With the advent of globalization and the apparent shrinking of the world, the number of tourists and visitors to foreign cities and countries are ever increasing. Tourism is one of the worlds largest and fastest growing industries, and has proved to be the most burgeoning ones with the number of tourists forecasted to increase by 2.4 around the world this year despite the global economic crisis (Euro Monitor). Technological advancements have allowed people to travel to far off places with greater ease and cost efficiency and have proved to be a catalyst for fierce competition within this industry. Airlines, tour organizers, local governments and especially hotels are placing great importance on satisfying and attracting more tourists.
Customer satisfaction is one of the most investigated topics in the tourism and hospitality due to its significance towards the survival and future of any tourism products and services (Gorsy et al., 2003, 2007). Customer satisfaction is defined as a psychological model that involves the feeling of well-being and pleasure that results from getting what one hopes for and expects from an attractive product andor service (WTO, 1985). The multi-cultural and transnational composition of the tourism customer base and the rising competition under fierce competition, any market research into this industry has to be accurate, general (so that it may be construed easily by everyone despite their nationalityethnicity), integrated and cover aspects which may not entice region specific responses (i.e. responses differing on the origin of the respondent).
Destination marketing texts
Destination marketing is a field of study that focuses on selling places. Its an emerging field which has caught public eye only recently. In this research undertaken of a particular place and it is marketed accordingly. While tourism has been there since the late 19th century, text related to destination marketing started emerging in the late 1990s only. There has been very little text on the operations of destination marketing organizations. It was much later that the text related to destination marketing, planning, management and budgeting came into the limelight.
Some of the most prominent contributions in this regard are
Destination Planning and Marketing by Lickerish
Urban destinations
Case studies of tourist organizations
CVB functions
Destination Marketing
Place promotion
Destination Branding
Conference marketing
Destination crisis marketing
Destination Marketing hinges on a lot of questions and factions today some which will be addressed in the succeeding paragraphs. Some of the most prominent questions that are being taken up by the researchers include, to what extent should destination marketing organizations engage themselves in this field Why are there more women leading and operating this field Should destination marketing be restricted locally or should it be taken up internationally To what extent should Destination marketing organizations involve themselves in communicating with the stake holders Should it be a two way communication and what can be done to avoid it from being relegated to the ways of bureaucracy How does the opinion of the stakeholders matter How should the balance in communication line be established between the stake holders and that of the market being targeted It also seeks to know to what extent DMOs at local national and regional should must engage themselves to achieve brand equity. Market orientation is a must in todays age and time. Given the circumstances, what kind of research should DMOs undertake to know about their market If it is wise to target all travel segments What kind of methodology should be used What kind of data should be collected How should market research be prioritized against promotional activities Which is more important and in what context Given the diverse range of stake holders associated with advanced destination marketing. These are some of the questions that would be addressed in this paper as destination marketing in Thailand would be dealt with.
The paper will focus on how a popular tourist resorts in Thailand can conduct market research to develop a product for itself. What are the strategies involved and what kind of methodology should be undertaken
Tourism Industry in Thailand
The tourism industry in Thailand dates all the way back to the 1960s. This was when the US soldiers had arrived in Thailand to start their Rest and Recuperation campaign during the Vietnam War era. It was at the same time tourism had registered improvement on an international level owing to rising living standards, advances in technology and ease in communication. All these features had made travelling faster, cheaper and more efficient than ever before, bringing tourism on the fore front. It was at this point in time, that Thailand capitalized on the changing world trend and played around its tourism potential.
The statistics of 2007 register and increase from 336,000 foreign visitors to 54,000 R and R soldiers in 1967 to above 14 million guest visitors in Thailand in 2007. The average duration of their stay was tabulated out to be 9.19 days in 2007. This was worth 547,287 million Thai Baht or 11 billion Euros. In 2007, Thailand was considered to be the 18th most visited countries in World Tourism Rankings. France topped the list with as many as 83 million foreign visitors each year. Tourism Authority of Thailand conducted a survey which revealed the following statistics 55 of the tourists coming to Thailand each year come directly from the Asia Pacific region. Japanese and Malaysians are considered to owe to themselves the greatest number of visitors in this block. Other large blocks of tourists belonged to the Western side. They constituted of Tourists coming from United Kingdom, Australia, German, United States, AND Scandinavia. There are a significant number of visitors from the Middle East and Russia as well and the trend is on the rise. The peak season for visiting would be at the time of Christmas and New Year Holidays. This was the time of the year when the conditions in the West would be freezing cold and Western tourists would flee from the cold conditions back home.
