Electronic business in tourism

The web changes commercial activities such as information gathering, shopping, trading, collaboration, and distribution to which companies need to adapt their strategies. The importance of information and communication technology (ICT), especially of the internet in the travel and tourism industry has increased tremendously over the past few years. The travel and tourism area is one of those industries, which are able to gain enormous synergy effects from use of the internet. The research projects at the ec3 focus on the tourism area from different perspectives. This paper provides an overview of the work within the xCom project in this research area by looking at trends and developments within the eTourism area. We give an overview of the travel and tourism industry and the changes caused by ICT. These changes lead to several threats and opportunities which will be outlined in our ‘competitive advantage in eTourism’ framework.