Tourism and the balance of payments

Tourism and the balance of payments Introduction Tourism is the movement of people from their normal places of work and residence to places they are not familiar with as well as the activities they carry out during the time they stay in such activities.In addition the activities they carry out are for fun to them.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Tourism and the balance of payments specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Other definitions of tourism have also been given (Mathieson and Wall 4). Bhatia (5) says that tourism is travelling for enjoyment, business functions and recreational purposes. The people who engage in this are known as tourist. Tourists can either be local or international tourists. Local tourists travel in their own countries and enjoy the beautiful scenes. International tourists, on the other hand, come from other places for tourism purposes. In the modern day tourism has become a major activity in the world as compared in the pre vious years. There has been tremendous percentages increase in international travels by the tourists over the years. For instance, in the year 2011 there were more than 980 million tourists in the world. This represented a 4.6% increase as compared to the previous years. Tourism is an important aspect to different countries. It affects all aspects of life, that is, education, culture, economics and social aspects. One of the major contributions of the tourism is to ensure inflow of income to the country in which the tourists visits (Mathieson and Wall 20). Tourism is also a major source of employment to the citizens of the country either directly or indirectly. For example in the transport sectors, hotel industry and entertainment places (Holloway 3)Advertising Looking for research paper on advertising? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Balance of payments is records on all monetary engagements between a specific count ry and all outside countries. The engagement occurs in form of exchange of goods and services that are at issue. The balance of payments is recorded in form of account which records the exports as inflows and the imports as outflows. Goods received are positive gains while imports results to funds outflow. A balance of payment would be experiences if what is imported is more than what the country sells outside its territories. Conversely, if the country is exporting more than what is importing, the country is experiencing a surplus in terms of the balance of payments (Mathieson and Wall 26) Relationship between Tourism and the balance of payments Bhatia (10) says that imbalances are always possible in the different accounts of the balance of payments for example in the current and capital account. Continued existence of the deficit balance of payments will result to the country becoming highly indebted while imbalances as result of surplus will result to the country accumulating mor e wealth and hence growth in the economy. The central bank of any country is a major participant in the balanced of payment of any country. There is a great interrelationship between the tourism sector and the balance of payments. Most countries have started to develop measures to deal with the balance of payments through the use of the tourism sector. A good example is the countries in the Far East as their economy depend on the tourism activities. Bhatia (11) explains most of these countries could be experiencing weak balance of payment, if they were not relying on international tourism.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Tourism and the balance of payments specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In other word, tourism is major contributor in a country having a strong balance of payments. These counties could have been forced to reduce the amount of import to other countries. The main source of information on the i ncome gained from the tourism sector is indicated in the balance of payment account. The travel part of the balance of payment account indicates the receipts in amount obtained from the tourism industry. This account also shows the position of the total inflows and outflows in terms of the income from the tourism industry. The balance of payments obtained from the tourism sector is known as the invisible balance of payments. This is because tourism is an invisible service (Nowak and Sgro 17). This mean that the exports of goods and services are put against exports and imports from foreign tourism to come up with the balance of payments. At the same time the income spent by the foreign tourists visiting the country is also compared with the expenditures the local tourist spends on the foreign countries. This will result to net balance of payments. In more simple terms, there is a difference between a country visible and invisible balance of payments. The visible one comes from the ex port and imports of visible goods. The one for invisible balance of payment is the one which results from the services industry with tourism, banking and investments sectors. Tourism balance of payment is term which has developed in the modern days. It refers to a country inflows and outflows. These inflows are the expenditures by foreign tourists in the country while the outflows are the tourism expenditures by the people of such country abroad (Nowak and Sgro18)Advertising Looking for research paper on advertising? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to Mathieson and Wall (14), income from the tourism can assist the economy of the country to balance national balance of payment. Historically, tourism is known to have affected the balance of payments in two major ways. The effect can be within the country or internationally. This will help determine the foreign income which is then compared with the costs incurred to earn such revenues. Broadly, the effects of tourism can be divided into three: the primary, secondary effects and tertiary effects. Primary effects are direct and can be measured easily while the secondary effects indirect and not easy to measure. The primary effect deals with the actual use of foreign tourists in the country and consumption of the country citizens abroad. The effect happens when the international borders are crossed. Secondary effects are either direct, indirect or induced effects. Direct effects include imports, agents’ commissions and dividend payments. Indirect effects include exp enditure by the tourists while the induced secondary effects include expatriate labor remitted back to the country. Tertiary effects are the effects that are not directly initiated by the income from the tourism. These include the products that are exported back to the country as well as the investment opportunities that come up with tourism (Bhatia 16). Mathieson and Wall (20) explains that the expenditure by tourists and those of the citizen abroad are taken as travel balance and this is considered together with the tourism balance to determine the largest net effect on the balance of payment. A country balance of payment whether tourism or not plays an important role. It ensures the currency of the specific country maintain value as compared to other foreign currencies. If there is continued tourism imbalance of payments, this results to an existence of an imbalance in the supply of international currencies as compared to demands. Consequently, there will be a disparity between t he two currencies making the weakening of the host county currency. The same case will also apply if the demand of foreign currency is high and the supply is low, the local currency will be strengthened. The two scenarios can be of advantage or disadvantage to the country. A weakening currency of nay country will result to imports becoming more expensive while the exports become cheaper. Domestic price rise, that is, inflationary effects. A strong currency will make the domestic prices goes down to the advantage of the local people. The inflationary effects of the currency can be reduced by increasing the interest rates. However, these fluctuations will result to negative effects to the economy of the country and more specifically to the tourism sectors. These fluctuations will reduce the number of tourists visiting the country as well as those going abroad. Depreciation of the currency of a country increases the cost of foreign tourism. It also lowers the foreign currency price of the tourists coming to any specific country. One method that can be used to deal with the problem of balance of payments is through development of the tourism sector as an invisible export (Nowak and Sgro 12). However, it is dependent on the low requirement of the imports used in the tourism sector as well as the prospected economic development. According to Bhatia (10), there are different major components of tourism balance of payments. These include international tourism receipts in form of credits which include payments to national carriers, international fare credits, international tourism expenditure and international fare expenditures. The effect of tourism in the economy is divided into four categories: on income, employment, balance of payments as well as investment income. Another major impact of the tourism industry on the economy is the creation of job opportunity and the generation of foreign income. Income generated is a key factor in the national balance of payments. The multiplier effect on the economy is the factor that is used to determine the amount of benefit obtained from the tourism sector. This multiplier effects have an economic dimension as explained by Bhatia. Bhatia (7) states that the money paid by the tourists is used to cater for different costs they incur for instance goods and services they use and the salaries and wages of the staff. The recipient of the money will in the process use the money to cater for their financial needs. Through a continued flow of the funds, they stimulate different sectors of the economy (Rowe and Borein 31). In the process of transfers, leakages occur. Leakages can occur in three different methods: through remitting of the income to foreign parties, direct or indirect taxation by the government as well as savings by the workers outside the tourism industry. This in turn stimulates the balance of payments. The income from the tourism sector can be divided into smaller factors. This income has both dir ect and indirect economic benefits to the country. These incomes are used to pay for the wages of the staffs of the tourism related industry hence creating wealth. The money is in circulation but leakages occur. When such leakages occur the income is taxed by the government. This taxes acts as incomes to the country. As a result, tourism sector plays an important role in ensuring the economy of the country experience a surplus balance of payment which is healthy for the country (Mathieson and Wall 26). Bhatia, Sujata. International Tourism Management, New Delhi, India: Sterling Publishers Ltd, 2001. Print. Bhatia, Sujata. Tourism development. New Delhi, India: Sterling Publishers Ltd, 2002. Print. Holloway, John. The Business of Tourism, Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 1998.  Print. Mathieson Well and G. Wall. Tourism, Economic, Physical and Social Impacts, Essex:  Wesley Longman Limited, 1992. Print. Nowak, Sahli and P. Sgro. Tourism, Trade and Domestic Welfare: Pacific Econ omic Review. New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell, 2003. Print. Rowe, Anne and F. Borein. Travel and tourism. London: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.

