INTRODUCTION
The hotel business is among the fastest growing economic sectors in the United Kingdom. In fact, the hotel business by itself is recognized as multi-million dollar and still a progressing business in Sheffield. The hotel business is among the major economic forces in the country as its enables growth and creation of job opportunities. The hotel business has employed over a million workers who were distributed within various hotel establishments, totaling to revenue generation of billions of dollars. From these records, the hotel business has indeed become one of the most competitive businesses in the world.
Important changes in the understanding and management of the service quality of most hotel restaurants have been developed in the past 10 to 15 years. Various researchers, practitioners and policymakers now acknowledge that service quality can be conceptualized from a functional perspective and that appropriate interventions involve the development of alternative measures to cope up. It was also noted that the establishment of a conducive restaurant environment for tourists to enjoy and relax have served effectively in lowering the prevalence of un-satisfaction among tourists. At present, this philosophical shift has extended to various settings, including the city of Sheffield in UK. Hotel owners and entrepreneurs here have recognized that some tourists do not appreciate so much the quality of service that their hotels and restaurants offer. Hence, these tourists may have the tendency to shy away from visiting Sheffield and other great cities in England because of this bad impression they have.
For decades, researchers have tried to discover the elements of service quality among tourist establishments such as hotels and restaurants. And while they might have been able to identify certain essential elements of service quality, they have yet to determine the elements that common tourists pay particular attention to. However, it has been shown that negligence of service quality produces consequences that foster bad impressions from tourists. Strong evidence suggests that service quality and its negligence engage in a reciprocal relationship that has a short and long term effect on the tourist’s future opinion regarding the service quality of tourist establishments. One of the criteria for identifying if a tourist establishment such as hotels is of high service quality is whether it has an impressive restaurant with fully operational facilities meant for the relaxation and enjoyment of the tourists and visitors. A deficit in basic services, as well as skills related to making the tourists and guests fully accommodated, significantly impairs a hotel’s ability to encourage more and more tourists to come over to their place. When compared to high quality serviced hotels, low quality serviced hotels have lower performance rates, lower income and are less likely to be known all over the place. As a consequence, low quality serviced hotels often experience a lifetime of problems in employment and publicity, and they are likely to become bankrupted even at a developmental stage.
Take for instance the various hotel establishments in Ireland having difficulty in adapting to the modern standards of service quality. At present, hotel owners in Ireland are facing an alarming acceleration in the occurrence of disruptive and challenging behaviors among tourists that seriously impede the performance and credibility of their hotels. Also, there has been a rapid increase in percentage of tourists who have failed to be impressed by the hotel and restaurant services of some Irish hotels. Unfortunately, many of today’s hotels all over the world have both problems. Behaviors and tourist impressions such as lack of sanitation, boring environment and unfair tourist price accommodation rates have all been rampant nowadays. True enough, these problems are counterproductive towards the effective performance of hotels. Serious impressions of tourists such as aggression, argumentativeness, and defiance are even more of a threat to these poorly serviced hotels, yet common in countries which cannot afford to establish 5 star quality hotels. Impressions and evaluations of tourists, both positive and negative, affect performance outcomes of hotels at the employee and management level.
From a tourist perspective, tourists who displayed their un-satisfaction remarks in staying in poorly serviced hotels had a 90% chance of not going back or staying again to the same hotel. They reported that such tourists begin to actively dislike the place itself and actually visit less that particular place. Continuing over years, these tourists are not likely to change their minds after a terrible experience staying on a poorly serviced hotel. Similarly, tourists exhibiting ongoing, serious bad impressions well even after so many years of that terrible experience are increasing.
Background of the Problem
In the United Kingdom, specifically in Sheffield, hotels are one the state’s important economic source. People from all parts of the world visit Sheffield in order to see its famous hotels and dine in its fine restaurants. Most of the population in Sheffield is students and there are less tourist places near about. The percentage of people who stay in hotels “related to the university” is (25 %), while Business related cases (50 %) and tourists (25%) complete the statistics.
In spite of the decreasing popularity of Sheffield as an urban tourist destination, certain hotel business issues affect the influx of tourist and the revenue acquired from this business. The problem on competition for example, is one of the growing concerns of the hotel business in Sheffield. In addition, customer satisfaction is one of the highly significant priorities in the business. Being the major source of tourism revenue, hotel business owners in Sheffield are applying various strategies that will enhance the experience of visitors coming to the city.
