Mobile Payment Processing Systems and Analytics Research Paper

Mobile Payment Processing Systems and Analytics - Research Paper Example These standards provide the retailers and other merchants with a clear guidance on the payment process. Kaletunc (45) asserts that this kind of payment is very complex; hence, it is plausible for an entity to indulge in it when this technology is inevitably required. In addition, there are risks associated with the interlinking of card payments through mobile devices. The Mobile payment processing entails the use of credit cards on the mobile devices to effect payments with regard to various business transactions. Poor and Lang (37) posit that in this form of payment processing, any consumer handheld devices like the tablets and iPads can be used to effect payments. These devices can only serve as mobile payment processing devices when they get text data clearly. In fact, the consumers have the choice of providing their own mobile devices to effect payment. This has created efficiency and effectiveness in the payment processing due to the fact that the consumer traffic is eliminated and there is personal responsibility in case of any hitch in the payment processing. However, the scenario of the consumer bringing his own device for payment processing at the merchant business location has got its challenges. For instance, the merchant cannot manage to take control of the configuration of the client device. This compromises the retailer’s service delivery and it can culminate in craftiness and fraud among clients. The ‘payment card industry data security standards’ help in guiding the payment processes when the merchant has his own mobile device to serve customers. The standards ought to be complied with in order to avoid any inconvenience and probable fraud in the course of effecting of payment processing. This implies that the standards do not cover any eventuality pertaining to the mobile device ownership by the customers. In this regard, merchants must be very cautious and diligent while affecting the payment processing .This entails analyz ing the payment processes and verifying identity of various cards presented by the clients. The point of sale payment processing is the only scenario which applies with regard to the ‘payment card industry data security standards’. Sparck and Galliers (28) claim that square's mobile card reader technology is covered by the data security standards. The application of the mobile payment processing technology can only be successful when there is transaction security, application security and the mobile device security. There must be prevention of the customer account data from interception during the processing of payment. There must be prevention of data from interception while it is being transmitted from the mobile payment device. This is usually ensured through the use of strong encryption codes for the effecting of payment transactions. The merchants usually protect the customer’s account data through limitation of physical access to the device during transacti ng time. In fact, this is affected through the use of one-on-one service delivery at the point-of-sale (MobileReference, 37). This technological application should be protected from viruses, which destroy the customer payment data. For instance, the creation of malware, spams, Trojan and recycler computer viruses have led to massive destruction of vital documents online. This has also resulted in a total breakdown of some systems where no backup of documents

Why is the fiction important to our non-fiction world Essay

Why is the fiction important to our non-fiction world - Essay Example p inherent within the values that the non-fiction works advocate and thus it provides for strong reasoning that the non-fiction writing works are generally more open to debate and criticism than the fiction texts. In this non-fiction world, the society plays a great role at changing the way fiction is taken and studied at the same time. There is a sense of pessimism related with fiction as it reflects barely upon the society and its criticism which is more or less a pictorial representation of stating the facts and truths as and when they unfold. Fiction essays and pieces of criticism look to solve the maze that develops within a reader’s mind from time to time. Since he is fed with so much information and data on his side, he is unaware of the glorified ways that his life can turn into with the reading of fiction by his side. They seem to hide within the walls of fiction and remain on the backburner of different issues for most of the instances. (Ziolkowski, 1997) The reader goes in a deep cave, away from the practicalities of life and finds an escape route within fiction. What this offers is the other side of the truth. Fiction essays provide