Global Hospitality and Tourism Management Technologies

Global Hospitality and Tourism Management Technologies Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos The University of Oviedo, Spain Robert Tennyson University of Minnesota, USA Jingyuan Zhao Harbin Institute of Technology, China

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Global hospitality and tourism management technologies / Patricia Ordonez de Pablos, Robert Tennyson, and Jingyuan Zhao, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “This book is a comprehensive source of information for those interested in tourism and hospitality management, approaches, and trends, and, covers the emerging research topics that will define the future of IT and cultural development in the 21st century”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-61350-041-5 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-61350-042-2 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61350-043-9 (print & perpetual access) 1. Tourism--Management. 2. Hospitality industry. I. Ordsqez de Pablos, Patricia, 1975- II. Tennyson, Robert D. III. Zhao, Jingyuan, 1968G155.A1G4877 2012 910.68--dc23 2011022136

British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.

List of Reviewers Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos, The University of Oviedo, Spain Jingyuan Zhao, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Robert D. Tennyson, University of Minnesota, USA Aliana M W Leong, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR. Ashleigh K. Shelton, University of Minnesota, USA Carmine Sellitto, Centre for Tourism and Services Research, Australia Chad Lin, Curtin University, Australia Deepak Chhabra, Arizona State University, USA Eleonora Pantano, Department of Linguistics, University of Calabria, Italy Fabiana Lorenzi, Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Brazil Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China John C. Crotts, College of Charleston, USA Jose Emilio Labra Gayo, The University of Oviedo, Spain Juan Manuel Cueva Lovelle, The University of Oviedo, Spain Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China Miltiadis D. Lytras, American College in Greece, Greece Murat Çetin, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia Neeta Baporikar, Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Sultanate of Oman Rocco Servidio, Department of Linguistics, University of Calabria, Italy Ruth Rios-Morales, University of Glion,Switzerland Stan Karanasios, University of Leeds, UK Stanley Loh, Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Brazil Stephen Burgess, Centre for Tourism and Services Research, Australia Tao Chen, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Tienan Wang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Xi Li, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR Zhiming Zhu, Hohai University, China

Table of Contents

Preface.................................................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 Virtual Tourism: Functions, Profit Modes and Practices in China........................................................... 1 Jingyuan Zhao, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain Robert Tenysson, University of Minnesota, USA Chapter 2 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology............................................................................................................................................. 12 Aliana M W Leong, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR Xi Li, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR Chapter 3 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in the Australian Hospitality and Tourism Sector............................................................................................ 27 Chad Lin, Curtin University, Australia Chapter 4 Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour: The Case of Pervasive Environments....................... 52 Eleonora Pantano, University of Calabria, Italy Rocco Servidio, University of Calabria, Italy Chapter 5 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing........................................... 72 Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China Chapter 6 Two Tickets for Paradise: Gaming and Tourism.................................................................................... 91 Ashleigh K. Shelton, University of Minnesota, USA Chapter 7 The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry: The Problem of (Mis)use of Building Technology and Language of Heritage........................................................................................................................... 102 Murat Çetin, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia

Chapter 8 Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman.................................................................................. 116 Neeta Baporikar, Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Sultanate of Oman Chapter 9 Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry........................................................................... 136 Ruth Rios-Morales, University of Glion,Switzerland John C. Crotts, College of Charleston, USA Chapter 10 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience:A Case Study of San-Fang Qi-Xiang in Fuzhou City, China..................................................................................... 151 Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China Chapter 11 A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications................................................................................ 165 Stan Karanasios, University of Leeds, UK Stephen Burgess, Victoria University, Australia Carmine Sellitto, Victoria University, Australia Chapter 12 Personal Tour:A Multi-Agent Recommender System of Travel Packages.......................................... 178 Fabiana Lorenzi, Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Brazil Stanley Loh, Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil & Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Brazil Mara Abel, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Chapter 13 Management of World Heritage Sites:An Integrated Sustainable Marketing Approach..................... 189 Deepak Chhabra, Arizona State University, USA Chapter 14 Research Review of OWOM:Chinese Cases....................................................................................... 207 Tao Chen, Harbin Institute of Technology & Nanjing Normal University & SanJiang University, China Zhiming Zhu, Hohai University, China Tienan Wang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 224 About the Contributors..................................................................................................................... 251 Index.................................................................................................................................................... 256

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Preface

Tourism is a dynamic part of our economy. The global hospitality and tourism industry, which blends the lodging, food, attractions, cultural and travel industries, is the world’s largest industry with $4.5 trillion in expenditures generating 212 million jobs. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) currently projects that by the year 2010, 338 million people will be employed in the industry that will grow to $8.4 trillion in expenditures. The main objective of the book is for dynamic market forces such as global competition, changing customer expectations, and new communication technology – combined with career challenges due to ongoing industry consolidation and corporate restructuring – mandate continuous learning and the sharing of ideas. The book will facilitate this need by providing strategic information and clear insights to the world-wide hospitality and tourism issues as well as the role of IT in these industries. It aims to be the leading source of information for all those interested in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Approaches, and Trends as well as to cover the emerging research topics which are going to define the future of IT and cultural and creativity development in the 21st century. The book’s strategy aims to be the reference edition for all those interested on the strategic role of information technologies towards the achievement of a long term competitive advantage in the hospitality and tourism industry (with main emphasis to be paid on practical aspects) as well as to be the reference edition for all those (policy makers, government officers, academics and practitioners) interested in understanding applications of IT for tourism and hospitality management and for people thirsty to know on how to address challenges for IT and tourism and hospitality in the 21st century. Global Hospitality and Tourism Management Technologies is organized into 14 chapters which provide insight on global hospitality and tourism management as a whole. Chapter 1 (Virtual tourism: functions, profit modes and practices in China) focuses on functions and profit models as well discussions on the application of virtual tourism in China. Although the research on virtual tourism made great progress in China, there is still a gap compared with international research on virtual tourism. With the promotion of virtual reality technology and the development of tourism industries, virtual tourism will effectively meet the needs of tourists Chapter 2 (A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology) indicates that with the help of high technology, improving the scenic RFID smart queuing system will be the main function of queue management module. Following the development of mass tourism, more and more scenic spots began to face the problem of queue management; Fairness and effectiveness of queue management will directly affect the visitors’ experience in the scenic area.

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Chapter 3 (Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in the Australian Hospitality and Tourism Sector) proposes that the hospitality and tourism sector is one of fastest growing sectors in Australia and in the world. In order to become more efficient and effective in delivering products and services to customers via the use of ICT, hospitality and tourism organizations have to rethink the ways in which they build relationships with their customers by initiating electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) projects. Inappropriate eCRM decision-making and implementation can result in multi-million dollar losses, which can translate into a loss of competitiveness. Chapter 4 (Advanced technologies and tourism behaviour: the case of pervasive environments) provides an overview of the most advanced technologies for tourism sector, with emphasis on pervasive environments, which represent innovative systems based on an efficient integration of virtual reality and affective world. The aim is to show how tourism industry might exploit the current advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as virtual reality, web-based technologies, mobile devices, etc., to catch tourists’ attention and gain competitive advantages over competitors. In particular, these technologies are capable of promoting touristic destination in a global perspective and affect potential tourist decision-making process, by investigating the main characteristics and possible integrations. Chapter 5 (Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation areas in Peri-urban Beijing) aims to identify the factors which will influence the spatial distribution of peri-urban recreation areas, by analyzing the collected data from questionnaires, online survey, documentation and field investigations. In order to achieve sound information, relevant data from different management departments, owners and land-use types involved in the case study area is collected. Chapter 6 (Two Tickets for Paradise: Gaming and Tourism) begins by identifying linkage points between advergames, tourism and three major mass communication theories/approaches—media dependency theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and uses and gratifications theory . These will serve as examples of how advergames and hospitality can be integrated into theories and models attempting to explain the impact of information technologies. They will also provide a springboard for considering the nature of advergames with regards to tourism. Chapter 7 (The role of architecture on tourism industry; the problem of (mis)use of building technology and language of heritage) argues that power of tourism industry has reached, under the pressure of global economics, to a capacity to turn even daily architecture into instruments of touristic show. In this context, technology is utilized as an instrument to produce such iconography only as a surface articulation. Thus, architecture becomes a commodity of touristic consumption in this current socio-economic and cultural context. Chapter 8 (Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman) touches base on the trends found in the tourism Industry in Oman. It is also the main source of income generation for countries like Mauritius, Spain etc. Oman being the second largest country in the Middle East possessing wealth of natural resources has everything to offer to the tourists. It has a long coastline with pristine beaches, beautiful mountains, and world’s best deserts with rolling sand dunes. Chapter 9 (Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry) highlights where the changes in the hotel sales business are occuring, why they are occuring, and what they mean to both buyers and sellers. The intent of this overview is to inform hotel owners and investors who are considering such an investment as to the benefits that can potentially be derived from SFA. Furthermore, our intent is to provide hospitality educators insights as to how SFA is changing the workplace of both meeting planners and

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hotel sales professionals so they can provide their students a realistic view of the software aids they may need to master to be successful in their careers. Chapter 10 (Tourism revitalization of historic district in perspective of tourist experience: A case study of San-Fang Qi-Xiang in Fuzhou City, China) discusses the new thought of tourism revitalization in historic district in perspective of tourist experience. Firstly, based on the deep analysis of tourist experience’s essential elements in historic districts, 6E experience mode is established to summarize the tourist experience, which includes Estheticism and nostalgia, Education and culture, Entertainment and leisure, Exchange and communication and Emotion sublimation. Meanwhile, how to build up and enhance every single experience of 6E model in tourism revitalization of historic district is also explained. Secondly, the application of 6E model is demonstrated elaborately in the case of Conceptual Planning of Tourism Development in San-Fang Qi-Xiang Historic District in Fuzhou City. Considering the hierarchy and comprehensibility of tourist experience and combined with site environment analysis, San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four function divisions: Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane, Antai water-front zone and Residential blocks for minority customization. Chapter 11 (A classification of mobile tourism applications) introduces mobile technology and discusses its emergence in the tourism industry. As has been the case with other Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), tourism has manifested as one of the most well suited sectors to mobile technology and mobile applications. In contrast to other ICTs in the tourism domain however, mobile applications are capable of enhancing the tourist experience at the destination, creating a paradigm shift in how information is accessed and digested, and transactions performed. Nonetheless, little is known concerning how mobile technologies are changing the landscape of tourism and tourist behaviour and the content offered by tourism applications. Chapter 12 (Personal Tour: a multi-agent recommender system of travel packages) describes the Personal Tour, a multi-agent recommender system designed to help users to find best travel packages according to their preferences. Personal Tour is based on the collaboration of multiple agents exchanging information stored in their local knowledge bases. Based on the paradigm of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence, a user recommendation request is divided into partial recommendations handled by different agents, each one maintaining incomplete information that may be useful to compose a recommendation. Chapter 13 (Management of World Heritage Sites: An Integrated Sustainable Marketing Approach) seeks to use an integrated sustainable marketing paradigm to determine if a predetermined set of important indicators from the model are visibly implemented by the world heritage sites (WHS). More specifically, the aim is to suggest add-ons to the heritage conservation principles so that a holistic and integrated sustainable paradigm of heritage tourism can be devised. In the recent decades, the global/ world form of heritage has received unprecedented attention in heritage tourism, more so because it brings with it a celebrity UNESCO status to the heritage site. Chapter 14 (Research Review of OWOM: Chinese Cases) defines OWOM (Online Word-of-Mouth) and discusses the connotation, communication process and communication effect, and practical application, and put forward some managerial suggestions. As online shopping is regarded as a fashion in china, online word-of-mouth has significant influences on shopping and therefore becomes an important internet communication tool. Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos, Robert Tennyson, and Jingyuan Zhao

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Chapter 1

Virtual Tourism:

Functions, Profit Modes and Practices in China Jingyuan Zhao Harbin Institute of Technology, China Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos Universidad de Oviedo, Spain Robert Tenysson University of Minnesota, USA

ABSTRACT Although the research on virtual tourism made great progress in China, there is still a gap compared with international research on virtual tourism. With the promotion of virtual reality technology and the development of tourism industries, virtual tourism will effectively meet the needs of tourists. This study focuses on functions and profit models of virtual tourism in China, and also discusses on the application of virtual tourism in China.

INTRODUCTION As the rapid development of information and Internet technology, the industries of tourism, hotel and entertainment are constantly introducing the content of experience economy (Cooper, 2003), and the virtual tourism focusing on the attractions comes into being. The content of travel channel DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch001

of Travelocity, Expedia, Yahoo Online and other websites becomes much richer. A vast virtual travel market based on e-commerce and online travel purchase is promoting the industries of tourism and hospitality in the US with an increase of economic scale from 180 billion US dollars in 2002 to 64 billion US dollars in 2007 (Law, Cheung, 2005). Currently, more and more websites of travel have been established to develop virtual tourism rapidly (Frew, 2000; Lu, 2009).

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Virtual Tourism

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) pointed out in the 23rd China Internet Development Report, that in the end of 2008, China’s netizens had reached 298 million, and the coverage had reached 22.6% beyond the global average; the growth of Internet users was 88 million more than that in 2007 with an annual growth rate of 41.9%. The network permeates into the life, work and leisure of people through a variety of ways. 69.3% of Internet users think Internet saves the time that people spend on visit in person, 59.1% of Internet users would be monotonous without the Internet, 82.5% of Internet users believe that Internet strengthens the ties with friends, 27.6% of Internet users believe that online transactions are safe. In this context, the virtual technology, which is a good media between tourism activities and tourist, quickly joins the tourism field, and has a huge impact on tourism industries. Yang, Chen (2010) claimed that virtual tourism of China is divided into two phases: the initial period from 1999 to2004, and the period of rapid development from 2005 to present. From 1999 to 2004, the virtual reality technology was combined with the tourism industries, and virtual tourism emerged. Considering imperfect virtual reality technology in China, the development of virtual tourism is not in-depth studied, scholars mainly focus on basic theories, construction of virtual travel system, tourism planning. From 2005 to now is the rapid development period of virtual tourism in China. With the promotion of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, more and more tourism enterprises, government departments and universities begin to play the advantages of virtual technology to promote the development of tourism. Although the research on virtual tourism made great progress in China, there is still a gap compared with the international research on virtual tourism as well as the research on other tourism products (Za, 2005). Moreover, virtual tourism is a new subject relatively, the study of domestic scholars focuses on the application and implementation of virtual tourism from a rather narrow

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perspective and scope, while international scholars have paid a wide attention on virtual tourism from 1990s on (Xue, 2005). In addition, the study on virtual tourism has the same problems as the other study on tourism, such as uniform definition of concept, lack of systematic theoretical system, less innovation, few case studies combined with practice, and so on. With the promotion of virtual reality technology and the development of tourism industries, related research is necessary to explore theory and practice so that virtual tourism effectively meets the needs of tourists. This study focuses on the function and profit models of virtual tourism, and also discusses on the application of virtual tourism in China.

RESEARCH REVIEW Review of International Studies The current international research on virtual tourism mainly focuses on three areas: definition and extension of virtual tourism levels, key factors of virtual tourism and relationship between variables, and interaction between impact variables of virtual tourism.

Definition and Extension of Virtual Tourism Levels Law, Bai (2006) claimed that people concerned about not only the access to information from travel websites, but also the construction of travel websites because it impacts the experience of virtual tourism, and the levels of virtual tourism were defined from cognitive, functional, emotional perspectives based on different degree of involvement. First, from the perspective of information search and recommendations, Kim B. D., Kim S.O. (2001), Barwise, Hammond, Elberse (2002) claimed that virtual tourism was linear and textbased, and it was a process of online browse and provision of travel information. Second, from the

Virtual Tourism

perspective of network reservation and functional service, Oppenheim, Shelby (1999), Lewis, Kaluber (2002) and Maeda et al. (2004) proposed that virtual tourism and web design should try to improve the format of image display instead of text so as to increase the service quality of online travel. Third, from the spiritual experience perspective of virtual tourism, Siegal (1997), Senecal, Nantal (2004), Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004), Blackshaw, Nazzaro (2005) claimed that images and visual design should be integrated to provide complete experience for virtual tourism through creative design so that visitors have access to convenient site navigation, familiar environment, high-quality information content, and product value.

Key Factors of Virtual Tourism and Relationship between Variables Lu (2009) summarized the features of virtual tourism, namely usability, playfulness, and complexity. Law, Bai (2006) made use of involvement theory, and considered impact factors of virtual tourism and key variables of evaluation under circumstances of two cases - involvement and non- involvement. Many scholars summarize the critical factors that ensure the success of virtual tourism, and claim that the most important factors are convenience of websites, safety and perceived risk, price level, and friendly user interface.

Interaction between Impact Variables of Virtual Tourism Han, Mills (2007) claimed that virtual tourism was impacted by the factors of push and pull, the former includes the price of virtual tourism, distribution channels, websites performance, promotions, direct mail and advertising; the latter includes the differentiation of virtual tourism, perceived value, and perceived quality. In addition, Schegg, Steiner, Gherissi-Labben, Murphy(2006) researched on the role elements of virtual tourism, and emphasized on the promotion roles of elements

including website content, service environment, function of network transaction, and technology of virtual tourism.

Review of Domestic Studies Yang, Chen (2010) made a systematic summary on virtual tourism of China, and claimed that the study of virtual tourism mainly focused on three areas: technology systems of virtual tourism, sceneries of virtual tourism, and teaching of virtual tourism.

Technology Systems of Virtual Tourism From the beginning of virtual tourism study to present, scholars still pay attention to the relevant technology systems of virtual tourism because the virtual tourism results from the rapid development of information technology, the combination of tourism and information technology results in a new form of tourism, and virtual tourism will not exist with no information technology. Some scholars discuss on how to build a reality system of virtual tourism from the perspective of key technologies and specific content (Xu, Wei, Yang, 2001; Feng, Su, 2001; Lu, Wang, Gou, Du, 2005; Wang, Wei, 2005; Zhang, Liu, Mu, 2008). Regarding the construction of virtual sceneries and the choice of roaming mode, scholars put forward different views from different perspectives. Liu and Jia (2008) discuss on the direction of virtual tourism, and claim that the development of grid computing provides an ideal solution for largescale virtual tour environment, the lightweight modeling tools are also a key research direction based on virtual landscape of images, and the interactive mode between virtual guide and virtual tourist groups is more intelligent, which will be next research topic.

Sceneries of Virtual Tourism Regarding the study of virtual sceneries, scholars focus on the changes brought by the application

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Virtual Tourism

of virtual reality technology in the marketing and planning of sceneries. Zhang, Li, Wang (2000) claimed that virtual tourism of existing attractions not only plays a role of pre-promotion, and expand its influence and attraction to tourists, but also to a certain extent meet the needs of tourism and aesthetic appreciation for people who have never been to the sceneries or cannot visit in person. Yuan (2008) integrated sceneries into game context by means of virtual reality technology, as a scene of network game, the impact of sceneries is increased through the spread of network game, thereby achieve the marketing of sceneries. Feng, Su (2001) claimed that in tourism planning, virtual reality technology had more obvious advantages than traditional planning method, for example, it shows dynamical tourism planning and design to the life to give people a sense of immersion, so that tourism planning and design can be modified easily to stimulate creative inspiration and ideas, and make planning more innovative. Wang (2003) summarized the application of Cyberspace technology in the virtual tourism planning from four aspects, that is, provide virtual technology platform for tour planning, design new virtual attractions and tourism products, formulate marketing planning of virtual tour product, make policy of virtual tourism planning, and build the security system of Cyberspace. Wu, Wang (2004) proposed the concept of GIServices based on the thinking of Geo-information services to deal with the network data storage and sharing, establish virtual tourism planning program through independent platform GeoEye3D, and achieve the roaming in the virtual landscape through Java.

Teaching of Virtual Tourism Yan (2008) claimed that experiment systems of virtual reality improved teaching modes, enriched teaching methods, broke the constraints of risk, cost and time, and achieved the integration of teaching and test. Chen (2007; 2008) summarized

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the application of virtual reality technology in the experiment teaching of tourism from three aspects: virtual systems of learning established by virtual reality technology, virtual experiment teaching systems, and teaching systems of virtual training. Wei (2007) discussed on the support role of virtual reality technology in the teaching of tourism from the perspective of practical teaching of tourism, and compared the effects in the teaching between virtual reality technology and multimedia. Zhang (2008) pointed out that conventional teaching methods that most teachers used had problems between teachers and students, which could be solved through virtual reality technology by means of its acceptability, interaction, immersion and sensibility that could meet the requirements of teaching experiment, such as situated learning interface, and human-computer interaction, therefore virtual reality technology in practical education systems of tourism would play a series of roles to improve the experimental environment, optimize the teaching process, enhance experimental results, and cultivate innovative talents.

FUNCTIONS OF VIRTUAL TOURISM Comparison between Travel Experience and Mirror Image Experience Travel experience is a versatile leisure activity including entertainment and learning (Li, 2008). Tourists gain travel experience through paths of realization, such as sightseeing, contact, imitation and game (Xie, 2005). Travel experience is finished in the real travel while mirror image experience is conducted in the virtual reality (Zheng, Ma, Li, 2010). Figure 1 shows the corresponding relationship between travel experience and mirror image experience. The dotted line in the middle of Figure 1 likes a mirror that separates the real world and virtual world of tourism, and

Virtual Tourism

also achieves the corresponding relationship of experience paths. Real tourism and virtual reality have similar audio-visual senses, the formation of expression, by which tourists feel the contexts of tourism, is same, both real tour and virtual attractions can have psychological effects on tourists. Virtual tourism is present in a specific spacetime framework. In the world of virtual reality, visitors can have access to the similar experience as real travel does through audio-visual way. In addition, the social nature of human results in tourists’ exchange with local residents and management personnel of attractions. In the virtual world, the boundaries of social roles are eliminated since the identities of people are virtual, so that tourists have equal exchange and communication with other online tourists. Zheng, Ma, Li (2010) claimed that travel experience and mirror image experience had the similarity in terms of realization paths and perception effects. According to survey, most of consumers are satisfied to virtual tour experience.

Features of Virtual Tourism Virtual tourism has the following characteristics: •

•

•

•

Transcend Time and Space. Virtual tourism can present the world beyond time and space for visitors whenever necessary. Interactivity. In virtual tourism, the interaction means communication between people and computers. Virtual tourism uses a variety of sensors to interact with the multidimensional information space. High-Technology. Virtual tourism is based on virtual reality technology and information technology, which core is Internet. With no high-technology, virtual tourism cannot be generated. Economy. Virtual tourism is out of objective constraints, it reduces costs, avoids the constraints of a variety of force majeure, and makes travel cheaper.

Figure 1. Comparison of travel experience and mirror image experience

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Virtual Tourism

•

Multi-sensation. Virtual tour environment can give visitors multi-sensation of image, sound, touch, experience and other perception.

Zhang, Ma, Zhang (2009) claimed that travel demands of most people are difficult to meet fully because of objective factors, such as time, space, economy, and so on. Virtual tourism characterized by multi-dimensional interactive visualization based on computer network is flexible and convenient for people.

•

•

Functional Structure of Virtual Tourism Virtual tour website is an intelligent system that integrates virtual travel experience, exchange of visitors, tour information and online booking service, and mainly includes following functional modules: •

•

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Virtual Tour of Scenic Spots. Virtual tour system represents scenarios in Network, which is a core component of virtual tourism. With navigation module and electronic guide system, visitors can follow a preset route system to roam, also can select line, not only can watch scenic spots through the display, but also can participate in game plot, have dinner, and go shopping through gestures and password so as to understand the cultural and historical attractions and gain experience. Travel Information and Planning. The development of virtual tourism has definite relationship with real tourism, and virtual tourism often plays a role of pre- experience. Therefore, virtual tourism becomes a channel for potential tourists to obtain various tourism-related information, and provides

a service platform of network applications to plan the itinerary. Travel e-Commerce. Virtual landscapes and virtual community is an important platform of travel e-commerce for tourists to understand, purchase and book travel-related goods and services. Virtual Travel Community. Virtual travel community is a living space around the topic of tour life through the Internet. Community members widely communicate with each other via text, voice and video, on the one hand, they can share travel experiences with other members, on the other hand, they can have access to a variety of tourism knowledge to prepare for real travel.

PROFIT MODES OF VIRTUAL TOURISM Zhang, Ma, Zhang (2009) claimed that the virtual world is an emerging field of Internet, how to achieve profits in the virtual tourism is still an important issue to explore. Based on the basic structure of virtual tourism system, at present profit models of virtual tourism are following sections. •

•

Marketing of Tourism Destination. Virtual tour system plays a role of tangible show for people before they have real travel of destinations. In the mode of marketing, websites of virtual tourism can receive a lot of advertising. This is the main income of virtual tourism websites. Product Placement. When a website of virtual travel with high popularity and a certain scale of members, it can get advertising revenue through commercial advertising, such as customer brand hotels, restaurants, tea houses, shopping malls as well as corporate

Virtual Tourism

•

•

•

•

logo, mascot and product advertising board in a virtual landscape of virtual system. Virtual Currencies and Items for Sale. Virtual tourism can be combined with online games to gain profits through sales of virtual currencies and goods, and other ways in the game. Tourists can induct transactions of virtual travel equipments through the exchange of virtual currencies, and create own villa and hotel in the travel destination. Tourism Revenue-Sharing. By means of functions of information services and route planning, websites of virtual travel not only can help visitors with design and implementation of tourism projects, but also can recommend customers to scenic spots, hotels, travel agencies, airlines, car rental companies and other tourism enterprises, and share tourism revenues with these tourism enterprises. Online Shopping and Booking. Virtual tourism is closely related to real tourism. In the e-commerce of tourism, when visitors in virtual tourism have interest in corresponding landscapes and articles, online shopping and online reservation will generate profits. Collection of Subscriptions. In the virtual travel community, people form different groups according to different interests of travel, obtain highly social identity through interpersonal interaction, find the sense of attribution psychologically and emotionally, and design self-image and space environment. Websites of virtual travel can charge membership fees, and develop advanced services for members.

The corresponding relationship between functional structure and profit modes of virtual tourism is shown in Figure 2, which shows the sources of profits.

PRACTICES OF VIRTUAL TOURISM IN CHINA Tourism Websites of China China’s websites of tourism emerged in 1991, in addition, portal sites also have information about travel. These sites can provide more comprehensive online counseling service including tourism-related food, shelter, transportation, travel, entertainment, shopping and other aspects (Li, Yao, Di, Li, 2009). According to the statistics of Google’s Page Rank (PR), PR value of 60 tourist websites is greater than or equal to 6, in which PR value of 3 websites is 8, namely official website of Beijing Tourism Administration, official website of National Tourism Administration, and eLong. PR value of 7 websites is 7, PR value of 50 websites is 6. Among 60 websites, the number of local travel websites is 31 while the rest of websites is involved in nationwide business. Yu, Zheng (2009) divided domestic travel websites into four categories: government-based websites, store-based websites, network-based websites and comprehensive websites. Government-based websites of travel are official websites of tourism bureaus focusing local tourism. Among them, the National Tourism Administration is the most authoritative website of travel. Store-based websites of travel primarily rely on store to operate product marketing of tourism. Although they have own e-commerce, but they don’t pay attention to online sales. Wang (2008) claimed that China Travel Service and CYTS line are representatives of this type. Network-based websites of travel mainly rely on sales of tourism products through websites, including ticket booking, hotel booking service, such as Ctrip, eLong. Comprehensive travel websites cover the advantages of above two travel websites, namely tourism marketing both in stores and online, Shanghai Spring Travel is a typical representative.

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Virtual Tourism

Figure 2. Functional structure and profit modes of virtual tourism

Application of Virtual Tourism on Websites of Travel Yu (2008) summarizes five presentation ways of virtual tour system: text, 2-D images, 2.5-D virtual scene, 3-D virtual scene and Multi-D virtual scene, which are the development path of virtual tourism, also the application paths of virtual technology in the field of tourism. Different types of travel websites have different demands and applications in terms of virtual tourism. This study selects samples of travel websites to introduce their applications of virtual tourism. First, the official website of the National Tourism Administration is selected as a government-based website of tourism. Second, the type of e-commerce websites, created by tour enterprises for marketing, will be represented by Ctrip. Third, the travel websites specializing in the introduction of attractions, are professional network of virtual tourism, such as China Panorama network. Finally, a very representative website of virtual travel is Virtual Forbidden City, and is described as a separate type. As shown in Table 1, the government website is still in the lower level in terms of the application of virtual tour technology, the government website

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focuses on the introduction of government policies on tourism and the status of development, and text description with graphic display about travel agencies, hotels, transportation, entertainment to give tourists an platform of intuitive, graphic information display. Ctrip and other business websites focus on ticketing, hotel reservations, and have no breakthrough in terms of the application of virtual technology. China Panorama and Virtual Forbidden City are at the highest level of the application of virtual technology. China Panorama provides virtual tourism of attractions around the country with 360 degree 3-D realistic display of high definition. The Palace Museum developed virtual Forbidden City, it officially started in October 10, 2008. This is the first virtual world in China to show important historical and cultural attractions on the Internet. But China Panorama and Virtual Forbidden City still don’t focus on the role of direct business, but the role of potential tourists.

CONCLUSION The main conclusions of this study are as follows.

Virtual Tourism

Table 1. Typical applications of virtual tourism on websites National Tourism Administration

Content

•

•

•

•

Ctrip

Virtual Forbidden City

China Panorama

Scenic spots

Global assessment

Choiceness

Scenic spots view

Single scenic spots

Hotel

Global assessment

Reservation system

Hotel view

-

Traffic

-

Reservation system

Traffic view

-

Entertainment

-

-

Entertainment view

Participatory project

Shopping

-

-

-

-

Others

Government affairs

Tips

Pictures

Freestyle exchange

Virtual tourism characterized by multi-dimensional interactive visualization based on computer network is flexible and convenient for people. Virtual tourism has the following characteristics: transcend time and space, interactivity, high-technology, economy and multi-sensation. The functions of virtual tourism websites mainly include virtual tour of scenic spots, travel information and planning, travel ecommerce, and virtual travel community. At present virtual tourism profits mainly through marketing of tourism destinations, product placement, virtual currencies and items for sale, revenue sharing of tourism, online shopping and booking, and collection of subscriptions. In China, according to PR value, there are 60 tour websites with greater than or equal 6 PR value, and different travel websites have different demands and applications in terms of virtual tourism.

REFERENCES Barwise, T. P., Hammond, K. A., & Elberse, A. (2002). Marketing and the Internet. In Weitz, B. A., & Wensley, R. (Eds.), Handbook of Marketing (pp. 527–557). London: Sage.

Blackshaw, P., & Nazzaro, M. (2005). ConsumerGenerated Media(CGM)101:Word-of- Mouth in the Age of the Web-fortified Consumer(pp.299-315) Intelliseek: White Paper. Chen D.(2007).Virtual reality technology in the practical teaching system of tourism management. Data of Culture and Education(11), 31-33 Chen D.(2008). Enhance experiment teaching quality of tourism management by the use of virtual reality technology. Education Exploration, (3), 134-135. Cooper, C. (2003). Classic Reviews in Tourism (p. 264). Clevedon, UK: Channel View Publications. Feng, W., & Su, D. (2001). On the prospects of applications of virtual reality technology in tourism Planning. [Natural Science Edition]. Journal of Chongqing Normal University, 3, 52–56. Frew, A. J. (2000). Information technology and tourism: A research agenda. Information Technology & Tourism, 3(2), 99–110. Han, J.-H., & Mills, J. E. (2007). Use of problematic integration theory in destination online promotional activities-the case of australia.com in the united states market. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 78(2), 249–261.

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Virtual Tourism

Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(1), 12–35. doi:10.1002/ dir.10073

Maeda, J., Fukuda, K., Takagi, H., & Asakawa, C. (2004). Web accessibility technology at the IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 48(2), 735–749. doi:10.1147/rd.485.0735

Kim, B. D., & Kim, S. O. (2001). A new recommender system to combine content-based and collaborative filtering systems. Journal of Database Marketing, 8(3), 244–252. doi:10.1057/palgrave. jdm.3240040

Oppenheim, C., & Selby, K. (1999). Access to information on the worldwide web for blind and visually impaired people. Aslib Proceedings, 51(4), 335–345. doi:10.1108/EUM0000000006993

Law, R., & Cheung, C. (2005). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2005, pp.368-376. New York: Springer-Verlag Wien, Law, R., Bai, B.(2006).Website development and evaluations in tourism: A retrospective analysis. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 5(3), 1–12. Lewis, V., & Klauber, J. (2002). Inaccessible web design from the perspective a blind librarian. Library Hi Tech, 20(2), 137–140. doi:10.1108/07378830210432499 Li, T., Yao, L., Di, M., & Li, Q. (2009).China’s development strategy of tourism information. China Collective Economy,(9), http://www.zgjtjj. com/ list.asp?ID= 1947 Li, X. (2008). Study on tourism experience: Progress and pondering. Tourism Tribune, 23(6), 90–95. Liu, S., & Jia, J. (2008). Developing virtual tourism environment and its key techniques. Application Research of Computer, 25(9), 2596–2600. Lu, Y., Wang, X., Gou, B., & Du, J. (2005). Web-based virtual tour system. Computer Aided Engineering, 14(4), 31–34. Lu, Z. (2009). Study review about foreign network virtual tourism: Retrospect and prospect. Tourism Tribune, 24(12), 83–89.

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Schegg, R., Steiner, T., Gherissi-Labben, T., & Murphy, J. (2006). [NewYork: Springer-Verlag Wien.]. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism, 2006, 105–119. Senecal, S., & Nantal, A. (2004). The influence of online product recommendations on consumers online choices. Journal of Retailing, (80): 159–169. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2004.04.001 Siega, I. D. (1997). Creating Killer Web sites: The Art of Third Generation Site Design (pp. 277–299). Indianapolis: Hayden Books. Wang, J. (2008). The Credit Value of Tourism Market in China and the Impact about the Operation Mode of Chinese Tourism E-commerce. Hunan Normal University Master thesis, Changsha. Wang, L. (2003). Cyberspace technology and its application prospects in virtual tourism planning. [Natural Science Edition]. Journal of Hubei University, 25(3), 277–280. Wang Y., Wei H. (2005).Elementary realization of virtual tour module of Xian tourism resources information system based on VRML. Journal of Anhui Normal University (Natural Science, 28(3), 364-367. Wei K.(2007).Assistant role of virtual reality technology in tourism training teaching. Journal of Shandong Youth Administrative Cadres College, (4), 135-137.

Virtual Tourism

Wu H., Wang L.(2004). Cyberspace technique and its application in cybertourism planning. Geography and Geo-Information Science, (1), 104-108.

Yuan L.(2008) Virtual tour: innovative marketing tools in the age of Internet. Tourism Times, (4), 20-21.

Xie, Y. (2005). Travel Experience the Research: A Phenomenological Perspective (pp. 170–179). Tianjin: Nankai University Press.

Za, A. (2005). Application of virtual reality in tourist attractions. Social Scientist, (4): 116–118.

Xu S., Wei Z., Yang J. (2001).Application of virtual reality technology in the tourism. Geography and Territorial Research, (3), 92-96. Xue Z. (2005). Pleasure of virtual tourism.China Information Times, (16), 38. Yang H. (2008).Application of virtual reality technology in the field of college education.Education and Vocation, (30), 155-156. Yang, L., & Chen, N. (2010). A research summary on domestic virtual tourism. Journal of Tourism College of Zhejiang, 6(1), 56–63. Yu, H., & Zheng, Y. (2009). Discussion on domestic virtual tour technology of tourism web site. Journal of Changsha University, 23(6), 18–20. Yu, P. (2008). Primary Study on Virtual Tourism. Journal of Xinxiang Teachers College, 22(1), 70–74.

Zhang A., Li L., Wan X. (2001) Virtual Reality Applications in Tourism. Journal of Guilin Institute of Tourism, (1), 74-76. Zhang W., Ma P., Zhang L. (2009) Virtual Tour of the functional structure, profit mode and operation strategy. Inquiry into Economic Issues, (9), 156-158. Zhang Y. (2008) Function Research of virtual reality in tourism teachingWisdom, (24), 180. Zhang, Y., Liu, J., & Mu, Y. (2008). Analysis and design of urban tourism information system based on WebGIS and virtual reality technology. Aeronautical Computing Technique, 38(1), 77–80. Zheng, P., Ma, Y., & Li, T. (2010). Virtual becoming reality: Thoughts about the study kernel and category of virtual tourism. Tourism Tribune, 25(2), 13–18.

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Chapter 2

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology Aliana M W Leong Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau SAR Xi Li Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau SAR

ABSTRACT In recent years, tourism in China developed into a massive industry. According to the statistics from the National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China, the number of travelers has reached 16.1 billion in 2007 alone. On public holidays, most of the popular tourist attractions are filled to capacity, receiving 100% or even reaching 300% capacity. This was reported during the celebration of the May 1 golden week in 2006. Another report said that Beijing’s Forbidden City accommodated more than twice its maximum capacity on May 2, 2006. The Wutai Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Pingyao ancient town, Tongli ancient town, Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang, the Potala Palace and other famous scenic spots also peaked at 100% full capacity from May 2 to May 5 (Xinjing Newspaper, May 8, 2006). The huge number of tourists resulted to a somewhat negative feedback as their quality of experience and interest had substantially diminished because of overcrowding. In addition, tourist attractions faced a serious challenge in service quality, security and sustainable usage of resources during high tourist season. Faced with these challenges, a prediction system for tourist reception during high season has been adopted by the National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China. The system is helpful for regulating the flow of tourists. However, from the microscopic point of view, it is necessary to conduct management and instruction for travelers before and after their arrival. Recently, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has been considered by tourist attraction managers.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch002

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a non-contact, automatic identification technology. Through its radio frequency signal, RFID offers automatic target recognition and access to relevant and without human intervention identification of work is made. RFID can work in various environments. It can identify fast moving objects and is capable of identifying multiple tags, in a rapid and convenient operation. Since the 1990s, RFID technology has been widely used in commercial, logistics, property management and other fields, but interest towards potential application to the needs of the tourism industry only began in recent years.

THE CONNOTATION OF TOURIST MANAGEMENT

The Management of Traveler Demand and Preference

A tourist attraction mainly targets travelers who are its consumers. From the consumers’ point of view, the behavior and needs of tourists should be highly valued by tourist attraction managers. However, there is a feature that renders inseparable the process of tourist production and consumption. Travelers play not only the role of consumers but also the key point of tourist attraction service. Thus, managers of tourist attractions should pay attention on the role of travelers along with bringing travelers’ supervision into scenic spots management. In countries where a tourism economy is highly developed, traveler management is widely accepted. ‘Traveler management’ mainly refers to trying to meet the needs of travelers on the premise of maintaining the sustainable environment and resource development, which use the manner of technology, education, economy, administration, and law to manage travelers (Zhang Wen and Li Na, 2007). According to existing research, theories and practices are mainly focused on the following six aspects of traveler management: demand and preference, behavior, capacity, safety, experience and impact.

‘Management of Traveler Demand and Preference’ refers to consumer preferences for particular products and services of different tourists. Understanding and analyzing the needs and preferences of tourists in different aspects will help in the provision of appropriate services to tourists. Consequently, tourist demands and preferences in the scenic area of product management and marketing optimization, as well as tourism planning and tourism industry, were all of great significance (Bramwell,1998). Scholars from other countries had conducted in-depth studies of this topic. Um S.(1992)studied the decision process of tourism destination and believes there is a process of change passive to active on tourists perceived needs. Stephen W.Li Win(2001)suggests that there are significant differences in preferences between the first time travelers and returning costumers concerning the demand for tourism products. Noam Shoval (2004) analyzed the attraction preference towards travelers from different cities and found out that there is a distinct impact between ‘the length of stay, the times of travel and consumer behavior. Meanwhile, Alison J.McIntosh(2004) categorized tourism product preferences into five types: seek novelty, to understand the local lifestyle, cultural authenticity, communication with locals and exchange pleasure of learning opportunities with locals. All these research results are expected to assist managers understand the law of tourist

13

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

attractions and behavior patterns of consumption in order to further provide better services and products, thereby enhancing the quality of travel experience.

The Management of Traveler Behavior In tourist behavior management, current major overseas research focuses on describing tourists visiting the scenic spots in order to tap the law of tourists visiting. The common used research technology and method includes: GIS (A geographic information system). H. Randy Gimblett (1998) combined location map and GIS data to use the techniques and methods to track visitor behavior monitoring and modeling to analyze tourist activities with the environment as well as the interactions between scenic spots and visitors. In addition, Martin Opperman (1997) conducted a study on the behaviour difference between first-time travelers and returning customers which showed that the stay period and travel scale is more focused for returning travelers.

The Management of Traveler Capacity The contradiction between the capacity and limitation of tourist attraction resource and the large amount needed from travelers sparked people’s concern on the management capacity of tourism attractions. In order to better coordinate the relationship between travelers and scenic spots capacity, scholars conducted researches mainly focused on traveler flow forecast and capacity forecast. J. Alan Wagar et al(1964) and proposed the improved Recreation Carrying Capacity Theory (RCC). This theory proposes that the limitation of traveler capacity exists universally, which includes ecological, social, philosophy and management. Meanwhile, the United States National Forest proposed Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) Theory towards the application

14

model of tourist resource. The theory of tourism resources conservation in accordance with the demand for travel is divided into the following six major types: the original area, no motor vehicle traffic in half the original area, with motor vehicle traffic in half the original area, with roads in natural areas, rural and urban areas. Different types of regions have their own characteristics of determining tourist capacity.

The Management of Traveler Safety Visitor safety management major deals with the safety of tourists in tourist areas regarding various elements of response analysis and research, such as natural disasters and accidents and tourism crimes. On the aspect of safety factors in the identification, Mieczkowski (1995) divided safety-effect factors into two types: natural threats and human threats. Tsaur, et al (1997) targeted traffic, public order and law, health care, housing, weather, attractions and medical facilities, and analyzed the eight scenic spots of tourists’ safety. Furthermore, in the face of worsening global terrorist attacks in recent years, many scholars conducted studies on terrorism and security issues of tourists. Further, crime has also an important impact on the safety of tourists. Although scholars have conducted researches on this issue, details on this will not be dealt with because these studies focus more on specific areas of crime in tourism.

The Management of Traveler Experience Visitors’ experience is a subjective feeling involved in the tourism process. Tourism products and services based on tourists’ perception are related to situational factors: personal characteristics, personality characteristics, surrounding environment, tourism (Graefe AR, 1987). Therefore, the existing studies on visitor management experience involving some of the concerns of tourists are mainly towards psychological, so-

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

ciological or anthropological point of view of the tourist experience to enhance the quality of visitor experience as references. M. S. Jackson (1996) studied the impact of visitors through the experience of the factor structure. M. Goossen et al. (2000) divided the quality of recreational experience into functional quality (Utilisation Quality) and the perceived quality (Perception Quality). These studies provide useful references to understanding the visitor experience for further enhancing the degree of tourists’ satisfaction.

The Management of Traveler Impact Tourism behaviour is one of the central issues on tourism management studies. Current researches focus on the scenic tourist behavior and the ecological impacts of economic and social impact analysis and assessments. Impact of the ecological environment for tourists, usually starts from the behavioral characteristics of tourists and evaluates the negative impact. Meiczkowski (1995) listed the negative impact of tourism in the following areas: overcrowding, over-exploitation, no rules, recreation activities, waste pollution, car activities, and effects on soil and vegetation. However, the socio-economic impact, needs anthropology and sociology with socio-economic theory as the basis for analysis. Nicholas Haralamboulos, et al (1996) indicated that negative impacts from visitors on economic and social aspect are mainly: rising prices, drug abuse, damaged public facilities: noisier environment, sexual harassment and all kinds of crimes. In addition, scholars analyzed cultural integration and religion from the perspective of the tourists on the negative social impact of tourism destinations. It is obvious that the Western visitor management research has largely formed and established frameworks and systems and provides a good platform for visitor management practice and innovation.

