Evaluation, Synthesis and Formulation of Proposals for the Use of ...

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«Evaluation, Synthesis and Formulation of Proposals for the Use of ICTin the Tourism Sector»to offer packages at terms that no individual tourist can achieve, regardless of his/her method ofcommunication with the hotel or airline company.The majority of tourist enterprises in Greece operates in a short-sighted way, as mentioned in section«Subsidizing of Projects for the Technological Modernization of Tourist Enterprises» in the thematicarea «Tourism Strategy and Organization». Some electronic services are being developed (mainly forthe provision of information only), but without care for extensibility and continuous qualityimprovement. The results of such strategies are temporary and benefits do not last long. Relevantexamples can be found in the websites developed in the context of co-funded projects. These projectsfrequently do not include the proper management and maintenance tasks in their design. Part of thisproblem lies of course in the way the tourist enterprises are subsidized through the various fundingschemes and the discontinuity in the introduction of new technologies. The enterprises are invited toadopt the most advanced technologies without having passed gradually through modernizationstages.In general, the value of technology is not perceived in the same way by all involved in the tourismsector, and this explains the diversity and variability observed in Greece with regard to the use andexploitation of new ICT. For example, in a focus group with representatives from hotels, it was statedthat technology is considered extremely important for hotel owners but a threat for traditional touristagencies. Specifically, tourist agents believe that technology will bring a gradual decline in theirsector since it nullifies their main competitive advantages (e.g. fast provision of services) and allowsthe transfer of their services to the internet, in the hotels websites. In addition, in many cases theelectronic services provided in the internet can be much better, if the hotels incorporate technologiesintroducing personalized information and service in their websites. However, a distinction should bemade and underlined here, between tour operators and travel agents. Tour operators are producersof tourist packages who achieve cost reduction through economies of scales and use these to offercompetitive prices to their end users. On the other hand, travel agents are distributors of touristpackages. Tour operators emerge as catalytic adopters of new technologies, as also do some of thelarger travel agents, and evolve to multichannel operators and agents. From this point of view, e-tourism will be dominated by the same dominant players in the worldwide tourism market. Theselarge players are already changing their business models to adopt the new technologies, achievingeven more economies of scale and offering even more competitive packages. Those that will facesurvival problems are the small tourist agents.Another issue discussed in the focus groups was the difference in mentality between old and youngentrepreneurs. While most hotel owners have recognized the value of technology and the need toadopt it for a tourist enterprise to survive in today’s intensely competitive environment, they are stillVersion 1Month: December Year: 200744
«Evaluation, Synthesis and Formulation of Proposals for the Use of ICTin the Tourism Sector»very reluctant to invest in new technologies to advertise and promote their tourist products. As aconsequence, the use of technology still relies much on the amateur work of the youngest owners.The abovementioned agree with the findings in various other sources. Indicatively, a sector analysisarticle in go-online.gr 27 points out large lacks in the web activities of tourist bodies and enterpriseswith respect to e-bookings, and locates some exceptions in the cabotage sector and some largehotels. The reasons for the differentiation of the cabotage sector are explained in the next section«Special Technologies and Technological Standards».With regard to the current situation in Greece in issues related to the Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM), the conclusion is that the market has not yet matured enough. As emphasized inthe focus groups, Greek tourist enterprises do not put the development of an electronic CRM (eCRM)system among their first priorities, because they have not been persuaded for the value of such aninvestment and the business benefits they can derive from it in the long term.There is a difference observed in this point with respect to other sectors (e.g. financial institutions)where both the technologies and the customer relationship management philosophy have beenadopted considerably. In these sectors, there is no question of trust for foreign solutions. Also, thebusinesses have made significant efforts to stay close to the international developments and listen tothe market needs. This is not the case in the hotels sector in our country. Greek systems are notconsidered to fully cover the particular needs of the sector. Also, the dependence on foreign providersof solutions is unwanted.5.3.4 Special Technologies and Technological Standards 28There is intense worldwide activity in issues related to the development of open technologicalstandards for the interconnection and interoperability between different systems in the tourism sector.Some specialized bodies are, for example, the Open Travel Alliance (ΟΤΑ) and the Travel TechnologyInitiative (ΤΤΙ). This activity partly aims at the elimination of the dependence on the large GlobalDistribution Systems (GDS) providers, such as Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus, Worldspan etc. and theprovision of new modern interoperable services in the internet (e.g. web services). Apart from bodies,there are relevant international co operations, such as the SATINE project. Greece participates in thisproject with European Dynamics.27 http://www.go-online.gr/ebusiness/specials/article.html?article_id=156428 This section does not include areas that are at the first design and implementation stage internationally orgeneral e-commerce issues that are not directly relevant to the tourist promotion.Version 1Month: December Year: 200745
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