Lovelock (1994), 'Hotel businesses offer products which consist of tangible and intangible elements that combine into a distinctive combination of creation and service'. Service delivery and benefits produced differ essentially from hotels to hotels. The way the hotel staff are trained the services are delivered. Regarding to Teare(1991), 'high quality service is often supplied by spontaneous and honest works by hotel personnel which cannot easily be rehearsed or scripted, but are nevertheless an important means of customer satisfaction'.
It should be added the environment where the service is supplied is essential. Environmental surroundings in which the service has been shipped is important as it makes the tourists enhance their satisfaction and attracts the tourists for further frequent appointments. The service environment is more often called servicescape in the tourism jargon. It is the 'style and appearance of the physical environment and other experiential elments experienced by the customers at the service delivery sites'. (Lovelock, 2001)
The experiential elements will be the special condition created by music, shades, scents, lighting, the hotels' and restaurants' structures, their add-on features and many design factors which tend to have a special influence on the senses of the travellers' mind. The special result tends to boost the level of satisfaction of the visitors.
Whenever the service is not supplied as wished by the customers, there are some sorts of service failures. These service failures tend to discourage the travelers and create dissatisfaction. If there is service failing, service improvement and closing the difference would be an important way to obtain competitive benefits as this action would create more repeat customers. (Hadyn Ingram, 1996).
Classification of hotels
According to Ingram (1996:31), 'since 1962, the entire world Tourism Corporation (WTO) has wanted to build up a universally accepted hotel ranking system, however in 1995 there were over 100 classification systems functioning. '
In Ottenbacher's words [. ] 'hospitality works in line with the different customer segments that they aim for and serve. For example, hotels are categorized from one celebrity/diamond to five superstars/diamonds and foodservice is, typically, categorized using commercially developed manuals for consumers, such as Michelin or Gault Millau'.
The classification of hotels has been one of the primary marketing strategies of destination. The brand image of hotels and resorts help a whole lot in the marketing of the destination. Many destinations are created known through their leading hotels and resorts of the world.
Tourists tend to decide on a destination by being influenced by way of a hotel advertising campaign. International hotels have a tendency to get by their classification.
Officially, based on the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure, Mauritius doesn't have any 'Legend' classification because of its hotels and 'Etoile Michelin' for its restaurants. Hoteliers tend to classify their hotels based on the quality of service they are providing and what their opponents are offering.
The Mauritian hotels need to find out that their customers have expectations and there's a need not to leave a space as the space therefore will make tarnish the country's image and will create a word to mouth area negative advertising. In order to all the service distance, a good servicescape and a productive service recovery are really important. Hotels like the Royal Palm and Le Saint Geran have avenue their way by classifying themselves as 5 star hotels through their excellent service delivery and through many international awards won.
MARKETING STRATEGIES
Marketing strategies are being used to effectively allocate and organise marketing resources and activities to be able to attain the organisation's aims. The online marketing strategy is a dominating component as it decides the amount of success of the organisation(vacation spot). Strategies are chosen routes to attain goals and aims.
In Johnson's and Scholes's words,
'Strategy is the path and scope of organisation over the long-term: which achieves benefit for the company through its construction of resources inside a challenging environment, to meet the needs of market segments and also to fulfil stakeholder prospects. '
Adcock (2001) talks about that marketing strategy is about ' product/ market/ exchange area'. Product and market can be found, but for the exchange there will be competition. As such, the organisation with competitive gain will benefit typically. Strategies are devised in order to offer with competition.
Successful destination management requires a system of signals to monitor the effects of activities on vacation spot competitiveness and the performance of the stars in the system. Porter (1985) 'The power of competition within an industry is neither a matter of coincidence nor bad luck. Rather, competition in an industry is rooted in its underlyimg economical structure and runs well beyond the behaviour of current competitiors. ' The state of competition within an industry depends on five basic competitive pushes. ". The Five Makes defines the rules of competition in any industry.
New entrants
Rivalry among existing industry competitors
Bargaining vitality of suppliers
Bargaining power of buyers
Threats of substitute products
Entry barriers
Economies of scale
Brand identity
Cost advantage
Government policy
Rivalry among existing competitors
Product differenciation
Price competition
Advertising battle
Sales promotion
Customer services
Bargaining ability of suppliers
Merging/ integration
Cost relative to purchase in the industry
Buyer power
Forcing price down
Higher quality
More information
Product differenciation
Threat of swap products
Buyer power to transition to substitute
Lower margin of profit
More competition
Additionally Middleton, 2001 states 'Strategic marketing planning doubtlessly provides a sense of direction, organisationall leadership and an arranged framework for the do of business in ever changing and competitive market conditions. Because of this with proper tactical marketing, competive benefits would be gained'.
Competitive advantage
Competitiveness has been referred to as 'destination's ability to make and integrate value-added products that preserve its resources while keeping market position in accordance with rivals. ' (Hassen, 2000: p239)
Pearce (1997:16) explains destination competitiveness as destination analysis techniques and methods that can systematically assess and compare the diverse features of competing areas within the planning framework. Such a highly effective analysis and differentiation of big travel and leisure components with rivals would provide a better appreciation of competitive edge.
In simpler words, competitive benefits is what we've additionally which draw in visitors ot our country and what our competitors don't have. The MTPA is promoting the united states as an island with exclusive hotels and duty free facilities. Our geographical location make our country competitively beneficial once we are inter-connected with the planet -need revising
