Author: Andre Coleman

This report outlines the operations management of New Walk Museum and London zoo respectively and then makes a comparison between these two leisure facilities. New walk museum is a special museum with a range of collections and focus on both the natural and cultural world.

The report is divided into three sections. The fist two parts show some details about operations management terms of the museum and London Zoo. The third part analyses the diversity of some existing problems in these two places.

The New Walk Museum
2.1 Processes type: service shops

Processes are serious of steps that turn materials and resources into products or services(Slack et al, 2007, p94). To ensure the implementation of each process may achieve the expected value is the primary purpose of process design. In other words, process should be designed to satisfy customers. Manufacturing process type and service process type are the two major types of processes and each type has its branches. According to the definition of each process, service shops is the one that fit in with the characteristic of the museum. Service shop are characterized by levels of customer contact, customization, volumes of customers and staff discretion.

2.2 layout and flow

The layout decision is a significant step since an improper layout may cause lots of questions. Such as low productive output, high cost and customer dissatisfaction. Layout relates to two core parts. One is the positioning of transforming resources and another is the allocation of tasks to transforming resources. These two core concepts indicate the flow of transformed resources through the operation(Slack et al, 2007, p188). Since the Layout is highly involved with process type generally, according to the process type of the museum, functional layout which also called process layout may be considered to choose. The unique trait of this layout type indicates that similar transforming resources are positioned in the same place and the flow pattern may be unfixed and complex. In the museum, for instance, the Ancient Egypt hall contains all symbols of Egypt like mummies and Sphinx; a majority of animal specimens from all over the world are all exhibited in the Wild Space hall. Each exhibition hall has its own topic, so visitors can choose to look around any hall according to their own interest. Different visitors may have various needs and take diverse routes.

The green lines in figure 2.2.1 show some possible routes may chosen by visitors. Cite the ground floor as an instance, a visitor could turn left to visit the exhibition hall of wild Space(4) or the Ancient Egypt(5). He can even enjoy a Special exhibition hall(8) that the farthest hall from the entrance. There are at least seven different routes to visit the ground.

Figure 2.2.1: The ground floor plan of the museum

The green lines in figure 2.2.2 shows there are no less than four kinds of routes.

Figure 2.2.2: The first floor plan of the museum

2.3 Transformation process

All operations can be regarded as the input- transform- output model. More specific, this model is used to describe operations in terms of their input resources, transforming processes and outputs of goods and services( Slack et al, 2007, p8). It is important to note that there are two types of input resources, one is transforming resources like materials, informations and customers and another is transformed resources, such as facilities and staff. As the museum, the operations process means let those input resources turn into output of services which may satisfy visitor needs. Figure 2.3 shows this process precisely.

Transformed resources:

Informations

Visitors

Transforming resources:

Exhibitions

Artworks

Equipment

staff

The

Transformation

process

visitors

services

Figure2.3 The input-transformation-output process of New Walk Museum

2.4 operations processes – 4Vs

Figure2.4: profiles of New Walk Museum

Volume: low

Because of the limited scale, different kinds of events and particular contents of each exhibition are necessary to attract visitors. Notably, the number of staff is inadequate according to the conversation with a staff which means that every staff may response to a large amount of unrepeatable and complex works. So the repeatability and systemization may also be low.

Variety: a little high

Except for the fundamental function of a museum, such as broaden one’s horizons, increased related knowledge and developed an appreciation of artworks, there are many especial events and interesting programmes. For instance, some learning projects, lunchtime Concerts and communication activities. Moreover, contents of special exhibitions are often changed according to the requirements of visitors. All of these may have a strong appeal to visitors.

Variation: a little high

According to the conversation with a staff, the amount of visitors is quite different in a year or a week. The amount of visitors will reach a peak in holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, summer and winter holidays. In addition, the amount of visitors may increase if there will held a particular event or special activity in one day.

Visibility: high

Staff sometimes service as cicerones, they need to introduce or answer questions for visitors. In other words, staff provide just-in-time service.

2.5 feedback mechanism

Feedback from visitors is an effective way for operation managers to find out the existing problems and help managers to improve their operation performance. It is a fairly vital step in a operations.

The overwhelming purpose of feedback mechanism in the museum is to find visitors’ perceptions on service quality they received. Visitors often compare these perceptions with their expectations of the service they may meet that provide by operations. The gap between expectations and perceptions is a basis to assess quality of the service and operations managers can improve those aspects which perceptions are lower than visitors’ expectations.

There are three different ways for visitors to give feedbacks – face book via the Internet, questionnaire and comments, compliments & complaints leaflet.

Questionnaire contains some details about the visitors’ views to both the whole museum and each exhibition halls, the service they received provided by staff and also some personal informations.

Visitors can pass on a comment, compliment or complaint by using the comments, compliments & complaints leaflet(Appendix 1) . All of these can also be made via the Internet, by telephone, in person, by letter or by using this form. The staff will contact and give a reply to visitors so soon as possible.

2.6 existing problems

Operations performance objectives

Quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost are five basic performance objectives in order to satisfy customers.

Firstly, quality is the most significant performance that may highly involved with customers satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Slack et al(2007) define quality as “Consistent conformance to customer expectations”. In some busiest times, since each staff have a great deal of tasks, it is difficult to satisfy all different needs from all visitors. Some visitors might be ignored or can not get what they need in time, all of these may lead poor quality and can not achieve the visitors’ expectation. Secondly, the speed objective is another vital factor that increases value for customers. According to the conversation with a staff, it will take at least one and a half month to prepare a exhibition relates to the customers’ needs and recommendations. So some of the exhibition halls may be decorated by turns, simultaneously, this may cause loud noise and an awful smell. In other words, it may also have adverse effect on the quality. Last but not least, cost is a main issue that needed to solve. As the museum is free to entry, the majority of finance that used to support the daily operation come from donation. The sponsor are City Council, Art Council and some other enterprises. But due to the insufficient finance support, the facilities or some non-technological equipments in some exhibitions seems useless for visitors to get familiar with the content.

Capacity

Capacity means the maximum level of value-added activity that an operation, a process or facility is capable of over a period of time(Slack et al, 2007, p322). According to the conversation with a staff, the average amount of visitors is vary between two hundreds and four hundreds per day. In peak times, like weekends and holidays, the amount may sometimes rise to thousand people per day. But due to the small scale of the museum, three existing problems that may cause dissatisfaction of visitors. The first one is jam at entrance of each exhibition hall and some corridors. Another one is the shortage of packing spaces. There are only 17 packing spaces and two of them are for disabled visitors. Finally, the maximum capacity of the Main Art Gallery hall is two hundreds visitors which may not adequate in busiest times.

feedback mechanism

The amount of questionnaire form is limited. There are only hundred of forms each month which means some of the visitors may not be able to get one at the end of each month. I did not get one when I visited there since the questionnaire have been used up. In addition, the staff said that there are still some weaknesses. The questionnaire should list some items for visitors to show what they are interested in, according to this, operations can plan a new topic for the Special Exhibition halls.

3. London Zoo
3.1 Process type: service shops

The significant characteristics of service shops are the medium level of volume and customization. As area of the Zoo has been expanded since 1830s, now London Zoo has became a leisure place which with a fair scale and quite strong. Although, the total amount of staff is 161, what more, temporary staff may be hired in peak times, it seems that the number of staff is still not adequate to have high customer contact, especially in peak times. So the volume and customization is in a middle level.

3.2 layout and flow

According to the Zoo map that download from its official website, there are some obvious rule, such as habitats and species, to allocate animals. For instance, animals live in rainforest are classified in Rainforest live, various butterflies are put in the Butterfly paradise. Animals is one of the transforming resources, so put similar transforming resources together indicates that process layout( functional layout) is the layout type of London Zoo, just the same as New Walk Museum.

There is not a fixed routes, so visitors can choose to look at any kind of animals.

Figure 3.2: Zoo Map (https://static.zsl.org/images/originals/zsl-london-zoo-map-7874.jpg)

3.3 transformation process

The concept of transformation process has be emphasised in the same part of New Walk Museum. It is a process that make the resources turn into services. The transformed resources of the Zoo is visitors, information. The transforming resources is facilities, animals, staff, amenities. Figure 3.3 shows this process precisely.

The

Transformation

process

Transformed resources:

Informations

Visitors

Transforming resources:

Animals

Amenities

Equipment

staff

visitors

services

Figure3.3 The input-transformation-output process of London Zoo

3.4 four characteristics of operations processes

Figure3.4: profiles of New Walk Museum

Volume: a little high

Although there are a great deal of visitors everyday, the number of staff is enough. Temporary staff may be employed in busiest times and largely used at some amenities which need to provide just- in- time service. So the tasks for each staff may be proper and even with high repeatability.

Variety: low

Some particular activities or events are held from time to time. Such as, Summer and Christmas Parties, Animal Encounters and so on. In addition, the zoo also provides places for people to perform private events. For instance, a really wild birthday party, a romantic but special wedding or corporate meeting. All of these events may attract visitors, it is a good way to improve the amount of visitors. But main purposes of most visitors that come to the zoo is to see and get some knowledges of animals. So the variety is low although there are an array of extra events.

Variation: high

The daily numbers of visitors fluctuate widely and the seasonal variations are apparent. Weekends and summer holidays are busiest times and the average amount of visitors is fluctuating between 4000 and 6000. On the Easter and August Bank Holiday, the amount can reach 10000 people per day. But, only 48 people visit the zoo in Christmas Eve. So, the variation is high.

Visibility: a little high

The staff in zoo are also provide just-in-time service, they may introduce animals to visitors, answer questions from visitors. But there are still some processes that can not be seen, like how staff feed animals. So, the visibility is a little high.

3.5 feedback mechanism

The questionnaire is comprehensive, it contains the visitors’ perception about the quality of service and what visitors’ expected from the zoo.

3.6 existing problems

The importance-performance matrix

The importance-performance matrix is a technique that brings together scores that indicate the relative importance and relative performance of different competitive factors in order to prioritize them as candidates for improvement. The following figure shows an importance-performance matrix divided into four zones that imply different priorities. The “appropriate” zone illustrates the competitive factors are considered satisfactory. The competitive factors in this zone must be candidates for improvements. In other words, operations should develop a plan of action to tackle these issues. The “urgent-action” zone demonstrates the competitive factors in this zone need to be immediate improvement. Last but not least, the “excess?” zone means factors that have “high performance” but not so important to visitors, so operations do not need to focus on these too much but used better elsewhere(Slack et al, 2007, p589).

Urgent action area:

1.Parking

2.Find way around zoo

3.Visibility of animals

4.Happiness of animals

5.Attentiveness&helpfulness: staff

6.Contact with staff

7.Number of events and

presentations

8.Cleanliness and tidiness

9.Comfort of animals

10.Commitment to visitors

Figure 3.6: The importance-performance matrix for London Zoo (over 6000 visitors)

The above figure 3.6 calculated from over 6000 visitors, it shows that in the case of London zoo, there are 10 issues need to be improved urgently and 18 issues should enhance properly and only 5 competitive factors may satisfied the visitors. (The detail items are showed in appendix 2.)

Operations performance objectives

According to the characteristics of operations process and the importance-performance matrix shows above, there are lots of problems that need to be coped with.

In respect of quality, firstly, Due to the large amount of visitors, especially in peak times, the number of staff is insufficient, so the contact with staff is so less that need to be improved urgently. In addition, many visitors hope the staff should be more attentiveness and helpfulness. Secondly, the map and guide posts are not clear enough, sometimes visitors can not find their way consequently. Thirdly, the tidiness and cleanliness of the zoo is another aspect that need to be improved immediately. Then, as people become concern about animal rights and welfare, the comfortable and happiness of animals in the zoo seems to make many visitors feel worried, so operations have to try to tackle it. Last but not least, number of animals in the zoo and the visibility of animals need to improved or visitors may think it is not worth to visit the zoo.

In the terms of cost, the situation that lack of investment sustained for 25 years. It may prevent operations to purchase or build infrastructure, new attractions, facilities and so on. As a consequence, the number of visitors may decrease if the zoo can not provide high quality service. In other words, the income may also decline. It seems like a vicious cycle.

Capacity

A long queue often builds up everywhere and the packing places are less than demands, these will become worse in busiest times.

Compare the New Walk Museum with London Zoo
4.1 operations processes- 4Vs

The volume of New walk Museum is low, while the volume of London Zoo is a little high. The number of staff in the museum is inadequate, so the demands of visitors may not be satisfied immediately. In the case of London Zoo, staff is sufficient in ordinary day but may need to increase in the busiest time since visitors still thought the contact with staff need to be more according to the matrix.

As the distinct seasonal change, the variation of both places are high and London zoo in particular. The following bar graph 4.1.1 shows the annual fluctuation of visitors amount perspicuously. It clearly shows that busiest times for the two places are almost similar. The fluctuation of London Zoo is more dramatic than the museum, especially in Christmas eve. The next line charts 4.1.2 demonstrates this distinguish. Only 48 people visitor the Zoo in Christmas Eve but there is a slightly decline of visitors’ amount in the museum. The two place both need to increase the number of visitors, especially the museum.

Figure 4.1.1: The variation of London Zoo and New Walk Museum

Summer

holiday

Christmas

Easter

Figure 4.1.2: Different of variation between London Zoo and New Walk Museum

4.2 operations performance

In the terms of quality, numerous of potential and existing problems need to be pay more attention. The volume of museum is low, simultaneously, the variety is high which indicates the number of staff is shortage and there may be also jams in the museum. Besides, the quality problems in London Zoo is much more than the museum that detail items is in the appendix 2. Such as, the tidiness and cleanliness, contact with staff, the capability of staff and so on.

Cost is another problem that both them may have. The lack of finance support from society and enterprise is difficult to provide a high performance to visitors.

4.3 layout and flow

Process layout is the two places’ layout type. The common problem is guide of visiting route is not so clear that visitors may get confusing. Since the process layout means put similar resources together and have lots of different route, so without some clear guide, it is difficult to find a correct way.

4.4 capacity

Both the two place are facing this serious problem. Such as the shortage of infrastructures like parking places, toilets, the congested corridors which may lead long queues and visitors may packed and hardly move.

Conclusion

This report shows some details about operations management terms of the museum and London Zoo, for instance, the transformation process, layout, 4Vs and so on. It also lists some existent problems that may influence the operations.

(2900 words)

Reference:

Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R., 2007, Operations management, 5th Edition, FT/Prentice Hall.

Appendix 1

Comments compliments &complaints

Are you

Making a comment Passing on a compliment

Passing on a complaint

Comments compliments and complaints

Please attach additional page if required

We aim to make sure that our complaints system is open to everyone who wishes to complain. To help us make sure this the case,we would like you to tick the boxes below that apply to you.

Please note that completion of this part of the form is optional and if you prefer not to give this information, please leave this section blank, or only fill in the information you are happy to provide.

Ethnic Origin:

Asian or Asian British Chinese

White Other

Black or Black British (please state)__________

Gender

Male

Female

Disabled

Not disabled

Operations management consists of those activities which are involved in planning, controlling and transformation process of a particular product or service. At the very beginning Operations management was only considered for the manufacturing industry but with the flow of time it’s now a job of service sector too. English Riviera Tourism Company is a service provider company. This company performing it’s operation management through-

Planning of operations- ERTC has a grand plan of running its company. Their main strategy is ‘Turning the tide for Tourism in Torbay’. Mainly providing services within a range of local areas which mainly made up of Torquay, Paigton and Brixham as they are also working as a promotional tools for this company. The scenery of Bay is very much heart touching, ERTC is ensuring the standard tourism service for their visitors to enjoy this beautiful scenery. In 2012, it served nearly 997,000 visitors from UK.
Management of these operations- As their main object is to provide quality services. They are managing their operations by this steps a) Providing adequate holiday accommodation, and also b) accommodations for local community c) accommodations available in every seasons.
Quality management- English Riviera Attractions Partnership consists of: Paington Zoo, Living coasts and Peigton Pier. As they are attractive partners which represents the quality of this company. They are also awarded for ‘Fine dining’. They are also ensuring the leading position of ERTC.

1.2

Operations management was mainly for manufacturing industry. At this time it’s also a part of service industries. As manufacturing products are tangible and services are intangible that’s why both the operation managements are differ from each others.

ERTC providing services to tourists, their main planning objective is to get attention of the tourists. On the other hand, a manufacturing company tries to produce a quality product according to buyer’s need which means their main planning program consists of producing quality product.
In an operation management of service company facilities have to be given as they had announced. ERTC is providing standard facilities to its serving areas.

When it is product, customers can also learn about the facilities through using the product.

In service business owners always expends lots of time in selecting location, layout. Badly selected location will be a threat for a tourism company. Easy communication with the customers is also a matter of consideration. ERTC is providing online services to get tourists from all over the world. As it also has a commitment with some rewarded partners? Partners are also working as a promotional partner for this company.

