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Adoption and Use of ICT in Indian Tourism: Interventions for the top tourist
destination of India
Vivek Gupta* & Devashish Das Gupta**
Overview of ICT in Tourism:
Travel and tourism has not only become one of the world's largest industry but also grows consistently
every year. Between 1990 and 2000, tourist arrivals worldwide grew at an average rate of 4-3 percent per
annum. Travel and tourism represent approximately 11% of the worldwide GDP, according to the World
Travel & Tourism Council. World Tourism Organization predicts one billion international arrivals in the
year 2010 and has forecasted that by 2020, international tourist arrivals to Asia and Pacific region would
experience over 400 percent growth from 105 million in 2000 to 438 million in 2020.
As the world is being ushered into the information age, adoption of the information and communication
technology (ICT) is rapidly increasing. Internet has transformed the world into a global village that can be
navigated at the click of a mouse. It provides potential tourists with immediate access to textual and visual
conformation on destinations throughout the world. The Internet has also become an essential tool in
business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) transactions, the distribution of products,
networking of business partners, and is an instantaneous means of accessing knowledge on all kinds of
subjects including travel and tourism information. The Internet can be accessed through mobile telephones,
cable-television, fixed telephones using traditional personal computers and laptops. Information is readily
available 24/7 and the resulting cost transparency enables consumers to make more informed choices
(Sinha, 2000).
This ease of access and depth of information has stimulated the emergence of a new breed of travel
consumers who are independent and prefer to search for holidays themselves online, rather than through
travel agents. And the majority of the people connected to the Internet happen to be from the world's top
three tourism spending markets - Germany, USA and UK. The Internet is already the primary source of
tourist destination information in these major markets. It has outpaced traditional sources of information on
tourist destinations within the short period of its existence. Its audiovisual presentation of information on
destinations outdoes the glossiest and most colorful print, and the quality of the presentation plays a
decisive role in the end-consumer's choice of one destination over another.
Internet also offers tourism destination and businesses the means to make information and booking
facilities available to millions of consumers around the world at a relatively low cost, while at the same
time enabling them to cut down drastically on amounts invested in the production and distribution of
promotional materials. Travel and tourism are fast becoming the largest category of products sold on the
Internet, which must therefore be seen as the new marketing battlefronts for tourism destinations in
Asia-Pacific. Apart from the Internet, technological advances gave rise to other electronic distribution
platforms such as interactive satellite television and mobile devices. The expected proliferation of satellite
TV and m-commerce will gradually intensify competition among intermediaries who will have to
reengineer their business processes and evolve new business models in order to survive and remain
competitive (Buhalis & Licata, 2002)
It is therefore, in the best interest of the Asia-Pacific region to keep abreast with time and step up its use of
ICT to satisfy the thirst for instantaneous tourism information on destinations.
The stage is now set for national, regional, local tourist organizations, intermediaries, and administration
and policy framing bodies in the Asia-Pacific region to rise to the challenge and understand, adopt and use
the full potential of ICT to satisfy the thirst for instantaneous tourism information on destinations by not
only marketing various tourism products and destinations to potential tourists, but also monitor and build a
relationship with the tourists in the entire tourist life cycle.

Adoption and Use of ICT in Indian Tourism

Prior to 1995, when internet access wasn't readily readily available in India, a potential inbound tourist
(from abroad), had to depend on printed brochures from Indian embassies abroad, a few published guides
(e.g., Lonely Planet) and feedback from those tourists who had visited India before. Domestic tourists used
to decide their travel itineraries largely based on tourism related articles published in select, local language,
monthly magazines during vacation period (i.e., in summer and winter). Sparingly, brochures available at
state tourism department offices and feedback from relatives, or presence of some relatives nearer to the
tourist destinations, paved the way for a short trip to the relatives alongwith tourism objective getting
fulfilled.
*Sr. Research Associate, IT & Systems Area, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow 226 013.
**Assistant Professor in Marketing, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow 226 013, [email protected]
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Internet access came to India in August 1995, courtesy VSNL. Though one intuitively understood its
importance, internet access was minimally used. A lack of ICT knowledge and a general fear of technology
kept people away from its adoption. But, lately, with an increase in broadband internet penetration in Indian
homes, people are getting use to visiting websites to look for information.
Most of the government departments (including tourism departments) took about five years, to become
computer savvy and be able to host, and, more importantly, maintain their departmental websites. The
ministry of tourism annual report 2007-08, under its two IT initiatives (page 34), (i) has provided
computers to its officers up to the level of Asstt. Directors, internet and email access and project monitoring
systems to officers for quick disposal of information and other works, and (ii) providing quality tourist
information, facilitation and services to the tourists, tourism promotional agencies, media and others in
India and abroad. Currently, http://www.incredibleindia.org serves as the main promotional portal of the
Ministry of Tourism, and http://tourism.gov.in/ (or http://www.tourism.nic.in/) provides all the
organizational activities/ policies of the Ministry of Tourism. Annexure-1 provides 10-year trend for Indian
Tourism.
As of 12th Feb, 2007, the various state and UT tourism internet website links are given in Table-1 below
(http://tourism.gov.in/rel_links/statlinks.htm)
Looking at the Table 2 we find that considering the foreign exchange collection as the parameter, Agra is
the most prominent tourist destination of India. This gives us a fair idea of the tourism scenario of India
from an economic perspective.

