Tourism Product Management And Industry Analysis Case Study

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Purpose Statement

• The goal of this visual representation in the form of a digital narrative is to encompass all the relevant information about easyJet and its place and functions within the sphere of tourism.
• This narrative will explore the factors affecting the degree of intermediation and the nature of the intermediaries involved in the tourism supply chain;
• Thus, we analyse easyJet's past and present weaknesses, strengths, threats, and opportunities and outline the market characteristics.

This story was designed to help readers understand where easyJet is placed strategically and its influence on the tourism industry by dissecting these elements.

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1.2 Brief Analysis of Tourism Supply Chain and Tourism Intermediaries

• Tourism supply is a concept that relates to all organizations that participate in the provision and generation of actual tourism products or services that meet the requirements of the final consumers.
• This chain comprises transportation suppliers, places to stay, interest destinations, and discretion suppliers.
• In this context, the role of the travel intermediaries like the travel agencies and the online travel agents (OTA's) available in the market is crucial to linking the consumers to tourism products (Isabel, Andrews and Vicente Castañeda Fernández, 2023).

They help in the booking procedures, provide traveller information, and also create various itineraries that suit the travellers' needs. Recently, technological advancements, especially online platforms, have dramatically altered the middleman's tasks while making the booking process more friendly to the end-users.

1.3 The Lineup of the Digital Narrative

• Introduction: This section describes the origin of the analysis, why it is being done, and how it will be conducted.
• Understanding of Tourism Product and Stakeholders of easyJet: easyJet, historical background, current state, competition, values, workforce, and company's attitude towards the community.
• Challenges and Opportunities in Tourism Product Management: This section describes the key issues and prospects regarding quality, sustainability, and customers in easyJet's context.
• Market Research: Shares the information connected with the presented tables and charts, related to the airline industry and easyJet, and concerns consumer behaviour and preferences.
• Conclusion and Recommendations: The study's findings will be presented and offer some managerial implications for easyJet.

Chapter Two: Understanding of Tourism Product and Stakeholders of easyJet

2.1 The History and the Present State of easyJet

• It originated in 1995 when Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou planned to have an airline that offered low-cost services to the general population.
• The airline initially operated two Boeing 737-200 aircraft acquired on lease for flying from Luton Airport to Glasgow and Edinburgh (EasyJet, 2023).
• The company's business strategy was to position itself as a low-cost flight provider with minimal amenities and complicated procedures.

Thus, this strategy helped the airline propose fares much lower than those of traditional air companies. In the year 2000, EasyJet was floated, and it started issuing shares to the public. It became a public limited company and could increase capital through shares that were floated at the London Stock Exchange. This helped the airline expand greatly throughout Europe.

• One of the significant steps easyJet took was the acquisition of Go Fly, a company launched by British Airways and an alternative low-cost airline.
• This acquisition enhanced EasyJet's market share and route network and made it a much stronger and leading LCC company in European countries (EasyJet, 2023).
• Over the years, easyJet has continued to grow in its fleet size and range of operating routes.

British Airways also changed from Boeing to Airbus planes while standardizing its ages with Airbus A319 and A320 models. This change impacted the efficiency of operations, and in maintenance and training, costs were reduced. Since easyJet shunned the crowded Heathrow Airport and instead employed other secondary airports, it was able to set low airport charges. However, it has changed its direction and shifted to some of the most preferred business airports.

Present State of easyJet

• EasyJet Airlines has a fleet of over 300 aircraft and connects more than 150 destinations in over 35 countries (EasyJet, 2023).
• This is an Airbus airline that mainly operates the Airbus A320 family, which includes the more efficient models, the A320neo and A321neo.
• This modern fleet increases the company's operational efficiency while decreasing its deleterious environmental impacts.

Thus, easyJet's business model strategy can be defined as offering low fares and great operational productivity. This is done through a high operating cycle with a short aircraft turnaround and a focus on direct retailing through the airline's website and mobile application. Pricing for easyJet remains competitive because the company has achieved economies of scale and has efficient operating processes.

• EasyJet was rated high in terms of evaluating its achievements, one of which is its strong financial standing (Corporate.easyjet.com, 2023).
• However, the airline has had some bad luck caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; despite this, it has proved its solidity and has become profitable again when the travel demand has increased.
• In the financial year ended 2023, easyJet's revenue was £8.75, reaching 2 billion, a 42 per cent increase from the previous year (Corporate.easyjet.com, 2023).

