E-tourism changes perspective with new Web 2.0 technology

Service Oriented Architecture SOA Web 2.0 Articles : E-tourism changes perspective with new Web 2.0 technology by George Enea

According to recent studies, 30% of leisure European travelers think that the Internet is easier and faster to use for travel planning. For tourism businesses, the Internet offers the potential to make booking facilities available to large numbers of tourists at relatively low costs with a click of a mouse. It also offers a tool for communication between tourism suppliers, intermediaries as well as end-consumers.

There is no question that, in record time, online booking came to define one of the largest business on the web. In this new world of travel industry, everyone can become a destination trader. But, before booking online the customer has to remember that each online travel agency has its own hotel deals. Remember to sign up for email warnings of special offers from any of these sites, so that you won't miss out on last minute discount travel deals.

The travel industry has been experiencing essential changes since the end of the 90's. The impact has been felt around the globe and the fastest growing regions today are Asia and Europe, while online travel agencies become players on a global stage. Some of the most significant facts include an important growth in tourism sale online in Europe, over the past two years, with an encouraging preview for 2009.

Online travel sales increased by as much as 34% from 2004 to 2005 and reached EUR 25.2 billion in the European market in 2006 - or 10.3% of the market. A further increase of about 25% during 2007 to about EUR 31.5 billion may be estimated.

Web 2.0 - new means of communication for the companies

Other sites are including in their offers, access to Google Maps or other interactive Internet places allowing travelers to get a detailed look of a property or attraction location.

'Customer-to-customer' reinvents tourism marketplace
A new tendency is changing again the face of e-commerce, and it has been named 'customer-to-customer' (C2C) marketplace. Enabled by blogs, podcasts and social networking sites as well as other web 2.0 technologies, the consumer today can be informed about anything, within a short time span and with rather limited resources. Now we have the easy resources to communicate opinions and know-how on any subject to anyone else in the world.

The first signs of this new world of Web 2.0, which lets the audience to participate in the production and distribution of content in the travel space are displayed by sites which have been around for a number of years with active communities of feedback contributors.

About the Author
Online travel agencies such as www.planigo.com that have been around since the e-tourism outburst on the web have full-heartedly embraced this new trend. You will find amazing discount travel deals out there.

Source: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=394418