ICT for sustainable tourism: a challenging relationship?

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Tourism Policy and Planning in Michigan: Why Adding Sustainability is Important

The tourism industry relies on the exploitation of resources, the environment, and often communities and cultures as well. Whereas Michigan’s tourism industry is likely to continue growing into the foreseeable future, industry stakeholders must work to guarantee the viability of tourism as the industry grows. This research includes a compilation of policy, planning, and strategy recommendations to incorporate sustainability into the Michigan tourism industry. Specifically, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the triple bottom line are identified as ideal frameworks through which tourism planning and policy should flow. Suggestions for first steps include adopting an industry-standard definition of sustainability, a national rating system to benchmark stakeholder organizations and businesses, and the use of certification bodies to verify sustainable practices. Research and theories are drawn from think tanks and experts in tourism policy and planning, ecotourism, and sustainability. The resulting recommendations include: endorsing the SDGs and the triple bottom line as a framework by which to develop a sustainable tourism industry; administering stakeholder and community engagement throughout the processes of creating and implementing a sustainable tourism plan; considering sustainable tourism models and strategies; and conducting regular evaluation and assessment of the statewide plan and the impacts of the industry. The creation of a plan with these recommendations will appropriately address the problems of exploitation, growth, and development resulting from tourism in Michigan

A scoping review: exploring the world of medical and wellness tourism

Purpose: Medical and wellness tourism is a growing phenomenon, and tourists all over the world are traveling with the express purpose of accessing medical treatment or promoting health through physically and psychologically beneficial activities. This industry has continued to expand with the Internet’s help, as customers can now make choices that are more appropriate and informed decisions. Design: This research employed mixed content analysis methods. The qualitative approach reproduced tourists’ appraisals and assessed the spatial relationships between terms and concepts in medical and wellness tourism, with generalizable and reproducible results. Theoretical Contribution: This study specifically adds to the literature on post-experiences of medical and wellness tourism and the impact of Web-based information through reviewers’ satisfaction and willingness to recommend facilities to others. Practical Contributions: Medical tourists’ reviews indicate shared commonalities when identifying significant factors in medical services received. These individuals also focus on cost, treatment effectiveness; time spent collecting healthcare information, and recommendations they plan to offer to friends and family. Wellness tourists perceive resort facilities—including room conditions—and thalassotherapy treatments as the primary drivers of good service. Critical attributes of room condition are overall cleanliness and room comfort, especially bed, bathroom, and shower facilities. Tourists’ reviews of their experiences of thermal spa facilities provide a strategic order in which to implement service attributes by degree of influence: thermal facilities and services, hotel reception and room, food quality and price, pool and bath access, location views and accessibility, and staff’s professionalism and friendliness. Originality: The results add to the slowly growing body of literature on medical and wellness tourism and provide significant information to prospective medical tourists, healthcare service professionals, hoteliers, and other operators who become part of tourists’ total experience. This thesis identifies new themes based on semantic analyses that explored tourists’ behavior, intentions, and overall experiences shared online.Objetivo: O Turismo Médico e de Bem-Estar é um fenómeno crescente. Turistas de todo o mundo viajam com o intuito de ter acesso a tratamento médico ou de melhorar o seu estado de saúde através de atividades físicas e psicológicas que lhes sejam benéficas. Esta indústria tem vindo a crescer com ajuda da Internet, permitindo aos turistas fazer melhores escolhas e tomar decisões informadas. Desenho da tese: Este estudo tem como base a análise de conteúdos mistos. A abordagem qualitativa reproduz as avaliações dos turistas e avalia as relações entre as narrativas e os conceitos no Turismo Médico e de Bem-Estar, obtendo resultados replicáveis e generalizáveis. Contribuição teórica: Este estudo contribui com o conhecimento teórico no setor do turismo de Saúde e Bem-estar e o impacto das opiniões dos turistas nas plataformas online como veículo para expressar satisfação e recomendar serviços a outros turistas. Contribuição prática: No Turismo Médico os comentários online indicam características comuns inerentes ao tratamento médico. Como fatores determinantes no processo de decisão os turistas realçam o preço, a eficácia do tratamento, o tempo despendido na recolha de informações medicas, e partilham recomendações com amigos e familiares. No turismo de Bem-Estar os turistas percecionam as infraestruturas do resort-incluindo as condições do quarto e os tratamentos de talassoterapia como fatores determinantes de um bom serviço. Indicam como fatores críticos -o quarto- a limpeza e o conforto em particular uma cama confortável, a casa de banho e o chuveiro. Os turistas que utilizam as Termas e Spa indicam por ordem decrescente a implementação dos seguintes serviços: acesso as termas e serviços, a receção do hotel e sala, qualidade da comida e preço, piscina e banho térmico, localização, vista e acessos bem como o profissionalismo e simpatia dos colaboradores. Originalidade: Os resultados contribuem para o desenvolvimento da literatura sobre o Turismo Medico e de Bem-Estar e sugere diretrizes para potenciais turistas médicos, profissionais de saúde, setor hoteleiro e outros operadores que integram a experiência destes turistas. Com base na análise semântica esta tese identifica novas temáticas que exploram comportamentos, intenções e experiências que os turistas compartilham online

