Tourism Accommodation - Essay Example

Tourism; Accommodation Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Abstract Tourism is the movement of people from one place to another for various reasons like adventure. The tourism industry in Australia has contributed greatly to the economic development since it helps to earn foreign exchange and create employment opportunities. The major participants in the accommodation sector include the suppliers of the accommodation facilities and products and services. The other important participant is the consumers who are the tourists. The changing trends in the accommodation sector include increasing accommodating undertaking and increasing room occupant space. The trends indicate that there is increasing demand for the accommodation activities. The report also found that accommodation links with other sectors like transport and events and conferences as well as travel agencies to ensure that tourism activities are effective and meet the needs of the tourists. In addition, the report found out that the future trend of accommodation is that there is likely to be both private and public accommodation sector to meet the diversified needs of the tourists. The report recommends that the feedback of the customers can be used to improve the quality of services provided to the tourists. In addition, variety of products and services in terms of meals should be provided to meet the needs of different tourists. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Major participants in the accommodation sector 4 Major trends in the accommodation sector that have occurred since 2000 and the reasons for the trends 6 How accommodation sector links with other tourism sectors 9 Likely future trends for the accommodation sector 12 Recommendations 13 Conclusion 13 Work cited 14 Introduction Tourism includes the activities whereby people move from one place to another for adventure or doing business. Tourism is normally visiting environment outside the normal environment. Tourism in Australia has been contributing effectively to the economic development because of the increased tourism activities which has attracted many global and domestic tourists thus contributing to foreign exchange (Australian Bureau of statistics 2015). The economic contributions of tourism include earning foreign exchange and also creating jobs for the local community. However, there are various sectors within the tourism industry which make it easy for tourist activities to be performed effectively. These activities include accommodation, transport and tourism operations. In Australia for example, tourism contributed to about 4% of the gross domestic products of Australia products in the year 2003-04. In addition, the international visitors consumed about $17 billion of products and services and this represents about 12% of the AUSTRALIA’S sales. This means that tourism is playing an important role in economic development. In this effect, this report will analyze the tourism industry particularly the accommodation sector and how it affects the tourism activities. Major participants in the accommodation sector There are main players which have made the accommodation sector a success in the tourism industry. The first main player is the suppliers of the accommodation services. There are various products which are supplied in the tourism sector that influence the accommodation services which are provided. In the first place, the first participant supplier is the restaurants (Frew et al 2003). The restaurants play important roles in ensuring that the tourists’ need in terms of accommodation and their stay is effective. The restaurants provide services like food and beverages and a place to stay for the period of the tourism activities. In this way, the restaurants and motels as well as hotels therefore help to improve the operations of the tourism activities. Due to diversified needs of the global customers, the hotels and restaurants have specialized in providing menus which can meet the needs of the global tourists. The other important suppliers in the accommodation sector are the guest houses. The guest houses help to supplement the hospitality services which are provided by the restaurants. They offer services such as bed spaces, guest rooms and establishments (Frew et al 2003). This helps to ensure that the demand f the global customers has been met hence improving the way tourists are served in Australia. Without the accommodation facilities, tourism could not be effective since the demand of the domestic and international tourists could not be met. In addition, the suppliers of the food products and services are also important in influencing the accommodation services. For instance, motels and hotels require suppliers to supply the food products which can help to meet the eating needs of the customers (Karanasios & Burgess 2008). This is because the eating needs of the global consumers differ from one country to another hence there are variety of suppliers in Australia who supply the food products for the tourists. In this regard, the suppliers play important roles in meeting the accommodation needs of the tourists. The other main participants in the accommodation sector are the consumers. There could be no tourism if there are consumers to consume the accommodation products and services. The aim of the accommodation facilities is to supply appropriate services to the customers who are the tourists. This means that the main consumers in the accommodation sector are the tourists who can