2

Biyani's Think Tank

Concept based notes

Tourism Marketing
BBA

Bethcy
Dept. of Commerce & Management Biyani Girls College, Jaipur

Published by :

Tourism Marketing

Think Tanks Biyani Group of Colleges

Concept & Copyright :

Biyani Shikshan Samiti

Sector-3, Vidhyadhar Nagar, Jaipur-302 023 (Rajasthan) Ph : 0141-2338371, 2338591-95 Fax : 0141-2338007 E-mail : acad@biyanicolleges.org Website :www.gurukpo.com; www.biyanicolleges.org

Edition : 2012

While every effort is taken to avoid errors or omissions in this Publication, any mistake or omission that may have crept in is not intentional. It may be taken note of that neither the publisher nor the author will be responsible for any damage or loss of any kind arising to anyone in any manner on account of such errors and omissions.

Leaser Type Setted by : Biyani College Printing Department

Preface

am glad to present this book, especially designed to serve the needs of the

students. The book has been written keeping in mind the general weakness in understanding the fundamental concepts of the topics. The book is self-explanatory and adopts the Teach Yourself style. It is based on question -answer pattern. The language of book is quite easy and understandable based on scientific approach. Any further improvement in the contents of the book by making corrections, omission and inclusion is keen to be achieved based on suggestions from the readers for which the author shall be obliged. I acknowledge special thanks to Mr. Rajeev Biyani, Chairman & Dr. Sanjay Biyani, Director (Acad.) Biyani Group of Colleges, who are the backbones and main concept provider and also have been constant source of motivation throughout this endeavour. They played an active role in coordinating the various stages of this endeavour and spearheaded the publishing work. I look forward to receiving valuable suggestions from professors of various educational institutions, other faculty members and students for improvement of the quality of the book. The reader may feel free to send in their comments and suggestions to the under mentioned address.

Bethcy

Tourism Marketing

Syllabus
Unit 1: Introduction: Meaning and Definition of tourism, Purpose of tour, Distinction between tourist and visitor, role of tourism, Travel and tourism in the 21 st century, Trends and Future prospects of tourism, Role and functions of RTDC, ITDC and Department of tourism. Unit 2: Conceptual Framework and Type of Tourism: Meaning of travellers, Types of tourism: Domestic, regional, intra-regional and international tourism, cultural, adventure, sports, social, wedding, medical, coastal and beach, pilgrimage, wildlife, Linkages and interdependence between domestic and international tourism. Unit 3: Marketing of Tourism: Meaning and Definition of Tourism Marketing, Need and Importance, Marketing Mix, Marketing Environment, Trends in Marketing, Marketing Communication, Tourist Market Segmentation. Unit 4: Seven Ps of Tourism Marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process and Physical Evidence Unit 5: Tourism in India: Growth of Tourism in India, Benefits from Tourism, Barriers to Growth, Tourist Activities, Tourism Policy of India, Prospects and Challenges of Tourism Marketing, Comparison of Indian Tourism with International Tourism (Medical, Cultural, Religion, Historical and Natural Perspectives)

Content
S.No
1 2 3 4 5 6 Introduction Conceptual Framework and Type of Tourism Marketing of Tourism Seven Ps of Tourism Marketing Tourism in India Key Terms

Chapter Name

Tourism Marketing

Unit 1

Introduction
Q1: A1: Explain the meaning and purpose of tourism? Travelling to different uncontaminated or undistributed places with the sole objective of admiring, enjoying and studying the natural beauty around along with its historical and cultural aspects is termed as tourism. According to World Tourism Organization, tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. In the recent years, tourism has contributed immensely towards economic growth. The problem of unemployment across the country has also been solved to a large extent with the onset of the tourism industry. India being a country with diverse cultural and geographical features, has contributed much more to the growth of tourism industry. The concept of tourism originated primarily in the Sanskrit literature and three terms can be derived out of that. They are as follows: Tirthatan: It is basically a religious visit which involves going to places of religious importance. Paryatana: It refers to going out and visiting places for the purpose of gaining knowledge and for pleasure. Deshatana: It is an activity involving moving out of the country for economic gains. Purpose of Tour: 1. People basically undertake tour for the purpose of entertainment and leisure. 2. Business related tours provide way for gaining better insight in different areas. 3. Travelling to different places helps understand the basic culture and heritage of the particular region or country. 4. Provides opportunity for meeting people with varied backgrounds, culture, language, religion etc. 5. To get a flavour of the distinct and tasty cuisines of different countries.

Q2: A2:

What is the role of tourism in the overall development of the economy? Tourism is a one of the fastest growing industry and is also recognized as the smokeless industry across the world. It serves as the channel for regular income in an economy and is also an indicator for foreseeing the process of economic growth and development and also a source of cultural assimilation in various countries. There are many developed countries that are bestowed with vast amount of material artefacts, cultural heritage and lifestyles involving fairs and festivals that act as a great source of revenue generation for the tourism industry. After Information technology, tourism sector is considered to be the second largest business areas that has posed a consistent growth year on year for the last few decades and helps hold on to substantial foreign exchange amount for the country yielding to its growth and thus the growth of tourism. The growth of tourism is largely depends on how the country positions and markets its attractions and different destinations. Wherever this is ensured and executed in the right manner has resulted in the growth of tourism and thus the success for the industry is obvious. Domestic tourism has also become a significant part of the tourism sector. Domestic tourists have gained greater significance in the market. A research conducted in 2003 indicates that there were more domestic tourists visiting various destinations within the country compared to international tourists and experts suggest this trend in tourism is said to continue till this day. One significant shift that domestic tourism brings is that the urban population will reach out to the rural areas of the country and thus increasing spend in the underdeveloped parts of the country creating opportunities of redistribution of wealth and economic development. This in turn also offers employment opportunities and creates a sense of attachment in the rural population. It also generates awareness if ones own country with regard to its environment and culture. What are the trends and future prospects of the tourism industry in India? As one of the largest and fastest growing industry, tourism has increasingly acted as a source of employment, income and wealth generation in many countries. International tourism brings in the Lions share of export earnings and foreign exchange receipts as compared to any other industry.

Q3: A3:

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But apart from providing considerable benefits for many regions, communities and countries, the rapid expansion of tourism industry has posed a threat to the environment as well as well as the socio cultural factors, environmental degradation has become a major problem for regions rich in tourism as therefore there is an increasing need for promoting substantial development so as to maximize socio-economic benefits and minimize environmental impacts. Tourism has achieved the status of the most remarkable phenomena in terms of socio economic factors in the 21st century. Earlier it was considered as an activity relatively enjoyed by a small group of people who were well-off. It gradually grew into a massive phenomenon especially after the 2nd world war. Now it has attained a stage where it has reached to a large number of people across the world and also proved as a significant source of employment. Countries are giving more priority to international tourism than to domestic tourism. Domestic tourism accounts for 80% of the various tourist activities but it only accounts for the redistribution of the national income regionally. On the other hand, international tourism acts as the biggest source of foreign exchange receipts. Research indicate that earnings from foreign exchange accounts for more value as compared to the export value of motor vehicle, petroleum products, telecommunications or any other product or service However the 11th September terrorist attacks in New York in USA has posed a threat to the tourism industry as the tourism market across the globe fell by a significant percentage even to the level of threatening the existence of the industry. Particularly the attacks had major impacts on business travel, air transport and long haul travel. It was estimated that there was a 15% drop in travel reservations worldwide. Despite of the industry slowdown not all sectors of the tourism industry were affected. E.g. luxury travel and air travel were affected but this significantly increased the number of people using other modes of transportation like road and rail transportation. This indicated that people were still travelling now mostly by avoiding air transport. People did reduce the number of leisure travel but the amount of business travel continued to the consistent over the years and eventually people travelling for leisure also picked up over a period of time and thus brought the tourism industry back to its growth trends. Even though the economic downturn had an impact on the tourism industry and resulted in low income generation but despite of all these odds in past years, it is estimated that in the longer run there will be significant growth in the tourism industry with special focus on international tourism. The reason can be

