International Hotel Management

Lecture 1
Exploring the International Environment
Introduction
 This chapter introduces the ideas of exploring and assessing the wider environment in which organizations operate,
 It presents the play of resisting and supporting forces, and suggest techniques for identifying them accurately.
 Without accurate identification, the rest of the management function would be flawed and recommendations based
upon inadequate data.
External Environment Analysis
The reasons for looking at the external environment:
1. International hospitality operates in an environment of constant change.
2. Events in neighboring countries, other regions or even worldwide affect tourism demand.
3. It is crucial to anticipate threats and attempt to minimize them, and identify opportunities.
4. A situational analysis is the process of combining:
• Internal examination (resource analysis)
• External information gathering (environmental analysis),
5. Planning strategically and managing proactively in such an environment is necessary.
Situational Analysis
 Accurate and thoughtful analysis of both the current state of the environment and the desired future state, that
which the organization is aiming to achieve.
 Without understanding the forces at work in the environment, any planning or decision-making is at best guess
work.
 Understanding the complexity of the international hospitality environment is important in shaping the direction of
the organization.
 The most common of all approaches to the analysis of the competitive environment is what is usually referred to as
the SWOT analysis.
Content of the SWOT.
 The strengths and weaknesses come from the consideration of the internal position of the organization
 Opportunities and threats come from a consideration of the external environment.
 One of the most important distinctions between strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats is the
degree of control that managers within an organization can have over them.
 Strengths and weaknesses derive from internal conditions and therefore, are within the control of the organization
managers.
 For instance, if the analysis reveals that there is a skills gap in the organization then the problem can be addressed
immediately by the management.
 However if the threat to the organization comes from of international terrorist attack ,
 Then the response of local managers may only go part of the way to presenting a solution to the problem.