Author: Andre Coleman

The ecotourism industry, once a niche market for the environmentally concerned travellers is getting more popular in the recent years and the number of tourists participating in this particular tourism segment is increasing (Wood, 2001).

Ecotourism initially describe the nature-based travel to relatively undisturbed areas with education as the main purpose. Through the years, the concept of ecotourism has matured to a definition that should comprise of a few elements including nature-based, active participation, progressive education travel, interpretation of natural environments, social and cultural components, involvement and returns for the local community and also the management to be ecologically and environmentally sustainable (Parks, Parks, & Allen, 2009).

In ecotourism, the activities can range from a few hours of nature appreciation to a long duration tour that will take months. This includes activities such as presentation of the marine biology on a cruise (cetacean-watching), a guided tour in a national park, snorkelling and many more.

The main objective of this essay is to further discuss whale-watching, a type of cetacean watching, around the world and if this activity is affecting the behaviours of the whales population near the coastal area.

Whale-watching

Whale-watching is a commercial activity that is carried out by the tourists to observe, swim with and/or listen to the whales in their natural habitat. These activities are normally for recreation purpose; however whale-watching can also serve scientific and educational purpose.

During the past years, a phenomenal growth for whale watching as tourism activity has been observed around the world. This particular activity has involved an estimated of 9 million participants yearly in 87 countries and generates approximately US$1 billion each year (Hoyt, 2000)

With the lucrative profit from obtainable from whale-watching activity, this have led to heated debates on the whale-watching and whaling industry. It has been argued that whaling is incompatible with whale-watching (Parsons & Draheim, A reason not to support whaling – a tourism impact case study from the Dominican Republic, 2009). In a survey conducted, it was found out that 91.4% of whale-watching tourists would not go to countries whereby they hunt whales for commercial purpose to engage in whale watching; and that 79% of them would even boycott visiting the country (Parsons and Rawles, 2003, cited in (Parsons & Draheim, A reason not to support whaling – a tourism impact case study from the Dominican Republic, 2009)).

A few of the more popular sites for whale-watching includes: Kaikoura, New Zealand; Tofino and Telegraph Cove, in British Columbia, Canada; Ogata and Ogasawara, Japan; Friday Harbour, Washington, USA; Hervey Bay, Byron Bay, and Monkey Mia, Australia; Husavik, Iceland and many more. According to Hoyt (2000), the most common focal species for whale-watching industries are the humpback whales, gray whales, northern and southern right whales, blue whales, minke whales, sperm whales, short-finned pilot whales, orcas and bottlenose dolphin.

Despite the benefits obtained from whale-watching activity, operators should take caution while carrying out these activities as the recreational activities in the inshore water can pose a major threat to the whales and dolphins. The threats can due to direct cause such as injuries due to accidental cuts by the boataa‚¬a„?s propeller, or an indirect stress to them from the high frequency sounds made by the vesselaa‚¬a„?s motor.

In order to prevent such harms towards the animals, the operators should follow by the marine code of conduct in order to protect the animalaa‚¬a„?s welfare. There are different set of code of conduct that are used across the world but the common rules found in these code includes maintaining a certain distance from the animals, maintain a predictable course and speed when near the animals and also move away if signs of disturbance are displayed by the animals.

However, is it sufficient to just adhere to the code of conduct and should there be more actions to be undertaken by the government to aid in the sustainability of this tourism activity. Several studies have been carried out throughout several regions to discuss more on the issues of the whale-watching activities and whether this activity is sustainable.

Literature Reviews
Whaling and Whale-Watching

Debates have been going on worldwide on the issue on whether whaling can co-exist with whale-watching in a region. It has been stated that there is an urgent need to evaluate the cultural and the environmental values of the tourists and find out what are the factors that attracts or discourages them from participating in whale-watching activity (Higham, 2007 and Lusseau, 2008, cited in (Parsons & Draheim, A reason not to support whaling – a tourism impact case study from the Dominican Republic, 2009)). However, there are rebuttal on such claims, indicating that the fact whereby countries such as Iceland, Japan and Norway all engage in active whaling and yet have whale-watching activities within their countries and thus it is not valid to argue that whaling and whale-watching are incompatible (Corkeron, 2006, cited in (Parsons & Draheim, A reason not to support whaling – a tourism impact case study from the Dominican Republic, 2009)).

According to Parson and Draheim (2009), the tourists whom participated in cetacean tourism tend to hold strong environmental values and thus may have very strong sentiments against whaling. Also, tourism receipts is the major source of economic income for the Dominican Republic, any activity that may affects the stability of this income could have major impacts within the country. The study also shows that with a highly visible national policy towards cetacean conservation, and opposition to the hunting and capture of cetaceans, it would be beneficial in attracting tourists to the country, whereas a visible pro-whaling policy might repel the tourists (Parsons & Draheim, A reason not to support whaling – a tourism impact case study from the Dominican Republic, 2009).

Higham and Lusseau, (2008) also state that the answer to whether whaling and whale-watching activity can coexist depends largely in the perceptions, values and behaviours of the tourists themselves.

Effects of whale-watching on the animals

Despite the lucrative profits that can be obtained from whale-watching activity, the well-being of the animals involved in the activity, which mainly includes the cetaceans should be emphasised, which thus leads to increasing number of studies focusing on whether the whale-watching activity will cause disturbance to the animals.

Disturbance in this case is defined as the negative influence that interferes with the natural behaviour of cetaceans and has a harmful outcome (Ritter, 2003, cited in (Stamation, Croft, Shaughnessy, Waples, & Briggs, 2009)).

One of such studies was carried out in the whale-watching site at New South Wales (NSW). The main focus of whale-watching in NSW is the humpback whales, although there are also tours to watch other marine mammals such as dolphins and seals. Most of the watching will occur during the whaleaa‚¬a„?s southern migration when the whales move much slower than on their passage northwards. Signs of disturbance in the humpback whales around the world include orientation away from the vessel, increased in swimming speeds, prolonged submergence and changes in the respiration behaviour and such avoidance behaviour are observed in this study (Stamation, Croft, Shaughnessy, Waples, & Briggs, 2009).

As this study is a short term study, it cannot be used to conclude that such avoidance behaviours will cause any detrimental outcome for the whales involved. However, the possibilities of inducing negative long-term effects onto the whales due to the reduction of the time spent foraging; resting, socializing or suckling should not be ignored. Conservative approach on the management of the humpback whale-watching industry should be adopted to ensure that the short term impacts that was discovered in this study does not translate to the long term impacts (Stamation, Croft, Shaughnessy, Waples, & Briggs, 2009).

Another study has been done on the killer whales to find out the behavioural responses of this species towards the whale-watching boats. It was stated that with the exposure of millions of the tourists to the animals in their natural environment, this may change the attitudes towards the protection of the critical habitat and threatened populations. Guidelines for whale-watching should be based on the actual impacts of the human activity on the whale behaviour instead of the perceived effects. Once again, it have being emphasised that when a whale is been disturbed, it shows sign of avoidance either by varying the duration of its dives, or by swimming faster or altering the direction of swimming. Antagonistic behaviours such as slapping flukes or fins on the surface of the water may also be displayed. Since the changes in behaviours of the whales are observed when boats are near, management of whale-watching should adopt more conservative distance guidelines to present even greater benefit to the animals (Williams, Trites, & Bain, 2002).

Sustainability of whale-watching

As mentioned above, whale-watching industry has enjoyed a phenomenal growth and brings in lucrative profit for the community that carries out this activity. With that, there are more participants in this industry and hence leading to an increasing number of regulations and guidelines that were developed in an attempt to ensure the sustainability of the industry. The need to develop appropriate guidelines for the commercial whale-watching activities should be attend to. Also, with the limited data available on the species and their behaviours there will be an urgent need to develop new knowledge and understanding to help guide management of the industry (Valentine, Birtles, Curnock, Arnold, & Dunstan, 2004).

The sustainability of the whale-watching activity and its associated benefits could be significantly affected by the changes in the occurrence of the local cetacean species in response to the global climate change. Global climate change refers to the net change in climate over time which is a consequence of either natural variability or human activity. It has been identified that both direct and indirect means by which changing of the sea surface temperature could affect the cetacean distribution. With that, it can cause the change in range of species distribution, the occurrence and abundance of individuals and the timing and lengths of migrations; the effects on reproductive success and mortality levels. The above have clearly shown the potential implications for both cetacean species and whale-watching tourism (Lambert, Hunter, Pierce, & MacLeod, 2010).

Findings

Studies on the operations of the whale-watching activities in two different regions, New Zealand and Iceland have been done.

Whale-watching in New Zealand

At Kaikoura, New Zealand, the male sperm whales are the primary focus for the commercially important whale-watching industry. With the growing industry, there is an increase in the concerns over the social, educational and environmental impacts of whale-watching on both the local human and whale populations.

The cetacean relies on echolocation for foraging and communication, hence these species becomes exceptionally vulnerable to changes in their acoustic environment. For example, the addition of anthropogenic sound sources via the boats presence (research boat and whale-watching boats) results in a reduction of the mean blow interval of the whales. These tendencies to shorten breath are due to the stress respond by the animals (Richter, Dawson, & Slooten, 2006).

On top of the decreased respiratory periods, shorter surfacing intervals and sharp directional changes have also been identified as potentially unacceptable changes in behaviour. The above are evidences that are enough to suggest that the whale-watching industry in Kaikoura is having an adverse effect on the whales (Curtin, 2003).

Whale-watching in Iceland

In Iceland the whale-watching industry did not begin until 1990 and the country is becoming a major player rapidly within the international whale-watching market (Parsons & Rawles, 2010). As the coastal water of Iceland host a variety of cetacean species which includes the humpback whales, minke whales, blue whales and killer whales that are the target of whale-watching operations. Although the whaling activity in the Icelandic waters had ceased in 1989, but then whaling resumes during 2003 despite there is no legal process for that.

The Icelandic government did little consideration on how the resume of the commercial whaling might impact on the whale-watching industry. And through the studies, it was discovered that the resumption of commercial whaling could cause a massive and critical reduction in the number of whale-watching tourist going on whale-watching trips in Iceland which in turn results in a loss of direct income (Parsons & Rawles, 2010).

Since whale-watching is currently the pillar of the Icelandic economy, thus care must be taken so that the Icelandic government does not destroy it.

Analysis

Through the reviews of the studies that have been done on the whale-watching activity in various regions, particularly New Zealand and Iceland, it can be concluded that the whale-watching industry is a growing industry that is bound to bring in high revenue for the community that is conducting such activities. However, the whale-watching activity that is being carried out can cause disturbance to the cetaceans in the regions which leads to the change in behaviours of these animals. These changes in behaviours can cause adverse effect on the animals. On top of that, the whale-watching activity might cause direct injuries to these animals through the cuts by the propeller of the boats.

Another issue is that commercial whaling should not coexist with the whale-watching activity. As it has been found out that most of the whale-watchers are very environmentally motivated and they display great interest in the animal welfare issues (Parsons & Rawles, 2010). Since majority of the whale-watchers have voiced out that they would boycott visiting a country that conducts hunts for cetaceans, places with whale-watching activity should consider with care regarding the implementation of whaling activity in the region since whale-watching can bring in high revenue for the destination and that introduction of whaling might bring down the benefit of whale-watching.

Recommendation

Voluntary approaches are being considered as an important tool for the conservation and environmental management. The voluntary approaches towards conservation can include agreements between regulatory agencies and private enterprise, agreements among the industrial firms, or code of conduct within a professional or industrial group (Wiley, Moller, Pace III, & Carlson, 2008). Voluntary agreement to the operational procedures can be established for commercial whale-watching vessels that are used to view the endangered or protected species of whales. Guidelines can be created to avoid whale strikes and to prevent the whale-watching boats from disrupting the animals. This is important as in some of the areas, commercial whale-watching boats have a relatively high frequency of collisions with the whales, contributing high noise levels around the whales, disrupting whale behaviour and reducing the reproductive fitness of the whale (Wiley, Moller, Pace III, & Carlson, 2008).

Besides the use of voluntary approach, collaborative relationships can be established between the whale-watching companies and the related organizations and individuals that make up the organizational field. These collaborations can play an important role in structuring the relationships and understandings of members of the field (Lawrence, Phillips, & Hardy, 1999). By collaboration, it refers to a cooperative, inter-organisational relationship that is negotiated in an ongoing communicative method.

Science education

Conclusion

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to assess the development of visitor attractions as a development product. It will begin by defining tourism. The classification, typologies and also the importance of visitors in the tourism industry will be discussed. It will finally conclude by highlighting how these tourist attractions could be managed to give tourism providers a competitive edge.

The core product for tourism and the main factors influencing the tourist’s decision to travel are attractions, (Swarbrooke 2002). To put it more simply, tourism cannot exist without attraction. There are many definitions for the term visitor attractions; the British tourist authority quoted in (Swarbrooke, 2002:3) defines it as

“the attraction must be a permanently established destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow public access for entertainment, interest and education rather than been primarily a retail outlet, or a venue for sports, film, or theatrical performances. It must be open to the public prior booking and should be capable of attracting day visitors or tourists”.

Fyall et al (2003) also quotes the definition given by (ETC, 2000b:24) as “a permanently established excursion destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow public access for entertainment, interest or education; rather than being principally a retail outlet or venue for sporting, theatrical or film performances”.

Attraction may be classified into man-made or natural attractions and can be temporary or permanent. Examples of man-made attractions are Chatsworth, Warwick castle, Alton towers, Madam Tussauds, and others. Such attractions are purposely built and attract visitors who love image, for example who love appealing images like something that can be touched. On the other hand, it attracts groups of people for example, school children, families and also for special events. The natural attractions on the other hand are “not originally designed primary to attract visitors” (Leask and Yeoman, 1999:4) for example, The Peak District National Park and Grand Canyon.

According to cooper et al (2008: 321)”when contemplating attraction development the ideal process from a demand standpoint is one of market-imagescape-location”. He adds that the process mentioned above is often not implemented but usually applied to ‘footloose’ attractions that have flexibility across all three aspects, the imagescape, the location and the market to generate economic success. Therefore, a more common process is one of location, image-scope and market.

However it is interesting to note that the visitor is the life blood of tourism and therefore needs to be placed at the centre of the development process (Lane: 2007). The visitor must have the feeling that their expectations have been met from the time they think about where to go right through to when they return home. The site of the attraction is analyzed as to whether it is appropriate. The environmental and the social impacts of the attraction are critically looked at. If both impacts are found to be adverse and inimical then how best can they be mitigated so that the ultimate benefits would not be undermined?

In addition the cost and benefit analysis are carried out to look at the attraction’s benefit from the financial perspective and thus deserves to be executed. However this depends on the motive of the attraction; some attractions may be created primarily for social reasons while some may also be create out fundamentally for economic profit. For instance an attraction may be set up to prevent the extinction of the culture of an endangered tribe; such an attraction is of a social nature. Another area of concern is the target group to which the attraction is to be used by. Will it address the needs of the target population and if so how will it be done. When the feasibility indicates that the proposed attraction is viable then the next action is implementation.

