Analysis of Macro Environmental Issues in Leisure Management Report

This report delves into the macro environmental issues affecting the travel and leisure industry, focusing on the challenges faced by Thomas Cook and their impact on related sub-sectors such as hotels, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. It utilizes PEST analysis to examine political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the industry. The report further explores the potential micro-level impacts of these macro issues on businesses, considering stakeholders like customers, employees, and shareholders. It reflects on the challenges encountered during the research process, such as sourcing reliable information and determining the extent of micro-level impacts, and suggests strategies for improvement, including the use of CRAAP tests for source evaluation. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the interconnectedness of the travel and leisure industry and the importance of understanding macro-environmental factors for business success.

Leisure
Management

CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Key macro issues within business environment of Travel and Leisure sector............................1
Potential impact at micro level within hotel................................................................................2
Reflection over challenges faced and ways overcoming it..........................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Travel and Leisure industry consists of broader category of field within services industry
which offer services to people who are away from their regular surrounding for the purpose of
business, leisure and other purpose for not more than a year. It includes several sectors like food
service, lodging, event planning, transportation and accommodation (Moutinho and Vargas-
Sanchez, 2018). This report consists of detail description about the macro environmental issues
present in external environment which affect the travel and leisure industry. In addition to this it
also includes the potential impact of macro issues at micro level by considering the example of
other related sub sector businesses.
MAIN BODY
Travel and Leisure is considered as one of the biggest industry which involve group of
sectors within it and provide services related with lodging, leisure, travel, accommodation, food
services, cruise line and other additional field related with tourism. With the integration of
economy and other fields of two countries with the medium of globalisation, the route of people
toward travelling also get increased which in turn helped in development of travel and leisure
industry. This is because all the sector within the industry i.e. from cruise lines, airlines
and hotels to restaurants, tour companies, and theme parks are interconnected in
term of their operations.
Key macro issues within business environment of Travel and Leisure sector
With the improvement in political relation and economic development of countries Thomas
cook is expanding its operations at rapid pace which in turn also support in improving the quality
of services. But apart from all this there are certain issues that are present in macro environment
of Thomas cook which in turn also affect the other sub sector of industry in many ways (Duncan
and Cohen, 2016). These macro environmental issues can be better understood with the help of
pest analysis which work toward analysing the macro environment to determine factors that may
harm business along with several opportunities or threat present in external environment. PEST
analysis of Thomas Cook is explained below:
 Political: - It includes factors like rules, regulations, framework that are fixed by
government. This is one of the biggest challenge which hinder the growth and
development of travel and leisure industry. It is because clashes between government of
two countries give birth to several kind of wars, Boycott, increase in tax rate and
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terrorism attack as well. This is turn changes the traveling behaviour of people around the
world as they only prefer to travel to place at which they feel secure. This in turn reduces
the potential customer approach of Thomas cook.
 Economy: - This section includes factors like cost of services, taxes, import-export,
inflation, deflation, foreign direct investment etc. The economy of UK has go through a
biggest financial recession due to Brexit issues which in turn affected the practices of
several industry and travel & leisure is one of them (Unger, Uriely and Fuchs, 2016). As
a result of which it increases the inflation rate and the charges of providing services
regarding tourism also get increased which in turn have a huge influence over the
behaviour of Thomas Cook’s customer regarding their choice of availing services.
 Social: - It include factors like customer, culture, belief, attitude that group of people
have that left a huge impact over the demand of particular product. In UK the majority of
population is ageing. This in turn lead to fall in demand of Thomas cook services related
to domestic tourism. But on the other side increase in globalisation of businesses travel
for official purpose get increased which also supported the increase in trade practices of
Thomas Cook by getting opportunity to cater the travelling need of business person.
 Technological factor: - It is one of the most crucial factor in which a travel and leisure
company have to invest in order to sustain in marketplace. The biggest challenge in front
of Thomas cook within technology environment is that it requires huge investment but
get changed much quickly (Lepp, 2014). This affect the business practices of Thomas
Cook as upgrade of new technology by competitor leads to customer brand switch. But a
positive side of this is that, London is a great hub of technology which in turn provide
Thomas cook an advantage of getting updated with new technological change that help in
attracting customer.
Potential impact at micro level within hotel
With the advancement of technologies and reduction in barrier among countries there is
an increase in the interest of people around the world within travelling and expanding their
income over leisure related activities for their entertainment and fun. Because of it Travel and
Leisure Industry get hugely benefited with this as they make money by providing services to
such people. This in turn support travel and tourism organisations to approach large number of
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customers by importing and exporting its services worldwide. This in turn also influence the
businesses of other subsector such as restaurant, theatres, hotels, sporting arena and gaming
centre as operations performed by these sectors as each of them are interconnected. Hence, it can
be said that operations performed by Thomas cook are inter related with the other connected sub
sectors. In addition to this profit and loss of Thomas Cook also have a capability to influence the
revenue of companies belong to these sector.
Therefore, the major micro environmental issues faced by Thomas Cook may in turn
influence the operations of other sub sector companies belongs to travel and leisure industry
within their micro level business activities (Elkington and Stebbins, 2014). The major issues
faced by Thomas cook at macro level are political as well as economic issues that have a huge
influence over the operations of company as well as profitability by reducing its access to
customers and vice versa. This in turn also influence the business of other sub sector such as
restaurants, hotels, theatres etc. as it reduces the number of customer visit for leisure to such
