Presentation done by Paraskevi Fountoulaki, Dr. M. Claudia Leue and Dr. Timothy Jung, during "Distribution systems" workshop, of the ENTER2015 eTourism conference.

1. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 1
Distribution Channels for Travel and
Tourism:
The Case of Crete
Paraskevi Fountoulaki
Dr. M. Claudia Leue
Dr. Timothy Jung
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
paraskevi.fountoulaki@stu.mmu.ac.uk
c.leue@mmu.ac.uk, t.jung@mmu.ac.uk

2. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 2
Background
• Dynamic packaging has transformed OTAs into online tour operators
• Bringing travel eMediaries in direct competition with the longer established
tour operators
– such as TUI, MyTravel or Thomas Cook
• Increased importance of mobile technology for the tourism distribution
channel market (Douglas and Lubbe, 2014)
• Online social networks, online review sites as well as mobile location-based
services have added additional channels of distribution
• Shifted the power of booking towards the consumer (Scaglione et al., 2013)
• After the explosive growth of these new technologies, extranet-XML is the
next step of empowering tourism providers and consumers

3. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 3
Justification of research
• Crete is one of Greece’s leading tourism regions
– a region dominated by coastal tourism
– online tour operators and low-cost airlines have experienced significant growth in
the past decade (Garin-Munoz and Perez-Amaral, 2010)
• Buhalis and Law (2008) suggested that scholars should not only take a
theoretical approach but should base their research on empirical data
when studying tourism distribution channels

4. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 4
Aim
• To update the tourism distribution
channel model by Kracht and
Wang (2010) within the context of
Crete, Greece
• To identify additional forms of
intermediations and account for
technological developments within
the online landscape.

5. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 5
Theoretical Framework
Source: Kracht and Wang, 2010.
Supplier call centre or retail outlet
Other search engine
Web-able
corporate agent
Host Agent Incoming
agent
Destination marketing
organisation
Consumer Google Meta-search
engine
Webable
retail agent
Web. able
tour operator
GDS Switch Supplier
Online
travel agent
GNE
Supplier website

6. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 6
Structure of Tourism Distribution Channels (2005-2009)
According to (Kracht and Wang, 2010) model consists :
•consumers
•online travel agents
•web-able corporate travel agents
•web-able tour operators
•Global Distribution System (GDS)
•Global New Entrants (GNE)
•incoming travel agents,
•switches
• destination marketing organisations (DMOs)
•web browser, other search engines
•suppliers website
•meta-search engines
•(CRS) Computer Reservation Systems

7. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 7
Methods
• Semi-structured interviews were conducted during the ITB Berlin
between 5th
to 9th
of March 2014.
• Interviews with 12 participants
– managers of all different types of Greek tour operators (traditional and non-
traditional),online booking/review agent and Cretan hoteliers including
Tripadvisor, HRS, Hotelbeds, Kuoni Group, TravelZoo, Hotelplan, YouTravel, Low
Cost Holidays.com
• Participants with at least 5 years of tourism business experience
• Content analysis

8. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 8
Findings
• The Crete hoteliers and the local travel agents are trying to support more the
traditional tour operators
• Hotel Sales Manager emphasised that “have a problem with flight… Crete is not a place
like Spain where you can go on a round-trip as you need to travel by plane” …..“tour
operators such as TUI, Thomas Cook and Alltours as well as Thompson own the capacity
of aircrafts”  Importance of traditional tour operators
• The influence of the technology has affected traditional tour operators due to an
increased demand for dynamic packaging
• According to a Contract Manager “all the traditional tour operators are following the
lead of the model of booking.com because now everybody is getting online platforms…
as it is the way to reduce costs and go faster and increase efficiency”…“Thomas Cook
has Hotels4U and TUI has Hotelbeds in an effort to get into this part of the business”

9. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 9
Findings
• Contract Manager of one of the online booking engines supported the importance of social media
by identifying that they had to integrate their booking engines via Facebook in order to account for
the increased demand on these networks
• Also, mentioned that “everybody goes through these channels (Facebook and Twitter) and they
influence a lot of the market”….. “the direction we are going in the future is social media and mobile
phones”
• Hotel Sales Manager pointed out that there is a new application – Meine TUI App - that TUI adopted
saying “You can do all the business from the day you decide to go for holiday until the departure
through your mobile app”
• The change in relationship between tour operators and hoteliers:
1. Local travel agencies will disappear
2. the appearance of Extranet-XML (Future trend will be B2C ; no more brokers and the customer will
directly make their own reservations, book transportation and excursions)

10. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 10
Proposed Structure of Tourism Distribution Channels Model
(2010-2014)
Meta-
search
engine
Social
media
Mobile
Supplier website
Online
travel
agent
GNE
Web-able
tour
operator
GDS Switch
Incoming
agent
Destination
marketing
organisation
Supplier
Host
agent
Web-able
retail agentGoogle
Other search
engine Web-able
co. agent
Supplier call center or retail outlet
Consumer

11. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 11
Proposed Structure of Tourism Distribution Channels Model in the
Future
Meta-
search
engine
Social
media
Mobile
Supplier website
Online
travel
agent
GNE
Web-able
tour operator
GDS Switch
Extranet-XML Destination
marketing
organisation
Supplier
Host
agent
Web-able
retail
agent
Google
Other search engine Web-
able co.
agent
Supplier call center or retail outlet
Consumer

12. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 12
Conclusion
.
• Theoretical contributions:
– Proposed model, which is based on key players within the Cretan tourism context.
– Identified the importance of Extranet-XML for the future of tourism distribution
channels supporting Caber et al.(2013).
– The importance of mobile devices and social media for platforms such as
Tripadvisor was confirmed within this study

13. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 13
Conclusion
• Industry implications:
– The updated model as well as the future model show
opportunities and areas to focus marketing strategies on
– Understanding the tourist behaviour is important to travel
suppliers and tourism authorities for formulating effective
marketing strategies and policies

14. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 14
Limitation
• Study is only applicable to Cretan context
• Not generalisable to other destinations
• Not tested quantitatively
• Only investigated the supply side perspective

15. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 15
Recommendations
• To update the tourism distribution channels
model on a regular basis
• Further research in different geographical and
touristic contexts
• The customer perspective is important to identify
in the future
• Future research might investigate the effect of
different forms of wearables on tourism
distribution channels

16. ENTER 2015 Research Track Slide Number 16
Thank you very much for your attention!