be domestic or international tourists. They play important roles in consuming the accommodation products like guest rooms and the food products supplied to the guest houses and the motels as well as hotels. For instance, the local community supplies the food products to the hospitality facilities who then sale the products to the tourists (Lennon & Foley 2000). In this effect, the consumers play an important role in integrating the accommodation sector with other sectors like tourism products and services. However, it is important to understand that the accommodation sector is regulated by the government policies to ensure that the facilities to accommodate the tourists meet the required standards so that they can improve the reputation of the tourism industry in Australia with the aim of attracting and retaining more international tourists. Major trends in the accommodation sector that have occurred since 2000 and the reasons for the trends There are various trends which have been identified in the accommodation sector in the tourism industry. To start with, the accommodation undertaking has changed over the last three years. For instance, in the year 2013 December, it was established that the accommodation of rooms decreased by 0.1% from September 2013 and this represented $2245.1 million. However in March 2014, the trend for the total accommodation for tourists in motels with more than 15 rooms increased by 0.1% and this was represented by $2247.3 million as compared to December 2013 (Australian Bureau of statistics 2015). This means that the accommodation facilities were engaged more in March 2014 as compared to December 2014. In addition, the trend of the accommodation in the tourism sector was identified to increase by 0.3% for motels and hotels with more than 15 rooms and this represented the value of $2254.9 million. In this effect, it can be determined that the accommodation for the accommodation undertakings has been improving every month. This implies that in the next few months, the accommodation taking is likely to improve considering the previous trends in the accommodation sector. Considering the room occupancy rate, the room occupancy rate for hotels and motels with more than 15 rooms was 64.9% in the year 2013. Initially, the hotels had higher occupancy rates than the motels or apartments. However in the year 2013 September, the hotels had an occupancy rate of 71.9% while the motels had an occupancy rate of 55% and 67.5% for apartments which were serviced. In the year 2013 December, the occupancy rate for hotels was 73% while motels were represented by 56.4% and 68.2% for apartments which are serviced (Australian Bureau of statistics 2015). This means that the occupancy rate for the hotels, motels and serviced apartments have been increasing steadily. The Implication is that more hotels and motels should be set up so that they can be able to meet the increasing demand of the tourists for the accommodation services. Failure to increase the number of models in future, likelihood is that the demand for the accommodation services is not likely to be met since the demand will be high while the supply will be low. On the other hand, the accommodation trend can be reviewed by focusing on the room nights occupied. In December 2013, the rooms that were occupied were 13.8 million for motels, hotels and serviced apartments. The New South Whales provided the largest accommodation which represented 31.6% and was followed by Queensland with 26%. In the year 2014 March, the number of rooms which were occupied was 13.2million and this represented a slight decrease from the previous year December. In June quarter 2014, the nights which were occupied were 12.8 million and again New South whales represented the highest percentage of 31.4 %( Australian Bureau of statistics 2015). From this statistics, it can be determined that room nights occupied has been declining due to a number of factors. This is expected that in the future, the trend is also likely to change and continue declining since the global tourists will move their shift to long stay nights instead of one stay night. There are various factors that have influenced the trends observed in the accommodation sector. The first reason is that tourists visit place depending on the different seasons of the year. The main season in which the tourists visit places is during summer (Lew 2008). Most of the tourists spend their leaves of vacation and this increases the tourism activities recording the highest number of visitors accommodated in Australia. The future trend is that the accommodation facilities will continue to record highest number of visitors due to increased tourists both domestic and international tourists. The other reason for the observed trend is the availability of tourist products and services. The aim of tourists is to visit new places with adventure. In Australia, the tourism activities have increased due to availability of tourist attraction sites (Lennon & Foley 2000). The traditional way of life of the people has attracted many tourists from the global market to visit Australia. This has led to increased number of tourists visiting Australia hence influencing the accommodation trend. On the other hand, globalization has also contributed to changing trends in the accommodation sector. This is because the economic policy of Australia has contributed to free movement of people to and from Australia and this has contributed to the number of tourists visiting Australia. The trade agreements between Australia and other