In tourism over the past decades there have been serious changes associated with the development of scientific and technological progress. These are various information technologies that are related to the processing and transmission of information.

Multimedia technologies

These include various catalogs and directories. In them you can find detailed information about countries, routes, hotels. Also, the catalogs provide information about the rules of conduct in extreme situations and the proper execution of documents. Clients have the opportunity to plan a tour taking into account prices, discounts, season, and transport.

Another modern information technology in tourism is virtual travel and excursions. Viewers get the opportunity to explore attractions and museums before actually visiting them. This is viewing a variety of moving panoramas (buildings, streets, parks, hotel premises, museum exhibits). There is also a function for embedding explanatory notes and voicing the presentation.

Benefits of multimedia presentations:

• efficient provision of tourism services and goods;
• facilitating contact with company employees;
• vivid memories of the company.

Electronic tourism catalogs are actively used both in Russia and abroad. Here are some of them:

• Air Travel Planner;
• Flight Guide;
• Hotel Guide.

E-commerce

The essence of this technology is making purchases at home in real time. This became possible thanks to the Internet and electronic means of payment. Creating a virtual travel agency allows you to expand your sales geography and attract additional clientele.

Advantages of e-commerce for travel companies:

• availability of feedback;
• development of new channels for product sales;
• mobile and technological exchange of information with partners and clients;
• reducing the time for transferring funds;
• reduction of financial costs.

Advantages of electronic sales for customers:

• the ability to compare prices and conditions of different companies;
• prompt access to information;
• receiving bonuses and additional discounts for online bookings.

Video text

The innovation combines the capabilities of email, reservations and computer systems. For example, in England they use the Prestel system, supported by British Telecom.

Almost 90% of travel agencies actively use it. The main component is a TV, which acts as a display, an adapter and a keyboard for data entry. The system provides the following data:

• offers from airlines, hotels, ferries, railway lines, tour operators;
• travel information;
• the latest changes and news in all areas.

France also uses videotext, but they use a different system called Mintel.

Booking systems

One of the most important information technologies in the tourism industry is global reservation systems. They allow you to select the desired hotel and room type for specific dates. Once a request has been booked, a confirmation is immediately sent by email. They are already used by more than eight hundred thousand travel agencies around the world.

Here is a list of some of them:

• Amadeus;
• Sabre;
• Worldspan;
• Galileo;
• Sirena-Travel.

Benefits of use:

• reduction of time costs;
• improving the quality of services;
• increased productivity.

Amadeus

At first it was only a European reservation system, but over time it made a breakthrough and entered the American market. This service provides access to the resources of hotels, airlines, ferry and rail transportation, and insurance companies. It is used by several thousand travel agencies around the world.

Advantages:

• control of all mutual settlements;
• flexible system administration;
• availability of a convenient and multifunctional interface;
• high stability, independent of the volume of data being processed;
• automatic import of any reservation.

Services:

• having access to confidential tariffs of the largest airlines for its clients;
• own database of airline fares;
• sending information (about the route, schedule, invoices for payment) directly from the system.

Options for connecting to the system:

• through the Internet;
• Dual-up telephone version;
• via dedicated communication lines.

Saber

This is a system that provides customers with information about airline pricing and rules, schedules, and seat availability. It also provides the opportunity to book and issue air tickets, boarding passes and other documents.

Additional tourist information:

• visa instructions;
• medical requirements;
• currency conversion;
• information about local attractions.

Connection options:

• Net Platform (designed for small and medium-sized agencies);
• Turbo Saber (supports email, user database, confidential rates);
• Planet Saber (represented by a simple and intuitive graphical interface).

Worldspan

One of the first reservation systems that began to promote travel technologies in the field of e-commerce. It primarily makes reservations for air transport and hotels, car rental companies, and theaters.

Connection options:

1. British Telecom. The condition for connection is the reservation of 400 segments.
2. Worldspan Net. A complete functional analogue of the stationary version using the Internet as a communication channel.

Galileo

The system is widely used around the world (in more than one hundred countries). Such large hotel companies as Hilton, Radisson and many others are associated with it. The service provides the following functions:

• automation of the air ticket booking process;
• information about tourism services and products;
• message exchange;
• ordering additional services.

Galileo features more low-cost carriers than any other global booking engine.

Sirena-Travel

This is the only domestic distribution system for air travel bookings in Russia and the CIS countries. It contains information about tariffs, conditions for their application, availability and schedule. Using it, you can create connecting routes with your flights and with flights of other airlines.

Recently, tourism is a global computerized business. Leading airlines, hotels and travel agencies take part in it. The use of information technology makes it more individual, flexible and attractive to consumers.

Lecture 5

The specifics of the technology for the development and sale of tourism products require systems that, in the shortest possible time, would provide information about the availability of vehicles and the possibilities of accommodating tourists, ensure quick reservations and reservations, as well as automation of solving auxiliary tasks in the provision of tourism services (parallel registration of such documents, such as tickets, bills and guidebooks, providing payment and background information and etc.).

This is achievable provided that modern computer technologies for processing and transmitting information are widely used in tourism.

Any management information processes include procedures for registration, collection, transmission, storage, processing, issuing information and making management decisions.

Information Technology represent the means and methods by which these procedures are implemented in various information systems Oh.

The tourism industry allows the use of a wide variety of computer technologies, ranging from specialized software products management of a separate travel company before applying global computer networks.

Today, tourism uses quite a lot of the latest computer technologies, for example, global computer systems reservations, integrated communication networks, multimedia systems, Smart Cards, management information systems, etc.

Modern computer technologies have the greatest impact on the promotion of tourism products (distribution and sales). First of all, this concerns the possibility of creating new marketing channels for the promotion and sale of a tourism product.

Modern information technologies in the activities of a tourism enterprise can be divided into the following groups:

management information systems;

global reservation systems;

Internet;

multimedia systems.

Management Information Systems

They provide input, editing and storage of information about tours, hotels, clients, the status of applications, provide for the output of information in the form of various documents (questionnaires, lists of tourists, tour descriptions), allow you to calculate the cost of tours taking into account exchange rates and control payment for tours, generate financial reporting.

Software package "Master Tour" developed by Megatek and is intended for complete automation of the activities of both travel agency and tour operator firms that create and implement individual and group tours.

"Master Tour" carries out almost all functions characteristic of the activities of tour operator and travel agent offices:

maintaining directories of countries, cities, hotels, types of accommodation and meals, excursions, air travel, types of aircraft, airlines, transport, partners, types of services, control actions, etc.;

formation and calculation of group and individual tours;

changing the parameters of already issued vouchers (dates of arrival, hotel, etc.) and automatically maintaining the history of the voucher, which is necessary when resolving controversial situations, as well as to track the progress of the tour;

calculation of the expected profit on the tour, as well as the amount of commission received by partners;

creating a travel calendar for different tours, as well as determining the number of registered tourists for each date;

quotas for any services included in the tour, indicating the number of reserved, occupied and free seats, which excludes their resale;

monitoring for each tour and service using a directory of controlled actions;

maintaining a warning system for any service, for example, displaying a message to the manager about the need to purchase tickets a certain period before the start of the tour;

monitoring of payment for the tour;

monitoring the work of managers over a certain period of time, in particular tracking vouchers issued by a specific manager; assessment of the current financial condition of the company;

printing a package of necessary documents (tourist vouchers, lists of tourists, vouchers, application forms for embassies, air tickets, letters, applications, confirmations, financial reporting forms, etc.).

The program has a user-friendly graphical interface, similar to the interface of standard Microsoft products. In addition, an interface is provided with the 1C accounting program and with the Delrina WinFax Pro fax distribution program.

Pictures

Program "Tourist office", created by Tour Technology in 1995, automates the activities of both travel agencies and tour operators.

The software package includes three main modules: tourism; financial; document management and external relations. Tourist and financial modules allow you to automate technological processes from a small company to a large company with a network of branches.

The software package includes three main modules: tourism; financial; document management and external relations.

Tourist module implements the following functions: maintaining directories; entering prices received from the partner into the source directories; planning: preparation of individual and group tours; sale of tours; setting a task for the operator to purchase or sell tourism services; control over sales volumes; registration (preparation and printing) of contracts, vouchers, questionnaires for the embassy, ​​generation of all kinds of lists according to certain templates.

Financial module carries out: adjustment to the features of accounting; input of primary accounting documents with further transfer of information accumulated in the task into a specific accounting program in order to prepare a report for the quarter or year; control of mutual settlements; control over preliminary and actual estimates; analysis and control over the financial condition of the company.

Document management and external communications module provides two modes: the first mode - storage, transmission, editing of the document; the second is the preparation of a document for sending to the consumer by fax or modem, as well as service functions that ensure continuous operation, including the transfer of information between agencies, between the central office and the sales department.

Program TurWin (“Travel Agent”). The program developed by the Arim-Soft company appeared in 1995. This program is intended for companies involved in outbound tourism.

The main logical elements of the program are the concepts of “tour”, “check-in”, “order”, “client”.

The program provides basic functional blocks for creating and maintaining directories, packaging and booking tours.

The program provides maintenance of various directories, including those on countries, hotels, partners, flights, services, visas, etc. A specific tour is associated with basic services from the directory and arrival dates. Each arrival is correlated with orders that combine customers according to the criterion of joint payment.

The set of services can be formed based on the basic set determined when creating the tour, or based on templates. The latter are created for each tour and include the cost of hotel accommodation, airfare, insurance, visas and additional services.

Other travel company management information systems:

Jack software package

Tour program

Software package “Samo-Tour”

Travel Agent-2000 system

Continent-ANT software package

Information technology is a term used to refer to the latest improvements in the methods and mechanisms that are used to collect, process, analyze, store, disseminate and apply information. Information technologies are spoken of as the technologies of the century, which can have a serious impact on production activities, the service sector, employment and the life of humanity as a whole, thanks to advances in the field of microelectronics. It was microelectronics that created the basis for developments in the field of design and production using a computer; flexible production systems; robots; personal computers; automated systems control (ACS); video text; teleconferences, etc.

