Marketing in Travel and Tourism Report

This report analyzes the marketing strategies of Thomas Cook for its summer 2017 holidays to Morocco and Egypt. It examines core marketing concepts, the impact of the marketing environment, consumer motivation and demand, market segmentation, strategic marketing planning, marketing research, and the influence of marketing on society. The report also delves into the marketing mix, including product, price, place, and promotion, and discusses an integrated promotional campaign for Thomas Cook's summer holidays. The analysis includes discussions of challenges and opportunities within the travel and tourism sector, offering recommendations for improvement.

University
Marketing in Travel and Tourism
By
Date
Name
Lecturer’s name

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1:.........................................................................................................................................................4
LO 1. Understand the concepts and principles of marketing in the travel and tourism sector......................4
1.1 Discuss the core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector..........................................4
1.2 Assess the impact of the marketing environment on individual travel and tourism businesses with in
Thomas Cook Group and tourist destinations concerning Morocco and Egypt.......................................5
1.3 discuss the factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism sector.......5
1.4 analyses the principles of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning at Thomas Cook
Group.......................................................................................................................................................7
Task 2:.........................................................................................................................................................9
LO2: Understand the role of marketing as a management tool in travel and tourism..................................9
2.1 Analyse the importance of strategic marketing planning for a selected travel and tourism business
(Thomas Cook) or tourist destination (either Morocco/Egypt)................................................................9
2.2 Discuss the relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in the travel and
tourism sector concerning Thomas Cook Group....................................................................................10
2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society..................................................................................11
Task 3:.......................................................................................................................................................14
LO3: Understanding the role of the marketing mix in the travel and tourism sector.................................14
3.1 Issues in the product, price and place elements of the marketing mix concerning Thomas Cook's
summer 2017 holidays to Morocco and Egypt.......................................................................................14
3.2 The importance of service sector mix elements to the travel sector.................................................15
3.3 The concept of the total tourism product to an individual tourism business such as Thomas Cook. 16
Task 4:.......................................................................................................................................................18
LO4: Be able to use the promotional mix in travel and tourism................................................................18
4.1 The integrated nature and role of the promotional mix....................................................................18
4.2 An integrated promotional campaign for Thomas Cook summer 2017 holidays.............................20
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................23
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................24
References.................................................................................................................................................25
Page 2 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Introduction
Travel and tourism are considered to be the fastest growing sector in the UK and that contributes
a large amount to the economist of the country. The increasing demands of the people have
contributed a lot to the companies involved in this sector to grow and evaluate their marketing
strategies and promote industrial objectives and goals. Thomas Cook is a UK based travel and
tourism company whose marketing strategies are highlighted in the following assignment. The
report focuses on the summer holiday trips to Morocco and Egypt that is being launched by the
company. The core principles of marketing, marketing mix and promotional mix are summarized
here.
Page 3 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Task 1:
LO 1. Understand the concepts and principles of marketing in the travel and tourism sector
1.1 Discuss the core concepts of marketing for the travel and tourism sector
The need of the segment or the targeted group should be identified by the organization to
understand their taste and demands, and this process is called marketing. After this, the company
or the organization should fulfil the needs and the demands of the customer to gain more profits
from the business. This is the best process for the travel and tourism sector, and the tourism
company there basic and important process is to understand the need of the customer. In today’s
world, travel and tourism sector are the most profitable business and also the world economy has
understood the importance travel and tourism business because it helps to boost the economy of
a lot of countries. Now a days many developing countries is improving the tourism sector
because it will help them to boost their economy because contributing lotto the economy of any
of the country. So tourism is the important part of each and every country.
The travel and the tourism company need to spread and proper in every country, and for that, the
sector needs the strong strategy for the marketing. The travel and the tour sector needs to make
proper planning to make the business effective over the world. The business all depends upon the
effective network which will be created by the company itself for getting high cooperation from
the public or the market (Lo, Cheung and Law, 2011).
The tourism marketing depends upon the best important techniques and marketing which is used
in all marketing process of any company, but it should be innovative than other company or from
other plans. The principles which are adopted by the tourism sector will help them to gain more
profit from their business (Liu, Schuckert and Law, 2015).
Page 4 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
1.2 Assess the impact of the marketing environment on individual travel and tourism businesses
with in Thomas Cook Group and tourist destinations concerning Morocco and Egypt
When the business activity is getting affected by the direct or the indirect types of all factor that
is defined as the marketing environment. Whenever the business activity is monitored for the
betterment of the company that time the environment is also changed. The business environment
is the most important part of the business because the failure and the success depend upon this
factors. The marketing environment has three basic concepts those are a micro environment,
macro environment and the market environment. The business of the organization should
understand the external factors but not the internal factors because the external factors give
proper idea of the market and the customer it helps the company most to run their business. The
business environment is the important part of each and every business because it has a large
impact on the business of any company (Gertner, 2010).
There are a lot of Tourism Company which is competing in the market to sustain themselves in
this huge market. For that, they need proper marketing and promotion. The promotion is the vital
part of this industry because after the huge promotion only people will come to know about the
company after knowing then only people will come to them. For promotion, they need a proper
attractive advertisement and package. The attractive package will attract the customer, and the
package is a low budget package then it will be much easier for the company to attract all type of
the customer in the market. For this, they should understand the need of the customer.
1.3 discuss the factors affecting consumer motivation and demand in the travel and tourism
sector
The factors are given below by which the customer motivation is affected in tourism sector:
Page 5 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Global economy: When the income of the customer is less or the turnover of some one's income
is in the crucial stage that time it is difficult for the customer to travel or go on the tour. At that
point, the earning become less, and the struggling gets more for the customer. For this reason, the
travelling business sometime can’t take the risk of huge budget tourism for that they go for a
cheap budget which will attract all types of customer. Very a few days ago there was a downfall
in the tourism industry which affected the all kind of economy at that point people showed
interested to save their money for the future benefit. In 2009 the global travel saw a down fall of
5% in the tourism sector due to the recession in the world economy (Collignon, 2012). But when
the world economy improves that time the tourism companies got the boost and again started to
run their business successfully in the global market (Xie, Chen and Wu, 2015).
The Internet and the social media: In today’s world online promotion is the best way to promote
business for that the company has to take help of the internet and the social media sites. Social
media is the platform where every people around the globe is connected, so the company choose
the social media to promote their business in an easier way. Via social media the origination can
interact with the customer they share there post, can write their blogs also can get the reviews
from the customers. In this process, the customer can talk directly with the company and can ask
the quarries. By the online process they can check the ticket availability, can see the space
accommodation directly through the online. This helps the company to spread through business
globally in the market because from the global market also opt for the better option and the
company can earn more profit from this process (Barutcu and Tomas, 2013).
Personal budget: Personal budget is the biggest factor in the tourism business which depends
upon because there Ares some customers I the market who have enough money with them but
then also they step back from the tourism but there are also some customer who doesn’t have
Page 6 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
sufficient money for them then also they goes for the tourism. By these, we can understand that
the budget totally depends upon the personal and individual fact. Personally, we can say that it
all depends upon the passion of the traveler the person who is passionate about travelling they
will always go for the tourism and travelling it all depends on the personal taste. There many
airlines and hotels give attracted offers for the travelers which will save a lot of money for the
travelers. Many agencies give varies type of offers and budget to attract all types of customer in
the market (Ivanova, 2012).
1.4 analyses the principles of market segmentation and its uses in marketing planning at Thomas
Cook Group.
There are some crucial questions which come in our mind when the company is exploring its
business. The first thing which strikes in our mind that what are the targeted segments and how
they target there customer for their plan or service. Secondly, which will come, that is which
basis the market is segmented. There are only two ways of segmenting market as were as the
theory one is the priori8 method and another is the post hoc method. These are the method in
which on which the market is segmented. There are many things in which the mar4ket
segmentation is varied they are customer selection and its behavior toward the product, selection
attitude towards the product, product preference of the customer, the attitude of the customer or
the public and the behavior of the class. There are some different factors also which affects the
product or the service like peoples general attitude toward the service and also the socio-
economic factors are also the reasons (Maricic and Djordjevic, 2015).
There are some points which help to the market segmentation they are:
Affordability: This the most important part of the segmentation because it all depends upon the
customer’s budget and their personal income. The customer will always go for the service which
Page 7 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
fits in their budget and will be affordable by them. For that, the company always is to provide
such services to the customer who is affordable to all types of the customer in the market. In
some case, the company divided there a customer in two parts by which they can fix the price
and can provide a variety of service to their customer at wide range of price. The3 use to create
high price package for the high income people and low price packages for the people who always
find less budget and comfort travelling.
Accessibility: The Company use to choose such places for the travelers where they access easily,
and the traveler s can stay comfortably in that location. Another thing is that the company should
target that customer who use to stay nearby the office or the company because it is easier for the
customer and for the company to access the visitors smoothly.
Page 8 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Task 2:
LO2: Understand the role of marketing as a management tool in travel and tourism
2.1 Analyse the importance of strategic marketing planning for a selected travel and tourism
business (Thomas Cook) or tourist destination (either Morocco/Egypt).
