Gestión de Valor en la Distribución Turística: Resultados Preliminares Desde la Valoración de E-readiness Aplicados en Cuenca- Ecuador

Since the incursion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), business management environments have been transformed and found benefits such as cost reduction and automation of operational processes. In the context of tourism, this reality has not been the exception, since thanks to the Internet and its own infrastructures such as global distribution systems, the exploitation of electronic commerce has been boosted and the value chain has been affected. This situation has fostered a direct relationship between supply and demand actors, reducing the participation of traditional intermediaries, who in turn face the market together with digital distributors. The research presents the preliminary product of the calculation of E-readiness for Tourism Distribution Management (EGDT) as a result of a methodological proposal that, oriented in the creation of value as a guiding thread for the development of tourist localities, was outlined by the Research Group for the Management of MSMEs through a process of standardization and aggregation of multivariate indicators. Among the findings, it is evident that the tourism distribution companies of Cuenca, which were the objects of study, present deficiencies in the use of digital technologies, mainly in the horizon of the business-to-consumer (B2C) business model, and that in general they are not prepared to face re-intermediation.