Group Final Report

           ICT Strategic plan for the tourism and hospitality industry

Introduction

With popularity of ICT, strategic elements have become essential for the tourism and hospitality industry. Our group attempts to find the ICT strategic plan with four important elements for the whole industry, based on the analysis and discussion about application of ICT in different fields of tourism on the blog. Because of the characters of this industry, the strategic plan of ICT should be designed as the service-oriented.

1. Database and Knowledge Management

Grizelj pointed out that KM can be seen as a means of developing organizational effectiveness and competitiveness and is an approach for identifying, capturing, creating and applying knowledge with the aim of improving competitiveness through new innovative KM strategies (2003). As the introduction of KM into tourism and hospitality, it used for both internal management and external operation for a company. Especially, the establishment of database is supposed as a base of the use of ICT in tourism and hospitality based on the group discussion, because it is used for not only sharing resources and information with the company and industry, but also cooperating with the bank or other enterprises.

The use of database and knowledge management system improves the efficiency and saves the labor and time with solution the security problem in whole industry. Companies could use RFID for their storage management with solutions security problems, while they could identify their popular products by the data statistics from KM system.  Thus, KM management could help the company to make a strategies based on the data analysis for its target market.

In addition, KM system makes contribution on increasing service quality and customer satisfaction for tourism and hospitality, the service-oriented industry. Because this system could make a record and share the information through the intranet, it could help the company to set up a database for the customers in order to keep mind on the preference of every customer. It is an advantage to enhance the competitiveness by providing more considerate service.

2. Banking System

ICT allows the banks to effectively cater to the demands of customers by strengthening internal control system. There are a variety of payment options with the rise of Internet and phone baking has made banking even more convenient. Thus, a lot of hospitality enterprises use cashless payment systems such as the technological tandem with banks, (Cobanoglu, 2007).

According to the Kasavana (2005), online payment technologies have experienced an unprecedented growth despite the rising concerns about security issues. Despite it, cashless payment instruments are actively developing, in connection with which the hospitality industry in a hurry to implement payment technologies. Moreover a high percentage of travelers use credit cards and tourists prefer cashless instead of cash payment. In this case, it is talking not just about the ICT system, which is used for cashless payment, but also about technological tandem with the world's leading banks.

The system helps to keep track of regular and corporate clients, furthermore providing to them discounts and bonuses. This IT system is undoubtedly makes a significant contribution to the principles of personalized customer service. Technological tandem with leading banks allows to any hospitality enterprise create programs for increasing loyalty by applying: discounts, bonuses, promotions, special offers, etc. Moreover, the relationships with the banks can help to greatly increase company’s customer base, as all holders of credit and deposit cards are in banking databases, which enables for enterprises to expand clientele. Recently, with the increasing number of credit card users, especially among tourists, it leads to expansion of use the Internet payments. Talking about the use of ICT in the hospitality industry, it can be concluded that the use of the banking systems and technology tandem with the banks, will bring good results to the enterprises development and prosperity, and for sure it will affect to the whole industry.

3. E-Commerce

In the emerging global economy, E-Commerce has increasingly become a necessary component of business strategy and a strong catalyst for economic development. Electronic Commerce, commonly known as E-Commerce, is the process of trading goods, information, or services via electronic systems such as the Internet or other computer networks (Fraser et al, 2000; Turban et al, 2000). With the application and development of information and communication technology (ICT) in tourism industry, more and more hotels, airlines, travel agencies and other tourism-related enterprises participate in E-Commerce.

Based on the developments in the Internet and Web-based technologies, tourists can purchase any tourism goods or services they want at everywhere in anytime. The Internet technology permits commercial transactions cross cultural and national boundaries far more conveniently and effectively compared to traditional commerce. In addition, the Internet technologies increase greatly the accuracy and timeliness of information, and make various information available for all market participants. Except for delivering information online, these technologies can also store customers’ data automatically to build a database, which will support high levels of products and service customization.

E-Commerce has become a significant business strategy in contemporary tourism industry, and has been adopted in hotels, resorts, airlines and travel agencies etc.  There are various benefits and advantages of implementing E-Commerce to develop the tourism industry due to the ease and speed it can provide information such as destination choices, hotel reservation, costs, exchange rates and reviews from tour operators and previous visitors. In addition, E-Commerce also allows enterprises to reach global populations through some technology tools. Undoubtedly, E-Commerce will become a mainstream trend to the future development of tourism industry.

4. ICE System

ICE is an inflight entertainment system that can be used by guests to kill their time during the flight.  It includes three parts: information deliver, communication service and entertainment ways.

The "I" in ICE stands for "information" where guests can enjoy BBC text news headlines updated regularly throughout the flight, a real-time Airshow moving maps which provides weather reports, estimated arrival time and travel information about flight destination, as well as the live views of the world below from the aircraft-mounted cameras. "C" stands for communication which means guests on the flight can easily stay connected to family, friends and colleagues on the ground by using their mobile phones or OnAir Wi-Fi. In addition, guests can also get in touch with anyone by using in-seat satellite telephone and on screen SMS/email services. "E" means entertainment, which provides almost over 600 channels of premium entertainment such as the latest and best movies, television, popular music and exciting games. Because of its features, it must be used for the whole tourism and hospitality industry, such as restaurants, hotels, and museum. Especially, ICE also helps to book the taxi, tickets, rooms and so on. Thus, the use of ICE is a way to add the value for the company, because it could not only increase the entertaining and convenience for the customers, but also cooperate with the other companies.

The revolution in ICT has profound implications for tourism development. Propagation and accessibility of ICT are viewed to be integral to a world tourism development strategy. The benefit of  new technology ICE System is the increasing in the supply of information in all tourism industry.  Tourism companies and tourists are able to share information.  Networking and information sharing definitely lead to demands for greater openness. All sectors of tourism and economy interconnected via ICE System.       

Conclusion

In this Information Age, ICT has become an almost universal feature of the tourism industry, and has affected almost all functions and sectors in the whole industry. Through the application of some important elements of ICT plan, both tourism organizations and tourists can achieve benefits, and in the future, ICT will be crucial to developing tourism industry.

Reference List

Cobanoglu, C. (2007). A critical look at restaurant network security: Attacks, prevention tool, practices. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, Vlo.10(1), p31-50.

Cooper, C., (2006) “Knowledge management and tourism”, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 33(1), p47-64

Fraser, J., Fraser, N. and McDonald, F., (2000) “The Strategic Challenges of Electronic Commerce, Supply Chain Management”, An International Journal, Vol. 5 (1), p7-14.

Grizelj, F., (2003) “Collaborative knowledge management in virtual service companies—approach for tourism destinations”, Tourism, Vol. 51(4), p371-385

Kasavana, M. L., (2005). “The next big thing. The Bottomline”, The Journal of Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals, Vol. 20 (7), p12-13.

Turban, E., Lee, J., King, D. & Chung, H.M., (2000) Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Poon, A., (1993) Tourism Technology and Competitive Strategies, CABI: Wallingford