Key Driving Forces in the Tourism Industry - Coursework Example

Feasibility Analysis Name: Institution: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Business and Industry 4 1.1 Current and Future trends 4 1.2 Key Driving Forces 4 1.3 Key Success Factors 5 1.4 Opportunity Pursued 6 2.0 Products / Services 6 3.0 Operations Objectives 8 4.0 Physical Presence 9 4.1 Location 9 4.2 Premises 9 4.3 Facilities Expansion and maintenance 10 4.4 Supplier Selection 10 4.5 Service Process 11 4.6 Inventory Management 11 5.0 Human Resource Planning 12 5.1 Qualifications and Recruitment Process 12 5.2 Employment Terms 13 5.3 Employee Training and Appraisal 14 5.4 Employee Remuneration 14 6.0 Legal requirements 14 7.0 Technical Feasibility 15 References 16 Appendices 18 Appendix 1: Organizational Operations Layout 18 Appendix 2: Service Flow Diagram 19 Appendix 3: Organizational Start up Costs 20 1.0 Business and Industry 1.1 Current and Future trends The Tourism industry is among the drastically growing and developing industries in the market. In this case, the industry is experiencing an increased recognition in the global market as a result of increased globalization and cultural integration aspects in the market. In this case, people movement across nations has been considerably enabled through the emergence of increased competition in the airline industry allowing for affordable transportation services. Thus, the cost of tourism travel has considerably reduced. As such, Giannoni (2009) argued that this has enabled reduced overall tourism costs creating an increased opportunity for the industrial development as evidenced in the current global industry growth rate. This trend is expected to project into the future as technology changes are on the rise. As such, it is estimated that technological developments will enhance increased efficiency in the tourism industry. In this case, efficiency will improve identification processes in the immigration departments to safer and secure systems as well as enhance affordable transportation systems. In addition, the global economies are increasingly adopting democratic government systems especially in the tourism attraction regions in Asia and Africa (Green & Twining, 2008). As such, this has over the year’s facilitated increased political stability. In addition, this trend is expected to project into the future. Political stability is acknowledged as a critical tourism influencing factor thus expected tourism industry growth. 1.2 Key Driving Forces An industrial key driving factors are described as the key external issues influencing the overall industry functioning. In this case, the tourism industry is a highly vulnerable industry influenced a wide range of factors such as income levels, global security, and technology development. On one hand, incomes are proportionately related to tourism levels in the global market. In this case, the income levels represent the disposable income values in the market available for utilization. Increased incomes result to increased disposable incomes for the consumers’ base. As such, the market has the potential and ability to invest and spend on tourism. Under the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tourism falls under the third level on social belongingness. As such, in order for this need to be met in a society, the physical and safety needs must be satisfactorily met first (Beinart, 2010). Thus, increased incomes enhance the meeting of these needs to allow for increased tourism services in the market. In addition, global security levels serve as a key driving force in the industry. In this case, tourism is highly perpetuated by security levels. The global world ha in the last decade embarked on a mission to mitigate and eradicate terrorism threats. In this case, the global economy has in the last five years experienced a calm and safety environment. Consequently, this has helped perpetuate and increase the organizational growth in the tourism industry. In this regard, security threats in any tourism destination considerably the overall tourism activities in such a region. This negative implication can be evidence by the Mumbai terrorist attack that considerably reduced tourism trips in the region greatly (Oh, Agrawal & Rao, 2011). 1.3 Key Success Factors The industry key success factor is its blend with supporting industries in the market. In this case, the industry blends seamlessly with the transportation and the hospitality industry. As such, organizations serving in these industries have developed strategic alliances. Through these alliances, organizations have over the years developed systems through which consumers acquire services at reduced and reasonable prices (Vajcnerova & Ryglova, 2008). 1.4 Opportunity Pursued Despite the fact that the industry has developed efficient systems in transportation and accommodation, minimal has been developed with respect to tourists guide services. In this case, the services are left and offered by the respective accommodation organizations. As such, the services are offered as a preliminary service in the market. Consequently, this has reduced the development of innovative and unique products and services in the market segment. As such, the tour guide services offered in the market remain unsatisfactory. In this regard, the proposed business venture seeks to venture into this industry venture by providing tour guide services and support products for tourists across the globe especially in the Asian and African regions. 