Tourism on a domestic level has also improved remarkably in Thailand in the past 10 years. Domestic tourism today returns 380,417 million baths which is stark improvement against what it was in 1998.
Bangkok is the most popular tourist site in Thailand and Asian tourists visit Thailand for Bangkok normally. Bangkok cashes in on its historical, natural and cultural sights to attract tourists. Western tourists come to see, Bangkok not just for its historical sites, but also, to see its southern beaches and islands. North is considered to be the main region for adventure related travel such as trekking. It is also home to diverse ethnic minority groups and forested mountains. Sian which is stationed in the north-east receives comparatively less tourists. To help further facilitate foreign visitors, the Thai government has established separate tourism police with offices springing out in major tourist areas.
Over the course of the past couple of years, Destination Marketing organizations have ergo, capitalized on some of these main attractions in Thailand and developed products for the region. The main marketing slogan that was used for promoting Thailand on an international level was Amazing Thailand which has been renamed to Amazing Thailand and Amazing Value given current prevalent tourism crisis in Thailand.
Problems of Destination based Tourism Market Research
Does the concept of tourism really exist Or is it simply an abstract level perception of human mind. What does it conceive On the broader level, it involves entertainment, leisure related activities, wining, drinking etc. Generally speaking, industry involves a lot of firms doing various things while being engaging themselves for the same cause or industry. An internet search engine hunt on www.google.com, seeking for Tourisms definition, will generate a thousand and one meanings for the same. Adults and children perceive tourism as a term related to holidaying and vacationing but what precisely does tourism business mean and involve. To date a lot of interpretations of this word have been seen but there could not been accurate definition of the word in literature. There have been just as many definitions as many researchers. According to Smith, 1998 chalking out an accurate definition of Tourism is perpetually impossible.
The customers to the tourism industry consist of a wide range of people coming from different cultures, backgrounds and socio-economic milieus. A market research into the expectations of the tourists involves the problems of over generalization of the vast array of people. Different people may have different expectations and a standardized qualitative research may prove to be in accurate. Moreover the sample size has to be sufficiently large so as to accommodate different tourist (nationals and international). A single type of research is insufficient as it leaves many blind spots which may contain valuable information. Trends need to be supported jointly by different type of research (Primary and Secondary). Therefore, an integrated approach can overcome the problem of generalization in trends and also take into account the differing nature of the tourist base.
Marketing Research Scope
In order to accurately gauge the expectations of a tourist from a hotel, the secondary research should not limit its scope to just Bangkok. Tourism is a global industry where a diverse range of customers demand similar products from this industry. A simple secondary research on the products offered across different multi national hotels such as Sheraton Hotels and Pearl Continental may provide the basic co linearity which may be attributed as a shared expectation of a tourist. But such generalizations may prove to be inaccurate when conclusions are based on just this information. Therefore the research should also include primary research in shape of Qualitative research like in-depth interviews and focus groups, the scope of which needs to be confined to local hotels within Australia considering the significant costs and chances of in accuracies in cross national primary research.
Therefore, the scope of secondary (desk) research needs to be global i.e. the research should gather and record secondary data from hotels around the world, but in the case of primary research the scope needs to be limited to Bangkok only as not only are the costs significant but the specific expectations of tourists from Bangkok (like products featuring local attractions such as the great barrier reef) can be assessed through this to fill the informational gaps. Moreover the scope of primary research needs to be limited locally as despite the progress and methodological advancements, researching tourist expectations prompt for even more methodological and conceptual rigor when conducting research trans nationally(Market Research Online).
Time Frame of the Data Recorded
Tourism is a bourgeoning and constantly changing industry. Traffic into different tourist destinations fluctuates from time to time depending upon different socio-economic, political and environmental factors affecting the tourists and their particular destination. Keeping in mind the changing nature of tourism coupled with the change in cultures and technological progress, the secondary data needs to be considered within the time frame of last four years such that the expectations recorded are in line with current expectations. Moreover, the changing environment and the awareness about global warming have also increased the demand for sustainable tourism. These factors when considered, make in accurate data from beyond last four years as the expectations only considering these factors alone has changed a lot over the years.
