Current Trends in the Resort Industry
Tourism and recreational industry continue to strengthen its position as one of the major international drivers of economic and social affairs. World Travel and Tourism Council outlines the shift in the strategic direction of development of the industry, where organizations, directly and indirectly, involved in tourism activities should become more aware and concerned with the impact of tourism and related sectors on wellbeing and wealth of the of the global population (WTTC 3-4). With the above in mind, some of the major and newest trends in tourism and the resort industry specifically include ecotourism. The International Ecotourism Society is one of the key organizations, including tour operators, Hotel Chains, affiliated businesses and associations, whose purpose and mission is to engage the stakeholders and develop ecotourism around the world provides promising statistics, where over 24% of the global travellers have strong interest in ecotourism, where 22% are interested in national parks and 18% are focused on exploring local communities and culture (Bracker 8).
While global financial crisis and the recent events with regards to the terrorist threat demonstrated significant reduction in the attractiveness of long-haul destinations and travel, the growing interest for "green thinking" and "green product" leverage this trend by building up on the new segment in Resort Industry – luxury ecotourism destinations and exclusive experience offer. According to ABTA (2016), 39% within the A social class segment pretend to spend more on holidays in 2016 than in the past year. Moreover, luxury tourism statistics demonstrates that individuals in this social segment tend to take 8.00 holidays this year, relative to only 7.4 in 2011. Another important trend in 2016 is the segmentation and transformation of the touristic destinations, aimed to attract a specific class of the travelers. More specific insight into the potential market outlines the attractiveness of the Amazonas region in Brazil (HN 1). The local government recently implemented a number of formal regulations, aimed at building upon luxury family tourism segment. In spite of the outbreak of Zika virus in the region, the forecast is positive, especially after the confirmation of the development of the vaccine against this new threat to the industry and the population in general (UNWTO 3-8). With the Olympic Games this year, it is expected that the country will receive an additional boost as one of the key ecotourism destinations in the next 10 years (UNWTO 8-9).
Concept of the Resort
The Arauri Jungle Lodge will become the first 6-star Resort in the World, focused on ecotourism and offering 100% self-sustainable service and operations. The resort will be planned by a group of architects and environmental professionals in the central location of Amazonas region, in the State of Manaus, Brazil. Arauri will offer only 25 rooms, all of which will be fully integrated into the nature and built on the trees, allowing complete and smooth integration of the facilities in the natural environment. The resort will be fully functional across all the seasons. The hotel will utilize sustainable energy, organic protection and construction material and, at the same time, will offer all the comfort of a 6-star hotel with the exclusive customer experience and recreation facilities and program. It is important to mention that the focus of the hotel is on the families in class A with children between 4 and 16 years old.
Vision and Mission of the Arauri Resort
Arauri Jungle Lodge is a unique concept, which aims at creating a symphony between the natural environment and human beings. The resort brings forward the values of sustainability and long-term partnership between human knowledge and an environment. More specifically, the Arauri concept is built upon integrity, honesty, transparency, and contribution to the social and natural environment.
With that in mind, the vision of the resort is: "To create a resort, which brings the unique experience to individuals by building on environmental awareness and exclusive experience of meeting local native tribes, wildlife, and natural environment".
The mission of the resort is to "Build more environmentally aware society and develop the stronger feeling of responsibility of human beings for nature, through offering the exclusive and unique travel and leisure experience, which would not be possible without untouched and natural rural setting".
Truly Memorable Experience
Individuals, who are used to luxury travel and resort experience will not be surprised and fidelized by the 6-star quality of service, room and hotel amenities. Such elements, as the state-of-the-art health club, sophisticated accommodations, luxurious spa, gourmet restaurant and dining service and upgraded check-in service will constitute the "need" of the target customer group. The truly memorable experience, on the other hand, will be built upon offering these 5-star services and personalized guest experience in the environment, which is totally unique to the guests and fully-integrated into the ecosystem. By checking-in the guests will enter the new experience, personally thought and prepared for them. That said, each guest will receive personalized treatment, recreation and ecotourism activities schedule and dining experience, agreed upon and prepared personally for each of the families.
