Information Communication Technology - Revolutionising Tourism
Buhalis Dimitrios and Peter O’Connor

This paper identifies a number of key changes in Information Communication Technologies that gradually revolutionise the tourism industry. eTourism and the Internet in particular support the interactivity between tourism enterprises and consumers and as a result they reengineer the entire process of developing, managing and marketing tourism products and destinations. All stakeholders related to tourism and hospitality therefore gradually see their role being changed and new opportunities and challenges emerging. The paper demonstrates that future of eTourism will be focused on consumer centric technologies to ensure that the new sophisticated and experienced consumers are served. Therefore agile strategies are required at both strategic and tactical management levels to develop the "info-structure" for tourism organisations to manage their internal fuctions, their relationships with partners and their interactions with all stakeholders including consumers. Only organisations that appreciate the opportunities that ICTs bring and manage their resources successfully will be able to enhance their innovation and competitiveness in the future.

Keywords: Strategic Tourism Management and Marketing, ICTs, eTourism, Customer Centric, Value Chain, Networks