A Six-Month Public Relations Plan to Boost Seaside Tourism in Kent, UK

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes a PR campaign to boost UK seaside tourism.

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Public Relations and Promotion in Travel and Tourism
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 (LO1 & LO2).......................................................................................................................3
A. Importance of public relations as promotional tool to apply in tourism destination [P1.1,
P1.3 & P1.2]................................................................................................................................3
B. Audit of the chosen destination environment with objectives and goals [P2.1, P4.1]............6
Task 2 (LO3)..................................................................................................................................11
A. Key media used in the campaign [P3.1, P3.2]......................................................................11
B. Appropriateness of media for chosen campaign [P3.3]........................................................12
Task 3 (LO4)..................................................................................................................................13
A. Effectiveness of PR campaign [P4.2, D2]............................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
The below case study of Visit Britain that is a national tourism agency, which is liable to market
Britain and the rising visitor’s economy. The mission is to build value of tourism in Britain, as
they have strong digital presence along with global footprint (VisitBritain, 2019). Now, the
context analyses a key position to work as a marketing PR trainee for seaside tourism in UK
(Kent), which is in turn down stage. For this, an effective PR and promotional campaign could
be implemented within a period of six months, so that the seaside tourism destination can be
improved. The key areas that will play a major role in the report will be to analyse the diversity
of audiences, and stakeholders in the tourism context. Further, the context of the report will be
developed with objectives and goals through a PR plan, which will be further assessed with the
appropriateness of the media.
Task 1 (LO1 & LO2)
A. Importance of public relations as promotional tool to apply in tourism destination [P1.1,
P1.3 & P1.2]
Role and importance of PR as promotional tool on seaside tourist destination
At present, PR plays a key role to maintain any organisation’s image in public eyes, which will
benefit by developing company’s reputation largely. According to Chen et al. (2016), public
relations includes with varied programs that are designed to enhance company’s image, and the
product it tends to offer. It also works towards company’s promotional strategy, as a planned
approach will tend to leverage the PR opportunities, which could be significant as sales
promotion and advertising. Today, the average customers tend to have a moral compass when
expectations and needs work in fair trade (Edgell Sr, 2016). As PR is known to be an element
that evaluates public attitudes, it helps to gain the public acceptance and understanding. For this,
the marketing managers tend to plan a solid PR while focusing in the target audiences. The
campaign strives for maintaining a positive image in public eyes largely. So far, Hunter (2016)
have opined that public relations works in building good network with organisational staffs, and
clients, as they can effectively monitor print and digital media.

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When applied to the seaside tourism destination of UK by the market PR trainee of Visit Britain,
it can be analysed that at first the destination image should be renovated, so that new tourists can
be attracted largely. As the seaside destination is already declining, it could be a major factor that
local tourists are also not attracting to the place (Vellas, 2016). The use of PR, as a promotional
tool in the seaside location will work, as a re-branding tool of that particular destination by
gathering people so that a new benchmark with vintage traditions of the seaside place could be
acquired. PR role will account on repositioning new stalls and Coffee shops, near the seaside
place and snacks counter could be effective, as people love to go to beach and find enjoy the
weather (Law et al. 2015). The use of Public relations will tend to create good interest in the
brand or service that is intending to make a presence on the declining seaside place. The result
will be effective, as the PR trainee by using tools and market presence could defend the place,
which has suffered from being declining, as no people tend to visit (Jenkins et al. 2014). In
quest, Visit Britain will increase the overall image of the seaside place, which will generate extra
revenue through greater awareness by information of services and products that the company
offers.
Diversity of audiences and publics, including potential visitors and stakeholders
1. Diversity of Current visitors
As opined by Petrovici (2014), the current tourist coming to seaside destination of UK has
diversified name in relation to tourism. Across UK and parts of Europe, the diverse tourist tends
to prefer to seaside destination for the natural beauty and civilizing heritage. For instance, the
Domestic tourists from places like London, Wales, Cardiff and Edinburgh prefer to travel to
seaside destinations where there is calm and breezy environment (internships.com, 2019). As the
seaside destination is Kent, the tourist tend to prefer in staying overnight in holiday homes,
hotels, and even seaside shores for the short trips. Along this, students from Asian countries and
Australia tend to choose Kent, as the best seaside destination because of the native popularity in
that place. With effective PR, the area can find its presence through development and research.
From the discussion of Avraham (2016), business tourist from Bristol, London and Southampton
also travel to Kent, even for the business visits. The cities are near to the destination, as it is
effective for business work.

