INTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRY

Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the
business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of
operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the traveller's country. The World
Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the
common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "traveling
to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive
year for leisure, business and other purposes".

Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and
outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Today, tourism is a major source of
income for many countries, and affects the economy of both the source and host countries, in
some cases being of vital importance.

Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession,

between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza
virus. but slowly recovered. International tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance of
payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (€740 billion) in 2011, corresponding to an increase
in real terms of 3.8% from 2010. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1
billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012, emerging markets such
as China, Russia and Brazilhad significantly increased their spending over the previous
decade. The ITB Berlin is the world's leading tourism trade fair.

Etymology

The word tourist was used in 1772 and tourism in 1811. It is formed from the word tour,
which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare; 'to turn
on a lathe,' which is itself from Ancient Greek tornos 'lathe'.

Significance of tourism

Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and countries. Its
importance was recognized in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism of 1980 as "an
activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural,
educational, and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations.

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Tourism brings in large amounts of income into a local economy in the form of payment
for goods and services needed by tourists, accounting for 30% of the world's trade of services,
and 6% of overall exports of goods and services. It also creates opportunities
for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism.

The service industries which benefit from tourism include transportation services, such
as airlines, cruise ships, and taxicabs; hospitality services, such as accommodations,
including hotels and resorts; and entertainment venues, such as amusement
parks, casinos, shopping malls, music venues, and theaters. This is in addition to goods
bought by tourists, including souvenirs.

In 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as "someone traveling abroad for at
least twenty-four hours". Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945,
by including a maximum stay of six months.

In 1941, Hunziker and Kraft defined tourism as "the sum of the phenomena and relationships
arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent
residence and are not connected with any earning activity. In 1976, the Tourism Society of
England's definition was: "Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people
to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities
during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the
International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of
particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home.

In 1994, the United Nations identified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on
Tourism Statistics:

 Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country traveling only within this
country

 Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country

 Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country

The terms tourism and travel are sometimes used interchangeably. In this context, travel has a
similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The
terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the

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cultures or locations visited. By contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The
sociology of tourism has studied the cultural values underpinning these distinctions and their
implications for class relations.

Tourism Industry: Online Market

Tourism is the world's largest service industry and accounts about 14% of the world's GDP. In
spite of great potential and significance of tourism industry, it is having untapped market yet.
The wide usage of internet has increased its reach around the globe. Electronic medium is
being used in tourism industry in many countries in several ways. Itinerary planning, costing,
tickets, accommodation etc. are now available online. People all over the world are
experiencing online medium as helpful for availing tourism products and services. Both
tourism suppliers and tourism agencies have started to offer their products and services
directly online to consumers (Standing & Vasudavan, 2004). Usage of web-based approaches
help to reduce the service costs of the tourism service providers. On the contrary, the
prospective consumers benefit from the online mechanism in the form of easy accessibility,
getting up-to-date information, have detailed view of the tourist product catalogues, compare
tourism packages and destinations, make bookings and online money transfers. Many studies
have been conducted on tourism e-commerce in developed countries and their impact on
customer satisfaction.
The paper aims to unveil the various priority factors affecting the customer satisfaction with
reference to online purchasing of tourism products.

Total volume of cross-border tourist travel

International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011,
and 952 million in 2010. In 2011 and 2012, international travel demand continued to recover
from the losses resulting from the late-2000s recession, where tourism suffered a strong
slowdown from the second half of 2008 through the end of 2009. After a 5% increase in the
first half of 2008, growth in international tourist arrivals moved into negative territory in the
second half of 2008, and ended up only 2% for the year, compared to a 7% increase in
2007.The negative trend intensified during 2009, exacerbated in some countries due to the
outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, resulting in a worldwide decline of 4.2% in 2009 to

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880 million international tourists arrivals, and a 5.7% decline in international tourism
receipts.

World’s top tourism destinations

The World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in
terms of the number of international travelers in 2016.

International
UNWTO tourist
Rank Country
Region arrivals
(2016)

1 France Europe 86.2 million

2 United States North America 80.3 million

3 Spain Europe 75.6 million

4 China Asia 59.3 million

5 Italy Europe 52.5 million

6 United Kingdom Europe 35.8 million

7 Germany Europe 35.6 million

8 Mexico North America 35.0 million

9 Thailand Asia 32.6 million

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 International
UNWTO tourist
Rank Country
Region arrivals
(2016)

32.0 million
10 Turkey Europe

World Travel & Tourism Council - Countries that performed best in fastest
growing tourism and travel industry in 2016

Countries Performed Best In 2016

Rank Country Percentage

1 Azerbaijan 46.1%

2 Mongolia 24.4%

3 Iceland 20.1%

4 Cyprus 15.4%

5 Kazakhstan 15.2%

6 Moldova 14.2%

7 Costa Rica 12.1%

8 Georgia 11.2%

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Countries Performed Best In 2016

Rank Country Percentage

9 Sri Lanka 10.7%

10.7%
10 Thailand

History

Travel outside a person's local area for leisure was largely confined to wealthy classes, who at
times travelled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings and works of art, learn new
languages, experience new cultures, and to taste different cuisines. As early as Shulgi,
however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for
travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular
among the rich. Pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient
China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, all five Sacred
Mountains.

Middle Ages

By the Middle Ages, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam all had traditions of pilgrimage that
motivated even the lower classes to undertake distant journeys for health or spiritual
improvement, seeing the sights along the way. The Islamic hajj is still central to its faith
and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West remain classics
of English and Chinese literature.

The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi (11th
century) and Fan Chengda (12th century) become popular in China. Under the Ming, Xu
Xiake continued the practice. In medieval Italy, Francesco Petrarch also wrote an allegorical
account of his 1336 ascent of Mount Ventoux that praised the act of traveling and
criticized frigida incuriositas ("cold lack of curiosity"). The Burgundian poet Michault

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Taillevent (fr) later composed his own horrified recollections of a 1430 trip through the Jura
Mountains.

Grand Tour

Modern tourism can be traced to what was known as the Grand Tour, which was a traditional
trip around Europe (especially Germany and Italy), undertaken by mainly upper-
class European young men of means, mainly from Western and Northern European countries.
In 1624, young Prince of Poland, Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, the eldest son and heir
of Sigismund III, embarked for a journey across Europe, as was in custom among Polish
nobility.He travelled through territories of today's Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, where he
admired the Siege of Breda by Spanish forces, France, Switzerland to Italy, Austria
and Czechia. It was an educational journey and one of the outcomes was introduction
of Italian opera in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the
1840s, and generally followed a standard itinerary. It was an educational opportunity and rite
of passage. Though primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry,
similar trips were made by wealthy young men of Protestant Northern European nations on
the Continent, and from the second half of the 18th century some South American, US, and
other overseas youth joined in. The tradition was extended to include more of the middle
class after rail and steamship travel made the journey easier, and Thomas Cook made the
"Cook's Tour" a byword.

The Grand Tour became a real status symbol for upper class students in the 18th and 19th
centuries. In this period, Johann Joachim Winckelmann's theories about the supremacy of
classic culture became very popular and appreciated in the European academic world. Artists,
writers and travellers (such as Goethe) affirmed the supremacy of classic art of which Italy,
France and Greece provide excellent examples. For these reasons, the Grand Tour's main
destinations were to those centres, where upper-class students could find rare examples of
classic art and history.

Innovation in tourism

Innovation in the tourism industry has been defined as "a process of implementing positive
and new ideas into business practice . More generally innovation in tourism "refers to the
process of bringing any new, problem solving idea into use. Ideas for reorganizing, cutting
cost, putting in new budgetary systems, improving communication or assembling products in

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teams are also innovations. Innovation is the generation, acceptance and implementation of
new ideas, processes, products or services. Acceptance and implementation is central to this
definition; it involves the capacity to change and adapt"

There has been an up-trend in tourism over the last few decades, especially in Europe, where
international travel for short breaks is common. Tourists have a wide range of budgets and
tastes, and a wide variety of resorts and hotels have developed to cater for them. For example,
some people prefer simple beach vacations, while others want more specialised holidays,
quieter resorts, family-oriented holidays, or niche market-targeted destination hotels.

The developments in technology and transport infrastructure, such as jumbo jets, low-cost
airlines, and more accessible airports have made many types of tourism more affordable.
The WHO estimated in 2009 that there are around half a million people on board aircraft at
any given time. There have also been changes in lifestyle, for example some retirement-age
people sustain year round tourism. This is facilitated by internet sales of tourist services.
Some sites have now started to offer dynamic packaging, in which an inclusive price is
quoted for a tailor-made package requested by the customer upon impulse.

There have been a few setbacks in tourism, such as the September 11 attacks and terrorist
threats to tourist destinations, such as in Bali and several European cities. Also, on 26
December 2004, a tsunami, caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, hit the Asian
countries on the Indian Ocean, including the Maldives. Thousands of lives were lost including
many tourists. This, together with the vast clean-up operations, stopped or severely hampered
tourism in the area for a time.

Individual low-price or even zero-price overnight stays have become more popular in the
2000s, especially with a strong growth in the hostel market and services like Surfing
and airbnb being established. There has also been examples of jurisdictions wherein a
significant portion of GDP is being spent on altering the primary sources of revenue towards
tourism, as has occurred for instance in Dubai.

Cruising shiping

Cruising is a popular form of water tourism. Leisure cruise ships were introduced by
the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company(P&O) in 1844, sailing
from Southampton to destinations such as Gibraltar, Malta and Athens. In 1891, German
businessman Albert Ballin sailed the ship Augusta Victoria from Hamburg into the

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Mediterranean Sea. In 1900, one of the first purpose-built cruise ships was Prinzessin Victoria
Luise, built in Hamburg.

Niche tourism

For a more comprehensive list, see List of adjectival tourisms

Niche tourism refers to the numerous specialty forms of tourism that have emerged over the
years, each with its own adjective. Many of these terms have come into common use by the
tourism industry and academics. Others are emerging concepts that may or may not gain
popular usage. Examples of the more common niche tourism markets are:

 Agritourism

 Astronomy tourism

 Birth tourism

 Dark tourism

 Culinary tourism

 Cultural tourism
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 Extreme tourism

 Ecotourism

 Heritage tourism

 LGBT tourism

 Medical tourism

 Nautical tourism

 Pop-culture tourism

 Religious tourism

 Sex tourism

 Slum tourism

 Sports tourism

 Virtual tourism

 War tourism

 Wellness tourism

 Wildlife tourism

Other terms used for niche or specialty travel forms include the term "destination" in the
descriptions, such as destination weddings, and terms such as location vacation.

Innovation in tourism

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Innovation in the tourism industry has been defined as "a process of implementing positive
and new ideas into business practice”. More generally innovation in tourism "refers to the
process of bringing any new, problem solving idea into use. Ideas for reorganizing, cutting
cost, putting in new budgetary systems, improving communication or assembling products in
teams are also innovations. Innovation is the generation, acceptance and implementation of
new ideas, processes, products or services. Acceptance and implementation is central to this
definition; it involves the capacity to change and adapt.

Recent development

There has been an up-trend in tourism over the last few decades especially in Europe, where
international travel for short breaks is common. Tourists have a wide range of budgets and
tastes, and a wide variety of resorts and hotels have developed to cater for them. For example,
some people prefer simple beach vacations, while others want more specialised holidays,
quieter resorts, family-oriented holidays, or niche market-targeted destination hotels.

The developments in technology and transport infrastructure, such as jumbo jets, low-cost
airlines, and more accessible airports have made many types of tourism more affordable.
The WHO estimated in 2009 that there are around half a million people on board aircraft at
any given time.There have also been changes in lifestyle, for example some retirement-age
people sustain year round tourism. This is facilitated by internet sales of tourist services.
Some sites have now started to offer dynamic packaging, in which an inclusive price is
quoted for a tailor-made package requested by the customer upon impulse.

There have been a few setbacks in tourism, such as the September 11 attacks and terrorist
threats to tourist destinations, such as in Bali and several European cities. Also, on 26
December 2004, a tsunami, caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, hit the Asian
countries on the Indian Ocean, including the Maldives. Thousands of lives were lost including
many tourists. This, together with the vast clean-up operations, stopped or severely hampered
tourism in the area for a time.

Individual low-price or even zero-price overnight stays have become more popular in the
2000s, especially with a strong growth in the hostel market and services like Couch Surfing
and airing being established. There has also been examples of jurisdictions wherein a
significant portion of GDP is being spent on altering the primary sources of revenue towards
tourism, as has occurred for instance in Dubai.

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Sustainable tourism

"Sustainable tourism is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way

that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity,
essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems." (World Tourism
Organization)

Sustainable development implies "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (World Commission on Environment
and Development, 1987)

Sustainable tourism can be seen as having regard to ecological and social-cultural carrying
capacities and includes involving the community of the destination in tourism development
planning. It also involves integrating tourism to match current economic and growth policies
so as to mitigate some of the negative economic and social impacts of 'mass tourism'. Murphy
(1985) advocates the use of an 'ecological approach', to consider both 'plants' and 'people'
when implementing the sustainable tourism development process. This is in contrast to the
'boosterism' and 'economic' approaches to tourism planning, neither of which consider the
detrimental ecological or sociological impacts of tourism development to a destination.

However, Butler questions the exposition of the term 'sustainable' in the context of tourism,
citing its ambiguity and stating that "the emerging sustainable development philosophy of the
1990s can be viewed as an extension of the broader realization that a preoccupation with
economic growth without regard to its social and environmental consequences is self-
defeating in the long term." Thus 'sustainable tourism development' is seldom considered as
an autonomous function of economic regeneration as separate from general economic growth.

Ecotourism

Ecotourism, also known as ecological tourism, is responsible travel to fragile, pristine, and
usually protected areas that strives to be low-impact and (often) small-scale. It helps educate
the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and
political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for
human rights. Take only memories and leave only footprints is a very common slogan in
protected areas. Tourist destinations are shifting to low carbon emissions following the trend
of visitors more focused in being environmentally responsible adopting a sustainable
behavior.

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Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer tourism is growing as a largely Western phenomenon, with volunteers travelling to

aid those less fortunate than themselves in order to counter global inequalities. Wearing
(2001) defines volunteer tourism as applying “to those tourists who, for various reasons,
volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating
the material poverty of some groups in society. VSO was founded in the UK in 1958 and the
US Peace Corps was subsequently founded in 1960. These were the first large scale voluntary
sending organizations, initially arising to modernize less economically developed countries,
which it was hoped would curb the influence of communism

This form of tourism is largely praised for its more sustainable approach to travel, with
tourists attempting to assimilate into local cultures, and avoiding the criticisms of
consumptive and exploitative mass tourism. However, increasingly volunteerism is being
criticized by scholars who suggest it may have negative effects as it begins to undermine local
labor, and force unwilling host communities to adopt Western initiatives, while host
communities without a strong heritage fail to retain volunteers who become dissatisfied with
experiences and volunteer shortages persist. Increasingly organizations such as VSO have
been concerned with community-centric volunteer programmers where power to control the
future of the community is in the hands of local people.

Pro-poor tourism

Pro-poor tourism, which seeks to help the poorest people in developing countries, has been
receiving increasing attention by those involved in development; the issue has been addressed
through small-scale projects in local communities and through attempts by Ministries of
Tourism to attract large numbers of tourists. Research by the Overseas Development
Institute suggests that neither is the best way to encourage tourists' money to reach the
poorest as only 25% or less (far less in some cases) ever reaches the poor; successful
examples of money reaching the poor include mountain-climbing in Tanzania and cultural
tourism in Luang Prabang, Laos. There is also the possibility of pro-poor tourism principles
being adopted in centre sites of regeneration in the developed world.

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Recession tourism

Recession tourism is a travel trend which evolved by way of the world economic crisis.
Recession tourism is defined by low-cost and high-value experiences taking place of once-
popular generic retreats. Various recession tourism hotspots have seen business boom during
the recession thanks to comparatively low costs of living and a slow world job market
suggesting travelers are elongating trips where their money travels further. This concept is not
widely used in tourism research. It is related to the short-lived phenomenon that is more
widely known as staycation.

