Digital Technology and the Visitor Economy

This report explores the impact of digital technology on the visitor economy, with a literature review and case study evaluation of Premier Inn. It discusses the benefits and challenges of digital technology, and recommends strategies for businesses to adopt new digital technologies. The report also highlights the importance of personal touch in the hospitality industry and the need for businesses to spread awareness locally.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
AND THE VISITOR
ECONOMY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.........................................................................................................................3
Case study evaluation..................................................................................................................5
New digital technologies strategies.............................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The one thing that has advanced more than anything in the history of the entire world is
the digital technology. These are the electronic tools, devices, resources and systems that
generate, process or store the data. And for a better understanding these are the social media
platforms, mobile phones and multimedia. These technologies have transformed the old ways of
doing businesses (Jacobides, Sundararajan and Van Alstyne 2019). For example; in visitor
economy digital technologies have redefined each and every aspect. It has made number of
processes easy and cheap. The decisions, the bookings, even the checkouts today are done
through the mobile apps. With the evolution of time a lot has evolved and every other traditional
pattern of doing things have become obsolete with the introduction of digital technology in
today's world. Premier Inn, a British hotel chain is the one of the largest brand in UK. The chain
comprises over 800 hotels and over 72000 rooms. It has its establishments in number of areas
covering airports, city centres, and suburbs. This report will comprise challenges, opportunities
and impacts of the digital technology over visiting economy, a literature review and
recommendations on the strategies to be used by the visitor economy business in context to the
digital technologies. Also, the report's main parts are the digital communication strategy and
literature review.
MAIN BODY
Literature Review
According to Tairova, Xurramov and Odinaeva, (2021) the digital technologies hold a
significant impact on the visitor's economy. The easy access to the mandatory information
through the technologies such as mobile phones, computers, websites and various other online
platforms has made the people to take decisions a lot faster than before. The early period of
visiting the place first, and then finalizing it, has completely changed now. With the technologies
in action, there are many things that are cut short. Now only going through the pictures on the
digital platforms and comparing all the prices and patterns have made the work of the people a
lot easier and this has also encouraged people to travel more and often. As a lot of work is
already cut short with these advancements, it has boosted the growth of visitor economy in the
world. Where the author is sharing views that there are a lot of benefits to the businesses of the
visiting economy because of the digital technologies, Hristoforova, I.V. And et.al., (2019)
reveals that, though digital technologies have made the business of the economy go high by 5

times, but on the same hand its has also lowered the profit area of all the businesses. As the
digital technologies have evolved, it has shown an immense growth in the whole visiting
economy sector, but this has also attracted large number of people to open up same businesses
like this, which again has lead to a huge competition. As a result, the profit margins of the
businesses of the entire visiting economy has also gone down. The author also reflects on the
non-availability of the sources within some businesses, which is making them to miss out on
number of things that can give them good results. So the entire concept of digital technologies is
going both ways, where it is benefiting large number of businesses in the visiting economy, it is
also giving a hard time to some businesses as they can not afford to adopt such digital
transformations.
As per the views of Kayumovich, (2020) every thing in today's world is being done
online and to cope up with the world today, it is very important to adopt such technologies and
make right use of them. Every business especially in the visiting economy is done mostly
through the websites, apps and number of social media platforms. These platforms also helps in
attracting good number of customers to a particular hotel chain. By showing all the features of
the hotel, their facilities, the offers, festive season discounts and number of other things, hotels
can easily target different segments of the customers. Likewise, Premier Inn, being one of the
largest hotel chain of UK, has adopted various technologies. The hotel chain is indulged in all
kind of technologies that can provide the customers a luxurious experience in the hotel. It has its
own website and app for the hotel that provides the customers with all the details that are
required in order to book the hotel rooms. Starting from the check in time to the check out time.
The hotel has features of live chat on its website, number of discounts for the customers who
book room through the hotel's app and various things as well. This make the customers to put so
much effort on finalizing the hotel and book the hotel simply by just one click. The hotel also
provides features such as virtual reality that gives customers the customer a great idea of the
experience they can have in the premises. But these are the features that are not affordable by
every business of the visiting economy. Premier Inn has its own app that facilitates most of the
work. The orders and other room service callings are also done through the app only. All this
adoption of the technological instruments provides a good comfort to the customers and helps in
attracting large number of customer to the hotel. But as said by Sharma, Sharma and Chaudhary,
(2020) digital technologies are great in providing every kind of comfort to the customers and

