TLH124: Business and Marketing in the Tourism Sector

1
 Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Marketing Definition.......................................................................................................................3

Discussion on Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning...............................................................3

Discussion on Marketing Mix.........................................................................................................5

Situational analysis using theories of Porter’s five generic force, SWOT and PESTEL................7

Action Plan for the Marketing Campaign......................................................................................10

Detailed Risk Assessment..............................................................................................................12

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13

References......................................................................................................................................14

2
Introduction
The study here promotes the business marketing campaign of the tourism company in the UK
which is popularly known as Expat Explore. This is one of Europe's best value tour operators
and it has been offering quite affordable group vacations for over 15 years with 100 tour
programmes. The company was founded by Carl Crionje And Jakes Maritz in London. The
tourism company offers lucrative offers to the tourists which are proven to be budget-friendly.
Fun and easily affordable tours can be availed in the package format which are Europe Multi-
Country tour, Christmas & New Year package, Europe by Rail, UK and Ireland, and Eastern
Europe tours (expatexplore.com, 2023). The company has a large number of great local suppliers
to ensure group deals at low cost and no standing in queue for the people. The company also
makes travel sustainable. This helps in valuing travel and in being committed to making
responsible travel possible by creating memories that last a lifetime. The company is focusing on
its marketing skills currently to ensure that more tourists are eager to take their services. To do
that they are following the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) and marketing mix
theory. The report aims to analyse external and internal environments for the company by using
Porter's, PEST, and SWOT analysis to get a detailed understanding of the marketing campaign.
Marketing Definition
Marketing has been defined as the activity of promoting or selling products or services. The tours
have been made as passionately as possible by the Expat Explore company to gather their tourist
attention. They are always bound to improve the health and hygiene requirements for tourists and
that is the main marketing USP of the company (Chaffey, and Smith, 2013). Overall they
promote safe travel guidance which is commendable. Marketing is important to manage any kind
of business and keep up with the flow of the budget.
Discussion on Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

3
 Figure 1: STP analysis of the company
(Source: https://expatexplore.com/search/)
Segmentation: Starting from 200 passengers in 2005, there are over 17000 passengers per
annum observed in 2009 (expatexplore.com, 2023). There are more than 50 packages of tour
offered in countries outside UK such as Greece, Ireland, Canada and difefernt parts of Europe.
To manage tourism the company needs to focus on the attraction, accommodation, accessibility,
amenities, activities, affinities, actors, and acts (Ivanov, and Webster, 2019). For the
segmentation people from different backgrounds and different age groups are considered.
Starting from young explorers of the age group 18-25 years, there are people from the middle
age group and older people of 50-60 years who are keen on travelling (expatexplore.com, 2023).
The company spreads its marketing campaign through both online and offline channels. This
helps in reaching out to the youth as well as the elderly people who are not tech-savvy.
Targeting: The target market is specified to the explorer and fun-loving people. There are
Christmas and New Year tour packages created to ensure that the holiday season is fully enjoyed
by the people who work. Expat Explore travel group tours target people of the age group of 18 to
60 years who are keen on travelling and exploring new cultures, food, and lifestyle (Hall et al.
2015). The company's Best of UK and Ireland tours cover 13 days of tour and 6 countries at
$2555 (expatexplore.com, 2023). This is a budget-friendly and lucrative offer for young
explorers and keen travellers (Kotler, 2022).
Positioning: Tour guides often have rewarding and fun careers. In order to become a
recognisable brand the positioning has to be top-notch. A few other competitors of the company

4
are identified as Bakers Dolphin, All Iceland Ltd, BeijingHoliday.com, and Door2Tour.com are
found out (expatexplore.com, 2023). All of these are competing with each other in terms of
power and cost-related issues. Among them, All Iceland Ltd is the highest ranking with a 25
million turnover in FY2022. Other than that Beijing Holiday.com is also trying to secure a good
position in the travel industry.
Discussion on Marketing Mix
Product: The company has tourism products settled that are providing more flexibility and
providing date changes option on bookings. The company uses a tagline that “your adventure
will be ready even if your plans change" (expatexplore.com, 2023). They also provide a 30-day
money-back guarantee. This helps the customer to be assured with the comfort of knowing that
the customer will get a refund of a 10% deposit.

