The Role of Technology in Tourism: E-commerce, Social Media and more

This report examines the evolving relationship between technology and the tourism industry. It explores the increasing significance of e-commerce and social media platforms, detailing their impact on consumer behavior, marketing strategies, and overall business operations. The study highlights the use of mobile technology, virtual tours, and big data analytics in the tourism sector, emphasizing how these advancements influence customer decision-making and enhance the industry's competitiveness. The report also discusses the prospects and challenges of adapting to new technological innovations, including the importance of online reputation management, and the need for businesses to stay current with digital trends. It concludes with a look at potential future developments, such as space tourism and portable hotel capsules, indicating the continuous evolution and transformation of the tourism landscape through technology.

Adapting to new technology
including Ecommerce and Social
Media platforms

Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
Technology in tourism...................................................................................................3
Prospects for E-commerce and social media in tourism industry................................3
Conclusion....................................................................................................................3
References...................................................................................................................4

Introduction
The internet network constantly evolves into a platform for data and
knowledge production and exchange, allowing all users to benefit from improved
information. social media provides novel approaches to build customer service
management techniques and, consequently, can impact the corporate brand, impact,
and digital utterance. (Lin et al., 2013). Based on a content analysis of the
researched articles from both the customers' and suppliers' viewpoints, it was
revealed that consumer-centric studies typically focused on the usage and effect of
social media in the research phase of passengers' trip planning process.
Mobile devices facilitate tourist communication since they are portable and
handy. Travellers may use their phones and tablets to learn about and share
information about destinations they visit on holiday or at work. For example,
consumers in the tourism sector utilise social media to find information, compare
different locations, and share media from their trip experiences (Hu and Olivieri,
2020).
The primary aim of this paper is to determine whether utilising technology to
conduct out tourist marketing is a cost-effective and valuable strategy and evaluate
the direct effects it has on consumer decisions. Furthermore, because more people
are using the Internet for tourist purposes, this study looks at how the Internet affects
both supply and demand in the tourism sector.
Technology in tourism
The popularity of the Internet for travel and tourism information has had
various applications associated with online technologies such as social networks and
podcasting. The Internet has enabled many people who travel for tourism to obtain
information and interact with tourism service providers in various ways and without
incurring high costs.
Mobile technology is an excellent match for travel and tourism, undergoing a
significant cultural shift in consumer behaviour. Businesses worldwide are having to

adapt to the enormous expansion and effect of mobile technology, and the
technology will continue to evolve and adapt in the future. Considering portable
technology is rapidly advancing and spreading across different tourist segments, it is
critical to consider its role in supporting novel consumer experiences and
establishing a sustainable competitive advantage for tourism suppliers (Çınar, 2020).
According to Yoo and Gretzel (2011), Customer Computed Content is a “new
type of word-of-mouth” that satisfies informational needs by delivering non-
commercial, complete, immersive, and up-to-date content with access outside one's
immediate social circle.
One of the "megatrends"(Leung et al., 2013) that has had a considerable
influence on the tourist industry is social media in traveller decision-making and
tourism operations and management, which has been widely explored in tourism and
hospitality research. Product distribution has received little attention in studies on
supplier duties, focusing primarily on marketing, administration, and research. The
examination outcomes show that social media has a strategic role in enhancing
tourist competitiveness.
Thanks to technology developments and social media, tourists can now
actively participate in generating, consuming, and disseminating travel information
through the Internet. Consumer-generated media plays a significant role in travel
decision-making, with a large percentage of customers using it to plan trips (Litvin et
al., 2008).
Tourist behaviour has changed due to the technological improvements that
are now available to the public. They show initiative in content and relationships with
other visitors, implying that tourists are active administrators of their company plan,
not just as consumers but also as creators or developers of monetary-impacting
tourist activity. As individual digital literacy improves, it leads to incremental changes
in consumer behaviour from integrating techniques linked with pairs to get
information, for example, to becoming a true prosumer. Furthermore, the entrance of
new generations may result in previously unanticipated disruptions in the tourism
industry (Ramsay et al., 2017). As different generations are by default digital natives,
chatbots and creative solutions for immediate satisfaction will be required and
expected from businesses.
Travel companies are increasingly using web-based virtual tours in their
destination advertising efforts. However, it appears that the phrase "virtual tour"(Cho

