Case Studies
How others have benefited - two case studies
The travel markets of UK and Europe are the most important and highly competitive in the world. The population of Western Europe, around 385 millions, is half as big again as USA and three times that of Japan. The emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe add another 112 millions to its potential and when it comes to purchasing power, spending by West Europeans on foreign tourism amount to approximately three times that of US citizens. Effective, proactive marketing representation in UK is, therefore, now essential - as can be illustrated by these two case studies:
Destination Marketing
Many official tourist authorities, wishing to promote their destinations to the prolific UK market have based their own officials here for that purpose. However, others prefer to use their total budget for marketing (as opposed to administrative purposes) as was the case in the example below.Our case study relates to the Executive Director of a National Tourist Office in a destination already beginning to attract visitor traffic from UK but who was convinced that this was only 'the tip of the iceberg'. His government increased his budget in an attempt to achieve further gains. However, on reflection, he soon realised that this increase in budget would either enable him to position a member of his staff in UK permanently to represent the destination or intensify his promotional efforts - but not both.
He quickly decided that, rather than allocate financial resources to opening a London Office, Supereps International should be retained to utilise the extra funding to implement a carefully focused marketing campaign to attract new visitors. By combining modern marketing techniques with its comprehensive knowledge of the market, Supereps International was soon able to build the local travel trade's knowledge of, and confidence in, the destination. Over a 12 month period considerable further progress was made, increasing the number of tour operators featuring the destination and, more importantly, the number of additional visitors to the destination.
And the cost? Approximately the same as keeping one staff member in Europe for a 12 month period.
An Independent Hotel Operation
The quandary facing the Managing Director of two outstanding five hundred rooms properties - one centrally located in a major Asian city and the second in a beach resort some distance away - was that, although these hotels ranked with the best of their competitors, they were not attracting enough business from major generating markets such as UK. The problem was compounded when he discovered that properties neighbouring his city centre hotel were regularly attracting international corporate travellers at good rates plus an occasional meeting or group and resort properties, competing with his resort, were featured in numerous overseas tour operators' programmes and were regularly hosting incentive travel groups while his two properties were generating little overseas exposure and consequently, forced to survive on lower-rated local traffic.As independently operated hotels (as opposed to chain-affiliated properties), the Managing Director did not have access - as did his chain member competitors - to strategically located overseas sales and marketing offices to develop brand name awareness and solicit key overseas accounts; apart from an annual visit by his Sales Manager (usually when attending a trade fair) he had no way of influencing leading tour operators and incentive companies to feature his resort property in their programmes.
The answer to his difficulties was supplied by Supereps International. By appointing Supereps International as his representative, he gained immediate access, via a programme of face-to-face and telephone sales calls, to key decision members in the most relevant market sectors, including corporate travel, meetings planners, incentive travel companies, special interest and regular tour operators. Additionally, he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had professionals looking after his best interests in a vital overseas market who would make him instantly aware of changes or developments in the market place and, in all respects, enable him to compete 'on a level playing field' with his chain or larger place.
And how much did this all cost? Probably a bit less than would be imagined and certainly less than the cost of regular sales visits to the UK from an overseas base.