Role of It in Travel and Tourism Industry

IT in spark ROLE OF IT IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY GROUP BK Rajnikant Patel- 111 Dr. Sushant Patel- 112 Rachita Patnaik- 113 Yashasvi Patravali- 114 Navjot Singh- 115 Preview IT has touched e genuinely aspect of commerce and moody those industries into gold mines. Travel &038 touring carry exertion is to a fault one of those which IT has non spargond. And how it has brought about transformation and revolution volition be seen in the collectable course of the presentation. Let me first introduce you to the sound and tourism industry at large, and the focus is break awayicularly on the Indian live on and tourism industry as a subset of the global tourism grocery.India has been ranked twelfth in Asia and 68th in the world as per the Travel and tour of dutyism conflict Report 2011 by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Tourism inIndiais the largest service industry, with a contri exactlyion of 6. 23% to thenational GDP and 8. 78% of the total employment in India. The touris m industry in India gen successionted outside exchange of about US $ 136 billion in 2008 and that is expected to subjoin to US $ 275. 5 billion by 2018 at a 9. 4% annual growth rate. Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradeshand Rajasthan be the top 5 states to make inbound tourists.A new growth sector in Indian tourism is MedicalTourism. Medical tourism is essenti both(prenominal)y foreign tourist cum patients coming to India and seeking medical treatment. It is currently growing at around 30% per annum. It generated $ 9 Billion in 2010. The reason merchantman such a rapid growth in medical tourism is the fact that India offers hi tech medical treatments at a very cheap price. Giving you an example, if a bypass surgery here be around Rs. 2 lac, exactly the same procedure with the same instruments and materials will appeal you 30000 dollars in the U. S. , i. e. Rs. 15 lac.The tourism industry in India has to a fault helped growth in other(a) sectors as diverse as hortic ulture, handicrafts, culture and regular(a) construction. Coming to IT in tourism, when knowledge technology is utilize in set off and tourism industry, it breaking winds to the emergence of a whole new argumentation c anyed eTourism. eTourism reflects the digitisation of all processes and value bondage in the tourism, exit, hospitality &038 allow for industries. eTourism is the leading B2C application, i. e. blood to customer application and it comprises of almost 40% of all B2C eCommerce. Gone be the geezerhood when you would wait for the customers to come to you.In this era of fierce competition, you affirm to r for for each one one to the customers before someone else does. 60% of all tourists drug abuse lucre to get reading on destinations. So here we realize how essential information and communication technology is in todays pass away and tourism industry. e auralines Till a few historic period ago, the basic sources of information in the tourism sector w ere pamphlets, brochures, directories, guide books, and so on produced and published by different countries. The last few decades witnessed the application of ready reckoner and communication technologies in the field of tourism.Two distinct streams of information sources viz, (i) online and (ii) offline came into existence. amount of money results regarding ICT-related developments in the aviation industry E-Ticketing The elimination of traditional paper-based tickets is one of the cubicle nucleus elements of the low- court business model. Yet, e-ticketing is not limited to the so called no-frills bloodline passages. The bankers acceptance of e-ticketing is change magnitudely pursued in addition by network carriers. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) intends to achieve a 100% penetration of e-ticketing among its members by the end of 2007.Customer self-service Another measure for court drop-off and the acceleration of passenger flows at circulateports i s to introduce customer self-service sign in solutions. This may be make on the spot by self-service kiosks or in the form of web based blockage-ins, which may even appropriate users to check-in from home or their office. Bar-coded boarding passes offer a natural link with e-ticketing and self-service check-in. Most recently, it has become possible not just to print boarding passes at the passengers home, scarce also to d riseing house bar codes on the passengers cell phone, thus making paper documents obsolete.RFID for baggage handling might flip-flop classical baggage tags in the near future. It might simplify air lane luggage precaution considerably, improve customer service in damage of reductions in mishandled luggage, and provide new security mechanisms. calculating machine Reservations System (CRS) A computer reservations system (or central reservation system) (CRS) is a computerized system utilise to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions relate d to air move. Originally designed and operated by airlines, CRSes were later extended for the use of kick the bucket agencies. ask CRS operations that book and sell tickets for multiple airlines be cognise as global dispersion systems (GDS). Airlines have divested most of their direct holdings to dedicate GDS companies, who make their systems entreible to consumers through meshwork gate shipway. Modern GDSes typically allow users to book hotel populate and rental cars as well as airline tickets. They also provide access to railway reservations in some foodstuffs although these be not always integrated with the main system. Global dispersion Systems (GDS)Major CRS operations that book and sell tickets for multiple airlines are kn avow as global distribution systems (GDS). Modern GDSes typically allow users to book hotel rooms and rental cars as well as airline tickets. GDS send to a greater extent than one CRS to users who are travel agents. GDS require massive investm ent because they are large computer system that link several airlines and travel principals into put everywhered network of PCs, telecommunications and large mainframe system. Some leading GDS are Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo and WorldSpan are travel agents. eHospitalityHotels use ICTs in come in to improve their operations, manage their scrutinize and maximise their profitability. Their systems facilitate both in-house management and distribution through electronic media. Property management systems (PMSs) coordinate front office, sales, planning and operational functions by administrating reservations and managing the hotel inventory. Moreover, PMSs integrate the back and front of the house management and improve commonplace administration functions such as accounting and finance marketing look for and planning forecasting and yield management payroll and personnel and purchasing.Understandably, hotel chains gain to a greater extent reachs from PMSs, as they can introduce a un ify system for planning, budgeting and controlling and coordinating their properties centrally. Hotels also utilise ICTs and the network extensively for their distribution and marketing functions. Global presence is essential in separate to enable both individual customers and the travel trade to access precise information on availability and to provide easy, efficient, inexpensive and reliable ways of making and confirming reservations.Although Central Reservation Offices (CROs) introduced central reservations in the 1970s, it was not until the expansion of airline CRSs and the recent ICT developments that forced hotels to develop hotel CRSs in consecrate to expand their distribution, improve efficiency, facilitate control, empower yield management, reduce force back costs and enable rapid response time to both customers and management requests. Following the development of hotel CRSs by most chains, the issue of interconnectivity with other CRSs and the Internet emerged.As a r esult, switch companies, such as THISCO and WIZCOM, emerged to provide an interface between the various systems and enable a certain degree of transparency. This reduces both set-up and reservation costs, whilst facilitates reservations through several distribution channels. eTour Operators Leisure travellers often bargain for packages, consisting of charter flights and accommodation, arranged by tour operators. Tour operators tend to pre-book these products and distribute them through brochures displayed in travel agencies.Hence, until recently in northern European countries, where tour operators dominate the leisure market, airline and hotel CRSs were rarely utilised for leisure travel. In the early 1980s, tour operators realised the benefits of ICTs in organising, promoting, distributing and coordinating their packages. Thomsons Open-line Programme (TOP) was the first real-time computer-based central reservation office in 1976. It introduced direct communication with travel ag encies in 1982, and announced that reservations for Thomson Holidays would only be accepted through TOP in 1986. This move was the critical establish for altering the communication rocesses between tour operators and travel agencies. Gradually, all major tour operators authentic or acquired databases and established electronic links with travel agencies, aiming to reduce their information handling costs and increase the speed of information transfer and retrieval. This improved their productivity and capacity management whilst enhancing their service to agencies and consumers. Tour operators also utilised their CRSs for market intelligence, in order to adjust their supply to demand fluctuations, as well as to monitor the battle senesce and productivity of travel agencies.Tour operators have been reluctant to focus on ICTs through their strategic planning. Few realize the major transformation of the marketplace, while the majority regards ICTs exclusively as a facilitator of th eir current operations, and as a tool to reduce their costs. However, several tour operators in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK have go towards electronic brochures and developed their online strategies. Successful operators report that up to 25% of their packages are booked directly by consumers online. This enables them to concentrate on niche markets. eTravel AgenciesICTs are irreplaceable tools for travel agencies as they provide information and reservation facilities and software documentation the intermediation between consumers and principals. Travel agencies operate various reservation systems, which in the main enable them to check availability and make reservations for tourism products. Until recently GDSs have been critical for business travel agencies to access information and make reservations on scheduled airlines, hotel chains, car rentals and a variety of ancillary services. However, until recently travel agencies have been reluctant to take full advantage of the ICTs, mainly due(p) to a limited strategic scope deficient ICTs expertise and misgiving low profit margins which prevents investments and focus on human interaction with consumers. at that place are effectively 5 major groups- 1. Amadus IT group- vacation. com, opodo, travel tainmemt 2. Expedia group- expedia. com, hotels. com, anyway. com 3. Orbitz group- orbitz, cheaptickets, hotel club 4. Priceline group- priceline. com, booking. com, wide awake hotels 5. Sabre group- travelocity. com, world choice travel CASE STUDY 1 ICT-DEPLOYMENT AT THE LOW-COST CARRIER RYANAIR, IRELAND ABSTRACTThe forward-looking use of information technology for online booking, e-ticketing and inner communications coupled with relentless improvements in cost containment, operate efficiencies, route system expansion and scheduling enables Ryanair to achieve increase passenger traffic and report the best customer service public presentation in its peer group class. CASE STUDY FACT airplane Full name of the social club Ryanair Location (HQ/main branches) Dublin, Ireland, with operations in most of Europe Sector (main business activity) Low cost air travel Year of foundation 1985 Number of employees about 2,700Turnover in last financial socio-economic class 1. 3 billion Primary customers melody and Leisure Travelers Most significant geographic market Europe snap of case study e-Ticketing Key wordse-Ticketing, online booking, web check-in, low cost airline OBJECTIVES Ryanair has achieved annual increases in passenger traffic each year since 1995. Projections are for 35 cardinal passengers in 2006, increasing to an estimated 42 million in 2007. Ryanairs objective is to double passenger volumes and gross by 2012. It currently (July 2006) operates a fleet of 107 Boeing 737-800s and will buy 142 more of these aircraft over the next 6 days.This study outlines the currently evolving e-business capabilities in place to address these growth areas and achieve the sought for doubling targets. ONLINE BOOKING Online booking via the internet commenced in earnest after the launch of the www. Ryanair. com website in 2000. all over 98% of the 27. 5 million passenger seats in 2005 were interchange via the internet. This percentage figure is consistent year on year, and is expected to bear at this high level. The online booking system gives Ryanair the capability to introduce innovative practices to ensure that the individual customer has greater control over their make do costs.E-TICKETING CHECKNGO Officially launched in 2006, Ryanairs e-Ticketing returnNGo service enables passengers to check-in online within trey days prior to the proposed flight and up to 4 hours before take-off. Using a pre-printed e-boarding card from their home or office computers, passengers can avoid the airdrome check-in desk and go directly to the security gates with a level best of one piece of hand baggage. Encouraging passengers to travel with less checked-in luggage also means fas ter queues for those who check-in at the airport desk. indispensable COMMUNICATIONS As Ryanair expanded across Europe, in addition to their well known customer facing web pages, Ryanair has implemented a web-based internal communications system used by flight crews, maintenance staff and ground staff. For instance, a record is kept of the various components in each aircraft and a tickler schedule for their maintenance and/or replacement. The intranet system has also saved on tangible costs, including paper and printing costs. DYNAMIC package AND OTHER ANCILLARY REVENUE SOURCESRyanair drives more sales and increased revenue via the dynamic packaging of flights with discounted hotel rooms and bottom of the range car rentals. In addition after selecting their flights, all travellers are strongly encouraged via the online payment process to take out travel insurance. Another option provided via Ryanairs homepage at present is to click through to another suppliers web site such as ac tivitybreaks. com to buy their products. CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED The bankers acceptance of e-ticketing and internal e-business systems has enabled this low cost carrier to keep operational political campaign costs well in-check.For the financial year ended March 31, 2005 their part accounted for 16% of total revenues, compared to 15% for the previous year. Ryanair is consistently the European loss leader in LCC. In addition, due to the minimal in-house administration costs, Ryanairs low-cost-flights business marketing model includes frequent give-away flights as well 23% of its tickets were minded(p) away in 2005, and half of all flights are slated to be scanty within the next 4 years. CASE STUDY 2 E-TICKETING AT SN BRUSSELS AIRLINES, BELGIUM This case study highlights the benefits of e-ticketing.After IATA was commitment to abandon the distribution and processing of paper tickets by December 2007. SN capital of Belgium decided to focus on e-ticketing in order to cut operating costs and generate extra devisal to passengers. Apart from lower cost and increased operation efficiency, e- ticketing allowed the airline to streng then(prenominal) its market position by a more intensive use of alliances and reduced dependance on intermediaries. BACKGROUND SN capital of Belgium Airlines is a full-service Belgian airline company founded in 2002 by a group of Belgian investors who acquired some assets of the ankrupt Sabena airline. SN capital of Belgium Airlines is the only full service airline that operates from Brussels and is the market leader at Brussels Airport. It operates around 285 flights per day to various destinations in USA, Africa &038 Europe and 3. 