E-Tourism for Seattle - Case Study Example

Research on e-tourism for Seattle (Insert Name) (Institution Affiliation) Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Visit Seattle e-Tourism and Marketing Strategy 3 2.1 Latest predictions for the travel growth in Seattle 3 2.2 Relevant information that would be required by the VisitSeattle.org 5 2.2.1 International Tourism 5 2.2.2 Travel Segment 6 2.2.3 Hospitality, sports and events 6 2.3 Social Media tools and innovative technologies marketing 7 2.4 Small Medium Tourist Enterprises 9 3.0 Conclusion 11 References 12 1.0 Introduction Visit Seattle is a nonprofit private marketing organization that is based in Washington and has served as Seattle or king’s county official destination marketing organization for over fifty years. The major goal of visit Seattle rigorous marketing efforts is to enhance the economic prosperity and increase the employment opportunities especially in the tourism sector (VisitSeattle, 2013). During the past few years, visit Seattle have been re- branding, re- building and even re- invigorating in order to incorporate the new technologies as well as embrace contemporary ICT and use innovative technologies and social media tools that will help it succeed in the current dynamic and competitive market. 2.0 Visit Seattle e-Tourism and Marketing Strategy 2.1 Latest predictions for the travel growth in Seattle The funding of visit Seattle is derive from a number of sources which include but not limited to hotel occupancy tax, vigorous partnership program, revenue from Seattle King country visitors, restaurants, tourist attractions, retailers and transportation services among many more (visitseattle, 2013). The visit Seattle have been cooperating with travel association of the United States to communicate effectively the ultimate benefits of travel to the policy makers, consumers and business leaders in the tourism industry. The Seattle tourism improvement area which completed its first year of operation is expected to bring about a growth in tourism sector. During the 2012 financial year, Seattle tourism improvement area was able to double the annual leisure destination marketing spend and as a result, it amplified the Seattle’s story in the major visitor markets thorough the new consumer travel campaigns, special events and marketing partnership. Furthermore, Seattle tourism improvement area, hereafter referred to as STIA, which was administered by Visit Seattle enabled Seattle to actively compete and expand its market share in tourism especially in the off- season. Almost 20% of the visitors who come to the region are international tourists. The international tourism has been growing at a faster pace as compared to the domestic tourism. During the past five years, tourist from other parts of the world especially Asia and Europe has grown with over 50% as shown in the figure below. According to the United States department of commerce and international trade commission together with the US tourism industries, this number is projected to increase by more than 27% in the coming years as a result of increase awareness campaigns and unique partnership with other stake holders. Since ICT has been transforming the tourism industry globally, Visit Seattle can incorporate it in its operations in order to achieve the projected growth. The information Communication Technology has driven re-engineering and gradually generated a new paradigm shift which is altering the tourism industry structure by presenting new opportunities (Fuchs, Ricci, & Cantoni, 2012). Visit Seattle can employ ICT in empowering consumers in identifying, purchasing and customizing tourism products and services. Furthermore, ICT plays a crucial role in helping the company to deal with the competitiveness of the tourism destinations and organizations. ICT have intense implications on e-tourism as a result of the digitization of the tourism industry. With the high internet speeds, lower cost of data bundles and the rapid expansion of internet across the world, many people have embraced the new age technology. Visit Seattle should thus create a full-fledged online marketing that would fulfill the heightened consumer expectations and incorporate the use of social media in marketing. Tactically, by undertaking e-tourism, the company will be able to revolutionize its business processes and establish a competitive advantage. 2.2 Relevant information that would be required by the VisitSeattle.org 2.2.1 International Tourism The visit Seattle has showed continued support in branding the United States in order to absolute success in attraction of international tourist to the city. Visit Seattle is also working in partnership with the Port of Seattle to target key overseas markets, operating tourism offices overseas and working closely with tour operators and media to leverage tourism business from dynamic growth in the overseas travel segment. However, in order to benefit from the e-tourism, Visit Seattle is required to identify whether the international tourists are willing to stay longer or spend more on its shores and facilitate the necessary technology that will aid their stay. By studying the needs of the international visitors, the new technology can produce an essential contribution to the development of tourism. Visit Seattle will then be able to make information and booking facilities available to large numbers of international tourists at affordable costs. 2.2.2 Travel Segment Many people especially the youths are not prepared for the increasingly global future. Most of them lack basic navigation skills and has very little understanding on the international economy due to the limitation in travelling (Berne, Garcia-Gonzalez, & Mugica, 2012). A good number of youth does not also understand the relationships among places and the tourism attraction sites. Visit Seattle should thus seek information that would diversify the travel segment which is key element of tourism industry. Travel is the world’s biggest business and biggest passion. Visit Seattle thus needs to explore and build upon various opportunities for the visitors destinations in order to ensure tourism success. This is primarily because leverage geographic proximity, cross- border mobility and growing tourism infrastructures will help to stimulate incremental tourism for the Seattle. 2.2.3 Hospitality, sports and events One of the main initiatives of Visit Seattle is gathering information that will help in improvement of food and accommodation services as well as sport activities. Information regarding the preferences of the visitors will help in implementation of the online hotel reservation system. Seattle sport should research on the various kinds of sport that majority of visitors are interested and employ online advertisement in creating their awareness 2.3 Social Media tools and innovative technologies marketing There are several hundreds of social media platforms where users of the internet share information or interact with other users (Evans, 2012). These platforms are specially designed to supply all segments of users and promote different interaction ways. The social platforms usually encourage individuals to travel and share their travel experiences and opinions which serve as information sources. There platforms in several occasions have been used to create hype on various subject and thus forms a very good advertising medium. The popularity of social networking on internet can be judged by the fact that the giant social sites; Twitter, Google plus and Face book are making news headlines and receiving wide coverage from print as well as visual media across the globe. Many people are involved in online conversations and due to this online markets have turned into conversations which make it a very viable advertisement platform. Social media is in fact a two- way, real- time conversation involving various parties who mostly are in different geographical location. Recent research shows that there is a great expectation that online tourists are responding positively to and interacting with the social media audience in real -time setting. However, it is still hard to focus on constant stream of content characterizing the social media, but online tools have been developed to help in monitoring and responding to