Evaluation on the New Developments on Destination Management Systems - Essay Example

Evaluation on the New Developments on Destination Management Systems Introduction: When a tourist destination is taken into concern, it involves all features of a product, a service, and facilities that can be provided to the customers, meaning the tourists. Managing destinations is thus a significant issue that involves the complete experience of the travel and requires all local actors and stakeholders to participate in the process of management, along with providing consumers and all stakeholders with the necessary information in relation to a particular tourist destination. Responsibilities for planning, marketing and coordination of the tourist destinations are either managed by the actors of the public sector or stakeholders of tourism industry who are in partnerships with each other. Management of destinations involve several major steps, such as mass advertising, offering customers with recommended services, offering guidance related to travel and destinations, and being strategically responsible for the travel of the customers (Prideaux, Moscardo and Laws 2006). Developments in destination management systems are mostly taken care of by public tourist organizations that have high provisions for all information and marketing. Destination management systems are responsible for the promotion, distribution, and operations of all destinations of small to medium sizes. Greater benefits are obtained from small and medium sized tourism and hospitality enterprises (SMTEs). Thus destination management systems act as a boundary between the enterprises offering destination services and the agencies and consumers (Pizam and Holcomb 2013). The present study focuses on an evaluation of the new developments in destination management systems considering an in-depth knowledge and understanding of destination management systems and its stakeholders, as well as its facilities of online marketing of a destination. Destination Tourism: Destination tourism has always been associated with the social and cultural influences and benefits that it has for the society at large. Although such benefits are different in different regions across the world, yet there are certain factors that commonly influence the benefits of tourism and its developments. These factors include the different surroundings in which the operations of destination tourism take place considering the cultural and biophysical environment of tourism in the area, the manner in which the travelers and visitors behave and the patterns they follow for their travelling, the skills and abilities making the performance of the tourism personnel effective for the visitors, and the roles and responsibilities considered by the tourism department for plans of development (Moscardo 2008). Destination tourism holds the most important place among all other industries across the world. In many countries, tourism is the most important economic activity involving tourism destinations that have beaches, parks based on themes, cultural attractions for the visitors. Newer destinations are also continuously developed that do not necessarily follow the traditional tourism patterns and options. Visitors are attracted to such destinations that provide them with attractions, as well as with suitable climatic conditions and landforms. This indicates that geography also has a direct linkage with the patterns and attractions of destination tourism. Understanding of such factors and management of destination tourism thus holds significant importance as far as tourism is concerned (Hudman and Jackson 2003). Increasing the level of identity of the tourist destinations and a rising share in the market are the prime interests of all tourist destinations. This requires building up an effective strategy for the brand and participation of the stakeholders holds significant importance in this regard. Factors such as transportation, tourist businesses at the local level, centers for information, and groups of interests need coordination for the building up of the brand. Thus brand equity is an essential feature of destination tourism that is reflected either by financial brand equity or brand equity based on customers. When the value of the brand is considered for the owners of the tourist destination, it is referred as financial brand equity. On the other hand, when the value of the brand is considered for the customers, it is referred as customer-based brand equity (Kozak and Baloglu 2010). This implies that consumers are one of the most essential stakeholders of destination tourism. Stakeholders: The industry of destination tourism is spread all across the globe and thus there are groups at both national and local level handling the development and management of issues related to destination tourism and its effectiveness. Stakeholders include governments performing at the local level, national level, regional level, state level, county level, provincial level, and at municipality level; offices, departments, commissions, and CVBs or convention and visitors bureaus of the tourism; developmental agencies and councils of tourism; chambers of commerce; public and private suppliers that include the operators of the tourism, travel agents, facilities of transportation, cultural and other provisions of attractions, accommodation facilities, and restaurants for the visitors; as well as the organizations and association that support these suppliers. Besides, the other stakeholders of destination tourism also include the media and the citizens in general. Citizens or consumers in general have significant influence over the maintenance and development of tourism destinations primary because they differ in their characteristics, preferences, values, actions, and reactions (Wang and Pizam 2011). Destination Management Systems or DMS: Destination management systems (DMS) have different meanings for different countries and tourist locations. However the common aspects of DMS include the databases, the systems of marketing, information systems for the visitors of a tourist location, and provisions of information related to