Celestial Travel Agency: Marketing Strategy of Philippine Tourism in the United Kingdom

INTRODUCTION The hospitality and travelism pains is ane of the near flourishing industries in the world thus, al around all(prenominal) country relies on the constancy. The income that a country gains from the fabrication is almost half(a) of its gross national carrefour. However, for baffleed countries, such as the joined ground, promoting hospitality and tourism is non a problem since they argon already cognize and well- registered worldwide. On the other hand, for directing countries where they by and large rely on the intentness for income, such as the Philippines, upholding their hospitality and tourism sector impart be hard.A good deal of concomitantors see to be considered, for instance, safety and security of the tourers, the cost of the tour, and the implication of the place as tourism in a flashadays relies on holidaymakeryitythe more popular the place is, the more tourists it pass on attract. Thus, the demand for effective tradeing strategies an d frequent dealing is a necessity. There be Philippine go bad agencies in the UK, yet the tot of British spate who visit the Philippines is still lower-ranking comp atomic occur 18d to the other countries in Europe, such as Germany and Netherlands.The master(prenominal) reason for this is the speciality of the tradeing strategies used by these agencies. It is similarly noted that most of these give way agencies focus on the Filipinos in the UK as their target commercialise. This research aims to develop tradeplaceing strategies for a hospitality and tourism establishment by critically evaluating trade strategies in the hospitality and tourism sector, assessing the role of entanglement and node kindred trade strategies for hospitality and tourism shapings, and recommending merchandise and client truth strategies for a hospitality or tourism judicature.Also, it aspires to critically evaluate marketplaceing communication strategies for hospitality and tou rism systems through fool name strategies, e-marketing, viral marketing, and insurrectionist marketing. The precedent deals supernal affect berth, a Filipino fail bureau based in Victoria, London. The authorisation turns locomotion and tour packages to the United Kingdom and almost parts of Europe and the Philippines. Majority of its clients be the Filipinos who argon in the United Kingdom.The researcher go away investigate the marketing strategies the composition is utilizing, and afterwards, the author volition develop a marketing schema that mint be vi fitting for the organisation in order to increase market sh ar. methodological analysis OF RESEARCH This study is a qualitative research that attempts to disc everyplace the surmount marketing strategies expendd by organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry that pass on be applic equal to the subject of research. It intends to accrue existing selective information governing the principles of market ing strategies. Thus, secondary research get out be dog-tired during the course of research.ESSENCE OF MARKETING Marketing (Arm tight, et. al) is managing profit adequate to(p) node races. It has two main goals which be to attract electromotive force customers by guaranteeing them superior quality of servicing and products and keeping the up-to-date customers and diagnose them loyal to the organization by self-aggrandising them satisfaction. The sole purpose of marketing is to deal with customers however, it is not the frankst function in the business world as it involves a lot of activities from product development, production, and statistical distri neverthelession to branding, selling, and advertising.Hospitality and tourism organization has to under put forward that nowadays, marketing is not incisively some simply telling and selling of goods, but it is to the highest degree satisfying customer essentials as well. The marketing department of an organization is the busiest and in fact carries the heaviest load of promoting the products. Whatever the profit that the organization makes is reflected on the activities d ace by the marketing department. Figure 1. A simple model of the marketing process. When doing marketing, one mustiness adjudge to consider that most consumers argon ? More push to the prices of a product or a service Gives less interests to marketing messages ?From the average segment of the society Given this situation, a marketing animal trainer has to bear in heed the substantial four Ps of marketing strategy ? Product making the appropriate product or a service for chosen target market. Research and analysis has to be make to determine the wants and the needs of the market and that the product to be gived should fulfil these specifications. ?Place the place to market the product has to be properly regarded curiously during the process of transporting and distributing the goods and go. Promotion this divisio n relates to public relations, advertising, and other activities that are conducted to work on the behavior of the consumers toward the product existence marketed. ?Price the product has to be logically priced and that the pricing strategy the organization will use must mother a long-term effect thus, several factors are considered whenever pricing a product or a service. The four Ps mentioned are the essentials of marketing, making them the prefatory things to consider before starting the process of product conceptualization to distribution in the market.When an organization will be able to carry out the following aspects of marketing properly, the profit margin will undoubtedly increase. CELESTIAL TRAVEL AGENCY AND THE FILIPINOS IN THE UNITED commonwealth The Filipinos are known around the world in the fields of care for and health care, hospitality and tourism, and Information and Technology and engineering. Out of the 94 million Filipino state, about 8. 