Current Issues in Tourism

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Enhancing customer experience through

technological innovation in traditional travel
agencies: evidences from Italy

Tonino Pencarelli, Laura Bravi, Mauro Dini & Simone Splendiani

To cite this article: Tonino Pencarelli, Laura Bravi, Mauro Dini & Simone Splendiani (2020):
Enhancing customer experience through technological innovation in traditional travel agencies:
evidences from Italy, Current Issues in Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2020.1734548

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CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1734548

RESEARCH LETTER

Enhancing customer experience through technological innovation

in traditional travel agencies: evidences from Italy
Tonino Pencarellia, Laura Bravia, Mauro Dinia and Simone Splendianib
a
Department of Economics, Social and Political Studies, University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy; bDepartment of
Economics, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The study focuses on the adoption of Information and Communication Received 2 July 2019
Technologies (ICT) by traditional Travel Agencies (TAs) in the relationship Accepted 16 February 2020
with customers during the in-store purchase process. A survey has been
KEYWORDS
developed on a sample of 2000 Italian TAs – reaching 255 Travel agencies; ICT;
respondents – interviewed during 2016. It aims to investigate the TAs’ customer experience; tourism
perception of strategic options to proactively deal with the change that distribution; digital
ICT has brought about in the relationship with the customer, including technologies
the ever-increasing use of technological tools for the presentation of
products and innovative technological solutions in physical store in
order to facilitate customer–agency interaction. The results of the
research show not only that younger TAs are more inclined to new ICT
adoption, but also that the tourists still appreciate using traditional tools
– like paper catalogues – during their purchase decision process. So, TAs
consider digital technologies as great opportunities to enhance
customer purchasing experience but the need to integrate high-tech
and high-touch perspectives emerges.

Introduction
The adoption of ICT has brought various advantages to travel agencies, both to the final customer
and to the entire supply chain. However, the intensive use of ICT in distribution channels has
altered the positions of power within the supply chain (Baggio & Del Chiappa, 2014; Maria et al.,
2015) in favour of biggest online operators and radically changing the processes of production of
holiday packages and tourist services for the purpose of better productivity (Díaz-Chao et al.,
2016). For TAs this causes the urgent need to rethink their relationship with the customer, reinforcing
the human contact and – at the same time – seizing new opportunities offered by technology
(Oviedo-García et al., 2015).
The most effective strategic response in this regard can be found in the integration of sales chan-
nels through ICT tools, in order to offer an increased value experience to the customer (Shi et al.,
2020), especially during the in-store purchasing process. There are numerous studies on the relation-
ship between ICT and TAs, as well as about service-scape and technology innovations in the retail
sector (Renko & Druzijanic, 2014). Despite that, research on how travel agencies are rethinking
their physical spaces using technological equipment is scarce, so this study aims to fill the gap.
The main purpose of this research is to understand whether agency owners/managers really consider
important the use of technological tools in sales spaces. In order to verify that, the survey focuses on
two different research questions. The first one concerns the overcoming of the paper catalogue as the
only mean of selling tourism packages. RQ1: How effective are the alternative technological tools to

CONTACT Mauro Dini mauro.dini@uniurb.it

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 T. PENCARELLI ET AL.

paper catalogues for the product’s presentation to the customer? The second objective deals with the
introduction of innovative technological solutions in physical spaces in order to facilitate customer–
agency interaction. RQ2: How do TAs judge the in-store technological solutions in order to facilitate cus-
tomer–agency interaction?

