Competitiveness in the Tourism Industry - Case Study Example

Competitiveness in the Tourism Industry Introduction To achieve high competitiveness in the tourism industry, tourism providers must inculcate and incorporate certain innovative practices and strategies for managing tourism in general and tourists’ experiences in particular. For a tourism provider to be a top destination providing easily accessible and premium-quality services throughout the year, it must not only be set in natural, attractive, and serene landscapes but also employ unique, diverse, and quality services, which make tourists feel that the experiences are worth their time and money (McCool et al., 2007). By these approaches and management strategies, tourism providers would be in a position to establish themselves as sustainable destinations providing quality and meaningful business and pleasure experiences to tourists (Berridge, 2007). The first step in realizing these goals is to enlist the services of an experienced tourism management team, which would integrate their expertise and research experiences in the running of the activities of a tourism destination. A tourist provider’s services should therefore meet the global definition of tourism experiences with regards to the global economic, social, and cultural contexts and experiences. The 15 Cs Framework, outlined by Fyall et al ('Destination marketing: a framework for future research' in Kozak and Andreu (editors), Advances in Tourism Research: Progress in Tourism Marketing (2006) Elsevier, Oxford) could be used as pillars by tourism providers for basing their management strategies and policies for tourists’ experiences. Included in the 15 Cs are customers, change, culture, commodification, crisis, complacency, complexity, communication, consolidation, control, creativity, channels, cyberspace, and collaboration (Fyall et al., 2006). By considering these 15Cs, some tourism providers have been able to achieve some degree of success in the examination and addressing of the issues and challenges encountered in their endeavor to improve tourists’ experiences. These destinations have also been cognizant of the fact that collaboration among the industry’s stakeholders is a key strategy in solving the challenges and other issues brought about by the increasingly demanding tourists (Shaw & Williams, 1997). This paper explores some of the management strategies that tourism providers use to manage tourists’ experiences. Tourism Experiences Management Strategies Examples of tourist providers that have attained success in improving tourist experiences via incorporation of the elements of Fyall’s 15Cs abound, the Disneyland Resort Complex in Anaheim, California being a rather effective cases study. This resort complex is under the ownership and management of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the giant Walt Disney Company. There are several attractions at Disneyland Resort Complex that have helped it manage and expand tourists’ experiences. These attractions include theme parks such as the original theme park that Walt Disney personally built in the 1950s and the Disney California Adventure Park. This latter park, opened in February 8, 2001, is specifically designed and intended to celebrate the history and the culture of the Golden State (Sandler, 2007). Besides the theme parks, the Disneyland Resort Complex also manages tourists’ experiences by other services such as outdoor retailing, dining, and entertainment activities in its Downtown Disney, which is located between the entrance promenade of the Disneyland Resort theme parks and the Disneyland Hotel. The Disneyland Resort Complex also has numerous resorts, including the Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa, Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel, and Disneyland Hotel. Important to the success of these facilities in the management of tourists’ experiences are Disneyland’s operations, which lay a lot of emphasis on consumer satisfaction. Among the major operations or administrative properties of the complex are the Team Disney Anaheim, Disneyland Resort Center, and Mickey and Friends Parking Structure (Sandler, 2007). There are also other effective administrative and service properties integrated in the various parks and hotels under the Disneyland Resort Complex. While the Team Disney Anaheim houses its employment offices, the Disneyland Resort Center is a supplementary administration building majorly for administrating the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort and other programs such as weddings and honeymoons. The other strategies by which Disneyland manages consumers’ experiences at its facilities include transportation/communication, and emergency services (Sandler, 2007). Regarding transportation, all Disneyland’s facilities are designed in a way that makes all their areas easily accessible. In fact, most areas of Disneyland’s facilities can be accessed by walking. There are consequently little vehicular movements and disturbances for guests as they move within the facilities. In addition, the Monorail system of transportation used in Disneyland’s facilities makes guests’ movements between the facilities rather easy and comfortable (Sandler, 2007). For instance, guests can easily move between Disneyland Park, the Tomorrowland station, and the Downtown Disney station without any troubles. Besides the Monorail services, there