Planning:

• Mission statement(http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/tourism/marketing/activity/sup_anantara1.htm#mission)
• Setting objectives:
  • Profitability
  • Competing with other tourism facilities
  • Image-building
  Further information on how these are met by the resort is given in the section below on Price.

Product:

"We are still unique in this market and are still getting guests making repeat bookings. We provide mahout training and an insight into the life of the Asian Elephant (as well as the sort of 'standard' trek found elsewhere) to guests of a 5 star hotel. The camp is one of the resort's USPs - the others being location (right on the Golden Triangle and in their own forest), the ability to visit all three countries in one day, luxury accommodation in the Chiang Rai area, the cooking school and imaginative and educational excursions.

Images: Two of Anantara's Unique Selling Points - the Asian Elephant and the luxury accommodation. Copyright: Reproduced by kind permission of Anantara Resort and Spa.

"We do put a lot of work into taking the 'standard' hotel experience and doing it better than anyone else in Thailand in our price bracket (i.e. luxury but not top, top end) by hiring good and imaginative staff throughout. We never want to be seen as just another good hotel, always want to send guests away with something specifically memorable about all the Anantara hotels - be it the big baths, the fighting fish in the rooms, the architecture and design or the food/cooking displays.

"We come from a hotel background and so the course is tailored around the guests rather than a set syllabus. We make sure there is always an English-speaking guide (usually me) to explain the conservation issues outside Thailand as well as the day-to-day life in the camp. We feed the elephants and pay the mahouts more than anyone else. We are next to a 5 star hotel, so guests get to stay in luxury between lessons."

Price:

"We set our prices according to the costs of keeping the elephants and mahouts in the best realistic condition and to make enough extra profit to donate some money to elephant conservation and to meet the overall profit targets of the resort.

"We analyse prices based on average rate and average occupancy from about six different hotels, three from the local area (but in a different market) and three from throughout Thailand (in the same market but a different location). We check comparative prices daily and build this information into our pricing. But as most of our business is still contract wholesale, our strategies have to be in place six months in advance if not a year.

Image: Selling directly through the resort's Web site enables more reactive pricing to changing conditions, but most of the business is contract wholesale.

"We do sell directly through the Web site and, as a result, we can be more reactive to month-to-month changes. We can react to changing conditions in the market, such as those caused by the tsunami, SARS, chicken flu, subtle seasonality (i.e. festivals, more than just high (dry and cool) / low (hot and wet) seasons that travel agents worry about). But since we have already contracted prices to the trade, it is very difficult to raise prices through the Web."