00 Tourism Industry

8/7/2019 00 Tourism Industry

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TOURISM SECTOR

It is Indias vastness that challenges the imagination: the sub-continent, 3200km (2000miles) from the mountain fastness of the Himalayas in the north to the tropical lushness of

Kerala in the south, is home to one sixth of the worlds population, a diverse culture and anintoxicatingly richhistory.

The most frequently visited part of India is the Golden Triangle Delhi and the magnificentmonuments of Agra and Jaipur, a legacy of centuries of Muslim rule but there is much

besides. The unfairly maligned great cities of Mumbai and Kolkata (Calcutta) have a

bustling, colourful charm, while the holy city of Varanasi or the awe-inspiring temples of

Tamil Nadu are worthy objects of pilgrimage. For those who prefer more sybaritic

pleasures, the palm-fringed beaches of Goa have a European charm all of their own.

Hinduism is practiced by 85 per cent of Indians, the religious rites and red-letter dayswoven into the fabric of everyday life ritual washing in the Ganges and the ear-splitting

celebrations of the festival of Ganesh and the inequalities of the caste system are there for

all to see.

One of the fascinations of India is the juxtaposition of old and new; centuries of history from the pre-historic Indus civilization to the British Raj rub shoulders with the computer

age; and Bangalore's Silicon Valley is as much a part of the world's largest democracy as

the remotest village is.Richard Hopton.


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CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM INDUSTRY

InflexibilityThe tourism industry is highly inflexible in terms of capacity. The number of beds in a hotel

or seats on a flight is fixed so it is not possible to meet sudden upsurges in demand similarly

restaurants tables, hotels beds and flights seats remain empty and unused in periods of low

demand.

Inventory / PerishabilityIt is related to the fact that travel products are intended to be consumed as they are produced.

For example, an airline has seats to sell on each flight; a hotel has rooms to sell for each

night. If the airline is not able to sell all its seats on its flight, or a hotel is not able to sell its

rooms for the night then the opportunity to sell the product is lost forever. Service sector

cannot keep inventory like products. To overcome this problem, the travel industry has come

up with various marketing strategies. One is to overbook. An airline overbooks its seats to a

certain extent in anticipation that even though certain customers do not turn up but the flight

will be fully seated. Another strategy is multiple distributions. For example a customer can

buy an airline ticket from an airline, tour operator or from a travel agent. The chances of

perishability are reduced. If the tourist cannot visit the place, the opportunity is lost. Hence,

this becomes one of its important characteristics.

InconsistencyA general norm is that in Travel and Tourism industry the product or the package of the

tourism can be standardized i.e. for example of 2 days 3 night in so and so hotel, but the

actual experience of consuming this package is highly inconsistent. We hear a lot of travel

stories which becomes a portrayal of a lot of bad experiences for example the tourist guide

may not be good, the hotels lodging and boarding was bad etc. Therefore there is high level

of inconsistency prevailing.

IntangibilityTravel products cannot be touched as they include flight experience on an airplane, cruise on

an ocean liner, a nights rest in a hotel, view of the mountains, a visit to a museum, a good

time in a night club and much more. These products are experiences. Once they have taken


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place they can only be recalled and relished. The tangible products on an airplane, a bed in a

hotel, food in a restaurant are used to create the experience but these are not what the

customer is seeking. The customer wants intangible experience like pleasure, excitement,

relaxation, etc. The tangible products that are purchased provide the access to intangibles.

InseparabilityMost travel products are produced and consumed at the same place and at the same time. This

is the opposite of the tangible products, which are produced at a different place and time and

consumed at a different place and time. In contrast, most travel products are sold first and

then, then simultaneously produced and consumed. For example, an airline passenger

consumes the flight as it is being produced, and a hotel guest uses a hotel room as it is being

made available for the nights sleep. Thus there is simultaneous consumption and production.

This creates certain interdependence between suppliers and customers as the interaction

between the supplier and customer takes place on the suppliers premises. The interaction

shapes the travel experience. For example, the customers could not take the cruise home with

them; in fact they have to leave their home.

