Tourism Industry
CHAPTER 1: INDUSTRY AND WORKINGS
Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange for the exchequer. In the face of such benefits, many countries have started assigning due weightage to the tourism industry in their national development agenda.
Tourism statistics:
ª Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries at present and holds the status of the world's no. 1 industry.
ª The tourism industry as a whole is presently estimated to earn over US$ 3.5 trillion worldwide.
ª The industry creates a job every 2.4 seconds with every one of those direct jobs creating another 11 indirect ones.
ª Spending on tourism amounts to 5%-10% of total consumer, spending in a year worldwide.
ª India's share of the total market is a pittance at 0.51%. The non-tourist countries like Malaysia and Indonesia get much more tourists than India.
ª However, the average duration of stay of foreign tourist in India is one of the highest in the world. On an average, it exceeds 27 days in the case of non-package tourists and is 14 days in the case of package tourists.
ª Tourism has the distinction of being the third largest export industry after gems and jewellery and readymade garments in India.
ª The Tourism industry's foreign exchange earnings in India are around $3.2 billion. Tourism is the highest foreign exchange earner if we consider the fact that net value addition in Gems and jewellery is less than 30 % whereas, in tourism it is more than 90 %.
India: Tourism Revenues and Expenditures 1990-2010
ª It also has one of the best employment multipliers when compared with any other industry in India. It generates maximum job opportunities, as it provides direct employment to 9.1 million people and indirect employment to another 12.4 million. But these statistics do not appear so impressive when viewed in the global perspective and compared with that of other countries shown in the graph below.
Tourists Arrivals and Receipts From Tourism 1996
Source:
1. Report, World Tourism Organization - 1996.
2. Study by Mahajan and Aibara, Consultants to the Tourism and Hotel Industry, 1997.
ª Tourism has been a neglected sector in India. Though it was recognized as a priority sector in the Seventh Five Year Plan, hardly anything was done to promote this industry.
ª Though the government has promised to give industry status to tourism, still, budgetary support for this department is a mere Rs. 379 crore. This is despite a total tax collection of about Rs. 2000 crore in 1996 from this sector.
ª The tourism industry currently stands 127th on the list of priorities of the Indian government. It is true that India has yet to reach the prosperity level where leisure activity can be included in the priority sector but, if solving the country's unemployment and foreign exchange problems are on the top of the national agenda, the potential of this industry cannot be neglected.
Social:
Tourism was always looked upon as something that led to the destruction of the social fabric of a place. The more the amount of outside people coming into a place, the more the perceived risk of that place losing its identity. A good example is Goa. From the late 60's to the early 80's when the Hippy culture was at its height, Goa was a haven for such hippies. Here they came in thousands and changed the whole culture of the state. This had a ripple effect on the country. People became cautious, especially of the international tourists. Whenever a certain place became famous, the example of Goa was cited to discourage the inflow of international tourists.
However some places such as Kerala and Rajasthan have been able to strike a balance between their own culture and the demands of the international tourists and have profited handsomely in the bargain. People are now adopting themselves to the fact that tourism pays and it can be a major source of income for them.
In addition, tourism as a form of recreation has really caught on. People themselves have started traveling and are willing to travel to a place that is out of the way and exotic. While traditionally traveling on a holiday meant going to a hill station or a beach, now people are willing to go in for adventure tourism and also visit places that might be exotic and cannot really be called hospitable. For example, now places like Leh and Lakshwadeep are mentioned in the same breath as Goa or Kashmir.
Tourism was always looked upon as something that led to the destruction of the social fabric of a place. The more the amount of outside people coming into a place, the more the perceived risk of that place losing its identity. A good example is Goa. From the late 60's to the early 80's when the Hippy culture was at its height, Goa was a haven for such hippies. Here they came in thousands and changed the whole culture of the state. This had a ripple effect on the country. People became cautious, especially of the international tourists. Whenever a certain place became famous, the example of Goa was cited to discourage the inflow of international tourists.
However some places such as Kerala and Rajasthan have been able to strike a balance between their own culture and the demands of the international tourists and have profited handsomely in the bargain. People are now adopting themselves to the fact that tourism pays and it can be a major source of income for them.
In addition, tourism as a form of recreation has really caught on. People themselves have started traveling and are willing to travel to a place that is out of the way and exotic. While traditionally traveling on a holiday meant going to a hill station or a beach, now people are willing to go in for adventure tourism and also visit places that might be exotic and cannot really be called hospitable. For example, now places like Leh and Lakshwadeep are mentioned in the same breath as Goa or Kashmir.
Legal:
The laws that govern the industry are not the same in all the parts of the country. Many of the laws that are in effect are old and archaic, and not geared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The laws that govern the industry are not the same in all the parts of the country. Many of the laws that are in effect are old and archaic, and not geared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
With respect to taxation, the World Travel and Tourism Council has observed that
“Tax paid by tourists in India is the highest in the world. Indian hotels charge about 40% tax compared to other Asian countries where it varies between 3% and 6%".
Such high taxation renders the tourism sector as a whole uncompetitive. Further, there is considerable disparity between state level taxes, especially on food and beverages. In fact, the sales tax on imported beverages varies widely, e.g. 63% in Karnataka to 28.75% in West Bengal.
With respect to Foreign Investment in any tourism related venture, clearance must be obtained from the Central government (RBI or Foreign Investment Promotion Board). 51% foreign equity is automatically approved subject to meeting certain prescribed criteria, including having a capital base proposal below US $143 million (Rs. 6 billion). In the case of NRIs, 100% foreign equity is automatically approved. Foreign equity holding above 51 percent are possible, but are subject to FIPB approval. It is to be noted that the Ministry of Industry provides final clearance of FIPB approvals.
Dividends on such investments are repatriable.
The National Policy on Tourism lays emphasis on sustainable development of tourism. In accordance, the Government has brought out a comprehensive Eco Tourism Policy and Guidelines. There are several Acts and laws, which ensure sustainable tourism. These are the Wild Life Protection Act 1972, the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986. These do not set aside any specific area for tourism, but such areas have to be identified by the State Governments and obtain the required approvals/relaxations.
Eco-tourism policies and Guidelines have been formulated by the Government in consultation with the industry and are being implemented on a voluntary basis.
Economic:
The tourism industry not unlike the other industries grows with the increase in the spending of the people. The more the people spend the more the industry grows. The spending power of the people has been increasing in the country and all over the world. Since we are concentrating on the international tourists, the large increase in the spending power in most developed countries has left a large amount of idle cash in their hands. This has led to a tourism boom the world over and India has been no exception. There have been more people coming into the country with more cash than ever before. This has lead to an increase in the demand for better hotels. People who previously used to come to the country on a shoestring budget and hunt around for the cheapest accommodation can now afford to go in for luxury hotels. This has led to an increase in the number of hotels in the country. However, an increase in spending does not only limit itself to accommodation. The increase in the spending is also evident in the increase in the number of people traveling by air. Even the number domestic tourists traveling by air has dramatically gone up.