Product producers concentrate on the layout of the place where they will produce the product. Comfortable layout helps producer to produce products as the demand of the customers.

Capacity planning of a manufacturer is easier than a service provider. ERTC can’t be able to store their service to meet the future demand.

1.3

Managerial functions mainly define as a combination of planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating and controlling. ERTC’s operation can also be related to these managerial functions. As this companies operations are related to planning, organizing customers, employee people and coordinating and controlling all the activities through a proper analysis.

ERTC is mainly a Torbay’s major industry. It’s running with a plan ‘Turning the tide for Tourism in Torbay’ . They are providing their service through ensuring modernism, improved standard, playing with strength, wide promotions. This company is organized by- The chair, the board, the co-opted advisory panel, the chief executive officer. As it’s a company having partnership it get the opportunity to increase it’s investment and engaging more trained stuffs for the companies betterment. Coordinating function is done through controlling all the previous activities. ERTC needs maximum customers’ appreciation for coordinating all the plans. To turn the main strategy into reality they have to monitor the feedbacks of all single steps. They are also trying to involve their customers in this process. So, they provide a ‘promotional printed literature’ every year. This is designed not only to influence the existing customers but also the potential customers. This guide contains over all details of a specific year which a customer wants to know before booking. Visitors also get the chance to connect through the internet. By analyzing the current situation of ERTC the controlling result can be like this- value of tourism in torbay’s economy has to be increased, repositioning the company, providing uniform platform, increase in employment, creating cost effective services, addressing the key objects.

1.4

Creating customer value and competitive advantage is very much important for a tourism company. As operations management consists all the activities of a company it can help to get these two important things. Actually, customer value is a matter which can be obtained through satisfying a customer. ERTC is maintaining its business-

As a partnership company
Ensuring standard service
Focusing on the beauty of Bay
Proper evaluation system.
Introduced special app
Maintain international media coverage and personal relation.
They have to serve over 3million people in a year.
Also having their marketing activities through you tube, twitter, Facebook.

All these activities are enough to get customer satisfaction which leads to customer value. Customer value helps to have a long term customers. Being a brand of tourism industry ERTC has also some competitive advantages. Marketing activities of any company also a part of operations management. ERTC’s marketing acts are-

Developing an attractive website.
Producing annual officials.
Coordination of advertising nationally.
Supporting the management
Both online and offline marketing
Producing various articles as offline marketing tool
Promotional activities by promotional partners.
Rewarded as a best company many time.

Again market segmentation of this company is also creating a great opportunity of having competitive advantages. They targeted their market on the basis of-geography, demographics, families, couples and business conferences. South west is generating most of the visitors and this place includes their segmentation. People belongs to over 50s are more attractive group of customer because they are the growing number of people having lots of leisure time with disposable earnings. This company can earn competitive advantage through having a great plan for this market.

TASK-2

2.1

System design consists of the process of a specific subject which helps to collect data, interfaces and brings details to obtain an ultimate object. It has a respected role in business sector. System design can be done in several forms-

Architectural design
Logical design
Physical design

Physical design is very much applicable for tourism industry. It needs- requirements of input, requirements outputs, Storage requirements, processing requirements.

Process design carries those documents which ensure the information of the documents are capable of fitting the design.

ERTC’s system design shows the overall plan of this company. Its system design is given below-

Running with the strategy ‘Turning the tide for Tourism in Torbay’
Working as a partnership company
Increasing value of tourism in the economy of torbay
Increasing return on investment
Introducing the beauty of Bay
Creating cost effective services

This company’s system design is made to satisfy the tourists and get brand image. Total document of the overall system design will let us know whether this design is applicable or not. By analyzing this system design it is found that, customers are appreciating the partnership system, it helps to gain reliability from the customers, its attractive partnership also creating a promotional scope. All these are producing great process design of this company. This design says whether all the process are able to turn into real or not. ERTC’s process design has already started proceeding the tasks.

2.2

Implementing new or significant production or service providing method is known as process innovation. Introducing new or improved form of previous service state as a product development. These two jobs are very important for a tourism industry.

Innovation is considered as a power of a particular industry. It is the way to be updated in a market. Maintains competitive advantages, increase efficiency and effectiveness. As need of a customers is changing and to cope with this changes innovation is very much important. Even innovation can be brought through renewing marketing activities. Every company normally use same marketing tools so it can be made different by innovating some new process. Innovation is also important because it is the only way of making differences with the competitors.

ERTC is proving various innovated services and processes-

Up- to-date with some new technologies.
New visitors can get information from the website.
One very useful innovation in this company’s process is providing yearly prospectus.
Lunching new town sites.
Introducing shared marketing tools.
Embedding on others website.
Providing newsletter.

This process innovations are helping this company to serve its service all over the world. In this modern day it’s mainly focusing on modernism which is the only to get customer satisfaction. ERTC is getting changed according to their time or season of providing services. Strategic innovation doesn’t cost most. To catch more customers they provide free maps to the visitors.

2.3

Logistics is the complete flow of goods from the beginning to the consumption of the product. It mainly contains physical items. It describe the production process and distribution process of a particular product. Logistic process involves-

Handling materials
Production
Packaging
Inventory
Transporting
Warehousing and
Security.

In Tourism Company Such As ERTC also have the process of logistics. Servicing companies use logistics as a process of planning, controlling, realizing and monitoring. Supply chain refers the global vision of logistics. It can be defined as a process involves all the companies related to handling, transferring or distributing the finish product. Tourism industry is producing services for customers, it needs no physical transferring of services. So, for bringing customers they are taking many marketing steps which are creating different supply chain.

ERTC is providing services through online and offline processes which are generating quality and bookings. Online marketing is mainly used to cover the new generation of travelers. They already have developed their own website. Also using YouTube, twitter, Facebook etc. As there are no presences of a salesperson in online marketing, the website or marketing tools have to be lucrative to the customers. Offline communication has a great effect on customers but now a days it’s declining. ERTC is producing an annual guide as an offline marketing tool containing all the details of this company. Personal relationship and branding are powerful tools for increasing interest of customers.

TASK-3

3.1

The ERTC is continuing to invest locally, regionally, nationally in research market to have an standard Operational performance. Standard of something means a particular level where a company has to reach or its way of measuring the improvements.

ERTC, as a renowned tourism company has some standards for its own. These are as following-

Main three-

Increase the number of visitors.
Expanding the value of tourism in torbay’s economy.
Re positioning the English Reveira.

Others-

This company has the responsibility to perform the marketing activities for English Reveira. But their whole plan is to get the ‘Turning the tide for Tourism in Torbay’ strategy.
ERTC is working to ensuring the standard of services
Getting modernism
Having contracts with other brands
Showing the spectacular natural beauty of Bay
Local tourism businesses are working with it as a promotional partner.
Increasing investment on marketing sectors.

All these belongs to operational management which are helping managers to perform their job with a particular standard. This system cooperate an organization to work with a specific plan. This job of coordination is done by the employees, managers or customers also. And then gaining objectives become easier. Committing with other brands is a great initiative to get maximum market converges. They are working as a promotional tools for ERTC. These partners also have a specific standard while promoting ERTC. So, importance of a specific standard can be seen in reality.

3.2

ERTC mainly collects information or feedbacks from the customers. They also get feedbacks from the promotional partners. Feedbacks are the statement about something from a person who already has experienced or monitor that thing. Both are very effective way of collecting feedback.

Some feedbacks from customers are given below-

“They are great ambassadors for the

Bay and we really owe them all a big thank

you from all of us in Guesthouse Land. Keep

up the good work and keep selling the Bay

just the way you are doing.”

Garry and Debbie Midmer

The Shirley, Torquay

Other customers also said that they are very much supportive. Promotional partners also share their opinions, ERTC’s website is very much communicative, remained the beauty of the Bay, abroad promotional acts increasing dividends. ERTC also introduced an special app which created opportunity for all the interested people for being up to date. Both customers and promotional partners are appreciating the strategy ‘Turning the tide for Tourism in Torbay’. Through comparison the feedbacks ERTC needs to take following corrective activities-

Should focus on operation into three main areas.
Operations of cell center
Developing significant alternative websites
Providing more information about marketing channels.
Following the national quality standard to ensure the quality of the service.
Avoiding incomplete information.
Arranging events for special festivals.

Moreover the company has to develop a plan how it can serve its customers in a cost effective way with the changing needs. This company is providing nearly 8,800 jobs within the resort. All the job holders are influenced to share their feedback and correction methods.

3.3

Operational system is mainly run by the employees of a company. With the growing number of competition British tourism is facing challenges. Employees are the direct monitor who can define the lacking of a company. In service industry employees direct monitoring result is very much effective for a company. ERTC is also doing the same thing. They get some points which are pointed by the employees.

Wow factor is absence in English Reveira tourism product. And they are not considering modern enough to buy. This company also needs some creativity in product development to get new customers. Needs focusing on year round opportunity. ERTC also get some controlling suggestions from its employees, they mainly suggested some opportunities. These are-

Maritime leisure – Torbay can be an icon of worldwide if it starts doing something on tha basis of water.
Developing torbay weeks
Developing experiences based on water
Promoting maritime through central destination marketing.
Improving retail offerings
Bringing ‘Agatha Christie theme’ for adding glamour
Arranging festivals in different events.

Global geopark can be introduced by this company. Creative promotion and positioning will create enormous offers. Running an event during special festivals. This will also work as promotional act. As of course it will focus all possible cultures remaining the local area.

3.4

Effective management system consists all the managerial activities of a company. Well planned system will give the opportunity to gain competitive advantages which actually a power for a company against competitors. Competitive advantage means gaining such kind of attributes that helps to perform jobs successfully and make some differentiation in contrast of competitors.

As we have already seen that managerial system made up of planning, organizing, stuffing and controlling. ERTC has established a well planned managerial system. First of all they developed a strategy ‘Turning the tide for Tourism in Torbay’ focusing mainly the Torbay. Relating strategic economic development, other delivery organizations, strategy and advice all these are done by the chair, managing director and other organizers. Member of this company is made up of private and public sectors which brings a balance. The over activities are also controlled by the authority. As ERTC found some results of controlling-

Arresting the decline of visitors’ number.
Increase in employment
Developing a compelling brand.
Coordinating and monitoring effective marketing strategies.
Funding for tourism marketing
Expanding the facilities
Developing online and offline questionnaire to know him statements of the customers very frequently. This will also help to get new ideas or steps from them.

These are the main thing which have to be implemented. Quality of service also has to be increased. To increase tourists for ERTC effective destinations management is required. Outputs of investments represent the ultimate situation of a company so this element should also me measured while controlling. All the controlling steps will create competitive advantage for this company.

Operation management plays an immense role in success of both manufacturing as well as service industry. The given project deals with operation management practices and tactics used by Hotel Novotel, a well known four star hotel in UAE. After providing required information about the hotel, its operation management process has been discussed in-depth. Later on, the competitive priorities of the hotel as well as analytical techniques used by the company have been analyzed. Using the required information, major challenges existing in the operation management process in the hotel has pointed out. Finally, some feasible solutions to mitigate the problems have been suggested. Information has also been given regarding the possible hurdles to be faced by the hotel while implementing the required changes in the operation management practices.

The executive summary has to be rewritten in a professional way
About the Company

The project how come the project has chosen the Hotel Novotel in order to provide an in-depth analysis of the operations management in the company. It has around 400 hotels and resorts which are located at 58 locations all across the world. The company chooses the city centers of the important business destinations, tourist spots and business districts in the world. The hotel structures are based on modern and simple designs. The hotel provides the leisure travelers and businesses spacious and modifiable rooms for working and relaxing in standardized offers. Moreover, the company’s restaurant meals and food services are offered throughout the day. Apart from these, it provides meeting rooms, an attentive group of staff and relaxation and fitness centers for the children. The company reflects immense sense of responsibility through its involvement in Accor’s Earth Guest program to achieve sustainable development. It has also committed to all its hotels to acquire the “Green Globe certification for environmentally responsible travelling and tourism by 2010” (Novotel-a, “Nearly 400 hotels throughout the world”). The most outstanding hotel of the group is the Novotel World trade Centre based in Dubai. The company provides the best location to conduct business from or to explore Dubai. The company is located very near the leisure and business hub of Dubai. This makes it the most preferred and attractive option for the professional travellers and holiday makers. Staying at the hotel one finds oneself very near the most attractive and popular tourist attractions, famous shopping malls and the best night spots in Dubai. (Novotel-b, “Practical Information”)

A critical assessment of the operations management processes in the company, with an evaluation of the successful and not-so-successful aspects of the processes
Operation management process in the company

Dubai’s hospitality is one of the fastest growing sectors that have witnessed several changes in last few decades. Like any other company, the role of operation management is equally crucial in a hotel. It will not be wrong if one says that success of an organization operating in hospitality industry highly depends on efficiency with which operations are managed. The same is true of Hotel Novotel World Trade Centre Dubai.

In general the role of operation management is to control and coordinate four vital functions in the hotel. Among these functions, the most vital one is “food production”. This function deals with purchase of products and planning the menu card. Therefore, this section is mainly related with the supply chain management and maintaining the hygiene. The second most function is “food and beverage service”. This deals with purchase of wines and beverages, meeting the guest and taking the orders and rendering services to the customers. “Housekeeping” is also equally vital function for a hotel. Apart from the above mentioned functions, there is one more function that needs to be managed efficiently; this is front “office operation”. This function deals with reception as well as accommodation of the guests and rendering them with further services.

Hotel Novotel World Trade Centre Dubai is quite conscious about the quality maintained in its products and services offered to the visitors. The management has taken utmost care to understand the changing requirement of the guests that visit the hotel. Apart from the local guests, number of international visitors is also growing at a faster rate. Thus, the hotel prefer to retain international standards in terms of the foods and beverages served to the customers and the quality of the services offered to the customers. However, the essence of its local culture is distinctly visible at each and every part of the hotel.

In Novotel, the responsibility of the customer relation management department is to determine the level of satisfaction among its customer base. This department work hand in hand to find out changing needs of the guests that visits the hotel. As per the data collected from the market, the management introduces required changes in the foods and beverages served to the customer, the internal environment and the efficiency level of the existing staff. For this, the hotel gives special emphasis on technology to maintain high level of coordination and fast flow of reliable information from one department to another.

Competitive priorities of the hotel

The term “competitive priorities” had its origin in manufacturing sector. It takes into account elements like price, quality, deliverability, flexibility and innovativeness. Corbett and Wassenhove (1993) pointed out that these elements are often used to measure external as well as internal competitiveness possessed by the company (Abdullah & Bakar, p.21). Therefore, the term competitive priorities can be defined as “a set of goals for manufacturing, consistent with the corporate or business unit goals” (Abdullah & Bakar, p.21). However, competitive priorities are applicable to the service sector also. Traditionally it has been noticed that a company or an organization can achieve competitive priorities mainly through four distinct manners; these are low cost, quality, delivery time and flexibility. Later on the fifth element in form of innovation has been added.

With time, the hospitality industry in UAE has emerged out as one of the attractive sector for the new entrants. The government is taking special interest to flourish the UAE’s hospitality industry and thus several international players are getting attracted to enter this sector. Such an environment has increased the degree of competitiveness among the existing hotels and they are using different strategies to gain a competitive edge in the industry.

Hotel Novotel World Trade Centre Dubai has paid special attention on the quality of the service rendered to the visitors. To enhance the quality of the service, the hotel paid special attention towards information technology. The management decided to make utmost use of information technology to improve operations by coordinating the supply chain, making the staff member friendly with IT and a customer relationship management (CRM) system that is based on latest software and technology prevailing in developed nations. In the 2003, the hotel arranged IT training for the staff members so that they can get accustomed with three IT systems. Property Management System (PMS), Fidelio was introduced to the staff members so that they can have easy access to information regarding existing number of guests, availability of rooms and specification about rates. This software makes the process of booking through internet from any part of the world quite simple and fast. The staff members were also make accustomed with Accor Group’s Central Reservation Systems (CRS), TARS to make the booking process versatile. Novotel’s Yield Management System (YMS) was designed to help the streamline groups and the corporate groups so that they can have proper information about forecasted room occupancy and its availability. The hotel also introduced latest technology to fulfill requirement of the guests in best possible manner. The visitors can use internet to check mails, pay for bills, do high-tech conferencing and many more (United Arab Emirates, “Novotel World Trade Centre Hotel, Dubai – staff trained in latest information technology”). Therefore, the management introduced technology to improve the quality of the service offered by upgrading the skill and knowledge of its staff members.

