Nowadays, the resort’s business has to operate in the context of a highly competitive environment. Managers essentially search for new facilities and innovative decisions in order to maintain the clients’ loyalty and attract new visitors (Brey, 2010). One is supposed to be particularly creative to fit all the demands that appear in the tourism field.
Professors in Tourism School, Horner, and Swarbrooke, note that one of the best alternative solutions that might assist resorts’ management in gaining popularity is the integration of some alternative options into the general range of the proposed facilities. According to the professors, the educational opportunities might be in a great request with an average modern tourist that seeks for self-development along with a classic vacation (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2004).
From this perspective, the foundation of the Ski School in Sun Peaks Resort seems to be a timely implemented measure aimed at maintaining the sustainability of the business’s performance. According to the corporate data provided by the company, the school offers a wide range of educational activities including group and private lessons for various types of program levels and age ranges (Sun Peak Resort, 2016). One might, consequently, assume that a significant part of the resort’s clientele takes advantage of the provided facility.
Therefore, the study at hand is aimed at analyzing the benefits of the implementation of an educational option into a research spectrum of facilities; its impact on the clients’ loyalty as well as its contribution to the improvement of the general business’s performance. One is determined to examine the relevant aspects of the example of the Ski School in the Sun Peak Resort as the latter has the highest rating among all the Canadian resorts from the standpoint of family comfort and skiing facilities (Ski Resorts Ratings, 2016). As a result, one expects that the study of the company’s experience is likely to be highly productive.
Literature Review
Background
History shows that the initiative to combine resorts with ski schools received a lot of critics when it was first introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. The ski resorts would willingly offer skiing facilities for their guest, whereas they were not ready to provide any training options for them. Thus, an average ski-amateur had to choose between a specialized ski club and a classic ski resort. The idea to interconnect the two options seemed to be too costly and was supposed to be unpopular. Managers could not believe that guests would agree to pay extra money for being trained as long as they already spent a considerable sum on the primary resort’s facilities (Anderson, 2007).
The implementation of additional options into the general range of resorts’ facilitates began to gain popularity in the first decades of the twentieth century. Thus, one might find the descriptions of the first US ski schools situated on the territories of famous resorts the foundation of which dates back to 1928-29. The American journalist, Morten Lund, notes that the combination of professional sport and vacation became a true outbreak in the tourism industry. According to the author, people willingly gave their preferences to those destinations that had offered some more options than a standard holiday plan (Lund, 2005).
The story of another famous American resort serves to be one more proof of the efficiency of the implementation of education abilities into a resort’s services. Hence, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Pico Resort in Vermont had to face to face a critical competitive challenge. Its close neighborhood to another vacation destination, Killington, prompted the management to look for alternative solutions in order to hold the resort’s positions in the local market. From the historic perspective, one is now able to claim that it is the development of the educational aspect of the resort’s offer that rescued the entire business.
Hence, the involvement of high-quality specialists in ski school as well as the development of multi-level ski programs enabled the Pico Resort to win the competitive race. Specialists note that in spite of the advantageous environment and sites that Killington offered, tourists would choose Pico because of the wide spectrum of the self-development opportunities in the skiing field (Oliver, 1996).
Current Trends
In the modern tourism market, ski schools have already become an integral part of the ski resort business (Ormiston, Gilbert, & Manning, 1988). Specialists put a particular emphasis on the current trend that resides in enlarging the range of facilities in the prospect of gaining extra competitive capacity. Thus, numerous resorts try to introduce some additional courses and training in order to satisfy the modern demand for self-development (Mill, 2007). Therefore, there is no surprise that every resort that is situated in a favorable environment has a specialized service that encourages guests to undergo a ski training course.
Some specialists explain the phenomenon of ski schools’ popularity by the current trend to spend time with use. Thus, a professional analyst in the resort management field, Percy Sing, claims that people are inclined to spend their free time actively, learning something new and improving their skills, thereby, they eagerly grasp the chance to do some sports while on holiday (Singh, 2006). Moreover, the learning environment plays a significant role in people’s intention to subscribe to the course. In other words, even those that do not initially intend to visit the classes are likely to change their mind when they see other guests of the resort making progress.
Sun Peak’s Practice
Sun Peak’s ski school is one of the largest ski schools that currently exist in British Columbia, in Canada. The school offers a wide range of programs to meet any preferences and requirements. Thus, one might find courses for children, teenagers, and adults as well as various levels of training including beginner, intermediate, and expert. One might, likewise, choose between group and private lessons and different styles of skiing (Sun Peak Resort, 2016). The resort itself has an exclusively high rating and positive reviews on the famous trip advisor platform, known for its independence in estimation judgments (Sun Peaks Grand Hotel & Conference Centre, 2016).
According to the data available, one might assume that the school sets reasonable prices for its educational option. The statistics show that the major part of the resort’s guests tends to use the ski school services during their vacation in the Sun Peaks Resort. The percentage correlation between children and grown-up students is rather insignificant. Thence, the number of people in various age groups is almost equal (Facilities & Services, 2016).
Challenges
In the meantime, founding an effective ski school and integrating it successfully in a resort’s environment seems to be a hard task to complete. To begin with, one is likely to face the problem of involving the right people in the teaching staff. As long as most of the ski resorts and the Sun peaks resort, in particular, have strong implications for family vacations, it is particularly important that the trainers are represented by high-quality skiers so that parents might feel calm entrusting their children to them. The injury risks are extremely high in the relevant field that is why it is vital that school professionals are capable of ensuring proper discipline and safety (Fry, 2006). This point is of high significance for any resort as a series of accidents on a track are likely to do considerable harm to the resort’s image in the market.
Moreover, ski school has a more complicated structure than a classic ski resort due to multi-level programs that it offers (Gill, 2000). Therefore, one resort might have to perform extra financial contributions in order to provide the necessary equipment both for teachers and students. As far as quality skiing equipment is directly directed with a security issue, the expenses in this sector can hardly be reduced (Page, 2014).
Furthermore, a ski school is a seasonal activity that requires a particular type of advertising and advancement. A tourism manager, Peter Murphy, says that it is particularly difficult to convince people to visit a resort that mainly offers seasonal options (Murphy, 2009). Meanwhile, practice shows that the seasonal income is able to compensate for the decreased gain during the idle period (Agarwal, 1997).
Lastly, some specialists point out that those resorts, that decide to found a ski school, are, likewise, apt to face a critical ethical problem. Scientists state that ski schools experience considerable pressure on the part of the “green” communities (Kubota & Shimano, 2010). According to analysts, however, the negative impact that ski schools have on the environment is rather insignificant, although it does not prevent a particular part of the society from expressing protest appeals (Swarbrooke, 1999).
Project Methodology
Research Question
The relevant analysis is aimed at examining the impact that the ski school in the Sun Peaks Resort has on the general performance of the company. One is determined to study the cost-effectiveness of the relevant facility as well as its role in maintaining the clients’ loyalty. Therefore, the principal question of the research is whether a ski school is a beneficial implementation for a resort of a similar type as the Sun Peak Resort. One might suggest that the received findings will be useful for other entrepreneurs in the relevant tourism field.
Study Design
The study has a mixed design, which means that both quantitative and qualitative aspects will be included in the structure of the research. The research might be referred to as the exploratory type; thus, one does not suggest an initial hypothesis but is determined to generate it on the basis of the received findings.
Data Collection Tools
In order to collect the relevant data, a worked-out research survey will be employed. One intends to set a strict sample framework to raise the level of data validity. Therefore, the targeted research group will be comprised of adults only. One will apply random sampling as the simplest way of data analysis. The research survey will consist of the close questions in order to reach the maximum clarity in people’s assessments. The questions for the research survey will be the following:
Would you go to the Sun Peaks Resort if it did not offer the ski school service?
Did you initially intend to go to the ski school when you were planning your trip to the Sun Peaks Resort?
Do you think the ski school is the major advantage of this resort?
Would you like to visit another resort that has a ski school?
Does the presence of a ski school determine your choice of a resort?
Would you advise your friends or relatives to go to the ski school in the Sun Peaks Resort?
Do you think the cost of the ski school in the Sun Peaks Resort is reasonable?
Would you like to try another ski program in the same school?
Data Collection Process and Analysis
The major part of data collection will be performed through the online resources that will enable one to find the maximum number of the resort’s guests. The survey will be offered to those people only that have experience of visiting the ski school at least once. The survey will be sent to the participants that confirm their agreement via e-mail. As long as the data collection is finished, one will perform quantitative analysis to generate the total figures. Finally, one intends to analyze the received data and draw relevant conclusions.
Research Ethics
One is determined to ensure that the research is to be conducted in accordance with the norms and standards of the Code of Ethics in the relevant field. Therefore, one will fully follow the guideline for Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (Research Ethics, 2016).
Reference List
Agarwal, S. (1997). The resort cycle and seaside tourism: an assessment of its applicability and validity. Tourism Management, 18(2), 65-73. Web.
Anderson, D. (2007). Ski School. Northcote, New Zeland: New Holland Publishers. Web.
Brey, E.T. (2010). Developing a Better Understanding of Resort Management: An Inquiry into Industry Practices. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 20(1), 79-102. Web.
Fry, J. (2006). The Story of Modern Skiing. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. Web.
Gill, A. (2000). From Growth Machine to Growth Management: The Dynamics of Resort Development in Whistler, British Columbia. Environment and Planning, 32(6), 1083-1003. Web.
Horner, S., & Swarbrooke, J. (2004). International Cases in Tourism Management. Lebanon, New Hampshire: Routledge. Web.
Kubota, H., & Shimano, K. (2010). Effects of Ski Resort Management on Vegetation. Landscape Ecology, 6(1), 61-74. Web.
Lund, M. (2005). They Taught America to Ski. Skiing Heritage Journal, 44(17), 19-23. Web.
Mill, R.C. (2007). Resorts: Management and Operation. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Web.
Murphy, P. (2009). The Business of Resort Management. New York, New York: Routledge. Web.
Oliver, P. (1996). Will the Real Pico Please Stand Up? Skiing, 8(5), 128-132. Web.
Ormiston, E., Gilbert, A., & Manning, R.E. (1988). Indicators and Standards of Quality for Ski Resort Management. Journal of Travel Research, 36(3), 35-41. Web.
Page, SJ. (2014). Tourism Management. New York, New York: Routledge. Web.
Research Ethics. (2016). Web.
Singh, P.K. (2006). Hotel, Lodging, Restaurant and Resort Management: A Service Quality Perspective. New Delhi, India: Kanishka Publishers. Web.
Tourism is considered to be the world’s largest industry in terms of revenue generated by it. It also involves a large number of people and a variety of sectors. Apart from the tourists themselves, there is the destination, the tour operators, resorts, support personnel, government and its agencies, ancillary sectors like agriculture, health etc. according to the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the tourism industry has seen strong sustained growth from 2000 onwards and also a forecasts similar growth for the year 2008. the total number of tourist arrivals during the year 2007 was 898 million international tourists. The United States also saw an increase 10% of arrivals during that year. (Inside the regions, World Tourism Exceeds Expectations in 2007 – Arrivals Grow From 800 Million to 900 Million in Two Years, Media, World Tourism Organisation, Committed to Tourism, Travel and Millennium Development Goals, 2008). Over the years, this rapid rise in tourism (both domestic and international) has raised serious concerns about sustainability and ecological damage. Due to this concern, the concept sustainable and eco-tourism is gaining in popularity as a means to have a balance between environmental protection, profits and protection to the society. It has come to such an extent that sustainable tourism has become a necessity and many countries are looking to develop projects that will follow the above concept.
This paper aims to look at sustainable tourism and its various aspects in general and with reference to the Everglades National Park in particular. This particular destination was chosen because of its popularity and also its ecological sensitivity. The Everglades has seen extensive damage since it began to be inhabited by white settlers.
The Everglades
The Everglades National Park has been one of the most popular tourist nature destinations in the United States. “Named a World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve and Wetland of International Importance, the Everglade National Park located on the southern tip of peninsular Florida is a nature lover’s dream.” (Florida – Everglades, Kasbah.com – The World’s most powerful travel resource). It is also an example of successful sustainable tourism. The original Everglades once covered 11,000 square miles until human settlements began to drain the large expanse of water. The first white human settlers had begun to live there from 1920s onwards. The everglades now only cover 4,300 square miles. The State of Florida with the help of individuals and other organizations has embarked on one of the largest environmental ecosystems restoration projects in the world. The project aims at improving the lives the inhabitants of along with “preserving America’s Everglades and Florida’s Liquid Heart – Lake Okeechobee – and protecting natural wildlife and plants for future generations.” (Brief history of the Everglades, Everglades forever, State of Florida, 2006).
Natural environments and built environments
As mentioned earlier, tourism industry is a mix of the destination, many diverse sectors and the people involved including the tourists. In such a scenario, it would be worthwhile to understand and review the basic components or environments that any tourist destination will have. These environments can be broadly classified into two namely, natural and built environments.
Natural environment
Since Florida Everglades National Park is a natural habitat destination, it basically (and to a large extent) has a natural environment. “This category constitutes the fundamental measure of supply – the natural resources that any area has available for the use and enjoyment of visitors.” (Supply Components, Page 329, Charles R. Goeldner, J. R. Brent Ritchie, Tourism- Principles, Practices, Philosophies). Any feature that is naturally formed in a tourist destination can be classified in this category. It includes the air, the climate of the place, the water bodies, the landscape, the animals, the birds and other life forms habiting the place, the plants and its overall beauty. Air is included because the cleaner it is, the more appealing it would be to the visitors. Water bodies include the streams, the lakes, the rivers, and the sea any of which are present in the destination. The quality of the water and the level of pollution are also factors. Like air, the cleaner the water the better. Diversity in flora and fauna are also welcome. On the other hand some places may be known for hosting a particular type of plant or animal like kangaroos in Australia. Some areas may be famous for the plant life it holds. An example would be the sequoia trees in the United States. The General Sherman sequoia tree is famous as the largest piece of living wood in terms of volume in the world. It is 274 feet tall and has a circumference of 102 feet at the base. (More Sherman Tree Statistics, The General Sherman Tree).
The main attraction of the Everglades National Park is the natural beauty and the plant and animal life present there. The natural resources present there are briefly mentioned here. The Park is actually a wetland once though to be uninhabitable until it was drained by human settlers. Since the Park is situated near the southern part of the country, the climate is generally hot and humid especially during the summer months. “Summer is a bad season to visit the Everglades: mosquitoes, humidity and afternoon storms make visits uncomfortable and reduce most of the park activities.” (Best time to travel to the Everglades Park, Everglades National Park in Florida, Best time to travel). Summers can also bring in flooding of the park making it accessible only by boat. According to the article the best time would be the winter months, probably between October and March. Climate wise, Florida is at a disadvantage even though visits to the park are not prohibited during any time of the year. Even though there is pollution for neighbouring places like Florida City, the air inside the Everglades Park is very clean. The low level of rainfall in the area (60 inches per year) is usually offset by the high temperature- caused evaporation and hence the area may face shortage of clean water during summer months. “Competing demands for water — for residences, agriculture, and the Everglades and other natural areas — are placing stresses on south Florida’s water resources.” (Water resources, Page 4, Climate Change and Florida, EPA – Environmental Protection Agency). Hence this is also a setback with regards to tourism especially during summer. Everglades National Park has a long coastline with the Gulf of Mexico. The Park has a wide variety of flora and fauna. The landscape is lush green and is practically flat throughout. The main flora is mangrove and the tree islands made up of a plant called bayheads. Many varieties of exotic plants are also found. A wide variety of birds especially water birds is found there. Reptiles and amphibians are also found in large numbers. Alligators and the Burmese python are the main types of reptiles found here and they are of the maximum interest to visitors. Mammals are limited and only small ones like musk rats, raccoons and white tailed deer are common. (Everglades: Flora and fauna, Forest Encyclopedia Network – Bridging the gap between knowledge and application). The only large carnivore found here is the Florida panther.
Built environment
As mentioned earlier, a tourist destination will also have a built environment alongside its natural environment. This is necessary to provide the different facilities, infrastructure and amenities required for the tourists, staff and other people associated with the destination. A built environment can be defined as “A complex techno-socio-economic system comprising: physical components (e.g. bridges, roads, ports, rail, schools, healthcare facilities), and the institutional, management and operational relationships among these components and with society that it serves”. (Definition of built environment, Slide number 3, Phil Hendricks, CSIR ESTABLISHMENT OF BUILT ENVIRONMENTEK UNIT, CSIR – Your technology partner). This definition clearly states the purpose of a built environment in a society which is also relevant in the context of a tourist destination. The bridges, roads, ports and rail are primarily for transportation to and from the destination. The healthcare facility is also essential in case of injury or sickness for tourists or other personnel associated with the park. The school component may not be relevant in this instance. It also states that there is a complex relationship which includes technical, social and economic factors among the various components of the built environment.
The built environment is explained with the help of the layout of the Park given below. It can be seen that the primary mode of travel inside the park is though hiking trails, motorways and waterways. It is to the Park authorities’ credit that motor vehicles are allowed only on the main park road. Seeing the Park on horseback is allowed under special permit only and no pets are allowed on any of the trails except on the main park road. Bicycles are permitted on the main park road and selected trails only. The Wilderness Waterway (shown as a blue line in the map) is the best way to explore the park. It stretches almost across the entire length of the Park. Motorised boats are not allowed on this waterway. But is should be noted that this is a natural waterway (natural environment) and, only minor alternations as to make it more navigable have been made. (Hiking guide, Everglades National Park Hiking and Biking Page). There are two camping grounds with the facility for group camping. There are a number of building serving as visitor centres and offices. But they are located primarily on the southern and south western part of the park and the rest of the area is left free as wilderness areas.
It can be seen that built environment inside the park proper is minimal as a part of sustainable tourism. There are many hotels and hostels that serve tourists, but none are located inside the park premises. There are also many tour operators and tour packages available.
Problems with built environments: Built environments are man-made and there is every possibility that such environments will affect the environment negatively even if the greatest care is taken. The affects are usually in the form of air, water and noise pollution. For example, effluents from factories, homes and agricultural farms may pollute the atmosphere and water of a tourist destination. “Built environments influence local ecosystems: wildlife, plant life, air, soil, water, and people”. (The built environment is tightly entwined with the natural environment, Built environment, Smartlink – Where donors go for great ideas). Another instance would be soil erosion due to cutting down of tress and plants to make way for buildings, roads etc. excessive use of machinery, vehicles etc will also give rise to noise pollution. in the case of Everglades Park it can be seen that built environment is minimal and very little of the above problems will affect the park in any great way.
Impact of tourism on Everglades National Park
Sustainable tourism is impacted by the arrival of tourists and also by the communities that reside in nearby areas. “Sustainable Tourism refers to a level of tourism activity that can be maintained over the long term because it results in a net benefit for the social, economic, natural and cultural environments of the area in which it takes place”. (Sustainable Tourism, Glossary, European Institute of Cultural Routes).
Some of the impacts with specific reference to natural and built environments have already been discussed in the above sections. It is also necessary to see how other factors like socio-cultural factors, political factors, economic factors and environmental factors have affected this great wilderness destination.
Environmental impact
As mentioned earlier, the original Everglades had shrunk to about one fourth its original size by the time the need to prevent further degradation was noticed. Although appearing to be inhospitable to white settlers, the Everglades were inhabited by a couple of native Indian tribes for many years. “The original inhabitants, the Tequesta and Calusa Indians, had already disappeared due to the earlier arrival of the Spanish explorers. White settlers shunned the area, which they considered a wasteland.” (Living in the Everglades: The Native Americans, Susan D. Jewell, Restoring South Florida’s future, Department of the Interior, USGS – Science for a changing world). It was the white man who forced these tribes to flee their original homeland in North Florida and settle somewhere undisturbed. They adapted to the land and the climate and managed to coexist peacefully with the ecosystem. By the start of the twentieth century white settlers began to appear and through ingenuity managed to drain the wetlands so that dry land would be available of construction and farming. They were successful to such an extent that the Everglades itself became endangered. This was the primary social factor that was most damaging to the great wetlands. But once the National Park was set up, very little damage was reported within the ecosystem. The only problem that continues to plague the humans and the inhabitants of the Everglades is the shortage of water during the summer months. Human settlements near the Park depend on water from the Everglades for their consumption and this has put enormous strain on the numerous lakes and waterways in the Park. It is to be noted that these water bodies are shallow even though they cover enormous areas. The rainfall is also scanty in the area and the high heat takes most of it away through evaporation. But during the rainy season, the problem of flooding of agricultural land also occurs. The Friends of the Everglades, and the resident Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, had filed a case against the South Florida Water Management District for pumping polluted waste water form cities into the water bodies in the park. “The suit alleged that the South Florida Water Management District, an agency of the State of Florida, is violating the federal Clean Water Act by collecting and dumping untreated run-off into the Everglades rather that treating it or enforcing pollution laws against landowners.” (EVERGLADES POLLUTION SUIT IN U.S. SUPREME COURT, Friends of the Everglades).
This is an instance of imbalance between socio-economic factors and environmental factors. It is an irony because the same department along with the US Army Corps of Engineers had launched a multi-billion dollar project to restore the Everglades ecosystem. The National Research Council in its report released in 2008 that the effort is making very little progress. Unless such practices stop, real sustainable tourism cannot be practiced and the efforts of the Park authorities and environmental protection groups will be wasted. The tourism industry is industry is indirectly responsible since they are fed by the agriculture produce from these lands. They are also indirectly responsible for the waste because they stay in these communities (in hotels, homesteads etc).
In order to sustain the socio economic factors, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and the environment, a sustainable development plan was put forth by the Audubon Society of Florida. The plan calls for sustainable agricultural development without harming the ecosystem of the National Park. The plan also mentions that there have been proposals to replace agriculture with mining, residential and commercial purposes. If such a thing happens, the future of Everglades will be uncertain. The restoration plan has three major objectives in mind namely
“Everglades Restoration (water storage, water treatment, habitat, and water retention),
Sustainable Agriculture,
Sustainable Communities.”
(A sustainable Everglades Agricultural Area includes the following components, VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE EVERGLADES AGRICULTURAL AREA, 1000 Friends of Florida, Audubon of Florida).
The area outside of the National Park is prime agricultural land and nearly 700,000 areas of land is owned and farmed on by settlers. This land is thirsty for water and depends on Lake Okeechobee, situated north of the National Park. The water bodies in the Park also are dependent on the lake for replenishment. This lake is practically pumped dry during peak seasons of water requirements and will only become full after the rains. The lake is also very shallow having only an average depth of 3 feet. The Audubon society has also provided a map showing how sustainable agricultural (and through it, sustainable eco-system) can be done.
Socio-cultural impact
This is essentially the same as what has been given above. The communities that are living near and around the Park are socially responsible to maintain their environment. The problems mentioned in the previous section are caused by these communities.
Political impact
Policy wise, the local, state and national governments in the country are fully supportive of the restoration of the Everglades. But if the government allows mining or commercialization of agricultural lands, then it can hit sustainable tourism very badly.
It can be seen that the plan has provisions for water storage and water treatment. Land lying adjacent to the sustainable agricultural lands is readied for water retention also. The communities will live sustainable close to the lake and the agricultural lands.
Economic impact
The influx of tourists who stay in communities near the park, are indirectly responsible for the problems mentioned above. But the Park itself seems to maintain a balance between economics and environmental sustainability. For example motor boats are not allowed on the waterways. Vehicles of all types are not allowed except on the main park road. The Park could have earned more money from taxes, rentals etc had they allowed these inside the Park
Conclusion
The sustainable tourism project of the Everglades National Park has been discussed here. It can be seen that the Park is run in a very sustainable way, by balancing the environment, economic and social aspects. The problems (mainly environmental) faced by the park are from the nearby communities. The two main problems faced are pollution of shortage of water. Unless the communities themselves take steps to correct the issue, much of the efforts of the Park authorities and the many environmental protection groups will be wasted.
Each city has particular differentiating features making it unique and attractive. People often describe cities they like by using the word ‘cool’. Cambridge Dictionary offers the following definition for this word: “excellent in a way that people admire” (Meaning of COOL in English). Thus, the “cool cities” have some admiration factors for people. The ‘coolness’ of the city and its culture is a powerful instrument in advancing the city’s attractive features, infrastructure, and business. Current work is devoted to discussing the city’s attractiveness through culture and economy.
Culture is one of the most vital aspects of any city’s economic, social, and political existence. Zukin emphasizes that the culture is the powerful business instrument that improves the city’s status and attractiveness (12). The culture-related images appear on the streets and within the city’s infrastructure. Thus, the general understanding of attractiveness in business and economy is borrowed from the initial culture of the city (Kock 3). The culture and coolness of the town are interrelated. Businesses use culture as a profit instrument in attracting the audience (Tomarchio et al. 99). Modern cities have no market-free cultural artifacts (Stoller 16). Recently, globalization in culture has significantly affected the understanding of ‘cool’ cities. Today, the city without the peculiar features and cultural specificity cannot be considered attractive. There should be something catchy in cultural conceptualization on the city’s streets.
