Exploring the Impact of E-Marketplaces on Egyptian Tourism Intermediaries

More people are globally becoming attracted to buying and selling products and services via theinternet as the Internet is offering a vast opportunity and an easy way to book packages, searchfor information and get reviews about services through Customer Generated Content (CGC). It isclaimed that both suppliers and consumers are working to push the intermediaries out of thevalue chain; in order to reduce the costs. The Egyptian tourism market is based on the relationbetween the three main partners in the supply chain: service providers “upstream partners”,tourism intermediaries “downstream partners” and customers. Tourism intermediaries,symbolized in tour operators and travel agencies in Egypt, represent the main partnersresponsible for marketing and distributing the tourism services. Thereupon, it was of greatimportance to analyze the current and future situation of those intermediaries, especially in themassive changes resulted from the emergence of the e-marketplaces in the Egyptian tourismmarket. The study aims at answering some research questions in order to decide which scenariowill take place for Egyptian tourism intermediaries amidst the new changes: Disintermediation,Re-intermediations or Cybermediation.A qualitative research approach was used to answer the research questions. In- depth interviewswith Egyptian Tourism Intermediaries, represented in traditional Travel Agents (TAs) in Egypt,Egyptian Online TAs (OTAs) and Egyptian Facebook Travel Agencies were conducted toexplore the effect of the e-marketplaces on their work.The results showed that the Egyptian intermediaries were greatly affected by the emergence of emarketplaces and are taking serious steps to counteract the disintermediation effect toreintermediate in the market. This was accomplished by introducing innovative products,forming alliances, offering niche products and adopting price differentiation strategies. The studyalso provides recommendations for stakeholders in the tourism industry to help them in persistingwithin the changes of e-marketplaces.