Marketing Strategies for Travel and Tourism: Virgin Holidays Report

This report delves into the marketing essentials for travel and tourism, using Virgin Holidays as a case study. It begins by defining marketing and its importance, specifically within the context of Virgin Holidays. The report then outlines the key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within the organization, emphasizing market research, promotional channels, product development, and distribution, while also relating these roles to the wider organizational context, considering both internal and external environmental factors. A comparative analysis of how different tourism organizations, including Virgin Holidays and British Airways, apply the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence) to their marketing planning processes is provided to achieve business objectives. Finally, the report culminates in the production of a basic marketing plan tailored for a travel and tourism organization, designed to meet specific marketing objectives. The report highlights the significance of these strategies in enhancing sales, profitability, and brand image within the competitive tourism market.

MARKETING ESSENTIALS
FOR TRAVEL AND
TOURISM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Explanation of key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Virgin Holidays
organisation..................................................................................................................................1
Discussion of ways in which roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context..................................................................................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
Comparison of ways in which different tourism organisations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives........................................................4
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................6
Produce a basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism organisation to meet marketing
objectives of the organisation......................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing can be defined as a kind of concept for publicity, advertising, sales technique
that helps the organization in prompting business, its products and services in order to increase
their overall sales and profitability (Schmidt, 2017). Marketing is one of the most important
factors which is required to be focused upon by an organization that can help them in growing,
increasing sales of their products and services enhance their overall marketing capabilities in a
proper and effective manner. this assignment will focus upon Virgin Holidays Limited
organization that operates in tour operation industry. It is owned by Virgin Group and was
founded in 1985 whose main headquarter is in England. This assignment will describe main key
roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Virgin Holidays Limited and that are
related to to the wider organizational context, ways in which organizations apply marketing mix
to marketing planning process and lastly in this, basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism
organization will be developed in order to meet marketing objectives.
LO 1
Explanation of key roles and responsibilities of the marketing function within Virgin Holidays
organisation
Marketing functions in Virgin Holidays help them in promoting products and services
sold by them and make people aware of their services in a proper manner. in order to enhance
their overall sales, profitability, maintain their overall brand image Virgin Holidays focus more
upon their marketing strategies. It further helps them in developing loyalty within their
customers towards the brand and further helps them in attracting more new customers. They
have divided some main roles and responsibilities of marketing strategy that helps them in
increasing their overall business productivity and profitability. Some of the main roles and
responsibilities of marketing functions within Virgin Holidays are as follows:
Market research: It is one of the most important role and responsibility within marketing
function in Virgin Holidays. In order to survive within marketing environment and gain
competitive advantage they do market research and increase aware of customers about different
kinds of products and services sold by them they do market research in order to identify current
needs and requirements of customers and changing market trend in a proper and effective
manner (Sun and Govind, 2020). This helps them to identify changes that are required to be
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brought within their products and services for fulfilling needs and requirements of their
customers and enhance their satisfaction level.
Creating promotional channel: It is another responsibility of marketing manager to remain
updated about different kinds of promotional and advertisement channels and activities that can
help them promoting their products and services in much better and appropriate manner (Whitler,
Morgan and Rego, 2020). There are various kinds of promotional challenges that are used by
Virgin Holidays for promotion of their products and services. They mostly use social media
marketing and promotional channel for promotion of their products and services so that they can
compete with their competitions and promote their products and services in a much more
appropriate excellent manner.
Product development and management: It is another important responsibility of marketing
manager and other employees to bring improvement within their product and services. it is one
of the most cost- effective method though which they can produce high quality products and
services in a much cost- effective manner as per the changing marketing environment. For
achieving main goals and objectives and for gaining competitive advantage.
Products and services distribution: It is one of the most important responsibility of managers
of Virgin Holidays i.e. to identify ways in which they will be distributing their products and
services to their customers (Contreras and Ramos, 2016). This majorly with the help of
marketing mix: that consist of some elements like place, price, promotion, product etc. It further
helps them in identifying ways in which they can distribute their products and services in which
price, at which places and though which promotional strategies. It helps them in identifying ways
in which they can satisfy needs and requirements of their customers in an appropriate price and
can be made available in different locations to their customers.
