Icts in the Tourism Industry and Its Influences on the Tourist Consumer Behaviour

The touristry perseverance practically of necessity a various range of nurture to satisfy and attracts its consumers and most of this teaching is delivered promptly to the nodes with the champion of the culture and communication technologies (Poon, 1993). And as result, the global tourism manufacturing is rapidly changing and the randomness and communication technologies ( ICTs) such as the lucre is altering the structure of tourism intentness and how it market his products and conducts its publicity.In ensnare to understand the role and impacts that ICTs has in the wider tourism industry and to align its influences on the tourist consumer conduct, it is advised to first know what ICTs be and to hollow the study on consumer demeanor base on the tourism industry. culture and communication technologies are defined as the collective term assumption to the most recent development in the humour (electronic) and the mechanisms (computers and communications technologi es) employ for the acquisitions, subroutineing analysis, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and application of information (Poon 1993 cited in Buhalis 2003, p 7).It can similarly be defined as the persona of digital tools for stemma functions and work ates (Cooper et al 2005, p. 704). When tailing ab step up ICTs, it consist of hardware (self servicing terminals), software (front authorization applications), and telecommunications (broadcast of images, teleconferencing ), and the groupware (tools for group communications such as email). The last adept is the humanware which consist of skilled people responsible for the maintenance and programming.Any of these are practised in the tourism industry for a better care of operation and communication amidst stakeholders. The tourism industry had actually gained from the phylogeny of information applied science with the emergence of computerised networks that change the whole form of the dispersion and merchandise of tou rism products. The most popular and successful applications of ICT used in the tourism industry are the computer modesty constitutions, the global dissemination systems and the internet.In the early 1970s, the airline industry developed the computer reticence systems, an application that became the most crucial channel of distri barelyion for airlines, and even good-looking hotel companies and tour operators started using it after they recognized the benefit of computerised system. The computer reservation system (CRSs) is essentially a database which plucks the inventory of a tourism enterprise, whilst it distributes it electronically to remote gross revenue ffices and outside partners (Buhalis, 1998). It created the fortuity for suppliers to quickly confirm the battle reservations do by consumers but the consumers were excessively able to use the CRSs to door information of different terminations, packages holidays, and hotels, and used that information to compare p rices to materialize the opera hat deal. The computer reservation system gave tourism organisation the power to manage their products and trade with the rest of the world.The mid 1990 saw the computer reservation system emerged into the global distribution systems (GDSs), the system that distribute reservations and information run to sales outlets around the world (Giaoutzi and Nijkamp 2006, p. 24). It did not barely contains information of flights and hotels resembling the CRSs but had a wide range of function and products linked to tourism such as entertainment, car rental, lodging, train ticketing. Both the CRSs and the GDSs are knget excessively to reduce the cost of communication, and to provide information on the competition.During the time that the GDSs was developing, the internet and World Wide Web was providing direct opportunities for tourism suppliers to interact with its customers by offering less expensive information on services and destinations. Companies like easy-jet uses the internet to offer its services directly to the customers and because the internet also offers consumer the possibility to tailor their own holiday, which is why web billets like expedia are becoming expanding and popular.During each step of a transaction or deal of the tourism product, on that maneuver is a lot of information that posit to be exchange between every party snarly. So the information and communication technologies role is to help the clients and tourism intermediaries ask chafeed to accurate information and data. These exchanges of information need to be done quickly as the suppliers rely on it to meets the customers requests. So the use of ICTs in the tourism industry has turned into a universal shit and power that help and manage information and transfer them all oer the world instantaneously.And Buhalis (1998) states that the day to day operations of the tourism industry have been affected by the use of the ICTS. The distribution and mark eting function of the tourism industry has been transformed as they use ICTs to target the consumers meet their provideulate and also the adoption of information and communication technologies by the airlines companies has been an advantage point for them as it help them control and manage reservations. So t goes to ordinate that the fundamental structure of the tourism industry has been reformed by ICTs and businesses involved in tourism ordaining need to keep improving their services to meet the summations level of customer demand that now require prompt and accurate information. Despite the fact that the information and communication technologies has broaden the industry capacity of distribution, there are also some thin outs brought by the cor acting ICTs that could impacts the future operation of the incite industry.According to Thorn and Chen (2005), the run a risk of losing human resource in business is higher with the application of ICTs. The increase of demand of employees with new engineering skills has left existing employees in awe of losing their jobs as businesses are looking for way to accommodate those customers who need their suppliers to respond to new sophisticated demand and information. In this case, it is up to the worry team up of each tourism business who adopt the use of new engine room to offer some intensive training for staff in align to success.But beside the human resource impact, the most talked closely impact is the issue of disintermediation in the tourism industry. Disintermediation happen when suppliers and companies are met by a maturation pressure from competitors and rising prices (Werthner and Klein, 2001), so to survive in this new technology environment, they set up their own distribution channel such as a website where they can directly offer the consumers the opportunity to tailor their own holiday and look by dint of various range of products online.And by doing that they ofttimes save money and Th orn and Chen (2005) raise the fact that expedition agencies are kinda a risk because of disintermediation which result to booking at deceases agents going down by 35% and also they are at risk of losing some of their commissions that came from selling products from tours operators and airlines companies. ICTs caused then to deal with competitions and those who cannot often retire their business but there are always customers who look for the animal(prenominal) contact when it came to book their holiday.The need of face to face interaction cool it gives travel agents the chance to stay in the tourism chain. Over the days, the information and communication technologies also had an impact on the consumer too, because of the improvements that ICTs bugger off on the quality of services given by tourism organisations. By allowing consumers to assume firm reservations or save money by comparing price done the internet, ICTs created a new type of consumers who are now becoming more ophisticated and skilled. With the consumer behaviours changing, it is up to the tourism organisations to try and understand the motivation behind their filling of destination, or figure out the type of environment that influence their determination to grease ones palms a product instead of an some other(a). All of these researches and their answers are quite important as it would help suppliers and companies develop new marketing strategies for products that would put on the appropriate market.The study of consumer behaviour is based on convalesceing out the reason why consumers purchase some products and trying to understand how they came to the termination of qualification that decision (Swarbrooke and Horner, 1999). This study gives organisations some clues on the why and how that customer came to make a choice between various destinations or products, so with any results find from this study, it will enable them to target the customers and persuade them to bargai n for their products because of the consumer previous making decision purchase.But for the consumers to make a decision there is a lot of factors that get along with to play and influence them toward the objurgate product. Those factors are the determinants (what make you contract a holiday or not) and motivators (the advertise to travel) (Swarbrooke and Horner, 1999). Determinants in consumer behaviour can be internal and external. Internal determinants often consist of factors which are face-to-face to the customer such as choosing a travel destination based on work or business obligation, fear, health problems or commitment with family. well-nigh of those are quite important and they tend to confine and have an effect on the type of travel to book or they can also prevent the consumer to travel. In the external determinant category, consumer can be influenced by the media around them, friends and sometimes a marketing campaign. Motivators in the other hand are the reasons t hat push the tourists toward travelling. oftentimes motivators are split into two different categories, the general motivators and the proper(postnominal) ones.Some general motivators mentioned by Thomas (1964, cited in Moutinho, 1987) are the cultural and educational motivators which push tourists to discover new culture and lifestyle, to do some travel to or explore monuments, and he also identified pleasure, adventure and peace of mind as other motivators that provide people with a reason to travel, specially when trying to switch off from the daily routine of their life and just go on holiday to have some fun. And regarding the specific motivators, Moutinho (1987) also contributed in the study by aying that specific motivators tends to come from knowledge, previous grow , recommendation or opinions given by relatives and friends and it can also come from the travel organisation via the media. The study of consumer behaviour in tourism is helped by various models and exhib ites holded from others researchers which show clarifications on what goes on when consumers are decision making to make a purchase. In order to understand some behaviour of tourists, this essay will go through the destination decision making process, the volunteer(a) behaviour model and stimulation-response model of buyer behaviour.The tourism industry provides two types of products, the tangibles and the intangibles, but because most of it is intangibles, it is difficult to evaluate the products out fronthand acquire so, it often down to images and information of the tourism products that the consumers can make a purchase decision. The tourist decision making process by kotler (1998) shows, that before coming to a decision about purchasing a product, the consumer goes through various steps. These degrees are the need of recognition information search paygrade of alternatives selection of services or products and the post purchase assessment.In the need of recognition of the buying decision process, the first thing for consumers is to acknowledge that they have a problem or need to purchase a service or products. And by being aware of their need, it is now up to the consumers to find a solution that would give them satisfaction at the end. So its next to the second gift of information search where the customer is actuate into doing some intense research to find the correct information which will lead to a decision. There is lot of ways for the tourist to find the information needed.He can go through the search stage by using his own knowledge of the products or he will rely on the external search (Pan and Fesenmaier, 2006) which consist of advertising resources and personal ones. Brochures, travel books and relatives are some of the examples of sources that consumers used to find information, and because of these external sources, tourism organisation identify and learn about the sources since they provide consumers with valuable information that sway their decision.The internet is also another source for consumer to gain access to information in this stage of the decision making with Lake (2001) stressing that almost 95% of people collect information related to travel via the internet and with 93% admitted to visit websites of tourism companies. After gathering enough information, the next locomote for the consumer is the evaluation of alternative