Analyzing Disruptive Tourism Challenges and Provider Strategies

This report examines the disruptive forces impacting the global travel and tourism industry, including high customer expectations, the use of mobile devices, the impact of big data, and the effects of regulations and travel risks. It analyzes the strategies employed by Thomas Cook to navigate these challenges, such as open communication, providing clear timelines, transparency, and regular follow-ups. Furthermore, the report explores the future challenges travel and tourism providers face in gaining a competitive advantage, including demographic changes, personalization, sustainability, and technological advancements. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the industry's current state and future trajectory, highlighting key factors that will shape the success of travel and tourism providers in a dynamic environment.

DISRUPTIVE
TOURISM
CHALLENGES FOR
PROVIDERS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Disruptive forces affecting the global travel and tourism...........................................................1
Strategies applied by Thomas Cook to over the disruptive forces..............................................3
Future challenges travel and tourism providers facing to gain competitive advantage..............5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is travel that is for the purpose of pleasure or business. It may be international or
within the country of traveller, it is the business of attracting customer for accommodation and
entertainment purpose. It is the activity that involves tourism for holiday, business, leisure and
other purpose. It is changing as the modern day challenges are affecting the choices of
individuals and the tourism providers with the disruptive forces affecting the global travel and
tourism. The future challenges that the travel providers are facing in adopting and enhancing the
choices of business and gain sustainable competitive advantage.
Disruptive forces affecting the global travel and tourism
In the present conditions of effective travel policies and travel distribution channels,
travellers are having many options to give their customers choices and effective travel
experiences. Increasing demand and effectiveness in the tourism clearly indicates that in the
coming years travellers will need to create different choices for their customers. Apart from this
there are few disruptive forces that are affecting the global travel and tourism business(Xiang,
Magnini and Fesenmaier, 2015). Some of key disruptive forces are as follows:
 High customer expectation and mind set- The rise in customer demands and there ever
changing mind are the factors that affect the travel companies ideas and making it
difficult for them to go with desired policies. Their failure in providing customers with
their needs and demands and according to their expectations increases the chances that
they will travel with other travelling companies that provide travelling experiences to
their expectancy. Consumers expectation in today's market is growing to travel with more
quality services. They want efficient purchasing, effective shopping experiences and
active services. They need more personalized services and have started searching for best
experience and the services that suit their choices and needs. If the consumer take this
personalization services in the right direction it can be a big challenge for the travel
companies and providers and to meet the ever changing needs and demands and
preferences of the consumers(Standing, Tang-Taye and Boyer, 2014.).
 Use of mobile devices- Consumers and nowadays focusing on the research and
developing their interest to search and booking their travel using mobiles, tablets and
other sources to buying the travel services. It is easier to use and they are able to book
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their travel even at the last minute and most of the time, tickets are booked at the very last
time. Hotel booking, travelling experience and restaurants, bus tickets and all the other
services related to travel and tourism globally are available on mobile many are using
these services and making it difficult for the agents to adopt new technologies to carry on
with the new trends in market(Hudson and Thal, 2013).
 Big data impact and analytic- Big data impact global travel and tourism affects the
industry as it creates the opportunities for the travel providers and move in the fast
growing industry and also with the data that shows the interest of customers in travelling
and the trend of tourism in market. The change to be made from analysing the travel
requirement and consumer intention and market trends in the travel industry and ways to
change them are as follows:
Travel industry has the opportunity to change their existing as well as new product and with
more effective functions. Travellers these days provide real reviews and ratings and
recommendations to enhance their travelling experiences. Treavel providers also can get to know
about the travellers search options with the real enquiry. The quality of the service is known by
the trusted sources that provide the legal information. The real data analysis helps travel
companies to have the overall view of the customer that has an amazing increase interest by the
customer. The data also helps the travel providers and to analyse the historical data that will
motivate the companies to price the product according to the requirement to attract customers.
