Industrial Placement Report

INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT               28 June 2011                                                               

Industrial Placement Report                   

                                                  

 
 

 
 
 
 

Student: Dmitrij Goujov

Student number: 85949 (86058)

Class: ihme 210810

Number of characters (with space): 31.182 

TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                            PAGE

Presentation of Placement Company                                           3

Evaluation of the industrial placement                                        4

Consideration of the problem statement                                      8

Data, analysis, suggestions to solution                                         11

Conclusion                                                                                      16                                                                              

List of references                                                                            18

Attachment                                                                                    19

Log Book April/May/June 2011                   19

Interview #1                                                                                     28

Interview #2                                                                                     30

Statistics                                                                                          32

Segmentation                                                                                   33           
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

PRESENTATION OF PLACEMENT COMPANY 

Tourism Intelligence Institute was founded in 2010 as a supporting organization in growth of Danish tourism. TII is a practice – oriented think tank. Its mission is in cooperation, planning and new thinking within the Industry. Today the institute is running several projects such as sustainable tourism, emerging markets and experience economy. TII’s project ‘Denmark in Russia – Russians in Denmark’ (DIRRID) plans integration of Public Relations through TV-spots about Denmark in Russian TV, cultural promotion - exhibition of Danish-Russian relations, export promotion – Danish Days in Ural, intercultural events – conferences on democracy, Danish State Visit to Russia in September 2011 and traditional sales work – workshops and participation in travel fairs. TII expects to attract minimum 50.000 Russian visitors from 2013. This represents more than doubling compared to the figure for 2010. The project promises to generate 50.000 tourists with 150.000 accommodated nights, 2.000 jobs in Hotel, Transport, Restaurant, and Attraction sectors of Hospitality Industry.

Founded in 1982, Robinson Scandinavia has arranged individual and group tours of Russia and Scandinavia for hundreds of thousands of satisfied clients. Company’s considerable buying power and extensive knowledge of Nordic countries have enabled them to offer maximum value and enjoinment to many visitors each year.

Robinson Scandinavia is more than a travel service company. Its team of travel professionals and highly educated and diverse staff of language experts has arranged over 2000 technical visits for public administrators, private sector executives, and academics visiting Scandinavia and Asia.

Company’s Russian Travel partners need more qualified assistance in creating an increased demand for Danish tourism products among Russian Travellers. The company is taking part in the Dolce Vita workshop in Copenhagen for its friends and colleagues in the Russian Travel Industry. Robinson Scandinavia is trying to approach the Russian market in a more diversified way to boost a higher demand for inviting more travellers to Denmark. Peer Kjaer – director of Sales and Marketing and Tue Paarup – director of Tourism Intelligence Institute are trying out new models, PR and Press, old and new communication platforms.

The company has been trying new approaches in Sales and Marketing regarding Russian customers since 1976. In 2004-5 the company slowly started getting requests from Russian and Ukrainian travel companies on cooperation in creating a tourist product sellable to the Russian and Ukrainian customers. In 2005 the company joined the first Visit Denmark campaign for investigating the possibilities for travel from former SU countries. In 2006 Robinson Scandinavia A/S hired the first Russian speaking employee to be in charge of the Russian speaking markets.¹ 

EVALUATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL PLACEMENT 

Industrial Placement in incoming tourist agency Robinson Scandinavia A/S and consequently in Tourism Intelligence Institute offered an experience in daily challenges and managerial issues and an opportunity to apply competences by working with a real practical problem statement for a company in the tourism industry. Applied competences relate to Culture, Marketing and Management. The focus of a project is on Danish tourist products in the Russian Outbound Travel market and the objectives of increasing Sales and promotion of positive awareness of Denmark as a tourist destination. A research of different sources on the Russian Outbound Travel market uncovered new business opportunities in the field of tourism. An understanding of company’s daily operations and management has been developed and provided opportunities for further cooperation. The company has provided a supervision that assisted with the projects. The industrial placement became a success for both parties and allowed to use personal skills and knowledge in promotion of the company’s unique selling points. Success is a slow process, and a chosen problem statement requires further communication in different target groups, cooperation with regional representatives and promotion of company’s strategy. It appears necessary for the company and Tourism Intelligence Institute to continue working with various TV Channels and journalists for creation of positive cultural awareness of Denmark as a tourist destination in Russia. Academic Objectives for the Placement were agreed as the increase in sales and distribution of the Danish Hospitality products in Russia and other former SU countries and development of marketing – oriented Public Relations. Professional goals as solution of practical work – related tasks were attended. Physical facilities for the Placement were provided.  PR management related tasks were attended in assistance to creation of culturally knowledgeable TV programs about Denmark and its people. 

