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*Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of ... state-of-the-art Web-based services (i.e., booking, schedule information, ship ... time ticket/service online. ... MTO or TA site to support the full set of the pro-.
Information Technology & Tourism, Vol. 7 pp. 00–00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.

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EMERGING WEB-BASED SERVICES FOR SHIP TRAVELERS

ILIAS MAGLOGIANNIS,* GEORGE KORMENTZAS,* and NIKOS PANAGIOTARAKIS† *Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece †Alfa Logic SA, Greece

In light of the fact that information communication technologies (ICTs) in general and the Internet/ WWW technology in particular are likely to soon accelerate penetration into the maritime market, bringing together innovative services, this article aims to identify a set of appealing Web-based services for ship travelers. To that end, the article uses a research methodology that includes three core research elements (i.e., Internet survey, questionnaires, and interviews). Our research highlights five state-of-the-art Web-based services (i.e., booking, schedule information, ship location, trip/port weather, and tourist information) that can be implemented by maritime transport operators (MTOs) and travel agencies (TAs). The added value nature of the proposed services could guarantee to their prospective implementers significant commercial advantages against their competitors. Demonstrating this business opportunity for MTOs and TAs, the article contributes towards the formation of new business models, which take into account the emerging maritime e-market. Key words: e-Market; Maritime transport operator; Ship traveler; Travel agency; Web-based services

Introduction

are developing Web-based services suitable for their potential customers (i.e., ship travelers). The Web-based services provided have various forms, ranging from simple Web sites (e.g., sites that provide company and fleet presentations, static timetables of the maritime routes served, general tourist information, etc.) to more advanced services (e.g., online booking). This article deals with the identification of a core set of appealing Web-based services for ship travelers. These services can be provided by the Web sites of MTOs and/or TAs.

The rapid development of information communication technologies (ICTs) and the expansion of the Internet have deeply affected the way in which various tourist and travel operators, as well as providers, deploy and exploit their products and services in the tourist marketplace (Buhalis, 1998; Lang, 2000; O’Connor & Frew, 2000). Taking advantage of the current technological opportunities, a number of maritime transport operators (MTOs) and travel agencies (TAs)

Address correspondence to Nikos Panagiotarakis, Alfa Logic SA, Greece. Tel: 003227257526; Fax: 003223058317; E-mail: [email protected]

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MAGLOGIANNIS, KORMENTZAS, AND PANAGIOTARAKIS Research Methodology

The article aims to identify a core set of appealing Web-based services for ship travelers. Key exploiters of these services can be MTOs and TAs, who could implement and offer these services to their potential customers (i.e., ship travelers). The added value nature of the identified services could guarantee to their prospective implementers significant commercial advantages in the emerging maritime e-market. This section discusses the research methodology used, as depicted in Figure 1. A hypothetical set of challenging Web-based services constituted the starting point of this research. This a priori set resulted from experience gained through: i) the consideration of the results of a past European applied research project named Ship Information and Management System (SIAMS), and ii) the examination of the services offered by the Web sites of airlines. (This examination was driven by the fact that it is widely accepted that ICTs have managed a better penetration in the air transportation sector than in the maritime sector.) The a priori set under research included the following Web-based services: • • •

Booking: This service enables a Web user (and potential customer) to book and pay for a maritime ticket/service online. Schedule information: This service allows a Web user to plan a maritime trip. Actual timetables of the shipping lines involved are used. Trip/port weather: This service enables a Web user to retrieve weather information for mari-

Reference point

Set of examined services

Internet survey

Prototype implementation

Testing

Maritime e-market

Recommended set of services and guidelines for market success

Interviews with MTOs/TAs

Figure 1. Research methodology.

Collected Questionnaires from potential customers

•

•

time routes and ports covered by the shipping lines involved. Ship location: This service allows a Web user to find the position of a ship at sea and/or the location of the port of departure, as well as how the port can be reached. Tourist information: This service offers the destinations served by the shipping lines involved, including information about hotels, restaurants, car rentals, cultural events, festivals, important sights, etc.

