TUI Group Case Study: How Technology Shapes Travel Decisions

This case study investigates the influence of technology on consumer decision-making within the travel and tourism sector, using TUI Group as a specific example. It explores factors influencing consumer choices, the impact of technology on consumer behavior, and relevant consumer behavior models. The research methodology includes data collection through questionnaires and utilizes an interpretive research philosophy. Key themes identified include the role of market campaigns, economic conditions, personal preferences, group influences, and purchasing power in shaping consumer decisions. The study also examines how technological advancements, particularly social media, have altered consumer expectations and communication channels, and analyzes consumer behavior models, highlighting the importance of marketing stimuli, external environmental factors, consumer psychology, and consumer features in the decision-making process. The research aims to provide insights for businesses to understand and adapt to the evolving consumer landscape in the digital age.

Analysis of the influences of technology
on consumer decision making In
Travel and Tourism Sector

Table of Contents
Title: To analysis the influence of technology on consumer decision making in Travel and
Tourism Sector – A Case Study on TUI group...............................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1.1 Aims and objectives.......................................................................................................1
P1.2 Factors that contribute to the process of research project .............................................2
P1.3 Literature review of key references................................................................................3
P1.4 Research methodology ..................................................................................................5
P1.5 Appropriate plan for research project ............................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Match resources efficiently to the research question.......................................................8
2.2 Research investigation in accordance with the agreed.....................................................8
specification and procedures.................................................................................................8
2.3 Record and collate relevant data.....................................................................................10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................13
3.1 Research evaluation techniques......................................................................................13
3.2 Interpret and analyse the results....................................................................................14
3.3 Recommendations for further consideration..................................................................16
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................18
4.1 outcomes of the research to an audience........................................................................18
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................19

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Consumer behaviour model......................................................................................4

