Hospitality Industry in Switzerland - Case Study Example

Name Course Lecturer Date Contents Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 General presentation of the country 5 2.1 Geography and demography 5 2.2 Politics, culture, languages and religion 5 3.0 Main destinations in Switzerland 6 3.1 Swiss transport museum 7 3.3 Swiss national park 7 3.4 Market positioning 7 3.4.1 Advertisements 8 3.5 Destination performance 8 3.5.1 Local resident satisfaction 8 3.5.2 Local industry satisfaction 8 3.5.3 Environmental considerations 8 3.6 Importance challenges problems 9 3.7 Demand 9 3.7.1 Market segmentation 9 3.8 Tourists’ motivation 10 3.9 Challenges and problems 10 3. 10 Supply and performance 11 3.10.1Hotels and Categories 11 3.11 Tourist performance and statistics 11 3.12 Competitors 12 4.0 Future forecasts of tourism in Switzerland 12 4.1 Demand and forecasts 13 4.2 Supply forecast 13 4.3 Future challenges 13 5.0 Conclusion 14 6.0 References 15 Hospitality Industry in Switzerland 1.0 Introduction Switzerland is a federal state with the best democracy in the world. It is also the most competitive country in tourism industry globally. Hospitality industry is the highest developing as well as most vibrant fields of employment with optimistic tendencies for the future in the whole world. The industry guarantees a more development as well as potent economic power in the subsequently decade. The industry has been of great importance to the economy of Switzerland. The intention of this paper is to analyse the hospitality market which includes hotels as well. The local as well as international tourism in Switzerland have been contributing greatly on the economy and the report shows that in 2010, they contributed to a total of CHF 35.5 billion. 51% of the revenue was the expenditures of tourists in things such as lodgings, food or transportation. 2.0 General presentation of the country 2.1 Geography and demography Switzerland is regarded as a really sticking alpine country. It is well-known for its lakes as well as mountains and chocolate. Geneva is the capital city of Switzerland which is in the western side of the country. It is at the mouth of river Rhone and enclosed by Jura Mountains on the west side and in the east by French Alpines. Geneva is the core of Europe’s highway network and can be simply arrived at in 2 hours time through plane from most of the key cities in Europe. 2.2 Politics, culture, languages and religion Switzerland is the centre for finance, politics as well as commerce. It is also renowned as the centre for hospitality in the whole world and it has been for the last few years the world leader in tourism and hotel management study. The country is the most multi-ethnic country globally whereby over 20% of the populace are overseas nationals. There are four official languages in the country which includes German, French, Romantsch and Italian (Lijphart, 1979). English is also spoken in the country by a section of the local inhabitants and also by a large number of foreigners. When addressing locals, an individual is advised to use French. The country has four native sub-cultures which include france, german, itally and swiss culture (All about Switzerland, 2014). Most of the residents of the country are Roman Catholic with 41.8%. The second largest religion group is protestant with 35.3%, muslim 4.3% and orthondox 1.8% unspecifiesd religion group with 4.3%. Switzerland distinctive political method is regarded as the current world’s most stable democratic system which gives an utmost involvement of inhabitants which is an additional benefit to tourism in the country. Switzerland is a current federal state with 26 cantons confederation (Democracy building, 2014). The government is of seven members elected by the federal assembly. The government members act as president in turns. Due to the elevated improved system of direct democracy the Swiss people influences political affairs. The country has a extremely flourishing market economy founded on international trade as well as banking. The living standards, quality of education, worker productivity and health care of the Swiss people are advanced than any other European country. Inflation of the country is low and unemployment rate as well. Tourism contributes greatly to the economy of this country and is well known for its high quality export manufacturers such as chemicals, machineries (Index mundi, 2014). Tourism competitiveness is a significant economic pointer. It is a key component in economic motivation packages. Tourism creates employment in most of the countries in the world and also a fast-lane medium into the workforce for young people and women. Through promoting travel boosts client business confidence, it strengthens two way trade as well as support export income (Swiss Tourism sector, 2010). 3.0 Main destinations in Switzerland There are various main tourists’ destinations in Switzerland which includes: 3.1 Swiss transport museum Swis transport museum is situated at Lucerne and it is a dwelling to a display of locomotives, aircraft, ships, automobile as well as other sorts of communication and transport. The visitors also enjoy the planetarium and the IMAX theatre as well. 3.2 The Chillon Castle It is also known as Chateu de Chillon and is one of the famous castles in the country as well as best tourist attraction situated near Montreux. It used to be a home of the count of Savoys as at 12th to 14th century. It comprises of 100 buildings, some dungeons, three courtyards as well as four great halls. Every hall offers stunning sights of Lake Geneva. 3.3 Swiss national park It is the only national park in Switzerland which is tourists worth seeing and covers almost half the area of the whole country. The park is a shelter for diverse wildlife like marmots, elks as well as eagles. There are also other major tourist destinations in Switzerland which includes Geneva Jet D’eau, Zermatt, Schilthorn and Piz Gloria, the Tropical Alps, Appenzellerland, Zurich and others. 3.4 Market positioning Positioning is a marketing model that highlights what a firm should do in marketing the goods and services to the clients as Chen & Uysal (2002) says. Most of the destination places use different positioning in marketing their services 3.4.1 Advertisements Most of the destination places as well as hotels in Switzerland use advertisements as a way of positioning themselves in the market. They outline the goods and services they offer to clients. Destination places as well as hotels in Switzerland uses price in marketing their business. The prices are always high but they offer high quality services. They also offer an alternative to high prices. 3.5 Destination performance 3.5.1 Local resident satisfaction The views of the residents of Switzerland are always taken after a period of time. The residents around the destination places are always satisfied with the services as well as the impact of visitors nd the stipulation made for them (Rodríguez-Díaz & Espino-Rodríguez, 2008). 3.5.2 Local industry satisfaction The surveys of the domestic tourism service are regularly done in Switzerland. They are very important since they make sure that the resources allocated to tourism are well used in order to best result as well as gratify the requirements of the domestic firms. 3.5.3 Environmental considerations Environmental thoughts should be an essential element of the service preparation as well as delivery procedure. Sustainability matters should be sufficiently tackled through observing as well as putting in place systems (Rodríguez-Díaz & Espino-Rodríguez, 2008). Any new development should be evaluated in wide environmental terms. 3.6 Importance challenges problems Tourism is the fourth mainly significant source of export revenue in Switzerland. It is also very crucial to the residents since it is the key employer. The report shows that in 2005, the industry employed 4.4% of the total population of Swiss workforce. There are also some challenges and problems as well in the sector. Infrastructure poses to be a great challenge in the sector, whereby the tourist encounters difficulty in reaching to their destination. The country is conquered by miniature businesses spread all over the country, disposing of only little marketing budget (Hotel News Now, 2014). 3.7 Demand 3.7.1 Market segmentation Tourists are not similar, and have diverse images of their principle vacation as Dolnicar (2008) explains. Tourists are segmentation includes; 3.7.1.1 Commonsense segmentation In this kind of segmentation, the destination management notifies the data analysts about the individual features thought to be most pertinent for splitting tourists into segments. The option of personal aspects is driven by occurrence with the domestic market or realistic contemplations. Tourism destinations use country of origin as a criterion segmentation. Tourists’ profiles are made according to diverse countries of origin as well as develop customized marketing approaches for every country. Country of origin gives main realistic benefits of taking such a strategy. 3.7.1.2 Data-driven segmentation According to Dolnicar (2002), data segmentation involves the acknowledgement of the value of geographic as well as socio-demographic information regarding clients. This approach needs groups of clients to be structured on the foundation of more than one features as well as subsequently requiring diverse numerical method to be used. Tourism segmentation assists in understanding the basis which is used by tourism destinations to successfully segment tourism market. 3.8 Tourists’ motivation Motivation is described as psychological, biological as well as social requirements and wants which also includes interior as well as exterior forces. These forces explain how people are pushed by motivation difference into deciding on travelling as well as how they are drawn by destination aspects. 3.9 Challenges and problems Challenges that face tourism segmentation as well as motivation are compound as well as many. Changing demographics, reallocating travel prototypes as well as unstable economic situations are augmenting the pressure on industry stakeholders to expand effectual campaigns as well as business approaches. Health issues such as pandemics on the other hand have increased the urgency of action. 3. 10 Supply and performance 3.10.1Hotels and Categories 3.10.1.1 Five star Swissotel Courtyard Basel Renaissance Lucerne Hotel 3.10.1.2 Four star Zurich Marriott Hotel Renaissance Zurich Tower Hotel 3.10.1.3Three star Hotel City Apartments Swiss Star Dubsstrasse Flemings Hotel Zurich 3.10.1.4 Two star Hotel villette Rothaus 3.11 Tourist performance and statistics The total volume of visitors in may was more than 2.6 million and also the total spending of the visitors rose from 7.5 percent to 683 million for the month of may. Hotel performance on the other hand improved all over the country over the last three months as well as the previous year. The occupancy augmented as well and the ADR in the country went up with 2.4 percent and boosted the RevPAR 5.1 percent (All about Switzerland, 2014). 3.12 Competitors Switzerland hospitality industry faces stiff competition from European and American hospitality industry. Most of the hotels in UK such as the five star st Pancras Penaissance Hotel that are of the same category of Switzerland are mid priced as they offer the best quality to their client. In America, hotels such as st Regis Punta Mita Resort also gives the Switzerland four star hotels stiff competition. 4.0 Future forecasts of tourism in Switzerland Switzerland seeks to put in place mitigation policies on tourist mobility that are seeks to minimize GHG emissions which leads to an augments in transport expenditure and also which might promote environmental approaches that might lead to the change of travel patterns of tourists. The Swiss government has also created and executed of an interministerial commission to develop the outline Situations for tourism as well as make tourism strategy a development oriented economic approach. In addition, there has been also a plan to reorganize the Swiss National Tourism Office which have been given the name Switzerland Tourism together with target marketing that is more outcome oriented as well as creation of new assets founded on information technologies. Most of the hotels in Switzerland are involved in environmental projects. This is because environment is the greatest risk that the hospitality industry is facing currently. In order to minimize the effects that environment might have towards tourism, the hotels in Switzerland negotiates with the students all over the country in order to involve them in environmental programs. Majority of the hotels in the region have got green committee which oversee the environmental programs in the country. One of the hotels that is engaging in environmental programs is Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts that is planting trees not only in Switzerland but in the whole world as well. 4.1 Demand and forecasts The marketing strategy of Switzerland Tourism (ST) aims at attracting as well as encouraging summer tourism. The project is under the name inspiration concepts re-invent summer, which focuses on marketing approaches as well as the required infrastructure required to increase the number of tourist in the country during summer season (Euromonitor International, 2014). 4.2 Supply forecast The tourism marketing strategy aims at dynamic online package travel sales which shall boost the total number of tourist. In addition, travel accommodations, transportation as well as other services are among the strategies that tour operators are using on internet booking platforms. 4.3 Future challenges Despite being the most competitive country in the tourism industry, there are forecasted future challenges that need to be addressed. The stiff competition is one of the future challenges the country faces due to the hospitality development in other countries. This is one of the future challenges that Switzerland need to consider. In addition there is a need to come up with a strategy that shall increase the domestic tourism in the country. 5.0 Conclusion Switzerland is the best country that one can think of travelling to. This is because of the political stability in the country as well as the sticking destinations in the country. The geographical nature of the country is one of the reasons as to why people visit the country. There are beautiful destinations in this country that are mentioned in this report. The country has been using tourist segmentation approaches in order of acquiring the actual data and customers’ feedback regarding the services and experience in the country. Market positioning is also used in the country in order to make known of the services and goods offered in the industry. Despite the stiff competition in the world, Switzerland remains the best place one can desire to visit. 6.0 References Swiss Tourism Sector (2010). SWISS TOURISM POLICY . Geneva: swiss tourism association. Chen, J. S., & Uysal, M. (2002). Market positioning analysis: A hybrid approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 29(4), 987-1003. Rodríguez-Díaz, M., & Espinosa-Rodríguez, T. F. (2008). A model of strategic evaluation of a tourism destination based on internal and relational capabilities. Journal of travel research, 46(4), 368-380. Dolnicar, S. (2008). Market segmentation in tourism. Dolnicar, S. (2002). A review of data-driven market segmentation in tourism. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 12(1), 1-22. Democracy building (2014, April Thursday). Retrieved from http://www.democracy-building.info/switzerlands-political-system.html mundi, I (2014, April Thursday). switzerland economy profile . Retrieved from http://www.indexmundi.com/switzerland/economy_profile.html All about Switzerland (2014, April Thursday). Retrieved from http://official-swiss-national-languages.all-about-switzerland.info/swiss-people-mentality.html Lijphart, A. (1979). Religious vs. linguistic vs. class voting: The" crucial experiment" of comparing Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Switzerland. The American Political Science Review, 442-458. Euromonitor International, E. (2014, April Friday). Retrieved from http://www.euromonitor.com/travel-and-tourism-in-switzerland/report Read More