DMSs strategic development and online marketing of destinations essay

It is obvious that the use of modern information and communication technologies and the Internet, that is, e-tourism, opens wide opportunities to the modern tourism industry in implementing the customer oriented model. This relates primarily to product development, including information, digital, or, e-product that will orient the traveler in planning a tourist trip (Skugge, 2002). According to Lytras et al. (2010), thus, the product created by e-tourism provides the e-travel.

What does destination marketing recommend in this respect? First of all, one should remember the three A’s (Scott, 2008):

Access – availability, i.e. opportunity to get there: a road map, the railroad, the nearest airports, taxis, public transport;

Amenities – infrastructure, i.e. availability of hotels, food outlets, shopping centers, car parks, toilets, etc.;

Attractions – facilities, museums, theaters, castles, fortresses, sports facilities, galleries, and much else what is or may become a motive for traveling.

One should not forget that it is necessary to provide a general overview of the history, culture, and natural terrain. Another complicated matter is to find a particular style of addressing and presenting the information, which would correspond to an outlook of a specific segment of consumers. It is evident that the areas of interest of a businessman and a football fan are absolutely different. At the same time, and it is even more complicated, one may be tempted to use a universal format that will satisfy the information needs of a pilgrim and refined connoisseur of art, a nouveau riche, and a poor student. This is what Stockdalem (2007) calls Address.

In addition, an e-traveler expects to find out who offers what and at what price. Thus, the task gains a completely expressive shape: to inform about what, where and how in an intriguing way, as well as who may be interested in it.

Today, 78% of consumers trust on-line recommendations, and only 14% trust direct advertising of the producers (Cheyne et al., 2006; p.43). Modern tourism industry uses especially intensive the promotion in the social media.

Current researches on the role of social media at this stage are conditioned by the rapid speed of the growth of their influence. The figures clearly indicate that the level of use of social media is gaining momentum: 80% of U.S. Internet users are active in social media, 73% of them surf the Internet for the information before purchasing travel services (Lytras et al., 2010). Social media accompany the users from the time of consultation in respect of travel, during the travel and after it. Planning a trip, more than a third of users after consultation with the social media change the choice of a hotel, 15% change airline, and the same number changes agent, 12% changes the country of destination (Wang and Russo, 2007, p. 198).

Thus, social media are a powerful tool for marketing and branding, which allows monitoring, adjusting, modifying and creating information about an individual company, region or country, and keeping in touch with clients. That is why today, no company, especially in such a dynamic industry as a modern tourist industry, can ignore them.

In our opinion, the modern tourism industry can use the promotion in social media in different ways:

Hot deals (for example, the sale of available rooms), which contributes to higher return on investment. The idea is simple: the creation of hotel information flow of messages through which one can use the service at a substantial discount. This tool is especially relevant in the fairly common cases of reservation cancellation and pending accommodation, which allows finding customers even for one day (Baggio et al., 2010).

Instant communication with customers. Thus, AirTran, Delta, Southwest Airlines, and Virgin America are using Facebook and Twitter to publish hot offers, announce prices or simply to inform passengers about delays and weather conditions.

Geolocation services (e.g., Foursquare, Facebook Places) allow people to determine where they are located and interact with other people who are close by. Services using this technology open the possibility of 100% satisfaction of customers’ needs in the required context and at the right time (Beritelli et al., 2007). For example, when users of Foursquare register at Hotel Wynn Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, they are offered a free glass of champagne in one of Wynn Las Vegas clubs, because Foursquare system informs the hotel staff about the approach of a guest who has booked a room.

Client services and building of trust. Interaction with customers via Facebook or Twitter can significantly increase the level of service. The idea of a personal assistant from the hotel staff, tour agency, or a restaurant with a direct mobile number is not new, but very costly (super-VIP). Using social media providing personal assistant services is easier and more efficient.

For instance, Marriott network has 2 full-time employees working in social networks. One of them carries out the processing of client requests (shower leaks, lack of products in mini-bar, etc.). Another one deals with public opinion: monitors the messages with the word Marriott and responds to negative and positive statements about the brand. A resonant step was the creation of a personal blog by Marriott’s CEO. The blog has a great success and contributes to the company’s brand rating growth (Beritelli et al., 2007).

Improving concierge service. Instead of lingering at the bar and picking up brochures, visitors can ask questions about their room or take a walk around the hotel via Twitter yet on their way to the hotel. One can also read the answers to the questions of other guests, and their recommendations, or reserve a table at a restaurant, or order any additional services (Kim and Fesenmaier, 2008). Hyatt and Marriot (2009) were the pioneers in introducing Twitter Concierge; the English Premier Inn joined them in 2010 (Baggio et al., 2010).

