The Impact of Digital Technology on Business Activity: A Case Study of TUI Group

This research paper critically examines the impact of digital technology on business activity, focusing on the travel and tourism industry. Using TUI Group as a case study, the paper explores the positive and negative effects of digitalization on various aspects of the business, including customer purchase decisions, economic growth, and cost management. The study utilizes a combination of primary and secondary data sources, including surveys and interviews with TUI Group employees, to provide a comprehensive analysis of the topic. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of digital technology for the future of the travel and tourism industry.

The impact of digital technology on
business activity
1

Table of Content
Chapter 1: Introduction:............................................................................................................3
Research background.................................................................................................................3
Aims...........................................................................................................................................3
Research objectives....................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:...................................................................................................................4
Rational of the research..............................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature review......................................................................................................5
Conceptual framework...............................................................................................................5
Role of digital technology in Tourism industry:........................................................................5
Different modes of digital technology:......................................................................................6
Influence of digitalization on economic growth of tourism companies:....................................6
Impact of digitalization on managing cost for the travel and tourism companies:....................7
The impact of digital technology in consumer purchase decision.............................................7
The increasing competition due to digitalization of technology:...............................................8
Gap of the literature...................................................................................................................8
Chapter 3: Research Methodology:............................................................................................9
Research philosophy:.................................................................................................................9
Research approach:....................................................................................................................9
Research strategy:......................................................................................................................9
Data Collection Sources and Methods:......................................................................................9
Sample and Sampling Technique:............................................................................................10
Data Analysis:..........................................................................................................................10
Gantt chart:...............................................................................................................................10
Research Ethics:.......................................................................................................................10
2

Research Limitations:...............................................................................................................11
Reference:................................................................................................................................12
Appendix:.................................................................................................................................13
Appendix 1:..............................................................................................................................13
3

Chapter 1: Introduction:
Digital technology is booming sins the last decade in every segment mankind have ever been
a part of. The project will shade light on the impact of digital technology on business activity.
Travel and tourism out of them is a major part where digital technological advancement made
the major difference when it came to serving the customers travelling around the globe. In
this project “TUI Group” will be taken as an example and the impact of digital technology
will be critically evaluated.
Research background
“TUI Group” entered truism market in the year of 1997. The group use to operate in the
market with less technological advancement and due to this drawback, the business growth
was slow and analogue or manual system made it difficult for them to operate in the market
as the ability to reach the customer when needed was not very strong. However, over the
years the digital advancement of technology has helped the industry massively as well as the
company to progress further.
Aims
The prime aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of digital technology on the business
perspective in order to progress and sustain in the competitive market. Upon identification of
the positive and negative points the study will critically justify the impact of digital
technology.
Research objectives
The objective of the study is as follows:
 To identify the positive and negative impact of digital technology
 To identify the influence of digital technology on purchasing behaviour of consumers
 To identify the affect of digitalization over the economic condition of business
organizations
 To identify the Impact of digitalization on managing cost for the travel and tourism
companies
4

Research Questions:
 What is the positive and negative impact of digital technologies?
 How does digitalization of technology influence the purchasing behaviour of
customer in tourism sector?
 How the digitalization on technology does affect the economic growth of business
organizations?
 How digitalization of technology helped managing cost for the travel and tourism
companies?
Rational of the research
In the contemporary era, digitalization of technology is the biggest catch for the travel and
tourism companies. In order to get the maximum market share and work with ease the
companies are focussing on technological advancement. In the current days, competition is
the highest priority factor which the companies are facing in travel and tourism industry. In
order to get tactical edge over the opponent the companies are more egger in order to survive
in the market (Poonpol, 2018). In continuation to that, digitalization of technology has
brought many companies in the market which affected the market share of the large
enterprises. The research work will shade light upon merits and demerits of digital
technology on “TUI Group”. The research work will critically evaluate the impact digital
technology has on the company in terms of business growth.
5

Influence of digitalization on economic growth of tourism companies
Role of digital technology in Tourism industry
The impact of digital technology in consumer purchase decisionThe increasing competition due to digitalization of technology
Different modes of digital technology
digitalization on managing cost for the travel and tourism companiesInfluence of digitalization on economic growth of tourism co
Chapter 2: Literature review
This part of the research will shade light upon the different perspectives and effects of digital
technology on travel and tourism industry.
Conceptual framework
Figure: Conceptual Framework
Source: As created by author
Role of digital technology in Tourism industry:
Digitalization of technology has helped to evolve the organizational behaviour from the
perspective of business. It has been a blessing when used for the prosperity of organization
especially for the travel and tourism industry as vast knowledge and mass response can be
accumulated through use of the technology. However, it always depends on the application or
strong administration of the same in order to extract the best out of it (Ardolino et al. 2017).
6

Different modes of digital technology:
Digital technology has various aspects amongst which the companies can make their work
easy and profitable. As opined by Lyman (2017), the most appealing aspect of digital
technology is mobile solutions as it is widely available nowadays and Smartphone is the new
trend amongst generation Y. In contrast to that Chun, Kern and Smith (2016) discussed that
the technologies invented in the last few decades such as advanced hardware and software are
the key elements of digital advancement while it comes to managing internal data of a
company. Internet has helped to introduced cloud computing using which the organizations
do not need to store data locally which helped them to avoid maintaining a large system.
Digitalization has made the advertising and marketing process for the companies by
introducing social media which brought a huge number of consumers at one place.
Influence of digitalization on economic growth of tourism companies:
Digitalization of technology has helped the companies to evolve economically by increasing
productivity of the employees and also by making the companies reachable to the customers.
From the perspective of a travel and tourism organization, it has helped to maintain the
customer data which is the most important part for the organization in order to build up a
strong customer base. Digitalization of technology has helped collect and maintain the data of
various aspects of the business and made the data available for multiple employees at the
same time to increase productivity. These benefits can never be achieved by analogue data
which is mainly tangible (Sima and Sima, 2017). The travel and tourism companies has
achieved the same by implementing a strong database maintenance and internal search engine
which made the usable data just a few clicks away from the employees. The same has been
done when digitalization has helped the company to create a digitalised presence on “World
Wide Web”. This has revolutionised the way in which the organizations do marketing and
communicate with the consumer base. Thereafter, it can be stated that the company is
increasing the productivity of each employees and made the products widely known to
customers so that the customers can communicate with the company easily while service is
needed. The “TUI Group” has made major benefits out of digitalization of technology by
creating a mass presence using internet and creating database in order to maintain the
information of the robust customer base.
7

Impact of digitalization on managing cost for the travel and tourism companies:
The travel and tourism industry has maintained all the data manually by someone who was
responsible in contrast to that. This was a very expensive approach and chances of human
error were always there. The maintenance was also costly as it required a large space and
documenting of papers as this was the main mode of storing data manually. On the top of
this, those data needed to be maintained after noting down (Abrate and Viglia, 2016). This
whole process use to take a lot of money and the expenses were very high for the companies.
On the contrary, in current days, advancement of digitalization has helped the companies to
decrease the maintenance cost by introducing a fully automated data maintenance procedure.
This has been possible as the cost of hardware and software has decreased drastically due to
the implications and availability of the products. On a secondary point, the contemporary
populations are also very keen of technology as they have been born and brought up in an
environment surrounded by technology. These two factors helped implementing a strong
infrastructure of data maintenance which is very user friendly and cost effective. Previously
the inventory systems took a lot of time to be created with a huge investment, which can be
done with much less funding and within a few weeks by a few college graduates only. Once
the same has been created, it needs the data to be entered and the system will take care of it
for as long as needed. Hence, there is no requirement of years of time, lot of money and
highly paid professionals to maintain the data which saved a lot of costing for the travel and
tourism companies such as “TUI Group”.
The impact of digital technology in consumer purchase decision
The digitalization did not only help the companies in order to achieve success but has also
helped the consumers and changed their behaviour while making a purchase decision making.
The revolutionized step under this segment is the mobile solutions. Customers prioritize those
companies in travel and tourism which has easy access from the mobile to the products while
making a purchase decision (Horner and Swarbrooke, 2016). The development or
digitalization of technology has also helped consumes to segregate the services while
choosing from various offerings depending on their need by comparing and contrasting the
products. A survey represents that 30% of UK based customer agreed that they use their
Smartphone in order to check the price and offerings before making a purchasing decision of
a travel and tourism package.
8

The increasing competition due to digitalization of technology:
The digitalization of technology has positively affected the travel and tourism industry in
many ways but it opened up the door for the customer to many companies at once.
Thereafter, the competition has been at its highest peak as the companies are fighting with
each other in order to grab the maximum market share. In order to do so, they are taking up
different strategies such as lowering the pricing of the tour packages and providing better
customer service which is helping the companies to sustain the competitive market (Parise,
Guinan and Kafka, 2016).
Gap of the literature
The researcher has faced time limitations and limited funding while conducting the research.
Have the researcher been provided with more time and financial support, he could have
conducted the research in more robust manner. The technology is developing every day and
unfolding new opportunity for the companies which have new impacts on the travel and
tourism sector. Thereafter, it is not possible for the researcher to cover the entire impact of
digitalization of technology. This positive impact of digitalization has benefited the customer
in an economic way. However, this has instigated a high tension competition in the market
due to which the product or service quality might get affected as making the sale is the top
most priority under the given circumstances.
9

