Digitalization Of The Tourist Industry Through E-Tourism: An Essay On Benefits.

The Five Main Sectors of the Tourist Industry

Question:

Write an essay about the E-tourism.
 

The Digitalization of the tourist industry can be possible by the medium of E-tourism. E-tourism helps in successfully doing communication with the customers. The increase in the sale can also be seen in the tourist industry. The internet has completely changed the infrastructure and the principle of the tourism. The e-tourism provides the facility of making choice of destination, comparison of prices, easy reservation, easy financial exchange, and etc. The tourist industry is divided into five main sectors which can be categorized as attraction, transportation, accommodation facility, infrastructure, and supporting facilities. The position of the tourist industry can rise by making use of internet and communication technologies. Information technology plays a significant role in increasing the market strategy of the tourism industry. It helps in the generation of new techniques and trends which are beneficial for the tourist industry, gathering of relevant information, processing of the information, and communication. The major challenge which comes forward was to make plan for e-tourism so that the rate of tourist can be increased to the correspondent tourist place. The e-tourism helps in analyzing and gathering information about customers regarding their requirement, choice, and etc, the close relationship can be developed with the customer, marketing fundamentals can be improved, profit and the reduction in the cost can be increased, helps in creating the loyal customers, the customer satisfaction can be improved to the high extent, and increase the competition. The tourism can be defined as traveling to other environment. Tourism can be of many types such as domestic tourism means the person is visiting to other places in his own country, inbound tourism is related to non- resident person, out-bound tourism is related to the persons who are traveling to other countries, internal tourism is the combination of inbound and domestic tourism, national tourism is the combination of out-bound and domestic tourism, and international tourism is the combination of out-bound and inbound tourism. 

In 1993, the survey on tourist industry shows that services provided to tourist are also given to the non-tourist. Therefore, in the year 1996, the tourist industry is divided into five main sectors which can be categorized as attraction, transportation, accommodation facility, infrastructure, and supporting facilities.  The tourism is divided into two modules. The first division carries those firms which are affected by the tourism such as hotel, restaurants, travel agents, and etc and the second division carries those units which are not affected by the tourism such as taxis, gift shops and etc.  The economic condition of the country depends on the function which can be categorized as natural resources of the country should be saved, trading at international level should be improved, goods and services should be provided to the customer, payment system should be improved, social utilization of investment should be improved in tourism, and proper balancing of the growth. Government should take step forward to attract the people from other countries to their own country for increasing the growth of tourism. Visitor places of attraction, facilities, hotels, roads, transport facility should be improved to the high extent to increase the level of tourism. The cost is the relevant factor in tourism it can be measured by importing goods and services, cost of foreign exchange investment, promotion and publicity of the visitor places, and training given to the personnel. From the year 2000, the attraction and the rate of tourist increase to the high extent. There are three major areas where the improvement is needed for enhancing the condition of tourism in the country which are named as recognition from the government of tourist places, economic condition should be balanced with respect to people, environment and their culture, and it should be taken as long term growth of concerns. The major challenge which comes forward in the year 2008 was to make plan for e-tourism so that the rate of tourist can be increased to the correspondent tourist place. From the research, it was concluded that the tourism affect each and every country with respect to their economy, culture and environment.  

Challenges and Advantages of E-Tourism

Tourism information system provides the tourism services by using the fundamentals of information and communication technology. The web services technology are the services which are used for providing interaction between different machines which are placed over the network. The extension of current web is known as semantic which is based on web browsers, document, meta-information, and many more. It provides the complete information to the customer according to his demand. 

The questions of research on e-tourism are unambiguous, precise, and accurate. During the development of the research question, the aim of the project should be kept in mind. The research questions are listed below:

• What is the way in which tourism company interact with other businesses?
• How the company’s communicate with the customer?
• What type of information customer seeks from the company?
• What are the views of the customer?
• Is their cooperation between the business partners?
• What are the strategic tools used for enhancing the sector of tourism?
• What is the role of information technology in e-tourism? 

Aim: The goal of the recommended system is to provide the information to the customer who helps him in taking decision, selection of the destination, travel plan and others. The recommended system helps the customer in selecting the destination, e-wallet facility, medical facility and many more.

Research Objective:

• It helps in providing the new opportunities in the field of e-tourism
• Detail view of public and private tourism sector
• It brings the awareness of ICT
• Digitalization

Theoretical Content:

The framework of the website should focus on the modules which can be named as financial, internet business scheme, process, growth, learning, customer satisfaction, promotion by using the web technology, information and services provided to the customer, processing of the transaction, and many more.

Methodology: 

Proper evaluation has been carried out of the selected site in term of the facility provided by them.  During the questionnaire and interview, the answers are taken in the form of yes or no. 

Online Travel agencies	Air	Hotel	Car	Bus	Rail	Cruise
Make My Trip Agency	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yatra agency	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Clear Trip	Yes	Yes	Yes
Travel Guru Agency	Yes	Yes
Travelocity	Yes	Yes	Yes
Arzoo	Yes	Yes	Yes
Travel Chacha Agency	Yes	Yes	Yes
Flight Raja	Yes			Yes
Trip Mela Agency	Yes	Yes
Travel Spice	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ezeego	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Travel o Travel	Yes
Book My Trip	Yes	Yes	Yes
Travel Mart	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cheap O Air	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Recommended Website	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes and other facility including e-wallet and medical facility

During the study, the criteria are divided into six different dimensions which can be summarized in the following table:

Dimension	No. of Items
Communication	9
Information	20
Transaction	5
Relationship development	10
Search engine optimization technique	4
Merits of technique use	14

Recommended Theoretical Framework: 

Experimental Setup:

E-tourism is not an independent process. It is the combination of various units which work together to enhance the activity of tourism. “Information technology and communication plays a vital role to connect with the customer directly or indirectly” (Buhalis, 2010). Different forms and different channels can be used by e-tourism to connect with the client. It is the digitalization of travels, hospitality, hotels, restaurant, medical facility, e-wallet and many more.   

The management of operational and strategic activities of the tourist is possible because of the involvement of information and communication technologies. ICT not only provide the support of hardware and software but also groupware, human-ware, development programs, and involvement of maintenance equipment. It is the integrated system for data processing and communication in the benefit of e-tourism. 

E-commerce:

E-tourism is the part of e-commerce for attracting, selling, exchanging of information, purchasing, and etc in relation with the tourism. The customer takes only services such as searching the visitor place, facility of hotel, comparison of price, restaurant, online medical facility, pick and drop facility, facility of e-wallet and many more. 

Internet:

Internet is a medium of communication through which various units communicate with each other for enhancing the services provided to the tourists. The tourist gets all the facility by just giving a single click.

Info-mediaries:

The Info-mediaries helps in providing control to the information in the cyberspace in relation with the selling and buying of the services to the customers.

Actors of E-tourism:

Different Types of Tourism and Their Definitions

The players who play a significant role in the e-tourism are government, hotels, transport facilities, tour operator, medical facility, e-wallet and many more. The proper utilization of information is carried out by these key players for promoting the e-tourism. 

E-Airlines:

The complexity of airlines increases day to day since the number of passengers is increasing. The internet plays a vital role in increasing the efficiency, quick response, low cost and accuracy in the management. The finest route with less time and money can be searched by the portal of e-tourism. The competition is increasing to a large extent. Facility of transport is the key activity in the success of the e-tourism. The e-airlines focus on the activities like accessibility, satisfaction of the customer, relationship with other business organization, electronic booking of tickets, proper management, e-auction for the availability of the seat, provides restructuring to the travel agencies, and the productivity can be increased by the introduction of the new channels.
E-Hospitality:

Hospitality industry plays a vital role in providing hospitality and technology. It provides support and services to vendors. Information technology and communication is used by hotels for improving their operation, management of inventory, and in increasing their profitability. 

E-Tour Operator:

E-tour works in collaboration with other business because they provides a package to the customers which consist of flight charges, accommodation, pick and drop facility, medical facility and others. By making use of internet promotion of the packages can be done. The aim of the tour operator is the reduction in the total cost of the packages. The speed of the transfer and retrieval of the information can be improved. This helps in increasing the productivity and the proper management of information. 

E-Travel Agencies:

Travel agencies play a significant role in providing facilities of reservation to the customer. They make use of information and communication technology for checking the availability of the ticket, doing the reservation of the customer, booking of hotels, and others. Marketing research helps in controlling the operation and financial status of the activities. It also helps in taking the tactical decision. 

E-Destination:

Destination is the major part of the tourism industry. The product, facility and services complete the information package provided to the customers. The functions which are associated with the facilities provided to the customer are planning, coordination and management. 

E-Wallet:

It is an electronic wallet which is used for electronic commerce for carrying out transaction. The user can book hotels, packages and others by using their smart phone. 

The computer reservation system helps in controlling, promoting, selling of the product on the global scale. The use of CRS helps in reducing the cost of communication. It helps in checking the availability of the ticket, doing the reservation of the customer, booking of hotels, and others. 

Global Distribution System:

The global distribution system helps in providing the details of accommodation, restaurant, and medical facility of any corner of the world. This facilitates the customer in searching the appropriate tourist destination in affordable price with significant facilities according to the user demands. The Global distribution system is the backbone of the tourism industry. 

Factors Affecting the Growth of Tourist Industry

Internet Distribution System:

The virtual and online travel agents are the part of the internet distribution system. A travel agent uses the global distribution system for getting the details of the availability of the seat, rooms in the hotel, availability of the restaurant, and etc. The role of the travel agent is to provide information to the customer so that every demand of the customer can be fulfilled. 

Destination Management System:

The destination management system is the collaboration of product and customer database. It focuses on the information provided to the mass media for publicity, advisory services provided to the customer, designing and distribution of the brochures, initiative taken in regard of attracting the people to the destination and many more. It takes the support from the central and local government for improving the condition of the tourist places.

The statistical development of the questionnaire, we conclude that about 68 to 75 percent the researchers are men, 22 percent of people belong to the age of thirty one to forty, 26 percent belongs to the person who are of the age between 41 and 50, and the percentage of the people who belong to the age of 60 to 70 and 20 t0 30 is about 18 percent.

The e-tourism helps in analyzing and gathering information about customers regarding their requirement, choice, and etc, the close relationship can be developed with the customer, marketing fundamentals can be improved, profit and the reduction in the cost can be increased, helps in creating the loyal customers, the customer satisfaction can be improved to the high extent, and increase the competition. The coordination with the travel agencies and the social media is a very useful strategic tool in the development of e-tourism. The online reservation system provides the advantage to the customer for planning their vacation in advance. 

Learning Outcome:

• The clear picture of the concept and meaning of E-Tourism
• Focuses on the key activities of the E-Tourism
• Literature review of E-tourism
• Significance of internet and other innovative techniques and trends such as e-wallet, medical facilities and etc. The internet helps in successfully doing communication with the customers. The increase in the sale can also be seen in the tourist industry.
• Actors of E-tourism: The players who play a significant role in the e-tourism are government, hotels, transport facilities, tour operator, medical facility, e-wallet and many more. The proper utilization of information is carried out by these key players for promoting the e-tourism.

Result:

The information which is delivered from the portal can be categorized as accommodation, attraction, transportation, cultural activity, sports activity, news, recreation activity, about us, food and beverages, newsletter, art activity, map, guidebook, weather report, rent car, rail ticket, air ticket, ferry ticket, e-wallet and etc.

The communication can be done by using the medium of telephone, email, postal address, feedback, live chat and many more. The transaction of the information can be carried out by advertisement, booking system, shopping system, and log in details. The e-tourism helps in developing the relationship with the customer by using the social media such as facebook, twitter, you-tube, virtual tour, flickr, trip advisor, Blogs and etc. The search engine optimization can be done by using the page description, paid placement and title tag. The technical fundamentals which are used in the website are picture, internal links, text, language, sitemap, videos, download option, flash introduction, and book mark.  

Conclusion:

E-tourism helps in successfully doing communication with the customers. The increase in the sale can also be seen in the tourist industry. E-tourism is the collaborative unit of information and communication technology, E-commerce, e-hospitality, e-airlines, internet, global distribution system, computer reservation system, e-wallet, destination management system, internet distribution system, e-tour operator, travel agent and many more. Government should take step forward to attract the people from other countries to their own country for increasing the growth of tourism.   

References:

Maha, A. (2012). Electronic Tourism (E-tourism) - a theoretical approach. 1st ed.  

Kim, C. (2009). E-TOURISM : AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH FOR THE SMALL AND MEDIUM -SIZED TOURISM ENTERPRISES (SMTES ) IN KOREA.

Kumar, V. (2013). E-Tourism. 1st ed.

Buhalis, D. (2010). International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research. 1st ed.

Sundari, H. (2008). E - TOURISM SATISFACTION OF PUDUCHERRY TOURISTS - EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE. 1st ed.

Longhi, C. (2007). Usages of the internet and e-tourism. Towards a new economy of tourism. 1st ed.

Pitoska, E. (2013). E-Tourism: The Use of Internet and Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism:

Rouhani, S. (2013). Identification and Classification of Affecting Factors on E-Tourism.