This was translated into pre-tax profit, which hit £455 million, evidence of a well-planned airline. Corporate social responsibility is also well developed, and easyJet pays special attention to sustainable business. It also openly declared it would bring its operational carbon footprint to net zero by the middle of the decade. This commitment is seen in its current use of newer and more efficient aircraft and other programs like carbon-neutral flying. On the issue of the environment, easyJet is engaged in producing sustainable aviation fuels and is studying how feasible it is to use hydrogen-based planes with the appropriate partners.

2.2 The Competitors of easyJet and Their Impact on Product Management

• Ryanair: Ryanair is a direct competitor to easyJet since the two are among the most popular LCCs in Europe.
• Similar to EasyJet, Ryanair's strategic management is principally based on cost leadership, which results in keeping fares low (Efthymiou and Christidis, 2023).
• Ryanair has been involved in predatory fare strategies, commonly being a low-fare carrier and sometimes reducing fares to below those of EasyJet.

This excessive price competition pressure makes easyJet look for ways of reducing its operating costs besides improving its value proposition while avoiding the risk of increasing its fares.

• British Airways: British Airlines is a network carrier that competes with EasyJet on the main line routes in Europe for leisure and business traffic.
• Yet British Airways maintains a higher level of service, providing members with services such as business class, better seats, a travelling lounge, and a club (Statista, 2019).
• In response to such threats, Easy Jet has adopted the following new services, including reserved seats for business travellers, flexible tickets that can be easily changed, rental cars, and hotel booking services affiliated with Easy Jet to improve business travellers' experience.

Lufthansa: Another competitor in the low-cost carrier operation is a full-service airline, which is Lufthansa, and they are mainly comparable in operation within Germany and other major European cities. A major problem in entering the German market is that Lufthansa has a very large number of connections and enjoys the preference of corporate clients. As a result, the company has to ensure that it is highly operational, and it has to position itself in the most important airport, which targets timely flyers.

Impact on Product Management

• To continue competing against Ryanair, EasyJet must be careful while implementing austerity measures and providing better services.
• This means improving internal processes, re-negotiating contracts with airports and providers, and using sophisticated methods to control ticket prices according to current supply and demand.
• Due to the services provided by British Airways and Lufthansa, easyJet has upgraded its services to premium services (Gualini, Martini and Porta, 2024).

The airline has adopted features such as fast boarding, additional leg space, and onboard meals/ snacks for a fee. Also, easyJet has introduced the easyJet Plus service, where passengers can benefit from services such as priority baggage drop and priority security passes for frequent fliers who would otherwise be inclined to use a network airline. Competitors' sustainability activities are also significant in easyJet's strategic plans. Today there are such giants of the aviation industry as Lufthansa, which invests in tariffs, Kerosene and other efficient planes, like easyJet, are not idle and are also determined to minimize their emissions. Some of the many initiatives that have been implemented by easyJet are taking a ‘next generation' of aircraft that are relatively more fuel-efficient, adopting carbon offsets, and researching/developing new technologies such as hydrogen-powered aircraft.

2.3 The Organisation's Intrinsic Values and Employees

Intrinsic Values

• The main values include safety, customer orientation, efficiency and innovation which define easyJet strategy (Kıyıklık, Kuşakcı and Mbowe, 2022).
• Safety plays a crucial role in the EasyJet company. The airline follows all safety measures and engages the employees in different training sessions to maintain safety (Topham and Greenfield, 2022).
• Such commitment also helps build trust and confidence among the passengers and employees of the organization.

Another important value for EasyJet is its customer orientation. The airline's mission is to provide consumers with value and an affordable means of transporting them by air. This drive to satisfy the customer is evident in the company's operation in applying easy-to-access internet access and affordable flying services available in a hassle-free environment.

• Ease as a business strategy is at the core of easyJet's business strategies.
• It lacks geographical restrictions, strategic time management in scheduling and turnaround time, and efficient flight operations that allow the provision of cheap fares without compromising on quality (Pereira, Lohmann and Houghton, 2022).
• EasyJet has innovation as its core drive since it focuses on becoming a low-cost airline.

It is said that seeking of constant innovation in services and working to utilize continuity in carrying out advanced technologies like data analysis are necessary for working out the best routes and utilization of mobile applications to improve the experience of the clients. They also know that in today's competitive climate of the aviation industry, one has to be innovative all the time, and so this innovativeness would help easyJet to out-compete all its rivals.

