Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism

International Case Studies

Bill Faulkner, Eric Laws, Gianna Moscardo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134721665
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism examines management responses to the major changes taking place in international tourism and considers tourism itself as an agent of change. Including twenty-two detailed case studies from around the world this book explores two key principles. Firstly that change is enevitable and, if effectively managed, has the potential to benefit all those living in, working in and visiting the destination. Secondly, that there are no universal prescriptions for the effective management of change in tourism, since each destination has distinguishing characteristics and the nature of the problems facing it change over time.

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EMBRACING AND MANAGING CHANGE IN TOURISM

International case studies

Eric Laws, Bill Faulkner and Gianna Moscardo

Change contexts to tourism management

Change, and the effective management of change, are fundamental to contemporary management thinking. The one certainty in modern societies is that, whatever we do and experience today, the near future will be different. We live in a changing world, where individuals and organisations are constantly endeavouring to anticipate, respond to and influence events that impact on their existence in one way or another. Regardless of how much control we have over these events there will always be surprises that throw established systems into disarray until a new configuration of adaptive responses is established.

Not only do we live in a changing world, but also it has been suggested that the pace of change is accelerating. Thus, social commentators such as Toffler (1970) emphasised how the serendipitous effect of technology-driven change, and the consequent destabilisation of social, economic and political relationships has resulted in mounting pressure on the adaptive capabilities at both the individual and institutional levels. If anything, this process has intensified since the 1970s. Disequilibrium, instability and change are therefore as much a part of the modern economic, social and political landscape as the stable systems that we identify as organisational frameworks which structure relationships in these domains.

In tourism, change constantly challenges public sector planners and policy makers, but also provides opportunities for the development and expansion of operators’ businesses. Without change there would be few opportunities for the creativeness of successful entrepreneurs, while for tourists, the opportunity to enjoy and experience a temporary change of place, culture or the pace of daily life is a prime motive for travel. Yet change can also be stressful and difficult to deal with, although it is clear from research in psychology that the more people avoid change the less they are able to cope with it (Langer, 1989). Langer distinguished mindful and mindless ways of dealing with change. Mindfulness is about actively seeking change and creating new conceptualisations of situations and new routines or management approaches. She defined mindlessness in business as ‘the application of yesterday’s business solutions to today’s problems.’ (1989:152). De Bono (1987) has provided us with the concept of lateral thinking which can be defined as a way of thinking about problems which does not rely upon one logical train of thought but rather seeks to associate and assimilate ideas from very different areas. The approaches of De Bono and Langer share two major principles. The first is that people and organisations need to actively seek and manage change rather than avoiding it. The second is that one of the keys to successfully managing change is to manage information. Successful managers are those who continuously seek information about the core components of their business and who monitor and evaluate their performance on a regular basis.

The emergence of tourism as a sphere of human activity and a significant element of global trade is itself a manifestation of change. World Tourism Organisation (1992) estimates reveal that, in the 1980s, tourism was the fastest growing sector of world trade, with an annual growth rate of 9.6 per cent. This compares with growth rates of 5.5 and 7.5 per cent for merchandise exports and commercial services respectively. From 1950 to 1970 international visitor arrivals increased more than six-fold from 25 million to 160 million, while this figure had increased a further three-fold to 450 million in 1991. It is anticipated that visitor arrivals will increase by a further 200 million, or 36 per cent, by the year 2000.

Growth in international tourism in the second half of the twentieth century is a reflection of a range of changes taking place in the global economic, social and political environments. Foremost among these changes is the widespread and rapid economic growth that has made travel more feasible for an increasing number of the world’s population and the improvements in transport and communication technology which have made high-volume leisure or business travel possible to distant destinations. This may well come to be seen as a major change in human society, as for the first time in human history tourism has enabled large numbers of people to experience at first hand and on a temporary basis different cultures and remote, exotic environments (Laws, 1997).

As the case studies assembled in this volume indicate, there are myriad other (often interrelated) events and developments in relation to which tourism has represented either a response to change, or it has been an agent of change. A relatively comprehensive analysis of changes affecting tourism at the global level was carried out in 1990 at the First International Tourism Policy Forum at George Washington University (Brent Ritchie, 1992; Hawkins, 1993). Among the changes discussed by these authors, the following stand out as being most relevant to the cases referred to in the following chapters.

