Service quality assessment is vital for SMEs in the tourism sector, as it enables these businesses to systematically monitor and enhance key aspects of their service delivery. By focusing on dimensions such as reliability, assurance, empathy, and adaptability, small tourism enterprises can maintain high service standards. This, in turn, leads to improved customer satisfaction, increased retention rates, and favorable reviews. For businesses with limited resources, having a structured approach to evaluating and improving service quality is essential for creating positive customer experiences and gaining a competitive edge.
Sustainability assessment is increasingly important in today's environmentally conscious market. It helps SMEs in the tourism industry evaluate and improve their sustainability practices, which are critical for meeting consumer expectations and regulatory requirements. By using tools that allow for self-diagnosis and prioritization of sustainable practices, these businesses can identify ways to reduce their environmental impact, enhance economic value, and contribute positively to their communities. This comprehensive approach not only aids in compliance but also bolsters the reputation and appeal of SMEs to eco-conscious travelers, promoting long-term business sustainability and community support.
Sentiment analysis and tourism demand forecasting provide SMEs with advanced data-driven insights that are often beyond their reach due to resource limitations. Sentiment analysis tools, leveraging natural language processing techniques, allow businesses to gauge customer satisfaction in real time, enabling them to make proactive improvements and respond quickly to negative feedback.
Tourism demand forecasting, using sophisticated deep learning models, empowers SMEs to make informed decisions by predicting trends. Incorporating external economic indicators helps these businesses optimize resource allocation, adjust their offerings, and strategically plan for future demand, ensuring resilience and agility in a dynamic market environment.
The Restlytics platform, a web-based application, provides user-friendly features to European SMEs so that they can get further data-driven insights about their operations, be more sustainable, and plan better. The available features are specifically crafted for small tourism enterprises that lack time, staff, and internal resources to keep track of their levels of service quality, sentiment analysis, and sustainability. The provided modules are then the following:
Service quality: this is an essential effort for retaining consumers and obtaining good reviews and recommendations.
Self-diagnostic of sustainability: this module evaluates SMEs' level of compliance with recommended practices for sustainability. This module includes a self-diagnostic tool and proposes an essential guide for setting priorities for development.
Sentiment analysis: this module tracks the ongoing sentiment of reviews based on data collected while monitoring service quality.
Forecasting: this module is aimed at the business decision-makers to envisage forecasting scenarios of demand based on general data, and therefore to plan and optimize resources.
Adriano Lopes
(Supervisor)
Nuno Dias
(MSc Fellow)
André Garcia
(MSc Fellow)
Sandra Loureiro
(WP2 Coordinator)
Daniela Langaro
(Senior Researcher)
Pedro Palma
(MSc Fellow)