Hospitality Information Systems and Technology

1. Hospitality Information Systems and Technology E-Marketing The Internet & the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

2. Electronic commerce: transactions and interactions that occur though computer telecommunications networks • E-commerce: the shorthand term used to describe electronic commerce, which consists of transactions and interactions over computer telecommunications networks

3. B2C: Business-to-customer • B2B: Business-to-business • B2E: Business-to-employee • C2C: Customer-to-customer

4. E-Commerce Transaction Categories Intranet B2E Internet B2C C2C Extranet B2B

5. Intranets and Extranets • Intranet: permits access to private network areas by individuals who are employed or otherwise affiliated with a hospitality organization • Extranet: permits access to private areas of a hospitality organization’s network for individuals who are not employees or company affiliates

6. Lodging Upscale Hotels and Resorts Midrange Hotels and Resorts Motels Bed and Breakfast Hostels Entertainment Theme Parks Attractions Showrooms Nightclubs Casinos E-commerce applications for hospitality organizations

7. Meetings and Events Convention Centers Conference Facilities Banquet Facilities Travel Airlines Cruise Lines Ground Transportation Ground Tours E-commerce applications for hospitality organizations

8. Foodservice Upscale Restaurants Theme Restaurants Midrange Full-Service Restaurants Quick Service Restaurant Recreation Golf and Tennis Clubs City and Yacht clubs Health Spas E-commerce applications for hospitality organizations

9. Technical components of E-commerce • Front end: points of access for e-commerce and users, including customers, employees, and business affiliates • Back end: contains interfaced components designed to provide e-commerce service to end users

10. The World of E-Marketing • E-Marketing differs from traditional marketing by • Operating in a new environment in terms of time, speed, market segmentation, data collecting means, information distribution and brand building • The internet has made some marketing activities much easier while making others more difficult to carry out

11. E-Marketing Planning • Traditional marketing questions to ask: • Where are you now? • Product/service; market position • Where are you going to be? • Marketing objectives; market position • How are you going to get there? • Marketing strategies; marketing mix; budget • How do you make sure you get there? • Implementation • How do you know you get there? • Measurement; evaluation

12. Internet Marketing Tools • E-mail marketing • E-newsletter marketing • Usenet & Mailing list marketing

13. E-mail Marketing • Advantages: • Inexpensive • Can be more effective than banner ads • Most people have an e-mail address • Personization & customerization • Can be personalized & the content customized • Timeliness • Storage in the consumer in box • Measurable • Send back message • Shorter response time

14. Factors that Influence the Success of an E-Mail Marketing Campaign • Correctly identifying the target audience • Personalizing the e-mail • Customizing the message • Delivering only the content the consumer needs and wants • Builds customer trust by providing assurance of privacy and the option to stop receiving the e-mail

15. Ways to Collect E-Mail Addresses • Through your current customer database • Customer registration & history • Register through your website • Use companies that specialize in e-mail marketing

16. Steps in E-Mail Marketing • Separate the e-mail list by market segments • Personalize the message using the customers name • Customize the content • Avoid spamming • Sending e-mails to those that did not request the information

17. Why You Should Avoid Spamming • Can cause hard feelings from consumers • Not tailored to the needs and wants of the targeted receivers • Consumer privacy

18. Using Opt-in E-mail Marketing • Provide the receiver with and option to opt out • Build consumer trust by not forcing exposure to your location • Make sure to not overwhelm consumers with information

19. E-Newsletter Marketing • When producing an e-newsletter, it should be interesting and valuable in offering a new product or sales • Should be well designed and brief • Should contain a link to your web site for more information • Should always provide an opt out

20. E-mail Collection of addresses In any formats Audience not as highly targeted Lower readership due to spam suspicion Not as effective when using personalization & customization No preset schedule E-newsletter Subscription bases Publication standards Audience highly targeted Readership likely to be higher More effective with personalization & customization Sent out at regular intervals E-mail vs. E-newsletter

21. Usenet & Mailing Groups • Usenet – focuses on specific readers groups • Mailing lists • Subscriber based two way e-mail system for information sharing • Highly interactive and instant

22. The Web Site as a Marketing Tool • An on line storefront • The quality of the website directly reflects the quality and the image of the business it represents • The web site must be able to draw people to visit it, but also make them come back again and again

23. Website Construction Plan (WCP) • Defines the objective and goals of a business and identifies the elements of a web site • What is the nature of the business? • Product & service • What is the purpose of the website? • Information? Customer service? Selling? • Who are the existing customers & who are likely to be the customers? • What are the characteristics of the existing & potential customers? • Young? Old? Male? Female? Active? Retired? Married? • Where are these customers? • Local, regional, national, international

24. Things to Consider during Website Construction • Can consumers find our site? • How easily & how fast can they find information? • How can we present the information in an attractive & interesting way? • How can we make them stay longer on our website? • Are we able answer their questions on our website? • What turns the consumer “on” or “off” • What do we have to give the consumer a reason to return? • Does our website enable us to find out who the visitors to our site are • How can we build trust with our visitors? Privacy policy? Security measures? • What marketing tools can we use in the website

25. What to Check Once the Website is Established • Can visitors find our website? • How can we increase the probability that they will find our website? • What are the means available for us to market our web site? • Banner ads? • Customer communication • Traditional media

26. Increasing the Marketing Power of your Website • Register with search engines • Use titles and Meta tags in your web document • Check out your competitors Meta tags • Do a search & see who comes up first. Then examine their Meta tags & see what drives them

27. Push Marketing • A collection of internet marketing techniques used to present and send data to online visitors • “Push” means that information is presented in such an attractive and easy to access way that consumers will not be able to resist to ask for and receive the information

28. Push Marketing Techniques • Search engines • Banner ads • Interstitials (pop-ups) • E-promotion • Affiliate marketing • E-sponsorship • Rich media

29. Types of Search Engines • One using categories or indexes • Yahoo • One using spidering or crawling techniques • Excite.com

30. Most Widely Used Key Words • Meta tags (keywords in the title) • Keywords near the top • Frequency of keywords • Link popularity • Mechanism for penalty for repeat keywords

31. Banner Ads • Stationed banner ad • Moving banner ad • Horizontal / vertical • Random moving ad • Ghost ad – follows you screen movement • Touch screen banner ad

32. Interstitials • Pop ups • Pop on the screen to catch your attention • Pop unders • Invisible ads

33. E-Promotions • Hyperlink special ad displayed on the screen • Offers incentive & promotions • Advantage – brings the action and incentives much closer to the consumer • Allows advertising to be tracked instantly

34. Affiliate Marketing Program • Sells on allied partner websites • Beneficial for inter-related businesses

35. E-Sponsorship • Associates the advertiser to a brand name • The advertiser identifies a web site that attracts the audience the sponsor wishes to reach • Can provide a more directly targeted audience • Gives more exposure than banner ads • Less intrusive

36. Rich Media • Media rich advertising • Any on line ad that allows for transactions, streaming media and interactive communication directly in the ad space without leaving the home page where the ad is displayed • Less interruptive in terms of clicks

37. Pull Marketing • Also called opt-in marketing or permission marketing • Users explicitly request information from internet marketers through e-mail, e-newsletters, or other communications • Based on the notion that internet users with an e-mail address will be interested in selected information at the user’s discretion

38. Guidelines for Successful Opt-in Marketing • Obtain the target audiences e-mail addresses • Provide valuable information the target audience wants • Offer incentive, if necessary, to add benefits • Provide convenient ways for the potential audience to sign up • Provide and easy option for the consumer to opt out • Consider privacy issues • Cookies • Sharing or selling of information

39. The Internet and the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

40. The Internet and Tourism • The industry is one that has been most affected by the internet • Why? • The industry is dependent upon distribution of information about its product • Suppliers are always looking for new ways to expand channels of distribution to consumers • More efficient and effective ways • Travel agents were once the most effective way • The internet has helped reduce the cost of information distribution

41. Impact on Suppliers • Airlines • Cruise lines • Lodging • Rental Cars • Intermediation • Disintermediation

42. Airlines • Airlines have always been dependent on travel intermediaries • Airlines are now able to bypass intermediaries • Airline web sites • Airlines “push” their websites by offering specials • Customization of products

43. Cruise Lines • Not able to follow airlines exactly, as products are more difficult to customize • Cruise lines walk a thin “tight rope” between their own web sites and the support of travel agents • Cruise lines are more likely to keep partnerships in the future with travel agents compared to the airlines

44. Lodging • Hotel industry electronic bookings have grown exponentially over the past five years • Uses GDS booking by consumers directly and through third party web sites • Lodging industry has online direct booking through secure sites

45. Rental Cars • Rental car companies target their web strategies at both the leisure consumer as well as the business consumer • Changes in the rental system • Now: complete the rental contract at the counter unless a club member • Future: online rental system, including reservations, changes of schedule, signing agreements, checking in and payments

46. Impact of the Internet on Travel Agents • Direct marketing to consumers • Travel agents are being squeezed from all sides • Suppliers have cut their commissions

47. Impact on Traditional Brochure Information Distribution • Seeing a decline in brochure distribution • Advantages to online travel brochures • More accurate • Update readily • Customizable • Information can be accessed 24/7 • A “walking” brochure • Virtually unlimited information