My Assignment Help

Hospitality Website Audit Report: Royal Botanical Garden Sydney Assessment 1 Answer

Assignment ONE: Tourism/Hospitality Website Audit Report

Task Description

This is an Individual Assignment. Students are to select any Tourism or Hospitality marketspaces to find an organization or enterprise that is engaging in significantly by interactive marketing activities over the web, conduct an audit of the site. Students are required to present a report on their analysis.

You must have your market and organisation approved by Lecturer by week 3.

In your report on the website, you will:

·         Identify the purpose of the site and its web business model

·         Decide the target market for the site and any consumer behaviour issues of that target market

·         Consider the dynamic forces of the industry in which the organization operates,

·         Carefully analyse the site and critically evaluate it using 7Cs of customer interface, Web Qual, ease of navigation and attractiveness of the site, how it builds traffic/ develops e-CRM, and the effectiveness of its online branding.

Task Length  - 3000 words

Criteria used to grade this task:

1.                   Identify the purpose of the a website and its web business model using a real-world example

2.                   Identify the target market for the site and any consumer behaviour issues of that target market

3.                   Carefully analyse the site and critically evaluate it using digital marketing analysis tools

4.                   Examine internet marketing strategy of a given business and its relationship with business strategy

5.                   Profile a company’s current customer base and potential target markets as well as its competitors

6.                   Compare different elements of a company’s communication mix and justify the extent to which they should be supported or supplanted by digital and direct marketing methods.

7.                   Examine the influence of the internet on the marketing mix

8.                   Correctly reference literature review using the APA referencing style

Answer

1.0 Introduction

Sydney’s The Royal Botanical Garden is the oasis for the heart of Australia. It was established in 1816 under a statutory body, it is responsible for the stewardship and management of The Royal Botanical Garden (The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. 2020a). It is the oldest scientific institute in Australia and also responsible for the global tourism business. Nowadays, the utilization of websites by most of the companies around the globe significantly increases due to the overwhelming effectiveness of digital media communications. In regards to this, the forthcoming report is based on the audit report of RBG's website through which the authorities of the organization focus on customer engagement and also to generate numerous revenues through the business.

2.0 Purpose of the site and its business model

The Royal Botanical Garden (RBG), Sydeny is the home of different collections of trees from Australia. It offers a free guide walk, tour of Aboriginal Heritage sites; for experience all kinds of these the online booking is necessary. Facility of free Wi-Fi, garden map and events information is available in the free app service (Sydney, 2020a)

2.1. Purpose of the site

 Website of Royal Botanical Garden Sydney

Figure 1: Website of Royal Botanical Garden Sydney

Source: (The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, 2020a)

The purpose of RBG's website is to grab the attention of enormous people belong to so many nations across the world. The significant purpose of the website is to provide effective services to the customers of the company with the help of ease of access. According to some authors, the usability of a website can be measured through the degree of efficient service providence (Pengelly, 2017). If a website is not able to meet or fulfill the needs and requirements of vendors that it can be argued that the site of the respective organization is not too effective. With the help of usability index, the authorities of RBG can ensure that their website is working properly and it is also very effective and efficient in terms of the customer value proposition. The botanical garden is for maintaining the living plants under the scientific process for the purpose of research and education. Botanical gardens play an important role in exploration and conservation of plants for biodiversity (Mounce et al. 2017). Taxonomy oriented researches can enhance the attitude and human knowledge towards the conservation of flora (Yang & Chen, 2017). Botanical gardens are most influential and important for green spacing for any country like Australia and others countries. The botanical garden of Sydney converted from research to multi-functional studies (Barkoosaraei& Moshiri, 2017).

2.1. Web Business Model

One of the primary goals of a website of Royal Botanical Garden, Sydeny is to generate optimum revenue through the business and also to penetrate the market with the help of an effective business model (Parsons, 2020). In regards to this, nowadays the utilization of Web-based business models is considered by so many companies. One of the utmost simple business models based on the website is making a profit through sales. In this case, e Royal Botanical Garden has focused on its business model to retain prospective buyers as well as to achieve growth through the business and thus it has business to customer model (B2C) (refer to figure 2). Oftentimes it is considered that Web-based business models are very much effective to provide services or products through online media (Kabir et al. 2012). Although, offline products can be also sold with the help of a web-based business model, RBG plays a crucial and tactical role in regard to the same. 

