Smart Tourism: Towards the Concept of a Data-Based Travel Experience
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user’s personal preferences can offer useful information for profiling or personalising
services or refining information retrieval. Tourists, empowered by smart technologies, are able to turn into connected and active participants in a technology-enabled
service environment (Dey et al. 2001; Osbakk and Rydgren 2005; Gretzel et al.
2015). Location-based services (Carlsson and Walden 2010; Neuhofer et al. 2012)
and context-based services (Burrell and Gay 2002; Lamsfus et al. 2010) have increasingly been implemented to assist them with navigating, retrieving information and
making reservations.
The idea of the user-centric digital system implies the complete integration of
physical space and cyberspace. In the digital system, the user should be the centre
of an integrated collection of interaction channels. The most successful organisations/tourism destinations will be those that can leverage such channels not only to
engage tourists but also to alter their behaviour and provide them with added value
(Mobile Marketing Association 2014).
Independence and easy access to information constitute the priorities of modern
tourists. The application of QR codes was one of the first efforts made in this field.
Placed on buildings, facilities and tourist attractions, QR codes provide quick and
effortless access to the website with appropriate information. Though it seems to be
a good solution, it is still the traveller who needs to get to a place and look for more
information about attractions. The development of context-aware applications has
opened completely new possibilities of communication with the (potential) tourist
and the shape of marketing strategies.
In the consumer behaviour framework, tourists are seen as decision makers using
various information search strategies to support their pre-visit and on site decisions
(e.g. Sirakaya and Woodside 2005; Buhalis and Amaranggana 2014). In the pre-visit
phase, information is sought for destination assessment, itinerary planning and logistics (transportation, accommodation); onsite, ad-hoc information is sought on directions, recommendations and activities on location; in the post-visit phase, tourists
want to recollect views from the trip and share them with others, and information is
collected to support digital storytelling (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2014). There are
some marketing possibilities at every stage—provided marketers are equipped with
contextual data.
Albers and Kim (2002) and Setten et al. (2004) have demonstrated that context can
be used to measure the relevance of information so that only appropriate information
is presented. Instead of receiving pre-designed experiences, consumers have become
central actors that integrate their resources in the co-creation of experiences and value
(Vargo and Lusch 2008). While reading comments in social media, tourists might
get to know about a place they did not know about previously. While getting the
right information at the right moment, they might change their mind about specific
activities, decide to leave a place or prolong the stay by easily changing reservations
for a flight or accommodation. They can share information and make comments
influencing the plans of others. This way, value is not created by the provider but via
the customers’ value-generating processes.
297
user’s personal preferences can offer useful information for profiling or personalising
services or refining information retrieval. Tourists, empowered by smart technologies, are able to turn into connected and active participants in a technology-enabled
service environment (Dey et al. 2001; Osbakk and Rydgren 2005; Gretzel et al.
2015). Location-based services (Carlsson and Walden 2010; Neuhofer et al. 2012)
and context-based services (Burrell and Gay 2002; Lamsfus et al. 2010) have increasingly been implemented to assist them with navigating, retrieving information and
making reservations.
The idea of the user-centric digital system implies the complete integration of
physical space and cyberspace. In the digital system, the user should be the centre
of an integrated collection of interaction channels. The most successful organisations/tourism destinations will be those that can leverage such channels not only to
engage tourists but also to alter their behaviour and provide them with added value
(Mobile Marketing Association 2014).
Independence and easy access to information constitute the priorities of modern
tourists. The application of QR codes was one of the first efforts made in this field.
Placed on buildings, facilities and tourist attractions, QR codes provide quick and
effortless access to the website with appropriate information. Though it seems to be
a good solution, it is still the traveller who needs to get to a place and look for more
information about attractions. The development of context-aware applications has
opened completely new possibilities of communication with the (potential) tourist
and the shape of marketing strategies.
In the consumer behaviour framework, tourists are seen as decision makers using
various information search strategies to support their pre-visit and on site decisions
(e.g. Sirakaya and Woodside 2005; Buhalis and Amaranggana 2014). In the pre-visit
phase, information is sought for destination assessment, itinerary planning and logistics (transportation, accommodation); onsite, ad-hoc information is sought on directions, recommendations and activities on location; in the post-visit phase, tourists
want to recollect views from the trip and share them with others, and information is
collected to support digital storytelling (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2014). There are
some marketing possibilities at every stage—provided marketers are equipped with
contextual data.
Albers and Kim (2002) and Setten et al. (2004) have demonstrated that context can
be used to measure the relevance of information so that only appropriate information
is presented. Instead of receiving pre-designed experiences, consumers have become
central actors that integrate their resources in the co-creation of experiences and value
(Vargo and Lusch 2008). While reading comments in social media, tourists might
get to know about a place they did not know about previously. While getting the
right information at the right moment, they might change their mind about specific
activities, decide to leave a place or prolong the stay by easily changing reservations
for a flight or accommodation. They can share information and make comments
influencing the plans of others. This way, value is not created by the provider but via
the customers’ value-generating processes.