Figure 2: Tourism package products

(Source: https://expatexplore.com/search/)
Price: The tour company offers unrivalled value for money. They specialise in providing the
most affordable and hassle-free group holidays for the people (Mariani et al. 2014). All tours are
conducted by the people who have expertise on managing tour and have ultimate local
knowledge. Transport facilities as well accommodations like 2,3, or 4-star hotels are given at an
affordable price range based on the tour plan. There are cheap yet quality meals provides with
ultimate dicounts for group visitors. One can expect to be within budget while getting the tour

5
done and facing no hidden charges on food and accomodation. The company comes with an
amazing $1220 package for a 7-day Great Britain visit. Moreover, they are offering Taste of
Eastern Europe, Taste of Spain, and Irish Explore at budget price points of 1125, 1090, and 1065
dollars.
Promotion: Social media is one of the most impactful channels of marketing for the company
(Mullins, 2010). They provide quality services by making the USP (unique selling proposition)
clear to limit the impact of tourism on the environment. All the internet advertisements led to the
message of managing sustainability along with giving itenaries on different region of the country
to visit in depth. They promote their brand by giving the return travellers a 10% travel discount.
The company has pamphlets and pages printed that help in travelling with a budget and this is
spread offline.
Place: The place of the marketing includes Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram advertisements. Google advertisements are powerful aspects of marketing (Nickson,
2013). Clicking on ads drives the consumer to their registered website. Moreover, they have their
physical office in London from where they spread leaflets and pamphlets.
Porter’s five forces

6
 Figure 3: Tourism statistics in the UK
(Source: https://www.visitbritain.org/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_image/public/vb-
corporate/Documents-Library/documents/England-documents/
infographic_image_2019_research_summary.png?itok=-EVeNZsc)
Tourism is the world’s largest growing industry and Porter's five forces include considerable
criticism of the company. The forces are as follows:
Bargaining power of customer: The bargaining power of the customer is a high threat in this
case. Tourism is entirely based on its customers. As explained by Ryan (2016), if any of the
customers are not satisfied then there will be issues found with loyalty. The less-priced trips will
be considered important by the tourists.
Bargaining power of supplier: The supplier power is the most effective one in this case.
Contacting local suppliers and local guides helps the company to come up with cheap prices for
their tourism products (Sigala et al. 2012). The tourism, leisure, and hospitality industry is
improving the concepts at its best, and hence to stay ahead of the competition the suppliers need
to be satisfied.
The threat of substitution: Anytime the company can face substitution. Tourism is open to all and
anyone with prior knowledge of conducting a tour can start a business. That is why if new
companies start coming up with new plans of tour then there will be high competition and the
threat of substitution is medium. Companies coming up with more sustainable and safer tour
ideas can snatch the position of the company that it currently holds.
The threat of new entry: The threat of new entry to the market is medium. Travelling the world
includes licensing and various political issues to be solved. Hence, starting a company with new
views is not an easy one.
Competitive rivalry: The competitive rivalry is at its peak with other brands such as Bakers
Dolphin, All Iceland Ltd, BeijingHoliday.com, and Door2Tour.com, and hence the competitive
rivalry is found to be top-notch (González et al. 2021).
Situational analysis using theories of Porter’s five generic force, SWOT and PESTEL
The company can be seen with issues of internal and external environment. Conducting a tour
and that too sustainably is only possible through analysing the current situation. The company
works passionately and considers every tourist important. However, several internal factors lead
to attention such as:

7
Strength Weakness
● Europe tour packages are less than ● There is a lack of professionalism
$1500 an Expat Explore among the tour guides
(expatexplore.com, 2023) ● The elderly people often need
● Return customers are given 10% additional support on travelling and
discounts the company is not always equipped
● No standing in queues ● Even though the company is on its
● Hassle-free travel with sustainability way to establishing sustainability there
● If cancelled within 30 days 10% of the is natural resource overconsumption
deposit is given back seen such as soil erosion and
● Secured and insured travel with cheap contribution to garbage spread, the
food and accommodation threat to endangered species

