Market Entry Strategy for Turkish Cultural Tourism Package into Canada - Term Paper Example

Market Entry Strategy for Turkish Cultural Tourism Package into Canada Prepared by Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name Date Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4 2.0 Current Trends in Tourism.………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4 2.1 Increased Popularity in World Heritage Sites..………………………………………………………………4 2.2 Polarisation.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 2.3 Popularisation of New Tourism Packages.……………………………………………………………………..4 2.4 Relatively Smaller Volume, Diversified Forms of Packages.……………………………………………5 2.5 Popularity of Cruise Market.………………………………………………………………………………………….5 3.0 The Current Local Position of the Turkish Cultural Tourism Package…………………………………………..5 4.0 Analysis of Potential Markets for Cultural Tourism Product Package…………………………………………..7 4.1 Screening Criterion for Potential International Market.…………………………………………………8 4.2 Developing a List of Countries for Comparison Purposes……………………………………………….8 5.0 Potential Market Entry Strategy of Turkish Cultural Tourism in Canada…………………………………..10 6.0 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12 References List…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………13 Executive Summary This paper has focused on examining how Turkish cultural tourism package can effectively enter the Canadian market. It has been successfully noted that this product can enter the Canadian market through a direct export or selling strategy whereby the Turkish government will employ the use of agents and distributors in Canada to promote and sale its products in the overseas market. The process of selecting the country for which the product will enter has been achieved through a series of elimination approach whereby in a list of 19 countries, one Canada has been selected due to its high GDP, tourism expenditure figures, educational level of the tourists especially since most cultural tourists are learned people, as well as their immediate adoption of internet usage within the country. The paper has successfully expounded on the current trends of tourism patterns across the globe and, also provided succinct information related to tourism in Turkey at the current position. It has also noted of efficient legislation initiatives put forward by the Turkish government to propel the activity into greater heights. 1.0 Introduction International product or a given multinational firm will always compete in more than a single marketplace. As the process of globalisation continues to increase, countries that wish to attract lots of international tourists have been faced with the need for managing a great deal of product-markets that extends to foreign economies. Research indicates that a company will seek to enter a foreign market for purposes of taking advantage of the underlying market potential by expanding its operations there as well as have an opportunity of learning from customers and rivals within the leading market as a whole (Altintas & Tokol, 2007). Certainly, it might also be an effort of attaining a geographical expansion strategy within the region. In this regards, the model of entry strategy into foreign markets would solely affect the new market as well as a platform for achieving for its overall long-term decision. Current research ascertains that the overall development of a market entry strategy involves a set of three fundamental phases; screening; identification and selection stages (Tosun, 1999). To effectively enter and international market, it is recommended that there should be an overall analysis of a country’s cultural; economical and legal, technological and political dimensions for purposes of examining numerous aspects and patterns related to international marketing environments. The focus of this paper is to examine how Turkey’s cultural tourism package can be introduced within the Canadian international marketing and the modes of entry; possible regulatory issues within the market that might assist or hinder the sale of the product and service as well as immediate route to market. It is important to note that the product under consideration is cultural tourism in Turkey. 2.0 Current Trends in Tourism 2.1 Increased Popularity in World Heritage Sites Whenever tourists across the globe consider places to travel in overseas markets, the World Heritage Sites enjoys a significant level of decision-making weight. In fact, a similar pattern is replicated whenever potential tourists want to tour their domestic sites (Altintas & Tokol, 2007). This is taken to mean that countries that have successfully achieved the registration process of having their places ascertained as being World Heritage Site have benefited a lot from effective tourism promotion. 2.2 Polarisation Tours have traditionally been categorised into two forms; budget and quality tours however; recent data indicates that the pattern has resulted to attaining a higher popularity index. In this regard, quality tours have been continued to be more expensive with an aim of meeting a tourist’s each and every need and the pattern towards FIT while on the other hand; budget tours have always stood the test of time to maintain a traditional format (Altintas & Tokol, 2007). However, efforts are being made to ensure that regionalisation and charter flights are included within the traditional budget format to bring about certain future changes. 