Modelling of an electronic tourism market

The present situation concerning the information-technological supply of tourism services is characterized by the coexistence of a multitude of service- and travel-type specific electronic markets (tourism markets). This results in the nonuniformity of information about tourism services and their access. In order to unify different electronic markets, this paper presents a reference model of an electronic tourism market. Tailored to meet particular requirements, specific models for components of an electronic market can be derived from this reference model. In order to enable the customer the comfortable access to tourism services, customer-specific needs have to be considered. In spite of often only vague, inexact ideas about the required service, the customer expects a comfortable selection and composition process for tourism services. Therefore, to be taken into consideration as essential parts of the modelling are: selection hierarchies for the integration of fuzziness into the selection process and the support of the flexible derivation of specific models composition of elementary tourism services.