Destination Marketing and Sydney - Literature review Example

Problem ment: The Westin Hotel and resort is stationed in Sydney and is a major part of the Starwood Hotel and Resort. It is a very small distance away from famous tourist attractions in Sydney such as Darling Harbou, Sydney Opera House and the Opera Bridge. It has associates which are available at all times to assist their customers in every possible way during their stay. There is a full service concierge, a secretarial service and a business center. Different facilities are provided at the hotel all the way from in-room massage treatments, lunch at their Mosaic restaurant, the Lobby Bar and Lounge for tea and their state of the art gym. The hotel is also home to some of the most exotic and beautiful rooms the visitors can dream of. The research aims to seek what type of people visited the hotel during the year 2009-2010 . What were the hall marks of the hotel that attracted them. What type of facilities available at the hotel helps them in their business activities and what benefits do they derive from these activities. The primary objective behind conducting this kind of research is to open new avenues for growth, cut down on negative obstacles and ensure smooth running of the business. In the long run it will help the business get more revenue and cut down on risk factors. It will also assist the management level of the hotel to come up with more innovative and effective solutions to tackle business challenges. One of the basic grounds on which development can be considered in this area is through destination marketing. Destination marketing is an emerging phenomenon and is increasingly being considered by many marketers in the tourism industry to promote their business. Westin Hotel is stationed in Sydney, which is one of the most popular tourist attraction round the globe. Given its prime location, in the center of a metropolitan city, destination marketing can be worked on to capitalize on the business potential of this Hotel . The research will seek to find how destination marketing can help improvise this business. Tourism and Destination Marketing: Tourism activities are directly related to destination. Today, the destination of tourists is one of the biggest factors, that they consider before setting off for vacations or for their corporate tours. In the words of WTO, 2002, “Destinations are the fundamental unit of analysis in tourism.” The destination locales can vary depending on the choice of the tourists. For tourists, interested in mountain climbing mountainous locales will be the best, for those interested in exotic locations where there is lush greenery and peace, beautiful scenic tourists spots may be the ideal solution. But this is not the point here. What is central to the concept of destination marketing is making use of a tourist spot, and developing products that revolve around it. Travellers are today, spoilt for tourist destinations. They are competed for publicity and attention in markets where there are rivals and other products clustered around. With the advent of globalization and the apparent shrinking of the world, the number of tourists and visitors to foreign cities and countries are ever increasing. Tourism is one of the worlds largest and fastest growing industries, and has proved to be the most burgeoning ones with the number of tourists forecasted to increase by 2.4% around the world this year despite the global economic crisis (Euro Monitor). Technological advancements have allowed people to travel to far off places with greater ease and cost efficiency and have proved to be a catalyst for fierce competition within this industry. Airlines, tour organizers, local governments and especially hotels are placing great importance on satisfying and attracting more tourists. Customer satisfaction is one of the most investigated topics in the tourism and hospitality due to its significance towards the survival and future of any tourism products and services (Gorsy et al., 2003, 2007). Customer satisfaction is defined as a psychological model that involves the feeling of well-being and pleasure that results from getting what one hopes for and expects from an attractive product and/or service (WTO, 1985). The multi-cultural and transnational composition of the tourism customer base and the rising competition under fierce competition, any market research into this industry has to be accurate, general (so that it may be construed easily by everyone despite their nationality/ethnicity), integrated and cover aspects which may not entice region specific responses (i.e. responses differing on the origin of the respondent). Destination marketing texts and Sydney: Destination Marketing hinges on a lot of questions and factions today some which will be addressed in the succeeding paragraphs. Some of the most prominent questions that are being taken up by the researchers include, to what extent should destination marketing organizations engage themselves in this field? Why are there more women leading and operating this field? Should destination marketing be restricted locally or should it be taken up internationally? To what extent should Destination marketing organizations involve themselves in communicating with the stake holders? Should it be a two way communication and what can be done to avoid it from being relegated to the ways of bureaucracy? How does the opinion of the stakeholders matter? How should the balance in communication line be established between the stake holders and that of the market being targeted? It also seeks to know to what extent DMOs at local national and regional should must engage themselves to achieve brand equity. Market orientation is a must in today’s age and time. Given the circumstances, what kind of research should DMOs undertake to know about their market? If it is wise to target all travel segments? What kind of methodology should be used? What kind of data should be collected? How should market research be prioritized against promotional activities? Which is more important and in what context? Given the diverse range of stake holders associated with advanced destination marketing. Sydney forms an important part of Australia’s economy. In Dec, 2009 only it received more than 2.7 million international visitors. The hotel in the center of this city should be turned into an experience that will attract one and all. The statistics of 2007 register and increase from 336,000 foreign visitors to 54,000 R and R soldiers in 1967 to above 14 million guest visitors .The average duration of their stay was tabulated out to be 9.19 days in 2007.. In 2007, Sydney was considered to be one of the most visited countries in World Tourism Rankings. France topped the list with as many as 83 million foreign visitors each year. Tourism Authority of Sydney conducted a survey which revealed the following statistics: 55% of the tourists coming to Thailand each year come directly from the Asia Pacific region. Japanese and Malaysians are considered to owe to themselves the greatest number of visitors in this block. Other large blocks of tourists belonged to the Western side. They constituted of Tourists coming from United Kingdom, Australia, German, United States, AND Scandinavia. There are a significant number of visitors from the Middle East and Russia as well and the trend is on the rise. The peak season for visiting would be at the time of Christmas and New Year Holidays. Problems of Destination based Tourism Market Research Does the concept of tourism really exist? Or is it simply an abstract level perception of human mind. What does it conceive? On the broader level, it involves entertainment, leisure related activities, wining, drinking etc. Generally speaking, industry involves a lot of firms doing various things while being engaging themselves for the same cause or industry. An internet search engine hunt on www.google.com, seeking for Tourism’s definition, will generate a thousand and one meanings for the same. Adults and children perceive tourism as a term related to holidaying and vacationing but what precisely does tourism business mean and involve. To date a lot of interpretations of this word have been seen but there could not been accurate definition of the word in literature. There have been just as many definitions as many researchers. According to Smith, 1998 chalking out an accurate definition of Tourism is perpetually impossible. The customers to the tourism industry consist of a wide range of people coming from different cultures, backgrounds and socio-economic milieus. A market research into the expectations of the tourists involves the problems of over generalization of the vast array of people. Different people may have different expectations and a standardized qualitative research may prove to be in accurate. Moreover the sample size has to be sufficiently large so as to accommodate different tourist (nationals and international). A single type of research is insufficient as it leaves many blind spots which may contain valuable information. Trends need to be supported jointly by different type of research (Primary and Secondary). Therefore, an integrated approach can overcome the problem of generalization in trends and also take into account the differing nature of the tourist base. Research Scope In order to accurately gauge the expectations of a tourist from a hotel, the secondary research should not limit itself. . Tourism is a global industry where a diverse range of customers demand similar products from this industry. A simple secondary research on the products offered across different multi national hotels such as Sheraton Hotels and Pearl Continental may provide the basic co linearity which may be attributed as a shared expectation of a tourist. But such generalizations may prove to be inaccurate when conclusions are based on just this information. Therefore the research should also include primary research in shape of Qualitative research like in-depth interviews and focus groups, the scope of which needs to be confined to local hotels within Australia considering the significant costs and chances of in accuracies in cross national primary research. Therefore, the scope of secondary (desk) research needs to be global i.e. the research should gather and record secondary data from hotels around the world, but in the case of primary research the scope needs to be limited to the hotel. Time Frame of the Data Recorded Tourism is a bourgeoning and constantly changing industry. Traffic into different tourist destinations fluctuates from time to time depending upon different socio-economic, political and environmental factors affecting the tourists and their particular destination. Keeping in mind the changing nature of tourism coupled with the change in cultures and technological progress, the secondary data needs to be considered within the time frame of last four years such that the expectations recorded are in line with current expectations. Moreover, the changing environment and the awareness about global warming have also increased the demand for sustainable tourism. These factors when considered, make in accurate data from beyond last four years as the expectations only considering these factors alone has changed a lot over the years. Research Objectives and Variables Consumer satisfaction is a post-consumption evaluation (Test and Wilton, 1988) of the Product or service acquired. According to Kazak and Remington (2000), meeting tourist’s expectations through actual experience considerably impacts on the tourist’s choice of the holiday destination, the satisfaction from a hotels products and services, and the decision to visit the destination in the future. Esther and Ritchie (1993) explain that a destination consists of a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes. Similarly, Yokel and Yokel (2001: 337) argue that ‘various positive and negative experiences may occur as a result of interactions with these components (attributes), and it is the collective effect that will ultimately decide the tourists overall evaluation of the experience’. Therefore, it is important to use individual variables such as recreational facilities and cultural tours provided by a hotel and also holistic variables of satisfaction such as customer satisfaction survey (as a percentage satisfaction) to reach our marketing objectives of assessing the significance of several individual variables in the composition of a tourists expectation from a hotel In understanding and analyzing tourist expectations from a hotel, a differentiation needs to be made between nice to know and need to know information as the data gathered can easily swerve towards