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2. Diversity of Potential visitors
It can be initiated that potential tourists in Seaside destination of Kent could be adventure junkies
or international tourists. Since the place is declining, but good promotion will set up in a coming
season may be late in 2019 to build effective tourism presence. It also helps to attract people to
develop their restaurants, stalls and adventure sports in the seaside place. For instance, the
tourist industry of UK is highly benefitted through these international tourists. For being a part of
UK, Kent has potential element to attract international tourist from Australia, China and India to
develop profitability in that destination (Yoo and Kim, 2013). Due to beautiful beaches and rich
culture, the PR activity has to formulate well for generating tourist for the seaside destination.
Likewise, the youths and young people of 20-25 ages are hugely interested in destination that
tends to offer adventure spot (Twitter.com, 2019). The seaside destination will also attract in
tracking spots, surfing, beaches and underwater diving. Apart from all these, there is more scope
if proper development is done through PR trainee of Visit Britain.
Stakeholders of Visit Britain
As opined by Pearce (2013), stakeholder analysis of Visit Britain is imperative to analyse the
requirements and needs of the tourists. For generating large output within tourism area, it is
effective to find a healthy relation with stakeholders. Stakeholders here could be divided as
external and internal. In case of internal stakeholders, it is important that the stakeholders of
Visit Britain take decision, as they tend to invest into debentures and company’s shares. For this,
the decision-making process is required highly to promote promotions, as they have ideas of
future market trends (Antoniadis et al. 2014). Likewise, employee role is also effective, as their
participation matters with other representatives of Visit Britain. They deal with clients and
members for generating large revenue.
Towards external stakeholders, the customer tries to gain large support, as it is crucial to analyse
tourist needs. The use of brochures also guides tourists regarding information needs since the
customer brings large revenue to the company. For creating key promotional tools for PR, Visit
Britain also understands tourist traffic and customer base (Hays et al. 2013). Likewise, the
government also plays in formulation of rules and policies, as company may stick these to run

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business successfully. Thus, it is decisive that government should work in investing in the
tourism firm to generate global tourism in UK.
B. Audit of the chosen destination environment with objectives and goals [P2.1, P4.1]
Audit of the chosen destination environment
While setting objectives and goals for the PR campaign with goals and objectives, it is crucial
that planning has to done for 6 months. It also has to be revised for 3 months, and for effective
planning in Kent Seaside tourism area, the same need to be done. In taking out an Audit of the
selected organisation, the key areas need to be considered from assessment to the proper action.
From the relative goals aligned for the seaside tourist destination in Kent, it is imperative that
tourism visibility would boost organisation’s interconnected area of key business activities.
Even, the place will also increase wider business practices to be followed early (Lahav et al.
2013). The promotional skills include the leaflets, brochures, news releases, featured articles,
events, etc. Among all of these, Visit Britain promoting Kent seaside tourist destination would
go for advertisements and brochures. On TV, there are large advertisements that display exotic
locations of Kent seaside with excellent amenities and ambience (Hanusch, 2012). Even, it is
found that the media is liable to start taking some of the key tourism measures, which will add
large importance to growth of UK’s economy.
Steps Actions taken Deadline (May to
October)
Assess For the visitor experience, a preliminary assessment need
to be taken for recording the seaside destination
experience from the “first-time” visitor’s prospect.
8th of May 2019
Evaluate The next phase will be to review and document all the
visitor experiences and services that adds significance to
evaluate extent of tourism market readiness.
17th of July 2019
Gaps Isolating and identifying readiness of visitor gap and the
destination opportunity for bearing in the market.
19th of August 2019
Report Report on the key probable findings from each of the
visitor experience area, and supply them checklist of
31st of September
2019