where come the process of comparing and finding the best(p) solution of their problems.Often at this stage, the quality of the products and services will determine how much it is going to satisfy the consumer when they are trying to compare it the products with other alternatives (Kotler, 1998). During the purchase decision process, Kotler (1998) normally consumers have a tendency to buy their favourite brands or products but occasionally the purchase decision puzzle influenced by other people around the consumers, for example parents who are preparation to book a holiday with younger children, will not choose an adult oriented holiday destination because they need to consider their children before going into the purchasing stage.Purchasing the products or service from a specific supplier is the fourth step and it will be wrong to suppose that paying for the vacation is the end of the purchase decision process. In the post purchase evaluation, the consumer will make an assessment like some feedback to conform to if they had a happy lie with when they used the products. A good experience will often lead the consumers to reuse the same products and verbally rear it. And the tourism organisations also find the post purchase stage really valuable to them as the satisfaction level of consumer will turn into consignment toward the products or services.In the recreational behaviour model, researchers are looking to uphold how consumers behave when they decide to travel and (Clawson and Knetch, 1966 cited in Hanlan, Fuller and Wilde, 2006) said that decidi ng to travel is not a simple process because it also has tailfin phases that make use of some stages of the destination decision making process. The recreational behaviour model start with the anticipation phase where the consumer is thinking about the trip and where all the planning of the trip is being done by including the stage of need of recognition and search of information that was mentioned in the destination decision making process.After the planning phase, it is the travelling to the site stage which can also includes the mode of transport that the consumer is going to use to collapse the destination. For example using the orient express as a mode of transport can be seen as a luxury travel experience by itself for the consumer even before they reach their destination. So erstwhile at the destination, the model next phase is the behaviour on the site where the consumer arrive to the destination and make use of the services available to him. The behaviour of the consumer once on site is widely influenced by his experience of the services offered.Everything that happened to the consumers during the stay at the destination will impact the last stage of this model, as after travelling back home, the consumers have to have a recollection and recall stage which will consist of the post purchase evaluation stage that Kotler identified in the decision process. Compare to other models of consumer behaviour, the stimulus-response model of buyer behaviour by Middleton (1994) has been modified in order to help the tourism organisation have an understanding of the consumer behaviour during the buying process.In this model, the determinants and motivators that influenced the buying behaviour of the consumer are separated from each other, and at the same time this model also looks at the impacts that the communication channel used by tourism organisation has on the tourist buying process. The stimulus response model of buying behaviour has been based on four ele ments with the buyer characteristics and decision process being at the perfume of the buying behaviour.The travel stimuli, the communication channels, the characteristic of the consumer together with the decision process have all an effect on the consumer buying behaviour. The characteristics of the buyer which is made of the motivators and determinants influence the consumer recognition of the travel stimuli and if the consumer is interested by the products that the travel stimulus offered, the decision making process will determine when the buying process will began. The development of Information and communication technologies transformed the tourist behaviour when it comes to searching, booking and buying processes.In the information search, the consumer has the opportunity to find a wide range of information provided by the accommodation sectors, the destinations and airline companies by the use of new technology. And for making their booking, the reservation system put in pla ce allow the consumers to access and make payment online. So it is sink to say that the tools of ICTs allowed companies to embrace technology to be essential to their communication and marketing approach in order to give consumer the freedom to undertaken any process without the help of an intermediaries.The change in consumer behaviour by ICT has been strongly influenced by the internet because it helps the suppliers communicate directly with the consumers who offer the possibility to tailor the products to their sense of taste and need. (Buhalis and Law, 2008) So to finish, this essay has shown that the development of information and communication technologies and its use in the tourism industry had quite an impact on the structure of the industry.It did bring new opportunities to the business by opening different channel for the promotion and distribution of the tourism products and ICTs also allow the customers to quickly receive information no matter the distance. But the los s of human interaction with the use of ICT and the disintermediation has been some of the challenge or problems that the development of technology brought in the industry. So to be successful and retain their customers, tourism organisations has to adopt the technology and adapt it into their businesses.And by trying to understand the effect that information and communication technologies has on the consumer behaviour, I went on to gather information of three different models based on what goes on the mind of the consumer when they are trying to choose a destination, or buy a product. In the models mentioned in this essay, the consumer is often maneuver with the help of information gathered during the information search stage to make a decision and these models always end with the feedback stage where the consumer expresses their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.References Buhalis, D. 1998 Strategic used of information technology in the tourism industry. Tourism watchfulness, 19 ( 5), pp 409-421 Buhalis, D. (2003). 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