Balanced Scorecard Usage and Performance of Hotels: A Study from the Tourist State of Uttarakhand, India

Tourism is a major driver of economic growth and livelihood promotion in the Uttarakhand state of India. The contribution of tourism to the state gross domestic product (GDP) and employment generation is significant. The expansion of tourism inevitably brings about the development of the hotel industry. Hotels must create effective competitive strategies for survival and use a performance measurement system that meets the requirements of a changing environment. Several studies have been conducted to study the rich tourist potential of the state. However, no research studies are available regarding performance measurement practices adopted by hospitality managers in Uttarakhand for measuring the performance of their establishments. The present study examines existing performance measurement practices used by hotel managers that employ the balanced scorecard (BSC) − an innovative and comprehensive performance measurement framework for assessing the performance and progress of hotels in this mountainous state of India. The results indicate that in spite of using measures from different perspectives inherent to the original BSC, hospitality managers are not aware of the concept of BSC in a formal manner. The study reveals that hotels in Uttarakhand still focus on the use of financial measures as compared to non-financial measures for measuring performance. The study supports the link between hotel performance and BSC measures usage.

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