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Perception of Tourists
And Role of IT in Tourism of Kashmir


Submitted to Lovely Professional University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION





Submitted by:
Group No:-IT03
Khalid Gowhar Q3104A08
Khalid Gulzar Q3104A14
Akata Bhadwar Q3104A19
Pawanpreet Kaur Q3104B33



Supervisor:
Mr.Ankit jain.
Designation :- assistant proffesor



DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
PHAGWARA (2013)

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TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN


This is to certify that the Capstone Project titled Perception of Tourist towards Kashmir
And Role of IT in Kashmir carried out by Mr. Khalid Gowhar, Mr. Khalid gulzar, Ms. Akata
and Ms. Pawanpreet Kaur has been accomplished under my guidance & supervision as a duly
registered MBA student of the Lovely Professional University, Phagwara.






This Project represents their original work.

___________________________________
(Name & Signature of the Faculty Advisor)
Date:-


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Table of Contents



Serial No. Content Page No.
Chapter 1 Introduction 5-11
Chapter 2 Review of Literature 12-18
Chapter 3 Scope of the study 19
Chapter 5 Objectives of Study 20
Chapter 6 Research Methodology 21-23
Chapter 5

Complete Work Plan with Timeline 24
Chapter 6 Expected Outcome of the study 25
Chapter 7 Interpretation and analysis. 26
Chapter 8 Recommendations 37
Chapter 9 conclusion 38
Chapter 10 References 39







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Executive Summary
Kashmir happens to be one of the top most worldwide prominent spots of tourism. Kashmir
valley is full of its natural charm and there is no worldwide parallel to it. This fact is supported
by an evidence of frequent visits of foreigners from distant countries all over the globe. In other
words we can freely express that it is Gods given gift to world populace in general and fortunate
Kashmirs in particular. Visitors from all across the globe always do take golden opportunity of
visiting Kashmir valley.
This research is based on the todays perception of tourists towards visiting the Kashmir and
what kind of role IT is playing in tourism. Now a days the number of tourists visiting Kashmir
has been increased. There is no doubt that unrests lead to a certain degree of cancellation and
reduced bookings in terms of travel to many destinations. And IT is helping and playing a major
role in the hotels. Hotel managers are adopting IT for booking the rooms and providing the
online services to the customers.
We are going to study this all by conducting a survey in order to find out the perception of
tourists towards Kashmir and role of IT in helping the hotel industry in Kashmir.