The Best Way to Write Sales Case Studies That Get Leads - CoSchedule

The Best Way to Write Sales Case Studies That Get Leads As you’re probably aware, social proof  plays a major factor in buying decisions. In a survey of online consumers, 85% of respondents  said they read up to 10 reviews before they can trust a business. Not all types of social proof are created equal. A handful of product page reviews might be adequate in order to sell a $10 necklace on Shopify, but in order to sell a high ticket item of $1000 or more you’re going to need more significant forms of social proof. For B2B businesses, sales case studies are an excellent tool for driving leads. Legendary marketer Neil Patel  used email case studies to increase his deal closing ratio by 70%. He increased his sales by 185% by testing 3 different case studies. In my business, I’ve also had been able to drive significant amounts of leads using sales case studies. You can too- just follow these tips. Get Your Free Sales Case Study Template Bundle Dont waste time writing your case study from scratch! Download these three templates and make the job easy: Sales Case Study Template (Web): Use this Word-based template to craft your copy for your development team to turn into a web page. Sales Case Study Template (Word): If youll be creating a downloadable PDF-based case study, use this Word template to compile your content before handing it to a designer. Bonus Audience Persona Template: Better understand the target audience for your case study by building an audience persona. The Best Way to Write Sales Case Studies That Get LeadsSales Case Study Creation There are a lot of steps that go into creating a case study. Let's cover them one by one. Create a Buyer Persona If you don’t already have one, I recommend creating a buyer persona  document for your business. Hubspot generously offer a selection of downloadable buyer persona templates, but you can make your own if you wish using the following steps: Give your persona a name, this allows you to think of them as an individual. You may even want to add a photograph too. Create a document with two columns. On the left, list the following demographic traits: age, gender, marital status, education level, income and location. Also on the left, add psychographic traits: interests, values, pain points  and challenges. On the right, carefully craft your answer as best you can for the specific individual. You should be left with something similar to this (courtesy of Hubspot): Select a Relatable Customer When you know your ideal buyer intimately, you can pick a client for your sales case study who is a perfect representative of this persona - someone other potential clients will be able to relate to. Be sure to feature a headshot from the client, as well as a complimentary quote for maximum credibility. Ideally, this quote should pertain to one of the core strengths of your business (something that your competitors cannot replicate). Tips for creating a killer quote image: Ensure you receive a high-resolution headshot from your client. Use a quote that pertains to the core strengths of your business (something that your competitors cannot replicate). Keep the color scheme consistent with the rest of the landing page. If you don’t have the resources to hire a designer, consider using Canva  to create the quote image for free. This example from one of Hubspot’s case studies  is great because it succinctly mentions an advantage the brand has over a competitor. From Problem to Solution Creating a compelling sales case study requires storytelling. First, you need to consider how your product helped your client go from point A (revisit the common pain points in your buyer persona) to point B. To find out this information, I recommend surveying your client via email (some marketers prefer face-to-face conversations, but I find email to be more efficient since they have more time to think about their answers and you’ve got a written record of the conversation to refer back to). Ask them: What problems were you experiencing prior to working with us? What are your long-term goals? What made you choose us instead of a competitor? What are some of the (measurable) benefits you’ve received since working with us? Once you have this information, drive the story home using emotional language  and statistics. I recommend the following structure for your case study: Introduction:  Provide background information about the client’s business, such as the size, business model and types of customers served. The problem:  Describe what is hurting the business, in logical and emotional terms. For instance, ineffective resource allocation may be slowing production, which diminishes gross revenue, but it also leads to sleepless nights and stress for the business owner. The solution:  Describe why the client chose you instead of a competitor, and what solution you came up with to solve their problem. This is a great opportunity to showcase your diligence in analyzing the client’s needs and your expertise in solving their problem. The results:  While I like to include statistics throughout the case study, this is where you can really emphasize the positive long-term change you created, both for the life and business of your client. Hopefully, you’ve been tracking the metrics for your client work. Metrics such as total revenue, search traffic, email opt-ins, conversion rate and page views are great to include in a case study - so long as you’ve delivered an improvement over time. Check out this example from one of Neil Patel’s case studies. He mentions a problem that is undoubtedly common in his niche, then describes his solution along with incredible statistical results for increased credibility. Without these numbers, the claims could be viewed as boastful rather than authentic. Landing Page Design While you might want to feature your sales case study on your homepage or send the case study out as a PDF document to your mailing list, I recommend having a designated landing page for the case study. Weaving a powerful narrative, featuring potent statistics and making your client seem relatable is only one facet of creating a good sales case study. If your goal is to drive leads, your landing page needs to be optimized for conversions. I’ve spent countless hours split testing the headlines, copy, images and CTAs on landing pages, and while it can be tedious, it’s definitely worth it in the long-run for maximizing your conversions. Especially if you’re diving cold traffic to your landing page through paid ads, it’s important that your landing page is tonally and stylistically consistent with the ad. When someone clicks through to your page, there should be no unpleasant surprises in terms of the color schemes  and type of language used. Dollar Shave Club  does an excellent job of providing a cohesive experience for customers that click through to their site from Facebook. This ad directs to their home page, which aligns well with the ad's copy and imagery: In terms of structuring your landing page, I’ve found that the popular advice for structuring blog posts  still applies. Headlines and short paragraphs help to break up walls of text and improve readability. Bullet points are also great for communicating core information succinctly, as shown in this case study for Salesforce: If you have powerful statistics at hand, data visualization  techniques can allow you to convey them in a more emotionally impactful manner. In my opinion, graphs and charts are excellent visual tools for showing how (with your help) a client moved from a miserable point A to a glorious point B. Having produced numerous testimonials, I’m consistently told by my clients that the data visualizations and other visual elements were their favorite parts of the testimonials. As an example, check out this graph I produced for Royal Wolf  to demonstrate the kind of results you can expect over a six-month period. Additionally, it’s important to remember that your landing page has one objective: to get visitors to opt-in to your email list. For this to happen, your landing page needs to flow smoothly from one point to the next, until they reach the inevitable opt-in form. Mentions of other products and links to external sites only distract from this objective. When I see landing pages with abundant distractions, I immediately imagine a highway with roadblocks impeding the traffic. Clear out those roadblocks and ensure that opting in is as easy as humanly possible. To reference Neil Patel’s aforementioned case study, the CTA section  really stands out (and has probably been split tested mercilessly for the best results). Backed by color psychology, orange is one of the most popular color choices for CTA buttons because it pops so well. I love to use orange CTA buttons on sites with neutral or low-key color schemes. Also, Neil includes a headshot of himself to convey trust and indicate that he brings real customers to sites, not just browsers that will help boost your vanity metrics. This is a crucial distinction when you’re charging premium rates like Neil is. Promoting Your Case Study Once you've created your case study, the next step is to tell people about it. Here's how to to do just that successfully. Facebook Advertising With over 2 billion active monthly users, Facebook is a great channel for finding people that are interested in every niche imaginable. By using Audience Insights, you can figure out what pages people are following within your niche - so you can target them with an ad for your sales case study. While there is an enormous amount of demographic information available in Audience Insights, my favorite feature is Page Likes. If you’re analyzing the fishing niche, type â€Å"fishing† into the interests bar on the left. After clicking on Page Likes, you’ll see what other pages people like who share this interest. The affinity score  is important to look at because it shows the likelihood of someone liking a page compared to the average Facebook user. These insights are crucial when it comes to targeting. You will achieve the best results when you’re targeting interests that fanatics (rather than casual fans) would be interested in. In my experience, it’s the fanatics who are more likely to opt-in to your email list or buy your product. Before you start running ads, it’s important to know your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). If you know exactly how much money you expect to make from an email list subscriber in the long-term, then you can budget your Facebook advertising campaign accordingly. Before you start running social media ads, it's important to know your Customer Lifetime Value:If you know that your average email subscriber spends $25 with you before unsubscribing or going dormant, if you can spend less than $25 to get them onto your list - then you’re going to make a profit. In reality, if you have a high-value case study, a good landing page and your targeting is correct - you should be able to acquire leads for $3 or less, which would yield a gigantic profit in this scenario. For maximum credibility, include a headshot of the client from your case study in your ad image (for some reason, headshots perform very well  in Facebook ads). In the ad copy, include a quote from the client or a statistic relating to how you helped them to improve their business results. This ad by Outbrain  is a great example of a Facebook ad that leverages social proof and begs to be clicked. Social Media If you don’t feel comfortable diving into paid traffic right away, that’s fine. You can still use social media to acquire leads for free. When posting a sales case study on social media, the same rules apply as when you publish a blog post: include a captivating image (such as a client headshot), use emotive language, be succinct, mention key statistics, and include all relevant hashtags. On Twitter, I recommend using your case study post as a pinned tweet, so it stays at the top of your Twitter feed and gets the most attention. In my opinion, Instagram is one of the best platforms for promoting a sales case study. Lots of brands include landing pages (rather than homepages) in their Instagram bios to grab leads, you can do the same with a case study landing page. Foundr, a digital magazine for entrepreneurs, uses its Instagram bio to link to this landing page  promoting a $79 startup guide. If you take the time to post high-value content and follow lots of people who like posts by competitors in your niche (so that they follow you back), you will definitely generate some attention  on your Instagram page. If a link to your case study is the first thing they see on your page and it’s relevant to them, you’ll easily be able to extract contact information from your Instagram followers. Recommended Reading: How to Build the Best Social Media Promotion Schedule For Your Content Content Upgrades A content upgrade  is a special type of lead magnet that pertains to a specific blog post. After a person has finished reading a post, you can offer them a free ebook, checklist or case study which gives additional information about the subject - in exchange for the person’s email address. In my experience, highly specific content upgrades usually result in better conversions than generic lead magnets- since you’re delivering value on a topic that they have a proven interest in. In my experience, highly specific content upgrades usually result in better conversions than...For instance, this post  offers a downloadable PDF at the end of the article in exchange for contact information. If a visual communications agency publishes a blog post about creating visual content on a shoestring budget, it would make sense to offer a case study as a content upgrade that describes boosting a client’s website traffic using a combination of infographics, videos and presentations. Because the person reading your blog already has an interest in visual content, they can pick up additional strategic tips about how to create and promote such content by reading the sales case study. In this situation, the case study not only gives the reader immediate actionable tips, but it subtly conveys that you really know how to get results with visual content marketing.  So, if they eventually want to move on from free and low-cost visual content creation, you will be the first person they think of. Recommended Reading: How to Create Amazing Content Upgrades For Your Blog Email Marketing Sales case studies aren’t only a tool for getting people onto your mailing list. Personally, I find it impactful to include case studies as part of my autoresponder sequence  - to warm up people who are already on my list (just remember to segment your list so you don’t resend the case study to people to joined your list via your case study landing page). Market Hero  is an excellent autoresponder  that features an abundance of email design themes, a simple drag-and-drop interface and calculates your CLV for you. When you know your CLV, you also know how much money you can spend acquiring leads without taking a loss. This infographic from Kissmetrics breaks down how to calculate CLV as well: Successful email marketing involves building rapport, offering high-quality actionable advice and subtly conveying your expertise. Sometimes it’s okay to go for the hard sell via email, but you’ll push people away if you do this too much (a painful lesson I learned in my early years as a marketer). Aside from the occasional sales email, the majority of your messages should be delivering value- case studies fit in perfectly with this strategy. As an additional tip, try including a link to your case study in your email signature. This is particularly useful for sales staff or anyone else in your organization that frequently interacts with potential clients.