Strategic Marketing in Travel and Tourism: A Thomas Cook Case Study

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Marketing in Travel
and Tourism

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TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................ 3
P 1.1 Core concept of travel and tourism sector.........................................................................3
P 1.2 Impact of marketing environment on travel and tourism business with in Thomas Cook
Group and tourist destinations with respect to Morocco and Egypt...........................................4
P 1.3 Factors affecting customer motivation and demand under tours and travels sector..........5
P 1.4 Principles of marketing segmentation and its uses in marketing planning at Thomas
Cook Group................................................................................................................................. 6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................ 7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................................. 7
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................7
P 2.1 Importance of strategic marketing planning......................................................................8
P 2.2 The relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in the travel
and tourism sector with reference to Thomas Cook Group......................................................10
P 2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society..................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................... 11
Covered in PPT.........................................................................................................................11
TASK 4.......................................................................................................................................... 11
Poster.........................................................................................................................................11
P 4.1 Integrated role and nature of promotional mix................................................................11
P 4.2 Integrated promotional campaign for Thomas cook........................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................. 16

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is referred to be an activity that duly assists the individual's to travel from one
place to another where most of them are likely to choose a destination that is outer to their own
domicile area. It is mostly a short term trip by the individuals with less often incidents when it is
planned for a long duration with several reasons that in turn depicts varied forms of tourism in
the nation such as medical tourism, leisure tourism, educational and business tourism, etc.,
(Baumgartner and Pieters, 2003). Travel and tourism has a leading contribution in the economic
development of a country where it significantly results into enhancing the profitability index of
the nation to a greater extent. Marketing being another crucial outlook in today's business
organisations is together referred to have a major contribution in the tourism related enterprises
as a way of raising their market shares and revenues, etc. It is presently in context of a similar
establishment named Thomas Cook where this report is also referred to assist their managerial
bodies in planning summer holidays in Egypt and Morocco.
TASK 1
P 1.1 Core concept of travel and tourism sector.
Tour operator Thomas Cook is a travelling company, the company uses to provide
various tour packages for national and international destinations (Burgemeister, 2003). The basic
concept for the success for the company depends on the 'P' principle such as places, product,
prices, promotion.
Places : Tourism industries have major dependency on the channels or the distribution system
through which the company retails with both the national and international customers. The
company packages and pricing of the tour has to be done by comparing all the factors and
keeping the customer need on mind.
Prices : For any tourism company providing right pricing attract customers directly. Costing and
pricing in this business plays an important role (Christensen, 2010). Because when people starts
planing for a tour he/she starts comparing various tours and travels agencies to get cheap and
affordable package.
Packaging : Better or attractive packages is the basic need of any tour and travel company
because the customers always compare various packages of various agencies if any company is
providing more number of places at affordable price then customer automatically get attracted by
it.

Promotion : Promotion of company and various offers that are providing by them has to be
presented in an effective manner so that is can attract large amount of customer ( Doole and
Lowe, 2008).
P 1.2 Impact of marketing environment on travel and tourism business with in Thomas
Cook Group and tourist destinations with respect to Morocco and Egypt.
Marketing environment of any business organization depends on two analysis : Internal
analysis and external analysis further the internal analysis is divided into two parts first is
strength and second is weakness (Glynn and Woodside, 2012). And external is divided in to two
parts first is opportunity and second is threats.
Internal analysis or factors can be controlled by company but the external analysis or
factors cannot be controlled by the company.
Internal Environment : Internal environment of company which is also known as micro
environment includes all departments that lie inside the company such as management,
finance, accounting, operation, development.
 Intermediaries : In this part we are discussing about the facilities that the Tour Operator
Thomas Cook and group are providing to their customers such transportation, hotels in
this further like rooms, dinning, etc. at affordable price act as intermediaries between
service provider and the customers (Madsen and Pedersen, 2013).
 Competitors : Competitive with external environment and leaving the impact on the
organization. If the competitors are offering more attractive packages to the customer in