Research Objectives and Variables
Consumer satisfaction is a post-consumption evaluation (Test and Wilton, 1988) of the Product or service acquired. According to Kazak and Remington (2000), meeting tourists expectations through actual experience considerably impacts on the tourists choice of the holiday destination, the satisfaction from a hotels products and services, and the decision to visit the destination in the future. Esther and Ritchie (1993) explain that a destination consists of a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes. Similarly, Yokel and Yokel (2001 337) argue that various positive and negative experiences may occur as a result of interactions with these components (attributes), and it is the collective effect that will ultimately decide the tourists overall evaluation of the experience. Therefore, it is important to use individual variables such as recreational facilities and cultural tours provided by a hotel and also holistic variables of satisfaction such as customer satisfaction survey (as a percentage satisfaction) to reach our marketing objectives of assessing the significance of several individual variables in the composition of a tourists expectation from a hotel
In understanding and analyzing tourist expectations from a hotel, a differentiation needs to be made between nice to know and need to know information as the data gathered can easily swerve towards areas not relevant to the research objective. The objectives can be set similar to various marketing firms such as Forward Analytics which sets the objective to include quantitative measurement studies to determine tourisms economic impact on special events and facilities, as well as qualitative market studies used for gauging specific attraction factors of conventions and tourists destinations(Forward Analytics). Through their research they help their clients assess the effectiveness of entertainment concepts and pinpoint market needs for their new or enhanced tourism facilities (Forward Analytics) This firm can be useful in gathering data through secondary research as it measure how well an organization (hotel) is achieving its goals with respect to participant or member satisfaction. This can provide a good starting point to the research endeavor but our objectives are not just confined to gauging tourist satisfaction (nice to know information), but rather products which can generate that satisfaction (need to know information) i.e. their expectation.
An important variable of customer expectation model that we aim to build is the growing demand for sustainable tourism in recent years. Sustainable tourism is defined as that kind of tourism that makes optimal use of environmental resources, maintains essential ecology and helps to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity in the tourist destination (GDRC). Demand for sustainable tourism is becoming increasingly popular as more individuals, business and organizations are supporting responsible tourism as well as environmentally responsible tourism products and services. Demand and expectation for sustainable practices by a hotel are one of the most important need to know information. There are various sources of secondary research such as the survey conducted by Trip Advisor which announced the results of its 2009 annual travel trends survey of more than 3,000 US travelers. The main trends identified are that travelers in the US appear to be seeking more green tourism experiences where 73 said they will be visiting a national park next year, hiking (53), and engaging in adventure activities (47) (Trip Advisor). EuroMonitor International has also provided results from several surveys and research database which show the trends and expectations of tourists towards green tourism, and provides a good base for secondary research (EuroMonitor).
Another important research objective on which the primary marketing research needs to concentrate on while gathering and recording data is the expectation of tourists from hotels for products which are tailored towards the local attractions. These variables will play a central role in the customer expectation model that we aim to build. Local attractions are an important factor which brings tourists to different cities, and hotels need to take that into account and provide products in accordance to that. Orlando Sheraton Hotel provides its customers with tours to the Disney World and the NASA space centre which constitutes as its local attraction (Steer wood Hotels). Similarly Marriot Libson provides a portal which helps its tourist find out about the local heritage and architectural attractions and also provide tours catered towards these attractions (Marriot Hotels). Primary research such as Focus Groups and In depth interviews with tourists coming to local hotels can identify the main expectations from them towards hotels catering to the needs of exploring the local attractions and unique features of the specific countrycity. The demand for products tailored towards exploiting local attractions is one of the important need to know information where as the various expectations on what these products should include and be like are a part of nice to know information.
Lastly, the marketing objective includes gathering the basic need to know information on the expectations of a tourist from a hotel regarding various amenities and facilities provided by the hotel and the cost of it. These will also feature significantly in the working of the customer expectation model. The global economic crisis, although not affecting tourism significantly, has changed the expectations of tourists. People now demand cheaper holidays and may be willing to give up certain luxurious amenities given their high cost. High end Spa services and personalized room requirements might not be demanded as much as before. The data on this factor can be gathered by an integrated marketing strategy involving both secondary data from different hotel prices around the world and primary research through questionnaires and interviews.
Methodology
Marketing Research Methodology
The Marketing Research Methodology which accurately achieves the marketing objectives of building an expectation model and overcomes most of the issues faced by tourism market research involves an integrated research strategy. Quantitative research, including market data gathering on demographic composition of tourists in Australia, Growth ratestrends, satisfaction and loyalty can provide the basis to the research. Secondary data from online sources such as the ones discussed in the paper above can assist the Qualitative Research to achieve the basis of the marketing objective. Primary research such as well designed questionnaires (which are general and do not entice biased responses), focus group and interviews from a randomly selected and sufficiently large sample (distributed amongst different hotels within the region), can provide information on the gaps left by secondary research (such as local attractions).
