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Strategic Management of Tourist Companies

Code: 104955 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500894 Tourism OB 3

Contact

Name:
Jordi Datzira Masip
Email:
jordi.datzira@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites.


Objectives and Contextualisation

Creating a business from scratch is not an easy task. And neither is its survival after a few years or that it ends up performing better than its competitors. However, there are many companies that are able to achieve it. This course aims to present no magic formula to explain this fact but to give you instead of a toolbox of methods and techniques that enable you to succeed in business. During the course, we will see how external factors affect the company's strategy to follow, how the industry in which are will shape our opportunities, and how strategies are selected and implemented. Finally, we will see how companies diversify or internationalize their markets, and we will briefly highlight the latest trends in this field.

At the end of the course you should be able to:

1. Identify the economic, social, ethical, or political factors that influence the company and/or industry strategy.

2. Identify the key drivers of industry profitability.

3. Identify new business opportunities in the different segments of the tourism industry.

4. Identify the skills and resources necessary to carry out a certain business strategy.

5. Evaluate and select alternatives, establishing appropriate mechanisms for implementing and monitoring strategies.

6. Understand the importance of business internationalization, as well as its complexity.

7. Develop managerial and conflict management skills.

8. Extrapolate expertise and make decisions based on the best corporate practices (benchmarking).


Competences

  • Apply the concepts related to tourism products and businesses (economy and finance, human resources, commercial policy, markets, operations and strategy) in the different parts of the sector.
  • Behave ethically and adapt to different intercultural contexts.
  • Behave responsibly towards the environment.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the functioning and evolution of different tourism models in order to choose the most suitable one and apply it in the current environment.
  • Develop a capacity for independent learning.
  • Display a customer service orientation.
  • Have a business vision, pinpoint the customer's needs and pre-empt possible changes in the environment.
  • Plan, organise and coordinate a work team, creating synergies and showing empathy.
  • Propose creative alternative solutions to problems arising in the field of tourism management, planning, businesses and products.
  • Show initiative and an entrepreneurial approach to business creation and management in the tourism sector.
  • Take decisions in situations of uncertainty, taking into account potential consequences of these decisions in the short, medium and long term.
  • Use communication techniques at all levels.
  • Work in a team.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse and diagnose the situation of a tourist destination, resource or space.
  2. Apply the techniques of budgeting and strategic planning.
  3. Behave ethically and adapt to different intercultural contexts.
  4. Behave responsibly towards the environment.
  5. Develop a capacity for independent learning.
  6. Develop problem-solving skills in business.
  7. Develop skills in leadership and conflict management.
  8. Develop the skills needed to adapt to new business scenarios.
  9. Display a customer service orientation.
  10. Have a business vision, pinpoint the customer's needs and pre-empt possible changes in the environment.
  11. Identify and evaluate new business opportunities in the sector.
  12. Identify the resources and capacities needed to develop new businesses.
  13. Perform an internal and external analysis to diagnose a business's commercial situation.
  14. Plan, organise and coordinate a work team, creating synergies and showing empathy.
  15. Take decisions in situations of uncertainty, taking into account potential consequences of these decisions in the short, medium and long term.
  16. Use communication techniques at all levels.
  17. Work in a team.

Content

1. Introduction to the unit Strategic Management of Tourist Companies

2. Strategic position:

    -Business strategy

    -Macro environment and external analysis

    -Internal analysis

3. Strategic implementation

    -Competitive strategies and business direction

4. Strategy in action

    -Corporate strategy

    -Methods and strategic development


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Public presentation of the Project 4 0.16 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17
Resolution of Practical cases 30 1.2 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17
Theoretical classes 30 1.2 1, 10, 11, 12, 13
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials 24 0.96 5, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Project Development 15 0.6 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15
Resolutions of practical cases 15 0.6 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Study 15 0.6 5

The teaching methodology is based on continuous evaluation, combining theoretical content, practical in-class activities, research and analysis, presentations, and reports. Assistance and participation in class during the semester will also be assessed.

Unit structure

Each session will be composed of:

  • 1 hour theory
  • 2 hours practice

Guest speakers

1 to 2 guest speakers’ experts in the field, from the industry and/or the public administration.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Assistance and participation 15% 0 0 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Evaluation 25% 2 0.08 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14
Practical in-class activities 20% 10 0.4 1, 3, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Project (group) 40% 5 0.2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

The evaluation of this unit is continuous and is composed of one evaluation (individual), a project (group), and the participation and assistance in class.

To pass the continuous evaluation, students need to reach a minimum of 3.5 out of 10 in each of the assessments. Otherwise, students will have to do the final evaluation at the end of the semester.

 

Final evaluation

The final evaluation will be composed of three parts:

  • Part 1: Quiz (20%)
  • Part 2: Short questions (30%)
  • Part 3: Long questions (50%)

Re evaluation

The re-evaluation exam will be composed of three parts:

  • Part 1: Quiz (20%)
  • Part 2: Short questions (30%)
  • Part 3: Long questions (50%)

Bibliography

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Software

  • MS Teams/Zoom
  • MS Office

Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 English second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 2 English second semester morning-mixed