Download Promotional Tools Used in Tourism Industry of Bangladesh

International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com May 2015, Volume 3, Issue 5, ISSN 2349-4476
Promotional Tools Used in Tourism Industry of Bangladesh
Md. Masud-Ul-Hasan, Md. Asfaqur Rahman, Md. Kamal Hossain
Faculty
Department of Business Administration
Pabna University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh
ABSTRACT
Tourism is treated as one of the world's fastest growing industries. In many countries whether
developed or developing, tourism has been treated as an important industry contributing economic
development of the country. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) makes a projection that by
2015, travel and tourism will constitute 7.8 trillion US dollar economic activity and over 269 million
jobs worldwide. Promotional tools can play a very vital role to develop and expand the tourism
business in Bangladesh. But the tour operator in Bangladesh are not experienced enough to design
successful promotional mix due to various reason. The aim of this study is to gain insight and
knowledge about the promotional tools used by the tour operator in Bangladesh.
Keywords
Tourism Marketing, Promotional tools, Tour operator, Service
INTRODUCTION
Promotion is one of the important marketing mixes that play the vital role in marketing any product
or service. If the potential and target customer are not aware of the product or services it is not
possible to ensure the expected sales. Tourism is a service and it is treated as one of the world's
fastest growing industries. And the importance of promotional activities is no exception in this fast
growing service industry. In many countries whether developed or developing, tourism has been
treated as an important industry contributing economic development of the country. Bangladesh is a
country beset with natural beauty and archeological sites which can be an important source of
national income through tourism business. But evidence shows that the volume of tourism business
is not satisfactory in Bangladesh comparing to the world‟s total demand. To increase the volume of
tourism business promotion can play major role with other three marketing mixes. Due to Intangible
nature of services it is difficult to trial the quality of services before purchasing or experiencing it. As
in many cases the potential tourist that means the target market are scattered throughout the world,
different promotional tools is the only way to communicate with the potential customer( tourist) and
it is important to use different promotional tools in a selective way so that both economy and
effectiveness is ensured.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
In case of tourism, marketer has to heavily rely on different promotional tools to communicate the
merits of the tourist destination and other services provided by them. Tourists want to know in
advance about the attractions and the facilities of a particular destination. The tourist also wants to
know other related information of his/her visit to make their visit safe, secured and enjoyable. As a
result, dissemination of information on travel and tourism-related products and services are highly
important. By using the different tools of promotion, marketers attempt to serve this purpose and try
to influence the potential tourists‟ attitudes in favor of the sponsor‟s destination and grow interest to
visit the same. In this regard a good and creative promotional activity can be very effective as well as
a precondition in the success of tourism business. As Bangladesh has a potential for tourism business
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Md. Masud-Ul-Hasan, Md. Asfaqur Rahman, Md. Kamal Hossain
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com May 2015, Volume 3, Issue 5, ISSN 2349-4476
and the success of this business is largely depends on promotional activities, researcher feel the
importance to know about different tour operator in Bangladesh and different types of promotional
tools used by them. It is important to know what are the problems and limitation of the said tools and
what types of promotional activities most suited for tourism in Bangladesh.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
A. To study the current structure, position and situation of the tourism industry in Bangladesh;
B. To examine the promotional tools used by the different tour operators and evaluate the role of
their activities for the development of this industry;
C. To identify the problems and limitations of promotional tools used by the above mentioned
tourism firms; and
D. To identify the suitable promotional tools in the context of Bangladesh.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW:
Promotion is one of the tools of marketing mix that means the informational communication for
exposing company and company‟s product in the market. Five tools are used for promotional works.
They are(i) Advertising
(ii) Sales Promotion
(iii) Public Relation
(iv)Personal selling
(V) Direct marketing
Setting realistic promotional objectives is vital for any organization to compete successfully in the
face of stiff competition in the changing business environment. Setting of promotional objectives is
important for three reasons. According to an author it (i) provides a means of communication and
coordination between groups (e.g. client and agency) working upon different parts of a campaign, (ii)
acts as a guide for decision-making and provide a focus for decisions that follow in the process of
developing promotional plans, and (iii) provides a benchmark so that the relative success or failure of
a program can be determined. These arguments state the importance for setting the promotional
objectives in a realistic way.
