Thailands Tourism Industry through Royal Thai Airways - Research Proposal Example

Dissertation Research Proposal Royal Thai Airways High Wealth Markets in the UAE & UK [Pick the Table of Contents Background 2 Research Problem 4 Research Objectives 8 Literature Review 9 Methodological Considerations 9 Data Collection 10 Research timetable 11 Implications of the Study 12 Bibliography 13 Background As the national airline, Royal Thai Airways (RTA) represents the Kingdom of Thailand. On May 14, 1997, RTA an international Public Company Ltd. officially announced the formation of a 'Star Alliance' with four other world leading airlines: Air Canada, Lufthansa German Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines System and United Airlines. Briefly after on October 26, 1997, Varig Brazilian Airlines joined the consortium carrier group in an integrated worldwide air transport network. Partnership between the six carriers formed 'the strongest airline alliance in the history of commercial aviation with the most extensive network covering major destinations over six continents.' Through partnership collaboration, RTA works toward promotion of aviation rights development of Thailand's tourism industry 'as means of generating additional income both in Thai baht and foreign currencies.' Conclusively, RTA is both a brand and a national identity strategy; a corporation dedicated to 'spreading awareness around the world of the uniqueness of Thai culture, its customs, and traditions.' The goal of the research study is to examine the extent and nature of Thailand's reach as a tourist economy within the global market. Focused on RTA's Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) market segment, the project proposes to engage the topic of globalization through inquiry into ROP passenger membership, and in particular high wealth, male customers from cosmopolitan hubs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and United Kingdom (UK). At the global level, RTA and by extension the Thai tourist economy has at present, a significant share of the available demand. Well known for its personal service tourism (i.e. sex tourism) economy, Thailand's beauty and tropical surroundings are compliment the dream world of male fantasies attained through association with luxury market advertising of those services. Nevertheless, Thailand's sex tourism industry has an alternative image, which is predicated upon the policy concerns of human rights activism against such activities. AIDs and interrelated discourses on 'health' utilized by medical, public health and 'spa' businesses are also considered. A full service provider of commercial airline service to customers around the globe, RTA faces a challenge in identity management that is perhaps unparalleled elsewhere in terms of market analysis and communication. Business development, then is fostered through negotiation of gender terms, and precisely so; RTA employs Thailand's 'Spa Culture' as a benefit to ROP members, yet retracts from association with anything pertaining to 'sex.' The royal orchid carrier is in the last instance, 'traditional.' How this impacts investment underscores the nature of this study. Participation in the Star Alliance was the result of various changes in the world's economic situation, RTA claims, as single carriers 'cannot sustain and respond to these changes effectively and sufficiently.' The 2008 'Open Skies Agreement' between the EU and US set the pace for a radical restriction on nations that did not follow suit in regard to free-trade at international airports. Marketing 'paradise' has now become more expensive. Revenues generated by RTA's frequent flier customers more important to the airline than ever. To this end, the project focuses on the high wealth, male ROP client, and in particular those of the UAE and UK, working together in the heavily sanctioned social environments (i.e. dictating prohibition on sexual relations) of the Gulf States. The theoretical prospectus on the project is focused on globalization and identity, and specifically addresses critical marketing theories dedicated to activist methodologies of advertising praxis. The study also examines the ways in which business development is implicated within scholarship on the 'globalizing' and 'femininzing' forces of late-capitalist forms of flexible accumulation. Seminal work on the subject by David Harvey (1987), The Condition of Postmodernity which has become a classic text for development of materially grounded inquiries into forces of globalization prefaces the study. Harvey looks at the mobilization of 'hybridities' as a vehicle for cultural production: understood within the proposed project as instruments of market identification strategy. Since the 1970s to the present, Harvey argues, the global capital economy has shifted to a dynamic of flexible accumulation that has facilitated something he calls 'time-space compression.' Hence, 'the more unified the space, the more important the qualities of the fragmentations become for social identity and action' (p.271). In short, the rapid speed of technological production, complicated systems of finance capital, accompanied by the increasingly competitive drive for consumption has necessitated particular types of responses in cultural production. As advantages are sought in the competition for capital, increased access to communication and mediated knowledge transfer has placed an emphasis on 'particular qualities of the spaces that capital might be attracted' (Harvey 1987, p.271). Identity has become the responsive mechanism of within market strategies attempting to keep pace with flexible accumulation and the movement of capital from one metropole to another. Investigation of the brand identity(s) of Royal Thai Airways (RTA), a national airline