International Case Studies in Tourism Marketing

Gürhan Aktaş, Metin Kozak, Metin Kozak, Gürhan Aktaş

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032023151
• eBook ISBN: 9781000600322
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This international case study book provides 27 expertly curated case studies on the topic of tourism marketing, each with detailed implementation instructions for the instructor in order to maximise student participation and learning.

The dynamic characteristic of the industry under the influence of micro and macro environment factors requires future professionals to be equipped with appropriate skills and competencies to deal with such factors in real-life practices. Curated and developed by industry experts and practitioners, these case studies embody real-world scenarios with the aim of best preparing students for their future careers. This compelling set of case studies follows a logical and uniform structure and covers topics such as marketing mix, crisis management, digital marketing, quality development, product development and sustainability.

With reflective questions throughout to aid both in-class discussion and self-study, this book is an ideal study resource for use in higher and vocational education, and its unique, teaching-led approach positions it as a vital study tool for instructors and students alike.

Case 1The Joy LabsPANCOE as a new instrument to enhance tourism education

Alejandra Zuccoli, Hugues Séraphin and Maximiliano E. Korstanje

DOI: 10.4324/9781003182856-1

Duration

A total of 18 encounters lasting 90 minutes each.

Learning objectives

Upon completing the case, participants will be able to:

• facilitate the inclusion of foreign students who are joining a course as year 1 students in tourism and hospitality
• optimise the student learning experience, alongside reducing the rate of student drop-out
• implement innovative methods to improve traditional tourism education, using tourism marketing case studies.

Target audience

The present case is oriented to stimulate the learning skills of pre-graduate students in the first year of a tourism bachelor’s degree. Methodologically speaking, students studying a BA in hospitality were excluded from the experiment. The study started to meet the needs of new students coming from different socio-economic and national contexts to the first years of a tourism BA in Argentina. Pre-graduate students (participants), who were involved in this experiment, came from different Latin American countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Chile (only to name a few). In all cases, they did not reside with their families in Argentina. They arrived only to study tourism with the intention of returning to their countries. It is safe to say that these students faced an unknown landscape and a climate of emotional deprivation. Hence, these students were low-rated in the preliminary exams in comparison with Argentinean students.

The main goal of the laboratory was to associate the creativity of gifted students with artificial intelligence and digital social networks such as Twitter. Secondly, the Laboratory of Joy explored and acknowledged the importance of smart ideas generated through the formation of safe social networks. A third goal was address the need to reduce university drop-out rates. The students’ mingling allowed rapid optimisation of learning. Students took direct intervention in diverse team-building activities like cooking, food tasting and baking bread.

The case study explores the role of pleasure (joy) as a catalyst for new emerging learning abilities and skills to potentiate students’ performance in tourism and education marketing.

Teaching methods, sampling and equipment

The experiment was run using two different focus groups (10–20 participants in each group). The experiment was based on a sample of 870 participants who regularly use Twitter (Twitter-@holapancoe). The sample was divided into active and passive participants. Whilst the former refers to tourism undergraduate students who took part in PANCOE (40 students), the latter refers to students coming from other universities or areas, but who were not involved in the PANCOE (830 participants). The cohort ranged from 18 to 25 years old. Initially, the sample was made of tourism undergraduate students taking a specific course called Integracion, Ambientacion y communication (Communication, environmentalism and integration). PANCOE looked at integrating the senses of students with their emotions, academic performance and the digital platforms. PANCOE devoted efforts to transform negative feelings like fear into positive ones like joy. The experiment used different digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook, as well as culinary elements, such as baking bread and cooking.

Case

It is important to mention that the experiment was divided into three clear-cut steps. Each one was performed differently but they are interrelated over the year.

