Long tails in the tourism industry: towards knowledge intensive service suppliers

Abstract

This paper analyses the effects of the internet on the organisations and the markets in the tourism industry. It enlightens its deepening impact on incumbent organisations and markets from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 though the analysis of the dynamics of the long tail, i.e., of the distribution of activities in tourism. Innovation is gone from exploitation to exploration of the long tail, towards the emergence of non-profit or for-profit knowledge intensive service suppliers (KISS) allowing 'prosumers' to find solutions to run themselves their activities, through users generated resources. The growing autonomy of the tail from the head of distribution in the tourism industry emerges with the development of a platform economy, i.e., of global innovative market places inside the long tail itself.