Tourism In 21st Century: Sharks In The Ocean | Shiri Ahuja

This case concentrates on the developments that have been initiated in the business of tourism. These developments are a combined effect of the macroeconomic changes taking place at a global level. As this industry has universally distributed market, the technological developments around the globe impact the business processes more than the local technological environment. Through this case attention is being drawn to the radical changes that are approaching the total tourism business environment. While the most lucrative western markets get techno savvy, the Indian tourism industry needs to gear up to approach them closer with technology. Back home, new competition is threatening those who are slow to change. Whilst earlier, the inter-industry competition came only from the accommodation and travel industry, today the entertainment industry and its business giants seem to be set to eat up the major share of the pie. Though new to the tourism industry, the entertainment and the ICE sectors have the modern technology and required infrastructure to beat the existing players. Oceanica started off as a manufacturer of synthetic textiles. Every phase of its subsequent expansion was based on a strategy of backward integration: from textiles to fibres and yarn, PTA, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and finally crude oil itself. This might be an important reason for the success of the company. Every expansion had to be executed and operated with high efficiency because the profitability of the down streams activity depended on it. The success that the company has had with backward integration in the petrochemical chain would lead one to expect a similar strategy to be executed in other lines of business as well.