PRESS RELEASE - FREE FOR PUBLICATION

Puerto Vallarta, September 3rd 2007

HOT OR NOT; HOTEL ATTRACTION BY EXPERIENCE?

First there was agriculture, then manufactured goods, and eventually services. Each change represented a step up, a way for producers to distinguish their products. Now, as services are in their turn becoming commoditized, companies are looking for the next higher value in an economic offering. Leading-edge companies are finding that it lies in staging experiences. Will this be the right show for the guests of the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta as well? Let's visit the theatre of experiences!

In the hospitality industry as well within the InterContinental hotel chain, different type of hotels exist with guests with different product demands. To satisfy the InterContinental hotel guests, a new concept has been developed; the InterContinental Insider Experience, launched with the Insider packages and the Insider concierge. This concept is based on internal research and focuses on guests that want authentic, memorable experiences. After having been around in the hotel for a while, getting to know the area, the location and the type of guests arriving at the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta, the question arose if all the new experiences were things that these guests in specific would appreciate or desire? Is it something that would attract them?

The biggest experience generator, i.e. tourism, is not yet one of the environments where experiences and co-creation are highly valued. Compared with other branches tourism falls behind in applications as well as in fundamental research and this while for  many people in the developed world time spent on leisure has become an essential part of their quality of life. Creators or designers still very  much depend upon their intuition, on copying best practices and on contextual time and space related conditions. Tourists are not often included yet as partners in the process of experience design (Binkhorst, 2006: 3).

What do we mean when we use the word: Experience?
What is an experience exactly? When you ask this to a group of people, you will get a lot of different answers, but all of them relate to the individual, it is something personal. Experience is a form of behavior, it is a process in which feeling plays an important role. One will say it is something in the personal sphere and a turning point in life, experiences that change your context of life considerably or experiences in context with other people, they are personal and social or you can pay for an experience, which makes it personal, social and has something to do with discovery or adventure. The common denominator in these experiences is that they have a high emotional impact, they deal with letting go of old patterns, and discovering new frontiers, new directions and focus are determined and there is an increase of energy (Boswijk et al, 2006). Lots of authors wrote books and articles about experiences, all with different definitions and ideas behind it. A small selection that can be thought of; (Pine and Gilmore, 1998), (Holbrook, 2001), (Nijs, 2003), (Freund, 2003), (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004), (Pink, 2005) and (Lapland Centre of Expertise for the Experience Industry (LCEEI), Finland, 2005).
The experiences and the new concept from the InterContinental Hotel Group and the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta were tested to one of these experience definitions.

"An experience is defined as a multi-sensorial, positive and comprehensive emotional experience that can lead to personal change of a subject person. Experience is defined ultimately very subjectively, and can not therefore be produced with absolute certainty. However, the ideal settings for experiences can be objectively created. An experience can be gained on physical, emotional, intellectual and/ or spiritual level. For its subjectivity experiences depend on the expectations and values of the customer."
(Lapland Centre of Expertise for the Experience Industry (LCEEI), Finland, 2005)

The decision for this definition was based on the fact that the main focus should be on the customer and the experience needs to be made together with the supplier and the client, co-creation, the main intention of the InterContinental Hotel Group. The customer should be able to create his/her own experience with help of different tools provided by the Hotel Group. This is very progressive and it has been tested if the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta in specific, can live up to this definition. Besides that, the guests that are coming to the hotel should be able to identify themselves with this definition.

Research
This will be the fourth year that students from the Innovative Hospitality Management Master study are challenged to write a research report of a current issue in a "real company". The issue can be handed in by the company or it can be something the student discovers himself. After a couple of weeks work in the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta, the interest to this certain topic had been accomplished by Dirje van Laar, who intercepted different guest sounds in the corridors. The interest for the guest demand compared with the newly introduced Insider Experiences was turned into a research project with the following main research question; In which ways are the InterContinental experiences like the Insider Packages and the upcoming Insider Concierge from the InterContinental Hotel Group in line with the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta Resorts guest demand? This question should find out if there will be a high demand for experiences (internal and external) in this specific hotel or do guests like the hotel in the way it is now. Will the new implementations attract more guests, will other factors influence this or will everything stay the same (occupancy, revenue, sales etc.)? This research will give an answer to the question if new trends or implementations by the InterContinental Hotel Group suit to "all" type of hotels in the chain and if it is the right type of implementation. Are hotel guests (or maybe the hotel industry itself) already ready for this new change and do they even want or can hotels even adapt to this change in the economy? What are the main preferences and demands of the guests when staying at a hotel?
People change and products need adaptation to exceed the expectations of the guests. Guests in different countries and different hotels are different and in how far do the general implications of the experience economy, like adding an extra value to the product for the consumer,  and guests expecting experiences, also account for this specific hotel.

