The UK's Tourism

The UK's Tourism

“Modern marketing managers practice in a consistently changing environment necessitating the need for the formalisation, implementation and evaluation of strategic marketing plans.” (Phillips, Davies and Moutinho, 2001) Nevertheless, despite the advocated benefits of strategic marketing planning, there is very little concrete empirical evidence or research to back up this claim, making it very speculative, despite appearing to be common sense. As such, it is very difficult to accurately determine how the changing business environment is likely to affect future growth in any sector, as no one appears to be able to accurately predict how the business environment will behave next. Nevertheless, this piece will attempt to determine how the changing business environment has impacted on the strategic planning in the hotel industry, and thus attempt to predict how it will impact on performance in the future.

Key sociological drivers include the ageing of populations in many of the EU Member States, combined with changing lifestyles and tastes among workers and consumers across the EU. The ageing of the workforce and the increasing levels of educational attainment among young people can be expected to affect the structure of the workforce and its working conditions. Population ageing is also likely to lead to a change in consumer preferences and, hence, in the services supplied. Changing consumer lifestyles and tastes, brought on by improvements in living and working conditions, evolving social conventions, economic development and new technology, are creating more informed and demanding consumers, who are also becoming more organised as a collective force.

On the supply side, the prevalence of information technologies over the last 20 years, and in particular the last 10 years, has allowed enterprises to be more flexible by allowing them to manage and monitor both their resources and supply chains better. Information technologies also facilitate the greater customisation of services on offer. For consumers, it has led to an expansion of choice of information providers and where they spend their money. It is also changing consumers' shopping habits and the way they interact with enterprises. Beyond developments in information and communication technologies (ICT), new kitchen and production technologies are leading to structural changes in catering establishments by allowing the outsourcing of many operations and the simplification of kitchen processes, but with largely negative effects for the workforce.

Globalisation is one economic driver influencing the hotels and catering sector. Through the free movement of labour and capital as well as economic and political integration, globalisation has opened up new geographical and consumer markets. These present both threats and opportunities. For all companies, there is the prospect of tapping into new consumer and new labour markets. However, for existing workers, this also throws up the potential threat of more efficient and/or better-skilled labour elsewhere and the threat of new destinations, cultures and companies. Another economic driver is the recent, rapid expansion of low-cost air travel. This has made it easier for agents to travel as both tourists and workers, but it also creates further ...