Unit 12 Hospitality Provisions in TTM Assignment

Introduction

Cox and Kings is one of the oldest companies in tours and travel industry. Its history goes back to year 1758 and it is headquartered in London. They are a privately owned company even today and it was founded by Richard Cox but later it changed hands and it is under the umbrella of Mr. Peter Kerkar. Cox & Kings opened a USA office in June 1988 in New York, NY, then moved the USA office to Tampa, Florida. In August 2009, Cox & Kings USA came under the umbrella brand of East India Travel Company, a subsidiary of Cox & Kings Ltd, the global parent company. It is primarily known for honeymoon tours, leisure tours, historical tours etc.

TASK 1

A) discuss the scope and scale of hospitality industry with in travel and tourism industry with a global perspective and examine the role of hospitality function using your experience in chosen organization.

Hospitality industry is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide and it is a significant and integral part of travel and tourism industry. Hospitality industry is not a specific industry but it is a broad theme of industry which includes various services like boarding, lodging, transportation, entertainment, experience creation like cruise liners etc. are some of the part of hospitality industry. Hospitality is always considered as a part of tourism sector. People globally these days prefer to get a better experience rather than just travelling thus giving a boost to the hospitality industry. Organization which is chosen for this assignment is called as Cox and Kings Tour and it is a globally known brand in tour organizing. There are various options or business sectors which come under the category of hospitality industry like tours and travels, lodging and boarding, food and beverages, restaurants, tours guides etc. It is a service based industry which focuses highly on intangible assets and experiences which are offered to a customer. It is also observed that such services can neither created nor stored for a long period of time and they have to be consumed at the time of creation only or else they will be perished.

Hospitality and tours and travels are integral part of each other and it can be stated that hospitality industry is incomplete without tours and travel industry. It is a norm of industry that most of the tours and travel agencies are working in partnership with hotels and lodges. Some of the companies even go for long term and bulk booking where the book entire lot of rooms in block bookings and similarly some of the hour agencies do block booking of airline seats as well. Thus this entire industry is working on a synergy which is created over the years of experience.  This interrelationship between hospitality and tours and Travels Company is global in nature and different countries and companies operating in them share code in flights and bookings in hotels.

B) discuss the interrelationship between hospitlaity and tour and tourism

Tour operators are the professional agencies who arrange for the entire travel, vacation or holidays of a client and it’s their responsibility to ensure that all the services are integrated and delivered to the customer in a seamless manner. For example a tour and travel operating agency would start its services from picking the client from their home or receiving them at airport or any point where the journey would begin, then they will be arranging for their transportation to the hotel at destination, their day tours or dropping and picking them at different destinations, arranging for their food and beverages and lastly they would also be taking care of any kind of emergency medical or otherwise would be managed by the tour and travel operator. It would be responsibility of tour and travel operator that they will provide for all the services which are promised at the time of booking of services.

A global information distributions system is used by many companies to keep all major service providers in a country under one system and integrating them together. Logic behind this connection is the concept that these services cannot be stored, thus they have to be distributed and planned uniformly and global information distribution system helps in the same. There are many global companies which are providing such services like Trafalgar, Cox and Kings, Exodus, Thomas Cook and Kuoni etc. The changing lifestyle of the people from across the countries has also imposed a major challenge for the tour operators and agencies (Spenceley, 2010).

The tour operator now focus on offering comfort level on various fronts be it easy of transportation, accommodation or food often are creating a major issue in the highly competitive travel industry. Therefore, in order to counter the same the tourism agencies across the globe are taking ardent steps in providing amenities that are of a global standard to attract tourists from across the globe.

The restaurants as well as hotels for cultural and heritage tour and travel sector is quickly developing, offering a wide array of opportunities relative to the consideration besides the presence of several regions that requires specific responsiveness to the customers like convenience and eating habits. For instance, it is essential to offer information relative to demand as if diet consciousness’s that can be further utilized additionally successfully by restaurants while the process of product development besides place management. The tour and travel infrastructure, place of stay and upkeep tourism services that can be further improvised in a synchronized as well as planned strategy implementation for the ascertaining that the tour and travel sector is viable.

For Example, in UK, the tour operators need to be highly organized and most of the income of the households comes from the age group of 30-45 years. Amongst these tour agencies and operators, a majority of about 89% owned computers and about 94% of the employees possessed mobile phones that assist in global access to tourists and their tour management.

