Contemporary Hotel and Tourism Issues

This report discusses the contemporary issues in the hotel and tourism industry, focusing on transport development, accommodation trends, crisis management, and the influence of social media in marketing local tourism. It provides insights and solutions to enhance visitors' travel experience. The report is relevant for students studying hospitality management and tourism. | Desklib

Running head: CONTEMPORARY HOTEL AND TOURISM ISSUES
Contemporary Hotel and Tourism Issues
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Environment analysis.....................................................................................................3
Potential of tourism market of Aridale, New South Wales........................................3
Influencing factors behind transport development.....................................................4
Current trends in accommodation development........................................................5
Potential crisis and risk identification and management............................................6
Influence of social media in marketing local tourism................................................7
Development of visitors’ experience.........................................................................9
Conclusion....................................................................................................................10
References....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Hotel and tourism industry is not only one of the largest industries across world,
people are wilfully choosing hotel and hospitality management course with the motive of
serving people with pleasant tourism experience. Tourism is one of the major part of
hospitality industry and success is based on the effective application of tourism management
and marketing. Tourism has been always considered as a leisure activity which is worthy
enough for investment. Tourism is popular among people as it offers refreshment from
monotonous lifestyle. Even doctors’ prescribe to go for trips for maintaining the balance of
biological and psychological wellbeing. Acknowledging wide premise of this dynamic
industry, it can be said the business is expanding across cultures; hence various operational
and strategic issues have been identified while executing services as different disciplines like
health, agriculture, politics, education, finance, environment, transport and many more are
connected with this business. In case, any of these aspects fail to support the system due to
changing nature; services cannot be delivered as promised. Besides, customers’ preferences
are dynamic and in era of social media it is highly influenced by latest trends.
This report intends to identify the contemporary issues which restrict the industry to
perform in cases of trips at Armidale, NSW, Australia. The potential of travel destinations
across New South Wales depends on transport development, accommodation development
and efficient handling of crisis and risk management. The changing preferences of customers
are driven by social media highly. As per their new expectation, this report will work on
finding ways to develop visitors’ travel experience too.

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Environment analysis
Potential of tourism market of Aridale, New South Wales
A recent market research, conducted by Australian Government under the department
of Resources, Energy and Tourism, suggests that, comparing visitors’ satisfaction report with
general idea of visitors’ preferences coming to Armidale, areas of contradiction and new
trends have been identified. According to the report, Destinationnsw.com.au (2019), 27%
people consider it as attractive tourist spot whether people relocate here for educational,
medical or other business reasons as well. Rate of frequents business trips is no less than 15%
and tourists even come here to meet relatives too. Although, the number of respondents in
Destinationnsw.com.au (2019), are low yet more than 50% of them felt satisfied except
business professionals while their stay at Armidale. The report also describes high tourism
potential highlighting Armidale’s advanced information system, affordable shopping places
along with it offers good accommodation and food within a reasonable budget.
Acknowledging the parameter of satisfaction and based on customers’ preferences emerging
market segmentation targets people who are well informed of the current destination through
social media or from relatives and friends and consider such trips and leisure activities as
motivating factor of their lifestyle. National travellers who have moderate economic
background with sound knowledge of social media and the destination or wants to enjoy
benefits of solo travelling and aged between 18 to 29 are the central emerging segment of
Armidale, NSW. Traditionally, travel experiences are shared with family, friends and loved
ones. However, the idea of being independent while travelling or to experience more
adventure young generations likely to prefer travelling solo. People find it difficult to match
their schedule with other family members which also motivates people for solo travelling.
Armidale tourist industry, following the trends described in Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier
(2015), acknowledging the trend targets such behaviour designing their service for solo

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travellers in particular. Following this way, they can also amend the ways of serving single
business professionals in customized way.
Influencing factors behind transport development
Although, the mission of transport system in New South Wales is to develop ‘safe,
efficient and integrated’ transport system, issues occur when travellers are unaware of the
safety measures and travelling tips. Railways, air seat capacity and cars have been increased
in number to balance with the number of tourists. Besides, in order to make the transport
system more sustainable and convenient; roads are to be made where apart from private cars
and government transports people can walk and use cycles (Ttf.org.au 2019). Transport
choice and development is important for managing travel demands of tourists too. As
discussed in Devi (2015), the transport demand of urban areas have not yet been fulfilled as
areas of improvement have been found. Following the study of Le-Klaehn and Hall (2015),
there is lack of location for urban development, quality of public transport is needed to
develop more, enhancing cycle and pedestrian facilities will contribute towards sustainable
practices, and excessive amount of private cars are not supporting the concept of hassle free
journey. The same report Devi (2015) suggests the relationship between tourism and
transport development as the technological implication in transport sector connects various
tourism destinations together. As a result, the destination can be connected to places with
varied cultural concern. The need of sustainable improvement is necessary as travel
destinations are linked through air transport and motor vehicles, the two central modes of
mobilization influencing pollution. Therefore, the trend of sustainability is approaching
highly which has influenced the development of transport or change the mechanism of
transport system highly. On the other hand, as these are main channels, noticeable
development has been found in manufacturing travel friendly cars and launching budget
friendly air tickets. Travellers must be offered with eco-friendly drive like cycles and battery

