Contemporary Hotel and Tourism Issues in Melbourne

This report examines the contemporary tourism and hotel issues in Melbourne, Victoria. It discusses the tourist market potential, transport development, accommodation development, crisis and risk management, social media influence, and visitor experience development.

Contemporary hotel and tourism issues
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Contemporary tourism and accommodation issues.........................................................................3
Tourist market potential...............................................................................................................3
Transport development................................................................................................................3
Accommodation development.....................................................................................................5
Crisis and risk management.........................................................................................................7
Social Media Influence................................................................................................................8
Visitor Experience Development.................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The aim of the report is to examine the contemporary tourism and hotel issues that are relevant to
the nominated destination in the year 2018. The destination that has been selected for the
assessment is Melbourne, situated in the state of Victoria. Tourism in Melbourne is an important
industry in the state of Victoria, Australia. This has been found that the Melbourne is considered
as the second most populous city, as most of the tourist like to visit the place. In the year ending
2017, this has been found that Melbourne was visited by approx. 2.7 million or more by
international overnight visitors, and this include approx. 9.3 million domestic overnight. The
place has been selected because it is considered as a most attracted tourist place in Australia
which is evident with the fact that it attracts 10 million visitors a year which is two million more
than the Sydney opera house (Alcorn, 2018). Thus, this has been found that tourist destination
offers different delight experiences to the visitors but with this, it also includes different issues
that affect tourism.
This report will include the critical evaluation of the contemporary tourism and accommodation
issues that might be faced by the tourist who will visit Melbourne, Victoria. The major elements
which are present in the report include the tourist market potential, transport development,
accommodation development with the crisis and risk management faced by the tourist at the
place. In addition to this, the tourist also faces the contemporary issues related to social media
influence and visitors experience development.

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Contemporary tourism and accommodation issues
There is the presence of different types of contemporary issues related to tourism and
accommodation at Melbourne, Victoria which is discussed below: -
Tourist market potential
In the research analysis, this has been found that tourism is an essential industry for the
Melbourne tourism region. In the designation, there is the presence of approx. 29.5 million
domestic and international tourists who get indulge in overnight as well as in day trips. These
tourists effectively contribute to the economy with an estimated amount of approx. $16.8 billion
in the year ending December 2017 (Destination Melbourne, 2017). In Melbourne, the emerging
tourist market segment that has been visited is a psychological segment. In this segmentation, the
total market gets divided into psychology which includes the personality of people,
characteristics, lifestyle, attitude and many others. This shows that people with the lifestyle and
personality of visiting the place are majorly found in Melbourne. Most of the tourist has the
attitude and lifestyle of trips, visiting the new places, people who are passionate about the places
and many others (Mason, 2015). In addition to this, there are different tourists who make the trip
at their vacations which makes it part of the lifestyle. This segment contributes effectively in
generating the rise in the number of tourist in Melbourne, Victoria.
Transport development
Transport development and growth is considered as one of the major factors that influence
tourism at the destination. Melbourne is the place which is considered as developing and
growing with the rise in the facility and services which are provided by them to tourist. This

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convenience of transport makes the tourist visit the place easily and offers the opportunity to get
around the city (City of Melbourne, 2018). The destination is equipped with developed facilities
in trams, trains, buses, night network, bike sharing, car sharing and many others. According to
the research, this has been found that the night bus at Melbourne is revamped and improved the
night bus services. The network facility is operated majorly on Fridays and Saturdays with the 10
different routes.
(Source: City of Melbourne, 2018)
Further, for reaching the destination, the tourist can easily avail the flights which are available
for the Melbourne, Victoria. Though, with all these equipped services and development there are
some issues which are faced by the tourist at that place which majorly include: -
 The issue with the frequency: - This has been found that suburban buses running only
30 to 60 minutes make the people wait. The similar issues have been found with trams as
20 to 40 minutes outside the peak times people need to wait to avail the services. Thus,
this shows that people wait more time for waiting for the services rather than on
travelling. This might affect the tourist who want to visit the places near to the suburban

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areas and who have a keen interest in knowing the history of the place (PTUA, 2018).
Thus, this makes them spend more time waiting for the facilities rather than availing
them.
 Transits are limited: - Melbourne destination is growing and developing with the rise in
the availability of capacity services. It is essential to extend the transit majorly at the
areas of suburban as they face the issues with lack of transits. The rise in transit will offer
the benefit to the tourist at Melbourne as they don’t have to spend much time (Jenkins
and Dredge, 2016).
 Delays: - The transportation system has improved in Melbourne but still the trams and
buses need to suffer from the delays in traffic which shows the lack of on-road priority.
In addition to this, many bus routes run indirect, slow and on the confusing routes due to
which they lead to delays. These delays might affect the experience of tourist at the place
which will not make them visit the place again.
Accommodation development
Accommodation development leads to an impact on the hospitality and tourism industry.
Accommodation development and services can directly influence the visit of the tourists at the
place (Australia Government, 2018). The accommodation services include providing the
facilities at the place where they can stay which enhance their experience at the location. Most of
the tourist visit from Singapore and China dye to which Melbourne city council estimates more
than 8050 new hotel rooms will be available for the business travellers (Stewart, 2017). This has
been found that occupancy in the hotels can easily reflect how development influences the
tourist.

