Potentials of digital approaches in a tourism industry with changing customer needs - A quantitative study

Abstract

In recent years, the tourism industry has been undergoing a period of transformation, not least due to innovative and disruptive business models entering the market. Companies are increasingly focusing on customer needs and try to meet them with digital approaches. The early recognition of rapidly changing needs and their reactions is challenging. This paper examines four factors influencing the potentials of the changing customer needs and ongoing digitization in the tourism industry. A hypothesis model developed in previous qualitative research is examined in this paper with a quantitative approach using structural equation modeling. 157 responses from the target group were analyzed to test the factors digital marketing, data mining, digital services and online travel communities. The results of this paper show that digital marketing and data mining have a positive as well as highly significant influence on the potentials of digital approaches in a tourism industry with changing customer needs.