Movement of Travel Services Online: Intermediaries and Branded Distribution - Research Paper Example

Cases Analysis Case 8: The Movement of Travel Services Online: Intermediaries and Branded Distribution The place where the contact details are made and received is recognized as Call Centers. These call centers are often recognized as a front door of a business, where the most crucial customers are attended and clarified about their needs and company offers. Therefore, a call centre job is recognized to be most effective as well as efficient operations, as it can influence the overall success of an organization. Owing to its rising importance in the global market, even in the hospitality industry, call centers have become quite popular as Central Reservation Offices (Lim, 2010). The prime role of the central reservation offices is to handle all calls coming from customers. The hotel call centers primarily handle calls regarding rooms’ reservations. Hotel call centers primarily serve the clients seeking for services from hotel chain companies. The central reservation office therewith provides the hotel reservation voice services on a continuous basis. It restores the customer’s feedbacks and provides accurate support to the customers too (Naveed, 2012). To improve hotel positioning, the hotel call centers should need to implement few strategies that can support it to increase its market share. Every individual hotel should suggestively try to establish its own call centre for promoting its business. Every hotel should also develop its own circuit for providing better customer services. Additionally, persons who have been appointed for voice processes are needed to be acquainted with the knowledge of several languages for services in international market. 2. Currently, the hospitality business has gained immense popularity among a large number people. After experiencing the success in leisure online travel market, the Online Travel Agencies (OTA) is observed to drive this success to a larger realm in the business industry. It is also noteworthy that the US travel agencies, such as American Express Travels as well as Carlson Wagonlit Travel have gained huge profit due to the establishment of online facilities. Those online travel agencies have expanded their business from traditional level to a large travel management companies, as observable in the current phenomenon. Moreover, few leisure sites, such as Expedia as well as Travelocity have also developed their sister sites for serving the business travelers. Currently, OTA services have been expanded to the cruise line industry besides making technology innovation to sustain in the global domain. Online marketing in the cruise line tourism industry is considered a useful strategy for developing new customer base for the business too. There are a few more OTAs, such as Thomas Cook as well as TUIs and others, who are also aimed at expanding its business from Europe to Asia and all over world (Enz, 2009). Hence, it can be stated that the strategy of the companies to promote through their own websites worked efficiently and focus on more online bookings. 3. DSPs are recognized as important intermediaries in the travel and tourism industry of the current era. The main objective of these intermediaries is thus to provide support to customers as well as respective clients as well playing a key role in successful customer relationship. Considering the widespread operations needed to be performed by DSPs, merger and acquisition can be regarded as wise strategic moves for these intermediaries. It is accordingly expected that after being merged with the other intermediaries, DSPs will be able to serve its majority clients with a set of good quality services. It is also expected that if the call centers as well as any tourism companies merge, they can be able to generate more clients as well as earn more revenues in a sustainable manner obtaining competitive advantages owing to their economic size. It can thus be recommended specifically that an international DSP should make collaborations with an international tourism company. Hence, it can lead the company towards raising their annual turnover (IS Partners, 2010). 4. Google is a renowned brand and the first choice of majority of internet users currently. This organization is primarily dealing with online services, which has been provided to its customers. Moreover, Google is recognized to be world’s famous search engine, which is able to provide all kinds of informational support to its customers as demanded. In this regards, it can be expected that Google should make its entry into the international online travel service industry, which will offer it successful differentiation advantages. In order to make entry in the international online travel services, the company should create its additional online networking sites, where customers can obtain information regarding their queries. In order to be established as an additional website for customers’ queries, the company should display the details about its products and services. Therefore, when making an entry within the international online travel industry, Google needs to be strategic in nature. In this regard, Google should make collaborations with other already established and well-known brands in the industry, which will be efficient in providing effective solution regarding travel packages. In this regards, Thomas Cook can be recognized as a more suitable option for a merger with Google (Lim, 2010). Case 5: Banyan Tree: Sustainability of a Brand during Rapid Global Expansion 1. Banyan Tree Holdings Limited is a chain of hotels, which is also credited for introducing the concept of green tourism to the international tourism industry to develop in a sustainable way. The prime intention of this company has been to provide the essence of ecotourism to its global customers. The brand is mainly targeted towards the highly affluent travelers who expect luxury services where they can enjoy the pleasant experiences. In this context, the company is expecting to create its value positioning by creating a strategy of niche marketing concept. It is accordingly observed that Banyan Tree Holdings Limited has created its position by targeting the niche resorts, hotels and spas among others. To cater its value position, Banyan Tree has pioneered the concept of green essence in its strategic direction, which currently has evolved as one of the signature features of a large number of hotels, spas and other hospitality brands. In order to create the value position, Banyan Tree branded hotels, restaurants, galleries and spas reflect cultural attributes, natural environments as well as heritages of their respective locations. Apart from this, the brand is also competent in providing its customers with pool villa as well as tropical garden spa to ensure that customers are able to easily correlate with the strategic notion of the company (Enz & Farhoomand, 2012). 2. Banyan Trees resorts and hotels are recognized to be a leading market player of luxury hospitality market within the Asian continent. It is observed that Banyan Trees is a brand, which provides with the facilities of private villas, tropical gardens, spas as well as retail galleries promoting the traditional craft of its locations. It has been observed that despite of having negligible advertising and promotion, Banyan Tree hotels and resorts are having a huge success. It is noteworthy in this context that better public relationship as well as global marketing programmers has both actively supported the company to achieve a global exposure. After establishing its brand value position within the market, by introducing medium sized luxury resorts market, the firm currently is expecting to introduce a new as well as contemporary brand name, Angara. The company is expecting to gain a wider range of customer base through its brand expansion. Unlike its respected resorts, the company is also paying attention towards providing the quality services demanded by its customers in competition with other luxury hospitality organization (Wirtz, 2012). The major risk related with the expansion of the business introducing new products indicates customers’ acceptability. Whether the global customers would accept the company’s new product is always a major question until the product has received actual feedback from the market post-launch. Furthermore, the introduction of any new product will need a huge monetary contribution, which can slow down the company’s present financial position (Wirtz, 2012). 3. Banyan Tree Holding Limited is a famous international hospitality brand, which is headquartered in Singapore. More specifically, Banyan Tree operates its business in all over world such as in Asia, America, Africa as well as in the Middle East. During the expansion of its products, the company has invested a huge amount of its capital that is apparent from its financial reports. In addition, analyzing its financial report it has been observed that in the 3rd quarter of 2014, Banyan Tree had to incur substantial decrease in its revenue from $79.6 million in the previous quarter to $72.7 million. The prime reason of its decreasing revenue was related to the political unrest in Thailand. It can be therefore stated that the political unrest in Thailand has highly affected the company’s revenue earning and might also inhibit its aggressive expansion unlike as planned. In this regards, the other income obtained by the company has also decreased from $0.8 million in the second quarter of 2014 to $0.6 million in the third quarter. However, it is also identified that due to lower income, and decreasing revenue earnings, the company has been forced to reduce its expenses that might have an impact on its expansion plan. It is also observed that the total cost expenses of the company have decreased from $71.4 million in the second quarter of 2014 to $65.6 million in the third quarter of 2014 (Banyan Tree Holdings Limited, 2014). From the overall financial analysis, it can be apparently observed that Banyan Tree Holding Company has organized its financial statement in a very systematic manner. However, it must be noted that even though the balance sheet of Banyan Tree is systemic, the company needs to be more cautious regarding its expenditure. To increase its revenue, the company should thus follow its policies to match with the political law of the respective country. References Banyan Tree Holdings Limited. (2014). Information required for announcements of quarterly (q1, q2 & q3), half-year and full year results. Result, 1-28. Enz, C. A. (2009). Hospitality strategic management: concepts and cases. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Enz, C., & Farhoomand, A. (2012). Banyan tree: sustainability of a brand during rapid global expansion. The University of Hong Kong, 1-39. Kang, J. (2011). Social media marketing in the hospitality industry: The role of benefits in increasing brand community participation and the impact of participation on consumer trust and commitment toward hotel and restaurant brands. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Paper, 1-141. Kanagal, N. (2003). Role of relationship marketing in competitive marketing strategy. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 1-17. Lim, W. (2010). The Effects of social media networks in the hospitality industry. UNLV Theses/Dissertations/Professional Papers/Capstones, 1-44. Naveed, M. (2012). Customer relationship management in hospitality sector. Journal of Good Governance and Sustainable Development,1(1),40-47. Wirtz, J. (2012). Banyan tree: branding the intangible. Case Study, 519-527. Read More