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1 – 10 of over 12000Online marketing become a trend in recent years focussed on online social networks, such social networks have rapidly grown in popularity; providing platforms to the marketing of…
Abstract
Online marketing become a trend in recent years focussed on online social networks, such social networks have rapidly grown in popularity; providing platforms to the marketing of products and services for the hospitality industry. Online marketing offers media technologies that can facilitate online functionality and monitoring perspectives wherein the data gathered can be used to develop their services for customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to study the impact of online marketing in travel agency. The data collected using google online survey and analysed using SPSS. The findings stressed that online marketing in travel agency has a positive relationship in increasing the sale of packages in travel agency. Travel agencies who use online marketing more frequently receive more correspondence. Therefore, travel agencies should use online marketing to generate more income. The value of time has also changed, making communication a process that has to be instant and simplified. Hence, travel agencies have to use online marketing and taking into account travellers feedbacks and complaints as well as delivering information about products and services in real time. Travel agencies have no chance to face their competitors if they don’t adopt online marketing strategies.
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Rob Law, Rosanna Leung, Ada Lo, Daniel Leung and Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong
The purpose of this paper is to reexamine several issues about disintermediation from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers (hotels) and traditional intermediaries…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reexamine several issues about disintermediation from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers (hotels) and traditional intermediaries (travel agencies), considering the move of the current distribution landscape toward disintermediation. Internet and mobile technologies offer various tools for consumers to search and purchase products/services from suppliers directly. Consequently, the necessity and role of traditional intermediaries in the industry become questionable.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, six focus group interviews were conducted to collect primary data from ten managers of three traditional travel agencies and 11 managers from three business hotels in Hong Kong, which is a major travel destination in Asia with many world-class hotels and tourism facilities.
Findings
Despite their different business backgrounds, the interviewees agreed on the increasing importance of Internet technology in the distribution of tourism products. The interviewees also posited that traditional travel agencies are still needed to serve certain customer groups, albeit their role may have little importance.
Practical implications
Practitioners should adapt to technologically induced changes to remain competitive in the e-business era.
Originality/value
This paper provides several original contributions. First, this paper supplements the extant literature by revealing how modern practitioners perceive disintermediation in the tourism and hospitality industry. Second, this paper is the first to investigate the disintermediation issue from the perspectives of tourism product/service suppliers and intermediaries. Finally, this paper provides a reference for industry practitioners to establish adequate strategies that take advantage of Internet technology.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the unexplored part of the historical evolution of travel agencies in Spain, from the end of the 20th century to the 21st century. When examining promotion strategies, the study focuses on the change in marketing and public relations strategies based on the incorporation of information and communication technologies and, in particular, the use of the internet.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on a qualitative analysis of the different strategies used by traditional agencies and online agencies in Spain from the mid-19th century to the present. This analysis shows how traditional communication strategies survived at the beginning of the 21st century, together with other more innovative ones, while some disappeared, being eliminated by the new online travel agencies, which created a particular conception of marketing and communication. This paper is divided into the following parts: the introduction; the beginnings of travel agency promotion in the 20th century; the evolution of promotion in travel agencies since the late 20th century; communication innovation at the beginning of the 21st century; online travel agencies; and conclusions.
Findings
This study shows that although online agencies did not manage to position themselves with a large turnover, they generated advantages and sharpened their imagination to create a new, more economical advertising model, eliminating the costs of public relations and advertising campaigns. In addition, they allowed clients to have greater independence when making their reservations, while enabling them to monitor the tastes of potential and real clients and add blogs so that consumers could express their degree of satisfaction with the product or services provided by the agency.
Originality/value
The focus of attention is the travel agency sector in Spain and, more specifically, communication. Studies on travel agencies and their marketing have been very scarce and partial, impeding professionals in the tourism sector from having a broad vision to direct their promotional and public relations actions. The originality of this article lies in its making a comparison between two different visions of tourism marketing and, specifically, of travel agencies, that is, the traditional vision and the innovative one. It thus helps all professionals in the sector to value and improve their marketing and communication strategies.
