Information and Communication Technologies and the Place of Electronic Tourism in it

Tourism is an information intensive industry. In the current article the effects and transformations that the information and communication technologies are created in the tourism network in the cases such as the omission of the intermediaries and providing information, creating the relation among players in the value chains of tourism industry (ie. Travel and hospitality) and particularly consumers, providing the travel packages in a flexible and customized manner, is referred. For further manifestation of the article topic, a survey study is done, based on a structured questionnaire, from a sample of 100 foreign (international) tourists who are visiting the national museum of Tehran, regarding to their internet usage in the area of tourism.The research findings show that foreign tourists use the internet in different ways. However, respecting to their age and needs, their usage is different. But in the cases such as organizing the holiday, factors influencing destination choice, accessing the internet from home, ways to make a booking, using internet for different purposes during holiday, sharing the holiday experiences with others, the most important usage of internet in the tourism industry and tourism providers, the way of booking from tourism organization, types of tourism organization using internet and the functions of tourists mostly using internet, the results give a better understanding of their behavior.