Discussion of ways in which roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to the wider
organisational context
Marketing functions for most of the organizations are similar. Marketing functions for
most of the organizations are public relation, advertisement and many more. It is extremely
important for an organization to focus upon these marketing functions or achievement of their
main busines aim and objectives in a proper and effective manner that can help an organization
to achieve success (Gnizy and Shoham, 2018). Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to
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the wider organisational context in both internal and external environmental context that
influence decision making of organization.
Internal environment: It focuses upon environment or surrounding or background of an
organization. It includes elements or resources within an organization that can influence
marketing functions like human resources, functional resources, physical resources and many
more. It is important for an organization to have complete control over their resources as it can
impact marketing functions or activities in both positive and negative manner (Martensen and
Mouritsen, 2017). These resources can help an organization to deliver products and services to
customers in order to fulfil their needs and requirements in a positive manner. It can help Virgin
Holidays to promote their products and services as per the changing needs and requirements of
customers. It can further help a company to bring changes within their internal processes so that
required changes within products can be brought as per changing market trend and customers
requirement and needs in a proper and effective manner.
External environment: It focuses upon environment or market in which organization operate
like their current competitors, suppliers, customers and many more. It can also be said that these
are the factors that are outside an organizations scope upon which they do not have much control
and if these factors are not focused upon then it can impact an organization in both positive and
negative manner. External environment roles and responsibilities of marketing functions helps an
organization to analyse and evaluate external macro environmental factors that has both positive
and negative impact upon an organization (Išoraitė, 2016). Virgin Holidays uses different kinds
of models or factors for analysis of external environment such as PESTLE analysis, porters five
for analysis. It can help them in understanding ways in which they can bring changes within their
products and services in order to identify and can also help them in identifying their potential
customer base. It further helps them in maintaining overall quality of their products and services
in a proper manner.
These toles and responsibilities of marketing functions can also be related to external marketing
environment. It can be understood with the help of PESTLE analysis.
Political: Virgin Airlines focuses upon complying with all kinds of main legislation and
regulation that can impact success of their marketing strategy.
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Economic: they focus upon bringing improvement within overall skills of their employees so
that high quality of services can be provided to customers so that they can successfully
contribute in enhancing overall nation’s economy.
Social: they focus upon bringing changes within their current products and series as per changing
market trends and needs and requirements of customers.
Technology: They focus upon remaining updated with new and advance technology like
chatbots so that they can provide high quality service to customers in more proper manner.
Legal: They focus upon following all the updated legalisation and acts in order to run their
overall business in an ethical manner so that they can maintain overall positive image in front of
customers.
Environmental: They are continuously focusing upon reducing their overall CO2 emission so
that they can reduce their overall carbon foot print.
LO 2
Comparison of ways in which different tourism organisations apply the marketing mix to the
marketing planning process to achieve business objectives
7 P’s of marketing mix that can help an organization to achieve their main business
objectives and for promotion of their products and services are as follows:
Product: it focuses upon explaining all kinds of goods and services that are provided or offered
by travel and tourism industry organizations to their customers (Pogorelova and et.al., 2016).
These products and services can be both tangible and intangible. It further helps in explaining
different categories in which products and services are bifurcated into.
Price: Price helps in explaining price of products and services at which they are being offered by
organizations to their customers in different categories to their customers as per their needs,
requirements and affordability.
Place: It involves all the places where travel and tourism industry organization provide and sell
their products and services to.
Promotion: in this different advertising and promotional ways are involved though which
marketing of products and services is done (Thabit and Raewf, 2018).
People: it involves people working for the organization for operability of all of their processes
and operations in a proper manner.
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Process: it involves all the marketing activities and practises that are involved in marketing of
products and services.