An indicative example of the implementation of each of the above services is given in Table 1. Given the above set, an Internet survey was performed to see whether and to what extent the examined services had been implemented by the Web sites of MTOs and TAs. The Internet survey concerned a sample of 100 MTO Web sites and 80 Web TA sites. About 80% of the sample was based on the Eurostat records for 2002 (New Cronos, 2002) and about 20% from the results returned by the Yahoo search engine. Specifically, the sample included (according to the Eurostat records) the sites of the top 80 European MTOs and the sites of the top 65 European TAs engaging in sea travel. Regarding the remaining 20%, the sample included the sites of the top 20 MTOs (not included in the Eurostat records) returned by the Yahoo search engine using the keywords “Maritime Transport Operator” and the sites of the top 15 TAs (not included in the Eurostat records) returned by the Yahoo search engine using the keywords “Shipping Agent.” With respect to the sites of MTOs, 88 of them concerned shipping lines, 9 of them referred to cruise operators, and only 3 of them concerned cargo operators. Regarding the sites of TAs, 38 of

Table 1 Example Implementation of the Proposed Services Type of Service

Indicative Web Site

Booking

http://www.irishferries.com/ http://www.flygbatarna.com/ http://cruises.expedia.com/ http://www.hoverspeed.co.uk/ http://www.ponsf.com/ http://www.costacruises.co.uk/ http://www.seabourn.com/

Schedule information Trip/port weather Ship location Tourist information

EMERGING WEB-BASED SERVICES FOR SHIP TRAVELERS them referred to actual travel agents, 25 concerned virtual travel agents (VTAs, i.e., travel agents that are only present on the Web), and 17 referred to pure shipping agents. As will be discussed in detail in the next section, the above Internet survey showed that there was no MTO or TA site to support the full set of the proposed Web-based services and furthermore only a small number of the MTO and TA Web sites examined supported more than two of these services. The potential customers’ viewpoint regarding the proposed Web-based services was subsequently examined. To this end, a prototype implementation of the proposed services took place in the context of the EU-funded TEN/Telecom TeleSHIPping project (www.teleshipping.net). After their technical verification, the implemented services became available to the general public for testing through the two Web sites (http://www.enplw.gr/ and http: //www2.transmodal.unican.es/balearia/). The dissemination of the existence of these two sites for open testing purposes was one of the objectives of TeleSHIPping. For 1 month (specifically during August 2003), the Web visitors of these two sites could fill out and submit an appropriate questionnaire for evaluating the offered Web-based services using a 5-point rating scale. The detailed definition of rating criteria for evaluating the proposed Web-based services is as follows: (0) No interest: The proposed service does not present these features that could cause the interest of the potential users/customers. (1) Poor: The proposed service incorporates few features that could cause the interest of the potential users/customers. (2) Medium: The proposed service incorporates an adequate number of features that could cause the interest of the potential users/customers. (3) High: The proposed service is innovative with interesting and appealing features for the potential users/customers. (4) Very High: The proposed service is very interesting and appealing for the potential users/customers and thus has to be offered as a de facto service in the future maritime e-market. The number of completed questionnaires for the first site was 34 and for the second site there were 44.