The very concept of “information technology” arose in the last decade of the twentieth century in the process of the formation of computer science. The main feature of information technologies is that in them both the subject and the product of labor is information, and the tools of labor are means computer technology and connections. Moreover, today information has begun to be considered as a very real production resource along with other material resources. The production of information and its top level- knowledge has a decisive influence on the modification of existing and creation of new technologies. Just ten years ago, information technology and tourism seemed incompatible partners. And today these two concepts are so closely interconnected that even a new type of tourism has emerged - “alternative tourism” or “electronic tourism”.

As you know, tourism is a trade in services. Moreover, firstly, this is a complex and diverse service, both from the point of view of the manufacturer and the consumer. Secondly, it is an invisible, changeable and integrated service.

And finally, thirdly, this is an information-rich service. It is these characteristics of tourism that make it an industry ideal for the use of information technology. The structure of the tourism industry is very similar to the structure of any other economic sphere of activity.

Producers of tourism services operate within a well-defined managed structure consisting of government and commercial organizations, trade associations (for example, hotel, air transport, travel agents, etc.). Producers of tourism services are classified into very specific categories of suppliers (airlines, hotels, car rentals, services in a tourist destination), wholesale companies (tour operators) and retail companies (travel agents). Consumers (tourists) are the last step in the entire tourism system..

As for regulating the activities of industry enterprises, advertising, promotion and taxation, here information plays an important role in the process of connecting tourism service providers into a single socio-economic system. It is information that is the connecting link that links various suppliers into a single whole within the framework of a single tourism industry.

Moreover, the most important feature of tourism is that the relationship between producers and suppliers is carried out not by goods, but by information flows.

These information flows represent not only flows of specific data, but also services and payments. Services such as hotel accommodations and airline seats are not invoiced. physical form and are not inspected upon sale at destination. The only guide to the availability and quality of a product is information. Therefore, it can be concluded that the provision of reliable information and the speed of its dissemination is as important for the survival of the tourism industry as the actual provision of its services to consumers.

It should be noted that the introduction of information technology into the tourism industry included several stages. The first stage is “Data Creation”. Its main goal was to improve the operational efficiency of enterprises through information-based process automation.

This period began in the 1960s. and it was characterized by the use of minicomputers. The second stage is “Management Information Systems”.

It represented the stage of development of such information technologies that contributed to increasing managerial efficiency through improving the requirements for the direct organization of information transfer. They were introduced in the 70s. and already used industry-specific methods of enterprise management related to information resources. During this time, information technology was typically applied to the needs of internal marketing and administrative functions.

In the early 80s. The stage of the “Strategic Information System” came, the goal of which was to improve the competitiveness of the company by changing either the very nature or behavior in the tourism business. Various types of integrated networks were introduced taking into account increased competitiveness: to improve direct activities, to coordinate activities across functional and business lines, as well as to establish communications with external organizations. And finally, in the early 90s. The fourth stage has arrived - the “Networks Stage”. At this stage, networks of all levels were connected: enterprise, regional and global.

Main characteristics this stage-- this is an increase in the capabilities of information technology, a reduction in the size of equipment, a reduction in the costs of its acquisition while simultaneously increasing reliability, and the interconnection of terminals located in different parts of the planet. All this has contributed to the fact that information technology has become an important tool in the activities of all tourism organizations. As a result, in the mid-90s, all enterprises, regardless of size, product offering and geography, experienced a serious process of business reorganization.

In general, by analyzing the role and importance of information technologies for the current stage of development of society, we can draw well-founded conclusions that this role is strategically important, and the importance of these technologies will increase rapidly in the near future. It is these technologies that today play a decisive role in the field of technological development of the state.

The arguments for these conclusions are a number of unique properties of information technologies (efficiency, accessibility) that push them to a priority place in relation to production and social technologies. Among the distinctive properties of information technologies that are of strategic importance for the development of society, it seems appropriate to highlight the following, the most important.

Firstly, information technologies make it possible to activate and effectively use the information resources of society, which today are the most important strategic factor in its development. Experience shows that the increased dissemination and effective use of information resources (scientific knowledge, discoveries, inventions, technologies, best practices) allows for significant savings in other types of resources: raw materials, energy, minerals, materials and equipment, human resources, social time.

Secondly, information technologies make it possible to optimize and, in many cases, automate information processes, which in recent years have occupied an increasingly important place in the life of human society.

It is well known that the development of civilization occurs in the direction of becoming information society, in which the objects and results of labor of the majority of the employed population are no longer material values, but mainly information and scientific knowledge. Currently, in most developed countries, the majority of the employed population in their activities is in one way or another connected with the processes of preparation, storage, processing and transmission of information and therefore is forced to master and practically use information technologies corresponding to these processes.

It should be said that information technologies play an extremely important role in ensuring information interaction between people, as well as in systems of preparation and dissemination mass media. These means are quickly assimilated by the culture of society, since they not only create great convenience, but also eliminate many production, social and everyday problems caused by the processes of globalization and integration of the world community, the expansion of domestic and international economic and cultural relations, migration of the population and its increasingly dynamic moving around the planet. In addition to the already traditional means of communication (telephone, telegraph, radio and television), electronic telecommunications systems, e-mail, fax transmission of information and other types of communication are increasingly being used.

In turn, network information technologies represent a current and promising direction in the development of information technologies. Their goal is not only to ensure the exchange of information between individual users of information and computing systems, but also to create for them the possibility of cooperative use of distributed information resources of society, obtaining reference, documentary and other information from various kinds of specialized information funds. Recently, the Internet has become the central topic of publications not only in the computer press, but also in mass media, attracting the attention of information technology specialists, businessmen, ordinary users and the entire civilized world.

The real boom of the Internet occurred in the early 90s, when the first navigation programs such as Mosaic, allowing owners of ordinary computers to surf the Internet. At the same time, the Internet is not one computer network, but tens of thousands of local and global national networks, connected to each other. Among Russian computer networks, Relcom, Glasnet, and many others are connected to the Internet. Currently, the World Wide Web has over 40 million subscribers in more than 100 countries on all seven continents.

The popularity of the Internet is evidenced by the fact that the number of network subscribers doubles every 10 months. The exchange of information via the network increases almost 10 times every year. Every second, over 4,000 electronic messages are transmitted over the network.

The Worldwide Computer Network is developing so rapidly that every year the number of its subscribers and the volume of information resources practically doubles.

Obviously, the tourism business is not left out of this boom.

Only in 2000, thousands of independent sections of travel agencies, hotels, airlines, and dozens of reservation systems appeared on the Internet.

tourist services. According to experts, by 2013, with the help of the Internet

Around $200 billion worth of tours and related services will be sold.

Therefore, agencies should hardly ignore the Internet in their work. At the time we are considering, the Internet cannot be considered as a competitor in business, since the World Wide Web provides invaluable information assistance and adds to traditional new channel sales of tourism services - electronic.

Already, half of all revenue generated via the Internet comes from the travel and tourism industry. 62% of Internet users search for hotel and airline rates and availability. What are the benefits of a global network? Firstly, the widest audience coverage. It allows 35,000 customers to visit the most popular travel server TravelWeb, which features more than 17,000 hotels. Secondly, relatively low overhead costs and effort for sellers and buyers. The cost of booking via the Internet is on average $1.7, while through GDS it is $3.5. The traditional fax method drains the buyer's wallet by $10. The third convenience is round-the-clock access to the network for private users. These advantages of the Internet, as well as the ability to update information in a matter of time, are also used by travel companies, for whom the network opens up significant opportunities for selling tourism products online and advertising them, as well as stimulating sales.

Currently, competitive advantages in tourism are largely formed in the information field. Information technology is a modern innovative resource for increasing competitiveness in tourism. They allow us to create new competitive advantages at all levels of activity in the tourism sector. This fully applies both to individual tourism enterprises and to increasing the competitiveness of tourist destinations.

Information development is becoming an important factor in competitive success in tourism at all levels. It involves increasing the amount of information in the system, which allows it to better adapt to changing external conditions. Information development is associated with the process of diffusion of information-oriented innovations, which lead to both an increase in the amount of information and organizational diversity. Such innovations are digital technologies, computer technology, telecommunication systems, including e-mail, Internet.

The successful activity of any company in the tourism business market is currently almost unthinkable without the use of modern information technologies. The main resource that is used in the tourism business at the stage of developing an idea and creating a tourism product is presented in the form information flows. At the same time, the specifics modern technology the development and implementation of a tourism product requires information systems that would promptly provide up-to-date and adequate information on all components of the tourism product, including information on the availability of vehicles, ticket availability, tourist accommodation options, etc. It is necessary to ensure quick reservations, as well as automation of solving auxiliary tasks in the provision of tourist services, including the generation and printing of documents, provision of settlement and reference information, etc. This is achievable subject to the widespread use of computer technologies for processing and transmitting information. The modern tourism industry has undergone very significant changes in recent years due to the introduction of new computer technologies.

Information technologies used in modern tourism business can be divided into two groups.

TO first group technologies that promote automation and increase the efficiency of intra-office business processes should be included; they can be called back-office technologies. They make it possible to ensure rapid and high-quality formation of a tourism product using modern systems reservations, create and maintain up-to-date databases of hotels, partners, clients, create the necessary documentation base for tourism enterprises, provide electronic document management etc. This group includes global reservation systems, such as Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Worldspan, systems for booking tours or individual tourist services, automation programs for tour operator and travel agency companies, automation programs for managing hotel complexes.

