De destinos turísticos inteligentes a regiones turísticas inteligentes

There is growing interest in developing smart tourism beyond individual smart destinations, but research and practice currently do not supply the necessary conceptualizations that could inform smart tourism development at a regional level. This paper argues that this is the case because of smart tourism’s roots in smart city ideas and literature. It discusses the main pillars of smart tourism and smart destinations and then illustrates how pervasive urban biases are in the smart development arena. The paper then highlights the many ways in which these are problematic for reaching regional smart tourism understandings and designing appropriate regional-level strategies. It calls for smart tourism regions to be defined beyond clusters of individual smart destinations and across all domains of smartness.Existe un creciente interés en el desarrollo del turismo inteligente más allá de los destinos inteligentes individuales, pero actualmente la investigación y la práctica no son capaces de ofrecer las conceptualizaciones necesarias que permitan conformar el desarrollo turístico inteligente en un nivel regional. Este artículo plantea si esto se debe a las raíces que el turismo inteligente tiene en las ideas de ciudades inteligentes y en la literatura. Se discuten los pilares principales del turismo inteligente y de los destinos inteligentes y, después, se ilustra cómo los sesgos urbanos generalizados existen en el área de desarrollo inteligente. Este artículo, después, resalta las múltiples formas en las que estos sesgos son problemáticos para la consecución de un entendimiento sobre el turismo inteligente regional y para el diseño de estrategias apropiadas para un nivel regional. Es necesario que las regiones turísticas inteligentes sean definidas como algo más que agrupaciones de destinos inteligentes individuales y en los que sean aplicables todos los dominios de inteligencia

Differences in Online Travel Planning: A Rural vs. Urban Perspective

The digital divide has been mostly studied with respect to access issues. This paper argues that differences in use have to be considered as well. It specifically looks at digital inequality issues with respect to rural versus urban Internet users in the context of online travel planning. A study of US online travelers was used as the data source and urban and rural respondents were identified based on whether they resided in a metropolitan statistical area or not. The analysis of the data indicates interesting digital inequalities with respect to Internet use as well as benefits derived. Implications for tourism marketers are discussed

INFLUENCE OF CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS ON PERCEPTIONS OF MUSEUM PODCASTS

The primary objective of this study was to investigate museum visitors’ interest in podcast museum tours and identify determinants which influence perceptions of the podcast tour experience. In particular, this study hypothesized a positive effect of consumer innovativeness on expected changes in the museum experience as a result of the podcast tour. Self-report questionnaires were distributed to visitors who had finished their museum visit and a total of 797 usable questionnaires were collected. The findings of this study indicate that the majority of museum visitors included in the study are still unaware of emerging technologies such as podcasts. However, museum visitors clearly show interest in special audio tours and expect those to enhance their museum experience. Innovativeness as an individual’s trait drives these perceptions as well as actual technology ownership. Thus, it is recommended that offerings for visitors with different levels of innovativeness have to be designed (e.g. devices to be rented at the museum vs. podcasts downloadable from a Web site) in order to speed up the adoption process and to make podcast tours useable for the majority of visitors. The study findings suggest that new technologies such as podcasts provide opportunities for museums to interpret their offerings in new ways, targeting more specific audiences. With growing familiarity of museum visitors with these technologies and increasing adoption by other museums, it is expected that demand for special interest tours available as podcasts will rapidly increase

The Role of Interactive Maps and Spatial Ability in Creating Virtual Tourism Experiences: A Measurement Framework

Maps are essential tools for providing information about tourism destinations to tourists. With the emergence of digital maps, more and more destination websites use various forms of digital maps to help tourists orient themselves before they even reach the destination. Based on psychology and virtual reality literature, this study constructs a framework to measure how the different types of digital maps affect potential tourists’ ability to explore the space represented in the maps. In addition, the study explores how individual characteristics of the tourists such as spatial ability and evaluations of the maps such as perceived interactivity and perceived user control affect virtual experiences of the space presented in the map. An experiment was conducted to test the measures and obtain preliminary findings regarding variations in the constructs based on the type of map used

Wineries\u27 involvement in promoting tourism online: the case of Texas

Wine tourism has become an important driver of business for wineries in many regionsaround the world, while Texas wine regions are only starting to emerge as important tourism destinations.A study was conducted to investigate how effectively Texas wineries market tourism to their ownestablishments as well as in a regional context. A specific focus was placed on indications of collaborativewine tourism marketing practices on winery websites. The results indicate that wineries providebasic visitor information but are missing out on strategic opportunities to market wine tourism to theirareas

The Use of Modern Architecture in City Marketing

Modern architecture creates iconic city landscapes that increasingly shape our mental imagery of city destinations. By identifying common methods employed in positioning images of modern architecture on destination websites, this study seeks to further the conceptualization of destination image creation in online contexts. A visual content analysis of 125 European city websites was conducted; each coded based on image size, placement, and juxtaposition of modern architecture to other destination elements. The results of this study point out that images of modern architecture are prominently placed to gain attention and be seen as part of the ideal destination image. However, they are not used exclusively but rather in conjunction with images of other city elements

Web 2.0: ew Rules for Tourism Marketing

Web 2.0 technologies challenge many tourism marketers since they have to change their old marketing beliefs and quickly learn how to best capitalize on Web 2.0 technologies. Recognizing the growing importance of Web 2.0 technologies in tourism, this paper seeks to provide a new marketing framework to help travel marketers better understand the changing marketing environment and also to identify research opportunities for tourism researchers. The new marketing functions extended by Web 2.0 technologies are discussed based on current marketing literature. Further, case studies are presented to illustrate how these functions could be translated into practical tourism marketing strategies

Generational Differences in CGM Perceptions and Use for Travel Planning

Although online consumer-generated media (CGM) play an important role in travel decision-making, it is questionable if the uses and impacts of CGM are equal across different age groups. This study thus tested whether generational differences can be found regarding travel-related CGM use and impacts. The results show important differences among the generational groups in terms of their Internet affinity, travelrelated CGM use and perceptions as well as their CGM creation behaviors. The findings of this study broaden our understanding of how travel-related CGM is used and perceived by different generational cohorts and indicate the need for strategic marketing planning that takes generational cohorts into account

The Influence of Virtual Representatives on Recommender System Evaluation

Virtual representatives are increasingly used in recommender systems to guide users and add conversational aspects. However, the impacts of virtual representatives on users’ evaluations of the recommender system have not been investigated. This study specifically examined the influence of virtual representatives’ anthropomorphism cues on system users’ perceptions of system credibility and liking. The results revealed that system users’ perceptions of the virtual representative’s credibility have a significant influence on users’ perceived credibility and liking of the system. Also, the human-like appearance of a virtual representative significantly influences users’ perceived attractiveness of the virtual representative, while voice outputs from the representative were found to have a significant influence on users’ liking of the recommender system

Intercultural Adaptation in the Context of Short Term Mission Trips

Intercultural adaptation is a critical issue in international tourism. Good quality interactions can provide satisfaction for both tourists and local communities. This paper presents a study of intercultural adaptation in the context of international short-term mission trips using qualitative research methods. The objective of this study was to understand the process of intercultural adaptation so that existing theory on intercultural adaptation can be informed and, at the same time, insights can be gained with respect to short-term mission travel as a new form of tourism for which such intercultural adaptation seems to be an important condition