Hospitality

Introduction:

The main purpose of the research is to evaluate or create exiting understanding, review and investigate existing situation or problems, find out the appropriate solutions to the problems as well explain new idea and generate scope of further research. Research on the issues on tourism sector is to focus on problems of the specified sector and find out appropriate solution of research.

Tourism is now a global industry connecting hundred millions of people worldwide; which been recognised as a fastest rising sectors. These industries make it as a key column of economic development of any destination country. World travel and tourism council (WTTC) find out by their latest research in 2011 that from Travel & Tourism industry’s direct input to global GDP growing by 3.3%, to US$1,770 billion at the year 2010.

Running 2011, this upgrading is forecast to reinforce extra– by 4.5% to US$1,850 billion; where 3 million industry jobs will be created. As per research forecast by WTTC based on Bangladesh; where shows countries GDP is expected to be BDT184.4bn (2.3% of total GDP) in 2011, increasing 6.3% pa to BDT339.2bn (2.3%) in 2021 from the direct contribution of Travel &Tourism .

Royal Danish Embassy (2008) explain Bangladesh as a tourist destination of South Asian region, where the smallest number of tourist arrivals and most minuscule income earned from its travel and tourism sector. As well they identified tourism is one of the rapidly growing for Bangladesh, which can make significant contributions on its economy.

Bangladesh has some significant tourist attraction such as world largest unbroken sea beach Cox’s Bazar, leading world 7 wonder nominated mangrove forest Sundarban etc; but its fails to attract world tourist due to inadequate promotional actions which can bring brand country image on tourism.

(Hossain &Nazmin, 2006) explain that, Bangladesh holding enormous recourses to attract international tourists with affluent traditions, sunny beaches, archaeological attractions, cultural heritages, hills, mangrove forest, wild lives, tribal culture and architecture, colourful festivals etc.

The international media most often focused on countries ongoing political instability, which made huge negative country image as a tourist destination. Instead of political valances Bangladesh has incredible prospects on its tourism sector.

Due to political incidents tourism industry is seriously hampered. Master plan on future tourism in Bangladesh are not maintaining strictly. When the countries tourism got tourism friendly steady environment; the sector flourishes and at the same time increase arrivals.

There are major problems on tourism in Bangladesh and huge opportunities to ensure continued tourism. In this research, I am going to examine how tourism of Bangladesh will thrive in spite of identified problems.

Importance of the Research Topic:

Many countries in the world are dependents on tourism sector for earning of foreign currency. Where, every destination is trying to establish their country image to get more gain by rising tourism sector; Bangladesh is very slow to reach this goal.

In this research, we are going to examine the problems and significant prospects of tourism sector in Bangladesh. As a citizen of the said country; It is an opportunity for me to find out the key barriers of the development of tourism in Bangladesh. It is very important for my country to identify the reasons for downturn of our tourism sector; where neighbor countries tourism growth is highly appreciable.

(Akther , 2001) explain that, Bangladesh is beautiful and wealthy by its own natural attractiveness. Unluckily, the country are not steady to provide tourist friendly atmosphere. Lack of effectual initiatives, appropriate management plan; where countries political volatility is the main key barriers.

Bangladesh has incredible prospects on its tourism sector to make a positive destination image in international tourism. But, at present scenario of tourism in Bangladesh is facing a lot of major problems; where political unrest is the vital issue to make its poor image in international tourism. Lack of socio-political commitments the country still suffering after four decades of independences. Bangladesh has awesome tourism attractions to establish a branding country image in the international tourism industry; regrettably, countries political unrest badly affects its growth on tourism.

Unpleasant security and political disturbances within Bangladesh decrease both domestic and international tourists to explore the country. World tourists are feared to make their visit to a destination with political anxiety. Matter of regret that, even local tourist does not feel free to explore Bangladesh due to political uncertainty; where they found it much safe and secured to make an outbound trip to travel.

The prospects of tourism in Bangladesh are gravely troubled by a number of problems. In this study we are mostly focus on the key barriers of tourism sector in Bangladesh and examine which is the significant way to recover its beauty.

Here, the research findings will drastically expand the range of information on the topic of research and it would be the supplementary literature with the breathing academic literature. The finding of the research would be supportive to any of researcher to consider the more areas; which is not covered in this research.

Literature Review

‘’Tourism: A Community Approach’’; A publications by Murphy’s (1985) which directly focused the basic requirements for the destinations communities to make a bridge between the development of tourism relating to local demands. Afterward many studies developed on the diverse associations amid tourism destinations and its communities (Richards & Hall-2000).

Tourism can be seen financially viable action which produces a variety of positive as well negative impacts. This is identified by his earlier study on tourism Swarbrooke (1999). In order to develop a sustainable plan on tourism and its socio-economic, environmental as well socio-cultural aspects of tourism should be well tacit. The well planed balance among financial profit and social and ecological expenditure; these are key factor of sustainable tourism development.

The development of tourism depended on first-rate sustainable atmosphere. The future trends of tourism marketing should be emphasised on ecological reliability of socio-economic structure, natural resources and cultural heritages. Sustainable tourism will make a huge financial input to the destination and world economy Hassan (2000).

Sustainability is one of the vital concepts of tourism development. Richards & Hall (2000) identify the significance relations between the destinations community and sustainability. Local communities are the crucial motivation for tourists to travel by experiencing the different thought of life.

The development of tourist destinations widely depends on its social responsibilities, political stability and well planned tourism future goal. These things can bring huge socio-cultural reimbursement; upgrade living standards of communities and economic growth come from its superb tourism distribution. An alternative promising approach to avert those expansions is to encourage and spend in sustainable tourism. This is a concept of tourism that can defend socio-cultural and environment of tourist destination; which is called eco-tourism, Shaw & Williams (2004).

Safety and security reasons have changed the world travel & tourism environment. The terrorist attack at September 11, 2001 in USA makes devastating impacts on world tourism industry. Now days the management of destinations closely think and should make their future tourism plan including such solemn issues destination recovery, risk and crisis management.

As per crisis guideline of WTO for the tourism industry aware the tourist destinations that be organized before the emergency, minimise smash up during the disaster and recovering destination image and traveller confidence after the crisis. (WTO, 2003a)

The development of tourism industries depends on destinations calm tourist friendly environment. Beirman (2003) identified a few core reasons that makes destination crisis. 1. Countries long-standing internal political violence. 2. International war or clash. 3. Terrorist attack on tourist and destinations. 4. Major criminal act. 5. Natural disasters such as Strom or Volcano, Flood, Earthwork. 6. Health issues affecting tourist attractions

Lepp and Gibson (2003) find out four key risk factor is seriously harmful for the destination tourism growth. These are Political violence, crime, health concerns and terrorism. International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) identified global issues and challenges where upward worldwide uncertainty for safety and security got priority.

Tourism industry of any countries would be suffered due to crisis and especially political instability. Tourist never wants to travel certain place where several crisis going on. Country loosing economic growth from tourism as well creates a time long negative impact as a tourist destination. Ankomah and Crompton (1990) state that, any crisis or domestic turmoil makes the country as an unsafe tourist destination where the tourist not to visit that country.

While constraints on tourist movement the politics plays a vital role in the world tourism industry. Destinations positive political stability makes encouraging and involving nations. Political turmoil makes the destination unsafe and as a result imposing travel limits by others nations in that country.

The unintentional expansion of tourism’s has spoilt many of tourist destinations normal nature and socio cultural environment. Unwanted side-effects have lead to the rising alarm for the natural wealth, human interests and extended time economic feasibility of the destinations communities (Akis- Peristianis and Warner, 1996).

Bangladesh is a beautiful tourist destination and it holding potential prospects on tourism sector. The country has significant attraction to catch the attention of world tourism. But in term of world tourism the present condition of this country is not enough for tourism distributions; where the political violence’s is the core issue which seriously affects its tourism Islam and Islam (2006).

Pearson (2002) noted that without well planned risk or crisis management any tourist destination institute cannot escape from crisis. Organisation should take serious effort for its risk management. The way for the tourist destination to decrease crisis smash up to make effective preparation. Country should be taken towering concern for each business concerned in tourism industry.

Bangladesh has got the top ten ranked as the Best Value Destination in the world for 2011by world’s leading travel guidebooks’’ Lonely Planet’’; which is owned by BBC worldwide. Lonely Planet mentioned that if any world tourists choose Bangladesh will be rewarded most and get the maximum “value for his money”.

In the literature review, the distinguish authors has been well descried that the crisis or problems, how it affects countries tourism industry. Where, the following variables are extremely essential to improve tourism sector of the destinations: Safety and security, political instability, branding destination image and way of sustainable tourism.

Research Method:

In this section, we will talk about the methods, which will be used for this study. Research issues such as research design, sample, population, procedure of sampling, questionnaires and numerical examination are presented.

Research is an essential part of academics, “research is the systematic study of materials and sources etc. in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions” (Oxford Concise Dictionary). The process by which a research is written or carried out is very important because it has a huge impact on the conclusions reached at the end of the research. There are two major research philosophies which underpin the research strategy and the method that will be used to carry out a research (Collis and Hussey, 2009). They are the positivism and interpretive research paradigm.

Positivism involves “working with an observable social reality and that the end product of such research can be law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists”, the assumption is that “the researcher is independent of and neither affects nor is affected by the subject of the research” (Remeneyi et al, 1998:32). Interpretive is “a philosophical position which is concerned with understanding the way we as humans make sense of the world around us, the underlying assumption is that by placing people in their social context, there is greater opportunity to understand the perceptions they have of their own activities” (Hussey and Hussey, 1997).

Research Design:

In general, the methodology of research and term of research design are seems to signify the equal thing, but actually they are not same. Research design is “a plan or a blue print of how a researcher intends to conduct a study”. The actual significance of research design is to direct the way of data collection procedure and examine the data in order to response for recognized research problem(s); but, the research methodology is to illustrates how something would be done. Research methods are two forms quantitative and qualitative method. Use of countable data is Quantitative. On the other hand, use of non-countable data is qualitative.

In this research, we are using the combination of quantitative and qualitative data methods. Appropriate data collection for this research would be using a questionnaire which well structured open – ended questions. Data related to the previous exiting literature review of the research area were gathered from different secondary sources. Furthermore, Ghauri & Gronhaug (2005: p109) mention that, a quantitative research is more scientific than a qualitative research.