Quantitative research is usually carried out within a hypothetic-deductive and a positivistic framework and therefore it needs to be integrated with the phenomenological stance of qualitative research to produce an accurate and in depth market research. A questionnaire and interview can be combined with a comment card from the tourists which can support or negate a suspected trend. An integrated approach can widen the scope of the research and also enhance the accuracy of the expectations. Triangulation also allows any cleavages or blind spots to be filled by the qualitative responses and can help identify accurately the expectations of a tourist from a hotel avoiding most of the problems related to the multi-cultural and evolving nature of the tourist composition.
Market segmentation is a marketing technique that focuses on a marketing and sales of a program that emphasizes on those prospects that are in all probability most likely fetch sales. Research marketers have stressed a lot of importance in this aspect of marketing. They believe that if done properly marketing segmentation would fetch the highest return on investing in a business.
Thailand as discussed in the aforementioned paragraphs is a popular tourist destination. A resort in Bangkok will be taken into perspective to develop brands specific to this destination. For this various techniques will be employed some of which are
Focus groups
Questionnaires
Surveys
E-marketing
Mapping locations
Use of web blog
For this purpose advanced research methods employing the use of both primary and secondary data will be the key. The underlying assumption that the technique intends to follow is that a complete comprehensive knowledge of the visitor is extremely important for sustainable development , success in operation and long term functioning capacity of a destination. Some popular tourist products and their sustainability with respect to Bangkok shall be considered. These may include the development of leisure centers, nature reserves, museums, attractions, art galleries, events , horse riding sessions, local food and craft products.
A niche is a specific area which has a well crafted and well designed tourism product which can be used to tailor the need of particular interests of a set of visitors. The research methodology will also foresee if regional niche tourism product development can also take place. What can be the alternatives. Cruise tourism Gardens Biking Cultural shows etc
While these were some of the tangible products, there are some tourism products which are intangible i..e they cant be seen through. It is this aspect of tourism products which thus makes tourism difficult to define and conceive. In the words of a researcher
In essence a tourism product can be defined as a visitor service, activity, attraction or an experience (in itself, a collection of services, activitiesand attractions).
The following course of action will be taken. In Bangkok popular tourists will be tabulated based on the amount of visitors returning to it every year. All travel companies will be consulted in this regard and any additional help needed from them shall be sought for thereafter. For this purpose a team of four people will be used that will be delegated the task of consulting, co-ordinating and contacting the travel agencies and taking the necessary data. At the same time, relevant information from local airlines, based on various factors such as times and dates of peak travel will be taken and tabulated. Seasons in which travelling hits its peak time should be kept into perspective.
Followed by this a regional survey and then an e-survey will be taken. The prime focus of this survey would be to figure out the most popular attractions in Thailand, any recommendations that the tourists would like to offer in this regard etc. E-survey would involve a survey campaign using web based measures that would address the same questions as those that have been aforementioned but on a wider scale.
Regional survey would mean creating a team that could take field force survey. For this a team of six qualified people will be selected and they will be further trained. An important topic that will be covered in the interviewers training would be how to approach and what exactly to focus on. Following is the list of different aspects of interviewing that will be considered when training the interviewers for Bangkok
They will be defined and clarified of the real purpose of their job
Their responsibilities in the process.
The primary purpose of the research which is developing and branding a product based on destination
How to ensure that full co-operation is achieved.
How to get started
What exactly should be noted down in the companys bid to develop tourism related products whose prime focus would be on quality, sustainability and industry involvement to attain maximum benefit economically.
How to locate the sample respondent.
How to know what are customer expectations
What should be done to promote local specialities.
How to get adequate answers.
How to record responses accurately without wasting time.
How to secure the respondents identification and related information
How to close the survey
What should be the number of call backs.
This is done in affect so that new niche areas are created that will bring more visitors to the region. There are already some existing products in the region. To products, that already exist, focus will be on visitors to develop them even more so that the visitors have an enriching experience in Bangkok and keep returning back to it. From the research conducted a co-ordinated response will be generated and evaluated henceforth.
Discussion
There will be various techniques as mentioned in the previous paragraph that will be employed to take discover what kind of products should be developed based on a resorts destination in Bangkok. Some of the most prominent products that are in line are muesuems, prospects of biking, skiing, facilities at their beaches, huts, nearby shopping attractions etc. In this regard as stipulated before regional , global and internet related e-survey shall be conducted. Following questions will be asked for each kind of survey.
