ICT In The Everyday Business Operation

The article is 'the usage and value of information and communication technology (ICT) in the everyday business operation of a travel agency'. The continuous growth and development of information and communication technology has a considerable and major impact on the service industry, especially the travel agency industry (Berne, Garcia-Gonzalez & Mugica, 2012). The spread and utilization of Internet by the public has led to a several number of circumstances that have acted like game changers to the business operation of a travel agency. As a result of this, most of the travel agencies present in the 21st century era have made considerable and important adaptations or changes to stay relevant and solvent.

This article focuses on the several advantages that information and communication technology has provided in the everyday business operation of a travel agency. It points out the usage and value of ICT in the industry of travel agency services (Mokhtarian & Tal, 2013). Technology has the ability to improve any sector of the industry. The travel agency has benefitted a lot and generated enough profit through the utilization of information and communication technology.

The fast speed of the Internet has enabled the travel agencies to communicate in a fast manner with their travel partners. This has allowed the travel agencies to raise their level of productivity. Their response to the customers has increased leading to high level of customer satisfaction. Customers can clarify their doubts online and find out the expense of travelling to different place without visiting the office. Customers are able to book any travel plan online through the travel agency website (Mihajlovic, 2012). This generates profit for the travel business in no time. Travel agents in this present generation are responsible for booking around 55 per cent of air tickets.

The use of information and communication technology has improved the process of coordination in a travel agency (Aramendia-Muneta & Ollo-Lopez, 2013). A travel agency can communicate and interact across the world via text, voice message and video calls. This can be done by the agency in a cost effective manner. This allows to travel agency to run their business with less expenses as compared to the traditional methods of telephone calls. The agency is able to immediately transfer information and data to the hotels, airlines and other services for any kinds of transactions. They are able to book any tickets, rooms without any delay just by using the internet. Traditionally this would consume a lot of time leading to customer dissatisfactions.

It can be seen that once the customer is satisfied with the fast transaction procedure of the business, then they tend to come back to the same agent repeatedly. In simple words it can be said that the customer loyalty can be increased by using ICT in the business operations of a travel agency. This indirectly creates value for the travel agency by generating more profit. In this era of growing ICT, every business should make proper utilization of the information and communication technology in order to grow and develop.

References

Aramendia-Muneta, M. E., & Ollo-Lopez, A. (2013). ICT Impact on tourism industry. International Journal of Management Cases, 15(2), 87-98.

Berne, C., Garcia-Gonzalez, M., & Mugica, J. (2012). How ICT shifts the power balance of tourism distribution channels. Tourism Management, 33(1), 205-214.

Mihajlovic, I. (2012). The impact of information and communication technology (ICT) as a key factor of tourism development on the role of Croatian travel agencies. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(24).

Mokhtarian, P. L., & Tal, G. (2013). Impacts of ICT on Travel Behavior: a tapestry of Relationships. Handbook of Transport Studies, Sage.