Below, the chart step shows the process of research.

Sampling methods and Size:

It is incumbent on the researcher to clearly define the target population. There are no strict rules to follow, and the researcher must rely on logic and judgment. The population is defined in keeping with the objectives of the study.

Sometimes, the entire population will be sufficiently small, and the researcher can include the entire population in the study. This type of research is called a census study because data is gathered on every member of the population. Usually, the population is too large for the researcher to attempt to survey all of its members. A small, but carefully chosen sample can be used to represent the population. The sample reflects the characteristics of the population from which it is drawn.Sampling methods are classified as either probability or non probability.

The significance of sample is ’’ A portion, piece, or segment of population that is representative of a whole”. For the quantitative research it is highly essential representative sample; where reflects the population completely so that conclusion can be done.

To envoy the whole population sample should be big enough. A small size of will be enough to represent a homogenous population; but, representation of a heterogeneous population requiredlarge sample size. On the basis of population types we need to be more cautious to selecting the sample size.

Data Collection:

The process of data collection is to collecting appropriate data about the research from particular population. There are various way of data collections method such as interviews, questionnaires, group interviews or conference and observation. Each of the individual’s methods has its own and sole features; some advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of questionnaire method is cost effectual, simple association and straightforward analysis predominantly in a quantitative research.

Qualitative Research:

The objective of the qualitative research is to gain qualitative understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations of the issue in hand. The procedures of qualitative research are classified either as direct or indirect, based on whether the true purpose of the research is known to the respondents.

A direct approach is not disguised. The purpose of the project is disclosed to the respondents or is otherwise obvious to them from the questions asked. Focus groups and in-depth interviews are the main direct techniques. An indirect approach disguises the true purpose of the research. Projective techniques, the commonly used indirect techniques, consist of association, completion, construction and expressive techniques.

Quantitative Research:

The quantitative primary data in descriptive research. Both these methods require some procedure for standardizing the data collection process so that the data obtained are internally consistent and can be analysed in a uniform and coherent manner. A standard questionnaire or form will ensure comparability of the data, increase speed and accuracy of recording and facilitate data processing. A questionnaire is a formalized set of questions for obtaining information from respondents. Any questionnaire has three specific objectives. (1) Developing questions that respondents can and will answer and that will yield the desired information is difficult. This objective is challenging. (2) A questionnaire must uplift, motivate and encourage the respondent to become more involved, to co-operate, and to complete the questionnaire. In designing the questionnaire, the researcher should strive to minimise respondent fatigue, boredom and effort to minimise incompleteness and non-response. (3) A questionnaire should minimise response error. Response error is defined as the error that arises when respondents give inaccurate answers or their answers are misreported or misanalyses.

Struwig & Stead (2001: p 89) stated that questions putted in questionnaires principally come through a review of literature on the area under discussion. On the other hand, Ghauri & Gronhaug (2005: p127) suggest that the questions and question design could be depends on researcher and that would be simplify for analysis purpose; such as open or closed ended, multiple choice, grading system or Likert scale format etc.

Questionnaire Design Process:

Step 01: Specify the information needed; once the research problem is well defined and the objectives of the research are well set, the information needed to serve reaching the objectives have to be specified. A clear idea of the target population is also essential, since, more diversified the respondent group; the more difficult is to design a single questionnaire appropriate for entire group.

Step 02: Specify the type of interviewing method; how the questionnaire is going to be administered influences the questionnaire design. If the respondents see the questionnaire and interact face to face with the interviewer, then lengthy, complex and varied questions can be asked. In telephone interview, the questions have to he short and simple. If the questionnaires are mailed to the respondents, the questions must be simple and detailed instructions must be provided.

Step 03: Determine the content of individual questions; Questionnaire should contribute to the information needed. If there is no satisfactory use for the data resulting from a question, that question should be eliminated. Once the researcher decides that a question is necessary, he or she must decide whether this question alone could fetch the required information or double barrelled questions are required to achieve the needed information.

Research Questions:

The research should be well organized to find out the appropriate data. In this research we have chosen the issues to tourist destinations tourism problems and prospects. Bangladesh tourism development and its barriers of the growth on tourism are our topics. On this study we will attempt to answer the following questions:

1.What are the major and key impacts of tourism in Bangladesh?

2. Which reasons behind the recognized problems?

3. To explore how tourism will thrive in spite of identified crisis.

Main objectives of the research:

Before doing a research it is highly masseur the excepted outcomes or objective of the research.The aim and objectives of the study are given below:

To examine the barriers of tourism growth in Bangladesh.
To investigate the possible ways of improvement of identified problems.
To find out the future development trends in Bangladesh tourism
Data Analysis:

The main objective of data analysis is to facts, identify patterns, build up explanations and test hypothesis. Various methods can be using for data analysis such as content analysis, thematic analysis, theoretical sampling, grounded theory etc. The aim of data analysis is to emphasize crucial information and advocate conclusions which help in result making processes.

Data analysis is a process that aims to describe facts, identify patterns, develop explanations and test hypothesis. All of these help to highlight vital information and recommend conclusions which help in decision making processes. Data can be analysed using various methods such as content analysis, theoretical sampling, thematic analysis, grounded theory etc. Bernard (1952) defined content analysis as “a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of manifest content of communications”. Thematic analysis is an approach to dealing with data that involves the creation and application of ‘codes’ to data, there is a link between this method and the grounded theory method. Grounded theory was discovered by Glaser and Strauss (1967) as a method of analyzing data, it is a systematic analysis of data that aims to develop a higher level of understanding or generate theories regarding a social phenomenon.

Referencing Sources:

University students are expected to refer to the work of other authors to support the ideas. We need to mention whose work are using by citing it in the text of your assignment and also in a list at the end of your assignment.

References must be provided whenever someone else’s opinions, theories, data or organisation of material. You need to reference information from books, articles, videos, web sites, images, computers and any other sources. Harvard referencing style is now the most popular and standard for use in the University research. Reading lists in course handbooks should follow this style of referencing.

The Harvard system has increased in popularity over the years and has the advantage of being flexible, clear and easy to use without the need for footnotes and chapter references as used in other systems.

The importance of the referencing system is to acknowledge the work of other authors/writers. To exhibit the body of knowledge on which you have based your work and enable other readers to trace your sources and lead them on to further information.

During my research works, I need many references and it is essential that to record as much detail as possible and be sure the information is exact. This will save you time later when re-tracing references or when you need to incorporate a reference into the bibliography. Proper referencing will enable the reader to do their further study on different related issues.

Conclusion:

This research study will draw attention to the core problems and investigate key reasons for downwards trends of tourism industry in Bangladesh. In spite of the recognized problems how tourism will flourish towards its development. In the literature review we have got a clear scenario of the problems of tourism sector in Bangladesh as well we focused a few noteworthy attractions prospects to utilize and develop the future trends of tourism. In this case work, we find how the political influences effect the destination tourism growths. Without calm and tourist friendly environment none of the tourist destination in the world can expand their tourism sectors. We can take learning from a few Asian tourists destinations that are enormously affected by their internal political chaos and how it destroyed their tourism prospects and as well how the destination recovered their destination image in the international tourism. The government of Bangladesh should take necessary initiative; where collaborations with the opposition political parties are highly required. To make an sustainable master plan to develop tourism sector of Bangladesh; where political stability is the main and key tools of its success. Bangladesh has holding a huge international attraction as well prospects on its tourism sector to contribute countries economy.

References:

Akis, S., Peristianis, N., & Warner, J., 1996. Residents’ attitudes to tourism development: Thecase of Cyprus. Tourism Management, 17, p. 481-494.

Akhter, Shelina (2001): “Tourism in Bangladesh: An Evaluation”, Journal of

Bangladesh Asiatic Society Bangladesh, December, 2001.

Ankomah, P., & Crompton, J. (1990) Unrealised tourism Potential the case of

sub-Saharan Africa. Tourism Management.

Beirman, D., 2003, Restoring Tourism Destination in Crisis: A Strategic Management Approach, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Australia. Ghauri, P. & Gronhaug, K. 2005. Research methods in Business studies. Dorset:Prentice Hall.

Hossain, M. A. and Nazmin, S., (2006) “Development of Tourism Industry in

Bangladesh- an empirical study on its problems and prospects” Centre for Tourism

and Hotel management Research, Ga-1, Rashedul Hasan Bhaban, University of

Dhaka, and Dhaka

Lepp, A., and H. Gibson, “Tourist Roles, Perceived Risk and International Tourism”, Annals of Tourism Research,30(3),606–624

Islam, Faridul and Islam, Nazrul(2006).”Tourism in Bangladesh: An Analysis of Foreign Tourist arrivals”, http://stad.adu.edu.tr/TURKCE/makaleler/stadbah2004/makale040103.asp

Struwig, F. W. & Stead, G. B. 2001. Planning, designing & reporting research.Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bangladesh/travel-tips-and-articles/76216

Sausmarez N., 2007, “Crisis Management, Tourism and Sustainability: The Role of Indicators”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 5(6),700-714.

S. F. Sonmez, “Tourism, terrorism, and political instability” Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 25, pp. 416-456, 1998.

S. F. Sonmez, S.J. Backman, and L.R. Andallen, Managing Tourism Crises, Clemson University, London, Sage, 1994.

Vassiliadis, Christos, 1996, “The Geek Tourism Marketing Policy to Foreign Countries through the scope to attract foreign visitors; Model of investigation: the Northern Greece destination”, (in Greek) Dissertation, University of Macedonia-Library, Thesssaloniki, Greece,p.165.

W.J.Cook, “The Effect of Terrorism on Executives ‘ Willingness to Travel Internationally,” The City University of New York Unpublished doctoral dissertation 1990.

World Tourism Organization, Handbook on Natural Disaster Reduction in Tourist Areas, Madrid: WTO. 1998.