2.0 Products / Services In venturing into the proposed industry sector, the business venture seeks and proposes to introduce a range of products and services in the market. The organization will major in providing tour guide services in the respective regions but will also provide a range of products to enhance efficiency the provision of these services. In this case, the organization will develop tour guide maps. In this case, the organization will develop maps for respective tourist attraction sites in diverse regions. Moreover, it will have an overall map plan for respective nations and the overall African and Asian regions. As a differentiation form the available maps offered by existing tour guide service providers, the maps will provide the tourists with information on the interest sites of attraction in the region. Moreover, they will provide an analysis of key support services available in the region such as gas fueling centres, accommodation facilities available in the regions as well as security details and reach in the respective areas. Consequently, the proposed organizational maps will not only serve as guiding frameworks but also as a safety and security guideline for the consumers. In this case, it will help solve the increased instances of tourists harm and danger of death at times due to lack of available nearby facilities such as gas stations and accommodation facilities. Interior tourist attraction cites in the African and Asian tourist attraction cites, lack proper network coverage to allow for communication. Thus, the organization seeks to install communication enhancement devices in its customer’s transportation vehicles to boost their communication ability while venturing such remote regions. With respect to services provision, the proposed organization will provide a wide range of services in the market. In this case, the organization will provide transportation services. The organization intends to acquire modern model transportation vehicles installed with modern technology communication tools to not only transport the tourists across their desired regions, but also enable them communicate while in such remotely excluded areas. Moreover, the organization will provide educational services on the toured regions and sites. In this regard, it will acquire and train its human resource by impacting it with historical and relevant tourists’ knowledge to enable them guide organizational customers successfully. In this case, the tour guide services will not only be limited to education but also ensuring the customers safety in the market. The services will be differentiated form others in the market due to the option of customers option to select their tour guide as opposed to the sector challenge established by Fodness, Pitegoff and Sautter (1993). The organization will provide a listing of its tour guides and their experiences on its website and catalogues. As such, upon selecting the company, customers will be presented with a listing of available tour guides from whom they choose their preferred guides. Moreover, the organization will create a unique model in which customers can book a tour guide well in advance. Thus, unlike other tour guide service organizations that select the guides on the customers behalf, the organization will present a new customer oriented model where they make the choice with respect to their preference. Therefore, based on the above analysis, it is apparent that the organizational preferred products and services are competitive as compared to peers in the industry sector. In this case, the products are unique and innovative either form original creation or through existing market products improvements. 3.0 Operations Objectives The organization seeks to develop a reputation by providing comprehensive tour guide services as its core business. In this case, the organization has an overall objective of elevating the tour guide services sector to an ultimate level of prominence such as that adopted by the transport and accommodation sectors. In this case, it seeks to build on the existing sector gaps to establish its ultimate competitiveness in comprehensiveness as well as quality in its services provision. Thus the organization has specific objectives of acquiring profits from the market as well as establishes an increased global presence in the tour guide services sector a potentially profitable sector as established in a study by Chiou, Perng and Tseng (2012). 4.0 Physical Presence 4.1 Location The organization intends to establish its headquarters offices in the Asian market. In this case, the organization will be headquartered in China. Moreover, it will have regional offices in Africa, South Africa, USA, New York, Australia, Melbourne and Europe, England, London. The establishment of the organizational head offices in China is informed by the fact that Asia is a major tourist attraction centre to the global tourist industry. Therefore, locating and establishing the proposed organization in this region offers it an advantage in local market reception over others in the foreign economies extending branches in the region (Magigi & Ramadhani, 2013). In addition, the establishment of regional branches in respective continents will allow the organizational customers acquire customers’ services near their residential locations and book them prior to their trips. 4.2 Premises Due to the existing capital constraints in starting up the organizational venture, the organization lacks enough capital to purchase its premises. Therefore, for the headquarters premises, the organization will lease out for five years period. On the other hand, for the other respective regional offices, the organization will rent them on a quarterly basis to allow for enough working capital presence for implementing the overall organizational activities. The organizational layout will be on an open basis with reduced premises demarcation to allow for increased communication and customer services efficiency. The organizational structure will be divided into three distinct divisions, the transport, tour guide and the customer service divisions each with its offices within the premises. 4.3 Facilities Expansion and maintenance The proposed organization has a five years plan for expanding its premises and facilities. In this case, the organization intends to raise enough capital to purchase headquarters premises in the Chinese economy. Moreover, it intends to open up an online organizational platform that will considerably increase its market presence in the global economy besides generating capital to lease regional offices rather than renting them as it reduces their overall costs as Miguel, Shank and Summers (2008) argued. In addition, in maintaining its facilities, the organization will contract a repairs and maintenance subcontractor. The contractors will be charged with ensuring functioning efficiency of the organizational products namely the transport vehicles as well as the communication enhancement devices. In this case, the contractors will be charged with the responsibility of regularly servicing the organizational vehicles as well as inspecting the communication devices to ensure their functioning efficiency. 4.4 Supplier Selection In selecting the respective organizational services providers, the organization will use competitive bidding process (Maurer, Barroso & Chang, 2011). In this case, the qualified suppliers across the markets will be required to submit their bids for consideration. Consequently, the organization will evaluate the bids on a competitive basis evaluating on products and services quality against presented costs. Therefore, organizational suppliers will be selected on the basis of their offered quality as well as the costs. Moreover, the organization will establish a supplier appraisal program. In this case, it will liaise with its suppliers in order to evaluate their performance and initiate continuous improvement programs in their operations. Consequently, this will allow for increased products and services quality at minimal costs in the long run. 4.5 Service Process The organization will engage in a service provision process that will run from the request posting by the customers, allocation of preferred equipments and human resource, actual services provision, monitoring of the services provision progress and finally a review and evaluation of established services provision criteria for the organization. This analysis is represented on a flow chart under these analysis appendices. The organization will have its inventory in terms of communication enhancement devices, transport vehicles, drivers and tour guides. These represent the organizational resources imperative for its provision of services in the proposed market in the industry. In this case, the organization intends to develop a process through which its inventory stock will be evaluated. In this case, it will establish links with third party contractors for the provision of independent vehicles, drives as well as communication devices. 4.6 Inventory Management In this case, the organization will establish an electronic supply chain management system (Greeff & Ghoshal, 2004). Through this system, once the organizational respective resources utilization exceeds its 80% capacity, the system will notify the independent third parties of the impending need for the resource supply; this will serve as the safety inventory level. Once the utilization hits at 90% the organizational system will automatically generate a re-order notice to the respective suppliers for equipments and services equal to restore the organization to an 80% utilization capacity. Through this system, the organization intends to ensure that the overall organizational cost implications of stock out s and the subsequent customer dissatisfaction levels are reduced considerably. In this case, the approach will be utilized to manage seasonal variations in which the demand for organizational services and products increased exceeding its current infrastructural capacity. As such, this not only reduces customer dissatisfaction cases but also increases the overall organizational credibility and market reputation through meeting its consumer needs even at peak seasons when a majority of the tour guide service organizations face services and workforce shortages (Costa, 2004). Therefore, the organizational inventory management system is expected to serve as its key strategic market competitiveness over the industry peak seasons. 5.0 Human Resource Planning 5.1 Qualifications and Recruitment Process As already evidenced in the business idea generation and industry gap analysis, the proposed business venture is a largely service provision aspect. In this case, the organization requires an increased and qualified human resource to provide its key services. In this case, the organization will require an overall organizational Chief executive officer (CEO) who will be in charge of the overall strategic functioning o the enterprise. The CEO will be recruited through an interview basis through which a panel of professionals across the hospitality, aviation and tourism industries will participate. In this case, the recruitment process will seek out individuals with an increased sense of cultural integration, innovative, experienced and with relevant qualifications in business enterprise management. Moreover the organization will recruit three divisional heads for the respective established organizational divisions. Similar to the CEO recruitment process, the division heads will be recruited through a similar interview panel. In their selection, the panel will seek out to employ professionals in the respective fields, individuals with experience and innovate and established integrity and transparency track record. Emphasis is laid on the employees with honest records as the organizational success will be hedged on the level of customer trust and confidence in its operations. Further, the organization through its human resource function will recruit employees in the various categories. In this case, the respective organizational divisions will present a list of required employees through the division heads to allow for their proper functioning. As such, employee categories will be tour guides, drivers, customer care representatives and information technology control experts. Such recruitment opportunities would be advertised and conducted through a selection process under the organizational human resource officer. 