Marketing for Tourism, Hospitality & Events

A Global & Digital Approach

Simon Hudson, Louise Hudson

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781526414359
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Framed within basic marketing principles, Marketing for Tourism, Hospitality & Events highlights the global shift in tourism demographics today, placing a particular emphasis on the role of digital technology and its impact on travel products and services.

Covering developments across a broad range of topics such as contemporary tourism marketing, understanding today?s consumer, and the importance of public relations and personal selling, key industry changes are captured throughout the text. ?Lessons from a Marketing Guru? feature personal insights from real world practitioners, and ?Digital Spotlights? highlight the ways in which social media and the Internet have transformed tourism, hospitality and events the world over.

These features are further enhanced by ?Marketing in Action? case-studies in each chapter that highlight the international realities of tourism, hospitality and events marketing in practice. These include:

• Spiritual Tourism in Tamil Nadu, India
• Social media listening at Marriott's headquarters in Hong Kong
• The Deer Hunt Festival in Winneba, Ghana
• Music-themed hotels in Prague, Amsterdam, Berlin and Mexico
• The promotion of Hawaii through film and television
• Dark Tourism in Vietnam

The book is complemented by a companion website featuring a range of tools and resources for lecturers and students, including PowerPoint slides, an instructor manual, a test bank of multiple choice questions and author-curated video links to make the examples in each chapter come to life.

Ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students looking for an introductory text to marketing for tourism, hospitality and events.

1 Today’s Marketing Environment

Introduction

Chapter 1 is dedicated to the current global tourism marketing environment. The chapter starts with an introduction to the marketing of tourism, hospitality and events in general, and discusses the definition and role of marketing and its importance in international tourism. The key players in the industry are then profiled, and the remainder of the chapter examines the major environmental forces that affect an organization’s ability to serve its customers.

Lessons from a Marketing Guru: The Business of Spiritual Tourism

‘Whether you are running a business, an industry, or a nation – what is needed are insight, integrity, and inspiration’ – Sadhguru Tweet

Located at the foot of the Velliangiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu, the Isha Yoga Center is the brainchild of Jaggi Vasudev, or Sadhguru as he is widely known. The modern-day yogi and mystic is a charismatic leader whose vision for harmony and well-being for all takes him across the world to address prestigious global forums and conferences, speaking about issues as diverse as human rights, business values and environmental responsibility. He has been invited to the United Nations’ Millennium World Peace Summit, the House of Lords in the UK, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and IMD Lausanne, Switzerland.

Image 1.1 Sadhguru (©Sadhguru. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission)

Surrounded by thick forests, and situated right next to the Nilgiri Biosphere reserve, the 150-acre ashram was founded by Sadhguru in 1992, and is administered by the Isha Foundation. One major attraction of the centre is the Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple, a meditative space that is said to be the first of its kind to be completed in over 2,000 years. The temple does not ascribe to any particular faith and is available to all, irrespective of religion or nationality. Open daily from 6 am to 8 pm, including national or cultural holidays, it attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world. Many of these guests take part in Nada vocals, ‘singing’ bowls, drums and various other instrumeAradhana, an offering of sound to the Dhyanalinga that includes an ethereal blend of nonlyricalnts. These twice-daily sound offerings are the only times the meditative silence of the Dhyanalinga is broken.

The ashram is also the location for major cultural events. For example, in an endeavour to preserve and promote the uniqueness and diversity of India’s performing arts, the centre annually hosts Yaksha, a seven-day festival of music and dance. Various eminent artistes perform at the festival, culminating in the nightlong celebration of the Mahashivarathri Festival – one of the biggest and most significant among the sacred festival nights of India. This night is considered the darkest night of the year, and celebrates the Grace of Shiva, who is known as Aadhi (first) Guru from whom the yogic tradition originates.

The Isha Center offers all four major paths of yoga – kriya (energy), gnana (knowledge), karma (action), and bhakti (devotion), drawing advocates from all over the world. Other programmes include Inner Engineering, designed by the guru to ‘establish a deep and lasting transformation’. Over two million people have completed the programme to date, all seeking advertised results such as improved mental clarity, increased energy levels, relief from chronic ailments, deepening of interpersonal relationships, and greater peace and joy in everyday life. Another programme offered by Isha Education is INSIGHT – The DNA of Success, a practitioner-oriented leadership course that draws upon the experience of several highly successful business leaders who have built and grown world-class organizations. Along with Sadhguru’s guidance and involvement, other resource leaders in past programmes include Rajan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons Limited, and Dr Prathap C Reddy, founder of Apollo Hospitals.

