Tourism to the Local Area of Melbourne-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Conduct a research into holding an event designed to stimulate tourism to the local area of Melbourne, Australia and encourage business growth. Answer: Background to the research problem It is certain that not all tourists have the same taste in terms of the location and the quality of services. As they could belong to different regions, they could be of different age groups and earn different income as well as have different tastes and preferences to live their lives in a particular manner. As put forward by Jaafar et al., (2011) the tourist have different choices when it comes to selecting the mode of travel, destination as well as the activities at the destination. The segmentation in tourism market is necessary because the tourism sector possibly is not able to satisfy the need of every individual. People in Australia tend to maintain a high profile of a life style due to their growing economy. However, the communities in Melbourne lead a busy work life and they are not familiar with the deals and packages provided by organizations in the tourism sector (Biggs, 2011). On the other side, tourism supports the regional economy, increases employment opportunities con tribute to the City of Melbournes cultural vibrancy (Weiler, Moyle McLennan, 2012). It does have a positive impact on the local residents and business. Nevertheless, the sector is not able to gain the required economic benefits from the community due to lack of awareness of tourism among the people. Tourism Melbourne branch takes the responsibility for developing thee tourism policy and strategy. The branch works with the sector and trade to develop Melbourne as destination of choice for tourism. However, due to lack of awareness, sector is not able to gain that long-term benefit. Therefore, holding a public tourism event at Melbournes community could create a strong awareness among the people. A public event containing the cultural traits and rituals would help to grab attention of people in the community. A three days long tourism event in a festive manner should be held where people from different communities and cultural background would visit. By visiting the event, the people could learn about the deals and packages of tourism and the customer value associated with the packages. Problem Background It has been identified that tourism is sector is one of the rapidly changing sectors. As put forward by Amelung and Nicholls (2014), the marketers in tourism management, compared to other management sector, have to deal with a large field of complex, purpose requiring multiple plans of actions. Particular requirements of the service sectors are the outcome of its business peculiarities. Decision-making is another significant challenge faced by the management of the organizations in the tourism sector. Hence, Mahadevan (2014) mentioned that understanding consumer decision-making remains as the cornerstone of marketing strategy. Customer behavior in tourism is underpinned by the general assumption regarding how the decisions are made. The techniques involved in consumer decision making in tourism sector requires the use of models instead of a single definition to understand their complexity. Thus, due to such barriers in the external environment, the managements are often stuck with cr ucial managerial issues. Although tourism is worlds largest industry, only 5% of overall market research turnover is in the travel sector, which implies relative underuse of research in the sector. In this context, Dredge and Jamal (2013) the intangible nature of tourism and absence of truly free market could be a barrier to market research. Nonetheless, Yap and Allen (2011) mentioned that the significant barriers to tourism market research are managerial attitude as well as lack of appreciation of how appropriately the study can lead to increased profitability. However, it is also observed that in the tourism sector, there is no lack of market research data but there is an uncontrolled development of multiple data sources. Literature Review As put forward by Shiue and Matzarakis (2011) every tourist has different taste and preference and the organizations in the sector might not be capable of meeting their needs. This remains as the foundation of segmenting the overall tourism market. On the basis of the above mentioned fact, the marketing force of a tourism business categorizes the tourists into different segments that categorize the similar and distinct member (Seetaram, 2012). In order to conduct the event at Melbournes community for increasing awareness among the people, the community is divided into the following categories: Geographic- Geographic market segmentation is usually done considering the factors such as the place of origin of the tourist. Melbourne is a large city with the people of different cultural backgrounds. However, Reisinger (2013) mentioned that the people who are migrated from others nations are quite accustomed with the culture of the communities of Melbourne. In this context, Moutinho (2011) commented that thousands of Asians are staying in Australia for years and built their own community, which is again an business opportunity for tourism sector in Melbourne. Demographic-As mentioned by Mahadevan (2014) demographic segmentation is usually done by focusing on tourist gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, income, education and family members. It is certain that Australia is economically developed and due to the economic stability in the nation, people tend to maintain a high profile in their life style. Moreover, the percentage of average education is 82% in Australia; thereby, a large percentage of the population is involved professional and they have