Abstract

In the article, the introduction of innovations in the field of tourism is considered as an important factor in the competitive world of the tourism market. The essence of innovation in this regard is revealed based on a theoretical analysis of the definitions given by this category of scientists. There are also presented directions of innovative development of the tourism sector through the application of information technologies in the field.

Introduction

If we look at the current practice of the global development of international tourism, the growing competition in the tourism market followed by several other factors require the introduction of innovations applied in tourism. Besides, the current changes in demographic, economic, social situations, as well as the changes in human psychology, are serving as a driving force for the economy paving ways for wide application of innovations to the tourism industry. Consequently, in the formation of demand for tourist products, the following development trends can be observed:

1. The range of potential buyers of tourism products is expanding. it happens as more people belonging to certain social groups (e.g. the disabled) join the tourism activities;
2. The age group of the organizers of the tourist flow is changing - there is a tendency to "rejuvenate" it internationally. However, still, the proportion of elderly tourists visiting Uzbekistan remains in its highest, which proves the fact that the differentiation of tourism products across different age groups is still insufficient.
3. The customization of demand. Modern tourists are opting for more customized tours. As a result, many tour companies are of changing their existing tours to meet their customer’s needs and expectations.
4. The surge in the understanding of how crucial the environment is and its effects on consumer’s thinking. The development of ecotourism on a global scale today is a vivid example of this;
5. The growth in tourist service levels. The increase in the knowledge and skills of tourists in this regard has led to a surge in the demand for services at higher standards.

Nowadays instead of resting in traditional ways - with the family at sea, various active forms of recreation are gaining popularity. Also, the main consumers of this type of tourism services are considered to be young people without a family (an individual or an adult group of friends). Thus, as a result of the physical transformation taking place in society, a new type of mass consumers of tourism services was formed. It is necessary to pay attention to their desires and opportunities, to quality of the service and last but not least, we have to take into account their mobility as well as the desires to make quick decisions, to use active forms of spending time, to get rich impressions. It is also well known that today the number of products and services offered to the modern consumer is very large, which in turn expands their choice enabling them to easily change their choices of services.

With such aforementioned factors, tourist organizations need to apply innovations in order not to fall behind their competitors.

Discussion

The term innovation derives from the Latin word innovatus (to renew or change). Although the term is broadly used, innovation generally refers to the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society.

As can be seen on Figure 1, to become “innovation”, two following steps must be passed.

1. “New idea” should be first recognized by general consumers.

2. The idea must be accepted as “new” by the general public.

Figure 1.Idea to innovation journey

The innovation process starts at the stage of a new idea development. This idea is then furtherly improved during the implementation stage. After that, the innovation process will continue in the implementation of the innovation and the period of its application in practice.

The concept of innovation in the scientific work of several scientists (J. Schumpeter, I. Perlaki, Hartman V.D. , Mansfield E., Foster R., Twist B., Rodgers E., etc.) varies depending on the subject and object of research conducted.

The interpretation of "innovation" as an economic concept was given by the Austrian scholar J. Schumpeter in his work "Theory of Economic Development". In his book, Schumpeter analyses “new combinations” which occur during economic changes. According to him: "each method of production represents certain combinations"[1]. These "new combinations", according to the scientist, arise due to changes in the production sector and the development of the market economy. He interpreted the concept of "innovation" as " the introduction of products of a new feature; the use of new raw materials; the use of a new method of production; the discovery of New Sales markets; the commercial realization of new combinations based on the introduction of new organizational forms"[1].

In other words, based on this approach, innovation is a simultaneous manifestation of the two "worlds", that is, the "technical world" and the "business world". Only the changes that have taken place at the level of technology, I. Schumpeter calls discovery [2]. According to him, when the business starts involving changes, they will become innovations. The essence of the development is determined by the concept of "implementation of new combinations" by Schumpeter. Thus, the main features of innovation are its new scientific and technical features and implementation in production.

P.F.Drucker interprets innovation as a special tool of entrepreneurship. According to P.F.Drucker’s description of the concept of innovation, it’s believed that the essence of the classic interpretation of Schumpeter is more fully reflected, with a special emphasis on the essence of the entrepreneurial factor in the development of production. B. Twist interprets invention as a process of economic content. According to F. Nixon, innovation is a set of technical, manufacturing and commercial activities that lead to the emergence of new and improved industrial devices and processes in the market [3]. B. Santo believes that innovation is a social-technical-economic process that through the practical use of ideas and inventions leads to the creation of the best products and technologies in their properties, and if it is focused on economic benefits, profit, the appearance of innovation in the market can lead to additional income. At the same time, all researchers expressed a joint opinion that "innovation is the result of the innovation process".

So, in our opinion, there are three different approaches to interpret the concept of “innovation”:

1. In the first approach, the concept of innovation is interpreted – through the concept of "fruitfulness". Here innovation is regarded as the result, that is, a new product produced or an established process. Innovation, based on this approach, comes with “results”.
2. The second approach is based on the interpretation of the concept of innovation – through the concept of "competitiveness". Innovation allows organizations to increase competitiveness by shaping their ability to focus on market changes. Innovation in competitive organizations is the result of effective management of the innovation process without being random.
3. The third, that is, the Application approach is the partial concept of "realization of ideas". Innovation based on this approach is not only the development of a "problem-solving" idea but also the realization of it. One of the supporters of this approach Canter interprets the content of the concept of "innovation" through the following three concepts: generation (development), application (application) and implementation (realization).

In our opinion, innovation has a systemic character because it leads to changes in some or all elements of the production-technological, organizational-economic, socio-economic systems of the organization. It is necessary to understand the transformation of ideas, research, developments, new or improved scientific-technological or organizational-economic, socio-economic solutions and conclusions, aimed at their recognition by society through their application and use in the course of practical activities as innovation. In this regard, innovation is the implementation of new (compared to those already existing in this system) objects, methods, procedures aimed at meeting the specific needs of society. Innovation as an event should be understood as materialized changes in goods, technology, organizational structure and communications, which are the result of scientific and technological progress, arising from the desire of the subject of economic activity to gain a clear competitive advantage. Only new ideas realized in a new product or new process are called innovations. Innovation is the result of investing in new products, intellectual solutions and developments to create innovation.

Thus, in our opinion, innovation is a new product, a new phenomenon, new process, etc. that is aimed at attracting consumers, meeting their needs, as well as bringing income to the organization and strengthening its competitive position in the market in which it operates.) and its implementation and realization.

Today, innovations in the practice of international tourism are carried out in many directions (picture 1).

Figure 2.Classification of innovations in tourism

Based on the practical experience available in the field of World Tourism, we believe that it is worthwhile to implement the following innovative projects in the field of regional tourism:

Table 1 provides information on the classification, content and forms of innovation in tourism applied in international practice.

In our opinion, it is worthwhile to pay attention to the above-mentioned directions in the innovation development of the tourism market in Uzbekistan.

Result

Innovations in the field of tourism are directly related to information and information technologies. The effective activities of the tourist business in the current "information technology age" are primarily due to the large-scale use of modern information technologies from the development of the tourist product to its delivery to the consumer. Innovations in the field of Information Technology have become an important direction of the innovative development of Tourism.

Today, modern information technology systems used in World Tourism can be divided into the following functional groups:

The modern tourist business is, therefore, showing strong growth indicators based on the introduction of Information Systems.

Tourism is an area associated with the operational processing of large amounts of information. The process of collecting and processing the necessary information is carried out through information systems. Information systems consist of a large set of data sets (a set of databases) about tourist objects, events and processes and a set of software-based tools for their processing (storage, modification, search). The basis of information systems, that is, the object of its processing - the database of information, and the means of processing – are database management systems. The basis of the activities of the subjects of the tourism market lies precisely the Databases and Information Systems. Information systems used in tourist activities are improving and developing. Today, in international tourism practice, the sixth generation (multimedia database) of information systems (databases), which allows the processing of graphics, voice, video data, is widely used. The main negation of the information system in modern tourist business is the constantly changing multimedia databases operatively. Therefore, scientific and technical development creates opportunities for a wide range of applications in the field of tourism from Geoinformation systems (spatial (geographic) data input, storage, management, analysis, imaging to a software-a set of powerful tools). Below we will touch on the issues of their introduction into the regional tourism market by analyzing modern tourist information systems formed at the international level.

The rapid development of international tourism in the last decade in the world is due to two factors, namely the development of civil aviation and reservation systems. Computer Reservation System (CRS) Computer Reservation System, which emerged in the 1960s, has accelerated the process of booking tickets in real-time. As a result, the reduction of customer service times has led to an increase in service quality, increase the range and volume of services offered, as well as opportunities to optimize the load of airliners, implement a flexible pricing strategy, apply new management methods.

The widespread spread and development of CRS have been associated with an increase in the types of services provided on the one hand and a decline in the cost of e-booking services on the other. This system began to cover more and more all areas of tourist activity. This, in turn, paved the way for the formation of GDS (Global Distribution System) of global distribution systems. In addition to the possibility of electronic booking of seats in air transport, these systems create opportunities for hotel reservations, car rental, currency exchange, ordering tickets for entertainment programs. The largest of them in the world are Amadeus, Galileo, Worldspan, Sabre, Trust, SRS (Steingerberger Reservation Service), Utell, Start.

In the 90s of the XX century, Internet Booking Systems IDS, as well as Alternative Booking Systems ADS, which provide electronic services for booking tourist services to individual customers of tourism products, were formed. The client has the opportunity to independently access any portal of the ADS, choose the hotel, the place that satisfies him, book it in real-time and receive an e-mail confirming the booking. Today, there are thousands of such sites, including: Expedia.com (www.expedia.com), Orbitz.com (www.orbitz.com), HRS.com (www.hrs.com), Travelocity.com (www. travelocity.com), Hotels.com (http://hotels.com), Priceline.com (www.priceline.com), Hotels.ru ().

Today, almost all hotels in Uzbekistan provide reservation services. However, a unified hotel reservation system has not yet been established in the country. The use of various reservation software in hotels operating in the regional tourism market is a major obstacle to the formation of an integrated system of online booking. Besides, there are booking contacts and relations within the framework of the OrexCA.com-online system, which currently provides online tourist services in the Central Asian regions of Uzbekistan. Hotel reservations are made based on contracts concluded by Oriental Express CA LLC with hotel complex organizations, and Oriental Express CA LLC acts as an intermediary between consumers of tourist services and tourist organizations. The lack of an integrated system of direct online booking of seats in hotels is a major obstacle to expanding the coverage of these links.

Another area of ​​use of innovative technologies in the field of regional tourism is the introduction of multimedia technologies, in particular, the creation of electronic catalogues, manuals and directories and their delivery to users via laser disks (CD-ROM), Internet or information terminals. Electronic catalogues provide their users with virtual travel along the proposed route, active review of this route, the country where they plan to travel, tourist facilities along the route, hotels and other alternative accommodation facilities, the legal framework of tourism in this country, the system of benefits and discounts can get acquainted with the data. More and more flash technologies (virtual multimedia excursions) are used in the development of multimedia presentations and excursions. The most popular electronic catalogs in the world: Hotel Guide (www.hotelguide.com), Flight Guide (www.flightguide.com), HRS (www.hrs.com), Business Travel Planner (www.btp24.com), Top Turizm (www .topturizm.ru), Travel.ru (www.travel.ru), V Otpusk.ru ().

Today, through an interactive dialogue on the Internet, a system of recommendations for travelers - (TRS) -expert systems have been developed to help the user choose the most suitable for several tourist products listed. While the original TRS provided recommendations in text form, now improvements in multimedia technology have made it possible for travelers to create visual recommendation systems (VTRS). Examples of such systems are TRIP and TRIPS.

While choosing the direction and method of activity of tourism organizations, in our opinion, it is necessary to take into account the changes taking place in the global information and communications. They should be aimed at developing new standards of communication in various integrated info-communication applications: traditional telecommunications, information television and radio networks, computer technology, information networks. Such a merger can take the form of successful Internet projects and Web sites.

At the international level, modern tourism business is manifested in electronic form, in the form of E-Business or in the form of business involving information technology. Intranet (internal information system for communication within the organization) and Extranet (external information system for communication with external partners and customers of the organization) play a key role in this regard.

The integration of Intranet and Extranet systems into a single holistic business environment enables the organization to integrate those belonging to the internal and external business environment and to provide a full and detailed response to all external requests and requests promptly thanks to the electronic exchange of information and e-commerce methods. As a result, there is a single tourist information space that unites all participants in the tourism market among themselves. However, in our opinion, today there are some cases associated with the development of our national economy, in particular:

1. in the direction of product innovation, that is, the introduction of electronic indicators, museums and exhibitions installed on mobile phones, the preparation of multimedia presentations reflecting the tourist potential of the region and the placement on the Internet pages;
2. in the direction of exclusive resource innovation, namely tourism with honey, tourism with wine, the formation and development of tourism with a horse; creation of tourism products specific to"ethnographic tourism "and" animation " programs;
3. formation and improvement of Geo-Information System, Electronic booking systems in hotels, the formation of the web portal" Samarkand – tourism centre;
4. in the direction of business model innovation, that is, the formation and large-scale use of a customer information Bank to strengthen the "hotel-customer" relations;
5. organization of electronic sales of individual types of tourist products in the direction of marketing innovations, Organization of virtual tourist excursions on the web portal;
6. innovations of the traditional character, that is, the construction of a medieval hotel, the formation of an interactive tourist information system in the territory;
7. formation of a regional tourist cluster in the Samarkand region as an innovative organizational and economic centre, etc.
8. booking and reservation systems;
9. virtual tourist information system;
10. management information systems;
11. e-commerce;
12. geoinformation systems;
13. information technology in the management systems of a complex of hotels;
14. systems that support the puddle of tourist business on the internet.
15. lack of adequate National access to Information Technology and on-line systems in the tourism market to a wide range of technologies;
16. lack of technically literate specialists in the field of tourism (according to statistics, 80% of employees of tourist firms who are interested in tourism have a speciality in the humanitarian sphere;
17. lack of improvement of the payment system in the field of e-commerce;
18. the lack of guarantees on the organization of e-commerce is the reason for the slow implementation of the processes of e-commerce relations in the field of Tourism and the formation of a Single Tourist Information System. However, today, in the majority of tourist organizations operating in the regional tourism market, internal business processes are automated and gradually information systems are being formed, as well as technologies related to their formation are being implemented.

According to the results of a sociological survey conducted among foreign consumers of regional tourist products, potential foreign buyers of the regional tourism market receive the decision to find information about the world of tourism in our country and "go on a tourist trip to Uzbekistan" mainly with the help of tourist agencies and bureaus and their friends ' consultations Figure 3.

Figure 3.The result of a sociological survey of foreign tourists

However, today's large-scale popularity of the Internet Network creates great opportunities for conducting tourist business, finding potential buyers, promoting a wide range of tourist products to a consumer audience, establishing contact with them and improving their commercial relations. Today, tour operators operating in the Samarkand region are trying to expand the opportunities provided by this Internet through the formation of its virtual office (electronic site). But other representatives of the regional tourism industry (including hotels, tourist organizations, Feeding organizations, etc.).) The efforts to open its virtual office on the internet are relatively slow. There is a tendency of increasing demand for non-organized products in the tourism market of Uzbekistan. The lack of improvements in the infrastructure specific to this segment of the tourism market is evidenced by the loss of potential buyers of tourist business entities. In this regard, the formation of the electronic system of regional tourist information is manifested as a modern solution to this issue. The system of tourist information provides the opportunity to deliver information based on integrated regional tourist information to potential consumers of regional tourist products through the website, through mobile communication. Bunda as an effective means of information delivery, it is desirable to form the virtual world of Tourism of the region – the web portal (the web portal" Samarkand – tourism centre").

Through the web Portal, the potential buyer will have the opportunity to collect the necessary information about the tourist services provided in the territory. In particular, "independent tourists” will be able, without any difficulties, to choose the most suitable tourist route with the help of its mobile communication, get acquainted with the necessary information in their native languages, program their travel, download road maps to their mobile phone, get information about vacancies in regional hotels in Real-time, get acquainted with the comments and links left by

For potential buyers to choose or establish their land using the same website, it is necessary to achieve the possible complete placement of information on all components of the territorial tourist offer. Modern information technologies create opportunities to combine regional organizations with individual websites into a single site by installing hyper-references with text or graphics. This means that the only "Samarkand – tourism centre" that provides information about the organizations of the tourism industry operating in the Samarkand region provides access to the personal sites of the organizations through hyper-appeals installed on the web-portal pages. In addition, information about organizations that do not have a personal page on the Internet is provided on the web portal itself, and the task of managing orders is also carried out through the same site by contacting the electronic addresses of organizations or by telephone communication. The success of the created Internet project or website can be attributed to the following, namely: the ease of finding a web page in the search engines of the Internet; the transfer of information placed on the site in several foreign languages; the convenience of using the site and the attractiveness of the site; the operative updating of the information placed; the system of

This site is an effective means of creating a positive image of the tourist area and transmitting information about the region and regional tourist products to the consumers of tourist products located in millions of different geographical regions. This is achieved by the complete implementation of all the possibilities of visualizing and presenting information about the Tourist Organization and tourist products: graphic image, sound information, animation, video image and many other possibilities. The impact of this site on the status of the market is reflected in the operational style: it is necessary to update information about the tourist products and services being developed in the region, to be seen as the placement of announcements on the new tourist product.

Conclusion

Thus, the formation of a single integrated Internet site, which is the virtual world of the tourist area, is a modern solution to the effective implementation of socio-economic relations between regional tourism supply and potential buyers of regional tourism demand without building new outlets. This, in turn, raises the need to improve the analytical and information system in the regional tourism market.

References

1. Schumpeter Y. Theory of economic development / Y. Schumpeter. M.: Progress, 1982. – 174 p. (Theory of economic development)
2. Rumyantsev, A.A. Management innovation: kak nauchnuyu razrabotku dovete do innovationi: uchebnoye posobiye /A.A. Rumyantsev; The problem of the institute r economic regionov. Russian Academy of Sciences. - SPb: Business Press, 2007. - 199p. (Innovation management: how to bring scientific development to innovation. textbook)
3. Innovative management: Uchebnik dlya vuzov / S.D. Ilyenkova, M. Gokhberg, S. Yu. Dr. Yagudin; Pod ed. prof. S.D. Ilyenkovoy. - 2nd ed., pererab. i dop. - M.: YUNITI-DANA, 2003. - 343 p. (Innovation management. Training manual).