Tourism is one of the world’s largest economic activities, with over US $2 billion worldwide generated every day by international tourism alone. With almost 900 million international tourist arrivals recorded in 2007, the market is predicted to expand to 1.6 billion by 2020.
The role of technology in the tourism industry, particularly information and communication technology (ICT) is fast expanding. There are over 1.2 billion internet users and over 2 billion mobile devices, and the use of ICT tools is clearly becoming a competitive factor for both tourism destinations and enterprises.
Working together UNWTO and Microsoft are combining tourism knowledge and technical innovation to create a set of tourism solutions that leverage the latest technologies. These solutions are designed to help tourism managers and country authorities to better address the opportunities offered by tourism and address some of the challenges they face.
Online tools and the Internet offer significant advantages over traditional means of communication. These include: low-cost, high-speed transmission of information on destinations; possibility to integrate and analyse information from many different providers into a single portal; targeted destination promotion to specific online audiences; opportunities for promotion of small, local businesses; use of multimedia tools such as photos, videos, audio and virtual tours; sharing of experiences between tourists with User Generated Content; and facilitated administrative procedures for tourists such as immigration checks and visas.
Source: http://www.tourismindiaonline.com
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