DIGITAL TRENDS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM

Abstract

Digitalization inevitably affects the tourism industry, requiring the reengineering of business processes. Since information is the lifeblood of the tourism industry, the effective use of digital technologies becomes a key issue. From a business perspective, current tourism trends are primarily consumer-oriented. Digital communication is becoming one of the important tools for successful business, given the growing use of the Internet and a significant number of consumers. Tourism companies are traditionally among the first to introduce technological innovations for business development, but not all of them are able to timely pick up the trends in the rapidly developing digital sphere. This is usually due to a lack of resources or flexibility of the company, or simply ignoring modern realities. In today's world of connected devices and the Internet, we see how the needs and expectations of tourists have changed. Cost, choice, comfort - all of these still play an important role, but now the decision to book is made on the basis of existing experience. Nowadays, the main challenge for the tourism industry is to offer and provide a comprehensive range of personalized services for the traveler - from the moment he thinks about the trip, starts planning, makes all the bookings and goes on his trip. The purpose of this work is to review practices based on the development of digital technologies and tools for obtaining and attracting tourists to the expansion of various tourist territories. It was determined that the use of digital technologies based on consumer preferences significantly improves the buying experience of tourists, simplifies the selection process and aligns expectations and impressions of staying in tourist destinations. The use of behavioral trends of tourists by specialists of marketing services of tourist destinations increases the loyalty of consumers and encourages them to interact with the destination, thereby transforming impressions and information received by tourists in the destination into advertising the place of visit.