et al., 2002) is still unclear, and business and academic perspectives on virtual tours'
potential effects have received little attention.
Enhanced or unique services or commodities that have reached the
commercialization stage and whose uniqueness should be evident to manufacturers,
consumers, suppliers, or competitors are referred to as product development. Here
are a few examples of new tourist products that have been developed in recent
years: Eco-friendly accommodation, incentive programmes, and activities based on
local cultures (Hjalager, 2002a).
Prospects for E-commerce and social media in
tourism industry
People have been devising new ways to make their lives more productive,
enjoyable, and developed since the dawn of time. The wonders of technology have
spared nothing. It has had a massive influence on the hotel industry as well. In
recent years, the term "innovation" (Hjalager, 2002b) has been extensively used to
assess the growth patterns of tourism businesses, destinations, and the industry.
The tourist business is not perceived as crucial for innovation as the providing and
regulating industries. It is claimed that the tourism industry is not as crucial for
innovation as the providing and regulating sectors. As a result, policies supporting
tourism innovation should focus on the business and the driving factors in other
economic sectors and the government.
Websites may be thought of as digital expression marketing tools in the
tourism sector. Using digital approaches like podcasting in tourism services can
sometimes make them seem more trustworthy in consumers' eyes or as feasible and
tangible as possible. Although Internet platforms facilitate engaging with customers,
regulating their reactions to the generated content might be volatile and complicated.
Consumers use social bookmarking sites to publish their experiences, leading to
other people reading the experiences travelling to the exact tourist locations or
visiting the same service providers (Noti, 2013).

Hospitality providers should determine if they have the necessary foundation
for both customer-based and non-public facing operations and new possibilities that
must be imagined. Effective networks today are made up of various techniques and
platforms, all of which have been carefully selected to guarantee that the solutions
they support to function efficiently and reliably.
Because the hotel business is highly competitive, keeping up with the latest
technological advances is critical. Consequently, neglecting to adapt might
eventually illustrate that travel firms that have adopted new strategies have left them
behind. The internet reputation of a company is crucial to its success. However, as a
marketing department issue, it is not isolated; it is inextricably linked to day-to-day
operations. As a result, social media monitoring must be integrated with hotel
management systems to take prompt and appropriate action.
Technology environments have evolved in the latest decade at an accelerated
pace, demonstrating high innovation. Sony has copyrighted a hypothetical gadget -
not an innovation- that would transfer data via ultrasonic pulses fired at neurons in
specific brain areas to generate sensory experiences. However, the actual
application of such external devices in tourism industry is still a long way off and may
prove impractical (Hogan and Fox, 2005).
A deeper analysis in research should address how technologies will integrate
into the public's view of technological advancements and how companies will adopt
them into their operations (Navío-Marco et al., 2018)
The exponential expansion of social media and user-generated material on
the Internet has prompted the creation of "big data analytics"(Xiang et al., 2015) to
understand better and address real-world issues. However, while a few studies have
used new data sources to address key research challenges in the hotel industry, big
data analytic approaches have yet to be applied systematically.
Conclusion
The most exemplary illustration of technical development in the tourist sector
is space tourism. It must have seemed impossible in earlier times, yet it is now
feasible. As a result of technological advancements, atmospheric hotels based on
solar-powered planes or large zeppelins are likely to become a reality. Nevertheless,

it is predicted that in the future, portable hotel capsules will be developed that can be
placed anyplace in the world where constructing a permanent resort would be
politically, economically, or environmentally inconvenient (Raga, 2020).
To summarise, the Internet has a significant impact on the tourism sector
since a growing number of people utilise it to learn about tourism destinations,
services, and commodities. Because it directly influences customers' decision-
making processes, social media is quickly growing as a marketing and
communication tool for tourism organisations.

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