Critical Analysis of ICT Strategies for Travel and Tourism Businesses

This report delves into the crucial role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the travel and tourism industry, using Booking.com as a case study. It begins by evaluating the ideas, concepts, models, and frameworks of ICT within the sector, highlighting its transformative impact. The re...Read More

Assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
COMPONENT 1..............................................................................................................................3
Critical evaluation of ideas, concepts, models, frameworks in ICTs for travel and tourism.....3
Critical analysis of the role of ICTs for the strategic development of tourism or hospitality
businesses....................................................................................................................................4
what is strategic creativity and strategic innovations and ICT tools/applications/systems in
travel and tourism or hospitality.................................................................................................5
Information technology systems and applications used in tourism or hospitality......................6
Critical assessment of the online presence of the organisation...................................................7
The ICT and online presence issues found at the organisation...................................................8
Recommendations for deploying the strategic technology solutions..........................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Information and Communication Technology is the expanded version of the information
technology. This term is mainly referred to as the convergence of the telephone networks and
audiovisual with the computer network by a link system or the single cabling. UK is considered
as the largest ICT market in the world. The digital technology is part of the daily life of every
person which includes tablet, computer, mobile phones, emails, browsing the internet or making
a video call. The ICT plays a pivotal role in the tourism industry and the integration of the IXCT
in this industry is necessary for the success of the travel and tourism industry. The tourism
industry needs its target market which is grabbed by a single click after the emergence of the
digital technology (Antolini and Grassini., 2020). The ICT is playing a major role in
transforming the tourism sector globally. The organisation chosen for this report is Booking.com
which is an online travel agency. It is a global company which is headquartered in Amsterdam,
Netherlands. This report shall cover the evaluation of idea, model, concept and framework of
ICT for the travel industry, role of ICT for strategic development of this industry, concept of
strategic creativity and innovation and tools of ICT in the tourism industry. Further it will deal
with the IT system and applications which are used in tourism industry, online presence of
booking.com, ICT and online issues found in the company and at last the recommendations for
deploying the solutions for the strategic technology.
COMPONENT 1
Critical evaluation of ideas, concepts, models, frameworks in ICTs for travel and tourism.
ICT has revolutionised the world and and has impacted the economic and social
development of the country. The use of technology has become popular due to the ability of the
ICT to produce, provide and distribute the access of the information to the people. Tourism is
one such industry where the application of the ICT is found which provides long term benefits to
this industry and helps in enhancing the economy. The technology has played a major role in
shaping the travel and tourism industry. The wide use of ICT has transformed this industry
beyond recognition and has gained benefits tremendously. The idea behind the ICT for giving
shape to this industry lies in its practical approach where it works for the management of the
sustainable tourism development (Booyens., 2020). This approach helps in curbing the negative
impact of the tourism where the technology will help in making use of the destinations. Another

idea behind ICT for revolutionising the travel and tourism is that it want to reduce the role of the
travel agents so that customers can themselves search for their needs through a single click. ICT
works with an approach to shift this industry from the traditional tourism approach to the new
tourism industry where technology plays a major role in shaping the value chain of this industry.
It works to make the consumers adopt the new era where they can adapt new values, products
and lifestyle.
The ICT encourages business to customer application and has an application of the Use
Diffusion model which is considered as more appropriate for the consumer technologies. The
inherent complexities and nature of the evolution. This model is applied to conceptualise the
adaptation of the ICT in the tourism industry where the adopters are categorised in terms of their
variety of the use of ICT and the rate of the use of ICT (Chakraborty and Sengupta., 2019).
There are two dimensions of this model of which The variety of dimension focuses on different
application of the ICT which is being tried by the companies and the usage rate dimension sees
the extent to which it is being used by the firms.
Booking.com has taken advantage of ICT and revolutionised its business globally. The
company has flourished in this new era where ICT has taken a shift of tourism industry from
traditional tourism to the new tourism. The support of ICT has helped Booking.com to capture
the global market where it conduct its activities from business to customer application.
Critical analysis of the role of ICTs for the strategic development of tourism or hospitality
businesses
The ICT infrastructure is effective and of high speed. It is very crucial for the
development of this industry. The ICT has transformed the contemporary environment of the
business which has led to new information economy. It has played a major role in shaping this
tourism industry which involves firstly that the ICT allows to reach the global audience. For
instance, through ICT, Booking.com has got the opportunity to expand its market share where
people are able to reach globally through a single click. With the help of ICT, Booking.com will
not be able to take a high reach in the global market. It helps in communicating the information
directly to the customers (El-Gohary.,2016).
Another role involves that ICT assist in the marketing and distributing its ware for the
small businesses so that it can develop the small enterprises into the large one. Initially when
Booking.com was launched, it took the help of ICT in promoting its business and got positive

