HC1041 T2 2019: IT Impact on Tourism Business Report Analysis

This report investigates the critical role of Information Technology (IT) in the tourism industry, using a recent data breach at TripAdvisor as a case study. It explores the importance of IT for business survival, particularly in marketing and operational efficiency. The report details the steps required for IT implementation, encompassing planning, design, installation, execution, and training, along with the benefits such as predictive analysis and improved client retention. It also addresses the inherent risks associated with IT, including data breaches, sabotage, and botnets. Furthermore, the report outlines strategies for monitoring and maintaining IT infrastructure, focusing on server and network performance. The conclusion emphasizes the significant advantages of IT in tourism, despite security concerns, and recommends measures like firewall implementation and data management to mitigate risks. This report serves as a valuable resource for understanding IT's impact on the tourism sector, offering insights into both its potential and its challenges.

Running head: IT IN TOURISM
IT IN TOURISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1
IT IN TOURISM
Abstract
This report discusses about a currently happened news regarding data breach in TripAdvisor
organization. Proper discussion regarding importance of IT in the tourism section is also
made. Steps that are to be followed for implementation of IT is also stated in this report. Risks
associated with IT implementation is provided as well. Monitoring process is also described in
the report. Recommendation is also provided.

2
IT IN TOURISM
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Recent news about the Information security breach along with proper analyzing of the same
.........................................................................................................................................................3
Does tourism business need IT?................................................................................................3
Why is IT important for business survival?...............................................................................4
What is required to apply IT in tourism business?...................................................................4
How tourism business does uses IT?........................................................................................4
What are the benefits that are received by the organization due to usage of IT?..............4
Risks IT bring in this business....................................................................................................5
How can IT be monitored and maintained?..............................................................................5
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................5
Recommendation..........................................................................................................................5
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................7

3
IT IN TOURISM
Introduction
Information technology has been an integral part of business management these days.
Tourism department is one of the most benefitted section due to implementation of IT. This
report provides a brief news regarding an issue that have already taken place in the database
and networking platform of TripAdvisor. Proper discussion regarding importance of IT in the
field along with the implementation phase and risks associated with this implementation is
also stated.
Recent news about the Information security breach along with proper analyzing of the
same
The recent news that is chosen in this case is the data breach that has impacted 1.4
million users of TripAdvisor.
In the year 2014, TripAdvisor had purchased Viator for $200 million. This website is
expected to have exposed important customer data. The data includes the likes of customer
contact details, payment details and passwords that are used by the organization. It was
expected that over 880,000 was suffering due to encryption of credit and debit card details.
Billing addresses and e mails were the main focus of the data breach process. Another
560,000 clients were suffering due to breaching of data from credit cards along with their
encrypted passwords. Dr. Mike Lloyd, who is the CTO of RedSeal Networks also stated that it
is unfortunate of him to be unaware of the data breach that has occurred. It was the third
party who had warned Dr. Mike Lloyd regarding the breach. He has been blamed the complex
network for completion of the organization for not being able to track the breaching of data
that has been occurring. This high complexity has led to increase in inefficiency in the
monitoring process. Although the issues that are detected, the company TripAdvisor has been
highly efficient in dealing with the same. The steps that were taken by the organization
includes the likes of applying additional security protocols to the networking servers for
providing higher robustness to the clients of the organization. They have collaborated with a
top level security and forensic experts. This collaboration have helped them in proper
assessment of the entire situation in an aggressive manner. Intrusion detection has
implementation of firewall has been performed. Improvement of the security tools have been
a major concern. The main aspect that is to be considered is that the entire system is made
more robust. Again elimination of the unnecessary card details storage has also been
performed. This elimination of unnecessary data storage has been one of the major step that
has been taken by TripAdvisor.
Does tourism business need IT?
Information technology plays an important role in business operation in tourism
business. It is said that in case of tourism business, the main website acts as the prime
marketing source. As the feedback of the previous experiences are provided in the website
along with the photos of the past trips. The photos acts as the attraction in the website and is
the very first stage of marketing. Another sectors that are benefitted due to the
implementation of IT are computer system and mobile communication. Hence it can be stated
that the tourism does requires the usage of IT in the operational section of the business
sector. The efficiency that is received due to the implementation of IT in the business sector is
very high.

