E-tourism in England a strategy .pdf

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3.5 Barriers to tourism e-business The main barrier to maximising the potential of e-business is that a significant proportion of tourism businesses are not proactive in their use of technology and the Internet and appear to have a limited awareness of the scope of e-business. Allied to this is the fact that the whole online process can appear intimidating, time-consuming and financially prohibitive to smaller businesses. Thus, whilst electronic trading in tourism is a growth area for larger operators, it is much less so for many small tourism businesses that make up the bulk of the industry. The lack of e-business awareness and skills among UK tourism businesses is confirmed by the results of a survey undertaken by ETC in 2001, on the use of ICT by accommodation micro-businesses. The survey reveals that the majority of very small businesses (ie under ten employees) have limited knowledge of ICT and do not use it to its full potential 2 . The survey also suggests that the main barriers preventing micro-businesses from using ICT are cost, lack of knowledge, lack of time and a belief that the existing methods of gaining business are satisfactory. In addition, there are other barriers to successful adoption of e-business including: • the lack of a viable e-business environment – no integrated network within which smaller tourism providers can work cost-effectively and easily with existing web-based booking systems • a variety of tourism data formats that work to limit ‘interoperability’ (ie systems working well together) – instead several different systems that are not connected are used by destinations, hotel groups or tourism operators • a lack of integration of tourism data and e-commerce tools – much tourism information is as yet unconnected to effective real-time booking and transactions capability • a variety of models for holding inventory (eg bed spaces to sell) and bookings have been adopted by destinations and commercial operators, with limited ability for these to work together seamlessly • the cost for businesses in adopting individual solutions – with no guarantee that these solutions will meet consumer needs or reach appropriate markets • limits on telecommunications bandwidth in many parts in many parts of the country, constraining the quality of online services – a problem that is unlikely to be fully resolved until 2005 • restrictions on local authority funding, which impact on the resources available for public investment in ICT and staffing – thus making it difficult to rely on the DMO/TIC structures as the cornerstone that they ideally should be. To succeed, then, the strategy must offer solutions that overcome these barriers and enable easier access both for visitor information and business-to-business communication. Ultimately, such a system must deliver the capability for booking on-line, advertising, data gathering and other e-commerce benefits. The aim of the EnglandNet project is to create an online tourism network that directly addresses or helps to resolve many of these problems. 2 Unpublished. These findings are confirmed by other recent published research, for example by Blum and Fallon, and Main, in Information Technology and Tourism, Vol. 4, Cognizant Communication, 2002 12/44 A strategy for modernising English tourism through e-business – July 2002
This strategy and the EnglandNet project are both ambitious and it is reasonable to question how it can be achieved. The answer is by adopting a step-by- step approach, with the focus on: • establishing the ICT and database infrastructure to provide a platform on which different players can organise their own activity, with assistance from EnglandNet • encouraging participation by destinations, by enabling them to connect easily to the EnglandNet infrastructure for purposes of data exchange – and then to use the EnglandNet services as much (or as little) as they choose, in relation to their own existing systems. 13/44 A strategy for modernising English tourism through e-business – July 2002
Page 1 and 2: E-tourism in England A strategy for
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword 3 1. Executive su
Page 5 and 6: time content on the availability of
Page 7 and 8: 2. Introduction Tourism is a major
Page 9 and 10: 3. Background In tourism, as elsewh
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Page 15 and 16: 4.2.2 Travel trade Potential requir
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Page 19 and 20: information. Technically, this woul
Page 21 and 22: 6. Key roles in support of e-touris
Page 23 and 24: As EnglandNet develops 3 , the pote
Page 25 and 26: 6.2.5 Regional Development Agencies
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Page 31 and 32: Maintain a communications strategy
Page 33 and 34: 8. Monitoring and evaluation To eva
Page 35 and 36: Appendix 2: E-tourism in other coun
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Page 39 and 40: Thus, over a period of only five ye
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