Tag Archives: Tourism

August 31, 2023 · 10:37 am

Customer satisfaction and loyalty with online consumer reviews

This text is drawn from excerpts of an article published through Elsevier’s International Journal of Hospitality Management.

Suggested citation: Camilleri, M.A. & Filieri, R. (2023). Customer satisfaction and loyalty with online consumer reviews: Factors affecting revisit intentions, International Journal of Hospitality Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103575

Abstract

While previous research investigated the effects of online consumer reviews on purchase behaviors, currently, there is still a lack of knowledge on the impact of the reviews’ credibility, content quality and information usefulness on the customers’ satisfaction levels with them. Data were gathered from a sample of 512 participants. A partial least squares approach was utilized to evaluate the reliability and validity of the constructs and to identify the causal effects in this contribution’s structured model. The findings reveal that information usefulness is a very strong predictor of satisfaction. They also confirm highly significant indirect effects, between information quality and customer satisfaction, when information usefulness meditates this link. This study suggests that prospective customers appreciate quality reviews of consumers who have already experienced the hospitality services. It raises awareness about the usefulness of review sites as online users refer to their content before committing themselves to purchasing products and services.

Keywords: customer satisfaction; customer loyalty; information usefulness; information quality; source credibility; information adoption model.

Introduction

The advances of the Internet are presenting online users and prospective customers of hospitality businesses with a great opportunity for interactive engagement through blogs, microblogs, discussion fora, social networking sites and online communities. Many consumers are sharing their insights about their service experiences through review platforms like AirBnB, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and the like. Very often, they praise or complain about different aspects of their service encounters (Akdim et al., 2022; Filieri and McLeay, 2014; Rita et al., 2022). Such testimonials are intended to support potential consumers to reduce their uncertainty before committing themselves to make purchase decisions.

The electronic content featured in review sites as well as in social media can be read by online users hailing from different regions across the globe. Interactive platforms enable their users to feature positive and negative publicity (Moro et al., 2020; Sun and Liu, 2021; Shin et al., 2023) via qualitative service evaluations and/or via quantitative scores, also known as ratings. Online users can subscribe to review networks to voice their testimonials on their satisfaction and/or on their dissatisfaction levels with the services they experienced (Kim et al., 2023; Zheng et al., 2023). In the latter case, they will intentionally engage in negative word-of-mouth (WOM) publicity to tarnish the reputation and image of the business (Qiao et al., 2022).

This topic has been attracting the interest of a number of scholars in marketing, information systems, as well as in travel, tourism and service industries (Donthu et al., 2021). Various researchers sought to investigate the consumers’ acceptance of online reviews. Frequently, they explored the internalization processes whereby individuals take heed, or take into consideration user generated content, like electronic WOM (eWOM) publicity, that is usually cocreated by consumers who have already experienced products and services, in order to enhance their extant knowledge about the service quality provided by hospitality businesses (Song et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2021).

This argumentation is consistent with the information adoption model (IAM). Sussman and Siegal (2003) suggest that individuals tend to rely on quality information if they believe that it is useful to them. The authors argued that persons are influenced by knowledge transfer if they understand and comprehend the flows of information they receive. Hence, individuals would be in a position to determine the best courses of action that better serve their needs, particularly if they perceive that other individuals are providing reliable and trustworthy advice to them (Erkan and Evans 2016).

Information adoption factors, including details relating to the quality of the content and the credibility of the informational sources, may significantly affect the individuals’ perceptions about the usefulness of online reviews (Cheung et al., 2008; Filieri, 2015). Hence, the argument quality of consumer testimonials, as well as the credibility of the sources, are two major determinants that can influence online users’ satisfaction levels (Filieri et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 2019), with the sites hosting online reviews, and may even determine their revisit intentions to them (Kaya et al., 2019; Ladhari and Michaud, 2015; Rodríguez et al., 2020).

This empirical research investigates perceptions toward consumer review sites. It focuses on online users’ beliefs about the quality of their information, as well as on the credibility and usefulness of their content. It examines these constructs exogenous effects on their satisfaction levels and on their loyalty with consumer review platforms, as shown in Figure 1.

Hence, this study validates key factors, namely, information quality (Cheung et al., 2008; Kumar and Ayodeji, 2021; McClure and Seock, 2020; Talwar et al., 2021), source credibility (Argyris et al., 2021; Filieri, 2015), and information usefulness (Camilleri et al., 2023; Filieri, 2015). These measures are drawn from valid information and/or technology adoption models (Sussman and Siegal, 2003), and are combined with consumer satisfaction (Maxham and Netemeyer, 2002) and consumer loyalty (Tran and Strutton, 2020; Zeithaml, et al., 1996). The latter two constructs are associated with the service-dominant logic (Zeithaml et al., 2002; Parasuraman et al., 2005).

Arguably, regular users of review platforms are likely to take heed of the consumers’ recommendations as they perceive the usefulness of their advice (on their service encounters) (D’ Acunto et al., 2020; Xu, 2020; Ye et al., 2009). The researchers presume that the individuals who utilize these websites will usually trust past customers’ experiences. Hence, this study hypothesizes that the respondents who habitually rely on consumer reviews, are satisfied with the quality of their content, and that they perceive that their sources are credible and useful. As a result, the research participants may be intrigued to revisit them again in the future. Hence, the research questions of this contribution are:

RQ1: How and to what extent are information quality and source credibility affecting the usefulness of consumer reviews?

RQ2: How and to what extent are informative and helpful reviews influencing online users’ satisfaction levels and loyalty behaviors, in terms of their revisit intentions to these platforms?

RQ3: How and to what degree is information usefulness mediating the information quality – customer satisfaction/customer loyalty and/or source credibility – customer satisfaction/customer loyalty causal paths?

Previous research examined the perceptions about eWOM and focused on online review websites by using IAM (Cheung et al., 2008; Filieri, 2015). However, for the time being, no other studies sought to explore the effects of IAM’s key constructs on electronic service quality’s (eSERVQUAL’s) endogenous factors of satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, this study raises awareness on the usefulness of review sites as prospective customers are referring to their content before committing themselves to purchasing products or prior to experiencing the businesses’ services. In this case, the researchers theorized that they would probably revisit the review platforms, if they were satisfied with their quality information and source credibility.

A survey questionnaire was employed to collect data from subscribers of popular social media networks. A structured equations modelling partial least squares SEM-PLS methodology was utilized to examine the proposed research model in order to confirm the reliability and validity of the constructs used in this study. This composite based SEM approach enabled the researchers to shed light on the significant effects that are predicting the respondents’ likelihood to rely on user generated content and to determine whether they influenced their satisfaction levels and revisit intentions.

The following section features an original conceptual framework and formulates the hypotheses of this empirical investigation. Afterwards, the methodology provides details on the data collection process for this quantitative study. Subsequently, the results illustrate the findings from SmartPLS’s analytical approach to reveal the causal effects in this study’s research model. In conclusion, this article identifies theoretical and managerial implications. The researchers discuss about the limitations of this study and outline future research avenues.

Table 1. A definition of the key factors used in this study

Term	Definition
Information Quality:	This factor measures perceptions on the quality of information (in terms of the consumer reviews’ reliability and appropriateness).
Source Credibility:	This factor measures perceptions on the credibility of the sources (in terms of the consumer reviewers’ trustworthiness and proficiency in sharing service their experiences with others).
Information Usefulness:	This factor measures perceptions on the utilitarian value of information (featured in consumer reviews).
Customer Satisfaction:	This factor refers to positive or negative feelings about products or services (in this case, it is focused on electronic services provided by review websites).
Customer Loyalty:	This factor refers to the willingness to repeatedly engage with specific businesses (in this case, it is focused on review websites).

(Source: Camilleri and Filieri, 2023)

Theoretical implications

This contribution puts forward a research model that integrated IAM’s key factors including information quality (Cheung et al., 2008; Filieri, 2015; McClure and Seock, 2020; Talwar et al., 2021)), source credibility (Filieri et al., 2021; Ismagilova et al., 2020) and information usefulness (of consumer reviews) (Camilleri and Kozak, 2023; Moro et al., 2020) with eSERVQUAL’s satisfaction (Kaya et al., 2019; Kumar and Ayodeji, 2021) and loyalty outcomes (Kumar and Ayodeji, 2021; Tran and Strutton, 2020).

The results from SmartPLS 3 confirm the reliability and validity of all measures that were used in this study. The findings indicate highly significant direct as well as indirect effects that are predicting the online users’ satisfaction levels and loyalty with review sites. This research suggests that the quality of the user generated content as well as the sources’ credibility (in terms of the trustworthiness and expertise of the online reviewers) are positive and significant antecedents of the individuals’ perceptions about the usefulness of information. These findings reveal that both information quality and source credibility are significant precursors of information usefulness, thereby validating mainstream IAM theoretical underpinnings (Cheung et al., 2008; Chong et al., 2018; Erkan and Evans, 2016; Filieri, 2015; Sussman and Siegal, 2003).

This study differentiated itself from IAM as it examined the effects of information quality, source credibility and information usefulness on the consumers’ satisfaction levels and loyalty with review websites. It reported that information usefulness – customer satisfaction was the strongest link in this empirical investigation and that customer satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between information usefulness and customer loyalty. Moreover, the results showed that there were highly significant indirect effects between information quality and customer satisfaction, between information quality and customer loyalty, between source credibility and customer satisfaction, and between source credibility and customer loyalty.

In this case, this research indicated that the respondents (i.e. online users) were satisfied with the review platforms that featured the consumers’ testimonials about their “moments of truth” with hospitality businesses. It suggested that they were likely to re-visit them again in the future. To the best of the authors’ knowledge there are no studies in the academic literature that have integrated theoretical underpinnings related to the service dominant logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2008), or to SERVQUAL- and/or eSERVQUAL-related factors (Kaya et al., 2019; Maxham and Netemeyer, 2002; Parasuraman et al., 2005; Rodríguez et al., 2020; Zeithaml et al., 1996; Zeithaml et al., 2002) with IAM constructs (Camilleri & Kozak, 2023; Chatterjee et al., 2023; Cheung et al., 2008; D’Acunto et al., 2020; Erkan and Evans 2016; Filieri, 2015; Huiyue et al., 2022; Kang and Namkung, 2019; Li et al., 2020; Sussman and Siegal, 2003; Ye et al., 2009) to explore the satisfaction levels and revisit intentions to review websites focused on consumer experiences of hospitality services. This original research addresses this knowledge gap. In conclusion, it implies that IAM’s exogenous factors can be used to investigate the online users’ perceptions about the usefulness and satisfaction with past consumers’ service evaluations, and to shed light on their intentions to habitually check out the qualitative content of review platforms/apps, prior to visiting service businesses (including hotels, Airbnbs and restaurants, among others) and/or before committing themselves to a purchase decision.

