Mr. Tuan Anh Le, Director of Tourism Information Technology Center, National Administration of Tourism, Viet Nam

Information supplied by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The distribution of tourism information and products over the Internet is the main area where technological innovation has had the most profound impact on tourism enterprises (producers and distributors).

eTourism information technology for strategic tourism management. D. Buhalis, 2003.

Tourism is an information intensive sector and therefore has significantly benefited from ICTs.

The majority of developing countries are mainly concerned with setting up informative e tourism websites to market their destinations.

Foundation for the Promotion and Protection of the Environment and Cultural Heritage

The main beneficiaries of a DMS are potential travelers, the providers of tourism products and services, national travel agents and outbound travel agents, national tourism institutions, IT providers and investors.

Tourism services comprise advice, information, sale of accommodation, transport, international tourism services and excursions entrance to parks and swimming pools individually or in groups.

Consideration of the full arc of the consumer travel lifecycle should also be a central part of any tourism e tourism strategy, comprising in country travel and post travel follow up.

In addition, recent trends in the use of ICTs in general and particularly for travel and tourism show that the more online experience consumers have, the more likely they are to look for tourism information and buy tourism products online.

The distribution of tourism information and products over the Internet is the main area where technological innovation has had the most profound impact on tourism enterprises (producers and distributors).

When the report had been prepared, in 2000, no information had been available regarding sexual tourism.

DMOs begin with the management of information on tourism products and services and their online promotion.

E tourism websites should be consumer centric.

Mr. Aley Sobers, Director of Research and Information Management, Caribbean Tourism Organisation

The promotion of tourism niches by developing countries for which many of them enjoy a competitive advantage and the development of DMSs that offer tourism enterprises and consumers respectively an innovative way to promote and obtain tourism information (e.g. search engine, trip planner, interactive maps and virtual tours) are contributing factors to the creation of value.

A key point to bear in mind is that e tourism websites serve a dual function to provide information for visitors to aid in planning their trip and to advertise and sell tourism products once the visitors are already at the destination.

The role of ICTs in developing tourism

DMSs are the IT infrastructure used by DMOs for the collection, storage, management and distribution of information and for the transaction of reservations and other commercial activities.

Mr. Haga Tsialonina Rasolofoniaina, Director of Information Systems, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Madagascar

Eco tourism, cultural and natural heritage tourism, health and medical tourism and adventure tourism are some of the tourism niches that are increasingly marketed by destinations and tourism enterprises in developing countries.

In addition, the Municipal Tourism Commission has continuously improved the electronic travel itinerary information system of the tour group to ensure that each group is included in the electronic itinerary platform supervision.

Collating, presenting and marketing tourism information is a challenging task for developing countries.

Info Center

Affirms the importance of studying the establishment of OIC Tourism Centre in promoting the development of tourism amongst Member States.

According to recent studies, consumers all around the world are turning to the Internet first to find travel information and 54 per cent of online travel consumers start travel research with an online travel agency.

In the United States, where tourism is mostly domestic and consumers are confident in booking online through national tourism providers, the share of consumers who booked their travel online in 2004 reached 50 per cent, versus 30 per cent in 2000.

In addition, the Information Economy Report 2005 dedicates a chapter to the opportunities offered by e tourism to developing countries.

The distribution of tourism products on the Internet complements traditional distribution channels (travel agents, national tourism offices, tourism producers, call centers, etc.) because a large number of DMOs do not yet have the capacity to develop an effective e tourism website and cannot rely only on uncertain online revenues.

Info Center

KDE Info Center

The KDE Info Center

Marble Infocenter

Tourism niches such as ecotourism one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry are increasingly promoted by DMOs in many developing countries, allowing them to diversify their tourism offer.

It focuses on trends in women's employment and uses the service sector as an example,1 providing information on women's roles in the health, education, tourism and information and communication technology sectors.

Sustainable consumption in tourism integrates sustainability issues in the selection of destinations and service providers and in the tourists' behaviour during their stay at the destination.

When editing game info you only need to choose a game, then you can go to a dialog where you edit the details of the game.

The main driver will be foreign direct investment in tourism, information technology and other sectors.

In a knowledge based society where tourism information can be easily shared among all stakeholders, the increasing population of Internet users represents a major incentive for developing countries to organize and develop their tourism offer and its promotion over the Internet.

The growing adoption of the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) standard based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) greatly facilitates the exchange of information between tourism enterprises such as airlines, hotels, car rental enterprises and travel integrators such as Cendant, Sabre, Expedia, Orbitz, and SITA.

Part A considers the role of ICTs for tourism development in developing countries and the strategic challenges for local tourism enterprises to successfully participate in international tourism markets.

In order to promote e tourism development, UNCTAD has developed a DMS as part of the E Tourism Initiative, a technical assistance package aimed at promoting the application of ICTs in tourism so as to enable developing countries to exploit their tourism resources.

Background paper by the UNCTAD secretariat

It is understood that a major highlight of the China EU Tourism Year is to recommend unknown European tourist attractions to Chinese tourists.