Determinants of Hotel Chains’ Market Presence in a Destination – A Global Study

Abstract

The paper examines the host country-specific factors as determinants of hotel chains’ market presence in a destination. Three types of hotel chains’ market presence are identified – absolute market presence (number of chain affiliated hotels/rooms), relative market presence (share of affiliated hotels/rooms in the total number of hotels/rooms in a destination) and market presence intensity (number of affiliated hotels/rooms per 1000 people). The impact of the following country-specific factors on hotel chains’ market presence is investigated: size of hotel industry, average capacity of hotels, size of tourism sector, importance of tourism for the economy, population size, economy size, wealth of local population, level of globalisation, destination competitiveness, human development, geographic location, least developed country status and OECD membership. The sample includes 116 countries. We find that the factors of country choice that prior literature has identified as important on micro (company) level, are not necessarily valid on macro (industry) level. Results show that on macro level the hotel chains’ market presence is influenced significantly only by few factors – size of hotel industry, average capacity of hotels and geographic location of a country. Managerial implication, limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Keywords: hotel chains, market presence, locational factors, market entry, macroenvironmental factors, country-specific factors