Emerging Dynamics in the Travel Agencies Sector: Evidence from Greece

The current developments in the international tourism environment and the changes in both tourism demand and tourism supply have had an important impact on travel agencies and have increased the external risks and threats they face. Some of those changes are related to new technologies and the expansion of their use by tourism enterprises and by the end consumers/tourists. Such threats are more intense in the case of small travel agencies and more particularly those operating in locations or countries welcoming tourists, such as Greece. The objective of this paper is to examine to what extent the Greek travel agencies have adopted information technologies (IT), how important do they consider IT use for the improvement of their operation and effectiveness and whether or not they are willing to make further investments in IT in the future. The survey, which was conducted by means of structured personal interviews addressed to managers and owners of travel agencies, revealed useful information on the importance attributed to IT considering among others the geographical location of the enterprise and the post held by the interviewee.