5 million passengers carried per year. It has around 2000 employees in Belgium &038 abroad. OBJECTIVES SN Brussels Airlines has developed an interesting business concept of offering fully serviced flights, as offered traditionally by the established airlines, with the lowest possible fare to ge t by with the low cost carriers. The airline aims to attract both the demanding business travelers with ridiculous schedules but expecting value for money and economy travelers who are sensitive to prices This lead to high airline occupancy and the airline registered profit for 3 years despite unfavorable conditions. ICT INVESTMENTS Expands its ICT use due to customer expectations which gives travelers more convenience and control from the booking stage to the in-flight service. It invested in passenger technologies like e-ticketing, online check in services to reduce the cost. ICT developments like e-ticketing and own website/booking engine enable the airline to strengthen its brand awareness, get direct access to its customers and, consequently, reduce the dependency on Central Reservation Systems (CRS) and Global Distribution Systems (GDS). E-BUSINESS SERVICES SN Brussels internet site (www. flySN. com) is a major part of the companys e-ticketing infrastructure it is user-frien dly and allows for an easy search and compiling of travel offers. It also provides self check-in possibilities, hotel bookings, insurance and rent-a-car services online. E-tickets are also available through call centre on all routes in the network and through GDS used by travel agents. BENEFITS Online booking, proved to be an efficient channel for the distribution of e-tickets. In may 2002 only 38% tickets were sold online whereas in September 2006, 63% of own sales were conducted via its own booking engine. The e-ticket uses a database to track the sale and use of tickets. All subsequent ticket transactions, including refunds, exchanges, check-in, void and settlement, involve this holding database this reduces chances of pasquinade and eliminates the problem of lost ticket. It also reduced the cost of documentations. SN Brussels Airlines e-ticketing solution allows for seamless link up with external partners by forming alliances and exploitation the so-called interlining system that allows passengers to have one ticket for a effected travel itinerary with different travel segments from several airlines. Passengers have then only one set of tickets for a multi-operator trip and benefit from having their luggage checked right through to their destination LESSON LEARNED This case study illustrated the use of e-ticketing at SN Brussels Airlines.The e-ticketing system did not only enable the airline to reduce operation costs and increase efficiency, but also helped to achieve strategic advantages which have further strengthened its market position. In particular, the applied e-ticketing technology facilitates the creation of alliances with other airlines. This, in turn, allows for a more efficient utilization of transportation capacities and access to a large number of customers. Furthermore, e- ticketing combined with the development of direct online sales channels reduces the dependency on intermediaries and decreases the payments to CRS/GDS.FUTURE OF E-TO URISM The Internet and mobile communication devices are three most significant ePlatforms that will help change the future of tourism. The Internet will allow more people to access high select information quickly and with minimum inconvenience. It also gave the possibility to purchase travel products on-line. In addition, it generated great service expectations, as consumers anticipate to be served on a 24hours/365days basis and at their own convenience. Not only does the internet help the traveler but also the tourism suppliers like online travel agents, airlines etc. The trend towards the use of mobile communication devices is mostly resolved by the commodification of mobile phones in the past few years, coupled with an increasing emergency to be able to obtain information while on the move. For example, business travelers can receive information on arrivals and departures as well as check-in through their mobile phone for a number of airlines. On-line Internet provision is not sufficiently developed for those areas conventional telephone can also be used, a traveler may call a call center to confirm their bookings or ask queries.Importance of GDS and CRS in Travel &038 Tourism Industry Computer reservations systems (CRS) have become critical instruments in the marketing and distribution of travel and tourism products and services. New systems have recently been developed in occidental Europe, while the Asian and Pacific regions are in the process of establishing their own systems. A central reservation system represents a computerized system used for both storing and distribution of information. We could be talking about a hotel, a hotel chain, a resort or any other type of dwell facilities.The CRS can also be used for checking up different inside information about flights or seat availability. People may tend to confuse CRS with GDS (Global Distribution System) because of their similar functionality. However, there is one important difference between these two applications. Central reservation systems are web applications exclusive for each company or hotel. On the other hand, a global distribution system is used by various travel agents for booking reasons, as they cannot access CRS. CRS contains important information such as hotel accommodations, activity bookings, flight schedules or even holiday packages.There is almost no need for a travel agent as you could simply arrange your reservations over the Internet. Most hotels and travel agencies have their own websites for presenting their rates and offers. Websites can also be used together with various CRM software in order to strengthen the existent client relationships. Reservations are processed within a centralized location that is also responsible with availability management. Rates retrieval and reservations are made as efficiently as possible. Hotels will benefit from better yield management and will also reduce other costs as web bookings will not be done anymore throu gh third parties.