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operated scooters to travel various destinations. It can be expected considering the
environmental degradation more energy efficient modes of transports will be developed in
future days. Besides, as stated by Zaitseva et al. (2015), scopes of technological development
is present as far as fuel consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases of motor vehicles are
concerned.
Current trends in accommodation development
Accommodation is another factor which makes a tourist feel secure in foreign land.
The facilities have been restructured for enhancing the convenience of customers regarding
accommodation along with food and beverage amenities. Tourists are now more interested in
adventures rather than having a five star hotel experience. Furthermore, as most of them are
young they travel within economical boundary. They have to keep a track of their
expenditure strictly. Apart from cheap hotels, travellers are finding home stays more
convenient as those organisations offer bespoke services within affordable range. Meanwhile,
emerging business trend has spotted the potential of collaboration among hotels and home
sharing organisations. The tendency of booking home stays has been increased for past one
decade considering its reasonable price range and availability of customized services.
Sometimes, people find homestays at remote location which is beautiful and yet has not much
recognised as a tourist destination. Hotels are being insecure and trying to approach home
stay businesses for collaboration as for a hotel conducting promotional activities will be
easier. Irrespective of different demographic boundary, from solo travellers to business
professionals and people who are coming with family have grown a preference for home
stays. Some of the home stays come with required amenities and the owner handover the
house just a landlord during their stay. In that case, a tourists can cook favourite dish by
themselves and enjoy local experience while walking around the market. Hotels can regain
their competitive advantage in tourism if they can establish this collaboration successfully.

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Besides, with the help of several accommodation providing applications, hotels can offer
rooms to tech savvy travellers at affordable range. As supported by Henderson (2017), all the
renowned hotel companies at Armidale are looking for such alliances with home stays
otherwise planning for offering home stay like service is at the stage of discussion. However,
the fact cannot be ignored that their collaboration will develop more customer friendly
approach along with covering wider geographical area.
Potential crisis and risk identification and management
Tourism industry is itself turbulent and it carries high percentage of risk as hospitality
industry is all about dealing with new customers which indicates the urgency of maintaining
cross cultural relationship with utmost care. The most common risks with this industry are as
follows.
 To operate tourism business in a seamless manner, political stability of the location is
important. Tourists do not want to travel destinations where political condition is
unstable. Before choosing the destinations people must be well informed about the
destinations. Honestly, tourism industry has nothing to do for making the condition
stable but this is undoubtedly a field where multiple cultures meet together.
According to the (Armidaleregional.nsw.gov.au, 2019), Armidale is politically safe
and Government has taken several initiate to promote the place as the place has
distinct culture in cuisine and surrounded with amazing architecture and natural
beauty.
 As the place is still underrated lack of promotional activities can make the place
unpopular over time. With the changing preferences of customers, facilities must be
arranged accordingly. Armidale, as described in one of the esteemed daily,
Dailytelegraph.com.au (2019), has immense potential yet needs to make more

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investments in areas of developing the infrastructure and security to avoid issues in
these sectors.
 According to the report of Tourism Australia 2015, a shortage of skilled workforce in
tourism industry had been identified. The need of major revision in HR policies was
necessary at that point even. There are several tourism business in Armidale, which
find it difficult to recruit efficient workforce for serving hospitality. The problem is
most of the hospitality schools have more foreign students and they take back their
skills to their home land.
Companies are particular of structuring customer oriented business policy to combat
challenges and risks with such a competitive and dynamic industry. Apart from restructuring
business policy, senior management must take the responsibility of transforming
organisational missions into reality and should possess understanding of current threats too.
In order to retain the current market share, hospitality industry of Armidale must adapt to the
contemporary trends of accommodation, transport development and marketing. Tourism is a
sector where it is very important to respond against the contemporary trends and customers’
preferences and maintain the culture of innovation. However, as stated by Uts.edu.au (2019),
even if the risk cannot be mitigated entirely, an industry as promising as Armidale must learn
to reduce it. Communicational channels must be open and co-operative enough to help the
victims. Trained and skilled staff can help to structure risk mitigation strategy collaborating
with other stakeholders. Acknowledging the above mentioned issues, it can be said Australia
needs to balance investment between development of human resources and infrastructure. As
described in Higham, Reis and Cohen (2016), promoting the opportunities of tourism studies
will encourage the youth choosing career in hospitality industry. National hospitality
institutes must be highlighted both in international and national sphere. As supported by Jabar
et al. (2015), New South Wales can learn from Asian travel destinations such as Hong Kong,

