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28 Imbal, J. & Fitina, L. The Convenient Traveller: Using Technology to Enhance Tourism in Papua New Guinea

The convenient traveller: using technology to

enhance tourism in Papua New Guinea

John Imbal

Lakoa Fitina

Abstract

Potential travellers who do last minute bookings have one problem in

common, they do not have the luxury of ‘time’. Most travel web portals

and destination websites provide similar types of information which

creates information overload and makes it difficult for new-comers to

decide which travel products or combination of travel products they

want. In this paper we discuss a theory to assist the potential traveller to

make the most convenient travel decision through the use of technology.

We suggest an application and business model to determine the most

convenient travel decision.

Key words: tourism industry, information and communication technologies,

Internet, websites, e-ticketing, e-reservations, consumer travel information,

destination management organizations, new opportunities, convenient traveller

Introduction

International trade, development of resources and consumption at both local

and international level is becoming fast and competitive. What the world does

not have is ‘time’ and the dilemma it is grappling with is ‘scarce resources’,

maximization of opportunities, increased satisfaction and lowering any signs

that will bring about discomfort. This has been enhanced by developments in

information and communication technologies (ICTs). Responses to new and

sophisticated consumer demands and awareness of society’s ills and guilt-

feelings in the tourism industry has seen initiatives to produce more ‘greener’

results such as ‘energy-efficient’ airplanes like the Airbus A380 and Boeing

B787 Dreamliner, ecotourism, e-ticketing, e-reservations and environmental

checklist guidelines, to create more convenience for the traveller and reduce

any discomfort. The use of ICTs has greatly enhanced the tourism industry’s

ability to achieve the goals of these initiatives.

These developments have brought about more opportunities and greater

competition. In Papua New Guinea (PNG) well-known tourism products such

as accommodation, destination management organizations, airlines, rental cars,

travel agencies, tour operators and tourist attractions, are thinking about having

a presence on the Internet by developing websites to take advantage of

opportunities provided by the developments in ICT. Current trends in website

development and online marketing indicate that PNG’s purpose in applying

ICT is no different from the international travel trade and other destinations.

Much of the consumer travel information that is provided by the different

Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal Volume 14, May 2011 29

suppliers and destination management organizations is similar: comparing what

is offered within the country and outside the country. This increases the level

of competition and does not make it easier for new travellers trying to decide

on a travel choice. In this paper we discuss a proposal for a comprehensive

travel decision making mechanism to assist tourists decide on a travel route and

to assist tourist operators and support industries to market their products and

serve their customers better.

The 21 st century visitor

According to Schröcksnadel (2008:245) the 21 st century visitor is likely to

make significant use of information and communication technologies to assist

in travel planning and decision making. There are now more experienced and

sophisticated travellers than before, yet they do not have the luxury of time to

do all those travel planning and decision making themselves. ‘The more

support and service customers receive, the more satisfied they are’ (Wenzel &

Kirig 2006, cited in Schröcksnadel, 2008:245).

In this paper we suggest that despite the multitude of needs that the average

traveller has and despite the multitude of services, activities and destinations

available, it is possible to create a decision support mechanism that benefits

both the traveller and the organization seeking to entice the traveller or to make

his or her travel more pleasurable and less stressful. We suggest such a solution

and describe its implementation.

Identifying traveller decision criteria based on traveller needs

Let us assume that a potential tourist wants to travel. The potential traveller has

certain needs and expectations such as being welcomed at the reception, being

assisted with the luggage and shown to a seat or room, a hot bath, a good meal

and reliable service. The person could search the Internet or visit the nearest

travel agent to collect information and make travel arrangements. Say, the

potential traveller chooses to fly as the mode of transportation. The potential

traveller’s travel information needs may comprise the following:

Cheapest fare

Direct or in-direct flights

Number of stops

In-flight information and entertainment

Reputation

Aircraft size, configuration, fare classes

Onboard meals

Seat comfort and leg-room

Duty free shopping

Journey time

Frequent flyer points and other customer loyalty programs

Facilities and amenities on board

Staff professionalism and friendliness

Convenient travel times and onward connections.

30 Imbal, J. & Fitina, L. The Convenient Traveller: Using Technology to Enhance Tourism in Papua New Guinea

The above may be primary needs. The secondary needs of the potential

traveller could comprise the following:

Destination information provided by the airline

User friendly and easy access to information provided by the airline

Packages and other travel arrangements provided by the airline, e.g. hire

car, accommodation and sightseeing packages.

Using the ideas behind minimum spanning trees as a branch of mathematics

and computing science, a system may be developed to give the different travel

needs a rating based on a perceived satisfaction rate of how well that service is

performed to the satisfaction of the travel customer as perceived by system

analysts, which would be updated periodically. To demonstrate this in tabular

form, a traveller wants to travel to PNG from Singapore and uses the following

travel criteria to choose a carrier.

Table 1: Query table and weighted responses

Query Airline

Air Niugini PX Qantas QF

Non-stop flight 5 0

Duty free 4 5

Journey time 5 1

Onboard entertainment 3 5

Onboard meals 4 4

Total rating (weight): 21 15

From Singapore (SIN) to Port Moresby (POM)

For the convenience of the potential traveller the system would return the total

rating (weight) based on the five queries entered by the traveller. In this case

Air Niugini has a total weight of 21 compared to Qantas with a total weight of

15, which shows that Air Niugini is the recommended carrier based on the five

queries that have been entered into the system. The system can be designed in a

way that the potential traveller can also see at the click of a button the

individual weight components as shown above or in a graph form if the

traveller is more concerned about a particular query. This would save time and

resources for the potential traveller, and give the power and confidence in

travel decision making back to the client. This would not diminish the role of

travel agents, and potential travellers can always visit one if they are seeking

personal assurances, but the system would tremendously increase travel

convenience.

The same system can be applied to destinations in relation to destination

management and even comparing various means of travel such as road, train,

air and sea transportation. This can also be applied to the different sectors of

the tourism industry at the domestic and international levels.

Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal Volume 14, May 2011 31

A synergistic and customized approach

The proposed system is ideal as it integrates a level of synergy and

customization based on the travel needs of the potential traveller. Based on the

query input by the potential traveller, the system will output the highest total

weight thereby increasing the likelihood of customer satisfaction and

increasing the synergy between the different query components. The proposed

system will also provide for a customized result outlaying the weight to

individual query components so that potential travellers have more control over

their travel decision making.

A strategic approach

Potential travellers are not only looking for travel means but are also interested

in other services and products provided along the journey and what awaits

them in the destination. Therefore a strategic approach is to look at the whole

thing as an ‘experience’. The concern in this case is to provide the potential

traveller with the best options for his or her travel needs so that the total

experience is a satisfactory and memorable one that will sustain future

business.

This is also good for businesses as those doing well above average to meet

customer needs will retain satisfied and loyal customers who will continue to

give good business. This will influence the weight allocation and can further

generate new business for the travel trade like the airlines and destinations. It

will also create competition amongst the different travel companies and

destinations to improve their services and product offerings so that customers

are better satisfied.

Destination management organizations

Buhalis (2003) indicates that destinations that provide timely, appropriate and

accurate information to consumers and the travel trade are most likely to

succeed compared to those destinations that are ill-prepared. Destination

management organizations need to promote their accommodation,

transportation, tourist attractions, natural environment, events, culture, etc. to

bring in tourists. The use of the Internet is fast becoming desirable as a means

to promote and access useful information for efficient and effective travel

planning and decision making in the tourism industry. The Papua New Guinea

Tourism Promotion Authority’s (PNGTPA) 2009 survey results demonstrate

that;

The use of Internet by international visitors to source information on

PNG is growing rapidly. More than 37 percent of the visitors responded

to have used Internet as their source of information. This result

continues the upward trend of Internet use from year 2003 and the

highest use observed to date, which confirms the importance of the

Internet as a source of information. Therefore, well detailed and easily

32 Imbal, J. & Fitina, L. The Convenient Traveller: Using Technology to Enhance Tourism in Papua New Guinea

accessible websites should be developed by those involve[d] in the

tourism business and linked to the TPA website for effective

distribution of the information to consumers.

Improvements to destination management organizations’ websites associated

with special functionality for accommodation websites include language

options, integration of hotel and attraction videos, online credit card payments

and booking options, and sending non-binding information online. What the

destination management organizations are less concerned about is comparing

and ranking those facilities and services by according them some kind of

weight based on a perception of satisfaction levels, which will benefit potential

tourists and other travellers. If destination management organizations and the

individual product-based websites (e.g. hotels, attractions) provide similar

types of information then that makes it quite difficult for new-comers to make

their individual choices. ‘For most tourists using the Internet for travel

preparation, the overload of offers is perceived more like a burden than an

assistance’ (Egger and Wörndl, 2008:60). What most travellers do not have is

time, and for most travellers who make their travel bookings at the last minute,

having access to a system that makes those comparisons and provides the best

option for decision making is welcomed.