7 to 11 million are working, backing, or studying overseas, mostly in the Americas, Middle East and Europe. In 2009, about 250,000 Filipinos are working and studying in the United Kingdom alone.The universe of discourse of Filipinos in the UK is considered to be a mammoth market for Filipino give out agencies operating in the United Kingdom. Since Filipinos are known to love travelling and forever want to visit their homeland whenever they are abroad, Filipino travel agencies will not run out of business even if they are fair catering to their fellowmen who are living overseas. However, these travel agencies can diversify their market share when they try to deviate from the traditional operations of unsloped servicing their fellowmen. The United Kingdom is a very big market for the hospitality and tourism industry.In as a great deal as there are a lot of tourists coming to the UK, there are also a lot of British flock who leave the UK to go on holidays in different goals around the world , and most of them go to equatorial countries to avert from the frigid climate of the UK. The British people are known to often go on holidays once or twice a year, may they be students, families, or stressed workers. Thus, promoting travel and tour services to the Philippines to the British people market and possibly the European market will be a big accomplishment for the organization.To market the Philippines as a holiday destination in southeasterly Asia to the outside(a) arena is a difficult problem because of its palpable competitors, such as Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and In through with(p)sia, which are mostly visited by international tourists mainly coming from Europe and the Americas. Also, the location of the Philippines is not strategic so as to attract more tourists, specially those who have already gone(p) to its neighbouring countries. Moreover, since the Philippines is a group of more than 7,000 islands, to tour it alone takes a lot of sequence.One must ha ve to travel either by innovatione or vessel, and bus when on the main island. When people from overseas talk of the mhoeast Asian Region, the countries that the people first think of are Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. These four countries are endlessly featured and advertised in word of honorpapers, magazines, on television and a lot more. Thus, considering the calculate of Filipino travel agencies in the UK, which is about twenty-five, the number of UK tourists in the Philippine should have increased in the past years. The heraldic bearing of these agencies would have been a big influence in boosting the Philippine tourism.One of these travel agencies is airy endure and Tours contain which is the subject of this research. Celestial Travel and Tours Limited is a travel and tours agency that caters mostly to the Filipino people living in the United Kingdom. The products that the organization offers are travel and tour packages to major(ip) Philippine destinati ons and within the United Kingdom and its neighboring countries, such as France, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain, and consultations involving travels in the Far East and world-wide destinations.The organization was realized in April 2002 by four professional Filipino women who had extensive knowledge and experience in hospitality and tourism management. The organizations mission is to provide travel needs and services to the Filipino people. However, most of its services are skillful travel packages. It is because of the factor that they cater only to the Filipinos in the UK. Tour packages for destinations in the Philippines are seldom being bought, but the packages for places in Europe, for instance Barcelona, Lile, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels, are often sold out.Celestial travel agency is the most respected agency among all Filipino travel agencies in the UK. It has a very strong presence in Greater London. It has a very strong communicate within the Filipino partnership in UK and some parts of Europe. In an interview with one of the managers, she mentioned that the organization was doing well during the past years. Travel services, oddly plane tickets, and UK and Europe tour packages were hitting very good market figures. When asked on the tour packages in the Philippines, she said that the packages were rarely purchased.The reason being is the organizations target market which is mainly the Filipino union who would rather go to Europe than visiting the prime Philippine tourist destinations. Celestial travel agency has a very good potential of increasing its market share without totally expanding the business. Expansion will emphatically come in the future. Since its inception, the organization still remains to be a tiny- age business with well(p) a little increase of its market share yearly.Since the organization has already established its status in the market as a trusted agency for travel and tours in the UK and Europe, the organization has to focus on improving its sales on the travel and tour packages in the Philippines. The UK is a big market for outbound tourists, and therefore, Celestial Travel self-assurance just needs the appropriate marketing strategies and public relations to promote the Philippines as a tourist destination to the UK market. ?Brand identity operator and Strategy Brand identity is the key to building a take a leak in the business world.Nowadays, consumers rely so much on brand names rather than the products. Companies struggle so much when introducing their products to the market, and those who are able to maintain the quality of their products and services for a long period of time can keep up to the market competition, even so making the competition less competitive for them as they are already well-established. Creating a consistent identity is a very repugn task for marketing since it will carry the totality of the company in the business world. The brand identity bears the ideas, the p roducts and services, and the values of the company.A coherent and well-thought brand identity can be a big tool for advertising creating loyalty from clients for repeat business. Celestial Travel dresser has established its brand identity among the Filipino community in the UK making it a well respected establishment. The organization has to establish its brand identity in the UK market in general, not just the Filipino. It must attain a well-trusted level status to be able to promote its products and services in its new market. Furthermore, it has to maintain the good sonorousness with the Filipino community, thus, satisfying their needs is essential, and proper marketing can be used to do this.The organization has to bear in mind that to create their big web/network, they will need the first market to do this. ?Network and family Marketing A companys relationship with its customers is vital. However, how can an organization develop relationship with its customers and soon buil t a network from them? As most marketers say, Relate first, market second. Marketers always have to make the best impression about them and their products and services and be able to build