Cultural consideration in Hospitality management

Essay by rubycheung2000University, Master'sB, November 2014

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Keywords

Cultural Consideration in hospitality industry: Korean tourists in Thailand. A case study of Villa Zolitude in Phuket, Thailand

Introduction

Culture consideration plays an important part in MICE and hospitality management. MICE delegates encounter all kind of tourism products including hotels, transportation, and event services. With good cultural awareness and consideration in developing tourism products and services will bring successful and continuing business. It shows courtesy and respects to the target clientele. Otherwise, it can be easily alienated by the simplest mistake in etiquette, or even lose in business.(Dhrona, 2012) Culture is a set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavioral conventions shared by a group of people. (Spencer-Oatey, 2008) Korean and Thai have a totally different set of culture systems, as both of them have very unique and identical cultural background. Even though both Korea and Thailand are becoming more westernized nowadays, they still have many visual cultural differences in terms of eating habits, clothing, housing and language system.

It also reflects in different expectations and perceptions in tourism products and services as well. The case study of Villa Zulitude, Phuket review the importance of cultural understanding and awareness in hospitality management, and how cultural misinterpretation leads to service failure and problems.

According to Kasikorn Research Centre, (March, 2013) South Korean travelers make 1.4 million trips to Thailand and spend estimated Bt50 billion in Thailand. It was the fifth largest inbound tourist market in 2012 with 8% share of South Korea's overall outbound market according to Korea Tourism Organization. Most of South Korean tourists are tour group travelers, but also have a strong increase in independent travelers mainly golfers, honeymooners, and shoppers. They have a higher spending power than tour groups. Most newly wedding couples preferred to go overseas beach resorts, such as Phuket...