Tourism industry - Dissertation Example

Research topic area The proposed topic of the research is ‘the changing paradigms in the travel and tourism industry: New trends and Special interest tourism’. In the contemporary times, travel and tourism has emerged as a standalone industry with wide scope. Changing demography and evolving global market have significantly impacted the hospitality industry. Kotler et al., (2007) have claimed that demographic compulsions influence market position. The demography changes vis-a-vis increased income, age distribution, population size etc., have tremendous impact on consumer behaviour. In fact, the traditional tourism has ventured into new realms of exotic location and incredible experience that satisfy changing demands of the customers. Nordin (2005) claims that travel industry needs to have innovative approach because rapid globalization and new tourist destinations have changed the dynamics of competition within the tourism industry. The research would be critically evaluating the changing landscape of travel and tourism and identifying factors of change. In line with this, it is important to understand the prevailing strategies applied within the context of travel and tourism in the UK. In particular, there is a need to identify the actual strategies orchestrated and applied by travel and tourism companies in the midst of prevailing change in demography. In line with this, the proponent aims to find out at the end of the study the change factors associated with formation of strategies that are associated with the strategic impact of changing demography on tourism industry. As a result, there is a need to critically consider the strategic moves employed by travel and tourism companies and find out the potential impacts of changing demography in their strategies. 2. Objectives In general, the study will find out the relevant strategic moves took up by travel and tourism companies in relation to finding the potential impacts of changing demography associated with the formulation of their strategies. Specifically, the following questions will be dealt with. 1. What are the actual strategies that are schemed and put into operation by travel and tourism companies in the wake of prevailing change in demography? 2. What are the factors that are highly associated with the formation of strategies among the travel and tourism companies regarding the changing demography on travel and tourism industry? 3. What are the assessments of companies regarding the potential impacts of changing demography associated with their strategic formulations within the travel and tourism industry? 3. Literature review The following are preliminary results of survey of related literature. Competitive strategy Competitive strategy is everywhere especially in contemporary society where there is a need to implement strategic moves in order to respond to any significant changes. Like for example, in tourism and travel, organisations under this industry needs to substantially adapt to changes in the environment. According to Porter (1998), the formulation of competitive strategy is associated with understanding the current activity within the corresponding type of business, the actual event happening in the business environment, and the assessment of potential activities that every business should be implementing. In other words, competitive strategy is highly influenced by the actual business environment. Tourism has emerged as one of the fastest developing economic activity across the globe (Fayos-Sola, 1996; Koutsouris & Gaki, 1998). The fundamental objective of tourism has been recreation and relaxation to rejuvenate mind and body. In the changing times, while the basic concept has remained same, the modus operandi and mechanisms of providing customers with unique experience have changed. The changing demographic patterns of society are major elements of change that hugely influence consumer behaviour and have considerable impact on national economy and market imperatives. Awareness and knowledge about demographic trends therefore, help to evolve effective market strategy to gain competitive advantage within the industry. For instance, to identify competitive moves that are implemented in travel and tourism industry, it is important to look at them from the point of view of marketing strategy. Customers and competition are important aspects in marketing strategy and these two elemental components have to be widely understood in order to understand further the potential impacts of the formulated strategies in the future (Schnaars, 1998). The reason why this concept is very essential is due to the fact that competition has risen due to globalisation which potentially gives rise to high customer expectations (Schnaars, 1998). Customers have become sophisticated, and they know exactly what they want. In this case, tourism industry requires meeting these needs while taking into account the prevailing competition that may lead to differentiated product or service offerings. In other words, Schnaars would just like to emphasise that the customers and their prevailing needs should not be overlooked as they significantly would lead to the actual strategy that needs to