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attributed to the discretionary growth in earnings, improvement in standard of living, decreasing travel costs, improvement and expansions of various modes of transportation, increase in leisure as well as other factors. The world is slowly turning into global village where the jobs are done not necessarily in the country where the final goods are consumed but really at places where the expertise lies in building the product for final consumption. For E.g. we will find car consumers across the world but the manufacturing is largely done in technological advanced countries like Japan and Germany. This not just means that the exports and imports of goods but it also results in a lot of business travels. Another example is India which is considered to be the technology hub of the world. This has attracted a lot global IT based frontend and backend work to come to India also resulting in a lot of people travelling back and forth between the consumer country (e.g. USA, Europe) and supplier country (India, China). Long term forecasts have been made by the world tourism organisation which asserts that there will be an increase in the number of international arrivals and it is expected to reach the 1.6 billion mark by the year 2020. Q4: A4: Explain the roles and functions of RTDC? Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation is a company owned fully by the Rajasthan Government. The company has its headquarters at Jaipur and is registered under the companies Act 1956. Role: The role of RTDC is to grant the customers the opportunity to experience the beauty and charm of the various exotic destinations of Rajasthan. It provides the privilege to understand and discover more about Rajasthan. Functions: 1. RTDC plays a vital role in developing, executing and scheming projects for accelerating and promoting tourism in the state. 2. Tourism gives rise to various motels, cafeterias and bars. The management of these numerous restaurants and other such setups is also one of the major functions of RTDC. 3. To develop and organize various package tours, entertainment, shopping etc for the customers in order to provide customised services to them. 4. With established extensive network of marketing, the organization helps promote tourism at both national and international levels.

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Q5: A5:

Explain the roles and functions of ITDC? The India Tourism Development Corporation is a government of India undertaking which came into being in October 1966. Role: The India Tourism Development Corporation has played a pioneer role in the progress of the tourism industry. It has helped in developing, promoting and expanding the concept of tourism in the country. Functions: 1. One of the main functions is the construction, management and taking over of the various travellers restaurants, beach resorts and market hotels. 2. Providing different kinds of services arising out of tourism like entertainment, transport and other conventional services. 3. Production and distribution of the publicity materials to the tourists. 4. Providing consultancy and management services within the country as well as abroad. 5. Providing value for money solutions that are innovative so as to cater to the needs of the tourism development. Explain the roles and functions of the Department of Tourism? The department of tourism is the apex body involved in formulating various national programmes and policies related to tourism. It also coordinates the activities of various agencies of the central Government, State Government and other private sectors for promoting and developing tourism in India. The Union Minister for Tourism is the head of the department and the Minister of State for Tourism supports the same. Functions: 1. It takes care of all matters related to policy which includes manpower development, promotion and marketing, development policies, incentives etc. 2. Planning and co-ordinating with various departments, ministries and State Governments. 3. Regulating the set standards and guidelines 4. Issue and implementation of guidelines related to product and infrastructure development. 5. Setting up of guidelines and standards for human resource development. 6. Creating strategies for marketing and publicity. 7. Monitoring, researching, analyzing and evaluating different areas and aspects.

Q6: A6:

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8. Maintaining co-operation at the international level. 9. Co-ordination of budget and other matters related to it.

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CASE STUDY
Study on availability of tourism services in Rajasthan with the view of sustainable Long Term Growth Key Facts about Rajasthan Tourism Among all the states in India, the state of Rajasthan has emerged as the prime destination for international and domestic tourists. Except a sea-beach and snow-clad mountains, it offers everything to the tourists. The tourism products of Rajasthan have even become internationally famous such as palace on wheels, heritage hotels, camels safaris, and wild life sanctuaries/national parks. This industry in Rajasthan is also one of the most flourishing industries in the state. The numbers of tourists arriving in Rajasthan in 2010 alone were over 26 crores, out of which 12 lakhs (~10%) tourists were foreigners. Considering, the 2010 statistics, tourism accounts for roughly 8% of Rajasthan's total GDP. Business Case A study was conducted to assess the supply of tourist facilities to support the growing demand of services because of the growth in tourism in the state. This study was conducted because the desert ecosystem is fragile and continuously increasing number of tourists arrivals have resulted in environmental issues and there was challenge in terms of how the locals perceived the growth in tourism. Outcomes of Research The immediate outcome of the study was that Rajasthan was not well prepared for the increasing number of tourist arrivals. The increase in tourists was not resulting in increase in tourism services. The top under prepared cities that came out of the analysis were Ajmer (Including Pushkar), Jaipur, Mount Abu and Udaipur. These 4 cities apparently also hosted the maximum number of tourists visiting Rajasthan. Roughly 30% of tourists visiting Rajasthan were visiting these 4 states with Ajmer and Pushkar contributing to roughly 50% of this share. Key Recommendation The key recommendations made basis the research was to continuously invest in building Quality infrastructure and amenities with focus on the targeted 4 cities.

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The new services were built with focus on making sure that the amenities were Accessible to Tourists and were built to meet real needs of the tourists and not just as an activity per say. During the design phase there was attention given to the fact that the amenities be built closer to where tourists want them and that they are accessible by Road and Rails. To build quality accommodation facilities RTDC is partnering with private organisations to build quality accommodation services for visitors and especially for foreign tourists. While planning for the accommodation services there was high focus on Ajmer/Pushkar Districts since they were the most underdeveloped to cater to growing tourism followed by Mount Abu. Building the infrastructure will also ensure that there is more than enough employment opportunity related within the states and cities which should positively improve the perception of locals about growth of tourism in the state. Moreover the Government and RTDC will have to substantially invest in marketing of Rajasthan tourism, which will not only result in continuous growth of tourism in state but will also improve the brand of RTDC among locals. Questions: Q1) Describe the impact of awareness and research in Tourism management? Q2) Do you agree with the view of the researcher that, there was a need to develop infrastructure since the city was seeing growth in tourism even without the investment? Please share your responses with detailed elaborations basis long term vision for the state? The research team indicated that there is a need to market RTDC as a rand recognized across the country? Basis your understanding of Marketing in Tourism please elaborate what steps could RTDC take and detail each recommendations with how it will help RTDC to grow its brand image?

Q3)

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Multiple Choice Questions

1. Tourism is: a. Travel for leisure b. Travel for business purpose c. Travel for religious purpose d. Travel for leisure, business as well as other purposes. 2. Tourism is a major creator of jobs in the world. Approximately what percentage of the global employment is represented by tourism? a. 2% b. 8% c. 20% d. 50% 3. Purpose of tour is for: a. Entertainment b. Gaining Knowledge c. Understanding culture d. All of the above 4. Tourism accounts for more than 10% of the worlds GDP. What does GDP stands for? a. Gross Demand Profile b. Gross Domestic Profile c. Gross Domestic Product d. General Domestic Product 5. Domestic Tourism is: a. Travelling in a country for a day b. Travelling to far off places. c. Travelling to outside countries for six months.

