I am making a marketing plan that targets young Belgian tourists to
come to California for a 16 day trip, starting in San Diego and
finishing in San Fransisco. How much money would a young professional
spend on average during a 16 day stay in California? What is a
realistic budget that you would have to market this package? This is
for a college project. What would be the best way to market the plan
to Belgians, direct mail, magazines, brochures etc...? |
Clarification of Question by
gthelink-ga
on
07 May 2005 08:12 PDT
This is for an international marketing project where I am marketing
the state of California to Belagian tourists.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
07 May 2005 09:09 PDT
gthelink-ga
The answers to your questions depend in great measure on what sort of
package you're putting together (e.g. do they travel by bus within
California?), and on whether its being marketed as a budget trip, a
luxury trip, or something in between.
As an (almost) young professional myself, I would anticipate spending
as follows, with numbers given as budget/high-end:
hotel -- $100/250 per day
food -- $50/150
other expenses, such as entrance fees and taxis -- $25/$100
I haven't included personal expenses, such as souvenirs, shopping, toiletries, etc.
Of course, the travel costs could be reduced considerably by
negotiating special deals with hotels or attractions regarding the per
person cost...for a really low-budget trip, travellers could share a
motel room and reduce costs even more.
As for a budget to market the package, well...that depends entirely
what the package is. A one-time, small scale, low price trip has a
correspondingly small marketing budget of, say, only a few hundred
dollars, tops.
But a high-price packcage that will be repeated many times would have
a much higher marketing budget, probably up to $10,000 for starters.
As for targeting the Belgium young professional market, I can't help
you much there, as I'm not too familiar with the turf. But certainly,
printed brochures distributed to travel agents, and printed
advertisements in newspapers and magazines are an obvious option. And
if there are travel websites particularly favored by this
deomographic, then e-marketing certainly makes sense as well.
Beyond this preliminary information, what sort of added details would
you need to make for a complete answer to your question.
Let me know, and I'll do my best to help you out.
Happy trails...
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
gthelink-ga
on
07 May 2005 12:37 PDT
Basically, we have high end packages laid out already.
San Diego Four Seasons
295 per night with the 4th night free
Newport Beach Four Seasons
250 per night with the 4th night free
Los Angeles Four Seasons with 4th night free
San Fransisco Four Seasons
295 per night with the 4th night free
I spoke to somebody at the Belgian Consulate in Los Angeles and he
told me that as long as they feel like they are getting bargains on
plane flights, that Belgians will come and spend an average of 12-16
days here and spend a lot of money on partying and clothes. Our goal
as a group that through our plan, we want them to stay the maximum
days with it essentially being 4 free nights(see above) in terms of
lodging. What I need is real sources of how much we would have to work
with in terms of budgeting for advertising in publications,
newspapers, and e-marketing in Belgium, and what those real
publications, newspapers, and e-marketing sites are and how much it
cost to run an add etc? I was also thinking of finding out how to get
direct mailing lists because I know in the US we have those that
companies pay for.(Tourist Associations or whatever) That is the
biggest point of the project. My teacher said we have the product and
a great way to sell it, but we are missing the biggest part which is
how are we going to market it to Belgians specifically and physically?
If I know what the average Belgian spends besides the hotel and rental
cars(which are available for 30.00 dollars a day at each property)
then I can put quantitative goals in terms of how much more revenue we
will bring to CA with our project.
|
Clarification of Question by
gthelink-ga
on
07 May 2005 12:58 PDT
Also, 85000 Belgians came to California last year, with our package we
would like to increase that to 90,000 or more. I just need solid
sources of info to calculate this all. Then I can figure out how much
we will bring in etc... Do you think there is a real budget that the
State of CA has for marketing to certain countries, and if there was,
how would I find that info?
|
Clarification of Question by
gthelink-ga
on
07 May 2005 14:15 PDT
I just got some info on how much running a banner on 3 of the popular
travel websites in Belgium cost anywhere from a monthly 100$ and up
depending on the size. So that would be 3600 minimum for one year of
advertising on three sites. I think that is enough, but what about
Direct Mailing lists?
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
07 May 2005 17:00 PDT
I'm glad to hear you got the web banner information, since my own
experience with direct marketing is much more in the mailing/emailing
line.
In the US, a mailing list generally costs anywhere from $.10 (ten
cents) to $0.75 per name and address. The more specially targeted the
list, the higher the cost.
Taking a middle cost of about $0.50 per name, a list targeting 10,000
young, affluent, professionals in Belgium would cost about $5,000.
Designing a professional brochure and mailing materials, would be an
additional $4-5,000, and printing and mailing costs (postage,
handling) would be (yet again) about $5,000.
So, the total start-up cost for a direct mailing campaign (based on my
experience in the US) would be about $15,000 for the first broad
mailing.
Subsequent mailings are considerably less, since the brochure is
already designed and printed, and a mailing list is already at hand
(assuming the license with the list allows multiple mailings).
An email campaign can be quite a bit cheaper -- about $8-10,000 --
since there are so little production, handling and distribution costs.
A good resource in Belgium is the site of the Belgium Direct Marketing Association:
http://www.bdma.be/
Note the link near the top of the page: "Who's Who in Direct
Marketing? Click here for the BDMA Member List"
Clicking on this will take you to a directory of Direct Marketing
firms in (or servicing) Belgium. On the left hand side is a list of
the types of services offered -- Agencies, copywriting, lawyers, etc.
Click on:
Data - Listbroking & Renting
for a list of firms that sell mailing lists and email lists.
