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The current study analyzes the visitor operations and experience in a detailed manner for Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The visitor operations and experience is handled in the current study in four different perspectives namely: Marketing Perspective, Management Perspective, Operations perspective and Quality Perspective. Marketing perspective starts with the approach of marketing strategies using 4 P’s technique for understanding the prevailing strategies for the organizations. Then, using the mentioned strategies the study shifts to the Kelvingrove museum art and gallery analysis for marketing strategies. Management perspective follows the marketing perspective analysis specific to Kelvingrove with the factors that influence the management success or failure. Then, it analyses the key functions that are implemented by the management of Kelvingrove in the art gallery with respect to the staff and the visitors’ experience. Third perspective that deals with the visitors’ attractions and the operational activities that are performed in general is operational perspective. The second part of this deals with the analysis of how Kelvingrove manages the operations effectively that made them successful. The next part is to concentrate on the quality perspective which is being carried out in all the organizations but which is the key factor that needs to be taken utter care for performing in higher levels of standard. This is analyzed for Kelvingrove using the famous technique of SERVQUAL method. The current study then highlights the recommendations which though minor needs to be followed up by the museum organizations to be in a better position. Then, the study ends with the limitations to the current study which can be further studied if those were not restricted.

INTRODUCTION

The Museum and Art Gallery, Kelvingrove is run by the Culture and Leisure Services Department of Glasgow City Council. The Museum is housed in an impressive Category A listed building which was first opened in 1901 as part of the International Exhibition and is one of Glasgow’s landmarks. Kelvingrove is the most visited museum outside London, receiving over one million visitors a year in the last five years (Scottish Tourist Board).

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is an excellent place to visit with a vast collection of masterpieces of various people (Top-ten-Glasgow-guide, 2009).

Marketing Perspective

Philip Kotler (2008:17) defines marketing as ‘satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process’. Marketing is an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return. Marketing is not just about selling. Peter Drucker (2004:34) explained, “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. [It] … is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy.” In addition the marketing management should be innovative while product development and calculating the added value. This would also ensure that the short run needs and long run requirements are balanced to meet the customer requirements and yield profits (Swarbroke, 1999:218).

In the current study, we focus on marketing visitor attractions. A visitor attraction can be defined as ‘somewhere worth leaving home for’ and this is as relevant to a single museum or cathedral as it is to a town or place. In a successful visitor attraction, the product on offer is the experience itself, spending money on that experience must be worthwhile. In the experience economy, the visitor attractions must continuously reinvent itself to have repeat visits and survive. This economy of experience is about quality, service and choice – it is not about size. Successful visitor attractions of whatever size sells memories, experiences and expectations to individual customers. Hence it is important to have the right marketing mix for the product you are trying to sell. The term marketing mix refers to the primary elements that must be attended to in order to properly market a product or service. Also known as The 4 Ps of Marketing, the marketing mix is a very useful, if a bit general, guideline for understanding the fundamentals of what makes a good marketing campaign. (Hooley, 2008: 45-60).

Four Ps Strategies:

Product: A visitor attraction will have many different products on offer namely the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, special events and educational resources for schools, colleges and universities. In addition to this, there are products such as the membership schemes, gift shops, cafes and corporate hire facilities.

Place: Place is the location where the products or the customer’s output is ready for use. There are two key factors that a museum or a visitor attraction promotes with regards to its location:

Excellent transport links by bus and train.

Easy ticket booking facilities available onsite or online.

Price: Price impacts strongly on how businesses fare competitively (Diamantopoulos et al., 1995). Hence price is considered as the key element in the marketing mix. There are different factors that affect pricing decisions for marketers namely organizational and marketing objectives; pricing objectives; costs; remaining marketing mix variables; channel member expectations; buyer’s perceptions; competition; legal and regulatory issues and perceived value. The following three aspects need to cover while determining price: standard admission fee, discounts on admission fee (discount percentage and conditions) and concessions provided mainly in public sector attractions to disadvantaged people.

Promotion: This aspect of the marketing mix represents the possible tools used to communicate with and attract the target audiences. These can include:

Advertising – paying for adverts in newspapers, magazines and radio, and on poster sites

Print – producing banners, posters, leaflets and other items, and arranging distribution. Leaflets are sent to places such as libraries, tourist information offices, cafes and other places likely to be visited by the campaign’s target audience.

Direct mail – sending leaflets or other print with a letter to named individuals, using in-house data bases or external lists of names which are either researched or bought.

Sales promotion and brand partnerships – promotions include offering prizes or discounts on tickets in collaboration with other parties, from newspapers and magazines to rail networks and coffee shops. Partnerships could involve window displays in shops, or branded giveaways.

New media – e-newsletters and website features

Public relations (Kevin, 1994: 20)

In this context, Kelvingrove has done a fantastic job in being the most popular museum in U.K outside London through its effective marketing plan. For the management, the key the primary challenge has been to encourage repeat visits and Kelvingrove has successful done so with new advanced features or quality improvements. Kelvingrove successfully underwent a re-development of its displays and visitor facilities. At Kelvingrove there are 200,000 objects with only 20,000 on display at any time within the gallery. After the refurbishment 50% more items are on display to the public. Lot of efforts have gone to ensure that Kelvingrove meets all the requirements pertaining to security, humidity control and lighting to attract major tours to Glasgow. Working on feedback from researchers who identified that a very large number of visitors to the gallery never left the ground floor, marketing experts have ensured that public gets more back space and have all the information to find way around the gallery. A Formal Educational Space for children and Children’s’ Discovery Centers and developments like these will be a major boost to schools, colleges and universities in and around Glasgow. The acquisition of knowledge is supported at various levels and the gallery is geared up for those who wish to explore subjects in more detail with support from staff with the availability of quiet self-study areas. At Kelvingrove there is now an Object Cinema and 22 themed galleries focusing on 100 different stories. These wonderful features are supported by an effective promotional campaign through vibrant brochures and hand-outs. Since, it’s an icon by itself, not much is spent on advertising through media. The museum sponsors for many events including sports and cultural activities. Kelvingrove uses the approach of newspapers and posters which is a modest way for marketing. The museum sponsors many events including sports and cultural activities and hosts various exhibitions. It has also maintained its reach to the public through its website which is always providing updated and relevant information to potential visitors. These are the marketing strategies that Kelvingrove marketers follow.

Figure: Goma Family Festival, 2009

(Source: Glasgow museums, what’s on for families?)

Management Perspective:

The management has indirect impact on the visitors’ experience at the attractions. It directly impacts the employee attitudes and job satisfaction. The visitor management is the key aspect for the management to handle in different scenarios namely during the visit and before the visit. Museum and art galleries are defined by International Council of Museums as a non-profit institution, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, entertainment and study’ (ICOM Statutes art.3 para.1, 2007) .

One of the major causes of dissatisfaction is connected with the process of management. Many of the staff members (employees) feel that their managers do not know how to manage because of the conflicting agenda or cause of stress and frustration. Better management skills and training would be valuable for overcoming these problems. Museums have a potential valuable resource where many managers appear to enjoy the creative aspects of their work. Here development and implementation of the required skills is an important issue. (Swarbroke, 1999: 50).

MANAGEMENT STYLE:

Management in all business areas and human organization activity is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources. This is very much the case in places of visitor attractions as well. Good management may not be the measure of a good museum, butaˆ¦would most certainly appear to be one of its critical prerequisites (Weil and Cheit, 1994: 289). A well-managed museum is one in which:

aˆ? Everyone has a clear idea of the purpose of his or her work and its value to the museum;

aˆ? Staff works to a plan which has been devised for their area;

aˆ? Clear procedures are followed for the activities which they undertake; and

aˆ? Each section of the museum is involved in, and is responsible for, the efficient operation of its area. (Shostack, 1985: 25).

Museum management can have different emphasis regarding service delivery depending on the prevailing management styles. The two different management styles are the custodial management and the market focused management. A successful museum management may require the right balance of the two styles. Recognition of the multi-dimensional nature of the museum experience and consideration of the values of both the roles is vital for the effective management of a museum. (Leask & Yeoman, 1999: 38-42)

At Kelvingrove the management has done an excellent job in utilizing the resources and capabilities at their disposal to make Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Scotland’s busiest visitor attraction last year according to VisitScotland. It excels in a number of areas a few of which are discussed below:

Aesthetically displayed exhibits:

Kelvingrove Museum has always enjoyed a unique position of its own in the world of heritage museums and recently with its imaginative and empathetic redesigning it has become more appealing to art lovers. Be it the gallant and fragile Spitfire hanging by a thread to show how desperately perilous those wartime raids must have been, the 40-foot dinosaur of the Rennie Mackintosh rooms or the story of the Scots POWs who painted icons on sacks: each of them keep you hooked with odd life-art juxtapositions and the credit goes to none other than the management team who has done a fantastic job in their maintenance. And with the recent reinvention, the museum has become much more organized than before. The doors now open in the basement. That’s the first of the changes. One enters through chic white vaults glowing with red and blue landing light and ascends by stairways fluttering with fabulous birds. The restaurant is a glass pavilion. The clutter of corridors has been rationalized. Light dances more brightly round the vast halls now that the grime of a century has been scoured away to reveal brilliant blond sandstone. And a third more space has been created in which to display – stunningly lit, in jewel-colored rooms – nearly twice as many objects. Thus we see that quality has been the foremost focus of the management of Kelvingrove museum and the aim has always been to provide its visitors a life changing experience (Policy & Strategic Planning, Glasgow Museums).

Organizational Structure: A flat organizational structure ensures that communication is fast across levels and resolutions of operational and management issues take place at a quicker pace. It is a three tier structure with the deputy director heading the management. Furthermore the Culture and Sport Glasgow, which is responsible for museums in Glasgow, reports to a Board of 11 Directors, which comprises six elected members, four independent Directors and the Chief Executive of Culture and Sport Glasgow.

Cross Functional Efficiencies: Functional units within the museum instead of working independently interacts and co-ordinates with each other to promote the museum and help the management to achieve their objectives. For instance the marketing department works along with the IT department to reach out to potential and incumbent visitors. Through various online and print publications and also through the website, relevant information about the museum and events surrounding it is made available to the general public.

Supporting Activities:

The management has also taken significant steps in providing various activities to the general public apart from the viewing of the museum. These range from general facilities like parking, cafe/restaurant, shops, guide assistance dogs to facilities for hosting corporate, and private events. There is also a Centre of New Enlightenment (TCoNE) designed for young people aged from 10 to 14 years. It uses state-of-the-art equipment and dramatic presentations to explore the museum and its collections and help young people discover their potential. It has an Object Cinema

located on the first floor. It is a multi-media centre using video, sound and lighting to tell the story behind a single object or a group of objects. The content will change on a regular basis.

Thus we see that the management has taken utmost care of providing the most pleasant experience to visitors at Kelvingrove Art gallery and Museum and continuously tries to improve their service.

Operations perspective:

In visitors attractions operations management can be defined as a day to day management of the site. Although it appears to be a simple task of managing the site it involves many internal processes, which will help to manage the attraction more efficiently and effectively (Swarbrooke, 2002). According to Rogers & Slinn (1993) cited in (Swarbrooke, 2002), “operations management is concerned with the design, operation and control of the system that matches the organisations resources to customer service needs”. According to Slack, Chambers et al. (1995) cited in Leask & Yeoman (1999), resources can be classified into transformed resources which can be transformed or converted and transforming resources which will act upon the transformed resources. Transformed resources include materials, information and customers where as the transforming resources include facilities and staff. Operations management mainly concentrates more on using the available transforming resources like staff and machinery to provide an efficient service for the customers. In visitor attractions effective management of operations will help in smooth and efficient operation of the site. Every one working within the site will be directly or indirectly involved in operation management (Swarbrooke, 2002). Generally operations management deals with real people and real issues within a practical environment. In visitors attractions operations management deals with many tasks like

Design of the site.

Management of visitors and capacity management.

Staff training.

Monitoring quality issues.

The operations within an attraction site vary depending upon the organisation or its customer point of view (Leask & Yeoman, 1999). From an organisation perspective operations management generally concentrates on increasing the visitor’s opportunities in the site, staff and visitor’s safety, low operational costs, looking after visitors with special needs within the available resources, ensuring to maintain high quality standards, compliance with the law and effective problem solving. However customer’s perspective of the operations might vary in different areas as the customers are not concerned about the operating costs, they generally look for minimized delays and queues and safety of visitors, high quality service and optimized visitor enjoyment regardless of costs, complaints should be dealt in a positive manner without any time delay. Many skills and attributes are required for effective operations management within a site like good knowledge of the site its staff and its usage by the visitors, paying attention in detail about the site, planning systems, procedures in advance and flexibility to change them in different circumstances, effective crises management, financial management, being firm but tactical, confidence on own abilities and judgement, seeing things from customers and staff perspective and looking for constant improvement. Operations management within an attraction site is to enhance the quality of visitor’s experience. Generally the areas which have a great impact might include the way the queues are managed, handling complaints in an effective and efficient way, solving problems quickly, steps to increase visitor’s enjoyment and their safety to make them feel positive to visit the site. There are constraints on operations management with in an attraction site which depends on:

Operation manager attitude, experience, abilities.

The attractions organisations structure, culture and beliefs.

Availability of resources like skills of the staff and their freedom in order to solve the problems.

Availability of financial resources.

Legislation, regulations and social acceptability (Swarbrooke, 2002).

Financial resources are funded by Glasgow City Council and are ahead of many national names like British Library and Tate Liverpool. The attractions include the opening of the Doctor with exhibition at the end of the month where Kelvingrove will be the centre of scientific universe. Bailie Liz Cameron, chairwoman of Culture and Sport Glasgow manages the museums and galleries said that “These (as stated above) figures prove once again that Glasgow’s collections are of both national and international significance. We will continue to invest in our museums and art galleries, bringing new exhibitions to some of Scotland’s most cherished attractions”(Cameron, Glasgow News).

The operations management should consider handling the operations such as minimize the risks associated with the display of art gallery and museum articles. They (Kelvingrove operations team) focus on the spending of visitors at various occasions. This is handled by museum by placing all the facilities and amenities which all aged people feel to spend money such as cafeteria, restaurant and some books related to history, some articles which can easily attract young generation which are stylish. They (operations team) not only considers these aspects of entertainment of making maximum profits from visitors but also the management should spend appropriately on labour, power sources etc. To handle the cost-in and cost-out schemes equally. They should also need to take care of providing special access to the disabled people or old people who are challenged but would like to visit the museum. All these activities are handled complying the laws and regulations in Scotland. The next aspect is about the Kelvingrove handles several minute things also in a big picture like: facility for car parking, toilets and elevators to be provided. And for the safety guidance, there are many fire exit points where the staff is trained to guide the visitors to the fire exit in case of fire. For addressing difficulties the visitors are facing or challenges they face during the visit or suggestions they would like management to keep an eye and improve better: All certain feedback can be submitted in a separate department for efficient handling of all the concerns. So, The operations management is either successful for Kevin grove as it follows and perfectly implements the functions namely problem-solving, resource management, risk management, visitor attractions, customer satisfaction and last but not the least: quality.

Quality perspective:

Generally in product related manufacturing industries quality is a product-led concept which concentrates on features and attributes of the product. The extent to which a product or service can satisfy wants and needs of a customer can be seen as a quality. According to Swarbrooke (2002) quality can be defined as “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs”. Quality is not only about the outcome of the product or service but also the whole processes that involves getting the outcomes. Quality in visitor’s attractions is all about offering a good service to the visitors. Quality at visitor attractions can be viewed in two ways as a set of outcomes visitors receive or the processes how the attraction operates. For example set of outcomes might include the physical appearance; the price the customer pays, service offered, safety, reliability and the number of complaints about the attractions. The processes include human resource management, hierarchy, culture style of management, and marketing style of the visitor attraction. When designing quality management systems there are three important questions that should be considered for attractions they are (i) definition of the quality the management will use (ii) performance standards and measurement system to be used (iii) the management systems they need to adopt for achieving quality. So attraction operators should pay attention to both process and outcomes in their quality management systems. The quality management system should include every aspect of management of attraction like tangible elements of the attraction which include buildings and structures, maintenance levels, comfort and security of visitors. Quality management within a visitor attraction can be viewed from both internal and external perspective. For example internal perspective includes the views of attraction managers for whom quality is smooth operation of attraction site and minimum customer complaints, attraction staff who sees quality as their terms and conditions of employment and few complaints to handle. The external perspective includes the views of customers who tend to see the quality in terms of how easy, safe and secure to use the site and the value for their money (Swarbrooke, 2002).

Measuring Quality:

In order to maintain quality service it is important to measure quality. Among the techniques available for service quality measurement SERVQUAL method developed by Parasuraman et al. in 1985 is the most popular. It is a technique that can be used to perform a gap analysis between an organization’s service quality performance and the customer’s service quality needs. It is an empirically derived method that can be used by a service organization to improve its service quality. It takes into account the perceptions of the customers of the relative importance of service attributes. This allows an organization to prioritize and use its resources to improve the most critical service attributes. The methodology is based on 5 key dimensions:

Reliability: This is an ability to deliver the service accurately and as promised. According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) it is the most important determinant.

Responsiveness: to provide prompt service and willingness to help customers.

Assurance: the trust and confidence customers will have on staff.

Empathy: it covers care and individualized attention to customers.

Tangibles: this includes physical facilities, equipment, machinery, personnel and infrastructure (Fitzsimmons, 1994).

Quality is subjective and has different meanings to customers and service providers. From the staff’s point of view quality is measured by the number of complaints registered from the customers, the fewer the number the higher is the quality of the service. However for the customer it is the environment and experience of the place with respect to the money spent which defines quality. The aim of the management is always to minimize the gap between these two and hence in order to measure quality Servqual is an effective tool under such conditions. In the following section we will try to use the tool to measure quality of the Kelvingrove Art gallery and Museum using the personal experience of the author.

