This paper presents a marketing communications plan for 5 Star Adventure Tours, an accredited Advanced Eco Tourism Operator based in Victoria, Australia. The plan reviews the global and domestic ecotourism market, outlines key market segments and the profile of the typical ecotourist, and assesses the competitive landscape. A SWOT analysis examines how climate change, habitat destruction, and environmental threats intersect with the company's strengths and opportunities. The paper articulates sales goals, positioning strategies, and promotional tactics — including digital, broadcast, and print channels — and concludes with an evaluation of how 5 Star can leverage its diverse product line to remain competitive despite ongoing environmental challenges.
The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people" (TIES, 2005, p. 3). Ecotourism has become the fastest-growing segment of the global tourism industry, the largest sector in the world economy. Because climate is one of the main drivers of international tourism — with the majority of tourists seeking to relax in the sun or snow — climate change is expected to have a significant impact on international tourism, and therefore on ecotourism.
This marketing communications plan details marketing plans for 5 Star Adventure Tours (www.5staradventure.com.au), consistently ranked among the top five tour operators in Australia and an accredited Advanced Eco Tourism Operator. The marketing plan also discusses the size of the global tourist and ecotourist markets, which have been experiencing record growth during the last decade. Given the occurrence of global warming and climate change, 5 Star — which offers bushwalking and alpine high country tours in the Victoria region of Australia — is uncertain of the impact on its business.
While the growth rate of international tourism is projected to increase over the coming decades, it may slow later in the century as demand for travel saturates. As tourism expands, emissions of carbon dioxide increase as well. With climate change, it is anticipated that preferred destinations would shift to higher latitudes and altitudes. In general, this shift favors 5 Star, given the likelihood of increased demand for their alpine high country tours. Tourists from temperate climates are projected to spend more holidays in their home countries, another shift that favors 5 Star operations. Because such tourists currently dominate the international tourism market, climate change would simultaneously decrease worldwide tourism overall (Hamilton, Maddison, and Tol, 2005).
Based on ecotourism market segments identified by the Australian Office of Tourism, 5 Star offers tour packages that focus on accommodating the ecotourist profile. Its marketing plan takes advantage of its major strength — its reputation. 5 Star's marketing strategies focus on the marketing mix to achieve its sales and marketing objectives: growth in ecotourism revenues and market share. Given the optimistic outlook for the ecotourism industry, 5 Star expects to capitalize on its strengths to edge out competitors for a larger share of the regional ecotourist market.
The following data provides information on the size of the global ecotourism market:
5 Star Adventure Tours recognizes the importance of identifying the right target audience, and shapes its marketing efforts by studying research on the ecotourism market. According to Fennell (2008), research by the Australian Office of National Tourism has identified three broad ecotourism market segments:
Based on data collected in a survey of North American travel consumers by HLA and ARA consulting firms, TIES constructed the following ecotourist market profile:
Experienced ecotourists were defined as tourists who had been on at least one ecotourism-oriented trip. Ecotourism was defined in this study as nature-, adventure-, and culture-oriented travel (Nabuur.com, n.d.).
"Competitor landscape and 5 Star tour offerings"
"Strengths, weaknesses, and climate change risks"
"Sales targets, positioning, and promotional tactics"
"Plan execution, tracking methods, and final outlook"
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