A framework for delivering personalized e-Government tourism services

E-government (e-Gov) has become one of the most important parts of government strategies. Significant efforts have been devoted to e-Gov tourism services in many countries because tourism is one of the major profitable industries. However, the current e-Gov tourism services are limited to simple online presentation of tourism information. Intelligent e-Gov tourism services, such as the personalized e-Gov (Pe-Gov) tourism services, are highly desirable for helping users decide "where to go, and what to do/see" amongst massive number of destinations and enormous attractiveness and activities. This paper proposes a framework of Pe-Gov tourism services using recommender system techniques and semantic ontology. This framework has the potential to enable tourism information seekers to locate the most interesting destinations with the most suitable activities with the least search efforts. Its workflow and some outstanding features are depicted with an example

AN AGENT-BASED DECISION SUPPORT MODEL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF E-SERVICES IN THE TOURIST SECTOR

This paper regards cultural heritage as a strategic development tool for urban tourist policy. It highlights the use of e-services as a central instrument in a competitive tourist sector. The appropriate choice of e-services – and packages thereof – depends on the various strategic considerations of urban stakeholders (agents) and may differ for each individual city. The paper offers a systematic analysis framework for supporting these choices and deploys multi-criteria analysis as a systematic evaluation methodology, in particular the Regime method. The evaluation framework is exemplified through an application to three field cases in Europe, viz. the cities of Amsterdam, Genoa and Leipzig. Our analysis concludes that tailor-made packages of e-services that serve the needs of the stakeholders can be made with the help of our evaluation tools.

Examining the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Strategies on Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world as many patients are looking to access healthcare services that are not available to them in their home countries. Many hospitals and healthcare centers are now offering numerous products and services in order to fully reap the benefits from it. However, little research which examines the effects of relationship marketing on the medical tourism exists. Hence, the aims of this study are to: (1) examine the relationship between the relationship marketing strategies and the medical tourism industry; and (2) help medical tourism operators to identify some of the key issues that exist within the industry. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten senior Taiwanese tour guides who had extensive experience in dealing with the medical tourism industry. The results indicate that relationship marketing was one of the crucial factors which had an impact on the willingness of tour guides to make necessary travel arrangements for medical tourists. The environment of health examination center, the ability of its doctors to diagnose a patient’s condition, and the professional image of its doctors could also affect the effectiveness of the relationship marketing on medical tourism as well as the efforts in arranging a follow-up visit to the health examination center. The findings can provide senior executives of health examination centers and travel agencies with a more realistic insight in dealing with issues and challenges arising from the medical tourism

An Agent-Based Decision Support Model for the Development of E-Services in the Tourist Sector

This paper regards cultural heritage as a strategic development tool for urban tourist policy. It highlights the use of e-services as a central instrument in a competitive tourist sector. The appropriate choice of e-services - and packages thereof - depends on the various strategic considerations of urban stakeholders (agents) and may differ for each individual city. The paper offers a systematic analysis framework for supporting these choices and deploys multi-criteria analysis as a systematic evaluation methodology, in particular the Regime method. The evaluation framework is exemplified through an application to three field cases in Europe, viz. the cities of Amsterdam, Genoa and Leipzig. Our analysis concludes that tailor-made packages of e-services that serve the needs of the stakeholders can be made with the help of our evaluation tools.cultural heritage, e-services, city marketing, agent-based decision support model

A framework for delivering personalized e-government services from a citizen-centric approach

E-government is becoming more attentive towards providing intelligent personalized online services to citizens so that citizens can receive better services with less time and effort. This paper proposes a new conceptual framework for delivering personalized e-government services to citizens from a citizen-centric approach, called Pe-Gov service framework. This framework outlines the main components and their interconnections. Detailed explanations about these components are given and the special features of this framework are highlighted. The Pe-Gov framework has the potential to outperform the existing e-Gov service systems as illustrated by two real life examples. © 2010 ACM

Value Creation in Health Care: The Case of the Princesse Grace Hospital (CHPG) Monaco

Health care has to make transitions to be truly effective in the modern world. A change in paradigm is needed. This requires that value - defined as the health outcome for a particular medical condition per unit of cost expended - must be applied and added to health care, and health care itself must be treated as a business that performs in a competitive environment to ultimately provide client or customer satisfaction. Health care today is typically service specific, necessitating that the client or patient visits different medical or clinical departments to get the range of treatment prescribed for his/her condition. We argue – following Porter and Teisberg - that health care should be patient-centric and that organization and treatment should be planned accordingly. Such planning must take into account the provision of a range of services directly accessible or networked regionally taking full advantage of technological advances in the field of medical technology and informational systems. We examine whether such principles are currently being applied in Monaco (specifically in the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace) taking into account both Monaco’s unique positioning and its geographical context in relation to the French health system as well as the resulting interaction in networking relationships. We explore how value in healthcare is currently being added and investigate plans for augmenting such efforts. Aspects of preventative and innovative initiatives are also discussed as a means of enhancing value. Finally, we offer a set of recommendations that in the context of the local situation might be successfully applied. Continuous review of performance and the application of best practice and technologies are proposed to ensure that the provision of health care services can compete with the best in the world.Health care; value creation in health care; Monaco; Southern France

Horizons and Perspectives eHealth

EHealth platform represents the combined use of IT technologies and electronic communications in the health field, using data (electronically transmitted, stored and accessed) with a clinical, educational and administrative purpose, both locally and distantly. eHealth has the significant capability to increase the movement in the direction of services centered towards citizens, improving the quality of the medical act, integrating the application of Medical Informatics (Medical IT), Telemedicine, Health Telematics, Telehealth, Biomedical engineering and Bioinformatics. Supporting the creation, development and recognition of a specific eHealth zone, the European Union policies develop through its programs FP6 and FP7, European-scale projects in the medical information technologies (the electronic health cards, online medical care, medical web portals, trans-European nets for medical information, biotechnology, generic instruments and medical technologies for health, ICT mobile systems for remote monitoring). The medical applications like electronic health cards ePrescription, eServices, medical eLearning, eSupervision, eAdministration are integral part of what is the new medical branch-eHealth, being in a continuous expansion due to the support from the global political, financial and medical organizations; the degree of implementation of the eHealth platform varying according to the development level of the communication infrastructure, allocated funds, intensive political priorities and governmental organizations opened to the new IT challenges.eHealth, telemedicine, telehealth, bioinformatics, telematics