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that case The Tour Operator Thomas Cook has to face a huge loss. Therefore, it is always
better to compare with the market before implementing any new scheme.
External Environment : Factors that are affecting from outside the company are known as
external environment (McDonald, 2012). They are also known as macro environment. PESTLE
factor is actively affect the macro environment such as political, economical, social, economical,
technological, environment, legal.
 Demographic : Demographic factor includes trades and location related changes. These
factors generally customers by these reason company may also get affected. As the Tour
Operator company provides various packages at different locations, in that case first
research should be done before implementing any offer in real and also company should
be aware of the acceptance of packages.
 Technologies : Advancement of technologies are directly affecting the company or
business (Peattie, 2002). If the information are not be updated on the sites in that case
customer would not be able to access the latest offers and would not be able to directly
connect with the company in that case company has to suffer from grate loss.
P 1.3 Factors affecting customer motivation and demand under tours and travels sector.
The motivational changes of customers for the Tour Operator Thomas Cook can
be considered for the packaging new tours as per their needs and taste of customer.
The packaging may depend on various factors such as emotional, personal, financial,
social (Ritchie, 2006). Various government policies also affect the company, and
sometime change in currency increases the profit of the company. Similarly, their
various factors whose increasing and decreasing may directly affect the demand of the
company.
Customer's behavioural models : The behavioural of customer depends on the following
factors:
1. Loyalty: Some customers are very loyal towards company as they stick on the
single product. Similarly, customer's who are satisfied by the service of the Tour

Operator Thomas Cook and group are stick's to the company any always use the
offers hat are provided by the company.
2. Sociology : As the trend of buying packages get changed by the customers there
are various companies are available with the updated packaging services. Many
companies tries to convince customers with their new product and new offers to
(Stamboulis and Skayannis, 2003).
3. Psychological : The human psychology always attract towards something new
and always compare things with previous experience. Due to which, if the
company win to understand the human psychology then the group or company
will always attract large amount of customers easily without making.
P 1.4 Principles of marketing segmentation and its uses in marketing planning at
Thomas Cook Group.
Marketing segmentation is a process of dividing the customer broadly or dividing
the business market. Selection of suitable base is considered as an important step of
market segmentation (Tsai, 2009). The process of segmentation must yield the desired
or meaningful output. The segmentation commonly involve four steps such as
geographic, psychological, behavioural, demographic.
Geographic and demographic and be combined sometime but remaining cannot be
combined together.

1. Geographic Segmentation: Under geographic segmentation base can be divided
on the basis of geometric criteria. These segmented data can further combine in
order to get the detailed information about the system (Yoo and et.al., 2012).
Under this the customers locations and other area related information can be
gathered by company and accordingly packages can be offered to them.
2. Demographic Segmentation: In this portion the segmentation depends on the
demographic variables of the customers such as age, gender, occupation, social-
class, marital status can be gathered by the company and according to their age
group company can offer various packages to the customer. This demographic
segmentation helps the company to gather the information on the basis of their
age group, marital status, social-class and various other factors.
3. Psychological Segmentation : The result generated by this segmentation mainly
depends on the lifestyle, activities and interest of customer (Thomascook, 2014).
Which can help to find out the area of interest of the customer according to which
company can suggest the places of their interest.
4. Behavioural Segmentation : Under this segmentation company divides
customers according to their observed behaviour. Mostly marketer consider
behavioural segmentation is superior than geographic and demographic
segmentation. Because under this directly we come to know the interest of the
customer.

