Intermediary (Online)

Tourism intermediaries can be defined as the actors who link producers/suppliers of tourism products and services with consumers. They have the power to influence when, where and how people travel. The arrival of ICTs and the Internet has revolutionized tourism. ICTs complicated tourism intermediation significantly and enabled new practices from intermediaries, consumers and suppliers. Initially, it was expected that the emergence of the Internet would limit the need for intermediaries, as tourists and suppliers/producers could connect directly and would therefore no longer need them – creating a process of disintermediation. However, the arrival of the Internet resulted in the reshaping of traditional intermediaries, who added online components, as well as a proliferation of new online intermediaries, thus creating a process of reintermediation rather than disintermediation and a new group of intermediaries known as ‘eMediaries’