is a free transportation by parking lot trams provide from the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure, which is the main parking area, to other places such as the Tram stop in front of the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney, just adjacent to the Main Entrance Plaza. Disneyland Resort Complex also offers its customers shuttle services to hotels that are off-site (Sandler, 2007). Taxis are also available at specific points such as the west end of Downtown Disney, near the ESPN Zone. The Disneyland Resort Complex also collaborates with other agencies and the government in improving tourists’ experiences. For example, collaboration with the government resulted in a quasi-government agency, the Anaheim Resort Transit (ART), which provides for and improves commuting in Anaheim City through its pay-per-day or pay-per-ride shuttles. These shuttles take guests to various hotels and attractions within Disneyland’s facilities and the city. Emergency Services Regarding crises, the Disneyland Resort Complex also recognizes the importance of emergency service to the experiences of their guests, more so to ensure their health and well being. To this effect, Disneyland has a private security staff with the mandate to protect the company’s property, control access into restricted areas, and to prevent, detect, and detain shoplifters and other intruders (Sandler, 2007). The security staff also enforces park and resort rules by putting into effect trespass warnings. To improve guests’ sense of well being, security, and safety, Disneyland ensures that its security officers are adequately stationed in guest areas. In these strategic areas, the officers can best handle guest issues such as lost children or personal items. Importantly, the security officers act as information posts for guests. The Disneyland security apparatus also works with the Anaheim Police Department (APD), which handles law enforcement issues outside the jurisdiction of Disneyland’s security apparatus (Sandler, 2007). In fact, the Anaheim Police Department is present at Disneyland’s facilities twenty four hours a day. Guests are thus assured of their safety while at the facilities. In addition to the internal security apparatus, Disneyland also has its own fire department to ensure tourists’ safety. The Disneyland Resort Fire Department (DFD) is equipped with several fire trucks, which are stationed at strategic points throughout the resort property. Nonetheless, this fire department only has the capability to fight minor structural fires. As a result, the department mainly prevents and investigates fires within the property, further ensuring safety during visitors’ stay (Sandler, 2007). There is also a medical staff composed mainly of nurses that are on duty 24 hours a day. Among the functions of these nurses is to administer first aid in case of accidents. Quality of Product and Tourism Experiences The Disneyland Resort Complex, just like many other tourism and travel destinations define quality of their products by their capability and capacity to meet the experience needs and expectations of tourists. Since the expectations of tourists vary at different stages of their stay at a tourism destination, many tourism providers have resorted to the evaluation of the perception of their guests on the services provided to understand and gauge their performance in managing the experiences of tourists. By communicating with their guests, tourism providers are in a position to understand their expectations, thus avoiding any problems in resource allocation and decision-making processes (Ford et al., 2011). Tourism providers have also become cognizant of the fact that the industry is one of the fastest growing industries and is adversely affected by diseases, economic crises, wars, and politics. The tourism market is thus quite an elastic one. For instance, even in the difficult times of war or political unrest, tourists will always be traveling. Thus, tourism providers must be elastic and quick enough to develop and manage both the supply and demand sides of their services to provide for tourists’ wants and needs even in these circumstances given that tourists will always want quality and valuable tourism experiences even during difficult times. Several new trends have thus been proposed for tourism providers to develop products that would address the ever-changing needs and wants of tourists. First, tourism providers are advised to consider the age of tourists in managing their experiences. For instance, as the number of senior tourists increase due to increased better health care, and better social services, and life expectancy, tourism providers should incorporate more culture and health tourism to manage the senior tourists’ experiences (Ford et al. 2011). Among the products that may improve the experiences of senior tourists are mental or spiritual tourism and spas. New tourism destinations and events should therefore be developed to meet the needs and wants of the now multiplying number of senior tourists. Although tourists may be more attracted to cheap and affordable services, they want quality services and experiences. This scenario is quite a challenge for the supply side of tourism products since they need to make profits as well. It is thus imperative that the supply side of the tourism industry finds or creates the right market segment, implying that they must understand the