areas not relevant to the research objective. The objectives can be set similar to various marketing firms such as Forward Analytics which sets the objective to include quantitative measurement studies to determine tourisms economic impact on special events and facilities, as well as qualitative market studies used for gauging specific attraction factors of conventions and tourists destinations(Forward Analytics). Through their research they help their clients assess the effectiveness of entertainment concepts and pinpoint market needs for their new or enhanced tourism facilities (Forward Analytics) This firm can be useful in gathering data through secondary research as it measure how well an organization (hotel) is achieving its goals with respect to participant or member satisfaction. This can provide a good starting point to the research endeavor but our objectives are not just confined to gauging tourist satisfaction (nice to know information), but rather products which can generate that satisfaction (need to know information) i.e. their expectation. An important variable of customer expectation model that we aim to build is the growing demand for sustainable tourism in recent years. Sustainable tourism is defined as that kind of tourism that makes optimal use of environmental resources, maintains essential ecology and helps to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity in the tourist destination (GDRC). Demand for sustainable tourism is becoming increasingly popular as more individuals, business and organizations are supporting responsible tourism as well as environmentally responsible tourism products and services. Demand and expectation for sustainable practices by a hotel are one of the most important need to know information. There are various sources of secondary research such as the survey conducted by Trip Advisor which announced the results of its 2009 annual travel trends survey of more than 3,000 US travelers. The main trends identified are that travelers in the US appear to be seeking more green tourism experiences where 73% said they will be visiting a national park next year, hiking (53%), and engaging in adventure activities (47%) (Trip Advisor). EuroMonitor International has also provided results from several surveys and research database which show the trends and expectations of tourists towards green tourism, and provides a good base for secondary research (EuroMonitor). Another important research objective on which the primary marketing research needs to concentrate on while gathering and recording data is the expectation of tourists from hotels for products which are tailored towards the local attractions. These variables will play a central role in the customer expectation model that we aim to build. Local attractions are an important factor which brings tourists to different cities, and hotels need to take that into account and provide products in accordance to that. Orlando Sheraton Hotel provides its customers with tours to the Disney World and the NASA space centre which constitutes as its local attraction (Steer wood Hotels). Similarly Marriot Libson provides a portal which helps its tourist find out about the local heritage and architectural attractions and also provide tours catered towards these attractions (Marriot Hotels). Primary research such as Focus Groups and In depth interviews with tourists coming to local hotels can identify the main expectations from them towards hotels catering to the needs of exploring the local attractions and unique features of the specific country/city. The demand for products tailored towards exploiting local attractions is one of the important need to know information where as the various expectations on what these products should include and be like are a part of nice to know information. Lastly, the marketing objective includes gathering the basic need to know information on the expectations of a tourist from a hotel regarding various amenities and facilities provided by the hotel and the cost of it. These will also feature significantly in the working of the customer expectation model. The global economic crisis, although not affecting tourism significantly, has changed the expectations of tourists. People now demand cheaper holidays and may be willing to give up certain luxurious amenities given their high cost. High end Spa services and personalized room requirements might not be demanded as much as before. The data on this factor can be gathered by an integrated marketing strategy involving both secondary data from different hotel prices around the world and primary research through questionnaires and interviews. Conclusion The bourgeoning size of the tourism industry and its importance to the economy of its host nation makes imperative that this industry functions to the expectations of its customers. The pace of change in the international demand for tourism and the socio-economic milieu requires frequent destination market research into the changing expectations of the tourists from hotels. Hotels are the gateway to which tourists explore different cities/countries and their expectations are not limited to the facilities and amnesties provided by the hotel. Hotels provide products, such as tours and safaris, which cater to the expectations of the tourists. Considering the diverse backgrounds of the tourists and their composition, an integrated approach which takes into account Quantitative and Qualitative data has to be implied so that all ends are tied and the expectations are accurately gauged. The general expectations with respect to the costs and facilities may be served by quantitative and secondary research but the niche expectations can only be recorded by Qualitative and Primary research. Bibliography: 1. "Issues and Advances In International Marketing Research." Market Research Reports - Business Market Research Reports & Industry Analysis. 13 Aug. 2009 . 2. Kent R.A (1993) Market research in action. Taylor & Francis. 3. "Lisbon Marriott Hotel: Local attractions and historic monuments." Hotels - Vacation and hotel information from Marriott Hotels - Official Site. 13 Aug. 2009 . 4. "Starwood Hotels & Resorts." Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide - Hotel Reservations with Best Rates, Guaranteed. 13 Aug. 2009 . 5. 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