AC 1.2 - Explain the objectives of tourism organisations

Business objectives are what tourism organisations want to achieve going forward.  Without clear objectives and a clear understanding of what the business wants to achieve, the business is more likely to fail or struggle.  Very often, businesses produce a mission statement which puts into words what a business is trying to achieve.

Read the extract in the box below, taken from a business management manual, about different types of business objectives.

• Profit Maximisation. The most basic model of a firm assumes firms wish to maximise their profit. They will do this by increasing revenue (increasing price, quantity of goods sold or reducing costs). Higher profits enable a firm to pay higher wages, dividends to shareholders and survive an economic downturn.
• Growth Maximisation. An alternative to profit maximisation is for a firm to try and increase market share and increase the size of the firm. They can do this by cutting price and increasing sales. Growth maximisation may come at the expense of lower profits.
• Social / ethical concerns. An organisation may not be motivated by money but may seek to offer a service to the local community. They may voluntarily take decisions which help the environment / local community. Many big companies now place a key role on promoting their ethical policies.
• Corporate Image. Related to social / ethical concerns is the image / brand of a company. It may wish to project a certain image and brand.
• Stakeholders Well Being. A company may also be concerned about the welfare of its stakeholders – suppliers, workers and customers. For example, giving training and long-term job security to its workers.
• Survival. For many businesses, it seems a matter of surviving – breaking even. In desperate times, firms may be forced to sell off assets to keep their creditors at bay. For many small local businesses struggling in a highly competitive market, survival may be the best they can hope for.

Activity 1

Having read through the information, explain how each of the factors in the box might be important for tourism organisations.  Try to write 4 to 5 lines for each factor.  The first one has been done for you.

Profit Maximisation

Profit maximisation is important for Alton Towers because the company needs to continue to invest in new rides so it can continue to attract customers. Major new theme park rides cost millions of pounds to design and install, so profits are required to invest in the new rides.

When you write an explanation, it is easy to use the word because regularly.   For example: The airline serves free drinks in business class because……

The information below provides ideas about alternatives to using the word ‘because’ too often.

Alternatives to ‘because’

Many words or phrases can be used to set up an explanation. The most common is because (or “because of”), but others have their uses. Here are alternatives and a discussion of their uses and their merits.

As: As is a direct synonym for because (for example, “He chose not to go see the movie, as it had received poor reviews”).

As a result of: This phrase is a substitute for “because of,” not because, as in “As a result of his intervention, the case was reopened and they were found not guilty”.

As long as: This informal equivalent of because is used to express the thought that given that one thing is occurring or will occur or is true, another is possible, in such statements as “As long as you’re going, could you pick some things up for me?”

Being as: (or being as how or being that): This phrase has the same sense — and the same formality — as “as long as.”

Considering that: This phrase is essentially identical in meaning to “as long as” and “being as” and its variants.

Due to: Like “as a result of,” “due to” is a preposition, rather than a conjunction like because, and is used in place not of because alone but instead of “because of.” It applies specifically to an explanation of why something occurred or will or will not occur, as in “Due to the large number of applications, we cannot respond individually to each applicant”.

For: This substitute for because is reserved for poetic usage, as in “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”.

In as much as: For example: “In as much as his account has been discredited, I wouldn’t believe anything else he says.”

In view of the fact that: This phrase is identical in sense to “in as much as”.

Out of: This phrase applies to explanations of emotion or feeling — for example, “She asked out of compassion” or “Out of spite, I refrained from passing the message along”.

Owing to: This phrase is equivalent to “due to”; the two choices are more formal than “because of”.

Seeing that: This phrase is identical to “considering that”.

Since: For example, as in “Since it had rained, we didn’t need to water the garden”; the reader might not realize until reading the second half of the sentence that the sense is causal rather than temporal.

Thanks to: This equivalent of “because of,” despite the wording, can apply to either a positive or a negative outcome; “Thanks to your meddling, we’re receiving much unwanted attention,” demonstrates the latter sense.

Through: Through is a preposition; it takes the place of “because of,” as in “Through the efforts of these charities, the city’s homeless services have been reinstated”.

Now you are ready to create your explanation.  Use as many of the alternatives to ‘because’ as you can, but make sure that you use them correctly.