Microlearning For The Tourism Industry
The travel and tourism industry is a global industry giant, contributing over US.6 trillion to the global economy in 2016. Statista has forecasted international tourist arrivals to increase from 1.19 billion in 2015 to in excess of 1.8 billion by 2030.
Given the global dominance of international tourism, it is more important than ever to ensure an efficient, dynamic, and agile nature of tourism companies, and the industry as a whole.
Dispersed workforces are becoming more prevalent, particularly in the travel industry, as myriad languages are spoken around the world. Whether it's communicating between different countries within one airline, travel agencies planning international travels, tour guides, or accommodation, language needs to be constantly translated for a seamless travel experience. This linguistic diversity underscores the crucial role that effective language translation plays in enhancing the overall travel customer journey.
Due to the endless mounds of knowledge and information which is essential to know in the industry, microlearning is the perfect solution to understand and retain complex concepts and information.
In this article, we discuss some training objectives in the tourism industry which can be reached with microlearning.
Objective 1: Companies’ retention of customers and clients
Companies’ retention of clients is a primary goal for their success in the market and their agility when industry changes and trends occur. Strong customer service skills in the tourism industry are pivotal to the extent of company success. Employees are continually customer-facing and are often forced to grapple with challenges from various customers and for various reasons. To effectively deal with these, particular skill sets must be developed and offered through the provision of microlessons. These modules can offer real-life simulations of problems to which learners must respond as they would in reality. This is achieved through gamification, whereby learners can interact with their training while watching embedded videos, images, and game-like exercises.
In economic dips, companies, including industry leaders like VisaFly, must be prepared to counter these shifts for the continuation of sales and the retention of customers. Microlearning can also train employees in these skills through the breakdown of complex information into digestible, bite-sized chunks. This assists in learners being able to absorb information and recall it when needed.
Objective 2: Companies’ increased sales
There is no question why increased sales is at the forefront of any company’s objectives. To achieve this, employees need to be optimally educated for their best performance and growth, contributing to the overall success of the company. Reputation is pivotal in customers’ judgment of the company, emphasizing the importance of consistent and helpful customer service across the company. Microlearning effectively trains employees in these skills and provides guidance to reach this objective.
Communicating the aims and learning objectives of the company to employees is crucial to their personal and professional progression. It allows them to feel valued and needed by the company, incentivizing and motivating them to boost their productivity, and thus performance. This, in turn, automatically increases sales as customers feel like the company is reliable and that they will be well looked after.
Objective 3: Countries’ economic growth
Tourism is also incredibly important for countries’ economic growth. Countries rely on the influx of tourists for income creation and the generation of jobs. For various countries, it is considered the most important form of welfare.
Microlearning is useful in training the multitude of people working in tourism jobs, due to their high turnover rates, seasonal employment, and varying language-speaking necessities. Having an ever-growing workforce means that onboarding and training are constant. This is amplified by the fact that trends in tourism are always chopping and changing, making it increasingly difficult to keep up with the needs and preferences of tourists. Its volatility
Objective 4: Countries’ tourism competitiveness
When many countries offer the same type of tourist spots, be it ski alps or beach-side towns, it is essential for them to implement a marketing strategy for differentiation in the competitive market. Tourism competitiveness can be detrimental to countries when they are left behind or perhaps if employment is down. If there is not an employment issue but employees are not well-informed, this can also cause the same issue. Microlearning effectively trains employees, enabling them to be aware of the market and how to assist their country’s tourism economy to stay afloat.
If you would like to learn more about how to build the most effective employee training strategy!
If you’d like to know more about how EdApp’s mobile learning platform can help your internal training practices, with training material, such as online training courses for travel agents and more, get in touch at enquiries@edapp.com. You can also try EdApp’s Mobile LMS and authoring tool for free by signing up here.
Author
Guest Author Daniel Brown
Daniel Brown is a senior technical editor and writer that has worked in the education and technology sectors for two decades. Their background experience includes curriculum development and course book creation.