Category: Free Essays

Introduction

Tourism is one of the leading growth sectors of the global economy, bringing in billions of dollars annually in developing countries and transporting millions of people internationally. But the tourism industry’s growth through the years has created an increasing amount of stress on the environment. Ecotourism is nature-oriented and environmentally focused and is growing rapidly.

Ecotourism aside, many in the hotel industry have recognized the negative impact their business activities have on the environment and have taken action to alleviate those impacts. Environmentally responsible business practices dovetail well with the newfound popularity of ecotourism. They harmonize tourism and environmental sustainability.

Eco-hotels are a name given to represent a hotel or an accommodation that has made the surroundings improvements to its structure so as to reduce its impact on the environment. This is known also known as green hotel which are environmentally-responsible accommodation that follow practices of green living. To be considered as environmentally responsible these hotels have to be certified as ‘green’ by an independent third-party or by the state they are located in. Traditionally, these hotels are qualified as Eco Hotels because of their location, their design inspired by the use of traditional building and the eco activities they offer.

Chapter 1
Literature Review
1.0 Criteria for eco-hotel:

An eco-hotel must as a rule meet the following criteria:

Rely on the natural environment
Environmental sustainability
Should be able to safeguard the ecology
Should sensitize people about the environmental training programs
Should be able to bring intercultural exchange
Should be able to increase the country’s revenue
Maintaining the organization building by using non-hazardous cleaning agents and laundry detergent
100%organic cottonsheets, towels and mattresses
Non-smoking atmosphere
Renewable power sources like solar or wind energy
Bulk natural soap and facilities as an alternative of individual packages to reduce waste
Guest room and hotel lobby recycling bins
Towel and sheet re-use (guests can tell housekeeping to leave these slightly used items to reduce water utilization)
Energy-efficient lighting
On-site transportation with green vehicles
Serve natural and local-grown food
Non-disposable dishware
Offers a fresh-air exchange structure
Gray water recycling, which can be used in the kitchen, bath and laundry water for garden and landscaping
Newspaper recycling plan
1.1 Hotels having this Criteria
Copenhagen: No.1 Green hotel in the World.

Eco star: 1

Stars: 4

Location: Europe

Country: Denmark

Copenhagen Towers in line with the Green Building Standard is the first hotel in Denmark that has got linked with the UN’s Global Compact. It has been considered that the building can saved about 1.373 tons of carbon dioxide annually and it has also been awarded the golden nail for being the most pioneering eco-friendly building. The Crowne Plaza Towers was constructed in 2009 using the most modern renewable and most sustainable resources. According to the president of Copenhagen Hotel Management, Sandeep Sander, the notion used by the hotel was to be more sustainable first to produce most of the energy used and to save as much energy as possible.

“One of the key power saving initiatives is the mechanism of a groundwater based system, is based on the idea of recycling energy, and provides both heating and cooling to all 366 hotel rooms, the conference room section, kitchen, restaurant, and the ancillary office building.”Actions such as intelligence control of lightning and low-energy light sources have been taken to guarantee that the consumption is kept low. The majority of the part of the hotel’s IT infrastructure were used on foundation of energy saving and renewability.

Managing director for Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, Allan L. Agerholm acknowledged: “The bikes invite the guests to move in new habits that benefits their personal health and wellbeing as well as the environment in general. The guests plainly provide the energy in the hotel. On one hand, the biking might represents an emblematic sustainable act. Yet on the other it also presents that the socio-eco-awareness now also apply for the service area.”

The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen has used this new concept- green concept- for the interests of the hotel, its employees and the guests. the prominent Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, the Hotel Nikko Hongkong occupies one of the city’s choicest locations in Tsimshatsui East…ISO 14001 plus other awards.

Eco star: 2

Stars: 5

Location: Asia

Country: Hong Kong

In line with ISO 14001, Hotel Nikko Hong Kong has dedicated itself to the ecological shield. Its purpose has been to give environment-friendly services in their industry so as to be distinctive competitive as compared to others. Its aim is to provide good biodegradable services for its guests. It has also committed itself into taking appropriate techniques to stay away from pollution and towards the preservation of resources. To sponsor tourism marketing, Hotel Nikko has joined Friends of the Earth’s 2008-09 as a Saturn corporate member, the second highest contribution tier. The hotel management and staffs also helps to support environmental services to the guests so as to diminish wastage of natural resources and pollution done to the environment. To encourage its employees, the “Green Innovator Award” was the mechanism used to award the most innovative and convenient environment initiatives anticipated by the hotel. The concept used by Hotel Nikko Hong Kong is the 6R. The 6R concept consist of the following aspects: Reduce, Reuse, Replace, Repair, Refill and Recycle. The hotel has used this concept to control waste water organization. It is done in the safest way.

The orchid- ECOTEL licensed by HVS Eco Services website has a wealth of good information…

Eco star: 3

Stars: 5

Location: Asia

Country: India

“A tree always grows from its roots; every building needs a strong base”

The Orchid Hotel is found in Mumbai and it is Asia’s first qualified environmental friendly five-star hotel and it has been approved the ISO 14001. They just think in having a sustainable development which can build up an experience where:

“Deluxe need not disturb, Comfort need not compromise and Enjoyment need not be insensitive.”

The creation itself was designed particularly in such a way that is eco-friendly and even the resources used are sustainable and can be conserved. For the civil work, they have used:

Cement – They have opted for the PPC (Portland Pozzalana Cement) which hold 15-20% fly ash, as compared to OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement)
Their internal partitions were built from wall panels made of compost waste and they can be reusable later.
AAC (autoclaved aerated concrete)
Water conservation by adopting the 6R theory
Aerators/flow restrictors
Sewage management plant
Drip irrigation
Drinking water treatment (aquazone)
Rubber wood
Medium thickness fibre wood
Reused wood
Triple glazed windows
1.2 Environmental Management

In the 1980s and 1990s environment pressures has greatly affected the various industries and nowadays it has become such an important thing that it is not only affecting the outputs but even the inputs and process. Hotel industry has provided a major benefit to local and national economies; its growth has also put in danger the environment and socio-cultural area of where it’s developing. David Kirk (1981) argue that the hospitality sector is more affected as most hotels restaurant are situated near beauty and historic places where the need to protect is greater and even more vital. The addition of services to attract more tourists has already affected such places and thus more constrains crops up when building such facilities.

Moreover tourists don’t care about their action which contributes to the degradation of the environment. They expect to be pampered and don’t pay attention to lashings of hot water, long time showers, and huge amount of supply of towels, copious food and more the need to be taken to the airport in limousines. We can say that nothing can be done to reduce the amount of waste without the help of the tourists, even if manager applies new ways of doing in the management of waste guests’ plays an important role.

Environmental management is such a broad concept that it encloses aesthetic, cultural, ecological and social. There is a whole big work that should be done to educate people about the importance of a proper management of them.

The hotel industry is one that consumes a lot of energy as a huge amount is to provide comfort and service to guest that are ready to pay for a unique treatment and entertainment. The amount of energy varies from Hotels due to their size and volume of guests. In the investigation of Paulina Bohdanowicz (2001) she finds out that Heating and air conditioning represent the highest energy consumption and is even consuming twice as catering which can be found at the second position.

There is a wide misconception in the hotel industry about reduction of energy use. Tourism is not giving an important consideration to this aspect as there is no proper planning to directly influence the output of energy consumption.

Local resources could be used like solar, wind, hydro these are excellent source of alternative energy as they have low impact over the environment. As tourism is a growing and evolving industry eco-(sustainable) tourism represent a currently small market but with time it may become the leading industry with millions of environmentalists and more consumers aware of environmental issues. Unfortunately more developers, planners believe that doing a sustainable development cost more and take more time. It will also provide less profits as more investment and less services will be available.

It is true that green building offer many advantages like better economic opportunities, more

comfort and convenience, better working and enhanced working environment, competitive advantage through the marketing and technology advancement, greater profits as building green cost less if it is correctly control and operated, offer an increase product and asset value as it represent the new era.

The slogan “think globally, act locally” has been around in green politics for a long time but it is still very relevant. Problems are created at a local level through the business, leisure and activities provided by hotels. Robert F. Bruner (2004) clearly states that when you look around, it as if as economy has gone global, each one is copying on others ways of doing. These activities may result in effects on the environment at a local level and collectively at a national and global level therefore to change global trend one must change locally.

Tourism objective is to offer service entertainment, comfort and luxury as well as a numerous range of services in an aggressive competitive market. There is a must to consume more energy to provide such services. The only way to control the production of such services is to get in close cooperation with all the stakeholders involved right at the beginning of the planning stage.

1.3 Some Important events in Environmental management:

1956: Clean Air Act;

1970: Department of Environment established;

1972: publication of “Limits to Growth”;

1973: formation of Green Party;

1974: Control of Pollution Act;

1987: Montreal Protocol (CFC emissions);

1987: Treaty of Rome;

1987: Bruntland Report (sustainable development);

1987: HM Inspectorate of Pollution;

1990: European Environmental Agency;

1990: White Paper on Environmental Strategy;

1992: Rio Earth Summit Conference;

1993: UK National Sustainability Plan.

Environmental management was given more importance with the rise of health problem due to pollution from industries. Industries expanding themselves caused great damage to environment with the massive pollution they were doing. Without the interest of the highest level of an organization it is less likely that a company will involve itself in environmental management. Therefore to be able to do such thing there should be the participation of everyone in a company so that ideas develop flourish.

The first step is to have a vision and to transform them into objective and targets with clear monitoring so as to have control and communication being done for everyone to go into the same direction. The next step is to conduct an environmental audit into the company so as to identify areas to be made targets.

Environmental Management touches sector like purchasing policies, waste management and waste disposal in a company. A department should be created in order to fulfill those required task so as to enhance and to show a real endeavor towards environment protection.

1.4 Environmental management in the hospitality industry

Not much interest was put in the hospitality sector until the creation of the International Hotels Environment Initiative, which was launched by the Prince of Wales. The first main objective was to create a manual on environmental management for hotels.

The Hotel Catering & Institutional Management Association (HCIMA) and the World Travel and Tourism Council have established an initiative on environmental management awareness. The programme, known as “Green Globe”, has as its main objective the aim to provide practical and low-cost means by which hospitality companies can follow rules to undertake environment improvements base on international guidelines.

1.5 Policies and Standards set for Eco-Hotels

There are several places in the world whereby green hotels/ eco hotels are now being practiced. In most cases, by setting up several laws and regulations on hotel construction, government has forced the hotels builder in constructing eco-hotels. There are also several associations which are fighting for a more eco-friendly buildings and hotels.

A few key building environmental assessment tools presently in use comprise of:

Canada: LEED Canada / Green Globes
China: GBAS
India: Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) / GRIHA
Japan: CASBEE
United States: LEED / Living Building Challenge / Green Globes / Build it Green / NAHB NGBS / International Green Construction Code International Green Construction Code (IGCC)

United Kingdom: BREEAM

A few key building environmental assessment tools such as BREEAM (United Kingdom), and CASBEE (Japan) are a great help for the consumers in determining a structure’s aim and level of the environmental accomplishment. They reward credits for optional construction features which sustain green model in categories such as the site location and upholding of building site, conservation of water, etc. The stage of achievements are then determined through the number of credits.

Governments have begun to command a reduction in the use of energy and emissions. In US in the construction industry, “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” also known as “LEED,” is being developed as a widely-accepted standard. The LEED certification has been modified by the U.S. Green Building Council to give facilities to all buildings to earn points in many categories, helping thus the hotel operators to be able to obtain certification for their existing services.

They thus earn points by being sustainable in:

The low energy use which reduces the release of air pollutants and greenhouse gases
By reducing water consumption by 30%
The use of recycle products to renovate.
The use of innovative technologies that help in reducing energy usage thus achieving other types of sustainability.

There is on about 1,200 LEED-certified buildings till the end of 2008, most of which are new instead of renovated buildings.

The government also plays a very significant role in the industry’s eco- environment, not only by creating environmental resources to help the industry. The government officials also shared their acquired experience on ecological work with the practitioners.

According to the United Nations Environmental Program, 2001, the French Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment along with some hotels has been sponsoring the making of teaching materials for environmental issues. The Hong Kong and French government also shows the importance of pursuing sustainable tourism by funding two cases.

Referring to: Hotels’ environmental management systems (ISO 14001) by Wilco W. Chan and Kenny Ho we can see the chart with the different departments and its aims. Introduced in China during the year 2003 with the publication of China Hotel Association’s standards for green hotels, it was targeted to build and develop 10,000 green hotels by 2010.

In May 2007, URBN Hotels & Resorts, a hotel situated in Shanghai, entered into an accord with Emissions Zero, a company which sells offsets greenhouse gas emissions. URBN plans was to calculate the hotel ‘s total amount of energy consumed, to then purchase credits in order to reduce its footprint by investing In the local green projects.

In the islands where tourism industry is backbone for economic growth, due to the fear of losing developers, there is often a lack of regulations. Two examples are Barbados and Jamaica, whereby they utilize funds raised to coordinating the Plan for a Sustainable Tourism and the Tourism Product Development Company. They have developed curriculums concerning sustainable practices for the different hoteliers.

The Government initiatives for examples such as Energy Conservation Building Code 2007 are mostly focused on how to preserve environment. A new code had been launched June 2007 clearly specified that only the energy performance requirements for all commercial buildings will constructed in India.

1.6 IPD Environment Code

In February 2008 the IPD Environment Code, which was supposed to be a good practice global standard, has been launched. The Code was introduces in order to measure the environmental performance of corporate buildings. Its aim is to accurately assess, evaluate and deal with the environmental impacts of commercial buildings. The Code covers a broad array of building types which have as aims to:

environmental plan creation
Communicating a responsibility to the improvement of the environment.
Create performance targets
Environmental improvement plans
Life cycle assessments

United Nations (UN) has introduces an Agenda 21 which is connected to sustainable development, a blueprint of action. It is supposed to be taken internationally, on a national scale and locally by different types of organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups that is in every part in which the humans has an effect on the environment.

A great number of organizations, due to the increasing interest in eco-building concepts, are now developing the different standards and rating systems which are encouraging the government’s regulators as well as the construction professional in adopting eco-buildings with more conviction. There are also different codes being written which are now being adopted by the government in order to reduce the different environmental impacts of all the buildings.

1.7 Eco activities offered to tourists by Eco-Hotels

Over the past years, the tourism industry has begun to promote and expand and some tourists adopted and supported the concept of ecotourism, especially in coastal and marine locations (Miller, 1991; Miller & Auyong, 1991b; Grenier et al.,). Ecotourism dates to year 1965 when Hetzer required a reconsidering of cultural education in tourism context and promoted ecological tourism (eco-tourism). Today eco-tourism has become an international concept that makes up the principles of preservation, conservation and sustainable development. According to Valentine (1991) in the literature ecotourism is also recognised as ‘adventure tourism,’ ‘nature-oriented tourism,’ ‘alternative tourism,’ ‘appropriate tourism,’ ‘soft tourism’, ‘responsible tourism,’ ‘ethical tourism,’ ‘environment-friendly travel,’ ‘green tourism,’ ‘sustainable tourism,’ and ‘nature tourism.’ The list could be extended with other alternatives like ‘equality tourism,’ ‘ethnic tourism,’ ‘cultural tourism,’ ‘socio-ecological tourism,’ ‘photo-safari tourism,’ ‘dive tourism’ or ‘surfing tourism’. A tourist activity, a private venture or government service, and a guide for ethical conduct are some technical definitions given to ecotourism. For Hetzer (1965), responsible ‘eco-tourism’ is assessed against four standards:

Minimum environmental impact;
Minimum impact on– and maximum respect for– host cultures;
Maximum economic benefits to the host country’s ‘grassroots; and
Maximum recreational satisfaction to participating tourists.