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TASK 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketing activities having a considerate role in almost all sort of business organisations
together plays an essential role in the business of travel and tourism. It is basically due to
intensified state of competition in the market among such similar set of organisations like
Thomas Cook that in turn provides them an opportunity to attain a creative positioning in the
market. This section has thereby referred to demonstrate the role of marketing in tour and travel
businesses by referring it to be a prominent tool of management to fulfil their agenda of raised
sales that is in turn evident to place them at a profitable position in the market.
INTRODUCTION
It is mainly with reference to this particular section of the report where it has outlined yet
another major requisition of planning to contribute into the tact of marketing done by Thomas
Cook. In context to which, it has hereby highlighted the contribution of strategic planning in
marketing by together discoursing about its significance. This in turn has reflected another
prompt necessity of carrying out a survey to acknowledge the recent market trends that duly
impacts upon consumer's preferences (Benson, Tilbury and Wickens, 2012). A market
investigation is thereby referred to be an important outlook of the marketeers appointed in
Thomas Cook with a need base consideration of recognizing the prevalent trends of their market.
It is basically to meet out the correspondent needs and demands of their consumers that are duly
influenced by the existent market tendency. This unit has together discussed upon the pertinence
of such market research that helps to gather a reliable set of data about in the industrial sector of
travel and tourism with reference to the marketplace of Thomas Cook. Lastly, it has together
specified the tact of marketing to be a leading influential tool where the adopted marketing
practices largely impacts on the society to a great extent.
P 2.1 Importance of strategic marketing planning.
All the company related necessary information's are defined under marketing
information that may be considered useful for companies further use. Strategies can
only be considered as successful if it is able to meet the customer's requirement and
can earn profit for the company (Carter, 2007). The strategies marketing planning is
used to recognize the weaknesses and strength of the company. The Tour Operator

Thomas Cook should keep certain things in mind before making any strategies based
on the list below.
1. SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) : It is a method that is
used to analysis the strength, weakness, opportunities, threats of any company
or group of organization. Swot can be use for company, place, product, person
(Dolnicar, 2007). It is used to identify the objective for business and once the
objective is decided it finds outs the favorable or unfavorable to reach the goal.
The Tour Operator Thomas Cook can learn lots of positive and negative
experience for the business so he can plan new strategies according to that.
2. TALC (Tourist Area Life Cycle)
Here the tourist area life cycle consist of six stages like as exploration, involvement,
development, consolidation, stagnation, decline or rejuvenation.
1. Exploration : In this stage small numbers of tourist involve in the tour. It basically
depends on the primary attracted tourist which can be cultural or natural. It does
not provide any local and social impact on the local people.
2. Involvement : At this stage local people also get involve into the tourism. Due to
the huge involvement of people pressure will be impose on the government in
order to develop road, and provide better transportation facilities and if it already
exists then maintain it (Fesenmaier and et.al., 2012).

3. Development : In this stage the population of tourist may exceed the local
population of the place. The place may contain both primary and secondary
tourist location. Heavy advertisement may attract huge crowed of tourist.
4. Consolidation : In this the growth of tourist may be slow but crowed of tourist
easily covers the population of local people (Hassan, 2000). Through this local
people would be able to make money. Continuous building or hotels, mall,
market etc. increase the development of the area but along with this the
previously built buildings will become unattractive.
5. Stagnation : At this stage the competition among various hotels and agencies will
get increase due to which the originality of the people of the area will get
destroyed. At this stage people will be attracted towards the artificial tourism
instead of natures beauty.
6. Rejuvenation : Under this potion a complete of changes in order to attract tourist
are considered under this section (Mathur, 2006).
P 2.2 The relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in the
travel and tourism sector with reference to Thomas Cook Group.
The marketing information involve all the information that are considered useful for the
company and can help The Operator Thomas Cook and group for their progress. This
report is prepared by the professional team of marketing managers. Research work
done on the basis of product, customer's requirement, trending product (Ossig and Graf,
2002). Many companies are their who are providing same product at affordable price or
cheap price as compare to others. Due to this competition is increased into the market.
Therefore, market research helps the company to understand the changes that the
need to be made for the success of the company. So it depends on the strategies of the
companies that how they are attracting customer's through their products. Research can
be considered as the key of the marketing.

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P 2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society.
Marketing provides both positive and negative effect on society. This helps the
company to find out the target customer's in order to increase the sales. The positivity of
the company in the market help the business to meet new customers because the
positive impact of company attract the customers towards it. Whereas, the negative
impact of the company leads into the great loss. In the traveling and tourism sector
impact on the society matters a lot. Means a positive impact can change increase the
growth rate of company by a very high speed where the negative impact of the
company can bring the company into the dark (Pesonen, 2013). So it is very importance
for the Tour Operator Thomas Cook to maintain the positive image into the society in
order to get the success. Because customer always prefer those products that has the
standard into the society.
Therefore, it is important for the company to make sure that their product is not
making any negative impact or conveying any wrong message into the society that may
decrease or stop the growth of company. If a company does not involve in any kind of
controversy so that company can buy product without much thinking (Spencer, 2006). In
tour and traveling sector the market and the society share a very strong bond because
in this sector both are directly involve to make profit. So in that case it becomes the
mutual responsibility to bring the company into the market with positive impact into the
society.
CONCLUSION
The above section of the report has detailed the role of marketing in the industrial sector
of travel and tourism with reference to a selected organisation named Thomas Cook. Herein, it
has concentrated upon three distinct portions so as to highlight the importance of strategic
marketing planning by together addressing the relevancy of market research in conducting the
process of merchandising. Wherein, a prompt role of marketing managers appointed in Thomas
Cook has been explained over here by lastly enlightening the influential dimension of marketing
practices adopted by Thomas Cook to impact upon the community people.

TASK 3
Covered in PPT
TASK 4
Poster
PROMOTIONAL MIX
“Explore Morocco with Thomas Cook”
P 4.1 Integrated role and nature of promotional mix
Promotional mix is yet another fundamental composition of marketing and is reflected to be one
of the most important part of marketing mix where it is hereby composed of four main elements
to reach out a large set of audience, as referred below-
Advertising
It is amongst the most common way to interact
with the users where Thomas Cook will hereby
Sales promotion
This is referred to be yet another most effective
way with a special consent of informing the

refer to publicize their offered services via
television, internet, radio and magazines, etc. It
is however reflected to be a one way tact of
communication where using the recent tool of
social media is one of the most effective way to
attract more number of consumers.
audience about any newly launched service like
the present tour package of Morocco designed
by Thomas Cook (Swarbrooke, 2004). Into
which, they will hereby refer to provide varied
discount offers and coupons to the clients and
users as a way of insisting them to use their
newly introduced service proposal.
Direct marketing
It is with a specific consideration of promoting
the services only to a targeted set of users who
will be directly contacted either via print mail,
telephonic conversation or online measures of
marketing (Voola and Yuksel, 2010). Herein,
the cited entity is referring to use the method of
print mail to provision a two way method of
marketing where the loyal set of customers can
also tend to reply on it as a way of clarifying
any of their related doubts.
Public relation
It is yet another profound tactic to interact with
the targeted set of users by organizing
campaigns and special events to promote their
designed tour packages. This will also result
into a closely held interaction among Thomas
Cook and its targeted clients by together
enhancing its brand image.
P 4.2 Integrated promotional campaign for Thomas cook

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An integrated promotional campaign of Thomas Cook involves almost all leading elements of
promotional mix where they are hereby referring to promote their newly designed package of
Morocco to their targeted set of audience. For this, they have hereby chosen the widely used
newspaper to advertise it over there by using the print media method for the same (Brunot,
2015). It is with a subsequent existence of brochures, etc., to distribute among the potent set of
customers. Direct marketing measures have together been used by them where almost all
affiliated clients and users have been mailed the newly designed holiday package of Morocco
by lastly using the tact of sales promotion, they have hereby referred to include several
discounted offers onto it.

CONCLUSION
It is where Thomas Cook is mostly evident to facilitate accommodation along with all
other affiliated amenities required to travel via inclusive packages reserved by their appointed
tour and travel agents. Marketing is hereby referred to play a vital role in improving the overall
potentiality of a firm with substantial rise in their sales that in turn increases their earnings. This
resultantly indicates a prompt accountability of their marketing manager to assess the prevalent
trends of the market so as to create accordant business strategies. It will subsequently lead to
satisfy the current needs and demands of the customers by together rising their base where apt
tactics of marketing will certainly fetch the interest of a large set of consumers. It is where
marketing is together referred to be one of the best way to interact with a large set of audiences
by clearly understanding their factual preferences and propose such offers that duly corresponds

to it. The recent report has enlightened the facts associated with the principles of travel and
tourism by together appraising the role of marketing in it.

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