Table of Contents
Introduction
Tourism is the activity where people choose a destination to travel for different purpose. It can be for leisure, education, and business or for any reason where there is a movement of people from one place to another. In the present world, the tourism industry is one of the biggest service industries. It is the industry that serves as largest economic generator for different developing and under developed countries like Nepal, Maldives, Cyprus, and Senegal etc. And also has a huge impact for the developed countries like Japan, America, France etc.
Technology in Tourism
The present century is the world of technology. Technology has made a world as a global village. Even though people are living in different geography, technology has bounded them as one circle. Every individual is connected to different person from around the world. There are different product and service industry, which has direct impact of technology
People sit in one corner of world and run their business in different location that can be both inbound and outbound, it has been possible through the use of technology. Some of the examples of multinational industries where the technology affects are beverages industries, automobiles, different franchises of reputed food industries etc. They all control their businesses sitting in one corner of world that is from head office of the companies.
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One of the direct and biggest impacts of technology is in tourism industry. In this modern era we cannot think about tourism deeply if there was no technology. Tourism and technology can be said as the two sides of a coin. If there was no technology then the development of tourism sector would be at lowest possibilities. In past people used to travel in search of food. Later when there was development of infrastructure and superstructure the culture of proper tourism started.
But people from the past didn’t have much access and facilities like the todays world have. So there was less traveller comparing to present time. The main reason for the past is technology was not developed like todays rapid pace. There were less recreational facilities like we have today. The search for information was not easily available. People used to be more dependable on word of mouth rather then searching by them like we do today using web and Internet.
This is the direct impact of technology in tourism. We can analyze with the data provided by” the United Nation of World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), estimates that in 1950 the numbers of total international travellers were just 25 million but in the present day the number has increased by more then 1.3 billion international arrivals per year.”(1). The movement from one place to another is easier only through the product of technology. So, we cannot ignore technology while talking about tourism.
Components of Tourism
There are mainly 4A’s of tourism. They are accommodation, accessibilities, attraction and amenities. These four components are compiled together to form a proper tourism package. And these components have major impact of technology.
And the customer consumes these combined packages or tourist buys a tour package for journey. But firstly, before buying a tour package a potential tourist first makes plan for the whole journey and to make a plan people first search in the Internet. Any tourists choose the destination surfing through different websites, which is the most prior step to make trip possible. According to the time and cost of traveller, they make plan where to go from different alternatives and choose the most suitable for them.
What if there was no technology? Or there was no Internet? How can any potential tourist make plan without knowing about any destination? They can neither choose the best option nor they can get full information about the place where they are visiting. Even if they make a movement towards the destination only by knowing the name they may encounter a lot of problem such as in calculation of cost because they will not get full information about pricing, they must pay for the package according to the tour agents, they may face cultural shock because they don’t have proper knowledge and information about the place.
So, these all problem can be solved through getting enough information using today’s technology. Even the traveller can do alone without buying any tour package from travel agency. There are lots of people travelling alone from around the world and the websites like lonely planet can be very useful for self-guided tours. And talking about all the components of tourism technology has played major role in development, which are as follows:
Accommodation
Accommodation is one of the major component of tourism, which plays a vital role to create travel package. When tourist travels they need a place to rest, which can be few hours, few days or can be more than that. If there is no accommodation then the tour package is incomplete and cannot be made. There are different kinds of accommodation as per requirement of tourist.
Tourists are different and their choices are different too. They can be classified according to the types and purpose of travel. They may be business traveller or may be backpackers; they all have their own choice of place to stay while travelling. They all decide before reaching at the destination where will they stay. They use Internet to choose the hotels, motels, resorts, guesthouses according to price and length of stay.
In modern days there are different kind of application and websites to search the type of stay to rest. Some of the famous sites and application are “hotelscombined.com, trivago, booking.com, expedia, agoda, orbitz, hotel tonight etc.”(2) These all are 2018 famous sites, which are used by potential tourist while choosing the accommodation. Also in the development of hotel, technology has played important role, there are different types of hotel with different number of room. And there are hotels in the world that have more than thousand of room.
The construction of those skyscrapers was possible only through the use of hi-tech. some of the biggest hotels which have more then 5000 rooms are Izmailovo which is located in Moscow which has 7500 rooms, MGM grand and signature located in Las Vegas with 6772 rooms, First world hotel of Malaysia contains 6118 rooms, Disney all star resort has 5658 rooms etc.
Accessibility
Another important thing is how to reach the destination? What is the mode of transportation? Without transportation is the trip possible? To reach the destination proper mode of transport is necessary. There are different kinds of transportation such as airplane, ships, trains, bus, etc. these all are the invention of technology. Comparing from the past to present days modes of transportation has changed a lot.
Now there is use of modern hi-tech design in transportation, which has made transportation luxurious, faster and convenient according to time table for example bullet train; it is fastest mode of transportation in present era. People choose airplane or bullet train to save their time to travel long distance and can choose vehicles like bus, car etc. to travel short distance. In the whole tour package transportation cost may be the top expenses comparing to other components.
Nowadays there are different application and website from where potential tourist can get every detail about the costing, time, arrival and departure date, delay time, other facilities provided while travelling such as food, liquor, recreation facilities like WIFI and television etc. traveller can choose the most convenient one according to their budget, time and the facilities they want to consume. Some of the famous sites and application to find out the best transportation service are “kayak, openairplane, rome2rio, Google flights, kiwi.com etc. “(3)
Attraction
Attraction is the main reason to travel for the tourist who is travelling for the leisure purpose. There are mainly two types of attraction the natural one and the manmade. Natural attractions are the type of attraction that already exists, which is not created by human being. But the important part is how they are preserved? While people visit a destination, the flow of people can affect the environment and nature.
