The Activities That Influence the Development of a Resort Business - Coursework Example

Debate on the activities that influence the development of a resort or spa business Introduction Tourism as a fast growing industry has become one ofthe key sources of revenues for many developing countries. The industry assisted many global economies to withstand the recent global recession to a great extent. Recently, there are two trends emerging in the tourism sector. First, people visit historical places, hill stations, seashores, and other important places of domestic land. Second, people travel abroad to visit famous foreign tourist destinations. The explosive growth of both domestic and international tourism sectors over the last decade has encouraged national governments and business organisations to design special projects with regard to tourism planning. The term resort can be defined from a number of perspectives based on the purpose of the definition; and “in the European context, the term ‘resort’ describes a spatial entity where tourism is a major activity” (Prideaux 2012, p.10). In simple words, resort refers to a place for relaxation or recreation mainly intended for tourists or other visitors for enjoying their holidays or vacations. What elements and activities constitute the competitive advantages of a resort and spa business vary as they depend on the perspectives of people concerned in this industry. One argument is that a resort must be a full-fledged lodging facility that emphasizes leisure experiences of every kind and an array of amenities and recreational facilities, and located in an area that ensures easy access to transport. In contrast, another view emphasizes on the eco-friendliness of the choice; and for the people who maintain this view, recreation and leisure amenities are only secondary elements that add to the resort experience. Definition of resort While evaluating resorts in the current global context, it is identified that there are certain primary features that are essential for creating an appropriate ambience for every resort. Mainly, they are vision, stakeholder collaboration, environmental scan, capital and programme projects, consistency tests, anticipation of outcomes, and communication plan (Resort Municipality,n. d.). Like any other business project, a resort development project must have a clearly stated vision. This vision statement should assist stakeholders to get a clear view of the scope of the resort (Fortress Mountain Resort, n. d.). Stakeholder collaboration is another essential component for a successful resort development. Effective stakeholder integration is necessary to promote stakeholder engagement in the resort development process (Mountain-Valley Community, n. d.). Therefore, the stakeholder collaboration strategy should precisely address how different stakeholder groups would be engaged and involved throughout the various stages of resort development. In the words of Welk (2008), the environmental scan is all about testing the eco-friendliness of the resort development plan. Today people are increasingly getting concerned about environmental sustainability. Hence, they are less likely to support any venture that can have adverse impacts on the environment. Hence, an environmental scan is necessary to convince people about the environmental impacts of the planned resort and thereby develop the resort gaining adequate public support. The vision and the outcomes of the environmental scan would assist the management to get a clear view of capital and programme projects needed to complete the resort development within the stipulated time. Such an analysis is vital to make certain that the planned project would not exceed the budged expenditure. In the next phase, the management has to perform consistency tests to ensure that the resort development strategy is in line with the directions already given by legal authorities. Official community plan, regional growth strategy, annual progress report, and financial plan are some of the policy documents required by legal bodies such as municipalities for the resort development. The management must also anticipate outcomes of the resort development strategy. While evaluating anticipated outcomes of the strategy, prime focus must be given to tourism outcomes and economic outcomes. Tourism outcomes may include increased levels of resort oriented private investments and visitor activities whereas high level of resort employment and diversified economy and tax regimes constitute economic outcomes. Finally, it is another key task of the management to communicate programme projects and other crucial aspects of the resort development to stakeholders. Therefore, a better communication plan is essential to make the resort development process effective. As discussed already, from the perspective of many people, luxuriance of a resort together with its proximity to transport and shopping is the major factor that influences the development of a resort or spa business. They strongly claim that visitors must be offered memorable leisure experiences and highly advanced amenities and recreational facilities. Today the information technology has grown incredibly and hence people are aware of the standards and rates of different facilities and services available. Hence, they have the option to choose most reputed services or facilities that are available at cheapest rates. As a result of the greater influence of the mass media, people like to choose innovative/most recently introduced product/service offerings. Furthermore, tourism sector has grown tremendously over the past two decades in spite of the severe recessionary pressures over the last few years. Reports indicate that the UK tourism industry improved its revenues by 12.6% and crossed £40 billion during the 2007-11 period; and the visitor numbers increased to 2.6% over the recession period. These figures indicate that tourism is turning out to be one of the fastest growing industries in UK (Liverpool Top of the League, 2013). Evidently, it is clear that the degree of competitive rivalry is very high in the country. Therefore, every resort management would strive to provide its clients with most competitive product/service offerings and other appealing facilities. Referring to this fact, a group of people argue that a resort or spa business cannot effectively develop in the current UK context unless they offer ultra modern leisure facilities and other improved experiences. Similarly, average household income in UK has been notably improving over the years. To illustrate, UK’s average household real income for the second quarter of the 2012 increased 1.6% from the previous quarter and reached £4,510 (McGagh 2012). It is an indication that the UK economy is rapidly recovering from the recessionary pressures and improving its employment spectrum. Probably, when average household income increases, people’s living standards also improve and hence they require luxury facilities and services. In addition, UK is a major global tourist destination and hence the country hosts a notable percent of global visitors every year. Foreign visitors who are financially sound may opt luxurious resort facilities. The ‘consumer choice theory’ justifies this argument. Consumer choice is a macroeconomic theory links goods/services consumption preferences to consumer demand curves via consumption expenditures (cited in Morris et al 2007, p. 24). Referring to the consumer choice theory, it is argued that a resort or spa business cannot meet customer preferences as long as there are other providers offering improved services/facilities at relatively fairer rates. Hence, proponents argue that if a resort restricts its leisure amenities in response to increasing environmental concerns, it is likely to be refused by visitors. However, it is clear that resorts or spa businesses that pay prime attention to eco-friendliness consider recreation and leisure amenities as only secondary elements of resort experience. For instance, amenities like swimming pool consume scarce resources like water and electricity at an increased rate. In addition, such facilities require a huge area of land for infrastructural support. Therefore, environmentally focused resorts may operate a few leisure amenities such as swimming pools. Referring to UK citizens’ current living standards, resorts that do not primarily focus on leisure experiences and amenities are less likely to be accepted by customers. To illustrate, consider an average tourist/person searching internet to identify best available resort facilities in UK. He may be provided with a long list of resources that offer varied services and different levels of leisure experience. He would not be interested to choose resort facilities that offer minimal leisure amenities because many famous UK resorts offer improved leisure experiences at fairly cheaper rates. Another view is that a resort facility is basically meant for better leisure experiences, recreational facilities, and varied amenities. People visiting and staying at resorts mainly aim physical and mental relaxation from stressful life events and strict work schedule. When the resort management limits its leisure amenities in order to promote its environmental responsibility, the management may fail to meet client satisfaction. Undoubtedly, stockholders would not support a venture which is less likely to meet customer satisfaction. This view extremely contrasts with the norms of environmental supporters who argue that customer satisfaction must be secondary to environmental sustainability. They justify their view by arguing that although customer is the king of the modern market and customer satisfaction is the major priority of modern businesses, customer focus would only assist the company to maximise its wealth and to achieve long term business objectives and does not meet its corporate social responsibilities. In today’s business environment, an organisation must be socially responsible and try to serve the community well where it operates. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory is cited for elucidating this argument. The CSR theory simply states that a company is obliged to be responsible for the impacts of its operations on the community/society. This theory assists organisations to make balance between their financial and social goals (Beisinghoff 2009, p.85). Referring to the views proposed by this theory, a resort or spa business will be responsible for their operations that can have adverse effects on the society. Evidently, it would be difficult for a leisure oriented resort to meet its corporate social responsibilities well. The second perspective of a resort or spa business development, which is entirely contrasting to the first one, has also a significant importance in the current global context. Today environmental sustainability has become a matter of central concern because environmental issues like global warming and climate change raise a series of potential challenges to the global society. In addition, depletion of natural resources and the threat of extinction of many non-renewable energy sources also challenge the existence of human society. Environmental studies indicate that man-made causes contribute significantly to such issues. This realisation persuaded the international society to promote the concept of sustainable