Analysing the actions and interest of customers will also help the travel providers to have a good
analysis of the market trends and make strategies effectively(Buhalis and Foerste, 2015). This
data also help them to encourage effective campaign and promotional events to attract customer
and gain competitive advantage. This data analysis also helps the airlines and hotels to make
prices and the changes in the market according to the trend.
 Regulations- The global market in the travel industry have different national and
international regulations that depicts the government rules and according to the
competition in the market. The travelling experience is analysed by their concept of
sharing data and economy to introduce the lower travelling experiences. The social and
economic factors of the country and developments and the ever-changing political
practices makes it difficult for the travel providers that stops the growth of travel
industry.
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 Travel Risk- Travel risks such as terrorism, political, social or economic unrest can be a
disruptive factor that affects the global travel and tourism. Tourism is one of the biggest
industry that has direct impact on the national economy and it contributes to the
economic growth and develops opportunities such as employment, revenues, culture
supporting behaviour and entertainment purpose as well. Other travel risk are natural
disasters, terrorism, crime and political instability that are risky factors and blocks the
growth for the industry. These natural disasters and travelling risk affects the destinations
and the interest of traveller to further make their mind to visit again. Many countries are
suffering from political instability and terrorism both that is the main disruptive force for
them to enhance their growth in travelling industry. These factors directly and indirectly
affects the process that travelling companies are providing. The areas under terrorism
attack are the places that have to deal with the economic unrest and tourism as well, no
tourist prefer to travel the places that are affected with these reason and have risk of life.
Natural disaster affects the tourism and has always affected the industry with huge
destruction to life and properties(Cheng, Wong and Prideaux, 2017.). This factor affects
the consumer decision for travel planning and gives a negative impact to tourism sector
and also impacts in the economic factor as well.
Strategies applied by Thomas Cook to over the disruptive forces
Thomas Cook is the leading tourism provider and they focus to provide their customer
with effective travelling experiences. Their motive is to clear the consumers doubts and enhance
their ability to make sure that their customer do have effective travelling experiences. The
disruptive forces that affect the global travel and tourism experiences are effectively dealt from
their effective techniques and to deliver great services to their consumers. The disruptive force
that affect the tourism industry and the travel provider is the higher customer expectation and
mind set. This can be effectively cleared by the companies abilities and strategies that they
implement to have higher customer satisfaction in the industry(Guttentag, 2015). The strategies
that Thomas Cook implements to overcome these issues of customer are as follows:
 Their ability to openly discuss solutions- Their business strategy and effective customer
support to prevent these situations and openly discuss with the customers about their
issues and their ever-changing mind set. They focus ton know the customer expectations
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in the industry and what they want to have or what are their needs and requirement from
the service providers. Thomas Cook implements this strategy and talk to their customer
effectively about their expectations and the possibilities to take decisions. They ensure
that the customers queries are taken care of and they are provided the possible
reinforcement for their expectations.
 Provide clear timelines- They can provide clear timelines to their customers and about the
effective travel plans that are implemented properly. They can take initiative in
generating complete tour plans and at what time which triviality will take place. They
must be clear and sure to the task and the time that will take.
 Be transparent and honest- To manage the customer expectations and to give them
effective indication about their requirement it is crucial that the company be specific and
honest in developing the travel plan(Chung, Lee and Han, 2015.). They must provide
their customer with transparent possible solutions while keeping their demands and
requirements in mind. The customers service must be well organised and full information
about their plan be stated clearly. They should not keep secrets to all the cost that will
occur to their tour plans. It is their responsibility that they manage to read the mind of
their customer and also give effective solutions to their queries. To ever-changing mind
of the consumers and their expectations it is also difficult for the customers to consider
the situations and implement their requirements(Page, 2014). Apart from the situations
and the requirement they must create a good relation between them. This will also
develop good relations among them so that there is no need to be worried about the
transparency of the travel plans.
