A Theoretical Framework of How Consumers in Tourism and Travel Seek Information - Literature review Example

Course Title) (Instructor’s Name) (Date Submitted) Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Theoretical framework 4 2.1 Consumer behavior 4 2.2 Consumer online behavior 5 3.0 Background of the three newsletters 6 3.1 Travel daily 7 3.2 Travel weekly 8 3.3 Travel monitor 10 4.0 Conclusion 11 5.0 References 12 1.0 Introduction The global tourism market is reaching its climax while the subsequent number of travelers is growing rapidly on an annual basis. During 2015, there was a 5 percent increase in international tourism arrivals in comparison to 2014; 1082 million globally. In 2016, it is projected that the tourism industry will grow by about 4 percent (UNWTO 2015). Given this kind of growth, the trends and preferences in tourism are increasingly dynamic; shifting towards seeking information regarding travelling, especially online. The 21st century has made it possible for travelers to book flights or reserve holidays online, with limited effort. According to a survey by Google and Ipsos MediaCT in 2014, more than 80 percent of travelers are utilizing online sources to plan their travels or holidays (Google & Ipsos MediaCT 2014). From this, it can then be deduced that planning or purchasing travelling online is a trend of significant concern and attention. Arguably, all travel companies and agencies rely heavily on the internet; while most of them provide opportunities for online bookings as well as other tourism-related products and services. This paper focuses on the significance of travel newsletters to tourism, through the analysis of three travel newsletters; Travel Daily, Travel Weekly and Travel Monitor. To do so, the paper begins by examining a theoretical framework of how consumers in the tourism and travel industry seek information. The paper will then consider each newsletter separately and draw a conclusion with respect to the resulting analysis. 2.0 Theoretical framework 2.1 Consumer behavior Identifying intentions for purchasing and consumer behavior is a challenging task given the varying effects of human diversity to each individual consumer. As such, many surveys, researches and studies are directed towards bringing out consumer trends since the field of consumer behavior is considerably broad. According to the work of Solomon (2013), consumer behavior refers to studying the underlying processes that drive groups or individuals in choice, purchase, consumption of products and services for the satisfaction of their needs and wants. From such a definition, it can be derived that all human beings are consumers, since a consumer is anyone seeking to satisfy a desire, need or want. In essence, there exists a vast volume of potential consumers; it is the task of each company to apply appropriate strategies in attracting them. According to Hoyer et.al (2013), consumer behavior can be defined from a psychological perspective. This is because consumer decisions have underpinned goals, drivers and motivators that determine attitude formation and change, memory and knowledge as well as shifting a consumer from exposure to understanding. From this perspective, human behavior is based on four fundamental categories - behavioral, psychographic, geographic and demographic (Cline et.al, 2011). Such aspects encompass the individual self while making all people unique especially with respect to behavior. The behavioral concept encompasses all the other concepts, defining human behavior with respect to prevailing situations as well as bringing out regular behavioral patterns, customs and habits. The psychographic concept entails lifestyles, personalities and values. It is thus concerned with consumer opinions, interests and activities (Hoyer et.al, 2013). Geographics dwell on the physical location of a given consumer. Such terms related to geographics include city, district, country, continent or other smaller sections of a region. Lastly, demographics refer to such aspects as nationality, language, ability, age, religion, culture, sexuality and gender. 2.2 Consumer online behavior The 21st century has witnessed immense modernization alongside rapidly advancing technology; providing consumers with efficiency and ease during purchase of goods and services. According to a survey conducted by emarketer n 2014, global online sales are referred to in terms of trillions of dollars, with projected increases in the future. Between 2013 and 2018, projections indicate a 10-20% increase. This means that the $1.233 trillion sales in 2013 will reach about $2,356 trillion in 2018; a double in such a short period (emarketer, 2014). It is therefore significant for companies to have a comprehension of how customers and potential consumers behave online. Moreover, it is projected that OTAs will grow by about 12 percent annually, given that there were approximately 150 million gross online bookings during 2013 (Trefis 2015, online). Additionally, in the same year, the online travel market accounted for 13 percent of the entire global travel industry. Online consumer demands are variant from offline demands. Online, consumers shop virtually, differentiating such shopping from purchase of stored products. From an online perspective, a consumer is able to a thorough research of a given product before purchase, such that they are able to compare products and services as well as find those that may have been depleted in physical stores. Online shopping is meaningful in saving time that would have otherwise been used in visiting a store; it is convenient and enables a consumer to specialty commodities (Travel weekly, 2013). A consumer is also affected by social and cultural contexts. For a company to attract potential customers it must bear the virtues of engagement, relevance and reputation since consumers are less patient compared to traditional trends. Reputation is especially founded on brand image, which is largely discussed on social media platforms (Frost & Strauss 2013). This means that the online business world is largely founded on trust and honesty. Regarding relevance, consumers look for products that are significant to their needs, wants and desires. Newsletters then play a central role in providing consumers with the information they need, especially online. 