CASE STUDY

Integrated Case Study Analysis



Integrated Case Study Analysis

Executive Summary

The group Aitken Spence Hotel Holding Plc's (ASHH) has established its reputation for operating world class resorts excellently. Firstly, the group was engaged in the domestic hotel and resort operations. During the resort and hotel operations in the home country, the group gained a wide popularity and attraction of tourists mainly due to the unique resort ideas and eco friendly activities. For example, the Heritance Kandalama and The Tea Factory became the top choices of British tourists. However, the group soon realized that they needed to make some investments in overseas countries to mitigate the risk of contended market. Another reason for the company to explore and invest in the overseas hospitality industry was the degrading economy of Sri Lanka due to the continuation of Civil War. ASHH strategically chose the overseas countries for investments; as a first location they selected Maldives because tourism industry was the main source of livelihood and income of this country. Similarly, India became the second choice because this country was able to gain attraction of tourists at large scales due to the diversity of natural and cultural heritage found there. In addition to Sri Lanka, Maldives and India, the ASHH group has also been managing hotels and resorts in Oman.

The case study describes the situation when the group after managing several successful resorts in Sri Lanka and Maldives decided to start the same business in Indian hospitality industry. The group remained highly competitive and played a vital role in sustaining the tourism industry in Sri Lanka and Maldives, mainly because the hotels and resorts developed by ASHH reflected the local flavour, culture and the things particular to the region. Despite of the customized local settings, the high class service and clean environment was common to all the hotels and resorts. Additionally, each resort and hotel developed by the ASHH group strictly maintains their corporate social responsibility, and involve in environment friendly/green activities under their management philosophy of sustainable growth.

The major challenge for the group, while managing the hotels in India was, to manage social and cultural diversity of Indian towns and cities. It is essential for the employees working at the regional resorts and hotels to take part in trainings which could guide them about the cultural aspects, traditions and communication styles of the local people. Also, the group aimed at implementing the similar eco friendly activities in the resorts of India which remained the major competency of Heritance Kandalama. The Porter five forces analysis shows that the threat of new entrants is medium, the threat of rivals is high, the threat of bargaining power of suppliers is low, the threat of bargaining power of customers is medium, and the threat of substitutes is medium for the ASHH group while operating in India. It is expected that the group would be able to overcome all these forces very near in time, due to their focus on the community sensitive development, use of green methodologies, high ...