Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tourism Marketing Computer network resources'

In this information age, the Internet has found a role in various industries such as transportation, advertising, etc. The travel industry, in which communication between travellers and travel service providers is a very important component, has as much potential as any other industry to make full use of this new medium. Already, most travel agencies and travel service providers promote their products and services using web sites. Searching for information online is now seen by many people as a way to save time and cost, especially in their travel activities. In order to fully deploy the Internet within the travel industry, understanding the use of the Internet in tourism is critical. This research sets out initially to examine the role and the impact of the Internet in the whole of the travel industry. But in order to define an achievable scope of work and because of its importance in South Africa at this time, tourism within the travel industry was chosen as the focus of the work.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.
Electronic commerce, popularly referred to as e-commerce, is the latest catchphrase surrounding the Internet and its many functions. In the past, the Internet was solely used for information seeking, but the 21st century has brought a new global economy to the fore – one that is conducted online. Tourism is seen as a driver of economic growth, contributing both to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of South Africa (SA) and creating jobs in the hospitality sector. E-commerce does not only provide a platform for business to be conducted online but also an opportunity for consumers to interact directly with industry. Many studies have been done previously about the perceived benefits of e-commerce in the retail sector, yet none in Cape Town and at five-star hotels in particular. It is well known that holidaymakers conduct an online search prior to booking accommodation; some of those potential guests in turn choose to finalise their bookings online. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of e-commerce in five-star hotels in the Cape Town Metropole. The main objective of this study was to define what e-commerce is for five-star hotels in the Cape Town Metropole and determine if the hotels are using e-commerce as a booking method. Online questionnaires were used to gather primary data and a literature review was presented as secondary data. The findings of this study showed that all the hotels surveyed use online bookings and half of the respondents believe Online Travel Agents (OTAs) generate more revenue than traditional methods of room reservation. When asked to rank methods of room’s reservations, there was a slight difference between telephone bookings and e-commerce as number one. This could mean that while electronic methods are popular, they have not completely replaced traditional methods. The researcher recommends that five-star hotel managers train the rooms’ division staff to respond to negative reviews on social media, as this was one of the findings. The hotels should also learn how to effectively use their social media presence to increase room sales.

