Tourism Supply Chain Management

The highly competitive environment of the tourism industry has forced tourism firms to look for ways to enhance their competitive advantage. For example, there has been considerable growth in the implementation of new information technologies and the development of new commercial formats such as e-Tourism. In addition to these technological measures, one of the strategies that tourism firms could adopt to increase their competitiveness is to focus on integral parts of supply chains rather than individual firms which has been effective in the manufacturing and retail industries. Tourism products are often viewed by consumers as a value ' added chain of different service components and identifying ways to effectively manage the inter-related tourism business operations will enable tourism firms to better meet customer needs and accomplish business goals thus maintaining competitive advantage over their equally efficient rivals.This significant and timely volume is the first to apply supply chain management theories and practices in the context of tourism. By doing so the book offers insight into the relationships between tourism enterprises, how co-ordination across organizations can be effectively achieved and how business performance can be improved.The book offers comprehensive and systematic coverage of all the key issues and principles associated with Tourism Supply Chain Management including distribution and marketing activities as well as the suppliers and stakeholders involved in the provision and consumption of tourism products. The book combines essential theory and comparative international examples based on primary research to show challenges and opportunities of effective Touirsm Supply Chain Management.Written by a leading academic in the area this book will be valuable reading for students, academics and researcher of Tourism as well as those interested in Business Management, Operations Management and Logistics.