Marriotts Marbella Beach - Essay Example

? Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort. Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort Introduction Current study explores the various aspects of a quite popular beachresort: Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort. The particular resort is located at Costa del Sol and it is considered as one of Spain’s most famous beach resorts. The characteristics and the needs of the above resort in terms of development, management and operations are presented and analyzed using relevant literature. Beach resorts are those resorts which are developed around a beach, i.e. the existence of which is closely related to a coastal area (Botero and Hurtado 2009). In this context, the analysis of the characteristics of beach resorts requires the reference to beach, which is a prerequisite for the establishment of a beach resort. Beaches are areas that meet the following criteria: ‘a) they are common property, b) they are highly dynamic energy systems and c) tourism is the main coastal activity on them’ (Botero and Hurtado 2009: 133). Beach resorts have been related to specific issues as of their development, management and operations. These issues are highlighted in the literature. In regard to their development, beach resorts need to be aligned with the standards set by local authorities for establishing a business in beach resorts. The above requirement is necessary only for beach resorts that are also used as centers of business activities. This means that all businesses established near beach resorts have to meet specific conditions and cannot expand their operations above the limits set by the relevant laws. When referring to beach resort as a coastal system, then a different approach would be used for explaining its development. The development of such system refers to a series of activities that need to take place so that a beach can be used by people for recreational purposes, which are among the key purposes of the specific systems. In the above case, the term development refers to projects for cleaning the beach and for taking measures so that the safety of any person that would use the beach is secured, as possible. Of course, they are coastal areas in which no development task has taken place and which are often characterized as beaches just because the have the characteristics of such ecosystem. For example, a coastal area which is not organized, being far from a residential area with no access to facilities for covering basic needs, such as food or cleaning, can be considered as a beach, a practice that would not be correct: such place is not a beach but it is a coastal area. Beaches are usually organized for providing to their visitors access to basic facilities. In the context of this study emphasis is given on beach resorts as systems related to business activities, such as the Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort the characteristics of which are explored below. The development of beach resorts as areas where business activities are developed, needs to be combined with appropriate management plans otherwise any expected benefits would be eliminated. More specifically, in the case of beach resorts, management refers to activities such as the monitoring, periodically, of the condition of the beach in terms of litter accumulated, of damages that have been possible caused on certain of the area’s elements due to weather or due to human activities, of pollution caused by residential or business blocks that are established near to the coast and so on. Other activities, such as the gathering of funds for supporting projects required for keeping the beach clean or for other needs of the beach, can be also incorporated in beach resort management. In regard to the operations of beach resorts, emphasis should be given to the following fact: the conditions on which the daily operations of a beach resort will be based are set in the context of the resort’s management plan. In the specific plan the objectives that the particular resort has to achieve are defined; these objectives can be achieved only if an effective management plan is in place. Therefore, operations cannot perform high unless it is supported by an effective and feasible management plan; the feasibility of such plan is based on the potentials of all phases of the plan to be successfully developed. Operations, as an element of beach resort, can reflect to the activities related to the specific resort, to the resort’s characteristics and so on. For example, for a beach resort the diving training sessions provided daily to visitors are part of the resort’s operations. The issues presented above are further analyzed in the sections that follow. Primarily, a literature review will be presented so that key issues in regard to beach resorts are highlighted. Then, the practical aspects of development, management and operations of beach resorts will be explained by referring to the case of Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort. Literature Review The management of beach resorts is a complex activity, incorporating a series of tasks and roles. In any case, the complexity of beaches, as coastal systems, has been related to various management and operational problems; such