• The dismantling of the Soviet block and the spread of the private enterprise, free market system as a basis for economic organisation in communist countries has resulted in these countries being opened up for tourism purposes. While the evaporation of Cold War tensions has initiated a period of peace and cooperation at the global level, political conflicts nevertheless continue to erupt into violent confrontations at a more localised level and tourism-related activities are periodically targeted by acts of terrorism. Meanwhile, tourism is envisaged by some to be an instrument of world peace by virtue of its perceived impacts on inter-cultural tolerance and understanding.
  The opening up of economies to free trade and the reduction of restrictions on international investment have eroded the significance of national boundaries in economic organisation. In association with these trends, multinational corporations are driving tourism development in many parts of the world and local interests are often disenfranchised in this process.
  The emergence of regional trading blocks, whereby neighbouring countries enter into arrangements aimed at establishing closer economic, political and cultural relationships, have the potential to influence tourism flows between the countries concerned to the extent that more intensive relationships in these areas stimulate travel. Such alliances also have the potential to facilitate greater coordination in tourism development strategies at the regional level.
  Underpinning many of the above changes has been the pervasive shift towards a non-interventionist approach to government policy. Thus, many governments are moving towards a deregulated regime, government enterprises are being privatised and subsidised industry development is becoming less common. Within this environment, the parameters of tourism infrastructure development and service delivery are changing towards a more fundamental reliance on market forces.
  With the changes referred to above, previously under-developed countries are being placed under increasing pressure to ‘modernise’ and become a part of the global economy. So far, the so-called ‘Asian Tiger Economies’ have responded to this pressure most effectively and, in the process, they have precipitated a major shift in the global economic order. This has been accompanied by a global redistribution in the focus of tourism activity, with new growth focuses in both tourism demand and the supply emerging in this region.
  As mentioned previously, the emergence of the global economy has diluted local control of the means of production. Another implication of this trend is that residents of various countries have been exposed to the homogenising effects of corporate cultures and market expectations of consistent global standards. This, along with innovations in electronic media communication systems which are rapidly making McLuhan’s global village a reality (McLuhan and Powers, 1989), is resulting in cultural distinctions becoming increasingly blurred. On the one hand, tourism has the potential to act as the vanguard of ‘modernisation’, with the homogenisation process being reinforced through the impacts of economic colonialism and demonstration effects. On the other hand, pockets of resistance to homogenisation are being encountered as the value of preserving the cultural heritage and traditions of specific areas are being recognised, and as tourism is used as a mechanism for making the preservation of this heritage economically viable.
  Travel has become increasingly ‘democratised’ (Hawkins, 1993) in the sense that, in wealthy countries at least, opportunities for travel are no longer exclusively reserved for the wealthy elite. Travel is increasingly being seen as an entitlement, rather than a privilege, and as an essential ingredient of lifelong education, rather than as simply a leisure activity. This, along with the diversification of lifestyles, means that destinations and tourism organisations now have more varied and more demanding markets.
  As a response to the effects of many of these changes, an increasing environmental and conservation consciousness has emerged and is being expressed both in the market place and in the political process. The increasing demand for ecotourism product and the move towards the adoption of sustainability as a guiding principle for tourism development and operations are reflections of this trend.
• Cities are changing in response to the effects of growth and the impacts of innovations in transport and communications technology on the spatial distribution of people and activities. The growth of cities, and the pressure to adapt their infrastructure to changing land use demands, often means that the older inner city areas, where cultural and historical heritage assets are concentrated, either become degraded or increasingly inaccessible. The enhancement of these areas for tourism purposes is increasingly being recognised as a strategy for financially underwriting their preservation.
• Advances in information technology are revolutionising the tourism industry, both in terms of consumer access to product and the conduct of tourism businesses. The discerning taste of the emerging ‘new tourism’ market (Poon, 1993) is being reinforced by direct consumer access to product databases and destination information, particularly via the Internet. Meanwhile, innovations such as computerised reservation systems and automated systems for various aspects of office functions are supporting rising benchmarks in service levels and efficiency.

The complexity of tourism management responses to change

The purpose of this book is to examine tourism management responses to this changing global environment and to consider tourism itself as an agent of change. As Butler (in Hall, 1995:102) has observed, ‘We have tended to ignore the dynamic element of tourism’, and Hall suggests ‘Tourism is clearly a far more complex structure than the majority of present tools and frameworks of analysis of its impacts would have us believe’ (Hall, 1995:101).

Argyris and Schon (1978) investigating the ways in which organisational systems respond to external events, distinguished between single- and double-loop learning. The former is exemplified by the thermostat which turns heating on or off as a corrective response to information which it is programmed to sense and process. Organisations function in single-loop mode in periods and circumstances which can be characterised as routine and normal: decisions are correctly taken within the established paradigms of action. More radical action is required when the underlying conditions change. The result may be the formulation of a new mission, often carried forward by a new management team with new strategies and control systems. Argyris and Schon termed this double-loop learning, representing a paradigm shift, underpinned by new value systems.

The processes underlying double-loop learning have parallels with the concepts of positive and negative feedback which are key concepts in general systems theory (Bertalanffy, 1968). This argues that selected inputs are combined in a series of processes with the intention of producing specified outputs, each process stage adding value to the service. Efficiency in the system’s operation can therefore be evaluated by measuring outputs against the inputs required to produce them, by examining the quality of those outputs, and by considering the way each process contributes to the overall service. Kirk (1995) has noted that although systems thinking has mainly been applied to ‘hard’ engineering situations, where outcomes are unambiguous and highly predictable, the concept can be applied in situations where human behaviour is a significant factor in business activities which combine social and technical processes (Checkland and Scholes, 1990).

