Editorial

Citation

Cobanoglu, C. (2010), "Editorial", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 1 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhtt.2010.43301aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Volume 1, Issue 1

It is with a great pleasure that I welcome you to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology ( JHTT ). The word “technology” in JHTT is defined as the body of knowledge available to a society that is used to advance personal and professional lives of people and organizations. So, technology does not just refer to hardware and software. As all knows, information and communication technologies and systems have been an integral part of not only hospitality and tourism business but also education. In every aspect of hospitality and tourism, information technology and resources play a critical role. In 2009, more than half of hotel and airline reservations come from online channels. In a typical full service hotel, the number of systems used is more than 50. Destinations have been using the internet as a major marketing tool. Consumers turn to consumer generated content on the internet to make decisions about destinations to visit, hotels to stay, and restaurants to eat. Hospitality and tourism organizations differentiate themselves with the help of information technologies. New business models in hospitality and tourism were created with the help of new technologies. The launching of JHTT is a response to the growing importance and need of technology in the hospitality and tourism industry. JHTT serves as a scholastic platform in the fields of hospitality/tourism information technology and e-business. It seeks to serve as a bridge between academia and industry through intellectual exchange of ideas, trends, and paradigmatic changes underway in the two important and related domains that it addresses. Information technology changes fast. For this reason, JHTT is committed to a fast, fair, and double blind review process.

JHTT will be a platform where industry meets academia. For this reason, I invite industry professionals to contribute to the body of knowledge by sharing their views on research articles and giving ideas to researchers to conduct research studies. I invite academics to collaborate with industry professionals to tackle applied issues to solve current and future problems. JHTT also welcomes any contributions to theory testing and development which will help future empirical studies.

Our first issue presents five excellent contributions. The first paper by Alex M. Susskind and Michael A. Stefanone presents a model of the relationships between individuals' perceptions of internet use and internet usage behaviors in the context of online information seeking and purchasing behavior. In the second paper, Betsy Bender Stringam and John Gerdes Jr identify and assess web design factors for hotels. On another dimension, the third paper by JungKook Lee and Alastair M. Morrison compares performances of luxury hotel web sites in the USA and South Korea. The fourth paper by Michael L. Kasavana, Khaldoon Nusair, and Katherine Teodosic exams the evolution, scope, and types of online social networks and potential implications for hospitality businesses. Last but not least, the fifth paper by Haris Machlouzarides identifies the factors that contribute to the process of destination marketing by introducing an integrated marketing model.

Please provide feedback for the articles that are published in JHTT. I also invite you to submit an article or special issue proposal for JHTT.

Cihan Cobanoglu