Impact of ICT in Tourism

This report discusses the impact of ICT in the tourism industry and how it can be utilized by TOURIZM, a Sydney based travel company, to attract more customers and earn more revenue. The report explores the current trends of ICT, possible ICT implementation approaches, and recommendations for TOURIZM. The report suggests the use of mobile applications and websites, artificial intelligence, and business process management applications to achieve their goals.

Running head: IMPACT OF ICT IN TOURISM
Impact of ICT in tourism
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author Note

1Impact of ICT in tourism
Executive summary:
TOURIZM is a Sydney based medium size Travel Company with several offices in each state
and capital cities where tourism is a major income source for the regions. TOURIZM want to
focus on their customer base, especially on old and wealthy visitors with disposable income.
The evolution of technology along with the adoption of such technologies is rapidly changing
the typical business process of industries and assist them to gain competitor advantages.
Internet has become a daily aspect of the human life and used by industries as well to
enhance the business along with customer experience. In the tourism industries mobile
application, mobile website and hybrid web application are playing vital role which are
eventually used by both young and old visitors as well. The use of ICT can be very beneficial
to achieve their goal. The further part of the report will discuss about the several ICT
technologies and recommendation will be given which will suits their business needs.

2Impact of ICT in tourism
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Current Trends of ICT................................................................................................................3
Possible ICT Implementation Approaches.................................................................................6
1. Mobile App and Website................................................................................................7
2. Chat bot...........................................................................................................................8
3. Recommender Systems...................................................................................................9
Recommendation........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................12

3Impact of ICT in tourism
Introduction:
Tourism is an economic, cultural and social phenomenon which involves the
migration of peoples for a short period of time to an outside place or countries outside their
home. More than nine million peoples visited Australia for a single year ending August
2018. According to the international Visitor survey published by the TRA (Tourism Research
Australia), international visitors spends more than forty two billion in this year to June 2018
which sets a new record as it rises up 5% from the last year ("Tourism Statistics: International
Visitor Spend - Tourism Australia", 2018). It is clear from the above statics that tourism is a
lucrative industry and huge amount of revenue can be gained from the industries with optimal
strategies. As the potential of earning is growing in this industries, several new company has
been introduced in last 20 years and the competition is also growing as well.
The evolution of technology along with the adoption of such technologies is rapidly
changing the typical business process of industries and assist them to gain competitor
advantages. Internet has become a daily aspect of the human life and used by industries as
well to enhance the business along with customer experience. In the tourism industries
mobile application, mobile website and hybrid web application are playing vital role which
are eventually used by both young and old visitors as well. TOURIZM is a Sydney based
medium size Travel Company with several offices in each state and capital cities where
tourism is a major income source for the regions. TOURIZM want to focus on their customer
base, especially on old and wealthy visitors with disposable income. The use of ICT can be
very beneficial to achieve their goal. The further part of the report will discuss about the
several ICT technologies and recommendation will be given which will suits their business
needs.

4Impact of ICT in tourism
Current Trends of ICT
High speed and effective ICT software application and infrastructure has been crucial
for the tourism industry and most of the companies in the tourism industries utilizes ICT to
combine the supply chain management and customer management relations for providing
various facility such as payment, tracking, fulfilment, booking and support. All the functions
can be used with one tool with easy usability which makes this approach very useful to
provide enhanced visitor experience and effective management services as well. The ICT has
a huge impact on the industry and that led to change in supply and demand. The higher
demand of personalized options, quality of information, flexibility can be considered as
consequences of ICT use (Bethapudi, 2013). Technologies such as mobile websites, mobile
application and hybrid web applications are the most popular and adopted by billions of
people which are also use by tourism industries to strengthened their brand image and
communicate directly with their customers by enabling the optimal communication and
functionalities or promoting new package through social media.
Mobile applications are a type of application which designed to operate on mobile
devices such as smartphones and tablets. This applications are embedded with the same
functionality as pcs application. On the other hand, mobile websites increase the functionality
of mobile phones and exercise the control over their interaction with organisations. Mobile
websites are very effective with the external mobile functionality such as QR code scanner,
two dimensional bar codes and sensing scanners (Watson, McCarthy & Rowley, 2013). A
hybrid application (hybrid app) is combination of both web and native applications. Web
applications are generalized for multiple platforms and not installed locally but made
available over the Internet through a browser. Native applications are developed for a
specific platform and installed on a computing device. Hybrid apps are often mentioned in
the context of mobile computing. These can be used different type of operating system.

5Impact of ICT in tourism
Currently, android and ios are the most popular operating system in mobile devices. More
than 2 billion people uses smart phones all over the world and the number is rapidly growing
day by day("Number of smartphone users worldwide 2014-2020 | Statista", 2018).
The impact of the digital transformation is evident in most of the sectors and tourism industry
is no expectation where such technology is also changing to cater to different market
segments. The era of physical booing and travel agencies are outdated because of the
effectiveness of such technologies providing various facility such as payment, tracking,
fulfilment, booking and support effectively. A recent survey conducted by the eMarketer
identified that travel based applications are listed 7th most downloaded categories and more
than 60% users favour the travel apps for planning their leisure tours (Schegg & Stangl,
2017). There are hundreds of applications and websites for travel, some of them are listed
below.
1. Kayak
Kayak is travel booking website which is available in all over 30 countries along
with 18 languages. Kayak.com is the URL of the website and they also have
mobile based application which provide useful functionality to search and book
several travel sites from online travel agencies to hotel, car rental and airline. It is
a noticeable mention as this application is constantly updating and recently rolled
out the ability to search for hotels and flights via Slack (chat service for business).
2. Airbnb
Airbnb is the most popular website for booing household at a cheaper price. This
application offer several households at very small price point along with more
authenticate experience by allowing stay with locals and share their culture as
well. This website also offers to book travel guide and developing to an all in one
travel app.

6Impact of ICT in tourism
3. Sydney’s Living History
When exploring a new place, it is pretty much impossible to know about every
little information about the restaurants, events and pubs. Unlike Airbnb and kayak
which are used for booking hotels and airlines, Sydney’s Living History provides
significant details of hotels, events and tourist places that visitors may otherwise
walk past without a second thought. It provides lists along with images, map and
transportation details as a "fun fact", highlighted in red, for users not into the fine
detail. This application is available in android, ipad and iphone.
4. Intro Travel
It is a traveling based company based on Sydney. Introtravel.com is the url of their
website where they showcase their previous travels along with blogs. They also
provide travel insurance as well.
Possible ICT Implementation Approaches
The tourist industry in Australia is in growth stage and has a high potentiality to grow and
equipped with the number of tourist destinations to attract domestic and international tourists.
TOURIZM can earn huge amount of profit and customer base if utilized optimal strategies.
From the above discussion it is clear that ICT plays a vital role for promoting, integrating and
building brand loyalty in Australian tourism (Ramos & Rodrigues, 2017). The strategy to
attract more old visitors is a highly effective business plan which could increase their
customer level along with loyalty level. In order to achieve the business plan ICT will play a
vital role and the implementation of such technology will increase the profitability. Some
possible technology implementation to attract potential older visitors is described below.
1. Mobile App and Website

7Impact of ICT in tourism
TOURIZM has their website which allow them to showcase their value proposition along
with booking and support details. Nowadays, most of the company uses mobile application
along with website. There are several advantages of having a mobile application over
website. It is even easier to use a mobile application comparing to the website for old peoples
as it provides easy functionality and customization which are preferred by the users. A
mobile application also assist to gather the data from the user’s devices which can be used as
insights to evaluate the popularity area, customers prefer action and satisfaction level.
Effective design of website and application is also necessary along with optimal usability.
The website and mobile application could be embedded with feedback functionality along
with the previous travel experience of older peoples as well. Along with such functionality
they could provide loyalty offer to the potential old visitor as well (Ashari, Heidari &
Parvaresh, 2014). There are several advantages of using such mobile applications and website
which are followed:
One Stop Solution: A web application can provide everything in a single travel
portal such as information of sightseeing, car rentals, hotel booking, ticket booking and
shopping along with real time weather update.
Excellent CMS: it is very much useful to gain useful insights about users preference
and also capable of maintaining and managing all contents on the portal at same time.
Key Functionality:
1. Search and booking option for multiple tourist site along with local guides who
will assist the older to fulfil their requirements.
2. Maps of every tourist area with nearest restaurants and hotel booking information.
3. Transportation details and option to book several type of vehicle as necessary.

8Impact of ICT in tourism
4. Capable of collecting feedback from the visitors and option to show those along
with age filtering option.
5. Real time weather update.
Disadvantage and Risks: Embedding multiple functionality in a single application could
be difficult and expensive as well. It is also possible that older peoples would not be able to
use all of the functionality with a complex interface which could not be avoided due to the
high-end functionalities.
2. Artificial Intelligence
TOURIZM can used AI to assist the older customers and address their quarries as well.
Machine Learning, Chat Bots or Travel Bots and Robots can provide effective functionalities.
. Thanks to AI, operations which usually require human intervention and a lot of time to learn
new skills, can be automated, thus speeding up processes, while improving quality and
performance, and decreasing costs (Gretzel et al., 2015). Online chat bots have already
proved their merits when it comes to bringing in business and providing customer support.
Both of these are factors that the tourism industry heavily relies on. Most of the travel apps
can be seen as bloatware. Many potential visitors complains about the functionality of travel
apps as different apps provides different niche. For instance, one application provides the real
time weather updates and other for booking hotel and restaurant (Mariani et al., 2014). Using
several application is a time consuming task and it will also use huge storage of smart devices
as well. It is also often found that, visitors want to personalize their journey rather utilizing
the plan trip provide by travel company.
Advantage: can be very useful to provide a cleaner alternative. AI makes it possible for
travellers to receive notifications, updates and promotional offers, without downloading
separate apps for each of the services they’ll be using during their trip. Conversations with

9Impact of ICT in tourism
travel AI bots are refreshingly different (Aramendia-Muneta & Ollo-Lopez, 2013). Someone
interested in exploring a new city can just head to the chat window and ask a question like,
“What are the 10 best things to do in <City>?”
Disadvantage: The implementation of such technology is very expensive and always need an
expert to be able to manage and monitor the technology. Software programs need regular
upgrading to adapt to the changing business environment and, in case of breakdown, present
a risk of losing code or important data. Other disadvantages of the AI is follow:
1. The security of AI systems can potentially cause damage.
2. Loss of control over the business decisions and strategy.
3. Technology complexity.
4. Potential lack of transparency.
5. Customer privacy.
3. A business travel process management application for corporate customers
A travel process management application can be very beneficial for older visitors. It
will assist the company to achieve several goal, it can be used to use process redesign
methodologies to streamline these processes and lower their cost as well. (sometimes,
processing an airline ticket request or a cash advance costs more than 50$) it can also be
used to start collecting consolidated data, enforce policies and leverage technology. With
the help of such technology future discount can be negotiated with suppliers on the other
side (Leung et al., 2013). The workflow system would be utilized internally to socialize
expense reports and travel requests around the organization.
Recommendation
It is highly recommended to utilize the first two approaches as these could assist
TOURIZM to attract more customer and earn huge amount of revenue. There are several

10Impact of ICT in tourism
advantages of having a mobile application over website as anything and everything can be
housed and provided by a single Travel Portal – ticket booking, hotel booking, car rentals,
and sightseeing, insurance, and even travel related shopping along with real time weather
update. Additionally, AI and business process management application can be very useful to
provide multiple effective functionality which will assist them to extend their customer base.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that TOURIZM can achieve their
business goals by implementing such technologies. The impact of digital transformation is
evident in all industries and sectors, and the tourism industry is no exception where
technology has disrupted the old order of things and completely reinvented the ways to
explore traveling. The implementation of ICT in tourism has been a common practice which
changing to cater to different market segments. The evolution of technology along with the
adoption of such technologies is rapidly changing the typical business process of industries
and assist them to gain competitor advantages. Internet has become a daily aspect of the
human life and used by industries as well to enhance the business along with customer
experience. In this report several approaches are discussed which are used by several
company. In order to compete with others and construct an effective customer base,
implementation of some ICT is mandatory which are recommended as well.

11Impact of ICT in tourism

12Impact of ICT in tourism
References:
Tourism Statistics: International Visitor Spend - Tourism Australia. (2018). Retrieved from
http://www.tourism.australia.com/en/markets-and-stats/tourism-statistics/
international-visitor-spend.html
Watson, C., McCarthy, J., & Rowley, J. (2013). Consumer attitudes towards mobile
marketing in the smart phone era. International Journal of Information Management,
33(5), 840-849.
Number of smartphone users worldwide 2014-2020 | Statista. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/
Bethapudi, A. (2013). The role of ICT in tourism industry. Journal of Applied Economics
and Business, 1(4), 67-79.
Schegg, R., & Stangl, B. (2017, January). Information and Communication Technologies in
Tourism 2017. In Proceedings of the International Conference in Rome, Italy.
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media in tourism and
hospitality: A literature review. Journal of travel & tourism marketing, 30(1-2), 3-22.
Ramos, C. M., & Rodrigues, P. M. (2013). The importance of ICT for tourism demand: A
dynamic panel data analysis. In Quantitative methods in tourism economics (pp. 97-
111). Physica, Heidelberg.

13Impact of ICT in tourism
Mariani, M., Baggio, R., Buhalis, D., & Longhi, C. (Eds.). (2014). Tourism Management,
Marketing, and Development: Volume I: The Importance of Networks and ICTs (Vol.
1). Springer.
Ashari, H. A., Heidari, M., & Parvaresh, S. (2014). Improving SMTEs’ business performance
through strategic use of information communication technology: ICT and tourism
challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Academic Research in
Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, 4(3), 1-20.
Aramendia-Muneta, M. E., & Ollo-Lopez, A. (2013). ICT Impact on tourism industry.
International Journal of Management Cases, 15(2), 87-98.
Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., Xiang, Z., & Koo, C. (2015). Smart tourism: foundations and
developments. Electronic Markets, 25(3), 179-188.