This contribution’s novel conceptual model raises awareness on the importance of evaluating the consumers’ satisfaction levels as well as their revisit intentions of review sites rather than merely determining how information usefulness and other IAM antecedents affect their information adoption.

Managerial implications

This research postulates that online users are perceiving the usefulness of consumer reviews. It clearly indicates that the respondents feel that they feature quality content and that they consider them to be informative, credible and trustworthy. The results suggest that they are satisfied with the user generated content (that sheds light on the reviewers’ opinions on their personal service encounters). In fact, their responses imply that they are likely to revisit review websites and/or to engage with their apps again.

The review platforms are helping prospective consumers in their purchase decisions. They enable them to quickly access consumer experiences with a wide array of service providers and to compare their different shades of opinions. This study shows that they are evaluating the consumer reviews to determine whether the hospitality firms are/are not delivering on their promises?

The consumers’ reviews can make or break a business. The restaurant patrons’ and/or the hotel guests’ words of praise as well as their genuine expressions of respect and gratitude can elevate the business and enhance its corporate reputation. Alternatively, the customers’ critical evaluations may tarnish the image of hospitality business (in this case). Whilst the consumers’ positive experiences with a company increases the likelihood of their loyal behaviors and of word-of-mouth publicity (that attracts new customers), poor reviews and ratings could signal that the customers are dissatisfied with certain aspects of the service delivery and may even result in their conversion to the hospitality firms’ competitors.

Hence, it is in the businesses’ self-interest: (i) to consistently deliver service quality, (ii) to meet and exceed their customers’ expectations, (iii) to continuously monitor their consumers’ reviews, (iv) to address contentious issues in a timely manner, and (v) to minimize consumer complaints (and turn them into opportunities for consumer satisfaction and loyalty).

Limitations and future research avenues

This research comprised reliable measures that are tried and tested in academia. Information quality, source credibility and information usefulness factors were utilized to explore the customers’ satisfaction and loyalty with review sites. These five constructs were never integrated together within the same empirical investigation. Future researchers are invited to validate this study in other contexts. For example, this theoretical model could explore the online users’ satisfaction and intentions to use social media networks (SNSs) and/or e-commerce websites and online marketplaces.

Alternatively, researchers can include other constructs related to IAM to assess perceptions about information understandability, information reliability, information relevance, information accuracy, and information timeliness, among others. Most of these constructs represent information quality. In addition, they may examine the individuals’ insights about source trustworthiness and/or source expertise rather than integrating them into a source credibility construct. They may also consider various constructs from eSERVQUAL like website appeal, attractiveness, design, functionality, security and consumer fulfilment aspects.

Perhaps, there is scope for future studies to consider other measures that are drawn from psychology research like the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986), the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), or the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), among others, or from technology adoption models including the Technology Acceptance Model’s TAM (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989), TAM2 (Wang et al., 2021), TAM3 (Al-Gahtani, 2016), the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) (Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Rogers, 1995), the Motivational Model (MM) (Davis et al., 1992), the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology’ UTAUT (Venkatesh et al., 2003) and UTAUT2 (Venkatesh et al., 2012), among others.

These theories may be used to better understand the acceptance and utilization of information technologies (like review platforms). Notwithstanding, other studies are required to shed more light on the moderating effects of demographic variables, on the usability and satisfaction levels with disruptive innovations like voice assistance, chatbots, ChatGPT, Metaverse, and the like.

Other researchers may utilize other research designs and sampling approaches to gather and analyze primary data. They could capture interpretative data through inductive research, to delve deeper in the informants’ opinions about eWOM publicity in consumer review sites. Qualitative research methodologies and interpretative designs could shed more light on important insights on how, where, when and why the customers’ user-generated content (on their service experiences) could influence the intentional behaviors of prospective consumers in today’s digital age.

All the references are featured in the article. An open access version is available here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372891266_Customer_satisfaction_and_loyalty_with_online_consumer_reviews_Factors_affecting_revisit_intentions

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December 8, 2022 · 1:28 am

Factors affecting intentions to use interactive technologies

This is an excerpt from one of our latest academic articles (that was accepted by the Journal of Services Marketing).

Theoretical implications

Previous studies reported that interactive websites ought to be accessible, appealing, convenient, functional, secure and responsive to their users (Crolic et al., 2021; Hoyer et al., 2020; Kabadayi et al., 2020; Klaus and Zaichkowsky, 2020; Rosenmayer et al., 2018; Sheehan et al., 2020; Valtakoski, 2019). Online service providers are expected to deliver a personalized customer service experience and to exceed their consumers’ expectations at all times, to encourage repeat business and loyal behaviors (Li et al., 2017; Tong et al., 2020; Zeithaml et al. 2002).

Many service marketing researchers have investigated the individuals’ perceptions about price comparison sites, interactive websites, ecommerce / online marketplaces, electronic banking, and social media, among other virtual domains (Donthu et al., 2021; Kabadayi et al., 2020; Klaus and Zaichkowsky, 2020; Rosenbaum and Russell-Bennett, 2020; Rosenmayer et al., 2018; Valtakoski, 2019; Zaki, 2019). Very often, they relied on measures drawn from electronic service quality (e-SQ or e-SERVQUAL), electronic retail quality (eTailQ), transaction process-based approaches for capturing service quality (eTransQual), net quality (NETQual), perceived electronic service quality (PeSQ), site quality (SITEQUAL) and website quality (webQual), among others.

Technology adoption researchers often adapted TAM measures, including perceived usefulness and behavioral intentions constructs, among others, or relied on psychological theories like the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 195) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), among others, to explore the individuals’ acceptance and use of different service technologies, in various contexts (Park et al., 2007; Chen and Chang, 2018). Alternatively, they utilized IAM’s theoretical framework to investigate the online users’ perceptions about the usefulness of information or online content. Very often they examined the effects of information usefulness on information adoption (Erkan and Evans, 2016; Liu et al., 2017).

A review of the relevant literature suggests that good quality content (in terms of its understandability, completeness, timeliness and accuracy) as well as the sources’ credibility (with regard to their trustworthiness and expertise) can increase the individuals’ expectations regarding a business and its products or services (Cheung et al., 2008; Li et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2017). ELM researchers suggest that a high level of message elaboration (i.e., argument quality) as well as the peripheral cues like the credibility of the sources and their appealing content, can have a positive impact on the individuals’ attitudes toward the conveyors of information (Allison et al., 2017; Chen and Chang, 2018; Petty et al., 1983), could affect their intentions to (re)visit the businesses’ websites (Salehi-Esfahani et al., 2016), and may even influence their purchase intentions (Chen and Chang, 2018; Erkan and Evans, 2016).

This contribution differentiates itself from previous research as the researchers adapted key measures from ELM/IAM namely ‘information quality’ (Filieri and McLeay, 2014; Salehi-Esfahani et al., 2016; Shu and Scott, 2013; Tseng and Wang, 2016) and ‘source credibility’ (Ayeh, 2015; Leong et al., 2019; Wang and Scheinbaum, 2018) and integrated them with an ‘interactive engagement’ construct (McMillan and Hwang, 2002), to better understand the individuals’ utilitarian motivations to use the service businesses’ interactive websites. The researchers hypothesized that these three constructs were plausible antecedents of TAM’s ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘intentions to use the technology’. Specifically, this research examines the direct effects of information quality, source credibility and interactive engagement on the individuals’ perceived usefulness of interactive website, as well as their indirect effects on their intentions to continue using these service technologies.

To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, there is no other research in academia that included an interactive engagement construct in addition to ELM/IAM and TAM measures. This contribution addresses this gap in the literature. The engagement construct was used to better understand the respondents’ perceptions about the ease-of-use of interactive websites, to ascertain whether they are captivating their users’ attention by offering a variety of content, and more importantly, to determine whether they consider them as responsive technologies.

Managerial implications

This study sheds light on the travel websites’ interactive capabilities during an unprecedented crisis situation, when businesses received higher volumes of inquiries through different channels (to change bookings, cancel itineraries and/or submit refund requests). At the same time, it identified the most significant factors that were affecting the respondents’ perceptions and motivations to continue using interactive service technologies in the future.

In sum, this research confirmed that the respondents were evaluating the quality of information that is featured in interactive websites. The findings reported they were well acquainted with the websites’ content (e.g. news feeds, product information, differentiated pricing options, images, video clips, and/or web chat facilities). The researchers presumed that the respondents were well aware of the latest developments. During COVID-19, a number of travel websites have eased their terms and conditions relating to cancellations and refund policies (EU, 2020), to accommodate their customers. Online businesses were expected to communicate with their customers and to clarify any changes in their service delivery, in a timely manner.

The contribution clarified that online users were somehow influenced by the asynchronous content that is featured in webpages. Therefore, service businesses ought to publish quality information to satisfy their customers’ expectations. They may invest in service technologies like a frequently answered questions widget in their websites to enhance their online customer services, and to support online users during and after the sales transactions. Service businesses could integrate events’ calendars, maps, multi-lingual accessibility options, online reviews and ratings, high resolution images and/or videos in their interactive websites, to entertain their visitors (Cao and Yang, 2016; Bastida and Huan, 2014).

This research underlines the importance for service providers to consistently engage in concurrent, online conversations with customers and prospects, in real-time (Buhalis and Sinarta 2019; Chattaraman et al., 2019; Rihova et al., 2018; Harrigan et al., 2017). Recently, more researchers are raising awareness on the provision of live chat facilities through interactive websites or via SNSs like WhatsApp or Messenger (Camilleri & Troise, 2022). Services businesses are expected to respond to consumer queries, and to address their concerns, as quickly as possible (McLean and Osei-Frimpong, 2019), in order to minimize complaints.

