Consideration of the full arc of the consumer travel lifecycle should also be a central part of any tourism e tourism strategy, comprising in country travel and post travel follow up.

International travel is only one aspect of tourism.

The main beneficiaries of a DMS are potential travelers, the providers of tourism products and services, national travel agents and outbound travel agents, national tourism institutions, IT providers and investors.

This cycle is equally important for leisure and business and conference tourism and travel.

quot (b) Tourism professionals and suppliers of tourism and travel services are asked to refrain from encouraging the use of tourism for all forms of exploitation of others

National tourism authorities and travel and tourism operators from developing countries face growing erosion of trade benefits, coupled with multiplier and spillover effects.

Indeed, human travel in general should become increasingly limited to tourism and pleasure trips.

More than 8 per cent of all jobs are linked to tourism and travel.

The systems should facilitate interoperability between local tourism enterprises and foreign brokers and tourism portals, including traditional tour operators, online agencies, Internet travel specific search engines or online intermediaries specialized in tourism niches.

Developing countries' target tourism markets are likely to be organizing their travel arrangements online.

In addition, recent trends in the use of ICTs in general and particularly for travel and tourism show that the more online experience consumers have, the more likely they are to look for tourism information and buy tourism products online.

For the last few years, online giant travel agencies such as the top three US online travel agencies (Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity) have ruled the online tourism business.

The distribution of tourism products on the Internet complements traditional distribution channels (travel agents, national tourism offices, tourism producers, call centers, etc.) because a large number of DMOs do not yet have the capacity to develop an effective e tourism website and cannot rely only on uncertain online revenues.

Eco tourism, cultural and natural heritage tourism, health and medical tourism and adventure tourism are some of the tourism niches that are increasingly marketed by destinations and tourism enterprises in developing countries.

Under the Republic of Kazakhstan law on compulsory tour operator and travel agent civil liability insurance (December 2003), compulsory civil liability insurance is being introduced in the Republic for tourism organizations that provide tourism services.

(g) Communications to enhance the image of WTO as a credible resource for both public and private sector interests in the travel and tourism industry to raise the status of tourism as a distinct international economic sector.

During the last two decades, the product cycle and delivery of travel and tourism services have been radically transformed by changes in the distribution system.

These figures relate only to international travel in most countries the volume of domestic tourism is significantly greater than international arrivals.

These systems are being further developed in order to embrace other constituent elements of the tourism services distribution network, such as travel agents and hotels.

Transport and tourism

Market trends increasingly reveal the growing demand for diversified travel experiences, from seaside resorts (often linked to mass tourism) to cultural discoveries.

ICTs could be used to present dynamically tourism products by travel experience (activities) or preferences (duration of stay, type of accommodation, price).

While the majority of the sales of tourism products and services still happen off line, travel related Internet usage continues to grow at a rapid rate.

In the United States, where tourism is mostly domestic and consumers are confident in booking online through national tourism providers, the share of consumers who booked their travel online in 2004 reached 50 per cent, versus 30 per cent in 2000.

At the same time, ICTs reduce operating costs, improve business processes, and provide tourism producers with additional opportunities to present and sell their products, as well as to naturally establish partnerships with carriers, global distribution systems (GDS), tour operators, travel agencies and national tourism offices.

Travel and tourism constitute a significant industry, which represents 10.7 per cent of the global workforce and provides direct and indirect employment for more than 212 million people worldwide.

Tourism impacts and opportunities

Tourism and climate change

Tourism and biodiversity conservation

Sustainable consumption and tourism

Transport and Tourism Division

Transport, communications and tourism

3. Trade and tourism

Cultural heritage tourism (or just heritage tourism or diaspora tourism) is a branch of tourism oriented towards the cultural heritage of the location where tourism is occurring.

The growing adoption of the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) standard based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) greatly facilitates the exchange of information between tourism enterprises such as airlines, hotels, car rental enterprises and travel integrators such as Cendant, Sabre, Expedia, Orbitz, and SITA.

Tourism

Tourism

Business models should provide technological, financial and marketing solutions for the providers and users of the DMS, namely tourism providers (accommodation, transport and leisure companies), travel agents, tour operators, and consumers.

It will be an open source portal generator, which will support the travel decision process as well as assist local tourism business processes involving public and private actors.

In this respect we believe that tourism can play a positive role in promoting zero waste strategies, reduced energy consumption, especially for travel, and other sustainable development benefits.

More and more people have the desire and means to travel and the World Tourism Organization is predicting over 1,500 million international arrivals by 2020, more than double the current level.

It represents a growing distribution channel, complementary to traditional ones, for consumers, tourism enterprises such as hotels, transport companies, leisure companies and distributors, including travel agencies, tour operators and DMOs.

ICT and tourism for development

F. Tourism and related services

A. Tourism and property development