Medical tourism

When there is a significant price difference between countries for a given medical procedure,
particularly in Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe, Cuba and Canada where there are
different regulatory regimes, in relation to particular medical procedures (e.g. dentistry),
traveling to take advantage of the price or regulatory differences is often referred to as
"medical tourism".

Educational tourism

Educational tourism is developed because of the growing popularity of teaching and learning
of knowledge and the enhancing of technical competency outside of classroom environment.
In educational tourism, the main focus of the tour or leisure activity includes visiting another
country to learn about the culture, study tours, or to work and apply skills learned inside the
classroom in a different environment, such as in the International Practicum Training
Program.

Creative tourism

Creative tourism has existed as a form of cultural tourism, since the early beginnings of
tourism itself. Its European roots date back to the time of the Grand Tour, which saw the sons
of aristocratic families traveling for the purpose of mostly interactive, educational
experiences. More recently, creative tourism has been given its own name by Crispin
Raymond and Greg Richards, who as members of the Association for Tourism and Leisure
Education (ATLAS), have directed a number of projects for the European Commission,
including cultural and crafts tourism, known as sustainable tourism. They have defined
"creative tourism" as tourism related to the active participation of travellers in the culture of
the host community, through interactive workshops and informal learning experiences.

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Meanwhile, the concept of creative tourism has been picked up by high-profile organizations
such as UNESCO, who through the Creative Cities Network, have endorsed creative tourism
as an engaged, authentic experience that promotes an active understanding of the specific
cultural features of a place.

More recently, creative tourism has gained popularity as a form of cultural tourism, drawing
on active participation by travelers in the culture of the host communities they visit. Several
countries offer examples of this type of tourism development, including the United Kingdom,
Austria, France, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Spain, Italy and New Zealand.

The growing interest of tourists in this new way to discover a culture regards particularly the
operators and branding managers, attentive to the possibility of attracting a quality tourism,
highlighting the intangible heritage (craft workshops, cooking classes, etc.) and optimizing
the use of existing infrastructure (for example, through the rent of halls and auditorium).

Experiential tourism

Experiential travel (or "immersion travel") is one of the major market trends in the modern
tourism industry. It is an approach to travelling which focuses on experiencing a country, city
or particular place by connecting to its history, people, food and culture.

The term “Experiential travel” is already mentioned in publications from 1985 – however it
was discovered as a meaningful market trend much later.

Dark tourism

One emerging area of special interest has been identified by Lennon and Foley
(2000)as "dark" tourism. This type of tourism involves visits to "dark" sites, such as
battlegrounds, scenes of horrific crimes or acts of genocide, for example concentration
camps. Dark tourism remains a small niche market, driven by varied motivations, such as
mourning, remembrance, education, macabre curiosity or even entertainment. Its origins are
rooted in fairgrounds and medieval fairs.

Philip Stone argues that dark tourism is a way of imagining one's own death through the real
death of others. Erik H Cohen introduces the term "populo sites" to evidence the educational
character of dark tourism. Populo sites transmit the story of victimized people to visitors.
Based on a study at Yad Vashem, the Shoah (Holocaust) memorial museum in Jerusalem, a
new term—in populo—is proposed to describe dark tourism sites at a spiritual and population
center of the people to whom a tragedy befell. Learning about the Shoah in Jerusalem offers

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an encounter with the subject which is different from visits to sites in Europe, but equally
authentic. It is argued that a dichotomy between "authentic" sites at the location of a tragedy
and "created" sites elsewhere is insufficient. Participants' evaluations of seminars for
European teachers at Yad Vashem indicate that the location is an important aspect of a
meaningful encounter with the subject. Implications for other cases of dark tourism at in
populo locations are discussed. In this vein, Peter Tarlow defines dark tourism as the
tendency to visit the scenes of tragedies or historically noteworthy deaths, which continue to
impact our lives. This issue cannot be understood without the figure of trauma.Following
this, Maximiliano Korstanje explains that tourism serves as an scapegoat mechanism used in
order for society does not collapse. This is the reason why tourists look for something special,
something new beyond their nearest residential home. The quest for "Otherness" leads not
only to maximize pleasure but also provides a pedagogical message to the us In the context of
disasters and tragedies, dark tourism may revitalize the lost trust giving a positive value that
helps community in the process of recovery. Tourism is in fact an instrument of resiliency that
paves the ways for the society to be united

Social tourism

Social tourism is making tourism available to poor people who otherwise could not afford to
travel for their education or recreation. It includes youth hostels and low-priced holiday
accommodation run by church and voluntary organizations, trade unions, or in Communist
times publicly owned enterprises. In May 1959, at the second Congress of Social Tourism in
Austria, Walter Henniker proposed the following definition: "Social tourism is a type of
tourism practiced by low income groups, and which is rendered possible and facilitated by
entirely separate and therefore easily recognizable services

Doom tourism

Also known as "Tourism of Doom," or "Last Chance Tourism" this emerging trend involves
traveling to places that are environmentally or otherwise threatened (such as the ice caps
of Mount Kilimanjaro, the melting glaciers of Patagonia, or the coral of the Great Barrier
Reef) before it is too late. Identified by travel trade magazine Travel Age West editor-in-chief
Kenneth Shapiro in 2007 and later explored in The New York Times, this type of tourism is
believed to be on the rise. Some see the trend as related to sustainable
tourism or ecotourism due to the fact that a number of these tourist destinations are
considered threatened by environmental factors such as global warming, overpopulation or

16
climate change. Others worry that travel to many of these threatened locations increases an
individual’s footprint and only hastens problems threatened locations are already facing.

Religious tourism

Religious tourism, in particular religious travel, is used to strengthen faith and show devotion
both of which are central tenets of many major religions. Religious tourists seek destinations
whose image encourages them to believe that they can strengthen the religious elements of
their self-identity in a positive manner. Given this, the perceived image of a destination may
be positively influenced by whether it conforms to the requirements of their religious self-
identity or not.

Space tourism

There has been a limited amount of orbital space tourism, with only the Russian Space
Agency providing transport to date. A 2010 report into space tourism anticipated that it could
become a billion dollar market by 2030.

Sports tourism

Since the late 1980s, sports tourism has become increasingly popular. Events such as rugby,
Olympics, Commonwealth games, Asian Games and football World Cups have enabled
specialist travel companies to gain official ticket allocation and then sell them in packages
that include flights, hotels and excursions.

The focus on sport and spreading knowledge on the subject, especially more so recently, led
to the increase in the sport tourism. Most notably, the international event such as the
Olympics caused a shift in focus in the audience who now realize the variety of sports that
exist in the world. In the United States, one of the most popular sports that usually are
focused on was Football. This popularity was increased through major events like the World
Cups. In Asian countries, the numerous football events also increased the popularity of
football. But, it was the Olympics that brought together the different sports that led to the
increase in sport tourism. The drastic interest increase in sports in general and not just one
sport caught the attention of travel companies, who then began to sell flights in packages.
Due to the low number of people who actually purchase these packages than predicted, the
cost of these packages plummeted initially. As the number start to rise slightly the packages
increased to regain the lost profits. With the certain economic state, the number of purchases

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decreased once again. The fluctuation in the number of packages sold was solely dependent
on the economic situation, therefore, most travel companies were forced to set aside the plan
to execute the marketing of any new package features.

Growth

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) forecasts that international tourism will continue
growing at the average annual rate of 4%.With the advent of e-commerce, tourism products
have become one of the most traded items on the internet. Tourism products and services
have been made available through intermediaries, although tourism providers (hotels, airlines,
etc.), including small-scale operators, can sell their services directly. This has put pressure on
intermediaries from both on-line and traditional shops.

It has been suggested there is a strong correlation between tourism expenditure per capita and
the degree to which countries play in the global context. Not only as a result of the important
economic contribution of the tourism industry, but also as an indicator of the degree of
confidence with which global citizens leverage the resources of the globe for the benefit of
their local economies. This is why any projections of growth in tourism may serve as an
indication of the relative influence that each country will exercise in the future.

