Conrady / Buck Trends and Issues in Global Tourism 2007

2007
ISBN: 978-3-540-70905-3
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 235 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Trends and Issues in Global Tourism

As other industries, the global travel and tourism industry has been facing - mense challenges and highly visible upheaval since the beginning of the new m- lennium. The International Tourism Exchange ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade fair, aims at pinpointing the most important challenges, identifying the trends and offering a platform to solve pressing problems. The ITB Convention Market Trends & Innovations has developed into a center of excellence and a driving force for the global travel and tourism industry, generating a much needed information platform. This compilation unites the highlights of the convention in articles prepared by renowned professionals and scientists from the industry. Readers may benefit from this comprehensive vision of the developments which are shaping the str- ture of the global tourism industry today and in the future. This book is indisp- sable for tourism and travel professionals and well as for academics and students analyzing current global tourism and travel trends. The first chapter takes up the issue of mega trends in society and in the ec- omy and analyzes their effects on the tourism industry. In highly developed co- tries, overwhelming demographical change is underway. Schröder and Widmann demonstrate how tourism businesses should adapt to the aging customer base.

Zielgruppe

Professional/practitioner

Autoren/Hrsg.

Conrady, Roland

Buck, Martin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Mega trends and their impact on the tourism industry.- Demographic change and its impact on the travel industry: Oldies — nothing but goldies?.- Eve-olution: Women’s rising power in travel decisions.- Polarization of markets: Luxury and budget hotels.- Smart shopping in the European low cost flight market.- Aviation management.- The global phenomenon of “low cost” carrier growth.- Consolidation in the airline business.- Effectively planning and managing European airport capacity.- Destination management.- FIFA World Cup 2006 and its legacy on tourism.- Traveling to a shopping adventure.- Alpine destination life cycles: Challenges and implications.- Marketing and sales management.- Commission systems in tourism.- New stationary distribution channels for tourism.- Travel technology.- Travel technology in the era of Web 2.0.- Website accessibility in the cruise market.- Business travel management.- Trends and issues in global business travel management.- Long-term perspectives in the tourism industry.- Space tourism.- The future of leisure travel.

Leseproben

Smart shopping in the European low cost flight market (p. 56-57)

Gerhild Abler, Michael Ehlting
1 The smart shopper consumer profile
Before concentrating on the issue to what extent smart shopping contributes to the success in the budget flight sector, the smart shopper consumer profile has to be defined and characterized. It is erroneous to put the smart shopper and the budget shopper on the same pedestal since they differ considerably in their consumption preferences, in particular in regard to quality and brand preference. Hence, in contrast to the budget shopper, the smart shopper is not fixated on low prices in terms of a low absolute amount. In fact, a smart shopper is more concerned with obtaining an optimal price performance rate. Equipped with welldefined quality awareness, often combined with a high brand orientation, the smart shopper aspires to acquire high quality products or services at bargain prices respective for these products and to gain price advantages, be they with the original price or compared to other customers.

The root of this consumer behavior does not lie in a shortage of money and thus an external necessity for saving, but in fact in the self-confidence of knowing the market and supply structure and taking advantage of it. The smart shopper knows what he wants and how to get it, he is well-educated, well-informed, socially successful and well aware of status and has an above-average income. He operates the Internet with ease, is willing to take time, but also enjoys analyzing offers and compiling price comparisons. Hence, he forms an exact idea of how much a product or a service should cost.

The principal benefit which a smart shopper can reap from his behavior is successfully using this market knowledge and cleverness as a personal advantage. The resulting feeling of success increases his self-confidence and thus stabilizes this consumer behavior. In addition, competitive comparison with others increases the satisfaction of attaining an attractive bargain on preferential terms, i.e. at a lower price than the others.

The smart shopper is proud of his successes and gains prestige accordingly. Success can result from either purchasing a premium product at a relatively low price as well as a medium quality product at an absolutely rock-bottom price. Last but not least, the smart shopper has the advantage that his successes contribute to easing the purse-strings and thus enable him to afford even more such positive shopping experiences – what is once again perpetuating this behavior. In summary, the smart shopper acts from a position of strength: he pays attention to the price performance ratio simply because he wants to, and not because he has to. Thus, the smart shopper represents a consumer profile, which can be encountered in increasing numbers and in many industries. In fact, this consumption behavior is already increasingly dominant in many industries. The smart shopper reflects the shift in market power from the supply-side to the demand-side, which particularly the Internet continues to accelerate.

2 Low cost flight users epitomize smart shoppers

If consumer behavior and target groups in the European low cost flight market are more closely examined, as is the case for the Low Cost Carrier Monitor (TNS Infratest), a comprehensive market research with over 11,000 interview in the five large European markets, it becomes obvious that low cost flight users exhibit many traits associated with the smart shopper consumer profile. Low cost flight users include consumers who have flown with genuine low cost carriers as well as consumers who have purchased low cost flight products from any airlines.