Strategic Management for Tourism, Hospitality and Events

PREFACE

This international text is aimed at being the textbook of choice for three important sets of readers:
● Students studying strategy and/or marketing (probably in their final undergraduate year or postgraduate) as part of their studies in tourism, hospitality and events management.

● Students and researchers who have chosen to study tourism, hospitality or events management organizations for their dissertation, projects or assignments, who want to understand the unique characteristics of the industry and to gain knowledge of the relevant literature.
● Managers and practitioners working in tourism, hospitality and events (or seeking a career in these sectors), who want to gain an understanding of the challenges faced by managers and some of the managerial responses which can be considered.
Putting aside definitional debates, fundamentally:
● strategy is about making you think ahead regarding key issues affecting organizations;and
● strategic management is about giving you concepts, frameworks, tools and techniques to help you do so.
Consequently this book aims to make readers think ahead about the key issues facing tourism, hospitality and events management organizations and provides concepts, frameworks, tools and techniques to help you do so. The first edition of this book was published as Strategic Management for Travel and Tourism in 2003 (for which I thank my two co-authors Professors David Campbell and George Stonehouse).

This text builds on the first edition, but much has changed in the intervening years and consequently this edition is completely modified and its scope extended. The text is global in its orientation and explicitly encompasses hospitality and events along with tourism recognizing the inextricably linked nature of these sectors. The text is contemporary in that the broad range of academic literature which has emerged in recent years is incorporated as are recent industry developments.

The book contextualizes and applies relevant material from the strategic management and
tourism, hospitality and events management literature and takes an international approach to what are inherently internationally oriented industry sectors. This approach is reflected in:
● the application of concepts and principles;
● links to a wide range of relevant literature enabling further study;
● a particular focus on smaller organizations (SMEs) recognizing that they form an important part of these sectors;
● taking an explicitly international approach for what are inherently internationally oriented sectors;
● emphasis of key points affecting this industry in particular; and
● use of short illustrative examples and a series of longer cases drawn from across the industry and focusing on different parts of the world.

There are of course many existing strategic management titles. There are, however comparatively few textbooks which apply strategy to ‘services’ contexts and in particular to the service sectors of tourism, hospitality and events. These service sectors are inextricably linked and have grown to represent one of the world’s most important industries.
The strategic management challenges facing managers in service contexts are often different in a number of ways from the challenges facing managers in manufacturing industries. These different challenges reflect the characteristics of services. Furthermore, tourism, hospitality and events represent a distinctive set of services which entail an understanding of their own specific characteristics. Hence it is appropriate that a dedicated text should consider the strategic implications of managing in this important and rapidly developing industry (which is one of the world’s largest), in particular.
Clearly there are many examples to illustrate a text such as this, and I have chosen those which: I consider to be relevant, can gain access to information, can link with the academic material or have personal experience. However, I recognize that other illustrations could have been chosen. I would like to encourage readers to submit further contributions and illustrations, which would be fully attributed if they were to appear on the companion website which supports this book and contains further material. Any feedback on this edition would also be gratefully received.

Finally, I would like to thank colleagues at Teesside University and elsewhere who have com-mented on parts of this book and the publishers for all their help and support throughout the book’s production.

Nigel G. Evans
n.evans@tees.ac.uk
October 2014

CONTENTS

List of figures                                                                                                               ix
List of tables                                                                                                                xiii
Preface                                                                                                                         xvii
Study guide                                                                                                                  xix
Part 1 Strategy and the tourism, hospitality and events contexts                                 1
1. Strategy and strategic objectives for tourism, hospitality and event organizations 12
2. Introduction to strategy for tourism, hospitality and events                                    41
Part 2 Analysing the internal environment                                                                  73
3. Tourism, hospitality and event organizations: the operational context:
competencies, resources and competitive advantage                                                   76
4. Tourism, hospitality and event organizations: the human resources context          109
5. Tourism, hospitality and event organizations: the financial context                       148
6. Tourism, hospitality and event organizations: the products and markets context  190
Part 3 Analysing the external environment and SWOT                                              239
7. The external environment for tourism, hospitality and event organizations:
the macro context                                                                                                        242
8. The external environment for tourism, hospitality and event organizations:
the micro context                                                                                                        262
9. SWOT analysis for tourism, hospitality and event organizations                          304

Part 4 Strategic selection                                                                                            317
10. Competitive strategy and strategic direction for tourism, hospitality and event
organizations                                                                                                              322
11. Strategic methods for tourism, hospitality and event organizations                     377
12. Strategic evaluation and selection for tourism, hospitality and event organizations 433
Part 5 Strategic implementation and strategy in theory and practice                         469
13. Strategic implementation for tourism, hospitality and events                             472
14. International and global strategies for tourism, hospitality and events                520
15. Strategy and tourism, hospitality and event organizations: theory and practice 563
Part 6 Case analysis for tourism, hospitality and events                                       5 81
Case 1 Strategic alliances in the airline industry                                                   588
Case 2 Tourism Queensland: strategic positioning and promotion                        601
Case 3 Ryanair: evolution of competitive strategy                                                 619        
Case 4 Hyatt Hotels: a family firm goes for growth                                              623
Case 5 Days Inn: franchising hospitality assets in China                                       640
Case 6 Reed Exhibitions: the world’s leading events organizer                             651
Case 7 Thomas Cook: turnaround for a historic travel brand                                 666
Glossary                                                                                                                  680
Index                                                                                                                        689

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