Tourist Resort Management: Strategies, Sales & Sustainability

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of tourist resort management, focusing on The Old Course Resort, Golf Resort and Spa in Scotland. It evaluates management strategies to address challenges across different resort functions, including operational requirements, supply chain management, and customer service. The report explores various resort types, their features, and the issues they face, such as rising costs, environmental concerns, and customer attraction. It also examines different resort packages designed to meet sales objectives and presents a market research approach to identify customer needs. Furthermore, the report highlights sustainable business practices that promote environmental responsibility and ecological balance within the resort industry. Desklib offers this report and many other resources to aid students in their studies.

Tourist Resort
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Types of Resorts, Their Features Along-with Issues and Challenges to Manage Them........1
Differences in Operational Requirements of Specialist Areas and Issues of Managing Those
Specialist Areas......................................................................................................................3
Different Types of Resort Packages that Helps to Fulfil Overall Sales Objectives With
Examples................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Market Research at a Specific Resort Location and Determine the Needs of Chosen Market5
Business Plan for a resort package Based on the Findings of Market Research....................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
Sustainable Approaches, Practices and Initiatives Implemented by a Chosen Resort...........8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Tourist resort management refers to the segment of hospitality and lodging industry that
includes travel management, personnel management, health and safety services, professional
standards and ethics etc. Tourist resorts has wider concepts that relates to vacation management,
hotel services, leisure management, administrating hospitality, recreation and leisure, restaurant
and food service management. The Old Course Resort, Golf Resort and Spa is located near St.
Andrews town on east coast of Fife in Scotland, established in the year 1968. The report will
include evaluation of management strategies of the resorts to reduce the challenges and problems
of different functions in a resort. Moreover, the report will also cover the assessment of strategies
of resort to maximise its sales objectives. Further, the report includes the market research for this
business and how it could garner more customers in the chosen market. At the end, the report
will cover the sustainable business practices that helps a resort to be more environment friendly
and ecological.
TASK 1
In reference to the words of Markouic, “ Tourist Resorts are the hotspots that attracts
large number of people, customers, adventure seekers, leisure and recreation seekers and tourism
endows who have specified needs and characters. It is stated that direct and indirect roles
produced by tourism have a subsequent role in existence and presence of Tourist Resorts”.
Types of Resorts, Their Features Along-with Issues and Challenges to Manage Them
There are various types of resorts that can be summed up in the following points: Town Resorts: These small-medium sized resorts are formed and established by the
different people and the available resources at the particular location. In this form of
resorts the people of local communities collaborate to create places with different
advantages that are availed by a resort such as hotels, rooms, relaxation, travel etc. These
types of resorts focuses on attracting customers who have specific needs and are located
at places that are remote and accessible to adventure seekers (Zheng and Wang, 2020). Retreat Resorts: The resorts which are of medium sized and has wider and highest
popularity among all types of resorts. These resorts mainly operates at small levels but
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provides high level facilities and are located at all type of locations from cities, tows or
remote areas. These resorts carter the needs of all types of travellers who needs whatever
type of services according to the locations. The main customers of the retreat resorts are
people who want near to environment experience at quiet and isolated locations. Integrated Resorts: These resorts are of huge sizes and covers a large area in terms of its
use of land. These resorts provides every possible facilities and services that are made
with the purpose of executive experience of their clients (Hu and et. al., 2021). These
resorts have large sizes but they may vary their composition of structure and living space.
In general these resorts are equipped with conference halls,ceremonial locations, golf
areas, spas etc.
Types of resorts on the basis of their functions:
The resorts functions various types of activities that includes, trekking, spas, relaxation or
leisures, etc., based on their locations. The different types of resorts according to their functions
are identified below: Golfing Resorts: These resorts are mainly for the purpose of cratering the needs of the
clients to play golf. These resorts are having facilities like, lawn areas to play golf,
entertainment, drinks, accommodations, masseurs and spas, shopping facilities, etc. These
resorts also provides lakes, gardens, rivers, ponds, waterfalls nearby its locations that
adds to their beauty of the location. Beach Resorts: These resorts are formed near to the seas and particularly its customers
are from the beachside areas (Cooper, 2022). Tourists at such resorts enjoy their
beachside environment with the help of rented or self owned equipments at the beaches
such as umbrellas, cabanas and catamarans. Sometimes the beach resort attendants
organise group activities to enhance customer experience. Spa Resorts: These resorts are the type of medical and health focused places that provide
geothermal treatment and physical-mental relaxation to the people with the help of their
services. These resorts provides people with natural health treatments that is basically
with the help of geothermal mineral water pools. The activities of spas is not restricted to
these but are also provides cuisine and food services, recreation and exercises, etc.
