Airport and Airline Management: Tourism Policy and Strategy - Assignment Example

Tourism/Aviation Policy & Strategy Task Tourism policy can be conceptualised as an integrated set of components. The first step in this process is to understand what you can do and what is legally, ethically and politically acceptable (the developmental philosophy). To this end, what underlying philosophies have influenced this policy and how? Identify five here. Five development philosophies that commonly influence the conceptualisation of tourism policies include: Provision of Resources and Extra Capacity: This policy was reflected in the government’s policy on aviation released in 2003. It was established that in a situation where extra resources and capacity are not allocated could be extremely damaging to the industry. The effect of this is that the aviation sector, including the Manchester Airport has been transformed a globalised centre where several airports now depend for transit purposes. Pricing: Pricing has been used as a policy where affordability has been a central philosophy and theme. This is because modern research has shown that most tourism companies are using pricing to be competitive advantage over other companies. This means that pricing should be structured in a way that does not put a lot of burden on customers. Product and Service Accessibility: Goeldner and Brent (2007) advocate the need for products to be accessible to consumers. A major policy was designed by Manchester Airport to make product and services more accessible to customers. This policy was implemented through the creation of online outlets and expanding sales point. This has affected the company positively via the increment in ticket sales and by extension the increment of revenue for the company. Company Imaging: The company has adopted a policy of creating very good public image for itself. This was done through effective customer care and social services development (Ahn, 2009). Such images help in attracting more clients. It is not for nothing that the Manchester airport is considered one of the best standing companies in the UK as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. Human Resource Expansion: The company embarked on massive human resource expansion to meet growing global demand. The effect of this has been mixed as it has increased the company’s expenditure greatly. It has at the same time made access to company businesses faster and easier. Task 2 From an understanding of the socio-economic and political parameters that influence a piece of policy it is possible to come up with a vision. With reference to the literature identify what is visioning? Provide an example of a vision statement from your policy document. (Note it may be necessary to read between the lines if this is not immediately obvious.) Why is it necessary to undertake such an exercise? Visioning is the practice of forecasting what the company wants to achieve in the nearest or long term future (Tyra, 2009 p.23). An example with the Manchester Airport is state as “to be simply better in all that we do, and to be internationally recognized as one of the leading 21st century airports.” This vision encompasses both socio-economic and political parameters in that it takes a huge economic responsibility on the company to achieve this goal. Politically, policies on taxation and other government influenced decisions would determine whether or not the vision will be attained. Task 3 Any vision will always be influenced by the mission statement of the company or organisation responsible for formulating that policy. Identify the mission statement of this company/organisation. Most mission statements target customers. For the Manchester Airport, their mission statement is quoted as “to make your journey as smooth and simple as possible” (Manchester Airport, 2012) Task 4 Any policy will include a statement of what it hopes to achieve i.e. its aims. Outline any five policy aims taken directly from your policy document. Policy aims are set to govern mission statements and especially vision statements (Strong, 2005, p. 122). This means that the policy aims need to be achieved one after the other before the vision of the policy can be said to have been achieved. The policy aims of the Manchester Airport can therefore be quoted directly as follows: 1. To set out the challenges and opportunities for the Airport over the next 25 years. 2. To inform the plans and strategies of others, especially regional economic, transport and spatial strategies. 3. To provide information on the likely physical development of the Airport site and the land required for that development. 4. To provide the basis for discussion with our customers. 5. To provide a framework for managing the positive and negative effects of the Airport’s growth and spreading the economic benefits (Manchester Airport Master Plan 2030, p.9) Task 5 How will these aims be operationalised? i.e. put into practice. (Note one sentence is all that is needed here) The aims shall be operationalised through the setting up of a strategic policy team who would ensure that the major aims of the policy are delivered through a systematic framework that is not only governed by the company’s policy document but also in relation to the UK Government’s published first national policy for aviation in over 30 years (Manchester Airport Policy Document, p. 15). Task 6 Outline five demand and five supply orientated strategies found in your policy document. Demand Strategies 1. Minimising pollution: The Company has strategized to respond to the demand on industries to protect the environment through the reduction in activities that increase pollution. This will be done by adhering to fuel combustion policies. (Manchester