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Analysing the marketing response of tourist organizations Students Name Institutional Affiliation

2 Analysing the marketing response of tourist organizations The hospitality industry is ranked as one of the industry most susceptible to crises. Lately, crises both natural and manmade have become common with hotels and travel agencies becoming a soft spot for criminal and other terrorist activities. The tsunami and earthquake in Japan, the earthquake in New Zealand, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the tsunami in Asia, health crisis, the bombing in London and Madrid transport networks, the Bali bombings and lastly 9/11 are some of the most complex crises that have darkened the twenty first century and greatly impacted on the tourism and travel industry. Many airlines have gone under and the flow of tourism has gone through massive transformation. Currently, crises and disasters are viewed as the new normal as well as the unavoidable cost of conducting tourism business. This paper provides a brief overview of the impacts that crises, both manmade and natural, have made on the travel and tourism industry as a whole. at the essay will also explore how the national tourist organizations in the UK have been influenced by and responded to unpredictable external factors and provide detailed examples of how the British Travel Authority and English Tourism Council in the UK manipulated elements of marketing campaigns to restore visitor confidence. Lastly, the paper will conclude by stating how such marketing campaigns have been able to successfully reverse the decline in the numbers of tourists as well provide a future forecasts for the sector. International tourism is ranked as the fourth largest industry in the world behind chemicals, automotive products and fuels (WTTC, 1995) as well as the top employer industry in the world. The travel and tourism industry is a major determinant of gross national product of countries worldwide. Even though the industry is still strong, it is bound to unpredictable external factors. In recent years, global travel and tourism industry trends have been negatively impacted by a combination of terrorism, war, disease, natural disasters, manmade disasters and

3 the global economic downturn. These unpredictable events are a global concern and they clearly have a major impact on travel and tourism. To make sure that the travel and tourism industry

remains profitable, the industry should assess any vulnerability or crisis and improve the effectiveness of recovery efforts (Scott, Laws, & Prideaux, 2008). The World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates that by 2020 there will be up to 1.6 billion international tourist arrivals spending nearly USD$2 trillion (Hawkins & Lamoureux, 2001). While increase in international arrivals may continue with the upward trend, the industry is immune to numerous unpredictable disasters. The travel and tourism industry is a vulnerable and extremely volatile industry and to keep growing the numbers, safety must be of the main priority during contingency planning. In the tourism industry, safety entails the safety of tourists as well as initiatives to sustain the industry as a whole (Hall, Timothy, & Duval, 2012). Natural disasters and political crises not only affect the tourism infrastructure but have, in some cases, led to loss of lives. For example, the SARS outbreak in 2002 caused had farreaching damages in the hospitality industry with tourism being the most affected. The rapid spread of SARS through air transport made a number of countries to issues travel advisories, which led to the cancellations of flights from East Asia. The Iraq war on the other hand did not only result in a loss of 3 million jobs in the travel and tourism industry but also reduced more than USD$30 million of economic value from the hospitality industry in 2003 alone (Hall et al., 2012). Disasters lead to structural damages, loss of life, and downward trends but amidst the crises, it is important to uphold and maintain the good standing of a tourist destination to instil confidence. This is important since marking a tourist destination as being unsafe might significantly affect future travel and tourism demand. As an example of post-disaster

4 management, marketing agencies have the responsibility of minimizing the time it takes the industry to recover from a crisis. According to Professor Avraham what distinguishes a marketled organization is not the objectives and tactics employed, but the speed of exploiting consumer knowledge to achieve specified targets (Avraham & Ketter, 2008). As earlier stated, disasters come in many forms, each with varying severity. While the tourism industry in the UK has been suffered from numerous disasters over the years, this report specifically considers the 2001 decline in tourism due to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and the measures tourist organizations adopted to rebuild tourist trust and confidence. The first case of FMD was diagnosed in February 2001since the severe outbreak of 1967. In a period of 11 months, 2030 cases were identified, and 4 million animals were culled (Miller & Ritchie, 2003). The English Tourism Council states that the outbreak of FMD resulted in the loss to English tourism to total 5 billion in 2001, 2.5 billion in 2002 and 1 billion in 2003 (Miller & Ritchie, 2003). The number of people visiting London also decreased by nearly 10%from 31.6 million in 2002 to 28.4 million in 2001 (Seaton & Bennett, 1996). Apart from the FMD outbreak, the tourism industry in the UK was largely affected by 9/11 and the global financial crisis. Other Sectors throughout the tourism industry were also affected, with hotels

and guesthouses in the countryside experiencing rapid decrease in the number of patrons. Major sporting events were cancelled and the resulting decline in international business travel saw airport hotels record sharp decline in numbers (Miller & Ritchie, 2003). The British Travel Authority had to come up with a solid marketing strategy to guarantee the quick recovery of the travel and tourism industry. In April 2001, the English Tourism