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(Source: Australia Government, 2018)
The image given above shows the statistics related to the occupancy for the year 2017 and 2018.
It reflects the details of different locations of Australia, out of which the Melbourne is considered
as one of the major locations whose details has been reflected in the image given above. It has
been found that in the year 2017 December it was approx. more than 80% occupied but in the
year 2018, the occupancy of the hotel reduced by 1% which is clearly represented in the image
above (Australia Government, 2018). Thus, it has been found that the place has registered a
downfall in terms of occupancy which means that there some issues that might be faced by the
visitors at the place which makes them not to visit the place again.
Contracting this, the below-given image reflects that Melbourne, Australia is the place which is
considered as least expensive cities for the five- star hotels with the rate of 184 daily rates in US
dollars (Statista, 2018).

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(Source: Statista, 2018)
This image shows that the cost of the accommodation in Melbourne is offering the benefit to
tourist due to which they visit the place likely. Thus, accommodation facilities are considered as
one of the factors due to which most of the tourist visit the place. In the present scenario, every
tourist manages the budget at the tours which will not get affected if they visit Melbourne. Thus,
this has been found that accommodation development leads to a positive impact on tourism.
Though, there are still some issues in the services that are offered to tourist due to which they are
not able to visit the place again.
Crisis and risk management
The crisis and risk influence the number of tourists who visit the destination that is Melbourne.
The risk and crisis management are essential to be managed by the hotels and other companies so

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that the hospitality at Melbourne can easily be managed. The major issues which are faced by the
Melbourne, Victoria is linked with a faulty, dangerous and leaking building that experts warn is
comparable in scale. The building crisis will create an impact on the construction of hotels and
hospitality industry. This will affect the easy availability of tourism in Melbourne, Victoria. The
major issues or risk factor that arises is related to hiring and retaining the skilled and experienced
employees who can offer effective services (Liu, Pennington-Gray and Krieger, 2016).
The threat, which might arise, includes the changes in regulations and rules formed by
government towards the development of tourism. The major development steps in Melbourne are
taken by the government who ensure that they improve the services and boost the economy of
the country. The threat arises to the service providers as a change in the regulations might lead to
the impact on the number of tourists who visits the place (Kovaltchuk, Dedusenko, Blinova and
Miloradov, 2016).
Social Media Influence
There has always been a connection between technology and culture. From the discovery of the
wheel to the creation of smartphones, technology has always affected the culture of the country.
Technology is one aspect that plays role in uplifting the growth of the country in the international
market. The country adequately makes use of social media marketing techniques to promote
Australian tourism and attract more and more people worldwide. The government of Australia is
offering a chance to tourism operators to promote the tourism business using Tourism Australia's
record-breaking fan base (Hvass, and Munar 2012). The Facebook page of Tourism Australia has
millions and millions of followers that help them to promote the working on social media
platforms as well. The Australian National Online Strategy Committee also developed a
‘Tourism e-kit' tutorial packages that initiated ‘Social Media for Tourism' activity for promoting

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the tourism activities of the country on an online base. This type of kit organized by the
committee provides training to the tour operators to effectively make use of social media
knowledge and involve it in the business as well. This kit helps the operators to attain basic
knowledge about social media and step-by-step approach to reach to the customers as well (Zeng
2013).
Social media acts as a tool for the organization to initiate campaign etc. activities to promote and
advertise the features of Australian tourism in the external international market. For instance,
"Best Job in the World" social media campaign organized by Queensland Tourism helped the
country to attract more than 7 million visitors and around 200000 new visitors for the country.
Thus, it should be noted that the growing impact of social media on the lives of people helped
the government of Australia to increase tourism through campaigning and advertising strategies.
Melbourne Australia has formed various individual websites on the platform so that the visitors
can easily attain information from it (Leung, et. al., 2013).
Visitor Experience Development
The experience and satisfaction level of the visitors lays a huge impact on the growth of tourism
in Melbourne, Australia. There are many varied sites like Melbourne Arts Precinct, restaurants
near Yarra River etc. that might attract the visitor to visit Melbourne, Australia. These sites have
greatly enhanced the experience of visitors towards the city. The visitors coming to the country
majorly prefer visiting all such places where they get to know about Australian culture and
teachings. Further, as the social media platforms of the country highlight the details about the
rich and historical culture of the country that attracts the people to go and at visit it once to gain
better experience (Bond, Packer, and Ballantyne 2015). In addition, the experience of visitors in
segregated into two parts that are discussed below:

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Historical Experience: By visiting various historical and cultural places in Melbourne, Australia
the visitors will get historical experience about the culture and practices initiated by the locals of
the country. The Australian culture is traditional and significantly changing day by day that has
started increasing the focus of visitors. The travellers get to acknowledge an educational
experience by travelling to Melbourne and attaining information about the rich and old history of
the country.
Bountiful Experience: along with its history, the country is also known for its beauty and
attractive physical evidence as well. Melbourne, Australia holds various beautiful parks and
monuments that attract the interest of the travellers. Such sceneries provide pleasure to the eyes
of visitors and the weather works hand in hand with the serene beauty. Thus, it can be said that
the overall experience of visiting Australia can be educational and well as memorable because in
Melbourne travellers will get to see beauty along with good old teachings as well (Pearce, and
Wu 2016).

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Conclusion
In the end, this can be concluded that the tourism industry is booming but there is the presence of
different contemporary tourism as well as accommodation issues which are faced by tourism at
Melbourne, Victoria. The report includes a critical evaluation of the different issues that affect
visitors in Melbourne. The tourist market potential includes the segment that majorly influences
the people to visit the place. The psychological segmentation is the market segment that leads to
the impact on the visitors or tourist at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. This has been found that
transport development and growth affect tourism. Transport development has been done in
Australia due to which the tourists at the destination are able to avail the services 24/7 which
makes them to easily visit the place and to room around. Though this has been analysed that
there are some issues like an issue with the frequency, transits are limited and delays that might
influence the delightful experience of the tourist at the place.
This has been found in the research, that the outlook for Australia's accommodation sector is
considered as a strong sector which reflects the increased demand for the rooms off the back of
growth in the international as well as the domestic visitor's markets with the historically lower
levels of the new supply. Thus, accommodation development and its issue are supported by the
occupancy rate and cost of availing the services. In addition to this, crisis and risk management
analysis has been done which shows that building construction and changes in rules and
regulations are major risk and crisis. Further, the social media influence reflects that country
make use of different platforms with the motive to attract the tourists which are witnessed with
the help "Best Job in the World" social media campaign that attracted more than 7 million
visitors. In the end, the visitor development experience reflects the experience of visitors with the

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country due to which they like to visit the place. The 2 major experiences which are discussed in
the report include Historical and bountiful experiences that are major reason due to which
tourists visit the place.

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References
Alcorn, G. (2018) The struggle for Melbourne: has the world's 'most liveable' city lost its way?
[Online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/apr/09/the-struggle-for-
melbourne-has-the-worlds-most-liveable-city-lost-its-way [Accessed on 13th February 2019]
Australia Government (2018) Hotel Industry Trends [Online]. Available from:
http://www.tourisminvestment.com.au/en/research-insights/hotel-performance.html [Accessed
on 13th February 2019]
Bond, N., Packer, J. and Ballantyne, R. (2015) Exploring visitor experiences, activities and
benefits at three religious tourism sites. International Journal of Tourism Research, 17(5),
pp.471-481.
City of Melbourne (2018) Transport Strategy [Online]. Available from:
https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/parking-and-transport/transport-planning-projects/pages/
transport-strategy.aspx [Accessed on 13th February 2019]
Destination Melbourne (2017) Latest Visitor Survey Results for Year Ending June 2017 [Online].
Available from: https://destination.melbourne/news/2017/international-visitor-survey-results-for-
year-ending-june-2017 [Accessed on 13th February 2019]
Hvass, K.A. and Munar, A.M. (2012) The takeoff of social media in tourism. Journal of vacation
marketing, 18(2), pp.93-103.

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Jenkins, J. and Dredge, D. (2016) Tourism Planning and Policy: Historical Development and
Contemporary Challenges. In Stories of Practice: Tourism Policy and Planning (pp. 35-58).
Routledge.
Kovaltchuk, A.P., Dedusenko, E.A., Blinova, E.A. and Miloradov, K.A. (2016) Concept and
procedures of crisis management in Russian hotel enterprises. Journal of Environmental
Management & Tourism, 7(3 (15)), pp.473-480.
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H. and Buhalis, D. (2013) Social media in tourism and
hospitality: A literature review. Journal of travel & tourism marketing, 30(1-2), pp.3-22.
Liu, B., Pennington-Gray, L. and Krieger, J. (2016) Tourism crisis management: Can the
Extended Parallel Process Model be used to understand crisis responses in the cruise
industry?. Tourism Management, 55, pp.310-321.
Mason, P. (2015) Tourism impacts, planning and management. New York: Routledge.
Pearce, P.L. and Wu, M.Y. (2016) Tourists’ evaluation of a romantic themed attraction:
Expressive and instrumental issues. Journal of Travel Research, 55(2), pp.220-232.
PTUA (2018) The Problem With Melbourne’s Transport [Online]. Available from:
https://www.ptua.org.au/melbourne/problem/ [Accessed on 13th February 2019]
Statista (2018) Least expensive cities for five-star hotels worldwide in 2017 (in U.S. dollars)*
[Online]. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/292157/least-expensive-cities-
worldwide-us-five-star-daily-rates/ [Accessed on 13th February 2019]

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Stewart, E. (2017) Melbourne: liveable one day, not very welcoming the next [Online]. Available
from: https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/melbourne-liveable-one-day-not-very-welcoming-the-
next-20171118-gzo5dc.html [Accessed on 13th February 2019]
Zeng, B. (2013) Social media in tourism. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality, 2(1), pp.1-2.