Research Paper on:
Hotel Industry and IT

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
room service. Some offer direct connections to others vendors in the travel industry such as airlines, travel agents, car rental agencies, caterers, entertainment venues, and more. In fact, information technology  has swept through the "hospitality" industry in so many ways that hoteliers of all sizes and degree of service offerings have an enormous choice of individual IT products. Connecting  all the Travel Components Since the advent of electronic data transfer, virtually all aspects of commerce, business, government, even education have transformed to take full advantage of the immediacy  of information offered electronically. Whether a consumer does his/her banking electronically or books their airline reservations online, the sharing and distribution of information has evolved beyond what could have  been imagined less than a decade ago. However, in the opening years of the 21st century, it is clear that electronic data transfer can and will be enhanced even  further and that the travel industry is one of the prime candidates to benefit from such advances. In fact, according to Selwitz (1993), the hotel industry has been more aware  than most in terms of what certain information linkages can accomplish for it. He explains that in 1989, 22 hotel firms formed a joint venture called The Hotel Industry Switch  Co (THISCO). THISCO linked airline computer reservation systems and a majority of large U.S. hotel central reservation systems and, in 1993, linked travel agents and their major global distribution systems  (GDSs), such as Sabre and Galileo with a majority of large U.S. hotel central reservation systems. In 1995, Pegasus Systems became THISCOs parent company and by 2000, had increased its  office network from two to 39 offices worldwide with approximately 2,000 employees throughout the world. The Pegasus website makes note that the end result has been the formation of "a