THE USE OF MARKETING ON THE INTERNET: an exploratory study in Brazilian hotels Luiz Augusto M. Mendes-Filho Faculdade Natalense para o Desenvolvimento do Rio Grande do Norte - FARN Rua Prefeita Eliane Barros, 2000, Tirol, 59014-540, Natal, RN, Brazil Email: luiz@farn.br, Phone: 55 84 215-2917, Fax: 55 84 211-8688 Maria do Carmo Carvalho Xavier Faculdade Natalense para o Desenvolvimento do Rio Grande do Norte - FARN Rua Prefeita Eliane Barros, 2000, Tirol, 59014-540, Natal, RN, Brazil Email: carminhacarvalho@bol.com.br, Phone: 55 84 215-2917, Fax: 55 84 211-8688 ABSTRACT Marketing and Internet will be the catalyst of change in the hospitality industry and one of the most important factors in distinguishing success among hotel companies. Many hotel managers are attempting to use the Internet and World Wide Web as an effective management and marketing tool. By analyzing the features of the existing WWW hotel sites and questioning university people, this study aims to provide both a snapshot of existing Brazilian hotel sites and a starting point for future research into how to use this efficient medium effectively. 1. INTRODUCTION By the year 2050, tourism will be by far the largest industry worldwide, with 2 billion tourists and US$24 billion in domestic and international receipts. Moreover, the major tourist destinations will be India, China, Indonesia and Brazil (Pizam apud Holjevac, 2003) In tourism, the use of information technologies for basic functions - conferences, business meetings in distant places, training, designed routes and airlines, reservations and tickets purchased through computer systems, tourist shops, restaurants - is becoming usual. All these services have led tourist companies to adopt more up-dated methods in order to increase competition. Consumers are already becoming familiar with new technologies and they demand more flexible, interactive and specialized products and services, which will bring new management techniques from the intelligent use of IT used to accomplish tour companies business processes (Buhalis, 1998). Tourism is one of the most important kinds of web commerce. It corresponds to almost 40 percent of all global electronic commerce transactions (Scottish Executive, 2000, Werthner & Klein, 1999). So the data shows that all major companies linked to the tourism industry (hotels, agencies, air companies and rentals) do possess some kind of e- commerce activity through the web (O Connor, 1999). According to Jeong & Lambert (2001), the Internet has already modified the competitive strategy of some hotels. It is through the Internet that the client can have a self-understanding in a service that is being offered to him in a more efficient way. In
hotels, check-in processes can already be totally automatic, from the Internet booking until the moment the client takes his keys in an automatic dispenser. The result is that clients can become more informed and willing to have quick answers from the orders online. Through the web the customer can check hotel location, compare rates, see pictures and watch videos, get information about tourist destination and other facilities, check room availability, book and confirm reservations for the amount of time he wants to stay, among other services. Hence, the interactivity of the web provides an ideal medium for distributing accommodation online, consolidating itself as a very adequate platform for bringing information and services to the client in a very straightforward, efficient and quick way (Hotels, 2001, Flecha & Damiani, 2000). Marriot, Hospitality Services of America and Hilton are some of the hospitality industry s members that have successfully used marketing on the Internet to reach new markets, track customers, take online reservations and offer information about their products and services (Lituchy & Rail, 2000). This research aims at performing a study to evaluate the use of marketing on the Internet of the hotel industry of the city of Natal, RN in Brazil. The specific objectives of this study consist in: Describing the profile of interviewed university students; Perform an analysis of the hotel sites according to marketing characteristics (Communication and Information, Services, Interface Design Aspects, E- Commerce Aspects and Visual Communication); Perform an analysis of university students opinions about the hotel sites according to marketing characteristics; Performa a comparative study of the marketing characteristics of the hotels sites and the university students opinion about these characteristics. 2. METHODOLOGY The present project was performed in the hotel sector of Natal, RN in Brazil. Of the 159 establishments functioning in the city, 115 are small businesses, 39 hotels are of medium size and only 5 are large. The study was performed in two parallel phases: 1) data was collected from university students of the city on the use of the Internet as a marketing tool; 2) what marketing characteristics the hotel sites in Natal had through an observational research of the same was also analyzed. This is a quantitative, descriptive and non-participant observational-exploratory research. Quantitative because it considers everything that can be quantified, translating opinions and information into numbers to be classified and analyzed. Descriptive because it aims to analyze the characteristics of a specific population or phenomenon. Nonparticipant observational-exploratory because the investigator does not take part of the study knowledge as a member of the observed group but only observes, trying to see and register the maximum of occurrences that interests his research. The research was performed through data collection, using a questionnaire where the items to be analyzed by 150 people studying at university were contained. The questionnaire was organized and adapted, having as its base a previous project prepared by Abreu and Costa (2000). In order to analyze the characteristics and potential use of marketing by the hotels, the collection instrument was divided in five items:
Communication and Information: The City s Bars and Nightclubs, The City s Restaurants, Shopping Route, City Map, General Information on the City, Distances from the Hotel and the Beaches, Folklore and typical foods ; Services: Bus Arrival/Departure Times, Airplane Arrival/Departure Times, Weather Forecast, Sightseeing Route, Hotel s e-mail ; Interface Design Aspects: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ s), feedback Form, Site s Search Engine, What s New?, Opinion Forum, Foreign Language options, Tourist help telephone, Foreign currency converter ; E-Commerce Aspects: On-line Sale, Payment by Credit Card, Payment by Bank Bill, Reservations On-Line, Apartment Tariff Information ; Visual Communication: City Photos, Leisure Area Photos, Beach Photos, Restaurant Photos, Hotel s Front View Photos, Room Photos. In each item the participants had to select two characteristics at maximum. The forms were applied to university students from October 13, 2003 to November 10, 2003. The study also consisted of an observable research, therefore constituting itself an exploratory nature study in websites. In this way it verified the current marketing use situation on the web of the 159 hotels in the city of Natal, using the same five aspects applied to people by the questionnaire. 3. DATA ANALYSIS More than 50% of the university students who answered the questionnaire were between 20 and 30 years of age, single and have used Internet for at least three years. The main access location is from their home. However, the majority doesn t have a second language besides Portuguese nor an international credit card. Nevertheless, they frequently use the Internet to find information about tourism. Under Communication and Information, 29.3% of the university students thought the hotel homepages should offer general information about the city and 20.4% should give information about the city s nightclubs and bars. In the hotel sites research it was verified that 34% of these inform the distance between the hotel and the beaches, and 9.4% offer general information about the city. According to these results, the item that coincides with the university students opinion and the site analysis was general information about the city. Despite this, it was not the most important item to the hotels, while the university students considered it the most important. It was verified in Services that 46.1% of the university students declared the sites should offer a sightseeing route, 19.9% said the sites should inform the time of arrival and departure of airplanes and 10.1% stated the hotel should inform its e-mail address. It was verified that 42.8% of the sites offer their e-mail and 2.5% offer a sightseeing route. The results were not so satisfactory, since the university students chose the sightseeing route as the most important while few hotels offer this. Meanwhile the hotels think it is very important to inform their e-mail, but this was not the most cited by the students. In relation to the Interface Design Aspects, 26.7% of those interviewed answered that the sites should offer a telephone to help the tourist and 17.8% declared they should offer foreign language options. In the hotel sites 25.8% offer foreign language options and 2.5% offer a telephone for tourist help. This shows that both have the same opinion, even though with different percentages.
It was observed in E-Commerce Aspects that 31.1% of the university students declared that on-line reservations are more important, facilitating and proportioning larger comfort for reservation making. 28.3% stated the hotels should inform the tariff values of the apartments and for 19.9% of those interviewed the sites should offer on-line sales. In relation to the hotel homepage analysis, 42.2% offer on-line reservations and 36.5% inform the apartments tariff values. Only 4.4% of the hotels offer on-line sales. In this way, the hotels and the university students have the same opinion towards on-line reservations and informing tariff values of the apartments. This shows they contribute to the increase in sales of the hotel. Concerning on-line sales, the university students believe this to be important, but the hotels have not noticed this need yet because few hotels offer on-line sales. In Visual Communication, 35.2% of those responding stated the sites should offer pictures of the city and another 28.7% voted for pictures of the rooms. Meanwhile in the hotels, it was observed that 42.8% offer pictures of the front of the hotel 37.8% show pictures of the rooms and only 3.2% offer pictures of the city. It was found that the hotels should explore using more city pictures, which will attract more tourists. 4. CONCLUSION Internet makes it possible for tourist businesses to increase their competivity. The use of Internet in the hotel industry has a good growth perspective, although some hotels do not make use of this technology yet. One of the benefits reached with the use of Internet is the reduction of dependence on middle-men in the distribution of tourist products. The tourism sector can be greatly benefited with the use of Internet. It can help the hotels reach their objectives when it comes to marketing. In this way, the Internet is considered a powerful tool for the tourism professional. Therefore, hotel directors should direct more funds for technology, besides concentrating more time and effort on related issues. As verified in the university students answers, various aspects of marketing were considered as very important for the hotel sites could improve their relationship with the tourists. This will happen after publishing more information, photos and general services referring to the hotels on each of their homepages. 5. REFERENCES Abreu, N. R.; Costa, E. B. (2000) Um estudo sobre a viabilidade da utilização de marketing na internet no setor hoteleiro de Maceió. Proceedings of the 24 th National Meeting of Business Graduation Program Association, Florianopolis, Brazil. Buhalis, D. (1998). Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry. Tourism Management, 19(5), 409-421. Flecha, A. C., & Damiani, W. B. (2000). Avanços da tecnologia da informação: resultados comparados de sites da indústria hoteleria. Proceedings of the 20 th National Meeting of Production Engineering, São Paulo, Brazil. Holjevac, I. A. (2003) A vision of tourism and the hotel industry in the 21st century. Hospitality Management. 22, 129-134. Hotels. Hotels 2001 worldwide technology survey - part.1. (2001). Hotels. 35(2), 75-85.
Jeong, M., & Lambert, C. (2001). Adaptation of an information quality framework to measure customers' behavioral intentions to use lodging Web sites. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 20(2), 129-146. Licuchy, T. R. & Rail, A. (2000). Bed and breakfast, small inns, and the Internet: the impact of technology on the globalization of small businesses. Journal of International Marketing. 8(2), 86-97. O Connor, P. (1999). Electronic Information Distribution in Tourism and Hospitality. CAB International, Wallingford, UK. Scottish Executive (2000). A New Strategy for Scottish Tourism. Edinburg. Retrieved July 21, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library2/doc11/sfst.pdf. Werthener, H., & Klein, S. (1999). Information technology and tourism: a challenging relationship (Springer Computer Science). New York: Springer Verlag.