The tourism industry not unlike the other industries grows with the increase in the spending of the people. The more the people spend the more the industry grows. The spending power of the people has been increasing in the country and all over the world. Since we are concentrating on the international tourists, the large increase in the spending power in most developed countries has left a large amount of idle cash in their hands. This has led to a tourism boom the world over and India has been no exception. There have been more people coming into the country with more cash than ever before. This has lead to an increase in the demand for better hotels. People who previously used to come to the country on a shoestring budget and hunt around for the cheapest accommodation can now afford to go in for luxury hotels. This has led to an increase in the number of hotels in the country. However, an increase in spending does not only limit itself to accommodation. The increase in the spending is also evident in the increase in the number of people traveling by air. Even the number domestic tourists traveling by air has dramatically gone up.
Political:
The political factors are the main driving force of the industry. The Indian tourism industry is built on the backbone of Government support and the industry cannot sustain itself without it. The various archaeological sites and the places of historical importance, the roads and the railways are all in the hands of the Government. All the support services like the hotel industry, the airlines industry and the tourist operators to name some are heavily dependent on the support and the cooperation of the Government.
The major reason as to why tourists visit India is for the vast and rich heritage that our country has. That is under the control of the Government, through the Archaeological Survey of India. Any policy change that comes into force can have dramatic effect on the way the industry players perform. For example, the Government charges high rates of taxes on the luxury and the star category hotels and this has always been a cause of disagreement between the hotel associations and the Government. There are many areas where the growth of tourism has not been rapid or has seen dramatic fall because the political environment has not been conducive. Examples are the North East for the former and Kashmir for the latter. The neglect of the Government in developing the North-East has led to a situation where there is practically no tourism in the seven states.
Similarly, the political turmoil in the state of Kashmir and now in Gujarat has caused a virtual decimation of the flourishing tourism industry. However, there has been a change in many of the policies of the Government with regard to the tourism industry. The hotel industry has been getting many incentives and many State Governments are encouraging the growth of major hotels in their states. After years of tight control over airport infrastructure, Government has finally taken the decision to privatize the airports.
The major reason as to why tourists visit India is for the vast and rich heritage that our country has. That is under the control of the Government, through the Archaeological Survey of India. Any policy change that comes into force can have dramatic effect on the way the industry players perform. For example, the Government charges high rates of taxes on the luxury and the star category hotels and this has always been a cause of disagreement between the hotel associations and the Government. There are many areas where the growth of tourism has not been rapid or has seen dramatic fall because the political environment has not been conducive. Examples are the North East for the former and Kashmir for the latter. The neglect of the Government in developing the North-East has led to a situation where there is practically no tourism in the seven states.
Similarly, the political turmoil in the state of Kashmir and now in Gujarat has caused a virtual decimation of the flourishing tourism industry. However, there has been a change in many of the policies of the Government with regard to the tourism industry. The hotel industry has been getting many incentives and many State Governments are encouraging the growth of major hotels in their states. After years of tight control over airport infrastructure, Government has finally taken the decision to privatize the airports.
Technological:
Although technology does not seem to be a major influence at first glance, it plays a major part in the promotion of a place. Better communication facilities are one of the first prerequisites for growth in the inflow of tourists. This has been made possible with technology. Improved technology in the field of communication at cheaper costs has resulted in many remote and inaccessible areas of the country getting connected to the rest of the world. This connectivity has made these places visible to the world. Better communication means access to media. And that is very important if any place wants to be on the world tourist map.
Similarly better transportation facilities have lead to a dramatic increase in the number of tourists visiting any particular place. The presence of an airport and the availability of frequent flights are a great convenience to any traveler.
Although technology does not seem to be a major influence at first glance, it plays a major part in the promotion of a place. Better communication facilities are one of the first prerequisites for growth in the inflow of tourists. This has been made possible with technology. Improved technology in the field of communication at cheaper costs has resulted in many remote and inaccessible areas of the country getting connected to the rest of the world. This connectivity has made these places visible to the world. Better communication means access to media. And that is very important if any place wants to be on the world tourist map.
Similarly better transportation facilities have lead to a dramatic increase in the number of tourists visiting any particular place. The presence of an airport and the availability of frequent flights are a great convenience to any traveler.
Swot Analysis:
STRENGTHS
STRENGTHS
a. India's geographical location, a culmination of deserts, forests, mountains, and beaches.
b. Diversity of culture i.e. a blend of various civilizations and their traditions.
c. A wealth of archeological sites and historical monuments.
d. Manpower costs in the Indian hotel industry are one of the lowest in the world. This provides better margins for the industry.
e. A very wide variety of hotels is present in the country that can fulfill the demand of the tourists. There are international players in the market such as Taj and Oberoi. Thus, the needs of the international tourists and travelers are seen to while they are on a visit to India.
WEAKNESSES
a. Lack of adequate infrastructure. The airlines in India, for example, are inefficient and do not provide basic facilities at airports. The road condition in India is very bad.
b. A xenophobic attitude among certain sections of people.
c. No proper marketing of India's tourism abroad. Foreigners still think of India as a land of snake charmers. There are many places where the image of India is one of poverty, superstition, and diseases. The case of Plague in Surat in 1994 led to a decrease of 36% in arrival of foreign tourists in India.
OPPORTUNITIES
a. More proactive role from the government of India in terms of framing policies.
b. Allowing entry of more multinational companies into the country giving us a global perspective.
c. Growth of domestic tourism. The advantage here is that domestic tourism and international tourism can be segregated easily owing to the difference in the period of holidays.
a. Economic conditions and political turmoil in other countries affects tourism.
b. Political turbulence within India in Kashmir and Gujarat has also reduced tourist traffic. c. Aggressive strategies adopted by other countries like Australia, Singapore in promoting tourism.
CHAPTER 2: TYPES OF CUSTOMERS & SEGMENTATION
A. Users Of Tourism Services
The users of tourism services can be categorized in a number of ways.
One such way of classifying the users is by dividing them into categories such as General, Sex, Region, Education, etc.
1. General: Domestic, Foreign
Kids, Teens, Youths, Seniors
Students, Executives, Artists
Politicians, Movie stars
2. Sex: Men, Women
3. Region: Rural, Urban
4. Education: Literate, Illiterate
5. Status: Rich, Poor
6. Profession: Executives, Academics, Sportsmen, Artists
7. Occupation: White collar, Blue collar
Another method of classifying users of tourism services is on the basis of the frequency of usage of services.
1. Non-users: They lack the willingness, desire and ability (income & leisure time).
2. Potential Users: They have the willingness but the marketing resources have not been used optimally to influence their impulse.
3. Actual Users: They are already using the services generated by the tourist organizations
4. Occasional Users: They have not formed the habit of traveling
5. Habitual Travelers: They have formed a habit and avail of the services regularly.
B. Need For Segmentation
Consumer behavior can be defined in psychological terms as the whole range of the generation of wants and their transformation into buying or using decisions. Users have values, perceptions, preferences and expectations which are the result of environmental influences. There are a number of factors that influence the behavioral profile of consumers.
In recent years, the users have become more discriminating in their using habits and therefore their needs for different services, products and brands change constantly. This makes it essential that the marketers analyze their behavioral profile and undertake segmentation so that they know the level of expectations.
In a nutshell, tourist organizations need to undertake segmentation in order to simplify their task of creating and stimulating demand. In this way they can identify the potential tourists, transform them into actual tourists and further into habitual tourists.
