Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry

Information technologies (ITs) prevail in all functions of strategic and operational management. As information is the lifeblood of tourism, ITs provide both opportunities and challenges for the industry. Despite the uncertainty experienced in the development of ITs in tourism, the 'only constant will be change'. Increasingly, organizations and destinations, which need to compete will be forced to compute. Unless the current tourism industry improves its competitiveness, by utilizing the emerging ITs and innovative management methods, there is a danger for exogenous players to enter the marketplace, jeopardizing the position of the existing ones. Only creative and innovative suppliers will be able to survive the competition in the new millennium. This paper provides a framework for the utilization of technology in tourism by adopting a strategic perspective. A continuous business process re-engineering is proposed in order to ensure that a wide range of prerequisites such as vision, rational organization, commitment and training are in place, so they can enable destinations and principals to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunities emerging through ITs. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.