Analyzing Customer Engagement in International Tourism Industry

This report delves into the intricacies of international travel and tourism management, with a focus on understanding customer needs, wants, and preferences within the hospitality industry. Using Booking.com as a case study, the report explores factors that drive customer engagement, including innovation, customer relationship management, problem-solving, and effective marketing. It also presents a customer experience map for Booking.com, outlining key activities from research and planning to booking and post-travel engagement. The report further analyzes touchpoints within Thomas Cook to identify opportunities for enhancing customer experience, such as mobile applications, hotel premises, company websites, and restaurant settings. Finally, it discusses the role of digital technologies, particularly customer relationship management systems, in controlling and improving customer experience, and provides examples of customer service strategies designed to meet customer desires and business standards.

International travel
and tourism
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................4
P1. Explain the values and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of
target customer group for the hospitality industry......................................................................4
P2. Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different
target customer groups within a service sector organisation......................................................5
P3. Customer experience map for booking.com.........................................................................6
P4. Manner in which touch points create such opportunities throughout customer experience
within Thomas Cook...................................................................................................................8
P.5. Describe how digital technologies is engaged in controlling customer experience with in
the service sector company, by giving suitable example of customer relationship management
system?........................................................................................................................................9
P.6. In the context of specific service sector give an example of customer service strategies?10
P.7. Explain how strategies related to customer service create & develop in such a manner that
fulfil the desires of customer & the required standards of business?........................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
International Travel and Tourism management includes hotels, tourism venues, airlines,
travel agencies, tourism destination. Tourism is a sector related to tourism industry that deals
with aspects of travel & accommodation. Other secondary requirement are also satisfied by this
industry. In the past few years, there is a boom in international tourism. People around the world
are now seemingly travelling around the world with fair & affordable packages that have been
put up by the tourism industries around the world. The company that was selected in this report
are Booking.com. It was founded in 1996. It has its headquarter in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The
CEO of the company is Glenn Fogel.
TASK
P1. Explain values & importance of needs, wants and preferences of target customer group with
respect to hospitality industry.
Hospitality industry is services industry which is generating highest profit in the economy
and serving their customer with luxury products and services. With the analysing the needs and
wants of the customer, organisation can provide exactly what the guest needed. Enlightening the
importance of needs, wants and preferences of the costumer in hospitality industry:
 Needs- Needs are the basic requirements of the guest which is essential for the survival
of an individual. In context to Booking.com, company will able to know the basic needs
of the guest that will help in generating extra sale. Customer give primary importance in
getting needed items and services. By getting the needs of the guest, Booking.com will
able to do changes required in the operations and can create good brand image in the
market.
 Wants- Wants are the basic need but these are the likings and have great impact on
customer after getting all the wants. Hospitality industry should give extra effort to fulfil
the wants of the costumer and by knowing the wants of the customer, Booking.com can
expand their area of service and give all the wanted product and services to the guest.
 Preferences- These can be different from one person to another like anything can be
important to anybody. So it is very important6 to know the customer's preferences.
Company should produce premium quality of product that can meet the preferences of

the cusP1. Explain the values and importance of understanding the needs, wants and
preferences of target customer group for the hospitality industry.
 Hospitality industry is services industry which is generating highest profit in the
economy and serving their customer with luxury products and services. With the
analysing the needs and wants of the customer, organisation can provide exactly what the
guest needed. Enlightening the importance of needs, wants and preferences of the
costumer in hospitality industry:
 Needs- Needs are the basic requirements of the guest which is essential for the survival
of an individual. In context to Booking.com, company will able to know the basic needs
of the guest that will help in generating extra sale. Customer give primary importance in
getting needed items and services. By getting the needs of the guest, Booking.com will
able to do changes required in the operations and can create good brand image in the
market.
 Wants- Wants are the basic need but these are the likings and have great impact on
customer after getting all the wants. Hospitality industry should give extra effort to fulfil
the watomer and by knowing all the preference of their clients, booking .com do exact
changes in their production and supply chain to meet the demand of the customer. It will
help in earning more profit.
P2. Explain the different factors that drive as well as influence engagement of customer , to
capture target customer groups within a service sector organisation.
There are various factors that is attracting the targeted customer for taking interest in the
organisation. This will help in giving better customer experience and provide quality of services.
The different factor that are attracting the targeting the potential customer are follows:
 Innovation- It is the factor which influence the customer to buy the product. With the
changing preferences and liking of the customer, they need innovation in the product and
services. With the regular innovation in the product, Customer react to the Booking.com
and it includes change in design of the product, Change in the delivery process etc.
 Customer relationship management- CRM is defined as the relation maintain with the
customer in positive aspect. This include providing premium product to the customer,
having good customer services, easy to connect to the organisation. These all aspects will

