Factors affecting the Effectiveness of Tourism Advertising Campaigns in the UK

Table of Contents

Abstract

1.1 Background

1.2 Research Objectives

1.4 Research Significance

2.0 Literatures Review
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Tourism Industry
2.5 The Advertising Campaign
2.5.1 Common Form of Tourist Advertising
2.3.2 Cultural Environment and Tourism Advertisement Campaign
2.4 Tourism Advertisement
2.4.1 Evolution of Tourism Advertisement Campaigns
2.4.2 Competitiveness of the Tourism Markets
2.5 Destination Marketing and Advertising in the Tourism Industry
2.5.1 Destination Image
2.6 Tourism Advertisement Campaign in UK
2.7 Factors affecting Effectiveness in Tourist Advertisement
2.7.1 Demographic Factors
2.7.2 Economic Factors
2.7.3 Psychological Factors
2.8 Summary of the Review

3.0 Methodology
3.1 Data Collection Methods
3.2 Research Ethics

4.0 Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Findings
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 The Case Study
4.2 Presentation
4.2.1 Participants
4.2.2 Type of the Participants
4.2.3 Age of the Participants
4.2.4 Nature of Employment of the Participants
4.2.5 Reasons for the Visit
4.2.6 Sources of Information to the Consumers
4.2.7 The effectiveness of the source
4.2.8 The Managers Response
4.3 Analysis and Interpretation of the Findings
4.3.1 Identified Factors Affecting the Advertising Campaigns
4.3.2 Comparison of the Factors

5.0 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation
5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendation

Reference List

1.0 Introduction

The main objective of this research was to identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of tourism advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom. This being the main focus of this research, it was therefore very important for the researcher to get an understanding of the nature of the tourism industry in the United Kingdom. This section therefore provides an overview of the tourism industry in the United Kingdom in terms of how significant the industry is using the criteria of employment and contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United Kingdom. This is provided in the background sub-section of this section. It is from this understanding that the factors affecting the effectiveness of the tourism advertising campaign in the United Kingdom can be distinguished. The section proceeds with enumerating the research objectives which are specifically identified in the research objectives sub-section of this section followed by the research question and finally the significance of this research is also provided in research significance sub-section of this section.

1.1 Background

Tourism industry is one of the oldest and significant industries in the United Kingdom contributing approximately 127.9 Sterling Pounds to the economy. The industry contributes about 4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of the United Kingdom. Gross Domestic Product refers to the aggregate value of all the products produced within a country and the net revenues from the foreign investments (Rowe, Smith and Fiona, 2002). The industry has by and large played a major role in the creation of employment opportunities for the people in the United Kingdom. As per the statistics for 2010, the industry had employed about 1.5 million people which form approximately 7 percent of all the employment in the United Kingdom. These people are employed in the different sectors that serve the tourism industry directly and indirectly. These sectors include; restaurants, museums, travel agencies, hotels, pubs among others. Going by these facts it is crystal clear that the industry is very significant and important in the United Kingdom economy. The growth of the industry dates back to the nineteenth century in the second half during the period referred to as the Victorian period. This is the era when mass tourism set off in England. It is worth to note that during this epoch the popular kind of tourism activity common was seaside holidays (Mandy, 2010).

In the present time the number of people who visit England has significantly skyrocketed to about 25 million as of the year 2010. These tourists originate from the entire world and they normally start their tour in London although some of them do not go beyond this city because of the many tourist attractions in the city. There are several reasons why people visit this great part of the world. Some of the reasons as researched by Mandy (2010) include; having sight of the historical buildings of different form in the United Kingdom scenery, sampling the profound United Kingdom way of life and heritage that is cherished by the citizens. Other people visit the country with the intention of discovering their roots in terms of family that stem from the United Kingdom. The awesome countryside of England that is unique from different regions coupled with the diversified culture provides another major reason for the high inflow of tourists in the United Kingdom. The country is also centrally located making it easy to access the other parts of Europe making it to be used as the stepping stone to the other regions of the European countries. The beautiful scenery includes the magnificent Dorset coast with the Lake District, Windsor Castle and the Stonehenge. Cambridge and Oxford cities which have very beautiful universities also contribute to the rising number of tourist inflow to the country (Mandy, 2010).

Tourism attraction sites stretch from the mainland island of Britain to the diversity of the United Kingdom in terms of culture and the stunning topography. All these provide attractions for all the tourists from both within the country and outside the country i.e. domestic and international tourists. The ever improving links in communication and transport have made most of the United Kingdom tourism sites to be more increasingly accessible to the visitors without difficulty both from the international market and the domestic market (Jay, Connie and Beverley, 2001). This provides a reason why it is expected that the industry will continue to grow with effective advertisement by the different players in the industry. Therefore it is important for the companies that are operating in the tourism industry in the United Kingdom to understand the various factors that significantly affect the tourism advertising campaign in the United Kingdom. This is particularly important to enable them design effective advertising campaign for their offerings. The tourism industry in the United Kingdom comprise of companies of different sizes providing different services and products consumed in the industry. These companies range from international operators, national organizations to small operators in bed-and-breakfast and visitor attractions that are owned independently and privately (Jay, Connie and Beverley, 2001).

It is also worth to note that the United Kingdom government is involved in the tourism industry through various departments charged with different responsibilities for tourism including the Ministry of Defence and also through the provision of subsidies to a variety of organizations in the United Kingdom. The influence of the public sector extends even to the local authorities and local government level which provide different facilities for leisure and tourism attraction. Due to the increasing competition, the provision of these facilities has been highly commercialized so as to effectively appeal to the international and domestic visitors that are becoming more erudite (Jay, Connie and Beverley, 2001).

The history has it that the tourism industry in the United Kingdom is distinguished by a high inward mobility of foreign labour from the international labour market. The main factors that have led to this trend include the English language used in the United Kingdom, the high level of internationalization and the image projected by the hotel sector. In the United Kingdom, the tourism industry majorly uses the English language as the medium of communication. This means that a significant number of workers from the foreign countries can work in the United Kingdom with minimal problems. The English language forms part of the essentials of education and training in the tourism institutions of education in the European Union at large. In addition to this, English language is used as the official or business language in the international tourism world wide. Therefore foreign workers who have an interest in developing and improving their language skills are keen to have their work experience in the United Kingdom. This to an extent explains the high rate of inflow of foreign employees into the United Kingdom tourism industry (Singh, 2008).

The growth of the tourism industry of a country in terms of the inflow of tourists is highly dependent on the global tourism industry. The global tourism industry is highly competitive and very professional. The intensity as well as the tenacity of the global tourism industry is considered to be a very critical factor in the understanding of how competitive the tourism markets are (Cook and Yale, 1994). In the recent past in the United Kingdom there has been development of very competitive tourism products due to the high-quality management of the natural resources as well as the manmade tourist assets in the country. The main aim of this quality management is to convince the international market that the country is the destination of choice over the other countries in the global tourism industry. However it is arguable that there is a need to device suitable as well as continuing promotional and advertising tourism campaigns for the purpose of reaching out to the international market in the tourism industry so as to maintain or increase the market for (Dunsmuir, 1991).

As noted earlier in the section, the tourism industry is the second largest in the United Kingdom economy and also the second highest foreign exchange earner in the economy. It is also the second biggest private sector employer. Being a chief contributor to the economy of the United Kingdom and the economy’s growth, tourism industry has over time been named as one of the growth and development engines of the country even in the future. Being aware of this fact various players in the industry have always strived to enhance the growth of the industry by way of popularising the industry through tourism advertisement campaigns. This is not with the exception of the United Kingdom government. The government in 2007 launched phase one of tourism advertisement campaign in order to raise tourism awareness. The phase was aimed at enhancing the perception of the local people concerning the tourism sector as well as creating awareness among the citizens and the other agencies that influence the tourism industry in the country. The campaign involved the collaboration of different non-governmental organizations, the Ministry of Tourism and other main decision makers in the industry (Huang, 2011).

There are several factors that affect the effectiveness of the tourism advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom. These factors relates to the demographic, behavioural and the psychological orientation of the market targeted by the tourism campaign in question. Of great importance is that these factors have continually determined the choice of the media channels to be used in order to register an increasing chance of having a celebrated advertising campaign (Pan, 2011). It is also worth to note that there has been an increasing trend in the advancement of technology in the entire world. This has also its own implications on the behavioural characteristics of the market for the tourism industry. A keen observation of most of the youth today has revealed that they are fond of purchasing products via the internet and therefore in most cases they tend to make their holiday booking through the internet. In these circumstances therefore the design of the tourism advertising campaigns need to be very observant of all the factors that affect the behavioural, psychological and the demographic characteristics of the market being targeted by the campaign (Pizam, 1999).

Some forms of advertising within the tourism industry are much more effective than others and therefore it is very important for companies within the tourism industry to select the advertising strategies that are best suited and tailored to the needs and requirements of the market being targeted. This will basically be dependent on the demographic, psychological and the behavioural characteristics of the market that is targeted by the campaigns. How the campaign features match these features determines the acceptance and the success of the campaign. Through studies it has been noted that the media channels through which the advertisers pass their message in the tourism industry greatly influence the degree to which the advertising campaign will be successful. It is quite clear that different groups of consumers in the tourism market will have different tastes and preferences when it comes to the advertising media and this will undoubtedly impact how they will ultimately react to the advertising campaigns. Hence it is important for the companies within the tourism industry to ensure that they have tailored their advertising campaigns and have selected media channels that meet the exact requirements of the target market (Pan, 2011).

