Tourism Management In France Is The Subject Of My Essay. (70 Characters)

Question - Write about the top tourism destinations in France?

Introduction.

Analysis.

    France destinations.

       Eiffel Tower.

       Chamonix.

       Saint Tropez.

    Tourism marketing mix.

       Product.

       Price.

       Place.

       People.

       Planning.

       Programming.

       Physical evidence.

       Promotion.

Conclusion.

References.

There was a time when tourist management was not considered as an important activity. In the current time, tourism management is an important function for both public and private players. In this era of globalization, government has realized that tourism destination could be a major source of income for states. With globalization, there has been an exponential growth in the number of international tourists (Agrawala, 2007). Therefore, there is a need for tourism management. Moreover, there has been a fundamental shift in the way tourism has been perceived. Tourism has changed its way from unorganized sector to organized sector. Today, people would visit different places with a plan and schedule. In the current time, tourism is also closely linked with destination management companies. A Destination Management Company (DMC) is a term for a professional services company possessing extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources, specializing in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics. It can be said that these companies enable to develop and establish tourism as an organized sector.

Europe has been an important tourist destination for people around the world. Famous for its wines and cheeses, France is the world’s most popular tourist destination receiving 82 million foreign tourists annual. It is important that all the destinations in France should have a tourism plan that would attract the visitors around the world. France is known for its beautiful sites. In fact 37 sites of France are listed in World Heritage Sites. Tourism industry is an important and established industry in France (Petiot, 2009). Every year, government of France would earn a good amount of income from Tourism. Therefore, it is important that tourism should be treated as important and organized sector in France. The objective of this paper is to study and analyze the top tourism destinations in France with respect to tourism management. The objective of this paper is to develop the marketing plan for top destination in France that would enable government to earn more revenue and that would also help Destination Management Companies to create new avenues of employment.

A tourism marketing plan outlines the advertising and overall marketing approach that will be used to promote any destination. It is correct that the tourism marketing plan can differ for different places. For example, tourism marketing plan for Cathedrals in France would be different then the marketing plan for Eiffel tower in Paris. Therefore, it is important for people to understand that any marketing plan shall act only as a guideline to manage destination and to add more tourists. Marketing plans create a customized action statement that the entire tourism board can follow and use to measure the effectiveness of each campaign involved in the effort. 

France destinations

France has number of destinations that are being appreciated by tourists. It is important that all the destinations should focus on key marketing activities such as promotions, campaigns and advertisements (Ceron, 2006). This paper would focus on the tourism marketing plan of top three destinations of France. These destinations can be discussed as:

The top three tourism destinations in France can be discussed as:

Eiffel Tower

This destination is certainly one of the most appreciated tourism destination in France. Eiffel tower is the symbol of Paris. It was built by Gustave Eiffel as the entrance arch for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889. Since its construction more than 200,000,000 people have visited the Eiffel Tower making it the most visited paid tourist attraction in the world. This destination has the ability to keep tourists mesmerized. This destination has helped to improve the ranking of France as tourist destination in the world (Marsat, 2007, pp 406). It is expected that France would continue to be a known tourist destination in France and entire world.

Chamonix

Chamonix is considered to be one of the best places in the world for its natural beauty. Chamonix is a very famous ski resort in the French Alps. This is situated in the foot of Mount Blanc. In fact, the first winter Olympics of 1924 was held at Chamonix also. Since then, Chamonix has emerged as a favorite tourism destination in France. This tourism destination is particularly liked by people who want to be close to nature and who like natural beauty. The now covered Alps looks fabulous from Chamonix and visitors always appreciate the snow covered peaks and natural beauty of Chamonix.

Saint Tropez

It is only a small village located 65 miles east of Marseille. This village is known for its breathtaking views and awesome natural landscapes. Tourists have particularly liked to enjoy the summers at Saint Tropez. This is the place where tourists like to relax. This village has number of avenues for local sightseeing (Frangouli, 2005). The village also has a world known seaside resort. Lot of artists and musicians also perform at Saint Tropez. This place is always appreciated by artists who known in true sense the ways to appreciate the beauty. It is expected that this place would continue to have an importance in the tourism strategy of France.

Typically any marketing plan would be based on the marketing mix. Likewise the tourism marketing plan is also based on certain marketing mix elements (Peeters, 2005). The tourism marketing mix for tourism sector in France can be discussed as:

The marketing plan for any product would have 4 elements of marketing mix. However, the marketing tourism can be associated with 8 elements of marketing mix. These elements are often referred as 8 Ps of tourism marketing. These 8 elements can be discussed as:

Product

Generally, tourism industry can be defined as a service sector industry. However, it is important to realize that tourism industry is both a product company and a service company. It is important for destination management companies to focus on the product attributes (Peypoch, 2006). Typically the products attributes that should be focused as part of tourism management would include quality of hotels, transportation facilities, shopping facilities etc. With respect to ‘Product’, it can be said that the tourism in France has been able to reach a stage where the ‘Product’ can be defined as good.

Eiffel Tower

For example, Paris has some of the best hotels and resorts in the world. France is also connected through different parts of Europe. International tourists can also get flight to Paris and other important cities of France.

