Kona, Hilo Marketing Plan

Marketing a Hawaiian Vacation to Canadians

The Big Island

Target Market

Canadian Demographical Information

This report was generated to serve as the basis for a marketing plan for 2013. The target market will be analyzed in terms of its demographic information as well as its vacation preferences. The target market consists of Canadian travelers who might be interested in a trip to the big island and the goal is to increase the number of travelers as well as the length of the trip and the total expenditures per day and consequently per trip. The Canadian target market segment represents a key segment. Recently activity in this segment has increased fueled by favorable exchange rates. Thus, with an effective marketing plan, the environmental conditions can be leveraged even further to broaden the base of Canadian travelers.

The Big Island

The Big Island Overview (Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2012)

Hawaii Island isn't just big, it's still growing. The Island of Hawaii is the youngest island in the Hawaiian chain and is also by far the biggest, providing a vast canvas of environments to discover a variety of unrivaled natural wonders. This is the home of one of the world's most active volcanoes (Kilauea), the tallest sea mountain in the world at more than 33,000 feet (Maunakea), the most massive mountain in the world (Maunaloa) and the largest park in the state (Hawaii Volcanoes National Park). All but two of the world's climate zones generate everything from lush rain forests to volcanic deserts, snow-capped mountaintops to beautiful black sand beaches. Whether you're looking for a romantic getaway or a journey off the beaten path, you'll discover it all on Hawaii, the Big Island (Hawaii Tourism Authority, 2012).

The Big Island must not only compete with travel destinations other than Hawaii, but it must also compete with other locales within the state of Hawaii. Furthermore, a significant majority of Canadians do not travel once they reach their destination in Hawaii. Rather, there is a strong likelihood that whatever island they choose to visit will be the only island they travel too. Thus if the Big Island is to increase its influx from Canada, then it is reasonable to suspect that it will have to market directly to the Canadian target market before they have decided upon their vacation destination.

Figure 1 - Kona Sea Wall (Hawaii The Big Island, 2012)

Target Market

In 2011 there were about half a million visitors to the Hawaiian state. Of these travelers, less than twenty percent of them visited the Big Island. Furthermore, less than ten percent of the total travelers visited the Big Island exclusively. Relative to other Hawaiian destinations, the Big Island has either a limited amount of appeal or exposure to Canadian vacationers. The...

In fact, after the disaster in Japan, many Japanese travelers did not vacation for an extended period of time and an influx of Canadian travelers help to fill this void (Travel Pulse, 2011). Canadian travelers are heavily influenced by the exchange rate since when there is a favorable rate then this effectively reduces the total price of their vacation to Hawaii (Schaefers, 2011). Recently, the August data suggests that Canadians increased in total visitors as well as in total spending which rose to over one hundred thirty four million in March of 2012 (Hawaiin Toursim Authority, 2012).
Canadian Demographical Information

The three highest provinces in terms of the total population are Ontario, Quebec, and British…