How Are The Operators In The Tourism Industry Approaching The Virtual Channel

This paper reports on the findings of a research on the Web strategy and efficacy of different kind of firms operating in the tourism industry. The study has been conducted considering European companies. In this article we investigate the value chain of the tourism industry. The aim is to understand which organizations are the most prepared to use the real oportunities offered by the virtual channel. For example travel agencies are using the Web site as a communication tool, and hotels are using it to market goods and services, to receive reservations, and to evacuate customer complaints or suggestions

E-customer relationship management in insurance industry in Albania

E- Customer relationship management is an issue that every company, large or small must take in some way. Handled well, a CRM strategy can deliver significant benefits for companies and customers. Interaction with customers, in particular, has been enhanced and organizations who wish to remain competitive have started to implement CRM programmes and techniques in order to develop closer relations with their customers and to develop a better understanding of their needs. At the same time, the use of e-commerce techniques in CRM allows insurance organizations to identify customers, monitor their habits and use of information, and deliver them improved information and services according to their recognized needs and buying behavior. This paper looks at new developments in e-CRM in the insurance industry

Infusion of the Internet and Indigenous Tourism: An Australian Framework

IT management focuses on planning and developing new IT solutions. The importance of production (operation, support, maintenance) and further development of existing solutions is often neglected, although these tasks are responsible for the majority of today’s IT costs. The paper presents the results of a survey of the life cycle costs of 30 IT application systems. Within the survey, the distribution of costs over the application life cycle was recorded and evaluated. The results show the central importance of recurring costs for production and further development. For a production time of 5 years these costs amounted to 79% of all life cycle costs, whereas only 21% of the costs were incurred during the planning and initial development stages. Further findings include an evaluation of the poor quality of the cost data and the important role of business units as service providers

Establishing a service channel: a transaction cost analysis of a channel contract between a cruise line and a tour operator

Pre-print; author's draft dated March 29, 2005Services marketing literature treats the distribution of services as distributing service delivery, as opposed to service sales. Yet, many services are not delivered at the time of the sale, and the firm is selling a promise that the service will be delivered at some future time. This paper shows that this advanced selling has serious transaction cost implications to the firm and a potential intermediary. Through a case study, and using a transaction cost approach, a contract between a cruise line and a tour operator is analyzed. The results show that service intermediaries aren’t able to take inventory and are unable to demonstrate their commitment. Consequently, both parties would be unwilling to establish a contract. However, commitment can be achieved through the intermediary investing in relationship-specific assets that it could recover, subject to performance. Similarly, the firm could pledge its capacity for its investment in the specific assets. Such a mechanism aligns the interests of both

An intelligent itinerary planning model for the travel and tourism industry in Hong Kong.

by Yau Yin Fong, Yip Claudia.Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-51).ABSTRACT --- p.ITABLE OF CONTENT --- p.IILIST OF FIGURES --- p.IVPREFACE --- p.VChapter CHAPTER I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1Chapter CHAPTER II --- HONG KONG'S TRAVEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY_ --- p.5Chapter II.a. --- Performance in 2000 --- p.5Chapter II.b. --- Plans in 2001 --- p.6Chapter CHAPTER III --- INTERNET MARKETING FOR TOURISM --- p.8Chapter III.a. --- Traditional Method of Tourism Promotion --- p.8Chapter III.b. --- Internet - The Most Important Mass Medium --- p.8Chapter III.c. --- The World Wide Web (WWW) --- p.9Chapter III.d. --- Advantage of WWW --- p.10Chapter III.e. --- HKTA's Web Site --- p.11Chapter III.f. --- Why Marketing Destinations Online is Important to the Tourism Industry --- p.12Chapter III.g. --- Extending the Usefulness of WWW --- p.14Chapter CHAPTER IV --- ITINERARY PLANNING MODEL --- p.16Chapter IV.a. --- Requirement for Itinerary Planning Model --- p.16Chapter IV.b. --- The Input Process --- p.19Chapter IV.c. --- Conversion of Hours to Numbers and Types of Travel Session --- p.22Chapter IV.d. --- How does the Matching Process Work --- p.27Chapter IV.e. --- A Matching Approach to Itinerary Planning --- p.33Chapter IV.f. --- Tourist as Variety Seeker --- p.39Chapter IV.g. --- A Buffet Approach to Itinerary Planning --- p.40Chapter IV.h. --- Extension - Web-mining --- p.433Chapter CHAPTER V --- CONCLUSION --- p.444APPENDIX --- p.466BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.49

Exploring the Phenomenon of Chinese Babymoon Tourism

The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of Chinese babymoon tourism. This phenomenon is gaining popularity in China but has not received due attention in academic research and from the tourism industry. The study aims to identify the backgrounds of young Chinese couples who participate in babymoon tourism, uncover the factors that motivate them to do so, and examine their travel behaviors that take place during such trips

O impacto das novas tecnologias nos canais de distribuição turística: um estudo de caso em agência de viagens

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção.Neste estudo está previsto avaliar o impacto que as novas tecnologias podem ter sobre a estrutura, atividade e organização das agências de viagens. Analisa as relações das agências de viagens com o setor através de seus equipamentos informatizados e das telecomunicações, tanto de aquisição de informação como sua forma de tratá-la e processá-la, partindo da premissa que grande parte do futuro do setor das agências de viagens dependerá destas ferramentas de trabalho. Ainda, neste estudo, procurou-se dar ênfase à incorporação de parâmetros de mudança e à evolução do setor das agências de viagens, as circunstâncias, tendências, estratégias e necessidades de seus provedores, usuários e competidores

Virtual Tourism Destination Image: Glocal identities constructed, perceived and experienced

Het opdoemend netwerk van mondiale hubs en stromen van geld, media, technologie en migratie, hebben geleid tot een algemene bewustwording rond oplopende spanningen tussen mondiale en locale identiteiten en imago’s. Dubai, het onderzoeksdecor van dit proefschrift, is een goed voorbeeld. Met internet en mobiele technologie bestaat het creëren van bestemmingsimago’s niet langer uit een eenzijdig pushproces van massacommunicatie. Steeds belangrijker worden dynamische interactieve processen van reflecteren, selecteren, debatteren en ervaren. Dit proefschrift construeert daarom een dynamisch toeristisch bestemmingsimago-ontwikkelingsmodel waarbij de driehoeksverhouding tussen plaatsidentiteit, geprojecteerd imago en gepercipieerd imago leidt tot een spanningsveld, welke wordt kortgesloten tijdens de reisbeleving, wanneer host (aanbod) en gast (vraag) elkaar ontmoeten. Op dat moment kunnen drie kloven in het model een negatief effect hebben op de klanttevredenheid, hetgeen in dit proefschrift empirisch wordt onderzocht door het meten van geprojecteerd en gepercipieerd imago. Dit wordt bewerkstelligd door een innovatieve methodologie gebaseerd op geautomatiseerde inhoudsanalyse. Het geprojecteerd imago is vestgesteld door middel van inhoudsanalyse op 20 in Dubai gevestigde toeristische websites, terwijl gepercipieerd imago is gemeten door middel van inhoudsanalyse op 1.100 online reacties op een kwalitatief imago-onderzoek. De resultaten tonen aan dat men in Dubai de drie kloven dient te overbruggen, aangezien de snelle ontwikkeling van Dubai als een mondiale hub soms voorbij gaat aan de verankering in de sterke lokale identiteit en het gevestigd imago. Een theoretische oplossing voor het overbruggen van de kloven wordt besproken en conceptueel toegepast in het concluderend hoofdstuk. Het is gebaseerd op de literatuur rond stedelijke of regionale merkontwikkeling en staaft de algemene bruikbaarheid van het model en de onderzoeksmethodologie zoals die in dit proefschrift ontwikkeld werden.Robert Govers, who was born on May 16, 1968 in The Hague, The Netherlands, is currently serving as research coordinator at the Flemish Center for Tourism Policy Studies of the University of Leuven, Belgium. Prior to this he worked in Dubai as a senior lecturer in tourism and marketing for four years, including two years at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. Robert graduated with a Master’ s degree in Marketing from the Rotterdam School of Management, but also holds a Bachelor’ s degree in Information Management. Robert started his teaching career as a visiting lecturer at the Witwatersrand Technikon Johannesburg (RSA). After that he was a Research Associate for the Centre for Tourism Management at the Rotterdam School of Management. With Prof. dr. Frank M. Go, Robert is the author of Entrepreneurship in Tourism, a paperback published in Dutch. He also co-authored several journal articles and conference papers in the field of tourism, hospitality