Apart from developing the human resource, the hotel has taken utmost care to make the services flexible enough. This has been done to fulfill unique requirement of different guests who visit the hotel. For the corporate guests, the hotel has 8 fully equipped conference rooms with soundproof walls. The interior environment is quite refreshing and offers accommodation for 150 people to conduct conferences, seminars and meeting. To match with the requirement of its customers, the hotel provides 24 hour reception and availability of airport shuttle round the clock. Other facilities like ATM, baby sitting and banquet is also available to cater needs of its guests. All these facilities provide required competitive edge to the hotel.

Analytical techniques used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations

Hotel Novotel World Trade Centre Dubai relies highly on quantitative and analytical techniques for making decision. The hotel has a central data warehouse which has access to data from each and every functional department. This data is of great help as the management churns them to understand the performance and the changes taking place. As for example, the marketing department will use the data derived from the data warehouse to study changes taking place in the occupancy rate in past few years. Considering this information, they will forecast the future trends in coming months. Again this information will be used by the finance department to develop forecasted cash flow and cash management policies.

Similarly, the data from central data warehouse is used to identify the change taking place in customer satisfaction level. If the management determines that number of customer’s complain regarding the service quality is increasing, then they ask the customer relationship management department to provide the reason behind and to take required action to find out the root cause so that the existing loopholes can be rigidified. Management also introduces changes in the rates, policies and services offered to the customers.

Major challenges faced by the operations management in the company. Outline of the existing problems in operations management in the company and identification of potential causes of these problems

One of the most important ventures of the company has been its attempt to join hands with Suitehotel. The idea was to merge the already good client base of both, which would result in the emergence of an enhanced business. However, it is obvious that Suite Hotel would gain greater advantage over the former and that Novotel would back the needs of the hotel and assist in its growing and taking up the market standards. (Accor, “The new generation of Suitehotel is Suite Novotel”). It is possible that this move would lead to the loss of market of Novotel. Moreover, Novotel already had a brand image which was operating successfully. This move would lead to the change in its brand image which would require new advertising strategies.

One important challenge that the hotel might have to face is the rapid changes in technology. Technology in the form of communication, computers, mechanical instruments and personal devices has a critical effect on the operations of the hotel. Since the hotel is meant for travelers and businessmen, it would require highly advanced technological instruments. Most travelers would want high speed of information accumulation, transfer, storage and manipulation. People would expect that when they would rent a hotel room it would keep them as proactive as they would be in home or in office (O’Fallon & Rutherford, p.2).

The world is also witnessing changes in the travel patterns of people. Changes in the airlines regulations have also changed the number of visitors to the hotels or the frequency of visit of travelers. In fact hotels are increasingly choosing to locate themselves near the airline hubs. This is because it is known that business travelers would not want to move into the interiors of city. Meetings and conferences can be established in the hotels. Novotel must face the challenge to provide such prompt services to its travelers in order to stay ahead of its competitors. The company also has to keep changing its pattern of investments. Currently the hotel operations do not only depend on a single entrepreneur’s vision. The management must design strategies and tactics in order to achieve any unanticipated financial goals (O’Fallon & Rutherford, p.2). The following figure shows the changing pattern of residents of UAE.

Figure 1: Change in spending pattern of UAE residents

(Source: Zawya, “UAE residents spending pattern increases in 2010”)
Recommendations provided to improve the situation. What would be the potential impact? What are the potential difficulties in implementation?

First of all merging with another company requires complete restructuring of the present policies and strategies. It is recommended that there is no fall in the level of performance resulting from the merging. Merging is associated with combining two different cultures and strategies. The set of operations of Suitehotel would be different from that of Novotel. The company would have to develop and implement common cultures and operational procedures which would be followed by all.

Today the world has become extremely competitive. It has been changing rapidly with the growing needs of businesses. The hotel is most frequently visited by businessmen and travelers who would require the most advanced instruments and devices. It must keep upgrading its technology according to the requirements. The people coming for business purposes should be given technological assistance which would not hinder their work progress. The rooms meant for meetings and conferences should be made available whenever required. Portable computing, PDAs or personal data assistants, and internet services should be made available which allows guests to have a transition from home, travel or business to the hotel.

Since the company has several hotels across various places, the market for them would also be different. Situations vary between countries and regions. Each hotel has to cater to different types of customers. Thus it would be not be wise to follow the same pattern of operations and services in all of them. Each hotel must work towards meeting the demands of their particular customers. However, the hotels must also cater to the needs of foreign travelers. Recently the travelling pattern of travelers has also undergone a drastic change. The frequency of visits made by foreign travelers has also increased.

It is also recommended that company undertake corporate responsibilities more aggressively as this would enhance its goodwill to a considerable extent. It must undertake social responsibilities apart from its businesses and revenue generation.

The overall learning from the project

While doing the project it was felt that operations management is a critical part of any business. It is more important for a business running across different nations. It requires coordination of activities for successful running of its business. Since the hospitality sector has been booming there would be many competitors for the company. It is crucial for the company to retain its market and continue achieving sustainable development. Businesses remain extremely vulnerable to the fluctuations in the economy. The changes in market conditions and consumer spending also need to be monitored regularly. The company needs to invest in research and development to address any unanticipated situations. The company also remains vulnerable to the changes in externalities, like the government rules and regulations. The government may implement changes in property prices which would adversely affect the company. It also requires alertness on the part of the company. It is important that the company does not violate the rules at any cost, rather devise strategies to use them to its benefits. It must ensure to resort to ethical practices while doing business. Any fraud practices would be harmful for the company and would result in ruining its goodwill. Finally the company must make a feasibility study of its business before venturing. Every step that the company takes must be backed by a feasibility study. It should keep account of the any unforeseen situation which might confront the company.

British Museum is one of the largest and most comprehensive museums in the world which was found in 1753 in London. The collections exhibited there were collected all over the world from the origins of human being to present day. By visiting those fantastic objects, people will experience a historical and cultural journey. As the mission cited below from the museum website, British Museum is more than a non-profit making institution, it is a great treasure belongs to all mankind.

The Aim of the British Museum (“the Museum”) is to hold for the benefit and education of humanity a collection representative of world cultures (“the Collection”), and ensure that the Collection is housed in safety, conserved, curated, researched and exhibited1.

——-British Museum Governance Policies and Principles

London Zoo is also a famous attraction in London opened to public since 1828 which is two years after since The Zoological Society of London has been found. Over 720 different species of animal exhibited here, it is a place not just for visiting, it is a playground in which you can interact with animals and get better known of their living.

The main purpose of this essay is to find out the similarity and difference of operation methods between two organizations. Therefore, the operation procedure of British Museum will be illustrated at first, which will be generally indentified through several aspects, such as layout and 4Vs. Afterwards, the necessary comparison and contrast will be analysed between British Museum and the given case London Zoo. And some recommendations will be given in the end.

Facilities of British Museum

In order to study the operation system in British Museum, the facilities used in the Museum will be illustrated in the following. Furthermore, the analysis will be taken specifically and try to find out the deficiency it needs to improve.

2.1 Operations management in not-for-profit organization

As the obligation mentioned in introduction, British Museum is a trust funding organization which is free to the public, so generally speaking it is a non-profit making organization. However, the Museum makes the profit in some certain ways, such as recruiting the members and selling the souvenirs in the shop. To make it simple and clear, in the following research, British Museum will only be considered as an organization which only provides service to satisfy people by creating a good atmosphere and to promote its reputation all over the world.

Layout and flow style

With 8 million objects housed in British Museum, the layout would be a little complex. After several expansions over the centuries, it went through the changes from a normal mansion in the past to today’s 75,000 m2 scale, which equals to nine football pitches.

British Museum has three floors, which are lower floor, ground floor and upper floor. For my observation, the main visiting area is ground and upper floors.

Ground floor

Ground floor has four levels from level-1 to level 2. (see figure1)

When entering the building from the main entrance, two small desks stand beside the passageway which only offers the free maps. Except for the securities, no staff can be found there. After gathering the map, I walk into the great court, and a large information desk at the right side of court, some staffs are working there for any requires. In addition, there is a special service provided here which is a multimedia guide (audio descriptions) can provide eleven different languages, by doing this the cost of staff is much reduced and the quality of service is increased.

At this level ( level 0), there is a reading room opened for special exhibitions in the centre of great court and several shops and cafes opened in the corner of great court. And other facilities such as toilets for man, woman, disabled and a baby changing room are on the two sides of great court.

Around the great court, more than thirty galleries are opened to the public on the three sides of the ground floor. On level -1,1,2, there are also some galleries opened. And both lifts and stairs are available between different levels. Visitors can choose any sequence of visit, clockwise, counter clockwise or random.

Figure 1

Lower floor

On this floor, there is less worth to visit on this floor, which only contains three galleries and two educational centres organized by enterprises ( see figure 2). Very few visitors reach this floor.

Figure 2

Upper floor

The galleries on this floor were arranged on the four sides of court (see figure 3). And the amount of rooms are more or less the same as ground floor, which include five themes, Ancient Egypt on the north side of level 3, Ancient Greece and Rome on the west side, Japan culture on the north side of level 5, Europe on the south side and Middle East on the right side.

Figure 3

Furthermore, as more and more precious objects will exhibit in the museum, the display is very important for the operation management in British Museum. They even formed a policy of display to process the layout and flow aimed to ensure all kinds of demand from customers and to make them satisfied.

Transformation process model
Input to the process

In the operation process, there are two sets of inputs, one is transformed resources which are always transmuted, and the other set is transforming resources which made transformed resources (Slack el al., 2004). Applied to the operation of British Museum, transformed resource will be the customers, and transforming resource is the staff, also includes all the collections.

To improve the operation performance, the museum needs to explore new collections, but more importantly, it should train the staff to enhance their professional skills in two ways, the exhibitions maintenance and customers service.

Within the process

In the process, Slack el al. (2004) point out that different inputs transformed can be determining different types of process. Here the types of process will be divided into three categories; respectively they are materials process which is to transform the physical products, information processing which concerned with informational properties and customer processing which means customers are considered as major input throughout the whole process.

As the above clarification, it is obvious that the British Museum belongs to customer processing, because at the beginning of transformation, each customer is fresh without any experience to the museum, but when tour ends, the physiological state of customers are equipped with basic knowledge and feeling about what they visited.

Outputs from the process

After studying the operation process, it is can be found that very few organizations produced pure product or service, in most of cases, services and products are merging together to enhance their competition in the market.

Generally speaking, the output of British Museum is service, which is intangible and hard to qualify. Some organizations adopted the customer feedback mechanism to qualify the fulfilment of customer’s need. This kind of processing requires a high qualification to satisfied customers’ psychology needs.

Characterizes of process : 4Vs
2.4.1 Analysis of 4Vs between London Zoo and British Museum

After identifying the outputs and inputs of British Museum, the volume, variety, variation and visibility should be analysed. Firstly, as the biggest national tourist attraction in UK, both British Museum and London Zoo have a high volume of visiting. In 2009/2010, 5.7 million people visited the British Museum. And in busy days, the visitors of London reached 4000 to 6000 per day in average. Next, the variety of service in London Zoo and British Museum is relatively high. Although a large amount of exhibitions provided by the two organizations, visitors can choose the touring routines according to their needs and preference. There is no fixed routine. Thirdly, the variation of demand in British Museum is low due to it just experiences a small fluctuation in summer holiday compared with normal days. Conversely, customers demand of London zoo on weekends and special events will spur to 18000 per day while on Christmas Eve only 48 visitors there, so the variation of London Zoo is relatively high. Finally, visibility means customer contact which made by organizations. As the case shown that London zoo has high visibility, in such circumstance, they realise the importance to improve service and to meet customers need. Similarly, British museum usually arrange the short period tours and try to benefit visitor to fulfil their need. However, the contact between staff and visitor is not frequent here.

Table 1.

Organization

Volume

Variety

Variation

Visibility

London Zoo

High

High

Relatively High

High

British Museum

High

High

Low

Medium

2.4.2 The implication of 4Vs of operations

Compared with the ideal dimensions in the four aspects, high volume, low variety, low variation in demand, and low visibility, the operation process of British Museum seems closed to the ideal model and cost less in its operation management. However, the high variation of customers demand requires London Zoo to explore what customers really want from them. And it is the point for London Zoo to keep a sustainable increase.

Pros and Cons of operation process in British Museum
3.1 Pros
3.1.1 Specify and categorize customer demand: Explore the Museum’s highlights

As a huge amount of collections exhibited in the museum, for most visitors, it is impossible to visit all the galleries in such a short period. To give the visitors a worthy visit, the museum selected a few of most valuable objects and created several options according to different length of tour. This is providing an opportunity for visitors to explore the highlight exhibitions, then visitors can plan their own trip by those suggested routine. Thus, the satisfaction of visitors can be largely improved. Meanwhile, it can also avoid the crowd in peak season and shorten the operation process.

The routine suggested currently as below (Visitors can find the information at information desk)

1 hour at the Museum

3 hours at the Museum

Objects to see with children

A history of the world in 100 objects

As the four selected routines designed by British Museum, on one hand visitors will tour the museum with the purpose, the time of visiting is much saved and it also make this touring much clear and effective. On the other hand, it makes the process flow fluent and efficient.

3.2 Cons
3.2.1 Complex layout for the large galleries

Generally, the collections are categorized in related to the nature and history of objects. So in British Museum, the main permanent galleries are Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, Europe, Asia and Middle East, Africa and America. And some large galleries contain two levels. The situation is when you wanted to visit the galleries completely, you have to go upstairs. If you pass through the way-out upstairs, your routine of the whole visiting will be disturbed. Otherwise, you have to go downstairs go on the visit to other galleries. Additionally, for such a layout, visitors are easily getting confused and lost directions, because there is no any sign of direction. During the visiting, I found the division between different themes was not so clear, especially for those big galleries which contain two levels.

3.2.2 Less space on the hot spot area

Another layout problem is that it was a little bit crowed in the popular galleries such as the gallery of ancient Egypt. For my observation on that day, so many people were interested in Egypt Mummy and stopped to take photographs or pay a notice on particular object. In such way, it made the gallery too crowded to visit, and visitors must feel unsatisfied at this moment.

Comparison and contrast between British Museum and London Zoo
4.1 General introduction of case London Zoo

London zoo is one of the most popular animal collections in the world which opened in 1828; the aim of it is to house and display live animals and makes profit. In the past few decades, visitor attendance keeps high although there is a fluctuation because of zoo’s reconstruction and some other public reasons. But by the mid-1950s the visitor numbers began to decline from 2 million year by year, and by 1995/96, the budgeted level was just nine hundred thousand. The main reason is from social-economic changes including changing of living habits, growth in car ownership, leisure preferences and inflation as well as fierce competition. Due to the decrease in visitor attendance and lack of investment in zoo’s developments or its image, urgent action needs to be taken to change the situation. With the support of zoo’s staff, a new development plan was published and adopted in 1992 in order to improve the facilities and the service quality. Relevant surveys also need to be made in advance.

Profit and not-profit

The British Museum can be regarded as a non-profit organization sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, but it also has self-generated income through retail, international touring exhibitions, Membership, and fundraising programmes. By contract, London Zoo mainly relies on the financial profit to keep running its daily operation and maintenance and also partly relies on the public fund. To some extent, British Museum is trying to achieving a high reputation worldwide by create the most comfortable environment to visitors, however, London Zoo aims to enhance the quality of service to attract more visitors and increase the income.

Defined the targeted visitors

Both British Museum and London Zoo understand the importance to define their target visitors. Generally, the target customers of British Museum are tourist including individuals, couples and families, some specific researchers as well. After define the customer and their need, the museum provides selected touring options to normal visitors, which is a convenient service to visitors. Same as London Zoo, after specified the visitors, it is important to improve their service by knowing what their particular needs. By categories the visitors and figure out the characters of each group, organization will be easy to improve the service to meet their exact need.

Quality of service

As my observation of British Museum, it is hard to feel the existence of service even they provide the short free tour occasionally. Except for the information desk, you can hardly find any staff for help. Compared to British Museum, London Zoo also suffers from quality problem, due to capacity problem. London Zoo operated badly during peak periods because of lack of staff. As a result, the column ‘contact with staff’ received the lowest score in the investigation. Long queues, delays, lack of contact lead to problems in quality in London Zoo

Conclusion & recommendation

As the study above, although both British museum and London zoo belong to service organizations, the commercial purposes are different. However, they aim to provide the best service to achieve the success in their own business area.

As the big national organizations, even though both London Zoo and British Museum are fully equipped in facilities, there are still some operation problems in service quality and process of layout. For British Museum, in terms of layout, they may provide the visitors more comfortable environment by expanding the space in the hot spot galleries; in the large galleries, the museum can display the collections all in the same level to avoid making visitors confused or lost. While in terms of service, I suggest that the staff may contact with visitors face to face more. For London Zoo, the capacity should be improved through recruiting the temporary staff during peak season. As the survey adopted in the case study, they have to create more contact with visitors and supply more qualified catering to increase the performance.

No matter how big the organization scale is, it still has its strength and weakness. The obligation of management team is keeping optimize the operation process and continuously making profit and get a great reputation in the business area.

British Airways and British Airport Authority managing Heathrow Airport at London, which has four terminals , terminal1, terminal2,terminal3, and terminal 4 built a new terminal 5 in 260 hectare land, with sophisticated and advanced infrastructure designed to handle thirty-five million passengers per year which costed ?4.3 billion with 19 years of hard work involving totally 60,000 individuals. the construction finished its last phase in march 2008 after the 68 trails by 15000 volunteers the terminal 5 was ready for business on march 2008. Her majesty The Queen opened the terminal 5 on March 14th 2008, and was ready for business for passengers on 27th march 2008.

But instead of grand opening the terminal 5 opening went as a disaster, resulting in cancellations of about 38 flights, and misplaced luggage, operational and technical problems. Why this happened? Why the opening day became a disaster? Why it has become as a night mare to passengers?

The following data deals with what actually happened on the opening day and why British airways failed on the day of opening.

MANAGING OPERATIONS: British airways Heathrow airport

INTRODUCTION: British airways

British Airways plc or BA is the UK’s largest international airline in the world, based at Heathrow airport in London and serves about 95 million passengers a year using 441 airports in 86 countries using more than 1000 planes through its own operations and its alliance partners like TAT European airlines in France, Qantas in Australia, and USAir in United states. In last financial year to march 31, 2008 it carried about 33 million passenger worldwide and 805,000 tonnes of cargo, (www.bashares.com) and is considered as one of the world’s longest established airlines.

Heathrow and Gatwick airports are the two main operating bases of British airways. It earned ?9 billion in revenue in the year 2008/2009; passenger traffic accounted for 87.1 percent and 7.5 percent came from cargo and 5.4 percent from other activities.

Heathrow airport which is owned by BAA is 15 miles from central London and is the world’s busiest international travel hub and now operates terminals 1,2,3,4 and terminal 5. When we go back in to little history of this airport it was started officially in 1946 as an army surplus. In 1951 plan was developed to build terminals. In 1955 Heathrow terminal 2 was ready for business a d considered as Heathrow’s first rear terminal. In 1960 construction of terminal 2 took place and was expanded in 1970 and in 1969 terminal 1 was officially opened by queen, in 1976 Heathrow became supersonic being services operated by British airways and air France . In 1986 terminal 4 was opened by prince and princess of Wales which was worth of ?200 million. About ?1milloin a day was spent in developing infrastructure of Heathrow.

On 20th November 2001 the government gave approval to build a 5th terminal (t5) after a longest public enquiry in British planning history. The company aimed to move all its operations to terminal 5. Over the past few years terminal 5 is the largest building project in Europe costing ?4.3 billion to BAA. It was a big challenge to construct such a immense size building. it has a capacity to serve around 30 million passengers per year. The main terminal building has 1,100 piles. There are 5 tunnels serving terminal 5 with a length of 14km. The building has 96 checks in kiosks, a high glass cascade of 40 metre, and the terminal 5 lounge has a space for 2,500 passengers, and has 4,000 car parking spaces. This terminal will be used only by British airways .it took six years to finish the project, within time and within the budget.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM:

British airways opened the terminal 5 for business on 27 march 2008, by her majesty the Queen describing it as a 21st century gateway to Britain. The opening ceremony was attended by hundreds of airport authorities and workers.

The BAA and airline British airways who built the terminal for many years forecasted that new facility would give a fresh start for Heathrow and millions of premium passengers. But the Heathrow’s new ?4.3billion terminal 5 suffered a disastrous opening resulting cancellation of flights, long queues and delays in luggage system. British airways was forced to cancel 34 domestic flights, one problem was followed by other problem on the day.

There was a problem to the staff in finding the car park. Then a technical problem has arisen which resulted in some flights departing without luggage on aboard. The first flight of the day coming from Hong Kong arrived eight minutes early and passengers off the building got their luggage quickly. But very soon the baggage reclaim system failed leading the passengers to wait more than two hours to collect their baggage. By lunch time due to continuous problems the British airways cancelled 20 flights in the beginning and later to 34 flights. One of the terminal 5s departure lounge the luggage belt failed. The road signs were not clear outside the terminal. A delay occurred in security screening of staff.

The computers did not recognise the baggage handlers ID’s and the handling system failed to log on because of these three flights took off without luggage.

Live examples: taken from media resources

“Sir George martin a famous producer of the work “Beatles” was one among them said he was first impressed to see terminal5 but it led him to wait many hours and the flight has been cancelled”.

“Mr Matt Duffy who was coming from Glasgow to terminal 5 was struck in the flight for more than one hour”.

“Mr kerb a wheel chair user couldn’t get in to the building without getting up a step, and he added its totally unbelievable”.

These are few examples of the chaos caused by British airways in terminal 5 on its opening day.

Relationship with operational management:

On the operational side there are many errors like little system testing, mechanical failures, technical errors. On the management side there was poor communication, a refusal to listen to the experts and staff, arrogance, complacency, poor training of staff with the new systems.

What went wrong on the day:

Logistics and planning: On the opening day staff arrived to work couldn’t find the car parking, the signs to car parking was unclear, it took long time for the staff to park their car, because of this reason staff arrived very late to work, staff were almost two hours late to work. Even when the staff entered the terminal 5 building there were no clear signs to navigate within the building , union representatives told the workers didint understand where to go,some of the staff couldn’t enter through security gates. Because of the communication problem staff couldn’t navigate within the building , they were given no telephone numbers to contact.

The luggage handlers couldn’t get in to the terminal because of improper training and less knowledge on the building. They were just shown the whole building which cant be remembered because of its massive size and therefore arrived late to work.

Technical and human errors:

The computer system in the terminal didn’t recognise the staff ID’s, so that staff couldn’t log in to the systems. This resulted in making only two desks working instead of 28 desks present. Even when the staff logged the systems displayed error messages showing access denied to logon to do their actual work.

About 17 terminal lifts jammed and failed, because of this passengers faced difficulty in getting in to the stairs of difficulty and disabled customers could not enter in to the building.

The transit system broke down hence failed to move passengers from main terminal to satellite terminal, which led to cancellations of flights.

Doors which should be kept open were locked so that staff and passengers couldn’t be able to navigate in to the building.

The electronic screens, walkways, escalators, and carousels were failed. Due to technical errors they failed to work and staff couldn’t log in to systems and there was no information displayed on the screens.

The baggage handling system failed to work after first flight arrived resulted in baggage misplace. Staff due to lack of training overloaded the belt and it stopped working, because of this reason some flights even left without any luggage.

Low morale and good will: from the sources it is come to know that most of the staff didn’t turn up for training. Because of this reason the baggage handlers and ground staff were unhelpful when the problem occurred. There was not enough staff working on the day to volunteer. BA didn’t recruit an extra staff and just asked the present staff to help on their day offs and without paying them.

Lack of communication and crisis management: there was no proper communication from the BA to passengers this led most of passengers feel frustrated. There were no announcements and no information was seen on monitors and websites. On the very first day by 5:30am about 200 passengers were queued up for information about cancellations. There were about 26 operational desks on that day but only 2desks were seen working.

Results:

As a result within in five days about 250 flights have been cancelled and still there is a backlog of 15000 bags, the bags were sent to USA and Paris to identify the original owners of the baggage.

It disrupted the travel plans of thousands of passengers and British airways were unable to find any hotel rooms to passengers.Even though the hotel rooms were found they gave compensation of only ?100 where the hotel rooms costs ?200, an extra burden to passengers.

About tens of thousands of customers vowed they will never use the airline again, as they faced many difficulties like standing in queues for about two hours for information, the luggage has been misplaced, and no help was available.

The opening of terminal 5 is considered as a most embarrassment for British Airways and British Airport Authority.

Because of this chaos the shares of British Airways felt down by 3% which accounts for about ?9million of the income and lost its reputation.

Discussion of relevant operational theory:

Any success of organisation depends up on people and their perception of success or failure, and staff willingness to anticipate to the vision of organisation as defined by management.

In the same way the failure of an organisation depends up on poor integration of different parts of change for example the implementation is poorly executed even though the build and develop phase goes well. High complex technology infrastructure becomes inaccessible to those who use it regularly.

And the management has to recognise that the success criteria should be broader than bottom line considerations:

The business driver is not only the share holder value but the staff working and customer satisfaction.

Organisations should be socially beneficial behaviour and mission and vision should include social responsibility and sustainability as their parts.

The management has to focus on the state of art infrastructure that is introduced in the large projects. Now a days the managers are more focused on multi disciplinary projects to re engineer business which provides competitive advantage. Rather than spending more time on traditional line management responsibilities the managers are spending time on project work. New projects tend to be exciting in first few years of the project life cycle. But some important project personals often show interest on the finishing stages of project. the operational management should be the key driving force of the project from the beginning, but “go live” phase of the project is in danger as it didn’t receive attention.

The terminal5 in a successful project delivered on time and in the budget allocated .the architectural design won awards. It is believed that customers will get great service and satisfaction from terminal 5 when compared to terminal4 and 3. Here the operations management followed properly go live phase in project life cycle as a planned construction programme for six years, it included 400,000 hours of man power and software engineering to built conveyors for 17 kms., 66 trails has been made by 15,000 volunteers, staff were given a training and support of six months, before opening the terminal the baggage system was fully loaded and tested for about twenty times.

Even though all these attempts were made the opening of terminal5 went as a disaster to customers and public. Sources taken from media showed that there were long queues in terminals, about 15000 baggage went missing, about 500 flights has bee cancelled in fist two weeks of its opening. There was big problem in sorting out the luggage to its actual owners , this luggage was sent to USA and Milan for sorting out. Even the insurance company didn’t compensate the lost luggage saying this is a” known risk”.

The management in companies should be fully aware of the prominence of the operational planning. And should be well prepared for go live phase of the project. In Heathrow terminal 5 the transport select committee was advised by chief executive officer of British airways that the building programme was not finished completely and this made to compromised the testing many time before opening. It was not that about 28 lifts are not working on the opening day, and there were discussions whether to delay the opening schedule of terminal 5, but it was neglected as the officials thought the potential risk will be low. Later the Chief Executive Officer admitted it was their fault to compromise on testing before opening.

Application of TQM:

According to Joel E. Ross and Susan Perry (1999) was cited in his book about the TQM is ” total quality management is the set of management processes and systems that create delighted customers through empowered employees leading to higher revenue and lower cost”

The main principals are customer satisfaction, employee involvement, and continuous improvement in performance.

Customer satisfaction: the customer satisfaction factor has been lost on the opening day of terminal 5, where customers have to wait in long queues, loss of baggage, flights cancellations, and British Airways couldn’t find the hotel rooms to customers.

Employee involvement: employee involvement plays a crucial role in success of any organisation. On the day of terminal5 opening, staff arrived about two hours late to work and the baggage handlers were unable to through the building as there were no clear signs. Even the staff working on the ground didn’t help them in any way. There were no announcements about the cancellations. Staff felt they were not responsible for the chaos going on. There was no one to volunteer the situation.

Continuous improvement in performance: the testing has been compromised by the British Airport Authorities. Staffs were not trained properly, only six months of training was given. There was no improvement in the training statistics. The luggage handling systems were checked about twenty times before opening but on the day of opening it failed to work.

Critical approach:

Terminal 5 is a complex building with advanced infrastructure which was built with a goal of improving customer experience and to prove Heathrow airport as world class airport. To achieve this a smooth opening was required but unfortunately the opening was disaster and terminal 5 stood in all headlines of media and was a hot topic in the whole world. The problem was caused by combination operational and technical failures. But there are some issues regarding risk management whether they performed rehearsals or not, of so why they couldn’t identify the problems before opening day. They would have hired some extra staff for the beginning days of the terminal. They would have tested it several times before opening it. If they would have tested they would have found all possible failures and would have rectified it before opening. If they would have done so we would have seen a good risk management system in operational management. According to media sources the airport staff was unable to give answers to difficult questions. When the issue raised the British airways would have focussed a heavy spokesman so that the customer and the whole world have felt the British airways took the issue seriously. British airways would have given free food and hotel rooms when the issue happened so that they would have managed the long-term damage of company with minor compensation.

Teething problems may be difficult to avoid for any major projects, but one of the oldest rule in business is “anything can go wrong”, “will go wrong” and the second oldest rule is the judgement is passed on recovery but not the mistake, and the third rule is when something goes wrong in an organisation the best thing is to admit it. In terminal5 there was no one with strong leadership skills, people with knowledge, and authority to sort it out ad it didn’t go according to the script. It is not excusable for staff for not being able to find car parking and not for being able to get through security, and not for being able to login in to the systems to start their work, they would have gone a series of complete training, testing and rehearsals there is no excuse for the BA and BAA for saying the baggage system failed to work as they tested it only with few bags and assumed that it would work properly with 40,000 baggage’, and tested escalators when it was empty but not when it is loaded.

CHANGES TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OR CUSTOMER SERVICE:

The construction of Heathrow terminal 5 was very successful project as it was finished on time and in the budget given. But on the opening day it encountered technical problems and operational problems it would have been prevented it BA and BAA would have been followed some simple steps:

There should have been clear signs outside the terminal 5 for car parking, as it is known from the problem that staff couldn’t find the space for car parking they were about two hours late to work, so if correct signs and signals were given the staff would have arrived to work on time.

There should be clear signs in the building, as the terminal5 is massive in its size with advanced infrastructure, they should have been provided with clear signs to navigate within the building, as we came to know from the problem that staff and luggage handlers couldn’t find their designated places, they couldn’t navigate within the building.

The staff would have been trained several times before the opening day. Because on the opening day staff were unclear about using the new resource management system. When the disaster took place staff looked unhelpful, as they didn’t understand what was really happening, they couldn’t even answer to the customer standing in queues about the faults occurred.

The management would have asked staff to arrive a bit early to work to encounter potential delays in entering in to the building which they never entered before.

British Airport Authority and British Airways would have recruited some additional staff to volunteer the work on the opening day.

The baggage handlers were not given enough training to handle the new unfamiliar highly sophisticated luggage handling system, they would have given some extra training .

That new baggage system looked to have no backup system to recover when technical defaults occurs. And the staff keep on loading it even though it stopped working which resulted in sever delays in reclaiming back the luggage.

It was seen there were no announcements made and system stopped working, and the system couldn’t recognise staff ids. This is lack of testing done before opening. BA and BAA agreed it compromised on testing phase, if it would have been done several times before opening they would have avoided this disaster.

WHAT BA AND BAA DONE TO IMPROVE:

At London Heathrow terminal 5 after a one year of its opening day everything looks to be flowing smoothly, with more than 90 percent of flights departing and arriving punctually. And more than 16 million customers have now used the terminal 5 facilities properly.

New high tech equipment has been installed in security gates which make customers to pass through them quickly and pleasantly. This reduced the waiting time near the security gates.

A new system has been developed where passengers do not have to unpack their laptops as trays are available automatically and passengers don’t have to take shoes and belt as the security scanning system is very sophisticated.

The distance to the passenger gate is reduced to five minutes by walk and 45 seconds using unmanned shuttle. This reduced the time lapse between the entry and passenger gates.

The baggage performance was increased significally, the baggage is arriving the carousal before the passenger arrives saving time of passengers for reclaiming baggage. And when there is a connecting flight between destinations the luggage transfer will be done automatically, and luggage arrive quickly than passenger comes out.

BA has now more than 90 percent of flights arriving and departure on time. Hence keeping the chaos in mind the BA and BAA is following punctuality in departure and arriving times of the flight.

Staffs has given more training and daily regular meetings to make them familiar with the infrastructure. So that the BA and BAA want to give its customers the best service.

The building is designed in a way that BAA works closely and naturally with BA making them to interact and meet more often in contingency mode. So the two managements are under one roof now.

BA and BAA are using customer feedback to improve the quality and got positive feedback from most of the passengers. Hence it used these feedbacks to improve its quality service to its customers.

When compared to other airports and other Heathrow terminals the time taken to check in and drop baggage has been greatly reduced. This saves passengers time and increase the time for shopping and spending.

British Airport Authority reduced the time of waiting at security search in terminal 5 with queue less than 5 minutes.

BA moved all its staff and flights in to terminal 5, and made signals promising. Now it uses powerful satellite signalling system to manage air traffic of flights and another satellite is under construction which is due to finish by 2011.

After the management accepted its faults that it compromise in testing they applied many principles of management and rectified the whole mistakes and now terminal 5 is working properly, with 4000 car parking space, including car finders and help desk to find out lost cars, it has now its own railway station with six platforms connecting London underground and Heathrow express and lifts are working excellently handling 50 persons in one go all together, it has now automated kiosks where a passenger can cjesk in automatically and select seats and 140 desk are available for check in, and it has highly sophisticated single terminal baggage handling system whic is the best in Europe, and has major brands like Harrods, Hughes and Hughes, Links, Mapin, Paul smiths, Smythson, Cafe Nero, Starbucks, Gordon Ramsey, Giraffe, and Wagamama for customer service.

Hence the Heathrow Terminal 5 is definitely a successful project.

Introduction

Burger king is a well known brand of a fast food restaurant chain that operates globally. Founded in 1954, the burger king franchise has grown from its humble beginnings to a multibillion dollar empire over time and the business has gone beyond the borders f its country of origin and now it has franchise operations all over the world. However the character that embodies the brand, famously known as “the king” was developed and introduced in 1955 that grew to became an embodiment of the brand itself. Developing various versions for broiled beef lovers, the menu of burger king grew and so did its customer base. Owing to the immense success, the company decided to expand the business and franchises were granted in the year 1959 but the initial focus still remained on the western markets where there was a demand for and similarity with the cuisine that burger king offered but the first franchise restaurant to materialize outside the US was in Puerto Rico.

Up till the year 1967, the company had already opened up 275 restaurants but further expansion required the private owners to cohort with the Pillsbury Company. Currently, the company is a publically traded company with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, TPG Capital and Bain Capital as its major stockholders. It is one of the most well known brands on earth and it is hard to find a country where there is no burger king outlet, Pakistan happens to be one such country. However franchise operations are a very risky business for the franchisee, especially in the case of a foreign brand. A multitude of factors; both external and internal need to be addressed before a franchise can be launched. An analysis of external and internal factors needs to be done in the form of a prefeasibility study to test the waters before taking the plunge (Kotler, 2008).

Pakistani Market

Having remained under the Mughal rule for a long time, Pakistani cuisine consists of hot, spicy and rich curries that are consumed with rice or bread with a lot of herbs (Black, 2002). This makes Pakistani cuisine quite different from the Western one and therefore offers a challenge to any international franchise thinking to enter Pakistan. However it is not unusual to find famous fast food restaurants in Pakistan and travelers’ home sick for their local food will have no difficulty in finding international restaurant chains in the major cities of Pakistan (Singh, Brown, Clammer, Cocks and Mock, 2008). Various names like Pizza hut, McDonalds, KFC, Mr. Cod, Subway etc are household names for Pakistani city dwellers as well as they offer a break from the usual cuisine available at homes. According to reports, the real private consumption growth rate in Pakistan is expected to be much higher that it’s GDP by the year 2014 and therefore points towards the existence of various growth opportunities and international food companies such as Nestle and Unilever are doing extremely well (PRlog, 2010).

Burger King provides a lot of support for its franchises and even plays a role in selecting the most appropriate site for the business. The employees are also given a training of a minimum of 70 days so that they are well equipped and knowledgeable about the company’s operations.

External Analysis: PESTLE
Political Factors

Even though Pakistan has had a history of political instability, upheaval throughout its history but the political factors that are relevant to a fast food business include health and Safety Guidelines, food labelling guidelines issued by the government that may be subject to change with a changing government. In Pakistan there are no well defined rules and regulations for monitoring the health standards of restaurants and there exist no labelling requirements as well. This presents easy operational conditions as well as the opportunity to define industry standards of the fast food business in Pakistan.

The security situation in Pakistan is also a question mark because terrorist and angry mobs have often targeted international restaurant chains in Pakistan and a KFC outlet in Karachi was destroyed twice because of such a situation (Schlosser and Wilson, 2007).

Economic Factors

Economic considerations that will help in establishing the operations in Pakistan low set up costs for the franchise and the ability to tap into a growing market as the awareness of consumers regarding international brands increases. The added advantage that fast food carry is that consumers view that they are being offered fair value for the money they are paying. Additionally, the growing middle class consumers in the country who do not want to eat at small local joints but do not have the money to spend on a lavish restaurant are the best target market for burger king. Moreover, Pakistani government offers favourable investment terms and foreign investors are permitted to keep 100 % of the firm’s equity but they are subjected to the condition that a maximum of 60 % of the total equity or profits can be repatriated (SECP, 1984) however the ever depreciating Pakistani currency may be a problem. However the double digit inflation remains to be the major threat as this would warrant an increase in prices that the consumers may not be willing to bear.

Social Factors

As the working middle class in the country is increasing, the lifestyles have become much busier than they were previously which has made the acceptance of fast food restaurants in the country easier. There is still lack of awareness of the concepts of healthy Eating and Obesity among the general population and Pakistani consumers are generally meat lovers which happen to be the speciality of burger king. Another added advantage it the homogeneity in taste across the major cities in the country which will be the target market. Fast foods are not viewed as poor man’s food and eating out in an international chain is still regarded as a social activity for many families. It is the accepted religious and cultural norm to consume Halaal food only and the consumers expect the restaurants to offer such food.

Technological factors

Significant investment will have to be made in terms of developing the technology that meets the franchise agreement requirements. Involvement of technology in food here is relatively new and therefore it may be difficult to develop a supplier base in a short time and the company may have to rely on the parent company. Computer ordering or till system are relatively new here and therefore employees will need training to operate these systems and will represent a significant cost.

Legal

Restaurants in Pakistan are controlled and registered through the Pakistan Hotels & Restaurants Act of 1976. According to this law, every restaurant must be registered and the owner must attach a certificate that verifies the medical fitness of the staff from the civil hospital of that area along with the application. Health, hygiene and comfort standards have aloe been defined in this law and the authority issues the certificate of registration and the license to operate at the same time though the firm may have to file a separate form for getting a license (SMEDA, 2009).

In addition to the above mentioned act, there are various other food laws in Pakistan such as the West Pakistan Pure Food Ordinance, 1960 and covers topics that relate to the preparation and the sale of foods and violations are punishable by imprisonment and fine. Another law is the Cantonments Pure Food Act, 1966 which is applicable only in the cantonment areas. Pakistan penal code, 1860 also contains some clauses regarding adulteration of food or drink (Khan and Hafeez, 1999).

Although the regulatory framework is in place, like many other unfortunate countries, these laws are not fully implemented and often exploited.

Environmental

Pakistan is located in such a terrain because of which the weather generally remains hot during most part of the year and the summers are harsh however the northern part of the country still receives a few good months of winter as well. Monsoon is also a regular visitor however, because of the lack of basic infrastructure; weather condition may cause problems for the consumers as is the recent case of flooding in Pakistan. To make the consumers comfortable, there is a need for proper air-conditioning, heating and selection of a location that is easily accessible despite harsh weather conditions. The environment protection Act of 1997 covers topics related to the protection, preservation, rehabilitation and progress of the environment, deterrence and control of pollution and endorsement of sustainable development (The Gazette of Pakistan, 1997).

Internal Analysis: SWOT
Strengths

A major strength of this venture is the international brand name recognition of Burger king that will help access many demographic groups of the population and gain an easier acceptance in the market. In addition to this, the strong financial backing of the company is another major strength as there will be no hitches in setting up the required infrastructure and the international distribution channels of the company will serve as an added advantage for the franchise. The assembly line style of food preparation of the business is also very efficient while food safety is also given very high importance.

Weaknesses

A major weakness of this operation is that Burger King is mainly concentrated in the US while there is already established competition from other fast food joints, both local and international in the country and it may be hard to develop a consumer base. It basically relies on its franchisees to run its operations abroad. The major weakness of Burger king is that it offers a very high calorie unhealthy diet and as the trend for health consciousness increases globally, it runs the risk of a shrinking consumer base. Additionally, burgers and fast food snacks are not an everyday meal for the Pakistani consumer as the traditional local cuisine is quite different from what the burger king offers. The logo of the king that makes burger king so recognizable and is the basis of many advertising campaigns may not resonate well with the consumers as the local consumers may not be able to relate with it.

Opportunities

Since there are no burger king outlets operating in Pakistan, it is a great opportunity to introduce the Pakistani consumer to the King. There is an opportunity to take advantage of the experiences of the other fast food restaurants and not make the same mistakes that they did. In addition this, there is an opportunity available for the customization of the burger king menu to the local tastes so that consumers can accept it with ease which many international chains have done in Pakistan. There is room for new product development especially in the breakfast segment in Pakistan which may prove to be a competitive edge for the franchise. Since Pakistan is one of the emerging markets, the economy is still developing and therefore there exists great potential for those who are willing to make a long term investment commitment.

Threats

The security situation in the country remains the major threat to the franchise operations and makes them easy targets of terrorism and requires huge investments in security. The company will face intense competition from the pre established brands especially McDonalds and also from other ready to cook options such as K&Ns chicken etc. consumer eating habits are changing inevitably all over the world. Although consumers still consume fast food meals but this is an occasional event for most of the Pakistani consumers as they are still more dependent on the local or “desi” food as it is fondly referred to.

Concluding Remarks

Pakistan being one of the emerging markets holds huge potentials as well as high returns but also offers a considerable level of risk as well. Even though the market is huge and profitable, other factors such as the weak economy, political instability, and security threats and poor infrastructure make it impossible to launch operations at a massive scale. Since fast food is not the local cuisine, it may be hard to find consumers outside the major cities which considerably restrict the target market. However there are immense opportunities available as well which can be tapped into by using the most appropriate entry strategy and developing a strong exit strategy if the need arises.

People travel from one place to another for many reasons, some due to their jobs or business and few for holidays and vacations. As a traveller they cannot own a car in every place or country they go, they always prefer other options like public transports, cabs, busses, trains and rent cars or bikes. Getting a car on rent has become very famous due to the cost as it is much cheaper than using cabs for a whole day and because it is much more secure and convenient. Keeping this in the mind Researcher has decided to develop an online car rental system, by using online car rental system a traveller can book the car.

As the name of the system suggest, this system will be an online car rental system. This system will not only help the travellers to select the car of their chose but they can also compare the different models of car available and different type. They can compare prices, models and brands. They can select if they want that the car should be delivered to their door step with additional charges or they will pick up the car from the nearest store. They can select the car according to their requirement and budget.

Problem statement and Literature review
aˆ? Expensive rent for travellers

As stated by Flowers, J and Levere, J. (2008) due to rise in drivers fees and taxes such as state and local surcharges applied on airports, the rent of the cars can increase at an average of 25 per cent.

Due to rise in Tax, the travellers have to pay up to 25% of tax when the booking or renting a car from the airports. Even if the traveller pays the higher price they have to go with the cars which are available at that point of time in the car rental office. It can be expensive cars or even luxury cars which are not in budged of every person.

To overcome this problem the Online Car Rental System will help the traveller to book the car even before they have arrived. So that they do not have to pay extra airport charges and get any car which is in their budget and which suits them and their requirements.

aˆ? Returning the car remotely

According to Yang, Y., (2008), difficulty is in uncertainty of length time of the person who have taken the car on rent and which referred location he wants to return the car.

Sometimes a person takes a car on rent, but it is not sure when will the person return the car and will the person be able to come to the same location to return the car or not, in this situation that person have to pay more if he delay to return the car on time.

This online car rental system will provide an online service where the person can increase the time limits and predefined the location person will be dropping the car or he want the car to be taken from.

aˆ? Cannot reserve specific car model

According to Korstanje, M. E., (2011), Due to limitation in operations creates problem for renter to reserve specific model. Reservations are not given on the basis of model but group.

Due to operation limitation in the area like airports, this problem causes issue like in which the renters are not able to get what they actually want and they have to go for the car which is available in the store even if it is not what they are willing to have.

This online system will help traveller to do online booking in which he can select which car he prefer with the facility of comparing with other car on the basis of type and price so that he can makes best decision.

aˆ? No time for customer’s feedback

As said by Meyer, C., and Schwager, A., (2007), Due to many transactions by individual customers which are monitored by the company they does not get time to take feedback from them regarding the service provided.

When a customer comes to an office for renting a car, due to having many customers the staff member of the company does not get chance to ask customers regarding their services because of which their problems are not rectified.

To rectify these issues the online car rental system will have an online feedback service after each customer have done with their transaction at the time of logout. The system will ask for a feedback from the customer.

aˆ? Time wasting

As said by Ahlstrom, C., Kircher, K., et al., (2012), Due to a single mistake of the airport rental service it take hours to get cars on rent.

When there is a problem in the airport rental service it can take hours to get the car on rent which is actually wasting the time of the renter.

In online car rental system the reservation will be done before traveller arrived at the airport so that when the traveller arrives at the airport the car will be ready to be taken.

aˆ? Change car on each route

As said by Asconavieta, P.H.S. (2011) car rental companies usually work on the regional basis because of which traveller have to change car on every route.

Due to shortage of area coverage as the car taken for the company should return to the same location makes the traveller to keep changing the car even if they go from one state to another. They have to come back to the same location. So when they go to different state they have to change their car.

To rectify this problem the online car rental system will have an option of selecting the area the customers want to return the car. So In the country like Emirates or Maldives where the area is short, the car can be taken from one state to another state without any problems.

aˆ? Improper scheduling for proper car utilisation

As stated by Minodora, 2009, improper scheduling in car rental companies causes the company unable to utilise their car and even increase work time for renter to get car.

Due to improper scheduling in the car rental companies the car spend more time in the company’s car lot or customers have to wait until the car is not returned.

Using online car rental system the scheduling will be done online by the customer itself as the car which they select they have to put the time they will return. If in case they fail to return or inform the pickup point extra charges will be charged to them.

aˆ? Return car on the same agency location

According to Goldbarg, M., Asconavieta, P. and Goldbarg, E., (2012), car rented from a company can only be returned to the agency of the same company.

If a renter take a car from a company he or she have to return it to the same agency of the same company but if the person is new in the region it will not be possible for him to do that it will be wasting of time in searching for the agency.

In the online car rental system the renter can select whether he wants to retune the car or he wants the car to be taken from where he is , it can be hotel, airport, mall or any other location he can predefined the location online and the car will be picked up from him.

aˆ? Insufficient revenue

Lin-in, H., and Tao, Q. (2011) described that car renting companies in certain areas unable to get sufficient revenue for growth.

This issue is due to concentrating on a limited region because the rate of sale increases based on the area of the company it is located in if the company is limited to its area only.

In online car rental system there will be no boundaries, the company can concentrate on any location and get revenue from any part of the area or even country if the country is not in a bigger size like Emirates or Maldives.

aˆ? Rejection due to short time frame

According to Guerriero, F., Olivito, F. (2011) in order to increase the revenue, company with limited car does not rent the car for a day or few hours.

Because of limited area of work company does not give their cars for short period of time to increase their revenue which make it difficult for the traveller to search car renting company after he have reached to the unknown country or location.

As the online car rental system allows traveller to book the cars online. A person does not really have to go through all this type of issues as a person will be getting the car as soon as he or she arrives.

Research Aims & Objectives
4.1 Aims

To create an online system, that will allow travellers to easily rent a car.

It will also allow user to select the car according to their requirement and compare it with other options of cars.

Make it easy for a traveler to return the car on remote locations.

Solving the manual scheduling problem as every transaction will be done online.

4.2 Objectives

Is to create a reliable web base online system on which user can access using internet from anywhere.

To use software tools in implementation, this will help in implementing features for easy access.

Allow system users to participate in the early stages of development so the outcome will be user oriented.

Research Questions

There are two categories in which the researcher has classified the questions.

5.1 Domain research Questions

How the system will help in car scheduling?

How the system will affect the operation of the renting company?

How the proposed system is different from existing systems?

How to integrate online payments by credit cards?

5.2 Technical research question

Which scripting language can be used for the proposed system?

Which data base system can be used for the proposed system?

How the different feature can be implemented into the system?

Which web authoring software can suits best of the system?

Research Design
6.1 Domain Research

The research in domain research will be conducted from literature source like journal, eBooks, white papers and library books. Furthermore research will be done by using online resources such as IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar and my Athens.

6.2 Technical research

Mainly Web resources such as eBooks and journal will be used in conducting technical research.

Research Plan
Personal Reflection
7.1 Facts finding Methods

The fact finding method which the researcher will use is questionnaire and interview fact find methods. Questionnaires are objective and will reach too many respondents which will provide researcher with sufficient information for accurate analysis. On the other hand the interview method will allow the researcher to get deep understanding about the topic area.

7.2 Limitations

Like every system have some limitation, in order to collect data and questionnaire from traveller during the development will be difficult and their participation is not possible so this matter can be overcome by using social networks and other web application to take questionnaire before or in the early stages of the system development

One of the latest buzzwords that have come into general usage in the world of tourism is that of “Integrated Resorts”. Over the last two decades, a number of large tourist integrated resorts have been developed around the world, many of which have become highly popular holiday destinations. The growth in tourism generated by these integrated resorts has brought significant economic and social benefits to their respective countries, including increased foreign exchange earnings, direct and indirect employment. In addition, the resorts’ development has stimulated local and regional development, encouraging new local industries and international trade. The success of these integrated resorts can be largely attributed to the adoption of an integrated approach to their development, caretirl planning and implementation that took into consideration regional environmental, economic and socio-cultural factors. This kind of approach helps minimise environmental, socio-economic and marketing problems often associated with uncontrolled tourism development.

