Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research

This paper reviews the published articles on eTourism in the past 20 years. Using a wide variety of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, this paper comprehensively reviews and analyzes prior studies in the context of Internet applications to Tourism. The paper also projects future developments in eTourism and demonstrates critical changes that will influence the tourism industry structure. A major contribution of this paper is its overview of the research and development efforts that have been endeavoured in the field, and the challenges that tourism researchers are, and will be, facing

Innovation Strategies in Tourism Industry

Master's thesis in International Hospitality ManagementFocus: Nowadays, innovation research in tourism sector has catch the attention of academics and business players. In fact, over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. This master thesis, is to study in detail the theory of innovation in tourism and, to develop innovation strategies for the tourism sector. This thesis is based on theoretical review about the concept of innovations in tourism industry to understand different types of innovations, the measurements and determinants of innovation. Although, innovation strategies and strategic innovation in tourism industry were the main focus of the study. Findings: The findings provide a practical contribution to academics and companies on how certain strategies can be implemented in the tourism sector, such internationalization, the use of new technologies and sustainability. Moreover, different tools of strategy management were also studied, along with the innovation systems and innovation management. Research limitations / implications: This paper is only limited to the theoretical part of innovation strategies in tourism industry. Performing an empirical study would be much more interesting, to learn more about how these different strategies are implemented. Furthermore, I have been focusing on all dimensions of strategies, and was unable to draw a practical conclusion but several valuables recommendations were provided. Originality – Value: This study has established a framework for the further study of innovation in tourism. Accordingly, research in the field of innovation systems and innovation management might be developed in several forms. Regarding the innovations strategies, these are certainly useful knowledge for both academics and managers.submittedVersio

A SHARED INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR TOURISM ENTERPRISES IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

In a developing economy's business environment, introduction of new technology creates a large potential for more effective and streamlined production of tourism services. This study shows guidelines of design of an inter-organizational information system for small tourism enterprises. The entrepreneurial goal is to support strategic alliances in order to obtain better market-fit and sustainable competitive advance. This requires that the enterprises are capable of evaluating their existing processes, identify and outline improvements, and implement them. More than that, enterprises have to execute profound strategic changes in their business processes. For this change, study shows that adaption of supportive information system can be a key factor to satisfy these demands. Firstly, using systematic literature review the study identifies global trends of e-tourism. Secondly the trends are compared with the reality of small tourism enterprises in Nicaraguan Caribbean coast. With interview and brain storming sessions with hotel managers and local tourism specialists, desired state of e-tourism enhanced business processes is defined. Performance gaps and solutions are identified and outlined in order to reach new customer segments and better customer satisfaction with use of inter-organizational information system. With help of shared information system, enterprises search for sustainable economic growth and more stable business environment for their activities. The scientific domain of research is Information systems science. The method used for data collection and interpretation is systematic literature review and human and institutional capacity development -method. As result, the research identifies critical business processes when implementing e-Tourism services into tourism enterprises in developing economies. Strategic solutions for sustainable improvements in business processes supported by use of shared information system are outlined. As a practical result, the study lists required steps in order to reach desired changes in tourism enterprises with e-tourism initiative. Specification of requirements for information system is made. The implementation process and construction of information system is left out from this research and it requires later its own case study.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

A critical evaluation of information sources used in the tourist destination decision making process

The tourism industry is one of the largest in the world; it is also an industry which is growing in terms of its overall contribution to global GDP and employment and in terms of the number of destinations which seek to attract tourists (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2015). Concurrent developments in information communication technology serve to amplify the tyranny of choice faced by tourist destination decision makers by providing greater information on the growing list of possible destinations, resulting in an ever more complex decision making process. The holiday destination decision is one which evoke high levels of product and purchase decision involvement, both of which encourage an extended, more comprehensive decision making process; this in turn elicits the collection and assimilation of greater amounts of information about the various alternatives. Information search, however, is limited by a number of factors (the time available to the decision maker and cognitive processing capacity being chief amongst the limitations), therefore the information about each destination that is critically analysed by the decision maker during the destination decision making process is not uniform. Understanding the role that the various information sources play (how they are perceived, whether they are used and whether their use influences the likelihood of the destination being chosen or not) during the tourist destination decision making process is important to professionals engaged in the marketing of tourist destinations. However, in the words of Choi et al (2012, p. 26) ‘there has been no empirical research attempting to explore information use patterns within the structure of the decision-making process in the tourism literature’. As a result, the aim of this research was to identify and evaluate a complete choice set model of the extended Destination Decision Making process and review critically the role of information sources within that affect the process. A web based questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from a sample (judgement sampling was used due to the lack of a sample frame) who were asked (amongst other things) about the destinations that they considered during the destination decision making process, why they rejected destinations, which information sources they used to research the destinations and what their perceptions of the information sources were. The data collected were analysed using SPSS statistical software package. The findings confirmed the validity of the choice set model which was presented and tested within this research. The findings also demonstrated that a construct of ‘perceived utility of information sources’ exists which is a compound of the sources’ perceived level of bias, how up to date it is, how easy it is to access and the value that can be obtained through that source. An information sources’ perceived utility was found to be positively correlated to whether it is used or not. Furthermore, the results of this research identified statistically significant relationships between the use of an information source and the likelihood of the destination researched through that source being selected (or rejected), thus drawing a link between perceived utility, use of an information source and the likelihood of destination selection/rejection. Finally, the results of statistical analysis also showed that demographic differences affect the perceived utility of information sources, whether they were used in the destination decision making process and the likelihood of a destination being researched through the source being selected or not. The findings of this research can be used by professionals responsible for destination marketing who can establish the perceived utility of the information sources that they use amongst their target market in order to maximise the likelihood of their destination being selected

Determinantes da implementação de uma estratégia de negócio eletrónico por parte das organizações de gestão de destinos turísticos

Doutoramento em TurismoA presente tese foca-se na adoção tecnológica por parte das organizações de gestão de destinos turísticos uma vez que estas organizações exercem um papel preponderante na gestão dos destinos turísticos. Os sistemas de gestão de destinos são considerados uma infraestrutura tecnológica crucial destas organizações. Contudo na literatura não está claro quais são os fatores que promovem a implementação destes sistemas, nem quais os fatores que contribuem para o seu sucesso. A presente tese pretende propor e testar dois modelos de investigação para colmatar algumas limitações da literatura ao nível dos determinantes da implementação e sucesso dos sistemas de gestão de destinos. O primeiro modelo refere-se às determinantes da implementação dos sistemas de gestão de destinos, equacionando a influência dos fatores relacionados com a gestão do destino e com as características das organizações de gestão de destinos. O segundo modelo diz respeito às determinantes do sucesso dos referidos sistemas pretendendo analisar-se a influência das características dos sistemas de gestão de destinos no sucesso destes mesmos sistemas. O teste das hipóteses subjacentes aos modelos de investigação propostos permitiu retirar conclusões que constituem o principal contributo da presente tese. No que diz respeito aos fatores que promovem a implementação destes sistemas destaca-se a importância da diversidade de parcerias que o setor privado estabelece no destino, da existência de uma estrutura de governança no destino que maximize as vantagens da gestão do destino, e ainda, o envolvimento dos parceiros nas funções da organização de gestão de destinos. No que diz respeito aos fatores que favorecem o sucesso dos sistemas destaca-se a importância da implementação faseada, de um elevado número de funcionalidades ter um impacto negativo no sucesso, e ainda, a importância da existência de um modelo de receita que permita suportar os custos de financiamento e operacionalização do sistema. A tese fornece importantes contributos teóricos e práticos para a implementação com sucesso de sistemas de gestão de destinos por parte das organizações de gestão de destinos.The present study focus on the technology adoption by destination management organizations considered key in destination management. Destination management systems have been considered a crucial technological infrastructure of these organizations. However, in the literature, it is not clear what are the factors that promote the implementation of these systems, neither what are the factors that contribute to their success. The present thesis aims to propose and test two research models that permit to overcome some limitations of the literature regarding the determinants of implementation and success of destination management systems. The first model refers to the determinants of the implementation of destination management systems, equating the influence of factors related to the destination management and to the characteristics of the destination management organizations. The second model deals with the determinants of the success of those systems, aiming to analyze the influence of the characteristics of the management information systems in the success of these systems. The test of the hypotheses underlying the research models proposed made possible to draw some conclusions that are the main contributions of this thesis. In what concerns the factors promoting the implementation of these systems we remark the importance of the diversity of partnerships that the private sector establishes in the destination, of the existence of a governance structure in the destination that could maximize the destination management advantages, and of the involvement of partners in the functions of the destination management organization. In what concerns the factors that promote the success of these systems we highlight the importance of a phased implementation, the fact that a high number of functionalities in the system prevents it from success, and the importance of having a revenue model that could support financing and operating costs. The thesis provides important theoretical and practical contributions to the successful implementation of destination management systems by destination management organizations