Introduction
The Mediterranean Island of Malta with more than half a million population is one of the most densely populated nations in European continent. Every year more than 1.3 million people visit Malta as tourists. Malta’s GDP percentage share of tourism is by far superior to any other sector. The industry is growing at a rate of 11% YOY making it the fastest growing tourism destination in Europe. Recent trend in Malta is to shift from mass tourism practices to sustainable and green tourism practices. The hotel industry is highly crowded but still there is lot of scope as the customer base is also growing at a very high pace. More and more people around the world are coming to Malta. Typically the majority of travelers to Malta who come for vacation are from Europe. Iya Beach Hotel & Resorts in La Valetta, Malta is situated at the beach and offers a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean Sea. Iya Beach Hotel & Resort is a boutique hotel with its root coming from Thailand. All the big players of the world have presence in Malta. However, most of the five star hotels including Hilton, Grand Excelsior, Intercontinental, Fortina Spa Resort and Westin all are situated either in Floriana or near St. George’s bay. None of the five star hotels are located in La Valetta. Ivy Beach Hotel & Resorts and Phoenicia are the only two hotels located in The Mall, Valetta. This essay will discuss at length about the best communication strategies which will help Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts serve its purpose most efficiently within the budgetary limit.
Malta Hotel Market
European Union conducts a research on tourism trend for all EU nations every year. It was found from that report that among all the tourists coming to Malta 45 % come for small family inbound trips for less than 3 days and 38 % come for long outbound holiday trips for more than 4 days. It was apparent in the report that majority of the tourists coming to Malta fall into either of the two categories (Tourism Trends, 2012).
The above graph shows the percentage of people spending outbound holidays in Europe. This shows that almost in all European nations specifically Luxemburg, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, UK, Sweden and Denmark, a high percentage of people every year travel outside their home country to spend holiday (Tourism Trends, 2012).
The above graph shows the nights (1000 nights) spent by outside tourists at each country every year. Spain seems to be the hottest tourist spot in Europe. However, among small Mediterranean nations Cyprus seems to attract maximum number of tourists. If people are willing to visit Cyprus from mainland Europe, then that means Malta has the potential to attract a good many numbers of mainland European tourists (Tourism Trends, 2012).
Currently Malta Hotel and tourism market is mainly crowded by mass market hotels. Most of the hotels offer cheap nightly rates and budget packages. Almost 1.3 million tourists visit Malta every year and Malta currently does not have many luxury hotels and resorts to cater to high end tourists. There are at present around 15 Luxury Hotels. Big names like Hilton, Corinthia, Fortina, Radisson, Phoenician and others have presence in Malta. However, they do not offer any special tourist deals except for lowering the price per night during summer months of the year (Malta Tourism Website). There are no five-star hotels in Malta based on Asian or Thai themes. Iya Beach Hoteal & Resorts is the only hotel in Malta offering five-star luxury with Thai Massage and Spa in the room and poolside as complimentary service to the customers.
Iya Beach Hotel and Resorts: Target Segment
As is prominent from the graph above that majority of the tourists coming to Malta are either meant to spend family holidays or prefer to stay indoors. Typically this type of tourists often seeks packaged holidays and does not wish to spend long holidays. From the tourism statistics it is apparent that typically this type of tourists often stays only 3-4 days in a hotel and tries to cover a whole lot of things within that timeframe. Within this segment also there are two types of tourists – family budget tourists and luxury outbound tourists.
Majority of this type of tourists are family budget tourists invariably looking for best deals before planning for their holidays. For them, staying in a great hotel is not the primary deciding factor. They look for accommodation, food, package tours and other special offerings to come to the final decision. This type of tourists in many cases ends up selecting a budget hotel as luxury hotels in Malta do not offer great packages within their affordable budget. However, if any five-star hotel can offer good packages with lucrative combo offerings, then there is a chance that a good percentage of those budget tourists may opt for luxury segment. This type of tourists is the secondary target market for Iya Beach Hotels and Resort.
Another type of tourists dominant in Malta is tourists interested in outdoor activities and spending long holidays typically for 5 days or more. This type of tourists often stay in luxury 4 and 5 star hotels and take participation in outdoor activities like marine life adventures, diving, cruise and water sports. They also look for special packages that offer experiences they cannot find elsewhere. This type of luxury outbound tourists is the primary target market for Iya Beach Hotels and Resort.
