The Need for IT in the Business of Tourism: A Case Study of Trip Advisor

This report discusses the importance of incorporating Information Technology (IT) in the business of tourism, using Trip Advisor as a case study. It explores the benefits of IT in improving operational efficiency and gaining a competitive advantage. The report also addresses the risks associated with IT implementation and provides recommendations for managing them.

Running head: IT FOR BUSINESS
IT for Business
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The report discusses the need of incorporation of Information Technology in a business.
The report takes into consideration, the tourism business and provides an example of
the tourism business, Trip Advisor. The business process of Trip Advisor is discussed
which indicates the role of IT in the business of tourism. The report further identifies the
critical risks linked with this business to provide recommendations of addressing those
risks. It is established that the business of tourism requires IT to improve the operational
efficiency and also to improve the competitive advantage.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................3
1. Is IT needed in Tourism Business?....................................................................3
2. Importance of IT for business Survival...............................................................3
3. Essentials for applying IT in tourism...................................................................4
4. Process of using IT in tourism............................................................................4
5. Benefits and Advantages of IT in tourism and Trip Advisor...............................4
6. IT Risks...............................................................................................................5
7. The Process of monitoring and maintaining IT...................................................5
Conclusion..............................................................................................................5
References..............................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Technology is quite critical for achieving business benefit as majority of the
business operation now a day is linked with technology. The use of information
technology (IT) in business has both tangible as well as the intangible benefits. The
incorporation of IT in business operations help production of the results as per the
demands of the customer. The report aims in analysis of tourism business and the need
of IT in the business (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier 2015). A tourism business
company, Trip Advisor is chosen to reflect on the need of IT the business of tourism.
The report will further analyze the importance of IT for the survival of the business along
with the techniques and the necessities for applying IT in a business. Although IT is
needed and beneficial for the survival of a business, there are a number of risks that a
business might face, due to inclusion of IT. These risks are further discussed in the
report.
1. Is IT needed in Tourism Business?
Information Technology has played a crucial role in the tourism industry in a last
few decades. The use of information technology has affected the tourism business in a
positive way by reducing the cost of business operations, advertising and also, by
increasing the operational efficiency. The inclusion of IT in the business of tourism has
revolutionized the way, in which customers; services are provided. Travel and Tourism
is a business that grows in a consistent manner in each year (Benckendorff, Xiang and
Sheldon 2019). The need of information Technology is prominent in this business
particularly because the business of tourism involves people all over the world. With the
incorporation of IT in this business, it is possible to manage all the operational related to
tourism, which incorporates car rental, hotel and flight bookings and reservation. Apart
from that, the information technology has profound use in marketing, customer services,
and also in customer relationship management (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). The
incorporation of IT in the tourism business is therefore needed to reduce the human
load and human error. In order to reflect on the importance of IT in tourism, a business
example of Trip Advisor, which is a tourism business company, is chosen for analyzing
the importance of IT for business survival.
2. Importance of IT for business Survival
Information Technology is important for business survival as technology provide
a number of benefit to the business starting from advertising, marketing and customer
support. Technology has a number of important effects on business operations
irrespective of the size of the business. The technological infrastructure of a business or
an organization largely affects the culture, efficiency and the relationship to the
business. Use of IT in business has a number of important operations in a business.
Technological infrastructure mainly affects the culture and efficiency of a business in
therefore, it is quite integral for the business survival. Information technology mainly
drives innovation in a particular business (Law, Buhalis and Cobanoglu 2014). Thus, IT
plays a huge role in success of the business by enabling a company to easily connect to
their clients. With the increasing dependence of technology, business nowadays finds it

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difficult to connect with the customers without the use of information technology. Thus, it
is necessary to incorporate IT in a business for its survival.
3. Essentials for applying IT in tourism
As indicated in the section above, it is necessary for a business to implement IT
in an organization. Information Technology has varied use in business related to
tourism. Information Technology in tourism has a special significance as IT is used for
satisfying the every changing demands of tourism, by reducing the labor cost as well as
related advertisement costs. With the use of IT, it is significantly possible to avoid quite
a number of customer service issues that is faced in tourism. The use of Information
Technology has given rise to technology called e tourism or e travel (Gretzel
et al.
2015). The use of information technology helps in better management of the information
technology processes. IT has helped in easier processing of the customers’ requires in
tourism, thus improving the benefit margin as well.
There are a number of factors that indicates the applying IT in the tourism
business is a necessity. First of all, the use of IT in the tourism business helps in
reducing the cost of the equipment and also the cost of manual labor. The effective use
of internet technology has a powerful impact on the tourism business as it helps in
effective advertising. When an individual finds constructive posts over internet and sees
the beautiful pictures of various holiday destination, they feel connected towards the
same and gets an idea of what they can expect (Koo
et al. 2015). Thus, IT is needed in
order to increase the business benefit of the organization. The use of IT further helps in
maintaining and controlling the reservation system as booking a seat has become much
easier with the implementation of IT in a business (Munar and Jacobsen 2014). One of
the significant needs of implementation of the system include mobile customer. The
mobile communication as offered by the use of IT help in effective communication with
the customers. Therefore, is can be said that it becomes a necessity to implement IT in
a business.
4. Process of using IT in tourism
Trip Advisor, which is one of the major American travel company, has shown a
significant use of IT in their business. One of the major applications of making use of IT
in Trip Advisor is their website. Trip Advisor company mainly runs a website that
provides the users with the needed information regarding the services offered by the
hotels, reviews of hotels and restaurants and other. Trip Advisor provides its customers
with all the necessary details regarding the services offered by a particular restaurant,
hotel or similar accommodation facility (Li
et al. 2017). Thus, it can be said that the
business of Trip Advisor is web based, and is largely dependent on Information
Technology for its survival. The use of IT in trip Advisor is mainly external and it is
mainly designed for the customers to ensure that they get a proper idea of what they
can expect from a particular hotel and restaurant that is being reviewed. Thus, it can be
said that Trip Advisor make use of IT to run their business operations and to gain
competitive advantage in the business.
5. Benefits and Advantages of IT in tourism and Trip Advisor

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As discussed in the previous section, Information Technology play a crucial role
in business survival of Trip Advisor. The most prominent benefit of making use of IT in
the business of Trip Advisor is that, the entire
revenue of the company is dependent on
the web presence of the company. Furthermore, the use of IT in the business of Trip
Advisor provides the
flexibility of communicating directly to the customers, which is
another significant benefit of making use of IT in the business of Trip Advisor. The
Cost
reduction is a benefit as well (Sadgrove 2016). The cost of running the business of Trip
advisor is significantly reduced as it is a web based company. The cost of running a
website is significantly lower.
6. IT Risks
Incorporation of IT in a business although has quite a number of benefits, there
are certain specific IT risks that can risk the smooth running of the business. One of the
most significant risks is that, failure of hardware or software can result in huge
operational risk (Xiang 2018). Furthermore, any malicious attack such as hack or virus
can risk the
data confidentiality of the customers. Although the use of IT has a number
of business benefits, it can put a business to risk of various malicious attacks includes
DDos, ransomware and data theft. Any malicious attack risks the data confidentiality
(customers’ data), leading to serious reputational risk for the organization. Thus, the
business of Trip Advisor, needs to consider the IT risks as a part of their business
continuity and disaster recovery plan.
7. The Process of monitoring and maintaining IT
As discussed in the previous section, the business of Trip Advisor or tourism as a
whole needs to consider the data security risks to which the business is exposed to.
The process of monitoring and maintaining IT within the organization is linked with theregular security checks for prompt identification of the issues and the bugs within the
system. Furthermore, the staffs of the organization are needed to be trained about
secure business operations to eliminate the chances of facing those risk and also the
chances of data loss.
Conclusion
The report critically analyses the need of IT in the business of tourism. It is
necessary for a business organization to understand the needs and the benefits of
incorporation of IT in a system. IT has a profound impact on the business of tourism and
the benefits of the same, are discussed in the report. The report provides an example of
the business of Trip Advisor and the application of IT in the business of Trip Advisor.
The data security risks are analyzed in the report and process of monitoring those risks
are discussed as well.

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References
Benckendorff, P.J., Xiang, Z. and Sheldon, P.J., 2019.
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Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., Xiang, Z. and Koo, C., 2015. Smart tourism: foundations and
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Koo, C., Gretzel, U., Hunter, W.C. and Chung, N., 2015. The role of IT in tourism.
Asia
Pacific Journal of Information Systems,
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Law, R., Buhalis, D. and Cobanoglu, C., 2014. Progress on information and
communication technologies in hospitality and tourism.
International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management,
26(5), pp.727-750.
Li, Y., Hu, C., Huang, C. and Duan, L., 2017. The concept of smart tourism in the
context of tourism information services.
Tourism Management,
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Munar, A.M. and Jacobsen, J.K.S., 2014. Motivations for sharing tourism experiences
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Tourism management,
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Sadgrove, K., 2016.
The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.
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Xiang, Z., 2018. From digitization to the age of acceleration: On information technology
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Xiang, Z., Magnini, V.P. and Fesenmaier, D.R., 2015. Information technology and
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