UNIVERSITY CENTRE "CÉSAR RITZ"

IP proposal

>Submitted on
12th. Tuesday 2013

>by:
Hao Xu
193302

Word Count:
1864

>Submitted to: Ms. Ewa Maciejewski
Business Research

Table of Content

1. Working Title 3 2. Purpose and Justification 3 3. Objectives 3 4. Literature Review 4 4.1 Recession 4 4.2 Customer behaviour 5 4.3 Customer behavior during economic recession 5 4.4 Marketing strategies 6 5. Methodology 6 5.1 Research philosophy 6 5.2 Research approach 7 5.3 Research strategy and data collection method 7 5.4 Sample size, data analysis method and ethical issues 7 6. Anticipated findings 8 References 9

1. Working Title
Marketing Strategies in Tourism Industry Based on Consumer Behaviour during Economic Recession
2. Purpose and Justification
It is crucial for the companies in tourism industry to make appropriate marketing strategies during economic recession in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in markets. Marketing Strategies would be suggested in this study based on the analysis of customer behaviors during economic recession. Previous literature related to customer behaviors during economic recession would be explored to investigation the motivations behind the purchase in order to help the companies in tourism industry to make effective marketing strategies. The findings of this study would make an important contribution in understanding the changes of customer behaviors in travel during economic recession and strategic implications for the companies in various industries. In addition, this study would be of significance to academic research since it would provide a good start for future research on motivations of the customers in travel during economic recession. Since no other research of this topic had been conducted, the study could be justified to carry out.
3. Objectives
The aim of this dissertation is to investigate customer behaviours in tourism industry during economic recession and suggest the practical marketing strategies for the companies in tourism industry based on the analysis of customer behaviours in order to enhance their performance and achieve competitive advantages. This dissertation would be guided by the following objectives:
The first objective is to summarize the current and relevant literature customer behaviours in tourism industry during economic recession in order to investigate the motivation and customer behaviours while making decision for travel.
The second objective is to investigate the current marketing strategies used by the companies in tourism industry and discuss their advantages and limitations.
The third objective is to investigate the customer behaviors in travel during economic recession based on the data collected from questionnaires.
The fourth objective is to make some practical advices to the companies in tourism industry to attract more customers and achieve more profit during economic recession.
4. Literature Review
In order to deal with economic recession, various marketing strategies were carried out by the companies in tourism industry in order to attract more customers. Previous research on recession, consumer behavior and market strategies are reviewed as follows.
4.1 Recession
Various definitions of recession have been proposed by the economists and academic researchers and there is not a standard definition of recession accepted by all researchers. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER, 2011) defines recession as an obvious decrease in economic activity across the economy which could last a few months or longer. McConnell and Brue (2008) point that business activities would decrease, national GDP would decline and the unemployment rate would increase during recession. However, Dillingham (1992) holds that recession is a period of falling down in real Gross Net Product (GNP). Some researchers define recession as the structural break and Little (2009) describes