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Advertising and Consumer Responses in the Lodging Industry: Functions of Green Marketing Motive and Appeal Type

Hotel chains are increasingly engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing to fulfill their social responsibilities. This study primarily aimed to contribute to the hospitality marketing literature and derive findings from the applied theoretical frameworks that would provide practical information for hotel CSR marketers. The study introduced three theoretical concepts: the information-processing model to provide a comprehensive framework of the attitude formation process, the attribution theory to explain the different effects of CSR motives, and the hierarchy-of-effects model to explain the relational effects of affect, cognition, and conation on consumer responses. In this sense, the study was conducted to test (1) the different effects of a green marketing motive and ad appeal on consumers’ ad perceptions (sub-model A) and (2) the influential relationships of consumer perceptions, ad attitudes, persuasion, and behavioral intentions (sub-model B). Prior to administering the main survey, two pretests and a pilot test were conducted to develop and manipulate ad stimuli and to test the construct reliabilities. An online self-administered survey yielded 711 completed responses that were used for the data analysis. The results indicated that ads using a public-serving motive (claim) elicited more positive perceived warmth than ads using a firm-serving motive. Further, soft-sell appeal generated more positive perceived warmth and empathy, whereas hard-sell appeal yielded more positive informational utility and truthfulness. The study also found that although both affective and cognitive ad attitudes positively led to consumers’ ad persuasion, the cognitive ad attitude generated by cognitive perceptions showed a stronger effect on persuasion than an affective ad attitude derived from affective perceptions. The findings of this study will allow hospitality marketers to develop and implement CSR advertising that build effective communications with consumers

4th. International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022)

Research methods in economics and social sciences are evolving with the increasing availability of Internet and Big Data sources of information. As these sources, methods, and applications become more interdisciplinary, the 4th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA) is a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and advances on how emerging research methods and sources are applied to different fields of social sciences as well as to discuss current and future challenges. Due to the covid pandemic, CARMA 2022 is planned as a virtual and face-to-face conference, simultaneouslyDoménech I De Soria, J.; Vicente Cuervo, MR. (2022). 4th. International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2022.2022.1595

Propelling the Potential of Enterprise Linked Data in Austria. Roadmap and Report