C. Segmentation
Though there are a number of bases for segmentation of tourists, one of the most important is Lifestyle. Traveling decisions are fantastically influenced by changing lifestyles. They are also affected by other factors such as level of income, availability of leisure time, etc.
| BASE OF SEGMENTATION | CATEGORIES |
| Holiday | Mass market |
| Popular market | |
| Individual market | |
| Demand | Primary |
| Secondary | |
| Opportunity | |
| Geography | International |
| On the basis of regions, cities, etc. | |
| Psychography | Lifestyle |
| Personality motive | |
| Knowledge | |
| Demography | Age |
| Sex | |
| Religion | |
| Socio-economic | Rich, Poor |
| Rural, Urban | |
| Literate, Illiterate | |
| Purpose | Business Travel |
| Cultural Tourism | |
| Common Interest Convention | |
| Age | Teens |
| Youth | |
| Seniors |
Such segmentation is useful when deciding the offerings to target a particular segment. For example:
ª The mass market consists of vacationists that travel in large groups and prefer all-inclusive tours. They are generally conservative.
ª The popular market consists of smaller groups going on inclusive or semi-inclusive tours. This group includes pensioners and retired people.
ª The individual market consists of chairmen, senior executives, etc.
ª As the lifestyle changes, consumption of services might change. For example, a newly married couple might prefer romantic holidays, but once they have children they would prefer family vacations where there are plenty of activities to entertain kids.
ª Teens and youth might prefer adventure holidays whereas senior citizens would probably prefer more relaxing vacations.
Chapter 3. The Tourism Industry
The tourism industry comprises of the following main and distinctive sectors:
Ø Transportation
Ø Accommodation
Ø Tour operators
Ø Tourism Destination Operators/ Destination Management
Transportation
Tourism industry is heavily dependent on the transportation industry which comprises of airlines, cruise and ferry lines, passenger railways, coach and bus travel, car hire. Thanks to the increase in tourist traffic, over the years, the range of airline services has considerably, not only in terms of frequency of flights and number of destinations, but also in terms of different services, and differing levels of service to meet different passenger needs. This shows the important role marketing plays as competition and demand intensifies.
Passenger rail services have also changed, and their role in tourism is as wide as with, for example, Euro rail tickets allowing extensive international travel at basic(service) standard for students and budget tourists, to the luxury of Palace on Wheels – where the train voyage is the holiday.
Cruise lines are operating different services tailored to consumers’ budgets, and other shipping lines involved in the tourist industry, especially the ferry operators, are broadening and upgrading their range of services and facilities to meet consumer expectations, and to remain competitive.
Coach and bus companies have acted in a similar fashion and so have the car rental companies.
Accommodation
Accommodation includes hotels, ranging from the biggest international chains recognizable worldwide such as Hilton and Holiday Inn to small independent establishments. In order to gain recognition in an increasingly competitive marketplace, many smaller independent hotels have grouped together, adopting a consortium approach. Under a central brand name, they can offer central reservations services, for eg. and present a recognizable identity to consumers which enables them to compete against the larger, more established chains. Other types of accommodations are also well established in tourist markets, notably self-catering apartments and club type complexes.
With the innumerable dream destinations India offers the best of the accommodation facilities to the travelers to the land. There are plenty of hotels and resorts in India that cater to the needs of tourists of all kinds. The hotels and resorts in India provide high standards of quality of accommodation, facilities and comforts to satisfy the client’s at the most reasonable rates. The variety of hotels and resorts in India ranging from Luxury Hotels, Standard Hotels, Budget Hotels to the Heritage Hotels In India. Then there are several Indian & International Hotel Chains in India. The services and the facilities are such that the hospitability of India gets revealed always. Throughout the length and the breadth of the country that is dotted with tourist destinations the hotels and resorts are available to make your experience of India unique.
The incomparable and incredible land of India offers plenty of accommodation options such that the visit to the wonderland suits all pockets. The country where tradition and trends fuse to give you the best the range of possible accommodations is vast. There are the exclusive hotels and hotel chains that boast of luxurious amenities and world-class décor.
Hotels in India have been categorized on different parameters all of them taking into account the factors such as service provided, infrastructure, location, heritage value, and types of guests accommodated. Like many other countries worldwide, these categorizations help the common travelers zero down on the accommodation option he can afford or wanted to stay at during his/her visit.
Tour operators
Tour operators are the firms which specialize in providing the whole holiday package, incorporating travel and accommodation needs for the consumer. They range from highly specialized operations such as Indianvisit.com, who customize every kind of trip that you can dream of, to large operators offering services at all different levels to cater for budget, family, or singles holidays to ‘near’ or ‘faraway’ destinations.
Thomas Cook is one of the best known of such operators; they also offer travel agency and financial services to their consumers. An independent local coach firm may also be a tour operator, and many transportation companies also offer holiday packages.
In today’s competitive market and with the increased bargaining power of the consumers there is only one way to survive in the rat race and that is by segmenting the market and offering different products pertinent to the demand of that segment.
With this in mind, what does a holiday in India symbolizes? This is a question that every traveler to this vast subcontinent of human beings, dust, chaos, and religion asks himself at least once. For many of them India is the exotic orient where you can find only the snake charmers or sadhus. For few who have gone through contemporary literature on the country, India is an organized chaos (as described one of the renowned writers and sociologists). For the ones who have seen the exploitations of Indian expats in Silicon Valley might consider the country as a future hub of knowledge economy.
For a quintessential vacationer in India, the country presents itself in the plethora of colors, hues, and shapes. With its inexhaustible range of culture, traditions, wildlife, beaches, and mountains India is huge. The country is not only about chaos and ways to control them; it is about life, the civilization and continuity of it that makes people look beyond the obvious. But obvious, we believe, is not the choice that you are going to make while visiting India. What you need is something different, something that is new, and something that is exciting. Concept tourism is one exciting option that a few tour operators like Indianholiday.com believe is worth taking interest in. These operators give you a number of exciting options categorized according to the interest and concept to tour India.
For a quintessential vacationer in India, the country presents itself in the plethora of colors, hues, and shapes. With its inexhaustible range of culture, traditions, wildlife, beaches, and mountains India is huge. The country is not only about chaos and ways to control them; it is about life, the civilization and continuity of it that makes people look beyond the obvious. But obvious, we believe, is not the choice that you are going to make while visiting India. What you need is something different, something that is new, and something that is exciting. Concept tourism is one exciting option that a few tour operators like Indianholiday.com believe is worth taking interest in. These operators give you a number of exciting options categorized according to the interest and concept to tour India.
Wildlife Holidays
Heritage Holidays
Pilgrimages
Ecotourism in India: India, the land of geographical varieties offers several tourist destinations that not just de-stress but also rejuvenate you. There are several ways to enjoy Mother Nature in most pristine way. There are series of eco tours for India that provide the coolest hangouts to take pleasure in indulging oneself into the God gifted environs.