potential customers on social networks. The recent years have seen many radical changes in technology and societal behavior. People have become more stressed, busier and more immersed with complex information and realities. These changes have revolutionized the social media due to the apparition of the internet. Social medial platforms have emerged as a fast, reliable and effective way to find and communicate information since they are build from the collective knowledge of the consumers from all over the world. In order to effectively utilize the social media tool, visit Seattle needs to create an interactive web page that will engage potential customers who are available in the common social media sites (Kim, & Ko, 2012). This will allow a bidirectional flow of information that can be used to attract and retain the sophisticated customers. In addition, by making use of the use created contents that are available in the internet courtesy of the social media, Visit Seattle will be able to identify the preferences of the potential tourists and tailor their marketing campaigns to appeal to the online customers. Apart from social media marketing, visit Seattle can also use innovative technologies to market the city as a tourist destination in order to satisfy the complex and high expectations of contemporary tourists. For tourism industry, the internet provides a potential to make booking and information available. Generally, the technological innovations have profound implications on the tourism industry since it represents the digitization of the entire operations and process not only in tourism but also hospitality, catering and travel industries. Strategic use of e-tourism can revolutionize the entire value chain and determine the competitiveness of Visit Seattle by taking advantage of the internet for information exchange and interacting with both its customers and stakeholders. Through the use of innovative technology which includes personal digital assistants, PC and mobile technology, Visit Seattle can design customized adverts that will target a group of specific people and place the end user in the middle of product delivery and functionality. Every tourist is unique and carries different blend of desires, preferences, experiences and motivations. The society in general is rapidly transforming becoming more technologically superior and functioning in a diverse environment with endless seeks of new adventures and destinations (Aldebert, Dang & Longhi, 2011). The internet therefore provides such tourists with information and knowledge about the available destination. It is thus up to the company to tailor their products and services in order to attract or encourage them and convince them that they will achieve full value of their money as well as assure them that supplier are available who will satisfy their sophisticated needs. Furthermore, Visit Seattle needs to establish an online database that will be used to address the individual needs. They should collect the visitors’ information at every stage of service; before, during and after a visit in order to understand better the behavior of the consumers in regard to their concerns, choice, preferences and determinants. Personalized services driven by advanced Customer Relationship Management systems should record customer preferences and requirements for present and future usage. This will also enable the company to offer proactive service that will automatically translate to better customer satisfaction and high number of tourists. 2.4 Small Medium Tourist Enterprises The emerging trends in new technologies provide a communication tool among the tourism industry, suppliers, end- consumers and the intermediaries. Recent studies have revealed that the advent of e-tourism offers considerable opportunities for tourism firms to revolutionize and expand their customer base, rationalize their business and enter into new markets especially through partnership with small and Medium Tourist Enterprises (SMTEs) (Francis, 2012). The internet is fundamentally changing the availability and distribution of tourist information. The number of internet users engaged in e-tourism is increasing on a daily basis. As a result, tourism is gaining a larger share of the online market and companies which have incorporated the new technology stand to benefit most. However, SMTEs are facing stringent obstructions in their bid to adopt the new information and communication technology. This is mainly due to the high initial cost that is involved in implementation of the technology. Visit Seattle has the financial capability and the will to purchase and implement the newest technology (Francis, 2012). The organization can thus increase its customer base and promote and market Seattle, Washington effectively online through mergers and strategic partnership with the Small and Medium sized Tourist Enterprises. Furthermore, the SMTEs have been known to be very successful in using word of mouth to promote their business. The word of mouth communication in tourism has more influence to the customers than any other form of communication or advertising especially in service provision due to the fact that services are intangible and has a variety of risks that are associated with their provision (Tejada & Moreno, 2012). Tourism has a special characteristic which lenders it impossible to test before consumption. Thus, many tourists relies on opinions and experience from other people more than any other information. Since the Small and Medium Tourist Enterprises are distributed throughout the city, Visit Seattle can take advantage of their strategic location to advertise its business and promote and market Seattle, Washington effectively through electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Small and Medium Tourist Enterprises with innovative websites that are well developed have equal access to the internet access to local and international tourism markets. This implies that the SMTEs have equal access to the information communication and telecommunication infrastructure as well as marketing management and education in the online market space. Since embracing digital technology is no longer an option but a necessity, many SMTEs within Seattle has incorporated the new technology in their operations. Through strategic alliances and partnerships, visit Seattle can be able to involve the small and Medium Tourism Enterprises in promoting the city both locally and internationally. 3.0 Conclusion Visit Seattle should develop a strategic policy guidelines and plan that will incorporate the SMTEs and other stakeholders in the tourism industry, in e-tourism activities in the city in order to expand its customer base. This will encourage the Small and medium Tourism Enterprises to stop unhealthy competition at the destination level and develop a comprehensive network for mutual benefit. References Berne, C., Garcia-Gonzalez, M., & Mugica, J. (2012). How ICT shifts the power balance of tourism distribution channels. Tourism Management, 33(1), 205-214. Aldebert, B., Dang, R. J., & Longhi, C. (2011). Innovation in the tourism industry: The case of Tourism@. Tourism Management, 32(5), 1204-1213. Brown, D. H., & Kaewkitipong, L. (2009). Relative size and complexity: e-business use in small and medium sized tourism enterprises in Thailand. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 22(1/2), 212-231. Evans, D. (2012). Social media marketing: An hour a day. Sybex. Francis, C. A. (2012). E-marketing motivators, inhibitors and critical success factors: a study of small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) in Mauritius and Andaman islands, India. Fuchs, M., Ricci, F., & Cantoni, L. (2012). Information and communication technologies in tourism 2012, Helsingborg, Sweden, January 25-27, 2012. Springer-Verlag Wien. Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1480-1486. Tejada, P., & Moreno, P. (2012). Patterns of innovation in tourism ‘Small and Medium-size Enterprises’. The Service Industries Journal, (ahead-of-print), 1-10. VisitSeattle. (2013). About-Us/What-We-Do. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from Visit Seattle: http://www.visitseattle.org/About-Us/What-We-Do visitseattle. (2013). Visit Seattle Annual Report. Kings Seattle: visitseattle.org. Read More

