Digital Transformation in Travel and Tourism Industry

The assignment discusses the impact of digital transformation on the travel and tourism industry, highlighting the importance of online business, trends such as social media and virtual reality, and strategies for companies to stay competitive. It also mentions the need for travel agencies like Expedia to adapt to these changes and provide better services to customers.

Inquiry Project

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Trends in travel and tourism industry.........................................................................................1
Analysis of the trends..................................................................................................................2
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report has been prepared by showing the transformation in the travel and tourism
industry. This has increased the trends which are adopted by companies providing services
related to travelling. These have been described in detail by presenting every aspects.
Furthermore, an analysis of the same has been conducted by showing a comparison of the
company with the industry trends. Lastly, some recommendations have been provided which can
be implement by entities for providing better services to customers.

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism industry is growing rapidly with the time. It is a high revenue
generating sector and is significant in an economy. The entities operating in this provide services
to customers and there is no production or exchange of goods (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2012).
The services which have direct nexus with travel like transportation and related services for
meeting the need and requirements of clients. In this report, Expedia has been chosen which is an
American company having its headquarters in Washington, U.S. It is travel technology corporate
which works as travel fare aggregator. This assignment has been prepared in three sections such
as trends which have taken place in the above-mentioned industry, there analysis followed by an
recommendations. These have been included by showing a connection between them.
MAIN BODY
Trends in travel and tourism industry
Travel and tourism industry has witnessed rapid growth and developments which made it
strong. Also, the performance of it has improved with the introduction of some new trends. It has
transformed drastically as traditional business companies have been shifted to digital
technologies. Some of the mega trends have been discussed below:
1. Experience economy: This is about creating experiences rather that dealing in goods and
services. People are finding this new trend exciting and attractive. This may require
investment of a good amount due to which due to which different experiences can be
obtained. Some activities are included in this which are different from the traditional
ones and are entirely new to what were being provided earlier (Song and et. Al., 2015). It
is to provide desirable experiences which can be liked by those availing them.
2. Social ecosystem: The use of social media has increased in last couple of years with the
increase in internet users. There are different sites in which people make account to get
connected with each other. This has helped in keeping friends, relatives and even other
people updated about the current travelling activities of an individual. In this trend,
decisions regarding travelling are influenced with the pictures and posts that are
mentioned or uploaded on the social media (Wood and et. al., 2013).
3. Recommendations: Companies that were operating in traditional way earlier have
undergone digital transformation wherein they have created their own websites and pages
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on social media. This is because large number of people depend these technical things for
taking making selections about destination they want to travel to. The customers give
their ratings and reviews about their travel experiences which is taken into account by
other people for making decision regarding this. It is an additional feature that should be
provided by the online travelling sites for having better understanding of their services.
On the basis of these, improvements can be made for higher customer satisfaction.
4. Customization with Big Data: Big data is sets that contain information collected both
structured and unstructured and managed by organizations in databased. The travel
agencies can gather data with the help of Big data for customising the packages on the
basis of choices and needs of customers. It helps in providing unique and personalised
experience. The scope of big data is huge which can store vast amount information at a
single time. It is used in tracking the search made by different individuals (Anshari and
et. Al.,, 2018).
5. Virtual reality: It is a software that allows an individual to have experience of the
environment in 3D graphics. The images created by it are generated by the computer
which provides view of real world. It is a technology of current era which has been liked
by huge number of people especially, the millennials who are tech savvy. It is used by
companies providing travel services whereby customers are given an opportunity to get
virtual experience of their holiday. It helps the buyers to make modifications in the
package they are considering to buy (Gibson and O’Rawe, 2018).
Analysis of the trends
Expedia is a company offering services related to travelling which includes booking of
airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises and vacation packages. It is an online travel
agent which provides a platform to other companies in the same field so that customers can see
and compare prices of different services provided by variety of entities. Choosing internet is the
best way to attract huge number of people for availing the services. It has taken digital
transformation positively. It has been nominated for World's Leading Online Travel Agency for
the year 2018. The above trends have been analysed by considering the performance of Expedia
which is as follows: Experience economy: Travel and Tourism industry has welcomed this new trend and
travel companies can be seen providing this service to its customers. A study has been
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conducted by different travel agencies and related sites, which provided that 32% of
people have added into the category spending more on travels as compared to last year.
Furthermore, the data collected by American express shows that about 85% of
respondents have agreed with the fact that making expenditure on travel is worthy (Wang
and et. al., 2016). This trend can make people go on holiday more frequently for seeking
new experience. However, it can be expensive as activities like bird watching, exploring
villages or unexplored locations are included. Expedia has added this in its services to
attract existing as well as new customers for availing this service. It has understood that
simplicity in the whole travelling can provide new experience. For this purpose, it offers
different combinations and suggest new locations which can help in getting higher