The purpose of the project was to examine the current situation of B2C e-commerce in Japan, consumers' online purchasing behavior, and attributes affecting online purchases. Since many companies are interested in starting or have started B2C e-commerce businesses, this study would aid companies in developing marketing strategies that would grow their businesses and build loyalty among consumers.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The tourism sector in the province is regarded as one of the major economic sectors that have been found to have significant growth prospects. Indeed it’s revitalising and captivating to see the provincial tourism industry organizing itself to adapt to the new challenges of the knowledge economy, while also retorting to the new demands emerging from the needs and the expectations of the customers. The Western Cape tourism industry is currently preparing itself for the knowledge intensive marketing of its products and services and is also faced with challenges arising from the need to exploit electronic business systems for the benefits of the entire industry and its role players. In a nutshell, this requires the Western Cape tourism industry to understand the operation of global economic systems and strive towards locating itself strategically within them, and also develop strategic alliances with developing countries in order to reshape the system of global governance to achieve more equitable outcomes. Simultaneously, it requires that it equip the provincial economy as a whole, its sectors and enterprises to meet the challenges facing it in becoming sustainable competitive environment. This is an exploratory study of which the research problem is whether the selected tourism institutions are ready to implement electronic business systems. The proposed research study findings indicate the readiness level of the selected institutions in implementing electronic business systems. The research methodology instruments of the study were twofold. Both a modified questionnaire designed by Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to evaluate companies’ readiness in electronic business systems application was used, as well as a structured interview to acquire qualitative data was also used. The paper is not only a result of my personal interest in electronic business field, most importantly, it is of necessity to understand the concepts and principles of ‘electronic business’ and ‘Destination Marketing Organisation’ as they apply to the Western Cape tourism industry.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die toerismesektor in die provinsie word beskou as een van die vernaamste ekonomiese sektore wat beduidende groeivooruitsigte toon. Dit is inderdaad opwindend en fassinerend om te sien hoe die provinsiale toerismebedryf homself organiseer om by die nuwe uitdagings van die kennisekonomie aan te pas, terwyl daar ook voldoen word aan die nuwe eise wat uit die behoeftes en die verwagtinge van die klante voortspruit. Die Wes-Kaapse toerismebedryf berei homself tans voor vir die kennis-intensiewe bemarking van sy produkte en dienste en kom ook te staan voor uitdagings wat spruit uit die behoefte om elektroniese besigheidstelsels tot voordeel van die hele bedryf en sy rolspelers te ontgin. Kortom vereis dit van die Wes-Kaapse toerismebedryf om die bedrywighede van wereldwye ekonomiese stelsels te verstaan en daarna te streef om homself strategies daarin te plaas, en ook om strategiese alliansies met ontwikkelende lande te vorm ten einde die stelsel van wereldwye bestuur te hervorm om billiker uitkomste te lewer. Terselfdertyd moet die provinsiale ekonomie as geheel, sy sektore en ondernemings toegerus word om te voldoen aan die uitdagings waarvoor dit te staan kom terwyl dit ’n volhoubare mededingende omgewing word. Hierdie is ’n verkennende studie waarvan die navorsingvraagstuk is, of die geselekteerde instellings gereed is vir die implementering van elektroniese besigheidstelsels. Die bevindings van die beoogde navorsingsondersoek sal die gereedheidsvlak aandui van die geselekteerde instellings om elektroniese besigheidstelsels te benut. Die navorsingsmetodologie het tweeledig van instrumente gebruik gemaak. Een daarvan was ‘n spesiaal aangepaste vraelys wat deur BDC ontwerp is om maatskappye se gereedheid vir die toepassing van elektroniese besigheidstelsels te evalueer, en die ander ‘n gestruktureerde onderhoud. Die studie is nie bloot ’n gevolg van my persoonlike belangstelling in die veld van elektroniese besigheid nie, maar die belangrikste is om die konsepte en beginsels van ‘elektroniese besigheid’ en ‘Destination Marketing Organisation’ te begryp soos dit op die Wes-Kaapse toerismebedryf betrekking het.

The first section of this paper looks specifically at the concept of greenwashing from a theoretical perspective. It aims to establish exactly what greenwashing is, what it involves and how it has been used. The second section incorporates both the first section of this paper, and delves deeper into how greenwashing has been present in social media. The third section of this paper is a case study. This section has been broken down into three categories of industries in consideration of greenwashing practises. The first is ‘The Obvious’ - this looks at the obvious examples of industries that use greenwashing practises. ‘The Overlooked’ looks at the industries which are often disregarded in terms of greenwashing practises. The last is ‘The Unexpected’ which looks into the industries that focus on supporting the environment and would not commonly be associated with any form of greenwashing practises at all. This case study aims to identify how the selected companies chosen for the study have been associated with greenwashing in the past, and how their current social presence may still be contributing to greenwashed advertising. As the concept of greenwashing is based on a theory developed around two decades ago and mostly consisted of very direct claims and statements using traditional advertising mediums such as billboards and magazine adverts, and considering the amount of well-known corporations who were proven guilty of such greenwashing practises, it would be ignorant to consider that such practises have simply subsided and ceased to occur. Corporations are aware of being called-out with negative press, especially with regards to issues such as false environmental practises, therefore as the advertising industry has changed with time, wouldn’t such greenwashing practises have adapted as well? Corporations in the past have learnt that direct greenwash statements have backfired negatively, therefore in collaboration with the use of social media, the prospect of using subtle, or even subconscious greenwash strategies seem to create an issue which requires investigation.

This study investigates the valuation of Internet-based businesses. In particular the influence of the implementation of an e-business strategy on the value of a business by focussing on its financial performance, will be determined. Although the valuation of businesses in general has been researched extensively, research on the valuation of Internet-based businesses produced contradictory findings. No consensus could be reached regarding the most appropriate valuation approach to be used. Some research findings indicated that the discounted cash flow approach was the most appropriate while others stipulated that a new valuation approach should be developed. Many authors state that the move to include an e-business strategy is natural, and that businesses cannot afford not to include some form of e-business strategy. Previous research has also shown that by including an e-business strategy, it is possible to improve efficiency of the business and ultimately increase profitability. However, there was no emphasis on how the e-business strategy will influence the business valuation. In order to establish whether an e-business strategy will create value for a business, an empirical investigation was undertaken.

Travel is now the largest online business-to-consumer product in the United States. Online hotel bookings are the second largest segment of online travel. Leisure travelers online spending will increase dramatically from 2002 to 2007. However, a majority of hospitality companies do not currently take advantage of the Internet as the cheapest and most efficient distribution medium. The purpose of this study examined leisure travelers' demographic and psychographic characteristics, online booking and travel frequency that influence travelers' desired hotel Website features and functions. The results found out that demographics (gender, occupation, and ethnicity), and psychographics (travel benefit sought), number of leisure travel trips per year, and number of online hotel bookings per year have impact on hotel Website attribute preferences.

This thesis is a case study analysis of the dream one radio station had about creating something new and unique on the Internet. RadioSonderGrense (RSG), an Afrikaans South African radio station, saw opportunities for themselves as a radio station on the Internet and put enormous resources and man-power into their venture. Their vision of what the Internet could bring to their radio station, and what they could bring to a website set the ground for creative and innovative thought. This dissertation is an examination of whether the Internet lived up to the expectations RSG had for it, and whether they were able to use their resources (in terms of their audience, their advertisers and the uniqueness of radio) to create something new and never seen before. The foremost aim of this dissertation is to shed some light onto the up-to-now under researched area of why radio stations have begun to develop on the Internet. Through the analysis of RSG, their comes to this subject some new thoughts and ideas about the convergence of these two mediums. RSG, and radio in general, are examined historically, practically and in comparison to the Internet. This is done in order to fully grasp the project that RSG had set for themselves and to realize where they had come from and where they hoped to go. It is argued that although RSG had hoped for great things, their innovative thought was not enough to guarantee them their dreams. They were not able to fully utilize the resources available to them in combination with what the Internet could offer them to fulfill the expectations they had for themselves. The foremost conclusion is that although RSG were able to envisage what the Internet could add to the radio station, they fell short of giving their listeners, users and advertisers a tool which could make the RSG website truly unique. Their website gives the user some interesting and useful applications, but it does not make full use of what the Internet and radio together could create.

Technology and the boom of the internet have encouraged people to connect with each other, share information and build relationships (Stelzner, 2009; 2010) and the social web has presented a new form of communication through social media which allow people to interact and converse with each other (Evans, 2010). This presents marketers with the opportunity to affect consumers purchase decisions through online marketing and social media. This social engagement by consumers has significant impact on marketing activities as marketers need to be aware of the factors affecting consumer’s purchase decision (Evans, 2010). Continental Tyre South Africa (CTSA), a local tyre manufacturer, is embarking on a social media marketing strategy. No other local tyre manufacturer has a presence on social media platforms. As a result CTSA would have first mover advantage. The main objective of the research that follows is to establish if South African tyre purchasers are supportive of social media as an online research tool to learn more about tyre brands. The significance of this research study is that marketing communications has taken on a different dimension with the growth of online market places and the natural step for CTSA is to engage in social media marketing. The literature review revealed that many modern consumers sought peer advice over social networks thus social media has promoted consumer-to-consumer communication and has made it possible for consumers and brands to interact with each other (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). It was concluded that whilst social media marketing presents marketers with a more cost effective form of marketing, further research regarding South African’s online purchasing activities would be required to assess if the time, money and resources required to manage social media marketing for CTSA would be beneficial to the organisation. As a result a qualitative empirical study was conducted by means of a questionnaire. The research elements were broken down into three segments; the internet and social media, consumer-brand engagement and online iv recommendations. The research revealed that social media marketing is an appropriate strategy for CTSA. The main findings further revealed that CTSA would need to engage in an aggressive traditional marketing campaign in order to drive consumers to engage in the social media campaigns. Strategies must include dedicated social media fan pages, online banners, and online advertisements. Based on the research analysis it is recommended that that most appropriate social media platforms for CTSA to launch social media marketing activities are Facebook and Twitter.

