Memoire Online - Destination Management System

An Executive Project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of

This graduate research project was prepared under the direction of the candidate research advisor, Dr Easwar Nyshadham, Department of Business Administration and has been approved by the Project Review Committee. It was submitted to the Department of Business Administration and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Executive Master in Business Administration For Aviation and Aerospace Professionals.

ABSTRACT

DEGREE: Master in Business Administration for Aviation and Aerospace Professionals YEAR: 2001

The rapid development of Information and Communication technology (ICT) in the distribution and intermediation of tourism products has set new competitive environment for destination's tourism industry. A comprehensive research on ICT implications on the tourism and travel industry was conducted to demonstrate the critical competitive factors of comprehensive database of a Webbased Destination Management System and the seamless marketing chain it creates: Awareness-Information-Booking-CRM. This project proposes a Destination Management System for Morocco's Tourism Destination and carefully evaluates strategic implications of its realization. Marketing, financial and organizational strategic requirements are analyzed for a successful implementation. This executive project demonstrates how a DMS will enable the Moroccan National Tourism Office, as an organization, to establish a critical competitive advantage for Morocco's entire tourism industry.

The author wishes to express special thanks to the project advisor, Dr. Easwar Nyshadham, whose constant encouragement, helpful counsel and practical suggestions were crucial to the successful outcome of this Graduate Research Project. Appreciation is also due to Drs. Petree and Waguespack, Project Review Committee Members, for their assistance in preparing this manuscript.

This statement of acknowledgement would be incomplete without a formal expression of sincere appreciation and gratitude to both Dr. Saad Laraqui and the author's family for providing the assistance and encouragement needed to complete the task.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Tourism clearly counts as one of the social and economic phenomena of the last century. According to WTO, the number of international tourists traveling in the world reached 698 millions in 2000. International tourism receipts for the same year have been estimated at US$ 476 billion. Today, Tourism is perceived as an eminently global industry with a worldwide network of producers, suppliers and intermediaries. This industry is also characterized by its fragmentation and heterogeneity, thus a complex product with different components. Moreover, Tourism is information intensive industry, with worldwide heterogeneous consumers communities with constant changing needs.

Recognizing the benefits of tourism, many countries have created coordinating agencies at national level, to address tourism related services. Often, these agencies, such as Tourist Boards tend to be state organizations in charge of marketing their country as a «brand». Historically, Tourist Boards have marketed their destinations by communicating their countries' tourism offer to the international markets through various media, including direct contact with the consumers through physical offices in the world's major cities. They also

promote their destinations by distributing printed and video materials and taking part in tourism trade shows or «similar live activities». However, in recent years, tremendous changes that have occurred in the travel industry have driven Tourist Boards all over the world to adapt their missions, and sharpen their marketing strategies. Probably, the single most significant change driving this redefinition of corporate mission is the revolutions in information technology. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) available today make it possible to radically reengineer activities between an organization, its customers, suppliers and stakeholders.

The role of such national institutions in creating a general enabling environment for the tourism industry is crucial especially for developing countries. Morocco is one of those developing countries that are relying on Tourism to jumpstart a tourism driven economy. The State owned Tourism Board for Morocco, called the Moroccan National Tourism Office (MNTO), is naturally also confronted with those changes and that is a strong reinforcing factor to its obligation to become the leveraging instrument of Morocco Destination's global image and tourism product positioning in international consumers' mind. Therefore, MNTO should reevaluate its approach towards marketing Morocco as a destination to tourists worldwide.

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the technical, managerial and organizational feasibility of a destination marketing system for the Moroccan

National Tourism Office. The project is organized as follows: Section 1 contains an overview of the world tourism travel; Section 2 reviews the tourism industry characteristics and business constraints; Section 3 introduce the strategic implications of Information Technology on the tourism industry; Section 4 describe today's Internet travel; Section 5 introduce to Destination Management System and highlights its success criteria; Section 6 propose the Destination Management System conception and implementation for the MNTO.

Chapter 2

WORLD TOURISM: AN OVERVIEW

HISTORICAL TREND

International Tourism in past half-century has been marked foremost by its tremendous expansion. Between 1950 and 2000 the number of arrivals has shown an evolution from a mere 25 million international arrivals to 698 million in 2000, corresponding to an average growth rate of 7 %. This strong overall expansion is also characterized by its geographical spread among Asian, North African, South American and Caribbean destinations. Numerous countries in those regions has turned tourism as a primarily source of wealth. More than 70 countries receive over one million international visitors a year.

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM IN 2000

World Tourism statistics has traditionally used measurement such Tourist Arrivals and International Tourist Receipts. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), world tourism grew by an estimated 7.4% in 2000 spurred on by a strong global economy and special events held to commemorate the new millennium. Nearly 50 million more international trips were made in 2000, the

same number of new tourists as major destinations such Spain or the United States receive in one year. The number of international arrivals in 2000 totaled 698 million, according to preliminary results released in January 2001 by the WTO. Receipts from international tourism also climbed to US$476 Billion, an increase of 4.5% over the previous year, translating into receipts per arrival of US$681. All regions of the world hosted more tourists in 2000, although the fastest developing areas continued to be East Asia and the Pacific. Countries in Western Mediterranean performed well in 2000 as tourists shunned away from destinations in East Mediterranean Sea, perceived as to close to the conflict in Kosovo. Turkey made a great come back with 39.6 %increase in visitor despite political problems and the 1998 earthquake disaster. International arrivals to Morocco, for example rose by 7. 4 % in 2000, totaling 4.1 million tourist arrivals, following an excellent 21.6 % increase in 1999 over the previous year.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Africa and Middle East: Africa is still left out of tourism boom despite an enormous potential. While Kenya, Egypt and Morocco enjoyed strong growth, two of Africa's biggest destinations, (South Africa and Zimbabwe) suffered setbacks.

Top Destinations	Arrivals in 2000	% Of change
1. South Africa	6,108,000	+ 1.4%	2. Egypt
5,150,000	+14.7%	3. Tunisia
5,057,000	+4.7%	4. Morocco
4,100,000	+7.4%
5.Israel	2,400,000	+3.8%
6.Jordan	1,256,000	-7.5%
7.Kenya	1,226,000	+ 30.0%
8.Zimbabwe	840,000	-60.0%

Americas: Central America continued to record the biggest growth in the American continent (+8.8%), while the United States showed a solid 8.7% increase despite the strength of the US dollar.

Top Destinations	Arrivals in 2000	% Of change
1. United States	52,690,000	+8.7%	2. Canada
20,423,000	+4.9%	3. Mexico
20,000,000	+5.0%	4. Brazil
5,190,000	+1.6%	5. Puerto Rico
3,094,000	+2.3%	6. Argentina
2,988,000	+3.1%	7. Dominican Republic
2,977,000	+ 12.4%	8. Uruguay
1,968,000	-5.1%	9. Chile
1,71 9,000	+6.0%
10.Cuba	1,700,000	+8.9%

East Asia and Pacific: This part of the world saw important growth driven by China and Honk-Kong. South East Asia especially Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam is becoming one of the world's favorite destination in the world.

Top Destinations	Arrivals in 2000	% Of change
1. China	31,236,000	+15.5%	2. Hong Kong
13,059,000	+ 15.3%	3. Malaysia
10,000,000	+26.1%	4. Thailand
9,574,000	+ 10.5%	5. Singapore
7,000,000	+11.9%	6. Macao
6,682,000	+32.3%	7. South Korea
5,336,000	+ 14.5%	8. Indonesia
5,012,000	+6.0%	9. Australia
4,882,000	+ 9.5%	10. Japan
4,758,000	+7.2%

Europe: The star performer remains Europe with some 300 million international visitors fueled by Expo 2000 in Germany and the Vatican Jubilee in Italy. However East Europe is making a come back after the Kosovo war and Turkey made a strong come back after the natural disaster in 1998.

Top Destinations	Arrivals in 2000	% Of change
1. France	74,000,000	+2%	2. Spain
53,600,000	+3.7%	3. Italy
41,182,000	+12.8%	4. United Kingdom
24,900,000	-1.9%	5. Russian Federation
22,783,000	+23.2%	6. Germany
18,916,000	+10.5%	7. Poland
18,183,000	+1.3%	8. Austria
17,81 8,000	+2.0%	9. Hungary
15,571,000	+8.1%	10. Greece
12,500,000	+2.8%	11. Portugal
12,000,000	+3.2%
14. Turkey	9,623,000	+39.6%

All those figures shows that South East Asia is undoubtedly the fastest growing tourism region in the world and it is likely to keep this trend for years to come. As West European destinations are becoming more saturated, and with

WTO's projections of 1 billion International Tourism Arrivals in 2010, regional competition is likely to accentuate, particularly between Mediterranean and South East Asia tourist destinations.

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM EXPENDITURES

In 1999, 45 countries recorded each more than US$ 1 billion in international tourism expenditure (WTO, 2000) with the big industrial powers clearly in the lead. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan toping the list with spending ranging from US$ 29 billion to US$ 56 billion per year. Those countries represent over one-third of total international tourism expenditure.

According to a study by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), travel and tourism is the world's largest industry directly or indirectly driving more than 10% of global jobs, GDP, and investment.

In an increasingly global society, the economic and social contribution of this industry to the world is highly significant and continues to grow.

International aviation is the prime engine of travel and tourism, which presently contributes more than USD 3,500 billion to the world economy, or nearly 12 percent of the total. More than 192 million jobs are generated, 8% of the world total. Capital investment for travel and tourism is at present US$ 733

billion a year. This represents more than 11 percent of the world total (IATA, 2000).

MOROCCO DESTINATION OVERVIEW

Morocco is roughly comparable in size, geography and climate to California, with a population of 35 millions. Morocco is a unique country. The destination holds an unquestionable differentiating advantage with a product that has a strong cultural content and incomparable geographical diversity, which brings big potential to seaside Atlantic coast beaches, mountains and inland Sahara desert adventure tourism that is enjoyable all year long. Given the product attributes of Morocco as a destination and the characteristics and trends of International Tourism that is leaning toward cultural discovery and adventure, the destination holds a potentially promising future.

Morocco repre sent a very small portion of this huge business with less than 0.6% of the International tourism flow or 4.1 millions international visitors annually generating $2.8 billions total revenue (Source: WTO 2001). European Union members (France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Benelux and Great Britain generate nearly 70% of inbound travel to Morocco. North America outbound

tourism to Morocco reaches a mere 5%. The Middle East and North East Asia also generate almost 5% of total arrivals. Total airborne International arrivals represent 66%. According to the Ministry of Tourism, tourism sector contributed in 1999, to 8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generating 600,000 (direct and indirect) jobs.

Direct competitive destinations to Morocco are those with similar tourism products content with strong cultural and adventures attributes in the perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea. Such Destinations are Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Tunisia, Portugal, Spain and South Africa that is part of the African continent. However new entrants from South East Asia region are more and more direct competitors despite their distances from the European world biggest outbound market. Those countries are represented by Thailand, Malaysia and most recently aggressive destinations such as Vietnam and Cambodia.

Traditional competitors such as Egypt and Turkey have accomplished tremendous progress by developing a strong tourism industry in the last decade. Morocco despite being an earlier entrant in new developing countries destinations lagged behind because of lack of strategic vision and planning. The country slipped from a 25^th position in International Arrivals in 1990 to 37th

rank in 1999. The tourism industry suffered a structural crisis leading to insufficient lodging capacity and deteriorating infrastructure and quality product. In 1999 effective lodging capacity was reaching a mere 70,000 beds in total. At the same time Egypt and Tunisia lodging capacity were set to 140,000 and 180,000 respectively. However Morocco destination is recovering from the structural crisis and a jointly public-private sector initiative identified major red tapes that have to be eliminated as well as fiscal incentives to apply for a successful tourism development policy. Actions have already been taken to attract foreign investment, while numerous major infrastructure projects are being launched. Morocco destination should be able to attract 10 million international tourists by 2010, thus becoming one of the major Mediterranean tourism destinations.

Chapter 3

TOURISM INDUSTRY

The Tourism industry is by definition a global industry with a worldwide network of producers, suppliers, and intermediaries. There are a few large multinational airlines, tour operators, hotel chain and theme parks. The tourism enterprise-overwhelming majority is small or medium size business. This is particularly true in the case of Morocco destination.

GLOBAL CHARACTERISTICS

> Global industry (Tourists= 698 millions, Expenditures = $476 billions) > Air Transport liberalization =New entrants

> 9 dominants players: Developed countries (USA, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, etc.) with 51% of worldwide total receipts.

> Less Developed Countries with 12.3 % of total receipts with China
leading with 23 millions arrivals and 2.3 % of total world receipts.

CORE CHARACTERISTICS

The industry is by essence an information intensive service industry that has historically struggled under the weight of fragmented supply chains, which results in complex and often-inefficient business processing. Firstly it is heterogeneous and hence relies most exclusively upon representations and descriptions (information in printed and audiovisual format) by the travel trade and other intermediaries for its ability to attract consumers. Unlike durable goods, intangible tourism services cannot be physically displayed or inspected at the point of sale before purchasing. Hence, they are normally bought before the time of use and away from the place of their consumption (Buhalis, 1996). Tourism products are particularly difficult to describe due to their multi-national and cultural character. Different cultures, cuisine, customs, constitute the context, whereas the content is represented by geographical locality, lodging amenities and attractions/activities. So the information provided through images portrayed by media, promotional materials and word of mouth is highly critical for provision and distribution of tourism products. Tourism products require a great degree of commitment and cannot be replaced, should consumers being not satisfied with their attributes. Therefore timely and accurate information is the key success to successful satisfaction of the demand (Buhalis, 1994). Furthermore success will depend on the quick identification of the consumer needs and the interaction with prospective clients, by using comprehensive, personalized and up to date

media to convey this information and to design that specific product that will satisfy today's more experienced consumer.

MARKET CHARACTERISTICS

Until today's new ITs' driven competitive environment, few players in the various sectors of the tourist industry understood the importance of cooperation and networking because of the fragmented nature of the travel market. In particular DMOs and the travel trade still do not collaborate adequately to represent their destination globally to foreign markets. The public sector and private sector are in fact addressing tourists' needs separately without a system that can enable the creation of a value chain that strengthens the performance of the destination in a synergic manner. On the contrary conflicts are created by the dissimilar objectives and interest of various stakeholders, thus hurting the destination in general.

Figure 1 represents a functional and structural view of the tourism and travel market. It differentiates between the supply and the demand side and the different intermediaries. Links mark the relationship as well as the flow of information. On the supply side, primary suppliers are hotels, restaurants, cultural or sport event organizers, etc, which are mostly Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs). Tour Operators (TOs) can be seen as product aggregators whereas Travel Agents, act as information brokers, providing the consumer with relevant information and booking facilities. Computerized Reservation Systems (CRSs) and Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) cover airlines offering as well as other products such as packages holidays. They provide the main links to TOs and to travel agents. Whereas the intermediaries on the right side are the commercial link between supplier and consumer, the left side is relevant for destination management and planning entities such as DMOs (National Tourist Offices (NTOs) and Regional Tourist Offices (RTO)) that are not involved in the booking process.

Countries

Producers

Intermediaries

Consumers

Hotels

Restaurants

Airlines

Provisions

Entertainment Recreations

Hotel Chain

Tour Operator

Travel Agent

GDS/CRS

Tourism associations

Tourists

DMO

COMPETITIVE CONSTRAINTS FOR DESTINATIONS

Developing countries have often used their natural and geographical endowments to achieve remarkable growth in their tourism sector. However, a number of circumstances common, but not exclusive, to developing countries such as Morocco militate against their efforts to develop a strong tourism export sector (UNCTAD, 2000):

> Long distances and less than acute or no competition result in high air fares;

> Global distribution systems (GDSs) and computer reservation systems (CRSs) owned by large international airlines;

> An increasingly competitive global tourism sector, where natural competitive advantages are becoming less significant;

INDUSTRY'S DRIVING FORCES

> The tourism sector is profiting from the processes of globalization and liberalization.

> Tourism producers and intermediaries are increasingly competing on the confidence inspired in the customer directly through the quality of the information they provide.

> The tourism industry is learning fast that the Internet can satisfy this need far better than any other existing technology.

> The use of the Internet in developed countries for purchasing tourism products is increasing dramatically.

> National tourism boards and tourism business associations will exercise the leadership in embracing the digital age.

MARKETING CONSTRAINTS FOR TOURISM BOARDS

The marketing of a destination is a very difficult task because the Tourism and Travel product is complex, consisting of a set of very different products that are perishable in a highly information based industry

environment. As keepers of the destination «brand», Tourists Boards are responsible for positioning the destination in the mind of the consumer. This usually involves expensive print or broadcast media campaigns, often with no call to action or sometimes with a number to call for brochures fulfillment. The main objective is to raise awareness and create the destination positioning in the tourist's mind. Today the effectiveness of Destination Marketing Organization's traditional promotional actions are to be questioned giving the new overall economic, social and technical back round, which has to be considered, that shows the following trends according to the International Federation of Information Tourism and Technology (IFITT, Innsbruck, Austria).

> A further increase in tourism can be expected; the future development of the industry will result in further differentiation and mass customization as well as consolidation and globalisation. (Regional competition).

> A common infrastructure, including software and hardware tools and enabling e-commerce is emerging.

> Technology is becoming transparent and invisible to the consumer. (DMO's that are not embracing technology will disappear).

> Information is already available at home, the work place and during travel enabled by mobile computing and WAP technology.

> Destination branding will become more important, leading probably to virtual organization branding with different products integrated into e- commerce architectures.

These changes in the worldwide travel industry are having tremendous impact on DMO s' traditional marketing models. Nowhere are the changes mentioned above more evident than in the use of information to position, market and sell destinations. Therefore major issues are to be addressed, in this new strategic environment. DMOs are condemned to adapt their mission, marketing and organizations to new models in order to create a platform of development of the tourist demand at the level of the nation as a destination in our modern information society.

Chapter 4

TOURISM AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DEMAND TRENDS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ITs are not new to tourism industry. Computerized networks, and particularly airline Computer Reservation Systems (CRSs) have been leading dramatic changes since the early 1 970's. Airlines realized that their presence through interfaces on travel agencies desktop was critical to attract booking and manage their inventory and capacity distribution. The evolution of CRSs to Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) in the early 1980's developed the first electronic marketplace by integrating other airlines' reservation systems as well as providing booking access to a range of tourism products from hotel to car rentals. However the traditional CRS/GDS had only improved the information communications between tourism businesses such as airlines and travel agents, as they do not interact directly with the consumer. The systems are also expensive to both the tourism producer and the retailer. Moreover these systems are flawed with incompatibilities between each other, especially in the lodging sector where «switch» companies such as THISCO (The Hotel Industry Switching Company) was needed to connect hotels with majors GDSs, to facilitate room reservations

for travel agents worldwide (Liu, 2000). But one should keep in mind that GDSs are the backbone of the electronic distribution system of the travel industry.

Information Technologies' (ITs) rapid developments in the 1990s are now having profound impacts and implications for the whole tourism industry. Beside the macroeconomic level where ITs are regarded as instrumental in regional development, long term pro sperity, new information society and knowledge-based economic powers (Buhalis, 1996), tourism is inevitably influenced by the business re-engineering experience that this revolution had provide (WTO, 1998). As information is the life-blood of the travel industry (Sheldon, 1997), effective use of technology is fundamental to the tourism sector. The most pro found impact of ITs on tourism management is efficiency in cooperation among the industry's actors and the availability of tools for a real globalization of the industry. It changes the best operation practices and provides opportunities for business expansion in the geographical, marketing and operational sense (Buhalis, 2000). As a result ITs facilitate the integration of the industry in both geographical and operational terms. (expansion to new productdestinations and vertical integration). Consequently, tourism destinations must compete in a fiercely competitive marketplace; thus, ITs have become a critical factor in determining future success or failure, as well as tourism impacts at destinations. In fact ITs can empower promotion's management and distributions of product-destination through the development of Destination Marketing Systems (Buhalis, 1997).

