WIT Press

THE CONSUMPTION AND TRANSFORMATION OF RESORT HOTELS

Price

Free (open access)

Volume

Volume 9 (2014), Issue 2

Pages

18

Page Range

177 - 195

Paper DOI

10.2495/SDP-V9-N2-177-195

Copyright

WIT Press

Author(s)

S. DOGANER

Abstract

Changes in the economic, political, social, cultural, and organizational areas have, apparently, changed and altered the demands of consumers of resort hotels. It clearly can be observed that it is no longer sufficient merely to meet the need for accommodations. Besides that consumers expect more in the way of entertainment, adventure, and boundless facilities, and as a result, resorts aim to make consuming something to enjoy. Resort hotels host an endless variety of functions, set up temporary experiences, and frequently make changes to the types of consumption they offer. To meet consumer and tour operators’ expanding demands, to increase their market share and ensure repeat business, to keep up with recent developments in management, technology, and design, to adhere to international environmental standards, provide new, popular, and different experiences, and ultimately to survive in this environment, resort hotels have to transform. This research discusses the consumption of tourist spaces, and the transformation of resort hotels through new additions and renovations. It analyses changing tendencies and design principles, new functional and spatial necessities, and the ever-evolving design process. In a case study of Antalya/Turkey, this research examines the reasons for and results of these changes, explores the spaces created by these transformations, and develops proposals for building a more conscious approach to the overall design process. In this framework, designers are called to envision this temporariness beforehand and reflect it in their designs, developing flexible designs that more easily comply with the shifting needs of tourist consumers. This need for flexibility and continuous transformation of functional spaces indicates that this new building typology should be redefined. As a result, the architect is challenged to search for design quality, uniqueness, and flexibility, while simultaneously accommodating the constantly changing nature of design input, as well as the functional and spatial requirements of resort hotels.

Keywords

Architecture, consumption, design, renovation, resort hotel, sustainability, transformation