According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the tourism industry in the Caribbean contributes to 13.9% of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP).1 Consequently, the state of the tourism industry is exceptionally important to the Caribbean. However, the sector is remarkably vulnerable to both internal and external shocks; including natural disasters, global pandemics, economic crisis among other factors. In light of the sector vulnerability there is a need to mitigate the impact of these vulnerabilities, especially in light of the most recent global pandemic—Covid-19. Which has significantly, reduced the movement of people across the world, which has tremendous economic impact on the Caribbean key foreign exchange sources. The use and widespread integration of Information communication Technologies has the ability to mitigate the challenges experienced by the industry and improve the provision of service.
As technology develops and firms increase their adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), there comes a shift in focus from what one may call “the Big Picture” to more bespoke solutions that are appropriate for diverse, individualized scenarios. This is not to say that more orthodox or mainstream management practices have been discarded. While these still prove effective, especially in smaller owner-managed travel firms, it does illustrate an expansion of perspectives.
The use of computers and other technologies in the travel industry is not a new idea. Computers have been in use by travel agencies since the 1950s with the creation of the first reservation systems—TIS and Gulliver during the 1980s,2 and major global distribution systems (GDSs) like SABRE and Amadeus in the 1990s. Over the years these systems have evolved into more advanced tourist information systems.
We see this trend continuing today, resulting in a myriad of travel reservation and monitoring systems across the internet; each of them able to access, and benefit from, the others’ information databases and architectures. This has resulted in the most leveled playing field the industry has witnessed to date, with numerous options in products and services available to both producers and consumers.3
Emerging characteristics of this trend include the development of new value chains and systems. This new infrastructure allows industry players to take increased advantage of the opportunities presented by applying the latest technologies.4 However, in order for a travel agency to take advantage of these benefits, certain preconditions must be met.
Moital et al. (2009) make it clear that the adoption of this new paradigm requires familiarity with, or at least a basic understanding of, the tools inherent in this new paradigm. Specifically, computers and the internet.
A travel firm’s staff requires a certain minimal level of fluency in computer literacy. They may not need to be able to code programs, but they do need to understand how to interact with computer hardware and software. This is a fundamental prerequisite to being able to access and navigate the internet.
The staff also require, at the very least, a basic level of understanding of the internet itself. This is necessary for them to be able to effectively engage in activities such as internet sales, also referred to as e-commerce, and internet marketing. These may also be referred to as SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Internet Marketing is a wider term, encompassing both SEM and SEO, but in common parlance, they tend to be used interchangeably.
This stepwise progression allows us to appreciate the dependencies between each step. This also establishes the notion that engagement at each step assumes previous engagement (and experience) in preceding steps. We may refer to this as the “innovation interdependence perspective.” From this perspective, we can project a full stack of progressive steps as follows:
Since 2000 it’s been argued that different regions in the world are at different levels when it comes to being able to integrate and utilize the internet; this is referred to as “internet readiness.” While America and Canada were strong early adopters, Europe, in the nineties and early 2000s, had been a year and a half behind North America when it came to levels of internet adoption.5 However, while Europe has essentially caught up to North America, countries in the developing world, including the Caribbean, are lagging behind, and there are unfortunate consequences for countries and businesses that are slow to integrate ICTs.
Most travel agencies in the Caribbean are focused on the outbound traveler. As such, they may not experience issues like disintermediation—the consolidation and reduction of intermediaries—at the same pace as more developed countries. This has resulted in a lack of strategic planning and proactive measures on the part of local travel agencies.
The reason for this was partially the perception that most Caribbean people did not place much trust in the concept of making purchases on the internet, reflected in a study by Lin.6 This led to certain considerations. Firstly, most travel firms in the Caribbean are focused on the outward-bound market. Secondly, there is a gap with regard to access to technology (what may be termed as the “digital divide”) between tourists and Caribbean travel destinations. These considerations raise the question of whether the inbound travel market is a gap that the local travel firms can fill if they can bridge the digital divide.
There is, however, another disincentive for local firms in catering to the inbound market. Inbound travel does not provide a commission comparable to what they may make in outbound travel. This is, unfortunately, a shortsighted view as it fails to take into consideration opportunities presented through value-adding and dynamic packaging, i.e., creating travel solutions on a more individualized basis.
More recently, the digital divide has been shrinking, but according to Minghetti and Buhalis,7 there are still significant gaps between Caribbean destinations, developed nations and the tourists thereof. This will lead to varying levels of “digital exclusion,” where certain companies lose business opportunities because of some technological inadequacy.
Minghetti and Buhalis have conducted research on the digital divide in the context of the tourism industry. Their work highlights challenges in areas such as marketing and communications between tourism-generating countries and tourist destinations. Tourists and enterprises from these developed, tourism-generating regions interact on electronic platforms. These platforms reduce the need for brick-and-mortar locations where enterprises and clients have to interact face-to-face. According to Minghetti and Buhalis,
The study of the digital divide is critical for less technologically developed regions that need to expand their ICT usage to be able to promote their offerings, interact with consumers, and reduce their dependence on intermediaries.8
One important consideration from the study is the fact that tourists who are not tech-savv...