Daffodil International University
Faculties and Departments => Business & Entrepreneurship => Business Administration => Topic started by: Shah Alam Kabir Pramanik on May 18, 2016, 10:35:42 AM
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Promotional Strategies towards the Campaign "Visit Bangladesh-2016"
By Shah Alam Kabir Pramanik
Bangladesh has many unique brand associations in tourism industry. Although it has many unique associations till now she has not positioned well in the global competitive market. In The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index Ranking, 2015, Bangladesh has ranked globally in 127 by obtaining value 2.9 while covering 141 countries from all over the world. In Southeast and Southern Asia region it has ranked 22. Bangladesh has failed to attract large number of tourists from other part of the world. Bangladesh has the potentials to develop its tourism sector and earn huge foreign currency although having multifaceted problems are causing the frustrating scenario of the country's tourism sector. For developing the tourism sector of Bangladesh the government of the country earlier declared 2016 as the Tourism Year aiming to attract more foreign tourists. The main objective of the campaign is to project the country as a tourist destination, mainly to attract foreign tourists. Bangladesh entered the year 2016, named as 'Visit Bangladesh Year", with practically no marketing campaign. No visible changes in tourist arrival have been noticed till now. The campaign will not see the face of success if it goes on as usual. To make a campaign success it needs proper marketing and promotional strategies. Simply Promotion refers to raising customer awareness of a product or brand, generating sales, and creating brand loyalty. As a part of the marketing mix promotion includes all activities that involve communicating with the customer about the product and its benefits and features. The main objective of promotion is to inform, remind about the product and persuade the target customers to buy it. Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) the leading government agency has taken the responsibility to make the campaign success. My question is how many are known about the campaign? What are the promotional strategies those have been taken to inform, remind and persuade the visitors? Television Commercial "Hello Bangladesh" is being promoted all over Bangladesh in various Television Channels. To create awareness among the local community the "Hello Bangladesh" television commercial was a creative program. To create awareness towards an object repeated exposure is needed. Unfortunately repeated exposure of the TV commercial has not been shown trough various media. This commercial should be available on local TV channel, local media and social media those will help to create community awareness. Bangladesh Tourism Board has launched "Logo Puzzle Campaign" on 16th December 2015, to Promote Visit Bangladesh 2016 in Hatirjheel, Shahbagh and in front of the National Parliament of Dhaka City. Branded T-shirts with Visit Bangladesh 2016 Logo had been provided to the foreigners. Concert program has been arranged in Cox's Bazar sea beach.
Above mentioned programs are not adequate to create awareness towards the mega campaign "Visit Bangladesh-2016". The authority may follow the following promotional strategies to make the campaign success. Promotional Strategies towards the Campaign "Visit Bangladesh-2016" The role of social media (Face book, Twitter, YouTube etc.) in promoting a destination has been increasing day by day. Today more travelers use online resources to learn about travel destinations, service providers, and pricing options to inform and make their purchases. Effective use of social media is probably the best tool for destinations for raising awareness about the destination. It's cheap and effective. But it requires time, planning, good strategy and innovation. Wherever travelers go in 2016, they'll be using social media to discover the best spots, plan their itinerary, and share their memories with friends. Repetitive exposure of the campaign through using social media should be increased. Visitors should be surprised and delighted in airports. Airport is the place where foreigners come first. This is another good opportunity for tourism marketers to connect with visitors. Foreigners should be attracted by displaying the unique features and natural beauty in the Airport by using screen, billboards, and posters. A tourism support booth can be established for guiding the foreigners that may ultimately help to choose destination and stay more in the country. The tourism support team in the airport can help travelers to navigate common questions such as where to stay, the best local spots, and how to use transportation systems. Be that helping hand, guiding them to different regions Bangladesh can create a unique position in tourism industry. Community Awareness should be increased through arranging different training and participation program. Local people should be loyal and sanatorium to visitors. If local community behave in well manner with visitors those ultimately leads to visitors' satisfaction. Local visitors' centers might be established in different tourist spot that will hear from the visitors and serve them according to the visitors' expectation. Local visitors' center may create local social media dashboards for each visitor center from where visitors will get desired information. We may take promotional strategies by sponsoring in international mega event like ICC World Cup, ODI, IPL, Olympic and so on because the whole world look at the events. Commercial TV advertisement may be shown through different international media like National Geography, Discovery, CNN, BBC and others. The campaign "Visit Bangladesh-2016" can be succeed through rapid use of social media, repeated exposure of the unique features, natural beauty in the airport (by using TV screen, billboards, and posters), creating community awareness, establishing local visitors' centers, engaging in international media and sponsoring in international event.
Author: Shah AlamKabirPramanik,
Lecturer, Department of Business Administration, Daffodil International University
Email: kabir.bba@diu.edu.bd
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Thanks for Sharing.
Regards,
Dewan G. Y. Showrav
Lecturer
Dept. of Business Administration
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Informative .......