It is also imperative for tourism and hospitality businesses to develop internal in‐house IT resources and expertise to facilitate the communication between business managers and IT technicians. Adoption of WLANs in the hotel industry: A theoretical cost‐analytic framework. IT not only can enhance learning experiences and reduce training costs by CAI, it is an important marketing channel for academic institutes and industry recruiting students and staff (Zakrzewski et al., 2005). It includes a wide range of content, usability, navigation, and interactivity issues. This article offers a comprehensive review of articles that were published in 57 tourism and hospitality research journals from 2005 to 2007. Tourism and Hospitality: Planning & Development, 55. An easy to remember and relevant domain name could capture the growing market of online consumers. The list of 57 journals in the article of Arendt, Ravichandran, and Brown (2007) appears to be the most up‐to‐date and comprehensive as illustrated in Table 1. Ho and Lee (2007) proposed a 5‐factor scale including information quality, security, website functionality, customer relationships, and responsiveness to measure e‐travel service quality. Industrial practitioners should also look at customer comments on blogs and discussion forums in order to learn from each other's experience (Peters & Buhalis, 2005). This is evident as about one fifth of the included articles are related to this subject. Rasinger, Fuchs, and Höpken (2007) analyzed tourists' usage intentions with mobile guides. Each publication was then further categorized based on its role in the major marketing activities in tourism, as stated by Kotler, Bowen, and Makens (1999). Privacy concerns and the purchasing of travel services online. Customer satisfaction and loyalty intention are strongly related to e‐travel service quality. As an alternative to analyzing numerical data, text mining is another good choice for analyzing tourist data. Cobanoglu and DeMicco (2007) confirmed that around 15% of hotels had reported virus attacks, of which 7.7% reported “Denial of Service” attacks. To remain competitive, practitioners should explore the potential opportunities emerging through IT, and be proactive in recognizing the capability of technology. Most the hospitality and tourism industries in Nigeria are very big, people might come to those places without having a good time; some might end up not being served. However, mature and senior travelers still prefer printed brochures as their major information source (Lin, 2005), and many travelers use the Internet in conjunction with offline information to plan a trip (Lee, Soutar, & Daly, 2007). Similarly, Kon and Turner (2005) compared the forecasting accuracy of neural networks and the basic structural method (BSM), and confirmed that the BSM maintained a higher accuracy in forecasting tourism demand. Research on information technology in the hospitality industry. Many people prefer to book online when they have previously traveled to a destination and they feel familiar with the place, although many still treasure their established relationships with travel agents (Cheyne, Downes, & Legg, 2006). Determinants of Chinese hotel customers' e‐satisfaction and purchase intentions. A study of the perceived importance of the overall website quality of different classes of hotels. Additionally, managers should maintain close contact with the IT industry so that they will be able to appreciate technological trends and developments. The website design and Internet site marketing practices of upscale and luxury hotels in Turkey. … Semantic web technology could be used to create a tourism information system that allows tourists to extract the necessary data through query management facilities (Bergamaschi, Beneventano, Guerra, & Vincini, 2005; Antoniou, Skylogiannis, Bikakis, & Bassiliades, 2005). In view of the paramount importance of IT applications in the tourism and hospitality industries and the absence of published articles that review the recent developments in this area, this article attempts to analyze the content of IT articles published in the major tourism and hospitality research journals in the period 2005 to 2007. Research methods: A guide to using the case study method to explore hospitality information technology phenomena. Current ICT applications in the Tourism & Hospitality industry We have come a long way in the past few years in terms of the use of technology in the tourism and hospitality industry. As such, IT has recently drawn the attention of tourism and hospitality researchers worldwide, who have disseminated their findings in research journals. More strategically, IT is gradually reshaping the fundamental structure of industry and society (Buhalis, 1998, 2003). After reviewing numerous travel blogs, Yeoman and McMahon‐Beattie (2006) identified 16 trends that will shape the future of an information society—including broadband and mobile Internet access, online marketing, and a cashless gaming culture. Tourism was one of the first sectors to embrace Information Technology … Risk management also involves the management of customer data. Interestingly, although tourists can locate travel information on the Internet, one study showed that only 3% of tourists surveyed ate at a restaurant that they had found on the Internet (Litvin, Blose, & Laird, 2005). Travel technology (also called tourism technology, and hospitality automation) is the application of Information Technology (IT) or Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. A wolf in sheep's clothing? This is particularly the case for small‐ and medium‐sized tourism enterprises that may not have the resources to undertake formal training (Peters & Buhalis, 2005). IT can be outsourced, but there are many factors that affect IT outsourcing considerations. Planning and implementing the websites of Australian SMTEs. With the heavy dependency on IT in the hospitality and tourism industries, system failure can have catastrophic consequences (Lu & Law, 2007). With the advent of Information