Tourism Business Plan for the New York City - Essay Example

?Executive Summary (137) We are required to prepare an annual tourism business plan for the New York and first of all we should start with a study of the political, social and economic aspects of the city following which we should start with a SWOT analysis of the company and a PESTEL analysis. The SWOT analysis would consider various data on the players running similar business in NYC, the trends in the labor market of NYC, the demographic profile of the labor market and the general demographic profile of the area, the various cultural and social aspects on the industry and other forces responsible for the functioning of the tourism business in NYC. At the end of the study we will provide with certain recommendations that could prove to be innovative for improving the tourism business of the area. Contents Introduction (2895 words) 3 Substantive Content 4 Political Implication of the city 4 Recent economic implications 5 Social and labor markets 7 SWOT ANALYSIS of the destination 8 PESTEL framework of the destination 10 Conclusion 12 Recommendation 13 5 possible alternative courses of action 13 Reference 15 Introduction (2895 words) In the Northeastern region of the USA is located the state of New York. Within the New York state is located the New York City which is known as the most densely populated city of the United States and it is the hub of the New York urban region. It is the largest metropolitan within the entire United States. The city is situated on the southern regions of the New York State on the banks of the river Hudson. During the year 1609, an English explorer and navigator named Henry Hudson travelled by water through the Hudson River which was named after him. The course of the river that passes through the Manhattan Island is called as North River. Five years from then a permanent dwelling developed around that region which later on came to be known as New York however originally it used to be recognized by the Dutch governors as the New Amsterdam. It was known that one of the Dutch Governors named Peter Minuit bought Islands of Manhattan from the Indians for a deal of trinkets, beads and buttons. A navy was sent by the Great Britain’s Duke of York in 1664 that peacefully detained the Dutch without any violence and baptized the settlement in a tribute of the duke. The control of the city passed on to the young members of the Nation at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War (Burrows & Wallace, 1998, p.14). George Washington had been selected as the then president and the occasion was inaugurated in New York’s old City lobby. Congress gathered and continued their stay in New York ranging from 1785 to 1790. During 1898, the Greater New York was taken under some agreement and the city got expanded to comprise 5 boroughs namely Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn. The city is also known as “The Big Apple”. It is a major a world leader and a global capital in the domains of communications, finance and arts. The harbor of New York is one of the most excellent in the globe and has been ranked as the biggest port compound on the East Coast. New York City is the home for the United Nations and includes the headquarters of a large number of important organizations from across the world. The city is considered to be a significant spot for fashion, advertising, shooting, radio broadcasting, publishing etc. by the important firms across the entire world. Substantive Content Political Implication of the city The government of city is controlled under the Charter of the City and offers for a "well-built" mayor-council arrangement. The administration of the state is more nationalized than that of the majority of the other cities of U.S, by means of the city administration being accountable for the correctional institutions, education of the public, public safety, libraries, sanitation, recreational facilities, welfare services and water supply. The mayor gets elected for a term of a 4 years and remains in charge of the administrative functions of the government of the city. The City Council of New York follows unicameral structure including nearly 51 members and each of them must have been nominated from a specific geographic area. These members are also elected for a term of four years. The charter has a very complicated structure to read and interpret as there are divisions and sub-divisions and multiple designations. Because of the complexity of the chart, often the chart is segmented into parts so that the meaning becomes easily understandable. Even despite the fact that the Mayor is the main and big picture when the case of local politics is considered the designation pool resources from other branches for instance the Comptroller, Borough Presidents, The Council, All The District Attorneys, Independent Budget Office and Public Advocate.  These positions are responsible for making regulations and laws for the city, preparing the budget of the city and listening to the citizen’s demands poses as a significant duty of these bodies. These bodies further get sub-divided into added little designations that these people are in charge of. The citizens of New York, in spite of the awe-inspiring figure of listed Democrats in the town of 8.3 million populations, have not nominated a self-governing party mayor within the duration of 20 years. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani won approved for dropping New York's scandalously high rate of criminal activities and the Bloomberg got advantage from Giuliani's support following the attacks of 9/11 in the year 2001 (Honan & Wulfhorst, 2013). Recent economic implications The financial scheme comes with the metropolitan financial statement and offers a multiyear perception on the expenditure and incomes of the city. The area’s monetary arrangement is not a lawfully obligatory promise to appropriately divide those in the upcoming years, although to a certain extent it exhibits how the budget of the present year would influence financial plans in the forthcoming years. The Mayor announces a financial framework 4 times a year that are generally known as the Adopted Plan during the month of June, the November Plan, the January Plan, and the Executive Plan for the month of April. The approved Budget remains in action for 1 financial year, in New York City which begins on the 1st of July every year and concludes on 30th June of the next year. The Expense Budget finances the existing metropolitan services offered by the government that includes the remuneration of the government workers, debt service, pensions, and regular working expenses such as pens and pencils, copier paper, printing services, contracts and rent and utilities (Independent Budget Office, 2013). The diagram related to the expenditures and revenues of the city are shown below- The city produces long-term arrears by the issue of bonds to construct, uphold, and develop the city’s communications, infrastructure, ecology and other monetary assets. Each year, a part of the “Big Apple’s” expenditure funds must be utilized to support debt & liability services, the imbursement of interest and the principal amount on outstanding debt. The more the NYC spends on money owing sectors, the fewer resources remains available for the additional city agenda. Therefore there is a significant association between the Expense and Capital Budgets. Social and labor markets New York City has always remained famous for a trendsetter attitude for the rest of the world in the fields of fashion, cuisine and art. Currently two researchers have recognized a new demographic trend within the city that they put forward might be a glance of the upcoming years for other great cities of America. The researchers named as Arun Peter Lobo and Ronald J.O. Flores calls it amalgamation devoid of black citizens. In the earlier period, during 40 years back they explored almost a three-fold boost in the division of incorporated neighborhoods in the New York City with a combination of whites, Asians and Hispanics but hardly any black population. During the similar time, the allocation of incorporated environs in which the black people consisted of at least 10% of the inhabitants were cut down by about one-third, as reported by Lobo and Flores in their latest “Journal of Urban Affairs”. (Morin, 2013) Art, music and disco forms the overall culture of the city. The work culture of the organizations is very formal having a definite code of conduct. Every staff is addressed as Sir/Ma’am and all the staffs are greeted equally. However firms that follow very informal work culture are also present in the city. Renowned universities of New York include Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, University at Buffalo etc. and quality education is imparted through these institutions. Overall the social trend of New York exhibits an amalgamation of formal and informal culture and a fusion of seriousness and funky lifestyle. The long-term growth prospects of the U.S. economy are receiving wide scale support from the housing market recovery. However, the labor market continues to underperform with respect to job and wage growth. In the New York City and in other cities of the United States of America, hazardous labour circumstances for many migrant employees consist of work hours of more than 60-72 each week and often they are not provided with any societal assistance like social security and health care (United Nations, 2013). SWOT ANALYSIS of the destination The SWOT analysis is a situational analysis which can be split into internal as well as external analysis. The internal analysis is largely focused on studying the various internal factors of the company while the external analysis is targeted towards evaluating the external factors of the company. In explaining further, it can be stated that the internal analysis of the company is done by identifying the relative strengths and weakness, while the external analysis of the company will be focusing on the opportunities and threats (Assen and et.al, 2010, p. 15). The main focus on conducting a SWOT analysis is to develop as well as fine-tune a specific business model for a company while taking into account the internal and external factors of influence that may impact the business (Hill and Jones, 2010, p. 19). The most important strength of Tourism planning in NYC is that the entire city offers a highly