Information Technology In Tourism Industry

Literature Review

Information technology is widespread in the hospitality management industry and its impact on customers in various ways has been noticed across the globe. Tourists are able to select online tourism destinations and products through the available information on the internet (Abou-shouk et al., 2012) where images and information can be viewed. The sharing of information through the use of IT has transformed tourism in destinations around the world (Mohamad et al., 2013). Many tourists use the internet to obtain valuable information before they make trips to tourist destinations. Therefore, asking consumers to evaluate the internet is a strong strategy for doing business online. Hospitality managers often consider such strategies

Travel agents as middle men are losing touch with customers, as most airlines sell directly to customers on the internet, and customers prefer to buy directly from the source than to buy through travel agents who charge commission (Internet World Stats, 2013). Travel agents need to work extra hard to overcome these problems. The popularity of internet distribution among consumers has become more vigorous in the tourism industry. Travel agents wishing to remain in the business choose to play a consultancy role to add more value to the travel experience sold to customers (Qi et al., 2011). Travel agents who resume the role of tour operators work more closely with tourism products and services supplies to create sustainability (Spencer et al., 2011; Nikolaos Askitas and Zimmerman, 2015). Some travel agents in Ghana have started adapting the consultancy role to improve their quality performance and services in online tourism destination by making information easy to distribute to tourists. The main problem for the travel agents in Ghana is using the growing data and information tools to their advantage. IT facilities are somewhat new to Ghana’s tourism (Law et al.,

An email was sent to the organisations to request permission to conduct the study. The aim was to assess the relationships between the hypotheses shown in Figure 1. The managers from the travel agents interacted with their regular customers, who agreed to participate in the research. However, the managers of the travel agents did not allow the researchers to contact the customers directly. The questionnaires, which were split into two categories, were distributed two weeks apart. The first questionnaire, referred to as Time I questionnaire, was given to the managers of each travel agency who agreed to administer the questionnaire to the customers. They prepared a list of the names of their customers and shared the questionnaire with them. The customers were assured of their privacy and confidentiality. The managers wrote each customers’ name on the back of each questionnaire after they were completed. The manager used the same method for the Time II which was for the employees to ensure consistency. The manager wrote the names of the employees of the travel agents, who dealt directly with customers, on the first page of each questionnaire after they were completed. Twenty-five managers managed 430 regular customers that took part in the study. Each employee rated the customers’ activities with reference to buying