Title: To analysis the influence of technology on consumer decision making in
Travel and Tourism Sector – A Case Study on TUI group
TASK 1
P1.1 Aims and objectives
Background of the study
The influence of digital technology on consumer decision making in travel and tourism
sector is important and essential factor to be considered. There are different factors which
influence the decision making process as well. Consumers are the core factor in every
organisation. In today's world, companies are advertising their products and service online to
attract more customers. Customers can compare the products of tourism sector online and then
can choose the product which is suitable according to his budget or requirement. Digitization
alters the behaviour of customers as well. Industries can promote the products during the travel
through different attractive methods and can change the decision of the customers.
Rationale of the study
It is essential for the travel and tourism industry to analyse the impacts of digital
technology on the business and influence of technology on consumer decision making in Travel
and Tourism Sector(Tsao and et.al., 2015). Social media has essentially changed the decision
process of consumers. Customers can compare the products offered by industries and can choose
the best one from the different products. Consumer behaviour is the ongoing process which is
connected to the technological advancement. Digitization is the strong factor which can directly
influence the customers. Company can use different technological resources to grab the attention
of customers and attract them towards its organisation(Cohen, Prayag and Moital, 2014).
Aims and Objectives
Aim: “To analysis the influence of technology on consumer decision making in Travel and
Tourism Sector – A Case Study on TUI group”
Objectives:
 To find out the main factors which influence the decision making process of consumer.
 Understanding the Technology And Its Impact On Consumer Behaviour To analyse the different consumer behaviour model which are connected to the
technological advancement.
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Research questions :
 What do you understand by the concept of influences of digitization on the consumer
behaviours ?
 What are the main factors which influence the decision making process of consumer ?
 What are the different models of consumer behaviour ?
P1.2 Factors that contribute to the process of research project
There are various factors which contributes to the process of research project. These
factors are required to conduct any research. As per the current scenario, factors that contributes
to the research on the influences of digital technology on the decision making process of
consumer are essential to be considered. Scope, purpose, interest are the primary factors in the
research project. Explanation of these factors are as follows :
Purpose : It is the main factor of research project. If purpose is not cleared and not well defined
than a researcher can not conduct any research to gather information and data. It is the primary
concern in any investigation. It is concerning factor to examine the effectiveness of research and
describing the way by which goal can be met. To be effective and efficient, purpose should
consider following aspects such as specific, concise, clear and goal oriented. If the purpose of the
project have all these prospectuses that definitely a researcher will succeed. Purpose should be
clear, well discussed, specific and easy to understand(Klingler, 2017).
Scope : The scope of this conducting research is very broad and wide. Researcher can get many
other additional information of the impacts of the digitization through this research. Business can
get information regarding to the impacts influences either negative or positive by which
company can increase the level of performance and overcome the negative impacts. With the
analysis of influence on the decision making process company can also get the behavioural
aspects of consumer which is the core factor for organisation. Consumer is the factor upon which
company makes and develop strategies regarding to the products and services(Baptista, and
Oliveira, 2015).
Interest : Interest level of researcher is also considered in the essential factor of research. It is
required that researcher should be interested to conduct the primary or secondary research.
Conducting the research is also depends on the interest level of researcher as such primary
research takes long time and expensive as well so may be researcher will not be interested to
conduct these types of research(Siguencia, Marzano and Herman, 2018).
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Apart from these factors, there are several other factors which contribute to the process of
research project. Research project is depends on the cost, scope, risk, time, access, quality and
resources. These all factors are necessary to be considered while making proper strategy of
research.
P1.3 Literature review of key references
Theme 1 The main factors which influence the decision making process of consumer :
There are mainly five factors which influence the decision making process such as
market campaigns, economic conditions, personal preferences, group influences and purchasing
power of the consumer. Promotion plays an important role in determinant the purchasing
conclusion made by consumers. They are even famous to carry about a large alteration in market
shares of agonistic industries by determinant the buying judgement of consumers. The Marketing
campaigns accomplished on regular base can determinant the consumer purchasing decision to
such a magnitude that they may prefer for one brand over another or cater in decadent or giddy
buying. Consumers are affected by different cultural changes such as like, dislike, preferences,
beliefs, values, tastes and fashions(Foxall, 2014). These factors mainly affect the decision
process of buying any product. Generally customers desired to buy those products and brands
which are well known and in fashion trend. There are two types of group influences which affect
the decisions made by customers. First influencing group consist family members, relatives and
friends while secondary group consist neighbours and society groups. The main and important
factor which affect the decision making process of consumer is purchasing power which is
mainly affected through digitization.
Theme 2 Technology And Its Impact On Consumer Behaviour :
In the today's competitive market, technological advancement huge change the marketing
activities and consumer behaviours. Expectations level of the customers have changed and new
communication channels are implemented by which it directly effects the activities and operation
of the business. Technology has totally modified the business environment, customers can access
the goods and services at anytime through the mobile. TUI group have to keep up with the
changes in customer's behaviour and decision making process. They have increased their
expectation level and understand the authority, rights and power they have. They know that what
can they do if they not satisfied with the service of the company. In the past, company was
providing the product and services through E-mail. By which company can not get the
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immediate response of the customers and customers do not get the information about the goods
which are in transit. But in now days, technology change the communication channels. Social
media is one of the best change of digitization. Company is using channels of social media such
as Facebook, Instagram, you tube and internet. These are the channels which change the
consumer's decision by attracting them to the new products and services offers by a company.
Theme 3 The different consumer behaviour model which are connected to the technological
advancement :
According to the consumer behaviours, consumer behaviour model consist five main
criteria which can be understood by following diagram :
As per the diagram, model includes five main prospects of consumer's behaviour which are
influenced by the digitization. As marketing stimuli consists products and services, price and
distribution or communication channels. Other stimuli consist external factors of the
environment such as economic, technological, political and cultural factors. These all factors can
be analysed through pestle model. While consumer psychology involves the motivation,
perception, learning and memory aspects. Motivation and learning programmes of the consumer
can be analysed through different models and approaches of motivation in which herzberg'z two
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Illustration 1: Consumer behaviour model
Source : Consumer behaviour model, 2016