The Ecotourism Society, a non-profit organisation created in 1990 to serve tour operators, conservation professionals, protected area management specialists, researchers, and guides, among others, defines ecotourism as responsible travel that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people. For example in Shanti Maurice hotel, along with the local inhabitant, use composting for waste reduction. However, there is not yet any standard method to quantify the amount of ecotourism. Bangs (1992) notes that, while generic tourism increases around 4% annually, ecotourism is growing at a rate of 30%. Lindberg (1991) stated that nature-based tourism contributed between $2 and $12 billion in 1988 to the economies of developing nations. According to Miller (1993), today, demand for travel shows greater deviation and magnitude than ever before, so making the tourism industry the biggest business on the earth.

The increase in availability of public transport, car ownership, outbound travel, and new interests in nature based ecotourism, with the increased leisure time implies a promising future to marine eco-tourism. As a result more careful and detailed preparation and planning is necessary to accommodate the estimated arrival of tourists to coastal areas. But still ecotourism is often disadvantaged by limited access, lack of transport and poor resort facilities, including lodging facilities. It is essential to achieve a good balance between the development of leisure and the preservation of natural resources is to sustain the high quality of recreational activities.

The concept of the 3s (sea, sand, sun) tourism is changing to more sustainable tourism activities. There are different eco hotels which offer different activities to tourists depending on their surrounding environment. Hereunder is a list of eco hotels of different eco star ratings and the eco activities they offer to the tourists.

3 star Eco hotels

Leaves and Lizards Arenal Volcano Cabin Retreat(Central America-Costa Rica)

Guests learn about consequences of deforestation and its effects on biodiversity, climate and water during their stay at Leaves and Lizards. Information is shared and discussed during guided tours, through casual conversations and written material in guests’ rooms.

Activities available there to tourists are horse riding, white water rafting, zip lines (Tyrolean traverse) and canyoning.

Admiral’s Inn-north (America- USA)

Information of all the local environmentally-friendly activities that are in the area, including beach walking and hiking are given to guests.

Al Tarfa Desert Sanctuary Lodge & Spa- (Africa-Egypt)

Al Tarfa is an adventure destination, offering daily activities such as guided walks in the desert, local community experiences, camel or horse rides inthedunes or 4?4 visits to local pharaonic, as well as Islamic ruins and natural hot springs. Other rewarding experiences can be arranged, including trips to theadjacent Oases, theWhite Desert Protected Area and theGilf Kebir National Park.

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge- (Africa-Tanzania)

This offers a number of specialist safaris as activities to guests.

Ant’s Nest and Ant’s Hill- (South Africa)

The aim of Ant’s Nest and Ant’s Hill is to provide a uniquely flexible safari experience

Club Afrodit- (Europe-Turkey)

This hotel provides various activities like morning gymnastics, nature walks, tennis, ping-pong, aerobics, basketball, volleyball, darts, water polo.

Eco-Lodge Itororo- (South America-Brazil)

Eco-Lodge Itororo offers a range of activities from hiking tours to horseback riding and swimming in the crystal-clear natural pool.

Ferme de Candeloup- (Europe-France)

This eco hotel also acts as a Yoga centre .During the Winter, a forty minute drive brings guests to the nearest ski station, which is also just a short walk to the Spanish border. Whitewater rafting, horse riding and many other activities can also be pursued in the neighbourhood. For those of a more leisurely disposition, Candeloup is at the heart of the Jurancon wine region, which begs to be explored.

Finca del Buen Consejo- (South America-Ecuador)

They offer activities in many of the local beautiful sites such as waterfall visits, mountain climbing, fly fishing, and pre Inca civilization ruins

Hotel Planinka- (Europe-Slovenia)

Activities organised by the hotel for the guests include mountain adventure park, paintball, hiking & mountain biking, sledging, ice skating.

Best Western Kamloops- (North America-Canada)

In the area guests will find some of the finest golf courses in the country, horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, fossil exploring, and Western Heritage visit. For more winter activities nearby is the excellent ski Sun Peaks Resort, which is quickly becoming one of the premier ski areas in the country.

Hosteria Huechulafquen- (South America-Argentina)

Guests can enjoy different excursions with diverse difficulty levels like horseback riding, trekking, mountain biking, long walks, kayaking, bird watching, scenery hiking, and the hotel specialises in catch and release fishing.

Ibo Island Lodge, Quirimbas Archipelago- (Africa-Mozambique)

Ibo Island Lodge provides turtle and hatching viewing opportunities to guests to the island.

Iglu-Dorf- (Europe-Switzerland and Germany)

Activities available there are snow show walking, igloo building and sculpting.

Inkaterra Machu Picchu- (South America-Peru)

Group eco-activities, such as bird watching or a guided orchid walk, are provided on their 12-acre grounds.

Laguna del Lagarto Eco Lodge- (Central America-Costa Rica)

The Lodge is operated in harmony with nature following extensive ecological guidelines. It is a perfect place for passionate bird-watchers and rain forest lovers. More than 10 km of well marked rainforest trails make birding and exploring easy, whether guests prefer to go alone or with a naturalist or birding guide.

Matemo Island- (Africa-Mozambique)

For guests who enjoy water sports, sailing, windsurfing, water skiing and banana boats, these activities are offered. Kayaks and snorkels are also available for guests to explore the island’s clear waters.

Rivertime resort and Ecolodge- (Asia-Laos)

Rivertime resort and Ecolodge provide river tours to guests. And Tours most fascinating temples, monasteries, museums and many other sites of interest take guests to the city and local areas in the resort’s minibus.

Sosian Lodge-africa Kenya

Sosian offers a huge range of activities including walking, horse-riding, camel safaris, game-drives, night-drives, fishing, bird-shooting, archery, tennis and swimming in the waterfalls behind the ranch house.

4 star Eco hotels
Belvedere Bed & Breakfast- (Europe-Italy)
All sorts of activities, are provided at this hotel, like walking, trekking, mountaineering, cycling, skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing or just relaxing surrounded by good food, wine and beautiful scenery.
Brompton Lakes- (Europe-England)

The site is directly on the Coast to Coast long distance footpath and ideally placed for walking, cycling and other outdoor activities. There is also a tennis court, free mountain bike hire and small rowing boats on the lakes.

Cedar House Inn and Yurts- (North America-USA)

Cedar House Inn and Yurts provide horseback riding, kayaking, canoeing, tubing down the Etowah or Chestatee Rivers and swimming in Dicks Creek. Mountain biking on rugged trails or road bike on the same mountainous route used by professional racers is also available.

Chem chem- (Africa-Tanzania)

Guests at Chem chem can experience unforgettable walking safaris and bird watching excursions.

Cotton Tree Lodge- (Central America-Belize)

All guest excursions are focused on the local environment and community. Guests visit waterfalls, caves, Mayan ruins, wildlife reserves, an

Introduction

The tourist destinations and the tourists have always been target of terrorist activities. Even though, it is broadly recognized that it not a question of what if terrorists attract but instead, how, when and how well-prepared these tourists destination are, what the frameworks of the crisis management that is suggested by different published literature offered by tourism authorities in the improvement and accomplishment of a method targeting the mitigation and prevention of these attacks (Anderson and Shah, 2004). This essay will explain the principles of risk and crisis management that plays an active responsibility in crisis management of the tourists destination hit by the 9-11 terrorist attack and how the stakeholders address the threat of terrorism.

There have been scenarios where the tourism industry in a country or more has experienced the dramatic downturn of the demand of their services (Bamford and Xystouri, 2005). The government and policy makers are bound with the dilemma of how they should react to the said crisis without any research into the related efficiency of diverse responses. The downfall of the demand of the tourism industry after the 9-11 attack in the United States is a dramatic crisis in the industry. The general equilibrium model is used in analyzing the impacts of the 9-11 attack as brought by the possible and policy in how the industry response to the crisis.

Definition of Crisis management

The primary effect of the crisis to any firm and industry is its image, reputation and capability to function. In order to prevent the upheaval, many people need to be conscious of the responsibilities and roles in time of crisis. Moreover, the staff and employees should be aware of the issues that would possibly hit them. Inevitably every crisis receives the attention of the media and as a result draws the interest of the public, specifically from possible tourists (Barton, 2003). Therefore, financial outcomes, reputation and corporate image may be critically weakened by crises. Firms that is poorly prepared as well as their destinations where client safety is confronted by risk losing clients. Crisis management is supervising a crisis that may have great impact to the profitability of the business. The foundation of crisis management depends on the searching, plowing and collecting of the achievement that could possibly get from a crisis. The basis structure of a crisis operation management is to identify the occurring crisis to take the proper action and to make that public action. An efficient crisis management strategy permits a company to decrease the possible risk to its status showed by the disaster or crisis situation. This is important since the unsatisfactory managed crisis that results to bad publicity can influence the consumersaˆ™ perspective of a firm in duration of time.

Importance of Managing Crisis in the Tourism (and Hospitality) Industry

The crisis in the hospitality and tourism industry should be managed with a specific care for different reasons: most of the companies in the said industry depend on discretionary spending of their consumers (Bitner et al, 1990). This implies that the hospitality and tourism firms are very receptive to animosity since the acquisition of the service or product is not essentially valuable to the clients and they can easily let go of. The marketing of the services and products tourism solely depends on the awareness of the consumers know about their purpose and the level of risk that they are eager to tolerate. Thus, any aspect that shares to a raise in the recognized risk in utilizing a tourism service and product will have a negative effect the buying behavior of the consumers. This outcome also implements to broad industry crises.

The involvement of tourism and hospitality industry is both developing and industrialized countries are so great recessions in the stage of the industry practices as their concern. The consequences expand beyond the directly associated activities with the tourism and hospitality industry, particularly hotels, airlines and catering, to segments that provide intermediary or final products that are bought by employees and companies in the said industry, so that all segments of the economy are influenced to a lesser or greater extent (Booth, 1993). The main reaction of the tourism and travel-related companies to important recession in the industry is to negotiate with the government to execute a range of rules to counteract the recession. The policymakers are facing with the hard decision of what, is any, ways to take, specifically since the execution of many policy measures is expensive and the related efficiency of another different measures. The government is challenged, especially, by three problems that are important to any downfall in tourism and hospitality practice. The first matter of whether the crisis is adequately great to value offsetting measures. The relevant fact includes the scale that reduces in the profit of the tourism and hospitality industry, the recession have resulted to impact across the other segment of the economy and the impacts on the welfare of the industry. The second matter is the period of the crisis. If turmoil in the economy is perceived to last longer or even permanently, the company should focus their attention on lessening the modification costs as the economy advances to the new balance. If a crisis is just short-term in nature, the issue should be shield the economy of is the unfavorable impacts of the crisis (Brewton, 1987). The third matter is the issues of the policies option for implementation. In this circumstance, the companies should examine the related advantages of substitute policies consideration and responses that are integration of rates of relief and policies that is most cost-effective in increasing income and minimizing the expenditures.

The option of the responses to the policies, preferably, is according to the previous estimation of the dispersion and magnitude of the effect of the crisis and the effect of substitute measures across different segment of the economy. The estimated economic effect of the changes in the demand for the hospitality industry has, conventionally, been assuming employing input-output model. This model is well-created means of taking responsibility of the inter-sector effects of diverse types of exogenous distress to the economy. (Booth, 1993) On the other hand, the input-output model depends on the number of pre-suppositions, like a fixed costs and salaries that may not be proper for the conditions of particular economies.

Theories and Methods Employed in Managing Crisis

In the situations of the crisis, usually progress in cycles of pre-catastrophe, catastrophe and post-catastrophe. The firm begins from a usual situation and ultimately going back to it. It is the occurrences between these levels of familiarity that are of goals of this study. There are different standards that have been developed in the field of crisis management, with most frameworks of best practice are from experiences. For this industry a particular model was customized (Buchholtz, 2003). The main subject in crisis management is the advance preparation: there are some key decisions that should be arrived at before the crisis itself. These are the training for crisis managementaˆA? prevention planning and quick response, in order to achieve effective crisis management, it should be performed proactively with the goal to protect and defend the interests of the firm. In spirit, crisis management is part of the strategic methods planning from a firm.

In order for a firm to be prepared to act against a crisis, the management requires to get ready ahead in advance (Chong and Nyaw, 2002). The most common issues to a company are: fire, labor accidents, wreckages, economic crisis and external forces. The firms are classified in each crisis situation based on its rigorousness and responded consequently. For example, if there is an unfortunate loss of life during the crisis, then this is regarded as the basic consequence and is managed by the whole team. In the same way, a technical problem that is confronted on a regular basis may not need the similar mobilization (Chong, 2004). The tourism and hospitality industry has assumed a proactive method to their media management by presenting excellent relationship between the local and national media by regular, friendly and direct communication. There are press conferences, as well as special publications like newsletters and magazines that are utilized to operate together with the media. There are direct communications that are important in crisis situations when the firm and the media cooperate to guarantee the truthfulness of any reports.

Most firms seek the help of some consultancy firms that help with crisis management, which are two of the most valuable and important services they provide. Firms should be ready for facing crisis that are possibly harmful to their reputation. In simpler words, the firm, the employees and the management should train according to the development program of crisis management: brainstorming, media training, planning, audits and simulation (Clark and Varma, 1999). The whole organization from the top management down to the employees should use these skills and tools.

Modeling Travel and Tourism in the Wider Economy

The impacts of the 9-11 attack in New York and the related effects to the different policies on the tourism and hospitality industry can be analyzed on the U.S. economy. The government accepts all income taxes and invests it on the tourist and hospitality industry (COOMBS, 2006). The flows in the tourism and hospitality is based on the demand of the private households, both resident and domestic travels, some are for business purposes, purchasing products for tourism and travel use. For each flow in the industry, the model for the trips in the tourism and hospitality industry includes the tourism, travel and air travel. The limits in the functions of demand in the industry are transformed to reproduce the impact of the 9-11 attack on the demands in the industry, with the less attractive air travel. The model is structured so that policy on products and services is

The model is formulated so that government expenditure on goods and services is exogenous, and government expenditure on travel and tourism trips is changed exogenously to simulate the effects of September 11. The government adjusts its budget through lump-sum transfers to private households. Net foreign savings are fixed, so that the changes that are modeled do not affect international capital flows. World market prices are assumed to be determined exogenously (Anderson and Shah, 2004). These conditions are known as the government, macroeconomic and external closures. The constancy of the dollar and the GDP of the economy is the typical measure of the economic practices.

The net impact of the industry budget is the net change like in the local, state and federal, tax profits without the extra expenses during the 9-11 attack (Barton, 2003). There is an adjustment in the labor and capital constant dollar factor. More particularly, it is the constant value of dollar that moves from their employment, either into another segment or to become employed or unemployed or, in the case of the underutilized capital. It does not gauge the adjustment costs of re-tooling, re-training and expense on unemployment benefits, but it is a manifestation of the related size of these modifications costs. The relative factor modification is the same measure as the provided rate of all employment factors rather than the constancy of dollars.

The Procedures of Crisis management

Generally, the use of resources and time strategies for crisis management should have the development of a project plan provided by the firm, the high skilled employees and well-equipped projects, well-trained and well-educated employees, as well as efficient allocation of budget. Moreover, to these methods, the implementation of crisis management will most possibly provide increase to different problems and challenges. It is then fundamental that the firm recognizes these issues and get ready for their countermeasures in order to avoid worst impacts.

Recognizing Possible Problems

This strategy will aid the firm to classify possible problems in relation to quality systems should be used in crisis management (Bamford and Xystouri, 2005). One objective of developing other advance actions is to attend to the future challenges. The fast recognition of problems before the project is applied is advantageous not only because it avoids worst business impacts from occurring, but this also guarantees the length of the crisis management project. If the firm can last the probable problems of crisis management, the allotted resources for it implementation will be saved.

The training in crisis management is one of the main elements that the firm should put in mind in order to classify the potential challenges. Basically, there are two types of crisis management training that will be very functional including statistical problem-saving and training. The training comprises of training on technical issues, participative methods, brainstorming or nominal collecting techniques that can be implemented in the crisis management.

Potential Management Pitfalls

The execution of crisis management is very useful for business development. On the other hand, the process of the implementation is not easy. Moreover, the important resources is needed to have the project materialize, a number of problems can have an impact to the success of the success of crisis management. One of the probable effects of the implementation of crisis management is the notion that such management does not generally lead to 100% success (Coombs, 2006). Moreover, it does not really follow an orderly and linear process, causing the firm to go through stressful and chaotic procedure. The crisis management can be perceived as a trial and errors practice that requires the constancy of changes and improvement.