AI chatbot technologies are increasingly enabling service businesses to handle numerous interactions with online users, when compared to telephone conversations with human customer services representatives (Adam et al., 2021; Hoyer et al., 2020; Luo et al., 2019; McLean and Osei-Frimpong, 2019; Van Pinxteren et al., 2019). The most advanced dialogue systems are equipped with features like omnichannel messaging support, no code deployment, fallback options, as well as sentiment analysis. These service technologies are designed to improve the consumers’ experiences by delivering automated smart responses, in an efficient manner. Hence, online businesses will be in a better position to meet and exceed their customers’ service expectations. Indeed, service businesses can leverage themselves with a responsive website. These interactive technologies enable them to improve their positioning among customers, and to generate positive word-of-mouth publicity.

Limitations and future research avenues

This study has included a perceived interactivity dimension, namely an ‘interactive engagement’ construct within an information adoption model. The findings revealed that the respondents believed that the websites’ engaging content was a significant antecedent of their perceptions about the usefulness of interactive websites. This study also reported that the interactive engagement construct indirectly affected the individuals’ intentions to revisit them again.

In conclusion, the authors recommend that future researchers validate this study’s measures in other contexts, to determine the effects of interactive engagement on information adoption and/or on the acceptance and usage of online technologies. Further research is required to better understand which attributes and features of interactive websites are appreciated by online users. Recent contributions suggest that there are many benefits for service businesses to use conversational chatbots to respond to online customer services. These interactive technologies can offer increased convenience to consumers and prospects (Thomaz et al., 2020), improved operational efficiencies (Pantano and Pizzi, 2020), reduced labor costs (Belanche et al., 2020), as well as time-saving opportunities for customers and service providers (Adam et al., 2021).

Prospective empirical research may consider different constructs from other theoretical frameworks to examine the individuals’ perceptions and/or attitudes toward interactive websites and their service technologies. Academic researchers are increasingly relying on the expectancy theory/expectancy violation theory (Crolic et al., 2021), the human computer interaction theory/human machine communication theory (Wilkinson et al., 2021), the social presence theory (Tsai et al., 2021), and/or the social response theory (Adam et al., 2021), among others, to investigate the customers’ engagement with service technologies.

Notwithstanding, different methodologies and sampling frames could be used to capture and analyze primary data. For instance, inductive studies may investigate the consumers’ in-depth opinions and beliefs on this topic. Interpretative studies may reveal important insights on how to improve the efficacy and/or the perceived usefulness of interactive service technologies.

The full paper is available here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366055918_Utilitarian_motivations_to_engage_with_travel_websites_An_interactive_technology_adoption_model

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February 16, 2022 · 8:33 pm

Family businesses in tourism and hospitality

This is an excerpt from one of my latest papers that was published in the Journal of Family Business Management. A free downloadable version is available here. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356603434_Thriving_family_businesses_in_tourism_and_hospitality_A_systematic_review_and_a_synthesis_of_the_relevant_literature

Small and medium sized businesses including family enterprises prevail in their contribution to economic growth and competitiveness of tourist destinations (Getz and Carlsen, 2005; Kallmuenzer and Peters, 2018). Very often, they are resilient entities and proactive forces in terms of innovation, employment and productivity. The family business is the oldest and the most common model of a for-profit organization. Essentially, it is a commercial entity that is usually owned, managed and led by multiple generations of a family members who are related by blood, marriage or adoption. The owners of family firms have the ability to influence the vision of their business and to formulate long term goals. They are usually involved in the organization, leadership and management of their company. However, family firms may also be co-owned by individuals who are not part of the family.

The Global Family Business Index defines a family firm as an entity that is controlled by family as its members hold more than 50% of the voting rights. For a publicly listed firm, a firm is classified as a family business if family members own at least 32% of the voting rights (OECD, 2021). Thus, the vast majority of businesses throughout the world, ranging from small shops to multinational publicly listed organizations who have hundreds of thousands of employees — can be considered family businesses.

In hospitality and tourism, a large number of small enterprises are run by family members (Peters and Kallmuenzer, 2018; Getz and Carlsen, 2005; Getz and Carlsen, 2000) that are operating in various sectors, ranging from hospitality, leisure, recreation and entertainment, among others. Such enterprises are often described as “economic engines” of tourist destinations (Getz, Carlsen and Morrison, 2004; Veloso et al., 2021) and play a critical role in the interface between communities and tourists (Shaw and Williams, 2013).

While there is a wide plethora of literature that explores different businesses including family firms and enterprises, we argue that there is still a gap in the extant academic knowledge about family businesses in tourism and hospitality settings (Arcese et al., 2021; Baggio and Valeri, 2020; Esparza Aguilar, 2019; Kallmuenzer, Tajeddini, Gamage, T.C., (…), Rojas, A. and Schallner, 2021; Rachmawati and Suroso, 2020). Globally, the vast majority of tourism and hospitality businesses comprise small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) (Baggio and Valeri, 2020). These entities are the ‘life blood’ of tourist destinations as many hotels, bed and breakfasts, AirBnBs, restaurants, and small transportation service providers, etc., are usually run by family members in various contexts.

The family business legacy

Several researchers classified different types of family businesses. Very often, they strived in their endeavors to clarify what constitutes a family business. Yet, currently, there is no agreed-upon definition of what a family business is. Experts in the field tend to describe the characteristics of family businesses and discuss about their organizational culture, ownership, leadership, management involvement, strategic control, governance, et cetera (Valeri, 2021; Valeri and Katsoni, 2021). All of these criteria can be considered as very important elements of family firms, depending on where they are, in terms of their lifecycle. Astrachan and Shanker (2003) provided a broad definition on this concept. They argued that family businesses are controlled by members of the family, who have to make decisions regarding their strategic direction.

They were aware that this definition covered a “gamut of possibilities”, ranging from large public companies that are run by descendants of founding family members, to shareholders, board members and low-level employees. In many cases, previous authors contended that firms with the same extent of family involvement were or were not always considering themselves as family businesses, and that their views may change over time. Therefore, there are different definitions for family firms in the academic literature.

Family businesses are business entities that are administered by owner-managers and their relatives. They are different from other companies. Their form of ownership may facilitate their ability to take critical actions quickly and to respond to a changing marketing environment (Mtapuri, Camilleri and Dłużewska, 2021; Peña‐Miranda, Guevara‐Plaza, Fraiz‐Brea & Camilleri, 2021). Family members may usually have closer ties that enable them to come together and do whatever it takes towards a common purpose, to safeguard their family’s health and prosperity. While nonfamily businesses may typically focus on maximizing their financial performance and shareholder value (Camilleri, 2020), family owners are more likely to focus on values like family legacy and reputation.

Many authors argued that a family business involves family members who are exerting their influence or control over the strategic direction of a company. Others discussed about family firm behaviors and shed light on their unique, inseparable, synergistic resources and capabilities arising from family involvement and interactions (Chrisman, Chua and Sharma, 2005; Habbershon, Williams and MacMillan, 2003). For example, Seaman et al. (2017) consider the interactions between family, business and friendship networks. Other authors also advance relevant knowledge on this topic (Valeri, 2016; Baggio and Valeri, 2020; Valeri and Baggio, 2020a; 2020b; 2020c; 2021).

Unlike the corporations’ executives, family members are usually personally as well as professionally involved in their entrepreneurial activities. In this case, there are no boundaries for them. Their relationships with employees are usually characterized by their values of trust, commitment, empathy and transparency as opposed to those held by larger companies. Hence, family firms may not always necessitate formal structures and bureaucratic systems that are prevalent in non-family entities. Family businesses tend to utilize looser control systems, may not rely on procedural hurdles, formal documentation or transactions. Thus, the informal style of family businesses can offer motivating working environments.

Previous research reported that family owner-managers would typically engage in two-way communications with their employees and may usually forge closer relationships with them. This type of enterprise is conspicuous in small organizations where employees are non-unionized, even though they may be expected to engage in varied roles and could be assigned different duties and responsibilities. Such workplaces will usually have low turn-over rates, and still experience fewer industrial disputes and strikes than other businesses.

Conversely, family firms can be dictatorially run by a coercive owner-manager. As a result, employees and family members may have little or no involvement in the running of their business. A typical tension field that may occur in family businesses happens when there is a conflict of interest between the personal needs of the owner–managers and their business. Hence, the business owners’ personal characteristics and attributes may play a key role in the performance of their family firm. Relevant studies on this topic often reported mixed findings on the working environment and organizational culture of family businesses. Some authors noted that while employees of nonfamily businesses seem to enjoy superior employment packages, rewards, employment terms and physical working conditions, the quality of the job environment in small businesses is poorer than what you find in their larger counterparts (Russo and Tencati, 2009).

Chrisman et al. (2005) maintained that two firms with the same extent of family involvement may not necessarily be considered as family businesses; if they lack the intention, vision, familiness, and/or behaviors that truly represent the essence of a family business. They went on to suggest that family firms exist because of the reciprocal economic and non-economic value that is cocreated through the combination of family and business systems. On the other hand, there may be problems arising from close kinship, ownership and management transfers, that may ultimately result in inefficiencies, conflicting intentions and behaviors that could limit the ability of family businesses to create or maintain distinctive familiness (Miller, Steier and Le Breton-Miller, 2003; Steier, 2001, 2003; Stewart, 2003).

For instance, certain family members may want to exert control over their firm in ways that would nullify the value of existing competences and capabilities. Their behaviors could slow down or prevent the development of their organization. The extent to which a firm may be considered as a family business could be determined by the family members’ involvement in influencing the leadership decision in their business (Chrisman et al., 2005; Astrachan, Klein and Smyrnios, 2002). It is important to clearly distinguish the differences between family and nonfamily businesses and to subdivide them into various categories. For example, family businesses can be categorized by their size.

