THE DETERMINANTS OF COMPETITION IN HOSTEL MANAGEMENT: ANALYSIS OF OPERATORS’ AND TOURISTS’ OPINIONS

HOSTEL İŞLETMECİLİĞİNDE REKABET BELİRLEYİCİLERİ: İŞLETMECİ VE TURİST GÖRÜŞLERİNİN ANALİZİ

Abstract

EXTENDED ABSTRACTYoung travelers are becoming an increasingly important market for the tourism sector. According to the World Tourism Organization, in 2015, %23 of total international travel movement had occurred with the participation of young people between the ages of 15-29. The number of young tourists, estimated to be 196 million worldwide in 2010, reached to 304 million in 2017. Youth tourism has led to USD movement, and its economic return was about 286 billion dollars in 2014. Youth tourism is an important tourism type for almost all destinations and it provides many benefits such as taking more time to travel than other tourist categories, spreading this form of tourism throughout the year, being able to travel in times of crisis due to their flexible budgets, having low cost of infrastructure investments required for youth tourism, and being able to use the existing infrastructure more efficiently. Youth tourism is a market where cheap, dynamic, Internet-based solutions are an important tool of interaction between the producer and the consumer. There are different programs which attract young people to travel. Au-pair, training programs, volunteer programs, work and travel programs, cultural exchange, sports tourism and adventure tourism programs are among these. A significant number of young travelers prefer hostels as a type of accommodation in the countries they travel in. Youth hostels used to be associated with concepts like cheap and basic accommodation. However, the expansion of hosteling into new areas of the world and the growing demand for cheap accommodation options have changed the traditional face of hosteling. The increase in options (such as private rooms and bathrooms etc.) indicates that the service standards are improving in the hostels. In recent years, there has been a growth both in accommodation opportunities and service quality of these accommodations for young travelers in many cities all over the world. This trend is particularly marked in the center of major cities, where new youth accommodation chains, boutique hostels and student residences are springing up. Cities such as London, Berlin and Barcelona now have a wide range of youth travel accommodation options, many of which are being supplied by large companies like Generator and A&O. These new spaces are increasingly being used as meeting places by young people in the cities, not just by their clients, but also by other tourists and locals. For example, now there is a high degree of crossover between Couchsurfing and hostels, including some hostels acting like social spaces where Couchsurfing clients staying in different areas of the city can congregate.Hostels generally compete with budget hotels, apartments, Airbnb and all other accommodation options in major cities. So they base on their unique selling proposition on the fact declaring that they are offering a social experience as well as cheap accommodation. The realization that hosteling is about more than the simple provision of a cheap bed has begun to transform the hostel ‘industry’. From being a disparate collection of small-scale accommodation units largely located in rural areas and the suburbs, hostels have begun to invade the center of major cities. It is already obvious that large chains determining the market have emerged.Hostels are the most important accommodation alternatives in the scope of youth tourism. In spite of this importance, when the literature is examined, studies on hostels seem to be very limited. Current studies cover the subject within the scope of tourism product diversification. It is understood that the subject is approached conceptually and practical studies are even more limited. It shows that all the efforts to perceive the functioning and competitiveness dynamics of hostels as a sphere of business, and more generally, the quest for developing approaches to encourage youth tourism and facilitate the use of this type of tourism are not sufficiently developed.In this study, it is aimed to deal with hostel enterprises and to determine the business environment. The study gives an idea of the factors that attract young people to the hostel, and therefore factors that bring the hostel into the competitive market as an alternative product. These include the price advantage of hostels, the location (especially close to the city's main routes and the main tourist attractions), the possibility of young groups to stay together and in the friendly atmosphere. However, it is useful to examine the factors which highlight the hostel in terms of competitiveness in a particular area and to reflect the views of hostel operators. In this study, it is aimed to understand the critical factors that lead the competition in this sphere by discussing/interviewing with the hostel operators in light of the stated aim. In this context 9 of the 80 hostels located in Istanbul were randomly selected and interviewed with hostel operators. In the second stage, a survey was conducted with 400 young tourists on the internet in order to determine the importance of the elements that play a key role in hostel preferences.According to the findings obtained through the interview, it is observed that the executives in hostel enterprises in Istanbul do not attach any importance to the competition and they only reflect a clear awareness of certain issues. They perceive other hostel operations settled in their regions as a competitive environment. On the other hand, in response to competition, they state that they try to keep price and quality control in balance. It seems that there are perceptual and possibly financial problems in the face of attempts to develop markets, to create differences in products. It is understood that this market, controlled by large operators and chain companies in developed countries, is weak/unprepared against stagnant, uncertain and new entrances for Istanbul. Human resource sensitivity, as one of the most critical factors

Özet

Amaç: Dünya genelinde en hızlı büyüyen ve önemli miktarda kişi ve para hareketine yol açan gençlik turizminin en belirgin konaklama seçeneği olarak hostellerin rekabetçiliği, turizmin gelişimi açısından kritik öneme sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, hostel işletmeciliğinde rekabetçiliğin analizi amaçlanmaktadır.Yöntem: Hostel işletmecileri ile yapılan mülakat ve hostel tüketicileri ile yapılan anket çalışmalarıyla elde edilen nitel ve nicel veri analiz edilmektedir.Bulgular: Alanda internet erişimi, fiyat, hijyen, banyo olanakları ve lokasyonun önemli olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. İstanbul’da yerleşik hosteller açısından bir durağan rekabet ortamı algılamasına karşın dünya genelinde hostel işletmeciliği alanında zincir işletmelerin büyüme gösterdikleri ve bu alanda kalite artışına bağlı olarak diğer konaklama alternatifleriyle rekabete hazırlanıldığı anlaşılmaktadır. Sonuç: Hostellerde rekabet, fiyatın en temel çekicilik olduğu yalın bir görünüm arz etmektedir. Ancak, işletme sayılarının özellikle de büyük/zincir işletmelerin kapasite artırmalarının beklenmesi gerektiği tespit edilmektedir. Hem zincir işletmelerin yayılması hem de airbnb ve couchsurfing gibi alternatiflerin ciddi rekabet ortamı hazırlaması beklenebilir. Türkiye’de ise öncelikle hostel özelliklerinin ve kalitesinin artırılması gerektiği anlaşılmaktadır.