Reference no: EM133213208

Assignment:

Case: The Tourism Customer Travel Cycle

Let me take you on a journey and meet tourism professionals along the way. Traveling, after all, is what defines tourism.

When I plan to go on an overseas trip, for business or leisure, the first tourism professional I come across might not even be a human being but instead, an interactive web portal that can give me all the information I need to make an informed decision about the where, when, what, and how of all my travel plans and requirements.

A very good example is the portal TripAdvisor4. Interacting with TripAdvisor is a totally electronic process where all information pertaining to the cities and countries, airlines, cruise liners, hotels, resorts, restaurants, transportation services, travel and tour offerings, as well as country-specific documentation requirements, are all available to its users. TripAdvisor has over 400 million monthly travel-eager users who do not only use it to get all this information but to also post reviews of their travel experiences, good or bad. Users can post as many as 10 photos per review. The idea is to help other users make informed decisions and avoid tourism establishments who render poor service. TripAdvisor is a 24/7 travel service portal that is always available, anytime and anywhere, without cost.

Once I have all the travel information and options I need, I can now continue with my travel cycle.

Do I buy my airline tickets or do I book my hotel rooms first? Room availability is usually a lesser challenge than airline seat availability. With my itinerary in mind, I can do two things: book my tickets directly with the airline companies or online travel agents or choose to personally discuss my itinerary with a travel professional. I decided to meet my travel agent and, therefore, make them the first tourism professional I come face to face within this travel cycle. A travel agent, more popularly called a TA in our industry, will be able to answer all my itinerary questions and provide me with several airline options. The TA will also advise me about all the required documents, visas,and travel fees per country of entry. A TA is someone you must nurture a good relationship with because you will be calling on them every time you have to go on a trip.

Although airline booking has been made easier by improved technology, TAs are still very much in demand, especially for group and corporate travel requirements which are more complicated and tedious. A TA can also ensure after-sales service once you start your actual travel, being available for help in case problems arise.

There was one time I was traveling with a group of 20 other companions on a 30-day Filipino Concert Tour5 to Rome, Milan, Geneva, Amsterdam, Vienna, London, Dubai, Muscat, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Singapore. When we were on our way to Singapore from our last stop in Europe and the Middle East, our flight was diverted to Cairo, Egypt due to bad weather conditions. We had to weather out the storm so to speak in the Cairo airport for about eight hours. Instead of stressing myself with the itinerary challenges ahead, I chose to call our travel agent in Manila and requested that he be on top of the changes because we had to arrive in Singapore no later than the next day for our scheduled concert at 7 PM. Any further delays could have spelled a huge disaster for the concert tour series. Our TA immediately planned a new itinerary that would take us to Singapore in time for the concert. Our TA delivered and we continued our stress-free travel to Singapore just in the nick of time, arriving at 4 PM for the 7 PM concert! Consulting my TA was one of the solutions available for an unexpected problem like this. The other options was for the airline company itself to help us get to our destination on time, flying with them or through another airline. When in a foreign land, however, the challenges will be much greater because of the necessity of dealing with an airline staff with diverse identities to ours starting with language.

Once I have my airline tickets and complete itinerary, I go online once again; this time, to choose my preferred accommodations in each city I am visiting. 

The first is by booking directly with the hotels I have chosen. All I have to do is go to their websites which all are equipped with online booking engines. The second option is by going to Online Travel Agents or OTAs. There are numerous OTAs out there and among the most
prominent operators are the likes of Expedia6, Agoda7, Traveloka8, and Booking.com9. The hotel industry tries its best to impose price parity among all its vendors including their own direct vending, but experience has shown us that this is a major challenge to achieve. The best commentary on the matter is the popular travel site Trivago10 which promises its users that they can compare hotel rates of the exact same room in the exact same hotel and choose the cheapest offering. The bigger and more established hotel chains have attempted to depend less on OTAs by trying their best to reach out to travelers directly and offering the same booking facility as the OTAs. These chains have a distinct advantage, starting with their very own loyal base of customers of which they are already in direct communications with.
On with my travel cycle. It is now time to take my flight and start the journey!