desires, needs, and motivation of this market segment through the right combination of marketing strategies. To manage tourists’ experiences well, tourism providers must also address the issue of competition in the industry. That is, tourism providers must identify the right methods to sell and promote their products to consumers. They should therefore identify the complexities inherent in their customers, who always seek new experiences. Putting this into consideration, new, exciting, and authentic experiences need to be developed for the increasingly demanding visitors. That is, it is no long a matter of providing goods and services; instead, tourism providers consider experiences to an equal measure since tourists also seek for deeper meanings and a sense of worth beyond the material experiences of tourism. In addition, tourism consumption has recently shifted from passive to active learning experiences, implying that tourism providers should base their services on how real consumers perceive the same product or services. Managing Visitor Number and Tourism Environment The interaction between the environment and tourism management has also come to the forefront in recent times. Key stakeholders in the tourism industry such as business organizations, government, non-governmental organisations, tourist, and local communities have thus embraced certain practices and strategies that would ensure friendly environments for tourists (Mowforth & Munt, 2003). The emergence of a class of tourists that is environmentally conscious and concerned has resulted in myriad implications for tourism providers who have to adopt various environmental paradigms for tourism development and experience enhancement. Some tourism providers have thus developed appropriate tourism policies and strategies that would go a long way in addressing the environmental needs of not only their guest but other key stakeholders such as governments and other regulatory authorities and the local communities. In particular, these policies and strategies focus on the interdependencies and the interactions between tourism and the environment (Mexa & Coccossis, 2004). Because of the need to conserve the environment and provide tourism services in environmentally friendly locations, most tourism providers have resorted to ecotourism practices. These practices promote responsible tourism or travel to natural sites, which not only conserve and preserve the environment but also improve the health and well-being of tourists, thus improving their experiences as tourists. Among the major goals of ecotourism that tourism providers seek to achieve is to conserve the environment and satisfy the needs and wants of the health-conscious consumers include the need to unite communities, conservation, and sustainable tourism. The following principles of ecotourism have thus been at the core of the management strategies used by tourism providers that seek to implement and participate in ecotourism activities: first is the minimization of environmental impacts of their products. The second principle is the creation of cultural and environmental respect and awareness among management and subordinate employees (Mathieson, 1982). Third, ecotourism requires that tourism providers offer positive experiences for both visitors and hosts. In addition, tourism providers have both directly or indirectly financially supported environmental conservation and financially empowered local communities to conserve the environment (Jennings & Nickerson, 2005). For example, to conserve the environment, tourism providers have been advised to ensure that they allow the right number of visitors into facilities such as parks and hotels. Quite a number of tourism providers have also realized the impacts of congestion and overcrowding in facilities on the experiences of their guests. For this reason, various approaches such as the ‘Tourism Carrying Capacity’ have been adopted by some tourism providers. This approach is particularly useful for visitor management in restricted areas such as parks. In such facilities, managers determine the maximum number of visitors that can be accommodated at a time. This population is that which cannot result in any harm, physical, or economic destruction to the socio-cultural environment or cause an unacceptable decrease in the quality of visitors' experiences and satisfaction (Mathieson, 1982). The level of human activities that a given facility may accommodate is thus a core determinant of the number of visitors to a tourism site and should not permit the deterioration of the status/well-being of a site, local communities, and visitors’ experiences. The carrying capacity of a tourist destination may be defined in terms of its physical, social, economic, and bio-physical carrying capacity. Conclusion By adhering to certain management principles such as Fyall’s 15Cs, tourism providers have been able to improve tourists’ experiences, propelled by the emergence of an increasingly health- and well being-conscious consumers. Proper communication, product diversification, visitor number management, and environment management are some of the strategies tourism providers such as Disneyland have used to manage tourists’ experiences. In addition to the above, customers, change, culture, crisis, complacency, and complexity are the other factors considered in tourists’ experiences. 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