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Michael Doane, Kenneth Hendricks and R.Preston McAfee
The Internet has enabled consumers to act as their own travel agents and to verify independently the accuracy of the information provided by airlines through the CRSs and travel…
Abstract
The Internet has enabled consumers to act as their own travel agents and to verify independently the accuracy of the information provided by airlines through the CRSs and travel agents. As a result, the relationships between consumers and the suppliers of air-travel information have been radically altered, and we document these changes. We identify the relevant market for air-travel information, which includes CRSs, online travel agencies, and the websites and call centers of individual carriers. We determine market concentration and market shares using the Herfindhal-Hirschman Index. Based on our analysis, we argue that there is no longer any need to regulate independent CRSs. However, airlines that own CRSs continue to have an incentive to withdraw their flight and fare information from rival CRSs and, to prevent this from happening, the mandatory participation rule adopted in 1992 should be maintained.
Md Shamim Hossain and Mst Farjana Rahman
The main goal of this study is to employ unsupervised (lexicon-based) learning approaches to identify readers' emotional dimensions and thumbs-up empathy reactions to reviews of…
Abstract
Purpose
The main goal of this study is to employ unsupervised (lexicon-based) learning approaches to identify readers' emotional dimensions and thumbs-up empathy reactions to reviews of online travel agency apps based on appraisal and stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theories.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Google Play Scraper, we gathered a total of 402,431 reviews from the Google Play Store for two travel agency apps, Tripadvisor and Booking.com. Following the filtering and cleaning of user reviews, we used lexicon-based unsupervised machine learning algorithms to investigate the associations between various emotional dimensions of reviews and review readers' thumbs-up reactions.
Findings
The study's findings reveal that the sentiment of different sorts of reviews has a substantial influence on review readers' emotional experiences, causing them to give the app a thumbs up review. Furthermore, readers' thumbs-up responses to the text reviews differed depending on the eight emotional aspects of the reviews.
Practical implications
The results of this research can be applied in the development of online travel agency apps. The findings suggest that app developers can enhance users' emotional experiences by considering the sentiment and emotional aspects of reviews in their design and implementation. Additionally, the results can be used by travel agencies to improve their online reputation and attract more customers by providing a positive user experience.
Social implications
The findings of this research have the potential to have a significant impact on society by providing insights into the emotional experiences of users when they engage with online travel agency apps. The study highlights the importance of considering the emotional aspect of user reviews, which can help app developers to create more user-friendly and empathetic products.
Originality/value
The current study is the first to evaluate the impact of users' thumbs-up empathetic reactions on user evaluations of online travel agency applications using unsupervised (lexicon-based) learning methodologies.
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Rob Law, Kenith Leung and RJames Wong
This paper examines tourist perceptions of the potential for the elimination of travel agencies in the presence of the Internet. The opinions of 413 tourists on making…
Abstract
This paper examines tourist perceptions of the potential for the elimination of travel agencies in the presence of the Internet. The opinions of 413 tourists on making transactions through both Internet‐based (hereafter, online) and traditional distribution channels were analysed. Experimental results illustrated that tourists still used professional services and advice offered by travel agencies. Tourists also agreed that more information could be found through the Internet. Following the findings, the paper suggests that both online and traditional distributional channels can coexist in the future.
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The purpose of the paper is to show that research on the internet's impact on B2B inter‐firm relations is limited, while findings are anecdotal and sometimes contradictory. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to show that research on the internet's impact on B2B inter‐firm relations is limited, while findings are anecdotal and sometimes contradictory. This study investigates inter‐firm relations amongst Business Travel Management (BTM) firms and their clients by examining the impact of online BTM solutions on the creation and reinforcement of relational bonds.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper shows that two major approaches were combined for examining inter‐firm relations: economic (transaction costs economics) and socio‐psychological (social exchange; inter‐organisation; and industrial network) theories. A model illustrating the interrelations amongst the use of online BTM solutions, two structural (communication, dependence) and two social bonds (trust, satisfaction) was proposed for investigating the impact of online BTM solutions on BTM‐clients relations. Data were gathered from a convenience sample of BTM managers in the UK, Greece, and Cyprus and 194 usable responses were analysed using structural equation modelling.
Findings
The paper finds that the impact of online BTM solutions on trust, satisfaction and dependence was not confirmed. However, the hypotheses reflecting the interactions between structural and social bonds were supported, which confirmed the mediating impact of internet‐enabled communication on fostering inter‐firm relations.
Research limitations/implications
In this paper the sample is convenient, while data are gathered only from the buyer‐traveller perspective. Larger scale, cross‐industry studies that also combine buyers' and sellers' perspectives are required.
Practical implications
The paper shows that the internet's ability to foster relational bonds was found to be dependent on its exploitation for enhancing inter‐firm communications. When using the internet for enhancing clients' relations and satisfaction, firms should exploit the internet's communication tools and identify clients' information needs for customising the communications' content.