Value chain in tourism

Figure 2: Value chain in tourism

Source: (Kabir et al. 2012)

Customer gathering through website helps them a lot to utilize the B2C model through which its offerings in Australian tourism attracts huge customers. RBG sells its products directly to its customers which is a common model in the case of E-Tourism. Direct communication or interaction with vendors helps to profound the model efficient and effective regarding revenue generation. However, RBG should ensure the combination of living collections are being represented in Australian flora (The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, 2020b).  The B2C business model of RBG helps the authorities to focus on cultivating the old and new relationships for enhancing the marketing opportunities. For the rapid growth of business, some measures should be taken like merging the west and east exhibitions, acknowledge the efforts of Tourism Australia and reduce the length of exchange (Tourism, 2020b). Apart from all those things it can be said that optimization of the website is very effectively done by the authorities of RBG through which they can utilize the significance of the B2C business model as well as the penetrate Australian market very easily and efficiently. In the case of E-Tourism B2C, the web business model is of utmost crucial that can help an organization to achieve growth within a short timeline.

3.0 Target market and Consumer Behavior Issues

3.1. Target market

The ideal analytical factor depends on the motive of the botanical garden. The target market is the cosmetic companies that are interested in different hybrids and species (Howtostartanllc, 2020). Target markets are also the general visitors who come for the enjoyment and refreshment of the blooms, The Royal Botanical Garden is the best place for the researchers (Sydney, 2020b). The Botanical Garden of Sydney can merge with different companies and universities for the production of new species. The target audience are the high-profile travelers who mostly choose Australia as their next vacation destination. They value travel, enjoy the facilities of Australia and their hospitality, they like to spend more money and want to stay for a long vacation (Tourism, 2020a).

3.2. Consumer behavior issues

The Royal Botanical Garden is one of the most visited places in Australia. The visitors get some different kind of experiences about this garden. Some consumers’ reviews about this garden are discussing briefly:  

Some consumers find the signage as unhelpful, because there are lots of points in the same direction the visitors are getting confused for the twists and turns of the paths. There is not enough guidance and signs that help the visitors to get what they want (Yelp, 2020).

  • One can go by their own responsibility and Google about the trees on the basis of the name tags to know their uses. There are no proper guides who can elaborate things to the students and the researchers.
  • The restaurants inside the garden were not so impressive at all, it also considered as overpriced too. 
  • The stores inside the garden were interesting but smelled like taking over a candle. The coffee shop was dashed, quite disappointing and uninspired. 
  • The food was not to the mark, dry and not in good taste, most of the visitors were throwing boxes in the garden. The music stopped very soon and hot drinks were finished within 11 pm (TripAdvisor, 2020a). 
  • Compared with the other gardens in the world, this garden has no creativity, it seems like no time and money was invested for the development of the garden.
  • There are no facilities for the disable people, the conditions of the some trees are very poor, bats make their nests on trees, and somewhere the levels are put wrongly.
  • The behavior of staff was quite disappointing and rude, they should need more training on how to respect and treat the customers.
  • Some consumers demand a free entry with the procedure of donation like others overseas institutions.
  • The huge crowds, terrible food, long lines, bad signaling make an awful situation for some customers (Facebook,2020).
  • With comparison with other gardens, the Royal botanical garden of Sydney has less flowers to see, even the garden authorities don’t take proper care. 
  • Some customers are operated by the volunteers very poorly, they do not get any kind of help from them (TripAdvisor. 2020b).
  • The major issues of customers are ‘cancellation and delay’ and excessive booking fees, difficulties in flight booking, hidden fees, loss of booking documents, lost luggage.
  • There are also some problems like data roaming cost, poor network coverage, unclear terms and conditions, communication problems.
  • Families with young persons are faced with more problems than others, also the older people find some difficulties as some hotels have no proper facilities for the older and disable persons.
  • Sometimes the consumers face problems due to the travel agents, their services are not good at all and some consumers complain that most of the time.