ASSESSMENT OF THE KELVINGROVE MUSEUM FOR QUALITY

The author paid a visit to the museum recently to have a firsthand experience of the museum and its facilities. During the course of the visit he interacted with visitors to get their feedback on their experiences. In most of the cases the feedback varied from good to excellent, a number of them were thrilled with the experience the museum offered after the restoration. They were happy that the things were better organized, displays were in order, lighting was improved and overall the museum had improved aesthetically. On the five dimensions of Servqual, museum performed as follows:

Reliability: After the restoration work, out of 20000 objects that were made for display, there were 50% of the objects being displayed with a number of nearly 8000 objects as promised. More back space has been provided to the public.

Responsiveness: Staffs have been highly customer focussed and responsiveness level to customer discomfort has been very high. This is seen in the visitors rating who have rated Kelvingrove art gallery and museum as the best and rated 5 out of 5(Info and Reviews, Kelvingrove).

Assurance: The organisation is particular with the awareness of the social inclusion. I observed during the visit to Kelvingrove that there are many educational activities like: training, volunteers, providing knowledge to the children about the history. Moreover all the staffs are knowledgeable about the exhibits and were courteous in explaining them to the visitors. These are as discussed above suit the role of assurance in the SERVQUAL approach for the museums.

Empathy: Staffs are presentable and courteous and are always at the disposal of the customers.

Tangibles: All the facilities and art works are neatly maintained

From the above analysis, it is evident that Kelvingrove ranks high up in the list of places of attraction in Scotland. It is a cultural heritage and pride of Scotland.

Recommendations:

In spite of the fact the management of Kelvingrove is continuously trying to improve the service to the visitors there are still some areas where considerable improvement can be done. These are as follows:

1. Continuous training needs to be provided to staffs about the artefacts and exhibits at the museum so that they can provide the correct information when asked for by the visitors. A couple of times the author faced this issue during the visit

2. A few artefacts in the Italian Art Gallery do not have any description about them. Visitors may feel a sense of incompleteness when they don’t get a descriptive narration of art works.

3. The day of visit of the author collided with a national holiday which drew a large number of visitors to the museum. However, to manage this large crowd customer assistance staffs were not sufficient. Management should look into this matter and probably fill this gap through part time staffs if not by full time to handle large crowds

4. Management should look into rationalizing the food price at the restaurant which appeared to be too costly.

5. Management should take adequate precaution and strictness when allowing children inside the museum as they were touching art work and might damage them.

6. Some of the artworks and other objects were hung in a manner which was “crowded and distracting”, for instance, the Vuillard. Moreover every painting in the Impressionist room had a horrid flip chart attachment projecting from the wall.

7. Titian’s Christ and The Adulteress and the Bellini Madonna could not be contemplated in silence because of the nearby narration concerning Botticelli’s Annunciation

These recommendations should be addressed as soon as possible to wipe off any kind of blemishes on the otherwise extraordinary place of attraction in the heart of Glasgow.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

1. The annual reports for the museum are very limited that are published in the website which are not sufficient to analyze the position of the museum in the current market.

2. Few of the managers were providing only certain amount of information and are not ready to give detailed information.

When the beach holidays package and water activities are getting more popular, the bloom of coastal resorts appear and the attentions to the form of existence morphology of coastal resort are focused. By understanding the morphology of a coastal resort, it helps the local authority and planner to build a thorough of appreciation to the current resort morphology formation. Furthermore, it helps to ensure that all the development planning is founded on the present situation and what might be faced in the future.

Other then identify the existing morphology, it is also crucial to recognize the process that has affected the morphology changes in a historical perspective. “Process” will be refer to a coastal resort is being transformed from a natural village to an urban town; in other words, go through the stages of Tourism Area Cycle in this paper. While the resort undergoes every single stages, its morphology changed, and the majority are affected by tourist-related business.

In the geographical context, “morphology” can be defined as the form and function of a place and their relationship and development over the time. It is essential to highlight the two fundamental characteristics of morphology: one is morphology cannot be merely identified as form, but “the science of form”, and another one is morphology changes in both time and space.

According to Hall, “costal” described as a coastal zone and offshore coastal waters. On the other hand, the definition of “resort” is rarely being clarified due to its nature of very different in both size and character. European perceived resort as a resort town and normally used it as a tourist destination zone or a district comprehensive by a great number of tourism businesses which produce main source of income to the local people. However, the view of North American to define resort is narrower. They defined resort as a place which commonly managed or owned by one authority, provide extensive tourism opportunities such as tourist recreation activities, food and beverages, accommodations and so on.

Although there are two different views in term of its size, a resort town is normally position in between a village and city. A resort town comprised of beaches, lakes, mountains, forests and other tropical locales and tourism industry often dominate the local economy and culture. Its most vital function is to supply all kinds of tourist facilities to meet their need. Therefore its whole form and function are noticeably shaped or affected by tourism activities.

Based on these definitions, the morphology of a coastal resort can be regarded as the forms (the shape, manifestation and arrangement of building surrounding or land use) and correlated functions (tourist activities) of a tourist destination region (resort town) along the coastline and their development in this case. In other word, it is a demonstration of resort evolution in coastal area.

The Background of Crete

Crete is one of the states of Greece. It is an isolated southernmost island of Greece which located in Mediterranean. It is the largest island in Greece and fifth largest island in Mediterranean. This island has the size of 8,335 km ? and 3/5 of these is lying 200m above the sea. It consists of four administrative prefectures, which are Chania, Heraklion, Lasithi and Rethymno. Heraklion is Crete’s main capital as well as the largest city.

Crete is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Greece, even in Europe. It is famous by its natural loveliness; diversify of landscape, 1040 km along the coastline, gentle weather and abundant cultural resources. Especially, the legends of gods and heroes, the art and history about the Minoan ruins make the place, such as Knossos and Phaistos well-known in the world. Today, Crete is being visited by nearly three million of mass tourists yearly. It earned nearly US$ 1.5 million of foreign exchange and approximately 40% of the local people are directly or indirectly involved in it. From 1986 to 1991, approximately 53% increased in the number of hotel beds.

The reason of Crete has been taken to illustrate in this paper is because it is an extensively tourism island and there is a noteworthy changes of morphology of Cretan resorts from the early tourist’s visitation to the final urbanization. Although there are many coastal resort town along the Cretan coastline, however, according to Pearce, the basic morphological and structural attributes are regularly replicate from resort to resort, even though the details are dissimilar. Imitation normally happened within the country can explain these similarities, but the form of coastal resorts frequently reflects their particular function. Hence, in this paper, Crete is treated as a whole to discuss the processes which affected the morphology in Cretan coastal resorts.

The Processes Affected the Morphology of Cretan Coastal Resort

According to Smith, Butler’s Tourism Area Cycle is the most effective model to propose that the coastal resorts become unappealing to the tourists with the passage of time, when it exceeded its carrying capacity to accommodate more incoming tourist, eventually unable to compete other newer resort.

Butler proposed that every tourist area progress through six stages: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and rejuvenation or decline. Smith indicated that the morphology of coastal resort undergoes an expected sequence of stages: pre-tourism, low-density, high density and urbanization. Morphological changes take place when the resort moves over the stages of life cycle. The processes will therefore being discussed based on Butler’s Tourism Area Cycle.

Andriotis suggested that the Cretan coastal resort morphology changes can be understood by the following characteristics: road network, lodgings and infrastructural facilities, beach width, residential areas, faming land, aesthetic and architecture. Each characteristic of Cretan coastal resort morphological evolution will be discussed based on the model of Morphological Transformation of a Typical Coastal in Crete, which presented according the stages of Butler’s Tourism Area Cycle. The model has clearly illustrates how the morphology changes in different stages. It also provides a better understanding of predictable morphological changes of its coastal areas as the resort undergoes urbanization through tourism-induced development.

A summary table for these seven characteristics of morphological change in Cretan coastal resort is provided in the end of this section.

Road Network

In the early 1950s, when the resort was in exploration stage, the road system was insufficiently developed and the early tourist explored to Crete through the capital city of Heraklion by warship or cruisers . The way to the coastal resorts and beaches were commonly inaccessible.

In 60s and 70s, the Cretan coastal resort started to involve some tourists. There is a tourists oriented beach resort in Stalida, most of the soil were land-locked and only some informal way able to access the streets or beaches. Although some faming lands were scarified to expand the road system, some property holder illegally invaded the street. Hence, the problem of bottlenecks of the traffic was still remaining.

In 1980, the coastal resort in Crete began position in development stage. A resort town called Drethia, there was a two kilometers road built from the rim of coastal resort to the town centre. The resort town expanded their road system rapidly from this stage. Refer to the Figure 2-Stage 3, the road system was now merged and T-shape was emerged. T-shape was constituted by street, main road, highway or railway station. Usually it was built without any preliminary preparation and planning, pushed by the tourist’s activities so that accessible to lodgings, coast and others tourism facilities.

From 90s onwards, the coastal resort has fully developed and no more space available. At this point of time, road system has come to maximum of its capacity.

Lodgings and Infrastructural Facilities

In the 60s, the Cretan coastal resort placed at the stage of involvement. Due to the effect of the movies “The King Must Die” and “Zorbo the Greek” which successfully made Crete well-known overseas, the small coastal villages within the reach of urban city of Crete began to attract pioneer excursionist. In 1962, about 23,000 tourists spent quick journey to Crete and paid a little money.

However, the villages were unable to accommodate the tourist as there were no any facilities provided. In Drethia, a retired mayor took initiative to “hosting” foreign tourists in his own summer villa. As the tourists increased, he extended the villa to build more room. This was the earliest tourist lodging recorded in Crete. In 1962, statistics showed that 2,315 hotel beds were found in Creten, however, only 950 were under the acceptable quality and 60% of these were located surround the city of Heraklion. The short stay and little involvement in tourism resulted in a low level of accommodations and infrastructural facilities. For instance, in 1965, Hellenic National Tourism Organization established the first Greek state-owned hotel, Xenia to attract tourist flow.

In 1971, the airport of Heraklion upgraded to international airport, and charter flights began to land. It bought Crete to a new era of commercialization. Thus, in 1975-1978, the junta encouraged the large scale tourism. Though, a new form of coastal resort arises. The coastal resort now positioned at development stage. The lodgings were now built far away from big urban city and facilities associated with tourism and leisure began constructed to support a whole year stay.

As a result of unplanned activities, the buildings were too close to each other until one was possible to pass through the window or balcony to next building. It was because Greece did not implement the land registration system at the time, thus anyone could put up any form of the building as they like. Especially in Stalida, the overall appearance of coastal area is so clutter and muddled.

The housing situation has become worsen as the prohibited building increase to more than 5,000 units in 1983 to accommodate more tourists and make instant profits. The private accommodations proposals were seldom being objected by local authorities, not only because of lack of regulations, and also social pressures and political practice .

The statistics showed that the number of hotels beds had encountered increase cross over the stages of life cycle, from 6,178 in 1970 increase to 50,544 in 1986, and increase again to 139,001 in 2004, in order to meet the demand of incoming tourists. When Cretan coastal resort arrived to stage of stagnation, the building was over-built, not enough space to further grow and it is the peak season of housing development .

Beach Width

When the coastal resort was still in the stage of involvement, the beach width was considered maximum as compared to the latest, which is nearly 50-60. In 70s, some property holder illegally established the private construction because of the lack of law provided. This action became evident when more and more property holder followed it. Thus, in decade, when Cretan coastal resort moved to consolidation stage from development stage, a high concentration of private building appeared on the instant shoreline resulted shrinking of beach width .

Moreover, the action of grabbing farming land to extend the road network was also reducing the distance to beach. When the coastal resort passed through the stages of life cycle, the buildings were getting closer and closer to the shoreline. In the end, at the stage of stagnation, the beach width became least.

Additionally, the width of beach was also being shortened by the appearance of the defensive structures. These structures were built right after the bloom of large scale of buildings constructed. It used to protect the beachfront and to avoid any unfortunate ruin of buildings or roads happened . In 2009, in the case of Pela Maria Hotel in Hersonissos, the beach width between the hotel and coastal line is only remained not greater than 15 .Thus, it changed the formation on beach and beautiful view of the area.

Residential Areas

When coastal resort passed from stage of involvement to development and consolidation, the need of seasonal immigrant workers was increase resulted by the rising number of tourism business. According to Association of Hellenic Tourist Enterprises , during summer time of 90s, there was about 10,000 incoming workforces in Hersonisos which have a population of 4,000 only. Besides, a lot of EU citizens were also looking for their second home in the coastal area of Crete. They were attracted by its good weather and relative inexpensive land. It had resulted a great demand of residential house in Cretan coastal resort.

Although based on the findings of Andriotis ,the data of the number of residential houses were not available, the number has observably continued increased to meet the excess demand over the stages of life cycle .

From 1965 to 1972, large part of the costal land in Drethia was bought by outsider from different region of Crete or Athens to develop the tourism businesses . As a consequences, large hotel chain, motel and restaurants are now erecting in the golden place, which near the beach or along the road that connect to the resort town center. It had significantly reduced the portion of residential land.

Thus, there was not more adequate space to accommodate them as the original coastal resort had been overbuilt when it reach the stage of stagnation. Since the resort area was not longer allowed to further expand, the residential area started to move to inland area . New buildings were continued to build in inland to accommodate both workforces and coastal residents. Yet, some of the coastal residents were forced to move out from coastal area as to empty the space for tourism business. They lost their original way of life and place at this peak time of housing bloom.

Faming Land

When Cretan coastal resort was still in the early stage of exploration, most of the lands were used as a purpose of agriculture. The residents of coastal village used to feed themselves by worked as farmers, fishermen or craft-related occupations. A morphology evolution which affected by tourist activities resulted an abandonment of traditional lifestyle in Crete.

In 60s and 70s, due to insufficient supply of road network, the informal way within the faming land was eventually being transformed to the formal way. The faming lands was also being transformed to tourist related activities such as golf courses and water parks, which they think were more lucrative .

According to Andriotis , the faming land was also occupied to construct the accommodation to satisfy both local population and immigrant workers due to the growth of tourism business. Refer to the Figure 2-Stage 4-5, the portion of faming land was tremendously cut down from consolidation stage to stagnation stage.

The agricultural view in the faming site was seriously reduced and the farmers had to alter their profession into tourist-related job which considered more attractive and profitable . For instance, in Hersonissos, 95% of the labor occupied in agriculture sector and now alter to more than 50% of the labor occupied in tourism sector.

Aesthetics

During the early of 1960s, the coastal villages in Crete were still in the early stage of involvement. It had famous in their luxuriant grounds, its scenic windmills and the overwhelming landscape. The oversea travelers were also fascinated by its Minoan ruins; the art, history and literature of Crete, including the tales of gods and heroes .

When the area processed to the stages of stagnation in life cycle, in 1990 of Drethia, those scenery were no longer available as the agricultural activities have been substituted by tourism-related activities. Moreover, the fishing villages such as Agios Nikolaos, Malia, Hersonissos and so on have been transformed to urban resort .It could be proved by the establishments of various forms of hotel, motels, restaurants, coffee shops, defensive structure and others that close to the shoreline. The place had gradually lost its authenticity and traditional aesthetics which resulted by the immediate profit of tourism business.

Architecture

In 90s, while the coastal resort was in the stagnation stage, there was no more space to grow. Thus, the buildings in the area have lost the traditional architectural design and transfer to built the modern multi-story houses densely so that to accommodate more tourist. Due to the reason of simplicity and inexpensive used of reinforced concrete, Cretans are actually used to the way of construct with “right angles, rigid metal hedge and balcony barrier and puce concrete pillars”.Nevertheless, in the Port of Hersonissos, the styles of the buildings have been removed from traditional Greek approach of architecture.

In addition, the relationship between the architectural design and the culture it presented had been overlooked .The buildings were put up wherever the space was available and therefore there was not relationship among them. As a consequences, it became extremely piecemeal and no consistency in the orientation of the building. Yet, the formation of the buildings dispersion was overlap with each other which was totally different from the traditional way of architecture .

The Planning and Policy for Cretan’s Morphology

From the aforementioned process which affected the coastal resort morphology, it is observable that the Cretan tourism evolution started with unplanned activity without any concern for land use planning, environmental conservation and so on. Since 1960s, the Greek government has regard Crete as a top privilege area for systematic development of tourism. It can be proved by 25% of the national public and private investments were dumped to Crete to improve physical infrastructures in 1990s .

Greek Government attempted to control the unplanned and disorganized urbanization in Crete by implementing Development Laws. For instance, in 1983, Law 1337/ 1983 was passed which required master plans for all urban regions .The tourism development plans were drawn by a special land-use planning tool- Zones of Residential Control. Nevertheless, this plan failed due to incorporation of local population and therefore, the haphazard urbanization and tourism continue grow with their negative impacts.

Three years later, another law was introduced to converse the situation. In 1986, Law 797/1986 acknowledged the high concentration of accommodation as “Areas of Controlled Tourism Development” where only superior hotel can be built. Within this area, piece of them called “Saturated Tourist Area” where no more lodgings establishment is tolerated . It also aims to funding some upgrade of infrastructure and construction of particular tourism facilities such as marinas, spas, convention centers, golf course and so on. Nonetheless, it resulted more plans of golf courses construction and burden the island’s land.

In last decade, the tourism policy has paid attention on the following goals .

To maximize tourism contribution to economy;

To preserve the natural and cultural resources;

To upgrade and diversified tourist products;

To improve seasonal and geographical allocation of tourist’s activities.

It should be observable that the first and second goals are clashing by its nature. The economic growth is definitely improved on the top of exhaustion the environmental and cultural resources. Though, this clash is potentially alleviated by the fourth goals (enhanced distribution in both time and space). It is also suggested that some of the following strategies and policies can mitigate this conflict

To attract high class tourists by targeting the high spending segments of wealthy market;

To improve both infrastructure and superstructure;

To promote an substitute form of tourism;

To promote new destinations far away from traditional coastal resort;

To built the awareness of sustainable consumption patterns;

To coordinate all parts involved in tourism sector.