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Malaysia where tourism industry has been considered as the highest contributor in national
economy.
Influence of social media in marketing local tourism
It has been universally acknowledged that tourism industry is highly dependent on
available information on virtual space and contemporary communication system as people
have become tech savvy (Yung and Khoo-Lattimore 2017). Further, according to Ainin et al.
(2015), businesses are continually focusing on development of social media marketing
strategies and designing websites professionally as it is the sources of information. While
choosing a travel destination, customers consult three or more travel guides and visit websites
of different tourism facilities. Meanwhile, they compare provided services, evaluate them on
the basis of ratings and pricing too. Finally, they likely to choose a deal where pricing and
quality service have been balanced equally. Apart from website marketing social media has
become the game changer in terms of promotions. Traditionally, people used to rely on word
of mouth, which means friends and relatives used to recommend places and hotels and
through business cards they communicate. However, the time has changed and it is
consistently changing. As stated in Brdar (2014), there are hundreds of friends in Facebook
profile to recommend a tourist destination. The trend of hash tagging in several social media
platforms, has made the places popular and it the new online word of mouth. Therefore,
considering the contemporary approach, Armidale tourism industry can indulge in
promotional activities segmenting the increasing number of consumers whose purchasing
behaviour is dependant over digital space (Guerra, Pinto and Beato 2015). Among a variety
of needs, advanced technological applications are capable of offering bespoke services. Since
the understanding of social media and its positive influence over marketing both the
businesses and consumers are using it as a mode of communication and source of
information. Armidale can rely on these practices for making the place more popular among

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other travel destinations in New South Wales. It has been observed from (), no less than 50%
of people prefers to download travel application from websites before leaving for a holiday.
Armidale tourism can create official social media pages to understand market trends
and can collect feedback of consumers. Feedbacks are important to design the services as
preferred by customers. There are wide range of digital marketing communicational modes.
Armidale can sponsor online communities who have visited Armidale before and on that
group they would share their experience to make the place popular. Besides, writing website
blogs or company can sponsor independent travel bloggers to do promotional travelogues on
behalf of them. Moreover, direct mail or text message campaign can be conducted for
retaining existing customer base.
Development of visitors’ experience
A company operating within tourism industry, must seek for developing their services
in order to satisfy different needs of customers. In a world of dynamic preferences a company
cannot survive without innovating new ways of implementing services and create better
experience for their visitors. Therefore, reviewing the marketing plan and adjusting
organisational objectives according to changing market trend would be a smart approach.
With the help of digital media tracking customers’ buying behaviour is convenient and
establishing personal relationship with them will increase company’s recognition in market.
Starting from the very basic customer oriented approach, tourism industry of
Armidale must align policies and offerings which are bespoke and fulfilling each of their
requirements in both the sectors of accommodation and transport. Suppose, a group of
tourists does not prefer to travel too many places rather wants to enjoy the luxurious facilities
of hotels. On the other hand, there are groups or solo travellers who like it to sleep in tents
and enjoy raw beauty of nature. Tourism industry related to both the sectors whether it is

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transport or accommodation must address both the requirement and work on developing the
same.
Rather than focusing on pricing strategy, competitive edge can be achieved by
developing their experience with better quality service of hotels and food. The demand of
customers regarding trasport differs from one customer to another too. A fact has been
observed from (Armidaleregional.nsw.gov.au, 2019), digital facilities must be less
complicated for increasing convenience and digital information must be handled efficiently.
Investing on websites and developing HR capabilities will help to deliver professional
services as a result customers’ will be more satisfied. It must be remembered that customers
verdict, their negative feedbacks have the power to shape Armidale’s tourism environment.
Hence, following above mentioned ways the industry can gain popularity and sustain by
delivering better experience to visitors.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be stated that as per the collected information Australia has to
make important decision regarding investment on tourism industry as in stead of having
potential Armidale is underrated tourist destination. As a separate governing body, New
South Wales can take initiative to make tourism studies popular to mitigate crisis of skilled
human resource in hospitality industry. According to Jones, Borgman and Ulusoy (2015),
considering the impact of social media Armidale must make the beauty of the countryside
popular to enhance number of visitors per year. Although, it is far from the complexities of
urban life still for the convenience of travellers necessary transport and accommodation
facilities must be developed following the recent trends of sustainability and building
affordable home stays. Establishing big brand hotels might spoil the tranquil nature of the
place, therefore collaboration policy might be applicable here too. Finally, developing HR

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capabilities is the way to serve better hospitality and enhancing customers’ experience will
help them to compete. Therefore, analysing the satisfaction report it can be finalised that
potential of Armidale as a tourist destination is high. Australia can increase its value of
tourism offering such unexplored place with contemporary approach and amenities. It can be
expected that acknowledging the current tourism issues government of New South Wales will
take necessary steps aligning them with current market trend and dynamic consumer
preferences.

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References
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