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"... most of the world’s cities are now within 36 hours of each other ...” Peter Haggett,
2001
Technological changes within tourism surround several different factors from medical
advances to the innovative space tourism. Similar to tourism, technology is an ever
changing and sometimes unstable business. Better communication, transport and
safety have encouraged new consumers to the industry. Improvements in water
supply, medicine and knowledge have meant areas are opened up which were not
possible before technological advances. In today’s society in which a consumer wants
easier, quicker and cheaper service only technology has helped tourism fulfil the
customers demand.
Another massive effect on tourism is the rapid increase in online booking that has
given consumers more opportunity to make a holiday.
Through technological advances, online booking has been one of the biggest factors
in affecting tourism, leisure and recreation in today’s world. There were 37,600,000
Internet users in the United Kingdom (representing 62.3% of the population) in March
2007, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 144.2% compared to 2000.
(Internet World Stats, March 2007) and a new Google Survey has shown that surfing
the web has topped watching television as Britain’s favourite past time. On average
residents in the UK spend 164 minutes online every day compared to 148 minutes
watching television (Daily Mail, Friday 10th March 2006). This shows how much the
internet is now an integral part of life and has had an effect on other aspects
influencing the tourism business.
More and more people are now booking their holiday on the internet, as many people
are looking for a better priced deal than they’re being offered by their travel agent.
Both holiday and airline bookings have not dramatically rose in s
ales from the travel slump of 2001-02 due to the massive consequences of September
11th and the threat of terrorism which has increased (it saw similar slumps although
smaller after the Madrid bombings and 7/7 terrorist attacks). The Iraq war, the
SARS/bird flu epidemics and very consistent hot European summers have persuaded
the usual long haul travellers to stay at home.
Of all the air passengers in the world, 40% fly on aeroplanes registered in the United
States. These flights are both domestic and international. In the year 2000 there
were 1.6 billion aircraft passengers. In these statistics, every time a person takes a
flight, they are counted as an aircraft passenger. Some people are passengers
many times in a year so far fewer than 1.6 billion individual people fly in a year.
This map was before September 11th 2001 and the influence of that meant less
people from the US and Western Europe were travelling by aircraft any longer.
This shows what effects this would have on the tourist industry.
"Tourists are very fickle beasts, even the perception that a destination is risky will
lead to a marked decrease in tourist traffic." Dr Howard Rosenzweig, 2003.
Technology has also aided the tourist industry especially airlines because of the better
transport, infrastructure and civil engineering that has meant that places inaccessible
before by car or train can be accessed swiftly. Significant features such as the Channel
tunnel, Gotthard Pass tunnel and Mont Blanc tunnel have all helped tourists get to
bordering countries a lot easier without using short haul flights.
At the start of the boom these were seen as survival tactics by the airlines and the
government also pushed for more progress in online booking to make the travel
industry more prosperous. The economic realities forced travel companies to be more
efficient in running their business. Websites, for example were able to promote the
latest ticket prices, particularly at a time Online Travel Spend
when they were being slashed on a day-to- ($bn)
day basis which was used to tempt Europe N.America U.K
travellers back into the air. Similarly travel 2000 2.4 6.4 0.8
sites e-mailed a wide customer base with 2001 5.8 11.00 1.8
relative ease to promote special deals. It is 2002 12.7 18.7 3.7
Source:
seen as the cheapest method of booking a Datamonitor
holiday, the LogicaCMG (a marketing
body) has said that phone bookings typically cost about £30 to service. By contrast
net bookings cost around 75p.
One of the biggest online travel sites Expedia, took an initial knock from 11
September, but then saw its transaction volumes recover by 80-85% during October.
“Like every travel company, we experienced a downturn, but we then recovered a lot
more quickly than the traditional industry” said James Vaile, managing director of
Expedia in the UK.
Online Leisue/Unmanaged B usiness
Online travel sites are also well positioned travel sales in the UK 2006-2011
(eMarketer)
to exploit the recent procrastination by
consumers in booking holidays. People are 35
30
booking later than usual in recent years and 25
$ Billion
Other Method
Newspaper
Options
TV Program
Personal Recommendation
Web Search
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
No. of People
Moreover, the internet has caused the high street travel agencies to close, therefore
creating job losses within the businesses. This is mainly due to the fact that more
people are booking direct with the holiday providers, thus cutting out the middle man
and saving money by doing the research and booking themselves. This is usually done
by using the internet or telephone booking where the overhead costs are much lower
as an outlet has to be staffed and incur running costs such as electricity bills and also
because of the larger volumes of people that are able to access the service.
On the other hand, online companies such as Expedia.com have seen their profits on
the rise over the past few years as would be expected, although they had not
anticipated such a large growth. For the last three months of 2001, Expedia saw its net
income surge to $19m according to BBC News, compared with a loss of $2.6m in the
same quarter of 2000 and also the firms revenues were in excess of $80 million for
2001, over double that for 2000, showing how quickly it has established itself as an
efficient internet booking service.
So in conclusion online booking for travel has dramatically changed tourism in the
world. It has provided a less time consuming, cost effective and an overall
efficient/productive method in organising tourism which has seen triggered a rapid
rise in sales. Airlines are now recovering after effects that were unforeseen. BAA
Limited, formerly the British Airport Association said seven UK Airports handled a
total of 11.5m passengers in August 2006 making it a record summer with the highest
number of passengers ever recorded over a two month period. BAA also revealed here
was a 6.8% increase in passenger traffic for the 12 months to August 31st 2006.
Bigger discounts and better security could tempt more people to book holidays online,
a LogicaCMG survey (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3939035.stm) found.
However, the future of online booking although seen as prosperous can also turn, but
due to the recovery in airline business they are starting to hit back. Prices are starting
to rise and now you must book early to get the best price. The same survey revealed
that online discounts were still not high enough to tempt potential customers onto
travel websites and that the process was still too complicated for some consumers. A
serious issue with online booking is the fear of fraud. Consumers are not convinced
that any personal and financial information they hand over would be kept secure by
online travel shops and this is slowing the potential growth that could occur
otherwise.
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) sees the online travel market
having a long way to go before it replaces high street travel agents. ABTA estimates
that by the end of 2007 online travel will be 17% of the UK’s £28bn travel market but
this growth will only occur if trends continue as it relies on steadily growing numbers
of people happy to book holidays online and as well as improvements in technology
and the creation of better websites by travel firms. Issues over security, faults and
complications need to be solved if this method of booking is to prosper. The travel
industry although brash will always be around due to the need and want of consumers
to travel.
"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The
great affair is to move." Robert Louis Stevenson, 1879
Bibliography References
o http://www.etcnewmedia.com/review/default.asp?SectionID=11&CountryID=53
o http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/posters/worldmapper_map19_ver5
.pdf
o www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=14083&subcategory_id=77
o www.patp3.webbler.co.uk/doc.php?id=1824
o http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3556503.stm
o http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3121865.stm
o http://www.expedia.co.uk/pub/agent.dll?qscr=over&rfrr=-
13011&&zz=1184276601343&
o http://www.emarketer.com/
o http://www.hitwise.com/
o Dove, Jane 2004 “Tourism and Recreation” pages 21-24– ATG
o http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=24206
o Nielsen/NetRatings study on holiday bookings
o http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1196691.stm
o http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1787962.stm