Opportunity in Tourism Management - Case Study Example

Opportunity analysis report: Tourism Management Introduction: Entrepreneurship could be defined, without repeating an already extensive debate as a way of thinking, reasoning and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in its approach and leadership balanced (Tassiopoulos, 2009). It results in the creation, enhancement, realization and renewal of value not just for the owners but also for the participants and the stakeholders. The tourism industry is the world’s largest employer. Globalization has however shifted the focus of the tourism industry from air travel, overnights and provision of meals to delivering the total experience of fantasy worlds that are associated with tourism destinations. The issue of why some destinations. The issue of why some destinations. The issue of why some destinations are succeeding in international tourism and others are not indicates that there has been a paradigm shift. The shift has been from mass tourism to a situation where modern information and communication technology developments in symbiosis with the transformation of tourism demand have led to the advent of new tourism. This would basically mean that the new brand of tourists are a lot more educated, more environmentally sensitive, more independent, more flexible, more quality conscious and harder to please. Executive Summary: Given this background of contemporary international tourism, one would have to understand the issues in terms of strengths and limitations that one would have to encompass if one was to start a new venture in the field of tourism internationally. The following is a report that seeks to outline the basic issues that a new business venture would capture in its initial phases in the field of tourism (Tassiopoulos, 2009). The business will be the starting of an event based tourism firm that will seek to get domestic passenger traffic from the Australian market and use events across the European continent as the basic focus of the tourism packages and deals. The idea would therefore be selling Europe at its best-during events that bring out the distinct flavor of the European culture and the singularity of each of the constituent nations while retaining the flavor of international leisure and theme based travel. Europe is the most visited tourist region in the world with the highest tourism density. In 2000 alone, five European countries were among the 10 leading tourist destinations in the world in 1999, Europe accounted for 43 per cent of arrivals and 40 per cent of receipts in non-domestic world tourism. This demand is forecast to grow at a similar rate to that in the past i.e. to double during the next 20 to 25 years (EU, 2002). The worldwide total of international tourists to Europe is less than just about 60 per cent (Europe Direct, 2003). The business: The business that we seek to propose in this instance is that of a travel portal that would focus extensively on event and adventure based tourism. One would have to look east if one is to understand comprehensively the power and reach of the adventure and event based tourism is concerned. Countries like Hong Kong and Korea have exploited the concept to some detail in the past decade whereas Europe as a whole has lagged behind in exploiting the many events that characterize the continent’s calendar. The best known and the most attractive events in this would obviously be the football tournaments like the football leagues-both English and Spanish. Added to this there are many other events that would attract international tourism traffic. The venture would in essence be website; a travel portal that would specialize in event based and adventure tourism so that the specific target groups could be attracted. The first steps that would need to be taken as far as the competition is concerned are a set of launch, and promotion related advertisings gimmicks that would set the portal as being distinctive from the others present in the market right away. The following steps would therefore have to be taken: 1. For this purpose it would automatically be essential that the nature of the target audience be specified and clarified at the beginning of the venture itself. Much of the target group would be youngsters that are looking to have fun and experiencing travel with a different flavor-different from the run of the mill sightseeing country viewing stuff that most travel agencies offer. 2. The second most important thing is that the plan of action and the destinations, events and thrills on offer be marked. This would therefore automatically mean that the management would have to enter into strategic tie ups with existing small and medium travel agents that function locally so that the best of the offers could be garnered and the website and its touring programs have the feel of it being real and different and not the same stuff rehashed and reserved 3. The third most important step would be that the comprehensive promotion strategy based on the fact that the website is different be chalked out. This would mean that the competition would need to be tackled head on in the sense that the various aspects of the business and the offerings of the venture would have to be aggressively marketed. There is no place for a stealth entry as far as this market is concerned. Social networking websites would have to be used continuously and tie ups with Yahoo and Google are essential if the business has to see an overall semblance of success. 4. The international credit and debt crisis has made the consumer more money conscious. This would mean that a new entrant selling a product that is in essence a leisure product and not a necessary commodity would have to offer the consumer value for his money. This would mean that the things on offer would have to be money easy and prove to the consumer that the product on offer is worth the effort. Product pricing would therefore have to sleek and smart. In order to understand the strategy that the business would need to adopt while entering the market one would have to go back once again to the major point of discussion that was put forward in JB Quinn & J Voyer (1996). The essence of strategy formulation us coping with competition. It is easy to view competition too narrowly and too pessimistically. This is especially true in the light of the statement that fact that the business in question would need to compete with over 2 million similar business ventures all trying to achieve similar objectives despite the fact that a number f these objectives are easier achieved than others. The attempts by regions to develop their local knowledge as a form of ‘intellectual property’ and cultural competitive advantage is threatened by the tendency for such local knowledge to become incorporated into global systems of value creation. The consumer society is constantly searching for signs and symbols to valorise into commodities. Corijn and Van Praet (1994), in their review of the history of the Cultural Capitals, highlight the way in which different cities treated the designation. Athens, for example, concentrated on big foreign names, and ignored ancient Greek art. Florence highlighted its own historic importance, while Amsterdam projected itself as a European art city. Berlin was criticized for having an elitist approach, while the event was hardly visible among the normal cultural bustle of Paris. The common feature of all these cities was that they were already established European ‘Cultural Capitals’, identified by Bianchini and Parkinson (1993) as having a wealth of cultural facilities. Industry Basics: Tourism the leading growth industry in Europe and has been a major contributor to the emergence of Europe as being one of the capitals of the service economy on which much of the world finances are now based. It would also seem that the tourism industry in Europe is one of the more stable and solid sources of income and employment generation with the industry employing as much as 56 per cent of the European population. This would therefore automatically mean that the industry would focus high on the list of governmental and intergovernmental priorities therefore ensuring that the ones that would be working on the fringes of the industry would also reap the harvests of the government aid and attention that the industry enjoys overall. There are at present about 2.7 million SMTEs in tourism (western and central EU, employing about 17 million individuals. There are only a few hundred large tourism organizations that employ over 250 individuals each (EU, 1999). European tourism 9is also different from conventional tourism hot spots in the sense that the flow of international traffic by far surpasses the flow of domestic tourist traffic in Europe. These are overall expected to rise by 57 per cent from 1995 to 2010 in terms of numbers from 335 million to 527 million. This would ultimately translate in the creation of work for 2.2 to 3.3 million individuals as far as the tourism sector as a whole is concerned. Overall the environment in Europe is characterized to an extent by a willingness on the part of the authorities to allow the development of the tourism sector. This aids the government planning a twofold manner in as much as that it provides on the one hand the creation of jobs and on the other the development of the sector bringing in more money into the Union overall. The fact that employment is at the top of the EU priority actions in tourism is reflected by the fact that: The recognition that tourism activities already account for a significant proportion and varied range of jobs in the EU and the fact that the potential of tourism as a potential creator of jobs has been recognized The importance of the EU tourism industry which is widely present in all member EU countries- EU tourism sector is characterized by the existence of over 2 million business mainly all SMTEs that generate in combination more than 5.5 per cent of the total annual GDP, 6 per cent of the total EU employment and over 30 per cent of the essential trade in services as far as the EU countries are concerned. The prominent role and responsibility of public authorities at the local, regional and national levels and the supporting role of the EU in the establishment of conditions that could be deemed overall to be favorable to the sustenance in the development of tourism in Europe. Aside from attractions per se, visitors are also attracted to destinations and areas by the potential of special events, such as festivals or sporting events (like the soccer world cup, the matches of the English premier league, and the tomato festival in Spain or even the Olympic games). Indeed, sports tourism, which can be defined as spectators traveling to destinations to watch a team compete in a game of competition. SWOT Analysis Strengths: Rising favor as far as the popularity of tourism as a leisure activity is concerned Short periods of required promotions Low costs of advertising, the usage of new age media and easier methods for helping promotion of business as something new and different New concept, relatively unexploited Government support Minimal input costs and low entry barriers in terms of government restrictions Weaknesses Public’s tradition view of  tourism-new concepts like adventure and event specific tourism would take some convincing Competition is a problems given the fact that there are many competitors; many of them being well established players Opportunity Economic climate viable for the development of the tourism industry Large numbers aged in the bracket of 20-40-more amenable and open to tourism Government extended the period of first tourism support  New industry establishment created large amount of job Threats New idea not acceptable for the market Unknown/undiscovered  Structural  error will lose public’s confidence Conclusion: In conclusion therefore it maybe reiterated that the market overall though favorable to the entry of a new venture in the tourism sector is concerned would still need a proper planning and a correct sense of direction if the business is to taste any sign of success within the first two years of its existence. Reference Quinn J B and Voyer J, 1996, "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy" The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases, 3rd edn, Prentice-Hall, pp.75-83 Hisrish, DR, Peters, MP & Shepherd, DA 2008, Entrepreneurship, 7th edn, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York, pp. 152-154) Ritzer G, 1999, Enchanting a disenchanted world: revolutionizing the means of consumption. Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, CA Tassiopoulos D, 2009, New Tourism Ventures: An Entrepreneurial and Managerial Approach, pub, A1 Books, pp9-13 Page S, Tourism management: managing for change, pub, Butterworth Heinemann, pp85-87 Bianchini, F. and M. Parkinson, eds, (1993) Cultural policy and urban regeneration : the West European experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press Corijn, E. and van Praet, S. (1994) Antwerp 93 in the context of European Cultural Capitals: art policy as politics. Vrije Unversiteit Brussel, Brussels Read More