Skip to main content

Strategic E-Tourism Alternatives for Destinations

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015

Abstract

Destinations face the already well known problem of a proper positioning in the electronic market place. This includes, besides other issues, mainly the problem of a sustainable business model and booking support. In this paper the Austrian case is described, which is somehow special since Austria was once a leader in e-tourism, both w.r.t. to academic as well to industrial achievements. However, this has changed over the last years. This change was also recognized by major stakeholders, leading to a study to (a) analyse the current situation, and (b) to identify strategic alternatives as future options. These strategic alternatives were based on the results of a status quo analysis of the national and international e-tourism situation, including a website analysis of national and international tourism organisations, interviews with representatives of Austrian organisations and an analysis of IT trends relevant to the tourism industry. The paper describes the results of these analyses, specifies the problem and, finally, presents the identified alternatives. Regarding the latter, the focus is on the description of a so-called “open service platform”, which contains means to support cooperation, online distribution, innovation as well as research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baggio, R. (2003). A websites analysis of European tourism organizations. Anatolia, 14(2), 93–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research. Tourism Management, 29(4), 609–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis, D., & Wagner, R. (2013). E-destinations: Global best practice in tourism technologies and applications. In L. Cantoni & Z. Xiang (Eds.), Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013 (pp. 119–130). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Cusumano, M. A. (2008). Technology strategy and management: The puzzle of Apple. Communications of the ACM, 51(9), 22–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cusumano, M. A. (2010a). Staying power: Six enduring principles for managing strategy and innovation in an uncertain world (lessons from Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Google, Toyota and more) (Clarendon lectures in management studies) (pp. 22–30). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cusumano, M. A. (2010b). Technology strategy and management: The evolution of platform thinking. Communications of the ACM, 53(1), 32–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duerr, M., Küng, N., Schegg, R., & Stangl, B. (2013). eFitness of DMO websites–Still more to go. e-Review of Tourism Research (eRTR), 4, 1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallob, S. K. (2012). Success factors in website architecture for the customer journey. Master Thesis, IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Krems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hörhager, G. (2014). Strategic options for Austrian e-tourism. Diploma Thesis, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohl & Partner. (2011). Aktuelle Ergebnisse der 11. Internet-Umfrage von Kohl & Partner, 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schegg, R. (2014). European hotel distribution study: The rise of online intermediaries. Special focus Switzerland. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://etourism-monitor.ch/node/129

  • Schegg, R., & Fux, M. (2012). Die Macht der Buchungsportale. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://etourism-monitor.ch/sites/default/files/downloads/distributionsumfrage_dach_scheggfux_2012_d.pdf

  • Schuster, R., Hörhager, G., & Werthner, H. (2013). etOpt – eTourism options Austria. Forschungsbericht im Auftrag des bmwfj. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://www.bmwfw.gv.at/Tourismus/TourismusstudienUndPublikationen/Documents/etOpt%20eTourism%20Options%20Austria.pdf

  • TOURISMlink. (2012). The European Tourism Market, its structure and the role of ICTs. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://www.tourismlink.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/TOURISMlink_MktReport.pdf

  • Werthner, H. (2011). Einige Thesen zur österreichischen Position im e-tourismus. Accessed August 26, 2014, from http://www.ec.tuwien.ac.at/~werthner/thesen2011_etourism.htm

  • Werthner, H., & Klein, S. (1999). Information technology and tourism – A challenging relationship. Wien: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy for funding the project etOpt and all the advisory board members as well as interviewed and participating experts for their feedback.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hannes Werthner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

del Carmen Calatrava Moreno, M., Hörhager, G., Schuster, R., Werthner, H. (2015). Strategic E-Tourism Alternatives for Destinations. In: Tussyadiah, I., Inversini, A. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14343-9_30

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics