Marketing Strategies in Travel and Tourism: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing within the travel and tourism sector, examining key concepts and strategies. It explores the core principles of marketing, emphasizing the importance of understanding consumer needs, wants, and desires within the tourism industry. The report delves into the impact of the marketing environment on businesses and destinations, highlighting factors influencing consumer motivation and demand, such as economic conditions and social media. It discusses the principles of market segmentation, strategic marketing planning, and the relevance of marketing research. The report also addresses the marketing mix, including product, price, place, and promotion, and the importance of the service sector mix elements. The analysis includes a case study of TUI Company, illustrating how these marketing principles are applied in practice, along with the challenges faced in the tourism sector.

Marketing in travel and
tourism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 The core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector...................................1
1.2 The impact of marketing environment on individual travel and tourism businesses and
tourist destinations..................................................................................................................2
1.3 Factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism sector...2
1.4 The principles of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning.....................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................4
2.1 importance of strategic marketing planning for a travel and tourism business or tourist
destination...............................................................................................................................4
2.2 the relevance of marketing research and market information to
managers in the travel and tourism sector.............................................................................4
2.3 Influence of marketing on society....................................................................................4
LO3..................................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing mix.............................5
3.2 Importance of service sector mix elements to the travel and
tourism sector........................................................................................................................6
3.3 concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism
business or tourist destination...............................................................................................6
LO4..................................................................................................................................................6
4.1 the integrated nature and role of the promotional mix....................................................6
4.2 Justification of an integrated promotional campaign for a travel and tourism
business or destination...........................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is an important aspect for the survival of any company in a market where it
focuses on the satisfaction of the needs, wants and wishes of the customers. This report includes
the core concept of marketing in travel and tourism sector, impact of marketing environment on
individual travel and tourism businesses and tourist destinations along with the process of market
segments and the importance of it in marketing planning(Becker, 2016). Also the importance of
strategic marketing planning is discussed with the relevance of research for TUI company
regarding their tourism services. Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing
mix are also described.
LO1
1.1 The core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector
Tourist sector plays the most important business in a country's economy. The progress
and growth of economy is largely dependent on the growth of tourism.
Marketing is all about satisfying the needs, wants and desires of a customer which
belongs to particular segment targeted by any organisation. TUI Company chooses and adopts
different techniques to do research in a particular market to understand it completely. The very
first requirement is to know what are the expectations and demand of a tourist. After the
acknowledgement of their needs, marketing strategies are made so as to provide equivalent
service to customers. Demand can be based on certain factors like: demographic characteristics
and geographical factors of that particular country, socio cultural attitudes , accessing personal
transport, government rules and regulations, environmental concern, terrorist action(Boniface,
Cooper and Cooper, 2016).
After knowing certain factors of demand, the services are provided accordingly that
should provide satisfaction to every tourist who is availing the services of TUI Company. Every
organisation has some marketing offers for them from where they can choose. Value and
satisfaction is another core concept which is very important to fulfil as value can be the potential
of a service from where the consumer can access certain level of satisfaction. A value of an offer
can be judged by the level of satisfaction a customer is getting from this company. When these
tourism services are exchanged with some price, a relationship is established between a buyer
and seller. The type of relation which they established is based on the quality of offering which is
provided to the customer(Buhalis and Foerste, 2015).
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1.2 The impact of marketing environment on individual travel and tourism businesses and tourist
destinations.
Marketing environment is considered to be a common platform for interaction process of
the features which are responsible for the accomplishment marketing. It includes business related
factors and external factors as well, which can affect marketing activities directly or indirectly.
TUI Company has extended its existence in the form of services offered at every destination
around the world. There are many frequent or drastic changes that occurs across the city, every
tourist destination forces it to check their approach. It also has an eye on the fluctuations which
occur in markets. The changes in the marketing environment have led every company to change
or reshape their strategies. However, the major concern is on the problems which are related to
trends in customers and other social factors which creates problem for the company operating at
the tourist destination. Some personal decision factors of tourist can be influenced through certain
aspects such as family issues, importance of holidays for them etc (Chon, 2015). The marketing
strategies of TUI Company are based on three factors which are: Macro Environment, includes
the external factors, Micro environment, includes all the internal factors of a particular
environment and Market Environment, which affects the functioning of tourism industry in the
operating areas.
1.3 Factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism sector
Following are the factors which can be responsible for affecting consumer motivation and
demand in the travel and tourism sector.
Global Economy:
When earning of people is less, then travelling is often considered to be a luxury thing
which they prefer to eliminate out, as money and budget required for travel. Due to the recession
period across the world, the tourism industry faced a downfall and most affected by it due to
which TUI Company has also got influenced. People at this particular time want to save more
instead of doing any expenditure. Travel and tourism can be shifted as a future plan but once
when the economy gets improved, there is seen a substantial growth in a customer's motivation
level which lead to take decision for travelling(Kim and Pan, 2018.).
Internet and Social media:
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Nowadays, social media has become the part of human life and most of the time is spent on these
sites. The advantage of this can be a customer is aware of the world, able to read and know any
part of the world etc. The customer can see the reviews related to the experiences of the tourists
who visited certain areas and can make decisions accordingly. This is the most influential factor
that motivates or demotivate their opinion of travelling.
1.4 The principles of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning
Some important questions come in mind when a company's market segment is being
explored. First of them is what are the basis of segmentation done for it and how the target
market is understood. Second question can be what is are methods that facilitated the process of
segmentation. There are two methods with the help of them TUI company do segmentation of the
market which can priori and post hoc method(Leung, Au and Law, 2015). The base of market
segmentation is considered to be infinite or unlimited. It can include many aspects like
preferences on the basis of any service or product, behaviour of product class, attitude for brand
selection and consumer behaviour. There are certain other factors also which are based on
demographics, geographic and socio economic factors and general attitude of people towards the
environment. Following are the uses:
Accessibility
Company can have an access to customers as it becomes more popular when targets many
segments.
Identifiable features
One gets to know about the common features in the customers of a market.
Substantial features
Company discovers the important features of the group which are not to be neglected.
Affordability
When the affordability of the group is identified, then the services or products are targeted
accordingly.
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LO2
2.1 importance of strategic marketing planning for a travel and tourism business or tourist
destination.
 Strategic marketing planning helps TUI Company in the identification of the direction
required for the business and ways to reach that particular direction. It consist of goals
that helps to divide the business into small segments and helps to remove activities which
are not productive and creating wastage of time and money as well(Moutinho and Vargas-
Sanchez, 2018).
 Strategic Planning helps to divide the work into planned manner and perfect framework
for implementation.
 It also helps to have knowledge and understanding related to a target market and those
customers whom the company is serving.
2.2 the relevance of marketing research and market information to
managers in the travel and tourism sector
Market research is a tool that helps to understand the taste and preferences of a customer.
For TUI company any information regarding marketing conditions works like a guide for them.
Understanding needs and wants of customer is very important which helps the organisation to
prepare services according. Need of guide is required by every tourist company before making
any plan or doing an investment tourism company invest more money on research to understand
the market well. The proper knowledge of accessing the relevance of research is very important.
It also helps in determining the future scenario and to prepare actions accordingly(Schegg and
Stangl, 2017). With a proper research TUI is able to know its competitors and prepare its
strategies accordingly. Any kind of research is necessary before making any action plan.
2.3 Influence of marketing on society
Marketing cannot occur without taking the help of a society. The existence of marketing
depends upon society. There are multiple tools of marketing such as advertising, direct
marketing, sales promotion and public relations which are interlinked with it. Marketing is a
concept which helps to build a bridge between any customer and the company itself. The
customer comes from society only. Society provides tourist to TUI company which avails their
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services and makes the organisation to earn profit. Promotion and advertising are two important
factor of this tourist company which helps to emerge the demand of tourism service from it. On
the basis of type of societies marketing strategies are developed so that it may provide right kind
of services to every customer who belong s to different society but wants to avail the same
service from TUI(Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier, 2015).
LO3
3.1 Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing mix.
Marketing mix plays an important role for TUI company but it faces many issues in them
which are as follows:
Product:
As product is an essential part of every company, TUI addresses the issues which are
related to their offerings like target market for whom the services are processed, expectations of
tourist and knowledge of the competitors. Along with the unique selling point of every
customer(Xu and et.al., 2016.).
Price:
Price of the service in tourism industry is a very sensitive aspect. The worth of services
delivered is equals to the willingness of a tourist to pay for availing it. It is important to provide
product according to the worth along with the acknowledgement of the pricing strategy of
competitors.
Place:
Place plays an important role for TUI as services is delivered being at one fixed place
which is the operating centre of a company. It is important to make sure that tourist is getting
their services at the right time and right place.
Promotion:
Promotion is very important for the success of offerings provided by any company.
Promotion is directly related to creating awareness among people regarding their services. TUI
faces issue while promoting like legal rules regarding what should be communicated , budget
required for any campaign etc.
