stats short essay 6
VOLUM E NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 04 (APRIL ) ISSN 0976 -2183
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT
A Monthly Double -Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed /Juried) Open Access International e -Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories
http://ijrcm.org.in/
98
IMPACT OF PROMOTIONA L MIX ELEMENTS ON TO URIST’S SATISFACTION : A CASE STUDY OF MU SSOORIE
MOHAMMAD SHOAIB KHAN
RESEARCH SCHOLAR
DEPARTMENT OF COMMER CE
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVE RSITY
ALIGARH
ABSTRACT
The main objective of the study is to investigate the impact of the different promotional mix elements on the satisfaction of the tourist visited the Mussoorie hill station of Dehradun district in Uttarakhand State. Mussoorie, queen of hills, is o ne of the major summer tourist’s destination of India The data was collected by using a survey questionnaire which was distributed among 200 respondents at the main exit points of the Mussoorie hill statio n. Data has been analyzed by using Statistical Pack age for Social Research -17 by using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression technique. The findings of the study reflected that apart fro m the direct marketing, the other elements of promotional mix, i.e. advertising, sales promotion and public ity were having significant impact on tourist’s satisfaction and were responsible in creating awareness in the potential tourists. Also it was found that certain satisfaction attributes were not up to the mark so some recom- mendations have been given .
KEYW ORDS
Mussoorie, promotional mix elements, tourist’s satisfaction.
1. INTRODUCTION
ourism has been considered as an important vehicle for socio -economic development of a state or country. It is an important source of foreign exchange generation and also contributes to the national balance of payments and act as a major source of income and employment. Around the globe, the mos t promising reason for pursuing tourism as a development strategy is its alleged positive contribution to the local or national eco nomy (Sharpley, 2004). Tourism is one of the most important and key industry of Uttarakhand State and has enormous potential for tourism development and a pool of tourist activity can be found widely spread in the state. Mussoorie, also known as the queen of hills has a variety of beautiful and cheerful scenic landscape, waterfalls, lakes, temples etc best suited for tourism activities. Mussoorie is a small town on hills but filled with various tourism dimensions . It is a well -known fact that for any busine ss to prosper especially in service sector, the needs of the consumers should be satisfied by providing a quality product or service (Peterson & Wilson, 1992). Consumer satisfaction is very crucial for the service based businesses like tourist att ractions (Oliver, 1994; Otto & Brent Richie, 1996; Pearce & Moscardo, 1998; Sparks, 2000; Matear, Osbourne, Garret & Gray, 2002). There exists a strong link among consumer satisfaction and service provider profitability (Bolton & Drew, 1994; Hill, 1996). Therefore, a need arises for assessing the relationship and impact of the different promotional mix elements on tourist satisfaction so that marketer and tourism firm operators would develop optimal strategies to maximize satisfaction and hence profitability.
2. LITER ATURE REVIEW
2.1 PROMOTION MIX Promotion is one of the 4 P’s of Marketing and is very effective way to reach potential customers to influence their purchase decisions and actions related to the product or services. Promotion helps in informing the customers about the availability of the product and to make them aware about the marketing activities (Bagozzi, 1998). Promotion strategy is defined as an activity of marketers to communicate with the target audience in the var ious or selected market (Kotler, Rein & Haider, 1993). Promotional mix, also known as marketing communication mix, contains tools of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing which are used by the companies to accomplish its advertising and marketing objecti ves (Kotler, 2007). Mohammadi, Esmaeily and Salehi (2012) in their study of Prioritization of promotion tools based on AIDA model by Analytic Hie rarchy process in production sector of sport industry identified the best possible promotional mix in productio n sector of sport industry. They used AIDA model, for analysis AHP (Analytical Hierarchy process) model was used. Different 17 promotional tools were selected for the study and importance of each variable was corre lated with customer awareness and interest . 2.2 TOURIST’S SATISFACTION Tourist satisfaction may be defined as the psychological and emotional state of the tourist after or during experiencing his visit or trip Baker and Crompton (2000). Tourist’s satisfaction is the social and behavioral judgment pro vided by the tourists as a feedback to overall tourism performances which comprise the tourism environment, infrastructure, social services, facilities provide d at the destination, safety etc. of the tourism activities found at the place of tourism. Hence it is the best indicator to show the quality of the services provided by the tourism activities. Therefore, it is very important for th e sustainable development of tourist attractions. Fuchs and Weiermar (2003) applied multi -attribute model to define touri st satisfaction. They calculated through different dimensions of service quality like safety, security, aesthetics appeal, service orientation, amenities and accessibility of services. They also measured of tourism acti vities like food and accommodation, shopping, transportation and other attractions. Barsky and Labagh (1992) stated 9 different factor for satisfaction by expectation met, which were location, price, room, emp loyee attitude, facilities, service, packing, reception, food and beverages. Bojanic (1996) discovered a powerful and positive correlation between perceived value and satisfaction in a tourism context. Monsef and Raji (2013) in their study entitles as Assessment of Advertising Role in Guilan Province Tourism Industry Developm ent evaluated the relationship between advertising as a promotional tool and satisfaction of tourist. For this purpose, he used correlation method and he co ncluded that there was a significant relationship between advertising and tourist satisfaction. Sarker, Aimin & B egum (2012) examined the impact of marketing mix elements on satisfaction of tourist of East Lake (China) in their study enti tled as Investigating the =mpact of Marketing Mix Elements on Tourists’ Satisfaction: An Empirical Study on East Lake. They found t hat six out of seven elements of marketing mix were positively related to satisfaction but tourists were not satisfied with the prices of the product and services. For their stu dy they used survey questionnaire method and tested the responses on SPSS softw are. Same software was used for the analysis purpose.
3. RESEARCH GAP
After going through literature it has been found that now much work has been done in evaluating the impact of promotional mix on tourist satisfaction. A few studies presented relationships and impact between marketing and satisfaction but that were too very limited. Also no work has been done specifically in Mus- soorie which is one of the major tourist destinations in Uttarakhand, India. Therefore, the current study tries to find the i mpact of promotional mix elements on tourist’s satisfaction through the tourists visited Mussoorie.
T VOLUM E NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 04 (APRIL ) ISSN 0976 -2183
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT
A Monthly Double -Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed /Juried) Open Access International e -Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories
http://ijrcm.org.in/
99
4. OBJECTIVES
The present study has certain specific research objectives. They are as follows 1. Evaluating the impact of the different promotional mix elements on to urist’s satisfaction. 2. Giving recommendations and suggestion to policy makers for future development.
5. METHODOLOGY
CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESES 5.1 RESEARCH MODEL FIG. 1: PROPOSED MOD EL FOR PROMOTIONAL M IX ELEMENTS AND TOUR IST SATISFACTION In the Fig. 1, the model having four promotional mix elements have been taken into consideration which are advertising, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing and their impact on tourist satisfaction has been evaluated. The general form of the study model was, S = a + b 1P1+ b2P2 + b3P3 + b4P4 + e Where, S is tourist satisfaction, P 1 is advertising, P 2 is sales promotion, P 3 is publicity and P4 is direct marketing; a is constant; b 1, b2, b3 and b 4 are respective coefficients to estimate and e is the error. 5.2 HYPOTHESES Based on the objective of the study following four null hypotheses were created : H01: There is no significant impact of advertising on tourist’s satisfaction of the tourist visited Mussoorie. H02: There is no significant impact of sales promotion on tourist’s satisfaction of the tourist visited Mussoorie. H03: There is no significant impact of publicity on tourist’s satisf action of the tourist visited Mussoorie. H04: There is no significant impact of direct marketing on tourist’s satisfaction of the tourist visited Mussoorie. 5.3 METHOD The study is both empirical in nature, which is based on both qualitative and quantitat ive data. The study uses both primary and secondary sources for collecting data. Convenience sampling technique was used and 200 tourists were selected as respondents, which were all above 18 years so as to get correct responses. 18 questions were taken under 4 elements of promotional mix and 23 questions for tourist’s satisfaction were included in the questionnaire. The touri st’s selection was done on the main exit points of Mussoorie and specific destinations. Independent variables taken were advertisin g, sales promotion, publicity and direct marketing as elements of promotion mix which have been regressed with tourist’s satisfaction as dependent variable. Primary data has been collected in the form of well -structured questionnaire on Likert’s five -point scale. P > 0.05 (significance value greater than 0.05) shows that there is no significance difference in the mean at 95% level of co nfidence. The study has been done at the confidence level of 95%.