mystery, romance and so much more to the idle mind, which is also idealistic in nature. Literature has left an indelible impression on the minds of the common people within the society, be it in the form of fiction or non-fiction. Literature has opened up avenues of the thought process and has given them insight on different subjects, events, situations and generally about people. What is now reality seemed to be a craving in the distant past since literature was not easily accessible by the commoners and they had to pay for it to make it their own. Fiction has seemed to play a pivotal role within the world realms as it presents the ‘other’ side of the world in a way. It makes people look ideal from an irrational setting. They become super-humans as a matter of fact. Thus fiction portrays the desires and cravings of

History of Gender in Fashion

History of Gender in Fashion Role of designers need not be gender biased or biology biased. A detailed scrutiny into gender and sex shows one is biological and other societal. For instance, females, biologically are designed to give birth. Once they have given birth and performed the mammalian function, they can take up a role of hunter or a warrior. The terms hunter and nester refer to masculine and feminine. Masculine describes an approach that is abstract in nature, usually focused on a splendid thought, the way of a hunter. Contrary to this, feminine approach is considered to be orchestrating detailed decisions contributing to wider set of objectives, the way of a nester. Regardless of sex, fashion designers can be categorized into 3 groups- Hunter, Nester and nester- hunter designer. Hunter designers are those who have focused approach on one thing but to do that very efficiently. Designers in nester group have broad minded approach. They aspire to take steps in sequence contributing to a decision keeping i n mind long term objectives. Fashion was not always a gendered occurrence. Until eighteenth century, both men and women decked themselves with elaborate dresses. Costume historians have elaborated that gender distinction in dress was not that prominent until nineteenth century. Men and women in elite class often emulated abundant show of rich velvets, fine silks, lace, decorative footwear, wigs, head embellishments and scented powders. Men in pink suits, gold and silver jewelry and embroidered shirts were considered very masculine, regardless of choice of color or ornaments worn. The more intricate the dress, the higher used to be the status of the wearer in the society. Fashion was not only a womens affair then. It became feminized since nineteenth century when gender representation became stronger than societal class. With the turn of century, not only fashion became more feminized, but male identity went through a distinct change with modernization. Early theorists related fashion to the social status of women. The affluent displayed their wealth by ornamenting their wives and daughters exuding an air of sophistication. The women also spent endless efforts and hours to be ladies. At the end of eighteenth century bourgeois male went through the great masculine renunciation, as a result of which men gave up wearing all the bright colors and jewelry leaving it to the womens domain. In post industrial societies, men were guided by occupational spheres. Their business and casual attire were starkly different. Also age segmentation has played a very prominent role in defining mens style. Amongst women, age segmentation is only for those who want to believe in it. Although the designer fashion tends to extend beyond the boundaries of masculinity, the gender fashion still exists between male and female fashion. To that extent, fashion may be assumed to be cultural, affecting consumers perception and experience of design.The impact of gender is very evident in the visual appearances in consumers mind. For instance, pink for the girl and blue for the boy goes the clichà © defining gender by color coding. In the designer world, industrial design is thought as male and textile design as female. Even design is rendered into gender stereotypes like feminine lace, dolls for girls, masculine leather, etc. As industriliazation took place, social stratas on clothing transformed in eterms of occupation. The social chasm between lower class, middle and upper class was huge during the industrial era. Clothes were almost unavailable for the poor but were in abundance for the rich- for whom changes in fashions were created. Members of other social classes were just expected to emulate the rich if they wished to appear fashionable. By late nineteenth century clothes had become cheaper and accessible to lower classes of society. Middle and upper class women spent substantial amount of their incomes on fashionable clothes. Mens social clothing became more and more simplified. Infact the concept of uniforms and dress codes gained importance to showcase the ranks in the bureaucratic organizations. In the twentieth century, clothes seem to have lost their economic relevance but not their symbolic relevance. This is because clothes are available in all price ranges to suit all pockets. Those with l imited resources can still emulate fashion by creating personal styles which are expression of their identities rather than imitating styles of the affluent. Appearance of fashion indicated sudden appearance of a new social bond and a social temporality with time, fashion trends have changed. It has been dominated by cult, uniqueness, inspiration from local and foreign models. Fashion instituted the social power of minute signs which has an astonishing mechanism of social distinction of those who dress in an innovative way. It also draws inspiration from ancestral heritage and social norms. Fashion perhaps forms a major part in the construction of a social identity. It is an indication of how people in different eras showcased their positions and status boundaries. The most visible marks of social status and gender has been broadly showcased by Fashion. Fashion dictates the choices that people make in the form of culture, norms and appropriateness of the occasion. For instance, hats were a huge fashion statement and were worn to either showcase recognised or desired social status. Fashion clothing also revealed the occupation, social class and regional origin of a person. It distinguishes elite fashion from everyday fashion. There is very less in common amongst dressing style of a secretary a homemaker, a businessman and a law enforcement officer. As a social phenomenon, it has been treated as futile because of huge association of outward appearance with women. The face of fashion defines its phenomena. Female fashion emanates uniqueness and change. Mens interest in fashion is dictated by their occupation generally but womens interest depends upon their fascination with beauty. Now the nature of fashion seems to have changed. From nineteenth century when fashion was more on well defined standard of societal appearance has now evolved into being more contemporary. It has become indistinct, multifaceted and highly fragmented. New styles have been evolved over the years. Societies have changed dramatically in the past few decades. Social class has become less prominent in the contemporary society of today. Instead of class differentiation there is fragmentation of cultures within socities. 1960s was a special era in the sense where fashion emerged in lower status groups and adopted by the affluent. This fashion phenomena defied age and social barriers conveying pride to the trendsetter. In early 90s, designers triesd to be innovative by adding feminine elements to menswear.Also there seemed to be a female dominance over the culture. Fashion for women fits the definition of conflicted supremacy. Women have held contrasting position in different times ranging from marginally unconcealed to conservative to acceptable fashionable to feminine dominance and empowerment in 90s. Turrow believes lifestyles are now in hypersegmentation which isolates each lifestyle in its own niche. People are more likely to frequent changes in their lifestyle now. The mulitplicity of changes that such lifestyle in a contemporary society presents the opportunity to an indidual to break away from tradition.Todays individual constructs a send of identity from his past, present and future events, commitments and aspirations. The individual styles have also gone through frequent changes in line with their changing lifestyles. Personal orientation, income, education, family careers, social position influence a persons taste in fashion. The younger generation today, usually with more affluent background have post modernist attitude towards identity. Attitude of younger women towards fashion is that of liberalization, power and personal panache. Men are now borrowing elements of costumes from women. Problems are faced when there is persistence to keep male gender above the female one . Today men spend lot of time and money on hair styling, appearance, fashionable clothing and skin products. These men are being coined as metrosexual. A metrosexual man willingly displays his masculinity from his ability to consume, showcase his toned physique to assert his identity as an urban middle class man.Yet again, fashion is being used to exhibit gender identity. Fashions most imminent characteristic is that it changes. With multiple demands on clothing and dressing, change is the only constant. Cross-dressing has come up as a welcome antidote to confining concepts of society and gender. It offers alternative ways to visualize and dress up a gender and might end up freeing the consumers restrictive thoughts on gender dressing. Realm of fashion in undergoing a radical change. Fashion contributes to newer definitions of social identities and newer attributes to personal preferences. Today because of globalization, fashion houses have to constantly innovate, think out of the box as consumers are no longer fashion victims. Gender studies in design have now challenged these contentious gender, sterotypes, cultural and societal outlook. Female designers earlier have been more prevalent in ceramics, textile designs and men more prominent in abstract art and advertising designs. These self, societal and cultural divisions are breaking down now. Men and women both have critical roles to play as consumers and producers of design. People select styles to suit their identity, lifestyle and societal norms. Fashion is a choice not a compulsion. It is not a simple process to achieve equivalence between design and customer preference. Designers today are pushing gender based boundaries in fashion and almost pulverizing them. They are bringing to life their vision of what they consider fashion. Designers are now teaming up with people who have different perspectives to make an impact in all their designs. They take pride in and gain strength from the richness of a multicultural society and recognize it as a continuous growth . They work in an environment where they contribute their thoughts freely and create designs. These designs are sated with utmost creativity, uniqueness, abstractness and intricacy at the same time. This has become the definition of success. Sources Used http://books.google.com/books?id=vphcHONAXmwCprintsec=frontcoverdq=what+is+fashion+as+an+identityhl=enei=G8I1TbSfBo6AhQet4pi_Cwsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=1ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepageqf=false http://books.google.com/books?id=jxtMLGIdQ8cCpg=PA323dq=challenge+gender+and+stereotypes+in+fashionhl=enei=7i02TZ7PDcb-4wbn-M3fAgsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=8ved=0CFEQ6AEwBw#v=onepageq=challenge%20gender%20and%20stereotypes%20in%20fashionf=false http://books.google.com/books?id=LUWTJWXZ2QQCpg=PA10dq=male+and+female++fashionhl=enei=YVk1TdKHKonKhAfon7m8Cwsa=Xoi=book_resultct=resultresnum=1ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepageq=male%20and%20female%20%20fashionf=false

Drinking and Driving Offences :: DUI, Drunk Driving, Alcohol

In my essay I will tell you the various kinds of drinking and driving offences, the penalties, and the defences you can make if you are caught drinking and driving. Let me tell you about the different offences. There are six offences in drinking and driving. They are "driving while impaired", "Having care and control of a vehicle while impaired", "Driving while exceeding 80 m.g.", "Having care and control of a vehicle while exceeding 80 m.g.", "Refusing to give a breath sample", and "refusing to submit to a roadside screen test. These are all Criminal Code Offences. Now lets talk about the penalties of drinking and driving. The sentence for "refusing to give a breath sample" is usually higher than either of the "exceeding 80 m.g." offences. Consequently it is usually easier in the long run for you to give a breath sample if asked. If, for example you are convicted of "Refusing ato give a breath sample" for the first time, but was earlier convicted of "Driving while impaired", your co nviction for "Refusing" will count as a second conviction, not a first, and will receive the stiffer penalty for second offences. For the first offence here is the penalty and the defences you can make. Driving a vehicle while your ability to drive is impaired by alcohol or drugs is one of the offences. Evidence of your condition can be used to convict you. This can include evidence of your general conduct, speech, ability to walk a straight line or pick up objects. The penalty of the first offences is a fine of $50.00 to $2000.00 and/or imprisonment of up to six months, and automatic suspension of licence for 3 months. The second offence penalty is imprisonment for 14 days to 1 year and automatic suspen- sion of licence for 6 months. The third offence penalty is imprisonment 2 for 3 months to 2 years (or more) and automatic suspension of licence for six months. These penalties are the same for the following offences. "Having Care and Control of a Motor Vehicle while Impaired" is an other offence. Having care and control of a vehicle does not require that you be driving it. Occupying the driver's seat, even if you did not have the keys, is sufficient. Walking towards the car with the keys could be suffi- cient. Some defences are you were not impaired, or you did not have care and control because you were not in the driver's seat, did not have the keys, etc.

Delimiting the Central Business district in Chippenham

A CBD is a central business district. This is the place where the majority of office blocks are and a large amount of comparison shops and shopping outlets. Also a factor that shows is that the land rent is high leading to the land being used to its full potential. I predict that there are several places in chippenham that could be possible CBD's. These are as follows: * In the upper part of the town near to the station * In the central high street * On the outskirts of town located in the bumpers farm industrial estate. Out of these I believe that the high street and the centre of the town are most likely to show characteristics of a CBD. Methodology How we can delimit the CBD of chippenham In order to find out where the CBD of chippenham is we are going to have to do one or two of several things. We will use the things that CBD's have in common and test chippenham to find where these things are most prominent (where the CBD will be). Some of the test that we can use will be: * Finding where the pedestrian density is the highest * Where the larger frontages of the shops are * Where there are a higher amount of fast food restaurants and cafes * We could use the nearest neighbour analysis on the shops * We could use the proportion of the shops and retail outlet compared to the other land used (in the CBD) it would be higher * We could conduct a business index (if we could gain access to the buildings) We have decided that due to a limit of time and recourse we will us the following method to find the CBD of Chippenham: * We will do a pedestrian count at several sites around the centre of the town, counting the amount of people that walk past us in a minute. We will repeat this get an average. * Pace out the frontage of the shop to find if there are any with a much larger space than others (these will probably be the chain stores). * And count the number of fast food and restaurant outlets from the arches to the market place at the top of town, as this will give us an idea of where the demand for fast food is at the highest. Once we have done this we will be able to plot graphs and draw conclusion of where the CBD is. Results and graphs A graph to show the pedestrian density on the centre of Chippenham This graph shows very clearly that as we get closer to the centre of town the density of pedestrians increase which is what we would have expected. Woolworth's is the place where the highest density is this is the middle of the high street. A graph to show the shop frontage of Chippenham town centre The largest shop frontage is on the eastern side of the street which includes Wilkinsons and Woolworth's. The largest shop frontage appears to be in the centre of the high street also agreeing with the prediction that I made. Evaluation From the evidence we have gathered we can see that the CBD of Chippenham is the centre of town. The pedestrian count showed a higher density of people in the centre than any other location in the town. There we a high amount of fast-food outlets and cafe in the town centre but these numbers decreased the further a way form town you got. The shop frontage count showed that the majority of large shop frontages were chain outlets and the larges ones we positioned in the town centre. However there were a few exceptions like Iceland which had a high frontage but want located in the centre. We also made an observation that in the north of the town there are a high amount of solicitors and building societies. These are comparison businesses so rely on each other for their trade; this is why they are all so close together. If I were going to this experiment again I would change certain things depending on the amount of money and recourses I had available to me. I think I would try and have a higher amount of people doing the pedestrian counts so that I could have larger amounts of data. This would hopefully improve the quality and accuracy of my results. I would have done the experiment at several different times if day to find out if that had an influence of the data. The experiment was done on a temperate day so I don't think the weather would have affected the results. I would have done the frontage of the shops with slightly more accurate equipment (measures with instruments rather than pacing). Thins may have had a bearing on the results however I think that the pacing method was fairly accurate.

Is Booking Travel over the Internet Causing the Decline of High Street Travel Agents? Essay

Is booking travel over the internet causing the decline of high street travel agents? During the decade leading up to 2007, ways of buying tourism products as changed a lot. Ten years ago people choosing a holiday more often than not a package holiday, by going to the travel agent and choosing one from a number of brochures and after chatting with the travel agent. Many people still chose this method but a lot more people are buying packing holidays, more people now buy online, or over the telephone, through teletext. People tended to find it cheaper to and more flexible to buy their flights from one internet site, their accommodation from another and book a hire car with another site, rather than buying a package holiday out of a tour operator’s brochure. They are not always financially, protected when booking travel separately. Holidaymakers are â€Å"turning their backs on the traditional high-street travel agent in favour of booking trips online†, reports sundayherald. com. Between 2000 and 2004 there was an 11% drop in the number of bookings made at travel agents, with only 47% of overseas holidays now being reserved through a high street travel agency, according to figures from market researchers Mintel. Many people book breaks by phone, and just 31% of overseas trips were booked in person in 2004,† says the report. â€Å"The research shows that traditional sun, sand and sangria package holidays are the main type of trip booked on the high street, with just one in five d omestic trips booked at travel agencies. Richard Cope, international travel analyst at Mintel, reportedly said consumer confidence in the internet was driving people away from booking in person. â€Å"Mintel’s research shows that almost one in five UK holidays are now booked online, with consumers becoming increasingly confident about making their own travel arrangements. † Mintel figures also indicated that, overall, more holidays are being taken. In 2004 65% of British people went on holiday, compared to 62% in 2000. Some 44% of holidaymakers now take more than one holiday a year, up 14% since 2000. Altogether, Britons took 43 million holidays abroad in 2004. http://www. m-travel. com/news/2005/10/number_of_booki. html Technological changes within tourism surround several different factors from medical advances to the innovative space tourism. Similar to tourism, technology is an ever changing and sometimes unstable business. Better communication, transport and safety have encouraged new consumers to the industry. Improvements in water supply, medicine and knowledge have meant areas are opened up which were not possible before technological advances. In today’s society in which a consumer wants easier, quicker and cheaper service only technology has helped tourism fulfil the customers demand. Another massive effect on tourism is the rapid increase in online booking that has given consumers more opportunity to make a holiday. Through technological advances, online booking has been one of the biggest factors in affecting tourism, leisure and recreation in today’s world. There were 37,600,000 Internet users in the United Kingdom (representing 62. % of the population) in March 2007, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 144. 2% compared to 2000. (Internet World Stats, March 2007) and a new Google Survey has shown that surfing the web has topped watching television as Britain’s favourite past time. On average residents in the UK spend 164 minutes online every day compared to 148 minutes watching television (Daily Mail, Friday 10th March 2006). This shows how much the internet is now an integral part of life and has had an effect on other aspects influencing the tourism business. More and more people are now booking their holiday on the internet, as many people are looking for a better priced deal than they’re being offered by their travel agent. Both holiday and airline bookings have not dramatically rose in sales from the travel slump of 2001-02 due to the massive consequences of September 11th and the threat of terrorism which has increased (it saw similar slumps although smaller after the Madrid bombings and 7/7 terrorist attacks). The Iraq war, the SARS/bird flu epidemics and very consistent hot European summers have persuaded the usual long haul travellers to stay at home. This has seen a loss in sales and therefore profits causing one of the hardest aviation crises of the industry. The number of job cuts that were announced in 2003/04 was well over 100,000 according to BBC News, November 2005. Routes had been slashed and several European carriers were barely clinging to life. The turmoil in the industry went from Aer Lingus to XL Airways, but times were changing and the industry needed something new. Survival tactics started to emerge and online travel started to show evidence of bucking this gloomy trend. The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), as cited in a May 21, 2002, Financial Times article had cited for many years that online spending was increasing and predicted it to triple at the end of the decade. Looking at e-commerce data overall, the firm counted travel as the biggest online sector, followed by electronic products and apparel. IMRG also said British shoppers were buying larger and more expensive goods online, such as furniture and kitchen appliances. This showed a large gap in the sub-market that needed to be exploited. Online Travel Spend ($bn) Europe N. AmericaU. K 20002. 4 6. 4 0. 20015. 8 11. 00 1. 8 200212. 7 18. 7 3. 7 Source: Datamonitor At the start of the boom these were seen as survival tactics by the airlines and the government also pushed for more progress in online booking to make the travel industry more prosperous. The economic realities forced travel companies to be more efficient in running their business. Websites, for example were able to promote the latest ticket prices, particularly at a time when they were being slashed on a day-to-day basis which was used to tempt travelers back into the air. Similarly travel sites e-mailed a wide ustomer base with relative ease to promote special deals. It is seen as the cheapest method of booking a holiday, the LogicaCMG (a marketing body) has said that phone bookings typically cost about ? 30 to service. By contrast net bookings cost around 75p. One of the biggest online travel sites Expedia, took an initial knock from 11 September, but then saw its transaction volumes recover by 80-85% during October. â€Å"Like every travel company, we experienced a downturn, but we then recovered a lot more quickly than the traditional industry† said James Vaile, managing director of Expedia in the UK. Online travel sites are also well positioned to exploit the recent procrastination by consumers in booking holidays. People are booking later than usual in recent years and the internet is seen as the obvious and natural place to hunt down last-minute bargains. As this bar chart shows travel sales online rose rapidly from 2006-2007 and it is expected to continue to rise to over $30 billion. The consumers weren’t only using the internet to book their holidays but also to research and gain knowledge of the destinations they wanted to go to. The search engines were flooded with searches over cheap flights, accommodation and new destinations (as shown in the rankings). From the bar chart below it shows that web-search is the preferred method of obtaining travel information with it being preferred nearly twice as much as personal recommendation, the second most preferred method. This is then followed by TV programmes, but the travel agents became the fourth option of consumers to collect travel information. Web-searches are high due to people liking to make their own decisions at their own pace and this can’t be done in travel agents where they are pushed, poked and pressured. This is unpleasant for the consumer and has changed the trend in which consumers went to travel agents for advice, whereas now they would rather use the internet. As this pie chart to the left shows the internet has had a huge impact on the booking of a holiday, with 79% of all booked holidays using the internet in the process. Also, the internet has seen a large increase in the number of â€Å"last minute† business as many tourists feel it is better-placed and they can search for the best priced, most suitable holidays or excursions. Furthermore, since the growth of the internet, online advertising has been used as a huge marketing tool, where holiday and travel providers can target large quantities of potential customers and keep advertising costs low. This has also been used to great effect as they appear to be a successful method and an efficient way of gaining business from the wallet-conscious consumers, whereas high street advertising receives less notice. Moreover, the internet has caused the high street travel agencies to close, therefore creating job losses within the businesses. This is mainly due to the fact that more people are booking direct with the holiday providers, thus cutting out the middle man and saving money by doing the research and booking themselves. This is usually done by using the internet or telephone booking where the overhead costs are much lower as an outlet has to be staffed and incur running costs such as electricity bills and also because of the larger volumes of people that are able to access the service. A recent example of this is was in 2001, when Airtours, the UK’s largest tour operator had to cut one-in-seven of its high street branches in an effort to return to profitability. According to finance director David Jardine, around 120 shops going under the name â€Å"Going Places† were closed as the business stated that they were finding there was an â€Å"increasing trend in customers wishing to book direct†. On the other hand, online companies such as Expedia. com have seen their profits on the rise over the past few years as would be expected, although they had not anticipated such a large growth. For the last three months of 2001, Expedia saw its net income surge to $19m according to BBC News, compared with a loss of $2. 6m in the same quarter of 2000 and also the firms evenues were in excess of $80 million for 2001, over double that for 2000, showing how quickly it has established itself as an efficient internet booking service. So in conclusion online booking for travel has dramatically changed tourism in the world. It has provided a less time consuming, cost effective and an overall efficient/productive method in organising tourism which has seen triggered a rapid rise in sales. Airlines are now recovering after effects that were unforeseen. BAA Limited, formerly the British Airport Association said seven UK Airports handled a total of 11. m passengers in August 2006 making it a record summer with the highest number of passengers ever recorded over a two month period. BAA also revealed here was a 6. 8% increase in passenger traffic for the 12 months to August 31st 2006. Bigger discounts and better security could tempt more people to book holidays online, a LogicaCMG survey (http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/technology/3939035. stm) found. However, the future of online booking although seen as prosperous can also turn, but due to the recovery in airline business they are starting to hit back. Prices are starting to rise and now you must book early to get the best price. The same survey revealed that online discounts were still not high enough to tempt potential customers onto travel websites and that the process was still too complicated for some consumers. A serious issue with online booking is the fear of fraud. Consumers are not convinced that any personal and financial information they hand over would be kept secure by online travel shops and this is slowing the potential growth that could occur otherwise. The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) sees the online travel market having a long way to go before it replaces high street travel agents. ABTA estimates that by the end of 2007 online travel will be 17% of the UK’s ? 28bn travel market but this growth will only occur if trends continue as it relies on steadily growing numbers of people happy to book holidays online and as well as improvements in technology and the creation of better websites by travel firms. Issues over security, faults and complications need to be solved if this method of booking is to prosper. The travel industry although brash will always be around due to the need and want of consumers to travel. â€Å"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.