Summary
E-commerce is bringing new business opportunities to the global travel and tourism industry. Tourism-related institutions and Internet companies are joining to tap the potential market created by e-commerce. This paper is an historical analysis of penetration of e-commerce in the travel and tourism industry. The analysis identifies a number of consistent customer experience across different channels, among airlines, and involving both international and domestic travel in emerging economies with limited internet access. It is argued, from this analysis, that there area number of emerging new technologies such as mobile devices and global positioning systems which need to be taken into account and effects systematically assessed. The paper concludes that a major challenge facing the industry is to assess the impact of these technologies on different aspects of the travel industry and to find out how much value-added services they actually provide to consumers.
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Extract
Impact of E-Commerce On Travel and Tourism: An Historical Analysis
Introduction
Information technology has introduced e-commerce through the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web. These developments have impacted both consumer and industry behaviors in the areas of travel and tourism. Consumers have more options regarding vacation and budget planning. 95 per cent of web users have searched the Internet to gather travel related information. 93 per cent visited destination web sites and nearly one half used e-mail to gather travel-related information (Xinran, Dae- Young & Morrison, 2006). Almost three- fourths of online travel buyers used search engines prior to making their purchases. In addition to the Internet, technology gadgets such as GPS 's, mobile phones, smart phones and hand-held devices have improved consumers' tourism and travel experiences. Information accessibility regarding travel, destination, bookings, payments, hotels, attractions, and the quality of maps are areas for improvement.Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have affected the travel and tourism industry for at least 50 years, particularly in the areas of automation and networking of distribution channels. Local travel agents that used the global distribution system have adjusted marketing strategies and expanded services in order to realize increased competitive advantage. Local tourism business co...See the full content of this document
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