problems are expected to appear if the actual role and nature of beaches are ignored (Zainal et al.2012). In general, the key characteristics of beaches are three: a) they are a recreational area, available for different recreational activities, such as swimming or engaging in sports (Botero and Hurtado 2009), b) they are natural borders protecting the areas near the coast from the waves and c) they are areas where important species live (Botero and Hurtado 2009). In other words, beaches can be the center of various human activities. This means that human safety is a critical issue when reviewing the effectiveness of coastal management (Buckley 2006). Tsagbey et al (2009) have tried to identify the potential relationship between the accumulation of litter in beaches and the health safety issues resulted for their visitors. Sample from litter accumulated and fresh litter available in the coast of La and Ko Beach (Ghana) has been gathered and analyzed in order to check the level at which the litter accumulated in a beach can be dangerous for health. Litter was gathered from an area of 500m2. Water from the coastal area was also gathered in order to check its ingredients. It was proved that during high-peak seasons the litter accumulated to beaches can be higher, an issue that should be taken into consideration by those who are responsible for the management of such coastal areas (Tsagbey et al. 2009). According to Ghosh (2012) coastal areas could be used for promoting sustainable tourism but such target could be achieved only by securing the cooperation of local communities. The development of a plan for integrating the needs of all stakeholders of a coastal area based on ‘the relevant socio-economic, cultural and environmental dimensions’ (Ghosh 2012: 163) seems to be the greatest challenge that those who are involved in the management of coastal areas have to face. Moreover, in regions that are highly based on beach resorts, the development of effective plans for these resorts’ management is of critical value. Yepes & Medina (2005) referred to the case of the beach of Valencia, a popular beach resort, to show the factors that can negatively affect a beach resort, especially in terms of erosion. It has been proved that the erosion caused on the coast of Valencia can be mostly related to three factors, such as: ‘damming, port breakwaters and urban development’ (Yepes & Medina 2005: 87). On the other hand, the study of Jury et al (2011) proved that the identification of development strategies that can adequately protected the environmental, economic and cultural characteristics of a beach resort can be achieved only if the relevant plan is carefully monitored, as of all its phases (Jury et al. 2011). In many cases the ability of the manager to identify practices that can increase security related to a beach resort is of critical importance (Scott et al. 2012). In any case, beach resorts cannot have only benefits. They can also have drawbacks, such as the provision of different benefits for residents of the surrounding areas, the limitation of species in cases that fishing is above the limits set by the law and so on (Agarwal & Shaw 2007). Semeoshenkova & Williams (2011) developed a survey across the beaches of a popular tourism destination in Portugal: the Algarve. About 50 questionnaires were distributed to visitors of 5 beaches across the above region. The findings revealed that the factors that can most influence the decision of individuals to choose a particular beach are the following: a) the level of cleanliness of the beach, the availability of facilities and the image of a beach in the market are considered as key factors influencing the visitors’ willingness to visit a beach resort (Semeoshenkova & Williams 2011). If appropriately managed, as of all its operations, a beach resort can have a series of benefits. In the study of Olawale and Chinyere (2012) the socio-economic benefits that can be resulted by a beach resort are presented. Reference is made, as an example, to the La Campagne Tropicana beach (Nigeria). Three different research methods, interviews, survey and observation, were employed for identifying the effects of a beach resort in its socio-economic environment. It was proved that a beach resort can positively influence the increase of employment and the improvement of infrastructure in its surrounding regions (Olawale & Chinyere 2012). Discussion Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort – Overview and key characteristics Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort is an exceptionally organized beach resort (Figure 1 Appendix). The resort is located at Costa del Sol. The guests of the resort have the chance to combine a high range of water-related activities, such as swimming, jet-skiing, surfing, sailing and so on, but also activities of other types, as available in nearby areas: horseback riding, mountain biking and bowling (Organizational website, Activities). The specific resort includes departments of different size, such as ‘one, two and three-bedroom vacation apartments’ (Organizational website, Our Villas). These apartments are fully equipped with machinery and furniture of excellent quality; the apartments are located around a garden in the centre of which a large swimming