E-Tourism
Development in IT and IT in tourism
Development in the Information technology
In last few decades there has been unbelievable improvement in the field of information technology. Improvement in the information technology has changed people work, communicate, entertain. The major improvements seen in the information technology during past couple of decades are as follows:
- Storage Capacity: The amount of data that can be stored increased tremendously and the cost of storage devices decreased. Several types of storage devices were made. Storage capacity of both primary and secondary memory storage devices increased and data access time for those devices became very quick.
- Processing Speed: The processing speed of Central Processing Unit (CPU) also increased tremendously; days required to process data before couple of decades were processed in few seconds. Also processing units with parallel processing capacity developed.
- Network technology: The development of Internet technology has revolutionized whole world. Concept of email, file transfer protocols, instant messaging, data sharing, video chat, social networking, work from home, online marketing and many more were made possible with the development of Internet technology.
- Data Analysis and Algorithms: New algorithms were developed and old algorithms were improved. That resulted in efficient processing of data, and generation of reliable information. The powerful and efficient algorithms and computer network made concept of search engine, artificial intelligence, online banking, online gaming, data security etc. became possible.
Use of Information technology in Tourism
Information technology has brought unbelievable improvements in almost every sector of the human life and tourism is not an exception. Organizations like hotels, travel agencies, restaurants etc. which are part of tourism industry have benefited a lot with the advancement in the information technology. Tasks like room booking, ordering food and beverages, paying bills, searching information, planning trips are all possible with few clicks of mouse and few key presses. Information technology has speeded the time required to complete tasks and activities of the organization, improved the quality of services and information, eased the processing of data and information dissemination.
Uses of IT
- Data Collection: Data is the source of information. Data is processed to produce information; information is required for decision making processes, to have competitive advantages. Data about the guests is of utmost importance for the tourism organizations; data about the guests can be processed to find loyal customers, understand consumer behavior and help to design services and products as the need of the customers. Online forms, webpages have become the easiest to use tools for the data collection.
- Communication: Internet has made communication fast, cost-effective, reliable. Organizations and customers can communicate with each other anytime with both audio, video facility. Messaging applications, emails, SMS etc. are the reliable tools easily available for almost everybody for the purpose of communication. People can not only communicate but also share data, files, images, videos with each other with the communication tools.
- Entertainment: Information technology has made video OnDemand, online games, chatting, searching made possible. Youtube.com like video channel is entertaining users with online movies, songs, videos related to sports, events, tourism. There are several online video channels like YouTube for users to watch videos and entertain themselves even without paying money. Several websites, application software is in the existence for playing games alone, or in group for the users.
- Searching data and information : Search engines like google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com etc. are easing users to find data and information about almost every subject or topic easily. Users just have to type text about which they need information in the search box of the search engines; in return search engines provide several pages related with the text typed by the users.
- Data Analysis: Several powerful algorithms have been created and data processing speed has improved tremendously, these have made processing huge of volume of data efficient and reliable. Organizations collect data from several sources like, online forms, webpages, survey forms, point of sell (POS) devices; with the help of the powerful and efficient algorithms and powerful computers those data can be processed and produced information that can of value in improving business processes of the organizations in a very short duration of time.
- Marketing and Advertising: Webpages, email, social media network, online video channels are the cost effective, easy to use, reliable, easy to update tools for the purpose of advertising and marketing of services and products of the organizations. Hotels, restaurants, travel agencies can have their own websites to provide information about themselves and their services and products to numerous guests; they can update their ads anytime; make new ads immediately and publish in their home pages, social media sites, send via emails. Concept of digital marketing has helped several organizations to reach their distant customers quite easily.