satisfaction. Social ecosystem: Travel companies have found that switching the business to social
media can help increasing sale of services. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, etc. are there
which are used by large number of people worldwide. Approx. 52% have stated that their
travel plans get affected and changed on the basis of content they see on social media.
The vacation photos make it appealing to people active on such sites. Expedia has started
its business online when it was incorporated. Now its has presence in all famous and
widely use social media sites. The Facebook page of Expedia is liked by almost 7.1M
who have used its services as well as who knows about this company. It uploads the
pictures of vacation of its clients for showing them to people who visit the page. It has a
computerised assistant with whom people can chat and ask their queries. Hence, it can be
said that Expedia has good knowledge about being connected with the world (Kim, Lim
and Brymer, 2015). Apart from this, it has its own website on which official information
regarding packages and other offers are shown. It can be visited by anyone and go
through the content stored in there. Recommendations: Reviews are the thing which are given by the people who have used
the services of travel agency. Expedia has this feature in its app, where people can write
their experience and allot stars accordingly for rating the service. It can be positive as
well as negative and can influence decisions about packages, destinations, and many
more. If a person provide bad comments or unfavourable remarks, then Expedia contact
that particular hotel, airline etc. to let them know about the reviews received for its
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services. Furthermore, it uses these recommendations for improving the services so that
customers can be provided higher satisfaction. On comparing this with the industry trend,
then Expedia is leading in this as it takes the reviews very seriously. It is the same
traditional approach only the way has been changed. Earlier, people used to ask their
friends and relatives about the travel services and most of the time preferred the same
brand. This is because of a positive image left in the minds of the customers. Customization with big data: Expedia make huge investment in advertisement of the
offers like combo package or discounts etc. on different online platforms. It understand
the value of information that are searched or provided by customers on different sites.
These are tracked with the help of Big Data and it pops advertisement on the basis of
such data (Mayzlin, Dover and Chevalier, 2014). The study report shows that about 83%
of young generation wish to have better and improved travel experience. It is possible by
making modifications in itineraries by considering requirements of the clients. It consider
customisation as one of the way through which people can prefer this company for
making their bookings,
 Virtual reality: The new idea that has been introduced in the travel business for assisting
customers to have a trial of what their booking can be like. It is similar to trying dresses
in a shop before buying them. Since, travel services are expensive, virtual reality can be
beneficial from the perspective of clients to make choices according to their suitability.
Expedia provide this service wherein the hotels have been collaborated with it to
showcase the hotel room and all the facilities that are included in the package. It provides
them view from the balcony as well. It is a 360 degree experience which gives an
impressive adventure. According to survey report, there are some companies offering
travel experience through virtual reality. In Travel and Tourism industry, there are limited
organizations that are using this service because it can add more expenses to the
Recommendations
Travel and Tourism industry is a fast-paced industry having number of new things added
in this by the companies which are operating in this. Every entity should understand these
changes for adjusting their working accordingly. Recently, it has undergone digital
transformation due to which traditional way of business is no longer can be seen. The possible
recommendations for Expedia is that, it should also start conducting business offline through
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franchising in this way it can earn more income. There are people who do not use internet or are
not active on social media. Expanding business physically can help it surviving the competition.
Furthermore, it should include every possible demand of its customers which can increase their
satisfaction. In addition to this, it should make strategies for reducing the costs so that the low
prices can be offered to buyers. Expedia should take strict action against those who has provided
poor services. So that fast improvements can be made which an create good memories and
experience for the clients.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that travel and tourism industry is not just
limited to hotels and other accommodation services. It includes flight tickets, cruises, car rentals
and many more. These are provided by variety of travel agencies and companies for increasing
their sales and profit. It has been transformed digitally which helped the entities to provide their
services expeditiously. Due to this, online business has started by Expedia and its competitors for
surviving in the market. Furthermore, there are variety of trends that have been included in this
industry and are outcome of digital transformation. Hence, before jumping to a new trend, each
of these should be assessed and evaluated to know the suitability of the same. In this way, travel
companies can improve its services and make a better position among the customers.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Swarbrooke, J. and Horner, S., 2012. Business travel and tourism. Routledge.
Song, H.J., Lee, and et. Al., 2015. The influence of tourist experience on perceived value and
satisfaction with temple stays: The experience economy theory. Journal of Travel &
Tourism Marketing. 32(4). pp.401-415.
Wood, S.A., and et. al., 2013. Using social media to quantify nature-based tourism and
recreation. Scientific reports. 3. p.2976.
Anshari, M., and et. Al.,, 2018. Customer relationship management and big data enabled:
Personalization & customization of services. Applied Computing and Informatics.
Gibson, A. and O’Rawe, M., 2018. Virtual reality as a travel promotional tool: Insights from a
consumer travel fair. In Augmented reality and virtual reality (pp. 93-107). Springer,
Cham.
Wang, D., and et. al., 2016. The impact of sharing economy on the diversification of tourism
products: implications for tourist experience. In Information and Communication
Technologies in Tourism 2016 (pp. 683-694). Springer, Cham.
Kim, W.G., Lim, H. and Brymer, R.A., 2015. The effectiveness of managing social media on
hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 44. pp.165-171.
Mayzlin, D., Dover, Y. and Chevalier, J., 2014. Promotional reviews: An empirical investigation
of online review manipulation. American Economic Review. 104(8). pp.2421-55.
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