British Airways’ inbound leisure market to Machester,England: Is direct marketing the answer?

Abstract

Research was undertaken to explore British Airways’ (BA) inbbound leisure market from Europe to Manchester and evaluate their use of direct marketing activity to increase leisure traffic on European routes. BA currently has direct sales offices based all over Europe, promoting leisure travel to the UK. It was decided to focus on the marketing activity on four core routes originating from France, Germany and Spain.

To achieve the objectives of the research both qualitative and quantitative methods of primary data collection were used. Focus groups were conducted at the BA overseas sales offices with sales managers and members of their sales teams. An in-flight survey was undertaken with BA leisure passengers from Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf to gain insights into their travel patterns, trends and motivations.

This paper reports on findings from both the qualitative and quantitative stages of the research process. Research findings showed that none of the overseas offices had a leisure marketing strategy in place or had undergone market segmentation studies to identify visitors’ patterns. Despite a move towards and recognition of the importance of direct selling, the main distribution channel used was still shown to bbe tour operators. Significant differences in approach towards distribution methods were also identified between the three countries.