2.2 Relevant information that would be required by the VisitSeattle.org 2.2.1 International Tourism The visit Seattle has showed continued support in branding the United States in order to absolute success in attraction of international tourist to the city. Visit Seattle is also working in partnership with the Port of Seattle to target key overseas markets, operating tourism offices overseas and working closely with tour operators and media to leverage tourism business from dynamic growth in the overseas travel segment.

However, in order to benefit from the e-tourism, Visit Seattle is required to identify whether the international tourists are willing to stay longer or spend more on its shores and facilitate the necessary technology that will aid their stay. By studying the needs of the international visitors, the new technology can produce an essential contribution to the development of tourism. Visit Seattle will then be able to make information and booking facilities available to large numbers of international tourists at affordable costs. 2.2.

2 Travel Segment Many people especially the youths are not prepared for the increasingly global future. Most of them lack basic navigation skills and has very little understanding on the international economy due to the limitation in travelling (Berne, Garcia-Gonzalez, & Mugica, 2012). A good number of youth does not also understand the relationships among places and the tourism attraction sites. Visit Seattle should thus seek information that would diversify the travel segment which is key element of tourism industry.

Travel is the world’s biggest business and biggest passion. Visit Seattle thus needs to explore and build upon various opportunities for the visitors destinations in order to ensure tourism success. This is primarily because leverage geographic proximity, cross- border mobility and growing tourism infrastructures will help to stimulate incremental tourism for the Seattle. 2.2.3 Hospitality, sports and events One of the main initiatives of Visit Seattle is gathering information that will help in improvement of food and accommodation services as well as sport activities.

Information regarding the preferences of the visitors will help in implementation of the online hotel reservation system. Seattle sport should research on the various kinds of sport that majority of visitors are interested and employ online advertisement in creating their awareness 2.3 Social Media tools and innovative technologies marketing There are several hundreds of social media platforms where users of the internet share information or interact with other users (Evans, 2012). These platforms are specially designed to supply all segments of users and promote different interaction ways.

The social platforms usually encourage individuals to travel and share their travel experiences and opinions which serve as information sources. There platforms in several occasions have been used to create hype on various subject and thus forms a very good advertising medium. The popularity of social networking on internet can be judged by the fact that the giant social sites; Twitter, Google plus and Face book are making news headlines and receiving wide coverage from print as well as visual media across the globe.

Many people are involved in online conversations and due to this online markets have turned into conversations which make it a very viable advertisement platform. Social media is in fact a two- way, real- time conversation involving various parties who mostly are in different geographical location. Recent research shows that there is a great expectation that online tourists are responding positively to and interacting with the social media audience in real -time setting. However, it is still hard to focus on constant stream of content characterizing the social media, but online tools have been developed to help in monitoring and responding to potential customers on social networks.

The recent years have seen many radical changes in technology and societal behavior.

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