Current trends in tourism industry

Discuss about the Tourism and Millennium Development Goals.

The sector of tourism has attracted a lot of attention over the recent few years. There are many people who love to travel and explore the regions of the globe. The modern technological changes within the sector of tourism has brought about a wide range of changes in the business model. With the advancements in the business of the tourism sector, it has attracted a lot of people. This report focusses on the current trends of business within the industry of tourism and the major changes, which would come in the sector of tourism. There are many such business models that are implemented within the tourism sector and one such model of business is the model of e-commerce (Sigala, 2017).

In the past, the tourism sector was mainly limited to a range of people. The e-commerce model of business would be helpful in attracting a mass number of customers who love to explore new places from all over the globe. The launch of the website that is named as Go Travel would be helpful for many tourists who wish to plan their journey by sitting at their homes. The new business has many innovative ideas, which would be helpful in implementing the strategies of the business (Moutinho & Vargas-Sanchez, 2018).

The Go Travel website for the tourism industry would be helpful in providing various kinds of assistance to the tourists. The business model has the potential of providing 24-hour service to the tourists who would plan their trip with the tourist sector. This business also provides assistance by helping them in booking hotels. They have a whole range of hotels that have been owned by the business in order to aid their customers with the task of booking the hotels. The launch of the website would be beneficial for the tourists as they would be able to see the details of the places that they would want to visit. The website would also provide many additional facilities. The primary goal of the website is to acquire profits for the company, exposure to the public and hence to change the perception of the customers regarding the new ways of the business of the tourism sector (Cabiddu, Lui & Piccoli, 2013).

The goals of the Go Travel website is purely linked with the primary goals of the business model. The website is the online version of the thought of the business model. The website is implemented for the task of simplifying the business process within the tourism business sector. The e-commerce business model is basically meant for the people who would plan an early trip for the business. The principal aim of the launch of the website would be to increase and attract the mass number of customers (Saarinen & Rogerson, 2014).

Name of the Websites	Advantages	Disadvantages
Tjapukai (https://www.tjapukai.com.au/)	The website is able to provide day and night stay services.	The website does not provide online travel agents, which would provide quick support to the customers (Tjapukai Cultural Park – Aboriginal Tourist Attraction Cairns, 2018).
Visit Australia (https://www.australia.com/en-in)	The best thing about the website is the design and the user friendliness. It also provides trip details and offer details for the benefit of the customers.	The website does not display any important dates in which they would provide the beneficial offers (Find a travel agent near you – Tourism Australia, 2018).
Seppeltsfield Vineyard Cottage (https://www.seppeltsfieldvineyardcottage.com.au/)	The website provides the details of the rates of their set of staying system and the facilities provided.	The website lacks the online chat support system (Luxury Barossa Valley Accommodation, Vineyard Accommodation, 2018).

Importance of e-commerce model

Based on the comparisons of the advantages and disadvantages of the different tourist websites of Australia, it could be concluded that some of the ideas, which are lacking in these websites could be implemented in this business model. Some of the good ideas that are implemented within these websites could be executed within the new website.

Knowing the target audience who would be visiting the website, helps the business to recognize the habits of the customers. The primary audience of the website are the customers who want to explore the entire Australian sub-continent. The main audience of the website are mainly the people who would go on a family vacation or the people who would like an adventure trip with their friends (Chen & Myagmarsuren, 2013).

The development of the website would be in such a way that the customers should be able to get a maximum and quick response from the system. The website should be developed in such a way that it would be able to support in all kinds of smartphones, desktop and the laptop systems. The most important of the targeted used environments includes the Windows systems. Android and Apple Systems are also the most targeted systems. Hence the developers of the website should be efficient enough to design the website in order to meet the requirements of the clients (Gretzel et al., 2015).

The implementation of the Go Travel tourism business website would be extremely helpful and thus would provide many advantages for the tourists who would plan their trip through this website. The contents and the buttons should be designed in such a way such that they would look attractive and thus gain the attention of the customers. They can book their trips with the help of a virtual travel agent who can help the tourists in guiding with the best affordable plans for their visit. The users would also be provided with online transaction facility in cases of advance payments. The business model of Go Travel normally would include various travel agencies and hotels that would be included within the package of the tour (Huang et al., 2013).

The content of the website would normally consist of several images and text based content. A beautiful background would be displayed within the webpage in order to attract the view of the customers. The website would provide two choices for the customers, such as the guest mode and the registered user mode. The guest users would be able to view the different rates of the packages that would be provided, while the registered users would be able to view the packages as well as book the hotels and other services. The payment page would also provide several options through which the users can pay their amount to the respective services.

Introduction to Go Travel website

The tools for the development of the project would include the use of WordPress and the plug-ins that would be associated. The website would also comprise of a database system, which could be the MySQL database system. The PayPal plug-ins would help in the process of easy transaction of payments. The Google Maps would support the dynamic site map. YouTube videos would also be included within the website in order to provide the customers with an idea and a short brief of the respective place.

The template of the website would be designed with the help of WordPress. Different kinds of plug-ins would be needed for the development of this template. This would be implemented within the top section of the website. The color of the webpage should be an attractive one, which would be helpful for the customers. The color should not be too bright, which may be difficult to be viewed by them.

The website of Go Travel would be composed of different stakeholders who have their share within the business of the tourism industry. The developers of the website and the technical team would be responsible for designing the website and the maintenance, upgradation of the website according to the latest changes within the market. The managerial team would be responsible for managing the business processes within the website and checking the email contents. The CEO of the industry would view the entire operations of the industry (Buhalis & Wagner, 2013).

Several marketing strategies could be implemented for the promotion of the website and thus would be helpful in gaining a huge base of customers. Different kinds of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube could be helpful in  spreading the popularity of the website. Television advertisements could also be a helpful platform. The marketing of the business industry would also make use of advertisements, pamphlets and advertisements on the streets by the tourist agents (Hays, Page & Buhalis, 2013).

Conclusion

Based on the above report, it could be concluded that the implementation of the website for Go Travel would bring a major change for the industry. This would also incur a great revenue for the business. With the help of the website, the business would be able to implement new business models and thus would be able to spread the information related to the brand.

References

Buhalis, D., & Wagner, R. (2013). E-destinations: Global best practice in tourism technologies and applications. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013(pp. 119-130). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Cabiddu, F., Lui, T. W., & Piccoli, G. (2013). Managing value co-creation in the tourism industry. Annals of Tourism Research, 42, 86-107.

Chen, C. F., & Myagmarsuren, O. (2013). Exploring the moderating effects of value offerings between market orientation and performance in tourism industry. International Journal of Tourism Research, 15(6), 595-610.

Find a travel agent near you – Tourism Australia. (2018). Australia.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.australia.com/en-us/facts-and-planning/accommodation-and-tours/find-travel-agents.html

Gretzel, U., Werthner, H., Koo, C., & Lamsfus, C. (2015). Conceptual foundations for understanding smart tourism ecosystems. Computers in Human Behavior, 50, 558-563.

Hays, S., Page, S. J., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Current issues in Tourism, 16(3), 211-239.

Huang, Y. C., Backman, S. J., Backman, K. F., & Moore, D. (2013). Exploring user acceptance of 3D virtual worlds in travel and tourism marketing. Tourism Management, 36, 490-501.

Luxury Barossa Valley Accommodation, Vineyard Accommodation. (2018). Seppeltsfield Vineyard Cottage. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.seppeltsfieldvineyardcottage.com.au/

Moutinho, L., & Vargas-Sanchez, A. (Eds.). (2018). Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI Tourism Texts. Cabi.

Saarinen, J., & Rogerson, C. M. (2014). Tourism and the millennium development goals: Perspectives beyond 2015. Tourism Geographies, 16(1), 23-30.

Sigala, M. (2017). Collaborative commerce in tourism: implications for research and industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(4), 346-355.

Tjapukai Cultural Park – Aboriginal Tourist Attraction Cairns. (2018). Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Retrieved 19 April 2018, from https://www.tjapukai.com.au/