ICT and Impact of ICT in Hotel Industry Marketing - Coursework Example

ICT AND THE IMPACT OF ICT IN HOTEL INDUSRTY MARKETING al Affiliation) The face of the world is changing due to the modern Information and Communications Technologies. The revolution has brought the use of email, instant communication, and e-tourism among others. Customers have the desire for greater interconnectivity and services of high level. Through tourism, services like accommodation of hotels and guesthouses have developed. With the use of technology and computers, information is stored in the form of data and exchanged through binary streams. Industries whose products have been digitalized have an advantage as they gain value in their product. The impact of hotel industry is recognized as one of the major changes in the hotel industry (Pease, 2007). In today’s world, there is rapid development of information communication technologies and the use of the Internet has become part of people’s lives. As with almost every industry, technology plays a big role in the development and the success of the industry. Technology has been in the forefront in many countries and has assisted in the development of the global economy as well as the development of a leisure class. The greatest impact of ICT is the facilitation of communication with the company’s stakeholders, provides an effective platform used to engage in marketing, advertising, and serving as an effective tool for sales channel. Many organizations are increasingly investing in ICT for planning and controlling in order to boost the efficiency of the business processes, improve productivity as well as help the management in decision-making (Preston, 2001). The penetration of ICT in the hotel industry has been at a high rate, therefore integrating the operations of the hotel; it has also reshaped the marketing function, the provision of marketing research tools, enhancing customer service, and the provision of strategic opportunities (Pizam, 2005). In addition, ICT provide unique opportunities for innovative products in the marketing tourism industry to address and meet the needs and wants of customers. A good number of hotels apply technology in their operations including marketing and promotion of their products. The hotel industry is one of the largest sectors of the world that support and promote the economies of many countries. ICT offers a number of useful advantages to all hotels regardless of size. One of the advantages is to increase effectiveness in the hotel industry by increasing revenue and minimizing costs. The other advantage is the possibility of the hotel management to make personal contact with their customers. This has made the industry get direct feedback from the customers. For example, customers can inform the management over any problem they have encountered while using the hotel’s facilities, customers can respond to questions about their experience as well a their personal preferences on rooms. ICT applications have a huge impact on the hotel industry. For instance, the use of social media platforms, smart phones, and automatic checks INS has made the hotel industry run smoothly. With the growth of Facebook and Twitter, many organizations have use them to promote and sell their products. Moreover, the hotel industry has to adapt to the fast growth of ICT to be ahead and be able to beat competition. In addition, tablet computers and IPhone have been configured with the operations of the hotel and customers are able to book their own hotels as well make changes to the bookings and get the latest information in regards to the hotels services (Nykiel, 2000). The fast development of ICT in the hotel industry has enabled the hotel to adapt to these technologies. This is because of the increasing demands of customers, who want a flexible, accessible, and interactive with the principles. However, some hotels have not been able to adapt to this new technology as it expensive to purchase and maintain. In addition, upon, purchase of the desktops and laptops, the organization might be required to offer training so some employees, which is an expense to the organization. The use of the mobile Apps has also been of great assistance to the hotel industry. This is because customers can download various Apps from their phones in regards to the hotel they prefer. They can share this information with their friends and help spread the word about their good experiences while in the hotel. Therefore, restaurants should ensure that the services they offer are of high quality. However, the same phones and social media platforms can be used to spread information about a restaurant that offers poor services therefore spoiling the image of the hotel. The most important tool in the hotel industry is the Hotel Information System that is divided into front office system, restaurant and banquet management information system as well as the back office system. The front office system is important as it operates 24 hours every day. They use the system to contact their clients and offer a variety of information to hotel employees as well as provide a swift transaction time to decrease the time spent on the system and increase the time spent dealing with customers. In the food and beverage department, ICT is used to assist the management to attain their goals and objectives by making their work easy by planning, communicating and uniting with their current and prospect customers. The Restaurant Management Information System helps the management when making decisions and plan in financial reporting and forecasting. The system has been used in the development of performance in the store. It helps produce reports that help in managerial decision-making for example, reducing food delivery times, improve the quality of service. Moreover, it helps mangers to order, plan food production, and scheduling of labor. According to a research done in a hotel industry, 72% of the respondents believe that modern technology is very important and will have a huge impact to the hotel industry, 17% think that the introduction of ICT has helped increase the effectiveness in the hotel industry. 7% believe that ICT and its importance is limited while only 4% think it is insignificant. These figures confirm that most hotel industries have embraced the use of technology and believe that it will help in the achievement of an organizations goals and objectives (Lockyer, 2007). Current economic conditions have had a negative financial impact in the hotel industry. This is because of the high levels of unemployment, recession, and fear of the future. This calls for hoteliers to look into strategic ways, in order to attract, retain, and regain lost customers. Due to the continuous changes in technology, the industry needs to implement technological advances while striving to provide services of high quality and guest loyalty. This will help the hotel industry gain a competitive advantage. The competition of customer information by most hotels and restaurants will lead the management to capture information about the prospect customers. If the information is captured properly coupled with the provision of high-level services, then the hotels will gain a competitive advantage especially when the economy is troubled. According to a survey, technological build up in the hotel industry has improved significantly. History shows that restaurants are slow in adopting new technology as they see it a sway of increasing costs therefore making them shy away from technology. In the last like ten years, there has been an increase in restaurants realizing the importance of using technology in managing businesses (Mariani, 2014). ICT has a great impact of creating new opportunities and fostering awareness through availability of information like the promotion and distribution of holiday packages (Luo, 2012). In addition, through the internet, the hotel industry can use it as channel to access the global market and penetrate new market segments. Likewise, the hotels use ICT in advertising and promoting their products both locally and internationally. This helps in building the image of the hotel as well as making it to be the top of mind hotel to customers. In addition, it helps in the development of flexible products and services, which makes the firm to have an advantage over its competitors (Demetriades, 2003). ICT has transformed all levels in the organization and marketing function being one of them. The use of ICT by marketers is one of the right media for getting close to the people and obtaining and creating knowledge of how to advertise and make the products active and alive. This enables the hotel industry to get a vast quantity of useful information and up-to-date information faster, quicker and cheaply. In addition, the use of ICT helps in the transmission and diffusion of information throughout the hotel industry. Moreover, it provides an array of global information resources as well as facilitates the collection of valuable knowledge that is competitive and information related to consumers that make decision making easy (Middleton, 2009). Moreover, through ICT, marketers have the ability to target specific groups of persons; it also encourages customization of goods and services as well as one-to-one strategies through getting involved in communication and other marketing mix (Jean, 2013). Additionally, helps in the selection of good leaders in the hotel industry therefore, reducing management costs. Moreover, it assist in making more sales in the hotel industry as effective ICT services means that the industry is ready to serve a wide market that is changing to fit in the hotel industry (Hoque, 2000). Effective and fast ICT infrastructure is vital for the development of the hotel industry. It allows efficient customer management relations and the management of supply chain thus facilitating various operations in the industry. For instance, ordering of products, selection of products, tracking the movements of goods and services and reporting to the management on the performance easily. In addition, ICT helps in the reduction of costs by allowing direct contact between the consumer and the provider and the provision of employment through the maintenance of ICT equipment. Since the development of ICT, there are changes in demand and supply. The high demand for more flexible and customized options and the quality of information has made the hotel industry to become more personalized in the hotel industry. Additionally, due to the revolution in the ICT sector, customers have become sophisticated and discerning. This is because in today’s world customers know what they want because they have much experience in the levels of service because the standard of living is grown drastically. As a result, tourists who visit the hotels have become demanding even more thus requesting high quality products and value for money and time. Since customers have been exposed to different hotels, and different experiences this makes the travellers to rely heavily on the media to get information on the best hotels to book as well as communicate their needs and demands to the suppliers. In conclusion, ICT provides a wide range of tools that is crucial in the hotel industry. It is important for all organizations that want success. ICT is also important in the manufacturing process as it in all stages including quality control and the production line. In today’s world especially in the hotel industry, it is unlikely that it can be successful without the use of ICT (Kodama, 2013). It also drives and manages the economies of the world. The government and other institutions rely on ICT in the growth and development of an organization. In order to secure a promising future, most organizations are constantly looking for new ways to deal with competition by providing effective marketing in the hotel industry (Go & Pine, 1995). In addition, the use of social media and platforms like twitter and face book customers are able to share information about the industry has enabled direct communication with customers by sharing links and promoting new package through social media platforms (Loos, 2008). Lastly, it is important for the hotel industry to update and upgrade ICT both internally and externally. The integration of ICT and the hotel industry benefits both the service providers as well as customers thus bringing together the stakeholders to be on a common platform (Butje, 2005). It is important for the hotel industry to select the correct information system to match the requirements with service dimensions. The use of ICT in the hotel industry provides a powerful tool that is advantageous in promoting and strengthening the hotel industry. All hotels need to purchase and use the machine for effective results. References Butje, M. 2005. Product marketing for technology companies. 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