Deciding on the promotion mix is an important task for the marketer. After setting the promotional
objectives the most important is deciding how the marketer will achieve the promotional objectives
through implementing the promotional activities. Kotler mentioned that a company‟s total marketing
communication mix– also called its promotion mix– consists of the specific blend of advertising,
personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing tools that the company uses
to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. This discussion leads to have an understanding
about the elements of promotion mix and the major are:
Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services
by an identified sponsor.
Personal selling is the personal presentation or makings sales and building customer relationship.
Public relations are building good relations with the companies various publics by obtaining
favorable publicity. Building up a good corporate image and handling or healings off unfavorable
rumors, studies & events.
Sales promotion is a short term incentives to increase purchase or sale of a product or service.
According to the authors, samples, cash refunds, price packs, premiums, advertising specialties,
patronage rewards, point-of-purchase displays and demonstrations, and contests, sweepstakes and
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Md. Masud-Ul-Hasan, Md. Asfaqur Rahman, Md. Kamal Hossain
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com May 2015, Volume 3, Issue 5, ISSN 2349-4476
games can be used for consumer promotion tools and many of the tools used for consumer
promotions- contests, premiums, displays – can be used as trade promotions.
Direct Marketing is direct communication with carefully targeted individual consumers to obtain an
immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships through the use of telephone, mail,
fax, e-mail, the internet and other tools.
The above discussion leads to a conclusion that a marketer can use any of the promotion tools or a
combination of more than one tool for promoting a product or service.
Though there are sufficient number of literatures highlighting the marketing aspects of tourism, but a
few of them has emphasized on the discussion of the promotional aspects of tourism marketing.
Actually the promotional issues of tourism marketing are much neglected and the literature on the
same is very limited. Hossain and Firozzaman (2003) mention that Bangladesh tourism industry
failed to grow properly not merely because it lacks in enough attractions but suffering mostly due to
inadequate and effective promotional activities. Hossain and Hossain (2002) mention that tourism
industry has gained top priority in most of the destination countries and there exist increased
competition among the countries to attract tourists. In the face of world-wide increased competition,
Bangladesh lacks far behind in attracting relatively larger number of foreign tourists mainly due to
inadequate and ineffective promotional strategies of the industry due to lack of sufficient funds, low
quality of promotional materials and its improper distribution, perceived negative image of potential
tourists about Bangladesh etc. Ahmed (1996) mention that possessing outstanding tourism resources
is not sufficient to entice the optimal number of tourists to a tourist destination. According to the
author, tourism promotion plays an important role in enhancing the competitive edge of one tourist
destination over another because of tourists‟ image of a destination and the attitude of tourists toward
that destination seem to be two of the most important factors responsible for this variation. Rita and
Moutinho (1992) note that National Tourism Organization (NTO) in any country is responsible for
expanding a country‟s incoming tourism and NTO‟s main task is to promote the destination country
in the global tourism markets. As a result, NTO has to identify the most attractive markets - the
markets in which its country‟s „products‟ are most competitive, determine the appropriate amount of
promotional budgets, allocating the promotion budget in a way so that the greater effectiveness can
be achieved, what type of promotional message is appropriate to convey for attracting the potential
tourists.
Hasan (1992) describe the present situation of Bangladesh tourism industry and present marketing
strategies in his research book “Problems and Prospect of Bangladesh Tourism Industry” has blamed
that Bangladesh tourism industry could not achieve the remarkable progress in comparison to other
neighboring (South Asian) countries though the country is endowed with different tourism
attractions. His criticism was concentrated mainly on the failure of BPC to develop and lunch any
dynamic and effective promotional strategy and then he suggested creating an independent and
different organization for performing the marketing activities of BPC owned tourists spots.
METHODOLOGY:
The research has been conducted based on both primary and secondary data. To collect the primary
data 20 tour operators were conveniently selected. Among the twenty tour operator one is the
government tour operator and the rest 19 is privately owned. The private tour operators were
selected from the list of Tour Operators‟ Association of Bangladesh (TOAB). A survey questionnaire
was used to collect the primary data from the sample selected for this study. The questionnaire was
furnished by adopting various types of question both Open ended question and Close ended question.
