Supply Chain Management of TripAdvisor: Planning, Sourcing, Making, Delivering

This report analyzes the supply chain management of TripAdvisor, a high-end international tourism company. It covers planning, sourcing, making, delivering, and sustainability throughout the value chain.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of company......................................................................................................................3
Revenue model of company........................................................................................................3
Supply chain and logistics management of company......................................................................4
Planning.......................................................................................................................................4
Sourcing.......................................................................................................................................5
Making.........................................................................................................................................6
Delivering....................................................................................................................................9
Contact.........................................................................................................................................9
Sustainability throughout the value chain........................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Supply chain management involves the flow of products and services from sourcing of products
to the point of consumption by the customers. The purpose of report is to determine and analyse
the business global logistics, channels of supply chain and sustainability throughout the value
chain in the entire manner to the end users. This report is prepared on the high-end international
tourism company that is majorly involved in the online selling of the products to the customers in
the global market. The company that has been selected for this assignment is Trip advisor is
travel and restaurant website that provide hotel and restaurant review, accommodation-booking
facility, as well as other travel-relate content.

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Overview of company
TripAdvisor is world’s largest travel platform that provides the help to approx. 490 million
travellers in every month and makes every trip as their best trip. The travellers make use of
website as well as mobile app through which they can browse more than 760 million reviews and
opinions of approx. 8.3 million restaurants, accommodations, airlines, experiences and cruises.
The website is accessible for the people available across the world. This site is helpful for the
people who are planning for a trip for comparing the process of great restaurants, prices of
hotels, popular tour and attractions and many others (TripAdvisor, 2019). The travel comparison
is very easily possible with the TripAdvisor due to which it is considered as the high-end
international tourism company who deals in online selling. The company is considered as the
largest social travel website across the world with more than 315 million reviews and details
about more than 500 hotels, restaurants, and travel-related businesses (TripAdvisor, 2019).
Mission: - The mission of the company is to help the people across the world plan and to have
the perfect trip.
Revenue model of company
As per the 2017 annual report, the company is able to earn 43% of its revenue through the
subsidiaries of its two most essential advertising partners that include Expedia and Priceline
Group. The company is able to make revenue from the click-based advertising and other types of
advertising for the different brands. The partners of the company help in booking for the hotel
and other facilities that is one of the factor that promote the tourism across the world.

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Supply chain and logistics management of company
The supply chain management is considered as wide range of the activities that are required to be
plan, coordinate, schedule and to control the procurement, production and the deliveries of the
products to their customers (Christopher, 2016). Supply chain and logistics management is
limited to the products only who are manufactured as well as physically visible but it is also for
the services that are not visible. In the competitive environment, every company makes their
supply chain system strong enough so that they can easily manage the activities (Hugos, 2018).
In the tourism, the supply chain includes the different components that include accommodation,
transport, shopping, and packages for holiday, restaurants, and many others. TripAdvisor
company deals in the tourism due to which they provide the online information related to the all
these facilities. In addition to this, the company have their own business partners that help in
making the bookings (Monczka, Handfield, Giunipero & Patterson, 2015). For example;
TripAdvisor provides the details for the flight and when customer find the best deal after
comparison then they can generate the ticket for booking. In this, the customers are required to
mention their details, which will work as the lead, and this will be further forward by the
company to the concern-booking partner. After this, the partner will contact the customer with
the help of details and can confirm the booking of customer (Happy Easy Go, 2019). This shows
that there is presence of the proper supply chain management that is followed by the company.
The supply chain and logistics management of the company for the services is discussed below –
Planning
It is one of the major component that include effective planning and managing all the resources
that are essential to accomplish the needs of customers for services by the company (Heizer,

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Render, & Munson, 2017). TripAdvisor company plan for forming the tie ups with the partners
across the world as this allows them to provide best comparison and wide range of availability of
company who provide the services related to tourism. This helps them to get the best details
about the services that are provided by the partners to TripAdvisor so that they can post the
content related to company on their website. The planning of the company also involves the
company to whom they want to acquire to extend the activities of the tourism. In addition, the
reviews, which are displayed by the company on their website, are real due to which they need to
make planning that how they can grab the attention of the customer to share their experience
with the company.
Sourcing
The sourcing strategy includes company to contact different supplier for offering goods and
services required to provide services to customers (Mangan & Lalwani, 2016). The user-
generated content is source by the company by motivating the users to review their experience
with the company. This will help them to show the actual services that have been provided by
particular hotel, restaurant, and other. The company share the email to the customer who fetches
the details through website for sharing their experience with the particular service provider.
Along with this, it has been found that the customers are not the only source of the content for
the company. TripAdvisor company also gather the details from their partners with whom they
have the tie up which is related to their company, services, facility, prices, discounts and other
services that they offer to their customers present in the market. Along with this, the TripAdvisor
partner company will allow the facility of listing their property and the related details. This will
help the TripAdvisor to share the details with the customers who are planning for the trip across

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the world (Booking.com, 2019). This sourcing helps the company in conducting their operations
effectively.
Making
In the online service tourism company, the making involve the use of sourcing to provide the
services to their customers. TripAdvisor Company makes use of the content, which is gathered
by them through the customers and their partner companies for providing the services. Every
customer who visits the TripAdvisor wants the reliable and beneficial details for them before
making the trip. The reviews of the customers help in displaying the actual rating for the service
provider being it hotel, restaurant, flight and others. The customer will make their decisions
because of these reviews and ratings (Fredendall & Hill, 2016). The final decision-making helps
the TripAdvisor to direct the customer to other partner’s website for generating the lead for the
booking. For instance; customers plans for the trip to some destination and search for the hotels
for making the booking. This makes the customer to compare the ratings, services, prices,
reviews and many others before making the decision depending on their own requirement. This
helps the customer to select on the hotel and then customer check for the entire details available
for the hotel (Booking.com, 2019). At that time, the company TripAdvisor redirect customer to
their partner client that is booking.com who will further provide the exact details for the hotel
room. This is clear with the image given below which reflects the exact details of the hotel as the
booking that customer wants.

