The Impact Of Information And Communication Technology In Tourism Industry

Travel & Tourism is a vast industry, which is known to provide numerous facilities, to people all around the world. Travel & Tourism is quite imperative, for many economies to survive, since, some of their source of income is dependent on travel and tourism.

This article focuses on the use of technology on services rendered and the perception of the customer to communication during the transaction. The authors are professors at various prestigious universities and produced the article with support from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research. They support their work using accredited studies, peer reviewed journal entries, and accredited books on the subject. Although the article focuses on sales the information will support my arguments pertaining the the effects on humans

Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).

In recent decades, the rapid development of tourism industry causes an increasing demand for transportation companies. As a

Cambridge International A & AS Level Travel and Tourism is suitable for both A Level candidates and for those seeking a more specialised study of this subject. This syllabus encourages candidates to appreciate the scale and importance of the travel and tourism industry in the world and recognise the positive and negative impacts the industry may have on people, environments and economies. Candidates learn that the travel and tourism industry is dynamic in nature and how the industry responds to change: e.g., external factors such as changing consumer needs and expectations and developments in ICT. The syllabus encourages candidates to learn practical and technical skills relevant to the industry, enabling them to deal with a range of complex situations and problems.

As a result, we have dozens approaches how to meet the customers’ requirements and offer all the necessary services to them. Searching engines as Google, Yahoo and Yandex are those services that help to the costumer to choose the most desired and comfortable way of purchasing. Modern hotels can use social media sites to advertise their product or their company. Moreover, due to the social networks as Facebook, huge hotel chains could create web pages where they could keep in touch with their customers by informing them about upcoming events and activities. Internet has become the most famous resource that has ever been invented. So that, we could observe increasing activity from young generation. Companies also need to recognize the advantage of internet, as television viewings have been compressed by the time spent online. As a result of internet influence, more airport tickets, room numbers and cruises are booked

Technology affect travel agencies because some book directly from the service provider. This is referred as disintermediation. According to Techopedia, disintermediation cuts out the middleman by using the internet, companies and even manufacturers can deal directly with users or end consumers, which is significant factor in decreasing the cost of servicing customers. Travel agencies should consider reintermediation. Techopedia defines reintermediation as, “is the reintroduction of an intermediary between a goods producer and consumer”.

The demand of services in the travel and tourism sector is increasing from years and they are met with the methods opted by the organisations for their firms to reach new heights.

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Travel and tourism marketing are often categorized into several categories that are mainly related to public and private tourism marketing, national and international, demand and supply (Camison, 2000). Also, marketing plays a crucial role in the tourism industry due to its influence on behavior, attitude, and psychology of consumers that can positively affect the various phases of the entire decision-making process (Wynne et al., 2001). In fact, according to Wirtz and Mattila (2004), consumer behavior is considered as one of the most crucial issues of the tourism marketing due to the changed economic and social environment. Customers choose hotels and other hospitality destination for several reasons, such as available budget, facilities, quality of product offered and other factors. Consequently, manager and marketers need to identify those factors that enhance their opportunity to be chosen by customers in a market that offers a wide number of similar competitors.

Distribution had always been costly process for the tourism industry until technology was introduced. Technological development in the tourism industry of distribution systems consists of three main stages from the evolution and development of airline reservation systems (ARS), computer reservation systems such as SABRE and global distribution systems (GDS) that are now currently in place. The roles of these distributors and stages will be assessed. The impacts of the growth and development of distribution via the internet causes global distribution system companies to create changes in their business models to adapt to the evolution of new technology.

To be or not to be, isn’t the question anymore, despite that we sustain the genuine motion which is Where to Go? And What to Do? The tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. Exactly in 2013 the World Travel Organization (UNWTO) based on their preliminary information issued in the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, estimate grew by 5% with a reaching record 1.087 million international tourist travel all over the world, with additional forecasts of 4% to 4.5% growth for 2014. The World Travel and Touristic Consul (WTTC) considers this industry performance in 2013 is representing 15.8% of GDP. In this information age, the internet, as commercial and communication channel has evolved new ways of creating business in multiple sectors. According to Burnellis (1995), Cockburn & Wilson (1996), and Pitkov & Kehoe (1996), given the rapid penetration of the internet, and in particular the World Wide Web, companies worldwide have been involved over the last year in planning and experimenting aimed at leveraging this new technological infrastructure for business purposes. The travel industry, in which communication between travelers and travel service providers is a very important component, causes as potential as any other industry to make broad utilization of this new medium.

Based on the most recent annual report published by the World Tourism Organization, over one billion people travel around the world and the number continues to grow every year. In the year 2013, a 5% growth is shown and it is expected to increase in the following years. While such growth has produced benefits such as employments, business opportunities, and increased revenues from exports and services, mass tourism is often questioned because of its contribution to negative impacts to the travel destinations in their economic, social, cultural, and physical environment (“Why Tourism,” 2015). Depending on the intensity of traveler site-use, the destination can easily ran out of the facilitation and resources necessary to accommodate the travelers, and let alone the local residents. In order to fulfill the increased traveler demands, developers will have to construct more hotels and facilities, which may involve buying lands and getting additional resources. In doing so, the developers may over exploit the very environment that attracts travelers and change the destination’s character. They can transform the natural environment into an artificial attraction and this may not only impact the daily lives of the local, but also the economy and unique culture of the destination.

Information and communication technology has become a key element for the development in tourism; it is no longer an option for those in charge of the sector, but the inevitability imposed by the current economic conditions for the development of the tourism industry. Under the Tourism Promotion efforts, Tunisia is seeking to use e-marketing system to keep up with developments in the field of international tourism marketing. Constant communication between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Tourism aims to use ICTs tools to maximize communication between tourists and the tourist attractions in Tunisia. Those tools aim to:

In future new tourism destinations tourism developers already face hurdles of growth, mainly in the development phase of the purpose life cycle. funds in the tourism destination communications are however needed to secure a convinced quality normal of tourism both for tourists and population alike. The untrustworthy phases of involvement and growth