MBA652 Strategy and Leadership in Tourism and Hospitality Report Sample

MBA652 Strategy and Leadership in Tourism and Hospitality

Your task

Individually, you are required to prepare a 1500-word strategy proposal based on the assessment instructions below.

Assessment Description

The purpose of this individual assessment is to give students an opportunity to demonstrate their skills in critical leadership, problem-solving and reflective learning relating to the tourism and hospitality industry by adopting the most appropriate contemporary leadership practices for the tourism and hospitality industries.

Assessment Instructions

Presume that you have been recently tasked to develop Australia’s next domestic (i.e., state-level) long-term tourism and hospitality strategy, with the primary focus on the issue of industry resilience. Based on your campus location (e.g., Queensland), your proposal must include the following sections:

• The analysis of current strategic and leadership risks that the state’s tourism and hospitality industry face due to the recent bushfires and/or COVID-19 pandemic.

• Evaluation of innovative business strategies that tourism and hospitality providers      worldwide are currently deploying to restart their industry.

• Appraisal of the key sustainability indicators that the state’s industry must focus on to ensure pre- COVID-19 issues such as overtourism, for example, will not be repeated.

• An outline of the strategy by creating new vision, mission, and long-term strategic goals drawing on the strategic corporate governance frameworks and how destination management organisations should be managed and controlled moving forward.

In preparing this proposal, you will need to utilise relevant theories and concepts covered in weeks 8 to 12 and use at least 12 sources of information and reference these in accordance with the Kaplan Harvard Referencing Style. These may include websites, government publications, industry reports, census data, journal articles, and newspaper articles. These references should be presented as in-text citations and a reference list at the end of your proposal. Wikipedia and other ‘popular’ sites are not to be used.

Solution

Introduction 

The hospitality industry is one of the highest income earners which is heavily reliant on macroeconomic factors. Each year Australia has a high visitation of tourists from the world owing to its natural environment and government policies that support tourism and hospitality. According to the MBA Assignment Help Although, the pandemic and bushfires have impacted hospitality and tourism owing to a series of lockdowns, strict immigration, and interruptions in the visitation of several reserves of the natural environment.  The report will evaluate issues and create strategies for focusing on industry resilience. 
Strategic and Leadership risks 

The hotel sector of Australia was largely impacted due to prolonged border closure at interstate and international levels. This was done for restricting the spread of the virus along with following national & international social distancing norms.  Interstate tourism has increased as the majority of hoteliers are located on the outskirts of main cities like Melbourne. Although the re-opening of interstate tourism borders has maintained the demand, however, the hotel business still has lower occupancy rates owing to higher rates of each day stay. Since there has been a continuous outbreak of the virus, border closure has been fluctuating which is impacting the hospitality sectors (OECD 2020).  Many of the hotel owners often lease the property depending on the location and nature of services, since, there is uncertainty for frequent lockdowns, owners are facing issues while negotiating terms for leasing and renting (KPMG 2020). Also, the landowners were very reluctant to provide concession, since, the hospitality sector is going through a crisis, flexibility is the need of the hour. 

Another issue facing the hospitality sector of Australia is bushfires which impacted the tourism sector from 2019 and 2020. The ongoing costs have impacted tourism as the government is estimating hundreds of millions have been damaged due to the bushfires.  Many regions like Sydney, Canberra is directly impacted by bushfire as airports and other tourist touching points are filled with smoke and reduced air quality.  Although other regions like the Melbourne hospitality sector have been facing challenges to attract tourists due to poor air quality which is coupled with wrong perceptions of visitation places (Wilks 2020). 
 

1:Impact of a pandemic on the Australian Hospitality sector 
(Source: Statista 2020)

Both the macroeconomic factors have imposed strategic and leadership risks as uncertainty regarding the tourist visits and government policies have impacted the operations. There is a lack of flexibility, predictive analysis, and innovation that has impacted tourism and hospitality. Since the cost of macroeconomic factors is huge, the price of rooms, traveling and transportation costs, immigration procedures are major challenges that have imposed strategic risks. 

Business practices applied by global hospitality businesses 

In recent times, the changes in macroeconomic factorsare providing impetus to adopt sustainability for long-term survival.  In addition, decision-making is very important and hence global leaders have been adopting different styles to combat crises.  Hence, it is determined that decision-making is highly reliant on the effective use of information and the creation of options. It is observed that studying data has helped managers for developing solutions to maximize resource utilization. The decision-makers who rely on data for acquiring answers to their questions are known as maximisers while the ones who aim at satisfying requirements are called "Satisficers”. 
 

2:Decision-making style 
(Source: Workshop 9)

In addition, the Satisficers decision-makers are adopting social media marketing strategies for educating tourists about social distancing norms and safe traveling practices coupled with cost-efficient strategies to retain tourist attraction. The strategies being adopted by global hospitality are mentioned below.

• Collaborating with local and government authorities for managing travel restrictions.

• Restoring traveller confidence by labelling safe travels, equipping information applications for visitors while indulging in domestic tourism campaigns.

• Indulging with local and state authorities to prepare recovery plans, rebuild destinations, embedding on innovation and investments (Deloitte 2022). 

In existing the era, most decision-makers around the globe have been focusing on satisfying the requirements to cover up the crisis imposed due to pandemics from the past two years. In addition, a series of lockdowns have created conditions that have adversely impacted health and well-being due to which the government has taken initiatives for relaxing social distancing to develop local tourism for generating in lower economic backgrounds. Since the hoteliers and related agents are focusing on uplifting demands for coping with crisis, they are being identified as Satisficers. The pandemic has provided the impetus to the global population to understand their culture, hence, the hospitality sector is focusing on improving customer experience from booking tickets to end journeys to attract tourists in culturally rich spots (Deloitte 2022). There has been an increasing demand for living in homestays in remote locations, while fancy foods offered by five stars by hotels are being replaced with the traditional way of eating and cooking. 

Hotels and hospitality in remote regions are being increasingly developed for meeting the changing demands while also supporting the local economy. This is further supported by the forecast of OCED (2020) that predicted that most of the local tourism impacted in starting of 2020 would recover more rapidly than national and international spots.

Appraising Key Sustainability Indicators 

Sustainable tourism is referred to as activities that are supported by operators and legislators to reduce the negative impacts of commercialization on the environment. tourism sectors in and around Melbourne must focus on green initiatives which might include using fresh products from local farms, usage of bamboo products, innovating waste management techniques, using reusable eco-friendly products in the day-to-day operations (Budeanu et al. 2016, p. 286). 
 

3:UN Sustainability Goals 
(Source: Workshop 11)

- Indicators would include a reduction in convectional products in the day- to day operations. 

- Reduction in carbon emission is no option but a mandate, hence, indicators must be created and reviewed through technological tools. For instance, companies in the hospitality sector can aim at reducing all emissions by 5 %.  This would include emitting all products and operations that directly or indirectly contribute to carbon emissions (Edgell 2016, chap 1). 

- It is very important for setting dashboards to manage key sustainability indicators. This would be data management and the use of analytics in decision-making. 

- The sustainable indicators must include a focus on resource management and circular economy. This would include efficient planning to devise metrics for avoiding single-use plastics, embedding on green energies, optimum utilization of water, electricity, and other raw materials(Kim et al. 2017, p. 227). 

- The UN sustainability goals have provided the impetus to the organization in the Melbourne hospitality sector to align with objectives for ensuring broader impacts on the community. Specific focus onlabor shortage, labor exploitation, mismanaged working-class, stigma attached to lower-income service jobs in the sector (Angelevska-Najdeska2012, p. 207). This will also require sectors to incorporate and follow ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)goals within corporate policy and culture (Jones et al. 2016, p.37). 

The customers in Australia are becoming more aware of ethical business practices which also include contributing to society fairly and unconditionally. 

Outlining Strategies for Long Term Strategic Goals 

The long-term vision for the hospitality sector includes aligning with sustainability goals while also following a corporate governance framework that would encompass every management sphere. The hospitality sector within Melbourne impacts many stakeholders, hence, it becomes important for balancing interests for vital stakeholders which might include shareholders, senior management executives, customers, suppliers, financiers, governments, and the community.  Since local tourism is on boon, hence, the hoteliers, tour packagers, owners, or management team of tourism spots. Thus, the framework would include 

- Planning strong foundations to manage and supervise the operations.

- Structuring company board in a way for valuable contributions.

- Acting ethically and responsibly (Knani2014, p. 1). 

- To maintain integrity, the hospitality sector must aim to work on corporate reporting by making balanced disclosure. 