Beach Holidays: Has the combination of Sun, Sand, Sea and Surf ever tempted you to take a break from the daily monotonous chores that you perform so religiously? Then we have just the right package for you with the sure-shot itinerary to relax you completely. The balmy beaches of India are perfect escapade for the fun loving holiday tourism seekers. India with its long coastline of 7500 kms, offers some of the most exotic beach holidays and beach tourism destinations in the world. The great peninsula with the Indian Ocean in the middle and accompanied by the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal on each side besides the two archipelagos of Lakshadweep and Andamans is perfect for beach holidays for tourists the world over. The young state of Goa certainly happens to be the Beach Capital of India. It offers the perfect spot for the novice divers. The blaze of glory, the beautiful waves, the swinging palms and the many hues of the sky, the nature is for sure at its best at the beaches. India boasts of many beaches of Goa in the West, Kovalam in the South and Gopalpur in the East. So you may head towards any direction of the Indian peninsula and be invited to the sun bathed beaches. The never-ending shores and the untouched oceanic horizons seem to be mesmerizing. The photogenic dawn and dusks at the beaches are sure to be repetitive visitor to the shores.
· Cultural Holidays: Ever wondered at the cultural diversity of India? The enticing unity represented by the people of the country who display a wide range of religions, culture, customs and languages. The rich and varied heritage happens to be one of the many sources of pride of the nation. The mysterious ways of the people, their lifestyles and the inseparable culture cannot be done solved in words but can surely be enjoyed with experience.
· Adventure Holidays: Ever felt the waves of a river on your face, wish to see to the land and everything on it from a height of 18,000 feet? Fancy trotting from one palace to another riding a camel or perhaps get a better view of the jungle sitting smart on an elephant? Well if any of them is an affirmative, the adventure holidays and tourism in India are just for you. Try out the aerial, aqua or land adventures and enjoy. The quest to do the uncommon, the desire to meet challenges makes people take up any of the adventure activities and rejuvenate themselves. India is the land of variety and diversity. The terrain of the sand dunes and long stretches of barren land is ideal for desert safaris, the queen of rivers, the fun of watching the wildlife at the Corbett National Park gets multiplied when enjoyed riding an elephant, the Ganges is irresistible for the water sports and the scenic beauty of Jammu is picture perfect for the paragliding. You name the adventure and India has the right spot for it.
· Ayurveda and Rejuvenation: India adheres to the age-old philosophy of Ayurveda - in a traditional way - that's what makes India a different locale to visit. Ayurveda recognizes that each individual is different and so treatment too should be customized. Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine holds out to the world the promise of a healthy long life. step into the world, where healing is a ritual and nurturing life a tradition, i. e. experience the magical power of Traditional Ayurveda. Ayurveda and Rejuvenation programs include a few programs combining Ayurveda along with sightseeing and other aspects of tourism in India. An extensive and well - crafted out Ayurvedic treatment package that would rejuvenate your body and mind and make you face the hustle and bustle of the city life again.
· Golf Tours: If Golf, is what you are passionate about and you happen to be an avid traveler then the 21 day Golf Holidays package of India being offered is something you cannot refuse to go ahead with. The perfect break from the stressful routine religiously followed otherwise. Just catch up with the Golf fever that has caught the entire country in a big way. Add that extra touch of versatility in you by playing the different surfaces in the various golf clubs developed in several cities of India. The turfs, the mounds, the climate, the yards of green all make golf better than ever before.
· Handicrafts Tours:
· Festival Tours
· Museum Tours
· Railway Tours: Kuuuuu& Chuk Chuk !!! Doesn't the whistle of the luxury train. Be onboard the luxury trains of India, the Palace on Wheels, the Royal Orient and the Toy Trains are the pride of Indian Railways, the largest passenger train service in the world seem to invite you. The Palace on Wheels lives by its name and is no less than a fort on the swing. The lavish lifestyle, the facilities, the décor, the comfort and the style have made the first tourist train of India the most sought after. The marvelous train that today is a joint effort of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation and the Indian Railways. During this excursion, the tourists are overwhelmed with the beauty at the major stations of Jaipur, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Bharatpur, and Agra chugging through the culturally colorful states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. You may even opt for a voyage onboard the Royal Orient, the train offering both style and comfort. It is a project of the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited along with the Indian Railways. The rainbow of cities trotted by the royal extravagance of the bygone era include Delhi, Chittaurgarh, Junagarh/Veraval, Somnath/Sasan, Gir/Ahmedpur, Mandvi/Palitana/ Sarkhej, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Besides the Royal trains, the toy trains of India have attracted many a tourists. The ride on the train with a 4500 kilometers track chugs through the popular hill stations of the country like Shimal, Darjeeling, Ooty/ Udagamandalam or Ootacamund and Matheran. The toy trains are called so because of the narrow gauge railway lines they ride on. The wondrous miniature of rail engineering that offers the most scenic beauties of the Himalayas from Kalka to Shimla and another from Jal Pai Guri to Darjeeling.
Yoga Tours in India: India has been the land of saints and sages who meditated and practiced yoga. The spiritual city of Rishikesh happens to be the Yoga capital of India. Tourists and travelers flock to contemplate and practice Yoga and meditation in the lap of Himalayas. The city hosts the International Yoga Week every year in the month of February attracting several experts and participants.
Backwater Tours in India: Cruising along the backwaters of Kerala is an ideal way to discover the real Kerala. The placid backwaters that stretch for over fifteen hundred kilometers are covered with swinging palm trees. The tourists are left spell bound by the tranquility of the backwaters while riding the Houseboats, it's the most authentic and unexplored way to explore the beauty of the backwaters. The Houseboats that float on the backwaters are the improved version of the Kettuvalloms. The frequently visited tourist destinations amongst the backwaters in Kerala comprise of Kovalam, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam. The tourists may indulge into tourism activities like boating, fishing and sightseeing while exploring the backwaters of Kerala. The backwater cuisine, which comprises of delectable fresh fish like pearl spotted fish, barramundi, crabs, mussels and prawns is finger licking good.
All these tours have been designed keeping in mind the requirements of travelers coming from different parts of the world.
Apart from these, there are some organizations which specialize in custom made tours. Some of these tours offered are:
Special theme parties: Under these the following options are available
Moonlight Boat Cruise on the Backwater of Kerala:
Guests are ferried aboard a spacious, specially decorated boat for a delightful moonlight cruise on the backwater of Cochin. South Indian culinary surprises are served. There is also a thrilling firework display.
Rajput Wedding:
A traditional Rajput wedding ceremony where the group members participate as 'Baraati' (the bridegroom's family and friends who form the wedding party) and the bridal party.
Bollywood:
Guests in garish costumes, some posing as directors, some as action heroes, romantic leading ladies, ruffians live their dreams of becoming a star.
Corporate incentive tours:
In today's world incentive travel is one of the most effective marketing and motivational tools especially in the corporate sector. After all those long hours at work let the corporate employee get the much-deserved break in the form of an incentive. The various corporate incentive tours that are offered have been planned in a manner to rejuvenate and refresh the employees for the forthcoming assignments.Along with the corporate incentives tours arrangements can be made for conferences, conventions, seminars, board meetings, client presentations, training programs, workshops, dealers meet or any other relationship building activity in any destination in India.
Dream Marriages:
Tie the knot with your knight in shining armor in the most royal way. Celebrate the biggest and the best occasion of your life - Marriage- in the most beautiful style. Get married at any of the captivating castles, pulsating palaces or the happening hotels and make your dream come true. At your dream marriage there will be fun and festivity all around backed by the music of your choice and decorations with your favorite flowers. The feast to your eyes and ears will be equaled by the sumptuous food that will treat the taste buds at the dream marriage. From champagne bottles and confetti to photographers we can arrange it all for the special you and the very special occasion of your dream marriage. The setting for the realization of your dream will be splendid and the arrangements will be spectacular for your marriage that will bring smiles on every face and heart!
