E-Hospitality Strategies Enhancing Competitiveness: Evidence from China and Central Macedonia, Greece
Year: 2015
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Hospitality businesses need to implement a number of strategies so as to compete successfully in today’s tourism market. Among other tools, hoteliers can use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in order to attract more guests, ameliorate service quality, deliver exceptional guest satisfaction and increase revenues, as well as market share. This chapter investigates the needs and ICT tools used by the new tourists when searching, selecting and booking a lodging abroad. Furthermore, it explores what are the success factors on ICT and examines whether the ICT investments enhance competitiveness in the hospitality industry and to what extent. Based on the research findings, strategic proposals are addressed to the hotel managers towards enhancing the competitiveness of their property.In order to achieve the research goals, the authors conducted two surveys: the first took place in China (which is a priority tourism market for many Mediterranean countries) and the second in Central Macedonia, Greece. The results reveal that the needs and practices of the Chinese outbound tourists as it concerns the ICT tools are as follows: information about the destination should be in the Chinese language and listed preferably in ‘Baidu’, a superior search engine for Chinese netizens; The majority of the Chinese tourists (88,27%) are using Chinese OTAs (online travel agencies) when searching/booking hotels; The most preferred social media in China are QQ, Weibo and WeChat; Most tourists (51% of the sample) are satisfied when searching and purchasing tourism services from the Internet. On the other hand, the findings show that the top 5 ICT systems considered the most critical to success for the Greek hotel managers are: guest security systems; website development with booking engine; on-line guest satisfaction evaluation; high-speed/WiFi Internet; and, the property management systems. Furthermore, adequate (more than 5% of annual capital expenditures) and proper investments in new technology systems enhance the hotel competitiveness in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and profitability. A content analysis and online survey conducted in China, as well as a competitive analysis in the area of ICT and the application of both benchmarking and empirical analysis for the hotel economic assessment in North Greece, are among the main contributions of this chapter. The findings and proposed analyses can help hotel managers evaluate and compare their property with the competitive set as well as utilize the suggested strategies in order to improve the competitiveness of their property and become more active players in the tourism market.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Soultana Tania Kapiki, Jing Fu
Institutions: International Hellenic University, Chengdu University
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W177956556