Information and Communications Technologies in Tourism

The proceedings of the conference ENTER - International Conference on Information and Communications Technologies in Tourism provide an international forum for the discussion of the role of telecommunication and information systems in tourism, inform potential users and people concerned with the importance of such technologies and to explain their functioning, and finally intensify the contact and the communication between researchers, system developers and users. Tourism and leisure industry experiences a fast technological development, however, the different participants in this market are very differently prepared to meet this challange (e. g. big airlines with their reservation systems versus a rather small structured supplier on the other side). This is the background to the discussion presented in this volume, dealing with questions like how an equal and fruitful cooperation for all participants can take place, when one should participate in this development and enter the electronic market, what are the dangers of entering too early or too late, whether the environment is prepared for such a development, and what can be learned from other sectors. The results of this discussion are of interest for scientists, researchers and practitioners in tourism as well as in the computer industry.