The Daily Star, Dhaka, Available: http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editorials/a-41-2006-07-10-voa5- 83108392, Sep.

http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2007/november/tourism.htm

http://www.parjatan.gov.bd/function_nto.php

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=136220

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/501499.html

INTRODUCTION

Operations management in tourism and hospitality refers to the work done in the different fields of hotel industry. Jobs in the hospitality industry, such as hotels, restaurants, catering, resorts and casinos as well as other hospitality positions that deal with tourists generally, refers to hospitality. Hospitality involves the relationship process between the hotel and a guest and the act of being hospitable, such as guest reception and entertainment with friendliness, goodwill and liberality. Tourists who travel for recreation or leisure purposes is related to tourist management. In recent years, tourism has become a popular global leisure activity among worldwide customers. The project is about Ramada Encore London West.

TASK ONE

1.1 Quality and its benefits within the Hospitality context

Quality means, serving in a manner which suits to the tourist within the limits of the industry. It also refers to the quality provided to the people who have visited an individuals’ place. The best of the services provided by the operations team is called quality.

Delivering quality service is one of the major challenges facing hospitality managers in the opening years of the millennium. It is be an essential condition for success in the emerging, keenly competitive, global hospitality markets. While the future importance of delivering quality hospitality service is easy to discern and to agree on, doing so presents some difficult and intriguing management issues.

Since the delivery of hospitality service always involves people, these issues centre on the management of people, and in particular on the interactions between guests and staff, interactions that are called service encounters. In the eyes of our guests, our hospitality businesses will succeed or fail depending on the cumulative impact of the service encounters in which they have participated.

It is easy to check the importance of managing these service encounters.Think back to the last time you visited a hotel or restaurant.Service encounters are the building blocks of quality hospitality service. First, hospitality managers should identify each encounter in the chain that they wish to take apart, and then single out those that are of operational or strategic significance – in effect, focusing in on the few encounters that really make a difference to guest experience and thus to the bottom line.

Second, apply what we have called the 6 S’s to improving these critical encounters through effective redesign.

While the first step may seem obvious, it is important to identify a service chain and then to break it down into the component encounters. Too much detail takes time and resources, and may confuse rather than clarify.Too little and we may miss important problems.The process is iterative, with more detail needed in some areas and less in others, and with an overriding consideration that the chain is assessed not just from the point of view of a manager but also from that of a guest.

Those that add significant value to the guest, those that cost in time or money, those that help to differentiate the business from its competitors, and those where significant innovation is possible or occurring.

Hospitality service encounters run the gamut from those that are very trivial to those that are highly critical. They vary greatly in their nature and may be simple or complex, standard or custom, low tech or high tech, remote or friendly, low or high skill, frequent or occasional, and so on. They can be instrumental dealing with the performance of necessary utilitarian activities or can involve emotion-laden hospitality events.

An initial management task is to understand a service encounter by discerning and dealing with those attributes that are most important to guests. In doing so, pertinent questions must be raised about the specific service encounter(s) under consideration. With respect to a particular service encounter, hospitality managers might raise many questions like the following:

The specific encounter(s) under consideration will, of course, indicate the kinds of questions that should be pursued. It is important to obtain adequate information to understand the situation thoroughly. Determining the context of a situation relating to a hospitality encounter that has gone wrong establishes parameters for improvement.

All this is part of the second step.With the information at hand hospitality managers can organize, and analyze the data and it is here that the 6S approach can help. These are:

Specification Staff Space System Support Style

Specification means clearly detailing information about the what, when, where, and how, of service encounters. It requires giving careful thought to the linkages between particular service encounters and others in the service chain.

When hospitality managers have carried out these two step process they will be in an excellent position to make decisions that will both improve the quality of hospitality services provided and guest perceptions of them. Zeroing in on hospitality service quality in this manner will help hospitality businesses meet the service challenges of the millennium, enhance their market positions, and reap the associated profit rewards.

Staff in the hospitality industry must be trained to enhance all the issues resolved in time, before the consumers enable to dismantle the theory of having been not satisfied with the hotel staff and the services provided.

The hotel must have a very good accommodation to have all its clients feel at home. A good space leads to more impressive and lucrative offers for the consumers to come at regular intervals. Space means a big area being controlled and operated by the hotel management and the staff.

There should be discipline in the work being allotted to each and every department. That means that the system of working as a family and in a healthy atmosphere be supplemented and enhanced to face any number of customers in the hotel.

Support from all the managerial staff makes a real sense of developing the adjustments made by the hotel.

The presentation of the hotel should be in such a way that it attracts the eyes of the clients. The style applied to all the rooms, bar, restaurant, pool side and the lobby must be so much eccentric that the onlookers feel proud to be the part of such an organization.

More than ever it is important for businesses to be offering the best service to their clients and ensuring that their needs are being met so they stay loyal customers. The increasing use of electronic communication benefits business with efficiency gains but can be detrimental with the interaction with clients. We all need to hold onto and look after our customers and one of the best ways to obtain quality time with valuable clients as well as potential clients and top performing employees is to take them to an exclusive or very popular event such as a high profile sporting event demonstrating to them how much you value them. The best way to spend time at an event is going with a corporate package, for many reasons.

Firstly by doing it in style and creating a special occasion people will remember it for years to come and will certainly show how much you value them by going that bit further than buying tickets to the event. Taking employees and clients here will pay you dividends in the future as it will encourage loyalty and continue bringing in valuable income.

Using hospitality facilities will provide you with space to spend time with valuable clients and those contacts that you want to convert into customers. Having that prime location at the event gives you a huge benefit over sitting in a crowded and noisy stadium. It is a much better suited environment to enjoy the event while talking business too.

Going with a hospitality package can often give you the opportunity to network as other companies will be sharing the facilities with their clients. You can find valuable clients and contacts this way.

Supplier selection criteria for a particular product or service category should be defined by a “cross-functional” team of representatives from different sectors of your organization. In a manufacturing company, for example, members of the team typically would include representatives from purchasing, quality, engineering and production. Team members should include personnel with technical/applications knowledge of the product or service to be purchased, as well as members of the department that uses the purchased item.

Common supplier selection criteria:

Previous experience and past performance with the product/service to be purchased.

Relative level of sophistication of the quality system, including meeting regulatory requirements or mandated quality system registration (for example, ISO 9001, QS-9000).

Ability to meet current and potential capacity requirements, and do so on the desired delivery schedule.

Financial stability.

Technical support availability and willingness to participate as a partner in developing and optimizing design and a long-term relationship.

Total cost of dealing with the supplier (including material cost, communications methods, inventory requirements and incoming verification required).

The supplier’s track record for business-performance improvement.

Total cost assessment.

Methods for determining how well a potential supplier fits the criteria:

Obtaining a Dun & Bradstreet or other publicly available financial report.

Requesting a formal quote, which includes providing the supplier with specifications and other requirements (for example, testing).

Visits to the supplier by management and/or the selection team.

Confirmation of quality system status either by on-site assessment, a written survey or request for a certificate of quality system registration.

Discussions with other customers served by the supplier.

Review of databases or industry sources for the product line and supplier.

Evaluation (SUCH AS prototyping, lab tests, OR validation testing) of samples obtained from the supplier.

The Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism serves as a medium to share and disseminate new research findings, theoretical development and superior practices in hospitality and tourism service quality. The journal aims to publish cutting-edge empirically and theoretically sound research articles which advance and foster hospitality and tourism research and practices. Academicians and practitioners explore current and important development information on quality planning, development, management, marketing, evaluation, and adjustments within the field. As a result, this journal will help readers to keep up-to-date on the latest theory development and research findings, improve business practices, stay informed of successful hospitality strategies, maintain profit requirements, and increase their market share in this complex and growing field.

Comprised of conceptual and methodological research papers, research notes, case studies, and review books and conferences the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism offers readers examples of real world practices and experiences that involve: organizational development and improvement operational and efficiency issues quality policy and strategy service quality improvement and customer satisfaction managerial issues, such as employee empowerment & benefits, quality costs, & returns on investment the role and participation of private and public sectors, including residents international, national, and regional tourism; tourism destination sites; arid systems of tourism

Allowing readers the opportunity to share experiences and thoughts with colleagues in the field, this journal also contains several columns that examine different and valuable information sources, including:research notes– significant findings related to the goals of the journal dissertations and master’s theses abstracts– examine quality assurance & related topics book reviews– recently published works that discuss the strengths & structure of the book, subject matter, readability, and discussions about the work’s contribution to existing practices and knowledge in the field conference reviews– highlighting & discussing specific papers presented at conferences & their importance in the field web site reviews– interesting & helpful hospitality & tourism web sites.

Covering several crucial areas in each issue, this journal provides essential information that can be applied to businesses, the classroom, and new research projects. Bringing together a variety of perspectives from around the world, the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism has the current, comprehensive, and vital information necessary to evaluate the quality of services and improve customer satisfaction in a cost-effective manner.

1.2 Quality Awards/Systems that Hospitality Organizations operate within

The concept of quality management in hospitality industry is very important. The hospitality industry is one of the most important industries in the world that has been growing at unique rate owing to the increased rate of globalization. The amplified activities in tourism industry and improved international trade are among the factors that have led to increased growth of the hospitality industry. There has been increased trend towards equivalence of services in the hospitality industry and this is being driven by the need for augmentation of quality of services. As the level of competition increase in the industry, the competitive advantage has been created through provision of high quality services. In order to understand the trend in enrichment of quality of services in the industry, this paper will review a number of studies on the subject.

The case of Ramada Encore London West discusses how total quality management has been used in London in the enhancement of quality in thehospitality industry. This acknowledges that total quality management is a concept that has gained increased use in the hospitality industry. In recognition of the importance of quality management in the hospitality industry, the ISO 9000 has been an important step in setting standards for the implementation of total quality management in the industry. Enhancement of quality in the hospitality industry is cited to increase the level of customer satisfaction, increased sales and better profits for business in the hospitality industry.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is however sometimes difficult to implement in hospitality industry owing to the difficult in identifying some of the most appropriate quality measures. This study identified the need to use the quality triangle in hospitality industry including focus on customers, team work approach to unify goals, and use of scientific approach in decision making. Through comparing TQM in manufacturing and hospitality industry, the study gives important review on how hospitality industry can use the TQM concept to improve their services. This study is important since it shows how organization in the hospitality industry can actually use TQM concept to enhance quality in their products and services. It is important to understand that TQM is s wholesome approach which doesn’t only look at one aspect of quality management but concentrate on quality in on all aspects.