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 Ski Resorts: With the word of 'ski' the speciality of these resorts could be easily
understood. These resorts are mainly located at the hilly areas where snowfall could be
enjoyed for at-least four months a year. These resorts are mainly involved in the activities
related to skiing, snow boarding, mountain climbing, winter sports etc. The resort mainly
focuses on customers who are looking for snow sports and adventures.
Issues and Challenges Faced by These Resorts
These Resorts may look and feel very much comfortable and heavenly nut there are many
challenges that they faces to bring out best in customer experience: Rising Costs on Tourist Experiences: It can be mentioned that these resorts faces
challenges in making the prices most suitable for their customers (Dávid, 2022). The first
challenge is to reduce their costs to incur high profits. Environmental Challenges: The resorts are located at very scenic places but they are
alligated with the consequences of environmental degradation. Everyday they had to do
their best to keep themselves in a manner they could provide good environmental health. Displacement of flora and Fauna: The resorts has to maintain their image in the front of
their customers, there are challenges that they face during their expansion. For carrying
out their expansion the resorts faces displacement and modification of flora and fauna
that becomes issue for their image and reputation.
 Challenges to attract Customers: The resort business may seem to be luxurious and
expensive therefore the company faces challenges to attract customers and make new
prospects for the business (Rodriguez–Sanchez and et. al., 2020).
Differences in Operational Requirements of Specialist Areas and Issues of Managing Those
Specialist Areas
The Old Course Resort is a a type of integrated resort that consist of activities related to
golfing, spa and leisure services. This resort comprises of many functions that are performed by
it which are in the category of its resort operations. The resort operations includes many
activities such as administration, reception, support function, maintenance, tour facilities,
revenue operations etc. The operational requirements of The Old Course Resort are as follows:
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 Coordinative Functions: This function of The Old Course Resort is important in terms
of aligning its all the activities that are happening in the resort. The coordinative function
of the resort focuses on collaboration of suppliers, vendors and organisation to provide
customers with the best services and experience to the customers. Supply Chain Management: The supply chain management helps the resort to get the
necessary supplies to keep the resort functioning. A resort performs many functions and
provides many services and without proper set up and supplies the resort would not be
able to comply with its standards. This would reduce the efficiency of resorts to keep the
promise with their customers. Compliances With the legal & Statutory Requirements: The resort has to make sure that
they follow and comply with all the quality laws and standards so satisfy their customers
and ensure their healthy experience (Liao, Xie and Xiao, 2020). The Old Course Resort
has to make sure that all the statutory and legal compliances related to safety standards
and safety are maintained properly.
 Customer Services: The customer services are very much diverse in different types of
resorts and these services are compulsorily provided by the resorts to its clients.
Customer services of a resort starts from the time when the client make bookings with the
resort till they reaches the resort and until they leaves the resorts. Some of the customer
support functions of The Old Course Resort are given below:
◦ Boarding and Lodging
◦ Welcoming the people
◦ Reception facilities
◦ Stay and Room Facilities
◦ Food and snacks facility, etc. Resolving and Ensuring Health and safety Issues: The resorts needs to resolve and
ensure the health and safety issues of the customers in the resort. At some points the
customers in the resorts are mainly present to improve their health through recreational
activities and leisure services. The Old Course Resort focuses on maintaining the best
food, relaxation, leisure and other services in the resorts to keep the health of the
customers optimum.
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 Enhance Efficiency of Operations: The final function of a resort is to maintain the
proper flow of operations in the business so that they could provide promised services to
the customers (Kastenholz, Marques and Carneiro, 2020). The resort business, sometimes
consists of many operations and performs multiple tasks therefore they should focus on
improving their operations to flow smoothly.
Different Types of Resort Packages that Helps to Fulfil Overall Sales Objectives With Examples
The various tour and travel packages are developed by the resorts to fulfil overall sales
objectives. The Old Course Resort provides services, packages and speciality services to fulfil
its sales objectives which are as follows: A formal Agreement: It refers to a statement or deed that is provided by the resorts to its
clients. It states a formal agreement with the resort and the customers in which the resort
provides description of its services and promises, norms, etc. The customers has to
comply with The Old Course Resort contracts or agreements and could penalise the resort
for not complying accordingly. All inclusive Resorts: This form of resort has services related with the aim to provide
overall customer satisfaction and range of offers to the customers like bringing the
customers from their locations marked and till their departure, including all the facilities
to provide maximum customer satisfaction (Hall, 2020).
 Winter or Summer Programmes and Events: Summer as well as the winter vacations are
observed at every place and people plan their tour and travel accordingly. The customers
looks forward for spending quality time with their family and get relaxed at some distinct
locations. The Old Course Resort provides summer and winter packages during the
vacation times to its customers to sell their services effectively.
TASK 2
Market Research at a Specific Resort Location and Determine the Needs of Chosen Market
Market research is an organised set of activities conducted to examine the factors
regarding customer needs and target markets to determine the viability of a product or service.
The market research is implemented by an organisation to evaluate the strategies that can be
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applied in order to specify your market and customers and work on those particular areas to
establish high brand value to improve the growth and performance of a business entity
(IAROMENKO, 2021). The research conducted in context to Old Course Resort, Golf Club and
Spa includes the following points that are to be considered in order to determine the market
strategies for the hotel:
 Segmentation: It is the process of dividing your market into segments based upon
criteria like age groups, gender, income level, lifestyle, brand loyalty etc. It is based on
the concept that people's needs and wants are homogeneous therefore a product or service
cannot be equally attractive or desirable to all consumers with different preferences.
Market segmentation will help the hotel owners to access the information that is required
to apply unique marketing tactics and sales techniques to encourage more bookings as
well as profits. Through analysing different market segments, the Old Course Resort will
be able to sustain a dynamic pricing policies which varies according to their guests
preferences. The market segments that the hotel offer their services to, are transients who
are solo travellers visiting on their own along with couples and families.
 Targetting: Through targetting the Old Course Resort attempts to evaluate commercial
attractiveness of a segment and target those segments which have more potential of
earning profits. This process helps the hotel in identifying those segments which can
generate great value to increase revenues of the organisation (Müller and Hall, 2018). The
main target audience for this hotel is the transients and couple travellers who are seeking
rejuvenation and wants to experience romance in heavenly Scotland surroundings with
Scottish hospitality. The hotel focuses on audience who are looking for luxurious stay in
the middle of greenery and peaceful environment. The hotel specifically pay attention to
their needs and ensures that the solo travellers as well as couples experience everything
they came looking for.
 Positioning: This step allows The Old Course Resort, Golf Club & Spa to position their
services to attract the target audience. It lays emphasis on how the hotel can make their
services look unique in comparison to their competitors and enhance their hospitality to
excel in this sector. The hotel provides the finest accommodation services with its classy
interiors and spectacular surroundings in the countryside culture with luxurious facilities.
The hotel offers rooms services with sea view and landscape view to attract the customers
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and make their stay experience memorable. The spa treatments and relaxing services
provided by the hotel enable the customers to feel restoration and soothes their mind. The
couples and travellers who visits the hotels enjoys amazing breakfast and meals with
breathtaking views of the hotel (Samy, Mosaad and Barakat, 2021). The hotel ensures
luxuries stay with great dining experiences along with availability of golf courses.
Business Plan for a resort package Based on the Findings of Market Research
Company and Package Description
The Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa is a five-star hotel located in St Andrews,
providing luxurious stay with magnificent views and the most famous golf course in the world.
With the view of expanding its dimensions, the hotel is introducing a new package focusing on
organisation of summer adventure camps and travel packages to attract the number of customers
who are seeking different travelling experiences. Due to the vast availability of fields, greenery
and brilliant surroundings, the hotel is developing the idea of organising the activity of camping
for customers to experience the outdoor stay amidst beautiful meadows and lakes. With the
introduction of this feature, the resort will focus on the arrangements and amenities required to
facilitate adventurous camps. The organisation of these camps will further attract the travellers to
stay at the The Old Course Resort, Golf Club & Spa with the expansion in the magnitude of their
fun activities (Scheyvens and Laeis, 2019).
Organisation and management
The organisation and management activities for the adventurous camps needs to be
examined and planned thoroughly and carefully. Proper arrangements are required to be done in
order to ease the process of camping for the travellers and tourists. The participants of the
adventurous summer camps will be accompanied by local guides who are natives of the
Scotland, which will help the audience in understanding the surroundings clearly. This fun
organising of camps will be divided in different stages of activities. The first activity includes the
journey of reaching to the camping destination, second stages will comprises of events and
competitions like to cheer the audience. The third stage will involve rewarding contestants and
winners of the organised events. The resort will ensure full security and take precautionary
measures to avoid any kind of trouble during the camping.