Step 1

Participants of this experiment were instructed to form two groups. Each one had 10–20 participants. PANCOE involved 18 encounters at the School of Tourism, the University of Palermo, Argentina. Each encounter lasted about 90 minutes. The experiment was divided into three facets where students developed different skills and learning processes. Professor Alejandra Zuccoli introduced the students to the importance of engaging in and experiencing new and innovative education techniques. For approximately 10 minutes, each group was exposed to positive stimuli, such as smelling different fragrances and perfumes. Over the next 20 minutes, students were bombarded with pictures containing paradisiacal landscapes and beaches. They were asked to remember their best trip as well as the emotions and experience such a trip evoked. They were encouraged to travel in their mind without moving. Imagination played a leading role in this process. Students were encouraged to give the keywords to describe such an experience. At the third stage, students tasted different regional dishes and drinks, which came from their home countries. Joy Lab Director Alejandra Zuccoli started from the premise that these pleasurable moments, which were repeated in this order during each meeting, released endorphins whilst also improving students’ attention and performance in the classroom. The experiment took place on different days of the elective year, bolstering a fluid dialogue between professors and students. It was vital at this stage that each group worked in isolation and members had no previous communication about their experiences. The first group, group A, was directly involved with the PANCOE experiment, whilst the second group, group B, was enrolled in the traditional programmes and syllabuses of the tourism school.

Step 2

Students in group A were invited to bake bread as well as cooking different traditional dishes. Later they were encouraged to share their products with their peers. They were invited to take pictures of the dishes and pieces of bread. Each participant created a Twitter account and published the pictures, inviting 50–60 external followers. They shared the information, dishes, limitations and feelings in their Twitter account. This process took about 50–60 minutes and helped students to communicate their expectations with members of group B. This ignited a much deeper interaction which was based on the needs of selling their products and increasing their number of followers, whilst positioning their products to gain further traction. Students received constructive feedback from followers whilst they overtly manifested not only their expectations but also hopes and fears during the experience. Each student provided its commentaries in writing (anonymously, in a letter left in a ballot box). Each letter was carefully read and reviewed by Professor Zuccoli.

Step 3

One day of the year, a final exposition was organised for all students to share their pieces of bread, stories and dishes with other students who have not taken direct participation in the experiment. In this event, each student had a particular booth. These booths were visited by attendants, as well as important Argentinean Chefs who tasted the dishes, whilst sharing their experience and giving fruitful instructions to students. At this stage, the experiment not only re-integrated multiple sensory dimensions in a friendly climate of cooperation, but also settled in students the feeling they were part of something really important. Once the event ended, Professor Zuccoli convened a new encounter – a final exam. Students were evaluated and subjected to regular tests and verbal and written exams. Each exam lasted 2 hours and the results were ultimately communicated within seven days. Per rules and procedures of the University, the rigor of exam and the content was the same for students who had participated in PANCOE and for those who had not. Students were evaluated in the respective exams by different professors who taught their courses. The professors reviewed each exam using the double-bind method (professors were not aware of whether the student was involved in the experiment or not). At the same time, authorities closely followed up each student`s performance as well as their grades and the evolution of their careers. Finally, a drop-out rate was created to follow up how many students who took part in PANCOE abandoned their studies. These exams, which took place in six elective years, included classic curriculum content.

Results and discussion

The results matched expectations as the students involved in the programme performed better than the others (the capacity of memory storage increased notably to 33% in students who took part in PANCOE, in comparison to students who did not participate in the experiment, who had a memory storage capacity of 20%). The percentage of students who graduated was 40% amongst those involved in the programme compared to 28% for the others. Amongst the limitations of the study, there is no need to say, that further investigation is needed. The study was based on middle-class foreign students, excluding Argentinean peers. As such, there was no evidence of results in lower-classes or groups subject to durable psychological deprivations, such as students in zones of war or social conflict, as well as ongoing political instability or in devastated areas. PANCOE offers promising outcomes for the future of tourism marketing. Lastly, PANCOE shows an interesting potential to mitigate the negative effects of Covid-19 on consumers. PANCOE remains an innovative method that credits the important role of pleasure (joy) in tourism education.

After further review, the present case study brings reflection on the power of pleasure (joy) to better the classic education system. Whilst pleasure has been overlooked as an instrument to increase positive feelings in students for classic education, PANCOE (and the Laboratory of Joy) goes in the opposite direction. The Laboratory of Joy stimulates students’ skills and performance through the articulation of pleasurable experiences. The results notably show that those students who participated in PANCOE obtained better degrees than those who did not taken part in the experiment. What seems to be more important, the endorphins liberated by positive interactive communication pave the way for the rise of pleasurable experiences, which, in turn, lead to better academic performances.

