Integrating Social Media into Traditional Customer Relationship Management Strategies
Travel Agencies’ Need for Virtual Co-Creation
by Akvile Kairyte (Lithuania), Eljas Johansson (Finland) and Linda Malchow (Germany)
Co-creation of value and experiences is a valuable and prevalent strategy as personalized products and services take over the mass production. The tourism industry is not an exception as high competition forces travel actors to address individual holiday desires, needs, and expectations in the most efficient way possible. Hence, we are investigating how travel agencies can respond to holidaymakers’ experiences and desires by utilizing social media as part of a social Customer Relationship Management strategy. Social Customer Relationship Management in the tourism industry is a strategy indirectly empowering holidaymakers to participate in the co-creation of own holiday value and experience by providing useful information about their experiences and dreams to travel agencies.
Co-creation of value and experiences is a valuable and prevalent strategy as personalized products and services take over the mass production. The tourism industry is not an exception as high competition forces travel actors to address individual holiday desires, needs, and expectations in the most efficient way possible. Hence, we are investigating how travel agencies can respond to holidaymakers’ experiences and desires by utilizing social media as part of a social Customer Relationship Management strategy. Social Customer Relationship Management in the tourism industry is a strategy indirectly empowering holidaymakers to participate in the co-creation of own holiday value and experience by providing useful information about their experiences and dreams to travel agencies.