E-Tourism in Europe. The E-CRM and ITCs adoption issues: how to retain customers?

Résumé du document

E-tourism offers the potential to make information and booking facilities available to a large number of consumers at a relatively lower cost. Among its several advantages are that it enables the tourism sector to make large scale savings on the production and distribution of print and other traditional activities such as call centers and information centers. It also provides a tool for communication and relationship development with the end-consumers as well as tourism suppliers and market intermediaries.
Tourism can be viewed as very different from most other sectors of e-commerce as the consumer goes and collects the product at the point of production which is the destination. Consequently, e-tourism avoids the need to deliver products around the world.
All these factors enable e-commerce to grab a greater slice of the pie globally. As a result, the Internet can be considered as the last revolution in the distribution of tourism information and sales. The internet is even becoming the primary channel for business to business communication. It offers suppliers the potential to by-pass intermediaries in the value chain and thus increases their revenue base. Consequently, new business models must be developed by travel and tourism companies in order to manage their relationships with intermediaries and final customers. It is obvious that the application of e-business methods in Customer Relations Management (e-CRM) provides such an opportunity.

Extraits

[...] In fact, since the implementations of the first computerized reservation systems (early 1960's), the tourism sector is one of the most extensive of the information and communication technologies (ICT). The gathering, processing and communication of information is key to the sector. The wide range of possibilities of action and approach made available by the ICTs provoked a great change in the attitudes and behaviour of both consumers and producers. Sophisticated software applications are available, they are called: CRM (customer relationship management), SCM (supply chain management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), and KM (knowledge management). [...]

[...] That step-by-step approach aims to take into account the company's identity and image with customers. Even if e-commerce implies cost savings and the deepening of relationships with regular customers, some companies consider that their adoption of e-CRM solutions must follow the market and the industry circumstances which are highly impacted by unforeseable events (e. g terrorist attacks, tsunamis, Sras). Nevertheless, the vast majority of the tourism organisations are willing to extend e-business in their organisation within the next two years. [...]

[...] Tour operators web sites offer modular products and services (e.g: flights, rooms, tours, car hire . Thanks to these possibilities the e-customer is enabled to participate in the development of its specific holiday packages through the simple use of a menu of options. The e-customer can its own holiday package. From a pricing point of view, the tour operator is enabled to offer lower prices to ecustomers, as they negotiated and bought the components of the holiday package in a bulk. [...]

[...] Taking into account the very nature of tourism and the business capacities of SMEs in comparison with large multinational, collaborative ebusiness (e.g. marketplaces or portals) is essential. Unfortunately, standards differ from one portal to another. As stated above, SMEs are often unable to invest in e-business systems and applications, meanwhile, the tourism market rely more and more upon Internet. Consequently, the building of e-marketplaces with the other industry players will enable SMEs to gain a stronger profile in a higly competitive environment. [...]

[...] This kind of alliance would enable them to improve their efficiency, reduce their costs and improve their revenues by gaining more dynamic holidays packages or stronger marketing resources The perceived barriers to the adoption of e-CRM solutions Barriers for implementing e-business in the tourism sector Obviously, the maturity of the market, the financial resources required and the prevailing structures and modes of practices within organisations are the most important barriers to the adoption of e-CRM solutions. In many places throughout Europe local customers are not familiar with the purchasing online and are not prepared to make reservations without a human interface. Considering that the tourism industry operates with low margins, the important financial investments in the introduction of e-CRM solutions is a barrier to the adoption of these systems. [...]