Smart Tourism: Towards the Concept of a Data-Based Travel Experience
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utilising real-time interactivity (Porter and Heppelmann 2014; Gretzel et al. 2015;
Mariani et al. 2018).
In the hotel industry, IoT systems can be used to personalise various settings of
the environment (temperature, lighting, water flows, etc.) or access control or verify
the operational status of individual elements of equipment to optimize repairs and
maintenance. In tourism destinations, the IoT helps monitor visitor flows, enables
traffic management, provides personalised information about location and available
transport connections attractions, trips, and shopping, either using mobile applications and e-guides used by tourists, or based on beacons that contact the tourist’s
mobile device directly (Kurilovas 2016; Guttentag 2010). Cell-phone roaming data
and Bluetooth tracking data can also help understand the pattern of tourist flows on
different scales. A group of researchers from Estonia utilised a nationwide roaming
mobile dataset of the Estonian GSM network to study the spatial–temporal pattern of
inbound tourists to Estonia (Ahas et al. 2008; Nilbe et al. 2014). Bluetooth tracking
technology enables researchers to understand tourists’ spatial–temporal movement
patterns on a small scale (Versichele et al. 2012).
Modern tourist requirements constitute a new challenge for marketers. Traditional
CRM systems no longer provide organisations with the marketing tools that meet
the requirements of technology-advanced tourists. Online travel agencies (QTravel,
Booking.com, Trivago) generate more than one-third of their sales by using sophisticated recommender systems to identify, rank and provide suitable product recommendations (Pantano et al. 2017; Xiang et al. 2015). Once they obtain access to
new technologies, marketers gain a unique chance of acquiring information about
tourists’ needs and habits to affect travellers’ buying behaviours and provide them
with customised information. Delivering the right content to the right consumer at
the right time requires a lot more than merely observing, listening, designing, testing
and creating an expected service. It is caused by the consumers’ unique and dynamic
personas, all influenced by the present context.
2.3 Data-Driven, Context-Based Tourism Experience
Although tourists were certainly a central consideration in traditional desktop
marketing, nowadays, the user’s context has shifted to a dynamic, mobile setting
involving a myriad of interactions with other people (Bradley and Dunlop, 2004).
According to Grönroos (2008), customers are not predominantly interested in goods
or services but in how these can be used for value creation. Therefore, tourism
providers need to focus on understanding their customers’ everyday practices and
value-generating processes so that they can assist in the customers’ value creation.
They should not aspire to create value for customers—focus should be placed on
finding ways to co-create value with customers. Smart technologies can assist in
personal encounters and make consumers feel recognised. Consumers’ personal preferences, combined with external factors (socio-political changes, weather, traffic and
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utilising real-time interactivity (Porter and Heppelmann 2014; Gretzel et al. 2015;
Mariani et al. 2018).
In the hotel industry, IoT systems can be used to personalise various settings of
the environment (temperature, lighting, water flows, etc.) or access control or verify
the operational status of individual elements of equipment to optimize repairs and
maintenance. In tourism destinations, the IoT helps monitor visitor flows, enables
traffic management, provides personalised information about location and available
transport connections attractions, trips, and shopping, either using mobile applications and e-guides used by tourists, or based on beacons that contact the tourist’s
mobile device directly (Kurilovas 2016; Guttentag 2010). Cell-phone roaming data
and Bluetooth tracking data can also help understand the pattern of tourist flows on
different scales. A group of researchers from Estonia utilised a nationwide roaming
mobile dataset of the Estonian GSM network to study the spatial–temporal pattern of
inbound tourists to Estonia (Ahas et al. 2008; Nilbe et al. 2014). Bluetooth tracking
technology enables researchers to understand tourists’ spatial–temporal movement
patterns on a small scale (Versichele et al. 2012).
Modern tourist requirements constitute a new challenge for marketers. Traditional
CRM systems no longer provide organisations with the marketing tools that meet
the requirements of technology-advanced tourists. Online travel agencies (QTravel,
Booking.com, Trivago) generate more than one-third of their sales by using sophisticated recommender systems to identify, rank and provide suitable product recommendations (Pantano et al. 2017; Xiang et al. 2015). Once they obtain access to
new technologies, marketers gain a unique chance of acquiring information about
tourists’ needs and habits to affect travellers’ buying behaviours and provide them
with customised information. Delivering the right content to the right consumer at
the right time requires a lot more than merely observing, listening, designing, testing
and creating an expected service. It is caused by the consumers’ unique and dynamic
personas, all influenced by the present context.
2.3 Data-Driven, Context-Based Tourism Experience
Although tourists were certainly a central consideration in traditional desktop
marketing, nowadays, the user’s context has shifted to a dynamic, mobile setting
involving a myriad of interactions with other people (Bradley and Dunlop, 2004).
According to Grönroos (2008), customers are not predominantly interested in goods
or services but in how these can be used for value creation. Therefore, tourism
providers need to focus on understanding their customers’ everyday practices and
value-generating processes so that they can assist in the customers’ value creation.
They should not aspire to create value for customers—focus should be placed on
finding ways to co-create value with customers. Smart technologies can assist in
personal encounters and make consumers feel recognised. Consumers’ personal preferences, combined with external factors (socio-political changes, weather, traffic and