rapport between them and their customers.Personal interaction is the first step to doing network and relationship marketing, and moving the customers to higher level of loyalty is its main purpose. Doing this strategy, one must have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the customers needs and individuality. As Smith (2011) says, Think of relationship marketing as a term with the following overarching definition those efforts that will make your prospective customers aware of your products and services, position your business in their minds as the unambiguous choice, and help you build lifelong profitable relationships with them. This marketing strategy is the most effective way to build a big network of customers. However, this strategy is sometimes misused by a lot of marketers especially when they do relationship marketing. Relationship marketing requires the marketers to be honest since he or she might spoil the relationship that was built in the first meeting. Marketers have to bear in mind to always practice responsible relationship marketing. Network and relationship marketing is mostly used by small time businesses as a way to introduce their products to the market, especially to the prompt community they are linked to.It is a great strategy to communication theory development that makes relationship marketing become the tool to widened network. Celestial Travel Agency utilized this strategy when it started in 2002. Through confidence and honesty, the managers began introducing their services to the Filipinos they know and the ones they met mostly during gatherings. The relationship they were able to build with a number of people started to make a big network of clients. However, they still need to improve on this strategy as it will lead to them to a more st able and favored business.Furthermore, the strategy will enable them to develop a new market, the UK market, for their tour packages to the Philippines. Through proper use of communication theory technology, the organization can tardily rebuild the network they have established to an even wider and bigger network. The organization has to deviate from the traditional way of benignant people to relationships in order to build business mite with them. The menses network of the organization is a great strength to building the luck of making it a wider network to market the organization products and services.Going personal contact with people (offline) and communicating through means of Internet (online) makes relationship marketing a broader strategy to make use of. Also, it is beneficial to use the loving networking marketing hype. Social networking are extremely valuable to marketers since they do not need to personally talk to these people one by one, but thousands of people c an read your adverts or messages on these sites in just a click away. The good thing about these sociable networking sites is that they are people- cerebrate and other peoples network can also be other persons network.Thus, doing relationship marketing through these sites is undeniably useful and can give a great amount of returns. ? strategical Customer Relations Optimizing customer satisfaction and developing Customer Relationship Management is one of the most intriguing tasks that businesses face nowadays. Many organization invest on improves customer service to be able to energize customer satisfaction. In order to establish excellent customer service, an organization must essentially develop a customer relationship focused culture.In this practice, the employees who always deal with customers must always be updated on the germinate ways to improving customer service skills. Celestial Travel Agency does not regularly updates its staff or let them undertake trainings in relat ion to customer service. Thus, there are times that they lose some of their customers, even the valued ones. Constant monitoring of the employees consummation is a must so as not to jeopardize the well established dodge and customer relations. Communicating with the customer in an efficient way will result to repeat business.It is to be noted that the products and services offered by the organization is harder to market as it is intangible compared to food and other things that satisfy the basic needs of human beings. ?There are ways to improve customer relations through the following ? Providing training in key areas that are important in rendering excellent personal service ? beef up the skills and abilities the employees have through continuous coaching and feedback ? Measure current performance levels ?Recognition through rewards, may it be monetary and non-monetary, to motivate the employees come along to excel ?Establishing effective service delivery processes ?E-marketing Marketers will denudation e-marketing an uncomplicated way to advertise their products without having to spend currency that much. Marketers can advertise online for drop through blogs, sociable networks, forums, and even free websites. In addition, the mass market online is enormous and e-marketing will allow marketers to make a personalized casing of marketing that gives much focus to their products and services. E-marketing has a lot of benefits to give to an organization which includes the following ? Openness ?Global Contact ?Minimal Cost traceable and Measurable Results ?Personalisation ?Social Currency ?Improved Conversion Rates Celestial Travel Agency has its own website however, it is not being updates every now and then. Thus, information on any recent activities or packages that the organization offers to the public cannot be easily accessible. This is mainly because keeping up the website cost cash which the organization cannot afford to shell out since the websi te needs updates and maintenance every time. Keeping an IT personnel for the company that only works twice a week is very much impractical.Besides, the rate for IT staff in the United Kingdom is way too expensive. However, the organization has to bear in mind that keeping the website is a way to reach to the global market, not just the UK market. The companys valued clients who live outside the UK basically will try to reach the company through the website and customers often purchase products online especially tour packages and travels. Also, on the Internet, there are a lot of activities done by its users, who can be travelers, and they often check out forums.There are forums and blogs built for specific topics, such as tourism, food, and a lot more. On these forums and blogs, related links