Therefore, the concept of attractiveness and coolness of the city is promoted by using the cultural specifics of a particular region. Business development and globalization cause the usage of culture in market aims. Therefore, the concept of coolness is related to life in contemporary cities in terms of business promotion. The economy of contemporary cities becomes directly dependent on the culture. By using the ‘coolness’ of the city, authorities and market-makers control the cultural and public resources creating a brand new system of values.
Works Cited
Kock, Florian. “What Makes a City Cool? Understanding Destination Coolness and Its Implications for Tourism.” Tourism Management, vol. 86, 2021, pp. 1-15.
Stoller, Paul. Money Has No Smell: The Africanization of New York City. The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Tomarchio, Ludovica et al. “Cultural-Smart City: Establishing New Data-informed Practices to Plan Culture in Cities.” CAADRIA, vol. 2, 2020, pp. 81-90. Web.
Zukin, Sharon. The Cultures of Cities. Blackwell Publishing, 1995.
The 2012 Olympic Games as well as the Diamond Jubilee celebrations are anticipated to bring several benefits towards tourism in UK. For instance, the events will boost the country’s reflection abroad as well as improve the customer service level. The exposure that the UK is likely to gain from these events has a great value. For that reason, even though not all sectors will reap extensive benefits from the events, the overall economic growth is expected to improve greatly.
The Olympic Games are estimated to generate about $ 2 billion, half of which is estimated to be generated after the events due to the increased number of visitors who will visit Britain as a result of the publicity related with the events. Consequently, several activities are happening in Britain in preparation of these great events. For instance, in 2010, a regional tourism conference was held in an attempt to plan for the Olympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.
The VisitBritain program was also initiated for the same reason. The initiative was instigated by Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron in order to market Britain abroad, proving to the world that Britain is indeed a better place to stop over, reside and to invest in.
Recently, the VisitBritain initiative received about £27 million in order to promote Britain to other markets abroad in an effort to drive a large number of visitors in the country during the historical events and in future. The main objective of the VisitBritain initiative is to encourage the world to discover Britain. Its mission is to increase the value of tourism in Britain and also to raise its ranking, making it top on the list of international tourist destinations.
In order to achieve these objectives, the program has come up with various strategies (Beech & Chadwick 2006). The strategies employed by VisitBritain are well adapted for the 21st century as well as the ever-changing consumer behaviors. The initiative lays out the appropriate plans for the next four years in order to encourage the world to make Britain its destination.
The Strategies of VisitBritain
The UK government has dared the VisitBritain initiative to deliver an excellent tourism marketing strategy. VisitBritain published its campaign strategy for maximizing the tourism benefits of the 2012 events in 2009 and has advanced the strategies since the declaration of the Royal Wedding. This campaign will ensure the expansion of Britain’s media networks and maintain its influence on the enormous media coverage during special events in future. These events which include the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and the 2012 Paralympics will be funded by private as well as public marketing funds which amount to £100m. The sponsors of this initiative include the Hilton Hotels, British Airways, Radisson Edwardian Hotels as well as Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.
The initiative plans to host journalists from other parts of the world and ease their permits during this period. This will ensure that the country hosts as many journalists as possible. They also plan to encourage the journalists to extend their coverage beyond the sporting events to encompass the country’s diverse culture. VisitBritain has adopted four strategies in order to achieve its main goals. These strategies are as follows;
Motivating tourists from foreign countries to visit and discover Britain.
To counsel to the Britain government on tourism in particular on issues that influence international competitiveness.
Develop marketing strategies to promote tourism in both the developed and developing countries.
Maximize investments in order to sustain the economy’s growth during this crucial time.
To maximize the tourism legacy in order to leap its benefits even after the international events.
Building the Britain Brand
Branding refers to a design or a symbol that is meant to identify the goods or services of a seller in order to differentiate them from those of their competitors (Cooper, Fletcher, Fyall, Gilbert & Wanhill 2008). More often than not, a brand creates an identity in the market which has values as well as characteristics that create loyalty and repeat purchase adding value to the seller and the consumer. Britain has a considerably good image globally.
In fact, according to recent research, it is ranked in the fifth place worldwide. This notwithstanding, enhancing Britain’s brand is necessary, as it can correct any negative perceptions associated with the country. The 2012 Olympic Games as well as the golden Jubilee celebrations that will take place in Britain on 2012 present a great opportunity to this country to develop constructive tourism messages to its global audience, in order to boost its image and to motivate more visitors into its shores (Cooper, Fletcher, Fyall, Gilbert, & Wanhill 2008).
The Visit Britain initiative aspires to take the great brand to some of the most vibrant, top growing and economically significant cities globally, with the aim of persuading a big number of people to visit Britain and experience the best of what Britain can offer. According to Michael Payne, who was the previous Marketing Director in the international Olympic committee, when a country hosts an international event, it has to be involved in a brand promotion; as such events have the capability of focusing and sustaining the world’s interest, on a particular city and the customs of the host country (Beech & Chadwick 2006).
The VisitBritain program together with its partners will ensure enough funding for its campaign strategies. It will focus on several issues in Britain such as its magnificence, the young generation, vitality and standard of living. The campaign will incorporate both the traditional marketing methods as well a social media. It will also include social networking platforms to create promoters of the Britain brand in order to make the potential visitors identify with Britain.
VisitBritain plans to look for more partners and sponsors in order to enhance financial support. The initiative will also equip its brand partners with all the necessary information and resources in order to market Britain effectively. Innovative and itinerant technology will also be integrated while communicating with the targeted visitors. When communicating with its potential tourists, the VisitBritain initiative plans to make use of essential modes of communication such as their website, placing their adverts on blogs, major ports, as well as travel sites.
VisitBritain is also making use of 3D Artwork in an attempt to boost the image of Britain abroad. The unique 3D Artwork based on high profile celebrities launched their marketing strategy in June this year. Recently, these artworks are going throughout the world in an attempt to promote Britain. The 3D work of art provides an idea of what Britain has to offer to the world among many other things. They highlight Britain’s way of life history, traditions, fashion, sports its beautiful scenery and a first-class reception.
The Media Opportunity
The 2012 Olympic Games are predicted to attract a worldwide audience of about 4 billion television viewers. During this period, every newspaper around the world is likely to focus on this international event. Research done from previous Olympic Games among other main sporting events have indicated that the tourism sector in a country can leap maximum benefits from the vast media coverage in the host country either prior to, during or after the event.
For instance, in the 1992 international games, Barcelona, demonstrated to the world that it was an exciting, accommodative and multi-ethnic city. On the other hand, Germany showed the world how to welcome visitors during the FIFA football World Cup held in 2006. This disputed the perceptions of the German people and considerably improved its image. Moreover, Canada made maximum use of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games to promote its tourism worldwide. Currently, these countries are still reaping the benefits brought by the games as business is improving as more tourists are visiting them.
One of the most widely used strategies that VisitBritain is using in order to attract several tourists in Britain is the extensive use of televisions as well as films. The VisitBritain program has launched global TV adverts that are currently being viewed throughout the world. According to recent research, this is a very effective strategy in creating a positive perception in the audience as it also increases a desire to visit Britain in many others.
The initiative is also involved in the production of inspirational videos for the same reason. Visit Britain in collaboration with other partners such as the press and social media will ensure the use of modern digital technology and print to enhance bookings.
People all over the world will be in a position to view the advertisements in their newspapers and on their subways as they go to work. The VisitBritain initiative predicts that about a third of its global audience will come into contact with the adverts. For instance, in India and Paris the initiative aspires to reach its target audience though the use of large cinema screens, while in China, they target to get to at least 16 million prospective visitors through the use of publications, station and subway advertisements, and through online means.
Quality and Customer Service
The 2012 Olympic Games as well as the Golden Jubilee Celebrations offers Britain’s tourism sector a platform to improve the quality of its hospitality. Though The United Kingdom is ranked among the best tourist destinations in the world, its customer service is not ranked among the best ten. This indicates that much effort should be put in order to change this perception. In order to raise the standards of the customer service, the VisitBritain initiative advocates for hospitality training programs. This will guarantee that the UK offers a first-class reception to its guests who will then take the positive image to other people in their nations. Such training can be made possible through the assistance of corporate hospitality agencies.
Companies in Britain can also be encouraged to invite international organizations, persuade their employees to host some visitors and offer incentives to the staff who comply with the request. Moreover, the initiative advocates that the tourism sector should ensure fair prices to the customers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, according to research conducted by the VisitBritain initiative, tourism is among the fastest growing sectors in Britain (Holloway 2004). The 2012 international events will lead to increased tourism in UK which will create more jobs and help sustain economic growth. Consequently, the VisitBritain campaign is significant in helping Britain realize economic growth before, during and after the 2012 Olympic Games as well as the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
List of References
Beech, J. & Chadwick, S., 2006. The Business of Tourism Management. New York: Prentice Hall.
Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Fyall, A., Gilbert, D. &Wanhill, S., (2008). Tourism: Principles and Practice. New York: Pearson Education.
Holloway. J.C., 2004. Marketing for tourism. Harlow, Financial Times. New York: Prentice Hall.
According to a research by Taylor (2001), sex tourism is increasingly becoming common, especially in the developing economies in Africa and parts of Asia-Pacific. However, the question as to whether the concept of managing sex tourism is inherently offensive has remained controversial for the past several years. According to Harrison (2001), sex tourism refers to trips within the sector of tourism with primary aim of having commercial sex relationship with the residents at the point of destination. Tourists in this case make their travels primarily to get sexual satisfaction in the points of destination.
In this context, managing sex tourism refers to developing clear systems and structures that facilitate sex tourism in a given destination. This management brings together the government, tour operators, the hotels, sex workers, and all other relevant stakeholders to come up with an industry that is legal, taxed, and protected. Is this concept of managing sex tourism inherently offensive? This is the question that the researcher seeks to answer by looking at the views of those in support and those opposed to it.
It is very important to first understand the concept of sex tourism before attempting to state whether or not it is offensive for it to be managed. As explained in the introductory section above, sex tourism refers to an aspect of tourism where the primary aim of the tourist is to have in sexual engagements with the people in their destination. Male and female sex tourists have a number of factors in common. First, they have financial capacity to enable them pay for the services they seek. In most of the cases, they are rarely seeking for emotional attachments with their clients. The people who are targeted in this industry are young, jobless and sometimes homeless people who are easily contented with little favours that can help them feed, clothe, and house themselves.
Poverty and hopelessness in life are the two main leading reasons why people become workers in the sex industry. According to Del (2005), majority of the sex workers, both male and female, are always not proud of their profession. However, they lack alternatives that can help them fight poverty and hopelessness. Some of the major consequences of working in this industry include contracting sexually transmitted diseases, physical and verbal abuse by the clients, harassments from the local authorities, and even slavery. A study by Williams (2013) shows that sex tourism is associated with countries that are poor. It is only the poor and disparate individuals who consider engaging in sex tourism as a means of earning a living.
According to Taylor (2001), it is very important to manage sex tourism in order to regulate it and ensure that people involved in it are adequately protected. Prostitution is one of the oldest professions in the world. Despite the negativity with which many people view it, it has grown in popularity in all parts of the world irrespective of issues such as religion and status of the society. According to Rivers-Moore (2012), the biggest problem that most societies around the world face is the silence that is always received when this topic arises. The society, and especially people in government, does not want to talk about sex tourism. Everyone knows that it exists even with ambiguous laws that prohibit it, but they do not want to face the truth. They prefer assuming that it does not exist, and for those who work in the industry, they are considered social outcast. This is the genesis of the major problems faced in the sex tourism industry.
According to Harrison (2001), sex workers in many countries where the industry is not managed are always subjected to many sufferings. Some of them are physically abused, but they do not have the law on their side. The owners of hotels would exploit men and women in this industry because these sex workers rely on them to survive. The police would harass these people regularly, either demanding for free service or bribes. In such environments, these workers have limited ability to define what happens to them. Jacobs (2010) says that managing this industry will change this trend. The sex workers will be considered citizens who are engaged in legal industry that has clear regulatory policies. The tourists and their clients will have a good environment where they can negotiate and reach agreements that are suitable for both parties. If these workers are offended in any way, they have a legal system that can duly protect them, not harshly judge them as prostitutes.
According to Clift (2000), the problem of human trafficking has been a major problem not only in the developing countries but also in the developed nations around the world. Women have been the greatest casualties. They are kidnapped in one part of the world and transported to another part where they work as sex slaves. They are kept in hotel rooms which act as cages. They are not allowed to interact with the outside world. In fact, Rivers-Moore (2012) says that they are viewed as properties that do not have all the basic human rights. They are abused all the times and they rarely benefit from the money they earn their abductors. The reason why this problem has persisted is that sex tourism is not managed.
In most parts of the world, this industry is run in a clandestine manner that law and order cannot prevail. Hotels where these services are offered have special arrangement with law enforcement officers who visit regularly to collect money because the business in itself is illegal in such countries. It means that no one will take an audit of women in such hotels and determine whether or not they are in the industry out of their own free will.
If this industry can be managed, then these hotels will be expected to engage in ethical practices. There will be special government officers who will be assigned the role of auditing women working in the industry and ensuring that their rights are protected at all times. In such regulated environments, it will be easy to fight human trafficking and sex slavery that is increasingly becoming popular in many parts of the world (Hitchcock, King, & Parnwell 2009).
Sex tourism is a major industry that can earn a government handsome amount of money in form of tax. According to Williams (2013), it is a known fact that in almost all countries around the world, there is some form of sex tourism that is practiced either directly or indirectly. When it is prohibited by law, then it is always done in a clandestine manner. The government stands to benefit if this industry can be properly managed. It will not only create jobs for the sex workers but also government employees who will be assigned the task of conducting life audit of the sex workers and ensure that their lives are protected at all times. The earnings from such taxes can be used to empower these sex workers and help them engage in safe practices that do not expose them to diseases and other problems that may affect them physically or psychologically.
Managing sex tourism is the only way of preventing excessively aggressive and brutal tourists who travel to different parts of the world to inflict bodily harm on their clients. According to a research by Kibicho (2009), showed that cases where sex workers are strangled to death or killed using other brutal means have become very common not only in developing countries, but also in Wealth nations in Europe and North America. Such criminals always go unpunished because such cases are rarely investigated. The government, the hotel managers, and other stakeholders involved in this industry already consider sex workers as outcasts in the society.
They are rejects who to them, lack most of the fundamental human rights. As such, their deaths, especially in circumstances when they were offering their services, are rarely investigated. Such bodies are always dumped in mortuaries by the police without any explanation as to how they met their death. This is one of the greatest injustices that sex workers, especially women, face in their profession. The perpetrators, who know that they are never investigated, will continue with their heinous acts because they know that these poor workers are not protected by the law.
The opponents of the concept of managing sex tourism argue that prostitution (sex for money) in itself in an immoral act. They argue that sex tourism should entirely be prohibited and measures put in place to punish the perpetrators. Any attempt by the government to manage sex tourism will be legitimizing the trade that is prohibited among many religious groups. It will be a clear communication from the government that prostitution is tolerated and that one can engage in it at will without facing any consequences.
Many nations around the world, including most of the developing nations where sex tourism is very rampant, have laws that prohibit prostitution. Managing sex tourism means legitimizing this practice. It means changing the law and accepting prostitution as a virtue that the society respects. This is one of the reasons why many people are opposed to managing this industry (Davidson 2001).
According to Taylor (2001), the society is yet to accept prostitution as a practice that is normal among humanity. One of the main reasons why people resort to this practice is that they lack economic strength that can help them have access to basic needs in their lives such as food, shelter, and clothing. Most of them would state that given a better option, they would consider quitting prostitution.
In fact, a research by Brents, Jackson, and Hausbeck (2010) revealed that over 98% of the prostitutes in the United States feel that the practice is shameful and that they would not want their children involved in it. They stated that they were working in the sex industry to earn a living and take their children to school so that they can become better citizens working in decent offices within the country. If the prostitutes themselves are ashamed of their practices, why would the government legitimize it? It goes against some of the basic morals in the society.
According to Brennan (2004), children learn from what they see in the society. Many in the society would not want to see a scenario where their children grow up knowing that prostitution is an option in life. This is one of the industries that expose the workers to numerous diseases most of which are contagious. According to Brennan (2004), whether or not prostitution is legalized, sex workers always expose themselves to serious danger of acquiring numerous diseases that are transmitted through sex.
This may be because of a conscious or unconscious decision not to use protection, or malfunction of the protective materials. Diseases such as genital harpers can be transferred even when one engages in safe sex. Even if it were to earn government money in form of tax, such earnings will all be spent in buying drugs, machines, and paying doctors to treat diseases such as HIV/AIDS, gonorrhoea, syphilis, genital harpers, and numerous other sexually transmitted diseases.
A good number of these sex workers eventually become HIV-positive. When they get sick and weak, they become unable to engage in their business that requires them to be very attractive and active. They start relying on other members of the society, becoming a burden to the society. Some of them leave their young children under the care of their aging parents after their death. That is why under no circumstance should prostitution be popularized or legitimized by coming up with a system to manage sex tourism (Seabrook 2000). It should remain an illegal business that every child would want to avoid at all costs when they are growing up. Instead of managing sex tourism, Rivers-Moore (2012) says that it should be completely banned and measures put in place to curb it because it is a dangerous vice.
The above discussion that looks at the varying views of various stakeholders can help in answering the question posed in this research. Yes, managing sex tourism is inherently offensive, but it is a practice that the society may be forced to embrace. Indeed prostitution is largely considered an immoral vice that should be avoided as much as possible. Our children should grow up knowing that they need to work hard to earn a living, and that prostitution is not an option when they fail to get decent jobs.
However, the truth is that prostitution has been in existence since the history of humankind, and chances are high that it is here to stay. It is also true that prohibiting sex tourism may be simply but ensuring that it does not take place is a very complex task that no government can actually succeed in implementing it. This is so because it happens between two consenting individuals who can easily say they are couples. The best that can be done to ensure that children below 18 years are protected is to manage this industry. The best that the government can do to protect those who are forced by fate into the industry is to come up with measures to ensure that it only happens among two consenting adults in a fair environment.
List of References
Brennan, D 2004, What’s Love Got to Do with It: Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic, Duke University Press, Durham.
Brents, B, Jackson, C & Hausbeck, K 2010, The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex, and Sin in the New American Heartland, Routledge, Print New York.
Clift, S 2000, Tourism and Sex: Culture, Commerce and Coercion, Pinter, London.
Davidson, J 2001, Children in the Sex Trade in China, Save the Children Sweden, Stockholm.
Del, C 2005, Creating “tourism Space”: The Social Construction of Sex Tourism in Thailand, McMillan, London.
Harrison, D 2001, Tourism and the Less Developed World Issues and Case Studies: Issues and Case Studies, CABI, Wallingford.
Hitchcock, M, King, V, & Parnwell, M 2009, Tourism in Southeast Asia: Challenges and New Directions, NIAS, Copenhagen.
Jacobs, J 2010, Sex, Tourism and the Postcolonial Encounter: Landscapes of Longing in Egypt, Ashgate, Farnham.
Kibicho, W 2009, Sex Tourism in Africa: Kenya’s Booming Industry, Ashgate, Farnham.
Rivers-Moore, D & Fox, L 2012, Lamb Loves Springtime, Barrons, Hauppauge.
Seabrook, J 2000, No Hiding Place: Child Sex Tourism and the Role of Extraterritorial Legislation, Zed Books, London.
Taylor, J 2001, Where Did Christianity Come From, Liturgical Press, Collegeville.
Williams, E 2013, Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements, Springer, New York.
Revenue management is an important element in the prediction of consumer behaviour and optimisation of product availability in the market. The concept is also used in setting prices for products through the application of analytics.
The objective of revenue administration is to maximise the growth of income generated by a firm (Phillips 2011). Another goal involves determining the right time to sell a particular product, the target market, and the ideal price.
Through revenue management, organisations can determine the right package to sell to the consumers alongside the product (Legoherel, Poutier & Fyall 2013). For this reason, it is said that this concept involves segmented pricing.
Analysts in this field focus their attention on two main factors. The two are revenue growth and consumer behaviour. To predict the behavioural patterns of customers, the availability of the product in the market is optimised with a hope of maximising on revenues.
Tourism is a multibillion industry in the world. A number of organisations offer a combination of tour related services. Just like any other robust sector of the global economy, the tourism industry is characterised by stiff competition among the players (The Emirates Group 2013).
As a result, businesses operating in this segment must make smart choices to maintain or improve on their market share (The Emirates Group 2013). In the tourism industry, yield is the term used to refer to the actual revenue generated by an airliner or a hotel.
The term is used in comparison to the income that would have been achieved in the event that the capacity of the operator was optimally utilised at the same published price (Shaw 2011).
In this paper, the author is going to conduct an up-to-date literature review on revenue management in the tourism industry.
In the essay, the author will identify the various challenges faced by marketers in this sector today. The impacts of these problems in hospitality and tourism marketing will be reviewed. To achieve this objective, a number of academic journal articles will be used.
Revenue Management in the Tourism Industry
To understand the concept of revenue management, it is important for organisations in the tourism industry to familiarise themselves with the notion of yield administration. Through improved yields, organisations can effectively grow their revenue (Harewood 2008).
In light of this, yield management becomes an important tool for marketers since they can use it to strike a balance between the marketing segments they are dealing with.
It is important to establish this equilibrium in order to generate more revenue for the firm. The focus of the organisation should not be limited to the idea of increasing the number of consumers.
Challenges Facing Marketers in the Tourism Industry
As stated earlier, most businesses in the tourism sector include hotels and airlines. The author of this paper puts more emphasis on airliners. It is important to understand that most of the organisations operating in the industry are mainly service providers (McKenna 2014).
The business firms rarely offer tangible goods to their customers. Goods are only used as incentives. At times, they are included in packages to lure customers. They are often small and branded, such as key holders. The goods do not in any way improve the amount of revenue that is generated by the tourism company.
They are considered to be part of the variable costs incurred in the process of doing business. Marketers in this industry have to identify the best combination of segments in order for them to improve the efficiency of their revenue management undertakings.
In the process of managing the revenue of their organisations, marketers in the tourism sector face a number of challenges. Different authors adopt varying perspectives with regards to the challenges facing marketers in the tourism industry.
One of the greatest obstacles encountered by these professionals is the need to comply with Vision 2050 (Cathay Pacific Airways Limited 2012). As the aviation industry grew, it became necessary to come up with ways to address issues related to financial sustainability, conservation of environment, safety, and capacity.
That is where Vision 2050 came in. To comply with the guidelines provided in this document, the airlines will have to invest heavily in the industry. More revenue will need to be generated to enable the companies implement the set guidelines.
For this reason, marketers are required to calculate the best combination of segments. The pricing of the segments should enable the firms to retain and increase the number of customers.
At the same time, the companies need to remain profitable. Striking a balance between the two requirements is a challenge to the marketers (Jones, Lee & Chon 2011).
Players in the tourism industry are also faced with the challenge of cutting on operational costs while at the same time improving the quality of services offered to the customers (AirAsia 2012).
It is important to note that airlines, just like any other businesses operating in the contemporary global market, incur both fixed and variable costs. For this reason, the companies have come up with yield management systems.
They are required to cut on their variable costs in order to remain profitable. Discounts offered by to the consumers should also be reduced. However, such initiatives only increase the amount of revenue collected per seat.
The negative consequence of the move is that the number of customers is likely to go down as a result of the declining quality of services offered. Failure to offer discounts and incentives also makes the airlines lose potential customers, lowering their market share in the process (McCool & McCool 2010).
Another problem faced by marketers in the tourism industry involves inefficiency in baggage handling (Qantas 2013). Airlines and hotels need to deal with baggage in the most efficient way. However, at the same time, they are expected to reduce their operational costs.
Important aspects of baggage handling include arrivals, check-in, manual handling, security, and transfers. Efficiency in this sector translates to improved quality of services. However, additional revenue needs to be allocated to this section to achieve this objective.
The cost of such operations is likely to be passed down to the consumers, leading to an increase in the cost of services offered (Schwartz & Chen 2012).
Businesses in the tourism sector also have to contend with marketing issues related to the environment (Shaw 2011). In aviation, the marketers should take into consideration environmental regulations in their promotional activities. Compliance with these regulations is costly to the airlines.
It translates to an increase in the cost of doing business. The airlines will in turn raise the prices charged on the various packages offered to consumers. Increasing the cost of services discourages customers from using the services of the company.
On their part, hotels are also required by law to adhere to specific environmental policies. As a result, adjustments have to be made in a bid to comply with the regulations. The prices of some of the packages offered are raised to meet the costs incurred in making these adjustments (Vinod 2009).
Change in customer loyalties has also been cited as one of the greatest challenges that marketers in the hospitality and tourism industry have to deal with (Cathay Pacific Airways Limited 2012). Hotels and airlines plan for their capacities in advance.
They estimate the number of customers who are expected to use their services within a given duration of time. In most cases, the services are requested by customers and paid for in advance. However, changes in customer loyalties mean that hotels and airlines are likely to operate under capacity.
