WEB 2.0 in the tourism industry: A new tourism generation and new e-business models

During the last years, we are experiencing the mushrooming and increased use of web tools enabling Internet users to both create and distribute content (multimedia information). These tools referred to as Web 2.0 technologies-applications can be considered as the tools of mass collaboration, since they empower Internet users to actively participate and simultaneously collaborate with other Internet users for producing, consuming and diffusing the information and knowledge being distributed through the Internet. In other words, Web 2.0 tools do nothing more than realising and exploiting the full potential of the genuine concept and role of the Internet (i.e. the network of the networks that is created and exists for its users). The content and information generated by users of Web 2.0 technologies are having a tremendous impact not only on the profile, expectations and decision making behaviour of Internet users, but also on e-business model that businesses need to develop and/or adapt. The tourism industry is not an exception from such developments. On the contrary, as information is the lifeblood of the tourism industry the use and diffusion of Web 2.0 technologies have a substantial impact of both tourism demand and supply. Indeed, many new types of tourism cyber-intermediaries have been created that are nowadays challenging the e-business model of existing cyberintermediaries that only few years ago have been threatening the existence of intermediaries!. In this vein, the purpose of this article is to analyse the major applications of Web 2.0 technologies in the tourism and hospitality industry by presenting their impact on both demand and supply.