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Syftet med studien är att undersöka följares attityder mot Ving, TUI och Apollos inlägg på Facebook och hur de tolkas utifrån kundlojalitet och e-lojalitet. Det undersöks även hur researrangörer uttrycker lojalitet via deras facebooksida. Kundlojalitet baseras på Olivers (1999) teori och e-lojalitet baseras på “8C’s” som har tagits fram av Srinivasan, Anderson & Ponnavolu (2002). Studien grundar sig i en netnografisk analys för att få en översikt och grundläggande kunskaper om researrangörernas kommunikation på Facebook. Analysen visar att de inlägg som publiceras har skillnader och likheter när det gäller den typ av lojalitet som researrangörerna uttrycker. TUI och Apollo fokuserar mest på konativ lojalitet till skillnad från Ving som fokuserar på affektiv lojalitet. Studien baseras även på semistrukturerade intervjuer vilket anses lämpligt för att få djupare förståelse. Teorierna tillämpas genom en mängd frågor som ställs till respondenterna under intervjuerna. Det framkommer att följarnas attityder gentemot Apollo verkar annorlunda till skillnad från attityderna mot Ving och TUI. När det gäller e-lojalitet verkar Ving och TUI uppfylla flera av de "8C" baserat på följarnas attityder. Apollo har inte visat sig lika starka på den fronten. Denna studie visar liknande resultat som tidigare forskning men de överensstämmer inte helt i alla aspekter. / The purpose of this study is to examine the follower's attitudes towards Ving, TUI and Apollos posts on Facebook and how they are interpreted based on the customer loyalty and e-loyalty. It also examines how the tour operators express loyalty through their facebookpage. The customer loyalty are based on Oliver’s (1999) theory and e-loyalty is based on the “8C’s” that have been developed by Srinivasan, Anderson & Ponnavolu (2002). The study is based on a netnographic analysis to get an overview and basic knowledge of the tour operators communication on Facebook. The analysis shows that the posts have differences and similarities in terms of loyalty to the tour operators’ words. TUI and Apollo mostly focus on the conative loyalty, unlike Ving where the focus is on affective loyalty. The study is also based on semistructured interviews which is appropriate in order to gain a deeper understanding. The theories are applied through a variety of questions that have been asked to the respondents during their interviews. It appears that customers' attitudes towards Apollo appear to be different from the attitudes towards Ving and TUI. About e-loyalty, Ving and TUI seem to fulfill several of the "8C’s" based on the customers attitudes. Apollo has not proved that they are as strong as the other two. This study shows a similar result as the previous studies but they don't fully agree in all aspects.

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene finalidad investigar si es que el desarrollo del turismo cultural influye en la sostenibilidad económica de la región de Ayacucho, y en base a que aspectos es que podrían estar relacionados de forma directa. El trabajo está orientado en el sector turístico de la región ayacuchana, puesto que se observó un potencial crecimiento en dicho rubro económico; pero con la carencia de que su demanda es estacional; es decir, la mayor fluctuación de turistas en la región es solo en los meses de febrero (carnavales) y abril (Semana Santa), lo cual es un problema para el desarrollo del sector turismo en la región. En los últimos años se aperturaron nuevos lugares turísticos y con mucho potencial para que brinde sostenibilidad económica a las comunidades y empresas relacionadas. La investigación cuenta con una metodología del tipo Aplicado porque busca resolver un problema de investigación; tiene una naturaleza desarrollada mediante un enfoque mixto debido a que se aplican variables cuantitativas, procesada mediante SPSS y cualitativas vía Atlas Ti. El trabajo de investigación tiene una hipótesis general y cuatro específicas; para la validación de las hipótesis se realizaron encuestas con preguntas abiertas y ordinales a 47 operadores turísticos (n) y entrevistas realizadas a expertos relacionados con el turismo de la región. / The present research work aims to investigate whether the development of cultural tourism - experiential influences the economic sustainability of the Ayacucho region, and on the basis of which aspects could be directly related. The work is oriented to the tourism sector of the Ayacucho region, since a potential growth in this economic sector was observed; but with the lack of seasonal demand; that is, the greatest fluctuation of tourists in the region is only in the months of February (carnivals) and April (Easter), which is a problem for the development of the tourism sector in the region. In recent years, new tourist sites have opened with great potential to provide economic sustainability to the communities and related companies. The research has a methodology of the Applied type because it seeks to solve a research problem; it has a nature developed through a mixed approach because quantitative variables are applied, processed through SPSS and qualitative variables through Atlas Ti. The research work has a general hypothesis and four specific hypotheses; for the validation of the hypotheses, surveys with open and ordinal questions were conducted with 47 tour operators (n) and interviews were conducted with experts related to tourism in the region. / Tesis

