Marketing Essay For Destination NSW." (40 Characters)

Discuss about the Marketing plan for, Destination NSW .

Destination marketing is a complicated concept and it is extremely important for a tour operating organisation to understand the key concept of destination marketing. For every place to get popularity it is important to have a marketing plan. A marketing plan is a tool that helps an organisation to promote and popularize a product in a target audience. The marketing plan has several key aspects which have to be properly addressed in order to have a successful and effective marketing strategy in hand. New South Wales is one of the most visited places in Australia and also in the world. There are some of the common and interesting attractions that drive people to New South Wales. Destination marketing is extremely important to be implemented on New South Wales as the product and it would help to clearly strategies an effective marketing plan to drive people towards the venue. Different key aspects like marketing objectives, marketing tactics involving marketing mix and targeting, segmentation and positioning will be discussed which would help to make sure that the key objectives of the study are addressed.

As Destination New South Wales aims to establish Sydney and New South Wales as one of the top tourism and events destinations in the world, the agency is striving hard to come up with new policies and programs. The agency is focused on implementing new attractive programs through intensive study regarding both Sydney and New South Wales. Destination New South Wales is responsible for assessing various tourism related sectors of New South Wales through execution of thorough research and analysis over the research findings (Halland Müller, 2018). From the collected data, the agency then identifies the loopholes of the existing programs and implements solution to combat the existing situation. However, in the given context, Destination New South Wales is considering to launch a new program to attract more visitors in New South Wales. Destination New South Wales is planning to implement a new program to attract more visitors in New South Wales. It will be termed as ‘unexplored corners of New South Wales’ Program. Through this program, Destination New South Wales offers to show the unexplored places of Sydney and New South Wales. This program aims to attract new domestic and international visitors who have never been to Sydney or New South Wales and also attract those domestic and international visitors who have already visited Sydney and New South Wales in past but did not explore those places which were not termed as popular tourism spots back then & due to this reason they were unexplored. This new program would be taking Sydney and New South Wales to new high to be the most popular tourism destinations due to which more visitors will be coming after the global marketing of this program.

Situation Analysis

This ‘unexplored corner of New South Wales’ program offers various things to provide all necessary amenities to the tourists who come to visit to the country from any other country or to the local tourists as well as they are guest. It also highlights their rich culture and significant attractive sites of the location. It offers thriving wildlife, vibrant cities and extraordinary adventure sports, Sydney Tower & Sydney Aquarium visit, Sydney City tour, Boat Dinner in Cruise, Sea World & Movie World Theme Park visit etc. This program can be sub divided into various programs on the basis of the categorization of the tourists such as honeymoon package for couple, excursion program for students in summers & winters as well, holiday trip for family & lastly the business excursion trip. Tourist can also customize the offers which are provided by this program as per their requirement as well.    

The situation analysis is comprised of 5Cs, such as customer, company, context, collaborators and competitors. Each of these points will be discussed hereby in the given context of Destination New South Wales. Destination New South Wales is a Public Service Executive Agency, principally funded by the Government of NSW (New South Wales). The agency is governed by a board of management and is subject to control and direction of the Minister for Tourism and Major Events. Destination New South Wales is one of the agencies under the responsibility of the Secretary of the Department of Industry (Canosa et al., 2018). The merger of four government funded entities, Events New South Wales, the greater Sydney partnership, Tourism New South Wales and the Home bush Motor Racing Authority, gave birth to Destination New South Wales. Destination New South Wales is the lead Government agency for the tourism and major events sector of New South Wales. This agency has been established under the Destination New South Wales Act 2011; through development of tourism and securing of major events, Destination New South Wales aims to garner social and economic benefits for the people of New South Wales.

The mission of Destination New South Wales is to make the overnight visitor expenditure twice by 2020 and maximizing benefits of the visitor economy of New South Wales. The strategic goals of the agency include- attracting and securing high value major events, increasing the engagement of industry stakeholder and customer, developing and sustaining a high performance organisation, implementing the Visitor Industry Economy Action Plan, formulating a sustainable events calendar for New South Wales, delivering value in partnership or co-operative programs, maximizing yield and dispersal from visitor economy (Kellyand Fairley, 2018). Above all, the primary strategic objective is to establishing Sydney and New South Wales as the one of the leading tourism and events destinations in the world.

