September is vacation time here in Israel.
This year I must admit that I wasn’t really planning on doing anything special. In fact I was quite looking forward to a peaceful holiday whose main entertainments would be home cooked food (my own), my beloved library and seeing if I could beat my dog at freestyle sleeping.
But it was not to be…
A week before the holiday started my best mate, whom I have known since we were both in high school, suggested that we go together on a vacation to Thailand, and although beating my dog at sleeping is a worthwhile endeavor, I figured I could postpone it until my next vacation…
And so, with what is for me a rather uncharacteristic degree of spontaneity, I found myself booking the last two available seats on an airliner headed for Bangkok.
All that remained in order to make our travel plans complete was to book a flight to the islands and prearrange the first few nights at the resort of our choice.
Both tasks easily accomplished online.
Online… now that rings a bell…
It was while I was making my travel arrangements that the realization of the impact the Internet is having in “rural” and “backward” regions hit me like a ripe coconut on the head.
The last time I traveled to Thailand, about five years ago, my travel arrangements were organized by a plethora of middlemen and brokers all ultimately represented to me by my travel agency. This time I was able to make all my travel arrangements directly over the web from the comfort of my home and without anyone’s assistance.
Thanks to a simple set of Google searches I was able to have direct contact with resorts and guesthouses that were invisible to me five years ago. The Internet enabled the service providers and me to communicate directly and completely circumvent the entire structure of the traditional tourism business. The effect of this direct communication was that I was able to avoid the middlemen that traditionally broker tourism services and was thus able to guarantee myself better prices for my holiday needs. The service providers, on the other hand, were able to enjoy higher profit margins for exactly the same reason. A classic win-win situation for everyone (except the brokers, who are now probably just plain broke…).
I was experiencing first hand how, far from the limelight of the “First World’s” media, the power of the Internet is accelerating the economy of regions that were bypassed by both the industrial and the electronic revolution. Broadband Internet connections are enabling the inhabitants of these regions the ability to communicate and trade globally. They are bringing the global economy directly to the doorstep of rural societies around the globe and enabling members of these societies to take an active part in the new economy and improve their financial situation, without requiring that they abandon their traditional lifestyle. This is especially evident in Thailand’s booming tourism industry: Tiny mom and pop guesthouses, virtually unknown five years ago are using email campaigns and websites in order to advertise their services and manage their bookings. Cottage industry artisans once dependant entirely on brokers and dealers to market their wares are now the proud owners of ecommerce sites that put them in direct contact with a global clientele. Other examples abound but I think you get the point…
For me this entire experience was in many respects a bit of a wakeup call.
In my professional life I encounter daily the complexities and difficulties of running a business online and together with my colleagues here at Oleh I spend my days dreaming up ways to streamline and improve these processes.
It was a very empowering experience to realize that even in today’s rather sorry state of affairs the Internet is revolutionizing the global economy. I can hardly imagine what impact the Internet will have once we succeed in realizing our dream of making ecommerce tools trivial, simple and commonplace; or, as we like to say here at Oleh: Integrated, Intuitive and Indispensable.
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Mike Darnell
Creative Director
Oleh Technology and Communications
Oleh.com 