Tourism Management Principles - Assignment Example

?Tourism Management Week 5 Assignment Chapter 12 2. When a gorgeous new hotel is opened for business, are the attractive physical facilities more important than the quality and training of the staff? Answer: The quality and training of the staff will always be more important than the physical facilities. While the facilities should be at the top of their possible tier, the quality of the service, which is provided by the staff, is the central and key issue to most people who travel. The room should be comfortable, but if the staff doesn’t clean it correctly, the individual will be dissatisfied. If the front desk doesn’t respond pleasantly and efficiently to the needs of the traveler, this also will leave a bad impression. How a guest is treated is more important than the looks of an establishment, which does not diminish the need for a beautiful venue. It just means that beyond that beauty should be substance, which is represented by the quality of the staff. 3. As a resort hotel manager, do you believe your guests need to be educated about environmental protection? Do you need to educate your staff? Answer: Because of the new trends in green tourism, the staff definitely needs to be fully informed on all the ways that the hotel is implanting green policies in order to leave a smaller eco footprint. The staff should also be prepared to answer questions concerning ways in which the guests might take issue with one policy or procedure or another which does consume more than what might be desired. The guests should see literature in their rooms and at the front desk that shows what measures have been taken in order to lower the rate of consumption by the hotel. This type of information is both instructive and develops good relationships between the hotel and the guests. The information, however, should also be subtle because those who are at the resort are there to experience a sense of luxury. A good balance between maintaining the appearance of excess, while also showing responsibility, will provide for the best possible outcome regarding this issue. 5. For new developments, should the access roads be supplied by a government agency, the developer, or both? If both, who should supply what? Answer: Access roads to a new development are supplied by the government as the building of new commerce is considered to be a benefit to the city. Negotiations between the government and the developer will often allow for other considerations as well, but the access roads, as they are connected to the main roadways, are the responsibility of the government agency who is in control of road development within that specific area, whether it be city, county, state, or federal. 8. The sports director of a large resort hotel has been instructed to upgrade the hotel's physical fitness program. Provide some suggestions as to how this might be done. Answer: When approaching physical fitness within a resort hotel environment, conservative is the best approach because of the liability risk involved in active participation. Low impact, high result physical activity is the best method so that guests are attracted to the hotel, but are not in danger of physical injury. Although all physical fitness has some risk, making sure that staff is fully prepared to help guests and that any activity that is programmed has fully certified instructors is the best possible mitigation to risk. The second element of reconstructing a physical fitness program is in looking at the current trends and selecting those trends that reflect safe use, but also are exciting to the guest. Dance routine type programs, such as Zumba, an exercise program which incorporates salsa dance, provide an environment of fitness while supporting something that is relatively safe. Being current while mitigating risk factors is the key to any new physical fitness program in a resort environment as it is likely some guests who participate will have not had much previous physical activity in their background. Therefore, the third element is making sure the program is personal and that attention is given to a questionnaire that informs the staff of the guests limitations and experience, while supporting a fun environment. 9. Is changing the prices of hotel rooms, meals, and entertainment the best way to mitigate fluctuating levels of demand? Are there nonprice methods? Could combinations of methods be used? Answer: Price fluctuations are one way to change the average occupancy, but it will also affect the ADR. Therefore, price is a good way to mitigate the effects of levels of demand, but should also be combined with other attractions to the hotel. Increasing demand through widening attraction to the hotel is a way to promote increased stays. Looking at collaboration with other local venues, conventions, and upcoming events can be successful ways of increasing demand through actively pursuing new and innovative methods of advertising and attraction. Offering more to the guest and adding value to the price, rather than lowering the price is also an effective method of attracting stays. Chapter 13 1. Why are demand data so important? Give examples. By whom are demand data used? Answer: Demand data is vital in the hotel industry as this allows for the members of the industry to understand their market. The data is used by everyone in the industry who is concerned with room night stays, starting at the top level as it reflects a global set of data, down to the individual front desk associates as they calculate how to shift the daily rates. Demand data provides insight into market share analysis that can help corporations improve their share in the market by seeing where others are doing well, in comparison to how they might improve their own standings. Managers can see how they compare to other local competitors in order to take best advantage of upcoming opportunities. The data is the key to understanding how one sits within the competitive market. 