countries have also contributed. In order to encourage domestic tourism, the government of Australia has differentiated the tariffs for the domestic and international tourists (Lu & Lu 2004). This means that the domestic tourists pay less as compared to international tourists hence encouraging domestic tourism. How accommodation sector links with other tourism sectors Tourism links with other sectors of tourism in various ways. The first link is the link between the accommodation and tourist attractions. Tourist attractions are the tourist attraction sites that help to attract the tourists from the global market. This is the key central element in tourism. In any place where there is tourist attraction features, there must be accommodation which is attached near to the tourist site. Most tourists consider the availability of accommodation before they make the decision of visiting certain tourist attraction site. This is because the tourists cannot travel long distances to tourist sites only to find that there is no accommodation there (Jennings 2006). In this effect, the accommodation is considered as one of the key components of the tourist attraction sites failure to which the tourist sites cannot be visited by tourists. In this regard, accommodation links with tourist attraction sites to attract the tourists since they can find accommodation in that site. In addition, accommodation link with transportation sector to ensure that the needs of the tourists are met effectively. This is because effective transportation is influenced by the availability of accommodation facilities. This means that transportation can be made easy if the accommodation facilities are located in a safe and easily accessible location. This will improve the efficiency of the transportation of tourists to and from the accommodation facilities (Jennings 2006). In addition, accommodation and transportation link together to ensure that the facilities for transport are available. For instance, the accommodation facility can organize transportation of the tourists by hiring vehicles to transport the tourists and this helps to improve the satisfaction of the customers. This is important in utilizing resources of the organization effectively. By linking the accommodation and transportation sectors effectively, there will be commercial value to the organization as well as tourist satisfaction as they are provided with effective services at their disposal. The other important sector in tourism is the tourism operations and services. These are the activities which take place to meet the needs of the customers effectively. The tourism services are provided by associations and government agencies which play the role of ensuring that the tourism industry grows effectively. The tourism agency interacts with the accommodation sector to determine the size and the tourism needs in the accommodation sector. This means that the accommodation sector contributes to conducting research regarding tourism industry and make appropriate recommendations that can help to improve the development of tourism industry (Mills & Rob 2005). In this regard, accommodation sector plays important role in developing statistics for the tourism sector which can be used by the government to formulate appropriate measures and policies that will be followed by the players in the tourism sector hence accommodation links effectively with other sectors of tourism industry like tourism services sector. On the other hand, accommodation links with travel trade sector to attract more tourists to the Australian economy. The travel trade agency sector acts as a link between the tourists and the clients. For instance, the international Tour Operator has the responsibility of selling the tourist attraction sites in Australia to the global tourists. This is done by communicating the existence of the tourist attraction sites to the global tourists (Mills & Rob 2005). This means that accommodation link with the travel trade agent to develop statistics of the tourist activities and facilities that can be used to market the Australian tourist attraction features to the global customers. When the tourists have identified the tourist sites, they look at the accommodation available before they make the decision of visiting the place. With effective accommodation, the global tourists will be able to visit Australia and in this way accommodation will have linked with travel agency sector to market the tourism activities in Australia. Moreover, events and conference sector also link with accommodation to meet the needs of the customers. Tourism activities do not only involve adventures but it also includes events and conferences. This means that accommodation and events sector link effectively to ensure that the tourists can hold their events and conferences effectively (Nyheim et al 2005). This is because the event organizers will have to seek for a place that can accommodate the number of tourists to hold their meeting. In this way, accommodation helps to provide effective services to the events sector so that they can organize events effectively for the customers. The events include art, theater and films as well as music festivals. These events cannot be organized successfully if events sector and accommodation sector cannot link effectively otherwise the demand will be too high than the supply and the tourists will be disappointed. The other important sector in tourism industry is the technology sector. This is the sector that ensures that appropriate technology is applied