Latest trend

As a result of the late-2000s recession, international arrivals suffered a strong slowdown

beginning in June 2008. Growth from 2007 to 2008 was only 3.7% during the first eight
months of 2008. This slowdown on international tourism demand was also reflected in the air
transport industry, with a negative growth in September 2008 and a 3.3% growth in passenger
traffic through September. The hotel industry also reported a slowdown, with room
occupancy declining. In 2009 worldwide tourism arrivals decreased by 3.8%.By the first
quarter of 2009, real travel demand in the United States had fallen 6% over six quarters.
While this is considerably milder than what occurred after the 9/11 attacks, the decline was at
twice the rate as real GDP has fallen.

However, evidence suggests that tourism as a global phenomenon shows no signs of

substantially abating in the long term. It has been suggested that travel is necessary in order to
maintain relationships, as social life is increasingly networked and conducted at a

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distance. For many people vacations and travel are increasingly being viewed as a necessity
rather than a luxury, and this is reflected in tourist numbers recovering some 6.6% globally
over 2009, with growth up to 8% in emerging economies.

Tourism in India is economically important and is growing rapidly. The World Travel &
Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated ₹14.02 lakh crore (US$220 billion) or
9.6% of the nation's GDP in 2016 and supported 40.343 million jobs, 9.3% of its total
employment. The sector is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 6.8% to ₹28.49 lakh
crore (US$440 billion) by 2027 (10% of GDP). In October 2015, India's medical tourism
sector was estimated to be worth US$3 billion. It is projected to grow to $7–8 billion by
2020. In 2014, 184,298 foreign patients traveled to India to seek medical treatment.

About 88.90 lakh (8.89 million) foreign tourists arrived in India in 2016 compared to 80.27
lakh (8.027 million) in 2015, recording a growth of 10.7%. Domestic tourist visits to all states
and Union Territories numbered 1,036.35 million in 2012, an increase of 16.5% from 2011. In
2014, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were the most popular states for
tourists. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Agra and Jaipur have been the five most visited cities of
India by foreign tourists during the year 2015. Worldwide, Delhi is ranked at 28 by the
number of foreign tourist arrivals, while Mumbai is ranked at 30, Chennai at 43, Agra at 45,
Jaipur at 52 and Kolkata at 90.

The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 ranks India 40th out of 136 countries
overall. The report ranks the price competitiveness of India's tourism sector 10th out of 136
countries. It mentions that India has quite good air transport (ranked 32nd), particularly given
the country’s stage of development, and reasonable ground transport infrastructure (ranked
29th). The country also scores high on natural and cultural resources (ranked 9th). Some other
aspects of its tourism infrastructure remain somewhat underdeveloped however. The nation
has very few hotel rooms per capita by international comparison and
low ATM penetration. The World Tourism Organization reported that India's receipts from
tourism during 2012 ranked 16th in the world, and 7th among Asian and Pacific countries.

The Ministry of Tourism designs national policies for the development and promotion of
tourism. In the process, the Ministry consults and collaborates with other stakeholders in the
sector including various Central Ministries/agencies, state governments, Union Territories and
the representatives of the private sector. Concerted efforts are being made to promote new
forms of tourism such as rural, cruise, medical and eco-tourism. The Ministry also maintains
the Incredible India campaign focused on promoting tourism.

19
VISA POLICY OF INDIA

India

Visa not required

e-Tourist Visa

Visa required

India requires citizens of most countries to have a valid passport and apply for a visa at their
local Indian embassy or consulate, before they travel. They can apply directly by mail or in
person, or through their local travel services company. India has recently implemented an
online method for citizens of 40 countries to apply and receive an e-Tourist Visa. Nationals
of Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal do not require a visa. Citizens of Afghanistan, Argentina,
Bangladesh, DPR Korea, Jamaica, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nepal, South Africa and
Uruguay are not required to pay a fee when obtaining Indian visa.

A Protected Area Permit (PAP) is required to enter the states of Nagaland and Sikkim and
some parts of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and
Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal. A Restricted Area Permit (RAP) is

20
required to enter the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and parts of Sikkim. Special permits are
needed to enter Lakshadweep Islands.

e-Tourist Visa

In order to boost tourism, the Indian Government implemented a new visa policy in
November 2014 that allows visitors to obtain a visa on arrival at 16 designated international
airports by acquiring an Electronic Travel Authorization online before arrival without having
to visit an Indian consulate or visa centre. As a result, 56,477 tourists arrived on an e-Tourist
Visa during the October 2015 compared to 2,705 during October 2014, an increase of
1987.9%. During January–October 2015 a total of 2,58,182 tourists arrived on an e-Tourist
Visa as compared with 21,995 during January–October 2014, an increase of 1073.8%.

On 27 November 2014, India introduced its visa on arrival enabled by ETA facility for
tourists and business visitors, to citizens of following countries –

Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cook

Islands, Djibouti, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, La
os, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, New
Zealand, Niue, Norway, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Papua New
Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South
Korea, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, USA, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

The facility was extended to China, Macau and Hong Kong on 30 July 2015. The facility
was further extended to citizens of Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Belgium, Bolivia,
Colombia, Cuba, East Timor, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Jamaica, Malta, Malaysia,
Mongolia, Monaco, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal,
Seychelles, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Surinam, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom,
Uruguay and Venezuela on 15 August 2015.

The visa on arrival requires a tourist to apply online on a secure Government of India
website, at least 4 to 30 days before the date of travel. If approved, the passenger must print
and carry the approved visa with the travel documents. The visa allows holders of Electronic
Travel Authorization (ETA) to enter and stay anywhere in India for 30 days. The ETA can be
obtained twice in a single calendar year. The visa on arrival facility is expected to be
expanded to about 180 countries over time. In April 2015 the scheme was renamed to e-
Tourist Visa in order to avoid confusion.

21
Foreign and domestic tourist visits by State

Share of top 10 states of India in number of foreign tourist visits in 2015

Rank State/Union Territory Number Share in %

1 Tamil Nadu 4,684,707 20.1

2 Maharashtra 4,408,916 18.9

3 Uttar Pradesh 3,104,062 13.3

4 Delhi 2,379,169 10.2

5 Rajasthan 1,489,500 6.4

6 West Bengal 1,475,311 6.3

7 Kerala 977,479 4.2

8 Bihar 923,737 4.0

9 Karnataka 636,502 2.7

10 Goa 541,480 2.3

22
Total of top 10 states 20,620,863 88.4

Others 2,705,300 11.6

Total 23,326,163 100

Share of top 10 states of India in number of domestic tourist visits in 2015

Rank State/Union Territory Number Share in %

1 Tamil Nadu 333,459,047 23.3

2 Uttar Pradesh 204,888,457 14.3

3 Andhra Pradesh 121,591,054 8.5

4 Karnataka 119,863,942 8.4

5 Maharashtra 103,403,934 7.2

6 Telangana 94,516,316 6.6

7 Madhya Pradesh 77,975,738 5.4

8 West Bengal 70,193,450 4.9

9 Gujarat 36,288,463 2.5

10 Rajasthan 35,187,573 2.5

Total of top 10 states 1,197,367,974 83.6

Others 234,605,820 16.4

23
 Total 1,431,973,794 100

INTRODUCTION TO COMPANY

With the motto of ‗Be a Traveller High Mountains, is one of the leading travel organizations
that offers an array of services to its travellers, our wide range of memorable holiday options
ensures that you truly get the holiday you deserve. High Mountains is the leading provider of
travel services including cheap flight + hotel vacation deals around the world, which is
suitable for travel reservations for business, holiday vacations, backpacking and other
discount trips.

We Love Travelling! And because we understand the needs of a Traveller, we at High

Mountains make sure our Travellers do not hustle about anything so, we take care of your
travel + accommodation + food + sightseeing and everything else you can think of with the
sole objective of making your trip a beautiful memory.

High Mountains understand their traveller‘s need that‘s why High Mountains offer deals for
travellers to earn money through their mobile app and explore the world for free.

With a large number of features like being a guide, write blogs, become an Entrepreneur and
etc. Their Travellers get an opportunity to make some money by using High Mountains app.
So, if you are planning for vacations with your family or friends, don‘t forget to explore High
Mountains.

They offer the tour in various Categories suitable with all kind of their customers, these
categories are listed as following: -

 HM Social (Himachal Pradesh)

 Summer Vacations

24
  International Tour Packages

 Off Beat Tours

High Mountains also provide a feature to their customer to plan their tour according to their
requirement and Comfort. They provide 24/7 customer support services to make their
customer tours problem free.