In most situations, the application of the crisis management is only focused on the professionals instead of the employees who will employ it. In this scenario, it is essential to take note that crisis management should get their personnel to get involved in the company, basically because they will be the ones who will be operating towards the success of the crisis management (Elliot et al, 2005). Another problem to focus is that crisis management does not usually need transformation in management compensation. The company should also consider the transition of its investment in crisis management. Therefore, unless the firm does something to encourage it employees and team players, they will not give the concept of quality seriously. Finally, the implementation of crisis management seems to apply technical and mechanical method. This makes the crisis management to people and emotion.

Risk Management

The firm should be free to enter the idea of challenges and risk that always exist in crisis management (Elsubbaugh et al, 2004). Therefore, it is necessary for the firm to motivate its people to improve on the other options that will counteract the problems. In order to take action to these identified problems in crisis management, the firm would have to adjust their crisis management methods (Evans and Elphick, 2005). One crisis management techniques that can be implemented is the monitoring system of employment. Through the created monitoring systems, possible causes or problems can be easily identified. It is essential that the members of the work force can actively participate in this crisis management practices. In this effort, there is an important regularity. There should be a definite monitoring schedule that should be followed closely.

Another procedure of the crisis management is the feedback system implementation (Fall, 2004). In this procedure, the team will be designated per unit of the company. It is the task of the leaders to take notice of the enhancements of the quality systems. The feedback system then permits the quick resolution of quality issues even when observing scheduled procedures.

Conclusions

Crisis management and preparedness is critically important for all tourism and hospitality industry organizations to prevent bad reputation and damage to their business. The achievement in transacting with the crisis event depends within efficient pre-crisis planning. The study recommended that the tourism and hospitality industry have been provided great deliberation to possible crisis and how to do business with them. They have implemented the common crisis action team structure to one that provides the needs of the industry that enables accurate and speedy reaction and action to upcoming situations as well as permitting for the human factor of taking care with victims (Coombs, 2006). The tourism and hospitality industry has classified good practice from their methods of crisis management that could be implemented by other firms: Crisis preparation is the main factor, brainstorming of the types of crisis and improves action plans for each type. Classify the criteria of the crisis if its major or a minor. Recognize the team of the crisis management and promote the possible stakeholders that the firm will be having business with. Finally, show good business relationships with the important reporters and media.

The cost-effectiveness has various types of response to the policy in the crisis management in the tourism and hospitality industry that is very efficient in decreasing the worst impact of the 9-11 crises. On the other hand, the related success of the different policy considerably differs. The outcomes from the discussed model of crisis management in this model is directly related to the assistance towards the tourism and hospitality industry in the form of subsidy which the most effective instrument for facing the challenges of the crisis. These subsidies are for air travel, specifically it is the less effective manner of saving jobs and retaining the profit in the provision to the industry itself.

This would have the benefit of offering the tourism industry with more benefit to decrease the ticket costs, therefore motivating the action against the crisis. The crisis management would specifically save jobs in the tourism and hospitality industry, so that the method of assistance for both company and government could be focused on. Even though, these actions are related to the impact of the 9-11 attack, it is possible that they can be simplified to other forms of crisis in the tourism and hospitality industry. Therefore, for an instance, the hotel business were adversely affected by any specific occurrences, it is probably that a policy of direct management of crisis in the hotel business be most successful when it comes to responses. The related efficiencies of different forms of crisis management policies to various forms of crisis in different countries could be done using a modeling technique.

Assignment Details: how a specific destination can conduct market research to develop a new brand for itself. Consideration the subjects of market segmentation and product differentiation strategies. Based on your discussion, you can provide suggestions about what this destination business should do in order to develop a product. Please use proper referencing.

Following questions should be answered:

Give a short account of the history of the destination.

State its mission, vision and major goals.

Analyze challenges and developments in relation to its marketing.

Situation Analysis

Competitive analysis

Customer analysis

SWOT analysis

Destination’s marketing strategies.

Recommendations for this destination to pursue in the future.

History of Hua Hin

Hua Hin is one of the most well-known tourist destinations for decades, and currently, the island has been transformed to a major tourism hub with the well-prepared infrastructure and services to accommodate millions of tourists around the world every year.

Hua Hin now can provide highest standards of wellness care, blended with Thai hospitality. The ingredient of world-class wellness service with the charming & warm hospitality makes Hua Hin the favorable health & wellness destination of the world. There is more to Hua Hin than its white sandy beaches, fantastic bargain shopping, water and land sport activities and entertainment.

Furthermore, Thailand is one of leading tourism destinations for decades. Many cities have been transformed to a major tourism hub with well-prepared infrastructure and service to accommodate tourists around the world every year. With the number of tourists has been increasing every year, tourism related infrastructures have been developed. One of the infrastructures we really put our effort to medical infrastructure, originally to ensure all of the tourists for any emergency health incidents during their holidays. Thailand is leading Asia as a medical tourism destination.

Major reasons that enabled Thailand to dominate this growing market are the low cost of medical treatments, the quality of treatments provided by hospitals and private clinics, and the highly developed tourism industry.

As the population in the potential tourists searching for better life continues to grow, the demand for health and wellness trips tend to increase. Health and wellness tourism represents the recent trend to converge two of the world’s largest industries, healthcare and tourism.

Hua Hin has been acknowledged as the healthiest city in Thailand. The combination of health tourism hub is between beautiful and natural tourism destination, with the international standard of healthcare perspectives. It has no doubt on the beauty of Phuket Island, together with various supporting factors; pristine beaches, delicious Thai & seafood, varieties of entertainment, fun shopping and tropical luxurious spa. Those combinations have made Phuket to the outstanding tourism destination in world map.

Location

Hua Hin is a coastal town in Prachuab Kirikhan Province, 200 kilometers south of Bangkok.

It can easily be reached by car. Hua Hin has an airport which links the seaside resort by daily flights to Bangkok, Phuket and Samui. Regular buses leave Bangkok’s Southern Bus Terminal for Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan many times daily. Trains leave Bangkok Central Railway Station for Hua Hin 12 times daily.

Climate

Hua Hin is located in the hot zone, but refreshed by a cooling sea breeze. The average temperature is 24C to 32C. It has one of the lowest rainfalls of any beach area in Thailand. Therefore, tourists can visit the town all year round. Due to the excellent weather and climate, there are a large number of the retire staying permanently there. One of facilities plays important roles to non-residents and local people is the medical and health services.

Vision

Hua Hin is a world source of health tourism. It will be broadly recognized as a magic place to healing and become the destination of choice for visitors whose primary intention is to enjoy health and wellness experiences. Its products and services will be delivered with a world class standard to fulfill customer needs.

Mission Statement

Hua hin welcomes all local and international visitors with top class of health and wellness facilities which are rare to find elsewhere. Unique identity of historical city together with natural resource and splendid long beach are attractive and draw health seekers from around the world and known as the best of destination for wellness.

Objectives

To create tourism uniqueness to Hua hin.

Strengthen Hua hin reputation in term of wellness and health destination.

Increase standard of hotel and resort in Hua hin to average of 4 stars in 5 years of implementation.

Create commitment of city owner to local people and educate the sustainable benefit of following destination strategic marketing.

Situation Analysis
Market analysis

Growth rates within the health and wellness tourism market are significance. Based on research, the global market size of health and wellness tourism is estimated at 5 million trips annually. As the population in the potential tourists searching for better life continues to grow, the demand for health and wellness trips will increase.

However, even though in Thailand, wellness tourism is just in an early phase of growth, it is growing.

The promise of low-cost, high quality healthcare is attracting more than tourists a year to key locations. Based on Bangkok Post 2004 Mid-Year Review, a health and wellness tourist spends an average of USD 362 a day, compared with the average traveler’s spending of USD 144 and 50 % cheaper than in Singapore, three times cheaper than in Hong Kong, and five to ten times cheaper than in Europe and the USA.

Competitor Analysis

Domestic Competitive Environment

Phuket has been discovered only recently as one of the most well-known tourist destinations and has undergone rapid.

Strength: with the investment of international healthcare facilities, Phuket now can provide highest standards of wellness and medical care, blended with Thai hospitality. The ingredient of world-class healthcare service with the charming and warm hospitality makes Phuket the favorable health and wellness destination of the world. There is more to Phuket than its white sandy beaches, fantastic bargain shopping, water and land sport activities and entertainment.

Phuket’s hospitals provide patients with access of highly qualified medical personal. We emphasize that such international accreditation is the key successful factors and is a guarantee of our commitment for best medical services.

The rapid changes of our planet today bring us to more challenging era. The world has been changed, both in positive and negative ways, and the most worried development to our mankind is the development of the sickness. In another word, may I say, sickness has no barriers, anyone living in anywhere in this world would have chance to experience any kind of sickness or diseases. And most of the time, sickness can be cured only for the permission time. With this believe, Phuket is the best place for medical treatment, as we possess the edge when it comes to the availability of services. And you will found that there is no queue or much waiting time for medical treatment in Phuket.

International Competitive Environment

Many countries now actively market themselves as health and wellness destinations. This further expansion of health and wellness tourism has positively impacted incoming tourist receipts by boosting average spend per visitor and reversed the general trend towards shorter, more frequent breaks. It has also provided an element of stability to the travel and tourism market, as activities are generally in-door thus avoiding the problems and fluctuations of seasonality.

Source Market Region
General Competitive Environment
Competitive Strengths

India

Long history of wellness from folk know-how, such as Yoga, Ayurveda and Unani.

Fast-paced life style increases demand for wellness tourism and alternative cures.

Diversity of tourism destinations and experiences.

Unique experience in heritage place and hotel.

A very wide variety of hotels is present in the country that can fulfill the demand of the tourists.

There are international players in the market such as Taj and Oberoi & International Chains. Thus, the needs of the international tourist travelers are met while they are on a visit to India.

India offers a readymade tourist destination with the resources it has. Thus the magnet to pull customers already exists and has potential grow.

Quality and Range of Services.

Affordable costs.

Singapore

Strengths as a tourist destination.

Singapore’s land use planning, zoning controls and environmental regulations in destination management.

Innovation, ICT and Singapore’s business sophistication factors.

Implementation of the VICE model by Singapore to maintain sustainable tourism (Visitor, Industry, Community, Environmental).

Achieving international-standard training and acquiring improved

Knowledge & skills in the hospitality & tourism industry, to strengthen Singapore’s position as a top “Human Capital Excellence” destination.

The significance of Singapore’s destination brand values.

Partnering of tourism and hospitality industries to support Singapore’s tourism development.

Partnering of tourism and hospitality industries to support Singapore’s tourism development.

Source:

http://www.gourkanjilal.com/tourism-s-w-o-t-analysis-india/index.htm, 31 Aug 2010

Conference on Tourism in India – Challenges Ahead, 15-17 May 2008, IIMK

http://discoversvg.com/index.php/en/home/latest-news/425-competitive-tourism-destination-lessons-learnt-from-singapore

India

India is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, which is mysterious to tourists. It is considered a land of contrast – of ancient farming and agricultural techniques in one area to bustling, cosmopolitan cities in another.

While much of the country is poorly developed, a medical tourist can rest assured that their hospital and, for a price, their hotel will be extremely modern and pristine. Venturing beyond these, however, a traveler is virtually guaranteed to suffer from diarrhea and intestinal parasites are common even for cautious eaters. Likewise, the odds of contracting a serious disease are low, however several additional vaccinations are strongly recommended that are not necessary in the other hubs.

India is positioning itself as a primary global destination for the most-complex medical procedures, and is committed to delivering these services by obtaining US Joint Commission International Accreditation to help in increasing US market share. India deals with a higher proportion of major surgery tourists than minor surgery and check-up tourists than the other major hubs, which has given rise to specialist hospitals across India.

It is the cheapest destination. Most estimates claim treatment costs in India start at around a tenth of the price of comparable treatment in America or Britain.

These hospitals are far out of the reach of most Indians and cater specifically to foreign tourists for very specific needs – for example some centers will focus strongly on heart surgery while others will deal with joint replacements. These specialist hospitals are very new with top rate medical teams, high volume and experience in their specialty and the best equipment available. High volume of heart surgeries does not translate into high volumes overall, however, and these hospitals rely heavily on agents, especially on the internet, to recruit prospective patients. These facilities also offer procedures that are rare or unavailable in the United States, such as hip polishing or resurfacing, which is a popular surgery for medical tourists.

The most popular treatments sought in India by medical tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass surgery, eye surgery and orthopedic surgery. India is known in particular for heart surgery, hip resurfacing and other areas of advanced medicine.

The south Indian city of Chennai has been declared India’s Health Capital, as it nets in 45% of health tourists from abroad and 30-40% of domestic health tourists.[77] Other major cities where medical tourists are catered to include New Delhi and Mangalore.

By 2015, India’s medical tourism sector is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 30%. Estimates of the value of medical tourism to India go as high as $2 billion a year by 2012.

Advantages for medical tourists include reduced costs, the availability of latest medical technologies and a growing compliance on international quality standards, as well as the fact that foreigners are likely to face a language barrier in India. The Indian government is taking steps to address infrastructure issues that hinder the country’s growth in medical tourism.

Ministry of Tourism India (MoT) is planning to extend its Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme to cover Joint Commission International (JCI) and National Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH) certified hospitals. A policy announcement of this effect is likely soon.

However, tourism in India can be impressive and at the same time quite uncomfortable. Its infrastructure is very poor. Although excellent hotels and western restaurants are available, they are extremely expensive. India has magnificent sights to see, however, from Hindu shrines to Islamic monuments and palaces and a vibrant modern culture.

Conclusion: India is a good choice for major surgery, but it is necessary to make sure you are going to a hospital with a strong track record in your particular condition. Tourism options after treatment are not as comfortable as the other hubs but are among the most interesting.

Singapore

Singapore has a world-renowned and well-established healthcare and medical system. Based on the WTO (2007) Singapore was voted the “Best Medical/Wellness Tourism Destination” by TravelWeekly (Asia) Industry Awards 2007. There are a dozen hospitals and health centers with JCI accreditation.[91] In 1997 (published 2000), the World Health Organization ranked Singapore’s health care system sixth best in the world and the highest ranked system in Asia.[92]

Patients from developed countries such as the United States and the UK are also beginning to choose Singapore as their medical travel destination for relatively affordable health care services in a clean cosmopolitan city.

Pros

The WHO ranked the quality of healthcare in Singapore as 6th in the world.

Singapore is a highly urbanized, orderly and spotless country so medical tourists should not expect the same chaotic environment that are typical in other Asian destinations

There are several JCI-certified hospitals and healthcare facilities in Singapore.

English is one of Singapore’s official languages and is spoken by all doctors and medical staff

Although the cost for medical procedures in Singapore is not as low compared to India or Thailand, the prices are still lower then Western Europe and the USA.

Cons

Medical procedures and treatments done in Singapore are more expensive compared to other Asian medical tourism destinations such as Thailand, India and Malaysia.

The climate in Singapore is hot and humid, which may be uncomfortable to most westerners particularly during the post-procedure and recovery stages

Prices of goods, transportation and accommodation in Singapore are relatively more expensive than other Asian countries

For US and Canadian medical tourists, travel times to Singapore are very long

3.4 SWOT Analysis

The following SWOT points have been identified based on secondary-qualitative research.

Strengths

Hua Hin’s current position as a desirable tourist

Affordable cost

Not far from Bangkok

Low cost of wellness products and services with high quality

Accessibility: by car, air shutter

Reputation and Marketing

Reputation

Weaknesses

Lack of consumer awareness

Some doctors are employed part time

Language and Culture Barrier

Unskilled Workforce

Opportunities

Many factors have contributed to the increased public awareness of health and wellness. Higher rates of heart disease.

Wellness tourism market is large and increasing.

Tourism policies from government, tourism industry will be strategically supported from government.

Provincial strategy group will create more obvious tourism development roadmap.

The continued growth of the Thai economy, resulting in growth of domestic tourism and raise opportunities to local tourism development.

Information technology and internet allow the distribution of travel information to be more convenient and faster.

