Travel Providers Research Articles

A Study of the Loyal Purchasers of Bus and Shuttle Tickets from Online Travel Agencies (Otas) in Indonesia

An online travel agency (OTA) is an online-based marketplace that allows consumers to research and book travel products and services, including hotels, flights, cars, tours, cruises, activities and more, directly with travel suppliers. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the tourism sector, Indonesia as one of the favorite tourist locations in the world has sped up the vaccination process which is a good momentum for the revival of the national tourism sector. Those conditions led to competition between OTAs starting to get intense again and each OTA company must strengthen its business by improving and creating new services to win the market. The Bus and Shuttle are the most common ground public transportation in Indonesia which is one of the flagship products of OTA and has grown over the last 3 years. This study aims to determine the values of online bus and shuttle tickets through OTA perceived by the loyal consumer. The result implies that functional, informational, preference values, and bus or shuttle usage satisfaction are important factors in getting loyal consumers. These loyal consumers will be of high value because apart from having a good impact on the company's economy, they will also ultimately tend to invite the surrounding environment through e-WOM.

Research progress and future agenda of COVID-19 in tourism and hospitality: a timely bibliometric review

PurposeA proliferation of articles surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic is calling for new insights through review. This paper aims to bibliometrically analyze the current progress of research around hospitality and tourism to define the research directions on herd immunity and the prevention of disease under the “new normal.”Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzed 326 articles regarding COVID-19 published in SSCI hospitality, leisure and tourism journals in 2020 and 2021 by combining manual analysis and bibliometrics to reveal research topics and to gain insight into research structures.FindingsThe results of this paper summarized topics related to stakeholders’ mentality and behavior, responses of travel suppliers to the COVID-19 pandemic, economic impact and demand forecasting, social issues of human rights and racism and reflection on tourism and transformation of the industry. More research is called for in the future to focus on a better response to the crisis, including crisis management education and training and the improving the resilience of small- and medium-sized enterprises.Research limitations/implicationsA three-dimensional consideration was proposed to promote the sustainable development of hospitality and tourism.Originality/valueIn the “new normal” phase of herd immunity and disease prevention, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that provides an up-to-date systematic overview of the evolution of COVID-19 research in tourism and hospitality and encourages more conceptual, practical and futuristic studies.

Comparing older and younger adults' valuation of friendly destination attributes: a mixed-method empirical study

PurposeThe friendliness of a destination is a key factor influencing tourists' destination selection. However, few studies have explored the construct of friendly tourism destinations. The purpose of this study was to establish a typological framework of friendly tourism destinations and compare older and younger adults' valuations of friendly destination attributes.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach was used; in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 tourism stakeholders. Content analysis of the collected data was performed to construct a friendly tourism destination framework.FindingsThe framework consisted of 37 categories, which were classified into six themes: transportation and infrastructure, friendly tourism environments, government policies and tourism promotion measures, tourism products and activities, tourism information services and friendly residents. Furthermore, survey data from 1,153 respondents in Taiwan revealed that older adults valued friendly tourism environments and friendly residents more highly than younger adults did.Research limitations/implicationsThe participants were all from Taiwan; therefore, the results might not be applicable to tourists in other countries or regions. Furthermore, this study only compared the valuations of older and younger adults for the attributes of friendly tourism destinations.Practical implicationsFriendly tourism destination categories can provide a reference for tourists when making travel decisions. The framework provides destination marketers with a new tool for managing friendly tourism destinations. The findings can act as a reference for travel suppliers seeking to improve tourism-friendly services.Originality/valueThis study introduced a multifaceted framework for developing friendly tourism destinations from a holistic perspective. The results contribute to the tourism literature, revealing that younger and older adults have different valuations for the attributes of friendly tourism destinations.

Determining food attributes for measuring and evaluating a gastronomic destination's appeal to visitors

PurposeThe research aims to determine local food attributes for measuring and evaluating that appeal tourists to the gastronomic city of Phuket, Thailand.Design/methodology/approachThe first step is, the item generation, which includes an in-depth interview. Secondly, scale purification includes the exploratory factor analysis, which generates a preliminary factor structure. In the final step, scale validation, confirmatory component analysis is used to test the items and dimensions.FindingsThe 33 items organized into eight dimensions: food quality, authenticity, hygiene, interpersonal, novelty, service provider, foodservice place and value added for a creative city of gastronomy were demonstrated to be valid and reliable after a thorough development process.Practical implicationsThe findings assist practitioners in recognizing the many aspects of local food attributes, as well as how destination managers can employ these factors to promote a destination.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the theoretical literature on a gastronomic creative city, with more research into the links between destination management and other important concepts. In terms of the outcomes of a creative city of gastronomy management, this study might serve as a reference for destination managers and travel suppliers.

An Empirical Study on the Differences between Online Picture Reviews and Text Reviews

In the context of e-commerce, online travel agencies often derive useful information from online reviews to improve transactions. Based on the dispute on the usefulness of different types of reviews and social exchange theory, this study investigates how the characteristics of pictures and text influence review reading and review posting behaviors and thus influencing the efficiency of online review systems. By analyzing crawled data of online hotels and conducting experiments, we first find that picture reviews are more useful than text reviews, and high-quality pictures in reviews have a significant impact on review usefulness. Second, posting pictures requires review posters to pay more perceived costs. Third, negative review posters have higher perceived costs, so they are more unwilling to post pictures, especially high-quality pictures. Our results indicate that review platforms need to add incentives to encourage consumers to post high-quality picture reviews and design workable interfaces to reduce the burden of negative reviewers to speed up the purchase decision process for review readers. This study provides theoretical implications by demonstrating how the adoption of the picture in review systems influences both review readers’ and review posters’ behaviors. Additionally, our findings also provide useful managerial insights for online travel suppliers in terms of building an effective review system to promote sales.

Reversibility between ‘cocreation’ and ‘codestruction’: evidence from Chinese travel livestreaming

ABSTRACT Travel livestreaming has brought light to the tourism industry during the darkness of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although travel livestreaming is in full swing in practice, academic research on this subject is somewhat lagging. Value dimensions/drivers derived from service field may contribute to the overall value of relevant stakeholders. The aim of this preliminary study is to identify emotional experiences from the perspective of travel livestream viewers, revealing the drivers of value cocreation and codestruction. Based on grounded theory, data were collected through in-depth semistructured interviews, and 11 functional dimensions were revealed, namely, authenticity and immersion, entertainment, remuneration, uniqueness, symmetry, utility and convenience, interactivity, technical support, livestreamer characteristics, and regulators. These dimensions are contributed by multiple entities, including travel suppliers, livestreamers, live platforms, other viewers, individuals, and the external environment. These findings provide evidence of the reversibility of cocreation and codestruction and makes contributions to both theory and practice, especially regarding implications for future research.

Blockchain Technology as A Media for Sharing Information that Generates User Access Rights and Incentives

We propose another blockchain client displaying stage that can be utilized to share data without letting completely go and possession and apply it to the field of movement booking. Our new stage gives answers for different central points of interest: extraordinary information insurance and client the board, and shared motivating forces. Track the functioning techniques, objects, time, strategies and reasons for UN associations in an unquestionable way. Gather client profile data and empower clients to trade data with elective travel suppliers to get endowments dependent on protection inclinations determined in great agreements. Client information dependent on the storehouse will be changed over into an open information design and communicated by means of blockchain transmission. This permits the information to be effectively handled and utilized by different hubs. The keen agreement confirms and executes the concurred information. Terms of utilization and token exchange become free help to clients. Savvy agreements can give an assortment of stores to guarantee that all members act with honesty. This record additionally assesses the presentation of the new stage dependent on the investigation of holding up time and memory utilization by characterizing three test situations. The outcomes show that the hub can rapidly react to every one of our issues by utilizing the exchange port nonconcurrently.