With the large base of happy customers, High Mountains is a leading tour and travel service
provider in India.

Following is the list of services offer by the High Mountains: -

 Customized Tour Packages

 Easy Booking

 24/7 Support

 +120 Premium City Tours

 Delightful Customer Experience

PROCESS

It is a standard Business Development process followed by the company and ask me to

follow, it is basic process followed by every startup company in order to approach a clients
initially. Sometimes they may send teaser E-mailer of a similar domain to the clients before
approaching them.

1. Market Analysis and Market Research

25
2. Database Creation of clients
3. Cold Calling
4. Fixing meeting
5. Proposal Making for Clients
6. Project Closure

PROCESS 1 – MARKET ANALYSIS AND MARKET RESEARCH

Market research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or
customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The first step of business
development process is to know your target audience well before approaching them. The
main objective behind the market analysis and research of target audience is to know their
online presence and how active they are on web. Market research also helps to estimate the
online marketing opportunities of different sectors over the periods. The intense research is
required while studying the online habits of different sectors keeping competitors in mind.
The proper market research make your task easier while talking to clients as you know about
them well in advance, which help you to answer their question. And can better explain the
clients how they can use web as a medium of approaching the customers in a short span of
time. Market Research includes research about the different sectors. Currently we are
targeting on Travel, Real Estate Sector, Education sectors, Fitness, jeweler in Pune. It
includes study of digital habits of the target sector, their online presence, their online need,
etc. After market research comes the database creation.

PROCESS 2 – DATABASE CREATION OF CLIENTS

The second step is database creation; once the market is analyzed the database of sector is
created for a company treasure for future. Database creation includes recording the details of
the clients like company details, their online presence, concerned person from marketing
department and their contact details. During my internship I have created almost six different
sectors database as company wants to target different sectors for exploring themselves
26
PROCESS 3 – COLD CALLING

Cold calling is the sales process of approaching prospective customers or clients—typically

via telephone, by email or through making a connection on a social network—who were not
expecting such an interaction. The word "cold" is used because the person receiving the call is
not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person. A cold call
is usually the start of a sales process generally known as telemarketing. The next step is cold
calling. It includes contacting the concerned person, explaining him/her in brief about the
organization, conveying that person how digital marketing is helpful for their organization to
achieve online presence, traffic, leads and branding. My company guide shared a call script
with me and also explained me how to talk, what to talk, the way we should talk to concern
person. He also explains how to get a concern person number (director or marketing person)
from the office people. The main objective of cold calling is to fix the maximum meetings
with a concern person so that further points can be discussed in detail with them. Cold calling
is a first interaction with a concern person and everyone knows first impression is a last
impression. He taught me the way how first impression is made. During my internship total
numbers of calls made by me was 82, calls to real estate sector and fitness sector.

PROCESS 4 – FIXING MEETINGS

The next step is fixing meeting, it stage little critical for a startup, convincing the clients and
ask them to meet you is biggest challenge, But that‘s a feel of work. Talking to different
people of different traits was a good experience and successfully fixes the 8 meetings out of
which 3 was attended by me and 1 was converted. Actual meeting gave you the reality check
where you are when your clients know everything, shoots the too many questions and ask
you how you are better than other. At that time you understand the difference between the
dorm rooms to the boardroom.

PROCESS 5 – PROPOSAL MAKING

The fifth step is proposal making once meeting is done with a concern person where the
various aspects has been discussed already, and the client requirement can known accordingly

27
the proposal is made for them enlisting all his requirement related to digital marketing.
Proposal includes following details:

a) Services needed by the client. These services include SEO, SEM, SMM, ODA, ORM, etc
b) Proper segmentation and targeting according to sector. Eg. If an MBA Education
Institute wants digital marketing services for branding, promotion and lead generation,
then our target market would be, students who have completed their graduation and
professionals with 2-3 years of experience who can opt for Executive MBA.

c) Detailed explanation of how we will be providing them each service.

d) It also includes the pricing details of the service

28
PROCESS 6 – PROJECT CLOSURE

The final stage is project closure; if all the stage works that means you are close to crack the
deal. Once the deal is cracked the further decision are taken like, preparing the strategies for
the same as per the clients requirement or the digital marketing channels choose by him/her.
Company make an roadmap or a weekly /monthly plans of the each channel separately and
get the approval from the client to execute the plan and once it approved the plan actually
come into an action.

OTHER TASK - CONTENT WRITING

Content writing like any other form of writing requires in depth knowledge and great skill.
The success of any write-ups depends on the quality and authenticity of the content of the
website. Content writing though does not follow a specific format, yet is certainly guided by
some fundamental principles. How to write an effective content? Focus on your customers:

remember, your website will gain acceptance among your viewers only if it has something to
offer them. Choose a simple, impersonal style: your readers are not interested in judging your
scholarship. You have maximum of 15 seconds to grab your visitor‘s attention. I have been
told the way I need to frame a content of a different target sectors. The company actually
wanted to have a research about how online marketing helped such sectors in their success.

Performance standards

(a) Quality

(b) Cost(investments, expenses, costs)

(c) Schedule

(d) Team

(e) Improvement Initiatives

(f) Client‘s Responsibilities

29
 INTRODUCTION TO TOPIC

“Consumer satisfaction is the concept that measures the degree to which the products or
services of a business meet consumer’s expectations.”

“Online tours and travels bookings” is a web enabled interface between the company and its
target customer for selling the services of holidays and travelling through online bookings.

It has become very efficient way to offer valuable information to the customers like holiday
packages, various discounts.

Thus, here the topic is to study the satisfaction level of customer with respect to the digital
marketing.

It was mentioned that E-tourism firms use internet to better serve their customers. Customer
relationship management is a crucial subject which firms take special attention to, which
directly or indirectly results in Customer satisfaction, Customer loyalty and finally Customer
retention. Among these concepts customer satisfaction can relatively influence customer
loyalty and retention which in turns increases firms profit and efficiency. The group believed
that the mentioned items can cause the convenience in E-tourism comparing with the time
that customers are purchasing from traditional travel agencies.

This study is going to fill this gap by finding the important factors which can lead to E-
satisfaction in the tourism industry. E-commerce provides new channels for the global
marketing of products and services, and presents opportunities to create new businesses
providing information and other knowledge-based intangible products

First, E-commerce improves the promotion of products and services through direct,
interactive and rich information contact with customers, Second, E-commerce establishes a
direct online distribution channel, Third, E-commerce causes savings in administrative and
communication costs, Fourth, E-commerce enhances customer service by enabling customers
to find detailed information online, and by answering standard E-mail questions with
intelligent agents and human expert systems. Finally, customers need less time to find more
information upon tourism products and make comparisons.

30
Customer satisfaction in online marketing has been an eminent research topic due to absence of
face to face interface between the customer and service provider. The literature review has been
done to uncover the varied factors affecting the mindset of the customers while shopping online.
Survey has been conducted by distributing questionnaires selected cities of India to gather data
for this research. An attempt has been made to study customer satisfaction after purchasing any
tourism product or services online. The result of the study established that even though online
purchasing is easier but there are factors which inhibit customers at times to make online
purchase. Bivariate Correlation has been applied between customer satisfaction and key factors
resisting online marketing. The study offers managerial implications to make the marketing of
online tourism products more effective.

Customer satisfaction is eminent topic in several fields like marketing, consumer research and
psychology. Numerous authors have analyzed satisfaction is a feeling which is a consequence of
the assessing process which notifies what has been received against what was expected,
including the purchase decision and needs associated with the purchase. However, satisfaction is
the evaluation made by customers about a product or service, whether it has met with needs or
expectations (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003).
Thus the customer satisfaction has always been important field for academicians and
practitioners from past 3 decades as customers are the primary source of firms’ revenues.
Online shopping is buying through electronic medium where one can make purchases over the
internet at any point of time. An online shop where buying of products and services takes place
directly with consumers is known as Business to Consumer (B2C) online shopping. On the
contrary where business buys from another business is called business to business (B2B) online
shopping. There are many online portals like Amazon.com, e-bay, Jabong.com, flipkart, Myntra,
snapdeal etc. which offers a wide range of products for the consumers.
The rapid growth of online marketing has changed the customer shopping experience. Nowadays
everybody wants to shop online due to its benefits, such as convenience, usefulness, ease-of-use,
quick services, 24/7 availability and so on. People are keen to stay at home or office and prefer
ordering the required products online may be to save time and to avoid standing in long queues.