 Remain optimistic, but realistic- Companies must ensure that they are being realistic
while being optimistic as it is a part of the positive customer experience. They must be
confident about the future and be also real to the situations. By understanding the need
and expectations of the customer it is required that they are also being real and not giving
any false information and promises to their customers just to sell their services(Mason,
2015). They are required to develop good customer relations and be true about the
information and the quality about their services leaving behind the future relations. They
must ensure that they are true so that there is a better development in the relations of the
customer and travel provider. This strategy helps them to encourage effective work
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culture and increase their brand value and also getting into the mind set of their
customers. Higher customer expectation is a difficult task for them to acquire and it is
required that they being optimistic and worrying about the future relations and their brand
quality give best services to consumers and be realistic for the service quality while going
with customer expectation.
 Follow up regularly- They can implement this strategy and develop a requirement to
follow their customers so to go with their expectation and demands. This follow up
process ensure to the customer that the company is really worried about the quality of
service and will also make sure to deliver it. It is essential for every company to take
feedback from their customer so that they are able to generate more quality services in
terms of keeping their customer demands in mind(Edgell Sr, 2016). The travel provides
optimises this strategy so to look forward in future and encourage their customer
demands by applying more effective tour plans. This follow up strategy helps the
company to minimise the requirement and demands and if there is other requirement or
need to change in the plan that can be initiated for further relations.
Future challenges travel and tourism providers facing to gain competitive advantage
Travel and tourism providers have to deal with many challenges at the time of
implementing the travel plan for their customers. Moreover, there are many more challenges that
the tourism provider face to gain the competitive advantage within a disruptive environment. The
future challenges that travel and tourism providers will face in this growing business market are
as follows:
 Demographic changes- The demographic change is the factor that makes an impact on
the travel and tourism providers and there are some trends in the demographic change
that will result in the loss of the same. First the growing population and requirement of
every individual will be different and managing their expectancy will also create a
challenge for the travel providers to maintain their demands and plan according to their
requirements(Pratt, 2015). Secondly, the change in the workforce will create a dramatic
change in the part of immigration. The last one the rise in the emerging market that is
increasing much faster and the need to develop the strategies for their future plans and
grow attention to acquire their needs and develop the organisational activities for future.
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 Technology- The impact of technology is going to increase and their will be requirement
for every travel provider to gain trust and opportunities to technological development.
This will affect the companies policies and they will need to go global by using the
technology and considering these factor it is essential for them to adapt to new
technology so that they are able to develop strategies to overcome their issues to fight
with technological development issues. These challenges are extensive and essential for
the companies to go with the change and develop their business as the coming population
will be focusing to go with technology at the finger tip.
 Climate change- Change in climate and the impact of these changes affects the travel
providers plans and marketing strategies and they have to go globally and see to these
issues and be aware of the climate change in the global environment. The changing
process in the climate is as essential for the individual to develop their tour structure and
sudden climate change will affect their travelling experiences.
 Structure of work- The change in structure of work and sharing economy will be the
future trend and fighting with the culture and relating to the issues will also make an
impact on the working of the companies.
 Market trend- This is the most effective factor that the companies haver to face and
develop strategies for these issues as it is an important element where the companies have
to grow as per the market trend. This factor will make them to change their strategies and
be ready with other strategies in advance so that they are able to compete in the business
environment. They also need to focus on the trends that are being accepted by the market
and will also have to make strategies for more futuristic trend while developing new
plans for the customers.
 Marketing issues- The companies will face the issues related to effective marketing
strategies. It is required from the companies that they effectively consider the
requirement of marketing their services(Weed, Bull and Wellard, 2014). The marketing
issues are making it difficult for the companies to survive in the market as they will have
to develop strategies and produce effective marketing techniques so that they are able to
gain competitive advantage in the business environment. It is essential for the companies
that they make futuristic marketing strategies for the development of their work culture
and also gain competitive advantage.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that to develop in the global market it is required
from the travel providers that they continue to look for more opportunities and maker strategies.
There are factors that are making it difficult for the services of the company to survive in the
market and gain competitive advantage. It is concluded that companies need to develop strategies
and keeping in mind the requirement of their customer and develop it for future perspective, so
that they can gain it for future and develop their demand and trust in their customers.
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