An analysis of the key factors affecting the success of a re-launched destination marketing website in the UK

Business Information Systems e-Commerce/e-business Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences Marketing Information Systems Applications (incl. Internet)This paper presents a case study of the re-launch of a DMO website in the UK. It evaluates the perceived usability of the new website and identifies the key factors affecting customers’ intention to use the new website. A large-scale online survey was developed to understand a number of issues relating to usability (e.g. aesthetics, effectiveness) and psychological and behavioural indicators (e.g. perceived trustworthiness and intent to use). Both quantitative and qualitative data was analysed to understand users’ perceptions, behaviour and attitudes towards the re-launched website. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was developed to identify the factors affecting their intention to use the new website. The SEM model identified the impact of a variety of factors on intention to use and the descriptive analysis, using both qualitative and quantitative data, highlights further areas of research

Towards a conceptualisation of smart tourists and their role within the smart destination scenario

‘Smart tourism’ and ‘smart destinations’ have been gaining attention as new frameworks within which to understand the impact the latest information and communication technologies (ICTs) have on the relationship between businesses, destinations and tourists. However, there is a crucial element of the smart tourism ecosystem that has been rather neglected in research hitherto: the tourists themselves. By acknowledging a shift in tourists’ behaviour due to the advent of disruptive factors, this paper conceptualises the recently emerged notion of ‘the smart tourist’. This new type of tourist is profiled through a description of their attitudes and behaviours, and their role within the smart destination scenario is depicted. By taking a consumer-centric perspective and framing the conceptualisation within the relevant theories, this paper contributes to the current body of knowledge on tourism in a highly technological context and facilitates bridging smart tourism theoretical foundations with empirical research. The observed transformation in tourists’ behaviour and its encapsulation in the smart tourist conceptualisation reveal critical managerial implications for both destination management organisations and businesses in the rapidly changing smart tourism ecosystem.Research carried out within the project ‘Analysis of planning processes applied to smart cities and smart tourism destinations. Balance and methodological proposal for tourist spaces: Smart Tourism Planning’ (CSO2017-82592-R) under the Spanish National R&D&I Plan and Grant no. BES-2015-073909, funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness

eEnabled internet distribution for small and medium sized hotels: the case of hospitality SMEs in Athens

Advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) have strategic implications for a wide range of industries. Tourism and hospitality have dramatically changed by the ICTs and the Internet and gradually emerge as the leading industry on online expenditure. The Internet revolutionised traditional distribution models, enabled new entries propelled both disintermediation and reintermediation and altered the sources of competitive advantage. This paper explores the strategic implications of ICTs and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of Internet distribution for small and medium-sized hospitality enterprises (SMEs). Primary research in Athens hotels demonstrates the effects of the Internet and ICTs for secondary markets, where there is lower penetration and ICT adoption. Interviews and questionnaires identified a number of strategies in order to optimise distribution. The analysis illustrates the strategic role of ICTs and the Internet for hospitality organisations and Small and Medium-sized organisations in general. Most hotels employ a distribution mix that determines the level and employment of the Internet. The paper demonstrates that only organisations that use ICTs strategically will be able to develop their electronic distribution and achieve competitive advantages in the future

Conceptualising technology enhanced destination experiences

The notion of creating rich and memorable experiences for consumers constitutes a prevalent concept in the tourism industry. With the proliferation of destination choices and increasing competition, it has become critical for destinations to find innovative ways to differentiate their products and create experiences that provide distinct value for the tourist. However, currently two major paradigm shifts are drastically changing the nature of experiences, the understanding of which is crucial for destinations to create successful experiences in the future. Experiences are transforming as (a) consumers now play an active part in co-creating their own experiences and (b) technology is increasingly mediating experiences. Despite the amount of literature recognising the impact of technology on experiences, a holistic conceptualisation of this change is missing. This paper thus raises the need to conflate the two-fold paradigm shift and calls for new reflections on the creation of experiences. The aim is to explore technology as a source of innovation to co-create enhanced destination experiences. The paper contributes on three levels: by introducing and conceptualising a new experience creation paradigm entitled Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences, by proposing an extended destination experience co-creation space in the pre/during/post phases of travel and by discussing managerial implications of this development for the future creation and management of experiences in a destination context. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Relations in the tourism supply chain

The critical review of publications in the field of economics and management allows one to state that research covering the tourism supply chain (TSC) is quite limited and non-exhaustive. The article presents the review of the most significant studies discussing the problems of the tourism supply chain. The authors attempted to indicate gaps in the existing models of the tourism supply chain and on that basis suggested their own model emphasizing, in particular, the relations occurring between its components. It takes into account additional elements, which have not been included so far, i.e. the complex and service oriented nature of a tourist product and its close relations with space, immobility of supply and mobility of demand, as well as the network structure of the tourism economy based on new technologies in terms of information and communication.Krytyczna analiza publikacji z zakresu ekonomii i zarządzania pozwala stwierdzić, że badania zagadnienia łańcucha dostaw w turystyce należą do nielicznych, a jednocześnie są niewyczerpujące. W artykule dokonano przeglądu najważniejszych prac poruszających problematykę łańcucha dostaw w turystyce. Autorki podjęły próbę wskazania niedostatków w dotychczas formułowanych modelach łańcucha dostaw w turystyce i w oparciu o nią zaproponowały własny model, w którym szczególny akcent położyły na relacje między jego ogniwami. Uwzględnia on dodatkowe elementy nie brane dotychczas pod uwagę, tj. złożony i usługowy charakter produktu turystycznego oraz jego ścisły związek z przestrzenią, niemobilność podaży i mobilność popytu, a także sieciowość gospodarki turystycznej opartą na nowych technologiach w zakresie informacji i komunikacji

Digital destination promotion: understanding and maximizing the use of digital and cultural assets to enhance tourists’ decision making and destination marketing strategies

With the overarching research question “how Information and Communication Technologies can be used to support a destination in improving tourists’ information search and decision making through the use of its digital and cultural assets” this thesis connects the three themes of eTourism, destination marketing and heritage tourism through a user-centric approach and the application of innovative technologies. The eight papers provided utilise and investigate the application of technology to improve the effectiveness and promotion of destination marketing and destination marketing organisations whilst, at the same time, improving user experiences. Interdisciplinary research focuses on the opportunities provided by digital and cultural assets of destinations to enhance destination marketing efforts. This research recognises and discusses the importance and challenges of the commodification process of tangible and intangible heritage as part of the marketing process. Methodologies appropriate to each of the research purposes were applied and data was triangulated to improve understanding. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires, web crawlers and log files enabling the research to draw on analytical methods such as correspondence and cluster analysis, as well as data envelopment analysis (DEA). Qualitative methods such as workshop cycles, observations, and interviews were used to provide rich narratives analysed through content analysis. The results from the eight papers enhance destination marketing efforts by providing a better understanding of user behaviour and preferences based on travel personalities, travel and search pattern. They provide a clearer representation of the technologies, digital assets and e-Services available, discussing web site content and effectiveness. Strategies and innovative ideas to improve the current utilisation of digital technologies are provided based on the outcomes of the studies presented. Furthermore, a reflection on the use of intangible cultural heritage assets within destination marketing supported through the use of technologies is explored to enhance opportunities for destination marketing. V The research presents innovative and new ways to a destination to create new meanings and unique selling points (USPs) through cultural heritage assets and user-centric technologies. It introduces an interpretative strategy within destination marketing, and ideas to make the tourists’ holiday choice process more engaging. It enhances the understanding of on-line destination presentation, enabling comparisons between providers and improving their competitiveness. The main contribution of this work is new and enhanced insights how to improve on-line destination presentation by understanding its current representation and users’ search and behaviour patterns online and during travelling. It provides examples for the usefulness of ICT and cultural heritage in order to improve destinations’ marketing efforts. It also adds to the debate of the application of technologies for heritage interpretation and the commodification of (local) cultural heritage assets for destination marketing and tourism purposes

Smart Tourism Destinations: Can the Destination Management Organizations Exploit Benefits of the ICTs? Evidences from a Multiple Case Study

Recent developments of ICTs enable new ways to experience tourism and conducted to the concept of smart tourism. The adoption of cutting-edge technologies and its combination with innovative organizational models fosters cooperation, knowledge sharing, and open innovation among service providers in tourism destination. Moreover, it offers innovative services to visitors. In few words, they become smart tourism destinations. In this paper, we report first results of the SMARTCAL project aimed at conceiving a digital platform assisting Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) in providing smart tourism services. A DMO is the organization charged with managing the tourism offer of a collaborative network, made up of service providers acting in a destination. In this paper, we adopted a multiple case studies approach to analyze five Italian DMOs. Our aims were to investigate (1) if, and how, successful DMOs were able to offer smart tourism services to visitors; (2) if the ICTs adoption level was related to the collaboration level among DMO partners. First results highlighted that use of smart technologies was still in an embryonic stage of development, and it did not depend from collaboration levels

Current State and Perspectives of Twitter usage in Tourism

Twitter, as the most popular microblog has unquestionable viral impact. It presents what’s going on in the world by users posts and reposts and it’s became more than just a social network. Individuals, companies, organisations, even governments use Twitter on daily bases and get different kind of benefits from it. Tourism and hospitality sector use it for market positioning, branding, and as an information exchange system. Role of the social networks in tourism has been widely and thoroughly discussed in literature, although this paper narrows the area of interest and puts focus on Twitter. It represents systematic and comprehensive content analysis of 61 articles from 2009-2018. As number of research publications tripled in last two years, we represent how the role of Twitter in tourism developed from marketing tool to business planning and tourist movement predicting source for data mining and other most prominent methods. Now days, Twitter became central database of e-WOM. This paper brings value for both academy and business, as it shows newest findings and research trends, it also shows useful strategies and implementations which can help companies develop their own business strategies. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

Current State and Perspectives of Twitter usage in Tourism

Twitter, as the most popular microblog has unquestionable viral impact. It presents what’s going on in the world by users posts and reposts and it’s became more than just a social network. Individuals, companies, organisations, even governments use Twitter on daily bases and get different kind of benefits from it. Tourism and hospitality sector use it for market positioning, branding, and as an information exchange system. Role of the social networks in tourism has been widely and thoroughly discussed in literature, although this paper narrows the area of interest and puts focus on Twitter. It represents systematic and comprehensive content analysis of 61 articles from 2009-2018. As number of research publications tripled in last two years, we represent how the role of Twitter in tourism developed from marketing tool to business planning and tourist movement predicting source for data mining and other most prominent methods. Now days, Twitter became central database of e-WOM. This paper brings value for both academy and business, as it shows newest findings and research trends, it also shows useful strategies and implementations which can help companies develop their own business strategies. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p