MGBBT1TMP Tourism Marketing Principles Assessment Answer

Executive Summary

In this report, an overview of the ACE Cultural Tours has been provided. It was founded in 1958 and it is the longest-established cultural travel tour operator in the UK having experience of 60 years. It is constantly building on its heritage and looks forward towards offering tours to new and exciting destinations globally, together with returning and perennial favourites. The customers’ needs are evaluated. The external environmental analysis has been carried out with the help of PESTLE analysis. Various opportunities and threats are identified that can affect the operations of the company. For internal analysis, Porter's five-force analysis framework has been used. It has been analyzed that ACE Cultural Tours is not conducting any present market research with regard to the needs and wants of the customers and that's why it might face difficulty in future to attract customers for its tour packages. Also, the company tend to promote less about its products and services less on online channels and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It can also promote valuable content in the form of travel blogs, reviews, etc. The thorough market research would help in realizing the current trends in the tourism market.

Company Background

ACE Cultural Tours was established in 1958 and is the most experienced and oldest provider of cultural travel and study tours in the UK, running tours, courses and cruises in the UK, Europe and wide across the sphere. Its tours cover each feature of the arts, from architecture and fine arts to history, music, archaeology, theatre and the usual world. The tour executives are true experts and appealing hosts, keen to part their passion and knowledge (Norris 2020). The travellers tend to share their curiosity for the cultural themes and its smaller groups are specifically friendly for the sole traveller.

ACE Cultural Tours is founded by the ACE Foundation which is an instructive charity that forms associations with the nations visited by ACE Cultural Tours by supportive local educational schemes and offering scholarships. It carries out operations in about 50 nations on a global scale. Charity was founded by Philip Barnes in 1958 to inspire cultural argument via education. Now, his son, named Paul endures the family corporate, leading the generous work of the ACE Foundation and overseeing the subsidiary corporation, ACE Cultural Tours that run study tours globally (ACE Cultural Tours 2023). All of the excess funds being created by ACE Cultural Tours is castoff to support instructive projects overseas, and at home. Current projects have comprised the restoration and conservation of the painting of Paul Nash, Menin Road, for novel WWI arcades in the Imperial War Academy of London and steady support for the Attingham Trust Summer School and Centre for Technical Art History and Textile Conservation of Glasgow (Lopoukhine 2021).

External Analysis

Identification of Customers and their Needs

As the tours offered by ACE Cultural Tours cover each aspect of arts, from architecture and fine arts to archaeology, music, history, the natural world and the theatre, its customers are majorly students and travellers that share the curiosity for the cultural subjects (Farley and Pollock 2022). It takes pride to be a preferred travel provider for individuals that are committed to supporting local communities in nations they visit. Its customers are community members that prefer a more laid-back, less physically demanding itinerary while retaining a similar higher level of academic content.

The needs of the customers are concerned with the cleanliness, facilities and comfort levels up to the desired standards. They always strive to accomplish a balance between aspects like location, costs and accessibility (Nieto-Garcia et al. 2019). They desire to learn cultural intricacies and connections across a wide array of subject themes and areas including architecture, art, history, archaeology, music, natural history and regional culture.

Pestle Analysis

1. Political factors – The government of the UK is quite stable and this has a positive influence on potential consumers. The transportation infrastructure of the UK is both efficient and effective (Lapuente and Van de Walle 2020). Because of increasing awareness of green issues, the UK government has announced some policies to safeguard the environment. Terrorism is also an adverse factor having an impact on tourism.
2. Economic factors – Inflation is increasing in the level of price of products and services in the economy in a year. This indicates that customers are required to pay more amount of money for similar commodities and it directs to rising costs for travelling to the UK. Seasonality is also an issue due to holidays being the busiest time for the tourism company (Corluka 2019). This is a major issue for ACE Cultural Tours as after peak season, it does not have many deals.
3. Social factors – With the advent of social media, people now have a continuous online incidence and they desire to use the same to amaze. The social admiration of travelling is causing individuals to travel when they may have else stayed home. Such a movement has a positive impact on ACE Cultural Tours. However, ACE Cultural Tours company did not carry out any market research within the tourism market. It is making decisions on old data while the needs of the customers have evolved with due time.
4. Technological factors – The significant technological factors impact the company's development of transport in the UK. Trains, buses, and planes have become highly comfortable and have added features like charging ports and Wi-fi connectivity (Vickerman 2021).
5. Legal factors – Various banks in the UK offer loans for tourism purposes. These loans are helpful for students to tour more often. Also, world borders are getting opening up for tourists and the government is offering visas to boost the economy. And legal processes concerned with tourism have become hassle-free.
6. Environmental factors – The biggest factor impacting ACE Cultural Tours is pollution created by modes of transport like trains, buses, etc. (Pisarov and Mester 2021). These result in the creation of pollutants leading to global warming. Moreover, tourism can cause pollution at the local level. In a few scenarios, tourists might be less respectful of the destination as compared to their hometown leading them to contaminate.