2. Explain why resistance to make a trip is inversely related to demand. Are there situations with which you are familiar? Explain. Answer: According to Goeldner and Ritchie (2009), demand is equal to the propensity and the resistance to a trip by the equation D= f(propensity, resistance). Resistance is in direct relationship to the attraction that a destination will hold. The propensity to travel is about the willingness and the resistance is about the assessment that an individual will have about how hard it is to go in contrast to how attractive it is to get there. An example might be Disneyworld. Disneyworld exists on the farthest southern tip of the United States and is not centrally located. It is also a good distance from all of the other continents and there are Disney theme parks positioned around the world. However, Disneyworld is unique in its size and offerings, thus it attracts a great deal of tourism, beyond that of other locations. Thus, the resistance is mitigated by the attractiveness of the venue. 3. Describe in detail the three factors that determine propensity to travel. Create an example using all three of these major elements. Answer: The three determinations that are defined by a propensity to travel are willingness to travel, the socioeconomic status of an individual, and the motivation for travel. Once again, using the Disneyworld example, a person must be willing to get on an airplane (when distance is long) or drive in the car to take the time to get there, have the financial resources with which to afford the experience, and be motivated by a desire to see and participate in the experience. Another example is something less recreational, but perhaps like a family funeral. One must be willing to go, have the money to travel to go, and be motivated by a need to pay their respects in person. 6. A state tourism director wants to convince the legislature to increase the promotion budget for the next fiscal year. What measure of demand should be used? How might these data be obtained? Answer: In order to measure demand in relationship to increasing promotional budgets, the measure of resistance as it relates to attractiveness should be measured. This can be found through marketing research that assesses the way the public perceives an area and how those perceptions can be changed. In examining resistance, ways to overcome resistance can be discovered. 9. How valuable is trend analysis? Answer: Trend analysis is valuable because of its simplicity in showing historical demand, but is limited in providing an explanation for that data. Therefore, it has limited value when examining the demand of an industry. Trend only shows what has happened, it doesn’t give a basis for understanding why so therefore does not do much to give an answer to how to change trends. Chapter 14 1. What is meant by optimization? Answer: Tourism optimization takes into consideration all levels of advantages that can be exploited, including economic, marketing opportunities, environmental sustainability, experiential, and sociocultural factors while looking at elements that will sustain the tourism through integration of factors. 2. Discuss how an airline executive might use tourism economics relating to passenger load-factors, ticket prices, discounts, frequent-flyer programs, joint fares, and flight frequencies. Answer: These factors can be used to calculate how to best assess the industry and take advantage of profit opportunities in order to maximize the potentials involved. Through these factors, the executive can make calculated determinations about demand that can affect the way in which prices can be manipulated to best express the use of demand. These factors can also bare out weaknesses that can be bolstered by countermeasures to increase the market share where deficits are realized. 3. Selecting one form of public transportation, enumerate the economic constraints that affect this business. Answer: Air travel is affected by socioeconomic statuses of the nation, by fuel prices, by tourism trends, deregulation, by seat prices which affect seat sales, and through the basic issue of human nature as it affects the desire to use air transport. 4. A full-service restaurant is considering having an elaborate buffet dinner three nights a week. What constraints are likely to bear on this consideration? Answer: The first consideration will be in food waste. If enough people do not come to the restaurant, then the waste in food might negate the profit. If not enough food is made, then people will not return as they were not satisfied with the fare. The amount of labor needed to service the buffet will be an issue, as will the advertising involved in bringing in enough people to create a profitable venture. 10. Why is a tourism satellite account considered to be the best way to measure tourism's impact on the economy? Answer: The TSA allows for an understanding to be calculated of the macroeconomic aggregates which describe the distributions of tourism in a nation. The TSA provides data on demand and on tourism consumption which are also then linked to other aspects of the economy. As a statistical instrument, the TSA provides information on tax revenue created by tourism, on employment and economic impact on local populations, contributions to the gross national product by tourism, the amount invested into the tourism industry, as well as an overall picture of how tourism fits into the economic balance of a region. Resources Goeldner, C. R., & Ritchie, J. R. B. (2009). Tourism: Principles, practices, philosophies. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley. Read More