Tourism, Hospitality, and Events: Innovation at Marriott International

This report provides an in-depth analysis of innovation practices within Marriott International, a prominent player in the hospitality industry. It explores various types of innovation, including product, management, process, logistics, and institutional innovations. The report examines how Marriott International utilizes these innovations to meet evolving customer demands and fulfill its corporate social responsibility, with a particular focus on eco-tourism initiatives and sustainable development. It discusses the application of theoretical models such as the Abernathy and Clark Model and the Barcet Model to understand innovation strategies. The report also addresses key challenges faced by the tourism, hospitality, and event organizations, such as government constraints, technological changes, and changing customer demands. Furthermore, it highlights the influencing elements of innovation within the hospitality sector, including innovation support processes, hotel size, supplier-driven factors, competition, and market factors. The report concludes by showcasing Marriott International's eco-tourism efforts, emphasizing their commitment to environmental protection and resource preservation. References from various academic sources support the analysis.

TOURISM HOSPITALITY
AND EVENTS

INTRODUCTION
• The current report is based on a specifically chosen enterprise
operating in the hospitality industry named Marriott
International where it is famously known for its several
innovative practices.
• In addition to this, the cited firm has also received awards for
sustainable development in the field of tourism where they have
evidently adopted many ecological practices with an aim of
protecting the environment and preserving its natural resources.

CRITICAL DISCUSSION
• Innovational practices are also proven to assist Marriott
International in undertaking certain effective measures that
ultimately serves the purpose of their corporate social
responsibility.
• A creative attitude towards serving the changing needs and
demands of their users where it tends to change on almost
regular basis.

Typology of innovation in tourism
• Product innovation
• Management innovation
• Process innovations
• Logistics innovation
• Institutional innovation

Product innovation
• It is therefore on considering the services provisioned
by the quoted entity, they can also refer introducing
the concept of loyalty cards with more eco- friendly
practices to accommodate guests.

Management innovation
• Herein, Marriott International can refer introducing a
new occupational profile of taking feedback from the
clients with a separate staff who will be accountable
for the same.

Process innovations
• In this, the stated enterprise can consider changing
their currently adopted practices that are traditional in
nature.
• Herein, undertaking more effective measures that are
digitalized in nature is evident to benefit the
innovational context of the quoted firm to a great
extent.

Logistics innovation
• This is basically in terms of introducing some new system to improve
the logistic system of Marriott International to improve the quality of
their services.
• This is for example to improve the quality of their food, real time
information can be used to together ensure the safety of food.
• This can be done by assimilating inventory management with the
applications of business intelligence to serve via web services as a
major IT request followed by a large number of hospitality enterprises.

Institutional innovation
• This type of tourism is less effective for Marriott
International on considering to its typical nature of
adoption.

Various theoretical understanding of tourism
• The Abernathy and Clark Model
• Barcet Model

The Abernathy and Clark Model
• On the basis of above studied model, it can be said
that Marriott International can hereby refer to
undertake regular, revolutionary as well as
architectural innovation practices.
• This can be done by arranging regular sessions of
training for the workers to develop themselves in the
newly proposed areas.
• Other than this, a revolutionary innovation can also
be adopted by the cited entity as a way of adopting
new technologies to enhance the services offered by
Marriott International to serve their clients.

Barcet Model
• This particular model can be applied by Marriott International in terms of
fulfilling the realistic demand of the users.
• It is for example to meet the demand of the customers; they can configure
exact measures of supplying the same.
• The cited firm can consider proposing the use of loyalty cards to its clients
who are regularly visiting them and reliably availing their services on
continual basis.
• It is mainly on referring to the expectations of such loyal customers who are
also anticipating some sort of offers from the quoted company for constantly
purchasing their offered services.

Innovation in tourism industry
• It is with a special concern of the chosen enterprise namely
Marriott International whose invention capacity can largely
assist it to get a contending position in the market by serving
the latest requirements of the clients and users.
• It is with a major consideration of fulfilling the technical
aspects of today’s progressive market that demands for more
advanced procedures to serve the users.

Key innovation challenges faced by tourism, hospitality
and event organizations
• Innovation brings many challenges such as increasing
government and social constraints, restructuring, downsizing,
change in technology, changing demand of the customers and
downsizing.
• Pertaining to all these characteristics, companies such as
Marriott International operating in the hospitality industry does
not possess power to depend on past successes.
• This is the main reason behind development of new services
and innovative environment.

Influencing elements of innovation in Hospitality
industry
The elements of innovation that influences Marriott International
is categorized into five elements and explanation of these are as
follows:
•Innovation supporting process
•Size of the hotel
•Supplier Driven
•Competition
•Market factor

EXAMPLE OF INNOVATION
Eco-Tourism
•It is therefore on considering the eco- tourism of Marriott
International, they have been found to earn the badge of green
leaders from the group of TripAdvisor’s.
•This is due to their continual efforts in protecting the planet and
preserving its resources by decreasing carbon footprint,
undertaking ecologically conscious measures of supply chain
management and building sustainable structures.

REFERENCES
Ateljevic, I. and Dorne, S., 2000. Staying within the Fence’: Lifestyle Entrepreneurship
in Tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 8(5), pp.378-92.
Bijker, W., Hughes, T. and Pinch, T., 2012. The Social Construction of Technology
Systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cohen, E., 2004. Contemporary tourism: Diversity and change. Amsterdam:
ELSEVIER
Hall, M. and Williams, A., 2009. Tourism and Innovation. London: Routledge
Liburd, J.J., 2012. Tourism Research 2.0. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(2), pp.883-
907.
Malerba, F. and et.al., 2004. Sectorial Systems of Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Papatheodorou, A., 2004. Exploring the evolution of tourism resorts. Annals of
Tourism Research, 31(1), pp.219- 237.
Tseng, C., Kuo, H. and Chou, S., 2008. Configuration of innovation and performance
in the service industry: evidence from the Taiwanese hotel Industry. The Service
Industries Journal, 28(7), pp.1015-1028.