Additional case studies and snapshots

Read the below snapshots and case studies for examples appropriate to this chapter. Consolidate your learning by considering the reflective questions after the case studies.

Snapshot – Intercontinental Hotels Group

In 2011, IHG’s total hotel properties numbered 4,422 in 100 countries with a total of 652,456 rooms. A further 1,236 hotels are planned. Only 15 properties are owned by IHG, while 639 are operated as management contracts and 3,768 are franchises.

IHG operates seven distinct hotel brands that together appeal to all budgets – from economy to luxury.

IHG’s franchisees benefit from a range of services:

  • Advice and guidance about which brand to choose.
  • Site selection, design and construction for new-build properties.
  • Connection to the IHG reservations system which can be accessed by travel agencies worldwide via GDS (a travel agent booking system).
  • Sales via IHG’s 10 call centres located in major generating regions.
  • Promotion via IHG’s websites that are presented in 13 languages, and through the large sales team.
  • Participation in IHG’s loyalty programme – Priority Club Rewards – with 58 million members.
  • Advice and training in quality management.
  • Participation in IHG’s email marketing campaigns and social media.

Franchising provides independent hotel businesses with a number of advantages that they would be unable to achieve alone.

Source: IHG (2011a)

Snapshot – Vancouver Convention Centre

The Vancouver Convention Centre provides 466,500 square feet of meeting, exhibition, ballroom and plenary theatre space for international conventions, consumer and trade shows, and other meetings and events of all shapes and sizes. The Centre also has 90,000 square feet of retail space, plus over 130,000 square feet of waterfront walkways and cycle paths, as well as over 120,000 square feet of public plaza space. In the fiscal year 2010, over 350 events were held, attracting 225,000 delegates from Canada and worldwide, and $21 million (CAD) in revenue.

The Vancouver Convention Centre is operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a Provincial Crown Corporation of the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. PavCo’s mandate is to create significant economic and community benefits for the people of British Columbia. Research suggests that more than 40 per cent of non-resident delegates intend to return as leisure tourists within a year. The Vancouver Convention Centre provides key services such as food and beverage, electrical and rigging, and audio visual through sub-contracted official suppliers. The Centre employs 70 staff and a further 291 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs are created for the official suppliers’ workforce.

The Centre’s environmental impact is significantly lower than industry standards – it has an on-site water treatment plant and its living roof provides a fully-functional eco-system, with six acres of habitat for 400,000 species of native plants and four beehive colonies each with up to 60,000 bees. It has won numerous awards for design and sustainability.

Snapshot – The Glastonbury festival

A farm in south west England hosts the iconic music, dance, poetry and theatre event, the Glastonbury Festival. The festival developed from a small community event to a professionally organised and televised event attracting 185,000 people. The festival has a political message – at first donating funds to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), and subsequently to Greenpeace, Oxfam, Wateraid and local charities.

The first festival in 1970 charged £1 for a two-day event and attracted 1,500 people. In 1971 attendance was free in protest against the commercialisation of music festivals; 12,000 attended. No further festivals were held until 1978 when 500 people arrived for an impromptu festival.

Glastonbury Festivals have been held on an annual or bi-annual basis since 1979 and are now, by necessity, professionally organised. Since 1983 a Public Entertainment licence has been required, specifying the maximum attendance and access road, water supply and hygiene requirements.

Crowd control and safety is a major issue: in 1984 designated car parking and stewards to direct traffic were introduced; in 1985 the site expanded into the neighbouring farm; and 1989 saw police involvement in planning. In 2002 a steel fence was erected around the site to control entry and the introduction in 2007 of a ticket pre-registration scheme prevented touting. In 1992 the festival attracted 70,000 people, rising to 150,000 by 2003.

Source: Glastonbury Festival (2011)

Snapshot – Airline alliances

Collaboration between airlines is a common feature of the airline industry. Collaboration can take a variety of forms, but among the most common are code-share agreements and membership of a global alliance:

  • Code-shares are commercial agreements between two airlines: one airline operates a flight and the other airline sells seats on that flight using its own flight designator code. The airline operating the flight benefits from higher load factors and the code-share partner extends its route network without incurring the costs of operating the flight (Hanlon, 2007). For example, Virgin Atlantic sells seats under its code ‘VS’ on flights that are operated by Air China, bmi, Continental, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, US Airways and Virgin Blue (Virgin Atlantic, 2011).

Global alliances are consortia of selected airlines operating different routes. There are three global airline alliances – Star, oneworld and SkyTeam – of which Star is the largest with 27 member airlines, including Egyptair, LOT Polish Airlines, Continental, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines (Star Alliance, 2011). Global alliance members benefit from code-share opportunities, shared facilities at airports, integrated Frequent Flyer Programmes and access to global markets (Fyall and Garrod, 2005).