Effect of internet on the tourists according the case of the UAE tourism

Effect of internet on the tourists according the case of the UAE tourism

Effect of internet on the tourists according the case of the UAE tourism

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Introduction

The shifting nature of consumer and tourists behaviour integrated with the technological evolution of the internet that has necessitated the use of the internet as a medium of marketing has presented sufficient challenges to the marketer in terms of making the marketing experience add value to the interaction of the tourist and the interface. Tourist firms have put their businesses online endeavour to build strong tourist base and tourism.

How internet encourages tourism in UAE

There are a number of factors that have been identified as essential in building tourists trust. The first of the drivers to building online trust and gaining loyalty from tourists is the inclusion of what the tourists know about the company. Awareness and recognition of the business is an important factor that the marketer has used to gain extra trust from the online users who either might be anonymous or may be within the tourist list of the company’s regular tourists. To have loyalty and trust from tourists, the online marketer must find ways of engaging all the types of visitors and audience. Without gaining the loyalty and trust from the regular tourists and other visitors, it would be impossible for the online marketer to make any online sales.

Another driver that is evident in the body of literature is data accuracy. By ensuring that the information provided on the company website is accurate and verifiable, the marketer is able to gain trust from the tourists and visitors and increase chances of making or registering in their firms. If the marketer puts information that neither the tourists nor the marketer can trust or even extremely exaggerated information it can make the visitors to doubt the ability of the company to fulfil its promises and agreements. This has observed by Shah and Yasin (2010), includes updating the information on the site so that any obsolete information is removed from the site and new accurate data uploaded. In their study, Shah and Yasin (2010) identify three main categories of factors that drive tourist trust in online business or brands. The first category comprises those factors that relate to tourist decision. Under this category, there are factors that include tourist privacy, security and good online experience among other intricate factors that tourists consider when making decisions on areas to tour. This category also comprises the quality of information availed to the tourists and which is essential in making the touring decisions. Other decision related factors include third party recommendations and this has become one of the many ways businesses are making their online tourists market for them and increase trust from others. The Third Sector Foresight (Saskia 2010) reinforces the idea of security and privacy by arguing that there is no possibilities of separating online trust and identity since the two aspects encompass other complex aspects such as legislative and political issues. Moreover, Saskaia (2010) further identifies personal internet literacy as an important driver to the online trust. Using the approach and argument by Saskia, it would imply that a visitor would also develop trust in an online business based on the extent to which the tourist or visitor understands the various destinations, their implications and how much confidence the tourist is able to build out of the interaction.

Internet boosts tourism in UAE

Internet has been supportive to tourism firms in various ways since its introduction after the invention of computers. The introduction of computers and the internet technology has contributed to various changes in the global market for tourism and specifically to the tourism industry. Technology has shaped the world of technology in a way that people have increasingly taken entertainment and technology as part of their life. Other than being a source of leisure and entertainment, the tourism industry has been a major source of income and has contributed much on the global economy. The internet contributes much to the development of the tourism industry but there are many problems facing the tourism industry today. This paper is based on a research on the impact of the internet on the tourism industry.

Many firms in the tourism industry have increased their popularity and profitability due to increased internet applications that assist them in their online marketing. These firms are also assisted by internet in the way they budget their income given that a significant percentage of tourism.

Internet as one of the latest technologies in the tourism industry has some impacts on the industry through various contributions such as online tourism sale, online shopping, idea generation through social networks (Harper, 2012). The internet also offers a wide choice on tourism firms and activities in UAE and in other countries. Internet evolution has taken shape within a short period that is estimated to be less than a decade. The internet is itself a massive investment but has been taken as one of the key constituents of all businesses and more by the tourism industry. Tourism investors use the internet to communicate with tourism consumers via social media networks such as twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn among others (Harper, 2012).

Besides the loses and profitability that the internet contributes to tourism producers and consumers as well as other players in the tourism industry, the internet has increasingly contributed to barriers of entry into the industry. The main effect in this case is that internet technologies in the tourism industry is the destabilization of the supply chain in tourism sales by posing challenges to the pre-web role as well as decreasing the domination of the supply chain in the tourism industry. Internet technologies have also contributed to changes in the entry barriers that are primary in the industry.

Impacts on tourism firms and Potential tourists

From a business perspective it is only fair to assert that the new internet technologies have made tourist experiences more valuable to both the firms and potential tourists by enhancing efficiency, timeliness, as well as reduction of unnecessary costs. Precisely, it is true that the volume and scope of applications received by tourism firms during room selection has reduced due to internet. Consequently, the new internet technologies have presented firms with the most efficient, cheap, faster, and reliable opportunities to process these room reservations. Moreover, the use of internet to book rooms and places has also reduced travelling expenses while at the same time enhancing efficiency. On the other hand, the influx of the internet technology has made it a necessity for tourists compare various hotels and rooms for better tourism in UAE.

