Socio-technological authentication

This paper proposes a socio-technological approach to conceptualising the processes of authentication in technology-saturated society. It argues that authentication involves the inscription of value to objects, places, actions and experiences. Consequently, authentication processes in tourism should be understood through a ‘market practices’ conception of human-technology interactions. Markets are conceived as socio-technical performative arrangements in which goods and services are objectified and brought together in a single space where their values are negotiated. The paper introduces the notion of ‘experiential objects’ to conceptualise configurations of tourism-related knowledge, which are captured, transformed and retransmitted through human and technological practices. Moreover, it explores how the value of such objects are produced and qualified through the networked interactions of human and non-human actors

Tourism informatics: towards novel knowledge based approaches

This book introduces new trends of theory and practice of information technologies in tourism. The book does not handle only the fundamental contribution, but also discusses innovative and emerging technologies to promote and develop new generation tourism informatics theory and their applications. Some chapters are concerned with data analysis, web technologies, social media, and their case studies. Travel information on the web provided by travelers is very useful for other travelers make their travel plan. A chapter in this book proposes a method for interactive retrieval of information on accommodation facilities to support travelling customers in their travel preparations. Also an adaptive user interface for personalized transportation guidance system is proposed. Another chapter in this book shows a novel support system for the collaborative tourism planning by using the case reports that are collected via Internet. Also, a system for recommending hotels for the users is proposed and evaluated. Other chapters are concerned with recommendation, personalization, and other emerging technologies.