The Evolution of Travel and Tour Services: A Modern Analysis

This report examines the significant evolution of travel and tour services in the digital era, highlighting the shift from traditional 'brick and mortar' agencies to online platforms. It discusses the impact of information technology, including the internet, big data, and mobile applications, on the industry. The report compares online and offline services, analyzing the benefits of online platforms such as time and money savings, expert insights, and wider service availability. It also addresses the security issues associated with online travel agencies, such as relaxed authentication and anonymity of reward points, and potential cyberattacks. Furthermore, the report explores the future scope of online travel agencies and the ongoing transformation within the travel and tourism sector. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting to technological advancements to remain competitive in the market.

Running head: EVOLUTION IN TRAVEL AND TOUR SERVICES
Travel and Tour Services
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EVOLUTION IN TRAVEL AND TOUR SERVICES
Executive Summary
In this new era of digital world, everything and every business is being advanced and improved
through the implementation of Information technology and information communication
technology. Internet is the most emphasizing technology in the field of information technology
and it has become an essential part of the human lives. This report presents all the objectives
related to the online services in the travel and tour agencies. Online travel agencies have changed
the face of services related to the travelling and tourism and enhanced the experience of holidays.
Consumers can now compare and avail services at cheap rate and experience much attractive
travelling through such websites. Mobile application is the biggest medium for this business as
smartphone has been available to everyone nowadays with internet network that is playing a vital
role in connecting people. This report presents how Brock and Mortar (B&M) could be replaced
by these online services including the benefits of using these services. Despite of all these
advantages, there are certain security issues with the application of these services but there is a
much wider scope for online travel agencies in future.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Transformation from Travel Agent to Online Services...................................................................3
Comparison with Bricks and Mortar Businesses.............................................................................5
Security Issues.................................................................................................................................7
Benefits of Online Services.............................................................................................................8
Future Scope....................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
“Necessity is the mother of all inventions” and travel and tour services are the real world
example for this proverb to be true. Every sector is being evolved or transformed in much
innovative way and every sector is being advantageous with the application of information
technology within the existing system of the organization (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier
2015). The services being offered by the travel and tour enterprises are transforming in less
complex way through the technologies such as Big Data, Data Mining, internet, cloud services
and many more. These are boosting the technology but in addition to that, it also raises issues
related to the privacy and security of the information and data related to the customers (Inversini
and Masiero 2014). Bricks and Motors are facing more competition in the market because of the
online websites and there are the possibilities that these offline ervices can give competition to
them.
This report focuses on the evolution of technology in the sector of travel and tour
agencies. This report put emphasis on how these evolutions affected this sector in positive
manner. This report presents a discussion between the offline and online services providing by
the online and ‘brick and mortars’ travel and tour services and presents the beneficial aspects and
disadvantages of using online services.
Transformation from Travel Agent to Online Services
Before 1980s ‘Brick and Mortar’ were the traditional way of delivering service for the
tourism enterprises and it had occupied the prime position in the market. Those were physically
established travelling agencies providing services related to the consumers from the accessible

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premises. During that time, this was the standard access point for the people who intended to
book for the trip or go on holidays. There were implementation of technology before 1950 but
not as much as it was in 1990, when information and communication technology came into the
practical life (Law et al. 2014). The implementation of Information and communication
technology along with the internet brought s drastic change in the brick and mortar style of
business and enhanced the capability and capacity of the enterprises. Travel agents within the
brick and mortar enterprises were not able to be connected with such a vast information about the
customers and their competitors ever before. The internet connected this sector with a wide range
of information related to the customers through the application of Data Mining and Big Data and
provides them access to dig deeper about the behaviour of the customers (Schegg and Stangl
2017). This led to the competition between the brick and mortars and the online travelling and
tour services provided by the agents.
Technology enabled the travel and tourism to implement new facilities such as mobile
application, web pages, and connectivity with the social media. Every individual with a mobile
device is connected with internet and these mediums are helping in providing services to the
users at single platform. Various booking applications such as MEX, GSO, Budget Traveller,
EWR, and many others are providing facilities to book travel, tourism, vacations and others
around UK (Budgettraveller 2017). These mobile applications and web services are providing
innovative services such as comparison, offers, coupons, discounts and many more in manner to
be ahead in the competitive market. The users and the service providers are all connected with
the mobile application and Information Technology via internet and services are being offered
and availed 24*7. Implementing IT or IS allows both the side with the data accessibility,
availability, and storage (through Cloud Computing) facilitating better and innovative service

