develop knowledge about various strategic activities undertaken by these key actors to brand and market Switzerland in Indian market and how they collaborate with each other to reach the targeted customer segments. After getting a clear understanding of these research objectives, I made a selection of relevant theoretical framework to guide my research further. 4.4. Data collection methods Data collection is a way to collect and evaluate information gathered on different subjects relevant to the research topic. Therefore, it is important that the chosen procedure of data collection should be effective and appropriate with the research in order to gain in depth information about the subject matter (Brotherton, 2008). In the current research, two different types of data have formed the basis. Qualitative empirical data in the form of semi-structured interviews and secondary data in the form of literature review about the key actors of film tourism and their strategies for distant markets as well the websites, brochures and annual reports etc provided by the Swiss tourism professionals capitalizing on Indian market during the interviews. I have chosen this approach to reach a level of triangulation-“ Looking at the same phenomenon, or research question, from more than one source of data” (Decrop, 1999) as triangulation “(…) opens the way for richer and potentially more valid interpretations” (Ibid). Thereby heightening the validity of the results produced during the research. In this research, triangulation helped me to include participation observation that I gained as a Bollywood tourist by taking field trip to Bollywood locations with Erwin Fassler, discussions throughout the trip with him and my husband about Bollywood and various locations in Switzerland, and at the same time taking interviews with various tourism professionals and collecting data. Hence, this triangulation method gave me the possibility to include all the data collected in order to get in depth information to analyse my research questions. Secondary data As mentioned earlier also, the secondary data in this thesis is the literature review on the key actors of film tourism. The purpose of this review is not only to discover about the existing research, from a quantitative as well qualitative stance about film tourism, but also from a more explorative angle, to find out what kind of strategies are used by various key actors of film tourism and their collaboration with each other to capitalize on distant markets, in order to use
case. The reason is that apart from Indian market, Swiss tourism sectors also focuses their strategies on various growing markets like China, Beijing, Russia, and Australia etc. An overview of the interviewees can be seen below: Company Company type Representative Data/ Interview Swiss Tourism, Zurich National Destination Management Organization (DMO) Urs Eberhard, Vice President Marketing website promotional material social media statistics face to face interview Gstaad Saanenland Tourismus, Gstaad Regional Destination Management Organization (DMO) Kerstin Sonnekalb, PR Manager website promotional material social media statistics face to face interview Titlis Tourismus, Engelberg Local Destination Management Organization (DMO) Tobias Matter, Sales Director website promotional material social media statistics face to face interview Hotel Central Engelberg Three Star Hotel, Independent Owner Maja , Hotel Manager Face to face
Hotel Victoria Jungfrau, Interlaken Five Star Hotel Niklas Breitenbach, Sales Manager Face to face Erwin Tours Incoming travel agent Erwin Fassler, Owner promotional material social media face to face interview Guides Gstaad Saanenland Tour guides Anita Roth, Bollywood Tour Guide promotional material face to face Restaurant GourmIndia, Lucerne Four Star Restaurant Marcos Bhategar, Front Desk Manager Face to face AM Films Production Company Ankita Makwana, Founder AM Films, Bollywood actress Face to Face Oyster Tours, India Wholesale Tour Operator Abhay Jaipuria, Owner website social media Skype interview As it is shown in the table, I chose the national, regional and local DMOs operating in Switzerland to understand all the strategic activities that they perform and the way they collaborate to perform those strategies to capitalize on Indian market. In the next section, a short introduction about all these key actors will be given. The Switzerland Tourism (ST) has been promoting Switzerland as a holiday, travel and conference destination both locally and internationally for almost 100 years. It is a public corporation in which the board comprises of 13 representatives from tourism, business and
Tour operators can be viewed as producers because they combine various parts of the tourism product to create a new and more complex product. Hence, their success depends upon their ability to buy separate products and services at a comparatively low price and combine all these in a profitable manner to benefit both the clients and themselves. On one hand, they also try to differentiate their products and services to enhance competitiveness and for that they also provide additional services like travel insurance, visa assistance, travel newspapers, maps or guides, travel consultants to their packages (Holloway, 1998). As shown in Fig 3, a vast majority of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) also exist in tourism sector but due to their structural and functional weaknesses, hotels depend almost entirely on the tour operators for their communication with consumers as well as visibility in major markets (Buhalis, 1994). Furthermore, through vertical integration, tour operators also control both transportation companies (charter airlines) and retailers (travel agency chains). The strategies adapted by various tour operators or travel agents of film tourism to capitalize on distant markets are discussed in the next section. (i) Attracting tourists to the film locations The initiatives to attract tourists are location centred, rather than film-centred. It is about being more clearly related to individual locations, areas or regions associated with a particular film. As such, they are targeted mainly