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Chapter 1
Introduction
Kashmir is known as the heaven on the earth. Kashmir happens to be one of the top most
worldwide prominent spots of tourism. Jammu & Kashmir is known for growing a wide variety
of fruits and flowers. Today the perception of the tourism is changing towards the Kashmir after
so much of non violence. 95, 19,710 tourists have visited J&K since January 2012. The visitors
include 54,460 foreigners who visited Kashmir and Ladakh region and 83, 093, 95 pilgrims to
Jammu and Kashmir divisions. IT is playing the major role in the tourism industry of Kashmir.
The managers of the hotels in Kashmir have started making the websites to attract the customers.
They are providing online services and are storing the customers data. In Jammu and Kashmir
the most important tourist places are Kashmir, Srinagar, the Mughal Gardens, Gulmarg,
Pahalgam, Jammu, and Ladakh. Some areas require a special permit for non-Indians to visit. In
Kashmir valley there are different places to visits.
Vernag Spring and Mughal Garden- A fresh water spring and a Mughal garden next to it,
spring is chief source of Jhelum River.
Srinagar - Capital of Jammu and Kashmir, a popular hill station
Dal Lake - famous lake in Srinagar, with house boats called shikharas.
Manasbal Lake
Gulmarg
Pahalgam
Sonamarg
Peer Ki Gali
Aharbal
Patni top
Shalimar Gardens--Mughal Garden
Nishant Gardens-Mughal Garden
Chashme Shahi- Mughal Garden
Badamwari Garden
Pari Mahal- old monument of Pari Mahal, one can have full view of Dal Lake.
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Shankaracharya Temple- Ancient Temple of Lord Shiva
Hari Parbat- Ancient Temple of Goddess Sharika Bhagwati and an old fort on this hill.
Kheer Bhawani Temple.
There are famous hotels in the Kashmir which are providing good hospitality. The famous hotels
like:-
1. The Residency Hotel
2. Heevan Hotel
3. Vivanta By Taj Hotel
4. Grand Mumtaj Hotel
5. Broadway Hotel
6. New Park Hotel
7. Swiss Hotel
8. The Lalit Grand Palace
9. Hotel Hilltop
10. Zahgeer Hotel
11. Hotel Jahangir
12. Khyber hotels
13. Khaleel palace
14. Hotel Royal Park
15. Hotel Highlands Park
16. Hotel Natraj
Safety and Security of the tourist is the main issue in the Kashmir due to so much of unrest in
this area. But now the people are changing their perception about the Kashmir. The conflict has
not changed, to a large extent, the goodness of the people of Kashmir. Kashmir is thus largely
safe for tourists. It is not, as might be wrongly presumed, the presence of the army that has made
Kashmir safe. Internet Cafes are located all around the city. International Direct Dialing is
possible. The Dal Lake is said to be Wi-Fi enabled. All newspapers and magazines are available.
Tourist over there feel much secure because of the army was there to ensure their safety.
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The Hotel Managers can put their ads on the sites like Yatra.com and Make My trip.com. and
more possibly with JKTDC . Today, a wide range of tourism sectors is taking the advantage of
the information superhighway. Technology facilitates the speed and efficiency with which
information of the tourism industry is processed, stored, retrieved, distributed and otherwise
manipulated. Information technology can reduce costs of information handling, increase speed
of information transfer and retrieval and increase customer involvement in the control of
transactions. It has flexibility of product specifications and greater reliability of information
transferred.
Intelligent systems for tourism industry:-
The Industry The travel and tourism industry is a global (and a globalization) industry, with
very specific features:
Travel and tourism represents approx. 11% of the world wide GDP (following the tourism
satellite account method of the World Travel & Tourism Council).
There will be one Billion international arrivals in the year 2010 (following the World Tourism
Organization). And tourism grows faster than the other economic sectors.
It represents a cross-sectorial industry, including many related economic sectors such as
culture, sport or agriculture, where over 30 different industrial components have been identified
that serve travelers.
This explains the industrys heterogeneity, and due to its SME structure it has a huge
importance for regional development. For example, in the EU there are around 1.3 Mio. hotels
and restaurants (9 % of all enterprises). And 95 % of them are very small, i.e., 1-9 employees.
The supply and the demand side form a worldwide network, where both production and
distribution are based on cooperation.
The product is perishable, complex and emotional: i) a hotel bed not sold for one night
represent a lost income. Suppliers are in a risky situation, which can be reduced if access to
information is available; ii) the tourism product is a bundle of basic products, aggregated by
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some intermediary. To support the rather complex bundling products must have well defined
interfaces with respect to consumer needs, prices or also distribution channels; iii) vacations are
emotional experience structures that involve cognitive and sensory stimulations as well as
affective responses to certain events. Tourism is an information based business, the product is a
confidence good; an a priori comprehensive assessment of its qualities is impossible. Tourists
have to leave their daily environment for consuming the product. At the moment of decision-
making only a model of the product, its description, is available. This characteristic of tourism
products entails high information search costs and causes informational market imperfections.
Consequently, the industry has comparably long information and value chains. Figure 1
differentiates between the supply and demand side and the respective intermediaries. Links mark
the relationships as well as the flow of information, showing only the most relevant links. Nodes
indicate the relevant types of players. On the supply side we denote with primary suppliers
enterprises like hotels, restaurants, etc., which are mostly SMEs. One should note that with
respect to a functional differentiation these companies are at the same level as the big players
like airlines. Tour operators can be seen as product aggregators, travel agents act as information
brokers, providing final consumers with the relevant information and booking facilities.
CRS/GDS (Central Reservation Systems / Global Distribution Systems), stemming from the
airline reservation systems already developed in the 60s, include also other products such as
packaged holidays, or other means of transport. Whereas the intermediaries on the right side can
be seen as the professional connection between supply and demand (mainly based on the
electronic infrastructure of the CRS/GDS), the left side is relevant for the management, planning
and branding of a destination. Normally, these entities have to act on behalf of all suppliers
within a destination and are not engaged in the booking process. The links to governmental as
dotted lines indicate that Destination Marketing Organizations are often governmental
organizations. The upstream flow of Figure 1 consists of product information, whereas the
downstream flow reports on market behavior, mostly represented in terms of statistical
aggregates. Both information flows create a tourist information network tying together all
market participators and, apparently, reflecting the economic relationships between them.
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The New Business Landscape: The Web facilitates new ways to meet changing consumer
behavior and to reach new market segments, leading to an informatization of the overall
tourism value chain. This allows different strategies to generate value [Sweet, 2001]:
Value extraction: increases efficiency and reduces costs, e.g., automation of processes or
outsourcing to clients such as self-check-in of hotel guests or airline passengers.
Value capturing: client and sales data are used to support the marketing, e.g., data mining for
forecast or yield management.
Value adding: a linear combination of products / services to create richer product bundles, e.g.,
new service quality for consumers such as linking mobile services to existing Web services to
advise tourists during their travel.
Value creation: the focus is on network effects, e.g., tourists within a destination participate in
service definition and planning. Such strategies allow for the design of new products and
services, enlarging the range of options to customize and to configure products. IT and, more
importantly, improved organizational procedures lower the price of customization, enabling
individualized offerings based on mass- customization. On the other side, configuration points at
the bundling of different product or service components to integrated offerings. Core product can
be combined with additional service elements in order to create integrated customer solutions.
Given the dynamics of the sector and the emerging already very competitive electronic market,
nearly all stakeholders have implemented their Internet strategy. Travel and tourism has also
become the playing field for new entrants, either start-ups or companies from the media and IT
sector. Since tourism is an information-based business, it fits well with their respective
background. The overall trend points towards a further specialization and an ongoing
deconstruction of the value chain paralleled by an integration of players and products.
Companies will compete and cooperate at the same time, boundaries within the industry are
blurring. All types of market players are affected:
Tourists will be addressed by more players, and as they accept the Web as a booking channel,
they will also play a more active role in specifying their services.
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Travel agents will see a diminishing power in the sales channel, as a consequence they will put
more emphasis on consulting and complex products.
Internet travel sites, as platforms with bundling of offerings will enhance by providing new
market functionality and technology. This will lead to easier accessible price comparisons and
market overviews, enabled by personalized intelligent tools for travelers.
Destination management organizations will develop cooperation models within destinations
and they will occupy a new role as consolidator and aggregator.
Tour operator will blur the boundaries between individual and packaged tour, based on mass-
customization and flexible configurations
. CRS / GDS show an "INTEL inside" marketing strategy for major tourist Web sites to
increase their transaction volume, and they also move into direct sales for the retail segment
Suppliers will support electronic direct sales, increasing again price competition as well as
price differentiation, and they will redefine customer processes (electronic ticketing, automated
check-in, etc.). This development leads to an evolution of the market best described as an
ongoing interaction of concentration (e.g., as in the US with the major travel sites like Expedia,
Orbitz or Travelocity) versus the simultaneous entering of new players. The related increased
complexity, however, generates the need for new services such as providing transparent access
or price comparisons. This enforces the design and deployment of more specialized services.
Such a process will quite naturally create new business opportunities, accelerating competition
and putting even more emphasis on technical innovation.
The IT Scenario: The described business scenario is based on flexible network configurations
and the further integration of consumers into internal business processes. Adding the tourist life
cycle taking into consideration the mobility aspect of travelers one can draw the following
simplified figure of linking tourists life cycles with companies business processes. Obviously,
processes cross company borders, leading to distributed b2b2c applications, requiring
cooperation between companies, and supporting also mobile communication with the consumer.
Such a future business scenario is based on the assumption that technology based on a
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common pervasive infrastructure will become transparent, invisible for the consumer;
information will be available at home, the work place and during travel. Given such a holistic
approach interleaving business and technology perspectives, what are specific requirements
when looking at the user machine interaction? What is the intelligence needed to support
collaboration among companies within a networked industry? These questions lead to interesting
considerations regarding system architectures.

















