Role of meta-search engine in the relationship tourist/e-retailer

The tourism marketing literature shows the need to attract, satisfy and create a lasting relationship with new targets. The digital marketing literature provides valuable tools for achieving identified objectives. The research aims at analyzing the role of IT, in particular, of meta-search engine as a tool of the web suitable for increasing accessibility to Tourism for consumers with special needs. In this context, the e-retailer plays a key role and he can affect the scenery of tourist market. The aim of this paper is the proposal of a framework based on the strategic role of e-tools through two model. The purpose is to outline some theoretical basis concerning the target “tourists with special needs” to better characterize the accessible tourism market that currently cannot be considered as a niche market, but as a market able to increase the profitability of tourism. The research and the models achieved through them and proposed highlight the need of a strategic role of meta search engine in the distribution in older to reach “new” concept of tourist: “from tourist to e-agile tourist”. The methodology is based on three steps: 1. short analysis of literature on the principal topics; 2. proposal of a strategic role of meta-search engine with reference to a “e-agile tourist”, considering also the brief case study¹ analyzed through the method of field analysis; 3. development of conceptual models on the principal topics analyzed.