Study of Polish market sales in co-operation with intermediaries, Case: Company X

The aim of this case study is to find ways to increase sales of company X in the Polish market. Company X operates in hospitality field in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. As there has been an increase in sales in the Polish market and there has been economic growth in Poland, as well as, growth in the country’s outbound tourism in general, the company sees potential in the market area. The study focuses on the leisure travel from Poland, both group and free independent travel, FIT. Work related travel and meetings, incentive, conference and events, MICE, travel are left out of the scope of the study. The research is conducted in co-operation with the company’s intermediaries, which are travel agencies and tour operators. The theoretical background of the research is studied first. In the beginning the Polish economy, outbound travel and outbound expenditure are studied, moving on to tourism motivation theories, marketing theories and tourism megatrends. The intermediaries were interviewed by using a semi-structured interview method. Based on the theoretical background of the research, the interviews were divided into 3 themes, which included motivation to travel, marketing theories and tourism megatrends. The results of the interviews provide a view of different group and FIT leisure travel segments of Polish guests. Group travel can be divided into catalogue groups, company groups as well as school and student groups. The FIT segment at the moment mostly relies on fishing tours. However, the interviewees explained that self-fly, self-drive and camping car FIT segments could have more potential to increase sales in the future. The guest’s motivation to travel are related to the novelty of the product as well as the unique product and unique destinations, including nature in the destinations. A very important factor is that the company X’s destinations are reachable with a car. An important need of the Polish guests is the value for money. A challenge in the marketing is the lack of marketing of the company X’s destinations in Poland, therefore the company and its partners need to market the destinations themselves. The most relevant tourism megatrends in terms of company X and the Polish market are for example growing middle class and digital channels. Among the middle class there is a growing trend of travelling with a camping car. Based on the results of the research the study provides a marketing plan for a potential new segment of guests travelling to company X’s destinations with a camping car, which is called as camper segment in the study. The implementation of the plan and measuring the results is left for the case company to conduct. The targeting of the camper segment should focus on the digital channels, and benefits greatly from co-operation with online travel agencies, OTA’s. Cross-selling and cross-marketing are very important factors as well. Company X should not forget the group travel segments either, as most of the guests are travelling with groups. However, the current marketing plans done in co-operation with intermediaries, in the group travel segments, are most beneficial for the case company at the moment