2.3 Popularisation of New Tourism Packages These tourism packages include a purpose-based, health and eco-tourism. Until recently, the overseas travel markets for tourists have gained lots popularity and as a result, it is now purely handling repeaters. In essence, the category that is popularly referred to as mature travellers has continued to be a fixed segment possessing a distinct regular market shares (Özel & Kozak, 2012). Due to this, most of the existing tourists have been introduced to new types of tourism so that they can shift away from traditional sightseeing-based tourism into those activities that gives them an opportunity to ‘touch life within the destination country’. It is crucial to note that tour-packages that give clients an opportunity to accomplish a pre-set goal or for that case, enjoy a specific set of experience have continued to gain momentum across the globe. Cultural-based tourism like eco-tourism forms part of this development (Özel & Kozak, 2012). 2.4 Relatively Smaller Volume, Diversified Forms of Packages It is important to understand that tours will possibly shift towards a given lowest common denominator in relation to their immediate content. This means tours and travel companies across the globe will tend to generate packages that almost similar to one another, which are later introduced to markets thereby creating intense competition (Özel & Kozak, 2012). The current market needs continue to diversify while there is an improvisation in the demand for niche tours. In this regard, studies indicate that there is a direct need for the formulation of products that fairly postulate small amounts of diversified experiences as can be noted with niche tourism as opposed to having the entire mass enjoy general and common experiences. 2.5 Popularity of Cruise Market The world’s cruising market is now taking shape than before. In fact, most of the current enormous passenger shipping companies continue to recruit GSAs since there is the presence of enormous capacity within which the industry and infrastructure have been developed for purpose of selling cruise packages (Tosun, 1999). Cruises are expensive for clients and much more profitable to the travel companies hence there is a future positive outlook in this sector as a whole. 3.0 The Current Local Position of the Turkish Cultural Tourism Package It is crucial to note that the aspect related to cultural tourism involves a great deal of activities that can differ in one place and another. For most case, cultural tourism involves such important aspects distinct performances like plays; music; dance performed in theatres or even engaging in visiting historical sites within the country (Tosun, 1999). The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have so far listed 7 cultural properties as heritage sites. In relation to the current data provided by the country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there have been more than 68,095 registered cultural assets with a great number of them being positioned in Istanbul; the country’s capital city. In fact, as a result of this, Istanbul has been for long been established as the culture capital of Europe (Tosun, 1999). Most of these cultural assets that have been discovered have all been made through excavation of 175 museums. The number of annual tourist visitors to these museums has increased over the years from 8M to 16M in the period between 1990 and 2006, with most of them being foreign and international-based tourists. In addition to this, the country also has more 100 theatre halls as the number of attendees continues to increase over time as ballet hall performances registered an improvement in visitors; a majority of them being international-based visitors (Tosun, 1999). According to World Tourism Organisation (WTO) reports, Turkey is considered to be amongst the world’s top tourist destinations as the country is currently ranked 9th and 10th in relation to international tourism visitation position and tourism revenues respectively. The country’s cultural tourism sector has thus improved over time from 5.2% to 8.1% in the period between 2000 and 2006 respectively (Andreu et al, 2006). Following this line of stipulations, it can be said that despite it not enjoying great market share within the Turkish tourism local market, cultural tourism has a lot of potential to garner more international tourists with its product uniqueness. Despite Turkey now taking a centre stage as one of the most notable players in the international tourism sector, it has done little or nothing to determine its overall image as a distinct tourist destination. To say the least, the country possesses little knowledge in regards to the impact of its image on traveller’s destination selections. In geographical terms, it is crucial to note that Turkey serves as a very important bridge that connects between Asia and Europe. A countless number of civilisations that date back to 8000BC that made their immediate home at Anatolia resulted to a great amount of both archaeological and cultural treasures (Sönmez & Sirakaya, 2002). Subsequently, in addition to its overall rich historical and cultural inheritances, the country boasts of natural wealth that comes in an enormous number of natural resources. A perfect example being the country’s extended coastline that includes; Aegean, Mediterranean and Black and Marmara Seas. The country’s both natural