Privacy is of paramount importance in the hospitality industry and the operators need to understand the possible implications and ways to make sure they act appropriately. While the customer demands that he has the right to privacy once they are in apartments, the operators on the other hand might be required to obtain personal information from the guests to ensure not only the safety of their apartments but also the safety of other guests.
Illegal or non-permitted disclosure of the information so collected to a second person may spur complaints from the side of the customer through litigation. In some cases, for example, the company or entity collecting personal information such as the customer’s phone number and email is required by the law to take reasonable care to ensure they are not shared for misuse by others or stolen.
In addition, the company is restricted to sharing this information with others who did not collect the information directly from the customers unless they so tell them. Because issues of competition and claim of convenience and advertisements may force the companies to re-use the data, such data may become prone to misuse by other people which may spur litigation measures by the offended (Barth and David, 2006). The operators must therefore take a very keen interest in the way they ensure that the customer is treated in a private manner when they help collect this data.
Avoiding collecting data may not be a solution because such data is used in verifying the identity of the guest, or may be required in case there are other complaints and security concerns. Even the usage of such data to accuse the guest who has been found engaging in illegal behavior should be done responsibly because the customer may even react later after the violation of his rights. The management in the hospitality industry must design a system that clearly takes caution in ensuring that they comply with the regulation while collecting data, storing those data, and secure options.
For example, they must analyze who has access to the data, and put in place means to ensure that data is not insecurely accessed. The guest must be made aware while booking what data is to be collected, how long it will be stored and these notices need to be covered in the company’s policies so that the operator will apply them.
Even when a third party is used to facilitate bookings, issues of security of information need to be addressed in the contract the company signs with the third party attaching responsibility to the third party for the privacy of the client’s information. It would also require that the company establishes means to countercheck whether this data is being used by the third-party illegally for other reasons and take the necessary actions after suspicion. Any intentions to sell data from the clients to a third party need to obtain consent from the client before proceeding.
The operator needs to be well trained in matters concerning the privacy of the guest not only to avoid litigation but on the other side may be necessary to maintain the reputation of the hotel and lead to deterioration of a business. This is the case with letting out information on the whereabouts of famous guests to the press. Members who have subscribed to certain schemes need to be informed of what use their data is being engaged in and how.
Since data protection laws may empower clients to have access to the information a hotelier for example is holding or storing about them, and that the laws require customer data held to be adequate, non-excessive, and relevant, operators must keep off from storing and using excessive data such as whether individuals are heavy drunkards or not, guests’ overnight companions and whether they are a polite or rude customer, to avoid litigation measures.
Operators and the management in hospitality need to understand clearly the implications of transmission of data since some countries restrict the transmission of personal data outside specific regions or require that certain conditions be met during and before transmission. For example, to transmit data across the Hong Kong border, general data privacy principles demand data is only used for the purposes disclosed at the time of collection and that all practical steps are necessary to secure the data be taken by the user.
Therefore, any hotelier company may wish to distribute information related to the number of people who have visited it as a way of advertising need avoid the display of personal information such as names and contacts if no allowance for this was made during collection. Users of the informational system must understand this to avoid the possibilities of litigation.
Transmission of data is regulated in Europe by restricting transmission of personal including client data to a country outside the European Economic Area unless if there is “adequate level of protection” ensured by the country. Companies may therefore find themselves facing legal issues as concerns data security in the face of advancing informational technology and systems. The issues may further be worse if the company exposes important information such as bank details so as the customer loses through hacking of information for example, as a result of carelessness and failure to put the necessary security measures in their systems. Disposing of the customer data is also important.
A company may want to comply with the international ISO 27001 standards which could be widely approved by many countries. information collected and displayed to agencies for investigation purposes like to the police need be done consistent with law and ensure legality in their handling such as determine whether the person so demanding data intends to use it for the allowed purpose and he or she is not the wrong person so purporting to be another.
In addition, information collected by CCTV monitoring systems must be restricted from focusing areas where privacy would be demanded such as away from the reception area, toilet or inside private rooms. One way to make sure such information is secure is to monitor who accesses it and why and for what reasons and putting necessary policies guarding against illegal usage of this information by the employees.
Work Cited
Barth S. and David H., Hospitality Law: Managing Legal Issues in the Hospitality Industry. Contributor (David H). John Wiley and Sons (2006).
Hospitality & Leisure Update-Data Danger When Keeping Guest History. DLA Piper. 2009. Web.
It is well known that the city of Cape Town is the second biggest metropolis in South Africa. “As a vacation destination, the city is well known for the natural landscape and ambiance in the Cape floral kingdom such as the popular attraction sites of Table Mountain and Cape Point” (Meer 1).
The city is also known for its beautiful harbor as well as its game parks which act as excellent vacation points for local and foreign tourists.
On the other hand, Dubai is situated on the Arabian Peninsula south of the Persian Gulf and is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has been ruled by the Al Maktoum dynasty from 1833.
As part of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai has the same monetary, political, armed forces and legal structures as the other six emirates and shares a similar framework through a federal system.
However, each of the emirates including Dubai has control over several internal utilities for instance community law enforcement and provision and maintenance of internal amenities.
Dubai is the largest emirate that follows after Abu Dhabi when considering habitable area but unlike Abu Dhabi, Dubai is the most densely inhabited of all emirates.
Shopping is the leading tourist attraction to Dubai due to a diverse array of low priced products. There are also ancient attractions such as written accounts documenting parts of Dubai’s history as well as modern attractions such as Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest man-made structure.
Cape Town as a vacation destination
Cape Town is the governmental capital of South Africa as well as Africa’s most attractive destination for tourism (Meer 1). It is a metropolitan city located along the shore of Table Bay, and it is well known for the Cape floral kingdom.
Often referred to as The Mother City and The Tavern of the Seas, Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate and hence well defined seasons are a common occurrence (Live 4).
The natural scenery and favorable climate make Cape Town the most sought after destination by tourists going to vacation in Africa.
The city has attractive beaches, well-maintained infrastructure and has managed to minimize the urban influence on the environment giving Cape Town a natural ambiance (Meer 2).
The most well-known feature is Table Mountain which has been recorded as a landmark site by the city (Richmond 21).
Tourists frequently visit this mountain because it has a serene ambiance and hikers looking for adventure will be seen climbing the mountain along the trails, Platteklip Gorge being the most popular of all trails (Meer 11).
Climbing the mountain can also be done using a cable car, and the cable ride does have an exceptional view of the land and the sunset and evening cruises are a preferred activity especially by couples (Live 7).
Robben Island which was a prison during the apartheid era is another popular destination.
It is a 40-minute boat ride away and what makes the prison prominent is the fact that former South African president Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in that facility which has now been converted to a tourist destination.
Pilgrims, journalists, and biographers have often been to this island trying to retrace Nelson Mandela’s steps (Richmond 28). For nature enthusiasts, the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens are a major attraction in particular during spring when the flowers are blooming.
The gardens are well planned for, and the apparent layout is attractive hence many tourists carry a camera with them whenever they visit the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens to take memorable photographs of nature’s beauty (Richmond 25).
Wine Desk Waterfront is a pleasant place for wine lovers since it is a vineyard farm with several wineries on the property. Tourists usually receive a guided tour of the farm and wineries and later have a pleasant lunch with the other visitors on vacation (Live 5).
There are also tours in which visitors have taught the art of making wine and there also other outstanding activities such as wine tasting which appeal to several visitors.
Cape Town also has the Table Mountain National Park which provides a spectacular view of a diverse number of wild animals in their natural habitat. Tourists get guided tours through the parks and come up close to some of the wild animals.
The most common animals in the Table Mountain National Park are the black rhino, lions, cheetahs, a variety of bird species as well as different primates (Meer 15).
These sites are a particular attraction to film and documentary producers seeking a new perspective on their production or inspiration for new content.
Also, there is the Artscape Theatre Centre where performing arts are carried out (Richmond 22).
Various kinds of dances songs and plays are performed at this particular location and tourists seeking different forms of art with African connotations are frequent visitors to the Artscape Theatre Centre. One remarkable aspect of Cape Town is that no two beaches are the same.
Different beaches have a different ambiance, and tourists can end up touring all the beaches just to determine which one suit them best especially during summer (Live 3).
Additionally, The Cape Town Minstrel Carnival is an annual event that takes place on the second day of each year, and it is a colorful event celebrated to usher in the New Year.
The highlight of the day is the competition between different minstrel teams where the teams try to out-dance each other and use visually enticing items like bright costumes or colored umbrellas to garner for points.
This unique event is a major attraction to individuals and families on vacation due to the visual attraction of the event as well as the rich diversity of cultural activities involved.
Cape Town also has the highest number of buildings with the Cape Dutch style of architecture which is evident in most old government buildings and some residential buildings in the city (Meer 18).
Dubai as a vacation destination
Also known as the shopping capital of the Middle East, Dubai attracts a large number of tourists every year who visit the city with the intention of shopping for products as well as for the long hot summers and short warm winters.
Regional and international tourists from virtually every continent visit the souk districts which are found on either side of the creek in Dubai where commodities are sold at a relatively low price (Krane 89).
The souks are famous for their charged trading atmosphere and tourists visit the souks to take part in the bargaining of goods which is considered engaging (Stern 191).
Furthermore, an interview by Monassar (7) indicates that, “Dubai has a large number of modern shopping malls such as BurJuman mall, Mercato shopping mall, Dubai Lamcy plaza and Deira City Centre and stalls which sell exotic products such as perfumes, antiques as well as other products such as vehicles, designer clothes, jewellery, domestic equipment, electronics and sporting equipment at a relatively low price compared to international prices”.
Apart from supermarkets and department stores where the price of products is fixed, most shops, stalls and various other outlets regard bargaining, and friendly negotiation as part of the business process and hence conciliation for products is encouraged (Dallen 51).
To promote both domestic and international tourists, Dubai holds the annual Dubai Shopping festival which is held during January and lasts for the whole month (Stern 193).
During the Dubai Shopping Festival, there are music concerts, exhibitions and the whole of Dubai goes into a shopping frenzy with almost every legal product being traded at a negotiable price (Krane 90).
Dubai has been able to develop at a rapid pace due to the economic advantage the region was due to oil revenues hence features of Dubai’s old culture are not widespread.
Monassar, (9) interview still states that “due to the oil revenues, Dubai’s infrastructure is among the best in the world, such as underground railroads, bridges, and roads.”
Visiting the location around the creek is the most prominent option by tourists since that area divides Dubai into two halves known as Bur Dubai and Deira (Stern 195).
The Bur Dubai side of the Creek offers sightseers with the essence of the old city of Dubai with buildings such as Heritage Village presenting tourists with a vivid perspective of old Dubai.
Adjacent to Heritage Village is the Diving Village where tourists go to learn about the different forms of Middle East pearl diving and fishing methods as were carried out in the past(Stern 196).
There are also other attractions such as the Dubai Museum which was established in the refurbished Al Fahidi Fort which is a landmark considering it was put up in 1799 (Stern 198).