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Given that the above 78 questionnaires presented the viewpoint of the general public and not especially of the ship travelers, another practice was also adopted by our research method in order to collect ship travelers’ feedback for the proposed services. Specifically, the set of the proposed services was installed on two information kiosks. The first kiosk was located at the Travel Agency of the Minoan Shipping Lines (www.minoan.gr) at the port of Heraklion. The second kiosk was located on board the ship Knossos Palace of the Minoan Shipping Lines, serving the route Heraklion–Piraeus– Heraklion. Each Monday during the month of September 2003, ship travelers on Knossos Palace departing from the Heraklion port could fill out (either at port or on board) the same (as in the above sites) appropriate questionnaire, evaluating the offered services. We collected 32 questionnaires at the port of Heraklion and 71 questionnaires on board Knossos Palace. The findings of the analysis of the questionnaires (presented in detail in the next section) allowed us to proceed to the next step of our research, which dealt with whether and to what extent the MTOs and TAs were interested in implementing the proposed services to their Web sites. In order to accomplish this research phase, appropriate managers of European MTOs and TAs with a leading role in the maritime market were interviewed. Specifically, the sample of the interviewees included representatives from two shipping lines operating in the East Mediterranean, four shipping lines operating in the West Mediterranean, six Greek TAs, four Spanish TAs, and two Belgian TAs. The interviews showed that both MTOs and TAs would be interested in offering the set of proposed Web-based services to their potential customers, provided that their customers desired them. (The detailed analysis of the findings of the interviews is also given in the next section.) The findings of the interviews, combined with travelers’ feedback collected through questionnaires and the Internet survey results of the first phase of our research, can be used for the final identification of a set of Web-based services appealing to ship travelers. The latter constitutes the subject of fourth section, which also gives some recommendations and instructions for the business success of the proposed services in the emerging maritime e-market.

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MAGLOGIANNIS, KORMENTZAS, AND PANAGIOTARAKIS Summary of Research Findings

As described in detail in the previous section, there were three core research elements of the adopted methodology. In sum, our research included: • • •

An Internet survey consisting of 100 Web sites referring to MTOs and 80 Web sites referring to TAs. 181 collected questionnaires from potential end users (customers). A set of interviews from appropriate managers of 6 MTOs and 12 TAs.

This section analyzes the findings of the above core research elements concerning the acceptance of the Web-based services examined (i.e., booking, schedule information, ship location, trip/port weather, and tourist information) of the potential customers (it is anticipated that ship travelers will constitute the major part of them). The level of the end users’ acceptance/interest will play an important role in the potential market success of the proposed services. Internet Survey This subsection presents the findings of our Internet survey concerning the extent to which the proposed Web-based services were implemented on the Web sites of MTOs and TAs. Specifically, as was discussed in detail in the previous section, 100 MTO sites and 80 TA sites were examined. Table 2 gives the number of sites of MTOs and TAs that provided each one of the proposed services. Elaborating on the findings of Table 2 for MTOs, one can note that most of the surveyed sites of MTOs support the booking service. However, in many

Table 2 Findings of the Internet Survey (I)

Service Booking Schedule information Ship location Trip/port weather Tourist information

No. of MTO Sites That Implement the Service

No. of TA Sites That Implement the Service

39 25 4 10 38

37 44 3 3 59

cases, this service was not provided by the shipping line as an actual online service, given that the complexity of the confirmation process required an offline process between the customer and the shipping line through other means such as telephone, e-mail, etc. Furthermore, the potential customer had to fill in a significant number of blank boxes demanding more time than a phone conversation with an actual travel agency and then had to confirm the reservation with payment, which was not always electronically provided. The schedule information service (usually in the form of configuration tools for displaying ship schedules) was supported by the 25% of the MTO sites examined. In many cases this service constituted the first step of the booking service. Commenting on the other three proposed Web-based services, only few of the MTO sites examined provided the ship location and trip/port weather services. A larger number of them (i.e., 38) supported the tourist information service, usually through the provision of links to other sites, which contained the appropriate tourist information content. The Internet survey findings for TAs do not present significant differences from the corresponding findings for MTOs. There are two categories of services. The first one includes the ship location and trip/port weather services, which were supported by only a few of the TA sites examined. The second category includes the remaining three most “popular” services (i.e., booking, schedule information, and tourist information). The nature of a TA could justify the fact that the tourist information service was provided by the majority of the TA sites examined (i.e., 58 out of 80). Furthermore, the nature of a VTA (a VTA is present only on the Web) and the fact that our sample included 25 sites referred to as VTAs can also justify the adequate implementation level of the booking and schedule information services in the sites surveyed. Moreover, the remarks made on the offered booking and schedule information services by MTOs are still valid for the case of TAs/VTAs. Giving a generic outline of our experience from the Internet survey concerning the Web-based services offered by both MTOs and TAs, the majority of the services lack actual user friendliness. In this context, MTOs and TAs are to be considered according to the actual usability of the sites, rather than on the basis of their (impressive) graphical user interfaces. Many of the services are actually hidden and