The reduced earnings notwithstanding, the organisations are expected to meet their fixed costs. The low revenue generated as a result of lack of loyalty affects profitability, leading to increased prices in some of the segments.
The Impacts of the Challenges on Tourism and Hospitality Marketing
The challenges facing marketers in the tourism and hospitality industry have significantly impacted on the competition among segments in the sector. Such segments include accommodation, attraction sites, food and beverage, adventures and recreation, as well as travel trade (Cathay Pacific Airways Limited 2012).
Today, investors in the industry are engaged in cut-throat competition in an attempt to gain control of the market share. The operators have come up with improved revenue management systems to enhance their pricing schemes. Competition is important as it improves the quality of services offered to the customers.
The costs of operations incurred by the competing businesses are also minimised, which leads to conservation of resources. Through competition, matters to do with convenience, control, and speed when dealing with passengers have improved.
Competition requires businesses to provide unique and quality services in order to retain and attract potential customers (Vinod 2009). Customers are likely to be on the lookout for high quality services, which are characterised by timeliness and consistency.
The revenue management strategies put in place are expected to ensure that the most attractive packages are given at the best prices possible.
Enhanced revenue management strategies among firms in the tourism and hospitality industry have also led to improved customer experiences (Schwartz, Stewart & Backlund 2012). Airlines and hotel companies have devised mechanisms to provide their customers with valuable and vibrant experiences.
Through successful marketing strategies, segmentation is made possible, allowing for different classes of tourists to get the best value out of their money. For example, major airlines have specialised on different classes of customers.
For instance, for the past few years, Emirates has focused on offering the best first class flight services in the industry (The Emirates Group 2013). Cathay Pacific Airline, on the other hand, specialises in the provision of services for business class tourists.
Qantas and AirAsia focus on economy and low class groups of passengers, respectively. It is also possible for airlines to accommodate the four groups of passengers. Likewise, hotels offer different packages for varying groups of people. As a result, they are in a position to attract a diverse base of clientele.
A number of revenue management policies are concerned with baggage handling (Vinod 2009). It is estimated that these strategies will help save over $1.25 billion by the reducing cases of baggage lost and mishandled. The approach is also likely to promote customer loyalty.
The airlines and hotels that pay attention to the luggage of their customers are viewed as responsible and attract more clients. Complaints from customers are also reduced.
Enhanced revenue management strategies have made it possible for persons to travel from one point to another with ease. The development is brought about by improved price regimes in the industry (Lindenmeier & Tscheulin 2008).
As a result, many flights are been made to different destinations across the globe. The result of the increased movement of persons is increased congestion in many tourist destinations (Nason 2007). Tourists also pollute the environment around their destinations.
Gases produced following the combustion of fuel by the airplanes also cause massive air pollution. It is worth noting that degradation of the destinations will lower the number of visitors. The development will hurt businesses in the sector as a result of reduced number of customers.
In light of this, stakeholders should strive to deal with the problem of pollution in order to remain in business. A number of airlines, such as Emirates, have in the past engaged in charitable activities, which include cleaning the environment (The Emirates Group 2013).
Conclusion
Revenue management predicts customer behaviour through analytics. It is used to optimise the prices of goods and their availability in the market in a bid maximise revenue generation. Organisations can determine the most profitable packages through revenue management.
In addition, segmented pricing can be implemented using this approach. Competition in the industry is stiff. For this reason, businesses have to come up with appealing packages to remain profitable.
Revenue management provides such organisations with a chance to offer high quality services. At the same time, the businesses remain profitable without having to hike the prices of services provided.
Harewood, S. 2008, ‘Coordinating the tourism supply chain using bid prices’, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, vol. 7 no. 3, pp. 266-280.
Jones, D, Lee, A. & Chon, K. 2011, ‘Future issues in sales, marketing, and revenue management in greater China: what keeps you up at night?’, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, vol. 28 no. 6, pp. 598-614.
Legoherel, P., Poutier, E. & Fyall, A. 2013, Revenue management for hospitality and tourism, Goodfellow Publishers Limited, New Jersey.
Lindenmeier, J. & Tscheulin, D. 2008, ‘The effects of inventory control and denied boarding on customer satisfaction: the case of capacity-based airline revenue management’, Tourism Management, vol. 29 no. 1, pp. 32-43.
McCool, B. & McCool, A. 2010, ‘Incorporating lessons learned into tourism industry strategic planning for disaster management’, International Journal of Revenue Management, vol. 4 no. 3, p. 259.
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Schwartz, Z., Stewart, W. & Backlund, E. 2012, ‘Visitation at capacity-constrained tourism destinations: exploring revenue management at a national park’, Tourism Management, vol. 33 no. 3, pp. 500-508.
Shaw, S. 2011, Airline marketing and management, 7th edn, SSA Ltd., Oxfordshire.
The Emirates Group, 2013, The Emirates Group complete financial report and accounts, 2012-2013. Web.
Vinod, B. 2009, ‘The complexities and challenges of the airline fare management process and alignment with revenue management’, Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, vol. 9 no. 2, pp. 137-151.
Tourism destination development and management is a key factor to the success of the tourism industry in any given region. Tourism is all about travel trade which is so complex and hence it needs to be managed and developed very carefully.
All the stake holders must participate in managing places in terms of culture, social aspects of the given place, heritage, among other key factors that affect tourism. As a dynamic sector, tourism has to be handled with great precaution.
There are several destinations that exist in various countries in the world as a whole. This gives potential visitors a wide range of commodities in the tourism market they can choose to consume. This in itself makes the market and therefore the success in the market depends on how well the place is developed and managed.
The tourism market
The tourism market is a set of clients who regularly consume a specific tourist commodity in the market. This is an ever changing market due to the fluctuations that occur on the demand and supply side of the said market. Clients in this market don’t have the same characteristics and hence the market has to be analyzed objectively. As part of touring, many tourists come in with their own intrinsic expectations that cannot be identified easily.
Tourism can be inbound where a tourist goes out of his home country or it can be domestic where the given tourist tours some parts of his own country. Both types of tourism need to be panned for and managed very well by the stakeholders endowed with the responsibility.
The tourism market is not similar to other good and service markets because it is a market that has an experience that cannot be touched, it is impossible to separate both consumption and production in the market, it greatly varies from time to time, it targets travel trade, involves cultural heritage marketing, and the fact that it involves societal marketing.
Tourism policy, planning and management processes
For tourism management to be sustainable, it requires a well understood decision making process. The main actors in tourism decision making are the government and the public at large. The decisions are normally arrived at in different sets of interactions (Homeshow 1995 p. 522).
Planning of tourism policy requires the planner to analyze beyond one sector or issue by looking at all the factors that affect tourism. There must be corporation between the government and the local communities among other stake holders like other institutions in order to come up with the best policy and plan governing tourism.
In tourism policy development and planning process, the place it self must work hand in hand with other institutions that are in charge of regional tourism planning. The regional bodies come in with professionalism that is key to the success of the tourism industry.
Tourism destination marketing
One of the concepts in marketing states that the most important thing in acquiring the objectives of an organization involves determining the requirement of the target market and then meeting with the desired needs in the most effective and efficient manner than the other providers in the market.
There must be a strategically planned connection between the supply and demand sides of the market. Destination basically refers to a place. Tourism destination marketing involves a combination of each visitor’s experience that is combined into one big unit of a given toured area. (Marphy at al, 2000.p. 44).
This means that the earlier notion of this concept referring to the end of the whole experience has been done away with. (Vukonic, 1997. p.98)
Tourism destination marketing is a well planned approach to the improvement of places and not a tool for promotion (kotler et al. 1993. p.16). It is highly recommended that occupants of a given place gain satisfaction from their community and whenever visitors come in, their needs have to be met.
Tourism destination organization
The duty of tourism destination marketing is the responsibility of tourism destination organizations (Ashworth, 1991, p.139). Such institutions may include the public sector, private sector or a combination of both.
Working together of the various players within this industry is very important given the fact that the DMO’s have a small influence on the tourism market. This is owed to the fact that DMO’s have no influence on the determination of pricing, operation and production (Bieger, p. 182). They therefore have to accept the product as it is provided for in the market.
While executing their duties, one of the challenges that destination management organizations face is that of lack of funds. This is mainly because what is offered to them in budget is not worth what is expected of them in results. (Bonham & Mark, 1996.p.3-10)
Development of a tourism destination
Tourism marketing can only be achieved if the stake holders fully understand the factors that determine the way the tourists behave. They should also be able to recognize the expectations of the tourists and how environmental and socio-cultural changes will influence tourism. Stable industry. (Ritchie & Crouch, 2000, p. 2)
While developing tourist destinations, the involved institutions and other stake holders should focus more on the long-term objectives that are sustainable for the purpose of coming up with a stable industry.
Factors affecting travel motivation
It is very tricky to determine what exactly makes people to tour other countries and nations. (Pearse, 1987. p. 21). Varied tourists who possess different personality attributes tour different parts of the nation with different expectations and needs that are not shared and this makes it very hard to determine factors that drive tourists to travel. However some of the common factors that may influence travel are discussed below.
Looking for pleasure and relaxation are very important factors that affect the movement of tourists. This may include escape from harsh conditions like climatic or when somebody just decides to go and relax away from his normal surrounding. (Leiper 1994.p.249)
Nationality to some extend also affects tourism in that some tourists from some parts of the world tend to travel to specific parts of the world for adventure. This may be affected by demand issues for example some tourists from a given region of the world may be driven by some specific needs e.g. swimming that is well provided for in a given country. (Pizzam & Sussman 1995.p 9o1-917).
As far as age is concerned, young visitors normally tour for sporting activities while older tourist’s visits are normally meant for relaxing and exploring the world. Older tourists prefer activities that are not tiring
One of the most important factors that affect tourism is the extent to which the social-cultural and natural environments which most visitors come to adventure have been built and maintained.
Gender doesn’t seem to have a great influence on tourism as such, but some studies shows that that women tend to have a strong drive to traveling while the young male gender tend to prefer noisy places full of fun.
As noted earlier, there are so many intrinsic factors in tourists that are so varied and hence it makes it so hard to tell the exact needs of tourists.
Tourism marketing failure
Tourism marketing is confused with selling yet selling goals don’t go hand in hand with the conservation need of the tourism market. (Latitude Nelson, 2001. 1-15)
The other thing is that what is really on the ground may not really reflect what has been promised to the tourists. Some of the advertisement may display information that is not true in order just to attract tourists and make money.
Conclusion
As a matter of fact, tourism development and management is an important factor that must be managed very well by any given country or region. This is mainly because this sector is very dynamic and faced with several challenges. It is very hard to determine most of the intrinsic factors that motivate visitors so explaining the demand and supply side of the market becomes very tricky.
It is therefore important for all stake holders to participate in the policy development process and planning of the tourism industry in order to ensure success in the dynamic sector. It calls for involvement of expertise in the strategic planning and policy development process for the industry.
References
Ashworth, C.J. (1991), Products, places and promotion: Destination images in the analysis of the tourism industry. In M.T. Sinclair and M.J. Stabler, The
Tourism industry. An international analysis. CAB international, Oxford Bieger. T. (1999), Management Von Destination und tourismosorganisation. 4th edition. Oldenburg, Mu”nchen.
Bonham & Mark, J. () 1996. Private verses public financing of state destination. Journal of travel Research, 35(2), 3-10
Homeshaw, J. (1995). Policy community, policy networks, and science policy in Australia. Australian Journal for Administration, 54, (4), 520-532
Kotler,P.B.J & Makens. J. (1991) Marketing for hospitality and tourism. Prentice Hall, Upper saddle River, NJ Latitude Nelson (2001). Statement
Latitude Nelson (2001). Statement of corporate intent for three years ending 30 June 2004. Latitude Nelson, Nelson
Murphy, P, P. & Smith, B. (2000). The destinationproduct and its impact on Traveler perceptions, 21(1) 43-52. Pahner. A
Pizam, A, & Sussmam, S 1995. Does nationality affect tourist behaviour? Annals of tourism Research, 22(4), 901-917
Ritchie, J.R.B & Crouch, G. J (2000). The competitive destination: sustainability Perspective. Tourism Management, 21(1), 1-7
Vukonic, B. (1997).selective tourism growth, Targeted tourism destinations. In.S. Wahab and J.P. John (Eds), tourism development and growth. The Challenge of sustainability. Rout ledge, London
Tourism is an essential socioeconomic sector of all world economies. It earns the government foreign exchange, revenue and creates employment directly and indirectly for the citizenry (Ashley et al., 2007, p.8).
Tourism encourages development of infrastructure, as well as social amenities in places with tourism potential within a country, region, continent, or village, which in turn affects positively other socioeconomic sectors of an economy.