number of opportunities to the businesses, but when it comes to other perspectives, it also lacks
in the areas such as, there is always a lack of personal touch on the digital platforms. There is no
calling, there is no visiting, it has cut short all the working patterns of the businesses. Where
there are customers who are aware of the use of the social media platform, there are also number
of customers who still don't know how to use these technologies. This becomes a huge challenge
for the hotel industries and so is one for the Premier Inn. With all the advancements adopted by
the Premier Inn, it is missing on a personal touch and missing on the customers who aren't aware
of the digital technologies. These are the challenges that brought upon by the digital technologies
on the visiting economy.
As per Tajeddini, Martin and Ali, (2020) the hotel can can overcome the challenges by
taking into account a recommendation of spreading the awareness of the hotels locally also, by
making the use different kinds promotional methods such as distributing pamphlets, giving
advertisements in the magazines, organizing events etc. These activities will provide every kind
of customer with a good knowledge about the hotels. The hotels like Premier Inn, who have
started taking only online reservations and bookings should also consider the offline bookings of
the customers as not all the people can make online reservations and not all the people are aware
with the use of digital technologies. This recommendation will also help the hotel chain to
overcome the challenge of personal touch and by considering this recommendation, it can
provide personal touch to the customers of the hotel. Other than this, the benefit of the personal
touch also helps in boosting the image of the hotel's brand and also provide a good experience to
the customers of the Visiting economy. So, the Premier Inn, in order to overcome the challenges
of the digital technology should definitely consider the recommendation provided above as its
will only lead the hotel chain to a bright future in the coming years.
Case study evaluation
Background of the company:
The Premier Inn is a private limited company. The organization is deal in the hospitality
industry. The premier Inn is located in Dunstable, England United Kingdom. The Premier Inn is
service provider and its United Kingdom largest hotel brand. The hotel has 72000 plus rooms as
well as 800 hotels. The organization operate hotels in many locations that is suburbs, city centres
as well as airports competing with such as Ibis and Travelogue hotel. The premier Inn is use the

tag line “ good night guarantee”. The organization has USP as they offer comfort as well as
quality. Premier Inn segmentation is businesses, and families looking for the budget
accommodation. Their target market is backpackers and travellers. As well as they are the United
Kingdom best budget hotel. They even provide various deals as well as offers for the customers
for increasing online booking. In today's world all thinks goes online the customer can easily
book their hotel before they reach the hotel. This save their time to search hotel according to the
requirement of them. Even the hotel has been recognized with the different awards for
establishment of the finest hotel chain in the Britain. Premier Inn position is generally based on
simple premise. That is they promise its guests or customer a good night sleep. Even the
organization also told their customers that if they not experience good then they will get their
money of pay back. Thus, there no other hotel does this that why, Premier Inn brand position
become the competitive advantages in the competitive market place.
Social media presence of the hotel:
The premier Inn invest lot of money on the various platforms like print, radio, outdoor,
digital as well as social media. Their aim is to invest more money into marketing in 2022 with
particular focus on the digital reach (Sánchez-Casad and et.al., 2019). Over 326 thousand people
follow the Facebook page of the hotel. Whereas, the hotel has Instagram page that has over 25
thousand followers. So this shows that the Premier Inn hotel need to enhance presence on more
platforms that is social media platform. So the company have social media present which help
them to cove whole market so the customers attract towards them. Social media is very important
because it helps business to create awareness easily as well as it is less time-consuming. So for
every industry their social media presence is important.
Digital technology strategies use by the company
Generally the digital technology mainly focuses on the technology to enhance the hotel or
organization performance. The IoT (internet of things) means everyday devices, which generally
fitted with the internet capabilities, that also allow them to receive and send data. This
technology is very important within the hospitality industry, that is because it normally allows
hotel to save their energy costs, while also best or good hotel rooms without the human
interference. The Premier Inn using smart energy system to reduce power of the light bulbs
during the daylight hours or even to turn off heating system when the place or rooms are