Global trend towards health conscious.

Fund flow from local and foreign are key for development in tourist destination province like Hua Hin.

Threats

Travel understands how to package but healthcare facilities do not.

Unstable political situation in Thailand.

Global economic situation is difficult to expect, may impact spending of target market especially if problem occurred in target country.

Speaking about medical factors, for the definition, which comes from the research in preparation stage, we have found that there are four factors to make destination ready for international medical services.

Destination marketing strategies

The experience of Hua Hin thus serves to illustrate factors that are critical to destination development, raising two pertinent questions:

1. What are the best models of tourism marketing that focus on total customer needs, wants and experiences, and which recognize the essential nature of fun, high quality and diversity of choices at the destination?

2. Is it necessary for a destination / country to have a marketing strategy for attracting tourism? If the destination aims to host tourists in a way that leads to economic growth while balancing the needs of the citizens, then a structured and coordinated approach, a marketing strategy is the optimal approach to achieving these goals.

Recommendation

The findings revealed several strengths of Hua Hin tourism in terms of destination marketing. These included: effective tourism organizations, continuing tourism product development, a unique variety of activities and culture, variety of accommodations and hospitality programs, thorough overseas market segmentation, targeting, and positioning activities. Stability of economic, politic and social in Thailand is major factor of developing through strategies. However, if current government can sustain itself in medium term and serious implement of tourism destination development, Hua Hin is one of the most potential to famous globally likes others destination in Thailand.

Situated in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, only some 93 km away from the southernmost part of Sicily and 288 km east of Tunis, the Republic of Malta is one of the smallest, albeit most densely populated (1307 inhabitants/km?), European countries. The population of 412 970 [1] is spread over Malta and Gozo [2] , two main islands, which together with their corresponding archipelago comprise a surface area of 316 km2.

The tale of the Maltese history is a very turbulent one and it has seen a succession of many different powers ruling its islands throughout the course of time. Maltese islands have been already colonised in prehistoric times when the first settlers came down from the nearby Sicily, establishing their Neolithic communities around 5000 BC (Trump 1972). The period around 4100 BC marked the beginning of the so-called Temple Period (A»ebbuA? phase) around the islands, characterized by the appearance of the rock-cut chamber tombs. The peak of the Temple period ensued in the A gantija phase (3600 – 3200 BC), named after the eponymous site on the island of Gozo (Trump 2002). This was the first phase of the extensive building activity in the form of the megalithic structures, while the second phase took place around 3000 BC However, the prolific era of architectural prowess ceased towards 2500 BC, the buildings were abandoned and islands depopulated, until the advent of the Bronze Age with new populations arriving and raising their settlements (2500 – 700 BC).

In the period between 700 and 500 BC, Malta was colonised by the Phoenicians who saw the importance of islands’ strategic location and used their harbours for their trading business. After almost 300 years of Punic domination, which started around 500 BC, and their resulting defeat in the Punic wars, the power over the islands fell into the Roman hands in 218 BC, who incorporated them in the province of Sicily and thus the Empire. After the division of the Roman Empire, Malta was briefly occupied by Vandals and Ostrogoths in the 5th century, but in 535 AD, during the reign of Emperor Justinian I, it was assimilated by the Byzantine Empire where it remained until the Arabian conquest in 870 AD (Bonnano 2005). A chaotic medieval period followed where different rulers and ruling dynasties were replacing each other, for example, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, just to name a few. For a brief period of 50 years, Malta was a part of the Spanish Empire, until 1530 when it was consigned to the Knights of the Order of Saint John who were expelled from the island of Rhodes by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Under the constant threat of the Turkish attack, Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette built the first fortifications on Malta (Birgu and Isla) and Fort St. Elmo to guard the entrance to the Grand Harbour. The inevitable Turkish invasion began in 1565 marking the event known in history as the Great Siege of Malta. The attack was successfully warded off and in 1566 the Knights started constructing their new city, which was to carry the name of their victorious Grand Master. For the next 232 years, Malta stayed under the command of the Knights until the French occupation in 1798 led by Napoleon. However, after only two years, the French will surrender the territory to the British and Malta will become a crown colony by the provisions of the Treaty of Paris (1814). [3]

As an important strategic naval base to the Allied forces, Malta suffered great damage and loss of lives during WWII, while being bombed by the German and Italian forces. On 15th April 1942, King George VI awarded the country with George Cross for bravery, a symbol that is today embedded in the Maltese flag. [4]

During the British rule, the government structure was constantly shifting. Malta was granted self-government in 1921 by the provisions of the Amery-Milner Constitution, which also allowed for the first Parliament to be established. The Constitution was suspended, restored and withdrawn in the period of three years (1930 – 1933) as the result of a political crisis (Zammit 2005). Nevertheless, self-government was restored to Malta between 1947 and 1964. Finally, on 21st September 1964, Malta gained independence from the colonial rule, gained sovereignty within the Commonwealth and joined the United Nations. In the following year, Malta also joined the Council of Europe. It was not until a decade later that Malta declared itself a republic, on 13th December 1974, with Sir Anthony Mamo as its first president. With the termination of the military base agreement, British troops and the Royal Navy withdrew from the islands in 1979. [5] In 1993, local government was reintroduced by an act of Parliament. Another milestone in Maltese history occurred in 2003 when the Treaty of Accession to the European Union was signed and on 1st May 2004, in the biggest enlargement of the EU history, Malta joined the Union with other nine states.

Today, Malta is a parliamentary democracy whose government structure and public administration are modelled on the Westminster system. Its political scene is governed by two major political parties, which shifted in power since WWII, namely, the Nationalist Party (Partit Nazzjonalista; Christian Democratic Party) and the Labour Party (Partit Laburista; Social Democratic Party), with Nationalist party being currently in power.

2.2 Legislation on cultural heritage

The earliest legislation on cultural heritage in Malta dates back to 1925 when the colonial government issued the Antiquities (Protection) Act which was the consolidated edition of a series of earlier ordinances issued from 1907. The Act was followed by the creation of the Antiquities list in 1932, which contained the records of sites and properties under protection.

Heritage was next mentioned in 1991, in the context of Act Nr. V of the Environment Protection Act which proclaimed that “ministers responsible for the environment have the power to declare any natural or cultural site as protected”. In the succeeding Development Planning Act of 1992, cultural heritage is introduced through the scheduling of properties for conservation.

The old Antiquities Act was superseded in 2002 by the Cultural Heritage Act which was to rectify the imbalances that had existed since the times of antiquated governance and institute structural changes which would reflect the current needs by making provisions for management, regulation and conservation of cultural heritage (Grima & Theuma 2006).

The Cultural Heritage Act (2002), the principal tool that protects the cultural heritage in Malta, defines ‘cultural heritage’ as “movable and immovable objects of artistic, architectural, historical, archaeological, ethnographic, paleontological and geological importance and includes information or data relative to cultural heritage pertaining to Malta or to any other country.”

The CHA established a number of different entities, such as Heritage Malta, Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, Committee of Guarantee, Malta Centre for Restoration (merged with Heritage Malta in 2005), National Forum and Cultural Heritage Fund (administered by the Committee of Guarantee). The functions and objectives of selected entities will be detailed later in this chapter (2.3).

Guardianship Deed is an important tool introduced by the CHA (Article 48), with the SCH in charge of the administration process. It encourages involvement at grassroots level by allowing cultural heritage NGOs and local councils to enter into contract with the State which can transfer to them immovable cultural property in guardianship. This can only be done with properties such as archaeological sites, fortresses, towers and buildings which are public property. If the agreement in the notarial act is for some reason cancelled, the land returns to the government and the public ownership of the site is not lost.

Government gives LCs or NGOs special rights on these properties, especially economic rights, because they can make money from the sites through fundraising and keep the money for restoration of buildings. This is an exception because usually, an NGO cannot perform fundraising activities on a public property. A GD is extremely helpful because it allows the state to transfer the neglected properties which would otherwise probably never be restored.

Up until now, ten properties were entrusted to NGOs (nine to Din l-Art Helwa and one to Wirt Artna) and one to the Tarxien Local Council for a WWII shelter (SCH 2010). The number seems to indicate either a lack of interest or poor awareness of the opportunities offered by the GD (SCH 2010).

The National strategy for cultural heritage was published in 2006 by the Ministry for Tourism and Culture as a further step in the implementation of the Cultural Heritage Act. The main objectives identified in this document are citizen participation, improved governance, development of cultural resources and sustainable use of heritage resources (MTC 2006a).

The Local Councils Act was approved by the Maltese Parliament on 30 June 1993. It was based on the COE’s European Charter of Local Self-Government which the Government ratified earlier that same year. The Act created a system of local government authorities and gave them considerable responsibilities and functions, all of which are described in Articles 33 through 48. In relation to cultural heritage, the LCA limited LCs’ involvement in cultural heritage projects, however, Article 48 of the CHA enabled them to assume the role of custodians by entering into the Guardianship deed with the government. This process has already been discussed earlier in this text.

The Development Planning Act was created in 1992 and makes provisions “for the planning and management of development and for the establishment of an authority with powers to that effect” (DPA 1992, 1). The articles 46 through 47 are of interest here as they refer to cultural and natural heritage and authorize the agency in question (MEPA) to schedule property for conservation, to manage and review the list of scheduled property and to make emergency conservation orders.

The Structure Plan for the Maltese Islands was published in 1990 by the Planning Services Division of the Ministry for Development of Infrastructure. It is different from the DPA, in that it designates various types of conservation areas and properties, Chapter 15 of the SPMI identifies complementary policies which apply to those areas and properties. It further ranks the properties according to their significance and degree of protection. Listed buildings in Urban Conservation Areas are graded as Grades 1 to 3; Areas and Sites of Archaeological Importance are classified from Class A to D, while Areas of Ecological Importance and Sites of Scientific Importance are rated from Level 1 to 4 (SPMI 1990).

2.3 Relevant authorities

In the last twelve years, culture has shifted between several ministerial portfolios, presently constituting a part of Ministry for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports (Attard 2010). Before the CHA of 2002, there was only the Museums Department, the state administrative unit, which was both the operator and the regulator, functions which are today performed by Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. Since the Museums Department was not covered by law, there was not much information to be found on the subject. They had no autonomy, but they had a budget with which they ran the museums, while the revenue from the ticket sales went back to the government (Cutajar 2010).

The Superintendence for Cultural Heritage (Sovrintendenza Tal-Patrimonju Kulturali) is a national agency responsible for the regulation of all matters pertaining to the cultural heritage of Malta. Their mission, as defined by Article 7, paragraph 1 of the CHA is “to fulfil the duties of the State in ensuring the protection and accessibility of Malta’s cultural heritage”. Article 7, paragraph 5 details all the functions of the SCH, some of which are: development, managing and updating the National inventory of cultural property; promoting research in the field of cultural heritage; authorising and conducting excavations; keeping and managing documentation and archives in relation to cultural heritage; the monitoring of import and export of cultural goods; enforcement of the laws; advising the Minister and MEPA on heritage matters; administration of Guardianship deeds with NGOs and local councils. SCH is headed by the Superintendent of Cultural Heritage and currently consists of eleven staff members (Attard 2010). Since 2007, they have administered the Cultural Heritage Inventory Management System (CHIMS) project, a national database for heritage data management, which attempts to improve access to information.

The agency keeps a meticulous record of their publications namely, Annual Reports and State of heritage reports which can be accessed online on their official website.

Heritage Malta is an operating agency, established “to ensure that those elements of the cultural heritage entrusted to it are protected and made accessible to the public” (CHA 2002, Art.8, para.1). HM’s main task is management of State-owned museums and heritage sites, their related collections on the islands of Malta and Gozo, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites (HM 2008). The agency is governed by a Board of Directors. In 2005, the amendment to the CHA merged the former Malta Centre for Restoration with HM, and thus gave rise to the Institute of Conservation and Management of Cultural Heritage which offers academic and vocational courses in conservation in collaboration with MCAST and the University of Malta. [6]

Further functions of the Agency are elaborated upon in Article 8, paragraph 4 of the CHA, some of which are acquisition of properties, collections, sites and buildings; performing or commissioning conservation or restoration of owned or administered cultural properties; promoting education and appreciation of heritage to the general public; ensuring that all of the heritage sites entrusted to them are managed, conserved, studied and presented in the best way possible.

HM has successfully managed to capitalize upon different EU funding schemes for their cultural heritage and conservation programmes. Following is a selection of some of the ongoing projects: SMARTmuseum (FP7) – development of a platform for innovative IT services; Rehabilitation of Roman Baths and Christian Catacombs in Mgarr and Mosta (EAFRD); MINERVA Digitisation Project; A¦aA?ar Qim and Mnajdra Archaeological Park (ERDF) – installation of protective shelters, conservation and presentation, Med.Archeo.Sites: Study and Valorisation of Archaeological Sites of the Mediterranean Area. [7] The latest and a rather significant project is a 9.2a‚¬ million Archaeological Heritage Conservation Project (ERDF) launched in mid-2008. It will run until March 2013 and includes works on three sites, two of which are part of the Maltese Megalithic temples WHS (A gantija and Tarxien temples), while the third is on UNESCO’s Tentative List (St. Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat). The project includes construction of elevated walkways for both WHSs, a museum and a visitors’ centre at A gantija, and a temporary protective shelter, similar to the ones at A¦aA?ar Qim and Mnajdra, over the Tarxien temples (HM 2008).

Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) was established by the provisions of the Development Planning Act (1992) and its role further reinforced by the Environment Protection Act (2001). It is a national agency in charge of “land use planning and environmental regulation in Malta”. [8] MEPA is subdivided into the Development Planning Directorate, Environment Protection Directorate, Directorate for Corporate Service and the Chairman’s Office, all of which are carrying out the agency’s responsibilities.

The Planning Directorate is further split into the Forward Planning Division and the Development Services Division. It is within FPD that the Heritage Planning Unit (HPU), which is responsible for all matters pertaining to cultural and natural heritage, is placed. A full list of HPU’s obligations and duties can be found explained in detail in Structure Plan for the Maltese Islands (Chapter 15), EPA and DPA (Chapters 46 – 48). Some of the main tasks of HPU are providing general information on heritage, legal protection of immovable heritage and heritage related planning, scheduling properties and maintaining the Malta Scheduled Property Register, publishing guidelines for restoration, [9] internal [10] and public awareness projects. [11]

Within the “Public Awareness” section of the HPU’s website one can find links to X-Plain and One World. X-Plain is a four-page long newsletter on MEPA’s monthly activities, whose first issue was published in May 2007. There were seven issues published in 2007 and only three in 2008 which clearly shows that the newsletter has been discontinued. One world, on the other hand, was a special column in Times of Malta newspaper where, in the period from May 2007 until June 2009, a series of articles on cultural heritage of Malta were published.

There is also an informative section with answers to some frequently asked questions such as the definition of buffer zones, how to check if one’s property has been scheduled or which works can be carried out within scheduled property without development consent.

MEPA and HPU are encouraging citizen involvement so, for instance, every citizen can request a property to be scheduled and thus legally protected and enlisted in MSPR by filling the appropriate form available on the MEPA website.

The Maltese National Commission for UNESCO was created when Malta gained independence in 1964. Although a national commission, it comprises of volunteer staff members whose energy, resources and time they can spend are infinitesimal compared to national commissions of other countries that employ full-time personnel. The Maltese National Commission for UNESCO organises local projects which are in line with the mission and objectives of the parent organisation located in Paris. [12] Some of the projects related to Malta’s WHSs include a preparation of a reactive monitoring report for City of Valletta and publication of “The Tarxien Temples: Teacher’s Resource Book & Worksheets”. The Commission runs the official website where one can gather information about their activities and members. The News section of the site brings updates on news related to global UNESCO’s activities.

