...from IBISWorld Overview of Customers and Consumers | Kayak is part of an industry of fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines. Other examples of travel metasearch engines include: Google Flights, Cheapflights.com, Mobissimo.com, etc. Kayak’s main customers are the online travel agents (Priceline, Expedia, etc.). This is because Kayak is paid to bring the website’s user to the online travel agent. They also have advertising revenue from Featured Advertisements on the sidebar. The main users of Kayak’s website are people who are searching for the cheapest flight and prefer not to pay for the more personalized service of brick-and-mortar travel agencies. These are people who are looking for their airfare and hotels irrespective of brand loyalty-programs. This probably means infrequent fliers who will not benefit from airline’s mileage programs. These users also need discretionary funds for travel. | History of Market Players and Relationships | The online travel agencies (OTAs) began in the mid-1990s and started taking a bite out of the traditional brick-and-mortar travel agencies as users were able to cut costs by buying through websites. For example, Expedia was founded by Microsoft in 1996 and then became its own publicly traded company in 1999. After this move to OTAs, Kayak and...
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...The Outsourcing Advantage Abstract Outsourcing has become a well-integrated function in the world of business today. Outsourcing forgoes attempts to perform certain value chain activities internally and instead, farms them out to outside specialists and strategic allies (Gamble & Thompson, pg. 127). An affordable and often more efficient way to meet a goal or perform a task is to have it outsourced. There are many reasons to outsource a task or function. Each reason varies, depending on the nature of the task, the firm’s available resources and the desired outcome. Outsourcing also stimulates the economy, providing a means to support local businesses while simultaneously keeping the organization’s resources aligned internally. There are risks associated with outsourcing as well. One must maintain a localized and unified vision, with the firm’s best interest in mind, before deciding to outsource a job and also for the duration of the contract. In the world of business today, everyone is looking for the competitive advantage. Organization’s need to streamline their business practices in order to maximize profit margins and reach sustainability. One way to do this is to outsource. Outsourcing is simply the function of taking internal resources, and giving them to outside firms who then make those work operations their sole responsibility (driveyoursuccess.com). More and more companies seem to be outsourcing their services. A recent study by BlueWolf revealed that 35%...
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...~Threats- competition from Caribbean competitors. Global economic crisis Terrorism - (affects travelling and makes cost of travelling go up) Accessibility to Tobago( this can also be an opportunity for the airlift. Talk about bundling flights with expedia etc) 4) STRATEGIC ISSUES- ~ customer service and training ~ crime and security ( to protect guests as well as staff ) ~ marketing ( brand awareness) ~ only five star hotel on the island ( meeting the expectation) ~ location ( larger with more room for activities to outcompete other hotels but it lacks a beach front, is windy and has lots of mosquitoes) ~ customer service and satisfaction ~ Convenient transportation - talk about the airlift ~ pricing strategy - premium prices , must be conscious of global economic conditions. Price to be competitive in the Caribbean ~ Social environment change it to seasonality - find out how to fill your hotel in the peek/ lie seasons ~ Regaining good reputation for the nee hotel - talk about growing your brand and brand strength ~ recession / Economic downturn of the global economy ~ Maintenance issues- sea blast etc. ~ Lack of skilled employees - staff being able to speak different languages etc 5) VALUE CHAIN- ~Do not include outbound logistics ~Include your restaurant...
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...the Organization 1. Information Technology in the Digital Economy 2. Information Technologies: Concepts and Management 3. Strategic Information Systems for Competitive Advantage CHAPTER Strategic Information Systems for Competitive Advantage Rosenbluth International: Competing in the Digital Economy 3.1 Strategic Advantage and Information Technology 3.2 Porter’s Competitive Forces Model and Strategies 3.3 Porter’s Value Chain Model 3.4 Interorganizational Strategic Information Systems 3.5 A Framework for Global Competition 3.6 Strategic Information Systems: Examples and Analysis 3.7 Implementing and Sustaining SIS Minicases: (1) Cisco Systems/ (2) Aeronautica Civil 89 LEARNING OBJECTIVES 3 After studying this chapter, you will be able to: Describe strategic information systems (SISs) and explain their advantages. Describe Porter’s competitive forces model and how information technology helps companies improve their competitive positions. Describe 12 strategies companies can use to achieve competitive advantage in their industry. Describe Porter’s value chain model and its relationship to information technology. Describe how linking information systems across organizations helps companies achieve competitive advantage. Describe global competition and global business drivers. Describe representative SISs and the advantage they provide to organizations. Discuss the challenges associated with sustaining competitive advantage. ROSENBLUTH INTERNATIONAL: COMPETING IN THE DIGITAL...
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...“E-commerce in tourism” Anton Hörl Student No. 1210430081 Research Methodologies IMTE-B2012 Research Methodologies: Essay Hypothesis: “E-commerce will play a big role in future tourism” Introduction Tourism is in permanent change with the technical progress. The main object which changed tourism and in the same way the whole world is the Internet. The Internet changed booking habits and information gathering in tourism immensely. After years of evolution the Internet developed from stiff websites into a global, interactive, costumer participating Network. Many vacations are getting booked via Internet. It became a modern marketplace, a digital shopping Centre. The Electronic commerce structure developed. Shopping via Internet turned out into a every day life task. E-commerce sales reached the 1 trillion dollar mark in sales in 2012. (E-marketer, (2012) After the launch of the model company of E-commerce websites, which programmed a former Apple employee “Though Pierre” in 1995, many more companies followed EBay’s footprints into this branch, like Amazon, Zalando or Redcoon. (About.com, 2013), And it got not only a big topic for buying contestable products, the costumer can purchase also a great variety of services in the Internet, among other things, tourism products. E-commerce is a market with exceptional growth in global revenues, especially in the travel segment. But will E-commerce continue to grow and how will it develop in tourism? This leads...
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... Discount Hotel Deals Get the Best Hotel Rate What Matters Most? Before beginning your search, ask yourself what type of accommodations you want and what your budget will permit. Does location trump price, or are you limited to hotels under $150 a night? Do you need a hotel with a pool for the kids, or would you rather stay at a small property with lots of local charm? Once you've decided on your top priority, then you can make a more targeted search. Following are the most common determining factors in choosing a hotel, as well as tips for finding properties that suit each particular need. Price: Nearly every major booking engine gives you the option to sort your results by price. Don't limit yourself to the big three (Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz) -- you should also pay a visit to aggregator sites like Kayak and Sidestep, and lodging sites like Hotels.com and PlacestoStay.com. And don't forget to check our very own discount hotel deals! Tip: Use the booking engines to see what's available and test rates at the properties you're interested in,...
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...E. Duncan THE INTERNET EFFECTS ON TOURISM INDUSTRY Ericka Duncan Ortega erickaduncan@hotmail.com Doctoral Student Universidad de Las Palmas Gran Canaria This article aims to demonstrate the positive effects of the Internet on the tourism industry in three main areas: planning travel, commerce and industry structure. The document highlight that the journeyers have several tools provided by the Internet to receiving, looking for and sharing information to plan their travels. Also, Global Distribution Systems via the Internet have provided a new distribution channel for the retail of touristic products and services. Finally, the Internet has affected each actor of the value chain in the tourism industry. For the suppliers the Internet is providing directly information of their customers helping to increase their sales. Finally, the intermediaries have realized that they have to adapt to the new environment. Key Words: Tourism, e-tourism, travel, GDS, information communication technologies. JEL: L83, L86 To be or not to be is not longer the question, the real question in tourism is where to go, how to go and what to do. Nowadays, these are very easy questions to answer in contrast to Hamlet`s dilemma. Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. Certainly, in 2008 the World Tourism Organization (WTO) reported 924 million international arrivals around the world, and according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) this industry represents...
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...Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management ISSN: 1936-8623 (Print) 1936-8631 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/whmm20 Managing the Distribution Channel Relationship With E-Wholesalers: Hotel Operators' Perspective Eunha Myung , Lan Li & Billy Bai To cite this article: Eunha Myung , Lan Li & Billy Bai (2009) Managing the Distribution Channel Relationship With E-Wholesalers: Hotel Operators' Perspective, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 18:8, 811-828, DOI: 10.1080/19368620903235837 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19368620903235837 Published online: 09 Oct 2009. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 387 View related articles Citing articles: 3 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=whmm20 Download by: [Computing & Library Services, University of Huddersfield] Date: 16 December 2015, At: 08:17 Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 18:811–828, 2009 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1936-8623 print/1936-8631 online DOI: 10.1080/19368620903235837 Managing the Distribution Channel Relationship With E-Wholesalers: Hotel Operators’ Perspective Downloaded by [Computing & Library Services, University of Huddersfield] at 08:17 16 December 2015 Journal 1936-8631 1936-8623 WHMM of Hospitality Marketing & Management, Vol. 18, No. 8, August 2009:...
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...Since 2008, bitcoin adoption has been influenced by a diverse range of factors that have made it one of the most volatile currencies in the world. Yet, despite such volatility, more than 100,000 bitcoin transactions are taking place per day and the volume continues to grow due to the ‘permission less innovation’ provided by bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain. A block chain or blockchain is a permissionless distributed database based on the bitcoin protocol that maintains a continuously growing list of transactional data records hardened against tampering and revision, even by operators of the data store's nodes. As the blockchain matures, bitcoin will increasingly resemble traditional financial services, with functions such as retail banking (circles) exchanges (coinbase) and payment processors (bitnet) are being created. But how did it all start off, and where will it go next? Here, we take a brief overview of the major milestones in the cryptocurrency’s brief history and look to where it might be headed in the future. Bitcoin was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto,]who published the invention on 31 October 2008 in a research paper called "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". It was implemented as open source code and released in January 2009. Bitcoin is often called the first cryptocurrency although prior systems existed. Bitcoin is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency. 2008 Three individuals, Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman...
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...Research Project Applied Business Methods (BAB08-2012) Hotel prices in US destinations and their page ranking on online travel agencies Devin Boyacioglu (358561) Kiki Qian Huang (354902) Renan Lesaffre (355688) Prestige Statistics – ABM Case Report 2013 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 2. 2.1. 2.2. Causal relationship scheme ........................................................................................................... 4 Quantitative variables ................................................................................................................... 4 Qualitative variables ..................................................................................................................... 5 Dependent/central variable: Price ................................................................................................. 7 Independent variables ................................................................................................................... 7 Univariate analysis ................................................................................................................................ 6 Quantitative variables ........................................................................................................................... 7 Qualitative variables ...........
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...distribution and the appearance of e-reservations 19 2.5.1. Early stages 19 2.5.2. Internet Distribution System 20 2.5.3. Online Travel Agents 21 2.5.4. Latest tendencies 23 2.5.5. Social Media 24 2.5.6. Consumer Generated Media 25 2.5.7. Meta Search Engines 25 2.6. Travel, booking and research behaviour among Hungarian travellers 26 2.6.1. Travel behaviour 26 2.6.2. Booking behaviour 27 2.6.3. Research behaviour 29 2.7. Summary 30 3. METHODOLOGY 31 3.1. Introduction 31 3.2. Secondary Research 31 3.3. Primary Research 32 3.4. Data Analysis Methods 33 3.5. Summary 33 4. EVALUATION OF RESULTS 34 4.1. Introduction 34 4.2. Interviews with intermediaries 35 4.2.1. Mr. Mate Hegedus, Revenue Specialist of Expedia Lodging Partner Services 35 4.2.2. Mr. Zoltan Katona, Marketing coordinator of Wellnessakcio.hu 39 4.2.3. Comparison of the interviews with intermediaries 41 4.3. Interview with a hotel representative 44 4.3.1. Mr. Zoltan Katona, Marketing consultant of Aquatherm Hotel Zalakaros 44 4.3.2. Conclusion of the interview with Aquatherm Hotel Zalakaros 46 4.4. Booking.com – Facts and business concept 47 4.5....
