Marketing Plan for Langkawi

Executive summary Langkawi, such an amazing island, attracted a lot of people from all over the world. Unbalanced regional development, domestic and foreign tourism competition make Langkawi cannot get a development very well, that is the reason why Langkawi cannot be the world-wild attraction. A right marketing plan can make Langkawi give full play to its advantages and make up for weakness, and then get a good development of marketing. Setting marketing objectives, confirm target markets, use marketing strategies to develop a marketing plan for Langkawi is the focal point of this article.

Introduction Langkawi, “The Island of Legend” is located 108 kilometers northwest of Peninsular Malaysia, the border of Malaysia and Thailand. Comprising a group of 104 islands, the biggest one is Langkawi, it is a place for those seeking tranquility and refuge from the hustle and bustle of city life. The area is about 526 square kilometers. The main island ps about 25 kilometers from north to south. Two-thirds of island covered forests, hills and natural vegetation. It’s a biggest cluster island in Malaysia, constitute of 99 limestone islands.

Langkawi Island is richly blessed with a heritage of fabulous myths and legends. As a natural paradise, this island perhaps is incomparable anywhere else in Southeast Asia. The country beauty of the island makes itself a compelling attraction. Langkawi, a drooping part of Malaysia, attracted no tourists until 1987. In 1997, there are 1. 7million tourists visited Langkawi and the number reached 2. 38million in 2009. Most of the development is in the main town of Kuah and in isolated beach resorts around the coast.

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The airport is located on this island as well hotel resorts, restaurants and shops. The two main beaches, Pantai Cenang and Pantai Kok, are on the island's western coast, with Pantai Cenang being the most popular as the place for hotels and restaurants. Dotted along the northern coast are the more luxurious resorts. With the only intention to promote tourism, the island was granted a tax-free status. Government has come up with special developments to promote the tourism industry in Langkawi.

Tourists are also requested not to bring any cars or other vehicles to go to this island, so it can save this city far from pollution and then make it as a green tourist destination. The Northern Corridor Economic Region development program is a Malaysia Government initiative to promote the economic growth in the north of Peninsular Malaysia . In order to improve the Langkawi’s position as a world-class tourist destination, the Northern Corridor Economic Region is trying hard to attract further world-class hotels and holiday resorts to this island.

In the folk custom aspects, the entertainment service development in Langkawi is not a patch on Phuket Island, the rich of history and culture is not as good as Bali Island, but it has abundant natural and geological beauty, simplicity and peaceful country life, leisurely and comfortable tourism atmosphere, it can be developed as an ecological, geological and leisure tourism island. That makes Langkawi not only have a unique style with neighboring famous islands, but also an intellectual tourism trend for satisfy tourists yearning at present.

Langkawi is surrounded with many legends that could be used in the marketing of the island. In addition to the natural and social resources, Langkawi has many other resources that could be developed into visitor attractions such as rubber fields, factories, fishing villages and the Hindu temples. The change of the future is expected to the attentive planning and decision by Lembaga Pembangunan Langkawi (LADA). Marketing objectives Langkawi is a potential island for coastal tourism. Coastal tourism has been the world's largest tourism hot spots and important pillar.

With the development of the economy and coastal tourism in the context of the global is developing quickly, coastal tourism development of real estate has become an important component. In order to develop coastal tourism reasonable, the marketing plan should be suitable for langkawi. Vision To become a world-class agency in the efficient and creative development of langkawi's infrastructure and tourism industry. Mission To develop langkawi's specialized attractions (such as theme park) objective 1. To protect natural resource in order to obtain sustainable development. 2. To improve entertainment facilities in langkawi. . To create a theme park for eco-tourism. 4. Promote Langkawi as an international tourist destination. The island has an abundance of potential, especially in eco-tourism. They could build a theme park that co-exists with the environment and encourages eco-awareness. (Jimmy Leong ). only focuses on ecological protection, and to obtain sustainable development. The international success coastal resorts all pay attention to ecological protection principle. Target markets From region, the figure shows that more than 70% of visitor in langkawi is from Malaysia, that means main visitor market in langkawi is domestic market.

However, Thailand, Singapore is Langkawi's largest market for foreign tourist. And from demography, family and couple prefer to go langkawi. Because langkawi is a quite beautiful and reasonable coasts for destination. Couple choose langkawi as honeymoon destination. The family go vacation because of amazing landscape, and also duty free shop. According to statistics released by the Tourism Division of the Langkawi Development Authority, that there were 2,461,455 visitors stayed on the island during 2009 which nearly 25% were from overseas, All in all, Langkawi's target market is couples and families both in international and domestic.

Marketing strategies Product pricing The price that tourism enterprises set need to conform to the certain standards, if the price is too low, customers may thought those products are not worth to buy, tourism enterprises are hard to get a profit, and if the price is too high, customers have no ability to consumption, there will be no demand on it. In Langkawi, some luxury hotels, restaurants and entertainment industries can use high price strategy to approaching market and it is good for market positioning.

Travel agency, local attractions and hotels can offer discount for visitors when they reaches a certain amount. Some hotels, motels or airlines can provide seasonal discount in rainy season, international flights can adjustment the price according to the size of demand, and the purpose is to attract customers, make sure they can get a profit. Pricing can be based on competitors, it is a kind of methods that pricing according to the price of competitors. Price variance remains unchanged and always be a little higher than competitors or a bit lower. So ompare to other islands, Langkawi can pricing according to its dominant position and give a higher price, for inferior position, we can give a discount for customers, in order to attract them to come. Promotion Promoting the tourism development of Langkawi is very necessary. Promotion can be used in various ways. Public relations is a good way to promote it, we can make people pay attention to the propaganda by special events or public service activities. There are a lot of people from all over the world, looking for the information of Langkawi on the Internet.

These potential visitors want to know the interesting places in this island, where they can stay, which restaurant offers the best meal. We can build websites about Langkawi’s detailed information, shows the travel and accommodation arrangements and let people know what the suitable choice is for them. Hotels can offer special discount for attracting tourists to stay in Langkawi, whatever people come to Langkawi for business, vacation or conference, Langkawi has different kinds of accommodation types to serve customers, discount hotels can attract more tourists to stay because most of them want to save money.

Airlines can provide cheap flights, make everyone can travel by air. Travel agency can promote the preferential travel project, save money and time for visitors. We can also advertise Langkawi through media, newspaper, magazine, television or “giveaways” such as calendars and training packages, print and send out brochures, provide travel reservation service and use publicity to build a positive image of Langkawi, let people see them in their daily life. People Only find that demand can satisfy the demand. The process of finding demand needs to realize by employees.

Tourism enterprises need to arouse the enthusiasm of the employees, let them seeking for potential customers according to the demand of them. The employees with high quality and comply with the requirements are very important. Training the industry professionals, make sure travel agency employees can let visitors have a good experience in Langkawi, and get satisfactory services from hotels, restaurants and other entertainment industries, because their service attitude and level is one of the key factors which decided to customers on the tourism enterprises satisfaction, a not professional employee may be adly affect Langkawi’s image, leading to the loss of customers, reduce the economic income of travel enterprises, affect the development of tourism industry in Langkawi. “People” not only those of the employees, but also customers. The feeling of customers on the service quality may be affected by the opinion of other customers. The marketing goal is getting loyal customers those whom believe in tourism enterprises and think they are worth to spend, and they are also willing to recommend Langkawi to other customers, thus to improve the popularity and positive image of Langkawi. Processes

While producing and service delivering at the same time, process management can guarantee the availability of service and stable quality. Otherwise, it is very difficult to balance the supply and demand of service. We must find the way to handle the peak demands, seeking the method in different level to maximum satisfy the different needs of different customers. In the implementation process of Langkawi’s marketing planning, it might happened some accidents because of the change of the market, we must do our best for the supervision, regulate and control in the whole process, to achieve the best effect of marketing.

To sum up, in the marketing strategies combinations of Langkawi, in addition to the human factors are uncontrolled, other factors are controllable. We should adapt to the external environment actively, give full play to Langkawi’s advantages and make up for weakness, and then get a good development of marketing. Physical evidence Physical evidence is making the invisible services of products as much as possible becoming visible products, let consumers fell that the service product is exists, and improving visitors enjoy the value of the service products process.

