Tourism Case Study: Universal Studios

Tourism Case Study: Universal Studios The main objectives of writing the report are to do a case study on how the universal studio is able to attract the local and tourist into investing into the place. The report would cover why universal studio is able to do so and their unique features attracting the both tourist and local into investing it. How they are better than their competitors (escape theme park) or how are they in a way inferior to their competitor using the swot analysis. How is there a raise in the tourism in Singapore due to the universal studio. Understanding how universal studio is being established and their importance in bringing revenue to Singapore market and helping in the raise of tourism. The report would be based on my first hand observation in how the universal studio works and came to it success on my first hand observation, making a visit to the universal studio trip myself and feel in the perspective of the tourist and local why is the place worth going and investing in by going there. Approaching my friends who had been there for their reviews regarding universal studio and how do they feel about the place for a better understanding other than my own bias view or doing a survey on how they people feel about universal studio. Interview my friend who is working there to have a clearer picture of universal studio and what they does their daily routines contains of maintaining the flow of the people every day. What is a universal studio? Universal studio is a theme park built to raise tourism in Singapore. The theme park is located at Sentosa within Resort World Sentosa. Genting group was the one bidding to build a second integrated resort in Singapore. On 19 April 2007, the start of building the Resort World Sentosa ( RWS ) was commence. After few years of construction and the park was then opened to public at 18 March 2010 recently. The universal studio brings about lots of wonderful attractions bringing 24 movies themed rides and attractions experiencing new rides and shows based on blockbuster hits. It is both locally and tourist enticing place for Singapore to build upon. History of Universal studio Genting group was the investor that came to bid successfully upon building integrated resorts in Singapore located at Sentosa. Commence of building the RWS and universal studio starts on 19 April 2007. The park was finally opened on 18 March 2010 upon three years of construction. The park was opened for sneak preview during the Chinese New Year period to promote and let the people know about the place and great place to spend for the special occasion. Sneak preview week started on 14 to 21 February 2010 from 5pm to 9pm every night. The park was opened for sightseeing purposes as none of the rides is operational which serves the purposes of promoting and tempt the people to see how great and wonderful the place was to be spread around anticipating the official open of universal studio and invest upon the place. Visitors have to pay 10 dollars only to goes in the visit the long awaited universal studio. Also, team members are allowed to bring their families to visit the park before the public are allowed to do so. After the official opening, some of the attractions would be opening later at a different timing due to unfinished construction and safety of the people. The largest roller coaster has been hailed due to the safety and problems they encountered when the ride is opened. Achievements of universal studio Universal studio has brought about some attractions and rides which is available in other countries and brought it back to Singapore for the locals. Local people are able to enjoy the attraction which can be found in other countries locally. Each ticket would cost about 62 dollars for weekdays and 72 dollars for weekend for adult pass. With such a costly ticket it will certainly bring more income for Singapore. The place consists of 30 restaurants inclusive of food push carts and 20 unique retail stores located all over the park. 7 zones of movie themed world and 22 attractions have been designed. Not only are they able to access the Universal studio, they are able to venture into the sentosa island which also serves the purpose for tourist attraction. It has brought the best movie themed attractions packed within the seven zones to life. Attracting locally and tourist into the dazzled place packed with fantasy for and both children and adults where they have been wishing for. It has brought about entertainment to people and turning moments to lasting memories of people who visited there. There would be themed hotels available to cater the needs of people and their choice of preference. It has successfully brought Singapore a unique theme park which is the only one found in Singapore. Aims of Universal Studio It has successfully brought Singapore a unique theme park attracting lots of tourist and locals to visit it. Their aims for market are to bring tourism and economical of Singapore to a greater heights. It is to maintain quality service and entertainment to those who visited it for lasting memories. Hoping they would be back to visit the place again on their next trip back to Singapore. What is so unique about Universal studio? The unique points about universal studio is the 7 zones of movie themed world which has brought movies characters alive giving visitors memorable visit and trip making to money paid worthwhile. The 7 zones of themed world consist of The Lost World, Far Far Away, Madagascar, Ancient Egypt, Sci Fi City, Hollywood and New York. All these places are built upon