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate an integration of real world, real time e-commerce with the knowledge and experience gained in participating in the Masters of Business Administration -- Information Management program at California State University, San Bernardino. It is this knowledge and experience that is used to create a Business-To-Consumer (B2C) electronic commerce application (ECA) using available Internet and information management technology. This project presents all aspects of the simulation beginning with the background research of the canine services and supplies industry and ending with an e-commerce simulation and post implementation audit.

This project explores the question of why local business owners are not taking advantage of the benefits the Web has to offer. It presents information that small business owners could use to develop websites for their businesses. It also examines what it would take to start a web design business targeted at local merchants.

E-commerce is the current approach for doing any type of business online, which uses the superior power of digital information to understand the requirements and preferences of each client and each partner, to adapt products and services for them, and then to distribute the products and services as swiftly as possible.

[Truncated abstract] Rumours can lead to unpredictable events: the manner in which an organisation responds to a commercial rumour can alter its reputation, and can affect its profitability as well as, ultimately, its survival. Commercial rumours are now a prominent feature of the business environment. They can emerge from organisational change, pending workforce layoffs, mergers, and changes to management, in addition, commercial rumours can lower morale and undermine productivity. There are several well-known examples of commercial rumours that have been, or continue to be, circulated. Commercial rumours are typically either about a conspiracy or contamination issue. Conspiracy rumours usually target those organisational practices or policies which are identified as undesirable by the stakeholders. This form of rumour is often precipitated by situations where people do not have all the information about a situation, for example the rumour about Proctor & Gamble being run by the Moonies. Snapple, the soft drink company, was rumoured in 1992 to be supporting the Ku Klux Klan in closing abortion clinics. Contamination rumours are wide-ranging and typically have revulsion theme, such as McDonald’s "worms in the burger", Pop Rock’s candies which exploded in the stomach, and poison in Herron’s paracetamol . . . Marketers suggest that web sites Commerical Rumour Responses on the Web represent the future of marketing communications on the Internet. The key implication of this study for organisations is when faced with a negative rumour, specific and selected Web pages can be used manage company’s stakeholders recall the rumour and organisational stakeholders can be persuaded by the company’s rumour response strategies.

M.A. (Tourism and Hospitality Management)
Travel agents have been traditionally seen as the key intermediary between suppliers of travel services and the traveller. Developments in the field of information technology offer consumers an alternative to booking via a travel agent - the option to plan and arrange holidays online. Due to the ever developing nature of technology, travellers have the luxury of a multitude of choices in their everyday life - particularly so in making decisions regarding travel. Travellers will seek to optimise choices by selecting a distribution channel which will provide them with the greatest perceived value. The primary goal of the study is to explore the underlying factors that influence consumer behaviour in making travel decisions, with specific reference to choosing between booking through a travel agent or online. Research with a perspective on travel decision-making in South Africa is limited. In attempting to fill the void, this study surveyed 408 respondents residing in South Africa using a structured questionnaire, and examined preference in booking holiday flights or accommodation travel through a travel agent or Internet. A literature review was embarked upon to create a framework for this study and to recognise previous research related to travel decision-making. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify factors influencing traveller decision-making. Statistical tests, such as Chi-square and correlation tests, were further used to examine the degree of relationship and significance between items and factors. Factors that influence travel decision-making were identified, namely trust and financial risk perception, convenience and adoption of technology, price, personal contact or empathy and the role of demographic factors such as age, income and ethnicity...

