relation Plan
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Fact Finding and
data gathering
Research
Evaluation
Action builds
relations
Communication
Planning and
Programming
Clearly define the
problem or
opportunity
Devise and
package the
strategy
Implement the
strategy
Determine results
and impacts on
future activities
Public Relation Plan
The above diagram shows the public relation plan for Visit Britain tourist Board in
respect with the objectives stated earlier. The steps involved in the plan are as follows:
 Objective – The objective of the Plan are as follows:
 To promote the travel and tourism services in London
 To create awareness about ancient places in London among the tourists
 To bring improvements in the tourism services for convenience of the tourists
 Message – The major focus is on developing a public relation plan related to Visit
Britain. It will promote healthy and good relations between the organization and the
public by making a strong communication.
 Finding of facts, collection of data and research - All the facts related to the tourist's
destination such as London are identified. Continuous efforts related to development of
good reputation of the tourism industry are made. The improvements which are needed in
the services of the different departments of the company are identified (Becker, Sprigg
and Cosmas, 2014). All significant facts are analyzed as they are very important for the
development process. All the problems and opportunities which are present in the country
are also collected.
 Planning and programming - Different strategies are established in order to solve all the
issues which are discovered in the above stage. Public relation also helps the government
and the organization in developing the path for the purpose of making strategies for the
nation (Lages and Simkin, 2013).
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 Action, relation and communication - PR tool helps in building healthy and good
relations between the organization and the public by making a strong communication.
Feedbacks of the public are collected from the websites so that strategies can be modified
accordingly (Marcotte and Bourdeau 2012).
 Evaluation - It helps in evaluating all the results regarding so that estimation can be done
regarding the future strategies. Impact of different services on the society is accessed.
 Use of Media – Different channels of social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and
Twitter etc will be used for the promotion of London. Social media will help in reaching
a large number of audience in very quick span of time. It is expected that this will
promote the tourism services in UK.
ASSIGNMENT 2 IMPLEMENTATION OF MEDIA STRATEGY FOR A
UK BASED TRAVEL AND TOURISM ORGANISATION
Introduction to TUI
TUI is a German based travel and tourism organization, performing its business
operations in all the corners of the world. It is headquartered in Hanover but also marks its
extreme presence in some European nations. At present it is the world's largest travel and tourism
companies and also holds many subsidies of it. It is a well-integrated company in both in vertical
as well as horizontal manner (Cho and Huh, 2010). It holds many many travel agencies, hotels,
airlines, cruise ships, retail stores, etc all-round the globe. One of the big things is that it is listed
on London stock exchange as well along with Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It was founded in the
year 1923 and since then the organization has gained a great position and is still on the path of
growth and development. It is now been merged with a British Tour Operator named First
Choice.
TASK A Identify and analyze a range of media suitable for the public relations campaign for
your chosen firm and assess the relationship between public relations in the travel and tourism
sector and the media
It is very important for every firm to have proper development and maintain relation with
community and number of stakeholders, so it is a very serious assignment that has to be
accomplishing by administration of a business association. This circumstance occurs mainly due
to involvement of number of elements and forces that can affect the business in both positive and
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negative manner (Capriotti and Moreno 2007). For the better accomplishment of activity and
task there are wide range of communication mediums or tools that can be adopted by TUI to
have success of campaign and rapid increase in sales or business. The communication techniques
will allow firm to have effective and efficient communication system for better accomplishment
of goals. The one of most important tool for effective communication is Print media. This tool is
very crucial and vital method to have effective promotion with maintaining the better relations
with the public (Capriotti and Moreno 2007). This communication and advertising system will
also help TUI in development of business with having an expansion in wide range of customers.
It will also allow firm to have better sales with sharing information in form of press release, etc.
The key major reason behind use of this technique is to have growth in business as well
as growth of industry. It will provide better opportunity and allow firm to have wide and reach to
potential customers. In other words, it can also be said that this tool is most useful for visiting the
attractions firm because it provides far more advanced reach to customers and boost the business
(Marcotte and Bourdeau, 2012). This tool will also motivate firm to have better reach to
customers for a long term. Apart from this technique, social media and social networking sites is
also most useful and beneficial tool for management. This will allow company to have better
touch with a large number of consumers. It will also help in identification and understanding of
various needs and wants of customers. Company can have promotion of business with having a
proper use of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc (Becker, Sprigg and Cosmas 2014). These can be
beneficial for company because it is not only tool to interact with target customers but also helps
in better understating of customers perception and motivate to meet those needs.
Furthermore, mobile marketing is another tool that can boost business with having a
substantial use of all available resource. It is because this tool provides better opportunity to
company for having an easy access to market and helps in communicate with target clients on the
basis of real time activities (Lages and Simkin, 2013). It also helps in maintaining public
relations with proper use of various strategies. In this context, it can also be said that
organization can develop a mobile application for better services and experience. In such an
application customer can have booking option of hotels, airline tickets, etc. It will reduce the
time consumption of customers as well as firm (Marcotte and Bourdeau, 2012). In addition to it,
with a use of application, company can also provide services based on location and other
necessary aspects.
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Task (B) Apply your PR and promotional skills and evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen
media for the use in the chosen travel and tourism organization
The proper implementation of PR & promotional strategy is important for every
organization to have success in business. It has also been identified that organization need to
consider some skills before hiring public relation person (Becker, Sprigg and Cosmas 2014). One
of the essential skill that I can suggest for better implementation of PR and promotional person
and as well as activity is that person must have ability to communicate with people whether, it is
written or oral skill. It has been spotted that it is most important capability that can make
promotion activity effective. This skill will also beneficial for better implementation of public
relation strategy as well as other business activities. While, communicating with number of
clients, whether it is direct or indirect involved in submission of the various tactics, I can say that
the better implementation of plan has a positive effect on individual activities (Lages and
Simkin, 2013).
Communication plays a key role in understanding the needs and communicating the
message. The improvement in communication skill will also allow person to have innovative
ways to overcome the issues. It has also been determined that creativity is another important skill
that can boost the business and promotional activity. The increase creativity will allow person to
design and implement the effective PR strategies for increase in market share. As working in
organization on post of PR person, i have to focus on creativity to have uniqueness in plan and
tactics that are developed and implemented at workplace (Capriotti and Moreno 2007). The
uniqueness and creativity of me has also improved my image in corporation and forced my
colleagues and superiors to say that I am a very innovative person and always ready to take
initiatives. My creative ability has also helped company and make it campaign success. The
success of campaign has helped company to have increase in sale (Marcotte and Bourdeau,
2012).
Conclusion
Public relations are a very significant tool to promote the services of travel and tourism.
London has proved to be an exotic location for promoting tourism and is contributing greatly
towards increasing the revenue of the economy. It is important for government of every nation to
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adopt effective tourism strategies in order attract visitors in the country. The generated revenue
can be utilized for further development and innovation under the industry.
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Henslowe, P., 2003. Public Relations. Kogan Page Publishers.
Jefkins, F., 2007. Public Relations. Routledge.
Kumar, P., 2012. Public Relations Cases. Cengage Learning.
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Marketing. 44(1/2). pp. 42–65.
Hill, B., 2013. Public Relations. Journal of Communication Management. 17(1). pp. 92–93.
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Lages, C. and Simkin, L., 2013. The dynamics of public relations: Key constructs and the drive
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Marcotte, P. and Bourdeau, L., 2012. Is the World Heritage label used as a promotional
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Online
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