HACCP is one of the most important aspects in TQM that defines quality. HACCP defines the important points at which quality should be ensured. Through understanding the important points in the process of food production or offering of service where quality can be enhanced, it become easier to enhance quality. While HACCP is an important factor in quality enhancement process that has been used in large food manufacturers, it has been slowly employed in the small business especially in the hospitality industry. The study found out that there are more than eleven barriers to enhancement of HACCP in enhancement of quality. This has one of the most comprehensive studies in implementation of HAACP in the hospitality industry.The findings of the study are important since they show the importance of HACCP in enhancement of quality of products and services in hospitality industry.

Quality enhancement is important in determining the rating of hotels in hospitality industry. It is also related to princes of products and services in the industry. In their study on Quality and Pricing in the Hotel Industry: The Mobil “Star” and Hotel Pricing Behaviour, Henley, Cotter, and Duncan (2004) argues that price is closely tied to pricing of products. They argue that quality is one of the most important determinants of price not only in hospitality industry but also in other industries as well. However, they concede that it is fortunate that in the hospitality industry, quality evaluation and prince information are availed for consumer and have also been published in consumer guides. They give the example of The Mobili Travel Guides as one of the most important sources of information regarding quality and price of products offered in hospitality industry. To find whether hotels usually do change their pricing and quality strategy when their rating is affected in such consumer guides. This study found out that price is tied to quality of services and products. Most hotels raises their prices when their rating goes higher and lowers the consequently when their rating is lowered, and the same happens at Ramada Encore London West. The results are important to enhancement of quality in hospitality industry. It reveals that quality of service offered has an effect on rating of the hotels and hence the price of their product.

There are different factors affecting the quality of services in the hospitality industry. In their review of different factors affecting quality in the Ramada Encore London West shows that the growth of tourisms industry in different parts of the world have led to increased attention to quality assurance in the hospitality industry. The hotel looked into influence of consumer perception on quality of services, the study found out that different factors like previous acquaintance with the hotel, perception and efficiency, perception of value, type of restaurant services, quality of conference facilities, and staff attitudes are among the important factors that affect consumer perception of quality in a given hotel. It is important to operators in the industry who want to improve their quality since they would focus on these factors. It implies that to enhance quality, hotels must understand the important factors that are used by consumers to assess quality of services and products and henceforth improve them.

Employees of Ramada Encore London West have a lot of influence on the quality of service offered by the organization. Employees are the main point of contact between organization and the customers. Following the HACCP model, this is an important point and there should be efforts to enhance quality at this point. In deed, this point has been reinforced by Kattara, Dina, and El-Saidin their study on the impact of employee behaviour on customers’ service quality perceptions and overall satisfaction. In this study, Kattara et al., (2008) attempted to investigate the relationship between the positive and negative employee behaviour, customer sensitivity of the quality of service offered and the satisfaction of the employees. This study revealed that employee behaviours whether negative or positive are well correlated with customer satisfaction. Through review of past and current literature, the study found out that customer discernment is mainly influenced by the quality of service they received at a given hotel. This study is important enhancement of quality in the hospitality industry since it looked at the relationship between employees and their customers.

Consumers are also important determinant of the quality of service offered in the industry through their reviews.Consumer awareness is an important factor that can be used by consumers to show the level of quality in the industry. While a manager may think that their service are quality, customer many think otherwise. Therefore the author suggests setting up a program that will assist in monitoring go standards of services to enhance quality.

Quality management is not only about ornamental quality of goods and services.

The hospitality industry in has not been keen on integrating occupation health and safety with quality management systems. If OHS is not integrated with quality management system, most organization can degenerate from health participatory process to mere bureaucratic management tool. The findings of this study are important since they show the importance of integrating OHS and quality systems. Both concepts are closely related and enhance each other.

1.3 Internal System within the Front Office Area

The Front Office utility of a Hotel is to act as the public face of the hotel, chiefly by greeting hotel consumers and checking in guests.

It also provides assistance to guests during their stay completes their lodgings, food and beverage, accounts and receives payment from guests.

Department is typically poised of

1. Reception

2. Reservation

3. Concierge

4. PBX (phone service system)

5. Telephone

a) Front Office: Sell guestrooms; register guests and design guestrooms. Coordinate guest services provide information. Maintain precise room statistics, and room key inventories. Maintain guest account statements and complete proper financial settlements

b) Reservation: Receive and process reservation requests for future overnight accommodations. With technology development, the Reservation Department can, on real time, access the number and types of rooms available, various room rates, and furnishings, along with the various facilities existing in the hotel Edgar Dsouz

FRONT OFFICE – is the “nerve center” in the entire hotel operations. All the transaction passes through within this department.

The Front Office Department comprise of the Reception, Guest Service Offices, Bell Services, Reservation, Operators, Executive Club, Health and Recreation Center and Business Center. The purpose of the Front Office Department is to provide guests assistance with luggage, transportation, information concerning the hotel and the city, and any other service arrangements needed during their stay.

Employees of the Front Office Department often provide the first and last impression of the hotel to our guests. It is therefore vitally important that employees display a prompt and courteous attitude to all guests and demonstrate the excellence in service.

The Front Office Manager who comes under the direct supervision of the Director of Rooms and supervises the Front Office Department

Important of Front Office Department to the Hotel

.Hospitality, warm welcome

.Often provide first and last impression.

.Often have longest contact with guest.

.Continuity: Long term service, recognition of repeat guests, remember names, guest histories.

.Acquaint guest with hotel.

.Sell hotel food and beverage outlets.

.Upsell: Suggest deluxe and suites.

.Smoother over disgruntled guests.

TASK TWO

2.1 Supply Chain Management Strategies

For the organizations which are concerned in tourism, competence is conditioned, among other determinants, by the harmonization and synchronization of all participants’ efforts from the unambiguous performance chain: tourism services suppliers, tour-operators, travel agencies and tourists themselves. Among these participants, a special role is assigned to the tour-operators. Going from certain tourism attractions, they take upon themselves the manufacture of those products that are required by tourists, assembling the different basic and complementary tourism services that are offered by numerous services suppliers, and further, distributing them to the retailers, or directly to the tourists. The impact of their activity is very strong because through the realized products they incorporate different types of tourist services. Going from these aspects and analyzing in a similar manner the tourism activity as the material goods manufacturing activity from logistical point of view, it can be said that, successful activity can be achieved when those different participants categories act like a system, into a supply chain. On tour-operators’ level, the supply chain management incorporates, among the others, planning and management activities concerning purchasing suppliers selection, internal logistics’ management, as well as collaboration with all marketing channel partners. Internal logistics involves activities that refers to purchasing, operations’ support and some aspects that are similar with physical distribution, the supply chain being structured by cooperation between a various number of participants, from raw materials suppliers (their impact is visible especially in catering, foods or beverage suppliers services), up to end consumers. Otherwise, the role of the last category is more important because they lend the tourism activity specific nature, through there’s participation on a successful holiday product.

Supply chains evolve in harmony with changes in the market and their ambitions. The fruition of supply chain is correlated to different elements of progress in the business context referred to as performance capacity, innovation and clock speed. These correlations are the starting point of moving the chain towards the higher goals and therefore are of most importance. In order to assure that the chain is moving on the right path in its evolutionary journey, the journey must start based on the most precise data available.

Different firms and diverse supply chains have dissimilar business strategies and value propositions, and answering those questions is often harder than one might imagine. To illustrate, let’s look at some examples of metrics that are mis-aligned: cases in which a company discovered that they weren’t measuring the things that really mattered to their customers.

Companies must always be concerned with their competition. Today’s marketplace is shifting from individual company presentation to supply chain performance: the entire chain’s ability to meet end-customer needs through product availability and responsive, on-time delivery. Supply chain performance crosses both functional lines and company boundaries. Functional groups (engineering/R&D, manufacturing, and sales/marketing) are all instrumental in designing, building, and selling products most efficiently for the supply chain, and traditional company boundaries are changing as companies discover new ways of working together to achieve the ultimate supply chain goal: the ability to fill customer orders faster and more efficiently than the competition.

To accomplish that goal, you need performance process, or “metrics”, for global supply chain performance improvements. Your performance measures must show not only how well you are providing for your customers (service metrics) but also how you are handling your business (speed, asset/inventory, and financial metrics). Given the cross-functional environment of many supply chain improvements, your metrics must prevent “organizational silo” behaviour which can hinder supply chain routine.

Supply Chain Strategies are the critical backbone to Business Organizations today. Effective Market coverage, Availability of Products at locations which hold the key to revenue recognition depends upon the effectiveness of Supply Chain Strategy rolled out. Very simply stated, when a product is introduced in the market and advertised, the entire market in the country and all the sales counters need to have the product where the customer is able to buy and take delivery. Any glitch in product not being available at the right time can result in drop in customer interest and demand which can be disastrous. Transportation network design and management assume importance to support sales and marketing strategy.

Inventory control and inventory visibility are two very critical elements in any operations for these are the cost drivers and directly impact the bottom lines in the balance sheet. Inventory means value and is an asset of the company. Every business has a standard for inventory turnaround that is optimum for the business. Inventory turnaround refers to the number of times the inventory is sold and replaced in a period of twelve months. The health of the inventory turn relates to the health of business.

In a global scenario, the finished goods inventory is held at many locations and distribution centers, managed by third parties. A lot of inventory would also be in the pipeline in transportation, besides the inventory with distributors and retail stocking points. Since any loss of inventory anywhere in the supply chain would result in loss of value, effective control of inventory and visibility of inventory gains importance as a key factor of Supply Chain Management function.

2.2 Supplier Selection Process

Supplier selection criterion for a particular product or service category should be defined by a “cross-functional” team of representatives from different sectors of your organization. In a manufacturing company, for example, members of the team typically would include representatives from purchasing, quality, engineering and fabrication. Team members should include personnel with technical/applications knowledge of the product or service to be purchased, as well as members of the subdivision that uses the purchased item.

Common provider selection criteria:

Previous experience and past recital with the product/service to be purchased.

Comparative level of sophistication of the quality system, including meeting regulatory requirements or mandated quality system registration (for example, ISO 9001, QS-9000).

Ability to meet current and potential aptitude requirements, and do so on the desired delivery schedule.

Financial stability.

Technical support availability and willingness to participate as a partner in developing and optimizing design and a long-term relationship.

Total cost of dealing with the supplier (including material cost, communications methods, inventory requirements and incoming verification required).

The supplier’s track record for business-performance improvement.

Total cost assessment.

Methods for determining how well a potential supplier fits the criteria:

Obtaining a Dun & Bradstreet or other publicly available financial report.

Requesting a formal quote, which includes providing the supplier with specifications and other requirements (for example, testing).

Visits to the supplier by management and/or the selection team.

Confirmation of quality system status either by on-site assessment, a written survey or request for a certificate of quality system registration.

Discussions with other customers served by the supplier.

Review of databases or industry sources for the product line and supplier.

Evaluation (SUCH AS prototyping, lab tests, OR validation testing) of samples obtained from the supplier.

TASK THREE

3.1 Possible issues encountered by Operations Managers

Lack of capital is often the most critical challenge that a successful manager or leader faces as its very success creates this and it quickly becomes a vicious circle. Without very diligent cash flow management and/or mounting of more capital, including debt, the business often is constrained by capital as it grows. Often the profit in one operating cycle is insufficient to fund the extra working capital required for the next operating cycle. Many capable managers cannot overcome the obstacles in their businesses cash flow cycle and cannot understand why bankers and other lenders often cannot provide the financing as the manager often does not have the security to support the debt.

The solution is often easier than most entrepreneurs realize.

It often starts with a plan to see what your cash needs are and when your cash needs arise. Then one is in a position to manage it and focus on the cash management techniques most likely to be successful in his/her business.

Lack of management skills

Lack of management skills is a problem that is very difficult to deal with in most small and medium enterprises as the size of the senior management team is necessarily limited. These areas of weakness could be in finance, human resources, marketing or any area where the current management does not have the expertise, or the time to deal with the issues.

It can be solved by determining the weak areas and then developing a plan for dealing with those challenges. Solutions can be as simple as assigning the responsibility to an existing manager with a requirement to watch for the obvious pitfalls, to hiring a person part-time or a consultant.

• Lack of focus

• Ignoring risks in their assessment of alternatives and opportunities

• Lack of a plan

• Failure to plan for issues absorbing the majority of your time

3.2 Resolving the Issues

An operations manager should be more proficient regarding his/her department when operating a staff of Tourism and Hospitality. The faces of the staff repair the atmosphere in the hotel for the customers. Issues should be handled and resolved with timely interviewing of the needs and responsibilities of the staff.

It is compulsory for the managers to be more precise over the issues and no favours should be given to any particular person on gander basis. It’s the most aspiring issue which hinders the work at the work place and creates a substance of non judgemental circumstances for the front line managers.

Operations manager must be focussed on the resolution and proper usage of time in work. This can be implemented on focussing on the demands of the staff which speak of the customers. By not giving any heed to the needs, the managers sometimes bring a bad and deliberate reputation to the designation and the atmosphere gives no other chance rather than to leave.

Planning is another need for the operations managers. A good plan will lead a good presentation by the staff. A hotel only runs on the presentation of its criteria and backup must be strong to represent its nature. If the planning of the manager does not match the abilities of the staff then it can beheld that the operations manager lacks planning and needs to be refurbished on the planning and strategy building.

Issues only happen when there is a lack of co-ordination amid the staff. While working in the field of hospitality one has to resolve the issues otherwise the presentation of the team will lack a lot of planning and debauchery of the things and conjugally. But if an operations manager will keep on defying the whole lot by giving advices and resolving the issues then his own hard made planning’s wont get much time to be implemented. So an operations manger must be sure on implementing and displaying of his plans in time instead to giving solvents for the problems and issues.

Operations management has acquired great significance in the recent years due to an increase in the number of trans-national companies, whose operations are spread across the continents. It helps in developing the synergies between the various operations that are separated by time and space. OM has made it possible for trans-national companies, like Shell Corporation, to source crude oil from an oilrig in Europe and deliver the oil to a refinery located in Asia Pacific. OM is not limited to Oil Companies only. OM has enabled many companies to set up production and manufacturing at cost effective locations and source the required inputs from locations where procurement costs are low.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which takes as its premise that firms ought to justify their existence in terms of service to assorted stakeholders rather than mere profit, has been a subject of much debate. Yet, notwithstanding certain critical voices, more and more businesses, including hospitality companies, are embracing CSR. Some – like Scandic – even embedded it into their business models, which means that CSR underpins their organizational modus operandi. Thus this paper, built around an analysis of Scandic’s Omtanke programme, aims to conceptualize CSR in the context of the hospitality sector. Great stress is laid, therefore, on the implications of CSR for hotel-based human resource management, local community support and promotion of environmental sustainability. Drawing on interviews with Scandic managers and internal documents, we examine the rationale and effects of various CSR initiatives carried out in Scandic hotels in recent years. Building on these insights, the paper concludes by making some recommendations of practical character and highlighting future research directions.

Issues can be resolved in the process of making healthy relations of the staff and the customers in the hotel industry are very important. The selection of the staff depends upon the education provided and enhanced in an able way to product these things in such a way that these cannot be traumatised and bullied to halter the work of the hotel.

REFERENCE LIST

Philip Kotler, John Bowen, James Makens ——— Marketing for Hospitality & Tourism 5th Edition

Robert Johnston, Graham Clark ——- Service Operations Management 3rd Edition

Chris Holloway, R. Davidson, Claire Humphreys—— The Business of Tourism 8th Edition

Nigel Slack, Mike Lewis ——- Operations Strategy 3rd Edition

Robert D. Reid, David ————Hospitality Marketing Management.

Simon Hudson ————–Marketing for Tourism and Hospitality.

Cathy Enz——————– Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases.

We should ask ourselves a question, Are leaders born or made? The answer to this question is, we can only be born with certain qualities which make us good leaders instinctively but true leaders are the ones who develop their skill. Having good leadership skills to lead a good team of hospitality professionals is absolutely necessary and quite a daunting task.

A hospitality team leader has have a good sense of judgement and direction and he has to be an inspiration to his team to make their true capabilities prosper. There are certain guidelines which are followed by successful hospitality team leaders:

1. Test the waters: a team leader has to find out what people think about your style of management. Getting a good feedback from the hospitality team is essential in an open environment.
2. Good Listening: The team will have certain grievances and it is the duty of a good hospitality team leader to understand and try to solve those issues.
3. Effective Communication: in order to develop into a good leader a hospitality professional has to be able to be a great listener.
4. Be a people’s person: a hospitality team leader should be able to understand what are the capabilities of his team.
5. Be a role model: your team should be able to invest faith in you that you will do what you say.
6. Involvement of team: A hospitality team leader becomes a good team leader only when he involves his team in the decision making process.
7. Success evaluation should be on the basis of your team: in hospitality, it is very important for the team leader to know the strengths and weaknesses of his team.

Course: Housekeeping Management

Go green concept:

Few years ago when climate change really started to come into focus and people began to think how to protect our mother Earth and of  the ways to create a sustainable hospitality industry, many hotels and resorts started  their green programs  being a first choice for many guests and travelers since last decade. Governments are also encouraging their people to go green while traveling. Statistics of the US only shows that 43 millions of the Americans are ecologically concerned and that many travelers all over the globe are now putting hotels and airlines which have a sustainability agenda and green programs at their first preference.

Green Behind the Scenes:

Floor care chemicals such as cleaners, strippers, restorers and finishes are of particular concern to environmental advocates and hotel properties eager to transfer from conventional cleaning systems to those that are green. One of the key problems with many traditional chemicals is that they can release large amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can impair indoor air quality and trigger headaches, respiratory problems and other ailments among staff and guests “The VOC level of a traditional floor-finish stripper typically is about 15 to 30 percent,” says Mike Sawchuk, vice president and general manager of Enviro-Solutions, a manufacturer of green cleaning products. “On the other hand, a green-certified floor-finish remover may have a VOC content of less than 6 percent.

According to Sawchuk, some of the other ingredients of concern in conventional floor care products include 2-butoxy ethanol, which is often found in floor strippers and considered a possible carcinogen, and EGME (ethylene glycol methyl ether) and EGEE (ethylene glycol ethyl ether), which are found primarily in floor finishes and have been associated with eye, skin, and ear infections and even birth defects. There are 3 main areas to improve the planet, giving hotel customers a chance to ” green their stay” which basically adopt following actions:

Waste Management: Including recycling, hazardous /controlled waste management, organic waste management Styrofoam elimination, amenity management, bottled water alternatives, sustainable food & beverage and environmentally preferred products.

Energy and Water Conservation: Through high efficiency lighting, occupancy sensors, toilet & urinal efficiency and  low flow faucets and showerheads. Preventive Maintenance being an important and essential factor that ensure all equipment and systems perform their intended function reliably and efficiently, thereby promote energy and water conservation. By implementing good housekeeping and pollution prevention, encouraging green practices in both employees and guests, conserving energy and water, minimizing food waste and reducing solid waste, we assure providing quality service while helping the environment and ensuring our responsibility towards protecting the planet, Said Atef Wilson, General Manager, Sheraton Montazah. Ernst & Young examines the eco-friendly efforts of hotels and resorts in eight regions of the world, finds progress in the greening of the hospitality industry and identifies 10 areas in which the business could do etter. Over the last decade, the movement towards ecologically sound tourism has swept across the globe; and the practices being implemented are as diverse as the different geographies.

Hotel companies are being prompted by rising energy costs, government pressure, consumer expectations and the competitive landscape to increasingly make sustainability a top priority. Researchers saw growth in Earth-friendly attributes and amenities in luxury lodgings throughout the areas examined. The degree to which such practices were in place for other brackets of travel differed from region to region.Highlights of findings from the various areas included:

In Asia in general, a strong focus on corporate social responsibility and “environmental harmony” among resort brands and boutique hotels.

A variety of different lodgings — luxury, business and economy — pursuing green strategies in Japan.

A target set in China for 10,000 green hotels by 2010.

A small-scale but increasingly popular move toward ecotourism in the Caribbean, where 57 hotels have received industry certification under the Green Globe standard — the most of any one region reviewed — Green being considered a key differentiator in Europe among boutique hotels; tour operators and agencies favoring environmentally responsible lodgings and brands.