3.0 Background of the three newsletters Travel daily was first published in 1994 by Mike Heard. The paper was directed to availing travel information to users by fax, a situation that has largely been compromised by the internet. The paper was then acquired by Jenny piper and Bruce; information is sent to the newsletter subscribers via mail (Brook, 2009). The travel weekly is a publisher located in the UK, with its headquarters in London. It is chaired by Clive Jacobs, who is also the majority shareholder hence the owner of the company (Popescu, 2016). The newsletter publishes hardcopies and online versions concerning business and travel. It was founded in 2009 after acquisition from Reeds Business Information. It had earlier been published as Travel News from 1969. Travel monitor is concerned more with travel and businesses in Europe. The newsletter seeks to provide travel agents with relevant, immediate and accurate information while providing other users with all information regarding the tourism and travel industry. It is owned by Rolf Freitag, who is also its CEO. It was founded in 1988. 3.1 Travel daily The newsletter deals with business news related to the travel industry within Australia. Alongside providing users with plans of action respective to the industry, it enables the public, tour operators and travel agents to realize the availability of such actions. It is such strategic information that makes the newsletter leader in Australia (About Travel Daily, 2016). The brand image of the newsletter is associated with currency and accuracy, alongside being published five days in a week. Such accuracy can be traced to the follow-ups conducted by the group in the affairs of the tourism industry as well as close relations with various players in the tour and travel sector. As mentioned earlier herein, the newsletter reports information concerning the activities of the tourism industry in Australia. Travel daily is able to bring out the trends of the industry hence connecting companies to potential consumers with respect to the trending and prospective consumer behavior. In fact, the most famous and progressive travel agents use the newsletter as a platform for marketing through advertising and posting job vacancies. To assess such information, the user is required to be a subscriber of the newsletter, thus emails are sent to them with all the published information; A4 pages in Adobe Acrobat format (About Travel Daily, 2016). Given the featuring of current trends in the tourism industry, the newsletter has become the choice of many; including professionals and officials, not mentioning attracting many job seekers due to the job vacancy content. Extensive products and services as well as activities of travel agencies and companies can be accessed from travel daily. Based on the information provided by the newsletter, it has been rated highly by the Australian subscribers; in fact, most of them believe it to be the top most newsletter in the country (About Travel Daily, 2016). The reputation of the newspaper is positive, given that the information provided to the public is unbiased. It is believed all the publications of the paper are received from companies in the industry, which mostly seek to be marketed, hence accuracy of information. Given that travel daily is published five days in a week, its subscribers are assured of getting all the news and information relevant to the travel and tourism industry on a daily basis; earning the newsletter a competitive edge in the information and news dimension. Moreover, alongside disclosing job opportunities to tourism student graduates, the newsletter provides meaningful content for company research, consumer behavior as well as industry trends and future prospects. The slogan- first with the news- has earned the newsletter a great deal of reputation as far as accuracy and timeliness is concerned. It has an estimated 35,000 daily customer base attached to the industry such as government agencies, car rental companies, hotel groups, cruise lines, airlines, wholesalers and retailers (About Travel Daily, 2016). Given that it is 100% Australian, the newsletter promotes the Australian tourism industry especially based on its reputation as a reliable reporter and successful advertiser. 3.2 Travel weekly The newsletter is the leading publication in the UK market as far as the travel industry is concerned. Alongside a portfolio of events, the newsletter boasts in both online and print services for its users. What’s more, the publication is owned by Travel Weekly Group, which is the largest multimedia company in hospitality and travel sectors. Travel Weekly’s print magazine delivers unmatched news, features and analysis concerning people, the trends and issues of the industry as well as products and services. The editorial team that publishes the newsletter is award-winning, under the leadership of Lucy Huxley; the editor-in-chief. Travel weekly is published for 51 weeks each year and is approximately 30 percent bigger in comparison to its leading competitor in the sector (Hudak, 2015). The newsletter was redesigned in 2015 and acquired an illuminated appearance and feel alongside refocusing its content towards delivering core readership for cutting edge travel sellers. Regarding online information, most users prefer the group’s official website-Travelweekly.co.uk for information and digital news. In comparison to its direct competitor, the newsletter has an 80% market share (Chipkin, 2015). The website serves as the intermediate stop for all users seeking information on travel and tour; it has a high level of commitment with the consumer audience. The website was also redesigned in 2015 such that it can provide a broader scope of information with any device. Travel Weekly Business has a wide-raging presence amidst all channels, hence serving the industry’s decision-makers. In its events, the newsletter has the biggest leisure awards known as Global Travel Awards alongside others like Travel and Hospitality Hall of Fame, Northern Ball and Agent Achievement Awards. The travel weekly portfolio also comprises of The Caterer; the sister title; which is the frontline magazine for the hospitality industry; Take Off in Travel; a brochure-like magazine featuring careers; travelGBI; focuses on inbound and domestic travel; Travel Answerz; the best information hub for travel sellers; Aspire; features luxurious community travel; connecting travel; an emerging social networking platform for the sector and Travolution; features the digital travel industry (Popescu, 2016) . 