CC BY
9INFORMATION SERVICES OF TRAVEL AGENCIES FOR POPULARIZATION OF
RECREATIONAL AND CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
V.D. Chepik, professor, Dr.Hab.
T.V. Reisterman, postgraduate student
Gzhel State Art and Industry Institute, Gzhel, Moscow region
Keywords: information services; information and communicative service; recreational programs; cultural and educational programs; consumer demand for travel services.
Introduction. Statistical data on the state of popularity of different types of tourism with the use of recreational physical culture, excursion programs indicate the steady growth of public interest in organized recreation, including the services of travel agencies offering tours and excursions of recreational, cultural and educational orientation. The necessity of presenting the profile information, stating about consumer properties of the tourist product and the content of additional services is stated in article 10 of the Federal Law "On fundamentals of tourist activity in the Russian Federation" (as amended on 05.02. 2007 №12-FZ).
Information about the additional recreational travel services contains data on programs which goals are associated with recreation, rehabilitation of person's physical and mental abilities. A large number of methodological manuals, programs, forms of organization of work with tourists has been developed based on the given array of travel services [2;4;5;6;]. Individual recreational programs are selected by the customers, consumers of travel services depending on tourist's psychophysical state. Special attention is paid to persons with health-related disabilities, where the set of recreational means is determined solely by the medical staff [3;9]. The information materials about the recreational services should provide information on the proposed means of motor activity, forms of recreational exercises, hygiene factors and features of the climate and geographical environment of the place of stay of tourists, the healing properties of water treatment and the proposed hardening methods, about the possibilities of sports activities [7]. In cases where a travel agency specializes in spa treatment, the information materials include information provided by the medical staff of the spa resort.
There is a paradoxical situation in the tourism market; the demand for tourist services is rising rapidly, but consumers are more often dissatisfied with the quality of service in the tourism sector. The interest in different kinds of travel creates the demand for tourism services and naturally provokes the establishment of companies that arrange and implement this service. Due to competition travel agencies have to look for opportunities to attract customers by a variety of forms of organized recreation. But even under these circumstances the customer is not always happy with the information provided on the opportunities to get the services he needs [1-7].
The purpose of the study was to conduct a sociological analysis of professional competency of experts who ensure the development and implementation of the profile information.
Materials and methods. 468 people were surveyed. The subjects were representatives of the younger generation (18-30 years old) - 248 people; the middle-aged group (31-60 years) - 180 people; the older age group (61 years and older) - 40 people. For the same purposes managers (leaders) of travel agencies were surveyed too. The subjects included representatives of travel agencies, working in the city of Moscow, as well as in Moscow, Ryazan and Vladimir regions. In order to maintain confidentiality and to prevent unauthorized use of the given data (Article 9 - Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information") the names of the travel agencies were replaced with symbols by the method of symmetric encryption - F1, F2 ... F15
Results and discussion. The findings on the state of the profile information in the popularization of the programs of recreational, cultural and educational orientation are shown in Table 1. As seen from the analysis, profile information, in most cases, does not reflect the important details of the process of travel services. In some cases, the descriptions of the advertised services are not consistent with the objectives of the information and communication services for tourists. The companies do not take into account the actual needs of today's customers of different age groups in recreational, cultural and educational services. Limited is the information on the component "C". Travel agencies do not specify the content and the profile of extra services. There is virtually no information on the component "D" - about the organizational aspects of recreational programs with the use of exercises; about the peculiarities of services for tourists of different age groups. As shown by customer surveys, potential customers are trying to restore the necessary information for themselves, and sometimes they do not find it. We have reviewed customer complaints, complaints against travel agencies. Evidences of technical errors made by specialists in the sphere of tourism can be found among them, but largely consumers are dissatisfied with the lack of adequate, timely information, inability to get it from the staff of travel agencies. There can be traced misunderstanding on the part of employees of travel agencies in relation to consumers. Almost every travel agency has complaints (according to their websites).
Along with the lack of profile information, customer complaints include: a) technical errors of travel specialists (cancellation, flight delays, transfer failures; long time periods between arrival (departure) and checking into a hotel (check-out), and b) lack of necessary information on violations of the living conditions in the place of stay; complaints on the ignoring of the "unwanted" customer questions when travel agencies are blocking communication services by lengthy calls. There can also be seen reluctance to respond to criticisms and complaints of customers. During the survey of clients of travel agencies the following pattern in obtaining additional services has been revealed (Figure 1). Young people (18-30 years old) prefer entertainment type of services (73%); Respondents of the middle age group (31-60 years old) prefer educational type of services (59%). Representatives of the older age group (61 years old and older) prefer recreational type of services (78%). Each age group, according to individual preferences, expects from the travel agencies maximum attention and complete profile information.
Conclusions. The findings of the study have revealed the shortcomings of professional competency of travel agents, which consist in the poor-quality information and communication services rendered to
consumers of tourist services. These shortcomings in view of the areas of work of tour companies are recommended to be compensated by the system of continuing professional education, which involves the following sections:
- on technologies of information and communication services for tourists and organizational and technological features of implementation of the programs of recreational, cultural and educational orientation for people of all ages;
- on places and routes of travel services; about the features of the resource base and the impact of the recommended additional services on the tourist;
- on the type and content of additional services; on basic needs and interests of the people in the extra services, taking into account the features and peculiarities of the youth, working-age population, seniors and those with health problems.
It will be good for the popularization of organized recreation and cultural and educational activities with the use of physical culture, sport and tourism to improve the quality of information services for the population.
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Corresponding author: [email protected]
