Service Audit of Travellers Choice- A Australian Tourism Company Assessment

1. Critical Analysis on overall service experience

About

One of the biggest and most well-known travel agencies in Australia is called Travellers Choice. The business has been operating for more than 40 years and has provided small and large independent travel agents with business opportunities (TravellersChoice.com.au). The business had a profitable history and a high level of customer satisfaction up until the travel industry was hit by a global pandemic. Though the road to recovery is long, Travellers Choice is gradually regaining its customers and agents. National Travel Industry Awards were won by the business in 2019 and Australia's Best Travel Agency Group in 2015. The business has offices in all major Australian cities and operates a network of Traveller Choice agents and communities on a national and regional scale.

Current Situation

The travel industry has been booming globally, especially between 2017 and 2019. (TravellersChoice.com.au). The Travellers Choice won the Best Tourism Award in 2019 and saw its highest sales ever. However, things took a bad turn when Novel Covid-19 struck the travel industry, impacting the global travel industry. Additionally, Travelers Choice experienced a sizable loss in 2020 and 2021. (Travellers Choice.com.au). Due to severe restrictions, there were hardly any international travellers, which resulted in very few travel reservations being made through Travellers Choice. To recover its losses and draw tourists by providing safe tour packages, Travellers Choice must use a forecasting tool to predict the near future and implement some sound business strategies.

Strengths in Service Delivery

• A long-term partnership with the primary supplier has led to shared knowledge of the product's requirements, adherence to quality standards, and a shared vision throughout the development and production process.
• A strong market orientation with commitment to high quality, customization of products, and support services.
• The high rate of repeat business suggests a satisfied customer base and good word-of-mouth advertising, which accounts for about 30% of new business annually.

Weakness in Service Delivery

• Lack of managerial backup and the highly centralised management hierarchy () may limit innovation and growth.
• Single sourcing might leave the business vulnerable in the event of a natural disaster, a strike, or the dissolution of the current supplier, despite the company's successful, long-term relationship with the supplier.
• The travel industry has been significantly impacted by the COVID-10.

Issues related to involvement and role of customer in service delivery

The countries are loosening their travel regulations, and tour operators are attempting to resurrect their travel industry. By analysing the current state of travel in Australia, Travellers Choice believes this is an excellent opportunity to rebuild its brand. The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions in the travel and tourism sector, impacting businesses like Travellers Choice. Their tour operations were affected, which caused issues. The following are some of the main issues the company is currently dealing with:

1. The number of tourists arriving has not been properly estimated.
2. The top countries from which tourists arrive before and after Covid-19 must be studied.
3. Research is needed to determine why and how the number of tourists arriving has changed.
4. There are no proper guidelines for predicting the travel industry.
5. The travel agency is dealing with issues like significant financial loss, employee turnover, low employment, declining sales volume, and unhealthy competition.

Challenges in Covid-19

Some important points that must be kept in mind while recovering from the pandemic have been brought up in Travellers Choice's most recent annual report, 2021 (Travellers Choice Annual report, 2021). The staff members put in a lot of effort to provide appropriate travel assistance during the global pandemic 2020. The cancellation and refund of travel services caused a significant loss in the company's finances. Hope during the temporary relaxation of Covid-19 guidelines is increased by a slight increase in domestic and international travel bookings. The business is relying on new Covid-19-related guidelines and travel restrictions in light of the outbreak of various corona-virus variants. Due to the assistance it received from government funds, the company claims to have incurred a small loss. The disruptions caused by COVID-19 are still causing problems for the travel industry. The business found it difficult to plan its next moves, but it required a precise forecast of how it would deal with the effects of the global pandemic in the years to come.

Customer Satisfaction Theory for Service Marketing

The Service Marketing Theory is based on five components which are Intangibility, Lack of Ownership, Perishability, Heterogeneity and Inseparability. This the service based companies are different from product selling companies and sell their services by enhancing customer’s experiences and bringing satisfaction. Tourism industry is the most recognized service based industry in Australia. Customer Satisfaction theory is one of the most important service marketing theory. The theory states that the motto of attaining customer satisfaction is the most important objective in service based industry and brings good or bad publicity of a service based company according to the customer’s word of mouth (Jan, 2012)). The process of understanding customer’s needs and behavior in tourism industry sets the travel destination rise on demand.