Local councils, as already mentioned in the section on legislation, were created in 1993 as required by the LCA. There are altogether 68 local councils of which 54 are located in Malta and 14 in Gozo. LCs are, by legal definition, responsible for a number of things (Articles 33 – 48, LCA), and specifically excluded from a number of other things, most of which are dealing with cultural sites. They have the right to organise local festas or other folkloristic activities, and deduct funding for culture from their own resources. LCs spend a lot of money on restoration of local chapels and publications, but national monuments, such as the Megalithic temples WHS, are not their responsibility as those are funded from the government budgets and managed by the national agency (Heritage Malta). Tarxien, Qrendi, MA?arr and XagAra are local councils of special interest here since the Megalithic temples WHS are situated in their administrative units. Following is a short analysis of information that these LCs provide on the temples to interested parties.

The office of XagAra Local Council does not contain any HM brochures on A gantija. A member of the LC informed the author that they do not receive these brochures from Heritage Malta at all. However, they do have a catalogue which lists all the sites of historical interest in XagAra, though it wasn’t specified if this is something available for purchase or only for library use. The book was not available for viewing at the time of the author’s visit.

The official website of the LC was no more informative either. It contains a link [13] which shows an interactive map of XagAra with clickable points of interest. Upon clicking the point for A gantija, the visitor enters a new page with information on A gantija temples and one photo of the site. The text does not mention that A gantija is UNESCO WHS. Another link [14] provides some brief information on the history of Gozo, starting from prehistoric times, and includes one more photo of A gantija.

The website of MA?arr Local Council provides specific information on the Ta’ A¦aA?rat and Skorba temples accompanied by one photo of each site. [15] Almost everything is in Maltese, with only some content translated into English. The English version of the site displays information on the history of the village featuring links to the HM website and their information on the temples. [16] The author did not have a chance to meet a representative of this LC despite several communication attempts.

The office of the Qrendi Local Council, just like the XagAra LC, does not contain any HM brochures. The secretary of the LC stated regrettably that there is no cooperation between them and Heritage Malta although they have expressed their interest on many occasions. On the other hand, the LC seems to cooperate and consult more freely with MEPA concerning cultural heritage issues. From time to time the council organises cultural and educational outings, however, none of these were done at A¦aA?ar Qim or Mnajdra WHSs. They have also designed several “heritage walks”, itineraries through the village of Qrendi and its significant buildings, mainly local chapels and churches, a palace, a tower and a public garden. [17]

In 2009, the council organized a cultural event “From prehistory to the digital era” during which one lecture on the temples of A¦aA?ar Qim and Mnajdra was held.

The official website of the LC is available in both Maltese and English. One of the links entitled ArkeoloA?ija contains three further sections on the archaeological sites around the village, two of which are A¦aA?ar Qim and Mnajdra. The article on the temples is short but it does mention their WH designation. [18] Another link allows access to a number of press releases related to the landfill site controversy issued by the Council. [19]

At the time of the author’s visit, the Tarxien Local Council offices were closed and further efforts to establish contact with an LC representative have failed. The official website contains a couple of links which refer to the temples, although their contents are questionable. The link which describes the history of the village, including several (incorrect) references to the temples, quotes heavily from an outdated book, published in 1932. [20] Another link, although entitled “Postijiet Interessanti” (eng. interesting places), did not find the temples interesting enough to be included in the overview. Finally, the last link brings a short article on the Tarxien temples WHS with three images. [21] The website is available in Maltese with Italian translation.

2.4 Cultural Heritage NGOs

The two major cultural heritage NGOs in Malta are Din L-art Helwa and Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna which are both interested in various aspects of cultural heritage. Several other NGOs, with varying degrees of involvement, are also included in this overview.

Din L-art Helwa (National Trust of Malta) is a voluntary organisation established in 1965. Their mission is protection, conservation, management and maintenance of historic monuments and buildings, taking care of the environment and environmental issues, raising awareness and the promotion of heritage to the public. Din l-Art Helwa functions as a Trust, implying that it is restoring the sites “on behalf of the State, the Church, and private owners” (Vigilo 2010). Membership in the organisation is open to all.

Since 2003, Din l-Art Helwa holds nine properties in trust which were transferred to it by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage via the first Guardianship deed. [22] Sites are manned by volunteers who keep them open for visitors. The Organization’s website offers in-depth information about their sites, campaigns and projects. Moreover, it is often updated with information about current events and offers e-mail subscription to their newsletter. There are also many useful publications available for download, such as brochures with proposed walks through their sites and Vigilo, the organisation’s bulletin.

Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna (The Malta Heritage Trust) is a voluntary organisation established in 1987. Their focus lies on restoration, presentation and management of mainly neglected rural and industrial sites, as well as British and medieval military heritage. [23]

The foundation both owns properties and holds them in trust. Apart from one prehistoric temple in their ownership, [24] the rest of the properties are mostly late medieval and 20th century military structures such as ramparts, bastions, forts, towers, bridges and defence posts. There are several sites currently open to public [25] which are looked after by the volunteers and paid staff. Wirt Artna is running many different projects as diverse as conservation and restoration works on their properties, historical re-enactments as an interpretation tool (“Living history”), education and awareness raising about military heritage among schoolchildren (“Hands-on Heritage”). Membership in the organisation is open to all.

The official website of the foundation does not offer a subscription to a newsletter, however, they do make good use of new internet media and opened a group “Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna” on Facebook, a social networking platform anyone with a Facebook account can join and automatically keep track of the group’s updates. The foundation’s Facebook group also contains photo albums with images of various events they organised. The group currently has 813 members.

Wirt GAawdex is a non-governmental organisation created in 1981 whose activities and projects are primarily concerned with the historical, archaeological and natural heritage of the islands of Gozo and Comino. Wirt GAawdex is involved in restoration projects on monuments such as late medieval watchtower, chapels, bastions and a gunpowder magazine. [26] They are also organizing tours to sites of cultural significance on the islands and holding public lectures.

In relation to the Megalithic temples WHS, there has only been one lecture entitled “Prehistoric Temples of Gozo”, held in April 2010, since the organisation started with the lecture programme in 2006. Furthermore, in the period between 2006 and 2009, there were only a total of eight tours organized, and apart from the visit to Hypogeum and Tarxien Temples in April 2007, there were no other visits to WHS, surprisingly, not even to A gantija which is situated on the island itself.

The official website does not offer a newsletter subscription, but some of the issues can be downloaded in .pdf format directly from the site. Membership in this organisation is open to all.

The Old Temples Study Foundation (OTSF) is a US non-profit organisation established in 1994 whose mission is to foster education and research related to prehistoric culture in Malta. The foundation has lately only been focused on organising educational travel trips for Americans who wish to visit Malta and holding lectures and exhibitions in the US on Maltese culture and heritage.

In the past, the OTSF organised a number of different activities and projects, what follows is a selection of those that were addressed to the Maltese population.

Student Prehistoric Heritage Awareness Project: in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and former Museums Department, OTSF published a teacher’s handbook on Maltese prehistoric heritage which was distributed in Maltese schools. The year the project was undertaken has not been published on their website and there is no possibility to see what the handbook looked like.

“Tell me about the Maltese temples” is another book which evolved from the previous project. It is an illustrated bilingual (Maltese – English) book for use in classrooms which was published in year 2000.

In 2003, the Foundation organized an international conference entitled “Exploring the Maltese Prehistoric Temple Culture (EMPTC)” which gathered experts from around the world. [27]

The OTSF hosts a FAQ section on their official website which provides information on the megalithic culture of Malta for children.

The author attempted to arrange a meeting with a representative of the Foundation while in Valletta and left her contact details with the secretary, unfortunately, there was no feedback afterwards.

Archaeological society Malta (ASM) is

Tourism is an ever growing industry. The first time the term tourism was mentioned was in 1800’s. At this time tourism and holidays was a pure luxury and only available for aristocrats. With time the attitude towards tourism and travel changed and because of rapid life style change and improvements in the world of employment after the Second World War travel and tourism became accessible to bigger populaces. Through increase in holidays allowance, decrease in working hours and increase in disposal income people started having more time and money to travel. And by the technological advancement flying became incremental affordable for everybody. So the general populace start being interested in tourism. They start travelling to destinations of their interest. But what are the destinations tourists choose and why do they choose some destinations over other? Why do some countries attract and appeal to tourists more than others? These questions will be discussed further in this assignment.

At first the terms ‘receiving’ and ‘generating’ countries will be defined in this assignment. Furthermore the world’s main tourism receiving countries will be discussed and why they attract the most tourism trips.

Attractions are what interest tourists and what motivates them to travel. So attractions are the most important components in the destination selection process but they are not the only one factor. Some receiving countries have more appealing and divers attractions than others. But is this it what makes some destinations more attractive than others? There are many factors which playing a role in the destination choice of tourists. This will be address in the following sections but at first the question what a receiving and generating country is has to be answered.

Receiving countries

Receiving countries can be defined as countries which are the destination countries for tourists. Receiving countries are these countries in which the tourists are interested to visit. These countries receive and host the tourists and because they receive the tourist demand as well as they receive the expenditures of the tourists, they are called ‘receiving’ countries.

Typical examples for receiving countries are: France, USA, Spain, China, Italy and UK. In 2009 France received 74.2 million tourists and USA received 54.88 million. The same year 52.23 million tourists arrived in Spain and 50.88 arrived in China. Italy received 2009 43.24 million tourists and UK 28.2 million (UNWTO).

Generating countries

Generating countries can be defined as countries where the tourist demand is coming from. In other words these are the countries of origin where the tourists are travelling from. The tourist demand is coming from the generating countries. Generating countries have the expenditure for the tourism and pay the receiving countries for their service and the destinations are the receiving countries.

Typical examples for generating countries are: Germany, USA, UK, China, France and Italy. In 2009 Germans spend $81.2 billion on international tourism and tourists’ coming from the USA spend $73.2 billion. British spend the same year $50.3 billion on tourism and Chinese spend $43.7 billion. 2009 French generated $38.5 billion for receiving countries by tourism and Italian generated $27.9 billion (UNWTO).

Main tourism receiving countries and why these countries attract the most tourism trips

The main tourism receiving countries in the world are like stated above: France, USA, Spain, China, Italy and UK. These countries are the main receiving countries because they are more successful in attracting tourists than other countries. Attractions as well as transportation and accommodation form the major components for the tourism industry. These components are pivotal in the appeal of the destination to the tourists. Attractions are for most tourists the main reasons and motivations for visiting the receiving countries (Page & Connell, 2006). There are two types of attractions natural resources and ‘man-made’ features. Natural resources or attractions are natural occurrences e.g. national parks, wildlife, landscapes or natural phenomena as well as climate. ‘Man-made’ features or attractions are built, established or developed by human beings. Cultural attractions include historical architectures, archaeological sites, museums, galleries or religious features. Traditional attractions are folklore, animated culture and festivals and by events are meant sports activities like Olympics, World Cups and cultural events e. g. Carnivals in Rio, Bull Run in Pamplona or religious events like the crusade on Easter in Valencia (Cooper et al, 2008). Some examples of attractions of some of the main receiving countries are given below.

France is very cultural and historical country which offers very divers attractions to tourists. The attractions range from historical monuments and places over wildlife parks and theme parks to wine and dine cultural attractions. Some examples of typical French attractions are giving below:

Top historical monuments and places

1. The Louvre

2. The Eifel Tower

3. Notre Dame cathedral

4. Chateau de Versailles

5. Sacre Coeur basilica

Top theme parks:

1. Euro Disneyland

2. Parc Asterix

3. France Miniature

Top wildlife parks:

1. Parc de Thoiry

2. Planete Sauvage

3. Reserve Africaine de Sigean

(http://about-france.com/tourism/tourist-attractions.htm)

USA is a very interesting big country with lots of natural resources as well as ‘man-made’ features. Tourists visit USA to see natural phenomena, historical landmarks, cities as well as entertainment and shopping venues. USA offers tourists very multifaceted attractions like:

Natural resources

Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Great Smoky Mountains, Waikiki Beach, Californian Beaches, Yellowstone National Park

Man-made features

Time square, Statue of Liberty, National Mall and Memorial Park Washington D. C., Las Vegas Stripe, Disneyland Park, Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld Orlando

(http://www.thetravelerszone.com/travel-destinations/top-25-most-visited-tourist-destinations-in-america)

Spain is also a very historical country but it is mostly visited because of their beautiful natural resources e.g. coasts and beaches and its nice climate. Spain’s most visited natural resources are: Zoo de Madrid, Costa Blanca Beach, The Balearic Islands, Donana National Park, Parque del Buen Retiro and Sierra Navada Mountains, Park Guell. And spain’s most visited man-made attractions are: La Pedrera, Toledo, Prado Museum, Pamplona, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Flamenco, Port Aventura Salou, La Rambla (http://www.travour.com/tours-to-spain).

Italy attracts with its intriguing art, modern cities and beautiful country sides but particularly its rich cultural heritage attracts most tourists. Main tourists attractions in Italy are:

1.) The Coliseum

2.) Piazza Campidoglio

3.) The Roman Forums

4.) The Pantheon

5.) The Trevi Fountain

6.) The Grand Canal in Venice

7.) The Sistine Chapel

8.) St. Peter’s Basilica

9.) St. Peter’s Square

10.) The Vatican Gardens

Would-be travellers contemplate a destination

Internal input

Social psychological set of factors

Personal characteristics

Motives

Activities

Special interestAll receiving countries offer very divers attractions which tourist can choose. But still some countries are more successful than others. Why? What factors, apart of attractions, playing a crucial role in the decision-making? Without doubt attractions are the major appeal to tourists but not the only factor for their choice.

Initial destination images and awareness set
Country
1 2 3 4 5 6
Countries being contemplated
External output
Destinations characteristics gleaned from
Information from experience
Information from promotions
Information from others and other sources
Individual constraints
Money, time, other resources, social factors
Evoke set
Country
1 2 3
still being considered
Active information search
Final set
Country 2 selected

Actual travelInformation search

continues

(Pearce, 2005, p.105)

This model shows that there are far more factors then only attractions which are determinant for a tourist destination choice. The receiving country has only an direct influence on the external output by marketing the destinations well, making information available and accessible. Additionally the receiving country has to create an appealing and attractive image of the tourist destination and build a good awareness of the destination. For example, France created the image of being a romantic country, Spain created the image of sunny, relaxing but full of fun country. Italy created an historical and sultry country. The other factors which play a crucial role in the destination choice are individual and subjective which the receiving country has no direct influence on. A tourist decides for a destination according to their motives and interest as well as the individual constraints like money and time. Tourists have a specific imaginations and expectations of their holidays which they try to fulfil by their choices. However attractions are still the major factor which influences the tourist’s choice. So some receiving countries are more successful than other because they successfully create an appealing image and permanent awareness of the tourist destination and effective marketing.

Conclusion

The succession of a tourist destination depends on many factors but the most important factor is attraction. The receiving country has to be interesting and appealing to the tourist. A big diversity of attractions will pull more tourists with different interests and motives. But there are other factors which count in the tourist destination selection e.g. the individual input like interests, motives and personal characteristics and the individual constraints like money, time and social factors. So the choice is not only made on the background of the diversity of attraction offers but it is a very individual choice. Receiving countries have to put a lot of effort in creating interesting and appealing image and broad awareness. So a receiving country will be only more appealing to the majority of tourists when it meets all the factors they are looking for.

Word count: 1441 words
Referencing List

UN (1948). Declaration

Journals

WTO (1980). The Manila Declaration on World Tourism, WTO, Madrid.

UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (UNWTO), Vol. 8 No. 3. October 2010.

Books

Page, S. J. and Connell, J. (2006). Tourism a modern synthesis. 2nd edition. Thomson Learning.

Cooper, C. et al. (2008). Tourism. Principles and Practice. 4th edition, Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Pearce, P. L. (2005). Tourist Behaviour. Themes and Conceptual Schemes. Channel View Publications.