Isha Sacred Walks is another branch in the guru’s portfolio of product offerings, promoted not as tours, but ‘a possibility for deep transformation’. The Himalayan Sacred Walks is one example, comprising two weeks of meditation, treks and camping. The guru’s entrepreneurial talents have not stopped there. Sounds of Isha offers ten albums of music ‘transporting you to subtler states of being, forming the basis for inner exploration’; Isha Craft produces gift items, jute pieces, paintings, metal crafts, stone artifacts and handicrafts, as well as designer clothing; Isha Life is the wellness sub-brand, a centre that provides a holistic approach to health and fitness, but also includes a fine-dining restaurant Mahamudra, an outdoor café Namma and the Shambhavi Craft Boutique; Isha Foods and Spices are a collection of snacks, drinks, tiffin mixes and pickles; Isha Arogya offers healthcare products and services and has established holistic health centres in several major cities of Tamil Nadu; and finally Isha Publications promotes Sadhguru’s works and discourses in the form of books, CDs and DVDs.

The Isha Center and all of these sub-brands are promoted via a glossy magazine, a slick website, and various social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, a blog, Pinterest and Twitter. One of his signature tweets is: ‘No work is stressful. It is your inability to manage your body, mind, and emotions that makes it stressful.’ Much of the income from these diverse commercial prongs is ploughed back into the foundation, an entirely volunteer-run, nonprofit organization which is ‘dedicated to cultivating human potential through its vibrant spiritual movement’. The social development branch of the foundation is Isha Outreach, with a vision to empower the deprived sections of India to achieve improved health, education and environmental well-being. Another initiative established by the foundation is Project GreenHands, which aims to take corrective measures to increase the green cover of Tamil Nadu province by an additional 10 per cent, by planting trees through volunteer participation. Finally, Sadhguru’s long-term vision is to raise the human spirit and rejuvenate the marginalized rural population, and so he has created Action for Rural Rejuvenation (AAR), a programme that has already reached out to 4,600 villages in over a decade of work. Not content with operating in India alone, Sadhguru is spreading his tentacles overseas, recently establishing the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences in Tennessee, US. Spread over 1,300 acres, the Institute offers a variety of programmes ‘that provide methods for anyone to attain physical, mental and spiritual well-being’. Two powerful meditation spaces are the main features of the Isha Institute. Mahima, which means grace, is a 39,000 sq ft domed meditation hall and home to many of the programmes offered at the Institute: basic programmes that do not require any prior knowledge of yoga or meditation, as well as advanced programmes for those who wish to take a step further in their spiritual growth. The second space is the Adi Yogi: Abode of Yoga, a meditative space established as a tribute to the Adi Yogi, who offered the yogic sciences to the world over 15,000 years ago.

Sources: Personal visit by authors: February 2016; www.ishafoundation.org; http://isha.sadhguru.org/blog/lifestyle/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-isha-yoga-center-and-more/

The Tourism Marketing Environment

The opening case study depicts a successful entrepreneur in India who has responded to the growing demand for spiritual and wellness tourism. By understanding and adapting to a changing environment, Jaggi Vasudev’s vision for harmony and well-being for all has made him an extremely influential figure in India. What the case also shows is that tourism can be a powerful economic force providing employment, foreign exchange, income, and tax revenue for countries all over the world. The tourism market reflects the demands of consumers for a very wide range of travel and hospitality products, and it is widely claimed that this total market is now being serviced by the world’s largest industry. Players in this industry are operating in a global environment where people, places and countries are increasingly interdependent. Countries once considered inaccessible to Western tourists, because of geographical, cultural and political barriers, are now becoming accessible and their very remoteness makes them an attractive choice for travel today. An example is Myanmar, one of the most impoverished parts of the world and, until recently, a country in isolation, unwelcoming to visitors. But social and economic reforms in the 2010s, and a new branding campaign, have resulted in a surge of international visitors (see Marketing in Action at the end of this chapter).

The globalization of tourism has cultural, political and economic dimensions. Cultural globalization is characterized by cultural homogenization as Western consumption and lifestyle patterns spread throughout the world, a process facilitated by the flow of travellers from the West to the Third World. Travel also enhances friendships between peoples and facilitates cultural exchange. Political globalization involves the undermining of the roles and importance of nation states as borders are opened up to free trade and investment. Economic globalization has both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, it could be argued that a key aspect of economic globalization has been the trend towards increasing power in the hands of a small number of travel organizations, leading to oligopolistic control in the industry. On the other hand, tourism brings with it economic rewards and opportunities for host communities, in particular, to benefit from foreign exchange and enhance their livelihood options.

There are many examples in tourism and hospitality industries of companies operating in a global environment. The Hard Rock brand, a favourite on tourists’ T-shirts the world over, is a good example. The chain was founded by music lovers Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton with one London restaurant in 1971, and by 2015 the chain included nearly 200 cafes in more than 60 countries. Hard Rock International, now owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, is also known for its collectible fashion and music-rel...