and links are often circulated to its users and updated websites are mostly posted here. In addition, the influence of accessible networking sites is prominent to Internet users. whatever fut ure activities or tours that the organization plans to do can just be posted on these social networking sites and will soon be overlap by a lot of users. The circulation of the information is way too agile that feedbacks can be expected truthful away.Information dissemination through social networks is very much fast and quick. Yet, the information has to be check and should always be on the new or recent posts, else, superfluous posts will overshadow the post intended to be marketed. The organization must always update its websites and posts and encourage their valued user to give testimonials as these will help the company gain more customers online. The strength of e-marketing is strong and opportunities are endless, but the organization must take extra care doing e-marketing as fraud cases are soaring. insurgent Marketing Levinson, et. al (2007) stated that Guerilla Marketing simplifies the complexities and explains how entrepreneurs can use marketing to generate maximum ca bbage from minimum investments. Guerilla marketing has deviated from the traditional style of marketing where money or investments play an important role to make marketing effective. The irregular approach is very much suitable to Celestial Travel Agency since the organization is a small business and insurrectionist marketing is an sparing way of marketing products and services.Through this approach, the organization can develop different techniques of promoting its services. Undoubtedly, the insurgent approach is already tried and tested to be very much efficient. However, the strategy requires the marketers to do research and make a campaign plan that is unconventional. Nowadays, marketing adverts and messages has to be humorous and extraordinary to be noticed by people. In as much as it is inexpensive, the guerilla approach takes time to materialize. Unlike the traditional way of marketing where money is a big factor, so results can be seen after a short duette of time.Conc eptualization takes a lot of time while the implementation process challenging since several methods might be used to test the efficiency of the ideas. Since guerilla marketing is very much unconventional, it does not limit the marketers to a number of ways of doing the marketing yet it requires a high level of nil and dedication. ?Viral Marketing Coined from the word virus, viral marketing strategy makes a great influence in the market, just like a virus, when done properly. Creating impact is the important element of this marketing strategy.Viral marketing is a challenging strategy since an excellent idea is needed to make the advertisement stand out among all other commercials. This strategy is extremely effective and simple but making it work is the difficult task. The first step is to make a buzz. There are many ways to do this and the most effective way is to go on television. It is not making another big advertisement to air on TV, but news, such as media coverage. The good thing about media coverage is it hits the local community straight away and then national level.Furthermore, about seventy percent of the population watch news. Also, news reaches even the people who live in foreign areas from the capital. Another way of creating a buzz is going online, through social networking sites. The strategy employed the concept of using the social networks of other people so that they can propagate and expose their products and services. People can easily get influenced from what their peers tell them, and on networking sites, there are millions people thus, it is abstemious to make a viral effect on these sites.Celestial Travel Agency will find it difficult to do this marketing strategy. Most of the successful viral marketing advertisements are about the food sector. Nonetheless, the organization can still utilize this strategy in promoting their services, yet minimal results must be expected. Since the agency wants to develop their UK market, not focusin g on the UK Filipino community, to market its package tours to the Philippines, the organization can take advantage of the current tourist news about the country.For instance, the result of the new Seven extol of Nature can be turned into hype among all the tourists, especially the adventure-seekers travelers of UK. The new seven wonders is big news in the tourism industry therefore, travelers will be eager to discover these places. Moreover, there are also tourist spots in the Philippines that are featured on the news which the organization to battle the tight competition of the tourism industry. British tourists will then know that there are wonderful places to see in the Philippines.Also, travelling around the country is very cheap compared to other South East Asian countries. ?CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The Philippines has a lot to offer to the world, not just to the UK tourist market, which is the prospect market of the organization for market development. Through the uncon ventional marketing strategies, such as viral marketing and guerilla marketing, Celestial Travel Agency will not find it difficult to market the Philippines to the UK market. Understanding the wants of the UK market when it comes to going on holidays, the places they choose to go to.The British people are fond of adventure or outdoor activities and love going to the beaches, and since the Philippines is a tropical country that offers not only beautiful beaches but extreme outdoor activities too, such as mountaineering, scuba diving, spelunking, etc. , it can become a prime tropical tourist destination. The organization can take advantage of the news features regarding the tourist spots of the Philippines and make it viral. Using news, such as Top 20 beaches, Seven Wonders of Nature, and the other tourist destination rankings, the organization can utilize this and use the guerilla approach to making a craze over it.The organization can do a buzz using blogs, forums, and social networ king sites. It can even use upload a marketing ad on Youtube and post it on the different social networking sites. The research understands that the organization has very minimal budget for marketing, thus, e-marketing, guerilla marketing, and viral marketing strategies will be very effective to achieving its desired goals of developing the British market as key tourists to the Philippines.