AGRA District Profile1:

Origin and Development
Agra is the city of the inimitable Taj Mahal. The story of Agra begins much earlier then the Taj, However it
finds mention in the epic Mahabharata when it was called Agrabana are Paradise. Ptolemy, the famous
second century A.D. geographer, marked it on his map of the world as Agra. Tradition and legend ascribe
the present city of Raja Badal Singh (around 1475 A.D.) whose Fort, Badalgarh, Stood on or near the site
of the present Fort. However, the 12th century A.D. persian poet Salman, too, Speaks of a desperate assault
on the fortress of Agra, then held by one King Jaipal, by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.

Economy
Primarily the Economy of the Agra district is agriculture based while the economy base of Agra city is
Small Scale Industries, Commerce and Trade. Major crops are Wheat, Paddy, Bajra, Mustard, Potato etc.
About 40% of the total economy of Agra depend on industry (Directly or Indirectly). Over 7200 Small
Scale Industrial Units are spared all over the district. Agra city is famous for the Leather Goods,
Handicrafts, Zari Zardozi, Marvel and Stone carving & inlay work. Agra is also welknown for eats sweets
(PETHA) and Snacks (DALMOTH AND GAJAK).

Main Industries of District Agra

There are 12 units in the district those comes under major & medium scale industries.
1. Electrical Goods
2. Fans
3. Pipes
4. C.I. Casting
5. Floor
6. Leather Goods and Shoes
7. Steel Rolling
8. Packing
9. Milk Products

1
Source: agra.nic.in (April 13, 2008)

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Table 1.

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Table 2. Circle-wise Revenue from Sale of Entry Tickets at Centrally Protected Ticketed Monuments in India
(2002-2003 to 2004-2005)

Circle Number of Revenue Earned During Each

Ticketed of the years (in Rupees)
Monuments 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05
Agra 8 132192992 173609595 238314568
Aurangabad 16 29807617 29829344 164188749
Bangalore 7 8335861 11311428 15356834
Bhopal 10 10756139 23033785 24860947
Bhubaneswar 6 12178309 12070241 12826173
Chandigarh 4 565567 663416 347237
Chennai 8 22913849 13228390 17217470
Dharwad 6 7967615 8663324 9055013
Delhi 10 65390949 92745897 134754351
Guwahati 5 876587 695755 56675
Hyderabad 8 5411961 11367259 12870196
Jaipur 3 2816659 3764347 4789281
Kolkatta 2 2599360 2561795 2994905
Lucknow 4 2657243 2650466 2929303
Patna 9 8379397 7888158 13720565
Srinagar 4 82718 235831 210791
Thrissur 2 946429 1134699 1097724
Vadodara 6 1593000 1943000 2158000
Total 118 315472252 397396730 657748782
(Source: Indiastat.com)

Small Industries: In this category, 7200 units are working at Agra, those produces
1. Cotton and Textile
2. Wood Paper Products and Stationery
3. Leather Goods and Metal Products
4. Auto and Engine Parts
5. Electrical Goods etc.
6. Handicrafts Works
In Handicrafts, Zari Zardozi, Marvel, Stone carving and Inlay work, Carpets about 13000 people are
working.

Shoes Industry
Above 1.5 Laks pairs of shoes per day manufactures in agra by the cottage, small scale and medium scale
footwear units.There about 60 organised footwear units, 3000 tiny manufactureing units and about 30000
house holds artisans units. There are a large number of ancillary industries, supporting footwear industries
in Agra. (About 20 small scale machinery manufacutes and 100 various kinds of footwear component
manufactures). About 65% of total domestic requirement of shoes in india is supplied from Agra.
There are around 70 export units in Agra in which two golden cards holders and three silver card holders
units. Total export turn over agra about Rs. 450 crore.