Methods used
To make sure a valid and representative research had been done, different research methods have been used; a survey,  in-depth interviews with people out of the hospitality industry and people working with InterContinental, a blog and the available literature about the subject. The surveys were held on a large sample size (n=225) with the same questions for everyone. It was sent out through the internet (www.surveymonkey.com) with e-mails to the former guests of the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta hotel and some surveys were given out at the pool area. To make sure the survey will give a reliable and representative result, the response on a population of 225 people, needed to be between the 124 - 169 surveys big (www.wisfaq.nl), eventually this turned out into 42 surveys. The data out of the surveys were therefore not suitable to use for the whole population.
With the answers out of the in-depth interviews (6 in total) the demand, trends and developments in Puerto Vallarta and Mexico, different hotel experiences (own experiences and in general), guest demand and information they have and know about the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta could be described. The interviews were done in person or by phone. A semi structured interview made sure that all the interviewees received the same questions. Two different papers with questions have been made, one for InterContinental corporate office and one for companies in Puerto Vallarta, but in general the same questions have been used.
The blog made was there to receive reactions and responses on the research question and subjects involved in the research, linked to the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta Resort. This to visualize what guests see as the most attractive features of a hotel, surroundings, tours and experiences in general. The main question and stories posted on the blog (www.hotel-experience.blogspot.com), were as neutral as possible to make sure people followed their own opinion. The data from the blog were only used to confirm already researched information or to help with recommendations.

Curious?
Trends in the hotel industry and in Vallarta are that people do not want to lay on the beach anymore. They want to experience what their destination has to offer, this can be the service and kindness of the local people, the culture, location, villages nearby or other things. The excursions do not have to be arranged by travel agents, people are getting  more self organised and they are the centre of their vacation, not the providers of the vacation.
The target group where InterContinental would like to focus on is coming to the hotel already. Most of them are American and have seen lots of other hotels already. The target group sees the room and services as their main experience in the Presidente hotel, but also in other hotels. Remarkable to see is that the group between the 20 and 30 years has the thinking patron of the InterContinental concept, while they are not their first target market considering their age. This generation (generation X) is more familiar with experiences and thinks they are very important to complete their holiday and make it a memorable one. The elder people in this hotel are not focussed a lot on different experiences, they want good and personalised service and an in-room experience as their main experience. The location of the hotel is not really a limitation for the elder guests, they like it because of the tranquillity and natural environment.
The main question stated was in which ways the InterContinental experiences like the Insider Packages and the upcoming Insider Concierge from the InterContinental Hotel Group are in line with the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta Resorts guest demand. After this research, it can be said that the demand of the current guests of the Presidente InterContinental is based on a service experience, they want to have a great experience created by the staff members of the hotel. Besides a service experience, the experience has to be in line with the motivation of their holiday, which is relaxation. This does not mean that none of the guests appreciates the insider experiences. The younger target group (20-30 years old) wants to have an experience when they are on holiday and this group will get bigger and bigger.
The concept of the Presidente InterContinental and especially the Insider package and the Insider concierge are the right type of products, generally speaking. Guests are looking for more authentic experiences, they want to be part of the creation of these experiences (co-creation) and arrange a lot of these things themselves. The two products mentioned, both include these elements. Only at this moment the target group from the hotel is not (yet) interested in these products. Products that are in line with relaxation and service have to be developed and used much more extensively. This can be created as well in the form of Insider packages (also authentic) or in for example separate package elements.
Recommended for the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta is to develop an image improvement strategy and a strategy to create more co-creation, to make sure staff and products will be consistent, to make the packages more individualised and more guest centred by separating package elements and let the guest decide which parts they would like to choose, appoint a person; the experience manager, who will be daily available in the hotel and help the guests with specific experiences, to add a multi-sensoral experience and more knowledge and training for staff members about the guests and their culture/behavior.

" I recently did some research on the presence of the experience economy within a hospitality organisation and found that although certain elements were found, the organisation was not explicitly using the concept and taking full advantage" (Blog, May 30tth, 2007).

They are not the only one. A wise lesson for the rest of the hospitality industry.....?

More information (not to be used for publication):

The research has been conducted by Dirje van Laar, Master Student of the Innovative Hospitality Management study in Barcelona, Spain, in co-operation with the Maastricht Hotel Management School.
For more information about the research you can contact her through e-mail; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The goal of the research was to finalise an individual research project as a graduation thesis for the master study, Innovative Hospitality Management in Barcelona, Spain at the Esade -  Sant Ignasi University.
More information about this education and their activities consult;
www.tsi.url.edu/sp2/index.cfm, Daniela Freund, Tel: (0034) 093-6023030  or
www.hotelschoolmaastricht.nl, Albert Schram, Tel: (0031) 043-3528282

For more information about the InterContinental Hotel Group, InterContinental Experiences or the Presidente InterContinental Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, you can consult the website;
www.intercontinental.com