Strategic Marketing is a combination of marketing goals of an organization and strategies used
for achieving them. As per the assistant marketing manager, I suggest SOSTAC model for
strategic marketing planning to Thomas Cook for the summer holiday from Morocco to Egypt
which is described below.
Situation Analysis: For analyzing the current situation, Thomas Cook needs to apply Pestle and
SWOT analysis which helps in identifying its current market position and economic condition
and results to decide appropriate investment in summer holidays of Morocco and Egypt
(Kimmm, 2012).
Objective Setting: Thomas Cook has to set objectives by analyzing what it wants to achieve from
this trip. The basic objective of Thomas Cook is earning the profit and achieving this; it has to
develop effective marketing strategies.
Strategy Development: For achieving the objective, Thomas Cook has to form effective, creative
and innovative marketing strategies for inviting more customers in the summer holiday packages
(SOSTAC Planing. 2016).
Page 9 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Tactical Development: Company needs to do market surveys and researches for achieving
strategies which help in getting information related to the demands and priorities of customers,
strategies of competitors, etc.
Action: In this step, Thomas Cook implements its plan by signing agreements with the airlines
and hotels which they have selected for their tour (Koning, 2014).
Control: In this Thomas Cook determines that whether the passengers are getting the quality of
services from the hotels or not.
Importance of strategic marketing planning
 It helps in deciding the appropriate strategies for accomplishing the decided objectives.
 It leads to identify the roles and responsibilities of the staff members.
 Resources are allocated and utilized in the appropriate manner (Law, 2000).
 Selection of quality hotels and flights for comfort of passengers
2.2 Discuss the relevance of marketing research and market information to managers in the travel
and tourism sector concerning Thomas Cook Group.
Marketing research is that process which joins customers, consumers and end users to the
researcher by the help of obtained information. As per the Assistant Marketing Manager, I like to
suggest DODCAR model for marketing research on Thomas Cook, and it is explained below.
Define the research problem: Firstly, Thomas Cook needs to identify the problem which it is
facing during the strategy formation for summer holidays
Page 10 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
Objective setting: After identifying the problem, the company needs to set objectives so that it
can solve the problem occurring during the planning.
Design the research plan: In this, Thomas Cook designs the plan related to the research in that
particular field (Lordkipanidze, Brezet and Backman, 2005).
Collect the research data: Thomas Cook implements that plan and collect the information by
using various methods which include observation, feedback forms, questionnaire, face to face
interviews and much more.
Analyze the research data: In this step, firm analyses and evaluate the obtained information by
using marketing tools and techniques.
Report the findings: And in the end, the Thomas Cook reports the obtained outcomes to the top
management and creates strategies for the trip (Mehmetoglu and Norman, 2013).
Importance of marketing research to Thomas cook
By conducting marketing research, the company gets various information related to the choices,
demands and priorities of customers. It found that customers want quality services in affordable
price. By the obtained results, Thomas Cook can apply various things to its holiday package such
as "pay what you want to", "unstoppable elders", "sustainable environment", etc. The company
can also offer travel with pet opportunities to the customers to attract people of diverse fields
(Morais and et. al., 2012).
2.3 Assess the influence of marketing on society.
Page 11 of 26

Marketing in Travel and Tourism
The influence of marketing related to the trip of Thomas Cook on society is in both positive and
negative manner which is explained below.
Positive ways are as follows
Product Information: For informing people about the summer holidays, Thomas Cook used its
website and Television advertisement for providing all the information regarding the tour such as
decided flights, timings, hotels, Morocco and Egypt spots, the number of days and nights to stay
there, various facilities and services, etc. This is available at the minimum cost to the customers
which also saves the time by providing simple and easy access (Morrison, 2006).
Better Standard of living: Thomas Cook is using the high level of marketing which helps in
influencing the living standard of society. Information about the quality services of the summer
holidays forces people to buy tickets and enjoy their weekend. This trip aware them about the
various things which somewhere affects their living standard.
Positive Environment: By advertising, Thomas Cook helps in creating the positive environment
of the society. As Morocco and Egypt trip leads to bring freshness by removing stress, motivates
people and brings lots of happiness to them. It helps people in bringing some change in their life
and to enjoy it which somewhere takes them away from their daily stress and worries (Pechlaner,
Dal Bò and Volgger, 2012).
Negative impacts are as follows
Misrepresentation: For attracting more people and earning more profit, Thomas Cook tries to add
some extra things to their tours which make people expect more. But this misrepresentation leads
to feeling people as they are mistreated by the company.
Page 12 of 26