CURRENT SITUATION AND CHALLENGES OF CHINA’S TOURIST MANAGEMENT From the content and target point of view, China’s tourist attractions management can be divided into two types: one is tourist attractions of resource and environmental management-oriented form, also commonly known as tourism object management; the other is tourist attractions to tourists as the main focus of the form, therefore, also known as the main tourism management (Xia& Chengzhao, 2006). China has long been focusing attention on the management of resources and the environmental tourism attractions, whereas visitor management is relatively insufficient.

The Focal Point of China’s Tourist Management According to several researches conducted by Chinese scholars, China domestic tourism management content is similar to those in other countries, however, the target in each specific case is slightly different. Liu Yanfeng, et al (2006) and Guo Hongyan (2008) divided the focal point of China’s Domestic Tourism Management into seven aspects: quantity management, diversion measures, queue management, team management, complaint management, interpretation system construction and behavior management. Quantity management aims to control and run the number of tourists. Flow diversion measure is under temporal and spatial rules of conduct for tourists’ sightseeing behavior to reduce traffic within local scenic spots in the temporal and spatial concentration, as well as reduce the crowding of local attractions to tourists. Queue management establishes queuing efficiency to reduce or avoid boring monotonous environment, further improving the ultimate service experience of tourist attractions. Team management is about scenic spots in the light of team interaction, the size of the team, and

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A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

travel arrangements for the purpose of enhancing the tourists’ experience. Complaint management is for the establishment of effective channels to solve complaints efficiently. The main purpose of interpretation system is formed through various media to provide information services at the same time, to divert visitors, safety tips, and behavior management tips. A shift from direct management into indirect management undeniably reflects the characteristics of visitor management services. Tourist behavior management is a process that constrains visitors’ code of conduct and management. The above description of domestic tourism management has some parallels to the aforementioned Western visitors’ needs and preferences on management, behavior management, capacity management, security management, experience management, and visitor impact management, but also features Chinese management characteristics. The above-mentioned seven areas compose the main content of the current China domestic tourism management.

management, such as Huangshan, the Forbidden City, the Dunhuang Grottoes and many others have gradually established a visitor management system.

The Characteristic of China’s Tourist Management

Presently, the main form of China domestic tourism management is behavior management, such as coaching tourists on their environmental responsibility and the behavior of tourists on the appropriate constraints. Wu Bihu (2001) classified China’s tourist scenic spot management into two types: direct management and indirect management. Directly management deals with the will and behavior of tourists, such as restrictions on utilization and limiting certain types of activities. Indirect management is affected by changes in the factors that tourists will and act to change the behavior of their visitors, such as strengthening tourist promotion. Ma Yong, Li Xi (2006) divided the current visitor management of scenic spots in China’s into excitement-based management and constraint management. The excitement-based management is a flexible management, mainly through communication and exchange, the full

China has successfully transformed tourism resources and environmental management as the equally important models of visitor and management, however, on the aspect of visitor management, the improvement. China’s domestic tourism management embodies the following five features: 1. Protective tourism is the main implementation of visitor management. The implementation of China’s domestic tourism management resources and environmental protection in view of the natural and cultural heritage tourist attractions and tourist resources is relatively fragile (Fangyong, 2007). Highly popular and attractive international tourist attractions that particularly need better

16

2. Resource management, environmental protection as the main purpose of tourists. Tourists inevitably cause negative impact on the environment. For this reason, China’s visitor management of tourist attractions mainly focuses on the protection of the environment and resources, while trying to control the behavior of visitors and manage to achieve its resource protection objectives. Due to the considerable attention given to environmental protection, facing the visitor management, visitor experience and environmental protection, most the tourist attractions choose to neglect the tourists’ scenic environment experience. 3. Tourists behavior management is the main aspect.

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

capacity to stimulate self-restraint of tourists, including education, demonstration and guidance; whereas constraint management is also known as mandatory management conducted through the development of relevant rules of behavior and using coercive power to protect the rule to be observed. Therefore, active and passive visitor behavior management is the conventional method of the current tourism attraction management. 4. Tourists Management Practice has strong time characteristics. Because of the unique vacations and travel consumption patterns in China, the number of tourist attractions shows obvious fluctuation characteristics. For example, in 2009, China’s annual May 1, October 1, the Spring Festival and other holiday period, the major number of tourists to scenic spots dramatically increased. For example, numerous tourist attractions are too overcrowded, such as receiving 100% accommodation or even reached over 300% tourists per day during the May 1 golden week of 2006. Another report said that the Beijing Forbidden City accommodation was more than twice its maximum capacity on May 2, 2006. Wutai Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Pingyao ancient town, Tongli ancient town, Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang, the Potala Palace and other famous scenic spots showed “full” situations from May 2 to May 5 (Xinjing Newspaper, May 8, 2006). The over-crowding has led to a negative impact to travelers because of large numbers of tourists in one place. The quality of experience and interests declined because of serious overcrowding. Consequently, tourist attractions faced a serious challenge in service quality, security and sustainable usage of resources during high seasons. Therefore, China’s tourist attractions management reflects a relatively concentrated feature: the visitor management emphasis is different at different times, with some temporary and response characteristics.

5. The method of tourist management is singular. Tourists’ management of China scenic spots in specific manner is relatively singular. He Fangyong (2007) summarized ‘China tourist attractions’ management approach’ as two methods: “soft” and “hard”. The hard way includes restrictions of visitors to certain parts of activities, such as closing or restricting the number of tourists’ attractions or taking economic measures such as charging high priced tickets. The soft method includes marketing strategies, explanations, and guidance of the planning and coordination of measures. In example of the rigid management method is the every day reception at the Potala Palace where there is a 2300-person maximum limit; but a rapid growth in the number of visitors was seen since the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway. The Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Bureau adopted winter and summer tickets floating system for unique winter visitors, and summer overcrowding conditions were imposed at the Potala Palace (Cheng, 2010). In the soft management method, the China National Tourism Administration and the mass media established strategic partnership on forecast of traveler numbers during the Golden Week holidays. The visitor forecast system in the accommodation informed the mass media of the numbers approaching the cordon. Through the media, the public received tourists’ reception conditions, and tourists also made decisions based on existing conditions, thus improving the efficiency and quality of the reception area of the scenic attraction. The management of Chinese tourists is relatively singular and lacks technical content. In the future, tourists’ management of China should make use of modern technology to increase the effectiveness of visitor management.

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A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

The Challenges of China’s Tourist Management Although the managers of scenic areas have considered visitor management as an important part of business management, the development of visitor management has been in a relatively short period and now is faced with a series challenges in three aspects: 1. Less awareness, neglects tourist management, only paying attention to economic benefits. As mentioned above, visitor management philosophy has yet to be known to all managers’ attractions and accreditation. In majority of scenic spots, there are conflicts and contradictions between strict management and the short-term interests of scenic spots. Implementation of modern management strategies may reduce the number of tourists and increase the input of scenic spots. To this end, the economic interests of the scenic spots are prioritized at the expense of the number of visitors. In particular, the growth focuses on sustainable contemporary development, this ‘kill the goose that lays the golden eggs’ style can be considered detrimental to profits. For this reason, strengthening the training of managers and enhancing management awareness and capability is urgent. 2. The number of visitors for the emergency control of multi-mode, lack of prior forecasts and ex-post control. The tourist quantity control is the core element of tourist managers as well as those of scenic area directors. However, from the standpoint of overseas tourists, this should be taken as a whole. Not only should there be a correct vision on tourism management, but it also it should start right at the planning stage of construction of the scenic areas. For example, behavior characteristic

18

needs to be considered fully from the servicing facility design. Not only that the Chinese scenic area tourist management often lacks the unification on the plan and the management, but also majority of temporary emergency processing pattern are absent. The only started the related mechanism on the tourist quantity during the gold week celebrations. Thus, it can be seen that one of the challenges of the tour is how to promote the strategic management stratification plan, carry out efficient management, as well as the entire process in reverse afterwards. 3. Independent of each other, the need for systematic and urgent integration. As mentioned above, both the international and domestic meaning of tourist management is recognized. These contents can be divided into several modules. The existence of these modules is to coordinate the protection of scenic resources and the environment in the improvement of the quality of tourist experience, as well as the relationship between the correlations. However, China’s tourist attractions in tourist management appear to be relatively independent, more with a lack of integrity and relevance, such as the number of tourists attractions in building control systems, guided systems, behavior and security management system, the management tools and technical methods of relevance, lack of effective integration. As a scenic area manager, only through the integration of certain visitor management in the various modules with the technical means can we really expect to play out its effectiveness.

Interdisciplinary Research to Deepen Visitor Management, the Program Still Lacks a Workable Scheme In recent years, with the continuous development of visitor management, more and more scholars in other disciplines began to get involved in tourism attractions’ management fields, such as cross-

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

disciplinary approach with the tourists on the scenic area management issues research, and had achieved certain results and progress. Qiu yanqing, et al (2010) analysed passenger traffic within the scenic tourist season spatial and temporal variations; built sites for load balancing mathematical programming model; and from dynamic forecasting scheduling provides the analysis of tourists streaming ideas in the Jiuzhaigou scenic spot in Sichuan province. Zhang Jianhua, et al (2007) analyzed the environmental impact of tourists based on the environmental impact of building a tourist function, and explored the function based on the environmental impact of tourist attractions visitors control measures. Researchers on Chinese tourism will undoubtedly enrich the management theory and methodology, but the research is still in its theoretical stages and lacks maneuverability. Evidently, some scholars had put forward a view on the technical part of the visitor management system. Ma Bin, et al (2009) proposed the design and implementation of programs based on radio frequency identification (RFID) and ARM Intelligent Visitor Management System (IVMS). The program mainly targeted tourists’ behavior and safety management, with the update of visitor information, automatic division, and left behind alarm functions. An Wenkui, et al (2005) directed against tourists in the visitor team management, a form-based RF transceiver solutions for wireless communication systems, equipped with suitable identification, automatic division, start to remind, left behind and other tips of alarm functions. The design of these systems has a certain role in promoting China’s tourist attractions innovation management. However, these studies are only for certain specific groups of tourists whereas taking the tourists in the management module as a whole research and technical analysis has not yet been successfully conducted.

POTENTIAL ANALYSIS OF RFID TECHNOLOGY AND ITS USAGE IN SCENIC SPOTS MANAGEMENT RFID Technology RFID (Radio Frequency Identification technology) is the use of an object (typically referred to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated into a product or document for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. It is through the radio frequency signal that RFID automatically recognizes a target and accesses relevant data. Through the use of RFID technology, the identification of the work without human intervention can be conducted in a variety of harsh environments. The first application of this technology can be traced back to identifying the enemy during World War II, but because the application of the technology was expensive, it was not immediately applied to other areas (China Ministry of Science, 2006). Since RFID has a non-contact feature and can simultaneously identify multiple objects in the operation, it can provide a variety of management service functions, such as identity recognition, traceability and other functions. Specifically, based on RFID technology, the following main functions can be achieved: Identity recognition function. Acceptance of service for each object or item to set a unique identification code, therefore, in the radio frequency identification systems, object-related goods and services can be automatically identified so as to provide personalized service. The uses of electronic tickets at hotels and scenic spots as well as in biological research field of animal identification are typical examples. Track back trajectory function. The radio frequency identification technology has the unique identification of properties. Thus, reading the device with a range of information can describe relevant goods and services to clients in the process of receiving the flow path and travel status.

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A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Such feature is more for the food safety control and management as well as document tracking management. Space positioning function. When RFID technology and geographic information system GIS technologies are combined, a more precise spatial orientation function can be achieved. This means while waiting for a clear identification of each individual’s specific spatial location information, a better organization of services and resources is possible.

Hardware-Based RFID Technology The RFID technology system structure is divided into hardware and software. Software is the use of RFID technology related management applications, such as logistics management information system and hotel access control system. The hardware is composed of two parts, namely, read-write unit and the electronic transceiver. In practical applications, the read-write unit electromagnetic pulse is sent through the antenna while the electronic transceiver receives the electromagnetic pulse is stored in the transceiver unit of information sent to the reader response, shown in Figure 1.

Reading and writing in the electronic transceiver module interaction, the relevant information was recorded, and passed through the information network to the main control unit. In fact, the process is on the non-contact data memory read, write, or delete processing operation. From specific technical terms, RFID technology is mainly used for electronic transceiver main body identification. Its two parts: one is for the RFID radio frequency, and the second is for an ultra-thin RFID chip antenna loop. RF parts as the only identification code, and the antenna is used in the electronic transceiver and the transmission of information between the reader units. Based on RFID technology, using transceiver frequency and power supply electronics, RFID technology can be divided into low frequency, high frequency and ultrahigh frequency (UHF) and other types. The different types have different performance characteristics, such as in ultra high frequency RFID technology the distance of its read-write characteristics can be 10 meters, as well as the exchange of data. For electronic transceiver, can be divided into passive and active type according to its power supply.

Figure 1. Module structure of RFID technology hardware

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A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Compared with bar code technology, magnetic stripe and other ID technology, the advantages of transceiver technology and the transceiver to read between the wireless links are: read-write unit and transceiver do not require contacts between the visual. It can be completely integrated into the interior of the product. The electronic transceivers on the net and mechanical impact of environmental factors are not sensitive to a very high reading reliability with fast data acquisition capability. In comparison with the global positioning system GPS, RFID technology has the added advantage of being relatively low-cost.

Potential Analysis on RFID Technology on the Scenic Spots Management RFID application has been gradually understood and valued in the tourism industry. In accordance with technology usage, it can be generally applied and shaped to the scope of conventional application. The conventional transceiver is an electronic application form for card-shaped objects, usually a credit card. The profiled application is an electronic transceiver can be integrated in other forms of goods. Conventional applications such as access control system in a hotel, has been used on RFID technology, like RFID access control cards and the electronic transceiver modules together. In addition to the conventional card-type RFID technology, many countries in the tourism industry have also introduced a special form of radio frequency identification technology. The Great Wolf Resorts Inc. is the largest indoor familyoriented entertainment company that provides holiday events services. The RFID wrist band system was been used in Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains resort area in 2006. Customers wearing RFID wrist bands do not need to carry cash and keys to open the door of their lodging cottages or rooms. They can purchase food and souvenirs and can pay for game activities. The wrist strap is also for customer identification (Yunhui, 2008).

On the usage of RFID technology in tourist attractions’management in China, with continuous deepening of digital services and items, the most commonly used electronic access control system or intelligent ticket management system is the construction of scenic areas. In addition, visitors in guided tours and team management using the RFID application have been developed. Ma Bin, et al (2009) tested a group of tourists in the management process. The team introduced visitors with RFID technology identification and provided each guide a handheld PDA reader, which uses radio frequency identification technology. The visitors were held on the non-contact characteristics in the implementation of specific services and management. Based on RFID technology, An Wenkui, et al (2005) designed an intelligent guide system for tour guides and team interaction between visitors provided identification. It included left behind alarm, reminder and auto-start functions by name. It may be inferred that in the current RFID applications in China tourist attractions management: electronic ticket is the manner most commonly used. There are more theoretical studies on density control in personnel and it can be traced back to food safety, whereas management of tourist attractions is rarely involved (Yunhui, 2008). With the management concept of tourist attractions and visitor management, the attention of modern information technology and radio frequency identification technologies, radio frequency identification technology will provide a wider range of applications.

SCENIC SPOTS MANAGEMENT MODULE CONSTRUCTION BASED ON RFID TECHNOLOGY The main purpose of ‘resources environment’ and ‘scenic tourist management experience’ is to coordinate the specific content of foreign tourists’ management. In general, it can be summarized in the following areas: control and management of

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A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

environmental capacity, visitor behavior management, line up and demand management, and visitor safety management. As the visitor management characteristics of the object is an independent individual tourist, RFID technology is used in the management of scenic spots. Visitors can fill the existing management system for their own matrix, relatively independent of defects. This research will have as a basis the RFID technology which is the proposed tourist management system model for the management of technological innovation. It is expected to provide reference and inspiration to a scenic area. Tourists’ management with reference to the content management system can be classified into the following main modules: electronic ticket function module, the scenic area of capacity monitoring and adjustment module, tourist spending behavior characterization module, and intelligent queue management module.

Electronic Ticket Function Module ‘Electronic ticket function module’ is the basic component for the function of RFID technology, which assists visitors to access entrance information. Whether visitors choose to purchase tickets on the network or the ticket office, they can collect the basic information that can be identified with the RFID system. This enables visitors the exact corresponding information of travelers and their behavior. In addition, the module should be able to connect to the scenic spots within the external marketing system, and settlement systems to exchange data effectively. Usually, on building blocks of electronic ticket system, the transceiver will be integrated in the scenic area of electronic tickets, and the main entrance in the scenic area setting up the appropriate read and write devices unit, to monitor visitors in and out within a state scenic area. Please refer to Figure 2.

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The Capacity Monitoring And Adjustment Module Of A Scenic Area The main function of monitoring spot capability aims to coordinate ‘the number of visitors’ and the ‘scenic space capacity.’As visitors tour the scenic area, the position in space is constantly changing which gives challenges on ‘volume control’ and ‘management of tourist attractions.’ Spatial location information is usually collected for the global positioning system approach (GPS), however, the corresponding technical equipment is expensive and difficult to spread universally in the scenic area. To this end, using geographic information system (GIS) and radio frequency identification technology (RFID) can give the number of space tourists information processing (Rong, et al, 2007) (see Figure 3). Its main principles are: first, to build a scenic area of geographic information system, make digital major attractions based on scenic spots of the different districts. Next, in the different regional and major scenic spots, set the UHF radio frequency identification reader unit so the entrance statistics of tourists’ numbers can be summarized. In the end, the capacity threshold of the scenic environment of prior studies and a real-time evaluation of the number of tourists from different regions, is more objectively accounted for with the relationship between space capacity. With some management tools, the behavior of tourists and sightseeing activities are dynamically adjusted.

Tourist Consumer Behavior Characterization Module As the RFID system can invisibly record action work completed, along with the information back function, the system can assist in understanding consumer preferences and behavior of tourists. In turn, this will optimize product features and improve management as well as enhance the tourism experience. Specifically, the overall number of scenic spots by construction, the shopping and

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Figure 2. Electronic ticket function module

leisure outlets, the tourist attractions and other places to set the RFID reader modules, the different tourist attractions in the scenic area within the parameters of lodging, consumption and other data in real-time acquisition, combined with tourism would give information on a relatively complete database of behavior characteristics of tourist spending. With the establishment of the database, the system will provide a more accurate and comprehensive record of all visitors in the scenic area and can help managers understand the tourist attractions and a variety of products and services needed than the traditional survey (Xilin, 2009).

Intelligent Queue Management Module Following the development of mass tourism, more and more scenic spots began to face the problem of

queue management. Fairness and effectiveness of queue management will directly affect the visitors’ experience in the scenic area. Hence, with the help of high technology, improving the scenic RFID smart queuing system will be the main function of queue management module. With RFID technology, the uniqueness of visitor identity offers the possibility of a practical and smart queue management. Visitors only need to have their personal information in the electronic ticket. That information can be passed to the database of its visitors queuing system, which can be fed back out of the waiting time for tourists that offers visitors more time flexibility and avoid waiting time. Therefore, in the scenic area of visitor management, RFID technology can fully integrate tourists’ information and tourist attractions for the delivery of visitor management solutions more

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A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Figure 3. Inner structure diagram of capacity monitoring and adjustment module

effectively. However, achieving the scenic area management system depends on the number of building support, while hardware and software will also demand higher requirements. For that reason, tourist attractions, first need to properly recognize and manage the content and objectives, then the basis of long-term planning, system layout-related hardware, and ultimately achieve a systematic information management experience. This will finally result to the achievement of the purpose of tourist attractions.

REFERENCES Bin, Ma, Du Min, & Zhao Yuan ying. (2009). The Intelligent Visitor’s Management System on the Basis of ARM9 and nRF9E5. Electrical Engineering, 26(012), 65–68. Bramwell, B. (1998). User Satisfaction and Product Development in Urban Tourism. Tourism Management, 19(1), 35–47. doi:10.1016/S02615177(97)00091-5

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China National Tourism Administration Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.cnta.com China’s Ministry of Science. (2006). A White Paper on China Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology Policy [R], 8-12. Gimblett, H. R., Richards, M. T., & Itami, R. M. (1998). A Complex Systems Approach to Simulating Human Behavior Using Synthetic Landscapes. Complexity International (6). Goossen, M., & Langers, F. (2000). Assessing Quality of Rural Areas in the Netherlands: Finding the Most Important Indicators for Recreation. Landscape and Urban Planning, 46(4), 241–251. doi:10.1016/S0169-2046(99)00058-4 Graefe, A. R., Kuss, F. R., & Vaske, J. J. (1987). Recreation Impacts and Carrying Capacity: a Visitor Impact Management Framework. National Parks and Conservation Association. Guo Hong yan. (2008). On Tourist Management. Journal of South East University (Social Sciences Edition), (0S1), 65-67.

A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Hao Ying cheng, & Zheng Li li. (2010). The Research on the Tourist Management in China Tourist Attractions. Cards World, 14(1),16-18 Haralambopoulos, N., & Pizam, A. (1996). Perceived Impacts of Tourism: the Case of Samos. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(3), 503–526. doi:10.1016/0160-7383(95)00075-5 He Fang yong. (2007). Pondering over the Status Quo & Development of Visitor Management at China’s Tourist Destinations. Journal of Chengdu University Social Science Edition, 2, 83-85. Jackson, M. S., White, G. N., & Schmierer, C. L. (1996). Tourism Experiences within an Attributional Framework. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(4), 798–810. doi:10.1016/01607383(96)00003-5 Kui, An Wen, & Wang Chang ming. (2005). The Implementation of Tourist Management in Intelligent Electronic Tour Guiding System. Electron Technology, (010): 2–5. Litvin, S. W., & Ling, N. S. (2001). The Destination Attribute Management Model: An Empirical Application to Bintan, Indonesia. Tourism Management, 22(5), 481–492. doi:10.1016/S02615177(01)00003-6 Liu Ya feng, & Jiao Li. (2006). A Study on Visitor Management of Tourist Attractions. Journal of Xin Jiang Normal University (Natural Sciences Edition), 25(003), 259-262. McIntosh, A. J. (2004). Tourists’ Appreciation of Maori Culture in New Zealand. Tourism Management, 25(1), 1–15. doi:10.1016/S02615177(03)00058-X Mieczkowski, Z. (1995). Environmental Issues of Tourism and Recreation. University Press of America Landham.

Oppermann, M. (1997). First-Time and Repeat Visitors to New Zealand. Tourism Management, 18(3), 177–181. doi:10.1016/S02615177(96)00119-7 Qiu Yan qing, Ge Peng, & Ren Pei yu. (2010). A Study on Temporal and Spatial Navigation Based on the Load-Balance of Tourists in Jiuzhaigou Valley. Resources Science, 32(1),25-29. Shoval, N., & Raveh, A. (2004). Categorization of Tourist Attractions and the Modeling of Tourist Cities: Based on The Co-Plot Method of Multivariate Analysis. Tourism Management, 25(6), 741–750. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2003.09.005 Stankey, G. H. (1971). The Perception of Wilderness Recreation Carrying Capacity: A Geographic Study in Natural Resources Management. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, Tsaur, S. H. (1997). Evaluating Tourist Risks from Fuzzy Perspectives. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(4), 796-812. Um, S., & Crompton, J. L. (1992). The Roles of Perceived Inhibitors and Facilitators in Pleasure Travel Destination Decisions. Journal of Travel Research, 30(3), 18. doi:10.1177/004728759203000303 Wagar, J. A. (1964). The Carrying Capacity of Wild Lands for Recreation. Forest Science, 10(Supplement 7), a0001-24. Fu Rong, Zhang Xi lin, & Wang Bin. (2007). A study on RFID-based realtime monitoring system on tourism environment capacity state. Market Modernization, (03X), 6-7. Zhang Wen, & Li Na. (2007). The Experience and Inspiration of Tourist Management Overseas. Business Times, (027), 89-91. Wu Bi hu. (2001). Regional Tourism Planning. Beijing: China Tourism Press. Xia, Cao, & Wu Cheng zhao. (2006). A Study Summary of Visitor Management in Tourist Destinations Abroad. Human Geography, 21(002), 17–23.

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Yong, M., & Xi, L. (2006). Tourist Attraction Management, pp 125-127. Beijing: China tourism Press. Zhang Jian hua, & Yu Jian hui. (2007). The Study on the Technology of Controlling the Visitor’s Quantity in Tourist Attractions. Technology Economics, 26(002), 110-114.

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Zhang Xi lin, Fu Rong, & Wang Bin. (2009). On Accurate Visitor Management in Scenic Spots Based on RFID Technique. Scientific and Technological Management of Land and Resources, 26(002), 89-93. Zhao Yun hui. (2008). A Probe on RFID Used in Tourism Industry. CHINA Auto-ID, (006), 92-94.

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Chapter 3

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in the Australian Hospitality and Tourism Sector Chad Lin Curtin University, Australia

ABSTRACT The hospitality and tourism sector is one of fastest growing sectors in Australia and in the world. In order to become more efficient and effective in delivering products and services to customers via the use of ICT, hospitality and tourism organizations have to rethink the ways in which they build relationships with their customers by initiating electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) projects. Inappropriate eCRM decision-making and implementation can result in multi-million dollar losses, which can translate into a loss of competitiveness. Therefore, the case study approach was conducted to: (1) identify potential ICT costs and risk factors involved in eCRM initiatives in general; and (2) identify and examine key issues in the implementation of eCRM in the Australian hospitality and tourism sector. The contribution of this book chapter is two-fold. First, it offers hospitality and tourism executives with a more realistic insight about the impact of their eCRM investments on their business. Second, potential key issues, costs and risk factors associated with eCRM implementation are presented to assist these organizations in dealing with these challenges. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch003

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

INTRODUCTION The hospitality and tourism sector is one of fastest growing sectors in Australia and in the world. However, global information and communication technology (ICT) spending as a percentage of total organizational expenses by hospitality and tourism organizations has been predicted by Gartner Research to increase only marginally from 3.9% in 2009 to 4.4% in 2010 (Potter et al., 2010). In order to become more efficient and effective in delivering products and services to customers via the use of ICT, many hospitality and tourism organizations have started to rethink the ways in which they build relationships with their customers by initiating electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) projects (Jang et al., 2006; Singala, 2008). According to Karakostas et al. (2005), a 5% increase in customer retention can result in an 18% reduction in operating costs. Although there have been widespread agreement that CRM/eCRM has a direct and indirect impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty, sales and profit, key issues in the implementation of eCRM have not been well researched (Feinberg et al., 2002). It has been reported that stalled or failed CRM projects are often the result of organizations lacking a thorough understanding of what CRM initiatives and implementation entail (Chen and Popovich, 2003; Hendricks et al., 2007; Krigsman, 2009). Moreover, many studies reported that CRM implementations do not return the expected ROI (Foley, 2002). For example, CRM failure rates conducted by various research institutions (e.g. Gartner, Bulter, AMR, Forrester Research) between 2001 and 2009 varied widely, ranging from 18% to 70% (Krigsman, 2009). CRM ranked in the bottom three categories among 25 popular tools evaluated for customer satisfaction in a Bain & Company survey of 451 senior executives in 2001 (Mello, 2002). The high eCRM/CRM failure rate might be due to the fact that senior management tends to be myopic when considering their ICT deci-

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sions (Ernst and Young, 1999). Needless to say, providing good pre-decision information to senior managers becomes critical as inaccurate evaluation processes may reward and encourage suboptimal ICT investment projects (Rose et al., 2004). Thus, there is a need to identify potential risk factors and key issues for the implementation of eCRM so as to offer management with a more realistic insight about the impact of their investment on their business. Therefore, case study was conducted to: (1) identify potential ICT costs and risk factors involved in eCRM initiatives in general; and (2) identify and examine key issues in the implementation of eCRM in the Australian hospitality and tourism sector. This chapter first reviews relevant literature with respect to history and characteristics of CRM/eCRM. The literature review section also presents some important factors to consider before implementing eCRM as well as difficulties and challenges in identifying relevant eCRM costs and risk factors. Key findings and issues from the case studies are then presented. The chapter examines these findings and issues in light of these hospitality and tourism organizations’ eCRM implementation and management practices, and concludes by a section of discussion and conclusions.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Customer relationship management (CRM) is a comprehensive business and marketing strategy that integrates technology, process and business activities around the customer (Anton & Hoeck, 2002). The objectives of a CRM process are to shape customers’ perceptions of the organization and its products through identifying customers, creating customer knowledge and building committed customer relationships (Ragins & Greco, 2003). A well-designed and well-resourced CRM could be used to flag up potential problems and assist in resolving them (Easton & Araujo, 2003).

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

It is a broad term that has evolved from systems such as Marketing Information Systems, Database Marketing, Decision Support Systems, Call Centre Management, and Transaction Support Systems and can cover a wide array of technologies and business processes (Woodcock & Starky, 2001). CRM is also a term for methodologies, processes, systems and software that help an organization to manage customer relationships in an organized and effective manner (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). The aim is to create loyal customers so that the relationship can flourish over a long period of time (Kohli et al., 2001). CRM software vendors seem to use the word indiscriminately to refer to any system that facilitates ‘better’ relationships with its customers. This can be at a number of levels, ranging from facilitated transactions, higher retention rates, better marketing, and lower transaction and service costs. It is emerging as an important technology tool that is used by many businesses as a way to maximize existing business models, create new revenue streams, and increase new growth in existing markets (EPS, 2001). Traditionally, a set of CRM software and systems is generally implemented to support organizational functions by: (a) analyzing customer data gathered throughout the business; (b) automating and streamlining sales and customer support functions; (c) managing the flow of information in and out of the centers that handle customer transactions; and (d) planning and managing marketing and sales strategies and campaigns (CIO, 2000). Several researchers have attempted to define CRM. For example, Nargundkar and Srivastava (2002) have defined CRM as a process which can span end-to-end operations thus integrating all relationships from suppliers to the consumers and each business entity in this value chain can be viewed as the preceding business’s customer, transforming the value chain into a chain of customers. Similarly, Goodhue et al (2002) have defined CRM as an “application or initiative designed to help an organization optimize interac-

tions with customers, suppliers, or prospects via one or more touch points – such as a call center, sales person, distributor, store, branch office, Web, or e-mail – for the purpose of acquiring, retaining, or cross-selling customers” while Kim et al. (2003) have described it as a managerial tool or effort to “manage business interactions with customers by combining business processes and technologies that seek to understand a company’s customers.” Chen and Ching (2004) have pointed out that a CRM is an ICT process or methodology that helps an organization to retain customers in order to “to enhance the effectiveness of relationship marketing practices. “On the other hand, du Plessis and Boon (2004) have defined CRM as “the building and managing of customer relationships on an organizational level through understanding, anticipating and managing of customer needs, based on knowledge gained of the customer, to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency and thereby increasing profitability.” Furthermore, Zablah et al. (2004) have stated that CRM is a continuous process that “involves the development and leveraging of market intelligence for the purpose of building and maintaining a profit-maximizing portfolio of customer relationships.” Effective CRM implementation is assumed to lead to bottom line benefits for the organization (Tschohl, 2001; Wilson et al., 2007). It has been found that eCRM implementation efforts by organizations correlate with the perceived degree of eCRM received from the organization and this can often translate into customer’s loyalty (Lee-Kelley et al., 2003). The goal of CRM is to optimize revenue, profitability, and customer satisfaction by organizing the business’s processes toward providing high quality service to the customer (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). A good understanding of the business’s CRM strategy is important as a guiding framework in all stages of the development and implementation of a organizational customer-centric business strategy that encompasses all activities of the organization (Nargundkar & Srivastava, 2002; Tan et al., 2002).

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Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

History of eCRM The development of CRM applications began in the early 1990s (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). The first generation of applications was single-functions solutions designed to support a specific set of employees such as a helpdesk, the sales, and marketing departments. The second generation of CRM applications began to increase the functionality of the software to include a suite of interoperable modules that included marketing, sales, analytics, customer service, and call centre support functions. The goal was to enable corporate employees to provide a full range services to customers by using a common set of CRM-integrated databases and third-party applications (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). In recent years, CRM has shifted more into the forefront of ICT spending as the percentage of IT budgets spent on specific business and technology initiatives increases (Sechrest, 2003). Advances in IT have provided businesses with an opportunity to deliver CRM functions more effectively. The use of such technologies to deliver CRM has lead to the emergence of electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) and specialist software vendors in the marketplace. This new generation of customer relationship management products is called eCRM because it supports the multiple electronic channels that are now available to customers (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). The “e” is usually dropped when speaking about eCRM when it refers to CRM that has technology-facilitated interfaces with customers in a broad electronic commerce context which goes beyond the web (Chen & Chen, 2004). It is commonly referred to as one element of CRM that specifically focuses on “new digital channels of communication (web and wireless) and uses the web to create a holistic approach to internal and external communication” (EPS, 2001) or as a collection of methods and techniques which are adopted to “capture, retain, analyze, and productively utilize information about customers (or potential customers) for the purposes of pre-sales support, making sales

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and arranging delivery, and providing post-sales support” (Steinmueller, 2002). In addition, eCRM is capable of extending the traditional CRM methods and techniques by “integrating technologies of new electronic channels, such as Web, wireless, and voice technologies, and combines them with e-business applications into the overall enterprise CRM strategy” (Pan and Lee, 2003) and the source of customer data is normally “collected from the customer interactions with the Web and Internet-based systems” (Karakostas et al., 2005). Moreover, it usually involves a “combination of hardware, software, processes, applications, and management commitment” (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003). Hence, eCRM is generally considered to be a subset of CRM, meaning that eCRM is one more channel through which an organization can deploy its customer relationship management strategy (Dyche, 2001). eCRM differs from CRM is three important ways as it: (1) includes email, wireless channels, and web; (2) supports marketing, sales and service, and is often integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems; and (3) is enterpriseready rather than focused on departments or call centers and extends to cover partner channels such as extranets (Dyche, 2001; EPS, 2001; Pan & Lee, 2003).

Characteristics of eCRM eCRM is essentially database technologies, offers opportunities for interaction with the customer and for records to be kept of this interaction, and has the potential for mass customization for customers (McKay & Marshall, 2004). It also allows organizations to learn more about their customers through acquisition and analysis of customer data as well as to customize their products and services in order to satisfy the needs of their customers (Moon, 2000). In general, eCRM falls into three main types: operational, analytical and collaborative (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003; Hewson Consulting, 2000).

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

Operational eCRM is concerned with the customer touch points such as automating sales force while the analytical eCRM requires technology to process large amounts of customer data and to analyze customer data (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003; Sigala, 2004). Collaborative eCRM is a business model based upon an enterprise architecture designed to meet organizations’ complex and dynamic environment and it focuses on creating a real-time eCRM infrastructure for enterprise sales, service, marketing, and product development to better support customer requirements (eBest, 2003). In the long run, analytical eCRM, operational eCRM, and collaborative eCRM will move closer together to overcome the complexities and breadth of components required in order to collect better customer data to improve the quality of customer service, and, as a result, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Disconnects between analytics and operations may result in negative customer experience and the loss of opportunities for the organizations. Nelson (2001) described that 75% of customers who defect to a competitor claim that they were satisfied with the organization from which they have defected. eCRM can also be classified into four types (Karimi et al., 2001): (1) customer focused eCRM businesses – these systems enable organizations to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service, marketing online sales by automation; (2) operations focused eCRM businesses – these systems benefit organizations in supply chain management, order management and service field by using database information to forecast demand, reduce overall production costs and improve lead time/quality at a lower cost; (3) both operational and customer focused eCRM businesses; and (4) businesses that do not focus their eCRM development at either front. Additionally, a well-designed eCRM system address all the following three important eCRM components to certain extent: (1) applications; (2) infrastructure; and (3) transformation (Goodhue et al., 2002) and shares the following four

distinct characteristics (Zeng et al., 2003): (1) Relationship management – the features include items such as instant service response based on customer input and customer service centers that help customer solve their questions; (2) Salesforce automation – the functions include automation of sales promotion analysis, automatically tracking a customer’s account history for repeated sales; (3) Use of technology – it includes enabling new technology and skills to deliver value and to merge the information with eCRM solutions, and to provide key performance indicators; and (4) Opportunity management – the features include the flexibility to manage unpredictable growth and a good forecasting framework to integrate sales history with sales projections. The most popular eCRM applications include database marketing, telephone call centers, and web marketing (Goodhue et al., 2002). Executive approval for these applications are often easier to obtain and the costs and risks are relatively low (Goodhue et al., 2002). Most organizations first implement these applications at the local level as they are often not ready to integrate all their systems together (Deloitte Consulting, 2003; Ward 2001). According to Ab Hamid (2005), the most popular e-CRM tools used by organizations to facilitate the provision of customer service are emails and websites containing product reviews. On the other hand, the infrastructure that supports eCRM applications play an important role in successful implementation of eCRM. Needless to say, an organization’s eCRM strategy will only be successful if its infrastructure supports it (Book, 1999). IT infrastructure in electronic commerce initiatives such as eCRM has been shown to be critical to successful implementation (Kumar, 2004; Lewis & Byrd, 2003). The infrastructure has two components: (1) a technical IT infrastructure which is a set of tangible, shared, and physical IT resources and capabilities; and (2) human IT infrastructure which includes the necessary individual skills and knowledge required to develop, maintain, and support organizations in their abili-

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Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

ties to leverage the technical infrastructure (Chen and Chen, 2004; Chen and Ching, 2004). The up-front costs for the eCRM infrastructure can be a lot higher than the individual eCRM applications although the benefits are also higher (Goodhue et al., 2002). Most successful organizations approach electronic commerce applications such as eCRM as a complete business strategy, in which non-technical factors such as philosophy, people, processes and technology are all organized around delivering superior value to customers (BrainSell Technologies, 2003; Chan and Swatman, 2003; Zablah et al., 2004). In order to become a truly customer-centric organization, a major organization transformation is required. This often involves careful management of organizational changes and an extensive shift in organizational business practices and culture (Goodhue et al., 2002; Kennaugh, 2000). The payoff can be high but the transformation can also be expensive, slow and painful for organizations to undertake and is fraught with opportunities for failure (Richards, 2001).

Common Factors to Consider before Implementing an eCRM eCRM is more than IT and software packages. It is about business change and this often involves with people, processes, technology, and other factors, which are paramount to successful implementation of eCRM (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003). Some of the major factors that need to be considered before the implementation of eCRM initiatives are as follows: • • • • • • •

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The employees; Change management; The customers; The business goals and measurements; The integration factors; The IT, organizational and EC infrastructure and capabilities; and The management.

The Employees Employees are the often-neglected stakeholders in the success or failure of an eCRM initiative (Dailey and O’Brien, 2003; McCalla et al., 2003). A study by Fjermestad and Romano (2003) has found that the limited success of eCRM implementations can be attributed to perceived usability of the systems and resistance by the employees. However, when one factors in relationship management practices that engage employees in the change process, one can circumvent significant resistance and actually speed up implementation (Dailey & O’Brien, 2003). Knowledge on customers will have to be managed to ensure that what the services organizations provide will address customer needs (du Plessis & Boon, 2004). Hays and Hill (2001) have found that higher levels of both employees’ learning and motivation/vision positively affect perceived service quality. Human resources-related IT applications enable companies to deposit and distribute knowledge and training materials over the Internet and provide employees to utilize the virtual space or channel as a means or a supplement of learning (Andreua & Ciborrab, 1996). Akbar (2003) shows the link between knowledge creation and individual learning by examining differences in levels of knowledge and their relationship with creativity and knowledge creating behaviors. Therefore, organizations need to leverage and manage existing employee knowledge and motivation to accelerate implementation by: (a) moving managers and employees to quickly buy-in to eCRM implementation (Alt & Puschmann, 2004); (b) reflecting productively on what actions or new behaviors need to be adopted by organizations (e.g. teamwork and decision-making) (Dailey and O’Brien, 2003); (c) having clear job description, common motivations and goals, and good reward mechanisms for employees (Frazer-Robinson, 2001; McKay & Marshall, 2004); and (d) giving proper and necessary training to everyone involved in the eCRM implementations as high

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

levels of participation and involvement can have a significant influence on the success of IT or ecommerce project implementation (Brendler & Loyle, 2001; Foley, 2002; Power, 2004; Terry & Standing, 2004). Indeed, eCRM should become every employee’s job (McKeen & Smith, 2003) and involvement of users with a participative culture for the eCRM project can be more effective than solely investing in training programs (Power, 2004). Organizations are more likely to succeed if they properly educate their employees about the business benefits of eCRM and train them to use it properly (Mello, 2002).

Change Management Electronic commerce technologies such as eCRM, data mining, intelligent call centers and the like introduce profound changes to business processes in enhancing customer relations (Kotorov, 2002). Significant business change occurs when there is a change in the way that things are undertaken. The decision-making and planning processes have to keep up with the business needs to implement changes by embracing a new culture of adopting eCRM (Goodhue et al., 2002). The success of change management depends largely on the level of user resistance and systems usability issue can often be related to user resistance (Markus, 1983). According to Tan et al. (2002), the more commitments from stakeholders to the transformation of business strategy, the more likely eCRM implementation succeeds. Therefore, strategies should be formulated to promote acceptance on eCRM initiatives (Jiang et al., 2000). The chance of change management being successful can be increased by (a) getting top management support (Foley, 2002; Wixom & Watson, 2001); (b) having users involved in the design process (Kohli et al., 2001; Lin and Shao, 2000); (c) designing a system that responds flawlessly to users requests (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003; Tan et al., 2002); (d) bringing systems in within budget and time; (e) embracing and includ-

ing trading partners and customers in your eCRM program (Fingar, 2003; Steinmueller, 2002); (f) providing timely and accurate information to all stakeholders; (h) have a phased implementation approach (Kennaugh, 2000; Steinmueller, 2002) or split long-term eCRM projects into manageable subprojects (Alt and Puschmann, 2004); and (g) speeding up the eCRM learning process (McKeen & Smith, 2003). It is important to ensure that those who are on the side of changes move forward and those who are undecided or ‘anti’ move out because changes will only happen successfully if everybody wants it (Frazer-Robinson, 2001). After all, the senior management has the overall responsibility to educate everyone with respect to CRM and the role it will play in the organization (McKeen & Smith, 2003).

The Customers eCRM implementations can only be successful if it meets customer needs. Organizations should ensure strategies, processes, and eCRM application functionality are aligned (Stifler, 2001). According to Kiely (2001), 50% of customers did not want to have a relationship with organizations and only 8% of customers felt they have benefited from the implementation of eCRM. Therefore, organizations have to manage knowledge about customers and adopt a good customer-centric strategy so it will improve their ability to acquire, serve and retain the best customers and to increase their loyalty and spending with the organizations (Chen and Chen, 2004; Mello, 2002). In addition, organizations must be fully mindful of the customer’s current status and history, and they must be equally in tune with the nature and style of the relationship (Frazer-Robinson, 2001). It is important to think eCRM as an ongoing, ever-changing business program that is an integral part of organizations’ overall corporate, customer-centric business strategy. Organizations should assess and understand customer satisfaction (McKeen & Smith, 2003).

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Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

Finally, customer priorities should be set along a ‘cost to serve’ rationale which develops hierarchies of customer service levels aligned with customer lifetime values (Frazer-Robinson, 2001).

The Business Goals and Measurements Effective eCRM involves clearly articulated and prioritized goals and proper measurements for the customer experience and commitment starting at the very top (Alt and Puschmann, 2004; McKeen and Smith, 2003; Ragins and Greco, 2003). eCRM solutions should be evaluated in terms of effectiveness and efficiency in order to identify opportunity improvement areas at all levels of the organization in order to achieve the expected return (Pan and Lee, 2003; Stifler, 2001). Measurable business goals need to be established as it is important to define the specific business benefits that an organization expects its eCRM project to deliver (Croteau & Li, 2003; Iacovou et al., 1995). Moreover, many eCRM projects do have significant intangible benefits/costs which can only be quantified on a “best guess” basis so they have to be measured and dealt with effectively (Hewson Consulting, 2000). Finally, organizations should also monitor and track the system’s effectiveness, with an eye to continuously improving performance (Foley, 2002; Kennaugh, 2000; Tan et al., 2002).