• EasyJet cannot survive without employees, and this is evident in its organizational structure.
• The work culture is friendly, and management focuses on employee training, quality, and relations (Almarashdah, 2024).
• Organisations which promote employee efficiency undertake a number of training activities to ensure that they master adequate skills and knowledge concerning their duties, such as safety training for crews, technical training for maintenance personnel, and customer relations training for company front-line workers.

The simplest act of engagement is considered credible by the organisation and is highly regarded by EasyJet. It involves using email bulletins and other forms of communication necessary to engage the workforce, where it can also gather feedback from the employees to enhance EasyJet's operation.

Further, inclusiveness and diversity are also valued. The organization is keen on diversity and has a workforce policy of becoming an equal-opportunity employer so that it can accommodate individuals from all over the world.

2.4 The Community Relations of easyJet

• Some of the strategies that EasyJet has employed in its operations are as follows:
• The company continues many charitable and community programs and concerns involving education, environment, and social services.
• EasyJet supports global causes such as child immunization programs and emergency relief by partnering with organizations like UNICEF (Sithole, Mbali Ayanda and Tran, 2024).

Environmental responsibility is another factor that forms part of the easyJet's community relations. Several measures have been taken on the part of the airline to minimize the negative impact on the environment: purchases of new, more fuel-efficient aircraft and support for the creation of bio-fuels for aviation. Through this food waste campaign, easyJet proves that it is making efforts to transport people across the world while at the same time creating awareness of environmental concerns such as the carbon footprint that is caused by the company's flights.

• Local community support is also considered an important component.
• EasyJet employees interact with stakeholders in the community with an interest in controlling noises around airports and other environmental matters.
• It engages in consultation with communities and has put in measures that would help reduce its impact on the environment, especially on how it operates (Sithole, Mbali Ayanda and Tran, 2024).

Also, easyJet supports providing education, especially among young people, to fill the occupation in the aviation industry. Such measures include institution outreach and scholarships for young pilots and mechanical engineers.

Chapter Three: An Analysis of the Challenges and Opportunities Associated with the Management of Tourism Products

3.1 Analyse the Challenges Associated with Quality, Sustainability, and Customer Satisfaction

• EasyJet faces a significant quality issue because, given the company's low-cost strategy, it is associated with low-quality services (Papatheodorou, 2021).
• The low-cost model makes the airlineпа's facilities and services as limited as possible, and passengers are charged for such fundamentals as checked luggage and, often, for a seat itself.
• Also, the operational factors, where flights are delayed or canceled due to several restrictions by air traffic control or lack of enough employees as another component of quality that affects customer perception.

The main problem of easyJet when trying to sustain an organizational culture of strict aircraft quality and safety and simultaneously attempting to adhere to a low-cost model is still a significant challenge for the company.

• The next general significant issue is sustainability.
• EasyJet operates in a competitive sector, which is the aviation industry, that has been flagged as a major driver of carbon emissions, thus putting pressure on easyJet to reduce its impact on the natural environment.
• The airline has long-term goals of reducing emissions to net zero by the year 2050, which implies that the airline needs to invest more in new technology and aircraft efficiency (IATA, 2021).

These investments may be costly, possibly leading to heavy losses in the highly sensitive low-cost segments. In addition, environmental legislations bring in other operational challenges and expenses to the organization.

• Customer satisfaction is directly related to not only the quality but also the sustainability.
• Investors maintain that onboard services, especially with LCCs, entail timely and efficient flights besides value-added services (IATA, 2021).
• A company has to learn the necessity of constant enhancement of overall customer satisfaction, specifically, easyJet is to enhance flight punctuality, baggage handling, and customer service.

However, over the years, passengers have considered the sustainability activities performed by airline companies, thus affecting their satisfaction and loyalty to the airline.

3.2 Analyse the Opportunities for the Enhancement of Quality, Sustainability, and Customer Satisfaction

• Enabling the latest developments and innovations to improve operations and services can increase quality.
• In terms of negative changes, easyJet can use the best flight management systems to improve punctuality by decreasing cancellations and delay times.
• Activities such as upgrading the quality of the seats, providing accessible internet service, and expanding the choices of meals and snacks can also improve passengers' satisfaction (Deleryd and Fundin, 2020).

Moreover, it can develop the ticket product and admit various charges on the ticket that will help in avoiding such negative connotations associated with extra charges.

