the website and substantial returns generated by the Internet advertising — and virtual travel agencies.
Many suppliers of tourism services developed e-commerce applications to make it pos- sible for customers to have direct access to their booking systems. This drastically reduced the scope of activity of traditional intermediaries who underwent a strict selection process due to the decrease in intermediated flows and intermediation margins resulting from increasingly less dependent customers. Along with traditional travel agencies, also GDSs were affected by Internet competition and underwent a re-engineering process involving mergers and acquisitions or diversification towards virtual intermediation through on-line travel agencies.5
The co-existence of many operators and intermediation channels made competition more aggressive and generated new forms of supply arrangement by means of extensive co-operation among different producers and the creation of networks. The boundaries between the various types of intermediaries then became increasingly blurred (Rayman- Bacchus & Molina, 2001). Generally speaking, the possibility of taking advantage of the web depends on operator visibility and on the ability of the website to capture visitors (potential clients). In turn this depends on website accuracy and the availability of multi- ple hypertext links. Links are actually fast, cost-effective and enhance the website profile;
they enable intermediaries who view the width of their network as a valuable asset to improve their competitiveness.
These technologies, thanks to their flexibility and effectiveness, are a fundamental tool to enhance the destination’s distinctive competences and establish co-operative relation- ships aimed at creating and sharing knowledge and promoting a unitary image.
Using these technologies, virtual intermediaries are pursuing differentiation strategies increasingly based on the specific features of the network. From this perspective, the aggregation of the resources made available to consumers through the web increasingly takes on original forms involving operators of associated sectors, making leverage on spe- cific resources, which cannot be imitated and transferred and becoming the focus of the network of products/services provided to tourists. This dynamic and constant search for originality becomes the driver for a constant re-inventing the destinations, identified through variable “myths” and redesigned through a constant re-definition of alliances and involvement of new operators (Stamboulis & Skayannis, 2003).
This is the direction followed by the tourism portals that promote specific geographical areas using the web as a tool to link local operators to the market and end users. At present three different categories of tourism portals on the web can be identified; they differ in the degree of involvement of the local stakeholders and the range of functions provided to consumers (De Angelis, 2004).
“Information” portals have a mainly promotional function, carried out through database networking and telematic access to information and tourism services provided in the des- tination. Usually management and data storage is carried out almost exclusively by a sin- gle actor charged by the local public administration.
“Link portals”, in addition to the set of functions offered by information portals, make it possible to book and/or purchase the main tourism services provided in the destination, thanks to the link between the portal — whose objective is to attract potential tourists — and the website of the individual service providers through which the real transaction takes place. This category includes a large number of local operators, co-ordinated to standar- dise presentation of the supply.
“Integrated portals” or Destination Management System (DMS) are the last evolution- ary stage of the e-business models for destination promotion and management. DMS are portals of countries, regions or destinations, where it is possible to find tourism informa- tion on the area, description of the main sites and attractions, along with tourism packages sold by local operators.9Information management, booking and/or purchasing are part of a system based on a common platform.10
Local organisations are highly involved in defining and up-dating contents and manag- ing transactions and booking. “Through these tools local firms — performing their busi- ness within networks and providing tourism products addressed both to groups and individual tourists — can achieve good results in terms of volume of flows and profits. In this case, the success of the individual firm is strictly linked to the success of the whole network; it is based on the capabilities developed by each member to co-operate with its 176 Alfonso Morvillo et al.
9Examples of successful DMS are Tiscover in Austria or Gulliver in Ireland, whose distinctive strategic resources are represented by the underlying networks.
10From the technological point of view, DMS development was made possible, thanks to the integrated software and a Data Base system to use and re-distribute data through the Extensible Markup Language (XML) protocol.
partners, on mutual trust, on the ability to plan and develop local resources” (Della Corte
& Sciarelli, 2003).
These information solutions provide many benefits for the demand and supply system:
● high quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty;
● new scope economies, network economies and switching costs;
● reduction of transaction costs;
● reduction of management costs; and
● higher efficiency and effectiveness in using information for strategic and marketing pur- poses;
● higher ability to plan objectives and monitor outcomes.
These tools also support the building or re-definition of a destination image, which is the result of a combination of rational/information factors and emotional factors. Emotional factors, that are usually the result of the tourist’s experience, can be anticipated through a proper and effective combination of texts, images and sounds enabled by multimedia appli- cations.11
In the future, new opportunities will be provided by the convergence of television, telephony and the personal computer which, by adding components capable of sharing technological and interconnection standards, make interoperability possible and combine the performances of the three sub-systems to design integrated services capable of maxi- mising the generation of value for customers (Martini, 2000; Buhalis & Licata, 2002).
The technological convergence of the Internet, interactive digital TV and mobile phones will create further competition among service providers, intermediaries and destinations.
Differentiation of the distribution channels as a function of the different devices — linked and interoperable, thanks to the development of proper technologies — makes it possible to have new market segments, identify new consumer targets and customise the products supplied.12
Tourism organisations will expand the provision of services through the Internet allow- ing for the expected increase of mobile terminals. However, the real challenge is the devel- opment of contents and information that can be distributed through different platforms (Buhalis & Licata, 2002). The different types of devices also differ according to their use, and the contents and formats of the communication they have to be adjusted to. Such com- munication exploits the possibility of combining the different types of signals (images, sounds, text, graphics), and must generate information and emotional effects suitable to the context. Simultaneously, a new competitive arena will develop — i.e. e-content suppliers
— that will compete by defining their positioning according to the technological options chosen for distribution.
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11An updated literature review on the relationship between the different components of the perceived image and the factors influencing its formation is available in Beerli and Martìn (2004). A wide review of destination image definitions can be found in Gallarza, Gil, and Calderon (2002), who also highlight the great variety of methods used to measure the construct, deriving from a multidimensional combination of attributes.
12To examine closely the diffusion and success factors of mobile marketing, see Scharl, Dickinger and Murphy (2005).
Moreover, the iterative nature of the new technological applications, enabling the user to be “located” by identifying his/her device, provides new, wider opportunities to develop marketing information systems. It will be possible to have a more exhaustive information database on actual and potential customers. Creating new and more exhaustive informa- tion sources can enable private firms to make more rational marketing decisions and act more effectively;13it can also guide public and private stakeholder networks in their des- tination strategic management (Ritchie & Ritchie, 2002).
On the other hand, it is also possible to implement more targeted marketing actions based on a relational approach14aimed at customer retentionnot only customer acquisition.