Tourism fosters international consciousness through tourists’ appreciation and understanding of other peoples’ cultures, which is requisite for maintenance of international unity, peace, and security. Owing to the numerous social and economic benefits that accrue from tourism, proper and professional management of a country’s tourism sector is prerequisite for success.
Destination management and destination marketing are essentially the pillars of the overall successful management of the tourism sector. Even though in reality destination management and destination marketing complement one another, the two concepts refer to two different processes.
The purpose of this task is to discuss reasons why misunderstanding of the concepts of destination marketing and destination management leads to poor sustainable tourism planning and management of tourism impacts. The paper is organized into five main parts viz. an introduction followed by a literature review on tourism, destination, destination management, and destination marketing.
The second main part is an analysis of concepts of destination management and destination marketing. The third part is a discussion of impacts of misunderstanding of concepts destination management and destination marketing and finally a conclusion and recommendations part.
Literature Review
The success of a destination in terms of reaping fruits of its tourism potential is certainly an outcome of proper and professional management of matters tourism. Therefore, a country’s destination management and destination marketing organizations play a critical role in facilitating improved attraction of visitors internally and from foreign countries (School of Travel Industry Management, 2006, p.7).
Destination management is a process of raising the quality of services in order to achieve visitor satisfaction and sustainable tourism planning that encompasses control of impacts of tourism (Jamal & Robinson, 2003, p.449). Destination marketing is an integral part of destination management that involves informing potential and current tourists about a destination so as to persuade them to visit (Wahab et al., 1976).
In tourism management studies, concepts destination management and destination marketing though different tends to be used interchangeably. This misconception has led to poor sustainable tourism planning and management of tourism impacts. In this section, we shall look at what different scholars have written about these two concepts.
Tourism
Tourism refers to the human activities and relations emerging from the going and staying of people away from their usual home surroundings for a range of reasons. These purposes may include business, leisure, and recreation (Ana, 2008, p. 918; Franklin, 2003, p. 3; Cooper, 2008, p.4).
According to the World Tourism Organization, as cited in Ana (2008), a tourist is a person who goes to places far from his/her normal environment for a time exceeding twenty-four hours.
In the same light, this visiting should not be more than one successive year of leisure, business, and other reasons linked to the carrying out of a work activity for which a visitor receives a salary within the area visited. Tourism is one of the biggest and fastest developing economic sectors of the international economy (Earth Summit, 2002, p.1).
Destination
Destination is a fundamental component of a country’s tourism system because virtually all tourism activities occur at destinations (Ana, 2008, p. 919). According to Pike (2004, p. 91), destination refers to places that attract tourists for a short-term stay.
Destinations vary from cities to villages, states to provinces, continents to countries to purposively built resort areas (Ana, 2008, p. 919; School of Travel Industry Management, 2006, p.2; Tzsér & David, 2009, p. 1427). At the primary level, destinations are fundamentally local communities founded on local government borders (Jamal & Robinson, 2003, p.449).
Therefore, a local tourism destination is a physical space where a tourist stays for not less than one night (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.1). It is pertinent to note that a local tourism destination includes things such as “attractions, support services, and tourism resources in a day’s return travel period” (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.1).
Moreover, physical and administrative limits, coupled with paradigms and perceptivity underscore tourism destination and all these factors, determine the market competitiveness of the same. A local tourism destination includes various stakeholders that comprise a host community, which can come together, and network to create bigger destinations (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.1).
It is vital to note that groups of local tourism enterprises including attractions, hotels, transport companies, and tourist service providers such as restaurants, guides, and equipment rentals are critical components of a destination (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.1; Ana, 2008, p. 919).
Concisely, tourists go to destinations, which are definite places with recognized boundaries such as political boundaries, boundaries of an island or market-created boundaries.
However, the longing of a place to stand out as an acknowledged tourism destination brings up elusive marketing challenges (Baker, 2007, p.15; Ana, 2008, p. 919). For this reason, tourism destination management and marketing organizations are crucial to growth of the tourism sector of an economy.
Tourism destination Management
Tourism destination Management entails a wide range of issues, including land usage planning, issuance of business licenses and zoning controls, enterprise association schemes, environmental regulations and other various methods used to shape development and daily running of tourism activities (Jamal & Robinson, 2003, p.449). It is a critical integral part of managing tourism’s environmental impacts.
Destination management organizations are usually made up of local authorities, local departments of the trade, community representatives, local not-for-profit organizations, as well as, higher institutions of learning (Jamal & Robinson, 2003, p.449). Nevertheless, no single approach to tourism destination management that is applicable in all countries.
Essentially, destination management is a process of leading and coordinating tourism activities under a logical plan by destination management organizations (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.2).
Destination management demands that, different organizations pull together guided by a common objective. DMOs do not manage activities of partners instead they pool together resources and expertise (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.2).
Tourism destination marketing
Destination marketing is a fundamental component of developing and maintaining popularity of a given place. Destination marketing is a process through which “a country’s tourism organizations and/or tourist businesses identify the target potential and current tourists in order to inform them and sway their wishes, likes and dislikes, motivations and needs at local, national, regional, and global levels” (Wahab et al., 1976, p.24).
Therefore, relevant tourism stakeholders devise and embrace their tourist products through such process in a bid to attain maximum tourist satisfaction. Destination marketing organizations thus refers to any organization charged with the responsibility of selling identifiable destinations (Pike, 2004, p.105).
It is necessary to note that this does not include separate government organs that undertake tourism planning and policymaking (Pike, 2004, p.105). Destination marketing organizations play a critical duty of propagating substantial market and performance information to its members in a timely manner (Ritchie & Crouch, 2003, p.73).
Destination marketing organizations must decide on business-related issues like prizing and product formulation among other many business decisions. Such information provides destination managers with vital information needed for understanding traveller needs and successful product development (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.53).
Tourism destination management v. Tourism destination marketing
Even though concepts destination management and destination marketing share the foundational term destination, which has more or less a similar meaning, the two refers to two different processes. However, learners, as well as scholars, and practicing tourism experts use these concepts interchangeably (Earth Summit, 2002, p.1).
This trend has led to poor sustainable tourism planning and management of tourism impacts. Nevertheless, it is safe to argue that in reality the destination management and destination-marketing processes complement one another in a destination’s endeavours to make itself and various parts of its territory, cultural and historical heritage recognized domestically and internationally.
On the one hand, tourism destination management comprises the whole responsibility for developing the tourist products of an entire destination, for their growth through controlling and promotion. Tourism destination management involves the development of partnership among various relevant stakeholders that can enable them offer positive experience to their tourists (Tzsér & David, 2009, p. 1429).
The main function of tourism destination management is the formulation of cooperation and coordination between government authorities, not-for-profit and private players of tourism (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.1).
Tourism destination management is essentially coordination, controlling and directing activity. Its mission is usually driven by the need to institute competitive and sustainable tourism in a given place through comprehensive establishment and running of tourism system (Tzsér & David, 2009, p. 1429; Kozak & Baloglu, p.79).
It aims at fulfilling tourists demands, ensure profitability of the sector, encourage participation of local communities in the processes of development so that they can improve the quality of their lives.
Most importantly, it aims to protect and care for the environment. Tourism destination management takes place through tourist planning, evaluation, development, and tourism business amalgamation or lobby activities (Tzsér & David, 2009, p. 1430).
It usually involves the creation of communal partnerships and becoming aware of and understanding the interests and demands of the players, including authorities, inhabitants, tourists, tourist businesses, and partnership organizations (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.1).
Generally, tourism destination management is an activity of looking after the interests of tourists and receiving communities and serving them as one entity. Its mission should be to provide a positive experience for tourists and promote social, economic, and environmental advantages for the host communities (Tzsér & David, 2009, p. 1430).
Tourism destination management must be an independent organization with appropriate competence, means, and professionals who are able to carry out all involved responsibilities.
Financially, Tourism destination management organizations should be self-sustaining and should receive support from the top (Tzsér & David, 2009, p. 1430; Kozak & Baloglu, 2009, p.80). Financial maintenance is offered by the stakeholders mentioned above.
Largely, destination management involves issues such as development management, planning within environmental and socio-cultural capacity confines. Tourism destination management should involve host or local communities in tourism development and planning.
Here, it is necessary to note that development of a tourism destination affects local residents’ social, economic, cultural lifestyle, thereby directly influencing their quality of life (Jamal & Robinson, 2009, p.449; Woodside, 2007, p.130).
Furthermore, negative effects of tourism development on the integrity of natural surroundings of a particular destination can affect both ecological integrity and the cultural ways of life, which local dwellers may want, to experience locally.
These considerable factors necessitate the involvement of host or local communities in tourism planning and development (Kozak & Baloglu, 2009, p.80).
It is vital to note that Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) responsibilities keep on changing because of environmental and market changes as they have to meet needs and wants of all stakeholders and attain a complicated variety of strategic goals (Kozak & Baloglu, 2009, p.80). Concisely, DMOs are expected to articulate and put into practice sustainable development strategies of a particular destination.
On the other hand, tourism destination marketing is more or less an integral part of tourism destination management. Therefore, local, national, and regional destination marketing organizations are essentially fundamental components of the overall DMOs such as National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) (World Tourism Organization, 2007, p.53).
In other words, destination marketing is founded on the major pillars of tourism destination management. For this reason, there are possibilities of bringing about misunderstandings in tourism studies, research, and practice when concepts tourism destination management and tourism destination marketing are used interchangeably (Earth Summit, 2002, p.1).
Tourism is a complex industry that involves extensive service provision and selling of tangible products to tourists. From a commercial viewpoint, tourism is a multifaceted business that requires expert strategic planning and management in order to enable a destination benefit from its tourism potential and establish sustainable tourism development.
Within the increasingly competitive business world at the domestic and international market levels, it is one thing to have superior products and/or services, but without proper and effective means through which you can inform and persuade target potential and actual customers to buy your products, your products and services are valueless (Silk, 2006, p.3).
They are valueless because they do not meet their fundamental goal of satisfying needs and wants of the target audience and thus do not enable your organization to realize improved financial performance, which is a prerequisite for its overall performance, development, and future success. Therefore, marketing is a significant process of any given supply chain including tourism organizations’ supply chains.
Generally, marketing is a process of planning and implementing the progress, setting prices, advertising and delivery of goods, ideas, and services to make possible transactions that satisfy individual and organizational needs, wants and objectives (Silk, 2006, p.3; Lamb et al, 2011, p.3). Marketing has two dimensions.
First, marketing is a management orientation, philosophy, or an attitude that puts emphasis on customer satisfaction. Secondly, marketing is processes and activities (Lamb et al., 2011, p.3). Viewing marketing as an exchange process makes understanding, forecasting and persuading or influencing customers the distinctive and core task of the marketing function.
The objectives of marketing professionals should, therefore, be to make sure that target clients understand the basic concept underlying a given product or service.
In addition, they should explain to customers the importance of the company’s product or services to their needs, get rid of or alleviate barriers to exchange so that customers can engage in an exchange with minimal effort, and build up and manage dependable relationships with customers, thereby providing the framework within which exchanges occurs (Lamb et al., 2011, p.3).
Therefore, marketing is a critical process whose efficiency determines how well an organization is positioned to retain and expand its customer base by creating value for them (Lamb et al., 2011, p.3).
It is pertinent to remember that the number of customers that an organization has and their willingness to buy and continue buying its products or services determines its overall success because they are the main source of financial resources needed to retain an organization’s profitability and solvency.
Tourism destination marketing is a critical process without which recognizable destinations would go to waste since the target audience would not get information about their whereabouts and existence in the market.
As pointed out earlier, it is a process through which a destination’s tourism organizations solely or in conjunction with tourist businesses identify target potential and current tourists in order to inform them and influence their wishes, likes and dislikes, motivations and needs at various levels (Wahab et al., 1976, p.24).
Therefore, tourism organization utilizes this process to devise and adapt their tourist products in line with the significant goal of achieving maximum tourist satisfaction.
Tourism destination marketing should, therefore, be a hands-on, tactical, tourist-oriented approach to the socio-cultural, environmental, and economic development of a destination, which balances and puts the interests of tourists, host community, and service providers together (Wahab et al., 1976, p.24; Page & Connell, 2006, p.226).
A destination marketing organization (DMO), is a separate business unit either not-for-profit, governmental or corporate, that is charged with the responsibility of coordinating and spearheading and marketing efforts of a given destination.
It is essential to note that destinations are the external-facing aspect of tourism products or services by virtue of being the place where tourist consumption takes place (Ana, 2008, p. 919). Thus, through destination management, attractive or unattractive places develop a tourism industry based on establishing a destination and a demand for services and products they offer (Pike, 2008, p.356).