• Sustainability initiatives are some of the major opportunities available for easyJet.
• easyJet has the opportunity to buy new generation planes with better fuel efficiency and seek for suppliers of biofuels for its aeroplanes, thus reducing CO2 emissions (EasyJet, 2023).
• The airline can also become involved in lobbying for the improvement of environmental policies in the industry and can promote its ecological cause to the passengers to boost it's image in this area.

So in addition to waste reduction programs, easyJet can also work on other initiatives to strengthen the company's sustainability initiatives and back up environmental conservation initiatives.

• It is evident that customer satisfaction can be enhanced often using a number of strategies.
• Satisfaction with the travelling services increases due to improved customer relations through improved staff training.
• The action must be taken in the form of effective feedback about passengers' complaints and further enhancement of services (Hadi, Aslam and Gulzar, 2019).

It explained that transparent pricing policies and laid down strategies like loyalty programs can build optimistic customer bond and do more to take more repeat sales. Another aspect that can help easyJet is the ability to effectively promote the company's sustainability activities in accordance with consumers' increased interest in eco-friendly services and products among passengers.

Chapter Four: Market Research

4.1 Market Research on the Airline Industry and Consumer Behavior

Industry Overview

• Currently, the world's airline organizations' operations have been experiencing a gradual restoration after the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• According to IATA, global traffic was predicted to restore the situation in 2019 by 2024 (IATA.org, 2022).
• This recovery is owing to people's desire to travel, relaxed restrictions, and a growth in the number of vaccinated people.

In Europe, for instance, current competition is massive, coupled with the fact that short-haul routes are dominated by LCCs such as easyJet and RyanAir.

Consumer Behaviour Trends

• The COVID-19 pandemic also emphasised that price sensitivity is still a very strong indicator of consumer purchasing behaviour.
• Airlines gain from this since consumers' focus is no longer on the luxurious offerings of the aeroplane. Of 4,000 Europeans surveyed in 2023, 68% said that ticket price was very important to deciding which airline to travel with, as perceived by Statista (Statista, 2023).
• This factor has favourably supported airlines such as easyJet, which is proud to offer its services at an affordable rate.

Another emerging trend is environmentalism, whereby organizations and businesses consider the environment in carrying out their activities. Moreover, a large part of passengers is concerned about the environmental effects of flights. Statista's poll also showed that 55% of European travellers favour airlines with sustainability policies. This trend entails a prospect for the airlines, where they can target some specific policies in order to market themselves as environment-conscious.

EasyJet's Market Position

• EasyJet is now among the largest LCCs in terms of the size of the operation network, pricing strategy, and organizational performance.
• It flies to more than 150 destinations in 35 different countries, especially in the European market (Financial Times, 2024).
• Flying to primary airports apart from secondary ones helps easyJet differentiate itself from other firms like Ryan Air that operate in the secondary airports while customers, especially the business people, appreciate easyJet due to flexibility and direct Flight connectivity.

However, in 2022, easyJet transported over 96 million passengers, showing the company's resilience during and after the pandemic. As for the figure for operating performance, the load factor, which is the percentage of available seats occupied by passengers, was at 92%. EasyJet is also financially more advantageous, as it has reported a revenue of £8.2 billion and a headlined profit before tax of £455 million in the financial year ending in 2023.

Technological Advancements

• Technological advancement is a very important factor in the airline business.
• Culturally, easyJet has been one of the pioneers of using technology tools to improve the experience shared by the customers and the efficient operation of the business (EasyJet, 2023).
• The airline's mobile app may be used to book a flight, check-in, and board a flight, thus making the journey easier for the passengers.

Also, it employs data analytics in arrivals and departure timings, service pricing, and resource distribution in operations to cut expenses and improve the quality of services offered.

Chapter 5: Conclusion

• Conclusively, EasyJet is a prominent representative of the European airline market.
• There is strong competition from fierce competitors such as Ryan Air and British Airways, among others, which requires the airline to always find new ways of competing and improving its services.
• This means an organization is committed to ESP regarding environmental concerns while aiming to build strong, long-term relationships with customers.

Further, managing the European airline market as a key priority, the following strategies of EasyJet Airline can be regarded: cost leadership, operational effectiveness, and the use of technology in providing flight services. Thus, based on the company's focus in its strategic management, it can be concluded that the threats presented by the low-cost and full-service airline competitors do not diminish EasyJet's sustainability and commitment to involving communities in its operation. The airline's adaptability and creativity will be the future competitive assets that will help solve new problems and maintain its dominance in the market while responding to the new requirements in consumption and eco-policies.

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