Fixed locationTourism destinations are fixed locations so effort must be taken in communicating the facility

to the potential consumer.

Relatively large financial InvestmentsEvery modern tourist establishment and facility requires large investment, frequently over a

long time scale. This means that the level of risk and the rate of return are critically important

to tourism management.

People-orientedTourism Services are high contact services, as people interact with people at virtually

EVERY stage of the way. Tourism services are very people-oriented services, and the service

people are plenty and have high contact with the consumers. The consumer interacts with a

myriad of service people starting from when he books his ticket and throughout the course of

his holiday.


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SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths

Indias geographical location, a culmination of deserts, forests, mountains, and beaches.A wealth of archeological sites and historical monuments.Manpower costs in the Indian hotel industry are one of the lowest in the world. This

provides better margins for the industry.

Weaknesses

Lack of adequate infrastructure. The airlines in India, for example, are inefficient and donot provide basic facilities at airports. The road condition in India is very bad.

No proper marketing of Indias tourism abroad. Foreigners still think of India is one ofpoverty, superstition, and diseases.

The case of plague in Surat in 1994 led to decrease of 36% in arrival of foreign tourists inIndia.

Opportunities

More proactive role from the government of India in terms of framing policies.Allowing entry of more multinational companies into the country giving us a global

perspective.

Growth of domestic tourism. The advantage here is that domestic tourism and internationaltourism can be segregated easily owing to the different in the period of holidays.

Threats

Political turbulence within India in Kashmir and Gujarat has also reduced tourist traffic.Aggressive strategies adopted by other countries like Australia, Singapore in promoting

tourism.


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BASIS OF SEGMENTATION

Holiday: Mass market, Individual market, and Popular market.Demand: Primary, Secondary, and Opportunity.Geography: International, according to regions, etc.Psychology: Lifestyle, Personal motive, and Knowledge.Demography: Age, Sex, and religion.Socioeconomic: Rich, poor, rural, urban, literate, illiterate.Purpose: Business travel, Cultural Tourism, and common interest convention.Age: Teens, kids, youth and senior citizen.

Another method of classifying users of tourism services is on the basis of the frequency of

usage of services.

Non-users: They are not interested in using the services. They lack the willingness, desireand ability (income and leisure time).

Potential Users: They are also called the prospects or the prospective users. They have thewillingness but the marketing resources have not been used optimally to influence their

impulse. They bear the efficacy and the marketing professionals are supposed to capitalize

on their potentials by using creative promotional measures.

Actual Users: They are already using the services generated by the tourist organizations.Occasional Users: They have not formatted the habit of traveling.Habitual Travelers: They have formed a habit of avail of the services regularly.

The variety of users makes it essential that professionals study and understand their changing

behavioral profile. This would simplify the task of creating and stimulating demand. The

marketing decisions cannot be creative and proactive unless an in-depth knowledge of theusers is known. The individual specific behavior in the marketplace is affected by internal

factors such as needs, motivation, perception and attitudes as well as by external factors such

as family, social groups, culture, and economic and business influences. While studying the

behavioral profile the study of lifestyles is most important.


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Thus it can be said that arriving at sound marketing decision cannot be possible unless a

sound marketing plan and optimal marketing resources are developed.

Positioning the Product

The world is literally full of travel products. Not only the travelers offer a huge variety ofdestinations, they also have many hotels, airlines, car rental companies attractions ad other

travel products from which to choose.

The perception of the consumer for a particular product is a critical variable in themarketing process, one that has a great influence on purchasing decisions, especially

decisions among similar products.

Service MarketingTriangle

Company (MTDC, SOTC, ITDC, etc.)

Enabling Promises Making Promises

Providers Customers

(Travel Agents,Hoteliers, etc.)

Promises

Service marketing is unique in many ways in the travel and tourism industry. There are 3

players in the transaction process:

Company: A travel and tourism company listens to the customers and evolves/develops the

travel/tour package and it communicates the attractiveness and the utility of that very tour

package directly to the customers. The company makes promises to the customers.

The company in the Tourism Sector can be the Central Government, the State Tourism

Corporations, TourOperators such as SOTC, ITDC, etc. the company carries out External

Marketing as well as Internal Marketing.