Understanding tour guides’ service failure: Integrating a two-tier triadic business model with attribution theory

Tour guides are integral parts of the group package tour (GPT) and key front-line employees in the tourism industry. Previous research on tour guides has not been extended to the era of online travel shopping. We thus proposed and examined a two-tier triadic business model consisting of the online travel agent (OTA), the offline travel supplier (OTS), tourists and tour guides using a mixed methodology. The results indicated that attribution theory plays a role in tourists' repurchase intention only towards the OTA and not towards the OTS. However, across all scenarios, the interaction effects of tour guides' attitude and attribution dimensions on repurchase intention are significant. Notably, tourists’ repurchase intention is always higher towards an OTA than towards an OTS in all service failure conditions. Implications of tour guide service quality management and online travel marketing are also provided.

Destination safety climate: scale development and validation

ABSTRACT Destination safety is crucial for destination management. However, measurement scales for destination safety climate are absent. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop a destination safety climate scale, based on tourism-stakeholder perspectives. Through a rigorous development process, the 31-item seven-dimensional destination safety climate scale was proven to have validity and reliability. This study contributes to the theoretical literature on safety climate, in addition to further study of the relationships between destination safety climate and other relevant constructs. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for destination managers and travel suppliers in terms of safety management.

Low-Price Guarantees in a Dual-Channel of Distribution

Manufacturers routinely rely on retailers to reach potential customers. Concurrently, they often offer low-price guarantees (LPGs) to customers who purchase through their direct channel. That is, should consumers find a lower price from distribution partners, manufacturers promise to match or even beat the lower price. Many manufacturers, such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Goodyear, use price-matching guarantees (PMGs) against retailers. In the online travel industry, price-beating guarantees (PBGs) are prevalent among travel suppliers. In this paper, we develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the manufacturer's optimal choice of LPG policies and its implications for the manufacturer, retailer, and channel. Our analysis demonstrates that no LPG, PMG, and PBG can each emerge in equilibrium depending on consumer characteristics. While LPGs can improve channel profit, they may benefit the manufacturer at the expense of the retailer. As such, LPGs can intensify vertical channel conflict. However, both horizontal channel conflict and vertical channel conflict are present in dual channels. LPGs are not merely price discrimination device, they mitigate horizontal channel conflict. The benefit of LPGs in reducing horizontal channel conflict outweighs the loss from intensified vertical channel conflict under a wide range of conditions. Therefore, LPGs serve as channel coordination devices.

From Average Customer to Individual Traveler: A Field Experiment in Airline Ancillary Pricing

Ancillaries in the travel industry are now a major stream for revenue and profitability. Ancillaries are optional products or services whose sales depend on an individual's personal preference and their trip context. Conventional pricing strategies for ancillaries based on poorly optimized or static business rules do not respond to changing market conditions or trip context. We present a dynamic pricing model developed in conjunction with Deepair solutions, an AI technology provider for travel suppliers. Our models provide dynamic, customer-interaction-specific pricing recommendations, to increase revenue. The unique nature of personalized pricing provides the opportunity to search over the market space to find the optimal price-point for each customer, without violating customer privacy. We present an A/B testing deployment framework on an airline's website. Embedded in it are three models for dynamic pricing of ancillaries, with increasing levels of sophistication: (1) a two-stage forecasting and pricing model using a logistic mapping function; (2) a two-stage model with a deep neural network for forecasting, followed by pricing using discrete exhaustive search; (3) a single-stage end-to-end deep neural network that recommends the optimal price. In an outer loop, we introduce an online adaptive model-selection framework that adaptively routes customer requests to the above models. This is modeled as multi-armed bandit problem, which we solve using Thompson sampling. We evaluate the performance of these models based on offfine and online evaluations, and their real-world business impact. Offline experiments show that deep learning algorithms outperform traditional machine learning techniques for this problem. In online testing, our AI-driven pricing outperforms human rule-based approaches, improving conversion by 17% and revenue per offer by 25%. Additionally, our adaptive model-selection approach outperforms a uniformly random selection policy by improving the expected revenue per offer by 43% and conversion score by 58% in a simulation environment.

Mobile usage in travel: bridging the supplier-user gap

PurposeConsumer-driven technology innovations are transforming travel behavior. However, travel suppliers are still struggling to grasp their customers’ desires regarding mobile device usage in travel and also face other barriers. This paper aims to take a two-pronged approach to identify the gap between what travelers would like to do on mobile devices and what suppliers currently offer and to provide insights from technology industry experts on future trends.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses two exploratory studies: a consumer survey to understand travelers’ needs and wants regarding mobile devices and a qualitative study to learn more about how travel suppliers are responding and to identify barriers. Statistical techniques include ANOVA tests to identify individual differences and factor analyses to discover patterns in the data.FindingsConsumers would like to do more on mobile devices than is currently available; therefore, industry providers must be more forward-thinking with technology development and overcome the barriers identified in this paper.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the limitations to existing supplier offerings and capabilities, travelers were asked what they would like to do on mobile devices. Although marketing and technology personnel from various companies were interviewed, other perspectives exist.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the technology adoption and service-supplier innovation literatures by helping mobile technology service providers in the travel industry better understand and bridge the supplier-user gap. Suggestions to close this gap and predictions from technology industry experts are included to direct future actions.

Customer Retention Strategy Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: The Study on Traveloka Loyalty Program

Customer loyalty and customer retention is very closely related, customer loyalty stopped customer churn and strengthen the customer retention. The primary aim of retention strategy is to build a strong customer base and to prevent them from drifting towards other competitor. Traveloka as a travel supplier company, is the leading online travel agent in Indonesia. The customers satisfaction has an average score of 3,91. The result signify that Traveloka is successful in obtaining its customers’ satisfaction The customer loyalty has an average score of 4,04. Traveloka has managed to reach customer loyalty Traveloka customer satisfaction and loyalty are obtained as presented through chapter IV that the average is 3,97. In this research, Traveloka customer retention strategy using loyalty program is proven to be effective.

Travel motivation of Malaysian University students

The segment of youth travel has been considered a niche market and was treated as a branch of the tourism industry. In the past few decades, its market value has begun to increase significantly bringing real benefits to the companies tapping into this segment by developing appropriate strategies and policies. Given its significance, there have been an increasing number of researches in this topic with a focus on university students market, which have been largely neglected in the past. This study in particular, utilized the push and pull analysis in decrypting university students motivation to travel. For that purposes, a total of 500 students from Universiti Utara Malaysia were selected for the self-administered surveys using systematic random sampling approach. The statistical analysis indicates that several push and pull factors were considered very important for the university students in making travel decisions. In addition to that, travel characteristics of university students revealed crucial information for travel suppliers and marketers in delivering specialised services that could satisfy their unique needs and desires.

Big Data in the travel marketplace

We are beginning to see that Big Data will have a profound impact on gaining consumer insights, improving process efficiencies and enhancing the consumer experience. In the travel industry, travel suppliers, Online Travel Agencies and Global Distribution Systems have access to vast amounts of data from across the travel value chain – marketing and lead generation, interactive selling, fulfillment and customer care. Big Data can offer unique insights into consumer preferences and behavior patterns to improve conversion rates and revenues. This article focuses on the role of Big Data, the skills required in an organization to leverage Big Data in travel followed with examples of Big Data applications related to travel as it applies to suppliers, online and traditional travel agencies.

Success factors for meta-search engines in online travel distribution

The importance of digital distribution in the travel industry is strongly increasing. Virtually any travel supplier or hotel is able to market its services directly on the Internet. Web platforms, like online travel agencies (OTAs), are taking over trading functions and facilitate sourcing information for the customer. In addition to trading platforms, meta-search engines like Kayak, Qixxit, momondo and Rome2Rio have evolved and are making the market more transparent. But what is so special about ‘Meta’? Can it work in the long run? Is Meta the most important, if not the only successful kind of business model in online travel distribution?

