New Technologies and its Optimisation in Tourism Industry

This report discusses the importance of new technological applications in tourism industry functions. The policies and plans for the optimisation of these technological interventions in the travel and tourism industry would be suggested, and the scope would be evaluated.

Running head: TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
Tourism Planning Environment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

1
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
New Technologies and its Optimisation in Tourism Industry
Position statement
The tourism industry in Australia is growing to be one of the highest contributors to
the GDP of the country. Travellers Choice is one of the most renowned travel agencies in
Australia. This group of travel agency is the winner of the 2019 National Travel Industry
Award. This company has the best network of travel agents, and they hold the shares of this
company directly. Holiday plans and short time tours both are arranged by this company with
attractive packages. The tours are organised in America, Europe, Antarctica, Asia, Pacific
and Australia and New Zealand. Travellers choice aims to deliver the best experience to the
customer through value packages. The company has its agents working in all areas of
Australian urban and suburban localities. The consumers could have personal interactions
with these agents to have their trip sorted. The company believes that tours and holiday
destinations should be designed according to the personal preferences of the customers.
Travel needs of the customers are also fulfilled through giving flying and accommodation
options. This company has its partnerships with some reputed airlines and hotel chains.
Overall, this travel agency could be the one for all destination for the customers who want to
experience new dimensions in travelling.
Insertion of new technological interventions in the tourism industry would increase
the efficiency in every section. This is an age of technology and the internet. Customers are
showing their inclination towards individualised and time-saving experiences. The changing
trend of customers could only be mitigated if the travel agencies are developing their policies
for adopting technological changes. This report would discuss the importance of new
technological applications in tourism industry functions. The policies and plans for the

2
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
optimisation of these technological interventions in the travel and tourism industry would be
suggested, and the scope would be evaluated.
Background context
Changing contexts of the customers as well as the customers in the tourism industry is
easily detectable. The business or organisation that is not technology-friendly might end up at
the point of various disadvantages. Technology, like any other business sector, is immensely
influencing the aspects of tourism. The issues that have catered the need for technological
incorporation in tourism are discussed below.
Change in customer trends
The first thing that has to be given significance is the changing attitude and demands
of the customers. People are more tech-savvy than ever with their small mobile devices and
computers. There is huge competition in the market, and this strengthens the bargaining
power of the customers. As opined by Navío-Marco, Ruiz-Gómez and Sevilla-Sevilla (2018),
they could easily compare and contrasts the deals and choose the best one for them. Every
part of a tour or holiday planning and execution could be done in an effective and time-saving
way through the internet.
The travel agencies that do not have technology in their operations suffered from
various issues. The types of travel planning have changed as the requirements have changed
with time (Liang et al. 2017). Some of the tourists are interested in entertainment while some
of them also visit countries for adventure and knowledge gaining. The budgets are varied, and
so are the preferences. It is becoming a challenge for the tourism industry to manage all the
big data manually, without the help of the internet or computer (Boes, Buhalis and Inversini
2015). Other than that it also increases company maintenance and manual labour costs. The
customers want advice from their tour managers before starting and deciding their tours.

3
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
They want all the information at home within their hand-reach. It is only possible through
technology to address all their concerns and mitigate them. This industry needs to be always
connected and communicating with their customers to retain them.
Increasing Competition
Every sector in Australia is facing stiff market competition, and the tourism industry
tops the list. As this is a growing sector and the government is showing its interest to invest in
tourism, the number of travel agencies are increasing every day. In this challenging situation,
it is quite obvious that companies who provide ultimate service to the customers would
survive. According to Xiang and Fesenmaier (2017), one who is not aware of the market
trends and is unable to mitigate the requirements of the consumers would face problems in
managing the issues and challenges in the market. Technology enables companies to improve
the scopes and outcomes of services (Gretzel et al. 2016). The use of internet and websites
enhances the connection between the customer and the agencies. The more a travel planner
reaches the customers, the more the scope of his business success.
Technological innovations
People related to the travel industry are being immensely influenced by the
technological trends that the customers are following. As the preferences of customers are
changing with the time, companies in this industry are making the technology efficient for
coping with the situations. There are a number of technological interventions that are
affecting the context of tourism.
Things of internet
The innovation of the internet is the most revolutionary achievement of humankind.
The IoT or internet of things has increased the connectivity and circulation of data through
common daily used devices (Ujang et al. 2016). The role of IoT is only increasing with time.

