Building a barrier-to-imitation strategy model in the travel agency industry

This study explores travel agency industry-specific barriers to imitation by first reviewing the literature on the barriers to imitation and the effects of barrier reductions on travel markets. This is the first attempt to explore and identify the external and internal barriers to imitation in the travel agency industry. It is also the first to examine the development of competitive advantages through the building of a barrier-to-imitation strategy, which is the conceptual model from the perspective of travel agency practitioners. A three-round Delphi research design was adopted to look into the present barrier-to-imitation strategy performance measures of travel agencies. Qualitative interviews with the chief executive officers of the top 15 large-scale travel agencies provided additional insights. The results show that Taiwanese travel agencies consider five external barriers, six internal barriers, and six developing barriers-to-imitation advantages, and four performance indicators of barrier strategies. This study is quite innovative in that no one else so far has analysed or tried to discern the issues of barriers to imitation, towards proposing an optimal strategic model for enforcing barriers to imitation. Finally, the construct of developing competitive advantages by building a barrier strategies model for travel agencies can help address practical and theoretical needs.