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Chapter 2
Review Of literature

The articles are collected from different websites and goggle for searching on the topic
Perception of tourist and Role of IT in Tourism of Kashmir. We have found many articles,
research papers to support our literature it is presented below.
Web Portal for Kashmir Tourism Industry: Design Guidelines.

The purpose of this article is to study the web portal development issue. In Kashmir web portals
are becoming very popular as the valley is growing. Different steps are suggested to make the
web portal for Kashmir tourism industry. Web portal strategies, designs, architecture, structure,
feature, technology & tools are suggested. To develop web portal for Kashmir different strategies
are suggested in this article. [1]

The Prospects of Developing Kashmir as an Adventure Tourism Destination.

Kashmir is the fastest growing state in the tourism and adventure. This article indicates that the
adventure tourism is still in the early phase of development. There is great opportunity for the
hotel managers, travel agents, guides. Adventure is growing 10% annually. [2] Tourism: A Tool
for Crafting Peace Process in Kashmir, J&K, India
Tourism contributes a great contribution towards the peace in the Kashmir. According to WTO
and WHCTT stated that prevention of tourism is joint responsibility of tourism industry and
public sector. Research methods are used to gather the information that tourism plays a important
role to promote peace in the Kashmir. [3]





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Role of Information Technology in Tourism

The importance of IT in tourism especially of the World Wide Web has increased over the past
year. Various high tech and communication technology are in the use in the tourism sector
around the world. They are used for tourism product development, marketing, distribution and
training of tourism sector personnel. The travel agencies are performing this task by use of
computers and computer reservation system. GDS services is used to distribute reservation and
information service to sales outlet around the world.[4]

Perceived Tourism Behavior
The paper examined perceived tourism behavior and desire to Different kinds of tourists reach a
particular destination with a specific objective and if the objective is not fulfilled the tourist may
not like to visit the site again or recommend the site to others. A tourist destination ideally should
fulfill the expectations of the tourist including tourism products and market. Tourist perception
of the site can be a key to developing that site further and can also enhance the overall planning
and decision-making process. Each tourist destination could be engineered in the way that it can
fulfill most of the aspirations of the visiting tourist. [5]

Importance of Information Technology in Tourism Industry
As an extremely information intensive industry, tourism is undergoing rapid and radical modern
changes. A wide range of opportunities discover on daily basis through the use of information
and communication technology. Now information technology is being used for a variety of
functions in the tourism industry, ranging from an internal organization role to external
communication between different parts of the industry. The continuous development of
information technology has profound implications for the whole tourism industry. [6]



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Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry
Information technologies (ITs) prevail in all functions of strategic and operational management.
As information is the lifeblood of tourism, ITs provide both opportunities and challenges for the
industry. Despite the uncertainty experienced in the development of ITs in tourism, the 'only
constant will be change'. Increasingly, organizations and destinations, which need to compete
will be forced to compute. Unless the current tourism industry improves its competitiveness, by
utilizing the emerging ITs and innovative management methods, there is a danger for exogenous
players to enter the marketplace, jeopardizing the position of the existing ones. [7]

Safety and Security Perceptions of Tourists Visiting Kashmir, India

Safety and security today, has been identified as one of the five global forces that drive the
tourism industry. The topic of safety and security in the tourism industry has gained vital
importance, mainly after 9/11 incident. Therefore, with a view to overcome such problems, the
paper undertakes an in-depth study regarding the safety and security in Kashmir and its impact
on building destination image. The article suggests that safety and security is a prerequisite for
an ideal destination image. Therefore, proper strategies should be formulated to minimize the
negative impact of such incidents.[8]
TOURISM: A Tool for Crafting Peace Process in Kashmir, J&K, India

