Information Technology Applications in Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Publications from 2005 to 2007

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. This article offers a comprehensive review of articles that were published in 57 tourism and hospitality research journals from 2005 to 2007. Grouping the findings into the categories of consumers, technologies, and suppliers, the article sheds light on the evolution of IT applications in the tourism and hospitality industries. The article demonstrates that IT is increasingly becoming critical for the competitive operations of the tourism and hospitality organizations as well as for managing the distribution and marketing of organizations on a global scale

An Evaluation of the Performance of Hotel Web Sites Using the Managers\u27 View About Online Information Services

This paper describes a quantitative method of measurement and evaluation of the information provided by hotel websites. It aims to measure the richness of specific and comprehensive information dimensions, which as a whole constitute the information services offered through the web. Data from an extended web search along with responses of hotel managers regarding the importance of the offered information services are used. A conceptual model that describes the hotel web sites information features is used in order to summarize the data and to present the overall information volume offered. The applied model combines seven data dimensions: facilities information, customer contact information, reservation and prices information, surrounding area information, management of the web site, company information and communication. Hotel managers’ perceptions are used to weight the relative importance of both the information services and the seven dimensions. We apply the model to Greek hotel web sites. Greek hotels make small use of their websites potential. They are rated low level with respect to crucial dimensions such as reservation and prices information, medium regarding facilities and customer contact information. The overall volume of offered information only reaches the one third of its top rating score

eEnabled internet distribution for small and medium sized hotels: the case of hospitality SMEs in Athens

Advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) have strategic implications for a wide range of industries. Tourism and hospitality have dramatically changed by the ICTs and the Internet and gradually emerge as the leading industry on online expenditure. The Internet revolutionised traditional distribution models, enabled new entries propelled both disintermediation and reintermediation and altered the sources of competitive advantage. This paper explores the strategic implications of ICTs and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of Internet distribution for small and medium-sized hospitality enterprises (SMEs). Primary research in Athens hotels demonstrates the effects of the Internet and ICTs for secondary markets, where there is lower penetration and ICT adoption. Interviews and questionnaires identified a number of strategies in order to optimise distribution. The analysis illustrates the strategic role of ICTs and the Internet for hospitality organisations and Small and Medium-sized organisations in general. Most hotels employ a distribution mix that determines the level and employment of the Internet. The paper demonstrates that only organisations that use ICTs strategically will be able to develop their electronic distribution and achieve competitive advantages in the future

The evaluation of thermal hotels' online reviews

Th e main objective of this study was to evaluate the perceptions related to the online user reviews of thermal hotels. Specifi cally, it was investigated whether perceptions towards value (V), location (L), sleep quality (SQ), rooms (R), cleanliness (C), service (S) and factors infl uencing general evaluation depend on the star numbers of hotels, the location of the hotels and the nationalities of participants. In order to obtain data on perceptions of consumers towards thermal hotels in Turkey, the web site Trip Advisor (TA) was used. In total, 2,895 user reviews about thermal accommodations on TA were assessed by content analysis method. According to the study results, it was determined that the most important factor was the cleanliness of the hotels. It was followed by the location, sleep quality, rooms and service. Th e value factor was the last important. To analyse the eff ect of the nationality of the participants, domestic and foreign visitors, stars and the location of the accommodation on the perceptions towards value, location, sleep quality, rooms, cleanliness and service, t test and one-way ANOVA method were performed. It was found that the perceptions towards value, location, sleep quality, rooms, cleanliness and service diff ered between domestic and foreign visitors, nationalities, location and 4 or 5-star

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Transformational government and assistive web base technologies

Transformational government has been on the European agenda for several years. However, progress towards realising the full potential of ICT to transform public services for older adults with age related cognitive impairments has been very limited. Highlighting such limitations this paper demonstrates how assistive web base technologies can be developed to improve the public services for older adults with age related cognitive impairments. However the paper argues that these transformations can be obstructed if there is no strong leadership and political commitment from people at many levels in public sectors and governments

A usability study of online library systems: A case of Sultanah Bahiyah Library, Universiti Utara Malaysia

The purpose of this study was to investigate usability of online library systems in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). This study evaluated the usability of Sultanah Bahiyah Library’s web based systems by investigating the aspects of simplicity, comfort, user friendliness, control, readability, information adequacy/task match, navigability, recognition, access time, relevancy, consistency and visual presentation. This study examined user’s views about the usability of digital libraries whereas current and perceived importance. A sample of 45 students of Master of Business Administration (MBA) has been chosen. The Sultanah Bahiyah Library’s web based systems is very important especially for students and academic staffs of Universiti Utara Malaysia. The usability of the Library’s web based systems makes students easy to connect and for that the website should be helpful and attractive within good contents. The result found that the parallel nature of the users’ current views about the usability of digital libraries and users’ perceived importance of digital library usability allows direct comparison of all usability properties. The overall results yielded significant difference for the variables of user’s current views and perceived importance

The Impact of Hotel Website Quality on Customer Reservation

This study focuses on the discussion of the relationship between the website design and customer reservations in Las Vegas, specifically, how important the website quality is to hotels and how the features affect the Internet bookings. Since the online market is growing and becoming more and more competitive, hotels are investigating an effective way to keep customers making reservation directly through the hotel’s own website, such as providing lowest guarantee rates, promoting loyalty points and cooperating with online travel agents. Consumers expect websites that are informative, attractive and engaging. Usability, security, personalization, usefulness, responsiveness and information content are the dimensions of web quality as classified. In addition, customer’s perception of website quality influences the customer’s satisfaction and the purchase intentions for online reservations. Therefore, hoteliers should learn to improve the website quality in order to drive business developments, improve clients’ online booking experiences and deliver results