INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TOURISM MARKETING: NEW CHALLENGES FOR TOURISM BUSINESS SECTOR IN EGYPT

Marketing Information Systems are an essential means for effective tourism marketing and improving quality of services of tourism organizations. This research provides insights into a successful implementation of a marketing information system in tourism. It discusses the importance of information system applications and information needs in tourism management applied to the tourism business sector in Egypt. The main results of this article are that most of the Egyptian tourism business sector enterprises have yet to develop their online presence. Most tourism organizations that have online presence do not have marketing information applications or tourism marketing services in place to support online marketing and transactions. To improve the situation, tourism business sector companies in Egypt need to develop information technology-based marketing strategies in order to take full advantage of information system applications. The Egyptian government should employ its own control to modify the regulations in order to help tourism business sector enterprises to adopt information system technologies in an effective manner.