Methodology for process mapping in travel agencies, agents and destination management

Abstract

The modern world of new technologies, increased globalization and changes in customers' behaviour forces tourism businesses to continually improve the quality of provided services. The classical organization of tourism businesses through functions is no longer sufficient to ensure profitability, sustainability and satisfaction of customers. The reason is simple. Functional management can no longer flexibly reflect on changing needs of more and more demanding customers. Thus, the effort of tourism companies should be to switch to process management and unify the existing functions together to working business processes. As a result, these businesses will easier fulfill the needs of all stakeholders in accordance with the strategic objectives of the company. The purpose of this work in progress is to design particular methodology and identify the scientific approach of future research aimed at the identification of key processes in tourism businesses and its characteristics, especially within tour agencies, tour agents and destination management organizations in the Czech Republic. Proposed particular process framework will help chosen tourism entities to effectively manage and coordinate their daily activities with a focus on the customers' needs and business objectives at the same time. This work in progress will help to fill in the research gap in tourism processes and their management because no similar research has been done in the Czech Republic yet. The main message of this work will be delivered at the conference in the form of presentation.