STRATEGY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF LAS VEGAS HOTELS : FOCUS ON LESSONS FOR THE KOREA HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Strategy refers to the ideas, plans and support that firms employ to compete successfully against their rivals. In the hospitality industry many strategic method has been developed to help firms achieve competitive advantage.
Especially, Las Vegas hotel firm’s competence or skill is so distinctive that others could not be able to copy it. Capabilities and skills that are valuable in hotel business include such activities as customized service, innovative hotel facilities, proprietary technology, superior quality, faster response to customer needs, and employee care programs.
Thus, Las Vegas hotel firms may have several areas of activity or skill that lead to competitive advantage during many decades.
This article demonstrates history and development of hotel industry in Las Vegas and thus provides lessons to Korea hospitality industry.
The following are the strategies & competitiveness used by hotels in Las Vegas:
? Strategic cooperation and M&A
? Development of strategic events
? Strategic Customer Management
? Strategic Employee Management
? Constant value creation through competition
Hotels in Las Vegas, currently operating 140,000 guest rooms, constantly sought to build its strength to compete against the newly established hotels. After the mid 1990s, the opinion of Vegas hotels being over-supply has constantly been brought up, but the total revenue of Vegas casino in 2005 increased 13% from that of previous year. This implies that Las Vegas hotel persistently seek to improve and enhance its quality by offering moderate price, facilities, and services in order to satisfy its customer to a greater extent. High-tech management strategies and proper use of skills made Vegas hotels the most powerful in the hotel corporation field. Therefore, for the better management and prosperity of Korean hotel corporations, less involvement of government is needed, and advanced corporation-centered management is strongly needed at this point.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• INTRODUCTION
• ROUTES TO BUILDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
• CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
• REFERENCES