The Responses of Travel Agents in Kenya to Changes in the External Environment
Abstract
Organizations are open systems that are environmental dependent and environmental
serving thus interact openly with the external environment. An organization gains
sustainable competitive advantage whenever it establishes an alignment between its
internal dynamics and the external environment. The study investigated the responses of
travel agents in Kenya to changes in the external environment. The study’s objective was
to establish the responses of travel agents’ in Kenya to changes in the external environment.
The study adopted the cross sectional survey design. The population of the study comprised
all 142 KATA registered local and international travel agents based in Kenya. However,
only 87 travel agents responded to the questionnaire issued. Primary data was collected
through structured questionnaires administered through online mail surveys. The data was
analyzed through descriptive data analysis. Comparison of data was done between all
firms’ responses, local versus international firms’ responses and the firms responses by
their duration of operation. The findings indicated that travel agents do respond in their
preferred ways to environmental changes and every response is triggered by and is as a
result of the impact of the environmental changes to the business operations. The responses
tend to be adopted differently among the firms when comparisons were done among all
firms, local versus International firms and by their duration of operation. Among the most
adopted responses include, operational excellence, adoption of digital marketing, adoption
of sustainable tourism, risk diversification focusing more on local tourism, adoption of
opportunity driven strategies as a process of seeking new business opportunities, shift focus
strategy response, employee empowerment and formation of strategic alliances with other
stakeholders. Other responses adopted include, establishment of risk assessment
departments and product development. Among the lowest adopted responses include;
company restructuring through downsizing, tapping into information technology by
adopting Travel Virtual Reality and company restructuring through divesture. The study
concluded that majority of the travel agents do respond in their own ways to the
environmental changes. The responses are as a result of the impacts of environmental
changes to the business. The study recommends that the practitioners that is; travel agents
and other organizations, should perform external environment scanning often as well as the
SWOT analysis in order to understand the position and status of the tourism industry and
other industries to ensure preparedness. Scholars’ and researchers should take advantage
and do further research on the growth of technology in the tourism industry. Finally, the
study recommends involvement of policy makers such as the government and the Tourism
Regulation Authority in the intervention of tourism industry policies and regulations as
they should create a favorable environment for tour business activities and operations.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- School of Business [1411]
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