E-Traveling via Information Technology: An Inspection of Possible Trends

ABSTRACT. The travel industry has begun to leverage the Internet by mirroring the electronic ticketing systems used by the airlines en-abling hotels and tourism institutions in general to develop IT sys-tems similar to American Airlines ’ Sabre system. These systems initially allowed travel agents to search for flights electronically. Now the customer is empowered to follow the lines of disintermedia-tion and bypass the travel agent entirely. Thus, the travel industry is in a similar phase that manufacturing companies are dealing with, namely more transparent supply chains and flatter organizational structures–a common theme found in conducting e-commerce. Sev-eral models are suggested from industry to leverage connections that sell directly to the customer or buy directly from the manufacturer, al-though they all present potential risks, especially since this direct contact and transparency makes additional customer-partner contact easier and more likely to occur outside the direct control of the com-panies involved. The most compelling example of this situation is in the travel industry. In essence, the hospitality industries in general (ho-tels, airlines, car rental companies, and other travel services) are pro-viding information and reservation systems directly to end consumers, entirely bypassing the traditional intermediary of travel agencies. [Ar-ticle copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Ser-Alan D. Smith is affiliated with the Department of Management and Marketing