Tourism Destination Operators/ Destination Management
This is new category in many senses, as it is an area of the tourism industry which has seen a massive growth in the development of theme parks and other types of artificial tourist destinations in the recent years. However Disneyland and Disneyworld in America were the forerunners of this development in tourism marketing, and they have been well established for decades.
It is due to the recent growth, and the continuing trends, which make it area which should be considered separately as a tourism industry. The new EuroDisney theme park in France is an example of a tourism destination operation. On a smaller scale, heritage parks which being developed from Britain’s industrial wasteland such as Wigan Pier, which attracted over half a million tourists in 1991, and similar attractions now represent a significant amount of tourism activity.
Chapter4. Some Players
Some of these players mentioned in the above graph can be explained as follows:
Govt. of India (GOI): The Govt. is the most important player since the land is owned by the Govt. and they also have a lot of resources at their disposal in comparison to pvt. players. In the following part we have considered the case of Rajasthan Govt. which has marketed well and the second case of Sikkim Govt. which in spite of having a lot to gain by tourism has a very lackadaisical attitude.
Rajasthan-The Land of the Kings
Rajasthan, the Land of the Kings, is India at its exotic and colourful best. It is the home of the Rajputs, a group of warrior clans who have controlled this part of India for 1000 years according to a code of chivalry and honour akin to that followed by medieval Europe's knights. Although the fortunes of its former rulers may be in tatters, the culture of Rajasthan, with its battle-scarred forts, amazing palaces, riotous colours and sense of gallantry,aisastillaveryamuchaalive.
The harsh Rajasthani landscape and tribal customs have fashioned a people and culture which are visibly different from those found in the rest of India - from the huge, pastel-coloured turbans and soup-strainer moustaches sported by the men to the bright mirrored skirts and chunky silver jewellery of the women. They have also endowed the state with a magical air of romance, speckled with desert forts, lush oases, and exotic cities that rise out of the landscape like shimmering backdrops to Tales of the Arabian Nights. No-one visits Rajasthan without taking home superb memories, a parcel of
Folk art and a lot of sandainatheaeye.Though these resources are there, so what? They are also present in other states like
MadhyaaPradesh.aThenawhataisadifferentaforaRajasthan?
Before deciding what to offer to the international tourist, a state should first find out that what is it that this tourist wants? Rajasthan seems to have found an answer to it and thus hasabecomeaaafavouredadestinationsaofa
tourism.
What Rajasthan offers is not a mere site-seeing tour like any other historically significant place, but treats the tourists to an experience of times bygone. It may be a ride aboard 'Palace on Wheels' or a stay in any of the Heritage hotels strewn across the state, for the right price Rajasthan makes you royalty for your stay there and this is what attracts the people. This has not been any easy task to accomplish. The combined efforts of the public and the state government has made it possible for desert state to triumphantly march in the country's otherwise funereal tourism scenario. Some of the noteworthy state government actions are wholehearted endorsement of private investment in the hotel industry leading to the number of hotel rooms growing at a fair rate. The loans and subsidies are being given on liberal terms to owners of forts and palaces to convert their properties into hotels. The other side also embraced this idea fully as it gave the royalty a chance to once again play kings and queens. There are 17 heritage hotels recognised by the department of tourism, 30 other operating heritage properties and 12 are in the planning stages. And as many as 56 properties have expressed interest in offering themselves for the heritage status.
A few of these turnaround stories are:
LuniaHavelia-Aadreamainaredasandstone
Luni is a small village some 30 km from Jodhpur and the haveli is at least two centuries old. No one lived there after 1860, save bats and sundry reptiles. In 1992-93 it all changed, extensive renovations were carried out and today the Luni Haveli is one of Rajasthan's more impressive heritage hotels. The property extends over two and a half acres, has 19 rooms and will soon offer its guests a swimming pool. It has achieved a 50% averageaoccupancy.aIt is run by 27 years old Vikram Singh and Yamini his wife who till date thank a certain hotel chain who approached them to develop the property. However, the deal could not be made but the idea was implanted and today Luni Haveli is beginning to find itself on tourist itineraries.
DeraaDundlodaKila
Dera Dundlod Kila, a 250-year-old fort in the heart of Shekhawati. Its reins are in the hands of Thakur Raghubir Singh and his dynamic son, Kunwar Raghavendra Singh, better known as Bonnie. The father-and-son duo decided to convert the property into a hotel with a dual purpose in mind: it would, on the one hand, save the sprawling fortress from turning into a ruin and, on the other, generate some badly needed income for the family. Today, with 27 rooms and an annual turnover of Rs 10-12 lakh, the Singhs are reaping the rewards of their sagacity.
Narainaniwasapalace-Aaarestahouseaforacamelacaravans!
Today the palace in the golden city of Jaisalmer has a yearly turnover of a neat Rs 70 Lakhs. Also the local crafts are finding a new lease of life with the increase in their demand. The various local arts are also reviving due to the same. Thus we see that if managed properly tourism is beneficial to all.
Sikkim- AnaIgnoreda Land
Sikkim the tiny Himalayan state and one of the smallest of the Indian union has the potential of becoming a large tourist attraction. Nestled in the magnificent Himalayas this state is nature at its most beautiful. In addition, the untouched air of this state takes one back to the time when man and nature coexisted harmoniously.The pure air and clean water does wonders for one's senses. Everywhere one marvels at sites of a spring stream orchard bloom. Despite being endowed with virgin resources, which could turn it into a major international destination for special kinds of high-value tourism, the state remains in the backwoods of such activities. The tourism in the state is virtually absent, the reasons sited by the office bearers are -the security-oriented approach of the centre, which virtually throttled the development of the state, is tourism. To visit this state one has to go through number of clearances and if one is a foreign national then this number increases exponentially. But this seems to be a silly excuse by the government to hide its inefficiencies. The infrastructure in the state is so poor that the locals would not rely on them, what of the international tourists. Basic facilities like roads are absent what to talk of the rest. One could really question government's decision about security here when it is itself encouraging tourism in border states like Rajasthan. It has cities like Jaisalmer and Jodhpur open to tourism which share border with Pakistan. Whatever the reasons this jewel of the Himalayas lays wasted when India is crying out for international tourists.
Apart from the Govt. players there are pvt, tour operators. We have taken the case of an online tour operator, Indianvisit.com, its profile is as follows:
D. Indianvisit.com - Presenting India in a Way Never Seen Before
Indianvisit.com is a part of Indian Holiday Pvt. Ltd. (earlier known as TRAFFORD TOURS & TRAVELS), a proactive travel organization in Indian tourism industry for the last 10 years. They are a professionally managed closely held agency and management control is vested with the first generation promoter entrepreneurs. Transaction level operations are executed by a team of professionally qualified professionals, who are well versed with the complexities of Travel & Tourism Trade. Their guest service team has a cumulative experience of 100 man-years in tourism industry. The team is well aware and equipped to cater to requirements of various market segments and understands the nuances of tourism in India.
