The Alton Resort in Its Exact Position in the UK Market - Assignment Example

Investigating Business, Alton Tower By Introduction The hotel industry in the UK is quite diversified. With many hotels in many counties, every hotel finds something worth considering its point of focus that gives it a competitive advantage in the market. Alton Towers Resort is a collection of a theme park, a water park and above all, a hotel complex in Staffordshire County. Dubbed “UK’s number one theme park”, it is said to have developed the first CBeebies Land in the whole world (Altontowers, 2014, p. 7). The entertainment complex has been on progressive development over the years and the latest inclusion to the many entertainment themes happened in May 2014 when it launched a brand new family area. This paper seeks to investigate the Alton tower theme park, water park and hotel, otherwise called Alton Towers Resort. Given that the company seeks to move a branch to the Qatar, its SWOT analysis will be undertaken in view of making out its ability to sustain the move. Secondly, the research will constitute an external environmental analysis by use of the Qatar PESTLE analysis of the hotel industry. The Alton Towers Resort SWOT Analysis The swot analysis considers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in an organization. In this case, the Alton Towers Resort has its own internal strengths as related to the external opportunities and threats. Strengths Given the resources at the resort, one of the strengths is that it has great experience in resort business that has run for the past one and a half centuries. Over the years, the company gained a lot of experience going by the way it responds to the changing market tastes and preferences (Altontowers, 2014, p. 2). The other Strength is that the place is renowned which gives it a world wide appeal. This attracts a very large number of revellers given its strong brand name and reputation. The other strength is that the company has a very wide collection of products and services. Over the years, the company has been inventing different new products of which the latest is the 2014 family area and there is additional live entertainment. The products range from tickets and prices, short breaks, rides and attractions, water parks, hotels and spa and other event offers. This is indicative of financial stability which is an added strength to the resort. Weaknesses One of the weaknesses of the company is that it has a very large work force. This issue is associated with the many services that the resort offers (theme park, Water Park and hotel), it is forced to employ a very large number of employees that highly contribute to use of its resources. This situation makes the resource use absolutely uneconomical. Secondly, the site suffers from court cases given the level of noises that emanates from it. This issue has therefore developed on the basis of the villagers not being comfortable with the noises of the activities associated with the site. The latest case is that in which a couple won the rights to a high court trial against the resort in 2012. This led to removal of the audio instruments that were erected at the top of the buildings as well as limiting the fireworks to just three in the whole year. This drastically affected the visitors to the site (BDO Hospitality Consulting, 1996, p. 98). The other weaknesses are that there are high ticket prices especially to the non-European visitors. This makes these visitors to feel disadvantaged in terms of expenditure. Opportunities One of the greatest opportunities that the resort has is that it has a very large market in the overseas countries that it can spread to. For instance, there are open markets in countries that are at par with the UK in terms of expenditure and per capita income especially in the Middle East. This takes the form of Saudi Arabia, the Qatar and Kuwait. These are profitable investment opportunities that the centre can engage in. The other opportunity lies in diversification of the products and services. Given that it offers large groups of services and goods, this is not the end in itself (Altontowers, 2014, p. 5). There are some other services and goods that it can venture such as offer of the cartoon networks for young children. Threats The greatest threat against the operations of this resort is that it faces very stiff competition from other developed companies. There are multinational companies in the same industry such as the Disney Resorts that offer the same services. These are multinational companies that benefit from utilization of the economies of scale. The services are getting saturated in the UK and this means that it is only possible for the larger companies to survive. The other threat, still in the aspect of competition is that the competitors are able to afford market elasticity with the aid of their financial economies. This also applies to offers that are laid over by the competitors (BDO Hospitality Consulting, 1996). The competitors are able to offer a large variety than Alton hotel resort as well as operating in larger markets which also enhances their international positioning. Lastly, the international awareness to the resort is not as pronounced as the larger resorts and this limits the number of tourists visiting to use its services. The PESTLE Analysis Political Qatar has both federal and municipality government. The political situation in the country is very stable that it becomes very easy for any company that needs to invest. The government is real which means it can put the plight of the theme park sector at the forefront of the plans to regenerate and develop a comprehensive progressive plan for investors (Jabnoun & Khalifa, 2005, p. 97). To promote the hotel and theme park industry, the government takes the initiative of sending delegates to different countries all over the world to carry out promotional campaigns and conferences. This means that the government has great support for investment activities in the country (Nataraja & Al-Aali, 2011, p. 111). This means that businesses operation in the country have a strong benefit to rely on during the operations period. Economic Qatar is one of the countries in the world with very high per capita income. 60% of the natives are engaged in some form of employment. The infrastructural set up is well set due to the revenues that are obtained from the oil industry. The country in general has great oil wealth given that the country has become the leading supplier of LNG (Rajagopal, Ramanan, & Visvanathan, 2011, p. 22). For a resort like Alton, there is a strong need to venture into the market and target cities like Doha. The import duties are also competitively at 4%. Alton Resort is therefore bound to benefit from these economic terms and there is a high probability that the profits it can make in this side of the world far exceeds those that would be made in any other part. The government also imposes very low taxes on businesses given the provisions of the Islamic law. Given that this will be the first theme park and hotel in Qatar, it is bound to obtain very high incomes. Social Qatar is a purely Muslim country. All laws are based on Islamic foundations and the Arabs that inhabit the country are known for their high levels of hospitality (Khan, 2014, p. 201). Qatar has lessened strict Islamic laws and there is no strong focus on the dressing code as long as the local conservatism is not violated. With the crime rate almost zero, the business environment is very good and the theme park and hotel industry has much to benefit than lose. The society is open to all types of theme parks, hotels, resorts and other recreational facilities (Agency, 2013, p. 112). The multicultural nature of the society allows for the society allows for large groups of foreigners to work in it. In this case, Alton Resort would allow for many foreign expatriates to contribute to its success by contributing their professional prowess. Technological The Qatari population is technologically savvy. This means that a company like the Alton Resort can specialise in use of the internet for its promotional activities and reaching out to the market. Most of the country has very impressive technological know-how and this can be supported by the country winning the 2022 football World Cup bid. The infrastructure in the country is world class including communication, transport, banking and resort facilities (Balakrishnan, 2009, pp. 88-90). This would allow for the extended access of the customers to Alton Resort if strategically located. Conclusion This investigation has placed the Alton resort in its exact position in the UK market as well as its expected position in the Qatari economy. Its internal position was established on the basis of the SWOT analysis in which it was found that there are strong indications that it has many market advantages. From the external analysis, it is noted that the Qatar theme park, tourism and resorts market also allows for the entry of the resort into the economy. References Agency, U. G. (2013). Qatar attracts investment from foreign hotel chains as number of tourists increasing. Abu Dhabi: Qatari Government News Agency. Altontowers. (2014). Hotels and Spa. Retrieved November 18th , 2014, from Altontowers: http://www.altontowers.com/ Balakrishnan, M. S. (2009). Approaches to enter emerging markets: A Qatari Case Study. Dubai: University of Wollongong. Consulting, B. H. (1996). Trends in the UK hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 8(7), 209. 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