Among the positive benefits attributed to the social and cultural aspects of tourism are the
promotion of goodwill, understanding and peace among people across cultures. Kashmir despite
of a major tourist destination, the spread of terrorism especially during the last two decades have
hindered the smooth growth of tourism industry. Thus following the principle of tourism as a
strategic tool to counter terrorism, the paper is conducted to study the tourisms contribution to
the peace building in Kashmir in terms of residents and tourists perception and the study also
suggests a strategic model based on developing guest-host relationship. [9]

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Information Technology and New Business Models in the Tourism Industry
The spread of IT is enabling companies to take advantage of new opportunities and to build new
capabilities, but it is also threatening the survival of more traditional companies. The tourist
industry, especially, has seen some very significant changes, particularly regarding distribution
processes. The main reason is the development of the Internet, but the changes are also due to the
widespread adoption of modern techniques in email marketing and customer relations
management. Multichannel distribution means that traditional businesses, such as bricks and
mortar travel agencies, have to face new forms of knowledge-based competition, and that they
have to find new strategies if they are to survive. [10]

Mushrooming of Tourism and Travel sites.

The modern day traveler has a plethora of options to choose from, with Internet being the
favorite haunt for the potential traveller. Places of tourist interest and scenic beauty often do not
catch the attention of the customer largely due to the fact that they are not well marketed. Now
with the introduction of protocol like Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP),
this has led to easier transmission of graphical images, music, videos etc over the net with speed
and clarity. Thus tourism has been effectively marketed over the Internet. This has led to the
mushrooming of Tourism and Travel sites. [11]

The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust

Growing reliance on the Internet as an information source when making choices about tourism
products raises the need for more research into electronic word of mouth. An experimental
design is used to investigate four independent variables: the target of the review (core or
interpersonal); overall valence of a set of reviews (positive or negative); framing of reviews
(what comes first: negative or positive information); and whether or not a consumer generated
numerical rating is provided together with the written text. Consumers seem to be more
influenced by early negative information, especially when the overall set of reviews is negative.
However, positively framed information together with numerical rating details increases both
booking intentions and consumer trust. The results suggest that consumers tend to rely on easy-
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to-process information, when evaluating a hotel based upon reviews. Higher levels of trust are
also evident when a positively framed set of reviews focused on interpersonal service. [12]

Online Training Courses on Tourism Destinations: The Travel Agents Perception

Nowadays, Destination Management Organizations are assisted by ICTs in spreading marketing
messages to potential clients, in coordinating the suppliers involved in the production and
delivery of the tourist product and in supporting travel professionals, such as travel agents and
tour operators, by providing more extensive and updated information and training online. From
2006 onward, tourism ministries worldwide have delivered online training to their trade partners,
preparing them to sell more trips and send more people to a given destination (UNWTO, 2008)
and deliver a better service to their clients. Courses cover the destination itself, its hospitality and
tourism offers, and tips on how to better sell it. [13]

Perceiveness of the Tourists
This is the examined perceived tourism behavior and desire to Different kinds of tourists reach a
particular destination with a specific objective and if the objective is not fulfilled the tourist may
not like to visit the site again or recommend the site to others. A tourist destination ideally should
fulfill the expectations of the tourist including tourism products and market. Tourist perception
of the site can be a key to developing that site further and can also enhance the overall planning
and decision-making process. Each tourist destination could be engineered in the way that it can
fulfill most of the aspirations of the visiting tourist.[14]
Travel sector among top three service products via internet
According to research carried out by Jupiter Research, the number of people who have bought
travel product over the Internet is likely to double from 18.6 million in2001 to 38.6 million by
2007. One sector within the travel industry that has been transformed by the ICT developments is
the hospitality section. It is said that to compete effectively in the current business environment,
hoteliers need to adopt the electronic distribution channels. In addition, research results indicate
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that a growing trend in rooms booked via the Internet is not emerging from existing customer
bases, thereby implying that the Internet is able to attract new market segments. [15]
Travelling choice of tourists
The paper Investigate the issue of travelling choice of tourists. The study highlights the leisure
ladder model and all centric/psycho centric personality characteristics of the tourist at the time of
choice of different Destinations. The study reached to the conclusion that it is the tourist
behavior, which is responsible for the destination choice. However, some experiences, some
economic implications as suggested by various traditional demand theories cannot be ignored.
[16]
Safety and Security Perceptions of Tourists Visiting Kashmir, India

Safety and security today, has been identified as one of the five global forces that drive the
tourism industry. The topic of safety and security in the tourism industry has gained vital
importance, mainly after 9/11 incident, thereafter both academicians and practitioners have
started looking into crisis management issues seeking workable solutions to mitigate these
negative impacts. Therefore, with a view to overcome such problems, this paper undertakes an
in-depth study regarding the safety and security in Kashmir and its impact on building
destination image. The conclusion suggests that safety and security is a prerequisite for an ideal
destination image. Therefore, proper strategies should be formulated to minimize the negative
impact of such incidents.[17]
Jammu and Kashmir Govt to develop Mughal road as eco-tourism site -
Potential places along the historical Mughal road, which provides an alternate link between the
Valley and rest of the country, would be soon developed as eco-tourism sites at a cost of Rs 1.5
crore. The Mughal road one of the finest road which has potential to attract the large number of
tourists and will act as a intermediary for tourism of Jammu and Kashmir. The article clearly
signify the ultimate scenery of the Mughal road which will enhance the tourism of Jammu and
Kashmir. [18].

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Kashmir opens for tourists 365 days a year
Noting that tourism has been designated as a major resource for economic revival and
employment generation in the State, the Minister said that after agriculture and horticulture,
tourism is the third largest industry in Kashmir. Kashmir was the favorite destination of the
Mughal rulers. The Mughal Garden is situated on the banks of Dal Lake. Apart from the
perennial favorite places, we have developed new tourist destinations. It was not a flippant
remark when the Valley was described as Paradise on Earth. We invite Kashmir lovers to enjoy
our hospitality. The bulk of tourism comes from different States .The articles mentions that the
Jammu and Kashmir tourism is the only tourism that can attract and accommodate the tourists
throughout year.[19]
Difference in the perception of tourists behavior
The article investigates the difference in the perception of tourists behavior. The overall
objective of the research was to investigate the difference in the perception of tourists and locals
towards the selected dimensions of eco-tourism. A sample survey method was used, with a
structured questioner as the research instrument, at Amphawa Community Samutsongkram
province. Further the research indicated that tourist and locals share no different perceptions both
of them are willing to promote ecotourism of the community.[20]









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Chapter 3
Scope of the Study
Scope:
Information technology is weak in Jammu & Kashmir.
Web-portals are missing for reservation purposes.
Descriptive websites are rare for tourist places.
Safe guarding the will of the tourists.
Promoting business intelligence systems for Jammu and Kashmir tourism.














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Chapter 4
Objective of the Study

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
To know the tourists preference about different places in J&K.
To check the satisfaction of tourist towards the JKTDC web portal and hotels
To check the use of information technology as a tool for helping the hotels in J&K to
attract the customers, maintain database etc.
To enhance the business intelligence system for the j&k tourism.













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Chapter 5
Research Methodology
Research:
Research in common parlance, to research for knowledge and it is not concerned to the revision
of the facts but to discover the new facts involved.
Research Design:-
The design used for this research is descriptive research methodology. The term descriptive
research refers to the type of research question, design, and data analysis that will be applied to a
given topic. Descriptive statistics tell what is, while inferential statistics try to determine cause
and effect.
Descriptive research can be either quantitative or qualitative. It can involve collections of
quantitative information that can be tabulated along a continuum in numerical form, such as
scores on a test or the number of times a person chooses to use a-certain feature of a multimedia
program, or it can describe categories of information such as gender or patterns of interaction
when using technology in a group situation. Descriptive research involves gathering data that
describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data collection.


Sampling Tool:-
The sampling tool used in this research is Questionnaire. A questionnaire is a means of eliciting
the feelings, beliefs, experiences, perceptions, or attitudes of some sample of individuals. As a
data collecting instrument, it could be structured or unstructured.
The questionnaire is most frequently a very concise, preplanned set of questions designed to
yield specific information to meet a particular need for research information about a pertinent
topic. We are going to design a Questionnaire in 2 parts, one for the perception of the tourist
towards J&K in this we are going to ask them questions what are reasons which are making them
uncomfortable to visit in J&K and second for the Role of IT in J&K, how they are doing online
advertisement. After conducting a survey we are going to add the data in SPSS to see the result,
analyze the result and then interpretation will be done.
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Through this study we will be going to know about the perception of tourists and role of IT in
J&K because in J&K IT is not much in use due to the lack the of knowledge. And through our
study we are going to know about the how they can spread their business thorough IT.

Advantages:-

Economy - Expense and time involved in training interviewers and sending them to
interview are reduced by using questionnaires.

Uniformity of questions - Each respondent receives the same set of questions phrased in
exactly the same way. Questionnaires may, therefore, yield data more comparable than
information obtained through an interview.

Standardization - If the questions are highly structured and the conditions under which they
are answered are controlled, then the questionnaire could become standardized.

Disadvantages:-

Respondents motivation is difficult to assess, affecting the validity of response.

Unless a random sampling of returns is obtained, those returned completed may represent
biased samples.
Sampling Design:-
The study which is going to be used is Non- Probability sampling design.
Non- Probability sampling involves deliberates selection of a particular unit of the population for
constituting a sample.


Sampling Method:-
The sampling method used in this study is Convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is a
non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected because of their convenient
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accessibility and proximity to the researcher. The subjects are selected just because they are
easiest to recruit for the study and the researcher did not consider selecting subjects that are
representative of the entire population.
In all forms of research, it would be ideal to test the entire population, but in most cases, the
population is just too large that it is impossible to include every individual. This is the reason
why most researchers rely on sampling techniques like convenience sampling, the most common
of all sampling techniques. Many researchers prefer this sampling technique because it is fast,
inexpensive, easy and the subjects are readily available.

Data Collection Method:-

Primary Data: The primary data is going to be collected by means of a survey. Questionnaire is
Going to be prepared and the sample unit will be approached to fill up the questionnaire. The
filled up information will be later on analyzed to obtain the required information.

