1,213 research outputs found

    Measuring service quality in the hotel industry: The value of user generated content

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    This paper presents a fuzzy multi-attribute decision making approach for evaluating the service quality of the hotels of an important tourist destination island: Gran Canaria. We first extract the information provided in www.tripadvisor.com which is becoming one of the most popular websites that assists customers in gathering travel information. The information provided for the hotels located on the island of Gran Canaria using the fixed seven attributes is obtained. Service quality is a composite of these seven attributes, evaluated in a 5 point Likert scale, which are intangible and difficult to measure. For this reason, a method based on Fuzzy Logic is proposed using Fuzzy Numbers (FN). Triangular fuzzy numbers and fuzzy set theory is a very powerful tool to overcome some linguistic problems associated with the Likert scales. Based on the concept of the degree of optimality, we also develop through TOPSIS an overall service performance index for each hotel included in the sample. This index could be used by different stakeholders for understanding and analyzing their relative ranking position and the level of quality provided by the hotels in a specific area. Finally, the ranking is analyzed according to the standard star classification system finding that the hotel industry provides more quality than the extra-hotel industry

    Travellers segmentation and choice prediction through online reviews: the case of Wellingtons Hotels in New Zealand

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    Customer choice and segmentation through online reviews can help hotels to improve their marketing strategy development. Nevertheless, old-style approaches are unproductive in analysing online data generated by customers because of size, dissimilar proportions and structures of online review data. Therefore, this research aims to develop a method for 5-star hotels segmentation and travellers’ choice forecast through online reviews analysis using machine learning methods. Assessment of method was directed through the gathering of data from travellers’ ratings of Wellington’s 5-star hotels on different features in TripAdvisor. Results confirm that the projected hybrid machine learning approaches can be applied as a progressive recommender mediator for 5-star hotel segmentation by applying ‘big data’ obtained from online social media settings

    Measuring service quality in the hotel industry: The value of user generated content

    Get PDF
    This paper presents a fuzzy multi-attribute decision making approach for evaluating the service quality of the hotels of an important tourist destination island: Gran Canaria. We first extract the information provided in www.tripadvisor.com which is becoming one of the most popular websites that assists customers in gathering travel information. The information provided for the hotels located on the island of Gran Canaria using the fixed seven attributes is obtained. Service quality is a composite of these seven attributes, evaluated in a 5 point Likert scale, which are intangible and difficult to measure. For this reason, a method based on Fuzzy Logic is proposed using Fuzzy Numbers (FN). Triangular fuzzy numbers and fuzzy set theory is a very powerful tool to overcome some linguistic problems associated with the Likert scales. Based on the concept of the degree of optimality, we also develop through TOPSIS an overall service performance index for each hotel included in the sample. This index could be used by different stakeholders for understanding and analyzing their relative ranking position and the level of quality provided by the hotels in a specific area. Finally, the ranking is analyzed according to the standard star classification system finding that the hotel industry provides more quality than the extra-hotel industry

    Smart Tourism Intermingling with Indian Spiritual Destinations: Role of e-WoM Sentiments in marketing

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    The purpose of this study is to see how smart tourism and sentiments help tourists seeking spiritual experiences that are deep-rooted in ancient Indian traditions as opposed to materialistic getaways. Exploratory research through sentiments of YouTube and Tweets followers are collected in sample. A qualitative-quantitative research method is used in this paper to analyse the sentiments on Indian popular spiritual destinations. Smart tourism allows larger, coordinated efforts for Innovation, quality of life and sustainable tourism through rich data infrastructure within the ambit of specific destinations. Within a context, personalisation and real-time monitoring can occur where sentiments are positive or highly positive for that matter. Fundamental to tourists’ experiences is an aesthetic obsession with authenticity. The diversity of smart technologies applicable to experiences in the smart spiritual tourism sphere is still to be defined on a more granular level where religion still holds the glue. This paper seeks to explore the smart tourism experience concept applied to spirituality (STES) in more depth to facilitate further contributions. A smart tourism experience can be co-created for better delivery and a conducive environment for such an experience to emerge. Each spiritual destination is unique and complex. Policy responses can address the impact mainly through knowledge (human) resources

    Quality of experience in affective pervasive environments

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    The confluence of miniaturised powerful devices, widespread communication networks and mass remote storage has caused a fundamental shift in the user interaction design paradigm. The distinction between system and user in pervasive environments is evolving into an increasingly integrated loop of interaction, raising a number of opportunities to provide enhanced and personalised experiences. We propose a platform, based on a smart architecture, to address the identified opportunities in pervasive computing. Smart systems aim at acting upon an environment for improving quality of experience: a subjective measure that has been defined as an emotional reaction to products or services. The inclusion of an emotional dimension allows us to measure individual user responses and deliver personalised services with the potential to influence experiences positively. The platform, Cloud2Bubble, leverages pervasive systems to aggregate user and environment data with the goal of addressing personal preferences and supra-functional requirements. This, combined with its societal implications, results in a set of design principles as a concrete fruition of design contractualism. In particular, this thesis describes: - a review of intelligent ubiquitous environments and relevant technologies, including a definition of user experience as a dynamic affective construct; - a specification of main components for personal data aggregation and service personalisation, without compromising privacy, security or usability; - the implementation of a software platform and a methodological procedure for its instantiation; - an evaluation of the developed platform and its benefits for urban mobility and public transport information systems; - a set of design principles for the design of ubiquitous systems, with an impact on individual experience and collective awareness. Cloud2Bubble contributes towards the development of affective intelligent ubiquitous systems with the potential to enhance user experience in pervasive environments. In addition, the platform aims at minimising the risk of user digital exposure while supporting collective action.Open Acces

    The becoming of social media: the role of rating, ranking and performativity in organizational reputation-making

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    This thesis explores the concept of reputation-making with the aim of explaining how the rise of user-generated content websites has influenced organizational reputationmaking practices in the travel sector. The findings are based upon a corpus of data including: a field study at the offices of the largest travel user-generated website operator, TripAdvisor and an adaptation of virtual ethnography called “netnography”. Rating and ranking of hotels on social media websites has not only disturbed the established reputation-making practices of professionals in the travel sector and contributed to a significant redirection of reservation revenue but has performative consequences for tourist encounters. In other words, it is argued that if key assumptions underpinning the rating and ranking of travel change, the enactment of travel itself is reconfiguring and this has important implications for how reputationmaking occurs. The reconfigurations documented in the study are theorized using the lens of Process Theory. Originally inspired by philosophers such as Bergson and Whitehead and adopted in the work of organizational theorists such as Tsoukas, Chia, Langley, and Nayak, the choice of Process Theory to inform the conduct of this study resonates with key streams of existing reputation research that view it as a dynamic phenomenon. Core concepts within Process Theory, such as “becoming” enable further investigation into the precise nature of this dynamism by focusing on relations as always fluid and on the move. The challenge, even for literature that acknowledges phenomena as dynamic, is how to temporarily pause the flow for the purpose of analysis and thereby approach becoming without disturbing its inherent nature. This is taken up in the first analysis chapter which uses the notion of place to illustrate and analyze reputation-making using the process of becoming. The chapter argues the importance of recognizing the temporary pauses produced by rating and ranking mechanisms as generative rather than merely reductive algorithmically produced representations. In this way, we get closer to understanding the performativity of phenomena such as TripAdvisor and produce fundamental insights informing organizational reputation-making. It is argued that the organizational devices through which travellers’ engage with the places they visit are not only “making” reputations but are also making formative differences to the practice of travelling. In the second analysis chapter, a key issue associated with these changes - the intensification in focus on service – is explored further and in-depth examination of the field data is used to highlight ways in which TripAdvisor amplifies attention given to the specific characteristics of practices when they are performed. This provides evidence to ground Tsoukas and Chia’s (2002) proposal that organizational change is achieved through ‘microscopic changes’ thus reinforcing the processual nature of change. In so doing, key insights are generated to inform organizational reputation-making. Returning to the tenet of becoming in the third analysis chapter, the “circle of (il)legitimacy” embraces processual principles - for the nature of the circle is to have no beginning or end – but acknowledges the cumulative outcome of configuring practices for hoteliers through a discussion of key issues emerging in the travel sector. The relationship between reputation-making and legitimation is highlighted with examples of the additional processes through which reputation can now be made vulnerable within multiple jurisdictional contexts. The thesis concludes with the assertion that if we aim to understand the phenomenon of reputation-making, we have to develop a more nuanced and sophisticated way to conceptualize its formativeness. It is suggested that this extends beyond snap shot assessments or post-hoc crisis management to on-going maintenance of its emergence and development as well as processual changes across time and space

    Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

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    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

    Drivers of Regional Destination Competitiveness: A DEMATEL – Fuzzy TOPSIS Approach

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    This paper aims to explore a conceptual criteria framework for measuring tourism destination competitiveness at the regional level to fill the existing gap in literature. This study was conducted in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province of Indonesia, by developing a tailored set of criteria for measuring destination competitiveness specific for the regional backdrop through rigorous literature review and in-depth interviews with tourism experts. Moreover, a hybrid MCDM approach combining DEMATEL and Fuzzy TOPSIS techniques was employed to analyze interrelationships and importance rankings of the developed measurement criteria. This research developed a six-factor and twenty-three indicator framework deemed relevant for assessing destination competitiveness at the regional level. The six factors comprise of destination attraction, general infrastructure, superstructure, destination management, price competitiveness, and regional government policy. The DEMATEL analysis revealed regional government policy to be the most influential factor, whilst destination attraction was rendered the most important one. Results from the Fuzzy TOPSIS present the most important indicators from the framework as a natural attraction, accessibility and port infrastructure, accommodation, the image of the destination, and priority towards the tourism sector.  Findings from this research provide valuable insights in terms of proposing tourism policymakers with a blueprint of regional destination competitiveness criteria that offers critical inputs for developing medium and long-term tourism strategies
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