Market Analysis and Strategies

Some other eminent government department and statutory bodies of tourism are Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Tourism Australia. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is responsible for providing the government with foreign, trade and development policy related advices. It also provides travel advice for Australians as well as traveler assistance programs. The Federal Government Statutory Authority – Tourism Australia, manages tourism marketing for both domestic and international tourism. Tourism Australia is also responsible for delivery of research and forecasts for this sector. By assessing the existing government agencies, it can be said that New South Wales is considered as an integral tourism destination of the country.

The prospective customers of Destination New South Wales range from domestic to international. Destination New South Wales is implementing attractive programs to attract customers from domestic as well as global market of tourists. The beauty and attractions of New South Wales are immense and hence, deserves large pool of visitors who would be satisfy their eyes by seeing the unexplored as well as eminent places of New South Wales. Destination New South Wales has got a large pool of customers and the agency is striving to catch the attention of more prospective customers with their effective marketing strategies. Australia is expecting significant growth in tourism which is assumed to be an effective move for the economy of the country.  

Growth and expected growth of international Visitors Australia (Liu et al., 2018)

This section is comprised of three integral parts, namely, segmentation, targeting and positioning (Ouand Cai, 2018). In accordance to the area of interest, purpose of the trip and demographics, the visitors of New South Wales can be segmented in a number of different categories (Liu et al., 2018). From the factsheets of country market profile, the information regarding market size and visitor profile are provided. Visitor profile includes accommodation, demographics, transport, activities, places and attractions visited information sources and the usage of internet for a particular international market which is the origin of the travel. The VFR segment holds for more than one third of the total international and domestic visitor. The VFR refers to the visitors who came by to visit their friends and relatives. Domestic VFR comprises of the Australia-born people who visit their friends or family living in Sydney or New South Wales. The visitor records can be kept from New South Wales VIC (Visitor Information Centre) by tracking those who visited VIC in recent times. There are also domestic youth and international youth segments. The domestic youth comprises of Australians aged 15-29 years visiting the state, they also account for 84 per cent of the total domestic and international youth overnight visitors. The international youth visitors are non-Australians and their travelling purpose includes holiday, visiting friends or family, education, job, business vice versa. WHM segment refers to Working Holiday Makers who prefer to work during their stay in Australia for holiday purpose. Although the number of such visitors is small, still their longer staying period has contributed to the tourism economy of the state. International backpackers are also a significant part of the market segmentation of Destination New South Wales. In the present analysis the market will be segmented with the help of demographics and psychographic mainly based on income, age, gender etc. This will help the organisation to identify the key target audience and understand their interest to come down to New South Wales which would accordingly help to provide services. For instance if a person is visiting New South Wales for business his or her need would be different and segmenting the target audience based on the demographics and psychographics will help to analyze that in the best possible manner. Segmentation done based on age, income, lifestyle choices and gender would help to ensure that the needs and wants are effectively managed (Ouand Cai, 2018).

Fig: Contribution of Tourism in Australia (Source: Ouand Cai, 2018)

On the basis of market & the target plan, the process of segmentation can be done which is categorized into three sections mainly which are geographic, demographic and psychographic. In this context we have concentrate on the demographic & psychographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation is done here based on the age group starting from 15 to 35 years. The tourists who are in between the age group of 15- 22 years, we can categorize them as students & for them we can offer the student excursion package in summer & winter as well. The people belong to the age group 23-35 years can also be a part of business excursion or the holiday trip or the honeymoon package for couple. The students who will come for the excursion have more interest to explore new things, new places which are unexplored till now so the program & its offering should be set as per that. Whereas, the people of family or newly married couple who will come through the family package or honeymoon package wants to spend time with each other in order to relax. For this kind of people, the program should consists comfort zone as instead of exploring new things they are more interested to be together in their relaxation time or to enjoy their life from their busy schedule.      

On the basis of psychographic, the tourist can be divided upon the basis of class such as professional tourist who are going to the business trips. They have set a plan for their respective business trip which has be pre decided as they do not want to spend much money on the trip. For this purpose, the program can be customized which offered in the above said program that is ‘unexplored corner of New South Wales’.