Opportunity

As per the Customer Satisfaction Theory and the identifying the problems stated above, The Travellers Choice Tour agency has been witnessing new opportunities in travel business. There is significant differences and novel channels through which the post-COVID-19 tourism market is developing. After 2021, Australia's travel restrictions began to gradually loosen, and surprisingly, we can see that the source countries of India and the UK have seen a sharp increase in foreign visitors. The recovery rate is followed by the USA and Singapore, but New Zealand is the most severely affected nation. The data confirms once more that Australian travel companies must pay closer attention to the new trend as new source countries for tourist arrivals and departures grow. It was necessary to conduct more research on the emerging travel market and comprehend their travel objectives (ABS Report, 2022). Visitors from low-ranking nations demonstrated encouraging growth, such as India, which visited recently on a large scale in 2022. The Australian travel sector has new reason for optimism thanks to these statistics and data. It encourages businesses like Travellers Choice to maintain their optimism and reposition their offerings in order to meet the demands of incoming tourists (Patrick et.al., 2017; Maclnnis et.al., 2016).

Threats for the company

• Management trends like reengineering, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, right-sizing, and outsourcing could change or even do away with the traditional channel relationships with brokers, dealers, and distributors.
• It is challenging to prevent the theft of trade secrets and the unauthorised copying of software.
• The competition from travel businesses' new emerging markets, such as virtual tourism.

2. Recommendation through Extended Marketing Mix

The critical analysis of the Travellers Company shows that the future travel industry is going to be more smart and tech-friendly. The recommendation focusses in different marketing mix and how collaboration among different stakeholders are shaping new strategies for Travellers Company. The proactive steps that travel companies must take to address new changes and seize growth opportunities through extended marketing mix:

Product:

By rebranding themselves and building credibility, the board of directors and CEO of Travellers Choice should place more emphasis on scientific forecasts and give attention to supporting tourist arrivals. In order to gain a competitive edge, Travellers Choice must include new travel products, such as wellness activities, in their tour packages.

For mobile phones in overseas markets, on the one hand, Xiaomi has increased its research and development efforts to improve product quality. By the third quarter of 2019, Xiaomi’s R & D expenses accounted for 3.8%, an increase of 10.1% over the previous quarter; on the other hand, it will establish after-sales service points in various overseas markets to increase the satisfaction rate and repurchase rate of purchased customers. In addition, as a technology company, Xiaomi implements the overall strategy of mobile phones + Alot products + Internet services, produces a variety of products such as mobile phones, bracelets, smart TVs, smart speakers and other products, and is committed to creating a smart life. Xiaomi also adopts a product diversification strategy for overseas markets and sells these products to overseas markets to contribute to Xiaomi’s overseas revenue.

For mobile phones in overseas markets, the company has increased its research and development efforts to improve product quality. As a technology company, it implements the overall strategy of mobile phones + Alot products + Internet services, produces a variety of products such as mobile phones, bracelets, smart TVs, smart speakers and other products, and is committed to creating a smart life. It also adopts a product diversification strategy for overseas markets and sells these products to overseas markets to contribute to Xiaomi’s overseas revenue.

The company’s smart speaker “Xiao Ai” is not only an audio, but also can be inter-connected with a series of Xiaomi products, providing users with a high-tech quality of life while increasing the sales of their various products.Xiaomi entered the Indian market, combined with local actual conditions and adopted a low-price strategy to allow more Indians to use high-quality smartphones with less money. In order to reduce costs, Xiaomi decided to build a factory locally. On the one hand, India’s labor costs are relatively low, while the mobile phone manufacturing industry is a labor-intensive industry that requires a lot ofm manpower. The use of cheap local labor can greatly reduce production costs; on the other hand, local production can avoid high tariffs and reduce product costs.

Price:

Because business forecasting is based on historical data and events, the results can be used to analyse how to improve weak areas, such as drawing more customers by maintaining low margins, etc. The travel agency Travellers Choice had been struggling with money problems, low employment, a lack of adequate funding, and many other issues.

