Marketing: Decision Making and Formal Scanning Process

Developing an environmental scanning process in the hotel sector

Jorge Costa Professor, Fernando Pessoa University, Portugal Richard Teare Granada Professor, International Management Centres Association, UK

Keywords

The development of the hotel sector in Portugal has been scarcely documented with Abstract little literature published, and that which is Investigates the environmental available, mostly reporting on the occupancy scanning activities of hotel chains rates and revenues of hotels in the country. operating in Portugal. Attitudes More recently, however, due to the towards environmental scanning by companies where strategy was increasing competition of other tourist formalised through a formal writdestinations and the bargaining power of ten strategic plan (Intenders) and tour operators, Portuguese hoteliers became those companies where strategy aware of the need to take a more rigorous was informally developed through a ``vision ' ' or ``informal plan ' ' managerial approach to their business (Realizers) were compared. Face (Cavaco, 1993). This, coupled with an to face interviews were conducted awareness campaign developed by the with board level executives to government and supported by European identify and assess the relevance of a formal environmental scanfunds, led to the identification of the main ning process, the characteristics challenges facing the Portuguese hotel sector: of such a process, barriers to its to improve quality, product and market development and ways to overdiversification; to increase productivity and come them. A cognitive mapping technique was used in the analysis reduce costs; to define specific marketing of respondents ' perceptions topolicies and to improve management wards the development of such a structures (Relvas, 1993; Martins, 1993). process, with the maps showing These challenges contributed to an more similarities than differences between the comparison groups, additional pressure on hoteliers to re-think

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