Destination Maui? An Exploratory Assessment of the Efficacy of Self-Booking in Travel

A b s t r a c t The travel industry, one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world, appears particularly interesting in terms of the possibilities offered by electronic commerce. It is one of the industries where business is already conducted successfully on the Internet and where the importance of electronic commerce is likely to grow. In order to investigate the opportunities offered as well as the problems facing any consumer trying to make his/her own travel reservations on the Internet, an empirical study was conducted among students attending an intermediary level course on Electronic Commerce. The study was divided into two parts, consisting of (i) a quotation competition in which the students were to act as travel agents, submitting an offer for a journey according to some given specifications ; and (ii) a measurement, in which the students who submitted offers were asked to report on their booking experiences, especially the problems they encountered during the task. Within the travel industry, the travel agents have been characterized as the most endangered organization, as their job is increasingly being seen as replaceable by technology. The results of this study do not support this vision, although it became evident that the students' attitudes towards online Inter-net-bookings remained positive despite the expensive offers and the perceived difficulties. A u t h o r s Bill Anckar ([email protected]) is a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research, Abo Akademi. His research interests are focused on electronic commerce and marketing issues in the travel and tourism industry. Pirkko Walden ([email protected]) is a professor of marketing at Pori School of Technology and Economics, Tampere University of Technology. Her research interests are focused on electronic commerce, virtual teamwork, knowledge-based support systems, and strategic management.