Council (ETC) was awarded 38 million to promote domestic travel. Marketing strategies targeted people whose previous vacation plans and reservations had been affected by the FMD

5 endemic. Visitors were encouraged not to limit themselves to rural vacation plans but to consider urban or coastal resorts, which offered competitive prices. The ETC also encouraged a shift from outdoor to indoor activities such as museums and galleries. These specific marketing campaigns combined with the introduction of websites with up-to-date information on safe areas throughout the UK are believed to have attracted more than 76,000 additional domestic tourists. According to Miller and Ritchie (2003), this represented a return on investment of 27 for each 1 spent. In addition to the domestic marketing strategies, the British Travel Authority was awarded 12 million in May 2001 to expand its marketing strategies to International markets. The aim of the campaign was to re-brand Britain as the best tourist destination as well as help combat FMD safety concerns among international travellers. The campaign slogan was UK OK and was targeted to seven key markets: USA, Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland. a followed up campaign dubbed Only in Britain: Only in 2002 was launched

shortly after and luckily the combination of the two campaigns led to UK playing host to more than 1 million additional visitors in 2002 (Miller & Ritchie, 2003). Tourism marketing is an essential post-crisis element that helps to alleviate the degree of perceived risk (Seaton & Bennett, 1996). The goal of marketing campaigns is to provide

reassurance and security for the tourists. The British Travel Authority and England Tourism Council promoted successful campaigns to domestic and international travellers just months after the outbreak of FMD. The facts show their efforts to be fruitful as to the number of tourists increased tenth fold as the UK recovered from the devastating decline in 2001. Although the BTA and ETC campaigns in 2001 were successful, they could have done more. The BTA admitted that they had a fairly basic crisis management strategy in place when FMD broke out(Riege & Perry, 2000). However, as expert Bill Faulkner states, Tourism

6 destinations in every corner of the globe face the virtual certainty of experiencing a disaster of one form or another at some point in their history. Despite this, few destinations have properly developed disaster management plans in place to help them cope with such eventualities (Faulkner, 2001). Critics accuse the BTA of not reacting to the crisis until the media painted a negative portrayal of the UK to International audiences (Seaton & Bennett, 1996). Nevertheless, when another crisis strikes the UK in the future, the BTA and ETC have learnt a lesson and thus it is expected that they will implement a more comprehensive, fast-acting crisis management plan, and potentially drawing lessons from Faulkners comprehensive Tourism Disaster Framework Model. As most shocks to the tourism industry occur with no warning, it is

important for the government to establish a formal system of response and recovery (Prideaux, Laws, & Faulkner, 2003). The impact of the FMD outbreak on the tourism industry in the UK was exacerbated by a combination of 9/11 and the global financial crisis. It was a worst-case

scenario turn of events that saw the UK emerge stronger, faster, and even more efficient in addressing future disasters affecting the tourism industry. The hospitality industry, tourism and transport, is an important industry in the UK. Forecasts indicate that between 2013 and 2020, international travel will increase considerably from less than half a million trips per annum to around 2 billion trips. If domestic trips are included, then 2020 will see the UK record up to 5 billion annual trips. Tourism is a global industry and thus the world should be well prepared to mitigate and overcome any likely impact of man-made or natural crises.

7 References Avraham, E., & Ketter, E. (2008). Media strategies for marketing places in crisis: Improving the image of cities, countries, and tourist destinations: Routledge. Faulkner, B. (2001). Towards a framework for tourism disaster management. Tourism management, 22(2), 135-147. Hall, C. M. (2010). Crisis events in tourism: subjects of crisis in tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 13(5), 401-417. Hall, C. M., Timothy, D. J., & Duval, D. T. (2012). Safety and security in tourism: relationships, management, and marketing: Routledge. Hawkins, D., & Lamoureux, K. (2001). Global growth and magnitude of ecotourism. The encyclopedia of ecotourism, 63-72. Miller, G. A., & Ritchie, B. W. (2003). A farming crisis or a tourism disaster? An analysis of the foot and mouth disease in the UK. Current Issues in Tourism, 6(2), 150-171. Mowlana, H., & Smith, G. (1993). Tourism in a global context: the case of frequent traveler programs. Journal of Travel Research, 31(3), 20-27. Prideaux, B., Laws, E., & Faulkner, B. (2003). Events in Indonesia: exploring the limits to formal tourism trends forecasting methods in complex crisis situations. Tourism management, 24(4), 475-487. Riege, A. M., & Perry, C. (2000). National marketing strategies in international travel and tourism. European Journal of Marketing, 34(11/12), 1290-1305. Scott, N., Laws, E., & Prideaux, B. (2008). Tourism crises and marketing recovery strategies. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 23(2-4), 1-13.

8 Seaton, A. V., & Bennett, M. M. (1996). The marketing of tourism products: Concepts, issues, and cases: CengageBrain. com. WTTC. (1995). Travel and Tourism: A New Economic Perpsective. Oxford: Elsevier Science.