Introduction
Information technology is an important component in many business processes. There are many contributions that the information technologies have brought to organizations. It is evident with the way businesses are adopting the use of information technologies. Technology is an important concept that is taking place and is affecting even the tourism and airlines industry. There are many changes that are seen in this industry. Information systems play a significant role in this industry, seen with the many changes that are taking place. This paper will focus on the changes that have taken place with the use of information systems and technologies in tourism and airlines industry. The various technologies that have shaped this industry will be assessed. The role of the internet will also be evaluated in the process (Hanlon, 2007).
Role of computer information and distributions systems
Computer information and distributions systems have a significant role in the air and travel industry. There are many developments that have been seen in this industry with the use of information technologies. There are many developments that have been seen in the automation of the airline business processes. The need to automate and have new information systems in the airline industry have been seen to have developed from early days. Before the invention of the use of technology in handling the reservation process of the travelers, there was the use of manual business processes to undertake the reservation process. Passengers wanted to have a way in which they could handle the reservation processes of a computer process. Air Reservation Systems (ARS) were undertaken with the use of manual procedures. They were written on hand and arranged in a box so that they were sorted out manually. Reservations were done with the use of books of record that would be used to record the origin and the destination of the passengers and the airline. The process was done manually. During the early days, prices were determined depending on the distance that the passengers were traveling. With the increase in air travelers’ airlines, there was a need to have automated ways of undertaking computer reservations. This development is an important concept that needs to be undertaken in the process. By then IBM was doing research about the use of computers to do airline reservation systems. This development was the beginning of use of computers to undertake reservation of the travelling. There was the development of Sabre Reservation System in 1960s. Sabre went ahead and developed Computer Reservation Systems in 1960. This boosted the use of automated reservation systems in that decade. There were many computer reservation systems that were used in the development of computer reservation systems.
Programmed Airline Reservation Systems (PARS)
PARS was one of the attempts to automate the airline reservation process. In 1968, there was the agreement that was reached between the American Airlines and the Eastern Airlines that allowed the American to modify the Programmed Airline reservation System (PARS) which was used by Eastern Airline. PARS was a development that was used by the Eastern Airlines. This system improved and formed the basis in which the modern airline reservation systems run in the current times. The main issue that was found in the use of airline reservation systems is that there was the lack of other features like linking with the other airlines that could help to connect the airline with the airline industry. The system lacked the passenger reservation features because it was more of an inventory reservation than a passenger based system. These systems lacked the ability to communicate with the other systems that were operated in the other airlines. This can be attributed to the lack of the internet and the communication channels.
Computer Reservation Systems
There were many developments in the airline reservation process with the improvement and the development of the automation in the airline industry. Computer Reservation Systems were seen to be popular in the 1960s. With this information system, the main solution that they brought was to ensure that the reservation system and process was automated. In this development, the role of computer information systems was seen to be to help the automation of the reservation process. The computer information system was seen to help in the automation and the management of the flight information, where the times and the days that a flight were assigned in a week. Another feature of the computer reservation system was to manage the availability of the seats to the passengers. It was now possible to understand the seats that had been assigned. The different classes of the airline systems were also identified in the process of identifying the reservation systems. The computer reservation systems were also used to manage the fare quotes for the various airlines. This aspect is an important development that was seen to be a point of concern to the initial manual reservation process. It is important to understand the role of computer reservation systems in this process. Other reservation processes that were solved with the use of computers were ticket assignment, cancellations, and reservation information (Buhalis, 2004).
Although there seemed to have been the solution to the problem that had been identified with the use of airline reservation systems, there was still some issues that were identified with the use f Computer Reservation System (CRS). One of the problems is that there were cost burdens that were met with an increase in the airlines and the airline reservation increased. There was now a need to have more funds to buy mainframe technology that could handle the increase in the reservations to the airlines. Another problem with CRS is that they were used by specific airlines. It could not be possible to share the reservation information. This issue was a problem to the airline travel agents who wanted to sell information to many different airlines. They were required to have connections to the different airlines that they wanted to sell the airlines. The last problem is that it was not possible to search for airline charges for the different airlines because each airline had their CRS. For passengers to have a comparative analysis of the different fares, they were required to spend much time to have the information. This development gave to the rise of Global Distribution System (GDS).
Global Distribution System (GDS)
A GDS is an information system that is integrated and provides communication for all services that are required by travelers. The GDS also connects the users to the travel providers. The GDS also connects the information that the passenger will need, ranging from the place where they will stay, to the way they will spend their time in the destination country. With the growth in the number of airlines, there was a need to have CRS to host data that belonged to more than one airline; this would increase the distribution nature of the computer reservation systems. There was the transformation of the Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) to be used in many airlines. This enabled information to be shared in the many airlines. With this, there was the development and the enhancement of the computer information systems to be efficient and reliable. There was also the sharing of data among the different airlines. This increased the efficiencies between the airline industries (Werthner, & Klein, 1999).
Apart from the use of GDS to manage airline reservation, there was the integration of other services that would be useful to the passengers. These services included the need to integrate with car rentals, packaged holidays, hotel booking, local transport information, cruises and ship, railways, and many more (Koo, Mantin, & O'Connor, 2011).
There are many advantages that were seen with the use of GDS that include the simplified access to other services with the use of one interface. Another advantage with the use of GDS is that it is possible to connect many airlines by the use of a single computer. There is also less maintenance and less overhead that is required in the process.
There has been the evolution of GDS. The evolution has been seen in the way they were hosted before. They were hosted on mainframe computers. They are able to provide directly access to the users who have PCs. This possibility is an important development and is being capitalized in the entire process. Another development is that GDS have started leasing hardware and hosting to the airlines that have not had the capacity and the objective to have their CRS. With the development and an increase in the use of the internet, there has been the availability of hosting and information that is provided on the internet. The use of the internet is a development that is seen to be taking place with the integration of the internet in the computer reservation systems.
Growth in distribution via the internet
With the development of the internet, there has been development and enhancement of the tourism and airline industry. With the need to have more interconnections with other services apart from the airline information, the role of the internet cannot be underestimated. With the interconnections of the many airlines in the world, there is the possibility to have services that span other industries that are beneficial to passengers. The use of the internet is the direction that GDS are going. It will no longer need to depend on the airline fares and prices. It will be more of value-addition and not complete dependence on the fare. The passengers will pay for the services that are offered aside of the airline price. The price will be negotiated aside from the airline price. It is for this reason that the airline information systems will no longer depend on the prices that are set by the airline industry (Belobaba, Odoni, & Barnhart, 2009).
The use of the current GDS has been an effective tool in the management of the supply. Supply is an important process that needs to be managed by the travelers. It is provided by the use of the modern GDS. GDS is more than a reservation tool because it provides information about the important tourism business engineering. It is important to understand the role that this has on the tourism industry. With the distribution of the services, there is speed and efficiency of the provision of these services. The distribution of the services that are offered by the GDSs of today has enhanced the value that information systems have. With this development, there is no longer need to depend on the fare of the airline systems in order to make more for the GDSes providers. There is a need to add value and improve on the efficiency.
The distribution is now getting information systems from other industries being connected to airline information systems. What is seen with the distributions is that there will be isolated determination of the price of the fare in respect to the other services that GDSes have been developed to offer. This aspect is an important aspect that is seen with the development of information systems.
Conclusion
Airline reservation systems have had a long history. They have been enhanced with the development of information systems. There is a need to ensure that information systems are integrated into the airline reservation process. Information system has solved the manual and inefficient methods that were used in this process. The internet has had a significant impact in the development of the computer reservation systems. There has been the distribution of the systems to include other sectors that the travelers will be interested. With this distribution, there has been the shift of the business model of the GDS from depending on the fare to depending on the value that it is offered.
References
Belobaba, P., Odoni, A., & Barnhart, C. (Eds.). (2009). The global airline industry (Vol. 23). John Wiley & Sons.
Buhalis, D. (2004). eAirlines: Strategic and tactical use of ICTs in the airline industry. Information & Management, 41(7), 805-825.
Hanlon, J. P. (2007). Global airlines: Competition in a transnational industry. New York: Routledge.
Koo, B., Mantin, B., & O'Connor, P. (2011). Online distribution of airline tickets: Should airlines adopt a single or a multi-channel approach? Tourism Management, 32(1), 69-74.
Werthner, H., & Klein, S. (1999). ICT and the changing landscape of global tourism distribution. Electronic Markets, 9(4), 256-262.
