Tourism Information Technology - Literature review Example

?Introduction Poon (1993) lists tourism as among the fastest growing industries in the world with international travel becoming possible in almost every place one may go to in the world. However, there are pressures that these industries face as consumers continue to demand for holidays that are made to suit their preferences and increased competition in the operational environment. New technology practices and concerns in the environment have enabled tourism to evolve according to the factors at hand. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) argues that tourism is increasingly being shaped by the comparison of prices using technology like mobile application and social networks that enables citizens to provide services together in the usual business model of tourist activities. This requires that we understand the challenges that affect tourism, for example, we must understand the trends that dictate demand and supply, the evolving external environment and the need to improve capacity of tourism organizations so that they are responsive to the demands of the diverse interests it serves. Tourism relies on a cycle known as the travel cycle, which entails dreaming, researching, booking, experiencing then sharing of the experience. Dreaming occurs especially on the web when the potential traveller or the tourist goes online in search of the means of travel. This could be through blogs, reviews or videos that inspire the potential travellers to travel. Researching then occurs when the would-be consumer or traveller narrows down on the travel options and make requests on information by querying. It is important as it enables the travel agent or tourist operators know the client’s path towards purchasing. Booking comes next through either online bookings or mobile bookings for air travel and hotel accommodation. In evaluation of future tourism, it is important for operators to device ways of enabling the consumers easily find; books the packages via any device mobile applications come in handy at this moment, and marketers must strive to take advantage of search advertising if they are to succeed. For example, Google has devised ways in which operators can add phone numbers to mobile advertisements for companies that own call centres. This in turn has made it easier for customers to book by just clicking on the Click to call ads. Experiencing enables customers to find concierge type information as they travel and can therefore acquire other types of services. This requires tourist operators to provide reliable access to the internet as they travel with your facilities and offer useful information for the tourists to experience and enjoy your services. Sharing of one’s experience inspires others who have not experienced the phenomenon to want to consume it. It is imperative to note that most travellers read reviews from others and tourist and travel operators must take the opportunity of being part of the conversation in the sharing of this information. Technology as applicable in the tourism industry has revolutionized it more than ever before as more people have become connected to each other with most people having access to information online on travel and tourist bookings. This requires the tourism industry players to adapt and upgrade their practices and skills to meet the growing demands of the customer. Technology can be used by tourism providers to market their products and services such as destinations and the attractions on offer. The information that is provided online is important to stimulate the researcher or the would-be tourist to travel and have good memories of the travel. To reach the traveller, the operators can make use of digital marketing through search engines, mobile phone applications or location based marketing. It is important to make the product appealing and have the best prices for the content placed in the internet. Having the requisite infrastructure to respond or meet the needs of the consumer is important for the tourism and travel operators. This arises from the fact that most travellers and tourists expect services that are personalized that readily meets their demands. This will require tools that are used to store and monitor information to meet personal needs of a client. This allows the knowing and retention of customers for future businesses. The tourism sector however faces challenges in the expansion of technology take-up by tourism operators. One big challenge facing the tourism players is the difficulty in choosing the right technology and adopting it in the business. Tourism players must therefore be able to understand their competitive edge and be able to adopt technology that suits their system and at the same time strengthening their level of competence. The business operators and work force must therefore strive to adopt strategies of utilizing appropriate technology correctly through sufficient knowledge and ways of operation of the tools or equipment employed. According to Poon (1993), information technology has affected international tourism in a larger scale for a long time since the mid-1970s creates flexibility in practices, segmentation of the market and the diagonal integration within the tourism sector. Information technology is thus applied in areas that require management and distribution of information on travel and tourism. The customization of services to suit the needs of the person in need of the tourism service has been made possible through the production of tailor-made services that allows producers to provide services that are flexible in order to satisfy the wants of different consumers of the tourism service. This can be achieved through for example the provision of packaged holidays that are flexible and can be easily purchased through prices deemed as competitive as compared to holidays produced in mass and the production of travel and tourism related services are not dominated by the usual industry players. The holiday must also be flexible and be purchased at prices that are competitive as compared to holidays produced by mass-produced holiday players . The mass production is influenced by the urge to reap benefits that accrue due to economies of scale. Poon (1993) describes diagonal integration as the process where firms or organizations utilize information technology to bring services together to increase productivity and maximize on profits. The diagonal integration in information technology as used in tourism technology is used by travel agents and tourism players to add value to the product or services offered. The diagonal integration makes it easier to link services for example services in finance, insurance and travel to maximize on economic gains of the production process. The value addition to services and products by diagonal integration process gives out satisfactory results to both the consumers and the suppliers of tourism and travel services. In the reservation system for tourism technology, computerized reservation systems have become the important technology for booking the accommodation and travel requirements of an organization. James Leigh et al (2013) explore how the changes in the economic, political and social order of the world economy have influenced