and cultural varieties that are linked with its perfectly-known conventional hospitality of its people have continued to make it a very attractive tourist destination across the globe (Sönmez & Sirakaya, 2002). The country’s position within the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern and Balkan country places it’ as being the most viable main development axis of international tourism activities across the globe’. The aspect of modern-day tourism that continues to gain momentum in other global countries and that brings lots of economic activities with it can be traced back to the early 1960’s in Turkey (Sönmez & Sirakaya, 2002). As a result of Turkey experiencing great strides in international tourism, which now contributes to about 3.8% of the gross domestic product, the country has now managed to shift its efforts to promote this international potential. This can be witnessed with the existing efforts being made in regards to marketing; planning and tourism-based education initiatives that are directed towards potential international clients. It is safe to indicate that Turkey is a less known tourist destination across the globe than it is in Europe and the Far East. Due to this, potential tourists from the USA and Canada might be experiencing a totally different culture. More to this, the country’s immediate geopolitical location sometimes defines that of clear delineation of the nation’s overall image. For instance, despite the fact that at less 99% of the entire population is Muslim, the country cannot be directly referred to as an Islamic nation (Sönmez & Sirakaya, 2002). Over a couple years, the nation has not made enough efforts to direct enormous investments into comprehending and projecting a realistic and positive image for itself. Due to this aspect, it is important that Turkey clearly establishes it overall image in the international tourism market so that it can go ahead in formulating and implementing successful marketing strategies for the near future. The ability to know and understand its position or image within the international tourism sector, Turkey can then ago ahead to formulate mainly proactive strategies for purposes of sustaining its image and thus, its overall chances in becoming even more competitive. According to Alvarez (2010, p.127), Turkish government has continued to make efforts in bringing about low costs airlines for purposes of attracting even more international tourists. For instance, the country’s has ensured to offer favourable environment for the growth of such notable local and domestic airlines as Easy-jet and Pegasus, airline companies that have in turn resorted to opening of new routes while at the same time increasing the number of flights in the country for the past 5 or so years. It is safe to note that these companies have contributed a lot in marketing the country’s tourism sector through the provision of easy and low cost accessibility to the country (Andreu et al, 2006). Such notable tourism products as short-breaks and city-based tourism, under which cultural tourism falls, have continued to benefit a lot from this increase in the level of services provided by these airlines. For instance, Istanbul-after the immediate completion of the construction of the Sabina Gokcen Airport within the Anatolian side of the city has recorded a significant degree of increase in the immediate number of foreign tourists that visits the city as a result of newer routes formulation as well as lower airline costs that are provided by the aforementioned low cost airlines (Andreu et al, 2006). Until recently, Turkey media platforms have also played a significant role in improving the level of tourism within the nation. In fact, now that ever, there appears to be more online articles being provided that promote the country to the international markets across the globe. In relation to news, the country has continued to enjoy positive media outlook in such platforms as films and other notable audio-visual media that have played a great role in shaping the country’s overall image abroad (Andreu et al, 2006). The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is the notable body that is responsible for the marketing, communication and setting up of legislations related to the activity in Turkey. Other important activities conducted by this body include the formulation of numerous tourism products, improving the current awareness of the related to Turkey and, also communicating these products while still ensuring to position the destination to the underlying target markets. There are other private partners like TURSAB and TUROP, which are non-governmental organisations that have helped with the shaping of Turkey’s tourism activity. For that matter, it is noted that the entire marketing and legislations conducted by Turkey as a tourism destination operates under a centralised viewpoint I comparison to similar activities carried in countries like Spain where legislation and promotion is a responsibility of regional public bodies (Andreu et al, 2006). The centralised system has however not been effected without challenges as tourism is only concentrated within a few possible areas that are allowed priority within the overall communication strategies as conducted by the Ministry (Andreu et al, 2006). This development has in essence caused a great level of imbalances and viable differences that exists between regions in relation to development. For instance, regions in the country that enjoys enormous natural and cultural resources have been abandoned from benefiting with the rapid and robust marketing campaigns being conducted as investments are also directed towards main attractive areas at the immediate expense of the less developed regions. 4.0 Analysis of Potential Markets for Cultural Tourism Product Package The aspect related to tourism has continued to gain lots of popularity immediately after its popularity in the 1950s. During this time, tourism was portrayed as an economic development that could shield most countries from the economic burden brought about by World War II (Akça, 2006). In the present time, the advancements posted in both transportation and communication technologies has resulted to the world transitioning into a single large global village thereby allowing people an opportunity to travel across continents to experience different lifestyles and culture exhibited in these different markets. In fact, an overall increase in the level of income and leisure time has continued to play a key role to this overall process altogether. Positive developments that is being witnessed in activities related to social, cultural and economic spheres has been altered to meet the expectations and desire of different types of potential tourists. As a result of this, there has been increased emergence of new tourism forms like cultural tourism that is now referred to as the special interest tourism (Akça, 2006). Taking a look at the data as provided by WTO, it is established that there is an improvement in the level of international tourist arrivals that has grown by more than 6% in order to reach 900M people as at the end of 2007 operational year. In addition to this, WTO indicates that cultural tourism as special interest tourism would grow by 15% per annum (Akça, 2006). For this purpose, it should be made clear and concise that given cultural tourism remains to be one the most popular and fastest growing alternative tourism form, it possesses the potential of being promoted into numerous tourism markets across the global platform. 4.1 Screening Criterion for Potential International Market Research into the rationale behind tourism and travels indicate that potential and existing tourists will normally portray a number of needs when conducting tourism-related activities. Both pull and push factors continue to play great role into portraying numerous reasons for which tourists engage in tourism activity as a whole. For instance, such pull factors as desire to visit distinct cultural and natural attractions of a given destination and push facets like a potential tourist’s need for escaping their day-to-day routine in order to experience new cultures has contributed a lot. The aspect of cultural tourism has continued to gain momentum due to such important aspects as the immediate ageing of baby boomers; increased adoption of internet and other IT-related technologies; popularity of weekend travels as well as improved need for vacation packages across the tourism sector as a whole. Additionally, the immediate need for people engaging in cultural tourism relates to a respective increase in their income levels as well as saturation of mass tourism activities. For most cases, cultural tourists will always depict set of attributes that include being educated; successful and have managed to travel the world widely. Certainly, their specific interests will involve experience new set of cultures. It should be emphasised that the immediate comprehension of tourist’s attributes, it should be noted that the cultural tourism is thus portrayed as the very last phase of Maslow’s hierarchy of need given that after they are through with satisfying their most fundamental needs then they can now accomplish their self-actualisation need that relate to experience unique cultural tourism. 4.2 Developing a List of Countries for Comparison Purposes In ascertaining cultural tourism viability, the very initial selection framework would be focused on the underlying economic factors that are directly connected to a potential tourist’s purchasing power. In consequence, the gross domestic product(GDP), which is focused on PPP is a fundamental indicator that can be effectively adopted for the purpose of comprehending the tourist purchasing power for the product at hand; cultural tourism package. Currently there are close to 19 countries that enjoy a GDP of $20,000 that entirely is based on PPP in 2006 (Akça, 2006). These countries are listed as below; Interestingly to note, technological aspects might assist a potential tourist to have access to specific set of information for their potential tourist destination. This is especially since cultural tourists would most obviously resort to the use of internet for purpose of access travel information that relate to their desirable holiday destination across the globe. Despite the fact that some of the countries listed above like Kuwait, Qatar Iceland and many more enjoy a higher GDP status, their citizens do not necessarily adopt the use of internet platform to conduct research on possible travel destinations. A country like The Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus faces an intense ban on its entry for Turkish related tourism product and thus, cultural tourism due to political indifferences amongst the two. As a result of this factor, these countries will be eliminated from the