HAT202 The Hospitality and Tourism Market

Introduction

The Aqua Resort Busselton is a beautiful resort situated on the shores of Geographe Bay, in the south-west of Western Australia. The resort is spread in an area of around eight and a half acres, with beautifully landscaped gardens and mature peppermint woodlands. The resort provides its customers with a privacy and direct access to the beach too. The resort offers beach houses with rooms from one to five.

Current Business Operations

The Aqua Resort works around certain business operations, which accounts for the smooth working of the resort. The key operations can be categorized into specific departments.

• Executive Department-This department includes the heads of the departments, the managers, and the directors. This department is the decision-making department of Aqua Resort. This department includes the operations related to accounting, marketing, front desk services and also many different operations(Araújo, 2017).
• Front Desk Services-The Aqua Resort understands the importance of front desk services and thus performs all the operations related to it with complete discipline. The Aqua resort front desk department is responsible for handling the bookings and thus stay in the continuous contact with the guests, to fulfill all their wants and demands.
• Housekeeping and Maintenance-At the Aqua Resort, the beach houses are regularly checked and cleaned and the organization follows the international standards of hygiene. The housekeeping department responsibilities are related to the rooms and the maintenance department looks after the electronics and other facilities which require a repair or a change(Chathoth and Olsen, 2005). The maintenance department looks after the 25-meter infinity pool, spa services, gymnasium, etc.

• Kitchen-staff- The Aqua resort has a competent kitchen staff which looks after the guests need and fulfills all their orders of room service. The Aqua resort also organizes wedding and events and fulfill all the food demands which are required for the effective organization of such events.

As the company follows a strategy of differentiation, there are many different aspects which include different approaches.

• Pricing Models-The Aqua Resort room prices start from $300 to $1000, for a single day depending on the beach house selected by the customers. The resort follows two pricing strategies which are penetrations and economy. The attempt has been made due to the wide range of competitors who are providing the same facilities.

• Distribution-The Aqua resort has adapted the direct distribution strategy and connects with their customers through their websites, calls and other social media. The strategy is attempted to prevent the organization from any misunderstandings which build a wrong reputation of the brand in the market(Olsen and Zhao, 2004).
• Positioning-The positioning strategy which the Aqua Resort follows is built around their competitors. The strategy which is built by the heads of the Aqua resort takes into consideration the current positioning strategies of their competitors and then build their strategy.

• Promotion & Branding-The Aqua resort follows the cult brand strategy, which is a great strategy and is followed by Apple too. The customers formed with this strategy are very loyal and honest and they are long-term customers. The promotion of the resort is done by the means of print and social media(Green and Repetti, 2015).

Recommended Future Campaigns

The Aqua Resort has built a niche for itself, but there are certain aspects on which the organization has to work and improve. The major improvement, which the resort requires is in their advertising approaches and their marketing communications. The organization should hire professionals who have an aggressive social media approach. The changes needed are-

• Traditional & Print Media-The organization should work together in collaboration with the traditional and print media and upgrade their advertising approaches. They should also provide special benefits for the local people, by providing them with other special services(Lee, Lee, and Lin, 2008).

• Digital Marketing-The Aqua resort should have a straight approach towards the digital marketing strategies and should not complex it. One of the most effective step, to improve the digital marketing strategy is to conduct an audit of the organization’s website. The Aqua resort should conduct it, this will provide them with the issues that are associated with the loss of customers. This also provides with the information about the website pages, the ones which are visited more than the others. The website should also provide with flexible and convenient booking process(Fraga, 2016).

• Social Content & Blogs-The Aqua resort should hire a creative content writer, who fulfills all the requirements of the organization related to advertising and marketing. The writer should be given the responsibility of making a certain number of posts and blogs on different sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with high-quality pictures of the resort. The posts should be developed around specific events and discounts which the organization is offering.

• Email Marketing-The email marketing is the broadest and the most effective way to gain a customer. The Aqua resort should forward marketing emails to the potential customers at the right time, which is the most crucial aspect of the email marketing. The content in the email should be appropriate and valuable to the customer and should be written in the customer’s native language (Ming-Hsiang, 2010).

Recommended New & Innovative Approaches

• Offer more-The Aqua resort should try to offer more facilities to their customers and should attempt at making their customers happy. This should be done, keeping in mind the organization’s objectives and their competitors.
• Special offers for millennial-The Aqua resort should provide some special schemes for the millennial. This attracts a different target audience and will increase their market too.

• Better Advertisement of facilities-The Aqua resort should publicize its various facilities, like yoga and Pilates classes, swimming pools, special events, etc.

• Customer service-Every hotel builds customer on the basis of its customer services and this is the best marketing strategy too. The Aqua resort should make all the appropriate changes, which make their customer service effective(Hospit, 2017).

Conclusion

The business portfolio is the representation of the business organization and the facilities which it is offering. The Aqua resort has an impressive website, but it needs improvement in different departments related to advertising and marketing. The organization should work on these aspects and gain loyal and honest customers, by building strategies which are planned after taking into account the competitor’s aspect and the latest trends in the hospitality industry.

References

Araújo, L. (2017). Portuguese tourism strategy 2027 Leading the tourism of the future. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 9(6), pp.646-652.

Chathoth, P. and Olsen, M. (2005). Testing and Developing the Environment Risk Construct in Hospitality Strategy Research. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 29(3), pp.312-340.

Fraga, V. (2016). Azores tourism: a development and marketing strategy. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 8(6), pp.705-710.

Green, A. and Repetti, T. (2015). Clickers: A Strategy for Active Learning in a Hospitality Classroom. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 27(4), pp.171-179.

Hospit, J. (2017). Journal of Tourism & Hospitality. Journal of Tourism & Hospitality, 06(05).

Lee, K., Lee, T. and Lin, C. (2008). Channel Strategy of Food Tourism Industry. Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development, 5(3), pp.247-256.

Ming-Hsiang, C. (2010). A Timing Strategy for Investments in U.S. Hospitality Stocks. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 36(3), pp.283-311.

Olsen, M. and Zhao, J. (2004). Industry change, environmental scanning and firm strategy: how is the hospitality industry doing?. Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development, 1(1), pp.13-18.

Theaquaresort.com.au. (2018). Gallery | Aqua Resort Busselton. [online] Available at: https://www.theaquaresort.com.au/gallery [Accessed 9 Jun. 2018].

Facebook.com. (2018). The Aqua Resort Busselton. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/theaquaresortbusselton/ [Accessed 9 Jun. 2018].

Google.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=2NEH44xJvNwmPgNyhwx48OMxZNJes-fMq_VzLE8cYr2l7yCCefpaM9aLiBlt5AYs-VfI74TKP8w_e5I8mLV14R_jEw7R7YkuHLbCm11Oc9Il14GSqOyhyKl1qMhBSgDPtxediE-qOPWPInfOFiniiCZT1Q [Accessed 9 Jun. 2018].

Instagram.com. (2018). The Aqua Resort Busselton (@theaquaresort) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/theaquaresort/?hl=en [Accessed 9 Jun. 2018].