There is the Heritage Village of Hatta which is located several miles southeast of Dubai City and situated between the rocky Hatta Mountains. The unique factor about the Heritage Village of Hatta is its rich and documented history dating back more than two thousand five hundred years.
The village is made up of more than 20 buildings with each building having a different dimension from the rest and the buildings also have varying interior designs and building materials utilized (Dallen 55).
To help to preserve the rich content of the village, renovation of the buildings is done using the original materials, for instance; sludge, grass, sandalwood, hay, and palm fronds.
Another cultural site is the Sharia Mosque which is more than 150 years old a marvel to archeologists due to the elaborate design and composition put in its architecture bearing in mind the same building materials are utilized all over the structure and it incorporates a garden, a prayer hall, a fountain, a court, and courtyard, restrooms and additional utility rooms (Stern 199).
As for the accommodation, Dubai has the widest variety of tourist accommodation facilities among all the Emirates.
All the mainstream hotel chains such as Hilton, Serena, intercontinental and Ritz have investments in the emirate making accommodation costly for tourists hence investors usually opt to rent out apartments and villas to tourists on a short term basis, and this arrangement is usually more profitable and convenient for the parties involved (Stern 197).
The most prominent of all hotels is the Burj Al Arab which is considered a 7-star hotel and also a significant landmark and identity to Dubai (Krane 92).
Dubai was also the pioneer in the creation of Palm Islands which are artificial islands which are found in the Persian Gulf, off the coast of The United Arab Emirates on which key business and housing infrastructure is built (Dallen 54).
The islands such as the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Deira, all of which were or are being constructed through land reclamation are a major tourist attraction in Dubai.
The islands are reclaimed to taking the shape of a palm tree with a crescent at the apex, and the motive behind their construction is for the islands to hold a significant number of residential, vacation and amusement hubs (Krane 94).
With all the palm islands completed, it is estimated that the reclaimed land will append more than five hundred kilometers of beaches to the city of Dubai (Stern 199).
The Palm Jumeirah and the Palm Jebel Ali consist of more or less one hundred million cubic meters of rock and sand while Palm Deira is estimated to consist of about one billion cubic meters of the same substances (Dallen 56).
Tourist attractions to the palm islands include over one hundred comfort hotels, private residential coastline villas, and apartments, yachting marinas, various theme parks, bistros and cafes, shopping malls, sports facilities as well as health and beauty resorts(Stern 201).
Recommendation
Dubai has a limited variety of tourist attraction locations with most of the emirate being converted into a metropolitan region.
For Dubai to attain the diversity currently achieved in Cape Town, it is imperative that the emirate takes into account the different natural features located in Dubai and capitalize on them. One option would be to reclaim part of the unused desert and convert it to a habitable region for animals.
Subsequently, the emirate can import a variety of wild animals and release them in the reclaimed area and hence creating a mixture of urban and primitive zones in the region with water being drawn from the ocean and purified.
Conclusion
When comparing Dubai and Cape Town as two vacation locations, it is important to identify the different amenities offered by the two tourist destinations. Cape Town has by far the largest variety of tourist and vacation locations when compared to Dubai.
The main reason for the significant difference is the concentration of Dubai to shopping as the main tourist attraction which holds the emirate at a disadvantage when compared to Cape Town.
One cause to the limitation of tourist attraction sites in Dubai is the fact that Dubai is an Islamic based region and hence some activities and animals are proscribed or restricted.
Another disadvantage Dubai has over Cape Town is that Dubai is mainly a desert; hence most vegetation has to be grown artificially.
Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate allowing a variety of fauna and flora to grow naturally in the wild. Consequently, Dubai has tried to negate its shortcomings by investing heavily on urban infrastructure hence creating a modern delight using artificial products.
Structures such as the Burj Al Arab as well as Burj Khalifa and the shopping festival are modern phenomena, but they are not sufficient or diverse enough to attract a large number of tourists and are more likely to attract investors.
The Palm Islands, on the other hand, have the propensity to attract curious individuals and because accommodation in the Palm Islands and Dubai as a whole is quite expensive; more tourists will visit Cape Town for vacation.
It is important to understand the meaning of the term built environments before discussing the impact of tourism on the said category of environment. The environment is classified into four main categories that include cultural, physical, ecological and built environment. A built environment comprises of all the surroundings made by human beings.
The built environment provides a setting for human activities and is therefore an important aspect of the general environment. Buildings, parks, roads, transport systems and supporting infrastructure such as energy and water are the essential components of the built environment. It is impossible to have cities and neighborhoods without the spatial and material aspects of built environments.
Human beings play, work, live and recreate in built environments. It is not possible to have tourism activities without the built environments. Landscape architecture and public health are other essential elements of built environments (Nigam 26). This paper will discuss the impact of tourism on built environments.
The impact of tourism on built environments is always big and can not go unnoticed (Nigam 29). It is important for authorities in tourist destinations to ensure that the negative impacts of tourism do not supersede its benefits (Nigam 29).
Most tourist destinations are found in rural areas, and therefore the need to build accommodation facilities for visiting tourist has led to the disappearance of rural settlements. Although the development of tourist facilities creates employment opportunities, the rural settlements are disappearing at a faster rate with agricultural land being used to set up tourist hotels (Swarbrooke 47).
Hotels, shops and residential buildings developed in these tourist destinations lead to new cities. Many people migrate to tourist cities in search of business and employment opportunities, and in some instances the influx leads to the sprouting of informal settlements (Swarbrooke 47).
The new settlements are sometimes contrary to the land use policies of a particular city or state (Swarbrooke 52). New neighborhoods always come up in tourist destinations contrary to settlement plans.
The demand for more hotels and shops is normally high in tourist destinations and threfore leads to pressure on the available land. Tourism helps in the preservation of rural shops and post offices which are used to serve tourists (Goeldner 37).
On the other hand, tourism can lead to vandalism, soil erosion and general damage to the landscape. Tourists can enter footpaths with cars and in the process damaging them (Hinch 127). Litter problems and fires are some of the negative effects of tourism on the landscape. Tourists engage in outdoor activities some of which damage the countryside in different ways (Hinch 127).
Planning polices are never followed in the majority of the built-up areas in tourist destinations. Tourism has been growing at a faster rate with many people around the world going for holidays. The influx of tourists in tourist destinations without any anticipation from local authorities leads to unplanned cities and settlements (Hinch 127).
The new tourist facilities that are developed near tourist destinations are sometimes abused by visiting tourists without them being considerate in any way (Edgell 79). Facilities such as botanic gardens should be maintained by the local people without completely relying on tourists.
Tourism leads to the conservation of parks, gardens and other tourist attractions. It takes the effort of the local people and tourism management bodies in conserving parks and other tourist attractions (Edgell 79). The revenue generated from tourism is normally used to maintain parks and other tourist attractions. Unplanned cities have serious implications on the wellbeing of local people (Edgell 79).
Infrastructure and transport systems are other components of built environments that tourism has a significant impact on (Nagle 29). Holiday-makers move from one place to another, and therefore travelling facilities are essential for their stay in tourist destinations. Authorities in tourist destinations invest heavily in infrastructure development in order to attract tourists (Edgell 103).
Tourists travel a lot and therefore transport infrastructure such as roads, airports and railway lines are very essential. Tourism leads to the building of new roads that lead to tourist attraction sites (Edgell 103). New airports and railway lines are also a common spectacle in many tourist destinations.
The improved infrastructure benefits both the visiting tourists and the local people (Swarbrooke 54). Transport infrastructure increases accessibility to other essential commodities such as food. A good road, railway and air network ensures that tourist hotels are supplied with food and other necessities on time (Swarbrooke 54).
The revenue generated from tourism is used to maintain and builds new transport infrastructure for the benefit of tourists and local people (Nagle 31). Many people are able to invest in the transport sector because of good infrastructure (Nagle 32). Transportation systems of a tourist destination reflect the level of growth of the tourism industry.
Apart from the positive impact, tourism can also affect the local infrastructure in a negative way (Nagle 32). An influx of tourists in a particular destination without adequate transport infrastructure can lead to a transport crisis. Tourism can lead to uncontrollable traffic jams that are not good for the economy (Nagle 32). Congestion of vehicles on roads leads to their destruction and in most cases accidents.
The high demand for transport facilities can lead to the development of roads, airports, and railway lines in areas designated for human settlement (Nigam 41). Failure to follow the required policies and plans is always a recipe for disaster.
The congestion of vehicles on roads leads to increased noise and air pollution. Water, electricity and energy are essential elements of the built environment that are normally affected by tourism. Water and electricity supply is a priority in tourist destinations across the world (Nigam 41). Tourist hotels need a reliable water and electricity supply in order to sustain tourists.
Tourism leads to improved water and electricity supply which have a positive impact on built environments (Nigam 41). People use electricity and water in their homes and workplace, hence the availability of these essential commodities is always a welcome relieve for local residents.
In some instances, the authorities in tourist destinations give priority to tourists by diverting water and electricity to tourist hotels at the expense of local residents (Nigam 42). The ever increasing number of tourists in tourist destinations can lead to a shortage in water and electricity supply (Nigam 42).
The various forms of energy available in tourist destinations are also affected by tourism in different ways (Nigam 42). Tourism leads to the establishment of both renewable and non-renewable forms of energy which supplement the increased demand for energy. An increase in the number of tourists visiting a particular destination leads to an increase in the number of vehicles on the road (Nigam 42).
An increase in the number of vehicles can lead to a fuel shortage incase proper plans are not put in place to deal with the high demand for fuel. The authorities in tourist destinations have a responsibility of ensuring that the tourism industry is not affected by constant fuel shortages (Edgell 104). Transportation is critical in the tourist industry because tourists need to move from one place to another.
Public health is another essential aspect of built environments that is normally affected by tourism (Edgell 104). The built environment is normally designed and planned with the health and wellbeing of residents in mind (Goeldner 112). The design and creation of neighborhoods as a result of tourism have an impact on the health and physical activity of residents.
Congested neighborhoods due to an influx of tourists limit the walkability of those neighborhoods. Residential areas with more walkability are said to have healthy and fit residents compared to neighborhoods with less walkability (Goerldner 112).
The physical activity of residents in neighborhoods with more walkability is normally high with few cases of obesity being reported. Residents in neighborhoods with less walkability are associated with high rates of depression that leads to alcohol and substance abuse (Goeldner 112). Neighborhoods established as a result of tourism should have adequate security and sidewalk constructions to enhance walkability and connectivity.
Tourism leads to the improvement of the bikeability component of built environments including access to community gardens and grocery stores (Edgell 104). Access to healthy food is also enhanced by a well planned built environment. Tourist hotels need to access healthy food for visitors.
Congestion in tourist destinations affects access to grocery stores and completely limits the physical activity of both tourist and local residents (Edgell 104)). Convenience stores sprout in congested neighborhoods with some of them selling fast-foods that are not healthy.
A concentration of convenience stores increases cases of obesity among children. Land-use and environmental planning can be enhanced or disrupted by tourism depending on how strict the authorities are (Hinch 134).
