Internet Usage for Travel and Tourism. the Case of Spain

Introduction

The impact of the
Internet on travel agencies Rob Law
Kenith Leung and
James Wong

The authors
Rob Law, Kenith Leung and James Wong are all Faculty
Members in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon,
Hong Kong.
Keywords
Leisure activities, International travel, Tourism, Internet,
Online databases, Hong Kong
Abstract
This paper examines tourist perceptions of the potential for the elimination of travel agencies in the presence of the
Internet. The opinions of 413 tourists on making transactions through both Internet-based (hereafter, online) and traditional distribution channels were analysed.
Experimental results illustrated that tourists still used professional services and advice offered by travel agencies.
Tourists also agreed that more information could be found through the Internet. Following the findings, the paper suggests that both online and traditional distributional channels can coexist in the future.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-6119.htm International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
Volume 16 . Number 2 . 2004 . pp. 100-107
# Emerald Group Publishing Limited . ISSN 0959-6119
DOI 10.1108/09596110410519982

The rapid growth of the travel industry requires sophisticated information technologies (ITs) for managing the increasing volume and quality of tourism traffic. Prior studies have indicated that modern travellers demand more high quality travel services, products, information, and value for their money (Christian, 2001; Lubetkin,
1999; Samenfink, 1999). The emergence of new tourism services and products, coupled with a rapid increase in tourism demand, have driven the wide-scale adoption of ITs in general, and in particular,

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