PRESS RELEASE "NEW WATERS AHEAD" NATIONAL TOURISM MARKETING PLAN FOR Budapest, 17 November 2011

Transcription

1 Budapest, 17 November 2011 PRESS RELEASE "NEW WATERS AHEAD" NATIONAL TOURISM MARKETING PLAN FOR 2012 How was the Hungarian Tourism Plc. revitalized? What are the business goals of the Company for next year? What are the strategic directions of tourism marketing in 2012? What are the key areas of action, tourist products and marketing tools? What is the structure of marketing communication with the public in Hungary and abroad? What does travel trade sales promotion cover? How does Hungarian Tourism Plc. support the work of tourism service providers? All of that is discussed in the 2012 Marketing Plan of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. available (in Hungarian) under the Travel Trade section of the company s website When drafting the marketing plan for 2012, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. was inspired again by the idea to express its goals clearly and identify connection points unambiguously for travel trade partners. The main text of the marketing plan devotes separate chapters to discussing the corporate principles of operation, business objectives, strategic directions, tourist products, shared travel trade activities and activities supporting the trade. The insertion of several tables into the marketing plan to give an overview of various campaigns and tourist products is a new feature. Separate tables are devoted to presenting the structure of domestic national and regional product campaigns and the significance of key tourist products for various source markets and regions. Domestic service providers can decide early on which campaign to join. A detailed description of the activities pursued in tourist regions and source markets form an integral part of the marketing plan. The Company has devoted separate sections to emerging markets such as the Arab Gulf region or Hungary's southern neighbours. The annexes to the national tourism marketing plan includes a detailed discussion of the situation as well as a SWOT analysis of the products, a description of national campaigns to be organised again in 2012 (e.g. Pigging Out Thursday), a list of fairs and exhibitions, study tours, travel trade events, publications in print and MICE activities along with Hungarian Tourism s annual corporate communications plan. 1

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2011 IN A NUTSHELL... 3 TOURISM MARKETING PLAN FOR BUSINESS OBJECTIVES FOR STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS... 4 Cooperation with the travel trade... 4 TDM coordination... 5 Domestic tourism... 5 Incoming tourism... 5 ACTIVITY AREAS... 6 Marketing communication with the public... 6 Communication with the domestic public... 6 Our tourist products for the domestic market... 7 Communication with the international public... 7 Our international tourist products... 8 Primary target markets of communications with the international public... 8 Travel trade sales promotion... 8 MICE activity... 9 Primary target markets for sales promotion Shared travel trade activities Support activities MARKETING TOOLS E-MARKETING CLAIMS BIGGER ROLE!

3 2011 IN A NUTSHELL The Hungarian Tourism Plc. worked continuously at renewing its activities in The Company focussed attention on performing its key tasks, including marketing communication with the public and travel trade sales promotion. It has launched a movement and a campaign to raise the attractiveness of domestic tourism, has attained tangible results in "working" the emerging markets, has reorganised the Air Marketing Fund, which contributed to decisions on opening five new flights to Hungary. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. cooperated actively in organising the marketing actions, meetings and events relating to Hungary's EU presidency, completed the fifth Budapest Winter Invitation campaign, which reaped unprecedented success and the sixth campaign is already well on its way also brought the implementation of the sixth Pigging Out Thursday campaign. The Company established closer ties with several key travel trade partners through a series of strategic cooperation agreements and is planning to conclude additional contracts. The Hungarian Convention Bureau has also changed its approach, and as a result the Conference Envoy Program is progressing successfully, the Sports Envoy Program has also started and a new sales promotion campaign has been launched to accelerate conference tourism in cooperation with hotels, venues and companies involved in business tourism including Malév and Budapest Airport. 3