development. Quoting t the perspective of sustainable development, many people argue that prime focus must be given to environmental sustainability while managing resort development. Evidently, a resort has the potential to contribute notably to environmental issues and resource depletion (FAO, n.d.). For instance, resorts or spa businesses require relatively huge volume of water for operating amenities like swimming pools. Evidences suggest that scarcity of water causes potential challenges to agricultural and industrial sectors in many parts of the globe. A UN report on water use anticipates that “by 2025, 1,800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions” (UN Water, n. d.). In this situation, use of water for leisure amenities would worsen the water scarcity issues across the globe. Similarly, a resort or spa business uses electricity at higher rates in order to power amenities and other leisure facilities. Currently, nations including UK face severe energy crisis due to the unavailability of adequate electric power. To illustrate, according to a report published by the energy regulator Ofgem, “Britain risks running out of energy generating capacity in the winter of 2015-16”. The report also predicts that nation’s spare capacity may drop from 14% to mere 4% over the next three years (BBC, 2012). Therefore, a growing number of people hold the view that power should not be wasted for resort related leisure experiences. In order to support their claims, they particularly focus on a new tourism concept called eco-tourism. The International Eco-tourism Society defines eco-tourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people” (International Eco-tourism Society). In the context of current environmental problems, the concept of eco-tourism is attaining greater importance. Today governmental bodies and other non-profit interest groups provide extensive financial and consultancy assistance for developing tourism projects like resort or spa business because they greatly promote the idea of eco-friendly business. Studies and surveys indicate that today investors are increasingly interested to invest in eco-tourism projects based on the belief that eco-friendly businesses will be greatly supported by the government and the general public (Tourism: Investing in energy and resource efficiency). Referring to this trend, a group of people strongly argue that modern resort development must be environment focused but not leisure experience oriented. In the context of growing environmental concerns, major stakeholder groups except customers are not likely to support a resort or spa business unless its operations are eco-friendly. Therefore, supporters of this view claim that the scope of stakeholder collaboration would be high while developing the resort in compliance with the current environmental norms. In addition, environment oriented resort development is the better way to obtain assistance from municipal authorities and other governmental bodies. The different perspectives discussed unanimously agree that effective stakeholder participation and collaboration is vital for the successful development of a resort or spa business. When a group of people argue that leisure oriented business is crucial to ensure effective stakeholder engagement, many others hold the view that an eco-friendly business model would facilitate stakeholder participation (City of Fernie 2012). While analysing the current global business environment, it seems that the second argument has more significance. Different research results indicate that business related greenhouse gas emissions represent a major cause contributing to ozone layer depletion and global warming. In addition, industrial consumption of water and other non-renewable resources raise a series of potential challenges for the future economy. As a result, currently governmental bodies, community groups, and other stakeholders give prime focus to the way an organisation treats its surrounding environment. Today, many of the large organisations prepare sustainability reports along with their financial statements in order to reveal how they treat their environment and local communities. When a resort or spa business uses scarce resources like water and electricity excessively, it exploits the resources that have to be set aside for the future generation. In other words, a leisure oriented resort often fails to meet its corporate social responsibilities properly. Evidences suggest that there have been a considerable shift in the view of visitors too. Currently, people like to live green and hence they may be willing to adjust with restricted leisure amenities for the sake of the environment. Furthermore, when the resort limits its leisure facilities and resource consumption, it can save more money for meeting its community needs well and thereby adding value to its corporate reputation. In sum, the aspect of eco-friendliness influences the development of a resort or spa business more than leisure experiences would do. From the above discussion, it is clear that there are some contrasting perspectives on the development of a resort or spa business. One of the major arguments is that the extensive leisure experiences, amenities, and recreational facilities would greatly influence the development of a resort more than anything else. In contrast to this, many others claim that an environment focused business model would significantly support a resort or spa business development. From a broad evaluation, it is observed that eco-friendliness must be emphasised more than leisure experiences while developing a resort or a spa business. References BBC. 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