Like other SMEs, small family firms may have limited access to resources including financial capital and human capabilities. The very size of their businesses may create a special condition, which is often referred to as `resource poverty’ (O’Cass and Weerawardena, 2009). SMEs and family businesses tend to find themselves in an equity gap, where it is very difficult to acquire finance to operate efficiently (Camilleri, 2018). Although banks are key providers of finance through the provision of loans, the availability of unsecured bank finance to these businesses is usually very limited.

The growth of small family enterprises remains severely restricted, particularly if they cannot provide additional securities or collaterals for their investments. Even small businesses with high growth potential may experience difficulties in raising relatively modest amounts of risk capital. Moreover, external forces and potential threats from the marketing environment could have more devastating effects on family businesses than on other companies. For instance, changes in government regulations, tax laws, labor legislation and interest rates may usually affect a greater percentage of expenses in smaller family businesses than they do for other organizations (Brune, Thomsen and Watrin, 2019).

Family-owned businesses may evolve over time as their ownership may be transferred from founder-members to their relatives (Peters, Raich, Märk and Pichler, 2012). Various forms of succession may result in different ownership structures, revised duties and responsibilities of employees of family businesses. The descendants of unrelated founders can find themselves owning and managing their company and may even sit in the same board. In this case, there will be two or more families who have a stake in the business. However, just one of them will be in control (i.e. the largest shareholder) (Astrachan et al., 2002).

For instance, Hoshi Ryokan, Komatsu is one of the oldest hotels in the world. This property has been owned and managed by the Hoshi family in the past centuries. Other popular family businesses in the hospitality sector include Gmachl in Salzburg and Hotel Sacher in Vienna (Austria); Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong (China); Bristol Hotel in Paris (France); Villa D’Este in Como, Italy; Baur-au-Lac in Zurich, Switzerland; Goring Hotel in London, West Lodge Park in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire (UK) and Seaside hotel Kennebunk in Maine (USA), among others.

The development of family firms in tourism and hospitality

Tourism and hospitality family businesses are characterized by their specific ownership, leadership and organization as well as by their stakeholder relationships, that differentiate them from nonfamily companies (Engeset, 2020; Martínez, Stöhr and Quiroga, 2007; Rosalin et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2021). Notwithstanding, there are various variables that could enable or disable family firms of different types and sizes, to generate and sustain new business development in the long term (Peters and Kallmuenzer, 2018).

The owners of tourism family firms may try to balance their business objectives with those of their family’s interests (Getz and Carlsen, 2005). Other research indicated that the objectives of such family businesses are different than nonfamily-run companies. The former businesses are usually influenced by family issues and lifestyle objectives. While Getz and Carlsen (2000) found that the majority of businesses considered family goals as more important than their business goals; Andersson, Carlsen and Getz (2002) argued that tourism family businesses ought to operate in a profitable manner, if they want to support their family members, and to maintain a decent quality of life. Their thriving businesses could enable them to create a family legacy and to pass on their company to the next generation (Andersson et al., 2002). Again, this cannot be achieved unless it is financially successful (Erdogan, Rondi, De Massis, 2020; Williams, Pieper, Kellermanns & Astrachan, 2018).

Small family-run businesses may be expected to provide employment opportunities to family members. Hence, they are not always recruiting the most qualified employees for the job. This may result in conflicts among employees (Miller et al., 2003; Peters and Buhalis, 2004). Conversely, multinational corporations are capable of attracting the best candidates for the job. They are usually in a better position to lure investors as well as venture capitalists’ funds. On the other hand, family business owners may be reluctant to accept financial injections from external investors, for fear of losing control over their business. The personal qualities, traits and attributes of the business owners can have significant effects on the long-term prospects of the companies they lead and manage (Hallak, Assaker and Connor, 2014).

Family firms are not always in a position to raise their margins and to allocate financial resources for research and development and toward market research, product development, skills or creativity enhancement (Pikkemaat and Zehrer 2016). Very often, they are not benefiting from economies of scale that are afforded by bigger businesses. Moreover, they may be reluctant to cooperate and forge alliances with other businesses, including with competitors to gain economies of scope, that could enable them to improve their services. Many academic researchers argued that family firms ought to value long-term cooperation and social networking within the communities where they operate their business (Pikkemaat and Zehrer 2016; Camisón et al., 2016). Their networking (Baggio and Valeri, 2020) and innovation management processes (Kallmuenzer, 2018; Vrontis et al., 2016) are often driven by local community needs and by their orientations towards sustainable tourism development (Baggio and Valeri, 2020; Camilleri, 2014; Ismail et al., 2019; Kallmuenzer et al., 2018).

Family members may not possess the networking skills to develop fruitful relationships with corporate stakeholders (Arcese et al., 2020; Camilleri, 2016; Troise & Camilleri, 2021) and/or may lack adequate knowledge to formulate appropriate business strategies for their company (Pikkemaat and Zehrer, 2016). Their businesses are expected to continuously innovate to guarantee their survival and to improve their performance in the long term (Elmo et al., 2020). In a similar vein, Rachmawati et al., (2020) pointed out that family entrepreneurs need to be more innovative and take risks so that they can compete in the global scenario. They suggested that their internationalization prospects may help their business to improve their reputation in order to enhance their bottom lines, whilst satisfying their families’ interests. Other authors contended that they have to identify innovation opportunities (Arcese et al., 2020; Giacosa et al., 2017; López-Chávez et al., 2021; Valeri et al., 2020) whilst defending their values and traditions in order to guarantee that their family business legacy transcends from one generation to the next (Obermayer et al., 2021; Santos et al., 2021c).

Succession issues may affect the form of ownership structures of tourism family enterprises as well as their governance, leadership, management and strategies. Elmo et al. (2020) maintained that the innovation process is likely to occur after succession periods when there are changes in the ownership of family businesses. They went on to suggest that successors (i.e. incoming owner-managers) of family firms may represent new opportunities, resources, and sources of knowledge and information for them. Other authors delved into family succession matters (Kallmuenzer et al., 2021; Ollenburg and Buckley, 2011; Prevolsek et al., 2017; Steier, 2001). In the main, these commentators recognized that succession remains a contentious issue that may either result in positive outcomes or in negative repercussions that can ultimately hinder the growth and development of family businesses (Miller, 2003; Peters et al., 2012).

Conclusions

There are a number of internal and external factors that can affect tourism and hospitality family businesses long-term prospects (Camilleri, 2017; Camilleri, 2021a; Giousmpasoglou, 2019; Zapalska and Brozik, 2013; Santos et al., 2021a; 2021b), their business development, sustainable development and innovation capabilities (Mtapuri et al., 2021, Peña‐Miranda et al., 2021). This contribution suggests that family firms differentiate themselves from nonfamily businesses as they consider other important values in addition to profit, including family legacy, trust, commitment and reputation. It explained that it is in their interest to engage with different stakeholders (including competitors) (Camilleri, 2019) to benefit from synergistic resources and capabilities, to increase their economies of scale and scope, to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.

Currently, many businesses are still feeling the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (Albattat et al., 2020; Camilleri, 2021b; Chemli et al., 2020; Toanoglou et al., 2021). During this crisis, family enterprises and other companies, faced serious liquidity shortages and became cash strapped after they experienced a considerable decline in their business activities. In many cases, they were resilient as they reinforced their purpose and values to ensure that their business remains intact. Generally, they strived in their endeavors to safeguard their financial and emotional investments, to preserve their legacy. Those family owner managers that have better adapted to the pandemic and who are still operating their tourism or hospitality business are better prepared for economic growth and development in the post-pandemic context.

Limitations

Although this systematic review has carefully considered rigorous articles and reviews that are focused on the development of family businesses in tourism and hospitality, there is scope to investigate different forms of family hotels and family restaurants in more depth and breadth, in terms of their sizes, types of ownership, succession issues, organizational cultures, access to financial resources, et cetera. Future studies can explore the differences between family enterprises and SMEs within the tourism and hospitality industries, in various contexts.

Suggested Citation: Camilleri, M.A. & Valeri, M. (2021). Thriving family businesses in tourism and hospitality: A systematic review and a synthesis of the relevant literature. Journal of Family Business Management, https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFBM-10-2021-0133

A full paper can be downloaded here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356603434_Thriving_family_businesses_in_tourism_and_hospitality_A_systematic_review_and_a_synthesis_of_the_relevant_literature

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Tagged as family business, family enterprise, family firm, Hospitality, Tourism

December 31, 2021 · 3:42 pm

Advancing community-based tourism approaches for sustainable destinations

This is an excerpt from one of my latest papers on sustainable tourism.

Suggested citation: Mtapuri, O., Camilleri, M.A. & Dłużewska, A. (2021). Advancing community-based tourism approaches for the sustainable development of destinations. Sustainable Development,

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sd.2257

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Whilst mass tourism service providers, such as foreign owned properties including international hotel chains are associated with economic leakages (Garrigós et al., 2015), locally-owned, smaller businesses, are usually aligned to economic linkages.

Destinations can use community-based tourism (CBT) approaches to increase linkages by attracting high yield, affluent tourists to locally-owned companies (Butler, 2020; Prasiasa, et al., 2020). From a community-based perspective, the limitation of tourism figures can improve the destinations’ sustainability, whilst limiting the impacts on the natural environment (Saarinen, 2006:1129). Tourism businesses can contribute to reduce their impact on the environment by limiting the number of tourists. They can improve the quality of their services to appeal to high-end segments.

To be successful, the proponents of CBT ought to ensure that they retain specific principles and characteristics. Thus, CBT practitioners could differentiate themselves from other business models by offering authentic, local experiences to their guests. CBT can establish itself as a niche tourism product that appeals to lucrative market segments. Therefore, service providers are expected to deliver on their promises. They have to meet and exceed their customers’ expectations without lowering their standards of service.

CBT operators rely on their community’s local resources including environment/natural resources, heritage, culture as well as on knowledgeable human resources. Their employees should possess customer service skills, and ought to be trained about their local tourism products. Local businesses may usually engage native employees to improve their consumers’ experiences with their CBT product.

However, there may be instances where CBT operators may not find local employees in the labor market. In this case, they have to train their imported employees about local cultures and traditions in order to continue delivering authentic CBT experiences. The following figure presents a model for sustainable CBT that relies on the destinations’ effective management of their carrying capacities.