connecting the world to Thailand by way of its numerous international hubs, addresses how national identification of the airline is implicated in the 'alternative' commercial tourism market; and especially the Culture of the Spa Tourism in that nation. Research Problem The proposed research looks at Thailand's tourism industry through Royal Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) market segment. A study of identity management by a global commercial airline company, RTA offers a critical site of inquiry into the gendered world of business, and in the particular the development of a high wealth, sex tourism industry in one of Southeast Asia's emergent economies. A timely scholarly inquiry posed to contribute to recent advances in critical marketing theory and feminist economics the research begins with assumptions engendered within academic discussions in organizational practice, and demonstrates the complex social and political dynamics taking place in Thailand under the pressures of globalization. Engagement with tourism as an industry, also implicates the study in what Thea M. Sinclar (1996) considers material and ideological changes in sex tourism in Southeast Asia. The project looks at the impact of sex tourism in the world's third largest industry, and how current formations of capital inform high wealth transmission luxury tourist locations in developing nations such as Thailand. In addition, the project esteems more recent sociological versions of market research into how women find themselves excluded from some occupations and associated with ideologies of gender and social sexuality through commercial instruments of advertising, and personal service. The conceptual basis for 'dark tourism' is also incited toward understanding this nascent trajectory within studies of Southeast Asia's tourist economy, and delves into the glamorous aspects influencing identity management strategies by more traditional Thai tourist entities such as RTA. Since the 1970's a supply sided pattern of flexible accumulation capital shifts have taken place at almost lightening speed to meet competitive demand. Thailand, while identified as a site of sex tourism since the Vietnam War era, is also one of Southeast Asia's up-and-coming flexible labor regimes representative of the inexpensive, yet particularly 'skilled' labor markets now meeting global investment demand. Outside of male based migrant labor pools, the particularities that foreign capital has been most attracted to are in fact qualities that are thought to be essentially feminine. Addressing the earlier insights of feminist scholars working on the emergence of gendered globalization in Southeast Asia, the foregoing project proposes to look at the 'variable 'subject-constitution[s]' [that] link individual consciousness to the workings of international capital' (Ong 1987, p. 296). The project speaks to earlier feminist critique of sexism in the field of discourse analysis, interfaces well with market research on gender segmentation, particularly where commercial advertising prospectus is concern, because the perspective is one of 'effect;' where definitive statements rest on 'object status.' According to Chandra Mohanty (1991) Methodological universalism strips all contextual meaning from the subject's experience by emphasizing 'a cross-cultural, and singular monolithic notion of patriarchy or dominance [which] leads to a similarly reductive and homogeneous notion of [. . .] third world difference' (p.53). In other words, Western feminist scholarship, even in its so-called radical and liberal forms, has continually appropriated the same conceptual technologies of inequality foundational to social contract theories within Western humanist thought. The proposed project addresses the challenges faced by Asian commercial entities promoting consumer choice amidst a landscape of globalization. As a commercial carrier with markets in locations such as the UAE and UK, RTA's market perspective must meet the demands of those markets with flexible cultural approach. Ethical considerations within the company's organizational protocol contribute to the framework of advertising and customer relations, as well as protect the interest of employees in the following statement: 'The company pledges to operate fairly and ethnically protecting its rightfully- earned profits and appreciating the importance of its staff as valuable resources and representatives of the company. All of our employees have a role to play in contributing to the company's success. To achieve the goals above, the company has the following set of general business ethics as well as instructions and warnings specific to the various employee positions throughout the organization : 1) Treat all clients and business associates fairly and honestly and protect the interests of all our customers; 2) Be politically impartial for the sake of the nation and society; 3) Run our business on the basis of fair competition; and 4) Support the efficient use of domestic resources while preserving natural resources and the environment.' The plastic nature of the RTA statement of ethics reflects that of most commercial carriers. Without citation of corporate ownership, the universal model of rights and responsibilities is one readily recognizable in its allocation of equal treatment, but without mention to the politics of something like gender, and its ramifications in flight. Review of RTA's Board of Directors and Executive Staff reveals a 100% male management team. How Thailand conducts business then, is succinctly similar to how business as usual is conducted all over the globe: with gendered oversight, and a universal statement that speaks to national markets throughout the various consumer societies with greater or lesser degrees of sympathy to