Use of mobile applications by tourism companies to gain competitive advantages

The report emphasizes on the application of mobile services by travel and tourism sector and its effect on the business. The travel and tourism companies are implementing mobile services to increase their efficiency and level in the competitive market (Hu et al. 2015). The various mobile applications are being used by several tourism sectors to enhance the experience of the customers with their services. The report provides an analysis of travel and tourism companies that have used mobile services and applications in order to gain advantage in the competitive market and to attract customers. There are various mobile services that are offered to the customers by the tourism sector and it has reinvented the methods of providing services to the public. The report illustrates the different types of mobile services that are offered to the public by the travel and tourism companies. The following paragraphs describe the technologies that are associated with mobile services or applications that help travel and tourism sector to provide efficient services to their customers. The report highlights the benefits that are provided by the mobile platform to the travel and tourism companies that help them in attracting more customers and advertising their services. The security issues that are associated with the implementation of the mobile application in business are discussed in the following paragraphs. The report analyses the market share are being taken by the mobile transaction services.

The mobile services have brought an evolution in the method and business strategies of travel and tourism companies. There are several mobile applications that help the tourism sector in providing better and efficient services to the people (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier 2015). The advancement in technologies has made a revolution in the field of travelling business. It has altered the mode of services provided by the travelling sector. The mobile services have made the process of booking for travelling effortless for the people. Earlier, people used to book their tickets with the help of travel agents, however now it is easier for them by following some simple steps through mobile applications. The travel industry are implementing mobile services for better user engagement in order to reach the next level in the competitive market (Tan et al. 2017). The emerging technologies and mobile services have made physical booking system and travel agents outdated, the travel based mobile application falls under the category of the most downloaded application by the people. The mobile applications help the business owners in making strategies for the advancement of their business, help the travel and sector in staying connected with their clients and customers and to increase their business in the competitive market (Kiralova and Pavliceka 2015). The internet marketing, advertisements and promotion are used as tools by the travel business sector to widen their business and attract more customers.     

Mobile services that are offered to the customers

There are several travel and tourism applications that are one of the most popularly used applications in the world. The tourism companies are focusing on the development of a mobile application for their industry that could help them in enhancing growth rate and reputation of their business (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2015). The travel and holiday companies target to reach and attract more number of people in the competitive market through online advertisement and maintaining their own mobile application to provide online services to the customers. There are several mobile application based travel and tourism companies that include Airbnb, Tripit, app in the air and many more. 

The travel agencies seek help from the mobile application providers in order to create an effective application of their company. The mTrip is a leading mobile application provider to the travel agency that offers unique platforms and solutions to the travel companies for their business (Mtrip.com 2018). It creates flexible applications to meet the specific requirements of the customers of the travel agencies. The mobile application based travel agency, airbnb, provides solutions to the clients to find a better place for the tourists to stay throughout the world. The mobile applications of the airbnb is designed considering the multiple requirements and needs of different people (Airbnb.co.in 2018). However, there are several other mobile application based travel and tourism industries that provide numerous facilities and services to the customers. The mobile platforms help the tourism companies in interacting with the clients and addressing their queries directly.

The mobile application and services have brought a revolution in the field of travel and tourism sector. The entire method from booking a hotel to travelling has been altered due to the emergence of new technologies and mobile platforms. The mobile application based travel agencies provide a large number of services to the people. The services that are offered to the customers are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Online booking facility:

The emergence of the mobile platform in the travel and tourism sector has made easier for the people to book their tickets for travelling anywhere or hotels for staying. They can book their tickets online through mobile services (Iyer, Dey and Chakraborty 2015). There are various applications that allow people to book hotels anywhere in the world by using their mobile phones.

The travel and tourism sectors experience a competition in the market, therefore the companies try to maintain their reputation in the market (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016). In order to attract more number of people, the travel and tourism companies provide them discounts for booking hotels through mobile application.

Technology in mobile application based travel and tourism transaction

The mobile application based tourism and travel agencies provide online transaction facilities to the customers. The mobile services have changed the mode of payment for tickets or booking hotels. People can now make their payment online through the mobile applications after booking any ticket for travelling or hotels.

The mobile services and applications have made it convenient for the people to choose the best place for them to stay by comparing between different hotels. The travel agencies provide the facility of comparing between several hotels to the people. 

