Using Information Communication Technologies in Maritime Travel Business

Transcription

1 Using Information Communication Technologies in Maritime Travel Business Il. Maglogiannis a G. Kormentzas a N. Panagiotarakis b a Dept. of Information and Communication Systems Engineering University of the Aegean {imaglo, gkorm}@aegean.gr b Alfa Logic SA npanagiotarakis@alfa..gr Abstract The paper presents the emerging information and communication needs in maritime travel and gives directions for future maritime business activities in e-tourism. The presented results are based on findings of a maritime web survey and of analysis of a number of collected questionnaires through interviews. The maritime web survey points out approaches and technologies encountered in the Internet ship-travel related business, thus providing an image of how can be developed a www site/portal intending to sell maritime services. The interviews (combined with questionnaires) supplement the outcome of the web survey giving an overall view for future maritime business activities. These activities refer to Maritime Transport Operators (MTOs), Travel Agencies (TAs) and Port Authorities (PAs). Many of the elements presented herein are used for the composition of a business plan concerning an EU funded maritime telecommunication platform for providing ship management information and services for passengers and the general public. Keywords: e-tourism, interview, maritime, questionnaire, web survey. 1 Introduction In the last few decades, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have deeply affected the way business is performed and the way that the involved parties compete. The tourism and travel industries were heavily affected by these

2 developments particularly in the way that organizations distributed their tourism products in the marketplace (Buhalis and Schertler, 1999). According to a TIA (Travel Industry Association of USA) research, in 2000 about 90 million people were qualified as Internet travellers, 24.7 million (about 27%) of whom booked online travel reservations, showing a 56% increase compared to 1999 figures and a 384% growth compared with 1997 figures. A research by Simmons found that around 1 in 7 respondents used online computer services to obtain airline and hotel information. In another recent Gartner Group s survey of people with Internet browser access 75 percent of the respondents indicated that before booking personal travel, they research schedules, flights, discounts and travel packages. According to this survey, 16 percent book and pay for tickets online, which consists a 800 percent increase since the fourth quarter of Maritime travel related sites are considered a part of the general e-tourism environment that is growing rapidly. The maritime market players represented mainly by Maritime Transport Operators have entered dynamically into the on-line travel market. A remarkable number of web sites offering a new set of services to potential ship travelers are already established. Although this web presence can be considered significant, many things with major market effects still have to be implemented. Towards this direction, the paper in a first stage points out the current maritime users needs, while in a second stage defines new business areas for maritime travel market. The paper is organised as follows: Section 2 deals with web maritime survey giving valuable investing directions. Section 3 discusses the survey performed through interviews and questionnaires and correlates their outcome with the web maritime survey. Finally, Section 4 concludes the paper. 2 Web maritime survey It is estimated that there are upwards of 1,000 Web sites that target the travel market. In our survey we visited 257 sites, found in Internet search engines, which already offer sea tourism related products. Despite the breadth of travel-oriented sites, the industry is in a period of consolidation. There are two major types of Internet travel companies: online agencies like Expedia and Travelocity, and supplier sites that include airline companies like Southwest.com, hotels like Hilton.com, and car rental agencies, such as Maritime travel suppliers (ferry and cruiser companies) have recently discovered the internet and an increasing number of them are starting offering in their sites on line booking facilities, while big on-line travel agencies are starting to include ship travel in their services. The surveyed 257 sites fall practically to one of the following major categories: Virtual Travel Agencies (VTA) Maritime Transport Operator (MTO) sites Port sites

3 Cruises portals Other Maritime Travel Information Portals The allocation of sites is displayed in Table 1. Type VTA MTOs Port Sites Cruises Portals Other Maritime Portals Number Percentage (%) Table 1. Types of e-sea travel sites Each site was checked for a set of services, which are estimated as important from the user s point of view. These services are specified below: Schedule Information or trip planning / configuration facilities are interactive facilities, which deal with timetables, schedule information and trip planning. Traveller is able to provide as input data like destination, departure date and time, transportation mean, special preferences (prices, ship line and vessel), trip duration and considering his input, takes as return specific trip information. Real on line booking facilities are facilities related with price information for trips and services on-board, ticket booking and existence of available cabins on specific scheduled trips. Then the traveller can make a reservation simply by giving his personal data and afterwards he may cancel it, confirm and check the status of thiw reservation. GIS for identifying location refers to supplying geographical information. It is a service that helps travellers to find the position of a ship in the sea or where the station of departure is located and how it can be reached. Weather Information is a service that gives information about trip, port or destination weather. Also provide information about weather forecast. Traveller enters as input a geographical location and the system returns all the weather information regarding the desired place. Location dependant are services related to updated information about trips. Travellers upon entering the system must be updated with new information that the MTO or the Port Authorities want to announce to them, regarding for example delays, cancellations, departure place on the port and departure time. Expiration date and time should be associated to each announcement. Info on the Passenger / Traveller destination is a service that provides information on destination attractions, culture, events and festivals. Tourist Information (Ship, Hotel, etc Descriptions) is a service that provides information related to tourism industry such as local hotels, on-board