things such as 'universal suffrage' (i.e. women's vote) and female administration (i.e. glass ceiling). Difficulties in addressing something seemingly as benign as a universal statement of ethics as a core value statement in organizational representation poses a challenge within the research, and one which will be approached by looking at RTA's business development and public information strategies through a dialogic model of analysis. Both top-down and bottom-up approaches to the organizational structure offer keen insights into RTA's Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) high wealth, male customers. Through examination of RTA's market constituency through the insights of RTA business management, public relations, and in-flight staff, the research looks at the global carrier's identity management strategies in the context of a national market deeply implicated in broad based prostitution services (i.e. massage parlors) and expropriation of related sectors of the economy related to health, matchmaking, and spa services. Unlike RTA's largely male executive management, much of the personal services industry in Thailand is owned and operated by women. The complexity of competition for foreign tourist business by both RTA and those personal services, is at one and the same time dependent, yet filled with tensions. One only has to look at the range of commercial advertising media in Bangkok's many hotels to understand the inversion of external marketing of RTA in other national markets versus in situ advertising intended to attract the same market segment as personal services of all types; including RTA ROP Spa clientele, whom may spend extensive time and monies on massage parlors promoted as 'spa services.' Bottom of Form Relax and Rejuvenate Pamper and refresh yourself when redeeming miles with Spa Awards. A collection of 16 superb spas in Thailand have been selected for their expertise in treatments, exceptional products and sumptuous facilities for an unforgettable spa experience. Each partner offers a choice of treatment menus that can be redeemed with miles for yourself, or you can gift a spa experience to an Award Nominee. 90 minute treatments 12,000 miles 120 minute treatments 15,000 miles Half day packages 20,000 miles From March 1 to May 31, 2010 simply contact the spa of your choice for a reservation. Allow 3 working days for miles to be deducted, and on confirmation enjoy your pampering and luxurious spa experience. For spa contact details and complete treatment menus visit the Spa Award site at www.thaiairways.com/rop at Redeeming Awards. Terms and Conditions: Spa redemption is a promotional Award valid for use with stated spa operators and locations. Spa Awards can be redeemed from March 1 - May 31, 2010, and usage of all Spa Awards must be completed by June 30, 2010. Spa Awards can be redeemed by members for self use, or for an Award Nominee. Awards are for stipulated treatment menus only. Any applicable taxes and surcharges, additional treatments, spa services or products are subject to payment and are the responsibility of the Award holder. All treatments are subject to availability. Advance reservations are required by contacting the spa directly. Allow 3 working days for miles to be deducted from accounts and reservation confirmation. Once the spa treatment is confirmed, the Award is not transferable to another spa operator. No mileage re-credit is permitted. Research Objectives The project looks RTA's market segment of high wealth, adult male travelers from the perspective of business development, advertising, and consumer choice models of customer service. Methodological consideration on the project, also studies the customer through direct service interactions with stewardess/steward staff through the incorporation of semi-structured interviews. Query within data collection looks at the business, consumer, and leisure pursuits of the men that Thai Airlines hopes to attract and maintain. RTA Identity management is at the heart of the study. RTA's market strategy toward business development of its passenger base in high wealth demographics in the UAE and UK focuses on building a long-term, frequent flier relationship with those customers whom travel back and forth to Thailand on business and pleasure trips. The ROP customer base is addressed in the project as an avenue for larger queries into: 1) competition models; 2) global rank; and 3) gendered specificities of leisure politics in the personal services area of the tourist industry. Monthly operating statistics will be tracked to further the objectives of the study. Literature Review Initiated by preliminary research on Thailand's national market, the study proposes to expand this new field of investigation in the field of commercial airline business, and its impact on Thailand's tourism. The overarching scope of inquiry is directed at examination of what has become known as 'identity management' strategies and related discussions on the gendered identity of national labor markets in the global economy. Theoretical contribution from the research will go toward the following three bodies of Market Globalization literature: 1) Tourism studies dedicated with an emphasis on both commercial airline travel, and on sex tourism (Arnold 2009, Beaverstock 2010, Cabezas 2009, Cochrane 2007, Doganis 2002, Franklin 2003, Gold 2006, Jeffreys 2008, Mowforth and Munt 1997, Ryan 2003, Shaw 2004, Taneja 2010, Weed 2007, and Zheng 2009); 2) Gender and globalization studies about the division of labor in developing economies (Andrews 2009, Blaney 2010, Buhalis and Costa 2005, Chen 2008, Crepeau 2006, Gain and Phipps 2005, Gillan and Bob 2009, Lombardo 2009, Mohanty 1991, Ong 1987, Parker 2000, Sinclair 1996, Standing 1989, Stearns 2000); and 3) Market studies on Southeast