The Evolution of Online Travel Agencies in the Last Decade: E-Travel SA as an Exceptional Paradigm

The recent evolution in tourism industry driven by the technological advances is really significant. This paper aims to highlight the development of the online travel agencies (hereinafter OTAs) and the way that technology has contributed to this direction by investigating the case of an OTA company, namely e-Travel SA. The Internet seems to have changed dramatically and in a positive way the tourism industry. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, virtual and augmented reality, Internet of things as well as gamification, offer valuable tools and applications both to businesses and to customers. At the same time, the increased use of mobile devices, digital tools and social media along with the unlimited access to information has made consumers demanding and updated. Consequently, they require more and more useful services based on their needs. Considering the aforementioned, it is easy to understand that marketing strategies of many companies have changed and that these companies are now exploiting the state of the art in digital marketing tools in order to get the best possible result. E-Travel is a real example of the OTAs’ evolution during the last decade, and their success proves that opportunities may be generated by exploiting the technological advancements.