ABSTRACT
There can be no doubt that information technology (IT) is changing the business of tourism. Studies of the significant intrafirm impacts of new technologies (Haywood, 1990; Peacock, 1995; Mutch, 1998) have been paralleled by broader analyses of IT's ability to alter distribution networks and industry structures (Bennett and Radburn, 1991; Reinders and Baker, 1998). Some commentators have even suggested that IT changes the very rules of tourism-with industry leaders adopting a new managerial and strategic "best practice" (Poon, 1993, pp. 12-13).