31
Purpose

A business ideally is continually seeking feedback to improve customer satisfaction.

"Customer satisfaction provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase

intentions and loyalty." "Customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected
indicators of market perceptions. Their principal use is twofold:"

1. "Within organizations, the collection, analysis and dissemination of these data send a
message about the importance of tending to customers and ensuring that they have a
positive experience with the company's goods and services."[1]

2. "Although sales or market share can indicate how well a firm is performing currently,
satisfaction is perhaps the best indicator of how likely it is that the firm’s customers will
make further purchases in the future. Much research has focused on the relationship
between customer satisfaction and retention. Studies indicate that the ramifications of
satisfaction are most strongly realized at the extremes."

On a five-point scale, "individuals who rate their satisfaction level as '5' are likely to become
return customers and might even evangelize for the firm. (A second important metric related to
satisfaction is willingness to recommend. This metric is defined as "The percentage of surveyed
customers who indicate that they would recommend a brand to friends." When a customer is
satisfied with a product, he or she might recommend it to friends, relatives and colleagues. This
32
can be a powerful marketing advantage.) "Individuals who rate their satisfaction level as '1,' by
contrast, are unlikely to return. Further, they can hurt the firm by making negative comments
about it to prospective customers. Willingness to recommend is a key metric relating to customer
satisfaction."

Theoretical ground

"In literature antecedents of satisfaction are studied from different aspects. The considerations
extend from psychological to physical and from normative to positive aspects. However, in most
of the cases the consideration is focused on two basic constructs as customers expectations prior
to purchase or use of a product and his relative perception of the performance of that product
after using it.

Expectations of a customer on a product tell us his anticipated performance for that product. As it
is suggested in the literature, consumers may have various "types" of expectations when forming
opinions about a product's anticipated performance. For example, four types of expectations are
identified by Miller (1977): ideal, expected, minimum tolerable, and desirable. While, Day
(1977) indicated among expectations, the ones that are about the costs, the product nature, the
efforts in obtaining benefits and lastly expectations of social values. Perceived product
performance is considered as an important construct due to its ability to allow making
comparisons with the expectations.

It is considered that customers judge products on a limited set of norms and attributes. Olshavsky
and Miller (1972) and Olson and Dover (1976) designed their researches as to manipulate actual
product performance, and their aim was to find out how perceived performance ratings were
influenced by expectations. These studies took out the discussions about explaining the
differences between expectations and perceived performance."

In some research studies, scholars have been able to establish that customer satisfaction has a
strong emotional (i.e., affective component). Still others show that the cognitive and affective
components of customer satisfaction reciprocally influence each other over time to determine
overall satisfaction.

Especially for durable goods that are consumed over time, there is value to taking a dynamic
perspective on customer satisfaction. Within a dynamic perspective, customer satisfaction can
evolve over time as customers repeatedly use a product or interact with a service. The
33
satisfaction experienced with each interaction (transactional satisfaction) can influence the
overall, cumulative satisfaction. Scholars showed that it is not just overall customer satisfaction,
but also customer loyalty that evolves over time.

The Disconfirmation Model

"The Disconfirmation Model is based on the comparison of customers’ [expectations] and their
[perceived performance] ratings. Specifically, an individual’s expectations are confirmed when a
product performs as expected. It is negatively confirmed when a product performs more poorly
than expected. The disconfirmation is positive when a product performs over the expectations
(Churchill & Suprenant 1982). There are four constructs to describe the traditional
disconfirmation paradigm mentioned as expectations, performance, disconfirmation and
satisfaction." "Satisfaction is considered as an outcome of purchase and use, resulting from the
buyers’ comparison of expected rewards and incurred costs of the purchase in relation to the
anticipated consequences. In operation, satisfaction is somehow similar to attitude as it can be
evaluated as the sum of satisfactions with some features of product." "In the literature, cognitive
and affective models of satisfaction are also developed and considered as alternatives(Pfaff,
1977). Churchill and Suprenant in 1982, evaluated various studies in the literature and formed an
overview of Disconfirmation process in the following figure:"

Construction

Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers. Measuring

customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing
products and/or services to the marketplace.

"Customer satisfaction is measured at the individual level, but it is almost always reported at an
aggregate level. It can be, and often is, measured along various dimensions. A hotel, for example,
might ask customers to rate their experience with its front desk and check-in service, with the
room, with the amenities in the room, with the restaurants, and so on. Additionally, in a holistic
sense, the hotel might ask about overall satisfaction 'with your stay.'"

As research on consumption experiences grows, evidence suggests that consumers purchase

goods and services for a combination of two types of benefits: hedonic and utilitarian. Hedonic
benefits are associated with the sensory and experiential attributes of the product. Utilitarian

34
benefits of a product are associated with the more instrumental and functional attributes of the
product (Batra and Athola 1990).

Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the
state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The
state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which
correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction
can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against
which the customer can compare the organization's products.

Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides
the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between
the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This
provides the measurer with a satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in nature.
Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the "confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of
combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures
(perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance
according to expectation.

The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey using a Likert scale. The customer
is asked to evaluate each statement in terms of their perceptions and expectations of performance
of the organization being measured.

Good quality measures need to have high satisfaction loadings, good reliability, and low
error variances. In an empirical study comparing commonly used satisfaction measures it was
found that two multi-item semantic differential scales performed best across
both hedonic and utilitarian service consumption contexts. A study by Wirtz & Lee (2003), found
that a six-item 7-point semantic differential scale (for example, Oliver and Swan 1983), which is
a six-item 7-point bipolar scale, consistently performed best across both hedonic and utilitarian
services. It loaded most highly on satisfaction, had the highest item reliability, and had by far the
lowest error variance across both studies. In the study, the six items asked respondents’
evaluation of their most recent experience with ATM services and ice cream restaurant, along
seven points within these six items: “pleased me to displeased me”, “contented with to disgusted
with”, “very satisfied with to very dissatisfied with”, “did a good job for me to did a poor job for

35
me”, “wise choice to poor choice” and “happy with to unhappy with”. A semantic differential (4
items) scale (e.g., Eroglu and Machleit 1990),which is a four-item 7-point bipolar scale, was the
second best performing measure, which was again consistent across both contexts. In the study,
respondents were asked to evaluate their experience with both products, along seven points
within these four items: “satisfied to dissatisfied”, “favorable to unfavorable”,
“pleasant to unpleasant” and “I like it very much to I didn’t like it at all”. The third best scale
was single-item percentage measure, a one-item 7-point bipolar scale (e.g., Westbrook
1980). Again, the respondents were asked to evaluate their experience on both ATM services and
ice cream restaurants, along seven points within “delighted to terrible”.

Finally, all measures captured both affective and cognitive aspects of satisfaction, independent of
their scale anchors. Affective measures capture a consumer’s attitude (liking/disliking) towards a
product, which can result from any product information or experience. On the other hand,
cognitive element is defined as an appraisal or conclusion on how the product’s performance
compared against expectations (or exceeded or fell short of expectations), was useful (or not
useful), fit the situation (or did not fit), exceeded the requirements of the situation (or did not
exceed).

Recent research shows that in most commercial applications, such as firms conducting customer
surveys, a single-item overall satisfaction scale performs just as well as a multi-item
scale. Especially in larger scale studies where a researcher needs to gather data from a large
number of customers, a single-item scale may be preferred because it can reduce total survey
error.

Methodology

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a scientific standard of customer satisfaction.

Academic research has shown that the national ACSI score is a strong predictor of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) growth, and an even stronger predictor of Personal Consumption
Expenditure (PCE) growth. On the microeconomic level, academic studies have shown that
ACSI data is related to a firm's financial performance in terms of return on investment (ROI),
sales, long-term firm value (Tobin's q), cash flow, cash flow volatility, human
capital performance, portfolio returns, debt financing, risk, and consumer spending. Increasing
ACSI scores has been shown to predict loyalty, word-of-mouth recommendations, and purchase

36
behavior. The ACSI measures customer satisfaction annually for more than 200 companies in 43
industries and 10 economic sectors. In addition to quarterly reports, the ACSI methodology can
be applied to private sector companies and government agencies in order to improve loyalty and
purchase intent. ASCI scores have also been calculated by independent researchers, for example,
for the mobile phones sector, higher education, and electronic mail.

