Information technology and tourism a theoretical critique

This paper aims to initiate a debate regarding the paradigms underpinning the planning and implementation of IT in multi-stakeholder scenarios in the tourism sector. The problem is stated as: “how do we ensure that, as technological solutions are implemented within tourism, due consideration is given to human-centred issues?” The approach taken in this paper is to undertake a critique of the field—enabled by the application of a framework borrowed from social theory. A critique of three tourism case studies of failed IT implementation points to the dominance of a Postpositivist mindset which, it is argued, has contributed to the failure through its inability to manage the complexity of the human system involved. Critical Theory is suggested as an alternative paradigm, with its emphasis on the normative structures through which stakeholders view the world. Habemas’ theory of communicative action offers a framework for identifying these structures and is recommended as an avenue for future research.