the tourism industry in many ways unknown previously. More discussion is put on what factors drive tourism in the individual national economies and the world at large. “Peak Oil” phenomenon is used to describe how the future of tourism is likely to be affected by the society and the environment we live in at large. He uses this to refer analogically to that moment when the human consumption of services in the earth surpasses the level that can be supplied by the earth. This makes human beings unable to sustain or care for the services provided. This makes human beings be in denial and therefore try to manipulate the society that may reach dangerous levels. Literally, Peak Oil refers to the point of maximum production when typically, half of the oil inventory has been extracted and the rate of extraction falls until the oil resource is finally depleted (Leigh et al., 2013). Similarly tourism may face challenges that are related to the dwindling supplies of conventional oil thus rise in energy costs that further affect the world economic situation. Potential challenges caused to world tourism may result from high levels of unemployment and the continued poor performance of the world economy. This is also caused by the consistent increase in public and private debt levels coupled with security and terrorist activities. Natural calamities like flooding and earthquakes may affect the tourist activities of a nation as well as disease outbreaks or epidemics. The decline in government stimulus packages for the tourism industry and the scarcity of energy such as oil also affect the world tourism in a negative way. Tourism being a human economic activity is built or survives on the consumption of energy that runs the machinery, technology and services such as information technology (Leigh et al, 2013). This makes it vulnerable in any situation when this variable appreciates in costs or has become scarce. Tourism must therefore be modified to fit into this wider challenge. Numerous factors may make the tourism industry be required to fit into the wider society despite the increase in prices of oil or the scarcity of sources of energy. These include the increase in prices of tourism activities with large consumption of energy for example air travel and expensive exotic holiday making most people resort to local tourism. Most citizens in an environment where there is scarcity of energy may resort to using public transport as opposed to luxurious travel that is always expensive (Leigh et al, 2013). The tourism services on offer will be simpler, less luxurious and be restricted to the local area of offer to cut on costs leading to the declining of mass highly commercialized tourism. Tourism being a big business in the current world is currently evolving thus requiring the state to be involved in the regulation and subsidization of tourism services in the future. It is therefore important to analyze how the future will resemble in the coming decades in terms of the social, economic and political environment (Leigh et al, 2013). This regulates the uptake of future tourism and how it can be handled, as most environments are always unpredictable in nature. Industry players must have a full description of the tourism regulation laws that are available in that they are normally linked with the political economy as to the roles of the state in relation to the economy and the society. This is important in exploring the ways the state relates with the players in the tourism industry. The importance of tourism in the society and the question as to whether it is relevant to require government involvement through subsidization or any form of support cannot be gain said. Speculation as to the future of tourism is important and can be classified as optimistic. This results because of liberalization of the world agenda through globalization. This occurs when countries become integrated with the sharing of important socio-political functions such as common currencies. A lesser optimistic view of future tourism is basically focused on reduced resources such as oil that has got the result of affecting the world’s economic, social and political factors. This is as shown by the theory of the peak oil production earlier espoused by Leigh et al 2013. New technologies in Tourism Using web-based technology, people have the ability to communicate research and share information and at the same time remain connected in several manners (Emerald, 2010). New research shows that internet travel bookings have increased by an increased margin by significant margins in the recent past. This clearly shows that the internet can be used as a major source of distribution in the travel industry and tourism as it provides information on the travel content, information of pricing on tourism packages and tools for planning any form of travel. Consumers are therefore empowered to bargain for the best prices on offer by booking for services or products over the internet. Projections have indicated therefore that from 2007 onwards, all travel will be booked online. This can be attributed to the growing penetration of the internet and increased confidence among users to utilize the internet for online travel and tourism activities. It is also because there are more products and content on travel that is available online (Emerald, 2010). Yeoman and Rebecca (2012) state that due to the increased options on the number of sites and information of services offered, there has been competition by the travel providers and suppliers for the online customers. Several data show that half of the consumers who travelled did so for leisure purposes and the travel or tourism package was bought online by the person concerned. These online consumers have subscribed to email alerts and e-Newsletters for information on the different packages on offer by different tourist organizations. Reaching out to visitors using technology especially social networks has become the norm in tourism business. This is especially important for tourist attractions that receive visitors from a wider background or nationalities. The information provided in the social media may include information on the tourism packages offered such as the opening hours and the admission prices or the information on directions. The social media may also provide images on how to access the area and other useful information such as reservations and other on-site attractions. Social media are important to tourism has provided faster and cheaper methods of providing information of the attractions or tourist sites thus preparing them for the visits in advance. It also informs visitors the advantages of on-line reservations that save a lot of time. Sites that have mostly been used for purposes of social media marketing are for example Facebook and Twitter. Cloud destination creates global platform for tourism and the generation of information, that is relevant to both the tourism service providers and the tourists themselves. This adds value to the services offered as the project takes previously developed tools to generate a cloud that brings together web destinations with an aim of bringing different actors together. In the marketing of tourism services over the internet or what is known as e marketing, it is important for the