the movies themed and blockbuster hits. The place constructed is based on the movies featuring characters appearances, shopping and dining areas bringing the movie to life. Firstly, The Lost World is divided into two areas Jurassic Park and Waterworld. Featuring both two movie blockbuster hits which are popular among the people. The Lost World helps people to get to know more about dinosaurs and seeing the movies coming alive before their eyes. There are rides featuring the perspective of dinosaurs and how it is like to be surrounded with dinosaurs. Rides which consist of the bird eye view of the place, and some thrilling river raft ride ensuring us to be soaking wet at the of the ride. Waterworld is a water based attractions where we can get to see stunts, amazing explosion live in the water show. Far Far Away land is a movie themed place inspired by dreamwork animations mainly featuring Shrek and the rich fairy tales life. Knowing the characters that living within the fairy tale walls coming to life. Shrek house was being build and there is Shrek 4D featuring a short and realistic movie where we can actually feel the action right from the seat in their short fairy tale adventure. Junior roller coaster is available to for riding too. Madagascar is also one of the dreamwork animation inspired theme zones where it features the dense tropical filled with wonderful characters of Madagascar in the movies. There is a merry go round where we can ride it to be feel like surrounding the Madagascar character and once again be like a child. Unfortunately not all the rides is opened there which will bring people to goes back next time when it is opened so as not to miss any wonderful attractions there. Ancient Egypt is a place featuring ancient pyramids and archaeologist site appearing in movies like the mummy similar to it. Roller coaster is the most exciting rides in the universal studio aside from the huge roller coaster which is not functioning till further notice. It allows us to feel the fire and actually knowing more of ancient pyramids. Sci Fi City is a place featuring the modern place of people where future place would look like base on our high technology nowadays. It is also where the two major roller coasters situated at. It is just basically for sightseeing purposes since most of the attractions are closed due to safety issues. Hollywood is a themed place which features the Hollywood boulevard where dynamic architecture, palm trees and walk of the fame. It features shows like where universal monsters in a rock and roll musical performances bring joy to visitors. It is also the place where most of the shopping can be done. Many iconic Hollywood boulevard. New York is a place where the sidewalks and classic landmarks are being featured. There are facade set of movie scenes for real time movie productions. Where there are attractions that showed us how the movie is being produced and how tedious the actual filming would be bringing a spectacular effect for the movie screen. Thus, all the 7 zones and attractions made up of universal studio make it uniquely special and the only theme park found in Singapore. Difficulties faced Due to the technical problems, some might feel that the park is not up to expectations. The major rides are not operational till further notice might be turning some visitors down into visiting the place for the time being. Not all attractions are opened which states coming soon. Thus, some might want to wait for awhile when everything is working to make the trip and money worthwhile instead, paying 5 dollars for after hours to go in for some sightseeing. Furthermore, the ticket might not be available on the spot as there is limited admission visitors need to book in advance through internet. Some might not want to go about the fuss booking the ticket and stuffs. Strategies ( SWOT ) SWOT Analysis Strengths USS is located in the City State of Singapore easily accessible and at the crossroad of major air traffic flow that can direct a huge potential market to the Studio. It has a very strong appeal to visitors and tourists, as Universal Studio is already a well-known Branding internationally. The individual attractions, shows and rides within USS are really world-class and offer unparalleled fun and enjoyment to the visitor USS is an important component within a newly-developed Integrated Resort in the Leisure Island of Sentosa, that include casino, conventions and meetings, hotel and FB. Each area can draw on each other to generate more business and increases revenue which could eventually contribute to Singapores growing economy. Weaknesses USS needs to keep improving and creating new attractions, rides, performances etc to bring repeat visitors back and sustain visitorship numbers. USS is highly dependent on tourists visitors to sustain its daily visitors. The admission charge is relatively high and will be a major set-back to visitors. Visitor numbers are currently high every day, so there is a need for advanced bookings of up to a week to ensure getting admission tickets for a preferred visit date. However last-minute plan to visit USS may result to tickets being sold out and thus people wanting to go would be disappointed. USS requires high operating and maintenance costs and will take many years for the investor to recover its total investment. Opportunities 1. The regional market potential is huge for USS. Strong economic growth in the region will lead to better spending. This will result to more tourists arrivals at Singapore, and USS. 2. The Singapore Tourism Board has set high target for tourism visitorship targeting to