Targeting is an extremely important aspect for a product to reach the consumers effectively. For every organisation making sure the targeting aspect is properly developed helps the organisation to reach the marketing objectives of the organisation. Targeting is an important concept in the marketing operations especially when it comes to managing a particular destination as a product. New South Wales is a common and a potential tourist destination because it has driven number of tourists in the past and is expected to bring more tourists and hence it is extremely important to ensure the targeting procedure is effectively followed. The destination marketing is an extremely complicated aspect which has to be understood by the organizations doing the marketing because target marketing is important for effective destination marketing. Based on targeting, market segmentation will be done which is equally important for the effective marketing and promotion of the place (Li, Robinson and Oriade, 2017). The target audience sketching will help the organisation to accordingly manage the overall approach of marketing to these clients and hence it is extremely important for them to ensure targeting is done effectively. New South Wales have number of different tourist attractions which would have to be effectively exhibited through marketing and hence it is extremely important for the organisation to emphasize on targeting audience in the best possible manner. Destination marketing is a tad different as compared to the other kinds of marketing and hence the tourism organizations will need to emphasize on understanding their target audience which would help the organisation to get closer to the market in the best possible way (Stylidis, Belhassen and Shani, 2017). For instance there are four different ways to target market like undifferentiated marketing, differentiated marketing, concentrated marketing and customized marketing. In this case it is extremely important to focus on concentrated marketing that will help to manage the overall destination effectively because concentrated marketing focuses on understanding the needs and wants of the consumers and accordingly give them what they need. In most of the cases consumers are interested to visit a place which has been already visited someone else known and this basically creates the interest and when the concentrated targeting technique is used it helps to interest these kinds of consumers in a way that brings and highlights the key features of the destination for instance Sydney Harbor and Opera House could be couple of key destinations which the tourists want to visit and they could be brought into limelight in concentrated targeting to drive the consumers. In most of the cases when tourism organizations identify regions to target tend to analyze the needs and wants as consumers and this helps in targeting the consumers effectively (Pike, 2017). It is extremely important to say that concentrated targeting is the filtered targeting which has helped most of the tourism organizations to improve the overall management of the audience effectively. Hence in this case it could be said that for the destination marketing of New South Wales it is important to go with concentrated marketing as it will help to narrowly define the market segment effectively and accordingly manage the target audience in the best possible way. The target audience for the present analysis is the domestic customers of the age group of 15-35. On the other hand the business class people coming from within Australia and from abroad are also the target audience.

Positioning is another major aspect in the marketing strategy of an organisation. It largely helps the organisation to make sure the company is able to position itself in the comfortable grid which would help to drive traffic towards the organisation. In destination marketing like here most of the organizations want to manage the position in such a way that it is able to reach consumers effectively without any barrier. Effective positioning largely depends on effective segmentation and targeting hence it could be said that they are largely related with each other. Positioning strategy in this case is complicated because the product is intangible in nature and hence it is important to make prudent decisions. It is important to mention that positioning could be largely useful if effectively managed and this will help the organisation to implement the marketing plan effectively (Tasci, 2017). New South Wales is one of the most loved destinations in the Australia and there is huge number of foreign consumers coming to New South Wales for its aesthetic beauty and posh services which clearly shows that the competition here in terms of tourism service provider is high and hence positioning based on competition will be most suitable because it helps the organisation to accordingly develop a strategy which would help to manage the business effectively and provide affordable services to the consumers. Competition based positioning will help the organization to analyze and implement effective survey which would help the organisation to strategies its business plan accordingly and implement the marketing getting proper insights from them. In competitive positioning a firm tends to use similar positioning strategy or different in terms of pricing or service and this becomes extremely effective because this will help the organisation to get upper hand in the market which would help the company to get better traffic and footfall (Line and Wang, 2017).

In every marketing plan tactics is extremely essential. Most of the organizations fail to manage their tactics effectively. Tactics in marketing involves the selection of effective marketing mix. The marketing mix is essential in marketing and there are basically four different important aspects namely product, price, place and promotion. These aspects have to be effectively addressed so that the organisation is able to drive traffic effectively.

