Virtual Travel Agencies - Tourist Value through Travel Information Systems

Anckar, B. (1999), ?Virtual Travel Agencies - Tourist Value through Travel Information Systems?. IAMSR Research Report 5/99. Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research, ?bo Akademi University. As electronic commerce enables the tourist service providers to sell their products directly to the consumer, travel agencies are faced with the imminent threat of being by-passed in the travel industry chain in the information age. This paper suggests that virtual travel agencies can compete successfully on electronic markets by offering customers a total service package: A travel information system containing comprehensive and up to the minute travel and destination information, consisting of decision support functions based on a conceptual model of tourist destination choice, as well as on-line reservation capabilities. A suggestive listing and categorization of the destination attributes that are likely to be of interest for potential tourists is presented. In order to illustrate the discrepancies between different travel intermediaries from a global point of view, and to highlight the obvious limitations of the customer service offered by surprisingly many actors on the Web, a brief study of the virtual services offered by the travel agencies on the Finnish market is inserted. The results indicate that the services offered by Finnish travel agencies are far from value-adding.