International Hospitality Management - Research Paper Example

International Hospitality Management Introduction Technology as applicable in the hospitality industry has caused a revolution in the uptake of products and services more than ever before as more people have become connected to each other with most people having access to information through the internet. This requires that hospitality industry players adapt and upgrade their practices and skills to meet the growing demands of the customer. Often, technology is used in the hospitality industry to market their products and services such as destinations and the attractions on offer. The information that is provided online is important to stimulate the researcher or the would-be consumer of the hospitality product and services to have good memories of the travel. To reach the consumer, the operators can make use of digital marketing (Wind and Vijay, 2001) through search engines, mobile phone applications or location based marketing. It is important to make the product appealing and have the best prices for the content placed in the internet. Having the requisite infrastructure to respond or meet the needs of the consumer is important for hospitality industry operators in several ways. This arises from the fact that most consumers expect services that are personalized that readily meets their demands thus requiring tools that can store and monitor information to meet personal needs of a client. This allows the knowing and retention of customers for future businesses. The hospitality industry especially tourism being an important socio-economic activity in any human life is continuously being affected by advances in technology (Moutinho, 2000). The technology applied here mostly occurs over the internet as the new mode of information dissemination and distribution. The resorting to internet for tourism and travel marketing is because of the many advantages that comer with it product and service distribution through the internet. Tentative research show that the use of the internet for marketing purposes can make the operators in the hospitality industry easily bridge the gap between the suppliers of tourism services and products and the consumers of the same (Knowles et al, 2001). However, the hospitality industry sector especially tourism faces challenges in the uptake and expansion of technology. One major challenge is the difficulty in choosing the right technology and adopting it to achieve better results. Players in the hospitality industry must therefore be able to understand their competitive edge and be able to adopt technology that suits their system and at the same time strengthening their level of competence. The business operators and work force must therefore strive to adopt strategies of utilizing appropriate technology correctly through sufficient knowledge and ways of operation of the tools or equipment employed. Information technology has affected the hospitality industry thus creating flexibility in practices, segmentation of the market and the diagonal integration within the tourism sector (Moutinho et al, 1996). Information technology is thus applied in areas that require management and distribution of information on travel and tourism. The customization of services to suit the needs of the person in need of the tourism service has been made possible through the production of tailor-made services that allows producers to provide services that are flexible in order to satisfy the wants of different consumers of the tourism service. This can be achieved through for example the provision of packaged holidays that are flexible and can be easily purchased through prices deemed as competitive as compared to holidays produced in mass and the production of travel and tourism related services are not dominated by the usual industry players. The holiday must also be flexible and be purchased at prices that are competitive as compared to holidays produced by mass-produced holiday players . The mass production is influenced by the urge to reap benefits that accrue due to economies of scale. The hospitality industry through tourism relies on a cycle known as the travel cycle, which entails dreaming, researching, booking, experiencing then sharing of the experience (Leigh et al, 2013). The dreaming stage of the traveller or the tourist occurs at the preliminary stages mostly when the potential tourist or traveller uses the internet to look for the most affordable and reliable means of travel by reviewing web pages or videos that ultimately inspires him to want to travel. The consumer then researches and narrows down on his travel options through the making of requests through queries. This is the most important stage for the future successful tourism or travel supplier as it enables the collection and evaluation of the path that determines the path and the power of the tourist or traveller towards purchasing. Hospitality industry experts agree that the use of technology through the internet is an important factor in the distribution and communication of services and products to the global market (Mills and Rob, 2004). The internet therefore is a tool used for marketing that is complementary to the physical services provided by hospitality industry players such as the tour and travel agents (Palmer and McCole, 1999). The internet may therefore be applied to minimize costs by eliminating intermediaries such as travel agents who increase the eventual costs spent in purchasing travel and tourism services or products (Barnett and Standing, 2001). Therefore, the hospitality industry utilizes the internet to advance on the services and products offered to consumers in order to fit in the present and upcoming trends in marketing. Internet and the Hospitality Industry The claim of the internet is relevant in all aspects of the public especially those involved in the hospitality industry, this calls for the hospitality industry players to investigate what motivates consumers of their services and products to go into the internet to shop or buy products and services online. The reason for the increased uptake of internet in the marketing of travel products can be attributed to factors such as the ability of one to have one-to-one marketing and internet’s ability to support an interaction between the marketer and the consumer. The fact that internet marketing of hospitality products and services is virtual in nature makes it accessible during the whole year coupled with its dynamism, which enables