Theory: Digitalisation and Tourism

Digitalization has a strong hold and impact and has clearly changed the way customers transact in and also purchase tourism products.

In the following we give some indicative examples of digital applications in the tourism sector. We have to stress that these examples are by no means exhaustive as new applications arise every day.

• Booking accommodation: There are numerous big platforms, such as booking.com, trivago.com, hotels.com etc., where one may book hotel rooms and search for last minute discounts. The hotel managers usually give to these platforms a certain number of rooms in their hotel and pay the platform a considerable commission for each room booked through them. This means that the platforms offer visibility and provide booking services to hotels but they reduce their profit margin. These platforms calculate automatically if there is still availability of rooms in a specific hotel after each booking. 

Exercise: Please find a site promoting local tourism in a destination for this summer.

Booking services may also be provided by local tourism promotion sites, by local authorities, local development agencies etc., which additionally can provide information about restaurants, sightseeing, trip agencies, local culture etc.

Additionally, one may find rooms to let in the same platforms or in more dedicated platforms like the Airbnb. Airbnb has not only changed the approach to find accommodation when travelling for business or pleasure, but it has as well had a tremendous effect on the availability and prices of houses and apartments to rent to the local population.

• Booking or purchasing a ticket for travelling:

There are a lot of digital platforms where one may find good price offers for air tickets such as trip.com, expedia.com, booking com, cheapflights.com, kayak.com etc. Furthermore, all major airline companies have their own booking and purchasing digital system, they provide check-in service, special luggage, food or transfer order etc.

The same stands for most train companies, from which one may purchase tickets, book seats etc.

To buy a boat or ferry ticket one may also visit a dedicated site e.g. viva.gr and ferriesingreece.com in Greece.

Exercise : Can you find a website for purchasing a boats’ ticket in your country?

Local travelling: To digitally order a taxi and follow the course of the taxi is a major change in the sector and has caused a lot of debates on the status of these cars and persons employed.

There are digital applications about local bus schedules, train or metro schedules etc.

One may also book a car to rent digitally or combined with his/her airplane ticket with special discounts.

GPS systems, like google maps, provide a lot of information about routes, traffic but also sightseeing, restaurants, if they are open, if they are expensive, their telephone numbers, their rating. photos etc.

• Restaurants:

They may be found on the digital maps, local tourism websites etc. There are specific sites on may order food from a restaurant to be delivered home, at their hotel etc. Many restaurants have also their specific digital service taking orders for delivery.

Exercise: Can you state 2 food delivery sites in your city?