Vast green luxury resorts and the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city planned in the Middle East. Drawing on the World Travel ; Tourism Council (WTTC) Green Globe Program as a resource, the report said that points on which the industry could take further action include:

• Waste minimization, reuse, recycling
• Transportation
• Energy efficiency, conservation, management
• Land-use planning and management
• Management of freshwater resources
• Involvement of staff, customers, communities in environmental issues
• Waste water management
• Design for sustainability
• Hazardous substances

Partnerships for sustainable development In the meantime, there are ways hotel housekeepers can be more environmentally responsible when it comes to floor care.

The following are some of Sawchuk’s green floor care suggestions:

• Select products with a pH no higher than 11. and total phosphorus concentrations of less than 0. 5 percent;
• Choose products with a flash point above 150 degrees F. ;
• Avoid products that contain carcinogens, heavy metals or aqueous ammonia;
• Select products that have total VOCs less than seven percent after dilution;
• Purchase from jansan distributors and suppliers that are well versed on floor care and green cleaning and will provide hands-on training as necessary.

Alternatives:

Another way for hotel operators to achieve green housekeeping is to install automatic dilution systems for mixing chemicals — not only for floor care but also for all cleaning.

“The ‘free pour’ method has been the cause of many worker injuries,” says Sawchuk. “And very often workers pour too much chemical, which harms the environment and is not cost-effective. ” As for dilution, he also suggests that cleaning professionals use only cold water since warm water can cause vapors and fumes to rise, green or conventional, that can be potentially harmful if inhaled or enter HVAC systems. Also, with some floor care products, warm water can hasten evaporation, negatively affecting the performance of the product. “As a final but very important thought, proper training is essential,” says Sawchuk. “Not only are the chemicals powerful and potentially hazardous, but hotel floor care is the most labor-intensive of all cleaning tasks. Proper training reduces injuries, cuts costs and improves worker productivity as well as the floor’s appearance.

Proper and ongoing training has pluses all around, particularly in the hotel business. Green Sweep: In hotels, vacuum cleaners play a great role in maintaining indoor health and protecting the environment. This is largely because carpeting acts like a sponge; guestroom carpeting can absorb dust, dirt, textile fibers, pollen, hair, skin flakes, residue from cleaning chemicals, decaying organic matter, dust mites, bacteria, fungi, viruses and various other contaminants and soils. Odors can develop and the health of the staff and guests are put into jeopardy if these contaminants and soils are not eventually removed. Green vacuum cleaners are probably the most effective means of removing this matter. “Historically, the top considerations when selecting a hotel vacuum cleaner have been cost, durability and power,” says Mark Cuddy, director of sales, eastern region, with Tornado, a leading manufacturer of professional cleaning equipment. “However, in recent years, how ‘green’ the machine is, especially in hotel properties, is becoming a growing concern.

” What makes a vacuum cleaner green? The first consideration is filtration. A vacuum cleaner’s filtration system can have a major impact on indoor air quality. “By far the most effective filtration systems on vacuum cleaners are HEPA filters,” says Cuddy. “The filters are composed of a mat of fibers that remove at least 99. 97 percent of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria and other [potentially] airborne particles. ”

In recent years it is difficult for any industry to safe their competitiveness. It would be impossible without skilled empowered human resources. The first definition of empowerment was given in 1788. Empowerment has been described by Bowen & Lawler (1992) as a venue to enable employees to make decisions and as a personal experience where individuals can take responsibility for their own actions (Greenwell, Fink & Pastore, 1996, p. 129-142). Empowerment research in hospitality and tourism is insufficient (Erstad, 1997, p. 325). Managerial interest in employee empowerment in the hospitality industry has been associated with gaining a competitive advantage through improvements in service quality (Hubrecht & Teare, 1993, p. 1-5). As was mentioned by Degago (2014), the purpose of empowerment is not only to ensure that right decisions are made by the right employees but also to provide a mechanism by which responsibility for those decisions invested on individuals and teams. Empowerment is the act of authorizing employees to make discretionary decisions within their areas of responsibility (Hayes & Ninemeier, 2009, p. 14). In other words, empowerment means that managers give an opportunity for employees to take responsibility for their decisions regarding the different task. It gives benefits, especially for hotels’ workers, because employees produce different services and deal customer.

The hospitality industry is connected to people and very changeable. In order to avoid dissatisfaction of customers, employees of hotels should be able to make decisions fast and take responsibilities. Most organizations do not involve the lower-level employee in the decision-making process. However, low-level employees are able to see problems from the inside. There are more familiar with small details than managers (Robbins ; Coulter, 2013, p. 160). The implementation and results of empowerment depend both from employees and leaders. To hire qualified employees are not enough due to changes in the behavior of customers and preferences hotels human resource managers should train them. For some Hotels empowerment means changes. For example decentralization or because of some strict rules employees are unable to behave differently in a similar situation, but we should remember that no two people are alike. Employee empowerment is one of the essential tools used by the modern organization to achieve organizational performance. The study of empowerment would be useful in a modern world for businesses and corporate firms and will help them take advantage through the development of employee-employer relationship and involvement of employees into the decision-making process, making them more independent to increase organizational performance.

The hospitality industry is customer-service driven, which means that hospitality workers they represent hotels brands. Employees who feel that they are a part of a big team are pround to be associated with the company and feel that they have a voice and purpose in the organization, they are essential. Empowerment approaches GanjiNia, Gilaninia ; Sharami (2013) mentioned mechanical and organic approaches. First, a mechanistic view approaches empowerment as a leader-driven activity. According to the mechanical approach, empowerment means delegating and the power from top to bottom with clear boundaries and limits and also strict accountability which increases managerial control. Moreover, empowerment in this approach means “clarity, delegation, control, and accountability.” As was explained by Abdollahi ; Nave Ebrahim (2006) empowerment in this approach means a process during which management, has developed a clear vision, and specific tasks to achieve the goal in an organization. We can understand it as a process of providing information and resources, which are needed to perform duties for the employee and allows as needed to do practice change and processes improvement. In summary, this empowerment approach means a decision in a particular range. It implies that labor must clasified with capital […] as a factor of production to be procured as cheaply as possible and utilized to the fullest. The fact that human beings are involved in this is of little significance ( Roberts, 1976, p. 7).

From the point of organic approach, empowerment is about “risk, growth, trust, and teamwork.” Leaders start with the needs of the people involved; model integrity by taking risks and exposing difficult issues; encourage initiative; and foster teamwork. Spritzer (1995) mentioned that organic approach is a view from the bottom to up, and reduce control. Based on this approach, empowerment is defined in terms of personal beliefs. According to this view, capable individuals have common characteristics. Reflects to the experiences or beliefs of employees about their role in the organization. I found that relationships are the most important thing for engaging nonlinear processes […] leaders today have the challenge of fostering an environment that encourages creativity and self-organization while maintaining a sense of efficiency […] progressive managers are beginning to break old habits of control and beginning to let more nonlinear interaction occur. Employees who are given the freedom to network and communicate independent of organizational structure develop more novel ideas ( Lewin ; Regine, 2000, p. 20-21). No organization is completely mechanistic (bureaucratic) nor completely organic (professional). Most organizations fall somewhere between these two extremes (Lunenburg, 2012, p.4).

Empowered Human Recourses Strategies

There are three main empowerment strategies which were mentioned in the Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review (2013).

1. First is the strategy of increasing collective awareness through storytelling.

If employees are responsible for solving problems, they want to improve their personal and organizational life. Storytelling approach is an essential factor of empowerment which leads to higher efforts based on cooperation. When people discover or creating their story cooperation or reflect, in fact, their life story express in an organization in positive ways (Rappaport, 1995, p.795). The popularity and the importance of stories have led organizations to adopt them as a knowledge management tool. Since people enjoy reading and listening to stories, the storytelling practice is attractive for members of an institution, to construct organizational memory without increasing the workload (Kleiner ; Roth, 1997, p. 137-138). Each participant performed a role in the project, for which the story will be “told”. Therefore, the stories written by a team will probably contain more valuable details because everybody has the opportunity to present their viewpoint of what happened during the project (Borges ; Vivacqua, 2010, p. 2).

2. Second is the strategy of training problem-solving skills.

Employees are faced with complaints and empowerment give responsibilities to an employee to act independent and solve those problems. It’s mean that workers should develop their problem-solving skills. In this strategy, must be allowed employees to identify and solve problems in a changeable environment. These aims include: identifying the problem, choose one of the important issues, selecting of purpose for solving or bigger problem, creative thinking in order to solve any problem, achieve aims and resources which can help to achieve these objectives (Honald, 1997, p. 202). Problem construction or problem definition represents one of a number of a cognitive processes that play a role in creative thought […] whenever people generate a new idea that proves useful in addressing certain social needs, they have constructed and implemented a course of action – one out of many alternatives – which has brought about the attainment of a certain goal state (Runco, 1994, p. 4).

3. Third is a strategy of skills training and support resource mobilization.

In contrast to traditional social-psychological interpretations, resource mobilization theory emphasizes the importance of structural factors, such as the availability of resources to a collectivity (Klandermans, 1984, p. 583). Managers can spread collective support in organizations through writing, speaking, training and lectures by legislators or political individuals. If employees know that in organizations resources for their personal development is available and support needed are in this way empowerment is accomplished with high speed and acceleration (Wilkinson, 1998, p. 46).

Four Advantages of Employee Empowerment in Hotels

1. Winning Customers’ Satisfaction in Tourist Environments

Understanding what drives satisfaction for a tourist is one of the most relevant areas of research for the tourism industry (Ramchurjee, 2013, p. 1758). In order to reach customers’ satisfaction, good services must be provided. This will attract more tourists and be the reason of increasing incomes and revenues. In most of the successful chain hotels all over the world, one of the hotel’s crew will ask the guests about their opinions about the services which are available to them, and are their requirements meet fully with provided service. In fact, these empowered crew are responsible not only for requirements of their quests but also for complaints. Public and private organizations that deal with tourists know that providing qualitative services play an important role in attracting tourists to hotels. Managers in tourism strive to improve the quality of their services and the level of customer satisfaction in the belief that this effort will create loyal visitors. Loyal visitors will return to the destination and recommend it to others (Tian-Cole ; Cromption, 2003).