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d. Travelling within the country. 6. Which of the following statements is correct? a. The majority of tourism in the world is international b. The majority of tourism in the world is domestic. c. Domestic tourism is a minority pursuit. d. International tourism accounts for more than 50% of all travel in the world. 7. The greatest source of foreign exchange is: a. Domestic Tourism b. Regional Tourism c. International Tourism d. Intra-Regional Tourism 8. RTDC stands for: a. Rajasthan Trade Development Corporation b. Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation c. Rajasthan Tourism Development Company d. Rajasthan Tour Development Company 9. ITDC stands for: a. International Trade Development Corporation b. India Tourism Development Corporation c. India Trade Development Corporation d. India Tour Development Company

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Unit 2

Conceptual Framework and Type of Tourism

Q1: A1: Give a brief explanation of the various types of tourism? There are various types of tourism and they are as follows: 1. Domestic Tourism: Domestic tourism also has gained importance in the recent years. It basically comprises of the activities of people of a given country who are travelling and staying at places within the country but outside their usual and daily environment. 2. Regional Tourism: When any tourism activity remains concentrated to any particular region, it is termed as regional tourism. Regional tourism helps attracting potential tourists who are keen in visiting these often unvisited and unfamiliar areas. This paves the way for further development of the region. 3. Intra-regional Tourism: Intra-regional tourism basically refers to tourism within a particular region. Intra-regional tourism has gained popularity in the last years due to security reasons. For e.g. the Arab tourists, after the 9/11 terror attacks prefer to spend vacations and visit places within the Arab countries. 4. International Tourism: Travelling globally outside the home country or region is termed as international tourism. This is basically a temporary movement where people move from their resident places to other places for health, business, recreational or other reasons. 5. Cultural Tourism: This section of tourism has a basic concern with a particular region or countrys culture, the background of people residing there, their art, architecture and other

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such elements that has played a pivotal role in shaping their way of life. Cultural tourism has gained profound interest in India as it is a country having a great past with great traditions. Therefore any tourism in India has some cultural aspect and that is why it is termed as cultural tourism. A considerable impact of culture can be sensed by any foreigner who visits India. 6. Adventure Tourism: This kind of tourism is also gaining popularity because of its opportunity for exploring and discovering different areas. Here the traveller gets the opportunity for expecting the unexpected by travelling to remote or exotic or even hostile areas. It gives the participants an experience outside their comfort zone. A variety of activities can be included in adventure tourism like trekking, mountaineering, bungee jumping, rafting, mountain biking and so on. 7. Sports Tourism: Sports tourism is popular among the sports lovers which involves travelling to places for watching various sporting events. These sporting events can be Cricket World Cup, Football World Cup, Olympics, and Formula 1 Grand Prix etc. It is estimated that sports tourism is expected to grow at a rate of 6% in the coming next five to six years. 8. Social Tourism: Social tourism is a complex and diverse phenomena which includes tourism for families, workers, associations, for promoting social cohesion, personality development or for any non profit purpose. It gives basic right to all persons involved in it irrespective of their variant situations and helps promote their socialization and cultural development. 9. Wedding Tourism: With the increasing interest of foreigners in the grand wedding functions organized in the country, wedding tourism is gaining importance. The distinctive religious ceremonies and celebrations that take place during wedding helps unleash the rich cultural heritage of India. It provides the participants a firsthand experience of the various preparations done by both the parties for wedding. It helps in exploring the hidden facets of Indian wedding at the same time enjoying the hospitality offered during these occasions.

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10. Medical Tourism: There can be two facets of medical travel or medical tourism. The first refers to people who travel across international borders for obtaining better health care. The second indicates travel by the healthcare professionals to various places for imparting and delivering healthcare services. Services typically required by travellers include complex surgeries like joint replacement, dental surgery, cardiac surgery etc. Medical tourism has been identified as a national industry by over 50 countries. However, there may be differences in the measures of quality across the globe. 11. Costal and Beach Tourism: This section of tourism refers to travelling to places rich in coastal zones and offshore coastal waters. This is also a rapidly growing part of the tourism industry as a significant part of the population of tourists is interested in visiting the coasts and beaches. 12. Pilgrimage Tourism: With the growing spiritual awakening among people, pilgrimage tourism has also grown by leaps and bounds. This basically involves travel to certain sacred places for pilgrimage. Such pilgrimage holidays are perfect solutions for the purification of mind, body and soul. The secularism of our country and the diverse religious patterns followed gives immense importance to pilgrimage tourism. 13. Wildlife Tourism: Wildlife tourism is broadly related to wildlife and involves travel to destinations for observing the local fauna. Exploration of marine life and bird watching also forms a part of wildlife tourism. The growing interest in wildlife has further enhanced the potential for growth within this sector of the tourism industry.

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CASE STUDY

Tourism in Adverse Environment The popularity of tourism is increasing in extreme environments. This can be better termed as adventure tourism and the number of people involved in it has increased drastically in the past years. The reason behind is that people these days have become more adventurous and are happy in taking risks. Some other reasons are: Extreme environments are ideal locations for trekking, river rafting, snorkelling, jeep tours etc. People are more interested in doing something different and unusual on holidays. Best of sceneries and wildlife can be seen in such places. People now have more disposable income to visit and spend at extreme locations. Adventure sports are gaining popularity through television programmes and advertisements. Easier and quicker access to places to these places through improvements in transportation. But Tourism in these extreme environments can also be damaging due to the fragile nature of these environments. Increased tourists activities lead to cutting of trees which in turn destroy the habitats. Also deforestation leads to flooding and soil erosion. Antarctica is such an extreme environment where increased tourism in the past few years has caused considerable damage to the continent. Tourists have trampled planets and have distributed wildlife. Litter dropped into water and fuel spilled from the ships has caused damage to the molluscs and fishes feeding there. Here comes the role of Eco-Tourism which is beneficial to overcome these adverse impacts of tourism and protect the environment. This basically involves conservation and protection of environment by the local organisations and local people residing in these places. Questions: Q1) How can adventure tourism be promoted in the extremity of environment? Q2) How can Eco-Tourism overcome the setbacks in adventure tourism?

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Multiple Choice Questions

1. Regional tourism is: a. Travel from one region to the another b. Travel within a region c. Travel from one country to another d. Travel within a country 2. Adventure tourism is: a. Travel to desert places b. Travel to hilly areas c. Travel to remote, extreme and adventurous areas d. Travel to mountain places. 3. Sports tourism is: a. Travelling to watch sporting events. b. Travelling for leisure. c. Travelling to play sports d. Travelling to gain sports knowledge. 4. One of the forms of adventure or tourism in extreme environment is: a. Visit to museums b. Mountain Biking c. Visit to restaurants and bars d. Bird watching. 5. Pilgrimage tourism helps in: a. Purification of mind b. Purification of outer body parts c. Purification of inner parts d. Purification of mind, body and soul

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6. Find the correct statement a. The majority of international tourism is by car. b. Sea travel is the most common transport mode for leisure tourism. c. Most tourists travel by air. d. Surface transport is more popular than air transport. 7. As per the tourist definition, what is the maximum allowable length of stay in any particular destination before you cease to be counted as a tourist? a. 6 Months b. One year c. One day d. One month 8. Which of the following best describes the concept of leisure? a. Free time. b. A feeling of time pressure. c. An attitude of being free to choose. d. A waste time.

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Unit 3

Marketing of Tourism
Q1: A1: Explain the meaning of Tourism Marketing? Tourism marketing can be described as a process where both marketers and tourists enter into an agreement for exchanging certain benefits and these benefits are evaluated by both the parties beforehand. Tourism marketing can also be described as a managerial process which includes the activities of planning, organising, directing and controlling of marketing responsibilities. Explain the need of Tourism Marketing? The following points illustrate the need of tourism marketing: 1) Raising awareness of the consumers about the product of the service is extremely important. Tourism marketing helps in bringing the attention if the consumers towards the different aspects of the tourism product. 2) It helps in motivating the consumers by tapping into his wants. Effective tourism marketing helps convince the customers to make use of the product or service. 3) It helps in promoting the image of a particular region or country. If done in an effective way, it can even manipulate the view that tourists have regarding a country and alter their perceptions and persuade them to visit them. 4) Hospitality is one of the major areas of the tourism industry. Consumers while selecting tourist destinations make sure that they provide high quality hospitality. This can again be ensured by tourism marketing which helps portray the standard of hospitality expected by them. What do you understand by the term Marketing Mix? Marketing Mix can be considered as a combination or mix of tactics used to effectively market a target audience. It can also be defined as the combination of efforts, elements and tools used to achieve the marketing objectives. It is very

Q2: A2:

Q3: A3:

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essential for the businesses to provide the right offers to the right customers with the right prizes and at the right time and marketing mix is the key to it. It helps in responding positively to the external environment that is highly uncertain as well as uncontrollable. Q4: A4: Give a brief explanation of marketing environment in the context of tourism industry? Tourism is an industry that is highly susceptible to the external forces and any time mishaps like wars, terrorist attacks and natural calamities can break out. This will create a visible and immediate impact on the flow of tourists. Therefore, an in-depth study of the marketing environment is extremely essential to address these issues and maintain the consistency in business. Tourism marketing can be considered as open systems consisting of a number of inter dependent entities. The tourism marketing environment can be classified into the following. 1) Internal Environment: It refers to the core system and is controllable by the firm. It is the particular organizations responsibility to alter and adapt to the changing requirements of the external environment. E.g. Indian airlines started apex and discounted fares with the entry of other private and low cost carriers in order to adapt to the changing environment. 2) External macro Environment: It is considered to be the nearest marketing environment that directly affects the tourism marketing activities. It includes the following a. Intermediaries: They are known as middle men who are utilized by marketers to reach to wider market places. They serve as a link between the firm and the tourists. They are also termed as agents and if they acquire a dominant position and take control of the markets, the principals approach will have to be changed accordingly.

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b. Suppliers: tourism product is a mix of various services like transport, accommodation etc which are procured from different suppliers. If any change is observed in the quality, price and availability of these inputs the product and its marketing will also change automatically. c. Competitors: a companys strength and weakness can be decided by its competitors. It forces the firm to bring changes in its marketing approach. The competitors may be similar fields, related fields or sometimes unrelated ones thus suitable strategies need to be devised to face such competition. d. Interest Groups: The tourism activity many times creates problems for culture, ecology and society. So it is the duty of the interest groups to address these issues and ask for promoting eco tourism. e. Tourists: Marketing strategy is largely decided by the consumers or tourists as it all starts with their needs. Therefore any change in the attitudes, profile and behaviour of the consumers will have an impact on marketing for example, with the increasing popularity of international education, student tourism is increasing 3) Macro Environment: The larger environment where the tourism activity takes place is termed as macro environment. The changes that occur have a direct impact on tourism or the impact is through the micro environment. It includes the following a. Political Environment: Tourism Marketing can be influenced by the political environment which includes pressure groups, rules and regulations, policies and legislations. b. Economic environment: Any economic activity gets influenced by the economic environment of a country. The important developments in a countrys economy such as growth of new sectors, growth of overall economy, easy availability of foreign

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exchange, tax structure and inflation affects the tourism industry and its marketing. c. Social environment: The buying patterns of the tourists and societies response to tourism can be judged by the social environment. Some of its major elements are group behaviour, changing mindsets of people, increasing role of women, demography and life style changes. d. Technological environment: technology has brought drastic changes in the tourism business. With faster transportation technologies, tourists can easily move to far off places. With the onset of online distribution systems and internet, payment and distribution mechanism has become easier. e. Natural environment: Natural resources and climate are considered as key resources of tourism industry which needs to be managed effectively. Tourism industry has given rise to problems of deforestation, inequitable usage of resources and urban problems. Thus, it is a need of tourism marketing to promote nature friendly practises. Q5: How is Market Segmentation done in the tourism industry? A11: According to Victor T.C. Middleton, Market segmentation is the process whereby producers organise their knowledge of customer groups and select for particular attention, those whos needs and wants they are best able to supply with their products. Hence market segmentation involves dividing the prospective markets into easily identifiable groups. Market segmentation is essential in tourism industry because all tourists are different with different wants and desires. Tourist market segmentation can be done on the following grounds.

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1. Geographic Factors: tourism is an activity which involves Millions of people from different international boundaries. As a result, their needs, attitudes and desires also differ as per their geographic regions. These varied needs of tourists coming from different geographic regions must be identified and then segmented into homogeneous groups. 2. Demographic Profiles: This is also a vital factor for the development of tourism product or service. This involves segmenting the market on the basis of age, income, sex, lifestyle, family size, religion, education, nationality and so on... The wants and preferences of the consumers are mostly associated with these demographic profiles. 3. Psychographic Grounds: This refers to dividing the groups according to their lifestyles, social status and especially personality characteristics. In personality traits, there may be people for whom money is not a constraint and their interest is to visit new and adventurous places every time. Another group could be people who wish to spend by visiting repeated places. 4. Behavioural Grounds: Segmentation is also done on the basis of behaviour of participants. The various behavioural variables used in tourism market segmentation are: 1. Occasion for Travel: Tourist market can be segmented on the basis of occasion used by the participants for travelling. For instance, they can be segmented as leisure/holiday market, business tourist market, adventure tourist market, visiting friends and relations market, heritage tourism market and so on. 2. Benefit Derivation: This refers to segmentation done on the basis of different benefits identified by the customers. Kotler has given a better classification of segmentation on the basis of benefits. This includes the following:

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a. Quality Buyers: For quality buyers, the product image is their priority and cost is not at all a problem. They strive to draw their benefits from the image of the product. b. Service Buyers: This segment looks for product that gives best value for money and provides a good service. c. Economy Buyers: This segment is more concerned with the cost of the product and would always find ways to keep it low. There is a further classification given by Kotler on the basis of different behaviouristic attitudes. It includes the following: 1. Hard Core Loyals: This segment is extremely loyal to a particular firm and would never think of switching to other organizations. 2. Soft Core Loyals: This segment may think of keeping one or two alternatives for their future reference. 3. Shifting Loyals: This segment of people gradually gives favour to any one organization or product over the other. 4. Switchers: This segment of people has no loyalty and keeps on switching from one organization to another. 3. Associated Characteristics: There can be other associated characteristics besides benefits that can be used for segmenting the markets. They are: a. User Status: This involves market segmentation on the basis of visits made by the tourists like past visitor, first time visitor, repeat visitor, potential visitor etc. b. Usage Rate: This is segmentation on the basis of frequent usage of services. c. Loyalty Status: This segment consists of loyal people who are not affected by the various allurements to shift to other service or product. 4. Buyer Readiness Stage: This is a very important stage to be studied by the marketers as it helps them to launch their product at the right time. For e.g. If special packages for families have to be launched, then it should be at a time

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when they are having a vacation. That would be the readiness stage and they would be able to make use of the service. 5. Attitudes: Degree of enthusiasm is also an essential factor in buying a product or service. Tourists must be classified on the basis of enthusiasm, hostile or indifferent, positive attitude etc. 6. Price Factors: On the basis of price, tourism market can be segmented as high spenders, low spenders and moderate spenders. Apart from these, there can be other variables that can be used for segmenting the tourist market. These include the distance travelled, duration of trip, time of travel, travel for religious purposes, organization of trips etc.

Q6: A6:

What is Marketing Communication in the context of tourism industry? The tourism industry has played a major role in contributing to the worlds economy. The industry is expected to grow even more in the years ahead due to its market impact on balance of payment, employment and economic stability for both developed and developing countries. The economic as well as non economic benefits offered by the tourism industry in forcing the tourist marketers of various nations to attract more tourists to their countries. It is important for the tourist marketing managers to understand the travellers perception so as to ensure and understand that the tourism product is accepted and recognized by them. In order to achieve all this, the marketing managers needs to spend considerable and quality time in marketing communication and promotion. Pickton and Broderick has defined marketing communication as a conversation between the brand and its audience and it is the collective term for all the communication functions used in marketing a product or service.

