As information and communication technology continues to gain ground and become more relevant with a positive impact on the economy in the Gambia, Mr LassanaTunkara, the Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs of QuantumNet Group, explained in-depth the positive impact of IT system on travel agents, tour operators and on tourists in term of the usefulness of IT awareness in the tourism industry.

In a simple language IT is the modern way of using computers to communicate and get information through research, about the knowledge of what we are short of. It is the best way of communication. IT relates to tourism in many ways hence the only option before the advent of IT globally if you wanted to travel any where you have to walk from your house down to the street to get the local agency either as outbound and inbound tourist.

At the agency office you might searched endlessly through the brochure without immediate success and this can take you few days to do and get you frustrate. But with the advent of IT this can be done online, sitting on your bedroom as a tourist you can get all the necessary information without stress, this is just a matter of settling down with your laptop in your house and log into your desire website. So IT opens up the possibilities for tourism.

The tourism industry has proved particularly suitable for the adoption of information technology because of its dependence upon the supply and exchange of information throughout the production and distribution chain. As an extremely information intensive industry, tourism is undergoing rapid and radical modern changes. A wide range of opportunities discover on daily basis through the use of information and communication technology. Now information technology is being used for a variety of functions in the tourism industry, ranging from an internal organization role to external communication between different parts of the industry. The continuous development of information technology has profound implications for the whole tourism industry.  

Today, a wide range of tourism sectors is taking the advantage of the information superhighway. Technology facilitates the speed and efficiency with which information of the tourism industry is processed, stored, retrieved, distributed and otherwise manipulated. Information technology can reduce costs of information handling, increase speed of information transfer and retrieval and increase customer involvement in the control of transactions. It has flexibility of product specifications and greater reliability of information transferred.  

According to Tunkara “in few other areas of activity are the generation; gathering; processing; application and communication of information are as important for day-to-day operation as they are for the travel and tourism industry.”  The most important role of information technology is the development of competitive advantages by both reducing cost and enhancing differentiation.  The most area that information technology improves tourism most are in four main areas, the delivery of tourism services; tourism management, marketing of the industry; with the relationship between the producers, destinations and consumers, tourists.

Information technology has radically altered the way in which information is transmitted throughout the tourism industry. Hence, it changes the way in which tourism services are delivered. Because consumer expectations are rising rapidly, the move towards more independent and flexible holidays away from package holidays, with the emergence of a computer literate generation, requires the service providers to find new ways to satisfy tourists’ needs. Thus, it offers new opportunities for information technology and the tourism industry.

Talking about the benefits of this in the industry we have airlines, tour operators, travel agencies hotels; car rental, destinations and tourists who always need the information.

Booking for your holiday or hotel reservation is now easier since you can do them online.

Equally payment can be done online by issuing credit cards and other means of latest remittance of fees or charges without stress like in Europe, where some people use Eurostar system when they are travelling. You can search for all the airlines by going through their websites before you finally make a choice. Also from a thousand miles you can locate your destination when you are still at your doorstep.

IT has makes all this easier. The introduction of IT in the Gambia has bring a lot of changes to the industry and it has tremendously exposed the country to the world tourism market because majority of people visiting the Gambia now get most of their information about the country on the website.

‘Information technology has really brought big and tremendous changes to the industry because using the technology has no limitation.’ Therefore talking about the impact of tourism in the Gambia, the country is gaining more.

For effective communication and customers attraction grand cable is the best. Wi-fi is the best for the hotels. Wi-fi is the wireless access, wherever you  are accommodated, you can use your laptop, mobile phone, among others to log online and do your work as you wish without qualm. This type of service is in used at Kairaba Hotel and some hotels across the country ,they were excellently installed by QuantumNet ,who always look for new things in the world of information and communication technology.

Today, information technology (IT) is one of the important resources for increasing the economic growth. It causes companies to use their input resources as much as possible in an effective way. As investment in IT capital accounts for an ever-increasing share of capital investment, it is important to understand how these investments might pay.

Generally, there has been much debate on whether or not the investment in IT provides improvements in productivity and business efficiencies. IT investment may make little direct contribution to overall performance of business industry until they are combined with complementary investments in business activities, human capital, and company restructuring.

Therefore, according to role of QuantumNet as  IT facilitator and enabler, it is valuable and advisable for companies to increase the impact of IT on overall performance of companies. On the other word, your investment in ICT will not been in vain ,instead it will improve productivity with good dividend.