5.2 Employment Terms With respect to terms of employment, the proposed organizational venture seeks and intends to apply the diverse organizational employment terms namely the full time, part time and casual employment terms (Holbeche & Matthews, 2012). On one hand, the organization will employ its management executives on a full time basis. In this case, they will be dedicated into developing, formulation and evaluating the implementation of organizational strategic plan to facilitate its eventual market success. On the other hand, for the organizational drivers and other support services, the organization will employ them on a casual l basis to reduce on the overall employment costs when demand for the organizational services are low. Moreover, for technical services such as IT services, the organization will develop a framework for part time employment where such employees can provide their services simultaneously other organizations in a bid to reduce on the high costs of single handedly employing such experts in the market. 5.3 Employee Training and Appraisal In order to enhance increased organizational performance and success, the organization proposes the adoption of a training program for its employees (LeBrasseur, Whissell & Ojha, 2002). In this case, the organization will organize workshops and seminars for its respective employees to enhance their keeping up with updated industry information and trends. In addition, for its executive management employed on a full time basis, the organization will enhance career development by compensating the workforce on expenses incurred in developing their skills. In order to evaluate and establish training need and implications, the organization will on regular basis conduct employee performance appraisal based on their overall performance over the specified periods of time. 5.4 Employee Remuneration Finally, the organization will compensate its employees on a regular monthly basis. In this case, respective employees’ remuneration will be determined by their qualifications, experience and level of service in the organization. However, all employees will be compensated on salaries and wages basis only. However, allowances will be extended to employees’ services offered on behalf of the organization such as client trips, meetings and overtime services. 6.0 Legal requirements Legally, the organizational operations will be dictated under the tourism industry regulations both in the respective markets as well as on the global platform. One key legal requirement is the filing of the safety standards compliance with respect to the organizational communication devices and the transportation vehicles. Moreover, in a bid to enhance reduced labour exploitation the organization will submit its human resource management plan, remunerations and working conditions to the registration department in the Chinese market prior to its institution (Pecht, 2006). 7.0 Technical Feasibility Based on the above business pan and proposal contents, it is apparent that the tourism industry is steadily growing and is expected to increase its growth rates into the future. In this case, the feasibility study reveals that the industry has a market gap in the tourist guide services sector. Thus, venturing in this market provides a viable business venture. In addition, a location and premise evaluation establishes that leasing and locating head offices in China will offer the venture an added market presence advantage. Moreover, a process analysis establishes that the venture is bound to be profitable and that there are enough labour workforces for the venture. Finally, a legal requirements analysis establishes few legal requirements of which the venture can easily comply with. Therefore, this feasibility study argues that the venture is viable and justifiable. References Beinart, P. (2010). Think Again Ronald Reagan. Foreign Policy, (180), 28-33,10. Chiou, C., Perng, C., & Tseng, T. (2012). Applying Service Science on Systematic Innovation for The Convention And Exhibition Industry: The Cases Of World Expo. International Journal of Electronic Business Management, 10(4), 247-260. Costa, J. (2004). The Portuguese tourism sector: Key challenges for human resources management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(7), 402-407. Fodness, D., Pitegoff, B. E., & Sautter, E. T. (1993). From customer to competitor: Consumer cooption in the service sector. The Journal of Services Marketing, 7(3), 18 Giannoni, S. (2009). Tourism, growth and residents' welfare with pollution. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 9(1), 50-60. Greeff, G., & Ghoshal, R. (2004). Practical E-manufacturing and supply chain management. Oxford: Newnes. Green, M. J., & Twining, D. (2008). Democracy and American grand strategy in Asia: The realist principles behind an enduring idealism. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 30(1), 1-28. Holbeche, L., & Matthews, G. (2012). Engaged: Unleashing your organization's potential through employee engagement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. LeBrasseur, R., Whissell, R., & Ojha, A. (2002). Organisational learning, transformational leadership and implementation of continuous quality improvement in Canadian hospitals. Australian Journal of Management, 27(2), 141-162. Magigi, W., & Ramadhani, H. (2013). Enhancing tourism industry through community participation: A strategy for poverty reduction in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Journal of Environmental Protection, 4(10), 1108-1122. Maurer, L., Barroso, L. A., & Chang, J. M. (2011). Electricity auctions: An overview of efficient practices. Washington D.C: World Bank. Miguel, J. G. S., Shank, J. K., & Summers, D. E. (2008). Leasing As a Strategic Financing Option: The Navy's Maritime Prepositioned Ships Experience. Journal of Public Procurement, 8(2), 149-173. Oh, O., Agrawal, M., & Rao, H. R. (2011). Information control and terrorism: Tracking the Mumbai terrorist attack through twitter. Information Systems Frontiers, 13(1), 33-43. Pecht, M. (2006). China's electronics industry: The definitive guide for companies and policy makers with interests in China. Norwich, NY: William Andrew Publishers Vajcnerova, I., & Ryglova, K. (2008). Strategic Alliances in Tourism. Paper presented at the 2037-2047. Appendices Appendix 1: Organizational Operations Layout Appendix 2: Service Flow Diagram Appendix 3: Organizational Start up Costs Equipments Costs ($000) Motor Vehicles 8000 Communication enhancement Devices 4000 IT infrastructure 250 Premises 1000 Human Resource Training facilities 300 Human Resource 700 Total Cost 14250 Read More