CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the overview of the research that will be conducted. The background, research problems, research objectives, research questions, limitation of the research and significance of the research are briefly stated. Therefore, this chapter aims to answer why there is a need to conduct the research in the following topic and the importance of the findings of the research to parties involved in the research.
Background of the Study
Tourism is an information intense processing industry where the supply chain activities are dependent to the information technology to promote tour and travel packages, to process air ticket reservations, hotel reservations, to communicate between suppliers and intermediaries as well as to gather information about the customers (Poon, 2011; Sheldon, 2010; Inkpen, 2010; Schertler, 2009;). Information technologies, especially the Internet, have substantially changed the playing field for tourism stakeholders, providing new challenges and opportunities. Furthermore, consumers are getting IT sophisticated and rely deeply on information technology such as the Internet to search for travelling packages and interesting places to visit around the world (Buhalis, 2008). The information technology advancement has been proved to offer more advantages to tourism enterprise in order to provide flexible, specialised, accessible and interactive products to the customers (Hojeghan & Esfarangeh, 2011). Furthermore, Grant & Royle (2011) indicated that apart from increasing the ability of tourism enterprises to respond to challenges in timely manner, IT also facilitates competitive advantages by adding value to the tourism services. As such, not only the quality and quantity of...
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...hich represents the total currency value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period (Indexmundi.com, 2013).
4. Global Distribution System (GDS) – a network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between vendors and booking agents to provide services such as ticketing, hoteling and travelling information to end consumers (Buhalis, 2008).
5. Computerized Reservation System (CRS) – an electronic system used to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions related to travelling needs usually in travel agencies (Buhalis, 2008).
6. Strategic Planning – a management tool that assist an organization focus its energy, to ensure that members of the organization are working towards the same goals and to adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment (National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, 2013).
Strategic Planning—the process of developing a plan to achieve organizational purpose—is a management tool used to focus a workforce’s energy. Strategic planning ensures that the workforce achieves an organization’s mission. It is used by large organizations to increase the chances for long-term growth and profitability (Auka, 2016). Lockheed Martin’s strategy is well-aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, and values, reviewed carefully by a well-qualified team, and regularly measured against the appropriate objectives. This has positioned the corporation for success.
The study outlined in the article is well organized in its major parts, including introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and discussions. The introduction provides the research question and purpose, while the remaining parts provide sufficient data to help in justifying the hypothesis and rationale of the study.
Strategic planning is defined as "an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resour...
This portion of the proposal takes a view of the background information of the study, statement of the research problem and the study purpose. These three elements are discussed in the details to follow.
To businesses today strategic planning is not just an idea, it defines a way to build a brand, customer loyalty, produce and grow long-term revenues which enables an organization to achieve its objectives. (David, F., 2014) Strategic management is a fundamental part of business which assists in sustainability of the business and helps create value for a business. Without the right mix of strategic planning a business can lose market share to their competitors; hence profits. Since 1994, Amazon has been paving the way for both e-commerce and traditional brick and mortar retail companies.
Strategic planning is defined as the determination of the process requires achieving an objective that makes the best use of the available resources. As an example in marketing a strategic plan involves selecting target market segments, a position, within the market requirements of a product such as price, characteristics, and channels of distribution to mention some of them.
Strategic Planning is looking at where you are now, knowing where you want to be in the future and planning the steps to get you there.
Today, nobody wants to follow the old fashioned “call or email and book” method to make reservation at a hotel. Guests are increasing turning towards technology and several platforms that are powered by internet. Guests make their reservations after doing a thorough research much before their travel date. In a situation like this, it is quite imperative for a hotel to make itself availa...
Fuqua and Kurpius (1993), defines strategic planning as a model that facilitates change and development within the organization. When compared to other processes of planning, the strategic planning model has been distinguished by Fuqua and Kurpius (1993) as: focussing more on the process than the product; making use of visions that can be easily distinguished from the steps that need to be taken in order to achieve those visions; placing an emphasis on the involvement of all possible stakeholders; characterizing change as a meaningful force not merely as barrier; being, fluid, long term and perceptive and being dedicated to the future survival of individuals that take part in the process of planning.
This study will make inferences by content analysis in line with “Analyzing the Use of an Advance Booking Curve in Forecasting Hotel Reservations” “Hotel reservation methods--a discriminant analysis of practices in English Hotels” “A comparison of forecasting methods for hotel revenue Management”. As well company information from annual reports (2014 and 2015) will be analyzed with regard to occurred reservation system failures to conclude recommendation for how capacity utilization and demand management can be enhanced by updating current reservation system with better forecasting capabilities.
Staff planners, particularly in large companies, may assist these managers. But in order to do an effective job, line managers must be tutored in strategic planning. The following definition of strategic planning is the full operation in my current workplace. It is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions; and measuring the result of the decisions against the expectations through organized systematic feedback.
Strategic planning is the continuous and systematic process of guiding members of an organization to make decisions about its future, develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future, and determine how success will be achieved.
If asked what strategic planning is one could interpret it as simply a road map that can guide the organization in the right direction. It is very unlikely that an organization would know which direction to take without a sense of direction. Managers are faced every day with decisions that have a major impact on the direction the organization must take, therefore, strategic planning can play an important role in guiding managers in the right direction. In other words strategic planning is a tool that management can use to give them a sense of direction that will guide them in doing a better job and to ensure that all the members of the organization are working toward the same goals
Kevin Scholes and Gerry Johnson define strategic planning as "A sequence of analytical and evaluative procedures to formulate an intended strategy and the means of implementing it " In undergoing the process of strategic planning two sub-processes come into play which are namely BSTEP analyses and SWOT analyses , and these two make up strategic planning.
Strategic planning is an organizational process in which it looks towards developing and sustaining success or balance in its ever changing environment.