At this juncture, it is worth noting that tourism is a highly people-oriented business and significant to the economy especially to the United Kingdom economy (Huang, 2011). It is therefore within the interest of the citizens that the industry mushrooms for the country to effectively derive its benefits to the economy to the maximum possible. Being a significant industry in the economy of the United Kingdom, it is particularly important that the industry grows in terms of the number of tourists that would prefer to visit the country instead of the other countries. World wide the tourism industry is highly competitive and therefore any country that has to benefit from it has to be vey aggressive in the marketing of its tourism services and products. The countries need to popularise their tourist attraction features both locally and internationally so as to capture the domestic and the international market for its products. Advertising campaign is one of the ways through which the tourism industry can popularise its products and services. It is a way of raising the awareness of the population both locally and internationally about the available tourism products in the country. However several factors need to be considered before choosing and designing advertising campaigns for the tourism products. As indicated above there are several factors that affect the effectiveness of the tourism advertising campaigns in any country providing tourism services and products. This research endeavours to identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of tourism advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom.

1.2 Research Objectives

The primary objective of this research is to identify the various factors that affect the effectiveness of the tourism advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom. The aim of any advertising campaign in whichever industry is to create or increase awareness for the product or service of concern. This is so as to ultimately increase the relevant revenues. The same case applies to the companies in the tourism industry. For the campaign to be said to have been successful and effective, there should be an improvement in the awareness and the sales of the product. Several factors will affect the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns. It is with this knowledge that this research seeks to identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of the tourism advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom. To sufficiently achieve this objective, the research will try to;

- Analyse the different forms of advertising campaigns carried out in UK tourism industry.
- Analyse the relationship between the forms of advertising used in the industry and the number of tourists realized.

1.3 Research Question

This research will focus on exploring some of the critical factors that affect the tourism advertising campaigns in the United Kingdom. In order to achieve the objective, the research will be guided by the primary research question;

- What are the critical factors that affect the effectiveness of the tourism advertising campaign in the United Kingdom?

This primary question will further be broken into a number of specific questions that will enable the research to be as detailed as possible. The following specific questions will therefore be analyzed;

- What are the forms of advertising campaigns used in the United Kingdom’s tourism industry?
- What forms of advertising campaigns have been successful in winning more domestic tourists in the United Kingdom?
- What forms of advertising campaigns have been successful in winning international tourists into the United Kingdom?
- How do those advertising campaigns relate with the increased inflow of tourists both domestic and international tourists in the United Kingdom?

1.4 Research Significance

The market for tourism is very competitive in the global tourism industry. There are diversified products and services in the tourism industry that are subject to the global competition. The companies in the tourism industry of the United Kingdom range from the local small firms to the large international companies. It therefore follows that the rate at which the services and products in the industry compete is very high. All the players in the tourism industry including the individual operators, the government, marketing professionals and researchers both local and international will find this research very significant. The players in the industry are required to device effective advertising campaigns so as to promote sales of the services and products. This also necessitates that the companies should develop effective advertising campaigns to popularise their activities. This research is therefore very significant to such companies since the understanding of the factors that affect the advertising campaign is the starting point towards developing an effective advertising campaign to achieve its intended objectives.

This particular research is also significant to the government of the United Kingdom. As indicated above the sector plays a critical role in the development of the economy of the United Kingdom. It creates employment opportunities for its citizen and above all generates revenue for the government. Therefore its effective growth is of paramount concern for the government. Effective advertising campaigns will steer this growth of the industry. Therefore to the extent that this research helps companies and even the government in the development of effective advertising campaigns, it is significant to the government.

Also marketing consultants and other professionals in the marketing field within the tourism industry will also find this research very significant in their business activities and also in the provision of professional services to their clients. These are people who have specialised in advising their clients on how to come up with an effective way of popularising their products. To be competent in offering this service, the professionals need to be abreast with the changes in the tourism market including the factors that affect the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns in the industry. They will therefore find this research beneficial in this respect. Finally, this research is very significant to the future researchers who may be interested in the further study of the topic or any other related topic. It fills the knowledge gap in the literature on the tourism industry by providing additional information on the factors that affect the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns. Researchers may in future use the information in this research as the stepping stone in prescribing the effective methods of advertising campaigns suitable for different target markets.

2.0 Literatures Review

2.1 Introduction

The main focus of this specific study is to understand the various factors that hinder effectiveness of tourism advertising campaign in the United Kingdom. This section outlines various aspects that revolve around tourism advertisement campaigns. It also contain research review of literature that exist from previous studies carried out in the past and has put into consideration various aspects of advertising tourism products and the manner in which advertising campaigns are carried out in the verge of establishing the factors which substantially affect the effectiveness of tourism advertising campaigns.

2.2 Tourism Industry

Most of the existing literature seems to agree with the definition of tourism offered by The World Tourism Board as “the activities of people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.” A tourist therefore is a person who is away from where he or she normally resides but he or she will eventually go back to his or her normal residence. It is not necessary that the person should be away from his or her normal residence overnight since he or she can be on an excursion or a day trip. Much of the tourism activities take place within the boundaries of a country exemplified by visits to gorgeous places, business meetings expeditions, sporting events and ententes by the residents of the country within the home country. Tourism is mainly classified as domestic tourism and international tourism (Rowe, Smith and Fiona, 2002).

Domestic tourism involves the citizens of a country visiting places within the country whereas international tourism involves people crossing boundaries demarcating nations to visit tourist attraction places in the other foreign countries. The international tourism can be incoming or outbound tourism. Incoming tourism which is also referred to us the inbound tourism refer to the situations where people from the other foreign countries come in the home country to visit the tourism features in the country. Outbound tourism is where people move from the home country to visit tourism attraction features in the foreign countries. An example of domestic tourism could be where a couple decides to take a break over the weekend away from their normal residence but within the country for example a United Kingdom couple visiting the Dorset Coast in the United Kingdom (Rowe, Smith and Fiona, 2002).

On the basis of this categorization, the tourism market in the United Kingdom consists of the domestic tourism market and the international tourism market. Both the markets are highly volatile and also seasonal causing the market place for tourism to be highly advanced and very competitive (Jay, Connie and Beverley, 2001). The tourists that are attracted to the United Kingdom are of a wide variety classified by type, retail, industrial and leisure, events and games tourism. They are classified by type to include urban and rural tourists, by retail to include tourists attracted by the culture, arts and the historical events in the United Kingdom. The nature of competition in the tourism market of the United Kingdom has resulted to the introduction of very diverse and differentiated products and services offered by the different players in the industry. The provision of the tourism products is to a large extent characterised by the segmentation of the market and diversity (Jay, Connie and Beverley, 2001). However, the biggest question rests on how the products are popularised among their intended consumers. However another dimension of the tourism industry is brought into perspective by Bauer and Gaskell (2000) who defines tourism industry as the enterprises as well as organizations that usually facilitate travel and activities which are way from an individual’s usual environment.

2.3 The Significance of the Tourism Industry

Research is diverse in pointing out the various ways through which tourism industry is beneficial to any economy. Rowe, Smith and Fiona (2002) underscore that tourism has an inherent potential to affect the social and cultural activities of a society. However this largely depends on the region’s strengths in terms of its culture and religion. This is because the tourists normally intermingle with the community hosting them and where the tourists are not receptive to the traditions, standards and customs of the local community, their activities while in the tour will affect the local community’s customs, standards and traditions. These effects on the hosting community can be both positive and negative. However, whether this aspect of tourism negatively or positively affects the tourism industry is still not clear in the existing literature.

Tourism has also economic payback to the hosting country or region. First and foremost the industry provides employment opportunities to the locals in addition to the generation of revenue at different levels including the local, national, regional and international echelon. Due to tourism activities in a particular region or area, other auxiliary industries sprout hence creates an improved representation of the region or area. There is a multiplier effect when a certain region positions itself as a tourist destination of choice. This is because there are several benefits to the local economy including new jobs, more business to the local enterprises doing business like hotels and restaurants, improved services provided locally through infrastructural development and provision of more facilities to the local people. These benefits are both direct and indirect to the local community (Rowe, Smith and Fiona, 2002).

For instance, the hotel sector of the United Kingdom tourism sector is highly internationalised and is largely known for employing labour from different parts of the world. Of particular interest the hotels with international chains send their staffs to work in the United Kingdom so as to garner high quality experience. However, the hotel sector in the United Kingdom has been depicted as a poor employer by different research studies. This has consequently resulted to greater unwillingness among the residents to work for the sector. As a result the United Kingdom hotels are forced to import staff from other countries in the European Union countries where the image is still auspicious. It is also considered that the bureaucracy in the United Kingdom for the European Union residents is low compared to the other nations. This has a motivational effect to the European Union residents to work in the United Kingdom. These are the major reasons explaining why the hotel sector in the United Kingdom has shown an upward trend in its foreign labour input (Singh, 2008). This could be a drawback towards the efforts popularising the industry to the domestic market which the existing the existing literature has not considered

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