the destination (Destination management systems 2007). DMS is necessary for balancing the economic, social, and environmental objectives of a particular tourist destination with the tourism in the area. Over the years, destination managers have realized the need for an approach that involves the planning, development, and marketing of destination tourism as a complete process. Destination management organizations (DMOs) that include departments of the local and state governments, the providers of tourism professional support, businesses related to tourism, researchers and students, and the media, are continuously focused into achieving developments in tourism through the use of DMS. As part of the developmental process, continuous planning has been considered to be the most essential step that puts together the economic, social, and environmental objectives of a particular location with the services of tourism for the consumers (Sustainable Tourism – Destinations and Communities n.d.). DMS is considered as effective when the process of planning, management, and marketing is focused on future development of the services in a strategic manner. Thus the internal and external environments are studied to determine processes that can collaboratively and coordinately form a strategic direction for developing tourism at a destination. It focuses on understanding the values of the stakeholders and conducts research on the measures that are currently used, thereby measuring performances, either to continue with them, or alter them for the purpose of betterment of services. Understanding the objectives of the destinations and the preferences and values of the consumers is essential for destination managements to develop suitable operating environments for tourism (Sustainable Tourism – Destinations and Communities n.d.). As already mentioned, the management of tourist destinations is handled by either the public sector or by partnerships formed between stakeholders. In the recent years, the importance of information communication technologies (ICTs) has been realized by the DMOs. Higher use of ICTs is now made intending to improve the communications among the stakeholders as well as developing the functions and performances of the organizations. It is the responsibility of the DMOs to handle the DMS that have provisions for the tourism information and attractions, along with services of reservations. With the use of ICT in the present times, advertising, marketing, and promotion of destination tourism are capable of incorporating new tools and techniques. Thus DMS enables provision of all information related to tourist destinations in computerized form that is highly accessible with the advancement of ICTs (Prideaux, Moscardo and Laws 2006). Several developments have been noted in different countries for the management of tourist destinations. For example, Australia has developed an environmental program that reduces the management costs of energy, water and waste in the hotels offered for tourism. Northern Australia has a five year strategic plan to obtain sustainable tourism by helping organizations with educational information and toolkits for development. New Zealand has its focus on improving and developing the transportation of the country. Considering the South Pacific, measures of conservation are significantly focused in Tetepare. Neutralization of carbon in the air is the main aim of the Maldives, considering the increasing changes in climate and rise in the sea levels. Bay of Bengal has developed a green model focusing on eco-tourism in the area. Ecotourism is also the major purpose as far as tourism in Asia is concerned (Sustaining Tourism 2013). Green Tourism has been highly developed in Europe in the regions of the South West and Finland. A Life Environment Project has been developed to manage the coastal areas along the Mediterranean Sea in Europe that has significantly improved the operations and increased awareness among the tourists for protection of environment. Africa has also developed their management systems for tourist destinations with provisions of developed accommodations and natural reserves in the area. Cultural attraction has been introduced with increasing cultural interactions of the rural communities as developed under responsible tourism in West Africa. Ecotourism and sustainable development of tourist destinations have also been determined by DMOs in North, South and Central America. Ecotourism activities, along with production of organic products of agriculture are focused in the countries of the Middle East for development of DMS (Sustaining Tourism 2013). The performance of the DMS is relevant and significant with such destinations in the way all such information are effectively available to the consumers and other stakeholders with the availability of advanced information technologies. DMS with the use of advanced information technology has in the present times enabled the tourist destinations to develop efficiently with their planning and marketing processes and reaching out to their consumers and stakeholders with all necessary information. Evaluation of the DMS: The evaluation of the DMS can be critically made with regard to its rates of failure, in spite of information technology being highly advanced. It has been observed that the use of DMS has not gained support from many public and private sectors. Products presented by DMS also did not prove to be feasible. As a role of the DMS, it is necessary for the systems to consider and coordinate all the providers of tourism, also making effective use of all available sources of information technology thus integrating all SMTEs with the economy of the countries. However, failure in the implementation of such DMS has been reported in projects initiated at England and Scotland. When DMS is considered, it is essential that the networking and computerization of tourism information should include the entire tourism population and their associated information such that an online network might be created (Destination management systems 2007). However, DMS has not yet achieved a successful position as there are significant debates with