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technologies such as the Internet, interactive digital television, and mobile
phone services or m-commerce (Buhalis and Licata, 2002; Minghetti &
Buhalis, 2010; O'Brien, 1999; Rybina and Garkavenko, 2009).
Travellers are also increasingly gathering travel information them-
selves, forming their own customized holiday packages and making their
own bookings. Inevitably, this leads to elimination of the non-value-added
segments of the tourist service system. Therefore, changes in market con-
ditions and in tourists' behaviors have created a gap between service sup-
pliers and the volatile demand side of the industry. The development of
the Internet has made information easily accessible to consumers and has
therefore established a direct link between consumers and suppliers.
There have been dramatic advances in mobile data technologies that
allow services to be delivered to a device such as a mobile phone or palm
computer (O'Brien, 2002). Consumer adoption of the digital lifestyle dif-
fers from country to country (Morrisette et al., 1999). For instance, in
2009, B2C online travel sales reached over $90 billion in the USA alone
(eMarketer, 2009). In 2013, it is expected that nearly 70% of the population
will be online, which amounts to 221 million people. Retail e-commerce
also boomed in Europe during 2008—for instance, in France, according
to the Federation du E-commerce et de la Vente à Distance (FEVAD), on-
line sales rose nearly 30%, reaching Euro 20.1 billion (Karin von Abrams,
2008). In Europe, a survey carried out by the computer company IBM and
the intelligence unit of the British magazine 'The Economist' indicated
that four Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) and the
UK were the most frequent users of the Internet (Economist.com, 2005).
According to the Internet market analysis by ROMIR Monitoring (2009),
the Kazakhstan and Russian Internet markets are the fastest growing in
Europe.
Thus, the travel market is affected not just by the initiatives of princi-
pals but also by high levels of ICT adoption by consumers. Increasingly,
sophisticated and price conscious consumers have combined with the
forces of globalization and electronic commerce to create new challenges
for tourism businesses (Dean et al., 2002).
There is inconsistent data on ICT diffusion in Kazakhstan. Different
statistic agencies give different figures on PC penetration and Internet
adoption (Table 6). The figures on the PC and Internet adoption vary
between 15 and 34 percent of the population with only 16% connected
to the broadband. The Ministry of Communication and Information in
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