Ayesha Savage 21666 Yinka Adegbola 27576
Michal Milewski 29201

Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION: 3 2. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS 3 3. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS OF MACRO ENVIRONMENT 4 4. MICRO ENVIRONMENT (Porter 5 forces) 5 5. SWOT MODEL 5 5.1 Strengths 5 5.2 Weaknesses 6 5.3 Opportunities 7 5.4 Threats 7 6. CHALLENGES 7 7. MARKETING INFORMATION 7 8. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT PLAN 8 9. POTENTIAL STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR VISIT BRITAIN 8 10. RECOMMENDATIONS WITH JUSTIFICATION OF THE CHOSEN STRATEGIC OPTIONS 9 11. MARKETING MIX 9 References 18

1. INTRODUCTION:
As a marketing consultancy team, we have been asked to review the current marketing plan of Visit Britain that was put together by an inexperienced marketing team.
Visit Britain is a large tourist organisation, whose aims is to increase inbound tourism in Great Britain and to improve Britain’s ranking in the eyes of international travellers but also to expand the tourism industry. (VisitBritain, 2013)
This report will require a Marketing This audit will critically analyse the current plan, it will identify areas that needs improvement on the plan also recommending strategies and tactics that can help Visit Britain to achieve their objectives with justification. This report will explore the macro environment, the micro environment and the internal environment of visit Britain using PESTEL, SWOT, and 5 PORTAL FORCES Models. Few growth strategic options will also be recommended justifying one of the only one of the strategy then growth marketing mix will be outlined in support of the strategic options recommended.

2. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS The first decade of the twenty first century has been a significantly difficult period for the tourism industry worldwide. The terrorist attacks in the USA in September 2001 triggered global economic downturn affecting heavily most of airlines and the tourism industry in general. Consequently, tense situation in the Middle East and the war in Iraq in 2003 caused the fuel crisis and inflation of the fuel price. However, following the global crisis of 2008, which affected the world tourist industry, the current situation is improving and at present the economic growth is in the revival phase. This is also a positive opportunity for Visit Britain. Visit Britain’s role is introducing the UK and its tourist attractions to the public, both inside Britain and all over world. Established on 1st April 2003 by the merger of The British Tourist Authority and The English Tourism Council, “its mission is to build the value of tourism by creating world class destination brands and marketing campaigns”. (Poole Tourism, 2014) Visit Britain is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Visit Britain considered itself as the national tourism agency which promotes Britain internationally in Englandand on other 36 markets. Their overseas activities cover offices on 21 markets which account for 74% of inbound tourism spending in the UK. (VISITBRITAIN & VISITENGLAND, 2013)
Visit Britain has been marketing Great Britain worldwide especially in developed countries such as France, Germany, North America and Australia (which are considered as high volume or high value markets). However, at present the company has started to make efforts to attract more visitors from newly emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil. The tourism market is told to be fragmented as thousands of small and medium-sized tourism businesses are operating on it. To achieve its goals, the company maintains links with a significant number of partners in the UK and overseas, however the organisation also acts as a sponsor of events and festivals, moreover advertising Great Britain through visual marketing. The objective of Visit Britain itself is to extend market share by enhancing the number of international visitors coming to the UK.
Visit Britain aims at building values of tourism to Britain. In order to generate more visitors spending, the organisation forms numerous partnerships with representatives of the industries, nations and regions. Their vision is to inspire the entire globe to explore Britain. Part of their strategy is to inspire travellers from various parts of the globe to visit, experience and explore the United Kingdom. Visit Britain uses its global network to support the promotion of British tourism abroad and give advice to the Government and representatives of various industries on tourist issues in general. Visit Britain maximises public investment through commercial and partnership engagements.

3. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS OF MACRO ENVIRONMENT PESTEL model is used to analyse the macro environment or external factors of Visit Britain. The external force has a significant impact on the organisation. These are political, legal, economic, social and technological factors.
Political factors: Government policy, such as fiscal policy on excise taxes on airline ticket increase consumer price, job creation and simplifying visa applications for non EU nationals.
Fuel policy, such as raising the fuel price, affects supply and affects airline viability.
Global environmental policies on emissions and international route deregulation may affect airline operations in the future. Economic factors: such as income level, rate of economic growth, low wage growth, increased taxes, current financial constraint, and inflation rate have impact on Visit Britain. Social and Cultural factors: Life style, population growth, cultural values. An example was the Royal Wedding in 2011. Moreover, 2012 Olympic Games contributed significantly to the inbound tourism with 4.5 million visitors. Technological factors: Information technology enhances effectively the communication network through: * Computer friendly booking * Accessibility of the Visit Britain website * Effective marketing channel. * Exchange of information throughout production and distribution chain.
Legal factors: Government rules and regulations.
Environmental factors: Global environmental policies on emissions and deregulation of international routes may affect airline operations in the future.
Demographic factors: UK is a multicultural environment; there are around 300 languages spoken in London. The climate is similar to the climate of other north European countries. Therefore the visitors coming from there find the UK easy to adapt.

4. MICRO ENVIRONMENT (Porter 5 forces)
Threat of entry – New entrants bring new capacities, intention to increase their market share and very often new resources. (Porter, 1997) Examples of new entrants are cheap airlines like Ryanair, Easyjet, etc., which compete successfully with large airlines. Thanks to them, visiting Britain became much more affordable to many people living all over Europe.
Threat of substitute products or services – Major group of rivals of Visit Britain offering substitute products are tour operators and earlier mentioned cheap airlines. They offer low cost tickets and holidays in many places in Europe. Many people living in Britain prefer going abroad for their holidays. There are cases that holidays abroad become less expensive than holidays in the UK. The bargaining power of customers – Due to buyer fragmentation the ability to shift gives them reasonable buying power. The switching cost for buyer is low due to low brand loyalty. Earlier mentioned cheap airlines is a factor forcing big airlines like British Airways to lower their fares in order to remain competitive.
The bargaining power of suppliers – The suppliers are able to force the price of their product or reduce the quality of their product which will affect the overall profitability of the company.
Industry rivalry – High fragmented industry with intense rivalry due to low level of product differentiation, organised players will barely have 20% of the market place and the exit barrier is low, fixed cost are low and market growth is good.

5. SWOT MODEL
5.1 Strengths
Tourism is one of larger industries in UK, where one of 12 jobs are directly or indirectly connected to tourism. In 2008, tourism generated around £114 billion of income, which is 8.2% of total GDP. (Deloitte, 2008) Tourism supports 2.6 million jobs and above 200 thousand small and medium-sized companies.
In 2012 UK was visited by over 31 million visitors who spent £18.6 billion, 4% increase from 2011. (VISITBRITAIN & VISITENGLAND, 2013)
According to reports of 2013, for every one pound spent by Visit Britain on its activities abroad, £19 is spent by foreign visitors coming to the UK. (VisitBritain, 2013)
Visit Britain is a government agency, “on-Departmental Public Body, funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport”. (VISITBRITAIN & VISITENGLAND, 2013) Therefore it has a strong economic and political support. In 2012/13 the organisation received £24.6 million. Moreover, Visit Britain maintains partnership and sponsorship links with various government organisations and private companies, such as British Airways, P&O, Samsung, the English Premier League, as well as official tourism bodies and inbound tour operators throughout the UK. The information and advertising campaign of Visit Britain has been developed in cooperation with these organisations.
Visit Britain is able to capitalise on £50million of UK government spending to be matched by private company in the next four years.
Visit Britain reputation on technology due to the reliance on digital marketing to bring high tourist number especially from upcoming events.

5.2 Weaknesses
One of the biggest threats is being dependent on the government. When the economy is going through a period of crisis and the government decides to reduce its spending, Visit Britain is affected immediately. Less government spending causes contracting and decrease of the whole economy, this causes job losses and less profit for all economic subjects, including Visit Britain.
In October 2010, the government funding was reduced by 34%. Therefore, Visit Britain had to reduce their staff by 30%, which was around 70 positions. In 2011 several sections, e.g. Finance, IT and Communications were reduced. External presence of Visit Britain was reduced from 35 foreign markets to 21. (Chartered Institute of Marketing, 2011)
In recent years, due to recession and therefore due to decreased profits, especially in the area of business travel, there were reports of staff morale in decline. This can have negative influence on the industry in general. (Eventia, 2013)
The product and services is fragmented and visit Britain has little control on customer experience. Negative perception united Kingdom due to London Riots in 2011, cases of stabbing and terrorism threats.
Nonmarket and un-utilised super destination place as a place to visit.

5.3 Opportunities
UK is a modern, English-speaking country, therefore a very popular place to visit and study, including short term language courses. Moreover, major sport events like London 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games create additional opportunity for the industry. English Premier League is one of best football leagues in Europe, English clubs participate in international competitions every year; this is also a favourable factor in developing tourism, even if these games trigger short term visits only. Despite the economic crisis in recent years, the British economy is one of the biggest in the world. UK has one of the best infrastructure and communication networks; this factor creates many opportunities for the industry.
Global growth in the tourism industry and finally Britain is a place to visit one of the best in the world.

