Tourism Development

PC&A assists National Tourism Ministries, National Tourism Boards, municipalities, regional governments, hotel chains, airlines, tour operators etc. in their efforts to achieve competitive advantage both at the level of programme formulation and at the level of implementation.

After the rapid expansion of its strategy consulting services in the highly competitive consumer-related industries (branded food products and drinks, detergents, durable consumer goods) PC&A decided in 1991 to put together its considerable resources and acquired know-how in the important tourism feeder markets of Western Europe (especially Germany) into a specialised task force. From the original concentration on private sector companies PC&A expanded its client base to cover also national tourism organisations.

The tourism business has enjoyed above-average growth rates during recent years but in certain product/market segments saturation, oversupply and strong competition make it necessary to focus and to develop sophisticated strategies in order to achieve satisfactory ROIs and a beneficial development of a country's tourism industry. It has become necessary to differentiate, to achieve competitive advantage and eventually to exit in an acceptable way certain markets. The implementation schedule has become one of the key success factors.

PC&A combines its intimate feeder-market know-how with innovative tourism product developments and has realised exceptionally high rewarding tourism projects.

More than 100 projects have been performed by PC&A in the tourism and leisure industry.


Examples

  • institution building through the creation and management of public tourism agencies at the national, regional and local level;
  • assistance in the establishment of training programmes and schools;
  • elaboration of national and regional tourism Master plans and their implementation;
  • pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for tourism installations. Research of financial and active partners. Evaluation of operators. Supervision of works;
  • market segmentation and identification of most promising segments. Development of marketing mix;
  • search for, initiation, assessment and implementation of new tourism products;
  • pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for tourism installations. Research of financial and active partners. Evaluation of operators. Supervision of works;
  • real estate appraisals and business valuations;
  • improvement of the competitiveness and upgrading of hotel groups, restaurants and tourist facilities.


Project Examples

Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States:

  • Bulgaria: PC&A was called upon to assist in the development and promotion of Cultural Tourism in Bulgaria by launching a Grant Scheme and providing assistance to the PIU (Project Implementation Unit) in the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Culture to ensure the successful implementation of the Grant Scheme in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Phare Practical Guide (PRAG). The project is also designed to assist the successful applicants with managing and monitoring the implementation of their specific projects.
  • Central and Eastern Europe/CIS: Within a framework contract we assist the management of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in providing investment advisory services to Individual projects have been, among others:
    • Azerbaijan: Technical, market and commercial assessment as well as legal assessment of a three-star hotel;
    • Kyrgyzstan: Preliminary technical, market and commercial assessment of a company engaged in providing water recreational services;
    • Latvia: Technical, market and commercial assessment of an airfreight company;
    • Moldova: Technical, market and commercial assessment of an airline company;
    • Russian Federation: Preliminary technical, market and commercial assessment for a hotel project in Kamchatka;
    • Uzbekistan: Initial/financial and legal due diligences of an air freight company.
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: Privatisation of strategic enterprises. Among the enterprises were several hotels.
  • Hungary/Germany: The development of the tourism potential of the Hungarian regions is one of the priorities of the Regional Development Operative Programme. This includes the development of tourist attractions and the development of tourism-related services. The goal is to build on the increasing international and domestic demand on cultural and ecotourism products based on regional and local values. In this project, PC&A presented selected regions of Germany as an example of eco-tourism development to representatives of Hungarian regional administrations, with the objective of training the participants in ecotourism and heritage management.
  • Russian Federation: In a 2.5 year project, we assisted the Russian Union of the Travel Industry and various regional administrations in the North West of Russia (St. Petersburg, Leningrad, Kaliningrad, Archangelsk, Karelia, etc.) in developing the tourism industry, as a key contribution to private sector development in the Baltic region. Support was provided in: Development of a common marketing strategy and operational strategic plans for branding and product development; Preparation and implementation of a training strategy for SMEs, the regional Tourism Information Centre and key persons in public administration; Various types of direct support to SMEs of the tourism industry in the region.
  • Russia: PC&A assisted the Municipality of Monchegorsk in the Murmansk region to prepare a strategy for the development of tourism. Based on a review of the existing facilities and an assessment of the region’s tourism potential, we prepared an action plan for the promotion of the region as a destination for nature-based holiday activities. Training was also provided to the main actors in the tourism industry.
  • Russian Federation: We were asked by the governments of the Irkutsk Oblast and of the Republic of Buryatia (Siberia) to assist both governments in the development of a tourism master plan for the Baikal region.
  • Slovakia: Regional tourism development. We assisted the Slovak Ministry of Economy, Tourism Section, in evaluating the possibilities and better organisation of tourism industry in the region of Lower Tatra with a special regard to the creation of a new mountain resort (1997).


North Africa/Middle East

  • Egypt: Strategic Alliance Project aiming at the establishment of strategic co-operation between Egyptian and European companies. Among the clients was a company active in the business of exhibition, trade fair and conference organisation.
  • Morocco: Strategy audit of the tourism sector. Within a project to audit and develop strategic development options for the country's five most important industrial clusters, called "le Maroc compĂ©titif", we assisted in the strategy audit of the tourism industry cluster.
  • Tunisia: Strategic market survey. We conducted a strategic market survey of the emerging tourism markets in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine with the objective to increase the inflow of tourists of these countries and to strengthen its market share compared to other destinations in the Mediterranean area.
  • Tunisia: Development of regular and charter air travel connections to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
  • Tunisia: Market study on the Spa market in Tunisia.
  • Tunisia: Reorganisation of the Sales & Marketing Department of the most important national hotel group in Tunisia.


Other regions

  • Austria: Congress market study. One of the largest European convention centres appointed us to analyse the future development in the European congress market with more than 3000 participants.
  • Caribbean: Mid-term evaluation of the 8th EDF Caribbean Regional Sustainable Tourism Development Programme (CRSTDP). The Programme has as its overall objective to contribute to economic growth and poverty alleviation of CARIFORUM countries through increased competitiveness and sustainability of the Caribbean tourism sector. The purpose of the five year programme with a budget of approx. EUR 8 million is to foster the sustainability and competitiveness of the Caribbean tourism sector through the establishment of a sustainable development policy framework, supplementing and strengthening of regional institutional capacities, development of skills and human resources, support to small operators through business development support, and strengthening of links among CARIFORUM/CARICOM, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, the Caribbean Hotel Association, national tourism/hotel associations and academic institutions.
  • France: We undertook a market analysis and valuation of the 5,200 hotel rooms which were planned to open during the first phase of the Euro Disneyland project.
  • Western Europe: Complete strategic audit of the restaurant, hotel and catering activities of a leading European hotel chain.
  • One of the leading European hotel groups managing and operating more than 17 deluxe-hotels world-wide asked us to evaluate the future critical size for hotel groups in this segment and to what extent the growth or merger was necessary for maintaining a competitive edge.