The hotels and restaurants have initiated providing the experience in the most traditional form through natural features; cultural diversity, social benefits, etc. have also moved a step ahead in providing several other recreational experiences for the tourists in form of events and festivals. These not only display the socio-cultural trends of the tourist spot but also help in becoming a memory to cherish for the tourists. Moreover, the local people also help in creating a wholesome experience for the tourists especially from the global platform (Smeral, E., & Weber, 2000).

Task 2 Understand the impact of integration within the hospitality industry

A) explain integration in hospitality and travel and tourism businesses and discuss with example drawn from your organization how horizontal and vertical integration in the industry affects the hospitality organizations

Both vertical as well as horizontal integration is an essential business expansion strategy. This across the countries has also imposed a major challenge for the tour operators and agencies that are closely integrated to hospitality (Spenceley, 2010).

                                                          Source: www.juliasilvers.com

As is evident in the above figure for any hotel the vertical integration would suggest expansion in service provision of transportation, planning, entertainment, catering etc. While the horizontal integration would refer to collaboration with channel partners to offer services like Sports events, corporate events, etc. The tour operator now focus on offering comfort level on various fronts be it easy of transportation, accommodation or food often are creating a major issue in the highly competitive travel industry that impacts the shift in the demand curve of hospitality sector. Therefore, in order to counter the same the tourism agencies across the globe are taking ardent steps in providing amenities that are of a global standard to attract tourists from across the globe.

The restaurants as well as hotels for cultural and heritage tour and travel sector is quickly developing, offering a wide array of opportunities relative to the consideration besides the presence of several regions that requires specific responsiveness to the customers like convenience and eating habits with respect to both the types of integration. For instance, it is essential to offer information relative to demand as if diet consciousness’s that can be further utilized additionally successfully by restaurants while the process of product development besides place management that effects value offering to customers. The tour and travel infrastructure, place of stay and upkeep tourism services that can be further improvised in a synchronized as well as planned strategy implementation for the ascertaining that the tour and travel sector is viable.

For Example, in UK, the tour operators need to be highly organized and most of the income of the households comes from the age group of 30-45 years. Amongst these tour agencies and operators, a majority of about 89% owned computers and about 94% of the employees possessed mobile phones that assist in global access to tourists and their tour management.

The hotels and restaurants have initiated providing the experience in the most traditional form through natural features; cultural diversity, social benefits, etc. have also moved a step ahead in providing several other recreational experiences for the tourists in form of events and festivals. These not only display the socio-cultural trends of the tourist spot but also help in becoming a memory to cherish for the tourists. Moreover, the local people also help in creating a wholesome experience for the tourists especially from the global platform (Smeral, E., & Weber, 2000).

A number of Technological changes are significantly observant is the existing operation pattern of tour operators:

1. Customer care needs to be setup to answer specific queries of customers. This makes the customer more comfortable to travel to new unknown places without much worry.
2. Travel companies should allow for tailor made package to cater to individual demands. This helps in acquiring customers who do not want to go to crowded places and want their own space and time (Baha’is, D. 1998).

B) discuss the impacts of integration and how the organization decides to respond to the consequences of integration. Consider both vertical and horizontal integrations

The vertical and horizontal integration used for gaining a competitive advantage:

• growth as well as execution of standard methodology for the effective estimation of the financial value which any place on nationwide cultural organizations
• It is evidently observed that to sustain tourism in UK profitably the government should mandate the effective management of appropriate association between UK tourism relative to its environment affecting the commoners and the tourists to endure sustainable tourism environment over the long period. The association between UK tourism along with its environment should necessarily be preserved for prolonged years, to avoid any environmental damage and sustain the scenic beauty for continuous economic profits.
• establishment of strategies that effectively address the overall study queries relative to several associated Small and Medium Organization
• With change in consumer preferences and tastes, it has become imperative that religious pilgrimage should not only be the sole attraction for them but also be choices of alternate options to explore near the religious place. Use of social media networking is very important for the wide awareness of the cultural travel and tour (Smear, E., & Weber, 2000). Sending the direct marketing mail along with coupons about the offers of on the tour packages past, present and future potential set of customer/visitor base for boosting tourism.
• methods to support the nationwide  tourism business which is increasingly significant for the comprehensive understanding of the developing significance of cultural tour as well as travel, relative to evolving several of case scenario analysis of the overall cultural sites tour and travel
• the advancement of a number of external as well as internal variables that significantly contribute to accomplishment of attaining feasible cultural and heritage industry of tour as well travel corresponding to the overall heritage maintenance objectives
• Diverse utilization of cultural heritage tourist resources besides its related amenities that assist in support to fix the tour supply within the comprehensive supportive network as well as for creating extra earnings streams.
• illustrations of a number of strategies that would help in the revival as well as update understanding relative to the cost effectiveness within the heritage and cultural tourist hold
• Understanding of the factors required for the enhancement of viable utilization of heritage as well places of tour and travel relative to the growth of a thematic outline essential for the overall understanding of cultural heritage places for effective usage in travel and tour sector (Horner, S., & Swarbrooke, 1999).
• To boost the tourist visits in a reproduction trend that refers to tourist visits to increase multifarious visits is significantly crucial for boosting the UK economy and earnings. This can be planned in one of the following ways:
  • To initiate replicating increased occasions of stopovers in the non-seasonal period in the smooth tourist places for enhancing the tourist capacity
  • To intimate open type of promotion instigating the next time visit
  • To offer closed type of promotion and offering complimentary meals during the current stay.
  • Offering a free night stay
  • Advertising media used are newspapers, social networking, push mails etc.