Opportunities Threat
● There are opportunities such as using ● The challenge faced by travel
local talent as guides to ensure the companies is the heavy taxation
guidance is correct and top-notch imposed by the government
● Giving training to the people on ● The need to focus on marketing social
professionalism and making sure that media marketing is not enough
all tourists are getting the same ● Globalisation is reducing the distance
attention (Kozak, and Buhalis, 2019) and people are keen to experience the
● Improving website content and tour in VR (virtual reality), rather than
introducing prompt replies along with physically experiencing it.
instant messaging services to keep the
people updated throughout the
journey.
● Discussion on every person's preferred
timings and send them prior updates
on the change of schedule

Table 1: SWOT table analysis

(Source: Author)

8
The SWOT table analysis shows the point of strength and weakness for the company. There are
several opportunities and the company needs to grab one to improve their services to the tourists
group. The below-written table shows the external environmental analysis of the company such
as:

Political ● Opening up borders to foreigners is making it easier to travel to a new

country
● There are heavy taxation that the tourism companies need to pay to the
government to stay ahead of all in the race (Ivanov et al. 2020)
● Political stability is the major factor in any tourism planning and
culturally rich destinations are the first choice for travellers other than
politically unstable countries like Syria, and Iraq.

Environmental ● Environmental aspects such as transport pollution are creating issues

for the tourism industry
● Tourists may be disrespectful to nature and local culture which is
disadvantageous

Social ● Racial acceptance is increasing which is reducing the safety risks that
the tourist used to feel before (expatexplore.com, 2023)
● Constant online presence and social media are helping individuals to
travel on a low budget with safety. People are also loving to explore
different types of cultures

Technological ● Technology is allowing better transport and giving full information

about a place to visit
● Technology is efficient and keeps up wifi ready so that there is not a
single moment spent in dullness

Economical ● Rising disposable incomes help people to have more money to spend
than ever before which is creating more repeat customers for the tour
company
● Traditional travel accommodation is being altered by the help of
Airbnb and it is making travel more accessible. It is part of the shared

9
 economy whereby individuals exchange goods and services directly
with each other by facilitating services.

Legal ● Not many legal factors are included in this industry

(expatexplore.com, 2023)

Table 2: PESTEL ANALYSIS

(Source: Author)
Porters five generic forces
This is based on the concepts of overall cost leadership, differentiation, cost focus and
differentiation focus. In this case the applicable concepts are:
Overall cost leadership: The tour company is being sustainable as well as price sensitive by
being cost effective and promoting effective pricing. They are following overall cost leadership
by projecting itself as a quality tour provider at cheap price rate starting from as low as $1000.
Cost-focus: Here, the company is using cost-focus leadership where the torusim company is
showing itself as a budegt friendly compay by solely projecting as low cost tourism operators. In
this way by lessening price they are attracting tourists (Ivanov et al. 2020)..
Hence, it is clear from the above discussion that the industry is quite profitable. The company
needs to focus on its strengths so that it can improve its hospitality.
Action Plan for the Marketing Campaign
The action plan is to create a plan that suits the requirements of the company and several steps
undertaken to give customised services to the customers.

Target Market Action Responsible Time-bound Measurement

person

Overseas MARKETING Marketing 5 months Quarterly market

a) Billboards through Manager mapping update
billboards in the
UK and outside
UK such as in
the Europe,
Ireland
(expatexplore.co
m, 2023)

b) Representat Understanding Marketing 3 months Contacting the

10
 ion the local cultures Manager hotels and
and finding the restaurants in the
best-in-class tour destination via
plans with less video calling
budget

c) Trade Participating in Marketing 5 months ROI report

shows trade fairs and Manager following every
shows helps to show
meet new people
and understand
the opponent's
strategy
(expatexplore.co
m, 2023)

d) Volunteeri Connecting with Marketing and 3 months Documenting

ng tourism companies to research every stage and
host office tours manager releasing it on
social media to
gather a fan
following

e) SMS and Using telephone- Marketing 3 months Seeing how

phone related Manager many callbacks
marketing marketing so that are being
many people can received by the
be reached. SMS company from
services help to the customer
connect more of (Ryan, 2016)
tourists as
lucrative offers
are sent via it

d) Social Being prominent Marketing 5 months Quarterly sales

media, in marketing and Manager calendar review
email, and advertisements
Google through weekly
Advertisem reminders and
ents updating
newsletters. A
sales calendar
can be created
from market
mapping which
relates to:

11
 ● Who to
see
● When to
see
● To whom
one needs
to look at
(expatexp
lore.com,
2023)

e) Influencer This will be a Marketing 1 month Checking the

marketing completely new Manager increase in
addition to the Google traffic
marketing with increased
domain advertisement

f) Training Existing Marketing and 1 month Checking

existing employees employment competitor
employees should be trained manager profiles as well
to manage the as rating the
performances employees so
that they provide that they perform
on the the best
Table 3: SMART objectives
(Source: Author)
The smart objectives help to understand what the company is going to do in the future so that the
marketing goals can be well achieved.
Detailed Risk Assessment
The risk assessment of this plan includes an overall justification of the plan as follows:

Risk Description Impact Expectation Severity Response Response plan

type

The UK Government's 10 8 8 Accept All the traveller

post-Covid -19 travel will be tested for
rules and regulations any potential
have been stricter and issues via rapid
travelling groups can test kits and
become an issue for their medical
the operators (Vo history will be
Thanh et al. 2020) checked before
it's too late

12
Including influencer 10 7 7 Accept Finding a cheap
marketing might contract to
increase the budget of manage the
the tours and result in people around
scope creep for the the company to
company

Lack of maintenance 8 6 5 Accept To handle the

of the website due to website there is
unprofessional people a requirement to
hiring (González, et hire
al. 2021) professionals so
that prompt
responses can be
gained
Table 4: Risk management table
(Source: Author)
Conclusion
The report has talked about the marketing strategies that will be followed by the chosen tourism
company. The company is planning to maintain a highly professional attitude by enabling
prompt services and quick responses. Each member specialised in a particular area and
delivering a successful project is possible through a communication plan and tracking the overall
budget assigned to every trip. The report has successfully found out the internal and external
dilemmas of the company and explained how those issues can be handled strategically. The
benefits, as well as cons of the plan, have also been discussed here.

13
References
Books
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital
marketing. Routledge.
Hall, C.M., Gossling, S. and Scott, D. eds., 2015. The Routledge handbook of tourism and
sustainability. Routledge.
Ivanov, S. and Webster, C. eds., 2019. Robots, artificial intelligence, and service automation in
travel, tourism and hospitality. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Kotler, P., 2022. Marketing for hospitality and tourism. UK.: Pearson Education Limited.
Mariani, M.A.R.C.E.L.L.O., Baggio, R., Buhalis, D. and Longhi, C. eds., 2014. Tourism
management, marketing, and development: Volume I: The importance of networks and
ICTs (Vol. 1). Springer.
Mullins, J.L., 2010. Management & Organizational Behaviour 9th edition, London. Financial
times pitman publication.
Nickson, D., 2013. Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.
Ryan, D., 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital
generation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Sigala, M., Christou, E. and Gretzel, U. eds., 2012. Social media in travel, tourism and
hospitality: Theory, practice and cases. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
Journals
González, I.O., Camarero, C. and Cabezudo, R.S.J., 2021. SOS to my followers! The role of
marketing communications in reinforcing online travel community value during times of
crisis. Tourism management perspectives, 39, p.100843.
Ivanov, S., Webster, C., Stoilova, E. and Slobodskoy, D., 2020. Biosecurity, automation
technologies and economic resilience of travel, tourism and hospitality companies. Sorarxiv Pap,
pp.1-34.
Kozak, M. and Buhalis, D., 2019. Cross–border tourism destination marketing: Prerequisites and
critical success factors. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 14, p.100392.
Sharma, A., Sharma, S. and Chaudhary, M., 2020. Are small travel agencies ready for digital
marketing? Views of travel agency managers. Tourism Management, 79, p.104078.

14
Vo Thanh, T., Seraphin, H., Okumus, F. and Koseoglu, M.A., 2020. Organizational
ambidexterity in tourism research: A systematic review. Tourism Analysis, 25(1), pp.137-152.
Website
expatexplore.com, 2023. About Us, Available at: https://expatexplore.com/ [Accessed on
12/06/2023]

15