Due to the unplanned activities, the island of Crete is now only remains limited unspoiled beaches in Mediterranean .Many coastal areas, primarily in the immature southern part, have still kept their natural loveliness. Obviously, the fourth strategy will help to protect the traditional coastal resort from any unplanned and unbalance development. Therefore, it is important to have organized tourism planning and policies by both government and region authorities when developed an island area. The other coastal countries such as Portugal, Ireland and France have been publicized that the success of the promotion in their tourism industry, due to the implementation of comprehensible governmental strategies for tourism development and substantial incentives funded by centre government .

Recommendations

From the model, it shows the lack of physical planning, inadequate attention to environmental conservation, zoning and investigation. While the neglected resort planning has been addressed, it is suggest that employing Geographic Information System (GIS) to investigate the resort morphology. It consists of three applications: a morphological approach, a functional approach and an evolutionary approach. It helps the local authority and planner to analyze the morphological characteristics, for example, the accessibilities of transportation system to tourist attractions, the dispersion pattern of tourist activities in resort town and more.

By using this tool, morphological transformation is traced and potential impact factors are forecasted. It facilitates the development planning process of a coastal resort while the local authority is proposing what should be planned and constructed to improve the morphology in both short and long term. They can avoid decline in Butler’s model or any other negative impacts by improving their morphology.

In addition, it is recommend Greek Government to draw a spatial master plan for each Cretan coastal resort. The plan must match its listed strategies and priorities for future growth and morphological enhancement of the coastal resort. It should be accomplished on the above of protecting the environment and respecting the landscapes. Since there are no more establishments allowed, the tourism policy should emphasis on enhancement of existing facilities to improve quality tourist product and tourist’s spending. These facilities should be compatible with the objective of sustainable development so that avoiding further degradation of environmental resources.

For local community and private sector in Crete, it is recommended that they must understand the obligation of Greek Government to prohibit the development which brings the immediate economic benefits, to accomplish the objective of long term sustainability. It is their responsibility to aware about the negative effect of unbalanced development and overbuilt morphology.

Conclusion

Provided by historical data and evidence, it is apparent to show that both tourism demand and supply in the island of Crete have increased in a terrifying range from the early stage to the last stage of life cycle, thus resulting in a remarkable coastal resort morphological evolution through a combination of production of tourism and recreation and other co-exist creation such as lodgings, hotels and traffic. In other words, it was the impacts to the coastal resort to become an urban resort accelerated by promoted tourism, while its morphology changed affected by process passing through the stages in life cycle. As a consequence, green areas are rare, coastal resort are saturated in Crete, authenticity and tradition has lost and no longer as attractive as before during the exploration stages.

Based on Butler’s model, Crete is standing on the stagnation stage. It is facing either decline, if the tourism businesses continue to fade, or rejuvenation, by improve the overall coastal resort morphology. Pearceaddressed that the morphological changes should be more emphasis. Therefore, when the development planning is proposed, the related processes are better valued and the evolution of resort morphology in the future can be easily predicted. As a result, by indentifying the process that affected the morphology in different stages, it will help the government (for example, Ministry of Tourism Development) or local authority leads the coastal resort heading to the rejuvenation rather than decline in the post-stagnation.

On the other hand the island of Crete is now only remaining limited unspoiled beaches in Mediterranean. To conserve their natural environment and loveliness, those areas must have a careful planning on morphology from avoiding the problem of past unplanned coastal resorts development.

In the previous chapter, secondary data such as books, journals and online journals are used to conduct the literature review. In this chapter, primary data is collected through the case study. This chapter will cover the research framework consists of research purpose, research method, sampling method, research instrument and information collected from the case study. The analysis of the data is discussed in the next chapter.

This case study is conducted for the purpose of investigating the level of customer satisfaction of the local customers towards the performance of a shopping centre. Mid valley megamall is chosen as the subject in case study. The time frame for the whole research is 1 month.

RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

First of all, the measurement objectives must be specified in order to simplify the research process. Basically, there are four types of customer satisfaction survey which is based on the measurement objectives of the research (Vavra, 2002). Since this research is used to investigate the level of performance of a shopping centre from the customer’s satisfaction in general, thus, it is known as overall status survey. According to Vavra, overall status survey is emphasized more on the general issues, overall performance, and overall customers’ satisfaction. (2002)

RESEARCH METHOD AND PURPOSE

This research is conducted using quantitative research method. From the customer satisfaction survey, the research information collected from the sample is the primary data. The aim of this study is to investigate the level of customers’ satisfaction in a shopping centre, to identify the actual need of customers through the distribution of questionnaires to the sample and to clarify whether the performance meet the customers’ expectations.

POPULATION AND SAMPLING METHOD

Sampling method is a method of choosing a group of peoples from the entire target population in order to obtain the required information. Basically, there are two types of sampling designs: probability and non-probability. This research has adopted non probability sampling technique which is most suitable for a widely dispersed population such as the customers of Mid Valley Megamall. It is impossible to use the probability sampling method for this research due to the difficulty in identifies the target populations as it is too large for research. The sample is selected to estimate the gross results because less cost and time required and the sample is easily obtained while compared with the probability sampling technique.

The target populations for this research are the Malaysian customers of Mid Valley Megamall and the sample is limited to adult from 18 to 50 years old. This sample is chosen because these groups of person visit the shopping mall more frequently than other demographic profile. The sample size of 100 customers ranged from 18 to 50 years old is considered as representative of Malaysian customers of Mid Valley Megamall.

3.4 DESIGN OF QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire is used as research instrument for this study. The questionnaires are prepared according to the objectives which set up at the beginning. In order to obtain better response from the sample, the questionnaires are designed to be simple and easy to be understood. If the length of the questionnaires is too long, it will affect the rate of response. According to Vavra, there are four types of question can be collected, namely facts, attitudes, prediction behavior and demographics. (2002). Diversified types of question are more interesting for the customers.

The questionnaire consists of three sections. The first section is about the demographic profile of the respondent. The objective is to know the respondents’ background. The second section is about the general information regarding the relationship between the respondents and the shopping mall. Besides, it is used to identify the actual need of the customers. The third section is about the investigation on the level of satisfaction of the customers from the sample chosen towards the location, product performance, staff, building layout, infrastructure and facilities provided in the shopping mall. This section is important in determine whether the shopping mall meet the requirements of the customers. Furthermore, it includes the recommendations from the customers in order to help the shopping mall to enhance their performance in the future.

3.5 SCALE

For the questionnaire, every question has its own response options such as open-ended response and close-ended response. Open-ended questions require the opinions of the customers regarding the overall performance of the shopping mall. Close-ended questions are more efficient and quantifiable because it consists of numeric scales which used by the customers to express their feelings in a simple way. The scale is known as Likert Scale. The 5-point numerical scale is adopted which ranging from 1 to 5, 1 represents not satisfied, 2 represents somewhat dissatisfied, 3 represents neither satisfied or dissatisfied, 4 represents somewhat satisfied and 5 represents strongly satisfied. The scale help the respondents to make a clear decision based on their level of satisfaction.

3.6 DISTRIBUTION METHOD

Distribution method also known as field method and it defined as the way used by the interviewer to distribute the questionnaires to the sample. The questionnaires in research are distributed to the customers personally at the Mid Valley Megamall and at the same time they return the questionnaires.

3.7 CASE STUDY: MID VALLEY MEGAMALL
3.71 BACKGROUND

Mid Valley Megamall is one of the Malaysia’s largest urban development projects in the world. It was one of the projects inside the Mid Valley City. Mid Valley City desires to be the most modern and integrated mixed-use developments in the world. The construction starts in year 1995. At present, it comprises Mid Valley Megamall, Cititel Hotel, Menara IGB, Boulevard Offices, Boulevard Hotel, Northpoint Mid Valley City, Centrepoint North and South Towers, The Gardens Retail Gallery, The Gardens Hotel, The Gardens Residences and two landmark office towers.

IGB Corporation Berhad, a property and investment holding company listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad is the developer of Mid Valley City while the Mid Valley Megamall is owned and operated by Kris Assets Holdings Berhad, a listed IGB subsidiary company. A two dimension master plan of Mid Valley City is enclosed in appendix.

3.72 DESCRIPTIONS OF MID VALLEY MEGAMALL

Mid Valley Megamall is selected for the case study. Mid Valley Megamall is launched in year 1995 and it was opened in November 1999. Mid Valley Megamall is a complex consists of a shopping mall, an office tower block, 30 signature offices and two hotels. It is the first shopping mall comprises four successful anchor tenants, namely Jaya Jusco, Metrojaya, Carrefour and Golden Screen Cinemas. Besides, it comprises 13 junior and mini anchors and 403 specialty shops. Mid Valley Megamall has a gross floor area of 4.5 million square feet and net lettable area exceeds 1.7 million square feet.

Mid Valley City is planned and developed as a “City in a City”Mid Valley Megamall is a key part of Mid Valley City. It was awarded the Best Shopping Complex Award 2000 by Tourism Malaysia and Best Retail Development Award 2001 by FIABCI Malaysia (International Real Estate Federation). Mid Valley Megamall is a good choice for the local residents and foreign tourists.

Jusco is the Malaysia’s shopping retailing chain and supermarkets

Carrefour is the largest hypermarket chain in the world in terms of size and the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and third largest in terms of profit. It occupies one floor of Mid Valley Megamall. It provides a wide range of products, from fresh farm products, colourful seafood to household brands.

Metrojaya occupied three floors of Mid Valley Megamall and offers wide range of local and international quality products which cater the need of medium and high income groups.

Golden Screen Cinemas is the Malaysia’s largest chain of cinema which offers 18 screens and provides 2899 comfortable seats and spacious leg room. GSC not only brings you the best blockbuster, but also the international screening.

Figure: Four Anchor Tenants of Mid Valley Megamall

3.73 MISSION AND VISION

Mid Valley Megamall is aimed to fulfilling everyone’s needs. In order to achieve the mission, the highly energetic and talented professionals are appointed in departments. In fact, Mid Valley Megamall emphasizes on their service standard and it wishes to create a modern and stylish shopping paradise for their customers. As long as the customers are in the Mid Valley Megamall, they will make sure everyone enjoy the services and products provided. Besides, Mid Valley Megamall aims to maintain the growth of the shopping mall in the competitive retail industry.

3.74 FACTORS INFLUENCE THE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY

Mid Valley Megamall is strategically located between Kuala Lumpur Central Business District and Petaling Jaya. It is located in a convenient location that can be easily accessible from all corners on the Klang Valley. Besides it is surrounded by Petaling Jaya, Bangsar and Damansara.

There is a KTM Komuter train-stop and a LRT Station nearby while taxis are available at the entrances of Centre, North and South Courts. The KTM commuter station can be accessed through a covered pedestrian bridge to the Megamall. It’s believed to bring an average of 10,000 passengers each day. The station is disable-friendly, and facilities comprise toilets, lifts, covered platforms, ticket and information counters and ticket vending machines. Furthermore, Mid Valley has offers free complimentary shutter bus services (Trinton Bus) at an interval of 30 minutes to 1 hour that travel between Bangsar LRT Station and Mid Valley South Court. Other option of transportation is the public transport available, the detail information about public transport is shown in figure.

Figure: The KTM Route

(Source: Mid Valley Megamall official website)

Monday-Thursday

Friday-Sunday

Services available at every 30* minutes intervals

*Subject to traffic conditions

Form Bangsar LRT Station

First Departure: 8.05 am

Last Departure: 10.40pm

From Mid Valley Megamall

First Departure: 8.10am

Last Departure: 10.45pm

Form Bangsar LRT Station

First Departure: 8.05 am

Last Departure: 10.40pm

From Mid Valley Megamall

First Departure: 8.10am

Last Departure: 10.55pm

No shuttle services between these time

10.55am – 11.25am

3.10pm – 4.10pm

7.30pm – 8.00pm

No shuttle bus services between there times

10.55am – 11.25am

2.45pm – 3.45pm

7.15pm – 7.45pm

Figure: Bus Schedule for Shutter Bus

(Source: Mid Valley Megamall official website)

Bus No

Bus Route

Frequency

Bus Stop Location

T631

University LRT Station – Mid Valley Megamall – University LRT Station

20 – 30 min

North Court

U66

Klang Bus Stand – KL Sentral – Brickfields – Mid Valley Megamall – Taman Medan

15 – 20 min

North Court & South Court

U84

Klang Bus Stand – KL Sentral – Bangsar LRT Station – Mid Valley Megamall – Kelana Jaya

15 – 20 min

North Court & South Court

U85

Klang Bus Stand – KL Sentral – Bangsar LRT Station – Mid Valley Megamall – SS2 – Seapark

15 – 20 min

North Court & South Court

U87

Klang Bus Stand – KL Sentral – Bangsar LRT Station – Mid Valley Megamall – Bangsar Park

15 – 20 min

North Court & South Court

Figure: General Bus Services

(Source: Mid Valley Megamall official website.)

Mid Valley Megamall can be accessed through five major highways and two railway lines. In the future, the improvement of road and public transportation will be done. It includes a designated monorail station, a link bridge to the Putra LRT Station and the upgrading of internal traffic flow. Being located in between Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, an amount of RM250 million was invested in constructing a flyover and enhance the network of road for the purpose to connect the Federal Highway and all the major catchment and residential suburbs or businesses premises within Klang Valley to Mid Valley Megamall. The location plan is enclosed in appendix X. Meanwhile, the location of the department stores is also very important for the convenient of the customers.

INFRASTRUCTURES AND FACILITIES

Mid Valley consists of four entrances located at the direction of east, south, north and west respectively. Information Counters are available in Centre, North and South Court at ground floor. They are willing to assist those customers by showing a helpful attitude. In terms of car parking, Mid Valley is provided 4000 car parks in order to cater the need of high crowd during peak hours. Effective from 5 May 2008, the basement car parks of Mid Valley Megamall & The Gardens Mall were separated where the car parks for Mid Valley Megamall are zones A and C. The exact location of the parking area is shown in the plan enclosed in appendix.

Figure: New Car Park Rates effective 26 March 2007 until the present.

(Source: Mid Valley Megamall official website.)

Besides, Mid Valley Megamall also provides washrooms and baby changing facilities. The washrooms provided for the benefit of all the customers while the baby changing facilities are provided for the benefit of a mother. In addition, Mid Valley Megamall is comprises five lifts which enable the customers to travel from floor to floor. Escalators also available at East, South and North Court and there are two travelators that connecting the lower ground floor with basement which is very convenient for the customers. A proper floor plan is enclosed in appendix for further clarification of the exact location for the facilities and infrastructures.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Mid Valley consists of five floors where each floor is specifying for certain products and services. Lower ground floor is for daily essentials such as hypermarket, supermarket, pharmacies and money-changers. Besides, this floor is providing a numerous fast food outlet and local delights. Ground floor is mainly for the adults which include the apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty care, health care, bookstore and others essential items that fulfill the desires of an adult. First floor is the paradise for a kid, which include the fashion for kids, beauty and hair saloons for the adults. Second floor is specialized for those who wish to decorate their house. Besides, IT Centre is also available in this floor to cater the need of young generation in the ever changing technology of the world. Third floor is for entertainment such as Golden Screen Cinemas, Mid Valley Exhibition Centre, Pets Wonderland, Cosmic Bowl, Megakidz and a food court. Besides the products, the proper display area also being taken into consideration in order to be easily accessible by the customer. Mid valley is able to stimulate customers to spend more time and money in Mid Valley through the visual display merchandising.

The store directory:

Anchors

Accessories

Apparel

Discounters

Entertainment

Exhibition/ Property Showroom

Food and Beverage

Health/ Personal Care

Houseware and Furnishings

Information Technology

Jewellery

Leisure

Luggage

Shoes and Bags

Sporting Goods and Apparel

Sundry and Services

Tailoring

Textile

Watches and Pens

Mid Valley Megamall also provides certain services for the convenience of the customers. The services provided:

ATMs

Banks

Cobbler

Laundrette

Money Changers

Post Office

Alteration Shop

Clinic

Dentist

Locksmith

Newstands

Print Shop

STAFF

In addition, Mid Valley Megamall is continually investing in a comprehensive staff training and skills development programme which aimed at improving both the soft and hard skills of the staff and enable them to perform their responsibilities in a right manner. The quality and attitude of the staffs will be indirectly affecting the level of customer satisfaction towards Mid Valley Megamall. The important qualities of the staffs are friendliness, helpfulness, communication skill and responsiveness.

BUILDING LAYOUT

Challenge of the management team of Mid Valley Megamall is to ensure the customers willing to visit Mid Valley Megamall repeatedly. Mid Valley Megamall is a customer-centric shopping centre which offers best and wide range of services. It is operated by an experienced team of industry experts to ensure the innovative marketing and leasing initiatives. Besides, Mid Valley Megamall was invested over millions in comprehensive store renovation and upgrading activities in order to improve and enhance the mall’s environment.

In terms of marketing, Mid Valley Megamall has planned the promotion aggressively with the mission to provide the delightful shopping experience to the shoppers. In order to bring excitement and hour of enjoyment to the shoppers, visual merchandising are used in creating a unique atmosphere for the public and enhance the competitiveness of Mid Valley Megamall. The marketing and promotional activities are supported by themed and strong-concept in-house events throughout the mall such as Mid Valley Megamall Fashion Week 2009 which introduce the hottest spring or summer collections through the fabulous design and chic runway shows. This show is designated for the fashion lover.