A few studies uncovered that customer loyalty is the main reason as to why some brands of hotels prosper while other lag behind. One key factor in customer retention is to guarantee quality services. In hotel industry customer loyalty is an element that shows the effectiveness of the management and all the stakeholders. A management approach focused on customer loyalty can improve the competitiveness of the hotel (Tsiotsou ; Goldsmith, 2012, p 147). Empowered employee feel more confident and try to give their best to their employers, as a result, service quality improves.

2. Enhancing Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction refers to the degree of feeling and positive attitudes which individuals have towards their jobs (Navidian et al., 2014). In general, there is a link between job satisfaction and empowerment, also most empowerment elements had a significant connection with the overall measure of job satisfaction. According to Luck (1969), job satisfaction consisted of four factors: reward means salary and conditions of promotion, professional context means employment conditions and benefits, factors and human relations with colleagues and supervisors, and job features. By providing efficient services and gaining satisfaction of customers, empowered employees add their own satisfaction as well. In fact those who are good in their job and can be more responsive toward their customers are more relaxed and less stressful and enjoy their work and the working environment better in comparison to any other employees. Having happy and empowered employees is a bid advantage for an organization and they will bring success to it. In any position and organization, if the employee can’t fulfill expectations he or she will become bored and eventually will cause dissatisfaction of customers and will perform low quality service.

3. Innovation and Creativity at Work

Among the factors that promote employees’ creativity, leadership has been found as being one of the most important factors (Jung, 2001, p. 526). Employee empowerment not only has a positive impact on employees’ efficiency, work satisfaction, quality, and customer satisfaction, but also helps to increase the demand and efforts to create innovation by authorizing employees and increasing their competence (Bolat, 2008: 113-115). It involves an ability to come up with new and different viewpoints on a subject. It involves breaking down and restructuring our knowledge about the subject in order to gain new insights into its nature.

One of the economic sectors to which innovation brought a particularly significant contribution is hospitality industry. As the mass tourism developed and promoted in the recent years made unable to ensure the long-term competitiveness of tourist destinations. For example in order to make customers return to the same destinations, hotels have to improve quality of servise, destination itself and etc. That’s why innovative and creative thinking are important. Empowerment help to employees think freely and cause creative thinking from inside.

3. Authorization

One of the important result of empowerment is personnel authorization. Authorization will bring advantages for organizations and employees, because they will be able to increase output and make the organization grow faster. By giving authorization fistful employees will feel free to think independently, track down the difficulties for themselves and therefore increase output and the quality of their work. Moreover, they will know what to do within the range of their authority and no one will be confused. Also employees who are given authorization are less prone to run into difficulties.? Inefficient personnel can be identified and sorted out.

In addition employees usually do teamwork and can improve their knowledge and gain more insights into what they are doing. ?The budget that is allocated to giving extra benefits and facilities can be invested in training groups of employees to maintain an increase in output and efficiency of the organization. Intelligent and empowered management and giving authorization to personnel may lead to constant progress in tourist organizations (Nabilou, 2012, p.37).

Improving Hospitality Industry Talents in Macaw

Introduction

With the development of the Macaw economy, the local market requires more labor to satisfy its demand. However, Macaw’s human resource distribution is not balanced especially for local professionals in the hospitality industry. Although the unemployment rate in Macaw has been around 2% during recent years, improving the whole professional level is the most important thing for the long term. (Government of Macaw Special Administrative Region, 2013) According to statistics, here is around 130 thousand non-local people work in Macaw in 2013.

Since the booming development of the hospitality industry, there is no doubt that Macaw needs more qualified personnel in the future. Career Times has reports that “As business booms, the shortage of qualified personnel is becoming more acute and employers are starting to worry. ” (2006) Therefore, it is essential that Macaw cultivates more hospitality industry talents in order to have a stable and sustainable development. This project proposal presents 3 recommendations to improve hospitality industry talents in Macaw.

Problem Statement In the ideal situation, Macaw would have an effective and efficient educational system, cultivating sufficient professional talents to develop and maintain this city. In recent years, with the flourishing hospitality industry, Macaw needs more and more professional talents to manage the whole market. However, due to the defective educational system, the younger generations are not qualified professional. But in order to increase economic efficiency, the government has to hire more and more non-local people to meet the requirement.

It is obvious that this situation threatens coal people’s opportunity, livelihood and their developments even it will sharpen contradiction According to Macaw daily news (201 1), hotel and restaurant industries still have 5000 Job vacancies. Imbalance has occurred in the talents structure which also drags on the development speed of Macaw’s economy. Therefore, Macaw government should pay more attention to improve the Educational system, allocate the educational resource reasonably to improve the overall quality of local people especially for improving hospitality industry talents to manage this industry and push it too new high.

Literature Review

As the saying goes “Teachers are engineers of human souls”. Therefore, in order to improve educational quality, we need to attach great importance to a highly educated and trained workforce. (Corker, n. D. ) As mayor of Chattanooga in U. S. A, Mr.. Corker tried to hire the best teacher to the low performance school by providing extract bonus. Finally, he have really great reward through this measure, the low-performance schools have better achievement than other school. In addition, he also supports the scholarship to help over housing Tennessee students afford their university and reduce the loan interest. (Improving Education in America, n. D. , Mr. Corker’s movement not only could increase the national talent quality, but also it could help the younger generation reach dreams. The United Kingdom has their own way to cultivate talents. Although their population is only 1 percentage of the world, they have issue 8 percentage of research paper to the world. Besides, Cambridge University cultivated around 60 Nobel Prize winners. Is, 2004) The reason why U. K has a strong educational system to cultivate lots of Allen’s is they mainly focus on cultivate understanding in students. Not only are the educator imparts knowledge, but they pay attention on students’ capacity for independent thinking and creative intelligence. Furthermore, they have a great educational tradition that Oxford University and Cambridge University have courses cross-training for broadening students’ horizon. It is very important that they have those characteristic to face various challenge of future lives.

After the Second World War, Japan hospitality industry gradually became one of the most speeding expanding industries. Their service and management become more denaturized and scientific which approved by customers from all over the world. (L’, 2010, Para 2) There is no doubt that their achievement and their education are inseparable. According to Lie, whatever Japanese colleges or training school, they all keep closed contact with the hospitality industry to get the newest information about this industry.  It is a wise measure to formulate the education plan to cultivate professional talents.

Moreover, not only do they focus on the quality of education, but also emphasize the professional atmosphere, practical training and language skill to enhance the whole quality (Para 8) As is known to all, details determine success or failure, Japan apparently have cultivated lots of hospitality industry talents to strengthen their competitiveness in the world. Proposed Solutions It is recommended that the Macaw government pay an attention in hospitality industry training to enhance occupational temperament. As is known to all that Macaw has only two hospitality institutes which are I. F. T and M. IS. S. T. , not only could we focus on the professional knowledge, but also we are supposed to emphasize students’ professional behavior. Since employees need to deal with human beings in this industry, so we could provide the etiquette class, social skill class languages class, world culture class as compulsory course to make students become more qualified. In addition, institutes are supposed to keep in touch with the industry in order to update the newest information to formulate the teaching plan.

It is both important for students and the industry to improve the whole quality services. It is recommended that the Macaw government attach great importance to educator. It is known to all that educators are very significant to students to improve the whole educational quality, the government could measure a plan to reward educator, providing teaching bonus, housing allowance, traffic allowance, traveling allowance and so on to and attract and motivate educators.

Paying more attention on education atmosphere, let educator and student get along with harmony to enhance the quality of education and get positive results. It is recommended that the Macaw government could extend the scholarship limitation and lower the loan interest to let student get further education. It is known to all that the higher education is not cheap at all so that some student would drop he class due to the expensive fee, and the limitation of scholarship strict. Therefore, the government could offer more scholarship quota to the student and lower loan interest to reduce their pressure. Government should provide financial support to let those who pursue studies could afford their course.

We are located in the stunning The Weston Cape Coral Resort in beautiful Cape Coral, FL. Cape Coral was built about 40 years ago by two land speculators who believed that the property’s location on the Gulf Coast provided abundant sunshine and almost endless opportunities for waterfront living. The City incorporated in August 1970, and its population continues to grow rapidly. With more than 160,000 residents, Cape Coral is one of the fastest growing areas in Florida. Cape Coral is the 3rd largest city geographically in the state of Florida and is the 1 lath largest city in population.

Once a rural area dotted with cattle farms, gladiolus fields with an abundance of wildlife and birds, Cape Coral has transformed over the years into a vibrant city well-known for its family-friendly atmosphere with an extensive canal system perfect for boating, numerous parks and beautiful beaches; a suitable location for Marker 92. At the Marker 92, we believe the outlook towards the future of is promising. The Weston – new property managers for Marker 92 and the hotel division of Tarpon Point Marina – are well on their way to establishing a first-class resort ready to boost Marker 92 to its maximum potential.

The resort properties were built with luxury, amenity, and style all in mind. Tarpon Point Marina is a stunning luxury waterfront resort-style community. Marker 92, the Weston, and Tarpon Point Marina are a great combination and will provide the city with a year-round economy. The lounge and restaurant are open seven days a week. We offer entertainment and fresh ideas to attract new customers to Marker 92. The restaurant is fine dining but in a cozy atmosphere. This contributes to a sense of community and allows for a diverse clientele.

During the slow summer months locals can also sit outside on our overdo patio or even relax at our sister bar, The Underestimated. We will soon offer a special summer “Twilight” menu, featuring lighter fare, exotic drinks, and a few non- alcoholic offerings. We currently serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We will be open on all large holidays such as Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Labor Day weekend. These are all huge holidays that bring many locals and tourists to the area. Marker 92 Waterfront Bar & Bistro offers The Mariner Room, a private room offering remarkable views for events of up to 50 people.

Reservations for this room are required. Upon reserving, you are be assigned your own professional wait staff By alertest 981 that will take care tot all your dining needs. Our Catering team helps you in creating the perfect menu for all guests to enjoy. Marker 92 and the Weston Cape Coral Resort are the perfect place when guest need that ‘little extra. ‘ They can have business meetings here, a place for a quiet conversation, or for a special occasion. We will make up special hors d’oeuvre platters or full course meals for all guests’ special occasion needs. The service is relaxed, very friendly and correct.