4 services, restaurants, night clubs and shopping and probably connection to CRS (Computer Reservation Systems) for the booking of such services. Electronic payment is an interactive facility that in case of traveller s desire to buy a specific service, offers the ability of payment via the Web. Credit Card or posts checks are the most common methods of payment, while secure transactions should be considered for granted implemented by security protocols and third trusted parties. The extent of implementation of the above services is displayed in Table 2, along with some notes in the paragraphs below. Type of Application Implementation in VTA Sites (%) Implementation in MTO Sites (%) Implementation in Port Sites (%) Implementation in Cruise Portals (%) Schedule Information On line booking GIS for Location ID Weather Information Info on Destination Tourist Information Electronic Payment Table 2. Percentage of services implementation in the surveyed sites VTA sites Virtual Travel Agencies (VTAs) comprise the 34% of the total number of surveyed sites. This number shows that the concept of a travel agency over the Web is quite popular. The most common service that exists in this category is configuration facilities for schedule information. The majority of the sites include also general information for passengers and tourist information for the travel and destination. A significant remark is that although 37% of the VTAs implement on-line booking, only 21% include electronic payment. In these cases the customer has to visit before his

5 trip the MTO s offices or a real travel agency to pay for his ticket Applications 3, 4 and 5 regarding maps, weather and announcements are not widely implemented. MTO sites Maritime Transport Operators (MTOs) comprise the 42% of the total number of surveyed sites. The high percentage shows that a big number of companies have realized the significance of a presence in the World Wide Web, even if it does not include any of the additional services discussed in this paper. From the 98 MTOs sites included in the survey the majority belongs to Ferries and very few belong to Cruise and Cargo Operators. Most of the observed sites are limited to company and fleet presentations, static timetables of the routes and general tourist information. The application that seems to be more popular is on-line booking. It is included in 39% of the surveyed sites but not in all cases as a real on-line system. Company gets in contact with the traveller through telephone, or single mail, in order to confirm his on-line reservation. This percentage although is not unnoticeable and indicates the gradual penetration of Computer Reservation Systems in Maritime travel business. The reservation systems found in our research were not always easy to use and complete. The customer has to fill a lot of blank boxes demanding a lot of time, more than a phone conversation with a real travel agency and then he has to confirm his reservation with payment which is electronically implemented by only 28% of the sites. Configuration tools for displaying ship schedules fall also in the interest of MTOs. In all of the cases they exist, they are connected to the on-line booking system. In fact they comprise the first step in the on-line reservation procedure. Port sites Ports do not have a large presence in the Web, as during our research we did not find a lot of related sites. They comprise only the 7% of the surveyed sites. The main applications supported are destination information, schedule information and location based announcements, but they are not implemented in large scale. Cruises Portals We deal with cruise portals as a different category because they differentiate from VTAs on the basis that they are limited to cruises and have a certain content structure. The main application included in cruises portals is information about cruises destinations. The specific sites function mainly as advertising sites and they urge the potential customer to refer to one from the supporting companies or travel agencies. The sites that are considered typical examples for each service are listed in Table 3. Type of Application Schedule Information and Trip Planning Real on line booking facilities GIS for Identifying Location Weather Information Web Address

6 Location Dependant Info on the Passenger Destination Tourist Information Electronic Payment Table 3. Example sites The presentation of new web-based distribution channels and the launch of valueadded services and features in maritime and travel business in general is the major outcome of our survey. The basic players of the maritime travel market seem to realise the significance of a presence in the Web. New emediaries (e.g. Virtual Travel Agencies, Tourist Portals) challenge traditional sales methods mostly used by travel agents and tour operators currently and seem to gradually penetrate the marketplace, gain direct access to consumers and increase their market share (O Connor and Frew, 2000). MTOs and major travel agents are starting to include in their business model the selling on-line concept, always in parallel with their traditional sales channels (Maglogiannis et al. 2002). In what concerns the graphical and functional design the main approaches and characteristics of the surveyed sites were: Use of impressive and innovative GUIs Support of English except of the local language in most of the cases Introduction of clever tools and configuration facilities for trip planning Integration of combined tourist information about travel destinations Modern on-line booking systems with credit card payment Extensive use of multimedia However, as discussed previously, the applications are still lacking of actual user friendliness. The actual usability of the web sites is what the developers need to consider apart from impressive graphical user interfaces. Many of the services are actually hidden in the sites and require effort from the potential traveller, in order to discover them. In what concerns the on-line booking in most of the cases the customer still has to fill a lot of blank boxes demanding a lot of time, a lot more than he will have to spend in a phone conversation with a real travel agency. 3 Survey performed through interviews and questionnaires This section reports on data being the outcome of actual interviews combined with questionnaires. These data supplement the internet market survey discussed in the previous subsection. The participants in the interviews concerning MTOs are two shipping lines from Greece (Minoan Lines S.A., Maritime Company of Lesvos S.A.) and four operating in West Mediterranean territory (P&O Ferry, Brittany Ferry, P&O Cruises, and Hapag LIoyd Cruises). The following table presents the offered applications for MTOs and provides a qualitative view of their acceptance according