A five point Likert scale was used in this study. To collect the secondary data, annual reports of
BPC, related journals, periodicals, newspapers, BPC‟s web page etc. were consulted. In addition to
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Md. Masud-Ul-Hasan, Md. Asfaqur Rahman, Md. Kamal Hossain
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com May 2015, Volume 3, Issue 5, ISSN 2349-4476
that for literature review and for other theoretical analysis different journals, periodicals, textbooks,
newspapers, internet and other related materials were consulted and used as references.
FINDINGS:
Out of the 20 respondents, 1 were from Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), the only National
Tourism Organization in Bangladesh established in 1973 and the remaining 19 private tour operators
has started its journey after the year 2000.
Almost all the tour operators use all the tools of promotion mix in order to promote the industry.
They make the advertisements in local newspapers, magazines and televisions. In addition to that
they also use the printed materials like brochures, souvenirs, booklet, guides and posters in
disseminating information among the potential tourists in order to draw their attention and grow
interest among the potential tourists. But they don‟t use any international medium to advertise its
products or services. BPC has the arrangements to train up their employees and contact personnel to
ensure the better interactions and maintain good relationships with the prospective tourists and to
motivate them in visiting Bangladesh. Both the private tour operators and BPC uses the techniques of
sales promotion which include quantity discount, children discount, off-season price rebate and
improved service packages for it package tours.
Responding to a question on the method(s) of determining promotion budget, respondents express
that 40% use the affordable method rather than the existing market demands in determining the
promotion budget.30% respondent uses objectives and task method. 15% based on past years‟
experience and 10%respondent use percentage of revenue earning method.
When the respondents were asked to express their opinion whether the amount spent on promotion is
enough or not, 60% respondents were agreed on the amount is sufficient.35% respondent was neutral
which indicate that it is neither sufficient nor insufficient. And 5% respondents agreed that the
amount presently spend on promotion is not sufficient to conduct an effective promotional campaign
on tourism in the national and international levels.
In replying to a question on the effectiveness of the promotional activities that they undertake, 25%
respondent strongly agreed that their promotional activities are effective and 25% agreed that their
promotional activities are effective 25% respondent was neutral and another 25% respondent opined
that the promotional activities are ineffective.
Whatever be the present status of the promotional activities of Bangladesh tourism and its
effectiveness, most respondents 50% think that promotion has a strong role in marketing tourism
services 45% respondents were agreed upon the importance of promotional activities and rest5% was
neutral.
The majority of the respondents constituting 70% strongly agreed that to develop the tourism
industry of Bangladesh, more promotional activities are needed where 25% agreed to the statement.
Almost all around the year there are tourists in every tourist destination. But there is a peak season
and off peak season. In Bangladesh, the most suitable season for tourism is rainless dry season
starting from November and ends in February or mid- March and most of the foreign tourists visit
Bangladesh during this period.
The majority of the operators constituting 60% undertake the promotional activities all around the
year and 35% respondent think promotional activities should be undertaken during the tourism.
RECOMMENDATION:
Based on the findings of the study and the researcher‟s experience the following suggestions can be
put forwarded for the managerial implication to improve the promotion of this industry in
Bangladesh:
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Md. Masud-Ul-Hasan, Md. Asfaqur Rahman, Md. Kamal Hossain
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com May 2015, Volume 3, Issue 5, ISSN 2349-4476
I. Improving the Image of the Country
The image of the destination plays a vital role to attract tourists to that particular destination. But
Bangladesh is suffering from the image problem. So, Bangladesh tourism should emphasize first on
its promotional measures to correct this negative image. But it is not only the issue to be solved by
Bangladesh tourism authority; it requires the government‟s initiative as a whole and the Bangladesh
Mission offices abroad have a major role in this regard.
II. Use of Information Technology in Promotional in Promotional Activity
The recent change and progress in information technology have a revolutionary impact on tourism
industry. In promoting the tourism industry of any country, the Internet can play the leading role to
facilitate information exchange internationally. It is worth mentioning here that though BPC has its
own web page; it should be well designed containing all the necessary information.
III. Promoting to Some Specific Regions
As Bangladesh tourism is at the early development stage, the country should target a specific number
of countries from where the country can generate more tourists rather than targeting the whole
market areas.
IV. Allocation of more Promotional Funds
Bangladesh don‟t have that level of capability to compete with the world‟s top tourist generating
countries, but it has the capability to compete with the member countries of SAARC or at least some
other small countries of SAARC except India. To compete with these countries, needs to conduct
more promotional measures. But what the amount is allocating presently for this purpose is not
sufficient. Though the country has not enough financial capabilities, but it can easily increase it
promotional budget up to some extent. In addition to that the authority should have a plan for the
effective use of the promotional budget. Because of it will again help to increase the earnings by
attracting more tourists.
V. Use of Foreign Tour Operators to Promote Bangladesh as a tourist Destination
Foreign tour operators can play an important role to in motivating the potential tourists to a specific
tourist destination. BPC and the private tour operators of Bangladesh can maintain the contact and
liaison with the foreign tour operators and to influence them to send more tourists to Bangladesh.
Even foreign tour operators can be used to distribute the brochure, souvenirs, and tourists‟ maps of
Bangladesh tourism. For this purpose they need to have some incentives. Bangladesh can sell
package tours through foreign tour operators where they receive a handsome amount of discount.
VI. More Discounted Offer for a Group Tour and Long Stay
Bangladesh can attract more tourists by offering more discounts on group tours and long stay visits.
For example, discount on air tickets, hotel rents, discounted price of local transport arranged by the
tour operators etc. National airlines have a major role in this regards. Since the position of the
national airlines of Bangladesh is not so good, the country can make the mutual arrangement on
some selected international airlines. In addition to that the tourism authority should offer more offseason discounts, students discount, SAARC tour rebate etc. to motivate the potential tourists to visit
Bangladesh. At the same time, steps should be taken to attract the local tourists to travel more in a
number and frequent visit of different tourism spots of the country.
VII. Encouraging More Private Sector Investment
Bangladesh tourism industry needs for heavy investment in order to develop infrastructure facilities
and promotional measures. Since the government is not in a position to fulfill the needs of this heavy
investment due to resource constraint, the government should consider promoting private sector
investment both from domestic and foreign investors in order to develop and promote the tourism
industry in Bangladesh. To encourage the private investment, the government should declare some
incentives to the private investors. The incentives like tax holiday for a certain period on their return,
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Md. Masud-Ul-Hasan, Md. Asfaqur Rahman, Md. Kamal Hossain
International Journal of Engineering Technology, Management and Applied Sciences
www.ijetmas.com May 2015, Volume 3, Issue 5, ISSN 2349-4476
tax free import of vehicles for using in tourism, arrangement of loans at a lower rate of interest,
providing physical facilities etc. can be considered favorably for this purpose.
VIII. Coordination among the Different Related Sectors
Bangladesh tourism industry needs the coordinated efforts and promotional activities among the
parties involved in this industry. Both the government sector and private sector tour operators should
take the joint programs in developing the industry. As tourism is a multifaceted industry, there
should have some coordination among the tour operators, hoteliers, airlines, local transport
authorities and other service provider so that their coordinated efforts can be fruitful.
REFERENCES
[1] Hossain, Md. Afjal and Firozzaman, M. (2003) Strategic Promotion Approaches to Developing
Tourism in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study of Some Selected Tour Operators, Research Book,
Bureau of Business Research, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
[2] Hossain, Md. Afjal&Hossain, Md. Jakir (2002), Marketing Promotion Strategies of the Tourism
Industry in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study of Some Selected Tour Operators, Social Science
Review, Vol. 19, No. 2
[3] Ahmed, Zafar U. (1996) The Need for the Identification of the Constituents of a Destination‟s
Tourist Image: A Promotion Segmentation Perspective, The Journal of Professional Service
Marketing, Vol. 14 (1)
[4] Rita, Paulo and Moutinho, Luiz (1992) Allocating a Promotion Budget, International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 4, Number 3
[5] Hasan, Syed Rashidul (1992) Problems and Prospects of Bangladesh Tourism Industry, Bureau
of Business Research, University of Dhaka
[6] Sung, H. H., Morrison, A. M. and O‟Leary, J. T (1997) Definition of Adventure Travel:
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[7] Sinclair, M. T. (1998) Tourism and Economic Development: A survey, The Journal of
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