Marketing Plan for Tourism Destination - Essay Example

Marketing Plan for Tourism Destination (Word count: 3,019) Recovering Kenya’s Tourism Industry from Terrorist Attack A 3-year Marketing Plan for Kenya’s Tourism Sector Background Information Kenya, one of the countries in East African region, has for decades now proved to be one of the world’s best tourism destinations. It is widely to be having game reserves and national parks that keep some of the world’s biggest wildlife such as wildebeests, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, hippopotamus, camels, lions, cheetahs, zebras among other numerous interesting wild animals which attract tourists. Apart from the wild animals, the country is also rich in clean and plenty of nice beaches along its coastline with nice hotels and sun bathing facilities where both international and domestic tourists prefer to spend their holidays at. The great wildebeest migration which also takes place for three consecutive months each year also happens to be one of the largest tourist attractions products in Kenya. The tourism industry of Kenya has recently largely expanded given the good and warm cordial relations that the country has with both the neighboring countries as well as other countries abroad. However, following the recent Westgate Mall terrorist attack that took place in the Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, the country’s tourism industry has largely been affected (James, 2013). This season being a high season for the tourism industry, most of the hotels currently record at most 25% their normal capacity. This is not as expected for all high seasons for tourism in this country where more hotels would be recording close to 95% their normal capacity on a daily basis. This marketing plan is therefore aimed at restructuring the Kenya’s tourism Industry and ensuring that tourists are assured of their security so that the tourism industry can recover from this big blow. The country highly depends on the industry so much as it is the second largest sector, after Agriculture, which forms the backbone of the country’s economy (Mary, 2012). Mission, Vision and Goals The mission of this marketing plan is to restructure Kenya’s tourism industry and provide security for the tourists as they enjoy their visits and holidays in the country. The plan is also to improve on the service delivery in the tourism industry and convince more tourists not to reschedule their holiday destinations from Kenya. The vision of this marketing plan is to see Kenya’s tourism industry recover from the terrorism disaster and becomes the best tourist destination in the world. The goals/objectives of this marketing plan are; Security assurance in the tourism industry Improve service delivery in the tourism sector Promote Kenya’s tourism industry vigorously in the entire world Increase revenue from tourism sector of Kenya. Reposition Kenya’s tourism products to attract more tourists Situation Analysis-The SWOT Analysis i. Strengths The tourism industry of Kenya has been known for its good service delivery Hospitability of the Kenya citizens. The citizens live freely with foreigners in every part of the country everywhere without showing any signs of hostility. Kenyan hotels offers good native delicacies to both domestic and international tourists. Most of the hotels are situated on the beaches which makes it easier and advantageous for most tourists who can enjoy both the hotel services and the beach services at the affordable costs. There are highly trained tour guides who are professionals in their fields hence ensure an exemplary service delivery to their clients. Kenya offers a variety of tourism products and services unlike other countries which maybe has only a few. From wildlife to clean beaches, the world’s second largest fresh water lake-lake Victoria and the coastal features along the Indian ocean beaches, the world’s craziest wildebeest migration and the land of some of the world’s best athletes like David Rudisha-World Olympic Champion Holder of 800m, Ezekiel Kemboi-the world’s Olympic Champion Holder of 10,000m triple cheese and much more. Heavy industrial and technological development in the tourism sector that enables the provision of advanced services to the tourists. The ability of most of the citizens to communicate in the various languages including French, Italian, English, Spanish, German, Swahili and others hence attracting many tourists from all the language divide without any fear of the barriers of communication. ii. Weaknesses The industry is not mature enough as it has not exploited much of its tourism potential. The country lacks empowerment to exploit much in tourist attraction. The level of the service provision as compared to the developed world is a bit low. There is much laxity as far as growth in the industry is concerned. Not enough promotional activities have been done in order to create awareness to most parts of the world about the country’s rich tourism sector. Some of the hotels do not have enough capacity to accommodate many tourists during the high seasons hence making some tourists to divert their visits to other places. Infrastructural facility in some of the tourist attraction centers is associated with poor roads and poor communication network. This makes it hard to access certain areas and at the same time communication is sometimes not enabled in those areas. iii. Opportunities Kenya is a blessed land of diverse cultures from the 42 different ethnic groups. This makes it a larger tourism attraction center for the international tourists who love some of the Kenyans cultural and traditional practices. The country is blessed with nice beaches and wildlife which provide a good tourism opportunity in the region. There is still much in tourism that has not yet been exploited that the country can use as an opportunity to attract more tourists who both come as tourists and with the potential to exploit the new tourism opportunities. Beautiful bird sceneries with close to 1,000 species of birds are good opportunities that also make Kenya a good tourist attraction center. Kenya enjoys good relations with most of the countries of the world, hence creating a good tourism opportunity to the world around it. Cross cultural and cross regional marriages that have enhanced the Kenyan tourism sector by providing opportunity