EMERGING WEB-BASED SERVICES FOR SHIP TRAVELERS Table 3 Findings of the Internet Survey (II) No. of Proposed Services Already Supported

No. of MTO Sites

No. of TA Sites

— 3 13 37 63

— — 15 54 77

5 (the whole set) 4 3 2 1

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require much effort from the potential user if he/she is to discover them. Turning to another important aspect of the findings of our Internet survey, as depicted in Table 3, one can note that there was no MTO or TA site supporting the full set of the proposed Web-based services. The majority of the MTO or TA sites implement only one or two of the proposed services. In this context, a business opportunity in the emerging maritime e-market can arise so long as the proposed services are appealing both to the developers (i.e., MTOs and TAs) of the services and to their potential customers (i.e., ship travelers).

• •

tested primarily by young people under 30 years old (about 52% of the total number of respondents were under this age). A similarly high portion, specifically 32%, was between 30 and 40 years old and only 16% of the sample was above 40 years old. 40% of the respondents were travelers used to traveling alone (mainly for business purposes), while the remaining 60% of them were travelers used to traveling with their family or a group (mainly for holidays). Regarding the second category of travelers, 52% of them were used to traveling with less than three persons, 34% of them with three to five persons, and the remaining 14% with more than five persons. A significant majority of the respondents (about 75%) were used to arranging their own travels. Regarding the Internet expertise of the travelers who completed the questionnaire, 38% of them have very good Internet expertise, 22% of them have good expertise, 21% of them have fair expertise, and the remaining 19% of them have poor expertise.

The above points show that our research used a quite well-balanced sample of questionnaires covering travelers of both genders, with varied ages and travel practices or habits and with different level of Internet expertise. In this context, the findings of the analysis of the questionnaires can be considered reliable and representative of the actual ship travelers’ viewpoint for the proposed Web-based services. Table 4 gives in a 5-point rating scale a qualitative and quantitative view of the findings of the questionnaires. It is noted that the total set of the proposed Web-based services seems appealing and interesting to the final users. However, a hierarchy

Questionnaires In the second phase of our research, dealing with the prototype implementation of the proposed Webbased services in the context of TeleSHIPping, 181 questionnaires from potential end users (customers) were collected. Some important statistical points arising from the sample of questionnaires include the following: • •

Respondents were 58% male and 42% female. The set of Web-based services proposed was

Table 4 Findings of the Questionnaires Level of Interest Services Booking Schedule information Ship location Trip/port weather Tourist information

5

No Interest (0)

Poor (1)

Medium (2)

High (3)

Very High (4)

1% 2% 3% 1% 2%

5% 4% 6% 5% 3%

20% 24% 23% 28% 24%

34% 46% 42% 47% 57%

40% 24% 26% 19% 14%

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MAGLOGIANNIS, KORMENTZAS, AND PANAGIOTARAKIS

of the preferences of the users can be identified and therefore the proposed services can be categorized as: 1) booking, 2) schedule information, 3) ship location, 4) trip/port weather, 5) tourist information. From this outcome, it is obvious that the significant acceptance of booking and schedule information services could be anticipated, taking into account that these services can offer to potential travelers important benefits such as: i) flexibility in trip arrangement (i.e., the traveler can make unhurried route selections from all available alternatives, he/she can easily change selections and find offers, etc.), ii) time saving (i.e., there is no need for intermediaries such as travel agencies), and iii) mobility due to the ubiquity of the web (this is valid for all the proposed services). Furthermore, the fact that services such as booking and schedule information are already well established in the e-market for the air transportation sector creates for the ship travelers an expectation and demand for such services. The questionnaires also showed that the ship location service is more attractive to potential customers than the trip/port weather and tourist information services, which could be characterized as “conventional” services, because a significant number of MTOs and TAs (or VTAs) already provide them. The innovative nature of the ship location service as well as the fact that this service is well tailored to the needs of ship travelers can justify to some extent the users’ preference for this service. The hierarchy presented (specifically the outcome of the analysis of the questionnaires) can be used by a potential implementer, intending to invest in a number of the proposed services. However, taking into account that all the proposed services were well accepted by the end users, and the Internet survey results of the first phase of our research, the whole set of services should be implemented for a better fulfillment of all the current needs of ship travelers. Interviews The third core element of our research methodology included interviews with the appropriate managers of 6 MTOs and 12 TAs. The goal of this element was to identify whether and to what extent the MTOs and TAs find the proposed Web-based services appealing enough for future investments in the emerging maritime e-market.

Following normal commercial logic, all the interviewees of our research answered that they will only deploy the proposed services if ship travelers are interested in them. It is assumed and verified in our research by the findings of the questionnaires that ship travelers will be interested in the proposed services (as presented in the previous subsection). In the wake of this assumption, the representatives of MTOs and TAs were asked to indicate their level of interest for each of the proposed services. The cumulative results of these interviews for both MTOs and TAs are depicted in Table 5. Elaborating on the findings of Table 5, one can note that MTOs are favorable to the incorporation of all the proposed services in their Web sites. Their medium level of interest for the tourist information service is due to the fact that MTOs considered that there are other Web sites that are more appropriate for these kinds of service (e.g., the sites of TAs). In this context, they prefer to provide some links to other appropriate sites, rather than to develop the specific service from the beginning. TAs are also positive towards enhancing their sites with the proposed services. However, they did not accept all the services as warmly as did MTOs. Specifically, almost half of the TAs that participated in our interviews expressed skepticism about the full acceptance of booking and schedule information services. TAs stated that these two services could bring new players (such as VTAs) in the maritime emarket and therefore make it possible to lose part of

Table 5 Findings of the Interviews Level of Interest Service Maritime transport operators Booking Schedule information Ship location Trip/port weather Tourist information Travel agencies Booking Schedule information Ship location Trip/port weather Tourist information

High

Medium

X X X X X X X X X X

Low

EMERGING WEB-BASED SERVICES FOR SHIP TRAVELERS their revenues. However, all the interviewees agreed that the ICTs in general and the Web in particular would soon accelerate their penetration into the maritime market, bringing together innovative services. In this context, it would be more beneficial for a TA to develop the booking and schedule information services rather than to acquire them from potential competitors. Thus, it is assumed in our interviews that soon ship travelers will look for advanced Web-based services such as booking and schedule information. Therefore, TAs feel that it is commercially right and necessary for them to prepare for the provision of these services through their Web sites. Discussion on the Research Findings In light of the findings of our research presented in the previous section, the full fulfillment of the emerging needs of ship travelers requires the implementation of the whole set of the proposed Webbased services. This sections deals with providing technical and business suggestions for the commercial success of a maritime Web portal, which supports booking, schedule information, trip/port weather, ship location, and tourist information services. The suggestions are based on the comments given by the users of the prototype services implemented in the framework of TeleSHIPping. The questionnaires included a space where the users could freely provide without restrictions and guidance both their viewpoint regarding the prototype implementation and their expectations and proposals for future ones. The most important comments presented in the collected questionnaires are the following: •

•

•

The proposed Web-based services must be quick, efficient, and user friendly (e.g., multilanguage support, provision of help buttons, flexibility to check multitrip bookings, interactive ships’ maps, etc.). The proposed services must integrate third-party information/content (e.g., pictures, graphics, animations, geospatial data, information about hotels, restaurants, and car rental, etc.). The booking service must support advanced security schemes that can guarantee secure online payments.

•

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A significant number of participants expressed their desire for the provision of the proposed services on board.

Let’s now turn to presenting some basic guidelines for the business success of the proposed services in the emerging maritime e-market. Two of the major requirements for the end users, as emerged from their responses during our research, concerned the speed and the user friendliness of the proposed services. The speed factor, in particular, is very important for the commercial success of the online booking service, as the time spent for this service has to be comparable to the time dedicated for a phone booking accomplished through an actual travel agency. Dealing in general with the speed requirement, it is apparent that an Internet connection with high available bandwidth is needed for the deployment of the proposed portal. Regarding the users’ requirement for user friendliness, one can note that the developers of the maritime portal have to take into account, apart from the impressive graphical user interfaces, the actual usability of the deployed services. In this context, the services have to be easily accessible and not require effort from the potential user wishing to discover them. Another key requirement for the potential customers of the proposed Web maritime portal concerns the provision of third-party content/information. For the accomplishment of this condition, the potential developer of the maritime portal could use the emerging XML technology (utilized for exchanging data between databases over the Web). XML is considered mature enough to enable the integration of data from multiple sources in one single environment. However, it should be noted that the potential users of the portal intend to visit specific destinations and not the whole world in one click. Therefore, all the necessary third-party information should be well structured within the proposed Web portal, while advanced search engines could ease the retrieval of third-party information. Our research showed that the potential customers of the maritime portal under development will not be reluctant to book online tickets or any kind of services but they will be hesitant to pay online for them, using their credit or debit cards, as they are still very suspicious about the security means provided. It is key to note that this security issue consti-

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MAGLOGIANNIS, KORMENTZAS, AND PANAGIOTARAKIS

tutes at the moment a general shortcoming of e-commerce technology; however, this is expected to be remedied in the near future. In this context, the proposed Web-based services not only have to support advanced security schemes, but they also have to publish them to their potential customers to reduce and finally eliminate customers’ fears. Regarding ship travelers’ demand for various Web services during the trip, a network of dispersed kiosks around the vessel (acting also as moving information access networking points) and/or an Internet café inside the ship can be used for the onboard delivery of proposed services. However, the usage of such points brings to the fore issues related to the quality of service (QoS) guarantees offered by the selected communication technologies, which can be either satellite based (e.g., Inmarsat, EUTELSAT, VSAT) (Panagiotarakis, Maglogiannis, & Kormentzas, 2002) or terrestrial (e.g., GSM, GPRS, UMTS) (Hightower & Borriello, 2001). It seems that the usage of advanced networking mechanisms and methodologies for providing mobile IP, seamless handover, guaranteed access bandwidth, location-based services, etc., can add value to the maritime Web services to be offered. With regard to the development of a maritime Web portal and its relation with the local reservation and tourism information systems, note that in the maritime market there is not a global distribution system (GDS) (like SAMBRE or AMADEUS) due to the market structure (specifically extended segmentation with totally diverse maritime transport operators active on small or big routes with different characteristics) and the ship owners’ mentality (the majority of ship owners want autonomy in the way they do business and thus they cannot easily comply with rules imposed by a GDS). In this context, a Web portal aiming at offering services in maritime transport has to respect the autonomy of local reservation and tourism information systems, and try to cooperate, not to compete, with them. Conclusions Recently, MTOs and TAs have started to include in their business models revenues that correspond to the exploitation of appropriate Web-based services (Maglogiannis, Kormentzas, & Panagiotarakis, 2002). Focusing on the increment of the revenues

coming from the use of such kinds of services, this article sought to find an appealing set of Web-based services for the potential customers (i.e., ship travelers). The goal was to identify a set of services that could guarantee commercial advantages and thus revenues for the prospective implementers. In order to identify the proposed set of the Webbased services, the study used a research methodology, which included three core research elements [i.e., an Internet survey consisting of 100 MTO Web sites and 80 TA Web sites, 181 questionnaires from potential end users (pretrip customers and on-board ship travelers), and a set of interviews from appropriate managers of 6 MTOs and 12 TAs]. Our research highlighted five state-of-the-art Webbased services (i.e., booking, schedule information, ship location, trip/port weather, and tourist information) for ship travelers. It should be commercially beneficial for MTOs and TAs to develop the services identified and not to leave them to their potential competitors for three reasons. First, as demonstrated by our Internet survey, there is no MTO or TA Web site that supports the full set of the above services. Secondly, as evidenced in the questionnaires, the services are very appealing and interesting for the potential customers that look for advanced services. Thirdly, as evidenced by our interviews, ICTs/Web technology will soon accelerate penetration into the maritime market, bringing together innovative services. Demonstrating this business opportunity for MTOs and TAs, the article heavily contributes to the formation of new business models, which take into account the emerging maritime e-market. In order to facilitate the commercial success of the proposed venture, the article uses the comments of the potential customers to give some generic technical and business guidelines for the development of the Webbased services identified. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank the partners of the EU-funded TEN/Telecom TeleSHIPping project for supporting this work. Furthermore, the authors wish to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments that have significantly improved the quality of the work. Finally, the authors would like to express their thankfulness to Prof. Patrick Hartigan for his kind editorial efforts.

EMERGING WEB-BASED SERVICES FOR SHIP TRAVELERS Biographical Notes Ilias Maglogiannis works at the University of the Aegean. He received a Diploma in Electrical & Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) Greece in 1996 and 2000, respectively, with scholarship from the Greek Government. From 1996 until 2000 he worked as a researcher in the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory in NTUA and he has been engaged in several European and National Projects. From 1998 until 2000 he was also the head of the computer department, responsible for the modernization of the Department of Civil Engineering in the National Technical University of Athens. Since February of 2001 he has been a Lecturer in the Department of Information and Communication Systems at the University of the Aegean. His published scientific work includes four lecture notes (in Greek) on Biomedical Engineering and Multimedia topics, six journal papers, and more than 20 national and international conference papers. He has served on program and organizing committees of national and international conferences and he is a reviewer for several scientific journals. His scientific activities include biomedical engineering, image processing, multimedia, and human–computer interaction.

George Kormentzas received a Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science both from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. From 1996 to 2001 he was a research associate with the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications of the Greek National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos” working in a number of EU-funded research projects in the area of high-speed wired and wireless networks. Since 2001, he has been a lecturer in the University of the Aegean teaching, among others, e-commerce. He is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, IEEE, and WSEAS. His research interests are in the fields of information communication technologies, traffic analysis, network control, resource management, and quality of ser-

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vice in broadband networks. He has over 30 publications in books, journals, and international conference proceedings in the above areas.

Nikos Panagiotarakis has a Diploma in Electrical-Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He is today the Managing Director of Horama, Marketing and Engineering Services S.A. He has an extensive experience in project management issues. He is secretary of the highly successful thematic network project SWAN, under FP5/IST. He has more than 17 years of experience in maritime communications, sales engineering, marketing & project management. References Buhalis, D. (1998). Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry. Tourism Management, 19(5), 409–421. Hightower, J., & Borriello, G. (2001). Location systems for ubiquitous computing. IEEE Computer. Lang, T. C. (2000). The effect of the Internet on travel consumer purchasing behaviour and implications for travel agencies. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 6(4), 368–385. Maglogiannis, I., Kormentzas, G., & Panagiotarakis, N., (2002). The business model of a distributed virtual travel agency. 15th EEEE Conference in Operational Research, Tripoli, Greece. New Cronos. (2002). Eurostat official database electronic [online]. http://www.europa.eu.int/newcronos O’Connor, P., & Frew, A. (2000). Evaluating electronic channels of distribution in the hotel sector: A Delphi study. Information Technology & Tourism, 3(3/4), 177–193. Panagiotarakis, N., Maglogiannis, Il., & Kormentzas, G. (2002). An overview of major satellite systems. 2nd WSEAS International Conference on MULTIMEDIA, INTERNET and VIDEO TECHNOLOGIES, Skiathos, Greece.