Aleksa Vučetić*
Received: March 2012 | Accepted: May 2012
Abstract
Human resources in ravel agencies represent an especially valuable resource, which possesses the mul-i-disciplinary and highly specialized knowledge and skills in the ield of selecive tourism. Human resources enable the agencies to creae the services and products of superior value for the consum-ers within market niches, and thereby signiicantly conribue to increase in proiabiliy of agencies, thereby becoming an imporant factor in compeiive advanage of the agencies. Research results ena-ble ideniicaion of the relaion between human resources and servicing of ravel agencies market nich-es. he paper presents an analysis of ravel agencies’ human resources rom the aspect of compei-ive advanage, with a special overview of their role in the domain of ofer development and servicing of consumers in various ypes of selecive tourism. he goal of the research is to prove, on a scienif-ic basis, that the human resources represent a very imporant factor of compeiive advanage of rav-el agencies.
Keywords: Human resources, compeiive advanage, ravel agencies, Monenegro
Introduction
Compeiive advantage is a concept based on economic theories on compeiiveness of organ-izaions, emphasizing their paricular value in resources that they dispose of, as well as the products and services ofered in the market. According to Porter, it represents the possibiliy of the organizaion to create superior values for its service buyers and atain a superior busi-ness result at the same ime (Evans, et. al., 2003; Nobre, et. al., 2012). In order to maintain the compeiive advantage in the market, it is necessary to develop the srategically valuable resources of the organizaions and its related core competencies. In addiion, all the organi-zaions aspire to atain a sustainable compeiive advantage, in order to be able to provide in a longer term, the above-average proitabiliy of business operaion.
Creaion of a relaionship with proitable consumers involves growth of the compeiive advantage in the sense of delivering services and goods of higher value to the consumers and beter saisfying the needs of targeted consumers in comparison with services and products
Human Resources as a Competitive Advantage
of other compeitors (Hong, 2010; Kotler, Armsrong, 2012). In order to ascertain the main compeiive advantages of an organizaion, it is necessary to perform the compeiive anal-ysis of the organizaion. hat is the process in which it is necessary to idenify, assess and select the key compeiive advantages in an organizaion.
here are three basic ypes of compeiive advantage. hese are costs, difereniated prod-ucts and services and niche srategies (Ferrell, Hartline, 2011; Lamb, et. al., 2011). Cost compeiive advantage means being a compeitor with the lowest costs and a good consumer service. Difereniated products and services provided by an organizaion mean their unique properies which are of value for buyers, such as low price, unique product/service and addi-ional services. Niche srategies are the srategies directed towards servicing of speciic mar-ket segments with speciic needs and wishes, which are usually small in geographical terms and which are not interesing for the main compeitors in the indusry.
Sustainable compeiive advantage depends on three factors: obsoleteness of the core competencies, possibiliy of subsituing the core competencies and possibiliy of imitaing the core competences. It can be stated that core competencies in combinaion with the prod-uct/service-market posiions, are the main sources of compeiive advantages of an organiza-ion (Enz, 2010; Hit, et. al., 2011; Okumus, et. al., 2010; Wolfe, et. al., 2006). If knowledge and skills acquired by employees in an organizaion are obsolete, this will negaively afect the compeiive advantage of the organizaion. On the other hand, if the possibiliy of ind-ing a subsitute for a product or service of an organizaion or the possibiliy of imitaion of its products and services is bigger, the weaker is its compeiive advantage.
At the corporaive srategy level, the sources of compeiive advantage are: superior cor-porate inancial or human resources, research & development, and beter organizaional processes. At the level of business srategy, the sources of compeiive advantage are the compeiive srategy and business unit`s competences, while at the level of markeing srate-gy, these are the efecive product posiioning and superioriy in components of the market-ing mix (Hollensen, 2010). Takmarket-ing into account the abovemenioned, it is very important to manage the employees, their knowledge and competencies in a manner which provides that the organizaion builds a long-term compeiive advantage (Pablos, Lyras, 2008). It should be also taken into account that the employees, as well as the capital is visible resources of an organizaion (Collins, 2007). hat refers also to the ravel agencies, as main intermediaries in the global tourism market.
Methodology approach
Basic characteristics of travel agencies
From the opening of the irst ravel agency homas Cook 1841 (Syrat, Archer, 2003) unil today, the ravel agencies have represented a very powerful factor of disribuion of tour-ism product and services in tourtour-ism in the world, especially the on-line ravel agencies, with developed e-Commerce and e-Markeing business aciviies (Gretzel, et. al., 2010). hrough their dynamic packaging tools, they enable the prospecive consumers to interacively create their own ravel packages. In 2007, there were 5,426 ravel agencies registered in Turkey, 3,252 ravel agencies registered in Germany and 2,300 ravel agencies registered in Ausria (Holloway, et. al., 2009).
Travel agencies are not numerous in Montenegro as in the developed tourism desinaions (there are only 54), but they represent a very important factor in tourism development. his is a relaively young tourism desinaion, in ransiion, and the desinaion where organized tourism ravels prevailed in comparison to individual tourism ravels. In such circumstanc-es, ravel agencies which are mostly in-coming, represent a very important factor of tourism sector development.
here are up to 9 workers in 80% of agencies (rom which in 60% there are up to 4 work-ers), while there are 10 to 21 workers in 20% of agencies. hese are the small agencies where sress is on team work, with daily ransfer of knowledge and skills, i.e. competencies. At the same ime, this leads to creaion of compeiive advantage, because everyone is able to subsi-tute a co-worker in working operaions. From total number of permanently employed work-ers in ravel agencies, 53.7% are women and 46.3% are men, so we can speak of equaliy in terms of gender equaliy. his can be considered a major value of human resources in rav-el agencies in Montenegro.
Table 1. Basic characteristics of travel agencies in Montenegro
Characteristics Share (%)
Northern region 10
Central region 20
Southern region 70
Micro travel agencies 86.7
Small travel agencies 13.3
Employees up to 29 years 23.3
Employees from 30 to 39 years 26.6
Employees from 40 to 49 years 26.6
Employees from 50 to 59 years 16.6
Employees from 60 years and above 6.9
Full-time workers 62.4
Seasonal workers 37.6
Workforce competencies and costs
All competencies of employees can be divided into: behavioral, organizaional and techni-cal competencies. Within these three groups, we can divide all the competencies into gener-ic competencies (Wheten, Cameron, 2011) and specigener-ic competencies (specigener-ic skills and knowledge in ravel agencies). hey represent the staring point of compeiive advantage of human resources. hese are various capabiliies related to performance of various busi-ness aciviies, but primarily, let us see which are the professions and levels of educaion of employees in the ravel agencies in Montenegro.
Travel agencies employ workers with a wide range of social sciences related professions, which guarantees creaion of services and products which will meet in a qualiy manner the needs of their consumers. Various professions enable a muli-disciplinary approach to cre-aing services and products of the agency, as well as the related muli-disciplinary compe-tencies. Directors of agencies specialize themselves addiionally, so ater inishing the regu-lar educaion they completed: 64.3% foreign language courses, 53.6% the computer courses, 46.4% the tour guide courses, 39.3% courses in the ield of tour program creaion, 32.1% the Amadeus courses, 32.1% the agency management courses, 25% courses for the work with Air Transport Associaion sotware, 21.4% markeing courses and 10.7% courses in the ields of selecive tourism, animaion and business ethics. hese are dominantly the speciic com-petencies, i.e. knowledge and skills which are necessary for work in ravel agencies.
Women prevail in almost all working posiions (in managerial posiions, their share is 61.5%), except the jobs related to more srenuous physical work (whole day work or work including carrying of visitors’ luggage), and these are the jobs of ransfer managers and driv-ers. In the classiicaions, there are no job posiions such as tour leader, chief of ickeing, or icket seller. Due to the fact that we consider primarily the micro ravel agencies, and the fact that modern informaion technology must be used, as well as the fact that the employ-ees in micro agencies are more supporive to each other, one job posiion covers several job Table 2. Structure of employees regarding profession and sex (%)
Profession Female Male
Graduate tourism manager 61.5 38.5
Graduate in economics 70.8 29.2
Graduate in law 0.0 100.0
Graduate in philology 71.4 28.6
Graduate in philosophy 100.0 0.0
Graduate maritime manager 66.7 33.3
Hospitality technician 50.0 50.0
Administrative technician 57.1 42.9
Marketing technician 0.0 100.0
Tourism technician 85.7 14.3
Archaeology technician 0.0 100.0
Mechanical engineering technician 75.0 25.0
Arts technician 0.0 100.0
Other professions 50.0 50.0
posiions which used to exist 20 and more years ago. Special value of simpler organizaional sructure is that all the employees have to know how to perform all jobs, so that ransfer of generic and speciic competencies among the employees takes place on daily basis.