a busy life (Abs.gov.au. 2017). So, such professionals in Melbourne have the tendency to go on vacation on a frequent basis to stay away from their busy-work life. On the other side, average full-time earnings of people in Australia is AUD$81,947 per annum including the over-time and bonus (Abs.gov.au. 2017). Certainly, people in Melbourne are financially capable of affording a trip on a frequent basis. Another significant fact is that almost 66% of the overall population in Australia fall under the age group of 15 to 64 years (Abs.gov.au. 2017). So, the tourism organizations can consider different sorts of packages for the consumers- such as they can develop a friends package for young college students, family package for the affluent families in Australia and other related packages. Psychographic- As mentioned by Weiler, Moyle and McLennan (2012), due to the growing economy in Australia, lifestyle of people are developing in a rapid manner. In this context, Yap, and Allen (2011) also commented that each market environment is changing rapidly, as consumers tastes are changing. People in Australia tend to look for invention. Thus, in order to go with such dynamic environment, the organizations in the tourism sector needs to develop their service and packages based on the demands or expectation of the customers. SWOT analysis of the regions Strength Australias destination has uniqueness A weaker than anticipated Australian dollar AUD assumption for the TFC April forecasts was US$0.99 for 2013-2015. Likewise, the existing forecasts anticipate US$.01 for 2015-2016 (Dredge Jamal, 2013). It is also observed that global economic recovery is in the progress, which certainly supports the volume growth As put forward by Reisinger (2013) significant investment in digital marketing as well as online booking system in the recent time certainly drives a healthy competition and it certainly supports a domestic tourism market. Weaknesses As put forward by Shiue Matzarakis (2011) many European economies and many of which are among Australias highest with respect to average trip expense- have largely been in deep recession. A study conducted by Seetaram (2012), apart from the trend, Australian economic growth would probably last longer and it could be more pronounced than expected. As put forward by Quadri-Felitti and Fiore, (2012) the domestic business travel growth is forecasted to remain weak for the next coming two years. Opportunity As commented by Shiue and Matzarakis, (2011). Proximity to Asia and the growth of the regions in terms income and aviation capacity run by low cost carriers and full services. Lack of refurbishment and investment is taking place in the regional areas, which should sustain the international dispersal. Outbound demand could lead to lower load factories in the short term, which further leads to lower affairs and guide the enhancement of inbound tourism competitiveness. Threats As put forward by Weiler, Moyle and McLennan (2012), recovery in corporate travel does not take place in line with the economic growth. It was also observed that bilateral aviation capacity caps restricting the future growth on several conventional as well as emerging markets leads to decreased competition and influencing the price sensitive leisure market. Table 1: SWOT analysis (Source: Dredge Jamal, 2013) Research Design Research designed is usually defined as a general plan regarding what things are supposed to be implemented or done to complete the research. Research design is divided into three different categories such as exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. However, the proposed study will focus on the descriptive design. Firstly, the research would focus on the existing issues of tourism sector of Melbourne. Based on the identification of the issues, three different tourism sectors will be critically analyzed and three of the sectors of will be chosen for the event to create awareness among the people of Melbournes community. By conducting a critical investigation of the region, threats and business opportunities related to tourism will be selected. In order to conduct the investigation, the data will be collected by conducting an online focus group survey. The survey includes a set of research questions and likewise, based on the primary data, the analysis will be done comparing the data with the findings found in the literature review. Data collection and Distribution strategy Theory Discussing the process of conducting online focus group Focus group is a group discussion, which will be implemented with the participation of 7 to 12 people to gain the experience and views regarding particular theme or issues associated with the proposed researchs context. In the present research, to conduct online Focus group asynchronous session will be used, which will include email, mailing lists. Hence, the participants could read others comments as well as give their own comment themselves at any time. In this online focus group method, the participants would not represent a true cross section of group unless the group was a population of internet users intended to take part in the online research. Advantages of his method- This method helps to minimize the cost of conducting the research, it will be done online. The method has the potential to reach a wide geographic scope. In addition, the method also provides access to hard reach respondents such as business travelers as well as the professionals who have limited time to take part (Groves et al., 2011). The method also provide for a convenient as well as comfortable way of taking part. Disadvantages: It is necessary to understand that data collection and through focus group as well as data analysis remains much more difficult in comparison with the interviews and