Travel Technology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Travel Technology is a term used to describe applications of Information Technology (IT), or Information and Communications Technology (ICT), in travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Travel technology may also be referred to as tourism technology or even hospitality automation. Web 2.0 is a current buzzword in the travel technology community, used to describe various social software applications. XML is an increasingly important aspect of travel technology for handling metadata toward the semantic web. Immigration technology, known as tecurity, such as the biometric passport may also be included as travel technology in the broad sense.

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[edit] Definition of Travel Technology

Since travel implies locomotion, travel technology was originally associated with the computer reservations system (CRS) of the airlines industry, but now is used more inclusively, incorporating the broader tourism sector as well as its subset the hospitality industry. While travel technology includes the computer reservations system, it also represents a much broader range of applications, in fact increasingly so. Travel technology includes virtual tourism in the form of virtual tour technologies, and in fact there is even a Wikipedia:WikiProject Virtual Tour. Travel technology may also be referred to as e-travel / etravel or e-tourism / etourism (eTourism), in reference to "electronic travel" or "electronic tourism".

In other contexts, the term "travel technology" can refer to technology intended for use by travelers, such as light-weight laptop computers with universal power supplies or satellite Internet connections. That is not the sense in which it is used here.

[edit] Applications of Travel Technology

Travel technology includes many processes such as dynamic packaging which provide useful new options for consumers. Today the tour guide can be a soundseeing tour, and the guidebook could be an audioguide, podguide or I-Tours.

[edit] History of Travel Technology

Certainly travel technology was born on the coattails of the airline industry's use of automation and their need to extend this out to the travel agency partners. It should be kept in mind that there was an online world before the advent of the world wide web in the form of private and commercial online services, via packet switched network using X.25. Travel technology played a significant role in the so-called dot-com boom and bust, circa 1997-2001.

See also: History of the Internet , History of the World Wide Web

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Travel websites
Aviation Safety Network | CheapTickets | CentralR.com | Expedia | Hotels.com | FlightAware | Flyaow | FlyerTalk | Go10000 | Gotobus | IgoUgo | Ixeo | Kayak.com | Lonely Planet | Orbitz | Opodo | Priceline.com | Railpage Australia | Rough Guides | Seatguru | SideStep | Site59.com | Transport Direct | Travel journal | Travelocity | TripAdvisor | VEGAS.com | Venere | Virtualtourist | Wikitravel | World66

Category:Travel technology