Online published on 28 February, 2020.
Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) is the transactional part of Electronic Business (E-Business) that is selling products and services online, using electronic media. E-Business is aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of an organization by deploying innovative information and communications technology throughout an organization and beyond, through links to partners and customers. E-Commerce refers to all types of electronic transactions between organization and stakeholders, whether they are financial transactions or exchanges of information and other services. It is a revolution that has changed the way of buying and selling. In this digital age and globalization era, people want topurchasegoodsandservices fromany part of theworld, operating from home to save time and cost. Globalization, competition, customer awareness, and changing demographic factors have forced business houses to adopt E-Commerce. Travel and tour operators provide fun, happiness, and excitement, etc. to its clients. A travel agent is an intermediary or a person selling the travel services like train ticketing, air ticketing, hotel booking, and transportation to the consumer. A travel agent's primary objective is to attract, accommodate and provide transportation, tourist information, guiding services, visa and passport services, etc. to travelers. Travel and tour operators are the interfaces between travelers and the travel suppliers such as railways, airlines, hotels, car rentals, and cruise lines, etc.. It also provides tour packages that include all services for a traveler. The travel agent generates revenue by getting the commission from travel supplier.
Tourism in Odisha has a rich potential for generating revenue, employment, and foreign exchange earnings to the state economy. With an abundance of natural assets, Odisha tourism bears the deliverables like ecologically sound and economically viable tourism development, integration of infrastructure support, institutional mechanism, and investment, etc. with the developmental framework of the state. Tourist revenue is equally important for the state exchequer. Odisha bears the essence of rich tourism sector with its age-old cultural heritage, myriad of monuments and nature's bounties like beach resorts, eco-tourism, flora & fauna, biodiversity, national parks, and sanctuaries. The state has several sources and triggers for attracting tourists. Ancient sun temple of Konark, Lord Jagannath temple at Puri, Buddhist monastic complexes at Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri are vestiges of rich cultural heritage. The sanctuaries and wildlife parks viz., Similipal National Park, Bhitarkanika, Chandaka, Elephant Reserve, Nandankanan and Chilika Lakewith migratorybirds aresome of thenatural majortourist attraction pointsof Odisha. People from different part of the world are attracted by the tourist places in Odisha. They book tickets, hotels and tour packages through the global travel agents like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Clear trip, and Goibibo, etc.. A few agencies in Odisha are providing these services to the global travellers due to non-adoption of electronic commerce. So there is a threat for travel agencies in Odisha to survive in this competitive global market. This study is mainly based on three areas: electronic commerce as a technology, travel agencies as SMEs and Odisha as a developing state. The primary objective of the study is to find the factors affecting adoption of electronic commerce by travel agencies of Odisha and their relationships. This study investigated the factors affecting adoption of electronic commerce by travel agencies in Odisha. It has used a mixed method and structural equation modelling to analyse the factors affecting adoption of electronic commerce. The four primary variables those are affecting the adoption of electronic commerce and influencing the owners/managers of travel agencies in Odisha are the benefits of adoption, the challenges in adoption, the cost of adoption, and the external pressures forcing owners/managers of travel agencies to adopt electronic commerce. In this study, first quantitative analysis is conducted using questionnaire survey then qualitative analysis through the personal interview to interpret the findings in quantitative analysis. All the objectives were fulfilled and the hypotheses tested properly in this study. It is found that due to electronic commerce, travel agencies of Odisha have critical threats of disintermediation of global travel market. To survive in this competitive global travel market, the agencies have to improve their competitive positions and need to adopt electronic commerce that enhances their distribution channels, penetrate global markets, improve their sales and revenues, and improve their effectiveness in internal operations.