4
IT IN TOURISM
Why is IT important for business survival?
Importance of IT in the business survival is due to increasing efficiency in the below
stated sections: -
 Marketing
 Getting contacted to a huge audience base
 Decision making
What is required to apply IT in tourism business? (Cost, Planning, designing, installation
and training)
All the steps including the likes of Initiation, planning, designing, installation, execution,
training and monitoring will be required for efficient completion of applying IT in tourism
business.
In the initiation stage the scope of the project is identified. The reason for which IT is to
be implemented is figured out in this stage. As per figuring out of the requirement of IT in the
operational process, proper development of objective and scope of the project can be
performed. After the initiation stage, project planning is required. Planning stage is considered
as one of the most important stage. This is the stage where sorting of the entire project is
performed. Schedule is developed in this section (Bizirgianni and Dionysopoulou 2013).
Resource planning is also performed in this stage. Stakeholder allocation planning is also
performed in this section. Another major thing that is performed in this section is budgeting.
This performing of budgeting helps in understanding the funding that will be required for
execution of the project. After completion of the planning stage, designing of the framework
stage is performed. In this case the framework that will be used in the operational process is
designed and analyzed. This analysis of the design will be ensuring that the issues that might
be present in the section will be understood and the design can be altered as per the
requirement of the operation (Yalçınkaya, Atay and Korkmaz 2018).. After the designing
stage, proper installation of the designed framework is performed. After the installation
process the execution phase arrives. In this stage the objectives and scope that have been
decided will be tried to be performed. In case the employees are seen to be inefficient in the
functioning process, training phase starts. In the training phase the employees are trained in
order to work efficiently as per the protocols. After this stage, the monitoring of the employees
is performed. In case after monitoring the result that is received is satisfactory and the project
is completed within the scheduled deadline the project will be considered as a success.
How tourism business does uses IT?
Tourism business uses IT as a marketing tool primarily. TripAdvisor also considers
implementation of IT in their operational process for performing monitoring of their current set
of employees (Cabi. Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). Reaching out to the mass clients is also a
use of IT for which TripAdvisor finds its importance in the business section.
What are the benefits that are received by the organization due to usage of IT?
Predictive analysis is the main benefit that will be received by TripAdvisor. In this case
the main aspect that is concerned is that data is collected and analyzed and hence wise
tailored strategies can be framed (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2015). This tailored strategies
will be ensuring that retention of clients and gaining new clients can be achieved. Another
major advantage that is received is that feedback can be generated and hence wise proper
understanding of the scenario can be performed. This ensures that higher stability in the
business can be achieved.

5
IT IN TOURISM
Risks IT bring in this business (Security, Privacy and Confidentiality)
There are 4 major sections that get affected in terms of security. The sections are
namely: -
Data breach: The data that are stored in the database of the system often gets vulnerable.
This vulnerability leads to the fact that imposters can gain access to the data that are stored
in the data base (Li et al, 2017). This ensures that the unauthenticated interference of the
imposters will be seen. This acts as an issue. In this case the data of the users of TripAdvisor
will be facing privacy issues. This issue have already taken place in TripAdvisor and more
than 1.4 million users were affected.
Sabotage: In this case a hacker can gain access to the users account without even letting the
user know about the fact. The hacker will be having a complete control over the account that
the TripAdvisor client is having. This ensures that the imposter will be acting on behalf of him
and this will be affecting the clients in personal terms(Czernek 2017). As in the TripAdvisor
site the payment related details are stored for the providing higher convenience to the users,
it gets easy for the hacker to gain access to the banking details (Buckley et al, 2015).
Botnets: Introduction of Botnets will lead to DDoS. Distributed Denial of Services sends
targeted stream of network to the computing device (Ukpabi and Karjaluoto 2017). Multiple
requests are sent at a time. As there are multiple requests at a time, the main aspect that is
considered is that genuine user fails to gain access to their real data and hence wise they
cannot perform.
How can IT be monitored and maintained?
IT infrastructure is initially diversified in 2 sections. The sections are namely Server and
Network. The servers are monitored with the help of the analysis metrics. Server uptime,
Operation, performance and security is also included in the analysis metrics (Werthner et al.
2015).
In case of network, it includes tracking issues caused due to slow and failing network.
Response time is also calculated and monitored. Status request along with
HTTP/HTTPS/SMTP checks are performed (Benckendorff, Xiang and Sheldon 2019).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be stated that usage of IT in tourism industry is very
much helpful. TripAdvisor has been making complete usage of the technology. Despite the
fact that there might be security related issues, usage of proper security means stated in the
recommendation will be eliminating the security issues as well. Despite the issues the
benefits received is much more and hence wise usage of IT in tourism department can be
used.
Recommendation
 Usage of firewall in database.
 Eliminating storing of data that are not required
 Constant deleting of data and updating of data also acts important in the process. This
will help in reducing the amount of data that will get accessed in case of hacking.

6
IT IN TOURISM
Bibliography
Benckendorff, P.J., Xiang, Z. and Sheldon, P.J., 2019. Tourism information technology.
Bizirgianni, I. and Dionysopoulou, P., 2013. The influence of tourist trends of youth tourism
through social media (SM) & information and communication technologies (ICTs). Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences, 73, pp.652-660.
Buckley, R., Gretzel, U., Scott, D., Weaver, D. and Becken, S., 2015. Tourism
megatrends. Tourism Recreation Research, 40(1), pp.59-70.
Buhalis, D. and Amaranggana, A., 2015. Smart tourism destinations enhancing tourism
experience through personalisation of services. In Information and communication
technologies in tourism 2015 (pp. 377-389). Springer, Cham.
Cabi. Ukpabi, D.C. and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. Consumers’ acceptance of information and
communications technology in tourism: A review. Telematics and Informatics, 34(5), pp.618-
644.
Czernek, K., 2017. Tourism features as determinants of knowledge transfer in the process of
tourist cooperation. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(2), pp.204-220.
Li, Y., Hu, C., Huang, C. and Duan, L., 2017. The concept of smart tourism in the context of
tourism information services. Tourism Management, 58, pp.293-300.
Ukpabi, D.C. and Karjaluoto, H., 2017. Consumers’ acceptance of information and
communications technology in tourism: A review. Telematics and Informatics, 34(5), pp.618-
644.
Werthner, H., Alzua-Sorzabal, A., Cantoni, L., Dickinger, A., Gretzel, U., Jannach, D.,
Neidhardt, J., Pröll, B., Ricci, F., Scaglione, M. and Stangl, B., 2015. Future research issues
in IT and tourism. Information Technology & Tourism, 15(1), pp.1-15.
Yalçınkaya, P., Atay, L. and Korkmaz, H., 2018. An Evaluation on Smart Tourism. China-USA
Business Review, p.308.