Destination marketing plays a significant role of ensuring that a destination lifecycle does decline by communicating with the target audiences throughout various development stages of a destination.
In other words, destination marketing tourism organizations inform travellers at the early phase of a destination’s development raise awareness during the growth phase, influence travellers to visit in maturity stage and to retain tourists and set up new markets in the declining stages (Pike, 2008, p.356).
Since destinations are essential players in an increasingly competitive industry, they have to devise strategies in order to differentiate themselves. It is noteworthy that destinations wish to compete, but they are hindered by one critical limitation that is the tourism resource base and its maintenance (Pike, 2008, p.356; Wahab & Prigram, 1997, p.5).
Different places assume and develop different approaches to destination marketing. For instance, some destinations seek to develop market position through a continuous process of originality with a view to expand their market niche and maintain competitiveness and retain their distinctive appeal (Pike, 2008, p.356).
Other destinations position themselves between status and commodity points after going through serious development stages. Evidence available shows that, adopted cost-leadership strategies experience mass tourism, which has in turn resulted to irreversible damage to the resource base (Pike, 2008, p.356).
However, it is crucial to note that irrespective of whatever approach a place develops, the most essential thing is to understand features, which combine to create the destination (Brey et al., 2007, p 418).
Tourism destination marketing is a demanding process that requires in-depth knowledge in basic marketing, as well as professional skills in tourism marketing. Comprehending how target customers obtain information is critical to destination marketing decision-making processes and as Molina et al. (2010) put it, “this is particularly true for tourist product, services and travel” (p.722).
Equally central, a destination marketer’s in-depth understanding of how travellers chose the destination they would want to visit. This understanding enables marketers to choose the most effective marketing strategies that can help them influence visitor’s consumer behaviour. It is essential to note that a traveller is usually faced by a variety of intentions as s/he strives to choose the most appropriate destination that suits his or her needs.
For example, a business travel is not a choice-related type of visit per se and is thus usually informed by specific commercial needs (Pike, 2008, p.357). On the other hand, leisure travel is a choice-related; thereby a visitor has to make a choice between domestic or foreign destinations.
Whichever choice a leisure tourist settles for, it is to a considerable extent influenced by the purchasing ability of an individual tourist (Pike, 2008, p.357; Laws et al., 1998, p.399). In short, a successful destination marketer should understand and appreciate the fact that a variety of factors such as population, level of education, income, and gender decisively influences holidaymaking.
Impacts of misunderstanding of concepts destination management and destination marketing
There is undoubtedly a close relationship between tourism destination management and tourism destination marketing in reality. However, it is certainly clear that the two concepts are distinct in many ways, as illustrated earlier. In fact, destination management is the foundation on which destination marketing is designed and undertaken.
Therefore, use of these concepts interchangeably can mislead a learner or practicing tourism manager fail to put into consideration critical factors related to the two processes. This, in turn, leads to poor sustainable tourism planning and management of tourism impacts.
According to World Tourism Organization, sustainable tourism is tourism “that facilitates management of all resources in a manner that ensures that social, economic and aesthetic needs are met while at the same time upholding cultural integrity, life support systems, and biological diversity” (Earth Summit, 2002, p.1).
When destination management and destination marketing are viewed by stakeholders as similar concepts, the process of satisfying needs of the current and potential tourists and host communities while safeguarding and facilitating needs in the future is usually jeopardized (Earth Summit, 2002, p.1).
Destination management comes before destination marketing through out the stages of a destination development.
Tourism organizations and/or tourism businesses must take the initiative of understanding elements of a destination that make it unique and devise management and marketing strategies geared towards making the place a recognized tourist destination amid other more competitive and already well-established destinations. It should then undertake development of tourist products of the entire destination.
Tourism destination management should also establish partnerships with all relevant tourism stakeholders in order to enhance provision of positive experience to tourist. In other words, Tourism destination management plays the critical role of promoting cooperation and coordination between government authorities, not-for-profit and private players of tourism.
Throughout the various stages of growth and development of destination tourism, destination marketing plays an equally critical role of informing target visitors about a destination and influencing them through strategic marketing strategies to visit a particular destination.
As such, tourist destination marketing and destination marketing organizations are part of the bigger destination development process through controlling and continuous promotion. A well-developed tourist destination that is poorly marketed is a real impediment to growth and development of a destination.
Therefore, it is safe to argue that tourism destination marketing is an integral part of the bigger process of tourism destination management.
Conclusion and recommendations
In a recap, even though tourism is one of the vibrant economic sectors in the global economy it is certainly a complicated industry. Therefore, tourist managers, concerned government authorities, tourism students and other relevant stakeholders require an in-depth knowledge of all foundational aspects of the industry, such as a tourism destination management and tourism destination marketing.
They should also acquire extensive general marketing knowledge and skills for application in tourism. Tourism destination management is foundational to growth and development of a destination, while tourism destination marketing is largely an integral part of the former.
Tourism destination marketing provides a means through which a destination is sold to potential and current visitors. Therefore, processes and activities unique to tourism destination management and tourism destination marketing should be understood clearly, as well as how they are linked.
References
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The hospitality industry is an important part of the economy in Saudi Arabia; more importantly, researchers expect that in the future this market may increase by 6,8 percent during the period between 2011 and 2016 (Alpen Capital, 2012, p. 19). However, one should not forget about possible fluctuations of demand. For example, according to the estimates, the room revenues are most likely to decline during 2012 and 2013 (Alpen Capital 2012, p. 19). One should take into account certain factors that can adversely affect the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia as well as other countries in the Middle East. In particular, one can speak about the political unrest in such countries as Egypt, Syria, Libya, and other states. Certainly, this trend does not directly influence Saudi Arabia, but they shape the public opinion and the decisions taken by potential customers, especially tourists who can be reluctant to travel in the Middle East (Andersson & Djeflat, 2013, p. 25). These are the main forecasts offered by market researchers and analysts.
Yet, some trends can favorably influence the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia. For instance, the government of this country intends to invest approximately $ 80 billion to improve the existing infrastructure (Alpen Capital, 2012). In this case, close attention will be paid to railways, airports, roads, and so forth (Alpen Capital, 2012). To a great extent, these efforts can be explained by the need to diversify the economy of the country and make it more agile (Cordesman, 2010, p. 340). Furthermore, in this way, they attempt to enhance the experience of people who go to Saudi Arabia for purposes such as religious pilgrimage, leisure, or business (Cordesman, 2010, p. 340). Additionally, these initiatives can be partly explained by the fact that the hospitality industry is vital for the creation of jobs in the country. Moreover, this industry greatly contributes to the GDP of the country; at present, its share is 5,4 percent (Alpen Capital, 2012, p. 44). Thus, the hospitality industry of the country can rely on the support of the state, and this factor can contribute to the development of the hospitality industry.
It should be taken into account that there are 69 construction projects and in this way, the government and private businesses attempt to meet the increasing demand for hotels in Saudi Arabia (Alpen Capital, 2012, p. 20). Market analysts expect in 2016 there will be at least 260,000 rooms available to clients (Alpen Capital, 2012, p. 20). Therefore, one can say that the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia will remain sustainable even if it may face some challenges shortly. This is one of the main points that can be made.
At present, the hotels located in Saudi Arabia number about 243,000 rooms. These rooms earned hotels approximately 35 million dollars (Alpen Capital 2012, p. 20). It should be taken into consideration that the room revenues diminished in 2012. Again, current projections indicate that the revenues per available room can decline. As it has been said before, the decline can be attributed to the political unrest in the Middle East (Andersson & Djeflat, 2013, p. 25). Nevertheless, the profitability of the hospitality industry is expected to increase in the long term. Surely, it is often difficult to make long-term predictions. In this case, one can speak about only about three or four- year predictions.
Several drivers affect the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia. In particular, one should speak about religious tourism because pilgrims constitute approximately 40 percent of domestic and international tourists in the country. This trend becomes particularly important given that the population of Muslim people increases. At present, this population numbers at least 1,8 billion people in the world (Alpen Capital 2012, p. 26). Many of these people strive to visit Mecca and Medina at least once. Nevertheless, one should not forget about business travelers who also bring significant revenues to the hotels. Additionally, more than fifty percent of Saudi Hotels have four or five stars. This means that these organizations can appeal to the need of people with high-income levels. These are the main distinguishing features that should be considered by people who work in the Saudi tourism industry.
When speaking about tourism in Saudi Arabia, one can identify several important characteristics. Different regions and cities attract different types of clients. For instance, Mecca is primarily visited by pilgrims from various countries. In contrast, the hotels located in Riyadh serve the needs of business travelers working in the country.
Finally, Damman, Jeddah is more oriented toward people who seek leisure (Majid, 2012, p. 273). This is one of the trends that one can identify. It is important for understanding how geography shapes the hospitality industry in the country. Moreover, this knowledge can help managers better identify the needs of clients who have different values, opinions, or attitudes.
Additionally, one should note that the hospitality market of the country is dominated by local organizations, while the presence of foreign companies is rather limited. However, one cannot say how this situation will change in the future, so local hotels can face more significant challenges. Furthermore, the growth of the hospitality industry is slowed down because it is difficult for some tourists to get entry visas to Saudi Arabia (Alpen Capital 2012, p. 45). This is the problem that should be resolved. On the whole, each of these factors discussed in this section can have significant implications on the industry in this country. Moreover, they affect the approaches to the management of revenues.
This research is aimed at examining the use of yield management in modern Saudi hotels. In particular, it is vital to study the practices and techniques adopted by the administrators working in these hotels. Furthermore, this research should evaluate the degree of administrators’ awareness of the benefits of yield management. This study will involve the analysis of academic literature. Apart from that, it will be based on direct conversation with practitioners working in Saudi hotels. To a great extent, this work will be descriptive; it will not be aimed at testing a certain conjecture of the hypothesis. Several important questions should be addressed in the course of this research:
What kind of approaches do business administrators adopt to manage room revenue?
How do these professionals apply the principles of yield management in their daily practices?
To what extent are they familiar with the benefits of this approach?
This research will investigate the practices adopted in different hotels operating in Saudi Arabia. These organizations will differ in terms of their size or profitability. Close attention will be paid to how they try to increase their revenues. In particular, it is vital to focus on such areas as pricing strategies, location, HR management, occupancy, pricing policies, customer relations, and the use of third-party websites. These issues are vital for understanding the applications of yield management. This study will involve several important stages. At first, it is vital to examine the views of Saudi managers of this approach. Secondly, this study should determine whether the strategies of these people are related to the management of revenues. Finally, this research should demonstrate how the principles of yield management can be best applied to the needs of the hospitality industry. This is one of the main goals that should be attained. Overall, this work can be important for understanding the principles of yield management as well as the advantages or disadvantages of this technique.
The results that will be presented in this paper will be based on several sources of information. For example, it will involve an extensive review of literature on the models and approaches to the management of revenues in hotels. Various books and scholarly articles can give evidence-based examples about the applications of yield management. This is one of the first steps that should be taken. Yet, this study will strongly rely on primary data collected from managers working in Saudi hotels. These professionals have in-depth expertise in such areas as the management of revenues, HR practices, or pricing policies. This research entails the use of such a method as an in-depth or semi-structured interview. This technique enables the respondents to openly express their views about the use of yield management. Moreover, it is necessary to examine the documentation that hotels were ready to provide. This examination can throw new light on the policies of many hotels. Furthermore, direct observation can illustrate the use of various distribution channels such as third-party websites. Additionally, it would be important to assess the effectiveness of different distribution channels and their room parity rates. These are the main research techniques were employed in the course of this study. Overall, their use of these techniques is quite justified.
This study will contain several parts. The first section will present a literature review regarding the application of yield management for various needs of the hospitality industry. It is vital to look at such issues as pricing strategies adopted by hotels, occupancy rates, HR policies, and the use of different distribution channels. This chapter will examine the main principles of yield management. The second section will describe the main methods that were used in the study and explain the reasons why they were chosen. Close attention should be paid to the methods of data collection. The third chapter will describe the finding of the research. This section will be aimed at discussing the practices adopted by Saudi Hotels. Additionally, the following chapter will discuss the implication of the findings and the opportunities for further research. Furthermore, it is vital to identify the limitations of this study and explain why its results cannot be generalized. These are the main issues that should be examined in this study.
It is doubtless that advancement in technology is one the achievements of the 21st century. From office motivation to online marketing, many firms around the world have embarked on incorporating technological ideas into business in order to promote performance and profit making (Cotts, Roper & Payant, 2010).
This is also aimed at gaining competitive advantage in a market that has remained challenging through new demands and the need to adopt better ways of doing business, different from traditional ones.
