Airline Merchandising: Focus on leisure travel on the Finnish market
Laurila, Tarja (2015)
Laurila, Tarja
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2015
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2015060111742
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2015060111742
Tiivistelmä
This thesis focuses on one of current trends: merchandising. The purpose of this thesis is to find out the experiences and opinions of leisure travellers and leisure travel agents in terms of booking ancillaries for flights. Based on those findings, the aim is to find out alternative ways to boost the sales of ancillaries. The commis-sioner for this thesis is Amadeus Finland Oy and the target group is the Finnish leisure travel market.
The research was conducted by creating two online surveys. One of them was targeted for leisure travellers and the other one for leisure travel agents. The method used in the research was mixed method, since both questionnaires contained quantitative and qualitative questions. Surveys were distributed separately, and the total amount of responses in the leisure travel-lers’ survey was 206 whereas in the leisure travel agents’ survey it was 40.
The findings of the research were that leisure travellers are extremely price-focused. Even though their general opinions of ancillaries are positive, they are not willing to purchase ancil-lary services if they are not included in the price of the flight ticket. The results from the travel agent survey showed that travel agents have many doubts what comes to booking ancillaries. Firstly, they do not see the economic benefits of booking ancillaries for travel agencies. Sec-ondly, they have insecurities in booking them and the complexity of the booking system pre-vents them from booking ancillaries more.
Based on the results gained from the research, it is recommended that airlines focus more on marketing ancillaries by various means. Moreover, travel agents would be more motivated to sell ancillaries if they received incentives from the ancillaries they book. Lastly, updating the booking system and training the agents are also recommended in the future.
The research was conducted by creating two online surveys. One of them was targeted for leisure travellers and the other one for leisure travel agents. The method used in the research was mixed method, since both questionnaires contained quantitative and qualitative questions. Surveys were distributed separately, and the total amount of responses in the leisure travel-lers’ survey was 206 whereas in the leisure travel agents’ survey it was 40.
The findings of the research were that leisure travellers are extremely price-focused. Even though their general opinions of ancillaries are positive, they are not willing to purchase ancil-lary services if they are not included in the price of the flight ticket. The results from the travel agent survey showed that travel agents have many doubts what comes to booking ancillaries. Firstly, they do not see the economic benefits of booking ancillaries for travel agencies. Sec-ondly, they have insecurities in booking them and the complexity of the booking system pre-vents them from booking ancillaries more.
Based on the results gained from the research, it is recommended that airlines focus more on marketing ancillaries by various means. Moreover, travel agents would be more motivated to sell ancillaries if they received incentives from the ancillaries they book. Lastly, updating the booking system and training the agents are also recommended in the future.