Destinations increasingly attract international tourism from distant and long haul markets, making information dissemination more imperative than ever. Outbound markets are characterized by short gateways breaks with trip decisions made on impulse from previous trips shortly before departures. Therefore, the international tourist put emphasis on speed and information's availability and accuracy as well as efficient reservation facilities. He is increasingly more sophisticated and «wired». Consequently the rapid development of both tourism supply and demand makes ITs an imperative partners of the industry and thus ITs ever more play an important role in tourism marketing, distribution, promotion and co-ordination (Buhalis and Spada, 2000). Efficiency, speed and flexibility in responding to consumer requirements and needs are now becoming a core competency in tourism marketing. ITs tools now facilitate mass customization of tourism products. Complex and flexible bundles of tourism offering can be configured. Furthermore ITs' based knowledge management tools enable individualized marketing to customers (Werthner and Klein, 1999).

Hence tourism organizations should develop partnerships aimed to improve business processes using ITs, which will enhance the quality of their interactions with their stakeholders from the producer to the supplier to the consumer. The challenge for the industry is to provide a seamless integration of information and physical service, with flexible configurations of the physical and the information parts. Destinations that provide timely, appropriate and accurate information, using ITs tools, to consumers and the travel trade, have a better

chance of being selected and of strengthening their competitiveness (Buhalis, Spada, 2000).

Today the development of the Internet revolutionized the usage of ITs by providing the infrastructure of intra and inter-organization networking between all computer users. The problem of GDSs incompatibility can now be addressed effectively and cheaply. In addition a web base GDS has improved the quality of information delivery (window based computer screen) and is accessible instantly worldwide at a cheaper cost. The Internet tool enabled instant distribution of rich media colorful content, booking capabilities and e-commerce platforms to conduct online business. It offers substantial advantages in communications, market research, market targeting, costumer services, product development, cost savings and product delivering. Today, the Internet is widely recognized as an extremely valuable marketing tool.

ICT STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR TOURISM

The most significant strategic implication of ITs is the development of competitive advantages by product differentiation, seamless product packaging for niche markets, cost reduction in the business processing and travel distribution as well as increased speed of information retrieval and exchange.

The emerging globalization and tremendous competition between tourism destinations require great degree of efficiency in communications and operations. Adoption of ITs provides new ways of collecting, analyzing, transmitting and delivering information and new ways to facilitate the creation and transmission of knowledge throughout the tourism industry. The tourism product being a «confidence good» (Werthner, Klein, 1999), an assessment on the product quality before a buying action is practically impossible. Information of high content and knowledge is therefore needed. Organizations that offer that

degree of efficiency in information delivery, both externally and internally will be able to succeed in the marketplace. The use of ITs' tools to achieve that goal by providing instantaneous, flexible and customized products to customers constitute a certain competitive advantage in a technological driven competitive environment.

The dramatic grow of Internet has begun to fundamentally change the relationship between consumers and suppliers. The way that buyers and sellers share information and transactions has dramatically improved. Many if not most, commerce relationships are very inefficient in the travel space. (Bear, Stearns & CO, 2000). Because buyers and sellers are dispersed over wide geographic areas and the transactions execution in the travel business is by essence very complex, it almost appear as if the Internet were specifically designed to correct the inefficiencies in research and transactions that are inherent to the travel industry.

Figure 3. Current and Future Position of Online Services (Werthner and Klein, 1999)

airlines, travel agents) that pursue an online strategy. The above figure shows that technology, not only, enables direct access to the consumer, but also improves

the internal information flow and cooperation processes (Intranet, Extranet). The Internet serves as a centralized source for information on many related travel

topics (i.e., air, hotel, car, attractions, activities). Internet applications are now the electronic interface to the world's suppliers and consumers. In electronic

marketplace, marketing push is replaced by marketing pull (Fingar, Kumar & Sharma, 1999).

The Internet since its inception created a world of communities of interest where peoples share ideas, information and opinions. Services are defined now from a supplier and a consumer perspective (Werthner, Klein, 1999). The consumer pool is now a very powerful agent in the suppliers marketing strategy. Existing channels of distribution are giving way to global communities-of-interest that eliminate channel components that they do not perceive as adding value. For example, American Airlines' Travelocity was originally designed so that travel agents would still add value by being the means of delivering the ticket. Consumers who represent the travel community saw little value in this arrangement and the travel agent was disintermediated from the process (Fingar, Kumar & Sharma, 1999).

Those new intermediaries or online booking servers such as Travelocity, Expedia, Preview Travel that are potentially dangerous for travel agents act as virtual travel agents or travel supermarkets providing booking facilities for air, hotel, car rentals as well as many information retrieval services. They are new players often called «Infomediaries». They had come with innovative business models that combine consumer advocacy (being well aware of communities-ofinterest power) and flexible pricing. The infomediaries have strategically positioned their applications in order to generate benefits for customers and

suppliers such as reducing transaction's costs and generating volume for suppliers witch are not feasible in direct sales mode.

Although it is recognized that the Internet medium is chaotic, mainly because a lack of standardization and immaturity, it is evident that the World Wide Web provide inexpensive delivery of information concerning every single enterprise and destination. Thus the Internet empowers the marketing and communication functions of remote, peripheral and insular destinations as well as Small and Medium sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs). They are now able to communicate directly to their prospective customers and differentiate their product offering. Competitiveness and prosperity of both tourism enterprises and destination in the new millennium will depend on the degree of innovation by using the new strategic tools provided by the revolutionary information technology.

In any case failure to take advantages of Information Technology will undoubtedly lead to competitive disadvantage for organizations that fail to adapt to those sweeping changes. Hence the pervasive ITs tools especially Internet require re-engineering of business processes, as well as the development of a strategic vision and commitment. Tourism destinations and enterprises will therefore be able to embrace change and develop their competitiveness in this new digital age.

Countries	Producers	Intermediaries	Infomediaries	Consumers
D			Web based
E	Hotels	Hotel Chain	travel and
			Tourism
S
	Restaurants	Tour Operator	Hotel
T
			Chain.com	Tourists
I	Airlines	Travel Agent	Tour
N	Provisions	GDS/CRS	Operator.com
A	Entertainment	Tourism	Travel
T	Recreations	associations	Agent.com
I		DMO	Tourism associations.com
O
			DMO.com
N

Chapter 5

INTERNET TRAVEL

THE GLOBAL NET

The Internet continues to grow at a phenomenal pace. Internet users have soared from 171 million in 1999 to 354 millions as of today (NUA Internet Survey, 2001). North America remains ahead with 135 million of the world total. Europe and Asia Pacific follow with 113 million and 105 million Internet users respectively. Current predictions indicate that Internet users could exceed the 1 billion mark by 2005, with the explosion of Internet access wireless devices. According to the International Technology and Trade Associate (ITTA, 2000), adoption of Internet and IT sector is at the heart of the decade long economic expansion. The adoption of IT and Internet tools has driven growth in almost every sector including travel and tourism by practically doubling productivity. The Web contains 2.1 billion indexable pages (7 million pages added daily) distributed over 17.7 million sites. «Dot-Com» domain names dominate the Internet with 9.4 million sites.