4.0 Dynamic forces of tourism industry in Australia

In this section of this report, the dynamic forces of the Australian tourism industry are analyzed in order to recognise the influence of those forces over the growth of Australian tourism companies. In regards to this, Porter's five forces analysis is conducted that can reveal the dynamic forces of the Australian tourism industry. 

 International visitors in Australia

Figure 2: International visitors in Australia 

Source: (Camper champ, 2019)

Elements
Facts
New entrants’ threat (low) 
  •  The threat regarding newcomers in the Australian tourism industry is not so high as most of the newcomers suffer a lot due to the overwhelming growth of the Industry.
  • Apart from that, the number of suppliers in the tourism industry is not so high due to which customers have limited choice for making decisions regarding their destination (All assignmentexperts, 2019). 
  • Lack of suppliers seems like a positive factor for the Royal Botanical Garden as new companies have to think twice before propounding their business in Australia. 
  • The dependency rate over major suppliers is very high in this case due to which it can be said that newcomers have to face significant risks if they are not prepared well to anticipate such kinds of challenges. 
  • Moreover, the influence of travel operators is also very high in this Industry thus it can be argued that the threat of new entrants is low in the Australian tourism industry. 
  • With the increase of demand of a sector different organization start to spring up the competition level rises and the market loses demand. In Australia, nearly 184,070 tourism organization runs throughout the country(IBISWorld, 2020).

Alternative product (low) 
  • The number of products available in the market is also very low due to which most of the time customers are very much willing to visit places through self-driving media rather than consider a travel agent. 
  • This choice of customers reveals the low potential of substitute products in the industry. In 2019 Australia was visited by near about 9.4m tourists(Budget direct, 2020).
  • Apart from that, RBG's website preference also helps customers to effectively and easily communicate with the travel authorities due to which they can retain loyal buyers. 
  • In regards to this, it can be argued that teleconferencing also plays a crucial that can fulfil the need for touring customers as it eliminates the need to travel from customers. 

The potential of rivalry (high) 
  • The Australian tourism industry continuously suffering from a decreasing profit margin. Due to this factor, they need to offer products at a lower cost. The price package of tourism is not so high which reveals that the purchasing power of buyers is not properly utilised by the industry (All assignment experts, 2019).
  • RBG is not apart from the other companies of the country due to which the organization is also facing challenges from its rivals. 
  • Environmental uncertainty and a huge amount of input cost increase the potential of rivalry in the industry.

Bargaining power of suppliers (high) 
  • As stated previously in this analysis the number of suppliers in the industry is very limited which increases the bargaining power of suppliers high enough that forced companies to negotiate their pricing. 
  • Transportation, hotels, mega-events increase the operational cost of the industry but due to lack of suppliers, the bargaining power increases tremendously.

Customers bargaining power (high) 
  • The industry is very transparent concerning it's the price point. Therefore, customers of the Australian tourism industry are well informed and also aware of the price range of products (All assignment experts, 2019).
  • Apart from that, for providing value-based services to customers, companies have to negotiate well that can help them to easily propound loyalty customer base. Henceforth, the bargaining power of buyers is high in the industry.  

Table 1: Porter’s five forces analysis 

Source: (Developed by thee author)

5.0 Analyzing and Evaluating of the Royal Botanic Garden Website

5.1. 7c's of digital marketing

This model is very much effective and significant in making the content strategy utmost crucial through which it can sell its products to each customer properly. This model is consisting of seven components which are given below briefly; 