<p><strong>Bakgrund och problemdiskussion:</strong> I dagens samhälle är det inte längre frågan om en organisation kommer drabbas av kris, utan frågan är snarare när och hur väl förberedd organisationen är för att kunna hantera den. Tsunamin som inträffade annandag jul 2004 var en kris av tidigare sällan skådat slag, den drabbade det svenska samhället i allmänhet och resebranschen i synnerhet. Resebranschen är starkt omvärldsberoende och dess aktörer kan aldrig vara tillräckligt väl förberedda på en kris. För att stå bättre rustad inför kommande kriser, bör organisationer efter en kris eftersträva att dra lärdomar av sina erfarenheter.</p><p><strong>Problemformuleringen</strong> för denna uppsats lyder: Hur kan researrangörer förbättra sin organisatoriska kompetens utifrån sina erfarenheter av en kris?</p><p><strong>Syftet</strong> med uppsatsen är:</p><ul><li>Att kartlägga researrangörernas arbete med crisis management och vilka delar av detta arbete som har förändrats efter Tsunamikatastrofen. </li><li>Att identifiera och jämföra de olika lärdomar researrangörerna dragit till följd av Tsunamin. </li><li>Att diskutera och ge förslag till hur lärandet av kriser kan tillvaratas och leda till förändringar, t.ex. i form av förbättrade rutiner i krisberedskapen och höjd kompetens i organisationerna.<em> </em></li></ul><p><strong>Metod:</strong> För vår studie har vi använt en kvalitativ forskningsansats, vårt angreppssätt är deduktivt och vi har utfört semi-strukturerade intervjuer för insamlingen av vårt empiriska material. Intervjuerna tog sin utgångspunkt i vår undersökningsmodell som påvisar hur krisförloppets faser - före, under och efter – påverkar den organisatoriska kompetensen. Urvalet av studieföretag består av researrangörerna Ving och Fritidsresor.</p><p>I vår <strong>empiri</strong> kartläggs hur researrangörerna idag arbetar med crisis management och vilka delar av arbetet som förändrats efter Tsunamin. I <strong>analysen</strong> ser vi att researrangörernas krisberedskapsarbete till stora delar överensstämmer med teorierna inom området, men hur lärprocesserna skiljer sig något åt organisationerna emellan.</p><p><strong>Resultat och slutsatser</strong> av vår studie är att lärprocesser redan under krisen inleddes hos researrangörerna. Genom att åtgärda de brister som upptäcktes under Tsunamin har nya rutiner, system och arbetssätt inom vissa områden lett till förbättringar i krisberedskapen. Båda organisationerna har dragit lärdomar av det som hänt, men fokus på förändringsarbetet har för Ving legat på strukturkapital och för Fritidsresor på humankapital. Båda studieföretagen har infört krisövningar, men inte genomgående på alla nivåer. Det är först vid nästa storskaliga kris som det kommer att visa sig huruvida den organisatoriska kompetensen har ökat.</p><p> </p> / <p><p><strong>Background and rationale: </strong>In the world we live in today the question is no longer ’if’ an organization will face a crisis, but ’when’ and ’how prepared’ is the organization to deal with it. The Tsunami that happened on December 26th 2004 was a disaster of unprecedented magnitude. It had an impact on the Swedish society in general and the travel industry in particular. As the travel industry is very susceptible to impacts by external factor, its participants can never be too prepared to face a crisis. In order to be better prepared for future crisis, organizations should seek to learn from their experiences.</p><p><strong>The research question</strong> for this dissertation is: How can tour-operators improve their organizational competence by using experiences from a crisis?</p><p><strong>The aim</strong> of the dissertation is:</p></p><ul><li>To map the tour-operators’ crisis management work, and which parts of this work has changed as a result of the Tsunami. </li><li>To identify and compare the differences in the lessons learned by the tour-operators from the Tsunami.</li><li>To discuss and give recommendations on how experiences from crises can be used and lead to change, i.e. in better crisis management routines and higher organizational competence</li></ul><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>We have used a qualitative research method in our dissertation, our approach is deductive and for the gathering of empirical data, we have made semi-structured interviews. Our research model has been the base for the interviews. Our model shows how the different phases of a crisis – before, during and after – influence organizational competence. The selected companies for our research are the tour-operators Ving and Fritidsresor.</p><p>In our <strong>field study</strong> we map how the crisis management of the tour-operators is functioning today, and which parts of this work has changed as a result of the Tsunami. In our analysis we see that the tour-operators crisis management work in large parts coincides with the theories in the area, but there are differences in the learning processes of the organizations.</p><p><strong>Results and conclusions</strong> drawn from our research are that the learning processes of the tour-operators already start during the crisis. By addressing the deficiencies observed during the Tsunami, new routines, systems and work processes have improved their preparedness for crisis. Both organizations have learned, but the focus at Ving has been on structural capital and at Fritidsresor on human capital. Both have introduced crisis rehearsals, but not throughout the whole organization. Whether the organizational competence to handle a big crisis has improved will be seen as the next large crisis occurs.</p><p>.</p><p><em> </em></p>

Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: I dagens samhälle är det inte längre frågan om en organisation kommer drabbas av kris, utan frågan är snarare när och hur väl förberedd organisationen är för att kunna hantera den. Tsunamin som inträffade annandag jul 2004 var en kris av tidigare sällan skådat slag, den drabbade det svenska samhället i allmänhet och resebranschen i synnerhet. Resebranschen är starkt omvärldsberoende och dess aktörer kan aldrig vara tillräckligt väl förberedda på en kris. För att stå bättre rustad inför kommande kriser, bör organisationer efter en kris eftersträva att dra lärdomar av sina erfarenheter. Problemformuleringen för denna uppsats lyder: Hur kan researrangörer förbättra sin organisatoriska kompetens utifrån sina erfarenheter av en kris? Syftet med uppsatsen är: Att kartlägga researrangörernas arbete med crisis management och vilka delar av detta arbete som har förändrats efter Tsunamikatastrofen. Att identifiera och jämföra de olika lärdomar researrangörerna dragit till följd av Tsunamin. Att diskutera och ge förslag till hur lärandet av kriser kan tillvaratas och leda till förändringar, t.ex. i form av förbättrade rutiner i krisberedskapen och höjd kompetens i organisationerna. Metod: För vår studie har vi använt en kvalitativ forskningsansats, vårt angreppssätt är deduktivt och vi har utfört semi-strukturerade intervjuer för insamlingen av vårt empiriska material. Intervjuerna tog sin utgångspunkt i vår undersökningsmodell som påvisar hur krisförloppets faser - före, under och efter – påverkar den organisatoriska kompetensen. Urvalet av studieföretag består av researrangörerna Ving och Fritidsresor. I vår empiri kartläggs hur researrangörerna idag arbetar med crisis management och vilka delar av arbetet som förändrats efter Tsunamin. I analysen ser vi att researrangörernas krisberedskapsarbete till stora delar överensstämmer med teorierna inom området, men hur lärprocesserna skiljer sig något åt organisationerna emellan. Resultat och slutsatser av vår studie är att lärprocesser redan under krisen inleddes hos researrangörerna. Genom att åtgärda de brister som upptäcktes under Tsunamin har nya rutiner, system och arbetssätt inom vissa områden lett till förbättringar i krisberedskapen. Båda organisationerna har dragit lärdomar av det som hänt, men fokus på förändringsarbetet har för Ving legat på strukturkapital och för Fritidsresor på humankapital. Båda studieföretagen har infört krisövningar, men inte genomgående på alla nivåer. Det är först vid nästa storskaliga kris som det kommer att visa sig huruvida den organisatoriska kompetensen har ökat. / Background and rationale: In the world we live in today the question is no longer ’if’ an organization will face a crisis, but ’when’ and ’how prepared’ is the organization to deal with it. The Tsunami that happened on December 26th 2004 was a disaster of unprecedented magnitude. It had an impact on the Swedish society in general and the travel industry in particular. As the travel industry is very susceptible to impacts by external factor, its participants can never be too prepared to face a crisis. In order to be better prepared for future crisis, organizations should seek to learn from their experiences. The research question for this dissertation is: How can tour-operators improve their organizational competence by using experiences from a crisis? The aim of the dissertation is: To map the tour-operators’ crisis management work, and which parts of this work has changed as a result of the Tsunami. To identify and compare the differences in the lessons learned by the tour-operators from the Tsunami. To discuss and give recommendations on how experiences from crises can be used and lead to change, i.e. in better crisis management routines and higher organizational competence Methodology: We have used a qualitative research method in our dissertation, our approach is deductive and for the gathering of empirical data, we have made semi-structured interviews. Our research model has been the base for the interviews. Our model shows how the different phases of a crisis – before, during and after – influence organizational competence. The selected companies for our research are the tour-operators Ving and Fritidsresor. In our field study we map how the crisis management of the tour-operators is functioning today, and which parts of this work has changed as a result of the Tsunami. In our analysis we see that the tour-operators crisis management work in large parts coincides with the theories in the area, but there are differences in the learning processes of the organizations. Results and conclusions drawn from our research are that the learning processes of the tour-operators already start during the crisis. By addressing the deficiencies observed during the Tsunami, new routines, systems and work processes have improved their preparedness for crisis. Both organizations have learned, but the focus at Ving has been on structural capital and at Fritidsresor on human capital. Both have introduced crisis rehearsals, but not throughout the whole organization. Whether the organizational competence to handle a big crisis has improved will be seen as the next large crisis occurs. .

