Future of the ICT

Future of the ICT
E-tourism represents the  paradigm-shift experienced in the tourism industry as a result of the adoption of ICTs and the Internet. It is evident that all best business practices have been transformed as a result, and that the each stakeholder in the marketplace is going through a redefinition of their role and scope. There are both challenges and opportunities emerging but the competitiveness of all tourism enterprises and destinations has been altered dramatically. It is evident that the “only constant is change.” Organisations which compute will be able to compete in the future. Although ICTs can introduce great benefits, especially in efficiency, coordination, differentiation, and cost reduction, they are not a universal remedy and require a pervasive re-engineering of business processes, as well as strategic management vision and commitment in order to achieve their objectives.

Using Porter’s five forces framework Buhalis and Zoge (2007) illustrate that the emergence of the Internet altered the structure of the travel industry. Overall, consumers benefited the most as their bargaining power increased due to their ability to access accurate and relevant information instantly and to communicate directly with suppliers, while benefiting from lower switching costs. The Internet led to the intensification of rivalry among tourism suppliers as it introduced transparency, speed, convenience and a wide range of choice and flexibility in the marketplace.

Transparency enabled buyers to increase their bargaining power by facilitating price comparisons and access to instant, inexpensive and accurate information but reduced the bargaining power of suppliers. Rivalry was further intensified because of lowered barriers to entry and because of the possibility of equal representation of small businesses. Innovative suppliers increasingly use advanced CRM to gather information on consumers’ profile and to offer tailored and value added products whilst expanding their distribution mix widely to harness the marketplace. Suppliers should enhance their direct communications with end consumers and online intermediaries to save on costs, increase profitability and enhance their efficiency. Real time representation facilitated instant distribution and led to bypassing the traditional distribution channels. This not only changed the structure of the tourism value system but also raised challenges for traditional intermediaries.

The need for traditional intermediaries to shift their role to consumer advisors is becoming evident and unless TAs and TOs utilise internet tools for building and delivering personalised tourism products they will be unable to compete in the future. Although the tourism industry structure has been altered dramatically it is evident that both tourism suppliers and online intermediaries should apply constant innovation, in terms of marketing techniques and technological advancements, in order to be able to offer differentiated, personalised, tailored and value added products. The key point for sustaining their competitive advantage is to focus on their core competencies and to exploit the opportunities that technology offers to improve their strategic position in the tourism value system.

ICTs provide innovative strategic tools for tourism organisations and destinations to improve both their operations and positioning. Hence, the visibility and competitiveness of principals and destinations in the marketplace will increasingly be a function of the technologies and networks utilised to interact with individual and institutional customers. Unless the current tourism sector utilises the emergent ICTs, and develops a multi-channel and multi-platform strategy they will be unable to take full advantage of the emerging opportunities (Buhalis & Licata, 2002). It is safe to assume that only creative and innovative principals and destinations which apply continues innovation in using intelligent e-tourism applications and adopt their processes accordingly will be able to achieve sustainable competitive advantages in the future.