Websites

Author n/a, (2007): Visitor and tourist attractions in France. (Online). Available at: http://about-france.com/tourism/tourist-attractions.htm (Accessed: 1st April 2011)

Author n/a, (2008): Top 25 Most Visited Tourist Destinations in America. (Online). Available at: http://www.thetravelerszone.com/travel-destinations/top-25-most-visited-tourist-destinations-in-america (Accessed: 3rd April 2011)

Author n/a: Spain travel guide. (Online). Available at: http://www.travour.com/tours-to-spain (Accessed: 3rd April 2011)

Williams, J. (2008): The Top Ten Best Tourist Spots In Italy. (Online). Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Top-Ten-Best-Tourist-Spots-in-Italy&id=976653 (Accessed: 4th April 2011)

As a business development manager of Tune hotel, I have been requested to propose and justify the implementation of an overall cost leadership strategy for Tune hotels.com. this proposal is consists of preparing a strategic service vision for Tune hotels.com by taking few aspects as a consideration into account, such as the target market segment, service concept, operating strategy and also the service delivery system as well. Besides that, I have been asked to identify what are the service dimensions in setting the benchmark for service qualifiers, service winners and service losers as well.

Hotel overview

Air Asia is a low cost carrier (LCC) airline, with the image of making flying feasible for everybody, where it is well known for the largest low fare and no frills airline, and Tune hotel is one of another luminous thought invented by the air Asia’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and also the founder of Air Asia as well, Datuk Tony Fernandes. Tune hotels have open its first “no frills” hotel branch in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman,Kuala Lumpur on 9th april 2007. Tune Hotel is currently operating in places such as Malaysia, Downtown Penang, Kota Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, KLIA – LCCT Airport, Johor, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Indonesia and United Kingdom and London as well.

Question 1
Target market segment

As in the context of a business, target market segment is an essential element which is needed to be considered and it is important in facilitating and directing the business path in the market. Target market segment, which is targeting the audience, is very important to sustain the survival of a business or industry as well. Tune hotel which has been categorized under the service industry and it can be considered as the market leader in the no frills budget hotel in Malaysia and South East Asia. Tune hotel has implemented a creative and innovative concept to be used in Malaysia, and they differ from their competitors since no any hotel or company has claims to be in the same market segment.

Tune hotel has used the geographic segmentation dimensions to influence the market opportunity, for instance, tune hotel at Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, which is known as the budget hotel which has the similar concept of no frills Air Asia Airlines,tune hotel also adapt the same concept where it is also the first no frills hotel in Asia as well. Tune hotel Kuala Lumpur are strategically located at the central of Kuala Lumpur in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, whereby it is close to major shopping, food and beverage outlets and entertainment areas. Moreover, the location is also convenient and facilities such as LRT and bused as well. (Anonmous, n.d)

Swot analysis of tune hotel
Strength

Tune hotel has a great strength whereby they have a reward system to those customers who have done an advance booking service through internet with them. By introducing this system, tune hotel will be able to attract more customers and maintain those loyal customers in future as well. Besides that, Tune hotel have a great central location with facilities such as LRT and buses and it is nearby shopping areas, entertainment areas, and food and beverage areas as well. This attracts and encourages those customers, especially foreigners to choose Tune hotel as well. Moreover, Tune hotel are attractive with their pricing strategies as well, in situation where most of the Air Asia customers are those tune hotel’s loyal customers.

Weakness

Tune hotel has a very limited number of customers in the region who are conscious of the Tune hotel. This could be one of the weaknesses faced by Tune hotel. Tune hotel should be able to work on their advertising method and emphasis more on their service provided.

Opportunity

In order to gain the competitive market and be the first market leader in service industry, Tune hotel can be able to attract more customers by improving their marketing strategy effectively to gain the customer’s satisfaction and their support as well in future.

Threat

Tune hotel receives a high competition in the service industry since it has been unique in the industry. High Competition among competitors is one the biggest threat to tune hotel to sustain in the market in the future. Outsourcing is also one of the threat to Tune Hotel since other Hotels do provide facilities which tune Hotel doesn’t provide, for instance other hotels have basis necessities of customer such as the boiler, drinking water and many more, meanwhile Tune hotel does not provide all this.

Service concept

Source: http://www.xm-msia.com/xm/tunehotels/facilities.asp

Tune hotel is unique in providing their service, compared to their competitors, and they operate a limited service concept, where they only offer single and double room for its customers. They have 5 star beds provided in each rooms feature high quality spring mattress beds with basic needs such as pillows, pillowcase and bed sheets. Each of the room consists of attached private bathrooms together with heated power showers with the minimal room rates. Tune hotel are have a central and convenient and strategic location which is nearby to shopping areas, ATM services to withdrawal purposes, food and beverage such as kopitiam outlets and entertainment as well. Moreover, Tune hotel has 24-hour security facilities as well whereby it is secure and safe to be in the surroundings of the hotel.

Operating strategy

Tune hotel makes use of the outsourcing as their operating strategy to save the operation cost and to improve and get better output and efficiency of the hotel. For instance, Tune Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, the maintenance, Kopitiam, 7 eleven which is available for 24 hours, money changer kiosk, fast food outlets such as Subway, and CIMB ATM and bureau the change are certainly part of outsourcing. By implementing this operating strategy effectively, Tune Hotel have be able to save a huge amount of their cost and this eventually helped Tune Hotel to improve on better production and productivity effectively and efficiently of their hotel. ( Batcha, 2007).

Service delivery system

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4089502/Tune-Hotel

The service delivery system in Tune Hotel is overwhelming, and core and supplementary services provided are identified through the flower of service model. The service are divided into 2 main sections, where the information, order taking, billing and payment are categorized under the facilitating services, meanwhile consultation, housekeeping, hospitality and exception are categorized under the second section named as enhancing services.

TUNE HOTEL’S STAKEHOLDERS

Source: http://www.xm-msia.com/xm/tunehotels/about_us_3.asp

Tune hotels sdn.bhd is 40% owned by Datuk Tony Fernandes, 30% by Dato Kamarudin Meranun, 25% by Dennis Melka and the rest 5% by Tune Strategic Investments Limited. Tune Ventures Sdn Bhd owns 72.19% stake in tune hotels, followed by Dato Kalimullah Hassan which now the chairman of ECM avenue which is one of the listed Malaysian investment bank owns 12.03% stake in tune hotels, Lim Kian Onn the chairman of ECM avenue, also owns the same percentage as Dato Kalimullah Hassan 12.03%, and lastly followed by tune hotels employee holding sdn bhd where the company is formely owned by the key employees of tune hotel owns 3.75% stake in tune hotels as well.

Question 2
Service qualifiers

Tune hotel is classified to be the service qualifier since it is providing a good service which meets the requirements of a consumer. For instance, tune hotel has a clean environment around, whereby they provide housekeeping services to make sure the consumers feels safe and clean with the surrounding environment. Moreover, Tune hotel are concerned with the safety as well, where they have the 24 hour security system applied, whereby they uses electronic key card to access into rooms, CCTV cameras services, round- the- clock on duty reception staff and no access to the main lobby without a keycard pass midnight.(anonymous, 2007)

Moreover, tune hotel also has introduced tune hotel insurance only in Malaysia, and said to be globally soon. Those insurance are not only responsible for the lost of travel documents, but also has take the responsibilities of being cautious of guest’s personal accident, medical expenses and also delayed check in as well.(anonymous, n.d).

Service winners

Service winners are those competitive dimensions used to make the final choice among competitors, for instance is the price. The pricing strategy of Tune hotel is from the range of RM 9.90. Tune hotel’s price will be different during peak seasons, promotion seasons and also a different price range for the advance booking as well.

Service loser

When tune hotel fails to deliver the needs and wants of the customer, they might entitle to be the service loser. Service loser occurs when there is a failure to meet the expectations of what customer actually wants. Tune hotel should be able to implement new marketing strategy as Tune Hotel is having a high competition among its competitors which is a threat to them.

Question 3
Porter’s generic strategies

Source: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml

Tune hotel has adopt the cost leadership strategy overall. This cost leadership strategy mainly emphasis on the low cost producer in the industry. Setting price low sometimes might influence the way of thinking of a customer, where low price may give a negative perception of the quality and the brand image of the company itself. For instance, there are not many out there are aware about Tune hotel and its services, since it is new in the market. This is mainly because the strategy used to representation about Tune hotel is done ineffectively. Tune hotel should come up with an effective strategy to expose their brand name by having advertisement about its service and facilities provided to attract not only the Air Asia’s customers, but also to the locals and foreigners who travel frequently.

Placing Tune hotel in a strategic location with the lower price is valuable, but it should also be a place where customers feel flexible and convenient with the environment as well. Tune hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman where it is a location which is popular with prohibited immigrations and place where they gather together. The place is nearer to the place where most of the time it is famous with prostitution, drugs and offense are indivisible. This might not guarantee the safety at times and it could be one of the main problem customer’s will have a choice to choose other hotels as their choice. Tune hotel can improve this by making a deep study and research about those place and plan the location as well to avoid those circumstances occur.

Moreover, Tune hotel has limited services where they don’t provide the basis necessities such as boiler, drinking water and so on. Tune hotel save cost on this, but yet it should not be limited in providing the services since its known as the budget hotel. Tune hotel can improve on their service provided to enhance the satisfaction of the customers and maintain its competitive advantage than its competitors.

Conclusion

Overall, Tune hotel has been taking the efforts to reach the audience by implementing the no – frills concept hotel. Since it is still new in the market, Tune hotel should implement new ideas to expose its brand name and win the local consumer’s perception as well to adopt their name as well.

This report will consider the contracting considerations of a small to medium sized tour operator in relation to providing a report based holiday experience for a clientele from socio-economic bands A and B. The report will consider two key elements namely in the form of accommodation and other services in the resort and transportation of an appropriate type to and from the resort.

In considering a possible solution to providing accommodation for the company’s guests there are a number of options open to the small to medium sized tour operator. At the one end of the spectrum the tour operator could consider an option of direct investment. Such an option would see the tour operator investing in hotels and accommodation facilities which at the end of the investment the company would own the facilities which could be used for both its own guests and for the purpose of renting out accommodation to other tour operators which capacity allows for such an options (Holloway et al 2009). However, such an option in the circumstances is an unlikely option for the specific company in question. In the first instance the option is an expensive one, investment in hotel and accommodation facilities can cost millions in there initial investment or more, this may be an unsuitable or even unrealisable option for a small to medium enterprise.

Secondly, the corporate objectives of the company are to minimise risks, direct investment however, may be seen as a considerably risky option for several reasons. In the first case once established, the company will have long term fixed costs to meet over a prolonged period of time, such a problem is not incurred where a contract based option is undertaken and thus the liability to meet expenses is limited to the agreed contract period which could be as short as a single season or less. Secondly, long term investment an overseas location also implies taking on the national risk which are associated with international trade including exposure to currency fluctuations, interest rates and changes in demand from the consumer perspective (Griffin and Pustay 2010). Again, where a contracting option is considered such exposures whilst still present are limited to a much shorter period of time and thus to a large extent offset.

A more realistic option for the company in question may be to consider one of the many contracting options which are available, such contracting options are also wide and varied in nature and include both direct and indirect contracts with accommodation providers as well as a variety of options with regard to the length contracts undertaken (Holloway et al 2009).

In the first instance, the company must select between contracting directly with accommodation providers or through the use of a third party agency (Cooper et al 2008). Negotiation directly may help the company to save money by excluding the fees of a third party however, the downside is that the company may have to deal with a large number of accommodation providers each with their own peculiarities and unique circumstances. On the other hand, the company could opt to use another intermediary who will undertake such sub-contracting on the behalf of the tour operator, for the tour operator this reduces complexity in the contracting process in that the tour operator now has only a single point of contact (Holloway et al 2009). However, on the downside the tour operator will now incur additional costs from the fees levied from a third party, in addition the tour operator will also lose a degree of control over the accommodation which is to be provided and arranged by the third party. This may have an impact upon the tour operator who’s clientele falls with the A and B social bands and so have very specific requirements in relation to their individual accommodation needs in comparison to other segments of the market.

The next consideration from a contracting point of view is to consider the length and level of commitment in contracting options. Again the tour operator is presented with a wide range of options, at the lowest level of commitment end of the spectrum the tour operator can simply book rooms with accommodation provider in reference to specific levels of demand experienced, such an option means that costs are kept to a minimum and risks from contractual obligations are virtually eliminated (Cooper et al 2008). There is however, an additional risk incurring in that whilst the tour operators liabilities are minimised so are those of the accommodation providers, in short should the tour operator experience a surge in demand and the accommodation providers be unable to meet such a demand do to market forces, the tour operator may be left either having to disappoint customers or have to pay premium prices in order to satisfy the demand.

At the other end of the spectrum the tour operator could contract to buy a set number of rooms or even entire hotels for a specific period of time (Holloway et al 2009). In such a case the advantage is that the tour operator has a guaranteed level of availability in a given hotel or resort and thus the risks of not being able to meet demand are off set given that the tour operator has a fixed capacity which it may use as it sees fit. The other major advantage is one of cost linked to economies of scale (Johnson et al 2008), by undertaking longer contracts that purchasing rooms at the spot rate, the tour operator stands to benefit from substantial bulk purchasing discounts as rooms and accommodations purchased over a long period come at a much reduced cost in comparison to shorter periods of hire.

However, in such a circumstance the company also incurs some additional risks. Now that the company has entered into a contract for a fixed amount of accommodation the tour operator also has the obligation to pay for the rooms and so needs to be able to fill the accommodation to as close to full capacity as possible throughout the year (Holloway et al 2009). In reality this may mean offering significant discounts at certain part of the year so as to attract enough custom to fill the accommodation, alternatively the tour operator could forego full utilisation however, the contract would see the tour operator still having to pay for the accommodation which has been rented in advance.

In addition to accommodation, there are other elements of the resort experience which the tour operator may wish to consider contracting out to third party providers. Key elements include the provision catering services, onsite entertainment and other forms of entertainment and added value services such as tours and excursions of sites of local interest to the clientele of the resort (Singh 2006).

From a transportation perspective, the use of scheduled flights has become one of the most important ways travel operators have been able to take advantage of both the flexibility and speed of air travel as part of the holiday package (Holloway et al 2009). Unfortunately due to the constraints of the scenario the travel operator will have look at a number of alternative methods of getting guests to and from the proposed resort of which there are a wide number of options including alternative air transportation options as well as some more creative solutions making use of alternative modes of transport.

The first and possibly most feasible option for a tour operator who can not take advantage of scheduled flights to a destination may be to consider using a charter service. Charter services offer to schedule an aircraft for the specific use of a client on a given route, charter options may include a single trip rental but more likely a charter provider will agree with a company such as a tour operator a regular schedule of flights for a season or more (Holloway et al 2009, Cooper et al 2008). There are several advantages for the tour operator if such an option is engaged in. From the passengers perspective, there is almost no difference to if the tour operator had made use of a scheduled flight, the guest will be transported to their destination on an aircraft which functions in all but the same way as one operating on a scheduled route. Secondly, a charter service operates with more flexibility than that of the scheduled flight, the tour operator can choose deviate from the time table which would not be an option which scheduled options and there is also flexibility of destination which may include local changes such as using an alternative airport or more radical changes changing the route of the aircraft altogether.

There are however, still some drawback of the charter flight option, the main problem would be one of capacity. In the case the scheduled flight the responsibility for filling seats lies with the airline provider and the liability of the tour operator is limited to the number of seats for which they have purchased on any given flight. However, when an aircraft is chartered the cost of the charter becomes a fixed cost and the responsibility for filling seats then becomes the responsibility of the charterer, in this case the tour operator (Holloway et al 2009).

The charter option has been a relatively successful option in recent years for tour operators, in some circumstances the model has become so successful that there has become a blur in the boundaries between scheduled and chartered flights. This has been exhibited in both operational elements in that some charter flights are so regular as to almost form a scheduled service including the sale of spare capacity to additional passengers. Secondly many travel operators have sought to consolidate their positions by buying charter aircraft providers and integrating these businesses into the main business unit (Monarch 2010).

If the tour operator still wishes to investigate the scheduled flight option further, there is the consideration that a multi-modal transport operation may be considered. In such a case the tour operator may consider purchasing seats to the nearest airport served by a scheduled flight and then arrange onward transport via road rail or water. In many cases this may be an unattractive option, especially where distances are significant. Such an option may become and annoyance for guests and add unnecessary costs for the tour operator. There are however, times when the option may be an appropriate one especially for the upmarket segment. Such circumstances may exist where the tour operator can incorporate the onward transport into the holiday package, this may be possible where the route from airport to resort passes through an area of outstanding natural beauty or a luxury transport option can be added such as a river cruise which serves a duel function as transport and entertainment.