4 TOURISM MARKETING PLAN FOR 2012 The 2012 marketing plan of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. was drafted after an analysis of the market environment and the activities of the preceding period on the basis of wide-ranging professional consultation taking into account the principles of the New Széchenyi Plan and the new strategy of developing tourism. The marketing plan is divided into three parts: (1) strategic directions and central activities; (2) activities in tourist regions and source markets (including MICE activities); (3) annexes containing detailed analyses and actions. Strengthening demand for tourism in Hungary by motivating incoming and domestic tourism is an ongoing objective of the activities of the Hungarian Tourism Plc., which is designed to support the development of the industry. The Company intends to play an active role in improving the business performance of domestic providers of tourist services and seeks to promote the prestige of the travel trade through its activities. Attaining business objectives, i.e. increasing the number of guest nights and tourist spending are primary goals in the pursuit of national tourism marketing activities. BUSINESS OBJECTIVES FOR 2012 Taking into account the forecasts of international tourism organisations (UNTWO, ETC) and its own research and expectations with special regard to the difficulties of predicting the outcomes of the crisis of the Euro and the credit crisis in Hungary, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. wishes to be realistic in setting its goals. Accordingly, the best case projects are: maintaining the current level of domestic guest nights, increasing the number of foreign guest nights by 3.6% and an overall rise of +1.8% in guest nights at commercial accommodation establishments in Hungary in The Company expects to see the number of conferences increase by 3-5% in the MICE segment. STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS Cooperation with the travel trade Efficient marketing activities require external fund raising in addition to the budget made available from governmental sources. One of the tools involves establishing closer ties with the participants of the tourism market, engaging in joint actions and campaigns by sharing costs to promote common interests. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. offers its partners the opportunity to join several campaign projects in The renewed partner relations strategy of the company rests upon two pillars: services delivered by the Hungarian Tourism Plc. as a provider organisation to its partners; 4

5 coordinating the marketing efforts of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. and its partners, strengthening synergies between marketing objectives, concentrating and sharing resources. TDM coordination To continue developing the structure of a voluntary grass roots Tourism Destination Management system (TDM), it is necessary for the Hungarian Tourism Plc. to cooperate with local, territorial and regional TDM organisations and to provide assistance via its regional marketing directorates to the coordination of trade related activities at all levels by acting as TDM coordinator. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. is preparing for performing TDM tasks at national level. Domestic tourism The share of domestic tourism is relatively low (50%) in Hungary. The part of the Hungarian public planning domestic trips of several days is hardly above 30%. The income from domestic tourism amounted to HUF 242 billion in 2010, whilst Hungarians departing to stay as tourists at foreign destinations (for one or more days) spent HUF 402 billion outside Hungary, including HUF 384 billion spent by tourists staying abroad for more than a day. Accordingly, the strategic goal of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. calls for increasing domestic guest nights. There are two ways to achieve that goal: by increasing the ratio of tourists selecting Hungary as the destination of their main trip, and by motivating shorter domestic trips. To reach these goals and to put tourism in Hungary on a sustainable path of growth, it is necessary to continue the strategic communication focussed on raising awareness. Communications should help increase public recognition of domestic trips and should change public approach to individual travel decisions in the long term. It is necessary to attach our offering of tourist products with an attractive and competitive image typical of Hungary. Incoming tourism There is also much to do in respect of incoming tourism: Hungary has around 40 million foreign visitors annually and with this result was ranked 24 th globally in Only 30% of the foreign visitors arrive with tourism motivation, and one third of these stay only for a single day in Hungary. Given these facts, the goals of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. in the area of incoming tourism are similar: increasing the number of foreign guest nights, increasing the length of stay and boosting the tourism related spending of foreign guests and accelerating organised forms of tourism. To achieve that Hungary has to present itself as an independent, attractive, distinct and last but not least easily conceivable brand in the communications targeted at foreign audiences. This future brand should be created by combining tourist products and specialities featuring heavily and unequivocally within Hungary's characteristics and in the expectations of the most populous tourist target groups visiting Hungary. 5

6 Tactical communication Regional campaigns with offers from providers Regional campaigns with offers from providers Regional campaigns with offers from providers Regional campaigns with offers from providers Regional campaigns with offers from providers Regional campaigns with offers from providers Strategic communication Hungarian National Tourist Office Communications Office ACTIVITY AREAS The high priority duties of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. include marketing communication with the public and travel trade sales promotion. MICE related activities are an important part of the latter. Marketing communication with the public Communicating with the general public is normally a central marketing activity as part of which the Company is planning to conduct strategic and tactical campaigns both in and outside Hungary. Communication with the domestic public The marketing communications targeted at the domestic public seek on the one hand to raise awareness as specified in the strategic goals and to provide incentives for domestic travel through specific offers. Accordingly, following through the activity started in 2011, domestic communications are now divided into three pillars and two levels: 1. strategic communication aimed at awareness raising to promote domestic travel will continue on a horizontal basis; 2. simultaneously, product oriented strategic campaigns of national coverage will be conducted also on a horizontal basis; 3. the Company will intensify product oriented national campaigns by vertically matching smaller tactical campaigns of regional scope. Domestic awareness raising National product-oriented campaigns Product oriented national campaigns should employ professional communication to associate Hungarian tourist products with emotions, positive conditioned responses, memories and desires and to bundle tourist products covering identical attraction types into a likeable, interesting and recognised brand. When designing product oriented communications of nation-wide coverage, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. defined the relevance of tourist products by region and by period of 6