7 to the questionnaires completed by MTOs. Note that H, M and L correspond to high, medium and low interest respectively. H M Trip/Port_weather Table 4. Applications for MTOs The participants in the interviews concerning travel agencies are 5 travel agencies from Greece and Spain (CRECORAMA S.A, Clipper S.A. ALSA, ECUADOR, and Viajes Illeras). The following table presents the offered applications for TAs and provides a qualitative view of their acceptance according to the questionnaires completed by TAs. H M Table 5. Applications for TAs Five Spanish ports participated in the interviews concerning port authorities (Port Authorities of Gijon, Bilbao, La Coruna, Santander and Aviles). The following table presents the offered applications for port authorities and provides a qualitative view of their acceptance according to the questionnaires completed by port authorities. H M Table 6. Applications for Port Authorities A combinatorial analysis of the results being the outcome both of the interviews (and the corresponding questionnaires) and the internet market survey is presented in the following figures. They present the most desired services from the MTOs, TAs and PA s perspective correspondingly. They can constitute the heart of future business activities in the maritime market. The EU Ten/Telecom TELESHIPPING project will produce business plans based on the presented combinational analysis.

8 Level of interest according to interviews/questionnaires MTO High Current implementation level according to internet market survey MTO Low Fig 1. MTOs Level of interest according to interviews/questionnaires TA High Current implementation level according to internet market survey TA TA High Trip/ Port_Weather Low Fig 2. TAs

9 Level of interest according to interviews/questionnaires PAG High Trip/ Port_Weather Current implementation level according to internet market survey PAG Low Fig 3. PAs 4 Conclusions Outlining the paper s web market survey results, recently there were not MTOs offering on line booking facilities in their web sites. Today a 50% of major passenger ship operators around the world had implemented it and a 30% allows their customers to purchase their ticket on-line. The trend is quite clear and the supply side of the market seems to realize it. Configuration tools for displaying ship schedules fall also in the interest of most of the surveyed sites. Combined tourist information about travel destinations integrated with the booking services is also a feature incorporated in a significant number of sites. The rest of the services are not so widely implemented. Another major result is the utilization of newly introduced technologies, such as Active Server Pages and XML enabling connections to large databases. The wider adoption of these platforms is expected to improve the usability of applications and, thus, further increase the use of the Web for maritime travel products sales (Buhalis 1998). However the current percentage of electronic ticket sales remains still in low levels in comparison with the conventional sales. The main reason is that, although the level of comfort of using internet booking applications is increasing, the applications are still lacking of actual user friendliness. What the users are still missing is a flexible, user friendly, reliable and complete reservation environment realizing the one stop

10 shopping concept. The easily reached, up to date and quickly delivered service is the main differentiating advantage of the business use of the Web that should be exploited. In this way developers have to study what the early pioneers of e-travel business are employing, to learn from their mistakes as well as their achievements. Aknowledgement Authors acknowledge the support given by the European Commission to the TEN/Telecom TeleSHIPping project ( for carrying this research. References Stern, L. and El-Ansary, A., (1992) Marketing Channels, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey,. Buhalis, D., Schertler, W. (Eds.), (1999). Information and communication technologies in tourism, Wien: Springer. Buhalis, D. (1998). Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry, Tourism Management, 19(5), French, T. (1998). The future of global distribution systems, Travel and Tourism Analyst, (3), O Connor, P., & Frew, A. (2000). Evaluating electronic channels of distribution in the hotel sector: A Delphi study. Information Technology and Tourism, 3(3/4), Sheldon, P. J. (1997). Tourism information technology. Oxford: CAB International. Kyriakou, D., (1998) Content vs. Distribution: the medium loses to the message, IPTS Report, No 1, February 1996, No 26, Recom, J. van, Teunissen, W. and Go, F., (1999) Improving the position of Business Travel Agencies: Coping with the Information Challenge, Information Technology and Tourism, Vol.2, pp Bordat, P. (1999). Repositioning a GDS for future electronic markets, ENTER 99 Conference proceedings, January, Innsbruck, Austria ( Maglogiannis, I., Kormentzas, G. and Panagiotarakis, N., (2002). The business model of a distributed Virtual Travel Agency. To be presented in 15th EEEE Conference in Operational Research 31 Oct- 2 Nov 2002 Tripoli Greece. Maglogiannis, I., Kormentzas, G. and Panagiotarakis, N.(2002), A business plan for a maritime telecommunication platform for providing ship management information and services for passengers and the general public, Ten/Telecom Work Programme Electronically available information in the URL: