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Top1. Introduction
Tourism sector plays very important role in the social and economic growth of any country. Tourism is contributing around 10% to worldwide GDP. Tourism sector has 6.3% share in GDP of India in 2015 and generated about 22 million jobs. In 2014 foreign exchange earnings from tourism was 20236 million US$ and earning from domestic tourist visit was 1281.95 million. For the convenience of international tourists, the government has started facility of E-tourist Visa for citizens of 113 countries at 16 airports. E-Visa is the electronic visa applied online and generated online. According to stats provided by Ministry of Tourism in year 2014 total 39046 E-Visa was issued from various airports and 22286 visas was issued in the month of January to August in year 2015.
Technologies like Internet, Mobile has changed the marketing strategy and function of the different sectors. Tourism sector is also using technology for product development, marketing, distribution and training, but there is a technological gap between tourism industry and the technology industry. To bridge this gap Online Travel Agents (OTA) came into existence. It has also observed that business operators and workforce within industry do not have sufficient knowledge, tools, and /or strategy to utilize technology correctly. This sector has now started embarrassing 3rd T, i.e. Travel, Tourism, Technology. Technology can be used in all the dimensions of tourism for gaining competitive edge and providing 360 degree services to customer. With the advancement of technology and 24X7 availability, customers are also demanding 24X7 services.
According to Moor, Moor’s Law: as the impact of technological revolution grows in the society, there will be rise in ethical problem (Moor, 2005, p. 117). Advanced technology provides novel methods to use them, which does not hold well defined ethical policies. Tourism is one of such sector which is using technology in various modes. With the use of these technologies, ethical issues are also increasing. The new term Technoethics came into existence which refers to dealing with the ethical issues due to use of technology. According to (Johnson, 1985), the need of Technoethics will be disappearing once technology matures.
Tourism is defined as “Travel and stay of a non-resident”. It is ranked ahead of all other categories of international trade. Tourism has three major components:
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Attraction: Man made or Natural tourist sites.
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Accommodation: Hotels, Lodges or place of stay during visit.
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Transport: Mode of transportation to tourist sites and back to permanent habitat.
Mobile technology and Internet has added new dimensions to the sector, now Tourists need detailed information for each place they intend to visit like: Geographical information, landscape, climate, accommodation and dining options, shopping facility, accessibility and availability of transport, social and cultural information of the place, activity and entertainment facilities, best season to visit, quality of services and price of stay including exchange rates. It has been observed that during their visit tourists carry electronic gadgets for their ease like: Mobile Phones, Laptop, Digital Camera’s, Internet accessibility etc. These gadgets leave a trail of data which can be used by this sector for increased productivity and better services. (Vidyullata Shekhar Jadhav et al., 2011) has given layered structure of tourism industry, Figure 1 shows the layered organization of tourism sector, authors have proposed new underlying layer of unified IT infrastructure framework tAdvisor which will provide support to all the components of tourism sector. tAdvisor is the name given by author to the proposed framework, it is a framework which ensures use of technology ethically.
Figure 1. Layered organization of tourism structure