Airport Master Plan 2030, p. 68) 2. Acquisition of new air plans: Due to increasing demands by the growing business orientation of Manchester, the company has it as part of its strategies to acquire new airplanes to meet demand on flights squarely. This will be achieved through the merger with other smaller companies where purchases will be made and paid over a long period of time. 3. Protection of Cultural Asset: Due to the demand and need for the preservation of cultural sovereignty, the company has pencilled the need to protect the cultural asset and cultural diversity of all stakeholders, particular, customer. (Manchester Airport Master Plan 2030, p.41) 4. Competitive aeronautical charges: The company strategizes to have competitive aeronautical charges so that this shall be used as a major competitive advantage over other industry players (Manchester Airport Master Plan 2030, p.32). 5. Improved customer services: The demand from customers has grown over the years because of improved services in the total airline service given to them. The company will institutionalise a 24/7 online customer service that will attend to all needs of customers. There shall also be Manchester Airport Customer Centre outlets in all districts with booking centres. Supply strategies 1. Benchmarking performance against other airports: The airport seeks to become a benchmark in terms of performance so that the performance of other airlines will be measured with that of Manchester Airport (Manchester Airport Policy Document 2030, p. 42) 2. Development of scheduled services: It is a strategy to develop the scheduled services delivered by the company so that supply of air flight services can reach even more people. 3. External quality assurance program: In order that the supply of products and services meet the standards set by global aviation bodies and that of government, the airport has strategized to use external quality assurance programs to assess its performance to customer. 4. Accessibility to tickets and other products: The Company shall base on new technology to increase the supply of tickets and other products to customers. This will be done through the use of online ticketing and procurement systems (Manchester Airport Policy Document 2030, p. 9) 5. Massive merger: One identified strategy for growth has been to merger with smaller airlines in developing countries so that there will be the acquisition of share from these airlines. Task 7 Clearly some ‘entity’ (i.e. body or organisation) must be designated with the responsibility for writing, co-ordinating and implementing any policy document. In the case of this policy, who has such responsibility? The Manchester Airport commissioned the Master Plan consultation team of the company to take of drafting the policy. These were made up of professional from different quarters and departments of the company. The balance was necessary to ensure that the needs of all departments were catered for. They first conducted a 3 year research on what the needs of the company should be in the long term future. They then designed the draft, which was made public. Public input to the draft was permitted. Then the inputs were factored into coming out with the master policy. (Manchester Airport Policy Document 2030, p. 6) Task 8 Finally we used the term stakeholder for any person who seeks to influence the policy making process. Give some examples of the stakeholders who influenced this policy document. How were they involved? (How did they get their views across?) Were they successful in influencing policy decisions? Again it will be necessary to engage with the wider literature here to fully answer this question. The group chief executive of Manchester Airport, Geoff Muirhead CBE identifies the stakeholders of the airport as customers, financial engineers, expert consultants, quality assurance officers, security experts, staff, neighbours and government. In simple words, stakeholders played roles by putting forward their inputs to the draft that was designed by the consultation team. The company boasts that the final masterpiece can be compared to the draft to see that the inputs of stakeholders were indeed involved and factored into the final document. Government played special role because the basis of the current document was based on the government’s own 30 year strategic plan for the aviation sector. REFERENCE LIST Gleeson A. 2012, Mission Statement. B Plans Company. [Online] http://articles.bplans.co.uk/writing-a-business-plan/mission-statement/367 [Accessed March 9, 2012] Strong R. A. F. 2005. Structures of corporate Business Practice. Ontario: Elementary Press Limited Manchester Airport. Manchester Airport Master Plan to 2030. Manchester Tyra T. S. 2009. The Basis of Company Law and Structure. London: Omega Press Limited Goeldner and Brent, 2007, Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies. New York City: John Wiley and Sons Manchester Airport, 2012, Frequently Asked Questions, [Online] http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/FAQs?OpenDocument&QUERY=Most-Popular [Accessed March 8, 2012] Ahn, 2009, A Philosophy of Tourism and its Policy. Annals of Tourism Research, A Social Science Journal. [Online] http://www.scitopics.com/A_Philosophy_of_Tourism_and_its_Policy.html [Accessed March 8, 2012] Mark Allocation In planning your time you might find it useful to consult the following table. This outlines the allocation of marks attached to each element of this assessment. Obviously spend the most time on those questions with the greatest number of marks. Task 1 10 marks Task 2 5 marks Task 3 2 marks Task 4 5 marks Task 5 1 mark Task 6 10 marks Task 7 7 marks Task 8 10 marks Total 50 marks Paul Fidgeon (H328) February 2012 Read More