- Managing and recognizing risks holds an important place for avoiding such crises in the future, this would include practices for data management and predictive analysis.

- Fair pay and good working conditions are also a vital part of uplifting local economies. 

In addition, the hospitality sector needs to apply Strategic Intelligence in decision-making for coping with existing economic scenarios while also building upon futuristic vision. The destination managementwould typically include

- Focusing on customer experience factors to describe the competitive environment.

- Understanding underlying issues like lack of awareness, pricing, impact on sustainability and environmental factors, lack of financial and human resources.  

- Evaluating weakness of the business within specific region in comparison with futuristic market opportunities (Hsieh et al. 2012, p. 97).

- Identifying strategies that are not contributing to sustainability patterns within the destination itself. 

Conclusion 

The global hospitality sector has been going through severe crises from starting and ongoing pandemics. Although for Australia, the crisis is coupled with bushfires that imposed economic and human costs while also disrupting tourism and hospitality in adjoining areas. It was identified that global decision-making for coping with the crisis is based on meeting current requirements, although sustainable practices are required for long-term sustenance. Since, the tourist is becoming increasingly aware, hence corporate governance practices must be incorporated. 

Reference List

Angelevska-Najdeska, K. and Rakicevik, G. 2012, Planning of sustainable tourism development, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 44, pp.210-220.doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.022

Budeanu, A., Miller, G., Moscardo, G. and Ooi, C.S. 2016, Sustainable tourism, progress, challenges, and opportunities: an introduction, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 111, pp.285-294.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Can-Seng-Ooi/publication/312446410_Sustainable_tourism_progress_challenges_and_opportunities_an_introduction/links/59d32aa5aca2721f436c986a/Sustainable-tourism-progress-challenges-and-opportunities-an-introduction.pdf

Deloitte 2022, ‘Impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry’,Deloitte Inc., retrieved 04 Feb 2022, <https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/consumer/articles/impact-of-covid-19-on-the-hospitality-industry.html>
Edgell Sr, DL 2016, ‘Managing sustainable tourism: A legacy for the future, Routledge.

Hsieh, YCJ 2012, Hotel companies' environmental policies and practices: a content analysis of their web pages,  International journal of contemporary hospitality management,  vol. 24, no. 1, 2012 pp. 97-121.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yuchin-Hsieh/publication/242020952_Hotel_companies%27_environmental_policies_and_practices_A_content_analysis_of_their_web_pages/links/607c3a3f907dcf667ba9f26b/Hotel-companies-environmental-policies-and-practices-A-content-analysis-of-their-web-pages.pdf

Jones, P., Hillier, D. and Comfort, D 2016, Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 28, no. 1. pp. 36-67.https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/698/1/Jones%20%282016%29%20sustainability%20in%20the%20hospitality%20industry%20with%20cover%20sheet.pdf

Kim, S.H., Lee, K. and Fairhurst, A. 2017, The review of “green” research in hospitality, 2000-2014: Current trends and future research directions, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 226-247.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sun-Kim-3/publication/312667982_The_review_of_green_research_in_hospitality_2000-2014_Current_trends_and_future_research_directions/links/5d94c80d299bf1c363f2a81b/The-review-of-green-research-in-hospitality-2000-2014-Current-trends-and-future-research-directions.pdf

Kanani, M 2014, Ethics in the hospitality industry: Review and research agenda,  International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 9, no. 3, p.1.DOI:10.5539/ijbm.v9n3p1

KPMG 2020, ‘COVID-19: Hospitality sector's next step – time to reopen?’, KPMG Inc. retrieved 04 Feb 2022, <https://home.kpmg/au/en/home/insights/2020/05/covid-19-coronavirus-hospitality-sector-next-step.html>

OECD 2020, ‘Tourism Policy Responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19), OCED.ORG, retrieved 04 Feb 2022, <https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/tourism-policy-responses-to-the-coronavirus-covid-19-6466aa20/>

Statista 2020, ‘Forecasted impacts of COVID-19 on hotel industry performance in Australia for the calendar year 2020', Statista Inc. retrieved 04 Feb 2022, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/1248585/australia-expected-impact-of-covid-19-on-hotels/>

Wilks, X 2020, ‘Australian Outlook’, Australian Institute of International Affairs, retrieved 04 Feb 2022, <https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/bushfires-have-shaken-australias-tourism-industry-from-head-to-foot/>