3.3 Travel monitor The newsletter, also known as IPK International, is a tourism consulting company; conversant in tourism master plans, tourism marketing and travel research. It is among the frontline tourism consulting groups globally. Over the last 45 years, IPK has been able to finish over 1,000 customized tourism surveys and travel studies for about 200 clients in the public and private sectors in over 50 countries globally (About IPK International, 2016). . Using the travel monitor newsletter, IPK is able to deliver the most comprehensive data concerning outbound travel behavior in North and South America, Asia, Arabia and Europe. Travel monitor conducts qualitative and quantitative travel research in Asia-pacific, Middle East, America and Europe in conjunction with cutting edge marketing research institutes at an international level. Given the high level of expertise its tourism experts possess, highly skilled marketing specialists and market researchers, travel monitor is able to develop tourism master plans, tourism marketing concepts, tourism forecasts as well as tourism strategies that are significant for the industry at national, regional and international levels. The World Travel Monitor brand is the key success factor for IPK. It is also a member of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the European Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR) (About IPK International, 2016). The newsletter is an annual survey of the global trends in travel behavior and outbound travel volumes in Europe, America and Asia. The newsletter is far-reaching given that more than 500,000 interviews are carries out annually in more than 60 countries globally. The survey covers the total market through inclusion of private trips, business trips and holiday trips in its surveys. 4.0 Conclusion According to the findings of this paper, the three newsletters are concerned with travel information for the tourism industry. While the three newsletters can be termed as frontline sources of information, there exists a major divide- geographics. While the theoretical framework defined geogrphics in relation to physical location of a company, this paper finds that there is a differentiation regarding the scope of the three newsletters from a geographical perspective. The travel daily, though success and maintaining a competitive edge as brought out herein, is limited to inbound travel news and is purely Australian. However, the accuracy and timeliness of the paper is unmatched by the others. It is also highly regular hence cutting through all the tourism and travel news on a daily basis. It is also the best platform for advertising, marketing and posting job vacancies compared to the other two. The travel weekly covers a larger ground, by providing users with information from all over Europe. It is also limited to inbound travel within the boundaries of Europe. It is less regular compared to the travel daily, given that it is published only four times in a month hence 51 weeks annually. However, it covers the major news and provides the consumer with significant information. The newsletter can be said to be on the middle ground between the travel daily and travel monitor. The travel monitor covers the most ground, operating at a global perspective. It is therefore able to provide all the data concerning tourism to the user. While the travel daily may only depend on news for reporting, the travel monitor heavily relies on empirical research worldwide. Conclusively, it is evident that all three newsletters have achieved tremendous success in their endeavors. However, it is notable that the travel daily and the travel monitor represent two extremes while the travel weekly holds a middle ground in almost all aspects. 5.0 References About IPK International. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.ipkinternational.com/en/company-profile/about-us/. Accessed: 16th June 2016. About Travel Daily. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.traveldaily.com.au/about. Accessed: 16th June 2016. Brook, S. (2009). Reed sells travel portfolio | Media | The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jul/07/reed-business-information-travel-clive-jacobs Cline, T., Cronley, M. & Kardes, F. (2011). Consumer Behavior. 46. Cengage Learning. Stamford, USA. eMarketer. (2014). Worldwide Ecommerce Sales to Increase Nearly 20% in 2014. URL: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Worldwide-Ecommerce-Sales-Increase-Nearly-20- 2014/1011039. Accessed: 16th June 2016. Frost, R. & Strauss, J. (2012). E-marketing, Sixth Edition. 178-179, 182-185. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA. Google & Ipsos MediaCT. (2014). The 2013 Traveler. URL: https://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/2013-traveler_research-studies.pdf. Accessed: 16th June 2016. Hoyer, W., MacInnis, D. & Pieters, R. 2013. Consumer Behavior Sixth Edition. 43. South- Western. Mason, USA. Hudak, L. (2015). Social media: Consumers' new platforms of choice: Travel Weekly. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://www.travelweekly.com/ConsumerSurvey2015/Social-life-Consumers-new-platforms-of-choice Popescu, C. (2016, February 19). Weekly Roundup: Travel, Tech and Social Media · TrustYou. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://www.trustyou.com/weekly-roundup/weekly-roundup-travel-tech-and-social-media-15 Solomon, M. (2013). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being Tenth Edition. 31, 320. Pearson Education Limited. Essex, England. Travel Weekly. (2013). 2013 Consumer Trends: Travel Weekly. Retrieved 16 June, 2016, from http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Agent-Issues/2013-Consumer-Trends Travel Weekly, About Us. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/static/about-us. Accessed: 16th June 2016. Trefis. (2015). Competition is Shaking Up the Online Travel Market. In Forbes Official Website. URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/01/05/competition-isshaking- up-the-online-travel-market/. Accessed: 16th June 2016 UNWTO. (2015). Annual Report 2013. 10. URL: http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/pdf/unwto_annual_report_2015_0.pdf. Accessed: 16th June 2016 Read More