Based on this, it suffices to note that every business or industry needs technology, even though this demand may vary from one set-up to another because of several factors. One of the sectors of the economy, which makes use of technology, is facility management.
This case study explores several issues surrounding the role of technology in facility management. It gives organized and detailed information about facility management and the sector’s response towards technology, including achievements, trends and challenges.
Besides this, the study incorporates facts that have been found out about the industry, with regard to advancing business in a world that appreciates advanced technology. Apart from challenges, several opportunities and trends within the industry will be expounded.
Additionally, the case study will evaluate the significance of such information to a person who intends to work as a manager in the tourism industry. To achieve this task, relevant information will be gathered from various sources with greater preference being put on media and online materials that are current and credible.
Background
In understanding the role of technology in any industry, it is important to master the basic elements of the industry in terms of its area of specialization, services and goods offered to customers.
This gives a framework of internalizing the kind of impact that would be felt if a shift to technological advancements was to be incorporated in the running of the industry.
This segment of the case study describes the concept of facility management as a major element of the hospitality industry, detailing its challenges, opportunities and trends. Importantly, a global perspective has been adopted since facility management is not limited to any region or continent; all the facilities around us gave to be managed effectively.
Facility management
When people talk about facility management, it is possible that many envisage being involved in overseeing maintenance of buildings, offices and other real estate assets. Another question that we need to address in this context is why facilities are managed. Is it economical to hire these services? Can we do without them?
In general, facility management is defined in the context of a profession that is intertwined with several disciplines to proper functioning of the built environment through the integration of people, processes, places and technology (Cotts, Roper & Payant, 2010).
Moreover, the skills of a facility manager are essential and can be broadly categorized into hard and soft skills. Soft skills mainly refer to those skills, which are done physically or by use of specified technology. On the other hand, soft tasks are performed on the basis of mental intuitiveness.
Examples of hard skills include but not limited to electricity distribution and wiring, carpentry, spatial planning, plumbing and waterworks, and principals of civil and structural planning. Similarly, soft skills include customer relations, technical judgment, financial awareness, contractor coordination and time management among others (Cotts, Roper & Payant, 2010).
Due to the nature of facility management and its role in the hospitality industry, it is imperative for facility managers to identify role models for the purpose of mentoring them towards a successful career path. This allows a person to understand how to advance in facility management from a practical point of view.
The industry has always been dominated by middle-aged people with several years of experience especially with hard skills. However, recent trends indicate that facility managers are adopting a more elaborate approach that focuses on both soft and hard skills for successful management.
Notably, the industry also has opportunities and prospects with young employees from colleges joining the field with relevant soft skills (Atkin & Brooks, 2009).
Opportunities challenges and trends
Unlike other sectors of the economy, facility management is a relatively new discipline that developed towards the end of the twentieth century and continues to expand even today. The United States of America is known to be origin of facility management, where it stemmed from the public sector in 1960s.
Nonetheless, it has gained acceptance in the private sector, and its main existence is justified by the support services it offers to bigger business organizations (Ocean Link, 2011).
In meeting the needs of the hospitality industry, facility management focuses on several emerging issues from a practical and academic point of view. Although maintenance of facilities remains the principal goal of facility management, the adoption of technology has opened opportunities for its involvement.
Notably, the issues and topics that face today’s facility managers are complex due to the sophisticated nature of our economies, coupled with ever-changing business environment (Ocean Link, 2011). There are several demanding issues like security threats, especially after the world was hit by the famous 911 attack in 2001.
Besides these, there are inherent and manmade challenges, which have to be confronted not only in the tourism industry, but also in other sectors of the economy. What about the current financial crisis?
Does it have any impact on facility management? Facility management has been immensely affected especially in areas concerning design and construction. In this category is the real-estate market, which experienced detrimental effects at the onset of the crisis.
The need to protect and preserve the economy equally haunts facility managers since high standards are required to ensure that buildings and other built-facilities remain functional without affecting the environment or contravening set laws and regulations.
This has created a change in shape, design and characteristics of buildings, which are constructed in any part of the world today. Additionally, this compliance is attained through a change of day-to-day operational activities that define the function of a given facility (Schwartz, 2011).
To all facility managers, it is clear that leadership and management skills are essential in this generation in order to not only succeed in the industry but also comply with stringent rules.
Opportunities in facility management emanate from the fact that the economy of the nation has to be stabilized to permit growth. When an economy registers growth, it is possible to create opportunities in the real-estate industry, which promote facility management and the overall tourism industry.
In addition, the management rates for facilities have gone up due to increase in demand for management services in America and other parts of the world (Schwartz, 2011). It is believed that facility management is an alternative and more acceptable way of practicing proper and strategic management of buildings and other related structures.
On the other hand, facility management faces an array of challenges, which limit its ability to realize its core objectives in the tourism industry. As a discipline which has not been in the market for long, there are insufficient standards and tools that can effectively measure the quality of traditional and integrated approaches applied in property and facility management.
As a result, practices may vary from one organization to another based on unique services applied for the building (Garrett, 2011). This requires a stable system that can regulate facility management around the country.
As mentioned above, facility management lacks enough expertise to meet the growing demand of property management services especially in the local market. This is quite crucial since property management skills are essential.
Aside from opportunities and challenges, facility management equally has trends, which are important, since they act as indicators for future expectations. These trends also help facility managers to assess the needs of the market and make proper allocation of resources in ensuring that correct and effective facility management needs are met.
The most common trend is the increase in services that are provided by facility management organizations (Garrett, 2011). Due to the foreseen opportunities and the ever-increasing customer base, most managers have embarked on expanding their services to meet these needs.
Additionally, there is an increase in regulation and management issues. Why is this regulation necessary? The obvious answer is to set and maintain facility management services offered by managers across the country. This is essential in ensuring that the quality of buildings is not compromised at the expense of increased demand for management services.
It also augments harmony between traditional facility managers and modern practitioners so as to close the gap that may exist between the two generations in terms of quality and standards.
Even as these regulations continue to be enhanced, environmental issues have equally gained attention with facility managers putting emphasis on ensuring that the environment is not degraded in the name of expanding the real-estate market (Garrett, 2011).
Technology and facility management
In understanding the role of technology in property management, it can be argued that this has brought enormous changes into the market and in the entire industry. How is technology classified? In this case study, we have analyzed some of the challenges, opportunities and trends witnessed in facility management.
Based on one’s point view, it can be proposed that technology belongs to the three aspects discussed in the previous segment. How is this possible?
To begin with, it is worth noting that facility managers have one of the toughest roles to perform in any given organization. This is because they are recognized to be in charge of facilities, which becomes pivotal since facilities make up the backbone of any industry or organization, contributing approximately 12% of an annual capital budget.
In this line of thought, keeping track of any facility’s maintenance can be cumbersome more than panning for it (Atkin & Brooks, 2009). Technology has therefore become a major remedy in dealing with some of these challenges that had previously threatened its success.
In most cases, application of technology is known to reduce heavy workload and maximize the efficiency of rendered services. Management of large projects and buildings can be quite demanding especially when the process is done manually.
This may undermine the quality of services provided or may make it impossible to offer the services at all (Haynes & Nunnington, 2010). It therefore suffices to mention that automation of facility management services enables concerned organizations to offer thorough services within the shortest time possible. For instance, a process that would have required a whole day to be completed can be done in a very short time.
Additionally, the arrival of computers in the 20th century was the most promising technological advancement in the hospitality industry. They have reduced paper work, simplified tasks among countless opportunities. This has also been witnessed in facility management; it possible for a single employee to handle huge information than it was traditionally done.
As a result, one person can be hired to monitor and analyze data with a lot of accuracy in a short period of time. Data management allows firms to monitor the conditions and needs of facilities without having to visit buildings physically (Haynes & Nunnington, 2010).
This promotes efficacy of service delivery and prompt action when it is needed. It is therefore doubtless that technology plays a major role in detaching facility management market from traditional mindset, and advance efficient ways to offer facility solutions in a more cost-effective manner.
In the spirit of operating ahead of capital planning, most facility managers have adopted several technological options to allow them to become more effective. Through this approach, managers can solve several facility issues and allocate values to each one of them.
Some of these tools are important in planning and monitoring of projects. This process is steered by the capital planning and management system technology, which has incorporated the World Wide Web and the internet into its operations (Singh, 2010).
The implication of this idea is that facilities, which are found in different states, are accessed at a central point through the CPMS technology. It further allows facility managers to update or access necessary information from any destination around the world as long one is connected on the internet.
Additionally, the internet is bringing the needs of different facilities in view for an action to be taken. Notably, communication among facility departments has also been enhanced, allowing issues to flow across managers and even to the chief executive officer of the business (Singh, 2010).
This, new technology has allowed the existence of a link between several departmental facilities to the set goals and objectives of an organization. It is therefore easy for managers to assess the needs of facilities and make relevant decisions like employee recruitment and retention.
Moreover, linking an organization with the goals of facility managers is paramount in ensuring successful service delivery. It is therefore necessary for managers to embrace harmony between their organizations and facilities in terms of understanding the objectives of the facility being managed (Wiggins, 2010).
The performance and state of a facility should reflect the goals of an organization, depending on how the two entities are linked. Through this linkage, it is possible for a program to be formulated to allow completion of deferred maintenance procedures.
Technology also facilitates the entire process of communication between facility managers and customers. It is necessary for a facility manager to establish open communication between operating constituencies of an organization. This has been achieved by many facility managing organizations through web-based approaches and proper capital reinvestment.
It is crucial for facility managers to have credible information regarding the conditions of the status together with the cost of repairing and maintaining the facility (Mull, Beggs & Renneisen, 2009). During this, a web-based approach has been seen to be more effective since it allows communication of information to the local level of the organization and across all layers of the organization.
By the fact that an internet-based approach acts as a central repository for all the facilities, it is possible for individuals in various locations, whether remote or urban to access and share information. In other words, facility managers and customers can share information on facility conditions, deferred maintenance and cost information.
Besides allowing the sharing of information through a central repository, internet technology has a host of benefits that continue to shape the image of facility management. For instance, it allows facility owners and managers to access regular and accurate status of a given facility with regard to its past, current and future capital reinvestment.
Additionally, technology allows facility managers to develop tools, which are essential in mitigating facility risks, including but not limited to life safety and disturbance of normal business operations (Mull, Beggs & Renneisen, 2009).
Drivers of change
As discussed above, facility management focuses on adding value to the built environment in order to promote the effectiveness of such facilities. Nonetheless, there is evidence that the demand for facility management has exponentially increased in the 21st century.
This is change is driven by a number of factors, whose impact remains applauded. For example, there is increased awareness concerning the impact of buildings on human beings and the environment.
In understanding this, it has been found out that built environment has significant impact on the productivity of its occupants. Some of these factors, which affect occupant productivity, include lighting, air circulation, thermal comfort and layout (Higgins, 2009).
Moreover, there is increased awareness on how buildings affect the environment, since buildings are believed to be major consumers of natural resources. It is obvious that if these facilities are not properly managed, they may have detrimental effects on occupants and the environment, thus affecting the overall production of the industry (Higgins, 2009).
Technology has also played a significant role in driving facility management change. As a result, more effective methods are being employed in the management of the built environment. Lastly, there has been an increase in the demand for buildings, triggered by industrialization and increased population among other factors. This has forced authorities to regulate their standards through facility management.
From the above analysis, it suffices to mention that this topic of study is of great significance to the hospitality industry. This is because facility management enhances tourism through designing tourist information centers. Such facilities are essential for the industry, since they act as reservoirs of information that is relevant to the entire tourism industry (Higgins, 2009).
As a result, tourism managers need to understand the correlation between their tasks and the role of facility management. Through consultations between the facility managers and tourism experts, it is possible to select the best sites for “rest parks” and other tourism facilities.
Facility managers are also involved in designing and maintenance of the facility to maximize its productivity in the industry. Based on this linkage, it is important for current and future tourism managers to appreciate the role of facility managers in the hospitality industry. Above all, it is equally paramount to underscore the influence of technology as a major driver for changes witnessed in facility management.
References
Atkin, B., & Brooks, A. (2009). Total Facilities Management. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Cotts, D., Roper, K., & Payant, R. (2010). The facility management handbook. NYC: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
Garrett, J. (2011). Trends in Facilities Management: What’s the Impact? Facilities Management Advisors, LLC. Web.
Haynes, B., & Nunnington, N. (2010). Corporate Real Estate Asset Management: Strategy and Implementation. London: Routledge.
Higgins, C. (2009). Facility management reorganizations: Drivers for change in management of facility functions. ProQuest. Web.
Mull, R., Beggs, B., & Renneisen, M. (2009). Recreation facility management: design, development, operations, and utilization. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.