Literature review
New technologies applied to travel agency equipment and physical spaces can have many impli-
cations for the enhancement of the purchasing experiential dimension (Abou-Shouk et al., 2013;
Aguiar-Quintana et al., 2016; Neuhofer et al., 2014). These applications can be significant for the cre-
ation of experiences within traditional stores in order to improve the perceived quality through the
enhancement of the five components of the experience itself, namely think, feel, sense, act and relate
(Rajaobelina, 2018; Shobri et al., 2018).
In the study by Aguiar-Quintana et al. (2016), what emerges is the capacity of the industry of
influencing the demand in the selection of tourist products in the agency by implementing ‘new
physical layouts of the agencies’, intended as a rethinking of the spaces within the agency aimed
at facilitating the product sales process, increasing the experiential component through product
demonstrations and optimizing spaces to meet the customer’s needs (cf. Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson,
2014). The introduction of Customer Engagement Technologies into physical stores must be
observed from the same perspective, that is to enhance the customer shopping experience (Capriello
& Riboldazzi, 2019).
The decisive role of the physical environment, which the human customer–agency interaction
develops in, is also confirmed by several studies on the quality and satisfaction perceived by the
agency’s clients. Caro and García (2008) in analysing the factors that determine customer perceptions
of service quality in travel agencies, identify three main dimensions: personal interaction, physical
environment (including technological equipment to achieve an effective service delivery) and
outcome. Also Sanchez et al. (2006) consider the travel agency installation and the human
contact among the factors determining the perceived value related to the tourist package purchase
(cf. Johns et al., 2004; Oviedo-García et al., 2015).
Despite this, most of the studies on this subject merely emphasize its importance, without inves-
tigating the travel agent perception about the need to use hi-tech tools.
In general, if we consider the recent literature on the relationship between ICT and TAs, the issues
related to TAs physical spaces are not so popular if compared to others like internet, e-commerce and
mobile technologies (Abou-Shouk et al., 2013; Abou-Shouk et al., 2016; Álvarez et al., 2007; Lin, 2017);
relationship and value co-creation with customers (Oviedo-García et al., 2015; Salvado et al., 2011); e-
business model (Andreu et al., 2010; Munikrishnan et al., 2019); ICT and tourism intermediation (Berné
et al., 2015; Fuentes-Blasco et al., 2017; Mihajlović, 2012; Ruiz-Molina et al., 2010; Tran et al., 2016); ICT
adoption and TAs Human Resources (Alonso-Almeida & Llach, 2013; Cheng & Cho, 2011; Garkavenko
& Milne, 2008; Srivastava & Dhar, 2016).
It emerges that the travel agents’ perception about the use of in-store technological tools needs to
be investigated. In fact, not all agencies have committed to this perspective from a strategic point of
view yet, probably due to the small dimension or to the lack of resources (Cheng & Lok, 2015; Lin,
2017). Nevertheless, these last may not be the only reasons that inhibit ICT adoption. That’s why
this study seeks to understand whether the TAs consider useful to invest in such technological inno-
vations to improve the relationship with customers.

Methodology
The study aims to answer the research questions by means of empirical analysis. A structured ques-
tionnaire was administered online, using simple random sampling to a cross-section of 2000 Italian
travel agencies between April and December 2016, out of a total of 11,914 companies registered in
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 3

Italy between TA and Tour Operators (TO), thus investigating more than a 16.8% of all those present
in Italy. The travel agencies to be contacted were found from the databases of the Italian Ministry of
Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (www.infotrav.it/ricercaAgenzie.do).
The questionnaire was distributed via Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing and the respondents
were contacted by e-mail. The administration of the survey was carried out in two-steps. After the first
sending, two weeks later, a reminder was sent and this increased the participation up to 255 travel
agencies. Non-response bias was assessed by verifying that early and late respondents were not sig-
nificantly different (Armstrong & Overton, 1977). A set of tests compared respondents who answered
the questionnaire during the first administration and those who answered when the survey was sub-
mitted for the second time. All possible t-test comparisons between the means of the two groups
showed insignificant differences (p < .1 level).
The questionnaire was divided into two sections. The first one investigated the TAs profile, the
number of employees, the turnover, the size of the agency in terms of square metres and the
agency’s age. The second section analysed the perception of entrepreneurs/managers about the
two research questions.
To create the questionnaire items, the authors followed the literature on omnichannel customer
experience, given the difficulty of finding a specific one about TAs (Table 1).
Afterwards, in order to evaluate their validity, all the items have been discussed with two man-
agers – the director of marketing and the director of sales – of one of the top players in the
tourism intermediation in Italy. Both characterized for their deep experience in advising and support-
ing the thousands of TAs belonging to their customers’ network.
A five-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the requested items. To test the reliability of the
items Cronbach’s alpha values were computed, taking into account only values greater than 0.60
as suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994).
The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed using F-tests to statistically test the equality of
means (Markowski & Markowski, 1990) and to analyse the different perceptions of the use of IT tech-
nologies as an alternative to paper catalogues between ‘younger agencies’ and the older ones in
terms of experience and activity. Therefore, the years of activity were taken as a discriminating
factor for the development of the ANOVA test, dividing the sample among those companies
which are less than 10 years old, and those which are more than 10 years old. It has not been
found studies which consider the foundation year as a discriminating variable to divide the
TAsbetween ‘the most consolidated ones’ and those of ‘more recent birth’. So, it was decided to
take as a reference 2006, the year of development and widespread use of the main social networks
(Facebook and Twitter) and of digital technology tools, after the born of the web 2.0 two years before
(Schegg et al., 2008).

Table 1. Reference literature for questionnaire items.

Questionnaire items
Catalogue alternatives
Tablets
Augmented reality
Video projection in big screen
Catalogue in walls paper format
Touch point
In-store technological solutions
Waiting room with customer entertainment
solutions
Wi-fi network for customers
Installation of maxi screens
Windows with light or digital posters
Windows with video projectors for offers
Touch point
References
–
Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson (2014), Bennett and El Azhari (2015)
Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson (2014), Blázquez (2014)
Euromonitor International (2009), Blázquez (2014), Bettucci et al. (2015)
Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson (2014)
Cao (2014)
–
Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson (2014), Bennett and El Azhari (2015), Bettucci et al.
(2015)
Cao (2014), Savastano et al. (2016)
Euromonitor International (2009), Blázquez (2014)
Bennett and El Azhari (2015), Savastano et al. (2016)
Bennett and El Azhari (2015), Bettucci et al. (2015), Savastano et al. (2016)
Cao (2014)
4 T. PENCARELLI ET AL.

Findings
Considering the profile of respondent TAs, the majority of them (83.5%) have at most 3 employees,
but despite the small size, 58.4% have a turnover of over 300,000 euros. Concerning the agency’s age,
42.0% of TAs are ‘younger agencies’ - having at most 10 years of activity, while 58.0% are ‘older’ and
16.4% of these are more than 30 years.

Effectiveness of technological alternatives to paper catalogues (RQ1)

With regard to the first research question, it emerges that on average the interviewees judge the
alternatives to paper catalogues as useful but not indispensable. Looking at the average, in fact, it
reaches only 2.703 on a scale from 1 to 5 and this shows how paper catalogues still represent the
main communication tool of the TA product offer. However, the results of the study show that all
the tools presented as alternatives to traditional catalogues are evaluated as more interesting and
effective by younger agencies than by the older ones: tablet, video projection on the big screen
and touch point are interesting and appropriate alternatives to paper catalogues (Table 2). All F-
test carried out show a statistically significant difference between the averages of the answers of
recent travel agencies compared to the most consolidated ones, thus being able to affirm an attitude
of the former that is more oriented to digital technologies as a tool to promote their travel offers.

Effectiveness of in-store technological solutions (RQ2)

With regards to the role of physical spaces and the introduction of innovative solutions to facilitate
client–agency interaction (RQ2), it emerges that there is a greater conviction of their importance with
respect to the RQ1, with an overall average value of 3.213 in a five-point Likert scale. Specifically,
when asking respondents to evaluate the effectiveness of ICT solutions to improve contact with cus-
tomers within agencies (see Table 3), entertainment solutions for customers in the waiting room and

Table 2. Effectiveness of paper catalogue alternatives.

Less than 10 More than 10
Total sample years years
n = 255 n = 107(42%) n = 148 (58%)
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD F Sig.
Tablets 3.01 1.269 3.17 1.263 2.90 1.266 2.823 0.094
Augmented Reality 2.76 1.271 2.92 1.333 2.65 1.217 2.764 0.098
Video projection in big screen 2.88 1.305 3.06 1.331 2.76 1.276 3.297 0.071
Catalogue in wallspaper format 2.31 1.092 2.50 1.144 2.18 1.035 5.742 0.017
Touch point 2.88 1.318 3.05 1.306 2.76 1.318 3.030 0.083
Total Mean 2.703 2.873 2.585
Cronbach’s value α = 0.895

Table 3. Effectiveness of in-store technological solutions.

Less than 10 More than 10
Total sample years years
n = 255 n = 107(42%) n = 148 (58%)
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD F Sig.
Waiting room with customer entertainment solutions 3.29 1.230 3.48 1.110 3.16 1.297 4.288 0.039
Wi-fi network for customers 3.22 1.324 3.28 1.316 3.17 1.332 0.439 0.508
Installation of maxi screens 3.02 1.226 3.21 1.190 2.87 1.236 4.944 0.027
Windows with light or digital posters 3.34 1.269 3.40 1.265 3.29 1.274 0.477 0.490
Windows with video projectors for offers 3.20 1.276 3.32 1.293 3.12 1.261 1.471 0.226
Touch point 3.21 1.298 3.31 1.224 3.14 1.348 1.107 0.294
Total Mean 3.213 3.333 3.125
Cronbach’s value α = 0.839
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 5

windows with light or digital posters are considered the two main elements that improve customer
satisfaction. The ANOVA analysis shows again the difference between the two defined categories of
agencies: the F-test performed points out a statistical difference in perception of the installation of
maxi screens and in the development of entertainment solutions using digital technologies to
attract consumers’ interest in TA offers, also when they are waiting for their turn to talk with the
agent. These two elements are perceived as more strategic for younger agencies than for the
older ones (Table 3).

Conclusions
The objective of the study was to investigate whether the use of new technologies in physical spaces
is considered effective by travel agents for enhancing the customer experience. While a positive per-
ception about the effectiveness of in-store technological solutions’ use emerges, the paper catalogue
is confirmed to be the fundamental tool for the products presentation to customers, especially
among the older agencies. In other words, if on the one hand, TAs consider digital technologies
an opportunity to enhance the purchasing experience of customers, on the other hand, they are
aware that tourists still appreciate receiving the paper catalogues for their purchase decisions. There-
fore, it is possible to assume the need of hybrid strategies for TAs, capable to combine high-tech and
high-touch perspectives, the former driven by ICT and the latter led by the human interaction
between customers and suppliers.
Although the study highlights issues that involve important managerial implications, it does have
limitations. The first concerns the mere consideration of the Italian case and this makes it difficult, if
not impossible, to extend the same considerations globally.
Another important limitation is that it does not contemplate the role of the customer, if not
indirectly. These research limits may become topics for future researches.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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