We hire the best people available, raining, motivating and encouraging each other, and thereby retaining the friendliest most efficient staff possible. Our management team is comprised of individuals whose backgrounds consist of precious, valuable experience in food, restaurant and hotel, catering, management, finance, marketing, travel, and leisure. Most important to us is our financial success and we believe this will be achieved by offering high-quality service and excellent food with an interesting twist. We will be able to provide even more precise projections once our experience and knowledge of the surrounding areas grow.

As our business becomes more established and reliable, our ability to pay an improved return of capital will be evident. Mission Marker 92 is a great place to eat, combining an intriguing atmosphere with excellent, interesting food. The mission is not only to have great tasting food, but have efficient and friendly service because customer satisfaction is paramount. We want to be the restaurant choice for all families and singles, young and old, male or female. Employee welfare will be equally important to our success. Everyone will be treated fairly and with the utmost respect.

We want our employees to feel a part of he success of Marker 92. Happy employees make happy guests. We will continue to combine menu variety, atmosphere, ambiance, special event nights, and a friendly staff to create a sense of ‘place’ in order to reach our goal of overall value in the guest dining experience. We want fair profits for the owners, and a rewarding place to work for the employees. Situation Analysis Marker 92 will continue to focus on Cape Coral locals, domestic and international tourist, Weston Hotel guests, Tarpon Point residents, boating enthusiasts, and restaurant seekers of all calibers.

Guest and residents staying on the Tarpon Point Marina properties will be of utmost importance. People that have a desire for good food and a fascinating atmosphere will be able to achieve Just that while dining at Marker 92. Cape Coral is centrally located 31 miles north of Naples (FL), 7 miles north of Fort Myers (FL), and 65 miles south of Sarasota (FL). Cape Coral and the surrounding area are growing once again, developing a new looks, and attracting a larger community of affluent residents. The influx of permanent residents will provide the city with a legitimate year-round economy.

Even cities like Miami, Orlando, and Tampa look awards cities such as Cape Coral for casual weekend getaways allow for possible increases in revenue. As the city tot Cape Coral is re-developing, we can see that a tine dining est.. Belittlement like Marker 92 is needed here. The city has much to offer and the people that it draws expect a place where they will get the best of everything. Marker 92 offers a new fine dining concept to the area. The elegant atmosphere, our excellent food and our friendly staff will stand out and make a name in Cape Coral and Lee County.

We will succeed by giving people a combination of get a little bit more out of excellent ND interesting food in an environment that attracts successful people that want to life than Just the ordinary! Marker 92 intends to cater to a wide group of people. We want everyone to feel welcome and relaxed in a sophisticated yet cozy atmosphere with a wide and varied menu. It is our goal to have “the best of the best” every day on our menus. In looking at our market analysis, we have defined the following groups as targeted segments – The Business Man: They work hard all day and often stay overnight in a strange city.

He needs a competent establishment that helps impress his clients and prospects. Afterward, they want to relax and use the money they are making. They are the people that spend the most on drinks, food and tips. Happy Couples: The restaurant will have an intimate, romantic, sophisticated atmosphere that encourages people to bring dates and to have couples arrive. Marker 92 wants to be a place where people meet each other and develop healthy networks. These young couples are generally very successful but balanced and wont be spending as much on drinks. The Family: The perfect place for any family dinner.

Families will come for the flexible menu and friendly service. The excellent value and quality in their meals will keep Marker 92 a favorite for families. High-end Singles: We will attract them with our decor and layout. Our international menu, striking interior, wine tasting evenings and events, excellent service and engaging clientele will confirm the feeling of being in one of the coolest places in Cape Coral. Tourists: Cape Coral is a city that attracts many vacationers almost year round. Peak season starts around Christmas and last until approximately Mother’s Day every year.

Marker 92 will be a destination with its attractive atmosphere and international menu. Marker 92 will focus on attracting a wide and diverse clientele ages 25-60 with an annual income of at least $55,000. We want the business man, happy couples, high- end singles, and families, tourists with money, wealthy image seekers and compulsive spenders. We focus on these specific groups because these are the types of people who frequent other restaurants and bars in the area. They are the ones that are willing to spend their money on good dining and service at a reasonable price.

We generally know the characteristics of our clientele and with the available demographics we can offer something to almost everyone. Our demographics include people from the immediate Cape Coral area, restaurant patrons from the Weston Hotel, and tourists from other cities and states. Our clientele tend to be people who are creative, entertaining and sophisticated diners. The creations from a unique and innovative fine dining atmosphere differentiate us from the competition. Marker 92 stands out from other restaurants in the area because of the unique design and decor. Controlling costs at all times without exception.

Due to intense competition, restaurateurs must look tort ways to determinate their place tot business in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. The management of Marker 92 realizes this. With the re-development of Cape Coral and surrounding areas, it needs a place that will fit into the ‘new look’ of the community that is sophisticated and entertaining. The fact remains that there are hardly any other restaurants in the area have this concept and atmosphere presenting us with a window of opportunity and an entrance into a profitable niche in the market. Prices will be competitive with other upscale restaurants in the area.

However, it is the strategy of Marker 92 to give perception of higher value than its competitors, through its food, service, location, amenities, and entertainment. The opportunities are endless. Marker 92 and the Weston Cape Coral Resort have the potential to set new standards in the service industry, Cape Coral, and the surrounding areas. Objectives Marker ass’s objectives for the next few years include: ; Keeping food cost lower than 35% of revenue. ; Keeping employee labor cost between 24-29% of revenue. Stay an intimate restaurant with excellent food and service. ; Averaging sales between per year. Promote and expand events.

Expand our marketing and advertising in Cape Coral, in surrounding areas, in Florida, and hopefully across the United States. ; Hopefully achieve 12% return on investment to investors for the first two years and for the next three years. Strategies Our strategy is simple; we intend to succeed by giving people a combination of excellent and interesting food in an environment that appeals to a wide and varied group of successful people. We will focus on maintaining quality and establishing a strong identity in our community. Our main focus in marketing will be to increase customer awareness in the surrounding communities.

We will direct all of our tactics and programs toward the goal of explaining who we are and what we do. We will keep our standards high and execute the concept so that word-of-mouth will be our main marketing force. We will create an appealing and entertaining environment with unbeatable quality at an exceptional price. An exciting and friendly restaurant, we will be the talk of the town. Therefore, the execution of our concept is the most critical element of our plan. All menu items are moderately priced for the area. While we are not striving to be the lowest-priced restaurant, we are aiming to be the fine dining value deader.

We will employ three different marketing tactics to increase customer awareness of Marker 92. Our most important tactic will be word-of-mouth/in-store marketing. This will be by far the cheapest and most effective of our marketing programs. Word- of-mouth/Len-store Marketing- Grand Re-opening celebration. “Restaurant Night” – Every Monday night we will nave a special evening tort restaurant people. A perfect night for the local area’s restaurant owners and staff to get together on a night off! ; Valentine’s Day packages. Easter Brunch and Dinner. Fourth of July/”Pops on the Point” Celebration.

Labor Day Weekend festivities. Wine pairing dinners. Seafood Smörgåsbords ; New Year’s Eve Dinner, Drinks, and Dancing Packages. Fireworks on the harbor @ midnight ; Special ethnic food nights. ; Memorial Day festivities. Mother’s and Father’s Day packages ; Local Store Marketing Make a brochure for the large hotels and popular bed & breakfast establishments in town to provide to their guests, containing interior pictures of our restaurant, menus and prices. There are several nursing homes in the city of Cape Coral. We will approach them to sponsor meals for the elderly.

This will offer us higher visibility to a group that may not be as mobile and we’ll be contributing to the community in a material way. Word-of-mouth referral is very powerful and particularly amongst the elderly to both their peers and their extended families. Local Media Newspaper campaign – Placing several large ads throughout the month to deliver our concept to local area. Direct mail piece – Containing interior pictures of our restaurant, our menu, “Theme Nights,” catering, and an explanation of our concept. Website Target marketing to businesses for regular business lunch and dinner entertaining.

Tactics Our competitive edge is the menu, the chef, the environment, the management, the service and our friendly, intimate, lavish location! We will have an international menu and our food will be made with the freshest ingredients and produce available. The chef has an excellent taste for what fine dining is and requires. Our environment is elegant and comfortable and our decor is masculine and relaxing. Great service is very important to us. The management and servers will handle every detail to make customer’s special evening even more special! All this and our great atmosphere will make customers want to come back again and again!

Everyone that sells prepared meals is our competition though because we all compete for the same home meal replacement dollar. However, there are two segments of the restaurant industry that are our main competition: the casual dining restaurant concept and the fine dining value restaurant. If the value of the food and price and service is better at a fine dining restaurant than a casual restaurant, where will is a customer more likely to go? The key is to deliver the best food at the best price with the highest level of arrive. This is the very definition of value. This concept is at the heart of Marker ass’s concept.

Controls

The possible financial plan(s) depends on important assumptions. The key underlying assumptions are:

1. We assume a slow-growth economy, without major recession.
2. We assume that there are no undertones changes in the expectancy in the popularity of our restaurant.
3. We assume access to investments and financing are sufficient to maintain and fulfill our possible financial plan(s) Although growth margin doesn’t Jump drastically in the first year, over time the assistant will develop its customer base and reputation back since Weston (Stardom Resorts) has taken over.

Growth will pick up more rapidly towards the second and third years of business. The cash flow depends on assumptions for inventory turnover, payment days, and accounts receivable management. Our projected same-day collection is critical, and is reasonable and customary in the restaurant industry. We do not expect to need significant additional support even when we reach the less profitable months, as they are expected. We do not anticipate difficulty meeting our debt obligations providing that we achieve our specific goals.

No one intends on a business failure, however sometimes ventures do not fulfill their promise. We at Marker 92 are committed to our concept and its viability. In the event that our venture cannot achieve profitability and retire the encumbrances; we will first attempt to sell the operation and use the proceeds to clear all outstanding balances. If we are unable to sell the operation for sufficient proceeds we will be forced to default. Any further outstanding balances will be borne by the investors on a weighted percentage basis of the total amounts due in bankruptcy proceedings.