The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the
1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories:
Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some
insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers.

SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into

customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer) to
indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience.

J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-
box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates' marketing research
consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards.

Other research and consulting firms have customer satisfaction solutions as well. These
include A.T. Kearney's Customer Satisfaction Audit process, which incorporates the Stages of
Excellence framework and which helps define a company’s status against eight critically
identified dimensions.

For B2B customer satisfaction surveys, where there is a small customer base, a high response
rate to the survey is desirable. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (2012) found that
response rates for paper-based surveys were around 10% and the response rates for e-surveys
(web, wap and e-mail) were averaging between 5% and 15% - which can only provide a straw
poll of the customers' opinions.

In the European Union member states, many methods for measuring impact and satisfaction of e-
government services are in use, which the eGovMoNet project sought to compare and
harmonize.

These customer satisfaction methodologies have not been independently audited by

the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) according to MMAP (Marketing Metric
Audit Protocol).
37
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Hooley, T., Neary, S., Morris, M. and Mackay, S. (2015) Customer satisfaction with career
guidance: A review of the literature. London and Derby: SQW and International Centre for
Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
Mackay, S., Morris, M., Hooley, T. and Neary, S. (2015) Maximizing the Impact of Careers
Services on Career Management Skills: A review of the literature. London and Derby: SQW and
International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
Neary , S., Hooley, T., Morris, M. and Mackay, S. (2015) The Impact of Career Guidance on
Progression in Learning and Work: A review of the literature. London and Derby: SQW and
International Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
Hallam, R., Morris, M., Hooley, T., Neary, S. and Mackay, S. (2015) The role of brokerage
within career guidance: A review of the literature. London and Derby: SQW and International
Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby.
Customer satisfaction has been a popular topic in marketing practice and academic research
since Cardozo's (1965) initial study of customer effort, expectations and satisfaction.

Despite many attempts to measure and explain customer satisfaction, there still does not appear
to be a consensus regarding its definition (Giese and Cote, 2000).

Customer satisfaction is typically defined as a post consumption evaluative judgment

concerning a specific product or service (Gundersen, Heide and Olsson, 1996).

It is the result of an evaluative process that contrasts pre purchase expectations with perceptions
of performance during and after the consumption experience (Oliver, 1980).

The most widely accepted conceptualization of the customer satisfaction concept is the
expectancy disconfirmation theory (McQuitty, Finn and Wiley, 2000).

The theory was developed by Oliver, who proposed that satisfaction level is a result of the
difference between expected and perceived performance. Satisfaction (positive disconfirmation)
occurs when product or service is better than expected. On the other hand, a performance worse
38
than expected results is dissatisfaction (negative disconfirmation). Studies show that customer
satisfaction may have direct and indirect impact on business results.

Luo and Homburg (2007) concluded that customer satisfaction positively affects business
profitability.

The majority of studies have investigated the relationship with customer behavior patterns
(Dimitriades, 2006; Olorunniwo et al., 2006; Chi and Qu, 2008; Faullant et al., 2008). According
to these findings, customer satisfaction increases customer loyalty, influences repurchase
intentions and leads to positive word-of-mouth.
Given the vital role of customer satisfaction, it is not surprising that a variety of research has
been devoted to investigating the determinants of satisfaction. Satisfaction can be determined by
subjective (e. g. customer needs, emotions) and objective factors (e. g. product and service
features). Applying to the hospitality industry, the important regarding customer satisfaction.
Atkinson (1988) found out that cleanliness, security, value for money and courtesy of staff
determine customer satisfaction.

Knutson (1988) revealed that room cleanliness and comfort, convenience of location, prompt
service, safety and security, and friendliness of employees are important.

Barsky and Labagh (1992) stated that employee attitude, location and rooms are likely to
influence travellers' satisfaction.

A study conducted by Akan (1995) showed that the main determinants of hotel guest satisfaction
are the behavior of employees, cleanliness and timeliness.

Choi and Chu (2001) concluded that staff quality, room qualities and value are the top three hotel
factors that determine travelers’ satisfaction.

39
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The first step is to formulate a research design. This means planning a strategy of conducting
research. It is a detailed plan of how the goals of research will be achieved. Research design is
exploratory, descriptive and/or experimental in nature. It is helping the investigator in providing
answers to various kinds of social/economic questions. After collecting and analysis of the data,
the researcher has to accomplish the task of drawing inferences. Only through interpretation
researcher can expose relations and processes that underlie his findings and ultimately
conclusions. Interpretation refers to the task of drawing inferences from the collected facts after
an analytical study.

It is a search for broader meaning and research findings. It is a device through which factors that
seem to explain what has been observed by researcher in the course can be better understood and
provides theoretical conception which serve as a guide for further researches. It is essential
because it will lead towards findings of the study and proper effective conclusions of the study.

In the present study, Descriptive research has been followed. Descriptive research is usually a
fact finding approach generalizing a cross sectional study of present situation. The major goal of
descriptive events, phenomenon and situations on the basis of observation and other sources.

Survey Method:

The survey method is the technique of gathering data by asking questions from people who are
thought to have the desired information. Every effort should be made to state the objectives in
specific terms.

The survey design can be defined as: “gathering information about a large number of people by
interviewing a few of them.”

Surveys are conducted in case of descriptive research studies with the help of questionnaire
technique in most appropriate manner. Survey type of research studies usually have larger

40
sample. It is concerned with conditions or relationships that exists, opinion that are held,
processes that are going on effects that are evident or trends that are developing. Thus in surveys
variables that exist or have already occurred are selected and observed. It is the example of field
research.

Sample size: Samples are devices for learning about large masses by observing a few
individuals. The selected sample is 50.

Data Collection:

Data collection means to a purposive gathering of information relevant to the subject matter of
the study from the units under research.

Primary data are empirical observations gathered by the researcher or his associates for the first
time for any research and used by them in statistical analysis. There are several methods of
collecting primary data particularly in descriptive research.

 Telephone enquiries
 Mail Questionnaire
 Personal interviewing
 Panel research
 Special survey techniques.

Telephonic enquiries and mailing questionnaires are the best’s method for gathering quickly
needed information at the cheapest way.

Questionnaire:

The questionnaire has a list of questions to be asked and spaces in which the respondents record
the answer. It is either printed or typed in definite order on a form or set of forms. Each question
is worded exactly as it is to be asked; also the questions are listed in an established sequence.

Generally it is mailed to respondents who are excepted to reply in the space provided in itself or
may be approached personally to explained the purpose and meaning of questions in the
questionnaire, they are conducted by enumerators. Often questionnaire is considered as heart of
a survey operations hence should be drafted carefully. Hence structured questionnaire ensures
easy quantifications.
41
In the present study, the required data was collected through Sample survey using structured
questionnaire.

The questionnaire incorporated Question’s related to companies preference for content

marketing and other traditional mediums for creating awareness on various products.

Though questionnaire is an economic tool for data collection non-response or incomplete

response is high in this case. However, proper follow up was taken to overcome this barrier by
making sure that each questionnaire is completely filled.

Secondary data is the data collected by others in the past and used by others. It may be
either being published or unpublished data. It includes the following:

1. Various publications of central, state and local governments.

2. Various publications of foreign governments or international bodies.
3. Technical and trade journals
4. Books, magazines, and new paper
5. Reports prepared by research scholars, university economists

Sources of unpublished data are mainly diaries, letters, unpublished biographies etc. before
using secondary sources the researcher must ensure reliability sustainability and adequacy of
data.

In present study, secondary data was provided the dissertation with necessary theoretical back
up. Information related to content marketing, and online marketing was collected through
various secondary sources such as research journals, reference books, business magazines and
content sharing websites.

42
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To study the satisfaction level of the consumers regarding Indian online tourism
websites.

 To understand the customer base of High Mountains.

 To understand the attitude and satisfaction level of customers towards High Mountains.

