Impact of the Internet in Tourism Industry

Tourism as a phenomenon is continuously pushing its boundary forward. It's boundary is becoming more and more global. Evidence and studies show that the industry will continue to improve and expand for the next years. From merely 25 million international arrivals registered in 1950s, it had increased to 700 million international travelers by the 21st century and created a vast proportion of GDP in most countries in the globe (Buhalis and Costa, 2006). 

This growth can be attributed greatly towards the improvement of technology. In particularly, Information Technology (IT) helps to manage, monitor and control the increasing number of tourism services, products and its growing demands (Mills and Laws, 2005).

In specific, the Internet had helped to create a new landscape for tourism and travel industry. This is because consumers, travelers or tourists, now have a direct access towards information and access to the basic providers of tourism products and services. 

The Internet created opportunities for all businesses in the world, from small to multinational companies. In particular the Internet offered a new medium for marketing and consumer communication - taking advantage of its cost-effectiveness. In the travel and tourism industry, according to the report of Forrester Research (2002), in 2002 alone, the number of American travelers who purchased their travel packages online had increased to 23.3 million households. 

The study of Zhou and Lin (2000) which focus on the use of the Internet and printed brochure for advertisement, showed that majority of the respondents have Internet access in their homes, offices and libraries, which enables 43% of the respondents to avail travel and tourism services via online. 

As a result, the study of Mathies and Wiemair (2004) showed that the travel and tourism industry is one of the major users of Internet. 

References

Buhalis, D. and Costa, C. (2006). Tourism business frontiers: consumers, products and industry. Elsevier.

Matthies, C. and Weiemair, K. (2004). The tourism and leisure industry: shaping the future. Haworth Press.

Mills, J. and Law, R. (2005). Handbook of consumer behavior, tourism and the Internet. Haworth Press.

Zhou, Z. (2004). E-commerce and information technology in hospitality & tourism. Thomson Delmar Learning. 

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