The Integration Factors Good integration of organization and practices are generally regarded in the literature as essential on successful eCRM as they will provide visibility to customer and supplier data and allow online information sharing and transaction execution across the value chain (Alt and Puschmann, 2004; Barua et al, 2004; Pan and Lee, 2003; Steinmueller, 2002). According to Adebanjo (2003), three key dimensions of eCRM integration are required: technical, functional and cultural. However, only

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18% of organizations had fully integrated their eCRM systems although three-quarters of all responding organizations cited this as their top priority (Ward, 2001). Hence, it is important for organizations to choose an eCRM solution and a vendor that can integrate their different systems and deal with historical and current data and channel integration issues because it impacts business processes as much as technology (Deloitte Consulting, 2003; Kos et al., 2001; Peppard, 2001). Furthermore, the IT sections must work with their business partners to produce an eCRM architecture in order to: (a) identify the components of the eCRM strategy; (b) map these components into a integrated plan; and (c) order these components into a priority sequence (McKeen & Smith, 2003). Finally, a good integration with other enterprise systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) allows organizations to offer good quality and low price products through speedy distribution channels, obtain good demand forecasting and delivery designing information, and enhance the integration between front-end electronic commerce capability and back-end IT infrastructure (Tan et al., 2002; Zhu, 2004).

The IT, Organizational, and EC Infrastructure and Capabilities As mentioned, the IT infrastructure (such as networking and storage / data management) that supports eCRM applications plays an important role in successful implementation of eCRM. Effective eCRM implementations require appropriate organizational infrastructure to support it (Tan et al., 2002). For instance, a well planned data warehouse can assist organizations in mining the historical data to identify sales trends and new opportunities as well as to offer easier and timely access to key customer information (Goodhue et al., 2002; Tan et al., 2002). Furthermore, organizations’ electronic commerce capability is also critical in the success of eCRM implementation

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

which will lead to improved operational and financial performance (Barua et al., 2004; Zhu & Kraemer, 2002). Finally, the eCRM systems have to be set up in the way that both customers and users within organizations perceive them to be of some use to them (Chen & Chen, 2004).

The Management Top management support and good management practices were found to be related to the realization eCRM benefits (Pan and Lee, 2003; Sigala, 2004). Organizations should ensure that eCRM projects and the four important infrastructures – strategy, process, technology and change management are managed properly and effectively. The selected business and customer strategy should drive the underlying processes, which should in turn influence the technology selection and customization, and they should all be rolled out together as a single change management initiative that involves user training on both the new processes and technology (Alt & Puschmann, 2004; Foley, 2002; Hewson Consulting, 2000; Kennaugh, 2000; Rigby et al., 2002). A good management for customer process should integrate all customer touch points (Fingar, 2003). Additionally, senior managers should ensure that business plans and customer strategies are aligned with company vision and goals, and these are effectively communicated to all employees with the organizations (Brendler and Loyle, 2001). After all, eCRM success and benefits realization depends on the development of effective eCRM strategies and adoption of strategic orientation (Pan and Lee, 2003; Sigala, 2004). Furthermore, senior executives should ensure that they provide sufficient management leadership and obtain necessary organizational commitment towards the eCRM projects (Chen and Chen, 2004). Effective management of employees can result in effective implementation of electronic commerce initiatives (Power, 2004). Finally, proper evaluation and allocation of sufficient organizational, financial and technical resources are critical to

eCRM projects success (Iacovou et al., 1995). These processes should be carried out to identify areas for continuous improvement for organizations (Kohli et al., 2001).

Difficulties in Identifying eCRM Costs and Risk Factors The concept of eCRM is at the heart of an organization’s ability to extract benefits from its customers, employees, and business partners. According to Chen and Chen (2004), organizations implement eCRM for different reasons and its implementation brings both tangible and intangible benefits to the organizations. In fact, a Gartner survey of retail companies indicated that 52% of respondents rated eCRM as one of their highest business priorities (O’Connor, 2002). However, as mentioned previously, eCRM had received a lot of attention on extremely high failure rates, unhappy customers and wasted money (Feinberg et al., 2002; Fjermestad and Romano, 2003). While most eCRM vendors promised lots of benefits and dramatic return on investment results, it is difficult to substantiate their claims without proper evaluation. For example, an Accenture global study of government agencies in 15 countries found that 90% of the respondents said their agencies have not yet delivered superior customer service (eCRM Guide, 2003). Another research conducted by Capgemini indicated that 52% of organizations surveyed could not measure their eCRM investments in terms of costs and risks (Capgemini, 2004). While most eCRM vendors promised lots of benefits and dramatic return on investment results, it is difficult to substantiate their claims without proper evaluation process by organizations. It is not a software product organizations can simply go out and buy without proper evaluation beforehand (Fingar, 2003). In fact, a study found that around 20% of business executives claimed that eCRM initiatives had damaged customer relationship (Kekoe, 2002). Therefore, organizations need to

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carefully assess the costs and risks that can be brought in by the implementation of eCRM initiatives. In any case, the goals of measuring eCRM are to increase customer satisfaction, identify and reduce costs and risks of customer interaction, promote sales and create effective marketing campaigns, and increase overall organizational efficiency (Bulusu & Paracha, 2001). Despite the plethora of IT investment evaluation research undertaken, the availability of many evaluation methodologies, and the huge spending on IT projects (e.g. eCRM), many organizations still do not know how to conduct proper evaluation of these types of investment (Lin et al., 2005; Lin and Pervan, 2003; Standing and Lin, 2007). The nature of electronic commerce technology (e.g. eCRM) makes it financially and technically more difficult for managers to identify and measure costs and risks in eCRM projects (Kleist, 2003; Lin et al., 2007). The less precisely bounded environment of electronic commerce technology such as eCRM adds more complexity to the IT measurement problem as this type of investment is physically distributed between suppliers and customers, making the evaluation process of identifying costs and risks even more difficult (Torkzadeh and Dhillon, 2002). Consequently, many service organizations (e.g. those in hospital and tourism industry) are faced with a dilemma, that is, how to manage the performance of an enterprise system that has both an internal and external focus and thus adds value for stakeholders (Dibb, 2001; Lin et al., 2005; Tsao et al., 2004). In many cases, evaluation is often ignored or carried out inefficiently or ineffectively because it is deemed an elusive and complex process (Serafeimidis and Smithson, 2003). There are several difficulties associated with the study of such a link. Firstly, whilst factors affecting the depth of such relationships have long been studied in the marketing field, the idea of looking at the impact of technology on relationships is relatively new (Rigby et al., 2002). Consequently, limited literature exists in the marketing

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area that is of direct relevance. Secondly, the use of the term eCRM to describe wide-ranging software systems has led to confusion over its precise meaning (Kotorov, 2002). Thirdly, the difficulty in measuring eCRM stems from an unclear understanding of where the organizations started and what the measure for customer management performance was before these investments were made (Steinmueller, 2002). It is difficult to attribute increased revenue, for example, to one specific cause, and it is also difficult to relate financial returns and costs to any customer service improvements (Capgemini, 2004). Another difficulty is to identify the potential risks of investing in eCRM as well as defining appropriate costs to measure because investments in most eCRM systems have been taken as a matter of faith (Hewson Consulting, 2000). Costs and risks are important factors to identify and evaluate when organizations pursue their eCRM strategies (Kim et al., 2003). By critically comparing the risks, costs and benefits of each project with the key issues, explicit decision can be made about which to approve, which to terminate, and which to amend. However, many eCRM costs, and risks are difficult to quantify or identify. They need to be examined in the context of strategic alignment with respect to organizational eCRM strategies and operations. Although several studies had attempted to evaluate eCRM, almost all of these studies evaluate only some aspects of eCRM. For example, Jutla et al. (2001) measured only eCRM readiness using a comprehensive customer-focused evaluation framework while Verhoef and Donkers (2001) attempted to predict and evaluate customer potential value in insurance industry. Stamoulis et al. (2002) appraised customer interaction in the communication channel. Kim et al. (2003) assessed the effectiveness of eCRM from four perspectives only: customer knowledge, customer interaction, customer value, and customer satisfaction. McCalla et al. (2003) analyzed employees behavior through the inclusion of emotions. Mendes-Filho

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

and Fontes (2004) measured eCRM usage in the Brazilian Health Insurance sector. As these studies only examined some aspects of eCRM, senior executives within organizations still face with difficulties in identifying and measuring the intangible, indirect costs and potential risk factors of eCRM implementation. Therefore, a research study is warranted to identify costs and potential risks of eCRM implementation.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY As mentioned earlier, the key objectives of this book chapter are to: •

•

identify potential ICT costs and risk factors involved in eCRM initiatives in general; and identify and examine key issues in the implementation of eCRM in the Australian hospitality and tourism sector.

The study reported in this paper utilized the case study research approach. According to Remenyi and Williams (1996) and Tellis (1997), case study is one of the most frequently used research methods in information systems research. Case study utilizing semi-structured interviews (taperecorded), observation, and document review were employed for this research, since the need for using multiple sources of data arises from the ethical need to increase the reliability and validity of the research processes (Tellis, 1997). Before case study was commenced, initial understanding of the eCRM implementation process was synthesized from the literature to provide an initial basis for study. Issues, problems, costs, and risk factors affecting eCRM implementation were identified. A series of interviews were conducted with senior managers and key personnel from 8 hospitality and tourism organizations to gain an overview of the business processes and issues of their eCRM

investments. Some of these organizations’ customers were also interviewed. At least two interviews were conducted for each organization. The questions asked during the interview were related to these organizations’ eCRM projects, the objectives, benefits, costs and risks of implementing an eCRM project, IT investment evaluation methodologies deployed, benefits realization process used, and change management. Company documentation such as internal reports, eCRM project reports, and eCRM analysis reports were also obtained and analyzed. During the analysis process, the researcher compared and contrasted the findings with the literature, taking into account both the positive and negative findings. The researcher also conducted the analysis through integrating and triangulating facts from the above-mentioned data sources (e.g. interviews, observation, annual reports, project reports). The company documents provided some useful means of corroborating data from the other sources (e.g. observation and interview data) and expanded on details in order to eliminate or minimize the weakness of human memory when dealing with history. Moreover, participants interviewed were from different levels of management and therefore, should provide different perspectives. Furthermore, tracing the conclusions to the interview data was maintained as the chain of evidence. The qualitative content analysis was then used to analyze the qualitative data (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Hopefully, these steps should enhance the construct validity, reliability and overall quality of the research (Yin, 1994).

RESEARCH FINDINGS Costs and risks are important factors to identify and evaluate when hospitality and tourism organizations pursue their eCRM strategies. By critically comparing the risks and costs of each eCRM project with the potential benefits, explicit decision can be made about which to approve,

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Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

which to terminate and which to amend. Several costs and risks for eCRM implementation have been identified in this study. The eCRM costs have been classified as direct and indirect costs (Table 1) while two types of eCRM risks have been identified: technical and business (Table 2).

eCRM Costs It is often difficult to assess the true costs of a particular ICT investment (e.g. eCRM) as many approaches have difficulty in identifying and assessing all costs, especially the indirect costs (Peacock & Tanniru, 2005). Direct costs are those that can be attributed to the implementation and operation of new eCRM technology (e.g. hardware, software and installation costs) whereas the indirect costs associated with the adoption of eCRM are often more significant than the direct costs and are generally more difficult to control and determine (e.g. system integration costs) (Love et al., 2005). The results revealed that those hospitality and tourism organizations which had more success with their eCRM were those which had considered fully their direct and indirect costs before the implementation. This study had found that most hospitality and tourism organizations had difficulties in identifying indirect costs. Most of the costs of implementation an eCRM system mentioned by these organizations were direct costs. Many hospitality

and tourism organizations appeared to have difficulties in identifying and determining indirect costs or were ignorant about the potential costs of implementing eCRM systems. When asked about the costs for implementing eCRM, one senior manager said: “The system has to be maintained by someone. I do not know the details as I am only involved in selling the products and in using the system, not administration of the company.” The most obvious direct costs mentioned were costs of the eCRM system and its hardware accessories, maintenance costs, and employees training costs. Indirect costs mentioned by the organizations were largely related to the costs of data conversion and change management initiatives to overcome user resistance.

eCRM Risks Delivering value of eCRM begins with defining the expected high-level outcomes before a project is approved and continues through the identification, profiling, tracking and embedding of benefits. This also involves assessing risk against the proposed outcome to confirm how value can best be achieved as working with new technology always introduces certain levels of risks. Most organizations regard eCRM as extremely important for achieving business success (Chen & Chen, 2004), and to achieve the success risks have to be managed effectively. Assessing the impact of

Table 1. Direct and indirect eCRM costs Costs of eCRM Direct Costs

Indirect Costs

• Administration

• Customer complains and dissatisfaction management

• Consultancy and staff

• Data management and conversion

• Data and hardware maintenance

• Employee time and workload

• Employee training

• Lost productivity

• Hardware and accessories

• Re-engineering and user resistance

• Security

• System integration

• Software and hardware installation

• Systems configuration

• Software and licenses

• Time pressure

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Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

Table 2. Technical and business eCRM risks eCRM Risks Technical Risks

Business Risks

• Data accuracy and timeliness

• Lack of clear business objectives

• Data backup

• Lack of customer/user involvements

• Data integration and software incompatibility problems

• Politics and vested interests

• Inappropriate evaluation practices

• Poor implementation

• Inappropriate speed of change

• Poor planning and management of eCRM

• Security and privacy issues

• Users/employees resistance

risk for the eCRM systems is important as risk is inherent in the benefits, in the assumptions used to solidify intangibles, and in the eCRM investment itself (Richards, 2001). Therefore, identification of risks in implementing eCRM is important and it can assist organizations in understanding and minimizing them during the implementation of eCRM applications. Several categories of risks have been identified in the literature (e.g. Parker et al., 1988). For the purpose of this research, eCRM risks have been classified into two categories: technical and business (Goodhue et al., 2002; Rigby and Ledingham, 2004).

Key Issues Almost all hospitality and tourism organizations interviewed saw the implementation of eCRM systems as a vehicle for bringing benefits to themselves and to increase customer satisfaction but many of their users were unhappy about using the eCRM systems. A closer look revealed that most of these organizations failed to understand and proper manage the changes required for implementation of eCRM systems. They also failed to undertake proper pre-project justification and evaluation processes for their eCRM systems. Moreover, no process was established by the responding organizations to ensure that the expected benefits were realized after the implementation of eCRM. Some of the key issues identified in this study with respect to the implementation of eCRM by hospitality and tourism organizations are presented in the following sections.

Process vs. Software Driven The biggest myth for any IT implementation is that technology alone can deliver the biggest return (Capgemini, 2004). Surprisingly, many organizations allowed some of their business processes to be turned into software driven by their eCRM systems. Some were driven by the software rather than their own organizational processes. Much of their existing processes were altered in an attempt to ‘make their eCRM system work’ without realizing that IT should be used only as a key enabler of their customer management strategies. For instance, several respondents stated that the software had provided some of the best practices for organizations to follow. Many organizations had difficulty in implementing an effective eCRM application because they allowed the eCRM software to drive their approaches to customer management and to force them to retrofit customer strategies to match their CRM packages (Park and Kim, 2003). In addition, not all participants believed that business must drive eCRM implementation. The more successful organizations would insist on business driven approach. Those who initially thought that the eCRM was the solution to their problems were disappointed. For example, one senior sale consultant indicated: “The eCRM system is not well integrated with other system……there are lots of complains about the eCRM system from myself and other staff members…… This system is really a time waster as it crashes very often.” IT is just one enabler of process change (Grover et 39

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

al., 1998) and it only enables or creates a capability to derive benefits. The insistence of process driven would force the eCRM vendor to provide the products not on the merits of technology or broad integration, but on the products’ ability to affect performance or deliver expected benefits (Fingar, 2003). More importantly, as one interview participant pointed out that it had to continuously to gather user requirements and modified the eCRM systems accordingly. Indeed, the business process must supersede the application as the organizing concept for eCRM software (Fingar, 2003).

Requirements of eCRM vs. Job Responsibility The use of the eCRM system within an organization depended on the job responsibility. Different people (depending on the positions they held) had different needs of eCRM system and used it differently. The top management tended to use eCRM more often and considered the strategic benefits when using it. For example, the operation manager of a hotel said: “the eCRM has allowed us to keep proper accounting records, sales information and customer data. We can also use it to do useful planning……it also saves us some costs.” On the other hand, the middle-level managers and lowlevel users tended to look for benefits arising from eCRM from the tactical/operational perspectives. Other stakeholders and users would use it more widely and effectively if the benefits expected could be related to them. The office supervisor of the same hotel said: “I still believe that the new system is not as flexible and versatile as the old system. I am still more comfortable using the old manual system.”

Linkage between the Outcomes and Organizational Objectives There was a lack of obvious linkage between the expected outcomes of the eCRM implementation and organizational objectives in most of the hos-

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pitality and tourism organizations interviewed. In general, customer related benefits (e.g. improved customer satisfaction, relationship and services) were most often mentioned benefits by these organizations. Other benefits mentioned by the respondents were: improved information response time, consolidate customer information/data, and ease of review of customer contact information before making sales calls. Better understanding of customers and markets segmentation, reduced costs of providing product and service, and time saving were also mentioned by many organizations. According to Ward (2001), only 50% of the responding organizations were happy with their ability to existing customers and 33% were happy with their level of customer services. Responding organizations were most unhappy with their ability to segment customers as well as to cross-sell and up-sell to customers (15%) (Ward, 2001). The finding here confirms that the ultimate factor that determines an Internet application (such as eCRM) success is providing a satisfactory user experience (King and Liou, 2004). Increase accuracy and simplified sales forecast call and report preparation was also mentioned by many organizations. The eCRM was not seen as a tool to quickly provide information to customers; rather it was used to increase sales by using it to track customers. In addition, increases in revenue and profitability were not high on most organizations’ expected benefit lists. Most hospitality and tourism organizations did not see eCRM as a tool that would enable to increase their profits and revenue in the short term. Furthermore, most organizations interviewed used eCRM because their competitors were already using it or to improved customer services, instead of implementing it to gain competitive advantages.

System Integration Most of the hospitality and tourism organizations interviewed either had decided not to integrate their eCRM system with other functions or had

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

difficulties in doing so. They implemented eCRM just to obtain gains promised by the vendors. For example, one coordinator of a hospitality and tourism organization said: “no, eCRM is not going to be integrated with our other functions at the moment. It is going to be used for quick enquiries.” Proper integration of eCRM and other functions of organizations clearly required a lot of managerial, financial, and technical resources as well as organizational capabilities. The opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling were hence been hampered by the lack of integration with other functions. Furthermore, only larger hospitality and tourism organizations which had more sophisticated eCRM and had been using it for a while had seen the integration of various functions as a main benefit. In fact, only one organization had its eCRM extensively integrate with other functions within the organization. This is consistent with the finding by Steinmueller (2002) in which most organizations did not seem to be moving towards higher levels of integration in the short term and integration occurred in a piece-meal and incremental fashion. The strategies employed were mainly towards getting tangible short-term gains (Steinmueller, 2002).

Lack of Project Evaluation Process Less than one quarter of the hospitality and tourism organizations interviewed had an evaluation process (ie. Scorecard, KPI analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis). The rest were simply relied on their senior management’s impressions or gut feeling/intuition. When asked about the evaluation process, one participant said: “I have said to myself how much time it takes and what the efficiency is? If it can give me nil gain or plus gain that’s good. If it gives me negative gain then I am not interested.” Most organizations indicated that they did not have the capability and resources to do so or they did not know they had no evaluation process. One senior project manager even did not know about the evaluation process and suggested

the executive director might be responsible for doing the evaluation. While almost all of them thought it would be worthwhile to do it, most of them simply did not do it or relied on their intuition. This is consistent with finding by Karakostas et al. (2005) where most of the respondents did not have an universal acceptance of metrics and failed to evaluate the performance of their eCRM. The following factors were mentioned by organizations interviewed that had affected an organization’s ability to evaluate their eCRM: IT resources, organizational resources, change management, pressures from customers and competitors, nature of business / industry, complexity of eCRM, use of eCRM / acceptance by users and customers, and size of the organizations.

Lack of Benefits Realization Process Virtually no formal benefits realization methodology or process was adopted by any of the responding hospitality and tourism organizations. Those who indicated some process existed were actually referring to the informal evaluation mechanisms such as KPIs. No formal IT benefits realization methodology (such as the Cranfield Process Model of Benefit Management (Ward et al., 1996)), technique, or process was mentioned or specified by any of the participants or in any available documents. Only one hospitality and tourism organization had used some sort of informal benefits realization process on its eCRM project. Overall, the result is consistent with other research whereby IT benefits realization process was not adopted by most organizations (e.g. Lin and Pervan, 2003; Ward et al., 1996). The fact that no hospitality and tourism organizations had a benefits management methodology or process was not really surprising as much attention appeared to be centered on ways of justifying the implementation of eCRM projects and systems, with little effort being extended to ensuring that the benefits expected from these projects are realized.

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Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

Usage of eCRM According to Kumar (2004), it is important to consider IT usage when evaluating any IT initiatives such as eCRM since value depends on usage of IT and not on investment alone. Almost all of the hospitality and tourism organizations interviewed agreed that the adoption of an eCRM system was an important factor for the future success of the organization. However, these systems were not used widely and effectively in most of these organizations due to several reasons. While all respondents indicated that it was important to utilize eCRM, only a handful of them indicated that they had utilized it effectively. Many organizations stated that they had insufficient technical and financial resources to implement the sort of eCRM system they required. The other often-cited reason for not using eCRM by system users was that they were often forced to use the eCRM systems without much incentive. When asked about the incentives given by the organization to use the eCRM system, one system user indicated: “I don’t think we were encouraged or asked to involve in the designing and implementing of the system……the system was not easy to use……” Those organizations who were more positive about their eCRM system had implemented more sophisticated eCRM which provided employees with timely and accurate information as well as necessary training. Senior management had to use the systems themselves first and assessed the employees’ performance based on the eCRM reports. Several senior managers indicated that careful information requirements determination process and getting stakeholders involved early on were important for the success of eCRM implementation.

Lack of User Involvement The use of eCRM was generally forced upon the employees by the senior management. Many stakeholders and users within the organizations

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interviewed said they were not extensively consulted beforehand and were not involved in the designing and implementation of the eCRM systems. For example, when asked about her involvement of the eCRM project, one senior account manager said: “I am not too sure as I am really not involved in the initial implementation of the system…..I am not very knowledgeable about the system. The best person to speak to is probably our sales manager…..our IT person is responsible for implementing the system. I am responsible for maintaining the system as an account manager.” It is surprising that the account manager was responsible for maintaining the system but was not involved in the implementation of the eCRM project. Those organizations which kept the users and customers in the dark would tend to have low usage for their eCRM. Furthermore, many benefits expected from the implementation of the eCRM projects were mainly tailored for the customers and the senior managers. Very seldom the benefits for the users were considered thoroughly. For example, although usability of the system was mentioned by almost all of the organizations interviewed as one of the most important factors considered before implementing the eCRM, they were often considered from the perspective of the top management, not the employees and other users.

Gap in Theory and Practice in Risk Assessment by Most Organizations Almost all hospitality and tourism organizations admitted that issues such as managing employee resistance to change, over-reliance on eCRM system, inadequate evaluation, and poor implementation of eCRM were the potential risks for having an eCRM system. In addition, several respondents interviewed were concerned about the data backup or data conversion process from the other systems to the eCRM. There were also some concerns about the security issues with eCRM by many organizations interviewed. Agents in travel-

Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

ling organizations, for example, were extremely concerned about the currency of the data within their eCRM systems. This was because they did not want to share their customer data with their colleagues. Furthermore, most organizations admitted that eCRM success and failure were often defined based on by their management’s impressions or gut feeling rather than evidence via proper evaluation. There was also some recognition of the lack of clear business objectives for implementing the eCRM for most organizations when confronted with the question. Despite all these potential risks, only two organizations indicated that they had carried out decent risk assessments before the implementation of their eCRM systems. Most organizations did not do proper risk assessments of their eCRM systems. For example, one senior sales consultant said: “No, I do not think we have ever tried to evaluate the system and its potential risks. We are thinking to use other eCRM systems but have no financial resources to do so.”

Lack of Proper Change Management by Many Organizations According to Alter (2004), 63% of the organizations indicated that CRM systems required a major culture change. In addition, it is clear that complementary organizational resources such as change initiatives interact with IT in the process of value generation (Melville et al., 2004). However, according to the interview data, it appeared that most organizations’ top management was not aware that there was some dissatisfaction among their employees or users regarding the implementation of eCRM. It was a bit surprising that to find that employee’s reaction about implementing the system was not taken into account by most organizations. One senior sales manager said: “But I have to say that I still prefer the old system. I am accustomed to the old system.” However, when asked about whether there were resistance about using the system a senior executive of a hotel said:

“Yes, I think the system is very successful and all staff members are happy with the system.” Although most senior managers knew good change management was a critical part of successful implementation of eCRM, it appeared that there was some resistance by users during the implementation of these systems. Very few organizations had taken steps to manage the change and to involve users in the designing and implementation phases. Many employees and users complained about not being consulted and informed about the eCRM implementation as well as about not being involved in the early selection of the eCRM systems. They were unhappy about being forced to use the system. When asked about the consultation given about using the eCRM system, one system user: “I think from what we have seen there is a lot of information required to input into the system to make it work. I cannot see how staff are going to see it as a positive…..At the moment it sounds just so easy…… You don’t know how much time it is taking you and how mandatory fields you actually have to complete to make it successful.” Moreover, they hoped that senior management would spend more time getting user requirements, instead of telling them that they just had to use the eCRM system. Those organizations which had more successful implementation of eCRM were those ones which had managed the changes better.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The eCRM has generated a lot of discussion about its effectiveness and risks among many organizations and researchers. eCRM remains a priority for organizations, even as economic conditions cause IT budgets to be scrutinized. The results show that objectives/reasons for implementing the eCRM systems by hospitality and tourism organizations varied greatly. The objectives mentioned by most organizations were basically customer-related benefits (e.g. improving customer satisfaction) that

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were expected to be delivered by the eCRM systems. However, most organizations interviewed appeared to fail in some ways to conduct a proper assessment of business needs before implementing eCRM. Pre-project planning and justification processes were not properly carried out to assess the needs and feasibility of the eCRM projects. Most users were not involved in the initial phases of implementing eCRM systems and the use of eCRM was generally forced upon them by the senior management. This was often done without any incentives to the users. Those organizations which were more positive about their eCRM and had implemented more sophisticated and business-driven eCRM had provided employees with timely and accurate information as well as necessary training. In addition, the extent to which the eCRM system was used was largely depending on factors such as the level of user involvement, the degree of system integration, and type of job responsibilities. Most of eCRM systems adopted by the organizations interviewed were not integrated with other systems within the organizations. In fact, only one was effectively integrated with most of the functions within the organization. Moreover, most organizations did not carry out pre-project justification processes. Only half of the organizations interviewed had some sort of justification process. Those which did carry out had very basic form of justification processes such as assessment of the vendor’s demo or simple cost/ benefit analysis. Moreover, most organizations claimed to use a variety of criteria to evaluate the IT projects. However, only less than a quarter of the organizations interviewed had carried out some sort of evaluation processes (ie. scorecard, KPI analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis). Furthermore, almost no formal IT benefits realization methodology, technique, or process was mentioned or specified by any of the participants or any contract documents. This is really a cause for concern as successful eCRM requires that organizations allocate sufficient resources for

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building customer relationships and continuously evaluating eCRM initiatives. The evaluation and benefits realization mechanisms can expedite the organizational learning process and help make eCRM work to the benefits of all customers and external partners, whether viewed from a narrow buyer/seller perspective or a broader supply chain perspective (McGaughey, 2002). The major limitation of the present study relates to the generalizability of the research findings. The study involved only eight hospitality and tourism organizations in Australia and the findings are based on the Australian context. Therefore, the results need to be read in this context and cannot be readily generalizable beyond this study. It would be interesting to conduct the research in other countries and in different industries.

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Chapter 4

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour:

The Case of Pervasive Environments Eleonora Pantano University of Calabria, Italy Rocco Servidio University of Calabria, Italy

ABSTRACT The chapter provides an overview of the most advanced technologies for tourism sector, with emphasis on pervasive environments, which represent innovative systems based on an efficient integration of virtual reality and affective world. The aim is to show how tourism industry might exploit the current advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as virtual reality, web-based technologies, mobile devices, etc., to catch tourists’ attention and gain competitive advantages over competitors. In particular, these technologies are capable of promoting touristic destination in a global perspective and affect potential tourist decision-making process, by investigating the main characteristics and possible integrations. Moreover, especially pervasive environments are efficient tools to entertain and attract tourists’ interest, by showing potential destinations in an innovative and exciting way capable of influencing users’ decision-making process. In addition, the chapter outlines the possible implications for both marketers and tourists. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch004

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

INTRODUCTION The increasing competition among territories forces the tourism industry to develop new marketing strategies capable of spreading the touristic potentiality of the territory, in order to attract more touristic flows (Dwyer et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2009; Pantano and Naccarato, 2010). Form a tourists point of view, the industry tries to develop the offer which best fits consumers’ needs, whereas from a managerial point of view, the industry tries to develop new strategies capable of maximizing the profitability of local business, of optimizing the impact of tourism by ensuring a sustainable balance between economic benefits and socio-cultural and environments effects, of improving the quality of life of the local population (Buhalis, 2000). In recent years the innovation in the touristic sector, in terms of new kinds of tourism (i.e. gastronomic tourism, beer tourism, etc.) and innovative technological tools (i.e. recommendation systems, virtual reality, etc.) has both reduced the cost of products/services delivering (Shaw and Williams, 2009) and modified the traditional components of the marketing mix in order to gain competitive advantages. In this scenario, innovative strategies must take into account the communication potentiality of the advanced technologies with the purpose to maintain existing visitors and attract new ones. Therefore, the key issue is the identification of the most performing tools for promoting and revaluating the territories. To achieve this goal, it is possible to exploit the current advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In fact, previous studies has showed the relationships between tourism and advanced technologies from different standpoints (Buhalis and Law, 2008), as mobile devices (Cutrì et al., 2008; Kemperman et al., 2009), virtual reality (Guttentag, 2010), adaptive museum guides (Pianesi et al., 2009) and latest as pervasive environments (Pantano and Servidio, 2009). In one hand, these tools offer an innovative

and effective way for communicating the touristic products to consumers and, as a consequence, for influencing their final choice; on the other one, they offer to managers the possibility to both monitoring the tourists’ behaviour and preferences, and exploit it for the development of new efficient communication strategies. The first part of the chapter focuses on the most advanced technologies for tourism sector, by investigating on one hand the state of the art of the current ones used in the field (i.e. virtual reality, web based tools, etc) for attracting new touristic flows, on the other one on the previous studies on tourists acceptance of these technologies, as well as on their emotional response; whereas the second part focused on the analysis of pervasive environments and on their application to a particular territory (Calabria Region, Southern Italy), with emphasis on the promotion of its historical resources thought this technology, in order to point out the effectiveness of the pervasive environments and their usage scenario, as well as their implications for both marketers and tourists.

BACKGROUND Virtual Reality A large deal of research highlighted the new advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) might affect the tourism sector (Buhalis and Molinaroli, 2003; Buhalis and Law, 2008), in terms of enhancing the collaboration between tourist operator and traveller, by involving tourists in the product creation process (Ingvar et al., 2007), and providing more detailed information about the destinations offer. In this context, the most used tools are web-based communities and portals, and mobile devices. Especially the web tools play an important role on the diffusion of tourist information to wide targets (UNWTO, 2001). Since there is a rapid increasing of ITCs

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in tourism, new technologies would be utilized to extend the current business models. These technologies are mainly based on the virtual reality applications which are capable of providing virtual reconstructions of the real destinations capable of improving the human “feeling of presence”. In fact, these reconstructions provide a more realistic representation of the environments, by focusing on the integration of virtual agents (Gutiérrez et al., 2008; Brunetti and Servidio, 2010). Furthermore, the reconstruction may refer to a single object, a building, a landscape and it becomes very effective in the case of archaeological ruins. In this case the reconstruction allows to both compare a virtual view of the original state of the object and the current one, and virtual touch and manipulate the object without damaging it, as well as it allows to achieve more information on the ancient use, involved materials and so on (Alfano and Pantano, 2010; Cutrì et al., 2008). Figure 1 shows a meaningful example of comparison between the real object and the reconstructed one, available at the web site: http://www.virtualmg.net. The left part of the image shows a picture of a gold crown founded in the zone of Crotone (Southern Italy), belonging of the treasure of the goddess Hera Lacinia (IV cent. B.D.). It is currently preserved in a reliquary in the Museum of Crotone (Southern Italy). Instead, the right part

represents the crown virtual reconstruction. In this way, users may play the crown as in a videogame and, as a consequence, understand better its meaning, thus they are able to exploit the potentiality of the game as useful learning tool (Ke, 2008; Paraskeva et al., 2010). Accordingly, archaeological parks and findings can be promoted in a global perspective and are capable of catching the interest of a wider part of population (Fritz et al., 2005; Pantano and Naccarato, 2010). According to Pantano and Servidio (2009), virtual reality promotes tourism resources by supporting: •

•

The creation of innovative customized touristic products. Virtual reality tools support the developing of new digital environments, such as interactive scenarios, where humans may find interactive and useful information about the destinations. These environments consist of landscapes, particular areas such as museums, parks, and so on. The interaction with the environments allows tourists to ease achieve the needed information in an entertaining and fast way, improving the touristic communication process. The visitors’ experience. The high level of interactivity of the virtual environments improves the link between entertainment

Figure 1. A finding from the Hera Lacinia treasure (on the left), and its virtual reconstruction (on the right)

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•

and education, by providing a more engaging touristic and educational experience. In fact, visitors are exposed to different attraction stimuli together, capable of catching their interest and influencing their expectations. The design of new marketing strategies to promote touristic landscapes. The virtual scenarios are detailed and rich of information, available for a large part of users though ease and useful tools. Hence, virtual reality introduces new tools capable of both supporting tourists during the decision-making process, by providing high customized information, and involving them emotionally during the digital exploration of the reconstructed scenarios.

In this way, virtual reality tools enrich the users’ consciousness of the touristic destination, due to their ease diffusion via web and users mobile devices. Although virtual reality offers important issues for the tourism sector, there are some limitations which should be taken into account. For instance, some researches demonstrated that virtual reality might reduce the need for travelling (Williams and Hobson, 1995), due to the offer of digital electronic experiences, whereas other one maintain that this technology is capable of better communicating

the touristic destinations and, as consequences, of motivating individuals to really discover the place (Arnold, 2005).

Web Based Tools and Mobile Devices Concerning the online context, web communities and web portals dedicated to promotion of tourism attractiveness or local heritage offer to users the possibility to browse in the virtual scenarios (Figure 2), play with the virtual reconstructions of objects, enjoy the enhanced learning experience, as well as share experience and ask for suggestions to other users. In fact, users can access to the archaeological sites through an Internet connection, and discover the potential destination by their own place. Furthermore, integrated online recommendations system support users in the choice of the best touristic package, by focusing on his/her own profile. Especially in the field of cultural heritage, museums, arts galleries, archaeological parks are exploiting these tools to catch potential visitors’ interests, by developing new web sites which makes an extensive use of the virtual reality. For instance, the National Museum of Science and Industry (London, UK), has created a website (http://www.ingenious.org.uk/), which collects images and texts of cultural significance and al-

Figure 2. Example of visualization of virtual reconstructions though mobile devices

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Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

lows users to create their web galleries or their favorite visiting tours. Other noteworthy examples are the British Museum (http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/explore_introduction.aspx) and the Louvre (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/dossiers/ liste_ei.jsp?bmLocale=en), which realized an eversion of the offline museums, with the aim of diffusing cultural contents by allowing the 3D online exploration of museum collections. In fact, users might choose their preferred objects, virtually play them, ask for more information, as well as create their own digital tour. Therefore, online destination discovering becomes an entertaining and interactive experience, and the users feel involved in the creation on the best package for their own requests. As opposed to the web based tools, the mobile devices promote the destination in situ. In fact, tourists may really access to the place of interest and ask for more information through his/her own mobile by particular mobile applications (Cutrì et al., 2008) (Figure 2). Figure 2 shows an example of mobile application for the archaeological park of Lokroi (Southern Italy). Visitors accesses to the site (left), runs the mobile application, focuses the camera on his/ her location and visualize the virtual reconstruction of the original state of the current ruin (right). Since the difficult contextualization of current ruins in a historical scenario, these applications become very efficient for the promotion of archaeological heritage. For instance, in the case of archaeological parks, several applications allow tourist who accesses to the site to point the mobile camera on an object and visualize its virtual reconstruction on the display, as well as an integrated system for the geographical position recognition indentifies automatically user’ position and display information related to that place based on these information. Tourists can download podcasts (file directories for iPhone, iPad, iPod), and use the mobile devices as a touristic guide, which provides explanatory audio and video on the potential touristic tours. Hence, consumers follow their own mobile as it

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was a personal traveller guide. Meaningful examples are the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art, New York) and the Chateau de Versailles (France) which allow to free download though both the web site (http://www.moma.org for MoMa; http:// en.chateauversailles.fr/application-iphone-en for Versailles) and iTunes Store applications for iPod with all information capable of supporting and helping tourists during the visit to the museum. The available contents for MoMa are related to collections (paintings, photos), design, architecture, temporary and permanent exhibitions. Concerning Versailles, the application supports tourists during their visit of the famous gardens. In fact, it has been developed especially to be used remotely or while in the gardens. During the remote virtual visit, the application includes several videos, rich of detail on the décor, hidden parts of the chateau, different perspectives and so on. Furthermore, a satellite view zoom in linked to a commentary related to the objects (fountains, statues, etc.) provide an interesting virtual visit of the place; whereas the interactive tour of the gardens allows users to find the favourite path through the geo-positioning systems and get customized information. In particular, the system identifies the user’s position and the most interesting object close to him, thus it starts a film which explains in details the history, the functioning, etc. of the object. In addition, the application Vision+ allows user to insert the world of enhanced reality in order to start filming what’s around him/ herself. Especially the rapid diffusion of iPad might rapidly become the most used mobiles for delivering touristic information and overview of the possible packages, due to their high quality of display and computational efficiency. Hence, the benefits for territories which developed similar mobile applications are numerous: •

The interactivity of the application is capable of enhancing the visiting experience, becoming more completing and enjoy-

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

• •

ing if compared to the traditional touristic guides. Discovering and learning processes in situ become more exiting and amusing. The innovativeness of these technologies is capable of attracting also that part of population usually not interested in cultural heritage or in archaeology.

The availability of these applications for a limited number of destinations might influence consumer’s decision making, who may prefer a destination which offers this innovative service. For this reason, many territories are developing this kind of application in order to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

Tourist’s Acceptance of New Technologies Most of the current studies on tourism behaviour are focused on the use of the web tools to buy touristic product, by investigating the consumers loyalty and trust in the shopping online of a touristic package (Kim et al., 2009; Wang and Wang, in press; Kim et al., in press). In particular, they are aimed at the investigation of user’s evaluation of web sites in terms of usability and ease of use (Morosan and Jeong, 2008, Servidio et al., 2009; Law and Buhalis, 2010). To date, only few researches direct their awareness on the real tourist’ intention of using the most advanced technologies like adaptive museum guides (Pianesi et al., 2009), or on the effect that virtual reality might have on their behaviour (Wang et al., 2008). These studies outline the importance of involvement in the service creation for the acceptance of the technology, as well as the weak influence of tourists’ attitude towards art on the choice of using the technology. Virtual environments promoted via web make the memorization of touristic information easier (Wang et al., 2008); as a consequence this

process affects their expectations. Indeed, these systems present the visual information of the touristic place in a more efficient way, so that consumers can prefer these ones rather than the traditional touristic guides (Chiou et al., 2008). Buhalis and O’Connor (2005) outlined how the use of Internet-based virtual reality applications is capable of enhancing tourist’s experience, as well as of becoming a practical tool for gaining a competitive advantage for territories. Most of the researches focused on the user’s acceptance of a technology make an extensive use of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) mainly devoted to the tourist’s acceptance to use web tools to achieve more information on a touristic destination, which involves a quantitative analysis with final users. This model is based mainly on four variables (Davies, 1989): perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude and behavioral intention. Its aim is to investigate the users’ attitude towards a new technology, as well as their acceptance in terms of intention of use and affective use (Hossian and de Silva, 2009; Hsu and Lin, 2008; Kwon and Wen, 2010). In fact, the model is based on the previous Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). In particular, perceived ease of use represents the degree to which users believe that the use of the technology requires no effort (Chung and Tan, 2004; Davis, 1989); whereas perceived usefulness represents the degree to which users believe that the use of the technology enhances their performance (Chung and Tan, 2004; Davis, 1989). Despite the large numbers of researches on user’s acceptance of technologies, there is still a lack of study concerning how the tourist accept the new technologies like virtual environments, and how these technologies supports decisionmaking of a destination.

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Tourist Computer Interaction Several studies connected to the application of advanced technologies to tourism focused on the development of new tools capable of improving user’s interaction, with emphasis on the best user’s interface. In fact, in the virtual scenarios the design of a correct interface plays a key role, due to the cognitive aspects related the communication modalities between user and computer involved. The Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) field provides the framework of this research (Hewett et al., 2009). HCI is a multidisciplinary approach which enables new technologies to consist of an ease and pleasant design. It requires a creative design of new products, as well as knowledge related to how the new technological solutions might improve the potential users’ life style (Carroll, 2000; Sears and Jacko, 2009). HCI provides correlations between the field of Industrial Engineering and Cognitive Psychology, with the purpose to develop user-friendly graphical interfaces, which can exploit the advances in the vision, speech recognition, 3D graphics fields (Thompson and Azvine, 2006). At beginning, the research in HCI was more focused on the analysis of the technological aspects of these correlations, by mainly focusing on computer interfaces. Recently, literature proposes more approaches, focused also on the organizational, social and cognitive aspects, with the aim to support and facilitate the interaction between user and system interface. Since many travellers use Internet to search information or explore touristic destination, HCI has become an interesting topic also for tourism researches focused on the development of best web systems capable of influencing tourists’ choice, with consequences on the emerging of new interdisciplinary sectors like the eTourism (Buhalis and Law, 2008; Buhalis and O’Connor, 2006). Hence, the high spread of the ICT services has been influenced by the increasing availability to share traditional user interfaces with other systems like mobile devices. The new

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technologies offer innovative and entertaining way to deliver touristic information. For instance, the quality of the images becomes an influencing factor in the decision-making process, due to their key role on the motivational and emotional mechanisms involved in the tourist’s behaviour. Furthermore, an important field of research connected to the HCI is related to the development of efficient Graphical User Interface (GUI), which aim is to design the best system for interacting with a computer though graphic manipulation of objects. In fact, it focuses on the basic manipulation idea, which enables user to ease interact with the displayed objects. Virtual reality aims to facilitate the user-touser communication making the visualization of the touristic scenario more realistic. Concerning the virtual reality techniques, they might be better understood as broad framework including a computer-mediated and multisensory experience, which facilitates the access to the information in a different way. More in detail, virtual reality refers to “a computer simulation that creates an image of a world that appears to our senses in much the same way we perceive the real world, or “physical reality” (Craig, Sherman, and Will, 2009). Moreover, the development of innovative interactive virtual environments should include new tourist-computer interaction modalities, which combine latest communication ways more efficient in catching visitors’ attention. In this scenario, several researches showed how the objects rotation improves the perception quality of the interface, with influence on the subsequent purchasing behaviour. In fact, the objects rotation allows consumers to perceive the properties of the product affecting the three types of responses (Park, Stoel, and Lennon, 2008): (1) cognitive (how the consumer perceives the information related to the product), (2) affective (mood involved in the emotional responses), and (3) conative (personal attitude which influences the consumer behavioural intention).

