Proposal of strategic actions for the implementation of the online business model in the agencies of the OSDE Viajes Cuba

Abstract

E-commerce is one of the fastest growing trends in the travel and tourism industry. In Cuba, the government travel agencies grouped in the OSDE Viajes Cuba have considered incorporating electronic commerce into their business model. However, there are still many limitations on the websites of these agencies and payment gateways have not been activated on most of these sites. Likewise, each agency separately carries out its own strategy for implementing the online business model.

This paper proposes a group of strategic actions to implement and perfect the online business model in OSDE Viajes Cuba travel agencies. For this, the best practices of the leading online travel agencies in the sector, the main trends related to electronic commerce in travel agencies and the experience accumulated by the OSDE Viajes Cuba agencies were taken into account.

Among the main proposals are: guidelines to follow for the design of websites and the selection of payment gateways, creation of an electronic commerce department within the agencies, development of online reputation management campaigns and social networks , establishment of a competitive pricing strategy, activation of loyalty programs, implementation of a collaboration strategy among Cuban travel agencies regarding electronic commerce, among others.