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action recommendations to stakeholders and client
Final action Lastly, highlight the top areas by suggesting effective
implementation priority for addressing the issue of the
seaside tourist destination in Kent.
1st of October 2019
Table 1: Audit of the seaside destination
(Source: Learner)
Range of PR and promotional skills
As there is a need of imperative promotional skills used by PR team of seaside tourist place of
Kent, some of them could be the fact sheets and press releases. It is where the person appointed
for public relations try to give news to press, so that it could reach to people. While, if needed,
the journalists are also being provided some fact sheets that tend to contain information and data
associated with highlights of tourism destination (Milohnić, 2012). The UK websites also use the
promotional skills, as public relation person try to work hard, in order to make the website
attractive by varied locations. Some of the key public relation elements to be used for seaside
tourism in Kent are given in a tabular form.
Public relations
list
Applies to the Destination
Events/Internal
meetings
Meeting of the company will create sense of trust to increase communication level
in the seaside tourist destination
Drop Box Employees of Visit Britain along with the PR trainee can give their respective
suggestions.
Newsletter This provides information related activities in order to communicate messages with
the management to employees.
Bulletin boards Boards are kept at prime locations to display exciting information regarding
workers.
Event participation By taking part in event of seaside tourist destination at Kent, it can help to
strengthen and build networks with other authorities and organisations. This will
certainly increase profitable contacts in tourism business of UK.
Event organisation Organising event will attract the media, where they can promote the seaside

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destination.
Media relations It is effective, as it will maintain relations by giving regular feedbacks through
internet.
Company blog This is associated in the form of news stories, article, etc that are being displayed to
reach customers, so that readers are allowed to post relative comments.
Social network
participation
Involvement of Facebook and Instagram will help Visit Britain to get in contact
with key customers, to promote the place aggressively.
Table 2: PR elements to be used in Seaside destination
(Source: Learner)
Produce a public relation plan
For developing promotional plan for Seaside destination of Visit Britain in UK, it is imperative
that a plan has to be developed in order to attract more customers. For developing the plan, some
of the key elements are being considered.
Situational Analysis
This includes the actual situation being described to focus on the seaside tourist destination in
Kent. Presently, Visit Britain has intended that tourists are not relying more on travel agencies to
plan holidays rather being influenced more on Word-of-mouth, or the varied search engine data
or could be friend’s commendation (Morgan and Pritchard, 2012). In that sense, they have
identified a discount offer where customers can find loyalty bonuses to purchase the package.
Objectives
For defining effectiveness of using promotional tools, the set objectives have to be attained for
the seaside tourist destination. In that case, the objectives developed include:
 To increase effective PR campaign by communicating with information of interest and
news, so that by October 2019, a spot of attractive tourist place can be formed. To develop firm communication by promoting attractive understanding of increasing
publicity of products and services of the company

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 To advise the decision makers of Visit Britain regarding the actions taken and public
perception to develop the seaside destination with R&D and innovation
These objectives will use the media and audiences to be targeted heavily. It would also include
the online media for reaching out target audience in the period of 6 months.
Define Publics
For this stage, it is significant to define the target audiences, as the key marketing tactics being
employed by Visit Britain will act upon the seaside destination’s re-branding. The customers will
be mainly Australian, Indian and European people who tend to spend their vacation at seaside
place in Kent. Audience always need to relax in the environment, so that they can receive good
fun (Yoo and Kim, 2013).
Media selection
This stage includes where the PR will decide about the media from which information and
details of the seaside destination are being communicated to target audiences. The first method
chosen is the online media, as it develops the interactive sites where tourism department would
get associated with the European tourists mainly to solve major queries about the place
(Avraham, 2016). The other method might be to include celebrity help, which could attract
tourist with online charm. Through the online media, they may be asked to create own travel
plans in order to upload on the site, as per convenience.
Budget
It would be decided on estimating the cost by taking into consideration of the tactics and the
objectives.
Particulars Cost (in £)
Seaside location research 15000
Creative wages for employees 50000
Design 6000
Printing brochures and leaflets 4000
Video shooting and editing 12000

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Website domain cost 100000
Website tracking and updating 30000
Celebrity promotions 35000
Developing new food stalls 50000
Total 302,000
Table 3: Cost estimation
(Source: Learner)
Seaside location research
Creative wages for employees
Design
Printing brochures and leaflets
Video shooting and editing
Website domain cost
Website tracking and updating
Celebrity promotions
Developing new food stalls
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
Cost (in £)
Cost (in £)
Figure 1: Gantt chart of PR Budget
(Source: Excel)
Implementation/Control
The implementation plan will be carried out for the success of PR plan. The use of a Gantt chart
will be projected for the task prioritisation and resource allocation. In order to prevent any kind
of issues, a contingency plan is proposed with a backup plan (Petrovici, 2014). For instance, if

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the point of the celebrities is included, there has to be at least two celebrities booking up a plan,
in case the other backs up at the last moment.
Task 2 (LO3)
A. Key media used in the campaign [P3.1, P3.2]
It is prioritised that the media used for Visit Britain includes a lot from the list. According to
Vellas (2016), it is crucial that the company need to decide the advertisement category, so that
choice of media can be either broadcast or print media. Since the tourism firm selected for PR
analysis is Visit Britain, it is leading from a broader portfolio. Now, the range of methods for PR
could include the customisation of packages, product shows, PR through blogging or sponsorship
(Law et al. 2015). Thus, each of these has its own feature and can reach to target audience
evidently. Considering the firm, as one of the oldest agency in UK, the PR should find a greater
reach and must be effective. Thus, it will also cater to international clients, such that medium of
PR should cover clients globally.
For instance, the local media can be used, as Visit Britain can use it, as the local cable TVs used
in air commercials and other celebrity endorsements. Besides, the customary media builds the
goodwill and acknowledgement, aside from the specialised promotional tactics. The PR planning
should make a basis for events, trade shows, seminars and ads on TV (Jenkins et al. 2014).
Lastly, the classified newspaper and the yellow pages could be used for attracting the desired
public in the seaside location of Kent. This can be done, just by minimal investment.
Relation between PR department and other media
According to Avraham (2016), the relation between PR department of travel and tourism and
other media is quite strong. It is where the business would depend on a proper reach, so that it
can create within public about the dependability and faith of customers. Likewise, as the media is
quite stronger, and in fact, the tourism business for the seaside location near Kent could reach
easily to client and can publish data. From the opinion of Petrovici (2014), the media is measured
to support the subject matter of PR industry, as Visit Britain should place its data in publications
and news. It will ideally help the firm in order to establish effective approach while
communicating with local people of Kent. The media whereas is quite interdependent on PR, as

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it tend to provide material and content to publish the data gathered. Since updating all the data in
local media takes effort and time, the benefit it offers is to work on special effects, colour, sound
and motion. The viewers do not have to actively involve here, as the airtime costs and production
fees make it expensive (Twitter.com, 2019). Classifieds, as a medium reaches every audience.
For instance, Visit Britain packages and destinations could be better suitable for newspaper,
when conflicting to TV, as per the PR personnel.
B. Appropriateness of media for chosen campaign [P3.3]
For this particular campaign, a vast range of media can be used by the mentioned organization,
Visit Britain. From the general view, it can be stated that using the media is considered as one of
the important parts of the PR campaign for an organization. In the case of the mentioned
company, Visit Britain, the PR campaign has been included a number of media, in order to
provide importance to the campaign and to make ways that help the campaign to reach a broader
audience. The media list for this particular campaign is included in the print media, the audio-
visual media and the social media. However, according to Li and Liu (2016), in order to
understand the importance and the appropriateness of the media for the campaign, it can be
stated that the media should be used to spread the campaign to the mass and provide information
related to the development of the campaign (Antoniadis et al. 2014). As the travel and tourism
industry depends on the travel experience shared by the other travellers, these media usage
would be appropriate for their development.
For making the general people aware of the ongoing campaign and spread the general
information regarding the campaign along with the information regarding seaside tourism in UK
(Kent), the print media would be the most suitable option. The print media is included of the
newspaper, journals, reports and magazines. All of these resources would be used in order to
make the campaign beneficial for their stakeholders such as the hotel owners, the travel
organisers and the transport companies (Kiráľová and Pavlíčeka, 2015). It can be stated that the
print media would be appropriate for sharing the contact details of the travel organizations and
the hotel owners that are working in the seaside tourism in UK (Kent). Thus, the print media
would be an essential part of the campaign.