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External Marketing: It makes promises to the customers, for e.g. the Malaysian governments

advertisement Malaysia, Truly Asia that promises a veritable cultural paradise to the

customer.

Internal Marketing: The Company enables the providers to fulfill the promises made by it to

the customers. For example, the Malaysian Government maintains the local transportation

within the country, maintains the tourist spots such as KLTowers, etc.

Providers: They are a travel companys internal customers constituting employees and agents.

The company does internal marketing with the providers educating and motivating them

about the idea of the particular tour package that they can offer to their customers. This is

done to enable the providers to effectively carry out the survive transportation process. The

providers make provisions for office space, accessibility and connectivity. The company

enables promises to be kept by this infrastructure association.

The Providers include all the entities that finally fulfill the Companys promise to the

Customers. They undertake Interactive Marketing, because they are in touch with the final

customer. Thus in the case of the Malaysian government, this would include the

transportation providers (Malaysian Airlines, Air India, Local

Bus transportation, Local Trains in Kuala Lumpur, Car and two-wheeler rentals), the

different hotels within Malaysia, souvenir outlets at tourist areas, tourist spots (KLTowers,

Twin Towers, etc.), restaurants (KFC Joints, Mary Brown, Pizza Hut), etc.

Customer (Travelers): The customers are the reasons that the Travel Company exists and for

whom the company has designed the traveling and touring package as well as setup the

infrastructure facilities and spent money on employee developments programs. Here the

providers are the only ones who interact with the customers, like the travel agents interact

with the customers and not with the company. The agents perform interactive marketing that

is on time, all time, every-time. This is the most crucial of service marketing in the travel

and tourism sectors. Those agents have the responsibility of keeping promises made and

enabled by the company. The providers (agents) are responsible for the perceived quality

level of the service transaction. This underlines the uniqueness of service marketing.


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MARKETING MIX

PRODUCT

PRODUCTLEVELS

In planning its market offering, the marketer needs to think through five levels of product.

Each level adds to the customer value, and the five constitute a customer value hierarchy.

The levels of the product that the travel and tourism industry offers to its customers are as

follows:

1) Core product

The core product offered by Travel and Tourism industry is the destination. It is core because

the main aim of the tourist is the destination where he has to reach or go.

2) Basic product

The basic products offered by Travel and Tourism industry are ticket booking, transport,

sight seeing, hotel booking.

3) Expected product

These are the products that the customer expects the organization to offer. These are

impeccable services, seat availability on needed time as it is critical to business travelers,

accurate information, quick check in for the senior manger of the company, authentic

information, information about various packages, different routes leading to a particular

destination.

4) Augmented product

These are the products that are offered by the companies to distinguish itself from others.

These products become expected products in the future. Those are flat beds in business class,

Wi-Fi connection in hotels, customized meals on board, tele checking 8hrs booking in hotels,

hotels providing laptops on request, internet access as complimentary for the corporate

packages.

5) Potential products


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These are the future products that the companies will offer to its customers. These can be

underwater tourism, hovercraft for traveling. Also Virgin Atlantic airlines are thinking of

adding a casino and a shopping mall in the airline.

PRODUCT WIDTH AND PRODUCTLINE

Product width of the product mix refers to how many different product lines the company

carries. The width of the product mix refers to how many variants are offered of each product

in the product line.

The product length is the total number in the product lines.

RATER

The well-known concept of five-quality dimension RATER, we hereby relate them to 7s of

Travel and Tourism. So what do we mean by 7s Travel and Tourism Industry and what is its

significance in relation to RATER.

1) RELIABILITY - Suchna - Information

The way and the kind of information, which is provided, by any Travel and Tourism

organization to its customers is the parameter of judging the Reliability of that organization.

Why do we make such a statement? To explain that let us take an example ofTravel agency.

The various services provided by agency includes Planning Itinerates, Ticketing, Working

out travel routes , Providing information on Destinations ,Arranging visas, Making stay

reservations. Here information plays a very dynamic role. Let us assume that the customer

comes for booking a ticket. It is very important on the part of the service provider (travel

agency) to give accurate information on all types of flight available, their fairs, and new

schemes going on which would in turn help customers to choose most suitable product for

their traveling. Such repeated and accurate information creates of a reliable organization. I.e.

in future the customer would trust the organization for any information.

2) ASSURANCE - Suraksha - Safety

It is one of the prime factors considered when talking about this sector. A safe travel is the

top priority of any traveler. Thus it is very important forTravel and Tourism organization to


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consider the safety of the tour package. The safe travel will in turn ensure the customers

traveler.

3) TANGIBLES - Swagat Suvidha Safai.

These are the backstage elements, which help in a great way for the customers to evaluate the

service. When we talk about tangible product in Travel and Tourism the 1st would include

a) Swagat

It means warm welcome. Everyone loves a warm welcome. It really gives a good start to the

whole holiday. Thus keeping this tangible factor in mind the tourism agencies for example

Thomas cook always keeps in mind the Swagat of their traveler. One good example of such is

in this package ofThomas cook from Mumbai to Goa, wherein they give a welcome drink to

travelers and provide them with a fruit platter and famous cashew nuts of Goa.

b) Suvidha

It means facility. Today if you talk top any business traveler they want to be pampered silly

from flat beds in business class to Wi-Fi in hotels customize the needs. These are the kind of

facilities they expect. Thus if a Travel and Tourism organization is able to provide all such

demanding facilities then it adds value to its travel products and makes the product hike from

standard quality level to superior quality level.

c) Safai

It means cleanliness. Hygiene is also an important factor of a travel package. Clean hotel

rooms and lobby create a spik and span impression of the package and add to the quality

level.

4) EMPHATY - Sahyog Cooperation.

A famous quote from Stephen Cowe book goes like this Seek to understand and then to

understood is very important. Thus thes that we relate to empathy is sahyog i.e. co-

operation i.e. listen to the customers understand them and co-operate with them to come

down to a solution this factor creates a very positive impression in the minds of the customers

and helps the service to get a tag of its excellent service quality.

5) RESPONSIVENESS-Sanrachna Information.


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This is the last element in the concept of RATER. It is related to the lasts i.e. Sanrachna

which means infrastructure. Why do we relate4 infrastructure to responsiveness is because

how flexible is the infrastructure of Travel and Tourism organization affects the service

responsiveness. For example if you plan and book a Qualis car to travel from place A to place

B and if the car breaks down then how fast can you respond by replacing it with a new car

shows the flexibility of the infrastructure i.e. the no of cars.

COMPLAINT HANDLING

No matter how well prepared you are there is always the potential for something to go wrong.

The way you and your personnel handle complaints can be the determining factor in turning a

"disaster" into a "success." Tourism & More offers the following ideas on handling

complaints:

1. Listen. When a visitor is angry or upset allows the person to know that he/she is being

heard. Prepare your personnel to listen and to handle each complaint as if it were the most

important part of their day.

2. Understand. Make sure personnel have a full understanding of the complaint. Prior to

responding to the complaint they need to determine the exact nature of the complaint.

Personnel should try to focus in on the main context of the complaint, and not be diverted by

side issues.

3. Take Action. The visitor should see that he/she matters, and that you seriously consider

their complaint. Make sure the upset visitor knows exactly what can or cannot be done, and

what he/she may expect as a form of recompense. If the problem cannot be solved,

immediately tell the visitor approximately how long it will take to find a solution. Often

something as simple as an inexpensive complimentary gift or some special attention from the

manager or boss can turn a negative situation into a positive one.

4. Learn. Every complaint and/or complainer provides a the tourist professional with a

learning experience. Have your personnel share with colleagues what things went wrong, and

the steps they took to correct the situation. Keep records of past complaints, not only for in-

house training purposes, but also as a guide of future problems to prevent.


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DEALING WITH DIFFICULTPEOPLE

Here are some suggestions to help your staff cope with the angry guest.

Do not fight to win every battle. Often it is easier to simply say, "Yes Sir/Mam you areright. Very few angry visitors are willing to listen to your side of the story.

