Untitled

308 information technology
information technology
Information technology refers to the application
of computers to process, store, transmit and display
information. The information may be data, text,
graphics, voice, images or videos, and the
computers may be supercomputers, mainframes,
minicomputers, microcomputers, laptops or network
computers. Their processing speed, size,
storage capabilities, input±output devices and
interconnectivity vary with each installation.
In tourism, information technology plays a very
important role since the industry is so informationintensive.
Every firm in the industry must process
information about its products and services and
make them available to consumers. It must also
receive reservations, and process its own internal
company information. Even though this is a
service-based industry relying heavily on human
relations, tourism firms are finding that the
implementation of information technology can
contribute to higher levels of service. This is
occurring since employees are freed from the
tedious tasks now performed by information
technology.
Information technology is a combination of
hardware and software. The hardware includes the
computer itself, monitors and input±output devices
�keyboards, mouse, touch screens, scanners, joysticks,
optical bar coding, printers, fax machines,
modems, digital telephones), communication hardware
such as multiplexors, connecting cables
�twisted copper wire, coaxial cable, fibre optics),
and other methods of communication including
satellite and microwaves. Software applications
include both system and applications software.
The former refers to operating systems �such as
DOS, Windows 98, Novell Netware and UNIX),
utility and communication software. Operating
systems are becoming more user-friendly and less
proprietary, allowing different software packages to
be used on different operating systems. Application
software used in tourism includes both generic
business software such as spreadsheets, word
processing, databases, desktop publishing and
accounting software. There are, however, many
more applications written specifically for tourism
firms.
The airline sector is a heavy user of informa-
tion technology and has been instrumental in many
significant developments which have altered the
face of information technology in general. One is
its development of the airline computer reservation
systems �CRS) and networks in the 1960s. This
involved substantial investment to develop a new
operating system to handle online transaction
processing �called transaction processing facility)
which is now used in other industries, such as the
banking industry. The airline CRS are used to store
information on schedules, routes, fares, fare rules,
tickets, passengers, seat plans and frequent flyer
databases. A few of these systems have evolved into
the global distribution systems. Other airline
applications are departure management control
systems, which process information as a plane
departs from the airport, crew and route management
systems, automated maintenance systems and
decision support systems to assist management with
the many complex choices that must be made.
Other parts of the transportation sector also use
information technology. In particular, the road
network is implementing intelligent systems to
monitor traffic conditions, reduce congestion and
increase safety by communicating the information
to onboard computers in vehicles.
The most important information technology
applications used by travel agencies are terminals
to one or more of the global distribution systems.
The terminals allow agents to research and book
all types of tourism products. They may be used
to run other software applications such as travel
policy software, and fare auditing software. Travel
agents also use back office software to process their
accounting, commission tracking, customer information
for marketing purposes and to produce
reports. Government tourist offices are also using
information technology to manage and market
their destinations. Common applications include
destination information systems, which are databases
used to store comprehensive, updated
information on facilities which are online to travel
counsellors and major marketing offices in the
destination's originating markets. Various software
applications are also used to assist government
offices in the collections and analysis of tourism
statistics.
Many applications have been written for the
hospitality sector. The most important is the