questionnaire. On the other side, there is a much discussion about the privacy as well as anonymity on the internet (Gideon, 2012). Thus, in online focus group methods, the question of privacy and anonymity remains as the significant challenge. Discussing the process of online survey The essence of survey method is usually explained as questioning individual on a particular context and then describing their responses (Callegaro, Manfreda Vehovar, 2015). The purpose of online survey method is to describe particular aspects or characteristics of the population. An online survey technique remains as the systematic gathering of data from the target population featured by the enticement of the respondents and the completion of the questionnaire. In order to conduct the online survey, a set of questionnaire will be developed focusing on the awareness of tourism. The questions will be distributed among the respondents through email. Advantages of online survey Relief in data collection- With the help of internet, a survey among more than a hundred participants can be carried out faster than a conventional method. In addition, the questionnaire of the survey can swiftly be deployed and answered by the participants. Minimal costs: Conventional survey technique may require thousands of dollars to obtain the optimal results. On the contrary, Lord, Brevard and Budman (2011) mentioned that conducting an internet survey facilitates low-cost as well as fast data collection from the target population. The technique of email questionnaire as well as other online questionnaire proved to affordable compared to the face-to-face method. Automation in Data Input and Handling: Through online survey, the participants are capable of responding to the questions by providing their responses being connected to the internet. Thus, the responses are mechanically recorded in the database of the survey, which provides an easy dealing of data and hence, the possibility of errors is less. Disadvantages of online survey Incapability to approach challenging population Such technique is usually not applied in the survey method that need participants who do not have internet access. There might be some instances that involve aged people in the remote areas. Counterfeited survey: As put forward by, survey fraud might be one of the heaviest disadvantages of an online survey. In addition to this, there are some instances which show indicates that there are people, who take part in online survey for the sake of receiving the incentive and after they have completed the survey, they no longer want to contribute to the advancement of the research (Coutts Jann, 2011). Online Survey Online survey questionnaire Your Gender? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Male 29 58% 50 Female 21 42% 50 How old are you? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents 15-20 years 17 34% 50 21-25 years 13 26% 50 26-30 years 9 18% 50 31-35 years 11 22% 50 Does your monthly income fall under below mentioned categories? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents 3000-AUD$ 5000 21 42% 50 6000-AUD$8000 13 26% 50 9000-AUD$11000 10 20% 50 Above AUD$11000 6 12% 50 For how long have you been staying in Melbourne? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents 5 years 7 14% 50 6-10 years 9 18% 50 11-15 years 15 30% 50 Permanent citizens 19 38% 50 How often do you plan for a vacation? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Once in a month 9 18% 50 Once in 3 three months 11 22% 50 Once in 6 months 14 28% 50 Yearly 16 32% 50 How far do you agree that tourism organizations in Melbourne fulfill the needs of tourists? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Strongly agree 12 24% 50 Agree 15 30% 50 Neutral 3 6% 50 Strongly disagree 11 22% 50 Disagree 9 18% 50 What are the basic services you would like to avail during your trip? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Hospitality 21 42% 50 Food and accommodation 18 36% 50 Emergency Services 11 22% 50 How far do you agree that tourism organizations need to keep the prices moderate? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Strongly agree 10 20% 50 Agree 12 24% 50 Neutral 3 6% 50 Strongly disagree 14 28% 50 Disagree 11 22% 50 How far do you agree that food and accommodation services provided by the tourism organizations are effective enough? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Strongly agree 15 30% 50 Agree 17 34% 50 Neutral 1 2% 50 Strongly disagree 8 16% 50 Disagree 5 10% 50 Which travel agency do you prefer most? Options Responses Percentage Total respondents Travelers choice 13 26% 50 Australian federation of travel agents 17 34% 50 Neutral 0 0% 50 Strongly disagree 11 22% 50 Disagree 9 18% 5 Online focus group What is the importance of development of tourism sector in Melbourne? This question is developed to consider it as a major theme of the discussion. Tourism sector is rapidly developing in Australia. Therefore, it is necessary to learn about the needs that tourism sector of Melbourne requires. This question is important because the discussion in the literature review indicates that tourism sector contributes a lot to GDP. Therefore, an intensive discussion among the respondents might help to learn about the strategies required to develop the tourism sector. On the other side, in order to create awareness among the community people in Melbourne, there should be a detailed investigation about the needs and demands of the people. Once the market environment is examined and analyzed, it would be easy for the organizations in the sector to develop new strategies. In addition to this, this question would also help to learn why tourism sector in Melbourne could be a major source business development. 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