regard to the process of initiation of the systems and its management. The need for involvement of the public sector and the organizations associated with national tourism has been considered as essential for integration of the DMS into the marketing, promotion, and management of the tourist destination. Another debate reflects upon the support of the SMTEs on the DMS. Many researchers believe that the theories that represent the DMS having benefits for the SMTEs might have incorrect information (Destination management systems 2007). Thus the fact that evolves is that DMS is capable of offering tourist destinations with high benefits of coordinating all products and services offered by the destination either locally or at a national level, with the use of the IT. However, with some destinations, and the public and private sectors in charge of such destinations, being difficult to market and manage, the DMS has still not proved to be effective. Thus in the present scenario, the use and development of DMS can be considered as critical for tourist destinations. However, provided the systems are effectively supported, DMS would prove to be a highly effective tool for the purpose of management, marketing and promotion of tourist destinations and increasing the competitive advantages of the destinations against each other (Destination management systems 2007). Evaluating DMS Facilities for Online Marketing of a Tourist Destination: Another facility that DMS offers for the tourist destinations is online marketing of the destination through the use of advanced information technology. With the use of ICT, the tourism industry has become highly exhaustive of information that it can provide to its customers and other stakeholders. Tools for enhanced communication and distribution have been provided by the ICT for the marketing of tourist destinations online. Consumers are now capable of obtaining information on any particular tourist destination with the use of the internet technology, thus online. Information is the most important factor associated with the tourism industry that has been effectively encompassed by the ICT. It is now possible for the tourist professionals to describe the spots of tourist destinations and their surroundings through official websites and web pages (Shanker n.d.). The different ways in which DMS and the use of ICT has developed online marketing of tourist destinations can be understood with an overview of the following features. For example, development of sites can be achieved through the use of GIS (Geographical Information System) that enables identification of the site and destinations of tourism. Advertisement and promotion can be achieved through the use of ICT that enable the marketing of the tourist destination. ICT also facilitates operations, thus enabling purchases and management of supplies and services. With the use of ICT, customer relationships can also be managed in an enhanced way with communications being possible online. GIS and GPS (Global Positioning System) also enable monitoring the sites online (Shanker n.d.). These are the tools of ICT that DMS makes use of for the purpose of online marketing, promotion and management of tourist destinations (Shanker n.d.). Online tourism has been into existence since a long time. Earlier the DMS used the ICT to enhance the management of internal and external information. In the present times, the information technology is primarily used for the purpose of marketing of the tourist destinations with operational, structural, and strategic measures trying to focus on improved communications with all stakeholders, and particularly the customers. Electronic tourism or e-tourism is a common application of the ICT that makes use of the internet, intranet, and the World Wide Web for the marketing of destinations to its customers. Not only are customers now capable of getting all information of a particular destination, but facilities like online reservation is also available (Buhalis and Jun 2011). With the use of ICT by the DMS, interactions between tourists have become easier and cost-effective as the transaction costs have reduced. The online marketing has enabled tourism providers and managers to market their destinations effectively along with improving their business relationships with the customers and other stakeholders (Pender and Sharpley 2005). Conclusion: From the above study it can be concluded that DMS is an essential feature as far as current tourism destination is concerned. Use of systems for the marketing and management of tourism services makes the process more effective and easy to handle as well. As could be obtained from the study, the use of ICT has been quite effectively been made by the DMS thus allowing the internet technology to enable online marketing of tourist destinations highly efficient. With online techniques, the communications of information become easier that enables a particular location to attract greater number of customers. Before selecting a particular destination, the customers are provided with all information and attractions of the location thus making it easy for them to decide. Online reservations are also helpful and effective. However the problem that still lies with the effective implementation of DMS as a whole, including the use of information technology for maintaining databases, and developing the communications and information sharing processes, has not yet been successfully supported by the public and private sectors of several destinations. Thus the complete effectiveness of DMS in the tourism industry is yet to be achieved. This implies that greater research and understanding of the DMS is still needed for many tourist destinations across the world in order to make the effective use of the systems for the development of marketing, promotion and management of tourist destinations. References Buhalis, D. and S.H. Jun (2011) E-Tourism. Goodfellowpublishers. [Online]. Available at: http://www.goodfellowpublishers.com/free_files/fileEtourism.pdf [Accessed 13 August 2013]. Destination management systems (2007) Traveldailynews. [Online]. 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