AN IS BASED MODEL FOR EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT IN CULTURAL TOURISM

According to Pine and Gilmore [1999], over the last two hundred years we have witnessed a shift from an Agrarian Economy based on extracting commodities, to an Industrial Economy based on manufacturing goods, to a Service Economy based on delivering services, and finally to an Experience Economy based on staging experiences. In the same time span, tourism has evolved from being an elitarian pursuit to being a leading world industry, contributing with over 10% to global GDP (source: WTO). In a fast growing scenario such as the tourism market, if Europe wants to keep its leading position, considering the increasing competitive pressure of emerging countries where labour and raw materials are enormously cheaper, it won’t definitely be through beach, general purpose, tourism. Rather, it will have to leverage on its artistic and archaeological resources that make a visit to places like Rome, Florence or the Loire castles a unique experience. Polls and surveys, however, show that the average traveller is becoming increasingly demanding in terms of information and services: as Shoshana Zuboff points out, people are now more educated, informed, experienced, travelled and connected than earlier generations [Zuboff 2005]. This makes it necessary to invest in R&D for providing tourists with added value, user centred, highly personalized services. In short, memorable experiences. No matter what purpose is behind the project of a trip, travelling is an information intensive activity: variables are innumerable and for transforming a nice idea into a successful trip it is necessary to gather as much information as possible. This, in the age of Internet, can be a hard task: it is well known that extracting useful, meaningful information in an almost infinite repository such as the web, can be an extremely frustrating and time consuming endeavour. Furthermore, each phase of a trip requires different types of services and information. And, last but not least, as Negroponte [1995] noted already over a decade ago, in the post-information age personalization is “upon us”: consumers are now accustomed to be considered as individuals, and “mass” is a synonym of “low quality” in a world where goods, services and, above all, information get everyday closer to their final target’s preferences through increasingly refined customization techniques. A solid point of reference, in this respect, is provided by the Open Tourism Consortium, on the emergence of a multi-faceted uCommerce,. In the proposed model a tour is organized in three phases: pre-, on-, and post-tour. In short, in order to support and promote cultural tourism and heritage, it is necessary to provide both domain experts, and general purpose users with an environment for accessing interactive, personalized, multimedia content through any kind of network and tool, seamlessly switching from one to the other. For reaching this objective it is necessary to cover the whole cultural product life-cycle using techniques and methodologies that range from tomography, to virtual reality, to ontologies, to marketing and customer segmentation techniques with a strong multidisciplinary approach

Mapping intangibilities in creative tourism territories through tangible objects: a methodological approach for developing creative tourism offers

What can people express about their places through the objects that they valorise and link to their territory? Can objects create narratives about a place's identity and collect significant cultural information that locate people in their places? Can such cultural mapping be a useful tool in the design of creative tourist offers? The Project CREATOUR held a series of Idea Laboratories with several entities that provide creative tourism experiences, approaching cultural mapping through objects as a tool for regional actors to discover what is 'so special' about their places, a way to link tourism offers with the community where they take place. These exercise lead participants to remark on the importance and idiosyncrasy of their regions and evidenced the importance of cultural mapping to a more sustainable offer and the overall marketing of destinations. Mapping intangibilities through tangible objects helped to capture what gives meaning to particular places.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia CREATOUR - 16437 COMPETE2020, POR Lisboainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Turismo creativo: fundamentos y posibilidades de desarrollo en Argentina

Creative tourism is a modality within cultural tourism that is characterized by an offer based on learning experiences around recreational activities inspired in the local culture and its diverse manifestations. In this article whose methodology was based on bibliographic research, the theoretical foundations of this model of tourism development are addressed, as well as the essential differences between creative tourism and cultural tourismin its most conventional expression. Likewise, the strengths and weaknesses present in Argentina for the development of this modality are analyzed, together with the challenges and opportunities that the current context contains. Cultural heritage plays a fundamental role as a source of inspiration for the creation of creative tourism proposals and therefore some examples of potential representative cultural resources from the different regions of the country are included. On the other hand, basic guidelines are addressed for the planning, management and promotion of tourism products based on the experience design. Finally, it comes to the conclusion that creative tourism represents an interesting alternative to diversify Argentina's tourism offer, according to the needs of today's tourists.El turismo creativo es una modalidad dentro del turismo cultural que se caracteriza por una oferta basada en experiencias de aprendizajes en torno a actividades recreativas inspiradas en la cultura local y en sus diversas manifestaciones. En este artículo, cuya metodología se basó en investigación bibliográfica, se abordan fundamentos teóricos que sustentan este modelo de desarrollo turístico, así como las diferencias esenciales existentes entre el turismo creativo y el turismo cultural, en su expresión más convencional. Asimismo, se analizan las fortalezas y debilidades que presenta en términos generales la Argentina para el desarrollo de esta modalidad, así como los desafíos y oportunidades que encierra el contexto actual. Dado que el patrimonio cultural cumple un rol fundamental como fuente de inspiración para la creación de propuestas de turismo creativo, se incluyen algunos ejemplos de recursos culturales representativos de las diferentes regiones del país que detentan potencial en este sentido. Por otro lado, se abordan lineamientos básicos para la planificación, gestión y promoción de productos turísticos basados en el diseño de experiencia. Finalmente, se arriba a la conclusión que el turismo creativo representa una alternativa interesante para diversificar la oferta turística de Argentina, atendiendo las necesidades del turista actual

The determinants of length of stay in the Azores : a count model approach

This paper employs count data models to estimate the determinants of length of stay, as count data models naturally lend themselves to overcome the censoring and truncation data issues associated with the non-negative, integer nature of length of stay. This paper employs a rich micro data set gathered through questionnaires ministered to a representative sample of tourists departing from the Azores: the fastest growing touristic region in Portugal. It is found that sociodemographic profiles, such as nationality and Azorean ascendancy, and trip attributes, such as repeat visitation rates and type of flight, are important determinants of length of stay. In addition, it is found that destination image and attitudes regarding environmental initiatives, constructed from a factor analysis exercise, also influence length of stay. In particular, the results suggest that marketing strategies that promote the Azores for its nature, landscape, remoteness, weather and safety may increase length of stay, whereas cultural heritage has the opposite effect.N/

International social work field placement or volunteer tourism? Developing an asset-based justice-learning field experience

This paper examines a developing model for building an international social work placement that meets the needs of the host agency and community first. The paper addresses the challenges for social work departments to develop a strong learning environment while also keeping primary the needs of the host community and agency

Destination Online Communication: Why Less is Sometimes More. A Study of Online Communications of English Destinations

This research investigates the relationship between Web site design and the Web site end-user experience of a vast number of English tourism destinations, both local and regional ones. Following recent research in the field, this paper evaluates destinations' online communication based on the implemented Web site features and on the effectiveness of the communication itself, borrowing its research methodology from different domains. After content and functionality analysis, a user-experience, scenario-based investigation has been carried out, which demonstrated that complex Web sites do not always serve end-users' needs properly; in other words, Web site complexity is not directly related with good user experience. This research may help destination managers to foster their online communication if they have fewer content and functionalities but are better focused and clearly user-oriented. © 2014 Taylor & Francis

Assessing Destination Competitiveness: An Application to the Hot Springs Tourism Sector

This paper proposes a model to identify the factors determining the competitiveness of the hot springs tourism sector, with particular application to Taiwan. The proposed conceptual framework brings together two approaches, namely the theories of industry organization (10) and the resource-based view (RBV). The proposition underlying this framework is that destination competitiveness is achieved by the adoption of policies and strategies aligned with market opportunities, drawing upon the unique or distinctive tourism features offered by the destination. It is proposed that three major influences are evident in the case of hot springs tourism, namely Tourism Destination Resources and Attractors, Tourism Destination Strategies and Tourism Destination Environments. An evaluation is provided of the administration of a three-round Delphi survey, which was intended to validate the determinants of destination competitiveness that were derived from the literature. Drawing upon the results of the pilot study it is concluded that the development of a sector-specific model of destination competitiveness is capable of capturing the nature and characteristics of the hot springs tourism sector

A Critical Review of Contemporary Practice in Internationalisation in the Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism (HLST) Subject Communities

This report identifies and critically reviews contemporary practice in the field of internationalisation within the HLST subject communities in order to inform curriculum development and pedagogy geared towards the development of international perspectives and global awareness. Drawing on current pedagogical literatures as well as staff and student consultations, it identifies a number of key points which reflect good practice in UK HLST curricula in the UK. Due to the broad disciplinary scope of the subject area in focus and the diversity of curricular activities across the UK, this critical review is selective rather than exhaustive and seeks to stimulate further discussion and research into this area