Secondary Data: Secondary data collection is made through websites related to JKTDC and
other magazines and published material is studied to elicit information.
Tools of Analysis:-
The statistical tools for analysis of collecting data are used by average percentage and
comparisons.
Limitation of the Study:-
The data from the sample may not reflect the universe; since it is restricted to the India and
respondents of 200 out of which 100 will be surveyed online through google doc . There is also a
time limitation. As the topic is wide, all matters regarding the study could not be analyzed.




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Chapter 6
Complete work plan with Timelines






Activity Start Date Finish Date Time duration.
Project Topic Approval 07 Sep 2012 15 Sep 2012 9days
Introduction of Topic 18 Sep 2012 23 Sep 2012 6days
Review of Literature 25 Sep 2012 15 Oct 2012 21 days
Research Methodology 17 Oct 2012 07Nov 2012 16 days
Questionnaire design 02 Feb 2013 15 Feb2013 13days
Review literature 15 Feb 2013 25 Feb 2013 10 days
Collecting responses 27 Feb 2013 30Mar 2013 32 days
Analysis of the data 1April 2013 5 April2013 5days
Interpretation of data 5 April 2013 10 April 2013 5days
Recommendations 10 April 2013 15 April 2013 5days
conclusion 15April 2013 16 April 2013 1day
Final report 19 April 2013
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Chapter 7
Expected Outcome of the Study
According to our study we are going to study about
The perception of tourist towards tourism of J&K
How IT is helping the hotel managers to attract the customers by offering them online
trip to beauty of Kashmir.
How descriptive websites will change the perception of the tourists about the destinations
of Kashmir.
To provide hoteliers the benefits of the information technology in giving direct access to
their rooms.
To show the safety measures considered by the tourists.
To show the satisfaction and communication level of the JKTDC website.












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Chapter 8
Interpretations and analysis


Q: Where did you hear about the tourist destinations of Jammu and Kashmir?




I nterpretation:
From the above graph it is quite visible that majority of the respondents know about the tourism
of Jammu and Kashmir which implies that people know about the tourism but the fact remains
that they are getting as much information regarding the various destinations of the Kashmir. The
tourism of Jammu and Kashmir has that potential to attract more and more tourists but the fact
lies that they are not so communicative among the people who wants to enjoy the real beauty of
paradise which is Jammu and Kashmir.


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Q:Which place do you like to visit most?





I nterpretation:
This graph is showing the most attracters of the various destinations of the Jammu and Kashmir
tourism. The dal lake of Kashmir is showing most responses filled by the respondents because
the reason being that people dont know about the other attractive destinations of the tourism.

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Q:. How do you book the hotels and tourist destinations?



I nterpretation:
As we did got responses from respondents we came to know that for the online booking only
18% of the respondents are booking online for the hotels for the different destinations of the
Jammu and Kashmir tourism. As the percentage is more shown towards the tourists visiting
directly to the hotels because of the fact that they are not aware about the JKTDC web-portal.
The communication of the web-portal is so weak because they dont have indulged in online
promotion of the portal.
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Q:what is your average spending time for searching suitable information about the
particular tourist destination?



I nterpretation:
This question is showing us that how much people are spending for searching accurate
information about a particular destination of the Jammu and Kashmir. From the pie chart it is
shown that the 39% of the respondents are spending at least 30 minutes for searching accurate
information in which they refer different websites like google, wiki etc for collecting accurate
information about the destinations of the j&k tourism



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Q. Did you ever visit the JKTDC website?



I nterpretation:
The above percentage reveals that 67% of the respondents dont known about the web-portal of
the Jammu and Kashmir tourism which is in huge number. The survey determines that the jktdc
is lacking in communicating its features to the tourists.
Q. Tourists destination and weather information is provided?




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I nterpretation:
This section depicts that the information about destinations and weather is quite good as 28% of
the users are satisfied, but the question arises that the rest of 23% of users are dissatisfied ,which
means the users visiting to tourist websites doesnt feel satisfied with the given information. By
this we can reveal that tourist websites should display all the relevant information of destinations
and weather on their website for making it much easier and user friendly to visiting and non-
visiting users.
Q: Adequate numbers of accommodation links are available


I nterpretation:
The respondents who showed a rhapsodic response towards the jktdc web-portal are not much
attracted towards its attributes in order that will invigorate their continuous attachment to the
portal. They are showing a neutral performance because the web-portal is not providing a large
pool of links of different hotels in the different places of the Jammu and Kashmir. The
percentage of 26% is favoring the links provided by the JKTDC.




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Q Tour package on-line booking is possible?

I nterpretation:
From the analysis of the survey it is visible that the web-portal is not convincing its customers
(tourists) up to their mark because the truth of the web-portal is that it is not providing the
general information about the various tour packages and is not offering the package services to
its valuable tourists so that to attract more and more tourists .from the pie chart we see that
majority of the respondents a percentage of 27 and 14 are dissatisfied with the tour packages
provided by the JKTDC






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Q:Air lines on-line booking and other travel sources is possible

I nterpretation:
The analysis shows that the majority of the respondents are satisfied with the airline booking
availability in the web-portal out of which 18% of the respondents are not satisfied with the
airline option availability provided by the JKTDCs web-portal.
Q:Portal is aware- ring about the Kashmiri Art and Culture


I nterpretation:
From the pie chart it is quite informative that the portal is revealing about the art and culture of
the Jammu and Kashmir to its attracted customers(tourists) but unfortunately the web-portal is
failing in to grasp 61 percentage of the people who have quite interest towards the web-portal.
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Q. Mode of advertising of JKTDC is communicable.