pool is located (Figure 1, Appendix). The whole area has been developed in such way so that green spaces, water areas and recreational facilities are easily accessed by visitors (Figure 1, Appendix). The resort offers a high range of services to its guests, including wireless Internet, babysitting, grocery shopping, foreign exchange/ ATMs and so on (Organizational website, Services and Amenities). Additional services have been introduced for supporting the needs of visitors in regard to business services; fax and copy services are examples of these services (Organizational Website, business services). In general, the spaces and buildings of the resort have been arranged in such way so that access is facilitated while all visitors’ needs are covered. This fact is made clear through the resort’s map, as presenting in Figure 2, Appendix. The characteristics of the resort in terms of development, management and need could be analyzed using the information provided in the organizational website and the literature published in the particular subject. Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort – Development, Management and Operations In order to evaluate the effectiveness of development practices used in the Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort it should be necessary primarily to present the criteria on which the performance of beach resorts in regard to their development is judged. Two key terms for deciding whether a beach resort is effectively developed are the location of the resort but also the arrangement of its spaces (Hayes & Miller 2011). The specific resort has been established in one of the most popular coastal areas of Spain: Costa del Sol. This means that the prospects for the success of the resort, as a business, are significant. In addition, the buildings and recreational areas of the resort are arranged in a way that offers to the visitor the feeling of being in a small town: a high range of services and facilities has been incorporated so that visitors do not need to search for nearby cities for covering various needs (Figure 2, Appendix). Under these terms, the performance of the resort in regard to its development can be characterized as quite high. Particular attention should be paid in regard to the resort’s management characteristics. The literature that explains the terms that the management of beach resorts should meet has to be mentioned. The success of beach resorts in regard to their management is primarily decided by reviewing the resorts’ potential to respond to the needs of their socio-economic environment (Hall & Boyd 2005). In the study of Botero & Hurtado (2009) emphasis has been given on the potentials of a beach to address various needs; however, not all beach resorts are equally powerful to respond to such mission. For example, the beach La Campagne Tropicana (Nigeria) has been found as highly contributing in the improvement of its socio-economic environment; still, the potential needs for funding, as a requirement for improving the facilities of the beach, could possibly set limits to the resort’s ability to support its socio-economic environment (Olawale & Chinyere 2012). Reference should be made to the following fact: each beach is not standardized as of its form. Depending on its form, a beach can have different needs, a fact that needs to be taken into consideration by those who are responsible for the development and the management of the beach (Doswell 2012). In addition, beach management refers to the initiatives that need to be undertaken for preserving a beach, not just in regard to its pollution but also in regard to its geographical status. This issue is highlighted in the study of Alcantara-Carrio & Cabrera (2002). In the specific study emphasis is given to the erosion that the beaches of Sotavento in Spain had suffered. The specific damage should be appropriately addressed through sand transferred from the land areas surrounding the coast (Alcantara-Carrio & Cabrera 2002); still no such action was taken a fact that should be considered as a failure in managing the specific beach effectively. In practice, it has been proved that the visitors of beach resorts prefer those resorts that emphasize on the preservation of the beach but also on the provision of high range of services to their guests (Hudman & Jackson 2003); reference can be made, for example, to the cleanliness of the beach, the facilities available and recreational areas that are established in the particular place (Semeoshenkova & Williams 2011). Based on the above view, the managers of beaches resorts can increase the popularity of their beach by adding features that emphasize on the needs of people for cleanliness and recreation. One of the most important roles that a beach resort has to play is the following: the protection of the coastal zone from limitations, as these limitations can be achieved through erosion. In addition, other problems related to a beach resort can be the following: such resort can be considered as ideal for the development of crimes, especially against property. This issue has been examined by Olorunfemi & Adebayo (2013) using, as an example, the beach of Lokoja, in Nigeria. Through the research developed by Olorunfemi & Adebayo (2013) it has been made clear that