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3.2 Importance of service sector mix elements to the travel and
tourism sector
The service sector marketing mix can also be known as extended marketing mix and plays
an important role in the designing of services. Any company in the travel and tourism industry
can become popular only if it provides effective services to tourist. Service marketing consist of
seven P's as compared to marketing mix which includes four P's only which are process, people
and physical evidences, where process includes the various step which are performed for
delivering consistent services to customers; people includes the employee aspect of the company
where they are ready to attend tourist any time with an energetic attitude so that it would create a
good image in the customers and they will develop a relation of comfort and trust. As services
are intangible which can only be felt, so TUI focus to provide a shape to their services in the
form of offers(Becker, 2016).
3.3 concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism
business or tourist destination
A total tourism product can include all the factors of travelling starting from planning of
trip which includes deciding of destination and designing a budget which decides how much the
customer is willing to pay and it also include preferences for their type of destination. It covers
aspects like arrangement of transports at various platforms and planning of visit to various
destination. On the other side individual business covers some aspects like travelling or
accommodation has become a one stop for the solution of every travel related issues which
makes easier for tourist just to express their needs and desires for a particular place visit and
others things are just arranged by them(Chon, 2015).
LO4
4.1 the integrated nature and role of the promotional mix
There are five important type of promotional mix which are discussed below.
Advertising:
It can be related to the presentation and promotion of the services or ideas by TUI which
can help it to get recognition among tourist and potential customer. They provides advertisement
through print ads, billboard, brochures and direct mail(Buhalis and Foerste, 2015).
Personal Selling:
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This is a method which is used to influence an individual at a personal level. In this
tourist are persuaded to avail their services through presentation and explanations of the offerings
provided by them.
Sales Promotion:
They promotes their seasonal sales through sales promotion by launching exciting offers
for customers and attracting them to choose among competitors can be like Special discounts and
offers for the customers. This helps to boost their sales.
Public Relation:
Maintaining public relation is very important aspect of promotional mix. A good will of
TUI helps to gain customers with respect to competitors available in the market that targets the
same segment. It is just similar to word of mouth.
Corporate image:
Image of any company is crucial and is important to build an image of them in the mind
of tourist which makes a base which helps customer to choose among available options.
4.2 Justification of an integrated promotional campaign for a travel and tourism
business or destination
An integrated promotional campaign act as medium for activities like direct marketing,
email, digital and in-store promotion and other stages for the promotional activities are
controlled. It ensures that message should reach to every customer (Marketing in travel and
tourism, 2018).
There are various campaigns that TUI adopts for marketing among targeted customers in
intention to highlight and revitalise the company's name among tourist. Company has its logo
which provide unique identification of them and encouraged customers to visit, avail and
experience their services. The organisation was interested to show the market about the huge
investment that are being made at various tourist destination. The main motive of it is to
introduce new trend which includes availing their services from any part of the city through
online platform. Every aspect of campaigns focuses on the new type of interaction on social basis
and also attracting every tourist towards themselves.
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CONCLUSION
This report has summarised the promotional mix used by TUI company and the issues
related to them. Their marketing strategy has been also discussed to attract the customers and
increase their sales. Concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism
business or tourist destination is described along with the integrated promotional campaign
adopted by the company. Importance of service sector mix elements to this industry is also
defined and how much it relates to the organisation. Integrated nature and role of the promotional
mix of the company is explained and the role of every factor in getting the recognition among the
competitors available.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Becker, E., 2016.Overbooked: The exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and
Schuster.
Boniface, B., Cooper, R. and Cooper, C., 2016. Worldwide destinations: The geography of travel
and tourism.
Buhalis, D. and Foerste, M., 2015. SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-
creation of value. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management.4(3).pp.151-161.
Chon, K.S., 2015. Traveler destination image modification process and its marketing
implications. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference. pp. 480-482. Springer, Cham.
Kim, S. and Pan, S., 2018. Preface to Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing Special Issue on
visual media and tourism.
Leung, R., Au, N. and Law, R., 2015. The recent Asian wave in tourism research: The case of
the Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism
Research.20(1). pp.1-28.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018.Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
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Schegg, R. and Stangl, B., 2017, January. Information and Communication Technologies in
Tourism 2017. In Proceedings of the International Conference in Rome, Italy.
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V.P. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2015. Information technology and consumer
behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services.22.pp.244-249.
Xu, F. and et.al., 2016. Tourists as mobile gamers: Gamification for tourism marketing. journal
of Travel & Tourism Marketing.33(8).pp.1124-1142.
Online
Marketing in travel and tourism.2018.[online].Available through
<https://www.locusassignments.com/courses/unit-4-marketing-in-travel-and-tourism/>
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