stakeholders to know their target markets through the research on the preferred content of tourism by the tourists, the channels for the distribution of information and data on booking preferences. Tourism service providers must also be ready to determine the role to be played by the e marketing and the strategy to be employed in the market. Tour operators must also find partners with whom they can share information on destination marketing to attain more distribution. Excellent use of information on management is important in knowing online booking reports, analysis of websites and email marketing reports. Future of Tourism The application of information technology and the internet has come with different changes in the patterns in which tourists shop for products and services for travel and tourism. Due to the continuous changes experienced, there has been an urgent need to innovate in order for the companies to survive. The survival can only be achieved through strategies aimed at improving processes and procedure, improvement of facilities and the infrastructures. Stakeholders in the tourism sector must therefore incorporating new technologies in the daily management of tourism businesses and the destinations. This is because technology helps in the improvement of operations and facilities including the destinations enabling the better understanding and management of the client during their engagement with the company. Technology also reduces the costs that relate to energy that ensures positive experiences for tourists. Future tourism requires that the stakeholders train themselves to be prepared for future challenges in this competitive market. This would involve the sharing of knowledge and experiences with professionals in the tourism field Impact of Internet on Travel Agencies The sustained growth in the travel agency industries requires that the agencies adopt the use of information technology in the management of tourism traffic. Studies have indicated that the modern tourist or traveller is in need of high quality services in terms of the product and the information that is closely connected with the want for value for money (Christian, 2001; Lubetkin, 1999; Samenfink, 1999). This underscores the value of the use of internet as a means of communication and distribution of travel services and the products that come with them. Tourism suppliers use the internet to sell their products to the global market at any given time by using remote controlled servers that display information on the services and the products at faster speed according to Law (2000). The internet based travel website chosen should have minimize sharing expenses and come with high incomes with better market share. Olmeda and Sheldon (2001) state that travellers in the tourism market apply make use of the internet or web participation to contact directly the suppliers eliminating the intermediaries by requesting information regarding the products and services on offer by the suppliers. The internet also comes in handy when buying the products or the services advertised over the internet, the elimination of the intermediaries who usually add to the cost of the tour by the internet might however at times render the importance of travel agencies irrelevant as observed by Barnett and Standing (2001). However, Walle (1996) and Palmer and McCole (1999) argue that travel agencies are here to stay for the future of tourism due to their advantage in the provision of personalized information to the travellers continuously. The presence of internet therefore strengthens their relevance. Studies show that there is a correlation between the internet and travel and tourism products and services (Christian, 2001). Through the internet, there is faster transmission of information, which is relayed at a cheaper cost. This enables tourists to get full and comprehensive information in a timely manner to assist in making a decision. The internet therefore offers a centralized and sustainable forum for the collecting of information and transactions for both travellers and the suppliers. The advent of internet-based travel agencies has therefore made competition stiffer. This is because the travellers end up going directly to the suppliers bypassing the travel agencies who rely on these commissions. Travel agencies have therefore changed their previous roles as intermediaries in the tourism sector (Buhalis, 1998) leading them to adopt new roles that are different from being intermediaries. The internet’s inability to provide security for the suppliers have been shown to be one of the major impediments to internet based travel agency bookings. Accordingly, web security is a major impediment to the ticket sales over the internet as the travellers always have the personal touch and sense of security with the travel agent as opposed to online travel agents. This shows that there are several implications for the players involved in the travel agency business such as the travel agents and tourism operators. This includes the comfort with which the travel agencies and consultants sit in as they are usually assured of their job because travellers continue to trust their services as compared to the internet. However, the travel agents must be aware of the fast changing distribution of services and products in the present world. Though there has been a considerable loss of customers by travel agents to internet-based travel agencies, the travel agents will be required to adapt to the changing face of product and service sale in tourism and travel. This may require smaller travel agencies to merge with the others to form large travel agencies that may enjoy economies of scale. Therefore, in order to survive the changing trends, the travel agencies should be actively involved in internet integration through provision of services that are value-added and form larger networks to expand their market and penetrate others that they have never had before. The travel agents can also come up with new proprietary applications through partnerships with other internet-based businesses in order to obtain more sophisticated but reliable systems of booking. Committing to online marketing and distribution of information is important for travel agencies to secure their survival. Different scholars have argued for or against the retention of the traditional travel agent while others have called for the retention of both due to the underlying importance of both. Buhalis (1998) argues that the travel agent is threatened or he/she could be replaced by the internet while others like Travel Industry Association of America (1998). Palmer and McCole (1999) say that though there is increased uptake of sale of travel tickets over the internet, travellers still rely on the services offered by travel agents due to the human touch they offer when disseminating their professional services or their products. Therefore, it can be concluded that both internet-based travel agencies and the usual travel agencies are important, as they are supplementary to each other. This ensures that travellers are offered the best of services in the travel and tourism industry. Bibliography Barnett, and Standing. 2001."Repositioning Travel Agencies on the Internet." 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