4
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
For instance, a consumer of hotel service could be provided with a device that will enable
him to control the light or air conditioner from staying in one place.
Recognition technology
Hotels are using the recognition technology in their operations for entry and check-
outs. This is to keep with the key trends of the industry that technologies like facial
recognition, fingerprint recognition, biometric identification and retina scanning (Werthner et
al. 2015). People are attracted to hotels and travel agencies who use the latest technologies
for their business.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is transferring the advertising experience of travel companies.
Augmented reality adds life to live scenes through various technological insertion and filters
(Chen et al. 2017). The tourist agencies are enhancing the views of the tourist spots through
the graphical representation of the places. Using different filter and modes, a destination is
displayed by providing information that is most time relevant.
Virtual reality
The most famous trend in tourism advertising in 360-degree videos and images. After
the innovation of this technology, the trend has quickly gained a reputation in the market.
This is one of the most useful discoveries for the tourism industry because it could transport
the customer digitally to the place they want to go (Tan et al. 2017). This makes the process
of selection easy. The customers get the opportunity to review the exact conditions of the
hotel rooms, the spot through the websites of the agencies. This encourages the customers to
book the spots for their travelling schedules. VR or Virtual Reality is a bit expensive in
today's scenario, but it is proving its worth in the tourism business.

5
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
AI and Robotics
Artificial Intelligence is being used in every sectors and industry. It complies a vast
range of technologies together in it. The most prominent use of this technology is seen in
customer services (Ying, Norman and Zhou 2016). Data sorting in the hotel industry is
important to work. The technology of AI could actually solve all the data related problems in
the sector. Again AI is also used in business analysis, market decisions making, data saving
and evaluating the performance.
Big hotel chains are using AI robots to increase their efficiency. The companies like
Hilton are using robots with speech recognition ability. Creation of intelligent luggage cases
or detecting weapons in the airport, all could be done through robotics implementation. There
is no doubt that AI would influence and rule the future of the tourism industry in the near
future (Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko 2016).
Statement of need
Planning is an essential part of any new starting. The context of tourism is changing
every day. A company that wants to prosper in its journey need to have knowledge of all the
changes and trends going around them. Staying updated is necessary to get a competitive
advantage, understanding the target market inclinations and managing the shareholders in the
business (Koo et al. 2015). Travellers choice understands the necessity of implementing
technological advancement in its operations. It has already been using some the innovative
medium in decision making and work process. Whenever a company wants to include any
type of change in it, the importance of planning becomes more relevant (Nezakati et al.
2015). The reason for planning the changes in Travellers choice to incorporate technological
interventions depends on some factors. These are discussed below:
Role of government

6
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
The Australian government is hugely interested in tourism of this country as they are
gaining massive outcomes of it. Therefore, the tourism industry needs to address the
importance of government in implying any change in its policies. As this report talks about
the optimisation and amalgamation of new technology in the tourism industry, there are some
facets where the companies might need the help and guidance of the Australian government.
The first thing that comes in this context is the policies and practices related to the tourism
industry. The research and developments are related to government funding. Also, the
government have to make sure that their regulations are not hampering the business context
of the tourism agencies unnecessarily. The tourism companies could prepare a plan to
implement in their operations, but the infrastructure for the plan is chiefly provided by the
government (Li et al. 2017). Even if a company is able to increase the number of booking
through technological applications, it would not be useful if the concerned government have
difficult visa application or other aviation policies. International business of tourism is
influenced by the policies of the government that includes provision related to major cultural
and destination marketing. Other than that, the cybercrimes are one of the common issues on
the internet, and that is to be controlled by the governmental policies (Benckendorff, Xiang
and Sheldon 2019). The acts and provisions of tourism, online business and aviation are all
under control of the government. The need to understand the role of government before
entering planning is essential in this way.
Stakeholders
Managing the stakeholders’ interest in a business is related to the stability and
effectiveness. Shareholders are the people who are influenced by the organisation's functions
at every step. Main stakeholders in the tourism business are consumers, shareholders,
government and employees of the agency (Huang et al. 2016). Changes are tough to
implement, and that need extra financial and workforce support. It is important for companies

7
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
to communicate the importance of changed policies and to plan to the stakeholders. If we take
the context of the employees, they are the internal stakeholders who would play a pivotal role
in managing the change. The employees need to be trained and shunned to develop their
skills in using new instruments and software.
Shareholders are part of the business who need to be kept informed. It is the
responsibility of the tourist agency to transfer the important information of the changes that
are required. One of them is the government who are the provision makers. The decisions
made by the government influences the context of planning (Buhalis and Amaranggana
2015). The plan would work only if that is aligned with governmental policies. Funds and
research are provided by the government. Some of the investors and shareholders are an
active participant of business. All of them need to be convinced about the policy changes. A
company could only get the required supports in technology implementation if they could
reason the stakeholders in to it. Complete and effective planning is instrumental in managing
the interests of different stakeholders.
Customers
One should not forget that whatever changes in the technological part a company is
aiming, they are doing that for customers’ retention and satisfaction. Before starting to plan
anything, a tourism agency must think it form the customers’ perspective. Planning for
optimisation of new technology is necessary as it would reduce the risk factors and improve
the business scope (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). A business with a higher scope has a better
clutch on the customers. The facilitation policies of new technologies would increase the
connection between the customer and the agency. In this way, the company would be able to
understand the individual needs of their target segments and organise their trip accordingly.
The big data technologies would help them retaining huge information of the customers and

