Daily Deals in the Mediterranean Region: A Data Analytics Approach

Daily Deal (DD) websites have established themselves as an inventory distribution channel for hotels, yet they remain a largely underexplored topic in tourism. This paper seeks to provide insights into the nature of high-end DD websites through data analysis of individual offers’ attributes, obtained by direct observation of three main hotel-focused DD websites and one review website. The preliminary analysis of the data reveals that specialised DDs are a marketplace for quality hotels that can be considered as a semi-permanent form of a distribution channel. The outcomes challenge the currently established literature by offering a novel perspective and a more in-depth understanding of DDs and their use by the hoteliers as a marketing tool and inventory distribution channel

Načrtovanje potovanj in vloga družbenih omrežij pri milenijcih (slo.) / Travel planning and the role of social media among Millennials (eng.)

Vloga družbenih omrežij in potovalne navade milenijcev so med najbolj vročimi raziskovalnimi temami v turizmu, preseneča pa dejstvo, da še vedno zelo malo vemo o obnašanju milenjcev v fazi načrtovanja potovanj. V članku na podlagi kvantitativne raziskave na mednarodnem vzorcu izobraženih milenijcev proučimo značilnosti faze njihovega načrtovanja in spletnega nakupovanja potovanj ter razjasnimo razlike med vplivi posameznih vrst družbenih omrežij

A business model approach towards the understanding of daily deals within Internet distribution systems

The business model approach is making a slow, but steady footprint in tourism research, and can offer a fresh perspective and a viable level-of-analysis for broader networks of internet distribution systems. Among those, the researchers have devoted limited attention to studying the daily deal providers and their position next to the online travel agencies. More importantly, the daily deal providers developed a unique business model whose characteristics, contrary to early predictions, enabled them to proliferate post-recession and maintain their position. The current study uses the business model approach to observe the original dimensions and business model elements, to identify distinct characteristics of generic and niche daily deal providers, and to benchmark them against the established online travel agencies. The business model approach enhances the understanding of the overlooked niche daily-deal providers in internet distribution systems. Further, the paper provides a comparison of the distinct business model characteristics in internet distribution systems to help facilitate the formulation of a unique value proposition for each of them. Ultimately, the authors acknowledge limited possibilities for cooperation between the providers and discuss substantive directions of daily deal and internet distribution systems business model transformations of the future

A Technology-Based Innovation Adoption and Implementation Analysis of European Smart Tourism Projects: Towards a Smart Actionable Classification Model (SACM)

Similar to the concept of “Smart Cities”, “Smart Tourism” has undoubtedly become a promising field of research, and “the” buzzword in the last five years. But how much of this is “smart washing”, and how much progress has really been made? We focus on the adoption and implementation of technological innovations to analyze the publicly available descriptions of Smart Tourism projects implemented in Europe according to the stringent technological criteria of contemporary Smart Tourism definitions. The results show that the vast majority of projects branded as “smart” predominantly pursue environmental sustainability goals, but do not feature advanced technology that meets the Smart Actionable attribute criteria, and do not address social sustainability issues to the same extent as the environmental ones

The Dual Aspect of Technology in Tourism: Social Contradictions Surrounding the Sharing Economy and Smart Destination Development

The technology and the rise of Web 2.0. enabled the meteoric rise of P2P platforms facilitating transactions and consequential establishment of the sharing economy concept. This accelerated technological change has led to new dynamics in cities and tourist destinations such as over-tourism with the so-called arise of sharing economy significantly fueling it. The main purpose of our chapter is to systematically review this dual aspect of technological impacts in tourism. On the one hand, we review the technological aspects that underpin the development of sharing economy and consequential over-tourism in destinations. On the other hand, we consider aspects that seem to be promising to provide solutions and make the currently rather idealistic ideas of smart and socially sustainable destinations also work in practice. As such the chapter critically addresses and connects diverse concepts that are interrelated, but rarely discussed together