In every sector of business today information technology system is making waves as it is becoming more essential in the daily routine of any job. Communication is making a very positive impact on the economy of each country which The Gambia is not exceptional. In the tourism industry, the positive impact of IT system is enormous.

The impact of IT system in tourism start right from the moment the willing holidaymaker starts planning to visit a desired destination. At the onset of your plan, the destination, travel agents, tour operators, hotels, among other things become relevant that you need to have afore knowledge and detail information. To get some of the relevant information in this world of technology the importance of IT arrives.

Talking about information technology, it is the modern way of using computers to communicate and get information through research. So also to get the knowledge of what we are short of. This mean information technology is the best way of communication and to gather information more about what we have got no knowledge about.

In many and different ways, IT relates to tourism because the only option before the advent of IT globally is that if you wanted to travel any where in the world you have to walk from your house down to the street to get the local agency either as outbound or an inbound tourist. But now it is a different story with the help of modern technology.

Walking down the street to get the local agency still will not immediately solve your search problem or provide you the enough information that you need as you might searched endlessly through the available brochure without success. As well this can take you few days to do and make you frustrate because much of your time will be consumed. Now with the aid of modern technology your journey is made easy. Your journey can be planned directly from your bedroom hence you can do everything online.

As a tourist you can get all the necessary information without stress or paper work. This mean you only need settling down with your laptop in your house or office and log into desire website and search for all you need about your intending destination. This is just to say information technology has opens the possibilities for tourism industry.

For supplying and exchanging of information, tourism industry is really suitable for the adoption of information technology because of its dependence and in needs of current knowledge and information through all the production and distribution chain. The industry extremely depends on information because on daily basis tourism is undergoing rapid and radical modern changes.

It worth noting that there is wide range of opportunities discover on daily basis through the use of information and communication technology.Among other things information technology is being used for a variety of functions in the tourism industry, ranging from an internal organization role to external communication between different parts of the industry. The continuous development of information technology has profound implications for the whole tourism industry.

The westerners are benefiting from modern information technology; now in Africa wide range of tourism sectors is taking the advantage of the information superhighway, too. On the advantages, technology facilitates the speed and efficiency with which information of the tourism industry is processed, stored, retrieved, distributed and otherwise manipulated. Information technology can reduce costs of information handling, increase speed of information transfer and retrieval and increase customer involvement in the control of transactions. It has flexibility of product specifications and greater reliability of information transferred.

The most important role of information technology is the development of competitive advantages by both reducing cost and enhancing differentiation.The most area that information technology improves tourism most are in four main areas, the delivery of tourism services; tourism management, marketing of the industry; with the relationship between the producers, destinations and consumers, tourists. It is essential in all the four areas but more relevant when it comes to marketing of the industry. Because you need to make everything online as people will always search for the best from minute to minute.

Radically, information technology altered the way in which information is transmitted throughout the tourism industry. Hence, it changes the way in which tourism services are delivered. This is because consumer expectations are rising rapidly, the move towards more independent and flexible holidays away from package holidays, with the emergence of a computer literate generation, requires the service providers to find new ways to satisfy tourists' needs. Thus, it offers new opportunities for information technology and the tourism industry.

Talking about the beneficiaries of this in the industry we have airliners, tour operators, travel agencies, hoteliers; car rentals, destinations and tourists who always need the information. Booking for your holiday or hotel reservation is now easier since you can do them online. Equally payment can be done online by issuing credit cards and other means of latest remittance of fees or charges without stress. You can search for all the airlines by going through their websites before you finally make a choice. From a thousand miles when you are still at your doorstep you can locate your destination.

So far so good in The Gambia, IT has makes all this easier. The introduction of IT and ability of making use of it in the best way has brought a lot of changes to the industry. More so, it has tremendously exposed the country to the world of tourism market because majority of people visiting the Gambia now get most of their information about the country on the website.

Majority of the available hotels now are using Wi-Fi which is the wireless access, where you are accommodated, you can use your laptop even mobile phone to browse for information. All you need to do is just long online and do lyour work as you wish without any stress of going to the internet café.

However, information technology (IT) is one of the important resources for increasing the economic growth. It causes companies to use their input resources as much as possible in an effective way. As investment in IT capital accounts for an ever-increasing share of capital investment, it is important to understand how these investments might pay.

Generally, there has been much debate on whether or not the investment in IT provides improvements in productivity and business efficiencies. IT investment may make little direct contribution to overall performance of business industry until they are combined with complementary investments in business activities, human capital, and company restructuring.

So far your investment in information communication technology will not been in vain, instead it will improve productivity with good dividend