8
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
categorise them accordingly. The Travel agents of Travellers choice would be able to provide
more personal interactions with their customers.
Employees
The plan of optimisation of technologies like AI and recognition technologies would
increase the efficiency of the employees; they could work smartly with the help of new
technology. The working time would be reduced, and the effectiveness of performance would
increase (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier 2015). Through the training and active efforts of
the employees, this plan could be successfully implemented in the tourism business of
Travellers Choice. Employees or tourist agents could do their work in less amount of time
and concentrate on customer satisfaction and demand mitigation.
Possible reasons for Government intervention
The areas where the government could intervene in these new policies include
security and implementation types. Most of the time, the regulations of e-commerce influence
the context of technology implementation. Laws that are designed for customer information
saving, security and sharing is the main concern here. The technologies that are decided to be
included in the business needs to acquire access to the personal details of the customers
(Gretzel et al. 2015). The government will intervene if the company is involved in any misuse
of this information. Therefore, companies need to understand the provisions thoroughly.
Another important part is funding. The instruments required in this planning are expensive
and required the help of R&D to be successfully implemented. If the government is funding
for some of its parts, it would definitely like to follow up. This is to ensure that the companies
of the tourism industry are using these technologies in an affair and transparent way. Any
discrepancy between reality and projection would involve the interference of the government.

9
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
Scope of the proposed plan
Policy Approaches
Changes could not be implemented effectively with the right kind of approach. The
tourism industry is going through several changes in trends and operations. Working for
including new technological trends in the company operation of Travellers Choice, the first
step would be to identifying the needs and loopholes. This is the initial stage of planning in
which the organisational try to identify the areas that they want to change or improve (Xiang
and Fesenmaier 2017). No technological intervention should be included if the need for it is
not identified properly. The loopholes could be in the resource allocation, employee
inefficiency, time management, or using obsolete technology. The main target of the
company would be enhancing the positive experience of the customers. The approach should
be open-ended as there could be some other outcome of this planning.
The approach would also vary according to the choice of technology. Implementation
and its nature changes with the scope and context of technology. Organisations must
understand that the technological changes are not going to be easily understood by the
employees at first. The approach here needs to be patient and understanding. They have to be
ready to face the challenges and shortcomings of this venture. There could be some resistance
and problems faced by the tourist agency in the first place as these changes are challenging
(Nezakati et al. 2015). The employees need to be informed of the need for this change so that
they could open up and prepare themselves for the same. Authority needs to provide all the
supports with instruments, machinery and training to the workers.
Instruments
Technological interventions need to have some software and efficient workers as an
instrument. The company must have some employees who have moderate to high knowledge

10
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
of the internet and its operations. For a company like Travellers Choice, there could be a
requirement for developing some useful software to operate and save data of the customers.
This process could involve a big financial backup. Technology is costly, but the effectiveness
of the technological interventions in the business is massive. Therefore, Travellers Choice
might need to appoint some skilful employees for technological operations, and at the same
time, they have to train the employees to manage the challenge of digitisation.
Proposed process
Before starting the changing plan, Travellers choice authority should try to build a
team for investigating and reporting the needs and demands. This team should have some
experts who have sheer knowledge of the present requirements in tourism industry and
technology as well. This team report would be the consultant for this new intervention in the
company.
The first step is allocating the areas that needed technological make-overs in the
tourism industry. The next step is selecting the apt technology. Organisations have to choose
the most effective one for them among the plethora of options. Like, in some cases, this could
be the use of virtual reality to increase customer attractions, or in some cases, this might be
AI which would enrich the performance of the employees.
Then comes the involvement of employees in this process. The changes are to be
practised by the employees. Be it the AI or recognition applications; the employees have to
be known of the process. The management should communicate with the workforce about
how these changes are planned to be incorporated in the organisation and who are they going
to work with to fulfil this requirement.
Training in these stages of implementation is necessary to involve the employees and
upgrade their knowledge. Technology is developed for the betterment of the work

11
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
environment but could be problematic if not operated smartly. Incentive programs are
sometimes proved effective to encourage the workforce getting adapted to the changes.
The last step is evaluation and follows up. There could be a pilot project first,
operating in small size and scope in the business parameter. The result of this pilot attempt
would serve the purpose of the project outcome at first. According to the result of this pilot
attempt, the company could plan the rest of the intervention and incorporate the required
changes in the implementation plan.