Monuments in Agra
Only city in the world to have three UNESCO recognised world heritage monuments (Complete list of 851
sites can be accessed at http://thesalmons.org/lynn/world.heritage.html). List of monuments include:
TajMahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Sikandra, Dayalbagh, Itmad- ud-daulah, as main monuments. Others
include Chini ka Roza, Marium Tomb, Jama Masjid. Agra was at the centre of attention due to the
landmark case which was initiated in the Supreme court by advocate M.C. Mehta. It is necessary to know
the judgement to peep into the socio economic condition of the once famous city of Taj. Based on the (Taj
Trapezium Case) India -- M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, WP 13381/1984 (1996.12.30) Writ Petition (C)

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No. 13381 of 1984 by advocate, M.C. Mehta, and a historic judgement was passed by the Supreme Court
on 30.12.1996. As per the court order hundreds of manufacturing units as well as the two power generation
units were closed on the pretext of pollution causing damage to the Taj. This sudden closure which was
preceded by the tragic impact of USSR disintegration on the prominent cottage industry of Agra i.e. shoe
manufacturing broke the economic backbone of the historical city

Source: http://agra.nic.in/images/agra-city-map.gif

Classification and Needs of a Tourist

There are three kinds of tourists – inbound, domestic
and outbound. Inbound tourists are those that visit India
from foreign countries. During the year 2007, the
number of inbound(foreign) tourist arrivals is estimated
at about 5 million, which represents a growth of about
12% as compared to the corresponding figures for the previous year (Ministry of Tourism Annual Report
2007-08). Domestic tourists are the Indian residents who are vacationing during summer, winter or during
other holidays, utilizing leave travel concession (LTC) or are self financed. The number of domestic tourist
visits is estimated at 462 million in 2006, showing a growth of 17.8% as compared to the year 2005
(Ministry of Tourism Annual Report 2007-08). Outbound tourists are the resident Indian who opt to visit
foreign countries. In this paper, we are focusing only on inbound and domestic tourists.

The number of inbound tourists peaks during October

to March and reduces by half during April to
September (Annexure-2). There has been an increase
in domestic as well as outbound tourists which is a
healthy trend, as the WTO data shows that countries,
whose residents spend more on tourism (whether
domestic or outbound), have also received more
inbound tourists. The reason for this could be partially
attributed to the familiarity with Indian people and

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customs that foreigners gain from Indian tourists visiting their countries. After their trips abroad, the
experience of these outbound tourists, if captured, can help plan, improve, and promote better tourism
facilities in India. In a way it conveys that with more experience one has of foreign lands, more and more
people get interested in you if you are interested in knowing them.

A tourist needs to know the best mode of travel (road, rail, air or sea) to a destination. Suitable boarding
and lodging are the next items on its agenda. There were 1437 hotels with 84327 rooms on the approved
list of the Ministry of tourism upto December 2007. Break up of these hotels is given in Annexure-3.
Thereafter, information on attractive tourist spots available in and around the destination hold its attention
and then any package tours that provide the best value for money (or at least increase the perceived
usefulness in the eyes of a prospective tourist)

5ICT interventions in the Tourist Life Cycle:

A tourist life cycle(see fig. ) can be classified into three phases - pre-trip, trip PRE TRIP
and post-trip. Pre-trip (or planning) is the phase during which a potential TRIP
tourist is considering tourism travel. In this planning phase, tourism
intermediaries (travel agents, tour operators, hotels, airlines, etc.) play a vital
part in forming the opinion of a potential tourist. POST
TRIP
There are some similar pre-trip requirements for the three kinds of tourists
(inbound, domestic and outbound). These include information about the destination, boarding/ lodging,
mode of travel & package tour(s), advance payment mechanism and security concerns, etc. Additional
pre-trip requirements specifically for inbound and outbound tourists, include documentation for visa,
currency conversion issues, local travel synchronization with international travel, etc. During pre-trip, a
potential tourist seeks reliable and current information on the tourism alternatives available. Information
about mode of travel, budget trip prices, budget accommodation and its prices, distance of the
accommodations from the tourist spots, availability of any package tour that may take care of the boarding/
lodging with additional local site seeing. Approximate costing of the proposed trip can be provided to
potential tourists using some online calculators.

Tourist Life Cycle comprising pre-trip, trip and post-trip

The tourism departments/ organizations need to facilitate the tourists in meeting these requirements, which
would help improve the tourism business in the country. The promotional portal of the Ministry of Tourism,
www.incredibleindia.org, does not have an online financial payment gateway to book hotel accommodation,
or air tickets. A potential tourist has to separately visit the airlines and hotel websites to make the

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reservations. For Agra, the city of Taj, a list of hotels is provided with phone numbers (most landlines),
with no links to their respective websites, if any, nor any details about the type of accommodation, and
indicative tariffs. Providing email ids would be more effective because of the time-zone differences across
various countries. With a 6-13 hrs. time difference India and US/ UK (countries from where India gets the
maximum number of tourists), it would be inconvenient for a US/UK national to make a phone call to these
hotels for seeking reservations. However, a related website http://www.up-tourism.com, has an option to
book hotel accommodation, with indicative room tariffs. Contact details (phone and email ids) of tourism
officials who can be contacted in case a tourist needs clarification, should also be made available on line.
For inbound travelers, Indian embassies abroad keep updated printed brochures ready. A foreign national,
seeking Indian visa, may be provided a tourism folder, containing the brochures detailing different tourism
products and current offers.
All foreign travellers, using Indian airports in transit and flying on Indian Airlines/ Air India, may be
optionally granted, on the spot, short-duration visas to visit a few nearby tourist places. For example,
in-transit foreign air traveller at New Delhi airport, may be made aware about a short trip to Agra, and with
other similar offers.
Once a potential tourist decides to visit India, the ‘trip’ phase begins. Once in a hotel, the tourist would
begin visiting various sites in the destination city. The ticketing process and interaction with local populace
be made as simplified as possible. A tourist may be provided with a smart/ credit/ debit card that would
have all the details of the sites visited by the tourists, plus it also records the sequence of the visit plu it
contains all details about the tourist. A tourist needs to be made aware of the common rules of the land
while eating in restaurants and general civic sensibility.
During the last 48-72 hrs. of the trip, again hand-holding is needed. Checking out of hotels and reaching
airports needs to be a pleasurable experience. Taking feedback of the trip is also important. Feedback forms
needs to be carefully designed so that each aspect of the trip can be carefully captured. Providing feedback
shouldn’t become a chore for the tourist but the feedback should be captured at every possible point while
the tourist is in his/ her trip.
Post trip link with a tourist is very important for many reasons. Once the tourist leaves for his/her home
country, after a few days, a feedback can be asked seeking constructive suggestions to improve the
situation. The customer should be provided an ATR on the feedback provided by the customer. If the
tourist is upset or angry over some issue, someone should sympathetically look into it and try to resolve it
amicably.
Thereafter, the tourist should be kept informed (through emails, etc.) constantly about any new package
deals, with schemes like discounts for repeat customers etc. This will make the tourist feel wanted and at
home. This would increase the word-of-mouth-impacted tourists.

Tourism Value Chain:

The value chain model, since its conception by Porter (1985, 1990), has been extensively used by
researchers to map the organizational and industry level linkages and networks and to analyse and describe
where value resides at these two levels. It has been argued (Gunn, 1988; Gnoth, 2002) that the tourism
product is a rather complex one and is directly associated with the idea of the holiday or vacation
'experience' (Ashworth & Voogd, 1994). Middleton and Clarke (2001:124-125) suggest that "from the
standpoint of a potential customer considering any form of tourist visit, the product may be defined as a
bundle or package of tangible and intangible components, based on activity at a destination. The package is
perceived by the tourist as an experience, available at a price". The overall satisfaction of a tourist depends
on the experience of the product (Weiermair, 2000) as well as on the experience from various
intermediaries involved in the bundling, packaging and making the tourism product available to the tourist
for purchase (Baker & Crompton, 2000). The full range of activities which are required to bring the tourism
product from conception and production to the actual experience of the tourist can be defined as tourism
value chain. It is a series of transfer activities from product supplier to final consumer, and is constituted by
tour product supplier, travel agents and the final consumer.
The proposed tourism value chain is made up of tourist, an integrated tourism destination website
(with a financial payment gateway and a global, distributed computer reservation system), tour operator(s)/
travel agent(s), hotel(s), airline(s), national tourism planners, administrators and tourist destinations. A
tourist may choose to book a tourism product from any of the five intermediaries, viz., (1) travel agents, (2)
tour operators, (3) online destination website, (4) hotel , or (5) airlines. Tour operators can be seen as

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tourism product aggregators, whereas travel agents act as information brokers, providing the final consumer
with the relevant information and booking facilities. The integrated tourist destination website connects the
tourist with other intermediaries, with many features such as querying online, online reservations, etc.

Proposed Tourism Value Chain

Conclusions
Tourism is a sunrise sector. Agra being the top tourist destination needs the adequate support to give the
best experience to all the tourists, whether domestic or inbound (foreign). Inbound tourists’ learning curve
about India may be at a very nascent stage. Thus with the help of ICT interventions complete information
can be given to the tourists at the pre trip, during trip as well as post trip phases. It will not only create
awareness but also instill a positive feeling about India in general and Agra in particular. Post-trip, using
ICT, a tourist can be helped to cherish his memories of the trip to Taj and apprised of the latest
developments as well as tourism promotion schemes which are currently running. This may enable the
tourist to become an advocate of Indian Tourism by promoting it by word of mouth. Overall, ICT
interventions will bring in transparency in the system, make the system more swift and customer centric
and will help in creating a positive image about AGRA as one of the top tourist destination of the world.

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ANNEXURE-1

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ANNEXURE 2

(Source: Ministry of Tourism Annual Report 2007-08)

ANNEXURE 3

(Source: Ministry of Tourism Annual Report 2007-08)

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