Asia, and related strategic management literature on current transformations in organizational practice, and attendant commercial law and international policy (Altman 2008, Elliot 2010, Evans 2003, Fatemi 2006, Faukner 2003, Gillan and Bob 2009, Hara 2008, Gillespie and Randall 2009, Kitamura 2009, Macris 2009, McDonald and Mouncey 2009, Parker 2006, Sheng 2009, S. Sutheeshana 2008, Taylor 2006, and Yusuf 2000). Methodological Considerations Methodological consideration in the study is premised on case studies in airline commerce and tourist services. Implementation of the project is based on a tri-partite research design, and will be conducted in three Phases: Phase I: Field Investigation; Phase II: Data Analysis; and Phase III: Archival Research. The study focuses on sex tourism and its impact on Thailand's global market reach in more traditional sub-sectors of the industry. Methods employed within the study include both the following qualitative and quantitative methods: 1) Primary Research utilizing ethnographic methods - interviews and participant observation; 2) Secondary Research - advertising and advertising metrics, RTA corporate public relations materials, and other archival information; and 3) Statistical data generated from the primary research will be coded according to independent variables, and dependent outcomes, and put into SAS or SPSS database. The statistical data from the small sample will be compared with existing ethnographic market data, and interfaced with aggregate econometric market data for dissemination of the findings as they pertain to national and global findings. The methodological design is intended to study a national culture and its tourism business. Analysis at RTA does not, however, mean that the study considers corporate culture as bounded unto itself, but that it is but one reflection and part of a larger social transmission of shared cultural values, such as 'national,' 'global,' or even 'commercial' Culture. However, there is something that is generally recognized as Thai tourism, and especially, Thai 'Spa Culture.' It is in the interstices between the Spa Culture of Thailand mobilized by RTA and other traditional tourism entities, and the broader 'sex tourism' industry in that country, that the project seeks to illuminate that in marketing as elsewhere where there is an intense transmission of inter-cultural contact, the social construction of reality lies at the core of those third terms (i.e. 'gentlemen's holidays') in most social praxis. Ethnographic methods, appropriated from the disciplines of anthropology and sociology have increasingly offered a new application in professional market segmentation research, and related policy studies. A snapshot or rendering of human social existence in a historically specific context, the study merely proposes to look at the processes of gender globalization within the Thai tourism industry through the eyes of RTA staff and their customers. By focusing on the semiotics of consumption, the investigation will look at how 'the universal' is generated through the corporeal experiences of wealth men who travel for business and leisure to Thailand, and in reflection, a glimpse into the dream world of Thai 'Spa Culture' as it bodies forth as an idea within Thai advertising in both the United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom, and in Thailand. Data Collection Phase I: Field Investigation: consists of data collection at Royal Thai Airways (RTA) amongst business management, public relations and in-flight service staff. Interviews and participant observation will provide insight into the relationship between RTA business development strategy, and the company's high wealth ROP customers between 35 - 60 years of age. The semi-structured interviews will include information on ethical oversight, finance, and statistical reporting. Advertising and media analysis of comparative marketing mix and press within the tourism industry in the UK and in Thailand will augment the study. From the client perspective, conversational inquiry will supplement knowledge on RTA consumer demand, customer service expectations, and related preferences behind choice of services in Thailand's 'spa market.' THAI's Brand at Work Here are some examples of how THAI's brand and visual elements of corporate identity are presented in everyday situations.i In Phase II: Data Analysis of interviews and participant information. Phase III: Archival Research: of market reports and scholarly work will be conducted at the [Library] and will situate the study in the areas of contributory scholarship and support for preparation of the manuscript. Research Timetable [Drop in a grid timeline with list of Activities stated in Methodological Consideration: 3 Phases]. Implications of the Study In interest of the study of globalization and gender, the proposed study of high wealth male consumers in the international airline market through examination of Royal Thai Airways market strategy in new spheres of global commerce. A Thai citizen and candidate for the [degree of - program] at [university, city], I chose the field of global market research on gender segmentation in the international airline sector as the topic for the [choose: thesis or dissertation] research in the tourist industry. Other contributory aspects of the project will go toward the interconnected discussions between market advertising, brand identity management and press related to public health dialogues on sex tourism. Support from the [foundation - fellowship title] will enable empirical data collection on the project, and furtherance of scholarship with honorable mention. Copies of articles from the chapters of the dissertation and all other publications from the project will be provided to the [foundation]. Read More