Assessing the Travel Industry: Basis for a Centralized Travel and Tour Operation Management System

Abstract

Most travel and tour operation management systems often suffer from fragmentation, lack of integration, inefficient processes, and limited scalability. These issues lead to delays, errors, poor coordination, and, ultimately, dissatisfied customers. Additionally, there is a notable absence of centralized platforms that can effectively manage various aspects of travel and tour operations, including bookings, itineraries, payments, and customer communications. To address these challenges, this study introduces a Centralized Travel and Tour Operation Management System for the tourism industry in Surigao City, Philippines. The proposed system will seamlessly streamline operations, enhances customer satisfaction, and improves overall efficiency in the travel and tourism sector by utilizing User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design principles. This is to ensure that the system is accessible to users with different needs. The features of the system also include booking management, inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM), billing and invoicing, reporting and analytics, content management, and compliance and security. The study was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The purposive sampling method was used to select participants based on specific criteria relevant to the research objectives. Tourists, both local and international, were asked to evaluate the current system and identify the problems or issues they encountered during the booking process. The results showed there are several key challenges in terms of the competition among tourism businesses and economic factors. There is also a need for an improved infrastructure, particularly transportation and safety measures, to facilitate easier access and ensure the security of tourists. The centralized booking and management systems is considered as a way to streamline planning and enhance convenience for visitors. that the proposed system is highly relevant in enhancing the tourism sector, contributing to the development and improvement of the travel and tourism industry