IT Outsourcing in Tourism Businesses in the UK: Decision-Making Approach

As sophistication and complexity in information technology (IT) increases, organisations are discovering difficulties in managing their information systems efficiently and effectively for commercial success. The access to state-of-the-art technologies has accelerated the need for different approaches to managing IT resources. Companies increasingly perceive IT outsourcing as a necessary organisational resource-acquisition venture, and tourism enterprises are not an exception. This paper is based on a recent research study into IT outsourcing in tourism businesses. It investigates the attitudes towards IT outsourcing in the industry, identifies the benefits sought from outsourcing arrangements and the results achieved, and based on how the benefits and detriments of outsourcing are measured and justified, evaluates the ‘quality’ of IT outsourcing decision-making. The research is theoretically supported, drawing reference to general published literature on outsourcing and linking this to observations arising from the findings based on a survey of managers and those involved in IT decisions in 56 tourism organisations in the UK.