THE TOURISM INDUSTRY AND THE USE OF INTERNET

INTRODUCTION

The Hospitality and Tourism industry was one of the earliest to go online. Since travel had few geographical boundaries, and, thanks to the widespread adoption of e-tickets, which airlines aggressively

pushed, the airlines faced none of the logistical issues of online product retailers such as shipping and variable tax-collection schemes, the travel industry was uniquely suited for the Web. As the travel industry

took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s

 Five major components came to comprise what this report will call the travel supply chain: Providers, Distributors, Travel Agents, Charge Card companies, and Travelers

Providers - airlines, hotels and transportation companies; these entities invested in products (planes,

properties, vehicles) and services for travelers

Distributors - Computer Reservations Systems5 (CRSs); technology companies that consolidated supplier information, inventory and pricing data, and provided a way to electronically search, book and issue tickets and documents.

Travel Agents — Using CRSs, provided leisure and business travelers with one-stop shopping guidance

and pricing and schedule advice to make reservations, issue tickets and provide ancillary services such as passport processing or currency conversion

Charge Card companies - Played a role by making purchasing more convenient and secure for consumers, and by providing corporate buyers consolidated transaction data about their company’s activities, which helped them with purchasing decisions and policy tracking

Travelers — The end-user or customer, who may be leisure and/or corporate traveler, or a travel planner

who books trips for an employee to take. In addition, there are many matters involved in the selection and organization of a holiday: gathering tour information, preparing the holiday package, confirming holiday information, actually having the holiday.

Relation between tourism and Internet

ECONOMIC PRESPECTIVE-The internet has drastically changed the manner in which tourism business is done. The ease with which tickets can be booked that’s a boon to tourism industry.

Internet helps in-

·        E-TICKETING

·        LET YOU KNOW THE AVAILABLE OFFERS ON THE ROOMS AND TARIFF PLANS

·        WE CAN HAVE A GLIMPSE OF ROOMS ON THE INTERNET ONLY.

WE CAN ALSO KNOW IN ADVANCE WHAT KIND OF THINGS YOU NEED BEFORE VISITING THAT PLACE

Use of the Internet by travelers to plan and book their trips continues to grow at a rapid rate. In the United States, according to the Travel Industry Association (TIA 2007), more than 75 million online travelers used the Internet in 2006 to get information on destinations or to check prices and schedules ,while growth of the online traveler market has slowed, the number of online travelers who actually use the Internet to plan trips has remained relatively stable. A majority (67%) of online travelers say they consult the Internet to get information on destinations or to check prices or schedules. Not surprisingly, nearly all online travel planners say that some of the trips planned on the Internet in the past year were for pleasure, vacation, or personal purposes. Three in ten say some of the trips planned on the Internet were for business or convention purposes. For online travel planning, online travel agency websites (such as Microsoft Expedia, Travelocity, YATRA.COM, and MAKEMYTRIP.COM ETC), search engine websites, and company owned websites (airlines, hotels, etc.) are the most popular types of websites used. A majority of online travel planners also use destination websites

Among those who have booked travel online, the most popular item to purchase online is airline tickets. A majority of online travel bookers have reserved overnight lodging accommodations, and over one-third have made rental car reservations. The most popular types of websites used to book travel are online travel agency sites such as Microsoft Expedia, Travelocity or Priceline and company websites, such as airline, hotel, or rental car companies that sell directly to consumers. More than one-third of online travel bookers pay for or make their reservations .There is another important aspect and it is concerning the use of Internet While Traveling. Portable electronic communication devices such as cell phones, laptops, and personal digital assistants help people stay connected while away from home or office. In fact, large majorities of business travelers and pleasure travelers said that they brought cellular telephones with them on a trip taken in the past year. One in four business travelers brought a laptop computer with them on a trip, but only about one-tenth of pleasure travelers did so. With the advent of wireless technology, portable devices are now being used to access the Internet for information, including travel information. Whether using a computer, cell phone, or PDA, four in ten business travelers say they have gone online while away from home. One in five pleasure travelers also claim to have accessed the Internet while on a past-year pleasure trip.Use of the Internet by the travel agencies

Many travel agencies have developed an Internet presence by posting a website, with detailed travel information. Full travel booking sites are often complex, and require the assistance of outside travel technology solutions providers such as Travelocity. More and more tourists use the Internet websites to book and/or get useful information’s These companies use travel service distribution companies who operate Global Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Saber Holdings, Amadeus, Galileo and World span, to provide up to the minute, detailed information on tens of thousands of flight, hotel, and car rental vacancies Travel agents have applied dynamic packaging tools to provide fully bonded (full financial protection) travel at prices equal to or lower than a member of the public can book online. As such, the agencies’ financial assets are protected in addition to professional travel agency advice. All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with numerous outside travel agents. Once the travel site sells a hotel, one of the supplying travel agents is contacted and will try to get a confirmation for this hotel. Once confirmed or not, the customer is contacted with the result. This means, that booking a hotel on a travel website will not get you an instant answer. Only some of the hotels on a travel website can be confirmed instantly (which is normally marked as such on each site). As different travel websites work with different suppliers together, each site has different hotels that it can confirm instantly. Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are Expedia, Orbitz and Tripadvisor. There are also Internet travel agencies. These are Web sites that expand traditional agents’ offerings. In addition to selling regular travel services such as air tickets and hotel rooms, they also offer travel tips, destination information and other services. Many large traditional agencies such as American Express and

Liberty Travel have extended their shops tothe virtual marketplace. Portal travel sites such as AOL and Yahoo! link customers looking for travel services to sites that may appear on their portals, but generally are

powered by one of the big Internet travel agencies listed below. The last category for Internet travel agencies is bidding sites, such as Priceline. There, deep discount travel is available, but the travel provider’s brand (usually an airline) is hidden until the purchase is complete .The travel category lists those sites which are related to travel and the travel industry, including publications, travel agencies, transport services/people carriers, airports, destinations, resorts, travel and locality guides and accommodation. The rise of online retail travel is taking place at a time when the distribution function in tourism is changing in many ways. It is growing rapidly and will undoubtedly develop and change greatly in the future. It has provided an opportunity for non-tourism organizations such as Microsoft to enter the tourism market, and in doing so, to create competition for traditional high street travel agents.

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