response in return of that. The global presence of Booking.com makes it clear that ICT has
helped in strategically developing the enterprise into a global business.
Thirdly, ICT creates the digital market places for the supply chain which increases the
efficiency of the business and open the previous closed market for the firms in the developing
countries. With this, the companies can place their business in the digital environment and expect
greater market share in return.
Another role of ICT includes the better intra firm communication, reduction in the cost of
inventory and cost saving procedures which helps in better management. The communication
between business and customer have become strong where the consumers can get easy access to
all information (Maggon and Chaudhry., 2018). For instance, Booking.com has efficiently
utilised the technology which results in better relationship of the business with its customers.
Secondly the company has improved its management system where technology has helped in
improving the culture of the business and made it cost efficient.
ICT has played a significant role in contributing to enhance the economy where it has
developed the export and other aspects like employment. It has uplifted the economy and given
new shape to this sector by eliminating the mediators and bringing direct contact between the
business and the customer.
what is strategic creativity and strategic innovations and ICT tools/applications/systems in travel
and tourism or hospitality.
Strategic creativity refers to that system which is designed to help the businesses to
identify the possible strategic opportunities which have not been seen before. Strategic
innovation on other hand is a determined, planned, targetted and measured pursuit of the changes
within the organisation which lead to the introduction of the new product or service, new supply
chain link, new production process, communication changes, managerial revisions and the
institutional paradigm shifts (Manhas., 2019). It is a dimension of a strategic management
discipline where the innovation is embedded and included in the companies in order to maintain
and achieve the competitive advantage.
The company Booking.com can use any of the two approaches of the strategic innovation
which involves firstly that the innovation is planned by the top level management and secondly it
is a part of everyday life of the workforce. It is up to the company to chose which approach is
suitable for it. In order to enhance the efficiency of the business, Booking.com can utilise any of

the innovation in its business which may include technology driven innovation, price and cost
driven innovation, customer driven innovation, employee driven innovation and many other.
These innovations will help the organisation to manage its working effectively and make its
global presence more effective and productive. For instance, if the company uses customer
driven innovation, it will focus on the betterment of the customers which will help the company
to improve its productivity and enhance its profitability.
There are many tools of ICT which can be used by the businesses in order to enhance its
business. There are mainly two types of tools of ICT where first is traditional tool which includes
fax, telephone, newspaper, advertisement, post, etc. The second tool is modern tools of ICT
which includes internet, emails, website, computer, etc. (Pan., 2020).
The companies nowadays use modern tools of ICT which helps them to push their
business to new heights by making a global presence. Booking.com effectively uses the modern
tools of ICT in order to enrich its business and capture the global market. Booking.com uses its
website to make its presence and capture the customers at global level. Other tools which is
utilised by the company involves internet facility, emails and many other in order to enrich its
presence. The tools of ICT have helped in shaping the tourism industry as it has brought easiness
in business and make direct link between the customers and business.
Information technology systems and applications used in tourism or hospitality.
Information technology has helped the tourism sector to flourish. Earlier the tourism
sector did not gained the popularity due to less familiarity of the people with this sector. But
now, technology helped in emergence of this sector which gained highest popularity in the last
few decades. The travel and tourism sector has adopted the information technology in order to
reduce their cost and enhance their operational efficiency (Pant.,2019). It helps the industry to
improve its service quality and the customer experience.
There are many information system and applications which can be utilsed by the
companies in the travel and tourism sector in order to enhance their global presence and market.
Booking.com uses the following systems and applications which involves- Internet/ intranet/ extranet- internet is the worldwide accessible computer network
which is accessed publically that transmit the data using the standard internet protocol. It
is the largest internetwork in the world. Intranet on other hand is the private network
which is within the organisation. It mainly include the local area network or the wide area

