Drivers of e-Tourism

Abstract

e-Tourism takes advantage of ICT innovations to improve internal efficiency, establish efficient communication and distribution links with various intermediaries, and engage in conversation and service cocreation with customers. Technology-empowered tourism experiences have been supporting travellers to cocreate value throughout all stages of travel, before -during-after travel. The first proprietary information systems supported tourism and hospitality organizations to centralize and manage their inventory as well as manage their internal processes. The rapid development of the Internet since 1995 revolutionized technological solutions and information provision. Organizations developed theirWeb 1.0 presence as a window to the world and their websites as e-commerce shops. TheWeb 2.0 and the social media revolutionized interactivity between users and also between users and organizations. Smart tourism, Web 3.0, or the semantic web bring a range of opportunities that optimize the entire network and support the tourism ecosystem. The development of smart mobile devices rapidly emerged as a new agile flexible network and challenged desktop computing. Finally, ambient intelligence (AmI) tourism takes advantage of smart systems and brings ambient intelligence across tourism ecosystems. The Internet of Everything supports the development of sensitive, flexible, and adaptive ecosystems. Ambient intelligence connects all stakeholders and supports the constant formation of networks to bring value to all stakeholders.