Coventry's Sustainable Tourism: A Marketing Campaign Evaluation

This report examines a sustainable tourism marketing campaign, focusing on the operations of Star Pvt. Ltd., a UK-based tour operator. The report introduces the concept of sustainable tourism and green marketing, emphasizing their importance in minimizing environmental impact and pro...Read More

Sustainable Tourism
Marketing Campaign
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable Tourism is a kind of tourism whose primary focus is try to make as low as
possible impact on the environment and the native culture of an organization. In order to promote
sustainable tourism various countries opt for different marketing strategies that not only
promotes tourism but also create awareness regarding the environment and making tourists more
conscious (Bayraktar and Uslay, eds.,2016).
Star Pvt. Ltd. Is a tourist firm having operations throughout United Kingdom. The
company offers services to the tourists visiting various parts of the country. It as a website
wherein the tourists can book their trips according to the scheduled time table at affordable
prices.
This report covers the concept of sustainable tourism marketing campaign which explains
how green marketing methods can be put to use. It also talks about what methods should the
company opt for in order to save the environment.
MAIN BODY
Star Pvt. Ltd. is a tour operator company founded in 1995 having operations throughout
the United Kingdom The firm supports a positive attitude wherein the workers support and
encourage one another. It also works towards working together as a team, sharing inputs and
ideas across all its offices around the UK. The vision and mission statements of the firm are
explained below - Vision - The company visions to be one of the most trusted and recognized tour brands in
the country with a clear understanding of the customers' needs and addressing them
accordingly.
 Mission – Star Pvt. Ltd. aims to enhance the travel experience of its customers with have
an equal focus towards the environment and promoting sustainable tourism.
Coventry is a city in England known for a cathedral of medieval times. The city has a
population of approximately 366,800 (Hall, 2016). Before earning the title of the UK City of
Culture 2021, Coventry had faced various issues where it was devastated symbolically several
times. They city has been facing environmental issues lately due to pollution of the environment
etc. as tourists tend to use more resources. The famous novelist George Eliot did her education
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from Coventry and her most famous novel, “Middlemarch” is based on the life in the city around
13830.
Green Marketing refers to adoption of marketing products that are assumed to be safe for
the environment. It includes a wide range of activities like environment safe packaging of the
products, sustainable advertising etc. Star Pvt. Ltd. Promotes awareness about the issues that the
city is facing through its website and thereby forces people to think as they make their travel
decisions. The tourists have the option of becoming a part of a team of local conversationalists
as volunteers. The company apart from running as a tour operator also has a non-profit
foundation that works towards promoting different ways of green marketing without having any
harm to the environment (Slocum, 2016). It has also started the StarGreen programme that will
help in making sustainability of the environment popular among people and environment
friendly practices will help encourage tourists in getting involved in the same. This will have
positive outcomes like the tourists will get to know and experience a new form of tourism also
making the issues of the environment to come to people's notice.
Tourists in the recent times have become more concerned about the environment and try
following practices that impact the environment least. For this happen practically, various small
firms work for the development and maintenance of the sustainability of the environment. Star
Pvt. Ltd. have various stakeholders such as the local government of Coventry, different tourist
enterprises, their employees, the local people and the tourists themselves who help in both
raising concerns as well as involved in maintaining the sustainability of the environment like
showing concern towards the historical monuments of the country and promoting use of
recyclable materials (Truong and Hall, 2017).
Once the visitors realise the amount of impact tourism can have on the environment, the
idea of sustainable tourism will start receiving more attention. Ethical concerns relating to
tourism comprise of promoting fair tourism principles, saving the local culture of the region etc.
Marketing of the same can be done by hiring bloggers and influencers who have a strong
follower base. This will lead creating awareness among the people as well as the visitors. Star
Pvt Ltd. also makes use of the local residents in promoting the sustainable tourism and hence not
letting any kind of harm to the environment. The company's target market includes visitors or
tourists, youth, families, couples etc. who plan to visit and explore the city. Main competitors of
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Star Pvt. Ltd. include firms such as AirExpress, Costsaver, Contiki, Topdeck etc. that have
similar operations like it.
Marks and Spencer is among many firms that follow sustainable marketing. The brand
uses raw materials that are environment friendly with producing as much less waste as possible.
The company speaks of never misleading its customers and using the most sustainable forms of
manufacturing, advertising and promoting of their products. In its food section, the company
promises to be truthful and honest of what ingredients go into their products and not using
chemicals that nay be of harm either to the customers or to the environment and promote healthy
diets. Marks and Spencer is committed towards working as a carbon neutral business and hence
minimize the carbon emissions and also reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by 80% over
the coming 10 years .
Centrica PLC is a utilities company based in the United Kingdom that also follows the
sustainable marketing approach. The company aims to help the climate change issues by
developing a more skilled and aware workforce that will not only help in meeting the customers'
expectations but also in protecting the environment from any kind of harm (Wearing,
Schweinsberg and Tower, 2016). Centrica plans to promote the sustainable use of energy
resources and hence create a powerful community. The company has listed 15 goals under
Ambition 2030 that it aims to achieve by the year 2030 like supporting more number of
customers though digital platforms and help customers to get a gist of and manage energy
resources in a better way. The company also plans to deliver excellent services to the customers
primarily through various digital channels. Centrica has already deployed the concepts of
artificial intelligence and voice recognition in their offices so that customers' queries could be
solves easily and effectively.
CONCLUSION
Through the above report, it can be concluded that people have started being aware of the
sustainable tourism and take part voluntarily to conserve and save the environmental resources.
Also, various organizations have started to follow this concept as it helps in sustaining the
environment as well as promote a healthy tourism. A large number of companies have started
introducing the concept of green marketing, which involves the usage of environment friendly
products. Various campaigns, programmes etc. are also held by the companies as a part of their
corporate social responsibility. Also, many companies have made their place in the list of the
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most sustainable companies in the world. The visitors and tourists have also started to be
concerned about the how their increased utilization of resources can be of haem to the place or
region that are visiting. The local residents are equally responsible for promoting and
maintaining the natural essence of the environment. There are firms that also promote the usage
of ethical practices regarding tourism in order to provide the best services and experience to the
tourists and safeguarding the environment side by side.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bayraktar, A. and Uslay, C. eds., 2016. Global place branding campaigns across cities, regions,
and nations. IGI Global.
Hall, C. M., 2016. Intervening in academic interventions: framing social marketing's potential
for successful sustainable tourism behavioural change. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
24(3). pp.350-375.
Slocum, S. L., 2016. Understanding tourism support for a craft beer trail: The case of Loudoun
County, Virginia. Tourism Planning & Development. 13(3). pp.292-309.
Truong, V. D. and Hall, C. M., 2017. Corporate social marketing in tourism: to sleep or not to
sleep with the enemy?. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 25(7). pp.884-902.
Wearing, S. L., Schweinsberg, S. and Tower, J., 2016. Marketing national parks for sustainable
tourism. Channel View Publications.
Online
Facts about Coventry. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.coventry.gov.uk/factsaboutcoventry/>.
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