7 year. Only one or at most three tourist products will be communicated nationally at any single point in time. That ensures more focussed and spectacular communications. Regional tactical campaigns are responsible for providing typically local offers (of accommodation options, programs and services) to tourists looking for information about domestic trips under the impact of a national campaign. Regional campaigns designed to promote regional services and providers and to present specific offers relating to a product integrate vertically into centrally and horizontally administered cross-regional campaigns of national coverage. Accordingly, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. seeks to strengthen the synergies arising from cooperation by adopting a TDM approach, or in other words by uniting service providers. Raising awareness is targeted at both the public and service providers: regional marketing directorates play an important role in developing visitor-friendly attitudes among local service providers and in putting together complex tailored product packages. Our tourist products for the domestic market Considering that lakeside vacations, health tourism, cultural programs and city breaks represent the most important motivations for tourists, and that various forms of active tourism and rural vacations in general play an important role, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. will focus its domestic communications on the following products: health tourism ("entertaining waters" and "regenerating waters"), cultural tourism (including festivals), wine and gastronomy tourism, beach vacations, active and eco-tourism (cycling, equestrian, hunting, angling, golf, aquatic and ecological tourism), rural tourism. The marketing plan covers an introduction and a SWOT analysis of the products listed above and also discusses the related strategic directions. The supply of products and the nature of demand determine which products are promoted most heavily during a certain period. Naturally, the marketing plan discusses timing in detail. Communication with the international public In order to improve the utilisation of resources and market potential, Hungarian Tourism Plc.'s communication with international audiences is targeted fundamentally at three areas. The company foresees an active and dominant presence in Germany and Austria, which are traditional markets offering the greatest potential. In neighbouring countries, the company intends to support intensively the marketing of the tourist offering of regions located near the border so as to help regional service providers. 7

8 The Hungarian Tourism Plc. seeks to give effect to branding by centrally implemented horizontal communication spanning across countries rather than by segmented vertical messages. Branding is a high priority of international communication, which should be divided in strategic and tactical terms like domestic communications. In line with the government's tourism development strategy, the message of brand communication is Hungary's unique product advantage (as defined in 2011): underground water resources, and the related health tourism. International communication will place more emphasis on the first two of the triplet "curing water, "regenerating water and "entertaining water". Our international tourist products In harmony with the Tourism Development Strategy, the company will highlight the following products and regions in its international communications: Health tourism, MICE, Budapest and Balaton. It is worth highlighting outstanding features that respond to the most important motivations of tourists: staying healthy or recovering, need for leisure and to get recharged and desire to learn and gather experience. Traditional medicinal water therapies with centuries of history, Budapest the cultural acropolis with a myriad of sights and Lake Balaton with its offering of relaxation for the family as a whole are attractions that may convince tourists travelling with such motivations that it is worth visiting Hungary. The Company is planning to render Hungary in its strategic communications in a form that presents the country, the options it has along with its appeal for tourists from a variety of perspectives colourfully and intensively. This strategic communication is complemented with tactical communications in individual countries (e.g. Budapest Winter Invitation or the summer sales promotion campaign), i.e. travel trade related activities that attract continuous attention to Hungary. Primary target markets of communications with the international public Communications with the public will put emphasis on markets with a B2C focus. These are markets that typically send individual tourists. Markets with a B2C focus: Austria, Benelux States, the Czech Republic, southern neighbouring states (Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia), United Kingdom, France, Poland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia. Travel trade sales promotion Sales promotion is a collection of marketing activities designed to drive consumption, not including personal selling, advertising and PR. Sales promotion covers presentations for the travel trade, shows, exhibitions trade events and study tours. The most important vehicles of international sales promotion within the organisation of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. include the foreign representations, which are managed by the International Sales Promotion Directorate, the Bureau for the Development of Tourism Commodities, the International Market Development Bureau and the Hungarian Convention Bureau, which operates as an independent unit. 8

9 The strategy of this activity is based on travel trade relations, including the following major pillars: maintaining trade contacts, getting new partners to join the market participants who offer Hungarian products, launching joint marketing actions to promote sales, establishing new professional relations by organising events jointly with peer organisations, organising study tours and holding workshops in source markets to present Hungarian tourism commodities. The company designs study tours individually in response to source market expectations. Supply is based on strategic products but naturally covers important regional products as well. Shaping demand requires active cooperation from the providers of services. Accordingly, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. is developing a proposal for awarding the title "Recommended supplier of the Hungarian Tourism Plc." based on specific criteria and will organise future study tours around award winning service providers. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. continues to operate its "Study Tour Applications Fund". As another novelty, the company is planning to organise travel trade events entitled "Premium Day of Hungarian Tourism" at the most important tourism fairs of various source markets in 2012 with a view to deepening key trade and media relations. MICE activity Incoming MICE tourism continues to operate as an important branch of our economy. Surveys of the Hungarian Tourism Plc. suggest that the results of conference tourism are recovering after the recession. The Hungarian Convention Bureau (HCB) continues to place heavy emphasis on meetings of businesses and associations, with particular regard to medical conventions of physicians related closely by profession to Hungarian health tourism, including medical tourism. As regards business meetings, the HCB continues to classify the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, the USA and Russia as key target markets where the Bureau plans to hold several sales and marketing actions in active cooperation with the network of foreign representations. The HCB is developing a package to support the proposals of Hungarian bidders to hold the conferences organised by international associations so as to increase the chance of Hungary for winning the contract to host major conferences. The company intends to use this arrangement to increase the popularity of towns with major conference facilities outside Budapest. Already prepared, the bid book will be used much more intensively in 2012 to search for and identify international scientific conventions and to utilise bid opportunities to the largest possible extent. The goal is to utilise the opportunities presented by ICCA as efficiently as possible both in domestic and international respects. Promoting Hungarian conference providers in a more pronounced manner in more remote countries and the introduction of international campaigns targeted at the MICE market present serious opportunities. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. will also continue its Conference Envoy and Sports Envoy Programs in

10 Primary target markets for sales promotion Communications with the travel trade will put emphasis on markets with a B2B focus. These are markets that typically send groups of tourists organised by travel agencies. Markets with B2B focus: United States of America, Northern Europe, Israel, Japan, China, Russia, Spain and the Ukraine. New markets are being added to those with B2B focus. These new markets include the Arab Gulf region and Asia, particularly India, as well as South America, where the Hungarian Tourism Plc. is planning the increase of its presence in the near future. Based on research and trend analyses, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. will focus on the Gulf Coast States, India, Australia and South America from among the new markets. The company will continue to stress cooperation with the Visegrad Countries (V4) and with the European Travel Commission in more remote markets. The target markets of the V4 include the USA, Russia, India, China and Brasilia. The V4 are planning to establish a joint presence in two new markets, Taiwan and Azerbaijan. According to the 2012 marketing plan, the V4 countries will start branding and will engage in product-oriented marketing to occupy positions in their target markets. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. will start to develop joint products in cooperation with other V4 countries, which it will sell within the framework of study tours. The products cover the culture, the world heritage sites, the built up heritage, religious tourism and city breaks. The target markets of the ETC cooperation include: Brasilia, Canada, China and the USA. The marketing cooperation seeks to develop a significant "Europe Brand". A creative campaign intends to present Europe as "a never-ending journey" with reliance on online search engine marketing and appearance and the social media. Shared travel trade activities Shared travel trade activities cover first of all performing the tasks associated with the Air Marketing Fund (AMF) and TDM coordination. The most important statements concerning TDM coordination are included in the section on "Strategic directions". The Hungarian Tourism Plc. will continue travel trade cooperation relating to the Air Marketing Fund in 2012 so as to ensure better access to Hungary as a tourist destination. The participants of the airline market, Hungarian providers of tourist services and the Hungarian Tourism Plc. use the AMF as a vehicle for performing joint marketing activities in targeted source markets in an attempt to open new flights and to promote the utilisation and the sustainable and ongoing operation of existing flights. The prime objectives for 2012 include the launch of five new flights, and improving the capacity utilisation of existing flights to Budapest. Support activities The Hungarian Tourism Plc. will continue to engage in support activities, including research, coordination of Tourinform offices, operating a Call Centre and supporting the Széchenyi Holiday Card, various patents and quality awards with communication. 10