Tourists prefer to stay in neighborhoods that have more walkability and connectivity that enable them to explore freely (Hinch 134). The surroundings near tourist hotels should offer a free and less congested atmosphere for tourists.
The landscape architecture is another component of the built environment that tourism has an effect on (Nagle 32). Built landscape such as gardens and recreational parks are important tourist sites that need to be well maintained (Nagle 32). Tourism leads to the establishment of additional gardens and parks to provide recreational facilities for tourists and the local people.
The proceeds from tourism are used by local authorities to maintain existing gardens and parks and at the same time build new ones (Nagle 32). In cases where the number of gardens and parks are not relative to the number of tourist arrivals, there tends to be a lot of pressure on the existing built landscape facilities.
Some inconsiderate tourist can litter gardens and even end up destroying them. The landscape architecture can be improved or destroyed by tourism (Nagle 32).
In conclusion, tourism impacts built environments of a tourist destination either positively or negatively. Proper planning and building polices are essential in ensuring that the built environment is improved rather than destroyed by tourism (Hinch 134).
An increase in the number of tourists in a particular tourist destination should go hand in hand with the built environment facilities. Authorities in tourist destinations should not ignore building policies and plans just to please tourists. Failure to follow building plans may have long-term implications on the built environment (Hinch 134).
All human activities take place in built environments, and therefore authorities should develop strict policies and plans to minimize the negative effects of tourism on built environments. Local authorities should use proceeds from tourism to maintain and develop the facilities that make up the built environment.
Works Cited
Edgell, David. Managing Sustainable Tourism: A legacy for the Future. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Goerldner, Charles. Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print.
The main objectives of the essay are to define niche tourism, determine the major characteristics of niche tourism and how it differs from mass tourism.
Moreover, the factors that have led to a rapid increase in the number of people participating in these forms of tourism, along with the different types of products available in niche tourism shall be explored.
The future of niche tourism and its implications for private operators and destination managers have also been discussed.
Niche tourism could be defined as special interest tourism that has been customised to meet the specific requirements of a particular market segment.
Ali-Knight (24) adds that niche tourism is often carried out in a more authentic setting in order to meet the expectations of a smaller number of tourists.
Moreover, niche tourism has its origin in special interest tourism (SIT) which is characterised by flexible delivery and particular market segmentation.
The major characteristics of niche tourism borrows heavily from SIT and include customer tailored products, flexible delivery, are more specialized, and target a specific market segment (Kaufmann 1; Ali-Knight 24).
On the other hand, mass tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism which is a large scale form of tourism. Examples of mass tourism include pilgrimage, wildlife watching, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and downhill telemarking as explained by Robison, Heitman and Dieke (6).
From the discussion, the differences between niche and mass tourism can be explored in the context of quality, number of people involved, market segment, and quality. For example mass tourism is more quantity- based while niche tourism is quality-based (Christou 2).
While niche tourism is flexible and provides special and customized products to a small group of persons, mass tourism provides fixed programs to a large group of people/ tourists.
The major products of niche tourism are wine, events and festivals, golf, film, heritage and genealogy, (Ali-Knight 40). Other products as provided by Robinson, Heitmann, and Dieke (9) include music, dance, sports, and other specific physical activities.
Change in demand on tourism products, globalisation, availability of information, and increase in expectations of tourists have led to the rapid change from mass tourism to niche tourism.
According to Robinson (9), these changes have resulted to a rapid increase in the numbers of people participating in these forms of tourism.
Ali-Knight (24; 32) adds that the concept of niche marketing, global economic restructuring, emergence of a sophisticated, experienced consumer, alternative delivery, and flexibility are other factors which have encouraged the growth of niche tourism.
From a personal perspective, niche forms of tourism will continue to grow in the future and replace mass tourism. This is because advancement in technology and continued changes in global economy will make the consumer more sophisticated and experienced.
In return, the consumer demand for differentiated tourism products and flexible delivery will increase as noted by Ali-Knight (33).
Moreover, we are living in a society that becoming increasingly more individualised, which means that niche tourism will continue to gain popularity as it provides modified products to small family or friends/ groups (Robinson et al. 9).
The growth of niche tourism is bound to have implications for the private operators and destination managers in their efforts to capture and manage the impact of the specialised markets.
For example, they will be required to shift from standardised and fixed service delivery to flexible delivery which may require extra funding.
Lew (412) opines that as the growth increases, providers will be required to provide more choices, enhance predictability, and efficiency, and quality service required by consumers.
Works Cited
Ali-Knight, Jane 2011, The Role of Niche Tourism Products in Destination Development. PDF file. Web.
Christou, Loizos. “Is it Possible to Combine Mass Tourism with Alternative Forms of Tourism: The Case of Spain, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia.” Journal of Business Administration Online, (2012): 1-10. Print.
Kaufmann, Hans Ruediger. Niche Tourism: Developing a Brand for the Irpinia Region. The University of Nicosia, 2012. Print.
Lew, Allan. “Long Tail Tourism: New Geographies for Marketing Niche Tourism Products.” Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 25.3–4 (2008): 409-419. Print.
Robinson, Peter, Sine, Heitmann and Peter Dieke. Research Themes for Tourism. London: UK, CAB International, 2011. Print.
The service industry in the global economy is the fastest expanding sector compared to the manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. A major player in this industry is the hotel service. With the increase in travel for business and leisure, it has come to the attention of investors that the hotel industry is posed for mammoth gains if the opportunities are fully exploited.[1] These opportunities that come along with the most basic function of a hotel as an eating house are accommodation/lodging, conference facilities, among many other tailor-made offers made to suit a particular target market. Conforming to the market need is the most relevant issue at the moment as the early 1990’s were characterized by rapid expansion without taking into account the needs of the customers. However the approach has since changed with the hotels realizing that further expansion programs are no longer turning out huge profits as it was earlier. A more market-oriented approach was thus adopted. This paper discusses the various models that hotels have adopted in a bid to increase and enhance their performance as compared to other businesses in the world. One of the best examples that can guide us in making this analysis is the Premier Inn chain hotel in the UK
Premier inn
This is one of the largest hotel chains under Whitbread Plc in the UK. With over 500 hotels in and out of the UK, the hotel is very popular with many people.
According to the Whitbread report, 75% of UK residents live within a five miles radius of a Premier Inn hotel. The hotel has in the recent past opened branches in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Dubai and another one pending opening in India.
The hotel began operations 20 years ago as Travel Inn where it instantly became a household name famous for maintaining the same look in all the rooms something adopted from Travel Lodge a competitor in this industry. With acquisition of Premier Lodge in 2004, the chain changed its name to Premier Travel Inn. As a result, the tradition of having all the rooms similar was in some way undermined though not to a great extent. This was because the new acquisition did not maintain the same look in all the rooms as Premier Inn did.
In 2007, the hotel chain set to reposition itself in the market by changing its brand name through shedding the word ”Travel” in its name to retain Premier Inn. The management attributed the change of name as a measure to help customers differentiate the hotel from the main competitor’s Travel Lodge.[2] Competition is not facilitated by the similarities in names as also how the management individually handles its operations and customer’s needs. This is important given the size of the hotel and the staff involved which is expected to be above 50 000 with the opening of 400 pending new outlets. An effective interaction of management and service quality provision is paramount in ensuring the hotel survives in this competitive industry.
Analysis
Leisure and tourism businesses from hotel services to restaurants, casinos and travel agencies are at the moment experiencing decreased business as the world economy is on the slide following the slackening of the US economy which has an overriding factor in all the economies something that is very evident at the moment.
Several factors are affecting the operation of a hotel business like Premier Inn. The growing competition in the hospitality industry as well as the economic downturn affects its external environment while its internal environment is affected by its marketing strategy and its organizational structure for its being a network of hotels. It would thus be most appropriate that we conduct a SWOT analysis test on the hotel chain to have an exclusive view of the workings of the hotel. The test allows us to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the company.[3]
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Whitbread, being a hotel group whose interest cover different regions and categories have more stable cash flow prospects.
It has a portfolio of hotels meeting demands for upscale, mid-scale and economy lodging, covering a wider market segment. It has also the Beefeaters, Costa and Brewers Fayer brand names which are standardized for the lower and middle-class segment.
It is also engaged in many business activities and acquisitions that make more profit for the company. International experience; diversified portfolio, great locations for many of its hotels and superior customer services are also the strengths of Premier.[4]
Financial resource is also one of its strengths; The Whitbread Plc. announced that the entire group had registered 11% growth in sales in the first half of the financial year in December last year. Premier inn contributed 73% of this growth thereby showing its significance and strength in sales as a single entity.
The hotel has unique offers for their clients.
Weaknesses
Currently, the weakness of the hotel chain can be seen from its being the operator of many hotel brands. Potential conflicts from some of the owners and operators may arise.
Being a hotel chain and part of a larger group, Premier Inn is also a very capital-intensive business with its fixed costs higher than other businesses. This can cause problems when the demand in hotels declines.
Premier Inn has failed to take advantage of vertical integration which reduces production and operation costs instead of concentrating on horizontal integration which tends to reduce competition.
Opportunities
With its experience in operations, there are more opportunities in spreading operations over different regions as it did in Asia by opening a hotel in Dubai.
Premier Inn has also established a name in hotel operations, so mergers and acquisitions not only in the hotel industry as well as in other businesses such as restaurants and travel will be easier for growth strategies.
Threats
Demands for hotel services will shrink further if the global and regional economic downturn persists. Geopolitical uncertainties such as terrorist attacks also contribute to threats in the hotel industry.
There is also a possibility of poor training in international units and shortage of skilled labor.
The advancements in information and communication technology allow businessmen to stay in the office than travel.
Businessmen prefer to visit their families during the weekends instead of staying at the hotels.
Unique offers
Premier inn has established some unique forms of service provision that puts it way ahead of competitors in this industry.
The hotel has managed to market itself not just as a hotel but rather a more comprehensive service provider with the hotel business as one of the major services on offer. This is what we would call, a package offer. To emphasize this principle, the most outlets are located within the same vicinity as franchise bars and eating places.
The hotel advertises its room rates to be priced at a minimum of £38 per night. This price however does not include any meals such as breakfast but is available upon payment of extra charges for it. The most distinct thing about their rooms is that they are priced as a room provided that the occupants of a single room do not exceed two adults and two kids. Such rooms are what they call family rooms. These family rooms are available with extra sleeping space but the same size as the others. Pull-out beds are made available in such rooms creating more sleeping areas but maintaining the same room measurements same as the other rooms. Cots for kids may be provided if necessary at no extra cost in these same family rooms. This is one of the largest selling points of the hotels since most travelers if not for business will travel as a family, thus this attempt to reduce the financial burden on traveling families has proved to be very popular
Days out offer
These are offers made to anyone for booking at any of the Premier Inn outlets. For any booking, customers get a voucher for two and free for kids tickets to over 800 brilliant attractions all around the UK. The voucher holder is then lucky to choose any of the attraction sites that he wishes to visit free of charge using the reference number on his hotel booking ticket.