During different festivals such as Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Merry Christmas celebration, Mid Valley Megamall will decorate the centre court into atmosphere with unique and attractive theme. Mid Valley Megamall was the only shopping mall in Asia that achieved international recognition in MAXI Awards ceremony held in Hollywood last year. This award is organized by International Council of Shopping Centres. For the Hari Raya celebration 2008, Mid Valley Megamall themed as “Cherish The Good Old Days in a Brand New Way” that create a harmony atmosphere. This unique theme help Mid Valley Megamall won in the Visual Merchandising category of the MAXI Award.

3.5 SUMMARY

This chapter has discussed about the research process which include the research framework, research method and purpose, population of questionnaire, the scale for the questions and distributing method. A case study in Mid Valley Megamall has been discussed in this chapter; it includes the background, description, mission and vision of Mid Valley Megamall. Furthermore, the factors that influences the customer satisfaction being discussed for the case study of Mid Valley Megamall. The factors are location and accessibility, infrastructure and facilities, product and services, staff and building layout.

Fifty years ago, tourism was a word rarely used by most people. However, over the time, it has witnessed a dramatic transformation into a multifaceted activity. Travel and tourism have been confined to a privileged few, namely the rich at the early time. Now, tourism has grown to such dimensions and importance that it is regarded as one of the fastest growing industry in the world, transforming into a mean of development for several countries, including many Small Island Developing Countries (SIDS) like Mauritius (UNWTO, 2011). Today, it is understood by people all over the world, many regard holidays as part of everyday life and foreign travel is taken for granted. Consequently, holidays making has become a booming business. Tourism and hospitality industry is now recognized as the world’s largest and fastest growing industry, as it is estimated that between 1950 and 2004, tourism activities have increased from 25 million to 763 million worldwide, with an estimation of 1.6 billion by 2020- an average annual rate of about 6.5 percent (WTO, 2004).

Profile of Mauritius

Mauritius, an island on the outskirts of tropical Africa, has a nice card to play as a tourism destination and it is endowed with resources and has the potential to be a green destination. Mauritius surrounded by cobalt blue seas with long beaches and soft and silvery sand makes the island an ideal tourist attraction. Mauritius is a fascinating island which is loaded with historic sites, cultural diversity, geographic variations and nature. The Aapravasi Ghat- the Immigration Depot where indentured laborers disembarked, was declared as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 2006. Later on in 2008, Le Morne Cultural Landscapes- which encompasses a natural fortress that was used as a retreat for escaping slaves in the island in the 18th and early 19th century was nominated as World Heritage Site. Black River Gorges National Park is on the tentative list of Mauritius to be nominated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site.

1.2 Mauritius as a green Destination

Across the globe, public is increasingly concerned about environment issues, thus tourism destinations are realizing that adopting green practices and green management are rapidly becoming a strategic tool that can enhance a destination’s competitive advantage. The facts that people are beginning to look at green practices in a whole new way; it is a must to involve sustainability in the hotel industry. The perception of green has change; it has gone from a fringe movement to a mainstream. The tourism market has been diversifying into different sub segments in order to respond to the exact needs and wants of their customers.

Tourism is regarded as the main economic pillar of Mauritius, indeed the Travel and Tourism industry brings many positive impacts in Mauritius but the fact that alongside with these advantages, other factors like climate change, pollution and effects of tourism practices have also created a hot issue in the Tourism arena. The negative impacts of tourism activities has resulted in an increasing demand of ” green destination”, meaning destination where there are visible efforts of protecting and sustaining the environment by dealing with issues like carbon emissions, bio diversity conservation, resources usage, water supply and waste management. It can be said that the tourism and the environment sustainability concept are visibly becoming natural partners.

Green tourism, for the past couple of years, has been a crucial factor for tourists while opting for a destination. Mauritius has several sites that encourage green tourism such as Pamplemousses Garden (it ranks among the most famous botanical gardens in the world with its giants water lilies and evocation spice plants), Domaine Les Pailles (a natural park spreading over 3000 acres at the foot of a mountain range), Casela Bird Park (which stretches over 25 hectares and contains more than 140 species of birds from five continents), Black River Gorges, Ile aux Aigrette and among others.

A green destination can contribute to favourable behavioural intentions: intentions to revisit or an intention to offer positive recommendations to others.

1.3 Problem Statement

Although Mauritius is heavily dependent on income derived from tourism, it is important that the country’s natural resources be maintained for future generation to experience. Therefore, going green is a key component of the next phase of change in the industry. To better analyze the relevance of Mauritius in relation to green destination, the concept must clearly be defined: Green Tourism may be defined as “In short, green tourism is all about adapting to and mitigating climate change in relation to tourism, about green market, green programmes, green practices and among others. Originally, the term “green” related in business operations to environmental matters but now it embraces all aspects of sustainable development.

Mauritius hosted 925 000 tourists excluding transit and cruise passengers in 2011, whereas in the year 2010 the arrival rate was 898 000. Although there is an increase of 3% which may seem respectable at first sight but, however, it pales in comparison to double digit growth rates earned by Indian Ocean peers, for example Maldives +18%, Seychelles +11% and Sri Lanka +31%. Mauritius registered a decline which was partly offset by greater penetration into Eastern Europe and Asia. Mauritius has plunged from a dominant 41% to 33% of Indian Ocean market in just two short years. The tourists arrival for 2012 was 938 000 and the year 2012 was a difficult year wherein Europe slipped back into recession and this recession is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. It is feared that 2013 may be as harsh as 2012.

However, tourism has not reached the end of the journey; it finds itself at a critical juncture where Mauritius has to diverse to a new market segment which is the green market. Mauritius must realize that in order to stay competitive, becoming green must be a principal element of branding and marketing policies. Failing to adopt such an approach may mean losing a loyal customer base.

By advertising Mauritius as a green destination, the tourism industry will show their environmental responsibility of tourist operations to attract green tourists and improve their standard with customers.

1.4 Aims and Objectives of the research

Green tourism has been identified as one of the most important economy driver for most developing countries. My objective is to market Mauritius as a green destination to benefit from competitive advantage. Therefore, my aims are:

To explore the reasons why Mauritius should be promoted as Green-destination

To explore the possible ways to build up a sustainable image of the country

To focus on the potential ways for establishing green tourism that can benefits local community

To examine on some critical issues which could act as barriers from benefitting from green tourism

In particular based on the research findings, I will offer recommendations in the field of green tourism in Mauritius

1.5 Organisation of the study

This study is organized into five chapters listed as below:

Chapter one: deals with the background information, problem statement, research aims and objectives

Chapter two: provides a review of the literature on Green Destination

Chapter three: presents the methodology of the study, explains the steps involved in developing research design, sampling and data collection procedures

Chapter four: includes and presents the findings and results in the statistical analysis

Chapter five: summarise the whole study with a conclusion and recommendation.

LITTERATURE REVIEW

The modern tourists opt for green tourism: Green Tourism, synonymous in meaning with eco-tourism is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people” (TIES, 1990), as they want to lower their carbon footprint. Nowadays, customers no longer accept just linen and towel reuse programs as being enough green practices in the green destination concept. They consider factors that are leading to energy efficiency, a proper waste division, procurement, and water conservation (Heisterkamp, 2009; Wolff, 2008). Tourism destinations and tourism industry need to position themselves to meet these challenges and take advantage of new opportunities arising from changing consumer preferences as well as changing environmental and business practices.

Green Research within Hospitality Industry

“Buying a certificate doesn’t make you green” said Lyndall De Marco, executive director, International Tourism Partnership, The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum.

“Being green begins with a thought process” De Marco said. “What makes hotel sustainable involves an integrated, holistic process that encompasses site use, water and energy use, materials and resources, operations and community and social relations.” (DESIGN: Patricia Sheehan, Hotel Design Managing Editor)

The global environmental certification program for the travel and tourism industry was developed in 1996 by three international organizations: the World Travel & Tourism Council, the World Tourism Organisation and the Earth Council. These organizations jointly launched an action plan entitled “Agenda 21 for the Travel & Tourism Industry: Towards Environmentally Sustainable Development.” Subsequently, “Green Globe,” a benchmarking, certification and performance-improvement program based on the Agenda 21 principles, was created. This program identifies the environmental and developmental issues which threaten the economy and ecological balance, and presents a strategy for transition to more sustainable development practices. Hotels receive “Green Globe” certification by addressing major environmental issues in key areas including: greenhouse emissions, energy efficiency, management of freshwater resources, ecosystem conservation, and waste water and solid waste management.

Reasons to go for Green Destination:

Eco-tourism is not a new phenomenon. Nature-based tourism has a long tradition (Ousby, 2002). Modern forms of eco-tourism became popular in the 1980s but can be traced back to the wildlife conservation reserves in Kenya opening to tourists in the 1960s (Honey, 2009). Academic study of eco-tourism has grown steadily over the past two decades (Jayawardena et al., 2008). Enthusiasm for the issue reflects the segment’s buoyancy over the past 20 years (Mastny, 2001, The International Ecotourism Society, 2006) and greater consensus on the meaning of key concepts (Horobin, 1996). A destination’s environment, often a core component of its image, is a key factor motivating tourists’ destination choice and loyalty (Meng and Uysal, 2008; Hosany et al., 2006). With rising concern over the impacts of global warming, there is a danger that tourism operators and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) will exaggerate their eco-credentials.

Consumer Demand

The last few years have been a considerable increase in consumer awareness of green tourism, partly may be because of extensive media coverage. Consumers are increasingly seeking environmentally friendly products and have a greater understanding of the impacts of green practices and climate change. There are an increasing number of consumers who are willing to change their actions in relation to these issues, and tourism industry can target these consumers to gain a competitive advantage.

A range of studies, three of which are referenced below, have been undertaken to look at the correlation between environmental impacts of tourism and changes in consumer behavior. The studies have investigate the gap between what people who have changed their behavior or are willing to pay more for a green experience. Tourists are increasingly demanding that the destinations are pollution free as well as interesting. Consumer’s awareness regarding green tourism has also fuelled concern among some travelers and made them reluctant to undertake tourism activities such as long haul travel.

In May 2008, a joint Commonwealth and State study into consumer awareness found that although consumers feel that the environment is of major important, they have the tendancy not to take responsibility for environmental issues. Many also feel that travel is a compensation to be enjoyed with carefree and without any tension that they are causing any harm to the environment. Their main purpose is to enjoy. The study notes that there is a difference between attitudes and behaviours for approximately 44 percent of those surveyed.

However, supporting the findings of the 2007 Lonely Planet Travellers’ Pulse Survey (24, 500 respondents worldwide) found the following in relation to consumer demand:

84 percent of respondents said they would consider offsetting their emissions in the future (3 percent had done so in the past).

90 percent of people said they would or might purposefully travel in a low impact way; and

93 percent of people said they would or might purposefully partake in environmentally friendly travel in the future.

A Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre (STCRC) study also found out that 70 percent of tourists surveyed indicated that they would change their travel pattern or plans in the future to be more ‘green’.

Another study conducted in India which surveyed Indian consumers about their attitudes towards green practices in the tourism industry showed that 22 percent of the respondents seek out environmental properties (Manaktola & Jauhari, 2007). In the United States, 43,000,000 travelers are environmentally concerned (“Greening’ your travel experience,” 1998). Gustin and Weaver (1996) found that 73.7 percent of respondents considered themselves “environmentally conscious consumers;” while 54.3 percent thought of themselves as “environmentally conscious travelers”.

Competitive Advantage

Green destinations are becoming increasingly popular due to the current environmental crisis that is occurring worldwide. It has become obvious that the tourism industry does more than its share in damaging and exploiting environmental resources. As a result, more and more tourists are looking for destinations following practices to protect environment. Becoming a green destination can be the foundation for a great marketing strategy and the first step in marketing is providing consumers with what they or need. A growing consumer base exists for green destinations, and marketing the green practices of a destination can help to position it distinctly in the market place. Therefore, going green makes each property unique, and furthermore creates a competitive advantage. “Sustainable competitive advantage exists with the ownership or a valuable resource that allows the organizations to perform better or more efficient than their competitors” (Graci & Dodds, 2008, p.256).

For tourism industry, green programmes can provide a competitive advantage, as long as green activities are still optional in the market. Eventually, green practices are becoming a baseline requirement, because the cost of non-renewable energy continues to increase. Therefore, proactive tourism destinations with sustainable green models will have the strongest opportunity of achieving a competitive advantage (Ernst & Young Report: Hospitality Going Green). By doing and practicing environment friendly practices destinations gain positive publicity, customer loyalty, hence a definite competitive edge over competitors (Guskin & Weaver, 1996).

Green hotels create a competitive advantage for themselves by attracting and retaining their employees. Employee turnover is one of the biggest problems and expenses within the hotel industry. However, studies have shown that environmentally conscious hotels have greater employee loyalty. A Canadian study reported that employees are “far more likely to identify with an employer whose principles and practices are in tune with current trends” (Graci & Dodds, 2008). Environmental initiatives have shown to be a valuable way to create passion and encourage team work to achieve a central goal (Graci & Dodds, 2008). Team work must be inspired from the top down in a hotel. The Orchard Garden’s general manager, Stefan Muhle, said “you just can’t send out a memo,” (Dicum, 2007) “All the staffs have to be included front to back. Their heart has to be in it” (Dicum, 2007). Each staff member needs to be educated in what the hotel is doing to achieve sustainability goals so they can not only participate, but also answer guest questions (Dicum, 2007). By educating staff members, including them, keeping them informed and challenging them to achieve goals, management of green hotels excites their staff and allows them to identify with their organization; which leads to lower turnover rates. Lower turnover rates in turn save the hotel expenses involved with recruiting, hiring, and training new employees. The competitive advantages realized by green hotels do not stop with retaining employees; consumers do seek out green hotels. Green hotels are becoming increasingly popular due to the current environmental crisis that is occurring worldwide. Green hotels are few and far between across not only the United States, but also the world. Therefore, going green makes each property unique, and furthermore creates a competitive advantage. Therefore, “sustainable competitive advantage exists with the ownership or a valuable resource that allows the organizations to perform better or more efficient than their competitors” (Graci & Dodds, 2008, p. 256). The Cedar House Sport Hotel, for example, has gardens on the roof of their hotel. The gardens attract local birds and insects for guests to observe, which in turn attracts more guests. However, the gardens also serve another purpose, as they cool the hotel during the summer months (Dicum, 2007).

Environment Toolkit

Unplanned or uncontrolled tourism can be a cause of negative impacts such as the physical deterioration of the destination facilities and the destruction of the natural environment. It can also create conflict at the destination areas on the issues of access, irresponsible behavior by tourists, competition for labour, soil, erosion and land prices (Mathieson and Wall, 1982).

Environment responsibility makes ecological sense, because keeping the environment pristine means that tourists will come to appreciate and enjoy the natural beauty of the destination. Gone are the days when going green necessarily meant making large investments in expensive technology.

The main reason for tourists to travel to a destination is to look for authencity and real experiences (not artificial culture devised to deceive tourists) such as wildlife, historic townscape, scenery. They also respect local identity, its special features that make a destination different and unique- this could be the Taj Mahal of India, or cobalt blue seas of Mauritius.

Tourism is among the highest contributor to green house gas emissions and these emissions are likely to increase with tourism sector growth. Tourism accommodation, transport, events and attractions consume significant amount of fuel, energy and water and can impact the natural environment. Of these, air transport is by far the largest contributor to tourism, accounting for 40% of the sector’s contribution to co2 emissions globally. The introduction of low cost carriers airlines has improved accessibility to flights and opened travel markets but in turn has increased energy consumption.

These wildlife, historic townscape and scenery form the core products of tourism industry and if these core products continued to be harmed by the pollution or other environmental impacts, then the very foundation on which the industry stands will be eroded. The tourism industry in particular has recently received much attention with awareness of the negative impacts that are having on the environment (Kasim, 2004).

Emergence of Alternative Tourism

The government has announced a visitor target of 2 million by 2020, therefore Mauritius has recently been experiencing a surge in tourism and tourism-related activities, but this growth is also raising concerns that mass tourism development could lead to the destruction of the country’s fragile coastline, fauna and flora.

There has been a narrow thinking in pursuit of increased number of tourists without seriously understanding the benefit that local communities derived from tourism or the real cost of tourism for the local community and environment being assessed. Setting targets for doubling the tourist arrival rate, which were believed to bring much more capital, but this is not the case.

Alternative forms of tourism tend to be geared to more responsible tourism. Different forms of alternative tourism serve different purposes. Most forms aim to reduce the adverse impacts of mass tourism. Some forms may aim to reduce or dissipate the influence of the existing industry that has developed under a strong western influence, while some aim only for a new or special market that have emerged as a result of shifts in global trade and the political relationship among different nations. Thus, alternative tourism can be seen both as a vision of the future and as an adaptation to mass tourism, however, are closely linked with the sustainable development paradigm.

The benefits of responsible tourism are not far off and unclear. They are achievable, and in most cases, can be perceived immediately. On the other hand, it may take years before the negative impacts of environmental neglect are felt.

By advertising Mauritius as a green destination, Mauritius will not just pursue an increase in tourist number but instead they will focus more on what kind of tourists want and these tourists will then be directed to the most appropriate areas as suitable.

Creating a Green Destination

The breadth and depth of opportunity for a destination to establish green credentials is immense, and continues to grow. There are a number of ways in which a destination can work with the environment to create a unique, compelling, and competitive destination.

To name a few:

ECO-TOURISM:

One of the most popular approaches to ‘Going Green’ eco-tourism (as a globally recognized and celebrated niche offering) puts engaging with the natural environment of the destination at the centre of the offering. Destinations which take pride in their abundant wildlife, flora and fauna have successfully created traveler experiences which make it possible to be immersed in and involved with nature as a tourism attraction which can be seen, felt and even contributed to. In addition, eco-tourism destinations offer the benefit of an enhanced sense of wellness from being in such a ‘pure’ environment (even if sophisticated in design, that is: Six Senses Wellness Resorts) with opportunity to partake in excursions focused on being at one with nature.

ECO-FRIENDLY:

Destinations which define themselves as ‘Going Green’ from an ecofriendly perspective openly and voluntarily adopt and express environmentally friendly practices which, while seemingly small, can in fact make a big difference when added up. The desire to be considerate of the impact of the industry (or parts of it) on the environment are there, with efforts made to do the little things which are simply the right thing to do. Eco-friendly efforts include basic environmentally considerate changes to existing infrastructure, i.e. frequency of linen washing, keypads in hotel rooms to turn on/off power mains, increased air conditioner temperatures in large spaces, replacement of traditional light bulb to energy saving bulbs, selective recycling efforts (like grey water). Interestingly, destinations venturing into these even incremental practices will notice a positive impact on the bottom line.

ECO-POLICIES:

Getting more serious about the impact which the industry has on the environment, enforcement of eco-policies by governments and tourism corporations reflects the fundamental philosophy held by leaders of a destination and tourism business towards energy conservation and environmental responsibility. Enforcement of policy removes the window of choice for members of the Tourism community, making changes to existing and future tourism products and services – changes to increase energy efficiency and/or reduce wastage of resources – a must. These policies do not apply purely to destinations which exist within locations surrounded by greenery and teeming with wildlife. Even the most built-up, uber-urban, heavily-populated areas which could be described more as concrete jungles than even garden cities can successfully impose and activate green policies and incentives. Macau, as an example, has put in place a green hotel awards programme for international developers of resorts and casinos scrambling to get a piece of the action and place a bet on tourism growth in the new Asian tourism hot spot. The initiative by Macau’s Environment Council (now Environmental Protection Bureau), which was introduced in 2007, drives across the industry the importance of environmental management in the hotel sector while giving high-profile, highly-respected recognition to those hotels mobilising environmentally sound management policies.

ECO-ENGINEERED:

Linked to the above, eco-engineering is the adoption of new generation technology and practices into new tourism products, services and developments, effectively making obsolete old, less energy-efficient methods. This increasing sensitivity to the design and development of tourism industry assets, particularly major structures such as airports, retail centres, theatres, hotels and conference centres, can have a dramatic effect on the impact which the industry has on the environment, both visibly and invisibly. The following eco-engineering concepts are just a few of the energy-smart and environmentally sensitive techniques increasingly being built into new T&T infrastructure:

o Water heating: heat recovered from the hotel’s air-conditioning system used to warm water for swimming pools; solar panels for water used in hotels and spas;

o Temperature Control: solar glazing in windows and doors assists in maintaining constant interior temperatures;

o Lighting: energy efficient lights and lamps; movement sensors for after-hour lighting in common areas and underground parking; keycard room power control;

o Air conditioning: sensors automatically switch off air-conditioning in the bedrooms when doors to balconies or terraces are opened;

o Irrigation: rainwater is directed off the roofs via an extensive underground pipe network to a large storage tank for use in the gardens;

Interestingly, initial investment into green design often proves to be a valuable revenue protector as operating costs can be dramatically reduced.

The green economy is a reality, a much needed and a deeply meaningful one.

Taking into account the above possible approaches to ‘Going Green’, and many others which exist, tourism industry leaders within both the public and private sector need to look closely at how they plan to, and often must, incorporate ‘Going Green’ into their tourism growth strategy, ethos, Brand and business models. Form follows function. Function follows philosophy

Thomas Cook marketing department: The task of the marketing department is to identify and plan holidays to meet potential clients’ needs and to ensure the company offer the right holidays at the right price to the right clients at the right time.

Marketing segmentation: Thomas Cook strategy on market segmentation is to continue to deliver benefits from existing cost saving and improvement plans already adopted by My Travel and Thomas Cook, so that they are able to grow revenues in existing and new ,market segments and to deliver efficiencies from being part of a larger group.

The strategy focuses on the following key objectives:

integrating the businesses of the Enlarged Group and delivering the planned synergies;

strengthening the packaged tour operating businesses through continued operational and product improvements;

growing its business in the independent travel segment through tailored products and services delivered through an asset-light business model; and

Extending the financial services offering of the Enlarged Group through the introduction of new products and services and by building on the reputation and capabilities of Thomas Cook in this area.

(Source, Thomascook.com)

One of the Thomas Cook products (the Thomas cook 18-30 club):

The tour operator aims to create ambitious growth through successful market segmentation and positioning. The success of the Club 18-30 brand shows that well targeted products using a portfolio of distinguished travel products can provide a successful business strategy in the competitive holiday market.

The development of the Club 18-30 brand has been recognised as a dynamic response to the conservatism which has typified the UK market for overseas holidays.

The consolidation: When consolidations between tour operators occurs in this case Thomas cook and My travel, both organisation that have merged will increase its market share by an set amount over a set period.

The merging with My Travel was in an effort to cut costs and to increase competitive travel industry market. The companies estimate they can save ?75m a year by combining and will have strong market positions in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia, the Benelux countries, France and Canada.

Source, Travel weekly

Brochures-

Thomas cook has three brochures each year and they are;

-Thomas Cook Summer sun

-Thomas Cook Families

-Thomas Cook Weddings

A ‘target market’ refers to the customers that a tour operator is trying to attract to buy its holidays. Typical target markets for which tour operators develop holidays include:
Singles
Families
Couples without children
Groups
Special interest market
Business travellers
Youth market
Activity market
Senior market
Thomas cook uses different style of designing depending on the holiday they will sell and on the target market:

One example is the ‘Thomas Cook Families brochure’ where the front cover will be printed with images that illustrate a family on the front page and showing facilities such kids clubs and other facilities and activities that the hotels offers.

Thomas Cook pays a lot of attention on their brochures front cover as it’s the most important since the client will see first of all, the cover must therefore be designed to be eye-catching.

Most of front covers of the Thomas Cook brochures highlights a ‘lead-in price’ i.e. the cheapest price in the brochures and specials offers, this ways they attract interested buyers.

The ‘Thomas Cook Families brochure’ below shows how they design the brochures to attract the specific group they want to sell their holidays to. The choice of pictures defines that the package holidays on sale are family oriented and what sort of products and services are on offer.

Parents with their children’s’

It shows little children playing.

Special offer shown, to attract parents.

External factors-

There are three external factors that affect the Thomas Cook Package holiday programs.

Environmental factors:

Can have a negative effect on holiday and the whole travel market, some example are the

Hurricanes in the Caribbean

Earth quake

Tsunami

Floods, etc

Those types of natural disasters can have serious consequences on an area’s travel and tourism industry.

When customers are booking holidays with Thomas Cook to destination that natural disaster occurs they are warned that the season they want to travel is natural disaster season i.e. Thailand- Patong beach, where the tsunami hit the beach in 2005 also the hurricanes Paloma Cuba 2008

Clearly it is difficult to plan for natural disasters: in this case Thomas cook has ‘contingency plans in place’ on how to deal with any problem arising at that moment.

The tsunami of December 2004 was one of the world’s most devastating natural disasters, killing nearly 300,000 people across a range of travel and tourism industry countries, including Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka

Technological factors

The dramatic growth in the use of the internet in recent years for researching and booking holidays is having a major impact on the way that tour operators sell their holidays.

Thomas cook has online brochures where clients can download and look through it in comfort of their own home, and when they are all done and have made a decision on where to travel they are able to go back on the website and book their holiday.

Economic factors

The current change in world currency exchange rate can wipe out a tour operator’s profit margins overnight.

Similarly, rises in the cost of oil and other natural resources can push up a tour operator’s costs and affect its profitability

Thomas cook tour operators use a number of method to try and reduce the impacts of these situations

Thomas Cook Group plc Reports shows that a decline in profit for the year 2009, reflecting higher tax expenses. On a pre-tax basis, profit grew from 2008, boosted by strong revenue growth in all regions. Additional, the company said it remains confident to perform in line with the economic expectations in 2010.

Source (TCG.L: News)

thomas Cook says it has seen no evidence of consumers cutting back on holidays despite the economic slowdown.

The firm says trading has been robust this summer and bookings for winter and next summer are set to be strong.

Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said destinations outside the eurozone, such as Turkey and Egypt, had proved to be popular.

A strong euro has deterred many holidaymakers from visiting the 15 countries that use the currency.

Mr Fontenla-Novoa said that the firm found that customers considered an annual holiday a “must have” item.

“In our experience, people will cut back on all sorts of other things before they cut back on their holiday,” he said.

“In the last six weeks of trading, our average price has gone up by 9%. Our all-inclusive holidays and our 4 and 5 star holidays are both up on last year by 10% and 13% respectively,” he added.

However, holidaymakers planning to escape the poor summer weather should expect higher prices and fewer last-minute deals.

Thomas Cook said its moves to cut capacity had left it with 14% fewer holidays to sell than at this time last year, while average prices were up 14% in the past three months.

Souce BBC NEWS.
Social factors

People are generally living longer and are choosing to have children later in life changes in the composition of families, working methods and the home/life balance, all impact on the products and services that tour operators offer their customers

Thomas cook they have to stay side by side with social changes and adapt their products to reflect a changing society. This is because they have to make sure the production of their holidays are match the social life of their prospective clients

Political factors

Today tour operators play a very important role in creating the images of destinations. They can significantly influence international tourism flows towards a country hit by safety and security risks. Even decisions of individual tourists on where to spend a holiday very often depend on the attitude and practice of tour operators towards a particular destination.

Sometimes tour operator will have to pull out of destinations completely because of political factors such as war or terrorism,

The effects of the 9/11 disaster in 2002 on world travel industry led to a drop of 15% in sales in the 2002, leading to ?343.7m loss in core earnings that the firm would absorb with various cost-cutting measures.

still persist today, while recent bombings in Bali, Nairobi, Madrid and Cairo, have immediate impacts on tourism, although most destinations eventually recover lost trade

Legal factors: The laws

Package Travel Regulations 1992

This regulation makes sure that tour operators like Thomas Cook are responsible for their customers and what they can do if the regulations are breached. If they breach the customers has a case against Thomas Cook.

Under this regulation there are some principles that provide financial protection to the consumers.

-The tour operators are responsible for the safety of their customers whist on the holiday, this includes the safety in the accommodation, flight and (the all package).

-No tour operator should give/publish inaccurate brochure description.

-if tour operators became bankrupt there must be a guanranteed refund to all customers.

Trade Descriptions Acts 1968

All description given must be truthful and accurate, as this mostly affects tour operators, they have to be careful and make sure that all brochures descriptions stick to the rules of the Act.

Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982

Tour operators and travel agents both have to ensure that the booking of the holiday is carried out correctly and the contract of the holiday should also be carried out using ‘reasonable skills and care’

Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1999

If consumers think that the contract with the tour operator is unfair, they may have a case against the tour operator.

Tourism industry worldwide is one of the largest sectors which have greater contribution in the growth of economy. It is obvious that tourist from one continent travel to other continents. Southeast Asian countries have become popular destination for European tourists and the government in each respective country from Southeast Asia putting significant efforts to attract the tourists across the world. However due to economic recession there was a record downfall of tourists from Europe in the region. In this view this assignment report discusses the marketing strategy of Vietnam to attract customers from European countries including the market, segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy (Akaah and Korgaonkar, 1988).

2. Target Country of Tourist Destination:

The number of tourists from Italy has seen a significant downfall to visit Vietnam in the tourism statistics during the past four months however the total in flow of the tourists in the country has been increase by 103% as per the tourism statistics issued by Vietnam tourism government. Among other European countries the flow of tourists from Italy was equal and in last four months this figure has been decreasing continuously (Berthon, Lane, Pittand Watson, 1998). According to the tourism government in Vietnam, the tourist flow from Italy was 11,243 in December 2009 which has been reduced to 5796. There is great potential of tourist in Italy since during Easter most of the population in Italy go for outbound vacations and Southeast Asian countries they found attractive place to visit due to heritage, culture and monuments. Based on these observations I have chosen Italy as a target market to attract tourist from Italy.

(Source: http://www.vietnamtourism.gov.vn/)

3. Resorts on Facilities and Services:

Windsor Plaza Hotel is one of the preferred choices for tourists to get accommodation as the hotel has branches across the country. The hotel is located at heart of the capital city of Vietnam Ho Chi Minch City which is situated in the mid way of historic china town district and business district. The hotel provides world class five star services with a combination of luxury and hospitality services. Windsor plaza provides superior hospitality services to both the business travelers and leisure travelers (Bocij, Chaffey, Greasley, and Hickie, 1999). There are the set up of professional services offered by Windsor plaza where the travelers can make the choices among shopping, entertainment, meeting and dining facilities. In addition to this the tourists can have the great experience of perfect gifts, boutique, shopping and discotheque which has been built with the inspired theme of American style discos. The luxurious service described above has become the unique choices and needs of travelers from Italy and these are the USP of hotel to attract tourist across the world countries (Agrawal, Arjona and Lemmens, 2001). Tourists from Italy travel outbound to get relax from work, entertainment and enjoyment. Therefore in this view they always seek for the place where they can have the experience of all luxuries, sources of entertainment and facilities under one roof. Windsor plaza provides the accurate services as per the need of European tourists. In addition to this the hotel provides multi-cuisine food with the specialization of each European country, so that the tourists from Europe should not miss their choice of food. Another advantage provided by Windsor Plaza is the low rates than the other hotels. The hotel offers best possible low rates where the customers can negotiate and much cheaper than the booking rates directly. All the rates are finalized after consent of the customer and no hidden charges applied into the service hotels. Along with the low rate benefit, the hotel provides first hand information that meets the expectation of the tourists (Business Wire, 2002).

4. Marketing Strategy:

In order to attract the tourists from Italy, the country requires robust marketing plan which should cover every aspect of market strategies to target the tourists. This section provides the segmentation, targeting and positioning analysis for Vietnam .

4.1 Target Market:

Target country in Europe will be Italy as it is the most preferred destination for Vietnam where a significant share of tourists flow exists among other destinations. The major destinations from European countries include France, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain where the majority of tourists visit the Southeast Asian countries specifically for leisure purpose. Each of these countries have equal tourists flow however it has been assessed that due to economic recession tourists visit from Italy has been reduced tan the previous year visits (Cohen, 2002). Therefore it should be essential for Vietnam to develop a strategy to capture the lost share of tourist from Italy. Most of the population in Italy usually goes for outbound travel in vacation time such as Easter, Christmas and summer holidays. Southeast Asian region is the preferred destinations for these tourists (Festervand, Snyder and Tsalikis, 1986).

4.2 Segmentation:

Before targeting the tourist it is essential to segment them based in their demographics, psychographic, behavioral and geographic factors. Below is given the segmentation analysis for tourists in Italy.

4.2.1 Demographic Segmentation:

The demographic segmentation refers to the gender, age, income level and education level of the target segment based on which a marketer defines the profile of its target customer. The target profile of tourist will be population with age more than 18 years who are graduates with monthly income more than Euro 3,500 and good equal proportion of male and female (Hoffman and Novak, 1996).

4.2.2 Geographic Segmentation:

Geographic segmentation is based on the location of the target segment where is resides. The target location will be major cities in Italy since majority of population in Italy resides in urban areas and reach of the communication channel is higher among the urban areas. Apart from this the target customers identified at the outskirts of urban areas since a good proportion of population also resides in such areas due to low cost of index (Jasper and Ouellete, 1994).

4.2.3 Behavioral Segmentation:

Behavioral segmentation is based on the consumer behavior, culture, values and beliefs. Consumers in Italy are reserved in nature and very price sensitive. They have the cultural values to spread happiness with enjoyment and entertainment. The purpose behind leisure traveling is to enjoy the vacations without any stress and with full of comfort. Tourism government in Vietnam is making efforts to fulfill the basic tourism needs of the tourists (Kehoe, Pitkow, Sutton, Aggarwal and Rogers, 1998). The core focus of the government is emphasizing on developing and renovating the tourist sites in the country with old heritage monuments and all facilities with latest technology in the hospitality sector. Beaches in Vietnam are very popular. In this way the marketer will target the tourists in Italy who are seeking place for their comfort and likely to enjoy the beaches (Machlis, 1998).

4.2.4 Psychographic Segmentation:

Psychographic segmentation is based on the lifestyle, mind set and thinking of the consumers for availing the particular product and services. Marketer will target tourist in Italy who visit the tourists’ destination for reliving from the stress from their busy life. In addition to this the mind set of the tourist towards leisure purpose to pass the vacation with full of enjoyment and luxury. They feel that visiting tourists place will provide the experience of new learning and entertainment (Oberndorf, 1999).

4.3 Targeting:

The target profile of the tourist will be divided into two segments such as those tourists who have already visited Vietnam and those who will visit Vietnam first time. The aim of targeting first segment of tourist will be the add on benefit to the marketer as it will be easy to capture this segment and require less efforts to attract the tourists again to visit Vietnam (Millman, 1998). Moreover they are potential customer as they are well aware about the tourist place in Vietnam which enables to plan their visit easily. On the other hand aim of targeting the fresh tourists is to increase the market share and provide the expedience of this segment with enjoyable life and comfort by the attraction of tourism in Vietnam. The profile of target customer will be population of age 18 to 25 years, 26 to 35 years and 35 to 55 years who are likely to enjoy their vacations in comfortable place. Various holiday packages will be promoted among the target segment to promote the tourism in Vietnam. The core target segment will be consumers of age group 26 to 35 since they are the decision makers in the households and level of income and spending power is higher of this segment (Lewis, 2000).

4.4 Positioning Strategy:

The positioning strategy includes the advertising and communication to the target segment. A marketer must choose the advertising and communication channel with high reach among the target segment. Online advertising is the optimal method of promoting the tourism in Vietnam. A marketer can select the social networking popular in Italy to advertise the tourism in Vietnam (Quelch and Harding, 2009). The marketer can also select the email marketing, web blogs and RSS feeds to promote the tourism among Italian tourists. Under the promotion strategy the Windsor can offer family package or group package by highlighting the major facilities, services and popular destinations in Vietnam (Oliver, 1999). The marketer at Windsor can also select some choice of discount package with visual presentation of popular tourist sites to attract the customers. In addition to this a differential and low cost strategy will work to promote the tourism in Vietnam. Apart form this; the Tourism government in Vietnam should upgrade the website by installing the virtual tour of popular tourist destinations so that the tourists can have the view of tourists’ places and tourism in Vietnam virtually. Events should be promoted on the website in order to attract the tourists. The promotional activity will be implemented by engaging the local travel agents and travel companies in Italy (Porter, 2000).

5. Marketing Mix:

Marketing mix is the critical factor which enables the marketer to deploy the marketing strategy in optimal way and also provides the growth and expansion of an organization. Until the sound marketing mix is developed a company can have several challenges in the market place to promote its products and services. In this way the seven Ps of marketing mix of Windsor Plaza are defined below (Shankar, Rangaswamy and Pusateri, 1999).

5.1 Product (Services):

In case of hotel the product will be services which are intangible in nature. Therefore based on the service offerings the Hotel can forecast its sales to be generated and the margins of the Hotel will be estimated in the coming years (Reda, 2000). Windsor can offer varieties in its hospitality services such as house saloon service, multi cuisine food specifically all verities of European cuisine. In order to promote the services, Windsor will engage with the local travel agencies in order to make the tourist aware about the available services and related facilities for tourism in Vietnam. The incentives and commission will be provided to the travel agents and travel companies based on the revenue generated and recommending the tourist about the hotel (Van den Poel and Leunis, 1999). The services will be included all the modern facilities so that the tourists get fascinated hotel services. at the same time the hotel will realize where there service are lacking and using this opportunity the marketer can boost up their sales (Riedman, 1999).

5.2 Place:

Place has of its primary importance in marketing mix, the marketing and sales manager should understand the appropriate market in Italy to promote the hotel service along with the tourism in Vietnam. Before implementing the marketing plan the marketing manager should study about the general demographics about Italy for example moot of population in Italy resides in metro areas and tourists came from the outskirts of the metro cities and urban areas. In the internet era, most of tourists in Italy do not visit the travel agencies and book their tourist plan online. Therefore the service will marketed through major internet portal (Woolley, 1998). Apart from this the metro city malls will be targeted first to promote the tourism.

5.3 Promotion:

As already discussed, the hotel will use the differentiation and low cost strategy to develop the competitive advantage under the promotion strategy. Online marketing channel will be used to promote the hotel service and tourism. Some of the communication channel includes, social networking sites, website, email marketing, RSS feed and Blog. Advertising will be utilized through various websites which are most often visited by the tourists in Italy (Warner, 2000). In order to promote the services, Windsor will engage with the local travel agencies in order to make the tourist aware about the available services and related facilities for tourism in Vietnam. The incentives and commission will be provided to the travel agents and travel companies (Warner, 2000).

5.4 Price:

Under the promotional strategy the hotel will use the low cost strategy in which the hotel will offer discount and best possible low price for its services in the industry. Since the tourists in Italy are more prices sensitive and it should have the worth as per the offerings. Pricing will be offered by covering the all the hotel’s expenses and kept the margin at lower side. The hotel can therefore make the volume based profits and utilize it in the long term (Wingfield, 2001).

6. Extended Ps:

The extended Ps of marketing will be used to reinforcing the positioning strategy of the hotel as described below (Ansoff, 1957).

6.1 Process:

In service industry process is the key marketing mix since the customer feels happy if they find the service process is easy and services of the company can be accessible in the easiest possible manner. The marketer will pace self made process in the hotel with signage to get the access of each service easily. In addition to this the hotel will use intercom facility to by just dialing one number and the hotel staff will provide the instant service within maximum of 10 minutes. It will be highlighted in during the hotel promotion (Baker, 1998). The hotel will provide the below services for its tourists:

Executive lounge & Business center

Meeting facilities & Recreational facilities

Kids playroom

Tour desk

Airport pick-up service: USD18/way/4seats and vehicles for rent

Outside swimming pool

Multi-lingual guest service staff

Laundry and dry-leaning service

Modern elevator and baggage storage

Souvenir/Gift shop and ATM in hotel

Doctor/Nurse on call

Foreign currency exchange

Travel tour arrangement

Business Center with ADSL Internet and Email

Beauty salon and beauty treatment center

Gymnasium and fitness center

Massage, Spa, Sauna, Steam-bath and Jacuzzi

Shopping center, Games and Casino room

Ngan Dinh Restaurant

Cafe Centra

America Discotheque

An Dong shopping plaza

(Source: http://www.vietnam-hotels.net/hotels/Windsor-Plaza-Hotel)

6.2 People:

The hotel will employ best of industry experience in order to provide highly acclaimed services to the tourist. People are the first face in the service industry and they are like the tangible asset of the company. In hospitality business, people are only the evidence where the customer feels the experience of services. Hence the hotel will employ the hotel management professionals with minimum 3 years of experience of the industry to provide betters service to the tourist (Agrawal, Arjona and Lemmens, 2001).

6.3 Physical Evidence:

Physical evidence includes the proper display of the services which are visible during the hotel visit. In this way the hotel will use the signage merchandizing where the each facility will be marked with proper sign. The interior of the hotel will be designed by the architect and interior designer. During the positioning, a virtual tour of hotel will be created and displayed on the communication channel such as websites and internet portal (Berthon, Lane, Pitt and Watson, 1998).

7. Budgetary Requirement:

Since the Windsor plaza is already an established chain in Vietnam, therefore the hotel requires the renovation in its hotel and promotion expenses. Since the hotel will use the digital marketing concept to promote the service and incentive & commission to be provided to the travel agents and companies. Hence the forecasted budget is provided in the below table for the period of six months:

Month
Estimated Expenses

1st month

USD 55,000

2nd month

USD 40,000

3rd month

USD 25,000

4th month

USD 25,000

5th month

USD 15,000

6th month

USD 7,000

The progress will be monitored through weekly sales sheet in which the company will make the comparison of actual revenue generated with the target revenue and based on the figures the target for subsequent months will be assigned to each sales manager (Festervand, Snyder and Tsalikis, 1986). In addition to this the company will prepare expense ratio chart every month to monitor the cost over revenue generated. Apart from this the number of visits on the web portal and networking sites will be recorded to monitor the progress of advertising and promotion. The marketer can also check the user review to monitor the impact of its marketing campaign (Cohen, 2002).

8. Recommendation:

In order to gain the long term advantage and global marketing benefits the marketing manager should perform different marketing activities which will enable the hotel to gain the competitive advantage for minimum of five year period.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Focus in Marketing Campaign

Flexibility of Rates Online

Considering the Channel Management Products

Investment in the Website

Optimization of Website

E-mail marketing

Protection of Online branding

Monitoring the Users Review Online and Accordingly devise the marketing strategy

Offering a analytical package

Responding to the market condition

Lewis (2000) suggested that the company should optimize those key steps which enable to understand its advertising and promotion. Since Windsor Plaza will use digital marketing therefore user review will provide the necessary information to the marketing manager to understand what the hotel can best offer to the tourists. Apart from the protection of online branding is essential as it will enable the marketer to protect other websites to advertise company’s image in the negative way such as low rate hotel.

Air Asia was set up by Dato Tony Fernandes in 2001. Air Asia is one of the award winning and largest low fare airlines in the Asia expanding rapidly since 2001. Air Asia flies to over 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia with a fleet of 72 aircrafts. Air Asia has flown over 55 million guests across the region and continues to create more extensive route network through its associate companies. Now, Air Asia believes in the no-frills, hassle-free, low fare business concept and feels that keeping costs low requires high efficiency in every part of the business. Today, through the corporate philosophy of “Now Everyone Can Fly”, Air Asia has sparked a revolution in air travel with more and more people around the region choosing Air Asia as their preferred choice of transport. [1]

1.2 Success

Now when everyone wants to take plane to travel to other place, their first choice almost will be Air Asia. The slogan of Air Asia, ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’ is remembered by everyone. It gives everyone a mindset that Air Asia is a very low fare airline and becomes a good choice for everyone. In additional, Air Asia had expanded its company to global and already well-known in global nowadays. It lets the people of Malaysia feel proud to the Air Asia airline. Besides that, Air Asia also gets many awards such as Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline of the Year 2004, and so on starts from 2003. Until 2010, Air Asia already gets more than 50 awards. Those awards verify that Air Asia’s ability to success.

1.3 Aim

The aim of Air Asia strategy is to analyze the marketing strategy of Air Asia as a Low cost-airline. Besides that, this will also determine if Air Asia has a chance and market opportunity to expand their business in European market, specifically the UK market. In addition, this paper also aims to analyze the marketing strategy used by this airline industry in Asia and also the UK market. Marketing tools and instruments will be used to assess Air Asia. This paper will also compare Air Asia with its main rivals in the UK market, analyze the competitiveness of the airline industry and provide recommendations for entering in the European market. [2]

1.4 Methodology

Data collection was conducted through searching with internet. We had gone through many websites and visit it to find the information of the Air Asia. Internet had provides many information of Air Asia to us such as background of Air Asia and so on. After we study the information of Air Asia, we analyze the information and generate it to write in this long report. Beside that, we collected data through the mass media such as television. Advertisements that been displayed in the television give us the information of how Air Asia advertises themselves in an attractive way to attract their target audience. In the advertisement, we able to see how Air Asia portray themselves in this service by using slogan that keep in consumers memory. The advertisement do contain some information’s of services that provided by Air Asia to respectable customer.

1.5 Scope

This report is to examine the business strategy of Air Asia. Business strategy that been implement by Air Asia is one of the good ways to examine the well known level of Air Asia among public. The main area that we focus in this report is to study and understand the factors that cause Air Asia to be so successful in this industry. Previously, Air Asia faced some problem therefore they change their business strategy. These changes enable Air Asia to solve their problem and obtained many of awards in this few years. Thus, the business strategy that use by Air Asia is very effective and efficiency.

2. Findings

In general, the findings indicated that Air Asia is a very successful airline in Malaysia. It is well known as low-cost airline. Over the years, Air Asia had received more than 50 awards for their excellence start. For example, it has been given the World’s Best Low Cost Airline awards by Skytrax for the year 2010. Air Asia is famous not only because of the low cost. While it also because of other business strategy of Air Asia. Thus, business strategy of Air Asia is the important key for the successful of Air Asia.

2.1 Advertising

One of the reasons why many people will choose Air Asia rather than other airlines in Malaysia is because of the advertising strategy been implemented by Air Asia. Air Asia does their advertising through television and newspaper. The advertising of Air Asia keep emphasizes their slogan, ‘Now Everyone can fly’. The slogan of Air Asia is very easy to let people keep in memory. With the slogan, majority audience will remember that Air Asia is their first choice to choose and cheap. In the newspaper, Air Asia uses a colorful and big image to advertise it. This can grab majority the target audience attention and will let people to use few seconds view the advertisement of Air Asia. Thus, the advertising of Air Asia is very efficiency and effective that can cause Air Asia to become so successful.

2.2 Services

Beside that, Air Asia also provides a good service to their customer in order to attract their customer to come back after first time travel with Air Asia. First, Air Asia provide a service that pay attention to customer’s safety. It partnering with the world’s most renowned maintenance providers and complying with the world airline operation to ensure every plane in safety condition that can look after customer safety. Air Asia also uses Streamline Operations to make sure that processes are as simple as possible. It cans faster the service that provides to customer. It also provides a no seat assignment service to customer. So that, customer can freely finds their seat that comfortable for themselves. In additional, Air Asia also has provided an in-flight magazine to customer. It can take away their customer bored when in the plane. This is the first in-fight magazine that had provided by an airline in Malaysia. So, services are also important factors that that causes Air Asia so successful. [3]

2.3 Package

From the informative website www.airasia.com, you can book different types of packages directly from Go Holiday, Air Asia’s vacation imprint. Asiatravel.com is Asia’s largest hotel and flight reservation services. It offer over 60,000 hotels and resorts worldwide and flight departure points from major countries in Asia and all parts of the world. All flights and hotels can be booked on instant-confirmation basis. Everyone can fly with Air Asia at amazing low prices and provide different hotel package. [4]

2.4 Promotion and Low Cost

Air Asia is the most successful cheap airfare airline in Malaysia. “Now Everyone Can Fly”, it is Air Asia slogan. Generally, people have to book early with Air Asia so that can get the cheapest airfare. If the customer book late, the airfare will be higher, but it will still be cheap. Air Asia does promotions by television, in the newspapers and in tabloids. Besides that, Air Asia also promotes the brand by sponsoring The Amazing Race Asia along the show and also to have a sponsorship deal with Manchester United (MU). It also send newsletter by email to register customers to inform free seats promotion for flight to some cities in Indonesia such as Surabaya, Bali and Lombok. Low cost airlines begin with two initial cost advantages arising from the very nature of their operation: higher seating density and higher daily aircraft utilization. With the average fare being 40-60 % lower than its full-service competitor, Air Asia has been able to achieve strong market stimulation in the domestic Malaysian air market (Thomas 2003). [5]

2.5 Internet

Airasia.com is an online travel booking site and offering reasonable selection of airfares. It allow customer to online booking flight tickets. Air Asia is a Malaysia world’s best Low-Cost Airline that provides flight, corporate information, planes and Online Booking. Among all the payment methods credit card would be the best choice, however you can choose debit card too if you do not possess a credit card. Overall Air Asia online booking process is very easy and fast. Air Asia is helping regional airline in Malaysia and south-east Asian destinations. Beside that, schedule of domestic and international flights and Asia’s largest low fare and no frills airline is operated by it. [6]

2.6 Awards

In year 2003, Air Asia website had voted as the most popular website for online shopping in the 11th Malaysia Internet User Survey conducted by AC Nielsen Consult. Air Asia also gets an award of Obtained Malaysian Superbrands status by Superbrands International. Besides that, Air Asia gets CIO TOP 100 Honoree for excellence in strategic IT deployment and Developing Airline of the Year 2003 by Airfinance Journal in the same year. The Air Asia’s owner, Tony Fernandes gets the CEO of the Year by Business Times and American Express in year 2003. While in year 2004, Air Asia gets more than 10 rewards. In year 2005, Air Asia had received seven rewards. In year 2007, Air Asia gets six rewards and year 2006 gets about 5 rewards. Beside that, Air Asia gets more than 18 rewards in year 2008. In the year 2009, Air Asia also gets more than four rewards. In year 2010, Air Asia gets the awards of Masterclass Global CEO of the year, World’s Best Low Cost Airline and Air Asia voted the Air Cargo Industry Newcomer Award at the ACW World Air Cargo Awards 2010. [7]

3. Conclusion

“Now Everyone Can Fly”, it is Air Asia slogan. Many customers first choice almost will be Air Asia. Air Asia believes in the no-frills, hassle-free, low fare business concept and feels that keeping costs low requires high efficiency in every part of the business. It gives everyone a mindset that Air Asia is a very low fare airline and becomes a good choice for everyone. Beside that, Air Asia does their advertising through mass media such as television and newspaper. Air Asia had expanded its company to global and well-known in global nowadays. In additional, Air Asia also trains their staff to give a friendly service to customer, it provided an in-flight magazine to customer so that their customer would not feel bored. The good service is an important business strategy to make Air Asia become very successful. And, Air Asia also free seats promotion for flight to some place. In conclusion, Air Asia is one of the award winning and largest low fare airlines, so it is the most successful cheap airfare airline in Malaysia.

4. Recommendation

The recommendation that we give to Air Asia is they should join venture with Virgin Group. First, Air Asia need to put more effort to set up a pan-Asian low cost airline with Virgin Blue, which is a low cost carrier of Virgin Group serving Australia and New Zealand mainly. Virgin Blue has suggested it may extend services to south-east Asia. Therefore, setting up a join venture with Virgin Blue can help Air Asia to grow in Asia even further. In the same time, it also can help Virgin Blue to extend services to south-east Asia.

Beside that, Air Asia should also introduce smart card which is compatible with the existing ticketless booking. It can offer two kinds of smart cards to their customer. The first kind of smart card is for ordinary travellers. It will be offer instant rewards when topped up and offering greater value than its purchase price. For example, a customer buys RM1, 000 cards may be worth of RM1, 500. This card can also be used by other people with the same family name as the cardholder. And, the second kind of smart card will be offer to unlimited travel for frequent flyers. When priced provisionally at RM1, 000, cardholders will be allowed make as many trips as they want within a specified period.

In additional, Air Asia should cut down the additional charge that customer need to pay. Customers need to pay by themselves when they need anything in the plane. Although the ticket fee is low, others such as the food and beverages in the plane are expensive. Thus, Air Asia needs to reconsider to cut it down to attract more customers.

Introduction

Air Arabia is the first and the leading low-cost carrier in the Middle East region .It is also the official airline of the emirate of Sharjah .Air Arabia was established on 3 February 2003 and is a profitable business from the first year. In, 2007, Air Arabia was transformed from a Limited

Liability Company (LLC) to a Public Joint Stock Company (PJSC).

Air Arabia launched its second hub in Kathmandu in 2008 as Nepal’s first low -cost carrier. Air Arabia also established air Arabia morocco in Casablanca in 2009 .It will expand the firm in Europe and Africa.

Air Arabia signed a deal to open two more base at air Arabia Egypt and air Arabia Jordon. This will help in maintain a globally no.1 low-cost carrier. Air Arabia provides services to 46 places in the Middle East, Africa, India, Central Asia and Europe.

Followings are the offerings provided by Air Arabia-

Low air fares – 40% less then economic fares

Simple and quick online booking process

Holidays affordable range of hotels and rooms

Fast check in and check out at Sharjah airport

Corporate Mission – To revolutionize air travel across the globe with an innovative approach that will result in a safe and reliable operation .Mission of Air Arabia, “Our aim is that we will be known for our profitable business , low fares , high operational standards and for multi functional teams work.” (Air Arabia Strategy)

Intensive opportunities

Due to no deliveries before the end of 2010 will provide a strong dividend payout in the short term yield of 11% based on 2008 and 2009 earning .Opening of other hubs outside Sharjah will provide the necessary diversification and it will help in giving an edge over the growing market.

UAE Population by origin –

UAE Nationals 19%

ARAB & IRANIANS 23%

SOUTH ASIANS 50 %

OTHERS 8%

Population and Demographics plays an important role as these are the people who are taking its services. Due to such diverse population will help in giving a boost to the new opening firm because there is a lot of movement of people to Europe and America. So the implementation of new strategy will support such movements. And with the opening of the new hubs this will add a lot of tourist movement from our flights.

Market Penetration Strategy – By increasing the no of flights on the same route and improving the quality on the previous flights would certainly strengthen the name in the industry.

Market Development Strategy – The opening of the other hub like one in Nepal ,one in morocco and the others opening shortly ,it will provide them opening to the global market and will help competing other low-cost carrier globally.

Diversification Strategy – Starting of other facilities in the new hub like traveling system and aircraft maintenance system will help in attracting more customers in the newly open area.

There are few LCC which uses other facilities like providing tour guiding and travel agency, distribution agency and maintenance industry.

Integrative Growth

Air Arabia can use the growth through the implementation of integrative growth by the following measures. Air Arabia is planning to increase its flights to the already existing regions. This will help in competing with the Indian and other fast moving low cost carriers in the regions. Air Arabia signed a deal with Travco Group, an Egyptian Tourism and travel agency to established Air Arabia as a joint venture. Air Arabia also signed a deal with Tantash Group to form Air Arabia Jordon. It will help in increasing the flights to European, Middle East and North American countries.

Other important joint ventures are –

Informational system associates

Sharjah aviation company

Alpha fight services UAE

HAECO sharjah Aircraft Engg Co.

All these joint ventures and deals will help in integrating in the area of aviation in the low cost carriers. These will help in creating a global name of the company. (Growth Strategy)

Diversification Growth Strategies

Due to low cost flights Air Arabia started providing services that are previously outsourced such as catering services, handling services, IT services with the aircrafts maintenance. Air Arabia is not only want to become a LCC flight but also want to diversified its area into other sectors and increase its overall profit as there is very less margin in the low cost carriers and company also wants to minimize risk .

Important sectors are

Travel agency – Air Arabia will like to offer the travel agent service also to various tourist places in the country and also to various important tourist places across its flight routes

Tourist related services -Tourist related services include pickup from the hotels, hotel reservations and other important requirement to the tourists.

Passenger transport services –

Air cargo services – It can also start the cargo services that has a tremendous good business in the nearby region. It will be a new market but provide a additional revenue to the company

Document transfer services- It will include courier and other lodging services.

For such diversified, it is required to define some strategic business units that will help in defining the goal easily. (Air Arabia Strategy)

Strategic Business unit –

Hotel reservation and other smaller facilities.

Other facilities apart from customer traveling like

Cargo and document transfer services

They can step in the travel agency industry

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Brand awareness as it is the first low-cost carrier in the region

It has got plenty of support from Sharjah and UAE government

Cost effective distribution system

Online booking system

Strong Middle East traffic due to tourist and other people.

Strong balance sheet and gross margins

WEAKNESSESS

High operating leverages

Fuel is the main factor in the operating cost includes 30% in it.

Sustainable load factors may be one of the reason

OPPORTUNITIES

Low rates of LCC’s in the region

Recent rise in the economies in the region

Fleet expansion plans and significant route

Collaborations with new ventures

Threats

Political risk in the middle East

Poor perception about Low cost as poor quality flights

Opening up of more LCC near the region

Competition from the other global LCC from south east countries like India and other European countries

Till now LCC penetration in the Middle East is just 2% in comparison to the other region like America -25% and Europe -16% so there is lot of scope of development in this region. Air Arabia’s main base is Sharjah International Airport, ideally situated for customers to enjoy the benefits of quick access to Dubai, fast check-in processes, low congestion, friendly airport staff, as well as access to many other commercial carriers served at the airport. The middle East totaled 46 mn international tourist arrivals in 2007 with Saudi Arabia and Egypt among the leading destinations in term of growth in 2007. So Air Arabia is leading the industry in the region but they will need to work it out at the global level .

Conclusion

After all the above discussions, it can be concluded that Air Arabia adopted mixture of growth strategies to achieve its mission and vision. Air Arabia comes among the top choices in low cost airlines. Air Arabia introduced different product and services to increase its customer base.

After the tourism organization have decided in selecting the distribution channel, the tourism organization such as hotel must implement and manage the distribution that being choose in order to gain revenue. Therefore in distribution channel management it includes selecting and motivating individual channel members and also evaluated their performance. For the hotel to generate higher revenue, they must work together with the intermediaries such as tour operator and travel agencies in term of sharing the information of the product.

In order to effectively evaluate the effectiveness of involving only retail travel agencies instead of a combination of travel agencies and tour operators, one must first examine what represent a tour operator and a travel agency. Therefore Hilton Hotel selected certain tour operator and travel agencies to selling their room based on their brand position their ability to reach the customer such as Ping Anchorage Travel & Tours to promoting and selling the room for Hilton Hotel.

The Ping Anchorage is establish in 1990 and was the Malaysia professional tour operator that promote the nature, people, culture and heritage of Malaysia. Till now the organization has been operate 21 years in the tourism industry as the tour operator. The offices located in four different countries which are Kuala Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kota Bharu. The organizations have modern mini coaches, tour coaches and speedboats services to give convenience to the consumer to travel to the destination. These are to ensure providing the better services and ensure a great holiday to the consumer. The organization was recommended by the international travel guidebook such as Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Stefan Loose, Insight Guide, Japan Gio Glode Trotter, Thomas Cook. In addition the organization cooperated with all the hotels, resorts, and local operators. The organizations have recognized as the Malaysia best tour operator that win the Prestigious Malaysia Tourism Award in 2000 until 2009 such as Malaysia Best Tour Innovative 2009, The Best Domestic Tour Operator 2003, Malaysia Best Tour Program of Adventure & Nature 2006, Malaysia Best Tour Program of Special Interest/Merit 2006 and The Best Inbound Tour Operator 2004.

Hilton Hotel choosing Ping Anchorage based on the organization reputation because the organization is familiar with the local market conditions and culture customs. This will give advantages to the Hilton Hotel to create a customer relationship and brand trust in the mind of the consumer. Therefore it will make Hilton Hotel to concentrate on the quality services. With the reputation and image of the Ping Anchorage it can help to promote and selling the room of the Hilton Hotel toward consumer. The services and product the organization provided were the hotel online reservation, online transaction, comment through online and information of the tourism product such as accommodations, transportation and entertainment. Therefore with the services provided by the Ping Anchorage the consumer can check the room rate of the Hilton Hotel by browser through the organization web site.

In order to make sure the Ping Anchorage keeps selling and promotes the Hilton Hotel, the hotel continually motivate it member to perform their roles. There are incentive that commonly used by Hilton Hotel to motivated their intermediaries such as Ping Anchorage such as commission which Hilton will pay up to 10 percent commission toward Ping Anchorage on all general public and other commissionable rates for selling the room. Other than that the Hilton Hotel also provided Ping Anchorage with the reduces-prices holidays. It is for the organization to stay at the hotel itself and give them an information and knowledge of the product and services that the hotel sell to the consumer. In addition it will help the Ping Anchorage to create the package that suitable for the hotel. Hilton Hotel also has giving approval right to the Ping Anchorage to use the hotel information in term of hotel history, facilities and services to promote in their website. In return it can promote the hotel to the consumer. Furthermore act of beyond Ping Anchorage authority is strictly prohibited for the organization to use.

Mkumbo J. P. (2010) stated that distribution channel performance is evaluated using mainly two criteria which were the business volume the distribution member and the profit margin made by the distribution member of distribution channel. Hilton Hotel evaluates the Ping Anchorage through the promotion that the organizations generate to increase the sales of the hotel booking. In addition Hilton Hotel evaluates Ping Anchorage performance as the intermediaries are basically with the award that the organization gets throughout the year. With the achievement of the organization it creates the brand trust for the Hilton Hotel to colorations with Ping Anchorage.

Meanwhile Hotel Hilton also has their own website in order to consumer to booking the room. These for the consumer to deal directly to the Hilton Hotel without interfere with travel agencies and tour operator. Therefore internet has changed channel relationships between some types of customers, principals and intermediaries, and this process is continuing to evolve. Internet is cutting into the traditional intermediariesaa‚¬a„? business. Using ICT Hilton Hotel can develop and tighten supply chain relationships which reduce costs and bring higher quality travel products to the consumer. Other than that Hotel Hilton also can employ various price policies and loyalty programs that yield a higher price transparency and more user-friendly interfaces. With the evolving the reservation through the internet reservation system (IRS) it will help Hilton Hotel to increase their percentage of people booking the room via internet.

Using the IRS the Hilton Hotel can replacing the weaker member which is tour operator and travel agencies that can harm the effectiveness of the distribution system. By using the Hilton Hotel website perhaps it gives customer the opportunity to provided feedback regarding services quality of Hilton Hotel. Pearce G.D. (2009) evaluate that consideration of the strategy in evaluates and analysis can assist distribution member in term old deciding the best distribution channel for their organization. hence it help to determine and assist the distribution member about which channels might be expanded, reduced, added, abandoned, or improved.

Identify the relationship between the member of tourism distribution channel such as travel retailers and operator, accommodation, airlines, and national tourist organization in the marketing of tourist destination (local or broad).

In the distribution channel there are relationship arise between members of distribution channel such as travel retailers and operator, accommodation, airlines, and national tourist organization in the marketing of tourist destination. In this study, the authors examine the ways to increasing their effectiveness in marketing market Pan-Amazon ecotourism destinations based on the roles and function of travel agencies and tour operator because travel agencies and tour operators have a role in the marketing tours package between supplier, tourism destination and consumer. Tour operator is normally can be define as creating inclusive holidays which are combining the travel, accommodation, food, beverage, activities, entertainment and sightseeing. In addition some tour operators are specializing in certain particular product or destination. In tourism industry tour operator is focusing on huge volume of sales, offering attractive tour package and creating all-inclusive prices to generate high sales with low cost margins.

Other than that travel agency is a business that sells a wide range of tourism related products and services to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers. Travel agencies are without their own product, and modify the packages offered by producers to the needs of the consumer. There were arguing that arise saying that they are independent agencies. They retail to consumers on an individual basis. Thus, they are considered intermediaries in the hospitality distribution channel and are responsible for bringing customers to a product. Meanwhile the author stated that ecotourism destination can be defined as sustaining and conservation of natural environment and culture heritage. This study investigates the function of Uakari Lodge in tourism distribution channels websites in order to measure how it ranks in these distribution channels, as well as to identify key competitors to Mamiraua

In this study it indicated that among the intermediaries such as travel agencies and tour operator that selling and promoting the ecotourism in Brazil, Mamiraua was the destination that have a higher rating in the ecotourism destination that visited by the tourist. This is due to the destination is basically international agencies and operators recognize as the profitable destination. Whereby Mamiraua demonstrates a good market image against other competitors such Peru and Ecuador in term of ecotourism destination. In addition in term of price competitive advantages also Mamiraua destination were enable for the travel agencies and tour operators to create and providing the tour package which tourist can visited the mountain, sea, jungle destination and used facilities at the lower prices compare to other destination.

Throughout the study it indicated that tourist went through travel agencies and tour operator was slightly higher rather than tourist that travel through backpackers or travel alone. This because by refereeing through the data in year 2009 about 56 percent of tourist travel through agencies but only 11 percent travel through backpackers because of the lack of knowledge about the ecotourism destination. Therefore it can be stated that with regard to the efforts to attract the traveler, the behavior of the distribution channels has been more passive rather that active to marketing the Mamiraua as ecotourism destination. Whereby traveler looks for travel agencies and tour operator compare by searching through the internet to get the information about Mamiraua.

With the finding, it giving the information for the Uakari Lodge which is the only place for accommodation to identify the behavior of the traveler and investigated the need for more advance web-based marketing and sales strategy in order to traveler to identify that Mamirau as ecotourism destination and stay at the Uakari Lodge. In this study also it indicated that the increased participation of travel agiencies and tour operator was not just due to the increased number of traveler that went to Mamiraua, but also increased the total number of travel agencies and tour operator that came to marketing the Mamiraua as ecotourism destination. This increase in the number of tourism distribution channels indicates a good positioning of Mamiraua in the ecotourism destination.

Although there are increasing of participation of the travel agencies and tour operator, some issues occur whereby only 11 travel agencies and tour operator are sending the traveler to Ukari Lodge to stay overnight. Because working with a large number of travel agencies and tour operators limit the capabilities of the Ukari Lodge to establish closer ties with all the travel agencies and tour operator in the distribution channel. Therefore it is important for the customer to understand the relationship between the destination marker and the travel agencies and tour operator so that the Uakari Lodge is sold toward traveler in line of marketing Mamiraua ecotourism destination. Furthermore it is important to monitor the level of visitor satisfaction in order improving the strategic of increasing the number of distribution channel that can related to marketing the Mamiraua as ecotourism destination.

Therefore the emerging of the internet can reacts as the alternative intermediaries. By using the internet it enables direct communication between the tourism supplier and the consumer. Therefore it can be as a medium to reduce the conflict that arises. Therefore internet can changed the distribution channel relationships between some types of customers, principals and intermediaries. For the tourism supplier by using the internet it can be as method to reduce the distribution cost of deliver the product and services toward the consumer. Before emerging the ICT as the alternative intermediaries, tourism supplier are burden by the high cost of intermediariesaa‚¬a„? commission and the cost of GDS that being charge to the tourism supplier.

However, using the Internet for marketing applications is not without costs. There can be significant hardware, software and human resource costs attached to developing and operating a direct to- customer distribution strategy. The process of cutting out the intermediary is called disintermediation, and accommodation providers clearly favor this approach. However, the role of the intermediary is well established the major tour operators and travel agents organize travel and accommodation for millions of tourists every year. Intermediaries are obviously aware of the threat posed by the Internet, but they also embrace the Internet as a tool for communicating with their own customers.

Kazandzhieva (2010) noted there are advantages and disadvantage of ICT in the distribution channel. For the disadvantages of using the internet as a trade the author have stated several disadvantages which is lower security services level. The consumer fell afraid to giving their profile and credit card number to the travel agencies to make the transaction. Other than that the services that provided by the agencies are intangible product and the consumer rely on the services and information that provided through the internet. The consumer also always misunderstood with the low price that promote through internet. For Example the consumer Air Asia buying and booking the airlines ticket via internet. Meanwhile consumer is lack of protection against unconscientiously actions because every country there is different in national legislation. In addition most of the consumer prefer to shop and purchasing the product via intermediaries that are well establish and recognized on the market. This because consumer already know the services and the quality that provided by the establish travel agencies.

About the advantages using the internet toward the travel agencies stated by the researcher were the using the electronic commerce it can help to optimizing the travel agencies activities by creating different approaches to electronic purchase and sale to giving the consumer convenience to purchasing the tourism product. By using the internet the tour operator can promote their product and price through the internet. Therefore it makes the consumer known about the new package that being created by the travel agencies. In addition using the internet it can direct the intermediaries such as travel agencies toward modern operation, type of tourism, and destination when the necessity of the consulting and information services.

Introduction

Tourism industry is very competitive businesses which generate increase of demand and supply in tourism product. Many individual, enterprise and government indentify the opportunity of tourism to generate income. As the result of many tourism suppliers in the market it creates a competition among them. Therefore tourism supplier needs to take an effective and efficient strategic approach to distribute their product and services in order to survive in tourism industry.

The distribution channel can be defined as the entire of cooperating organization that helps to ensure the consumer can use a product. Jafari (0000) define as linkages between actual and potential tourist and the supplier by using the distribution channel system. The system maybe categorize either direct system which is from producer to the seller which is consumer can by directly airlines ticket through the counter or indirect from consumer through an intermediaries which by using travel agenciesaa‚¬a„? or wholesalers to purchase the holiday package. Therefore tourism services supplier can choose either this two distribution system to selling their product to the consumer.

Therefore the distribution channel concept is easily to understand but in the real world it was extremely complicated for the large organization. The function of distribution is to assist the consumer to search for the information regarding the product and to make purchasing of the product simple. Meanwhile in distribution channel travel agents, tour wholesalers, and specialist act as the intermediaries. For example travel agent and tour operator serve the consumer to choose the travel product such as accommodation, transportation, restaurant and entertainment. By providing the serve, they basically get the revenue by charging the commission from the booking of the hotel. For example accommodation like hotel companies need distribution channel to reach their entire potential consumer in order to fill their room reservation.

In distribution channel the relationship between distribution members is complex, especially for the organization likes hotel that depending to the travel agencies and tour operator to generate their sales. Hence the information communication technology (ICT) takes part as important roles in distribution system because ICT is a medium that will evolve the distribution channel in term of development of computerized system. But the theories of distribution are the same despite it using the ICT as intermediaries.

The evolution of ICT and electronic commerce continue to improve in distribution channel of hospitality and tourism industry. It depends on the size of the business and market segmentation. Meanwhile accommodation such as hotel needs to use intermediaries to obtain advance booking to generate occupancy. But with the high cost of distribution force the distribution member to look for alternatives such as develop their own website to marketing their product and services. Therefore it will make the distribution member not depending on the intermediaries. With emerging of the ICT such as internet it has become an important toll in the distribution channel and help hotels to reduce their distribution cost. Nevertheless the roles of travel agencies and tour operator as the intermediaries are remain important for the distribution members to generate sales and promote their product.

