An Investigation into the impact of the Current Recession on the Marketing Strategies of the smaller independent Hotel Market. A case study of three niche market hotels in the South Wales area

Abstract

The dissertation aims to investigate how the recession, since 2008, has affected the marketing strategies of event venues. The objectives of the investigation are, to examine the downturn in the economy in UK since 2008 and its effects on businesses, to critically appraise how the recession has impacted on the hospitality sector and to examine the impact of the recession and to investigate marketing strategies used by the hospitality sector, to investigate the niche market of the private hotel sector in UK and to analyse 5 smaller niche market Hotel case studies.

The dissertation consists of six sections. The first is the introduction that contains the aim, objectives, key question and outline methodology of the research. The second section is the literature review, which will underpin the theoretical framework for this research project. Key words were used in searching for relevant literature. The following chapter consists of the research methodology where the reasoning behind the methods of collecting primary research is discussed. The fourth section contains the results of the primary research, where three case studies have been produced. The discussion and the analysis and interpretation of the data are in section five. The final section, section six includes the conclusions and recommendations. The whole work is underpinned by an appendices section and reference section.

The author came to the conclusion that there is no one correct formula that all hotels could use for their marketing strategy during a recession. Each and every business has to create a unique formula for marketing strategies that is individual to them and is best suited to what they stand for. The main findings however, indicate that in tough economic times, hotels should introduce the use of social media to their marketing strategy. In addition to this, they should make a conscious effort to increase their own customer database and present special offers to customers via these means of distribution channels. These findings have been clear in all three Case Studies. However, these should only be used as guidelines. Distinctive marketing strategies should be created in order to tackle the recession.