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availability and accessibility. Services are being advanced and scope is getting wider due to the
availability of the social media platforms and information technology.
This provides both the consumers and the organizations an opportunity of availing and
providing the services 24x7 hours. Internet is playing another crucial role in making this happen
as it provides the consumers and the service providers to be connected all the time (Gao and Baxi
2014). Internet can be categorised in a technology of its own kind and has became the integral
part of the life for the individuals. Internet combining with other information technologies, it is
boosting in the betterment with the customer relationship.
Comparison with Bricks and Mortar Businesses
Brick and Mortar travel agencies can be referred to the outlet of intermediaries involved
in the distribution of products and services related to the travel and tour services. These are
physically established businesses those are responsible for the distribution of the products and
the goods between the customers and the service providers (Laudon and Traver 2013). The
services and products provided related to the travel and tours are being operated offline mode
facilitating tours for the groups or the individual. However, according to current trend in the
market, online travelling booking is around 38% of the global market and 13% of the market of
global travel. It is being expected that the gross booking for online travelling services have been
increased up to $ 150 billion. This sales figure is being increased with the rate of 12% each year
and is spanning across the business and leisure travel segment (Hasahem et al. 2015). This is no-
doubt affecting the brick and mortar travel and tour businesses and thus, resulting number of
offline businesses are being decreased constantly and half of the offline travel agents have been
vanished from the market.

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Despite of all these factors there are many chances for the B&M businesses in the travel
and tour sector and still fifty percent of the UK population believes in offline reservation. The
focus of the consortium is to facilitate relationship between the customers and the service
providers in both ways but does not put emphasis on the high-end customer contents at the final
stage (Amatro and Duarte 2013). In the B&M travel agency, it can be represented as the primary
factor because despite of sharing the same integrity and profit, these are completely different
issue. Implementation of the complex technology with the existing system of the organization is
one of the most difficult factors for them.
According to the findings, it can be reported that for fighting the Online Travel Agents,
indulging in the activities involving the online services such as social media, online marketing,
using web presentation and many more. So finally, the solution of fighting against online
services is transforming itself into an online service (Mowforth and Munt 2015). Online travel
agencies have much more data, information, and techniques to attract the customers than offline
travel agencies. On the other hand, customers experiencing the B&M agency service would feel
more bending towards the online services due to the availability of comparison between other
agencies and wide range of services and offers. Travel booking sites on the internet and share
markets are spreading their wings in the sector of tourism across the global market and expected
to be growing with the rate of 14% annually (Zeng and Gerritsen 2014). They are also offering
human consultants via telephonic communication or chatting, which is a similar factor between
the B&M and online travel agencies. It is still the basic need for both the online and offline
service providers that both needs a human interaction medium for the customers in manner to
make them believe and provide services according to their needs (Law, Buhalis and Cobanoglu

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2014). Online travel agencies can provide many advantageous aspect as stated in the below
paragraph and could enhance the experience of the consumers and the service providers.
Security Issues
Online travel agencies are spending lots of money in attracting customers through better offers
and coupon systems but they are not yet applicable for protecting the personal information and
data related to the customers. Travelling agencies collects personal information related to the
customers including personal address, contact information, bank details, date of birth and many
others (Hashem et al. 2015). This is similar to the dating websites and much vulnerable to cyber
attacks for the data and information collected by these enterprises. These data can be used in
many ways by the intruders, in manner to affect the privacy and security of the individuals,
feeding their information in such websites. Following are some of the serious security issues
related to the use of online services 24*7.
Relaxed Authentication: Most of the online websites used for booking travel and tours
have been not using precautions against the threats related to the security issues of the customers.
According to the website creditCards.com, there are only 17 hotels and 10 frequent fliers, which
are relied on the four-digit pin authentication along with the credentials authentications
(Dickinson et al. 2014). Users might use the same credentials to login into their account and this
can be a plus point for the hackers to crack the password.
Anonymity of reward points: Loyalty points are the scheme generally online websites are
using nowadays to attract the customers to avail their services and stays valuable for the
customers. Valuable points are being stolen by the fraudsters, redeemed these points for their
personal benefits, and are much difficult to trace them digitally (Jonas and Mansfeld 2017).