Physical Facilities and Layout
The structure of the hotel is unique and will become a primary focus of the overall experience for the guests as well as the team, who will be tasked with development and implementation of the project. 100% of the hotel facilities will be suspended and built with the support of the natural vegetation of the Amazon region.The lowest point of the physical facilities will be 6 meters above the land with the highest point reaching up to 16 meters above the ground. The hotel will offer 25 rooms, accommodating up to 4 guests. Each of the rooms will offer different and sophisticated design, utilizing only natural and environmentally friendly materials and renewable energy sources (Appendix II).
The common area of the hotel will include 5 observation decks, including two gourmet restaurants, 1 luxury spa facility and two 24h bar and snack facilities, which allow integration and observation of the natural environment at any point in time. Additionally, the guests will have access to the suspended swimming pool, kids recreation area with games and sports facilities and 2 sports clubs, available for the guests. The hotel will count with the dedicated medical center with highly trained staff, specialized on the challenging environment and ready to assist with any issues, which the guests may face during their stay. Helicopter landing facilities will also be available at the hotel to provide exclusive and fast transportation service to the guests. Wi-fi services will be available at all points of the hotel, offered through satellite service in partnership with the local government.
The safety and security of the hotel for all the age categories will not only be enabled through highly trained personnel, but through the state-of-the-art security installations and systems, developed in partnership with IBM.
Recreational Facilities
Bird Watching Deck;
Fitness Center;
Children camp and programs;
Library;
Mini Golf;
Boating and Kayaking;
Visiting the natives communities and observing the wild tribes;
Luxury Spa with natural creams, prepared from Amazonian fruits.
The above facilities are available for the families during the whole stay. Additionally, the hotel can provide personalized service, such as an in-room library, special recreational and spa programs, upon request and preliminary planning of the stay.
Food and Beverage Facilities
The proposition of Arauri Jungle Lodge is to emerge into the native environment and build on unique gastronomic and recreation experience. Thinking about this, the hotel will offer two restaurant facilities, Aquire and Amazonas, which will offer contemporary cuisine and specialized Northern Brazilian Cuisine with the ingredients from Amazon Rainforest, such as berries and local plants respectively. Additionally, the hotel will count with 3 bar facilities, distributed across the common area, offering exotic local and imported non-alcoholics and alcoholic beverages 24/7 snacks.
Organizational and Management Structure
The Hotel will not be part of any existing chain and will be a unique and the first entrepreneurial experience of a group of investors, which have many years expertise in the industry and have diverse industry and general backgrounds to build on the unique and memorable experience of the Arauri Jungle Lodge, as mentioned above.
Management and Supervision
The hotel will operate under typical, but the lean operational structure with the General Manager as the head of the entire operations, Operation Executive Assistant Managers and Experience Executive Assistant Manager, responsible for their areas and the day-to-day operations of the business. The Organizational Chart, presented in Appendix I outlines more specific division of roles and responsibilities within the organization.
Front Management
Front-of-the-House Manager (Reservations and Front Desk Manager) is one of the critical positions in the organization. The individual is fully responsible for client attendance, reservation management and the working procedures of the entire department. At Arauri Jungle Lodge Front Desk Department is comprised of 12 front desk clerks and 2 supervisors, working in shifts and responding directly to the Reservations and Front Desk Manager. The responsibilities of the department and its management includes:
Manage the reception and telephone, room reservations;
Deliver the professional and exclusive greeting and check-out service to the guests;
Ensure 100% training and professionalism of all the staff members in the department to deliver exceptional service to the guests;
Implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to support the exceptional and exclusive service offer to the clients and safe working practices;
Develop strong communication skills and channels to bring forward the exclusivity of the experience at the Arauri Jungle Lodge;
Lead monthly reporting on occupation and service delivery;
Provide Performance Appraisals for all the team members to support the HR department with needed information for reward and performance improvement initiatives;
Liaising with clients and key business managers.
Marketing and Promotional Strategies
Arauri Jungle Lodge proud itself on innovation and exclusive offer in the Luxury Resort market. The hotel is the first 6-star facility, fully supported and operating by the environmentally friendly equipment, materials, and energy sources. Additionally, the lodge is the only hotel in the respective segment, which allows access to the native tribes and recreational activities, 100% exclusive for the license of Arauri Jungle Lodge. The pricing strategy of the resort is premium, focusing on A class families, willing to pay a premium price for a one-off unique and memorable experience. With that in mind, the entire advertisement and marketing strategy is based on the exclusivity and exceptional opportunities, which the clients will receive by joining the Arauri experience.
