Critical appraisal of a Harrogate Stakeholder framework - Essay Example

Critical appraisal of a Harrogate Stakeholder framework Events are important for the tourism industry, since they increase the reputation of the destination, confers economic benefits, attracts more visitors and creates a positive image for the destination (Sheehan and Ritchie, 2004 p2). Tourism events mostly entail meetings, sports, entertainment and leisure activities. International Stakeholders in the industry include governments and local authorities, associations, education institutions, practitioners, suppliers, clientele and sponsors and increasingly destinations. Each stakeholder seeks to benefit from international events management, which entails the planning and production of all types of events that are attended by people worldwide. The skills required for organizations of such events include a competitive bidding process, incentives and reward schemes and exposure to risks. Knowledge of appropriate marketing tools such as virtual events that allows people to participate in destination events by obtaining materials from the web is vital. As a leading British conference and exhibition town, Harrogate’s poor infrastructure is detrimental to its status as an International event destination. Poor transport links and lack of hotel rooms caused one of the major visitor organizations to change its destination to Manchester (Derry, 2004 p241). In working with other stakeholders groups, the destination will benefit a lot. This is so because, the government will act as a catalyst in speeding up the destinations promotion, through policy and legislative formulations as well as funding. Since there lacks good service link of the town with other major towns such as London, while traffic congestion is huge during major events, the collaboration of the destination with the government and other relevant authorities will see it benefit in terms of improved transport facilities. Other organizations such as the Puma hotel will enable t provide ample facilities to satisfy its clientele and build a good reputation for more visits from other different groups. There are two major aspects that can be applied to ensure that this Event Destination is no longer in a losing end. The application of the Inter-organizational Relationship and Organization theory, coupled with the Gartrell’s destination team model. Harrogate is a popular destination due to its exhibition halls, integrated and sophisticated conference, excellent accommodation, spacious parklands and gardens, hotels, bars and restaurants located in close proximity, its competitiveness is deterred by the transport infrastructure. Compared to the city of Manchester which has convention facilities, range of accommodation and convenient transport infrastructure, the town of Harrogate is not as competitive. The city of Manchester has been ranked one of the world's most successful conference destinations (Danny, 1977 p181). According to the Inter-organizational Relationship and Organization theory, the role of stakeholders in an organization ranges from that of cooperating with the organization to that of threatening the organization. An organization cannot be self sufficient, and as such has to depend on its interaction with other organizations and the stakeholders in order to have its activities as a success. The dependence of the organization on the said organizations or stakeholders is determined by the control that the stakeholder has over the resources, which are vital for the existence and running of the organization in question (Sheehan and Ritchie, 2004 p4). Since stakeholders are referred to as those entities that affect or are affected by the operations and the outcomes of an organization, then there is a need to analyze how the different stakeholders are party to the operations and outcomes of thee organizational and rank them accordingly. The entities with a great effect or who are primarily affected by the organizations activities then becomes the forefront concern. While the primary stakeholders are directly involved and affected by the transactions of the organization and they thus determine its survival, the secondary stakeholders do not transact directly with the organization and are therefore, not a determining factor to its survival. Primary shareholders include the customers, the government, the employees, the lenders and the shareholders in an organization. Any interaction with these stakeholders is on a direct basis to the organization, and they can therefore determine the existence and survival of the organization (Sheehan and Ritchie, 2004 p15). Therefore, there is a need to know to what extent a stakeholder can threaten the organization and relate with them on such basis. By realizing the important role played by stake holders and their implication to the success or failure of an organization, Harrogate Event Destination can embark on a collaboration with the major stakeholders that will enable it improve its facilities and accessibility. In so doing, the destination will be able to attract groups for conferences, and visitors and tourists for exhibitions. This will enable it sustain its tourist and event destination status. The application of Gartrell’s destination team model will go a long way in helping Harrogate event destination improve its constructs and thus attract more groups, visitors and tourists. Gartrell destination team refers to the intertwined web of all facilities, products and services and a communication network relevant to ensure that the visitors are accorded satisfactory services (Crompton, 1997 p426). The collaboration of transport facilities, food and beverage, retail shopping, hotel meeting facilities, entertainment and visitors information centers goes a long way to enhance good destination marketing and ensure visitors satisfaction (Armstrong, 1985 p36). This interrelationship serves to help the destination bid and attract local, national and international tourists and visitors goodwill. It is this goodwill that will see the destination have repeat visits by the same visitors or new visits by those recommended and informed of the destination by the initial visitors. Gartrell’s destination team comprises of a number of facilities that can collaborate with the event destination to help it succeed. Such collaborators are retail shopping, transportation networking, information centers Entertainment Arts facilities and hotel meeting facilities e.t.c. the advantage of working in a Gartrell team for Harrogate destination is to enable it bid and attract tourist events .the combination of forces by the Gartrell teams, each offering a specified products or service to the visitors makes the process of negotiation to hold event easier, since all the requirements of the events will be availed by the teams (Brown, 2002 p190). By collaborating with the relevant teams, then the Harrogate destination benefits through the provision of amenities, a relevant attraction, ancillary services such reservations and well organized Entertainment, exhibition, tours among other services. Collaborating with the government and the local authorities is also vital. Harrogate should collaborate with the local council, since they are the ones responsible for licensing the host of events and also a source of funding to such events. Collaborating with the council will ensure the smooth organization and execution of the event. It is this collaboration that will grant Harrogate an upper hand to be allowed to organize and hold such events since other destinations are interested in hosting those events. Work cited Armstrong, J. (1985). International events: The real tourism impact: Travel and Tourism Research Association. 9–37. Brown, G. (2002). Taking the pulse of Olympic sponsorship. Event Management, 7(3), 187–196. Crompton, J. (1997). Motives of visitors attending festival events. Annals of Tourism Research. 425–439. Danny, G. (1977). Anomie, ego-enhancement and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research. 184–194. Derry, L. (2004). Sport tourism or event tourism: Are they one and the same? Journal of Sport Tourism. 235–246. Sheehan, L. and Ritchie, J.R. (2004). Destination Stakeholders: Exploring Identity and Salience. Canada: University of Calgary. P1-24. Read More