Understanding the Need for Faster Digital Transformation in Tourism as a Result of Growing Technology Usage among the Tourists

Abstract

Tourism is one industry that thrives on human contact and face to face interaction. Therefore with such fast paced technological advancements it is worth studying how this digital age is going to impact the fastest and the largest growing service sector industry. It is an exploratory study based on fundamentals of marketing. The concepts of branding building, brand image, tourist motivation, tourist behaviour, advertising effectiveness, digital transformation are used to draw inferences. The present COVID crisis is also used as event that has further triggered the need for digital transformation as fast as possible. The paper also attempts to develop a stakeholder model for tourism digitalisation. This paper will provide an insight on the importance of building brand image and brand trust. The paper will also suggest on how to increase digital presence, build a trustworthy brand online, the importance of using social media and digital medium for business growth and how running tourism business on digital medium will be different.This paper is an original work and consist of authors own thought process and analysis. The concepts of digital transformation, brand formation, brand image and brand trust in tourism are studied simultaneously through this paper. The research will help the travel agents and the service providers to understand that in today’s time having digital presence is mandatory. The prospective clients are on the internet looking for best possible products and without digital presence the service providers will loose on a large set of prospective clients