Comprehensive information supply and the possibility of free market research. Travel agencies and tour operators can duplicate all the functions of a personal site on social media, due to personalization of users, are able to conduct surveys, analyze the results of ratings, etc. (Ndou and Petti, 2007.). For example, surveys by the systems of Likes in social networks can clearly identify the potential and actual interest in a particular brand. The modern tourism industry – Jet Blue, Souhwest Airlines, Marriott hotels, Morgans Hotel Group, Lufthansa, TUI, Lastminute.com, Accor, TAP, Starwood and others – successfully use social media in their marketing activities.

Particularly wide opportunities of promotion are provided by the purely tourist-oriented communities (Tribe, 2010; Lytras et al., 2010).

A pioneer in providing client-based content is TripAdvisor.com, founded in 2000. This is a site for travelers, which helps in gathering information, publishing reviews and articles related to travels, and provides the opportunity to participate in online forums. The services of the site, which is an integral part of the TripAdvisor Media Group (Expedia Inc.), are free for consumers, which present the majority of its content. TripAdvisor Media Group manages 17 brands, including TripAdvisor, Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Cruise-Critic, Family Vacation Critic, FlipKey, Holiday Lettings, Holiday Watchdog, Independent Traveler, OneTime, SeatGuru, SmartTravel, SniqueAway, Travel Library, TravelPod, VirtualTourist and Kuxun.cn. TripAdvisor is one of the largest communities (40 million monthly visitors) of the international level: U.S., UK, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Turkey, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Greece, Indonesia, and China – daodao.com and kuxun.cn.

Another information source is TripSay. It provides information about the infrastructure of travels, guides, assessments and reviews. When the user selects a particular city or place, it is displayed on the map with recommendations of hotels and restaurants. The results are sorted by various categories: restaurants, hotels, bars, beaches, transportation, tourist sites, etc.

Facebook offers tourist the TripWolf service. TripWolf helps to find a specialist in any direction of tourism. These “gurus” assist in planning a travel, and users can create their own guides. Free social network Dopplr was launched in 2007. It allows users to create their own routes and meet with friends at any point in the route. By analogy with Wikipedia, Wikitravel, launched in July 2003, forms information tourist resources. In 2007 the site that contains articles written by the users was awarded the Webby for the Best Travel Site and provides information on various tourist destinations.

The modern tourism industry disposes IT tools for different categories of consumers. Especially popular among young people is Yelp, and Boots-n-all calls itself a major resource for the independent traveler offering goods and services on planning the trip. World66 includes useful information on more than 20 thousands destinations in the format of the wiki articles (about 80,000). Lonely Planet Thorn Three is a popular forum. TravBuddy allows you to meet people, share photos, reviews and blogs on the topic of travel; and in TravelersPoint users write blogs about travels and give travel advice.

On a whole, the strategy of marketing campaign for promotion in the social media or travel communities will have a standard implementation scheme (Fyall and Leask, 2006):

• Introduction to communication (analysis of forums, posts, reviews, articles);
• Attraction (creating accounts, pages, communities of social networks, filling them with information, engaging the audience);
• Control and regulation (tracking reviews, regulation of consumer attitudes to the image of the company/destination/etc, operational control over the behavior of competitors, partners, suppliers, monitoring the state of the industry as a whole).
• Evaluation of results (determining the effectiveness of the campaign in the social media).

Conclusion

Today, the mode of access to the websites of DMSs and working with them bears an interactive character. Two-way exchange of information in a dialogue form enhances an individual approach to a client. The potential tourist connects DMSs to get information about the tourist product, asks questions, negotiates on prices, plans the trip, and all this can now be performed through several clicks. In their turn, it is now also easy for DMSs to reach the consumers in order to determine their needs and inform about new products. Due to the increasing competition in the market and, consequently, high stakes of travel agencies on the technological character of the process of tourism services implementation, as well as the boom in e-commerce, we can expect further expansion of the market of computer reservations and globalization of destination management systems. For the promotion of destinations, modern tourism industry is increasingly applying the potential of the features of social media, in particular such features as direct sales, personal expert and business relations development. Social media provide as marketing tools the channels for getting and retaining new customers, business partners, as well as methods of managing brand reputation online. As social networks are actively used by 25% of travelers in the context of tourist information, they are currently seen as a powerful tool for marketing and branding, allowing monitoring, adjusting, editing and creating information about an individual company, region or country, and keeping in touch with clients. Therefore, today, such a dynamic sphere as destination management cannot ignore the opportunities offered by this information distribution channel.