The objectives of the marketing strategy include:
Communication of the unique set of services;
Deliver the key message about exceptional quality;
Deliver the message of personalized services;
Bring forward the concept of the first truly family-focused eco resort in the world;
Communicate the "green thinking" and unique "green layout and design of the resort.
The communication of the objectives will be done through an interactive website, which will present the authenticity of the enterprise from CSR standpoint, offer online booking and instant chat options. Additionally, it will enable clients to schedule a visit of a representative to be able to plan and build an exclusive experience with the resort. The above objectives aim at building on increasing sales and throughout the year occupation of the resort facilities and achieving sustainable competitive advantage through the rare and inimitable proposition to the clients, who value innovation, environment, and unique experience at the premium price. It is evident that Arauri will become a pioneer in the segment, following the 3 strategies with a simultaneous focus on customers, corporation and competitor in its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) driven marketing strategy (Kotter, 45-67).
Advertisement and Brand Positioning
Arauri Jungle Lodge is the luxury and premium product. The main channels of promotion will include the own website, Twitter and Facebook special pages, both focused on bringing forward the CSR message and talking about the exclusive programs available at the hotel . Word-of-mouth, however, will constitute the critical advertisement strategy and to support this approach, the organization will set up a number of workshops, inviting target clients to attend to the 1-2 presentation and receive 2 nights stay at the hotel as a "thank you" for taking part in the workshops. This will not only build awareness of the brand, its value, and the mission but will build the coalition of ambassadors of the Arauri hotel.
Corporate Social Responsibility
It is evident that the entire concept of the resort is built upon the recent trends of environmental tourism and businesses and growing interest from class A travelers in CSR-driven experiences. The mission and vision statement of the resort outline the critical role of CSR in building on the community-friendly and social-justice image of the organization. At the same time, there are three core aspects to the CSR policy of the resort:
Customer-focused CSR, such as design and layout of the resort and exclusive recreation facilities, giving access to untouched nature and emerging tourists into the unique environment;
Corporate-focused activities, including individual and group training, aimed at raising environmental and human impact awareness among the staff and external partners. This will include the Supplier and Internal Code of Conduct as well as Code of Ethics of the organization;
Social justice focus activities, which will include special financing and donation programs for the local and international initiatives, aimed at preservation and improvement of the natural environment in Amazon region.
Conclusion
The experience, offered by the Arauri Jungle Lodge brings new and innovative approach in the tourism and resort industry. The organization will offer not only unique customer proposition but will bring forward the pioneering strategy in placing CSR in the center of the business proposition. It is expected that the entire concept of the hotel will benefit not only the target customers but the society and the natural environment, in which the hotel will be integrated. Given the recent trends and development of the interest in "green products and services" among the public with the higher level of income, it is possible to argue that Arauri Jungle Lodge idea and concept reflects the future hotel trends and will become an innovative and profitable enterprise.
Works Cited
Carters, James. The Development of Social Media. New York: Green Line Publications. 2003. Print.
WTTC. Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2015. World Travel and Tourism Council Website [Online]. Web 1 January 2015, https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic%20impact%20research/regional%202015/world2015.pdf
HN. WTTC's Blueprint For New Tourism Calls On Government and Industry to Make Significant Long-Term Commitments. Hospitality Net [Online]. Web 6 June 2003, http://www.wttc.org/
Bricker, Kelly. Trends and Issues for Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism. Web 5 April 2012, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/4099Presentation%200.1%20Kelly%20Bricker%20-%20full%20presentation.pdf
ABTA. ABTA Travel Trends Report 2016. Web 27 December 2016, https://c0e31a7ad92e875f8eaa-5facf23e658215b1771a91c2df41e9fe.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/general/ABTA_Travel_Trends_2016_210116.pdf
UNWTO. Yearbook of Tourism Statistics 2010-2014. 2016 Edition. Web 1 February 2016, http://statistics.unwto.org/publication/yearbook-tourism-statistics-2016-edition
Kotter P. John. The Heart of Change. Real-life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press. 2002.Print.
Appendix
Appendix I - Organizational Structure
Appendix II – Layout of the Resort
Appendix II-I: Level Lizards
Apartamentos Exclusive Bathrooms
Apartamentos Lux Classic Elevators
Appendix II-II: Level Birds
Appendix II-III: Level Sky