Parallels to Argyris and Schon’s single-/double-loop learning dichotomy can also be found in chaos theory, where a general distinction is drawn between stable (steady state) systems at one extreme and dynamic chaos and turbulent systems at the other (Nilson, 1995). The single-loop, negative-feedback based model for decisionmaking is more applicable to the former situation, while the double-loop, positivefeedback process dominates in the latter. Even though some systems can be in a virtually permanent steady state (e.g. the solar system), while others are perpetually dynamic (e.g. weather systems), many systems pass through phases involving transitions from one state to another. It would seem that tourism systems, whether they are viewed at the global, regional or individual destination levels, are more likely to be in the latter category. This, to some extent, explains our limited understanding of change phenomena. The conventional methods of tourism research which have dominated the field to date are more attuned to the analysis of stable systems, leaving a huge void in our understanding of dynamic chaos, or the turbulent phases in tourism development.

These lines of thought have been extended by Faulkner and Russell (1997), who explore the applicability of the chaos/complexity theory to tourism phenomena. In its present form, the methodological foundations of the tourism management field is largely derived from traditional social science disciplines (psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, geography), which are themselves often based on the classical (Newtonian/Cartesian) paradigm of science. This paradigm adopts a reductionist view of the world, whereby all things are regarded as being understood in terms of their constituent parts, which fit together like the cogs in some clockwork mechanism. Thus, every event is determined by initial conditions and is, at least in principle, predictable with some degree of precision. Small changes in initial conditions produce a correspondingly small change in the final state and everything is predictable in accord with essentially linear relationships.

The problem with research based on this view of the world is that it focuses on stability, order, uniformity, equilibrium and linear relationships, and there is no room for the unexpected events that inevitably surprise us and confound researchers, forecasters and planners alike. Nor are the accelerated, positive-feedbackdriven change processes that are triggered by such events, and that give rise to an emergent new order, properly taken into account. The preoccupation with stable phenomena has meant that aspects of reality that exemplify tendencies towards instability, disorder, disequilibrium and non-linearity have received less attention and are, in effect assumed away. Our understanding of change has suffered as a consequence.

The inadequacies of conventional approaches in coping with change and transition have given rise to the chaos/complexity perspective in which the predisposition to assume a linear, clockwork world is displaced by concepts which depict a confusing world of non-linearity and surprise, juxtaposed with attributes normally associated with living organisms, such as adaptation, coherence and selforganisation (Capra, 1996; Davies and Gribbin, 1992). Chaos is therefore viewed as ‘an order of infinite complexity’ (Peat, 1991:196). For the purposes of this volume, it is sufficient to note the need to balance the previous preoccupation with stable patterns by focusing on change and appreciating the deeper insights that can be derived from an examination of chaos and complexity in tourism.

Case studies of change management in tourism

Case studies are emphasised in this volume partly because this approach provides the most effective means for exploring the relatively new research area of change phenomena in tourism. However, a more compelling reason for adopting a case study approach is that this provides the most effective means of comprehending the inherent complexity of tourism arising from the juxtaposition of stable, dynamic chaos and turbulent systems, and the myriad interactions involved.

Yin (1994) has evaluated the case study method of research. Its essential features are problem definition, research design, data collection, data analysis and reporting. The key problems for the researcher are how to define the case being studied, how to determine the relevant data to be collected, and what to do with the data. The method has parallels with action research in that there is continual interaction between the data being collected, the theoretical issues being studied, and the evolution of management responses (Argyris and Schon, 1978).

In editing this book, we have had in mind the needs of two main groups of readers, who may use case study material in somewhat different ways. Case studies are familiar academic resources on advanced courses, providing students with an opportunity to learn by doing, or by observing and reflecting on real management experiences: ‘dealing with cases is very much like working with the actual problems that people encounter in their jobs as managers…identifying and clarifying problems…analysing quantitative and qualitative data, evaluating alternative courses of action, and then making decisions about what strategies to pursue…’ (Lovelock, 1996:645).

Academic case studies can be differentiated from the managers’ experience of the situations they report in several ways. The case study data is pre-packaged, and post hoc: the case study writer has already selected information, and assembled it in a coherent and easily read form which can be studied more or less at leisure. A further distinction is that management problems are dynamic, often calling for some immediate action, with further analysis and major decisions to be taken later. A third, important distinction between academic case studies and the management situations they are based on is that ‘participants in case studies aren’t responsible for implementing their decisions, nor do they have to live with the consequences…’ (Lovelock, 1996:646).

Case studies provide managers with detailed insights into the practical realities which other managers have already confronted and attempted to resolve. The level of detail provided in the chapter-length case studies in this book indicate the serious attention which a wide range of tourism organisations from around the world have paid to changing conditions. Tourism managers, and those charged with responsibility for policy making in tourist regions, are directly responsible for diagnosing changes aff...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• FIGURES
• TABLES
• CHAPTER SUMMARIES
• NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
• 1 EMBRACING AND MANAGING CHANGE IN TOURISM
• PART I TOURISM MANAGEMENT AND POLICY RESPONSES TO CHANGE
• PART II TOURISM AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE
• PART III CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN TOURISM OPERATIONS