when doing the business activities. For instance, technology will be used to book for the accommodation services online (Mills & Rob 2005). In addition, appropriate technology will be used to ensure that sufficient information is available for the tourists to make decisions. In this way, accommodation links effectively with technology sector so that the tourists can make their hotel or motel booking online and even make the payment online. In this regard, appropriate technology should be adopted by the accommodation sector so that there can be effective communication between the customers and the clients in the tourism sector. In this effect, accommodation and other sectors of economy integrate effectively to determine the demand of the tourism activities in a particular season and develop appropriate policies and measures to meet the demand (Nyheim et al 2005). Marketing sector also links effectively with accommodation to help in marketing the tourist attraction sites since the information like accommodation should be included in the advertisement. This will help to influence the decisions which are made by the customers. Likely future trends for the accommodation sector Due to the increasing number of visitors visiting Australia, the accommodation is also likely to change to meet the rising demand of the global tourists. The first predicted trend in the accommodation sector is developing resorts and hotels with more than 25 rooms or units. This is because the number of tourists is increasing meaning that the rooms have to be increased so that they can be able to accommodate the rising demand of the tourists flocking in Australia (Nyheim et al 2005). It is expected that in the next three years, there will be high demand for tourism activities in Australia and in this regard it is likely that there will be accommodation hotels with 25 rooms so that they can meet the demand of the global tourists. In addition, the other likely trend is that there will be both private and public accommodation facilities. For the tourism facilities which are owned by the government, they should have their own accommodation so that they can meet the demand of the tourists visiting the public facilities (WTO 2001). In addition, there are diversified financial needs among the domestic and international tourists and this means that the public accommodation facilities can help to meet the financial needs of the domestic tourists. This is because the government owned facilities will be subsidized and this will encourage domestic tourism. This means that accommodation is likely to adopt the public and private facilities. The serviced apartments are also likely to increase due to increased demand for the accommodation services. From the above statistics, it can be indicated that there is rising demand for the serviced apartments especially to the domestic tourists (WTO 2001). This is important because it will help to meet the rising accommodation needs among the tourists. Recommendations The accommodation sector can be improved by collecting the feedback of the tourists so that the rooms and conference facility can meet the needs of the tourists (Jennings 2006). This is because this will help to design the accommodation rooms to meet the needs of the tourists. In addition, variety of products and services should be provided at the accommodation facilities. This is important because the international tourists have diversified needs in terms of the meals they eat and this will help to meet the needs of the international customers (Jennings 2006). Conclusion Tourism industry has been growing steadily globally and this has influenced the economic activities of Australian economy. In the tourism industry, there are various sectors that link together to provide quality products and services to the tourists. The accommodation is the most important component that influences the tourism activities. The major participants in the accommodation sector include suppliers and consumers. The tourism sectors that link together to provide quality services to the tourists include transportation sector and events as well as conference sectors. Accommodation activities can be improved by collecting feedback from the tourists and providing diversified products and services to meet the needs of the tourists. Work cited Australian Bureau of statistics (2015). Tourism accommodation, retrieved on 29th May 2015 from www.abs.gov.au Frew, A., O'Connor P & Hitz, M. (2003). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, Springer-Verlag Vienna. Jennings, G. (2006). Tourism Research (John Wiley & Sons,Australia)., Karanasios, S & Burgess, S. (2008). Tourism and Internet adoption: a developing world perspective. International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 169-182. Lennon, J. J & Foley, M. (2000). Dark Tourism. London: Continuum. Lew, A. A. (2008). "Long Tail Tourism: New geographies for marketing niche tourism products". Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing Vol. 25, No. , pp. 409–419. Lu, J., & Lu, Z. (2004). Development, Distribution and Evaluation of Online Tourism Services in China. Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 221-239. Mills, M & Rob, L. (2005). Handbook of Consumer Behavior, Tourism and the Internet, London: Continuum Nyheim, P. McFadden, F & Connolly, D. (2005). Technology strategies for the hospitality industry, Pearson-Prentice Hall. WTO, (2001). eBusiness for Tourism: Practical; guidelines for destinations and businesses, Madrid: World Tourism Organisation. Read More