a beach resort is an eco-system that is highly exposed to violations and crimes, even of low importance. In addition, in the context of a beach resort, the responsibility for the condition of the beach, especially in terms of pollution, is commonly held by the resort’s managers. This means that preserving the beach should be one of the priorities of a resort’s managers; such rule would be also applied in the case of the resort under examination. Through a similar approach it has been suggested that the manager of a beach resort could enhance the performance of the beach simply by introducing plans for limiting damming and for preventing the expansion of construction project in areas near the coast (Mill 2008). According to the above, the common challenges that managers of beach resorts have to face are related to the condition of the beach, the range of services provided to customers and the health and safety of customers. However, reference should be made to the following fact: beach resorts are not just coastal areas but also businesses. This means that their managers have also to respond to problems that are common to all businesses, such as: a) the marketing needs of the resort. In the literature it has been proved that the promotion of beach resorts is often problematic, a problem related to the refusal of many of these businesses to incorporate social media in their marketing plans (Micallef & Williams 2012). Indeed, there are cases that the visitors of a beach resort have been informed on the resort’s benefits from their friends and not from the media or the Internet (Micallef & Williams 2012); b) HR issues; staff in beach resorts need to be appropriately skilled. Emphasis should be given on the communication skills of employees. In many cases, the inability of the employees of a beach resort to communicate effectively with customers has led to damages on the resort’s image in the market (Mill 2008); c) Financial issues; a beach resort is a quite demanding business. The capital required for the establishment of the resort but also for the management of the resort and the support of its operations can be quite high (Hayes & Miller 2011). It is necessary for the beach resort to have funds saved for covering emergent needs, such as a radical limitation of profits during unexpected climate changes (Doswell 2012). Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort is established in an area which is quite popular as a tourism destination. This means that the chances for instabilities in the resort’s income are quite limited. In addition, the beach along the resort is carefully preserved, a fact that is highlighted in the resort’s statement towards its customers (Organizational website, Local Area). The above issues are part of the development framework of the resort. Therefore, in terms of development the specific resort seems to perform high. In regard to its management and operations also, the above resort can be characterized as quite successful. This view can be based on a series of facts: a) prices are kept low, beginning from 191 euro/ per night, an offer that it unique if considering the services and the facilities available (Organizational website, Deals & Promotions); b) the range of services available to customers is quite high, covering both personal and business needs of guests (Organizational website, Our Villas, Services and Amenities), c) the range of rooms is high; customers can choose among different types of apartments according to their needs and their financial potentials; d) transportation is arranged for customers who want to visit nearby areas; this means that local community can be also benefited, especially in terms of income from various activities that are available to the resort’s nearby areas (Organizational website, local area). Particular reference should be also made to the fact that the resort’s customers are able to cover all their needs, in terms of finance, of business and of entertainment, within the resort without having to make extra expenses. In any case, the visitors of the particular resort are able to be informed on all the details of a potential visit to the resort by visiting the organizational website where all issues that are of interest for potential visitors are analyzed. In this way, there would be no chance for the visitors of the resort to be surprised by unexpected failures in regard to the services provided to them while staying in the resort, a problem that it is quite common in beach resorts worldwide (Scott, Hall & Gosling 2012). Conclusion The development, management and operations characteristics of Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort, as analyzed using relevant literature has revealed a series of critical facts: a) beach resorts have different forms; as a result they also have different needs and risks. In this context, an individual who aims to visit a beach resort should be prepared to spend a lot of time on gathering relevant information, before visiting the particular place; only in this way the risks involved could be avoided, b) there is no standard plan for managing a beach resort; of course, there are certain issues that need to be addressed, such as the resort’s condition in terms of cleanliness, the availability of facilities for