network technology for the network connectivity. Extranet is the intranet of the company
which is extended to the outside users of the company like customers, suppliers, partners
and many other. So in simple words, internet is public internetwork, intranet is company
based inside network and extranet is for users outside the company (Prideaux and
Thompson., 2020). Booking.com uses this in order to build a connectivity with the
customers so that it can offer their service through a single click to the users who are
spread across the world. It operates globally and offer their service to all. This
information technology system is effectively used by the organisation in order to build
positive relation with the customer and serve them with the best experience.
 Computer reservation system- It is web based software in order to conduct and retrieve
the transaction relating to the hotel, air travel and other activities. The main purpose of
this system is to make the one stop service shop and also eliminate the geographical and
physical distance between the consumer and the mediator. It helps in focusing on a single
activity. This system is effectively utilised by the company Booking.com in order to
make its service available to the customers who can use it in a simple manner. This
system also helps the company in retaining their loyal customers as it clarifies each
information to the consumers easily. For instance, this system display the service of
travel with images and price, provide online payment gateway, email notification and
many other.
Critical assessment of the online presence of the organisation
Nowadays, the dependency on the online platform for the travel and tourism sector has
increased which made it mandatory for the companies to bring their operations online so that it
can enhance its efficiency of the operations. The companies dealing in travel and tourism sector
has gained popularity through this medium. There has been a heavy competition in the
hospitality industry where Booking.com has gained popularity in terms of global booking engine
which is also a travel partners as it helps in managing rooms and reservations. The company uses
extensive marketing strategy to help customers online in finding quick and effective deals.
Booking.com has also gained its popularity from online platform where its has
established its online presence. The company has the major evidence of its online presence
through its website. It operate its business online and provide services to the consumers online
(Rashid., 2018). The consumers can avail the services by visiting the website and can get all

information relating to the services in a customised manner. Another major evidence for its
online presence include its mobile application. This has made the work of the consumers easy as
they can avail the service anywhere anytime by accessing the application. These two have helped
the company in building its online presence and make a global reach. The customers review their
experience on the website and mobile application which makes their business more authentic and
reliable. Online business or e commerce has been a challenging business where people have trust
issues. The company Booking.com has established itself online and make its presence in the
minds of whole world. The company participates with other companies like Tripadvisor Instant
booking so that it can have direct booking from the customers online. It is the booking partner of
Booking.com.
The digital marketing of the business also contributes to the online presence of the
company. The company advertise its activities through social media platform where it regularly
update its customers with latest information. It has access on many social media platform like
facebook, instagram and many other. The company effectively manage its digital media to
maintain its online presence which helps in increasing its efficiency.
Another point is search engine optimisation. The company has built its online presence
and made it a succeed. While the users search the travel and tourism companies, Booking.com
top the list. It is automatically referred to the user which makes its online presence strong. The
users are directly sited to the website of the company and can easily access its service. The
website also helps the customers with the reviews which makes their visit to the website
worthwhile as the customer did not want to access another website (Shafaei., 2017).
The ICT and online presence issues found at the organisation
With spreading the online presence, there comes many issues which the company faces
while dealing online. The issues which the company Booking.com faces relating to its online
presence is discussed below- Cross border issue- This issue provides that the company has its operations spread
worldwide. While dealing in multiple countries, it faces many issues like it has to comply
with the laws of different nations and provide the services according to their needs and
wants. Moreover, the company faces problems in customer facilitation as there are
thousands of customers globally who have their different preferences so it makes difficult
for the company to work accordingly and maintain its online presence.

 Relatively low cost of labour- the company operates globally in multiple countries and
has to function in each of the state. The cost of labour in each of the country vary and are
not same. This is one of the issue which company Booking.com faces while dealing in
different country as it has to manage its operations everywhere. The cost of labour at one
location is different from other and may lead to capital intensive solution if the labour
cost is low and vice versa (Unurlu., 2019).
 Requires responsible and supportive private sector- Booking.com works at global level
and has collaboration with different hotels, airlines and many other. It has to deal with
every country's hotel or airline in order to make its presence online more effective. Also
the company has to take care of this also that the hotel or airline they are collaborating
with are trustworthy and will provide genuine service to the customers. If it is not sorted,
the company may face issues relating to its online presence as it may be adversely
affected.
Recommendations for deploying the strategic technology solutions
In order to cope up with its issues and make its business survive and grow, the company
Booking.com is recommended with solutions relating to the deployment of the strategic
technology solution which is explained below-
 The company Booking.com can use the technology acceptance model in order to deploy
the strategic technology solution. This model helps in using and accepting the
technology. It will help in decreasing the cost of its technology and help in adopting such
strategic technological solution. Through the effective use of the technology, the
company can cope up with its cross border issue where it can work on market screening
to find out the needs and preference of the customers and make changes accordingly.
 The company can make use of the future technology application like artificial intelligence
for the customer service. For instance, booking.com can initiate the chat box system
where it can provide rapid response to its customers so that their problems and queries
can be solved instantly. Also by using the future technology application, the company can
find the authenticity of the private sector as to whether the hotels and airlines registered
with Booking.com are reliable or not.
 The company Booking.com can make use of the Internet of Thing (IOT) so that it can
deploy the strategic technology solution to enhance the customer experience. For