Regional survey
This survey will focus on people who are already in Bangkok as visitors and using their facilities. It will also involve some local inhabitants. Some of the questions that will be asked in the survey would be
Format of the survey
Dear Sir,
You are requested to kindly answer the following question and give this paper back to us at the earliest possible date. A self-addressed pre-paid envelope is enclosed for this purpose. On receiving your response, we shall send you our outlook into this matter in future.
Questionnaire for Visitors
Are you a visitor or a native to the land
How often do you visit Bangkok
Where do you come from
What time of the year suits you
Are you single
How many members in your family
What attracts you to Bangkok the most
What do you think is the biggest put of in this region
What profession do you hail from
Do you think, the locales you have visited so far, have anything to do with your profession
If yes (to the above question, then tell us how exactly and why)
Whats your age
Have you come here alone or with your family
How has your family liked this place
Where do you keep returning to in Bangkok
What kind of shopping avenues have you ventured into
What kind of shopping markets do you visit most often here
What are some of the best products that the shopping centers have to offer here.
What was your budget range for this visit
Do you think it was over tabulated or was it well proportioned to fit your needs.
How successful have you been in culturally integrating yourself and your family here
Do think there is enough emphasis on cultural activities in the tourist locales that you have visited so far
Any recommendations that you would like to offer
Multiple choice questions
When next do you see yourself in Bangkok
In the next 5 months
In the next 1 year
In the next 5 years
How many family members are you
a couple
4 member family
5 member family or above
How do you rate the ongoing tourist activities in this region
Average
Above average
Excellent
Would you want to see horse riding on Bangkoks beaches
YES
NO
Not interested
Where else do you think should shopping centers be located
Across the resorts
Vendor type stretches of shopping stalls
More Brand oriented shopping
Which resort do you think is the best out here and why
Resort Name ---------------------- Company -----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resort Name ---------------------- Company -----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resort Name ---------------------- Company -----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resort Name ---------------------- Company -----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What other regions in Thailand do you generally visit and why
Region Name ----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Region Name ----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Region Name ----------------------
Your reasons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What kind of cultural activities do you most often engage yourself in here and why
1
Cultural activity
Location
Time of the year
Reason
2.
Cultural activity
Location
Time of the year
Reason
3.
Cultural activity
Location
Time of the year
Reason
Please name the companies, tourist spots, locales that you have been most satisfied with
1.
CompanyTourist spotLocale Name -----------------------------------------
Reason for Satisfaction Quality Demand Price Attitude Availability Reputation
Any other reasons Please specify.
2.
CompanyTourist spotLocale Name -----------------------------------------
Reason for Satisfaction Quality Demand Price Attitude Availability Reputation
Any other reasons Please specify.
3.
CompanyTourist spotLocale Name -----------------------------------------
Reason for Satisfaction Quality Demand Price Attitude Availability Reputation
Any other reasons Please specify.
4.
CompanyTourist spotLocale Name -----------------------------------------
Reason for Satisfaction Quality Demand Price Attitude Availability Reputation
Any other reasons Please specify.
Which of the following plays the most important role in your selection of a particular resort
Facilities provided
Costs
Location
Cultural events taking place.
Please mention the resorts and locales which you think are the best on the basis of the following
Price Brand Name Company
Facilities provided
Attitude
Availability
Reputation
Once this data has been collected and retrieved it will be sampled and sorted out to find out the most popular reasons behind visitors returning to Bangkok every year, what exactly do they seek before zeroing down on a resort here, what are the most significant factors that play an important role in deciding for the same.
The bourgeoning size of the tourism industry and its importance to the economy of its host nation makes imperative that this industry functions to the expectations of its customers. The pace of change in the international demand for tourism and the socio-economic milieu requires frequent destination market research into the changing expectations of the tourists from hotels. Hotels are the gateway to which tourists explore different citiescountries and their expectations are not limited to the facilities and amnesties provided by the hotel. Hotels provide products, such as tours and safaris, which cater to the expectations of the tourists. Considering the diverse backgrounds of the tourists and their composition, an integrated approach which takes into account Quantitative and Qualitative data has to be implied so that all ends are tied and the expectations are accurately gauged. The general expectations with respect to the costs and facilities may be served by quantitative and secondary research but the niche expectations can only be recorded by Qualitative and Primary research.
The tools of Destination Market Research which are described in the paper, such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys and comment cards, need to be devised keeping in mind the diverse nature of the audience. The sample sizes also needs to be fully representative which can be achieved by gathering secondary data from as many countries as possible and collecting primary data from as many different hotels in the region. Once this can be achieved in an un biased manner, the results can be concluded as highly accurate and representative of the expectations of tourists from a hotel in the current times.
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