Demographic
The primary target market for Iya Beach Hotels and Resort as identified in the previous section is generally not the young and family population. In most of the cases, these types of tourists are between the age ranges of 30 to 55 and often travel alone or travel as a couple. The percentages of luxury outdoor tourists coming to Malta with family are low (Tourism Trends, 2012). The lower age group in that demographic seeks to participate in diving and other sports activities during their vacation. However, the elderly group likes to spend their time in more leisurely manner by going for a cruise ride or spending leisurely time by the beachside or taking a soothing massage.
For the secondary target market, price is the main deciding factor. This demographic group mostly consists of family tourists who often travel with better halves and kids. Many of the family tourists decide their destination based on the needs of their kids and the total package price. However, this demographic group is willing to shell out a little bit more if they find some package meeting their family vacation requirement.
Psychographic
Now that the two main demographic segments for Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts are identified, the next step will be to understand the psychographic of the target group.
Media Usage
Primary target segment or the luxury target segment tourists in many cases rely on the online media to search for a good hotel to decide on the type of accommodation and package deals for their vacation. This type of tourists often collects feedback from peer group to make their decision. They also watch a lot of news channels and also business channels and stock markets to gather information. A majority of this population also follows sports channels and reads car magazines.
Secondary target segment or budget family segment also watches a lot of television but may not watch the business channels and sports channels as much. Instead they read a lot of newspapers and also follow the news channels. These segments also are very active in social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and others.
Environmental Friendly
As many of the European nations are adapting to sustainable environmental friendly eco-tourism practices, more and more people look for eco-tourism (Bausch, 2012). However, the budget family segment still is not very much attracted by the environmental friendly eco-tourism deals but the same cannot be said for the primary luxury target segment for Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts. Some percentage of the luxury segment tourists look for eco-tourism. The percentage may be small now but it is growing steadily.
Value Conscious
The value definition varies widely between the two target segments for Iya Beach Hotels and Resorts. For the budget family segment tourists the value of a hotel is very much attached to the price vs. the total package offerings. On the other hand, the value definition is completely different for luxury segment tourists. Money is not a big factor for them; rather they seek to have an experience which is different, unique and luxurious.
SWOT Analysis
Iya Beach Hotels and Resorts have mainly two distinguishing factors which give it an edge over others. This is the only hotel situated in La Valletta and not on the bay. This is the only hotel on the beach of Mediterranean sea with easy access to the St. Georges Bay. This makes it a unique hotel with access to both the bay area as well as the sea. Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts is the only hotel to have an Asian theme. This is the only hotel offering relaxing Thai spa and massages to its customers.
The main weakness for Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts is its late start in Malta. Already the big luxury players have a presence in Malta and Iya is a late entrant in this field. It is only starting now.
The Malta tourism market is booming, especially the luxury segment tourism in Malta is on a rise. Though the demand for luxury hotels is on a rise, there are not many good options in Malta. During peak seasons most of the 5 star hotels often remain fully booked and this gives an opportunity to Iya for expanding its business. Also there are only a few 5 star hotels in Malta offering packaged services like diving, massage and spa, fishing trips, eco-tours and sea cruise. Iya has the opportunity to introduce those and stand out from others.
There is no prominent threat to Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts. However, the Iya boutique hotel group is new to Malta and so proper care should be taken of the local political equations to remain in business without any unforeseen problems.
Communication Campaign Objective
Objectives are the most important thing to clearly set the path and planned activities for the future. Objectives generally are planned at three levels; corporate, communication and marketing (Fill & Jamieson, 2011). Corporate objectives are often straight forward. Corporate objective for Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts is to maximize profit from its hotel operations in Malta and maximize shareholders’ wealth by increasing sales. The primary marketing objective for Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts is to establish Iya as a premium hotel group in Malta and stand out from other luxury five-star hotels in terms of delivering value.
Marketing communication objectives are at a more granular level. They are vital in achieving the above two objectives. Corporate and marketing objectives state the intension of the company. However, communication objective requires that marketing works hand in hand with other departments to achieve all the targets. Communication objectives for Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts will be to establish Iya as the premium hotel brand in Malta, establish itself as the ‘luxury brand with a difference’, spread awareness among all the targeted customer segments, educate the customers about its product offerings, motivate the customers to visit its website and travel agents to find out more about Iya and finally lead customers to purchase holidays and packages at Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts.
As this will be the first marketing communication campaign for Iya, it should use trend extrapolation to determine the future state. How much the objectives are getting met can only be determined after the campaign and therefore, research should start during the campaign and continue parallelly alongside.