Marketing
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The Old Course Resort, Golf Club & Spa constantly promotes their brand through
advertising and promoting through online platforms. The resort actively share the reviews and
new offers on their Instagram handle to enhance the awareness of their services. For promotion
of new package that the resort is introducing i.e. summer adventurous camps, attractive digital
posters and designs should be created featuring all the fun activities using graphics and visuals
creatively (Xie and Gu, 2018). The organising authorities and social media manager of the resort
will actively share and promote the new packages and offers on their Instagram handle to ensure
the maximum reach to the audience.
Financial plan
With expansion in its operational activities, the financial needs of the organisation will
increase and thus the resort should develop a proper financial plan to fulfil the fund requirements
for the newly introduced package. The cost of camping set up, necessary equipments, facilities
and others such funds for organising activities will need to be analysed and raised accordingly.
The resort will charge additional amounts from the customers for the exciting offers that it will
provide under the package. Thus, this idea of introducing adventurous camps will induce more
travellers and yield profits for the resort.
TASK 4
Sustainable Approaches, Practices and Initiatives Implemented by a Chosen Resort
Sustainable Resorts are the businesses that focuses towards the reduction of their impacts
on environment and helps to maintain ecological balance. The Old Course Resort has modified
their logistics, supply chain, products, services and administration to reduce wastage, save
energy, reduce impacts on environment, enhance greenery etc. The sustainable practices that are
implemented by this resort are elaborated below: Green management: Employees of The Old Course Resort are well trained and managed
in the way that they are best in sustainable practices across the different functions of the
resort. The company has incorporated green management strategies to improve its
practices for enhancing betterment of environment and local community (Dreizis, 2020). Reduction and Elimination of Plastic: The Old Course Resort has switched to the metal
or glass bottles and made it compulsion according to the norms of government to
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eliminate plastic. This helps the business be more green and it provides water dispensary
units across the resort to maintain the availability of water at all the places (Fox, 2021).
 Using Kitchen Wastage as Manures: The Old Course Resort has a well established
worm composting bin to use the kitchen waste to convert it to manure for their fields. The
focus is to use the waste for beneficial purposes and go completely green so that
environment and ecological damages could be reduced.
CONCLUSION
In the following report it had been obtained that the tourist resorts are of many types and
these resorts have their own features. The report had identified two criteria of dividing tourist
resorts which are according to their formation and another according to their functions. These
resorts faces various challenges and problems related to managing their operations that had been
identified in the resort. Moreover, it had been covered in the report that how the resorts simulate
practices and programmes to achieve sales objectives. At the end of this report, various
sustainability practices of a resort had been identified that helps the resorts to be more
environment friendly.
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REFERENCES
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Fox, L., 2021. Selling the Sights: The Invention of the Tourist in American Culture by Will B.
Mackintosh. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 88(1). pp.159-162.
Hall, C. M., 2020. Tourism Management: Marine and Coastal Recreation. In Coastal and Marine
Environments (pp. 135-141). CRC Press.
Hu, B. and et. al., 2021. Construction and application of quality evaluation method for seawater
bathing beaches resources in China. Ocean & Coastal Management, 202. p.105434.
IAROMENKO, S., 2021. TENDENCIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOURISM
INDUSTRY: THE CASE OF THE ODESSA REGION. Regional Formation &
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Liao, S., Xie, Y. and Xiao, F., 2020. Study on Urban Design of Coastal Tourism Areas. Journal
of Coastal Research, 106(SI). pp.372-376.
Müller, D.K. and Hall, C.M., 2018. From common ground to elite and commercial landscape.
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Rodriguez–Sanchez, C. and et. al., 2020. Understanding in-room water conservation behavior:
The role of personal normative motives and hedonic motives in a mass tourism
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Samy, M.M., Mosaad, M.I. and Barakat, S., 2021. Optimal economic study of hybrid PV-wind-
fuel cell system integrated to unreliable electric utility using hybrid search optimization
technique. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 46(20), pp.11217-11231.
Scheyvens, R. and Laeis, G., 2019. Linkages between tourist resorts, local food production and
the sustainable development goals. Tourism Geographies, pp.1-23.
Xie, P.F. and Gu, K., 2018. The Morphology of Tourism: Planning for Impact in Tourist
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Zheng, G. and Wang, X., 2020. The comprehensive evaluation of renewable energy system
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