Strategic operations and competencies
Premier Inn has met the 5 pillars of strategy needed in ensuring competency in the operation of the hotel industry[5].
Management competences for Premier Inn
Competency
Descriptions
Indicators
Leadership and planning
recognition of threats, partnering with other players for mutual benefit
Strategic business vision
Collaboration and partnerships
Savvy communication
Financial management
think like a consumer and as an entrepreneur and apply the right processes to achieve so.
Analytical thinking
Business acumen
Project planning & management
Marketing development
Anticipating the needs and wishes of the customer and attending to them.
Customer service orientation
Service portfolio management
Innovative service management
Information technicalities
Employing of IT in identifying problems and information processing
Technical resource planning
IT management
Strategic management
Staff & employee training and management on proper service provision methods
HR management
Appraisals and training
Performance measurements
For a company such as Premier planning ongoing multinational, strategy plays a key role considering the size and the diverse environments its operations take place in. As a service industry, the ability to meet the customer needs on a global basis is of growing strategic importance. Benchmarking what the customer wants and not what they believe is one of their marketing strategies. As part of their customer service, they introduced the family room concept at many of the hotels, to offer maximized sleeping space. As it grows, it also changes its corporate culture to adapt to the changing customer’s needs. Premier Inn, from having a corporate governance system to a more centralized organization as it continues to indulge in international expansion, matching its organization’s capabilities and competencies to the competitive conditions of the external environment. [6] For example, in their operations in Dubai, the management there consists of Dubai people in order to fully understand the culture, taste and preferences existing there. Part of Premier Inn’s strategy is to study first carefully the economic development of the location, the existing competition and the changing travel patterns in the region. When Premier Inn entered the Dubai market, it intended to establish a fully-fledged hotel like the Bristol one because competition in that area was not that tough. Research has shown otherwise that the region is also favored by the higher income earning individuals thus there are steps to tap into this market.
Services analysis in Premier
This is one of the few hotels that provide and live to the guarantee of their services. One of the famous ones is the good night guarantee. In this offer the company pledges not to disturb their clients at night. If it is not the case according to the customer then he/she gets a full refund of her/his money back. While many people might view a service guarantee program as purely an advertising strategy, customer reviews provide compelling evidence that this service guarantee program by Premier Inn has significantly shaped its quality strategy as a market leader. A service guarantee can exert positive influence on the motivation and vision of the staff and thus increase service quality and customer satisfaction. A service guarantee program can also provide the impetus for a firm to focus operations on the attainment of superior service quality through learning from service failures.
In recognition of the high-quality service and the hotel’s 100% customer guarantee it won the National Business Awards for Unique Customer Service Strategy in 2004. The awards are bestowed on companies that portray high levels of commercial success, innovation, and verifiable results in areas of customer satisfaction and financial performance.
As earlier said, Premier Inn does not shy away from putting its establishment along Highways in fear of contributing to driving under influence by serving alcoholic drinks to would-be motorists; the Inverness outlet is along B865 highway. Another aspect of strategic locations is having the hotels near major towns such as London and Oxford which has pride in hosting the hotels.
Service Provision in relation to theories
The management of the hotel chain has invested wisely in familiarizing the senior management with the required methods of management. In analyzing the hotel, we can be able to identify a few theories utilized by the management.
Choice modeling theory
The best way we can relate this theory and the hotel’s service is through the offering of free extra sleeping areas in some special rooms named family rooms. In this offer we find that the hotel management has been keen to identify the basic needs of the customers and as such introduce programs and services that will help in delivering the expected or even more than the customer’s expectation. The economist who introduced this theory, Daniel McFadden, focused on the need for service providers to research and predict on the choices of consumers and put them in place even before they enquired about them. In this case we see that Premier Inn sought to know the traveling trends of their target market and came out with the finding that some of them travel as family units and prefer to remain together hence the inception of the family rooms.
Another way we find the application of the above theory is by locating the hotels near major cities in anticipation of housing business people who would according to their findings require somewhere to rest during the weekends when business is low. To avoid discouraging the targeted business people from retreating to their homes during the weekends and encourage them to seek accommodation in the hotels the Premier Inn lowered the room cost during weekends.
Total Quality management in service provision
This theory came with the advent of the ISO grading or rather recognition of the performance of companies both in the hotel and other catering businesses. The Whitbread conglomerate has achieved the prestigious award in recognition of the high-quality level of service that they extend to all their customers in all their branded outlets more so the Premier Inn which is the largest entity in the group.
The management is definitely applying a combination of service management theories in regards to the pricing and offers only unique to the Premier Inn hotels. This is in line with findings and recommendations of TQM which calls for efficiency in all levels of management as way of life and philosophy for any business entity serious on making its mark in the market by seeking to improve on everything that the management and the staff engage in.[7]
Some of the areas that the hotel has managed to maintain high level of TQM are listed as follows.
l Service. Premier Inn meets the customer requirements by offering a wide range of services with some being new in the industry thus a display of their creativity,
l Administration. The growth and management of such a large chain of hotels that at the same time manages to churn such high profits. This could never be a reality without the employment of this theory in the operation.
l Reducing product and service costs. As a budget hotel the Premier Inn has made this observation from the word goon their operations.
l Demand flow manufacturing. The location and positioning of the hotels along highways and in major cities make the hotels very accessible to the target market[8]
The hotel sets service standards that corroborate the hotel’s objectives and mission. As a budget high-class hotel, Premier Inn faces the challenge of offering high-class services that match the pricing without compromising on any basic functions of a hotel but not just a hotel it maintains the trademark quality of all Premier Inn outlets.
A detailed standard level of service has to be maintained such as ensuring that all Premier Inn employees have be well-groomed with each wearing a visible tag showing his/her name, setting realistic and reasonable expectations for the hotel in ensuring that the current service program is not undermined by impossibilities in its execution. The hotels insist on this realistic expectations so that they can be delivered by the employees to the customers on a 100% basis rather than setting unrealistic standards hoping that the employees can manage to offer it at 80% or higher.
Service recovery theory
As is common with product warranty, service providers through the help of economists and business analysts have come to recognize the effect of the ”service warranty” on consumer satisfaction and the effect it has on improving future sales. This is however impossible in that the best that the service provider can do is refund the amount paid and at times compensate for the service if the consumer is not satisfied on genuine grounds. Premier Inn utilizes the findings of this theory by offering the 100% service guarantee if a customer does not have a comfortable overnight stay at the hotel.
The application of the above theories and strategies in the provision of services cannot be well executed if the employees are not an integral part of the process. The best way to go about is by giving the employees the power to be responsible of their actions in offering of the service as it also determines how they interact with the customers. Apart from that it also reduces the need for supervision thereby giving the management time and room to get involved in more productive roles. This process is what is known as empowerment process.
Empowerment process
Empowerment has of late in the business world become a buzzword with some managers who have no clue about it fearing anything to do with it as it contains the word power which they are afraid of losing in managing their organizations. Those in the know however, have been quick to embrace the term and its application in their respective organizations. What the term simply means is that it’s a process involving unleashing of human potential hidden in talents and skills and enhancing the human ability to nurture what is perceived to be good for the organization’s growth. At Premier Inn, the management trains the staff to judge a situation and give it their best shot in an attempt to find a solution carried out as per the training the management organizes for their staff. The freedom to think and be creative for an employee is highly dependent on one’s ability to trust one’s self, to trust others and be trusted. At Premier Inn basic trust is believed to come from the types of interactions experienced within the workplace especially between the junior and senior staff. Those who have acquired trust tend to be trustworthy and create accepting environments within the workplace that encourages the freedom of creativity necessary for an organization’s and customer satisfaction.[9]
Recommendations
The hotel at the moment is underutilizing the Costa coffee unit among its many affiliates. Though the management claims to be very professional in handling their operations there is no evidence of the use of some of the crucial management tools recommended for hotels. For example there is now ample evidence to show that the hotel uses Business Process management in their operation. This process aims at identifying a complete procedure of events traced from the source to the recipient/destination where the route and the manner in which it reaches the destination are carefully managed for customer satisfaction and efficiency of the organization.
Too much concentration on making a name than profits first- Though the giant hotel chain is in the right trend in making profits the other affiliates of the Whitbread are not doing the same thus sucking on the achievements of Premier Inn instead of them fending from their entities and support themselves. If only the Whitbread family could operate the hotels chain more independently, the organization is bound to earn better profits.
The management of the Premier Inn seems to have a very strong HR department which in my opinion is very frugal in their recruitment shown by the staff they have in all their outlets. However the problem exists with the management which the employees seem not comfortable with especially the class of supervisors.
Among the major problems afflicting the hotel is;
The consistent failure to adopt modern IT developments that make management easier, a good example is BPM systems being offered by Microsoft and Subsystems.
Conclusion
The challenges facing the hotel and the service industry are mostly arrived at due to the change in culture, fashion and technology. With the advent of the Internet it has become necessary for hotel owners to make the consideration of installing Internet connections in every room and necessarily those that are meant for businessmen. It thus poses a challenge to any hotelier about the need to keep on changing with times to suit the demand and to have an upper hand over his competitors. With the celebrity life and fascination reaching an all-time high it would be advisable for the hotels to introduce celebrity suites in their outlets. With their spending habits known to be very high compared to ordinary citizens, the hotels are bound to make a kill out of this venture. All in all the Premier Inn brand of hotels deserve commendation for maintaining the high level of service and fair pricing.
References
Evans James (2004). Total Quality: Management, Organization and Strategy 4th edition, London: South Western College.
Fretterrmann, David (2000). Foundations of Empowerment Evaluation, New York: Sage Publications.
Bob, B., (2000). Introduction to the UK hospitality industry: A comparative approach, London: Heinemann.
Broekhuis. M., (1999) International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management.
Michael, H. (2006). Five star service one star budget, London: Prentice Hall.
Prideaux, B., (2006). Managing tourism and hospitality services: Theory and international applications, London: OUP.
Rick Sturm et al (2000) Foundations of service level management, Washington: Sams.
Rutherford, D., (2006). Hotel management and operations 4th Ed, Boston: Wiley.
Russel Imrie (2001) Journal of vacation marketing; Independent mid-market UK hotels: Marketing strategies for an increasingly competitive environment.
Vol.7 No. 1 pg 63-74
Venison, J., (2005). 100 Tips for Hoteliers: What every successful hotel professional needs to know and do, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Premier Inn’s green push, Travel Trade Gazette UK & Ireland, 2008 p35.
Foonotes
IMF 2004 Economic report.
“Throat for throat is the way forward for giants” The Sun 2007, pg 14.
Rutherford, D., (2006). Hotel management and operations 4th Ed, Boston: Wiley.
Michael, H. (2006). Five star service one star budget, London: Prentice Hall.
Michael, H. (2006). Five star service one star budget, London: Prentice Hall.
Michael, H. (2006). Five star service one star budget, London: Prentice Hall.
Rick Sturm et al (2000) Foundations of service level management, Washington: Sams.
Evans James (2004). Total Quality: Management, Organization and Strategy 4th edition, London: SWC.