Take the angry person out of a public area. Whenever an angry person decides to do battlein front of other "guests" you lose. Invite the person into a private room, offer him/her a

drink and then listen.

Make sure that you know that the angry person knows that you will deal with the issue atthat moment. Your credibility with an angry tourist is very low; telling him/her that you

will get to the problem will only make the visitor even angrier. Start the repair process at

that moment. Let the visitor see that you are doing something.

Use the person's right name and title. If the angry visitor introduces him/herself as "Dr.Smith" don't say Mr. or Ms. Smith and don't use a first name unless given permission. The

misuse of names or titles only adds fuel to an already explosive situation.

Make sure that the person addressing the problem is competent to solve it. If a member ofyour staff cannot solve a problem, then turning to someone who can help, is doing

something. Never just shrug one's shoulders and say "sorry!"

6. Rather than getting angry, try to think of something comical. For example, imaginewhat this person would look like angry in his/her underwear, and then laugh to yourself.

PART II

Don't be defensive. Try to understand that people on vacation are often a bit irrational.Instead of reacting in a negative way, coolly ask how you can make their situation better

In a like manner, never argue, but rather apologize. Once the apology is made theupset/difficult person is more willing to listen. Win by losing!

In a like manner, never argue, but rather apologize. Once the apology is made theupset/difficult person is more willing to listen. Win by losing!

Dress in a professional manner. It is amazing how much more respect a well dressedfunctionary receives. It is a lot easier to deal with a difficult person when dressed in a suit

rather than in jeans.


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PRICE MIX.

In pricing decisions, the product or the service mix of the tourist organization is important.

They have to set prices in line with the quality of services to be made available to the

customers and the type of customers they are targeting. Pricing decisions are influenced by

internal factors like pricing policy of the company, and external factors like the destination

itself. They are required to think in favor of discounting price. These may include discounts

for cash payments, seasonal discounts, trade discounts etc. But while offering the discounts, it

is not to be forgotten that it may also create image problem since some of the value sensitive

tourists may doubt the quality.

PROMOTIONMIX.

Creation of awareness has a far-reaching impact. The tourist organizations bear the

responsibility of informing, persuading and sensing the potential tourists in a right fashion.

The marketers need to use the various components of promotion optimally so that they

succeed in increasing the number of habitual users. Promotion helps in maximizing the

duration of stay, frequency of visit by offering new tourist products in the same country to

areas, which have remained untapped or partially tapped. The various dimensions of tourism

promotion are as follows:

Advertising: Advertisement gives important information to the actual and potential tourists.

Its coverage is wide. Advertising is aimed at the public to create awareness of the travel

offers available on a resort and its attractions to influence their business decisions.

Intangibility can be compensated with the help of visual exposure of scenes and events. We

can project hotel bedrooms, well-arranged restaurants and cafeterias, swimming pools etc.

Publicity: It focuses attention on strengthening the public relations measures by developing a

rapport with media people and getting their personalized support in publicizing the business.

It helps in projecting the positive image of tourist organizations since the prospects trust on

the news items publicized by the media people. The publicity program include regular

publicity stories and photographs to the newspapers, travel editors, contact with magazines on

stories etc. advertising is a part of publicity.

Sales promotions: Sales promotion measures are the short-term activities seeking to boost

sales at peak demand periods to ensure that the firms obtain its market share and are used to

help launch a new product or support an ailing or modified one. The tool of sales promotions


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is designed to appeal particularly to those customers who are price-sensitive. There are a

number of techniques to promote sale and the tourist professional need to use them in the face

of their requirements vis--vis the emerging trends in the business. Eg. In the tourism

industry, a travel company offers give-aways to their clients, such as flight bags, wallets for

tickets, Foreign Exchange (Forex) and covers of passport. The hotels offer a number of

facilities like shoe shine clothes, first aid sewing kits, shower caps and shampoo. Further, the

VIP clients also get fruits and flowers in their rooms.

Word-of-mouth Promotion: Most communication about tourism takes place by word-of-

mouth information, which in a true sense is word-of-recommendation. In the tourism industry

it is found that the word-of-mouth promoters play the role of a hidden sales force, which help

the process of selling. The high magnitude of effectiveness of this tool of promotion is due to

high credibility of the channel, especially in the eyes of the potential tourists. The sensitivity

of this tool makes it clear that tourist organizations need to concentrate on the quality of

services they promise and offer. The marketers or the tourist organizations need to keep their

eyes open, identify the vocal persons or the opinion leaders and take a special care of them so

that they keep on moving the process of stimulating and creating demand.

Personal Selling: Personal Selling is based on the personal skill of an individual. The travel

and hotel business depend considerably on the personal selling. The development of travel

and tourism has been possible due to well-educated and trained sales personnel. The

development of tourism business has been influenced by the services rendered by the travel

agents and travel guides since they work as information carriers. Personal selling is the

personal presentation of a tangible product or intangible services or ideas to the customers. It

is important to mention that in the tourism industry, the personnel who attend tourists form an

essential ingredient of the product, such as sales personnel are found responsible for dealing

with customers behind the counter, the resort representatives cater to the need of tourists

when they reach the destination etc. all of them play a vital role in ensuring that the tourism

products satisfy the tourists. The phrase- the customer is always right applies specifically to

the tourism industry. No reduction in price would compensate for impolite and indecent

travel guide, a solvent waiter and a surly or a haughty coach driver. These facts are testimony

to the proposition that the travel business is linked with the performance and behavior of

sales personnel or travel staff.


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Telemarketing: It is a method of selling in which a professionally sound telemarketer markets

the business. The quality of technology and the communicative ability of the telemarketers

determine the magnitude of success of this component. In tourism, the travel agents, offices

of airways, receptionist, and secretaries cant work efficiently if the telephonic services are

not up to the mark. Also recruiting a person considered to be professionally sound,

personally-committed sales personnel having an in-built creativity, innovation and

imagination is very important.

Exhibitions The participants include state and national tourism promotion boards, travel

agents and tour operators, airlines, car rentals, cruise liners, holiday financiers, technology

providers, hotels and resorts, education institutions in the field of hospitality and tourism.

Over the years the participation of foreign tourism promotion boards like the Dubai Tourism

and the Mauritius Tourism, etc has increased in order to aggressively promote their respective

countries.

PLACE MIX.

Most tour operators sell their services through travel agents, however some deal directly with

the consumers and eliminate middlemen. For example, Thomas Cook has its own branches

situated throughout the country so they are easily accessible. The customer, in the travel and

tourism industry, has to go to the service provider. Hence strategic locations are very

important forT

homas Cook.O

ther companies may also utilize more than one method ofdistribution.

Location:

Transport also plays a major role in the tourism industry. It makes the destinations accessible

to people from around the world. Also, in the case of tangible products in tourism such as

souvenirs and cuisine, transportation becomes a major logistical component.


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EXTENDED 3 PS OF MARKETING

PEOPLE

Like other industries, the tourism industry depends substantially on management of human

resources. The tourism industry is an amalgam of the services of a lot of people and hence

this industry cannot work efficiently if the travel agents, tour operators and travel guides lack

world class professional excellence. Of course the offices of travel agents depends on the new

technology but after all employees and the other staff contribute significantly to the process.

The travel guides need professional excellence since the projection of a positive image

regarding a destination in particular requires their due cooperation, failing which even the

world class services offered by the travel agents are found meaningless. The tour operators

also need to manage human resources efficiently.

In the management of people, the related organizations are required to think in favour of

developing an ongoing training program so that we find a close relation between the

development of technologies and the quality of personnel who are supposed to operate and

maintain the same. They need a lot of credentials to fulfill the expectations of the customers.

The organization has to make the environmental conditions conducive and focus has to be

laid on the incentives to the employees for energizing the process of performance orientation.

Employee orientation requires due weightage to efficiency generation, value-orientation and

perfection.

In the tourism industry the travel agents and the travel guides are the two most important

people who speak a lot about the industry. Hence it is imperative that they have to be at their

best at all times. Travel guides especially, are expected to have a lot of patience, good sense

of humour, tact to transform the occasional tourists into habitual ones, thorough knowledge

of the places, linguistic skills etc.

