Ayers Rock Resort: Organizational Audit and Recommendations Over Issues at Stake in Tourism - Book Report/Review Example

Organizational Audit and Recommendations over Issues at Stake in Tourism and Hospitality – A Case Study of Ayers Rock Resort Issues at stake in tourism and hospitality industry of Australia need to be tackled individually by operating tourist companies, as the level of competition has been increasing irrespective of the after-effects of global financial crisis. Globalization has spurred the tourist destinations’ business prospects. Also most of the industries and economies worldwide have come out of the recession of 2008. Companies are following international standards of business operations, based on ethical practices of conducting business to remain in competition. Various tourism issues discussed in three options need to be analyzed by conducting a case study. Therefore, a tourism company named, Voyages Ayers Rock Resort, an SME company has been selected to conduct an audit of its operations to relate the issues at hand, discussed in various options. It is not necessary that a real tourism company faces all the issues, discussed previously in three options, but the problem may be present in less severity. As stated by Nestle (p. 32), that companies are using various strategies to remain in the market, facing these issues earnestly for resolving them is in itself a strategy that can help a tourist operator company to attract more visitors relatively to the competitor organizations. Company Introduction Ayers Rock Resort is a leading tourist attraction, managed by Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia. It is an associate concern of the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC), which has been acquired by Wana Ungkunytja in 2011, to cater to the interests of nearby communities of Mutijulu, Imanpa and Docker River. Voyages manages various ILC resorts. Voyages has been deeply tied to its social responsibility aims of helping indigenous people by providing them training to get work through its tourist attractions across Australia. Ayers Rock Resort is not the only tourist attraction managed by Voyages. Other than Ayers Rock Resort for offering experience-centered holidays in ecstatic wild locations, it manages Longitude 131° in the iconic Red Centre, Home Valley Station in the Kimberley area of Western Australia, and tourism locations at Mossman Gorge in Tropical Queensland. Highly dedicated to its lofty corporate social ideal, all earning from tourism business are invested on providing training and jobs to indigenous people all over Australia . Option A Ethical adherence has been the most dynamic tool of Ayers Rock Resort. The company is totally dedicated to raise the social, economic, and cultural growth of the aboriginal communities, it has been operating along with. Ayers Rock Resort -- Company Ethics – Corporate social Responsibility Ethics is very dear to Ayers Rock. It highly believes in ethical principles of serving aboriginal community. That’s why it has completed a number of welfare projects and also launched some new community projects. It is worth mentioning how and at what scale, Ayers Rock has been fulfilling its ethical responsibility. Elderly respite care centre at Mutitjulu Community In September 2007, an elderly respite care center was built at Mutitjulu Community, which is the first of its kind project, dedicated to the Mutitjulu Foundation. The community was zeroed-in after wide discussion for benefits to the senior members. The respite centre is the outcome of a total shift from earlier facilities by building new structures with added amenities. The ethical aim of this respite facility is to provide support to the elder members of the Mutitjulu community by helping them with their routine needs, nutritious diet, and ensuring their participation in such activities as arts, crafts and games, besides providing the senior members of the community a safe place to live-in. The elderly respite centre is looked after by Frontier Services, a national organization of the Uniting Church, which shoulders the responsibility for community services in far-fling locations of Australia. The construction cost of the center was near about $400,000, co-funded by the Mutitjulu Foundation while getting huge funding also from the Federal Department of Health and Ageing. Community Recreation Hall The list of Ayers Rock ethical initiatives in collaboration is long to include in 2011, the rebuilding of a community recreation hall by the Mutitjulu Foundation, while other contributors included the parent group GPT, the Central Land Council, and Federal Government. Amenities include a hall with kitchen and dining area, a training area, and an area for womens enterprises, a part reserved for genealogy research and an office for Youth Worker. Outdoors include a protected basketball court for sport and recreation. Part sponsorship of a book promoting the Tjanpi Desert Weavers [2012] As the parent body, ILC, is totally dedicated to the aboriginal welfare cause in varied aspects, the Mutitjulu Foundation has come forward to back financially the publication of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers book, which includes stories and first-hand experiences from leading women weavers of the aboriginal community. The ethical role-play has been at the forefront of all initiatives. The publication support to this book fulfills that aim of exhibiting weaving patterns and history of the weaving art. Mutitjulu