Some Tourism products can be described as intangible because they cannot be seen but experienced. For instance a short break can be experienced but not seen. Bennet et al (2004) cited in (lane:2007) also argues that the customer will pursue a service encounter that went wrong for as long as they can even though only small amounts of money is involved. Some products are tangible: you can see and touch them. Therefore the developers of tourist product must understand that their customers are driven by emotions in their decision to purchase a tourism product.

Tourism product development usually involves co-ordinating effort behind viable, sustainable projects that will help to develop as a successfultourism destination. It includes:

Developing tourism related products focusing on quality, sustainability and industry involvement to gain maximum economic benefit
Ensuring a product matches and exceeds customer expectations
Enhancing public product through provision of signage and interpretation
Promoting local distinctiveness
Creating new niche areas to entice and target new visitors to the region
Looking at existing products in the region and improving their current offer to ensure visitors have a wonderful experience andmake repeat visits
Improving the quality of the existing tourism accommodation product – to ensure visitors have a wide choice of quality accommodation in the region to choose from
The way in which marketing, investment (including capital) and business development are aligned around product priorities to have a greater impact
A coordinated response to evidence from research. (tourismnorthwest,2010)

The ability of an attraction to be able to attract people to it depends on several factors. An attraction must be supported by the local people in other words the people whose neighbourhood has the attraction must see the attraction as their own. It must be in the form of a “we feeling”. In order to achieve this at the earliest stage of the design of the attraction, the local people must be actively involved. When this is done a fertile ground has been founded for the onward march towards success of the attraction. Therefore community ownership is critical for the success of the attraction.

The location of the attraction is also paramount in the determination of the success of the attraction. The location has to be easily accessible in terms of transportation. The best means of transport may be by road, rail, air, water or a combination of these. If the transportation to and from the attraction is easy to everyone who wants to enjoy the attraction then it can achieve success.

Information and communication in this technological age is inseparable in the success of many enterprises including attraction. People need to get in touch with relatives and loved ones anywhere on the planet. Business must not be terminated by visiting an attraction. It is therefore fundamental that an attraction has facilities to ensure that visitors to an attraction can still communicate to the world beyond the attraction. However it does not necessarily mean that the facility must be within the confines of the attraction but may be within a reasonable distance from the attraction since sometimes the nature of the facility might not permit that.

Government legislation can also enhance the success of an attraction. Tourism policy is difficult to implement without a supportive and appropriate legal framework (Dieke, 2000). In addition, indicated that the importance of legislation on areas like land use planning, immigration, employment of foreign nationals. When tourism is backed by political will then it can be helped to improve from its current state to an improved one. It may also create a framework that would make investing in attractions very lucrative. This will in turn create a positive image of the government at the international level that is if the attraction is able to attract international visitors. Government’s taxation policies should be favourable to the attraction so as to make the attraction cheap to visit.

Security of visitors to an attraction is vital. No matter how presentable an attraction may be without guaranteed safety and security then the attraction would be “lifeless” since its purpose of establishment would be defeated. The state must therefore ensure that the atmosphere is generally peaceful enough to entice visitors to attractions.

Provision of infrastructure generally helps attractions to attract visitors. The State must provide adequate and right infrastructure like road, power and so on. The provision of these makes the attraction less expensive to the visitor since the cost of the attraction would be charged less the cost of the services provided by the state.

Operators of attractions must create an atmosphere of effective and cordial relationship with visitors to register their acceptance among visitors far and near. When the relationship is professional but friendly it is like to penetrate through any form of competition and would eventually emerge as the best. The marketers say the customer is always right, this implies the importance of the customer and the need to create an atmosphere that guarantees the best possible approach towards eliciting the confidence and acceptance of an attraction by a visitor. When attractions attract people there is the tendency for the culture of such people to be enjoyed by tourists

The success of a visitor attraction has to be supported by the state, the business sector and the individual. The blend of the efforts of these entities would ensure that attractions are success in their existence. The following suggestions are therefore provided to serve as a guideline to tourism providers in the development of tourist attractions. It would bring improvement in the life of the local community as well as the development of basic infrastructure to meet the expectation of visitors. A properly developed attraction has the tendency to attract visitors. The development of an attraction would enhance the development of the local economy.

“The UK visitor economy contributed about ?52 billion representing 3.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product while creating 1.36 million jobs in 2007?(Hausmann et al, 2009). In Kenya, as of 1992, tourism accounted for 62% of foreign exchange earnings. Managing attractions has the propensity to attract a substantial amount of income for a country

Assess the potential: by finding creative ways to stimulate the visitors’ interest and provide them with a memorable experience. Provide interactive experiences that engage as many of the visitors’ five senses as possible. Bear in mind the guidelines for safety, health and environment. Jutte (2003) gives the example of the sense and touch gardens in France that gives people another experience of botany by tasting, smelling or touching fruits and flowers
Seek advice: from relevant authorities. Cultural heritage tourism brings together many different perspectives such as preservation, the arts, museums, Main Street, humanities, elected officials, public land managers and more. By working together, more can be accomplished than by working alone. It is important to involve the community in shaping tourism efforts. An example is given by Scheyvens (2002) as South Africa’s strategic development initiative which gives priority to investors whose bids include places of encouraging local development.
Examine the inputs: in terms of delivery, authenticity, proximity to resorts, road accessibility, ability to market and economic return. Set measurable goals in order to assess the viability of the project.
Preserve and protect resources: Be sure that the historical, cultural and natural resourcesthat make up the cultural heritage tourism program are adequately protected for future generations to enjoy since these resources are irreplaceable.

This essay has looked at the development of tourist attractions as a tourist product. It has identified that visitor attractions have a lot to offer all kind of peoples. However a lot needs to be done to professionalise the structuring of service enterprises and the management of the service encounter in terms of designing tourism products and service delivery systems. As a result some suggestions have been made to serve as a guideline to tourism providers in their decision to develop the tourist’s attraction product. This in the long run will ensure the sustainability and the profitability of tourist products to tourism providers and the industry as a whole. Attraction should not be only seen in the face of their commercial value but also their social aspect as the fusion of both features would help sustain the attraction into the foreseeable future. Attractions are contributing a lot to the development of many countries of the world.

Reference list
Cooper, C, Fletcher, J, Fyall, A, Gilbert, D and Wanhill, S. (2008) Tourism principles and practice (4th ed) (p, 321) Harlow, prince hall.
Dieke, U, C, P. (2000) Political economy of tourism development in Africa (5th ed) (p, 52) cognizant communication
Fyall, A., Garrod, B. and Leask A. (2003) Managing visitor attractions new directions (1st ed) (pp, 7, 17) Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Jutte, R. (2005) a history of the sense: from antiquity to cyberspace. (1st ed) (P, 53) polity press.
Lane, M. (2007) the visitor journey: the new road to success, international journal of contemporary hospitality management volume 19, issue 3, pp 248-254
Leask, A and Yeoman, I. (1999) Heritage visitor attractions an operations management perspective (1st ed) (pp, 4, 12)
Scheyvens, R. (2002) Tourism for development: employing communities. (1st ed) (P, 174) Pearson Education.
Swarbrooke, J. (2002) the development and management of visitor attraction (2nd ed) (P, 3) Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Hausmann, R., Austin, L and Mia. , I. (2009) Capturing the visitor economy: A framework for success.

In: Deloitte (ed)The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009, World Economic Forum. (pp.65-76)

Tourism product and development. [Internet]. Available from:

[Last access: 15th February 2010].

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[Last access on 15th February 2010].

U.S. hotel chain Marriott International is one of the largest transnational corporations in the world. According to the corporation’s data, every fourth tourist in America stays in Marriott International hotels.

Rapidly spreading its influence in the world, Marriott sets the goal to win and retain the leading position in the hotel market, showing a special concern with respect to the guests, business partners, employees and society as a whole. The business of Marriott Corporation is built on fundamental ideals of service provided to customers, employees and society. These ideals are perpetual, unique and make the company a successful manager, being the cornerstone for all employees of the company.

In this section, the main study focus is on the data of exploratory research conducted with the purpose of identifying current practices of Marriott International under the conditions of globalization and the impact of globalization on Marriott’s sales, marketing, HR, and brand positioning approaches, while outlining the main advantages Marriott international within this context.

History of Marriott International, Inc.

The history of this hotel corporation is a vivid example of the embodiment of the American dream traditional for several generations of U.S. citizens. Thousands of now flourishing companies started their long journey to success just like Marriott.

In May 1927, a 26-year-old man from Utah, John Marriott and his wife opened the eatery for nine seats in Washington. John’s lucky fortune and business skills helped him to survive the collapse of the U.S. economy during the Great Depression – in the late thirties he was already the owner of a regional restaurant chain The Shoppe Inc. and the eponymous company specialized in the delivery of hot meals for passengers of local airlines. John Marriott acquired his first hotel in 1957. It was called the Twin Bridges Marriott Motor Hotel, and was located in Arlington (Virginia). John wanted to create a family business and eventually handed over the management of the company to his son. Marriott Jr. conducted business as thoroughly as his father did (Marriott and Brown, 1997).

In 1964 the company was renamed as Marriott Corporation. The Corporation expressed interest in everything that was associated with restaurant and hotel business, and when in 1977 the sales revenues of enterprises in which Marriott had a franchise crossed one billion dollars, John Marriott Jr. realized that the property management brings no less benefits than its owning. The Corporation developed its own concept of hotel network with a limited set of services by the end of the 80’s and actively operated in three sectors of the hotel market in the U.S.: managing the network of hotels with full service (Marriott suites), inexpensive hotels (Residence Inn) and a network of cheap motels (Fairfield Inn) (Marriott and Brown, 1997; O’Brien, 1995).

In the early 90’s, Marriott Corp. had only a few dozen hotels outside the U.S.A. Based on the principles of diversification, kept by the most of the major companies in the world (in other words: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”), in 1993 the corporation was split into two companies: Marriott International (hotel and real estate management) and Host Marriott (real estate transactions and food delivery). That moment laid the beginning of the active promotion of Marriott International in the international market as the management company (Marriott and Brown, 1997).

At the moment, Marriott International Corporation has more than 3500 lodging properties located in the U.S. and in 69 other countries around the world (2010), employing 137,000 people (Marriott International Company Profile, 2010).

Table 2.1. Marriott International Hotel Brands and Property Count

(December 2009- December- 2010)

Marriott-12-31-10-Hotel-Count-global

Globalization Strategies and Practices

Marriott controls more than half a million hotel rooms worldwide, while owning only 0,3% of them. Half of the remaining rooms is a franchise. This means that hotel owners allocate 5% to 6% of their incomes to Marriott as a fee for using the company’s name as well as for using rooms’ reservation system. Marriott manages the other half of hotel rooms by charging the owners of the hotel fee for providing this service (Boo, Hillard and Jin, 2010).

Acting as an operator, Marriott takes about 65% of income, paying out from this sum the expenses for salaries, utilities, insurance, and purchase of food. 29% of revenue goes to the owner of the hotel. Of this amount, he pays property taxes and mortgage rates, and the rest (if any) he counts to his earnings. Even though some people may be disgruntled and demonize Marriott, the company still has much to be proud of: 55% Marriott hotel owners would like their next hotel to be run by this company (Jang and Tang, 2009). Brand and the Marriott reservation system are worth it.

Regional offices Marriot Inc. include (Table 2.2.; Table 2.3.):

North America (NALO)

Asia, Pacific, Australia (APA)

The Caribbean, Latin America (CABL)

United Kingdom, Ireland, Middle East, Africa (UKIMEA)

Continental Europe (CE)

Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

Western and Southern Europe (France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.)

Eastern Europe (Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Kazakhstan).

Marriott International manages and provides franchise of hotels under the brands of Renaissance, Marriott, JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Ramada International; the company develops and operates resorts in the vacation ownership under the brands of Marriott Vacation Club International, The Ritz-Carlton Club, Horizons and Marriott Grand Residence Club; it offers apartments in Marriott Executive Apartments, provides furnished corporate suites Marriott ExecuStay and operates conference centers (Table 2.4.).

Smith Travel Research data state that raising a Marriott flag in the front of a big hotel offering a full range of hotel services increases its sales by 13% if compared to sales of a hotel with the flag of, for example, Doubletree. Virtually all other Marriott divisions from luxury Ritz-Carlton to a commonly accessible Residence Inn – are ahead of their competitors in the indicator of hotel room income by 10% to 30% (“A problem shared”, 2005).

Product & Brand Position

The components of Marriott’s corporate style are a company logo, colors, fonts, letterhead, website, brand perfumes and accessories. Marriott logo is a rectangle with an image of a sphere the inscription “Marriott” itself”, designed in two basic colors: white and cherry, and golden. A well-established and recognizable corporate style is the key to Marriott brand promotion in the global market.

For example, when developing a program to promote a network of hotels in Moscow, Marriott used the corporate logo and brand image, which is the image of the famous Faberge Easter eggs, which embodies prestige, luxury, and very high consumer value, comparable only with the works of the most expensive and fashionable jeweler. For example, Marriott Tverskaya has as its symbol a stylized gold Faberge egg, Marriott Grand 5 *- the blue one, and Marriott Royal 5 * luxury – the scarlet one. Such approach to corporate style creation can be described as very competent and thoughtful. Relying on the widely popular historical and cultural brands and using country’s national colors, the company certainly enhances the image component of hotel marketing, combining high international standards of service with the national peculiarities of a country and its hospitality traditions (O’Neill and Mattila, 2004).

Moreover, in each room of Marriott hotel chain there are branded forms for letters and branded pens with the hotel name. The rooms use brand linens, and brand aromatic policy of Marriott hotels.

Recently, with the development of Internet and e-mail correspondence, the issue of corporate style of electronic documents has become very topical. Web site today is the first thing that a potential guest sees, and it can help to quickly create an impression about the level of the hotel, the service, room rates, to estimate the location and walk through rooms, restaurants, lounge, as well as to book a room (O’Connor, 2008).

Marriott Corporation owns over 3500 hotels, and for conveniency there is a single site from which one can get to the site of any hotel of the network in the world. Moreover, the web-sites of the hotels are designed in the same style and structure. Color differences depend on the brand. The common brand Marriott Hotels, Resorts & Suites unites many brands, each with its own color scheme: for example, Courtyard by Marriott has a green color palette. Site structure is common for all hotels (photo tour, guest rooms in details, hotel proposals, hotel background information, restaurants and halls, city guide, maps and transport, events plan, Marriott Rewards program, hotel’s fact-sheet in print format). The web-site is the embodiment of Marriott corporate style and world-class service.

Currently, Marriott is included in top 10 international hotel chains and actively moves to the top through expanding its franchise contracts and promoting high level of service and corporate style.

Sales & Marketing

The major instrument of the company is the fact that a very small percentage of real estate the company manages factually belongs to it. In 1993, Marriott transferred all of its buildings and most of the debt on the balance of the investment real estate subsidiary Host Marriott, headed by the younger brother of Bill Marriott, while Hilton and Starwood, in contrast, own 30% of hotels under their control. Since Marriott receives a fee for hotel management, vacant hotel rooms bring fewer losses to it than to the owners, who have to clear the mortgage (“A problem shared”, 2005).

Another component of the success of Marriott is the attention to details. For instance, the rules for cleaning a hotel room set in Marriott include 66 points. The company also shares the aroma marketing approach. Generally, Marriott with great zeal is looking for new clients and opportunities to open new hotels. Taking into account different groups of clients and their material resources, the network is developing a variety of brands, increasing the amount of service (Table 2.4.):

Marriott Hotels and Resorts – hotels with full service, managed through a franchise or independently.

Renaissance Hotels and Resorts – hotels offering full-service accommodation facilities for business travelers, vacationers.

Marriott Conference Centers – full service hotels for conferences and meetings.

Courtyard by Marriott – division responsible for a hotel chain with relatively low prices.

Fairfield Inn by Marriott – division responsible for economy class hotel chain.

SpringHill Suites – division responsible for the chain of secondary and higher-class hotels targeted at business and leisure travelers, especially women and children.

Residence Inn by Marriott – leader in the segment of the long stay hotels.

TownePlace Suites – division responsible for long stay hotel chain with relatively low prices.

Marriott ExecuStay – business unit that provides accommodation facilities for 1 month or more.

Marriott Executive Apartments – division that provides accommodation for business visitors for a period of more than 30 days.

Marriott Vacation Club International – division applying timeshare system; a guest can purchase a week off at the hotel of this class. The system includes 38 exclusive resorts.

Ritz-Carlton – leading hotel brand in the segment of luxury hotels.

The innovative approach that accelerated the development of Marriott, Inc., was also the bonus program for customers, launched in 1983, which now serves as the element of Marriott’s corporate style. Thanks to Marriott Rewards, Marriott Corporation has an opportunity to acquire more permanent guests of the Marriott chain. Marriott Rewards program encourages customers for giving preference to Marriott International and its partners, rewarding them for the choice of hotels of the network (Dube and Renaghan, 1999). The participant of Marriott Rewards receives certain points or miles that can be used as payment for accommodation (special certificates) in the hotels of the network or as a discount for buying airline tickets (applied to miles). Points can be used for free accommodation, purchasing discounted “packet” services around the world, including domestic air transport services, car rental, cruises, etc. Such programs later started to be introduced by other network hospitality companies, but the scheme, devised by Marriott, remains the best one: maximum discount combined the highest luxury.

Human Resources

Every corporate culture is an element of corporate style. Marriott’s corporate culture was founded in 1927 and is being kept till this day: “The better the company will treat its employees, the better employees will treat customers.”

Big corporations like Marriott, offer a high service level in many countries around the world. To make all the employees regardless of their nationality and educational level meet the high standards of the corporation, they should be trained in order to improve their skills. The key to training efficiency in Marriott is its perception as a corporate value which is consistent with the main strategy of the company. A continuous training helps to guarantee high quality service, comply with the company’s strict standards, motivate and retain employees, creating staff reserve. Continuous training is also the only way to keep abreast with the changes occurring today and be prepared to their growing pace (Hinkin and Tracey, 2010; Katzenbach, 2000).

Every year, Marriott celebrates the anniversary of its foundation (May 20) selecting a certain week for it to express the company’s gratitude to the employees who are the members of a huge international family Marriott. Advertising and promotion program “Marriott Rewards” is also a very important part of every employee in the Marriott Corporation.

Considering the case of hotel chain Marriott International, it should be noted that in a business famous for its high rates of revenues, Marriott is outstandingly competent at preserving talented managers, which is reflected in low satisfaction gap (Figure 2.2.) (Hinkin and Tracey, 2010). One of the ways to do that is a specific program that trains managers to solve business situations preparing and encouraging them to seek for promotions to top management positions.

Advantages of Marriott, Inc over Competition in terms of Globalization

Marriott International Hotels have the loading of 10% above the average in the global hospitality industry, while hotel rooms are sold at higher rates than those of direct competitors (Table 2.5).

The advantage in the loading percentage and selling prices is achieved by providing individual and group customers more services than they can get anywhere else. Booking of hotel rooms in the company’s hotels is conducted through its own global distribution system (GDS) or via the Internet. Moreover, the system uses the technology of “guest recognition” of hotels of all brands of the company, and rewards programs for repeat customers. In 1999, the company expended its use of the so-called “quality assurance teams”, assisting companies to implement advanced network management practices and reduce costs (Dube and Renaghan, 1999).

On a whole, Figure 2.3 shows the positive dynamics in RevPAR data for North America Marriott properties for the five fiscal years 2004 -2008 with a peak in 2007:

Figure 2.3. 2004-2008 RevPAR data for Marriot International (North America)

Figure 2

Conclusion

Marriott dominates in the market for one simple reason: it is successful in managing hotels worldwide. The hotel managed by Marriott becomes a large hotel with restaurants, shops and business center, room service, in-line and butlers. All hotels of the chain are characterized by the same service, which is based on a clear interaction between all structures and maintained tight control by the head office. Marriott International mission states that the corporation aims to become the best company in the fields of accommodation and services in the world due to the fact that its employees are seeking to provide their customers the best possible services, resulting in benefits for the company’s shareholders.

In recent years, Marriott International has shown a positive dynamics of development and continues to rapidly spread the chain all over the globe on the basis of franchise contracts. This practice, along with innovative approach to global hotel marketing, Marriott Rewards program, guest recognition technologies, high level of personnel training and constantly increasing level of service, helps Marriott International stay in the top five hotels chains globally.

Information and communication technology is the new style of doing business in a useful method. This method was using since 1930s. in past 15 years this system have followed by various industries such as retail, banking, telecommunication, government, tourism etc This method covers huge series of applications like internet, wireless, Digital Cameras Wi-Fi, VIOP, GPS, Digital Radio, etc. all the industries are trying to apply this method from one way or the other to develop their business performance. in an article they have mentioned (“daily telegraph IT”) that majority of organizations will not 24hrs without the help of ICT

This growth was expected and this made the work easier and faster. This is the main reason why outsourcing of work start. The cost of making was condensed and so was the cost of goods. This technical development has removed the national limits and helped various industries to go worldwide, thus mix markets as well as market across the world.

This rapid growth in the technology has lead to the concept of E-Business and E-Commerce. With e-business there are various advantages due to the presence of global audience, online transaction, etc. This is playing a major role in reshaping the tourism sector across the world. This concept of ICT has brought people much closer to the tourism service providers. Now, customers do most of their holiday or travel plans online. Many tourism companies are adopting this technology.

The tourism sector being one of the traditional sectors it was not a smooth ride in taking up this technological advancement. Many small could not afford this kind of investment. They had to terminate a lot of workers as after this advancement there was minimal response to the traditional high street travel agencies. Although physical services are the core products of industry, it is dominated by information systems. (Shankar, 2008)

ICT for business and the travel industry in particular:

Information technologies have made high changes in the environment by using the new technologies in business. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can provide powerful planning and planned tools for organizations when properly applied and used can bring more advantages for promoting and strengthening their competitiveness. The increase of the Internet, as a main stream communication media and as an info-structure for business dealings has a high range of designed implications for businesses and for the travel and airline industries mainly

ICT revolutionized business processes and practices

The current ICT developments have vast implication for the business, structure. And plan of organizations. The computation of future market will leads to a great extent and it will depend both such as development and purpose of these technologies. The creation of the World Wide Web will forces most of the organizations will make to re think about two things i.e.,

In which they are performing their business.

How they can re-engineer their business methods.

The business can be performed more efficiently by system, by facing so many new opportunities and challenges. ICTs contribute towards good organization, output and competitiveness development of both inter-organizational and intra-organizational systems.

The affiliation between ICTs and competitive advantage and their performance is still vague. Even though there is an indirect and complex sporty relationship between ICTs and success, it is difficult to be measure and describe. Technologies have already developed a wide range of functions including business functions, external environment monitoring, communicating with associates and with clients in high level. Clear planned goals and obligation are basics for the growth of a proper ecommerce plan and the growth of web sites and other technological solution. The growing mobile technologies and mobile business are estimated to modify severely a number of industries and to force business to think again about their strategic management.

ICT in the travel and tourism industries

The main function of travel and tourism industries is run by ICT. The internet will allows them to demonstrate their products clearly and they can communicate easily with the customers. Intranets will provide friendly environment access for employees of organization , extranet will shows authorized partners with the ability to use computer information to operate through online, so many internal management applications shows the planning and operational management and marketing of travel organization.

ICTs support all business functions and are critical for operating in the travel industry as a worldwide. Few other industries rely on so many partners to work together directly for delivering their products and few other value chains are as involved as the one for travel. ICTs provide the tools to look for important and profitable place market segments, to identify their value added components

Cost success and suppleness are serious assets contribute by ICTs in this process, as they help the cost decrease and make best use of effectiveness. The power of ICTs on travel business is enveloping, as information is serious for both day-to-day operations as well as the planned management of organizations. On the strategic level, travel organizations have to constantly assess for all elements of their outside surroundings, as well as their opposition and customer requirements, and so, adapt themselves in order to improve their competitiveness.

Using ICTs, tourism organization can make a distinction their product customizing the final product and by adding value according to person supplies. ICTs support the strategic management of travel business by allowing long-term result making and by providing a platform for teamwork and dealings between associates. ICT will help the complete industry to operate by empowering internal procedure, coordinating partners, as well as by interact with future travelers and the general public. As a result, the recent ICT developments have develop the entire system and have thoughtful implications for both the strategic and planned management of travel organizations. Most important that they have severely changed the industry structure and polluted the competitiveness of all players in the market.

Airlines and the Internet revolution

Internet was introduced in 1990’s and due to the development of intranet and extranet have forced on airlines to make a changes in their panning on technical improvement in order to enhance their competitiveness.

Finally airlines have identified that the internet is important product to handle distribution costs and to modify the structure of the industry. In 2001 that British Airways CEO ROD Eddington said that BA spent 1.1 billion of pounds on distribution and that have became the third most costly after labour and fuel

In the Internet era, GDSs is as self-governing business from airlines developing their offer to provide the backbone for the complete industry to establish the info structure for the dealings undertaken by high number of Internet travel entrances. In addition, they slowly reinvented themselves to main technology suppliers for a broad range of tourism organizations as well as airlines, travel agencies and Internet travel portals.

At the same time a number of plain airlines appear in both countries i.e., Europe and the US. These airlines concentrated on lower input cost in as many areas of their operations. They also developed simple distribution strategies and took full benefit of the Internet for converse with their clients. Internet near the beginning adopters, such as both well-established and newly-established airlines recognized a clear opportunity.

They invested a lot in order to develop their on-line brand name and to gather the important market share.

Some of the high established airlines, such as American Airlines. Recently established airline industries such as Bratthens, Rynair and Easyjet they have adopted the Internet from the early stages.

Several carriers even decorated their aircraft with their Internet address at the same time as they arranged special promotions with the media to make transfer to their web sites. They provide incentives for consumers to book online and ensured that they were not distributed through the GDS in this way airline are forcing their clients online.

Easy Jet and Ryan is a good example:

In the year 2002 the majority of airline booking have done through the internet and the consumers have got the 5 pounds discounts on their original. No frills airlines are managed by the Internet and other ICT tools, made the industry reengineer. By introduced a number of ICT-enabled innovations including:

Electronic/paperless tickets

Transparent and clear pricing led by proactive and reactive yield management

Single fare tickets with no restrictions on staying or Saturday nights rules

Commission capping and publication of net fares

Financial incentives for self-booking online

Auctions and online promotions

Powerful Customer Relationship Management Systems

Online and context-relevant advertising

As the customers are enjoying the facilities which have provided by the airlines and the customers are benefited by low rates provided by the airline. Therefore some of the airline have followed the no frills carriers to develop their online marketing and to also satisfy the customer needs

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE USE OF ICTs IN THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY:

Most of the airlines are using advanced ICTs and mostly the airline functions highly depended on ICTs. Sharing and partnership is perhaps one of the most important areas of ICTs contribution. Majority of low-cost to be dependent on support on ICTs for displaying their availability and for the communication and transaction with their clients. ICTs have the equal importance in operations management and contribute for the improvement of procedure and processes and also good facilities such as in flight entertainment and good customer service

Most of the airlines have been investing on ICTs service since 1950’s. They have introduced ICTs to get effective, quickly, quality and exact procedure of their inventories (reports) in which to communicate easily with travel agencies and with others. When the airlines have changed the date, time and route to update easily with in fraction of seconds for the clients.

SABRE computer reservation system (CRS) was introduced in 1962 by American airlines alternatively to expend its Boeing 770 fleet by 50% (8-12 aircrafts). This project have described as a technically to feel amazement to represent a program task that increase the power of coding efforts which is needed for NASA Project Mercury . In mid 1970’s SABRE have made as a powerful inventory control system. SABRE made base for the changes in flight plans for aircrafts, tracking spare parts, managing events for crews and for developing the level of decision support system for the airlines management. Then after all the airlines have followed the same system to provide the facilities to satisfy the clients (customers, consumers) needs.

In 1970’s USA air transportation deregulation made airlines to make a changes in their fare and routes. This have made a huge growth of air traffic and increased the demand for information, CRS gave a chance for airline to improve their internal organization and CRS have made into powerful tool (product) to control the airlines inventories (reports) in this way CRS made airlines to communicate easily with travel agencies, consolidators, other distributors by providing update routes, availability price standards. Because of deregulation airlines have increased the tariffs and computing and communication needs. Agents and others have used newly introduced computer technologies to control their reservation and to get easily about tariff information.

Slowly CRS have became strategic business unit (SBU) in its own way, because of one reason i.e., huge usage of this in airline (airline are using more because due to this they have increased their income or sales ratio).

In 1980’s airlines and CRS executives realized that air transportation was a fairly small and has large travel experience then travel agencies are demanded to increase the number of carriers from a single terminal and to increase the value of information on destination. CRS were developed to much and introduced GDS (Global distribution systems) by offering a huge range of tourism products, such as hotels and car rental reservations. SABRA system have developed there database to include their itinerary and inventory from other airlines, the same procedure have introduced in EUROPE to develop the Galileo and Amadeus GDSs, then GDS have became backbone of airlines by providing good communication between airlines and travel agencies. GDS will handle millions of tariffs in their database by making 40 millions of changes in their inventories in every month. Finally GDS have developed their standards to control more than 500,000 passengers’ records and nearly 2000 messages in each second.

In 1990’s GDS have became like a travel supermarket by offering information and reservation capacity by providing high level of travel products such as accommodation, car rental, exact plans for non- air transportation etc., GDS offer a chance for travel agencies to access their essential information on their screens and to develop the travel schedule (itinerary) from the convenience of one inter-connected system. GDS have became a one of the marketing, important procedure for scheduled airlines operational and strategic agendas as they can control and distribute the majority of airline seats. Due to some changes CRS results into four major GDS such as SABRE, world span, Amadeus and Galileo. These four GDS have the permission for recruiting the travel agencies and they select their own market place by increasing number of value added services for travel agencies and airlines.

The below table will shows ho GDS moved highly successful business in their own way by getting and providing high profits for airlines, travel agents and others.

S/ no

Company

Period ending

Worldwide locations

segments

per year (m)

Total revenue

(m)

Operating expenses (m)

Operating income or loss

Operating margin

Other income

Less taxes

Net earnings /loss (m)

Net margin

Sales and marketing support:

Airlines contain lengthy used internal Computer Reservation Systems.

Airline are using this to co-ordinate easily with GDSs and with the airline Internet site in order to increase the sales and marketing by distributing inventory globally

.airline is using these systems to issue electronic tickets and to sale their e-tickets in hyge number by travel agencies over all the world.

Inter views suggested that they greatly need to encourage their web site as their primary reservation path and as an alternative to the GDS/travel agency route. Such systems link all partners in the handling process, automate procedures, and support smooth communication flow.

Airlines try to do something by use technology to improve their effectiveness and therefore they attempt to combine new technologies such as electronic scales, stacker systems, handheld terminals, and bar coding to increase their usage competence and to reduce preparation costs.

These systems will support the airline internally such as administration, accounting, and passenger or goods handling process by coordinate inventory management, sales and marketing, yield and revenue management, ticketing, and departure control systems and other departments.

Airlines will use decision support systems to control traffic and bookings on computer reservation systems because in order to identify customer activities, traffic flows or trends, as well as the performance of followers and sales agencies.

This system will also follow the pricing of their challenger for several city join up.

These systems will also permit airlines to charge their situation against the performance of their competitors and also accept positive and immediate actions.

A broad information foundation will show the way to more right decision for heart airline plan and arranged activities, such as marketing & sales, schedule planning, yield management, and pricing.

Distribution, marketing and sales support with partners

In the past majority of marketing and distribution of airline are done by the travel agencies for the distribution of their products. Then now the air line are linked travel agencies is normally facilitate by the global distribution systems and they provide the info structure for the itinerary building and facilitate for the total transaction. Airline high level management employees have explained that they like to communicate with the travel agencies on Extranet, by using internet in order to avoid the GDS bookings fees.

For example

British airlines have developed a separate web site for the travel buy and sell (www.batraveltrade.com). They have developed this website to develop the extranet in order to make easy the process.

Some of the travel agencies slowly find out the useful financial features. For example if the customers are using the credit card payment they will charge the airlines for the credit card payment, in the same way KLM provided the web fares for only extranet GDS fares are more expensive to cover the additional costs.

Airlines also employed numbers of General Sales Agencies in all regions that they have to stop the person who are operating in their own office do not operate their own offices. They have appointed by international airlines to secure business from IATA and non-IATA agents in markets anywhere agency networks are so far to be fully automated and where airlines need monetary security to cover business risks.

They also involved in their reservations and distribution in local and they will maintain the good relationship with the executives to promote the product in the market.

Now a day the travel agencies are buying the seats in a large quantity and selling in local market by providing the discounts to customers. These discount rates, can be updated through online for the customers by using ICT

Resource Management Systems

Airlines are needed to maximize the consumption of their most expensive resources such as human resources and fleet, for that they have to ensure that their tools and aircraft are efficient and its ability fully used. Maintenance Control systems have manages some things such as aircraft maintenance, commercial, and operational requirements. Airlines have to make sure that aircraft and other equipment is frequently maintained and also that technical problems and unprepared services are deal with as capably as possible to minimize out-of-service periods whilst minimizing service disruptions.

These systems are built-in with proper systems for allowing airlines to arrange parts and other consumables online, at the same time as engineering systems may be included for providing online manuals and technical support.

Technical documentation management systems such as create, distribute, and manage complex technical data and documents. Hence, airlines aim to maximize task force utilization by improving maintenance, repair and repair performance. The airline will get this result by optimizing the supply chain network, aircraft downtime, and materials management.

Airlines will manage their crew schedule through crew management systems. Planning duty schedule is a difficult process as there are several key limits including skills and they should have the ability to operate tools, level, immigration problems, rest periods, and cost of rest periods.

Crew management systems use complete crew record to start pairing construction, schedule making, and crew manage in order to optimize the human resources performance. They need to be coordinated with all associated activities, such as flight arrangement, operations manager, crew contact, flight meeting, etc.

These systems will also undertake a number of usual tasks, such as inspection legalities, publishing rosters and announcements, and administrate hotel accommodations, deadheads and pick-up services. Communicate setting up information with crews (notices) and next duty period (briefings) as well as information regarding flight load, crew composition, aircraft and airport details is also critical. A number of intranet solutions facilitate this process.

It is the coordination of all these systems that ensures that airlines enjoy operational efficiency and are empowered to achieve their long-term strategy

SWOT ANALYSIS:
What is SWOT analysis?

Swot analysis is a planned method; this method is used to extract the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in any business project. This analysis will identify the internal and external factors that are useful to achieve the product.

Strengths: the point or a quality or a power of a company that are helped to achieve the product.

Weakness: the point or a quality or a power of a company which are harmful to achieve the product.

Opportunities: the external situations which are helpful to achieve the product of a company Threats: external circumstances which can do the damage to achieve the product.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF ICTs IN AIRLINE INDUSTRY

Abstract

As a great attention has been paid for the development of new generation eMediaries, the rapid escalation of the Internet and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has also precious for recognized tour operators. The main purpose of this report is to examine the use of ICT by the tour operator Thomas Cook and to analyze the key issues. The report uses information from journals, company’s reports and trade press articles. The report highlights the fundamental aspects of Thomas Cook’s Business Strategies and the Business Model. (Marianna Sigala)

The eBusiness impact is well documented by Jacsson and Harirs (Jackson): suggested that the Information and Communication Technology affecting the processes of company’s operations followed how they do business, is well interpreted and how company need to reorganize and restructure themselves continuously. The aim of this report is to explain the acceptance of eBusiness by the traditional operators, and to explain the competitive advantage of eBusiness and Information and Communication Technology with a neat explanation and interpretation by analyzing Dniel & Frew’s view (Daniele).

The report briefly explains the Thomas Cooks strategies, as a large tour operator increasing profitability with the vertical integration and how it produced a substantial concentration in the market. The report explains the key factors and the need of ICT for tourism, like the importance of IT trainings and education for business policy makers, key role players and managers in the industry. Explains the integration of different sectors in this industry, example: transport, lodge, etc., the up gradation of organizations Technical Infrastructure and the need of Human Infrastructure like people with technology skills, vision and management skills. (Shanker, 2008)

The report explains the importance of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and how tourism industry adopted ICT to make the best sales trough eMarketing as well as online sales. It supports several indications like internet connectivity ad usage of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems. It also explains the customers’ expectations and market competition. And the gap between small scale companies and large scale companies utilizing ICT and applications of eBusiness. The report briefs the use of eBusiness for Thomas Cook’s business strategy on business objectives like business integration and delivering planned synergies, use of eBusiness to strengthen the main stream model for tour operating, implementing the independent travel segments, to expand the group’s financial services. (plc, 2007)

The report summarizes information on computing and Information Systems, here Information and Communication Technology plays a vital role to present the organizations ability to satisfy its customers travel safety measures and presenting them for great leisure time. The way Thomas Cook approaches its customers to explain the tour packages with visualizations on their website and in other way of electronic communication like contacting them by means of Tele-Communications, electronic mails and social networking sites. This report presents the way Thomas Cook achieved its success in competitive advantage.

Conclusion:

The report presents the e-Commerce and the e-Governance approach towards its customers, and how the web makes it easy for travelers to plan their holidays. How Thomas Cook provides appropriate online experience to its visitors to ensure the quality conversion and sales. Explains “how online booking become an impotent part of their business and growth is set to continue” (TravelMole, 2007). And the research methods Thomas Cook taken about, its “customers progress through the online journey and how it will continue to enhance its websites and tools respectively” (TravelMole, 2007).

References:
Daniele, R. &. Intermediaries to Market-Makers:. In A. J. (Ed), Information and Communication Techonologies in Tourism (pp. 546-557).
Jackson, P. &. (n.d.). EBusiness and Oraganizational Change: recounciling traditional values with business transformation. Journal of Oraganizational Change Management , 16(5), 497-511.
Marianna Sigala, L. M. (n.d.). Tour Operators in in an eBusiness World. Retrieved March 19th, 2010, from http://books.google.co.uk: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s9f5_kvYrZoC&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=thomas+cook+information+and+communication+technology&source=bl&ots=KkiM3J5HGo&sig=iL2qLClFWLyN8wzC6Dgx3PXScUc&hl=en&ei=1vykS5jQFIS80gTFitT1CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=
plc, T. C. (2007, June 27). Thomas Cook Group plc. Retrieved March 19th, 2010, from http://www.thomascookgroup.com: http://www.thomascookgroup.com/media/tcgpresentationfinal2007.pdf
Shanker, D. (2008, May 15 – 17). ICT and Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities. Retrieved March 19th, 2010, from http://dspace.iimk.ac.in: http://dspace.iimk.ac.in/bitstream/2259/536/1/50-58.pdf
TravelMole. (2007, October 02). Thomas Cook e-commerce director highlights online trends. (http://www.marvellousmedia.com, Interviewer)

Abstract

This essay throws light on the use of ICT in the airline industry and what impacts developments in ICT have made on the said industry. The essay highlights the role of ICTs in enhancing airline’s capability to interact with customers, reducing the operational costs, increasing the convenience for making reservations, managing air traffic, administering the crew and airport staff, improving the passenger’s in-flight experience, maximizing airline’s revenue by variable fares, improving security standards, promoting partnerships and alliances among airlines, integrating value added services. It has been argued that automation increases efficiency but human factor is yet very important in personifying the customer experience.

Introduction to the Airline Industry

An airline provides air transport services for passengers and/or freight. Commercial operations of airlines date back to early 1900s, however, evidence of increase in operations is found after

World War I. Over the years, airline as an industry has grown tremendously. It has facilitated economic growth, world trade, foreign investment, tourism and has played a significant role in globalization of industries.

Full-service airlines have a high level of fixed and operating costs in order to establish and maintain air services: labor, fuel, airplanes, engines, spares and parts, IT services and networks, airport equipment, airport handling services, sales distribution, catering, training, aviation insurance etc. Keeping in view such high costs and complex nature of operations, it is essential for airline companies to take advantage of ICTs to carry out operations smoothly and optimize expenses.

Use of ICT in the Airline Industry

Technology is dramatically and profoundly changing the nature of services. Technology is also profoundly changing how services are delivered, and it is enabling both customers and employees to get and provide better, more efficient, customized services. These changes have significant implications for managing service operations as well as for predicting and managing consumer behavior.

Impact of Developments of ICT on Operations of Airline Industry

In the text below, major operations of the airline and airports have been discussed. It has been analyzed that how the developments in the ICT have impacted the processes of the said industry. The developments in the ICT have significantly influenced the way Airlines interact with customer, develop loyalty programmes and implement customer retention strategies. Few developments to enhance the passengers’ in-flight experience have also been made.

Interaction with Customers

The proliferation of internet and World Wide Web has made it enormously convenient for the organizations to interact with their customers. Internet has provided a very economical way of interacting with customers, has reduced distribution costs, and has increased the profit margin by direct selling. Internet has also served as a purveyor of information about travel. Carriers everywhere have embraced online ticket sales as a means of reducing distribution costs. Travelers now have the opportunity and convenience to compare price and service offerings of all airlines quickly and efficiently, and to act on those comparisons instantly with only a few keystrokes.

McIvor et al. (2003), present analysis of four airline companies and their use of internet to provide innovative interaction and transactional mechanisms with customers. They state that internet has increased the expectations of customers for the services and service delivery. In fact, the internet has become essential to the strategic development of the airline companies. They further argue that the scope and boundaries of the airline industry have become less clear as a result of the adoption of internet technologies at the customer interface. The offering of a range of products and services is creating industry convergence. Exploitation of the internet at the customer interface has become a key catalyst in the transformation of the airline industry.

In the past, airlines have been selling their product (i.e. an airline seat) through travel agents. The travel agent’s competitive position was based on exploiting the information insufficiency at the customer end. However, nowadays, the website of the Airline makes customer autonomous to decide on the fares, routes and various services associated. The internet enables airlines to build a direct and superior relationship with customers.

In this era, the airline’s site support complete automation of the booking process and limits the need for human intervention. Airlines are extensively investing and utilizing the Internet to further undermine the travel agents which has also resulted in improved process efficiency. Furthermore, removal of the travel agent layer has reduced transaction costs and has enhanced the relationship with customer through the provision of more detailed and up-to-date information.

Customer Retention and Airline Loyalty Programmes

The cost of developing a new customer is several times higher than the cost of keeping an existing customer. With the increasingly fierce market competition, companies would like to retain their existing customers as much as possible. Fan (2007), state that “competition has changed gradually from price of products and services to grasping customers”. Only those companies that can more precisely understand customers’ demands, more quickly respond to the changing needs and can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty can win the competition. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become particularly important in this age. Data mining technology, as the founding base of CRM, can help the airlines to effectively capture valuable information about passengers from extensive information available in their databases, which is essential for making strategic marketing decisions.

McIvor (2003), state that through sophisticated Information Systems available now, it has become possible to automatically inform staff about customer preferences such as aisle seats or in-flight entertainment. Previously, such information may have been collected but not used to enhance the needs of their most profitable customers.

CRM and Data Mining allow companies to target groups effectively, and allocate marketing resources to best effect. As is shown in 80/20 rule, 80% of sales of a company come from 20% of its clients, it is essential to conduct customer segmentation and find those 20% of high-value customers. Zhang and Chen (2009), state that in order to better ensure continued profitability it is necessary to keep customer satisfied. Through a lot of accumulation of data on passenger satisfaction surveys, using data mining technology such as principal component analysis, factor analysis to identify the main influencing factors of passenger satisfaction, as well as the relative importance of various factors can help airlines make improvements, enhance the overall customer service levels and the competitiveness of companies.

McIvor et al. (2003), further state that Airline loyalty programmes have been the major means of keeping customers to a particular airline. Airline loyalty programmes provide significant value to customers. Airlines are now associating their Loyalty Programmes with the complementary products and services such as car rentals and hotel accommodations. In fact, the airlines are attempting to create a one-stop shopping experience for the customer with all the required travel products and services available on-line. With the provision of these complementary services, airlines have enhanced value of the core service.

It is, therefore, very important to take full advantage of the data mining and other modern information technology to identify the valuable information about the customers buying pattern and choices and address them in timely fashion to provide more personalized service which will ultimately improve passenger satisfaction and loyalty.

Operations and Business Intelligence

Negash and Gray (2008), discuss the case of “Continental Airlines”. They state it as the seventh largest airline in the world with 2300 daily flights to over 200 destinations. An airline, as big as this, and requiring decisions about each take-off and landing, each passenger’s fare, ground operations, detecting fraud, security and customer relations, need for a ICT based intelligent business model was indispensable.

In 1998 they implemented a real-time data warehouse and began their climb to being a top airline. For example, they integrated customer information, finance, flight information, seat inventory, and security to improve revenue. The warehouse data also allowed them to spot travel agent fraud.

They moved forward from there to real-time applications. For example, they began using optimization techniques to design fares based on current demand; they gave their gate agents and flight attendants details on customer experiences on previous flight segments and flights; if a connecting flight was late, they used dashboard displays so their high-value customers would be helped in making connections for themselves and for their baggage.

To make all this work, Continental built an 8 terabyte real-time data warehouse (called an operational data store or ODS) that coordinated 25 internal and two external operational systems. These systems include both Web and desktop BI.

In-flight Entertainment

The advancement in technology has enabled Airlines to enhance the passenger’s travelling experience. Back in early 1920s, Aeromarine Airways pioneered in the digital entertainment of passengers by showing a movie during the flight. Since then, digital technologies have evolved from single shared screen to individual screens offering variety of infotainment stuff such as movies, games, news, flight information, weather information etc.

Furthermore, as reported by Nelson (2010), in-flight WiFi internet access was made available to passenger in 2008 by American Airlines after the test in 2005. The capability of providing internet facility during the flight has phenomenal impacts and lets the passenger stay in touch with the world even on the go.

Security
Future

As discussed in essay, opportunity for in-flight WiFi access still exists. Few major airlines, like

American Airlines, have already provided this facility on certain airlines. Provision of the internet and staying in touch during the longer hours travel will have considerable implications and will be great source of providing competitive edge.

Furthermore, reported by HotHardware, BlueBox Avionics is aiming to integrate iPad into their next in-flight entertainment solution. Whether or not they integrate the iPad to the back of the passenger’s seat, distributing the iPad among the passengers during a long flight will certainly enhance the passenger’s experience. iPad certainly provides a much richer entertainment as compared to currently installed display screens.

Conclusion

The evidence presented in this article has illustrated how the Internet represents a powerful technology for commerce and communication between customers and airline companies. The Internet clearly enables the customer to move from being a passive participant to that of being proactive and more sophisticated in their relationship with airlines.

The United Kingdom is one of Europe’s most influential countries. The United Kingdom is a sovereign state positioned near the north-western coast of continental Europe (Appendix 1), comprising of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

The UK is one of the 27 member states of the European Union and is spread across about 243,000 sq. km (about 94000 sq. miles). The UK has the world’s seventh largest economy by nominal GDP and eight largest economy by purchasing power parity. It was the world’s first industrialized country Mathias (2001).

Tourism is one of the foremost industries in the UK size wise. According to statistics by Wikipedia, the UK is the world’s 7th biggest tourist attraction behind France, USA, China, Spain, Italy and Turkey, with approximately 29.2 million visiting in 2011. In 2011 15.3 million visitors spent time in London with an estimated spending of over ?9.4bn that represents 52% of all inbound visitor spending calculated by VisitBritain in 2011. (Appendix 2)

It is predicted that UK tourism could grow to ?188b within the next decade that is 60% by 2020 and the number of jobs related to tourism could increase 264,000 to 2.89 million, according to VisitBritain.

Recently however, the UK tourism industry though having a great potential of growing faces some challenges and a serious competition from other most visited tourist destinations.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

UK tourism industry can easily be analysed critically with the help of Michael Porter’s five forces model. Porter in his five forces model refers to an organization but can be applied to a certain industry via which we can determine the competitive strength and weaknesses of that particular organization/industry. (Appendix 3)

PORTER’S 5 FORCES:

Porter’s five forces include:

THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS:

When it comes to tourism, people want to explore new fascinating countries and that is why new entrants catch the attention of travelers. The UK tourism industry faces threat by new entrants such Turkey, Germany and Egypt while Malaysia and Mexico have attracted many tourists in 2011.

The estimated number of international tourist arrivals in the UK till June 2012 were around 29.2 million which was 28.3 million in 2010 and the change from 2010 to 2011 had an increase of +3.2% according to UNWTO (2012).

In 2011, Turkey climbed up in the most visited tourist destination above the UK to become the 6th most visited tourist destination in the world with an estimated number of 29.3 million tourists which was 27 million in 2010 and showed a massive +8.7% changed from 2010 till 2011 mentioned in Tourism Highlights by UNWTO (2012).

The UK is facing a serious competition from Germany, which had 28.4 million visitors in 2011 and has shown +5.5% change from 2010 until 2011.

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES AVAILABLE AND COMPETITIVE RIVALRY WITHIN THE INDUSTRY:

Most of the tourists look for alternative destinations when they face problems in getting visas, bookings etc. and that is when substitutes get the upper hand. In Europe, Spain, France and Italy have been the biggest competitors of the UK tourism industry from the beginning, attracting huge amount of interest from tourists all over the world.

France, which has been the most visited tourist destination and a country with a romantic image, still leads the raking of tourists visiting with approximately 79.5 million and is third in receipts with US $54 billion. Spain is second on the earners list with US $60 billion with approx. 57 million arrivals in 2011. Italy, ranks 5th with 46.1 million tourists in 2011 and receipts of $43 billion in 2011 UNWTO (2012).

BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS AND SUPPLIERS:

There is a lot of influence of buyers and suppliers on a tourism industry. In this report, buyers are the main tour operators of the product here, which is tourism. There are many tour operators working in the UK that offer competitive prices to tourists and discounts such as Thomas cook. They identify new locations/places and possess the power of convincing tourists to visit those destinations that has a lost cost attached to it.

For every tourism industry, three “A’s” are very important and this similar is the case with suppliers. The three A’s are:

Attractions

Amenities

Access

Attractions include those places that are either famous for their natural beauty or are built in such a way that attracts tourists. If such places are owned by the government/owners, tourist should be allowed to visit them and the owners should always welcome them. There are many places in the UK that attracts a lot of tourist just because of their natural beauty or the way they are being constructed like

The Tower of London, Windermere Boat Cruises, Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo, Royal Botanical Gardens, Stonehenge, Eden Project etc. Amenities include basic conveniences for tourist such as hotels, guesthouses, motels etc. A lot of funding is needed for this and there has to be a proper look after of these facilities. Last but not the least, Access includes means of travelling. The UK has an excellent transportation system that includes airports, railways, busses, motorways etc. London is famous for its magnificent underground tube system, which serves almost 3.22 million; people daily UNWTO (2012).

PEST ANALYSIS:

UK tourism industry can also be analyzed by doing PEST analysis. Which comprises of Political Factors, Economic Factors, Social Factors and Technological Factors.

POLITICAL FACTORS:

Political factors are those in which there is governmental interference such as laws, policies, tariffs, good and services, education, infrastructure etc. When we talk about businesses, political factors plays an important role in the regulation and operation of it. Political environment of the UK is fairly stable.

There have been minor ups and downs with the issues regarding the UK joining EU and accepting Euro plus European Union’s expansion and the UK supporting USA in its terrorism campaign, which has adversely affected its political stability. Other key issues includes the Visa Processing by the UKBA, VAT on tourism services, Air Passenger Duty etc.

VISAS:

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of new rules and regulations by the UKBA because of which many tourists face problems in getting their visas even after paying a hefty sum in visa fees. A short term visa to the UK costs ?78 which is ?25 more than that of a Schengen Visa (?53) that gives an access to 25 counties and this is why 50% more visitors from India travel to the UK via France. From 2000 till 2009 the revenue generated via tourists from other countries has increased by 37.4% (in USD) which when compared to France (49.7%) and Germany (85.6%) is very low, according to Tourism Alliance (2012).

Those tourists that come from counties other than the EU or those who require a visa are about 11% of all tourist that visit the UK (3.4m) and spend a lot on their travelling expenses per trip that contributes to an approx. ?3 billion to UK’s economy, Tourism Alliance (2012).

VAT:

According to recent statistics by Tourism Alliance (2012) , the UK is one of the only four (others include Denmark, Slovakia and Lithuania) out of 27 EU member countries that charges full rate VAT to tourist on accommodations which is the second highest rate of VAT in Europe. This can be in a sense harmful to the UK tourism industry when compared to other tourist destinations across Europe. If the UK reduces taxes on accommodations and famous tourist destinations, it could result in a profit of ?2.6 billion over the next 10 years according to Deloitte/Tourism Respect. Other locations that have a full rate VAT in the UK includes amusement parks, museums, theaters, shows and cinemas and the UK also charges full rate VAT on restaurant meals which in EU countries averages up to 8.8%., while the average rate of VAT on accommodation in Europe is 10.3% as per statistics of Tourism Alliance (2012). When we look at competitors of UK, France in a couple of years after reducing VAT on restaurant meals from 19.6% to 5.5% showed that there were about 62,700 new jobs in that sector Tourism Alliance (2012) which is a clear indication of what other countries are trying to achieve and change in their tourism sector.

AIR PASSENGER DUTY:

IATA predicts by looking at the current figures that in 2014 there will be an estimated 3.3 billion tourist travelling via airplanes of which 2 billion will be travelling domestically. In November 2010, the UK Government increased APD of up to 55% and statistics from Tourism Alliance study in 2012 shows that APD has jumped to 650% for passengers travelling in economy class and 750% for those travelling in business class in the previous 5 years that contributes approx. ?2.2 billion yearly in revenue to the Government. A report by Oxera for Airport Operations Association in 2010 showed that if the government replace APD with that of EU, the Gross Value Added would show an increase of ?4 billion and there will be approximately 100,000 more jobs.

ECONOMIC FACTORS:

Economic factors are those due to which the spending of tourists can be affected. It includes inflation in the country, employment/unemployment statistics, Exchange rates, GDP etc.

At the beginning of inflation that started to take place in second quarter of 2008, shortage in arrivals was reported and the inbound tourism of UK fell by 5% according to the Euromonitor International Figures. When the inflation struck in 2009, it affected a lot of business and tourism industry was one of those. People living in the UK preferred to spend their holidays domestically and the number of tourists from abroad also shown a decline. The Euromonitor International Figures that were recorded in 2009 showed that there was an approx. 12% decline of people travelling abroad from the UK. The inflation rate of the UK, which was last recorded in November 2012, was 2.70% according to ONS. (Appendix 4)

In a report published by UKCES in 2012, it is mentioned that tourism accounts for approximately 6% of UK’s GDP and has given employment to approximately 2.5 million people. Each UK nation has a tourism strategy that aims to ‘raise the ambition of tourism over the next decade’ (People 1st, 2010a).

Exchange rate and the fluctuations in currencies also play an important role in the spending patterns of tourists. The comparison of pound sterling versus euro has contributed a lot in the Britons spending more when they travel to other European destinations and Experts have noticed that the euro being cheaper than pound sterling has made it cheaper for the Britons to travel on holidays to European countries (Hall, 2012). The total UK tourism spend by sector can easily be seen in this image. (Appendix 5)

SOCIAL FACTORS:

The style of living of people and the cultural aspects that mainly comprises of population, growth, trends, careers, how safe the place is where they are living and being cautious about their health are generally considered as social factors. Tourists from other countries may not know much about the traditions and customs of the country they are visiting that may prove to be a problem at times.

Some impacts of such social factors mentioned in a report of Travel and Tourism by Ann Rowe, John Smith and Fiona Borein in 2002 suggests that it will be good for the local people as well as the tourists to get together and learn more about different lifestyles which can be beneficial to both the parties as there is a room for improvement in the sectors of infrastructure, health and education, sports, traditions, heritage etc., as London is main hub of people for across the globe.

In recent time’s people of the UK and the tourists are concerned about their safety and when travelling to the UK the riots of 2011 served as a minus for the tourism industry at that time. According to the Daily Mail UK, in India the editor of a magazine warned his followers in twitter that they should avoid coming to the UK at all. Due to these riots, many questions were raised on the safety and security procedures for the upcoming 2012 Olympics.

TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS:

Technology plays an important role in the development of any business or industry and when a certain business provides facilities and are equipped with latest technology it creates a better relation between them and the customers. Bookings tickets and online holiday bookings have really excelled as the time progressed. According to ONS (2011), wireless hotspots in the UK were accessed by approximately 4.9 million users and 77 per cent of households had internet access.

OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO THE UK TOURISM INDUSTRY AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

If the UK wants to compete with the other famous tourist destinations across Europe and on the list, first of the few recommendations would be to reduce the visa application charges and restrictions along with the APD and bringing them on the same level as that of other European destinations because a family comprising of 4 members from India/China pays a hefty sum of ?612 as their Visa and APD charges when travelling to the UK, Tourism Alliance (2012).

Tourism Alliance (2012) in their report show that when in 2009, Taiwanese visitors were granted visas to the UK, visitors grew by 39% and the revenue obtained from them increased by 155%.

Another report by Tourism Alliance in which it is clearly mentioned that APD has already cost 23000 people their jobs in last seven years and if it continues to increase at this level by 2017 it would have resulted in ?1.1 billion loss and 6000 more jobs.

Secondly the high VAT that the UK charges to its tourists, Tourism Alliance in 2011 predicted that if VAT on tourism is reduced to and brought in alignment with that of European nations, the UK tourism could earn approximately ?1.3 billion per annum that is 7% increase and since this report looks at the upcoming three years the short term losses in VAT receipts would be recovered in short span of three years.

CONCLUSION.

There has to be a better investment and marketing plans, events like the Olympics 2012, managing them successfully so that tourist get value for the money they paid, about which a report by Deloitte and Forecasting organization Oxford Economics has predicted that tourism sector is likely to grow by 3.5% per annum between 2010 and 2020. Together all the governing bodies and agencies should work in collaboration and every one of them can play their part in making the UK a better place to visit and explore.

This report looks at the strategy evaluation of the UK tourism industry to be implemented. Firstly, the paper provides the background information to the UK tourism industry issues within the last few years. There is depicted a place of tourism industry in the United Kingdom regarding the economy and law regulations. Moreover, the paper determines the current issues of improving this kind of industry.

The role of Visit Britain is indicated as well because it is the crucial tourist organisation that enables the UK to hold its position along with the competing markets and sustains the country to be the leading international attraction for tourist, proved by the seventh rate place in the world for visitor quantity. Hence, every year Visit Britain runs its promoting campaign to accomplish the key objectives of increasing and maintaining the level of the tourist industry inbound and outbound, such as to enhance the quantity of tourists for a period after Olympic Games drawing the precise attention to the Chinese tourists. In order to achieve those goals there are a few issues of the tourist industry indicated in this report.

The section dedicated to the target group focus, namely the UK visitors, analyse the main features of encouraging tourists, especially Chinese, to this kind of industry, declared by the UK government as the leading key objective. Some of them are to investigate and analyse the obstacles that occur therewith to ease an extent of making the country more accessible and affordable. Moreover, the report offers the possible suggestions for such issues.

In addition, the paper analyses product presentation in campaign put on market by Visit Britain and the country government for a period before the Olympic Games. The report determines pros and cons of this campaign, and consequences appeared in the framework of its application.

Importance of the UK competitive markets is briefly drawn. The key point is to evaluate the statistics of visitor quantity and spend in the UK and other competitors.

The strategic options and suggestions are provided in the report as the main markers of increasing the tourism industry in the UK.

Introduction

Tourism industry is regarded as the essential market sector in the United Kingdom’s economy. A lot of strengths and efforts have already been given to attract the home and foreign visitors to visit the country’s spectaculars, especially the Olympic Games 2012, hence, the UK government is dedicated to engage even more visitors and gain more profits.

Visit Britain is the one of tourist organisations that creates and implements the special measures for increasing the UK popularity among tourists.

Methodology

In order to collect information for the report analysis the electronic and written sources were applied. This information generated was mostly obtained from the market reports and statistics provided by the tourist organisations, such as Visit Britain, Institute of Travel and Tourism, Tourism Alliance, Tourism Management Institute, Tourism Consultants Network, Office for National Statistics and International Euromonitor. The data collected has been analysed and evaluated in order to formulate the strategic variants and recommendations. There were applied a few analytical schemes, such as Porter’s competitive position model. The information provided was managed in this report.

Evaluation of Findings

According to the Tourism Alliance Tourism for Growth (2009)?± the United Kingdom has a great potential for improving the economy and condition, such as employment availability, from the tourism industry. As a proof of the above mentioned was issued the major study Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy: UK and the Nations (2010) that states there is a wide space to develop domestic and inbound types of tourist industry up to ?58b (3,5%) within the next decade. Moreover, the Visit England’s English Tourism Strategy provides the depiction of the possible potential increase in the tourism value:

In addition, there is the possibility that the outbound tourism rates in the UK will heighten at the same pace, the tourism value could be up to ?400b within the next decade. Thus, such situation would accumulate an evaluated 700,000 additional workplaces in all sectors of the UK. This sets the important fact that the revenue gained from this activities will be distributed among cities, towns and rural plots, described in the diagram as follows (Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy: UK and the Nations (2010)):

Tourism is regarded as the sixth largest industry in the UK bringing to ?105b income every year. The main sectors of the tourism industry in the UK are hospitality, attractions, events, visitor transport, education and tourism services.

For the period, when there is the Olympics promoting campaign of the UK tourist organisations, the extent to which this campaign is successful is shown in the table provided by Visit Britain corporate website:

It is considered to engage the Chinese visitors into the UK which can be explained only by the reason that the development of India and China makes those countries the possible target for worldwide tourism. The government of the United Kingdom clears out the situation by stating the will to start the GREAT campaign, at first in these countries.

The product presentation over the years has gradually changed its position according to the Tourism Policy Report (2009) where is depicted the table of the most competitive countries in years of 2007-2009:

Key Issues

The information gathered in the report assumes the following issues identified:

The inability to keep up with international competitors for attracting customers from countries with substantial population due to strict visa regimes

The insufficient level of providing service performed by tourism organisations

Tourism industry does not always correspond to the requirements of green living and sustainability

Strategy Options

The first key strategy task is to make improvements of competitiveness internationally. According to the information, within 2010-2011 the product competitive status in the UK domestic tourism has decreased. The reason for this was stipulated by the Government that has increased Air Passenger Duty, VAT and visa charges, while some competitive countries have lowered the same prices. For instance, a four-member family form China will have to pay at least ?600 for a visit to the UK in comparison with ?200 to the countries of Schengen zone (Report 2011, 7 p.). Moreover, the parallel of prices for accommodation and catering between the UK and other competing countries is twice as much. In such a way, the UK economy suffers a lot and loses the valuable income. Thus, tourists will count for the charges and those with low and medium income would prefer to use cheaper country’s tourism. To increase the competitiveness with other tourist countries, the following main options should be taken into account and implemented as soon as possible by the UK government:

The government should be in touch with the charges reduction in other competitive countries, and it should make everything possible to lessen VAT on tourist services. Moreover, when the government should take into account the average European rate, and if it lowers, they should take some measures to make the tourism industry more attractable and profitable.

The government should make the visa process easier and make the application guidance forms better. They should also take a notice of constraints and limiting conditions about visa accessibility and any other rules and regulations.

The government should support the aviation by helping tourists ease the procedure in an appropriate way.

The second key strategy task is to decrease the poor and excessive regulation level. In fact the organisations of tourism industry are under heavier pressure than any other UK sectors. Hence, the Tourism Alliance conducted a thorough analysis about the preferable legislative changes. With help of the UK government the tourism organisations, especially SMEs, will have the greater opportunity to create jobs and accumulate their development. In order to relieve the impact of the poor and excessive regulation level, the possible key options may be taken into consideration:

The creation of the Tourism Regulation Task Force will follow all requisite regulations in implementing the empirical, cost-effective and profitable measures.

The sector as the tourism industry should be seriously considered as the vital source for the economy improvement by the new and altered legislation.

The third key strategy task is to enhance the level of quality and skills. As the customer needs and beliefs about the tourism services are always rising, the level of providing such services should be high. It is considered that the developments in the workforce training and education are necessary if the UK is willing to hold its positions in the world market. Although it is the liability of the organisations that provide the tourist services on the local level, there are also some regulations and rules submitted only by the government. In most cases it is connected to the no public financing. Moreover, the difference between the big businesses and the small ones are pretty obvious as the former may afford the staff training while the latter may not. The possible main options may be as follows:

To engage small tourism businesses into the estimated revenue from the Olympics Games 2012

To monitor whether the self-financing quality schemes follow the demand of tourists and whether the small organisations of the tourism industry correspond to the regulatory standards.

To ensure organisations of the tourism industry in the UK in the fact that tax incentives will provide the high quality of the products offered.

The fourth strategic task is to develop and increase a level of sustainability although the tourism industry is already such kind of institution. It assists and supplies any kind of services that is in demand, and sometimes the level of environmental impact is neglected. Hence, the tourism industry should be examined on keeping the appropriate level of sustainability. The possible strategic options may be the following ones:

To assist programmes that enable the organisations of the tourism industry run more environmentally-friendly.

To present the Daylight Saving in order to accomplish the evaluated profits of the tourism per annum, such as ?2.5 – ?3.5b, and to create new workplaces by 70,000, as investigated the Policy Studies Institute in 2008.

To engage the tourism organisations to create and implement strategies that will stimulate visitors to get known to the sustainability.

To comply with the tourists’ needs and demands concerning the transport means.

The fifth one is to engage public financing in order to improve the public profit. The persistent cuts of public financing assets of such organisations as Visit Britain and Visit England constitute an issue that may be effectively eliminated by more useful utilisation of the Government support existed. Naturally these cuts reflect to the lesser revenue from the tourism industry. The Olympic Games is the additional source of income for the UK economy. There was an assumption that the Olympics may provide ?2b extra as a tourism income. As bright evidence the Visit Britain and its promotional campaign helps to gain ?12.5m annually for public finds. The bigger the public financing into the tourism industry in the UK will be, the greater the investments into the public sector will become. The strategic options may be offered as follows:

The government should increase financing to Visit Britain in order to improve its competitive intelligence and the potential for the Olympic Games realisation to be accomplished.

The government should be aware of the stable funding of Visit England with the purpose to fulfil the objectives of the Government Tourism Policy.

In order to strengthen the marketing abroad the effectiveness between Visit Britain, the National Boards and London should be maintained and succeeded.

The UK government should provide all requisite assistance in establishing the tourism network that will be functioning in England with complete cooperation among Visit England, destination Management Organisations, and organisations of the tourism industry. The idea of fulfilling the tasks of the Government Tourism Policy will be completed in order to implement the Tourism Strategy.

The government in the UK should be open to new funding sources whether they are private or from other countries, perhaps competing ones. Moreover, the appreciation should be directed to the Regional Growth Fund by the government.

The UK authorities should guide the local business partnerships concerning the demands and opportunities of the tourism organisations.

Conclusions

The United Kingdom has got the integral features that has and will have the essential meaning for the tourism sector development, particularly visitor attraction. The country has the significant historical background and cultural heritage. It is also the attraction to the English-speakers who would like to feel comfortable in actually foreign country. Moreover, it encourages some students to visit this country in order to improve their English skills as it is a source of original English language. In addition, the United Kingdom is a centre of valuable sport and music events, e.g. the Olympic Games.

The United Kingdom’s tourism industry has a wide range of opportunities. Among of them are to investigate new markets and to find new niche in the existing ones; to incorporate new cultural events, such as modern music styles, or up-to-date art approaches.

However, due to some constraints and limiting conditions, the UK economy has got some losses. In order to visit this country and to have the full-fledged rest or holiday, the issue will become the high charges for everything, beginning from a flight ticket to the accommodation and catering, excluding all cultural arrangements. Moreover, the issue may be the process of obtaining visa to the UK.

At the same time the UK economy and the tourism industry in particular face the actual negative impact of the above mentioned problems, which is the fact other countries with the quite the same services and opportunities are much easier to visit than the United Kingdom. Hence, a number of tourists would rather have fewer problems and visit another country, e.g. USA, Italy, etc., than they would rather have a lot of inconvenient situations and issues.

To summarise, the United Kingdom tourism industry has a huge potential for growth that has not been developed yet, and the government should take into consideration all options and recommendations suggested. The first step was taken by Visit Britain and Visit England that eagerly make the attempts to popularise its own country and to engage into altering this sector structure in an appropriate way so that the UK economy will have some profit.

Annotated Bibliography

Evans, N Campbell, D and Stonehouse, G (2003). Strategic Management for Travel and Tourism: Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, Chapter 7, 15. In Chapter 7 the authors apply the STEEP approach with the purpose to analyse the outdoor environment. Moreover, it is related to the tourism case studies as a bright example of the approach implementation. In Chapter 15 the authors provides the distinctive ways to comprehending each strategy. They also depict the critical background of every approach along with its pros and cons.

Penrose John MP. Government Tourism Policy. Department for Culture, Media and Sport. UK. March 2011, 52 p. This work is devoted to the tourism industry in the UK in general and to the tourism organisations, such as Visit Britain and Visit England, in particular. Furthermore, the work introduces the crucial drivers of the UK economy and the issues both existing and possible.

Porter, M (1996) What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec. This is an article where the author represents the wide range of problems while defining the actual meaning of a strategy.

Tourism Alliance (2012). Annual Report 2012. Available at: . This document provides the insight into the activities of the Chairman, Policy Director and the Tourism Alliance in general. To be precise, it is dedicated to key policy objectives and financial report figures for the year of 2012 in the UK tourism industry.

Deloitte & Touche LLP. (2010) The Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy: UK and the Nations. Oxford Economics. June 2010. The work introduces the general image of UK Visitor Economy, its structure, its dynamics and contribution into the UK economy status in general. The information presented in clearly comprehended via various schemes and diagrams provided.

The aim of this paper is to address the potentiality, requirements and expectations of people with disabilities and its implication on customer satisfaction in hotels.

Design/Methodology/Approach:

This article is based on secondary data collection: journal articles, websites, textbooks, pamphlets on people with disability, customer satisfaction and hotel marketing. The methodology of this article is by analysing the people with disability as potential market segment to the hospitality industry and identifying approaches, that hotel could inculcate for better customer satisfaction.

Findings:

In the hotel sector people with disabilities are tend to be seen as a marginal segment with limited service options available, thus the motivation, experience and satisfaction is greatly affected. However, suggestions provided addressing this issue could enable hotels improve on customer service thus facilitating satisfaction.

Research Limitations:

This paper exclusively based on secondary data brings out limited outcomes and limits the findings and interpretation compared to primary research data collection.

Practical Implication:

Hotels catering to tourist with disabilities than just being compliant with the law can do more in order to increase satisfaction and loyalty. This article is useful to organisations to understand this market segment and help develop better service operations.

What is original / value of paper?

The paper addresses the issue of customer satisfaction focusing on particular tourist segment i.e. people with disability in hotels. The main target audience are hotel managers and employees desiring to understand and achieve customer satisfaction through services offered to tourist with disabilities and in-addition would help hotels aspiring to open doors to this niche market segment.

Introduction

Customer satisfaction is of utmost importance, often given high priority and frequently is of a matter of concern to managers, employees, marketers of hotel and hospitality service providers (Yuksel and Yuksel, 2001 and Oh and Parks, 1997). Hospitality industries such as hotels strive towards making guest feel more than welcome, provide customer service in such a manner that would satisfy, delight, and make guests come back. Hotels commonly serving non-disabled customers could take step ahead and provide customer service to older and disabled people by making services offered more than accessible, providing accurate information and assistance in a friendly manner, which would enable the industry to secure a more loyal niche growing clientele that remains not quite touched upon (ADA Business Connection, 2006).

From the late 80’s until early 90’s researchers focused on, people with disability within the hospitality and tourism context, yet the study in this area lost impetus (Yau, McKercher and Packer, 2004). However recently Burnett and Baker (2001), Darcy (2002), Ray and Ryder (2003) and McKercher, Packer, Yau and Lam (2003), have recalled this area of study. Hence, research regarding People with disabilities in hospitality context is limited (Burnett and Baker, 2001; Darcy, 2002; Ray and Ryder, 2003 and Israeli, 2002). People with Disabilities are an emerging market segment, which is of interest, with approximately 50 million individuals and expected to double by 2030 (Stumbo and Pegg, 2005). Moreover, the growth of People with Disabilities would also comprise majorly of ageing senior citizens or ageing baby boomers and this market segment would gradually prove to be of importance for the continuing success of the travel and hospitality industry (Burnett and Baker, 2001).

Hence, this article focuses on customer satisfaction of people with disabilities as holidaymakers in hotels, which is of importance in order to capture a loyal market not only from a business point of view but also as a responsibility towards society. Moreover, the impending 2012 Paralympics games would certainly witness large number of disabled players and an increase in arrivals of disabled tourist. If hotels wish to exploit the benefits from the disabled tourist, it would be of importance to provide an exceptionally satisfying welcoming experience that would capture a loyal market and ensure return in the future (Department for media culture and sport, 2007a). Thus, customer satisfaction of people with disabilities becomes all the more important.

Review of Literature:

Disability Defined:

Disability under the UK Disability Discrimination Act is defined as a ‘physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities’ (Office of Public Sector Information, 2009a, p.2).

However, British Council of Disabled People defines disability as a ‘disadvantage or restriction of activity by a society, which takes little or no account of people who have impairments- that is caused by physical, mental or sensory condition; and thus excludes them from mainstream activity’ (Busby et al., 2000,p.3); ‘Thus, disabled people are with impairments disabled by society'(ibid).

Types of disability would include people affected in mobility, manual dexterity, speech, hearing, eyesight, memory or ability to concentrate learn or understand, also people suffering from diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, HIV, cancer are some of the conditions considered under disability (Department for Work and Pension, 2006). Hence, people with disabilities are not a small group but varied and hotels to achieve customer satisfaction will have considered serving the needs of people with different disabilities.

The implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act to an extent has drawn the attention of the hospitality sector towards People with disabilities and have gradually begun to identify them as profitable potential tourist (Shaw and Coles, 2004).The act enforces that service providers do not discriminate people with disabilities whilst providing service (Office of Public Sector Information, 2009b). Business or organisation that provides service, offer facilities or supply goods to public are liable to duties of the Disability Discrimination Act under Part III and this does include hotels (Department of Health, 1996).

The duties of this act for the service providers were rolled from 1996 to 2004 in three stages. The main essence of the duties that were introduced in three stages were that service providers discriminating or treating people with disabilities less favourably than non disabled customers was unlawful. In addition, service providers had to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled customers such as providing extra help or making changes to the way service is provided and reasonable adjustment to make the premises barrier free (Disability Rights Commission, 2002).

Reasonable changes as stated by the legislation could be one reason as to why service providers just tend to be compliant with law by providing minute alteration such as ramps and tend to do nothing more extensive. Prideaux and Roulstone (2009) express that despite of broad explanation expressing the vitality of accessibility to disabled, the representation of term ‘reasonable adjustment’ as stated in the UK Disability Discrimination Act legislation is still unclear and service providers tend to relive themselves from the responsibility of having extensive accessible service and facility.

Customer satisfaction and its importance:

Hospitality service providers use customer satisfaction as primary tool, as it helps retain customers, help reduce promotion cost intended to attract new customer since satisfied customers tend to return and aid in promotion of the property (Yuksel, 2001). This can also hold true for disabled tourist, as they tend to get loyal to providers that meet the needs, expectation and have facilities that are accessible, and would aid in promotion. Daniels, Rodgers and Wiggins (2005) establish that people with disabilities when loyal to accessible providers that cater to them, promote and learn about new properties mainly through word of mouth, followed by internet sites and at times also through travel guides. Horner (2004) acclaims that industries benefit with retained customers as these customers who are loyal are likely to return and promote the goodwill of the industry to others which may bring in future business. Thus, customer satisfaction has benefits as it helps minimize extra costs, enables industry know their repeat customer better, which could help in improving future service.

Defining customer satisfaction :

Customer satisfaction is based on the involvement of various processes and at times on the customer experience and expectation and this makes it highly complex (Johnston and Clark, 2001). Moreover, customer satisfaction based on components like controllability, emotion, inference, motivation, performance by management or employee or any happening during the service delivery; all of which could work independently or in combination influencing the complex process of satisfaction (Oh and Parks 1997, Bowen 2001, Bowen 2002 and Bowen and Clarke 2002). Being a complex process, it is difficult to pinpoint one single definition and as result, customer satisfaction can be defined in various interpretations (Yuksel and Yuksel, 2001). However, Oh and Parks (1997, p.37) based on critical analysis of customer satisfaction suggested a convincing definition that ‘customer satisfaction may result from a very simple or complex process involving extensive cognitive, affective and other undiscovered psychological and physiological dynamics’.

People with Disability as Potential Market:

People with Disabilities are potential customers for the hospitality sector and catering to this customer base would tend to generate billions in the sector (Arellano 2003). Moreover, senior citizens are likely to experience disability in some form as they age, and tend to coincide with that life stage when they enjoy a retired life having time to travel with surplus disposable income (Fleischer and Pizam, 2002). United Nations, (2007) claims by 2050 universally the number of old age population would double. Thus, disability in some form would also be increasing (Mann, 2005). Groschl (2004) express that as people with disabilities is increasing so is desire to travel, and this awareness has given rise to the need for making travelling and facilities barrier free as hospitality industries in the future would have to depend on this market segment (Glover and Prideaux, 2009). Based on the research conducted by Oztruk, Yayli and Yesiltas (2008), in the hospitality sector in Turkey made it evident that hotels and travel agents encounter tourist with disabilities and have a positive opinion in the growth of this market segment.

Another market that Huh and Singh (2007) express are families with a disabled members too travel on holidays and choose hotels having facilities that are accessible too all members and this market fails to be realized by service providers. Disabled holiday makers may at times travel with their partner or children who could be normal and would prefer to stay in hotel room of their choice not in a predetermined segregated accessible room, however disabled tourist have very little option in rooms selection due to limited available rooms (Clark, 2008). This point out hospitality industry such as hotels rarely gives thought to the motives and expectation of disabled tourist whilst designing. Thus, Gladwell and Bedini (2004) acknowledges that hotel employees failing to deliver appropriate service to disabled tourist are not only the ones affected, but also the service affects the family members or individuals accompanying them.

With the introduction of Disability Discrimination Act, work places have accepted employees with disabilities, in addition, media has assisted in the gradual change in ideology, attitude of the society and this has vastly given rise to attempts made in order to understand People with Disabilities as a potential market segments thus becoming a new phenomenon (Burnett and Baker, 2001). People with disabilities being a niche market segment in the hospitality sector, a prime .concern that this market segment faces is accessibility to facilities offered, which plays an important role in destination or accommodation decision making; moreover accessibility is measured differently compared to non disabled tourist (Isareli, 2002).

Disability in the U.K.

In the U.K. about 10 million disabled people dwell (Office for Disability, 2008). Possessing an estimate annual spending power of 80 billion (Breakthrough-UK, 2009). This might suggest that having realized the economic value of this market, hotels would cater and try to delight disabled customers.

However an assessment carried by tourism for all estimates that 2% of hotels are found to be wheelchair accessible, moreover the British Hospitality Association assess that out of the new 10,000 hotel rooms built from 2004 only 1% were wheelchair accessible (Department for culture, media and sport, 2007b). This would make one ponder if very few hotel rooms are accessible only to wheel chair users let alone other disabilities, then it might be possible that the customer service offered to disabled tourist too may not be optimal, satisfying or delightful.

According to Employers forum on disability (2009), survey conducted in 100 UK companies revealed 44% offer accessible products, only one- third front line departmental employees take into account the preference and needs of people with disability and only 44% companies accept the fact that their websites are accessible to people with disabilities. Hence with so little done suggest that hotel consider disabled tourist marginal and customer satisfaction might not be of importance. The reason behind this could also be due hospitality industries fear that an increase in disabled tourist could displace the normal core business (Phillips, 2002)

Attitude towards people with disability:

Darcy (1998) reflects how important is recreation for disabled and senior tourist and their attitude towards tourism, but the outlook towards people with disabilities at hospitality destinations (hotels) are a matter of concern. The attitude of the individuals in society and marketers in industries towards People with Disabilities is likely to be prejudiced and hospitality providers such as hotels aim to just be compliant with the discrimination act, but little attention is given on how the act can help satisfy the lucrative People with Disabilities tourist market (Burnett,1996). Attitude against people with disability as in Asia can also be experienced where disabled members are seen as disgrace and believe that people with disability suffer as a result of the doings in previous life (Parker, 2001).

Daruwalla and Darcy (2005) based on study conducted suggests that, the attitude of hotel staff can be changed by organising role play , visual information about various impairments and empowering customer service employees to communicate freely with People with Disabilities would change the mindset, moreover such training could be initiated at hospitality institutions. Kaufman-Scarborough (2001) argues that though the ability and necessities of disabled individuals is addressed, very less attention by hotels is given towards understand their needs and capabilities as consumer. Williams, Rattray and Grimes (2006) suggests organisation must view accessibility as a service beneficial to all members of the society and not just confined to People with Disabilities,, moreover such a service which satisfies all members of society would indeed prove to deliver a competitive edge in the market. According to Israeli (2002) hospitality sectors whilst catering and serving People with Disabilities find it difficult to meet their needs since the service hospitable attitudes does not flow genuinely and hence not able to serve them well. This indicates that tourist with disabilities when on holidays at hotels will certainly evaluate every facility differently from the point of accessibility and if the service towards them does not flow naturally this could leave them dissatisfied.

Thus if hotels take initiative to make- facilities accessible, training employees adequately in order to service and communicate with disabled tourist appropriately will indeed achieve customer satisfaction and be able to capture a growing profitable loyal market.

Barriers and its impact on service:

Although this disability market segment, requiring special needs is gradually becoming of importance to the hospitality sector, majority of the hospitality industry do very little and tend to do adjustments just to be compliant with the law (Burnett and Baker, 2001). Besides that hotel managers do nothing more to cater or meet the needs of this niche market and tend to project indifference whilst meeting expectations and wants (Rice, 2006). According to Sen and Mayfield (2004) lodging facilities have numerous limitations when catering to People with Disabilities such as transportation, misplaced wheelchairs, the issue of accessibility to various public facilities, and the incapability of dealing appropriately towards people with different disabilities. People with Disabilities find it difficult to move around freely and perform activities and gestures within normal time as compared to non-disabled people (Daniels, Rodgers and Wiggins, 2005). Hence A prerequisite at hospitality sites to serve this special market segment so that their desires to enjoy leisure, experience facilities and rejuvenate at hospitality sites which are same as non disabled people is requirement of qualified human resource (Oztruk, Yayli and Yesiltas, 2008).

Non disabled tourist have better experience than disabled tourist and hence if hotels wish to cater and serve people with disabilities then the barriers faced by people with disabilities such as mobility impaired, visually impaired, mentally impaired must be considered (Thapar et al., 2004). This segment comprises of various challenges that industry may face due to need for special equipments, change in structure, incapability of staff to handle customers (Ray and Ryder, 2003). It is vital that tourist sites that intend to cater to such a lucrative segment must address to special needs and consider barrier removals in order to make facilities accessible and enjoyable (Oztruk, Yayli and Yesiltas, 2008). Which would service not only people with disabilities but other’s too such as guests carrying heavy luggage or having baby pushchair (Westcott, 2004). Oztruk, Yayli and Yesiltas (2008) do opine that much more needs to be done for this market segment in order to increase the number of trips taken by disabled tourist, increasing activities in hotels and vitally hospitality sectors need to be educated on interaction and maintaining positive relationship with disabled tourist.

Besides the structural barriers, disabled tourist due to their personality and difference in communication whilst socializing transpire as constraints to have an effective relationship with the society (Daniels, Rodgers and Wiggins, 2005). However, McKercher, Packer, Yau and Lam (2003) underpins that People with Disabilities as tourist are very well capable of establishing relation with people around them. In the tourism industry, service providers, which also include hotels, do little in regards to educating and training their employees in areas of understanding and serving People with Disabilities appropriately (Grady and Ohlin, 2009; McKercher, Packer, Yau and Lam, 2003 and Miller and Kirk, 2002). Lack of communication, knowledge about various impairments and negative prejudice leads to individuals maintaining distant and tend to have a wrong mindset about People with Disabilities. Thus, at times hospitality service providers having a stereotype view of People with Disabilities assume that a disabled person is incapable of any activities one such example is the assumption that ‘wheelchair chair user is unable to communicate’ (Daruwalla and Darcy, 2005, p. 552). This suggests that negative attitude and lack of knowledge will indeed put employees in a position not knowing how to react or serve and communicate with disabled tourist.

Smith, Austin, and Kennedy (2001) assert that tourist with disabilities when confronted with barriers that mar their movement greatly lowers their leisure satisfaction and tend to avoid such destinations. Through the survey conducted by Grady and Ohlin (2009) it was evident that hospitality managers find it difficult to cater to the needs of People with Disabilities as tourist since hoteliers lack the knowledge of dealing effectively thus meeting needs and expectation. Daniels, Rodgers and Wiggins (2005) state that hotel employees are prone to be underprepared in effectively dealing with People with Disabilities as tourist as they lack information and training in dealing with them. This points out that with such service delivered would certainly not satisfy or delight the tourist.

Accessibility and impact on customer satisfaction:

People with Disabilities and their quality of life is greatly impacted by recreation and it is vital for such recreational sites to be accessible, since through empirical research it was evident that accessible recreation sites have positive enriching effect on People with Disabilities (Darcy and Daruwalla, 1999 and Ray and Ryder, 2003). Before embarking on a travel journey, in order to be safe and have an enjoyable experience, people with disabilities must judge and decide on various concerns, determine risks by gathering required information and the criteria’s that influence decision process is more complex than for a non disabled tourist (Yau, McKercher and Packer, 2004). If People with Disabilities as tourist are not provided with necessary accessible information by the hotel or through hotel website, the satisfaction of choosing the hotel may not be experienced and this would restrain the motivation and desire to travel (O’Connor and Frew, 2002). This suggests that if initially itself the motivation and desire to travel is not that high, due to lack of information the customer satisfaction could also be at jeopardy.

Moreover, despite of risk evaluation People with Disabilities encounter many hurdles whilst they travel and sites that are inaccessible could have an impact on them, spoil their holiday and could even diminish their travel as well as stay experience (Oztruk, Yayli and Yesiltas, 2008). Hotels in particular though claim to be accessible, are in-fact not completely and easily accessible to disable tourist, and hence disabled tourist lack trust on hotels and rely on personal inspection of accessibility (Ray and Ryder 2003). This indicates that people with disabilities would be apprehensive whilst selecting places. Hence Ray and Ryder (2003) suggests that marketers can reach out to People with Disabilities and can be attracted to destinations is by highlighting them in advertisements, which could encourage the selection of destination. Therefore, according to McKercher, Packer, Yau and Lam (2003) people with disabilities unlike non-disabled tourist face barriers that are inherent, economic, and environmental – that hinder participation, interactive barrier- that is due to the attitude of hospitality service providers and non-availability of accessible information.

The above-mentioned barriers are ascertained by Clark (2007) based on his life experience he expresses that, holiday for people with disabilities could be miserable. Since often, hotels have few accessible rooms and tend to be occupied by non-disabled people; moreover online hotel reservation websites lack the option for selecting an accessible room and in addition, travel agents charge more for service offered. Thus, Westcott (2004) articulates that people with disabilities tend to be more loyal and would return to those locations, which are accessible, where their needs are catered and make holiday experience memorable.

Hence, it is suggested that to better serve People with Disabilities, which would satisfy and delight them it is important that hoteliers understand what within the establishment would prevent disabled tourist to participate in activities (Goodall, Pottinger, Dixon and Russell, 2004).

Web site barrier:

The advocates of People with Disabilities believe that hotel web sites that fall under the disability discrimination act and must be made accessible, however courts are yet to ensure that (Kreismann and Palmer, 2001 and Sherwyn, Eigen and Klausner, 2000). People with Disabilities such as visually impaired find it difficult to navigate through website (Mills, Han and Clay, 2008). In addition, face way-finding barrier, which can be over come with the help of facilitator (Thapar et al., 2004). This suggests that the satisfaction of visually disabled tourist may not be optimal since hotel websites if not accessible would influence the decision and service experience. Williams, Rattray and Grimes (2007) ascertains that hospitality industry when developing websites rarely take impaired users into consideration and hence few websites can be found that are friendly to visually impaired users.

Mills, Han and Clay (2008)says that websites with accessibility barriers pose as a problem and decreases the opportunity of using websites, however websites when made accessible make People with Disabilities independent and can get-into websites for information despite the impairments. Some facilitators that can be used in websites are screen-read software’s that convert text on websites into speech or can also convert text into Braille (O’Brien 2005). Web content accessibility must be capable to serve individual in society, which also includes People with Disabilities, however hotel website information accessibility is low and fails to meet the needs of disabled tourist for whom information provided plays an important role in travel decision-making (William, Rattray and Grimes, 2007). Despite this, various hotels fail to make provision for people with disabilities and on inspection by William and Rattray (2005), they discovered that many hotels have their web pages that are not accessible and even if they are, it was found to be compliant only with first level of accessibility addressed by world wide web consortium (W3C). Hence, it is evident that without proper web accessibility and inaccurate information for such a large market of people with disabilities who wish to travel may experience dissatisfaction through the service offered by hotels. Nusair and Kandampully (2008) put forth that service offered through websites that are accessible, helpful and providing desired information greatly affects customer satisfaction positively. To facilitate accessibility to all including disabled tourist the world wide web consortium have developed web content accessibility guidelines, following which, enables access to all(World Wide Web Consortium, 1999.)

Apart from facilitators that convert text to speech or Braille which is very convenient for people with disabilities such as blindness, deafness but it is also important to address web accessibility for those have reading difficulty. WebPages commonly use option for changing the text size for accessibility but pay little attention to colour, it is important to note that some users cannot differentiate between colours and options must also be available to view text without colour and colour scheme used must be contrasting enough (World Wide Web Consortium, 1999). These simple guidelines in hotel websites could influence satisfaction, help in decision-making and the people with disabilities as tourist may patronize such hotels.

Practically most of the industries universally lose some of their customers to competitors (Devlin, Gwynne and Ennew, 2002). This may be because the competing service provider is likely to meet the customer’s satisfaction level and expectation. Forsyth (1999) put forth that suppliers tend to cater to specific wants; however, customers commonly wish to do be associated with suppliers and their employees who are creative, honest, responsive, knowledgeable, approachable and cater to all wants and this makes customers see them as professional and tend to switch and maintain relation with such suppliers.

Influence of hotel service on customer satisfaction.

Customer oriented industries such as hotels place customer at the core whilst evaluating customer satisfaction, however in order to do so is it important to understand the customers needs and expectations which would help maximize satisfaction and maintain competitiveness and profitability ( McMullan, 2005). The study conducted by Danaher and Mattsson (1994) reveals that customer satisfaction in hotels is based on evaluation of various services offered which customers are likely to evaluate them separately and not collectively hence strongly impacting customer satisfaction.

According to Forsyth (1999) in hospitality industry such as hotels, customer service is of prime importance to maintain good customer relation and maintain customer satisfaction. Cartwright (2000) argues that delighting a customer is also of importance and can be achieved when product and facilities serve more than expected. Service providers are now realising that delighting customers is more vital since by just satisfying customers and gaining their loyalty though are primary factors whilst satisfying customers cannot be entirely relied on. Disabled customers too travel and wish to enjoy facilities, services and are delighted when all is accessible, hotels need to keep them in mind whilst assessing their services. Shoemaker and Bowen (2003) revealed that in order to delight, maintain loyalty and connection, and gain trust from customers for the organisation it is important that all services and facilities are designed keeping customers into consideration.

Based on survey conducted by Wei, Ruys and Muller (1999) concluded that people with disabilities and including senior travellers gave more importance to facilities and service that the hotel offered than other attributes such as decor, price, food and beverage, when judging the satisfaction they experienced during their stay. Zeitmal and Bitner (2003) explains that in order to achieve customer satisfaction, it is important to maintain quality and standard in every customer service encounter, in-order to do so it is important that employees understand specific requirements and priorities of customers during each service encounter.

Findings and Suggestions:.

From the literature it is evident that people with disabilities experience a lot of constraints, and have to consider various risks when planning to travel, also they face with limited options during travel selection process (United Nations, 2007). The lodging facilities such as hotels too are few that are able to cater to their needs and treat them as expected (Vignuda, 2001). Thus, often-disabled travellers are forced to select only those hotels that they are aware of, which will cater to their needs, since other hotels fail to treat them as expected and would fail to provide a satisfying experience. It is apparent that gradually in the future hospitality industries such as hotel would have to cater to this growing market and customer satisfaction would be of importance to ensure repeat business and draw such a niche market into hotels.

Most of the service providers are reactive and implement installation of ramps or automatic door or design few accessible guest rooms, toilets or have special parking space or may implement Braille menu (Kaufman-Scarborough,1998). However more than physical changes it is worthwhile having implemented welcoming service accessible to all, which would ensure people with disabilities to enjoy d

When predicting future travel patterns, it is critical to first have basic knowledge of a persons travel motivation and what is motivating them to pursue travelling to destinations that they have selected. As Pearce, Morrison & Rutledge (1998) have defined tourist motivation as “the global integrating network of biological and cultural forces which gives value and direction to travel choices, behaviour and experience”.

Each tourist is driven by different motives that determine their travel choices. These choices can be for new experiencing, culture fascination, recreation, pleasure and relaxing and shopping. Although what motivates people to travel may differ, but there is always recurrent themes emerging. For instance, a person may choose to travel and escape from their usual place of living and decides on taking up a holiday for different surroundings and relaxation, to explore new things, places and people.

Many have viewed motivation as a major determinant of the tourist’s behaviour. Theories of motivation is the concept of needs and they are seen as the forces that arouses motivated behaviour and to best understand what motivates people, it is useful to discover the needs they have and how these needs can be fulfilled. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is the best known motivation theories. The push and pull concept is another line of travel motivation, while Plog’s allocentrism/psychocentrism model will help explain phenomenal rise and fall of travel destinations.

Cohen (1972) in his early studies, draws attention to the fact that all tourists are seeking some element of novelty and strangeness while, at the same time, most also need to retain something familiar. How tourists combine the demands for novelty with familiarity can in turn be used to derive a typology. According to Johns & Gyimothy (2002) Cohen distinguished tourist using sociological principles into organised mass tourist, individual mass tourists, explorer and drifter.

In this essay, we shall discuss different author’s approach for travel motivation and typologies of tourist’s behaviour and shall critically review and compare these theories and typologies.

Travel Motivation

Travel motivation includes two factors, the push motives factor which describes the need for exploring, relaxing, and interacting socially in the vacation decision. While pull motives is the attraction caused by the destination to the person, these factors include sight seeing, and historical attractions and sites. Push factors are known to form a desire for travelling, and pull factors are known to explicate the choice of destination. Crompton (1979). Push factors can also suggest avoidance of work and pressures at home caused culturally or socially. And pull factors suggest simply seeking adventure, freedom, escape, leisure and play. Seaton (1997)

Maslow’s theory involves five needs forming a hierarchy, in a pyramid shape from lower to higher needs. Maslow explained how when the lower needs Physiological needs (basic life needs- air, water, food, shelter, warmth, sleep, sex), Safety needs (protection, security, low, limits, stability, order), Belonging and love (family, affection, relationships, work groups) are achieved the person would be motivated by the needs of the next two levels Esteem needs (achievement, status, responsibility, reputation), Self-actualization needs (personal growth and fulfilment).

Although Maslow’s theory has been criticized as the basic five needs remain ambiguous, while some feel that it has provided relevance in how human actions are understandable and predictable.

The tourism industry has borrowed a lot from Maslow because he provides a convenient set of containers that can be relatively labelled. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has also produced a useful tool for understanding psychological motivational factors in tourism. For instance, a person may choose to travel to visit friends and family, but the underlying psychological motivation may be brought by the need for belonging and desire to reunite family links.

Iso-Ahola (1982) stated that when tourists are on holidays their roles over time may be switched and different needs will emerge. Sometimes a single motivation may not always be the main factor for travel, if while on holiday and the initial needs are satisfied, other motivations might rise. It is congruent with Maslow’s theories of needs to argue that if there is a primary need for relaxation while on holiday, the satisfaction of relaxing will create a new need such as exploring the place to enable processes of self-actualization to take place.

The four motivational needs Beard and Ragheb (1983) stated are derived from the work of Maslow (1970). These components help in assessing the extent to which individuals are motivated to participate in and are involved in activities such as learning, discovering, exploring and imagining; the social component helps in assessing the level where individuals are participating in leisure activities for social reasons. Friendship and interpersonal relationships is one of the basic needs, while the second need is the esteem of others. While the competence-mastery component assesses the level of which individuals engage in leisure activities in order to accomplish, master, challenge and compete. These activities are usually physical in nature; it is escaping and getting away from overbearing life situations. It drives individuals to seek solitude, unwind, rest and search for calm conditions to avoid social contacts.

Sefton and Burton (1987) has replicated these four motivations to form the foundation of their Leisure Motivation Scale. However the original Ragheb and Beard Scale, contained items such as to use and develop physical skills and abilities. This attitude is associated with competition and staying fit, others have demonstrated that competency and mastery can be established in ways such as intellectual pursuits. Other researchers have also identified four groups of motivations, which are linked to Maslow’s ideas. These ideas include physical motivators such as health and less tension; cultural motivators such as religion, art and heritage; interpersonal motivators such as visiting family and friends; status motivators such as self esteem and personal development.

Hudman and Hawkins (1989) made a list of ten main motivators that motivated tourists. These ten motivators are anywhere from physical activities to physical inactivities. They are curiosity, sports, health, natural resources, man made facilities, visiting friends and relatives, business, religion, self esteem and physical inactivity such as simply sunbathing and relaxing.

Similarly to the above, six combinations of motivations were grouped and the six combinations included; educational and cultural which be the interest of historic sites, relaxation, adventure and pleasure, health and recreation, ethnicity and family. This leads to the been-there-done that factor to a tourist.

The Iso-Ahola’s theory indicates that what motivates tourism is the assertion of personal escape whereby overcoming bad mood and changing the pace of your everyday life, personal seeking whereby boasting about your experience to others to feel good about yourself, interpersonal escape is whereby you escape the stressful environment you are in and avoid interactions with others, and interpersonal seeking is being with individuals with similar interest and to meet new people. Snepenger et al (2006)

Another seven elements of tourist motivations were identified by Dann (1981) and his motivation elements included; travelling as a response to what is desired, destination pull in response to a motivational push, motivation as a fantasy whereby engaging in activities that are deemed unacceptable in their culture and home environment, motivation as a classified purpose such as visiting family and relatives, motivational typologies, motivation and tourist experience, and motivation as an auto-definition and meaning such as the way in which a tourist will explain their situations and respond to them.

The Travel Career Ladder is another travel motivation and it consists of five elements developed by P.Pearce (1988) these five travel motivation elements vary from motivations of relaxation, stimulation, relationship, self-esteem, to development and fulfilment. A tourist motivation is an ever changing process and moving up the ladder while progressing through the various life-cycle changes. The model Pearce developed showed that motivations are divided into two categories. The need may be self-centred for instance relaxation may be done solo and the holiday maker seeks a quiet restful time alone, or the need is directed at others for instance it can be relaxation with other individuals and springing from the need for external excitement and desire for novelty.

More examples of self-centred needs and needs directed at others are; self directed needs springs from the concern for own safety, relationship can be self-directed which means giving love and affection and maintaining relationships, self-esteem and development maybe self-directed like development of skills, special interests, competence and mastery, fulfilment is another example of self-directed needs, as if fulfils and understands oneself more and experience peace. While needs directed at others can be directed toward others arising out of the concern for other’s safety, or it can be directed at others by means of receiving affection and to be with group membership and it may be directed at others like prestige, and glamour of travelling.

Seaton (1997) criticized Pearce’s travel motivations. For instance, as Pearce argued that stimulation may be understood alone a dimension of risk and safety of oneself or of others, it may be argued that there is a distinctive difference between these two motivations. A concern about the safety of others might mean placing yourself at risk to help others from danger. The willingness to do this relies on the certainty of a person’s psychological maturity.

It has been suggested by Pearce & Lee (2005) that in the Travel Career Ladder framework, the term career indicates that many individuals orderly move through a series of stage or their travel motivational patterns are predictable. As some may influentially say to the Travel Career Ladder, others may remain at a particular level, mostly depending on opportunities and other limitations such as health and financial situations.

Typologies of Tourist Behaviour

Cohen (1972), in his early studies, draws attention to the fact that all tourists are seeking some element of novelty and strangeness while, at the same time, most also need to retain something familiar. How tourists combine the demands for novelty with familiarity can in turn be used to derive a typology. Cohen (1972) the sociologist, identified four types of tourists:

The organizational Mass tourist who buys tourists packages or all inclusive tours in order to visit classical mass tourism destinations, where everything is predetermined before hand and has a low degree of participation and involvement in the travel search for information. There is no sense of adventure or exploration. He/she belongs to an institutionalized type of tourism where the contact with the organizers of tourism industry is a constant.

The individual mass tourist is similar to the organizational mass tourist, however this one is flexibility on his/her decisions and want to participate more in the process. The tourist strongly depends on the tourism industry but want to try some new things out of the closed and predetermined packages.

The explorer is more adventurous, he wants to find his/her own experience participating actively in this decision choice. He arrange most of the elements of the travel by himself/herself, however sometimes he/she has to turn to a travel agency or tourism professionals to get some comfort or security amenities.

The drifter looks for intensive experiences and he want to feel immerse in local communities. He/she completely abandon his relations with the institutions of tourism systems planning everything by him. He practiced a non institutionalized type of tourism.

With this classification of tourists Cohen established an interesting link between the need of living unique experiences and the need of the perception of security. The more secure a tourist wants to feel, the more he will trust on tourism specialist and thus he will live less unique experiences (more standardized). Stanley Plog (1974 cited Plog 1991) developed a similar psychobiological model designed to explain what type of people prefer what type of destination according to its psychographics characteristics. To the author, tourist population could be divided into a continuum of personalities distributed along the Gauss curve; from psychometrics, individual travellers whom look for the unexplored, in one extreme to allocentrics, mass tourism tourists, in the other.

After Cohen and Plog, researchers such us Dalen (1989), Smith (1989) or Urry (2002) for instances; they have attempted to create new categories of tourists based on their subject of research. It has to be pointed out that all the models proposed until now they are just descriptive and not relevant to the general tourism demand. They are just focused in one area of study and not in the bigger dimension where the tourist is immerse.

In addition, they also fail in the same thing: they do not take into account the factors which determine the different types of tourists (Sharpley, 1999). These factors might be grouped into demographic and socioeconomic factors such us age, life cycle, gender and income; and structural social factors such as the existence of non tourists and capitalist tourism (Sharpley, 1999).Therefore, every person goes trough different stages in life, and depending on the age, familiar circumstances or income tourist will change from one typology to another. Moreover, in these classifications it is not always the tourist who can decide what tourist is going to be, but it is the society who is going to classify you (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007)

Conclusion

To better plan and market tourist destinations, a better understanding of motivation is crucial. Travel motivation theories can help us understand what motivation is, and what elements must be considered to understand it, and then interpret the different findings to understand the motivation of a certain type of tourist. What motivates a person to travel may vary from one seeking adventure to one visiting a family to feel a sense of belonging or whether they are affected by the Push motive or the Pull motive. Therefore it is difficult to differentiate the different individual motives of travel and people often may not constitute to the real reason of travel. However, understanding travel motivation and typologies of tourist has enabled and explained why certain tourism destinations are more developed and successful than others. All the theories explained above are used as tool to gain knowledge about what is driving tourists to travel and why are they choosing the places they are travelling too. Travel motivations fundamental in tourism and is important for development. The motivation that indicates a tourist’s behaviour can show how people set their goals on the destination of their choice and it will reveal how these goals reflect their choice and their travel behaviour. Last but not least, after undertaking this research, understanding the motivations and the typologies of a tourist is the key success to the tourism industry.