Questions and Answers of Marketing In Travel And Tourism

1. What is the international definition of tourism?
2. List the three main categories and identify at least five different types of market demand under each category.
3. What is the difference between visitors and tourists?
4. Why is international tourism often seen as the most important market sector?
5. List the main growth sectors of the modern economy in developed countries.
6. Develop the list of sectors in Fig. 1.1 to identify up to fifty sub-sectors involved in the visitor economy.
1. Explain the AMA definition of offerings in the context of travel and tourism.
2. What are the key strategic principles that together distinguish a modern marketing organization?
3. Choose a not-for-profit organization and explain how the key strategic principles are likely to work in practice.
4. Why might a commercial organization decide not to give its customers products that they say they want?
5. Explain the long and short run in marketing decisions and indicate some implications.
6. Why is marketing especially relevant to twenty-first century market conditions?
1. Outline three key attributes of service products that distinguish them from products based on manufactured goods.
2. What are the main operating characteristics that all large-scale operations (goods and services) have in common?
3. List the characteristics that make small or micro-businesses so important in travel and tourism.
4. What are the five key factors underlying the marketing of all travel and tourism products?
5. In your own words what does the interdependence of tourism products mean?
6. Why does collaborative marketing matter so much in marketing?
1. Why do more demanding consumers now tend to dominate developed tourism markets?
2. Why is the external business environment so important a concern for marketing managers?
3. Why do prices fluctuate so greatly in international travel and tourism?
4. In what ways are older people today so different from older people 50 years ago?
5. What evidence would you seek in deciding whether or not a tourism business is aiming to be more sustainable?
1. What are the limitations of the stimulus–response model of consumer behaviour?To what extent can the human mind be compared to a computer?
2. Discuss the likely motivations and personality traits of the target customers for a special interest holiday of your choice.
3. Evaluate the influence of a visitor’s experience on their subsequent holiday decision-making processes. What are the implications for marketers?
4. To what extent is choosing a holiday becoming a lower-involvement decision?
5. How has computer database technology changed the relationship between tourism organizations and their customers?
1. Outline the ways in which buyer behaviour patterns can be used to segment the market for a hotel group.
2. What are the key variables that should be taken into account when segmenting a visitor attraction?
3. Discuss the role that pricing plays in segmenting markets for a tour operator.
4. Discuss the ways in which web-sites can assist the segmentation process.(1) Choose a typical tourism product and de-construct it in product formulation terms.(2) Consider the way in which
1. How have developments in the Internet and web-based technologies impacted on the use of the four Ps as advocated by McCarthy nearly 50 years ago?
2. Provide some examples that demonstrate how ‘Price’ can be used successfully, both strategically and tactically, in a sector of your choice (i.e. airlines, tour operations, accommodation).
3. How important are ‘People’ in the increasing electronic and self-service environment of the new century?
4. Discuss alternative internal marketing strategies that may be adopted in destinations and the circumstances that could necessitate their implementation.
5. How may complaints from customers be used positively by marketers?
6. Think of examples whereby ‘service blueprinting’ may be used in the operation of a theme park targeted to family groups.
1. For a medium to large-scale travel and tourism business of your choice, draw up a menu of research methods that could help its marketing decisions.
2. Why are qualitative market research techniques becoming more important?
3. As the Internet is becoming a widely used way to book holidays, how can it help in market research?
4. Elaborate the key processes that are required in submitting a tender for market research.
5. Explain how market research can help to segment customers.
1. What are the main issues that need to be considered in developing a strategic plan?
2. What are the key components of the marketing strategy process?
3. Choose a sector with a number of leading brands and identify the different positioning and branding strategies of each of the competing companies.
4. What values are these brands seeking to communicate to customers?
5. Why is branding especially important in travel and tourism?
1. Summarize the differences between strategic and tactical market planning.
2. Drawing on a tourism business example of your choice, indicate the main components to be identified in marketing objectives for the year ahead.
3. Explain why environmental impact assessment will become more important in future years.
4. Why are stakeholders so important in marketing planning?
1. Take a brochure or website package offer from any leading international or domestic tour operator, and using their prices and your own broad estimates of the volume of sales they are likely to be
2. With an example, such as a local visitor attraction, develop an objective and task approach in devising a campaign for one of its targeted segments.
3. In relation to Fig. 12.1, consider the thought process and considerations that managers would apply in deciding between the choice of Internet or retail travel agents to market their products over
4. Summarize the reasons why performance measurement is essential to effective marketing campaigns.
1. ‘Though the technologies have changed, the principles of tourism marketing have not’. Show how the principles of marketing can be applied to tourism in the age of the Internet.
2. Choose one of the elements of ICT – hardware, software, networks and netware –and discuss how the latest technological developments could be used for tourism marketing. Use your own current
3. How has the continuing evolution of ICT affected the balance of the relationship between large tourism organizations and their customers?
4. What are the opportunities and threats to small and medium-sized tourism enterprises from the current developments in ICT?
1. To what extent is it possible for a tourism organization to rely entirely on online media for its marketing communications?
2. Using the criteria outlined in the chapter, evaluate the effectiveness of a travel or tourism website of your choice, and recommend ways in which it could be improved.
3. Evaluate the advantages and limitations of social networking sites as a medium for commercial organizations to interact with their target markets.
4. What strategies should organizations use to cope with the ‘democratization of criticism’ encouraged by user-generated-content sites?
1. Using the criteria outlined in this chapter, evaluate the range of distribution options available to one of the following:i. A conference and exhibition centre.ii. A museum or heritage centre.iii.
2. Will the widespread adoption of the Internet eventually lead to the demise of tour operators and travel agents?
1. Choose a recent example of media advertising for a tourism organization. Identify both the online and offline dimensions.
2. Analyse its communication objectives and target audience.
3. How is the message ‘coded’ in words and images in order to appeal and be understood by that audience?
4. How would you use the other marketing communication tools to complement and enhance the message of the campaign? Select a current travel brochure or visitor attraction leaflet; identify which of
1. To what extent are NTOs still valid in the Internet-age?
2. How may the responsibilities and roles of NTOs vary between country destinations in the developing and developed world?
3. Although NTOs and regional tourism bodies have been around for decades, many new DMOs are being established around the world. What are some of the reasons underpinning this growth?
4. Under what circumstances might the private sector take the lead role in DMOs at national, regional, state or local level?
5. Identify and discuss some of the challenges of bringing public and private sector organizations together within a regional DMO.1) Using examples, consider how location determines the marketing
1. To what extent are technological breakthroughs in the transport sector driving changing patterns of visitor behaviour in a market of your choice?
2. Compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of low-cost air travel compared to train travel in the UK.
3. Critically examine the impact of the increasing price of fuel for an island destination of your choice dependent on long-haul air travel.
4. What marketing strategies and tactics can be used to increase the load factor on flights across the Atlantic for an airline of your choice?
5. Compare and contrast the benefits and drawbacks of two or more Frequent Flyer Programmes (FFPs) for international airlines of your choice?
6. How may the gradual migration towards strategic alliances actually hinder the strategic marketing decisions being taken by individual airlines?
1. What do you consider to be the principal benefits and drawbacks of charging for admission to a country’s national monuments, museums and galleries?
2. What management and marketing strategies can be adopted to minimize the negative impacts of seasonality for an attraction of your choice?
3. How significant is attraction ‘size’, in terms of visitor numbers, in determining the management and marketing strategies adopted?
4. What ‘innovative’ Internet-based strategies can be adopted for marketing attractions to two distinct market segments to an attraction of your choice?