An analysis of the competitive strategies of hotels and travel agents in Hong Kong and Singapore

Hotels and travel agents struggle constantly to innovate and conceive new business strategies to meet the ever‐changing travel needs and diversity of demands from the increasingly discerning traveler. Hong Kong and Singapore, as the leading tourist destinations, compete fiercely to serve as the tourism hub of the region. The aim of this study is to investigate the competitive business strategies used by hotels and travel agents in Hong Kong and Singapore and examine similarities and differences in these strategies across the two city‐states. The findings indicate that cost competitiveness, mobilizing people and partners, and building a robust service delivery system are the top three competitive strategies which senior managers employ, while leveraging information technology and product differentiation are areas in which they showed the least confidence. The interrelatedness of competitive strategies is exemplified by the fact that a good service delivery system which can realize services consistently can only be achieved when service standards are clearly defined and measurable.