Information Communication Technology and the Marketing of the Hospitality Sector

The study aims to critically evaluate the marketing of the hospitality sector impacted by ICT. The study has found that ICT supports hospitality organisations in providing effective customer service by applying CRM technology. Organisations like Travelodge, IHG has successfully applied ICT-enabled CRM system for providing better facilities to customers. ICT enables organisations to provide Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for developing effective interaction with customers. The study has found out that digital marketing strategy can effectively be developed by organisations like Travelodge, Premier Inn and GLH hotel due to the development of ICT. However, ICT has a threat of security issues such as malware attacks. ICT has increased the expectation of customers from the hospitality industry and motivates organisations to invest more in technology rather than employees.

1. Introduction

Information Communication Technology (ICT) refers to the infrastructure that supports modern computing systems. ICT includes networking components, devices, systems, and applications that permit organisations and people to develop interaction in the digital world. ICT supports the hospitality sector in enhancing communication with customers, the guest service system, and the reservation system. The study aims to critically analyse the impact of ICT on the marketing of the hospitality sector considering customer relationship management, Integrated Marketing Communication and digital marketing strategy. The study will analyse the impact with respect to the examples from the hospitality industry.

2. Impact of ICT on the marketing of hospitality sector

2.1 Customer Relationship Management

ICT enabled customer relationship management support organisations of the hospitality sector to develop better communication with target customers. CRM support hospitality organisations to track room occupancy and food inventory effectively. ICT enables organisations in the hospitality industry to use CRM software for quickly identifying information related to customers (Sota et al., 2020). It also helps organisations develop personal interaction with customers by responding to their queries on time and meeting their requirements which is beneficial for customer retention and allows the hospitality industry to enhance the customer conversion rate as CRM software enables customers to interact with the organisations for their queries and feedbacks. It has been identified that 77% people see at least 6 to 12 reviews before booking a hotel (Sharifi, 2019). Therefore, it can be understood that most of the customers know the activity of the hotels before they contact the sales representative. The impact of ICT on CRM of hospitality organisations can be understood with respect to Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) which develops the new CRM system to respond to its member customers’ preferences at each stage of their guest journey and it helps the organisation to understand the choices of customers for pillow type, room location, booking option, and post-stay services (InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, 2016). ICT supports hospitality organisations to enhance their business scale by developing effective communication with individual customers. Travelodge, another popular hotel chain in the UK hospitality industry, adopts a CRM system by outsourcing it from Hitachi Solution to understand customers' rapidly changing requirements and upgrade their service according to customers' needs (Hitachi-solutions, 2016). The CRM system allows Travelodge to manage multiple room bookings effectively. It also allows Travelodge to improve its scale by enhancing customer relationships. Therefore, it can be determined that an ICT-enabled CRM system helps hospitality organisations better understand the customer's requirements, which supports them to provide better customer service. Therefore, an effective CRM system allows customers to book hotels as per their preference. The small organisation sometimes fails to understand the actual value of the CRM system as the CRM system provides a 360-degree point of view regarding the interaction with each customer of the organisation. Further, ICT infrastructure supports customers to remote check-in and check out from their mobile devices which is beneficial for hoteliers to manage their staff effectively. Remote check-in and check-out facilities alert hotel staff regarding the arrival of the guest and support them to prepare the room for their guest (Gupta and Sharma, 2021). The importance of ICT enabled CRM has increased in the hospitality industry due to Covid-19 as major companies focus on technology for developing better customer service facilities.

However, ICT-enabled CRM system has a threat of data breaches related to customers. Data breach is the negative impact of ICT as this results in loss of reputation for the organisations. Cy