Communication of art in the hospitality industry

: the Tivoli Hotels & Resorts case

Abstract

There appears to be a shared recognition of the strong need to understand cultural consumers better and establish programs more strategically in order to achieve higher success. Communication is possibly one of the most important elements in maintaining a long-term relationship between hotels and guests, this is why hotels must coordinate all communication messages and sources in order to deliver a consistent, unified message through their promotional activities. Art projects in the hospitality sector are increasing, however due to a largely apathetic general public and to the novelty of having art exhibitions on a hotel, these projects are in dire need of a communication strategy. In reaching this purpose, efficient external and internal communication are seen as enablers to gain competitive advantage. Hotel managers and scholars are starting to be interested in understanding how to take advantage of the art present in the hotels and how to communicate it to guests and employees, and that is exactly what this study attempts to answer. This dissertation intends to provide a communication strategy to art projects in the hospitality sector. To achieve a better understanding of the industry, a collaboration was done with Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, a Portuguese hotel chain, which was crucial to assess the several steps needed to create a communication strategy and the specificities and limitations of the sector. Additionally, primary and secondary data were collected such as interviews with other hotels and art organizations, a benchmarking analysis, visits to Tivoli Hotels & Resorts and academic research. Besides the relevance of the project to the launch of this project at Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, this study presents several recommendations adaptable to almost every art hotel. This study came to prove that arts marketing can be adaptable to the hospitality sector and that hotels gain a differentiating factor by promoting their arts projects. This study brought the several steps needed to launch an art project emphasizing the most high-priority and benefic.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rute Xavier (Supervisor)