Enquiry Systems Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Enquiry Systems - Case Study Example They have discovered that some of their previous customers simply plan their holidays by searching all touristic information about their destination on the internet. They can simply reserve a hotel in another country and they can easily reserve and buy their flight tickets through the World Wide Web. In addition, many airlines has sold travel packages to their customers themselves and they found they did not need to pay a commissions to travel agencies. The managers of Garbett Tours have also found that some travel agencies in recent years have changed/adapted their business to the changes of information technology. They have discovered that the concepts of B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) determines the relations of online businesses in new and modern information technology. Having a view on some of successful online travel agencies, they are determined to adapt Garbett tours to new internet based market. The method of enquiry for this case study is based on UST (unbounded system thinking) since the problem is complicated and the source of the problems seems to be the entities which effect each other. Therefore finding an exact source of the "problem", is difficult because we are dealing with the innovations in IT industry, change of the way other providers like Airlines serve their customers, the drivers that effect the tourism industry and the idea of removing layers from the package holiday distribution network. In order to resolve the problems faced by Garbett Tours, creative approaches to the solution are needed which will be discussed in following tasks. Task 2 "According to Poirier (2000) tourism today is second only to oil as the world's leading export commodity, accounting for global earnings of more than $300 billion, or nearly 25 per cent of total world GNP. Over the last two decades, tourism has proved to be the world's fastest growing economic sector, with average growth of 7.1 per cent per year in arrivals and 12.5 per cent in receipts."1(Citation Needed) "Despite these statistics, tourism growth in many countries has not been this high, in particular those countries confronted with various political instabilities that have slowed development in tourism."(JR Ryu, 2006) Political stability and political relations influence the image of destinations in touristic regions (Hall and O'Sullivan,1996, JR Ryu, 2006). "The political aspects of tourism are interwoven with its economic consequencestourism is not only a "continuation of politics" but an integral part of the world's political economy. In short, tourism is, or can be, a tool used not only for economic but for political means" (Edgell, 1990, JR Ryu, 2006). History shows that tourism has been always affected by political instabilities. An example of political instability is the issue of Tiananmen Square, June 4 1989 in China. "Prime time news coverage showed army tanks threatening the civilian population. After that, Tiananmen Square incident Hotel occupancy rates in Beijing dipped below 30 per cent and as a result, Tourism earnings for China declined by $430 million in 1989 alone."( JR Ryu, 2006) (This needs a citation) Other political drivers are the effects of military coups