Thesis (Master in Management) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, April 2018

Business in the tourism industry is fun., rewarding and highly competitive; and thus, demands a balance of traditional and innovative approaches to ensure sustainability of business. Home grown tourism, facility such as Forest Hill Resort in Davao City has been operational for more than a decade. However, it seemed to have lost its competitive advantage as new and aggressive entrants cannibalize its market share in the resort industry. This paper then provides a comprehensive case study of Forest Hill?s competitive situation by utilizing a multi-method approach of analysis. With only average 1.3% annual income growth for the last six years, this research is aimed at understanding and addressing underlying issues that inhibit Forest Hill from becoming a fully profitable and sustainable business. Social, Technological, Economic, Environment and Political (STEEP) Porter?s Five Forces, Concentric Circle of Competitor's Profile Matrix (CPM), External Factor Evaluation (EFE), and Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) were among the tools used to evaluate and analyze the immediate environment of Forest Hill and how it affected its operations. The strategies recommended in this paper were drawn out after identification of Forest Hill's stakeholder's objectives and through SWOT analysis. Forest Hill's performance of 2.27 in the EFE falls below in the acceptable average result of 2.5. its IFE result is also just satisfactory as it reveals the internal position of the company to be neither weak or strong. Hence, a change in management practices is strongly recommended to effect the transformation needed to achieve Forest Hill's objectives. The change in management begins through the implementation of Forest Hill's choice integrated competitiveness strategy: market penetration, product development, and differentiation. The market penetration strategy will address capturing Forest Hill's identified target market of families and millennials under economic segment C. The product development strategy will sustain the penetration strategy and will require Forest Hill to simultaneously modify and diversify its offerings. Doing so will enable the resort to gain a competitive advantage as a result of innovation and value-added services. Lastly, differentiation strategy will keep all the activities ? marketing, sales, promotion, and branding efforts ? aligned and consistent with Forest Hill's brand as the best child-friendly and family-oriented resort in Davao. A systematic action plan is then provided to address the absence of a strategic marketing plan threat will maximize its internal and external opportunities against prevailing threats. This action plan covers all functional department with its corresponding Key Result Areas (KRA) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Constant and regular progress report will be required as a check and balance method to monitor the progress of the implementation of the various strategies proposed in this paper. More importantly, the success of all analytical tools and integration of strategic plans will be measurable through the implementation of the Balanced Scoreboard method. This will foster communication of progress of the implementation through proper channels, from top management to rank and file and vice versa. Upon the successful implementation of the various strategies recommended in this research, Forest Hill will become a game changer in the resort industry and will provide a sustainable business model for potential investments of the same nature.