The development of integrated resorts has grown rapidly over the last two decades also as a reaction to the proliferation of unplanned beach resorts. On the supply side, many governments have increasingly turned to integrated resort developments in an attempt to improve the well-being of the local population by generating iobs and increasing income, and private investors have seen integrated resorts as a way to maximise their profits, while on the demand side, statistics are not available on the relative proportion of tourist demand for integrated resorts.

In the context of globalisation and widening international tourist markets, it is acknowledged that integrated resorts offer great opportunities to visitors for leisure, recreation and sports, but due to the difficulty in assessing the impacts that may result from the construction of an integrated resort, as plans for integrated resorts are developed by consultancy iiirms and private investors that rarely publish or divulge their ‘secrets’ before resort operation, most research has been conducted only after the construction of integrated resorts.

The notion of integrated resorts came into plrominence in Mauritius after the successful approval ofthe environmental impact assessment report and construction of Tamarina Golf, Spa and Beach Club that is the first integrated resort in Mauritius.

1.1 Tourism Industrv in Mauritius

Mauritius has considerable natural advantages as a holiday destination such as beautiful coral beaches, warm clear lagoons, colouriixl reefs, picturesque mountains, a subtropical climate, a southern hemisphere location, an atmosphere that is exotically different, yet safe and stable, and people who are friendly and welcoming. These Advantages have been exploited with attractive well run hotels with good amenities, direct and reliable air services, efficient supporting infrastructure and effective marketing as an up-market quality destination. It is therefore hardly surprising that tourist arrivals have been rising by more than 8 percent a year and the tourism industry has become one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy, accounting for 19 per cent of gross export earnings and providing employment directly and indirectly for about 50,000 people.

However, there are problems. Average spending per visitor has not been going up as fast as hoped, and there have been some signs of adverse reactions at tourist numbers and behaviour. Infrastructure constraints have developed in the form of congestion at peak times at the airport and inadequate efiluent treatment leading to deterioration in water quality in some of the lagoons_ In the longer term, there will be more general environmental constraints, in the form of limits to the capacity for absorbing ever increasing numbers of visitors in a small densely populated country with a finite length of beaches and a sensitive coastal ecology. It will be necessary in fixture to place a ceiling on the number of tourists in order to protect the environment and, indeed, the fixture of the tourism industry itself Mauritius has been very successful in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the 197O’s. However there has been a decline in the growth of FDI since the mid-19S0’s, particularly in the manufacturing sector. However, FDI growth has started to pick up again since 2005, led by the tourism sector, particularly the Integrated Resort Scheme as illustrated below.

Foreign Direct Investment by Sector, 2003-2007

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

(USD million)

Export Processing Zone 2.7 8.7 3.6 2.8 2.2

Tourism 3.4 4.2 18.2 83.0 144.0

Banking 46.0 10.9 15.4 111.0 70.0

Telecommunications 0 1.3 5 _ 9 1 .4 0. 5

Other 16.8 37.8 52.0 30.7 64.3

Total 68.9 62.9 95.1 228.9 281.0

As illustrated above, tourism has proved to be a credible alternative source of foreign currency earnings. However the country will not be able to cope with a policy of mass tourism which is unsustainable. Also the characteristic of the country, which is a Small Island Developing States (SIDS) facing special disadvantages associated with small size, insularity, remoteness and proneness to natural disasters, limits the prospect of tourism development.

Hence since the economy of the country is highly vulnerable and the totnism industry having reached its carrying capacity, therefore sustainable tourism development is very instrumental. Mauritius has therefore resorted to the rejuvenation of its tourism life cycle, as this is nearing or has reached the stagnation stage, through the development of an alternative luxurious product known as ‘Integrated Resort’, as illustrated below.

This good mix of tourism and real estate development has been high on government’sagenda and has led to government’s intervention in the tourism sector with the twin objective of tourism rejuvenation and FDI increase.

1.2 Aims of study

The development of the tourism industry in Mauritius has been considered as an important economic diversification tool for the nation. Realizing the importance of the tourism industry in the economic development of Mauritius, government has initiated the Integrated Resort Scheme. Therefore the aim of this dissertation is primarily to conduct an investigation regarding development and impacts of integrated resort in Mauritius.

1.3 Objectives of study

This study purports to investigate the anticipated and current socio-economic and environmental impacts of integrated resorts in the Mauritian context. In particular, this study will aim to achieve the following objectives:

To investigate the context of integrated resort development and its aims and objectives in the development of Mauritius tourism.

To know the criticisms about the initiation of integrated resort in Mauritius.

To determine the positive impact of integrated resort in terms of society, economy and environment of Mauritius.

To know the negative impact of integrated resorts in terms of society, economy and environment of Mauritius.

To recommend guidelines for sustainable integrated resort development and minimizing negative impacts of integrated resort development.

This good mix of tourism and real estate development has been high on government’sagenda and has led to government’s intervention in the tourism sector with the twin objective of tourism rejuvenation and FDI increase.

1.2 Aims of study

The development of the tourism industry in Mauritius has been considered as an important economic diversification tool for the nation. Realizing the importance of the tourism industry in the economic development of Mauritius, government has initiated the Integrated Resort Scheme. Therefore the aim of this dissertation is primarily to conduct an investigation regarding development and impacts of integrated resort in Mauritius.

1.3 Objectives of study

This study purports to investigate the anticipated and current socio-economic and environmental impacts of integrated resorts in the Mauritian context. In particular, this study will aim to achieve the following objectives:

0 To investigate the context of integrated resort development and its aims and objectives in the development of Mauritius tourism.

0 To know the criticisms about the initiation of integrated resort in Mauritius.

0 To determine the positive impact of integrated resort in terms of society, economy and environment of Mauritius.

0 To know the negative impact of integrated resorts in terms of society, economy and environment of Mauritius.

0 To recommend guidelines for sustainable integrated resort development and minimising negative impacts of integrated resort development.

Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Tourism Impact

Mauritius has built its successful up market tourism sector on a fragile and vulnerable natural resource. The growth of the tourist industry in an unplanned manner has led to the following negative impacts:

»’ High volume tourism has made an enormous impact on parts of the coast. There are plenty of examples of virtually every imaginable type of tourism impact on the environment, including the destruction of coastal wetlands and other sensitive environments, organic pollution and coastal erosion for example. Flic en Flac.

0 There are problems associated with monitonng and auditing due to institutional weaknesses. Most casual tourists bring their own equipment and are relatively self-contained, thus bringing in minimal cash into the country while making a large impact on the enviromnent for example tourists from Reunion and other islands of the Indian Ocean. y

2.2 Tourism Environmental Impacts

The natural environment is under increasing threat hom unmanaged human activities, and in assessing the impacts of tourism, it is essential to adopt a holistic view that recognises both the direct and indirect consequences of tourism activities and their intrinsic link with other sectors (Glenn Kreag 2001). Growth in the tourism sector may generate new impacts on the coastal zone but also raise the intensity of existing impacts by placing additional burdens on resources that are already overextended. For this is a feature of human settlement and not just of tomism. However, where this is exacerbated by a significant increase in the number of visitors and people employed within the industry, the tourism sector must take responsibility for providing solutions to the causes of environmental degradation. The major environmental impacts identified and theiR direct consequences on tourism development as well as impacts associated with activities that support the tourism sector are highlighted as:

* Water Resources and River Ecosystem

* Estuaries and Wetlands

* Soil Erosion and Sedimentation

* Waste Disposal and Pollution

* Coastal Erosion

* Marine Resources

* Recreational Activities

2.3 Tourism Economic Impact

In the developing world, economic impacts frequently outweigh other considerations when it comes to tourism development. The need for foreign exchange and the ease by which the industry can be developed relative to other sectors, makes tourism development a national priority (Glenn Kreag 2001), It is therefore important to have a clear understanding of the tourism industr`y’s economic impacts, particularly because not all of them are positive. These impacts are the primary impacts, employment opportunities, impacts on the labour force, inflation and the availability of essential resources and over-reliance on tourism.

2.4 Classification of Impact

There are several ways of looking at economic impacts. The following classification of impacts reflects the multi-sectoral nature oftourism:

Primary Impacts arise from the inflow of foreign cash as a result of visitor expenditure. They are fairly well recorded by banks and businesses such as airlines, hotels and restaurants. They are relatively easy to measure.

Secondary Impacts arise when the currency inflows penetrate to other sectors. This happens when the tourism industry passes some of its business on to other businesses, for instance, when an airline company contracts to provide on-board meals. Wages earned by people involved in sport services also fall into this category.

Tertiary effects arise when currency flows are not the result of tourist expenditure, but when the practise of tourism led to other opportunities. For instance, a filmmaker on holiday in Mauritius may decide to use that country as the venue for his or her next film. Or a tourist may be so enchanted with the sandy beaches and blue lagoons of Mauritius that he or she buys a bungalow.

From the above, it can be seen that the total economic impact of tourism is very hard to calculate indeed, but it would be wise to commission a thorough analysis of the tourism industry results. For instance, the high percentage of foreign workers in the tourism industry results in wages ending up going to their home countries which reduces the net benefit to the host Country.

2.5 Tourism Social and Cultural Impacts

The socio-cultural impacts of tourism are basically the consequences of either the development of the tourism industry or the presence of the tourists (and the characteristics of the tourist-host relationship) (Sharpley 1994). The table below contains a comprehensive list of these impacts, following the classification adapted from Pizam & Milman (1984), and Burdge (1994). The social and cultural impacts of tourism can be vast, and unfortunately many of them are negative. They include:

0 An intrusion of western culture into the host population. The tendency is often for local people to try to emulate westem consumerism. In new destinations, local populations are often not aware that many tourists work hard most of the year and then take time off for leisure. Instead, the tourists appear to have a lifestyle that is only enviable and the temptation to mimic them in terms of- dress or personal assets such as watches, sunglasses, etc, is great.

0 Value systems may be eroded, particularly in poor areas where tourists can be seen as an opportunity to make a fast buck. This may lead to theft prostitution, and sometimes violent crimes.

Local customs are often not respected by tourists who may be unaware or insensitive to them. It is critically important that the government and other role players make tourists aware of such issues;

Valuable cultural artefacts are olten bought by tourists, and shipwrecks are regularly plundered.

The table below show some of the main impact of tourism on a country

IDIPACTS IDF TOUllISlI

Positive Negative

Impacts on population

Population increase

(immigration, no emigration)

Immigration of seasonal workforce

(positive in case of lack of labour – negative in case of unemployment)

Presence of second home owners

(positive if involved in community life – negative if not involved)

Changes in population distribution (by age, sex, race, ethnicity)

Urbanisation of population

Changes in labour market

New jobs Seasonal jobs

New types of jobs in tourism Unskilled jobs

Increased value of knowledge, language Lack of labour in traditional sectors

skills

Economic diversification Increased economic inequality

Stimulation of underdeveloped regions I

Changes in community structure, characteristics

Income from tourism Increase in the number of temporary

residents

(not very committed)

Growing importance of service sector i Conflicts with second home owners

Stimulation of social, cultural life Difficulties in acquiring real estate

Increase in the value of land Increase in real estate prices s

Development of infrastructure Increase in prices, intlation

Wider opportunity for shopping Loss tiw

Improvement in the destination image ‘ Transformation of value systems

Increase in residents’ pride in their Religious conflicts

settlement l (with second home owners, with tourists)

Decrease of prejudices, disappearance of Overdependence on tourism

stereotypes, increase in tolerance

Congestion

Traiiic problems

Transformation of social stratification

(owners of totuist resources rise, owners of traditional resources fell)

Impacts on individual and family level

Increase in social mobility i Disruption of social networks

p (especially among the young and women)

i Improvement in leisure opportunities ‘ Changes in the rhythm of life

_ Meeting new people, wider social Loss of importance of liiendship

Improvement in the quality of life Increase in perception of danger

(due to increased criminality)

Language skills Xenophobia

Income hom totuism Commercialised hospitality

Improvement in attitudes toward work, Deviant behaviours (alcoholism,

politeness, manners prostitution,

I gambling, drug abuse vandalism)

Local language suppressed

Increased sexual permissiveness

Transformation of family structure

Transformation of consumer habits

Changes in housing conditions

Transformation of behaviour (demonstration effect)

Impacts on cultural and natural resources

Protection of rare resoufces of Disappearance of local habits, traditions

outstanding beauty <

Revival of local arts, crafts, cultLu’al Commercialisatknl of culture

events

Revival of local architectural traditions Littering, pollution

2.6 Conception and Development of Integrated Resort in Mauritius

Mauritius has during recent years been facing serious economic problems owing to the need to comply with free trade agreements and globalisation. This has severely affected sugar and textile exports, two major pillars of the natio al economy, and consequently our balance of payment. Despite serious economic problems, Mauritius has succeeded in realising a remarkable economic transformation due to a diversified economy resting on other pillars like financial and business services sector and that of tourism, hospitality and property development. Hence the development of the Integrated Resort Scheme can be seen as an economic strategy.

As a national strategy the Mauritian government has come along with the introduction of the IRS under the Investment Promotion Act 2000 through the Investment Promotion (Integrated Resort Scheme) Regulations 2002 in order to boost up foreign direct investment which is a necessary component in the fight to compensate for the decrease in sugar and textile income inflow. This has been a strategic attempt with the twofold objective, firstly to attract more foreign direct investment and secondly to strike a more favourable balance of payment. Hence recently Hospitality and Property Development have emerged, attracting substantial investment fiom both local and foreign investors under Investment Promotion Regulations 2007 which promotes the Real Estate Development Scheme comprising of IRS and RES (Real Estate Scheme) projects which are expected to be implemented in the next few years. The objective of the Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS) is to attract mainly high net-worth non-citizens into Mauritius by allowing them to acquire luxury villas of international standing and at the same time providing high-class amenities and facilities including golf course, marina, individual swimming pool, catering, nautical and other sport facilities and health centre within the boundaries of the integrated resort area. The acquisition of a villa for residential purposes by a foreigner under the Scheme will allow the foreigner & his family to reside in Mauritius as long as he holds the property.

Whilst the Investment Promotion Act 2000 expresses government’s political will to expand the economic sector by creating the Board of Investment, the Business Facilitation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006 enhances business opportunities

towards IRS projects. The Investment Promotion Act 2000 and Investment Promotion Regulations 2007 provide the legal framework for guidelines with regard to the implementation of these projects.

The Finance Act 2007 introduced amendme ts to the following Acts of Parliament in order to regulate the promotion, implementation and marketing of IRS projects in Mauritius:

0 Investment Promotion Act

0 Land (Duties and Taxes) Act

0 Morcellement Act

0 Non-Citizens (Property Restriction) Act

0 Registration Duty Act

» Sugar Industry Efiiciency Act 2001

0 Environment Protection Act 2002

Here under is a list of IRS projects currently being implemented:

Solares at Flic en Flac, Villas Valriche, Les Villas Telfair, Les Salines, La Balise Marina, Domaine de l’Harmonie, Barachois villas and River Club. A few other projects have received their letter of approval recently and upon compliance to conditions laid down they will receive their IRS certificates. In some other cases the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which analyses the environmental, biophysical and social impact of a proposed development, is being scrutinised in order to ensure that the proposed development is sustainable.

The Integrated Resort Scheme provides:

» for the development of luxury residential units of international standing on freehold land of more than 10 hectares to be sold at a price exceeding USD 500,000

» high-class leisure and commercial amenities and facilities intended to enhance the residential units. These may include but not limited to, golf course, marina, nautical and other sport facilities, shopping mall, restaurant and wellness centre.

0 day-to-day management services such as security, maintenance, gardening, solid waste disposal and household services have to be provided to the residents.

0 for a social contribution in terms of social amenities, community development and other facilities for the benefit of the neighbouring community where the IRS project is implemyed/

However the following conditions concerning the eligibility for the acquisition of residential property from an IRS Company have to be complied with:

(a) a non-citizen of Mauritius

(b) a citizen of Mauritius

(c) a company registered as a foreign company under the Companies Act 2001

(d) a company incorporated under the Companies Act 2001

(e) a Societe, where its deed of formation is deposited with the Registrar of Companies

(l) a trust, where the trusteeship services are provided by a qualified trustee licensed by the Financial Services Commission

It is instrumental to examine the importance and justification of the IRS in Mauritius liom a scientific point of view. Integrated resorts initiatives and development can be primarily viewed from the macro-economic perspective of foreign capital inflow (FDI) where as on the other hand they can be explained from the perspective of the market failure concept which has necessitated the rejuvenation process of the resort cycle in Mauritius.