and communication technology (ICT) tools management in tourism and hospitality sector has become easier (Akehurst, 2008). As such, Leung and Law (2005, 2007) examined IT‐related articles published in six leading hospitality and tourism journals over the past 20 years and identified that the largest number of articles were about general business applications. Designing an artificial neural network for forecasting tourism time series. Contemporary information search strategies of destination‐naïve international vacationers. Mobile computers will allow the personalization of services according to preferences, language skills, and depth of information required. An analysis of student engagement with virtual learning environments. People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. Multi‐lingual information searching applications can thus provide comprehensive search results for people who need to search using a keyword in one language and look for a search result in another language (Li & Law, 2007). Singh and Kasavana (2005) predicted that future IT applications will probably rely on wireless infrastructure, and that online purchasing with cashless payments will become more commonplace. Websites are not only a marketing channel, but also a business platform. Computer Science Applications Information Systems: Publisher: Emarald Group Publishing Ltd: Publication type: Journals: ISSN: 17579880, 17579899: Coverage: 2010-2020: Scope: The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology is the only journal dedicated solely for research in technology and e-business in tourism and hospitality. The ultimate focus of a business is performance and the maximization of profit. Part Ten: Technology Application in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Niche Tourism Chapter 20: Application of Tracking Tools in Tourism and Hospitality Management Chapter 21: Value of Technology Application at Cultural Heritage Sites: Insights from Italy More customers now purchase tourism products through websites, and perceive that a website's image and usability directly affects their purchase intentions (Chiang & Jang, 2006; Law & Cheung, 2006b; Law & Hsu, 2006). A semantic brokering system for the tourism domain. The accessibility of Queensland visitor information centres' websites. However, another study identified that only a very small number of Canada‐based websites of small hospitality businesses used secure servers to handle online bookings (Hudson & Gilbert, 2006). Problematic integration theory has also been adopted to better understand online marketing activities (Han & Mills, 2006a). Effect of information technology on performance in upscale hotels. With the introduction of the “.travel” top‐level domain in 2006, Wagner (2007) expected that there would be a tremendous increase in the number of registrations of travel sites with this suffix, which will help users to identify travel companies on the Internet. In addition, managers should set up appropriate security policies for online payment, and should rapidly respond to email inquiries. Hotels have brought about a different outlook to check-ins and check-outs. ... During peak tourism season or everyday operation, managing vacation rentals or hotel property is not an easy task. A novel English/Chinese information retrieval approach in hotel website searching. Information Technology Applications in Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Publications from 2005 to 2007 ABSTRACT The tourism and hospitality industries have widely adopted information technology [IT] to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. Evaluation of usability: A study of hotel web sites in Hong Kong. Due to the service‐oriented nature of the tourism and hospitality industries, many managers and employees have only limited IT knowledge (Law & Jogaratnam, 2005). Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 42. As such, understanding customer perceptions is crucial to the development of a successful website (Benckendorff, 2006; Davidson & Yu, 2005; Law & Ngai, 2005). A case study of a chain hotel's e‐procurement implementation showed that they suffered from a lack of purchasing standardization (Kothari, Hu, & Roehl, 2007). Website performance can be measured in various ways, such as evaluating a website's effectiveness by using the modified Balanced Scorecard Approach (Choi & Morrison, 2005; Myung, Morrison, & Taylor, 2005) or flow experience (Skadberg, Skadberg, & Kimmel, 2005). Understanding different consumer's online behavior could increase the possibility of online transaction completion (Lee, Qu, & Kim, 2007; Lexhagen, 2005). Not very willkommen: The Internet as a marketing tool for attracting German‐speaking tourists to Non‐European destinations. Good web design goes beyond technology, design, and layout. Exploring the determinants of e‐commerce usage in the hotel industry in Thailand: An empirical study. The impact of using non‐media information sources on the future use of mass media information sources: The mediating role of expectations fulfillment. Similarly, a case study in Thailand showed that all hotels had websites and e‐mail communications with customers, but that there was a large variation in their reliance on the Internet to communicate and transact with customers (Sahadev & Islam, 2005). The customer booking decision model proposed by Chen and Schwartz (2006) confirmed that knowledge of demand influences willingness to book. By making use of text‐mining techniques, Singh, Hu, and Roehl (2007) examined research on human resources management published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management between 1994 and 2003, and classified the resulting textural contents into nine research themes. Marketing hospitality and tourism education on the Internet: An analysis of e‐relationship marketing features. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM: A REVIEW OF PUBLICATIONS FROM 2005 TO 2007, eTourism: Critical Information and Communication Technologies for Tourism Destinations, The Impact of the Internet in Travel and Tourism: A Research Review 2001–2010. To achieve these goals, tourism and hospitality managers should maintain a good relationship with customers by using technology‐assisted tools, irrespective of the size of their company. Website effectiveness for bricks and mortar travel retailers. A literature review of information technology in the hospitality curriculum. Investigating the evolution of hotel Internet adoption. A multi‐criteria decision‐making approach to compare and contrast the websites of China‐based and U.S.‐based hotels. A perceptual mapping of online travel agencies and preference attributes. A framework for assessing strategies and technologies for dynamic packaging applications in e‐tourism. He discussed tourism in the three paradigms of tourism—namely as a language, a place of experience in space and time, and as an authentic experience. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Determinants of response to customer e‐mail enquiries to hotels: Evidence from Austria. Quality clusters: Dimensions of email responses by luxury hotels. From the center: Hotel room rates across booking channels. In the present highly web‐driven marketing environment, it is crucial to put data protection in first place. Wong, Chen, Chung, and Kao (2006) adopted data‐mining techniques to analyze the travel patterns of Northern Taiwan travelers and suggested that DMOs in Asian countries should promote their destinations in Taiwan. Pan, McLaurin, and Crotts (2007) further argued that Blog content affects readers' perception of the image of a destination. The Internet also changed the room allocation strategies of both hotels (Christodoulidou, Brewer, Feinstein, & Bai, 2007) and travel agents (Kozak, 2006) due to changes in distribution channels. Moreover, Chinese customers were found to be less likely to rely on hotel branding when making online reservations, focusing instead on electronic word‐of‐mouth information and online security if they were more experienced Internet users (Kim, Ma, & Kim, 2006). These five stages include need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post‐purchase behavior. Furthermore, the number of studies that are related to consumers is relatively small as compared to the other two categories. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. Conference proceedings, books, and professional journals use a different peer‐reviewing system from research journals, where multiple rounds of revisions are needed before an article is accepted for publication. Websites, blogs, online advertising, social media, online ordering and information repositories all help convince customers to choose a location or business. Furthermore, Pfaffenberg and Burnett (2007) indicated that the opinions and preference of consumers showed no differences or association in the type of websites they primarily use. The changes wrought by technology are far-reaching, and affect every aspect of our 21st century lifestyles. It was also found that larger tourism organizations provided better e‐mail response rates than smaller organizations, and that employees in smaller organizations answered e‐mails poorly (Zehrer & Pechlaner, 2006). Computerized yield management systems can help managers increase their revenue and yields to improve profitability and financial performance (Emeksiz, Gursoy, & Icoz, 2006). Internet hotel reservations: The “terms and conditions” trap. In examining how best to project a destination's image, researchers have analyzed both photographic and textual content from websites (Govers & Go, 2005; Singh & Formica, 2006). Managers can, and should, deal with future IT‐related issues by integrating IT into the company's strategic management and business mission. However, despite the enormous amount of effort spent by tourism and hospitality researchers on investigating IT, there are only a few reviews of the articles published on IT or the progress of IT in the tourism industry since its rapid growth in the early 1980s (Frew, 2000; Kirk & Pine, 1998; Kluge, 1996; Leung & Law, 2005, 2007; O'Connor & Murphy 2004, Buhalis & Law, 2008). Technology transfer and multinationals: The case of Balearic hotel chains' investments in two developing economies. Developing information technology proficiencies and fluency in hospitality students. Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry. Small family hotel businesses: The need for education and training. An exploratory evaluation of rural tourism websites. Baggio (2006) presented a complexity framework that models the relationship between IT and tourism. The effects of perceived price and brand image on value and purchase intention: Leisure travelers' attitudes toward online hotel booking. Another future research opportunity is to analyze the methodologies adopted in these prior studies in detail. A critical analysis of tourism information technology research. Plus, augmented reality (AR) or 360° video will be more ubiquitous and accessible. Global Hospitality and Tourism Management Technologies is an attractive book that presents the strategic information technology needed to achieve long-term success in the hospitality and the tourism industry. Adopting IT has helped hotels lower their operations‐related transaction costs (Chathoth, 2007), and the perceived performance of hotel managers has been shown to be positively associated with their interaction with IT and budgetary participation (Winata & Mia, 2005). Having analyzed e‐mail responses in 24 features, Murphy, Schegg, and Olaru (2007) recommended several areas that should be improved to enhance the quality of these responses. Internet‐based technologies can also facilitate information exchange between all types of employees (Zakrzewski, Sammons, & Feinstein, 2005). During the identification process, the authors read the abstract of each publication to initially determine whether it is IT‐related. Mobile technology can also be used for coordination during large festivals, and an enjoyable and useful mobile coordination service motivates staff usage (Lexhagen, Nysveen, & Hem, 2005).