The provision of self-service technologies in the travel and tourism industry has increased rapidly with the widespread use of e-commerce. There is an apparent contradiction between increasing the opportunities for customer autonomy while encouraging firms to develop close and lasting relationships to gain competitive advantage in an intensely competitive electronic market. An examination of the concepts of managing customer relationships online and the use of self-service technologies highlights the complementary capabilities of CRM for self-service technologies. A framework is offered to support the development of more effective customer relationships within the self-service environment.
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