at those who have previously been transformed from film audience to tourist or potential tourist. In other words, at those individuals whose interest in travelling to film locations has already been established (Olsberg, 2007). Furthermore, these proposals also have strong awareness raising power and can give contribution by creating an interest in travelling to the locations. But in order to achieve the goal, tourism agencies have to collaborate with other stakeholders on these initiatives. It can be either producers/distributors of the film, individual locations, private tourism companies, other tourism agencies or the press. (ii) Movie tours Movie tours are also very popular and successful promotional tools used for marketing the destination (Hudson & Ritchie, 2006b). These may vary from walking tours for small areas, or transportation-based for larger areas. Many local tour operators, regional tourist organizations as well as movie studios offer film tours to various destinations. Furthermore, there are many movie
So, the DMOs around Switzerland should adapt a dual strategy so that on one hand, they can continue to sell the image of Switzerland as a romantic destination which is more appealing to the honeymoon couples and families coming in big groups and on other hand, they can create new experiences for young generation and FITs as well. It is important to understand which marketing communications strategy is relevant to promote a realistic impression of which audiences must be targeted, and what objectives and strategy are required to being about effective communications (Dahlen, Lange & Smith, 2010). As mentioned in section 5.3.3 (iii), movie map of various Bollywood locations launched by ST, is not being used both by ET and GGS during the Bollywood tour in Switzerland. Both the Bollywood tours have their own preferred film locations that they show to the visitors. More information about these tours and the strategies behind its design will be discussed in section 6.2. 6.1.4. Sub conclusion Apart from above mentioned strategies, DMOs around Switzerland are also working on some other strategies discussed in section 5.8. According to Urs Eberhard (Vice President, Marketing, ST) and Tobias Matter (Sales Director, TET) they are focusing to attract more FITs and young generation of Indian tourists to Switzerland. This shows that apart from family and honeymoon couples, they are now focusing on a new segment of customers that according to them is more profitable than the segments that have been coming to Switzerland for many years. Market segmentation is the process of splitting the potential customers within a market and focusing on catering the needs of that particular customer segment (McDonald, 1998). But on the other hand, if we talk about GT, according to Kerstin Sonnekalb (PR Manager, GT) the customer segment that they want to focus is the high end customers as well as FITs not only from Indian market but also through their various International events, mentioned in previous section, their strategy focuses on attracting high end International jet set visitors as well. Hence, we can say that like GT, ST and TET are also realized about changing their strategic focus to attract more FITs and high class customer segment from Indian market due to the fact that the number of middle class visitors from Indian market is relatively higher than FITs and high class customers which is not so much profitable for their stakeholders like hospitality sector and various attractions etc. 6.2. Strategies of Tour guides
strategy can be effective for Switzerland to reposition the image of Switzerland and attract not only the romantic couples and family but also FITs and young generation to the destination. But on the hand, it is only possible if the Swiss film commission will also realize the potential of film tourism and shows interest in collaborating with DMOs and other key actors of film tourism to reposition the image of Switzerland and stay in this competitive market. DMOs also collaborate with various stakeholders like tour operators, hospitality industry to provide various training programmes to make the service industry understand the preferences of the specific market (Morrison, 2013). In the same way, in case of Indian market, (Appendix: 9.3).ST also tries their level best to make the hospitality industry around Switzerland to understand the cultural aspects, need and expectations of Indian visitors so that the service staff can understand their requirements and provide the best possible service. As mentioned by Niklas Breitenbach (Sales Manager, HVJ), ,”we strategically focused on expanded markets and growing markets (….) together with the tourism board of Interlaken as well (…)”Similarly, as it is discussed in section 5.6, intersectoral collaboration plays an important role in destination promotion through various media and marketing campaigns hosted by DMOs and give the benefit to all the stakeholders to promote their products and services to the target markets. Furthermore, one may argue that the training provided by various DMOs helps the hospitality industry in Switzerland to understand the cultural background of the visitors coming from different parts of the world so that they can understand their needs and provide best quality service to their potential customers. As discussed in section, 6.3.1, on one hand, the hospitality industry collaborates with various intermediaries i.e. tour operators and travel agents and on other hand, promotes their own products and services through various communication channels according to their budget and convenience. For example, a 5 star hotel spends more money on PR and marketing in comparison to a 3 star hotel that does not have big budget for all these promotional activities. So, they only rely on maintaining good relationship with their potential stakeholders instead they focus more on big tour operators who bring big groups to the hotel for example HC that has been discussed earlier. On the other hand, during my research, I found out that Erwin Fassler (Owner ET), does not use any middleman to communicate to his customers. As mentioned earlier, he uses social media and