Fretterrmann, David (2000). Foundations of Empowerment Evaluation, New York: Sage Publications.
The city of Orlando that is located in Florida was a small town that used cultivation as the key resource for economics. The industrial tourism changes the way of life in Florida, when the railway was built there, and Walt Disney Company decided to create attractions. These two factors significantly influenced the growth of the city since they attracted many people from the US and foreign countries.
Tourism Industry in Orlando
The construction of the South Florida Railroad led to the arrival of people, who were seeking jobs and moving across the country. This railroad also allowed connecting people from the distant places to Orlando, so that people could travel and visit new destinations (Folse & Pugh, 2020). As a result of these transitions, the city size increased, and it became an attractive location for tourists. Consequently, the life of the residents of Orlando improved as their city increased, providing more job opportunities, products, and services.
The building of theme parks and attractions is another key factor in the growth of Orlando. Walt Disney, Sea World, and Universal Studios are the parks that attract more than 55 million visitors every year (Folse & Pugh, 2020). The customers spend their money not only to visit the parks, but also to eat, relax, and stay at night in motels and hotels. On the one hand, these attractions make positive changes as they offer jobs, connect people, provide the place for entertainment, and make commercial deals. On the other hand, they also create traffic congestion that is inconvenient for the local population. The majority of tourists do not visit the city since they prefer parks only. It means that Orlando has a limited level of commercialism, and its residents are not provided with great offers.
The economics of attitudes is one more factor that makes Orlando quite attractive for industrial tourism. Khalilzadeh and Wang (2018) state that when the companies create a network and cooperate with each other, their chances for success increase. In case of Orlando, several attractions were built in one location, and can be considered as an advantage. The interconnectedness of Walt Disney, Sea World, and Universal Studios allows customers to have fun for several days while staying in one place. This factor is positive for the local population since it improves the economy and involves the city in effective marketing (Khalilzadeh & Wang, 2018). As a consequence, Orlando has a relatively stable economy, using tourism as the main source to support the other areas, such as social services, healthcare, and so on.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Orlando in Florida grew from a tiny town to a large city within about 50 years. The first factor that affected such a growth is the railroad that connected the city with other locations. The second factor is theme parks that provide entertainment to children and adults. In addition, the cooperation of the attractions also led to the increased popularity of Sea World, Walt Disney, and Universal Studios. The population of Orlando received more jobs, the connection with other locations, and entertainment opportunities. However, traffic congestion and a lack of commercialism are the negative points of the discussed changes. Thus, the growth of Orlando made both positive and negative impacts on people and their lives. Still, it seems that advantages outweigh the disadvantages that are faced by the population of the city.
References
Folse, K. S., & Pugh, T. (2020). Great writing: From great essays to research. Cengage Learning.
Khalilzadeh, J., & Wang, Y. (2018). The economics of attitudes: A different approach to utility functions of players in tourism marketing coalitional networks. Tourism Management, 65, 14-28.
Red Carpet is a national hotel and entertainment company. It owns a multitude of small hotels, inns, and other entertainment facilities across the US. Recently, it has acquired a movie theater company and needs to manage its incorporation into the greater whole. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe internal and external forces for change and highlight the biggest OD (Organizational Development) challenges for a consultant at Red Carpet.
External Forces for Change
External forces for change in an organization include several broad categories, over which a company has limited to no control. These are the economic environment, technological development, the political and government situation, the socio-cultural aspect, and the operational element (Cameron & Green, 2019). For Red Carpet, the most prominent external forces are culture, tech, and economy. Culture has a significant impact on the popularity of movie theaters – modern youth watches movies from the comfort of their homes. In order to compete, a cinema needs to offer a better experience, or feature products not available in the Internet. In terms of technology, movie theaters are to be kept at the cutting edge of cinematographic experience. Finally, economic and geopolitical crises have made the population poorer, reducing the amount of money to be spent on cinema (Cameron & Green, 2019). All of these factors are to be accounted for when incorporating movie theaters into Red Carpet.
Internal Forces for Change
Internal forces in an organization are associated with management, restructuring, and entrepreneurship. For Red Carpet, changes in management and restructuring are the two obvious drivers of change (Cameron & Green, 2019). The company has just acquired a chain of movie theaters, which need to be integrated into the greater whole. It means that the board of directors would likely be expanded to include a representative from a newly-acquired branch. Restructuring will have to take place to determine which theaters are to remain and which to be disposed of or reformatted, should an audit prove their financial deficiency.
In addition, the chain has to adhere to new standards of practice established by Red Carpet, which would require a rehaul in both the command structure and the overall rules and regulations for employees to follow. Smaller changes would include physical appearance of the newly-acquired brand, changes in prices, services offered to customers, uniforms, and other small parameters (Cameron & Green, 2019). Alternatively, Red Carpet could keep the brand unchanged, and maintain outside control. This scenario is, however, will be a temporary measure before the entirety of the company is fully incorporated into the greater whole.
Biggest Challenges in the Role of an OD Consultant
In my opinion, the biggest challenges in the role of an OD consultant are two – reacting to external driving forces for change utilizing internal capabilities to adapt, and the ability to gain rapport inside the company. The position of an OD consultant is different from that of an OD officer appointed at the company. A consultant is there to provide options and solutions rather than see them implemented in practice (Cameron & Green, 2019). Their role is, more often than not, advisory to the organization’s own OD groups. This makes initiating and controlling the results of changes difficult. Companies may follow your recommendations to the latter, or choose to follow them sparingly. Alternatively, the OD group may say they are following instructions, while doing everything to sabotage them. In order for an OD consultant to be effective, they require to have a high level of rapport and trust in the company (Cameron & Green, 2019). Given all of the aforementioned challenges, the greater task of reacting to external factors outside of the company’s control is becoming an even greater challenge.
Reference
Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2019). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Information technology was first introduced into the hospitality industry in the 1950s in multinational hotel chains. In the early 1970s, Hotel St. Jacques in Paris introduced automation of reservations, check in, guest billing and various aspects of management control (Brotherton 2003). Punched cards and linking of telephones and mini-bars to the system were used to help post charges directly to the bills of the clients. Over time, computerization was extended to restaurants and food service departments, the EPOS (electronic point of sales system), in hotels and cruise ships, etc. The integration of individual programs such as these led to the formation of the Management Information systems for the Hospitality industry (Brotherton 2003). The early systems were not user friendly and had many technical difficulties in implementation (Brotherton 2003). Despite these early difficulties, falling hardware prices, easy availability of computers and trained personnel and graphic user interfaces and the advent of the internet have led to the wide application of information systems in the hospitality industry. And the latest application that is widely used to research and book all types of tourism products across the globe is the Global distribution system (GDS) – the major electronic distribution system for the entire tourism Industry. The purpose of this essay to provide an overview of the ‘Global Distribution System’ and to argue that GDS is the best option to meet the changing needs and demands of the hotel and travel industries despite a few drawbacks.
Global Distribution System
A global distribution system can be defined as “a centralized and permanently up-to-date database that is accessible to its subscribers through computing terminals. It provides all kinds of tariffs and tourism services to subscribers on a day to day basis allowing its users to make change and cancel reservations, as well as to print tickets and avail themselves of any kind of rights related to services and products” (Pizam 2005, p. 275). The central site of each GDS contains many “large mainframes connected to thousands of terminals through some of the largest data communication networks in the civil world” (Jafari 2000, 254). GDS systems have high speed, highly reliable enterprise architecture and use open systems. They are capable of processing up to 17,000 travel-related messages per second during peak times, with response times of a fraction of a second (ITSA 2008). They generally opt for the most modern communications interface in the market including XML and EDIFACT (ITSA, 2008, 4). GDS systems have proved themselves to be fast, efficient, reliable, secure and global. Traditionally, the GDS operations as a retail wholesaler within the distribution channels addressing these sales to the travel agencies. But, in recent times, with the advent of the internet, all the major players have developed direct access to consumers through the internet. As a result of this reorientation, the GDS also plays the role of a retailer (Pizam 2005).
Background
In the 1960s, it was found that manual systems for the control of seat availability in airlines were not adequate or efficient enough. In order to have an automated system for oversee seat allotment in airplanes, American Airlines and IBM developed a joint program known as SABRE and it is considered the first CRS (Computer Reservation System). The original objectives of this system were to facilitate the storage and administration of all the information related to flights, lodging availability and schedules or prices. However things changed in 1987 when as a result of increasing demand for similar information in other related industries such as the hotel industry caused by the internationalization of their operations, CRS evolved to a new and enlarged version called the global distribution system (Pizam 2005). Thus the GDS can be perceived as the outcome of the evolution of computer reserve systems (CRS) to adapt to the global market. Though they were originally applied in the airlines sector, they are today the major electronic distribution system for the entire tourism industry.
Types of GDS
The popular GDS are Sabre, Apollo/Galileo, SystemOne/ Amadeus and Worldspan (Jafari 2000). There are some other smaller local GDS systems, mainly in Asia, but these four are by far the most popular ones and cater to the majority of the global needs in the GDS industry. Three of these -Galilieo, Sabre and Amadeus are comparable in dimension; but the fourth element, Worldspan is a bit different. Apart from thee four systems there are several smaller or regional GDSs, including SITA’s Sahara, Infini (Japan), Axess (Japan), Tapas (Korea), Fantasia (South Pacific), and Abacus (Asia/Pacific) that serve interests or specific regions or countries (Das 2002). Amadeus was founded in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS and it is the youngest of the four GDS companies (Das 2002). However, Amadeus has the greatest number of travel agency locations with the highest productivity per terminal in the world. It serves serving the marketing, sales, and distribution needs of the world’s travel and tourism industries and it possesses the most comprehensive data network and database serving more than 57,000 travel agency locations and more than 10,500 airline sales offices in some 200 markets worldwide (Das 2002, p. 1). The system can also provide access to a large number of hotels, ferry, rail, cruise, insurance, tour operators and car rentals spread over 24,000 locations. Galileo International was founded in 1993 by 11 major North American and European airlines: Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Olympic Airlines, Swissair, TAP Air Portugal, United Airlines, and US Airways (Das 2002, p. 1). Galileo has updated itself to changing times by establishing links with companies such as Go, UK’s best low-cost airline, Highwire, Inc., that provides Internet-based tools and services to the corporate travel market; and Shepherd Systems, an industry leader in the provision of sales and marketing intelligence systems and services within the travel industry (Das 2002, p. 1). Sabre has been in the business for over four decades and its technology has evolved through time. With its headquarters in Southlake, Texas, Sabre connects more than 60,000 travel agency locations around the world, providing various travel related services over an extensive region from a vast database (Das 2002, p. 1). Sabre-connected travel agencies are provided by the GDS Sabre with specialized tools such as Sabre web- based technologies and low-fare finding solutions for marketing purposes, in order to increase efficiency of operations and to improve customer service. ‘Sabre Virtually There’ is a website of Sabre that offers customized service to its travelers regarding their itineraries and destinations. Sabre is known for its adaptability to changes in the information economy and developing innovative practices for maximum efficiency. Worldspan was founded in February 7, 1990 by affiliates of Delta Air Lines, Inc., Northwest Airlines, and Trans World Airlines, Inc. It is currently owned by “affiliates of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (40%), Northwest Airlines (34%), and American Airlines, Inc. (26%)” (Das 2002, p. 1). Since its 1995 advance into the world of Internet technology for the travel industry, Worldspan has successfully expanded its capabilities across the globe in the realm of the travel industry through a series of partnerships and equity agreements with leading travel technology companies. As a result, the company is able to provide latest technologies and information technology solutions to its customers allowing them to participate in a spectrum of e-business opportunities. Worldspan has links with companies such as Datalex, a leading provider of e-business infrastructure and solutions for the global travel industry; Digital Travel, a global online tour provider; Kinetics, Inc., developer of technology and solutions for the airline industry; OpenTable.com, an Internet-enabled restaurant management tools system; and Viator, a major provider of Internet-based content, technology, and distribution services. Additionally, in 2001, Worldspan is the Internet Booking Engine for the internet site Orbitz LLC and in 2002, the launch of Worldspan ePricingSM made Worldspan the first GDS to introduce a revolutionary new multi-server-based technology, offering an unprecedented selection of pricing options to all of Worldspan’s customers. Thus we find that all the four main GDSs are doing well and are able to adapt to changing times marked by globalization, advent of internet and digitalization of information.
Application of GDS in the travel industry
GDS have a well proven history of meeting the changing needs and demands of travel agents and travelers around the world and they also lead to innovations in the global travel industry. For example, GDSs are behind most of the modern applications of information technology in the travel industry such as e-ticketing; travel e-commerce; graphic seat selection; and the ability for agents and travelers to view on one screen, public, private/negotiated, consolidator and Web fares. What is interesting to note is that GDS airline companies not only offer simple bookings but are capable of booking one way and roundtrip airline seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, tours and packages, cruises, insurance, restaurant reservations, itinerary changes, complex international routings, theater tickets and dinner reservations and much more all in a single itinerary, through a single GDS system. To provide these facilities, GDS systems have multi-year contracts with hundreds of airlines to manage their complex and ever-changing reservation needs and travel agents are linked to the travel offerings through having multi-year contracts with GDS systems. These contracts also have provision for multi-year guaranteed levels of compensation for agents, and assured agencies have certainty about their cost of automation. While most of the airlines use GDS systems, some airlines such as Jet Blue Airlines still manage reservations on their own proprietary systems. The importance of GDS for airline distribution is best seen in the fact that in the year 2003, the four largest GDSs together handled 1.1 billion airline bookings (Doganis, 2006, 214).
Application of GDS in the Hotel Industry
Global distribution systems are described as ‘global travel supermarkets’ and they provide travel agents with the options of rapid search, booking and confirmation facilities for airline, hotel and car hire products. In the context of hospitality, GDS depend to a large extent on the capabilities of the domestic computer reservation systems (CRS) within the hotels which can provide full details of properties, locations, room types, availability, prices and booking conditions (Bowie and Buttle, 185). The link between the hotel and the GDS is made possible via ‘switches’ such as THISCO – a unified interface linking about twenty major hotel chain CRSs in the United Sates to airline GDSs (Sparks et al. 2001). Some have argued that it has not yet been proved that the effectiveness of global distribution systems for hotel products has not been proven (O’Connor and Frew, 2000, 325). But that limitation has been removed and according to a study sponsored by TravelCLICK, Inc., the leading provider of eMarketing solutions for the hotel industry, travel agents are becoming increasingly dependent on Global Distribution Systems (GDS) promotions for hotel bookings (Chipkin 2005). The study was passed on a survey including 500 travel agents from 30 countries representing the four major GDS systems — Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, and Worldspan (Chipkin 2005, p. 1). The report generated by the study holds that 41% of travel agents worldwide are using their GDS platform more often than in the past, while 30 percent are using the GDS shopping displays more often. Survey results also revealed that most travel agents worldwide believe GDS systems should offer rate parity: 89 percent of US travel agents and 76 percent of international travel agents said it was very important to see the same rates available on all platforms (Chipkin 2005, p. 2). GDS is very useful to the travel agencies and gives them access to all the necessary information that is needed for them to carry out their tasks and increases their productivity. The wholesale factor in the distribution channel is also an advantage for hotels, airlines, car rentals, etc;
While hotels are not the main users of the GDS distribution executives are monitoring the situation and trying to compete with online sites that offer hotel booking services. John Burns, president of Hospitality Technology Consulting says that hotels were never brought under regulation like the airlines but they were treated as if they were regulated because they represented a small percentage of total transactions and it was easier for the GDSs to simply deal with them that way (Chipkin 2005, p. 2). Burns pointed out that this meant GDSs presented a neutral environment for hotels and travel agents were able to see a random listing of properties based on preference criteria set by the client. This works out to the advantage of the client and makes GDSs in the hotel industry a really valuable tool.
SWOT Analysis of GDS
Strengths of GDS
It is possible to argue that computer reservations systems are better than global distribution systems cost wise. But then, global distribution systems by virtue of their small number compared to individual computer reservation systems have several advantages: economies of scale generated in marketing the service to agents; research and development costs and maintenance costs are shared and made more effective; wider range of travel and tourism products throughout the world are facilitated. Moreover, GDS today are in a position of great strength having evolved to publicly owned companies that provide e services to both marketing intermediaries (such as retail travel agents, tour wholesalers, general sales agents and MICE organizations) and travel principals (such as airlines, hotels, tour operators and hire car companies). With the integration of internet services, they now also have the B2C model of e-business offering their services directly to consumers through online travel agencies such as Travelocity (owned by Sabre) and OneTravel.com (Amadeus). Modern GDSs focus on the following areas of strength: they provide a menu driven price service structure in which the services are provided on an individual basis helping airlines to select and pay for the services needed; they have new value adding information such as profiles of the passenger making the reservation, filings of competitive fares, closure of certain fare classes, identification of situations where ticket time limits are not being enforced and the status of flight tickets; they have moved towards emerging models of suppliers in an attempt to add and drive value in the travel chain; GDSs have reduced overall costs through increase in the use of e-tickets that help in saving the cost of ticket distribution, accounting and billing and finally, they provide a value adding fee structure based on the GDS reach and reservation yield (Taneja, 2005, 153).
Weaknesses
GDS, in their traditional role have been expensive as they included the role of intermediaries such as travel agencies. With the advent of the internet however, this weakness has been overcome and GDS are able to be in touch with the client directly. But then, the internet has allowed smaller hotels to enter the competition. Moreover, when they list different tourism products, it has been found that GDS can create a ‘halo effect’ that can possibly camouflage the reality behind the effectiveness of these products. The importance of GDS in airline distribution declined in 2004 for two reasons. First some airlines began to view GDS as an expensive option and decided to bypass them and even sold their shares. Since GDS was a non-core activity and since by the late 1990s all the GDSs carried the same unbiased travel information, ownership of a GDS no longer provided the airlines with any competitive edge. Moreover, airlines felt that profits could be boosted or losses could be reduced by selling shares (Doganis, 2006, 216). In 1998-99 British Airways and KLM began this process of disinvestment when they sold their stakes in Galileo. They were soon followed by other airline owners. In fact the rest of Galileo was sold off by the end of 2000 and became part of a larger company, Cendant. These are inherent weaknesses in the GDSs. These are small weaknesses of the system. When one compares the strengths of GDS with the weaknesses, it is easy to deduce that the weaknesses are very minor and can be easily overcome.
Opportunities
The de-regulation of the Global Distribution System industry, the globalization of tourism and the internet have provided a nurturing environment for Global distribution systems. These forces of globalization and the internet have lead to a situation in which the consumer is the king. This situation is exemplified by the GDS. The consumer can compose his products, and buy directly from his PC at home. Besides the traditional value chain of purchase, production, marketing and sales, a virtual value chain has been created by the “collecting, organizing, selecting and distribution” of information (Wahab et al. 2001, p. 149). Another aspect of GDS that can be considered as its opportunity lies in its ability to break the monopoly of travel agents over access to the reservation systems of all important players in the market). At the end of 2003, the US Department of Transportation has lifted all regulations relating to GDSs. The two critical constrains were that GDSs refrain from biasing flight listings in favor of some airlines to the disadvantage of others and that an airline must provide all of its fares to GDSs. The main transformation is that GDSs can now charge airlines for better placement in the page where fares are displayed to travel agents and that airlines have greater flexibility in the fares that they choose to distribute through a given GDS. An airline flying a new route can pay a certain GDS to be listed first for flight searches in that new city. This benefits both the GDS who can earn income from this arrangement and the airline who receives direct value from the global reach of GDSs. Thus deregulation of the GDS industry has been a great opportunity that is leading to the development of new business models (Taneja 2005). With deregulation, the GDSs have developed an interest in creating new revenue streams. One is to charge for preferred-screen positioning, Burns said. That already has happened with a product called Hotel Spotlight from Sabre where hotels can pay for preferred positioning. Burns said. “There will also be an opportunity for advertising.” Deregulation of the GDSs also allow their owners to develop and implement market based practices relating to pricing strategies, content access, contract terms and conditions and products and services based on different technologies. Examples include engines that search for lower fares on alternate dates and alternate airports, corporate focused booking tools. These are all opportunities for the growth of GDS.
Threats of GDS
Buhali and Licata (2002) feel that the future of GDS is likely to face threat from “principal’s internet presence – example, www.BritishAirways.com – new e-mediaries who deal directly with the consumer via the Web – online travel agents such as Expedia (once owned by Microsoft) and Opodo (owned by a consortium of European airlines) and travel portals who are likely to bypass GDSs” (Pizam, 2005, 277). Competition come from new online travel agents such as Microsoft, Internet Travel Network, CNN Interactive Travel and big companies such as air carriers (American Airlines) and hotel chains (Mariott International), which see an opportunity in direct selling. “In late 1995, British Midland was the first airline in Europe to introduce a reservation booking system with online payment via credit card on the www called Cyberseat” (Wahab et al. 2001, p. 149). The new players were successful because of their competence in their core business (Microsoft had knowledge of new media and information technology and CNN had brand name). Hotels too began to reach out to the consumer directly using the internet. Through the websites, consumers can get information and make reservations online anywhere anytime. In fact many hotel chains today are doing voluminous business through their online sites. The possibility of including colored photographs and videos in the global transmission enhances the scope of marketing through the internet. Though the internet is currently used to market simple products as tickets and reservations, it is possible for marketing more complex products. This is a serious threat to the GDSs as it completely cuts out the role of the travel agents – especially business travel agents. This has made traditional suppliers such a KLM Lufthansa and British Airways to explore other opportunities for cost reduction and cost control (Wahab et al. 2001,150). French (1998) has said that the new systems have the ability to cut out not only the travel agents but also the GDSs themselves, by selling airline inventory direct to consumers via an extremely cheap global network linked to home or office based PCs. Therefore the competition that existed in the context of airline distribution has shifted its focus from GDSs in the 1990s to online direct-to-consumer distribution systems. Small firms are getting new opportunities to be part of the global network without being part of the GDSs. A few years ago in the town of Bruges, 12% of the hotels were affiliated to the Galileo system (Wahab et al. 2001, p. 151). This allowed them to compete with larger hotel chains. Travelocity now allows even small family hotels with no computer-link to connect globally via fax service. Many local English bed and breakfast hotels have become global in this way and increase the competitive environment for GDSs. Increasing competition in this area, there are about ninety plus regional reservation systems which emulate the original GDSs. These regional systems cater to the small and medium size companies in the tourism sector. These new developments in the organization of the tourism industry are a threat to the GDSs and in order to maintain competitive advantage GDSs must develop new strategies. Abraham Pizam (2005:276) suggests that to be successful, GDS must “continue to evolve their technological experience; reduce utilization costs; simplify the utilization processes; enlarge the products and services range; establish strategic alliances with the new competitors; and develop a more effective relational marketing policy with travel agencies, etc.” (Pizam 2005, p. 276).
