Tourism sector slow on e-marketing
Few tourism enterprises in Greece are planning to invest in improving their electronic services with the help of technology, despite recognizing the benefits of the infrastructure, according to a recent report. The study, put together by the Observatory for the Greek Information Society, found that there was a high presence on the Internet by the sector, since large tourism enterprises are able to adopt new technologies more easily than their smaller peers. The majority of businesses rate their exposure to the Internet as being positive but do not offer websites with added-value services, while the level of electronic transactions remains low, according to the report. Nearly three-quarters of hotels are present on the Internet, while only 37 percent of rooms for rent have set up their own electronic webpage. Tourism enterprises admitted that an improved presence on the Internet could help them to reduce their dependence on tour operators. Nine in 10 hotels said they do not have an information technology department, while 96 percent of those in charge of rented rooms said the person in charge of their online services does not have any specialized training in IT. Tourism is one of the country’s heavyweight industries, accounting for about a fifth of the economy.
