Key Factors for Business Travellers‘ Hotel Choice
Ključni faktori u izboru hotela od strane poslovnih putnika
Abstract
In contemporary business conditions characterized by the intensive competitive pressure, attracting new customers/service users is becoming a more complex and expensive business activity. The development of information-communication technologies (ICT) and the intensive development of the hotel industry has affected the appearance of significant changes in marketing and hotel sales strategies. The contemporary market is a witness to the opening of more and more independent hotels, but there is also an expressed trend of growth and development of branded hotel chains, which significantly influences the growth of competitive pressure. In such conditions attracting guests is becoming the most important challenge within the business of the hotel sector. Due to the globalization of the world economy, the number of business travelers is increasing in all regions of the world. Business travelers are a significant segment of guests for all hotels, and especially for those located within big cities and administrative business centers. Hotels direct their business efforts and marketing strategy more intensively to this segment of tourists. The adjusting of the offer towards the preferences and expectations of the business travelers is extremely important in order to achieve competitive advantage in the process of their attracting and retaining. Big hotel chains develop the brands of lower, medium and high level of luxury in order to adjust their offer. Independent hotels create the personal identity and originality which enables the offer adjustment to a specific segment. The aim of the paper is to identify key factors in decision making of the business traveler concerning the hotel selection. The analysis is based on an empirical research regarding business traveler preferences in Serbia who travel relatively often for reasons of business.
Apstrakt
U savremenim uslovima poslovanja koje karakteriše intenzivan konkurentski pritisak privlačenje novih potrošača/korisnika usluga postaje sve kompleksnija i skuplja poslovna aktivnost. Razvoj informaciono-komunikacionih tehnologija (IKT) i intenzivan razvoj hotelske industrije uticao je na nastanak značajnih promena u marketing i prodajnim strategijama hotela. Na savremenom tržištu se otvara sve veći broj nezavisnih hotela, ali je izražen trend rasta i razvoja brendiranih hotelskih lanaca, što značajno utiče na rast konkurentskog pritiska. U takvim okolnostima privlačenje gostiju postaje najznačajniji izazov u poslovanju hotelskog sektora. Broj poslovnih putnika se usled globalizacije svetske ekonomije povećava u svim regionima sveta. Poslovni putnici su značajan segment gostiju za sve hotele, a posebno one koji su locirani u velikim gradovima i administrativno poslovnim centrima. Hoteli sve intenzivnije usmeravaju poslovne napore i marketing strategiju prema ovom segmentu gostiju. Prilagođavanje ponude prema preferencijama i očekivanjima poslovnih putnika je izuzetno važno kako bi se ostvarila konkurentska prednost u procesu njihovog privlačenja i zadržavanja. Veliki hotelski lanci u cilju prilagođavanja ponude razvijaju brendove koji su nižeg, srednjeg i visokog nivoa luksuza. Nezavisni hoteli kreiraju lični identitet i originalnost što omogućava lakše prilagođavanje ponude specifičnom segmentu. Cilj rada je identifikovanje ključnih faktora u donošenju odluka poslovnih putnika o izboru hotela. Analiza se bazira na empirijskom istraživanju preferencija poslovnih putnika u Srbiji koji relativno često putuju zbog poslovnih razloga.
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