I nterpretation:
Communicating with the customers by any organization is one of the main perspective. The
communicating process of JKTDC seems really not good as the number of visitors are showing
dissatisfaction towards their mode as the number is 74% of the visitors show that the way of
communication is not up to the mark. Its only because of this reason that JKTDC have got a less
number of visitors and most of the people lack the presence of this website. JKTDC should go
for the marketing strategies and should follow the real time scenarios for increasing their
customer visits for making it better way to communicate and represent Kashmir in a better way
for better future.

22%
20%
32%
16%
10%
Percentage
Very Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Netural
Satisfied
Very Satisfied
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Q. If no which other web-portals or websites you prefer for the booking?






44%
43%
8%
5%
Percentage
Make my trip
Yatra
Goibibo
Others
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I nterpretation:
It is clear from the result that the visitors prefer the private websites for booking of hotels and
gathering information about the particular destination. If JKTDC will provide all the
information(weather,destination,hotel booking,cabs etc) within their own reach, visitors will
prefer the host website more than the third party websites. So JKTDC should follow and advance
their technology and use information technology for convincing more and more customers and
display the real picture of Kashmir in the eyes of visitors and non-visitors.
Findings from JKTDC Customers:-

JKTDC has maintained their customer relationship very well and it has proved to be one
of their best strategies in todays era of challenge and competitive environment and giving
them better chances of growth and survival.

JKTDC is offering services to its customers as per the expectations of the customers
themselves, and at a reasonable rates thereby proving to be their one of the core
competency.

Currently JKTDC main source of revenue is through Room Rent that is 1777.65 lacs and
this revenue will increase if they will increase number of hotel and cottages

JKTDC is meeting overall satisfaction of their customer class to a very good level, which
is every service providing organizations prime concern and I can say that there is always
room for improvement as JKTDC to take customer satisfaction to the level of excellence.

JKTDC is meeting standards of both low budget and high budget customers

JKTDC is rendering its services efficiently but the way of communication not up to the
mark to satisfy its customers

From the tourists perspective they are not satisfied about the web-portal as the portal is not
giving the exact information about a particular destination




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Suggestions & Recommendations

JKTDC is meeting overall satisfaction needs of their customer class to good extent but
they need to take their overall satisfaction to the level of excellence.
More than 50% of Non-JKTDC customers perceive JKTDC Hotels is providing better
product and service quality at reasonably rates So, there is an opportunity for JKTDC to
motivate those Customers and make them switch from their current hotel and cottages
towards the JKTDC owned Hotel and Cottages
Majority of the people dont know the web-portal of the JKTDC. So the tourism of
Jammu and Kashmir must focus on communicating their web-services to the people
beyond the barriers which can be done with the help of advertising and by social
networking sites.
The JKTDC must invigorate its web-portal so that it must provide more and more
accommodation links, destination information ,cab services for the tourists.
The JKTDC must use the applications of the business intelligence systems to grasp more
and more tourists and must encourage the enquiry system.


Implementation of the project

From the research we found that the information technology is poor and the main focus was on
JKTDC i.e web-portal and this particular showed following errors.

Adequate accommodation links were not present.
.Information about a particular website was not provide.
Travel(cab) services were not present..
Whether information were not available.

During our project we side by side prepared a demo of new web-portal for the JKTDC In which
all above mentioned features were added so that a single tourist can get all the features which he
/she is desiring in a tourism web-portal.so, we mailed our recommendations to the director
tourism and he showed a favorable response for changing the layout of their web-portal which
we suggested.



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Chapter 9
Conclusions
In conclusion, information technology had brought about a great change in terms of online
facilities for travelers and is helping in changing perception of tourists towards the tourism. The
Internet has made the process of booking hotel reservation and looking for desired destinations
much easier. Online booking via web-portals offers a number of benefits that make it preferable
to arranging your trip with a human over the internet.
One can book online anytime, day or night. One can plan entire vacation while sitting on their
own couch or at their desk at work .Online hotel reservation is an increasingly popular method
for travelers, where reservations can be made at ease, with convenience at a fast pace. Although,
there are down-sides to it as well (as argued from the above), there is no denial that that these
developments has brought about great conveniences with speed and accuracy .Thus JKTDC must
take an initiative for implementation of web-portals fulfilled with all the advanced features to
attract more visitors and provide them all the relevant information about the destinations,
security, hotels, cabs and many more so that it will become much easier for them to visit to the
particular destination n with positive thinking in their mind. so that the tourists should know
about various destinations of Jammu and Kashmir and also should stress on their perception
about a particular destination.











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Chapter 10
References

1. Web Portal for Kashmir Tourism Industry: Design Guidelines, M. Tariq Banday, Shafiya A.
Sheihk.
http://sprouts.aisnet.org/874/1/Sproutus_Web_Portral_for_Kashmir_Tourism_Industry_Design_
Guidelines.pdf

2. The Prospects of Developing Kashmir as an Adventure Tourism Destination, Mohammad
Farooq Lala, Anisa Manzoor Bhatt.
http://sajth.com/10%20article%203_I%20Proof.pdf
3. TOURISM: A TOOL FOR CRAFTING PEACE PROCESS IN KASHMIR, J&K, INDIA.
Vinay Chauhan1, Suvidha Khanna.
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25289/1/VOLUME_4_No2_art04.pdf

4. Role of Information Technology in Tourism, Anand V Nath, Deepa Menon.
http://fama2.us.es:8080/turismo/turismonet1/economia%20del%20turismo/turismo%20y%20nue
vas%20tecnologias/role%20of%20technology%20information%20in%20tourism.pdf.