Internal Analysis

Porter’s Five Force Analysis

1. The threat of substitute products – In the travel sector, there is huge likelihoods to start new corporate and progress positively. The companies seem in all price varieties, with varied levels of services and facilities (Khan et al. 2020). With technological progressions, the internet makes the general market to become more competitive while extending the size of the probable market and producing new substitution threats. Provided the strength of such an industry an excellent tactical plan is vibrant.
2. Bargaining power of purchasers – Business individuals selecting the firm for commercial in the tourism sector are savvy customers and they are at parity with the variation in the capability of their customers (Grab et al. 2019). Now, it is fairly simple for clients to go online and survey the best corporation that offers great facilities. They no lengthier require assistance from travel agents to determine where they can get their services. This signifies that the bargaining power of customers is relatively high in this industry.
3. Rivalry among existing competitors – There is stiff competition in the tourism industry. When potential consumers learn about the hotel online, the internet decreases differences among competitors. This industry in the UK covers a wider area so the marketplace is broadened which raises the number of participants. To cater to this competition, ACE Cultural Tours identifies that the opportunity to sample distinct cuisines is an integral part of the cultural experience, so while travelling overseas, it provides chances to try traditional dishes (Su et al. 2020). All this helps the company in acquiring competitive benefits.
4. Barricades to entry – The original outlay in the tourism business creates a barricade to the entrance of new firms but various barriers have been removed due to the existence of the internet. The presence of various efficient communication platforms decreases the upstart costs of marketing somewhat and provides new competitors with access towards potential resources and suppliers. Now the new firms in the sector can make use of channels of large chains to comprehend the major marketing notions and the lures of consumers. The other crucial barrier is differentiation. ACE Cultural Tours company work closely with the hotel to ensure cleanliness, comfort and facilities levels up to the level of expected standards (ACE cultural tours 2023). Through this, it thrives to acquire a balance between aspects like location, accessibility and costs. Thus, it can be claimed that this power is moderate.
5. Bargaining power of providers – This power is not so considerable in the tourism sector. The employees of the company are the main suppliers when there are a smaller number of individuals to fill in the service segments of the sector and corporations can attract outstanding staff and form a chance of offering exceptional and exceptional experiences to their clients. As part of their approach, ACE Cultural Tours company must have a great process of recruitment. The other provisions that are required by the company are also simple to acquire via the internet platform. With their goods in higher demand by a large number of companies, the suppliers acquire more quantity of power by rivalry for their contributions.

Ethical in Business

All the members of ACE Cultural Tours company are committed towards higher standards of service and believe in thorough and regular training of personnel. they tend to listen to the consumers and always welcome suggestions for enhancing standards.

AITO – ACE Cultural Tours is a member of AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators). It acts as the association for professional and autonomous holiday corporations. The member corporations strive to make foreign holidays with greater levels of competence and shared apprehension for individual service and quality (ACE Cultural Tours 2023).

ACE Cultural Tours company tend to provide accurate holiday descriptions to ensure that all their brochures and other publications are clear and accurate to the customers describing the services and holidays offered. It endeavours to supervise quality standards on regular basis. It provides a post-holiday questionnaire to travellers, the results of which are scrutinized by the Association. As an outcome of this, customers can leave a detailed review which is easily accessible from the homepage of the company's website. It greatly acknowledges the significance of AITOs sustainable tourism ethos that identified the economic, social and environmental responsibilities of tour operations (Liyanage et al. 2019). However, it has not undertaken any significant measures to control environmental pollution. The visitors of ACE Cultural Tours cause environmental pollution by generating carbon footprints by boarding flight that does not use any kind of biofuels. Moreover, not travelling via land transportation to the destination and littering the surroundings with plastic bottles is a kind of unethical practice. It deals fairly and swiftly with any concerns its customers might raise. In case, the dispute between the company and the customers cannot be settled, then either party can place a call on an arbitration service to bring the concern to a fast and acceptable conclusion.

Future Development

The major opportunity that can be grabbed by ACE Cultural Tours company is from the internet. There has been a significant rise in the number of internet users all across the world. This indicates that there is an effective prospect for the company to expand its marketing activity and build its online presence, by making use of the internet to communicate with the customers (Makrides et al. 2020). With the internet, the company can make use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, etc. to promote its tour packages, interact with consumers and gather feedback from them.

ACE Cultural Tours must ensure the application of technological developments. Technology arrives with various benefits among several sectors and divisions. The company can automate its operations to decrease costs. Technology allows better data to be gathered about customers and enhance marketing efforts (Desai and Vidyapeeth 2019). There has been a rise in the average income of households together with a rise in customer spending following the recession. It will lead to growth in the target market of ACE with new consumers that can be attracted towards the firm.

References

ACE Cultural Tours. 2023. Quality Charter. [Online]. Available at: https://www.aceculturaltours.co.uk/quality-charter [Accessed on: 23^rd March 2023].

ACE Cultural Tours. 2023. The ACE Experience. [Online]. Available at: https://www.aceculturaltours.co.uk/the-ace-experience [Accessed on: 23^rd March 2023].

Corluka, G., 2019. Tourism seasonality–an overview. Journal of Business Paradigms, 4(1), pp.21-43.

Desai, V. and Vidyapeeth, B., 2019. Digital marketing: A review. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, 5(5), pp.196-200.

Farley, R. and Pollock, V.L., 2022. Contemporary Art in Heritage Practice: Mapping Its Intentions, Claims, and Complexities. Heritage & Society, pp.1-18.

Grab, B., Olaru, M. and Gavril, R.M., 2019. The impact of digital transformation on strategic business management. Ecoforum Journal, 8(1).

Khan, N., Hassan, A.U., Fahad, S. and Naushad, M., 2020. Factors affecting the tourism industry and its impacts on the global economy of the world. Available at SSRN 3559353.

Lapuente, V. and Van de Walle, S., 2020. The effects of new public management on the quality of public services. Governance, 33(3), pp.461-475.

Liyanage, S., Dia, H., Abduljabbar, R. and Bagloee, S.A., 2019. Flexible mobility-on-demand: An environmental scan. Sustainability, 11(5), p.1262.

Lopoukhine, J., 2021. “Painting and War Don’t Go Together”: Images and the Unarticulated Affect in Rose Macaulay’s Non-Combatants and Others (1916). TIES-Revue de littérature, textes, images et sons, (5).

Makrides, A., Vrontis, D. and Christofi, M., 2020. The gold rush of digital marketing: assessing prospects of building brand awareness overseas. Business Perspectives and Research, 8(1), pp.4-20.

Nieto-Garcia, M., Resce, G., Ishizaka, A., Occhiocupo, N. and Viglia, G., 2019. The dimensions of hotel customer ratings that boost RevPAR. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, pp.583-592.

Norris, K., 2020. Harry Thirlwall Norris 24 June 1926–10 January 2019. Libyan Studies, 51, pp.8-9.

Pisarov, J.L. and Mester, G., 2021. The use of autonomous vehicles in transportation. Tehnika, 76(2), pp.171-177.

Su, D.N., Johnson, L.W. and O’Mahony, B., 2020. Analysis of push and pull factors in food travel motivation. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(5), pp.572-586.

Vickerman, R., 2021. Will Covid-19 put the public back in public transport? A UK perspective. Transport Policy, 103, pp.95-102.

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