In times of digital transformation and considering the potential of the data-driven economy, it is crucial that data is not only made available, data sources can be trusted, but also data integrity can be guaranteed, necessary privacy and security mechanisms are in place, and data and access comply with policies and legislation. In many cases, complex and interdisciplinary questions cannot be answered by a single dataset and thus it is necessary to combine data from multiple disparate sources. However, because most data today is locked up in isolated silos, data cannot be used to its fullest potential. The core challenge for most organisations and enterprises in regards to data exchange and integration is to be able to combine data from internal and external data sources in a manner that supports both day to day operations and innovation. Linked Data is a promising data publishing and integration paradigm that builds upon standard web technologies. It supports the publishing of structured data in a semantically explicit and interlinked manner such that it can be easily connected, and consequently becomes more interoperable and useful. The PROPEL project - Propelling the Potential of Enterprise Linked Data in Austria - surveyed technological challenges, entrepreneurial opportunities, and open research questions on the use of Linked Data in a business context and developed a roadmap and a set of recommendations for policy makers, industry, and the research community. Shifting away from a predominantly academic perspective and an exclusive focus on open data, the project looked at Linked Data as an emerging disruptive technology that enables efficient enterprise data management in the rising data economy. Current market forces provide many opportunities, but also present several data and information management challenges. Given that Linked Data enables advanced analytics and decision-making, it is particularly suitable for addressing today's data and information management challenges. In our research, we identified a variety of highly promising use cases for Linked Data in an enterprise context. Examples of promising application domains include "customization and customer relationship management", "automatic and dynamic content production, adaption and display", "data search, information retrieval and knowledge discovery", as well as "data and information exchange and integration". The analysis also revealed broad potential across a large spectrum of industries whose structural and technological characteristics align well with Linked Data characteristics and principles: energy, retail, finance and insurance, government, health, transport and logistics, telecommunications, media, tourism, engineering, and research and development rank among the most promising industries for the adoption of Linked Data principles. In addition to approaching the subject from an industry perspective, we also examined the topics and trends emerging from the research community in the field of Linked Data and the Semantic Web. Although our analysis revolved around a vibrant and active community composed of academia and leading companies involved in semantic technologies, we found that industry needs and research discussions are somewhat misaligned. Whereas some foundation technologies such as knowledge representation and data creation/publishing/sharing, data management and system engineering are highly represented in scientific papers, specific topics such as recommendations, or cross-topics such as machine learning or privacy and security are marginally present. Topics such as big/large data and the internet of things are (still) on an upward trajectory in terms of attention. In contrast, topics that are very relevant for industry such as application oriented topics or those that relate to security, privacy and robustness are not attracting much attention. When it comes to standardisation efforts, we identified a clear need for a more in-depth analysis into the effectiveness of existing standards, the degree of coverage they provide with respect the foundations they belong to, and the suitability of alternative standards that do not fall under the core Semantic Web umbrella. Taking into consideration market forces, sector analysis of Linked Data potential, demand side analysis and the current technological status it is clear that Linked Data has a lot of potential for enterprises and can act as a key driver of technological, organizational, and economic change. However, in order to ensure a solid foundation for Enterprise Linked Data include there is a need for: greater awareness surrounding the potential of Linked Data in enterprises, lowering of entrance barriers via education and training, better alignment between industry demands and research activities, greater support for technology transfer from universities to companies. The PROPEL roadmap recommends concrete measures in order to propel the adoption of Linked Data in Austrian enterprises. These measures are structured around five fields of activities: "awareness and education", "technological innovation, research gaps, standardisation", "policy and legal", and "funding". Key short-term recommendations include the clustering of existing activities in order to raise visibility on an international level, the funding of key topics that are under represented by the community, and the setup of joint projects. In the medium term, we recommend the strengthening of existing academic and private education efforts via certification and to establish flagship projects that are based on national use cases that can serve as blueprints for transnational initiatives. This requires not only financial support, but also infrastructure support, such as data and services to build solutions on top. In the long term, we recommend cooperation with international funding schemes to establish and foster a European level agenda, and the setup of centres of excellence

Enhancing stakeholders' participation : a semantic, spatial and temporal contextualization perspective

La participation des parties prenantes (PPP) vise à impliquer celles-ci dans les processus de prise de décision concernant des projets affectant leurs communautés. Traditionnellement, les processus de participation des parties prenantes (PPPP) se maintenaient à travers des assemblées et des forums de discussion physiques permettant de rassembler les parties prenantes, de collecter et d'analyser leurs opinions pour aider les décideurs dans leur prise de décision. Ces dernières années, l'évolution des technologies de l'information (TI) et leur prolifération dans la société ont donné lieu au concept émergent de la participation électronique ou la e-Participation. Il s'agit de nouvelles formes de participation basées sur les technologies de l'information tel que les blogs, les plateformes participatives et les réseaux sociaux. La PPP est une notion en constante évolution et a reçu une attention considérable de la part des praticiens et des chercheurs dans différents domaines et disciplines. Cependant, peu de recherches se sont intéressées à la compréhension multidisciplinaire des PPPP et de la valeur que revêtent les données collectées à travers ces PPPP. Cette thèse contribue à la littérature de la PPP en offrant une meilleure compréhension globale du concept de la PP, de ses enjeux multidisciplinaires et de la valeur que revête les données collectées à travers les PPPP. Cette thèse est structurée en deux articles et un chapitre. Le premier article de cette thèse vise à offrir une meilleure compréhension des enjeux multidisciplinaires auxquels les PPPP font face. À l'appui d'une revue systématique de la littérature analysant 191 articles de recherche, cet article met en exergue que les PPP font face à des enjeux : « administratifs », « éthiques », « politiques », « légaux », « technologiques », « sociaux des parties prenantes », « économiques », « socio-économiques » et « d'efficience et d'efficacité ». De plus, l'article démontre que les PPPP œuvrent à l'intérieur de quatre principales dimensions qui sont « la gouvernance », « l'application », « les parties prenantes » et « la société » et que ces dimensions sont interreliées et sont influencées les unes par les autres. Dans ce contexte, l'évolution vers des PPP qui sont plus efficaces et plus résilientes envers ces enjeux requerrait une prise de conscience de ces dimensions d'enjeux et des efforts de collaboration multidisciplinaire entre la recherche et la pratique. Le deuxième article se concentre sur l'enjeu spécifique du « contexte de vie des parties prenantes » et rend compte de la manière dont les parties prenantes expriment, de façon implicite ou explicite, leurs contextes de vie dans leurs commentaires de participation. Par une analyse qualitative des données de participation provenant de quatre études de cas dans deux pays différents, cet article identifie un ensemble de patrons, appelés aussi « patterns », sémantiques, spatiaux et temporels permettant l'identification du contexte de vie des parties prenantes à partir des données des PPPP. L'identification et la compréhension des patrons que les parties prenantes expriment dans leurs commentaires pour représenter leurs contextes de vie visent à renforcer l'influence des parties prenantes sur les décisions découlant des PPP dans lesquelles ces dernières étaient impliquées. De plus, l'article propose un modèle conceptuel démontrant l'importance pour les décideurs de capturer et d'analyser les patrons sémantique, spatial et temporel dans les données des PPPP afin de favoriser une prise de décision cohérente et réactive aux contextes de vie des parties prenantes. Finalement, l'article souligne le rôle que jouent les technologies de l'information pour l'identification de ces patrons. Le troisième chapitre offre une meilleure compréhension de l'identification automatique des dimensions sémantique, spatiale et temporelle du contexte de vie des parties prenantes dans les PPP. En se basant sur une analyse théorique, ce chapitre utilise la théorie des affordances et la théorie du réalisme critique pour offrir une conceptualisation des affordances et des fonctionnalités technologiques correspondantes qui sont nécessaires pour l'identification automatique des patterns sémantiques, spatiaux et temporels dans les futures technologies participatives.Stakeholders participation (SP) aims to involve stakeholders in decision-making processes regarding projects affecting their communities. Traditionally, stakeholders' participation processes (SPPs) were maintained through meetings and physical discussion forums to bring together stakeholders and collect their opinions to help decision-makers in taking their decisions. In recent years, the evolution of information technologies (IT) and their proliferation in society have given rise to the emerging concept of electronic participation or e-Participation. These are new forms of participation based on information technologies such as blogs, participatory platforms and social networks. SP is an ever-evolving concept and has received considerable attention from researchers in different fields and disciplines. However, little research has focused on the multidisciplinary understanding of SPPs and the value of the data collected through these SPPs. This thesis contributes to the SPPs literature by offering a better global understanding of the concept of SP, its multidisciplinary issues and the value of the data collected through SPPs. This thesis is structured in two articles and one chapter. The first article of this thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the multidisciplinary issues that SPPs face. Based on a systematic literature review of 191 research papers, this article aims to review, categorize, and offer a better understanding of the different issues that stakeholders' participation processes (SPPs) can have. This paper has two main contributions. First, it presents a typology of issues that is organized in nine categories: economic, efficiency and effectiveness, ethical, legislative, political, administration, socioeconomic, stakeholders and social, and technology. Second, it proposes a conceptual model of SPPs dimensions of issues. The conceptual model demonstrates that SPPs work within four main dimensions which are "governance", "application", "stakeholders" and "society" and that these dimensions are interrelated and are influenced by each other. The second article focuses on the specific issue of the "stakeholders' living context identification" and attempts to account for how stakeholders implicitly identify their living contexts in their participation comments. Through a qualitative analysis of participation data from four case studies in two different countries, this article identifies a set of semantic, spatial and temporal patterns allowing the contextualization of data collected through SPPs. Moreover, a conceptual model for the identification of the living contexts in SPPs data is proposed. This conceptual model emphasizes the importance for decision-makers to capture and understand semantic, spatial and temporal patterns in SPPs data in order to ensure a decision-making that is consistent and responsive to stakeholders' living contexts. Finally, the article highlights the role that information technology plays in identifying these patterns. The third chapter attempts to provide a better understanding of the automatic identification of the semantic, spatial and temporal dimensions of the living contexts of stakeholders in SPPs. Based on a theoretical analysis, this chapter uses the theory of affordances and the theory of critical realism to offer a conceptualization of affordances and their corresponding information technology functionalities that are necessary for the automatic identification of semantic, spatial and temporal patterns in future participation tools