5.4 Threats
The main threat is the worldwide recession. Regardless of efforts of the members of Visit Britain, the crises in other countries, as well as raising fuel price causes the number of visitors to fall.
The political situation and conflicts all over the world, especially recent sanctions between Russia on one side and EU, USA and a few more countries on the other side may have negative influences on international tourism in the UK.
Strong competition with other European countries which have less strict visa policy, lower prices and better climate, is another significant threat for the industry.

6. CHALLENGES
Challenges include wide customer choice; there are other 193 countries which tourists can choose as their holiday destination. Most of other countries are keen to increase their share of market and tourist spending in their countries.
Negative perception of UK and its potential impact also sustainability and conversion issues

7. MARKETING INFORMATION- INBOUND TOURISM UPDATE The number of visitors to the UK in 2013 reached 32.8 million and this number was growing since 2010. (VisitBritain, 2014)
The average spent sum per visit continued to grow over the past nine years reaching £640 in 2013; however, this factor was caused by low exchange rate of the pound sterling. (VisitBritain, 2014)
The number of visitors coming to the UK from 10 biggest markets in 2013 reached 66%. “It is noteworthy that only two long-haul markets, the USA and Australia, appear in the top ten. Looking at spending by inbound visitors, the top ten markets account for 52% of all spending, with the USA worth over £1 billion more than the next most valuable market, Germany. All of the top ten markets measured in terms of value are 'developed' rather than 'emerging' source market for international tourism.” (VisitBritain, 2014)

8. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT PLAN
Visit Britain operates on a very competitive market, despite the fact that the tourism industry is one of the most rewarding industries in the world economy in terms of generating revenue. Part of the strength of Visit Britain enables it to compete in the industry. Its partnerships with other organisations help to earn revenue used in their marketing activities. Hence partnership has help visit Britain to increase the number of visitors in Britain. Still on the strength of visit Britain has the track record for embracing technology its reliance on digital marketing to bring high number of tourist to upcoming events this is a good advantage because technology has create conveniences for potential and existing customer and visit Britain. New technology has enable shift in the tourism industry business operations.
Weaknesses are areas visit Britain has to work on by developing their weaknesses in to strength towards the future. Britain is the product and service of visit Britain and it is very fragmented therefore visit Britain has a little control on customer experience. Threats of terrorism, stabbing and other unrest in London create a negative perception of UK they could influence a negative impression about UK. Also super destination place that are being marketed and not utilised are factors.

9. POTENTIAL STRATEGIC OPTIONS FOR VISIT BRITAIN
In order for Visit Britain to achieve the UK Government growth strategy, there are various strategic options it can implement based on the strengths and weaknesses. 1) Market penetration – Visit Britain have to campaign internally and domestically targeting increase in number of tourists visiting Britain. As emphasised on the audit, people of Britain alternatives to enable them not to travel abroad for holidays, this can be carried out by repackaging the weather creating more indoor games to add values to customers. They can target to increase the tourists revenue internationally, creating special packages of 10-15 days with a discount of about 10% and shorter packages of 5-7days at lower, reduced discount. This can be carried out by creating guided tours for the days of the long trip. These will be a form of encouragement for the tourists to extend their stay. Therefore, they will contribute more to the industry. 2) Product development – A new product which will be more fascinating for customers must be created such a super destination not within London but outside London. New product will bring new experience to the customer. Quite a lot of people are familiar and aware of London and if they are satisfied it will bring more referrals which in long run can raise the number of tourist visiting Britain.

3) Segmentation, Positioning and targeting – Due to changing in customer preferences and choice of tastes the organisation should aim on segments of similar needs and choose segments with capability and resources bearing in mind the revenue it will earn in serving the segments. Position basically is to ensure that what Visit Britain has to offer sticks as number one option destination in customer’s mindset. Therefore in other to attract more tourists, visit Britain must adopt variables such as satisfying experience, quality stay, high perceived value and unparallel offerings. These variables will attract more tourists.

10. RECOMMENDATIONS WITH JUSTIFICATION OF THE CHOSEN STRATEGIC OPTIONS
We will recommend the adoption market development strategy based on the following reasons.
UK tourism sector is approaching maturity stage; market penetration within the existing market is not viable because the growth rate is very marginal. Hence the expected return will be considerably low which will be a loss to visit Britain and can end up in the industry heading toward collapse. Therefore there will be necessity to select high growth countries in BRIC countries. Due to the cut in the funding by the UK Government adopting strategic option such as product development will be not be cost effective. On the national brand index UK ranking among neighbouring countries in Europe is low, therefore the strategic effort toward them would not be cost effective as well and therefore market penetration strategy will not work. Growing luxury and increasing growth of BRIC countries suggests that this is where the future of tourism is.

