Improving SMTEsâ Business Performance through Strategic Use of Information Communication Technology: ICT and Tourism Challenges and Opportunities

Information communication technologies (ICTs) prevail in all functions of strategic and operational management. As information is the lifeblood of tourism, ICTs provide both opportunities and challenges for the industry. Unless the current tourism industry improves its competitiveness, by utilizing the emerging ITs and innovative management methods, there is a danger for exogenous players to enter the marketplace, jeopardizing the position of the existing ones. Only creative and innovative suppliers will be able to survive the competition in the new millennium. Small and medium-sized tourist enterprises’ (SMTEs) utilization of the Internet and their perception of online learning systems demonstrate that training is imperative and that ICTs can enable them to improve their inventory management and develop their internal business processes. Previous researches demonstrate that SMTEs are not utilizing information technology in their businesses to its full potential. They primarily see the ICTs as a mechanism for promoting their hotel rather than for training, inter or intraorganizational and e-commerce purposes. Using a wide variety of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, this paper comprehensively reviews and analyses prior studies in the context of ICT applications to tourism and provides a framework for the utilization of technology in tourism by adopting a strategic perspective. The paper also projects future developments in ICT-related opportunities and demonstrates critical changes that will influence the tourism industry structure.