Tourism: Key Performance Indicators

Successful companies focus on goal achievement. But goals may be elusive, especially in staff-intense tourist-oriented service industries, unless the goals are broken down enabling each stakeholder to identify with a specific mission.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) quantitatively measure an organization’s performance on various factors that, when taken together, will determine goal achievement. They identify areas where improvement is needed. In tourism, a goal may be set to increase visitor revenues by a certain percent. To reach that goal stakeholders agree to measure factors that must be achieved.

KPIs vary by company and product type. An airline may set a monthly goal to be on time 90 percent of the time. A key performance indicator will be the number of early-morning flights that leave on time as they set the pattern for the day. In a restaurant a goal may be to serve 5,000 meals in a month. A key performance indicator may be the number of daily reservations taken. A destination may measure daily tourist arrivals at the airport.

Many service-oriented tourism industries depend on customer surveys and feedback sessions to measure future revenue performance. These surveys provide early indications of service shortfalls and allow corrective action.

KPIs are often prominently displayed for all employees and management to see every day. Usually called a “dashboard,” the measurements are entered daily and graphed so daily performance is easily evaluated, as is the progress toward goals.

KPIs focus all members of the organization on quantitative measurements that are actionable. Every employee knows what measurement they can positively influence, thereby focusing the entire organization on goal achievement.