Physical evidence: it is a material part associated with product that explain existence and
presence of organization (Wu and Li, 2018).
Marketing mix
elements
Virgin Holidays British Airways
Product They sell their products and
services under three different
segments that are premium,
economy, luxury segment
British airways sell their products
under four main categories that
are economy, business, premium
economy and first class
Price They have adopted premium
pricing strategy for premium
category and competitive pricing
strategy for economy and luxury
segment.
They have adopted lower pricing
strategy for their customers (Wu
and Li, 2018).
Place They provide their products and
services to 29 different locations
in UK
They produce their products and
services to 400 different location
globally.
Promotion They develop their promotional
strategies as per current
competition in the market and
mostly adopt social media
promotional strategies.
They have adopted various kinds
of promotional strategies such as
TV advertisements, billboards
and newspapers. They have also
developed their own mobile
application as most of the
customers prefer to do their
bookings online.
People They have approximately 9000
employees working for them.
They have approximately 40,000
employees working for them.
Process All of their processes are tried and
tested so that they can maintain
high quality of their products and
They are focusing upon
increasing their online presence
and for this they have recently
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services in order to maximize
their customers satisfaction and
experience. They focus upon
maintaining overall quality of
their current process.
introduce e-booking process. This
has helped them to introduce 9
more holiday packages for their
customers whose booking can be
done online
Physical evidence They majorly operate from three
different places in UK and serve
more than 29 destination.
They serve more than 400
destinations.
There are various kinds of marketing strategies or tactics that are used by different kinds
of travel and tourism industry organizations in step by step manner.
Analysis: it is one of the most important tactics which is used by markets for analysing current
business environment so that they can evaluate current situation of their business and develop
appropriate marketing strategy accordingly (Wu and Li, 2018).
Planning: After analysis of current business environment organizations in this industry start
planning ways in which they can promote their products and services in order to fulfil needs and
requirements of their customers.
Implementation: When analysis and planning of market is done, travel and tourism industry
organizations focus upon identifying ways in which they can implement new marketing strategy
for promotion of their products and services
LO 3
Produce a basic marketing plan for a travel and tourism organisation to meet marketing
objectives of the organisation
Summary
Virgin Holiday is a touring organization whose main product is holiday packages and
area served by them is whole United Kingdom. Their main aim is to provide high quality and
average- price holiday packages to people. Their main vision is to become a leading organization
in travel and tourism industry.
Current objectives of company
Main objectives of company that are required to be achieved by them are as follows:
 To enhance their customer base by at least 10 percent within 12 months.
 To rebrand the company as Virgin Atlantic Holidays in next 12 months.
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 To increase market share by at least 5 percent next 2 years.
SWOT analysis
 Strengths: They provide high level training to their staff members in order to enhance overall
experience and satisfaction level of customers. They have a strong customer base as they
provide high quality products and services to their customers. They have developed a strong
product and service portfolio for three different categories of customers premium, economy,
luxury segment. They focus upon each and every minute details of customers in order to
provide them products as per their expectations.
 Weaknesses: Current situation of Covid-19 has impacted their business drastically due to
which they have to face various kinds of financial challenges. Their business has suffered
various kinds of financial challenges. They have developed a brad image of value for money
as a brand image but still people who love to travel from economic category find it a bit
expensive.
 Opportunities: They can focus upon bringing changes within their customers preferences as
today a greater number of people prefer travelling for business and spend more upon flight
tickets. Due to current Covid-19 situation people are focusing more upon flights that take
more safety measures and for this they spend more money for flight. So it is one of the main
opportunity that can help them to enhance their overall sales and profitability.
 Threats: Market trend and customers preference is changing drastically that can impact their
overall business operation. Other than this competition in this industry for Virgin Holidays is
also increasing drastically.