E-mediaries and destination management organizations systems

The term e-mediaries is used to refer to electronic intermediaries that promote

and market travel and destination products and services for airlines,

accommodations and destinations such as expedia.com, opodo.com,

lastminutetravel.com, booking.com, venere.com, hrs.com, pngtourism.org.pg,

south-pacific.travel, and fijime.com, which mainly offer last minute deals,

cheap offers, recommended choices and destination/product information.

Although some of them try to combine several products, such as a flight, hotel

and hire car and grade accommodation services, none of them try to compare

different facilities and rank them as proposed here, according to the different

products and services that are offered to clients. What is being experienced

now is the bulk of similar information being fed to potential travellers and

products/services already recommended to potential travellers without the

potential travellers making those choices themselves based on some of their

own travel decision criteria.

Destination management organizations’ systems products such as Deskline,

Eurosoft and darWIN by Feratel Media Technologies provide advantages to

management organizations and destination businesses to market and manage

development of their products and services. This facilitates business efficiency

and effectiveness for a maximum return on unit investment. There are

advantages for potential travellers such as improvement in the performance and

functionality of websites however the personal confidence in travel decision

making based on individual decision criteria is limited, hence it could be said

that the potential traveller has less decision making power.

Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal Volume 14, May 2011 33

Business model

A proposed business model is to develop a web portal supported by a data

centre that will collate all query components from various categories of

products and suppliers and that will be compared and ranked by according

weights (a number) based on a perceived customer satisfaction level by system

analysts. When the queries are entered, the system will provide the response

with the highest aggregate weight. The system can also outlay the weight to the

different query components for the system user to see and make their decisions.

Below is a model to demonstrate this.

Figure 1: Application of business model to determine the most convenient

travel decision.

The Convenient Traveller is the system that is backed by the data centre which

contains queries from the different categories of potential traveller needs. As

shown here, these include airlines, car rentals, accommodations, shopping,

souvenir shops, museums and destinations. All queries will be given a weight,

a number say, between 1 and 5; 1 representing a weak satisfaction level and 5

representing a strong satisfaction level. The weight is given on a query based

on the perceived satisfaction levels of all rivals that are entered into the data

centre. Let us say a user is interested in souvenir shops in a certain destination

and enters a number of queries according to the user’s preferences like location

(closer to the airport), categories (sells printed T-shirts, stationery and portable

artefacts), sizes (medium, large and small items), prices (low to medium range

and affordable), etc. The system will respond with a museum that is the most

34 Imbal, J. & Fitina, L. The Convenient Traveller: Using Technology to Enhance Tourism in Papua New Guinea

convenient for the user with the highest aggregate weight for all the queries

entered. The user can also enter queries combining several categories such as

queries on souvenir shops and museums, or souvenir shops, museums and

shopping, etc. in a destination. Dealing with one category or several categories

in one destination will be manageable. Dealing with several categories in

several destinations will require more input and more effort in modifying the

system and managing it over time.

System challenges

There are several concerns related to this proposed system. The system will

require information input in terms of queries entered into the data centre for all

participating travel related products and services concerning a destination. It

means that information has to be collected and supplied. A weight will be

given to each query by an independent opinion of system analysts on a

perceived delivery of customers’ satisfaction level by participating rivals, or

through an independent review team which might take into consideration

independent consumer reports and online customer reviews of facilities and

service providers. The proposed system could also incorporate its own online

ranking platform whereby experienced customers can rank facilities and

services which will then be assessed and incorporated by system analysts.

The system will need to be updated periodically with changes in the travel

trade, which will again require compilation and supply of the needed data for

the data centre and reviewing of the weight. The challenge is how to gather that

information and to define the queries so that it applies across the board for a

similar product or service. The other challenge is in maintaining and updating

the system and getting the needed information for the update. There is also the

issue of system credibility that it provides an honest, reliable and unbiased

ranking for its user.

The system becomes more complex if it incorporates several categories of

travel related products and services in several destinations. It will create

challenges for system design and maintenance.

Possible implementation of this system

A simple system design can incorporate tourism products and services by

working with the idea of travel packages. This can be implemented, for

instance, at airports on touch-screen monitors or on computer workstations. A

criterion that can be used is cost. A potential traveller will compare the cost of

one package against other rivals in competing destinations offering the same

package. This idea can be demonstrated in tabular form, as indicated in Table

2. It highlights a simple travel package decision by a potential tourist at Port

Moresby’s Jackson’s International Airport, who enters five queries into the

system, comprising airline travel to the destination (location), hire car for

sightseeing, lodge type accommodation, doing diving and watching a

traditional village singing, based on unit cost per day.

Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal Volume 14, May 2011 35

Table 2: Query table and independent ranking

Query

Location

Madang

(PGK)

Kimbe

(PGK)

Alotau

(PGK)

Airline 500 614 549

Car 400 600 500

Lodge 300 400 270

Dive 360 380 320

Village singing 300 500 250

Independent ranking: 1 3 2

Simple travel package components comparing three destinations on cost

The system will match the search and return the lowest cost based on

registration from the different locations, in this case, towns, and provide

independent ranking based on design by system analysts. The example in table

2 shows Madang has the ranking 1, as the recommended destination based on

the lowest total package cost. This is only a hypothetical situation. If such a

travel package already existed in different locations by various suppliers then

the system would reveal the outcome of the package cost from different

locations/suppliers. Such a system would enable potential travellers to change

decision criteria, check on individual products and services and create their

own travel package rather than buying from an existing one. Other possibilities

can also be incorporated into the system to provide more convenience for the

traveller.

This system cannot answer all travel queries and provide perfect solutions to

travel queries. A traveller might need to use his or her own judgment and other

methods based on personal need. To explain this we refer to ideas presented

under table 1 for instance, a transiting passenger who has to decide on a non-

stop flight from Singapore to Port Moresby which departs at 23:25pm in the

night and has to wait six hours to catch this flight, as compared to another

flight that departs in one hour to Port Moresby via Australia. Another case with

the ideas presented under table 2 is when comparing accommodation types in a

certain destination that the system will provide the lowest cost but that is no

guarantee for satisfaction or value for money, but the intention here is for the

system to make it more convenient for the traveller to ease the burden of travel

decision making.

This system can be implemented at locations in tourist information centers or

visitor bureaus, other ports, airline offices and travel agencies in each of the

provinces. This will make it convenient for the travellers and will enhance the

reputation of a destination’s image as being conscious of the needs of travellers

and dealing with the issue in a creative way using ICT.

36 Imbal, J. & Fitina, L. The Convenient Traveller: Using Technology to Enhance Tourism in Papua New Guinea

Conclusion

We have tried to show how technology can be used to enhance tourism in

Papua New Guinea. Technological changes have created new opportunities and

challenges which can be turned into further opportunities for tourism. The 21 st

century visitor is more sophisticated and demanding, and wants to enjoy more

pleasure and less stress. We have suggested a solution whereby a system can be

designed to incorporate different tourism product and service offerings by

different destinations and suppliers which would be available in electronic

system for selection by potential travellers based on different travel buying

decision criteria. The potential travellers using the system would be assisted in

their travel decision making from independent rating and ranking of these

products and services as designed by system analysts.

We have explained from both a synergistic and customized approach and a

strategic approach to dealing with this topic. We have discussed destination

management organizations, e-mediaries and DMO Systems, the types of

similar systems that are in use and their workings, and we have shown how this

could be done through a business model. In addition, we have highlighted some

of the system challenges and possible ways of implementing such a system. We

end it here, but certainly this is not a conclusion to this discussion, as it can be

expected, there will be other papers on this or related issues may be

forthcoming.

References

Buhalis, D. (2003). eTourism: Information Technology for Strategic Tourism

Management. Essex, England: Prentice Hall Pearson Education.

Egger, R. & Wörndl, L. (2008). Hotel Sallerhof: innovations in interaction. In

R. Egger & D. Buhalis. (2008). e-Tourism Case Studies. Oxford:

Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Fitina, L., Goodyear, E., Imbal, J., Murki, N. & Uiari, V. (2010). An

application of minimum spanning trees to travel planning,

Contemporary PNG Studies DWU Research Journal, Vol 12, May

2010, pp. 1–11.

PNGTPA 2009 Survey Results, sent via email by Noah Mikmik. Port Moresby:

PNGTPA Statistics Division.

Schröcksnadel, M. (2008). Feratel Media Technologies: providing DMS

technology. In Egger, R. & Buhalis, D. (2008), e-Tourism Case

Studies. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Authors

Mr John Imbal is the Head of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality

Management at the Divine Word University. He has spent the last seven years

in Madang working with DWU and also with the local tourism industry

operators. He has been involved TPA/AusAID & WWF sponsored projects

including customer service and frontline management, Madang and Sepik

Nature and Community Tourism Inventory and Pamphlet. Tugutugu

Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal Volume 14, May 2011 37

Guesthouse has been one of his projects while conducting tourism awareness

on the island in 2007.

Associate Professor Lakoa Fitina is a computer scientist and mathematician. He

is also the Head of the Department of Mathematics and Computing Science at

Divine Word University. He has a special interest in applying mathematics and

computer technology to solve problems in the tourism sector. His research

interests are in computer security, computer mathematics and software

development.

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