Achieving Superior Customer Experience: An Investigation of Multichannel Choices in the Travel and Tourism Industry of an Emerging Market

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 1049-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abeer A. Mahrous ◽  
Salah S. Hassan

The travel and tourism industry is seeking to achieve consistently seamless experience for customers to stay connected with brands. This study offers an analysis of the interconnected customer experience journey based on an understanding of multichannel behavior. In particular, it identifies the psychographic and sociodemographic factors associated with three segments of multichannel consumers: multichannel shoppers, multichannel searchers, and store-prone shoppers of the travel and tourism industry. Data from a sample of 315 customers from the travel and tourism sector in Egypt were collected and analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. The findings indicate that psychographic variables (shopping enjoyment, convenience seeking, customer innovativeness, perceived risk, Internet experience, frequency of travel, and channel experience) and some demographic variables (i.e., age and income) distinguish among the categories of multichannel shoppers, multichannel searchers, and store-prone shoppers. The study concludes with useful insights into the potential for developing multichannel strategy to achieve superior customer experience.

Author(s):  
Bezaleel Joy Murchante Danay ◽  
Zephaniah Dela Cruz Danay ◽  
Cherry Colesio Escarilla ◽  
Jimmy Bernabe Maming

The Covid-19 pandemic brought massive devastations to the different levels of society. The World Travel and Tourism Council had recently warned that Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a cut of 50 million jobs worldwide in the travel and tourism industry. A study conducted by Oxford reveals that Asia will be vilest to be affected by the pandemic and it would take time to recover its economy (Dogra, 2020). This means a wider and greater impacts to the different industries including the tourism sector. The study aims to explore the coping mechanisms of hospitality industry workers in Boracay Island during the Covid-19 pandemic particularly on their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and to determine the coping mechanisms of hospitality workers in Boracay Island being affected by the pandemic. The case study method through a qualitative analysis using Robert Yin's approach in the data analysis procedure to explore the data from the experiences of the key informants from the hospitality industry was used. Themes came out from the construct of the key informants like (1) hospitality industry workers experienced mental health, social, and economic issues, (2) The pandemic opens new opportunities and ways to cope with its effects. The output of this research is the proposed Danay, Danay, Escarilla, and Maming Model for Coping Mechanisms of Hospitality Industry workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Hyasat

The purpose of the study was to identify and rank the most important skills expected by the hospitality and tourism employers from new graduates for working in the hospitality and tourism sector on giving direction to the improvement of hospitality and tourism higher education programs in Jordan.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Hyasat

The purpose of the study was to identify and rank the most important skills expected by the hospitality and tourism employers from new graduates for working in the hospitality and tourism sector on giving direction to the improvement of hospitality and tourism higher education programs in Jordan.


Author(s):  
Liz Sharples

Purpose This study aims to apply the relatively new concept of customer experience management (CXM) to the pre-consumptive stage within a cruise tourist’s journey. Design/methodology/approach The work will apply CXM to the tourism sector and, in particular to the cruise market. Academics have noted how CXM needs to takes a holistic integrated approach and focus on the complete customer experience. The cruise sector has been selected for this research because, it is the fastest growing tourism sector globally and the pre-consumption stage for cruise passengers is longer than for other vacation types. Findings This study has shown how CXM has emerged from the more traditional marketing concept of relationship marketing and has highlighted its relevance within the tourism industry, in particular, the cruise sector. In addition, the work has shown how adapting CXM to the pre-consumptive phase more fully will enhance consumer relationships and improve business performance. Research limitations/implications This work is conceptual. It is proposed that the research propositions should be verified within the pre-consumptive stage of cruise passenger journeys. Another limitation is that the focus has been solely on the cruise sector and future research could be extended to other tourism service industries. Practical implications This work will provide tourism and other service industry managers with a new strategy to enhance consumer experience and improve business performance in the pre-consumptive stage and extend academic understanding within this stage of a cruise tourist’s vacation. Originality/value This research is significant because CXM is a model, which has been used within service businesses, but had a limited application to the cruise sector and to the pre-consumption timeframe. It is important to understand cruise passengers in this time-frame to encourage positive relationships, to potentially increase revenue opportunities and provide an overall improved consumer experience.


Author(s):  
Nor Diyana Mohammed Shobri ◽  
Lennora Putit ◽  
Amirah Ahmad Suki

Nowadays, progressive developments in information technology and latest communication techniques have brought about increasingly significant variations in consumer behaviour. These changes have created a focused shift in companies’ business and marketing strategies. The hotel and tourism industry in particular, has been histrionically influenced by an electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) form of communication. This study aims to examine the extent to which e-WOM influences customer experience in a resort hotel setting. Using purposive sampling technique, a total of 135 usable online survey questionnaire feedbacks were collected from targeted respondents and subsequently used for data analyses. The data were analysed using SmartPLS software. Empirical results have revealed positive and significant relationships between e-WOM and all four dimensions of customer experience. The results emphasized the importance of e-WOM in the resort hotel industry and provided practical implications for the resort operators to enhance their guests’ level of expected experience.