Germany has a successful businessman said: a simple reception is better than a detailed manual. For example, the first time a visit goes to the langkawi restaurant, before entered the restaurant, the restaurant’s appearance and signs has made him an initial impression. If the impression is good, he will go into the restaurant, and then the internal decorate, how clean the desktop is and the waiters’ etiquette image will directly to decide he will repast here or not. If management and utilization t well, it can help customers experience the characteristic of langkawi, improve the service when you get to enjoy the benefit and contribute to create a good image for langkawi, to support the implementation of the marketing strategy. Conversely, it may send wrong message to customers, influence the customer's expectations and judgment to langkawi, it will damage the image of langkawi. Physical evidence should focus on object factors, human factors and atmosphere factors and it also can improve physical evidence from outdoor billboards, TV advertising and the promotion activities in public places.

We can add the local customs and features to langkawi’s guideposts and signs, on the other hand, service personnel should dress the same uniform, intensify efforts to make slogan and publicity material. Conclusion Langkawi is a romantic, beautiful island which has richly natural resources, where nature itself also has many excellent conditions, making her a paradise in Southeast Asia. Walking on the main island of Langkawi, an oasis of Rubber Forest and paddy fields are in front of you, dotted with the traditional tall houses (Ganlan), coconut waves, two or three Islanders who make a living by fishing and farming pass by.

All these form a very laid-back screen. On this island which is full of ancient legend, the earth fell asleep in a lullaby of insect croak piping. In addition to the beautiful natural scenery, Langkawi also has a long history and traditional culture. Langkawi is a duty-free island that you can buy a lot of duty-free products. As the famous internationally archipelago of 99 tropical islands in Malaysia, Langkawi is the absolute holiday paradise which offers modern accommodation facilities and amenities set against the natural backdrop of sun-drenched beaches and ancient rainforests teeming with exotic plant and animal life.

For its beautiful geological heritage of stunning landscapes, Langkawi is a really good place to go, it is absolute a fantastic travel destination. Experience the beautiful countryside and the peaceful landscape of paddy fields, pass by some small villages with wooden houses which build by palm trees, and children pedaling their old bicycles on the road. Beautiful scenery, great adventures, five-star conveniences and an international airport make Langkawi a great place for a holiday. An agro-based economy of padi and rubber cultivation and fisheries is being ast overtaken by a tourism-driven economy, taking into consideration the natural, unspoiled, ecological beauty of the island and major governmental emphasis. The largest and most developed island - known as Langkawi - is the focal point for most visitors. Traditionally the islanders have relied upon the farming and fishing industries for their livelihood, but in 1987 they were awarded Duty Free status, and the subsequent increase in visitors has promoted tourism to the point of being the islands largest industry.

Tourism is one of the most important industries in Malaysia's national economy, and it has an important effect on promoting national economic and social development. Malaysia is richly in natural tourism resources and culture tourism resources. Since the 1960s, tourism resource advantages are gradually translated into the real economic advantages. With the rapid development of Malaysian tourism industry, during the past 50 years, remarkable achievements have been made in the number of tourists to Malaysian, foreign exchange income, tourism infrastructure construction, the opening and protection of tourism resources, and some other aspects.

Langkawi has rich tourism resources. Develop Langkawi tourism market is good for the local economy,it can provide more jobs for local people. So develop a good marketing plan for Langkawi is very necessary, it can promote the development of tourism industry, thus promote the development of entirety economic in Malaysia. References Jeremy, A. (2002), The rough guide to Southeast Asia, Rough Guides Ltd,Mohamed, Z. H. I. (2000), The legends of Langkawi, Utusan Publications & Distributors Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur. John, S. Michael, T. (1998), How to prepare a marketing plan: a guide to reaching the customer market, MPG Books Ltd, Great Britain. John, W. (2010), How to write a marketing plan, Replika Press Pvt Ltd, India. Malcolm, M. & Hugh, W. (2011), Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to use them, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, United Kingdom. Simon, R. (2007), Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, Australia. Susan, B. (2001), Successful tourism marketing: a practical handbook, Kogan Page Limited, London.

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