unoccupied. Even when the occupied rooms range certain temperature. It is well-used to
optimize temperatures before guest arrive (Shumakova, 2021).
Even the organization also use social media platform to create awareness into the market
to attract more and more customers. Hotel technology can leveraged overall the department to
improve the guest experience, manage post COVID – 19 protocols, streamline operations as well
as improve the communication between the guest and staff members. Technology is very
essential for facilitating communication that is especially within hospitality industry where many
organizations are large and dispersed as well. ALICE allows the Premier Inn departments as well
as operations to stay connected with each platform (Ristova, 2019). So ALICE helps to improve
guest experience too through making it easier to access all information they need. The guest can
access important information that is reservation details, room number, bar and restaurant opening
time and the other room services through text message or by the mobile application which is
easier and saves time as well.
Discuss and analyse the findings in the literature review
Digital technology is very important nowadays because so its help hotel to attract more
customers. By the study it has been identified that the hotel industry also want digital
technology. By screening the features of hotel, their facilities, offers, festive season discounts as
well as number of things, hotels can generally target various segments of customers. Similarly,
Premier Inn, as one of the largest hotel chain of UK, has native different technologies. Here, the
hotel chain is provide in kind of the different technologies that can offer customers a luxurious
experience in hotel. It has their own website as well as app for the hotel that offers the customers
with all details that are needed and required in order to book hotel rooms. The hotel has many
features of live chat on their website, number of discounts for customers who book their room by
the hotel's app as well as different things as well (Michopoulou, and Moisa, 2019).
This helps to make customers so much effort on selecting the hotel as well as book the
hotel normally by just one click. The hotel provides many features like virtual reality that gives
more customers the customer also have great idea of experience that they can have in premises.
It also finds that the hotel must focus on the social media platform as they have mainly two
platforms such as Facebook and the Instagram. So they have to focus on different social media
platform such as you tube, etc. so it will attract more customers. If the hotel adopt such platform
then it will increase their revenue as well.

The hotels such as Premier Inn, who have started only taking online reservations as well
as bookings should also be considered offline bookings of customers as not the individuals can
make the reservations online as well as not all the individual are aware with the use of digital
technologies. This will helps business to achieve the overcome in the business risk and
challenges which are used to manage by companies with the challenges of technologies. This
report should recommend by the personal touch to customers regarding the enhance the customer
experience and expectation of customer regarding the hotel services (Gupta, 2019). The
recommendation helps busies to lead in the hotel chain and it is beneficial for business to achieve
the more profitability and productivity. This also improve the customer experiences ad boost the
hotel image with the digital technologies. It is the great opportunities for customer and business
to adopt the digital technology goes in personal life for business developments and economy
developments. It is the great way to provide the comfort to the customer and opportunities for
business.
New digital technologies strategies
In growing industry is undergoing an important digital transformation and making
customers experience personalized than it has. IoT (internet of thinks) provides integrated
services like light switches, automated door locks, voice assistant devices, electric blinds which
are generally connected on networks. Virtual reality is one of the digital technology strategy. The
virtual reality is a computer generated environment with different scenes and the objective that
generally appear to be real, and also making the user or person feel that they are immersed in that
surrounding. The VR marketing mainly allow the companies to bridge the gap among experience
and the action as well. This event help Premier Inn to attract more customers and take
competitive advantages (Sudhagar, 2019).
Premier Inn can also capture more bookings from the new customers with the Google
Hotel Ads. The organization have to invest in the hotel Ads deliver measurable results. In
general, the hotel ads have established a powerful tool in attracting as well as reaching new
customers. So for this the approaches can be used the google hotel ads to market to the travellers
in global markets. The main aim for doing this is to reach new customers, increase direct
booking through Premier Inn application and capture users actively looking to book
accommodation (Strønen, 2020). The google hotel ads helps the hotel to reach new customers as
well as capture high traffic while increasing direct booking on their website. The hotel ads may