be formulated and implemented. Some factors influencing tourism industry Holloway (2002: 205) says that the ‘scope of providing new attractions to feed the insatiable appetite of the tourist is never ending’. With advancing technology and increased income, the age group of 18-35 years is endowed with more buying. Mathieson & Wall, (1989: 39) have defined tourism as ‘total number of persons who travel, or wish to travel, to use tourists’ facilities and services at places away from their places of work and residence’. Tourism was hitherto an occasional family vacation which was self managed. But today the technology has redefined communication and transformed tourism into an industry that customizes experiences of its customers. Thus, lifestyle of GenX is not constrained by money and along with new gizmos, prefers new tourist destination which can satisfy their sense of adventure. Witt & Witt, (1995) propose that understanding consumer behaviour in tourism industry with regard to travel destination, special interest tours etc. have become major factors that must be identified and addressed. In the highly competitive environment, an in-depth analysis provides the industry with necessary information that can be exploited and customized to suit the changing preferences of the masses. The flexibility within the travel plans and the variety across the travel and recreation hugely facilitate in meeting the demands of the segmented market. In the tourism industry, technology plays very important role. While it has greatly widened the scope of its market, technology has also provided customers with huge choice, both of destination and cost that can be customized to suit the changing demography. It is reported that tour operators and tourist service providers are increasingly relying on communication through internet that is both cost effective and creates a wider database of customers across the globe’ (ICT, 2005). Vanhove (2005) has emphasized the importance of five economically viable factors that influence tourism demand: income groups; population size; cost; exchange rate; and personal preferences of consumer. The new economic euphoria and technological advancement have contributed to the empowerment of people. Consumers have become more daring and are more eager to satisfy their wild imagination and explore new destinations and experience. With wider options available online, they have also become more demanding and therefore can customize their travel product to suit their needs. It has been a win-win situation because it brought forth a host of new ideas and opportunities in the field of tourism. Bull et al., (2003) argue that leisure has considerably contributed to recreational and tourism activities of the people. Indeed, through the times, leisure time has been the major motivational factor for families to take vacations. But in the recent times, it has generated widespread interests amongst the masses and helped tourism to develop into full fledged industry with huge potential. As an economic activity, it contributes to the development of nation. WTO (1999) report asserts that within the next two decades, the tourism industry would expand rapidly at the rate of 4.1% annually and reach 1.6 billion international travellers. Hence, tourism industry must cater to the increased demands by exploiting new ideas and people’s preferences. 4. Details of research Combined quantitative and qualitative methods will be used by the proponent in this study. These combined research methods are associated with the intuitive appeal to maximise potential strengths and advantages that are found from each of them (Tashakkori and Teddliep, 2003, p.634). This is the key concept of theoretical foundation in line with choosing this type of research method. Thus, related to this method is the employment of questionnaire and personal interview in the data collection process. These specific strategies in the data collection process give significant consideration of the possibility that the chosen respondents may have hectic schedules so it is important not to incur too much from their precious time. The semi-structured questionnaire would be used as sampling tool to collect data from the target respondents mainly comprising of customers of Thomas Cook and Cox and Kings of UK. Though efforts would be made to contact respondents personally, email would be used for filling the questionnaires. It would emphasize on the various factors like demography, macro environmental factors and micro economic compulsions that influence choice and decisions regarding recreational activities. The questionnaire would also take into account the family structure and the macro environment factors like rest and relaxation tour package as part of employees’ incentives etc. The semi-structured interview schedule gives special insight into the psyche of people as it ‘establishes the significance of an experience …. it ensures that the voices, feelings, actions and meanings of interacting individuals are heard’ (Denzin, 1989: 83). Hence, Informal interview creates an environment of trust and mutual respects to establish personal rapport. As a result, respondent freely expresses his opinions and thoughts which promote