The Digital Disruptive Intermediaries in the Tourism Industry

Nowadays, the new technologies offer new capabilities for the tourism industry. New disruptive innovations have appeared forcing the tourism companies to adjust to the new changes and challenges. Disruption in the tourism industry is currently happening and is overthrowing the status quo. Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Expedia and Booking.com are four of the most influential tourist companies. They leverage demand-side economies of scale by scaling up the customer acquisition and providing a great user experience. Their primary business requirement is the ability to respond to new, unforeseen or unpredictable business requirements and customer demands, in order the willingness to embrace disruption to be achieved. Their reorganization of the allocation of demand and supply leads to a disruption of tourist markets, particularly those that were formerly monopolised. This study examines the best practices in the business models of four digital disruptive intermediaries (DDIs) in the tourism industry through two different methods: SWOT Analysis and PESTEL Analysis.