One of the main issues relevant to the need of assessing visitor experience is the significant transitions that the hotel business in Sheffield must undergo. One of the recognized changes in the hotel business of Sheffield was its restaurants, where the conventional restaurants were converted into modernized ones. This transition implies the apparent increase of small firms providing tourism services at present, while the hotel business used to be dominated by a few producers. In other words, the hotel owners in Sheffield now have a number of accesses to strategies and factors that amplify business competition. While this tendency has in many ways improved the overall state of hotel business of the city, hotel owners also encounter difficulties to operate their businesses successfully, making the evaluation of visitor experience all the more essential.
They have also stated that the competition in the hotel business in Sheffield is augmented by new strategies introduced and implemented by various hotels. With the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) as well as other technological facilities, tourists have more options and control over they type of hotels they want to stay. Hence, with the present advancements, hotel businesses in Sheffield are giving more importance to specialized and enhanced forms of services for tourists, especially the service quality of the restaurants in these hotels.
Another issue that is related to the need for evaluating visitor experience is the tendency of consumer behavior to change drastically. This has been observed by several researchers. According to these researchers, the changes in the consumers’ cultural values are among the most influential factors that affect the hotel business in Sheffield. The difference on how consumer responds to products or services given to them is significantly dependent on their cultural origins and values, which naturally affects visitor experience.
There are a number of interconnected issues that falls under hotel businesses in Sheffield. Competition, new strategies and changing consumer trends are among these issues. The main focus however, is on the service quality of the restaurants in Sheffield. One way of doing so is by means of assessing the visitors’ expectation and satisfaction. Enhancing the quality of the restaurant services given to the customer or tourists naturally leads to satisfaction. This essential business element is highly significant in combating the problems and issues cited. Hence, consumer studies in the hotel business of Sheffield are very important.
By means of evaluating visitor expectation and satisfaction, developing new strategies or tourist restaurant facilities that will augment customer satisfaction in Sheffield can be done. Sheffield is a popular tourist destination. Nonetheless, tourism issues affect this industry in one way or another. The local government should then adopt strategies and methods that will prepare the city for tourism. The evaluation of the city’s visitor expectation and satisfaction will facilitate the achievement of this objective.
In this proposal, focus will be given on the tourists’ expectation and satisfaction upon dining in the restaurants of the hotels in Sheffield. Specifically, this proposed study will evaluate the different restaurant features offered by the hotels in Sheffield and determine the level of satisfaction among randomly selected tourists within the vicinity. In order to evaluate the visitors’ experience, the survey and interview method will be used. These instruments will be used to gather the necessary data, focusing on three main aspects: the restaurant’s facilities, available features and staff services. This particular study will be of significant value to the hotel businesses in Sheffield as it will provide an overview of the current status of hotel industry in Sheffield as well as ways on how its restaurants may be enhanced.
Statement of the Problem
The hotel industry in Sheffield is placed in a highly competitive business environment. Various strategies and marketing means must then be employed by entrepreneurs in order to enhance the services they provide, specifically their restaurant services. Sheffield is among the lesser popular tourist destinations in the United Kingdom. With the lack of historical tourist spots and archaeological sites, Sheffield is one of the cities in the United Kingdom with the lowest number of visitors. Nonetheless, considering the changing consumer trends as well other tourism-related issues, Sheffield must apply ways on how to enhance its hotel industry and increase tourists’ satisfactory experience. Studying visitor experience is then necessary for this issue. This study will then attempt to answer the following inquiries:
Objectives of the Study
The following statement will serve as the objectives of the study:
Purpose of the Study
Various challenges are affecting the hotel industry in Sheffield, particularly the restaurants sector. From competition to changing tourist trends, entrepreneurs must come up with various ways on how to overcome these challenges. Studies on visitor experience are then necessary in helping the hotel owners in Sheffield overcome competition and increase the level of customer satisfaction.
Sheffield in UK is one of the lesser important tourist destinations in the country. The lack of historical and scenic spots is among the many reasons why tourists seldom visit the city for. But despite this, Sheffield offers a wide variety tourist features, hotel accommodations and restaurant facilities that will fit differing tastes. Although Sheffield is not a popular city for tourists to visit, it is not exempted from the mentioned challenges being encountered by most hotel businesses in the city.
This is indeed an issue that needs resolution. Certain interventions must be implemented so as not to jeopardize the reputation of hotels all over the world, particularly in Sheffield. Thus, this study will be conducted in order to identify the causes of un-satisfaction and satisfaction among tourists and visitors staying at various hotels in Sheffield, with the goal of finding ways or measures to improve somehow their overall services and performances. It is necessary as well to have a better understanding and awareness of the problem regarding hotel restaurants in Sheffield and their quality of service provided to tourists. This study will be conducted to contribute to the many approaches being used in hotels and restaurants in handling similar problems.
The purpose of this dissertation is then to assess whether the experience of the city’s visitors upon accessing the services of the restaurants in the hotels of Sheffield are good and satisfactory. Moreover, this study will be conducted for the purpose of identifying the restaurant features in the hotels of Sheffield that are satisfactory as well as those that need enhancement. This study also intends to emphasize the significance of visitor experience in the development of the hotel industry in Sheffield. In addition, this dissertation will be conducted so as to help in promoting the great hotels Sheffield has to offer.
Significance
This dissertation will generally benefit the hotel business entrepreneurs, particularly those in Sheffield. This study will be significant for the people as it will help them realize the importance of customer satisfaction and visitor experience in the improvement of hotel functions, specifically its restaurants. Furthermore, this study will be useful in encouraging other entrepreneurs in the hotel industry of Sheffield to be customer-oriented continuously. In addition, this will also be significant to restaurant operators in the hotels of Sheffield as it stresses on the significance of prioritizing the changing tourist trends. This study will also be significant in showing the important role of consumer studies in the hotel industry of Sheffield. The development in the hotel sector will in turn benefit the tourists not only in Sheffield but the entire UK as well. As there are limited available studies related to this topic at present, conducting a visitor experience study in Sheffield will add to current knowledge.
Scope
This study will be deductive in its approach. “[first], a deductive research can be quicker to complete; [second], data collection is often based on ‘one take’; and [third], this approach can be a lower-risk strategy”. Given the time restrictions resulting from the researcher’s other obligations outside of this study, as well as the financial limitations of this research work due to other expenses and projects outside the thesis, the researcher deemed the deductive approach as the most suitable research approach to be undertaken. Meanwhile, a number of respondents will be set, both male and female, and they will be surveyed so that essential data needed for this study will be acquired. The participants will be surveyed by administering questionnaires.
The primary strength of this study is that it evaluates individual personnel perceptions and actual behaviors. However, the limitation is that this study is that they findings will be based only on participants’ stated judgments and intentions. The problem with such data is that since perceptions of the respondents “uncountable” and continuous, could be inaccurate. How? For instance, if we are to ask the respondents the question “Do you believe that the quality of service in most hotel restaurants in Sheffield is good?”, maybe out of 100 respondents, 75 will answer in the affirmative and the remaining 25 will answer in the negative. Such result will show that most of the respondents believe that the quality of service among hotel restaurants in Sheffield is excellent. However, there is the possibility that not all of the respondents have disclosed their true feelings (i.e. if they really agree that all hotel restaurants in Sheffield offer high quality services and facilities). More significantly, the researcher will not know if the respondents will behave accordingly to their choice, i.e. if they will really share information and knowledge in the actual practice. Nevertheless, organization members’ perceptions are meaningful in the sense that organizational life is in part based on members’ interpretations. Thus, although the present study is limited by its focus on the perceptions and opinions of most tourists and visitors in Sheffield, those opinions and perceptions are nonetheless important parts of everyday organizational life.
Assumptions
The research will be based on the following assumptions: (a) all participants will be utilizing the correct procedures as outlined in the guidelines for the specific methodology employed, and (b) all participants will answer questions honestly to the best of their ability.
Limitations
Time will be the greatest limitation to this research, which could hinder long-term outcome objectives. Environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status, will not be controlled, and this could create many variables within the research. As this study will utilize a small sample of respondents, the results may not effectively represent the general population.
Delimitations
The study will involve a sample of 60 guests, 14 staff members and 3 managers staying at 3 different hotels in Sheffield. Because the study will be conducted in a single city using a small sample, the representation may not be superior and can affect the results of this study. Due to time, budget and effort constraints, this study will be conducted over the duration of 4 weeks, and data will be evaluated manually.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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