Chapter Preparing tourism businesses for the digital future Abstract

Integrating traditional tourism businesses into digital ecosystems
In tourism, digital platforms have attracted much attention due to the innovation inherent in their business models. Online shopping has disrupted business to consumer practices because of its strong influence on customer shopping decisions and the incentive it gave to traditional “brick and mortar” shops to reshape their business models (OECD, 2019). These business models are often characterised by high productivity as a result of innovations in the way they have engaged multiple customer groups, co-create content, collect and use data to engage and expand markets, access underused resources, and share value across multiple users or customers (Autio, 2017). While these firms represent the innovation frontier of digital tourism businesses, traditional tourism SMEs must find a place within these ecosystems, adapt and evolve their business models accordingly, or find their own path to the frontier. Support that governments provide SMEs to innovate new business models need to take into consideration the complex challenges that SMEs face, including:
Building and retaining human capital and digital capacity
Building human capital and digital capacity involves attracting talent, building expertise, implementing new technologies, understanding and exploiting opportunities offered through converging technologies and technologies and objects. It can extend to developing capabilities in e-commerce, social media and data analytics, as well as more advanced technologies. This includes businesses taking inventory of the digital capabilities of the current workforce and being open to adapting work practices. In other cases, it requires reviewing the local infrastructure to assess whether there is the possibility to increase digital capability, such as access to high-speed internet. For example, in Canada, the Universal Broadband Fund will support broadband projects across the country. Making high speed available internet for all Canadians will allow rural and remote tourism companies to extend their reach and potentially find new tourism companies.
In Chile, a key challenge to encouraging tourism businesses to adapt their business models for a digital tourism economy is a recent finding that 70% of tourism SMEs report having no need for digital technologies. In response, Chile has implemented a suite of measures to raise awareness of the benefits of digitalisation, and support tourism businesses to adopt and use new technologies. The Digitalise Your SME initiative, for example, encourages tourism SMEs to adopt digital technologies and train businesses in the many different aspects of digital marketing and management. It is complemented by a Tourism App for consumers, the Connect Tourism programme focusing on the digitalisation of the product across the entire country, and the wider Transform Tourism initiative which together seek to build the enabling environment for the digital transformation of tourism businesses.
Developing skills and training the workforce is also a critical issue in order to effectively use and finally adopt new digitally-enhanced business models. In this respect, the Ministry of Tourism of Greece has accordingly adapted tourism education provided by its institutions. Secondary schools specialised in Tourism Education and Institutes of Vocational Training, education curricula comprise courses dedicated to ICT in general and to systems used by hotels and accommodation units for data management, booking, organisation and management of food services. From 2019 onwards, Institutes of Vocational Training will comprise the specialty of “Management and Tourism Economy Executive”, training students to the use of all essential travel market digital applications.