An ongoing evaluation of the destinations’ infrastructures as well as on their human and natural resources, particularly during their high season, is required to ensure that they do not exceed their specific carrying capacities. While each specific context will have its own specific performance indicators, this contribution suggests that destination marketers ought to consider the following issues:

• The participation of local businesses and individual in CBT.
• Local procurement of products (for accommodation establishments, hotels, restaurants, and to other tourism businesses).

It is in the interest of CBT operators to think locally and act globally (Hofstede, 1998). They should consider sourcing their requirements from their local communities, where possible. Hence, tourism planners could utilize local resources to reduce leakages from their economy.

Governments can encourage tourism businesses to support local enterprises, for example, by purchasing local products, and by supporting the local communities. They may also incentivize businesses through financial instruments to pursue laudable activities. They can also provide support to tourism businesses, including small hotels and B&Bs to upgrade their services to attract lucrative tourists in their communities. At the same time, they have to maintain their destinations’ infrastructure and should offer suitable amenities to visitors.

These strategies are meant to foster an environment that promotes sustainable CBT approaches that are intended to increase economic linkages, whilst improving societal and the environmental outcomes in local communities. The following figure clarifies how tourism businesses can optimize the utilization of local resources through sustainable CBT strategies in order to improve their destination’s carrying capacity whilst reducing leakages from their economy.

The effectiveness of this proposed model for sustainable community-based tourism relies on a regular evaluation of the marketing environment. Tourism practitioners are expected to examine and re-examine their CBT strategies to ensure that they are still creating value to their business, to the local community and to the environment at large.

Sustainable CBT approaches can support the local economic development of destinations, however leakages can jeopardize the destinations’ competitiveness and growth prospects. While the degree and types of leakages may vary, according to specific characteristics of certain countries, it can be argued that the proper utilization of local resources can improve the national economies and the quality of life of different communities, including those from emerging economies.

The type of tourism planning and development that is adopted by certain destinations is another factor that can have an effect on their economic leakages or linkages. Based on the above, this contribution puts forward a theoretical model that is intended to address the limitations of the carrying capacities of various destinations. In sum, it suggests that sustainable CBT approaches that rely on the optimal utilization of local resources (including human and natural) may result in economic growth as well as in positive outcomes to local communities and their natural environments. This model is aimed at rebalancing leakages with linkages in the economy, whilst responding to challenges relating to the supply chains of different tourism businesses.

Indeed, there is scope for destinations to maximize the use of resources at their disposal (both human and natural). In a similar vein, companies should avail themselves of local resources, competences and capabilities. It is also in their interest to engage in strategic CSR and sustainable tourism practices to support local stakeholders and to safeguard their natural environment.

A sustainable CBT model would require tourism businesses to forge relationships with different stakeholders including with the government and its policymakers, suppliers, creditors, employees and customers, among others. The advancement of CBT would also necessitate that destination marketers and hospitality businesses work together, in tandem to improve their tourism product. Local stakeholders are expected to safeguard their natural environment, culture and traditions for the benefit of their communities, and for their valued tourists and visitors who would probably appreciate authentic destinations that offer unique experiences to them.

The full paper and the reference list is available here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355446004_Advancing_community-based_tourism_approaches_for_the_sustainable_development_of_destinations

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Tagged as carrying capacity, CBT, community-based tourism, corporate social responsibility, CSR, economic leakages, economic linkages, sustainable tourism, Tourism, tourism economics

May 14, 2020 · 10:20 am

Call for Chapters: Consumer Engagement in Tourism and Hospitality (pre, during and post covid-19)

This academic book will be published by Goodfellow Publishers (Oxford, UK)

Editors
Prof. Dr. Mark Anthony Camilleri
University of Malta, Malta.
Email: mark.a.camilleri@um.edu.mt

Dr. Rather Raouf
University of Jammu, India.

Prof. Dr. Dimitrios Buhalis
Bournemouth University, UK.

Important Dates
Abstract submission: 31st July 2020
Full chapters due: 31st January 2021
Final submission date: 15th March 2021

Introduction
The customer engagement concept has received lots of attention in different academic disciplines including: organisational behaviour (and employee engagement), psychology (and task engagement), sociology (and civic engagement) as well as in marketing (and branding) (Brodie, Hollebeek, Jurić, & Ilić, 2011; Chu & Kim, 2011; Taheri, Jafari, & O’Gorman, 2014; Buhalis & Foerste, 2015). In a similar vein, the tourism industry practitioners are also recognising the importance of customer engagement as they are increasingly delivering enjoyable, transformative activities that improve the customers’ experiences (Walls, Okumus, Wang, & Kwun, 2011; So, King & Sparks, 2014; Ali, Ryu & Hussain, 2016; Harrigan, Evers, Miles & Daly, 2017; Camilleri, 2019a, 2019b). The latest trends comprise the adaptation of new technologies, interactive service delivery and offerings, and service personalisation (e.g. Hollebeek, Shrivastava, & Chen, 2019; Rather & Camilleri, 2019; Rather, Hollebeek, Islam, 2019; Hollebeek & Rather, 2019).

In tourism research, there are different drivers, antecedents, and/or determinants of customer engagement (So et al., 2014). These may comprise: the customers’ perceptions of authenticity, prior knowledge, mood regulation, brand sincerity, cultural capital, perceived intimacy, and desire for social interaction, among others (Taheri et al., 2014; Ram, Björk & Weidenfeld, 2016; Camilleri, 2018; Liang, Choi & Joppe, 2018; Rather et al., 2019; Fan, Buhalis & Lin, 2019). Existing research has also indicated that there are positive consequences if tourism service providers or destination management organisations engage with their customers, including; loyalty, satisfaction, self-brand connection, co-creation, commitment, positive word-of-mouth and online reviews, as well as purchase intentions (Litvin, Goldsmith & Pan, 2008; Bilgihan, Okumus & Cobanoglu, 2013; Harrigan et al., 2017; Rasoolimanesh, Noor, Schuberth & Jaafar, 2019; Buhalis & Sinarta, 2019; Buhalis, Andreu & Gnoth, 2020). In recent years, there has been a growing focus on the topics of customer engagement and customer experience, as academics started to investigate how customer interact with the businesses through different marketing channels and touch-points (Walls et al., 2011; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). These stimuli can have an effect on the customers’ purchase decision (Fang, Ye, Kucukusta & Law, 2016). Similarly, the tourism practitioners are using the digital media and mobile technologies to engage with customers to improve their experience (Sigala, Christou & Gretzel, 2012; Camilleri, 2018; Buhalis, 2020). For example, tourism service providers are increasingly using high-fidelity, interactive channels (e.g. virtual reality, social media, online and mobile booking systems) in an attempt to enhance their customers’ experience (Sigala et al., 2012).

However, despite the concepts of customer engagement and customer experience have received significant attention from the industry practitioners, there are gaps in academic knowledge, as there are still limited theoretical and empirical studies that have explored these topics in the tourism context, including; tourist destinations, airlines, cruises, tour operators, travel agencies, accommodation service providers, like hotels, Airbnb operators, timeshare, etc. Moreover, there are even fewer contributions that have explored the effect of the 2019-2020 corona virus pandemic (COVID19) on these sectors. The closure of the international borders as well as the latest travel ban and lock down conditions have inevitably led to grounded air planes, docked cruise ships, idle tour buses, shuttered tourism businesses and tourist attractions. This dramatic situation has resulted in a sudden downward spiral in international tourism arrivals and receipts. In this light, this timely publication will feature high impact research on consumer engagement within the tourism and hospitality: pre, during and post COVID-19.

Detailed Synopsis
This prospective title shall offer a thorough understanding about why there is scope for the tourism service providers and destination management organisations to successfully create, manage, and market tourism experiences. It will also provide theoretical and practical evidence of how, where and when they can seize the opportunities and address the challenges for effective consumer engagement in the tourism arena. Therefore, this book will include conceptual and empirical chapters covering the themes of Tourism Customer Engagement: Dimensions, Theories, and Frameworks; Tourism Customer Engagement: Key Antecedents and Consequences; Tourism Customer Experience: Theories, Structure and Frameworks; Customer Engagement in Evolving Technological Environments; Open innovation Technologies, Co-creation Experiences and Customer Engagement Approaches; and Emerging Issues. It is very likely that the tourism and hospitality businesses will be operating in the context of a “new normal” in a post COVID19 era. The editors are committed to enrich the existing body of academic literature on “Customer
Engagement and Experience in Tourism: pre, during and post COVID-19” by consolidating the marketing topics in the form of a comprehensive volume. Hence, this book will be accepting contributions that are related to the following themes:

• Customer Engagement in Tourism: Dimensionality, Theories and Frameworks
• Tourism engagement conceptualisations
• Dynamic framework of consumer engagement
• Dimensionality (cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and social dimensions) of consumer engagement)
• Typology of consumer engagement
• Employee engagement (emotional, cognitive and behavioural)
• Customer Engagement: Key Antecedents and Consequence
• Key antecedents and/or drivers of consumer engagement
• Customer engagement behaviours in tourism, travel and hospitality
• Key consequences of consumer engagement in tourism
• Tourist engagement and its impact on their satisfaction and behaviours
• Tourism Customer Experience: Theories and Conceptual Frameworks
• Conceptualisations of tourism experience
• Evolution of tourism experience research
• Dynamic framework of the tourist experience
• Key drivers of tourism experience
• Key consequences of tourism experience
• Cognitive, emotional, sensory, social and spiritual dimensions of customer experiences
• Role and measurement of emotions in tourism experiences
• Typology of tourism experience
• The essence of memorable experience
• Service employees and customer experience
• Tourism experiences in the light of global trends
• Issues and opportunities in customer journey mapping in tourism & hospitality experiences
• Open Innovation Technologies, Co-creation Experiences and Customer Engagement
• The role of technology in engagement and service experience
• Virtual reality, augmented reality in tourism engagement and experience
• Games and gamification in tourism, travel and hospitality
• Social media, online brand communities, and mobile applications in tourism engagement and experience
• Co-construction of the tourist engagement and experience in social networking sites
• Role of themes and stories about tourist engagement and experiences
• Role of customer touch points in smart tourism destinations and experiences.
• Open innovation and co-creation approaches
• Co-creation of tourism experience
• Key drivers of co-creation
• Key consequences of co-creation
• Co-creation through service dominant logic (SDL)
• Role of tourists and visitors in service experience for innovation
• Service innovation and value co-creation processes
Emerging Issues
• The socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on tourism and/or hospitality services
• Diversification of tourism and/or hospitality services during/after COVID-19
• The use of digital media during/after COVID-19
• The consumer engagement in a post COVID-19 era

Aims and Objectives
This academic book differentiates itself as it covers consumer engagement and experience in the realms of tourism, Moreover, it will include both theory and practical cases from around the globe.
• This academic book aims to explore and critically investigate the current debates, questions and controversies in the rapidly growing disciplines of Consumer Engagement and Experience in Tourism.
• It brings together leading specialists, including experienced academic researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds and geographical regions, to offer state-of-the-art theoretical reflection and empirical research on contemporary issues and debates in these timely topics.
• It also encourages constructive dialogue among academia across marketing-related fields of study.
• It will be international in its focus, as it transcends national boundaries.

Target Audience
• The book shall be a comprehensive reference point and source for academics who are interested on contemporary concepts, ideas and debates relating to consumer engagement and experience in tourism.
• The target audience of the book will be composed of experienced academic researchers, Ph.D. candidates, post-graduate researchers and advanced under-graduates in the field of consumer engagement, consumer experience and relationship marketing in various disciplines including tourism, hospitality, leisure, festivals and events.
• Furthermore, the book will offer good insights to prospective tourism industry practitioners including managers, executives and other employees who are willing to broaden their knowledge to better engage with consumers.

Submission Details
Academics and researchers are invited to submit a 300-word abstract before the 31st July 2020. Submissions should be sent to Mark.A.Camilleri@um.edu.mt. Authors will be notified about the editorial decision in August 2020. The accepted chapters should be submitted before the 31st January 2021. Their length should be around 7,000 words (excluding references, figures and tables). The manuscripts have to be typed double spaced in Times New Roman, font size 12, in an A4 paper. The contributions should feature the text, in the following sequence: title, abstract, keywords, introduction, literature review, methods, data analysis or interpretation of the findings, conclusions and implications, recommendations for future research, acknowledgements, references and a figure/table captions list in the same Word document. The references should be presented in APA style (Version 6). All submitted chapters will be
critically reviewed on a double-blind review basis. All authors will be requested to serve as reviewers for this book. They will receive a notification of acceptance, rejection or suggested modifications –before the 15th March 2021.

References
Ali, F., Ryu, K., & Hussain, K. (2016). Influence of experiences on memories, satisfaction and behavioral intentions: A study of creative tourism. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 33(1), 85-100.

Bilgihan, A., Okumus, F., & Cobanoglu, C. (2013). Generation Y travelers’ commitment to online social network websites. Tourism Management, 35, 13-22.

Brodie, R. J., Hollebeek, L. D., Jurić, B., & Ilić, A. (2011). Customer engagement: Conceptual domain, fundamental propositions, and implications for research. Journal of Service Research, 14(3), 252-271.

Buhalis, D. & Foerste, M. (2015). SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-creation of value. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 4(3), 151-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2015.04.001

Buhalis, D. & Sinarta, Y. (2019). Real-time co-creation and nowness service: lessons from tourism and hospitality. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(5), 563-582. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2019.1592059

Fan, D., Buhalis, D. & Lin, B. (2019). A tourist typology of online and face-to-face social contact: Destination immersion and tourism encapsulation/decapsulation, Annals of Tourism Research, 78, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.102757

Buhalis, D. (2020), Technology in tourism-from information communication technologies to eTourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: a perspective article, Tourism Review 75(1), 267-272.

Buhalis D, Andreu L. & Gnoth J. (2020). The dark side of the sharing economy: Balancing value co‐creation and value co‐destruction. Psychology and Marketing. Vol. 37(5), pp.689–704..https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21344 or https://www.academia.edu/42133651

Camilleri, M.A. (2018). Travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product. Cham: Springer.

Camilleri, M.A. (Ed.) (2019a). Tourism planning and destination marketing. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.

Camilleri, M. A. (Ed.). (2019b). The Branding of Tourist Destinations: Theoretical and Empirical Insights. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.

Chu, S. C., & Kim, Y. (2011). Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites. International journal of Advertising, 30(1), 47-75.

Fang, B., Ye, Q., Kucukusta, D., & Law, R. (2016). Analysis of the perceived value of online tourism reviews: Influence of readability and reviewer characteristics. Tourism Management, 52, 498-506.

Harrigan, P., Evers, U., Miles, M., & Daly, T. (2017). Customer engagement with tourism social media brands. Tourism Management, 59, 597-609.

Hollebeek, L. D., Srivastava, R. K., & Chen, T. (2019). SD logic–informed customer engagement: integrative framework, revised fundamental propositions, and application to CRM. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), 161-185.

Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.

Litvin, S. W., Goldsmith, R. E., & Pan, B. (2008). Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tourism Management, 29(3), 458-468.

Rasoolimanesh, S. M., Md Noor, S., Schuberth, F., & Jaafar, M. (2019). Investigating the effects of tourist engagement on satisfaction and loyalty. The Service Industries Journal, 39(7-8), 559- 574.

Ram, Y., Björk, P., & Weidenfeld, A. (2016). Authenticity and place attachment of major visitor attractions. Tourism Management, 52, 110-122.

Rather, R. A., & Camilleri, M. A. (2019a). The effects of service quality and consumer-brand value congruity on hospitality brand loyalty. Anatolia, 30(4), 547-559.

Rather, R. A., & Hollebeek, L. D. (2019). Exploring and validating social identification and social exchange-based drivers of hospitality customer loyalty. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 31(3), 1432-1451.

Rather, R. A., Hollebeek, L. D., & Islam, J. U. (2019). Tourism-based customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and consequences. The Service Industries Journal, 39(7-8), 519-540.

Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.). (2012). Social media in travel, tourism and hospitality: Theory, practice and cases. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.

So, K. K. F., King, C., & Sparks, B. (2014). Customer engagement with tourism brands: Scale development and validation. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 38(3), 304-329.

Taheri, B., Jafari, A., & O’Gorman, K. (2014). Keeping your audience: Presenting a visitor engagement scale. Tourism Management, 42, 321-329.

Walls, A. R., Okumus, F., Wang, Y. R., & Kwun, D. J. W. (2011). An epistemological view of consumer experiences. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(1), 10-21.

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Tagged as consumer behavior, consumer brand identification, consumer engagement, consumer experience, consumer-brand engagement, consumer-brand value congruity, customer engagement, Hospitality, interactive engagement, Mark Camilleri, marketing, service quality, Tourism

April 13, 2020 · 6:31 pm

Post-COVID19: The hoteliers’ shifts in beliefs, behaviours and their outlook for the future

The 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic (COVID19) is currently having a devastating effect on the global economy at large. At the time, its impact is even more conspicuous in certain service industries including the travel and tourism sectors.

The closure of the international borders as well as the latest travel ban and lock down conditions have inevitably led to grounded air planes, docked cruise ships, idle tour buses, shuttered tourism businesses and tourist attractions. This dramatic situation has resulted in a sudden downward spiral in international arrivals and receipts in many tourist destinations.

The hospitality enterprises including hotels, bed and breakfasts, pubs, cafes, restaurants and the like, that are usually run by family businesses, are experiencing an unprecedented crisis unlike other entities in the private sector.

Currently, there is no demand for their services. COVID19 has changed some of the practitioners’ attitudes, policies and behaviours as they have adapted themselves to: enhance digital collaborations; engage with remote working technologies; increase their workplace hygiene; and to find alternative sources of income by diversifying their services, among other issues. Hopefully, there will be better prospects for them when the current crisis ends. It is very likely that they will be operating in the context of a “new normal” in a post COVID19 era.

(This is an excerpt from my latest research project)

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Tagged as bars, cafes, Coronavirus, COVID19, Hospitality, hotels, POST-COVID19, pubs, restaurants, Tourism

May 21, 2018 · 7:35 pm

Announcing Emerald’s latest academic textbook, “The Branding of Tourist Destinations”

This authoritative book was edited by Mark Anthony Camilleri. It provides students and practitioners with a good understanding of different tourism products, marketing strategies and tactics on destination branding, as well as useful insights on sustainable and responsible tourism practices, among other topics. The readers are equipped with a strong pedagogical base on the attractiveness of tourist destinations as this publication presents contemporary conceptual discussions and empirical studies on several aspects of destination branding.

Tourism marketers, including destination management organizations (DMOs) are formulating strategies and tactics to attract prospective visitors. Hence, this book also sheds light on the latest industry developments in travel, tourism, hospitality and events in different contexts around the world.

Chapter 1 introduces the readers to different aspects of the travel, tourism, hospitality and leisure industries, including; the visitors’ accessibility, accommodation, attractions, activities and amenities. The author explains how tourist destinations are capable of customizing their products to customer segments and individuals, by offering; adventure tourism, business tourism (including meetings, incentives, conferences and events), culinary tourism, cultural (or heritage) tourism, eco-tourism (or sustainable tourism), educational tourism, health (or medical tourism), religious tourism, rural tourism, seaside tourism, sports tourism, urban (or city) tourism, wine tourism, among other niche areas.

Chapter 2 provides an explanation of destination marketing, place branding and their related notions. The authors critically review the conceptual developments on the branding of tourist destinations.

Chapter 3 suggests that destination management organisations ought to engage in fruitful relationships with internal and external stakeholders. The authors maintain that there are several factors that can affect the strategic management of these organisations.

Chapter 4 explores how Sweden is branding its destinations by improving its cultural identify and by providing multi-sensory experiences to its visitors.

Chapter 5 sheds light on the agritourism businesses in Italy’s Campania region. The author analyses the main critical success factors for a thriving rural tourism market.

Chapter 6 explains the key elements of cultural tourism, including the destination’s heritage, lifestyle, and “Made in Italy”. The authors put forward a tourism development model. They suggest that it represents a functional framework for the benefit of tourism practitioners.

Chapter 7 explores the consumer-based brand equity of events. The authors explain how the organization of events, including music festivals could add value to the destinations’ image. They imply that the visitors’ positive experiences and their word-of-mouth publicity can contribute to the destinations’ branding.

Chapter 8 explores the destination branding of Porto in Portugal. The authors analyze the visitors’ attitudes on Porto’s largest wine festival. They assess their visitors’ level of satisfaction with the event and their intention to return.

Chapter 9 identifies the key elements that serve as drivers for the development of oleotourism in Jaen, Spain. The authors suggest that there is scope in stakeholder engagement amongst the main actors and drivers in the sector.

Chapter 10 investigates the environmental behaviour of three-, four- and five-star hotels in Azuay, Ecuador. The authors explored the relationship between environmental responsibility and stakeholder engagement. Their findings suggest that the hotel managers strive in their endeavours to implement responsible environmental practices to avoid regulatory pressures.

Chapter 11 examines the relationship between the destinations’ image and brand equity. The author contends that the tourists’ hedonic and monetary values can have a moderating effect on the country-of-origin’s image and brand extension.

Chapter 12 investigates the relationship between the customers’ satisfaction, commitment, trust and loyalty toward hospitality brands. It develops and empirically test the social identity construct (customer brand identification and other critical social exchange constructs (satisfaction, trust, commitment).

This publication was written by academics for other scholars, researchers, advanced under-graduate and post-graduate students. However, it is also relevant to the industry practitioners, including consultants, senior executives and managers who work for destination management organizations, tourism offices, hotels, inbound / outbound tour operators and travel agents, among others. The book explains all the theory and the empirical studies in a simple and straightforward manner. It describes the various marketing environments that comprise a wide array of economic, socio-cultural and environmental realities.

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Filed under Business, destination marketing, digital media, Hospitality, Marketing, tourism, Travel

Tagged as branding, destination marketing, destination marketing organization, Destinations, marketing, Strategy, Tourism, Travel

April 27, 2018 · 11:27 am

Emerald’s must-read textbook for tourism students and practitioners

“Tourism Planning and Destination Marketing” was recently edited by Dr. Mark Anthony Camilleri, Ph.D. (Edinburgh).

This publication is written in an engaging style to entice the curiosity of its readers. It presents all the theory and the empirical studies in a simple and straightforward manner. It reports on the global tourism marketing environments that comprise a wide array of economic, socio-cultural and environmental issues. It also explains how ongoing advances in technology are bringing interesting developments in the tourism industry and its marketing mix.

This authoritative book provides theoretical and empirical insights on different tourism topics, including; destination marketing and branding, sustainable and responsible tourism, tourism technologies, digital marketing, travel distribution and more. It is also relevant to the industry practitioners, including consultants, senior executives and managers who work for destination management organisations, tourism offices, hotels, inbound / outbound tour operators and travel agents, among others.

Preface

The marketing of a destination relies on planning, organisation and the successful execution of strategies and tactics. Therefore, this authoritative book provides students and practitioners with relevant knowledge of tourism planning and destination marketing. The readers of this publication are equipped with a strong pedagogical base as they are presented conceptual discussions as well as empirical studies on different aspects of the travel and tourism industries.

The readers of this book will acquire a good understanding of the tourism marketing environment, destination branding, distribution channels, etourism, as well as relevant details on sustainable and responsible tourism practices, among other topics. They will appreciate that the tourism marketers, including destination management organisations (DMOs) are increasingly using innovative tools, including; digital media and ubiquitous technologies to engage with prospective visitors. Hence, this book also sheds light on contemporary developments in travel, tourism, hospitality, festivals and events.

Chapter 1 introduces the readers to the tourism concept as it describes the travel facilitators and motivators. Afterwards, it explains several aspects of the tourism product, including; the visitors’ accessibility, accommodation, attractions, activities and amenities. It categorises different travel markets; including; adventure tourism, business tourism (including meetings, incentives, conferences and events), culinary tourism, cultural (or heritage) tourism, eco-tourism (or sustainable tourism), educational tourism, health (or medical tourism), religious tourism, rural tourism, seaside tourism, sports tourism, urban (or city) tourism, wine tourism, among other niche areas.

Chapter 2 offers a critical review and analysis of relevant literature on the tourism product’s experiential perspective. The authors suggest that the customers’ experience is affected by cognitive, emotional, relational and sensorial aspects.

Chapter 3 examines Plog’s model of venturesomeness. The author provides a thorough review of 26 studies that have adopted this behavioural model. He maintains that this model could be used to identify the travellers’ psychographic characteristics as he correlates them with the destinations they visit.

Chapter 4 focuses on the coopetition features of tourism destinations. The author held that (competing) tourism service providers, including destination marketing organisations often cooperate to deliver positive customer experiences. In addition, he explained how seasonality and colocation issues can influence specific features of coopetition and collaborative practices in tourism destinations.

Chapter 5 explored the residents’ attitudes towards incoming tourism at Punta del Este, Uruguay. The authors suggest that the respondents were perceiving economic benefits from increased tourism figures. However, the same respondents indicated that they were aware about the socio-cultural costs of tourism.

Chapter 6 appraises the notions of sustainable and responsible tourism. It traces the origins of the concept of sustainable development and includes a critical review of key theoretical underpinnings. The author provides relevant examples of the social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in vulnerable or sensitive climates.

Chapter 7 investigates the tourists’ experiences of Japan’s Tateyama and Hirakawa rural areas. The author suggests that the tourists’ experience of rural tourism has led them to appreciate the Japanese culture.

Chapter 8 sheds light on the eco-tourism concept. Following a thorough literature review, the authors imply that the service providers ought to identify their visitors’ motivation for eco-tourism destinations.

Chapter 9 clarifies how emerging technologies, including; augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are being used in the travel and tourism industries. The authors introduce the readers to the term, “phygital” as they argue that the tourists are seeking physical and virtual experiences. They suggest that AR and VR have the power to blend together the individuals’ perception of real and virtual spaces.

Chapter 10 explains the importance of organising events for destination marketing. The authors suggest that festivals and events can create a positive image of a destination. The destinations’ ongoing activities may lead to economic benefits to tourism operators as well as to the community, at large.

Chapter 11 posits that the destinations marketers ought to formulate their strategies prior to the planning and organising of events. The author contends that the effective management of events relies on stakeholder engagement, attracting sponsorships and the use of interactive media.

Chapter 12 describes Smart Tourism Local Service Systems (S-TLSS) that are intended to facilitate the engagement among various stakeholders. The authors suggest that S-TLSS supports the tourism planning and destination marketing in Caserta, Italy.

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Filed under Airlines, Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, destination marketing, digital media, responsible tourism, SMEs, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability, tourism, Travel

Tagged as Business, destination, destination branding, destination marketing, Destinations, digital, digital media, Mark Camilleri, marketing, social media, Strategy, Tourism, Tourism Planning, Travel, University of Edinburgh, University of Malta

March 27, 2018 · 11:34 am

My Latest Edited Book on Destination Marketing

An Excerpt from the Preface of “Strategic Perspectives in Destination Marketing” (forthcoming):

The marketing of a destination relies on planning, organization and the successful execution of strategies and tactics. Therefore, this authoritative book provides students and practitioners with relevant knowledge of tourism planning and destination marketing. The readers are equipped with a strong pedagogical base on the socio-economic, environmental and technological impacts on the attractiveness of tourist destinations. At the same time, this publication presents contemporary conceptual discussions as well as empirical studies on different aspects of the travel and tourism industries.

The readers of this book will acquire a good understanding of the tourism marketing environment, destination marketing and branding, pricing of tourism products, tourism distribution channels, etourism, as well as on sustainable and responsible tourism practices, and among other topics. They will appreciate that the tourism marketers, including destination management organizations (DMOs) are increasingly using innovative tools, including; digital media and ubiquitous technologies to engage with prospective visitors. Hence, this book also sheds light on the latest industry developments in travel, tourism, hospitality and events.

Chapter 1 introduces the readers to the tourism concept as it describes the travel facilitators and motivators. Afterwards, it explains several aspects of the tourism product, including; the visitors’ accessibility, accommodation, attractions, activities and amenities. It categorizes different travel markets; including; adventure tourism, business tourism (including meetings, incentives, conferences and events), culinary tourism, cultural (or heritage) tourism, eco-tourism (or sustainable tourism), educational tourism, health (or medical tourism), religious tourism, rural tourism, seaside tourism, sports tourism, urban (or city) tourism, wine tourism, among other niche areas.

Chapter 2 examines how foreign tourist intermediaries perceive Portugal as a tourist destination. It analyzes the promotional information that they use to attract visitors to this Southern European destination. This contribution recognizes that the tour operators have an important role in intermediating the relationship between the tourists and the tourism service providers. The authors suggest that tourism relies on the destination’s image that is often being portrayed by the foreign tourism intermediaries.

Chapter 3 explores the cruising consumers’ behaviors and their decision-making processes. The authors maintain that the destination, the social life on board as well as the cruise features are very important factors for consumer loyalty. In conclusion, they recommend that cruise lines should create synergies with local institutions in tourist destinations.

Chapter 4 investigates the Spanish inhabitants’ opinions on the tourism industry’s seasonality issues. The findings suggest that the local residents who live in the coastal destinations were in favor of having tourism activity throughout the year; as opposed to other host communities from urban and rural destinations (in Spain) who indicated that they would enjoy a break from tourist activity during the low / off peak seasons.

Chapter 5 provides a critical review about the pricing and revenue management strategies that are increasingly being adopted within the tourism and hospitality contexts. The authors introduce the readers to the concept of “rate fencing”. This proposition suggests that businesses ought to differentiate among various customer segments, as they should attract and develop relationships with the most profitable ones.

Chapter 6 appraises the use of qualitative reviews and quantitative ratings in interactive media. The authors also engage in a discussion on the content analysis of the online users’ generated content (UGC). They posit that it is in the interest of tourism and hospitality businesses to respond to positive and negative word of mouth publicity in reasonable time, as they may have to deal with fake and unverified reviews.