Second group information technologies implement interaction with the end consumer, in connection with which they can be called front-office technologies. This group includes Internet technologies, which provide the end user with access to information about tours, accommodation facilities, tourism resources, etc. The modern tourism product is becoming more flexible and accessible to consumers, including through the introduction of information technology into the tourism business.

It should be emphasized that some information technologies can be used by both professional tourism business workers and end users. Thus, reservation systems for tourist services provide a variety of opportunities and degrees of access for various subjects of the tourism market. For professional participants in the tourism market global network provides effective communication, searching for partners, new marketing tools for promoting a tourism product, conducting marketing research, creating a virtual tourist office, providing e-commerce and other opportunities. For the end consumer of tourism services, the Internet provides the opportunity to search for a variety of reference information, use electronic catalogs on countries, tourism resources, tourism products, accommodation facilities, schedules of various types of transport, obtain operational information on tariffs and prices of hotels, restaurants, carriers, etc. Statistical data indicate that the number of bookings of tourist services via the Internet is increasing, for example, in the US travel industry, the share of online bookings is more than 50% of all sales.

The development of information technology leads to an increase in the number of tourists and largely contributes to the ongoing process of globalization. In the context of globalization of the tourism market, the role and importance of the quality of information exchange between all participants in the tourism market are increasing. First of all, this applies to information processes travel agent - tour operator - host tour operator. To ensure the competitiveness of a tourism enterprise, it is necessary to create a single information space supplier - seller of a tourism product. The quality and relevance of information exchanges directly affects the quality of the tourist services provided, since any inconsistency or inaccuracy of the information provided to the end user, for example, about the accommodation facility, additional services, can negatively affect the impressions and tourist experience that the end user receives. Besides, in modern conditions The quality of the tourism product is determined not only by the quality of the basic services provided, but also by the availability and level of information support and information communications.

In the tourism business, the quality of information exchange and the information provided directly affects the competitiveness of not only tourism enterprises, but also the competitiveness of tourist destinations. Globalization processes characteristic of the current stage of tourism development have led to a significant expansion of the geography of tourist flows. Competition is increasing not only between individual tourism enterprises, but also between individual countries and regions (tourist destinations). Under these conditions, each destination is interested in providing the most complete and comprehensive information about the presence of unique and attractive tourist resources, the level of development of tourism infrastructure, the specific features of culture and customs, etc. Moreover, this information is necessary both for tourism business professionals and end users, and advertising on the Internet has become one of the most effective attraction tools tourists. Traditional printed advertising media, as a rule, are limited both in the amount of information they provide and in its relevance, so the most effective information source in this case is the Internet. Most foreign tourist destinations create and maintain their own websites that provide comprehensive information in several languages.

Modern computer technologies are actively being introduced into the tourism business, and their use is becoming an integral condition for increasing the competitiveness of any tourism enterprise. Today, tourism uses quite a lot of the latest computer technologies, including global computer reservation systems GDS (Global Distribution Systems), integrated communication networks, multimedia systems, management information systems, etc. These information technologies are used with varying degrees of activity and have uneven distribution. The degree of their influence on the competitiveness of tourism enterprises and the development of the tourism industry also varies.

Modern computer technologies have the greatest impact on the promotion of tourism products. First of all, this concerns the possibility of forming new marketing channels for promoting and selling tourism products. Thus, in the field of advertising, direct sending tourist information to e-mail(direct mail). In addition, tourism industry enterprises create their own websites and use banner advertising.

Currently, the tourism market is beginning to actively penetrate e-commerce. Electronic tourist offices already exist, allowing any owner credit card purchase a tour, book a seat on a plane or in a hotel, purchase tickets to entertainment events and order a rental car anywhere in the world. The websites of many hotel companies provide the ability to book and pay for services online. Thus, computer technologies have provoked the creation and use of fundamentally new electronic marketing channels for the promotion and sale of tourism products (Table 7.2).

Table 7.2

Directions of the influence of information technology on competitiveness in tourism

Today, technologies are rapidly developing that make it possible to use mobile phones for e-commerce.

Directions for using the Internet in the tourism sector include many areas, including:

• gaining access to the use of modern communication systems, in particular e-mail, digital telephone communication, which significantly reduces the costs of tourism enterprises for negotiations, business correspondence, direct mail, etc.;
• obtaining various reference data, in particular, on countries, tariffs, prices, weather forecasts in different parts of the world in real time, which contributes to the formation of a high-quality tourism product;
• gaining access to global booking and reservation systems;
• the possibility of creating new marketing channels for promoting tourism services, in particular the creation of companies’ own websites, virtual tourist offices, e-commerce, etc.

All of the above allows us to create a unified tourist information space, which makes it possible to work at the level of modern international standards and technologies in the field of tourism and hotel business.