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...reservations, sales, advertising and promotional cost, by category 2004 est. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Sources: Form 41 4Q03, Star Alliance Cost Q3 03 8% 2% 2% 7% 18% Advertising & Promotions 20% Media Personnel Loyalty Programs Other CRS / GDS Fees Other Reservations & Sales 60% Credit Card Fees 18% Salesforce /Reservations Benefits Management & staff 5% 6% 3% 8% 19% 1% Cargo Comm. 1% Other Pax Comm. 19% Passenger commissions Cargo commissions The distribution value chain • Airlines spend $5bn per annum on GDS fees • Cost as % of ticket prices • GDS 8 - 11% • Travel Agency 1 - 2% • Mercantile fee 2 - 3% Source: UATP(Universal Air Travel Plan), Airline Business July 2005 and July 2006 Airline Distribution Channels • Direct • • • • Sales offices Call centres Website Corporate travel website • Indirect • • Traditional travel agents On-line travel agents o Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline.com, last minute.com, … o On-line travel portals -...
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...THE LAST WORD PRASAD KAIPA NAVI RADJOU | CEO ADVISOR AND COACH | FELLOW | JUDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE “Companies mustshut down theirCSR departments” They should instead focus on re-engineering value chains to bring sustainability in their business models, Kaipa and Radjou tell Rohit Nautiyal DALIP KUMAR away with the CSR department by rolling sustainability in the firm’s business model. New KPIs (key performance indicators) were introduced so senior managers could take the right kind of decisions that contribute towards water conservation which eventually helped the firm save money and pass the benefit to consumers. Not to mention, this initiative helped Florida Ice & Farm become environment friendly. Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman wants to double the company’s revenues and reduce the environment impact by 50 per cent. Both the examples explain how this schizophrenia (increasing profitability and creating a moniker like CSR) can be eradicated by finding a noble purpose. Companies must walk the talk by getting over with PR exercises on CSR initiatives and focus on re-engineering their value chains. So what you are essentially saying is that overhauling one’s business purpose can be a solution for the ongoing CSR debate. Prasad: Yes. Let us try and understand this with an example. As part of its product portfolio, PepsiCo sells both obesity inducing drinks and healthy products. Hypothetically if they choose to do a CSR initiative in schools, distributing...
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...Strengths: Maintaining a centralized management structure with personal interactions of the owner, Roy Kelley (1970’s). Expanding the business and adding more property agreements with 3rd parties and creating international property chain to make the business gain geographic diversity. Creating brand awareness to the budget traveler under their new branch name, OHANA, providing affordable condos. Creating multicultural environments at good locations with multicultural and multilingual employees. Pleasing employees created less turn-over rates and non-unionized labor market. As a result, this created a differentiated service and created priceless appeal. Having good relationships with local tourism authorities to improve the appeal of destinations the hotel chain operates in. Having a deep local knowledge and community ties. Having above average performance levels of the global industry in Hawaiian market, which directly affects the hotel chain’s success. Being able to compete with other worldwide brand-recognized hotels, Their commitment of hospitality didn’t change even if they added properties (Both on-beach properties/condominiums and off-beach budgeted properties) in their portfolio. Condominiums customers (families with $90,000-$150,000 income) had four times as many reservations coming directly from the Internet, recovering faster after a soft economy. Having centralized services such as accounting, IT, finance, engineering...
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...Ch.6 Telecommunications, the internet and wireless technologies Components of a simple network: • NIC (Network Interface Card): to incorporate any laptop to an existing network. • NOS (Network Operating System): to share network resources & route communications on a LAN. • Hubs & switches help route traffic on a network to the right computing device. • Router: when 2 or more networks are connected to each other, it sends data transmissions to the correct device from the internet. Digital Networking Technologies: 3 types, 1. Client/server computing: servers connect to many clients. 2. Packet switching: method of delivering data across a local or a long distance connection, it packages data in units (packets) which identifies intended recipient. 3. TCP(Transmission Control Protocol)/IP(Internet Protocol): a set of protocols to get data from one network device to another. Signal is the transmission of data. Analog signals can be converted into digital signals by using a modem. Analog signals are replicas of sound waves that can be distorted with the noise and drop the quality of transmission. Digital signals have a faster rate of transmission. LAN (Local Area Network): the topology (place) of a LAN can vary greatly, - Star: if the host computer goes down the whole network goes down. - Bus: all computers in the network are linked with cables and treated equally. - Ring: no central host PC, if one PC goes down the rest can still process data & transactions. WAN...
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