for the citizens to marry and get married to international tourists hence encouraging more tourists to come find their lovely partners in the country. The low value of the Kenya currency as compared to the dollar value which is used universally, hence, foreign tourists find it cheaper to spend money in Kenya than in their respective countries. iv. Threats There is high insecurity in the country given the several attacks by the Al Shabab terrorist group from Somalia in most parts of the country, with the most recent and very serious one being the West Gate Mall attack in Nairobi two months ago. This attack took four days, claiming lives of hundreds of people including various tourists from multinational origins. There is high composition within the industry with the neighboring countries such as Tanzania which also offers most of the tourism products offered by Kenya. Increased wildlife poaching where very rarely found animals are killed by unauthorized poachers making posing a threat to the tourism sector. For instance, there has been increased poaching of elephants for their valuable tusks that are majorly exported to the Asian countries for the manufacture of valuable ornamental products. Internal political wrangles that due to the recently formed county government. There is no clear division or resources between the central and the county governments, hence affecting the tourism sector as some of the resources here are natural tourism attraction sites like the beaches. External Environment Situation Analysis PESTEL Analysis i. Political Factors The country is recovering from the 2007 post election violence which claimed lives of thousands of people. This drove the tourism sector backwards as tourists had to change their destination as they feared for their lives due to insecurity in the Kenya (Juliani, 2008). The current political situation is not steady already since the chief suspects of the 2007 post election violence perpetrators are the current elected president and vice president and are attending their trials at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. Therefore, many tourists still fear security level has not yet built up to a good standard. There are also wrangles in division of resources between the central and the county governments putting it very hard for tourists to visit the tourist attraction centers since the management is not well set and specified. ii. Environmental Factors Economically, the country is graded as one of the most poverty stricken countries both in the region and the world at large. There is high corruption of the leaders and the inflation rate is also very high. This lessens the potential to exploit new tourism attraction centers as well as get faithful and trusted leadership to manage the tourism sector well without in-appropriations. iii. Socio-cultural Factors The citizens are social and hospitable. There is a wide base of cultural activities from the cultural diversity that is experienced in the country. iv. Technological Factors The country has tried in improving its technology level to increase infrastructural facilities in the industry sector even though much still needs to be done. v. Ecological Factors The country experiences seasonal rainfall which is good for the wildlife hence a sustainable tourism. The country experiences sunny days in most days of the years-for close to 12 hours a day which is not experienced in other counties. This is because it is situated at the equator of the earth. vi. Legal Factors The Kenyan legal system incorporates legislations to protect certain wild animals as they make the center of the Kenyan tourism sector. According to the Kenyan constitution, an elephant is supposed to be given a 24 hours protection with security personnel just like other important politician in the society is guarded. Therefore the law recognizes tourism and puts forward several amendments in order to keep checking the possible drawback areas and rectify them as soon as they are noticed. Target Market The marketing plan for the tourism industry of Kenya will target two broad groups of markets. The first and major market is the international market. International tourists earn the country much foreign exchange which explodes even to other sectors such as transport and communication sectors (TCR, 2012). The country will invest in high class luxurious hotels for the foreign tourists who will be coming to the country from all over the world. This group of target market will include tourists on business duties, holidays, family and friend visits etc. The second target market is the domestic market. The domestic tourists also form a good part of the tourism industry here and affordable and nice facilities need to be set aside to accommodate the domestic tourists. Domestic tourists should enjoy the benefit of being members of the country, therefore, affordable rates should apply to them whenever they visit the tourist attraction centers. Market Segmentation The market will be segmented according to various factors including geographic and demographic features of the target clients. Under geographic, the market will be segmented into domestic and international markets. The domestic market will comprise of the local tourists who will be given special rates different from the foreign tourists (Dolnicar, 2008). The international market will comprise the foreign tourists who will visit Kenya for holidays, business activities, conferences, group tours or weekend breaks. For them to be enticed and come back to Kenya, their rates should also be affordable but at international rates. The demographic features would see the market being segmented according to age and activities such as the young people, families and children, culture seekers and sports people (Paul, 2008). Therefore, there would be a special group of clients coming to enjoy sports and culture from the country and those tourists with families and children will also be given different packages to cater for them. For family members, discounts will be applied according to the number of the family members available. The Target Market Segment Profile The plan will target high profile, medium and low profile market segments. For the high profile like the international tourists who come for leisure, high prices will be set accompanied with high quality service delivery (Daisy, 2004). The