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CASE STUDY
Tourism in Madhya Pradesh Of late Madhya Pradesh was not considered as a hotspot tourism destination. This does not imply that the state is lacking in cultural heritage. On the contrary, its culture is very much colourful and vibrant and is carved out by the contribution of different tribal communities. The arts and crafts of the state provide a clear illustration of the tribal art form as well as the traditions of the people. A good amalgamation of religion can be observed which includes the Hindus, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists. Music and dance forms also encompass the rich heritage of the state. The cuisine of the state is basically hot and spicy and has a small touch of Gujrati and Rajasthani dishes. The culture of Madhya Pradesh is enriched by fairs and festivals celebrated all throughout the year. Inspite of such charming culture, tourism failed to get a stand in the state. So, various efforts were made to boost tourism in the state. The main objectives included: To motivate people to visit Madhya Pradesh. To raise knowledge and awareness about the rich culture and hotspots for tourists. To initiate conversation regarding tourism in the state. The state Government started making use of different platforms for the tourism promotion which included promotion and knowledge sharing through Face book, you tube and Flickr. This was followed by the identification of the target group. 75% of the people were identified in the age group of 13-25 and the strength of the males was found twice the strength of the females. Target group was also identified on the basis of behavioural patterns which included outdoor and photography enthusiasts and travel enthusiasts Marketing was done by delivering content on the internet through images, wall posts, questions and videos. Many positive responses were received which included: 80-90%feedback in positive ways Effective resolution of queries. Increased viewers on You Tube, Flickr etc. Flickr interactions rose to more than 800. Post views generated were more than 1.9 million.

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Questions: 1. Explain how marketing communication promoted the growth of Madhya Pradesh tourism?

2. How helpful is market segmentation in tourism development. Explain in reference to case.

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Multiple Choice Questions

1. Tourism marketing is: a. An emotional process b. An international process c. A managerial process d. An economic process 2. Marketing Mix is: a. Combination of various marketing tactics b. Mix of target customer groups c. Combination of different prices d. Mix of different promotional techniques 3. Marketing environment in tourism industry involves: a. Only internal environment b. Only external macro environment c. Both internal and external macro environment d. Internal, external macro environment and macro environment. 4. Market segmentation in tourism industry refers to: a. Segmentation of the target audience into identifiable groups. b. Segmentation of various services c. Segmentation of audience only on the basis of age d. Segmentation of the audience only on the basis of religion. 5. Market communication is used for: a. Promotion of tourism product b. Pricing of tourism product c. Identification of target group d. Identification of tourist preferences.

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6. What does the acronym TSA stand for? a. Tourist Satellite Account b. Tourism System Account c. Travellers Security Association d. Tourism Satellite Assessment 7. What are travel motivators? a. The inner urge that initiates tourism demand. b. Mental impression. c. An artificial view of the world. d. A negative reaction. 8. What does the word perception mean? a. A negative reaction. b. Travel motivation. c. An artificial view of the world. d. Mental impression

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Unit 4

Seven Ps of Tourism Marketing

Q1: A1: Explain in detail the Seven Ps of Tourism Marketing? Marketing the tourism products effectively is a very difficult task and different from other products because whatever is sold is not a tangible product but the consumption of an experience. Therefore, a perfect marketing mix is essential to achieve the objectives of tourism marketing. It includes the following: 1. Product: Product is the offer given by the marketers to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers. It includes the variety of the product and assortment, features, quality, brand name, style, warranties and guaranties etc. Marketing can be successful only when the distinguishing features of the product or service is communicated to the customer effectively. A tourism product has two components namely attributes which includes transport, rooms and conference facilities. Another component is benefits which mean whatever the customer wants to achieve by making use of the product such as learning, relaxation and exploration. 2. Price: The monitory value of any product is termed as price. It is paid by the buyer to the seller and includes discounts, credit terms, allowances, payment period etc. A number of considerations need to be made while pricing a tourism product or service. a. The actual cost involved in providing the product which includes time of staff, commissions, overhead costs like water, electricity etc. b. Understanding industry standards which involve knowing what is being charged by other establishments for similar products and what the market will sustain. c. Understanding the profit market after determining all types of costs.

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d. Taking into considerations the standards and image of product like luxury or budget accommodation. e. Ensuring value of money by providing quality products worth its value. 3. Promotions: promotion refers to the different tools and methods devised to provide product information to the customers in order to persuade them to make a purchase. A combination of different methods is used to yield better results which include personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and public relations. It is very important to keep certain considerations in mind while selecting tools of communication for tourism products. They are a. The type of communication channel that will best reach the target audience. b. The objectives of communications c. The most cost effective method of communication 4. Place: It reflects to the distribution of products to the consumers which involved product movement from sellers to buyers as well to different storage locations for making them available at the right and convenient time. In tourism management, it includes creation of facilities closer to tourists so that they can purchase the tours. Two categories are of distribution methods are used in tourism marketing and they are a) Direct Distribution : In this it is the companys sole responsibility to take the products to the market b) Indirect Distribution: In this type of distribution less control is exercised by the company. The charge is handed over to some local authority for tourism and it becomes their responsibility to take bookings as well as putting some potential customers in the direct

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contact with the company. Typically a service charge can levied for the same. 5. People: The human element involved in the service experience is termed as people. The quality of services provided largely depends on the people employed in the organisation. Tourism is an industry where service forms the major part of the product offerings. Therefore it is highly essential that the employees dealing with customers must do excellent service delivery at all times. In order to achieve this, it is needed to boost staff professionalism through proper staff training and employee rewards and recognition system. 6. Process: The process involved in any service delivery decides the satisfaction level of the customers. It involves the task schedules, procedures, mechanisms and activities through which a service or product is delivered to the customer. When it comes to tourism many businesses are involved in running the end to end process which involves administration, planning & strategising, training, recruitment, purchasing and distribution and service delivery. It must be ensured that there is a planned and effective implementation of the various processes for the smooth running of operations. For e.g.: In a hotel industry, effective front and back office communication is required to ensure timely delivery, high quality and higher overall customer satisfaction. Physical Evidence: Physical evidence helps in creating tangibility for the intangible products. It helps in portraying a better image through physical pressure like decor, buildings, uniforms etc. At the same time compatibility with the product image must also be ensured for creating this evidence. In Tourism the physical evidence refers to the tangible attributes of these operations. Portraying such tangible attributes of the products helps in conveying attractive and positive hints to the potential customers regarding the product quality. For e.g.: If any shuttle service is being run, then it must

7.

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be ensured that the vehicle must be clean at all times. Such quality and attractiveness of decor, tidiness of surroundings, effective layout of establishment, and quality of promotional material are extremely important in generating positive outlook in mind of tourists towards the organisation.

CASE STUDY
Development of Tourism with Focus on Spiritual Tourists Context to Case: The largest contributors to domestic tourism for a particular region in India were Religious Tourists. A Lot of People visited this destination for religious reasons and not necessarily for leisure tourism or business tourism. Key Facts: More than 70% of the domestic Tourists were visiting for religious tourism. 20% of the Tourism revenue generated in the state was from religious tourism. Out of total 14 locations, 3 locations contributed to 33% of all tourists visited in the state. Goal / Mission Statement: The Tourism board was assigned with the task to grow religious tourism in the region and leverage tourists to also pursue leisure tourism in the region. Key Challenges that needed to be addressed a. Loss of authenticity due to encroachment: Unplanned visitor and illegal encroachments are growing in the vicinity of these sites. Encroachment on the walkway disturbs the pedestrian movement. b. Unregulated visitor behaviour: Overcrowding and unregulated tourist behaviour seriously hampers the visitor circulation at some of the temple precincts. These sites do not have a basic visitor management system in place and Lack of adequate manpower to regulate the mass of visitors especially on weekends and holidays.

