Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has expansively transformed the role of each player in the value-creation process on the tourism and hospitality market. Available Evidence describes that an effective application of information technology has turned out to be very critical for the attractiveness and prosperity of tourism enterprises, since it has persuaded the ability to differentiate their offerings. ICTs seem to offer new chances in terms of gaining competitive advantage, improving productivity, emerging new industries and enabling new ways of management to deal with the challenges of the 21st century (Gruescu et al., 2009). ICTs empower users to recognize, modify and purchase tourism products and support the globalization of businesses by providing tools for increasing, managing and allotting offerings global. Progressively, ICTs play a principal role for the competitiveness of tourism groups and destinations (Coopers and Fletchair, 2005)
ICT practice supports well-organized working of enterprises, since it speeds up management processes and promotes both efficiency and quality of economic procedures and actions performed by an enterprise. The introduction of modern information technologies permits for taking better benefit of the assets at the disposal of a hotel enterprise, however their fast improvement imposes the need for rearranging enterprises to adopt to current challenges of Covid -19. The main benefit of ICT is establishing more effective connections between diverse processes and supply chain links by offering easy access, in real time, to data processed in the particular chain components (Porter, 2001). The ICT-based competitive advantages may be accomplished by tourism and hospitality enterprises through distinctive internet marketing campaigns, continuing effective communication with several organizational stakeholders and in a number of other methods (Michalic, 2015).
The development of Internet technologies, with their universal accessibility and interactive nature, has altered consumer behaviors and attitudes to obsolete models of tourism and hospitality services. The way in which tourism and travel products are distributed has changed due to the Internet in particular, and other ICT applications (Werthner and Klein, 1999, Liu, 2012). This adoption of ecommerce with its application to the tourism industry has been termed ‘eTourism’ and has resulted in a shift from existing supply chain models The etourism theory comprises all business functions like e-commerce, e-marketing, e-finance and e-accounting, eHRM, e-procurement, e-production as well as e-strategy, e-planning and e-management for all sectors of the tourism industry, including tourism, travel, transport, leisure, hospitality, principals, intermediaries and public sector organizations. Therefore, e-tourism bundles together three unique disciplines: business management, information systems and management, and tourism (Mupfiga, 2015). In general, the expansion of the use of information and communication technologies in the tourism industry has generated a more competitive environment, and they have become a crucial component of trade development (Berne et al., 2015). Through sokoni- links marketing platforms, tourism industry players can benefit from internet marketing campaigns, they can Improve productivity, ensure continuous communication with customers and gain sustainable competitive advantage.
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References
1) Berné, C., García-González, M., García-Ucedac, M.E. & Múgica, J.M. (2015). The effect of ICT on relationship enhancement and performance in tourism channels. Tourism Management, 48 (June), 188–198.
2) Coopers, C., Fletchair, J. (2005). Tourism Principles and Practices. Pearson, UK.
3) Gruescu, R., Nanu, R., and Pirvu, G. (2009). Information and Communications Technology and Internet Adoption Tourism. Bulletin UASVM Horticulture, 66(2), 407-413.
4) Michalić, T., Praničević, D.G., Arnerić, J. (2015). The Changing Role of ICT Competitiveness: the case of the Slovenian hotel sector. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 28(1), 367-383.
5) Mupfiga, 2015). Adoption of ICT in the Tourism and Hospitality Sector in Zimbabwe. The International Journal of Engineering and Science (IJES), 4(12), 72-78.
6) Porter, M.E. (2001). Strategy and the Internet, Harvard Business Review, March.
7) Werthner, H. and Klein, S. (1999). Information Technology and Tourism - A Challenging Relationship. New York: Springer.