Technology in mobile application based travel and tourism transaction:

The emergence of advanced technology has given rise to a new method of transaction that is tourism mobile payment that offers new and interesting services to the people. The development in the mobile services promotes the methods of tourism mobile transaction that includes the implementation of electronic methods, various procedure and means to conduct several forms of travel and tourism business activity in the market. The mobile transaction methods are becoming popular as it provides secure electronic commercial transactions between the company or organizations and clients (Berbegal-Mirabent, Mas-Machuca and Marimon 2016). The mobile application based travel agencies are adopting the method of mobile payment for transaction between the customers and the companies. There are various applications and methods that provide mobile or online payment facilities to the customers. The mobile payment methods are the techniques in which payments or money are transferred to the companies or organization by the clients without any mediator in the middle.  There are various methods of online transaction that includes payment through mobile applications, payment online wallets, online debit and credit card payment and many more modes of payment. There are several mobile applications that provide online wallet to the people. The travel agencies allow people to make their payment through those online wallets by availing the facility to use that wallets through their mobile application (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). The mobile applications of travel and tourism sector also provide online debit and credit card payment method in which people can directly do the payment through their debit cards.

The mobile platforms have provided a large number of benefits to the travel and tourism sector. It helps them the travel agencies in enhancing their business by implementing several methods including online advertising and online customer interaction. The benefits that are provided by the mobile platforms to the travel and tourism sector are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Benefits of mobile platforms for travel and tourism services

The mobile platforms allow tourism and travel companies to do online advertisement about their services (de Rada, Arino and Blasco 2016). The online advertisement is a tool that the travel agencies use to attract more number of customers and to spread and maintain their brand name throughout the world. The travel and tourism companies adopt a strategy of advertising about their brand on various application or website including Facebook where the mass audience is present.

The mobile applications give the travel agencies the facility to send push notifications to the customers through message (Westermann, Wechsung and Moller 2016). The travel and tourism companies send the message alerts to the people that provide information about their services and any discounts or offers that may attract the people.

The customer survey is a significant technique that used by the travel and tourism companies to understand about the requirements of the people and modify their services based on it. The travel agencies take feedbacks from their customers regarding their experience with the service provided by the company through mobile applications.

Security issues associated with conducting business through mobile applications

The mobile applications provide various facilities to the companies for developing their business, however there are several security issues also that take place due to the conduction of business through mobile applications or services (Guttentag 2015). The hacking of data is a significant threat that mobile application based travel and tourism companies face. The hackers can hack the application or website of the company and steal their private data. Therefore, the companies need to develop a secure application for their brand in order to prevent it from data leakage or theft (Magliulo 2016). Another major security issue that takes place due to mobile application based business is insecure transaction. The customers use various online payment modes to transfer money to the companies, however there are various fake applications that use the names of the brands and take money from the clients. The companies need to ensure that the clients are not making the payment to any third party.

Market share taken by mobile applications in comparison to wired networks:

The mobile application based payment methods have captured a wide share of the market in comparison to the wired networks payment option. People prefer to make their transactions via mobile applications as it offers a facility to do the payment through a mobile handset without the need to connect it to any wired network. The mobile application transactions allow people to transfer money from anywhere. The mobile payment methods have experienced a robust growth over the years as it is the most convenient method of transacting money. The mobile payment techniques are being adopted by several companies in their business to provide a convenient way for the clients for doing the payments. The online payment mobile applications are one of the most downloaded applications throughout the world.

Online advertisement

Advertisement through popular websites:

The travel and tourism companies should approach to the popular and widely used websites or mobile applications in order to advertise for their services and brand. It will help them in spreading information about their services to the mass audience (Decaudin and Lacoste 2018). There are a large number of applications or websites that are widely used by the people, therefore advertisement through those applications will be a better way of reaching more number of people.

Mobile notifications:

The travel agencies should send notification messages to the people regarding their services in order to attract more number of customers (Lachner, Arnold and von Wangenheim 2017). The mobile notifications can be an easier way of advertisement that travel and tourism companies can adopt. They need to inform people about discounts and other facilities by sending notification messages on their mobile.

Discounts and offers:

The tourism companies should offer discounts to the customers while booking hotels or tickets through their websites. They should provide them discount coupons for online transactions and bookings in order to attract the large number of people to use their application or website for online bookings.

Conclusion:

 It can be concluded from the above discussion that mobile applications and services have brought a new phase in the field of travel and tourism sector. The mobile applications are now widely used by the people over the world. There are a large number of travel and tourism companies that provides services through mobile services or applications. The travel and tourism companies use large number of mobile applications and online services in order to provide efficient and better services to the customers. The emergence of new technologies has provided convenient methods to the tourism sector for development and growth of their business. The mobile applications offer a tool to the travel and tourism companies in order to remain connected with their clients and customers. There are various online advertisement methods that help the travel agencies to reach the more number of customers (Stavrianea and Kavoura 2015). The main focus of the companies is to develop their online applications or website to maintain the reputation of their brand over the world. The travel and tourism sector use mobile applications to maintain their growth rate in the competitive market and attract more number of customers. However, several security issues also take place due to the online marketing. The organizations need to maintain secure and safe strategies to use mobile applications in order to remain prevented from the security issues.

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