Information technology application in tourism distribution channels in China

Abstract

Information Technologies change the world dramatically and are applied in tourism deeply and widely. The goal of this paper is to investigate the evolution and transformation of Information Technologies application in tourism distribution channels (TDCs) in China. The results shows that era of travel agencies, era of preliminary appliance, era of integrated appliance, and era of social network are the four stages. This study confirms that the more deeply and widely Information Technologies used in tourism, the more distribution channels will appear. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.