The reduced cost can reduce the selling price of mobile phones or increase its own profits, which is beneficial to Xiaomi.For some relatively high-end markets such as Europe, Xiaomi first enters the market through a low-price strategy, attracting some consumers, especially young consumers, to buy their products with low prices and high cost performance; at the same time, it improves product quality, raises prices, and opens the door to the high-end market in Europe. At the beginning of 2019, Lei Jun, President of Xiaomi, announced that Redmi will be independent as a separate brand and no longer belong to Xiaomi, in order to get rid of the impression of “low price” in consumers’ minds and formally enter the high-end market.

Distribution:

The business must adopt sustainable practises and demonstrate accountability to its clients. There has been a significant change between international travellers before and after COVID-19. After COVID-19, a new potential market with distinct visitation purposes, stay durations, and travel requirements emerged, necessitating a redesign of Travellers Choice's tour itineraries. Xiaomi first entered the market through an online e-commerce platform direct sale, and opened offline stores in well-developed countries based on sales in different markets and combined with different types of Xiaomi products. There are three types of Xiaomi stores-Mi Home (experience store), Mi Preferences Partners (Xiaomi preferred partner store) and Mi Stores (in small towns), with a fairly complete offline sales channel. In India alone, there are more than 6000 stores, including more than 1790 Mi Store stores focusing on second-tier cities and rural areas. In Europe, Xiaomi has opened more than 100 offline stores.

Promotion:

The emergence of new travel opportunities and the speed of the travel industry's recovery have given the company new options for repositioning their brand in the nation. They have the opportunity to interact with fresh visitors arriving from nations with scant historical data. The business must take action in response to the assessment and begin customising its packages to meet the needs of visitors from new top countries. The Australian government must also create new travel regulations that facilitate travel for customers and new, emerging markets.

People:

The company must gain the trust of tourists and give them a sense of security while they are travelling in order to regain its position in the Australian tourism market.

Processes:

India's emergence as a new travel market with more disposable income led to the distinction. It has been noted that in 2022, visitor stays have lasted longer due to COVID-19 precautions, and an increasing number of Indians are visiting Australia.

Physical Evidence:

The distinction was brought about by the emergence of India as a new travel market with more disposable income. Due to COVID-19 precautions, it has been observed that in 2022, the length of visitor stays has also increased, and an increasing number of Indians are travelling to Australia.

Conclusion

Travellers Choice was a trustworthy travel agency that catered to travellers and the associated travel agents. Despite expecting significant losses in 2020, the business has been showing signs of improvement and momentum. Data analysis gives the business a clear understanding that the drop in foreign visitors is only temporary and that they will return with new potential customers. However, Travellers Choice needed to develop a new brand identity and provide tour services with a greater focus on sustainability and safety. Forecasting can help the company create a futuristic business plan for how they will strategically position themselves in the tourism market.

References

Australian Bureau Statistics. (2022). Top 10 source countries based on month ending February 2022. https://www. abs.gov.au.

Australian Bureau Statistics. (2022). Total overseas arrivals and departures - February 2012 to March 2022. https://www. abs.gov.au.

Jan, A., (2012). Services Marketing Theory Revisited: An Empirical Investigation into Financial Services Marketing. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) ISSN: 2278-487X. Volume 4, Issue 4

Maclnnis, Deborah J., Vanessa M. Patrick, and C. Whan Park (2016), “Looking through the Crystal Ball: Affective Forecasting in Consumer Behavior,” in Review of Marketing Research, Vol. 2, ed. Naresh K. Malhotra, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 43-80

Patrick, Vanessa M., Deborah J. Maclnnis, and C. Whan Park (2017), “Not as Happy as 1 Thought I’d Be? The Role of forecasting in Consumer Satisfaction,” Journal of Consumer Research, 33 (4), 479-90.

Travellers Choice Annual Report. (2021) https://www.travellerschoice.com.au/cproot/28833/2/Travellers-Choice-Limited-Annual-Report-2021.pdf

TravellersChoice. https://www.travellerschoice.com.au/about-us

UNWTO. (2021). Tourism Statistics Report. https://www.unwto.org/touism-data

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