make impact by supporting the premier inn strategy and also maintain direct relationship with the
customers. Here the hotel ads allow engaging directly with the extremely qualified customers. In
this the hotel can reinforce brand values as well as better understand the customers need and
requirement over time.
Online application- company can also make mobile application to connect with the
customers easier. If the customers want to stay connected as well as attract more customers so
their mobile application will help their customers. The applications include photos of the hotel,
rooms and the areas so its very easy for the customers to get know that their needs are satisfied
the hotel or not then they can book their room by that as well. The application also includes the
menu as well as timing of the opening of the restaurants and bar as well. The mobile application
offer a direct connection to the guests which aids personnel of hotel to contact these customers or
guest more easily, quickly as well as increase effectiveness (Sharma, Srivastava, and Sharma,
2018). If someone downloads the application then they are already show their interest in the
hotel and the services. By the mobile application they can make brand loyalty stronger. The
number of the mobile application of the hotel is still few so if the Premier Inn use then they can
obtain competitive edge. The smart phones have become the quite personal device on which the
individuals count during their activities. So by the mobile application company can attract more
customer based and for hotel it becomes easier process to attract more customers or guest for
their hotel.
The hotel can also use key card system. A key card system is a security token that
generally allotment customers access by electrically powered room doors. This system are
mainly required key card reader that is installed on door as well as gain access through either
tapping that card on reader that is proximity reader, inserting it that is insert reader. The key card
has its own advantages and disadvantages such as follows:
Advantages
 Provides remote deactivation ability
 Can offer restrictions for the certain times, access levels and even numbers of unlocks.
 The key card can easily be activity for access to the multiple doors
 The key card is very easy to carry in the wallet
Disadvantages
 Physical token is required

 Many key cards cab be hacked by using expensive devices
 Hiring new skilled employees required more additional key cards
The Premier Inn can also use more social media platform such as YouTube, influencers,
twitter and many more. Social media presence is very important for each and every organization
in every industry. For the hotel its very important because if they hotel have good area and rooms
but the customers not know about this, and they not have time to see the hotel and then book. So
nowadays the customers are more likely to book their hotel online by generally seeing the
feedbacks and review of the customers. The photos of the hotel rooms and the area can also
attract more customers. Social media is the important part of marketing tool because people use
social media platform regularly. So they normally see the post of the hotel which will attract
them, and then they also want to book room (Buer, 2019). Even the hotel must take care that the
services they offer are satisfy the customers or not. If the customers are not satisfied then the
hotel must take care and improve their services according to the needs and requirement of the
customers. Even the hotel must create app in which the managers can take meeting of the
employees regularly. By such app the managers also give feedbacks to their employees so it will
enhance the performance of the organization. The hotel can also make customize menu so the
customers can make their food according to the need and requirement of their own. The
customers are satisfy with the services of the hotel then they aromatically refer other which will
help hotel to gain more customers which lead increase their profits. If the customers are happy
then they give their review on the website and the social media platform so their feedback also
help other select the best hotel.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the digital technology are the electronic
system, devices, tools and resources that store, process or generate data. Examples are social
media, mobile phones etc. normally, the digital learning is type of learning that generally use
technology. Digital strategy particularly focuses on the technology to improve business
performance. The above report includes the explained the theories, concepts as well as issue
related to the digital technology in the economy. Here the issue as well as concepts from the
number of comparison, contrast and perspectives and viewpoint of the various authors. Along
with this the report also justify the need for the digital technology, and also evaluate challenges,
impact and opportunities of the technological developments. Moreover, the report also includes a

case study that explain the background of the company that is Premier Inn. Also, includes their
social media presence and evaluated their existing digital technology strategies. The report also
critically discuss as well as analysis finding and issue in literature review. Furthermore, the
report includes new digital technologies strategies.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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