ognizant Communication Corporation

Information Technology & Tourism, Vol. 5, pp. 3-11
1098-3058/02 $20.00 + .00
Copyright © 2002 Cognizant Comm. Corp.
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.

Information & Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607

Multilingual communication over the Internet has the potential to facilitate e-business, especially among small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in the travel and tourism industry, which is at the forefront of cross-cultural interaction. A pragmatic methodology is introduced to enable innkeepers and travelers to correspond in their own preferred language. Using a prototype system called "TigerTalk for Innkeepers," a study involving over 4000 small inns worldwide was conducted. The results reflect the extent to which SMEs in this industry, which stand to gain the most from global connectivity and online communication, are ready to take advantage of technology to overcome language barriers.

Key words: e-Business; Multilingual communication; Lodging; Travel and tourism; Small and medium-size enterprises

Address correspondence to James K. Ho, Information & Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, m/c 294, 601 South Morgan, Chicago, IL 60607. Tel: 1-312-996-0819; Fax: 1-312-413-0385; E-mail: jimho@uic.edu

School of Business, University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Vic 3353, Australia

Networks, knowledge, and relationships have become crucial assets to business survival in the new economy. Research indicates that network building is a major new source of competitive advantage and an essential regional and indeed global management requirement. Because regional policies encourage interfirm alliances and the development of regional economic communities, the fostering of a culture of connectivity, networking, learning, and trust between regional Australian small and medium-size tourism enterprises (SMTEs) may offer a potential solution to the possible loss of competitive advantage for Australian tourism enterprises. It is suggested that SMTEs would benefit from increased information flow through regional networking and cooperative e-marketing campaigns to enhance market visibility, global positioning, and strategic leverage in the new economy.

Key words: Network structures; Networking; SMTEs; e-Commerce; e-Marketing; Regional; Collaboration; Trust

Address correspondence to Patrice Braun, School of Business, University of Ballarat, PO Box 663, Ballarat, Vic 3353, Australia. Tel: 61-3- 5327-9465; Fax: 61-3- 5327-9405; E-mail: p.braun@ballarat.edu.au

School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

This article reports on a study about examining airfare reservation services in travel Web sites. The research proposes an e-travel business framework, and then uses a content-based analysis to evaluate 30 North American-based travel Web sites and 30 Asian-based travel Web sites to determine their level of service provisions in the context of the proposed framework. The attributes selected for evaluations fall into five major dimensions: i) Information Quality, ii) System Use, iii) System Quality, iv) Service Quality, and v) Customer Loyalty. Experimental results show that the Asian-based and the North American-based travel Web sites have achieved different outcomes. The North American-based Web sites outperform their Asian counterparts significantly in many selected variables.

Key words: Content-based Web site analysis; Airfare reservation services; North America; Asia

Address correspondence to Rob Law, School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2766 6349; Fax: (852) 2362 9362; E-mail: hmroblaw@polyu.edu.hk

Practice and Research in Intelligent Systems and Media (PRISM) Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University College Dublin, Ireland

Recent developments in both wireless communications and personal navigation technologies have made the concept of location-aware services both feasible and economical. Indeed, it is widely projected that the market for such services will increase substantially in the coming years. Obviously this market will provide significant opportunities and challenges for the tourism sector. In this article, a vision of how an electronic context-aware tourist guide might operate is presented. An implementation of such a guide, designed to meet the particular needs of cultural tourists, is described. Finally, some issues that require further research before such systems can be deployed are identified.

Key words: Tourist information systems; Cellular telecommunications; Location-aware services; Global Positioning System (GPS); Wireless multimedia

Address correspondence to Michael J. O'Grady, Prism Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel: +353-1-7162922; Fax: +353-1-269 7262; E-mail: michael.j.ogrady@ucd.ie