middle level class comprising both the foreign tourists and the domestic tourists, special medium and affordable rates will be set for them with a little minimized level of services. For instance, they cannot be allowed to use first class level of rooms in the most classic hotels. The lower profile of customers will also be targeted with their category being with much restriction given the little amount of money that they will be required to pay. They will be denied access to most luxuries in the tourism attraction sites but allowed to only what their money can afford. Target Segment Size The plan will target any size of target customers as there are plans to improve accommodation facilities around the tourist attraction areas. Being that not all tourists will visit a site at the same time, higher number of customers will be accommodated as spaces will continually be renewed after every use. The facilities however will be increased in order to increase their capacity to be able to cater for as much number of clients at a sitting as possible. The plan however will target around 10 million tourists in per year to the country coming at different times and seasons of the year. Main Strategies The tourism sector will ensure the tourists of improved security in the country. The major stakeholders including the ministry of tourism are will manage to provide adequate security to the tourists by collaborating with the ministry of internal security and that of defense. The stakeholders will hold talks with the various security departments to improve the general security level of the whole country. Once the country is able to contain the security of the whole country, there will be peace and the international tourists will just be coming. Goodwill and peace ambassadors will be sent to various international countries to preach peace and ensure that the recipient countries are convinced about the security situation in Kenya (Mate, 2005). The ministry of will also collaborates with the air travel agency to offer reduced prices for any tourist coming from any country and destined for Kenya. This offer will last for the three years of this plan in order to promote tourism in this country. The tourism sector will also improve the hygienic conditions of the tourist attraction sites such as public beaches which have long been abandoned and left untidy hence leaving the tourists to go only to the private beaches which are comparatively expensive. The market development strategy will also be used where the tourism industry will target the new market around the Asian countries. According to the previous records, the country has been receiving very few tourists from this region; therefore, it will be treated as a new market where penetration strategies will be applied in order to allow the tourism industry in Kenya gaining much popularity in this region. Promotional Activities The tourism sector of Kenya will beef up promotional activities for the last three years in order to see the industry recover from the big insecurity blow. There is much to be done in this sector including the plan to advertise in all the local TV channels in the country which are also watched by the rest of the world through the DSTV services. These channels include KTN, KBC, Citizen, K24, QTV, Sayare, and NTV. Other international channels will also be targeted including Supersport where most people watch the most important sports in the world hence it covers a wider range of viewers. Social media will also play a very big part in promoting the country’s tourism industry. This will majorly take place through Google, Facebook, and Twitter as well as through Yahoo adverts in the classified sections. Top magazines will also be used to spread the beauty of Kenya to the rest of the world where international magazines like Lifestyle, the Drum and family magazines will be used. Aircrafts of different airline companies will be painted with the beautiful sceneries of Kenya in order to promote the industry in other countries. Various ambassadors will be required to send messages to their respective countries promoting the industry and encouraging their citizens to come and visit Kenya by telling them that their security will be assured. Online bookings will be encouraged where 30% of the total rates will be waived for any tourist who will book via online means. This is supposed to encourage many international tourists who cannot visit the facilities physically and book on time. Selection Rationale Most of the high profile tourists watch sophisticated channels like Supersport during leisure; therefore this will be a good choice to target this group of clients. Business magazines will also target the medium and the high profile tourists as the local channels will mostly target the local or domestic tourists. The aircraft paintings will target the high profile tourists who like travelling in planes while the social media will target the learned and the youth who find fun from the social media. Various interactive segments will be created in every medium of promotion/advertisement in order to monitor the performance of each medium as far as reaching out to customers is concerned. Toll free telephone lines will also be initiated and availed to the target clients to enable them to confirm any issue from wherever they will be. Budget, Monitoring and Evaluation In order for the tourism industry of Kenya to meet the marketing strategies, it will devote 65% of its total budget allocations to marketing and security services. The allocation of funds will be prioritized with the strategies that require urgent attention like security strategies being allocated much funds then followed by marketing strategies. The implementation of these strategies will be monitored yearly by the measure of target achievement. The target is to see at least 10 million tourists visit Kenya every year. The promotional activities that will be found to reach most customers will be through evaluations, via the interactive segments set, will be awarded more funds in the successive years’ budgets and the medium intensified in order to market the industry more. Conclusion The above plan, if implemented for the next three years, will see Kenya recover its tourism industry and reach a target of 10 million international tourists per year. 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