Development of the internet in travel and tourism
The tourism product can be characterized as intangible, experiential, and perishable. Traditional marketing, distribution and, subsequently, customer services related to the product relied upon the so-called ‘intermediaries’ (e.g., tour operators and travel agencies), other agencies such as destination marketing organizations (DMOs) as well as media channels to connect and engage with travelers. As such, product distribution and customer services were limited in their scope and reach in the pre-Internet era (Sheldon, 1997 and Werthner and Klein, 1999).