The Industry of Hospitality Management

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction3

Aim of the Study7

Chapter 2: Literature Review8

Chapter 3: Methodology20

Mixed Method Research20

Research Design21

Chapter 4: Results and Findings27

The development of the model27

Non-marketing27

Inexpert marketing28

Implicit marketing29

Sophisticated marketing30

Profiling the sample31

Case studies33

Hotel 1: non-marketing33

Hotel 2: inexpert marketing category36

Ask Hotel: implicit marketing39

Building and maintaining customer relationships43

Chapter 5: Conclusion45

References54

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

SME's are a significant proportion (99.9 per cent) of companies in the UK (Department of Trade and Industry Small Business Service, 2005). This means that they make a significant contribution to the economy, globalisation, employment and innovation (PIU and SBS, 2001). On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that the business success of SME's might be enhanced through greater attention to marketing issues (Blankson and Stokes, 2002; Brooksbank et al., 2004). Small firms are perceived to be valuable to the economy, but they have been shown to have inherent weaknesses with respect to capitalisation and marketing awareness and practice, which make them vulnerable (McCarton-Quinn and Carson, 2003; Kirby, 2003).

This paper reports research in a specific sector of SMEs, the small hotel sector. Tourism is also important to the UK economy, being one of the largest industries in the UK, and accounting for 3.5 per cent of the UK economy and worth approximately £74.2 billion in 2003 (the latest figures available). This contribution is comprised of £14.2bn spent on visits to the UK by overseas visitors (in 2005), £3.2bn paid in fares to UK carriers, and around £56bn (2004) from UK domestic tourism (Visit Britain, 2007). In 2005, the UK ranked fifth in the international tourism earnings league. The hotel industry makes a significant contribution to this revenue; in 2003, the turnover for the hotel industry was £10.9bn. On the other hand, demand in the UK for tourism has been volatile and difficult to predict in recent years. For example, in 2004 the number of trips taken by UK residents and the number of tourism nights spent in the UK by residents both dropped by 20 per cent. The picture was worse in Wales as the number of tourism nights spent in Wales decreased by 31 per cent and the amount spent on tourism dropped by 16 per cent (Wales Tourist Board, 2006). However, recent visitor figures show that the number of tourists visiting Wales has now improved (Visit Wales, Wales Tourist Board, 2005).

The research reported in this paper seeks to make a contribution to the understanding of marketing in small hotels specifically, and, more generally, to the area of SME or entrepreneurial marketing. Interviews, supported by web site analysis and three in-depth case study interviews, were used to provide a profile of marketing activities in small hotels in North Wales. Carson's (1990) levels of activity model was used to support the interpretation of the findings of the research; this process led to a proposal for the revision of the model in order to better represent the diversity of marketing approaches adopted by different owner/managers.

The paper commences with a literature review that summarises the key literature on SME and entrepreneurial ...