Airports are among the most challenging tourist-oriented venues to manage. Airports are rated by their efficiency in moving in and moving out passengers, many of them tourists, at the scheduled times of their airplane arrivals and departures. Try to imagine a scenario where the
airport experiences multiple delays in a day; or worse, it has to temporarily close due to weather or emergency conditions. Cases like this cause a lot of disturbances; many travelers stress out and some even experience trauma. Airport and airline staff are very well-trained to thrive in difficult situations like these to become positive enablers and lessen the negative effects on passengers by these unwanted disruptions.

Among the tourism professionals you will encounter in airports are the airport ground staff. They check you and your baggage in and issue your boarding pass. These staff members are exposed to all sorts of passengers, including angry and obnoxious ones. Airline delays and long
passenger cues, let alone the very stringent airport security measures in place, contribute much to this passenger angst. The airport ground staff members have very short golden opportunities to become either assets or liabilities to their airline companies depending on how they present themselves and handle passengers in every situation. The general idea is to ensure that the staff members do not add to the passenger's stress but rather help diminish it.

If this is a job you are considering, a word of caution: in this industry, the adage "the customer is always right" happens to be worn on our sleeves. The challenge with airline counter professionals is that they only have a short time to interact with their passengers, and in this short time, they should endeavor to give their best in each interaction to "make it" and not "break it" for their company. Isadore Sharp11, the founder of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, one the most luxurious hotel companies in the world, very aptly wrote in his book Four Seasons, The Story of a Business Philosophy12: "The frontline staff, who have the most direct contact with our guests can make or break our 5-star reputation and since quality is our edge, we cannot compromise it." Passengers are only interested in a fast, courteous, and efficient check-in at all times.

The majority of airports around the world employ multilingual staff precisely to address the multilingual passengers traveling all over the world. You will often hear multilingual passenger announcements in airports.

Within the airport, besides the airline counter staff, there are several other tourism professionals you will meet along the way-airport information counter staff, duty-free and other merchandising shop personnel, restaurant and coffee shop crew, as well as airport hotel staff. All these staff members are tourism professionals who interact with numerous people from all parts of the world. Their multicultural diversity training is taken very seriously. There are many other airport personnel that we do not directly interact with but are involved in ensuring our stay in their airports is short but memorable. For example, there are the maintenance staff that ensure that the airport is spic and span, with sufficient air-conditioning, clean toilets and shower rooms, and enough seating areas that could accommodate thousands of passengers at any given time.

They are also tourism professionals.

Before I board the airplane for my flight, there are a few other matters tourism professionals should understand about the way airports are now being built all over the world.

Since tourism and travel contribute a big percentage of the world GDP, more and more countries, led by those who experience high tourist volumes, are now re-designing, if not completely building, new airports in their cities. The competition for having the best facilities and services is getting stiffer by the day, but no one is complaining because it redounds to enormous benefits for all travelers.

Among the airports recognized by several prestigious travel organization as being on top of their game are:

1. Singapore Changi Airport

2. Tokyo International Airport Haneda

3. Incheon International Airport Seoul

4. Hamad International Airport Doha

5. Hong Kong International Airport

6. Centrair International Airport Nagoya

7. Munich Airport

8. London Heathrow Airport

9. Tokyo Narita Airport

10. Zurich Airport

Some of the common best practices of these top airports are:

1. They always plan ahead to stay ahead of the game.

2. They provide basics of service right like spotless cleanliness, comfortable gate areas, warm and friendly staff, and simple wayfinding.

3. They excel in every aspect of the airport journey experience by ensuring all their staff are focused on providing efficient, friendly, and courteous service every step of the way.

4. They make an atmosphere that makes you want to stay in the airport longer.

5. They implement internal processes that keep stress levels low.

6. They balance the implementation of these processes with the passenger experience.

7. They have airport staff that are proud of their airport and their high standards.

8. They involve all stakeholders in the quality improvement process.

9. They always put themselves in the shoes of the passengers and are trained to have sincere empathy.

10. They focus on what is important to the passenger, not the airport.

All these top airports ensure that their airport staff, who are all tourism professionals, are highly trained in all the intricacies and challenges of multicultural diversities; because it is in airports where you will see these diversities merge and sometimes collide every minute of the day.