potential markets for which the product at hand; Turkish cultural tourism can easily enter. It is quite possible that each and every person has the capacity and will to engage in any given mass tourism package however; for cultural tourists, an educational level is needed in order for the potential tourist to have relevant information about what they seek to achieve while engaging in Turkish cultural tourism. Taking a closer look at the OECD data, the information on countries that have managed to attain a complete upper secondary or thus tertiary education level are both Greece and Portugal from the list above. Czech has the lowest first-type tertiary education and cannot be chosen for this product. In addition to this, both Hungary and New Zealand also have lower educational levels as compared to the others hence are also eliminated as potential markets for the product (Hsiao & Hsiao, 2006). To effectively determine a country’s overall contribution to international tourism, it is important to have her tourism expenditures be taken into immediate consideration. In the event that it is established a country’s tourism expenditure is certainly positioned higher than its immediate counterparts, then it clearly means that it forms a potential entry country for the product. Based on statistics provided by WTO, it is noted that both Canada and Korea, amongst the list, enjoy a relatively higher level of international tourism spenders with an existing market share of 2.8 and 2.8 per cent respectively (Hsiao & Hsiao, 2006). The other remaining countries within the list like Australia; Norway and Taiwan have slightly lower market shares. Of particular interest to note the market size of the three latter countries is significantly less in comparison to that of Canada and Korea (Hsiao & Hsiao, 2006). Taiwan is currently not yet been identified as an independent country by Turkey hence there cannot be direct form of trade going on between the two states hence it is eliminated altogether. Having been left with two countries; Canada and Korea, the paper will embark on exploring the market entry strategy that can be adopted for Canada and not Korea because of Canadian speak English, which is more common in Turkey than Korean. It is established that a good percentage of Turkish people can communicate freely in English as opposed to such Asiatic language like Korean and Mandarin used in China. 5.0 Potential Market Entry Strategy of Turkish Cultural Tourism in Canada In the course of effectively determining the market entry strategy for the Canadian market, such aspects as barriers to entry; rivalry situation in the country, as well as a perceptual map techniques are adopted. First, it is important to understand that despite there being a huge potential for the entrance of Turkish cultural tourism package, Canadian market showcases a great number of challenges for the penetration of this product. To start with, the Canadians do not have sufficient knowledge and information that pertains to the destination place that is Turkey. To be specific, little people in Canada understand that the Turkish cultural tourism product ever exists and is the top most rated across the globe in terms of its uniqueness and overall perspective. Considering the fact that the Turkish tourism sector is completely perceived in relation to the sun, sand and sea, a great deal of tourism in this country is on a general traditional format. In addition to this, the geographical position of Canada and Turkey posit a great level of challenge in terms of the distance covered and efficient transportation models available to facilitate such movements. Secondly, currently there is a great level of competition that exists in the overall Canadian outbound tourism market. In fact, Turkey’s close competitors in terms of attracting Canadian tourists include such developed countries like the United States of America and the United Kingdom that boasts of developed and advanced infrastructural developments as efficient airline services as well as organised tourism industry. Apart from this, these markets also enjoy from the fact that they all have English as their main communication language, which is a fact that might push potential tourist into those markets as opposed to the Turkish market. In fact, the United States of America enjoys a larger percentage of the Canadian international tourist visits that ranges between 70% and 72% in 2007 statistics (Akça, 2006). The fact that two countries enjoys a mutual trade deals, there are no actual barriers in relation to culture and language. Far from this market, such countries like Germany and France have an upper hand over Turkey to attract Canadian tourists since these markets are well-known and enjoy a great of infrastructural development that is quite needed for purposes of ensuring that visitors can freely and efficiently both internationally and within local tourist destinations within the country. Despite these great levels of challenges, still Turkey enjoys a distinct position since it is considered to be offering a European brand image that is rich in culture and history. Consequently, the third analysis tool for this product entering the Canadian market is through the perceptual map. The map distinctively expounds on the immediate perspectives and priorities that are associated with specific brands and attributes. Certainly, when entering the outbound tourism segment in the Canadian market for