e-tourism nicos rodosthenous phd 07/03/2013 5 7/3/20131dr nicos rodosthenous

E-TourismNicos Rodosthenous PhD

07/03/20135

7/3/2013 1Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

E-Tourism: the dynamic interaction of ICT’s and tourism (Part B)

• 1. Telecommunications and networking in the tourism industry.

• Mobile telephony has been widely used by tourism organizations to be constantly in touch with tour guides, coach drivers and for their efficiency.

• Mobile revolution will enable travel and hospitality organizations to target consumers, and consumers to search for their products.



• In the pre-Internet era, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), used computers networks to interchange files, documents, invoices between organizations without human involvement.

• In tourism, e.g. travel agents can transfer bookings to tour operators database and tour operators provide rooming lists for their hotel suppliers.

• EDI enhances communication efficiency and reduces labor and transaction costs in doing business with their partners.



• EDI is still used for large amounts of transactions but on the Internet have been replaces by extranets.

• The marriage of computers and telecommunications, enhanced the scope and scale of ICTs usage in tourism and enabled them to communicate directly with prospective travellers, demonstrating their products and services.

• SME can promote their offerings on the Internet and communicate with partners globally, efficiently and effectively.



• Intra-organizational networking is supported by two main types of networks: 1) local area networks (LANs) and 2) wide area network (WANs).

LANs are used in hotels and travel agencies to enable multiple usage of their resources and to share ports to CRSs, databases and specialized ticket printers.

WANs are used by airlines and hotel chains to facilitate organization administration and reservations tasks.



• WANs are normally used in CRSs and GDSs as they offer on-line room/seat inventory management for multinational corporations.

• LANs and WANs are indispensable tools in tourism industry as they provide info, schedules, inventory, reservations and customers history and data.

• Key characteristics of ISDN (integrated services digital network) are: a) integration of different existing networks b) continuous capability of signalling



• c) digital transmission quality for all info including voices, d) sharing of one interface by several terminals and e) fast transmission rates.

• Many telephone companies offer digital subscriber lines (DSL) as faster and cheaper alternative to ISDN. Their ultra-high speed provide direct reliable and fast Internet connection to home and SME.

• Prospective travellers can select their holidays through multimedia experiences, book products electronically over a physical line.



• Virtually reality aims to simulate a real experience. The majority of the users would like to experience the real thing, increasing the travel demand.

• Interactivity between consumers and tourism suppliers enables the provision of tailormade info and marketing material to meet the needs of tourists.

• ICTs will develop personalized electronic and multimedia brochures, designed to reflect the requirements, preferences and past experiences .



2. The evolution of Computer Reservation Systems (CRSs) and (GDSs)

CRSs are operated by tourist producers like airlines, hotels and tour operators.

CRSs can provide important strategic tools for both enterprises and destinations and make strategic business units (SBUs)

Airline CRSs emerged to become global distribution systems (GDSs) providing a global distribution of a comprehensive range of services and products.



• CRSs and GDSs were the most important facilitators of change in the tourism industry prior the Internet, as travel supermarkets.

• GDSs satisfy the need of consumers to have choices of travel, leisure services, prices, availability and speedy documentation of their reservations.

• CRSs and GDSs enable tourism providers to control, promote and sell their products/services globally and increase load factor (L.F.) and reduce seasonality.



• GDSs cause: Huge competition between suppliers Maximize market share through strategic

alliances and mergers Distribute and manage the reservations globally

and the consumers needs with tourism supply. Increase the satisfaction of their stakeholders

(consumers, principals, travel agents and shareholders)



• Tourist destinations realized the potentials and built the Destination Management Systems (DMSs).

• DMSs provide info on local attractions and products and assist regions to reduce their seasonality problems by creating tourism demand.



• 3. Multi-integration of ICTs for the tourism industry and destinations.

• ICTs provide a platform for efficient communication in integrated tourism industry with the local business and economy.

• Three levels of integration, which determine tourists satisfaction, prosperity of SMTE and economic impacts of the destination are:

a. Technological integration



b. Tourism industry integrationc. Local economy and society integration and

coordination.3.1. Tourism industry integration and

collaboration Most destinations are networks of SMTEs which

offer a combination of products and services. ICTs facilitate the collaboration between

destinations and SMTEs in order to strengthen their competitiveness.



3.2.Local economy and society integration and coordination.

Destinations can maximize their economic benefits if all economic sectors participate and contribute to the products consumed by tourism.

3.3. A multidimensional framework for ICTs in tourism.

Several applications and functions of the ICTs framework in the tourism industry are shown below.



3.4. Intra-organizational functions (using intranets)

ICTs integrate the front and back offices allowing enterprises to serve customers profitably and undertake their administration work, which include:

a)Property management systems or hotel info systems

b)Integrated points-of-sale systems



c) Management and strategic info systemsd) Accounting and payroll systems e) Food production technologyf) Inventory control for tour operators,

transportation companies and other principals.

3.5.Inter-organizational functions through extranets (and the Internet)



• CRSs and GDSs offer instant reservations and confirmations to travel agents and empower Internet travel portals to reach customers directly.

• CRSs and GDSs established technological and business solutions between travel agents and airlines, hotels and car rentals.

• Several DMSs enable to integrate the management and marketing at destination area through extranets.



3.6. Consumer and stakeholder interaction over the Internet.

Tourism organizations can reduce their costs and improve their competitiveness by serving consumers through the Internet. (case study 1, airlines with travel agents-IATA commission)

The development of the customer relationship management (CRM) enables organizations to increase interaction with consumers, to keep their preferences and to develop the (1-2-1) marketing. (case study 2, airlines and FFP)


e-tourism nicos rodosthenous phd 07/03/2013 5 7/3/20131dr nicos rodosthenous

Documents

tourism organizations

tourism industry

dynamic interaction

scale of icts usage

computers networks

local area networks

internet era

tour operators