hit 15 million visitors by 2015. USS is thus able to capture a huge amount of this number as it is a major tourist destination for these visitors to visit. Threats Economic downturns and recession when it happens, will negatively affect USS in a big way, since traveling and spending will drop due to such poor economic condition. New players and neighbouring countries will try to copy the success of the Integrated Resort concept and develop their casinos, theme-parks, hotels. All these will present a threat to USS as visitors are drawn away from it. Competitor ( Escape theme park ) Escape theme park is an outdoor park located at Downtown East, Pasir Ris. It is not a theme park where fairy tales came alive like universal studio. But a normal park consisting of families and thrills rides catering for all ages. But the park is only available on Saturday, Sunday, primary and secondary and public holidays unlike Universal studio which opens daily. It is catered more for locals as the going to the place is a bit troublesome due to have to change bus going down there. Many tourists might not know how to get there. But universal studio is much simpler due to the monorail services. Also, the operation days falls on weekends and public holidays which make lesser tourist visiting it as they are not able to go in the theme park during weekdays as weekends might be packed and there might be a lot of queues for the rides. Surveys results Due to the rejection of my email to conduct my interview for universal studio, i decided to conduct a survey on universal studio to ask them about their views to have non bias and a clearer perception of the theme park. Knowing how it actually attract the people there and why universal studio is able to bring a greater heights in both tourism and economically. There are a total of 6 questions being asked where. Firstly, do you think that it is worth the money going to Universal studio? The objective of this question asked is to see the result if how many people think that a costly admission ticket of universal studio is worth taking a trip down to. Thus, if many agree with it, it means to say that universal studio has successfully captured the attention of people thinking of going there and the admission ticket is valued for money, and worth the price for going there to visit. Through the survey, i have concluded that a majority of the people do feel that it is worth the money going down to the Universal Studio Singapore. Whereas on the other hand, some find that it may not be worth it. Secondly, if money is not a factor would you visit universal studio for once? The objective of the question is to assume if the admission ticket is affordable for everyone, are they willing to spend their time visiting the place for at least once. The survey result obtained is most people would certainly go to the place if money is not an issue to them. Thirdly, what do you think of the service of universal studio? The objective of the question is to ask about the service they provided is it was satisfying to bring a good reputation to the tourist and locals to make them visit the place again. Majority of the people voted for average. Which means that the service provided have rooms for improvements thus, bringing greater income for Singapore. Fourthly, for those who had visited universal studio what is your comment about? The objective of the question is to ask those people who had visited there to talk about their view of it and impression of Universal studio have left for them. Some of the people had great reviews about universal studio and said that they would visit the place again. Due to their great ambience and atmosphere it had created, it is worth the trip down the place. There is several different themes all found n one place. But some said that it was not really up to standards, as not all rides are operational. Thus, it became a disappointment to them as they are not able to ride all when the admission ticket is costly. Thus, they should have the responsible to ensure all rides are operational before opening. There is also a comparison between Singapore universal studio and other countries. Singapore one was small as compared to others hence little rides s available. But the effort is still there for making the only several themed theme park found in Singapore. Fifth, for those who did not go Universal studio before what are your views about the place? The objectives of asking the question is asking about what impression does Universal studio brings them. To test if they would ever wanted to visit it. Most of them have said that the impression that the universal studio brought was expensive and glamorous. It is a fun and exciting place to go but definitely a price to pay. It is a place where cartoons and fairytale came alive, a different theme park found in Singapore. It seems to be made a tourist attraction and point. But the price is still a bit high and has to consider as there might be crowds whereby one could not be able to finish all the rides in one day as the park stops operating at 7. But more choose to go there once after it is fully operational to make the money paid worthwhile. Lastly, how would rate universal studio? The objective of the question is to ask if after all Universal Studio is worth the money and time to go. A lot had chosen that it is average and it depends if they want to go a not due to money factor and facilities of the park. Coming up next is up to expectations and worth going. Thus, most people are likely to go if the facilities are all open bring a greater income for Singapore and tourism rate. Full facilities