ICT and e-business in the tourism industry ICT adoption ... - empirica

Tourism
convenient and environmentally friendly alternative to paper tickets. The airline also offers
e-ticketing through global distribution systems (GDS) used by travel agents.
Initially, the new site was designed according to customer needs. The traveller had to be
able to decide at any moment in time where and when he wanted to book: via the web
site, via the call-centre, at the airport or via the travel agency. In 2005, the focus shifted
from user-friendliness to “price advantage” of the sales channel. In this way SN Brussels
Airlines positively influences passengers to purchase an e-ticket via its own website. With
22 web sites SN Brussels Airlines is still working on the development of their self check-in
(via kiosks & website) possibilities, added hotel bookings, insurance and rent-a-car
services online.
The e-ticketing system is integrated with other functions such as reservations 83 and
departure control services. All e-tickets are stored in a single database that interacts with
other airline functions. Such an integrated design provides e-ticket details in sales reports
and financial data, ground handling capabilities and revenue accounting reports. Mr Tony
Capiau, the airline’s representative, estimates that - in the most pessimistic calculation -
issuing an e-ticket saves one Euro in comparison to issuing a paper ticket: ‘’Although
IATA states that an electronic ticket is about 7 US dollars cheaper than a paper ticket, I
was only able to demonstrate, for SN Brussels Airlines, a cost saving of about 1 EUR per
e-ticket. But even if an e-ticket is only 1 EUR cheaper than a paper ticket, the savings are
still evident considering the over 3.5 million tickets issued yearly’’.
Impacts
The airline’s own web site enabled SN Brussels Airlines to create an efficient customer
interface and a cost effective distribution channel of e-tickets. In 2005, flySN.com was
chosen by the CMS-Awards committee as the best Belgian web site powered by a
CMS. 84 According to Mr. Brusselmans, “Our web site has proven to be a great success
with customers, thanks to the consistent structure, layout and tight integration of content
and flight data across all of the 16 languages we offer. We’re now taking over 25,000
online bookings per month, which represents a massive increase compared with the old
site.”
One of the key advantages of the technology, according to Brusselmans, is its blue
printing capability, which makes it very easy for the company to update its web sites or
launch new ones. “The ongoing maintenance costs of the site are minimal, even though
we make major changes to the content almost every week with new offers and pricing.
Best of all, however, we can now launch a new site in just a few hours – we literally only
have to write the content and translate it, as there is no need to do any programming.”
Since the web site revamp, SN Brussels Airlines experienced a steady growth in online
booking, which proved to be an efficient channel for the distribution of e-tickets. Whereas
in May 2002 only 38% tickets were sold online, in September 2006, 63% of own sales
were conducted via its own booking engine. This result was facilitated by the
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Depending on the fare, it is possible to make a reservation without buying the ticket
immediately. The lowest fares require immediate payment and ticket issuance and more
expensive fares are more flexible. Even after the ticket has been issued, changes are possible;
either free of charge or at a cost, depending on the chosen fare.
See www.cms-awards.be
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