Research Assignment About The Blue Mountains Near Sydney (Essay Sample)

The Blue Mountains near Sydney cis considered as a leading tourism destination in Australia with a large number of restaurants and cafes in each village. Katoomba is considered as the chief town located in the city of Blue Mountains near Sydney and is famous for its scenic mountains and most amazing main street cafes and restaurants. Some of the street cafes and restaurants are showing real innovation by showcasing regional produces with a near perfect location highlighting the history of the place. These street cafes are known for their great family atmosphere, warm hospitality and picturesque location. Katoomba street café is one such restaurant that is located in Katoomba admits of famous attractions like “echo point” and “three sister” but received a very poor rating on Tripadvisor. In this study, a brief SWOT analysis is performed focusing on the strength and weaknesses of this café and a brief analysis of macro environment of this place. Finally a series of recommendations will be presented on how to better market the restaurant and improve its rating.
According to Culp et al., (2016), the most imperative precursor to strategic planning is SWOT analysis as it provides an opportunity to assess the internal weaknesses and strengths of the organization, recognize growth opportunities and analyses the external environmental threats. Boella & Goss-Turner (2013) stipulated that the only strength a business has if it is recognized by the people. One of the greatest strength of Katoomba street cafe is its perfect location and management doesn’t have to do a lot of effort to attract customers as people after hiking always enjoy the tasty food (Mok et al., 2013). The place is easily accessible even on foot as it is located near a shopping district, and customers don’t have to face parking issues. The interior of the place is shoddy, old with wobbly wooden table and chairs but gives a charm to the place that enhanced the beauty of cafe. There is a fire place inside the café and a sitting arrangement surrounding it during cold weather which is always appreciated by the customers. Furthermore, café management celebrate the events like Christmas by decorations and a theme party. In accordance with Buhalis & Crotts (2013), weaknesses always give a way to the owner to improve certain aspects that can enhance the business. The café is highly understaffed especially in busy seasons when there are swarms of tourists visiting the area. There are only four waiters working on forty seats in the café which meant customers either have to wait a long time to order or got served too late. Since the café is small and lack of adequate sitting area is annoyance for customers when they have to wait for the table after a long hike. The menu of Katooma street café is rather boring and doesn’t offer a range of versatile food items. Additionally, the drinks are expensive as compared to the other cafes in the area, which is a serious setback and most of the customers avoid ordering drinks.
As this cafe is in mini tourist town, whenever tourists decide to visit they use TripAdvisor to look for the ratings of surrounding restaurants/café. According to the TripAdvisor page of Katoomba Street Café, approximately 74% of the people either found it’s terrible or poor. Only 12% of out of 132 reviews recommended it to other customers (TripAdvisor, 2017). Moreover, despite the increasing awareness of Social media (Sisson & Adams, 2016); Katoomba cafe does not have its official website or an official Facebook page. According to Gibson (2016), customer relationship management is becoming a strategic necessity for businesses to attract more customers when the visitors are increasingly becoming more sophisticated and sensitive to the pricing. Customers are not asked about the experience at the time of billing. Additionally, the café doesn’t even have a proper rest room making it uncomfortable for its customers. Most of the reviewers about the Katoomba café have criticized the place for its lack of cleanliness and hygiene. It is important for the staff to be well trained, organized and hospitable for a successful business (Kim et al., 2015) but most of Katoomba café visitors have complained about the rudeness and unfriendliness of staff behavior giving negative impact to the customers.
In order to use the external macro environment to develop a better market for the restaurant, a brief analysis of the factors including demographic, economic, natural, technological, social and cultural aspects is discussed and recommendations are made. Sociocultural conditions are the most important factor that Katoomba café can use to improve its strategic performance. Placing an increased emphasis on the quality of food helps the café to attract more customers, increase its ratings as well. Since high health consciousness is dampening the demand of unclean places, cleanliness of both the place and cooking area should be given utmost importance. Furthermore, as Gursoy et al., (2015) stated that people are growing more curious these days and alteration always fascinates them. Therefore, changings the interior of place can also help the management to entice customers. Nowadays, tourists are on vacations and want to savor every free moment of their vacations by spending quality time their friends and family. By creating peaceful environment in a café will also be useful in increasing café’s rating. The katoomba street cafe needs to be unique and up to date by bringing innovation to cafe to ensure its positioning amongst the other cafés.
According to Kandampully et al., (2015) norms and values have paramount importance in people’s life, hence a growing business needs loyal and hardworking staff. Maintaining cordial relations with customers by providing good services with smiling face can increase number of customers (Law et al., 2014). As it is hospitality industry, it is central to have direct and open communication with the customers (Leung et al., 2013). It is good practice for the Katoomba café to get customer’s feedback at the time of billing verbally or by distributing review request cards. It is the responsibility of a café management to constantly ensure and maintain the service standards and solve customer’s issues efficiently and discreetly.
Katoomba café has an added benefit due to its location as it is nestles between the magnificent mountains and a small city center. It can highlight its surroundings by developing a strategy of sustainability standing and enhance the brand image. It has an opportunity to attract customers who are conscious about their carbon footprints by adopting eco-conscious strategies like reducing and recycling waste, using energy efficient devices, and buying local etc. Katoomba café can make it more attractive to the customer by developing a separate night program for guests' entertainment benefiting from being a tourist resort destinations.
Another important macro factor is technology which a restaurant can use to enhance its likability amongst its customers. Social media and smart phones should be integrated in to the restaurant table as they are a part of everyday life nowadays. According to Altinay et al., (2015), technology should be assimilated with the dining experience to give a new meaning. Katooma restaurant can implement digital menus and mobile ordering to make their service for efficient in the busy seasons. In addition, it can install tabletop checkout system so that customers don’t have to wait for their bills or receipts. By applying guest information management like automated machines and guest greeting cards etc. café can improve its rating.
The economic environmental factor can impact both the organization’s production and the consumer’s decision making process (Walker, 2016). Katoomba café is heavily affected by the economic factors in terms of competitor’s prices and the increasing restaurants and cafes nearby katoomba street cafe are giving its fierce competition. Yellow Deli restaurant and Blue Mountains heritage motel are amongst biggest the competitors of katoomba street café (TripAdvisor, 2017). In order for Katoomba café to get more customers than competitors they have to increase their hospitality, taste, price, and customer service substantially. According to Bowie et al. (2016) almost every second person is drinking coffee every day and there are several other restaurants that are selling same food items in menu as that of katoomba café. So katoomba café should have to work hard on the menu to provide something different, tasty and versatile that would bring customers to the place. Moreover, since it’s a tourist destination the café should be able to cater for all the demographic factors especially focusing on youth and kids who are frequent to the area.
In a conclusion, it is necessary for a restaurant/café to consider their target market which refers to the potential customers, their likes and dislikes for their offered services. Planning and implementing proper marketing management technique...