Future Scope of GDS
In principle both airlines and travel agents benefit from the availability of a GDS. Airlines gain through wide distribution and travel agents gain through greater productivity. But Airlines now feel that they pay, through their booking fees a disproportionately high level of total costs while the travel agency industry pays far too little. In fact 90% of GDS income is derived from airlines by way of booking fees (Doganis 2006). In many countries there is an intense market share battle with agents being offered bigger and bigger incentives to switch from one firm’s system to another. In responding to the challenge of domination by the travel agents, airlines began to make use of the internet and offering the options of buying tickets online. To meet this competition, travel agents are now forced to offer a diverse variety of services and they are aided by the GDS in acquiring tools in the form of computer systems to aid effective travel management. This is one area that the GDS needs to look into in the future. They must empower the travel agents with more tools to maintain competitive advantage. Next, to meet the challenge of the internet, the GDSs, often in partnership with their airline owners are aligning themselves with the internet and offering internet products rather than ceding these products to non-airline entrants (Wahab et al, 150). Due to changes in the structure of airline distribution, new business models of GDSs have emerged: Sabre has created its own online portal (Travelocity); Sabre offers Direct Connect Availability Three Year Option (DCA3) – discounts of 10-15% in GDS booking fees by segment for three years in exchange for the availability of all fares. Amadeus, by buying a stake in the European online travel website Opodo has introduced a value pricing initiation where there would be higher fees for higher value reservations and values – price would depend on where the reservation is made and how the ticket is sold rather than a flat fee transaction. Cendant, the owner of Galileo has acquired Orbitz, the travel site owned and developed by US major airlines, the UK wholesaler Gullivers Travel (an owner of an online travel agency) and the European travel website ebookers. Earlier, the main weakness of GDSs used to be the expenses associated with it – their fee structure which involves charging airlines for distribution and paying an incentive to travel agents for making a booking. New models of GDS offer lower cost than traditional GDSs because they do not pay travel agents an incentive. While hotels represent a small percentage of all GDS transactions, they still account for 50 million bookings annually according to the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Assn. (Chipkin 2005) GDS need to focus more on the blooming hotel industry. Though one fifth of its bookings are made through GDS, Marriott is looking for new GDS entrants according to its management (Chipkin 2005). Two prominent new entrants in development are G2 SwitchWorks in Chicago, and ITA Software, based in Cambridge, Mass. Both are advanced technologically and can reduce costs for travel suppliers who sell through travel agents (Chipkin 2005, p. 1). Jim Young, V.P., global distribution for InterContinental Hotels Group, said the company will encourage new entrants only if they can develop functionality to sell hotel rooms (Chipkin 2005). Marriott and IHG both see themselves as carrying the kind of clout that will influence the future of GDS distribution. One of the key issues to be tackled by GDSs in defining their future role is whether they should continue to be directly involved with subsidiaries that are themselves online travel agencies competing directly with the same customers as the GDS. There is a conflict of interest. This has made several GDSs to opt for wholly owned subsidiaries. In 2002 Sabre bought back the 30% holding it did not control in Travelocity.
Technological and structural changes are revolutionizing the travel industry and to maintain competitive advantage GDSs need to be adaptable. Amadeus and Galileo and other GDSs appear to be adapting well to the shift of business to the Internet. Having acquired e-Travel, Inc. from Oracle Corporation in July of 2001, Amadeus now has a new business unit dedicated to delivering solutions to e-commerce players worldwide. The e-Travel solutions enables travelers to book air, car, hotel, and rail services, through the internet, within corporate guidelines. Galileo is pursuing the futuristic strategy of expanding its global distribution, strengthening customer loyalty, leveraging technology, and capitalizing on opportunities created by increasing Internet use. In general, GDS are still the best option for consumers to travel and make travel arrangements around the world. However, due to the many challenges faced by the industry, the secret to success of the GDS industry in the future lies in its adaptability to provide electronic distribution and many components of e-commerce to other industries, and utilizing its strengths to provide expanding services to its growing customer base.
References
Bowie, D and Buttle, F 2004, Hospitality Marketing: An Introduction, Butterworth-Heinemann Publishers, 2004
Brotherton, B 2003, The International Hospitality Industry: Structure, Characteristics and Issues, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003
Chipkin, H 2005, Hoteliers eye GDS changes to save costs, Hotel & Motel Management, 2005
Globalisation and elimination of geographical borders foster the rapid expansion of national and international tourism. For dozens of countries from all over the world tourism has already become an essential source of profits and benefits. Millions of people attend tourist destinations in search of unique impressions and experiences.
This is why small and large players of the international tourist market adopt sophisticated strategic planning solutions, to ensure that they can meet customer demands, pursue profitability and safety, and anticipate future challenges faced by the tourism industry. Sustainability is a definitive feature of today’s tourism.
It is gradually becoming the main criterion of business success in the tourism sector, a strategic goal pursued by tourist organisations, and a factor attracting those who want to spend a vacation productively but without any damage to the environment.
However, most sustainable tourism planning initiatives are still in their infancy. Future research must focus on the development of relevant strategic planning frameworks, to meet the demands of the growing sustainable tourism sector.
Tourism Planning and Truths about Tourism
Planning encompasses activities and decisions required to meet organisations and industries’ strategic objectives. Without efficient planning, no industry development is possible. Tourism is no exception: “if tourism is to be incorporated into a country’s development plan it must be organised and developed according to a strategy constructed on sound foundations” (Anonymous, p.200).
Neither national nor international tourism can develop, unless development planning approaches bring together multiple market players and address existing controversies in their visions of the tourism sector’s future. Why is planning so vital to the future of tourism? The answer is simple: tourism has a propensity to overconsume scarce resources (McKercher, 1993).
Tourism is inseparably linked to other industries and communities, and has to compete for scarce business resources (McKercher, 1993). Tourism is so multifaceted that controlling processes and decisions within the industry is virtually impossible (McKercher, 1993).
Therefore, tourism planning is what balances tourist agencies’ needs with resource availability, reduces overconsumption, supports businesses in their battle for scarce economic and material resources, and makes it easier to monitor the impacts of tourism on host communities.
The impact of tourism on host communities is a matter of international concern. Throughout years, tourism sustained a love-hate relationship with host communities (McKercher, 1993). Just recently the philosophy of mass tourism has shifted toward greater importance of “love” and “no-hatred” in relations among tourist agencies, tourists, and host communities.
This is probably when the concept of sustainable tourism emerged. The history of the sustainable business concept dates back to 1987: a new vision of business which considers and complies with the principles of social responsibility and no-damage to the environment was first published in the Brundtland report (Hall & Kearsley, 2001).
Like many other industries, tourism could not ignore the growing value of sustainability principles. The philosophy of sustainable tourism reflected the latest tendencies in the global evolution of business.
Sustainable tourism came to exemplify a complex set of practices, principles, management methods and prescriptions, which would pave the way to continuous development of the tourism sector without damaging the environmental resource base (Ruhanen, 2010).
Sustainable tourism gave rise to a new set of strategic planning concerns: to meet their sustainable goals, tourism industry players would have to engage in new, sophisticated strategic planning exercises. Sustainability would challenge conventional methods of short-term planning, so characteristic of the tourism industry. New methodologies of long-term environmental planning would have to be adopted.
Sustainable Tourism Planning
Sustainable tourism planning would be impossible without setting appropriate indicators and using them to assess the state and changes in sustainability across tourist destinations. Candidate sustainability indicators are numerous and varied (Anonymous, n.d.). WTO’s core indicators of sustainability create a good basis for assessing the current state of sustainability in tourism.
They are also an early warning to tourism planning, preventing tourism’s irreversible effects on nature (Dymond, 1997). However, a multitude of factors governs the choice of sustainability indicators and their use by agencies and government organisations.
For example, New Zealand regional councils prefer using ecological indicators, whereas regional tourism organisations and territorial local authorities rely on social and economic indicators of sustainability (Dymond, 1997). By contrast, Samoa runs an entirely different system of sustainability indicators (Twining-Ward & Butler, 2002). How to choose the most relevant ones?
Twining-Ward and Butler (2002) propose establishing and using a multidisciplinary advisory panel; the latter will identify the most important sustainability indicators that reflect the realities of different tourist destinations and facilitate converting assessment results into planning and management actions, with a concern for the long-term preservation of nature and the environment, reasonable use of scarce resources, and ability to meet diverse community needs (Page & Thorn, 1997).
Sustainable Tourism in New Zealand: Implications for Planning
It should be noted, that New Zealand’s national tourism strategy has undergone a profound shift. First, the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010 was developed to take into consideration the major trends in global and international travel patterns; second, Local Government New Zealand empowers and encourages local authorities to participate in national tourism projects (Connell, Page & Bentley, 2009).
With this in mind, adventure tourism has become the culmination in the evolution of New Zealand’s sustainable tourism and a reflection of the country’s commitment to the principles and values of sustainable tourism planning.
Adventure tourism is one of the brightest features of sustainable tourism in New Zealand and a challenge faced by the country’s tourism planners and policymakers. The adventure tourism market displays unprecedented growth capabilities, but how to plan adventure trips effectively and sustainably is one of the most difficult questions.
The field of adventure tourism is dominated by low-difficulty products for unskilled customers (Kane & Zink, 2004). Private and public conservation areas like Yellow-Eyed Penguin Reserve or whale-watching offer brief guided tours with special activities engaging tourists into the whirl of extreme impressions (Buckley & Sommer, 2001; Curtin, 2003).
A triumph of strategic sustainable planning, adventure tourism marks a turning point in the evolution of sustainability in New Zealand, with an emphasis made on long-term preservation of natural resources and their protection from the forces of commercialism and commodification.
Yet, not everything is well with sustainable tourism in New Zealand. Issues surrounding the quality and efficiency of sustainable tourism reveal serious gaps in sustainability planning. First and foremost, injuries and accidents impede the development of relevant sustainable tourism frameworks. Falls, slips, and injuries caused by animal riding are not uncommon (Bentley, Page & Laird, 2001).
