Managing the cultural offering and guest spending in the hotel
Marina Laškarin, MSc. Economics
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka,
Primorska 42, p.p.97, Ika, 51410 Opatija, Croatia
Abstract— Recent data on the average daily spending of tourists in the Republic of Croatia reveal a minor share of spending in the sphere of culture (in 2010, out of the average daily spending amounting to 58 EUR, only 0.66 EUR were spent on culture), making it necessary to redefine the cultural offering in order to augment guest spending.
The obvious inadequacy in the ability to strategically position certain attributes in the domain of the cultural offering of hotels determines the research subject of this paper, which focuses on the cultural offering in hotels.
Although it is an illusion to expect that there can be any increase in guest spending in consuming the cultural offering without well-conceived marketing, this paper underscores the role of management that shoulders the greatest responsibility in designing a cultural offering and augmenting the spending of the offer’s consumers.
The paper suggests potential areas in which the cultural offering could be introduced in a hotel, and it presents various forms of a special catering offer to match the cultural offering in the hotel.
The scientific contribution of this paper is seen in the definition of a model encompassing the processes of planning, organizing, executing and controlling special catering within the context of the offering of a variety of cultural events suited to hotels of different types, sizes and categories.
Ultimately, the application of the model will confirm the basic hypothesis of this paper: appropriate forms of the cultural offering in the hotel can create real preconditions to augmenting the occupancy rate of accommodation and consumption capacities, prolonging the tourist season, and increasing the basic and additional spending of hotel guests.
Keywords: management, hotel, culture, guests, spending.
I. Introduction
It has become fashionable to “consume” culture while holiday-making. Sightseeing, visiting museums, and attending concerts, exhibitions and similar cultural events are among the activities available to this end. Although holiday-makers are increasingly looking for sports and recreational services and facilities, shopping opportunities, etc., no experience can enrich and improve a holiday in the same way that a cultural experience can. However, cultural tourism simply is not what it used to be, and the number of tourists who travel to a region with the exclusive intention of visiting a specific site is much less than before. That is why such a site must be offered to tourists. Croatia, however, lacks an integrated tourism offering within the framework of systematic tourism promotion. Cultural tourism today no longer means visiting a spot and sightseeing. Instead, it implies connecting with the everyday life of a place.
As with many other social phenomena and constructs, there is no generally accepted definition of theory for the term culture. In its broadest possible sense, the term has change and developed through the history of human society. Many authors have tried, in one way or another, to give the term a singular definition.
For example, [1] sees culture as the totality of material and spiritual goods, and ethical and social values created by humankind. While one group of authors [2] argues that culture is the sum of all spiritual, moral, social and production-related activities belonging to a society or an epoch, another group [3] considers culture as being the result of the specialisation of people in a specific area, leading to a distinction between literary, musical, visual arts and other types of culture. It is this approach to defining culture that is the most appropriate with regard to the research subject which aims to underline the importance of a cultural offering in hotels in helping to increase guest spending. The existing definition can further be broadened with the view that culture is vital in understanding and developing cultural identity as a fundamental determinant of people within a community [4].
The importance of culture in the tourism and hospitality industry is seen in its independence of the tourist season. In other words, culture is a product that can be offered to guests at any time of year. It is, however, dependent on the human factor. There are not many countries that can match the numerous cultural assets Croatia possesses. As a result of poor cooperation between workers in culture and tourism, cultural events and services are disorganized and are provided at the level of short-term projects instead of according to given criteria with the framework of a system.
The cultural function of tourism has a dual role. It has an effect not only on tourists, but also on the residents of tourist towns. The contribution of culture is reflected in its [5]:
· direct aspect (acculturation) and
· indirect aspect (enculturation).
While the term acculturation (from the Greek a – no, and the Latin cultura – cultivation) signifies a process in which tourists enrich their cultural awareness by absorbing new elements during their stay in a destination, enculturation refers to a process by which tourists learn what they can about a destination prior to arrival. However, the information they garner does not necessarily always provide them with an accurate picture of the destination’s culture. The rule to apply is, “If the tourist experience is authentic (regardless of the real truth) and if selling that type of culture does not conflict with the opinions of residents, then both sides will be satisfied, and that is what matters the most” [6].
A hotel’s management plays a decisive role in accomplishing objectives that focus on augmenting tourist spending, that is, increasing the spending of the guests and visitors of a hotel facility. This role involves all managerial levels, ranging from the hotel manager across department managers to front line managers. Whether a hotel will be able to attract guests – and persuade guests to buy hotel packages in which cultural events and services are included – depends upon the creativity and ability of all its managers to design a variety of cultural services and facilities. This can have the following effects:
a) It can help to increase the occupancy rates of accommodation facilities and create preconditions for prolonging the tourist season; in other words, increase occupancy rates in the pre-season and after-season [7].
b) It can lead to greater additional spending, thanks to cultural events that are attended not only by hotel guests (for whom the price of the package also includes hospitality services), but also by the guests of neighbouring hotels, as well as residents.
c) It can improve the image of a hotel facility, which is now perceived as being focused on cultural events and on the cultural public.
For cultural endeavours in a hotel to succeed, merely designing events is not enough. Instead, the hotel’s management must focus heavily on carrying out a variety of marketing activities and using the best possible promotion channels on the domestic and foreign tourist markets, as well as within the immediate and extended destination.
