Pappas, Nikolaos (2012) The acceptance and extent of use of information technology from the Greek tourist offices. In: Global Perspectives on Technological Innovation. Contemporary Perspectives on Technological Innovation, Management and Policy, 1. Information Age Publishing, pp. 101-119. ISBN 9781623960582

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Abstract

There is no doubt that IT (Information Technology) has created new horizons and empowered tourism production globally. On the antipode, the extent of IT use defers from region to region. The nature of tourist product is based on information. Since IT gives to firms and destinations the opportunity of global coverage it becomes an increasingly important mean for products’ and services’ promotion and distribution. Through the consumers’ interaction, the tourist offices can attract the interest and the participation of the customers, gather information according their preferences, and use them in order to produce specialised programs of communication and services. On the other hand, the use of IT has led to the increase of tourist offices’ antagonism, since the opportunity on products’ and services’ improvement has given in all firms. Furthermore, there was a creation of a new dynamic focusing on the cost decrease of the provided products, and the better service of customers.

The aim of this study is to investigate the Greek tourist offices’ IT use on Business to Business (B2B) relations, their employees’ IT training and education, and the opportunities and technical hitches created by IT use. Moreover it examines the differentiations of the expressed perceptions between the tourist offices situated in the capital of the country (Athens), and in the metropolitan city (Heraklion) of the most famous destination in Greece (island of Crete). It also analyses all the expressed perspectives toward three socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents: age, level of education, and work experience in the attempt to derive enhanced knowledge and relevancies.

The study was conducted in Heraklion and Athens from June till August 2010. The respondents were the owners / managers of the examined tourist offices. In order to develop the questionnaire, the research questions from the literature review were used. The questionnaire contained 21 close ended statements using a five degree Likert Scale (1: Strongly Agree, 5: Strongly Disagree). The statements focused on the effects of I.T. in Business to Business (B2B) (six statements), on the employees’ I.T. training and education (eight statements) and on the threats and opportunities created by I.T. use (seven statements). There were also three socio-demographic questions focused on age, level of education and work time experience in the managerial post the respondents had during the period the research was conducted.

The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (S.P.S.S., 16.0). In order to identify statistically significant relationships there was an analysis using T-test, and One-Way ANOVA. Furthermore, when independent variables were ordinal, Spearman’s ρ correlation coefficient was used to measure the strength and the direction of the relationship. The null hypothesis for all tests was based of statistical significance at the level of 0.05.

Internationally, many destinations and their tourism enterprises have to face the over-centralised administrative systems that mainly produced by the public sector. Hence the paper’s suggestions can be implemented in international level. The research indicates that the companies do not actually seem to fully take advantage of the IT beneficial impacts, and the degree of enterprising focus on traditional operative patterns. They also provide a clear understanding on the IT necessity in over-centralised states and countries, and the prospects they create in modern peripheral business. Furthermore, they highlight the necessity of IT in tourism enterprising and the dependence of tourism industry in modern operative techniques. Additionally, they give evidence on the influence of the sample’s socio-demographic characteristics’ change concerning the acceptance, the adaptation, the use and the enterprising evolution on IT and tourism. Conclusively, methodologies are suggested ways that IT in tourism can be more acceptable from the industry’s enterprises and strengthens the overall tourism production.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	Hospitality and tourism
Depositing User:	Nikolaos Pappas
Date Deposited:	22 Nov 2015 09:44
Last Modified:	28 Aug 2021 07:18
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1369

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