Travel & Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Travel & Tourism - Essay Example The travel, tourism and hospitality industry has been growing steadily at a rapid pace. Technology has accelerated growth in entirely different ways in the travel industry. With the Internet explosion, globalization and more people willing to travel, this industry has been evolving rapidly to cater to the customers. Information Communication Technologies and the Internet continue to revolutionize the industry. They are now being touted as major distribution agent for the entire sector. Companies are now utilizing this tool to expand their market and increase their market share by trying to better their relationship with the customer and manage it effectively. With the increasing competitiveness in the industry, mergers and acquisitions are leading the way consolidating the industry players. This paves the way for more aggressive and sustained efforts to upgrade and innovate, altering their entire business model as well if need be, to stay abreast of the competition. Successful organizations thus use technologies to add value to their existing products and to enhance profitability. Man has always travelled from bygone days and his curiosity of the unknown was the basis of the enormous travel industry today. Since means of communication plays a vital part in travel and tourism industry, modern communications systems, with special reference to computer technology, have changed the concept of travel and tourism marketing. The advents of travel agencies and streamlined retail marketing and sales networks have played their part in empowering this massive industry to move forward. Technological advances in household appliances and gadgets have offered great amounts of leisure. All these have influenced tourism by enabling people to travel more. Explosion of internet In 2003, corporate travel bookings made on the Internet compared to the conventional direct bookings by telephone, fax or through the traditional travel agent was at only 12 per cent. Nevertheless, research consultancy marketSHARE predicts that this number will skyrocket to 28 per cent by 2008. Recent industry research shows that over 64% of the population comprising over 38 million people in the UK became Internet users as of 2005. Over eighty per cent of the adult population in this country has now visited the World Wide Web. These figures put the internet usage in the UK and penetration percentages equivalent to key market like the US, where web users now represent over 80 per cent of the adult population, and ahead of Germany and France in Europe. Data Statistics can be viewed at the website Growth of online travel booking users A recent survey of more than 450 travellers in the United Kingdom by consulting firm Accenture, revealed that business travellers are becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet with some 53 per cent of the respondents booking their trips online, 90 per cent of them using the Internet to search flight times and availability, and two-thirds checking-in online. More spending online UK online shopping revenues increased by 50 percent last year and for the first time, more goods and services will be bought using credit card and debit cards than cash, according to a report published by the Association for Payment