In support of the company’s strategy to work with TV Media tours I have got an opportunity to feel the whole specter of Public Relations functions in coordination, communication, consultation,  tour program planning and field work with the TV crews. The end product of the TV Media tour, organized and hosted by the company, is a program about Denmark and its people aired for 50 – 70 million audience in Russian Federation. The programs create constructive and positive cultural awareness of Denmark and its people prior Danish State Visit to Moscow and S Petersburg in September 2011.  TV programs feature historical places, interesting people, production of world famous brands, culture, rituals, cults, popular shows, plays and festivals. Depending on the demands of each particular TV channel or TV Company the genre of the programs is diverse. Episodes in the programs about Denmark include informative, representative and entertaining elements. Programs include episodes on travel, adventure, experience, innovations, traditional craft and trade, and meeting interesting people. Russian and Ukrainian TV Media programs hosted by Tourism Intelligence Institute and Robinson Scandinavia A/S mostly concentrate on travel and country experience issues. They touch upon historical, cultural and social aspects of Danish society.

The role of Public Relations is to communicate the position of the company and its campaign, reach new segments of the customers and promote Danish tourist products in Russia and Ukraine. It is perhaps the influence of globalization and the development of the technological progress that almost every production and service company needs good and effective PR as a marketing tool in its activities. PR, CR and communication officers are all working in different manner but the ultimate goal to achieve is to inform the public about the company’s activities, marketing and advertising campaigns connected to the presentation of the new or modified products and services in the markets and facilitation of the relationships with the company. Their job is to find and shape the marketing channels for the products and services - to announce, monitor and receive a feedback from the customers.  PR facilitate the companies’ penetration of new markets, find and communicate to the new emerging segments of the customers and assist in creation of new marketing channels.

At the practice, the company’s partners’ data base was added with the new contacts that emerged during the company’s latest sessions in Dolce Vita workshop of the Tourist Industry in Copenhagen. Russian partners that took part in the workshop belong to two different groups: MICE² events and Leisure tours organizers. Invitation to Royal Days in Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg in September 6 – 9 was translated for the company’s partners and Mass Media sources. Coordination of Press accreditations has been arranged in cooperation with The Trade Council in Danish Embassy, Moscow. With an average annual growth approximately 7% since the turn of the millennium Russia offers opportunities to the development of business cooperation. The Danish State Visit to Russia is a chance to highlight Danish key competences and companies. Six major business sectors have been invited to participate in the state visit: Tourism, Energy and Environment, Agriculture and Food Production, Healthcare, Retail and Transportation.

One of the first assignments was to make a draft of a company’s press-release for Press, Mass Media and Social Networks in connection with Denmark’s State Visit to Russia in September 2011. Company’s press-release was posted on an internet site for Mass Media: www.forsmi.ru/node/33838. The objective of posting press-releases was to interest journalists and motivate them to contact the company for comments and additional information. Moscow News daily newspaper in English contacted the company to get directions for accreditation at Danish State Visit arrangements in Russia. An assignment considering statistics on the most effective and popular Social Media Networks has been attended³. An assessment of several Russian and one Ukrainian TV Channel was provided and answered various marketing questions, e.g. the share of the audience with maximum purchasing power parity. Segmentation of the market of Danish tourist products in Russia was provided. The company’s partner in Dolce Vita Copenhagen workshop, a project manager of S7 Airlines⁴ with the largest in Russia network of internal and external routs, made a segmentation of his clients and provided significantly new information on customers in Russia. Segmentation of the Russian customers in the market of tourist products has shown that there emerged and formatted a whole new class of people mostly in the cities with more than 4.000.000 population with a demand for new tourist products. Geographical span of new customers includes Central Russia, Urals and Western Siberia. An average income of middle and upper middle class in Russia is between 2.000 – 4.000 euros per month. Occupationally this people are office workers – managers, directors, employees of the banks, finance, and oil and gas industries. Most of them have families, children, higher education - and they do not often use tourism services. For the Danish incoming tourist firm Robinson Scandinavia A/S these people make a target segment that should be included on the Robinson’s customers and partners list. It would have been an ideal for the company to have a Russian tourist company – partner, to take care of marketing and sales of a Danish tourist product at short hand in Russian towns in various geographical regions. Tourism organization Visit Denmark segmented 5 different consumer groups on the market of Danish tourist products in Russia in 2011⁵.  It made approximately 13.350.000 customers to address Industry’s marketing strategies. According to the newspaper ‘Argumenty I Fakty’( Economics, May 2011), Russian Federation’s economic concept of development in 2011 plans to increase a share of the middle class to 60-70%.

Industrial placement required various skills in organization, research, communication and management. Coordination of each TV Media Tour challenged a lot of work in communication and allocation, with the editors of the programs and the company’s management, of the sources for the filmed episodes by the TV crew. Approval of filmed episodes had to be balanced between the sponsors of the program and the creative staff of the program. The demand of the editors of the program based in Russia sometimes was not supported by the sources and actual appointments made with people of interesting professions in Denmark. The field work with TV crews required consultations of the journalists and knowledge of the locations and people.

The company’s objective to assist Ukrainian and Russian film makers in creating a positive cultural assurance of Denmark as an interesting tourist destination became possible thanks to close cooperation with the sponsors of the project, the goodwill of people on locations, and coordination, communication and technical assistance provided by the Robinson Scandinavia team. Ukrainian TV program ‘Audience’ and Russian TV program ‘Kontrast’ are now working on the stories from Denmark. The programs will contribute to the objective of attracting more tourists to Denmark from Ukraine and Russia. 

           CONSIDERATION OF THE PROBLEM STATEMENT 

What should be done to increase level of sales of Danish tourist products on Russian Outbound Travel Market?

In recent years Tourism Intelligence Institute and Robinson Scandinavia A/S incoming tourism agency, organized technical visits, TV tours and sold tours customized to the demands of private travellers. A lot has been done for using mass media platforms for providing information and facilitating various visits to the country.

Technical visits or professional study tours provide public administration, private sector executives and academics with some knowledge and technologies from professionals in their field. A variety of fields include architecture and design, agriculture, public administration, education, healthcare and social service, environment and energy. This is mainly done for export and cooperation development with partners over sees. Technical visits give a hand-on view of the design, implementation, and success of a service, process or product. The objective is to boost the Danish export of energy saving technologies, waste treatment and renewable energy solutions on the Russian market, to promote the know-how of waste treatment, and to educate Russian partners. The Russian market needs equipment for processing and recycling of waste, such as compactors and shredders, equipment and technology for the automatic sorting of mixed waste and medical waste. Technical visits also contribute to a strategy of creation a new, green economy growth by satisfying soaring global demand for solutions in the energy, climate adaptation and environment. Robinson Scandinavia A/S provides travel, accommodation and translation services.

TV Media Tours organized by TII⁶ and Robinson Scandinavia A/S provide sponsorship and hosting of TV programs. Examples are: Ukrainian 1st State TV Channel program ‘Audience’, Russian TV Channel 3 program ‘Daleko I eshe dalshe’ – ‘Far away and even further’, with a genre related to culture and travel. It is a support in creation of media stories about Denmark, its people, trade and places of interests. Described programs provide multimillion audiences in Russia and Ukraine with a first-hand information and image of the Country and its people. The intention is to convey a story for the Russian and Ukrainian public, create positive awareness of Denmark as tourist destination. The AIDA model of marketing communication describes sequence of the process as the capture of Attention of the audiences and promotion of an Interest provide Desire to experience destination which stimulates Action to buy tours provided by Robinson Scandinavia A/S. An average TV Media Tour costs 50.000 – 75.000 kr., and includes sponsored air tickets (10 – 15.000 kr.), car rental (12.000 kr.), accommodation (20.000 kr), food and beverages (6.000 kr.), guides, entrances, toll fees and other expenses (5.000 -7.000 kr.). A mobile TV Media crew consists of a TV host, producer and cameraman.