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Key Development Strategies initiated 1. Infrastructure Development : a. Developed excellent Road Connectivity between Major Cities of the state and the religious tourists destinations b. Developing Utility Infrastructure by providing toilets, waiting shed/pavilion, cafeteria, clean water supply, street furniture for the comfort of tourists. c. Parking space and vehicular movements at temple sites developed around and within temple facility and Proper signage were built to orient the visitors efficiently by augmenting signage system at vantage points of the location. d. Single point of Information and interpretation centre developed for servicing tourists to ensure that dont feel lost or not helped. This would also provide visitors a synoptic depiction of the area, exhibits on flora and fauna etc. It will also act as a documentation centre for spiritual researchers. e. Provision of a range of accommodation units such as luxury resorts, budget hotels and camping tents catering to varied customer segments. 2. Enhancing The Core Appeal Of The Destination: To enhance the spiritual experience of the tourists, Expos and pavilions were built alongside religious destinations to familiarize the visitors with the history of the temples, its importance and its relevance to the present society to stimulate an inquiring mind about the profound philosophical subjects on India's source books of wisdom. The entire process of tourism development was focused to revolve around this core appeal 3. Private Sector Participation The Tourism Policy of the Government laid special emphasis on maximum participation of the private sector in making Investments in tourism projects. It provides tangible livelihood options to local people such as hotel personnel, guides, porters, watchmen, maintenance workers and other service providers.

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The local community members are also involved in managing small business enterprises like cafeteria, souvenir shops, travel and transport services, craft shops etc. 4. Developing Team: New Talent was recruited to lead the new initiatives and they along with the existing staff were trained on Tourism services and were educated on gaining higher revenues by increasing customer delight. 5. Building the Local Tourism as a recognized Brand: Marketing and advertising efforts were made on destination awareness through extensive media campaign targeting high-spending tourists both domestic and international. Linkages of the surrounding destinations around the pilgrimage were drawn and advertised resulting in people staying longer to visit the near destinations. These Marketing initiatives were undertaken through the following media sources a. A brand Salience was created by endorsing a celebrity figure to be associated with the Tourism and thus creating a tourism brand name along a punch line. This helped people to associate with the Brand b. Promote e-marketing of the destination through a dedicated website and other travel portals. c. Develop co-operative marketing partnerships with specialized tour operators and travel agents.

Key Outcomes of the Initiatives: New Infrastructure and Effective Tourism Management attracted a lot of Domestic tourists and also aided the growth of international Tourism. Number of domestic Tourists Grew by 60% & revenue generated from Tourism Industry grew by 1.5 Times in the space of Three Years

Questions Q1) Identify the 7Ps of Marketing and identify how these have been used most extensively the above Case?

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Q2)

Q3)

Certain steps were taken by the Tourism Board to increase awareness of the tourism destinations. Please identify any 2 more additional marketing activities that the tourism board could have undertaken to further enhance Brand Building and elaborate on your identified steps. Identify and elaborate on any additional initiatives that the Board could have undertaken while building infrastructure to further enhance spending and growth of tourism.

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Multiple Choice Questions

1) What are the two components of a product? a. Attributes and benefits b. Warranties and guaranties c. Quality and brand name d. Style and features 2) Price can be termed as: a. Monitory value of a product. b. Value paid by seller to buyer. c. Profit made by any establishment. d. Overhead costs like water, electricity etc. 3. Promotion in tourism refers to: a. Tools used to market tourism product. b. Methods used for customer satisfaction. c. Methods used for quality improvement. d. Research and development of new products. 4. Indirect distribution refers to: a. Distribution of product by the company. b. Distribution of product by some local authorities. c. Distribution by international organizations. d. Distribution of products by other outside organizations. 5. The purpose of business is to: a. Attract new customers b. Maximise short term profit. c. Boost short term sales. d. Create and maintain profitable customers.

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6. The two main industries that comprise the activities that we call tourism are: a. Hospitality and travel industries b. Computer and internet industries. c. Fashion and accessories industries. d. Furniture and home improvement industries 7. Which of the following are not considered part of the hospitality service industry? a. Hotels and motels. b. Car rental companies. c. Travel agents and tour operators. d. Advertising agencies. 8. All the following statements are true, except: a. If a product falls short of customer expectations, customers are dissatisfied. b. Care must be taken by the marketers to set the right level of expectations. c. Cost includes both monetary and non-monetary costs. d. Marketers have no control of customers expectations.

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Unit 5

Tourism in India
Q1: A1: Explain the scenario of the growth of tourism in India? Tourism industry works as the largest industry in India and contributes 8.78% to employment and 6.23% to the GDP of the country. As per the economic survey, it has been estimated that there are bright prospects for the growth of tourism as an industry. Efforts are made by the government for developing the tourism infrastructure and Incredible India is one such campaign. The main aim of this campaign is to position India on the tourism map at a global level. Greater focus is being given to new emerging markets such as Latin America, China etc. Also Government is ensuring participation in different exhibitions and trade fairs conducted around the world. Growth of tourism in the country has always remained above world average in the past few years. The development of tourism in India has passed through different stages. The Government of India made efforts to develop tourist facilities in a planned manner in the year 1956 along with the Second Five Year Plan. But it was during the Sixth Five Year Plan that a new beginning was seen in the tourism industry and it got the consideration as an important instrument for economic development and social integration. But the activity of tourism started gaining momentum only after the 80;s and several steps were taken by the Government. In the year 1982, a national policy on tourism was formulated. Later a comprehensive plan was formulated by the National Committee on Tourism for the achievement of consistent growth. Further, a National Action Plan was formulated in 1992 and the National Strategy for the Promotion of Tourism was prepared in 1996. After that, in 1997,

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a new policy on tourism was drafted in accordance with the Governments economic policies. The policy recognises the role of the State and Central Government as well as private and public enterprises in developing tourism. A need for the role and involvement of local bodies, Panchayati Raj institutions, local youth and other non-governmental organizations has also been recognised for the creation and development of tourism facilities. The year 1966 saw the major development in the tourism sector with the coming up of the India Tourism Development Corporation for promoting India as a recognised tourist destination. Also the Tourism Finance Corporation came into existence in 1989 for financing different tourism related projects. As tourism industry remains incomplete without hotel and catering services, a number of institutions came up in connection to that. This included 21 Hotel Management and Catering Technology Institutions run by the Government and 14 Food Craft Institutions. Apart from this, there are various prestigious institutions involved in the growth of tourism in India which includes Ministry of Tourism having 21 field offices within the country and 18 offices abroad, National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering as well as the National Institute of Water Sports. Some other initiatives taken by the Government for boosting tourism are as follows: 1. Granting of export house status to the tourism industry. 2. Incentives in the form of income tax exemptions, reduced import duty and interest subsidy in order to promote private investment. 3. Up to 51% approval of direct investment of foreign equity. 4. Non-resident Indian investment up to 100%. 5. Easy legislation regarding grant of approval to tour operators, travel Agents and tourist transport operators.

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Q2: A2:

What are the potential barriers to the growth of tourism in India? Although India is doing well in the tourism market, it has failed to compete effectively with countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, China, Hong Kong etc which are far ahead in the tourism field. Some of the major barriers to the growth of tourism in India are: 1. Inadequate Infrastructure: The greatest bottleneck in the growth of tourism is the inadequacy of infrastructure which involves less carrying capacity by road, air and railways, inadequate comfortable and clean lodging facilities at affordable prices, shortage of trained tourist guides and tourist amenities at major tourist attractions, inadequate entry points etc. 2. Budgetary Support: It has been observed that there is inadequacy of resources for improving the infrastructural facilities. Tourism sector has always been lacking budgetary support because of pressing demand from other sectors. A better co-operation between trade and the Government agencies is required. Government should try to reduce luxury taxes on hotels, road taxes etc so as to bring down the prices of the tourism product. Private sector investments must be given importance for the development of tourism. 3. Trained Personnel: Tourism being a service industry, service excellence generated by trained personnel brings in a lot of difference. One of the major issues that the tourism industry of India is facing is the shortage of trained personnel. Tourists mainly depend upon guides, travel agents etc. But statistics have shown that, trained professionals, to cater to the needs of the tourists had been inadequate. Therefore, it is extremely essential for the Government to encourage and develop different training facilities so that the tourism objectives can be achieved. 4. Quality Research: India is lacking in quality research which is also a major constraint in the growth of tourism in the country. If importance is given to quality research input, much better strategies can be devised for marketing tourism products.

