E-Business Readiness in Indonesian Small Medium Size Travel Agencies

Abstract

The development of world tourism, especially in the tour and travel business is influenced by Information Communication Technology (ICT). The effective use of ICT added values to products and services that continue to develop business electronically (e-business). By doing e-business, companies tend to have effective and efficient operations. The ebusiness adoption in small medium size travel agents encounter rapid changes in technology and the raise of online travel agent. The aim of the research is to understand the readiness of small medium size travel agents in doing e-business. Three variables developed were technology readiness, organization readiness, and external environment. All the respondents were small medium size travel agents operating in West Java, Indonesia. Interviews were conducted during June-August 2018 with 61 persons from travel agents, consisting of managers, supervisor, owners, commissioners, and staffs. Content analysis was used to analyze data. Results showed that all small medium size travel agents are keen to run e-business. The technology infrastructure and organizational readiness support the travel agents to apply ebusiness. The external markets which were already online become potential market in supporting e-business. Differences between cities and suburb areas in terms of e-business adoption revealed that in suburb areas travel agents had less infrastructure, lacked staff competencies, and relied innovation on the free application available. However, suburb area travel agents faced high opportunities to take more costumers in purchasing airline and hotel tickes due to the low ability of the customers to use available distribution system. Keywords-e-business; small medium size travel agent; technology readiness; organizational readiness; external environmental3rd International Seminar on Tourism (ISOT 2018)