E-COMMUNICATION AND ITS APPLICATION FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY

Gabriel HOCIUNG

Abstract

The evolution of the Internet in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century has led to a significant increase of online transactions, allowing users to access and receive information anywhere, anytime. Tourism makes no exception and it can be considered the most connected industry to the online environment: booking systems, online marketing, e-tourism. Instant communication influenced the way tourism relates to the expressed needs of tourists at any time during tourist’s experience.

Keywords: e-communication, e-tourism, ICT, internet, social networking

ICT contribution to e-tourism development

The perception of tourism as a phenomenon highlights the relationship between society and tourism, the mutual involvement and influence they have on each other in equal measure, to the point where it can not be said if there are changing circumstances in a society that transforms tourism or if there are tourism flows changing social circumstances. Both circumstances should be considered as true: tourism transforms society and, in turn, the transformed society determines tourism.

The evolution of mankind led to instant communication (e-communication), even between people separated by thousands of miles, living in different cities, countries, continents or hemispheres. In the third millennium is hard to imagine progress without instant communication without immediate access to information, using the latest technologies. It is crucial to understand how communication and information technology (ICT) affects daily human activities and how decisions in line with technology are made, if we adapt the rapid development and the continuous knowledge to our needs.

Tourism industry, although affected by the global economic crisis, remains one of the activities with the fastest development, driven by growing tourist demand. Concurrent and collaborative development of tourism and ICT makes difficult to imagine tourism before ICT. The tourism industry has benefited massively and also provided benefits to information technology industry. For example, we can highlight CRS or GDS, which were the first global information and multi-organizational systems. The union between tourism and ICT is firmly recognized currently through the term "e-tourism" (electronic tourism). The Internet has changed the way consumers are planning or buying holidays and equally affected how travel companies promote their products and services.1

Tourism market is based on the information. For example, a potential Romanian tourist, who wants to spend hisr vacation in a hotel on one of the Aeolian Islands, needs an update with respect to connections (airport-boat-hotel), to the activities they may conduct at their destination or even, recommendations from other tourists. Internet makes possible direct interaction of different types of service providers and tourism products to potential

1 Hociung, I.-G. (2009) - E-communication and tourism vs. the 3rd millennium Tourist, 10-th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2009, September 28-29, ASE Bucureşti

customers, wherever they are located around the world and with a relatively low cost.Internet access has increased in recent years (including Romania), as can be seen in Fig. 1.

 

Fig. 1 - Statistics on world population and          Global Internet usage

(Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm )

 

Fig. 2 - Internet users worldwideon estimated geographical units at June 31, 2010

(Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)

Asia dominates the world's total number of users, although internet penetration of the population is only 21.5%, while North America has the highest penetration rate of the population (77.4%). The most spectacular growth since 2000 was in Africa 2357%, but only 10.9% of the population has access to internet services.

 Tab. 1 - Statistics on Population andnumber of Internet users in Romania

(Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/eu/2)

In Romania, the degree of increase in the number of Internet users reached 973% in 2010 compared to 2000, respectively 7,786,700 users, with a penetration of 35.5% of the population. Although penetration is much lower than the European average, the degree of increase in the number of users is three times higher in Romania than the European growth.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the key factors of competitiveness in tourism markets and the strategic management of tourism and affects, virtually, reducing operational and transactional costs. Implications of ICT revolution in the management and competitiveness of tourism are recognized in different sectors of the industry, and those industries directly connected to tourism. 3

As the number of internet users grows from year to year, so does the number of on-line buyers of tourism products, which involves developing appropriate communication strategies by those who promote their products and services online.

Using ICT to exchange information on products and services allows all stakeholders involved in the tourism industry to be familiar with what is offered. 4 Thus, an entrepreneur can ensure that his hotel is visible to all tour operators involved in creating packages. However, online shoppers can go directly to web pages containing information on accommodation, transportation, museums, restaurants, protected areas etc. E-tourism can be an opportunity for developing countries to gain more income as intermediaries are eliminated. Communities can promote themselves, offering unique insights, authentic and specialized local knowledge. Professionally designed websites allow local companies to offer package tours, booking hotels, flights and information exchange. Thus, the profits stay in the local community, contributing to job growth and economic development. 5

Online communication – more options in developing tourism products

Tourism is an industry based entirely on information and reliable services, and information providers (hotels, restaurants, rent-a-car companies, communities, travel agents, etc.) need to organize data and communicate in the most accessible way.

2 http://www.internetworldstats.com3 Bojnec, Š., Kribel, Z. (2006) - Information and Communication Technology in Tourism, 7th International Conference of The Faculty of Management Koper, University of Primoska, Portoroz, Slovenia, pp.445-4544 Buhalis D., Licata M. (2002), The future eTourism intermediaries, Tourism Management Vol. 23, p.207-220, (ISI)5

http://www.abeuk.com/pdf/qcf/syllabuses/L5_IT_in_Hospitality_and_Tourism_Operations_dec11.pdf

Fig. 3 – TripAdvisor homepage(Source: www.tripadvisor.com)

Not only we can make purchases online, but fair elections can be made due tourists from around the world who have created their own forums, blogg sites, where they can get in touch with each other to share information, but the more importantly, to describe their experiences.

Here are some websites that have a major impact on tourist behavior and contribute to choosing a destination, hotel, travel means etc.:

- Cheap Tickets: www.cheaptickets.com;- Expedia: www.expedia.com;- IGoUGo: www.igougo.com;- My Travel Guide: www.mytravelguide.com;- Travelocity: www.travelocity.com;- TravelPost: www.travelpost.com;- Trip Advisor: www.tripadvisor.com;- VirtualTourist: www.virtualtourist.com;- Yahoo! Travel: http://travel.yahoo.com. 6

In early 2010, Travelport, one of the largest travel conglomerates, a company that provides, among other things, support services to companies operating in the global travel industry, conducted a market research (The Well Connected Traveller), regarding the trend of consumers preferences of Travel & Tourism industry on a sample of over 12,000 people in 12 countries, involving at least 1,000 respondents in each country. One of the pursued issues was tourists preference on accessed web pages when they planned last vacation.

6 Berger, S. (2007) - Great age guide to online travel - 1st ed., Que Ed., Indianapolis, USA, p.11

 Fig. 4 - Websites preferences for online vacations planning

(Source: Travelport)

As it can be seen, search engines dominate the travel industry, being used by two thirds of tourists (66%) in order to document and look aut for the perfect holiday. Airlines and visited destinations websites rank second (40%), followed by those of hotels (36%). Attraction and the increased popularity of these sites is because they invest in search engine optimization and provide portals with links to many other websites. Tourists are looking for a mix of inspiration of what they want, with practical information on weather, customs and more. The research has shown, among other things, that in some regions, consumers still want to receive messages from basic phones to help them as they travel. On the other hand, mobile services are developed and allow users to communicate with others in the same location, in real time. Countries like China and India will bounce probably over classic internet connection that requires efficient broadband network and they will directly use mobile phones internet platforms. 7

The simple form of communication proposed by Karl Bühler, 1934, in his "Die Sprachtheorie" Sender - Message – Receiver - Feed-back - Sender 8, now knows much more complex meanings. Obviously, there are distortions, and their causes are either on attitude or design differences between the transmitter and receiver, either in the differences between the used language registers, which are based on the exploitation of language functions, either good or bad intentions. 9 This is where the communicator's own ethics is used to maintain a high level of credibility, communicating in an honest manner, managing the free flow of essential information in accordance with the public interest. 10 Each of those involved (Fig.5) is designed to be sender and receiver alike. Information is thus correlated

7http://www.travelport.com/~/media/Global/Documents/Customer%20Community/Travelport%20The%20Well%20Connected%20Traveller102010.ashx8Haineş, I. (1998) – „Introducere in teoria comunicării”, Editura Fundaţiei “România de mâine”, Bucureşti, p. 189Rogojanu, A. (2005) – Comunicare şi limbaj economic, Ed. ASE, Bucureşti, p.4510Rogojanu, A, Taşnadi, A., Piroşcă, G. (2005) - Deontologia comunicării - Aplicaţii şi studii de caz, Editura ASE, Bucureşti, p.34

and further determines creating tourism products and services best suited to each individually customer.