Community Carnival - Celebrating 30 years Solid Rock In October 2012, the Mutitjulu Foundation provided financial assistance for the 30th anniversary celebration of Solid Rock the Mutitjulu Community Carnival - A Family Celebration of Culture, Sports, Music and Dance. Various arts were performed under the initiative of the Mutitjulu Community, jointly with Goanna Arts and Eudoxus Arts. Such celebrations serve two-fold purpose, the second one being entertaining the visitors of Ayers Rock by providing them a comprehensive community celebration view. Other projects supported by the Foundation across the years include refurbishing of the youth recreation centre at Mutitjulu Community; fulfilling the academic-related needs of the Mutitjulu Primary School; offering sponsorship to 20 community members to participate the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land to gain insight over eco-tourism; facilitating Imanpa rangers’ participation in the Land Management Conference in Africa to help them in Land Management and tourism at Angus Downs Indigenous Protected Area; fund raising assistance for Kids-to-Coast program for Mutitjulu children; and starting of the Strong Women - Health & Culture project by taking 45 women from Docker River and Mutitjulu and APY lands Communities to Alice Springs for breast check-up and performing at Mbantua festival . Globalization Globalization of businesses has heightened the level of competition in tourism business, as tourism companies are offering innovation in their product and services to make their destinations appealing to attract more global visitors. This has increased the rush of visitors to tourist attractions of interest. Australia is full of natural beauty. Globally, visitors flock to Australian tourist destinations. It heightens the business possibilities of tourism SMEs, especially when recession worldwide has receded back. At micro level, one can see that Australian tourism companies have also come out of that crisis like other industries. Outsourcing Outsourcing is not yet an issue of concern for a tourism company of SME ranking, such as Ayers Rock Resort. It needs not depend on outsourcing of services to emerging and competitive locations, as it highly depends on aboriginal community for working at the resort location. Option B Labor and Skill Shortage At national level, tourism industry might be facing labor and skill shortage, but Ayers Rock Resort has been managing these issues strategically well. It has been following a policy of training indigenous people for its hiring needs. The most remarkable accomplishment of Ayers Rock has been providing training and jobs to 220 indigenous people through its highly successful training programs across Australia. The company is already ahead of its future target of providing jobs to 500 indigenous people by 2015, which it seems to be sure of attaining (ATEC Media Release, “Ayers Rock Decision puts Icon at Risk,” 1). The result of training has been excellent; indigenous employees have shown high standards and professional behavior at par with global parameters. The Ayers Rock Resort has been once again at its best in service offering to the visitors. It is in the larger interests for the Northern Territory and for Australia that the Resort has succeeded in attaining its track of providing globally standardized services and cherished moments to the visitors (ATEC Media Release, “Ayers Rock Decision puts Icon at Risk,” 1). Global Financial Crisis The global financial crisis happened due to the financial deregulation by banking companies but by now its after-effects have disappeared, bringing global businesses to normalcy. In the after affects of global downturn, almost all industries felt the jerk but only selected tourism businesses gained in asset value and earning potential because of adopting a long-term perspective and are in a better position to leverage from the upturn, as is Ayers Rock Resort. But at a time when tourism business is showing positive vibes of growth in job market for indigenous people, the decision of the ILC Chairman to dismiss the Voyages Board, resulting in the resignation of the Managing Director, is a wrong move in the interests of indigenous people for providing them sustainable job opportunities in the tourism business, especially when tourism business is recuperating from economic downturn (ATEC Media Release, “Ayers Rock Decision puts Icon at Risk,” 1). When it comes to emerging hospitality business issues related to shortage of skilled and unskilled staff, experience of Ayers Rock Resort is very encouraging, as the very purpose of its mission is to provide training to the local communities so that they might be offered employment in different tourist operations managed by it. In 2012-13, the Ayers Rock Resort offered jobs to 167 Indigenous people and roped in additionally 16 Indigenous contractors. 