Asian tourism major project

ASIAN TOURISM MAJOR PROJECT GUIDELINES This project is the capstone portion of the Asian Tourism course. All of the course is directed toward each student integrating learning and experiences to achieve the best possible project outlining a fully implementable marketing initiative for a specific Asian location. The plan should be innovative, relevant, well-researched, comprehensive and detailed.

A very important element of the course is the completion of a project that outlines a proposed successful and innovative tourism marketing campaign for an Asian location. Students will be allowed to select a location of their choice in an Asian nation- NOTE: No two students may choose the exact same location. I also ask that students choose a different nation than one that they may be from or have lived or worked in. The goal of this project is to learn about new locations- so please choose a country that you enjoy learning about, but NOT your home country.

You should choose one of the following countries and then select a location (city or region) in that country. This will be first come, first serve- depending on what order I receive your email informing me about your choice.

So: 1. choose your country (I will also limit these to three persons for any one country).

2. choose your second and third choice of country (in case I need to make assignments if many choose the same)

3. You will have a broad array of venues and themes (music, conference, sporting, association, etc.) to choose from in a given location (city or region). This will be your choice how to best orient a tourism marketing program (and of course justify why you would position a marketing effort in that way).

4. Your assignment for the major project is to design a very well researched and completed report and presentation outlining an innovative and thorough marketing program for that city or region for the year 2010. You should do thorough background research on tourism patterns, venue, culture, tourism offerings, economic environment, political environment, physical environment, travel industry role in the venue (meetings, group travel, accomodations, etc.). You may rely on existing marketing information but you MUST create a new marketing concept and program (this is VERY important that you do not merely re-use what is currently being used!)

The project is due the week before the final week of the course and is worth 25% of the total grade. Additionally, midway through the course, students must submit a three- page abstract and outline with sources and outstanding questions and issues. This

“interim check-in” will serve as the mid-term and is intended primarily as a way for the instructor to guide the student toward completion of the project in optimal fashion.

Students will choose a country from the list below. No more than three students may select a given nation and no two students may work on the exact same location (city or region).

Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia China India Indonesia Japan Kazakhstan Kirgizstan Korea Laos Malaysia Maldives Myanmar (Burma) Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Uzbekistan Vietnam

Major facets to consider in your Asian tourism marketing MAY include: Business and conference travel Sporting event Special tourism opportunities- adventure, eco-tourism, medical tourism International events Music/ entertainment Religious tourism –including pilgrimage Historical tourism Festival/ fair/ cultural tourism Special population/ ethnic tourism Tour operation/ group travel Mega events, (such as World Expo) Trade shows/ exhibitions

Art and music topics Food and culinary topics

Elements to be sure to consider for the project and report include: Determine the viability of the area for tourism Consider the role of public relations, publicity, promotions and marketing techniques Devise objectives and goals for measuring success of tourism and tourism marketing for the area Evaluate the feasibility of your marketing program in relation to its market Focus on events and venues that are a core of your tourist area marketing Outline basic cost-benefit analysis and possible marketing budgeting Integrate all pertinent aspects of understanding a tourist base: multi-cultural and multi- lingual topics, emerging technologies, economic and financial conditions and trends, health and safety issues, transportation, managing scalable matters, information systems Present an executable complete marketing plan Demonstrate the effectiveness of the program by including appropriate design, implementation and interpretation of assessment processes, tools and methods

What to include in the interim check in report:

Students should prepare a document of three pages maximum that outlines the Asian tourism marketing program which they propose.

1. A three paragraph abstract that outlines the overall concept and nature of the plan, the location, the audience, the goals, the unique aspects of communications, key logistics, events and accomodations. Obviously this will require you to be very concise and succinct- the essence of a good writing. PLEASE USE TWELVE POINT FONT AND DOUBLE SPACING. The challenge here is really to crystallize the unique and innovative nature of your plan as proposed...to say in a few words what is important, different, unique, challenging and important about this marketing plan.

2. I will be sharing more information in the weeks ahead on marketing for Asian tourism to help you. Also please read carefully both of your texts for those areas that may be appropriate- these can be very helpful for many of the areas selected.

3. After completing the three paragraph abstract, you should use the remainder of the three pages to construct an outline of the major issues which you wish to focus special attention on in your plan. You may use a variety of designs (a traditional I, II, III, A, B,C typology or develop an outline that groups key issues into bullet points under major headings. The important thing is to capture the essence of what you believe will be the determining and leading issues that especially relate to your plan.

4. Clearly you are choosing a location because something about it stands out in your mind. It is not like any other location and you wish to showcase this. In your outline, use that opportunity to share with me how you wish to concentrate attention on the issues which are most significant. For instance, if tourism from a particular market is

central you may wish to provide points in the outline about the translation issues, international travel matters, insurance and health matters, marketing to diversity of attendees across languages and cultures. For others, there may be different concerns and issues which you will focus on. For this, you may wish to elaborate a bit in your outline about the special strategies that are part of the innovative approach to attract tourists.

5. Remember, this is a VERY brief overview of the project which you are using to share with me your preliminary ideas. The interim check in is meant foremost to be a chance for you to share with me the direction you are moving in and I will use it primarily to help guide you from that point on. Don’t be overly anxious about the format- I am interested mostly in the concepts, issues, questions, and challenges which you can identify in your proposed plan. Although we are just starting in the course and the textbooks, please scan through the entire text in order to capture the range of topics which may be very important to your own event.

6. Good luck...watch for much more information on this as we go along.