Conclusion

As conclusion the tourism distribution channel is an operating structure, system or link of various combination of travel organization. These travel organizations create a travel package and make arrangement for the consumer. It has two purposes to make sure their consumer obtains information they need in choosing a trip and to make the necessary reservation after they made a choice. Tourism distribution channel can be categories in two type of channel which is direct and indirect. There are three types of travel intermediaries which are travel agents, tour operator and specialty intermediaries. The roles of travel agencies are to organize tour package which sold to consumer through retail agents. It is not directly sells to the consumer. There are the three distribution channel are product supplier to consumer channel, product to supplier to travel agent to consumer channel and the product supplier to tour operator.

Meanwhile the distribution system is an important component of the marketing mix. The chosen system of distribution will affect the parts of the marketing mix such as the product, the promotion strategy and the pricing policy. In distribution channel management it includes selecting and motivating individual channel members and also evaluated their performance. The Ping Anchorage is tour operators which have establish 21 years in the industries. It located in four different countries which are Kuala Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kota Bharu. In order to make sure the travel agent continues to generate sales for the hotel Hilton, the hotel giving 10 percent commission to the Ping Anchorage. Beside that Hilton Hotel evaluate Ping Anchorage the promotion that the organizations generate to increase the sales of the hotel booking. Hotel Hilton also has their own website in order to consumer to booking the room. Using ICT Hilton Hotel can develop and tighten supply chain relationships which reduce costs and bring higher quality travel products to the consumer. Therefore the internet reservation system (IRS) it will help Hilton Hotel to increase their percentage of people booking the room via internet

Throughout marketing the Pan-Amazon ecotourism destinations is basically based on the roles and function of travel agencies and tour operator. It related to the relationship between the members of tourism distribution channel in the marketing of tourist destination.

Recommendation

Buhalis (2000) acknowledge that the distribution member should keep the record of different channel which being use for the purpose of evaluating and measuring channel performance since distribution decisions are critical for tourism industry because its influence the entire marketing mix because it reduces the cost and increasing the revenue toward the distribution member such as hotel. In addition tourism distribution channels difference according to product, industry structure and countries. Therefore with the consideration it can make a huge difference in the hotel competitive advantages.

Fu and Zhang (2010) noted in order to determine the effective and efficient of the distribution channel that used by the distribution member they should implement the distributors star rating system. Under this strategic approach the tourism organization can recognize which tour operator or travel agencies that perform well in generating sales and promoting the distribution member. With this the distribution member can rely only on the intermediaries that achieve the higher star rating.

The authors also acknowledged that in order ensuring the relationship between distribution member and the intermediaries, the distribution member should pay regular visits to the intermediaries such as travel agencies and tour operator in order to strengthen the bond giving the support between them. Therefore it ensure that the distribution member realize the issues that occur and can give consultation when dealing the encounter the problem rather than ignore their intermediaries.

Distribution member like hotel should implement the variety of promotions using the ICT to across the border of country because many consumers get the information about accommodation via internet. Social media sites are growing fast and being used to distribute the tourism product and services. In addition the most popular sites that addressing attention of consumer audiences are Facebook and Twitter. The distribution member should make used of the twitter to post special offer, information, suggestion, links and advices to the consumer. With this strategy it can increase the selling the product of the distribution member and delivery the information to the consumer.

With the emerging of the mobile technology it can play important role in distribution channel for tourism and travel industry. This is because many corporate travelers are likely to be carrying their mobile which is Smartphone that will enable them to gaining access information regarding visitor attractions, restaurant, transportation and accommodations. Therefore with existing of the mobile technology it allowed hotel to create mobile specifies sites with booking capabilities which create a new channel to distribution the product and services.

Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic Island, at a size of 3,667 square Kilometres and is located off the South-east coast of Spain. The islands coastline stretches for 550 km, and has a climate of hot summers and mild winters with average temperatures reaching 21 Celsius. Mallorcas current population is just over 790,000, and the official language is either Catalan or Spanish, although due to the increasing number of tourists many young Mallorcans can speak some English and German. Tourism in Mallorca began to grow rapidly in the 1950s, with 98,000 tourists visiting the island. By 1995 almost three million tourists had visited, and by 2001 more than 19,200,000 people had visited the island by air, with another 1.5 million visiting by sea. The main attractions to Mallorca for tourists are sandy beaches, the weather, tourist infrastructure and for some, the many clubs located on the island. In total there are three million beds available on the island, which is more than enough for three times the local population. Since this huge rise in the number of tourists, tourism has become the main form of income for Mallorcans and tourism accounts for 85% of the islands income (Jackson et al 1999). The summer months is the peak season for tourists visiting the island, while during the spring, winter and autumn it is cooler and cheaper. Normally the winter caters for those with second homes on the island, and also elderly holidays.

The consequences of mass, concentrated tourism in Mallorca has however led to many problems on the island. Tourists have a very negative impact on Mallorcas environment. On a field course to Mallorca in 2007, it discovered that at peak times of the year, 25 tons of sand is carried from Es Trenc beach by tourists in their towels, toes and shoes. Tourists also cause water shortages across through swimming pools, hotels and golf courses. Tourists also tend to shower a lot more often than the host population. This is very damaging for Mallorca as water then has to be shipped in from main land which can be very costly. Mallorca also has a lot of air pollution. Amazingly Mallorcans own the most number of cars per head in Europe. In CalviA alone there are eight hundred cars per thousand of the population. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), seventy million cars pass through CalviA each year. Fifty million of these are driven by tourists. Also of course there is the amount of litter that tourists leave behind which has a major impact on the environment and wild life.

However, the cost to Mallorcas environment has been blinded, at least until recently, by the great economic prosperity that tourism has brought to the island. Mallorcas economy is heavily reliant on tourism (85% of income).Tourism is an integrated and fragmented product, meaning that money from tourists goes directly to hotels, restaurants and shops. This expenditure coming from tourists can also have indirect benefits with improvements to infrastructure and community services (Mathieson et al 1992). This has been proved in Mallorca because Mallorcans enjoy some of the highest living standards in Spain. Tourism in Mallorca is also the main employer, and Mallorcas employment levels are very low because of the tourism industry and also the current housing and construction boom, to cater for more tourists. However, Mallorca has become far too reliant on tourism as its main source of income. Should the tourism industry for what ever reason collapse in Mallorca, then the economy could potentially be devastated. With the current financial crisis, tourism has already fallen by 15% ( Unger SalA?n 2009). Also with high seasonal variation, should a tourist business not be successful during the peak season (summer), then it will be very hard to survive financially through the winter months. The tourism boom in Mallorca has also led to a 30% increase in the price of land, partially due to homes being built with black money. This has forced many young Mallorcans to leave the island in search of affordable land to live on. This potentially has effects for the future of Mallorca as young people are seen as being initiative and are being forced off the island.

As you can see, past and even some present tourism practices are not sustainable in Mallorca. However, since the end of the 1980s to present the regional and national government policies have worked hard to try and make tourism in Mallorca more sustainable.

The WTO defines sustainable tourism as ?meeting the needs of present tourist and host regions while protecting and enhancing the opportunity for the future? (1992). Perhaps a definition of sustainable tourism more relevant to Mallorca would be ?Tourism should be sustained without having an effect on other activities within the area. It should not hog or displace the current economy but should complement and bolster it. It should help diversify the economy rather than replacing certain aspects of it?. Can Mallorca actually achieve sustainable tourism? Since the mid 1980s, and even more so during the 1990s, government policies have been trying to make tourism in Mallorca sustainable.

During the 1970s tourism in Mallorca was seen as a job creator, and the effects on the environment were ignored. The government first began to notice the problems associated with tourism during the recession in 1974. Visitor numbers were at their lowest levels since the Franco regime, and it began to show on the island (The Mallorca Tourist Board 2006). In 1983 the Balearics were given full autonomy to establish its own tourism policy, independent from Central Government in Spain. This was a major step on the road to sustainability as local government could be far more effective in distributing sustainable policies as they know what the most problematic areas are. Following autonomous government decrees came a series of policies to make Mallorca a more sustainable tourist destination. Work by Estaban Bardolet suggests that Mallorcas aims were to ?protect the environment, limit growth, improve quality of services, infrastructure and product?. These aims will be useful in order to find out how effective Mallorca has been about becoming more sustainable. To find out just how effective sustainable policy in Mallorca has been, the essay will be split into sub sections, firstly looking at ?environmental protection, then ?limiting growth and finally ?improving the quality of product.

Environmental Protection

The first law on protecting the environment came in 1984 with ?protecting natural areas of special interest, which limited tourism development and protected natural resources, and was followed by a law on ?territorial planning? in 1987. The 1987 law was very important, as it was the first law put into place that regulated the construction of hotels and other buildings, which in the past had been allowed to be built almost anywhere (Middleton et al 2001). Before this law was put into place, many new constructions were built on the beach front, which severely damaged the ecology of the sand dunes.

In 1988, a wetland area of approximately 2,580 ha with a perimeter of 32 km was been created at SAlbufera. It was created in to help preserve Mallorcas natural environment and animal habitats. Since then the area has been declared a ZEPA, Bird Special Protection Zone, a Biosphere and a Ramsar site. Tourists are attracted to the area to see the rare bird species, which is ironic because the area was created to stop the mass tourist development and conserve the environment in the area. This was one of the very first environmental policies introduced by local government in the Balearics, and was followed up in 1991 with the law on ?Natural Areas? which put 33% of territory in the Balearic Islands under protection. This law proved very significant as it prevented any construction on these areas of land, and therefore preventing further damage to the natural environment.

In 1997 the government expanded its 1987 policy on territorial planning to focus on more long term planning for all activities and to encourage higher quality tourism without depleting natural resources this came through work with Local Agenda 21, which will be discussed later using CalviA as an example. Also a ?Law of Rural Land? was passed which put a cap on the amount of tourist villas and second homes which were allowed to be developed in rural areas. However, there was no evidence to suggest that this law lessened construction of tourist homes in rural areas and there has also been an increase in the refurbishment of old farm houses, which has further weakened the presence of agriculture in rural areas of Mallorca.

In 2002, the Government of the Balearic Islands launched a tourist eco tax to help counteract the environmental problems caused by tourists. The tax amounted to an extra a‚¬1 per day, per adult (over 16) and would be collected by registered tourist accommodation (Middleton et al 2001). However the tax was abandoned in 2003 following a change in government. During its brief time the tax helped raise a‚¬25 million, which was used to help clean up Mallorcas environment (geographypages.co.uk). However the abolishment of the tax did show that the government were not fully committed to helping improve Mallorcas environment.

Limiting Growth

One of Mallorcas main problems as a tourist destination was its over crowdedness and frequently exceeding the carrying capacity. One of the first government policies to limit growth came in 1984 with ?Decree Cladera I. This policy demanded that 30mA? of land for individual tourist beds and that some of the land was to be used for leisure. (Batle et al 1999). Then in 1987 the ?Decree Cladera II expanded the required land to 60mA? and introduced a new minimum quality hotel standard. These policies were very successful as they limited the growth of cheap, poor quality hotels on the island. However, it can also be argued that this would simply cause a greater number of tourists to the island, because by the 1990s, people had more disposable incomes, and no longer had to look for cheap, poor quality accommodation whilst on holiday as they could now afford much better.

In 1997 the ?D? plan was introduced which highlighted the need to promote off peak tourism to the island. The Mallorcan government worked hard to advertise and promote off peak visits to the island to try and relieve some of the pressure during the summer months. The plan has been reasonably effective with more people, especially the elderly visiting the island during the winter months. However there is still far too much pressure on the islands resources during the summer to say this plan has been effective.

In 1999 the Balearics Government introduced a new Tourism Law which brought together previous legislative acts. The new law stopped bed capacity for all of the Balearic Islands (Middleton et al 2001). This is very important because by decreasing, or stopping increases in the amount of tourist beds, you effectively reduce tourism growth on the island. The new law also set about limiting further development in urban areas, except for all ready approved sites. The most important act to come from this new law was to make any construction closer than 500 meters of the sea shore forbidden (in 1988 the Spanish Government had previously set it at 100 meters) (Middleton et al 2001). This again was very important as the construction of hotels and other tourist buildings along the seashore had on the past been destroying the coast line. On a fieldtrip to Mallorca in 2007 an examination of how construction had affected the ecology of sand dunes at Es Trenc took place. The sand dunes examined were very unhealthy, due to the fact that a hotel had been built on it at

.

Improving quality of product

At the end of the 1980s began the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade. In 1988 the External Support Agencies (ESAs) Collaborative Council was established to help co-ordinate water sanitation. Following the establishment of this council the ?Global Sanitation Plan? was introduced in 1989 and was to be completed by 1997 at a cost of US$200 million (Bardolet). As a result new water sewage systems were built in Mallorca which helped keep the sea clean. The plan was very successful in keeping beaches clean as by the end of the 20th Century, fifty beaches in the Balearics had been awarded ?Blue Flag status. However the plan was not completely successful as there is a worry that the water table may have been contaminated by water that has not been recycled properly.

In 1990 a plan to ?embellish tourist resorts was introduced. Over US$100 million was invested to coastal areas to make walkways, lighting and green spaces along the seaside. The plan was very successful as it made coastal areas aesthetically very attractive to tourists. However, many local people living in the sea side areas dislike it as it has made seaside areas very urbanised.

In 1994 the Balearic Government introduced the Hotel Accomodation Modernisation plan. The plan stated that hotels built before 1984 were to be inspected and then renovated. The government set a deadline of completion of renovation by 1997. Any hotels which did not comply would be shut down, however by 1997 30% of hotels had not yet been finished so the deadline was extended to 1999 (Bardolet). The renovation work cost just under US$800 million. However this plan greatly improved Mallorcas tourist accommodation, as combined with other acts, the emphasis on accommodation was now on quality rather than quantity. In 1996 the ?Law on Modernisation of the Complementary Tourism Supply was introduced to run along side the previous plan of 1994 however this law was aimed at the catering sector. Again this improved the quality of product as it improved the standards of the catering industry, and there for improving the quality of experience for tourists.

Case study Calvi

CalviA has grown as a tourism resort since the 1960s and is now the second largest urban area in Mallorca after Palma. CalviA s economy is highly reliant on tourism, with 95% of jobs being tourist-related. Average family incomes are 130% the national average, and 105% the European average (United Nations publication 2003). However, years of mass growth has led to environmental damage, aging leisure facilities and poor quality services for tourists (AquilA? 2005). CalviA was becoming overcrowded with its population 3,000 to 40,000 inhabitants over a short period of time (CalviA Local Agenda 21). The first consequences of this were seen between 1988 and 1990 when tourism fell by 20%, CalviA was losing its competitiveness as a tourist resort.

CalviA had become unsustainable because damage caused to its natural environment, especially along coastal areas. The area suffered water shortages, air pollution and had problems with extensive amounts of rubbish. It also had very poor transportation links and lacked diverse employment opportunities as most of the population was employed in the tourism industry. However, biggest problem was tat CalviA had greatly exceeded its carrying capacity, and could no longer cope with the number of tourists visiting the area in the high season.

To reinstate CalviA as a major tourist destination in Mallorca, local councillors along with the Spanish Ministry for Tourism developed ?The CalviA Plan for Tourists Excellence? at the start of the early 1990s (CalviA Local Agenda 21; Bustamante 1999). The plan had three main points, clear buildings along coastal areas, promote off-peak tourist practices and to train the population in employment in the tourism industry. However the plan did have its limitations. It is argues that it did not look at the long term development of the area, and merely wanted to deal with trying to once again boost tourist areas. It was also not properly co-ordinated in terms of economic, social and environmental interaction.

The failure of ?CalviA Plan for Tourists Excellence? led to the adoption of CalviA Local Agenda 21, one of the main sustainable policy instruments to come from Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (AguilA? 2005). A strategy was put forward in 1996. The main aim of this policy was long term tourism .and local sustainable development with protecting and enhancing the environment being the main objective (Molz 2004). Ten action plans were devised, and forty initiatives were put into action. This approach meant a new integrated approach to tourism between local council, national council and Non Government Organisations NGOs working together to make CalviA a more sustainable destination. It also allowed for resident participation, one of the key features of sustainable development (Bell et al 1999).

The sustainable action plan through ?CalviA Local Agenda 21 has been very successful in making CalviA a more sustainable tourist resort and in attracting tourists back to the area. In 2000 1.6 million people visited CalviA , from which 86% came from abroad (CalviA Local Agenda 21).

Conclusion

In the Twenty First Century, Mallorca has developed itself into a high quality tourist resort, partly due to the efforts and policies put into place by the governments of the late 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, there were 180 hotels and agroturismos (transformed traditional Mallorcan fincas) had been built inland (Cox 2005). At first this may seem like a bad thing, as tourist developments are taking up even more land. However, this type of tourism accommodation is marketed to the eco-friendly tourist, who cares about their own impact on the tourist destination. This type of tourism is also of a very high quality, and also limits growth and overcrowding as the carrying capacity of these resorts is low. However, being so far inland the tourist is more likely to use a car to get to other areas because they are not in walking distance. This type of tourism is much more sustainable than the traditional sun, sea and sand holidays that had previously been associated with Mallorca.

Mallorca has now emerged as a high quality tourist destination, challenging the traditional views of a bargain holiday destination. Mallorca now boasts five-star resorts, luxury hotels and very high quality restaurants. The service industry has also gained from higher class tourism, especially catering. In 2006 Mallorca had six Michelin- starred restaurants (businessweek.com 2006).

However, Mallorca still suffers from the stereotypical idea that the island is a cheap holiday destination offering beaches and cheap drink. Some government policies such as the eco-tax have failed, while others have not done enough to tackle problems such as the environmental damage caused by years of irresponsible tourist development plans. Some policies and work from groups in the 1990s have helped Mallorca become aware that tourist practices can not continue. However, there is still much work to be done in order to make Mallorca a fully sustainable holiday destination.