Современные информационные технологии/3. Программное обеспечение

Ст. преподаватель Денисова И.В.,

студентка Букарева С.В.

Омский государственный университет путей сообщения (ОмГУПС)

The role of tourism information technologies in Russia.

The purpose of our scientific research is to explore modern possibilities of tourism information technologies.

Our presentation is divided into 3 parts. The first one is internet technologies in tourism. The second part is the rating of booking websites in Russia. The third part is the development of online booking in social network.

It is impossible to imagine our life without the global internet today. More and more services are offered there. The tourism industry is no exception. Tourism today is a global computerized business, which involves major airlines, hotel chains and travel corporations. There are many internet services for tourists, some of the products bought through the Internet include tickets, vouchers and even insurance. According to PhoCusWright customer research which is the most credible and quoted source of information and analysis in the tourism industry, 40 million Russians use the Internet every day and 72% can afford to travel [2]. We can follow positive dynamics of selling tourist services through the Internet.

Diagram1.

In 2011 Russian tourists bought 125 thousand tickets online, in 2012 - already 500 thousand, and in 2013 the figure is projected to rise to 1 million [1].

We asked the leading travel companies to tell us about their products, the market situation and the prospective development.

Table 1.

The name of organization	Offered services	Expanding services	The future of online booking (personal opinion)
Pososhok.ru	Airline tickets, tickets for express trains, hotels, insurance issue, transfer	+	Package services, lower prices
Bronevik.com	Transfer, package tour	-	Growing demand
HotelDiscount.ru	Hotels	-	Package services
Bedsonline.ru	Hotels, transfer, car rental, visa services	+	Growing demand
Acase.ru	Airline tickets, hotels	+	Growing demand

According to the survey of leading sites online reservation, it turned out that mostly they offer transfer, hotel and airline tickets.

Diagram 1.

60% want to expand the list of services.

Diagram 2.

Leading travel companies consider that the main effect of the online service development is the growing demand.

Diagram 3.

Moving on to the rating of Russian websites. Russia dynamically develops a branch of online booking. Today 75% ofcustomers research products and services before buying them online. Russian customers gradually move from a package tour to a self-booking individual tour. It makes possible to investigate information on the Internet and carefully plan your travel. Table 3 represents some sites Russian customers put their trust in.

Table 2. The Rating of booking websites in Russia

1. Turpoisk.ru

2. Chartex.ru

3. HotelsBroker.ru

4. China Travel.ru

5. CheapPlane.ru

6. Olympia-reisen.ru

7. Rozamira.com

8. Uts24.ru

9. S7ticket.ru

10. Spbtur.ru

Another feature of the Internet booking is associated with social networks. A few years ago, no one took them seriously, but today social media is a good source of income for the tourist business. For example SABRE issued a software component called Social Conversion to increase sales of hotel rooms with the help of social networks [4].

Research conducted by the marketing agency eConsultancy, shows that about 40% of travelers use social networks to find information before they make the reservation [3].

This practice is quite new in Russia, but rather developed in the U.S.A. Table 4 shows the top most popular social network sites in Russia and the U.S.A. [4].

Table 3.

In conclusion we would like to notice, that in recent years in Russia online sales of travel services have grown rapidly. There are a few reasons. Firstly, it gives customer an advantage of saving money for. Secondly, it gives the opportunity to explore services in detail and look through other people`s reports. Thirdly, you can buy and book online even through the social network. In other words, the role of information technologies in tourism is great. They are convenient, economical, individual and allow to keep up with the times.

References

1. PhoCusWright Global Travel Market Research Company http://v4.phocuswright.com/.

2. Bob Offutt & Cathy Schetzina «Travel Innovation & Technologies Trends: 2012 & Beyond»

3. Econsultancy http://econsultancy.com/.

4. SABRE travel network http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/ .

5. Журнал «Турбизнес» тематический выпуск №11 технологии.