Internet Usages Affect People's Tourism Booking And Decision-making - Essay Example

Internet usage Internet usages affect peoples tourism booking and decision-making Marketers have the access to technology with the advent of the internet to customize products and communicate directly with the smaller target market. The internet is an interactive medium unlike the traditional marketing that only has one way flow of information from the marketer to consumer. Recently, the development of transportation systems and increasing internet usage has increased the number of people who are enjoying travel in their leisure time. According to the IBT world travel trend report (2015), the number of overseas trips and domestic travels has seen a growth by 4.5 percent and around 3 percent, respectively. Tourism is playing an important role in the countrys economy so the government could decide to focus on the hospitality and tourism industries, because of the levels of public interest and the prospects for economic development. For example, the UK government voted on contracts with the hotel and tourism industries in order to support and expand these industries (UK Government, 2014). Many experts state that this phenomenon increasingly occurs after the development of information technology. The internet mainly contributes to steadily expanding the tourism industry (Werthner and Klein, 1999). Therefore, with the increase in information from the internet, more people have the opportunity to book hotels and receive information on destinations before departure. This essay will cover the influence of the internet and consumer behaviour in the tourism industry. It will be focusing on the reasons as to why people use the internet for planning travel and making reservations. The essay will also examine the advantages and disadvantages of an online booking system. First of all, this essay will explain the frequency of internet usage in the UK. Secondly, it will describe the trend of consumer behaviour with emphasis on the reason as to why people change consumption pattern from traditional to internet shopping. It will also be examining the size of the existing online travel market and agencies. Thirdly, the essay will be presenting how many people use internet booking systems and planning for their holiday. Then, it will introduce why a majority of people use online travel agencies and social networks for obtaining the information about travel destinations. Lastly, a brief analysis of the efficiency of internet travel planning and booking with the relative advantages and disadvantages will be established. In conclusion, there will be a presentation of a few suggestions for future prosperity of business. Internet usage now shapes the context for many holidays booking and planning because of the frequency of internet usage in the UK. The development of information and communications technology (ICT) has brought forth an information-oriented era. A typical example of ICT is the internet, which contributes to changes and improvements to people’s lifestyles. Figure 1 shows that approximately, 76 percent (38 million) of UK people accessed the internet daily in 2014. This figure is almost twice the total for 2006 UK internet users (16 million). Among these people, 68 percent accessed the Internet by using their tablet, PC or mobile phone. These electronic devices enable internet users to expand by negating the constraints of time and space. Thereby, people can quickly receive any information from internet search web engines such as Google and Yahoo. More than 50 percent of people read news and magazine content on the internet rather than a physical copy. This is especially prevalent in the 25 to 34 age group with 72 percent (ONS, 2014). The Internet becomes more readily available. The social penetration of the Internet has deepened, and, therefore, more people are utilizing the internet for all aspects of life from music grocery shopping and also purchasing holidays Grimshaw, M. (2014). There has been easier access to information thanks to social networks for example Face book, Google and Tublr and travel information sites like Trip Adviser. This means that travelers can break up their trips by purchasing services directly from suppliers without involving intermediaries. In addition to the travel services, the providers offer online reservation services. The Internet is attractive because information is readily available. In comparison to traveling agents, the customer can look for deals themselves. They will feel empowered and feel that they got a better deal as they can compare the prices themselves. Figure1: Daily Internet use, 2000 to 2014. Internet usage now shapes the context for many holidays planning and booking due to changing consumer behaviour. Many people favour internet shopping rather than their old-fashioned consumer behaviour. This is because of the attractive internet advertising and ease of access to information. Firms attempt to provide information on the quality of their services and products, along with their corporate image. Therefore, companies change marketing strategies to follow new consumption trends. The main reason for changing consumer behaviour is so that people can compare prices and details of various products. This is done while online shopping that saves customer’s time by providing information from the internet search engines (Moon, 2004). In the last year almost one in every four UK holiday partakers use Trip adviser to help research there holiday before they book. Trip adviser is viewed as a classic online community where consumers read information and reviews from others. The consumers are connected to people based on a common need, content and concern or out of interest. People interested in hotels for example in France connect through the reviews by either writing them or reading them. This reason makes Trip adviser very scalable and it is the reason more people are turning to it for information. Interested users of the specific content benefit from every piece of information that is added. Other than using the internet as an information source, consumers are making real decisions based on them. Research found that when users researched their choices from social media, less than half booked their original choices. Thirty-five percent decided to change their choices of hotels while fifteen percent changed their tour operator or travel agent. The remaining twelve percent decided to visit a different country. The tourism industry is no exception to this change in customers behavior. This is according to the Travel Industry Association, 2005, who made a comparison of the number of people who preferred to arrange travel using the internet to plan their holidays. Information related to travel or holidays is one of the most searched terms amongst internet users (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2006). Moreover, as shown below in Figure2, the size of the online travel market in France steadily increased from 2006 to 2013 with 4.1 and 12.4 billion of Euros, respectively. Figure 2: France Online travel market. This is almost 3 times the consumption gap between 2006 and 2013. This expansion of the online travel market lead to a rise in the number of new online travel agency websites and internet customers (The Economic and Price Monitoring Bureau (1B) of the DGCCRF, 2014). A majority of people use online travel agencies and social networks for obtaining information about travel destinations. Statistics shows that last year seven in every ten people that took a holiday last year booked entirely online. Over fifty-two percent of consumers believe that holidays are for a better value when booked online while over forty percent enjoy being able to tailor their holidays on the internet. Statistics also show that forty-four percent of consumers said that they trusted reviews written by other holiday makers on travel review websites like Trip Advisor. During the holiday, one out of five of Brits show off their trips using emails to send videos and photos or update about the holiday while still there or when they return. Most people prefer internet travel planning and booking due to its efficiency. It offers more information and costs lesser than a travel agency. It also has no time limit for information search and one can see videos or movies of the chosen destination. The internet is also non-stop available hence one can access the information from anywhere with internet access. One can compare offers quickly and at the same time find opinions of other persons since the internet provides some degree of freedom. The buying decision is taken quietly with no pressure from the agency’s employees, and one can also postpone a trip with no penalties Castells, M. (2010). Internet travel planning and booking also has its disadvantages. The website is not able to distinguish between cheap and best value ,for example a room may be deemed as cheap whereas it does not fit the client’s expectations. The internet websites do not understand the clients. The client often does not know what they are getting themselves into. Unlike a travel agent who can know what the client can and cannot put up with, the internet is not able to know. The internet websites are also not proactive. This implies that they do not understand the clients and they do not offer the best value but just raw price. Websites cannot be able to look into the whites of the eyes. An agent can use their skills to read an itinerary, to understand it, analyze any real issues and then communicate them to the client. They are able to look into the client’s eyes or pause to get a reaction on the phone and ensure that the reaction has sunk in. Business travel also does not work because business travel features which web based travel bookings cannot cope with. This is because firms pay executives a salary catering for the travelling hence they do not bother with rebooking. Holiday vacations are normally an expensive purchase hence consumers think about the research before they book. This study shows that an increasing number is turning to social media to help them with the research. Most of them in Britain are turning to one site- Trip adviser. The tourists enterprises needs to develop a framework that provides management and implementation of goals in a cost efficient manner leading to higher value exchange of their businesses. Companies should come up with ways to ensure more people use internet booking and planning for holidays. Companies should ask for new ideas from clients on social media in order to satisfy their needs. The companies should also work on the feedback they receive from clients in order to win them over and to attract new ones. A maximum number of bookings can be integrated to enhance the number of direct bookings from their sources. Hotels could offer enhanced services that may be attractive during the stay, for example, a combined offer of a ticket to visit an attraction given to a person paying for an overnight stay provided by external service providers. The guest views it as a complete offer while the owner of the hotel could earn commission received by external service providers. 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