Services
Tours
They have been operating a variety of tours for their Groups and Individual tourists and have been able to mastermind their tours with great deal of efficiency. The company specializes in inbound tours and offers a host of tourism related services to inbound tourists in the India and neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, and Srilanka. Various tours they offer are as below. Tailor-made packages, cultural tours, adventure tours, religious tours, yoga & meditation tours, Rejuvenation & Ayurveda tours, safaris, special interest tours, conferences, incentives and much more in the Indian Subcontinent. Apart from above other various travel related services they provide are as below:
Hotel Booking:
Individual or group booking in any hotel of any category and in any part of Indian subcontinent can be provided instantly. Owing to their very good connections with the hotels in almost every part of the country, they are always in a position to offer very lucrative discounted rates to their clients. Enter their hotel query form and just let them know the name of city and category of hotel and wait for sometime. Their professionals will get back to you in no time with a number of suitable options.
Air Booking:
Their exceptionally good relations with the Domestic and International Airlines enable them to come up with very good discounts for their clients. Their online reservation system - Abacus helps us in confirming the bookings instantly even in the veryabusyasectors.
Itinerary Planning and Tailor Made Holiday:
IndianVisit have long been helping their guests with necessary arrangements in many exciting programs. Just tell them the time of arrival & departure, the total duration of travel and your approximate budget. Rest all leaveatoathem.
Transport:
Transport:
They have a large fleet of cars / coaches at their disposal, and having the fleet itself is not enough, they need to see that they use best transport for their clients, and provide them a good value for their money, hence they have maintained a separate department taking care of all their transport requirements.
Other Services:
School and college group tours:
College and school group tours are probably the most difficult one to handle as the young boys and girls expect and demand far more from their travelling experience than other travellers and they have and an insatiable appetite for enjoyment. Even a small problem in the tour can dampen their enthusiasm or can drive them crazy so everything has to be absolutely perfect for such tours. their meticulously planned and well executed tours have won a number of young friends for them.
City sightseeing and tour excursions:
They can arrange city sight seeing tours for individual / group traveller in any of the touristic destination. The city tour can be provided in an a/c and non a/c car or coach. A four hour half day trip would not give the tourist short exposure, to the city and a full day city tour is there if they have more than 04 hours to spare. Beat area of all the cities are covered with a variety of excursions, all organized in such a way that they start in the morning and after an experience to remember, they would come back to the place where they started from, in the evening.
Limousine/luxury car/ coach services:
They always have a large fleet of cars and coaches at their disposal and can provide the same at any part of the subcontinent for sightseeing tours, for airport transfers or for any such purpose. The operations of their Transport department are incredibly swift and silky smooth - thanks to the large and luxurious fleet of air- conditioned, well trained and dressed chauffeur driven cars and coaches at its disposal. Their quality control concept allows us to not to use more than 03 years old cars / coaches on longer drives. Their chauffeurs are well aware of the basic ethics of the travel trade and hospitality industry thus a personalized service to all the valued guests is guaranteed, even if they are traveling only along with the chauffeur.
Multilingual Guides & Professional Experts:
Sight seeing without guides serves no purpose and can just be a dull and boring experience. They provide guides who with their eloquence and immense knowledge about the city and the monuments make the sightseeing a gratifying, memorable and enjoyable experience. They provide not only the English speaking guides but also arrange the guides who speaks French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish etc on prior request. On special request, the professional escort from the company accompanies the guests during the entire tour at a very nominal cost and help in making their trip all the more interesting, comfortable and entertaining. An accompanying escort would not only ensure the smooth movement of tours, but with his / her vivacity would add to the enjoyment and would keep on appraising the tourist with the inner and deep beliefs of the local residents.
Discounted Tours:
Indianvisit.com your complete travel guide to the incredible land of India offers tours at the lowest discounted expenses. Opt for any of the discounted tours presented to you and end up saving while you spend. Besides the discounted tours are the special packages and custom-tailored tours are available for various tourist destinations they provide services including accommodations, sightseeing tours, optional excursions, guides and personal drivers, ground transportation, package tours, combined in the discounted package tours and low transportation charges. The accommodation on the discounted tour will be of the tourist’s choice and as per their budget.
Chapter5. Internal Customers
The image of the company begins with each and every employee and is reflected in his or her attitude about the company. The employees are a first market, an internal market for the firm's offerings as well as for its external marketing programs. An emphasis has to be placed on the need to view people, functions and departments internal to the firm as internal customers, to whom internal services have to be provided in the same customer-oriented manner as to external customers. Everything that the service provider does for its customers is first perceived and received by its own personnel. If employees do not believe in the promises given by external marketing activities then they will not be able or willing to perform as effective part-time marketers and contribute to a good interactive marketing impact.
The five approaches or paths are as follows to ensure the above are:
1. Create a collective pride in the mission and values of the firms among employees (the mission and pride path)
2. Make everyone's tasks, why they are important and how performance is measured, clear to employees and follow up results in a consistent manner (the process and metrics path).
3. Give employees personal freedom and opportunities for earnings, but also significant personal risk , with few rules about behavior (the entrepreneurial spiit path).
4. Show respect for the individual achievements of the employees and recognize quality performance (the individual achievement path).
5. Offer reward and bonus system to support accomplishments (the reward and celebration path).
Empowerment and enabling employees
These two concepts are to be understood as not only they motivate the employees but also are important for the effective implementation of internal marketing. Empowering employees means to give employees, who come into contact with customers the authority to make decisions and take action in a large number of potential problematic situations. But there has to a limit as to how far this authority can go, and these limits must be carefully determined. If empowerment is correctly implemented as a part of an internal marketing process then it can have a decisive impact on the satisfaction of employees. Empowerment does not mean a static relationship but a continuous nurturing of trusting relationships between management and employees. Empowering employees means:
1. Providing them with information about the performance of the organization
2. Rewarding them based on the organization's performance
3. Creating a knowledge base that makes possible for employees to understand and contribute to the performance of the organization and
4. Giving employees the power to make decisions that influence organizational directions an performance.
But empowerment cannot function without simultaneously enabling employees so that they are prepared to take the responsibility that goes with the new authority. Enabling means that employees need support to be able to make the independent decisions effectively in the service process. If this support is not provided properly then proper conditions for empowered employees do not exist. Enabling includes:
1. Management Support: so that supervisors and managers give information an also take over decision-making when needed but do not interfere unnecessarily with the decision-making authority of employees.
2. Knowledge Support: so that the employees have the skills and the knowledge to analyze situations and make proper decisions.
3. Technical Support: from support staff, systems, technology and database that provides contact employees with information and other services required for handling situations.
Chapter 6. TOTAL PRODUCT CONCEPT
|
CHAPTER 7: MARKETING
(SERVICE MARKET TRIANGLE)
“THE SERVICE INDUSTRY TRIANGLE”
Company:
The company in the Tourism Sector can be the Central Government, the State tourism Corporations, Tour Operators such as SOTC, ITDC, etc. The company carries out ‘External Marketing’ as well as. ‘Internal Marketing’
External Marketing: It makes promises to the customers, for e.g. the Malaysian government’s advertisement “Malaysia, Truly Asia” that promises a veritable cultural paradise to the customer.
