Introduction

The rapid growth of the travel industry requiressophisticated information technologies ITs formanaging the increasing volume and quality of tourism traffic. Prior studies have indicated thatmodern travellers demand more high qualitytravel services, products, information, and valuefor their money Christian, 2001; Lubetkin,1999; Samenfink, 1999. The emergence of new tourism services and products, coupledwith a rapid increase in tourism demand, havedriven the widescale adoption of ITs ingeneral, and in particular, the Internet as anelectronic intermediary. In other words, theInternet serves as a new communication anddistribution channel for etravellers andsuppliers of travel services and products. Thisnew channel also enables tourism businesses toimprove their competitiveness andperformance.Tourism researchers have emphasized theimportance of the Internet on travel andtourism. For tourism suppliers, the Internetprovides a way for them to sell their productsglobally to potential travellers at any time.These suppliers can remotely control theirservers to display information onservices/products at an electronic speedInkpen, 1998; Law, 2000. The successfulfactors for a travel Web site, from a suppliersperspective, are lower distribution costs, higherrevenues, and a larger market share. Fortravellers, the Internet allows them tocommunicate directly with tourism suppliers torequest information, and to purchaseproducts/services at any time and any placeOlmeda and Sheldon, 2001.