This document provides a summary of a lecture on different types of tourism websites and their business models. It includes 11 categories of tourism websites with descriptions of their general category, business model, and main task. The categories covered are travel suppliers, travel agents, online travel agents, travel communities, travel metasearch engines, accommodation brokers, travel publishers, small service suppliers, unofficial "destinations", travel blogs, and destination management organizations. It also discusses destination management systems and the options for how destination management organizations can provide hotel booking services on their websites.

1. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
IT for Tourism
Managers.
Who Are They?
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2. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
What We Are Talking About Today
1. Different Sorts of Tourist
2. Our Source Today
3. “Amadeus”? What Is That?
4. A Taxonomy Of Tourism Websites
5. Who’s Who?
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3. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Calendar. November 17, 2015
Tuesday, Nov 17
Who Are They?
“Shalt Love Thy Neighbor”
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Thursday, Nov 12
Who Are We?
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4. 4
They? “Shalt Love Thy Neighbor”
UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.
© 2015 Peanuts Worldwide LLC

5. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Different Sorts of Tourists
Short-break tourists?
Young tourists? Backpackers?
Cultural tourists?
Families? Vacationers?
Businessmen?
“Silent” tourists?
Their needs are different. How to satisfy all those different needs?
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6. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Our Source Today
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A suggested link from the 44111 Program

7. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
“Amadeus”? What Is That?
Amadeus IT Group SA /æməˈdeɪʊs aɪ tiː ɡrʊp/ is a Spanish IT Provider for the
global travel and tourism industry.
Amadeus was originally created as a neutral global distribution system
(GDS) by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS in 1987 in order to connect
providers' content with travel agencies and consumers in real time.
The creation of Amadeus was intended to offer a European alternative to
Sabre, the American GDS.
In short, Amadeus is a tourism website…
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Source: Wikipedia, accessed 20151116

8. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
A Taxonomy Of Tourism Websites
But, when you come across a website somehow dealing with tourism, can you
say what is it for?
Can you spell its
• Category?
• Business Model?
• Main Task?
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9. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Travel Suppliers
(Air France, Deutsche
Bahn, Trenitalia,
RyanAir, Accor, Holiday
Inn, Hertz etc.)
Online sale of tourism
services (flights, hotels,
car rentals etc.) mostly
produced by the
suppliers themselves
Selling services directly
(no agents)
Travel Suppliers
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (1) – Big Private, or Public
... and we’re not dealing here with B2B GDSs like Amadeus or Sabre…
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10. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Pre-Digital Agents
(big like TUI and Amex,
or small like SmallWorld
and local travel shops)
Intermediation of
tourism services mostly
not produced by them
Selling travel packages
Travel Agents
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (2) – Big or Small Private
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11. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Online Travel Agents
(OTA or OLTA, like
Travelocity, Expedia,
Booking.com, Priceline,
Venere, HostelWorld,
eDreams etc.)
Online intermediation
and sale of tourism
services (flights,
accommodation, car
rentals, packaged tours
etc.) mostly not
produced by agents
Cashing brokerage
rates (under different
specific models:
Expedia’s differs from
Booking.com’s)
Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (3) – Big Private
Online Travel Agents
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12. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Travel Communities
(first of all, Tripadvisor)
Online comparison of
tourism services (often
accommodation, food
and points of interest)
through user-generated
content: tipically,
customer reviews
Cashing advertisings
(though recently
TripAdvisor has become
something very very
close to an OTA)
Travel Communities
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (4) – Big Private
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13. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Travel Metasearch
Engines (or fare
aggregators, like
Trivago, Kayak,
Mobissimo etc.)
Online comparison of
tourism services and
their fares (flights,
accommodation, car
rentals, packaged tours
etc.) mostly offered by
Online Travel Agents
Cashing intermediation,
mostly from Online
Travel Agents
Travel Metasearch Engines
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (5) – Big Private
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14. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Accommodation
Brokers (like AirB&B,
Wimdu, Couchsurfing,
etc.)
Online intermediation
of accommodation
either provided by small
business or made
available by citizens
Cashing brokerage
rates, if any.
(These websites often
disguise as shareware.)
Accommodation Brokers
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (6) – Private
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15. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Travel Publishers
(Frommer’s, Lonely
Planet, Touring Club
Italiano, Michelin etc.)
Sale of guidebooks,
travel books or digital
content, mostly
produced by the
publishers themselves
Selling books or digital
content directly (no
intermediation). Also
selling massive digital
content to destinations
or companies.
Travel Publishers
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (7) – Private
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16. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Accommodation
Suppliers
(Family-run private
hotel, Bed & Breakfast,
Farmhouse, like
frances.it)
Online sale of tourism
services (hospitality)
produced by the
suppliers themselves
Selling services directly
(no intermediation)
or
selling through
Online Travel Agents
and/or DMOs
Small Service Suppliers
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (8) – Small Private
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17. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Small Businesses
or Amateurs (like
CiaoMilano)
Sponsorship and/or
advertisements on the
website; possibly sale of
digital content;
affiliation
Informing on a tourist
area, and possibly
making marginal profits
through affiliations
Unofficial “Destinations”, and Affiliation
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (9) – Small Private
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18. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
Travel Blogs (or
travelogue, like
PeterGreenberg,
NomadicMatt,
DigitalNomad, etc.)
None – though some
travel bloggers
increasingly act as
professional travel
writers or journalists.
Affiliation is also
possible
Informing on personal
travels, possibly making
profits through
agreements with DMOs
or publishers, and/or
marginal profits
through affiliations
Travel Blogs
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (10) – Small Private
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19. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
General Category
of Tourism Websites
Business Model Main Task
DMOs [Destination
Management or
Marketing
Organizations]
(or LTBs, Local Tourist
Boards, or RTBs,
Regional Tourist Boards)
Either public
or private/public
funding
Attracting visitors to the
destination; marketing
the destination and
local actors; informing
and assisting visitors
before, during and after
their visit
Destination Management Organizations
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Categories of Tourism Websites Taxonomy (11) – The Public, or Consortia
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20. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Who’s Who?
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If you’re in doubt about a website’s business model, finding out who owns the second-level domain
name may be worthwhile.
To do so, you can consult the whois form on websites like Network Solutions, where owners of the
“international” domain names, the first level of which is .com, .net, .org, .biz, .tv, .travel or the like,
are usually found.
National domains instead, the first level of which coincide with national states’ acronyms – like .pl for
Poland, .it for Italy, or .uk for the United Kingdom – should be searched for by consulting the
individual national registration authorities.
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21. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
DMSs, Destination Management Systems
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In terms of digital management of tourism destinations, there’s more to be considered.
Let’s introduce the Destination Management System, or DMS.
DMSs are based on digital platforms. They rely on content management systems intended to drive
local tourism operators to cooperate with one another. This in instrumental to manage a local
tourism system – or, if you prefer, a destination as a network.
In fact, DMSs are based on a network approach as far as tourism operators (local authorities, hotels,
restaurants, museums, art galleries...) are concerned
... or, rather, DMS are supposed to be based on a network approach.
The story of Tiscover provides examples.
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22. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Digital! What To Do?
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Back to our taxonomy, we have to realize that business models can clash.
It is now appropriate, then, to introduce the issue of which policy can a destination adopt, when it
deals with selling its tourism services – starting from hotel chambers – to the general public.
Here are the four available options.
1. Doing Nothing. A DMO can choose not to mention
hotel accommodation at all.
Several national tourist boards adopt this policy, as many
DMOs are statutorily not allowed to advice visitors as far as
accommodation is concerned, and are not allowed to sell
anything.
 But an essential service is missing.
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23. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
More Choices for the DMOs
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2. Linking To The Hotels’ Websites. A DMO can list the local hotels, and add links to the hotels’
websites. In practice, this is often the only viable choice.
 A service is formally provided, but visitors won't use it very much: it’s easier, for them, referring to
a OTA website.
3. Building Its Own Platform. A DMO can build its own
hotel reservation system, as a public component of its DMS.
 Although this is an expensive option – and many visitors
would still use their favourite OTAs – building a local
reservation system is certainly the most thorough choice:
the DMO fully takes care of, represents and promotes
the hotels in its territory.
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24. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Coming To Terms With The Enemy
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4. Dealing With An OTA. Finally, a DMO can find an agreement with an OTA or a Travel Metasearch
Engine.
An hotel reservation service is somehow provided, and the DMO can get some profits through an
affiliation agreement.
 Although this is the cheapest and quickest option, critics
might observe that, by doing so, the DMO
looses all its control on accommodation policies,
and abandons all the hotels in its own area – which a DMO
should take care of, represent and promote – to the OTA’s
power and will.
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25. UniBg .:. IT for Tourism Managers .:. 2015-2016 .:.Roberto Peretta
Hoteliers and E-Commerce
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A similar – yet more compelling – issue must be addressed by hoteliers.
Destinations can choose to avoid OTAs, but hotels actually can’t.
People are increasingly accustomed to book through their favourite OTA, and hotels which are not
listed on OTAs run the risk of becoming invisible.
On the other hand, OTA obviously charge a percentage on reservations placed through them –
which erodes the hoteliers’ income.
Although dealing with private enterprises is beyond the scope of these lectures, this issue has at
least to be mentioned here.
Some materials on management of tourism enterprises – relating to previous workshops held by
your lecturer – are available from the CeSTIT webpages or from the IT for Tourism Managers
webpage at the University website http://www.unibg.it/struttura/en_struttura.asp?corso=44111
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