146 Indigenous people were provided training. At Home Valley Station, 12 Indigenous people were given jobs, while 17 Indigenous people were given training. Another tourism destination, Mossman Gorge Centre, offered jobs to 71 Indigenous people, additionally 3 contracts were given to indigenous people, while 15 Indigenous people were provided job training . Thus, it can be stated that Ayers Rock has never faced any staff shortage related issues. On the contrary, it has created job opportunities for the local people to work in the resorts managed by Voyages at different tourist destinations. It has been a strategic move that benefitted the mission of the company and at the same time, it could save from the risks of labor shortage, shortage of skilled staff, and played its positive role and contribution for the welfare of indigenous communities with dexterity (ILC Annual Report 149). Workplace environment has been one of the priority initiatives of the parent company, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia Pty Ltd. All measures taken to ensure secure and healthy work conditions were taken during 2012-13, which included the Ayers Rock also for: Enforcing of a Alcohol and Other Drugs’ Policy; Swift Water rescue training provided to the staff at Mossman Gorge; Regular training conducted on Equal Employment Opportunity policies; Regular audits and checking at Ayers Rock Resort by Group Work Health and Safety Manager; Audit and checking of Home Valley Station and Mossman Gorge by Group Work Health and Safety Manager; Mental Health First Aid training conducted at Ayers Rock Resort; Concurrent training of Fire Wardens; and Application of online system for registering happenings and accidents. Changes in Australian Demographics Any change in Australian demographics, as is feared by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005) is going to affect the least on the labor and expertise of Ayers Rock employees. It is increasingly becoming dependent for its human resource needs on the aboriginal communities, it is operating along with. To counter the negative effects of aging population for working in resorts (Costello, 2002), Ayers Rock initiative of providing training and jobs to aboriginals is highly appreciable and also enough to resolve the demographic issues of shortage of staff in future times. When global financial crisis was at its peak, job crisis became severe; people were out of jobs but Australian demographic issue at macro level still requires urgent attention, irrespective of micro-level issue management by Ayers Rock Resort. Option C Deregulation Deregulation is very significant in the wake of an audit of the tourism business extensively by the federal government, as industry needs government support due to bearing the impact of global financial crisis also. As stated by Cummins, Ben and Frances (P. 37), regulation can hamper the growth of a specific industry. In this context, government auditing and non-provision of financial funding can hamper the tourism industry’s growth. Australian Tourism Export Council’s (ATEC 1) has criticized such a move by the government agencies in its media release, as an audit of the Australian tourism industry could put at risk the tourism industry stakeholders’ interests. Any reduction in the funding to the tourism business can take it 30 years back, putting at great risk the growth of this $29 billion business. According to ATEC Managing Director, Peter Shelley, “These recommendations are simply ludicrous and fail to recognize the significant gain the Australian economy makes from a small investment in tourism marketing abroad.” Tourism business generates huge employment opportunities, as more than half a million people are working and earning near to $30 billion for the economy. Any lacking in the industry’s funding would be like compromising with the future growth of this export-revenue earning business. Visitors come to Australia from across the world because of its popular destinations. Therefore, any such funding reduction to the tourism industry by the government would be a risky proposition (ATEC, “Audit Recommendations would Jeopardize Australia’s Tourism Industry,” 1). Such regulatory enforcement, therefore, is against the interests of Ayers Rock Resort also, as it is spending huge earning on the welfare schemes of aboriginals. Operations of Ayers Rock Resort are in jeopardy because of the emerging risks from the lack of funds, if such a decision is taken, primarily because of huge employment opportunities created by tourism promotion. People at the management helm of Voyages’ operations are very experienced in the Asia Pacific region. Although certain measures have hampered the growth of tourism, such as three years’ control to visits of regional and far-away areas, and visible cut down of airline services, but amidst all these roadblocks, Voyages has been achieving its targets. In this context, remarks by Dawn Casey, Chairman of the Indigenous Land Corporation, are harming to the company operations. Further, his sacking of the Voyages Board can turn the table against the company’s long-term mission and interests of the local communities, getting employment from indigenous tourism business. The Ayers Rock Resort has been doing great business; it has regained hold over increasingly profiting business like corporate meetings, expanded hugely in events holding, and has been operating with the nearby Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park to attract more visitors to spend long time, thus, turning an under-operating business to its optimum level of operations. Regulatory Compliance The parent company Voyages has been keen on providing concurrently robust focus on WHS training. A great part of the training is offered through inside managers with assistance from outside providers roped in to offer certified training to the workforce. Workforce safety has been the leading aim of WHS safety committees for all dedicated tourist areas and right analysis and reaction to happening, almost avoided hazards and presenting of hazard reports (ILC Annual Report 149). As Ayers Rock is a constituent of Voyages, the year 2012-13 saw nine incidents that had to be notified under Part 3 of the WHS Act. These incidents were inspected by the Northern Territory Work-safe regulator. The regulating agency had not commented adversely on the measures taken by Voyages. No notice was served by the regulator under Part 10 of the WHS Act (ILC Annual Report 149). Happenings notified to WNS are presented in Figure 12 and types of incident in Figure 13 below. Thus, it shows that the parent company is very keen to ensure the safety of employees and the environmental safety equally critical. Hence, Ayers Rock Resort is not an exception to the enforcement of regulations and certifications to meet the global standards in servicing of customers in tourism industry. Concerns raised by Mary (32) regarding illegal business operations being conducted by drug mafia also stress on the need of positive regulation control and check to discourage such elements and provide a socially clean environment to visitors at Ayers Rock Resort. Environmental sustainability and Management Environmental sustainability and management has been central to the ILC; it has been examining and reporting over its associate companies’ environmental performance with the help of statistical indicators and taking steps on the lines stipulated in the Global Reporting Initiative’s reporting mechanism, a popular sustainability reporting mechanism. These indicators match with the ESD reporting of Commonwealth agencies under the EPBC Act. The reporting is limited to the usage of energy, which includes business trips by cabs, taxis and aircraft, water usage and paper use by the ILC’s offices and staff in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra (ILC Annual Report 151). Internet and customer driven technology Internet and customer-driven technology provide cutting edge, especially in tourism industry. Ayers Rock is very keen to train its aboriginal staff to follow system based operational processes. The Company has huge presence on the internet and is highly focused to satisfy customers through networking through Facebook and Twitter. The company website is highly interactive and enabled for selecting various packages, products and services through online medium. Visitors to Ayers Rock Resort’s website find encouraging information about its mission of spending funds for the welfare of adjacent aboriginal communities. Thus, technology offers the essential leverage to attract visitors to Ayers Rock Resort . Regulation and Environmental Sustainability When it comes to the issue related to regulation in the context of environment management and sustainability, Voyages’ Ayers Rock Resort recognizes the need to certify eco-tourism for promoting nature tourism, ecotourism destinations, and advanced ecotourism. Tour operators need to adhere to best practices for using natural resources in such a way that helps in both conservation and local people. The procedure of getting Ecotourism certification is comprehensive. Operators must exhibit higher levels of performance. Standards go on improving for environmental best practices, making the EcoCertification tool, to issue strict guidelines for attaining better than before performance levels. In this regard, the Ayers Rock Resort and Longitude 131° have attained Ecotourism ranking, which is being raised to concurrent standards. Home Valley Station has attained Advanced Ecotourism ranking for rooms . Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia works in close cooperation of its supply chain partners to ensure the positive value of suppliers in ensuring that environmental and ethical impacts remain under control across the supply chain . Particularly in the area of environment sustainability, Ayers Rock is dedicated to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. Various initiatives related to energy conservation include a cut down in electricity usage and LPG usage. Waste control methods are employed to minimize disposal to landfill. Attention is focused to efficiently look after water resources and securing native flora and fauna . Works Cited Annual Report 2012-13. “Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia Director’s Report.” Management Accountability. 19 May 2014. . ATEC Media Release. “Ayers Rock Decision Puts Icon at Risk.” 19 May 2014. . ATEC Media Release. “Audit Recommendations Would Jeopardise Australia’s Tourism Industry.” 19 May 2014. . Australian Government Indigenous Land Corporation. “Tourism Business.” Indigenous Land Corporation. 19 May 2014. . Australian Bureau of Statistics. “Australian Social Trends 2005.” Commonwealth of Australia: Canberra. 2005. Print. Cummins, Ronnie, Ben Lilliston and Frances Moore Lappe. Tourism business strategies: A Self-Defense Guide for tourists. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004: 36-38. Print. Costello, P. “Part II: Australian’s long-term demographic and economic prospects.” Commonwealth of Australia. 2002. Print. Mary, Posey. "Emerging issues in tourism and hospitality." The advanced Journal of Tourism (2007). Print. Nestle, Marion. "Emerging issues in tourism and hospitality." The New England Journal of Tourism (2002). Print. Voyagers Ayers Rock Resort. 1999. Voyages. 19 May 2014. Voyages. “Corporate Frequently Asked Questions.” 19 May 2014. . Voyages. “Corporate Supply Chain Management.” 19 May 2014. . Voyages. “Corporate Ecotourism Certification.” 19 May 2014. . Voyages. “Corporate Case Study: Mutitjulu Foundation.” 19 May 2014. . Read More