Hospitality Marketing Intelligence
The global hospitality and tourism market is one of the world's major industries, employers and investment areas as populations increase and leisure and business trends change. What is sought after one year can be an expensive failure next year. One thing that is certain is that tourism and hospitality are cyclic and affected by external influence not under the control of the operators. The elements that are under the control of the operators are therefore of even more importance than in typical manufacturing, or technology supported industries.
To understand these subtle forces many days per year have to be spent meeting people, attending exhibitions, and it helps too if you are an accredited journalist with access to the tens of thousands of news releases per month from around the world. The background reading can be daunting, but essential. Today we have sophisticated software that reads 150,000 articles an hour and scans 113,000,000 Blogs to present a "Radar" that tracks the trends, perceptions and potential, yet warns of potholes in the road.
My wild ride around the world of hospitality began in the 1970"s on the wind swept Cairngorms outside of Aviemore, Scotland, and took me to over 80 countries. Chewing on overcooked Beef, looking out on the bleak Highland landscape, the questions were the same as I found years later, sipping milk from a fresh King Coconut in Sri Lanka. "How do I promote my restaurant and hotel, and how do I get the message out?
In both cases the owners just hadn't done their homework, or applied the skills we now know as Competitive Intelligence. In both cases the dream of owning a restaurant, and in one case a Bed and Breakfast, the other a hotel was the guiding light, forgetting that both were businesses requiring customers, staff and a USP, unique selling point. Why unique, because they had virtually copied an existing business with a well developed customer base.
The global hospitality industry tends to be locked into the "Me Too" way of planning for the future, and our years in Orlando, Florida gave us dozens of case studies and learning experiences, still coming in today. One theme works, and immediately multiple clones appear to ride the short lived wave of popularity.
The Little England Experience
Recognize the brochure? You shouldn't for few were ever in circulation. The ambitious project was a result of looking at Disney World, and trying to copy, but with an English theme. Central Florida is a graveyard of badly thought out projects, and belief that if you build it they will come.
In the case of Little England the work started on a grandiose scheme on over 1200 acres to recreate a Castle and village along the lines of Merrie England, with English Hospitality and merriment. No expense was to be spared as 400 year old Kent Barns were carefully demolished and their priceless timbers shipped over to Florida. Unlike Disney, who would have used glass fibre and plaster to recreate a visual effect of a medieval house, the Hull, UK based Architects spent a small fortune bringing over the real McCoy.
The massive Castle would stage jousting tournaments, and with serving wenches plying the customers with traditional Ale, all would be well in the Sunshine State, far far away from Merrie England. Unfortunately the plan had flaws from the begining and hundreds of acres of land had to be cleared, and special foundations built before a single Medieval Hostelry could open for business. Those who understand hospitality intelligence could have warned the backers about the cyclic nature of Florida, and US investment in tourism projects. Build something by stages, and open parts as soon as the can be ready to build cash flow. The massive complex was halted as investment dried up. In 1983 a parcel of 309 acres was sold, followed by another of 402 acres to pay the bills.
The plan then was to open the little village that remained as a Resort Hotel and Village, and the first 2 levels of the hotel were built. The public could not see or visit the site hidden between I-4 and US192, the most traveled tourist highways. The village was authentic in every detail, and used original wood beams, hand cut tiles and stone brought over at huge expense from England, Wales and Scotland. The Slate roofs were original Welsh Slate, and as mentioned before the beams and structure of the Medieval and Tudor houses were over 400 years old, and brought from Kent Barns. In 1991 I was asked to survey the property and write the Obituary before it was demolished. Later I was asked to work with a key museum curator from Virginia who wanted what timbers were left to reconstruct a building at a well known museum. Many of the beams were used in the construction of the "Cricketers Arms" in the now demolished Mercardo Center on International Drive, at least they were enjoyed by the tourists.
When the buildings were designed by Architects in England they never took into consideration the conditions and voracious bugs that live in Central Florida. The 400 year old Oak Beams were set in soil and provided a lavish feast for the Termites and other wood eating bugs that feasted on the soaked, porous wood. True they had been treated prior to shipping, but standing in what was once a swamp needs special consideration for the design criteria.
As can be seen from the photograph the rotten wood just peeled away.
Rarely do you get the opportunity to dissect a huge project like Little England, and have the original plans, files, and drawings to refer to, before they are destroyed. On paper the project sounded great, and the original business plan would have impressed investors, but there had not been the level of Hospitality Marketing Intelligence needed to start a project of this magnitude. Yet the same mistakes were repeated over and over again, and still are being repeated.
Fawlty Towers is Alive and Well, and Franchised
There is one thing we can agree upon, that Fawlty Towers is alive and well and franchised in many places around the world. We do "Mystery Shopping" for investors and chain management, and the antics and standard of service portrayed in Fawlty Towers crop up again and again.
Even in the US restaurant chains that believe they are the pinnacle of excellence when it comes to customer service are often less than spectacular when the trained managers have left for the day. And for the popular chains of US Restaurants, when the opening team leaves, and the local team takes over, watch the slide! We have seen many meals turn into comedy scenes fit for television.