Importance of internet in communication

Technology has brought about a revolutionary change in the way individuals communicate. As more and more nations progress through the age of information, a number of technological devices like hand phones, television and personal computers have come up and even established themselves a stronghold in the daily lives of many people. As it follows, this has without a doubt influenced the traditional interpersonal interaction and communication in numerous ways that are both positive and negative. This paper, therefore, looks at some of the implications and effects of communication technology on the ways individuals interact with each other.

With the invention of the Internet, the world has been turned into a global village that is highly interconnected hence encouraging tourism in UAE. Individuals from different areas all over the world are able to converse easily with each other through such things as twitter and Facebook. Just as well, email has also established itself as a free, fast and convenient method to communicate and has, as a result, replaced the traditional mail. The Internet has made it tremendously handy and simple for people to communicate with each other.

However, the communication ease that technology has brought is not without implications. The Internet, for instance, have extremely changed the way individuals socialize and interact with each other. Although this in a way helps individuals broaden their social circle, people and even couples are unable to interact with each other personally with numerous negative implications. Each individual, for example, is only able to access the information the other is willing to release. This can lead to development of such vices as lying, and can even lead to people to mislead others to have unrealistic expectations of other people. These negative implications are not only affecting personal relationships, but also those in the office. ‘Simple messages which used to be delivered face- to- face are now being sent through impersonal means such as email’ (Nah 1).

Other effects are on the interpersonal relationships children used to form with their friends. Children actually used to talk to their peers. However, those hours, which these children and teens used to have in the neighborhoods personally chatting with their friends, have long vanished. Nevertheless, today, even chatting on e- mail or cell phones, through which teens can chat in paragraphs, is old fashioned. For the current preteens and teenagers, ‘the give and take of friendship seems to be conducted increasingly in the abbreviated snatches of cell phone texts and instant messages, or through the very public forum of Facebook and MySpace bulletins’ (Stout 1).

According to a review conducted by an industry trade group, the period between June 2010 and June 2009, subscribers of cell phones sent about 1.8 trillion text messages. This was considered a 33 percent increase from the previous year. This is to mean that most people are spending their days walking around and spending most of their days with their noses deeply buried in their cell phones. As it follows, by doing this, ‘we are tuning put the people who are actually in the same room as us. We seem to have long ago crossed the line as to where doing this stuff is appropriate- people take calls while they are out to dinner, text or check e- mail while on a date, you name it’ (Cafferty 1).

These are clear indications that we all need to take a step back and reassess our dependency on technology for communicating, which is clearly making a large percentage of humanity antisocial.

Tourism firms use internet to market

Marketing involves the advertising, selling and promoting of goods and services from one avenue to another. Marketing is a significant aspect in trade owing to its ability to enhance the interest of involved parties. There are several forms of marketing that have been created as a result of the globalization and introduction of technology. This has changed the dynamics of the trade making marketing one of the more advanced industries. One of the concepts that materialized from the evolution of marketing is the introduction of digital marketing. Digital marketing is the use of various aspects of computer technology when advertising goods and services. Most companies have resorted to using the internet to reach out to a large population compared to other marketing forms.

Globally there is a high growth rate in internet usage. 16.9% of the world population uses internet services. In 2007, the leading continent was North America with a penetration rate of 69.5%, Australia/Oceanic came second with 54.5%, and third was Europe at 39.8%. Africa registered the highest growth rates in use of internet at 643.1%, Latin America second with 508.6% and third was Middle East with 494.8%. This increased use of internet provides emerging market for the two firms (DATAMONITOR 2008: 35).

Spending on search advertisement has been on the increases and this is one influence on technology development and this has been common in tourist firm. There is a trend from the traditional mode of advertisement to online advertisement. This tourism sector is expected to grow at a rate of 31% from 2012 to 2014. In addition, mobile advertising is also growing and will offer an opportunity to the firm to improve their revenue (MarketLine, 2012) and so the importance of internet in reaching the right population and the largest number.

In addition there is also a growing trend towards mobile advertisement. This is being catalyzed by the higher penetration of mobile devices. This has pushed and will continue to necessitate investment in development of technology that enhances mobile devices capabilities to hold higher bandwidths. Projections for instance, indicate that In UAE advertisement in mobile devices will increase from $415 million in the year 2009 to four times higher in 2014 reaching $1.5 billion (Datamonitor 2010: 8).

Works cited

Cafferty, Jack. ‘Technology Replacing Personal Interactions at What Cost?’ Cafferty File. CNN. Web 13 January 2012.

Nah, Wenbin. Technology’s Effect in Interpersonal Communication. Better Interpersonal Communication. Web 13 January 2012.

Kuhn, P. & Skuterud, M. (Oct. 2000). Job search methods: Internet versus traditional. Monthly Labor Review, pp. 3-11.

Stout, Hilary. ‘Antisocial Networking?’ The New York Times. Web. 13 January 2012.