and quality management, e-commerce in tourism and tourism research and marketing. As a project manager, Robert has been involved in many consultancy projects for reputable organisations such as IATA, the European Commission, the Flemish Government and various Dutch ministries and tourism promotion boards.The emerging network of global hubs and flows of finance, media, technology and migration has raised awareness regarding the tensions between global and local identities and images. Dubai, as the central research background for this dissertation, is a good case in point. With internet and mobile technology, creating destination image is no longer a one-way ‘push’ process of mass communication, but rather a dynamic one of selecting, reflecting, sharing, and experiencing. This dissertation therefore constructs a dynamic tourism destination image formation model, which identifies a triadic tension between place identity, its projection and the perceived image. This tension is short circuited during the travel experience, when host (supply) meets guest (demand). At this instance, three potential gaps could negatively affect the level of satisfaction experienced in the host – guest encounter. The empirical research focuses on measuring projected and perceived images in order to test the way in which the gaps can be assessed. This is accomplished through an innovative methodology based on computerised content analysis. The projected image is measured through a content analysis of 20 Dubai based websites while the perceived images are gauged by content analysing 1.100 online responses to a qualitative image survey. The results indicate that for Dubai, the three gaps need bridging as there is a clear tension between its rapid development as a global hub and its strong local identity and image. A theoretical solution for bridging the gaps is discussed and conceptually applied in the concluding chapter. It is based on the destination branding literature and establishes the general usefulness of the model and its research methodology

Customer participation in value creation in internet-based self-service technology (ISST) environment

Recent developments in the literature central to the Service-Dominant (S-D) logic perspective highlighted the importance of customer value. In this perspective, value is seen to be created, determined and perceived by the customer through use or `value-in-use' which directly highlights the importance of customer participation in the service delivery process. This study proposed a framework which tested the relationship between customer participation and the individual customer perceived value dimensions in an Internet-based selfservice technology (ISST) environment. Taking online travel service as the study context, the model incorporated two aspects of customer participation, i.e. objective and subjective, antecedents of customer participation, and the multidimensional-formative conceptualisation of customer perceived value. Data were gathered from 175 respondents from the general public and 160 students in the UK. A confirmatory approach was used to validate the measurement model in LISREL 8.54 and the structural model was estimated in SmartPLS 2.0. The results supported the proposed conceptualisation which indicated that customer perceived value is determined by customer participation. The main theoretical contribution was demonstrated in the incorporation of the subjective aspect of customer participation and the multidimensional-formative conceptualisation of customer perceived value. By testing the causality between customer participation and customer perceived value dimensions, the findings highlighted that customers do include their participation as a determinant of value which further supported the concept of value-in-use. With the two sample groups found behaving differently in creating value from their participation on travel websites, it further supported the fact that value is uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary. Understanding which value dimension is mostly affected by customer participation will provide managerial guidance in terms of enhancing or improving those dimensions that are poorly or highly valued by their customers. By understanding the antecedents of customer participation, online providers will benefit by setting appropriate strategies to enhance their customer participation on the website