leads to high demand of their product , Guest will likely to visit again in the hotel and
increase the profit sharing of the company.
 Problem solving- This is the main point that affect the customer to visit the website again.
Problem solving involves easy and quick solution of the customer's query. This can be
done by have effective Telephone service in the company. With the good service in the
organisation, It will contributing to the growth the service industry.
 Effective marketing- It is defined as the promoting their goods and services in such a way
that company can attract the market. It involve sales promotion, direct marketing,
personnel selling by the organisation. With the help of effective marketing customer will
attract to their brand and take interest to buy their product.
P3. Enduser experience map regards to booking.com
Customer experience mapping is a process where the organisation track the interaction
between company and audience. Booking .com maps clients experience from research to the
final result. The organisation experience map is explain as follows:
MAP ACTIVITIES
Research & Plan Association with the execution of research by
clients about the travel location as per their
desire and post that, development of full
fledged planning in respect to the holiday.
With the regards of plan various different kind
of facilities and assistance given by company
that covers online applications, websites, at
different location presence of physical office at
different areas and involves the agents who are
ready to provide personalised services. These
alternatives helps to diversify group of
consumer. Like company are in hurry due to
tight schedule. Use of mobile application give
easy access to these customer with specialised
service that relates to immediate payment and

improve the experience for the company.
Booking Booking.com provide comfort to their clients
through making the process of booking
accessible & quick to all through its
application & website, which is user friendly.
Thus with the help their apps and websites,
customers could easily search for the packages
that suit them best and make their booking
using online payment services provided by the
organisation.
Entailment of customer service 1. This comprises of the correspondence
that exist between audience & staff of
the organisation booking.com. The
organisation ensures that adequate as
well as relevant training is provided to
the members of staff to provide
pleasurable and comfortable
experience. Thus, the company has
instant support services on their mobile
apps & websites as it ensure assistance,
safety and convenience to clients. There
fore employees provide customer-
service by using company's techniques
of on boarding like enrol in tour
package & also avail the services
mentioned on their websites & apps.
Checkout & future customer engagement As it is an end step of mapping process witness
procedures such as making provisions for
forms which are related to feedback and
spontaneous communication portals that allow

clients to share their experience with
executives of customer's service of the
organisation.
P4. Manner in which touch points create such opportunities throughout customer experience
within Thomas Cook
Audience touch points are the interaction with clients by the company in the whole
activity of engagement. These touchpoints are related to facilities provision , data flow/ handling
of transaction. The respective touchpoints are deeply explained in the below paragraphs in the
context of Booking. Com
Mobile Application: As these points are related to customer as the application developed
for the company must be attractive but user friendly to that it can easily understand by the
customer. The organisation can develop this as an opportunity through personalised provision
offer and many options for audience to select as per their requirements. Selection of holiday
type and the hotel they are interested to stay in and facilities easily be decided upon by the clients
over the app. The assistance of audience service requires to exist for audience with in the
application. It cover an option of safety tabs that support the public to interactt with company in
case of emergencies regardless of the location.
In hotel premises: this is considered the most important touch customer. From the time ,
customers check in into the hotel to the point that they check out , the employees of the company
plays a significant role to act in inflating the experience driven by clients. The members of staff
must have formal code of conduct at the time of working so that customer feel that clients are
dealt with in a respectable as well as professional manner. At the time of taking entry in the
premises they are greeted by the staff members of the company. The staff member are
responsible to escort their customers to their rooms and try to make sure that customers do not
face any problem at the time of stay in Hotel. In the case of emergency clients are professionally
communicated by staff members with the measures that can be undertaken by staff to exercise
safety. Thus technologies like automated safety system, self checkouts can be used to results
effectiveness. All these factors enable the entity to inflate the driven experience by clients.
Company's website: Before the starting of the trip , many inquiries faced by client that
must be solved to achieve satisfaction from audience. To this serve this purpose the organisation