Adventure tourism is responsible for 22% of international visitor fatalities and 20% of visitor injuries in New Zealand (Bentley et al, 2001). These accidents and injuries confirm the inadequacy of the existing sustainability indicators, which evaluate objective features of each tourist destination but ignore the importance of visitors’ safety.
Second, sustainable tourism development in New Zealand is focused on the analysis of direct environmental effects of tourism, with no regard to indirect and future effects (Patterson & MacDonald, 2004).
For example, a tourist purchases a hamburger, which passed a long production chain from farmers to consumption and, as a result, could be responsible for additional environmental impacts like land erosion and CO2 emissions (Patterson & MacDonald, 2004). Sustainable tourism planning approaches must account for these indirect influences.
Eventually, the commodification of adventure in New Zealand challenges the stability and intactness of indigenous populations (Cloke & Perkins, 2002; McIntyre, Jenkins & Booth, 2001). Apparently, sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand is still in its infancy.
WTO’s sustainability indicators cannot suffice to bring New Zealand’s tourism sector to the desired end. Future research must focus on the development of relevant strategic planning frameworks, to meet the demands of the growing sustainable tourism sector.
Conclusion
Sustainability is a definitive feature of today’s tourism. Sustainable tourism exemplifies a complex set of practices, principles, management methods and prescriptions, which pave the way to continuous development of the tourism sector without damaging the environmental resource base. Sustainable tourism planning is impossible without setting appropriate indicators.
WTO’s core indicators of sustainability create a good basis for assessing the current state of sustainability in tourism. However, different countries set and use sustainability indicators in entirely different ways. Moreover, in its sustainable tourism planning, New Zealand is faced with a variety of problems.
Sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand is still in its infancy. WTO’s sustainability indicators cannot suffice to bring New Zealand’s tourism sector to the desired end. Future research must focus on the development of relevant strategic planning frameworks, to meet the demands of the growing sustainable tourism sector.
References
Anonymous. (n.d.). Chapter 10: Tourism and development planning.
Bentley, T.A., Page, S.J. & Laird, I.S. (2001). Accidents in the New Zealand adventure tourism industry. Safety Science, 38, 31-48.
Bentley, T., Page, S., Meyer, D., Chalmers, D. & Laird, I. (2001). How safe is adventure tourism in New Zealand? Applied Ergonomics, 32, 327-338.
Buckley, R. & Sommer, M. (2001). Tourism and protected areas: Partnerships in principle and practice. CRC for Sustainable Tourism.
Cloke, P. & Perkins, H.C. (2002). Commodification and adventure in New Zealand tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 5(6), 521-549.
Connell, J., Page, S.I. & Bentley, T. (2009). Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: Monitoring local government planning under the Resource Management Act. Tourism Management, 30, 867-877.
Curtin, S. (2003). Whale-watching in Kaikoura: Sustainable destination development. Journal of Ecotourism, 2(3), 173-195.
Dymond, S.J. (1997). Indicators of sustainable tourism in New Zealand: A local government perspective. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 5(4), 279-293.
Hall, C.M. & Kearsley, G. (2001). Tourism in New Zealand: An introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Kane, M.J. & Zink, R. (2004). Package adventure tours: Markers in serious leisure careers. Leisure Studies, 23(4), 329-345.
McIntyre, N., Jenkins, J. & Booth, K. (2001). Global influences on access: The changing face of access to public conservation lands in New Zealand. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 9(5), 434-450.
McKercher, B. (1993). Some fundamental truths about tourism: Understanding tourism’s social and environmental impacts. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1(1), 6-16.
Page, S.J. & Thorn, K.J. (1997). Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: Public sector planning responses. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 5(1), 59-77.
Patterson, M. & McDonald, G. (2004). How clean and green is New Zealand tourism? Lifecycle and future environmental impacts. NZ: Manaaki Whenua Press.
Ruhanen, L. (2010). Where’s the strategy in tourism strategic planning? Implications for sustainable tourism destination planning. The University of Queensland, Australia.
Twining-Ward, L. & Butler, R. (2002). Implementing STD on a small island: Development and use of sustainable tourism development indicators in Samoa. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 10(5), 363-387.
A resort is a business entity organized to host people who are on a planned vacation. The business is designed to attract, maintain, and satisfy its guests so that they can become regular visitors or ambassadors of the business. Resorts have been playing a key role in promoting travel and tourism sector. Many business organizations operate resorts in a market segment. The management of each resort puts consistent efforts to capture a big market share.
The stiff competition in the market leaves them with the option of initiating effective management skills. Target market and valued experience are generic approaches to resort management that every business will try to achieve. Therefore, to maintain a competitive edge and remain the best in the market, a resort management team must consider other management strategies rather than the target market and value experiences.
Creating A Sustainability Management Plan
Developing a sustainable management plan is the initial step that a resort business should consider. The plan helps in creating a management system with a clear decision-making structure. It also allows for the continuous improvement of performance by implementing processes that integrate easily into the system. An organization must develop vision and mission statements to guide its operations. These must conform to the customer needs in the target market and the policies that guide business operations in the country.
The business should also set its objectives, targets, and policies (Pavlatos 757). These act as the guiding principles for its operations because they state what the business stands for in the market.
The adoption of a sustainable plan begins with the implementation of the stated objectives and targets. At this point, the management needs to include all stakeholders in the process. When the implementation process includes all parties, it will take into consideration the interests of everybody. During the process, people are assigned responsibilities to undertake (Ali, Amin, and Ryu 48). When everyone fulfills their duties according to the stated objectives, production, and delivery of services to customers will improve. It is important to note that the main aim of a business is to be profitable and able to maintain quality services (Prud’Homme and Raymond 118).
The business environment in the travel and tourism sector changes based on issues such as government policies, weather changes, economic status, and technology, among others. Sometimes, unexpected changes might have negative effects on the implementation processes. To bring the business back to the track, the management should conduct a regular monitoring process(Pavlatos 762). The process is vital in assessing the status of the business in the market.
An internal audit system helps in evaluating the progress of the business. During the evaluation, external factors that have direct effects on the resort are considered. These may include government policies, international flights, weather change, new services, and emerging technology, among others(Ali, Amin, and Ryu 56). After that, corrective measures and preventive actions are suggested as a way of improving the business structure and service delivery.
Continuous improvement of the system is essential in addressing emerging issues in the travel and tourism sector. In this context, the resort management team can introduce new facilities or services to meet the new needs in the market. They can make changes in the business operation to meet the specific needs of their guests. Continuous improvement enhances the maximum utilization of resources. It minimizes the impact of the resort’s activities to the surrounding environment through a waste recycling program(Pavlatos 764). Consequently, the cost of operation reduces as the business strives to gain more profits.
Training Staff and Visitors
Resorts are established in major tourist attraction sites such as national parks, forests, historic buildings, geographical sceneries, and beaches. In addition, visitors come from around the world to spend holidays and tour those regions. In the process, they use the services offered by the resorts in the regions. A resort needs to develop a long-term strategy that would help in providing continuous services to customers. To stand out among competitors, resort management can inspire its employees and visitors to promote a sustainable environment around the resort(Ali, Amin, and Ryu 67). Training employees and visitors about the importance of keeping the environment clean will reduce the carbon footprint of the organization.
In addition, the training program will enhance the smooth running of the business. It will enhance efficient operations and cost-effective delivery of services. Providing high-quality services at low costs is the best way to attract more visitors and earn high profits(Prud’Homme and Raymond 121). When working with well-trained and experienced staff, services are delivered fast and effectively. Quick customer services are directly proportional to low costs and high profits.
On the other hand, training ensures long-term protection and improvement of the environment on which the resort depends. Tourism and travel are all about the clean and attractive environment. A resort can only thrive when its surrounding meets the recommended standards for tourists and travelers. Therefore, it must meet the expectations of the guests and maintain its reputation.
Adopting Internet and Mobile Technology
The advancement in mobile technology has changed the way individuals and business organizations interact. Resorts deal with tourists who travel from other parts of the world to their destinations. Smartphones and tablets have changed the way people interact (Wang et al. 164). Through the Cloud Computing platform, the possibilities of immediate access to information are limitless. Tourists and travelers use these devices to access information about their intended destinations. To gain popularity in the market, a resort can use the mobile platform to market its business, communicate with customers and offer services to them.
In the current world where technology dominates, a business needs to establish an online presence to attract and maintain new customers(Anuar, Mushaireen, and Khalid 553). A resort should have a well-established website where it markets its products and services. A good website should rank high in the main search engines such as Google. Therefore, a customer who searches for hotels and resorts in that area can access the business with ease. An elaborate website will provide fundamental information about the resort including the services it offers to customers (Wang et al. 169). A prospective customer is more likely to choose the resort with better services compared to others. Therefore, a company should add substantive features of its business and all services it provides.
A resort should apply the latest mobile technologies with the best practices in order to take big market shares. A well-established mobile based service will decrease the resort’s dependency on its online travel agents. Through a mobile application integrated with the business website, a resort can allow its customers to book for accommodation and other services online. A good mobile platform allows its customers to pay for the services online. The application will reduce the aspect of physical interactions, which are time consuming and expensive(Anuar, Mushaireen, and Khalid 556). A well-established mobile strategy is a vital weapon in the travel and tourism industry, which evolves at a rapid rate.
Developing Environmental Initiatives
Although profit is the key objective of a resort, it is necessary to create a good relationship with stakeholders and communities around the business. Environment pollution is a health concern to everyone including visitors and guests. To attract and maintain guests, the business must establish initiatives to conserve and protect the ecosystem within its surrounding. It must respond to the issues of climate change as a way of addressing emerging needs for sustainable practices.
These include the sustainable consumption of energy and effective management of wastes(Ali, Amin, and Ryu 65). To achieve the objective, a resort must comply with the relevant environment policies. It should integrate environment issues in its decision-making processes and promote environmental awareness through education of staff, customers, and communities.
Through, reuse and recycling processes, a resort is able to reduce wastages and environmental pollution. Consequently, the cost of production and services are kept low. A responsible use of energy within the business enhances energy efficiency (Pavlatos 765). On the other hand, the energy options influence the effectiveness of the environmental initiatives. Preferably, a resort should use renewable energy resources such as solar and the wind energies.
Wildlife conservation program should be part of a resort. It should protect the endangered native wildlife in the surrounding because they can form part of the tourist attractions and increase customers (Gössling 233). It should conserve all its resources to reduce wastes, improve services and attract more customers.
In conclusion, a resort business operates in an environment influenced by rapid changes in trends. These include climate change, adoption of new technology, government policies and economic status of a country. Therefore, it is challenging to maintain effective service delivery throughout. Identifying target market and provision of valued experience are the fundamental practices in a resort business. However, all resorts in the same market strive to achieve the two objectives. In order to gain a competitive advantage and maintain business reputation, the strategic management of a resort should go beyond the target market and valued experiences. It should create an elaborate sustainable management plan, offer to train staff and guests, adopt modern technology, and conserve the environment.
Works Cited
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