The team's topic was to investigate whether the “supply and demand of hotel rooms in Singapore has reached an equilibrium point”.
The team began its data collection and analysis by looking at two factors: supply - the current total inventory of hotel rooms and the upcoming new hotels; and demand - the estimated number of tourist arrivals in Singapore.
The study established that from year 2007 to 2012, Singapore will be experiencing a situation of “undersaturation” which the team defined as “demand for hotel room nights being greater than the supply of hotel room nights”.
What could be the possible reasons for the high demand in hotel rooms? Singapore has established itself as a reputable and desired location for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions). Abundant business opportunities and the government's active promotion of Singapore are some key reasons explaining the influx of visitors into Singapore.
In addition, the team identified that the positive outlook for the Singapore tourism sector with up and coming new attractions such as the integrated resorts, new events such as Formula One Grand Prix and less restrictions on air routes between Singapore and other nations, all could serve to boost the tourism market which leads to a higher demand for hotel rooms.
The team also looked at the average room rate (ARR) achieved by the industry and Far East Hotels. Year to date September 2007 (the GEN-Y project spanned June - September 2007), the industry achieved a growth rate of 19.8 per cent while Far East grew by an impressive 33.2 per cent. The team did a national comparison with Bangalore in India and discovered that the average room rate (ARR) achieved by a Bangalore hotel is S$450 (approx.) while a Singapore hotel is S$198 (approx.).
Having identified that Far East Hotels could well ride on the wave of opportunities, the team gave several recommendations. Among them are
- deployment of technology for revenue management / up selling and cross selling between hotels and serviced residences;
- setting up a Far East Academy to spearhead training and service quality/focus on staff
retention and talent management; (c) product enhancements (eg internet or wireless access point / pillow and blanket menu / rain shower in bathrooms, and (d) identify opportunities to increase our hospitality inventory
Far East Organization is one of the largest owner-operators of hotels and serviced residences in Singapore. In the years ahead, there is tremendous potential for Far East to leverage on our robust organisational infrastructure to raise our hospitality operations to a new level of business excellence via delivering superior experience and value to our customers.
The Gen-Y programme aims to nurture and stretch the capabilities of our Assistant Managers and Managers and to shape their sense of identity, key values and team spirit. The programme seeks to operationalise these values into specific, observable and measurable behaviours by involving participants in hands-on projects that translate the Organization’s goals into work tasks.
In 2007, five teams worked on a variety of topics that span various aspects of our business and organisational development. Landmark shares with readers the submission from the winning team. |
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