The Feasibility of Technology-based Business Model for SMEs in Taiwan Tourism Industry

Aims: This study analyzes the feasibility of tourism business model created by an integrated telecom operator in Taiwan. This research analyze its model design logic at a strategic level and design elements of content at an operational level, hoping to help this case company analyzing their current design to make them fit for the future trend to capture the opportunities in travel market. Study Design: Case study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Taiwan, between May 2013 and April 2014. Methodology: In-depth interviews were adopted for this study. To obtain more comprehensive and accurate information, the interviewees included the top-level managers and executives. Results: This study use Business Model Canvas, which consists of nine basic building blocks, to analyze the feasibility of tourism business platform built by the case Company. The case company utilizes ICT technology and cooperates with domestic six major tourism industries to integrate Original Research Article Lee and Wu; BJEMT, 6(1): 50-60, 2015; Article no.BJEMT.2015.042 51 public and private sector resources to offer free abundant digital tourism information to travelers. Results indicate that the design logic is to associate with opportunity identification and enactment focus in streaming data integration to incorporate firm level strategic thinking, which takes into consideration the alignment of the organization’s resources (Fixed Line, Internet Access, Mobile, MOD, and Cloud) and provides six main services for travelers. It expects SMEs will spending in mobile ad and cloud service. This study also found the case company is significant weak in platform marketing to attract platform participants, both travel services providers and consumers. It needs to leverage social media to harness the platform effect for future rapid growth. Conclusion: Traditional relevant players in the travel market, from travel suppliers to travel intermediaries up to travel agents, have to adapt their business models to these fundamental changes in the travel industry.

Leveraging BIG DATA for competitive advantage in travel

The advent of Big Data will have a profound impact on gaining consumer insights, improving process efficiencies and enhancing consumer experience. This article describes the role of Big Data in an organization, its impact on pricing and revenue management, and how it can be leveraged for competitive advantage by travel suppliers, online travel agencies and travel agencies.

A GIS-based decision support system for hotel room rate estimation and temporal price prediction: The hotel brokers' context

The vastly increasing number of online hotel room bookings is not only intensifying the competition in the travel industry as a whole, but also prompts travel intermediates (i.e. e-companies that aggregate information about different travel products from different travel suppliers) into a fierce competition for the best prices of travel products, i.e. hotel rooms. An important factor that affects revenues is the ability to conclude profitable deals with different travel suppliers. However, the profitability of a contract not only depends on the communication skills of a contract manager. It significantly depends on the objective information obtained about a specific travel supplier and his/her products. While the contract manager usually has a broad knowledge of the travel business in general, collecting and processing specific information about travel suppliers is usually a time and cost expensive task. Our goal is to develop a tool that assists the travel intermediate to acquire the missing strategic information about individual hotels in order to leverage profitable deals. We present a GIS-based decision support system that can both, estimate objective hotel room rates using essential hotel and locational characteristics and predict temporal room rate prices. Information about objective hotel room rates allows for an objective comparison and provides the basis for a realistic computation of the contract's profitability. The temporal prediction of room rates can be used for monitoring past hotel room rates and for adjusting the price of the future contract. This paper makes three major contributions. First, we present a GIS-based decision support system, the first of its kind, for hotel brokers. Second, the DSS can be applied to virtually any part of the world, which makes it a very attractive business tool in real-life situations. Third, it integrates a widely used data mining framework that provides access to dozens of ready to run algorithms to be used by a domain expert and it offers the possibility of adding new algorithms once they are developed. The system has been designed and evaluated in close cooperation with a company that develops travel technology solutions, in particular inventory management and pricing solutions for many well-known websites and travel agencies around the world. This company has also provided us with real, large datasets to evaluate the system. We demonstrate the functionality of the DSS using the hotel data in the area of Barcelona, Spain. The results indicate the potential usefulness of the proposed system.

Contributors

Contributors