Title: The Use of Social Media Applications as Marketing Tools for Travel

Agencies and its Impact to Online Consumer Buying Decisions in Manila, Cavite
and Batangas. A Descriptive Study.

Chapter One: The Problem and Its Setting

Rationale
Tourism industry is a composite of industries and entities, both public and private,
involved in the planning, development, marketing, sales, operation and evaluation of
destinations, products and services that cater to the needs of travellers, both foreign
and domestic. (Adopted from Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophies)
Tourism industry has gotten far this generation because it is one of the fast growing
industries in the world. Tourism has been a new trend locally and internationally
speaking in this generation we are living.
Travel agencies are one of the best factors that made it achievable for the tourism
industry growth. With the help of travel agencies, people reach places and go to places
they want.
Based on the Article 243 of the tourism Code of the 1980 defines a travel agency as:
A travel and tour agency is an entity engaged in the business of extending to
individuals or groups, travel services and assistance to include documentation, ticketing,

booking for transportation and /or accommodation; arrangements, handling and/or

conduct of tours within or outside the Philippines, whether or not for fee, commission or
may form of monetary consideration.
Travel agencies offer tour packages and promos and provide anything that customer
would need. Also one that would make it possible for it to be known was using the social
media. It did a lot of influence that made it attainable for the people. Travel agencies
use this social media as their marketing tool for it has been the widest new trend in the
present. Online consumers were the best examples of how social medias been a big
help to the travel agencies. It made it easy for the online consumers to decide what
package to choose by just surfing at the internet; they could just choose and pick a tour
package they want. There are many theses that already talk about travel agencies and
how they utilize their marketing tool for their growing business. But there is always been
an evolution for everything that do best for development.

Statement of the Problem

1. What are the social media applications that are used by the selected travel
agencies as a marketing tool?
2. How do these travel agencies utilize these social media applications?
3. What is the most important aspect would the online consumers consider in their
buying-decisions?
General Objectives
The primary aim of this study is to determine the use of social media application as a
marketing tool for travel agencies in the province of Manila, Cavite and Batangas.
Specifically this study aimed to:

Determine the social media applications used by travel agencies.

Determine the effects of social media as their marketing tool.

Identify the consumer behaviour buying decision.

The objective of this study is to know how useful these social media applications as
marketing tool for travel agencies. This study talks also to know how these social media
applications help in the widening growth of travel agencies online. This study aims to
provide academic resource for the industry where few such studies are currently
available. By examining how different social networking services are used in the travel
agencies and also present managerial implications in the strategic application of social
media marketing in tourism.

Significance
The significance of this study entitled The Use of Social Media Applications as
Marketing Tools for Travel Agencies and its Impact to Online Consumer Buying
Decisions in Manila, Cavite and Batangas., is to establish a knowledge to the
consumers especially in choosing a trusted sites for their safe and worry-free tour.
For the students this study will help them expand their knowledge and educate them
about travel agencies and teach them how these operate in the internet as its marketing
tool. Will also tell them how travel agencies utilize the tour packages they offer.
For the future researchers this study will be their future references in their study that
they are going to work on. It can be a useful source of their thesis someday.
For the travel agencies it can help them give informations on how they can utilize or
manage their sites simple and easily. It can help them in their future plans on using the
social media as their marketing tool and media advertising. Being able to directly
interact with customers in a real-time basis creates a sense of loyalty among customers.
For the online consumers it would give them the wisdom of how they can use those
social Medias for their easy selecting and choosing a tour package. And also help them
to find sites that are loyal with the customers.

Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the social media applications that travel agencies use as their
marketing tool for their business. The specific applications like micro-blogging, social
networking sites, product reviews and photos and video sharing application are also
studied in this thesis. This study about the applications can be found in the internet that
consumer use as their guide in selecting a preferred tour package and purchasing it.
This also talks about how the consumer behaviours that affects their purchasing
attitudes towards the internet. This is only for the selected travel agencies based in the
selected provinces of Manila, Cavite and Batangas. This study only targeted on the
online consumers who are users of the social media application that can be found in the
internet. We did not include here the other social medias like televisions, magazines,
radios and newspapers because it only focuses in the use of internet applications. The
walk-in consumers in the travel agencies and those who are using travel agents are not
also included in this study.