Booking.com must ensure the easy in website accessibility for customers so it becomes possible
to interact by using chat box. On the website revert should be provided so that in timely manner
the queries must be handle and they can be convinced to experience the services given by the
organisation. However it provide information regarding special services, deals, different
packages and also the chat features that allows the audience to clarify their doubts
spontaneously. The above respective touch points supports the organisation to engage & hook
audience for long.
At restaurant premise: Adequate training is provided to workforce those are operating
in the restaurant so that greet the audience in presentable manner at the time whey they entry in
the premises. Prior guest entry, they ready the meal table and staff member should give their
service to clients to their table. Menu card must be placed on the table so that it saves the time of
customer because they do not wait for a single minute. At regular interval the staff asked guest to
serve extra meal. At last , post the consumption of meal by customer. A polite goodbye with
proper thanking for the reason of premises visiting is done by staff members at last. Also said
regarding feedbacks to make changes and bring improvements in their services as well as in their
services. On the other hand various technological advancement is used in the restaurants like pre
booking facility, mobile billing , that also enhance further the experience of clients.
P.5. Describe how digital technologies is engaged in controlling customer experience with in the
service sector company, by giving suitable example of customer relationship management
system?
Customer relationship managements indicated the process in which interactions of
company is manage with present and also with their potential customers. Digital technology has
a positive impact on this management thus, analysis of data plays a significant role in
determining buying & preference behaviour of audience as well as their respective history. With
respect to the organisation Booking. Com, through software the customer relationship
management is controlled & managed. The software is right now technologies' CRM packages. It
is the most commonly acquired system which must be developed by using the technology of
automation. Therefore the company has agenda to suitably manage and develop its relationship
with the customers w/o spending large amount in technology. Mainly, the respective software
uses mode to optimise enquiries, complaints, that would help the organisation to save lots of

money. This help customer directly to engaged in online conversation with executives of the firm
that enhances the convenience & further improve scope of engagement within organisation..
P.6. In the context of specific service sector give an example of customer service strategies?
It is necessary for the organisation Booking.Com to engaged strategies related to
customer service that supports as well as assist the organisation to serve in better & effective
manner to their customers . Additionally the respective strategies would tends to leads growth &
sustainability of the organisation. And also to accomplish its policies as well objectives of
company. There fore it is observe that the company Booking.com make various strategies for
customer service as these are describe in below mentioned paragraphs.
 Infrastructure Development: Another strategy is to develop infrastructure in such a
manner that it can easily handle large audience effectively with their spontaneous
assistance. It allows more people to interact with the organisation and posses specialised
as well as effective services such as seals or festive deals, personalised tour packages. It
also linked directly with the objectives of the company to increase its profitability &
productivity. Thus better infrastructure supports the organisation to acquire or gain
knowledge, technologies, resources and better equipments that links directly to
profitability as it as also another firm objective.
 Training of workforce: It is the most effective strategies of customer service as it is
compulsory because employees are responsible to deliver the services physically to
audience. At the time of interaction with customer, the executives of the company are
need to handle complaints of individuals, queries, request etc. Training help to support
them to make more control in managing audience than it turns as service provider to
clients . Additionally it aligns the targets for organisation to ensure market share suitably.
The reason behind this is that trained and skilled workforce serves better service that
results to attract more and more audience, thus increasing the scope capturing huge
market share.

P.7. Explain how strategies related to customer service create & develop in such a manner that
fulfil the desires of customer & the required standards of business?
 Training of Employees: Booking.com conduct various training & development
programmes to their workforce that gives them opportunity to develop skills, like
customer service management, soft skills, gaining knowledge etc. It also enables them to
develop skills, so that they perform their duties appropriately. Standards of the company
require its workers more competent to deal with multiple & distinct customers.
Therefore, the respective strategy create as well as develop experiences. It is necessary
for Booking.com to implement customer service strategies that helps the organisation in
serving their clients in a better manner. Additionally the following strategies would also
contribute towards growth and sustainability of the organisation, along with achieving its
policies and organisational objectives. Thus, for booking.com, there are several
strategies related to customer service as these are explain as follows of customer needs through engaging them with knowledgeable and educated employees
who could assist them in a better manner. accomplishment of customer needs through
engaging them with knowledgeable and educated employees who could assist them in a
better manner.
 Infrastructural Development: Booking.com is famous as most effective company to
develop the infrastructure as per availability of time and make change in business
environment. Audience need to update their mobile application to acquire services. Thus,
they perceive ease and enhanced quality service in term to digital services, that firm
could ensure optimally by developing their infrastructure. On other hand, firm standard
encourages the company to make modification in internal and external systems according
to the changes exist in market and thus, the respective strategy also aligns to achieve
firm's standards policies and objectives.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of thorough analysis it was concluded that it is very necessary to managing
experience of customer to engage audience for long duration of time within the organisation. It is
imperative to analyse value as well as importance to understand needs and preferences of

endusers groups, along with exploration of different factors in driving as well as nfluencing
customer engagement. Thus, creation of map in respect of customer experience , along with
effective analysis of touch points allow company to gain many opportunities throughout
experiencing customers. At last strategies related to, digital technologies and customer service
employed that tends to enables company to deliver effectively their excellent service to their
audiance.

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