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INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTIONIZING TOURISM INTRODUCTION o The tourism sector of the world economy is developing fast worldwide. o Communication technologies play significant part for that growth through: More information available to people through different media sources and social networks Easier trip planning and booking through continuously developing ICTs Tourism is developing fast in recent years; numbers of International Tourist Arrivals in the world have doubled in the period between 1990 and 2009 from 438 million to 880 million according to the UNWTO statistic data. Despite the decrease in numbers last year, with 4.2% the numbers of arrivals are expected to grow probably reaching 1 561 million tourists by 2020. Of course without the development of ICTs we wouldn’t be able to have these numbers accumulated so quickly. ICTs play significant role not only in accumulating and processing statistic information, they also help managers in tourism businesses develop their marketing strategies, advertise the products and compare competitors’ prices...

ICT Revolutionizing Tourism

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INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTIONIZING TOURISM

INTRODUCTION o The tourism sector of the world economy is developing fast worldwide. o Communication technologies play significant part for that growth through:• More information available to people through different media sources and

social networks• Easier trip planning and booking through continuously developing ICTs

Tourism is developing fast in recent years; numbers of International Tourist Arrivals in the world have doubled in the period between 1990 and 2009 from 438 million to 880 million according to the UNWTO statistic data. Despite the decrease in numbers last year, with 4.2% the numbers of arrivals are expected to grow probably reaching 1 561 million tourists by 2020. Of course without the development of ICTs we wouldn’t be able to have these numbers accumulated so quickly. ICTs play significant role not only in accumulating and processing statistic information, they also help managers in tourism businesses develop their marketing strategies, advertise the products and compare competitors’ prices...ICTs are part of most people everyday life either at work or in our spare time...

What are the information communication technologies o Computers with different operational systemso Mobile phones – including 3G and Smart Phoneso Portable digital organizerso Other Wi-Fi detecting devices – mp3, mp4 playerso Digital Television

Technological Developments and ICT Empowered Change • Wireless Technologies and Interlines

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Wireless and mobile networks have developed to allow access everywhere. The Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled the communication of voice and data over mobile phones; General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and I-Mode (Japan) developed and introduced the 3G mobile services. WLAN allow connectivity through Wi-Fi, whilst Bluetooth connects short distance devices. The development of digital TV brings the opportunity of communication with consumers over the TV programs...

Technological Developments and ICT Empowered Change 2

On the next slide you will see how the underlying trend of all developments is the integration of hardware, software and intelligent applications through networking and advanced user interfaces. The development of more and more complicated specialized software products to meet the needs of manager and employees in T requires the development of better hardware. Different software programs are created with more user-friendly and adaptive interfaces to simplify their use, so less training to be required.

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User-centred, Participative, Ambient Intelligence

Perhaps the next major revolution will emerge in the form of Ambient Intelligence defined by ISTAG (2003) as “a set of properties of an environment that we are in the process of creating”. This represents a new paradigm for how people can work and live together. According to the ISTAG vision statement, humans will live in an Ambient Intelligence Space in which there will be seamless interoperation between different environments – home, vehicle, public space, work, leisure space, tourism destination etc.Humans will be surrounded by intelligent interfaces supported by computing and networking technology that is embedded in everyday objects, such as furniture, clothes, vehicles, roads and smart materials - even particles of decorative substances like paint. To be acceptable, Ambient Intelligence needs to be driven by humanistic concerns, not technologically determined ones and should be controllable by ordinary people. In computing, ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people.

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ICT enabled e-Tourism Trends

ICTs have profound implications for tourism and e-tourism reflects the digitization of all processes and value chains in the tourism, travel, hospitality and catering industries. Tactically, e-tourism enables organizations to manage their operations and undertake e-commerce.Strategically, e-tourism revolutionizes business processes, the entire value chain as well as strategic relationships with stakeholders. E-tourism determines the competitiveness of organizations by taking advantage of intranets for reorganising internal processes, extranets for developing transactions with trusted partners and the Internet for interacting with all stakeholders (Buhalis 2003). Increasingly, tourism organisations need to use ICTs to develop strategies that are customer centric, profitability driven and partnership enabled. Consumer centric approach: every tourist is different; but the population in general is travelling more, is more linguistically and

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technologically skilled and more and more demanding. Profitability driven industryEnabled Partnerships

Interconnectivity in Tourism

The creation and delivery of T products is based on partnerships between a range of organizations (transport, accommodation, catering, cultural heritage, entertainment). Taking advantage of the characteristics of virtual reality, organizations will force firms to adapt their products constantly to satisfy the increasing tourist demands. Virtual corporations and globalization bring more market participants and complicate distribution channels further increasing heterogeneity and

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requiring standardization and inter-connectivity. The virtualization of the tourism value chain will depend on the degree of interconnectivity and interoperability between organizations to allow the flow of information and data in this complex value process. To ensure interoperability, data from a variety of independent sources has to be collated and delivered to final users and distribution systems in a consistent format. A number of standardization initiatives [such as IFITT Reference Model Special Interest Group (RMSIG), Hospitality Industry Technology Integration Standards(HITIS) Open Travel Alliance (OTA) and the Travel Technology Initiative (TTI), the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA) and Hotel Technology – Next Generation] have developed standards to promote communication between different data structures and organizations. However, these programmes have faced adoption challenges in different countries and cultures.Moreover, standardization initiatives are in general being driven by the big players in the market and SMEs have little or no choice but to adopt the changes, irrespective of their suitability, or risk being left behind. There is a need for a common tool that allows organizations to recognize and to communicate with each other allowing wide interoperability.

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The advent of new technical frameworks (XML, Semantic integration) raises new expectations on the integration process. Semantic reconciliation tools are being developed, such as a data mediator computer programs that translates data between systems with different data exchange formats/schemas. This approach depends on a shared, conceptual reference schema: the ontology of the domain and allows individual organizations to keep their proprietary data format whilst exchanging information based on the ontology (Missikoff et al. 2003; Fodor and Werthner 2005). A mediation tool is based on three major technologies: XML, for information coding and exchange; ontology, for knowledge and content management; integration of ‘heterogeneous information sources’, for the reconciliation method. The mediator automatically generates data translations from descriptions of the data in the source and the receiver schemas, allowing users to keep their proprietary data formats whilst allowing interaction among their data.ICTs increasingly transform distribution to a global value system, where access to information and ubiquity is achieved, while interactivity between principals and consumers provides major opportunities. Hence, the Internet propels the re-engineering of the entire process of producing and delivering tourism products, as well as it boosts interactivity

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between partners that can design specialized products and promotion in order to maximize the value addition provided to individual consumers. Ultimately, ICT tools reinvent the packaging of tourism to a much more individual-focused activity, offering great opportunities for principals and intermediaries and enhancing the total quality of the final product (fitness to purpose). Equally, it is changing the structure of the industry to an ecosystem of individual but interrelated organisms and nodes all interconnected and interoperable.

Conclusions o ICTs evolve constantly, providing new tools for tourism development, management and

marketing.o Consumers will be more sophisticated and experienced, therefore more difficult to

pleaseo The ICT raised opportunities and challenges are turned to the advantage of tourism

organizations to enhance their innovation and competitiveness