preview

A Study On International Tourist Arrivals

Satisfactory Essays

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

Get Access