Online tourism and hospitality distribution: a perspective article

Purpose Critically examining the development of online distribution in hospitality and tourism, this paper aims to speculate on likely future developments for the next decades. Design/methodology/approach The article review prior literature, combining themes with industry insights to speculate about the future. Findings The paper speculates on likely future scenarios for online distribution in hospitality and tourism, including further consolidation of major players, blurring of lines between organization types and the substitution of existing systems by mainstream e-commerce players. Research limitations/implications This paper provides a baseline analysis of the development of online distribution for use by future researchers. Practical implications This study speculates about likely future scenarios in hospitality and tourism distribution and their implications for industry practice. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to extrapolate the likely future of hospitality and tourism online distribution and its implications for industry.