CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

IN TOURISM SECTOR

India is one of the most favorable tourist destinations with rich culture and heritage.. Improvements in
road and rail infrastructure have made it much convenient for tourists to travel to different parts of the
country. Tourism contributes 6.63 percent of the GDP and provides 8.89 percent of total employment of
the country .Fears of an economic slowdown have had no impact on the tourism sector in India which
remains a high spending destination for foreign travelers. To promote tourism in the country and serve
people with various offerings, Indian tourism operators are following various strategies. It may be with
various hotels and resorts or attractive tour packages at economy prices. Tied up with many allied
agencies for promoting CRM in the tourism sector in the country new tourism policy was launched to
serve customers with add-on benefits.. The objective is to serve the people with high level of comfort and
safety. Such big revenue generator is duly supported by success strategies like CRM.The present paper
examines the tastes and preferences of tourists of different age groups and their perception towards the
facilities offered to them.It also made an attempt to study the successful CRM strategies of the tour
operators and how far they are successful in meeting the customer expectations.

Keywords: CRM., Indian tourism operators, successful CRM strategies

Introduction:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to business strategy aimed at gaining long-term
competitive advantage by delivering customer value and extracting business value simultaneously. CRM
becomes necessary to study the dynamic business environment. Since customer spending on leisure
purpose has increased, the service industry has also responded favorably. The aim of CRM is to gain a
win-win equation for all. Factors like service quality, delivery, responsiveness, reliability, accessibility and
empathy together constitute CRM practices. This is considered as the benchmark of success of an
enterprise. CRM is a multifaceted process, mediated by a set of information technologies that focuses
on creating two-way exchange with customers so that organizations have an intimate knowledge of
their needs, wants and buying patterns. It is a process used to learn more about customers’ needs and
behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them. It is the philosophy, policy and
coordinating strategy connecting different players within an organization for the purpose of
coordinating their efforts in creating an overall valuable series of experiences, products and services for
the customer.

Review of literature:

Gummerson (1996) found that the application of relationship marketing in service sector is of great
importance . Service users hold good image of the organization if it provides effective CRM services.
Poor relationship marketing caused discontinuation of services by many customers. Jain and Dhar (2003)
studied about determinants of CRM effectiveness in India. They used in-depth interviews focused on
behavioural dimensions of relationships. It was found that CRM emerged as a core business process for
maintaining and enhancing the competitive edge in modern business affairs. It is the CRM that becomes
the deciding factor while selection of services.

Gaur and Waheed (2003) studied the factors influencing usage of interactive technologies in service
business to determine the implications. The research was conducted on selected hospitality and travel
services in Mumbai. They concluded that service sector businesses emphasize the use of interactive
technologies to build and maintain relations with the customers in long run. Jain and Gupta (2004)
determined the magnitude of customer defined service quality gaps. They studied on two major quality
measurement scales: service quality and service performance. In terms of service quality parameters,
they found that the customers gave utmost importance to expectations followed by perceptions and
importance rating. Pathak and Modi (2004) studied quality of services provided by the companies in
India with respect to issues and challenges. When service quality is measured on various parameters in,
all the parameters are equally given weightage by the customers. The study was conducted on
customers of hospitality services, tourism services and insurance services in a metro city. Jain and Jain
(2006) delved into CRM practices of hotels in central India to measure the effectiveness against factors
like: value proposition, recognition, customer orientation, reliability, relationship orientation, credibility,

customization, personalization and gestures. Customers gave first rank to value

proposition and last rank to personalization. Vijayadurai (2008) identified service quality factors in
hospitality industry. The significantly influencing perception of service quality factors on the customers’
satisfaction and their behavioural intention are service delivery, reliability, assurance and
responsiveness.

Purpose of the study :

Most of the research work indicates that customer demands are increasing in terms of service quality
and other parameters. The study was motivated to know the strategies that are followed by the tour
operators to maintain effective customer relationship to withstand the competition .

Research Methodolgy:

The data include both primary data and secondary data . the primary data was collected from the
tourists who plan to move to several destinations during their holidays. This was regarding their
changing tastes and preferences, their expectations which were collected through the questionnaire
which contains 12 items.

The secondary data was regarding the facilities that are providedd by several tour operators. This was
collected from several websites and brochures , journals.

Sample profile :
The age profile of the respondents was categorized as three groups

Sample distribution according to age

age No.of respondents percentage

25-40 45 45%

45-55 30 30%

55-65 25 25%

45
40
35
30
25 25-40
20 45-55
15
10 55-65
5
0
No.of
respondents

The gender profile is

Gender number

male 73

Female 27

80
70
60
50 male
40
female
30
20
10
0
number

Findings:

 Most of the respondents in the age group of 25-35 preferred the new trends in their travel
plans
  They are laso ready to spend money to the neaer by asian countries like Malaysia
,Singapore ,Maldives and some to cities like London .
 The respondents also expressed a strong liking for the operators who provide
accommodation, local siteseeing,food arrangementsetc under one umbrella.
 Majority of the the respondents below 45 years expressed interest towards new destinations.
On the other hand people above 50 years were willing towards piligrimage
 Most of them agreed that technology like online reservations, virtual tours ,online payments
made their planning very easy and convenient.
 The new trends that are expected from the tourists were

 Domestic tourism

 Heritage tourism

 Adventure tourism

 International tourism

 Agri-tourism

 Rural tourism.

 Eco tourism

Tourism backed by technology :

 Online reservations for various tour itenries

 Increased number of qualitative tour operators

 Tailor made packages for each and every need of the tourists
  International tourism packages at the doorstep

 All services under one roof right from receiving to the return journey .

CRM Strategies followed in the tourism sector:

 customizing tourist products,

 personalizing services and supporting mobile services

 sharing tourism information and operational data

 offering tailor made products and supporting user-generated content.

 E- tourism In advanced countries, e – tourism concept was applied and put in practice in
last decade. However e – tourism is still in growing phase with advance technology’s
application.

Customer relationship management CRM based system enables service provider to

provide knowledge, value and efficient service to its clients. CRM enables service provider
to build up a life time relationship by providing on time solutions. Especially tourism
industry needs excellent CRM solutions to assist visitors or clients before flying on tour,
during tour and always after tour services. CRM solutions can be provided to a visitor
through web, email, call center, kiosks and traveling information offices anytime &
anywhere.

Many tour operators are associated with local travel agents and other allied agencies to
provide a common platform to tourists. Apart from this they also maintain personalized
communication with their customers .

They also help the customer s to plan and select the travel plans at the economy and
budgetary levels .
 Almost all the players like ITDC from the government sector , Southern travels, Yatra.com
etc have their own websites reachable to the customers . They also have their branch offices
at most of the cities in India for convenience of their customers.

Some of these service providers even maintain an excellent tradition of sending seasonal
wishes and newsletters to their customers thus maintaining a good rapport with them.

Near the major tourist spots we find unorganized system of tourism service providers who
link up a large number of customers to their favorite tourist spots .

Conclusions :

The dynamic nature of customer preferences is a great challenge for the tourism sector.

the changing political and socio economic conditions also show a impact on the flow of international
tourists. To win in these situation effective CRM is to be maintained . This can be achieved with
continuous study of the customer preferences and efficient strategies to meet their expectations.

References

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