products, and services to be changed at any given time to meet the needs of the consumer suit the consumer (Zhou, 2004). The World Tourism Organization (WTO) state that the key to succeeding in the often competitive hospitality industry involving tourism and travel lies in the faster identification of the needs of the consumers and reaching the persons who seem to be the potential clients with comprehensive and personalized information (Buhalis, 1998). Due to the growth of the number of tourists worldwide and their increasing needs, the consumers of tourism products and services continue to demand for high quality products and services in exchange for value for their money (Seth, 1990). Therefore the internet platform provided by information technology comes in handy to bridge the information communication distribution and communication between the consumer and the supplier of hospitality product. Hospitality industry through travel and tourism industry is at a crossroads due to the reduction of mass tourism and the emergence of demand for personalized services and products (Seaton and Bennet, 1996). This can be partly attributed to change in values or lifestyles and the demographics involved that makes it different from previous mass tourism ways. The question that begs to be answered is how the new trends accompanied with technology has been made relevant in line with the re-engineering of hospitality products and services that suit the needs of the contemporary modern tourist (Poon, 1993). Does technology play any role in the reshaping the value chain in communication and distribution of services and products? Different estimates have shown that most of the products and services procured over the internet emanated from travel purchases over the internet (Prideaux and Eric, 2006). In the USA it is about 50% of the purchases while in Europe the figure is undergoing immense growth. These services are mainly tourist packages and services that due to their nature of intangibility and being international in character, the internet becomes the best tool for their growth. The potential of the internet as an infrastructure for the travel industry and tourism services and product dissemination cannot therefore be ignored. The internet is an excellent tool for communication if properly used and the hospitality industry marketer may apply it to overcome strategic challenges that it may face (Colomo-Palacios et al, 2012). This includes the reduction of the risks associated with demand in that put industry consumers in danger or want. Marketing over the internet therefore enables the consumer to solve risks that are related to inefficiency of failing to achieve or reach unit costs of the market related to marketing, distribution, administration that has got the effect of increasing the profit margins of a travel agency (Walle, 1996). In a world or business enterprise characterized by extreme competition especially in the provision of services and products, the ability of the internet to provide a one-to-one marketing makes it the most preferable means of marketing as it customizes the products to meet the needs of the consumer (Lee, 2001), what is known as product differentiation. Research has shown that when product differentiation is conducted through the application of internet in marketing, the price becomes irrelevant for the consumers thus increasing their loyalty while at the same time decreasing the costs of production for the supplier. The internet when used as a way of marketing tool by hospitality industry players enable them know the understanding of individual customers and then delivering the product or service as it fits the needs of the consumer. This is accomplished by integrating the production procedure employed by the firm and the preference needs of the customer, through diagonal integration, hospital industry players utilize information technology to bring services together to increase productivity and maximize on profits. They also add up value to the product or services offered by making it easy to link services for example services in finance, insurance and travel to maximize on economic gains of the production process. The value addition to services and products by diagonal integration process gives out satisfactory results to both the consumers and the suppliers of tourism and travel services. In the reservation system for tourism technology, computerized reservation systems have become the important technology for booking the accommodation and travel requirements of an organization. Firms therefore must strive to know the individual profile of the consumers in order to achieve one-to-one marketing. The fusion of information technology in the dissemination of hospitality products or services may help in the reshaping the nature of competition. By adopting information technology, firms are able to establish barriers of entry thus differentiate their products and services from those of competitors. This has got the overall advantage of ensuring competitive pricing and decreasing the costs of supply while at the same time making it easy to supply. The hospitality industry players are also able to build closer relationships with suppliers and customers. Internet therefore can be used by travel and tourism suppliers to gain competitive advantage over other players offering the same product and services while at the same time improving productivity and the performance in roping in new customers (Wood and Bob, 2008). The information technology may also be used to facilitate new and viable ways of management and organization leading to development of new businesses. An apparent example in the re-engineering of technology by hospitality industry players is to suit the needs of the consumer is the online booking process that enables consumers to save on time costs by easily identifying, amalgamating their demands with the service or product on offer, reserving then purchasing them through the internet (Buhalis, 1998). One way in which hospitality industry players have effectively employed the use of information technology is the Computer Reservation System (CRS) which have been used especially by airlines for distribution and communication of information. It is some form of data base that manages the inventory of a tourism enterprise while at t e same time endeavors to distribute the information remotely to other travel agencies and different sales offices (Pizam, 2005). CRS’s have enabled the suppliers of hospitality products in tourism, travel to control, and promote the sale of their products and services worldwide while at the same time yield management. This has got the long-term effect of improving profitability and growth of businesses. The CRS’s are priced competitively as compared to other forms of distribution of similar products and services as they enable flexible pricing and alterations to capacity that can adjust to changes in demand and supply. The CRS’s also provide important information that can be used to gauge the demands of consumers and know the standing of a company in relation to its competitors. The effect is the overall contribution to the operational and strategic management of the tour and travel industry products and services. Hospitality industry players may also adopt the Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) which has got the advantage of covering wider geographical area through the horizontal integration with other airlines and vertical bringing on board of other hospitality tourism products and services, for example accommodation, provision of car rental and entertainment amongst others. The GDS system has succeeded in the connection of several tourist organizations or product and service providers in the world thus bringing into uniform the standardization processes thus enabling a considerable market share. GDS therefore has been the system for circulation of products and services through the establishment of a global communication standard and new and reliable tourism electronic distribution channel (Taylor, 2001). The efficiency and reliability of GDSs enables the suppliers of tour and travel products and services to distribute and manage their services globally through the bridging of the gap between the consumer needs and what suppliers can offer. Ultimately, GDS’s have been used to objectively increase the satisfaction of stakeholders in the tour and travel industry through the provision of superior products and services that has got the end result of maximizing profits and growth of business. However, preliminary research still illustrate that tourists still use professional services offered by travel agencies as much as a substantial amount of information can be found over the internet. This therefore means even if we adopt the information technology, traditional information communication and distribution channels are still important. The travel intermediaries such as travel agents, tour operators are therefore still important players in this sector due to the perishability, intangibility of tourism products and services. Therefore, in order to achieve better services, there is need to integrate information technology in the fabric of destination marketing organization (Hsu and Thomas, 2002) through advertising strategies that are coordinated in line with the mission and goals of the organization for effective results. The suppliers must strive to reconfigure the traditional advertising strategies to be in tandem with the emerging realities and trends for example the availability, interactivity and the capabilities of research (Samenfink, 1999). Technology in Hospitality Industry and the Future As mentioned before, the changes in the value chain of tourism and travel product and services marketing, there is the urgent need for management of destinations in order to make them more competitive. The information technology employed must possess the ability to collect and collate data and analyze the tasks assigned in order to give the manager of the destination information that is useful in the making of decisions (Christian, 2001). In order for companies to succeed in the satisfaction of demand, technology must be incorporated to enhance interactivity in the market place. This is because information technology applied in the tourism and travel market enables the travelers to access accurate and reliable information in order to reserve products and services in the shortest time possible that makes it less costly and convenient. As already proved that customer satisfaction depends on the veracity and comprehensiveness of the information on facts such as the accessibility of destinations, facilities available and the attractions on offer, it is important to make use of the internet to minimize surprises that may be met by the traveler. Information technology therefore facilitates the satisfaction of the needs of the consumer as the consumers have more information that enables them have a variety of choices to choose which one suits them. The internet also reduces the bureaucracy associated with paper work saving on costs associated with time. It also enables the customization of products and services to suit the needs of the customer as one-to-one marketing is achieved (Law, 1998). A thorough revision of the strategic managerial and operation practice employed by tourism industry players is important in order to reap the full benefits of distribution and communication over the internet between suppliers and consumers. Failures to appreciate the benefits that come with the use of information technology by industry players can reduce have the effect of marginalizing the players in these fields. This would require tourism and travel suppliers to competently understand, incorporate and utilize information technology strategically to reach the target markets. This in turns improves efficiency thus maximizing profitability. It is imperative to note that the future success of tourism organizations and destinations will be dependent on the combination of innovative management through proper marketing through intellect and vision in the strategic use of information technology (Olmeda and Pauline, 2001). In the marketing of hospitality products and services over the internet or what is known as e-marketing, it would be important for the stakeholders to know their target markets through the research on the preferred content of tourism by the tourists, the channels for the distribution of information and data on booking preferences. Hospitality industry players in the tourism and travel sector must also be ready to determine the role to be played by the e-marketing and the strategy to be employed in the market (Tesone, 2010). Hospitality industry players are also asked to find partners with whom they can share information on destination marketing through the use of information on management to attain more distribution through online booking reports, analysis of websites and email marketing reports. 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