instance, Booking.com can bring on the new feature where the customers can track their
luggage through a link which is sent by the company on their mobile phone when they
book any airline service.
 The company can make use of Internet of Everything (IOE) which is the connection
between the people, thing, process and data which is combined into the common
interrelated system. This can be utilised by the company Booking.com to enhance the
experience of the customer and make good decisions. As company is facing issue on the
cost of labour, the company can make use of it and conduct the market research so that
they can find out which market is feasible for them.
COMPONENT 2
Marketing plan is a kind of report which outline the marketing strategy for the coming offering
which the company is going to offer. It generally includes the overview of the marketing of the
business and the advertising goals.
Executive summary
Booking.com is a global company dealing in the travel and accommodation service. The
owns a website through which it offers its service to the customers. The website has listed over
28 million listings and the site is now available in 43 languages. The company is planning to
introduce the online tool in the form of a feature which involves a spark to the customer at the
time of check in or availing the service regarding the Covid 19 positive patient or any unwell
person in its nearby location of about around 500 metre radius.
Vision
The vision statement of the company is top offer the user friendly and informative
website to the customers with the best rates. The goal of the company is to provide the leisure
and business customers with a cost effective and pleasant way to book the hotel accommodation.
Mission
The company works with the mission to provide the people an easy experience
throughout the world. It focuses on providing pleasant and cost effective travel experience.
SITUATION
SWOT analysis
It is a model used to analyse the internal position of the company which includes
strength, weakness, opportunity and threat.

Strength
 The company is very successful in
execution of the new project as it
generates good return on its capital
expenditure. The staff of the company is highly
skilled through the training and
development as it invest in their
training a lot.
Weakness
 The company is not efficient in its
finance planning as its asset and liquid
ratio shows that it can use its funds
more effectively.
 The company has gap in its product
range which it sells. This lack in
choices may lead to giving competitive
advantage to others.
Opportunities
 The development in technology may
help the company in practising different
pricing strategy so that it can maintain
its customer loyalty base. The new trends of customer behaviour
may help the company to explore new
market by diversified service option.
Threats
 Shortage of employees at global market
is threat to its growth.
 Through online channel, it is difficult to
chase the consumer buying behaviour
which act as threat for the company.
Objectives
 To enhance the sale by 20% in this pandemic time.
 To earn a profit of 40% in order to overcome the loss suffered during the lock down
phase. To attract the customers in order to avail the service.
Segmentation Targeting Positioning
Segmentation- the segmentation of the company is based on demographic factors which
includes age, lifestyle, gender. Booking.com focus on lifestyle of the people.
Targeting- the target market of the company is middle to high income people who are
eager to travel and explore the world.
Positioning- the company has positioned itself on the online platform. It has its website
and mobile application through which it has positioned itself.

Tactics
Marketing Mix
 Product : The product will be online based application which will allow to access the
positive persons in radius near to us. The primary aim of this product is to take health of
customers as a primary concern. Price : The price of this service will be included in the packages being booked by the
consumer directly no extra charges will be taken for this separately. Place : This will be completely an online application based service. The customers could
easily avail this at time of booking the packages. Promotion : The digital platforms will be used to promote this feature. The SEO, Social
media marketing tools will be used to promote. The advertisement will be placed on bill
boards, newspapers televisions extensively. The website will also be modified to
incorporate this feature. The sales promotion will be used to attract more consumers. The
Rebates, coupons etc. will be provided to consumers to attract them and for travel agents
the coupons, discounts will be provided to increase the use of Booking.com. The relations
with suppliers also have to be maintained strongly to attract more consumers. Process : This will be an fully online based service. The focus will be to give an easy
mobile and laptops access. The company will try to provides user friendly and seamless
loading of this feature. Physical Evidence : This will be in organisation with the travel agents, hotels, third party
logistics and app developers to make such effective apps. The team of effective app
developers will be maintained to have the effective technology provided to consumer.
 People : The specialised training will be provided to employees to make this service
effective. The employees are the main part in this service to make it more successful.
Controlling and Monitoring
The controlling and monitoring techniques are sued to judge the effectiveness of the
goods and services. The KPI tool will be used to monitor the performance of this feature. The
average page loading time, user friendly access, easy navigation and the loading time on various

platform it will include mobile and laptops. Based on these indicators the performance of feature
will be judged and monitored.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that technology has shaped the face of the tourism
industry where it has revolved the operations of the sector. The ICT have helped this industry to
grow and make its presence globally through a single click. ICT have different ideas and model
which help in changing the framework of the travel industry and has given a new shape to the
sector. Booking.com can make use of this in order to enhance its customer experience and gain
productivity. The ICT plays a significant role in development of the industry as they have
provided digital market place to the travel companies and have improved the culture of the
business. Further it is concluded that the company has maintained its online presence globally
but it faces many issues relating to it like cross border or responsible and supportive private
sector and many other.

REFERENCES
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