Conceptual Framework

Input

Process

thesis
Books References
Pdf files

Survey questionnaires
Interviews

Internet

Output

Social media
applications used by
travel agencies
Conclusion
Recommendation

Books References
Pdf files

This study will aim to know the all the references needed like thesis, book references,
pdf files, and the internet and to know the interview questions and survey
questionnaires that will be asked to the selected respondents. As a result, this study will
get a conclusion about the social media applications used by travel agencies.

Definition of Terms
Consumer Behaviour are tourists or persons attitudes towards buying a product.
Markets refers to the people of a products perspective.
Supplier where the tour agents and tour agencies get the packages.
Social media refers to any form of media or material that communicates with people
online.
Travel Agency a store of travel; makes arrangements for tourists for their travel and
tour.
Travel Agents retailers of tour packages, an agent for the supplier
Travellers are people who travel for different purposes.
Tourist are people, who travel and tours especially for leisure, buying the products of
travel agencies.

Chapter Two
Review of Related Literature

The tourism industry is defined as a composite of industries and entities, both public
and private, involved in the planning, development, marketing, sales, operation and
evaluation of destinations, product services that cater to the needs of the travellers, both
foreign and domestic. (Adopted from Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophies, R.W.
McIntosh & C.R. Goeldner, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1972)

It refers in supplying the needs of both foreign and domestic travellers, not necessarily
tourist. Tourist is considered as any individual who undertakes a journey that exceeds
twenty-four hours outside his regular place of residence, for purposes other than a
living. This is too limiting and denotes primary leisure. Tourist, pilgrims, delegates,
businessmen and women are the examples of travellers that tourism industry caters,
they are travellers, though for different purposes, whether foreign or domestic, travelling
within the Philippines, and in some cases, travelling to overseas destinations.

Travel agency has a big contribution in tourism industry for it is one of the essential
factors for easiest way of getting a tour. It also made it for the tourist to attain what they
want for their tour.

Travel agency is a basic need for the tourism industry growth. It is an essential for the
tourist to have this agency for their travelling. It is a department store of travel. It is place
where a person can secure, information, expert counselling and make arrangements to
travel by air, sea or land to any point in the world. It is basically a retailer as it conducts
business transactions directly with each individual supplier, acts as an agent of different
suppliers in tourism industry (they are known as travel components), such as
transportation companies, hotel/resorts, car rental companies, tour operators, and
sightseeing companies, and with each individual end-user. (Travel Agency and Tour
Operations in the Philippines, 1999)

The concept of travel agency was started by Thomas Cook in 1841. He was known as
the Father of Travel Agencies. It started when he asked 570 people to sign up to
accompany him in travelling from Leicester to Loughborough.

Based on the Article 243 of the Tourism Code of 1980, travel agency is defined as A
travel and tour agency is an entity engaged in business of extending the travel to
individuals or groups, travel services and assistance to include documentation, ticketing,
booking for transportation and/or accommodation; arrangements, handling and/or
conduct tours within or outside the Philippines, whether or not for fee, commission or
may form of monetary consideration. On the other hand, the definition of travel agency
is the combination of the functions of travel agents and tour operators into one. (Bureau
of Tourism Services, Tourisms Code of 1980, Ministry of Tourism, Rizal Park, Manila)

There are five (5) major function of travel agency and these are the following: One, it
provides information and expertise in country. Two is that it impartially recommends
particular destinations, suppliers, products and services best suited to the needs of the
traveller. Three, it provides assistance in securing travel documents, such as passports
and visas, and immigration clearances. Four, it process travel arrangements by placing
reservation, obtaining conformations and issuing corresponding tickets or tour vouchers
in behalf of the suppliers. Lastly, it assists in cases of refunds and cancellations.