Last but not least, PANCOE was designed to standardise the learning process of foreign students. The main goal of PANCOE was to reduce the student dropout rate. The results showed that PANCOE not only improved the academic degrees of participants but facilitated their final graduation. Of course, more research should be focused on how PANCOE helps psychologically-disturbed students who live in unsafe destinations (war zones), conflict or disaster destinations, as well as whether the same results would be achieved for other groups. Although the outcomes are certainly innovative and exhilarating, they cannot be extrapolated to other universes simply because the method is not based on a statistical representative method. However, PANCOE was a successful experiment implemented by the Laboratory of Joy at the University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Further reading

• Airey, D., & Tribe, J. (Eds.). (2006). An International Handbook of Tourism Education. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Amoah, V. A., & Baum, T. (1997). Tourism education: policy versus practice. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 9(1), 5–12.
• O’Keefe, T. (2014). Epicureanism. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Sheldon, P. J., Fesenmaier, D. R., & Tribe, J. (2011). The tourism education futures initiative (TEFI): Activating change in tourism education. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 11(1), 2–23.
• Wang, J., Ayres, H., & Huyton, J. (2010). Is tourism education meeting the needs of the tourism industry? An Australian case study. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education, 22(1), 8–14.

Case 2Marketing wellness in paradiseWhat’s hard about that?

Su Gibson and Drew Martin

DOI: 10.4324/9781003182856-2

Duration

One hour to one week, depending on course level and detail required for market strategy student presentations.

• Viewing the case video: 6.5 minutes
• Reading the case: 20 minutes
• Brainstorming and discussion: 30 minutes
• Conducting additional online research (optional)
• Working in groups, drafting of marketing strategic plan and presentation preparation (optional)
• Presenting individually or in groups (optional)

Learning objectives

Upon completing the case, participants will be able to:

• analyse dynamic customer behaviour using Maslow’s needs theory
• develop a working knowledge of how customers’ service quality assessment dimensions affect overall satisfaction for the lodging industry
• prioritise marketing goals when presented with challenges such as limited budgets, staffing shortages and changing guest expectations
• take a holistic view of marketing strategy and relate the example to operational concerns
• connect customer expectations and satisfaction with marketing efforts.

Target audience

A basic understanding of marketing and service management concepts is helpful for this case. However, the case study can be adapted for all course levels. Either teams or individuals can develop suggestions for marketing strategy and service quality initiatives.

Teaching methods and equipment

Resources for this case include a short video interview with the Resort’s Vice President to inform the students and direct their work within a service management and marketing framework. A computer with internet access and audio/visual capabilities is required for viewing.

Gibson, S. (2021, May 20). Interview with Jill Boyd of Hilton Head Health [Video]. YouTube https://youtu.be/zpWbiNUUSI4

Teaching methods could include small-group brainstorming of ideas for service ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• About the contributors
• Preface
• Case 1 The Joy Labs: PANCOE as a new instrument to enhance tourism education
• Case 2 Marketing wellness in paradise: What’s hard about that?
• Case 3 Mentor-mentee incentive event planning
• Case 4 Marketing your destination from a thousand miles away: The power of social media
• Case 5 Using online reviews to measure customer experience assessment
• Case 6 Analysing information about hotels on online review sites under special conditions
• Case 7 Effective airline market segmentation: The case of Singapore Airlines Group
• Case 8 A unique trail: Is the product ready-made?
• Case 9 Keeping up with image marketing during a pandemic
• Case 10 Communicating healthy forest air as medicine
• Case 11 Virtual and augmented reality in tourism: Dare to research?
• Case 12 Convent Carmen: Rethinking the boundaries between tourism and the city
• Case 13 Hotels and online travel agencies: A partnership made in heaven?
• Case 14 Tasting wine or exploring the wine mystique
• Case 15 Designing gastronomic identity-based food tours
• Case 16 Global hotel revenue management challenges: A nightmare for revenue managers
• Case 17 A yacht charter holiday
• Case 18 Bombarding the tourism minister with questions
• Case 19 Doomsday in s¸i˙ri˙nce
• Case 20 New media marketing channels to market Mengjinglai scenic area
• Case 21 Tourist guides preparing tourists for shopping on guided tours
• Case 22 Tango or acrobatics: How to capture info groups’ memory
• Case 23 I want a brand new car
• Case 24 Dinner on the pier: A reason to return
• Case 25 Digital communications in tourism marketing strategies
• Case 26 Marketing mix analysis for Dote restaurants in Portugal
• Case 27 Who really makes the holiday decision: Is it the buyer or the seller?
• Index