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Abstract:
Software companies have been advertising, in the recent years, how wonderful the Internet is and how one can do most of their everyday work by just going online and without even moving from their comfortable chair. We quote a few lines from a recent, typical television advertisement:
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Why should you go on a plane...When you can contact whoever you wish via
teleconferencing or email?
These companies have tried, and are still trying, so hard to convince people that computers and the Internet, (or simply Information Systems), have the answer to EVERYTHING and gradually people are starting to believe them.
We are not implying that what the software companies are saying is untrue. On the contrary Advanced Information Systems are the future, but unfortunately today working with the World Wide Web is still very hard, both in terms of time consumption and user friendliness.
Having the above in mind our aim here is to assess the efforts of many companies/people to apply Intelligent Software Agent Technology in the Travel Market, [1] . The motives behind these efforts can be guessed, but unfortunately not verified. A reasonable motive would be profit maximisation by capturing potential customers on the Web and also by reducing costs when sacking redundant personnel, (or more specifically human travel agents). One might even consider the dark side...governments' attempts to record every citizen's move, whether that is business or leisure traveling.
1 Airline Companies and Software Agents
Many airline companies are hesitating to put their prices on the Internet and have software agents accessing them because that would expose the fact that prices for identical tickets may vary. It is obvious though that airlines may delay their presence in the World Wide Web, but they cannot avoid it altogether.
British Airways and Swiss-air are examples of companies that have already launched their software travel agents. One can access the Swiss-air agent via the relevant home page, [3] . The site has a relatively friendly interface and one can easily and effectively book tickets for flights, rent cars or book hotels, using simple English language and drop-down menus. It has the SkySurfer facility which can be used to track down and buy special price tickets with Swiss-air.
The main drawback, not only of this particular agent but of all the airline companies' agents, is that they only deal specifically with one airline company and do not search the whole travel market in order to find optimum prices. Furthermore, these companies do not offer the so called packages that usually include flight tickets, hotel accommodation and touring. Usually such packages are offered by travel agencies that are in a position to deal with multiple airline companies, hotels, tours, car rentals, etc.
2 Travel Information Software Systems
A travel agent, software or human, must not operate on behalf of any single airline or any other similar company, so that it will be able to obtain optimum offers for their clients. Therefore, by definition, the perfect software travel agent will be one owned by a travel agency and will work to obtain optimum packages for its customers.
Figure 1 - A typical agent form
The form shown in figure 1 was taken from the TISS travel agent, [2] , and it has many similarities with forms found in many other travel agent sites. One may assume that provided the user-customer knows what he/she wants, filling up such forms and submitting them would be a piece of cake.
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Question: Do you always know what you want when you enter a travel agency?
Many times customers, usually looking for holiday packages, depend on their travel agent to show them what is available according to their taste and budget. We searched through the Internet hoping to find software travel agents that were more intelligent, and by that we mean, being able to interact with the user on a more personal basis. We tried to find travel agents that could treat different customers in a different way, or know what to advertise to whom. For example, if a customer had a record that showed he/she was a Mediterranean fan , then if there was a special offer on a Greek Island tour, the agent should send that customer an e-mail, highlighting the offer.
In fact all the information needed in order to treat customers on a personal basis is already available. Suitable agents are needed now to filter all this information and use it.
3 Picking up the phone vs Turning on the computer
So should people give up the traditional way of booking business and holiday trips and use the World Wide Web instead? The truth is that existing software agents are not as effective and people will not be ready to risk it.
3.1 Time Consumption:
- When customers know exactly what they want they can make a phone call to their favourite travel agency and book in a matter of minutes.
- When customers know exactly what they want they can connect to a relevant web site, or even connect to several web sites and compare ticket prices. The big drawback though is that at peak hours, (usually at noon), Internet access is really slow and it can get quite annoying.
3.2 Reliability:
- When customers book through human travel agents they usually expect, (and receive), good service. They rely on the agents and can blame them if something goes wrong with the booking.
- When booking through software agents, success depends on the customer. If anything goes wrong, the customer cannot hold anyone else responsible but himself.
3.3 Support:
- Uncertain customers can seek the advice of their favourite travel agency regarding where they should go according to the money they have available and their personal desires.
- Uncertain customers that are seeking advice from software agents on the Web have no hope in finding any, (at least for the next few years).
4 Final Thought
In our investigation on software agents, in general, we have outlined certain key characteristics that make a piece of software an AGENT. Among these was the ability to learn, which can be a big advantage. On the other hand Artificial Travel Agents need not be that complicated in order to implement the basics. The main problem that we have spotted on existing software agents, which was lack of differentiating between customers, could be overcome by developing software which will be able to shuffle through customers' existing records and determine their preferences.
List of References:
| 1 | Intelligent Agents: A Technology and Business Application Analysis | |||||||||||
| Kathryn Heilmann, 1995 | ||||||||||||
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| Content : | ||||||||||||
| On-Line : http://haas.berkeley.edu/~heilmann/agents/#exsum | ||||||||||||
| Obtained From : | ||||||||||||
| Notes : Information on Intelligent Travel Agents |
| 2 | Travel Information Software Systems | |||||||||||
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| Content : | ||||||||||||
| On-Line : http://www.tiss.com | ||||||||||||
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| 3 | Swiss Air homepage | |||||||||||
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| Content : | ||||||||||||
| On-Line : http://www.swissair | ||||||||||||
| Obtained From : | ||||||||||||
| Notes : |