The aim of this study was to determine the factors influencing readership of electronic news via the Internet. The status of printed news in the changing news environment was also investigated in the light of increasing electronic news readership. In order to achieve this aim, current electronic news readers were probed on their Internet news readership. The findings indicated that although traditional printed news was still very widely read, the shift amongst Internet users seemed to be towards reading more electronic news in the future. This study found that the two most significant factors that will lead to an increase in electronic news readership are the following: • This medium being accessed free of charge, i.e. where no monthly Internet subscriptions need to be paid. This has been achieved through free Internet access via ABSA since 16 February 2001; and • an improvement in the speed of access. The fact that traditional printed newspapers can be read in an informal environment seemed to be the single most important factor in maintaining its popularity.
Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

Submitted in Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015.
Tourism can be classified either as urban tourism or as rural tourism, and it is one of the fastest growing industries globally. Rural tourism is usually associated with rural development because it has strong linkages to rural resources; but it remains underdeveloped compared to urban tourism. This underdevelopment of rural tourism serves as a motivation for this study whose aim is to examine the factors affecting the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists especially in this digital world where Information Communication and Technology (ICTs) is pervasive. In fact, ICT has transformed the travel industry in a remarkable way. The objectives of this study were: I) to select suitable theories that can explain the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists; ii) to design a conceptual model of the factors affecting the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists; iii) to empirically test the planned conceptual model of the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists, and, iv) to recommend measures to be taken for the improvement of the satisfaction levels of rural tourists to the point where they can significantly contribute to the full development of rural tourism. These objectives were achieved using content analysis of existing literature on rural tourism satisfaction and through a survey of tourists from the Malealea Lodge which is located in the Mafeteng District, in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. The results of this study are the following: I) the push and pull motivation theory was selected to explain the perceived satisfaction of rural tourists; ii) rural tourism demographics, their push and pull motivation, and their level of ICT adoption were hypothesized as the factors that affect tourists satisfaction with their rural tourism experiences; iii) the satisfaction of rural tourists with their rural tourism experience is affected by their occupations (demographic factor), by their level of ICT adoption, and by their pull motivation; and this satisfaction is not affected by other demographic attributes nor by the push motivation of rural tourists; iv) it is recommended that rural tourism marketing be increased in order to attract clients from other regions besides Africa and Europe and other age groups apart from young Africans which were found by xiii this study to be the biggest rural tourism clientele group, and that peace and security be maintained in rural tourism destinations as these two attributes were found to have an effect on the perceived satisfaction of rural tourism. Finally, more research should be conducted on the effect of ICT adoption on rural tourism satisfaction.
M

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The reliability of information in health social network sites (HSNS) is an imperative concern since false information can cause tremendous damage to health consumers. In this thesis, we introduce a trust framework which captures both human trust level and its uncertainty, and also present advantages of using the trust framework to intensify the dependability of HSNS, namely filtering information, increasing the efficiency of pharmacy marketing, and modeling how to monitor reliability of health information. Several experiments which were conducted on real health social networks validate the applicability of the trust framework in the real scenarios.