Travel agencys business core is their Operations Department. It is primarily engaged in

the efficient and effective delivery of the organizations services as agents of travel
suppliers.
There are five (5) functions of operations department and these are the following: First
is the Counter Counselling; second, is Reservation; third, is the Fare Calculation, forth,
is the Ticketing and lastly, is the Documentation. (Travel Agency and Tour Operations in
the Philippines, 1999)

There are four kinds of Travel Agencies the first is the one that sells all the forms of
travel packages, including the air, lodging, car rentals, rail travel, cruises, and tours.
These agencies tend to sell mostly to people in their own geographic community; this
agency is called the Conventional, Full-Service Agency. Second is the Online Agencies

which operates almost exclusively through their Web Sites. Air, lodging, car rentals are
such the travel commodities they are concentrating to sell on.

A great marketing

strength is that online agencies are not bound by geography. They can sell to people
anywhere in the world. The third one is the Specialized Agency, an agency that is
narrowing their focus to a particular kind of customer and doesnt need to be a fullservice business. Last is the Home-Based Agency, where you just work about
anywhere, in your home specifically.

A travel agent is an individual who based on recognized industry standard of expertise

and experience, is deemed qualified by travel agent peers and by travel principals to
offer and sell travel arrangements and services to the general public Mr. Joel M. Abels,
an editor and publisher of Travel Trade, definition of travel agent. It is a travel agent,
with insider knowledge and experience, can cut through the hype and recommend te
best product for a clients need. (The Travel Agent, Aryear Gregory)

These are the travel agents activities and characteristics: They are retailers not
wholesalers; they normally transact business and sells directly to the end-user or
travellers. They act as counsellor or advisor to the end-user, and are an agent for the
supplier; they have fixed income in pre-determined commission schemes; they charge
ancillary services and are limited to direct dealings with the end-user.

Every travel agency has its own marketing tools. Different tools they use for different
kind of consumers and for better attraction of consumers. These tools made them easy
in meeting the consumer demands.

Marketing is defined as the process of transferring a product or services from its

producer to the consumer. Creating a sales opportunities is its main objective. It also
means maintaining a good image for long-term benefits rather than concentrating on
quick one-shot deals. Other objectives of marketing is to attract clients, to stand out
among its competitors, to increase returns by building up cumulative impact, to generate
word-of-mouth endorsement, to speed up communication of the message, and to entice
new staff members.

Marketing has six (6) major steps; it is Research, figuring out if there is a demand for
what you want to sell; Next is Development, after determining what the market
demands, then design a new product or adjust an existing one to address its need,
product research is part of this stage; Next is Costing, negotiate with the supplier first,
then decide what percentage profit you wish to make and then add an appropriate
amount to your cost, then pricing your new travel product to be sold to the consumer.
Next is the Promotion, it is spreading the word to the public about your new travel
product. Two common types of promotion are publicity (such as articles in newspapers,
speeches to groups, newsletter announcement, and client word-of-mouth) and
advertising (such as newspaper ads, TV commercials, and Brochures); Next is the

Distribution, it is the process of making your product available in the market; Lastly, is
the Follow-up, it is usually a form of follow-up gestures (a thank you letter) or a survey
studies that gauge customer satisfaction. (Access: Introduction to Travel and Tourism,
Marc Manchini)

Some of the activities done in marketing is advertising, it is defined as any paid form of
non-personal presentation of ideas, good or services by an identified sponsor. It is best
known and almost always the most expensive marketing activity. It involves the paid
publication of material in print media and endorsement of products and services in voice
video or electronic channels. Billboards, Prints, Broadcast(radio), Broadcast(TV),
Electronic(web sites), and video/CD ROM are some of the materials or forms of
advertisements made for advertising.
Publication is also done in marketing activities. It refers to any printed material
emanating from the travel agency. Brochures, posters, leaflets, flyers, handouts and
other literature are the following examples of publication. Using this, it must be attractive
in format and clear content. (Travel Agency and Tour Operations in the Philippines,
1999)

Travel and the internet have now come with each other. The internet has swept
throughout lives, dramatically changing the way we search, learn, purchase and sell.
And it has been profound effect on the travel industry. (Access: Introduction to Travel
and Tourism, Marc Manchini)

If you were to access the internet, Web sites are what you need. The following are the
principal types of sites: the Information-only site, these provide details in places,
products and data. These amateur sites are wildly unpredictable; second is the Opinion
sites, this site is giving views on everything about destination or products by an expert
or a self-proclaimed experts. Chat rooms are one of the variations of opinions sites
where you can seek or exchange opinion with others; the third is the Supplier Booking
Sites, these provide a cost-efficient, easily updated way to distribute their products.
Consumer view these products as commodities that can easily bought through
electronic self-service; fourth is the Travel Agency site, they had now embraced the use
of Web-based Technology. These sites provide information only and recommend that
you can contact the agency by phone, e-mail, or visit their office, but other sites are
purely online where you can book there already. Last is the Auction Sites, consumers
enter a price they are willing to pay for a certain generic travel product or what you call
bidding, then the side would tell you if the supplier accepted your bid.

Using a Web-Based Technology, there would be strengths and weaknesses for these.
Here are some reasons why web-based technology could be strength for travel: it gives
access to vast storehouse of knowledge, it is convenient, there is no sales pressure, it is
interactive, it is visual, it can be entertaining, it communicates regularly, and it can be
customized. On the other hand, there are also weaknesses for these: it cannot solve
complex trips very well, it is potentially time-consuming, privacy and security are still an

issue, information is often dated, it deals poorly with after-purchase problems, and last
is that it transacts superbly, but counsels poorly.

As said earlier, in this study there is a type of agency called Online Agency. They
operate almost exclusively through their web sites. Some example of these sites are
Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz, they allow booking within their websites.

Social media today is redefining the way travel agencies market to consumer and
business prospects. A large number of Travel Companies are increasingly use blogs,
Facebook, Twitter, and other social means to reach the customer in a better, more costeffective manner than traditional advertising allows. One thing that is common in travel
industry is how travel is such a personal experience, and how the best travel
experiences dont come from guidebooks. Instead the best travel experiences are
gained from people you meet along your way that suggest places that you would never
have discovered otherwise. (Impact of Social Media on Travel Industry, Cybage Travel
and Hospitality Practice Group)

Social media, in a broader sense, is describes as the convergence of technologies

making it possible for individuals to easily communicate, share information and form a
new community online.

Social media has become a serious marketing channel but there is a question on how
can online travel companies and services effectively integrates social media into their
offerings to sell and earn more business. Nowadays, there are hundreds of millions of
online consumers worldwide using social networks, blogs, mirco-blogs, online forums
and video sharing websites to communicate and share information. Travel companies
have followed this big, global online network of consumers with the help of social media.

As stated above, online consumers use these social Medias in the internet or web and
it is divided into Four (4) namely: one is the Micro-blogging, twitter is an example of this,
Micro-blogging websites are services, which enable their users to post small text
messages that will update their personal profile and will also be delivered to their list of
friends.; two is the social networking sites, like Facebook and LinkdIn are some of it;
three is the product reviews, Amazon and Tripadvisor are part of it; last is the photos
and video sharing sites like Youtube and Flickr. These social media sites are the most
used in the web today.

The key to the underpinning of all marketing activity which is carried out to develop,
promote and sell tourism products is the consumer behaviour. We must try to
understand how consumers make their decisions to purchase or use tourism products.
Knowing their behaviour patterns, will get to know who to target at a particular time with
a particular tourism product. And more importantly, knowing how to persuade them to
choose a certain products and have to design more effectively to meet their particular

needs and wants, hence, understanding consumer behaviour is crucial to make

marketing activity more successful. Consumer behaviour is particularly relevant in the
tourism field, where the decision to purchase by a consumer is of emotional
significance. Consumer choosing or buying products are influenced by their decision
making process by many internal and external motivators and determinants. (Consumer
Behaviour: Building Market strategy, 2004)

According to Horner and Swarbrooke (1996), Consumer behaviour is the study of why
people buy the product they do, and how they make their decision.

According to Engel, Blackwell and Miniard (2001), they defined consumer behaviour as
those activities directly involved in obtaining, consuming and disposing of products and
services including the decision processes that precede and follow these actions. And
the process by which a consumer chooses to purchase or use a product or service is
defined as the consumer behaviour process..

According to Solomon (1996), Consumer behaviour is the process involved when

individuals or groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, oe
experiences to satisfy needs and wants.

Marketing relies on the idea that organizations should have the consumer as the central
focus for all their activities. Then understanding consumer behaviour is vital if the
marketing activity which is carried out by organizations is to be effective.

There are some factors taken into account when making a purchase decision. The first
and the most constant facto is the Price. The typical range of prices of the products of
different sectors is the following: destination, retail travel, visitor attractions, restaurants,
accommodations, and transport and tour operators. Second is the Location, it is the
area of a city in which a hotel is located, the departure airport offered by the tour
operator or how far an attraction is from the visitors home. Third is have to considerate
the tourists previous experience of an organizations services and the reputation of the
organization.

Here are some of the varieties of data on tourist behaviour required by the tourism
organization, both qualitative and quantitative: the statistical profiles of the tourist,
statistical records of tourist behaviour, how tourists make purchasing decisions, who
makes the purchase decision, when the purchase decision is made, consumer
perceptions, tourist satisfaction, the identification of trends in tourist behaviour,
segmentation criteria, product positioning in relation to competitors, the attitude of nonusers, cultural and national differences in tourist behaviour, the link between the
consumer behaviour of tourist and their purchase of other products.

Chapter Three: Methodology

Research Methodology
The descriptive method of research will be used in this study. The researchers
will use it to explain what the purpose of the study is and how the problems of this study
were solved by describing them. Descriptive method of research is a fact-finding study
with adequate and accurate interpretation of the findings. It describes what is. It
describes with emphasis what actually exist such as current conditions, practices,
situations or any phenomena. This type research is the most commonly used and the
basic reason for carrying out descriptive research is to identify the cause of something
that is happening. (Methods of Research and Thesis Writing, Jose F. Calderon)
On the other hand, descriptive research mainly focuses on describing a certain
situation or nature to gather information. This kind of method helped the researchers
determine if the social media applications are very useful to travel agencies as their
marketing tool. Also the researchers were be able to investigate certain conditions and
will had a clear view of the phenomena being search and determined before the data
collection procedure was carried out. The researcher chose to use this kind of research
because their desire to obtain first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate
rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study.

Respondents of the study

The respondents of the study will be the travel agencies; this includes the managers or
owners of the agencies. The researchers will select a group of online consumers that
have bigger support or involvement in the use of the social media applications
discussed in the study. They are the ones who answered the survey questionnaires of
the researchers.

Sampling Procedure
Before the collection of the data starts in any research project, the proportion of
the population of the population to be used must have been determined already and the
computation of the sample must have been finished. So, what the researcher has to do
here is to write about the complete procedure he used in determining his sample. This
process is done when the researchers aims to draw conclusions for the entire
population after conducting a study on a sample taken from the same population.
(Methods of Research and Thesis Writing, Jose F. Calderon)
In studying for the social media applications as marketing tool for travel agencies,
the researcher used purposive sampling targeting, a particular group of people and a
non-probability sampling which does not involve a random selection of respondents.
This sampling technique was the easiest way for the researchers since they had a
specific classification of respondents.

Research Instrument
In this section of the Chapter III, there is a need to describe and explicitly
explain in adoption, construction, validation and administration of research instruments
in gathering data. Instruments include tests, questionnaires, interview guidelines and/or
schedules, etc. Apparatuses, devices, and laboratory equipments to be used or were
used should be described. In this section also, the variables covered by the instrument
are briefly enumerated with a presentation, if necessary, of the scaling to be used.
(Methods of Research, Merle E. Salmorin)
The primary data gathering instrument will be used in this study is through
interview. This instrument will be used to gather information to the respondents
particularly to the travel agency managers which can be a big help in this study. The
interview will be formal and planned because it is scheduled and can be one time and
multiple interviews.
For this research, the survey-questionnaire instrument will be used to achieve the
main objective of the study. The researchers designed self-administered questionnaires
for the data gathering procedure to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data. The
aim of the questionnaires is to determine the impact of online consumer buying
decision. The researchers made a questionnaire for their respondents. This research
will use a mixture of a closed questions and open comments in the questionnaires. A
closed question is one that has pre-coded answers. Through closed questions, the
researcher limited the responses that are within the scope of this study. The
questionnaires were structured in such a way that the respondents were able to answer.