6. DATA ANALYSIS
After the collection of data by survey que stionnaire, in close relation to the objectives and hypothesis of the study, the analysis of the data was done by using Statistical Package for Social Research (SPSS) -17. For hypothesis testing and analysis, inferential analysis has been used. Cronbach’s a lpha for reliability test, de- scriptive statistics techniques and linear regression were applied for this purpose. 6.1 RELIABILITY TEST According to Nunnally (1978), Cronbach's alpha with larger alpha values (greater than 0.70) shows higher internal consistency in the measured dimension and has greater reliability. From table 1, the Cronbach’s alpha value is greater than 0.70, therefore it is evident that the question naire had good internal reliability and data could be utilized for further analysis. 6.2 DEMOGRAPHIC AND TRAVEL DETAILS OF THE TOURIST In the respondents 71% were Indians and 29% were foreigners. Most of the tourists were males which contributed 67% while fema les were 33%. Majority was between the age group of 26 -35 years with 27.5% followed by 46 -55 yea rs with 24.5% and 36 -45 years with 22.0%. Tourist above the age of 55 years counted for 8% and the remaining 18% were less than 26 years. 54.5% belonged to Hindu religion followed by 25.5% Christians in which majo rity was of foreigner and 14% Muslims. Sikh , Buddhist and other contributed in the remaining percentage. Married tourists were found to be 56.5% as compared to single t ourists with 43.5%. 80% of the tourists visited with friends and family while 14.5% with spouse. 3% came alone for the visit and 2. 5% selected the response as ‘other’. Most of the tourists who visited Mussoorie had good educational background in which 59.5% were graduates, 25.5% post graduates and 11% we re technical. It was also found that only 2.5% have studied up to high school and 1.5% was having degree above post -graduation. All types of visitors from student to employee, business man to home maker were found. 34.5% respondents had monthly income more than 40,000 rupees, 25% had no income and remaining under 40 ,000 rupees. Purpose of visit of 50% of the tourist was recreational or for pleasure, 15% contributed as pilgrimage and 12.5% for knowing cultural and historical significance in which again majority was of foreigners. Others came for adventure, honeymoon or education or on off icial visit. 72% stayed in hotels and guest house while 17% stayed at friends and relative’s places, few didn’t stay anywhere and contributed for 1.5%. Railways were found to be the mos t preferred mode of travel with 44% responses followed by chartered tax i with 29%. Air travel got the least response of 4% only. Day visitors were only 13(6.5%) while most of the tourist stayed fo r one day to one week, in which 28% stayed for 3 -5 nights, 26% for 1 -2 nights, 23.5% for 1 week. 32 tourists stayed for more than a week with a contribution of 16%. 6.3 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS In table 2, the mean scores and std. deviations of the variables are clear. Among the independent variables advertising with the mean score of 3.8107 secured first rank followed by Publicity, Sales P romotion and Direct Marketing with 3.6875, 3.6510 and 2.4000 mean scores respectively.
ADVERTISING
DIRECT MARKETING
SALES PROMOTION
PUBLICITY
TOURISTS SATISFACTION VOLUM E NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 04 (APRIL ) ISSN 0976 -2183
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT
A Monthly Double -Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed /Juried) Open Access International e -Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories
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6.4 REGRESSION ANALYSIS Simple Linear Regression analysis has been used to evaluate the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable. Th e single variable regression takes the linear form of functional relations like: = + + When there are n data poi nts {(xi, yi), i = 1,..., n}, y is the dependent variable, ' x' is the independent variable, ' ' is the slope of the straight line and ' ' is the y – intercept. 1. H01: There is no significant impact of advertising on tourist’s satisfaction of the touris t visited Mussoorie. The value of R 2 was found to be 0.663 which depicts that 66.3% variance in tourist’s satisfaction is explained by advertising. F = 389.177 at P = 0.000 explains the model’s goodness of fit. Value of t = 19.728 shows positive and strong relationship between advertisement and tourist’s satisfaction. So after assessing these results it can be inferred that this hypothesis is rejected at 95% significance. 2. H02: There is no significant impact of sales promotion on tourist’s satisfaction of the tourist visited Mussoorie. The value of R 2 was found to be 0.703 which depicts that 70.3% variance in tourist’s satisfaction is explained by advertising. F = 467.685 at P = 0.000 explains the model’s goodness of fit. Value of t = 21.626 shows positive and strong relationship between sales promotio n and tourist’s satisfaction. So after assessing these results it can be inferred that this hypothesis is rejected at 95% significance. 3. H03: There is no significant impact of publicity on tourist’s satisfaction of the tourist visited Mussoorie. The value o f R2 was found to be 0.677 which depicts that 67.7% variance in tourist’s satisfaction is explained by advertising. F = 414.991 at P = 0.000 explains the model’s goodness of fit. Value of t = 20.369 shows positive and strong relationship between publicity and tourist’s satisfaction. So after assessing these results it can be inferred that this hypothesis is rejected at 95% significance. 4. H04: There is no significant impact of direct marketing on tourist’s satisfaction of the tourist visited Mussoorie. The va lue of R 2 was found to be 0.007 which depicts that 00.7% variance in tourist’s satisfaction is explained by advertising. F = 1.384 at P = 0.241 does not explains the model’s goodness of fit. Value of t = 1.176 shows positive and extremely weak relationship between direct marketing and tourist’s satisfaction. So after assessing these results it can be inferred that this hypothesis is accepted at 95% significance.