 Fig. 5 - Model of online communication in tourism

(Source: developed by author)

Presently, we can easily create holiday at a single "click" away, we can choose the destination, book the hotel directly on the website, purchase tickets by choosing your own journey, making all arrangements necessary for a perfect vacation in only few minutes in front of the computer. Moreover, the latest technologies allow us to do all the above, whether we are in traffic, at home or at work, by simply accessing the internet on mobile phones.

A high level of technological innovation and new technologies, mechanisms, applications and services is growing extremely fast. The number of mobile phone users worldwide has grown and now exceeds the number of home Internet users. The level of using mobile broadband connection using UMTS access networks, Wireless LAN reached a significant threshold for the new 3G and 4G mobile users. The impact of next generation mobile communication technologies in tourism industry is significant, the industry presenting extensive opportunities for their use as a broad area of opportunity for implementing "high-tech" Internet technologies. 11 Providing real time information to consumers of tourism services and their assistance in planning the journey heady necessary. Tourists want prompt information services, flexible and convenient regarding the offered attractions by a destination, services with a relevant, updated and available content when traveling. 12

11 Baack D.W., Singh, N. (2007) - Culture and web communications, Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, No. 60, pp.181–188 ( ISI)12 Hociung, G. (2009) - Mobile communication technologies - tools for promoting and purchasing services, THE 2009 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TOURISM and WORKSHOP, Messina, Italy

   

Fig. 6 - Examples of navigation for tourism mobile(Source: http://www.cityzeum.com/blog/)13

Internet makes it possible to distribute multimedia applications such as textual data, graphics, photos and audio recordings. Search engines such as Google or Yahoo, offer a remarkable capacity to find anything, in this case, destination and travel products information. 14 A new market, this time electronically has grown progressively and Profile providers have developed specific mobile web interfaces to communicate with potential customers and partners. 15 Developing new techniques in purchasing tourism products and services introduced a new form of travel: m-travel, which has the following characteristics:

- During the journey, tourists are found often in strange situations, experiencing orientation problems almost immediately. Mobile technologies can help them to focus (with integrated GPS modules);

- Mobile technologies equipped with multimedia and data processing capacity, facilitate information access / discovery to the tourists who require it;

- Mobile phone is used 24 hours / day by many people, therefore, it can provide access to relevant and timely information and instant communication;

- Tourists, as commercial approach, represents a very attractive target group;- Customization is often considered added value and, through mobile technologies,

services can be customized to individual applications.

Communication through social networks grows within tourism organizations, always trying to find new ways of attracting tourists. Online social networks have become extremely popular and is now a key moment for all tourism organizations to use them. One of the reasons why they reprezent an important benefit is the cost, which is almost nonexistent to promote through such networks, reaching instantly to many potential tourists, more than they can do through newspapers, radio or television.

TripAdvisor ® is the largest global travel site and allows tourists to plan the perfect holiday, offering trusted advices from some real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and ways of planning (search for air routes, TripAdvisor Mobile and TripAdvisor Trip Friends) with links unrelated to reservation tools. TripAdvisor ®, with 19 brands operating in 30 countries, has over 20 million members, with over 50 million unique visits

13 http://www.cityzeum.com/blog/14 Malek, M. R., Samany, N., Aliabady, S., Hajibabai, L., Kashyha, M. (2007) - Using smart map in a mobile information environment for tourism, XXI International CIPA Symposium, Athens, Greece15 Weathers, D., Sharma, S., Wood, S. (2007) - Effects of online communication practices on consumer perceptions of performance uncertainty for search and experience goods, Journal of Retailing, Elsevier (ISI)

per month. 16 Most members post more than 50 million monthly views, reviews, experiences they have lived in various tourist destinations / hotels / restaurants / transportation, this type of activity being used by those organizations that monitor what they are doing well and also what they are doing wrong, in order to improve the quality of offered products and services to satisfy their customers.