Price

It can be said that price is one of the most important elements of the tourism marketing mix. People all across the world may want to visit the foreign destination but the cost can be a major constraint. It is important that France should realize that it has to keep the prices competitive. People should not leave France as a tourism destination because of high cost and at the same time the level facilities should not be compromised. Therefore it is important that the country should offer different options. There should be hotels, resorts and lodges that should suite the requirements of every section of the society.

For example, a family in India may choose some Asian destination over France due to price issues. Therefore destination management companies in France should keep the price right and affordable.

Place

In tourism industry, Place refer to the location where people can collect the services. It is correct that tourism industry offers a lot of services to customers. Therefore, it is important that these services can be collected easily and at the convenience of customers. This era is marked with computer and technology. It is important that the destination management organizations should have a facility where in people can buy the services at a single click. The tickets to tourism destinations, the entry tickets etc. should be made available online.

For example, a family seating in Sydney should be able to book a hotel room in France and should be able to make reservation in any restaurant.

With online channel, there should be a provision of offline places also. It would help the people who lack the access to Internet.

People

It can be said that people is one of the most important marketing elements of tourism marketing mix. In fact, the success and failure of tourism plan for any destination would depend on people availability. People acts as the bridge between the end customers and the offerings of tourism management plan. Therefore it is important for destination management organizations to hire and recruit the right set of people.

For example, people would include the staff members of different private and public tourism agencies. People would include the wait staff in hotels and it would also include the managers of hotel. People would also include the tourists guide and shop owners.

It is important that the ‘People’ should work to ensure that the expectations of tourists should be met. One of the objectives of tourism management plan is to ensure that the gap between the tourist expectations and the people perception of tourists’ expectations can be bridged.

Planning

The key service component of the tourism experience is planning. It requires a great deal of planning for destination management organization to ensure that the trip on national and international tourist can be a wonderful experience. Planning is one such thing that is required to ensure that there are minimum surprises in the trip. Planning would also ensure that the trip to France or any other destination could be completed as planned. It would ensure that the trip does not exceed the planned budget and time.

Chamonix

Programming

Programming is one such element of marketing mix that would differ for different destinations. Programming refers to the way localized or customized experience would be provided to customers. Programming also refers to the way events are planned and executed by different companies. Programming with respect to the tourism management of top 3 destination of France can be discussed as:

1. The destination management companies at Eiffel tower may program their events to provide a romantic experience to tourists.
2. The destination management companies at Chamonix may program to provide a wild experience to tourists by creating tents and camps in the snow.
3. The destination management companies at Saint Tropez may focus to create leisure and relaxing package for its tourists.

The above examples would reflect that programming would also depend on the type and nature of destinations. Therefore it is important that destination management organizations should realize that programming should not be used in a generic way and it should be based o the localized things.

Physical evidence

The provision of physical evidence that the customer experienced the particular tourism product can help sales. The physical evidence would help tourists to remain connected with the destination for a long time. The physical evidence would include the small things like destination magnates, a small memento etc. Tourists can buy these themselves or destination marketers can also provide it free for customers.

For example, people (tourists) have the tendency to buy the memento of Eiffel tower from Paris. It helps tourists to remain connected with the beautiful city of Paris for a longer time.

Promotion

Promotion would help destination management companies and tourists organizations to remain connected with customers. Promotion is an important element of tourism marketing mix because the competition has been high in this industry segment. It is important for travel and tour agencies to realize the competition and then develop the promotional strategies. Again, the promotional strategies would also differ for different destination. It would be correct to say that the promotional strategies for Paris should be focused on families and couples and the promotional strategies of Chamonix could also be based on individual travelers who like to enjoy the nature. Some of the marketing campaigns that should be used by destination management organization and tourists agencies in France to increase the footfall of tourists can be discussed as:

1. French government should start a campaign to increase the awareness among all the European nations. The government has good relationship with different European nations and it is important that campaign should be launched that would target the individuals from these nations. A large set of customers could be targeted from European nations only. The government should also support private players in their tourism campaign.
2. It is important that the private players in the industry should develop social media campaigns. It is important to realize that tourists have great presence in the social media domain. The platforms like Facebook and Twitter should be leveraged in order to ensure that destination management organizations can reach out to customers (Abegg, 2011). It would be correct to say that it is always difficult to manage the tourism campaigns as it involves lot of visitors, customers and internal and external management.
3. One of the important ways to manage the campaign would to focus on advertisement. It is recommended that social media advertisements and advertisements on other platforms should be an important part of the campaign strategy.

Conclusion

The above paper discussed the tourism management plan for France. The above paper described the basis of tourism management plan. It is important that all the stakeholders should join hands in order to ensure that France remains as the top tourism destination in Europe. It is also recommended that the destination management organizations in France should also join hands with other countries in Europe. This tourism strategy would help because international tourists would want to visit different parts of Europe and not just France. For example, France can have joint tourism plan along with Italy or Germany.

The objective of tourism management plan for France is to ensure that tourists remain informed about the tourism offerings of France. It is important that government should play a key role to devise the offerings. All the approvals are made by the government. Therefore government must support the private agencies and destination management organizations. It is expected that France would continue to remain as the top rated destinations. The pricing element of the tourism strategy of France would further help the tourism industry of France to increase the number of annual tourists. France, as a destination is easily affordable by people of developed countries but people of countries like India and China face difficulty due to financial constraints. One of the aspects of tourism management policy would be to focus on the pricing of different products that are associated with the tourism industry. It would include flight tickets, hotel expenses etc.

References

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