International Hospitality Management: Marriott Hotel West India Quay's Expansion into Nigeria

INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
MARRIOTT HOTEL WEST INDIA QUAY

Table of Contents
BACKGROUND TO INTERNATIONAL HOTEL INDUSTRY.............................................................2
BACKGROUND OF INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MARRIOTT............................................................3
SWOT ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................... 4
BACKGROUND OF GLOBAL HOTEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY..................................................7
BACKGROUND OF EMERGING MARKETS (NIGERIA, AFRICA)....................................................9
PEST ANALYSIS FOR EMERGING MARKET- NIGERIA...............................................................10
ANALYSIS OF SWOT AND PEST............................................................................................... 12
HOTEL STRATEGY TO BE ADOPT AND TO BE IMPLEMENTED (USING STRATEGIC MODEL AND
FRAMEWORKS) WITHIN THE ENTERING MARKET..................................................................13
JUSTIFICATION OF STRATEGIES..............................................................................................16
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF STRATEGY – 5 AND 10 YEARS AHEAD.......................................17
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 19
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BACKGROUND TO INTERNATIONAL HOTEL INDUSTRY
The hospitality industry is one of the biggest industries in the world which has been
conducting their operations in collaboration with the tourism industry. The establishment of
a hotel business in the emerging market will be beneficial for the business at the huge level.
There are several trends which occurred in the International Hospitality Industry. The trends
are associated with the rapid development regarding the ownership, globalization,
integration, and management.
The ownership aspects have been the rapidly developed segment of the hospitality industry
and it will gain substantial growth in the future time. According to World Tourism
Organization, the timeshares are highly developing sectors in the industry regarding the
travel and tourism (Okumus, et al. 2010). The brand power is the potential element among
the hospitality organizations regarding the corporations like Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels,
Marriott Vacation Club International, etc. who have been gaining substantial growth in the
recent time.
In the recent time, the trend of vertical integration has been growing such that the hotel
companies have started expanding their business in other areas also in order to gain
substantial development and increment in the profitability. Also, the globalization aspect is
the prime element of the international hospitality industry. The hospitality organizations
have been considering the international aspects of gaining substantial growth and
development (Tribe, 2016). In addition, the management aspect works regarding the
complex forces regarding safety, security, capacity control, technological aspects, and
capital aspects. There are certain complications occur during the communication between
the staff and customers that could be managed through the recent trends.
In the current scenario, Marriott Hotel West India Quay has been focusing on expanding
their business in an emerging market. According to the WTM 2014 Industry report and
UNWRO Tourism Highlights 2014, it has been comprehended that the most appropriate
merging market for the hotel business is Nigeria (UNWTO, 2012). This report will be working
through different tools and model for accomplishing the desired objectives effectively.
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BACKGROUND OF INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MARRIOTT
The London Marriott Hotel is a 5-star luxury hotel in London and is located at 22 Hertsmere
roads, in West India Quay Marina. This particular hotel is operated by the Marriott Hotels
groups and has approximately 302 rooms. This hotel is owned by John Christodoulou.
Marriott hotel is the worldwide operator and franchiser of hotel and lodging facilities. In the
year 1964 the Marriott hotel was named as Marriott and later in the same year this hotel
was recognized as one of the biggest and emerging hotels of the country. In the beginning
the Marriott hotel did not provide many services to the customers instead it offered various
types of economical services like accommodation services, lodging services etc. In the initial
times Marriott provided its services to small areas and groups of people and later started
facilitating larger customers in the business. At present Marriott is one of the biggest
international brands in the tourism and hospitality segment.
In the early 1990’s only few hotels were under the banner of Marriott Corporation and
operated based on the principles of diversification and also operated in most parts of the
world with the same principle. In the year 1993 the corporation got split into two different
companies one was named as the Marriott International and the other organization was
named as the host, Marriott (Boella and Goss, 2013). The Marriott international basically
operated in the hotel and real estate management and the Host Marriott operated in real
estate segment and food delivery. The Marriott hotels contribute to approximately half a
million hotel rooms worldwide and owing only 0.3% of them.
Marriott hotels are continuously spreading its influence around the world, especially in the
hospitality segment. The prime objective of this company is to set and win the goal of the
leading position in the hotel market. Over the years the company has shown a great deal of
respect for the guests, business partners, employees and society as a whole. The businesses
of Marriott hotels are built on some fundamental ideas of service for providing service to
the customers.
3

SWOT ANALYSIS
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis
Source: (Liu, 2010)
STRENGTHS
Strengths refer to as what business does well in its area of operations which can give it an
upper hand in front of its competitors. The biggest strengths of the Marriott hotels are their
strict adherence to operational norms. The code of conduct of Marriott hotels are custom
designed by the higher management of the company and all the employees are expected to
follow the company’s norms (Boryk, 2010).
The Marriott International has a presence all over the world and currently has a presence in
122 countries around the world and has approximately 600 properties under its belt with
more than 1.2 million rooms worldwide (Boryk, 2010). The company is giving prime focus on
innovation and most of the company’s procedures and systems have started integrating
new innovative processes.
OPPORTUNITIES
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Opportunities refer to different types of avenues in the environment that surround the
business and capitalize on return on investments. Some of the opportunities include:
People around the world are more interested in staying in luxury hotels when they travel
with their families and even alone. This is one of the biggest opportunities for the hotel
owners to lure and woo the customers by offering them a variety of services for their
accommodation needs (TAKACS and VADUVA, 2017). The Marriott group of hotels was on
the news for supporting the LGBTQ community for offering them special discounted offers
and that could be an exclusive opportunity for the hotel chain. A company should give prime
focus on personalization as now a day’s customer and tourists want personalized attention
are always willing to pay for it.
WEAKNESSES
Weakness refers to the areas where the business needs some improvements, for example,
operational improvements, infrastructural improvements etc. Some of the key weaknesses
have been identified for the Marriott International as explained below.
The company is extensively focusing on expanding its international market and it is
organizing various types of advertisements and promotional campaigns for expanding its
business which could a weakness as it may reduce the quality of service provided to the
customers (TAKACS and VADUVA, 2017). Some additional weaknesses include over-
emphasis on service standardization as each employee working in Marriott international is
given a set of guidelines and instructions for operation. This stringent adherence to rules
and regulations has brought down the morale of the employees.
THREATS
Threats refer to those factors in the environment that basically decrement the growth of the
business and some threats are identified for Marriott business as described below.
Marriott International operates in the competitive environment and the company faces a lot
of challenge from other big players in the business like Hilton Chain of Hotels etc. Due to
economic recession and impact of Brexit the company is facing a lot of financial and
economic issues (Enz, 2011). Even the global recession has hit the hospitality business and
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