are more appealing to people than current facilities. This means that there might be more people and income after the facilities are fully open. This survey had served its purpose of surveying the response they thought of universal studio. With the survey results being positive, it means that Singapore is success in building universal studio. Thus, with a positive response it means that people are attracted to it investing in the place which serves the purpose of tourist attraction point and contributing to economy sector of Singapore is a great success. Conclusion Based on my first hand observation of the universal studio, USS has been successful in appealing to the general public as well as tourists. It has been contributing a significant amount of revenue towards Singapores economy through the tourism sector since its first launch. It basically appeals to a wide market segment and thus that is one of the reasons for its success. I personally find that through such world-renowned tourists attractions, Singapores economy will be impacted in a positive way for many years to come. Seasonal tourism in Azerbaijan: Patterns and effects Seasonal tourism in Azerbaijan: Patterns and effects The main purpose of this thesis is to embark on seasonality research in Azerbaijan, which has been neglected due to several reasons, for example, lack of sufficient data and interest from the industry. The lack of prior studies regarding seasonality in Azerbaijan furnishes originality to this thesis. The research seeks to find out seasonality patterns in Baku, the causes and effects of seasonality and possible actions against it. It must be also noted that Azerbaijan is at the beginning of tourism development and seasonal patterns are likely to change over the years thanks to huge investments and far-reaching changes. 5.1 General findings In order to prepare theoretical foundations of the research, a wide-ranging literature review has been performed. Main causes of seasonality – natural, institutional and other factors were elucidated. The impacts arising from seasonal patterns were depicted. At the end of theoretical groundwork management strategies were given. Such theoretical foundation helped later to investigate the seasonality patterns, causes and effects and develop a strategy in Baku against seasonality. Having established conceptual framework, an empirical study has been undertaken in order to explore seasonality in Baku. The research area, Baku, Azerbaijan was introduced. In order to answer raised questions, a survey with both quantitative and qualitative questions was designed. The questionnaire was emailed to a total of 83 accommodations and resorts operating in Baku. However, 27 emails were bounced back and considered as non-delivery. 12 respondents filled in the questionnaire and returned. In spite of low response rate and reluctance of businesses, the answers provided important data which facilitated addressing the research problem. The survey revealed many facts which were not clear before this research. Based on survey results, the research questions were answered. It was found that autumn, spring as well as Novruz holiday was peak season for accommodations in Baku. Summer, winter and New Year break are low demand season. Most accommodations operating in Baku do not suspend their operations in off-season period. However, their income substantially falls. While majority of accommodations increases prices in high demand season, slightly less than half keep the prices the same. Pricing is also used in low demand season, this time through reductions. It must be noted that most respondents found price decrease practical for tackling with seasonal fluctuations. Though not expected, none of respondents dismiss employees during low seasons, as they do not hire temporary workers but keep stable personnel. The results also cleared that contrary to the underlying assumptions, seasonality does not affect the quality of se rvices in accommodations in Baku. It was discovered that the accommodations do not have any special offer or strategy regarding seasonality, apart from price decreases, which should be counted as discount rather seasonality measure. The main causes of seasonality in Azerbaijan were also established. Climate and weather patterns and also tough competition with other countries were found as crucial factors. A possible strategy against strategy should include price decrease from businesses, offering new services, finding new markets and also government support to tourism businesses, which can take place in different forms, such as tax cuts, loans, marketing activities abroad and etc. Furthermore, the government should diversify tourism services in Baku and all over the country, and especially develop winter tourism. Though Azerbaijan is already offering sun and beach tourism, the quality and environmental issues do not permit attracting huge number of international tourists. Government can also play a role in scattering holidays throughout a year and avoid high seasonal concentrations. Besides, seasonality can also be positively utilized for educational purposes, especially given the fact that most tourism personne l lack adequate training in Azerbaijan. The overall impression from survey is that Baku experiences a medium level of seasonality. There are many facts that justify this statement. First of all, the businesses did not unanimously consider seasonality as a problem for themselves. One fourth of the respondents either did not agree or were uncertain. Secondly, the overwhelming majority do not shut down during low seasons. Thirdly, employee