Russian TV3 Channel company Contrast, program ‘Far away and even further’ with a famous TV host Michael Kozhukhov filmed episodes and made interviews on locations with the Danes.

TV stand-ups⁷ were filmed in the locations of Nyhavn, little Mermaid, on a boat across the Copenhagen channels. A special attention has been given to the Viking festival in Frederikssund which celebrated its 60th jubilee this year. The Viking play⁸ ‘Arnulf The Wolf’s Blood’ was attended as well as the Viking market in Frederikssund. Russian TV host met the leaders of the Viking cult and was invited take part in their ritual.

The management of chocolate production Toms group kindly provided an access of Russian TV crew to the factory, licorice candies production lines and answered the questions about the production. The TV crew made filming of various historical locations in Copenhagen and made an interview with the owner of the bicycle shop in Nørrebro.

Journalist feedback: journalists’  expectations found a good match in actual covering of materials.

In consideration of the problem statement Visit Denmark segmented five new consumption groups that represent 13.350.000 customers on the market of Danish tourist products in Russia 2011. These groups emerged within last 15 years of free market democracy⁹ in Russia. The situation in the markets of Russia nowadays is that almost any Demand finds it’s Supply in these markets. Hospitality Industry’s marketing strategies should be addressed to a growing middle class in Russia.

Prior Danish State Visit to Russia in September 2011 TII made up from various sources a comprehensive list of more than 700 Russian tour operators, agents, and industry decision makers. They will receive personal invitations to the arrangements in Moscow and S Petersburg. The arrangements will take place in GUM¹⁰ and Hotel Astoria¹¹ respectively. Russian partners in Tourism Industry are invited to take part in B2B meetings and seminars. “Whoever participates on Russian side, after they return home from the meetings in GUM and Astoria they will fill better equipped to sell Denmark as a tourist destination. We are providing knowledge and products for Russian partners”, said Tue Paarup, the Director of Tourism Intelligence Institute¹². TII facilitates the events and is doing a lot of Public Relations and Social Media to create a positive awareness in Russian partners and customers about the Danish State Visit to Russia. At the B2B meetings partners will be provided with the leads on sales. The main incentive for Danish companies to take participation at B2B negotiations in Moscow and S Petersburg will be to strike some company deals. TII has close connections to some TV production companies, written and digital press. Relevant media is invited to cover the B2B and B2C meetings. Company’s partners will have a unique opportunity to promote their products and services in leading Russian media. Peer Kjaer predicted a turnover from the new markets as 10 -15 million kr. per year. He is ready to sign the contracts, find new partners and investors. His company would need a section with 3 – 5 people in operation, sales production and communication with Russian partners and customers. 

DATA, ANALYSIS, SUGGESTIONS TO SOLUTIONS 

Big city partners

Approximate amount of customers in the new emerged middle class segments of population is approximately: 13.350.000  Income - from 1000 to 4000 euros per month, with relatively high disposal of income and low housing rent. Emerging middle class families typically take minimum 1-2 holiday trips annually. Expressed demand is for tourist products adjusted to family needs. An image of the tour is important. Expressed demand is for purchasing of designer clothes and material goods reflecting success. Travel regarded as not luxury, but a fundamental lifestyle as well as good education and knowledge of European languages. Typically inhabitants of big cities like Moscow and S Petersburg, Big city customers are accessible through travel partners of TII and Robinson Scandinavia A/S. I would suggest that more close cooperation with the travel partners is necessary. It appears important to know more about how the offered tours are advertised in Russia, what creates a positive cultural assurance of the tourist destination, and what expectations the customers have prior their visits to Denmark.  

Regional partners