Chapter 2: The Literature Review
2.1 Personalisation background
The latest figures from UNWTO show “International tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased by 4.3% in 2014, reaching a total 1133 million after topping the 1 billion mark in 2012.” Tourism currently contributes to 9% of the world’s GDP, constitutes 6% of the world’s exports and represents 1 out 11 jobs available worldwide both direct and indirect. The current UNWTO forecast expects an increase to 1.8 Billion International tourists by 2030. (UNWTO Tourism Highlights, 2015, p.3)
The strength in growth in the industry highlights that hospitality developments will continue to move at a fast pace to accommodate such demand, additional intrusion should be expected by hoteliers in their existing markets as room supply in some areas currently falls shy of demand levels. These economical trends heightens the importance of retaining and increasing customer loyalty but in order to do so, further understanding of consumer preferences and the purchase selection process is needed to capture fair share of that expected demand; thus hospitality professionals grow keen to understand, learn and utilise personalisation as a competitive advantage.
The intangible nature of hospitality impacts heavily the consumer interaction with the different venues, as defined by Armstrong & Kotler, (1999, p.383) a service is “Any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not
Tourism is perceived as one of the leading industries in the world. “The World Travel and Tourism Council (2001) indicated that tourism creates more than ten percent of the global economic output and 1 in 10 jobs worldwide.”
Many people like to spend their vacation in a different country and like to travel. It is always exciting to explore and discover new cities and cultures. Over the years the way to get to other countries became easier. The rate of international visitors is rising everywhere around the globe and tourism brings some good and bad aspects to each individual country. Due to traveling becoming more popular, Tourism has both benefitted and harmed nearly every country in the world.
The hospitality and leisure industry hug a variety of sectors and businesses across hotels, restaurants and restaurants, travel and tourism, gaming, sport and leisure. The sector is reliant on the consumer confidence and business sentiment and is facing rising pressure to deliver innovation, value and quality. Hospitality is that business that helps people to feel welcome, relaxed and to enjoy themselves. It is all about customer service and providing the best quality and experience possible for the customers. (Discover Hospitality, 2012)
Over the last 60 years, tourism has benefited from continuous growth and diversification, becoming one of the largest as well as the fastest growing world’s economic sectors. Tourism becomes one of the major categories of global trade in services. Nowadays, 7% of global goods and services exports are contributed by international tourism, and for the last four years, it has grown faster than the general global trade.[ Exports from international tourism rise 4% in 2015, (2016, May 6). Retrieved from http://media.unwto.org/press-release/2016-05-03/exports-international-tourism-rise-4-2015]
Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).
Young travelers, which count for about 20% of the world 's tourists place greater importance on the tourism industry. They travel to broaden their horizons and to gain the knowledge of the world. By 2020, this
The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry
Mullich, J. (2011, online) provides a more detailed definition through Nick Price, the Group's Chief Information Officer who outlines in this quote, what the hospitality industry is about
Meanings of the term ‘Hospitality’ is the natural gesture in welcoming and taking care of the fundamental needs of guests in accommodation, beverage and food. Presently hospitality characterizes as the association between a host and visitor. Individuals when stay far from home, the organizations or association that give nourishment and drink to them are known as the hospitality industry (Mackenzie, Chan 2013). Hospitality industry is a wide industry inside the administration business that comprises of the lodging, restaurants and tourism. The hospitality business is a multi-billion dollar industry that relies on upon the accessibility of relaxation time and discretionary cash flow. Hospitality advertising helps organizations give genuine worth to focused on clients and at last tackle client issues.
The most risen trend in the hospitality industry is the high quality expectations of the guests. In combination
The Macmillan Dictionary (2010) provides two distinct but related definitions of hospitality. The first one defines hospitality as “friendly and generous behavior towards visitors and guests, intended to make them feel welcome” while the second definition looks at hospitality as “food, drink, and entertainment given to customers by a company or organization.” The latter definition is apparently more specific than the former in terms of the types of service provisions.
Nowadays, as the global tourism industry is growing, more travelers from all over the world are coming to the United States. The U.S. Department of Commerce released its 2014 report on International Visitation to the United States on June 1, 2015. The report shows that there were 75 million international visitors in 2014, which is 5 million more than 2013 (Office of Travel & Tourism Industries [OTTI], 2015). The Commerce Department released another report on June 11, 2015, forecasting international visitors will reach a record 77.6 million this year (OTTI, 2015). For the growing visitors and opportunities, managers need to capture a larger share of this growing market.
In the highly changeable hospitality world, there are different types of hospitality products which are based on different consumer needs and demands. Besides, any hospitality company must identify clearly about the factors which are affecting
Hospitality : Customers who invest time and effort in visiting a business and using its services deserve to be treated as welcome guests
Almost of all products are intangible. Provider sell their skill as the main products. This type of business is kindly risky because valuation for enterprises belong to personal experiences of individuals. Unlike product-based one, this service has distinctive features: intangibility, perish - ability and inseperability. Those outstanding characteristics are clearly exposed in hospitality - tourism industry and technological fields. In hotel services, although tangible assets are easily found as accommodation, food or drinks, people hardly see cleaning, parking or booking service as intangible one. User can only judge the service once they undergo. This kind of services' quality is largely dependent on instability: who – when – where – how they offer customers services. For instance, snowboarding activities rely upon weather conditions. Organizer cannot offer clients service on driving snow storm for safety purpose. Furthermore, this sport can be differed from country to country because of various cultures. In Korea, skiers are served soup with kimchi or dumpling for warming body, while in Biarrits (Europe), they drink wine. People can find it is really interesting to experience unforgettable moments. Once they meet up with good sense, they may come back and again, create profit for providers. In technological sector, IT