factors and maslow's hierarchy of needs are important. Consumers features consist cultural,
social and personal aspects. Furthermore, buying decision process includes problem recognition,
information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decisions and post purchase behaviour.
Consumers features can be influenced by values and beliefs of the culture. Consumer's decision
making process includes problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives and
purchase decision. These all stages are influenced by the digital technology(Horner and
Swarbrooke, 2016).
P1.4 Research methodology
Introduction : There are various techniques and methods in research methodology. Researcher
can achieve success in the research project if he well defined the research approach and data
collection method. Sampling and questionnaire are the best method of collecting data. In this
current project, company is using questionnaire to collect the relevant content to accomplish the
research project. In the process of analysis the data researcher has to face different issues and
complexities which can be ignored and overcome by applying appropriate research design. Data
can be collected and analyzed by different methods but choose the best method and technique is
very complex part of research methodology(Klingler, 2017).
Research design : It is the designing process of explaining the issues and problems regarding to
the research. It arranges the conditions and situations to analyze the research project and
collection of the information. Generally there are four types of research design such as
exploratory, descriptive, experimental and evaluation research(Foxall, 2014). These all designs
are related to different prospectus and reasons. TUI group is using experimental research design
because it consists three main characteristics such as manipulation, control and randomization.
Mainly companies consider two types of research design such as quantitative and qualitative.
Research design will be good if it is flexible and appropriate according to the tile of research
project.
Research philosophy : Understand the philosophies and approaches are the main factors of
research methodologies. There are different characteristics of philosophies such as it includes
ontology, epistemology and axiology(Pappas, 2016). There are four main pillars of philosophies
as positivism, realism, interpretative and pragmatism. Positivism is connected to the reality,
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realism is connected to the objects which are freedom to own knowledge, interpretative is the
approach which differentiate the human behaviors according to the roles and social actors and
the last pragmatism is related to the arguing that is interrelated with the positivism and
interpretative. TUI group is using interpretative approach because the research project is on the
analysis of influence of technology on the consumer's behavior and decision making
process(Cohen, Prayag and Moital, 2014).
Collection of the data : Collection of data is very important factor in research project. Data can
be collected through different methods such as primary and secondary research(Siguencia,
Marzano and Herman, 2018). These both are the techniques of gathering relevant information
and data. Primary research is quite complex and time consuming because In this researcher find
the information which is not existing or published before while in secondary research
investigator use information which are already existing and published. There are different
methods of conducting primary and secondary research such as interviews, questionnaire, and
surveys are the methods of primary research while library, google, and other books and journals
are the sources of gathering data in secondary research.
Analysis of the data : Just collect the data is not enough. Research process is not ending with
collection of information and relevant content. As data are collected through different sources so
it is required to be analyzed for assuring the purity and relevancy. Data can be analyzed through
qualitative and quantitative method(Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier, 2015).
P1.5 Appropriate plan for research project
Activities Week 1 Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Week 7 Week
8
Week
9
Week
10
Week
11
Defining
research
proposal
Defining
background
or rationale
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for study
Literature
review
Deciding
aims and
objectives
Finalizing
aims and
objectives
Devising
the
questionnai
re
Gathering
data
Examining
the data
Finding
Recommen
dation and
further
areas to be
consider
Final
Submission
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TASK 2
2.1 Match resources efficiently to the research question
Research question Research sources
 What do you understand by the concept
of influences of digitization on the
consumer behaviours ?
Company is using sources like books, journals,
diaries and surveys for collecting the data and
information regarding to this research question.
 What are the main factors which
influence the decision making process
of consumer ?
For this research question company is using
secondary sources such as reference materials
and books and articles. Reference material like
dictionaries, textbooks and encyclopedias.
 What are the different models of
consumer behaviour ?
For this, company is using both the sources as
primary and secondary. In addition to this,
researcher is using indexes, abstracts and
database. Indexes such as titles of the book,
articles, publisher and volume or page number.
2.2 Research investigation in accordance with the agreed
specification and procedures.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name :
Gender :
Age :
1. Is digital technology affect the business of TUI group ?
 Yes
 No
 Can not say
2. Which is the core factor that contribute to research project process ?
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 Cost
 Time
 Both of the factor
3. Which one is the core division that affect the business ?
 Environmental factors
 Economic factors
 Technical factors
4. Which is the main factor that influence consumer's behaviour ?
 Cultural factor
 Social factor
 Can not say
5. Which one is the consumer behaviour model ?
 Consumer physiology
 Market stimuli
 Both of the above
6. Is TUI group contributing in social and economic growth ?
 Agree
 Disagree
 Don't know
7. Is consumer behaviour modify the activities of the business ?
 Yes
 No
 Can not say
8. Is digitization influence the consumer behaviour ?
 Fully agree
 Fully disagree
 Neither agree nor disagree
9. How much TUI group contributes of its revenue in CSR activities ?
 10 %
 5 %
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