The first such firm listed is:
Willy Braillard SA
I checked their website for prices of lists, and they seem comparable
to the US costs I cited above. For instance, have a look at this
page:
http://www.braillard.be/en/fichiers_disponibles.asp?FICHIER=1295&LANG=EN
where they cite costs of ? 250 for a thousand names and addresses, and
somewhat more for an e-mail list.
I'm not certain what additional information you may need at this point
to make for a complete answer to your question. If there's more that
you need, let me know, and I'll try to provide it.
Looking forward to hearing back from you...and best of luck with your venture.
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
gthelink-ga
on
07 May 2005 20:08 PDT
I am going to stick to an $11,100 budget and only target 6,000
Belgians. This is a lot more realistic. I heard that the Hong Kong
Tourist Association of CA only spends about 100,000$ on their
marketing, so I think given that only 10.5 million people live in
Belgium, $11,100 is sufficient, especially if we use Braillard, who
from what I read, tailors to higher income clients. If we can just get
500- 1,000 additional Belgians here, at an average of 6-8,000$ spent
while here, we are talking about a lot of additional revenue for the
tourism sector of CA. What do you think.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
07 May 2005 20:20 PDT
Yes, I think the $11,000 budget to target a specific set of 6,000
high-income young professionals in Belgium sounds about right.
I also agree with the typical expenses of $6-8,000 per trip.
However, booking 1,000 people for a trip after a mailing to 6,000
would be an astoundingly successful rate of return, if the mailing was
your only marketing effort. Even a 5% return -- 300 people -- would
be a pretty nice response. But if your marketing also includes web
advertising or other outreach, then it may be reasonable to shoot for
1,000.
Again, let me know if there's other information you need at this
point, or if I should post my information as a formal answer to your
question.
Cheers,
paf
|
Clarification of Question by
gthelink-ga
on
07 May 2005 21:20 PDT
I am grateful for your info, my group members don't really care about
this project as much as I do. They are graduating, and I have one
semester left after this one.The presentation is tuesday, and I have
not heard from them in 3 days. I think the 5% return is a much more
realistic goal. If they spent 6,000, than were talking 1.8 million in
additional revenue, and if they spend 8,000, then 2.4 million. This
obviously covers the 11,100 budget that we are asking the (ficticious)
tourism board, which is basically the class and the professor. I might
have some more questions for you after I get some feedback from my
prof. Thanks again. What do you do for a living?
|
<Marketing to Belgians.
The best way to market this would probably be through the services of
Visit USA ? Belgium, a non-profit organisation that offers brochure
distribution and the opportunity to rent stands at consumer travel
shows in Belgium. A booth at the Antwerp Holiday Fair, a consumer
show, costs $1,100 and brochure distribution costs $510. The show
attracts 178,000 visitors. Further details are given below.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/en/gr114403e.html
Vacation spending by Belgians.
An average of $184 per person per day.
The average Belgian traveller to the US is aged between 19 and 40 is
married, speaks English, is highly educated, has friends living in the
US and enjoys a socio-economic status slightly higher than the Belgian
median.
Most Belgian tourists buy economy level airplane tickets.
Estimated tourist costs per party are:
Transportation - $432
Lodging - $752
Food - $532
Gifts - $382
Entertainment - $302
Marketing to Belgians.
The Visit USA Center- Belgium offers a number of services to
subscribing members including active promotion of their products and
destinations to the press, travel trade and general public and special
rates at fairs and seminars.
They offer two levels of membership:
Memberships costing $125 per year entitles you to attend the General
Assembly, be a candidate
for the board, be an exhibitor at the USA Pavilion at fairs or
workshops, be mentioned on all literature and on their website as a
member.
Service Membership, costing $700 per year, includes all of the above
items and additionally provides members with an extremely active
documentation distribution service.
For more information contact:
Visit USA Marketing and Promotion Bureau ? Belgium
Bernard Guisset, Vice Chairman
PO Box 1, Berchem 3
B-2600 Bornem, Belgium
Fax: 32.3.230.09.14
info@visitusa.org
www.visitusa.org
(Source: Strategis.gc.ca.)
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/en/gr109566e.html
Belgians average spending is $2,500 per trip.
U.S travel suppliers are recommended to participate in the travel
shows aimed at Belgians. These include:
Vakanz Holiday Fair. Luxembourg
Holiday Fair, Brussels
Holiday Fair, Antwerp
Visit USA Workshop.
(Source: Strategis.gc.ca.)
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/en/gr124447e.html
The prices charged by Visit USA for brochure distribution, consumer
shows and website advertising are detailed below:
Brochure distribution costs - $510
For distribution to the public, agencies, incentive agencies and tour operators.
Consumer shows
Luxembourg ? booth $1,100, brochure distribution $510
Brussels ? booth $2,150, brochure distribution $510
Antwerp ? booth $1,800, brochure distribution $510
Website advertising
Website listing under one category ? free for members.
Main Home Page and General pages from $360 to $725 with bids for the top banner.
Category pages from $220 to $725
Both of the above $510 to $1,000 with bids for the top banner.
http://www.visitusa.org/events/2005%20Tourism%20Events%20in%20Belgium-Lux.doc
According to the California Travel and Tourism Commission a recent in
state marketing campaign in California generated $198 for every dollar
spent on marketing.
http://www.clia.org/print.cfm?newsid=101>
<Search strategy:>
<belgians spent vacation>
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<"antwerp holiday fair">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-17%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=%22antwerp+holiday+fair%22>
<"dollar spent on marketing" california tourism>
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<Hope this helps.> |
