The influence of the digitalization of distribution channels on the market structure of tourism industry

Digital delivery of travel and tourism services and the development of e-commerce and m-commerce have dramatically restructured global tourism value chain and undermined the role of travel intermediaries. The main goal of the research paper is to analyse potential and drivers of digital delivery of tourism services in Poland and to explore the process of disintermediationand re-intermediation within the tourism market. The paper is of theoretical and empirical character: it identifies tourism experts' and entrepreneurs' opinions on the usability and development potential of digital delivery in Poland. Its main thesis is the inevitability of the decrease in the number and importance of Polish travel agencies according to the model of Western European and American tourism markets. On the basis of the respondents opinions and the literature review the potential quality transformation of the tourism intermediation market were outlined: new entities emergence, new forms of partnership and industries interpenetration, new data analysis capabilities and tourism trends forecasting.