Strategic Hotel Management Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Hotel Management Issues - Essay Example . Also, management must decide whether it wishes to skim the market or penetrate it deeply. In such cases, the major challenge is to ensure that each of the channels makes sense on economic grounds. Flexibility and risk mitigation techniques will help a hotel operator to obtain a stable market position in Vietnam. Following Rutherford, a tourism industry is influenced by political, social and economic factors of a particular country. Using the case of the USA, it is possible to say that "among the country's living patterns. People and industry have moved from the so-called rust belt to the sun belt. The explosion of technology and information-based companies has concentrated human endeavor in technological corridor" (Rutherford 2006, p. 1). The country selected for analysis is Vietnam. In today's transformation from the industrial to the postindustrial era, managers devote much energy and time on each firm's strategic posture. Taking advantage of new opportunities and deflating threats may be the essence of strategy, but changes in strategy do not just happen automatically. Strategy depends on a firm's ability to identify emerging patterns in the business environmentand to act accordingly on time. Strategy design depends on learning or, more precisely, on institutional learning. Opportunities and threats will be anal... Opportunities and Threats for the Hotel Industry In Vietnam Opportunities and threats will be analyzed in terms of demographic characteristics, technology, market segmentation, vocation resorts, national economy, travel patterns and types of investments. Modern Vietnam (south and North), can be characterized by productivity, unemployment, and corporate restructuring preoccupying industrialized society, causing anxiety to firms unprepared to deal with these problems. Thus, as a developing country, Vietnam proposes opportunities for a hotel business (DeFranco and Noriega 1999). Opportunities Opportunities in Vietnam are connected with young population and huge investments in business, technological developments and modernization processes. Since 60 percent of Vietnam's population is under the age of 25, it is no surprise that hotel chains are also quick to make moves in Vietnam. Experts agree that the Vietnamese market holds tremendous potential over the long term. It may be two decades before Vietnam reaches the level of economic development found in Thailand today. Meanwhile, the country's location in the heart of Asia and the presence of an ample, low-wage workforce are powerful magnets for foreign companies. Overall FDI peaked at about $3.1 billion in 1997 after rising steadily since the early 1990s. Investment pledges totaled $1.48 billion in 1999, down dramatically from $4 billion in 2004. U.S. investment in Vietnam has lagged well behind that of other countries (VIETNAM: Economic Policy Analysis, 2006). Technology is still underdeveloped by local companies and in ternational corporation invest heavily in this sphere of business (Dittmer 2001; see appendix 1,2). Threats The population is very poor, with 2005 annual per