the Turkish cultural tourism product, the most viable marketing entry strategy would be direct exporting strategy. In direct exporting strategies, a seller of product concentrates on selling directly into a new market in the fastest time possible through establishment of effective sales program, which uses agents or even distributors for purposes of representing then extensively within the market (Hsiao & Hsiao, 2006). In this regard, the Canadian agents and distributors will be used as the face of the Turkish cultural tourism product and service to representing the overall interests of the country as a whole. It is important that agency should be fully aware of the experiences within the outbound tourism Canadian market and, also show a potential of knowing much about cultural tourism in Turkey. The purposes of focusing on this marketing entry rest on the mere fact that agencies are able to provide a clear and concise form of communication platform for the local Canadian tourists as opposed to the Turkish destination marketers so that they easily understand their tastes and preferences in Turkish cultural tourism as a whole (Hsiao & Hsiao, 2006). The ability to work with these notable foreign Canadian agents into promoting and thus, finding direct business into Turkey result to a low risk advantage given that Turkey thus becomes a principal and does not have to be directly responsible for investing in tourism information offices and supplies within the market. In truth, these agents enjoy pertinent information that relates to how the Canadian tourism operates in terms of industry organisation, segmentation of the market as well as the potential that can be tapped in relation to possible tourist influx into a specific country for that matter. The recently launched Tourism Encouragement Act No. 2634 and the 2010 Tourism Vision of Turkish Government are two pieces of legislation that have been developed and implemented by the centralised government to oversee the activities related to tourism (Akça, 2006). Furthermore, the country also made a declaration of the ear 2002 as being ‘International Year of Mountains’, which has acted to promote and open the local Turkey tourism related activities to the entire world. Despite the possible analysis of direct exporting market entry strategy, it is crucial to understand that Turkey cultural tourism market does not enjoy an effective and competent regional public authority that would adopt a leading position within the development and promotion of these cultural areas. This is due to the fact that centralised government in Turkey has portrayed local institutions that possess the desire to promote cultural tourism as being weak and incapacitated to effectively respond to the overall needs of the people. In truth, this development shows a big contrast with what is being transpired in the Destination Management Organisation approach that is currently being advocated by the World Tourism Organization. It is only in Istanbul that the local municipalities have made efforts to develop and thereafter promote tourism aspect within the city as a whole. 6.0 Conclusion The paper has successfully provided pertinent information related to Turkish cultural tourism and how it can enter the Canadian tourism market. In fact, it has been ascertained that given the rich Turkish cultural tourism, this product can easily enter the foreign Canadian market through a direct exporting or rather sells strategy. Through this strategy, the Turkey will adopt agencies and distributors across Canada to promote and attract potential tourists into visiting numerous UNESCO-labelled heritage sites in Turkey. This way, Turkey will have cut down costs related to setting up of offices in the foreign market hence reduce the level of risk involved. In choosing the country for which the product at hand; Turkish cultural tourism package, the paper has engaged an elimination method whereby a list of more than 19 countries have all been eliminated except Canada on the basis of their GDP, the education level of the population since cultural tourists are mostly learned people, and the most common form of language that is somehow popular in Turkey. It is certainly emphasised that Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has always come up with effective and efficient tourism-based initiatives that is based on promoting and enhancing the Turkish overall tourism image across the globe. However, the tourism sector in the country somehow faces few challenges like insufficient efforts by the centralised government especially in ensuring that regional tourist bodies within the country are streghtened and empowered to meet the overall potential market demand. References List Andreu, L., Kozak, M., Avci, N. and Cifter, N., 2006. Market segmentation by motivations to travel: British tourists visiting Turkey. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, vol.19, no.1, pp.1-14. Alvarez, M.D., 2010. Marketing of Turkey as a tourism destination. Anatolia, vol.21, no.1, pp.123-138. Akça, H., 2006. Assessment of rural tourism in Turkey using SWOT analysis. Journal of Applied Sciences, vol.6, no.13, pp.2837-2839. Altintas, M.H. & Tokol, T., 2007. Cultural openness and consumer ethnocentrism: An empirical analysis of Turkish consumers. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol.25.no.4, p.308 Hsiao, F.S. & Hsiao, M.C.W., 2006. 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