12
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
Reference
Benckendorff, P.J., Xiang, Z. and Sheldon, P.J., 2019. Tourism information technology. Cabi.
Boes, K., Buhalis, D. and Inversini, A., 2015. Conceptualising smart tourism destination
dimensions. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2015 (pp. 391-403).
Springer, Cham.
Buhalis, D. and Amaranggana, A., 2015. Smart tourism destinations enhancing tourism
experience through personalisation of services. In Information and communication
technologies in tourism 2015 (pp. 377-389). Springer, Cham.
Chen, J.S., Kerr, D., Chou, C.Y. and Ang, C., 2017. Business co-creation for service
innovation in the hospitality and tourism industry. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 29(6), pp.1522-1540.
Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., Xiang, Z. and Koo, C., 2015. Smart tourism: foundations and
developments. Electronic Markets, 25(3), pp.179-188.
Gretzel, U., Zhong, L., Koo, C., Boes, K., Buhalis, D. and Inversini, A., 2016. Smart tourism
destinations: ecosystems for tourism destination competitiveness. International Journal of
Tourism Cities.
Huang, Y.C., Backman, K.F., Backman, S.J. and Chang, L.L., 2016. Exploring the
implications of virtual reality technology in tourism marketing: An integrated research
framework. International Journal of Tourism Research, 18(2), pp.116-128.
Koo, C., Gretzel, U., Hunter, W.C. and Chung, N., 2015. The role of IT in tourism. Asia
Pacific Journal of Information Systems, 25(1), pp.99-104.
Li, Y., Hu, C., Huang, C. and Duan, L., 2017. The concept of smart tourism in the context of
tourism information services. Tourism Management, 58, pp.293-300.

13
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
Liang, S., Schuckert, M., Law, R. and Masiero, L., 2017. The relevance of mobile tourism
and information technology: an analysis of recent trends and future research directions.
Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 34(6), pp.732-748.
Navío-Marco, J., Ruiz-Gómez, L.M. and Sevilla-Sevilla, C., 2018. Progress in information
technology and tourism management: 30 years on and 20 years after the internet-Revisiting
Buhalis & Law's landmark study about eTourism. Tourism Management, 69, pp.460-470.
Nezakati, H., Amidi, A., Jusoh, Y.Y., Moghadas, S., Aziz, Y.A. and Sohrabinezhadtalemi,
R., 2015. Review of social media potential on knowledge sharing and collaboration in
tourism industry. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 172, pp.120-125.
Tan, G.W.H., Lee, V.H., Lin, B. and Ooi, K.B., 2017. Mobile applications in tourism: the
future of the tourism industry?. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 117(3), pp.560-581.
Ujang, A.H., Omar, A.R., Rani, I.A., Azmi, A., Kamal, S.B.M. and Abdullah, D., 2016.
Factors influencing consumer’s intention to use self service technology in tourism and
hospitality industry. International Academic Research Journal of Business and Technology,
2(2), pp.118-122.
Ukpabi, D.C. and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. Consumers’ acceptance of information and
communications technology in tourism: A review. Telematics and Informatics, 34(5), pp.618-
644.
Werthner, H., Alzua-Sorzabal, A., Cantoni, L., Dickinger, A., Gretzel, U., Jannach, D.,
Neidhardt, J., Pröll, B., Ricci, F., Scaglione, M. and Stangl, B., 2015. Future research issues
in IT and tourism. Information Technology & Tourism, 15(1), pp.1-15.
Xiang, Z. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2017. Big data analytics, tourism design and smart tourism.
In Analytics in smart tourism design (pp. 299-307). Springer, Cham.

14
TOURISM PLANNING ENVIRONMENT
Xiang, Z., Magnini, V.P. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2015. Information technology and consumer
behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet. Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, pp.244-249.
Ying, T., Norman, W.C. and Zhou, Y., 2016. Online networking in the tourism industry: A
webometrics and hyperlink network analysis. Journal of Travel Research, 55(1), pp.16-33.
Zaitseva, N.A., Goncharova, I.V. and Androsenko, M.E., 2016. Necessity of changes in the
system of hospitality industry and tourism training in terms of import substitution.
International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 6(1), pp.288-293.