Travel Information in Tourism Industry - Term Paper Example

Travel Information in Tourism Industry Travel advice can be either partial or impartial. The reasons depend onthe source of the information the aim. Governments are said to act based on political and economic interest of the nation. Companies are known to act based of the amount of revenues generated. Partial and impartial travel advice is issued to with definite goals in mind. This paper seeks to explore the nature of travel advice given. There is a clear dichotomy on partial and impartial travel advice which is vital for every tourist. The objective of this essay is to show the impact of the partial and impartial advice on travelling and travel patterns. The paper shed light of the reason why biases exist in the issuing of advice and travel information and the remedy to the same. Government advisories seem to target the first time travellers and families. They seem vulnerable and excited and may fail to take full precautions when they travel the tourist destinations around the world. There are other groups that depend on the travel services for business and commercial purposes, management and administration (Unger 1983). These groups are driven by strategy and ambition. These later groups become affected by unnecessary travels bans and alerts. The companies seek to avoid corporate risks. Travel related advises seem to indicate that it does not apply all the time. Governments have a tendency to be precautionary (Prentice 1992). Research shows that most of the governments do not invest a lot getting the resources necessary to issue travel advisories exclusively. It rare to get a government department that deals exclusively of research and collection of data on travel advisories. Tonny Ridley argues that small countries have no dedicated travel advisory services. This is as a result of lack of commercial experience (Tyrrel 1984). Partial travel advice is issued when the government wants to achieve a certain purpose. Most of such advice is predicated on government interests. It could be a form of censorship or omissions. This is in comparison to the business or commercial sector (Pothman 1978). The government is often accused of not seeing the commercial aspect of travel bans and advisories. Security departments are swift to issue travel advice, which could hurt the economy in the long run. Most travel agencies are said to be biased. They tend to be partial toward airlines and other travel products and services. Therefore, their travel advice is often treated with suspicion. Agencies are biased towards travel service vendors. They list their favourite airlines first for other reasons other than the professional reasons (Tyrrel 1984). In the United States of America, the federal government was forced to respond to complaints that touched on these biases and partial attitude. The federal government adopted regulations that would limit them from intentionally biasing flights in favour of airlines (Ross 1992). Nongovernmental airlines are known to give professional and impartial advice on air travel. They tend to focus on the economic aspect more than the air travel politics. An air traveller should get advice from as a variety of sources if possible. Consumer lives under the fear of getting biased travel advice. The move by the federal government did not restore the consumer confidence in the travel industry and advice (Pothman 1978). The only way the consumer is assured of getting unbiased and impartial advice is when they go to the agencies directly. Online travel agencies are increasingly focusing on profitability (Unger 1983). They are in the process of developing software that likes them to CSR. There is growing concern they might favour airlines that offer the agencies high commissions. Travel agencies are legally allowed to be partial while displaying so as to favour their most profitable choices. In the United States of America, this is including the CSR owned travel agencies. This can happen at the expense of the agencies are cheap and professional in terms of consumer service and treatment (Sheldon 1992). Most governments admit in secret they do not have enough resources to evacuate people from any part of the globe on a large scale. Travellers are ignorant of taking security and safety as their personal responsibility (Prentice 1992). The assumption that they government can always swoop and rescue people is still strong in many people. According to Dann, governments are known to counter this through encouraging people to be pro-active. In case of disasters, government urges people to make personal arrangements as the option of landing in a foreign country is often a choice of last result (Tyrrel 1984). Government uses their intelligence to prevent such occurrences. The intelligence is followed by appropriate travel advice. Government advice is based on national interests like diplomatic relationships, economy and trade. Kousis argues that warnings and alerts that affect the national interest are not issued. People have been forced to look for advice that is professional and not based on partisan interests. Impartial advice, which is pursued by the commercial fraternity, is based on experiences and profitability. As a result, the security alerts issued by the government rarely stop multinationals from operating (Potts 1992). Government sources are perceived to be insufficient and political in nature. This is aggravated by governments’ lack of commercial relevance while issuing travel advice. The wrong demographics, when it comes to target, have caused government travel warnings to be overlooked. The knowledge of the