Resultados de la Prueba T de Student realizada en Docentes y Estudiantes

Strategic analysis is the next stage in the formulation of tourism corporate strategy. It involve considering the major influences affecting the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission in terms of resources and environment. Strategic analysis give reports on the most current and future Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) facing the organization.

Opportunities and Threats summarize the external environmental factors that a tourism organization faces. The key elements of the external environment may be summarized as C-PEST factors, which refer to:

Competitive;

Political;

Economic;

Socio-cultural; and

Technological environments.

Strength and Weakness analysis summarizes the state of internal resources of an organization.

Opportunities, Threats and the external environment

The competitive environment of the tourism industry describes the extent of influence of tourism organizations or destinations upon one another, and that of suppliers and buyers. The competitive environment may be analyzed in two ways:

Structural Analysis

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Competitor Analysis

Structural analysis examines the whole industry in which a tourism organization operates for competitive pressures. Profit-maximizing tourism organization will seek a position within an industry where competitive threats can be minimize and competitive opportunities exploited. Porter’s (1980) ‘five forces’ model can be used to analyze the competitive environment. The five forces proposed by Porter are:

The threat of new entrants;

The power of buyers;

The threats of substitutes; and

The degree of rivalry between competitors.

On the other hand, Competitive analyses involve a more detailed look at a tourism organization’s existing and potential competitors. It enables an organization to formulate a strategy in the light of an assessment of its key rivals. Porters (1980), sets out a framework for competitors’

analysis by deploying a response profile of competitive organizations.

The profile is divided into two sections. The first section asks questions about the motive of the competitors, and the second section asks questions about the competitors’ current and future activities. The detailed questions that need to be addressed within the response profile included:

Product lines;

Prices Quality;

Differentiation;

Advertising;

Market segment;

Marketing practices; and Growth and prospects.

Buhalis (2001) provides a strategic analysis of the competitiveness of tourism in Greece, identifying its unique nature, culture and heritage as strengths and the lack of differentiation of the tourism product as well as competitive disadvantages in marketing and planning as weaknesses. The political environment is important to tourism organizations since it is here that changes in laws, regulations and policy occurs (Hall and Jenkins, 1995). It is therefore important to establish the location of political power, how political power may change in the future and the likely effects of this on policy. Analysis of government, opposition and election cycle yields information on the political environment, and government plans and party manifesto are also important sources of information. In addition, pressure group activities can be important in influencing policy in democracies, and the activities of such group as

HCM441 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM

Greenpeace and Tourism concern attempt to affect government policy as it relates to tourism.

The economic environment affects tourism destinations and organization both in terms of demand factors and especially in the case of organizations, in terms of supply and costs as well (Tribe, 1999). The main economic variable to be analyzed includes:

Consumers’ expenditure: This is the amount of money consumers actually spend. It is mainly determined by income level, but is affected by savings, taxation and government benefit payments, consumer credit and expectations about the future. There is a direct positive relationship between growth in consumers’ expenditure and growth demand for tourism.

Exchange Rates: This is the value of country’s currency in terms of other currencies. A high exchange rate for the pound sterling for instance means a lower cost for tour operators buying services in foreign currency.

Interest Rates: This affects the cost borrowing. High interest rates increase the costs of tourism organizations and dampen tourists ’ demand.

Taxation: This includes taxes on income, spending and profits. Increase in the former can reduce tourism demand.

Inflation: This is the change in the general level of prices and it can result in destinations becoming less competitive.

Strength, Weakness, and an Organization’s resources

Analysis of its resources and products or services enables a tourism organization to assess its strategic capability- or how well it is equipped to pursue its strategy. Resources are typically classified under four headings.

Physical resources, including buildings, fixtures and fittings, machinery and transport fleets.

Human resources, consisting of mainly; skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labor.

Intangibles including acquired knowledge and skills, patents and recipes, good will brands and corporate image.

Performance monitoring analyses the way in which resources are being utilized and can include the following:

Analysis of efficiency;

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Financial analysis;

Appraisal; and

Comparative analysis.

Efficiency measures the ratio of inputs to outputs. Broader measures of financial evaluation include share prices, earnings per share, and return on capital employed (ROCE). Appraisal is used for the evaluation of human resources and is a process where employees meet with their line managers to set targets for the future and review performance against previous targets. Comparative analyses can be made by reference to an organization’s historical record, to other organizations in an industry (best practices) or to benchmark.