Technology and marketing tourism

This paper titled “ICT Development for Hospitality and Tourism Industry in Sri Lanka: Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media in Digital Hospitality and Tourism” was prepared by the Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management's (CAHM)William Angliss Ins

The main objective of this paper is to elaborate the impact of mobile device and the Internet in tourism and hospitality industry. In a world where mobile devices, Internet and cloud technology are taking over our day to day activity, each and every industry must embrace the change to achieve competitive advantage in the highly competitive environment or be left behind. Search engine optimisation, search engine marketing and social media marketing are the three major ways firms use to expand their marketing activities on the Internet. This is the new way to grab the attention of customers, to share with them the experience that your establishment offers in a virtual world, so that they will be willing to spend their time and money there, in the real world.

Introduction

With the dawn of the digital revolution, the World Wide Web has become the platform for most activities of daily life and this only complimented and further enhanced by the development of mobile devices such as the smart phone. When going into the field of hospitality, this is no different, with more than 150 million bookings of net worth US$ 500 billion have been done in 2015.

Mobile device and the Internet

The mobile device and the Internet have caused a massive change in trends and the way we do things, as new and innovative ideas are brought up and built upon, every single day. This has led to massive changes in the digital side of the hospitality world, with more than 55 per cent of hotel bookings being done online in 2015, with the increase of mobile transactions only building onto the momentum. Mobile search queries surpassed desktop search queries in 2014, which goes to show that people are more into the usage of mobile devices than the traditional desktop computer.

Digital marketing effort

With these statistics it is obvious that if an industry is to survive, it must expand into this new world as well. And companies now are doing exactly that, expanding their marketing efforts into various platforms on the Internet, and they have chosen to do so in three different ways: 1. Search Engine Optimisation, 2. Search Engine Marketing and 3. Social Media Market. All the above is simply defined as digital marketing.

Google is by far the largest search engine with more than 80 per cent of the online traffic being directed through Google. The hospitality industry gains almost 60 per cent of its revenue online and more than 35 per cent of online revenue is from SEO. The average cost per SEO is $ 1.5, most of them for promoting the relevant link of the establishment, and brings in 0.5 per cent visitors.

However, marketing is of no use if it doesn’t affect the target market, or “qualified customers”. These are basically the people who could definitely consume the goods or services that is marketed. This is very necessary, as the money you pay should be worth it. There is no way to determine this, but the company must take steps to make sure they hit the target market. The off page content or the advertisements should be quality and attractive, to attract any customers, especially the ones that you target. Link farms are not advisable.

The website in itself should contain unique content, with strong relevant keywords to assist the customer to find what he/ she is seeking and it should be kept fresh and well updated, as this shows dedication on the part of the establishment towards their website, which gives any visiting customer a sense of security. The most important task, above all, is to make sure that when a qualified customer clicks on the link, he finds all the relevant information or/ services that he/she is looking for. Other offsite marketing tactics are endorsements, sponsorships, press releases. Content marketing is also something that companies have gotten into as blogging and writing of reviews about the industry have become common practice.

Use of Social Media

The Internet is now mostly used for one main thing and that is Social Media. In Sri Lanka itself 3.5 million people use social networking profiles and worldwide. Thus a large percentage of people use social media. This makes it the perfect platform for online marketing. The trick on social media is to “create a buzz”, a digital word of mouth that spreads from one friend to another as they post pictures, status updates or links regarding an establishment or message friends telling about their experience at an establishment. As word spreads about the quality and content of a place the customers increase and as customers increase the reach of this “digital word of mouth” increases. In order to guarantee the success of a social media effort, the most important thing that the establishment must focus on is to make its content entertaining while being informative.

Technology trends in tourism

While many businesses use many different systems of ERPs ( Enterprise Resource Planning), in hospitality, we use mainly two classes, PMS ( Property Management System, in case you were thinking of something else) and HIS ( Hospitality Information Services). The main assistance in the usage of these systems in hospitality is cloud technology. Through the Internet, this enables a customer to make bookings, arrange payments, make travel plans, and get confirmation of the bookings in a matter of seconds, rather than hours, or even days. Likewise, within the hotel, the different departments can relay messages about the customers’ requests; arrange orders and appointments, without there being much delay and without there being any human error. With this new efficiency, being the light side of the change in technology, the hospitality industry must also face the dark, unmerciful side of it, or as it is otherwise more commonly known, social media. Statistics show that a large proportion of the world take their news and base their opinions on news and information received on social media and what people think of a hotel or a restaurant is very important thing, as the number one objective in the industry is customer satisfaction and the level of satisfaction of a customer determines his/her opinion. And in a world full of socialites and social media addicts, there is a very big chance that this customer will publicly express his/ her opinion for the world to see.

But at the end of the day, despite how much online marketing you do, what systems you put in place, it all comes at a price. Technology isn’t cheap. Hardware material, pay for software and hardware engineers, facilities, employee training all come at a high price and sometimes too much for companies to afford. But businesses don’t have a choice. Either keep up or get out of the race and this leaves companies in a dilemma. But one thing is certain. Without technology, there will be no going forward for any industry. Therefore no matter what the cost, the hospitality industry must go forward.

The world of technology is ever changing, sometimes bringing about incremental changes and then seeing some of these changes disappear as quickly as they appeared (example: the fax machine).

Conclusion

The world of technology is ever changing, sometimes bringing about incremental changes and then seeing some of these changes disappear as quickly as they appeared ( example: the fax machine). As all these changes are towards the further convenience of mankind in general, the hospitality industry must also keep up with the world, making sure that they integrate the new technology into this field. The reason is that the changes in technology and the effects of globalisation have created several new breeds of tourists, each unique in their preference of experience from the other.

To make sure that all the needs and desires of these men and women can be catered for, it is essential that technology be rapidly integrated into the industry. This integration of technology into the hospitality industry is seen very clearly in the airline industry, from the start of online booking in 2002 to the e- boarding pass in 2015 and it is essential that all the other fields in the industry keep up and at times, even compete with the airlines.

Recommendations

There are many exciting ways of implementing technology to give new experiences to guests. The use of Robotics in different fields in the industry, such as front desk, gives an opportunity for guests to try out new features of technology, while having a helping hand from some regular human employees nearby. Usage of self driving cars on the popular taxi app, Uber, is also an example of how technology can be used for the convenience of the guest and to give them a new experience. In an industry as competitive as the hospitality industry it is essential that these implementations of technology be integrated and developed.