PEST Analysis of Hospitality and Tourism Industry in the UK

Discuss about the Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning.

The Sunderland tall ship race is a spectacular event which will take place in the month of July 2018. The event will start on 11^th July and will come to an end by 14 July 2018. The entertainment and festivities will commence across the event site and ships crews will enjoy inter-ship sporting activities. As the name of the event suggests, Sunderland Race 2018 will involve an invigorating voyage. The chief services offered by the mentioned event is Tall ship racing. Apart from that, other services offered by the management to the local as well as international guests include entertainment, street theatre and live music, along with inter-ship sporting activities, parades and carnivals. Within the four day passage will not only provide the visitors with racing conditions, ideal to explore their existing as well as newly-found sailing skills but will also create an unforgettable sailing experience along with creating a bond with crewmates (Masterman 2014). In this report, a marketing plan will be designed for the mentioned service in order to maximize the number of consumer engagement and enhancement of revenue. In order to access the external and internal environment of the event, PEST an SWOT analysis will be performed. Apart from that, a marketing strategy will be designed to achieve the aim and objective of the event. Besides that, a marketing mix and timeline will be developed for Sunderland tall ship race. Finally, the recommendation to maximize consumer engagement will be provided in this report.

The aim of this marketing plan is to maximize local, regional, national as well as international consumer involvement as well as sales in the Sunderland Tall Ship Race event 2018. The objectives of the mentioned event are as follows:

• To provides the visitors with a remember-worthy experience.
• To increase the stakeholders of the event.
• To maximize the number of facilities that will be provided to the visitors (Eisen et al. 2012).
• To bring an enhanced sense of community of the local visitors with the help of the event.

Before designing a marketing strategy it is highly crucial for the management of Sunderland Tall Ship race to access and analyze the external environmental factor that will implement an effect on the mentioned event, In order to serve this purpose, PEST analysis of Hospitality and Tourism industry of UK has been conducted below.

The political condition of the UK is highly unpredictable and the government is influential in the nation. The government has imposed several rules and regulation on the tourism industry, especially when it comes to the environmental impact of tourism on the nation. Moreover, the barrier to new entry in the mentioned market is high (Burden et al. 2012). Hence it can be understood in order to successfully enhance the popularity of management of the mentioned event must abide by all the rules and regulation of the government. Since, ship racing involves several negative impacts on the marine life, the event manager to develop strategies to minimize the negative impact. Considering the fact that a majority of the citizens of UK are highly sensitive when it comes to environmental awareness, organizing the event in an eco-friendly way will enhance the popularity and attract more local as well as international consumers. Moreover, the nation is currently suffering from the frequent terrorist attack. This factor will impose a negative impact on the hospitality as well as the tourism industry of UK.

SWOT analysis of Sunderland Tall Ship Race event

Being a developed country, the economic condition of the majority of residents is stable. However, due to resent inflation, the economic condition of the nation has gone through a major deterioration. The economic slowdown has adversely affected the creation of jobs in the country. Lack of job opportunity, in turn, has imposed a negative impact on the hospitality and tourism industry of UK (Plante et al. 2014).  The financial crisis will alleviate the interest of the local as well as regional residents to attain events and other entertainment programs.

The society of United Kingdom is multicultural. As a result of this, cultural diversity prevails in the country.  This factor imposes a positive impact on the hospitality and tourism industry of UK. Due to high cultural diversity, the cultural competence of the residents of UK is higher. Due to this fact, there is a minimum amount of risk when it comes to cultural intolerance suffered by international visitors in the UK. Apart from that, the population of UK is an ageing population.  As a result of this, the workforce of the Country is shrinking (Aapro et al. 2014). Apart from that, the people of UK are highly culturally inclined. This inclination towards celebration as well as the preservation of culture does impose a positive impact on the hospitality and tourism industry of UK.

Being a developed country, Australia is highly advanced in technology. The nation has one of the most telecommunications infrastructures across the world. In the UK, an average of than 83 billion Euros was made by telecom network and broadcasting services. More than 83.6 percent of the total population in the UK has access to various popular social media platforms (Yeoman et al. 2012). This technological advancement of the nation does impose a positive impact on the hospitality and tourism industry of UK. While social media platforms will help the management of the Sunderland Tall ship race Event to reach out to a huge amount of consumers for promotion and marketing purposes, the availability of technically advanced machines to the suppliers as well as to the stakeholders of events will help the management to ensure the huge success of the event.

In order detect as well as eradicate the loophole of the event, it is highly crucial for the management of Sunderland Tall ship race event to under an analysis of their internal environment. In order to serve this purpose, a SWOT analysis has been performed in the paragraph below.