Originality/value
The paper sees that the internet's impact on forming relational bonds and building B2B relations in the BTM context has not been previously researched.
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Ling Fang, Zhen Lu and Linyin Dong
Corporate travel represents a significant source of revenue for the tourism industry. Therefore, the quality of service is essential for maintaining and expanding corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate travel represents a significant source of revenue for the tourism industry. Therefore, the quality of service is essential for maintaining and expanding corporate cliental bases. Despite the importance, the extant literature has yet sufficiently examined corporate travel service quality (SQ) and its impact. To make up for the drawback, this study aims to differentiate the impact of SQ perceptions on customer satisfaction between the online and off-line contexts through an empirical investigation in one of the top five corporate travel agencies in North America.
Design/methodology/approach
The well-established SERVQUAL measurement is applied in differentiating the impact of SQ dimensions between the online and off-line context. To empirically test the proposed corporate travel agency (CTA) SQ conceptual model, a set of survey data of “Welcome Back Survey” from HRG (a top five CTA in North America) was examined.
Findings
The study finds that for online services, assurance, responsiveness and empathy affect perceived SQ, whereas for off-line services, assurance, empathy and tangible are the three dimensions of perceived SQ.
Research limitations/implications
By relying on the existing survey, the off-line context has one less dimension than the online context. Yet as an early effort in differentiating the differences in the impact of SQ between two service contexts, the study offers insightful findings.
Practical implications
The findings will be helpful for business managers of CTAs to identify the factors that influence SQ in both online booking and off-line booking context. In particular, assurance and empathy are two dimensions that exert a significant impact on customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to compare the differences of the SQ of online and off-line corporate travel.
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James Malitoni Chilembwe and Victor Ronald Mweiwa
Several tourism destinations are using social media (SM) marketing more than traditional marketing in the developed countries. The increasing use of technology has replaced the…
Abstract
Several tourism destinations are using social media (SM) marketing more than traditional marketing in the developed countries. The increasing use of technology has replaced the role of travel intermediary. Most of the travellers in developed countries are no longer using travel agencies for their services. Many bookings are done online using electronic devices either at office or home. It is, therefore, a fact that SM has come to stay. However, the situation is contrary to some developing countries due to several reasons; for example, unreliable source of energy, communication, poor infrastructure and lack of competition. Most of developing countries depend on tourists from developed nations to consume their tourism destination products. Moreover, the modern travellers are no longer travelling in the dark. They want to have prior knowledge about their destinations. They check online product offerings, certification and destination labels. A modern tourist is becoming a more responsible traveller. SM plays a big role by providing information about many tourism destinations. Nevertheless, there are ongoing debates regarding the usefulness, future and survival of traditional travel agents despite the fact that there are threats from online travel agents and the increasing use of SM. This chapter is a case study of Malawi as a tourist destination. It critically discusses and analyses the impact of SM as a marketing tool. It also analyses the benefits and challenges of the travel agents, and finally confirms that there is a need to embrace technological change in travel and tourism industry in the developing nations.
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Zuzana Kvítková and Zdenka Petrů
Online reputation management (ORM) plays a significant role in the tourism industry. Tourists are more and more interested to express their opinions about their…
Abstract
Online reputation management (ORM) plays a significant role in the tourism industry. Tourists are more and more interested to express their opinions about their experiences/satisfaction not only with their friends but also on social media. ORM is largely used not only by tourist destinations but also by other companies operating in the tourism industry. This chapter aims to draw attention to the importance of intermediaries in tourism, their reputation in general, and especially their ORM and its specifics. This contribution also characterizes different types of intermediaries and their different roles in the distribution process of tourism services. These roles are important and can be even more significant in the “new normal” post-COVID-19 time. In the scientific literature and research, there is not much attention given to intermediaries as a whole and even less to their ORM and its specific solutions. But practical contributions can be found. Due to the specific activities and roles of different types of intermediaries, also their reputation is influenced not only by tourists but also by their suppliers. Their ORM has also some specifics and needs specific solutions. Their reputation is depending not only on customers' satisfaction with their own services but also on the reputation of tourism service providers, whose services they offer and mediate either individually or in the form of their own product, e.g., package tours. Specific attention in this chapter is given to intermediaries such as OTAs (Online Travel Agencies/Agents) and tour operators. At some time, these two types of intermediaries help to increase the reputation of tourism services providers, e.g., hotels. The chapter describes the situation in the field of intermediaries with a conceptual model, their ORM, and summarizes its specifics.
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