 To study the scope of the growth of High Mountains.

43
DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

Q1 Have you ever booked online tour from any website.

o YES
o NO

Options No of respondent %age

Yes 40 80
No 10 20

20

yes
no

80

Thus, 80% of the respondents says that they have booked online tour from any of the
websites. And 20% respondents are book tour offline because they are not aware very
much about online or they are not trust online booking.

Q2 How was your experience with online tour & travel booking.

o Satisfied

44
 o Neutral
o Unsatisfied

Options No of respondent %age

Satisfied 33 65
Neutral 12 25
Unsatisfied 5 10

10

25
satisfied
neutral
unsatisfied
65

Thus 65% respondent are satisfied with the experience of online tour and travel booking and
25% respondent are neutral they are not satisfied nor unsatisfied and 10% of respondent are
unsatisfied with the experience of online tour and travel booking

Q3 Did you get some discount coupon.

o Yes
o No

45
 Options No of respondent %age
Yes 40 80
No 10 20

20

yes
no

80

Thus 80% of respondent say they have get the discount coupons. And 20% of
respondent say that they have not get any discount coupon

Q4 Have you ever book online tour or travel from High Mountains.

o Yes
o No

Options No of respondent %age

Yes 34 68
No 16 32

46
 32

yes no

68

Thus 68% of respondent say that they have book online tour or travel from High
Mountains. And 32% of the respondent are not booking there tour from High
mountains because of their unawareness about High mountains.

Q5 Are you satisfies with the commitment done by High Mountain.

o Satisfied
o Neutral
o Unsatisfied

Options No of respondent %age

Satisfied 33 66
Neutral 10 20
Unsatisfied 7 14

47
 14

satisfied neutral

20

unsatisfied

66

66% of the respondents are satisfied with the commitment done by High mountains and 20% of
respondents are neutral in their opinion while 14% are unsatisfied.

Q6 Do you think High Mountain is investing into various promotional activity.

o More
o Less

Options No of respondent %age

More 18 36
Less 32 64

48
 36

more

less
64

Thus, 64% of respondents saying that High mountains are investing less in their promotional
activities while 36% of them are of the opinion that they are investing more.

Q7 Do you things High Mountain provide frequently discount coupon.

o frequently
o Rare

Options No of respondent %age

Frequently 20 40
Rare 30 60

49
 40.00%

frequently

60.00% rare

Thus 40% of the respondents says that High mountains is giving discount coupons frequently
while 60% says that no company is not providing any coupon.

Q8 Will you like to book again through High Mountains.

o Yes
o No

Options No of respondent %age

Yes 33 65
No 17 35

50
 35

yes
no

65

Thus, 65% of the respondents says that they will book again from High mountains since they are
satisfied from high mountains and 35% would not like to book again.

Q9 High Mountain is updated regularly.

o Yes
o No

Options No of respondent %age

Yes 38 76
No 12 24

51
 24

yes

no

76

Thus 76% of the respondents says that High mountains is updated regularly and 24% says it is
not updated regularly.

Q10 What kind of promotional activity High Mountain deal?

o Roadside banners
o Social ads
o Radio ads
o Print media
o

Options No of respondent %age

Road side banner 15 30

52
 Social ads 10 20
Radio ads 5 10
Print media 20 40

30

40
ROADSIDE BANNERS
SOCIAL ADS
RADIO ADS
PRINT MEDIA

20
10

Thus 30% of respondent says that they are investing into the roadside banners activity and 20%
of respondent says they are into the social ads and 10% of respondent are say they are focus on
the radio ads and 40% of respondent says they are use print media in the promotion of high
mountains.

Q11 Did online ads of High mountains provided you misleading information?

o YES
o NO

Options No of respondent %age

Yes 5 10
No 45 90

53
 10.00%

YES
NO

90.00%

Thus 90% of respondent says that they are not providing the misleading information and 10% of
respondent says they are providing the misleading information

Q12 Does the blogs of High mountains provide useful information to you?

o YES
o NO

Options No of respondent %age

Yes 43 85
No 7 15

54
 15.00%

YES
NO

85.00%

Thus 85% of the respondent are says that blogs of high mountain is provide the useful
information and 15% respondent are says they are not provide the useful information.

FINDINGS

1. Maximum of person book tour through online tourism sites.

2. Majority of the people are satisfied with online tour booking
3. People often get discount through online booking
4. The online site high mountain is used widely by its customers.
5. High Mountains is fulfilling their commitment satisfactorily.
6. The company is neglecting its investment for promotional activity.
7. High Mountains is not giving any value addition or discounts to its customers.
8. High mountain is investing less in promotional activity
9. The customers are interested in using High mountain again.
10. Even though, the spending in promotional activity is less but they are regularly updated.

55
 SUGGESTIONS

 Firstly, High Mountain should improve its services to improve the customer renewal rate. It
is essential only then it would be able to flourish in its business. The number of tourist
places especially pilgrim sites offered by them should be increased to bring more clients or
give accomodation services to their customers.
 Discount coupons should be made available for the customers. Certain schemes or offers
should be given to their regular customers
 Promotional activities should be increased to improve its awareness among the targeted
customers.
 Remainders ads should be more frequently introduced and the social. The investment on the
SEO of the site should also be increased.
 The social media marketing specialists should be contacted or hired by the company.
 The company must hire local guides to improvise and customize their services.
 The company should employ some policies to build stronger relationships with its customers
like sending greetings for their customer’s birthdays and other festive days etc.

56
 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

o Time was a constraint.

o Customers were not ready to fill the questionnaire.
o The limitations regard the fact that the empirical analysis was carried out just in a
specific area and should be extended to other destinations for further comparisons.
o Since the sampling is random so there are chances of biasness in the report.
o Data don’t represent entire population behavior.

57
 CONCLUSION

Tourist satisfaction can influence some behaviour such as customer retention as well as word-of-
mouth or word-of-mouse processes. From this study, it comes out that tourist satisfaction
depends on a complex process where the role of each actor is fundamental and it must be in tune
with all the other ones. According to these results, it is clear that the main factors that can
generate customer satisfaction is fundamental to orient future strategic actions. Furthermore, the
longitudinal analysis showed that it is more than ever necessary the realization of orchestration
strategies, enacted by both local public and private actors to remove negative factors (or to
reduce their impact) and to amplify the effects of positive factors influencing tourist satisfaction.
Thus, from a theoretical point of view, the paper presents a focus on customer satisfaction with
specific reference to service industries. These are peculiar since the service is evaluated in the
same time of its provision, thus making it very difficult and challenging for firms to propose
adequate offers to an increasingly needful demand. Besides, these results are very useful for
decision makers since they drive the process of managing tourism offer connected with tourist
image, in an experience-based view.

58
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

 Gitomer Jeffrey, Customer satisfaction is worthless, Customer loyalty is priceless

(originally published in 1998)
 Hill Nigel, How to measure customer satisfaction (originally published in 1999)
 Griffin Jill, Customer Loyalty: How to earn it , how to keep it (originally published in 9
october 2002)
 Gerson Richard Measuring customer satisfaction (published in 1999)

Websites

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_satisfaction
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_India
 https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/role-of-tourism-industry-in-indias-
development-2167-0269.1000126.php?aid=28312

 http://managementstudyguide.com/customer-satisfaction.htm

59
 QUESTIONNAIRE

 Have you ever booked online tour from any website?

o YES
o NO
 How was your experience with online tour & travel booking?
o Satisfied
o Neutral
o Unsatisfied
 Did you get some discount coupon?
o Yes
o No
 Have you ever book online tour or travel from High Mountains?
o Yes
o No
 Are you satisfies with the commitment done by High Mountains?
o Satisfied
o Neutral
o Unsatisfied
 Do you think High Mountain is investing into various promotional activity?
o More
o Less
 Do you things High Mountain provide frequently discount coupons?
o frequently
o Rare
 Will you like to book again through High Mountains?
o Yes
o No
 High Mountain is updated regularly?
o Yes
o No

 What kind of promotional activity High Mountains deal?

o Roadside banners
60
 o Social ads
o Radio ads
o Print media
 Did online ads of High Mountains provided you misleading information?
o YES
o NO
 Does the blogs of High Mountains provide useful information to you?
o YES
o NO

61