government’s partisan interest makes the business fraternity makes decisions that will not affect travellers and locations in case of crisis (Ross 1992). Business risk management is a process that was instigated to offer impartial advice and contain risks through the necessary commercial services and products. Travel advice providers struggle to convince holiday makers on the need to seek and adhere to travel advice. Rarely does travel advice make personal since to those who hear it. This is accompanied by little awareness of potential risks (Tasci 2007). The travelling public is known to show extreme ignorance. According to Flook, this is a common problem faced in tourism. According to research, most of the people who travel is not insured neither are they attached to any travel group. In tourism, impartial travel advice is meant to preserve life and is issued on the basis of authenticity. This is where the dichotomy occurs. The business fraternity is not known to involved themselves in inter-governmental politics (Tyrrel 1984). Governments issues embargos and travel advisories are a way of sanctioning other economies if need be (Tarlow 2006). There is no formal requirement for many nongovernmental organizations to issues travel advice to travellers (Tasci 2007). According to Prentice, most of them are driven by a desire to keep the consumer safe. Arguably, Mckercher suggests that tour operators are concerned with the safety of their clients and maintain their reputation. In case, these organizations offer advice it becomes a way of taking reasonable initiates to keep their customers away from trouble (Prentice 1992). Such advice is taken to be impartial (Xiao & Smith 1992). Insurers are starting to give travel advice to policy holders. The level of risk faced by tourists on a business mission is determined by the region they are visiting. They are perceived to travel more than holiday makers. Business tourists are advice by non government al agencies because they are driven by profitability. Most of their travellers are insured. It is crucial for travellers to receive information and advice before they depart. During the visit, messages on security and safety have a profound impact. However, the government approach is always different. The government is eager to cancel the trip rather than to alert while in a danger zone. According to study by Barker, most of the tourists acknowledged they advice they received while on the ground was the most helpful in the entire experience. Nongovernmental players are known to give personal safety alerts and follow up security in their quest to add revenues (Ross 1992). Most respondents qualified the advice are helpful and said the company was a valuable source of information (Ritchie 1988). According to Pizam, travel companies in conjunction with agencies and the relevant bodies are known to organize regular security briefs and advice to their clients (Potts 1992). They are also known to collaborate with the security personnel in any country in their quest to serve the consumer needs. However, they are not obligated to give the travel advice. This makes the advice impartial. On the other had governments are known to issue advice with is hard to identity with that devoid of details (Prentice 1992). The suspicion of the intergovernmental politics means the government advice is rarely perceived to be impartial (Rayn2005). Small companies may lack the experience and systems to do such. According to Krippendorf the travel package should include both insurance and impartial advice. In a letter of reported actions by global distribution systems and OTAs, a business dispute between two parties led to deceptive and unfair practices. OTA was accused to having intentional bias on airfare and information concerning an airline (Dann 1988). This was not reflected of the other airlines. The companies were accused of being biased against an airline and gave the wrong information to travel agents intentionally (Tasci 2007). The department of transport acknowledged that is has not power to control how information should be displayed. The department had the power to prevent the OTA and GDS from being impartial and deceptive (Rayn2005). According to the department, the consumers and travel agents were the losers because they ended up believing distorted information on fares and schedules (Tyrrel 1984). The bias meant that OTAs cannot be trusted to give impartial advice. The bias by GDS could end up causing the travel agents and customers to believe in lies (Sheldon 1992). The customers could end up booking inferior flights while the best flights are available and affordable. The companies may fail to show services offered by agents and airlines of the companies they consider rivals. They must be compelled to give impartial advice for the welfare of the tourists or customers (Tyrrel 1984). Under the law, such exaggerations and biases are classified as deception and can be provoke punitive measures (Prentice 1992). Individual air carriers are compelled to corroborate with such companies for the sake of profitability. Impartial and professional travel advice is rare in tourism. A communiqué by GDS to travel agents concerning services is not sufficient to avert consumer harm. Airlines have opted to introduce themselves to consumers directly (Tasci 2007). In the United States of America, the federal government stepped in to put regulations to minimize the biases and give accurate information to customers. Travellers are suspicious of travel vendors. Big spending customers fear being overcharged. Orbitz one occasion showed different prices for windows and Apple Inc