6.Tourisphere- The role of information technology in tourism industry

http://observer.gm/africa/gambia/article/2008/7/2/the-role-of-information-technology-in-tourism-
industry
7. Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry
http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1123/
8. Safety and Security Perceptions of Tourists Visiting Kashmir, India

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=&volume=Advances%20in%20Hospitality%
20and%20Leisure&issue=3&articleid=1761532&show=html
40 | P a g e

9. TOURISM: A TOOL FOR CRAFTING PEACE PROCESS IN KASHMIR, J&K, INDIA

http://journaldatabase.org/articles/tourism_tool_for_crafting_peace.html

10. Information Technology and New Business Models in the Tourism Industry
Amit R., Schoemaker P.J.H., (1993) Strategic assets and Organizational Rent, Strategic
Management Journal, Vol. 14
ApplegateL.M., Austin R.D., McFarlan F.W. (2003), Corporate Information Strategy and
Management, McGrawHill,
11. Mushrooming of Tourism and Travel sites.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Information,-Technology-and-Tourism&id=3292939


12.The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517711000033

13. Online Training Courses on Tourism Destinations: The Travel Agents Perception
http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/3082/online-training-courses-on-tourism-
destinations-the-travel-agents-perception

14. Perceiveness of the tourists
Middleton, V.T.C. (1979). Tourism Marketing: Product Implications. International Tourism
Quarterly, No.3.

15.TRAVEL SECTOR AMONG TOP THREE SERVICE PRODUCTS VIA INTERNET.
41 | P a g e

http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1123/

16Travelling choice of tourists
Batra, G. S., & A, S. Chawla. (1995). Dynamics of Tourism Marketing: Emerging Trends.
Tourism Management- A Global perspective.
17.http://www.emeraldinsight.com/books.htm?chapterid=1761532
18.http://post.jagran.com/search/jammu-and-kashmir-tourism

19.http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/kashmir-open-for-tourists-365-days-a-
year/article4487609.ece















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ANNEXURE:
Questionnaire

The purpose of this questionnaire is to obtain general information about the perception of tourists and
role of information technology in tourism of Jammu and Kashmir . All the results gathered from this
questionnaire will be used solely for academic purposes and can be seen in a research paper :


Name of Respondent_____________________. Profession______________ Age___

Q1. How did you arrive to J&K? (mark the appropriate answer)
1) By car. 2) By bus.
3) With major airline. 4) By train.

Q2. Where did you hear about the tourist destinations of Jammu and Kashmir? (mark the appropriate
answer, more answers possible)
1) I already knew of it. 2) The Internet.
3) Friends and relatives. 4) Media.
5) Books and guides. 6) Travel agency.
7) Fairs and/or exhibitions. 8) It was part of the travel package.
9) Other, what:----------------------------------------------

Q3. What are the main reasons for your visit to this tourist destination? (mark the appropriate answer)
1) Rest and relaxation. 2) Visiting relatives and friends
3) Business reasons. 4) Culture.
5) Fun. 6) Sports and recreation.
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7) Health. 8) Religious reasons.
9) Others, what : ---------------------------------------------
Q4. Which place do you like to visit most?
1) Pahalgam 2) Dal Lake

3) Gulmarg 4) Mughal Gardens

5) Others (mention) -----------------------------------------------

Q5. How would you consider safety measures for visiting Jammu and Kashmir?
1)low 2)moderate 3)high

Q6. How do you book the hotels and tourist destinations?
1) web-portals 2) travel agencies 3)directly visit hotels

4) other intermediaries

Q7.what is your average spending time for searching suitable information about the particular tourist
destination?
1)15 minutes 2) 30 minutes 3)1 hour 4)above 1 hour


Q8.Did you ever visit the JKTDC website?
Yes No



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If, Yes rate the following from (strongly dissatisfied to strongly satisfied)

Q15. If no which other web-portals or websites you prefer for the booking ?
1) Make my trip 2) Yatra 3) Go-ibibo

4) Others---------------------------------------

Thank You
Signature:...........................................




9. Tourists destination and whether information is provided
(1.very dissatisfied........5.very satisfied)
1 2 3 4 5
10. Adequate numbers of accommodation links
are available
(1.very dissatisfied........5.very satisfied)
1 2 3 4 5
11. Tour package on-line booking is possible
(1.very dissatisfied........5.very satisfied)
1 2 3 4 5
12. Air lines on-line booking and other travel sources is possible
(1.very dissatisfied........5.very satisfied)
(1.very dissatisfied........5.very satisfied)

1 2 3 4 5
13 . Portal is aware- ring about the Kashmiri Art and Culture
(1.verydissatisfied........5.very satisfied)
1 2 3 4 5
14.Mode of advertising of JKTDC is communicable.
(1.very dissatisfied.5 very satisfied

1


2


3


4


5