Basic characteristics of contemporary tourism development of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its administrative-political organization units are essentially linked to still insufficient infrastructure and legislative-institutional tourism organization. Regardless of the fact that in most development strategies of all administrative and political-organizational units in Bosnia and Herzegovina tourism is recognized as one of the basic strategies, the development level of tourism industry towards all indicators is significantly lagging behind at the level of the entire European tourism market. According to data from the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Bosnia and Herzegovina is only 113 out of total of 136 countries, according to tourism traffic, out of a record number of 1,235 billion. Of international tourists’ arrivals, which were taken worldwide in 2016, Bosnia and Herzegovina has averaged less than 0.1%. The total number of tourist arrivals was around 1.149 million in 2016, of which international arrivals accounted for about 62.6%, while the remaining 37.4% were domestic arrivals. The total number of nights spent in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the year 2016 was 2,377 million. In relation to the above mentioned indicators, positive trends in the number of tourists have increased in the past 10 years with an average annual rate of about 2.5%. These data indicate that Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the improvement of institutional and infrastructure capacities, should significantly improve the overall tourism traffic and achieve a significantly better position within the regional European market in the next ten year period.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-113
Author(s):  
Dariusz Michał Trzmielak ◽  
Devi Shonia ◽  
Magdalena Skoneczna

Abstract The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors in the world. In the case of countries like Georgia, where tourism is a priority sector of the economy, innovation is crucial for a tourism-based development strategy — and this has become particularly important in the post-pandemic realities. This paper proposes a certain framework for understanding the possibilities for harnessing technological innovations in the travel industry (particularly apps and websites). It then considers the specific example of the country of Georgia, outlining the state’s measures meant to foster IT innovation in tourism and also certain moderate successes to date in this respect. Next, the paper looks to Russian tourist-sector start-ups as models for operation that be successfully harnessed in the Georgian tourism industry, examining several such Russian start-ups in closer detail.


Author(s):  
Pongsak Hoontrakul ◽  
Sunil Sahadev

The case study showcases ‘morethailand.com’ an e-intermediary in the tourism industry. Based out of Thailand, the firm is in the process of finding a niche for itself through innovative online and offline marketing strategies with the constraint of limited resources. The case study attempts to focus on the e-business challenges in the travel and tourism sector especially in a developing country like Thailand. It specifically highlights the clash between the traditional and modern form of intermediaries in the travel and tourism sector and how it is bound to evolve in the future. A comparison between different approaches to search engine marketing offers an interesting perspective to the literature pertaining to on line e-commerce. An economic view on the case is also presented.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 705-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Costa ◽  
Silva Carvalho ◽  
Daniela Rodrigues

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draws on the main conclusions of an International Tourism Forum Round Table discussion, attended by representatives of the main entities of the tourism sector in Portugal as well as international travel and tourism specialists. The authors identify the importance of making travel and tourism growth sustainable and discuss how success approaches can be shared more widely. Design/methodology/approach The main conclusions resulting from the International Tourism Forum Round Table are presented and discussed. The event was organised by the Institute for Tourism Planning and Development (IPDT), with Sponsorship support from the Solverde Group, under the theme: “Tourism in 2018: How to Share Tourism Success”. Findings Participants in the International Tourism Forum Round Table concluded that the tourism industry worldwide and in Portugal in particular, is facing major challenges that calls for innovative ways of managing the tourist experience. Several questions regarding tourism have been discussed, including desertification in some inland cities and villages. Originality/value This paper provides knowledge about the current state of Portuguese tourism, its challenges and opportunities and identifies innovative ways and likely solutions for drawing tourists to other regions of the country – beyond the major cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisha George ◽  
Sonu Sunny ◽  
Anusha Kapoor ◽  
Japjot Kaur Saggu ◽  
Paridhi Puri ◽  
...  

First to be hit by the pandemic and last to recover, the travel and tourism industry is considered to be one of the most severely affected sectors. The paper tries to highlight the vulnerabilities of GDP, employment and related activities of the tourism sector by looking at it through a macro perspective using data from the World Bank, International Labour Organization, the United Nations World Trade Organization and, the World Travel and Tourism Council, in addition, substantiating the results through micro evidences in the form of case studies. The paper, using quantitative and qualitative methods, shows that GDP, employment and related activities are susceptible to the pandemic- COVID-19 and suggests how to pandemic-proof the sector that not only contributes significantly to GDP but weaves the thread of interconnectedness across the world.


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