II. CULTURE AS A MARKET COMPONENT OF THE HOTEL OFFERING
In the face of globalization, which has made it possible to buy anything and everything over the Internet, the cultures of individual nations are the only trace left of diversity. Only these cultures can encourage tourists to stop following the money and travel instead for the purpose of discovering the national contributions of various civilizations. As D.A. Jelenčić puts it, “The first letters of the alphabet of cultural tourism are A (Authenticity), B (Business) and C (Culture)”, meaning an authentic cultural offering provided in well-designed business packages [8]
The data of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) indicate that cultural tourism around the world is growing at a rapid rate. Relying mostly on better educated guests with special interests, cultural tourism is gaining in importance and, together with other high special-interest areas, it is shifting from the segmented market into the sphere of the primary market [9]. Statistics is an unyielding discipline, and it shows that not less than one-third of all tourist travels in the world involve one or another form of cultural consumption. This means as many as 300 million potential guests, a number that experts estimate will increase by one-fifth by 2020. WTO experts also predict that by 2020 cultural tourism will grow at an average annual rate of 15 per cent, while overall world tourism is expected to grow at an average annual rate of only four per cent.
In this age of modern marketing, Croatia’s tourism and hotel industry need to develop brands that will make them distinctive on the foreign tourist market. In this context, culture is indispensable. Has the Croatian hotel industry succeeded in using culture to develop brands? The answer is no. Cultural and historical facilities, cultural heritage, and cultural achievements in the fields of music, painting, sculpture, drama, architecture, ethnography, folklore, gastronomy, etc. are poorly valorised for tourism purposes. The tourism offering has failed to encompass these elements of culture or has substituted them with second-rate forms of entertainment that are copied from abroad.
This argument underlines the need for closely studying all potential types of cultural events, services and facilities in the immediate environment in which tourists are staying, as well as for seeking ways in which these cultural events and facilities could be effectively incorporated into the tourism and hotel offering.
Hotels clearly fail to create and present cultural products within the context of their attributes in the overall tourism offering. Culture can be promoted within a hotel in a number of ways:
a) The walls of hotel rooms can be decorated with original paintings that guests will associate with the region to which they have travelled (cheap Chinese pictorial reproductions decorate most hotel rooms).
b) Social areas can be used to organize exhibitions featuring artists living and working in the areas in which the hotel operates. This is an excellent opportunity for promoting local artists who find it difficult to establish themselves within a broader cultural area.
c) Musical entertainment – promoting local folklore and musical customs – can become part of the standard offering of a hotel’s dining and drinking areas.
d) Generally acknowledged are the efforts of enthusiasts to promote culture through gastronomy. This trend has taken wing in Croatia as well, and is primarily focused on identifying the distinctive specialties of the country’s individual regions.
However, it is one thing to develop a scenario to increase the number of beds and tables in a hotel, and completely another thing to offer guests bland international cuisine served in Italian tableware with German cutlery and Czech glassware on Slovene tables covered with tablecloths made from Chinese textiles.
Food and wine experts cannot seem to agree whether Croatia has a dish that is in the league of the Italian pizza, the Spanish paella or the Greek mousaka. Does Croatia have a house wine of regular, decent quality at popular prices? Is there a Croatian way of setting a table or serving a meal? Does Croatia have its own “catering folklore”? Is there a range of Croatian souvenirs? Does Croatia have its own tourism architecture or style of interior decorating? Is there a Croatian design of hotel and restaurant textiles, cutlery, tableware or glasses?
Culture is also promoted through national evenings, which should be organized more frequently, instead of only on the last day a group of visitors is staying at a hotel. National evenings are an opportunity to promote the national costume, music, gastronomy, customs and folklore of a region. They are an excellent occasion to present, in one place and at one time, a number of elements of a specific region’s or people’s culture. While Croatian hotels do organize such evenings, these events usually lack a suitable host and promoter who could explain to guests – foreign ones, in particular – what is taking place.
Almost never or very rarely, and only in very few hotels, do guests have the opportunity to watch a film about a hotel’s history (in hotels that have a historical background to show). Projected at an appropriate time (during afternoon tea), the film would help guests learn about the hotel’s past and the celebrities who stayed there. Unlike an exhibition of photographs of famous people, set up in a hallway, with a brief outline of the hotel’s history, this type of presentation would provide guests with a lasting memory. A hotel is not a secluded sanctuary; its role is to provide hospitality services. It should also provide culture to guests, who are, in this case, consumers of culture, just as they are consumers of food in the hotel restaurant. The cultural offering should be supported by a hospitality offering that will bring the hotel economic benefits.
III. SEGMENTING THE CONSUMERS OF THE CULTURAL OFFERING
Learning about cultural monuments and events is ranked eighth among the primary travel motivations of tourists travelling to Croatia. Nevertheless, this is the travel motivation of every ninth hotel guest. Where spending on cultural events is concerned, hotel guests spend more than guests staying in campsites, tourist resorts and private accommodation. Because hotel guests are willing to spend more on culture than other tourists, regardless of their travel motivation, this makes it necessary to take a closer look at the quality of cultural events in hotels. Namely, it can be assumed that hotels have failed to create well-designed cultural offerings, despite the fact that they possess the financial, tangible and intangible assets, as well as personnel, required to do so.