Internal Marketing: The Company enables the Providers to fulfill the promises made by it to the customers. For example, the Malaysian Government maintains the local transportation within the country, maintains the tourist spots such as KL Towers, etc.
Providers:
The Providers include all the entities that finally fulfill the Company’s promise to the Customers. They undertake ‘Interactive Marketing’, because they are in touch with the final customer. Thus in the case of the Malaysian government, this would include the transportation providers (Malaysian Airlines, Air India, local bus transportation, local trains in Kuala Lumpur, car and two-wheeler rentals), the different hotels within Malaysia (Tanjam Putri), souvenir outlets at tourist areas, tourist spots (Genting highland, KL Towers, Twin Towers, etc.), restaurants (KFC Joints, Mary Brown, Pizza Hut), etc.
Chapter8. Unique Characteristics Of The Tourism Industry
There are four main characteristics which distinguish the tourism industry from other service providers:
Inflexibility:
The tourism industry is highly inflexible in terms of capacity. The number of beds in a hotel or seats on an airplane is fixed so it is not possible to meet sudden upsurges in demand. Similarly, restaurant tables, hotel beds and airplane seats remain empty and unused in periods of low demand. The seasonal nature of tourism activity exacerbates this problem.
Perishability:
Tourism services are highly perishable. An unused hotel bed or an empty airplane seat represents an immediate loss of that service as a means of earning profit. This has an impact on overall industry profitability.
Fixed location:
Tourism destinations are fixed locations so effort must be concentrated in communicating the facility to the potential consumer. A consumer can conveniently watch a Hollywood movie at the local cinema but has to be persuaded to travel to India to see the Taj Mahal.
Relatively Large Financial Investment:
Every modern tourist establishment and facility requires large investment, frequently over a long time scale. This means that the level of risk and the rate of return are critically important to tourism management.
Chapter 9: Classification Of Services
ON THE BASIS OF THE END USER
The end user for Tourism Services is always the CONSUMER, and therefore on the basis of the end user, Tourism Services fall under the category of ‘Consumers’. However these consumers may vary, which is why Tourism Services also differ.
SERVICE PRODUCT CONTINUUM
As per the Product-Service Continuum, Tourism Services fall under the category of “Goods + Services”. The core product is the destination, which is purely intangible. However, tourism is linked to a number of tangible goods such as souvenirs, cuisine, etc which constitute an important part of any vacation or holiday any consumer might take. Therefore it cannot be classified as only services, and falls under the category of “Goods + Services”.
PEOPLE BASED SERVICES
Tourism Services are high contact services, as people interact with people at virtually EVERY stage of the way. Tourism services are very people-oriented services, and the service people are plenty and have high contact with the consumers. The consumer interacts with a myriad of service people starting from when he books his ticket and throughout the course of his holiday.
EXPERTISE
Tourism Services are mostly professional services. The service people include travel agents, tour operators, hoteliers, caterers, tour guides, etc. Almost all of these people are trained and are professionals. They might be trained by professional institutes (IATA, IITM, etc.) or by the agency/company they are working for (SOTC).
ORIENTATION TOWARDS PROFITS
All Tourism Services are commercial, and are undertaken with a view to earn profits.
DOMESTIC OR FORIEGN TOURISM
As per 1998 figures, Domestic tourists traveling through the country were 167 million approximately. Tourist arrivals in India for the year as on March 2002 were 23,70,784 (Inbound Tourism). The number of Indian citizens traveling abroad was 38,10,908 (Outbound Tourism).
Chapter 10: How To Market Tourism
(The 7 Ps)
The Product Mix:
Components of a tourism product
The tourism product is essentially an intangible thing. Also, because tourism is a multi-segment industry, the task of formulating a product mix becomes more difficult & challenging.
Selling a holiday is ‘selling dreams’. The way to win the customer’s heart is through the peripheral services provided along with the core product. Thus a tourism product is quite a complex one, including the destination, airline seat, hotel room, occasional tangible products such as souvenirs, a free bag or bottle of whisky, etc.
Innovation in the tourism industry helps to raise the sensitivity in this regard. There is nothing fixed or fundamental about the tourism product. The content factor is within the jurisdiction of the government that undertakes the maintenance, development and conservation of tourist attractions such as parks, museums, beaches, historical treasures, etc. Unless these factors are developed in the right fashion, the marketing professionals would never be successful in making the marketing resources productive.
Thus the direct or indirect patronage of the government is essential to get a positive response. The government and private tourist organizations work together to undertake activities such as developing infrastructural facilities such as transportation, water, banking, Medicare facilities, etc., and also developing and maintain hotels, cottages, havelis, lodges, etc.
The Price Mix
In pricing decisions, the product or the service mix of the tourist organization is important. They have to set prices in line with the quality of services to be made available to the customers. Pricing decisions are influenced by internal and external factors. The tourism professionals are supposed to watch the emerging trends in both the markets. They are required to think in favour of discounting price. These may include discounts for cash payments, seasonal discounts, trade discounts etc. But while offering the discounts, it is not to be forgotten that it may also create image problem since some of the value sensitive tourists may doubt the quality.
The Promotion Mix
Creation of awareness has a far reaching impact. The tourist organizations bear the responsibility of informing, persuading and sensing the potential tourists in a right fashion. The marketers need to use the various components of promotion optimally so that they succeed in increasing the number of habitual users. Promotion helps in maximizing the duration of stay, frequency of visit by offering new tourist products in the same country to areas which hitherto have remained untapped or partially tapped. The various dimensions of tourism promotion are as follows:
Advertising: Advertisement helps in furnishing important information to the actual and potential tourists. Its coverage is wide. Advertising is aimed at the public to create awareness of the travel offers available on a resort and its attractions to influence their business decisions. Intangibility can be compensated with the help of visual exposure of scenes and events. We can project hotel bedrooms, well arranged restaurants and cafeterias, swimming pools etc.
Publicity: It focuses attention on strengthening the public relations measures by developing a rapport with media people and getting their personalized support in publicizing the business. It helps in projecting the positive image of tourists organizations since the prospects trust on the news items publicized by the media people. Eg. Kumarakom in Kerala after Prime Minister A B Vajpayee’s visit. The publicity programme include regular publicity stories and photographs to the newspapers, travel editors, contact with magazines on stories etc. There are different groups in publicity, such as advertising publicity, projected publicity, structural publicity and personal publicity.
Sales promotions: Sales promotion measures are the short term activities seeking to boost sales at peak demand periods to ensure that the firms obtain its market share and are used to help launch a new product or support an ailing or modified one. The tool of sales promotions is designed to appeal particularly to those customers who are price-sensitive. There are a number of techniques to promote sale and the tourist professional need to use them in the face of their requirements vis-à-vis the emerging trends in the business. Eg. In the tourism industry, a travel company offers give-aways to their clients, such as flight bags, wallets for tickets and forex and covers of passport. The hotels offer a number of facilities like shoe shine clothes, first aid sewing kits, shower caps and shampoo. Further, the VIP clients also get fruits and flowers in their rooms.
