Virtualaus turizmo ypatumai: teorinis aspektas
LTTechnologijų tobulėjimas atveria naujas galimybes žmonėms, įvairiais tikslais keliaujantiems visame pasaulyje bei organizacijoms, siūlančioms visas turizmo ir su juo glaudžiai susijusias paslaugas: apgyvendinimo, transporto, kelionių informacijos ir kitas papildomas paslaugas. Virtualaus turizmo vartotojai dėka naujausių technologijų gali net ir būdami savo namuose susipažinti su įvairiausiomis lankytinomis vietomis visame pasaulyje; gali greitai ir paprastai rezervuoti kambarį viešbutyje, susiplanuoti savo kelionės maršrutą ar gauti visą norimą informaciją.
ENThe Internet changed processes and strategic activities radically in the tourism sector in the late ninety. According to M. Mavros and V. Angelis (2009), tourism is one of the first services sector which was adopted and started to use ICT (information and communication technologies) in order to promote their services. It was a beginning of a virtual tourism. Virtual tourism in other words may be called as e - tourism. The interpretations of the various sources are different, but it is possible to distinguish two main aspects: first - as described imaginary traveling, using the latest technology; second - described as the latest technologies in various activities related to travel. E-tourism`s concept is a unique business as a research object too. Virtual tourism is a great platform for an expansion of business. It helps to focus on the international tourists as well as making use of e - business benefits, to acquire or to develop further a competitive advantage over other national or even international tourism market participants (Buhalu and Jun, 2011). Virtual tourism is unthinkable without the latest technological breakthroughs and their opportunities. The technological development opens up new opportunities for people to travel throughout the world as well as organizations offering all kind of tourism related services: accommodation, transport, travel`s information and other additional services. Thanks to the latest technology users can even access a variety of travel destinations around the world from home.It is a possibility to book a hotel room quickly and easily, to plan a travel route and to get all the information. A possible virtual tourism service provider helps to create an area to develop new spaces for clients. Social networks are one of them (Sigala et al., 2012). There are three prominent portals which could be described as e - tourism service providers: “Second Life”, “Facebook”, “Twitter”. The Internet is the most popular European outbound tourism representatives used source. E-tourism clients us internet for; to reserve hotel rooms online, search special hotel deals. Mobile booking volumes rapidly growing, but even higher growth is expected to occur upon tourists travel better mobile applications; social media around the world is an important source of tourism information. IT infrastructure provides a great area for an expansion for virtual tourism.