The strong linkages of tourism and IRS with other economic sectors should be the key in realising that tourism and new products are a powerful factor for economic growth’ and employment. This can clearly be seen by the nature of tourism and permanent residence needs, that is to say, as an industry it calls for goods and services such as: transportation, food, fuel, water and electricity, crafts, tour services, entertainment, communication, etc. These linkages have always had a positive economic impact in Mauritius. Of coLu’se tourism and HKS development not only benefit the private sector

but contribute significantly to government revenues in the form of sales, business, corporate, personal, departure and of course, import levies.

2.7 The Rationale for Government Intervention in Mauritius Tourism Sector

Continuing globalization of competition has given confirmation to the market-oriented view entertained by the Mauritian government which justifies its intervention in the tourism sector by creating the integrated resort scheme to favour our export oriented strategy. It is believed that markets should be given primacy in the production and distribution of goods and services while government should provide the proper institutional infrastructure for markets to function properly. In cases of ket failure government should intervene to correct any imperfection and intervention is also justified because the more important the sector is to the economy, the greater intervention should be in order to ensure socially compatible objectives that foster sustainable development.

The public sector can “exercise varying degree of influence over the direction of tourism development by acting on both the demand side and supply side” (Akehurst et al, 1994). In Mauritius the demand management policies and the management of its supply side must be seen to go in pair with government’s macro-stabilization policy in an attempt to reach a state of equilibrium. Micro policies have to be endorsed to make markets function better. Govemmenfs political structure and the functioning of rivate institutions have to go in pair as well, Barriers and rigidities should be removed so that new projects like integrated resort development could function more

efficiently. Without appropriate macro-economic policies market-oriented projects in the tourism sector will have to struggle for survival. Thus the role of government in ensuring a better economic climate is of vital importance to improve returns in the lCOl1I`lSII1 Sa‚¬CfO!`

The Mauritian government had taken actions to correct market failure in the economic and tourism sector by rntroducrng the integrated resort development that is the integrated resort scheme Market failure arises from a situation where the ‘riee market does not guarantee environmental protection and community involvement rn development process Since the tourism sector rn Mauritius rs not an integrated

Citius Altius Fortius – Faster, Higher, Stronger is the Olympic Motto. Let us evaluate the role of 2012 Olympics in Promoting Hospitality Industry in London that is the degree of fastness, height and strength Olympic 2012 generates in the Hospitality Industry. The story so far aˆ¦On 6th July 2005 International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge made the announcement after IOC members voted 54-50 to eliminate the French capital in the fourth and final round of secret ballots in Singapore. London has twice played host to the Olympics, in 1908 and 1948. It becomes the first city to host the Olympics three times. The Games will act as a platform to display the London culture across the world. It will also attract tourism in the country .The arrival of spectators will produce a boost for the hospitality industry across London. The effects of London 2012 will be felt long after the Olympic flame has left the capital.

The days changed (from 2005 to 2008).The financial crunch has hit the market. At the London Olympic Park, the Olympic Delivery Authority is spending a lot for the development of Olympic city. London city will have major venues than any other city in the world. The evaluation and comparison is required which may be tricky when the games are over, however positively the project may become a vibrant element.

The role of 2012 Olympic in promoting the hospitality industry in London is vital. The government and the hospitality industry itself need to play a major role and take advantage of this historic event and develop standards and service which should play as a Role Model and set an example in itself. The government needs to implement strategies to promote tourism and attract tourist. They need to observe and the follow the fruitful strategies followed by the previous host countries. All the channels of mass communication such as Media and Press should be used appropriately to create awareness and enthusiasm, a sort of “Hype” which is most essential in publicity these days. The government should try at the optimum level to provide concession in the transportation, best infrastructure facilities and the most important of all create an environment to facilitate the multilingual international tourists. Financial support, if required will prove as Boon in Disguise, please remember the present Financial Crunch in 2008.

Tourism 2012 in number

?2.34b Estimated benefit of the Games to the tourism industry

?9.3b Current bill for the Games

?22b Estimated investment in Beijing Games

18% Was cut from VisitBritain’s funding for 2008-11

Source – Figures presented by Caterersearch (2008)

The skill factor comes into picture. Hospitality needs to improve skills to cater the needs of international tourist .Development of new innovative ideas, publicity strategies, procedures and improved quality should be the area of concern for the hospitality industry. Quality should not be made available at the cost of increasing the “COST”; however steps should be taken to permeate the cost with the help of “Optimum utilisation of resources”. The hotel staff should be provided training so that they can use their experience in the best manner to deal with attitude, culture and understanding level of the tourists.

The major impact of Olympic Games 2012 on economy as a whole will be observed when the hospitality industry will be able to derive long running benefit from and after Olympics 2012, in proportion to the spending made for infrastructural development with respect to Olympics 2012.This benefit should be widespread not only during the games also in the post game period. In order to achieve this benefit the expenditure and spending of the tourists should be accurately converted into income and employment in the hospitality industry that is the cost-cutting and budget should be well planned to provide the best standards with the affordable price. The Olympics Games with the associated facilities should be promoted in such a manner that they must act as “Winter Fuel” for the hospitality industry. Even after the games the spirit should be on that is there should be consistent flow of tourist.

According to the Economic Impact of the London 2012 Olympics Adam Blake 2005/5 in the pre-Olympics phase (2005-2011).A relatively small legacy effect also takes place, with a boost to international tourism arrivals and spending. Other sectors experience smaller increases in gross value added in the pre- Olympics phase, such as hotels (?54 million), Bars (?37 million), Restaurants (?37 million) and air transport (?37 million). These sectors gain through the legacy effect, and experience modest increases in employment in this period, for example 2,554 FTE jobs are created in hotels, 2,094 in Bars and 1,811 in restaurants. The post-Games period 2013-2016 is characterized by the legacy effect, with increased tourism demand from overseas. It is also a period in which, because there is less pressure on prices than prior to and during 2012, consumers choose to save less and consume more; prior to 2012 the Olympics raise returns to capital and increase prices, which induces a small shift towards savings and investment.

Source – “Report by Adam Blake, (May 2005) Economic Impact of the London 2012 Olympics”.

In a nutshell the role of 2012 Olympic Games in promoting the hospitality industry is directly related and effecting the enhancement of hospitality industry in a long run .It also requires the complete aid and funding from the government. The hospitality industry also, itself has to take initiative and play a complimentary role to “skim the milk”. This is an opportunity to grab and time to pull up the socks .The country is in real need of inflow of external wealth which will act as a lubricant to run the economy during the recession. Being optimistic, keeping the present Credit crunch aside, it draws us towards a conclusion that if appropriate measures are taken and implemented the 2012 Olympics will prove to be beneficial to the hospitality industry, develop the standards. This event will demand and appeal the government to provide contribution towards the hospitality industry. If this event is successful it will set a benchmark for future events, keeping the constant inflow of tourist which will keep the hospitality fertile and productive.

Let us be a part of the Olympic spirit and create a Win /Win situation.

Rationale for the Topic:

The most awaited event London Olympics 2012 , would not only bring fantastic competition rather would have long lasting effects on the city .The games would make the area more rewarding area to live and work in. Along with the rest of the UK, the games would also boost London’s tourist industry, create jobs in hospitality sector and stimulate the voluntary sector. Behind the curtains economic effects, impact on the development of standards and quality, the cost and the honour associated with the games and its potential to accrue benefits makes this topic interesting.

Research Questions:

The research is proposed to evaluate the role of 2012 Olympics in Promoting Hospitality Industry in London. The evaluation raises questions such as; Is the quality and standards of the hospitality industry developed to cater the international tourist? What is the role of government in promoting the Olympic Games to attract tourist? The comparison has to be made between pre-game cost in development and the post-game economic effects in terms of long lasting benefit? What is the general effect of Olympics on the hospitality industry where it was held? How to retain and convert the expenditure and spending into the profits to gain enduring advantage? The different types of spending patterns by the visitors?

Research Objectives:

The eventual objective of this research is to evaluate the role of 2012 Olympics in Promoting Hospitality Industry in London. Initially there is a need to study the measures taken for the development and promotion of hospitality industry in the pre game period to gratify the international tourist, accordingly to infuse the benefit of the same after the post-game period.

The major objectives of the research can be bifurcated as below:

1. To critically evaluate the role of 2012 Olympics in Promoting Hospitality Industry in London.

2. To estimate and appraise the growth of standards, quality and endorsement to satisfy and attract the Tourist.

3. To emphasis on the preservation of the positive drizzle of the Olympic Games for the betterment of the post-game period.

Literature Review:

Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Managing Director, David Sykes, said: “The Olympic Games will bring more people to the Capital than ever before – surely this can only be a good thing for London’s hospitality industry. We have 24 London restaurants, so we’re bound to feel the benefits of the hundreds of thousands of visitors the Games will attract to the city.” The CBI has also identified ways in which London can maximize the commercial opportunities that come with hosting the games, and include promoting London as a top tourist and business destination, while improving the quality and service offered by hotels and conference centers.

Source – Big hospitality (2008)

Liz Williams, Managing Director of London restaurants, The Real Greek, said: “The 2012 Olympic games can only be positive for London restaurants, as it will bring more people to the City, meaning more diners. Being so close to the planned regeneration site in East London, The Real Greek restaurants in Spitalfields and Hoxton should benefit from the Games. So the Games are good news all round and hopefully Greece will win some medals to boot!” County councils across the UK are currently offering schemes to help provide staff training to improve customer service skills in time for the games.

Source – Big hospitality (2008)

Peter Hancock, chief executive of Pride of Britain Hotels, said: “It is hard to imagine the minister for tourism in any other country making such negative comments about their own accommodation stock.” Perhaps he should not have been surprised. Tourism is clearly not a priority at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Out of 77 press releases issued by the department so far this year, just one has been about tourism.

Source – Caterer & Hotelkeeper (2008)

Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st, said: “The 2012 Olympics presents one of the biggest opportunities we have ever had to showcase the UK to the world – so it’s vital we look to eradicate the “Manuel factor” now, by promoting the right skills in the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industries. The welcome we give the millions of visitors flocking here will be pivotal in helping change long-held perceptions and ensure that the UK becomes globally renowned for its gold standard customer service.”

“By working together with employers and the industry we can continue to encourage and attract enthusiastic and motivated people into the sector,” he added.

Source – Caterer & Hotelkeeper (2007)

Methodology:

The method used in this research is the Exploratory method. The research has been commenced from an inductive position. Further analysis of articles and reports is required. It is necessary to identify the relationship between the data collected and the research objective and the research questions. A theoretical framework later need to be built up on the basis of the secondary data collected and analysed. Accordingly the Extended text has to be reduced for explanatory display. There are no controls over the variables at the present situation. Further observation is required with respect to occurrence of future events and situations to draw a comprehensive conclusion.

Data Analysis:

Qualitative data refers to all non numeric data or data that have not been quantified and can be a product of all research strategies. (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, (2007), Research Methods for Business Students; 4th Edition, Prentice Hall (ISBN 0273701487), chapter-13, p-470)

Qualitative Analysis is expressed in words unlike the Quantitative which is expressed through numerical data .This type of Research lays the initial foundation for better understanding .This data is extended, unstructured and includes some statistical figures with respect to impact of Olympic Games in the Pre Game period and predictions of the same in the Post game period . So the slightest blend of Quantitative analysis is also required .This gives improved understanding of the Research Objectives.

Data Collection:

Secondary data has been collected using the inductive approach. Secondary data is the method of collecting data that has been already analyzed by some one .(Kothari C.R.,(2005),Research Methods and Techniques;2nd Edition,New Age International Publisher,chapter-6,p-111).In this proposed research, the data collected by using the secondary data in this most of the information is collected from the internet and articles. All the research questions and the objectives are met by the secondary data.

Conclusion:

With the above research findings, I can conclude that Olympic 2012 will bring

References:

1. Becky Paskin (2008, 12 June), Hospitality industry doubts benefits of 2012 Olympics [Online] Available from URL:

http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cg

[Accessed 01NOV08]

2. Caterer & Hotelkeeper (2008, 11 September), Industry needs to get on track for 2012 Olympics [Online] Available from URL: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2008/09/11/323351/industry-needs-to-get-on-track-for-2012-olympics

[Accessed 01NOV08]

3. Daniel Thomas (2007, 04 September), Hospitality needs to improve skills in time for Olympics [Online] Available from URL: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2007/09/04/315862/hospitality-needs-to-improve-skills-in-time-for-olympics

[Accessed 02NOV08]

4. Adam Blake, Nottingham University Business School (May 2005), The Economic Impact of the London 2012 Olympics [Online] Available from URL: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ttri/pdf/2005_5.pdf

[Accessed 03NOV08]

5. Personnel Today (2007, 15 October), Hotels poach top talent for 2012 London Olympics due to skills shortages and staff retention problems [Online] Available from URL:

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/10/15/42797/hotels-poach-top-talent-for-2012-london-olympics

[Accessed 08NOV08]

6. Kothari C.R., (2005), Research Methods and Techniques; 2nd Edition, New Age International Publisher, chapter-6, p-111

7. Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, (2007), Research Methods for Business Students; 4th Edition, Prentice Hall (ISBN 0273701487), chapter-13, p-470

Chapter 1

Hilton Hotels in groups UK is known as one of the leading hotel group in the world. The Hilton Hotels group was found with its’ very first hotel established by Mr. Conrad in 1919 in Cisco, Texas. But, today the Hilton Hotels group has expanded geographically, produced original hotel and travel concepts, and developed modern technologies to enhance the experiences of the valuable guests. Today, it consists of more than 3600 hotels all over the world also with nearly 500,000 luxurious rooms in 81 countries with the continuously growing crew of over 135,000 members internationally (Hilton Hotels, 2011). Depending on that, it is clear and it was proven that the Hilton Hotels group has the capability of satisfying the interest of their customers as well as their stake holders.

The Hilton Hotels consists of well reputed and highest quality popular brands with in their group such as, Hilton Conrad hotels and resorts, double tree by Hilton, Hampton inn by Hilton, Hilton garden inn, Hilton Grand vacations and home woods suites by Hilton and Waldorf Astoria collection.

The whole Hilton Hotels group is running adherence to the Mr. Conrad Hilton’s philosophy, the vision of the hotel Hilton Hotels group is “To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality” (Hilton Hotels, 2011).

Accordingly, the Hilton Hotels group believes it is their insight to convey the message of kindness and generosity all over the world, simply known as hospitability. According to the core values of the Hilton Hotels group, their brand name HILTON stands for,

H

HOSPITALITY – We are passionate about delivering exceptional guest experiences.

I

INTEGRITY – We do the right thing, all the time.

L

LEADERSHIP – We are leaders in our industry and in our communities.

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TEAMWORK – We are team players in everything we do.

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OWNERSHIP – We are the owners of our actions and decisions.

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NOW – We operate with a sense of urgency and discipline (Hilton Hotels, 2011).

At present, Hilton worldwide can be considered as one of the leading global hospitality company, crossing over the accommodation sector from luxurious full-service hotels and resorts to extended-stay suites and mid-priced hotels.

The Hilton Hotels group is operated as an innovative and dynamic company which is mainly focused on administrating their business operations following the eco-friendly concepts and also with the services to the global community and enhancing the guest experience.

Since the foundation formed by Mr. Conrad Hilton 90 years ago, Hilton’s commitment to creating exceptional guest experiences still remains unaltered, and our more than 130,000 team members continue to bring the highest quality of service to the global visitors also achieving the interests of the stake holders with the mission of “We will be the preeminent global hospitality company – the first choice of guests, team members and owners alike” (Hilton Hotels, 2011).

1.2 Groups of stakeholder and achieving their objectives

Stakeholder can be considered as a person or people who have a stake also known as share in a particular organization or system. Stakeholders can be groups of people, organisations, institutions and sometimes even individuals.

Sometimes the terms either actors or interest groups are used to describe the term stake holders. Accordingly, the word actor emphasizes that stakeholders are active in order to make interactions with each other. The use of the words interest group suggests that people can be grouped to achieve common goal.

In some occasions, stake holder can be identified as a corporate stakeholder, a party that may have the potential to affect or be affected by the actions of the business as a whole. This concept was first used in a 1963 internal memorandum at the Stanford Research institute. It defined stakeholders as “those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist” (Grimble and Wellard, 1997).

The theory was presently developed by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s. Since then it has gained wide acceptance in business practice and in theorizing relating to strategic management, corporate governance, business purpose and CSR together.

Stakeholders can be found at any level or position in society, from the international to the national, regional, household or intra-household level. It is clear that, stakeholders may include all the people who affect and may get affected by the policies, decisions or actions within a particular system or an organization.

Referring to the Hilton Hotels group, the stake holders can be identified at three major levels depending on their institutional levels.