Identification of Target Consumer

Strengths

1. Considering the fact that the Tall ship racing is a highly popular recreational activity in the UK, the Sunderland Tall Ship racing Event is expected to attract a large group of local and regional visitors (Preston 2012). Along with the race, the event will also include music, dance and another form of entertainment which will attract both local, regional, national as well as international visitors.
2. Since the mentioned event involves a good number of entertainment facilities along with racing, a good number of local as well as international stakeholders will show interest to take part in the event (Jones 2017).
3. Being an event that involves a highly popular water sport of UK, the number of a potential investor is high.
4. The competition will bring back participating teams back in each season.
5. The event will act as an agent for enhancement of the cultural bond.
6. Finally, the event will enhance the political as well as the social relationship between the participating countries.

Weaknesses

1. A good number of international travelers are unaware of the concept of tall ship racing.
2. Limited market segment as it caters only to primarily coastal areas and tourist destinations (Andersson, Getz and Mykletun 2014).
3. The inexperience of the event management team can be considered as another weakness of the Sunderland Tall Ship Race event.

Opportunities

1. Considering the fact that, tall ship sailing does not involve any motor or machines, the event is eco-friendly (Getz and Page 2016). This fact can be used in the form of promotional activity by the management of the event.
2. In order to enhance the capital needed for organizing the event, the management of the Sunderland Tall ship Event can opt for the joint initiative with the government of UK.
3. Considering the fact that the UK is a technologically advanced country, the management can opt for online promotion of the event along with surveys and campaigns organized offline. Online promotion of the event will not only attract a huge number of international visitors but will also act a cost-effective way of promotion for the management (Smith 2012).

Threats

1. As discussed earlier, the financial condition of the residents of UK has deteriorated due to inflation. As result of this, the interest of local individuals to attend an entertaining event like the mentioned one has also got reduced.
2. Being a country with an aging population, the cost of labor is high in the UK. This factor can be considered as another threat to the mentioned event management (Hooley, Piercy and Nicoulaud 2012).
3. Lack of involvement of the local authorities can be considered as a major threat for Sunderland Tall Ship Race Event.

Identification of the target consumer for the Sunderland tall ship racing event is highly crucial in order to enhance the consumer base of the event. Having clear targets helps in choosing correct strategy, promotion, price and place. In order to select the target consumers of the global market of water sport event, the management should follow both demographic as well as Economic segmentation (Baker 2016). While the demographical segmentation includes differentiating the consumers on the basis of age and gender, the economic segmentation includes differentiation of the employees on the basis of monthly expenditure.

The target consumer of the mentioned event includes sports enthusiastic of the age range 20 to 40 years. When it comes to finantial condition of the consumers, the chief target for the event is consumers who belong to the middle class as well as the upper middle class of family.

The four P’s of the Marketing mix, namely, product, price, promotion and place is used to develop an effective marketing strategy for various promotional activities like festivals, sports events as well as concerts (Getz 2013). In order to serve this purpose, the 4 P marketing mi of the Sunderland Tall Ship Race event has been performed in the paragraphs below.

In spite of the fact that the centre of attention of the mentioned event is tall ship racing, the mentioned event also involves both land entertainment as well as on voyage pleasure. While the land event will involve parades, various kinds of carnivals, food stalls offering food from both local as well as international cuisines as well as music and dance concerts, throughout the sea voyage consumers will be offered entertainment service in the form of dance and singing performance (Shank and Lyberger 2014). However, the real stars are the ships and corporate clients can give their guests the chance to take to the waves with a Tall Ship voyage through the mouth of the River Wear and into the North Sea.

Considering the fact that the event has been organized under the initiative of the government of UK, the chief purpose of the event is to promote Tall Ship racing in the international world of water sports as well as to promote the cultural heritage of UK (Baker 2016). No entry fee will be charged from both the local as well as international visitors. While for public access will be allowed at a set time throughout the event, consumers will be offered a package price for the cruises starting at £99 per person for short cruises and £159 for longer cruises and the Parade of Sail. Along with that consumers will also be provided with the opportunity to through cruise party at the cost of 99 Euro per person.

Marketing Mix

One of the most effective ways to promote the event is through social media platforms. Considering the fact that a majority of the local, as well as international consumers of the event, are available online, promoting the event through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will help the event manager to reach a huge number of consumers at the same time (Andersson, Getz and Mykletun 2014). Moreover, this promotional method will also facilitate direct communication of the consumers with the event managing committee. Along with online promotion, several campaigns should be held in order to make the local consumers aware of the event. Discount coupons should also be introduced.

The place chosen for the above-mentioned event is Sunderland, a port city located in England. The location is appropriate for the event due to highly favourable weather and availability of all the facilities required for the event. The completion will be held between four cities of UK namely, Sunderland, Esberg, Stavanger and Harling.

1. In order to attract international consumers, online promotion should be done by the event management committee. As being discussed earlier, social media platform should be used for promotional purpose. Discounts for consumers who will book the cruise online should be offered. This will ensure a huge amount of consumer involvement.
2. Event managers should involve in direct communication with the consumers.
3. The official site of the company must comprise of all the details of the event.
4. In order to enhance the efficiency of the event managing committee, effective training should be provided to the staffs.
5. For promoting in the local environment, celebrity endorsement can be considered as one of the most efficient promotional strategies.

Reference List

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