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There are many malicious sellers in the market, those are highjacking these valuable credit points
of the customers in a fraction of the total manner and easily get away from the law.
Cyberattacks are one of the major concerns related to such issues. For example recently,
ABTA, UK’s one of the largest travel trade agency faced a data breach in which almost 40,000
customers’ personal information including their travel plans were exposed (Williams and Balaz
2015). Such incident could happen to any of the organization because of less protection
awareness from the enterprise’s side. This data might affect the individuals in the virtual world
of internet and in the real world.
Benefits of Online Services
There are many advantages of using internet services for the travelling and tourism
purpose, some of the vital advantages can be listed as below:
Time and Money Saving: Online services provides lots of travelling, hotel, cars, and air
tickets booking at the same platform and that is what an individual needs at this moment.
Nowadays, every individual wants to save time and money, and getting every necessity fulfilled
at the same platform will save both in all the ways. There are not any consultancy fees for the
inquiry, that is what a B&M travel and tour agency will never provide to the customer (Abou-
Shouk, Lim and Megicks 2013).
Expert Insights and Safety Net: One of the major benefits of online services is that, there
are not any computer random replies for the customers rather; there are humans who talk behind
the chat or the phone. They provide the best advice that is generated by various mathematical
calculations and behaviour of the online customers through Big Data and Data Mining.

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Feedback and Ratings: this is one of the best features of an online service that every
website and every customer provides review about those websites (Patil et al. 2014). Customers
can see the perception of other customers on the product and services delivered by those online
websites.
Multi-Destination Holiday: Brick and Mortars can only arrange or facilitate the tourists
for local areas or national areas only but online services can enable the customers to visit multi-
countries from single platform (Sharply and Harrison 2017). With the internet, the possibilities
have become much wider for the consumers and various facilities like this could be availed.
Better Comparison: every online website presents the comparison between other sites and
this is a beneficial aspect of the online service provided by the individual providers.
Cheap Advertisement and Services: For an organization, operating online is much
cheaper than any offline office or store (Inversini and Masiero 2014). Even less employees are
needed for all the operational activities of that enterprise and as stated earlier consumers does not
have to pay extra for availing those services.
Services in the Hand: Several travel agencies have launched mobile applications those
provide the consumers, facility to avail the services with just one click.
Future Scope
Everyone is well aware with the internet and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and it is being
expected that over next fifty years these technologies will cover each sectors of the world. Even
today almost 50% of the whole market is being covered by the online business and in future, it is
being expected that Brick and Mortars will be transformed into trial warehouses for the

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consumers. Internet will be spread across the whole world and everyone will be availing all the
needed services through internet (Johan et al. 2016). This technology can replace these brick and
mortars and will cover the entire market, there will be no competition between the online, and
offline service providers rather only online service providers will be fighting each other for their
sustainability (Saraswati, Syed and Singh 2016). Information technology is continuously
evolving and artificial intelligence such as data mining, and big data are enhancing the
experience of online shopping. Online travel and tour agencies could enhance the performance of
the enterprise and customer experience. In future suggestion system is being estimated to be
implemented with the travel and tour agency websites that will be helpful for the customers in
choosing better option (Baka 2016). This will also enhance the organization to present choices in
front of the customers according to their choices. In addition to this, security system could be
enhanced with the implementation of much advanced AI within the system of the websites.
Mobile applications has been already introduced and this experience could be enhanced through
building much user interface system and a voice calling facility to the consultancy with the app
itself. Online travel agencies will change the face of tourism in the whole world.
Conclusion
Based on the above report it can be concluded that online travel agencies are more
beneficial than bricks and mortars travel agencies. Irrespective of the security issues stated in the
above report, there are many benefits of the online travel agencies and are more emphasizing.
These online services are capable of replacing ‘Bricks and Mortars’ and eliminate the availability
of customers for them. Internet has become source of all the activities and business for this
digital world and people are bending towards the e-commerce because of the flexibility and
number of choices. It can be concluded that Information technology and information system have

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enhanced the way of service availability and accessibility. These technologies played a crucial
role in providing better user-interface and enhanced the customer experiences through availing
innovative services. It helped in transforming the face to face negotiation between the user and
the service provider and providing these services any time through virtual interaction. There are
certain issues related to the security and privacy of the consumers’ data that cannot be neglected
in this sector. These are one of the concerning factors related to the safety of the organization and
using one time password encryption should be implemented by these online enterprises. Most of
the organizations are not giving importance for such issues however; they should encrypt the
files after collecting information and should be saved with the encryption.