Task 3 be able to plan the development of hospitality business

A) produce a project proposal for a new hospitality business, and design based on a thorough market potential analysis with suitability and acceptability criteria in mind

The current business turnover of Cox and Kings suggests the diversification of the business for sustaining growth. This urges the development of the strategies to undertake the online market exploring initiatives and employment of the advanced services for the boosting the existing Cox and Kings capabilities. 

Core Market Strategy

The core market strategy is designed in accordance to the online market of tourism that comprise of the major part of the UK population (Klemm & Parkinson, 2001).

The decisions of the Cox and Kings s should be to design the Cox and Kings s website allowing accommodation bookings, planning historical tour, online travel reservations etc.

IT PROJECT INVESTMENT APPRAISAL

The cost estimates for the project is elaborated in the below table based on the current market price: TOTAL ANNUAL ESTIMATED COST FOR IT PROJECT: 2.32 million GBP/year

Recommended Timescale For The Project

The total time scale required for the implementation of the project is 1 year.

The figure above estimates that it would take 1 year for completing the IT project implementation planning. The details of the monthly phases of the project span are elaborated as below:

Month 1: This month needs to plan the requirements of IT for Cox and Kings s concerning the number of servers required, requirement development of the website, support and maintenance services planning and business intelligence software requirement  development based on the target market and business resource availability (Pearce & Lee, 2005).

Simultaneously, the planning of the IT requirements are in line with the business requirements which needs to be outlined based on its marketing and company’s long term objective.

Month 1, 2 and 3: During this phase the IT planning, business requirement analysis and operational process analysis outlines the budgeting of the estimated investment. This may span over for about 3 months during which the feasible business risks are estimated and a contingency plan is designed that further affects the cost estimation.

Remaining Months: The HR planning is a continuous process owing to the unplanned requirements for training and development of the existing or the new employees. Risk analysis is also a continuous process for continuous environment monitoring that may have a possible impact on Cox and Kings Growth.

B) briefly outline and assess the financial feasibility of the proposed project based on the expected cash-flow analysis

Cox and Kings S need to adapt the training and development programs for its employees to understand and use the new IT devices and interfaces.

Cox and Kings need to invest on the online advertisements to reach the majority of the population in UK and Europe who are primarily youth.

Based on the demographic study, it is substantial that the Cox and Kings s should offer low priced tour packages owing to the target customer’s annual income study. 

Cox and Kings should diverse it channels of distribution through third party contracts for transportation bookings, accommodation arrangements and travel planning activities.

Establishment of a marketing team of few members to understand and attract the target customer base.

Conclusion

It is therefore evident that the tourism creates considerable economic advantages to all the tourist countries and the tourism organizations like Cox and Kings. Particularly in all the developing countries it is significantly observed that major factor contributing to regional motivations driving its self-promotion as a tour and travel preferred destination is for developing the National economy. Although there is several unseen tourism cost that renders the negative economic impacts on Cox and Kings, nonetheless the positive impacts of IT business support and annual turnover endures the profitability. Therefore implementing IT in Cox and Kings would assist it to monitor the consumption pattern, effectively monitor the data, and gain an online global presence and competitive advantage.

References

Horner, S., & Swarbrooke, J. 1999. Consumer behaviour in tourism.
Jennings, G. 2001. Tourism research. John Wiley and sons Australia, Ltd.
Lickorish, L. J., & Jenkins, C. L. 2012. Introduction to tourism. Routledge.
Miller, G. A. 2003. Consumerism in sustainable tourism: A survey of UK consumers. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 11(1), 17-39.