The Worlds Leading Hotel Manager - Essay Example

The rate of growth within the hotels and motels industry has been described as a generally promising one (Accor, 2013). As exhibited in figure 1, from 2009, the industry has recorded an increase in industry value. The recorded growth notwithstanding, Hospitality Net (2012) lamented that the overall growth has been saturated around very few competitors. This means that until an individual company within the industry performs extraordinarily well, it would find itself within a growing industry but will not really be part of this growth.

  This is the reason it is extremely important and relevant that the current research is being undertaken with the aim of analyzing the strategic competitiveness of Accor. The selection of Accor is also of interest because it is considered one of the leading contributors to the industry’s growth (Accor, 2013). It is therefore important to study the company so as to find ways in which the company can maintain its current competitive position within the industry. Accor is headquartered in Paris and a member of the Paris stock exchange with an operating ticker of AC.

  Due to its key financials, Accor is regarded as a major global hotel operator (Hotelier News, 2014). Among the 92 countries in which Accor operates, Europe is its largest market with nearly 3,576 hotels and 461,719 rooms in Europe alone (MarketLine, 2014). The target markets of Accor have been largely influenced by its two major segments which are hotels and other businesses. Under the hotel segment, there are targets with luxury, upscale, mid-scale, and economy target markets. As far as other businesses segment is concerned, there are target markets for corporate departments and casinos (MarketLine, 2014).

  Table 1 gives the key financials of the company from 2009 to 2013. When the key financials of Accor is graphically represented, it is possible to get the real impulse of why it is important for the project to be carried out. This is because the graph in figure 2 shows that the company’s financial performance has been generally mixed and volatile, threatening the company of losing its place in the competitive global marketplace to its competitors.