Chapter 3: Research Methodology:
The “methodological approach” would outline the implementation of appropriate research
technique and strategies in order to attain the objective oriented outcome of the selected
topic.
Research philosophy:
The researcher would apply the “Philosophy of Positivism” as it would take into the real and
factual information and examine the research issue based on this. In contrast to that, the
researcher did not select the “philosophy of Interpretivism” as it would focus on human
perspective of specific points. The “philosophy of Interpretivism” concerns evaluating a
specific point from various angles whereas “philosophy of positivism” emphasises on
deriving the information from natural phenomenon (Cazeaux, 2017).
Research approach:
The researcher would use a “deductive approach” as the researcher would attempt to logically
apply the data and deduce valuable information by testing and theories and a “top-bottom
approach” will assist the researcher in order to do so. In contrast to that, “inductive approach”
is more focused on “bottom-top approach” as it generates new models and theories in contrast
to the research topic which is not the objective of the paper.
Research strategy:
The research strategy has selected for the paper is “surveys”. The researcher has planned the
“survey” to be conducted as it would statistically analyse the data through questionnaires and
interviews will be conducted with the higher management employees in order to obtain
enriched data in regards to the research topic. The researcher did not select a “case study”
because “case study” is about a “specific phenomenon” which is not required here (O'Leary,
2017). The researcher could have used “experimental strategy” but the motive of the research
work does not concern with introducing new theories or formation of new ideas. Thereafter, it
has not been used.
10

Data Collection Sources and Methods:
The data collection source selected by the researcher is both “primary” and “secondary data
source” in order to add rigidity to the research work. The primary data source is based on
“factual data collection” while the “secondary data source” is second hand data collected
from authentic books, journals and magazines (Johnston, 2017). The “primary data source”
will contain both “quantitative” and “qualitative data collection methods” in order to get the
data from the mass and in-depth data from the higher managers.
Sample and Sampling Technique:
The researcher would use “probability sampling technique” for “quantitative data analysis”
and “non-probable sampling technique” for “qualitative data analysis”. The researcher would
conduct the survey amongst 60 employees of “TUI Group” with the consent of the higher
management which will be an “online survey” due to fewer time frames. The researcher
would conduct “telephonic interviews” with 5 senior managers in order to get the insights of
the issue.
Data Analysis:
The “data analyse process” will be selected by the researcher as he has chosen “statistical
tool” in order to analyse the “quantitative analysis” with “graph” and “charts” as the data is
subjected to testing. In order to analysis the “qualitative data” the researcher has used
“observation technique”. The researcher has used “content analysis approach” for analysing
secondary data.
Gantt chart:
A “Gantt chart” has been designed in order to demonstrate the systematic activities carried
out by the researcher during the study in a synchronised way. Refer to appendix 1 for the
Gantt chart.
Research Ethics:
The researcher made sure that the participation of the respondent are “voluntary” and no data
has been used except “academic reasons”. All the data has been collected and maintained the
complete privacy of it as per the “data protection act 1998” (Resnik, 2015).
11

Research Limitations:
The limitations of the research have been indentified and measurement has been taken to
mitigate the probable impact while conducting the analysis of the data. The research
limitations have been mentioned below:
 The study is based on a limited sized sample due to less funding support
 Personal interviews could not be conducted due to short time period with the
managers while conducting qualitative analysis.
12

Reference:
Abrate, G. and Viglia, G., 2016. Strategic and tactical price decisions in hotel revenue
management. Tourism Management, 55, pp.123-132
Ardolino, M., Rapaccini, M., Saccani, N., Gaiardelli, P., Crespi, G. and Ruggeri, C., 2017.
The role of digital technologies for the service transformation of industrial
companies. International Journal of Production Research, pp.1-17
Cazeaux, C., 2017. Art, Research, Philosophy. Taylor & Francis
Chun, D., Kern, R. and Smith, B., 2016. Technology in language use, language teaching, and
language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), pp.64-80
Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, J., 2016. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge
Johnston, M.P., 2017. Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has
come. Qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries, 3(3), pp.619-626
Lyman, P., 2017. What is a digital library? Technology, intellectual property, and the public
interest. In Books, Bricks and Bytes (pp. 1-34). Routledge.
O'Leary, Z., 2017. The essential guide to doing your research project. Sage
Parise, S., Guinan, P.J. and Kafka, R., 2016. Solving the crisis of immediacy: How digital
technology can transform the customer experience. Business Horizons, 59(4), pp.411-420
Poonpol, P., 2018. The determinants of cross-cultural adjustment. AU Journal of
Management, 9(2), pp.22-36.
Resnik, D.B., 2015, December. What is ethics in research & why is it important. In ideas
Sima, C. and Sima, E., 2017. Aspects of the tourism market development within the
European rural space. Strategii Manageriale, (34), pp.320-326
13

Appendix:
Appendix 1:
Activities
involved
Week
1-3
Week
3- 6
Week
6-9
Week
9-12
Week
12-15
Week
15-18
Week
18-21
Week
21-25
Topic Selection
Data Collection
Techniques
Literature
Review
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Conclusion
Research
Formatting
Research
Submission
14