dismissal, which is deemed as serious problem arising from seasonality does not take place in these accommodations. And finally, these businesses did not confirm the negative impact of seasonality on the quality of their services. All these arguments provide ground for the conclusion that Baku undergoes only an intermediate level seasonality. The reason is that Baku as a city has many advantages. It is a capital city, with the biggest international airport, and also business centre of the country. The city has a lot to offer to tourists due to its cultural and historical heritage as well as location. It can also be argued that the tourism potential of Baku has not been properly utilized. For example, though Baku can be an international sun and beach destination in summer, it is far from this. Even international tourists prefer travelling to Baku in spring and autumn in order to avoid high temperatures. The findings of this thesis can be used both by academic circles and also professionals. This study can serve as a source for researchers, especially for those who investigate seasonality or explore tourism in Azerbaijan. Seasonality is closely related with demand forecasting. By exploring the subject matter the businesses can also benefit from seasonality research in many ways. For example, the businesses can roughly calculate guest numbers based on demand forecasting, take steps to lower the imbalance between seasons. 5.2 Limitations of the study and further research The research has come with several limitations. First of all, the survey was carried out only among accommodations and resorts. It is obvious that the list of accommodations operating in Baku is not complete, though the one used is much more wide-ranging and broad in comparison with other sources. Albeit email was sent to 83 businesses, 27 of them immediately bounced back and the same happened with follow-up emails. Some of these emails were traced to other sources or the website of accommodation, if any. Moreover, while tabulating results, 56 accommodations were taken as whole surveyed population. Secondly, the results of survey among accommodations cannot be easily generalized to the whole tourism industry of Baku. Therefore, the findings of this research may not agree with the results of similar survey among other tourism businesses in Baku. Especially tour operators and travel agencies can bring about a totally different seasonality patterns, causes and effects. While the use of accommodations by local people is likely much lower than international visitors in Baku due to high prices and stay at relatives’ place, accommodations mainly provide information on inbound international tourists. However, tour operators and travel agencies operate different kind of businesses throughout country. Their services are widely used by outbound tourists, which in this case are local people. Since the seasonality patterns between inbound and outbound tourists can considerably differ, there is a probability that the seasonality patterns of accommodations can also significantly disagr ee with that of travel agencies, tour operators and other tourism businesses. Thirdly, the answers to the quantitative questions were of nominal and interval scale. However, these scales do not provide precision for making a decision (Colton and Covert, 2007, p. 80), such as determining the level of seasonality. Finally, although the respondents have in most cases shown their names and positions while returning the questionnaire, it is unknown that to what extent the answers are correct. Names or even positions do not tell much about the knowledge or capacity of the person who filled in the questionnaire. Therefore, a close look at the businesses such as face-to-face interview could provide more reliable data. Furthermore, since respondents usually show reluctance with regards to qualitative questions, quantitative questions with answer options were extensively utilized in questionnaire. However, in order to make in-depth analysis of the issue, qualitative methods should be in place. But comprehensive qualitative answers could be obtained through interviews instead of email attached questionnaire. Moreover, a higher response rate could be achieved in case of interviews. Apparently, a totally different seasonality pattern could be found out in other regions of the country. Hence, the results cannot be extended other locations. However, there is an utmost need for raising seasonality issue and addressing this concern in regions, even more than Baku. Other cities and tourism spots are likely to incur a higher seasonality level than Baku, as they attract less international tourists and focus on summer tourism activities. Further research should be done to exactly calculate the seasonality level in Azerbaijan, Baku and other regions, based on the monthly data provided from the State Statistics Committee, when available. Most researches on seasonality are quantitative and ascertain seasonality level by computing Guini coefficient, seasonality ratio and/or coefficient of seasonal variation. However, to date the tourism figures have been collected on a yearly basis rather than monthly in Azerbaijan. Therefore, exact calculation of seasonality is currently not possible. Furthermore, decomposition based on country of origin and other criteria should be performed, which will help to tailor a strategy in accordance with more detailed seasonality patterns. Subsequently, the effectiveness of these strategies can be examined in other studies. A research on forecasting tourism demand would also be very useful, particularly for businesses.