Air transport however, is not the only option available to a tour operator one other major option to consider is transportation via water. Water transport has largely declined in recent decades due to the rise of faster and cheaper air transport which also allows access to a wider number of destinations than water based or land routes (Holloway et al 2009). Despite the decline of the standard ocean liner as a mode of transport which is now largely confined to summer transatlantic crossings the market for other water based forms of transport has both stabilised and began to grow again in recent years. The most important development has been a rebranding of the cruise, in past times the cruise as a form of holiday had declined as a function of both poor branding and the rise of alternatives. However, significant investment on the behalf of the industry has seen the holiday rising again in popularity amongst consumers.

In selecting a transportation mode suitable for a market segment in socio economic groups A and B one option may be to consider providing a hybrid holiday which takes advantage of the rise in popularity of the cruise linked to the facilities present at the destination. From a pragmatic perspective the tour operator could in effect make use of a cruise ship to transport its guests too the resort making the transport via water an essential part of the holiday package as opposed to being a way of getting to the product in the form of the resort. Once at the destination, the tour operator would have the option of providing a return journey for guests either via the same method or via an alternative such as a charter flight. The major benefit of such an option is that the tour operator would be able to offer a high value added product in which all elements of the package including transportation are considered a part of the holiday. On the downside, the small to medium size of the tour operator would necessitate the use of a third party to provide a suitable vessel for use. This in turn would add complexity to the operation and there would naturally be a greater limitation on destinations based upon the schedules and services of third party providers as well as the natural constraints imposed by limiting transport options to water based transport.

There is also a rail option open to the travel operator, this has become an option with an increased level of feasibility from the UK since the opening on the channel tunnel back in the 1990’s. Whilst, rail transport provides fast and efficient transport from the UK to the major cities in Europe, the real problem with this option is one of flexibility. To a large extent destinations will be limited to the major cities within Europe and it may be considered to access to more remote destinations and resorts becomes infeasible and impractical for users of the service. In addition, the large distances and nature of the rail network means that intercontinental options will be largely off limits to a tour operator if looking to use rail as a transportation option.

Given the objectives of the company which are largely to reduce risk and the consideration of flexibility the recommendation of this report are that the travel operator opts to convey its guests the resort via a chartered air service model. Such a model would see that the company does not have to risks associated with investing in expensive capital items such as aircraft or ships which would increase the risk profile of the company significantly. In addition, by using an air service the company would also maintain the element of flexibility and speed opening up a wider number of destinations than would be available through land or water based forms of transport. These are both key benefits for the company’s target client group in socio economic groups A and B. There are however, still some risks associated with the charter route, whilst the company would not own any specific assets associated with the transport of passengers, the company would still have a fixed capacity of seat for which it would need to fill on each flight so as to keep the cost per passenger for a minimum. The risk here is that during periods of low demand the company may have to offer significant discounts in order to fill flights, this may also create a conflict with the company’s generic strategy of focusing on the premium end of the market (Porter 2004, Jobber 2007).

Demand for hotels of all types from small guesthouses to boutique, country house and large commercial properties have been so strong that in many areas of the UK it far exceeded supply. This has led to a rise in demand for hotels. Birmingham area is not excluded from this as the city has seen a sharp increase in the number of tourists and boasts a rich high-end clientele market. The city is the second most populated in England with a population of over two million. It is also the third largest financial centre in U. K with over 100,000 people working in the service sector. It is also home to Britain’s largest banks Lloyds and Midland Bank, it is also among the best places in Europe locate a business and those reasons have led to the increasing demand for accommodation and conference rooms (Chinn, 1994).

The concept of a contemporary hotel is predominantly the general map for how the hotel will meet the requirements and expectations of its anticipated market. A hotel operation’s model is articulated in numerous ways, including its menu, interior decoration, type of service, pricing, and site. Concept growth means developing a map for the accomplishment of the hotel business in its market in advance of really scheming let alone building the hotel. It is usual for some businesspersons to think about a new restaurant or, in fact, to start a new restaurant devoid of knowing what type of hospitality venture will have the best likelihood of succeeding. The potential capitalist may have some venture money, a site, or an idea in mind, and a great amount of interest for the hotel business, but may not actually have contemplated through the total idea of the operation. Sorry to say, interest and great food products are only half of the achievement equation. The other part of the achievement equation is the market. Concept development come before the definite design of the hospitality venture because the hotel design group must know the demand, menu, and hours of operation, and not forgetting the mode of service will be (Henry & Passmore, 1999).

The customer who most often comes to the food establishments design expert for help with idea development is the individual hotel owner. The hotel entrepreneur normally organizes a firm consisting of a small number of local businesspeople and then starts to build up a concept that will finally become a freestanding hotel. The hit or failure of the business enterprise frequently depends on how sound the idea was designed and how fine the plan was followed. The growth of foodservice concepts for hotels has evolved in recent years from the traditional view that considered the food and beverage department as unavoidable to the modern idea that the food and beverage department is an important profit center (Johnson, et al., 2008). Some large hotels have food and beverage sales of over $35 million per year, an amount that exceeds room sales and creates in management a high expectation of profit from these two departments.

The Green Hotel in city of Birmingham will develop a concept for its first class rooftop restaurant that goes beyond the idea of a foodservice facility as a profit center. The hotel will have luxury dining rooms and will be marketed to the city of Birmingham as well as to hotel guests. The decor will be exquisite; the food served with flair and showmanship, and the entire theme captures the imagination of the city’s residents. The concept will be developed with such success that the hotel will be expected to have numerous guests making reservations. Green Hotel concept will be an excellent example of the execution of a hotel dining concept that complements the hotel itself as well as draws a significant number of guests from the community. Hotel managers have known for many years that hotels must have certain desirable features if they are to be successful. These features include Availability of parking, unique theme, or decor, Strong promotion to the community, and a menu and a method of service that are distinctive (Yeung, 1998).

Site Selection

E. M. Statler’s famous quote, “The three most important things for the success of a hotel are location, location, and location,” is certainly true for many foodservice facilities. A poorly located restaurant will certainly experience a low level of sales, and a coffee shop in a hotel may miss a significant amount of business unless it has easy access both to the hotel guests and to street traffic. On a college campus, students typically will select convenience as the primary reason for eating in a particular food facility. Avoiding high rent by selecting inconvenient location or out of the mainstream of foot or automobile traffic is usually a bad decision. A location on the immediate left or right of an entrance to a shopping mall is often considered a poor location for a food facility, because the typical mall customer needs first to enter the mall and then look around for interesting places to shop and or eat (Fainstein, 1994).

Site selection includes the calculation of foot traffic, automobile counts, and distance to travel as a part of the feasibility study process. Other considerations for site selection are: Visual recognition. The hotel must be seen easily by potential customers and the appearance of the outside of the facility must communicate the character and concept of the dining experience inside. Convenience: The developers of a hotel, in which the customer has previously made a decision to dine, must consider parking, an attractive entrance, valet parking, and safe surroundings as important site selection criteria. Code restrictions: Site selection may involve local code requirements for setback from the street, parking capacity, street access, or the acceptability of a food facility in a particular neighborhood. Usually these code requirements are available from the engineering or city planning office of the municipality where the food facility will be located. Environmental issues: In suburban areas, the development of an attractive site for a foodservice facility may encroach on wetlands or adversely affect water runoff in nearby neighborhoods. In older, urban areas, sites may have previously been used for industrial and manufacturing processes that left dangerous materials in the ground. Environmental factors such as these are increasingly important to the site selection process because they present additional costs (Zeithaml, & Bitner, 2003).

Putting all those factors into consideration, the green hotel is expected to be located in the chamberlain square, next to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. This location is very convenient and has a high traffic flow hence generating clients to the hotel. The hotel expects to get a large share of the tourists visiting the museum and art gallery. Its close proximity to the Airport is also expected to add to its competitive advantage, the Green Hotel concept is expected to be a hotel of its kind in the city. The hotel will be an eco-friendly facility just as the name suggests. The hotel will comply with the conservation standards, its design and building materials are expected to make it easily recognizable. The facility is expected to adhere to the environmental issues both during construction and in its operations. The selected site is convenient and in a safe surrounding which will play a major role in customer satisfaction. An ample contemporary parking will be developed to cater for the hotels guests, as the hotel target market is the high clientele (Parasuraman, et al., 1998).

The green hotel will strictly adhere to the rules and regulations of the city. This will involve local code requirements for setback from the street, parking capacity, street access, or the acceptability of a food facility in a particular neighborhood. Usually these code requirements are available from the engineering or city planning office of the municipality where the food facility will be located. Necessary legal documents will be obtained from the County Council and the set rules and regulations adhered. This will help avoid unnecessary costs that may be incurred due to failure to comply with the set rules.

Feasibility study

This study is usually carried out to establish whether the hotel will return a profit to the owners. The hotel must be under a good management and must have a return on investment. The study is categorized into two namely market feasibility and financial feasibility studies. The market feasibility study focuses on the income statement and is conducted to determine whether revenues are sufficient to generate a profit. The financial feasibility study focuses on the balance sheet and is conducted to determine whether retained earnings (derived from net income) will be sufficient to satisfy the owners’ expectations for a return on their investment.

Market feasibility study

The level of sales revenues the Green hotel will be expected to generate. This really cannot be known until the operation has opened. The market feasibility study attempts to project the sales level for the operation before investors have committed their funds to purchase property, construct a building, and hire a team of employees. The sales revenue for the hotel is a function of two factors over an appropriate period: the number of customers and the price they paid. Sales=PriceA- Quantity (Bowie & Buttler, 2004). Market feasibility studies thus have to formulate sales estimates from two separate projections: How many customers will there be? How much will each customer spend? These two estimates are interrelated through the simple economic principle that demand is more or less a function of price. Market feasibility studies can be conducted either to test the feasibility of an established foodservice concept or to develop new foodservice concepts that would be appropriate for a given market. Understanding the Birmingham city’s residents demographic data is very important in predicting the hotel’s guest behavior. The Green Hotel concept will attract high-end clientele and business professionals who have enough disposable income. The hotel concept will include contemporary conference halls fitted with up to date technology hence attracting most of the business travelers visiting the city for business or other reasons.

The prevailing economic climate of the surrounding community has an important impact on the market feasibility of the hotel. The residents and visitors of the city have adequate disposable income meaning that the hotel will have many customers. The global economy is also growing after the decline and this means more people will travel to the city and will need accommodation services. The green hotel concept will be designed to offer high degree of perceived value rather than high prices. Economic projections obtained from the chamber of commerce clearly show that the hotel has a more than enough customers should the concept be well implemented. Traffic counts obtained also show the availability of potential customers for the hotel. Another important aspect is the availability of demand generators; the Green Hotel location gives it close proximity to several demand generators such as the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, airport, shopping malls, and sporting facilities (Hassanien & Losekoot, 2002).

A competitive analysis is crucial to the market feasibility study because the local market potential for a given concept must be shared among all of the competitors. The Birmingham area has many different hotels though targeting different markets. However, there is stiff competition for the high clientele market in the area but the Green concept has several competitive advantages. This ranges from offering high quality services, different prices and menus that beat what the competitors are offering. Competitive analysis will help the hotel in determining its share of the market and the unique selling points against the competitors. Marketing feasibility studies gives the owners or investors understanding as well as the confidence to start a business (Porter, 1980).

Financial feasibility study

This involves the financial projections of the proposed new hotel; different people will have different reasons for wanting the projections. For instance, the banker will be looking in part for the ratio of invested capital to borrowed capital. The banker may also want to know the amount of operating cash and the cash flow from sales that will be involved in the operation. The manager needs to know what his or her budget is and what the expectation of the owners is concerning profit and loss. The manager and the banker probably will not be using the same financial reports and projections, but they certainly will be getting their information from the same original source, which probably will be the financial feasibility study. In the financial feasibility study, two basic documents the projected balance sheet and the pro forma profit-and-loss statement usually are prepared, along with other supporting reports and schedules. A good outline of the kind of information that must be projected can be made by examining the line items on each of these documents.

After completing the market and financial feasibility studies and presenting them to bankers and potential investors, the owners can make a good judgment as to the potential success of the food facility project. Further contacts with zoning boards, liquor license agencies, and other municipal groups will bring the project to a point of decision. The accumulation of the data contained in the feasibility studies together with encouragement or discouragement from lenders, investors, and municipal agencies will lead the owner to the first go/no-go decision. In other words, if the project looks financially sound, the market is identified, a need for the foodservice exists, and the capital is obtainable, the decision to go ahead can be made (Medlik, 2000). If one or more elements of the go/no-go decision are uncertain, there are three alternative courses to explore. The first is to correct the problem area that has been identified. Is the facility too large? Are the labor costs too high? Is the menu wrong for the market? Is the competition too strong in the immediate trading area?

Green Hotel Concept Development to ensure customer satisfaction

A successful hotel concept combines several elements in the development, which include, market, funds, menu, method of execution and administration (Atkinson, 1988). The Green Hotel will combine all these fundamentals in order to attain the preferred results and be a leader in the hospitality industry. Market

This will be very crucial to the success of the hotel as it is in this stage that the hotel must recognize its target market. The Green Hotel concept expects to target business travelers and other hind end clientele. This market is justifiable in the city of Birmingham as it is a business hum in Europe hosting Britain’s largest banks Lloyds and Midland Bank, and this financial centre employs over 100,000 people. This means that there are a large number of business travelers and the living standards of the residents are high. This implies that the market is big enough to generate considerable sales and earn a profit. The hotel expects to communicate unique service quality to the customers; word of mouth is expected to be of great importance in marketing the hotel. A quality assurance plan will be developed to encourage return business and create customer loyalty. The concept will be developed in accordance with the market research conducted. This will be a competitive advantage as other big hotels in the city conduct the market analysis and then fail to act based on the information obtained (Loosemore, & Hsin, 2001).

Menu

The importance of the menu to the design of the food facility cannot be overemphasized. The subject of menu writing is too broad to be addressed adequately in a book on foodservice facilities design. The owner or manager is encouraged to seek additional sources of information as a part of the process of developing a menu for a new or renovated food operation. The menu has a tremendous influence on the design and success of a food operation. From a design and layout perspective, these are just some of the factors determined by the menu: Amount of space required: A complex menu requires more space to prepare than a limited or simple menu because separate workstations and additional equipment are necessary (Cooper, 1999). Service area size and design: The greater the number of menu items, the more area required for service. Dishwashing area size and dish machine capacity: Complex menus often require multiple plates, dishes, and utensils, so the dishwashing area and machine capacity will need to be greater than in the case of simple menus. Types of cooking equipment: Complex menus require multiple types of equipment, especially in the final preparation area, where it may be necessary to steam, and fry, bake, broil, and saut? e. Equipment capacity: Limited menus may require relatively few pieces of equipment but with large capacities. Complex menus may require many different types of equipment with relatively small capacities. Size of dry and refrigerated storage areas: Complex menus may require larger storage areas to maintain the par stocks necessary to meet demand. Number of employees: Simple menus require fewer employees than complex menus (Cousins et al., 2002). Amount of investment required: When large or complex menus require more equipment, space, and employees, costs rise. According to its target, market the Green Hotel concept will have complex menus as opposed to a simple menu this will give the guests a variety to choose from hence more chances of customer satisfaction (Dimitriades, 2006).

Money

This is the next important element that is needed for successfully developing a wining hotel concept. There has to be enough funds for; buying necessary equipment, building costs, decor, start up and operating costs and furniture cost. These funds should be identified and committed prior to planning. The green hotel concept expects to have a well laid out financial projections that will help get the necessary funding from investors and other lenders (Davis et al., 2008).

Management:

The quality of the management of the foodservice operation will be the most important element in achieving success. The green hotel must decide the person who will operate it and he/she must have adequate experience and professional knowledge to lead such a facility. The remuneration of the various employees will be well stipulated in the concept. There will also be motivation packages for the employees in order to achieve quality service delivery (Loftman & Nevin, 1996).

The concept will determine the organizational structure and the kind of management team that will be used to operate the food facility. The successful restaurant often is owned and operated by one individual whose personality becomes a part of the guests’ dining experience. In contrast, the management of the food and beverage department of a hotel may be under the control of more than one person and usually is part of a more complex organizational team. In this case, the policies and procedures of the food facility should be described in an operations manual to ensure consistent implementation of management policy (Lockwood & Medlik, 2002). From the point of view of the investor or the institutional administration, the management of a food facility must follow traditional management principles of good communication, strong controls, and sound personnel relations regardless of the number of people operating the facility. The operational philosophy and specific management guidelines to be used in foodservice operations must be carefully considered by the investors in a foodservice facility.

Methods of execution

The last step in concept development involves operational matters. Although the opening date might seem to be in the distant future to the person planning a food facility, decisions about operating methods must be made during the concept development phase on matters such as production methods, control systems, and personnel (Capon, 2004). In accordance with the target market, the concept will employ modern production methods and as such, the size of the kitchen will have to be big enough to hold the equipments plus the employees. The hotel will have different control systems in areas such as; sales, cash, food production, refrigeration and storeroom, quality, purchasing and receiving, portion and labor control.

Finally, approval of the new hotel will be complicated and very involving as it touches across several departments. Delays are then inevitable as the developer is eager to open the hotel for the customers. The solution to obtaining necessary approvals for a complex project like the green hotel is to develop a comprehensive checklist, in which each member of the planning team (architect, engineers, foodservice consultant, financial advisors, lawyers, etc.) submits a list of necessary agencies and deadlines. After dates are recorded, one person serves as the coordinator of the approval process. Typical approval agencies involved in foodservice projects include zoning board, Health department, Municipal engineers, City planner, Fire marshal, Liquor control board, Telephone Company, State, or federal agencies (Lee-Ross, D. & Lashley, C. (2008).

Conclusion

This paper examines the feasibility of a contemporary hotel concept in the Birmingham area. The study carried out clearly shows that there is a viable hotel concept in the city centre that would target the high-end clientele and business travelers visiting the region. The study starts with an examination of the city and the surrounding to identify the best location for the hotel. It has been noted that the site selection has much to do with the success of the hotel. Marketing and financial feasibility studies are normally requested by financial institutions before they make the commitments to offer any funds. Concept development for hotels and other institutions is currently a crucial stage in planning. Finally, agency approvals may be frustrating but are very useful in avoiding architectural and safety problems for protection of the community.

In this project the importance of delivering quality services in the hospitality industry is being discussed. Also the advantages and disadvantages of community based tourism and factors that attract tourist to the Caribbean.

Discuss the importance of delivering quality services in the hospitality industry and identify differences (if any) between service delivery in the hospitality industry and service delivery in other businesses.

The importances of delivering quality services in hospitality industry are meeting or excel customer expectations. To meet or excel customer expectations, businesses must fully know all service assign that contribute to customer value and lead to satisfaction and loyalty (Evans and Lindsay, 2010).

Quality service in the hospitality industry is the administrative tool that provides businesses with the methods of observing service quality in the hospitality industry is “the consistent delivery of products and guest services according to expected standards”. Guest will be willing to pay more when the hospitality service they visit meets their needs or expectations. The level of quality service is a important factor in experience that guests receive when their visits to lodging operations (Hayes, Ninemeier and Miler, 2011). Creating value for your guest, the lodging organization can manage successfully to keep hold their guests.

Management must acknowledge the importance of customer’s retention, since the attractiveness of new customers is regarded to be expensive and time consuming (Reyad, 2005). An increasingly competitive market, issue of quality service has grown rapidly for hotel businesses. This has been influenced by several factors, such as the expansion of consumer rights and the advance emergence of ‘ new ‘ , quality self

– conscious tourist. In addition greater competitiveness has caused hotel organizations to become more aware of the importance of quality as a source of competitive advantage (Soteriadis and Varvaressos, 2006).

In most sections of the hospitality industry, the guest and the employee are both individually involved in service transaction. If a customer purchases a pair of sandals or a bag, he/ she takes the finished product away without much, if any concern about who made it or how. In other words, the hospitality, to give a example, `breakfast is served. This service is produced and used up at the same time. If the service is not tasteful and heavy – handed, likely the guest will be unhappy. A cheering and energetic server enhances the guest experience.

Identify the pros and cons of community based tourism and discuss the implications on the country as a whole.

Pros of community – based tourism

Tourism provides gains and diversification to rural communities. Most of the money produce from outside visitors stay within the local economy. Visitors contribute to the tax revenues collected and this can improve the quality of life by financing community facilities such as sports programme, restaurants, and shopping facilities. Community events for tourist can also attract the local people.

Providing services to tourist creates employment in the community. These jobs meet the need of students and dual – earning families for seasonal employment ((www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/tourism.html)). It also brings people into the community who spends money and stimulates the economy. These tourist spend money in night clubs, hotels, beaches, restaurant, theatres, shops, etc ((answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid)). Tourism is one of the most effective ways of redistributing wealth, by moving dollars into local communities from other parts of the country. It brings income that will not be earned into a community.

Community – based tourism provide social benefits and community identity can be generated through tourism. A positive sense of community identity can be reinforced and tourism can encourage local communities to maintain their traditions and identity.

Infrastructure including roads, parks, and other public spaces can be develop and improved both for tourist and locals through increased of tourism activity in a country. Tourism operators can play a important role in highlighting the success that tourism can bring to a community and it will contribute to a greater understanding and honour for the value of tourism.

Tourism can also provides environmental benefits, providing financial support for the conservation of the local environment and natural resources can enhance the reputation of any tourism organizations. Tourism can place a more focus on conservation of natural resources through the recognition of their importance to tourist experiences and their economic value to the local community ((www.tq.com.au/resources-centre/community-engagement/how-tourism-benefits-communities/how-tourism-benefits-communities-home.cfmu)). Community – based Tourism as both negatively and positively affected the country as a whole.

Cons of Community – Based Tourism

Locally, social problems such as illiteracy, unemployment, and lack of community organization and cohesiveness have been identified as obstacles. A recommendation at the Caribbean community tourism conference (Jordon 2003) stated that any attempt to develop tourism in local / rural communities must begin with the community members. Very often, communities are not fully aware of the value and assets they have that are of interest to visitors, apart from their lack of production and / or marketing skills.

Mitchell (2003) states that in order to move beyond participatory rhetoric to meaningful practice, tourism planners must take communities seriously: He notes that ‘too often communities are treated as just one more component in tourism planning and management and requisite lip service paid to local participation’.

Sunsari (2003) correctly states that community tourism is a sensitive product. It takes a lot of time and effort, both from the communities and the facilitators. This process has to balanced largely by community members being willing to participate for their own good, and by facilitates being careful not to dominate the process. (The driver of changes in the Jamaica economy by Kenneth O .Hall and Rheima Holding).

What are the main factors that attract tourists to the Caribbean?

Sophie Southern stated that the Caribbean attracts tourists that are seeking a romantic or family getaway, or a warm climate break from the harsh cold winters of their countries. Offering a all year – round excessively warm weather with cool breezes, beaches, cultural festivals, peace, tranquility, and extravagant food.

Listed below are some main factors that attract tourists to the Caribbean:

Ease of access: For most people living in overseas, the Caribbean is the most accessible and quickest getaway destination where they can be on a beach in one to five hours and for those who prefer not to fly, there are numerous cruise ship options eg. Princess Cruises, Costa Cruise, Royal Caribbean, and Sea bourn etc.

Accommodations: The Caribbean has a number of accommodations from high – end resorts to bed and breakfasts and everything in between. These, options mean that tourist of all economic levels can come to the region. In addition to the accommodations is the affordable cost. Hotels and resorts continue to present competitive priced accommodations that attract tourist.

Reputation: The Caribbean as been visited by tourist since the 1800s and stories of its beauty and relaxing environment precede the destination. This continuing good reputation makes it easy for tourists to visit for the first time and return for a repeat vacation because the destination meets their expectations. The region is known for being safe, affordable, alleviating concern from families and single visitors.

Cost: Reaching the Caribbean is very much affordable. You can find reasonable ticket for a quick trip, during off season when there are fewer tourists. Tourist can enjoy themselves without spending a lot of money and going broke, if they shop at prime luxury stores. This affordability is an essential factor in the regions tourism growth (Sydelle John, ehow contributer).

Weather: Sophie Southern stated that one of the largest attractions of the Caribbean is sunshine and warm weather.

Beaches: The white sand beaches of the Caribbean islands are a splendid sight to see and parallel to none. The Caribbean is well known for its fine grained white sand.

Water: The clear, turquoise waters of the Caribbean are world famous for their warm temperatures and different marine life. Snorkeling and scuba – diving are very popular water sports in the Caribbean because the translucent water makes for extremely clear views.

Entertainment: Angela Robinson stated that business support activities that attract tourist to the area are special events such as carnivals, festivals, fairs, and concerts bring in tourists, who spend money while they visit the area.

answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid. (n.d.). Retrieved 2012, from answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid: answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid

www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/tourism.html. (n.d.). Retrieved 2012, from www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/tourism.html: www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/tourism.html

www.tq.com.au/resources-centre/community-engagement/how-tourism-benefits-communities/how-tourism-benefits-communities-home.cfmu. (n.d.). Retrieved 2012, from www.tq.com.au/resources-centre/community-engagement/how-tourism-benefits-communities/how-tourism-benefits-communities-home.cfmu: www.tq.com.au/resources-centre/community-engagement/how-tourism-benefits-communities/how-tourism-benefits-communities-home.cfmu

Europe’s tourism industry is one of the biggest tourism industries in the world and therefore has all top tour operators based in Europe. Two of the biggest names are Thomas cook and TUI. They have the maximum market share in the Europe’s tourism industry. The tour operator’s business environment consists of competitors, macro environments and industry also. Various tools used for the analysis of the business environment are PESTLE analysis, porter’s five force analysis and industry life cycle. SWOT analysis will be done for industry’s analysis and also on how the tour operators in Europe are performing.

Environmental Analysis
PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL helps in understanding the important factors affecting the change. Below is the PESTEL analysis:

Political: After the tourist attacks, the government comes up with strict laws on immigration and also restrict the destinations after the attacks which affect the perception and also the perception of the tourist. Also, the taxation policy affects the tourism as they charge taxes on the food and lodging industry which contributes the maximum to the tourism industry. (Baum, T, 1999).

Economic: The exchange also affects the tourism in the country and plays the important role.( Davidson AP, Burgess S, 2006). The gap between the Euro and the Pound sterling is decreasing, therefore, there is a possibility that the outbound tourism is affected in Europe which in turn will affect the tour operators. The recession also affected the tourism industry not only in Europe but in other countries also.

Socio-Cultural: Tour operators have understood what the customers are looking for; they are looking for a brand, lifestyle and safety. Due to this the tour operator in Europe. The tour operators make customised tour packages to suit the need of the customers. The customers travelling to Europe are looking for the brand names that are doing good in the business and have a name, this is due to the demand of security when travelling to the other country.

Technological: The online and internet bookings are increasing day by day due to the easy access of the internet. The online booking company’s like expedia.com, hotels.com, etc are giving packages and also the customers can make their own packages. This has highly affected the tourist operators in Europe as they get the business from other countries as well. The internet booking companies are doing well in the business due to the cost saved and also less of manpower requirements. (Douglas, and Derrett 2001).

Environmental: The European governments are campaigning for green holidays like farm holidays. The carbon dioxide is the major source of the pollution and the aeroplanes contribute the maximum carbon dioxide to the environment. (Munoz, J. 2005). Apart from this, the health issues like swine flu or influenza cause tourists not to travel to the country. The governments also restrict these countries for travelling.

Legal: the European governments are proposing strict norms and laws for the aviation industry in terms of safety and regulations. The opening of new hotels in the country also requires legal permits for the company.

Porter’s Five Force Analysis

This identifies the competitors in the tourism industry and all these five forces are linked with each other.

The risk of Potential Entrants: The threat of new entrants in terms of tour operators is low because of the high capital investment, brands already existing and have created a niche in the market and people knows about the top players in the industry. It is difficult for the new entrants to establish themselves. (Alford, 2009)

The threat of Substitutes: The threat to substitute of tourism or travelling is less as people these days prefer to take a break and travel. They will not substitute travel to any other activities. Also, the European countries are full of greens and have both mountains and beaches which attract the tourists from around the world. (Alford, 2009)

Bargaining power of Suppliers: The supplier’s bargaining power is high only with the companies who are new to the business or holds small share in the market. However, the bargaining power is not the same with the companies who hold the maximum market share in the tourism industry. Also, the European markets have their own aviation industry which helps in bringing or supplying tourists to the country at the mitigated prices.

Bargaining power of Buyers: Since Europe is a big market in tourism industry it caters to both the individual travelling customers and travelling through agencies. In the latter case, the travel agents or tour operators make the packages in such a way that people buy them. The tour operators compose a major and a powerful group for the buyers.

Rivalry among the Competitors: The rivalry among the competitors is moderate as they contribute maximum to the market. TUI and Thomas cook are the two top travel operators who have a 21% and 13% market share respectively. The rivalry is only among these two as they both hold the important position in the European market. The other travel operators are not the part of the competition.

Appendix 1: Porter’s Five Force Model for the Tourism Industry in Europe

Industry Life Cycle

The Industry’s life cycle tells about the growth of the product that is tourism in the continent. The life cycle is well telling about the evolution of the tourism industry, its development, decline and the death. Stage one describes the early start of tourism in Europe centuries back when people started travelling from one place to another. The second stage describes the development of the tourism, which again took place centuries back as the need for the shelter and food was recognised by the people in Europe. They built small inns for the travellers and gave them basic meals. (Douglas and Derrett 2001).That’s how the food and lodging industry started in Europe and Europe was the first continent to do so. Slowly and gradually they built hotels and the tourism industry started booming and continuously doing the same with maximum people travel to the continent every year. The decline or downfall was observed during the terrorist attacks in United States of America and Bali. The second time downfall was observed during the recession period in 2008. ( Douglas and Derrett, 2001). However, the industry had seen the growth in last two years as people have started travelling again. The last stage is the death stage which the tourism industry has not yet faced as people are travelling and business is growing. (Sonames, 1998)

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis of any industry will help it to grow better and maximise the business by identifying the new opportunities and also how to overcome the threats.

Strengths:

The European people are very warm and have a good sense of hospitality. They are very friendly and helpful also.
The countryside of the Europe is very beautiful and magnificent therefore it attracts a maximum number of tourists every year.
The hotels and free standing restaurants in Europe offer the best cuisines and wines as compared to anywhere in the world.
The tourism industry in Europe has undergone huge investments both in the public and private sectors. ( Porter, M,(1985). In last decade Europe has come up with large accommodation facilities, tourist attractions, and other activities for the tourists and also invested a lot in training.
Access to the countries in the continent is easy as there are a number of airlines that offer their services to the tourists to come in the continent. The tourism industry in Europe is well supported by the airline as well as railway industry.
Weaknesses:

Language plays a barrier in some of the European countries as people are not aware of any other language.
The climatic conditions are generally cold and during winters it becomes difficult to access the countrysides and cities.
Opportunities:

The access to the countries is easy due to the high competition and also the stay is competitively priced therefore there is a possibility that due to high competition people get better deals in European countries, therefore, this factor can force them to travel to the continent.
The outbound travel will grow from Asia pacific and Middle Eastern countries as they are planning to have direct flights to the European countries where they do not operate. Also, the Chinese people are now more inclined towards travelling to different countries and continents.
More business expansions in the continent as the tourism will grow. (Porter, M,(1985). It is very obvious that the industry will grow from all sides when more money will flow in.
Increasing demand for nature tourism. Tourist these days prefer to travel to the countries which are rich in nature and are also eco-friendly. The economy of the countries will increase especially in the less visited countries.
Threats:

People now prefer short vacations rather than long vacations.
People travel only to those countries which are well established and doing good business, however, the countries under developed are left behind.
Changing the attitude of the customers in the global recession.
Terrorist attacks and health hazards will affect the tourism in the continent as people stop travelling.
The economy downfall of other countries will slow the growth of tourism in the European countries.