Handbook on E-marketing for Tourism Destinations

Book excerpt: The internet and other new technologies have changed the tourism industry in an unprecedented way, and keeping pace has become challenging. Online information is now one of the primary influences on consumer decisions in nearly all major markets. For example, 41 per cent of tourists arriving in Spain in 2007 had booked through the internet, and in the United States the number of trips bought online exceeded those purchased offline. Such changes are impacting and influencing the way destinations and companies manage and market themselves.