The tourism industry in Sweden has expanded in recent years and the increasing industry has meant that customers are in need of a reseller for their trips abroad. Today there are three types of retailers available. These are : Traditional travel agencies , tour operators and online travel agencies. Online Travel agencies are the most modern online option for customers. Their existence has made it easier for the customer and reservation can be made anytime and anywhere. The competition has intensified between the three retailers and the traditional alternatives must find new ways to survive. Through effective marketing and selecting the right channel may be vital to the travel agency's survival. The theories that have been essentiell for this Investigation are: marketing mix, relationship marketing, porter curve, the buying process, the agent's role, word-of-mouth and marketing of services and products company. In this essay, the authors investigated four tour operators and one traditional travel agency and everyone is placed in Stockholm. The authors has choosed to investigate their market businesses and how the customer's requirements have changed since online travel agencies took over a large part of the market. The authors have also decided to conduct interviews with an online travel agency and one travel company that works with marketing for travel agencies. The tour operators in Stockholm mainly use relationship marketing as a primary strategy for maintaining a loyal relationship with the customer. The channels that travel companies utilize is a combination of word-of- mouth, digital media and printed media. All companies could state that the consumer in the current situation is more aware than before and this has led an increased requirement for travel agencies. Travel agents and tour operators must offer something unique or give the client an  xceptional service that they can not recieve in another place. Service in this case may involve travel on customers behalf, visa application, bookings for specific requests and helping to add travel insurance.

Konkurrensen bland svenska företag har ökat markant under de senaste åren, vilket har inneburit att deras utbud blivit allt mer likartade. Digitaliseringen har i synnerhet intensifierat konkurrensen inom resebranschen, vilket har bidragit till att företag istället söker att särskilja sig genom immateriella fördelar och varumärkesdifferentiering. För att varumärken ska lyckas med sin varumärkesdifferentiering krävs det att konsumenter är involverade i varumärkena och deras erbjudanden. Med anledning av detta var syftet med studien att få en förståelse för hur konsumenters involvering i resande generellt och produktkategorier påverkade deras möjlighet att särskilja turistiska varumärken. I denna studie användes följaktligen teorier som behandlade involvering och varumärkesdifferentiering. För att få en förståelse för konsumenters involvering i resande och produktkategorier tillämpades teorierna varaktig involvering och produktkategoriinvolvering. För att få kunskap kring konsumenters förmåga att särskilja varumärken ifrån varandra användes Customer-based Brand Equity. Utifrån detta ansågs en kvalitativ metod bäst lämpad för att undersöka fenomenet och vidare genomfördes fyra semistrukturerade fokusgruppintervjuer. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade initialt att konsumenterna var involverade i resande och de uttryckte således starka tankar och åsikter om varumärkena vilket följaktligen innebar att konsumenterna kunde särskilja varumärkena. Det visade sig dock att detta inte stämde överens med verkligheten, då det uppdagades att konsumenterna faktiskt var ovetande om vilket varumärke de senast använde sig av. Trots en hög involvering i resande generellt, uppvisade de en låg involvering gentemot produktkategorin vilket bidrog till att konsumenterna faktiskt inte kunde särskilja varumärkena. / The competition amongst Swedish companies has significantly increased in recent years, which has contributed to the their increasingly similar offers. The digitization has particularly intensified the competition within the travel industry, which in turn has contributed to companies trying to distinguish themselves through intangible assets and brand differentiation. Forbrands to succeed with their brand differentiation, it requires that consumers are involved with the brands and their offers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to gain an understanding of how consumers involvement affected their ability to distinguish touristic brands. Hence, theories that addressed involvement and brand differentiation were used in this study, to gain an understanding of consumers involvement intraveling and product categories, and thus their ability to distinguish between brands. A qualitative method was therefore used, and four semi-structured focus groups were conducted.The conclusions of this study initially displayed that the consumers should be seen as highly involved in traveling in general, further more they also expressed strong thoughts and feelings about the brands, which implied that the consumers were able to distinguish the brands. However, it was later revealed that the consumers in fact, were not able to differentiate the companies. Although consumers were perceived ashighly involved in traveling, they showed low involvement towards the product category, which contributed to their inability to distinguish the brandsfrom one another.