better understanding of the socio-psychological needs of the subject. Prior to the implementation of actual data gathering, the proponent will have this proposal approved by the supervisor. With this approval, the proponent will then furnish the chosen respondents with a letter of request informing them about being the preferred subjects to respond to the study. These respondents will be randomly chosen so as to give equal chance to the entire samples, making the data representative enough of the whole population. Thus, the proponent will ensure that at least 10 percent of the active travel and tourism companies in the UK will be randomly chosen as respective samples for this study. Each of the company should be required to have a representative, having the required information in order to answer the questionnaire and personal interview. Both qualitative and quantitative information will be asked to these representatives. In the data analysis, the proponent will encode the responses of the respondents particularly on the relevant strategic moves took up by travel and tourism companies in relation to finding the potential impacts of changing demography associated with the formulation of their strategies. A descriptive statistic will be employed in order to present information in a highly organized manner. Furthermore, data analysis would broadly use Typology method. Lofland and Lofland (1995) assert that Typology method is based on patterns, themes or other kind of group data. It therefore describes the arrangement of data in some pre-defined criteria of theme, pattern and issues to develop and predict model that best reflects the trend. The methodology considerably helps interpret data in the wider context of external factors that impact consumer behaviour. Most importantly, qualitative analysis through Typology facilitates in identifying critical drivers of change that help evolve new trends in consumer behaviour and related market products. 5. Research ethics As stated, a letter of request will be furnished to the randomly chosen respondents, with substantial explanation about the genuine purpose of the study. This will also serve as a way for them to execute their freedom to decline or accept the invitation to be part of the study. In line with this, they will also be informed that all information that will be obtained from them would be taken with utmost confidentiality and should only be used for academic purposes and nothing else. In fact, after the study, they will be provided with a copy of the result together with the acknowledgement if necessary. 6. Conclusion The proponent expects that valuable findings will be obtained in implementing the study. Therefore, the actual strategies that are schemed and put into operation by travel and tourism companies in the wake of prevailing change in demography will be discussed. The important factors that are highly associated with the formation of strategies among the travel and tourism companies regarding the changing demography on travel and tourism industry will be unravelled. Finally, the assessments of companies regarding the potential impacts of changing demography associated with their strategic formulations within the travel and tourism industry will be presented. References Bull, Ch., Hoose, J. & Weed, M. (2003) Introduction to Leisure Studies. Harlow, Essex: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Denzin, N. (1989) Interpretive Interactionism. London. Sage. Fayos-Sola, E. (1996). Tourism policy: A midsummer night’s dream? Tourism Management, 17 (6), p 405–12. Holloway,Ch. J. (2002). The Business of Tourism. 6th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. ICT and Electronic business in Tourism ‘Sector Report No. 09’. (September 2005). Available from http://www.ebusiness-watch.org/resources/tourism/SR09_Tourism_2005_web.pdf [Accessed: 10 May 2012]. Kotler, P., Brown, L., Adam, S., & Armstrong, G. (2007). Marketing. 7th ed. Australia: Pearson Education Australia. Koutsouris, A. & Gaki, D. (1998). The quest for a sustainable future: Alternative tourism as the level of development. Proceedings of the First Global Conference on Tourism and Culture in the Sustainable Development. Athens: National Technical University of Athens. Lofland, J. & Lofland, L. H. (1995). Typological Systems: Analyzing social settings, 3rd ed. Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth. Mathieson, A. & Wall, G. (1982). Tourism: Economic, Physical and Social Impacts. Longman. Nordin, S. (2005). Tourism of Tomorrow. Available from: http://www.turism.se/media/Undersokningar%20av%20varde/Tourism%20of%20tomorrow.pdf [Accessed: 10 May 2012]. Porter, M. E. (1998) Competitive Strategy. New York, NY: Free Press. Schnaars, S. P. (1998) Marketing Strategy. New York, NY: Free Press. Tashakkori, A., and Teddlie, C. (2003) Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioral Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Vanhove, N. (2005). The economics of tourism destinations. US: Elsevier. Witt, S. F. & Witt, C. A. (1995). Forecasting tourism demand: A review of empirical research. International Journal of Forecasting, 41, p 212-235. World Tourism Organisation. (1999). Tourism: 2020 Vision. Madrid: WTO. Read More