Local

National

Global or International

Locally, the Hilton Hotel group is a business which is based on the ancient cultural environments as well as the aesthetic beauty in the country encouraging their customers as well as their stakeholders to incorporate those things to their beings. Therefore, it is clear that Hilton Hotel is being achieved the objectives of their local stakeholders objectives at a satisfactory level.

Nationally, the Hilton hotels group is known as a business which is mainly focussed on the development of tourism in UK. By providing the lodging facilities by enhancing the customer experiences on travelling through their branded partners such as Hilton Conrad hotels and resorts, double tree by Hilton, Hampton inn by Hilton they have achieved their objective of development of tourism commercially in order to achieve their national stake holders’ objectives.

Statistically it is proven that, the Hilton Hotels group consists of more than three hundred hotels all over the world also with nearly 500,000 luxurious rooms in 80 countries with the crew of over 135,000 members internationally (Hilton Hotels, 2011) and the group is still expanding all over the world. Therefore, the contribution of the international investors may lie at a higher level referring to that statistics. Because of that, it can be concluded that the Hilton Hotel group is being achieving their International Stake holders’ objectives.

1.3 The key responsibilities of the hotel group and the strategies

The key responsibilities that should be possessed by the Hilton Hotel group can be divided in to three major dimensions.

The Customer Dimension

The Employee Dimension

Internal process and financial dimensions

The Customer Dimension consists of increment of the market shares, guest satisfaction, improve the customers profitability, increased the awareness of brand name and the increment of the MICE conversion rate. At present, Hilton Hotels group is incorporated with several partners all over the world such as double tree by Hilton, Hampton inn by Hilton. Therefore, the Hilton Hotel has got the potential to establish as the market leader. At past few decades, Hilton Hotels’ market revenue index increased from 104% to 106% and customer retention has increased Customer retention increased 6% to 56% (Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Hall of Fame Case Study on Hilton Hotels Corporation, 2003).

The employee dimension may include, adherence to recruitment procedures, conducting training and development programs completion of the performance appraisals, control of the staff turnover and control the payroll as % of turnover. Proper management of human resources with the incorporation of employees are may be the strategy behind the achievement of these targets.

Reservations efficiency, improved check-in efficiency, time and motion cleaning of rooms, food beverage cost efficiency, and control property maintenance may be the responsibilities that can be taken under the internal process dimensions. Increment of average room rate and revenue per available room, increment of non-room revenue, proper management of variable cost and reduction of fixed cost can be considered under financial dimension of responsibilities. At past few decades, RevPAR of Hilton Hotels has been increased by 2.7% (Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Hall of Fame Case Study on Hilton Hotels Corporation, 2003).

Chapter 2
Economic, Social and Global Environment
2.1 Planned and mixed economic systems and impacts

Planned economy is an economic system in which the government directs the whole economy of a country. This economic system is driven by the central government and it may control and makes critical decisions regarding the production and supply of goods and services. The planners may decide what should be done regarding the production process and hoe to direct lower-level enterprises to produce those goods in collaboration with national and social objectives. Under the planned economy, state sector may involve in the environmental protection, maintenance of the standards of the employments and maintenance of competition and also the economic planning.

Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, many governments of different countries, commanding over planned economies began deregulating. For an example, after fragmentation of the Soviet Union the economy is being moving towards the market-based economies by allowing the private sector to make the pricing for goods and services, production, and distribution decisions. Although most economies today are market economies or mixed economies. Examples for the countries for the existence of planned economies are as Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Myanmar ( Brabant and Jozef , 1991).

Considering the impacts of the planned economy on Hilton Hotels group, there may be a regulation of the production and services according to the decision which are made from the government. Accordingly, there may be economic barriers for the foreign investors and stake holders to invest their properties in relation to the hotel industry. This may negatively affect on the Hilton Hotels group also.

In contrast the mixed economy reflecting the features of both socialism and capitalism. In some occasions, it is also known as balanced economy. It is described as market economies with strong lapses, in addition to containing various government sponsored aspects. It is believed the term mixed economy should include the degree of private economic freedom mixed with a degree of government regulation process of markets. Countries may differ in relation to the relative weakness of each component. For an example, economies which are ranging from US to Cuba have been identified as mixed economies.

The economic freedom may include individual freedom, economic efficiency and also the incentives to innovation provided by competition. When considering the Hilton Hotels group, individual competition may be very important between the partners to improve their capabilities in marketing. For an example, if there is a competition between Hilton Conrad hotels and resorts and Hampton inn Hilton, the separate partners may tend to improve their marketing capabilities in order to increase their market shares. This may be beneficial for the Hilton Hotels as the mother – company. On the other hand, some times the whole marketing process can be negatively affected by the individual competition.

Referring the government side of the mixed economy, it may consists of several processes such as environmental protection, maintenance of the standards of the employments and maintenance of competition and also the centralized economic planning some situations. Those are the things that the private sector may not capable to address. Referring to the Hilton Hotels group, due to the environment protection policies implemented by the government, the marketing process can be affected. For an example, if the government is implementing an environmental policy restricting the private access to the places with an aesthetic beauty such as beaches and forests, if the hotel group rely on that places whole marketing process can be negatively affected. In contrast, the establishment of the centralized economic planning may generate positive results in the relation of Hilton Hotels, at marketing process.

2.2 Social welfare policy and industrial policy measures in the UK

The United Kingdom can be considered as a unitary state in which central government considerably lead the most of the state activities. But, when considering the structure of some regions such as Scotland, Wales it differs in certain degrees.

Each region occupies a secretary of state and administrative department located in central government, and its own congress and executive, which participate in the region of certain central state ministries. Accordingly, the laws which apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland may differ from those in England and Wales.

This framework has been subjected to the frequent changes. The most critical changes in recent years have been the renovation of the department of social security into the department of work and pensions, the significant transfer of income maintenance to the HMRC and the flattening of the department of transport, the regions and local government, whose key social policy responsibilities were positioned in the office of the deputy prime minister and have now been resettled mainly into communities and local government.

There are some main government departments which are dealing with social policy in the UK are, the ministry of justice, the department for education, the department of health and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Referring to the administration of the welfare, UK has undergone two major phases of modifications. The first phase was applied in for 1960s and 1970s, saw central government transformed in order to allow the planning and control of public expenditure by the treasury. The objectives of these changes were to improve the managerial efficiency and economic planning. The effect was the generation of a system in which the treasury allocated resources to departments, and departments to services.

The second phase was taken place in has led in 1980s and 1990s to modify the structure of the civil service and the administration of welfare. It consists of three major elements viz., the change of administration into agencies, the introduction of management and the formation of quasi markets.

Due to that implementation of social welfare policies, the hotel field can be affected in several ways. Formation of new laws regarding to the economy and welfare, management there were some barriers against the growing of the company. That may negatively affect on the Hilton Hotels group.

Referring to the industrial policies in UK, multi- sector industrial policy is critical. Current mainstream economic thinking believes that industrial policy is ineffective, and that market forces should determine the fortunes of companies and industries. In the credit crisis, however, the UK state and most other governments felt obliged to step in. They established a de facto industrial policy strongly favouring the financial sector, at the expense of the rest of the economy. Consequently, the part of the economy that did not fail, was left playing by the old free-market rules, heavily penalised by austerity measures implemented to reduce the budget deficit.

For the UK, there are a number of problems with the theory and practice of this approach. First, SMEs which provide majority of UK private sector employment are starved of credit despite Government entreaties for banks to lend more. This may be acts as a negative impact on the growth of the hotel industry, with no end in sight. Similar way, the private capital concentration in the shadow-banking sector remains surprisingly high, and may lead to volatility and crises in the non-banking sector. Finally, some of the UK’s competitors, such as China and Korea, already have successful, multi-sector industrial strategies.

2.3 Impact of macroeconomic policy measures in the UK and US

The belief that economic growth requires sound macroeconomic policy is a central element of in relation to the development. Even those questioning about that it may be possible to believe that macroeconomic stability is a precondition for successful economic development. At the broadest level, the macroeconomic stability of East Asian countries between the early 1960s and the late 1990s could help to explain why East Asian countries have sustained high growth rates. In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America have endured a painful combination of macroeconomic disarray and slow growth.

As most economists would expect, improper management of macro economy could explain not only slow growth, but also why some developing countries have become heavily in obligated. Even if slow growth is attributed to problems with external arrears, the origins of a debt crisis can typically be traced back to policy decisions. Easterly (2002) finds that the group of the HIPCs had worse macroeconomic policies over 1980-97 than other developing countries, even after controlling for income levels.

At present, the global economy has deteriorated rapidly and faced with a synchronised recession in most of the world’s major economies. These developments will have a reflective impact on the UK economy and raise the prospects of an especially severe downturn.

The source of the current recession can be traced to the unsustainable rises in lending, bond, equity and house prices and compression of risk that have been evident since the start of decade across many developed economies also common for both US and UK.

As poor as economic prospects currently are the situation is being getting worse without the various policy initiatives that have been adopted. For example, the Bank recapitalization scheme has clearly helped to avoid a collapse of the UK financial sector. Therefore, those factors can be generating adverse effects on many industries especially in the hotel industry.

Chapter 3
Behaviour of organisations and the market environment
3.1 Shortcomings of market models relevant to the hotel group

Market model can be identified as a mathematical representation of the interactions among various participants in the market, variety of economic forces, and variety of choices made during the process of marketing. There are number of market models are used to explain or predict the behaviour of one or more aspects of a market. In the framework of the securities market, for example, one model may used to express the outcome on a particular portfolio and how it can be maximized.

When considering the hotel industry, there are several types of market models can be identified such as future orientation model, results managing model , proactive approach and the on going process model.

Referring to the future orientation model, strategic management implies a future-oriented decision-making process. The objective of this model is to act now in order to survive and improve performance in the future. This can be implemented as 5-10 years year plans. As a fundamental, this model can be identified as an attempt to set future-oriented objectives, to predict and assess future trends in the organisation’s environment and to devise means to ensure meeting the objectives.

According to this model, it may be difficult to predict some market trends due to the unexpected situations. For an example natural disasters may create different market trends. This may be the major draw back of this model.

Considering the on going process, the responsibility of the marketing process lies clearly with top management. Their support and commitment is a requirement for both the design and application of any strategic plan. Furthermore, managing strategically implies a distinct way of managing organisations, i.e. not sporadic efforts to solve problems, but rather a logical framework for perceiving and managing organisations and their environments. The major draw back of this method is it may be difficult to pre identify the failures of the marketing system and trends before it happens.

3.2 Impact by the different factors

Supply and demand play an important role in the marketing process. There should be a balance between demand and supply in terms of achieving the goals of marketing. When considering those factors such as income, price, weather and substitutes can create both positive and negative impacts on the hotel industry. For an example, status of the personal income can be directly affected on the demand. Because, low income people may prefer to use facilities at low level hotel industry, while high income group prefer higher standards.

Price of the good and services can be generated by the costs plus profit margin of an organization. Therefore, if the industry is not going to use proper cross cutting methods and value addition techniques, the prices may increase. It may affect on the accessibility of that goods or service. Especially in the hotel industry this can be a great issue.

Weather also can be generated both positive and negative effects on the demand. If the customers are well interested in travelling and they are willing to enjoy the aesthetic beauty bad weather may lead to problems. This also can be affected on demand.

Substitution may lead the customers away from the loyalty. If the service is available at higher quality at cheaper price they may tend to purchase that one instead of earlier service.

Considering the above facts, it can be concluded that, managing those factors is critical for the hotel industry.

3.3 Competitive strategies in the UK

Competitiveness is defined as ‘the only complete indicator that defines the concept of competitiveness at a national level is national productivity’ (Porter, 1990).

The current situation manifested by globalization and the increasing recognition of interrelations has imposed new rules of conduct: the prosperity of nations is based on competitiveness on international markets, and that of enterprises, on the integration in the worldwide value chains. Because of that, the competitiveness has become a major issue for all the actors in economy, from the regional level to the organizational level. Therefore, it is clear that importance of implementation of competitive strategies in relation to the marketing process.

Considering the tourism as a business it is a sector in which the structure of supply is extremely volatile and the solid and reliable part is the demand. Tourism can be exists for various reasons such as pleasure, business etc. People may want to travel and are willing to spend money; consequently, they may generate demand for tourism products and services. Thus, the decision to travel precedes the acts of consumption (Keller, 2005).

The key to attracting and making clients loyal is offering a remarkable experience and not just lodgings; hotel chains innovate to create a unique environment, from hotel rooms to lobbies and the restaurant. Thus, changes in the design of Marriott restaurants and in the menus – so as to reflect the particularities of different regions – have lead to up to 50% increases in sales recorded in rapport to the number of rooms occupied (Hotels, 2004).

In company with innovation, technology also can be considered as an important strategic asset that allows hotel chains to improve their performance and competitiveness. On a global scale, the role of technology in strengthening the competitive advantage of a hotel is recognized, hence its contribution to the hotel’s success (Nyheim, 2004).

Since the hospitality industry, as any other branch of services, is capital intensive, human resources may represent a source of competitive advantage for a company. Failite Ireland (2005) , in the research conducted among 3, 4 and 5 star hotels in Dublin to analyze successful practices in hotels underline the fact that the industry depends on the know-how of personnel, of the knowledge and understanding of the clients’ requirements that would make the client feel at home.

By considering the above facts, it is clear that hotel industry should follow competitive strategies to survive in the market.

Chapter 4
International trade and the European dimension
4.1 Pros and cons of trade between the UK and other countries

Because of the rapid development of the international relationship between countries, Globalization process can be considered as critical in the marketing process. Therefore, globalization process may have the capabilities of generating both positive and negative effects on trade referring to the hotel industry.

Considering the positive effects, the hotel groups can trade in the working force from the countries at a cheaper price where the working force is available at lower cost. This may lead to cutting their additional cost in relation to human resources and beneficial for the hospitality industry. Through the strong international relationship, the hotel groups’ reputation can be published and marketed. This may lead to bring in foreign investors to the country who may have the capabilities of investment for hotel industry as well as for the other industries.

Referring to the negative points of international trade, increased job insecurity of workers may play a critical role. When the industry is demanding the working force at a lower price, the workers may not survive unless they provide their services at that lower price. Except that, the uniqueness of the culture of the country can be affected through the globalization referring to the international trade. Especially, through the development of the hospitality industry there may be a tendency to develop a globalized sub culture based on the tourism. This may lead to interfere with the uniqueness of the original culture in the country.

4.2 The impact of European Union policies on UK organisations and the hotel group

The EU can be identified as is economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU was originated from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic formed by six countries in the 1950s.

At present, the EU has grown in size by the appointment of new member states, and in power by the addition of policy areas to its responsibilities. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993. The last modification to the constitution of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, joined with the EU in 2009.

EU member states keep all powers not openly handed to the Union. In some areas the EU enjoys exclusive competence. These are areas in which member states have renounced any capacity to endorse legislation. In other areas the EU and its member states share the competence to legislate. While both can legislate, member states can only legislate to the extent to which the EU has not. In other policy areas the EU can only co-ordinate, support and supplement member state action but cannot endorse legislation with the aim of incorporating national laws.

Under the exclusive competence it states that “The Union has exclusive competence to make directives and conclude international agreements when provided for in a Union legislative act.” Accordingly the monetary policy for the member is established as Euro. Not only that, the establishment of the competition rules for the internal market has been adopted. Those things can generate both positive and negative impacts on the hotel groups.

Considering the supporting competence it states that “The Union can carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement Member States’ actions in”. Referring to that, industries, culture as well as the tourism are being regulated. This also can create positive and negative impacts on hotel group.

4.3 EMU and the economy of UK

The term Economic and Monetary Union is used as a collective term for the group of policies aimed at meet the economies of members of the European Union in three stages so as to allow them to adopt a single currency, the euro. All members of the EU are expected to participate in the EMU. The implication of UK becoming a member of EMU can be explained as both positive and negative impacts.

For an example it is clear that, Exchange rate on locking with the Euro regarding the members as well as for UK. It may improve the stability of the value of the money against the inflation. On the other way, it may negatively affect on foreign investors.

Similarly, some policies implemented by the EMU may also affect both negatively and positively on the industries.

Chapter 5
Conclusion

Referring to the mission, core values and key objectives of the Hilton Hotels group as a worldwide business it is clear that the objectives are being achieved up to the satisfactory level. Though the impacts of the sudden changes in the business environment, still the Hilton Hotels group has been survived in their business of hospitality with the proven capabilities in successful marketing.

But, when considering the market modelling marketing mix modelling is being a developing trend at innovative marketing strategies.MMM means the use of statistical analysis such as multivariate regressions on sales and marketing time series data to estimate the impact of various marketing tactics on sales and then predict the impact of future sets of strategies. It is often used to optimize advertising mix and promotional tactics with respect to sales revenue or profit. Therefore, implementation of MMM on Hilton Hotels group may improve the trustworthiness as a marketing tool among its’ major rival companies.