My travel cycle now brings me inside the airplane cabin and I now get to meet my cabin crew who will keep me company anywhere from a quick one-hour flight to a grueling 10- to 15-hour flight.

The way cabin crews are organized for flights, whether for short or long-haul, is that they are led by a flight purser (FP). An FP is a senior cabin crew member with many years of flying experience. Depending on the airline, it takes about 10 years or more before a cabin crew member is promoted to FP, and that only happens when there is a position available. FP positions become available when the current FPs retire, resign, or are separated from the company.

The FP manages a crew of flight attendants (FA) and flight stewards (FS). The number of FAs and FSs depends on the aircraft they are flying. The bigger aircrafts or jumbo jets can have as many as 15-20 crew members and the smaller aircrafts from 2-10 crew members. Each of these crew members is given a specific assignment for each flight leg. These assignments carry specific passenger and emergency duties for the duration of the flight.

Many airlines employ flight interpreters, like Chinese, Japanese, and Russian who deliver in-flight announcements in these languages. They are also tasked to interpret any language requirements of their compatriot passengers. Their presence is very important, especially during
emergencies. Flight interpreters are usually given additional cabin crew duties, especially when flights are full.

The cabin crew are among my favorite bunch of tourism professionals because they are highly  customer-driven individuals. Aside from undergoing long and intensive training, cabin crew members must possess values that translate to service excellence. Cabin crew members have all the time in the world to extend good service to passengers. From short one-hour flights to long-haul flights of 10 to 15 hours, passengers can be pampered and cared for by the crew in ways that will endure in passengers' minds and hearts. Passengers do not have any other place to go during a flight; therefore, the cabin crew members have the longest exposure with them.

Trans-pacific, Middle Eastern, and European flights take 10-15 hours. During this time, passengers enjoy at least two meals such as dinner and breakfast. Cocktails are usually available throughout the flight. In-flight movies and music are available on demand. Cabin crew members take turns in remaining awake during the entire flight to ensure that passengers receive service all the time.

What is unique about the job of a cabin crew is that they are trained in both in-flight service as well as emergency procedures. Cabin crew members will know what to do in case of an unplanned emergency, which can mean the plane landing on water or land.

Cabin crew members are highly exposed to multicultural diversities in flight among the passengers as well as during their rest overnight (RON) stays in different cities around the world. In a matter of an hour's flight, the cultural differences, for instance, of the Philippines and
Hong Kong are already extreme. There are times the crew stays in cities for two to three days or more. This means they have more time to be exposed to the local culture and traditions.

There was one time when I was a FS with Philippine Airlines15 (PAL), where I was able to experience for myself how challenging it is to believe and carry through that adage "the customer is always right."

An intoxicated Caucasian passenger was starting to annoy many passengers. It was an evening flight, so it made it more difficult because passengers wanted to sleep in peace. As the CA14 (cabin attendant 14) of the DC-10 aircraft, I was the steward in charge of the specific section the intoxicated passenger was seated in. I had to manage the situation, and this is where our cabin crew training truly made a difference; because depending on the way I choose to handle him, I could make it or break it for my company. In order not to become confrontational with the passenger, which would trigger an angry reaction especially from someone intoxicated, I decided to simply have a quiet conversation with him as if nothing was the matter. During that conversation, I was able to ask him to lower the tone of his voice because other passengers were asleep. When he asked me for another beer, I instead invited him to the galley where I told him we should continue our talk so he can tell me more about his beautiful country, Australia. He obliged. After a couple more beers, some quiet laughter and banter, he volunteered to leave me in peace and return to his seat without another bottle of beer. I also wished him a good night's rest because we had about another four hours before the next meal service, which was breakfast.

Before I approached this passenger to handle the situation, two options were running in my mind. The more dominant option was to talk to him firmly and directly and be ready for an altercation. The second option just happened once I was right in front of him. I was guided by my instinct to not react to his sort of childlike manner. I decided to treat him like a friend. It worked.

After reading the Case 1, take a few minutes to reflect on the experience and share your five takeaways from this story.