places. This in turn affect the profitability of those businesses at micro level which can be better
understood using following points:
Customers: - These consider as most essential and central part of any business in term of
its smooth flow of operation and earning profit by retaining customers in order to satisfy them
for maintaining long term sustainability in marketplace. The economic issue faced by Thomas
cook in term of increasing rate of services and other included tax the traffic of customers gets
reduced which in turn also influence the operations of other subsector businesses by reducing
their customer (Denizci,Guillet, Law and Xiao, 2014). This is because the main motto of
customers is to achieve high quality of services at relatively lower price and higher prices make
them compare several options present in market to get better services. For instance, in its
travelling package Thomas cook also offers its customer a hotel booking for their
accommodation which provide benefit to hotels to which it is interconnected. Hence decrease in
its customer may also leads to reduce of profitability of such hotels as tourism customer visits get
reduce which is the main sources of profitability for them.
Employees: - These are considered as another major stakeholder who have the capacity
to influence the performance of an organisation (Mason, 2015). This is because they are the one
whose retention is very essential for the growth and development of a company as they
contribute toward the accomplishment of its goals and objectives. The political issues faced by
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Thomas Cooks also has a huge influence over the employee management in its organisation as
well as other sub sectors. This is because the reduction of customer traffic creates a pressure over
employees working within the organisation regarding improvement of performance in order to
attract larger number of people toward services. This in turn leads employees to get in search of
another options or job where they get more profit. Hence the macro economic issues faced by
Thomas Cook also influence the employees at macro level. For instance, with the increase in fees
charge of Thomas Cook, customer started seeking for alternative method of fulfilling their
traveling need which is reduce their reach to other sub sectors such as restaurant or pubs. This in
turn reduce the profitability of restaurant or pub that also affect the income of employees as in
such businesses worker earn their money from the incentives they gain over their services to
customer (Glaesser and et. al., 2017). Hence, the reduction of customer also decreases their
income which in turn creates pressure among them and they started seeking for new job
opportunities.
Shareholders: - These are group of persons who invest within an organisation in order
support it in its operations and earn a high amount of return over their investment. The support
for shareholder is very crucial for an organisation as it help in growth by investing money into
business. Both the political as well economic issues faced by Thomas Cook has a huge influence
over the shareholders of other sub sectors that are interconnected with Thomas Cook. For
instance: the bad relationship among two countries government influence the choice of customer
in term of Leisure and travel which in turn reduce the import-export of services offered by
Thomas Cook as a result of which the profitability of company gets reduce. In relation to this
several hotels inter connected with company also have to face these losses and as a result of
which it also gets reflected within financial statement of hotel (Griffin, 2017). This in turn reduce
the interest of shareholder regarding their investment as they only invest capital in business
where they get high return.
Reflection over challenges faced and ways overcoming it
Throughout this investigation I came to know above several thinks that help me in
enhancing my knowledge regarding travel and Leisure industry. This includes a clear
information regarding several factors that influence the operations of an organisation belongs to
this industry. In addition to this I also become aware about the macro issues that are faced by
Thomas Cook and its influence over other businesses which operates as a sub sector of travel and
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leisure industry. But while performing this investigation I found several issues among which two
issues are explained below:
 One of the major issues I found through this investigation is that there are very few
sources available over internet which provide a clear information about the macro
environmental issues faced by Thomas Cook and information available over these sites
are also different from one another. This make it harder to perform my task effectively as
it creates confusion regarding which sources is presenting right information.
 Another major issue that I have faced throughout my work is that it was very difficult for
me to determine the impact of macro environmental issues faced by Thomas Cook over
another organisation that are belongs to Travel and Leisure industry.
These are the major issues I have faced throughout my accomplishment of task which
make it harder to perform my task effectively but still I tries my best to present accurate and
more reliable information. But I will work over it and in future when I again get a chance to
perform such task I will perform it well. Following are the ways that I will adopt in future to
overcome such issues:
 In order to gather more accurate information and avoiding the confusion over sources
I will perform CRAAP test over websites. This will help me in testing the accuracy
and reliability of particular link so that I can make right selection over source of
information.
 For resolving the issues of determining macro issues impact over micro level I will
use a framework that help in presenting information effectively. For this I may use
Porter’s five forces model which includes several macro environmental factor that
have a huge influence over performance.
CONCLUSION
From the above given information it has been concluded that Travel & Leisure is one the
biggest industry which also includes several sub sectors whose operations are interconnected.
Therefore, it is very essential for an organisation to determine the factors that are present in
external environment that may influence their operations as well as its attributes at micro level so
that quick actions can be taken.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Denizci Guillet, B., Law, R. and Xiao, Q., 2014. Rate fences in hotel revenue management and
their applications to Chinese leisure travelers: A fractional factorial design
approach. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. 55(2). pp.186-196.
Duncan, T. and Cohen, S. A. eds., 2016. Lifestyle mobilities: intersections of travel, leisure and
migration. Routledge.
Elkington, S. and Stebbins, R. A., 2014. The serious leisure perspective: An introduction.
Routledge.
Glaesser, D. and et. al., 2017. Global travel patterns: an overview. Journal of travel
medicine. 24(4).
Griffin, T., 2017. Immigrant hosts and intra-regional travel. Tourism Geographies. 19(1). pp.44-
62.
Lepp, A., 2014. Exploring the relationship between cell phone use and leisure: an empirical
analysis and implications for management. Managing Leisure. 19(6). pp.381-389.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Unger, O., Uriely, N. and Fuchs, G., 2016. The business travel experience. Annals of Tourism
Research. 61. pp.142-156.
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