Creative Strategy
Differentiation is the name of the game in advertising and communications campaign (Urban Wallace Associates). In all the communication campaigns and advertisement efforts the features that are exclusive to Iya should be highlighted. Promotional campaigns should focus on Thai massage and spa facility which is available 24 hours at hotel room as well as beachside. It should also focus on the luxury packages that are exclusively offered by Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts and are not offered by the competitors.
Communication Channels
In case of luxury hotels, maximum numbers of reservations are done through agents. This is closely followed by direct reservation through internet portal and direct call to the reservation office of the hotels. This definitely shows that travel agents are a very big factor in the total communication process (Kulshrestha).
Advertising should be the most used communication mix. Advertisement will try to establish two objectives. Firstly, it will try to establish Iya Beach Hotel and Resorts as a premium hotel brand. Advertisements meant to serve this purpose can appear in print media, business and news channels in prime hours and tour and travel websites. Second type of advertisement campaign will target specific type of customers and sell the unique products of Iya. This advertisement campaign can be launched in partnership with Facebook, Google and other social media in such a way that the bundle product offerings will appear to the people based on their interest and recent searches. This way Iya will reach very specific customer target segments.
Public Relations are another way of conducting promotion for the Iya brand. Different European countries hold tourism festivals every year. Iya Beach Hotels & Resorts can take part in some of these festivals to make the Iya brand more visible. For example, as many of the tourists who visit Malta come from the Eastern European countries, going to tourism festivals in Bosnia and run an information stall will not be a bad idea (Festivals, The Heart Shaped Land). Also as many of the tourists in Malta come from Italy and Scandinavian countries as well, tourism festivals in Scandinavia and Italy should also be covered.
Channel selective sales promotion may not increase the brand visibility much but it helps increase sales. As in case of luxury hotels business agents play a big role, Iya should come up with some promotion plan through agents. It should target agents handling big corporate clients. It should then target a communication through that agent to its clientele that if anyone books their Malta trip through that agent Iya will provide a special package for them. This way the agent will also be willing to help Iya in this communication process.
Iya sales team will continue to do sales promotion at corporate houses, tourism festivals and through press releases. Direct marketing team which works with the reservation desk will continue to work with prospective customers to offer rates and packages that work well for both the parties.
Communication Mix
Among all the channels, advertising in the print media and TV is one of the most costly communication methods. However, it is absolutely required to establish the brand. Iya Beach Hotels and Resorts should form its brand promotion through these channels for at least a small period of time. Advertising using the help of social media partners and search engine giants is relatively less costly and more focused. Company should utilize its full marketing might to reach the targeted segments through this channel. Advertisement communication through this channel should be attractive so that prospective customers actually feel like clicking and visiting Iya website and explore the offerings. Sales promotion through travel agents is another effective communication channel in this situation. This will help Iya reach the corporate customers easily and effectively.
Timing & Budget
It is important that the communication should start well before the actual product is available. Suppose that Iya is offering special packages for Malta trip in next summer but for that the communication needs to start from previous winter season. As a full scale communication strategy is sometimes costly to run, so Iya must first do a test run of its strategy. It can use its advertising strategy and sales promotion strategy to a small group to see how they respond. Based on the response the company can go ahead with its full scale communication strategy.
A sample campaign costing model is shown as below: (All figures are hypothetical and should be replaced by actual figures when running the communication campaign)
The above table shows the communication campaign timeline and budget requirements. Iya should start its campaign with a small pre-test in June-July of a year. As the pick season starts in October and lasts till March of next year, so most of the marketing campaign should run from August till February of the next year. This will optimize the cost as well as be most effective. April and May can be used to analyze the communication campaign effectiveness and then in June and July Iya can refine its communication strategy for the next year to become more effective.
Conclusion
Iya is a new name in Malta Luxury hotel industry. Its communication strategy aims at fulfill multiple objectives. Firstly, the communication strategy should be able to establish the name of the Iya brand across the globe, specifically in the European market where most of the tourists come from to visit Malta. Secondly, the communication strategy should be able to highlight the differentiation factors of Iya over other luxury five star hotels. Finally, the communication strategy should convert prospective customers into actual sales of its product.To achieve all those communication objectives, Iya should follow a multiple channel communication approach. Communication through print media and TV will help establish the Iya brand name. Internet based communication campaign will help Iya reach the targeted customers and direct marketing and sales promotion will improve its sales. Communication affects different parties in and outside the organization, so to make it successful Iya should integrate different functions and create a feedback loop for understanding the efficacy of each communication campaign.
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