Introduction In tourism industry, technology has played an important roles and

contributed the growth and development in many ways. The recent

literature review was focused on the major opportunities for tourism

service providers in the variety areas such as internet and social media,

innovation of technology in multimedia and hotel design as well as the

transport technology.

From the recent literature review, it was found that the new technology

brings the positive opportunities that are mostly beneficial for the

industry. But, more than that, the literature review found that the

presence of high technology make the society faces some challenges.

The major issues are whether the establishments have the financial

associated to buy and implement the high technology; up to date

knowledge of society to operate the new technology, and the time that will

be taken to adapt and learn the new procedures of technology.

The challenge of financial in technology advances in tourism will be an

issue in this research proposal. Travel agencies have their right to choose

whether have a budget or not have a budget for the company website.

The big company may implement the new technology and have enough

financial to invest website, from buying the domain, hiring a website

designer, and buying online tools that allow the travellers (buyers) to

purchase online. For the small company, some do not really care and that

opportunity may seems unaffordable.

References

Sampling The participants of survey are the employees of travel agencies that taken

from sampling of population. The population is all travel agencies in all states

in Australia. The procedures are: 1) The sampling should be represent the

population. 2) To get data for sampling, the resources are from Australia

Bureau Statistic, Australia Business Number, and Australia Federation of

Travel Agents. Based on the statistic (Australia Bureau of Statistic,2006) the

number of registered travel agencies was 2640 in 2004. It is assumed that

the number of travel agencies increase each year, and the number in 2004

did not include the online agencies. 3)If the total number of population in

2015 is 3750. The sampling will take 10% of population which is 375

employees of travel agencies will be surveyed. 4) The method of sampling is

based on principle of random sampling so every travel agencies will have

equal chances. 5) The approach is simple that using the computer program to

select the participants randomly.

Conclusion Overall, the financial challenge in technology advances has chosen to be the

issues for this proposal. To support the quantitative study, hypotheses is

designed that “60% of travel agencies in Australia are having a budget

dedicated for investing and developing the websites to attract more

overseas visitors.” Data collection will be taken from online questionnaire

survey and using the random method of sampling. The recent literature

review support this proposal in particular topic of the role technology in

tourism, websites, and multimedia innovation. It is found that websites that

contain multimedia such as 3D animation, videos and virtual tours will

enhance the travel planners experience and help the companies to attract

online consumers, encourage online purchasing and loyalty. The research

will be conducted ethically by following the consideration of informed

consent, anonymous, confidential, and security of storing the data. The

result of data will be shown as a percentage and the graph is used to

communicate the findings.

Research Aims, Objectives and Significance The purpose of this proposal is to fill the gap from recent literature review

and to explore whether the travel agencies have budget dedicated to develop

the websites. The objectives of this research proposal is to develop the study,

to develop conceptual framework, to decide the best methodology for the

study, to decide the sampling of research population, to collect information

from employees of travel agencies, to put some ethic consideration when

conducting the research, to do online survey with random sampling and to

proof whether the research hypothesis is true or false.

The research is significance to know the willingness of travel agencies to

have budget associated for investing the new technology in order to

maximize the company performance, attract more visitors that may result

increase in revenue.

Ethical Considerations Due to ethical consideration, all participants in the survey will be told that

the research is conducted by William Angliss Institute. The selected

participants will be given information statement details of research with

some information of nature of research, possible consequences, procedures,

and handling the data. The participants are required to signed or accept the

informed consent statement. The participants have right to withdrawal the

information. In term of deception, the participants will be fully informed with

research purpose without any exception. Data will be put anonymous and

William Angliss Intitute are responsible the keep the confidentiality. Data will

be not published in internet, will be stored with security and only authorised

lectures and students are having access for the data.

Methodology The research study for this proposal is descriptive as it is finding out and

describing what the things are, such as to identify the characteristic of

travel agencies, to identify the influencing factor and to measure the travel

agencies attitudes toward the budget for technology. The design for the

proposal will be using quantitative approach that use formal, objective and

systematic process where data are utilized to test the hypotheses of: “ Over

60% of travel agencies in Australia have a budget dedicated for investing

and developing their websites to attract more overseas visitors.”

As Creswell (2003) stated that for quantitative study, the research will use

the strategies to survey the large numbers of sampling with numerical

measurement and statistic analysis. The survey will be conduct online by

put the list of question in online survey providers such as survey monkey.

Research Proposal Mariska Siburian 20000584

“Over 60% travel agencies in Australia have a budget dedicated for investing and developing their websites to attract more overseas visitors.”

