Family businesses in tourism – the use of digital technologies in times of uncertainty and crisis

Abstract

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of digital technologies on the promotion of tourist offer from the perspective of family businesses. The paper tries to provide a better understanding of the factors that determine the use of digital technologies in the family tourism business, both in the modern digital world and in times of uncertainty and crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe survey method was used in the realization of the research. Data were collected using a stratified random sample of 86 tourism providers in Montenegro and analyzed by using SEM models, logistic regression and descriptive statistics.FindingsThe results showed that the demographic characteristics of the respondents were the least important factors in the analysis; while factors that significantly affected the use of digital technologies in Montenegrin tourism included the nature of future tourism trends perceived by respondents, crisis and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, participants’ perceptions, attitudes and understanding of the specificities of digital technologies and benefits they offer to tourists, perceived from the perspective of the family business representative. Furthermore, the results of logistic regression revealed that pandemic had stronger consequences on micro and small enterprises, compared to those imposed on medium-sized firms. These impacts relate to changes in organization and redesign of workflows, altered communication from traditional to digital and increased importance of business innovations. On the other hand, the increased significance of integration of marketing channels for multiple target segments, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, was stronger pronounced in medium-sized businesses compared to micro and small ones.Originality/valueThe results obtained may serve the holders of the tourist offer, managers and decision-makers when making decisions on the imposition of digital technologies in tourism, in order to secure global reach business, multi-channel tourist interaction, cost-saving and being ahead of competitors. This enables an integrated analysis that forms the basis for further creation of tourism and marketing policies at the individual and collective level to attract tourists and strengthen Montenegro’s competitiveness as a destination.

Digital innovations in tourism: the perceptions of stakeholders

“…Yström and Agogué (2020) and Melović et al . (2022) investigated the effects of digital technologies on the supply of tourism services from the perspective of family businesses and concluded that the use of digital technologies in tourism is significantly affected by the perceived trends in tourism, the crisis and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the market actors' perceptions, attitudes and understanding of the specifics and advantages of digital technologies offered to tourists.…”

“…The tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the global economy, which significantly contributes to employment and gross domestic product (GDP) (Melović et al ., 2022). The tourism industry is also a driver of economic growth (Ye et al ., 2022).…”

Challenges and Trends of Digital Innovation in the Tourism Sector: Contemporary Literature Review

“…Another emerging trend in the tourism industry is identification technologies (Bayram, 2020) that include identification of elements such as fingerprints, facial recognition, retinal scanning and other biometric identification methods, aiming to better ensure security and identify people. Also, such technologies help significantly in collecting data to determine the personality of the tourist, in order to create personalized services or offers to the customer (Melović, Baynazoğlu, & Šerić, 2023). The next digital trend in the tourism industry is the Internet of Things (IoT), a technology that exploits the use of the Internet's capabilities to interface and communicate with the various digital devices with the ultimate goal of more efficient data sending and receiving (Elkhwesky & Elkhwesky, 2023).…”

“…time, initial and ongoing capital investment, ongoing technical support) required to educate and train staff in continuous level. It should be noted that the tourism industry is mainly based on staff that are temporary and the degree of loyalty to the company is small (Melović, Baynazoğlu, & Šerić, 2023), as a result of which companies and jobs are constantly changing. Another important challenge is linked to the high cost and uncertainty of the investment, as a result of which a large number of tourism businesses, especially family ones, avoid spending to integrate digital innovations into their organization (Cheng et al, 2023).…”

“…This specific factor works as a deterrent for many tourism industries (especially small ones) which prefer to invest in more customer-centric customer service systems, rather than in digitalized technological services. Finally, it should be noted that the ever-increasing and constantly changing demands of customers create an uncertain climate regarding the type of investments and the sectors they should target (Mariani, Bresciani, & Dagnino, 2021) Main challenges for the integration of digital innovations in tourism businesses Source Need to train existing and new staff that will be responsible for managing digital applications (Gutierriz, Ferreira, & Fernandes, 2023) Lack both the human resources and skills required for digitization, as well as the resources (Van Nuenen & Scarles, 2021) Staff that are temporary and the degree of loyalty to the company is small (Melović, Baynazoğlu, & Šerić, 2023) High cost and uncertainty of the investment (Cheng et al, 2023) Lack of sufficient knowledge on the part of management on the subject (Zhang, 2023) Availability and reliability of the internet in the location of the tourism business (Levchenko, Dianova, & Sharifullina, 2022) Ever-increasing and constantly changing demands of customer (Mariani, Bresciani, & Dagnino, 2021) of Key Challenges). While it is also necessary to create a system for assessing tourist behavior and tourist demand, many companies cannot find the appropriate specialized staff who have the knowledge, skills and abilities to analyze, forecast and evaluate the market so as to create personalized and suitable offers according to the needs and requirements of each customer.…”