Travel agencies do not have in their organizaional scheme a job posiion for the informa-ion technology manager, although they operate in the era of on-line revoluinforma-ion and direct markeing and sales. From total number of agencies: 93.3% have their own web site, 86.7% promote themselves and sell services through other web sites, and 60% promote themselves through social networks (raing average: Facebook – 7.78, Twiter – 6.86, LinkedIn – 6.57, MyFrenz – 4.0, NetLog – 4.0, MySpace – 3.5 and Orkut – 2.5). Job posiion of the infor-maion technology manager does not exist as a full-ime posiion, because they are employed as part-ime employees in the micro agencies.
If processes related to the Bologna Declaraion generated any beneits in the short term, then these are the ravel agencies. Employees in ravel agencies have educaion above average in the tourism sector as labor-intensive aciviy. Women have beter level of educaion than men. Current level of educaion of employees in the agencies is beter than envisaged by the human resource development srategy, which forecasts that in 2016 ravel agencies will employ: 11.7% personnel with specialist degree, 31.4% with bachelor diploma, 6.7% with college diploma, 37.7% with secondary school and 12.5% with primary school (GTZ, MORT, 2007). Level of educaion in ravel agencies in Montenegro is unequivocally beter in comparison to level of educaion in hotel and restaurant indusry. In that context, the qualiicaion sructure of employees in ravel agencies represents an important segment of their compeiive advantage. Table 3. Structure of employees regarding work position (%)
Work position Female Male
Director of agency 50.0 50.0
Sales manager 72.2 27.8
Program manager 57.1 42.9
Tour manager 50.0 50.0
Transfer manager 25.0 75.0
Representative of agency 57.1 42.9
Tour guide 62.5 37.5
Jurist 100.0 0.0
Accountant 75.0 25.0
Translator -
-Driver 14.3 85.7
Source: Author
Table 4. Structure of employees regarding level of education (%)
Characteristics Master degree
Specialist degree
Bachelor diploma
College diploma
Secondary School
Female 3.3 35.0 18.3 15.0 28.4
Male 0.0 32.5 12.5 10.0 45.0
men have beter competencies, 16.7% that women have beter competencies because there are no men in the agency and 3.3% that men have beter competencies because there are no women in the agency. Responding as to whether they are saisied by human resources, the agency directors stated in 63.3% cases that they are saisied, in 33.3% cases that they are very saisied and in 3.3% cases that they are dissaisied. It is very important that the agen-cy directors are ready to send the employees for addiional educaion and rainings (86.7%), so that they would improve their competencies in the ields of: managing service ofer of the agency, managing the promoional mix, managing the disribuive mix of the agency, man-aging prices of the producive mix of the agency, consumer management, agency personnel management, stakeholders management and other domains of agency business operaion. In 63.3% agencies, employees are coninuously sent for addiional educaion and raining. Quantum and qualiy of generic and speciic competencies of human resources enables the agencies to create services and products of superior value for the consumers, which is an important segment of their compeiive advantage. Prevailing model of inancing of employ-ees in agencies, when it comes to addiional educaion is: 100% paricipaion of the agen-cy (in 46.7% cases). his is an indicator that agenagen-cy human resources are approached rom the aspect of their compeiive advantage. At the same ime, this is an indicator that luctu-aion of human resources in ravel agencies is very small and that agency directors are mak-ing eforts to retain the personnel.
Prevailing gross salary of employees in ravel agencies in Montenegro is up to 500 € (in 40% agencies). Average gross salary above 800 € is paid in only 20% agencies. hese are low gross salaries in comparison to the region, so we can speak of price compeiiveness of human resources in ravel agencies, rom the aspect of producion costs. Low costs of work-force, as the main cost in business operaion of ravel agencies, directly inluence the low prices of services and products of the agencies, i.e. inluence the increase in compeiiveness of the ravel agencies in the global tourism market.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
% 40.0%
20.0%
16.7%
3.3%
20.0%
Up to 500€ 501-600€ 601-700€ 701-800€ 800€ and above
Relaively low costs of salaries create another problem, and that is how to retain the quali-y human resources. herefore, agencquali-y directors make eforts to retain bquali-y various non-mate-rial (giving days of – 70%, advancement in the agency – 63.3%, lexible working hours – 63.3%, or assigning interesing work tasks – 50%) and material (salary bonuses – 70%, exra payments for well-done job – 60% and payment of ravel costs for ransportaion to and rom the agency – 43.3%) moivaion techniques, the employees in their ravel agencies.
