Strategic Marketing Plan of E-Tours
2006
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Introduction
E-Tours is an Internet based travel company located in Norwich, UK. It has seen its turnover grow from zero in 1997 to ã5 million in 2003. Its principal tourist destination was the United States of America but following the events of 11th September 2001 in the USA, business began to slow down dramatically. The company also observed that long-haul destination and package holidays were down, but low-cost travel was booming. In this situation E-Tours needs to identify a range of possible destinations and build up a new strategy to realize business revival of the company.
Trends in global tourism
In 2001 international arrivals declined by 0.6%, the first year of negative growth since 1982. Does this mean that the 'good times' are over? Not necessarily. Had it not been for the sizeable increase in tourist arrivals witnessed in 2000, the results for 2001 would have been in line with the annual trend observed over the past decade.
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Figure 3Tourism enjoyed exceptional years in 2000 and 2001. In 2000, international tourism grew by 45 million arrivals, registering a growth level rarely seen before. The decline in late 2001 and most of 2002 requires us to reexamine the patterns of demand, the flexibility of tourism supply and the marketing know-how of destinations. Furthermore, we need to reaffirm our commitment to working together to try to alleviate the negative impacts of recent events on tourism, to heal where pain has already been caused, and to ensure that future tourism development is sustainable in economic, social and ecological terms.
As of November 2002, preliminary results from different regions show that northern Europe has suffered the biggest decline in tourist arrivals in Europe. The other subregions have been more successful, especially the Mediterranean countries and...