Conceptual Framework

Conceptual map are developed to support this study. Based on the map above, the main

concept are travel agencies, budget, websites and foreign visitors. The characteristic of travel

agencies are differentiate into the size: small or large, the types: traditional (only building),

online, and mix (combines building + online), and service offers: whether selling ticket,

accommodation, and tour domestically or internationally. Survey will be conducted and ask

the employees of travel agencies whether their workplace have budget dedicated for websites

or not. If the travel agencies have a budget, some influencing factors for travel agencies to

develop websites depends on financial, goal or objectives, and the marketing strategy. The

survey also will ask whether travel agencies add some features like videos, virtual tours, 3D

effect and photos in order to help them attract more foreign visitors. The technology brings

the international visitors become closer and distance should not be a matter between the

travel agencies and travellers.

Literature Review Technology use have grown quickly in recent decades compares to before 20th century when

improvement in mode of transportation and information were very limited (Murthy,2008). By

becoming the fastest growing sector in economy (United Nations of World Tourism

Organization, 2015), the tourism has successfully contributed 2.2 trillion U.S. Dollars in 2013

(Statista, 2013). International tourism adoption of 3T “Travel, Tourism and Technology” has

made the the technology is a must to help the daily task management of tourism service

providers, with its efficiency, cost saving, and increase the profitability (UNWTO Affiliate

members, 2011).

Nowadays, the internet can be accessed in any where through the mobile phones, tablets,

laptop, and computers that may increase the chances of travellers to review the destination

before their actual visit. The websites of companies act as promotional tools that facilitate

the continuous contact to the clients, potential visitors, and increase in online presence to

stay competitive in market (Leung, Law, and Buhalis (2013). Buhalis and Law (2008)

explained that the multimedia in websites provide tangible image or experience for travel

planners by its extensive representation of photos and graphics. Cho and Fessenmaire (2012)

found the websites that contains with graphics such as animation, videos, and virtual tours of

destination would increase the visualization and interaction from future travellers around the

world that improves the real life experience for travellers and help the travel planning process.

In online marketing, 3D websites help the companies to attract the online consumers,

encourage online purchases and loyalty (Fiore, Kim, and Lee, 2005).

Most literature review discussed only the benefit of technology. Poon (1993) have argued that

some challenges came up to utilize the new technology, such as the ability of society and

customers demand that are driven by technology. The gap was found in related to the

challenges of technology, whether the tourism service providers have financial cost to

implement the new technology, the up to date knowledge of society and time that are taken

by society to learn new procedures.

Data Collection Methods Data will be gathered through primary resources from questionnaire survey. The

employees of travel agencies will be sent email, follow the link and complete the

online survey on the screen. Because this research proposal will use quantitative

study, it will include the large number of participants. The online questionnaire

survey will be the best for this proposal because it is cheap (cost saving), people

are having access to the internet easily, and it has medium response rate (Veal,

2011).The numerical data as a result of data collection, will be shown as a

percentage and will be displayed with statistical graphs. Data will be analysed

through the graphs and the hypotheses is tested with findings whether it is true

or false. If the research has low response rate, the strategy is conducting more

surveys.

Australia Bureau of Statistics. (2006). 8653.0 - Travel Agency Services, Australia, 2003-04. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/8653.0Main+Features12003-04 Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008). Twenty years on and 10 years after the Internet: The state of E-Tourism research. Tourism Management, 29, 607-623. Cho, Y., Wang, Y., & Fesenmaier, D.R. (2002). Searching for experiences: The web-based virtual tour in tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 12(4), 1-17.

Cresswell, J.W. (2003). Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed method approaches. London: Sage Publications. Fiore, A.M., Kim, J., & Lee, H. (2005). Effect of image interactivity technology on consumer responses toward the online retailer. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 19(3), 38-53. Murthy, E.K. (2008). Management of Tourism and Hospitality Industry. New Delhi : ABD Publisher. Leung, D., Law, R., Hoof, H., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media in tourism and hospitality: A literature review. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 30, 3-22.

Poon, A. (1993). Tourism, Technology and Competitive Strategy. Wallingford: CAB International. Statista. (2013). Statistic and global facts on global tourism industry, retrieved 28 August 2015, from http://www.statista.com/topics/962/global-tourism/. United Nations of World Tourism Organisation. (2015). UNWTO Tourism highlights (2015 edition). Retrieved from http://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284416899. UNWTO Affiliate members. (2011). AM reports: Technology in tourism, 1. Retrieved from http://www2.unwto.org/publication/am-reports-vol-1-technology-tourismUNWTO Affiliate. Veal, A.J. (2011). Research Methods for leisure and tourism: A practical guide. England: Prentice Hall.