The flow of tourist towards the destination and the protection of “environment and nature” must be managed parallel. With the use of technology we can put different types of GPS tracking system at destination to avoid the activities which can harm the nature, maintain the overcrowd problem by finding the total capacity of the place through data analysis of generated tourist using database models etc. these will help to preserve nature and resource can be passed to next generation.
Man-made attraction is another type of attraction, which attracts tourist to visit the place. There are various places made by people themselves, which attracts tourist more to visit that place. One of the best renowned destinations is Dubai. It was just a dessert before 30 years but now it has changed a lot and it is one of the happening tourist destinations for present days. Dubai is technologically developed place in UAE.
There are different kinds of ultramodern architecture and superstructure build by people using advance technology. Some of the famous tourism attraction are Palm Jumeirah, it is the manmade island and it looks like palm tree which was built within ten years. Ski Dubai is the indoor ski resort, Dubai Aquarium and underwater zoo is another famous manmade superstructure.
We cannot imagine artificial island and recreation facilities like ski in dessert, aquarium inside the ocean if there was no technology. Another attraction is Bruj Khalifa that is the tallest structure and building in the world. Some of other famous manmade attractions from the world are: Disneyland park complex in California, Disneyland in Hong Kong, Walt Disney world at Florida, Cosmopolitan in USA, Marina sand bay Singapore, etc.
Amenities
Amenities are the facilities that tourist consumes while they are in the journey. Technology plays an important role in part of amenities or recreational facilities for tourist. While tourist travel from one place to another he/she needs different recreational facilities in the whole journey. Either it can be while moving in any mode of transport or in hotels they are staying in.
Different kind of amenities are WIFI facilities in guest room and public area, Telephone and fax service, various kind of product in room like air conditioner, cooler, Television, iron, beauty products like hair dryer, sauna and steam, swimming pool facilities with hot water etc. At the destination other entertainment facilities like cinema hall, music bar, disco, clubs. These all the facilities provided to tourist are created using the technology.
Technology for Travel Agents
Technology is convenient for tourist as well as agent who sale travel packages. The travel agents who sell their tour product can do better marketing by using Internet. They can use digital marketing system so that their products can be viewed not only in the domestic market but also in the international market.
There are different website where they can do advertisement for their product and agency. They also have their own website. They can compare their product with different packages available in web. They can coordinate with different national and international holiday planners to make a package. They can get the bundle of data about potential tourist and can do demand forecast for the package they develop.
Travel agents can do the market segmentation according to the potential tourist from different geography, different status etc. They can target the group from which they will get maximum benefit.
Technology in Hotel Industry
Technology has played important role in hotel industry. In reaching customer, to do marketing technology is very important. In hotel industry now there is online reservation system that benefits both customer and hotel. The cost of hotel is reduced; if customer directly book the room then hotel will save the commission that travel agent takes. “In a world there are renowned hotels, which have multiple chain around the world.
To communicate with all the branches and manage in a sustainable way computer system is mandatory. Through computer system communication is easier in between the entire department and it is all in one system.” (4)
“Konstantina Boutsioukou (travel and tourism Analyst at global data)- Use of technology gives rise to unique and local experience by connecting local with tourist. In 2017 there was growth in booking up to 125% for gastronomic experience in Barcelona. By the use of virtual reality technology in tourism that will enhances the experience of the tourist and persuades more tourists to book and reach at the destination.
Expedia is developing VR technique by which it offer stunning offer to customer while booking where tourist can see the room, feel the city and check distance. Developments of application like SKIPT that helps to save the time of the tourist In this application tourist can prior book vehicles, book restaurant tables, and pay before time. If tourist is busy then they can skip the line tour, which have ranked high in the list.” (5)
Conclusion
Tourism means to travel for different purpose it can be either for entertainment or for business purpose and can be both national and international. Technology plays vital role in tourism. It can be said that in the modern world tourism is fully dependent on technology. There are different component of tourism which together forms a tourism package and they are transportation, lodging, destination natural and cultural resources, facilities.
In every sector technology has higher contribution, without technology the development of tourism would not be rapid as now it is. Transportation was developed with the development of technology, which is a means to travel from one destination to another destination for traveller, and now there are fastest services in transportation sector for example; bullet train in which it takes minimum time to reach the destination.
By surfing Internet potential tourist can get every information regarding the booking, time, cost, all other needed information of transportation. To find out the place to stay while travelling people use different application to book the room according to their best alternative and hotel they use online reservation system to reserve a room, which helps them to reduce cost by directly contacting with guest.
The preservation and conservation of natural and cultural resource are very important because it is the asset of every country, which must be handover to next generation and technology helps in preserving all those resource. With the use of modern technology we can preserve heritage of the country, control overflow of crowd, preserve nature and environment.
The recreational facilities that are consumed by tourist to reach the destination and at the destination are the product of technology for example; WIFI, television, telephone and fax services, Air conditioner etc.
“Today, we don’t have doubt that technology plays a vital role in tourism and it has influenced and continue to shape the way of travelling: from the vacation destination we choose to the beginning of journey, the time of travel and even all the way back from the trip. It is so prevalent, that according to a Google Travel study, 74% of travelers plan their trips on the Internet, while only 13% still use travel agencies to prepare them.”(6)
References
- An Analysis of the Maldives Culture
- Impact of Technology on Fashion
- World Bank – Tourism
- World Economic Forum – Visitors and Tourism
- Quartz – Tourism
- U.S. Department of State – Travel and Tourism
- CDC – Travelers’ Health and COVID-19
- South Africa National Department of Tourism
- Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