Chapter 7 clarifies how online travel businesses, including; AirTickets, AirBnB and TripAdvisor among others, are continuously investing in their communication technologies and infrastructures to improve their online users’ experience. The author contends that innovative technologies, such as recommender systems and control frameworks are supporting the travel businesses’ in their customer-centric approaches.

Chapter 8 discusses about the concept of the brand identity of destinations from the suppliers’ perspective. The author puts forward a case study on the city of Porto, in Portugal. She explicates how this tourist destination has used an authenticity-based approach to leverage itself as a distinct brand identity among other destinations.

Chapter 9 proposes an ambitious plan to attract visitors to Buxton, Derbyshire. Firstly, the authors focus on the marketing endeavors of a local renovated hotel. Secondly, they provide relevant examples of how other wellness and spa towns in Britain, including; Bath and Harrogate are organizing events and festivals to attract international tourists throughout the year.

Chapter 10 explains how a perceived (positive) image can provide a sustainable competitive advantage to tourism destinations. The authors argue that the historical events as well as other socio-political factors can possibly affect the visitors’ (pre-)conceptions of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. However, they imply that the tourists’ positive experiences could translate to positive publicity for this destination.

Chapter 11 elucidates the notion of destination branding in the rural context. The author maintains that there are both opportunities and challenges for tourism policy makers to preserve the traditional farms and rural dwellings, in order to safeguard their distinct identity. He posits that the rural environment can add value to the tourist destinations and their branding.

Chapter 12 posits that today’s tour operators are highly driven by technology as prospective travelers are searching for online information about their destinations prior to their visits. The authors describe the digital marketing strategies and tactics that are used to promote Malawi, in Africa. They suggest that the inbound tour operators are increasingly using relevant content marketing through interactive technologies and social media to engage with prospective visitors.

Chapter 13 evaluates potential strategies that could be used to develop the tourism product in Adiyaman, Turkey. The authors identify the core responsibilities of the tourism stakeholders and put forward their key recommendations for the branding of this rural destination.

In sum, this authoritative publication is written in an engaging style that entices the curiosity of prospective readers. It explains all the theory in a simple and straightforward manner. This book reports on the global tourism marketing environments that comprise a wide array of economic, socio-cultural and environmental issues. It explains how technological advances have brought significant changes to the tourism industry and its marketing mix.

This book was written by academics for other scholars, researchers, advanced under-graduate and post-graduate students; as it provides a thorough literature review on different tourism topics, including; destination marketing and branding, sustainable and responsible tourism, tourism technologies, digital marketing, travel distribution and more. It is also relevant to the industry practitioners, including consultants, senior executives and managers who work for destination management organizations, tourism offices, hotels, inbound / outbound tour operators and travel agents, among others.

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Filed under destination marketing, digital media, Marketing, tourism, Travel

Tagged as branding, destination branding, destination management, destination marketing, digital, digital marketing, digital media, etourism, marketing, pricing, responsible tourism, stakeholder engagement, sustainable tourism, Tour Operators, Tourism, tourism marketing, Tourism Planning, tourism pricing, Travel, travel intermediaries

February 26, 2018 · 1:25 pm

Tourism Futures: Targeting Customers in the Digital Age

This is an excerpt from: Camilleri’s latest book on Travel Marketing (2018)

How to Cite: Camilleri, M. A. (2018). Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. In Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product (Chapter 4, pp. 69-83). Springer, Cham, Switzerland.

The advances in technology have enabled many businesses to reach their potential customers by using digital and mobile applications.

Google, Facebook, Ebay and Amazon, among others are dominating digital marketing; and are pushing the entire field of advertising to new levels. The use of personal info, web-browsing, search history, geographic location, apps and eCommerce transactions have gone mainstream. For example, Google has begun using transaction records to prove that its ads are working, and are pushing people to make more online purchases. This allowed the technology giant to determine the effectiveness of its digital ad campaigns and to verify their conversion rates.

All individuals leave a “digital trail” of data as they move about in the virtual and physical worlds. This phenomenon is called, “data exhaust”. Initially, this term that was used to describe how Amazon.com has used predictive analytics as it suggested items to its customers. However, predictive analytics cannot determine when and why individuals may decide to change their habitual behaviours, as the possibility of “one off” events must never be discounted. Yet, a firm with sufficient scarce resources could be in a position to exploit big data and analytics to improve its businesses operations.

For instance, Deloitte Consulting have developed a mobile app that has enabled Delta Airlines’ executives to quickly query their operations. For instance, when users touch an airport on a map, the system brings up additional data at their disposal. Executives could also drill further down to obtain granular information on staffing requirements. and customer service levels, as they identify and predict problems in their airline operations.

Nevertheless, business intelligence and predictive analytics could possibly raise a number of concerns. Many customers may be wary of giving their data to the businesses and their stakeholders. Very often, the technological advances anticipate legislation, and its deployment. These contingent issues could advance economic and privacy concerns that regulators will find themselves hard-pressed to ignore. Some academics argue that the digital market and its manipulation may be pushing the limits of consumer protection law. Evidently, society has built up a set of rules that are aimed to protect personal information. Another contentious issue is figuring out the value of data and its worth in monetary terms. In the past, companies could have struggled to determine the value of their business; including patents, trade secrets and other intellectual property.

Targeted Segmentation through Mobile Devices

The mobile is an effective channel to reach out to many users. Portable devices, including smart phones and tablets are surely increasing the productivities and efficiencies of individuals as well as organisations. This has led to the growth of mobile applications (apps). As a result, the market for advertising on mobile is still escalating at a fast pace. Moreover, there are niche areas as new applications are being developed for many purposes on different mobile platforms.

Recent advances in mobile communication and geo-positioning technologies have presented marketers with a new way how to target consumers. Location-targeted mobile advertising involves the provision of ad messages to mobile data subscribers. This digital technology allows marketers to deliver native ads and coupons that are customised to individual consumers’ tastes, geographic location and the time of day. Given the ubiquity of mobile devices, location-targeted mobile advertising are increasingly offering tremendous marketing benefits.

In addition, many businesses are commonly utilising applications, including browser cookies that track consumers through their mobile devices, as they move out and about. Very often, when internet users leave the sites they visited, the products or services they viewed will be shown to them again in retargeted advertisements, across different websites. Several companies are using browsing session data combined with the consumers’ purchase history to deliver “suitable” items that consumers like. There are also tourism businesses who are personalising their offerings as they collect, classify and use large data volumes on the consumers’ behaviours. As more consumers carry smartphones with them, they may be easily targeted with compelling offers that instantaneously pop-up on their mobile screens.

Furthermore, consumers are continuously using social networks which are indicating their geo-location, as they use mobile apps. This same data can be used to identify where people tend to gather. This information is valuable to brands as they seek to improve their consumer engagement and marketing efforts. Therefore, businesses are using mobile devices and networks to capture important consumer data. For instance, smart phones and tablets interact with networks and convey information on their users’ digital behaviours and physical movements to network providers and ISPs. These devices have become interactive through the proliferation of technologies, including; near-field communication (NFC). Basically, embedded chips in the customers’ mobile phones are exchanging data with the retailers’ items possessing such NFC tags. The latest iPhone, Android and Microsoft smartphones have already incorporated NFC capabilities. The growth of such data-driven, digital technologies is surely adding value to the customer-centric marketing. The latest developments in analytics are enabling businesses to provide a deeper personalisation of content as they use socio-demographic and geo-data that new mobile technologies are capable of gathering.

For example, mobile service companies are partnering with local cinemas, in response to the location-targeted mobile advertising; as cinema-goers may inquire about movie information, and could book tickets, and select their seats through their mobile app. These consumers who are physically situated within a given geographic proximity of the participating cinemas may receive location-targeted mobile ads. The cinemas’ ads will inform prospects what movies they are playing and could explain how to purchase tickets through their smart phone. The consumers may also call the cinemas’ hotlines to get more information from a customer service representative. Besides location-targeted advertising, the mobile companies can also promote movie ticket sales via mobile ads that are targeted to individuals, according to their behaviour (not by location). Therefore, companies may direct their mobile-ad messages to those consumers who had previously responded to previous mobile ads (and to others who had already purchased movie tickets, in the past months). Moreover, the cinema companies can also promote movies via Facebook Messenger Ads if they logged in the companies’ websites, via their Facebook account. Mobile users may also receive instant message ads via pop-up windows whenever they log into the corporate site of their service provider.

It is envisaged that such data points will only increase in the foreseeable future, as the multi-billion dollar advertising monopolies are being built on big data and analytics that are helping businesses personalise immersive ads as they target individual customers. The use of credit card transactions is also complementing geo-targeting and Google Maps, with ads; as the physical purchases are increasingly demanding personalisation, fulfillment and convenience. There may be consumers and employees alike who out of their own volition, are willing to give up their data for value. Therefore, the businesses need to reassure them through concise disclosures on how they will use personal data. They should clarify the purpose of maintaining their consumer data, as they are expected to provide simple user controls to opt in and out of different levels of data sharing. This way, they could establish a trust-worthy relationship with customers and prospects.

Companies are already personalising their shopping experience based on the user situation and history. Tomorrow’s tourism businesses are expected to customise the user experiences of their mobile applications and web interfaces, according to the specific needs of each segment. Big data and analytics capabilities are increasingly allowing businesses to fully leverage their rich data from a range of new digital touchpoints and to turn them into high impact interactions. Those businesses that are able to reorient their marketing and product-development efforts around digital customer segments and behaviours will be in a position to tap into the hyper-growth that mobile, social media and the wearables markets are currently experiencing.

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Filed under Airlines, Analytics, Big Data, digital media, Education, Hospitality, ICT, Marketing, tourism, Travel

Tagged as Big Data, digital, digital marketing, digital media, marketing, technology, Tourism, Tourism Futures, Travel, Travel Marketing

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Announcing Emerald’s latest academic textbook, “The Branding of Tourist Destinations”

My Latest Edited Book on Destination Marketing

Tourism Futures: Targeting Customers in the Digital Age

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