tawandamusarurwa
Charles Mavhunga
THERE is need to integrate tourism branding with enabling technologies in order to win over customers.
The digitisation of tourism branding to improve information processing calls for the digital transformation of the tourism industry so that the ecosystems of complete branding are modernised to meet new customer demands.
Industry 4.0 entails the adoption of digital technologies that can help organisations to create connections between the industry and the customer, especially in terms of supply systems, production facilities, final products and services.
The major focus of Industry 4.0 is gathering and sharing real-time market and operational information in order to deliver real-time customer service.
To promote the realisation of Industry 4.0, five enabling digital technologies are identified as critical: additive manufacturing, augmented reality, cloud computing, cyber-security and big data analytics solutions.
Researchers have established that digitisation creates an enabling environment to enhance information sharing and processes that are critical to facilitate effective service delivery to customers.
This means the integration of enabling technologies in branding the tourism industry is now the future of branding perspectives for the service industry.
Tourism branding now needs to focus on the digitisation of processes to acquire, analyse and distribute market and operational knowledge through the adoption of cutting-edge digital technologies such as cloud computing and big data analytics to improve visibility.
The world over, branding processes have moved a step above the ordinary to become distinguishable in the market.
The deployment of high-technology strategies in tourism branding promotes competitiveness and enhances visibility.
Enabling technologies in tourism branding allow the brand to maintain superiority in service delivery and customer satisfaction.
So, the goal of Industry 4.0 is to boost the deployment of digital technology to facilitate the integration of production processes, from product development through manufacturing up to branding and final delivery to the customer.
In this way, all data about operations and branding will be available in real time.
This means the entire tourism industry will be working with digital enterprises, customers and entire associates to establish an ecosystem that allows informed management of the tourism brand.
In Zimbabwe, collaboration of stakeholders and other players in the tourism industry is an important factor to consider.
One of the most important factors to consider is linking the industry with universities to close the gap that currently exists.
Lecturers from universities are the source of knowledge and innovations that provide solutions to tourism branding.
Therefore, universities and industry should collaborate to achieve global visibility.
The integration of digitisation with tourism branding in Zimbabwe can be facilitated by consultations that include innovators and action planners.
So, universities could develop enabling technologies that tourism industry can deploy to achieve visibility.
This means the future of local tourism branding depends on the collaboration between innovators and implementers, and cultivated through industrial attachments.
Industry can easily tap knowledge from universities to drive development.
University students consulting for industry can integrate knowledge processes with the realities of the industrial world to complete the branding process.
There is, however, need to disabuse the notion that university students are attached to industry for purposes of learning and developing practical skills.
Collaborative thinking, which is highly consultative, is an important factor to consider.
The most important factors to think about when integrating Industry 4.0 technologies with tourism industry branding include knowledge of specific activities involving customer profiling, target marketing, predictive analytics, improved customer relationship management, improved supply-focused activities and cyber-security to secure all data flows.
The rising interest in technologies to promote the visibility of the tourism brand is motivated by the growing trend of digitisation of industrial processes and deployment of digital skills to improve the marketing performance of organisations.
For example, knowledge of augmented reality-based systems are technological solutions meant to turn the environment of the worker into a digital interface by placing virtual objects in the real world with the ultimate goal of enhancing the worker’s current perception of reality.
Enabling technologies in tourism branding allow a huge amount of data from many different sources to facilitate and support real-time decision-making to upgrade the country’s tourism brand.
This means collaboration between the country’s tourism industry and institutions of higher learning becomes an important source of innovations that can be exploited to improve the allure of the country’s tourism brand.
Tourism branding is a customer-driven exercise.
*Charles Mavhunga co-authored textbooks in Business Enterprising Skills and is currently studying for a PhD in Management at Bindura University of Science Education. He can be contacted at: [email protected], Cell: +263772989816
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter