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

Managing and promoting destinations

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.

DMOs should advertise the existence of their e tourism website.

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

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

In order to set up a DMS, Governments and DMOs should organize consultative meetings with relevant partners.

The use of ICT tools such as DMSs should assist them in their efforts to market their tourism offer globally and to ensure the strategic management of their destinations to ultimately improve their competitiveness on tourism markets.

They facilitate the linkages between local tourism providers and help them manage their tourism resources and contribute to their valorization.

Functionalities and services of DMSs

Mr. Roger Carter, Managing Director, Tourism Enterprise and Management (TEAM), London, United Kingdom

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

In order to ensure the long term sustainability of a DMS, DMOs should develop accurate business models according to local conditions.

However, the experience of several DMSs in both developing and developed countries shows that a free subscription for tourism enterprises guarantees their larger participation in the DMS.

ICTs help DMOs and tourism providers organize their resources (databases, data processing), network with business partners, and distribute and market products on the web.

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.

In terms of reservation services, the majority of DMOs in developing countries support the promotion of tourism in their country mainly by advertising the contact details of tourism providers.

Contributing factors for the successful integration of local tourism enterprises into international tourism markets are adequate e tourism strategies that focus on tourism innovation in terms of tourism products and adoption of e business tools such as destination management systems.

Business models should provide technological, financial and marketing solutions for the providers and users of the DMS, namely tourism providers (accommodation, transport and leisure companies), travel agents, tour operators, and consumers.

Interesting examples at the regional and national levels are the DMSs developed by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The practical management of high risk (adventure) tourism and its potential impact on national programmes and tour operators in terms of search and rescue operations for unsupported adventure tourists is a growing concern.

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.

The management framework is applied to decide if, where and how tourism may be developed at any site, and therefore standards for tourism and impact management measures are developed through the process of applying the management framework.

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.

By integrating these SMEs into their DMS, DMOs bring them into the new e business environment of the tourism industry and offer them the technological tools to conduct their operations online.

Government policies can encourage tourism distribution channels to give preference to sustainable tourism products by providing training to destination management organizations and tourism boards, developing industry driven standards and supply chain management approaches, educating the public on certification schemes and promoting travel fairs that focus on sustainable products.

However, no consensus has yet been reached on critical issues, such as land based and high risk (adventure) tourism, leaving tourism to be regulated to a large extent by the industry itself.

13 World Travel and Tourism Council, 2004.

It focuses on the practical modalities of new business models that destination management organizations and tourism enterprises should adopt to improve their competitiveness in tourism markets.

A review of the status of e tourism initiatives undertaken by national DMOs in LDCs, based on an informal survey of national tourism websites, highlighted the main challenges encountered in the development of an effective DMS. Resilient barriers still hamper DMOs' efforts to fully exploit the potential of the Internet and compete on an equal footing.

They should create awareness of the potential of e tourism and provide incentives for the development of tourism enterprises' websites (for hotels, for instance) that could be referenced on the DMO e tourism website.

Some DMOs have developed booking engines in partnership with ICT providers and have defined transaction fees applicable to the different participants in the DMS.

Rationalization of travel management

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.

With regard to B2B, DMSs provide tourism enterprises with the means to be better integrated into tourism supply chains by promoting personalized and enriched tourism experiences directly to a large number of consumers.

Public authorities, DMOs and tourism enterprises should fully understand the opportunities and challenges of e tourism and overcome the barriers that still hamper the use of ICTs.

DMOs and tourism enterprises in developing countries urgently need to adopt ICTs and adapt business processes and management structures to globalization in order to become competitive in this new marketplace.

According to the administering Power, in 2004 the Government continued to take measures to stimulate the tourism sector.

The systems should facilitate interoperability between local tourism enterprises and foreign brokers and tourism portals, including traditional tour operators, online agencies, Internet travel specific search engines or online intermediaries specialized in tourism niches.

Mrs. Leena Nandan, Director, Ministry of Tourism, New Delhi

Destination management and promotion are key strategies to respond to consumers' expectations, ensure sustainable development and improve the relative position of destinations in developing countries on the global tourism market.

One of the major challenges is to foster the support and commitment of local tourism providers, and it is therefore crucial to create awareness among tourism producers of the benefits of a DMS at an early stage.

(c) Integrated Coastal Area Management for Tourism, Barbados, 27 30 April 1998.

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.

To implement the Phuket Action Plan, the World Tourism Organization, in collaboration with the international tourism community, has initiated a series of specific activities and actions including familiarization trips for the media and tour operators, communication campaigns, waiving of participation fees at international tourism fairs, assistance in channelling funds to small and medium sized tourism enterprises, workshops on risk management and repositioning of tourism products.