How does IT affect design centricity approaches: Evidence from Spain’s smart tourism ecosystem

Integrated Design and Development of Intelligent Scenic Area Rural Tourism Information Service Based on Hybrid Cloud

Although the "Internet+" technologies (big data and cloud computing) have been implemented in many industries, each industry involved in rural tourism economic information services has its own database, and there are still vast economic information resources that have not been exploited. Z travel agency through rural tourism enterprise third-party information services and mobile context-awareness-based Z travel has achieved good economic and social benefits by deep value mining and innovative application of the existing data of the enterprise through the third-party information service of rural tourism enterprises and mobile context-aware travel recommendation service. It clearly demonstrates that, in order to maximise the benefits of economic data, rural tourist businesses should focus not only on the application of new technologies and methodologies but also on the core of demand and data-driven and thoroughly investigate the potential value of current data. This paper mainly analyzes the problems related to how rural tourism can be upgraded under the smart tourism platform, with the aim of improving the development of China's rural tourism industry with the help of an integrated smart tourism platform, and proposes a hybrid cloud-based integrated system of smart scenic rural tourism information services, which can meet the actual use needs of rural tourism, with good shared service effect and platform application performance, and promote the development of rural tourism and resource utilization rate.

The future is yesterday: Use of AI-driven facial recognition to enhance value in the travel and tourism industry

This study aims to investigate the role of artificial intelligence (AI) driven facial recognition to enhance a value proposition by influencing different areas of services in the travel and tourism industry. We adopted semi-structured interviews to derive insights from 26 respondents. Thematic analysis reveals the development of four main themes (personalization, data-driven service offering, security and safety, and seamless payments). Further, we mapped the impact of AI- driven facial recognition to enhance value and experience for corporate guests. Findings indicate that AI-based facial recognition can facilitate the travel and tourism industry in understanding travelers' needs, optimization of service offers, and value-based services, whereas data-driven services can be realized in the form of customized trip planning, email, and calendar integration, and quick bill summarization. This contributes to strengthening the tourism literature through the lens of organizational information processing theory.

Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality: The Dynamic Future of Destinations

Digitalization, new work and leisure concepts and global challenges are transforming the way we live. More stakeholders, including residents and entrepreneurs, actively participate in the implementation of alternative socio-economic concepts; as such, entrepreneurial ecosystems are seen as drivers of regional development. The research still lacks holistic approaches to the application of ecosystems in tourism destinations. Hence, the objectives of this article are to capture research on entrepreneurial ecosystems in tourism and, specifically, to derive a holistic model that integrates destination and location management across stakeholders. This research utilizes the method of a systematic literature review, starting with 597 articles on ecosystems. Following four stages of exploring the literature, the results show that most articles have been published in rather isolated fields of smart tourism or quality of life aspects. Based on the rather qualitative review that reveals specific ecosystem components, we propose a model of an “Ecosystem of Hospitality” (EoH). Focusing on stakeholder interaction and encounters, the EoH fosters the adoption of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to destinations in a dynamic approach. The practical implications are, for example, a broader consideration of various stakeholders, including the local population, and a switch in typical destination management tasks from mere tourism service production to regional development and living space management.

Evaluation of information service in smart scenic area based on “SEM-ANP” synthetic evaluation mode

Evaluating the capability of smart information service and exploring the smart information service elements in scenic areas can accelerate the smart tourism industry progress to a highly effective administrative and high quality of smart tourism service. This study aims to exploring the connections of a variety of smart information service elements in scenic areas, analyzing and evaluating the capability of smart information service, mapping a positive resolution to improve the capability of information service in scenic spots. Based on a synthetic method that combining Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Analytic Network Process (ANP), explicitly using the SEM to extracting the key factors and mapping each factors’ co-relations, and in further step, using the ANP to carry a fuzzy evaluation of weighing the information service capability and each element in the case of Jiangxi Province in China, the result shows that the method of “SEM-ANP” is better fit than single ”SEM” or ”ANP”, the evaluating system for smart information service in scenic areas is significantly innovative and scientific to supply effective suggestions for policy makers.