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(Source: Booking.com. 2019)
In this entire process, the next step for the customers is to register and provide the details that
will make the hotel lead and they will contact the customers for the confirmation of booking.
Along with this, this page will also show the prices that will be charged for the room and
company provides the free cancellation to the customers if in case they want to stay in the hotel.
(Source: Booking.com, 2019)

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Further, the page includes the details for the additional services that are provided by the company
and might be customers are willing to avail those services. The customers can enjoy the
convenience of the breakfast and rent car. The hotel will add the additional charges as per the
need of the customers.
(Source: Booking.com, 2019)
The page includes the exact details on the left hand side and special request of the clients are
asked which offer the value as well as experience to the customers.
(Source: Booking.com, 2019)

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The process is explained for the hotel and this process remains the same for the other activities
that helps the TripAdvisor Company to generate the revenue from every lead that is provided by
them to each partner.
Delivering
The activity of delivering the services is linked with logistic management that include ways
through which services are offered to customers. TripAdvisor Company provide the services to
the customers with the help of their website and mobile app which contribute effectively in
making the customer to check the services and avail the best as per their needs. The company
shares the e-mail once the ticket for the customer has been generated as this helps the customers
to track their activities that are done by them a related to TripAdvisor (Booking.com, 2019). The
company has the backend team who helps customers for conducting the entire process through
website and app. The backend team include the research and development team, contact persons,
support department, content writing team and many others.
Contact
In this supply chain, the online services are provided so there is possibility that the customers
want to contact to the company. TripAdvisor Company can contact through their mail and then
get revert from the company within the next 24-48 hours (TripAdvisor, 2019).
Sustainability throughout the value chain
The sustainability through the value chin includes the management of the social, environment,
and economic impact on the products and services that are offered by the company. The value
chain operations of the company are not related with the environment, as the online services will

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never lead to the issues for environment (Giannakis & Papadopoulos, 2016). Thus, sustainability
is maintained by the company in terms of the environment. The company provides all the details
through a single click that makes the company not to fetch any details on paper or affect the
atmosphere.
In addition, company also maintains the social sustainability with the help of their own value
chain as they provide the wellbeing to their employees. TripAdvisor Company provides the
healthy work profile and for working members, they have different benefits that help them to
maintain their business operations effectively. The employees of the company are free to take
their decision and make the required steps for their supply chain (Dubey, Gunasekaran,
Papadopoulos, Childe, Shibin & Wamba, 2017). Further, the employees of the company have the
normal shift time to balance their health. The company offers the health check-ups to their
employees to ensure that they are healthy by performing the daily work activities. Along with
this, the company makes the customers to visit the website and app that helps them to build a
strong social connection, which is good for them as this, will bring the personal development.
Economic sustainability is maintained by the company, as it does not involve use of any resource
by them. As it is an online business, due to which they do not consume any sort of the natural
resources. The company contribute in the development of nation as they promote the tourism by
offering different options to the customers (Silvestre, 2015). The visits of the customers to the
nation contribute in improving the economy and development in country with the help of
tourism.

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(Source: Johnsen, Howard, & Miemczyk, 2018)
The company believes in maintaining the sustainability in their value chain for which they
manage the business risk, realising the efficiencies, and forming the products that remain
sustainable. The business maintains the transparency among their partners that leads to the
transparency of the operations that are conducted by the business (Morais & Silvestre, 2018).
TripAdvisor Company saves the cost of the customer and leads to the efficiency of the supply
chain. They have the good brand reputation that is formed by them by providing the quick
services to their clients. The company is able to source the details easily with the help of their
reputation in the market. They are able to manage the customer and business partners’
requirement. TripAdvisor Company keeps bringing the new things for their customers that show
that they keep innovating in changing market.

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Conclusion
In the end of the report, it can be said that every company have their own supply chain that
contribute in managing their business operations effectively. TripAdvisor Company has their
own supply chain and logistics management. The report includes the details relayed to the
company and the services that are provided by them in the market. The supply chain and
logistics management of the TripAdvisor Company are discussed. This involves the different
processes, which is followed by the company such as planning, sourcing, making, delivery, and
contact. The company adopts the different strategies through which they can effectively manage
the operations of the business within the competitive environment. In addition, it includes the
details related to the sustainability that is managed by the business through the value chain. The
company ensure that they are able to meet the sustainability in terms of the social,
environmental, and economic elements within business value chain.

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References
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aid=7344211;label=metatripad-link-dmetain-hotel-239800_xqdz-
5d5a5d57d900569c9725bf391ac96962_los-04_bw-033_dom-in_curr-INR_gst-02_nrm-
01_clkid-XYhC-goQLYQAAcI5N9UAAADt_aud-0000_mbl-L_pd-T_sc-2_defdate-0_spo-
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782066;highlighted_hotels=239800;hlrd=with_av;keep_landing=1;redirected=1;source=hotel
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10-
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_currency=1

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