TRIPVISION CONDUCTS MARKET RESEARCH FOR ROMANIAN NATIONAL TOURIST OFFICE

BACKGROUND

The Romanian Tourist Authority needed to carry out market research in the UK to find out how Romania was perceived. They particularly wanted to discover the tourism products and services the UK market were looking for and interested in. It would then be able to match these requirements with the wide diversity of tourism products it has to offer.

It was very important that they developed a marketing strategy for the UK and provided advice to the Romanian Tourist Authority in Bucharest. This would enable them to expand the country’s tourism market share, which was lower when compared to destinations such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Poland.

THE CHALLENGE

Irina Amariutei, Director of the Romanian Tourist Office in the UK, needed to commission first class market research. She needed quantitive as well as qualitative research and had a limited budget. It was vital to ensure that the budget was used in the most cost effective way and that the data she acquired would be accurate and pertinent.

THE STRATEGY

Potential companies were then sought to carry out this market research from those listed on the Internet through the Association of Market Research. There was a tremendous response to this initial request. This list was refined and candidates were selected with experience in travel and knowledge of the Eastern European
Marketplace. A detailed brief was sent out to 13 companies.

It was also decided that it was essential to obtain more information and validation of the companies who were offering their services. TripVision was added to the final list because their offer was the most comprehensive, their offer fitted the budget and they were also able to offer continuous ongoing research. This helped Romania to contact a larger sample of respondents.

TripVison was not the only company who understood the brief but their offer was the most comprehensive. The fact that they already had travel sector experience was a major factor in selecting them. They knew the marketplace and had the contacts.

THE SOLUTION

TripVision were chosen because they matched all the criteria requested in the brief. They had also came with a recommendation from ABTA – proof of their professionalism. Romania did not have a huge budget and they were able to deliver the reliable quantitive and qualitative research we required. Many companies could offer the first, but not the second.

It was also very important that this was continuous, ongoing research which enabled Romania to be kept well informed of the market trends and focussed on the relevant products.

HOW THE RESEARCH WAS DONE

TripVision first took advantage of their unique travel tracking study to establish the true base line for British tourism to Romania. Asking some 2000 respondents ‘have you ever been to Romania’ did this and ‘would you ever consider going’.

As well as quantifying the penetration of Romania as a destination, and a measure of consumer interest by degree, this also generated a substantial population of randomly selected people with full socio –demographics. TripVision was then able to recruit robust focus groups for deeper investigation.

TripVision proceeded to conduct a series of unique focus groups in a home location called ‘ clinics’. These differ from the traditional focus group by being prefaced by a written questionnaire the members complete on their own, to establish their base line attitudes. The technique avoids the well-known phenomena of the focus group becoming overly influenced by a dominant and vocal member.

Then, in a group, alternative stimuli tailored to the group’s concerns were shown and discussed. The final step was for the focus group members complete a post questionnaire that could subsequently be compared with their ‘going in‘ views to see which stimuli worked in terms of increasing their intention to visit Romania.

The final output gave the Romanian tourist office a detailed recommendation of what advertising and product positions excited what kinds of consumers, by level of interest and by socio demographic type – and how to reach them.

THE RESULTS

The tourist authority was “extremely happy” with the TripVision research. “It was very comprehensive, recommendations and key findings were very good. We could estimate consumer behaviour and everything was very detailed. When the results from all other countries were analysed by head office in Bucharest, I was told that the results from the UK were the best.”

TIMESCALES

TripVision was quick to respond at every stage. The final results were a little delayed but this was attributable to tour operators’ responses being late coming in. It was acceptable because the research was very good and the Minister (of tourism) was satisfied.

FUTURE PLANS

TripVision’s research is now being used to help Romania prepare an ongoing tourism strategy to grow the number of visitors from the UK.

PERSONAL VIEWPOINT AND ADVICE

“My advice to other tourist boards would be to make sure they know what they want from the research. The better they co-operate, the better the results are – they have to get involved and give feedback when asked. It is also important to have a travel specialist market research company who know the business.”