7. DISCUSSION
After observing the mean score of the elements of promotional mix it was found that highest mean score was of advertising, 3.8107, which created awareness in the tourist and later they were satisfied with the services availed in Mussoorie. Direct marketing got the lower mean score o f 2.4 and was found to be insignificant in relation to to urist’s satisfaction. The remaining two independent variables publicity and sales promotion followed advertising in order and have significant relationship with tourist satisfaction. Their means score was found to be 3.6875 and 3.6510 respectively, which s hows that tourist was motivated up to an extent but not highly motivated by these promotion tools. The overall satisfaction of the tourists is also in a good range and has m ean score of 3.7003 which shows that tourists have scored their satisfaction levels near satisfied but not highly satisfied.
8. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
8.1 CONCLUSION Based on the results and discussion of descriptive statistics and regression analysis the study can be concluded that only di rect marketing has no significance in creating awareness in tourists and also has no significant impact on tourist satisfaction. While the remaining three independent varia bles i.e. advertising, sales promotion and publicity were effective in creating awareness and found to have a strong and positive impact on tourist’s satisfaction. 8.2 RECOMMENDATIONS As level of satisfaction is not as high as it should be more focus should be given on the different satisfaction attributes i n Mussoorie so that it would lead to profitability. Although advertising, sales p romotion and publicity are having a better participation in influencing the awareness and motivational levels of tourist and converting them from potential to actual tourists but somewhere direct marketing is lagging behind, so proper emphasis sh ould give on different tools of direct marketing like direct mails, Kiosk marketing etc., in promoting Mussoorie as tourism destination. The foreign tourists are often mocked by locals and other peoples which should be avoided at all cost. Awareness regarding th e tr ue sense and meaning of ‘ Atithi Devo Bhava’ should be implemented in the society. Also proper historical description and path directions should be in English too. Public ation of some ‘=nformation Brochure’ in major foreign languages should be done. Informa tion Technology infrastructure and tourist information database should be properly developed and maintained. Up -to-date information should be available to the tourists round the clock. Tourist’s information centre should be placed in different entry and exit point so that it would be more convenient for the tourists and they can collect right information very easily. Cleanliness and ecofriendly environment should be well promoted and improved. Frequency in the different promotional tools like advertising and publicity should be implemented so as to create top of mind awareness.
9. LIMITATIONS
As this research is based on the tourist behavior therefore possibilities of some biased and irresponsible information could be provided while filling questionnaires which will be reflected in the analysis and interpretation that cannot be simply neglected. Respondents usually hesitate to s hare their true self and therefore it is one of the major limitations of the survey based research. Sample size could have been mor e to make it more representative and the findings cannot be generalized over total population of tourists in Mussoorie. Time and money constrains were also one of the limitations of the study. Data was only collected during the peak seasons. In the study o nly four elements were taken into consideration, other elements can also be incorporated in the study like personnel selling, word of mouth etc.
10. DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCHES
As the study has some limitations and had specific objectives, other elements relating to the promotion and satisfaction can be covered in future researches. Destination image also affects the tourist satisfaction which can be incorporated in the model. More and advanced statistical tools and techniques could be used for analyzing m ore results from the same or associated model.
