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

Tourism
practical information about Europe, travel services, such as a travel planner and travel
recommendations, as well as links to the websites of national tourism organisations. The
portal is hosted by the European Travel Commission (cf. European Commission press
release, 21 March 2006).
Encouraging initiatives for networking and cooperation
As was shown in chapter 3.4.2 and in table 3-14, currently only a minority of companies
(8% of all tourism companies) use online collaboration tools (cf. chapter 3.4.2). In
addition, for many smaller providers of tourist services, which do not have the resources
to acquire complex and interoperable computing systems, the adoption of advanced
collaborative e-business solutions such as DP might pose a significant technological and
organisational challenge (cf. chapter 4.2).
However, as was shown in the case studies about yourGreece and the Lithuanian
Countryside Tourism Association (cf. Chapter 4.1), if smaller tourism providers and
operators cooperate and combine their efforts and resources, they indeed are able to
successfully operate in an increasingly competitive market. But very often small tourism
providers are reluctant to abandon traditional business cultures or to cooperate with other
small stakeholders that might be perceived primarily as competitors.
Therefore it is important to encourage (in particular by industry federations and business
support networks) SMEs to form networks with other players and to share resources in
order to satisfy the needs of diverse and ever faster changing customer requirements.
This, in turn, could increase the competitiveness of the whole network, as well as of each
participating SME. The beneficial role of partnerships and cooperation in tourism is also
highlighted in the EU’s strategy document ‘A renewed EU Tourism Policy: Towards a
stronger partnership for European Tourism’. Considering that tourism involves a variety of
stakeholders and policy measures, the document specifically encourages the cooperation
not only among tourism providers, but with relevant tourism stakeholders and policy
actors as a whole (cf. European Commission 2006b).
Encouraging the adoption of e-business in micro and small companies
As was shown in chapter 2, the vast majority of enterprises in the tourism sector are
SMEs. But only competitive businesses will be able to grow and create additional
employment. As was shown in the study, ICT and e-business are major drivers to growth
and competitiveness. However, although smaller tourism companies are relatively active
users of e-business solutions compared to their counterparts from other industry sectors,
many companies still consider themselves as “too small” for doing e-business, or they
cannot afford the necessary investments. To improve this situation, concrete measures
for promoting the adoption of ICT and e-business solutions by tourism SMEs, and in
particular micro and small companies, should be envisaged. Furthermore, policy could
consider the promotion of ICT-enabled clustering at the local or regional level.
As was shown in chapter 3.2.2 and exhibit 3-7, access to finance for ICT investments
poses a particular problem for many tourism companies, especially micro companies. For
90% of all tourism companies self-financing is the major source for financing ICT
investments. Only a minority of companies uses other forms of financing, such as bank
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