Number of Worldwide Online Households (in millions) 200
150 100 50



0 YEARS

INTERNET BUSINESS TRAVEL

Approximately 90 million online travelers or about 44 percent of the U.S. adult population are online travelers (past-year travelers who currently use the Internet). Two-thirds (66%) of online travelers or 59.4 million U.S. adults have used the Internet to make travel plans in the last year (PhoCusWright, 2001). Travel planning consists of activities such as getting information on destinations or checking prices and schedules. This is up 23 percent from 48.1 million adults in 1999. Among them 21.9 millions adults or 36 percent of current Internet users have used the Internet to make travel reservations in the past year. Travel reservations include actual booking or paying an airline ticket,

hotel room, rental car, and package tour. The number of online travel buyers is projected to reach 72 million in 2003. (Forrester Research, 2000)

Search engine websites are the most popular for online travel planning (62%). Company-run websites and destination sites are also popular at 51 and 48 percent each. Online travel agency sites are used by over half (36%) of online travel planners (Travel Industry Association of America, 2000).

Figure 5. Types of Internet sites used for Travel Planning. (Travel Industry Association of America, 2000)

Travel is the most important business on the web in term of the volume of e-commerce (eMarketer, 1999). By 2003, US$29 billion in travel will be sold online, almost four times 1 999's level (Forrester Research, 2000). Despite this immense growth most Internet travel research companies' estimates, only put

online travel booking at 10% of total travel booking in 2003. Today airline booking represents 60% of total Internet travel buying.

Figure 6. Online Buying in United States (With reference to Bear, Stearns & CO, 2000)

The European online travel market is gaining prominence as the economic signs for this e-commerce segment continue to grow stronger. The European online travel market will soar from US$2.9 billion in 2000 to US$10.9 billion in 2002 - nearly a 300% two-year gain (PhoCusWright, 2001).

Factors contributing to this growth were continuing rapid expansion in Internet and wireless usage; the breakdown of e-commerce barriers such as bill payment, security and privacy concerns; improved telecommunications; and the

influx of new and improved online travel services. Increasingly, Europeans are able to access the Internet using flat-rate payment plans instead of having to pay for Internet access by the minute, which had been a major constraint. At the same time, several online players have begun to build significant market share - and are raising public awareness of travel e-commerce in the process. Airline Web sites and tour operators control 28% and 27%, respectively, of the European online travel market in 2000. Online travel agencies have a 26% market share; railways, 9%; hotels, 7%; and car rental companies, 3%. Unlike in the U.S., supplier Web sites dominate the online travel market in Europe. Airlines, tour operators, hotels, railways and car rental companies represent

74% of the European online travel market in 2000, while online agencies' share is 26%.

Airline Web site sales will total $810 million in 2000, while $382 million of airline tickets will be sold through online travel agencies. The two airlines with the largest online bookings, Easy Jet and Ryan air book 100% of their Internet sales on their own Web sites.

Chapter 6

DESTINATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

NATURE OF A NATIONAL TOURISM OFFICE

One of the main tasks of National Tourist Offices (NTOs) that are called often Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) is to create a platform for the development of tourism demand at the level of the nation as a destination, while promoting vertical cooperation with Tour Operators in the outbound markets and domestic regional tourism Associations, in the area of marketing. Until recently and still for the vast majority of DMOs, the main concern is market communication for the purpose of positioning the destination in relation to worldwide competitors, making use of conventional media. Generally the DMOs do not attempt or take very little advantage of other marketing mix tools such as product development, pricing policy or distribution. With some exceptions, they are among the less developed players in the online tourism industry.

Tourism Destinations emerge as umbrella brands and they need to be promoted in the global marketplace as one entity for each target market they want to attract (Paulo Rita, 1999). Tourism is a networked and information- intensive industry. The success of DMOs depends therefore on the quality of the

infrastructure (e.g. road, highway system) of the destination they represent (Gartrell, 1988). The Internet is part of the infrastructure. Thus, the mission of National Tourism Offices in contributing to the domestic economy by maintaining destination attractiveness and by increasing the awareness of prospective visitors is challenged by a whole new environment. It is difficult for most of NTOs to keep pace with the emergence of innovative marketing strategies based on ITs. In these new conditions set by the ITs' revolution, DMOs need to determine to what extent they wish to make use of the possibilities offered by information technology, and with what systems. The question of how to move from the current way of doing business to one that is responsive to these changes becomes a vital concern (Gretzel, et. al., 2000).

COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF A DMS

information, destination marketing and reservation systems. They may be referred elsewhere as Destination Databases or Destination Marketing Systems. It is a combination of technological enablers and demand drivers that has propelled the realization of destination management systems (Buhalis & Spada, 2000). Buhalis and Pringle described it as:» a collection of computerized information, interactively accessible, about a destination».

DMSs are usually managed by destination management organizations witch may be public such as state tourism offices or private organizations or a combination of both (Pollock, 1998). They must provide timely, appropriate and accurate information for tourism stakeholders:

u On the demand side they cater for multiple forms of access by potential visitors, directly or through travel agents and tour operators, through call

centers, visitor information centers, airlines' GDS, Internet and interactive Web television. Potential visitors can be logged into a client database and tracked through their purchase life cycle.

u On the supply side DMSs provide a comprehensive database of products and services that the destination has to offer. Destinations Management Systems are attractive to the consumer as well as the travel trade as they provide a one-stop marketplace.

More than 200 DMSs have been conceptualized and developed around the world the last decade. However few systems have reached the major goal as global distributors of all products of tourism destinations. The grand majority of these systems have been implemented in local level and operate on a limited basis, thus many of them had collapsed few years after their initial development. (Buhalis, Spada, 2000).

DMSs are often limited in their scope and ambition by a non-supportive organizational structure or by their technology. As a result many commercial structures emerged with the consequence of inaccurate information range since they favor big suppliers that can afford membership fees in detriment of SMTEs with weaker financial resources (Buhalis, Spada, 2000). Therefore, destinations with an economic tissue mostly constituted by low tech and marginalized regional SMTEs will suffer setbacks that are likely to disadvantage their regional tourism industry development.

The overall objectives of a DMO are to increase the productivity of public and private tourism professionals, and to improve the satisfaction of the international tourists through the use of advanced information and communication technology, in order to create economic wealth and jobs. In particular, DMSs look after the followings:

EXISTING DMSs

TIScover, Austria

Gulliver, Ireland

Chapter7

DMS FAISABILITY FOR MOROCCO DESTINATION

MNTO MARKETING CHALLENGE

MARKETING OBJECTIVES

Information constitute undoubtedly MNTO's raw material necessary to accomplish and perform its core competency witch is Destination Marketing. However, the industry's small and medium players have little know-how concerning the use of information and communication technologies, lack of digitized promotion material and absence of any kind of database. The MNTO should therefore play a proactive role in the future development of national tourism through the implementation of appropriate information, communication and marketing tools. Information management should constitute MNTO's new competitive advantage. MNTO should therefore seek the implementation of a successful Destination Marketing System that will enable the Tourism Board to store online information, market it to the private sector and use it to streamline

its promotional strategy. It supposes the acquisition of the necessary technology in order to be able to manage, structure, and integrate the information. Implementation of a synergic platform, therefore, becomes a prerequisite to a destination marketing system.

The main strategic target for a DMS is undoubtedly the independent traveler. However the tourist businesses (all range of domestic suppliers and

foreign markets intermediaries) are the backbone of the system. So the MNTO should define DMS objectives accordingly:

> Altering existing tourism distribution channels to increase the autonomy of regional destinations and Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs)

> Bridging the Distance between the SMTE of peripheral and remote locations and travel agencies worldwide

> DMS is the answer to large commercial tourism distribution and reservation systems and to the ongoing concentration and mergers in Europe distribution system.

> Targeting smaller groups of holiday's makers (customization and special packaging especially in the US).

> Building intra and inter regional cooperation with an operational, and commercially viable information, communication and marketing system at the disposal of regional tourism organizations and foreign based bureaus (Intranet).

Tourism destination marketing is based on intangibility and perishability. Clearly the international tourist and mostly the independent traveler is the main target for a DMS. The Moroccan National Tourism Office's marketing objectives should focus on maintaining and improving the contact with the tourist (at home or at the destination) through multimedia up to date information and instant booking (Internet). Travel and Tourism fit especially well with interactive media because of the industry's information intensive characteristic. Interactive media

provided by a DMS call for interactive marketing. « The essence of interactive marketing is the use of information from the customer rather than about the customer» (Day, 1998). The MNTO markets intangible experience. A DMS must then be able to deliver this intangibility by providing pictures and chat rooms through its Web site. So information readiness and availability, easy booking and expert advice are the most adding value factors to the destination products and services.

BUILDING THE WEB BASED DMS

Accessible via Internet, Product information database will covers a full range of accommodation from small «Riyadh» (traditional houses) to five

star hotels and self-catering such as apartments and villas. It should also covers Car Rental, Flights, Ferries, Rail. The product database has, naturally, to be tailored according to the needs of the Morocco Tourism Office. Its web

support should be professionally designed, reflecting Morocco cultural richness with friendly user interface, bring technologically reliable online booking system and secured End-to-End transactions. This database will store information for the use of potential and actual visitors, suppliers, and planners. It can contain information about both private and public sector services. This includes accommodation and restaurants, attractions, weather

conditions, events, public transport and timetables museums, art galleries, festivals and the like. Enquiries, by independent travelers, for specific information can also be stored in the Marketing Database thus building the client profile.

The real opportunity in databases is to build relationship with customers, suppliers and other businesses. Building virtual communities with «collaborative marketing» has a considerable economic potential as well. Consumer virtual communities are focus groups that last 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and offer enormous learning opportunities for tourism organizations (Gretzel et. al., 2000). This dynamic and valuable information will be commercialized to Tourism Businesses within and outside Morocco, thus creating a profit center to finance future DMS system maintenance and enhancement. This is how the MNTO can create the complete marketing value chain (Awareness-Information-Booking-CRM), and acquire a competitive advantage for the Morocco destination in general with an efficient DMS.

Efficient DMS Characteristics	Failing DMS Characteristics
Complete and detailed Data Base	Incomplete database
Information Quality and Reliability	Information obsolete and imprecise
Information targeted toward independent traveler	In competition with the travel trade
Operational and efficient booking /call center	Difficult online booking
Supported and promoted by MNTO	No support or promotion
Complementary to existents distribution channels	In competition with distribution channels
Managed by a Marketing oriented organization	Managed by a bureaucratic organization
Marketing Orientation supported by technology	Technology oriented
Products tailored to consumers' needs	List of products without packaging
Provide easy buying process
Enhance product quality

Web Design

The web offers a powerful tool set that combine interactivity between suppliers, consumers and intermediaries, seamless transactions, adressability, availability and mass customization (Gretzel, et. al., 2000). According to Parsons, Zeisser, and Waitman, the success factors for marketing on the web are: Attract, Engage, Retain, Learn, Relate. The following table explicit marketing interactivity success factors and different tactical ways to fulfill them.

Activity	What	How
Attract	Attract consumers to the application	Audience creation Mnemonic Branding Piggy-back advertising
Engage	General interest and participation	Intuitive interface or navigation Interface content User-generated content
Retain	Make sure customers come back	Dynamic content Transaction capabilities Online communities
Learn	Learn about customers' preferences	Information capture Continuous preference learning
Relate	Customize interaction and value delivery	Personalized/customized communications and products/ services Real time interactions Linkage to core business

The DMS's Web site should reflect the characteristics of a unifying platform, and a one-stop marketplace. It must be user friendly and enjoyable, must hold good content (information and education), be creative, interactive and support secure transactions. When looking at a Web site the users go successive steps: 1) exposure, 2) attention, 3) comprehension and perception, 4) acceptance, 5) retention (Gretzel et. al., 2000). Therefore the design, (images, page copy, structure) must take account of these stages to impact consumer behavior. The content is also extremely important for a DMO since it is the image and perception of the destination that are portrayed. Interactivity and vividness are important characteristics of the content too. Thus community building features are extremely important, since they provide a discussion forum that are likely to raise awareness, and give the destination a valuable focus group evaluation on a 24/24 hour basis. The Web is a pull medium, because consumers actively seek information, therefore simplicity must provide in content, in order to avoid mental fatigue and «site jumping». The Web design should reflect the characteristics of the medium, the consumers and the competitive environment (Gretzel et. al., 2000).

All these factors are very important and should guide Web design. Thus it is crucial that content is accurate, attractive and easily searchable. Well-designed Web site ultimately succeed in transforming «lookers» into «bookers».

BUSINESS MODEL AND FINANCIAL FAISABILITY

Apart of the reliability and efficiency, funding and profitability are decisive factors of success in the development and implementation of a DMS. Commercial attributes and ability to generate profits must therefore be taken into consideration, as future private investors will mainly be looking at a successful revenue model that will ensure their return on investment. Thus, the careful balance between private and public funding, takes its importance in the representativeness and comprehensiveness' objectives of the system as well as its commercial viability as describe in the 5Cs framework (Buhalis & Spada, 2000).

For the MNTO, a joint venture business model with private investors is the prerequisite to fulfill fundamental requirements needed for a DMS to attain its representativeness as well as to help foster its commercial viability. The World Travel Organization (WTO) estimates that a major DMS may cost between $500,000 and $8,000,000 to develop and $250,000 to operate (WTO, 1999). Fortunately tourism organizations do not have to develop these systems. They can lease systems from leading Information System (IS) companies and license the database software for few hundred thousand dollars.

MNTO joint venture should opt for a full range of DMS services or suite of tools as described previously. High cost of developing such system is to be expected. Therefore the future public/private joint venture should consider both

options of developing/owning the system or leasing it from a major leading IS Corporation.

In recent years, however declining revenues of Morocco's government have led to more intense competition for budget resources with result that funding must now be supported by rigorous justification. They are expected to contain well-stated objectives, measurable results, and clear cost effectiveness figures. Other than government subsidies MNTO's main source of revenues, come from transient hotel occupancy taxes. The MNTO capital investment in a DMS needs to show that its implementation will generate visitation that wouldn't have occurred otherwise. MNTO needs to demonstrate the marginal impact. There is no doubt however that a successful DMS will further international tourist arrivals, especially the high spending independent, sophisticated traveler and foster economic development and growth. But for MNTO it must also produce yielded tax revenues from visitor incremental spending, exceeding the promotional investment. But most significantly a DMS will reduce traditional promotional material expenses and generate substantial economies in business and work processing. That is a reinforcing factor for MNTO to seek a private - public joint venture to ensure the DMS commercial viability.

The project financial analysis is an attempt to demonstrate the financial viability of a DMS implementation for a MNTO/ private entity venture. Assumptions are derived from different figures pertaining to different previous DMSs. Revenues projections are solely author's game number based on conservatives assumptions on Internet figures in travel buying in major tourism outbound markets combined with online Morocco's lodging capacity offer generated by the projected membership over five years.

Two different options have been considered for the purpose of the financial feasibility:

reservations and average online transactions are the most deterministic financial factors for it commercial success.

OPTION BUILD		OPTION LEASING
Cost of Capital	8%	Cost of Capital	8%
Marginal Corporate		Marginal Corporate tax
tax rate	40%	rate	40%
Total Cost of DMS
Capital Investment	($8,000,000)
Loan term	5
Interest rate on loan	8%
Loan payment	($2,003,652)	Lease payment	($850,000)
Maintenance expense FC	($1 ,000,000)	Maintenance expense	$0
Call Center VC	($400,000)	Call Center	$0
Total Operating expenses	($1 ,400,000)
After tax rate on loan	5%
Average amount
RESA	$350	Average amount RESA	$350
% Commission
Charges	15%	% Commission Charges	7%

Option 1 Build Own		Y1		Y2			Y3		Y4			Y5

Projected Res Revenues
RESA #		35,000		50,000			100,000		250,000			500,000
Tot Rev		$1 2,250,000		$1 7,500,000			$35,000,000		$87,500,000			$1 75,000,000
Tot Commission Rev		$1 ,837,500		$2,625,000			$5,250,000		$13,1 25,000			$26,250,000
Projected Membership Revenues
Membership		1500		2000			4000		7000			10000
Fees		$500		$500			$500		$500			$700
Total Rev		$750,000		$1 ,000,000			$2,000,000		$3,500,000			$7,000,000
Total Projected
Revenues		$2,587,500		$3,625,000			$7,250,000		$1 6,625,000			$33,250,000
Option 2 Lease		Y1		Y2			Y3		Y4			Y5

Total Revenues	Projected		$857,500		$1	,225,000		$2,450,000		$6,1	25,000 $1		2,250,000

DEVELOP/OWN OPTION	Y0 Y1	Y2	Y3	Y4	Y5
DMS Cost	($8,000,000)
Borrowing CFs	($2,219,278)	($2,219,278)	($2,21 9,278)	($2,21 9,278)	($2,219,278)
Operating Costs (F+V)	($1,400,000)	($1,400,000)	($1,400,000)	($1,400,000)	($1,400,000)
Revenue CFs	$2,587,500	$3,625,000	$7,250,000	$1 6,625,000	$33,250,000
Interest tax shield	$384,000	$323,555	$255,856	$180,033	$95,112
EBT	($647,778)	$329,277	$3,886,578	$13,185,755	$29,725,834
Tax = 40%	$0	$131,711	$1 ,554,631	$5,274,302	$1 1,890,334
Net CF's	($647,778)	$197,566	$2,331 ,947	$7,91 1,453	$1 7,835,500
NPV Owning CFs	$1 0,531,905.14

LEASE OPTION
Leasing CF's	($850,000.00)	($850,000.00)	($850,000.00)	($850,000.00)	($850,000.00)
Pmt tax Savings	$340,000.00	$340,000.00	$340,000.00	$340,000.00	$340,000.00
Revenues	$857,500.00	$1,225,000.00	$2,450,000.00	$6,125,000.00	$12,250,000.00
EBT	$347,500.00	$715,000.00	$1,940,000.00	$5,615,000.00	$11,740,000.00
Tax = 40%	($139,000.00)	($286,000.00)	($776,000.00)	($2,246,000.00)	($4,696,000.00)
Net CF's	$208,500.00	$429,000.00	$1,164,000.00	$3,369,000.00	$7,044,000.00
NPV Leasing CFs	$8,755,218.25

Notes: Current values column represents values of changing cells at time scenario summary report was created. Changing cells for each scenario are highlighted in gray.

MNTO's ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE

The requirements of tourism based economic prosperity, combined with new market trends, weak negotiating power of Morocco's small and fragmented tourism industry, and the absence of ITs based marketing tools are creating a very challenging environment for MNTO's organization to face, in a country where the tourism industry is heavily depending on the European market demand. For MNTO, the obvious strategic imperative of a DMS, do not implicate technical and financial issues only, in the use of Web based technology, but far more importantly it represents a management issue. In facts DMS should contribute real benefits to the reconfiguration of MNTO as a national tourism office. The web not only change organization's business processing but enhance knowledge capital and social capital as well, through information sharing and partnership with all stakeholders. It is therefore imperative that MNTO prepares to answer the strategic challenge with an organization that possesses strong capabilities and knowledge key resource to confront this very competitive environment.

The duties of NTOs is to provide leadership by developing a vision, identifying additional tourism sources, motivating communities, and coaching partners. All of these tasks require skills, supporting knowledge and competent leadership. MNTO's Organization and culture are not aligned with DMS strategy implementation. Change in management practices and mindset must shift dramatically. For NTOs, DMS generate this paradigm-shift (Frangialli, 1998), which transforms management practices and improve information flow, work

organization, and business processes, forcing them to acquire the needed skills and to boost their capacity for learning and adaptability. Information technology enables NTO's to handle the growth of information, by compressing time, allowing NTO's to respond faster to their respective markets and partners than ever before. Quality service, efficiency, convenience are radically enhanced, while types of services are expanded. But the real benefit is the reconfiguration of the organization. This means that MNTO need to embrace the trend of network organizations. It needs to shift its actual work processes using the Web to enhance knowledge capital but also to enhance social and human capital. Today, in order to build their competitive advantage, organizations are gearing towards knowledge acquisition and learning, instead of controlling (Gretzel, et. al., 2000).

The implementation of a DMS strategy for the MNTO to promote and sell the destination in a new way, imply transforming an organization that will constitute by itself a sustainable competitive advantage for Morocco's tourism industry. However success comes from successfully implementing a strategy, not just from having one. This implementation capability derives in large measure from the organization's people, how they are treated, their skills and competencies, and their efforts on behalf the organization (Jeffrey Pfeiffer, 1998).

The biggest challenge facing the MNTO is therefore changing peoples' culture and mind, in order to successfully understand and support the core strategy necessary to enable the implementation of marketing oriented and

technology based «Destination Management System». It is therefore vital to address the cultural and mentality changes that are needed in this organization.

In order to change its way for doing business, the MNTO should define a new vision, mission, thus, developing and enhancing its core competencies. It is clearly quite a change, but it is undoubtedly the prerequisite to the aspiration of becoming a performing Destination Marketing Organization.

Strong Brand name: Morocco has been recognized since the sixties as a Tourism Destination with strong potential. The MNTO is an 82 years old institution and is present in 15 Markets around the world.

> Total discontinuity between the Organization and the present > No clear strategic direction.

> Lack of management and marketing skills to perform core competency. > Overstaffed and limited skilled human resources.

> Government/Private sector led action plan to develop the Tourism sector with 10 millions tourist objective in 2010

> New leadership with private sector background and committed government support

In order to change its way of doing business, the MNTO should define a new vision and mission, in order to develop and enhance its core competencies. The following definitions should strongly pertain to the Moroccan National Tourist Office:

The vision of an industry that is internationally competitive, sustainable and valued for the economic, social, and environmental benefits it brings to Morocco. Mission Statement

Generating jobs and wealth through effective leadership in the promotion and development of tourism.

> Provide advice and market intelligence to tourism industry stakeholders. > Identify opportunities to improve Morocco's tourism competitiveness. > Support the local and regional marketing associations network.

> Advise the government tourism department authority on tourism strategic development and policy issues.

As explained previously, in order to provide leadership by developing a vision, motivating the industry community and coaching partners, the MNTO need not only different types of skills but also supporting knowledge and effective leadership.

Adaptation to technological change cannot be realized without changes in the organizational structure and culture. Thus it is a necessity for the leadership, first to drag the MNTO out from the government bureaucracy and autocracy. It must become an independent (and accountable) agency. That will ensure its organizational structural change.

Transforming people mindset and culture inherited from a bureaucratic and autocratic environment, is a very difficult task. Becoming knowledge-based organization means that people should embrace the changes and be willing to learn and acquire new skills and competencies. Technology based promotion cannot be adopted in one night. It must gradually diffuse. The question of recruiting, hence takes most of its importance. An organization that wants to achieve skill in doing an activity and yet is unwilling to recruit, select, compensate, evaluate, or measure will achieve its goal only through some form of divine intervention (Jeffrey Pfeiffer, 1998). MNTO's management practices must therefore be aligned with a DMS's business and organization strategy. Training courses for middle management and lower management should address priorities such as shared strategy understanding, performance management, learning skills and ability, English language proficiency, specific skills related to knowledge management, technology and computer skills. Immersion training programs through innumerable bilateral agreements with numerous European countries, especially those of Austria and Ireland, that are the most advanced in term of technology based marketing, should be taken advantages of. This will help to take a pro-active change approach to help shift people mindset. Financial and human resources are undoubtedly prerequisites to such actions, otherwise change will not happen. Change efforts have to comprise all organizational levels and need to

take the concern of all stakeholders. The resistance that comes from employees independently of their level in the organization is not the emanation of refuting

change but from the fear from being changed (Gretzel, et., al., 2000). Because successful change needs commitment not compliance, involving people in the change process habitually reduce resistance. MNTO's leadership must realize that this can be achieved only by creating an organizational culture that embrace change and foster learning. It will require the redesigning of organizational structure so that change can be actively sought. Building a capacity for ongoing change is crucial for MNTO's business environment and new blood need to be injected, having in mind that without proper management, sufficient knowledge, good communications, technology implementation will not see daylight.

Chapter 8

CONCLUSION

Tourism is a worldwide phenomenon and it is generally believed that the global tourism industry might become the single largest industry in terms of revenues. At the same time tourism is confronted with changes in traditional distribution, marketing and working systems as well as the behavior and requirements of the tourist. There are growing numbers of destinations and products for consumer to choose from. Consumers need information more quickly and they need to be able to book easily.

Tourism environment is in the process of a profound reconfiguration, revolutionizing the context in which business is conducted. The most significant factor contributing to this reconfiguration is the technological developments that led to the emergence of innovative Web-based technologies. The World Wide Web is profoundly changing the production, distribution and consumption of tourism products, between firms and consumers, between firms and among consumers as well. The net impact of the information technologies is to enable a radical reconfiguration of the tourism industry itself. Information technology provides the common platform to reach the market more effectively, by

facilitating organizational responsiveness and learning as well as customer relationship management. DMSs are exactly this common platform that offer solutions to destinations. Destinations could take advantage of this technological development to help them battle in the highly competitive tourism industry. DMSs offer a needed solution to address the fragmentation and information intensity that characterize the tourism industry. Nevertheless DMOs in charge of promoting the destinations still have major problem in closing the loop.

The objective of this executive project was indeed to develop a cooperation model, namely a DMS for Morocco tourism destination. The proposed DMS platform answers the need for developing knowledge-based tourism information and booking system that is commercially viable and constitutes the basis to build an effective advantage for Morocco's tourism destination in today's highly competitive environment. The DMS cooperativecompetitive model will permit the state owned MNTO to enforce its marketing efforts, and be able to move in a quickly changing industry, finding the balance between cooperation and competition among Morocco's tourism industry suppliers, by permanently adopting and using technological tools.

The proposed framework is feasible because it emphasizes the importance of partnership between the public and private sector and creates opportunities to getting closer to the world's tourist. Most importantly it will trigger the paradigm shift that will modernize the state owned MNTO, which is crucial for the future of the organization. However, MNTO's organization has to

understand that successful online marketing strategy is not just about technology. It is about deconstructing traditional business models and reinventing the organization. The integration of innovating technologies will allow the MNTO to break away from obsolete and ineffective approaches to differentiate Morocco tourism destination in a highly competitive, global, and networked tourism industry and economy. What really matters is change.

To activate this «creative destruction», the following perquisites may be required for the project to succeed. Communication and organizational barriers have to be overcome in order for MNTO to create a partnership. Regardless of how the project of a DMS joint venture stacks up financially, key points of

project development feasibility have to be addressed by finding a local champion to be the voice of the DMS project at all levels of the media, public and private sectors. MNTO's leadership must act as a broker and lobbyist to bridge the gap between the private and public sector cultures. Fortunately the leadership is able to communicate easily with both sectors and have been involved in negotiation, communication and politics at local and state level. Furthermore the state owned organization has the power to build consensus between all tourism industry's stakeholders and ensure that mutual comprehension will prevail between public and private sectors.

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