Creating of differentiated services and products and servicing of market niches
Servicing of market niches is an aciviy which brings compeiive advantage to ravel agen-cies, and thereby safe proit and avoidance of major compeitors in the ravel and tourism indusry. Market niches are related to special interest of visitors and niche tourism, i.e. ser-vicing of the high-spending tourists. Niche tourism represents diversiy and a way for mak-ing diferent services and product (Novelli, 2005). Many relate niche tourism to „alterna-ive tourism“ or „special interest tourism“, while the term “selec„alterna-ive tourism” is used in the former Yugoslavia counries, entailing various forms of tourism such as adventure tourism, ecotourism, nauical tourism, and sport tourism (Vuceic, 2009).
Montenegro is a desinaion characterized for diversiy of natural resources, including the geomorphologic, hydrographical, and bio-geographical or climate resources. hese are
Food and wine tourism
Sport tourism
Nautical tourism
Urban tourism
Rural tourism
Fishing tourism
Educational tourism
Agrotourism
Hunting tourism Acventure tourism
Cultural tourism
Religious tourism
Health tourism
Business tourism Ecotourism
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70%
66.7
63.3
60.0
50.0
33.3
30.0
26.7
26.7
20.0
16.7
16.7
10.0
6.7
3.3
the paricularly valuable resources for the ravel agencies. Owing to the series of necessary generic and speciic competencies, human resources are creaing a difereniated set of ser-vices (for instance, rening of equipment for scuba diving within adventure tourism) and products (for instance, round tours in eco-tourism) in the domain of various ypes of selec-ive tourism, and thereby service market niches appropriately.
According to the survey, rom total number of employees, 63.3% possess enirely the essary knowledge and skills in the ield of selecive tourism and 36.7% partly possess the nec-essary knowledge and skills in the ield of selecive tourism. Employees have been acquir-ing the knowledge and skills in the ield of selecive tourism in: 90% cases through workacquir-ing aciviies in the agency, 60% cases through own research, 50% cases through regular edu-caion and 46.7 cases through rainings in the courses. Montenegrin ravel agency directors responded to the quesion whether knowledge in the ield of selecive tourism directly afects increase in agency proitabiliy: 63.3% yes, 26.7% partly and 10% were neural.
Human resources in ravel agencies are the primary factor in servicing of ravel niches in ravel and tourism indusry. hus, they create the relaionships with medium and high yield clientele in tourism and signiicantly inluence proitabiliy of agencies. Servicing of market niches and difereniaion of agency services and products at the same ime reduces the pos-sibiliy of subsituion and imitaing of services and products and conributes to generaion of the above-average proit. he above menioned in this part of paper leads us to the conclusion that human resources are an important compeiive advantage of ravel agencies in Monte-negro. he importance of human resources as a compeiive advantage is corroborated by the fact that only 10% surveyed agency directors do not have a deined human resources srate-gy and that 13.8% were very saisied by its implementaion, 51.7% were saisied and 34.5% agency directors were neural.
Conclusion
Travel agencies human resources in Montenegro represent their greatest compeiive advan-tage, and if not the main one, then one of the key compeiive advantages. Such conclusion is derived rom the above-average qualiy of personnel sructure of employees and diversiy of their professions, which directly leads towards creaion of services and products of superior values to consumers. We observed prevalence of micro ravel agencies in which competenc-es are ransferred among employecompetenc-es on daily basis and in which agency directors are conin-uously raising the level of employees’ competencies. Especially in the ield of abiliy to create new services and products in various forms of selecive tourism, by posiioning themselves well in the market niches of such ypes of selecive tourism. If we add to that the permanent innovaive aciviy of the employees in the domain of service and product difereniaion, and thereby reducion in elasiciy of demand for agency services and products, it is clear that human resources represent a very important factor in creaing of compeiive advantage of ravel agencies in Montenegro.
Montenegro will directly and proporionally depend on costs and speed of creaion of human resources with more generic and speciic competencies, especially when it comes to disinc-ive competencies.
For maintenance of compeiive advantage it is necessary to coninuously: improve the qualiicaion sructure of employees, provide for high qualiy raining, advocate acceping of the lifelong learning concept, engagement in the ield of non-material and material moiva-ion techniques for the employees, simulate innovaiveness of the employees, raise the level of informaion technologies in the ield of promoion and disribuion of agency services and products, and apply the concept “learning by doing“. In order to atain this, it is necessary to include both the business and tourism policy makers in Montenegro.
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