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER The focus of this chapter is to describe how advanced technologies, with emphasis on pervasive environments, might influence tourist’s behaviour. In fact, the current advanced in technology aim at fulfils tourists’ curiosity by giving them the opportunity to see a realistic preview of the destination place. Consequently, the visual representation of the touristic places plays a significant role in aiding decision-making process, by influencing individual’s beliefs. Understanding the most effective tools for attracting tourists is an emerging issue. To achieve this task, advanced technologies propose new successful tools based on the idea to create a strong territorial image capable of influencing tourist’s destination choice. These ones support tourists in creation of a cognitive image of the territory attractiveness. This chapter shows a comparison among the most used technologies tourism sector, by underlying their main characteristics. The chapter highlights how the pervasive environments have the potentiality to catch more tourists, due to their innovativeness. In addition, it is important to outline the main implications for both tourists, in terms of influences on their behaviour, and marketers, in order to develop new efficient destination marketing strategies.

THE FOCUS ON CALABRIA REGION We chose the case of Calabria region (Southern Italy) due to its particular attractiveness in a touristic perspective. In particular, the region possess an enormous inheritance from the point of view of art, culture, nature, history and archaeology, which has the potentialities to catch the attention of an international audience but which is not fully known. For instance, the resources of major interest and importance are those dating from the period of

Greek colonisation, which has come to be known as Magna Graecia. In fact, many products and artefacts recall ancient Greek traditions and often reflect the finds in the region from the ancient Greek era which ran from the VIII Century B.C. to the 1st Century A.D.. Nevertheless, Calabria has a very strong arts and crafts tradition involved in the production of local food specialties (such as salami and other pork products, various kinds of cheese, liqueurs made from locally grown plants and herbs) as well as gold jewelry and musical instruments, while there is a strong growth in the production of cultural goods and services led by local museums and the universities. In fact, it is possible to exploit Calabrian strengths, due to the particular attention shown by foreign tourists: indeed, according to a recent research carried out by the Tourism Observatory for the Calabria Region, Calabria is perceived by foreign tourists as a place where it is still possible to enjoy the flavors of different local traditions; moreover the research carried out that the 24.7% of the people interviewed associated Calabria with gastronomy and local products and this figure was even higher concerning the Japanese tourists at 31.8%. Despite these elements, Calabria region needs to be presented in a touristic perspective capable of attracting different touristic target and promote its resources in a global perspective. Therefore, especially the pervasive environments are capable of presenting the region as an interesting and fascinating for Italian and foreign tourists, in order to outline unique characteristics capable of attracting several audiences and give them the tool for deeply understanding the territory.

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THE ROLE OF PERVASIVE ENVIRONMENTS Pervasive Environments Architecture Currently, the most advanced technologies can be represented by the pervasive environments. These systems are based on a decentralized computing landscape (Hansmann et al., 2003), and consist of a digital world (a virtual reconstruction of objects, scenarios, etc.) and the real users who have the feeling of immersion in the digital context by the ad hoc interface (Steventon and Wright, 2006). The pervasive environments can be applied successfully to several fields (ibid., 2006): •

•

•

•

•

•

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Supply chain, through the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which consists of tags attached to the goods, which allows to ease monitoring the good movements, with many advantages for the supply chain management. Environmental monitoring, through a continuous monitoring of the environmental variables, in order to evaluate environmental changes. They are especially used in the monitoring of coastal erosion. Leisure experiences. Pervasive environments can be exploited to develop more interactive and exciting museum or traveler guides, as well as to create new leisure experiences such as situated games. Healthcare in order to ease and fast monitoring the health of patients for diagnostic and preventive aims. Emergency response, in emergency situations which require rapid and detailed information; Intelligent car to support drivers (parking, drive in dangerous situations such as in bad weather, etc.).

•

Design. These system support designer in the developing of new products (i.e. cars, buildings, etc.), as well as to virtual evaluate their impact in the environment.

Efficient pervasive environments can be realized by exploiting the stereoscopic tools, which consist of a special screen connected to a computer which allows the combination of two images of the same object from two different points of view, which creates the 3D effect. In this way, tourists visualize 3D images through the use of glasses with polarized lens. Figure 3 shows a scheme of the stereoscopic system for visualization of 3D environments. From a touristic point of view, pervasive environments provide users the possibility to virtually discover the touristic destination, by exploiting the virtual reality tools and integrating in an efficient way several input and output devices, in order to make the user-computer interaction more comfortable and improve their usefulness and ease of use perception. In particular, tourists may explore the environment and interact with the 3D objects and scenarios by living a realistic experience capable of enhancing the visit. The system might recognize their position and movements by identifying the shadow or the body direction through a camera, and so on. Based on these data, system modifies the displayed images by giving users a more realistic “feeling of presence”. These multimodal interactions improve the level of interactivity, and as consequence it may affect the users’ satisfaction. These interactions provide an immersive experience in the virtual environment, by both supporting the visualization of 3D objects and scenarios, and allowing them to manipulate the scene, by simulating a real context. Hence, they have the possibility to virtually explore the attractiveness of the touristic place as it is real. These powerful interactions are capable of affecting tourist’s decision-making process, by influenc-

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

Figure 3. Stereoscopic system for visualization of 3D environments

ing the creation of a detailed mental model of the destination. Moreover, current researches in the tourism sector are focusing on the developing of more realistic virtual environments based on the use of intelligent agents and systems capable of improving the touristic experience. For instance, these systems can be very effective for the promotion of territories characterized by a high archaeological value. A meaningful example is the Calabria region. Previous studies (Pantano and Naccarato, 2010; Pantano and Servidio, 2009) outlined the usage of these tools for promotion of Calabrian archaeological heritage. Figure 4 shows a meaningful example of reconstruction of the two ancient statues Bronzes of Riace (V cent. B.D.), which represent the symbol of the region itself (Pantano and Servidio, 2009). These preliminary studies (Pantano and Naccarato, 2010; Pantano and Servidio, 2009) highlighted the tourist’s interest on these environments,

in terms of quality of delivered information, possibility to taste in advance the destination, innovative way for achieving useful information on the destination. In particular, users may be more attracted by these tools than a traditional touristic guide.

Main Characteristics The purposes of the application of pervasive environments to a territory are several. They can be summarized as follows: •

•

The pervasive environments solicit an original and global vision of the territory as an attractive touristic destination, with many consequences for the local economy. The pervasive environments allow to deeply understanding the territory from several points of view, by proposing the most exciting local amenities and places.

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Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

Figure 4. Stereoscopic visualization of Bronzes of Riace

•

•

•

The pervasive environments provide useful knowledge on the history and culture of a territory, in an ease and interactive way, with consequences for the learning process. The pervasive environments allow tourists to live a new and engaging experience, which can motivate them to force others to live the same one. Furthermore, the targets can be several. In fact, these system can be attractive for segments of population with different interests, due to the characteristic of providing a wide range of information (archaeology, landscapes, museums, etc.), furthermore their innovativeness of the environments become an attractive elements for the young part of population more interested in new technologies.

In conclusion, it is possible to summarize the main new technologies adopted in the sector with the related characteristics (Table 1).

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Mobile devices, web based systems and pervasive environments have the common characteristic to provide virtual reconstruction in a fast and ease way. In fact, though these technologies user can explore, interact and play with the virtual reconstructions of objects, environments, buildings, by accessing to the needed information in an interactive and innovative way, by exploring the environment though a personalized tour. Hence, users might achieve high customized information, enhancing the searching process. Furthermore, in the case of mobile devices, a system for the geographical position recognition allows the mobile application to propose different tours or new information on the users current location, whereas the web portals are capable of suggesting possible tours or touristic packages on the base of users profiles (in terms of past behaviours, needs and preferences, and so on). In opposite, pervasive environments provide also a multimodal interaction capable of improving the realism of the visited scenario, though several input devices and interaction modalities. Conse-

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

Table 1. Most used technologies and related characteristics Mobile devices

Web portals

Web-based communities

Pervasive environments

Virtual reconstructions

X

X

X

X

Interactivity

X

X

X

X

Recommendations systems

-

X

-

-

Customized information

X

X

X

X

Personalized tours

X

X

-

X

Recognition of tourist’s geographical position

X

-

-

-

Multimodal interaction

-

-

-

X

Supporting decision making

X

X

X

X

Supporting learning

X

X

X

X

quently, all these systems provide useful information for tourist’s destination choice, capable of both influencing the user decision-making and learning process, though the innovativeness and quality of information displaying. As a consequence, pervasive environments offer several options for the choice of the best alternative, though innovative and more attractive tourism contents.

Impact on Tourists’ Behaviour Advanced technologies, and especially pervasive environments might affect tourists’ perception of destination. In particular, they might affect the three main aspects of the process (Solomon, 2010): •

•

•

Exposure. The technologies present the product in an innovative way, by giving users the possibility to focus on some details or to make comparisons. Perceptive selection. Potential tourist pays attention to some stimuli rather than others, the technologies can influence this aspect by catching user’s attention on some particulars rather than others. Interpretation. On the basis of information provided, users attribute a particular meaning to the stimuli, which are influenced by

various associations made by tourists during the experience. Accordingly, the introduction of advanced technologies such as pervasive environments might affect the traditional decision-making process based on five steps: need recognition (1), search for information (2), pre-purchase evaluation (3), purchase/consumption (4), post-consumption evaluation (5) (Solomon, 2010; Blackwell et al., 2006). In particular, it is possible to analyse how these innovative technologies influence the different steps in order to understand their possible influence on tourists’ behaviour; 1. Need recognition. Pervasive environments support potential tourists in the virtual discovering of the possible destinations, by showing the main attractions and characteristics. As a consequence, they propose alternatives capable of stimulating the emerging of new needs; 2. Search for information. Pervasive environments provide fast and useful information on destinations, by allowing users to focus on the one which best fits their interests. Furthermore, they provide the possibility to ease make a comparison among territories;

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Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

3. Pre-purchase evaluation. On the basis of the achieved information, tourists have sufficient elements to make the choice. In this way, pervasive environments support consumers’ decision making process; 4. Purchase/consumption. To date, pervasive environments do not support the online payment, nor the possibility to automatically calculate the total amount of the touristic package or to choose among different payments options. However, further development might integrate these functions in the pervasive systems, in order to improve the consumers’ shopping experience and the subsequent satisfaction. 5. Post-consumption evaluation. The provided information on the destinations reduce the risk related to the choice and, as a consequence, improves both the quality of the immersive experience, and the loyalty to the supplier who provided the service (i.e. travel agencies, archaeological park, Public Administrations, etc.) and to the region. Since the users active participation in the production of the touristic package and information service (Bharadwaj et al., 2009; Grant et al., 2010) the total service quality improves. In fact, the high level of interactivity which characterizes the pervasive environments, as well as the multimodal interaction allows users to ease interact with both the objects and the provided information in order to get a more customized service. Furthermore, the speed, the quality, and the richness of the service allow users to save time. Therefore, the decision-making process becomes an entertaining experience with positive influences on tourists’ buying behaviour. Furthermore, there are some issues which should be taken into account: tourists may choose to exploit or not the available pervasive environ-

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ments. Indeed, this option might generate positive attitudes towards both this technology and the suppliers who provide this system (Reinders et al., 2008).

IMPLICATIONS Implications for Tourists The results of our study provide several implications for both the application of pervasive environments to promote territorial assets and to direct subjects’ attention towards a particular destination. Since the competition among territories is growing, tourism industry is forced to design and develop innovative tools to make more attractive the touristic experience. New electronic devices and virtual environments devoted to the promotion of a positive territorial image are more focused on to emphasize the authenticity of the touristic place. In fact, they allow to the potential tourist to reveal the users intention to visit the place and to return again there. In this way, these services improve territorial image and authenticity formation, tourist’s satisfaction, by providing several detailed information in an innovative way. Since these advanced technologies provide new and high customized information, increasing the probability to purchase the best touristic package by reducing the risk connected to the purchase. Hence, tourist’ expectations regarding the destination reflect both the virtual experience and the promotional messages provided by suppliers through this channel. Since the choice of a particular destination depends on the attractiveness of the provided messages likely to be drawn, the suppliers’ inferences on these technologies are capable of affecting tourists’ behaviour. In fact, positive expectations may represent indicators of a positive image of certain destination (Kolar and Zabkar, 2009). These remarks can be considered an emerging attempt to investigate empirically the

Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

influence of advanced technologies on tourist’s decision-making process. Despite several researches carried out a negative effect of an excess of the information amount (Sicilia and Ruiz, 2010), the fun provided by these technologies might mediate this effect. Furthermore, tourists can live new engaging experience which can be available also for people with disabilities, in order to make destinations more accessible also for this part of population.

Implications for Marketers Managers can use these results in order to develop new efficient strategies based on the use of advanced technologies for promotion of territories, as well as tour operators and touristic agencies might take into account the potentialities of these ones to catch tourist’s attention and interests. Managers should take into account the key role played by the fun provided by these interactive media which are capable of influencing user’s evaluation of touristic product. Due to the strict link between the attractiveness of the messages and the choice of that product, they should focus on the development of new technologies for the best communication and interaction modality. In fact, these findings are important in interactive technologies where managers might exploit the opportunities to involve users in the touristic package creation process. Therefore, they need to consider the effect of a high level of interactivity and innovativeness on the possibility to add much more advertising to the touristic information promoted by these technologies, which are capable of moderating the negative effects caused by an excess of information. In fact, managers should identify the best messages to be promoted via these technologies and the territories which can achieve more advantages, by exploiting also the tools offered by the new advances in 3D computer graphics. The territories can be promoted in a global perspective, and easy catch the attention of foreign potential tourists.

Hence, the territories which exploit the use of advanced technologies could achieve competitive advantages and a larger market segment.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Although there is a large deal of research in the users’ acceptance of advanced technologies for achieving touristic information, there is still a lack concerning the best integration of different technologies for the creation of a new one which best satisfies consumers needs and capable of better influencing their choice of destination. Further researches might focus on the comparison of the use of the same technology for different territories in order to deeply understand how the most efficient for each kind of territory. Different quantitative analysis might be based on sample of different ages, in order to understand which target is most influenced by one technologies, and how the is more efficient for a particular range of age. Moreover, the use of pervasive environments related hotel booking promotion is still underdeveloped. In fact, many studies services carried out the influence of e-word-of mouth communication through virtual communities, social networking systems, blogs etc. (Ye et al., 2010; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010), but the effect of virtual exploration on tourists’ choice is not totally investigated yet. Hotel managers could take into account the possibility to create virtual tour, iPad/iPhone applications related to the rooms and facilities in order to give users the possibility to discover the hotel attraction before the booking and reduce the risk involved in the choice. With the same purposes, it is possible to give travel agencies already equipped with systems for stereoscopic visualization virtual reconstruction of rooms and amenities in order to allow users to discover and test the hotel offer through an immersive and interesting experience. In addition, touristic consumption of virtual destination might become a social experience,

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hence consumer could prefer creating and consuming their favourite touristic package in the virtual scenario than a traditional one, thus marketers should identify how exploit pervasive environments also in loci, in order to understand how tourists make use of these systems and which factors affect their participation to the virtual scenarios.

CONCLUSION The advanced technologies like virtual reality, web-based technologies, mobile applications, and pervasive environments provide new effective tools to communicate touristic products in an innovative and interactive way. Since these technologies offer interactive, ease of use, useful tools for searching information related to the touristic destination, the tourist’ choice might be influenced by these factors. In fact, tourists have the possibility to achieve fast and customized information, as well as to virtual explore the destination offer, in order to reduce the perceived risk toward the destination. Hence, in one hand these technologies are powerful tools for tourists’ decision; on the other one they provide information on user’s preferences and need which managers can exploit to develop new efficient strategies for better communicating the territory. Noteworthy characteristics of these systems are they capacity of preserve, promote, diffuse, and personalize touristic contents, by exploiting digital technologies. In particular, pervasive environments allow to: •

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Create a powerful network between different actors (potential tourists, tour operators, travel agencies, marketers, suppliers, etc.), by supporting the development of a common network of knowledge. This network might increase the visibility of touristic contents, promoting the knowledge sharing among actors. These resources can

•

•

be exploited to create innovative application for delivering touristic information. Develop a touristic repository of digital contents. The current technological infrastructure provides a good level of innovation capable of managing an enormous amount of information. To design experimental research by using these contents. In other words, these tools might supply the creation of a common touristic system, which manages different collections of cultural assets and objects.

In conclusion, the purpose of the pervasive environments is to increase the destination attractiveness by providing informative contents in an exciting and innovative way. In this process, both quality of the images and interactive system functionalities influence the service quality of delivered touristic contents. Indeed, pervasive environments represent an innovative way to communicate touristic contents, attract new touristic flows, and develop tourists’ loyalty towards destinations, by improving both. Hence, tourism industry needs to identify alternative way to communicate the enormous amount of authenticity and attractiveness of the touristic places.

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Paraskeva, F., Mysirlaki, S., & Papagianni, A. (2010). Multiplayer online games as educational tools: Facing new challenges in learning. Computers & Education, 54, 498–505. doi:10.1016/j. compedu.2009.09.001 Park, J., Stoel, L., & Lennon, J. S. (2008). Cognitive, affective and conative responses to visual simulation: The effects of rotation in online product presentation. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 7(1), 72–87. doi:10.1002/cb.237 Pianesi, F., Graziola, I., Zancanaro, M., & GorenBar, D. (2009). The motivational and control structure underlying the acceptance of adaptive museum guides - An empirical study. Interacting with Computers, 21(3), 186–200. doi:10.1016/j. intcom.2009.04.002 Reinders, M. J., Dabholkar, P. A., & Frambach, R. T. (2008). Consequences of forcing consumers to use technology-based self-service. Journal of Service Research, 11(2), 107–123. doi:10.1177/1094670508324297 Sears, A., & Jacko, A. J. (2009). Human-Computer Interaction. Development process. London: Taylor & Francis. Servidio, R., Feraco, A., & Pantano, E. (2009). Usability Evaluation of a Calabrian tourist Visitor Information Centre website. Information Technology & Tourism, 11(2), 95–110. doi:10.3727/109830509789994766 Shaw, G., & Williams, A. (2009). Knowledge transfer and management in tourism organisations: An emerging research agenda. Tourism Management, 30(3), 325–335. doi:10.1016/j. tourman.2008.02.023 Sicilia, M., & Ruiz, S. (2010). The Effect of Web-Based Information Availability on Consumers’ Processing and Attitudes. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24, 31–41. doi:10.1016/j. intmar.2009.10.001

Solomon, M. R. (2010). Consumer Behavior 9/E. New York: Prentice Hall. Steventon, S., & Wright, A. (2006). Intelligent Spaces. The Application of Pervasive ICT. Berlin: Springer. Thompson, S. G., & Azvine, B. (2006). No Pervasive Computing Without Intelligent Systems. In Steventon, A., & Wright, S. (Eds.), Intelligent Spaces. The Application of Pervasive ICT (pp. 37–54). Berlin: Springer. UNWTO. (2001). eBusiness for tourism: Practical guidelines for destinations and businesses. Madrid: World Tourism Organization. Wang, C.-C., & Yang, H.-W. (2008). Passion for online shopping: The influence of personality and compulsive buying. Social Behavior and Personality, 36, 693–706. doi:10.2224/ sbp.2008.36.5.693 Wang, H.-Y., & Wang, S.-H. (in press). Predicting mobile hotel reservation adoption: Insight from a perceived value standpoint. [in press]. International Journal of Hospitality Management. Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism Management, 31(2), 179–188. doi:10.1016/j. tourman.2009.02.016 Ye, Q., Law, R., Gu, B., & Chen, W. (2010). (in press). The influence of user-generated content on traveler behavior: An empirical investigation on the effects of e-word-of mouth to hotel online booking. Computers in Human Behavior. Zhang, X., Song, H., & Huang, C. Q. (2009). Tourism supply chain management: A new research agenda. Tourism Management, 30(3), 345–358. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2008.12.010

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ADDITIONAL READING Adamo, A., Bertacchini, P. A., Bilotta, E., Pantano, P., & Tavernise, A. (2010). (in press). Connecting Art and Science for Education: Learning through an Advanced Virtual Theater with “Talking Heads”. Leonardo Journal, 43(5). Arthur, E. J., & Hancock, P. A. (2001). Navigation Training in Virtual Environments. International Journal of Cognitive Ergonomics, 5(4), 387–400. doi:10.1207/S15327566IJCE0504_2 Barlow, T. (2001). Acquisition of Route Knowledge Through Navigation in a Virtual Environment. International Journal of Cognitive Ergonomics, 5(3), 279–295. doi:10.1207/ S15327566IJCE0503_9 Braun, K. A. (1999). Postexperience advertising effects on consumer memory. The Journal of Consumer Research, 25, 319–334. doi:10.1086/209542 Ghiani, G., Paternò, F., Santoro, C., & Spano, L. D. (2009). (in press). UbiCicero: a Location-Aware, Multi-Device Museum Guide. Interacting with Computers. doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2009.06.001 Gibson, J. J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Kanellopoulos, D. N. (2008). An ontology-based system for intelligent matching of travellers’ needs for Group Package Tours. International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 1(1), 76–99. doi:10.1504/IJDCET.2008.020136 Kjeldskov, J., & Paay, J. (2005). Understanding and modelling built environments for mobile guide interface design. Behaviour & Information Technology, 24(1), 21–35. doi:10.1080/0144929 0512331319012 Lazarinis, F., Kanellopoulos, D., & Lalos, P. (2008). Heuristically Evaluating of Greek e-Tourism and e-Museum Websites. Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation, 11(1), 17–26.

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Lepouras, G., & Vassilakis, C. (2005). Virtual museums for all: employing game technology. Virtual Reality (Waltham Cross), 8, 96–106. doi:10.1007/s10055-004-0141-1 Lin, Y., Xu, C., Pan, Z., & Pan, Y. (2006). Semantic modeling for ancient architecture of digital heritage. Computers & Graphics, 30, 800–814. doi:10.1016/j.cag.2006.07.008 Mason, D. D., & McCarthy, C. (2006). The feeling of exclusion: Young peoples’ perception of art galleries. Museum Management and Curatorship, 21, 20–31. Naccarato, G., Pantano, E., & Tavernise, A. (in press). Educational personalized contents in a Web environment: Virtual Museum Net of Magna Graecia. In Styliaras, G., Koukopoulos, D., & Lazarinis, F. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Technologies and Cultural Heritage: Applications and Environments. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Nielsen, J. (1999). Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders. Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York: Basic Books. Oviatt, S. L. (2008). Multimodal Interface. In Jacko, J. A., & Sears, A. (Eds.), The HumanComputer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications (pp. 413–433). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Pantano, E. (2010). New technologies and retailing: Trends and directions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 17(3), 171–172. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.03.004 Pantano, E. (2010). New Technologies and Retailing: trends and directions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 17(3), 171–172. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.03.004

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Tonta, Y. (2008). Libraries and museums in the flat world: Are they becoming virtual destinations? Library Collections, Acquisitions & Technical Services, 31(1), 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.lcats.2008.05.002

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Destination Marketing: Particular kind of marketing which considers the destination as the product to be promoted, in order to promote the territory, attract more touristic flows and gain advantages for the local economic development. Graphical User Interface (GUI): The user interfaces which allow people to interact with computer programs by using visual modalities. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): It concerns the study of design, evaluation and implementation of interactive systems for human use (Hewett et al., 2009), by exploiting the advances in the vision, speech recognition, 3D graphics fields (Thompson and Azvine, 2006). Pervasive Environments: Systems based on a decentralized computing landscape, consist of a

digital world (a virtual reconstruction of objects, scenarios, etc.) and the real users who has the feeling of immersion in the digital context by ad hoc interface. Tourism Behaviour: Study of the human behaviour from a touristic perspective. In particular, it investigates the motivational mechanism connected with the desire to travel and the particular behaviour showed with travelling. Tourist Technology Acceptance: The degree of which a tourist accept to use the particular technology. It can be evaluated through the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989), mainly based on the variables: perceived ease of use (how users think the use of the technology enhance the job performance), perceived usefulness (how users think the use of the technology doesn’t require a mental effort) of the technology, attitude (user’s feeling related to the technology), behavioral intention (by the use of technology). Virtual Reality: Technique which allows to digital reproduce and display objects and scenarios, by exploiting computer graphic tools.

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Chapter 5

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing Jiaming Liu Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China

ABSTRACT With the increase of disposable income and leisure time, recreation has become an important lifestyle of urban residents in China. Peri-urban recreation areas, as the important one, could not only meet the outdoor recreational demands of both tourists and residents, but also contribute to sustaining urban ecological security. Rational spatial patterns for recreational land use will mediate the contradictions between urban sprawl and natural preservation, and, economic growth and social development. Based on the case study of peripheral urban areas in Beijing, this chapter aims to identify the factors which will influence the spatial distribution of peri-urban recreation areas, by analyzing the collected data from questionnaires, online survey, documentation and field investigations. In order to achieve sound information, relevant data from different management departments, owners and land-use types involved in the case study area is collected. A sampling database for peri-urban recreation areas in Beijing is established, and GIS spatial analyses as well as statistic analyses are applied. The result indicates that spatial distribution of recreation areas is majorly influenced by four factors, e.g. tourism attractions and environmental conditions, policy and spatial governance, consumption demand and preference, land price and availability. The influencing mechanism of each factor towards different type of recreation areas is various. Tourism attractions and environmental conditions are dominant factors for public recreation areas. Commercial recreation areas are highly related with accessibility. Agricultural recreation areas are usually attached to special farmlands near large-scaled scenic areas. Meanwhile, recreational DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch005

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

business clusters have appeared in suburbs influenced by mass recreation market growth. Controlled by the land price, commercial recreation areas are differentiated on their scales and developing intensity. Policy and spatial governance have made arrangements of recreation areas more balancing and more human-oriented. A peri-urban recreation area model is therefore established on basis of this analysis, which can guide urban planning and designing, land-use planning and recreation resource development.

INTRODUCTION Peri-urban recreation areas, as the main outdoor playing places for tourists and urban residents at leisure time, are important components of urban recreational system. In the last two decades, with the rapid expansion of urban built-up area in China, the isolation between human and nature turns to be distinct, and the conflict between leisure demands and recreation supplies becomes more and more acute. The tendency of metropolitan residents who escape from their routine life and touch the nature in peri-urban areas on weekends and holidays has turned to be a popularized. Recreation areas could be divided into three types: public recreation area, commercial recreation area and affiliated recreation area, according to suppliers, operators and objectives of land use and its service functions (Figure.1). Based on the case study of Beijing metropolis, the influencing factors of different types of peri-urban recreation areas are analyzed and the dominant factors for

each type are identified by the methods of spatial division and statistical analysis, so as to provide significant guides for China’s urban tourism and recreation resources management and planning. In contrast to the hundreds years’ development on empirical study in western countries, literature on tourism and recreation literature is still weak in China. Researches on recreation areas involve multi-disciplines, e.g. tourism, geography, urban and landscape sciences. Geographers and urban scholars began to showcase their concerns on the recreation phenomenon from the mid and later 19th Century. They have pointed out a number of theories concerning the distribution of recreation areas, which have been applied to urban planning and construction. At the end of 1950s, the United States initiated a park movement and Central Park, New York, which was proposed by F.L.Olmsterd who pushed the movement to the summit. In the early of the twenties century, Wilderness Protection Regulation was enacted and implemented in national parks. These theories and practices as-

Figure 1. Classification of recreation areas in suburbs

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

sured that western countries kept harmony between human and nature in the process of urbanization. Functionalism urban planning, sprang up at the early stage of World War II, put the distribution of recreation areas on a very important position. After World War II, a number of researchers began to focus on recreation opportunity. Since 1960s, based on the tourist behavior investigation, researchers tried to divide the tourism space around the urban into different circle layers according to visiting probability. Wilderness Planning Manual recorded a relatively formal zoning method in the early time. In 1962, Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission (ORRRC) proposed a 6-division system. In 1982, the United States Forest Service drew up the 6-division system for Recreation Opportunity Spectrum, which is perceived as a widely used classification for tourism space: primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized, semi-primitive motorized, roaded natural, rural and urban. In 1977, Tourism and Recreation Development was published and its theory was approved and widely applied by tourism planners all over the world. It classified tourist destinations in suburbs according to capacity and described their features from the perspective of urban population, outdoor recreation behavior and types of tourist destination. With the expansion of urban population and economic growth in China, the distribution issues of recreation areas distribution have been gradually aroused attention. Temporal and spatial differentiation of recreation areas was emphasized by tourism researchers in the exploration process of planning theories. The major study fields include: (1) geographical differentiation of recreation areas in suburbs, especially spatial structural models on Recreation Belt Around Metropolis (ReBAM), which classified recreation areas in suburbs into several circle layers in view of demand and supply (Wu, 2001). Over 60 journal papers have been published in the ReBAM area since 2001; (2) recreation land-use policy, recreation activities, and recreation landscape

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product differentiation (Wang & Guo, 2000; Yang & Liu, 2001); (3) recreation area per capita and ideal model of recreation areas distribution (Liu & Wang, 2009), Wu and Han (2003) proposed the spatial model of tourism as semi-circle belt around seaport metropolis, such as Dalian city. Based on Gunn’s urban-to-remote destination concept (Gunn, 1988), Zhang & Zhao (2005) pointed out that the distribution of recreation areas in urban suburbs illustrates the multi-layer rings; (4) driving forces of spatial patterns of recreation areas. Wu (2001) put forward that the formation of ReRAM was controlled by land price and demand. Wu suggested that accessibility and scenic spots agglomeration index had significant effects on the special flows of recreation in urban suburbs. Bian (2003) indicated that urban tourism space layout is influenced by resources, location, market, social economy and tourism traffic, etc. Lands for recreation in suburbs can be divided into three categories and they were regulated by planning, land policy, land price, demands and consumer’s preference. (Liu & Wang, 2007). The allocation mechanisms of these three categories are distinguished (Wang & Liu, 2010). Researches on recreation areas has a history over one hundred years in western countries, whilst in China, the study in this field is still in the emergence stage. On the one hand, due to the inconsistent cognition of recreation areas from different perspective of several subjects like landscape, tourism and urban, it is difficult to describe the real pattern of urban recreation areas from a single view. On the other hand, most of the researches focus on macro-perspective but lack of microcosmic study, because of the lack of data support. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the influencing factors of recreation areas by means of investigating the situations of Beijing suburbs. Finally, the objective of this paper is to establish the foundation for figuring out the optimization approach and allocation rule of recreation areas.

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

MATERIALS AND METHODS This paper adopts Beijing as the study area. It has a population of 16.95 million in 2008, and covers about 16410 square kilometers. Currently, Beijing has 26 national or municipal scenic areas, hundreds of resorts and cultural villages, which provide urban residents with a number of recreation sites and various activities. Furthermore, the complicated and diversified topographies in Beijing suburbs offer plenty of elements for analyzing the influencing factors of distribution. GIS spatial analysis is a major method that we used in this paper. The municipal map of Beijing, published by Sino-maps Publishing House, at a scale of 1:290 000, was adopted as the working base map. Basic map database is established by arcgis9.2, and information layers include background layer (grid image), administrative division layer (planar data), contour layer (striation data), lake layer (planar data), river layer (striation data), railway layer, national highway and provincial highway layer and county road layer (striation data). Artificially digital is adopted in every data layer to precisely locate the geographical position. Scenic attractions are obtained from the official websites of every county’s Tourism Bureau, relevant published materials and public maps. Commercial recreation areas have been confirmed by telephone in order to make sure their operation situations. Reference books consist of Beijing Tourism Graph Collection (Science

Press, 1990), Beijing Tourist Attractions (Rural Reading Materials Press House, 2000), Bejing Suburb Tourism Map Collection (Celestial Map Publishing House, 2001), Beijing Suburb Scenery Tour Guidance (Chinese Forestry Press, 2001), Tourism and Leisure Guidance of Beijing and Suburbs (Shandong Map Publishing House, 2007), Beijing Living Map Atlas (Sinomaps, 2008) and Exquisite and Theme Itinerary of Beijing Tour Series which is published by Beijing Tourism Bureau(2008). All the data above-mentioned are updated at the end of 2007. Public recreation areas have definite area, explicit boundary and lower economic threshold for tourists. It belongs to landscape and scenic spots, urban Greenland and park land use with government as their operator. Commercial recreation areas are operated by enterprises and institutions; affiliated recreation areas have not changed their purpose of land use as farmland and rural residential area, but recreation function is added to make them become a complementary type for the specific recreation areas. Affiliated recreation areas are operated by township government or local residents who are collective ownership. This paper chooses 161 public recreation spots, 114 commercial recreation spots and 222 affiliated recreation spots (Table.1). Every sampling spot’s spatial location, scale and the other land information is recorded. The spatial position of every recreation spot is accurate to administrative village level (Figure.2).

Table 1. Samples of different tourism and recreation areas Types of Recreation areas

Sub-types of Recreation areas

Samples

National or municipal scenic areas

26

Historic and cultural relics spots

19

peri-urban parks

76

Forestry recreation areas

40

Commercial recreation areas

Resorts, sports areas, skiing areas, etc.

114

Affiliated recreation areas

Agricultural recreation gardens

222

Public recreation areas

Total

497

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

This paper is an empirical study based on the previous researches. According to resources background, policy, demand of residents and law of land supply (Liu and Wang, 2007), the influencing factors of spatial distribution for three types of recreation areas are verified one by one and the major influencing factor of every type is identified.

FINDINGS AND RESULTS There are various factors influencing the spatial distribution pattern of recreation areas, among which tourism attractions and environmental conditions, policy and spatial governance, consumption demand and preference, and land price and availability are the four major factors, according to our preliminary study.

Tourism Attractions and Environmental Conditions Tourism attractions and environmental conditions are the primary factors and have strong positive correlation with recreation site’s distribution. It is found that all the three types of recreation areas have high relations with tourism attractions and environmental conditions, but they are exposed to different influencing strength and mechanism.

Public Recreation Areas and Topographies Public recreation areas, having positive relationship with tourism attractions and environmental conditions restricted by topographies, are mainly allocated in the western and northern mountain areas of Beijing city (Figure 2). Beijing Urban Development Strategy has positioned the western and northern areas as an ecological belt, which is mainly used for tourism, recreation activities and ecological industries. The designated principle of national or municipal scenic spots, which are important public recreation areas, is to judge an

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area whether possessing both natural and human scenery, functioned as people’s travel, leisure and scientific research base. Public recreation areas, which are mainly comprised of national and municipal scenic spot system, cover more than 13% of Beijing’s territory and build up the basic framework of urban recreation areas. Scenic spots are mainly designated in the western and northern mountain areas and there are no scenic spots in southeast plain area. Commercial and affiliated recreation areas don’t have obvious relation with topographies.

Commercial Recreation Areas and Water Bodies Beijing city possesses five water systems: Yongding River, Chaobai River, Wenyu River, Juma River and Ju River. Juma River is located at southwest part of Beijing city and it flows through Fangshan district, while the famous Shidu national scenic spot is a section of the Juma River basin. Yongding River, where Miaofeng Mountain and Baihua Mountain are located, is flowing from Langfang district through Daxing district, to Shi Jingshan district and Men Tougou district. Wenyu River flows from Tongzhou district to Shunyi district and Changping district, and it was the north starting point of Beijing-Hangzhou ancient Grand Canal. Chaobai River runs through Shunyi district, Miyun county, Huairou district and Yanqing district and a lot of famous national and municipal-level scenic spots, recreation and vacation facilities are concentrated in this area. Ju River is flowing inside Pinggu district and lots of leisure and agricultural facilities,are allocated on the two sides of the river. Besides, Beijing has two water based recreation areas the Ming Tombs’ reservoir tourism and recreation areas and the Qing Longxia tourist resorts, and three water resource protection zones, i.e. Miyun reservoir, Huairou reservoir and Guanting reservoir. According to the investigation in the 114 resort villages and recreation sites, some results could

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 2. Basic data layers and sampling points of different tourism and recreation areas

be got by correlation analysis with water system. About 43% of the commercial recreation areas are located at the 2-kilometer buffer area near water system (Figure 3). The total area in the 2-kilometer buffer area is up to 1939km2 and the average density of commercial recreation areas is a sampling point /45.1 km2. However, the average density outside buffer area is a sampling point /215.9 km2, which is less than 1/4 of the 2-kilometer buffer area near water system. Moreover, there are several areas which have apparent correlations between recreation site number and

water bodies. Miyun reservoir area has an average density of a sampling point /19.4 km2, Ming Tombs’ reservoir area has an average density of a sampling point /7.1 km2, and Wenyu river area has an average density of a sampling point/ 33.5 km2. Therefore, commercial recreation areas mainly locate near water bodies and have apparent hydrotaxis.

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 3. Connection between commercial recreation areas and water system

Affiliated Recreation Areas and Agricultural Planting Agricultural recreation areas can be divided into two types: picking orchards and cultural villages. Picking orchards are closely related with traditional urban agriculture products and qualities. Miao Fengshan Town, Men Tougou District, owing the highest density of agricultural recreation sites, is famous for its long history of fruit planting (Cao et al., 2006). Benefiting from its natural attractions as Miao Fengshan and cultural attractions as Tan Zhe Temple, this town has developed a number of picking agro culture activities, such as cherry picking, pear picking

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and persimmon picking, and promoted organic vegetables planting and poultry rising. Meanwhile, village-based resorts have also been established by providing accommodation, entertainment and the other recreation activities. Benefiting from its location to conduct agricultural industrialization, considerable traditional agricultural areas, like Miao Fengshan Town, have established the urban agriculture development model facing to leisure market of urban residents. The other agriculture recreation sampling points, which have the same development mode, are centralized in Beiwu Town in Shunyi District, Xiji Town in Tongzhou District, Caiyu Town and Pang Gezhuang Town in Daxing District.

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Policy Factors and Spatial Regulations Considering ecological security and spatial regulation, spatial distribution of recreation areas is also significantly influenced by policy factors. Urban planning plays a leading role in organizing urban functions. Methodologies of urban planning, taking Howard’s Garden City and Modern Urban Greenway Movement for examples, have made vital effects on allocation of recreation lands in suburbs. Howard’s Garden City Theory was put forward at the end of 19th Century and the beginning of 20th Century, facing with the conflicts between urban and rural isolation. It emphasized that green land should be maintained around the city in order to restrict urban expansion and promote part of the urban function transition from central city to satellite cities. Central city and satellite cities were isolated by the permanent green land. Meanwhile, the permanent green land began to take on the responsibility of recreation function in industrial cities to provide residents with opportunities of getting close to nature. Western urban construction has practiced and proved this theory.

Policy and Planning Modifies the Uneven Status of Public Recreation Areas Distribution Public recreation areas make significant contribution to shaping the urban function. Firstly, public recreation areas have infrastructures that supply recreation sites for urban residents. Secondly, public recreation areas are functioned as barriers of maintaining urban ecological security. Therefore, establishing an adequately and reasonably distributed public recreation areas system is one of the targets of urban planning and management. Beijing has constructed two urban isolated green belts and several green wedges ranging from suburbs to central city. The planning goal of ‘Two isolated green belts, three green corridors, eight water systems and nine agricultural zones’ was

made as the development tasks of green space in The Master Planning of Beijing Land Use 2006-2020. In order to modify the uneven status of Beijing recreation areas distribution, which is attributed to the characteristics of terrain, the southern and eastern part will be developed as public recreation areas that combine agricultural landscape with artificial Greenland and artificial theme parks. With the influence of policy and planning, the uneven status of public recreation areas distribution has been improved.

Public Recreation Areas Form the Backbone of the Recreation Pattern The concept of ‘matrix—patch—corridor’ elicited from Landscape Ecology is widely used in urban greening construction in China. Rural environment that supports urban development is the natural ‘matrices’, urban constructed areas are artificially interfered ‘patches’. For the purpose of keeping the properties of landscape, ‘corridors’ should be constructed in the ‘patches’ in order to break up the isolation between ‘patches’ and ‘matrices’. Therefore, ‘corridor’ construction has become one of the most important ways of improving urban landscape patterns. Singapore, New York and London have planned to build up ecological corridor network (greenway) covering the entire cities so that natural area could communicate with urban core. Beijing public recreation areas have the similar development trend and currently they are in the stage of transferring from belt structure to network structure. The scenic spots in Beijing suburbs are regarded as ‘matrices’ of regional landscape. The constant expansion of urban constructed area has resulted in the isolation between central city and matrices. By means of spatial cluster analysis, urban parks and suburb parks illustrate circle belts distribution. Firstly, peri-urban circle recreation belt for residents emerges between 5th ring road and 6th ring road. 30% of peri-urban parks are located in this circle zone and the peri-urban parks in this range, such

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

as the Fragrant hills park, the Badachu park, the Water park in Shunyi District etc., possess the highest visiting frequency. Furthermore, all the newly built suburb parks emerge in this circle layer and they are making up the latitude lines of Beijing recreation network system. Secondly, urban parks are centralized along the four traffic arteries as Jing-Shi highway, Jing-Shen highway, Jing-Cheng Highway and Badaling Highway. The traffic artery recreation corridors are organized as the longitude lines of Beijing recreation network system. Therefore, a recreation ‘corridor’ network structure is tentatively built up. Thirdly, Beijing green belt planning goal of ‘two isolated green belts, three green corridors, eight water systems and nine agricultural zones’, based on water systems (eight water systems) and main traffic arteries (two isolated circle green belts, three green corridors), help to build up the peri-urban recreation areas framework.

New Countryside Construction Stimulates the Rapid Development of Agricultural Recreation Areas The primary driving force of folklore-hamlet construction and development comes from policy. Central government and Beijing government advocate the peri-urban agriculture tourism development as an important way of alleviating poverty and developing a platform of agricultural industrialization and they provide countryside with governmental support from the aspects of capital investment, infrastructure construction, staff training, procedures, taxes and marketing (Zou, 2005). Agricultural recreation areas are amphibious, because they can be used as both farm land and tourism destination with their agricultural environment. Most of the agricultural recreation areas in Beijing suburbs are apparently pushed by relative policies, especially the policy of New Countryside Construction (Long et al., 2010).

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Consumption Demand Growth and Preference Distribution of recreation areas is the compromise result between land supplier and demander (Wu B.H., 2001). Income increase, holiday system alteration, pursuit of health life and eager of getting close to nature have stimulated the rapid growth of urban residents’ tourism and recreation demands, while urban tourism and recreation sites and facilities are too scarce to meet the tourism and recreation needs (Liu and Wang, 2007). World famous parks, as Temple of Heaven and Beihai Park, are crowded in holiday, and still undertake double responsibilities of tourism and recreation for residents. Investigation shows that the increased visitors in Tao Ranting Park mainly come from local residents who own annual pass cards (Niu, 2005). This phenomenon indicates the vigorous demand for tourism and recreation in metropolis and the lack of recreation spaces and facilities. The two-day weekend short vacation system was put into practice in 1995 and the first three Golden Week long vacation system was executed in 1998. The new vacation system implemented in China has 4 smaller Golden Weeks. According to the data from ‘221 Action Plan’ research report, more than 2/3 of Beijing urban families visit suburbs every year in purpose of travel and leisure and 16.9% of these families visit suburbs 3 to 5 times. 80% of Chinese urban residents’ travel destinations are centralized in the 500 kilometers far away from downtown, 37% are allocated in the 15 kilometers far away from downtown, and 24% is allocated in the range from 15 to 50 kilometers (Wu, 1997). Visiting rate of residents in metropolis gradually reduces with the increase of distance, accord with the principle of distant decay. However, there is an anti-decay phenomenon that tourists increase with the increase of visiting distance. The distance from the intersection between the visiting-increasing area and visiting-declining area to downtown is the threshold distance. Distant decay phenomenon appears when it surpasses threshold distance.

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

From the perspective of recreation areas structure, recreation sites are relatively centralized around the threshold distance while recreation sites are dispersed outside the threshold distance.

