Tourism Management Principles, Challenges Facing Hotel Emporium - Case Study Example

Tourism Management Principles (Name) (Institution) Introduction To understand tourism management principles this essay will look into Emporium Hotel as a tourism business. Emporium hotel is one of the leading hotels in Australia in offering leisure and luxury services. It was the first of its kind in Brisbane Australia to revolutionize luxury accommodation and it was one of the major stimuli of urban renewal and revival of Fortitude valley and its environs. The hotel has a great reputation both in national and international level and it is the most awarded boutique luxury hotel in Australia. Most of the people who have visited the hotel have said that it holds a special place in their hearts because of the services offered and its unique style and design (Houdré, 2008). Sustainability Issues Sustainable development is a process that seeks to meet present needs without affecting the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs. The process, therefore, must aim at creating a better present life that will be viable to the future generations. Sustainable tourism aims at making the development of tourism to be supportable ecologically in the long term. The importance of sustainable tourism is vested in its objective to conserve natural resources and promote local culture and tradition. Tourism that is sustainable is responsible for creating employment and eliminating any threat to the environment and local culture. Tourist destinations like the Emporium hotel are always faced with sustainability issues that tend to undermine sustainable development. The main aim of sustainable tourism is to transact its business without affecting the environment but this is not always the case. When people visit the Emporium hotel the amount of solid waste generated increases immensely and this undermines the aims of sustainable development. The greenhouse gasses emitted as people travel from their homes to hotel Emporium pollute the environment. It is estimated that the amount of gasses produced to the environment will increase by 105% by the year 2050 and this is a sustainability issue that needs to be addressed. Tourism not only does it create environmental pollution but also it creates noise pollution which may be annoying to the residents near the destination. When tourists visit a destination like Emporium hotel the culture of the locals is always in danger because they tend to forget their culture and embrace the new one. Another sustainability issue is that Emporium hotel and the likes consume a lot of land and ecosystems ending up threatening the life of wildlife. In the process of occupying land adverse effects like land clearing, over construction, disturbance of coastal wetlands and rainforests are experienced. Sustainability issues have to be addressed by tourism institutions in order to attain sustainable development. Hotel Emporium as a tourist destination must step up and promote the use of environmentally friendly consumer products. Products that have neutral carbon emission and educate tourists on the importance of safeguarding the environment. Tourism industry should encourage their customers to find other ways of traveling that will not affect the environment greatly through emission of greenhouse gasses. The number one priority should be safeguarding the culture and traditions of the people who are near the hotel. Maintaining the importance of local culture is one of the pillars of sustainable tourism. Challenges Facing Hotel Emporium and its Operation Technological Issues- keeping up with the fast growing technology is very difficult and expensive and it is a major challenge facing the organization. In recent times the organization has faced criticism in the large number of clicks that guests have to make while securing reservation over the internet reservation systems. This is a great challenge to the organization and if it is not rectified the hotel will lose reservations to competitor’s websites. Guests that visits the hotel have made the hotel to make room innovations like installing multiple telephone lines which have proven to be very expensive to implement (Wood, 2002). Marketing Issues- product differentiation so as to focus on a specific group of travelers and tourists is on the rise. It a big concern that if products are differentiated more the ability of the customers to differentiate them will decrease. This is a great challenge to the organization as it will lose its customers to the competitor. Guests are becoming more and more sophisticated as there are those types of products and services that they desire. Identifying this kind of services and products desired by customers can be a very big challenge and an organization can build amenities which will later not appeal the guests despite using a lot of capital building them (Choi & Sirakaya, 2006). Increased Competition- the number of hotels with the same structure as Emporium has increased and this means that the market has to be shared. This results in competition as they try to attract customers into their fold. The competition makes the firms to the price of their products and services so as to provide greater value to the customers and this may reduce the profits of the organization. Some rooms in the hotel sometimes may stay unoccupied as there is a lot of options for tourist to consider. To counter the competition, the hotel will have to introduce strategies like selling rooms with packages (free air transport) among others (Ritchie & Crouch, 2003). Labor Shortages- the shortage of labor and its effect on the tourism industry is one of the challenges noted by hoteliers. The expansion of the hotel industry is not only limited by capital but also by the number of qualified personnel available. A shrinking labor force is one of the major challenges that hotel Emporium is facing and it has to attract and retain its qualified workers which is not a very easy task. The contributing factors to the diminished labor force are wage levels, failure to address worker’s satisfaction and long working hours. The organization will have to innovate new ways of capturing and getting hold of its qualified workers. Economic Issues- the performance of any tourism organization will be affected by the national economy. The business will do very well when a nation’s economy is good and it will go down when the economy of the nation slows. As a result, the hotel is forced to offer discounts to its customers yielding low revenues and decreased profit. The economies of other individual countries affect the travel pattern of guests meaning that when the economy is low people will not visit the hotel and vice versa. The hotel must deal with such challenges with great responsibility that will not harm its productivity in the long run (Liu, 2003). Political Issues- the political status of any country determines how business is done and their success depends on politics. When bad politics are carried in the country bad decisions that affect businesses will be done. A number of incentives may be reduced or the businesses may be overtaxed. Politics may lead a country into chaos that will force people to flee and discourage tourists from coming in. If tourists are discouraged from entering a country and hotels survival depend on them, it becomes a big problem which may force hotels to close down. Addressing Sustainability Sustainability can be described as the study of how natural systems function, remain diverse and produce everything required for the ecology to remain in balance. The Sustainability focuses on how we live with the natural systems around us and protecting them from damage and destruction. Sustainability does not only focus on the environment but also the social and economic things that surround a business organization. Using the Ecotourism Australia ROC and ECO certification criteria we will assess how emporium hotel addresses sustainability. This will be achieved by identifying three areas where sustainability is addressed strongly and three where it is addressed weakly (Ko, 2005). The criteria of Ecotourism Australia ROC and ECO certification includes several aspects which are business management and operational planning, responsible marketing, customer satisfaction, environmental management, interpretation of education, contribution to conservation, working with local communities and lastly cultural respect and sensitivity. Among the eight aspects, the hotel sustainability practice has addressed strongly customer satisfaction, responsible marketing and business management and operational planning. It has not addressed well the aspect of environmental management, cultural respect and sensitivity and working with local communities. Customer Satisfaction- an organization achieves customer satisfaction when the products and services it offers meets or exceeds the expectations of the customers. Hotel emporium has monitored and acted upon customer feedback and this has helped in improving the quality of products and services offered. A true indicator that hotel Emporium is satisfying its customers is the fact that it was voted as Australia’s leading boutique hotel at the World Travel Awards. This has happened for two years in a row under stiff competition from other hotels. Use of modern technology has been a great contributor in satisfying customers. Business Management and Operational Planning- this aspect requires tourism business to comply with government procedures like following some regulations obtaining licenses and permits. Hotel Emporium has every document required to run an ecotourism business and are produced when needed. The hotel has a good public liability insurance that ensures the business is protected in case of an event like a fire or other accidents. The hotel also has a good business plan that is supported by a wonderful market plan that helps the hotel identify where visitors are coming from and how to reach them. A huge workforce which is well trained and motivated to serve and satisfy the visitors have also been planned well by the hotel. Responsible Marketing- the responsibility of marketing is to provide visitors with information about the place they are about to visit and what surrounds the place. The hotel has provided precise and accurate information which shows what visitors should expect to see once they arrive. They have also modeled the services that they offer so as to give the customers a highlight of what they will be paying for. This aspect requires the hotel to provide customers with a responsible depiction of what to expect upon arrival and that is what the hotel have done. Environmental Management – any tourism activity is not supposed to affect the environment negatively. These activities are supposed to be developed and coordinated in such a way that conserves and improves both the natural and cultural environments in which they are done. Activities of tourism that happen because hotel Emporium exists have impacted the environment negatively. Research shows that an average international tourist generates I kg of solid waste per day and the Hotel have done very little in making sure that such waste does not end up polluting the environment. The waste water from swimming pools is not well handled and has a significant effect on the environment (Place & Lew,1998). Working with Local Communities- the local community forms an important part of an organization as they are the first to be targeted as potential customers. The benefits that any tourism organization should also be shared with the local community. Such benefits may include the creation of jobs for the residents and use of community facilities in hotel activities. The hotel is required to get its task force from the local community and also get its raw materials from locals. The operations of the hotel should have minimal negative effects to the local community. The hotel has not considered the locals as most of its employees comes from another community far from the business. Cultural Respect and Sensitivity- the main idea behind tourism is the natural values of a given area. These areas have cultural values which should be embraced and safeguarded by a tourism organization. Proper consultation should be done with the local communities before doing tourist activities in their area. There should be an agreement between the organization and the local people to introduce a new culture that will come with the tourists. Even if the hotel has done all these, tourists will always affect the culture and tradition of places they visit a scenario that will make the locals to abandon their core values that support the activity of tourism (Saarinen, 2006). Recommendations To improve the sustainability practice the hotel should actively engage the local indigenous communities as they are the main determinants of tourism. Local communities if well engaged can improve the productivity of the hotel as many people travel to see cultural practices of particular communities. The hotel should do anything within reach to ensure that the environment I conserved as our existence greatly depends on it. It can support the production of carbon free commodities so as to reduce the amount of carbon released to the environment. If these recommendations are adopted the sustainability practice will be effective and profitability will be high. References Wood, M. (2002). Ecotourism: Principles, practices and policies for sustainability. UNEP. Ko, T. G. (2005). Development of a tourism sustainability assessment procedure: a conceptual approach. Tourism management, 26(3), 431-445. Saarinen, J. (2006). Traditions of sustainability in tourism studies. Annals of tourism research, 33(4), 1121-1140. Choi, H. C., & Sirakaya, E. (2006). Sustainability indicators for managing community tourism. Tourism management, 27(6), 1274-1289. Ritchie, J. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2003). The competitive destination: A sustainable tourism perspective. Cabi. Place, S., Hall, C. M., & Lew, A. A. (1998). Sustainable tourism: A geographical perspective. Swarbrooke, J. (1999). Sustainable tourism management. Cabi. Liu, Z. (2003). Sustainable tourism development: A critique. Journal of sustainable tourism, 11(6), 459-475. Houdré, H. (2008). Sustainable Development in the hotel industry. Read More