Product: Products is the first key mix strategy. It discusses the core, actual and augmented product. The core product in New South Wales is the overall aesthetic beauty of the place that drives the consumers to a large extent. It is extremely important to note that the place has some of the beautiful and historical edifices which attract the consumers to a large extent. Hence the core product of New South Wales is the overall tourism service it provides. On the other hand the actual product of offered by the place is the overall tourism service including the hotel, travelling, food services et cetera (Pike, 2017). The augmented product is the main aspect for every product and this is the kind of services that tourists get here. It is important to note that the New South Wales is hi tech in nature and hence it could be said that the technological advancement helps people to purchase and sell over the internet. Especially the disruptive innovation in terms of providing space to people at domestic residence started by Air Asia has become an extremely effective strategy for tourism industry. Hence the product is versatile and can be sold by the tourism organisation and it is also effective to attract tourists in the long run (Griffin et al., 2017).

Price: Pricing is extremely important aspect in the marketing mix. It is one of the aspects that creates interest or disinterests people. The pricing strategy has to be extremely prudently set because the organisation is following competition based positioning it is extremely important for the organisation to maintain a standardized pricing system which would help the organisation to not only create interest among the consumers but it will also help the organisation to gain competitive advantage in the market for a longer period of time. Most of the tourism companies in the modern day market tend to press higher charges which not only affect the interest of the consumers but it also creates opportunities for the other organizations to make their moves hence it is extremely important that the organisation is able to manage their pricing in such a way which would help the organisation to change it as per the market (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). Hence the organisation will initially start off with penetrative pricing which would help the company to engage consumers in the best possible manner but with time the organisation should move to price skimming which would help to keep the pricing flexible and effective that would not only help to ensure attraction of consumers but also long term sustenance in the market.

Place: Place is another marketing mix attribute that needs to be properly analyzed and accordingly decided. Destination marketing often becomes complicated with time and hence it is extremely important to manage the place aspect in the best possible manner. It is important to mention that physically New South Wales cannot be sold rather its service as a tourism spot could be sold and hence place in this case signifies the way tourism organizations do the transactions with the consumers. Online portals, Official Australian Tourism Website are some of the key places which are even though virtual but are extremely effective to create proper position of the place New South Wales and help the organisation to effectively reach the audience. The concentrated targeting will help to reach the segmented target audience through online portals and official places like the physical location of the tour operators have to be effectively decided which would help to ensure that the connectivity of transportation for the consumers is comfortable which would help to communicate in the best possible manner (Hassan and Jung, 2018).

Promotion: Promotion is the most important aspect in the marketing mix. In this case it is extremely important to promote the destination effectively. New South Wales as a destination is promoted effectively through mass media marketing (TV, Radio). Hoardings and Banners create significant interest among the consumers. On the other hand promotions through online portals like Face book, Twitter et cetera. Personalized selling and promotional selling is effective for the organisation (Veal, 2017).

Conclusion

Destination marketing is a complex process and hence having an effective marketing plan is extremely important to promote a pace like New South Wales. It is a wonderful destination and hence it needs a strong marketing plan for effective promotion. In the present study different key aspects of marketing has been addressed which has helped to complete the marketing plan. The marketing strategy and marketing mix have been discussed which has helped to address the key objectives of the study.

New South Wales & Sydney are generally popular destinations of this country for most of the tourists around the world. By making a strategic marketing plan & implementing this with better infrastructure will be helpful to attract tourist in greater numbers. Proper strategic tourism development planning can help the country to have better flow of tourists and this is how they can achieve economic success as well. Proper and strategic management of marketing process related to the travel and tourism industry may be considered as one of the best possible way to enhance the quality and the effectiveness of marketing process but it can also maximize the production rate and rate of profitability of the entire sector to a greater extent. This approach is also being helpful to achieve goals and objectives as well as the proper implementation of the approach will enhance economic cooperation among various parts. It can have considerable impact on the GDP of the nations in terms of economy (Dredge and Jamal, 2015). It also creates employment opportunity such as increasing number of tour guides & management people which will gradually increase in terms of consumption and will help to increase demands of the products as well which is made locally maintain their traditions. This is how it will increase production of goods as well. Overall impact in terms of economy can be huge and by seeing this every nation will try hard to make tourism an important part of their activity.

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