Commercial Recreation Areas and Traffic Arteries The reason that why threshold distance occurs in recreation areas distribution is originated from residents’ pursuit of Tourism Utility Maximization, which can be attributed to different traffic conditions (Wu, 1996). The operator of commercial recreation areas is enterprise whose aim is accumulating commercial profits and cultivating tourist markets. From the perspective of geographical space, it means that the enterprises are inclined to get close to main traffic line in purpose of reducing the time and spending cost of tourists. Among the 114 sampling points, 40 of them are located inside the 2-kilometer buffer area along main traffic lines, possessing 35% of the entire sampling points. In Beijing city, the average density of commercial sampling points is a sampling point/151.4 km2. The whole area of commercial sampling points inside the 2-kilometer buffer area along main traffic lines is approximately 4131km2 and its average density is a sampling point/103.2 km2. The average density of commercial sampling points outside the 2-kilometer buffer area is a sampling point /177.4 km2. The average density of commercial sampling points in the 2-kilometer buffer area along the outer part of 5th ring road is a sampling point/56.8km2. The average density of commercial sampling points in the 2-kilometer buffer area along 6th ring road is a sampling point/48.2 km2. The average density of commercial sampling points in the 2-kilometer buffer area along Badaling Highway is a sampling point/17.3km2, only 10 percent of the outer zone. Recreation sampling points are obviously centralized along main traffic lines. Therefore, we can predict a trend that recreation sampling points in Beijing suburbs have strong correlation with main

traffic lines. The commercial recreation areas centralize along 5th ring road and 6th ring road has become an extremely apparent phenomenon. Furthermore, other several highways, as Badaling Highway in northwest direction, Airport Highway in northeast direction, Jing-Cheng Highway and Jing-Shi Highway in southwest direction, radiating from downtown area through suburbs are actually functioned as ‘tourism and recreation corridors’ of urban residents (Figure 4).

Commercial Recreation Areas and Cluster Distribution Another reason why threshold distance occurs in recreation areas distribution is recreation sites clustering around the famous scenic spot. A large number of holiday villages are clustered around Miyun reservoir and tourists could enjoy plenty of recreation activities, including hot spring, sports, picking and whiff. Without doubt, the attraction of Miyun reservoir is the core of these existing holiday villages. Furthermore, the cluster effect of these holiday villages raises the attraction and amenity of Miyun reservoir. Industrial cluster development could bring advantages to enterprises on market and information sharing. As above mentioned, commercial recreation areas are distributed along main traffic lines and a lot of recreation centralized distribution areas have appeared, taking Badaling Highway area, 5th ring road area, 6th ring road area and Wenyu River area for examples. By means of density analysis of sampling points (Figure 5), the Western Hills between northwest of 5th ring road and 6th ring road, Qinglong Gorge area, Yanxi Lake area, Xiao Tangshan Town at the north bank of Wenyu River’s middle part and Lucheng Town Canal area in Tongzhou District are the most centralized commercial recreation areas in Beijing. Bai Hebao reservoir area, Badaling Town, Tanzhe Temple area, Miyun reservoir area, Yudu Hill area, Jinhai Lake area are also commercial recreation centralized destinations. Finally, Pang Gezhuang Town of Daxing District,

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 4. Connection between commercial recreation areas and transport

Wangping Town of Men Tougou District, Cuan Dixia Village, Lingshan area, Huairou reservoir and Shen Lingyu area are in the early stage of commercial recreation clustering. Development of commercial recreation clusters could enlarge tourism and recreation market according to the above analysis.

Agriculture Recreation Areas and Famous Scenic Spots By density analysis of agriculture recreation areas in Figure 6, we could find out that the recreation areas with the highest density are near famous scenic spots, such as Miaofeng mountain Town,

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Shidu Town of Fangshan District, Ju Yongguan Great Wall area of Changping District and Mu Tianyu Great Wall of Huairou District. Shidu Town, relying on famous scenic area nearby, have developed folklore accommodation product for a long time, and now possesses six special folklore hamlets. The history and mode of agricultural recreation development both in Ju Yongguan Great Wall area of Changping District and in Mu Tianyu Great Wall of Huairou District is quite similar with that of Shidu Town. They are mainly providing tourists with folklore accommodation product. Some affiliated recreation centralized development areas with the same function include Hanhe Town in Fangshan District, Si Matai Great

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 5. Density analysis of commercial recreation areas

Wall area in Miyun District, Badaling Great Wall area in Yanqing District and Ju Yongguan Great Wall area in Changping District. Resorts, sports, healthy, recreation sites, small-scale amusement parks and tourist facilities have a trend to cluster near famous scenic spots. In this way, they could take advantages of the scenic spots’, ‘Superstar brand effect’ and tourist market and provide the scenic spots with accommodation and catering services. As the complimentary element of hotels, agricultural recreation areas are based upon their own resources to develop unique reception and services in purpose of catering tourists’ demand.

Land Price and Land Supply The distance decay is one of basic principles in geographical sciences. It is also existed in geographic differentiation of recreation activity, site density and intensity. The recreation land value in different locations is different. The farther the distance is away from downtown, the lower the land price as well as visiting probability are. As a result, the land development intensity is reducing and the quality of recreation environment is increasing (Figure 7). The change of recreation value leads to the changes on recreation product types and scale. In China, the land price in metropolitan suburbs is sharply decreasing, because

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 6. Density analysis of country resorts in Beijing

the ownership of urban land and agricultural land are different. In 2010, the new towns in Beijing suburbs require that the investment intensity of industrial project should be higher than 60 million yuan per hectare; as to the suburbs or exurb like Daxing, Fangshan and Changping, the restriction is 40 million yuan per hectare; as to mountainous exurb, the restriction reduces to 30 million yuan per hectare. Therefore, the intensity of recreation areas is gradually decreasing from city to suburbs, and to exurb.\ In view of the area size and investment scale, golf courses, ski arena and turfs belong to largescale commercial recreation areas. The average site area of golf course is 97.5 ha and the largest

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area reaches to 200 ha, which is equivalent to that of Beijing Botanical Garden. Holiday villages are relatively smaller and they usually possess several ha to tens of ha. In view of the distance from downtown, ski arena is the farthest recreation areas, the next is holiday village, and golf course, turf and tourism real estate are the nearest to city center (Figure 8). The average distance of ski arena to city center is 58 kilometers. Among all the ski arenas, Yongding ski arena is the nearest with a distance of 27 kilometers and Yun Foshan ski arena is the farthest with a distance of 70 kilometers. Holiday villages are most extensive and common in Beijing suburb, and occupy the biggest percentage

Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 7. Distance attenuation rules of recreation areas

of the recreation sampling points, but they show disperse distribution with an average distance of 49 kilometers. However, most of the holiday villages are generally allocated in the distance from 20 kilometers to 100 kilometers. The average distance of amusement parks is equal to holiday villages. Golf course, ski arena and tourism real estate are located around 30 kilometers. With the increase of distance, land price gradually decreases. Therefore, under the absolute control of market mechanism, the recreation areas which earn strong profit ability will be distributed in the suburbs. Otherwise, they will be located in the exurb. From the research result, resort villa, golf course, turf, restaurant and hotel, amusement park, holiday village and ski arena are distributed in sequence from downtown to exurb. Real estate and golf courses are distributed in urban suburbs; the next is ski arena, amusement park and holiday village, and holiday villages are mainly located in urban exurb. So it is consistent with the law of distance decay for recreation areas.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Peri-urban recreation areas have shown different types in terms of the influences of the four distribution factors. Beijing city can be divided to four circle zones: inner city recreation zone (within 15 kilometers), suburb recreation zone (15-30 kilometers), middle suburb recreation zone (30-50 kilometers), exurb recreation zone (50-100 kilometers). The inner bound of suburb is the 5th ring road and the first isolated Green belt, where urban parks, suburb parks and second homes are distributed in sequence. Golf courses, turfs, holiday villages, agricultural recreation orchards and folklore-hamlets are the primary types of recreation sites in the middle suburb. Other types of land-use such as amusement parks, ski resorts, scenic spots, cultural villages and themed farms are distributed in sequence in exurb (Figure 9).

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 8. Statistics of average area and distance of commercial recreational areas (Left: Average area, Unit: ha, Right: Average Distance, Unit: km)

Influencing Factors of Peri-Urban Recreation Areas Distribution

The Dominant Factors of Different Recreation Areas Types

The distribution of peri-urban recreation area is influenced by tourism attractions and environmental conditions, policy factors and planning regulation, road accessibility, demand and land supply. This paper has identified the above items by adopting spatial analysis on the three types of recreation areas. Resource background, demand and land supply are natural factors, while policy is a human factor which can be manipulated to adjust ‘market malfunction’ of recreation areas.

The four influencing factors have different influences towards various types of recreation areas (see Table 2). Public recreation areas are inclined to be quasi-public goods and they are significantly affected by policy factors, and the same phenomenon could be found in western countries (Geoghegan,2002;Maruani & Cohen,2007). Distribution of commercial recreation areas shows its feature of apparent hydrotaxis except for demand and supply factors. Affiliated recreation areas have high correlation with tourism attractions, environmental quality, policy, demand and supply factors. They are inclined to distribute near famous scenic spots and they are usually promoted by policy.

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 9. Distribution rules of recreation areas in Beijing

Existing Problems in Distribution and Development of Peri-Urban Recreation Areas Firstly, recreation areas are generally distributed in sequence but partially conflicted with demand. As abovementioned, the products in Beijing periurban recreation areas are differentiated with distance. The easily accessible zones within 50 kilometers from downtown are mainly dominated by high-grade recreation projects, like golf courses, turfs, luxurious resorts and holiday villages, only upper class people can enjoy these recreational facilities. Public recreation areas are a small number of urban parks and peri-urban parks. However, excessive land occupation, low efficiency of land use and high economic threshold has occurred to golf courses, turfs and resort villas. Therefore, the lack of contribution to public recreation needs is a problem. Secondly, even though recreation areas occupy a large amount of land, facility shortage

leads to low efficiency of recreation land uses. Beijing national and municipal scenic spots possesses 13% of the total areas, however, the open spaces which could satisfy with residents’ recreation needs are mainly distributed in the remote area of low visiting frequency. Meanwhile, most of them are forested land and farmland, only a minority of the land has been used as the actual recreation areas. The accessibility and leisure facilities construction should be improved, that is to say, development of commercial and affiliated recreation areas should be encouraged. Thirdly, urbanization stimulated by real estate appeared in the development of commercial recreation areas and agricultural recreation areas. Second home, a kind of commercial recreation sampling points, is for holiday use, not for daily residential use. Nevertheless, it is an obvious trend that the second home is transformed into the first home. The features of lower floor area ratio, holiday villas for non-daily use and timesharing apartments are not

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Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Table 2. Influencing factors of peri-urban recreation areas distribution Type

Sub-type

Influencing factors Attractions

Public recreation areas

Policy

Demand

Land supply

Scenic spots

***

***

*

*

Urban parks

*

***

*

*

Forestry recreation areas

**

***

*

*

Commercial recreation areas

Holiday villages, ski arenas, etc.

**

*

***

**

Affiliated recreation areas

Agricultural recreation areas

*

*

**

*

(Notes: ***, very important; **, important; *, less important)

existed in peri-urban real estate projects. Instead, residential quarters with high floor area ratio, which has caused urban population to move to suburbs disorderly, are distributed in suburbs. The over-concentration of population has destroyed the substrate landscape of suburbs and has led to the disorder expansion of built-up areas.

THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS Firstly, public recreation areas are still the key parts of recreation areas. The distribution of public recreation areas pushed by leisure policy, will make decisive contribution to improving the urban function and to satisfying recreation demands of residents. Public recreation areas ought to insist on network system development and green corridors construction along traffic arteries and rivers to connect built-up areas with peri-urban scenic spots, so that more recreation sites and peri-urban parks could open to residents. At the same time, the construction of public recreation areas with high visiting frequency of residents should be accelerated. Secondly, the area that is in good traffic condition and near water system should be chosen to be developed in peri-urban land-use planning as tourism and recreation land. More attention should be paid on the ecological protection of river and reservoirs. Tourism and recreation land should be perceived as the primary type of land use. Thirdly, traditional fruit planting area should

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be encouraged to develop tourism and recreation, with forms of agricultural picking gardens and native-product-themed agricultural villages. Combined with new countryside construction, the villages which are around famous scenic spots should be encouraged to develop catering services, middle and high-level accommodation facilities to satisfy the demands of tourists and local residents in scenic spots.

REFERENCES Bian, X. H. (2003). Analysis on the Affecting Factors in Urban Tourism Place Planning and Design [in Chinese]. Areal Research and Development, 22(3), 93–96. Cao, S. J., Peng, L. F., & Lu, J. Q. (2006). Suggestions for the Tourism Development in Miaofengshan Town [in Chinese]. Journal of Beijing Agricultural Vocation College, 20(3), 42–43. Fu, X., & Wu, E. (2006). The Development and Application of Recreation Opportunity Spectrum Theory [in Chinese]. Journal of Guilin Institute of Tourism, 17(12), 691–694. Geoghegan, J. (2002). The value of open spaces in residential land use. Land Use Policy, 19, 91–98. doi:10.1016/S0264-8377(01)00040-0

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Gunn, C. A. (1988). Vacationscape: Designing Tourist Regions (2nd ed., pp. 61–62). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Kundson, D. M. (1984). Outdoor Recreation (Revised Edition, pp. 299–311). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Liu, D. L., Li, J. Y., & Zuo, J. B. (2006). Review of American Urban Forestry [in Chinese]. World Forestry Research, 19(3), 61–65. Liu, J. M., & Wang, R. (2007). An Analysis of Influencing Factors concerning Land Allocation for Recreation in Suburbs [in Chinese]. Tourism Tribune, 22(12), 18–22. Liu, J. M., & Wang, R. (2009). Suggestions for the Allocation and Management of Recreation Land in Beijing City: A Perspective Based on Hong Kong and Singapore as Cases [in Chinese]. Human Geogrophy, 24(2), 107–113. Long, H. L., Liu, Y. S., Li, X. B., & Chen, Y. F. (2010). Building new countryside in China: a geographical perspective. Land Use Policy, 27(2), 457–470. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.06.006 Maruani, T., & Cohen, I. A. (2007). Open space panning models: A review of approaches and methods. Landscape and Urban Planning, 81, 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2007.01.003 Niu Y.F., L.B. Xie, & C.F. Liu. (2005). The variation tendency and proposed countermeasures for adjusting and controlling visitor flow in Beijing (in Chinese). Geographical Research (2), 283-292. Sun, H. M. (2009). Research on the New Urban Spatial Structure in Beijing City Master Planning [in Chinese]. Urban Studies (Edinburgh, Scotland), 16(3), 36–40. Tan Kiat, W. (2006). A Green Network for Singapore. Landscape and Urban Planning, 76, 45–66. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2004.09.040

Tang, Z. Y., & Wu, B. H. (2004). Tourism & Recreation Handbook of Planning and Design (Translations, in Chinese) pp.2-3. Beijing: China Architecture& Building Press. Wang R., J.M. Liu, & T. Chen. (2010). Distribution Rules of Recreation Area in PeriurbanMetropolis:A Case Study of Beijing (in Chinese). Acta Geogrophica Sinca, (4). Wang, Y. C. (2003). The Study on Recreation Landscape Planning and Landscape Ecological Protection of Urban-Rural Fringe: a Typical Case Study on Beijing [in Chinese]. Geographical Research, 22(3), 324–333. Wu, B. H. (2001). A Study on Recreation Belt Around Metropolis (ReBAM):Shanghai Case [in Chinese]. Geographical Science, 21(4), 354–358. Wu, B. H., Tang, J. Y., & Huang, A. M. (1997). A Study on Destination-Choose Behavior of Chinese Urban Residents [in Chinese]. Acta Geographica Sinica, 52(2), 97–104. Wu, C. Z. (1999b). Recreation Utility and Distribution Behavior of Outdoor Recreation of Citizens [in Chinese]. Journal of Tongji University, 27(6), 718–722. Wu, C. Z., & Han, G. H. (2003). The Research of Spatial Model of Suburb Tourism in Foreign Metropolis [in Chinese]. Urban Problem, 116(6), 68–72. Yang, X. J., & Liu, J. M. (2001). Its types and Spatial Structure:In the Urban Tourist Development [in Chinese] [Natural Science Edition]. Journal of Northwest University, 31(2), 179–184. Zhang, J. X. (2005). A Brief History of Western Urban Planning Thought (pp. 99–124). Nanjing: Southeast University Press. (in Chinese) Zhang Y.B., & R.W. Wu. (2007). The Theory and Practice of Greenway Construction in Europe (in Chinese). Chinese Landscape Architecture, (08), 33-38.

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Zhang, Z. G., Zhou, B., & Yang, J. (2009). New Application of the Principles of Landscape Ecology in Urban Green Space System Planning [in Chinese]. Building Science, 25(4), 69–71. Zhang L.M.,& L.M. Zhao. (2006). The Factors Affecting Peri-urbanTourism Development and Spatial Layout (in Chinese). Commercial Research (6), 181-184.

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Zhao J. (2008). Urban Area Plan in Beijing: on District perspective (in Chinese). Comprehensive Transportation (11),4-8. Zou, T. Q. (2005). On the Development Pattern of Rural Tourism in China: Comparative Studies on the Development between the Happy-farmer in Chengdu and the Folklore-hamlet in Beijing [in Chinese]. Tourism Tribune, 20(3), 63–69.

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Chapter 6

Two Tickets for Paradise: Gaming and Tourism Ashleigh K. Shelton University of Minnesota, USA

ABSTRACT While popular commentary about information technologies rages, little academic inquiry has actually sought to understand and explain advergames as either an extension of travel information seeking behavior in general, or as a unique phenomenon. The use of digital media speaks to larger issues in cultural, psychological, and behavioral studies, and so this chapter also should be relevant not just to new media scholars and social scientists, but to a range of those working in the hospitality industry as well. This chapter begins by identifying linkage points between advergames, tourism and three major mass communication theories/approaches—media dependency theory (Ball Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989), uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975), and uses and gratifications theory (Blumler & Katz, 1974). These will serve as examples of how advergames and hospitality can be integrated into theories and models attempting to explain the impact of information technologies. They will also provide a springboard for considering the nature of advergames with regards to tourism.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch006

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Two Tickets for Paradise

INTRODUCTION Travel and hospitality is an important sector of our economy. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism (e.g., lodging, restaurants, attractions, transportation, and cruise lines) accounts for the world’s largest industry, generating more than $852 billion in 2009, and is expected to provide 296 million jobs by 2019. “Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income sources for many developing countries” (UNWTO, 2010). With business booming, travel websites have become increasingly prevalent and are commonly used by those planning trips and vacations. While popular commentary about information technologies rages, little academic inquiry has actually sought to understand and explain online environments (e.g., advergames) as either an extension of travel information seeking behavior in general, or as a unique phenomenon. The use of digital media speaks to larger issues in cultural, psychological, and behavioral studies, and so this chapter also should be relevant not just to new media scholars and social scientists, but to a range of those working in the hospitality industry as well. This chapter begins by identifying linkage points between advergames, tourism and three major mass communication theories/approaches — media system dependency theory (Ball Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989), uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975), and the uses and gratifications perspective (Blumler & Katz, 1974). These will serve as examples of how advergames and tourism can be integrated into theories and models attempting to explain the impact of information technologies. They will also provide a springboard for considering the nature of advergames with regards to tourism.

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Within each of these sections/research areas, attempts will be made to identify concepts related to advergames (e.g., persuasion, knowledge acquisition) and discuss their place in the tourism and hospitality industry. In addition, future directions for research involving the relationships will be laid out. Ultimately, this chapter will highlight the importance of advergames to considerations of tourism, and in doing so it will shine new light on different strategies and approaches for those working in the industry.

VIDEO GAMES Not unlike the internet and cellular phones, video games are such a predominant part of our popular culture that it is hard to imagine a time before they existed. Originally seen as an experiment, novelty, or toy, video games were created in the early 1970s and developed into a product of mass consumption. They quickly expanded into a multi-billion-dollar industry by the mid-1980s (Wolf, 2001), and this was just the beginning. The popularity of video game entertainment has boomed in recent years; in 2008, the game industry reaped colossal profits of $21.4 billion in the U.S., up a record-shattering 19.4% from $18 billion the previous year (NPD Group, 2009). According to a 2005 Nielsen Entertainment study, individuals are now spending more money on video games than on music, and more Americans play video games than go out to the movies (NPD Group, 2009), lending support to the suggestion that video game play is displacing other media use (Slocombe, 2005). Yet, what do we actually know about online gaming (e.g., advergames) in regards to tourism and hospitality?

ADVERGAMES There is a growing awareness in the corporate world of the pervasiveness and importance of virtual consumption, or the way players behave

Two Tickets for Paradise

when consuming in-game products and services (Drennan & Keeffe, 2007). Large corporations such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sun Microsystems, Adidas/Reebok, Toyota and Starwood Hotels have rapidly been entering the virtual worlds of Massively Multi-player Online RolePlaying Games (MMORPGs) through advertising and participation (Siklos, 2006). “Many types of organizations are starting to use advergames as a part of their marketing strategy. Their aim is to improve branding, to boost product awareness, and collect detailed data about existing and potential customers, clients, and supporters” (Winkler & Buckner, 2006, pp. 24). Gaming provides an interactive platform for companies to communicate with target audiences in a much different way than traditional media (Adweek Media, 2009). In fact, a recent Nielsen Game study revealed that 36% of gamers who were exposed to an in-game advertisement purchased, discussed, or researched the item (Beirne, 2008). However, few studies to date have examined the relationship between the tourism industry and advergames, or “the delivery of advertising messages through electronic games [… which] aims to build brand awareness, to offer product information, and to provide a means to compare similar products” (Hernandez, Chapa, Minor, Maldonado & Barranzuela, 2004, pp. 117). How could this new and exciting technology impact the hospitality industry? Several studies explored the level of recognition/recall of products, brands and companies in advergames and whether product placement affects consumers’ attitudes towards advertising, the game and the product (Hernandez, Chapa, Minor, Maldonado & Barranzuela, 2004; Chaney, Lin & Chaney, 2004; Nelson, 2005; Winkler & Buckner, 2006; Wise, Bolls, Kim, Venkataraman & Meyer, 2008). Lee, Choi, Quilliam and Cole (2009) discussed how marketers use advergames to promote food, specifically candy, gum and products high in sugar, to children and found that fewer than 3%

of the games attempted to educate children about nutritional and health issues. Conversely, Pempek and Calvert (2009) examined how advergames affect the consumption of healthy and non-healthy snacks by low-income African American children and found that this marketing strategy can actually promote healthier food and beverage choices, which ultimately could help to stave off the obesity epidemic. Additionally, Jin and Bolebruch (2009) investigated “the effects of spokes-avatars’ physical characteristics in terms of humanness (versus non-humanness) on consumers’ evaluation of their physical attractiveness and the information value of the advertisement message” (pp. 51). They found that avatar-based advertising in Second Life leads to increased product involvement and positive attitudes toward a product. Although only a handful of studies concerning the effects of advergames on consumers’ attitudes and behaviors and childrens’ eating habits exist, one cannot deny the popularity of gaming and its importance in interactive advertising now and in the future. Previous examinations have been successful at incorporating marketing strategies and consumer behavior, and by posing important questions and tackling relevant topics, past work on advergames has created the stepping stones for further examination of a flourishing area of research. Nevertheless, no prior research has empirically tested the impact of advergames on tourism, and little attention has actually been directed towards uncovering the relationships between mass communication literature and the tourism industry. This is a valuable consideration for media scholars and anyone else interested in the ability of advergames to affect outcomes of tourism website use. A full consideration of linkages between hospitality and gaming is beyond the scope of this chapter, but it will illustrate how three prominent mass communication theories relate to the industry and attempt to explain the impact of advergames.

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MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY, GAMING AND TOURISM According to media system dependency (MSD) theory (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; BallRokeach, 1985; DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989), people have preferred media for acquiring information about different topics, and the more they use those media the more persuasive those technologies become. Understanding when, why and how the media influence an individual’s feelings, beliefs or behavior is based on the level to which the individual depends on the mass media as an information source. A general area of great interest to media scholars is dependency, and this well-known theory (MSD) has often been applied to mass media research studies. Morton and Duck (2000) studied the relationship between social identity and media dependency in the prediction of safe sex attitudes in the gay community. Another scholar (Switzer, 1985) used the MSD theory to observe the role of the press in segregated South Africa. A further example of research using MSD is Tosun and Lajunen’s (2009) study examining young adults’ passion for and obsession with Internet activities. Schulz, Zeh and Quiring (2005) looked at German citizens’ media use and dependency and the impact it had on voter behavior. Additionally, MSD was used to evaluate several crisis situations, including the eruption of Mount St. Helens (Hirschberg, Dillman & Ball-Rokeach, 1986), the SARS epidemic in China (Tai & Sun, 2007) and the 9/11 attacks (Matsaganis & Payne, 2005; Kim, Jung, Cohen & Ball-Rokeach, 2004). Unfortunately these studies only focus on very specific and limited situations and do not necessarily link back to larger questions regarding society, the user, levels of potential uncertainty, etc. Looking at impacts of and responses to advergames on tourism websites could potentially fill these gaps.

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The dependency relationships people develop with the media are contingent upon two factors: an individual’s goals (understanding, orientation, and play) and the resources (gathering, processing, and disseminating) provided by the media (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989).

Goals The types of media dependency interactions that people develop are motivated by three important goals: (1) understanding, (2) orientation, and (3) play. In terms of gaming and the tourism industry, understanding simply means the desire to use an advergame on the travel website to learn more about a location. What is this place like? What are the cultures, rules, customs, people, etc. like? What am I like in comparison? Orientation refers to an individual’s behavior. What should I do if I go there? What attractions should I see? What do I eat? How can I interact with the locals? What is appropriate or effective behavior/communication in this place? Play refers to enjoyment, stimulation, or relaxation. What can I do for fun when I visit this place? What activities can I enjoy with my family? By myself? Where can I go to relax? It is important to note that none of these goals, or any additional ones, can readily be achieved without access to recourses, particularly information.

Resources DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989) posit that the media controls “three types of “dependencyengendering” information sources, to which others have to have access in order to attain their goals” (pp. 303). These three recourses are information (1) gathering/creating, (2) processing, and (3) dissemination. For example, people rely on the resources, or information, that travel agencies control in order to attain their personal goals.

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The travel agency must first send someone out to gather information about particular locations, vacations, amenities, etc. that an individual needs to know or is interested in learning about before booking a trip. Information processing refers to the “transformation of raw information that has been gathered or created” (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989, pp. 303). During this step travel agencies process, develop and manage a travel agent’s accounts so that they can fit into a “story” on their website. Lastly, travel agencies’ main goal is to disseminate the gathered and processed information, which could be accomplished through an advergame on their website. Of course it’s important to mention that media dependency is a two-way street. Travel agencies have their own goals and need to make money, to be considered legitimate, and to remain stable. These companies rely on people to purchase their packages, recommend them to their friends, etc. Without these recourses from individuals, travel agencies’ “stability and economic welfare would be severely jeopardized” (pp. 305). What exactly does all of this mean for the tourism industry? According to Ball-Rokeach, Rokeach and Grube (1984) “the greater the media dependency, the greater the level of attention during exposure, the greater the level of affect toward the message and it senders, and the greater the likelihood or post exposure communication about the message –and thus, the greater the probability of message effects intended” (pp. 13). Specifically, tourism services can use interactive strategies like advergames to aid in knowledge acquisition and persuade people to take certain vacations, upgrade to more expensive packages, engage in recreational opportunities, etc. Additionally, if hospitality services build a reliance on online information, they can develop a profile of who will be more persuaded by information in that forum and they can customize and market certain travel packages accordingly.

UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION, INFORMATION SEEKING, GAMING AND TOURISM When planning for a vacation, individuals often experience high levels of ambiguity or uncertainty. Brashers (2001) explains that “uncertainty exists when details of situations are ambiguous, complex, unpredictable, or probabilistic; when information is unavailable or inconsistent; and when people feel insecure in their own state of knowledge or their state of knowledge in general” (pp. 478). According to uncertainty reduction theory (URT), feelings of ambiguity can motivate people to engage in information seeking behaviors in order to reduce doubt and alleviate anxiety (Berger & Calabrese, 1975). A lack of information may also produce a feeling of loss of control and associated stress. In these unstable or unknown situations, a primary means of obtaining information and knowledge is through the mass media, and perhaps technologies such as advergames could help minimize feelings of anxiety by showing specific attractions/locations, providing information about certain packages, offering ideas about recreational activities, etc. Ramierez, Walther, Burgoon, and Sunnafrank (2002) argued that “people seek out information in their attempts to maintain cognitive harmony. Uncertainty is an inherently uncomfortable state, and information seeking is a common cognitive strategy when that uncertainty is directly related to a perceived threat.” An individual is motivated by a lack of information, and they convert this motivation into a goal-driven task. Subsequently, interactions with different sources of information are required in order to obtain the needed information and eliminate uncertainty. At this point, they can assess their progress and determine whether or not they received sufficient information, or if they need to search further. The majority of uncertainty reduction and information seeking research focuses on interpersonal relationships, healthcare, the workforce,

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and crises. URT, originally conceptualized by Berger and Calabrese (1975), offered insight into the ways people deal with the beginning stages of interpersonal relationships. Parks and Adelman (1983) took it a step further and studied the communication patterns of romantic partners. URT has also been used to explain uncertainty in the workplace: “uncertainty about how to do a job, what to expect in performance appraisals, and how to manage relationships with others” (Brashers, 2001, pp. 479). The healthcare industry draws on URT, noting that patients who have severe and life-threatening illnesses tend to actually avoid seeking out information (Case, Andrews, Johnson & Allard, 2005; Leydon et. al., 2000). Additionally, URT was used to evaluate information seeking behaviors in those who were victims of several crises, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Lachlan, Spence & Seeger, 2009), Hurricane Katrina (Lachlan, Spence & Griffin, 2009; Spence, Lachlan, Burke & Seeger, 2007) and the 35W Bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Lachlan, Spence, Nelson & Shelton, 2010). There are obviously numerous outlets for acquiring travel information: friends, family members, websites, books, brochures, travel agents, etc. Yet visiting a hospitality website and playing an advergame may lead to better results, not necessarily in regards to information gathering, but in overall feelings of contentment and comfort for the user. Research shows that more participation in the decision making process leads to higher levels of satisfaction (Wheeless, Wheeless & Howard, 1984). Participation in making decisions involves more than an individual communicating to others about the trip. It is important that the advergame actually addresses the areas of uncertainty that exist and allows people to realize and attempt to alleviate areas of uncertainty by playing the game. Reducing uncertainty when planning a trip has applicability in order to allow individuals to feel more satisfied with their decisions. By playing an advergame, an individual is actively participating and choosing their next step. This technology

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allows them the opportunity to become involved with the information messages, and should lead to a greater sense of comfort and certainty.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS, GAMING AND TOURISM In the mass communication field, the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective (Blumler & Katz, 1974), has been applied to examine the motivations behind people’s choices in media use and the success of these choices in meeting underlying social and psychological needs. More specifically, the U&G perspective “states, in part, that people perceive a variety of problems and possible solutions to those problems. Based on their perceptions, people develop different motives for gratification-seeking or problem-solving behavior, which they meet through media consumption or non-media-based activity (Lucas & Sherry, 2004, pp 502). This model assumes that media use (and other activities) plays a functional role for people. People are goal-oriented in their behaviors and they actively engage in activities in order to try to achieve desired goals. For example, some people may browse the internet to stay updated and to search for information; others may play video games to meet their need for entertainment. The U&G perspective has been used in several studies to develop taxonomies of motives for why people use technology and new media (Sherry, Lucas, Greenberg & Lachlan, 2006; Song, Larose, Eastin & Lin 2004; Stafford, Kline, & Rankin, 2004). Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) found five distinct motivations for using the Internet (interpersonal utility, pass time, information seeking, convenience, and entertainment). Other researchers have identified different needs that prompt the use of various new media innovations and content such as: VCRs (Cohen, Levy, & Golden, 1988; Rubin & Rubin, 1989), videotext (Atwater, Heeter, & Brown, 1985), remote control devices (Perse & Ferguson, 1993), newspapers (Berelson, 1949;

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Elliott & Rosenberg, 1987), radio (Herzog, 1940, 1944; Mendelsohn, 1964), email (Dimmick, Kline, & Stafford, 2000), and video games (Sherry et al., 2006). Most recently, Shelton (2010) developed a list of nine motivations specifically geared towards users of Second Life, a unique MMORPG with a thriving economy where virtual goods and services are purchased with real money (fantasy, customization, role-playing, relationships, socialization, escapism, relaxation, advancement/ challenge, and competition). Games and tourism websites require audience members to become active media users. For example, users may actively play an online game or search a website for company information by clicking on hyperlinks. This suggests that advergames and websites are more goal-oriented mediums than traditional media and that the users are aware of the needs they are attempting to gratify. It is important to remember, however, that tourism websites and advergames compete with other sources of need satisfaction (friends, family members, books, brochures, travel agents, etc.), therefore these offerings need to be as informative and entertaining as possible. Motivations for engaging in advergames would seem to be a fruitful avenue for tourism research. In line with the U&G perspective, gratifications sought, coupled with media use, will determine whether or not those gratifications are met. Vincent and Basil (1997) also explain that this perspective “predicts that the medium used is also determined by viewers’ motivations and satisfactions with previous use of that medium” (pp. 382). The next step would be to model user motivations as an outcome of various predictors so that these results will have more practical implications for advertisers in the hospitality industry. A uses and gratifications perspective seems ideal to apply to future research in this area, however, one might want to adopt different behavioral theory approaches (e.g., the Theory of Reasoned Action) in the future as we move ahead in this vein.

CONCLUSION This chapter highlights the potential for advergames and the tourism industry to work in tandem. Advergames may not only positively impact enjoyment of the searching process, but also other positive outcomes such as persuasion and knowledge acquisition. Future research should attempt to link these outcomes to media theory, tourism websites and advergames. This will help advance knowledge of how travelers are affected by emerging popular media. Given the plethora of content available in on tourism websites, future research should attempt to delve further into how exactly the advergames are being used. Indeed, there are a host of content areas from traditional media effects research that can be examined in the new domain of advergames. Bearing in mind the standing video games culturally occupy it cannot be ignored that social effects are present. Future work should address the many possible outcomes of advergames used in the tourism industry in an attempt to better understand this important and increasingly popular feature of video game technology. However, since effects cannot be inferred from content, surveys and experiments should also be conducted. Surveys can examine motives for advergame use, knowledge acquisition through the site, and related measures, while experiments can address the cognitive, affective, and behavioral effects of advergames. As with many forms of new media, advergames are in a continual process of evolution and change, and future research should attempt to track trends in the development and use of these technologies. Advergames are indicative of how young people are relying on digital media technologies in increasing numbers, and these are obviously important to them, but will these technologies remain popular in their current form? Or will they become more virtual, like the burgeoning Second Life online gaming community where individuals can use their avatars to travel? Time and research will provide answers to these and other important

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questions. Although the relationship between advergames and tourism websites is only beginning to be explored, additional research on its impact enjoyment, persuasion and knowledge acquisition is essential to the tourism industry, video game producers, sponsors, and consumer-interest groups, as well as to our own understanding of tourism and the individuals who choose to travel.

Berelson, B. (1949). What “missing the newspaper” means. In Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Stanton, F. N. (Eds.), Communication research 1948–1949 (pp. 111–129). New York: Harper.

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Chapter 7

The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry:

The Problem of (Mis)use of Building Technology and Language of Heritage Murat Çetin King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT This chapter aims to shed light on the nature of architecture, its technological and cultural ramifications on tourism industry. It elucidates the background of issues regarding the interaction between the fields of cultural production (architecture) and cultural consumption (tourism). The chapter argues that power of tourism industry has reached, under the pressure of global economics, to a capacity to turn even daily architecture into instruments of touristic show. In this context, technology is utilized as an instrument to produce such iconography only as a surface articulation. Thus, architecture becomes a commodity of touristic consumption in this current socio-economic and cultural context. The pressure of tourism industry seems to create a significant split between the architecture and its location in terms of specific cultural roots. This tendency is discussed as a potential threat to sustainability of tourism industry itself since it damages its own very source, that is to say, richness of cultural differences.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch007

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The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry

INTRODUCTION Within the framework of the relationships among tourism management, approaches, global tourism trends and technology, this chapter aims to cast light on the status of architecture and its technological as well as cultural ramifications on the ongoing tendencies in tourism industry (Adorno, 1991). The main focus of this chapter is on the use of global building technologies at the peril of local architecture which is a cultural asset for tourism (Bourdieu, 1993). In other words, building technology is tackled as a means which interferes in between tourism and heritage, and disturbs their natural, or rather, organic relationship (Fowler, 1993). Along this purpose, the economic, social, cultural and philiosophical background of this disturbance is elucidated with specific reference to the field of architecture (Lasansky, 2004). Tourism, as one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the world in regard to economical, technological and social transformations, facilitates significant interactions and transactions among different countries (MacCannell, 1999). After various successive stages of evolution and self-criticism in regard to the issues of excessive consumption (Slater, 1999) and thus loss of natural and cultural resources, targets of tourism has started to be shifted from an industry that was developed along the axis of 3S (sun, sand, sea) mass tourism which has been isolated from the culture and economy of the loci, towards one that is organized along the axis of 3E (education, entertainment, environment) under the influence of increasing concern for issues such as sustainability, conservation of both heritage and nature, etc. (Ellul, 1997). Thus, impact of tourism on tangible and intangible assets of cultural heritage has been placed to the center of tourism industry (Chambers, 1997; Pickard, 2001). In that regard, relationships between tourism, city planning, heritage conservation, restoration and architecture (Baud-Bovy & Lawson, 1998; Var & Gunn, 2002) have gained utmost importance particularly from

the viewpoint of sociological impacts of tourism activity on the cities it is performed (Ockman, 2005). On another yet parallel line, architecture has taken the lead in tourism as the main object of touristic activity and has recently generated a specialized type called architecture tourism whereby specialist trips are organized around the cities worldwide to visit contemporary buildings designed by well-known architects as well as historically important or traditionally characteristic buildings (Kahvecioglu & Ciravoglu, 2007). Tourism movement, which boomed particularly during 1980s, introduced a very dense and over urbanization causing; not only major damages to coastal zones via massive constructions, but also to local life by means of conversion of local economies for only tourists, which gradually resulting in the decline of these towns during off-seasons, and eventually destroying both local economy and social life. Nonetheless, despite many negative consequences, tourism activity continued its growth and became the center of global social, cultural and economic life. Therefore, the phenomenon of tourism, in which diverse parameters play complex roles, necessitates an intense interaction among sectors and disciplines. Among these disciplines, architecture stands out as a leading actor since it not only facilitates investments, synthesizes the requirements of comfort and entertainment or organizes activities, technologies and spaces, but also creates identities and produces the imagery and iconography associated with branding of the tourism investors. Today, hence, tourism industry and architecture are in a comprehensive and very close interaction. As a matter of fact, authentically historical architectural edifices have always triggered tourism (Stoller, 1989) by their values as either being witnesses to historical events, or representing various phenomena, or merely by their monumentality, originality or other assets. These unique masterpieces or contexts used to render certain destinations more advenageous over the

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others. Thus, relatively disadventageous locations in terms of touristic attractions have developed various strategies to overcome their position by the utilization of architecture again (Donald, 2007) due to its representation capacity. One of these strategies has been to create their own iconic symbols through contemporary architecture and its new forms by well-known designers, who are promoted as celebrities, while the other strategy being to simulate unique buildings and cities in these inopportune places which has no relevance to the location of the original. Recently, tourism industry seems to be promoting not only fake copies of historically important or well-known buildings, cities but also their kitsch and eclectic collage, such as monuments, pyramids, palaces, urban plazas and even the whole city of Venice in resorts. The consequences of this trend, which is referred as ‘Las Vegas effect’ or ‘WoW effect’, will be discussed below. Regarding the other, and relatively more ethical strategy, such contemporary architectural edifice itself can transform its location into a magnet of touristic attraction by its own very existence. The most typical example og this sort is the town of Bilbao in Spain becoming a touristic place by the construction of Guggenheim Museum building by Frank Gehry and radically transforming town’s economy, which is defined in literature as ‘Bilbao effect’ (Zulaika, 2003). As a result of this strong connection and interaction between architecture and tourism, tourism industry gained a remarkable power over architecture. In this context, having gone way beyond the reasonable touristic demand to experience architecture in its original location, this power has reached to a capacity to be able to turn daily architecture into instruments of touristic show. More precisely, tourism, when reached to the required level of demand, can have the power to transform buildings totally or partially. That is to say, touristic demand can easily force developers, owners, local administrators, governers and finally architects to convert, for instance, religious buildings to art galleries, parliament buildings to

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recreation areas, skyscrapers to panoramic towers, private houses to museums etc. Doubtlessly, such phenomena could easily be explained by material aspects. From economical viewpoint, to start with, one may suggest that although demand is assumed to create the supply according to classical economics, demand can be artificially created and stimulated in order to maximize the profitability of the capital. Space and time appear as two major obstacles for the circulation of global capital (Yirtici, 2005). Space and time, in conventional terms, are bounded by local context, that is to say, by geography and its specific spatial characteristics and own rhythm of time. Nevertheless, global economy requires such a local resistance to be eliminated simply because homogeneity will increase the fluidity of of global capital (Bauman, 1997). Therefore, the currently dominating economic system seeks various ways not only to break the links with locality, time and space but also to reconstruct them in an abstract level. Along this goal, it utilizes building technology to materialize this deconstruction and reconstruction of space-time relationship. Manifestations and ramifications of these radical transformations will be discussed below. Therefore, this section will address the issue of technology in tourism, and particularly that of building technology, as a socio-cultural issue. The argument developed in this section is centered on the notion of authenticity, its vitality for sustainability of local economy, and thus, local everyday life.

TOURISM, CULTURE AND ARCHITECTURE Tourism has originally stemmed from the human need to other cultures, to experience heterogeneity of life and the diversity of its cultural products, artefacts on earth (Giddens, 1991). Thus, the travels, which used to be real adventures due to problems regarding transportation difficulties,

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safety and cost issues, had gradually started to be encouraged by technological advances particularly in transportation during 19th century. In other words, tourism, which started as a cultural enterprise, still places cultural activity onto its center no matter how much it is also associated with disciplines such as economis, logistics, etc. Franklin (2003) defines tourism not only as a cultural activity but also as a part of the phenomenon of globalization. The difference of tourism, today, is its homogenizing effect which occurs in two mutually interacting channels. Firstly, tourism industry supply tourists everywhere with more or less similar services, uniform catering, hosting, and even the same artificial climate as well as standard packages to the extent that they provide them even with similar physical and spatial settings. The aforementioned ‘Vegas’ or ‘WoW’ effects are polarized manifestations of such homogenization of the globe through tourism. Secondly, tourists, in return, develop a behavior in which they are interested more in the artificial experiences, simulations and pseudo-local gift items (that are mostly produced in China) than the genuine, authentic and salient features of the place and its people. Holiday villages are typical examples of this where guests, whose only contact with local culture is gift shops either pre-arranged by the tour agency if not another in the duty-free just before they leave the place at the end of their vacation, are isolated from the everyday, real surrounding of their destination. In an age of violence, crime and terror, the underlying fears of people yield in such a degree of isolation and artificialization even in vacations, which defeats its initial purpose of tourism that was to discover, encounter and interact with the ‘other’ (Giddens, 1991). Thus, this homogenizing behavioural cycle and the superficial interest in local culture develop a state-of-mind of their own. In other words, ‘being tourist’ becomes an (ephemeral, distancing, superficial) attitude towards life in general. Eventually, everyday life and touristic life becomes inseper-

able (Erkal, 2007). The border which seperates them first blurs, then finally collapses. Thus, the global world envisaged by those who favoured its homogenization becomes merely touristic; entertaining on short-term basis yet monotonous in the long run. On a similar note, Hannerz (2006) suggests that tourists are becoming a significantly influential social group to shape the city social life and public realm due to increasing mobility in the age of fast travel, information technology and global economy. Referring to Culler (1989)’s studies on semiology of tourism, he emphasizes the point that tourist as people staying in a place too short to assess their environment through neither function nor context but rather throughtheir guidebooks, cameras, and thus, images, icons and associated events. This type of short-term perception and assessment which eventually exerts power on the city to turn everything into a spectacular show for tourists through signs (Barthes, 1977) including spaces they experience. In other words, for tourists, sign value of an architectural edifice merits more than its use value. Thus, function, as one of the essentials of architecture, becomes suspended and reduced to the level of an object that is consumed visually (Alsayyad, 2001). How architectural product looks for a tourist gains more importance than what it is produced for and what it contains. In this context, architecture inevitably becomes a part of the whole tour package disposed for pleasure and entertainment. Consequently, it is no longer part of its local culture although tourism is based on the idea of selling ‘culture’ a significant part of which is characterized by its unique architecture that is conditioned by local social dynamics. Nonetheless, contemporary architecture with its new technologies and new language seems to be replacing the authentic local products of architecture. Thus, ‘tourism of architecture’, which has a siginificant shares in the global tourism activity, is overemphasized so much that ‘architecture of tourism’ is considered as a field of specialization within the discipline of architectural design.

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Particularly, considerable amount of tourism in developed countries is oriented towards products of architecture, some of which create attraction due to their historical value whereas most of which attract due to their capacity to represent contemporary architecture. Architecture, particularly for tourism, becomes a commodity of consumption (Appadurai, 1988). By the same token, architecture is considered as a global asset in a world of intense communication through help of technology. So, administrations and developers compete with eachother to create their own architectural assets for increasing their share from the tourism market if they do not already have their own existing architectural stock to be marketed through tourism sector. In this process, the use and value of architecture as tourism object are reduced to temporary stage sets for being replaced with new icons (Hughes, 1991) to surprise the spectator and signs for every new show that is to be staged to satisfy the demands of rapidly growing tourism industry. Such a consciousness and desire to produce architecture as show eventually result in an inflation of iconic buildings and promotion of kitsch buildings against the real value of genuine architectural products that reflect the true culture of a loci. At this point, the issues of heritage conservation and renewal arise as mechanisms of safeguarding the sustainability of local cultures. Having repeated that building technology is discussed here as a cultural issue, this chapter argues that concepts of technology and language are mis-interpreted in architecture, particularly when its relation to tourism industry is considered. While the language is conceived as a mere iconography devoid of its cultural components; from its production processes, from social, geographical or climatic factors, the technology is conceived as an instrument to produce this iconography as if it is merely a surface surface articulation like a stage set for a show. That is why the architectural literature takes a critical stance towards what is called Vegas Effect. As a matter of fact, tourism

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cannot sustain even itself, not only local life, by relying purely on creating shows and temporary settings unless some effort is made to revive the culture through conservation and rehabilitation. In regard to the relationship between tourism and architecture, technology could only be judiciously and critically applied to serve the rehabilitation of the disturbed balance between tectonics and skin, building and facade, real and fake, actual and virtual, signified and signifier, content and form, meaning and icon, in sum, between architecture and show. Therefore, the issue of misinterpretation is tackled on two fronts; visual language and building technology. The following successive sections address these two interrelated issues respectively.

MIS-INTERPRETATION OF CULTURE AND ITS ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE This section argues that pressure of tourism industry and consumerist misinterpretation of local cultures (Slater, 1999) and their architectural languages seem to have created a peculiar type of urban-architectural forgery that is usually reduced to skin-deep façade mimicry of local architectural features which results in distorted eclecticism of Disney Architecture or Las Vegas Strip Architecture, background, sources, roots and aims of which are different from socio-cultural context of cities at stake. Therefore, the ‘city of collective memory’ (Boyer, 1996) seems to have been replaced by the postmodern condition (Lyotard, 1984; Jameson, 1991; Harvey, 1991) of ‘city becoming a place of show and display’ (Debord, 1967). The architecture as show and display can so easily and quickly be consumed that global cities which are in competition to attract more tourists have to produce new shows, new signs and icons new buildings serve for that purpose (Urry, 1995). Thus, seductive outlook of

The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry

their new icons have to fascinate the minds of the new tourist population. Although monuments gradually lose their power on the collective memory, the demand for new icon buildings does not decrease. That is the reason why bigger buildings, with strange sculptural forms as ‘enigmatic signifiers’ (Jencks, 1995) are still being built by stararchitects (as celebrities and even superheroes) as remedies (Figure 1) for all the ills of the contemporary city that is rapidly losing its past, heritage and thus character. After economic success of ‘Bilbao effect’, developers’ demand has profoundly increased for iconic despite various socio-cultural concerns and drawbacks. Thus, these iconic buildings multiply through mimetic processes (Blackmore, 1999). In a world and time dominated by technology and media; the ambiguity and speculations created by iconic architecture has gradually been accepted as a means of being mediatic. Not only ambigous sculptural forms (Gelernter, 1995) but also language produced by techniques of ‘copy and collage’ turns into architecture a spectacular show and display. These techniques are implemented in such an exaggerated and distorted

manner to make the show more interesting for tourists that the end product is not more than kitsch. This trend not only affects the exterior image but gradually space program and content of the building as well. Thus, architecture loses its grounds by becoming a skin (Semper, 1989), a mask or a cover rather than what it exists for. Consequently, a process which turns office skyscrapers to watchtowers or worship spaces to galleries is being witnessed. Architectural product accommodates two types of values; use and meaning (Guzer, 2007). While premodern era was characterized by the fact that meaning was collectively produced by the society (Rapoport, 1982) modernity defined the meaning value over its use value (Perez-Gomez, 1983). In other words, a rational link or correlation between the tectonic existence of an architectural edifice and its formal and artistic expression was inquired until the end of the twentieth century. However, together with post-modern consumption society, these two values are divorced and new value judgements started to influence architectural products, too, as in all channels of consumption objects. Consequently, aspects of meaning and

Figure 1. Buildings for tourism as enigmatic icons and star architects as superheroes; A collage of Guggenheim Museum building silhouette in Bilbao, Spain guarded by architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid (© 2010 Murat Cetin)

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identity have started to compete and challenge the functional aspects of buildings. Thus, today, aspects of meaning and identity, which once was the contribution of architect, directly became a program input defined clearly by developers, investors, corporate institutions or governments particularly in tourism industry to boost up the economy of a city. The manifestations of refunctioning of architecture as an instrument of prestige and economic generator could be observed in a wide spectrum ranging from’ Mitterand’s Paris Effect’ in Europe to ‘Dubai Effect’ on the Middle East region. Doubtlessly, functional flexibilities brought by technological advances and the resulting physical and spatial transformations have an accelerating impact on the process of the divorce between use and meaning values. Therefore, the next section will elucidate the advances of technology that paved the way for such a radical cultural transformation in the way we built our environment.

MIS-INTERPRETATION OF BUILDING TECHNOLOGY In addition to obvious and direct relation between building and technology, there is a very subtle and indirect relation between tourism and technology. The advances in technology profoundly change not only the way people live but also how they perceive. This gradual transformation may eventually shift human cognitive schemata which would lead to a new phase, and thus, state of human existance. No matter how far and distant such a phase may seem, consequences of abrupt leaps in this transformation process that are implemented through our fascination with technology might de destructive since our biological and mental ties with reality, nature, location, culture and tradition have not yet been totally removed. Therefore the relation between these strong ties and evolving technology should be re-considered particularly

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in the fields of cultural production (architecture) and cultural consumption (tourism). This section will address the issue of technological advances and their impact on architecture on two channels; first one is IT based technologies the other is construction technologies. Both types of technologies are discussed from the viewpoint of their pressure on the transformation of culture and architecture as one of its subsets.

Impact of IT and Media on the Reality of Architecture As a matter of fact, all commodities (including space) needed continuously changing faces in Post-Fordist production systems. Technology is utilized to enable commodities to change very quickly. Particularly, IT based technologies and media technologies were favoured to overcome the sheer physicality and materialty of real life which stand as major obstacles in this context of rapid and frequent changes occurring in high-speed (Virilio, 1998). Thus, simulation and virtual reality found their ground to flourish in such a context (Baudrillard, 1994). They served the demands of economic system so well that they have finally become an addiction today. Most aspects of life are shifting towards simulated spaces in todays’s post – information society. Within the current euphoria of information technologies such as 4G telecommunication, worldwide web, electronic trade, electronic state, virtual social networks etc., our living and perception have been significantly altered since the 19th century, particularly in the last few decades. Architecture is not an exception to this transformation; and neither is tourism industry (Pease et al., 2007). Ucar (2007) draws attention to a 19th century invention and comments on its influence of the development of tourism; La Nature á coup d’œil”, or widely known as ‘Panorama’ by Robert Barker (Parcell, 1996). He suggests that although they disappeared in 20th century, it can be considered as an evolution because they are still in our daily

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lives as a notion of virtual reality. Interactive cameras and web-based programs to combine our photographs provide us with panoramic images with 360 degrees views. In fact, panorama in the 19th century was more than a device to provide 360 degree images, but was more of a studiously choreographed magical stage performance to puzzle the viewer (Oettermann, 1997). The techniques developed by panorama had paved the way for advances in photography and movies. Similar to present times, the rising demand for knowledge in an age of information boom following the widespread dissemination of books had created an intellectual aura of experiencing this new information about ‘others’. No matter how difficult, expensive and dangerous the travel was, the demand to see other places, people, cultures, landscapes, buildings, food, artifacts etc. was met by bringing those locations to the people through this new technological initiative what is later called in North America as Cyclorama. This need was intended to be satisfied with a unique technology based on providing virtually realistic images. It was achieved by applying principles carefully derived from the disciplines of painting, optics, theatre and architecture with the available technology of the time. So, first seeds of today’s architecture as a mediatic show or icon were planted by invention of panorama in the 19th century. Under the pressure of the demand for continuously changing faces in the current economic system, architecture, thus, is in a difficult position between the masses as its consumer and corporate sector as its financer. Therefore, architecture seems to have developed a double-faced attitude with the help of image-oriented cultural infrastructureand technological superstructure in order to overcome this paradox caused by the sudden and radical shift in capital ownership. The new power (of the corporate capital) and her (artistic and spatial) weapons should be disguised in a seducing new

skin (Till, 1999). Market demand for such disguise seems to have reached almost to a level of fetishist obsession with newer forms (Pietz, 1993). Hence, architecture has recently started to serve as a new package in order to market the products of corporate building sector. Marketing through a new package necessitated the use of a new media (Ramonet, 2002). In a society which has dogmatic belief in media, the arts have also been pumped-up by the media and its related technologies. What is unfamiliar, interesting (no matter how strange it could be), has become the most wanted feature in this tv/video/internet oriented media (McLuhan et al., 1989). Hence, new types of spaces have been emerging with the strangest possible forms and iconographic language. Radical leaps in technological advances, profoundly transform the way people conceive art (Mitchell, 1994). The concept of simulation (Baudrillard, 1994) with the help of increased ability of computation seems to have enabled the creation of a marketable imagery of space (Foucault, 1973). Although this new visual revolution is welcomed by the profession, the real problem was the possibility of realising this abstract image in concrete with the current building technologies. Moreover, further production, re-production and re-presentation of this new space unavoidably (yet magically) blurred the borders between real and virtual (Mitchell, 1996). Inevitable consequences of this phenomenon were manifold. It was meant to weaken the tectonic conditions and traditions in which architecture is evolved. Its seductive nature was meant to cause one to discard its true assets simply because of its market value. Its popular merits seem to have pushed its social responsibilities aside. The question is whether it is architecture any longer.

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Impact of Building Technology on the Materiality of Architecture Another channel in which technological advances make significant impact on architectureof tourism is the building technology. Traditionally, building activity and architectural language as its cultural expression were conditioned by the limitations of material, available workmanship, principles of economy, and conventions of construction techniques that were lenient with forces of nature. Currently, on the contrary, construction technology has been usuriously pushed in a direction to enable architects and enginners producing images to satisfy this aforementioned demand of touristic consumption. Production of steel in vast amounts as well as advances in steel construction has initially started the process of a reform in architecture starting from the 19th century onwards. During the 20th century, developments in glass technology enabled to go beyond the existing limitations of construction. Recently, glass technology is developed into such a level that it is no longer merely a material that provides transparency, view and light through windows, but an intelligent environmental control shell, and moreover, a structural component of buildings. In parallel to these developments, inventions and advances in material science engouraged the use of various alloys, compositions, chemicals, plastics and special fabrics in building industry. The increasing use of these materials in combination with various forms of steel structures also initiated a shift from load bearing systems to tensile systems in construction of buildings. Furthermore, the remarkable progress in the field of electronics, nano technology, artificial intelligence, remote communication systems paved the way for the age of smart buildings (Seltzer, 1992). Consequently, conventional tectonics of building was replaced by the tectonics of ‘skin architecture’ largely determined by the use of a wide variety of curtain wall façades.

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All of these developments have rapidly and totally altered the very nature of architecture as a functional and aesthetic shelter into a display shell. Like the billboards of Las Vegas strip, the tourism architecture has turned into a circus where jugglers of archirtecture perform their skills of acrobacy of forms and images with buildings in shape of; for instance, boats, transatlantics, spaceships, burgers, cakes, toys, animals, plants, fruits, hills, rocks, clouds, daily devices, instruments, iPods, tv screens or buildings as replicas of Topkapi Palace, Kremlin Palace, or of Venice with its water canals, or Moscow with its plazas etc. In sum, architecture has turned into artistic creation of interesting objects that also accommodates human functions, that is to say, buildings that look like anything but architecture. In this context, emergent building technology encourages creation of fake facades which may look like traditional architecture. Moreover, contemporary materials and techniques allow architects to produce mimicry of history through forms and figures borrowed arbitrarily from past without any reference to its context or constituent conditions. Nonetheless, this anachronistic attitude as well as flattening of whole history and its associated aspects into a skin-deep cosmetic surface treatment will serve nothing but to terminate the existing weak ties and connections of humans to their roots in nature, place and culture. By the same token, this will, soon, result in tourism industry to sabotage its own resources that are mainly embedded in the cultural content of localities unless an alternative strategy is established regarding the relationship between culture and tourism. Development of strategies for sustainability of local cultures requires an emphasis on the thorough and rigorous study of genuine cultures, their multi-faceted aspects and contexts rather than its visual replication. Therefore, at this point, the emphasis must be given to the issue of architectural heritage and its conservation.

The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry

GENUINE CULTURAL ASSETS AND CONSERVATION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE Although tourism industry may invest on other assets to increase its profit, historical and traditional context is the most valuable and sustainable asset for tourism industry (Maciocco & Serreli, 2009; Ulled Merino et al., 1986). The first and the most important salient feature of this asset, that is to say, traditional context is its originality. The priority of tourism industry must not only to provide a certain level of comfort to its customers but also assure the sustainability of this vulnerable cultural asset both as a means of protecting its own investment as well as a social responsibility. Genuinely traditional architecture is the main element in the manifestation of this cultural asset (Singh 2007). Authentic architectural heritage should not be sacrificed for the artificial architecture of theme hotels via kitsch replication of the genuine in irrelevant locations and contexts with fake materials and false proportions. The objectives of tourism industry to generate new virtual environments to stimulate tourists’ fantasy world through these theme hotels seem to have followed the easiest path and inevitably ended up with production of very cheap and non-creative images via various packages. The profits accumulated through this populist initiative can neither justify the damage given to cultural assets nor legitimize the extra cost paid by communities have to pay to sustain their everday lives and cultural existence (Lefebvre, 1991). Furthermore, the enormous cost that will be required for these buildings to be removed or replaced once their fake imagery is outdated must not be forgotten. Similar to the damages tourism investments caused during 1980s via the destruction of nature, forests and coasts, the current developments will create damages that are not only very hard and costly to compensate but also irreversible in terms of socio-cultural ramifications. Thus, any investment that is intended to serve tourism industry should discourage the

production of this fake history through ‘WoW effect’ created by these theme hotel chains. The objective of tourism industry should focus on contributing to local culture by architecture whether it is a restoration or conservation of a product of authentic culture or a construction of a new product of ‘Bilbao Effect’, but definitely not by promotion of replicas which will degrade the originals. Architectural edifices, particularly masterpieces have always attracted attention. Therefore, they play a major role in the tourism income of their region as well as their country. The importance of Eiffel Tower or Louvre Palace for Paris, Big Ben Clock Tower and Buckingham Palace for London, Hagia Sophia Museum, Suleymaniye Mosque and Topkapi Palace for Istanbul is crucial for their tourism potential. Nevertheless, none of these edifices stand out individually, on the contrary, as an integral part of the pattern constituted by the cultural assets of the city in which they are located. Moreover, they acquire their value through time as a historical asset whereas the current buildings are immediately put into the center of attention via marketing strategies right after the moment after their production if not during their planning and production phases. Unfortunately, new architecture, when conceived as a tool for tourism, has become a part of a process which homogenizes and monotonizes the environment at the peril of genuine qualities. Therefore, tourism industry should seek ways of collaborating with the discipline of conservation of architectural heritage in addition to sponsoring and managing the restoration of cultural heritage that is under the threat of deterioration (Orbasli, 2000). Nonetheless, conservation merely for tourist is not a favourable or sustainable solution either. Instead, local communities must be supported to maintain their living and producing to enable them sustaining themselves without the help of tourism during off-seasons. Therefore, tourism industry should take initiatives in boosting local economies and take measures against sweeping

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effects of global economy simply to ensure the continuity its base of existence. Along this path, ties with local history, local nature, local materials, local arts and crafts and local rituals should be enhanced with integrated strategies. Only then, the devastating effects of tourism on culture could not only be prevented but on the contrary be reversed towards serving the local communities and sustainability of cultures around the globe so that tourism could sustain itself without inventing and investing on new shows forever.

CONCLUSION This chapter elucidates the impact of tourism on social and cultural values and assets with specific reference to its strong mutual interaction with architecture. This interaction is tackled from the perspective of the conservation of cultural heritage and its sustainable development. It is argued that this interaction is threatened by economic and technological pressures and needs for an urgent shift from the current reduction of cultural assets and traditional features into superficial icons or surface articulations towards conservation of authentic character and genuine products to assure its own sustainability. As discussed above in detail, tourism industry is undergoing a rapid expansion causing the breakage of its link between space, time under pressure of capitalist economics to either create or stimulate the demand (Harvey, 1985). Along this line of homogenizing action, it utilizes architecture as a means to globally create artificial and exaggerated settings for its spectacular shows legitimizing the promotion of populist and kitsch culture at the peril of locality and genuinity. Misplacement of place-specific assets or features to create these new spatial settings causes cultural confusions. The fact that genuine urban-architectural language which reflects this harmony of space and time is very attractive for tourist seems to be usually subdued in favour of architecture that looks like

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Disneyworld or Las Vegas Strip, which too, might attract tourists in specific context since they are the authentic products of the (space-time) context they are formed within. However, other cities should avoid replicating this type of populist products. They rather should keep them in a distance to highlight their own assets. Particularly, this difference is blurred in societies where critical culture is not very well established (Guzer, 2007). In other words, buildings that are pumped up with exaggerated scale, material and formal expressions as well as naively direct references to history could easily be confused with avant-garde architectural experiments. Such an attitude not only creates a conflict between the real functional or tectonic values of building and its sign values (Baudrillard, 1981) but also renders architecture as an exaggerated product of fashion or daily values of taste(lessness) rather than a product of special design process. The major difference, however, lies in the following distinction; between creating an attractive architecture and using architecture to attract people, or between turning architectural product into a sign and using existing signs to make architecture. Doubtlessly, the use of architecture as an instrument of prestige can and should be considered as a positive ground for architecture. However, productive use of this ground for architecture is only possible through widespread establishment of the critical culture, that is to say, through not only a certain distance from easily consumable direct references to history but also a process of abstraction and interpretation of existing knowledge rather than that of instant products made up of popular signs and icons. Hence, space is essentially a public commodity, and therefore, it can be monopolised neither by the capital nor by the architect. On the other hand, a new vision and understanding the ontological transformation that architecture is undergoing is also needed for the discipline of architecture (Yirtici, 2007). For architecture to become the subject rather than object of the current social reality in which

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architecture exists, architecture has to develop its own tactics that are critical yet not exclusive of the global economic logic which shakes all known phenomena so far. Consequently, tourism industry should develop ways to heal the severe split between the architecture and its location in terms of cultural roots specific to location caused by the pressures exerted by mechanisms of global economy.

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Hannerz, U. (2006). Cultural Role of World cities. In Brenner, N., & Keil, R. (Eds.), The Global Cities Reader (pp. 313–318). Boca Raton, FL: Routledge.

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Harvey, D. (1985). The Geopolitics of Capitalism. In Gregory, D., & Urry, J. (Eds.), Social Relations and Spatial Structures. London: Macmillan.

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Harvey, D. (1991). The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Mitchell, W. J. (1996). City of Bits; Space, Place & Infobahn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hughes, R. (1991). The Shock of the New. London: Thames & Hudson. Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Jencks, C. (1995). The Architecture of a Jumping Universe. London: Academy Editions. Kahvecioglu, H, Ciravoglu, A., (2007). Mimarlik Turizmi Turizmin Nesnesi Olarak ‘Mimarlık. Mimarlik, 336 Lasansky, D. M., & McLaren, B. (2004). Architecture and Tourism: Perception, Performance and Place. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis, MN: Univ of Minnesota Press. MacCannell, D. (1999). The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Berkley, CA: University of California Press. Maciocco, G., & Serreli, S. (2009). Enhancing the City: New Perspectives for Tourism and Leisure. New York: Springer. McLuhan, M., & Powers, B. R. (1989). Global Village; Transformations in World Life and Media in the 21st Century. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP. Merino, U. A de J., Perez, a., Heringham, S., (1986). The Recovery of Historic Buildings for Tourism. Madrid, Spain: Teccniberia.

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Ockman, J. (2005). Architourism: Authentic, Escapist, Exotic, Spectacular. New York: Prestel Publishing. Oettermann, S. (1997). The Panorama: History of Mass Medium. Cambridg, MA: Zone Books. Orbasli, A. (2000). Tourists in Historic Towns: Urban Conservation and Heritage Management. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9780203479001 Parcell, S. (1996). Momentary Modern Magic of Panorama. In Perez-Gomez, A., & Parcell, S. (Eds.), Chora 1: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture. Quebec, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Pease, W. R., Rowe, M., & Cooper, M. (2007). Information and Communication Technologies in Support of the Tourism Industry. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-59904-159-9 Perez-Gomez, A. (1983). Architecture and Crisis of Modern Science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pickard, R. (2001). Management of Historic Centres. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis. Pietz, W. (1993). Fetishism as Cultural Discourse. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP. Ramonet, M. I. (2002). Tyranny of Communication &Media. Montreal, Canada: Gallimard. Rapoport, A. (1982). The Meaning in the Built Environment; A Non-Verbal Communication Approach. Beverly Hills; Calif. London: Sage. Seltzer, M. (1992). Bodies and Machines. New York: Routledge.

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Semper, G. (1989). The Four Elements of Architecture And Other Writings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP. Singh, R. (2007). Jaisalmer: Art, Architecture and Tourism. Gurgaon, India: Shubhi Publications. Slater, D. (1999). Consumer Culture and Modernity. Queensland, Australia: Polity. Stoller, P. (1989). The Taste of Ethnographic Things: The Senses in Anthropology. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Tafuri, M. (1973). Architecture and Utopia; Design and Capitalist Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Till, J. (1999). The Vanity of Form. The J o u r n a l o f A rc h i t e c t u re , 4 , 4 7 – 5 4 . doi:10.1080/136023699373990

Ucar, E., (2007). Bir Bakista Kent. Mimarlik, 336 Urry, J. (1995). Consuming Places. New York: Routledge. Var, T., & Gunn, C. (2002). Tourism Planning: Basics, Concepts, Cases. New York: Routledge. Virilio, P. (1998). Speed and Politics; An Essay on Dromology, Semiotext(e). New York: Columbia University Press. Yirtici, H. (2005). Cagdas Kapitalizmin Mekansal Orgutlenmesi. Istanbul, Turkey: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayinlari. Yirtici, H., (2007). Turizmin Nesnesi Olan Mimarlığın Ekonomi Politiği. Mimarlik, 336. Zulaika, J. (2003). Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa: Museums, Architecture, and City Renewal. Basque Textbooks.

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Chapter 8

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman Neeta Baporikar Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Sultanate of Oman

ABSTRACT Tourism industry is the largest industry world wide and is the main source of economic development of countries like Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai. It is also the main source of income generation for countries like Mauritius, Spain etc. Oman being the second largest country in the Middle East possessing wealth of natural resources has everything to offer to the tourists. It has a long coastline with pristine beaches, beautiful mountains, and world’s best deserts with rolling sand dunes. With breath taking Khareef festival of Salalah, Musundam in the Khasab region which is referred to as Norway of Arabia and Bhala with its forts and castles being listed in the UNESCO world heritage monuments, Oman is one among the best ten countries of the world for tourists to travel (International Travel Magazine). This chapter attempts to review the strategic approach adopted for tourism development, gives the SWOT analysis for the tourism industry and discusses the emerging trends of tourism and related sectors like hospitality, travel and aviation, training and education with special reference to Sultanate of Oman.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch008

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

BACKGROUND The importance of the tourism system for economic development in Oman has been clearly acknowledged in the development strategies and plans. Despite the recognition of the potential significance of the tourism system for economic development there have been few detailed and comprehensive studies of the structure, dynamics and potential opportunities of tourism development. Moreover, the research that has appeared tends to be extremely narrow in sectored and/or spatial focus. This in turn renders it unhelpful in terms of a more general understanding the trends and the need of the strategic approach for tourism management in Oman. In the context of such limitations and in particular the lack of detailed research covering the tourism sector as a whole, strategic management of tourism is difficult to undertake.

Purpose of the Project •

•

To gather relevant data to understand the trends and dynamics of the tourism economy in Oman and the challenges that confront it. To provide the basis for an action plan and a set of strategic development interventions to assist tourism service providers, and to maximise the impact of tourism development.

lenges those confront it and then to provide the basis for an action plan, and a set of strategic development interventions, to assist tourism service providers, and to maximize the impact of tourism development within Oman.

Questions for Investigation and Research Approach The research questions to be addressed here are directly related to the above objectives. The research approach and research outputs relate to the core questions of the investigation and the research approach begins from the basis that at the national level a growing body of research has been undertaken on the general issues concerning tourism development in Oman. The research approach that is used involved several stages of analysis: •

•

•

Objectives: 1. Understand the trends and effectiveness of government policy, 2. Identify impact on growth of related business. 3. Gaps in implementation of tourism policy

•

First an outline of the importance of tourism as an economic activity in Oman is provided. Second, the current policy frameworks that guide tourism development in Oman are analysed and a review of the domestic tourism structure is made. Third, a detailed description and analysis of current tourism trends, with specific attention to international and domestic tourism is considered, a macro-analysis and profile of the tourism economy in Oman is made and an analysis is given of the key features of the most important role-players in the Oman tourism system. Fourthly, the fallout of tourism development – namely need of trained manpower leading to creation of educational institutions thereby facilitating the national objective of Omanisation is also discussed.

The core objectives of the research are first, to gather relevant data to understand the trends and dynamics of the tourism of Oman and the chal-

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Data Sources and Methodology

INTRODUCTION

As compared to other economic sectors, such as agriculture, manufacturing or mining for which there is considerable official data at the national level, the tourism sector is distinguished by the poor state of official data collection. It is, therefore, not surprising that there is minimal official information upon which to provide a macro-analysis of the tourism sector. Given this context the first major task of this investigation was to collect and compile relevant data. This information was collected from the information offices of the local authorities and Tourism’s web-directories. It has to be noted that the methodology used might have led to certain tourism information or data being over-looked. On the other hand, however, the methodology works on the same basic search behaviour of potential tourists and tourism sector. This data was augmented with survey material collected during March and April 2009. This chapter also examines how many regions/ communities have been able to improve their tourism levels effectively in recent years. It particularly focuses on the Oman (GCC countries) strategy for tourism in the past few years and how it has accomplished its goals. It analyzes their strategic plan according to the insights and trends identified in a critical review of the peer-reviewed and scholarly literature. The further analysis presented is based on informal discussions with tourism officials and tourism product providers/enterprises. In terms of the tourism enterprises the focus of the discussions was upon the organization, development and problems of tourism enterprises operating in all spheres of the provincial tourism economy. In doing so, a deliberate attempt has been made to get as many views as possible so as to capture as wide a range of opinions as possible on core issues surrounding the tourism sector.

The Sultanate of Oman occupies the south eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula - 300,000 sq. km possessing about 1,700 km of coastline having most diverse landscape including fjord-like rugged mountains in the far north, magnificent tracts of desert and a lush south possessing rich variety of flora and fauna together with panoramic beauty of mountain ranges. Evidence of a glorious ancient past is spread all over the country boasting more than 500 forts, castles, and towers. The varied geography makes for a wide range of climatic conditions. The best time of the year to visit Oman is between October and April, when the weather is pleasant, warm in the day and cool in the evening. The average temperature is 25-35 degree C during the day which plummets to 17-19degree C. Oman enjoys many unique features of rich culture and traditional lifestyle in almost every aspect. People are friendly and offer incomparable hospitality. Historically, Oman is a seafaring nation. Prior to discovery of oil in 1967, the country’s economy was based mainly on agriculture and fishing. Oil production has significantly changed the economic and social characteristics of the country and provided the resources for rapid economic development and rise in the people’s income levels, especially since His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said took over the throne in 1970. Omanis are followers of Islam and tolerant with a great sense of humour. Oman is a safe, inexpensive country in which to travel to, with much to see and a lot to experience (McQuillan, 2001). In contrast to many other countries in the region, an important feature of Oman for continuing its development of international trade including tourism is its tolerance of foreigners, religions and lifestyles, social beliefs, customs, and its traditional Arabic flavour. Two of the slogans used in promoting Oman are ‘The Essence of Arabia’ and ‘bring a friend to Oman’. The slogans refer to the nature of the Omani people and promising the visitors that they will experience something

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unique and different. Oman has been identified by a leading travel magazine ‘Conde Naste Traveller’ as one of the ten best countries in the world for tourism. Tourism Industry is relatively new to Oman. A lot of new tourism and hospitality projects are coming up throughout the country. This has enhanced the employment opportunities in the industry. However, the awareness among the Omani public has to improve to consider a career in the tourism industry.

COUNTRY PROFILE OF OMAN The Sultanate of Oman is located on the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula and has an area of approximately 309,5002 km. It is bordered on the west by Saudi Arabia, to the northwest lie the United Arab Emirates and to the southwest is Yemen. The east coast meets with the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman. In the south of the Sultanate is Salalah, the administrative capital of the Dhofar region. The capital of Oman is Muscat, a cosmopolitan, but relaxed city, free from the hustle and bustle found in many of other capital cities in the gulf. Oman is a surprisingly a green country, particularly in Dhofar, due to its location on the monsoon paths. Landscaping and beautification are priorities of the municipalities, and gardens, parks and grassy knolls line the main highway. The countryside is varied, from rugged mountain ranges to desert sands, to green and, lush wadis (riverbeds). The climate in Muscat is markedly different from that in Dhofar: during the winter, Muscat enjoys temperatures of, average, 30 Degrees Celsius, and dropping to around 18 Celsius at night. However, in the summer, Muscat bakes in 45-48 degree Celsius, while Dhofar cools down in the light monsoon rain. The Omani people are friendly and welcoming to visitors. Although Arabic is their main language, English is spoken frequently and is often used as the lingua franca. Despite their relaxed air, the Omanis are quite conservative people and respect

their privacy and, in particular, their religion should always be observed. Modesty is the keyword in how to dress. Women should wear loose, long garments, ensuring that their shoulders and knees are covered. Men should wear long trousers and tops with sleeves. Swimming costumes are fine for the beach or the pool. During the holy month of Ramadan, all Muslims fast during the hours of daylight. Visitors to the country should remember that eating, drinking and smoking is not allowed in public at this time. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said is Oman’s ruler. He acceded to the throne in 1970 and in the span of 34 years has transformed the country into one, which boasts of modern and advanced healthcare systems, education, telecommunications networks and a stable economy. Although the Sultan has ultimate power in governing the country, various ministries perform the daily administration of the land. The Sultan is a well-respected leader, both at home and in the international arena. In recognition of his role in Middle East peace keeping, the National Council on US-Arab Relations presented him with the International Peace Award in 1988.

Culture The majority of Omanis are Ibadi Muslims, followers of Abd Allah ibn Ibad. Around 25% are Sunni Muslims and live primarily in Sur and the surrounding area and in Dhofar. The Shia minority lives along the Al Batinah coast in the Muscat-Matrah region. Ibadism is an outgrowth of the Kharijite movement, a variant form of Islam practiced by descendants of a sect that seceded from the principal Muslim body after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632. Adherence to Ibadism accounts in part for Oman’s historical isolation. The research showed that the differences in regions of Oman represent a challenge for policymakers seeking to introduce sustainable tourism development initiatives into a potentially fragile

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and sensitive cultural environment. However, the Oman Tourism Strategic Plan is comprehensive and ambitious initiative designed to provide all regions with a wide range of developmental programs that can serve to promote employment and living standards for the large percentage of indigenous people living there. The research also showed, though, that such development initiatives must be approached thoughtfully to avoid harming the very things about a particular region that make it attractive to niche travelers in the first place, and this is especially the case with the people of the Oman today.

Tourism and GDP The development of tourism has become one of the key objectives of Omani development planning, as it is particularly suited to creating jobs for young Omanis. Oman’s development plan concerning tourism is focused on attracting foreign investment in projects such as hotels, golf courses, and theme parks. This industry offers a variety of employment opportunities for a rapidly expanding Omani workforce, but is dependent on developing education and training institutions to support growth (MOM). The current limit on tourists is set at 50,000 a year, but the government plans to expand that number to 100,000 in ten years, and 728,000 by 2020 which can be accomplished through easing of visa rules. All of these must be accomplished while balancing Oman’s delicate environment as only 1% of Oman’s land is under cultivation and hence resources such as water and land must be used wisely. The tourism sector in Oman is solely managed by the government. The newly established Ministry of Tourism has been entrusted with four key objectives aiming to: •

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Increase the tourism sector contribution to the GDP from current 0.8% to about 5% by the year 2020.

•

•

Increase the level of employment of Omani nationals in the sector from current 37% to 90% by the year 2010. Increase average annual growth rate of income from tourism by about 7% for the period 2005-2010, and be responsible for the promotion and marketing of Oman as a tourist destination.

Tourism Development Plans The government’s detailed master plan, called the Tourism Priority Action Plan, identifies integrated tourism development projects for five regions in Oman together with a marketing programme for each of these regions, which will present a new, clear and distinct national brand, ‘Oman - The Essence of Arabia’ (MOT). The focus will be on eco-tourism, sun, sea and sand facilities, cultural and heritage attractions, adventure tourism, coastal resorts and leisure retreat resorts. Plans to establish an alternative destination different from the commercial throng of Dubai on the Gulf tourism map are considered to offer quality tourism to both GCC and nationals of farther countries with more sedate and culturally-enriched experience (MOT). The Interior regions also boast many historic structures perhaps the best known is in the city of Bahla whose fort is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Other cities in the interior such as Nizwa, Salalah, and Barka each are also distinct for their traditional industries such as Jewellery,

Tourism Development Strategy The government of Oman has developed a strategy to create national economy based on increasing private enterprise. The strategy is based on using its oil revenues (which are small by Middle Eastern standards) to finance its initial modernization of basic infrastructure and education. All of this was overseen by a Development Council which is currently in its Fifth Five Year Development Plan. Development has been focused on three

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

areas, the first is basic industry mainly in the mineral sector in which Oman has rich deposits of gold, copper, chromites, asbestos, manganese, gypsum, limestone, marble, and coal, the second area is agriculture and fishing and the third sector is tourism. (MONE) Oman’s development plan concerning tourism is focused on attracting foreign investment in projects such as hotels, golf courses, and theme parks. This industry would offer a variety of employment opportunities for the rapidly expanding Omani workforce who is dependent on developing education and training institutions to support growth. The visa restrictions on tourists were eased starting in 1987 as the Omani government has sought to slowly expand tourist numbers as infrastructure and facilities are expanded to meet increased demand. The current limit on tourists is set at 50,000 a year and the government plans to increase this number to 100.000 in ten years, and to 728,000 by 2020.

Oman’s Hospitality Industry on the Move The tourism sector had plenty to celebrate in recent years. Hoteliers enjoyed strong profitability in 2007 with remarkable increase in the number of GCC business travelers, European leisure guests and Meeting Incentive Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) business. With a number of five star resorts opening up in Oman, there is no doubt this is designed to encourage further development of the tourism sector. With highest occupancy rates ever the trend is going to gather momentum in subsequent years. Oman can boast 10, 000 hotel rooms with 1,500 at five-star level, all of which are in Muscat, (Appendix 1). The fast-expanding portfolio of hotels and hotel apartments posted very encouraging performance in the past two years. The occupancy rates in all the hotels are continuously on the rise as a result of new tourism projects and expected to reach occupancy of 100 per cent. Apart from

these hotels there are budget hotels, apartment hotels, camps, youth hostels and guest houses throughout the country.

Demand and Supply As predicted by the Ministry of Tourism, there is shortage of 1000 rooms. This shortfall in the rooms will be met by the upcoming new hospitality projects in the country. There is also a lot of demand in the aviation sector as the national carrier Oman Air started new international routes and permitted other international airlines to operate. This can be seen by the expansion of the Muscat international airport. The ministry of civil aviation and transport is planning to open new airports in the industrial city of Sohar, tourist wilayt of Ras-al-Hadd. A large number of cruise liners call on Sultan Qaboos port in Muscat and in the port of Salalah. During the current season, it is expected that 40 to 45 ships with about 25,000 tourists would be visiting the Sultanate. Hence, there is requirement for local transport, meal on land in the leading hotels or restaurants. According to World Tourism Report (2002) the tourism sector has: • • •

•

Accounted for 10.6 percent of world GDP Employer of 200 million people or 7.8 percent of global work force Travel and tourism will support the creation of more than 5.5 million jobs per year during the 2000s Leading producer of tax revenues.

Tourism in Oman From the above we can see the vast potential in the international tourism industry, and in Oman also there is lot of scope to rise to the international levels. Apart from these, especially during certain periods like the Khareef season in Salalah it is difficult to get accommodation and to meet out this

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demand there are a lot of new upcoming projects there. How planned development of tourism is promoted by the ministry of tourism? What are the special categorized tourism activities unique to Oman and how tourism is likely to be Oman’s largest industry from the point of - both employment and revenue generation? “Few people really understand tourism, but that does not seem to stop them from commenting on it and telling willing audiences how tourism should work. Indeed, tourism is one of those activities that produce an inordinate number of instant experts who confuse emotions and feelings with fact.” (McKercher and Du Cros, 2002) Tracing the evolution of tourism and hospitality industry, one can clearly see that it was started on a very small scale. Most hospitality establishments like inns, motels, restaurants etc, were entirely managed by family members. This is how one of the world’s largest industries today had a humble beginning. In olden days the number of people travelled was less, due the affordability of travel which was once considered as a luxury and it was only for the people of high society. After the industrial revolution the life style changed in Europe and it spread to rest of the world. Then when transportation developed it became more convenient and easier for people to travel both long and short distances thereby creating more tourists as the number of people travelling increased tremendously. Then with stress levels increasing due to pressured jobs, touring and travelling became a leisure seeking activity and the volume of business saw an exponential growth. This compelled and brought about the change in the operations of the tourism and hospitality industry, the resultant being professionalism of tourism sector - the need for professional approach in managing the industry. This has had a snow ball effect of demand for the new discipline of studies in the area of tourism and hospitality world wide. Today, travel and tourism has become part of the people’s regular activity,

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for the economies world wide the sector generates not only revenues but is also a great provider of employment. Approximately 77 million people are employed in the industry worldwide (Allan Collier). Oman with many unique features of rich culture and traditional lifestyle in almost every aspect, and people being friendly who offer incomparable hospitality, is also rightly eying the tourism development as a means for economic development. Omanis are followers of Islam and tolerant with a great sense of humor. Oman is a safe, inexpensive country in which to travel to, with much to see and a lot to experience (McQuillan, 2001). In contrast to many other countries in the region, an important feature of Oman for continuing its development of international trade including tourism is its tolerance of foreigners, religions and lifestyles, social beliefs, customs, and its traditional Arabic flavour. Two of the slogans used in promoting Oman are ‘The Essence of Arabia’ and ‘bring a friend to Oman’. The slogans refer to the nature of the Omani people and promising the visitors that they will experience something unique and different. Oman has been identified by a leading travel magazine ‘Conde Nast Traveller’ as one of the ten best countries in the world for tourism yet tourism as an industry is relatively new to Oman. A lot of new tourism and hospitality projects are coming up throughout the country. This has enhanced the employment opportunities in the industry. However, the locals lack awareness and this need to be improved. Before highlighting clearly as to what are the current trends, some discussion of “how tourism works” needs be to be embarked upon. Next few paragraphs highlight what the key characteristics of tourism are, how it is that attractions drive tourism, and that there are a number of factors that impact upon visitation levels.

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM IN OMAN Tourism is a commercial activity: Businesses enter the tourism sector to profit from those who travel. States and provinces advance tourism because it generates new money for their jurisdictions. Whilst the tourist travels to satisfy inner needs such as escape, rest, recreation, status, or learning, the product providers aim at profits. Tourism is unique in that the bulk of revenue is generated by facilitators of experiences rather than by experience providers. The tourism industry enables tourists to ‘consume’ experiences, but does not necessarily provide the experiences themselves. Indeed, only a small fraction of the cost of a tour is spent at what can be termed designated attractions; the rest is spent on transport, accommodation, food, drink, tips, sightseeing and commissions to the travel trade. Yet, it is the attractions that draw tourists to a region in the first place, enabling the rest of the benefits to accrue. Tourism involves the consumption of experiences: Tourists satisfy their personal needs by experiencing enjoyable activities – tourism is thus a form of consumption. Unlike most other economic activities that enjoy a virtually exclusive hegemony over the use or consumption of their resources, tourism resources are typically part of the public domain or are intrinsically linked to the social fabric of the host community. Tourism is entertainment: Tourism experiences, especially the culturally - or event-centered variety, have their bases in entertainment. To be successful, and therefore commercially viable, the tourism product must be manipulated and packaged in such a way that it can be easily accessed by the public. Tight tour schedules, limited ‘time budgets’ and the need to process large numbers of visitors mean that the product must often be regulated to match fixed ‘consumption times’ in order for the experience to be a guaranteed one. Clearly the experiences may incorporate an element of didacticism, but their primary role is to

entertain. Even museums and art galleries whose ostensible rationale is to provide education and cultural enlightenment have recognized that they are de facto in the entertainment business and have arranged their displays accordingly. The reason is that only a small number of tourists are really in search of learning. Most are travelling for pleasure, or to satisfy escapist impulses, reasons, and therefore wish to enjoy. Some account for this phenomenon as being a manifestation of the modern consumerist lifestyle; tourism is an end in itself and not, in the first instance, a means to any loftier goal. Tourism has both positive and negative effects: One of the great myths promoted by sector tourism agencies and NGOs is that by controlling supply, the adverse impacts of tourism can be controlled. Although this may be true at an operational level where undesirable elements can be refused entry or forcibly removed, the global history of rampant tourism development, even under a supply-driven approach, illustrates that this policy rarely works on a regional or national basis. “The great challenge for any destination is to control the genie of tourism once it is let out of its bottle.” The history of spontaneous development and the resultant social and environmental costs associated with it attest to the challenge faced by any destination that seeks to promote tourism. The best that governments can do is hope to influence the direction tourism will take. Tourism is a demand-driven activity that is difficult to control: Tourism is fundamentally a demand-driven activity that is influenced more by market forces (tourists and the industry that seeks to satisfy tourists’ needs), rather than by governments that try to control or manage it. Tourism, tourists and the industry itself behave in a manner similar to a bottom-up, self-organizing, living ecosystem that cannot be controlled using traditional supply systems. Further, it has been the experience of many researchers that advocates of supply-side controlled tourism are often elitist in their attitudes. They assert that encouraging the

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‘right type’ of development will attract the ‘right type’ of provider, which will appeal to the ‘right’ travel distributor who will reach the ‘right type’ of tourist. This person is usually posited as an affluent experienced traveller who is aware of and sensitive to local culture, its heritage and natural ecosystems, and who will want to stay in local accommodation, eat locally produced food, and be content with very basic facilities – all this while paying high tariffs. The problem is that this type of person represents only a tiny portion of the travelling public. How does one satisfy the needs of the vast majority of tourists, those who do not fit this ideal description? They are not going to stop travelling: they will continue to make demands for affordable services and facilities.

Factors Influencing Visitation Levels Access and proximity dictate the potential number of visitors: Demand for tourism products are influenced by a range of factors, including ‘distance decay’, market access, and time availability. The distance decay theory suggests that demand for tourist attractions varies inversely with distance travelled; that is, demand declines exponentially as distance increases. Similarly, market access states that demand is influenced by the number of similar, competing products or destinations available between the tourist’s home base and the prospective product or destination. Time availability has been shown to accentuate or minimize the effect of market access and distance decay. The proximity of an attraction to a large population base, a major tourist destination, or a gateway will influence its potential visitation and consequently how the asset is to be used. Demand influences the revenue generation potential for the asset, which should, in turn, have a bearing on the levels of development and investment. The basic rule of thumb is that attractions that are located close to large populations or tourist centres will

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attract significantly larger numbers of visitors than more distant attractions. Time availability influences the quality and depth of experiences sought: Most tourists are travelling on finite time budgets, with many having their time strictly controlled by tour operators, or personal commitments. They have only a limited amount of time available at any one destination and, being rational consumers, will choose to spend that time in the most cost-effective manner. As such, many tourists will seek to consume as many experiences as possible during their stay and will show a predilection for those activities that can be consumed quickly and effortlessly, and where they feel their experience is a guaranteed one. Especially when cultural tourism participation is an incidental aspect of a trip, the amount of time a tourist is willing to allocate to relate experiences will hinge on the amount of discretionary time available and the number of competing uses for that time. Those experiences that entail large chunks of time will tend to be avoided if an attractive alternative exists. It has to be kept in mind that in tourism terms, large blocks of time are reckoned in hours, and not days. A useful way of looking at time budgets, proximity and their implications for the type of leisure tourism people are willing to engage in, is given by Strydom (1994) in Table 1.

Strategic Context His Majesty’s Vision of Tourism in Oman: The tourism industry is well qualified to offer career opportunities to Omanis. It is well capable of serving the aims of regional development, since its benefits will cover all regions. On this basis we should prepare a new strategy to develop this sector so it can stand on its own feet in a severely competitive, flexible and diversified international market.” (Speech of his Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said - 29th National Day)

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

Table 1. Time-budgets and travel distances Free Time

Travel Distance

One day

30-80 km

Weekend

160-250 km

Short holiday (less than two weeks)

640-1000 km

Long holiday (more than two weeks)

1600 km

• • • •

Source: Strydom (1994)

• Recent government policy stresses the potential contribution of the sector to the Oman economy: “Tourism and the whole of the hospitality industry, together, hold out the prospect of phenomenal growth, both in the number of people employed and in the massive financial investment which can be attracted”. The Ministry of Tourism also recognizes tourism as a key part of developing the Oman economy. As per Ministry of National Economy, the tourism industry is to generate 5% of GDP by 2020, compared to 1% in 2000. The Development Strategy hence must recognize the country and regions as a major tourism development opportunity and policy should be directed to: “To realize the potential contribution of tourism and leisure to the economy, building the role of this region both as a tourism destination in its own right and also as the regional hub and gateway to middle east”. The strategy must also “promote Oman as a major tourism destination and gateway based on the international attraction of its deserts, wadis and heritage resource”

Where Are They Now? Review of the performance of the tourism sector in Oman country reveals that: •

•

So far Oman has performed credibly well as a tourism destination in the past five years as reflected by the baseline indicators: Tourism spend has increased.

Number of Visitors increased. Direct and indirect employment in tourism industry increased. Accommodation/hotel rooms increased. There is significant potential within the city and its sub-regional hinterland which is partly being met, but which can be developed much further. The investment record in the past decade has been substantial and continues to be at a high level especially from the private sector.

The strategic weaknesses tend to lie in the broad areas of image, marketing, management and presentation, all of which can be addressed effectively. A SWOT analysis is prepared in detail for the Tourism Sector (Appendix 2). If Oman does not want to miss the opportunity and encash the potential of growth in tourism industry world wide then the tourism vision should be to: Create a vibrant international country in an attractive environment, embracing also a vibrant sea, rugged mountains and rural area, all with a welcoming user-friendly tourism infrastructure. This vision embraces that of an historic nation with an acknowledged world status; of a cultured city noted for its hospitality, performing arts and of a key tourism centre essential to the exploration of and experience of the Middle East. The primary appeal of Oman will be based on its historic essence and on its key location. The discerning domestic and overseas tourist will find it essential to have visited the area and experience the developing quality tourism products. A wellmanaged environment both urban and rural will be coupled with a variety of new and refreshed products, delivered by enthusiastic and welltrained staff and giving good value for money.

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How to Get There? The guiding principles for the development of the strategy and the future management of the industry’s development are widely accepted and based on the following core beliefs: Sustainable Tourism. The worldwide acceptance of this concept is an essential principle of all future tourism development. The future management of natural, man-made and human assets is critically important for the long-term sustainability of any tourism industry in general and Oman in particular. Developments which adversely impact the environment, which are shortterm, high volume, and opportunistic in nature should be avoided. Key aspects of a sustainable tourism policy include land use; management of the physical environment; conservation of natural and cultural heritage sites; development of market led products; and investment in human resources. Profitability. The tourism industry in Oman has had poor investment returns for many years and only in the past decade – particularly the latter half – has there been a welcome rise in profitability. Businesses must derive an adequate profit to ensure continued expansion through investment. Profitability needs to be improved through increased utilization of the assets within the sector – for example increased occupancy rates of accommodation providers or more visitors through an attraction. Profitability can be assisted through the introduction of greater efficiencies – for example co-operative marketing, or through ensuring that increases in volume sales are not achieved on low price competition strategies. Selective Investment. Future investment strategies will need to be highly selective and clearly targeted. In an area where there has been substantial investment by both the public and private sector and where there is currently more taking place, care must be exercised in the direction and scope of what is to follow. So too is the issue of comparison with investment priorities across the Border where differing regimes may be in place

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and where duplication of effort is possible. Identifying clear market gaps is essential. Targeted Marketing. It must be stated that this has to be a clear guiding principle, although it is necessary to point out that this principle is demonstrably already in place. However, complacency should be avoided especially as fast changing delivery mechanisms become the norm, through the continual change in IT capabilities. The choice of markets, products and segments for the future must not be assumed to be as it is today. A continuous review process is necessary to determine the appropriateness of the products in the area and the type of tourism sought. The rate of change elsewhere may render a product obsolete much more quickly than the provider thinks. An outward looking industry well informed of trends and new products is essential for future success. Public Private Sector Partnership. It is generally recognized in the tourism world that successful destinations are those where a partnership has been built up between the public and private sectors. Partnership may however need to extend beyond marketing and into strategic planning / development issues. It may also need to develop a more effective two way process to ensure that the balance of risk does not seem to lie disproportionately on any side – public or private.

Principles into Action To achieve a substantial and sustainable increase in tourism revenue while reflecting the five guiding principles, there is a need to take strategic action in four key areas. They are: 1. Product development. To ensure the continued development of the range of ‘attractors’ within the area and provide new ‘things to do’ for the visitor. Much of the effort in this will be focused into improving the existing attractions to make them accessible and to fulfill their tourism role as magnets for the

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

area. Some accommodation work will also be required. 2. Marketing. To continue to develop the destination marketing capacity and other support agencies to ensure that best practice continues, while implementing changes that an All Oman approach may require. Beyond destination marketing lies the need for the existing attractions to devote the appropriate effort and budget to undertaking their own marketing role. 3. Quality assurance. To ensure that the quality of the product delivered lives up to the expectations of the visitor. In a world that is so competitive for tourism this becomes increasingly important. This is true of the public, private and voluntary sectors and embraces issues ranging from signposting, to litter, to unhelpful staff and to opening hours. This is an important issue in the delivery of tourism growth in a sub-region surrounded by high quality competition. 4. Management and co-ordination. Though the achievements of the Ministry of Tourism have been notable and substantial, there is however a gap in the tourism delivery mechanism, in that the development role in tourism must be addressed. The links with other agencies and new departments are now more complex than ever and therefore co-ordination for tourism must be given a higher priority and resource.

OMAN: TOURISM TRENDS (POTENTIAL) World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecasts Oman’s Travel & Tourism Economy GDP to reach OMR 2,265 million by 2018, contributing to 11.1% of National Accounts and demand would witness 5% real growth (annualized) over the years 2009-18.

Thus what is the tourism potential – emerging trends which will contribute to the development strategy in the light of the current tourism system needs to be understood.. This part highlights what draws tourists, to which areas they are so drawn, and the types of tourism products that might most productively aid the development of the tourism in Oman.

Food Availability Everything required for an international tourist is available here. The social life is good for all religions. Food of variety including leading international fast food chain of restaurants, coffee shops namely, MacDonald’s, K.F.C, Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, Hardee, Chili’s, Altazaj, Star Bucks, and Costa’s is available as these international brands have their outlets throughout Oman. Halal meat and all variety of fish are available. In addition, quality vegetarian food is also available throughout the country.

Special Categorized Tourism Activities 1. Adventure Tourism ◦◦ Cave Exploration, Cave Jumping. Oman offers some of the most hairraising cave exploration in the world for experienced and fit cavers. One of the most famous caves is the ‘Majlis Al-Jinn’; the second largest underground chamber in the world. This is an extremely difficult cave to negotiate, and it is important that the expedition is not undertaken lightly and without professional guidance. A popular cave for the less intrepid is Al Hoota Cave which comprises an underground cavern and subterranean lake system. Many caves in Oman are, essentially, underground wadis.

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Diving- Scuba Diving, Snorkeling. With 1700 Km of coastline, and clean, unpolluted waters, Oman is one of the best in the diving world. The waters of Oman represent an underwater paradise for diving and snorkeling with its wide variety of marine flora and fauna. Oman has good sea conditions with an average visibility of 20-30 meters. There are many superb dive sites around the capital area, including Cemetery Bay, Fahal Island and Dimaniyyat Islands. The sea-life is abundant regardless of chosen site with a variety of hard and soft corals present and shoals of spectacular fish everywhere. The Gulf of Oman provides for excellent tropical Coral Sea diving and is home to 85 genera of hard and soft corals and 900 species of fish. Night dives are popular due phosphorescence in Oman’s waters. Wahiba Sands. The Wahiba Sands, a romantic desert with rolling sand dunes, varying from deep red to a rich honey color, is stretching to a very vast area in this region. It is the traditional home of the hardy Bedouin community who survive in these harsh desert conditions and moving sands? The moving sands can be promoted as a tourist attraction. Canyoning. Canyons in Oman include some abscaling, scrambling over and around rocks. There are small 20 meter drops to long hundred meter multi - pitch drops as in the Majlis Al Jinn Cave. Some of the wadis have pools. The tourists who seek adventurism can undertake canyoning. The Snake Gorge. The Snake Gorge walk actually entails three kilometers of walking, wading through pools, swimming, and scrambling

over boulders in the gorge between two cliffs, to eventually come out at Al-Zamman. . The only light in this cave is that coming from the mouth of the cave. Indeed, the whole journey is both a physical and a mental challenge and thus, should not be taken lightly. It’s like a roller coaster ride, or like white water rafting — without the raft. One will never know what to expect. Once the walk is completed, one feels a sense of achievement. Physical fitness does not have to be a prerequisite for crossing the gorge. ◦◦ Mountain Biking in Oman. Travel deep into the Hajar Mountains on remote trails through traditional Omani villages where the locals show true Omani hospitality and provide a welcome resting place with platters of fresh fruit grown on the green plateaus of the mountain range which reaches some 3000m. Stunning single track, challenging terrain, beautiful scenery and seldom visited villages, that’s what this holiday is all about. This is pure Omani mountain biking at its very best. 2. Health and Sports ◦◦ Rock Climbing. There are many craggy mountains and steep sea cliffs in Oman to tempt the rock-climber. The Sultanate provides everything to an interested climber: from sports climbing and rigging to multi pitch routes –bolted or traditional– where the rocks are high as 250 M. ◦◦ Trekking. Above 1,900 m altitude trekking is possible all year round; however, the season is generally from September to May with peak period being October to April. The countryside is mostly rugged and the trails are loose, but trekking is by far the

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

best way to enjoy Oman’s spectacular mountain-landscape. ◦◦ Bull Fighting. In the bull fighting arena at the Fort of Barka, bloodless bull fight takes place. Bulls of similar size pitted against each other in a boisterous battle. The fight is fairly short, but enthusiastically received by the audience, and the bulls suffer little or no injury, unlike in Spanish bull fighting. Generally, they are held on holidays and celebration days, either early in the morning, or late afternoon, when it is cooler. The popularity of the bullfighting sport has increased in recent years which can attract the tourists. ◦◦ Camel Racing. The camel is a vital part of the fabric of Omani Society, for it represents a deeply appreciated and highly valued tradition, which justifies the high appraisal of camel racing in this part of the world. Camel races are held at tracks in almost all country regions. The races are generally held on public holidays and during the annual National Day celebrations. Camels are carefully bred for racing and undergo intensive training in order to compete at national and international levels. ◦◦ Game Fishing. The Gulf of Oman is rich in marine life including Marlin, Sailfish, Yellow fin Tuna and Dorado. Those who are interested in game fishing can really enjoy it here. Sindbad classic international competition is held every year at Muscat. This year winners were from Sidab fishing Community. 3. Leisure ◦◦ Desert Safari. The immense desert landscape of Oman is welcoming the tourists and locals alike to explore. From the dunes of Sharqiyah

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(Wahiba) Sands in A’Sharqiya Region to the Omani section of the massive plains of Al-Rub’a Al-Khali (Empty Quarter) in Dhofar; by 4WD or on camels. Camel Safari is a new service in Oman. Safaris go Bedouin style, riding and living in the desert properly with guides. Dolphin & Whale Watching. Dolphins are popular in Oman’s coastal water and whales are occasionally seen. Fahal Island is a good site to spot Dolphins in hundreds roaming around or following the tuna. Spinner, Common and some Bottlenose dolphins are the main types.

Travel and tourism is emerging as one of the main pillars of the Omani economy, and hence of the Omani government’s seventh 5-year plan (2006-2010). With regard to tourism, Oman’s Vision 2020 revolves around five areas of focus establishing Oman as a regional travel and tourism hub, increasing the contribution of the industry to GDP to not less than 3%, increasing the participation of the private sector and activating its role in the development of various tourism activities, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and increasing the ‘Omanisation’ percentage of the industry to 80%. On a regional front, the Middle East’s investment in travel and tourism is expected to skyrocket over the forecast period, as at least US$1 trillion is to be injected into hotels, resorts, attractions and associated infrastructure between 2007 and 2020. Oman holds a considerable share of this capital injection, as HM Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the Omani government has allocated an appropriate budget to take the sultanate’s tourism objectives forward. The government’s budgetary efforts were further complemented with the amending of a number of laws and regulations to attract FDI into the vibrant travel and tourism industry, where all such efforts are part of Vision 2020.

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With the motto ‘Tourism Enriches’ in place, Oman is moving forward with its seventh 5-year plan and Vision 2020 with a strong focus on the fledgling travel and tourism industry. The government’s focus on travel and tourism is driven by the objective to diversify its sources of income, taking into consideration the economy’s over-dependence on oil and gas. With full government backing, a recently established Ministry of Tourism, with effective marketing and promotional campaigns overseas, and an attractive FDI environment, the Omani travel and tourism industry is reaching new heights. The most recent emerging trends in tourism are:

Cruise Control

Luxury Travel

RECOMMENDATIONS

Luxury travel is emerging as a major segment in Omani tourism, and in light of the developments underway, the greatest focus will likely be on the country’s resort accommodation. The sultanate’s resorts cater for almost every luxury need, ranging from small hotels to large facilities. The industry’s up market resort segment will most likely continue to be shaped by two distinct types of experience - the boutique resort and the fully-fledged hotel.

From the above, it is clear that there is ample scope for development of sustainable tourism and related industries in Oman. The growth in the Tourism and Hospitality industries has been good in the past few years since Oman is an attractive tourist destination apart from being very safe for tourists. However, to accelerate the expansion and provide further impetus to tourism sector the following are the recommendations:

Cleared for Take off

1. Increase the awareness among the citizens regarding the tourism sector, the difference between services and servitude, respect for tourism professionals, especially in interior places. 2. Develop basic infrastructure and amenities in the tourist spots, proper location maps and road pointers including road signs need to be there on highways and junctions to facilitate travellers. 3. Good and decent restaurants of varying price range to cater to all classes of tourists serving authentic Omani food need to be developed. 4. Expose youth to tourism aspects at schools so that they can seek career opportunities in Tourism and Hospitality sector in future.

With the government fully backing the carrier’s expansion plans, Oman Air is heading towards a complete makeover during the forecast period. The major catalyst at Oman Air in 2007 was the government’s move to re-capitalize the airline by injecting OR37 million, thus taking its stake in the airline from 33.8% to 81% and providing the much-needed funds to pursue the airline’s expansion strategy. This move was followed by further developments across the board like pulling out as a shareholder from Gulf Air, extending long-haul flights to Europe and Asia, working on an extensive re-branding exercise and setting a new benchmark in service and comfort with its new aircraft.

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The cruise line category is picking up again and has been developing strongly in recent years, in spite of the complete drop off in 2003, largely due to the war in Iraq. The sultanate’s virgin cruise category has been the focus of world-leading cruise lines that started adding Oman to their schedules. This list includes Silversea, Costa Crociere, P&O Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Oceania Cruises, and others. As for domestic tourism, various dhow excursions are available from Salalah to the Musandam Peninsula.

Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

5. The Omani youth should be encouraged to learn more foreign languages especially English, German and French etc so that they can be professional tour guides, with good communication skills. The support sectors like local transport, foreign exchange facilities, tourist guidance centres etc should also be well developed otherwise these will have a negative impact on tourism sector if the quality of support service is not maintained. Oman has great opportunity and vast potential to be a prime tourist destination, a development that would significantly grow the emerging economy. To date, though, the tourist potential is largely untapped and hampered by improper focus and lack of planning. But there is movement afoot to change this situation. Oman should set out to aggressively and strategically promote the nation‘s riches in cultural attractions through various communications mediums reaching external audiences (strategic marketing). Moreover, because the population in certain nations or regions will have greater affinity or interest in travelling to Oman - for various reasons - the strategic marketing efforts should focus particularly on reaching these markets (international and regional markets promotion). If long-term tourism policy is to be successful, there is a need to re think. A more strategic approach for tourism development is required and building large five-star establishments on the beachfront, owned by large foreign corporations is not the way forward. The investments in tourism should come from within. The government has the opportunity to team up with the banks and help finance and underwrite smaller and locally driven tourism projects. Hence, in my view, the smaller projects will have a less destructive impact on our environment and will also spread the benefits of tourism to all parts of the country thus giving rise to a local supply and demand chain, a vital ingredient for job creation and also help to achieve the goal of Omanisation.

CONCLUSION The tourism industry in Oman is comparatively new and a relatively small part of the total economy but has been growing quite rapidly. The majority of tourists arrives in Oman from other GCC countries and therefore has reason to think it will be impacted less by the global financial crisis than most other destinations. According to H.E, Rajha Abdulamir, Oman’s Tourism Minister, foreign investors have given assurances to push on with tourism projects in Oman despite the global credit turmoil. All foreign investors, who are building resorts or planning to do so, have pledged to continue with their projects as this projects are important in their contribution to the economy and the government is committed to give its support, she added (Newswire Reuters). Oman has allocated around 15 sites for tourism developments it estimates will cost US$20 billion over seven years, as part of plans to lure visitors. Projects include the $400 million Muscat Golf Course, theUS$7 billion Blue City, the US$2 billion Salam Yiti resort by Dubai Holding and the Murya resorts project, planned by a unit of Egypt’s Orascom Development Holding. Oman attracted some 650,000 tourists in 2007, 12 percent more than a year earlier. The goal, set in 2002, is to reach one million visitors in 2009. According to the latest figures, in 2008 tourism accounted for just fewer than 4% of Oman’s GDP. However, the Sultanate plans to target wealthy niche tourists by focusing on cultural, environmental and adventure packages. The government also intends to upgrade tourism infrastructure and increase its overseas advertising, with a particular focus on the EU, the US and Asia. The exploration of a tourism development is dependent upon a number of different inputs. These include the institutional environment in which tourism enterprises function, the profile of the tourists in terms of personal characteristics and associated tourism needs and desires, and tourism products on offer. However, one cannot afford to ignore the impact of tourism

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on hospitality industry which will have a snowball effect for generation employment for locals. This in turn calls for further strengthening tourism education and training. Hence, the tourism sector will need to carefully chalk out its strategy and be adaptable to the demands of the evolving global economy based on the emergent trends.

Cluster Consortium. The. (1999). The South African Tourism Cluster: Strategy in Action. Unpublished report prepared for the Tourism Clustering Initiative, Johannesburg.

WEBSITES

Janiskee, R. L. (1996). Historic houses and special events. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(2), 398–414. doi:10.1016/0160-7383(95)00069-0

Retrieved from www.omaninfo.com/cgi-bin/ journal/ Euromonitor International.(2011). Retrieved from www.euromonitor.com/ Oman Information Center.(n.d.). Retrieved from www.omaninfo.com/ Omagine. (2008). Retrieved from www.omagine. com Ministry of Information. (2010). Retrieved from www.omanet.om Middle East Business and Financial news. (1996). Retrieved from www.ameinfo.com/ Market Research. (1999). Retrieved from www. marketresearch.com

REFERENCES Allan Collier. (2008). Principles of Tourism. New Zealand: Pearson. Briedenhann, J., & Wickens, E. (2004). Tourism routes as a tool for the economic development of rural areas – vibrant hope or impossible dream? Tourism Management, (1): 71–79. doi:10.1016/ S0261-5177(03)00063-3 Chhetri, P., Arrowsmith, C., & Jackson, M. (2004). Determining hiking experiences in nature-based tourist destinations. Tourism Management, 25(1), 31–43. doi:10.1016/S0261-5177(03)00057-8 132

Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). (2004a). Domestic Tourism Growth Strategy 2004 to 2007. Pretoria: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Le Tourisme, N. M. (2003). Tourism communication plan for Oman. Muscat: Ministry of Commerce and Industry. McKercher, B., & Du Cros, H. (2002). Cultural tourism: the partnership between tourism and cultural heritage management. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Hospitality Press. Melian-Gonzalez, A., & Garcia-Falcon, J. M. (2003). Competitive potential of tourism in destinations. Annals of Tourism Research, 30(3), 720–740. doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(03)00047-1 Ministry of Commerce and Industry. (2001). Final priority action plan for tourism development in Oman-deliverable 16. Unpublished report. Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Directorate General of Tourism, Muscat. Ministry of Commerce and Industry. (2004). Annual Report 2003. Muscat: Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Ministry of National Economy. (2001). Development of the economic diversification sectors (Vol. 3). Muscat: Ministry of National Economy. Ministry of National Economy. (2003). Oman: The development experience and investment climate (4th ed.). Muscat: Ministry of National Economy. Ministry of Tourism. (2006). Final national strategy. Unpublished report. Ministry of Tourism, Muscat.

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Rogerson, C. M. (2002). Driving developmental tourism in South Africa. Africa Insight, 32(3), 33–42. Sharpley, R., & Telfer, D. J. (2002). Tourism and development: concepts and issues. Clevedon, UK: Channelview Publications. The Tourism Blueprint. (1997). South Africa’s Free State: A Tourism Blueprint Travel Guide 1997/1998. Cape Town, South Africa: Milnerton.

Urban-Econ. (2004). Free State Economic Profile. Urban-Econ Development Economists, Wilson, S., Fesenmaier, D.R. & Van Es, J.C. (2001). Factors for success in rural tourism development. Journal of Travel Research, 40(November), 132–138. World Tourism Organization. (1980). Physical planning and area development for tourism in the Six WTO regions. Madrid: WTO. World Tourism Organization. (1999). International tourism: A global perspective. Madrid.

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APPENDIX 1 (TABLE 2) Table 2. Hotel star ratings S.No

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Name of the Hotel

Category

Location

Number of Rooms

Al-Bustan Palace

5 Star

Muscat

250

Muscat Inter Continental

5 Star

Qurum Beach

265

Grand Hyatt

5 Star

Qurum Beach

280

Sheraton Oman

5 Star

Ruwi

230

The Cedi Muscat

5 Star

North Ghubra

151

Hilton Shalala

5 Star

Salalah

157

Crownne Plaza Resort

5 Star

Salalah

153

Bar-Al-Jissah Resort and Spa (Shangri-La) Al-Husun,Al-Waha,Al-Bander

5 Star

Qantab

680

Crowne Plaza-Muscat

4 Star

Qurum

200

Holiday Inn Medina

4 Star

Ghala

87

Holiday inn Muscat

4 Star

Al-Khuwair

123

Radisson SaS

4 Star

Al-Khuwair

156

Al-Falaj

4 Star

CBD–Ruwi

143

Ramada

4 Star

Qurum Beach

92

Ramee

4 Star

Qurum Beach

92

Haffah House - Muscat

4 Star

Ruwi

120

Haffah House - Salalah

4 Star

Salalah (Dhofar)

63 rooms, 46 beach villas

Golden Tulip Seeb

4 Star

P.O. BOX 69 PC 111

177

Al-Sawadi Beach Resort

Other Star

Al-Sawadi (Al-Batinah

100 spacious chalet-style guest rooms

Sohar Beach Hotel

Other Star

Sohar (Al-Batinah)

Sur Plaza

Other Star

Sur (A’Sharqiyah

108

Nizwa Hotel

Other Star

Sur (A’Sharqiyah

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Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

APPENDIX 2 (TABLE 3) Table 3. SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

1. Historic City 2. Possible world heritage site 3. Sea location; 4. Proximity to Deserts, Mountains 5. Recent and current investment 6. Culture and tradition 7. Events and festivals 8. Pleasant rural hinterland 9. Friendly People

1. Uncertain image 2. Conservative 3. Mixed marketing message 4. Attraction availability 5. Sea unused 6. Rural area underused; 7. Lack of identification

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

1. The ability of the area to appeal to the various market segments by providing appropriate ‘attractors’, services and accommodation in order to compete effectively with other destinations; 2. The competitiveness of the area in terms of value based quality delivered for the price paid by the visitor; 3. Marketing effectiveness in attracting visitors to the area.

1. The overall level of popularity and demand from outside the country. 2. The prevailing exchange rate; 3. The level of stability and perceived level of peace in the community; 4. Demand for day – trips and holidays within Oman and GCC reflecting the state of the economy, life – style patterns and the socio-demographic mix of the population

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Chapter 9

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry Ruth Rios-Morales University of Glion,Switzerland John C. Crotts College of Charleston, USA

ABSTRACT Advancements in Sales Force Automation (SFA) is rapidly changing the landscape in how meeting planners and hotel sales professionals do business with one another. This chapter highlights where those changes are occuring, why they are occuring, and what they mean to both buyers and sellers. The intent of this overview is to inform hotel owners and investors who are considering such an investment as to the benefits that can potentially be derived from SFA. Furthermore, our intent is to provide hospitality educators insights as to how SFA is changing the workplace of both meeting planners and hotel sales professionals so they can provide their students a realistic view of the software aids they may need to master to be successful in their careers.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch009

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

INTRODUCTION Sales Force Automation (SFA) technology as applied to group sales departments of hotels and convention centers is the focus of this chapter. The group sales process has changed dramatically over the past two decades, evolving from paper bound filing systems for individual properties to fully integrated software solutions for multiple properties stretching from the prospecting, to contracts, then on again to the execution of the events and billing systems. The intent of this chapter is to provide readers a broad overview of current SFA functions and the potential benefits for investing in such technology. There are many producers of SFA dedicated to hotel, resort and convention center group sales which vary widely in cost and functionality. Managers considering such an investment should reach out to multiple SFA vendors, take the time to carefully explain their business processes to them, and review each SFA vendor’s proposed solutions. No one system fits all, where most SFA systems can be packaged and scaled to each client’s needs.

WHY MAKE THE INVESTMENT? Investments in SFA usually require high capital outlays and should always be made as to its return on investment, as measured in gains in efficiencies and effectiveness. Today’s SFA packages are interfaced with property management and catering management systems elimiating the need to rekey in information on an event from the original sales proposal to the client’s final billing. The time saved is but one measure of efficiency. Effectiveness refers to the SFA system to increase sales. The growing use of E-bid systems (electronic request for proposals) among meeting planners, where the first hotel to respond with an attractive and competitively priced offer often wins the business, is but one example of SFA abilities to

improve a sales force’s effectiveness in reaching and converting new customers. In additional, SFA systems designed specifically for hotel chain’s field sales forces has enabled companies to form deeper cooperative relationships with their key customers where one salesperson can meet all their meeting and event requirements within their chain of properties. Not all commercial lodging and events facilities may find the investment worthwhile. Small boutique inns and special events facilities can get by just fine using a standard suite of Microsoft Office combined with a good website. However, today most larger group hotels, as well as chains, consider SFA tools are not an option but a necessity for business success. In 2007, the worldwide investment on SFA tools was $3.2 billion and is expected to reach $9 billion in 2012 (Cascio 2009). However, ask a hotel Director of Sales, and most will acknowledge that most companies’ do not maximize the full potential of their SFA tools. Acceptance of technology investment at both the management and sales force levels is at best mixed in the hospitality industry. A long line of research in the information systems literature has been focused on explaining the adoption and acceptance of such aids (Cascio 2009, Mallin & DelVecchio 2008, Williams & Plouffe 2007, Schillewaer, Ahearne, Franbach & Moenaert 2005, Jones, Sundaram & Chin 2002). Perhaps the best model for predicting and explaining why some companies and sales persons readily accept technology, while others do not, is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Venkates, Morris, Davis & Davis 2003,Venkatesh & Davis 2000, Davis 1989). According to TAM, the acceptance of software aids is determined by two beliefs: the perceived usefulness (i.e., the extent to which the company and/or salesperson believes the system will improve his/her job performance) and perceived ease of use (i.e., the extent to which a company and/or company considers the system to be free of effort).

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Over the years, research has supported the basic premise of TAM but has also added to it, suggesting that the following factors also play important roles: • • • •

competitive pressures, customer influences, personal innovativeness, and abilities in using a computer.

Customers expect from salespersons timely and accurate information, prompt answers to requests, and marketing expertise. Moreover, research has shown that the most important dimension of a business’ satisfaction with a supplier is having satisfactory interactions with the supplier’s sales managers (Boujena, Johnston & Merunka 2009). Sales people today are using SFA tools to enhance their performance in five main ways (Ahearne, Jones, Rapp & Mathieu 2008, Avlonitis & Panagopoulos 2005, Agnihothri, Sivasubramania & Simmons 2002). They are increases in: • • • • •

Productivity Information processing Communications effectiveness Perceived competence, and Customer relationship quality

Because of these influences and potential for competitive advantages, young computer-literate hospitality sales professionals wishing to make their mark in the industry may be at an advantage. Technology and the internet are changing the rules and landscape of hospitality and the meeting industries. Its impact has gone beyond influencing its business strategies, but has been transforming the social structure of the global business community. So much business is being done through e-commerce that the technologically savvy have a strong edge over their technophobic counterparts. We have organized this chapter as follows. First, we will describe hospitality sales automation software used in selling guestrooms and meeting

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facilities. Then we will discuss catering sales and management systems. Though both processes are generally handled by the same software system, users tend to specialize in their areas of responsibility. For example, a hotel’s group sales staff will use only those aspects that involve selling guestrooms and services to prospects, while catering will use the system to plan, monitor, and manage catering events. In this chapter are screenshots from one of the leading hospitality sales automation systems – MICROS system’s OPERA-- to illustrate each function.

CONTACT MANAGEMENT AND SALES PROPECTING On any given day, a hotel sales person’s schedule will have appointments, follow-ups, and other tasks to perform. Sales people are also responsible for responding to inquiries and Requests-ForProposals (RFPs) or E-bids—and doing so quickly. For small properties, all this can be performed with a well designed website supported by a manual system that is well thought out and well managed —using schedulers, ledgers, and both historic and teaser files. However, SFA tools not only automates the process, but offers features through which a salesperson can stand out from the competition.

Account Management All sales offices organize their sales managers to cover the marketplace by assigning each to either a geographic territory or a specific market segment to develop. Within this territory or segment, the sales manager will have existing accounts made up of businesses that have traditionally re-purchased or re-booked with their hotel or convention center. The sales manager’s initial task is to familiarize themselves with each account and organize them into an appropriate contact management system in order to serve and develop the account.

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

In recent years sales managers have increasingly moved away from the view that all customer accounts should be treated equally, accepting the reality that customers vary in terms of the value they provide (and can potentially provide) the selling organization (Richards & Jones 2009, McNeil & Crotts 2005, Hunt & Morgan 1995). After carefully reviewing each account, they are labeled into one of several groupings such as: •

•

•

•

‘A’ accounts—established accounts that generate a high level of business to ones firm. These accounts warrant greatest attention in the form of staying abreast of the client’s full range of business needs, monitoring how well your company is meeting their needs and expectations, and generally trying to strengthen and expand the business relationship. Through personal sales calls and telephone and email communications, you stay in frequent contact with these clients. ‘B’ accounts—consists of high-potential accounts. They may be established accounts that are already providing a reasonable level of business, but have a potential to provide more (for example, by winning other pieces of their business away from competitors). These may warrant your attention at the same frequencies as ‘A’ accounts, perhaps even more. ‘C’ accounts—consist of potential new accounts or established accounts with medium potential. Staying in contact is important but scheduled less frequently. ‘D’ accounts—composed of potential new or established accounts with low potential. Follow-up on these accounts comes last— after all other accounts have been handled.

The purpose in organizing one’s accounts this way is to help a sales manager allocate his or her time time in such a way that they meet their sales goals. Again, “A” accounts should receive the most

attention given that they provide a firm a recurring stream of business that it wants to preserve and where possible expand. Next a communication plan is agreed to with the Director of Sales as to how frequently and what means the sales person uses to stay in contact with the client. Over time a sales manager will discover how and when each client prefers being contacted and adjust their plans according. A manual filing system, or use of the contact management software found in Microsoft Office, can help one stay organized in staying up with these account management responsibilities. However virtually all SFA technologies enable staff to perform at a much higher level of efficiency and effectiveness. The world of meeting and events planners grows more complex year after year, where their employers are requiring them to achieve greater productivity in planning and managing more events at lower costs. SFA technologies not only allows a sales manager to keep current contact information on each meeting planner, it also allows them retain and retrieve quickly the customized service requirements of all their former events (see Figure 1). The Account Management aspect of a SFA system allows a sales manager to view all past, present and future business of the client in a single window, both at his or her property as well as within their hotel chain. In addition, the system allows the sales manager to check guest room and meeting facilities availability at any hotel within their hotel chain organization, including room type availability, minimum acceptable rates, and citywide information. All this allows the sales manager to quickly respond to a customer’s requests with reliable and accurate information saving both the client and sales manager time and effort. Such advancements in SFA capabilities have enabled Marriott’s Sales Force One program to succeed, where meeting planners have one sales person they can go to in satisfying all their needs within Mariott’s corporated owned and managed hotels and resorts.

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Figure 1. Example of Account Management dashboard allowing sales managers to manage tasks and track all events scheduled at their property

Lead Capturing and Sales Channels A sales manager’s role also involves pursuing new customers, requiring prospecting and the use of lead capturing systems. Traditionally, the most productive way of generating leads was through networking, tradeshows, and making cold-calls. Though these are still valuable, a variety of internet based sales channels have been added to the salesperson’s arsenal. List brokers have emerged that today can provide the sales manager with the names, contact addresses, and meeting requirements of meeting and events planners unheard of a decade ago. Meeting planners generally input their meeting requirements into such databases to avoid being called on by sales managers who facilities

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cannot meet their needs. The lists can be upload into a contact management system (described in the previous section), partially out the list of propects to be contacted across the list of daily tasks. The most advanced systems will merge new contact lists with existing contacts in an effort to eliminate any duplicate leads. Moreover, SFA systems designed for hotel chains both sort and exports the leads to properties that can meet the meeting planners requirements honoring the list brokers commitment to the meeting planner and sales manager that the lists meets the needs of both parties. In the last few years, a number of sales channels have emerged allowing meeting planners to be more proactive in identifying hotels that can meet their needs and sending them a request-for

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

proposal (RFP) or E-bid. Just like consumers who have been able to logon to websites to check price and availability of hotels at a destination, systems like Cvent, Starcite and MeetingBroker as well as a host of intranet systems designed for HelmsBrisco or Conferences Direct meeting planners, provides meeting planners an efficient means to identify suitable options before sending an RFP. The use of such sales channels has to date been adopted by the experienced corporate meeting planner who knows their groups requirements, and often sees little value in interacting with a hotel sales managers in their initial research. The ability to research all hotels in a geographical area and send the selected hotels an RFP, saves the meeting planner time and effort in narrowing possible options of hotels in which to negotiate. These systems though efficient, often frustrate hotel sales managers since they provide them little opportunities to consult directly with the meeting planner. However, in such an environment the sales manager must reel in their consultative selling instincts and provide the prospect a reasonable price based upon the requirements provided. Here again, SFA technologies allows the sales manger to build an attractive proposal and return it as an email attachment with relative ease. Speed is important to such E-bids, underscoring the hotel sales adage that ‘the first to respond is the first in line to win the business.’ In this circumstance, the experienced meeting planner has a clear understanding of their budget and for efficiency purposes will book with a facility that can meet their requirements and price points (see Figure 2).

EVENT MANAGEMENT AND CATERING SYSTEM The key difference between hospitality sales force automation and virtually any other kind of sales automation (finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, etc.) is that hospitality sales automates the whole process from prospecting…to

selling… to “delivering the goods.” In a hotel, that means ensuring that the customer gets the right guestrooms and, where necessary, that all the events and catering activities go off as planned. On the guestroom side, the SFA system passes the inventory management task off to the hotel’s property management system (PMS), but the event management and catering side is managed within the sales and catering system. Event management and catering, in this context, means everything from reserving the needed function space for a group, to ensuring that the space is correctly set up and that the necessary meals, audio-visual equipment, computers, and everything else the group needs is there on time and properly charged for. In many ways, this can be seen as the most complex part of a sales and event management system. The hotel must manage innumerable elements of a meeting, right down to the last detail, in an accurate and efficient way. The catering and convention services managers using this part of the sales and catering system, are responsible for generating a high volume of extremely accurate work on a production basis every day. In addition, detailed forecasting and reporting on final results is of great importance to management. The efficiency of the sales and catering system is critical to productivity and profitability in this department. There are 5 key components in the event management and catering portion of the system: •

•

•

the function diary—the efficient, automated version of the big physical book which used to manage the function room inventory; event management,—which manages all elements of an event to be held in a function room; the banquet event order—a dynamic contract with the customer detailing what the hotel will provide at the event and what it will cost;

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Figure 2. Example of an E-Bid or web proposal

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Figure 3. Example of a function room display or scheduler

• •

the banquet check—the final bill for an event; and various forecast and production reports that make it possible to manage the department profitably.

The Function Diary The automated function diary provides a real-time, up-to-the-minute function room inventory —for a single property or any number of properties in a hotel chain. The function diary, sometimes called a “scheduler,” is used by the sales manager to display function space, functions, and guestroom availability for any selected property. The diary can be viewed by a specific day of the week, or weeks to identify function space availability. The colors and symbols on the event bars vary and can display status, setup, combinations of rooms, etc. If the cursor is placed over an event, the window shows a detailed

view of that specific event. Events may be edited by clicking and dragging or double-clicking and opening an editable detail form. There are several key parts of any automated function diary.

The Function Room Display This is where you can review all the attributes of a function room, from ceiling height to capacity with various set-ups. You also select and sort sets of function rooms, showing just the rooms in a certain wing or specific hotel, perhaps. This is particularly important in a hotel cluster where sales managers reviewing availability could quickly find suitable space, even though they may not know a specific hotel’s function space characteristics. The ability to search for suitable space is further enhanced by features that offer access to room photos, layouts, and links to the corporate meeting planning website for the chain (see Figure 3).

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The Event Display This is where users create and edit events, obligating the appropriate function room inventory as they go. The automated function diary allows the user to “draw” an event from start-time to end-time in the desired function room. If the event has a “Definite” status, (usually an event with a signed contract on file) the space is firmly obligated and cannot be used by anyone for any other booking. A Prospect or Tentative event might not obligate the space: a Definite event would be allowed to book over it. Catering managers can move an event or change the event start and end times by just dragging and dropping the bar for that event. Users can also view or edit event details from here. When changes are made here, there is no need to update information anywhere else. One change changes it in all places.

Figure 4. Example of an event display

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The event display also shows events with an option on the space, if the current event is cancelled or moved and events which are still pending (PEN). On a daily basis, the catering or function space manager checks the TBA queue using the on-screen or printed reports to properly assign the events (see Figure 4).

Guestroom Availability Overview When checking on whether the hotel can accommodate a group on a certain date, it is often necessary to check for guestroom and function room availability at the same time. The function room diary optionally shows various the remaining availability of guestrooms.

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

Configuration Options—Views Many kinds of users do many types of tasks in the function diary, from checking availability to managing function room inventory. Users can modify the diary as they go, to meet their needs. They can create named views of specific sets of function rooms for use as needed. They change the range of dates being viewed. The colors and text can be changed to show the information considered most important at the moment (event status, conference name, which properties are visible, etc.)

Event Management Each individual event in a group booking requires detailed attention to ensure that clients get just what they expect. Effective event management starts with setting up the system at installation time. The Director of Catering establishes the item types (Food, Beverage, AV, Labor, Computers, etc.) most appropriate for that hotel. These item types can then be grouped into the revenue categories needed by management and the accounting department for forecasting and production reporting. Finally, the DOC identifies the types of events most commonly needed at that hotel (Meeting, Breakfast, Morning Break, Lunch, etc.) and determines the normal revenue pattern for each type of event. When this initial set-up is done with care, the property will have a reasonable catering forecast. How? Because, when a sales manager or catering manager creates an event of a certain type, the system automatically forecasts the income from that event. This is the forecast the hotel uses until the actual event details are added, which might be at a much later point. When it is time to detail the events for a booking, key elements of the event will probably already have been defined:

• • •

the type of event will have been established; a room will have been assigned; and, the attendance will have been estimated, though the catering services manager may later enter a more exact figure, or even a guarantee.

So now, the catering manager will establish the setup and detail the other catering services to be provided, such as meeting materials, audio-visual support, coffee breaks, or full meals. One of the most powerful catering benefits of automating is that all the catering items used by the hotel are stored in the system and can be efficiently selected for use in specific events. If the lists of catering items are built with care, then they will be displayed as desired on Banquet Event Orders (BEOs), as well as creating an accurate forecast of future catering revenue with a minimum of effort. Throughout the planning period, while working with the client to determine menus and other needs, the catering manager can select, edit, and replace catering items as needed. When the time comes for the client to approve the BEO, everything is close to being settled. The software can make specific or universal changes. For example, suppose a group will be in-house for a meeting for four days. The Catering Manager created the event entries when the booking was confirmed. Now the group is finalizing their plans and has decided that for all of their breakfasts they will have the same items. Instead of entering this change four separate times, the Catering Manager can tell the software to change all breakfasts for the group. Once this is done, all items will be displayed on the merged BEO.

