MEASURING PROPENSITY OF ONLINE PURCHASE BY USING THE TAM MODEL: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The study aims to investigate the dynamics of online purchasing behavior through the analysis of a sample of students from Italy. The objective is twofold: firstly, to outline a descriptive picture of the type of relationship with the web and the use of the TAM model to highlight the propensity to use electronic commerce by the analyzed sample. An interesting evidence is the prevalence of using the Internet for social activities rather than for purchases. In fact, the propensity to purchase online is still very limited and mainly concerns cultural and tourist services rather than physical products. Mobile devices are the main devices for connecting students to the Web and, consequently, the most used for purchasing online

Mobile Agents for Mobile Tourists: A User Evaluation of Gulliver's Genie

How mobile computing applications and services may be best designed, implemented and deployed remains the subject of much research. One alternative approach to developing software for mobile users that is receiving increasing attention from the research community is that of one based on intelligent agents. Recent advances in mobile computing technology have made such an approach feasible. We present an overview of the design and implementation of an archetypical mobile computing application, namely that of an electronic tourist guide. This guide is unique in that it comprises a suite of intelligent agents that conform to the strong intentional stance. However, the focus of this paper is primarily concerned with the results of detailed user evaluations conducted on this system. Within the literature, comprehensive evaluations of mobile context-sensitive systems are sparse and therefore, this paper seeks, in part, to address this deficiency

Advanced recommendations in a mobile tourist information system

An advanced tourist information provider system delivers information regarding sights and events on their users' travel route. In order to give sophisticated personalized information about tourist attractions to their users, the system is required to consider base data which are user preferences defined in their user profiles, user context, sights context, user travel history as well as their feedback given to the sighs they have visited. In addition to sights information, recommendation on sights to the user could also be provided. This project concentrates on combinations of knowledge on recommendation systems and base information given by the users to build a recommendation component in the Tourist Information Provider or TIP system. To accomplish our goal, we not only examine several tourist information systems but also conduct the investigation on recommendation systems. We propose a number of approaches for advanced recommendation models in a tourist information system and select a subset of these for implementation to prove the concept

Tourism and the smartphone app: capabilities, emerging practice and scope in the travel domain.

Based on its advanced computing capabilities and ubiquity, the smartphone has rapidly been adopted as a tourism travel tool.With a growing number of users and a wide varietyof applications emerging, the smartphone is fundamentally altering our current use and understanding of the transport network and tourism travel. Based on a review of smartphone apps, this article evaluates the current functionalities used in the domestic tourism travel domain and highlights where the next major developments lie. Then, at a more conceptual level, the article analyses how the smartphone mediates tourism travel and the role it might play in more collaborative and dynamic travel decisions to facilitate sustainable travel. Some emerging research challenges are discussed

Information Technology Applications in Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Publications from 2005 to 2007

The tourism and hospitality industries have widely adopted information technology (IT) to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. This article offers a comprehensive review of articles that were published in 57 tourism and hospitality research journals from 2005 to 2007. Grouping the findings into the categories of consumers, technologies, and suppliers, the article sheds light on the evolution of IT applications in the tourism and hospitality industries. The article demonstrates that IT is increasingly becoming critical for the competitive operations of the tourism and hospitality organizations as well as for managing the distribution and marketing of organizations on a global scale

Towards a multidisciplinary user-centric design framework for context-aware applications

The primary aim of this article is to review and merge theories of context within linguistics, computer science, and psychology, to propose a multidisciplinary model of context that would facilitate application developers in developing richer descriptions or scenarios of how a context-aware device may be used in various dynamic mobile settings. More specifically, the aim is to:1. Investigate different viewpoints of context within linguistics, computer science, and psychology, to develop summary condensed models for each discipline. 2. Investigate the impact of contrasting viewpoints on the usability of context-aware applications. 3. Investigate the extent to which single-discipline models can be merged and the benefits and insightfulness of a merged model for designing mobile computers. 4. Investigate the extent to which a proposed multidisciplinary modelcan be applied to specific applications of context-aware computing

Designing a Mobile Game as Promotion Media for Sambisari Temple

Sambisari temple is one of the historical tourist destinations in Sleman regency with the potential of its at-traction. By looking at the current problems, the Sleman Regency Tourism Office needs an effective media to reach the teenage as a target market. It aims to increase visits as well as supporting media for attractions of tourist attractions given to potential tourists. The design of this mobile game is intended to promote the Sambisari temple attractions in attracting teenager as a target market. This time, media games are very popular with teenagers, especially through mobile platforms that are also widely used by teenagers in seeking information and entertainment in their spare time. By using qualitative data collection meth-ods, namely through observation, literature study, interviews, surveyss and comparison matrix which are then an-alyzed as the basis for designing mobile games that are suitable for the teenager target market. It is hoped that through the design of this mobile game it will be able to provide increased visits and inform the area of Sambisari Temple Tourism for prospective tourists. Keywords: Mobile Game, Promotion Media, Youth, Sambisari Temple

ICT diffusion and the digital divide in tourism: Kazakhstan perspective

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