Thomas Cook offered 3 tier sales promotion based on price and one more novel technique as detailed below:
Cook agreed to match the price of any holiday they sold which was known as price promise. Money back guarantee to the clients who purchase the product or any tour operator known as trading charter. Matching of customers need with a particular holiday known as formal guarantee. A business travel challenge in which the details of expenditure on staff business travel booked through other agents over a 3 months period were submitted by companies to Cook, specially to calculate expected savings, provided the bookings are made through them.Word-of-mouth Promotion: Most communication about tourism takes place by word-of-mouth information which in a true sense is word-of-recommendation. In the tourism industry it is found that the word-of-mouth promoters play the role of a hidden salesforce, who instrumentalize the process of selling. The high magnitude of effectiveness of this tool of promotion is due to high credibility of the channel, specially in the eyes of the potential tourists. The sensitivity of this tool makes it clear that tourist organizations need to concentrate on the quality of services they promise and offer. The marketers or the tourist organizations need to keep their eyes open, identify the vocal persons or the opinion leaders and take a special care of them so that they keep on moving the process of stimulating and creating demand.
Personal Selling: Personal Selling is based on the personal skill of an individual. The oral representation in conversation bears the efficacy of transforming the motivation into persuasion. The travel and hotel business depend considerably on the personal selling. The development of travel and tourism has been possible due to well educated and trained sales personnel. The development of tourism business has been influenced by the services rendered by the travel agents and travel guides since they work as information carriers. Personal selling is the personal presentation of a tangible product or intangible services or ideas to the personal customers. It is important to mention that in the tourism industry, the personnel who attend tourists form an essential ingredient of the product, such as sales personnel are found responsible for dealing with customers behind the counter, the resort representatives cater to the need of tourists when they reach the destination etc. all of them play a vital role in ensuring that the tourism products satisfy the tourists. The phrase- the customer is always right applies specifically to the tourism industry. No reduction in price would compensate for impolite and indecent travel guide, a solvent waiter and a surly or a haughty coach driver. These facts are testimony to the proposition that the travel business is linked with the performance and behaviour of sales personnel or travel staff.
Telemarketing: it is a method of selling in which a professionally sound telemarketer expands the business. The quality of technology and the communicative ability of the telemarketers determine the magnitude of success of this component. In tourism, the travel agents, offices of airways, receptionist, secretaries can’t work efficiently if the telephonic services are not up to the mark. This makes a strong advocacy in favour of recruiting a person considered to be professionally sound, personally-committed sales personnel having an in-built creativity, innovation and imagination.
Place
Place or distribution management is concerned with two things – availability and accessibility.
Researchers in tourism must determine how and where potential customers prefer to buy tourism products and services.
Most tour operators sell their services through travel agents, however some deal directly with the consumers and eliminate middlemen. Other companies may also utilize more than one method of distribution. Airlines, for example, sell tickets through travel agents, and sell seats on flights to tour operators, and also offer travelers to book seats themselves through their own booking offices.
There exist, however, a number of intermediaries in the tourism marketing channel. It depends largely on the channel type. The intangibility feature in the service sector prevents intermediaries from taking possession or ownership of goods. Tourism, however, proves an exception where cuisine and souvenirs are goods and ownership is possible for the intermediaries.
Transport also plays a major role in the tourism industry. It makes the destinations accessible to people from around the world. Also, in the case of tangible products in tourism such as souvenirs and cuisine, transportation becomes a major logistical component.
People
We can’t deny the fact that sophisticated technologies have been successful in accelerating the pace of development. We also agree with this view that new generation of information technologies have simplified the task of decision makers. At the same time we also have to accept the fact that the sophisticated technologies can’t deliver goods to the development process if the employees operating and maintaining these technologies are not of world class. Technologies need due support of human resources who invent, innovate and develop technologies.
Like other industries, the tourism industry depends substantially on management of human resources. The tourism industry is an amalgam of the services of a lot of people and hence this industry cannot work efficiently if the travel agents, tour operators and travel guides lack world class professional excellence. Of course the offices of travel agents depends on the new technology but after all employees and the other staff contribute significantly to the process. The travel guides need professional excellence since the projection of a positive image regarding a destination in particular requires their due cooperation, failing which even the world class services offered by the travel agents are found meaningless. The tour operators also need to manage human resources efficiently.
In the management of people, the related organizations are required to think in favour of developing an ongoing training program so that we find a close relation between the development of technologies and the quality of personnel who are supposed to operate and maintain the same. They need a lot of credentials to fulfill the expectations of the customers. The organization has to make the environmental conditions conducive and focus has to be laid on the incentives to the employees for energizing the process of performance orientation. Employee orientation requires due weightage to efficiency generation, value-orientation and perfection.
In the tourism industry the travel agents and the travel guides are the two most important people who speak a lot about the industry. Hence it is imperative that they have to be at their best at all times. Travel guides especially, are expected to have a lot of patience, good sense of humour, tact to transform the occasional tourists into habitual ones, thorough knowledge of the places, linguistic skills etc.
The Government plays an important role in providing the right kind of people for this industry. As such there are a lot of Govt. and Pvt. Institutes which offer training for the same. At present, the Ministry of Tourism is running 21 Institutes of Hotel Management (IHMs) and Catering Technology and 14 Food craft Institutes (FCIs). The IHMs provide 3-year Diploma in Hotel Management, 1- 1/2 year Post-Graduate Diploma in Accommodation Operations, 1-1/2 year Post-Graduate Diploma in Dietetics and Hospital Food Science, 1-1/2 year Certificate course in Food Production, 6- month Certificate course in Food & Beverage Services, 6- month Certificate course in Hotel and Catering Management, 1-1/2-year Post Diploma in Hotel Administration and P.G. Diploma in Fast Food Operations. The FCIs are engaged in providing the craft Diploma in Cookery, Food & Beverage Service/ Restaurant & Counter service, Reception & Book Keeping, House Keeping and Bakery & Confectionery. The training courses run by the Institutes are designed to suit the needs of the various target groups.
Apart from this The Indian Institute of Travel Management (IITM), established in 1983, by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is filling the vacuum for an institute that develops manpower exclusively for the tourism industry. The institute has successfully undertaken major initiatives for developing human resources required for the tourism industry. The institute took its shape after the National Committee of Tourism, which comprised members of Parliament, recommended that an institute catering to the requirements of tourism industry be set up immediately. The purpose of the institute is to provide academic opportunities to graduates and undergraduates directly and in collaboration with the leading institutes and universities, for successful careers in Holiday and Leisure Management, tour operation, transportation, accommodation and interpretation services. The institute is working with the objective of total professionalism of human resources engaged in business of tourism through diplomas after graduation, specially designed practical training and field research, foreign language training programs, executive development programs for retired defense service personnel, workshops, seminars and conference, tourism orientation talks at school and college levels and tourism promotion competition among young generation. A student who graduates from IITM is absorbed in the middle level executive positions in travel agencies, with tour operators, transport companies, hotels, domestic and international airlines, cargo services, besides getting into government jobs. The institute is also offering courses in computer applications and software studies, basic course of air travel fares and ticketing, basic course on airlines, travel agencies and tour operation management, basic course in air and sea cargo service management, basic course on computer application in travel and tourism industry, diploma in tourism and travel management and foreign language. Apart from IITM there are other institutes like The Institute of Hotel, Cargo and Tourism Management (IHCTM), another one run by World Tourism Organization and various other private institutes catering to the needs of the industry.
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