inter-connected and fast mode of public transportations. The second strength is that the city provides a tremendous amount of financial as well as social contribution to the entire state of New York. The next strength is the fact that the place includes everything from every age group. There are parks, playgrounds, museums, salons, hospitals, restaurant, movie theaters and many more such facilities to keep the amount of entertainment intact within the people staying there as well as within the tourists. The fourth strength is that the entire city is putting much stress on achieving improved level of ecological conditions since it was named as “the dirtiest city” of entire America. The last but not the least strength is that the weather of the area. There are bars complementing the temperate summer nights. Some people often grumble about the moisture present in the air however there's always the scope for ditching the winter coat in the month of July (Bazely, 2012). Overall the lifestyle and the extent of convenience of the city life prove to be a major strength for the tourism segment. The major weakness of the city is that it’s the most populous and hence it’s extremely crowded. Often people go on vacations to spend some quality time with their near ones which never seems possible in a city like NYC. Another weakness is that the rate of pollution and the diseases causing from it prevents the tourists from visiting the place (Stonehouse & Houston, 2013, pp. 2-3). While discussing about the opportunity present in the city for the prospects of tourism it can be said that the city being the most populous city of America provides the opportunity for businesses to grow and flourish. Also the presences of technology hub, educational institutes, research centre, entertainment facilities, New York Stock Exchange etc. are likely to draw more and more tourists to the place. Additionally the statue of liberty plays a significant role in attracting tourists as well as the scenic beauty of the place could prove to be successful enough in drawing people from various parts of the world. The prosperous economic condition and glamorous look of the city could be utilized in conducting events and shootings that will eventually draw tourists. The major factor of threat for the NYC is that it faces a high level of competition from other popular tourist destinations of the region of the United States. Also, another key threat to tourism could be the racial discrimination among the black and other people within the city, as discussed earlier. The discrimination faced by the immigrants also proves to be a threat. PESTEL framework of the destination The PESTEL framework greatly helps in the process of conducting an analysis of the external environment using the variables of political, economic, social, technological, environmental as well as legal. The political variable takes into account the influence of issues like governmental stability, taxation policy, and regulations on foreign trade, policies related to general and social welfare etc. In this case, as per the information provided in the case study, it can be said that the influence of the political factors are very nil for promoting tourism. The economic influence of the region is very high. It can be said that as NYC exhibits a strong financial condition, therefore it proves to be significant in promoting tourism. The social influence of the NYC is pretty strong since people in the city are treated with differentiation and also the immigrant workers face a lot of trouble within the area. These reasons could prove to have negative impact on the tourists. The technological influence in this particular case can be considered high since the entire tourism project will be built on the basis of available technology and innovation. There is tremendous amount of environmental influence in the case of tourism planning at NYC. New York Restoration Project (NYRP) in recent times concluded the restoration of its “Gil Hodges Community Garden” in the area of Brooklyn’s Gowanus, all credit to the assistance received from a NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Green Infrastructure Grant and Jo Malone London.  The conversion transforms the place into the 1st NYRP community garden with increased-performance of the rainstorm water communications.  The garden’s area is 3,140-square-foot and is situated at the flood-prone junction of Denton Place and Carroll Street, only a few miles from the Canal of Gowanus.  NYRP performed actively to deal with the instant hydrological requirements of the region by retrofitting the plot with porous pavers, and with flood-tolerant flora and fauna, and a also rain garden. The NYRP also set up a DEP-designed curbside rain garden or bios wale, in the footway adjoining the garden that control storm-water overflow from the sidewalk and the Denton Place.  overall, these mechanism will handle 150,000 gallons of storm-water yearly, thus lessening stress on the NYC’s drainage structure and lessening the overflows into the Canal of Gowanus (Bosch, 2013). The legal factors comprise of issues like competition law, employment law, labor law and health and safety law (Johnson and et.al, 2008, p. 68). In this case, it can be said that the influence of the legal factors is pretty low on tourism sector. However, it needs to be noted that though the tourism plan requires the visitors to compile with the immigration law of the State as well as the strategy should support eco-friendly aspect of the region and its maintenance, however it might get affected in a positive or negative manner in case there takes place an alteration in the existing ecological laws of the region. Conclusion From the entire study of the history, political, social, demographic, cultural and economic aspects of the city it is clear to us that the New York City owns a lot of positive attributes to attract the tourists and run a profitable tourism business. For this purpose it is necessary to conduct a SWOT analysis and a PESTEL analysis of the area. Since the mishap of 9/11 New York became famous for the terrorist attack in the region. However it also comprises of certain other factors like transportation, infrastructure, communication, recreational facilities and monetary affluence that could provide the city an enhanced edge for conducting business in the tourism sector. Proper planning and implementation is highly required for such business activities. Recommendation 5 possible alternative courses of action For the purpose of transforming the city into a significant tourist spot in a grand fashion, the following courses of action could prove to be successful- The first course of action that can be taken is to develop a new centre of entrepreneurship research within the NYC. The main aim of the centre will be to focus on research and development of new eco-friendly business models. The next course of action that can be taken is to promote awareness among the local as well as international tourists through a highly intensive marketing campaign. It needs to be stated that the main objective of the marketing campaign is to generate interest and curiosity among the target audience by communicating the highly interesting facts about the plant related species present in the environment of the city. The third action can be to develop a medical centre within the region, which will provide natural healing through herbal therapy. This will be a unique strategy since it will help in increasing the value of the tourist spot as well as transforming it in to a medical tourist spot. The fourth course of action that can be taken is to promote the entire area as a convenient location for movie shooting. The usage of the NYC as a movie shooting spot will provide free publicity to a wide range of audience present in various locations all over the world. This strategy will greatly help in generating the interest level about the project among the international tourists. The fifth course of action that can be taken is to develop a small amusement park within the prominent spots of NYC. This will be a very new kind of a development but it will help in a great way to create the flow of domestic tourists who are looking for relaxation, fun as well as gaining some interesting knowledge about eco-friendly business education. Reference 1. Assen, M.V. and et.al 2010. Key Management Model. UK: Pearson. 2. Bazely, K. 2012. America's Dirtiest Cities. Travel and Leisure. [Online] Available at < http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-dirtiest-cities/2> [Accessed 23rd Oct, 2013] 3. Bosch, A. 2013. Department of Environmental Protection Announces Additional $9 Million in new Projects to Improve Catskill Streams and Creeks Damaged by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee. NYC Environmental Protection. [Online] Available at [Accessed 23rd Oct, 2013] 4. Burrows, E.G. & Wallace, M. 1998. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press. 5. Hill, C.W.L., and Jones, G.R. 2010. Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. 10th ed. USA: Cengage Learning. 6. Honan, E. & Wulfhorst, E.2013. Liberal de Blasio close to clinching New York Democratic mayoral primary. Reuters. [Online] Available at < http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/us-usa-politics-newyork-idUSBRE9891GA20130911> [Accessed 23rd Oct, 2013] 7. Independent Budget Office. 2013. Understanding New York City’s Budget : A Guide. [Pdf] Available at < http://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/understandingthebudget.pdf> [Accessed 23rd Oct, 2013] 8. Johnson, G. and et.al. 2008. Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text & Cases, 7/E. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. 9. Morin, R. 2013. Sign of things to come? Integration without blacks in New York City neighborhoods. PewResearchCenter. [Online] Available at < http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/07/sign-of-things-to-come-integration-without-blacks-in-new-york-city-neighborhoods/> [Accessed 23rd Oct, 2013] 10. Stonehouse, G. & Houston, B. et.al. 2013. Business Strategy. Great Britain: Elsevier Science. 11. United Nations. 2013. World Economic and Social Survey 2013: Sustainable Development Challenges. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. [Pdf] Available at < http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/wess_current/wess2013/WESS2013.pdf> [Accessed 23rd Oct, 2013] Read More