The current level of development of the tourism business and the high level of competition attach particular importance to information systems that provide intra-office automation of management processes. Functionality automation systems for managing tourism industry enterprises should provide input, editing and storage of information about clients, tours, hotels, provide for the output of information in the form of various documents (questionnaires, vouchers, lists of groups, descriptions of tours and hotels), calculate the cost of tours taking into account exchange rates, discounts , ensure payment control and generation of financial reporting, etc. These systems can reduce the cost of the tourism product by choosing the best option for customer delivery, accommodation, etc.

Along with the automation of travel companies, similar development is underway automation programs for the activities of hotels, restaurants and other tourism enterprises. The use of information systems in this area leads to significant changes in management and also improves the quality of service.

The use of information technology requires an appropriate level of training for personnel working in the tourism sector. The lack of highly qualified personnel in a tourist destination or tourism industry enterprise can never be compensated by High Quality physical infrastructure, such as hotels and their equipment. Such competitive weakness of a tourist destination as low qualifications of personnel or lack of professional personnel can be successfully overcome by using modern innovative training technologies, in particular, using information video communication technologies.

Based on this, it can be argued that it is necessary to create a competitive advantage of Russia as a tourist destination, based on knowledge. One of possible ways the solution to this problem is use of distance technologies for training employees of tourism enterprises and providing necessary information about tourist destinations for foreign sending tour operators and travel agents.

One of the specific factors in the activities of sending tour operators is their territorial remoteness from the destination where the tours are organized. In this regard, difficulties arise in training personnel with reference to a specific tourist enterprise and destination.

One of the most effective ways to solve this problem is the use of modern video communication technologies, in particular video conferencing and webinars. Webinar is a type of web conference, conducting seminars via the Internet in real time. It's convenient and effective method communication in conditions of territorial disunity, since visual and verbal contact is ensured, which to the maximum extent allows preserving the traditional psychological interaction between its participants.

The most commonly used webinar features are:

• VoIP - audio communication via a computer in real time using headphones or speakers;
• real-time video contact via webcam or digital video camera;
• slide presentations;
• text chat, used for question-answer interactions in real time, provides the ability to ask questions and receive answers online, while both group communication (messages are visible to all participants) and private communication (a conversation between two participants) is possible;
• voting and polls that are used when discussing a problem and allow you to hear and take into account the opinions of webinar participants.

The webinar provides the opportunity for information exchange in the form of personalized visual contact and regular conversation between webinar participants.

Benefits of technology communications using webinars are as follows:

• wide audience coverage, participation in the process of geographically distributed participants who only have access to the Internet;
• the formation of groups of webinar participants is possible not only on a territorial basis, but also on the basis of focus (topic);
• management of the presentation, presence and rights of participants by the presenter;
• the possibility of interactive voting, polls, testing during the webinar or based on the results;
• the ability to transmit and listen to sound in real time - audio communication through a computer in real time using headphones (speakers) and a microphone.

Webinar technologies allow you to use additional functions:

• recording of the webinar with placement at a unique web address for later viewing, which will ensure the ability to use it at any convenient time;
• the ability to share files between webinar participants.

The technology of personnel training for the tourism sector using webinars ensures:

• video and audio conferencing sessions;
• joint teleconferences and Internet video broadcasts to mass audiences;
• webinars and telelectures for distance learning and training in order to prepare and improve the skills of tourism personnel;
• distributed scientific and practical conferences, press conferences, round table meetings, etc.

Technological features conducting webinars:

• the number of webinar participants is several dozen or more, including individual and group participants;
• The presenter sees a photograph of the audience on his computer screen;
• on the screens of webinar participants you can see the images of all participants, as well as the broadcast of the presenter and up to six discussion participants connected by him in video conferencing mode;
• main mode of operation - broadcast from the presenter’s webcam to all videoconferencing participants;
• to switch the participant’s webcam to active mode, a function is provided to contact the presenter, who has the right to activate the image of the discussion participant in VKS mode or disconnect him from VKS;
• in interactive mode, the presenter selects up to six participants for discussions, activating their image for videoconferencing with broadcasting of active windows to all seminar participants.

A webinar using video conferencing provides modern opportunities for participants to communicate with the presenter, while the dynamics of conducting classes using audio and video contact are much higher than with traditional distance technology, and can be in no way inferior to face-to-face seminars.

The use of online webinar technology is effective when conducting discussions that require brainstorming from the audience and public discussion of the problem, and it does not matter that the audience of participants is dispersed over a long distance.

The innovative capabilities of webinars can be used with high efficiency in training and retraining of personnel for the tourism industry. The main directions of their use, in our opinion, are the following:

• effective training using webinars for various categories of listeners (trainers, experts, volunteers, etc.);
• conducting master classes by leading specialists in the tourism industry and providing consulting (consulting) services;
• the possibility of virtual display and study of the object where the tour will be organized, including an individual one;
• the possibility of preliminary selection of tourist resources of the destination that are of interest to the tour operator.

The use of video communication technologies seems very promising for training foreign tour operators sending tourists to Russia, since this technology will provide consulting services when organizing travel of foreign citizens to Russia.

Webinar technologies make it possible to conduct training and directly broadcast live from the tourist site that is included in the travel route. With the help of webinars, it is possible to carry out retraining and advanced training of tourist personnel who are preparing to work in a specific tourist destination with reference to the object, which will significantly reduce the adaptation period when personnel arrive at a real tourist site.

Thus, at present, innovative webinar technologies seem to be one of the most effective tools for providing training for foreign sending tour operator companies working with Russia, which will increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of our country as a tourist destination.

Test questions and assignments

• 1. What is the role of tourist information centers in the formation information base tourism?
• 2. How does it affect Information Support tourism on its competitiveness?
• 3. Give examples of successful experience in the activities of tourist information centers.
• 4. Describe the main features of geographic information systems.
• 5. What is the essence of multi-layer GIS construction?
• 6. What role do they play? geographic information systems in tourism?
• 7. How is a joint information project implemented by remote performers?
• 8. What is a unified tourism information space?
• 9. List mobile applications used in tourism.
• 10. What is the role of webinars in the formation of the information space of the tourism industry?

In recent years, the modern tourism industry has undergone very significant changes, this has led to the development and implementation of new information systems and technologies in the field of tourism. The successful functioning of any company in the tourism business market is almost unthinkable without the use of modern information technologies. The specifics of the formation and implementation of a tourism product require such information systems that, in the shortest possible time, would provide information about the availability of vehicles, the possibilities of accommodating tourists, ensure quick reservations and reservations, issuing tickets, invoices, settlement and reference information, etc. In addition, information technologies are a necessary attribute to ensure the quality of services provided to tourists, since end users place quite high demands on the information support of the service received, in particular, constant and reliable access to the Internet, the availability of a variety of mobile applications for tourism, etc. This is achievable provided that modern computer technologies for processing and transmitting information are widely used in tourism.

The tourism industry is so diverse and multifaceted that it requires the use of a wide variety of information technologies - starting from the development of specialized software, providing automation of the work of an individual travel company or hotel, and ending with the use of global computer networks.

Information technologies in the tourism industry can be classified according to various criteria.

A traditional feature of the classification of information technologies is their purpose. By purpose, supporting and functional information technologies are distinguished.

Supporting (basic) information technologies - these are technologies that provide ways to organize individual technological operations information processes and are associated with the presentation, transformation, storage, processing and transmission of information. They can be used in various subject areas and are not specialized. These include processing technologies text information, technologies for working with spreadsheets, databases, multimedia technologies, character recognition technologies, telecommunication technologies, information security technologies, etc. These information technologies are implemented using traditional software products Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, etc.

Functional (specialized) information technologies - These are technologies that implement specific procedures for collecting, transmitting and processing information in a certain subject area, in particular in tourism. They are built on the basis of supporting information technologies and are aimed at automated solution of problems in a given subject area.

Functional (specialized) information technologies in tourism can be classified as follows.

• 1. Booking systems in tourism.
• 1.1. Global booking systems (GDS).
• 1.2. Booking systems individual species services (accommodation, air tickets, car rental, etc.).
• 2. Automation systems for the activities of tourism enterprises

industry.

• 2.1. Automation systems for travel agencies.
• 2.2. Automation systems for tour operator companies.
• 2.3. Automation systems for hotel enterprises.
• 2.4. Automation systems for public catering establishments.
• 2.5. Automation systems for transport enterprises.
• 2.6. Automation systems for excursion bureaus and museums.
• 3. Internet technologies, including e-commerce.
• 4. Multimedia technologies.
• 5. Geoinformation technologies.
• 6. Mobile applications.

Currently, the formation of a tourism product involves the use of global distribution systems (Global Distribution System, GDS), which provide quick and convenient booking of transport tickets, hotel reservations, car rental, currency exchange, ordering tickets for entertainment and sports programs, etc.

The tourism business, being one of the most dynamic areas of economic activity, is a highly saturated information sphere activities. In other words, the collection, storage, processing and transmission of up-to-date information is the most important and necessary condition for the functioning of any tourism enterprise. There are not many areas of the economy in which business success directly depends on the speed of transmission and exchange of information, on its relevance and timeliness of receipt, on its adequacy and completeness. In this regard, the successful development of tourism business involves the widespread use latest technologies both in the field of creating a tourism product and its promotion.

Modern computer technologies are actively being introduced into the tourism business, and their use is becoming an integral condition for increasing the competitiveness of any tourism enterprise. The tourism industry allows the use of a wide variety of computer technologies, from specialized software products for managing an individual tourism company to the use of global computer networks. Today, tourism uses quite a lot of the latest computer technologies, for example GDS, integrated communication networks, multimedia systems, Smart Cards, management information systems, etc. The information technologies listed above are used with varying degrees of activity and have unequal distribution. The degree of their influence on the development of the tourism industry also varies.

The influence of information technology on tourism is felt at different stages of the creation and promotion of tourism products. The main directions of influence of modern computer technologies on the tourism industry are presented in Fig. 1.2 (the thicker the line, the greater the degree of influence of information technology in this area).

As can be seen from the diagram, modern computer technologies have the greatest impact on the promotion of a tourism product (distribution and sales). First of all, this concerns the possibility of creating new marketing channels for the promotion and sale of a tourism product. Thus, in the field of advertising, direct distribution of tourist information by e-mail has become widespread ( direct mail). In addition, most tourism enterprises in recent years have created their own websites on the Internet and also use banner advertising. Although at present the effectiveness of these channels for distributing tourism products in Russia is not very high, this direction should be considered as very promising.

Currently, there is an electronic offensive on the traditional tourism business. Electronic travel offices allow any credit card holder to purchase a tour, book a seat on an airplane or hotel, purchase tickets to entertainment events and book a rental car anywhere in the world. Thus, computer technologies have provoked the creation and use of fundamentally new electronic marketing channels for the promotion and sale of tourism products.

Rice. 1.2.

Computer reservation systems CRS (Computer Reservation System), which appeared in the mid-1960s, made it possible to speed up the process of reserving air tickets and carry it out in real time. The consequence of this was an increase in the quality of tourism services by reducing customer service time, increasing the volume and variety of services offered, etc. It became possible to optimize the loading of airliners, implement a flexible pricing strategy, apply new management methods, etc. High reliability and the convenience of these reservation systems contributed to their rapid and widespread adoption - most foreign enterprises in the tourism industry use reservation systems. On Russian market Mainly represented are global reservation systems such as Amadeus, Galileo Worldspan. The Amadeus computer reservation system has been operating on the Russian market since 1993, and currently there are hundreds of system users in Russia.

One of the main areas of application of information technology in tourism is the introduction of multimedia technologies, in particular directories and catalogues. Currently, tourist guides and catalogs are published in books, on video cassettes, on disks, and on the Internet. Electronic catalogs allow you to virtually travel along the proposed routes, view these routes in active mode, view information about the country and objects along the route in video mode, obtain information about hotels, campsites, motels and other accommodation facilities, get acquainted with the system of benefits and discounts, as well as legislation in the field of tourism. In addition, information is usually provided on the rules for issuing tourist documents, tourist formalities, tourist behavior patterns in extreme situations, etc. The client can plan a tour program, select it according to specified optimal parameters (price, system of benefits, transport system, season, etc.).

In the field of management in the tourism business, dramatic changes have also occurred. The current level of development of the tourism business and fierce competition in this area give particular importance to the information systems of travel agencies. The functionality of these systems should provide input, editing and storage of information about tours, hotels, clients, the status of applications, provide for the output of information in the form of various documents: questionnaires, vouchers, lists of tourists, descriptions of tours, hotels, calculate the cost of tours taking into account exchange rates , discounts, control payment for tours, generation of financial statements, export-import of data into other software products (Word, Excel, accounting programs) and other possibilities. These systems not only speed up the settlement process and the generation of documents, but can also reduce the cost of services (tour packages) by choosing the best-priced option for customer delivery, accommodation, etc. An order for the development of a unique information system for automation of a tourist office is quite expensive, and at present there is no particular need for this, since there are a number of well-proven software products. Many IT companies are currently developing specialized software products for the tourism business, including Megatek, Samo, Recsoft.

The software market offers computer systems that allow you to automate the internal activities of a travel company. As a rule, these systems provide maintenance of reference databases for clients, partners, hotels, transport, embassies, as well as maintaining tours and accounting for payments, accepting orders and working with clients, generating output documents, etc. Almost everything software systems provide the generation of accounting reports and often import-export data into specialized accounting programs, such as 1C, etc. Along with the automation of travel companies, a similar development of automation programs for the activities of hotels, restaurants and other tourism business enterprises is underway. The use of information systems in this area leads to significant changes in management and also improves the quality of service.

The use of multimedia technology finds everything greater use in the field of tourism. With the help of multimedia technologies, it is possible to provide a potential client with complete and comprehensive information about any tourism product or individual tourism service that interests him, thereby allowing him to quickly and accurately select the appropriate tourism product.

The main features of multimedia technologies are:

• the ability to combine diverse information (text, sound, graphics, photos, video) in a homogeneous digital representation;
• ensuring reliable and durable storage of large volumes of semi-permanent information.

Test questions and assignments

• 1. What information levels can be identified from the point of view of the functioning of the tourism system?
• 2. What is the role of information in making management decisions in the tourism industry?
• 3. How is the information richness of tourism expressed?
• 4. How does information affect the quality of tourist services provided?
• 5. How are the processes of globalization and informatization related in tourism?
• 6. Name the main stages in the development of information technology.
• 7. How are information technologies classified by degree of automation?
• 8. Name the main supporting subsystems and give their characteristics.
• 9. What information technologies are used in the tourism industry?
• 10. What is the impact of information technology on the tourism sector?
• 11. How do information technologies affect the competitiveness of the tourism industry?
• 12. Justify the thesis that information technologies largely determine the future directions of development of the tourism industry.