11 MARKETING TOOLS E-MARKETING CLAIMS BIGGER ROLE! The Hungarian Tourism Plc. intends to use the full arsenal of marketing communications tools to achieve the goal identified in its marketing plan bearing in mind efficient access to target groups. Domestic product-oriented and awareness raising strategic communication of national coverage will be implemented through ATL multimedia campaigns. The company will engage in domestic communications of tactical nature by focussing on the major domestic source markets of tourist regions and conducting local campaigns relying on the use of regional media, online tools and centrally edited publications. The national communication of recommended programs will be based on long term strategic cooperation with television channels, printed and online media, like in The company is planning accommodate communications concerning events, tourist options and programs and a multitude of other colourful activities conducted by service providers outside but simultaneously with the central product-oriented communication campaigns in its proprietary monthly magazine, "Élmény itthon", in its televised program offer, at its itthon.hu website and on a case by case basis via appearances financed by marketing directorates by integrating local resources. As regards foreign strategic communication, the company seeks to cooperate with cross border media offering identical program structure for viewers in several countries, having a large overall number of viewers, with typically high affinity for a target group characterised by higher social status (ABC1), regular trips, marked health-orientation and marked openness toward health tourism and city breaks, with programming structure suitable for the thematic insertion of key tourist products to enhance the capacity to capture attention and maintain interest, making available, if possible, in a single package audiovisual appearance and detailed information. The parameters listed above point first of all to cooperation projects with international thematic travel, news or potentially sports channels offering a combination of informative edited news or correspondence, spot activity and online presence. (E.g.: CNN Eye on, Euronews, TravelChannel, BBC, Eurosport etc.) Organising study tours for journalists will remain a major means of foreign tactical communications. Other important tools include the distribution of publications at exhibitions and tourism fairs, appearances in B2B (travel trade) media and appearances in printed and online B2C (public) media targeting relevant groups adjusted seasonally to the most important tourist products of the regions. As regards publications, recognising demand trends and considering cost efficiency, the company is giving increasing priority to web rather than printed publications, and provides online access to the electronic version of existing publications at its website. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. intends to reduce the versatility of publications existing in print and wishes to prepare fewer publications of more copies with distinctly targeted content. Drafting its plan for exhibitions and fairs the Hungarian Tourism Plc. attached priority to aiding market access for our tourist offering and to service provider needs. The Hungarian 11

12 Tourism Plc. participates exclusively in travel trade exhibitions in certain countries, whilst in other countries it is present at trade events open for the general public. In 2012 exhibition appearances will continue to rely on the visual components and image designed in 2011 to remind viewers of underground water resources and the related health tourism. By participating in domestic fairs, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. intends first of all to widen the spectrum of travel motivations of the Hungarian public and to support domestic tourism by providing specific travel information. The company is planning to appear with high visibility at the Travel Exhibition, Hungary's most prestigious travel trade fair. Moreover, the regional marketing directorates of the company will represent the services of the region at the travel fairs of the most important domestic source areas. The list of foreign exhibitions is attached in an annex to the marketing plan. E-marketing tools to play emphatic role The findings of research into travel habits reveal that the web has become the primary channel of collecting travel information and booking. Accordingly, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. is planning to take major strides in IT development and intends to assign a major role to online marketing tools in national tourism marketing. The goal of the company is to ensure that its web portal and full online presence become the source of first choice for travel information for foreign and domestic tourists. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. intends to mobilise every modern tool to support the trips of tourists to Hungary from evoking interest, through collecting information and online booking to giving local directions and sharing experiences. To achieve the goals listed above, the Company drafted its new e-marketing strategy which will be used to implement radical changes in its web appearance in As part of the changes, the Hungarian Tourism Plc. will consolidate a wide variety of websites now operated by regional directorates, foreign representations and others under a single portal for domestic and foreign users and will add new functionality, content and structure. Websites will be optimised for the various mobile operating systems. The travel trade pages of the company will be restructured and the website about MICE options in Hungary will be upgraded. Both websites will be integrated into the central portal separated from the functions targeting the general public but in a manner to ensure high visibility. The Hungarian Tourism Plc. will coordinate the scope of web services and background functions with the IT requirements of the TDM system to ensure a nationwide umbrella for TDM organisations. It is a strategic goal to ensure that the Hungarian Tourism Plc. can conduct its activities primarily by e-marketing tools starting For further information contact: Hungarian Tourism Plc. Marketing Directorate Phone: marketing@hungarytourism.hu Website: 12