REFERENCES
1. Bagozzi, R.P, 1998, “ Marketing Management ”, Upper Saddle River, New York: Prentice :all. 2. Baker, D A., & Crompton, J. L. (2000). Quality, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Annals of Tourism R esearch , 27(3), 785 -804. 3. Barsky, J.D. & Labagh, R. (1992). A strategy for customer satisfaction. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly , 35(3), 32 -40. 4. Bojanic, D. C. (1996). Consumer Perceptions of Price, Value and Satisfaction in the Ho tel Industry: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Management , 4(1), 5 –22. 5. Bolton, R. & Drew, J. (1994). Linking Customer Satisfaction to Service Operations and Outcomes. In R. Rust & R. Oliver (Eds), Service quality: New directions in theory & practice, (pp. 173 -200), Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications . 6. Fuchs, M. and Weiermair, K. (2003), “New Perspectives of Satisfaction Research in Tourism Destinations”, Tourism Review, vol. 58 (3), pp. 6 -14. 7. :ill, N. (1996), “:andbook of cu stomer satisfaction measurement”, Hampshire: Gower Publishing Ltd. VOLUM E NO. 7 (2016), ISSUE NO. 04 (APRIL ) ISSN 0976 -2183
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT
A Monthly Double -Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed /Juried) Open Access International e -Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories
http://ijrcm.org.in/
101
8. Kotler, P., Rein, I., & Haider, D. (1993). Marketing Places: Attracting Investment, Industry and Tourism to Cities, States and Nation . The Free Press . 9. Matear, S., Osbourne, P., Garrett, T. & Gray, B. (2002). How Does Market Orientation Contribute To Service Firm Performance? European Journal of Market- ing, 36(9/10), 1058 -1075. 10. Mohammadi, S., Esmaeily, N. & Salehi, N. (2012). Prioritization of promotion to ols based on AIDA model by Analytic Hierarchy process in production sector of sport industry. Archives of Applied Science Research , 4(4), 1670 -1675. 11. Monsef, S. M. S. & Raji, M. (2013). Assessment of Advertising Role in Guilan Province Tourism Industry Deve lopment. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contempo- rary Research in Business , 5(4), 446 -452. 12. Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory . New York: MacGraw -Hill. 13. Oliver, R. (1994). A conceptual model of service quality and service satisfaction: Compatible goals , different concepts. Advances in Consumer Research , 21, 16-22. 14. Otto, J. E., and J. R. B. Ritchie (1996). The Service Experience in Tourism. Tourism Management, 17(3), 165 –174. 15. Pearce, P.L., & Moscardo, G. (1998). The role of interpretation in influencing visitor satisfaction: A rainforest case study. In W. Faulkner, C. Tidswell, & D. Weaver (Eds), Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research , 1998, Part 1. Proceedings of the Eighth Australian Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference , Gold Coast (pp. 309 -319). Canberra: Bureau of Tourism Research . 16. Petersen, R.A., & Wilson, W.R. (1992). Measuring consumer satisfaction: Fact or artifact. Journal of Marketing Science, 20(1), 61 -71. 17. Sarker, M. A. H., Aimin, W. and Begum, S. (2012). Investigating the Impact of Marketing Mix Elements on Tourists’ Satisfaction: An Empirical Study on East Lake. European Journal of Business and Management , 4(7), 273 -281. 18. Sharpley, R. (2004). Tourism: A Vehicle for Development ? In R. Sharpley & D. J. Telfer (Eds.), Tourism and Devel opment: Concepts and Issues: Channel View Publications. 19. Sparks, B. (2000). Tourism satisfaction survey, Sunshine Coast. Project 2.3 of the Gold Coast Visioning Project. Work in Progress Report Series , Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism Pty. Ltd.
APPENDIX
TABLE 1: RELIABILITY TEST
Variables Cronbach's Alpha (a)*
Advertising 0.751
Sales Promotion 0.744
Publicity 0.869
Direct Marketing 0.745
Tourist satisfaction 0.897
Source: Compiled and calculated by researcher *Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.7 or higher are considered acceptable (Nunnally, 1978) TABLE 2: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Statements N Mean Std. Deviation
Advertising 200 3.8107 .37317
Sales Promotion 200 3.6510 .43236
Publicity 200 3.6875 .53328
Direct Marketing 200 2.4000 .43698
Tourist’s Satisfaction 200 3.7033 .33907
Source: Compiled and calculated by researcher TABLE 3: REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Model R R Square Coefficients t F P
Advertising .814 .663 .814(.740*) 19.728 389.177 .000
Sales Promotion .838 .703 .838(.657*) 21.626 467.685 .000
Publicity .823 .677 .823(.523*) 20.369 414.911 .000
Direct Marketing .083 .007 .083(.065*) 1.176 1.384 .241
Predictors: (Constant), Advertising, Sales Promotion, Publicity & Direct Marketing Dependent Variable: Tourist’s Satisfaction
Source: Compiled and calculated by researcher * Unstandardized Coefficients Copyright
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