Towards the smart tourism destination: Key factors in information source use on the tourist shopping journey

This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge on how the Smart Tourism Destination (STD) might enhance the Tourist Shopping Journey (TSJ) through offering information sources that meet visitors' needs and preferences. The CAN (Cognitive-Affective-Normative) model was employed to explore the antecedents of using information sources for purchases made in destinations. The importance of the cognitive variables performance and effort expectancy in the purchasing process are highlighted: tourists are pragmatic when consulting information sources in destinations. This study contributes to the knowledge of the role of information sources in TSJ behaviour, and can help managers in the development of STD strategies and services. It also opens new research lines by considering the TSJ as a hitherto unexamined holistic process.

Innovation diffusion in tourism: how information about blockchain is exchanged and characterized on twitter

Purpose

Technological innovations provide huge opportunities to expand and revolutionize the scope of products and services offered. This is particularly true for tourism, which is undergoing significant changes due to the development of new technologies. The level of technology diffusion depends on several factors like the exchange of information among peers, and the attitude and shared perception among the contributors. The aim of the study is to explore the diffusion of technology in tourism with a specific focus on the social media discourse around new technologies. Thus, the paper investigates the level of interest in these new technologies analysing the information exchange occurring between individuals on Twitter in order to explore the influence of reciprocal networking.

Design/methodology/approach

To capture the attitudes expressed in the industry, the study analyses the ongoing discourse on Twitter as a proxy for the participants “interest in new technologies. Through a social network analysis of the tweets and retweets conducted over a period of nine months, the research maps the level of information exchange about the diffusion of new technologies. Moreover, the sentiment analysis provides an interesting overview of the individuals” attitudes towards the awareness or the adoption of new technologies.

Findings

Our analysis has provided several insights: (1) the information network on blockchain in tourism consists of participants who change very quickly over time (high turnover of accounts); (2) some contributors have an extremely important role in influencing the flow of information in the system (information centralization), they can have a generalist (discussing several topics) or a specialist (focusing on a specific topic) behaviour and this strategic choice influences their network's structure; (3) these central nodes also have an impact on the definition of positive and negative sentiment towards a topic (sentiment influencer).

Research limitations/implications

The paper contributes to the literature on technology diffusion, by focusing on one of the preconditions of diffusion that is the shared positive attitude towards technological innovation. More specifically, we adopt a network-based approach, which is useful to explain the level of information exchange and the public discourse that can impact the shared perception and attitude towards technological innovation. The study also highlights the role of knowledge brokers in influencing this public discourse. Future studies can deepen the association between positive perception, higher levels of information exchange and increasing usage of specific technologies. Our results also suggest further exploring the opportunity to combine social media data and other sources of information to shed more light on the technological innovation diffusion processes.

Practical implications

This paper shows how practitioners can benefit from the analysis of information exchange about new technologies in tourism adopting a network perspective with the aim of understanding the level of influence among contributors. Moreover, the increasing interest in blockchain technology and the potential combination between social media data and other sources of information can offer promising insights.

Social implications

The present study explores the level of technology diffusion through the analysis of information exchange on social media (Twitter). Furthermore, the dynamics of individual user behaviour offers a better understanding about media effects.

Originality/value

While previous research is focused on the users' perception towards the development of new technologies in tourism, the aim of this study is to investigate the dynamics behind the level of diffusion of information and awareness about these new technologies, which still represents an unexplored area of research.

Dataset smartphone usage of international tourist behavior

This article contains dataset on the behavior of international tourists when traveling is related to 1) tourist demographics, 2) things that affect tourists to choose travel destinations when planning, 3) use of mobile data while traveling, 4) how to get internet access while traveling, 5) social media used during traveling, and 6) behavior of smartphone use for tourists during traveling. The raw data presented here can be used as material to analyze the behavior of international tourists related to any media that affects international tourists in planning their trips, and how they behave during traveling. This data is a source of raw data from our research on smartphones and international tourist behavior, besides being used for various other research purposes.