Importance of Understanding Changing Customer Demands

Provide a brief overview of the chosen issue. Critically analyse the significance of the chosen issue for future growth and development of the Tourism and Hospitality Industries. Identify and propose recommendations that may solve the chose issue.

Hospitality and tourism industry is well known industry in which hospitality involves the friendly treatment of tourist and tourism includes the travelling. It is vital for the industry to understand the behaviour of consumer about marketing of tourism products and activities.  The competition in this industry is become high and the demand of customers towards services is changing rapidly which take the form of current issues. Technology has changed the mind of an individual and people want things in a jiffy. The major issue is understood the customer behaviour that what they want and how they satisfy (Amin, 2015). Customer loyalty is necessary for sustaining the growth which is based on the customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is considered as the key driver to sustain in current competitive era (Phillips and Moutinho, 2014). Internet is become essential part of the living beings and it provides the various options to the customer for opting the hotels as per their requirement. It is the main reason of changing the demands of the customers in the hotel and tourism industry. People can easily check the rate and the surrounding of the hotel which enables them to switch for best hotel. The customer’s demand has changed and they want the eco-friendly environment and the renewable energy resources because their desires on the lookout for green and sustainable hotel. Customers want tidy and fast services from the hotel and due to lack of trained staff; hotel may lost the loyal customers. It will enhance the poor satisfaction which is deemed as the killer of the hotel and tourism industry (Butler and Hinch, 2007). Once a hotel get bad review for its services from the customers, it is tremendously hard to regain its reputable standing

It is vital for the hotel and tourism industry to satisfy the customers for growing rapidly. Customer satisfaction has developed into an essential performance indicator for the industry of hospitality; it refers as the good bolding between the customers and the service provider. The lifestyle of customers has changed and a noteworthy change can be observed in the demands and the expectation of the customers. The customers are being advanced and aware about the market trends; the attitude of them will look for separately designed products, communications and services and it has been analyzed that the successful hotels are able to communicate with each customers as an individual with specific requirements and desires (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2008). It has been analyzed that customers want free Wi-Fi internet facilities in his room, favorable behaviour and attitude of staff, improper management facilities, difference between exact view and posted image on websites and unaware about the extra charges. These are the elements of the chosen issue which brings the situation of losing customers. These issues can become the barrier of growth and sustainable of the tourism and hospitality industries (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2008). Due to lack of professional treatment with customers may the reason of losing trust on this industry. It is vital for the industry to adapt the latest technology for providing the latest services to the customers (Abdullah and Rozario, 2009). It has been found that technology has taken place in every industry and there are number of hotels that use new innovative technology trends such as self services concierge, room personalization, tablet devices, LED touch screen panels and Digital door reviewer. These services are adapted by some hotels in some location. Due to amendments in the demand of the customers, customers started to look out the hotel that adapt the advanced technology and due to dissatisfaction of them, this industry may lose the trust of many people and along with that student will not approach this industry for making career (Phillips and Moutinho, 2014)

Importance of Customer Satisfaction

The issue of changing demand of customers due to changes in technology can be resolved by following recommendations. These recommendations are given below which will be helpful for the hotel industry to retain the customers and for making the good bond with customers. 

Technology has advanced and customers are aware about the latest marketing trends which enable them to choose the hotel as per their requirement. Hospitality and tourism industry should start the application only for getting services of hospitality and tourisms and involve hotels and other services as per location so that customers can find out easily what he desires. Along with that it should be mandatory for the hotels to get advanced as per latest technology to attract the customers and minimum criteria of adaption of latest technology must be fixed (Aragon-Correa, Martin-Tapia and Torre-Ruiz, 2015). It would be helpful to retain the customers as well as the growth of the economy because it is the only industry that attracts many customers from all over the world. The hospitality and tourism industry should focus on energy management system to reduce the energy bills (Kusluvan, Kusluvan, Ilhan and Buyruk, 2010). A motion sensor should be placed in the room of guest that should be able to detect when the guest has left then mandatorily shuts the light of the room.

Customers are aware about the eco friendly environment and they want tidy and green surrounding where they live even for a few days. Hospitality and tourism industry should build the environment green and smoke free. It is vital for the industry to wise utilize of resources like water, resources and raw materials (Jessica Hwang and Lockwood, 2006). The issues of customers can be reduced by decreasing the energy use, improving the accommodation services and avoiding the sick building syndrome effect. It has been analyzed that people are ready to contribute positively in the context of controlling the climate initiatives in eco-friendly and green hotels are considered as one of the initiative by number of frequent travelers. It is integral for the industry to put focus on the issues of sustainability that have influenced the adversely on the overall profit margin (Ladkin and Kichuk, 2017).  

Training of staff is crucial for the customer satisfaction. As it has been discussed in the issue’s section that the demand of customers towards services is changing rapidly. The industry of hospitality and tourism can focus on the trained staff so that the ratio of customer satisfaction increases. Various strategies can be used by this industry to retain the customers such as pricing, quality service delivery, employee training and retaining, security management and complaint handling technique (Harrington, et. al., 2014). It would be easy for the hospitality and tourism industry to make amendments in the sector by applying the latest technology and green environment but it would be hard to make satisfy the customers despite of having the advanced technology. That is why it is integral for the industry to train the staff in an adequate manner so that they can provide the services to the customers in sophisticated way. The hotel industry should consider the major three determinants along with the training that is price, appearance and cleanliness (Kotler, Bowen, Makens and Baloglu, 2006).

References

Abdullah, D.N.M.A. and Rozario, F., 2009. Influence of service and product quality towards customer satisfaction: A case study at the staff cafeteria in the hotel industry. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 53, pp.185-190.

Amin, I., 2015. A study of customer satisfaction towards hotel industry in kashmir valley. International Journal of Management Research and Reviews, 5(12), p.1117.

Aragon-Correa, J.A., Martin-Tapia, I. and de la Torre-Ruiz, J., 2015. Sustainability issues and hospitality and tourism firms’ strategies: Analytical review and future directions. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), pp.498-522.

Butler, R. and Hinch, T., 2007. Tourism and indigenous peoples: Issues and implications. Routledge.

Harrington, R., K. Chathoth, P., Ottenbacher, M. and Altinay, L., 2014. Strategic management research in hospitality and tourism: past, present and future. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(5), pp.778-808.

Jessica Hwang, L.J. and Lockwood, A., 2006. Understanding the challenges of implementing best practices in hospitality and tourism SMEs. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 13(3), pp.337-354.

Kotler, P., Bowen, J.T., Makens, J.C. and Baloglu, S., 2006. Marketing for hospitality and tourism (Vol. 893). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice hall.

Kusluvan, S., Kusluvan, Z., Ilhan, I. and Buyruk, L., 2010. The human dimension: A review of human resources management issues in the tourism and hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 51(2), pp.171-214.

Ladkin, A. and Kichuk, A., 2017. Career Progression in Hospitality and Tourism Settings.

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

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

Phillips, P. and Moutinho, L., 2014. Critical review of strategic planning research in hospitality and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 48, pp.96-120