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Relationship marketing has received much attention and widespread publicity over the past ten years and has moved to the forefront of research and practice. It provides companies with a management tool to establish economically profitable relationships, networks and interactions with different, but equally important stakeholder markets. The marketing concept as reflected in the four P's of the marketing mix was prominent in marketing practice and thinking until the mid-1980s, when reference to customer relationships and relationship building began to appear in the literature and became the focus of much research. The marketing concept, although still relevant, was expanded to include the dimension of relationships. The shift fiom transactional to relationship-based marketing has many implications for product and service based business. Marketing can no longer be viewed as a separate function to which an organisation can assign responsibility for the customer while the rest of the organisation gets on with their tasks. Rather, the relationship-based view of marketing places the responsibility for marketing (as defined broadly) on everyone in the organisation. In other words, it is the responsibility of every employee within the organisation to satisfy the needs of customers. A relationship marketing orientation can therefore create a competitive edge for an organisation and can also have a positive impact on organisational performance. In a highly competitive, global environment organisations are focussing more attention on building sustainable, competitive advantages by developing and maintaining close, cooperative relationships with a limited set of suppliers, customers and channel members. Through these relationships, organisations create value by differentiating their offering and/or lowering their costs. The term "relationship marketing" is therefore applied to a number of different marketing activities ranging from consumer frequency marketing programs to selling activities directed towards building partnerships with key customers. The focus of this study is to investigate the mutually beneficial nature of establishing long term relationships in supplier markets, customer markets, internal markets, recruitment markets, internal markets and influence markets. The different principles which are important to improve and professionally manage the relationships in the markets listed above, are identified and discussed. These principles were tested in travel agencies in the Western Cape province to determine their current and ideal application in a travel and tourism environment. The calculation of effect sizes were based on the difference between the current and ideal application of the principles within travel agencies in the Western Cape. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

Relationship marketing has received much attention and widespread publicity over the past ten years and has moved to the forefront of research and practice. It provides companies with a management tool to establish economically profitable relationships, networks and interactions with different, but equally important stakeholder markets. The marketing concept as reflected in the four P's of the marketing mix was prominent in marketing practice and thinking until the mid-1980s, when reference to customer relationships and relationship building began to appear in the literature and became the focus of much research. The marketing concept, although still relevant, was expanded to include the dimension of relationships. The shift fiom transactional to relationship-based marketing has many implications for product and service based business. Marketing can no longer be viewed as a separate function to which an organisation can assign responsibility for the customer while the rest of the organisation gets on with their tasks. Rather, the relationship-based view of marketing places the responsibility for marketing (as defined broadly) on everyone in the organisation. In other words, it is the responsibility of every employee within the organisation to satisfy the needs of customers. A relationship marketing orientation can therefore create a competitive edge for an organisation and can also have a positive impact on organisational performance. In a highly competitive, global environment organisations are focussing more attention on building sustainable, competitive advantages by developing and maintaining close, cooperative relationships with a limited set of suppliers, customers and channel members. Through these relationships, organisations create value by differentiating their offering and/or lowering their costs. The term "relationship marketing" is therefore applied to a number of different marketing activities ranging from consumer frequency marketing programs to selling activities directed towards building partnerships with key customers. The focus of this study is to investigate the mutually beneficial nature of establishing long term relationships in supplier markets, customer markets, internal markets, recruitment markets, internal markets and influence markets. The different principles which are important to improve and professionally manage the relationships in the markets listed above, are identified and discussed. These principles were tested in travel agencies in the Western Cape province to determine their current and ideal application in a travel and tourism environment. The calculation of effect sizes were based on the difference between the current and ideal application of the principles within travel agencies in the Western Cape. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007