the public, the condition of the route involved; if the specific resort is approached by the land, then the condition of the road up to reaching the resort should be periodically checked, c) the development of a beach resort can be based on different rules and priorities; using values and rules that apply in most beach resorts worldwide would secure the high quality of the resort in terms of facilities available, of the recreational activities offered to the public and so on; d) different approaches can be used by managers of beach resorts for responding to the needs of these resorts’ visitors; in Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort emphasis has been given on the condition of the beach, the quality and the range of facilities and services but also on the potential of the customers to visit the surrounding region. In other words, in the particular beach resort the needs of customers but also the needs of the environment have been set at the key criteria when developing the resort’s management plan, a fact that can explain the resort’s popularity. At this point, it should be noted that the literature review developed for this study had a critical limitation: not all aspects of a beach resort, i.e. in terms of development, management and operation of such a resort are analyzed in the literature. In fact, emphasis seems to be given to the first two aspects of beach resorts, i.e. development and management. Such trend is possibly explained because of the following fact: the operational aspect of a beach resort is considered as part of its management aspect, at the level that operations of beach resort should be normally developed and monitored by following the rules introduced through the resort’s management plan. Therefore, the limitation of the research, as related to this study, has not been so extensive as it could be possibly expected when accessing the literature. In the context described above, the identification and the analysis of the operational aspects of a beach resort would be more analyzed in the literature so that a assumptions can be made as to whether a beach resort is able to fully respond to its role demands or not. References Agarwal, S. & Shaw, G. (2007). Managing Coastal Tourism Resorts: A Global Perspective. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Alcantara-Carrio, A. & Cabrera, L. (2002). Tourist Resorts and their Impact on Beach Erosion at Sotavento Beaches, Fuerteventura, Spain. Journal of Coastal Research 36, 1-7 Botero, C. & Hurtado, Y. (2009). Tourist Beach Sorts as a classification tool for Integrated Beach Management in Latin America. Coastline Reports 13, 133 - 142 Buckley, R. (2006) Adventure Tourism. Wallingford: CABI. Doswell, R. (2012). Tourism: How Effective Management Makes the Difference. London: Routledge. Ghosh, T. (2012). Sustainable Coastal Tourism: Problems and Management Options. Journal of Geography and Geology. Vol 4, No 1, 164-169 Hall, C. & Boyd, S. (2005). Nature-based Tourism in Peripheral Areas: Development Or Disaster? Clevedon: Channel View Publications. Hayes, D. & Miller, A. (2011). Revenue Management for the Hospitality Industry. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Hudman, L. & Jackson, R. (2003). Geography of Travel and Tourism. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Jury, M., Cuamba, P. & Rululuza, P. (2011) Development strategies for a coastal resort in Southern Mozambique. African Journal of Business Management Vol. 5(2), 481-504 Kovacic, M. & Komac, A. (2011). The issues of beach management in Croatia with emphasis on Zadar County. PREGLEDNI CLANAK / REVIEW, 244-255 Micallef, A. & Williams, A. (2012). Beach Management: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge. Mill, R. (2008). Resorts: Management and Operation. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Olawale, T. and Chinyere, C. (2012) SOCIO-ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF LA CAMPAGNE TROPICANA BEACH RESORT TO THE HOST COMMUNITY. Journal of Tourism, Hospitality & Culinary Arts, 4(2), 49-65 Olorunfemi, S. & Adebayo, E. (2013). Performance Assessment of Lokoja Confluence Beach as a Tourist Site in Kogi State, Nigeria. International Journal of Marine Science Vol.3, No.33, 258-266. Scott, D., Hall, M. & Gossling, S. (2012). Tourism and Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation. London: Routledge. Semeoshenkova, V. &A. T. Williams (2011) Beach quality assessment and management in the Sotavento (Eastern) Algarve, Portugal. 64, 1282-1286 Tsagbey, S., Mensah, A. & Nunoo, F. (2009). Influence of Tourist Pressure on Beach Litter and Microbial Quality –Case Study of Two Beach Resorts in Ghana. West African Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 15, 1-8 Yepes, V. & Medina, J. (2005). Land Use Tourism Models in Spanish Coastal Areas. A Case Study of the Valencia Region. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue 49, 83-88 Zainal, A., Radzi, S., Hashim, R, Chilk, C. and Abu, R. (2012) Current Issues in Hospitality and Tourism: Research and Innovations. London: CRC Press. Appendices Figure 1 – Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort (source: Organizational website, Photo Gallery) Figure 2 - Marriott’s Marbella Beach Resort (source: Organizational website, Map) Read More