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5. State of Health Tourism: Lack of proper and quality services offered by the Indian hospitals acts as a hurdle in the growth of tourism. As a result past years have seen a sharp decline in health tourism. 6. Site Maintenance: Maintenance of the tourist attractions in India is a serious handicap. The increasing pressure of visitors has almost damaged the priceless heritage of the country and the fund required for maintenance and restoration is limited. 7. Cheating of Tourists: This is a major constraint in India in the way for development. The travel agents and hoteliers, who are supposed to be supportive to the tourists, harass and cheat especially the foreign tourists. This brings in a bad image for the country and paralyses the growth of tourism in the country. Therefore, the problem needs attention and rectification. Q3: A3: Throw light on the Tourism Policy of India? The tourism policy was announced by the Government of India in the year 1982. After years of improvement over this, a new Draft National Tourism Policy came into existence which pledges to make travel and tourism a crucial instrument for poverty alleviation, human development and employment generation. Some of its features are: 1. The Mission: The main mission is the promotion of sustainable tourism and promoting the image of India as a country having a glorious past, a vivacious present and a bright future. It aims at making the stay of foreign tourists in the country, a memorable event, so that they are forced to make repeated visits. 2. Peoples Participation: This is being encouraged under the policy which includes participation of Panchayati Raj Institutions, co-operatives, local bodies, enterprising local youth and non-governmental organizations in tourism development. The Government encourages a constructive partnership between the private and public sectors through all means for consistent growth of tourism. 3. Governments Role: The role of Government in promotion of tourism has been recognised primarily in the policy. This is because tourism is a multi

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4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

sectoral activity which gets impacted by the other sectors of the economy. Governments specific role comprises of providing infrastructural facilities including zoning arrangements and local planning, rationalization of taxes, safety and security of tourists, compatibility of tourism development with environment, research and preparation, facilitation and formulation of different marketing strategies. Private Sector: The role of private sector has also been given importance in the policy. The private sector needs to consider investment in the tourism industry from a long perspective and ensure creation of required facilities like accommodation, restaurants, shopping complexes, entertainment facilities etc. Also, the private operator role has been recognised in other non core activities at major stations, airports, interstate bus terminus such as luggage transportation, maintenance and cleanliness, vehicle parking facilities etc for increasing the efficiency and profitability. Integrated Development of Tourist Destinations: Development of new tourist destinations and increasing the various facilities at existing destinations also forms a major part of the draft policy. Tourism Economic Zones: Creation of such zones with private participation has been encouraged in the policy. These zones will have easy connectivity from both domestic and international destinations. Tourist Circuits and Special Tourism Areas: 25 travel circuits and destinations have been identified and various areas have been identified as special tourism areas like Bekal Beach, Sindhudurg, and Puri-Konark etc. for integrated development. Areas of Special Interest: Some areas have been identified by the Government as areas of special interest for development of tourism. These include the Himalayan Region, North Eastern States and Union Territories. This is basically for achieving an overall development of these regions. Sustainable Development: Government has ensured sustainable development of regions through appropriate planning instruments,

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regulations, guidelines and their enforcement. The objective of the policy is also to evolve specific guidelines and policies for the development of adventure tourism, ecotourism etc. 10. Promotion and Marketing: A well laid out promotion and marketing plan has also been worked out as a part of the policy in order to achieve the overall tourism objectives. 11. Diversification of Tourism Products: The policy aims at diversifying the tourism products in order to reach to a larger section of people. The options include beach tourism, science tourism, health tourism, cruise tourism and so on. 12. Professional Excellence: The policy aims at creating professional excellence by strengthening human resources development institutions. This includes setting up of Advanced Institute of Hotel Management and Culinary Institute as well as improvements in other existing training institutions. 13. Information Technology: The Draft Policy asserts the importance of making use of advance information technology to foster the growth of tourism sector. 14. Safety and Security: This is given primary importance and suitable legislations will be enacted with the co-operation of the Central and State Governments for the protection and safety of tourists. 15. International Co-operation: The policy aims at fostering partnership with all international agencies and countries and strengthening tourism promotion through bilateral and multilateral agreements. Q4: A4: What are the benefits derived from Tourism? The benefits derived are mentioned as under: 1. Economic Benefits: Economic benefits can be in direct or indirect form. Direct benefits include generation of employment income and foreign exchange which brings improvement in the standard of living of the local community and helps in the regional and national development. Government revenues generated through taxation on

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tourism can be helpful in developing community as well as infrastructural facilities. Indirectly, tourism paves the way for the development of other economic sectors like agriculture, construction, fisheries, handicrafts and manufacturing. Improvement in transportation is also a major socio-economic benefit that helps serve regional, community and national needs. Tourism also helps provide an opportunity for emancipation of women in traditional societies through training and development. 2. Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Heritage: Tourism helps preserve the cultural heritage in the following ways: a. Tourism helps generate income for the conservation of various historic and archaeological sites. The revenue generated can also be utilized for archaeological research, thereby strengthening the tourism industry. b. It helps in revitalizing and conservation of traditional arts, handicrafts, music, dance, customs and ceremonies, drama etc. c. It leads to conservation of certain significant natural area that would have been otherwise allowed to deteriorate ecologically. For e.g. Marine conservation is receiving greater attention as a result of increased tourist attraction. 3. Renewal of Cultural Pride: Tourism helps generate a kind of cultural awareness. A sense of pride seems to be reinforced or renewed by the residents when tourists appreciate about the country and its cultural heritage. In a country, where we have a vast mix of various cultures, the cultural identity of different minority groups can be maintained through regional tourism.

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Q5: A5:

What are the Challenges of Tourism Marketing? Tourism being a service industry, often faces more marketing challenges. This often calls for additional creativity for successful marketing of services. Some of the challenges are as follows: 1. Marketing Intangibles: The marketer does not have the advantage of demonstrating the physical characteristics of a product but an effective explanation of an intangible product is required. It would be difficult for the prospect o determine the value of services in relation to price. 2. Developing Price: When it comes to tourism marketing, it becomes a difficult task to generate the element of trust in the prospective customers. The marketer must appear trustworthy while communicating with the customers and posses effective skills in order to convince the customers. 3. Extra Competition: Competition is also a major challenge as service providing companies are striving hard to outshine others and gain competitive advantage in the market. 4. Emphasize on Service instead of Features: Tourism marketers have the challenge of emphasizing upon the customer service aspect of whatever they are selling and not its features. This would greatly depend upon the extra professional skill of the marketer. 5. Creating a Need: The creation of need to make use of a particular service by the customer is also a great challenge. The tourism marketer has to make the customer feel that the service they are undertaking is actually their need.

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CASE STUDY
Improving the Tourists Experience Serbia is among Europes most attractive tourist destinations and a lot of tourists across the world would travel to the city to witness its beautiful and historically rich architecture and monuments. Bulks of International tourists that arrive in the city come from USA. The city was facing issues with managing the tourism as most of it was being run on its own without any proper management. Serbian Tourism association decided to track their success metrics for 2 years and realized that on an average there were roughly 93000 tourists visiting the city every month and on an average every tourists would say in the city for 2 days before he/she would travel back. These statistics were extremely exciting but the city also realized that this number was declining every month and this was a cause of concern for the authorities. Soon a committee was set to perform a root cause analysis of the declining trend in tourism and was tasked to come up with key recommendations for improvement. The committee took several steps to understand the current situation but none of them were helping to get to the actual cause. They eventually surveyed the tourists who were visiting them and also reached out to tourists who had visited them to fill up online survey form which would enable them understand the key cause of concern. Some of the main deltas and positive points that were highlighted in the survey were: Positive Points Serbia was rich in natural beauty which attracted a lot of first comers. Serbia being easily accessible by the tourist within Europe meant that people would be able to commute between the main cities and Serbia easily. Deltas Identified were Tourists specially people who travel more often i dentified that Serbia doesnt have a culture of tourist service. Most of the tourists identified that they had one or more incidents while during their stay in Serbia which they felt offended about but they also said that this could be because of cultural differences between the two countries. Tourists clearly identified that they did not feel homelike in Serbia and thus they would rather prefer to visit a new location than to come back to Serbia.