Twitter can be a tool for tourism operators through the exchange of quick, short messages with the members of this social network, so the last ones can get almost instantly the answers to their questions. In 2011, Twitter had more than 200 million users, with over 1.6 billion search queries. 17

 Fig. 7 - Map social networks worldwide in 2011

(Source: Internet)

Facebook statistics are impressive:- More than 800 million active users;- More than 2 billion messages a day are discussed;- More than 250 million photos are uploaded daily;- More than 70 languages, 75% of users are outside the U.S.;- Over 500 million people per month use Facebook applications using the Facebook

platform to other websites;- More than 7 million apps and websites are integrated to Facebook;- Approximately 350 million users access Facebook from mobile phones and tablets

etc.

The potential for tourism organizations is huge, and by creating an account on Facebook, tour operators will be able to upload video, photos, messages about various events and will interact less and simple, with potential customers.

Extrapolating, we can say that social networks are a Seventh Continent, one of the virtual world.

The tourism industry is growing rapidly, but technological progress is achieved even in a more accelerated pace and thus must satisfy the 21st century tourist needs, focused on technological innovation, which is in a constant search of new ways to access tourism products that spend less money and time, eager for an increased satisfaction. This new type

16 http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/about_us.html17 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

of tourist has literally the world in his hands, being able to improve the tourist experience using communication and information technologies.

Conclusion

E-tourism offers tour operators from the places of destination a range of services that facilitates communication and relationships with other stakeholders and reduce the processing time of applications in different phases of travel services life, when tourists can experience various problems or challenges or when dealing with new situations or environments (e.g.: orientation issues, language barriers, need for information and so on). Tourists are increasingly sophisticated, they need to connect, communicate, participate actively and to shape their tourism product. Effective communication is needed between all the involved stakeholders, local authorities and government, in order to create skills on e-tourism, e-communication and m-tourism, which can not be achieved without access to the latest technologies.

Refereces:

- Baack D.W., Singh, N. (2007) - Culture and web communications, Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, No. 60

- Berger, S. (2007) - Great age guide to online travel - 1st ed., Que Ed., Indianapolis, USA

- Bojnec, Š., Kribel, Z. (2006) - Information and Communication Technology in Tourism, 7th International Conference of The Faculty of Management Koper, University of Primoska, Portoroz, Slovenia

- Buhalis D., Licata M. (2002), The future eTourism intermediaries, Tourism Management Vol. 23

- Haineş, I. (1998) – „Introducere in teoria comunicării”, Editura Fundaţiei “România de mâine”, Bucureşti

- Hociung, I.-G. (2009) - E-communication and tourism vs. the 3rd millennium Tourist, 10-th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2009, September 28-29, ASE Bucureşti

- Hociung, G. (2009) - Mobile communication technologies - tools for promoting and purchasing services, THE 2009 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TOURISM and WORKSHOP, Messina, Italy

- Malek, M. R., Samany, N., Aliabady, S., Hajibabai, L., Kashyha, M. (2007) - Using smart map in a mobile information environment for tourism, XXI International CIPA Symposium, Athens, Greece

- Rogojanu, A. (2005) – Comunicare şi limbaj economic, Ed. ASE, Bucureşti- Rogojanu, A, Taşnadi, A., Piroşcă, G. (2005) - Deontologia comunicării - Aplicaţii şi

studii de caz, Editura ASE, Bucureşti- Weathers, D., Sharma, S., Wood, S. (2007) - Effects of online communication

practices on consumer perceptions of performance uncertainty for search and experience goods, Journal of Retailing, Elsevier

- http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/about_us.html- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter- http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/- http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics- http://www.internetworldstats.com - http://www.cityzeum.com/blog/

- http://www.travelport.com/~/media/Global/Documents/Customer%20Community/Travelport%20The%20Well%20Connected%20Traveller102010.ashx

- http://www.travelport.com/~/media/Global/Documents/Customer%20Community/Travelport%20The%20Well%20Connected%20Traveller102010.ashx

- http://www.abeuk.com/pdf/qcf/syllabuses/L5_IT_in_Hospitality_and_Tourism_Operations_dec11.pdf