Growth towards innovation: Assessing the impact of digital readiness and customer relationship management on the business performance of agritourism enterprises in Luzon

• Main Authors: Calawod, Hannah Jireh Dela Cruz, Chan, Samantha Gillian Huang, Mariano, Kyla Gail Cornejo, Reyes, Alyssa Novrielle Nuque
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Agritourism—Philippines; Agritourism—Technological innovations—Philippines; Customer relations—Philippines—Management; Tourism and Travel
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_dsi/47; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_dsi/article/1097/viewcontent/Growth_towards_innovation_1_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Over the years, an increasing interest in the agritourism industry is observed due to its ability to offer tourists the opportunity to engage in agricultural activities and escape from city life. Accordingly, this led to the heightened need for digitalization and customer relationship management (CRM) for the resolution of issues in the agritourism industry, agritourism business development, and improved customer satisfaction. With this, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of digital readiness and customer relationship management on the business performance of agritourism farms in the Luzon region of the Philippines through semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using thematic analysis. The thematic analysis revealed eight major themes: (1) Business Development, (2) Digital Technologies, (3) Networks, (4) Customer Relations, (5) Employee Commitment, (6) Work Culture and Environment, (7) Customer Centricity, and (8) Sustainability. Both digital readiness and CRM enabled agritourism businesses to adapt to changes and innovate, which led to improved productivity and customer relationships. Given this, the findings revealed that digital readiness and CRM improve the business performance of agritourism businesses.