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Tourist also identified that Serbia doesnt have quality inf rastructure to service them. E.g. Recreation halls, Good Hotels and Restaurants. The results of the survey immediately highlighted that Serbia was definitely a sought after tourists destination because of it natural beauty but the focus had to be to increase customer experience for Tourists visiting Serbia so that they could plan to visit Serbia more often and simultaneously also spread the news about Serbia so that new tourists also visit. Once there was an agreement on the potential issues that the city tourism was facing, the next task in hand for the committee was to bring forward key recommendations to improve on its current state and bring Serbian tourism back to its growth path. There were some recommendations that were presented by the Committee in front of the city which were immediately accepted and approved for implementation along approval for required budget for implementation. Their Key recommendations were A. Training and Development: Committee recommended that the Tourist guides needs to be trained by the authority and only certified Tourists guides were to work with the tourists. The tourist guides were given Tourism Serving Certification licenses to operate and this was strictly regulated and monitored. There was another training opportunity identified and that was to train everyone who was in customer facing jobs and they were to be trained on cultural etiquettes. Committee also recommended that every employee or business owner who was to eventually interact with customers needed to undergo this training. B. Developing and Managing Infrastructure: The city developed community centres, Parks, recreation grounds/Halls, Kids Zone and other amenities for servicing tourists. Hotels and restaurants were to undergo strict procedures to receive Internal Certification of Service Quality licenses. Every privately owned institute in Serbia had to have basic infrastructure available with them to be able to service any tourists visiting them. All the tourists entering Serbia were educated on the standards so as to enable them to make best judgement.

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There were several other initiatives undertaken like marketing activities, evaluation of service quality, language aid etc. All of these efforts put together aided Serbia Tourism to come back on its growth path. They developed a method to measure success and that feedback scores from visiting tourists. They would now track if the tourist were happy with their visit, if they had any specific areas of concern, whether they will plan to come back again and if the tourist would recommend Serbia as a preferred tourist destination among their peers /friends and influence groups. Questions 1: Please suggest if focusing on marketing activities would have further helped grow tourism in Serbia in this situation. Please base your judgement with logical reasoning. 2 : Assuming that there were tourism seasons impacting the count of visitors during certain times of the year then What could have Serbia further done to attract repeat tourists and to best utilize available resources during non peak Months?

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Multiple Choice Questions

1) The tourism campaign launched in India for the promotion of tourism is named as: a. Fabulous India b. Inconceivable India c. Incredible India d. Unbelievable India 2) Common interest tourism includes: a. Business Tourism b. Visiting friends and relatives c. Leisure Tourism d. Conference Tourism 3) Long haul tourism refers to journeys more than: a. 500 kilometres b. 1000 kilometres c. 3000 kilometres d. 2000 kilometres 4) Name the statistics that calculate the number of tourists travelling to a particular destination at a given time? a. Statistics of tourist characteristics b. Volume Statistics c. Resource Statistics d. Expenditure Statistics. 5) The code of ethics for tourism to be adhered globally was drawn by: a. World Tourism Organization b. World Trade Organization c. World Travel and Tourism Council

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d. World Travel Organization. 6) Travel propensity is considered a measure of: a. The ratio of day trips to overnight visits b. The percentage of population engaged in tourism. c. The tourism market share d. Travel frequency of a population. 7) Wanderlust refers to: a. Desire for sunshine b. Curiosity for experiencing different destinations. c. Desire for a better climate. d. Desire for rest 8) Tourism planning ensures: a. Flow of benefits to a destination b. Increase in negative impact c. Increase in conflicts between residents and tourists d. Tourism will be disadvantaged

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KEY TERMS

Economic Development: Economic Development is a comprehensive term that refers to progressive changes in a countrys socio-economic structure. It ensures the development of economic wealth for the well-being of its residents. Social integration: Social integration can be defined as a principled and dynamic process where members participate in a conversation to maintain peaceful social relations. Social integration can never be forced or coerced. Intangibles: It is an abstract concept which refers to anything that cannot be touched or is immaterial. Sustainable Development: Sustainable development refers to a pattern of economic development which involves effective utilization of resources to meet the human wants while conserving the environment. It is a long term perspective aimed at meeting not only the present but the future needs as well. Bilateral and Multilateral Agreements: Bilateral agreement refers to the mutual agreement or contract made between two parties or countries regarding any issue. Multilateral agreement involves more than two parties or countries. Tourism: Tourism is an activity which involves travelling by people to different places for the purpose of recreation, pleasure, leisure, business and so on. Domestic Tourism: Domestic tourism relates to travelling to places within the boundaries of a particular country. International Tourism: International tourism refers to travelling to far off places usually outside the resident country.

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RTDC: RTDC stands for Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation which is consistently involved in the promotion of tourism in the Rajasthan state. ITDC: ITDC stands for India Tourism Development Corporation and its unction is the overall development of tourism in the country. Foreigner: Foreigner is considered to be any person who is not a resident or citizen of any particular country. He is regarded as an alien when he goes to other country for any reason. Business: Business is any activity which involves the trading of services, goods or both to the consumers. Privately owned businesses are run with the sole aim of earning profit whereas state owned businesses are run with non-profit motive. Trekking: Any long adventurous journey undertaken on foot to visit and enjoy different and unusual places is termed as trekking. It is generally done at places where common modes of transportation are not available. Rafting: Rafting can be considered as an outdoor recreational activity in which an inflatable raft is used to navigate a river or other water bodies Pilgrimage: It can be considered as a spiritual journey to any location according to a persons belief or faith. Tourism Marketing: It is a process involved in co-ordinated and systematic implementation of business policy by private or state undertakings for satisfying the needs of identifiable customer groups and in getting a profitable return. Marketing Environment: It refers to the environment that surrounds an organization and impacts its objectives and operations. It can be classified as internal, external macro and macro environment. Marketing Mix: Marketing mix refers to various combinations of tactics or tricks used to market a product so as to achieve the marketing objectives. In the context of tourism, marketing mix includes product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

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Brand: Brand refers to any feature like the symbol, design or name of a particular product or service that helps in distinguishing it from other products in the market. Balance of Payment: Balance of payment is basically a record which involves a list of the various transactions made between different countries. Balance of payment can be positive or negative in nature. If there is a negative balance of payment, it shows that more money has flowed out of the country as compared to coming in. Marketing: Marketing is social process where organizations and individuals create and exchange value with others for obtaining what they need and want. Discount: It refers to proportionate deduction made from list price or regular price to facilitate prompt payment. Credit Terms: These are the negotiated terms that a seller offers to the buyer and which controls the maximum time for repayment, total monthly amount, early payment and late payment. Overhead Costs: All types of costs shown on the income statement apart from direct materials, direct labour and direct expenses are termed as overhead costs. These are the ongoing expenses that are extremely essential for the continued functioning of the business. Personal Selling: It is a process where any product or service is directly sold to the customer by the sales person by keeping in mind the specific needs of the client. This process helps in creating and maintaining long term client relationships. Sales Promotion: It is a technique or initiative undertaken by any organization to boost the sales. Few examples of popular sales promotion activities are buy one get one free, Customer Relationship Management, new media, merchandising, free gifts, discounted prices etc.

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Answers to Multiple Choice Questions Unit 1

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. D B D C D B C B B

Unit 2
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. B C A B D D B A

Unit 3
1. 2. 3. C A D

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4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

A A A A D

Unit 4
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. C A A B D A D D

Unit 5
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. C B C B A B B A A