Hallo everyone and welcome to my presentation.
In the next few minutes, I will be talking about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has seriously affected the travel and tourism sector. In an article by Elaine Glusac (2021) with the New York Times, the fate of sustainable travel and tourism has been mentioned to be pegged on a change of tactic for countries even as a post-vaccine world is preparing to resume travel. My focus is on our company, EasyJet, specifically because of our business model as a low-cost airline. In this marketing communications campaign, I intend to address how the company can resume operations and emerge on top of the competition, even as a majority of travel companies and other industry players continue to make losses.
In a news report by Sweney and Topham (2021), the International Airlines Group, owner of the British Airways announced a staggering €7.4bn loss for year ended 2020. The information in the latest news stories point to a new direction, one that requires companies to change their entire business models in order to adjust to the interruptions brought about by the pandemic. As such, EasyJet will be required to focus fully on its domestic market in Britain, to promote domestic tourism and travel, and to reduce the limitations that have previously made it difficult for people to travel locally.
In the proposed strategy, I recommend that the company introduces electronic vaccine passes as part of its recovery journey. As part of the booking process, the company will add an information tab that focuses on teaching passengers about the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to have a vaccination certificate from government-approved centres. The public health agenda has not previously been merged to the travel industry and this has made it more difficult for passengers to cope with the issue of travel and ensuring that the correct preventive measures are taken. Effectively, passengers without a health pass (especially a vaccine certificate) will not be able to book flights. As the company focuses almost entirely on domestic travel, the main communication in all our platforms (social media, email, print media, and mainstream media) is that public health will be the main focus of the company and the industry as a whole. While this proposal is controversial, provocative, and one that may be interpreted as discriminatory, it will serve to ensure that the industry recovers and is able to return some levels of normalcy to a situation that has led to immense losses over the last year. Combined with the focus on domestic travel and tourism sector, the new focus on public health is expected to help boost the company’s sales.
This communications campaign proposal is intended to transform our business model as a British organization to guarantee the survival of the company and to enable us emerge in a better competitive position. A focus on a sustainable model will begin by acknowledging and addressing the issues brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thank you for your time. I will take any questions that you may have on the issue.
References
Glusac, E. (2021, February 25). Move Over, Sustainable Travel. Regenerative Travel Has
Arrived. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/travel/travel-future-coronavirus-sustainable.htmlSweney, M. & Topham, G. (2021, February 26). British Airways owner IAG hit by record
€7.4bn loss. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/26/british-airways-owner-iag-hit-by-record-loss-covid