11. MARKETING MIX
Product is the combination of both intangible and tangible elements. Visit Britain product is mainly the destination, and it can only be experienced. The views of the location travel to the destination, and other facility as well as the entertainment at the destination all form the visit Britain’s product. Therefore it is a make- up product combination of attraction. All these components has individual significance in the product mix and in the absence one of the components renders the product mix incomplete
Pricing is a complex process in the market development. The pricing include all packaged at considerable prices. Seasonality should be taken into consideration and the pricing should be based on competitors pricing and taking into account Government regulation. Visit Britain should operate at two levels due to the complexity of the pricing circumstances. The first level to correspond to market development strategy and the second level should correspond to the marketing operation matching the current demand and competition.

Place Different distribution strategy is selected for visit Britain marketing, the product tourism is distributed as visit or travel. Visit Britain has offices around the world and other segment and agents domestically and internationally who play a role of place for visit Britain. There is technological involvement as a distribution channel in tourism internet is an example.

Promotion this where the image and personality of visit Britain’s products or services will come into play. Promotion will determine whether visit Britain be a category leader, challenger, follower or a niche player. Visit Britain must use promotional mix to communicate their uniqueness to the market, which include advertising, publicity, sales promotion just to mention a few.

APPENDIX

BUSINESS PLAN FOR VIST BRITAIN

INTRODUCTION
Visit Britain is a large tourist organisation, whose aims is to increase inbound tourism in Great Britain and to improve Britain’s ranking in the eyes of international travellers but also to expand the tourism industry.(VisitBritain, 2013)

Mission statement
Our mission is to increase the value of internal tourism to Britain, working with a wide range of partners in both the UK and overseas. Through our global reach, we aim to increase visitor spend to all parts of Britain and improve Britain’s ranking in the eyes of international travellers.
Marketing mix
Product
Product is the combination of both intangible and tangible elements. Visit Britain product is mainly the destination, and it can only be experienced., other facility as well as the entertainment at the destination all form the visit Britain’s product. Therefore it is a make- up product combination of attraction. All these
Price
Considerable prices. Seasonality should be taken into consideration and the pricing should be based on competitors pricing and taking into account Government regulation.
Place
Different distribution strategy is selected for visit Britain marketing, the product tourism is distributed as visit or travel. Visit Britain has offices around the world and other segment and agents domestically and internationally.

Promotion
Visit Britain must use promotional mix to communicate their uniqueness to the market, which include advertising, publicity, sales promotion.
Overview
Building the value of tourism to Britain, including the Building value of tourism to Britain, also working in partnership with the industry, nations and regions to generate additional visitor spend.
Inspiring visitors from outside Britain to explore the attractiveness of Britain.
Targeting between 2011-2015 up to £1.7 billion in PR coverage, 4.7, million overseas visitors, with £ 2.3 visitor spend from tourists and 60,000 new job opportunities.
Funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Partners include government agencies such as UKTI and British Council, airlines and operators, global brands such as Samsung and the English Premier League as well as the official tourism bodies for London, England, Scotland and Wale SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths include public body of UK acting government acting as hub activities and provision of key statistics, report etc.
Visit Britain ability to capitalise on UK government spending to be matched by private company in the next four years. Visit Britain Partnership with range of commercial organisations.
Weaknesses
Visit Britain low morale of staffs in direction of moving forward (negative impact on visit Britain).
-Opportunity
UK is a modern, English-speaking country, therefore a very popular place to visit and study, including short term language courses
- Major sport events like London 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games create additional opportunity for the industry
-Global growth in the tourism industry
Britain economic growth
Britain is a place to visit one of the best in the world.

Threats
- Worldwide recession
- International conflicts, such as sanctions between Russia and Western countries may have negative influences on tourism
- Strong competition with other European countries which have less strict visa policy, lower prices and better climate
- Negative perception of Britain
-Olympic has ended shift of attention to else where
-Challenges
Include wide customer choice e.g (193 countries to choose from)
-many countries are keen to increase their share of market and tourist spending in their country.
- Negative perception of UK and its potential impact.
- Sustainability and conversion issues
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS
Competitors include Canada, Spain, Italy Netherlands, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan just to mention a few.
Strengths
-Climate
-Schengen free border access control.
-Favourable Currency

Weaknesses
-Poor economic growth.
-Language barrier
-Culture
-High number of Illegal immigrants

Opportunities
Easy access within Schengen states
Growing economy

Threats
-Bad economic growth
-Terrorism

Assumption The tour has become a priority in many household therefore there has to be campaign both domestically and internationally with an aim of increasing the number of tourist that visit Britain
Many British need to be offered a reason for not travelling out during holidays. Visit Britain should aim to increase tourist revenue this can be done through special packages and promotions for long haul trips. Macro-economic Situation
Assumptions on global economy, UK economy and competitiveness and access to Britain will be as those used for
The Inbound Tourism Forecast 2014 paper presented to this Board.
Other key assumptions are:
Competitor Activity The quality and quantity of competitor marketing in our primary source markets will continue at current levels
UK Inflation
UK inflation assumption 2.5% - from Treasury Forecasts for the Economy - October 2013
Budget Exchange Rates A significant proportion of currency requirement can be matched to shop income. Major budget currency rates to
£1 sterling are:
US Dollar 1.60
Euro 1.23
Marketing Activity There will be no occurrences that would lead to a significant change in Britain’s attractiveness as a destination No commercial partner withdraws from the marketing programme We achieve matched funding targets
Retail
Supplier relationships and terms of business will remain stable
Salary increase and bonus Salary provision for pay award (due August 2014) and bonus payments (due April 2014) in line with Treasury

Objective

Sales- Plan to grow inbound visitor numbers to 40 million a year by 2020 The rise would represent a 3% year-on-year increase and would deliver £8.7 billion additional foreign exchange earnings at today's prices

Revenue-
Every £40,000 spent by overseas visitors to Britain can create a new job. International tourism is Britain’s third-largest earner of foreign exchange and contributed £3.1 billion to the nation's coffers directly in taxation.

Customer Base-
Travel trade
Tour operators
Transport for London

Strategy- Enhance British image by playing to its strengths, such as heritage tradition and contemporary culture.
Ensure that Britain is packed and sold more widely by working with the major travel trade in major market. Broaden Britain’s strong product offering so that it continues to meet the expectations of new visitors from growth market.
Make visiting Britain easier by addressing limiting factors such as aviation, capacity and visa process.

RESOURCES AND BUDGET
Inbound tourism growth strategy for Britain, with an ambition to reach 40 million visitors, spending £31.3 billion by 2020 a 3% year-on-year increase. The strategy shows how aligning marketing and Government policy can deliver growth, building on Britain’s
Successful hosting of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and common wealth game reaching that figure would secure £8.7 billion additional foreign exchange earnings at today’s prices, and support more than 200,000 additional jobs.
In absolute terms the majority of growth in both visits and value is forecast to come from established markets. Emerging markets have been growing, and will continue to grow quickly, making a significant contribution to the UK visitor economy. These are, however, markets with significant long term growth potential, where Visit Britain’s research demonstrates that knowledge and perceptions of Britain as a holiday destination are weaker, and where time and resource-intensive engagement with the travel trade are key to increasing visits.
The consultation exercise confirmed four key elements which together are drivers of future success:
1. Enhance Britain’s image by playing to its strengths such as heritage, traditional and contemporary culture. At the same time, build on the positive perceptions of Britain generated by our year in the global spotlight.
2. Ensure that Britain is packaged and sold more widely by working with the travel trade in key markets.
3. Broaden Britain’s strong product offering so that it continues to meet the expectations of new visitors from growth markets.
4. Make visiting Britain easier by addressing limiting factors such as aviation capacity and the current visa process.
These have informed Visit Britain’s priorities for 2013/14, which are set out overleaf.

References
Chartered Institute of Marketing. (2011). UK Tourism Sector. Retrieved from Chartered Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing: http://www.bpp.pl/pliki/cim/2013/cim_postgraduate_ad_uk-turism-sector.pdf
Deloitte. (2008). The economic case for the Visitor Economy. London: Deloitte MCS Limited.
Eventia. (2013). The voice for the events industry. London.
Poole Tourism. (2014). Tourism & Partner Organisations. Retrieved August 2014, from http://www.pooletourism.com/page/ref:I48493ED722242/
Porter, M. E. (1997). How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Harward Business Review.
VISITBRITAIN & VISITENGLAND. (2013). Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2013. London: TSO.
VisitBritain. (2013). VISITBRITAIN ANNUAL REVIEW CELEBRATES TOURISM GAINS . Retrieved August 2014, from http://media.visitbritain.com/News-Releases/VISITBRITAIN-ANNUAL-REVIEW-CELEBRATES-TOURISM-GAINS-e8a3.aspx
VisitBritain. (2014). Inbound Tourism - updated May 2014. Retrieved August 2014, from VisitBritain: http://www.visitbritain.org/insightsandstatistics/inboundtourismfacts/