users. The assessment was that Mac users spend more on hotels than windows users at Orbitz. The spending pattern inspired the biased approach. According to Pechlerner (2004), online travel vendors have classified information about shoppers and are willing to take advantage of their ignorance. Online travel vendors customize the charges based on their understanding to the customers travel behaviour (Romeril 1985). These prices are rarely standardized, and compassionate spenders are known to be victims of this approach (Tyrrel 1984). Travel vendors are willing to give offers that earn them loyalty from leading spenders. Customers are left without credible sources of advice. It is clear that it is necessary to get multiple sources of information before travelling. In conclusion, the government gives travel advisories and alert after thoroughly weighing the political and economic impact of the step. This means that the government can ignore the economic impact of such announcement when it is acting in political inspiration like imposing sanctions. Governments try to avoid the cost of evacuating people from different parts of the globe by issues alert messages of danger prone areas. However, companies that are driven by profitability and commercial reasons often ignore the position of the government to avoid making losers. Travel companies or business companies tend to give their employees and customers professional and impartial advice in the best interests of their safety. They go out of their way to collaborate with the security personnel and give regular brief in the course of the trip to ensure the safety of the customers and losses. The travel agencies and airline companies struggle to have the right information displayed. This arises from biases by the personnel assigned to ensure fairness and truth while displaying airline services and information. This has prompted the federal government in the United States of America to step in and enforce fair display of information by OTAs and GDS. Airline companies are also tempted to directly link with consumers to avoid such incidences that impact their profitability negatively. Online vendors are increasingly partial while issuing travel advice and information. Companies are known to overcharge generous spenders and offer other travellers a different price for the same service. A telling example is the case of Orbitz. Travellers must learn to get multiple sources of information before travelling. They should avoid partial information as it may lead them to losses. Traveller should be cautious while dealing with online vendors who are known to customize prizes based on the travel behaviour of the customers. References Dann et al., 1988, Methodology in Tourism Research, Annals of Tourism Research 15, pp. 1–28. King, B., Pizam, A., & Milman, A. 1993. Social impacts of tourism: Host perceptions. Annals of Tourism Research, 20, 650-665. Kousis, M. 1989. Tourism and the family in a rural Cretan community. Annals of Tourism Research, 16, 318-333. Krippendorf, J. 1982. Toward new tourism policy, the importance of environmental and socio-cultural factors. Tourism Management, 3, 135-148. McKercher et al., 2000, Rating tourism and hospitality journals, Tourism Management 27, pp. 1235–1252. Pechlaner et al., 2004, A ranking of international tourism and hospitality journals, Journal of Travel Research 42, pp. 328–332. Pizam, A. 1978. Tourism impacts: The social costs to the destination community as perceived by its residents. Journal of Travel Research, 16, 8-12. Prentice, R. 1993. Community-driven tourism planning and residents’ preferences. Tourism Management, 14(2), 218-227. Ryan, 2005, The ranking and rating of academics and journals in tourism research, Tourism Management 26 , pp. 657–662. Sheldon, 1991 , An Authorship Analysis of Tourism Research, Annals of Tourism Research 18, pp. 473–484. Xiao and Smith, 2006, The making of tourism research: Insights from a Social Sciences Journal, Annals of Tourism Research 33, pp. 490–507. Ritchie, J. R. B. 1988. Consensus policy formulation in tourism. Tourism management, 9 3, 199-216. Romeril, M. 1985. Tourism and conservation in the channel islands. Tourism management, 1, 43-50. Ross, G. F. 1992. Resident perceptions of impact of tourism on an Australian city. Journal of travel research, 30, 13-17. Rothman, R. A. 1978. Residents and transients: community reaction to seasonal visitors. Journal of travel research, 16 3, 8-13. Tarlow, P. E. 2006a. A social theory of terrorism and tourism. In Y. Mansfeld, & A. Pizam (Eds.), Tourism, security, & safety from theory to practice (pp. 33–48). Burlington, MA: Elsevier-Butterworth-Heinemann. Tarlow, P. E. 2006b. Terrorism and tourism. In J. Wilks, D. Pendergast, & P. Leggat (Eds.), Tourism in turbulent times towards safe experiences for visitors (pp. 80–92). Oxford: Elsevier. Tasci, A. D. A., & Gartner, C. W. 2007. Destination image and its functional relationships. Journal of Travel Research, 45(5), 413–425. Tyrrel, T. & Spauling, P. 1984. A survey of attitudes toward tourism growth in Rhode Island. Hospitality Education and Research Journal, 81, 22-23. Um, S. & Crompton, J. L. 1987. Measuring resident’s attachment levels in a host community. Journal of Travel Research, 26 2, 27-29. Unger, L. S., & Kernan, J. B. 1983. On the meaning of leisure: An investigation of some determinants of the subjective experience. Journal of Consumer Research, 9 March, 381-392. Uysal, M., Pomeroy, R. S., & Potts, T. D. 1992. Country level tourism impacts assessment: A case study in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Journal of Travel Research, 31 1, 57-65. Read More