Literature Review
Writing Assignment help on : Tours & Travels Industry
Introduction
Tours & Travels Industry has the status of being the world’s largest industry and its phenomenal growth is showing no signs of stopping. This industry is enjoying an unprecedented and consistent growth with each and every passing year. One study speculates that by the end of 2020, the rate of arrivals of tourists will increase by around 200%. But with non-stop growth comes cut-throat competition and this industry is no exception by any means. Tours and travels industry has been come to known as one of the most competitive businesses across the globe and thus survival and sustenance has become increasingly tough for the existing big-guns as well as new entrants. If a company gains a competitive advantage in such an environment, it could be decisive for its future. In today’s world, however, a company does not gain competitive advantage by sheer luck but by introducing new technologies and promoting innovation.
Since we are living in a technology driven world, our preferences for tourism are also changing. Gone are the days when people consulted with the travel counselors for their tourism destination and various packages on the offerings. Today travelers use internet extensively to gather the information about the various destinations and offers. In the last five years, an increase of over 300% is recorded for the number of people browsing the Internet for their vacation and travel planning.
To manage the ever-growing volume and quality of tourism traffic effectively, the rapid growth of the travel industry requires sophisticated information technologies (ITs). The studies undertaken earlier have shown that today’s consumers ask for higher quality in travel services, products, and information. What they actually look for is the value for their money. ITs are being employed extensively in every industry right now and with surging demand and the arrival of new tourism services and products, the tourism industry too is feeling the need of the hour. And with internet as the facilitator, the players are up to the task. In a different way, the Internet functions as a new channel for communication and distribution channel for e-travelers and suppliers of travel services and products. The Internet is also helping the tourism business to improve its operations and efficiency.
This research is all about the assessment of sustainability of Thomson Holidays which is a UK based tour and travel operator that provides a wide range of services relating to tours and travel. However, with the increasing advancement in the field of technology and increasing significance of IT in the travel and tourism industry, the survival of travel operators is under significant threat. IT is considered as an integral part of the tours and travel business and the sustenance of the business can be ensured through considering its integration. The emerging competitive environment as a result of IT consideration in the tour and travel business poses significant threat to the travel operators with respect to sustaining their business.
Review of the literature
A lot of tourism researchers have put ample emphasis on the use of the Internet in travel and tourism industry. Not only the buyers but suppliers too can get benefitted by the use of Internet. They can promote their offers on their portals and in turn, can sell the products at any time to any customer globally. They can also control the servers to display information on their services/products at an electronic speed (Inkpen, 1998; Law, 2000). A supplier see the benefits of using the Internet for selling his services in many ways as he experiences a significant drop in distribution costs, an increase in revenues, and an increased market share. In the same way, use of the Internet allows travelers to interact freely with the tourism suppliers for the necessary information, and to make themselves ultra-comfortable in order to purchase products/services at any time and any place (Olmeda and Sheldon, 2001).
But there are a lot of researchers, who think that extensive use of internet may very well, one day, be able to end the role of travel agents or for that matter, the travel agencies. Internet is being used as a disinter- mediating agent as it doesn’t allow the participation of a middlemen in the traveler-agent-destination/supplier network in the travel industry. But what these researchers ignore that travel agencies provide personal information and advice to the travelers and as far as their capability of giving advice and information doesn’t get diminished, they are not going to extinct in the aforementioned network. Furthermore, if they use internet as a facilitator and helper which can give them a lot of information absolutely free, their position in the market will get more strengthened.
Though the Internet is currently leading the way as the most used medium for tourism-purpose, only few decades ago, there wasn’t such a good system at the tourist’s disposal. The technological developments in the fields of automobiles, ships, aircrafts etc. has fueled the desire of tourists to roam across the globe. Sailors were the earliest tourists and their boats were the earliest means of transport and the invention of steam powered automobile, commercial steamers and first successful locomotive further provided several means of mass transport. But it was the invention of air transportation which completely changed the picture of international tourism during twentieth century. It marked a revolution in the field of international tourism. The distances between the nations now became a matter of few hours.
Over the years, our world has witnessed a tremendous growth in terms of use of computers, Internet and computer related technologies. IT services are leading the way everywhere. A computerized reservation system (CRS) is another major product of the ongoing IT revolution in the world. Tourism Industry has been benefitted in big way by the introduction of this new system. This system is mighty effective in its operations and very efficient. With the help of CRS, we can book a ticket for our favorite holiday destination from anywhere. We can check the status of our flight or train-whether its late or right time, seat availability in it, any extra value-added services etc. With the help of this system, we can also make reservations in hotels, theatres, various cultural and sporting events. In this way, IT has made a big change in the way a person book his/her tickets. Making reservations has become simpler now. This is only one product we’ve discussed here which is the invention of IT phenomenon; there is still plenty of IT products left to be discussed which have made our life very easy.
Travelling is a natural human habit. However its intensity has increased in the last few decades owing mainly to the Technological revolutions in the last few decades and the consequent changes in the social systems. Today tourism has come a long way and grown into a habit rather than being a simple hobby. It’s become a billion dollar business now. And to cater to its customers, they spend huge amount of dollars. It’s up to the customers now how well they know these marketers and their strategies. Today a traveler wants every information about his destination and thanks to internet; they have this knowledge on their fingertips. Information like the social customs in the country, climate change, famous tourist spots, most suitable seasons for travelling are always on the radar of the travelers.
As we know that the consumers are at the centre of every marketing strategy, they are the ones who get most benefits from these marketing activities and for attracting such travelers, the most famous destination nations compete fiercely between each other. Every now and then, they come up with attractive packages containing very entertaining features. Travelers, in turn, get the most of these offers and enjoy exceptionally good privileges. Since these activities generate a lot of revenue for these countries and extremely beneficial for their GDPs, these countries leave no stones unturned in their way to impress the prospective customers.
There are two types of information which a tourist generally needs- static and dynamic information. That information which does not change over the course of time is known as static information and it includes detailed information about location, climate, attraction features, history, facilities available, etc of a particular place. And the information which changes very rapidly and frequently is known as dynamic information. Information about airline, train and bus schedules, and accommodation units and current availability of such facilities is considered as dynamic. And since these information change pretty quickly, they must be stored on a real time basis. Information pertaining to air, rail and accommodation sectors is stored in the computer reservation systems.
Some few years back, the tourism industry across the globe was using quite a lot of things to spread the word in the media about their products and services. They were pamphlets, brochures, directories, guide books, etc. These marketing tools were used by every major destination nation. All these sources are being employed even today though their use is pretty discrete and are regarded the most inefficient and ineffective means of information.
Over the course of last few decades, the world has witnessed the application of computer and communication technologies in the field of tourism. With the technological advance came two different streams of information sources viz, (i) online and (ii) offline. There were databases available for general public uses about places, entertainment facilities, tourist attractions etc. Public can access them online and gather all the useful data and filter the trash. Then we got introduced with the computerized reservation systems like Galileo, Amadeus, Sabre, PARS, JALCOM, QAMTAM and ABASUS, etc. These CRS enabled the free flowing of data on tourism for public usage and they are getting improved with each passing day. The latest source of information known as the internet has brought the revolution in the field of communications technology and for the years to follow there will be no stopping for it.
A new technology known as CD-ROM swept the tourism industry off its feet. Earlier these CD titles only included geographical information about a particular holiday destination but very soon multimedia CDs changed the picture of the market and came up with the minutest of details about a particular location. The market is currently full of these CDs. Industry pundits are very hopeful that in upcoming years, the demand of such CDs will surge exponentially. The qualities of these CDs improved mainly because of the ever growing competition and attractive marketing offers. A new industry too is emerging on the horizon of tourism industry-Hotel management and catering technology and with the use of information technology, it can create a very positive impression for the tourism industry.
After all the pondering over the integration of ITs into tourism sector, there is no denying to the fact that ITs have become very significant in the today’s competitive environment. Every industry is using ITs to gain a foothold in the market and tourism industry should be one of them. Thomson Tours and Travellers is the company whose case is being discussed here. For the survival and sustenance of its business, this company must ensure that all their business practices must be linked with the ITs so that they can function more efficiently. The future of tours and travelling business depends upon the extent to which they perform the integration of IT to their existing business processes. According to Ma, Buhalis and Song (2003), an exciting development in the field of information technology has completely changed the fabric of tourism industry. The practise of integrating IT to existing business is not only being practised in Europe and America but even in the developing areas of Asia like India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia etc. (Ma, Buhalis and Song, 2003). According to Buhalis (1998), the introduction of information technology to the tourism industry has not only brought the opportunities but challenges too to it. If the tourism industry wants to achieve exponential growth and competitive advantage, they can use the tools and techniques of IT but if they are going to shun the use of IT, their identity could be lost forever as there are several other players in the industry who will try to cash in such a precarious situation (Buhalis, 1998). Further, tourism industry needs to show a sense of urgency in maintaining and improving the tourist information Wei (2011). There are several advanced tools in the market like New Field Communication (NFC) technology through which they maintain their database. Travellers also use modern technologies like Geographic Information System (GIS) to update themselves and for tracing important locations across the popular tourist destinations. These extraordinary measures have been possible only because of the rapid advancement in the field of technology and this in turn suggest practising ITs across all the business units in an organization, particularly if it is a tours and travellers company for its sustenance in the market (Wei, 2011).
Conclusion
So we can see from all these discussions that integrating ITs have become a need of the hour for the tourism industry and their survival depends solely on it. Information technology is finding its use everywhere. Tourism Industry is a pretty dynamic in its nature and its phenomenal growth over the years has made sure that this industry is bound to become very competitive in the future. New entrants will enter the market time and time again and challenge the existing players. On the other hand, existing players must find a way to fight the enthusiasm of the new entrants as they will come with new strategies and unbeatable offers to gain a strong foothold in an already crowded industry. Existing firms should overhaul their marketing strategies and integrate ITs to their domains as soon as possible to remain relevant in the market.
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