Product details

The proliferation of web-based electronic commerce (EC) appears to have dis-intermediation and re-intermediation effects on industry structure. In the travel industry, the primary intermediary of the industry, ie, travel agencies, will be affected most. The 1990s has witnessed a burgeoning of travel related websites. As far as web-based EC is concerned, various estimates have indicated that on-line travel sales will continue to grow exponentially through to 2002. Sceptics, however, still believe that people prefer to deal with a human travel agent. Opinions are certainly divided, but both the number of websites and the Internet user population are growing continuously. Can traditional travel agencies really afford to be complacent? What should they do given these circumstances?