Customer
The ultimate goal of an organization is to fulfil the needs and requirements of its customers. Whether a company utilises B2B or B2C model they have to represent the product property in front of its stakeholders in order to inform customers properly about the value proposition of the product (PlanetBizOp, 2020). The Internet nowadays makes a huge difference in service providence as the ease of access helps companies to grab numerous customers towards the company. Therefore, RBG needs to consider this Marketing mix Strategy to sustain its business growth. 
Competition and the company
In this segment, RBG needs to analyse its strengths and weaknesses in order to recognise that they need to focus on its supply chain management or other aspects. Internet of digital marketing mediums shortened the time frame required to analyse this aspect due to which companies can easily grab details of its strengths and weaknesses (PlanetBizOp, 2020). The competitive analysis can help the authorities of RBG to gain a competitive edge through which the company can sustain its growth. 
Communication
The concept is quite related to the contents that are portfolio by the company towards its customers. Therefore, the concept should be clear in everyone's mind, and also the higher authorities of RBG should inform every people about its concepts in marketing. Uniqueness as well as the effectiveness of the internet can help the company to easily distribute its concepts amount employees through which it can gain a competitive edge in the market. 
Convenience
Convenience is one of the key factors that can help retailers to provide good quality service to customers from anywhere. The advertisement through the website can catch the attention of customers that can help RBG's authorities to sustain the business. 
Consistency
Internet helps companies to maintain consistency in their offerings that helps companies to retain their customers. Digital marketing mediums are very useful with respect to this (Nagenndrakumars, 2014). 
Customization
The ease of access to websites as well as the user interface can help a company to attract huge customers towards the company (Nagenndrakumars, 2014). Web-based business models as well as utilisation of the internet allow customers to customize the portal according to their preference. 
Content
Internet or web business model of RBG helps the organization to portfolio it's business approach crucially in front of its strong customer base. 

Table 2: 7c’s of marketing mix 

Source: (Developed by the author)

5.2. Web Qual

This is an instrument by which qualitative assessment of any e-commerce website is conducted. The instrument has three aspects usage, service interaction and data quality. The criteria of assessment consisted of 12 aspects previously, which was confined to five areas namely ease of accessibility, entertainment, trust, time of response and benefits. 

Ease of accessibility – the site of Botanic garden is easily accessible for those who knows internet surfing. The products are also easily purchased with a return policy within a fixed timeline (Foundationandfriends, 2020).

Entertainment – the site display is quite impressive and the different products available in the site are presented well.

Trust – the content and terms and policies displayed in the site is appealing to the users.

Time of response – any query and mail is reverting back by the Botanical Garden customer care within 24 hours. The time of response is relevant according to any e-commerce sites (Foundationandfriends, 2020).

Benefit – the site is beneficial for its customers for providing the products accessibility very smoothly and easily. 

5.3. Ease of Navigation

The website of Botanic Garden provides four categories, which deal with different aspects. Even the collection box has whole lot option, which can be easily accessed by the user. In case of any issue contact box has a separate message bar where one can put the query, which will be solved by customer care executives within 24 hours. For the new customer the site has provided a brief section about the company. Thus, it can be said the site is user friendly (Royal Botanical Garden, 2016). 

5.4. Attractiveness of the site

The all over presentation of website creates attractiveness on the part of user. The display, the content the videos and images contained in the Botanic Garden site are very impressively presented. This presentation directly influences customer’s preference for this site. The presentation also includes its content, which reveals the company’s mission and information related its services and products. This report is one and only information that the user can access and know about the company (Royal Botanical Garden, 2016).

5.5. Developing the E- CRM

This aspect is based on customer information that personalizes data and simplifies the closure of transaction. This helps the organization to get access of them at right time right place and also able to identify their needs.  This system also helps to recognize the driving forces of the competitors providing a transparent picture of international market. Satisfied customer services are provided by the websites, which is evident in the positive feedback of its customers after they visited the place.

5.6. Effectiveness of branding

Designexpert Jaid Holsboschopined that The Royal Botanic Garden is a real innovative brand with a creative good thought of blending brand with the science in order to benefit the world (Gearin, 2018). Conservation of trees and flowers is a unique aspect of this company, which associates tourism business with environmental works.  This shows that the branding of the company has been efficient and attractive. 

6.0 Conclusion

The above discussion provides information about a website of the Royal Botanic Garden of Australia, which is an institute and working for global tourism. The purpose of studying this institute is because it practiced horticulture and promotes historical, scientific and educational recreational cultural value of land. The targeted market and consumer’s behavior role relating to the website is clearly discussed here. The external factor influencing the website operation is discussed in the context of porter’s five forces model. The assessment of the website is done using various models like 7Cs, Web Qual and others, which have provided a detailed report of all these aspects of the website. 


Customer Testimonials