Importance of Public Relations in Travel and Tourism

Public Relation and
Promotion in Travel
and Tourism

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................3
A) Importance of public relations as a promotional tool along with the analysis of diversity of
audience..................................................................................................................................3
B) Audit of the environment of chosen destination................................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
A) Range of media which can be used in public relations.....................................................7
Appropriateness of the selected media...................................................................................8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................9
A) Effectiveness of PR campaign and strategy which can be implemented to execute the plan
................................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
Travel and tourism industry is the fastest growing industries in the world with the increase in
globalisation and easy mobilisation of people across borders for various purposes like travel,
business, leisure, recreation etc. It is very important to build strong relations with people so that
that more people can be attracted to visit the destinations of a nation which helps in building
economy of the country and also give employment opportunities to people (Beaver, A., 2005). In
this report the importance of making public relations in travel and tourism will be discussed with
respect to VisitBritain which is a national tourism agency and mainly deals in marketing Britain
worldwide which helps in building Britain’s economy due to visitors. The company has a strong
digital presence in the world which helps it in building global footprint in about countries so that
British tourism can be marketed effectively. In this report public relations and its importance will
be discussed along with making a promotional campaign for a destination. Further in the report a
plan of public relations will be formed.
Task
A) Importance of public relations as a promotional tool along with the analysis of diversity of
audience
Public relations plays an important role in making good and long term relations with the
visitors in the travel and tourism industry which helps in creating a positive image of the
destinations of country in the minds of visitors. This helps in gaining repetitive tourism
opportunity for the destinations which generates employment and adds value to the
economy of the country (Bowen, S., 2014). The tourist destination that is selected is
Falmouth which is a town on the coast of Cornwall in Southwest England. The place is
known for its deep natural harbour on the Fal Estuary and beaches like Swanpool and
Gyllyngvase. Also the place has National Maritime Museum Cornwall which is famous for
its galleries and a flotilla of model boats. The place has been well known for its natural
beauty it has to offer to its visitors but in the recent years it is facing a decline in its tourism
as more cheap destinations are emerging where many recreational activities are offered
along with sight-seeing like Thailand, Singapore, Bhutan, Maldives etc.
The travel and tourism in the selected tourist destination can be revived by building
public relations with the visitors which helps in making a strong image of it so that

promotion of the destination for further visits can be ensured. Following are the roles of
public relations:
 It helps in creating a positive brand image of the place by telecasting it on the news
and giving it a good media coverage so that the attention of visitors can be seeked.
This can be done with the help of VisitBritain which has a strong base of digital
media and can reach up to 21 countries.
 It also will help in maintaining daily basis communication with the media so that a
wide coverage of destination can be reached to a lot of potential visitors.
 Building networking with clients and organisational staff in VisitBritain.
 It also helps in preparing regular updates so that the management of VisitBritain
can be timely informed about the client meetings and reports.
 Also the role of public relation is to research about the places of the destination
which are to be given a media coverage. It also includes preparing and managing a
team so that research activities can be efficiently done.
These roles of public relations help in maintaining good image of the tourist destination which
helps in boosting the visitors of the nation. Following are the importance of public relations:
 The activities of public relations in Falmouth can help in building a strong image of the
place in the minds of target population (Butterick, K., 2011).
 The brand image of the destination will improve in the minds of the people which will
improve the positioning of the place so that the places of sight-seeing can gain attention
at a large level.
 The targets of VisitBritain which is to manipulate the minds of the tourists so that the
tourism of a destination can be increased will be achieved in an efficient manner.
 Also the importance of Falmouth as the seaside tourist destination of UK will increase
and it can compete with other cheap tourist destinations in an efficient manner
(Henslowe, P., 2003).
The people that are visiting Falmouth includes people belonging to different ages, professions,
religions, countries etc. who travel from all over the world in order to get entertained and
acknowledged about the natural beauty and cultural heritage of the destination. The current
tourists visiting Falmouth are: