A Study on Customer Preferences towards Travel and Tourism Sector and Their Services

Abstract

Today's business situations are highly dynamic and demanding as continuous changes are taking place in the economic environment. Contemporary business paradigm of survival of the most innovative and competitive is the new business model for most business organizations. With the advent of era of consumerism, customers are getting more powerful in terms of product and service requirements and it is imperative for the companies to place their products not only in the mind but also in the heart of the customers. With the economic growth of country and customers, their investment portfolio grew larger and wider with tourism and travel taking the centre-stage. In sync with the growth story of tourism industry, associated sectors such as hotels, travel agencies etc. have also shown tremendous growth over the decade. Professional management of the customers with a wide array of tour packages not only made the supporting staff skillful and expert but much in hindsight of customer tour planning. This study focuses on the customer behaviour towards the travel and tourism sector, the benefits customer considers while deciding the itinerary and required attributes of selected travel agencies.

Full text

International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.6, No.12, December 2018
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
Available online at www.ijrat.org
3847
A Study on Customer Preferences towards Travel
and Tourism Sector and Their Services
Aman Singh, Sushant Kumar Vishnoi, Dr. Teena Bagga
Student, Research Scholar, Professor
Abstract- Today's business situations are highly dynamic and demanding as continuous changes are taking place in
the economic environment. Contemporary business paradigm of survival of the most innovative and competitive is
the new business model for most business organizations. With the advent of era of consumerism, customers are
getting more powerful in terms of product and service requirements and it is imperative for the companies to place
their products not only in the mind but also in the heart of the customers. With the economic growth of country and
customers, their investment portfolio grew larger and wider with tourism and travel taking the centre-stage. In sync
with the growth story of tourism industry, associated sectors such as hotels, travel agencies etc. have also shown
tremendous growth over the decade. Professional management of the customers with a wide array of tour packages
not only made the supporting staff skillful and expert but much in hindsight of customer tour planning. This study
focuses on the customer behaviour towards the travel and tourism sector, the benefits customer considers while
deciding the itinerary and required attributes of selected travel agencies.
Keywords: Tour packages, Tourism Industry; Tour planning, Travel and Tourism, Travel Agencies
1. INTRODUCTION
As economic strata and income of world
population are rising, so is their expenditures on
leisure, fun, travelling and touring. People
generally are benchmarking more funds for
tours and travel in sync with their rising
incomes and social status. The amount of
curiosity and interest it generates, tourism and
travel can be considered as the modern-day
stress buster and the end result of improving
happiness quotient of people. In foresight travel
and tourism sector also scores big on economic
development, employment and empowerment
index of the respective touring states/regions
and is considered as the new flag bearers of the
rising and shinning India. The influence and
improvement it is bringing to the lives of people
living adjacent to the touring spots, it surely is
improving their standard of living and their
lifestyles. The tourism industry consists of a
number of different sectors aliened in parallel,
including the travel, hospitality sector etc. In
each of these sectors, there are a number of
individual businesses that provide a range of
services to people for travelling, lodging,
boarding, sight-seeing etc. These trips can be
for a variety of reasons, including celebrating
life defining moments and key events, visiting
friends or relatives, attending conferences,
participating in business meetings / activities
and associated tasks of primary importance.
Modern day customers require a single window
management wherein they desire that their
complete trip be managed by travel planner and
they don’t have to speak to ten different people for
travelling, for hotel staying, for sightseeing making it
a cumbersome and haphazard experience. They want
complete communication, time schedules and
travelling plan be managed by a professionally
competent travelling partner with compete assistance
of key visiting places and heritage sites. As the
technology users, customers now a day research
beforehand about the value-centric holiday packages,
prime locations, vogue tourist spots and sites to visit,
places serving best cuisines, safest hotels to stay in
and then customise their travelling dates accordingly.
Incorporating into tourism the study as published by
(Herzberg, 1966) suggesting travelling agencies must
be clear in mind that tour and travelling experience
also depends upon a host of motivational and
hygienic sectors which bears significant importance
on the holiday booking pattern of travelling agents by
customers. Motivational factors are those which
encourage people to do something. For example, the
desire to make new friends can motivate people to
take a tour guide rather than travelling alone. On the
other hand, hygiene factors are those that do not
encourage travel, but their absence would discourage
such a trip. A good example is the availability of
clean rooms, quality fooding and safe drinking water.
It is unlikely that these factors will motivate someone
to travel, while its absence could lead to someone not
choosing a travel agent or destination. The absence of
motivational factors does not lead to dissatisfaction it
leads to a sense of emptiness rather than a sense of
anger or disappointment. On the other hand, the
absence of a hygienic factor will lead to

