Marketing Communications in Tourism & Leisure Industry Essay

Marketing Communications in Tourism & Leisure Industry - Essay Example In this regard, the critical theory is applicable to the noble cause of whl.travel’s campaign in promoting sustainable tourism through empowering the local communities to take a leading role in building the tourism industry in their respective communities. The goal of critical theory in tourism is to empower the members of the local communities to be the main actors in promoting the tourism industry (Tribe, 2008). Indeed, it is the duty of every business to ensure that they achieve their profit goals but there is also need to create a fine balance between their activities and the need to safeguard the interests of the culture of the local people in communities they will be operating in. Thus, the cultural environment is made up of institutions and other forces that affect a society’s values, perceptions, preferences and behaviours (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Usually people grow up in a particular society that shapes their basic beliefs and values and they absorb the w orldview that defines their relationships with others. Therefore, different cultural characteristics affect the marketing decision making process of a particular organisation that operates directly within the community. For instance, people have different views about themselves, others, organisations, society, nature as well as the universe (Kotler & Armstrong, 2004). It is therefore imperative for the organisations operating in the tourism industry to adopt the environmental perspective. This is â€Å"a management perspective in which the firm takes aggressive actions to affect the public and forces in its marketing environment rather than simply watching and reacting to them.† (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004, p.132) Evaluation of Marketing Communications by whl.travel In order to evaluate the marketing communications used by whl.travel, it is important to give a historical background of the organisation in order to gain a clear understanding of the whole concept. According to i ts official website (2011), â€Å"the WHL Group is a private company incorporated in Hong Kong and is owned and operated by a team from Australia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, Switzerland, Syria, USA, Vietnam and Zambia.† Whl.travel launched its campaign after realising that it was important to incorporate the cultural values of local people in emerging tourist markets especially in the developing world. The strategy it uses is unique in that the booking site for all tourist facilities in the areas it is operating in are owned and operated by the local people. The major aim of this strategy is to empower the local people to have control of the tourism industry while at the same time promoting their local culture and environment through sustainable practices. Culture exchange is promoted and there are various marketing communication strategies used to achieve this initiative. A company’s marketing communication mix is also called the promo tion mix and it is defined as â€Å"a concept of marketing communi