Product definition
Virgin Holidays provide high quality products and services to three different categories
of customers as per their needs and requirements. They are currently focusing upon extending
their products and services categories so that needs and requirements of customers can be
fulfilled. They have recently identified that nowadays due to Covid-19 situation customers
various kinds of doubts and issues within holiday packages or within their flight bookings. So for
this, they are focusing upon introducing chatbot service for their customers where customers can
ask for any of their issues and can resolve it or can get solution of their doubts or issues in a
proper and accurate manner.
Competition
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Main competitors of Virgin Holidays that can give them tough competition are: Phoenix
Voyages Group, Goway, Bookit and StudentUniverse. These organizations can directly impact
overall business operations of Virgin Holidays. But introduction of this new service of chatbot
will directly help them to gain competitive advantage this will help them to provide 24*7
assistance to customers so that whenever they want to get in touch with the organization, they
can get in touch h as resolve their doubts and queries easily.
STP
Segmentation: Virgin Holidays focused upon demographic segmentation rich business class
people who travel for business though flights more often and people who have high family
income level.
Target: They will target people whose main focus is to travel for business or business- related
purpose who have various kinds of queries and questions while booking.
Positioning: People who will be travelling for business purpose will be provided with additional
chatbot service so that all of their issues and queries can be resolved at any time of day.
Pricing
For this new service they will be adopting penetration pricing strategy where this service
will be provided at lower price to customers so that they can attract a greater number of
customers
Packaging
After booking customers will be provided with flight safety kit that includes mask, face
shield and with a welcome box including snacks.
Promotion
Company will be choosing social medial marketing as it is one of the best way opf reaching their
targeted customers as today maximum number of people uses social media so it makes much
easier for organization to reach to their target customers.
Public relation
Virgin Holidays will be organizing a virtual social media event for launching this new service for
their targeted customers as it will help them to develop close and strong relationship with their
customers.
Communication strategies
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For communicating with their targeted customers, Virgin Holidays will be selecting messages
communication medium where they will be using social media to communicate with their
customers and with special and regular customers they will be contacting though emails as well.
Success matrix
There are few Key performance criteria’s on the basis of which Hilton will be measuring their
success of new services that are:
 Checking whether market share has increased or not
 By checking whether loyalty among their customers has increased or their customer base has
increased or not by checking where any kind of bookings have been repeated or not.
 They will also be checking their overall sales and profitability in order to check whether their
sales and profitability have increased or not
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has been summarized that marketing plays a vital role in
management of main business operations and helps in manging other aspects of business. In
travel and tourism industry marketing plays a main and vital role in achievement of their main
aim and objectives in a proper and effective manner. marketing helps travel and tourism industry
organizations to promote products and services provided by them. It has been summarized that
development of marketing plan is essential for organizations in travel and tourism industry so
that they can introduce new products and services launched by then for their target customers.
Organizations in travel and tourism industry uses marketing plan as one of the main and essential
part of their business that not only helps them to grow but also helps them in sustaining within
the market and gaining competitive advantage and achieve their main goals or business
expansion and success.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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and consequences. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. 25(2). pp.67-89.
Išoraitė, M., 2016. Marketing mix theoretical aspects. International journal of research
granthaalayah. 4(6). pp.25-37.
Martensen, A. and Mouritsen, J., 2017. Prioritising marketing activities in different types of
marketing functions. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence. 28(11-12).
pp.1264-1284.
Pogorelova, E., and et.al., 2016. Marketing Mix for E-commerce. International journal of
environmental & science education. 11(14). pp.6744-6759.
Schmidt, C.R., 2017. Technology's impact on the marketing function. Strategic
Management. 22(3). pp.19-28.
Sun, W. and Govind, R., 2020. A New Understanding of Marketing and “Doing Good”:
Marketing’s Power in the TMT and Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal of
Business Ethics, pp.1-21.
Thabit, T. and Raewf, M., 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case
study. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies. 4(4).
Whitler, K.A., Morgan, N.A. and Rego, L., 2020. The impact of chief marketing officer role
variance on marketing capability. Marketing Science Institute, pp.20-112.
Wu, Y.L. and Li, E.Y., 2018. Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social
commerce. Internet Research.
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