International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.6, No.12, December 2018
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
Available online at www.ijrat.org
3848
dissatisfaction. The presence of such a factor
will not lead to satisfaction.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Keeping in view the geographical diversity
(Eck, 2012) and cultural diversity (Kong,
1990) of Indian landscape, it is one of the most
popular tourism destinations. It is bordered by
the Himalayan ranges to the north and
surrounded, on three sides by oceanic views of
Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean.
Indian scenic landscapes and beautiful sea
shores offers a variety of places for visitors and
attract tourists from all over the world.
Tourism sector is one of the main sources of
economic growth, foreign exchange earnings
(Mishra, Rout, & Mohapatra, 2011) and
employment in India (Pais, 2006). It also
positively impacts the value chain (Weiermair,
2012) and ancillary areas of travel agencies,
transportation including airlines and railways.
Diverse biological diversity (Nyström,
Peterson, Bengtsson, Walker, & Norberg,
2003) with multitude of religions such as
Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism,
Jainism, Sikhism and others exist in India
making it a diverse land of tourism
destinations in the form of religious shrines
and fascinated people from all over the world.
Monuments, museums, forts, places of
religious interest, palaces etc. attract a lot of
tourists having diverse interests (Britton, 1991)
in crafts, fairs and music. In view of associated
socio-cultural transformation through tourism
some of the common places of tourist
attractions are Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain,
Shirdi visited by people of specific orientations
and place of origin interests (Sebastian &
Rajagopalan, 2009).
With the increase in income of the people,
tourism in India is growing and well
promoted by respective state governments.
Many states have taken the necessary steps
to promote tourism like Goa promotes water
sports like scuba diving and rafting. In
addition to the initiatives of states the
central agencies like The Indian Tourism
Development Corporation has also launched
a campaign called “Incredible India’’
(Kerrigan, Shivanandan & Hede, 2012) to
encourage tourism in India. The slogan of
this campaign is Athithi Devoh Bhaboh
(Bhakuni, Kapoor, & Kamil).
India also has been widely promoted as online
destination image (Dwivedi, 2013) bearer of the
world being a host to a number of heritage sites.
Medical tourism in India is flourishing under the
partnerships of private public initiatives and
innovations due to the increasing number of
foreign patients coming to India for state-of-the-
art treatment (Connell, 2006). The recent
innovation of e-tourism (Buhalis & Law, 2008)
and eco-tourism (Zeppel, 2006) is also bringing a
paradigm shift and challenging the tourism
industry structure.
On the socially negative side of increased tourism
activities and visitors, tourism can also damage the
environment as resorts are being built to
accommodate the increasing number of tourists and
thereby negatively impacting the natural ecosystem
and local architectural sites of national importance
(King, Pizam, & Milman, 1993).
3. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
To study the customer behaviour towards the travel
and tourism sector.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In lieu with the objectives of the research study, the data
collection method used for getting respondent responses
about the travel & tourism industry is primary data. The
Primary data collection tool used in the research work is
close ended questionnaire of 16 questions seeking sector
specific developments and customer insights about their
travel and tourism sector related preferences. It was spread
among various respondents based on demographic and
socioeconomic parameters like gender, age, geographical
area, occupation etc. to get required insights. The
questionnaires were made with the help of Google forms
and data is analyzed with the help of MS Excel and SPSS
version 23. Data is collected from 103 prospective
customers from NCR to solicit their preferences towards
travel and tourism sector in India. The research design
used by the researcher is exploratory research design and
the sampling tool used is convenience sampling.
Secondary research is also utilized for aggregating
information by accessing research papers to ease the
buildup of fundamental structure of exploration. The
papers are accessed from various sources like web
journals, Google scholar and articles for reference. Here is
the summary of the information collected:

International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.6, No.12, December 2018
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
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Demographic Profile
Characteristics
Frequency (N=103)
Percentage (%)
Age (Years)
19-25
18
17
26-35
36
35
36-45
31
30
45 Above
18
18
Gender
Male
66
64
Female
37
36
Marital Status
Single
32
30
Married
71
70
Occupation
Businessmen
37
36
Salaried
41
40
Professional
4
4
Student
16
15
Homemaker
5
5
Annual Income (In Lakh)
Less than 1
0
0
1-5
10
10
5-10
36
35
More than 10
57
55
Total
103
100
Travelling Frequency
Once in 3 months
9%
Once in a year
Once In 6 months
Once in a year
58%
Once in 3
months
Once In 6 months
33%
Inference: The figure shows that 60 respondents out of
103 respondents in other words 58 percent of
respondent travel once in a year. Out of 103 respondents
34 respondent in other words 33 percent of respondent
travel once in six months. 9 respondent travel once in
three months. Maximum respondent travel once in a
year while least travel
in once in three months

International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.6, No.12, December 2018
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
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3850
Travelling Mode
32
68
By themselves
Through Travel Agent
Inference: The figure shows that 33 respondents out
of 103 respondent plans and manages their trip on
their own. On the other hand, 70 respondents prefer
to plan and manage their trip through a travel agency.
This shows that more people plan their visit through a
travel operator. As a result of which a greater number of
travel agencies are entering into the market.
Travelling Purpose
9
21
17
53
Religious & Spiritual
Business
Adventures
Family Vacations
Inference: The figure shows that 53 respondents out
of 103 respondents travel for the purpose of spending
time with family, so they prefer family vacations. On
the other hand, 21 respondents travel because of
business or work purpose.17 respondent travel for the
purpose of adventure. 9 respondents travel because of
religious and spiritual purpose.

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E-ISSN: 2321-9637
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Travelling Destination
Inference: The figure shows that 60 respondents out of
103 respondents prefer to travel internationally and 40
respondents preferring domestic travel
domestically.
Travelling Expenditure
Inference: The figure shows that 61 respondents out of
103 respondents usually spend more than one lakh on a
trip. On the other hand, 33 respondents usually spend
between 50000 to50000 on a trip and last 9 respondents
spend less than 5l spends less than 50000 on a trip.
40
60
Domestic
International
010 20 30 40 50 60 70
Less than 50,000
50,000 - 1Lakh
More than 1Lakh
61
33
9

International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.6, No.12, December 2018
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
Available online at www.ijrat.org
3852
Preference for Travelling Insurance
Inference: The figure shows that 71 respondents prefer
that travel insurance should be included in their package
as it has some benefits. On the other hand, 32 respondent
feels that travel insurance should not be included in the
package.
Agency Preference
Inference: The figure shows that 34 respondents out
of 103 respondents have planned their visit through
Cox and Kings. 29 respondents have planned their
visit through Thomas cook. On the other hand, 24
respondents have planned their visit through simply
go (India) Pvt. Ltd. and 16 respondents have planned
their visit through any other agency.
Findings
1-The inability to find good deals often negatively
affects the business of the travel industry. If the
company's staff cannot customise the right deals to
their clients, the company is likely to lose the
advantage. The staff must know the offers offered by
the different travel companies and associated supply
chain partners.
2-Companies must contact different hotels to
reconfirm the rates, the car rental agency and the
010 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Yes
No
71
32
Thomas Cook
28%
Cox & Kings
33%
Any Other
16%
Simply GO (India) Pvt
Ltd
23%
Thomas Cook Cox & Kings Any Other Simply GO (India) Pvt Ltd

International Journal of Research in Advent Technology, Vol.6, No.12, December 2018
E-ISSN: 2321-9637
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equipment costs before giving the
confirmation to the clients. Management must
be productive in their work, only then can they
meet the needs of the clients and in turn
supplement their business needs.
3-Today, there are many portals and travel
websites with advanced technologies that offer
better prices, hotels, destinations, routes,
activities, packages. Online companies help
customers plan and customize their trips with
better tour packages.
Recommendations
If the tourism industry wants to be
productive, business schools should offer
courses related to tourism and ancillary
sectors. With the increase of competition in
this segment, if one has to survive in the
market, companies should offer all kinds of
packages, from budgeted to premium. This
will help companies responding to more
people and attract more customers. In today's
world, the customer is the king pin of the market
and to attract the customer, companies must be
good advertisers so that more people know about
the services they are offering. In this era of cut-
throat competition, customers can choose among
available options and decide which one is most
suitable for them. In this case, companies should
keep their prices to a minimum to attract
customers by offering them the best in class
services. It is very important for companies to
make each customer their lifetime customer and
deriving sales and future business from customer
loyalties.
It is also very important that the staff help the
client by offering best in class deals and there
must be coordination between all the
departments of the organization allowing for free
flow of information and communication for
smooth functioning.
CONCLUSION
In today's world, people are more interested in
having a better lifestyle, it is due to the increase
in the income level of people. The tourism
sector serves a small segment of society in India
because it is preferred to travel when basic life
needs are met properly and in India many people
live in unfavourable conditions. The tourism
industry cannot grow on its own until there are
associated sectors adding value to it, such as
hospitality, travel insurance, transportation and
accommodation. The companies must try to
improve them in terms of the services they offer,
because in the end what helps to maintain or
gain position in the mind of the customer is the
level of satisfaction that they get after investing
their hard-earned money. The company should
focus on important attributes of fair costing of
services, skillset of the staff, courtesy and
friendliness of the staff etc. Human resources
are the most important resources of an
organization; therefore, if they are effective and
efficient, the company will have the advantage
over its competitors. It is very important that the
right person provide details and information to
client.
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