A retail enterprise is a business organisation that sells goods or services directly to consumers for personal use. Retail enterprises such as supermarkets enable customers to go around the shop picking items from the shelves and placing them into their baskets. The basket of each customer is captured into transactional systems. In this research study, retail enterprises were classified into two main categories: centralised and distributed retail enterprises. A distributed retail enterprise is one that issues the decision rights to the branches or groups nearest to the data collection, while in centralised retail enterprises the decision rights of the branches are concentrated in a single authority. It is difficult for retail enterprises to ascertain customer preferences by merely observing transactions. This has led to quantifiable losses. Although some enterprises implemented classical business models to address these challenging issues, they still lacked analytics-based marketing programs to gain competitive advantage. This research study develops an intelligent analytics-based (ARANN) model for both distributed and centralised retail enterprises in the cross-demographics of a developing country. The ARANN model is built on association rules (AR), complemented by artificial neural networks (ANN) to strengthen the results of these two individual models. The ARANN model was tested using real-life and publicly available transactional datasets for the generation of product arrangement sets. In centralised retail enterprises, the data from different branches was integrated and pre-processed to remove data impurities. The cleaned data was then fed into the ARANN model. On the other hand, in distributed retail enterprises data was collected branch per branch and cleaned. The cleaned data was fed into the ARANN model. According to experimental analytics, the ARANN model can generate improved product arrangement sets, thereby improving the confidence of retail enterprise decision-makers in competitive environments. It was also observed that the ARANN model performed faster in distributed than in centralised retail enterprises. This research is beneficial for sustainable businesses and consideration of the results is therefore recommended to retail enterprises.
Computing
M Sc. (Computing)

Customer satisfaction is a key concern in any business strategy. It is often assumed that customer satisfaction can be enhanced using e-services. E-service is defined as interactive service received via the Internet (Jiang et al., 2013). E-service has contributed to business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce by providing on-demand solutions to customers. The relationship with the customer is enhanced by introducing self-service options, product customisation and variety. However, there may also be negative impacts, such as techno-stress and lack of online customer assistance. The primary aim of this research was to develop a conceptual framework to describe the correlation relationship between the factors that influence customers’ adoption of e-services. Organisations use the Internet to attract customers, to conduct financial services and obtain information. This research focussed specifically on online shopping. The Grounded Theory research methodology was chosen for its flexibility and iterative comparison of data. A quantitative survey was conducted to determine the relative significance of the factors uncovered by the Grounded Theory methodology and to validate the hypothesis of the conceptual model. Customer adoption is attained where customer satisfaction is high, where the customer sees value in the service, and where there is customer loyalty or trust. To date, research has focussed primarily on developed countries. Many challenges face South Africa as a Newly Industrialised Country (NIC). The negative factors facing developing countries in terms of e-service adoption include: lack of infrastructure, economic constraints and an emergent socio-political framework. The aim of this research was to build a conceptual model for explaining interrelationships between the identified factors that have an impact on customer e-service adoption. The customer’s perception of technology-driven services affects the organisation’s reputation, which in turn affects profitability. This research will be beneficial to managers in local organisations that thrive on e-services. An understanding of customer preferences will lead to improvement of customer services in South Africa.
Information Science
M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Management Science: Tourism and Hospitality Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016.
The advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) coupled with sophisticated network channels and applications have unveiled new avenues for small organizations and those in the hospitality industry must be included. However, there is limited industry specific research activity on the impact of adoption and utilisation of ICTs on business specifically with regard to the hospitality industry in developing countries. This report records the findings of an analysis into ICT and e-commerce adoption and use in small remote hospitality establishments in the Natal Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The research used a mixed methods approach involving questionnaires, observations and interviews. The participants were drawn from three case areas namely Curry’s Post, Nottingham Road and Lions River. From each case area, two restaurants, two wedding venues, two lodges and two curio shops participated. The findings indicate that most establishment acknowledged the need to adopt and utilise ICT and e-commerce. The links between ICT adoption and level of business success were marked. The challenges to adoption and utilisation of ICT were found to centre on cost, owners’ lack of familiarity with ICTs, and a corresponding lack of ICT skills amongst staff. The inability of imported software packages to suit local needs also emerged as a significant issue. Recommendations involve targeted sponsorships of ICT courses, language accessibility initiatives, and adaptation of software packages to local needs, along with advantages in starting small and adopting more sophisticated ICT as the business grows.
M