Studying the Use of Smart Phone Applications as a New Tool for Distributing Railways’ Services

Document Type : Original Article

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Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Luxor University, Egypt

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology World has now a vital effect on people’s life. It has become an important transforming element in every field especially our competitive tourism and hospitality one. Therefore, smart phones are considered as tools for meeting this rapid and global market. They have several capabilities such as fast processors, operating systems (OS), Wi-Fi, GPS and high resolution large screens that represent significant Information and Communication Technology which affect different aspects in our lives. Many travelers nowadays are interested in using smartphones as they can plan, book, and interact through them. This study aims to assess the usefulness and effectiveness of the smart phone applications for distributing railways’ services among passengers. It is applied on the Official Egyptian National Railways application (ENR). Questionnaires have been distributed among frequent train travellers through the social media .The results concluded that the application is useful for distributing railways’ services. The overall findings of this study also revealed that the main features (ease to use - provide information – design- security-services) influence significantly and positively the word of mouth. Moreover, Egyptian Railway Authority lacks advertising and publicity for this application, thus it is recommended that it has to exert more efforts for promoting it. It is also recommended to provide new additional services to meet the travellers’ needs. From these services the presence of an interactive map to determine trains’ location, and their speed and also enquiring food and beverage services with its prices on board.

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