Some Applications Of The Web As An Information Tool In The Tourism Industry

Tourism is extremely dependent on information and communication industries. This is true all the more in an environment where tourism is a global industry (with some part of the value chain in the country of origin of the tourist and the remaining in the countries that are destinations). According to Kierzkovski et al. (1996) travel is one of the products “natural fits” with interactive media, in which context the Internet may gain particular relevance. In fact, traveling is one of the most popular online activities (Kierzkovski et al., 1996; Jonkheer, 1999; Pröll and Retschitzegger, 2000), with online expenditures rounding 22% by 2007 (NEWSBYTES, 2002). This aspect modifies not only the tourism business models per se, but consumers’ behaviour as well. Using the Internet as a means to promote the tourism organizations reduces dramatically the costs of advertisement. Also the consumer becomes closer to information and asymmetries in accessing the information are reduced. Disintermediation is another phenomenon consequent from the use of the Internet as an information tool. This article gathers relevant applications from different studies regarding the use of the Internet as a powerful information tool both towards the organizations and the consumers.