The Government plays an important role in providing the right kind of people for this

industry. As such there are a lot of Govt. and Pvt. Institutes which offer training for the

same.. The training courses run by the Institutes are designed to suit the needs of the various

target groups.

PEOPLE - in service marketing includes

EMPLOYEES


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OTHER CUSTOMERS

EMPLOYEES They are the representatives of the company. Their performance can create a

positive as well as negative impact of the service process and the image of the company.

Keeping people factor healthy is one of the prime concerns of the company. When we talk

about people in travel and tourism industry, they are really crucial part as at every stage they

play a role of the service provider on the stage of service encounter also known as moment of

truth.

SERVICE ENCOUNTER

The so-called stage service encounter or moment of truth is the element of interaction

between those providing services and the customers. The instances of service encounter in

travel and tourism industry are

In the ticket booking process when the customer calls the service provider that is the front

line staff in order to book the tickets is the first service encounter incidence. Its the moment

of truth where, there is one to one interaction between the service provider who is booking

the ticket and the customer who wants the ticket booked. This interaction takes place on the

phone.

In the itinerary planning process the service encounter takes place when the customer visits

the travel and tourism agency to purchase a holiday package and meets the travel manager.

When the customer is experiencing the holiday package there are numerous service

encounters that he goes through and one of them is his constant interaction with the tourist

guides.

These were some examples of service encounter.

This stage is a very crucial one where in the provider has to perform at the optimum level in

order to avoid the customer from having the experience of credence quality.

CREDECE QUALITY

Is the quality, which is difficult to evaluate, and when you ask the customer the question on

how was the service? He usually gives vague answers like it was ok, I dont know.


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A very important concept in people is the service profit chain. In the service profit chain

the first step is to keep the internal customers happy and satisfied the internal customer being

the employees. To keep them following point have to be taken care of

Work place design

Job design

Employee selection and development

Employees rewards and recognition

Tools for serving customers.

These aspects in turn lead to employee satisfaction, which would result in to employee

retention and productivity, this would result in providing value services and that would yield

customer satisfaction. Which would lead to customer loyalty and finally revenue growth and

profitability through referral and repeat business.

PROCESS

It is the way of undertaking transaction supplying information and providing services on a

way, which is acceptable to the consumer and the effective to the organization. Now to make

this definition of process true, it is necessary for the organization which provides services to

recognize the critical moments in the entire process which makes the service acceptable or

not acceptable to the customer depending on the zone of tolerance and effective or not

effective to the organization. Further to realize what are the critical moments in the

considered process a concept of blue printing is introduced.

PHYSICA

L EVIDEN

CE

It is a very important factor for the travel and tourism industry. This marketing p is important

in 2 distinct ways:

1)as the environment in which the sales takes place

2)the environment where the product is consumed


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Explanation of the first case

when the purchasing of the product is taking place, however the customer cannot be sure

whether they will enjoy the product or not. In the mean time their expectations and emotions

are influenced by factors like layout of the room, the furniture, noise level, temperature, lights

and other factors like the brochure of the company. In case of customers who by

electronically the appearance of the website is the physical evidence.

Explanation of the second case

In the travel industry where the product is being experienced s particularly important in

securing repeat business thus extensive facitilities that prove to be physical evidence are

provided to lure and woo the customer

The tangibles include flat beds in business class, Wi-Fi connection in hotels, customized

meals on board, tele checking 8hrs booking in hotels, hotels providing laptops on request,

internet access as complimentary for the corporate packages.

The critical incidences in this process are

Understanding the customers needs and expectations from the holiday or business tour

which ever he or she is opting for

Making an apt travel plan and route adhering to the requirements of the customer

Execution of the planned itinerary is the most critical one. As a company has committed

some thing and this is the time when the customer is actually experiencing the entire product

and if any one of the commitments dont materialize then the zone of tolerance is affected

and lot as it is already low because the customer on a tour whether leisure or business expects

perfection.

Documents

00 Tourism Industry