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Banquet Event Orders (BEO) The activity of the catering office revolves around creation of the BEOs, which serve not only as the contracts with the client, specifying every detail, but as the internal communication about events, used by every department in the hotel. The four key tasks of successful BEO automation are: • • •

•

with minimum fuss, making the BEO look just right for the client, sending it to the client, making changes efficiently (since BEOs change constantly, until the event actually happens), and making it easy and efficient for the hotel staff to use.

The BEO must be attractive and understandable to the customer. Some items will be priced a la carte, others on consumption, others as part of an audio-visual package, and other items will have no price at all. Some items will need a special annotation (Set-up at the back of the room). Others will need bold-face type or some other special emphasis, such as highlighting (see Figure 5). An automated BEO provides the opportunity to create as many types of BEOs as might be needed—one for weddings, another for group meetings, etc. In addition, it allows the catering manager to create most BEOs without further editing, but still allows direct editing on the BEO to provide special notes and highlighting as needed. Then, as changes are made to the BEO and new data is merged into it, these edits are retained.

Sending It to the Client It used to be necessary to print and fax or “overnight” the initial BEOs and each of the changes to the client —a time-consuming process. Now, in an automated BEO, the catering manager just e-mails the set of BEOs to the customer for review

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and comment and, then, when each BEO is final, for printing and signature—a far more efficient process.

Making Changes Efficiently After a BEO is created, it will change frequently. The catering manager can quickly substitute one item for another, quickly merge the BEO again, and see the result. A change log is often part of the BEO to track all of the changes, who made them, and when— resulting in an automated trail of changes.

Making It Efficient for the Hotel Staff The property has the option of creating a different BEO laid out for the chef, banquet services, and other staff. This can be e-mailed or printed, depending on the state of automation in the hotel. It can also be posted to an internal web site that allows the various departments to review and organize their BEOs on-line and print them as needed. They can also see, either on-line or in reports, just the catering items of concern to them, making the whole process much more efficient than the paper-based process was. Many of the managers that are part of BEO distribution are responsible for staffing departments like banquets, bartenders, and wait staff. The automation of all items associated to a BEO offers an on-screen diary of events and corresponding items. This makes it easy for staff charged with setup of audio-visual equipment (for example), to know how many staffers are needed and how many projection systems will be needed in the next seven days.

Banquet Check The banquet check is the final bill for a specific BEO. At this point, the sales and catering system almost becomes an accounting system. After an event is completed, the banquet captain makes

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

Figure 5. Example of an SFA generated banquet event order

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any final adjustments to the items the client consumed (how many bottles of wine, any additional AV equipment, etc.) and prints a banquet check for the client to sign. When the group departs, all these banquet checks are combined with all other charges for the conference into a master bill for the client.

RECENT INNOVATIONS Recent innovations to hospitality SFA include are numerous. They include: •

Catering Reports Producing hotel sales and catering reports have been among the most time-consuming tasks in hotels. Data often got pulled from a variety of systems and re-aggregated in a variety of ways for various purposes. Now, with the newer automated systems, will a simple click of a button all relevant data is automatically retrieved, analyzed, and presented for frequently used reports. Options for ad hoc or modified reports are available as well (see Figure 6).

•

•

Figure 6. Example of an SFA generated catering report

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Web-based BEOs. BEOs historically involved a lot of paper where the client was required to send back an original signed copy; and annotated copies of the BEO are copied and passed around the hotel, etc. Today, the signed BEO is posted to the web for client comment and approval. Then the completed BEO will be available on the web to hotel departments. Wireless Events Management and Catering. Wireless catering applications are now available in many systems that allow events and catering managers to see everything they need for an event from a PDA anywhere, any time. Campaign Management. Most all SFA systems contain a simple mail merge function where customized letters and emails can be personalized for a targeted distribution list of clients and prospects. The most advanced

Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

systems today allow a sales manager to customize newsletters, brochures and coupons for their distribution lists that can be distributed in HTML or CSV formats. Once distributed, the sales managers contact management system is automatically updated showing when the client was contacted as a part of the promotional campaign as well as when they opened and viewed the campaign document on the internet. Future advances on the horizon will allow for customized campaigns of this nature to be delivered to individual guests. Each campaigns revenue code will allow for efficient tracking of revenue derived from each campaign as well (see Figure 7).

CONCLUSION SFA technology provides several ways in which to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of hospitality sales managers. However, such SFA software should be considered a sales tool and not a replacement of sales activity. In addition, for such systems to work effectively, they must be maintained constantly. Management must determine if the investment in SFA is worth the financial cost in acquiring and maintaining such a system as well as their staff’s time and effort in learning how to use it. We encourage companies to consider the future in choosing the best course of action.

Figure 7. Example of a campaign management feature from the design to finished brochure ready to be emailed

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REFERENCES Agnihothri, S., Sivasubramaniam, N., & Simmons, D. (2002). Leveraging Technology to Improve Field Services. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 13(1), 47–68. doi:10.1108/09564230210421155 Ahearne, M., Jones, E., Rapp, A., & Mathieu, J. (2008). High Touch Through High Tech: The Impact of Salesperson Technology Usage on Sales Performance Via Mediating Mechanisms. Management Science, 54(4), 671–685. doi:10.1287/ mnsc.1070.0783 Avlonitis, G. J., & Panagopoulos, N. G. (2005). Antecedentes and Consequences of CRM Technology Acceptance in the Sales Force. Industrial Marketing Management, 34(4), 355–368. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2004.09.021 Boujena, O., Johnston, W., & Merunka, D. (2009). The Benefits of Sales Force Automation: A Customer’s Perspective. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 29(2), 137–150. doi:10.2753/ PSS0885-3134290203 Buehrer, R., Senecal, S., & Pullins, E. (2005). Sales Force Technology Usage – Reason, Barriers and Support: An Exploratory Investigation. Industrial Marketing Management, 34(4), 389–398. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2004.09.017 Cascio, R. (2009). The Impact of Management Commitment Alignment on Salespersons’ Adoption of Sales Force Automation Technologies: An Empirical Investigation. Research Portfolio, January 2010. Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and User Acceptance of Information Technology. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 13(3), 319–339. doi:10.2307/249008

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Hunt, S., & Morgan, R. (1995). The Comparative Advantage Theory of Competition. Journal of Marketing, 66(2), 1–15. doi:10.2307/1252069 Jones, E., Sundaram, S., & Chin, W. (2002). Factors Leading to Sales Force Automation Use: A Londituginal Analysis. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 22(3), 145–156. McNeil, R., & Crotts, J. (2005). Selling Hospitality: A Situational Approach. Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar/Thompson Publishing. Richards, K., & Jones, E. (2009). Key Account Management: Adding Elements of Account Fit into an Integrative Theorectical Framework. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 29(4), 305–320. doi:10.2753/PSS0885-3134290401 Schillewaert, N., Ahearne, M., Franbach, R. T., & Moenaert, R. K. (2005). The Adoption of Information Technology in the Sales Force. Industrial Marketing Management, 34(4), 323–336. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2004.09.013 Venkatesh, V. & Davis, F. (2000). A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies. Management Science, 46 (1), 186.204. Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User Accepetance of Information Technology: Towards a Unifying View. MIS Quaterly, 27(3), 425–478. William, B. C., & Plouffe, C. R. (2007). Assessing the Evolution of Sales Knowledge: A 20-year Content Analysis. Industrial Marketing Management, 36(4), 408–419. doi:10.1016/j. indmarman.2005.11.003

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Chapter 10

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience: A Case Study of San-Fang QiXiang in Fuzhou City, China

Jiaming Liu Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China

ABSTRACT Presently, similar development mode and analogical tourist experience as two key problems have appeared to tourism development in domestic historic districts. This chapter discusses the new thought of tourism revitalization in historic districts in the perspective of tourist experience. Firstly, based on the deep analysis of tourist experience’s essential elements in historic districts, 6E experience mode is established to summarize the tourist experience, which includes Estheticism and nostalgia, Education and culture, Entertainment and leisure, Exchange and communication and Emotion sublimation. Meanwhile, how to build up and enhance every single experience of 6E model in tourism revitalization of historic district is also explained. Secondly, the application of 6E model is demonstrated elaborately in the case of Conceptual Planning of Tourism Development in San-Fang Qi-Xiang Historic District in Fuzhou City. Considering the hierarchy and comprehensibility of tourist experience and combined with site environment analysis, San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four function divisions: Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane, Antai water-front zone and Residential blocks for minority customization. The four divisions are distinguished by degrees of bustling and tranquility as well as the hierarchy of experience. This chapter concludes that it is beneficial to utilize 6E model to segment function division and plan products in tourism revitalization of historic districts, because it helps to revitalize and create a fresh appearance with historical continuation in cultural, social and economic aspects. Therefore, it is perceived as a sustainable thought of development.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch010

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

INTRODUCTION The multiple inner values of historic districts, including aesthetic, artistic, historic, cultural and humanistic value, have made them become significant cultural heritage. With the contradiction of rapid economic development, historic district protection and residents’ living demand, tourism revitalization has been regarded as an efficient way of embedding historic district into the modern city in terms of spatial and temporal pattern. Tourism function was introduced to historic district reconstruction and renewal in western countries in the early time and tourism has become a leading role in historic district protection and economic revitalization (Cleland, 2002). Since 1960s, tourism revitalization has been widely practiced in domestic historic districts and this way has been approved by some researchers. However, some problems, including similar development mode, analogical tourist experience and tourism product, have occurred in tourism development of historic districts and destroyed both their unique value and urban individuality. With these problems, tourism revitalization could not meet tourist demand to some degree. Because of its specialty of tourism resource, historic district development is always placed in an extremely sensitive environment which is influenced by so many complicated factors. This paper will discuss the new thought of tourism product design and function allocation in historic districts, in order to reduce the contradiction between protection and development as well as to fulfill the tourists’ satisfaction. Currently, most of the researchers have focused their studies on demonstration and analyzed how to use cultural heritage, attract tourists and facilitate urban rejuvenation (Tiesdell & Heath, 2006). How to balance social benefit with economic benefit and how to resolve the conflict between protection and development has been paid close attention (Tiesdell, 1995; Sim, 1996; Caffyn, 1999). Principles of tourism exploitation and tourism product design were concluded

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(Chang, 2005; Lui, 2000). Some researchers pointed out two developing models which were ‘host and guest amalgamation’ model and ‘low density, high quality’ model in the perspective of tourist consumption experience and historic district protection (Shen et al, 2003). However, only a few theses have been focused on the study of historic district revitalization in terms of tourist experience. By building up specified model, some foreign researchers put forward that tourism product and services should be supplied according to tourists’ involvement and ‘place attachment’ in order to meet tourist expectation (Gross, 2008). Some domestic researchers suggested that human involving activities and the form experience should be placed attention on in the process of historic district revitalization (Zhang, 2002) and the idea of shaping commercial characteristic in Qing Hefang historic district of Hang Zhou was proposed based on the investigation of field work (Wang & Chen, 2008). The previous study mainly emphasized on general tourist experience and discussed the reuse of historic districts. How to analyze tourism revitalization from the perspective of the tourist experience in historic districts and put forward some new thought of tourism function allocation and product design is the key point of this paper.

TOURIST EXPERIENCE AND 6E EXPERIENCE MODEL Definition and Characteristic Basically, experience is a period of time that people spend in an individual way and earn a series of memories worth remembering (Pine & Gilmore, 2002). Experience is natively existed in travelling and it is perceived as an inherent feature of tourism, because people travel for a pursuit of unforgettable tourism experience and memories (Li, Zhang & Zheng, 2005). Therefore, tourism experience can be described as a process

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

when tourists participate in observing, admiring, associating and consuming, so that their feelings, physical strength and consciousness reach to a specific level and combine to be a splendid experience. Hierarchy and comprehensiveness can be regarded as two of the most important features of tourism experience. (1) Tourism experience hierarchy is mainly affected by tourists’ subjective preferences, including the differences of tourists’ personality, knowledge and experience. Meanwhile, it is also influenced by preexistence, interference, action and result (Yu & Zhang, 2005). According to the degree of participation of traveling activities, tourism experience can be divided into three layers: surface layer, middle level and deep layer (Huang, 2004). Mr. Li Jinglong introduced Maslow’s theory of requirement level to identify the hierarchy of tourism experience: ‘foot of mountain’, ‘peak’ and ‘plateau’. The experience of ‘foot of mountain’ can be described as a flash of absolutely happy and a feeling of selfaffirmation, which is a kind of general emotion; ‘Peak’ is a point that tourist could make full use of his potential and obtain the feeling of strong, confidence and self-domination; ‘Plateau’ is a placid reaction to a fantastic, awesome, holy and powerful tourism situation and to an existence value (Li, Zhang & Zheng, 2005). Experience hierarchy demonstrates the experience distinction of different tourists according to their degree of activity and emotion participation. It also reveals the degree of challenge that tourists have to put effort on in order to receive the corresponding experience: deeper experience, bigger challenge. And the degree of challenge is laid on individual difference of tourists and tourism product designing method. (2) Comprehensiveness is another obvious feature of tourism experience, as experience quality depends on so many complicated factors, including catering, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, entertainment and the other uncontrollable factors. Furthermore, the theory of tourism function system also explains

the one-stop experience demand of tourists (Yang & Lui, 1998), that is to say, tourists need to fulfill all their demand in a specific area where servicing facilities are concentrated (Zheng, 2008). Especially, with the new trend of tourism consumption, experience comprehensiveness has been paid more attention in the process of building up tourism destination. Nowadays, the way of developing tourism resource has appeared diversification and comprehensiveness.

The 6E Tourism Experience Model of Historic District Pine II and Gilmore generalized the tourism experience as 4E (Figure 1) according to degree of participation and the relationship with circumstance: entertainment, education, escape and estheticism. At present, 4E model has made a significant influence in the tourism experience research field (Li, Zhang & Zheng, 2005) and this model can be applied to general tourists in general tourism destination. Nevertheless, 4E can’t cover the entire experience element of tourists in historic district with the special tourism value and the new trend of tourism consumption concept in the age of experience economy. This paper manages to put forward a 6E experience model which generalizes the tourists’ experience in historic districts (Table 1).

Estheticism and Nostalgia Estheticism is the most straightforward feeling that tourists obtain when they are visiting the historic buildings and streets. Nostalgia, which distinguished with the other types of tourism attractions, usually accompanies with estheticism experience in historic districts. Nostalgia is people’s psychological need of chasing for historic memories in the perspective of space and time, so that they could gain psychological satisfaction. We should follow two pieces of principles while creating estheticism and nostalgia experi-

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Figure 1. Experience model of 4E

ence: (1) Creation of place spirit. Place spirit can be defined as the sense of direction and identity to a specific group in a specific space which is endowed with certain culture and history (Fei, 1999). People could engender sense of belonging, sense of security and sense of nostalgia by interacting with certain places. The above mentioned sense that tourists earn in historic district is obviously distinguished from the estheticism experience of general tourists in general tourism destinations. From the perspective of planning and designing, the utilization of spatial pattern, building elevation, street and furnishings decoration are essential in the creation of place spirit (Zheng, 2004). (2) Portray of authenticity. Authenticity is the basis of estheticism and nostalgia experience. Wang Ning classified authenticity into two parts based on the relationship between tourism experience and landscape: objective authenticity and constitutive authenticity (Wang, 1999). Constitutive authenticity is the key point in portraying authenticity of historic district, as it is produced by the projection of tourists’ and tourism manufactures’ imagination, expectation, preference, belief and capability

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on the object. As to the portray of authenticity, we ought to emphasize both physical dimension and unphysical dimension. On one hand, street texture and architecture style should be concerned; on the other hand, the local humanistic life style and living atmosphere should also be emphasized.

Education and Culture When tourists visit historic heritages, old buildings and museums, they proactively participate in absorbing new information and conducting self-enhancement. In this way, tourists achieve education and culture experience. Compared with general tourism activities, education and culture experience is the most important feature of heritage tourism. Because heritage resources could provide tourists with profound history, unique estheticism and artistic value, plentiful knowledge and information and humanistic anecdote and they could cater tourists’ thirst for knowledge and the pursuit of elegant culture enjoyment. Museums and exhibition halls are commonly and repeatedly used in the creation of education and culture

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

Table 1. 6E model of tourist experience in historic district Experience

Behavior

Core attraction

Material carrier

Estheticism

Observation Yearning Seeking

Spatial texture Architectural style Place spirit

Historic buildings Reconstruction of previous time…

Education

Study Investigation Ponder

Historical event Anecdotes of celebrity Regional culture

Museum Former residence of celebrities…

Entertainment

Involvement Enjoyment Recreation

Leisure circumstance Joyful activity Recreation

Shops Dining services Entertainment show…

Escape

Retiracy Transposition Seeking for novelty

Role conversion Fresh experience Theme activity

Site for theme experience Creative industry…

Exchange

Association Communication Esteem

Public space Social stie Esteem and honor

Commercial club Business club Private space…

Emotion

Movement Self-identity Self-promotion

Harmony of feeling with scenery Spiritual resonance Place characteristic

Image of landscape Reshaping of history and culture…

experience, but this way could not satisfy tourists’ taste any more. In the practice, we need to pay attention to points: (1) Improving the diversity of culture transmission and education method while avoiding single business industries. (2) In line with the market demand, transforming the culture and education resources to recreation product with the consideration of culture, economy and leisure.

Entertainment and Leisure Entertainment and leisure experience is infiltrated in the entire process of tourism activities. Tourists passively receive external information and response with a happy reaction. They could joviality body and mind, refresh spirits and relax oneself by participating to entertainment and leisure activities. Even though historic districts possess rich culture, its unique feature of place, sense of nostalgia and long history provides urban tourists who are chasing for new, compensation and disengagement with a distinguished circumstance for leisure and tourism. Meanwhile, economic development and globalization also

significantly influences the transformation of tourism consumption concept. Nowadays, more and more sightseeing tourism product has been replaced by leisure and entertainment activities. The spiritual enjoyment from the consumption of environment and site is much more attractive than material enjoyment of substance consumption. In the design of leisure and entertainment, two points should be placed attention to: (1) Making full use of the spirit of historic district and introducing diversified commercial industries, like leisure and entertainment, to create an integrative recreation space gearing to the market. (2) Placing restrictions on the scale of entertainment industries and preventing the cultural and historic context from being destroyed.

Escape and Retiracy Escape and retiracy is a status that people temporarily leaves his place of usual residence and stays in a totally new tourism environment. In this way, tourists could find out fresh experience and acquire spiritual peace by playing a role

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which is totally different from his real identity. The architecture style and residents’ living style of historic districts are brightly contrasted to real daily life. However, this contrast is rightly the fresh experience that tourists chase for. Two ways of constructing escape and retiracy experience: (1) Providing tourists with the memorable experience of ‘life elsewhere’ by creating comfortable, peaceful and glamorous theme environment, like theme bars, dining rooms and cinemas. (2) With the combination of culture, history and creative industries, constructing cultural experience space and applying diversified methods to deepen sense of history and culture, like ‘Impression’ display.

Exchange and Communication Actually, a journey is an experience of exchange and communication. Tourists in historic districts usually have strong desire to communicate with local residents in order to learn more about regional culture and their living style. Furthermore, more and more people are inclined to get together in the tea houses or bars in historic districts to enjoy social life, as the unique environment could provide people with comfortable and respectable atmosphere. For example, bars and tea houses have become the best places of hosting younger generation’s dates, relatives’ home parties and business chatting. Exchange and social activity in historic district is the reflection of human being’s communication need in nature. It is also regarded as the conversion of human being’s living style and social life in new age of economy. Two points that we have to pay attention to: (1) Constructing public space in line with the texture of historic districts. Utilizing square and waterfront area and building up social spaces which could concentrate tourists. (2) Gearing to the demand of the market which mainly contains white collars and business elites, club houses and parties can be allocated to establish private social spaces.

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Emotion and Sublimation Emotion and sublimation is the highest degree of objective experience. It is the status that human being deeply ponder over in historic district by observing the real landscape, deliberating history and culture and thinking deeply about the value of nation and nationality. Therefore, tourists could acquire self-promotion and self-fulfillment when their emotion and landscape combines and reaches to resonance. In this situation, emotion and sublimation experience is similar to ‘plateau’ experience: a placid reaction to a fantastic, awesome, holy and powerful tourism situation and to an existence value. Substantially, emotion and sublimation experience is distinct from estheticism and nostalgia experience, according to the following reasons: Firstly, in terms of the degree of experience hierarchy, estheticism and nostalgia still stays at the surface stage, like visual sense and auditory sense, while emotion and sublimation experience helps humankind conduct rational cognition on history, culture and national spirit in the status of self-promotion and self-fulfillment. Secondly, in terms of the length of experience duration, emotion and sublimation experience could keep a much longer time which exceeds the entire travel time or even reserves in one’s remaining years. Finally, in terms of the difficulty of experience obtaining, it is quite hard for tourists to acquire emotion and sublimation experience because they have to possess plentiful personal experience, enough historic and cultural knowledge and sensitive perceptual ability. At same time, whether tourists could earn emotion and sublimation experience is also influenced by the existence of place spirit and some occasional factors. Therefore, the construction of emotion and sublimation experience will take more challenges and put on more efforts: (1) Enhancing the portray of place spirit. Emotion expression and artistic design concept should be applied to reconstruction and regeneration of old buildings, old streets and landscapes, in order to create a

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

perfect harmony of feelings with the scenery. (2) Remolding and enhancing the theme of history and culture. History or culture could remind human of their memories in the old days, by means of art performance.

CASE STUDY: SAN-FANG QI-XIANG Background and Current Situation Background of Revitalizaton San-Fang Qi-Xiang, located in city center of Fuzhou, is 40.2 hectares. It was established in Jin and Tang dynasty and thrived in the late Qing dynasty. From the Republic of China to after liberation, San-Fang Qi-Xiang gradually developed to be commercial center and residential area. However, due to historical and human factors, a lot of longtime old buildings have been severely destroyed. Furthermore, the government of Fuzhou signed an agreement with a company called Min Chang in 1993, who earned the land use right of SanFang Qi-Xiang and utilize the land to conduct real estate development. Unfortunately, the first phase project seriously damaged the architectural appearance and only two Fang and five Xiang were preserved. In 2005, facing with the crucial moment of retrievable protection for San-Fang Qi-Xiang, government terminated the agreement with Min Chang company and withdrew its land use right. With this background, Conceptual Planning of Tourism Development in San-Fang Qi-Xiang Historic District in Fuzhou City, as a core mission, was included into Promotion Plan For Tourism Development in Fuzhou, in order to build up a brand new San-Fang Qi-Xiang which will become 5A tourism area and elegant residential community.

Resource Value and Market Analysis At present, 28 cultural relics protection units, 34 preserved buildings and 97 historic buildings are preserved in San-Fang Qi-Xiang. These heritages endow this area with both significant protection value and distinguished resource value: (1) The complete and distinctive fishbone pattern is perceived as living fossil of urban construction in ancient China. (2) A large number of wellpreserved old buildings make up a Museum of Ancient architecture. (3) Diversified and restful space is outstandingly represented the traditional residential pattern. (4) The ancient architectures are possessed with very Fuzhou characteristic. (5) Abundant human resource is the evidence of development of Modern History of China, the centralized reflection of urban spirit, the complex of folk culture as well as the carrier of Fujian and Taiwan cultures. The reconstructed San-Fang Qi-Xiang mainly face with two markets: one is tourists from the other cities, the other is local residents for recreation. In the new era of leisure, tourism consumption is inclined to be more diversified and more recreational (Wang, 2006). The single way of displaying for culture and history couldn’t satisfy modern tourists’ demand and tourists begin to place more attention to the consumption on historic space and life style. As a result, tourism product system should be enlarged with the principle of increasing participation, experience and enjoyment.

Strategic Positioning As to the development strategy position of SanFang Qi-Xiang, we need to elaborate from multidimension. Firstly, Fuzhou tourism industry is in the critical stage of breaking bottle-neck and conducting fast development. Urban tourism should take on the responsibility of developing. Secondly, San-Fang Qi-Xiang is located in the commercial and cultural center of Fuzhou city (Figure 2, Figure 3). It has become the most

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Figure 2. Cultural circle of Fuzhou and the location of San-Fang Qi-Xiang

potential area in RBD system because of its location advantage and distinguished resource value. Thirdly, experience tourism product is a new trend of tourism market demand and it is also the blank of Fuzhou tourism product system. Fourthly, with the consideration of San-Fang Qi-Xiang’s strong desire to declare world heritage, the residential function and ecological condition should be preserved. Fifthly, the profound historical lesson and expensive protection cost requires San-Fang Qi-Xiang to seek a way of combining heritage protection and economic independence. Above all, the overall strategy position of San-Fang Qi-Xiang should be described as following: Residential function plays the most important role in SanFang Qi-Xiang while culture, leisure, commercial and tourism industries will gradually develop and

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finally San-Fang Qi-Xiang will come into a typical historic district with plentiful Fuzhou-style ancient buildings and cultural characteristic. Meanwhile, San-Fang Qi-Xiang will take on the responsibility of developing tourism industry and make a big contribution to urban revitalization.

Function Division and Product Design on the Basis of 6E Mode Based on the protection demand of historic district, the analysis on the culture and history of San-Fang Qi-Xiang, the evaluation of the demand of tourism market and considering the degree of tourists’ participation, the six experience elements could be classified into three layers (Figure 4): surface layer, middle layer and deep level.

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

Figure 3. Commercial circle of Fuzhou and the location of San-Fang Qi-Xiang

According to the hierarchy and comprehensiveness of experience, combining with the analysis of environment, under the guidance of the theory of place spirit and the theory of tourism function system, 6E mode can be applied to conduct function division and product design in San-Fang Qi-Xiang. Considering the degrees of bustling and tranquility, the hierarchy of experience, spatial pattern and environmental analysis, San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four function divisions (Figure 5, Figure 6): Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane, An Tai water-front zone and Residential blocks for minority customization. Nanhou old street mall is a surface experience zone, which is the most bustling area with a large variety of entertainment, leisure,

estheticism and nostalgia activities in order to satisfy general tourists’ needs. Warmth and leisure lane is not as bustling as Nanhou old street mall. It could provide tourists with an experience between surface and middle layer. Education, cultural and leisure product are located in this area. An Tai river is relatively tranquil and it could provide tourists with an experience between middle and deep layer. Escape, social and entertainment activities are the most important product of this area. Residential block for minority customization is the most tranquil division in SanFang Qi-Xiang which could meet a minority market’s need. Escape, social, emotion and sublimation activities are located in this division.

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Figure 4. Hierarchy of tourist experience

Figure 5. Function division of San-Fang Qi-Xiang based on tourist experience

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Figure 6. Function layout of every division

Nanhou Old Street Mall: Entertainment and Estheticism Nanhou old street is the most bustling area in San-Fang Qi-Xiang, because it has a commercial history of a thousand years. Even though it possessed a large variety of commercial industries, the renewal for all of the traditional industries is not consistent with tourists’ experience demand in the modern age of leisure. The reconstructed Nanhou old street, with a theme of Mall, will mainly develop cultural, commercial, sightseeing and leisure industries. The mall will provide general tourists with entertainment, leisure, estheticism, nostalgia, culture and education experience. Boutiques, galleries, restaurants are the core attractions of entertainment and leisure product. The ancient hotels, lantern festival and night market in old street are the core attractions of

estheticism and nostalgia product. Wax museums, folk culture museums and tea museums are the core attractions of education and culture product.

Warmth and Leisure Lane: Education and Leisure The five lanes are located between Nan street and Nanhou old street, so it’s not so bustling as Nanhou old street. Many former residences of celebrities comprise of the profound history and culture of this area. However, the way of developing museums in the former residences of celebrities is not consistent with tourists’ demand. With the theme of warmth and leisure, the five lanes are classified into two function divisions: Cultural display and leisure zone and private living quarter. Cultural display and leisure zone, where is in the north of Huang Xiang, will build up book stores, museums

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and galleries to display the profound culture and supply education experience to tourists. Private living quarter is located in the south of Huang Xiang. With the concept of private life, private bookshops, private restaurants, private museums and private gardens will be allocated in the area to create leisure and escape spaces for tourists.

An Tai River Water-Front Zone: Entertainment, Estheticism and Exchange An Tai River water-front zone is functioned as the green belt between San-Fang Qi-Xiang and the outer urban space. It occupies the biggest potential of building up public and leisure space because old bridges, old trees, river and old architectures are centralized in this area. Combined the pleased water-frond landscape and the social and consumption demand of tourists, An Tai River is divided into two belts: Water-front architectural belt and Water-front landscape belt. Water-front architectural belt is the western part of the river and the previous spatial texture will be well preserved. Tea houses, concerts, pleasure boats and cafes should be built along this belt to create an architecture axis of escape and estheticism experience. Water-front landscape belt is the southern part of the river and there are many inconsistent buildings in this area currently. Therefore, the first step is to reconstruct the inconsistent buildings, increase the green space and renovate the waterfront space. Bars, cafes, galleries, spring heath center and theaters will be established to create a leisure axis for general tourists.

Residential Block for Minority Customization: Exchange and Emotion Three Fang is the most tranquil area in San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic district, so it is easily created to be a vision full of escape and emotion experi-

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ence. Yi Jin Fang, Wen Ru Fang and Guang Lu Fang are placed from north to south in this area. It is also famous for a large number of historical heritages, like OuYang garden, the former residence of Chen Chengqi and so on. On the basis of the social demand of high-end consumers, three Fang is developed as a residential block for minority customization which includes a large variety of club houses and creative industries. Yi Jin Fang only preserves its northwest part and it will become a creative industry zone, in which 4D theme performance and creation base will be allocated, to fulfill the needs of sublimation and emotion. Wen Ru Fang will be constructed as a club house zone, where personal clubs and literary salons are allocated to provide tourists with exchange and escape experience. Guang Lu Fang is a high-end hotel service zone, where spring hotels and high-end hotels will be allocated to cater tourists’ vacation need.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION The demand of tourists in historic district is obviously differentiated from general tourists in the other tourism destinations. Based on the analysis of tourism experience element in historic district, this paper put forward a 6E experience model which includes Estheticism and nostalgia, Education and culture, Entertainment and leisure, Escape and retiracy, Exchange and communication, Emotion and sublimation. It also pointed out how to create every experience in historic district by means of product design and functional allocation. The hierarchy and comprehensiveness of tourism experience has a significant application in the division segment and product design. The hierarchy of tourism experience makes sure that every division can be distinguished according to the different demand of different market. The comprehensiveness of tourism experience

Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

requires a large variety of industries to combine and improve its economic vigor. In terms of the relationship between protection and development, tourism revitalization of historic district in perspective of tourist experience is a sustainable developing concept. On one hand, based on the tourists’ experience demand, the authenticity of historic district should be well protected by planners and designers. On the other hand, the diversified demand of tourists requires the development of historic district to be consistent with the urban development. The revitalization of San-Fang Qi-Xiang is based on the hierarchy and comprehensiveness of tourism experience. With the analysis of environment and under the guidance of the theory of place spirit and the theory of tourism function system, 6E model is applied to the division segment and product design. San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four function divisions: Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane, Antai water-front zone and Residential blocks for minority customization. The four divisions are distinguished by degrees of bustling and tranquility as well as the hierarchy of experience. 6E model has proposed a new thought for the revitalization of historic districts. However, in the practice, the planning of historic district are also influenced by surrounding environment, target position, consumption ability and the one-stop demand of tourists. Experience is a very complicated feeling and every experience element is connected with each other. Therefore, how to apply the hierarchy of tourism experience to the division segment and how to allocate the six experiences in a harmonious ratio is the key point in the future research. Furthermore, due to the differences of resource value, protection status and urban hierarchy, it is may not be essential to create the experience from six aspects.

REFERENCES Caffyn, A., & Lutz, J. (1999). Developing the heritage tourism product in multi-ethnic cities. Tourism Management, 20(2), 213–221. doi:10.1016/ S0261-5177(98)00075-2 Chang, H. (2005). Tourist utilization of conservation districts of historic sites in Beijing. Beijing City Planning & Construction Review, (2), 113-115. Cleland, D. (2002). Tourist in Historic Towns: Urban Conservation and Heritage Management. Journal of Urban Design, (1): 100–101. Fei, Y. (1999). Phenomenology and the Spirit of Place. Journal of Wuhan Urban Construction Institute, 16(4), 20–24. Gross, M. J., & Brown, G. (2008). An empirical structural model of tourists and places: Progressing involvement and place attachment into tourism. Tourism Management, 29(6), 1141–1151. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2008.02.009 Huang, L. (2004). A Model for Tourist Experiences and Development of Scenic Spots. Journal of Lanzhou University, 32(6), 104–108. Li, J., Zhang, X., & Zheng, S. (2005). Tourist Experiences: A New View of Tourism Planning. Geography and Geo-Information Science, 21(6), 91–95. Liu, J., Tao, W., & Guo, Y. (2000). Discussion on the tourism development of traditional dwellinghouses: A case study of Pingyao ancient city. Geographical Research, 9(3), 561–567. Pine, J., & Gilmore, J. (2002). The Experience Economy, 10-35.Zurich:China Machine Press. Shen, S., Sha, R., & Wei, X. (2003). The Preliminarily Study on Exploitation of Tourism in Historic Districts. Resource Development & Market, 19(4), 266–270.

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Sim, L. L. (1996). Urban conservation policy and the preservation of historical and cultural heritage: The case of Singapore. Cities (London, England), 13(6), 399–409. doi:10.1016/02642751(96)00027-3 Tiesdell, S., & Heath, T. (2006). Revitalizing historic urban quarters, pp.68-96. Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press, Tiesdell S. (1995). Tensions between revitalization and conservation. Cities (London, England), 12(4), 231–241. doi:10.1016/0264-2751(95)00040-S Wang, J., & Chen, L. (2008). Building Commercial Characteristics Based on Experience Economy: Taking the Case of Investigation of Hefang Street in Hangzhou. Huazhong Architecture, 26(6), 149–153. Wang, N. (1999). Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2), 349–370. doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(98)00103-0 Wang, Q. (2006). Ten trends of tourist consumption in leisure times. Tourism Tribune, 10(21), 7–9.

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Yang, X., & Liu, J. (1998). Research on tourism function system: An analysis of tourism planning object under market orientation. Geography and Territorial Research, 14(1), 59–63. Yu, J., & Zhang, J. (2005). Probing to Visitor Experience Management in Nature Tourist Attractions. Journal of Guilin Institute of Tourism, 16(1), 59–63. Zhang Y., Wei M. (2002). Experience Economy and Reutilization of Historic Block (Architecture). Urban Planning Forum, (3), 72-74. Zheng, B. (2008). Study on Creative Industrial Parks of Cultural Tourism Based on “One-stop Experience”. Tourism Tribune, 23(9), 49–53. Zheng, X. (2004). An Analysis of the Design of Chunxi Road Commercial Pedestrian Mall Based on Place Theory. [Social Sciences]. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University, 5(6), 139–142.

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Chapter 11

A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications Stan Karanasios University of Leeds, UK Stephen Burgess Victoria University, Australia Carmine Sellitto Victoria University, Australia

ABSTRACT This chapter introduces mobile technology and discusses its emergence in the tourism industry. As has been the case with other Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), tourism has manifested as one of the most well suited sectors to mobile technology and mobile applications. In contrast to other ICTs in the tourism domain however, mobile applications are capable of enhancing the tourist experience at the destination, creating a paradigm shift in how information is accessed and digested, and transactions performed. Nonetheless, little is known concerning how mobile technologies are changing the landscape of tourism and tourist behaviour and the content offered by tourism applications. In order to address the scarcity of research in this emergent area this paper focuses on mobile applications in the tourism industry and based on a literature survey proposes a framework for evaluating mobile tourism applications.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch011

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications

INTRODUCTION Information Communication Technologies (ICT) have become a critical element of the tourism industry, forming the ‘info-structure’ (Buhalis & Law, 2008) and the foundation of information access and use. Mobile phones, in particular, are changing the tourism landscape and the modus operandi of destinations, attractions and traditional tourism information sources, as they seek to match the evolving needs of tourists, who demand highspeed access to relevant information and media content on the move. In 2008, the number of mobile subscribers worldwide reached over four billion (ITU, 2009a). Amongst the proliferation of mobile phones, the smart-phone in particular offers advanced capabilities, comparable with PC-like functionality, often equipped with features such as keyboards or touch screens (Charlesworth, 2009; Park & Chen, 2007). Before discussing mobile technologies and applications in the tourism sector, it is useful to begin by examining the overarching historic relationship between ICT and tourism. Tourism has long been recognised as an information-based, and information-intensive industry, well suited to ICT (Inkpen, 1994; Poon, 1993; Sheldon, 1997). Over the last ten years in particular, there has been an increase in research concentrating on the Internet and small and large scale operators (Buhalis, 2004; Carroll & Siguaw, 2003; Karanasios & Burgess, 2008), government tourism boards (Raventos, 2006), and tourist behaviour (Davidson & Yu, 2005). Furthermore, research has shown that the preferences and behaviour of tourists have shifted away from standardised packages, designed by tour operators, to individualized products, specifically tailored to customer needs and interests (WTO, 2001), leading to a higher involvement of customers in the planning process (Buhalis, 1999) of which the ICT becomes an important part. Given the suitability between ICT and tourism, it is no surprise that tourism has emerged as one of the most well suited sectors for mobile appli-

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cations. In contrast to other ICTs in the tourism domain however, mobile applications are capable of enhancing the tourist experience at the destination, creating a paradigm shift in how information is accessed and digested, and transactions performed. Werthner and Ricci (2004) suggested that tourists expect to get access to services and information from various devices, whenever and wherever they need it. Others have reasoned that smart-phones have improved the traveller experience (Mamaghani, 2009) and that “mobile travel will soon become ‘a must-have’ utility for travellers” (Langelund, 2007 p. 286). Supporting this, analysis of tourist backpacker trends reveals that tourists desire mobile applications that match the capabilities of their smart-phones (Pearce, Murphy, & Brymer, 2009). Destinations management organisations, aware of visitor behaviour, are developing mobile applications in order to differentiate themselves from other destinations and cater to tourism demands. Hyun, Lee, & Hu (2009) argued that value-added mobile services through destination management organisations should be strategically developed to enhance awareness of a destination, satisfy travel experience, and create destination loyalty. Further, it has been suggested that large and mid-sized travel suppliers and intermediaries are likely to launch mobile services in order to stake a claim for their brand in the mobile sphere (Langelund, 2007). Nonetheless, little is known concerning how mobile technologies are changing the landscape of tourism, tourist behaviour and experience in relation to the content delivery of tourism applications. In this paper we propose a frame of reference for the categorisation of mobile tourism applications and a framework for evaluating mobile tourism applications. This paper is organised as follows. The next section discusses the emergence of mobile tourism applications and the cumulative research in the field. Following this, we outline a means to categorise mobile tourism applications based on their inherent characteristics. Building

A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications

on this we then propose a framework that can be used to evaluate mobile tourism applications based on their characteristics. We then outline our future study in which we will validate the proposed framework and expand knowledge on the characteristics of mobile applications in the tourism domain.

LITERATURE SURVEY ON MOBILE TOURISM APPLICATIONS The extant literature informs us there is already some use of mobile tourism applications and innovative mobile data use such as mobile cultural guides (Alfaro, 2005), use of mobile information systems at sporting events (Peters, Piazolo, Koster, & Promberger), mobile check-in (Mamaghani, 2009), mobile positioning data to track tourists movements (Ahas, Aasa, Roose, Mark, & Silm, 2008) and the use of mobile technology in order to receive payments (Karanasios, 2008). More broadly, mobile phones have been used for some time as a communication medium to coordinate tourism activities. A review of the grey literature also reveals a variety of innovative navigation, entertainment and travel mobile applications available on the market. According to Gartner (2009), Symbian accounted for 49 percent of worldwide smart-phone operating systems (OS) market share in the first quarter of 2009, down from 57 percent share in the first quarter of 2008. RIM’s smart-phone OS market share reached 20 percent in the first quarter of 2009, up from 13 percent share in the first quarter of the previous year. The iPhone OS accounted for 11 percent of the market, up from 5 percent market share in the first quarter of 2008, however it is clear that the iPhone, and in particular its iTunes platform, continues to reshape the mobile market landscape. Mobile applications as a whole have experienced limited success in the tourism domain. Moreover, many tourism applications reported in the academic literature appear to be in the

conceptual or prototype phase, and it is unclear if they have experienced any live deployment or commercialisation. One reason for the lack of appropriation and success is due to the lack of an in-depth study and design from the perspective of the specific characteristics of tourism. Rather, design has taken place in deterministic and technocentric fashion. Along these lines, Chalmers (2003) and Schwinger (2002) suggested it is the social aspect of leisure, or its context, that may be the most important yet most challenging to support. And despite the ability of context-awareness to provide timely information in context and dynamic adaptation the early literature suggests that it has not been embedded in tourism applications (Schwinger, et al., 2002). Moreover, there are a range of privacy and invasive repercussions associated with the technology. In fact, the emergence of mobile location services have paved the way for potentially intrusive marketing strategies and a range of trust issues (Giaglis, Kourouthanassis, & Tsamakos, 2003; Xu & Gutierrez, 2006). Another factor of relevance is that while we have seen an exponential increase in the number of mobile devices around the world, smart-phones are not as widely diffused in many parts of the world. Moving forward towards 4G and mobile broadband, we are likely to see a greater mismatch of mobile devices and applications and network technology. Despite this, these emergent mobile broadband technologies will further transform the tourism sector, although this has not featured heavily in the tourism literature. Buhalis and Law (2008) mentioned the potential of emergent technologies such as WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for microwave Access) in the tourism domain, which is a mobile broadband technology offering higher speeds than 3G or Wi-Fi, vehicular use, triple play services and improved connectivity (Roh & Yanover, 2009). This is important as it is widely expected that mobile tourism applications are likely to grow. Juniper Research (2006) predict that the total global market for all forms of mobile leisure, mobile sport, and information

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data services (content and messaging), including alerts, SMS and MMS messaging/information services, chatting, wallpaper and images, video clips, streamed video, is estimated to grow to around $9.5 billion by 2011. Most existing mobile tourism solutions either represent of-the-shelf applications with rigidly defined content or involve portable devices with networking capabilities that access tourist content with the requirement of continuous wireless network coverage (Kenteris, Gavalas, & Economou, 2009). Most of these are a combination of downloadable applications with online capabilities, or are operated from a web enabled website. Location and context-aware applications remain the ‘killer application’, and many tourism related applications are bundled with some form of location aware feature. Dey (2001 p. 5) define context “as any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place, or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application, including the user and applications themselves”. Therefore, context-aware mobile tourism applications are concerned with the convergence of location, activity, identity and time in order to provide adapted information and services. For example, ‘Murshid’ an application for tourists visiting the United Arab Emirates embodies context-awareness, sensing the user’s context, analysing it, and providing the most suitable guidance accordingly. The system uses a context model that includes the user location, user profile, current date, event information, and user interaction (Echtibi, Zemerly, & Berri, 2009). At the same time, research has pointed to the absence and lack of user familiarity with context-aware services, as many context-aware applications exist only as conceptual research prototypes (Goh, Ang, Alton, & Lee, 2009) and existing systems provide only trivial information (Schöning, Hecht, & Starosielski, 2008).

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A CLASSIFICATION FOR TOURISM APPLICATIONS A review of the extant literature reveals that mobile tourism applications have covered a wide range of tools and functionality. This has suggested a degree of confusion in the mobile application sector, as the unmanageable number of diverse functionalities and devices continue to grow. In order to help distinguish between tourism applications a frame of reference is required that accounts for the range of characteristics of the applications. Kenteris (2009 p.104) categorised existing commercial applications and research approaches in the field of mobile tourism within three main categories: •

• •

Tourist or museum guides with pre-installed applications that cannot be customized according to user preferences. Mobile devices used to access mobile web portals to browse tourist information. Mobile electronic guides devices using either wireless or mobile network connections to access context-aware services.

There is an unclear distinction however between an application in the sense that it is downloaded on the mobile device and the access of a mobile enabled website from the handset, due to the overlap between the two. Furthermore, beyond mobile tourist guides, there is another distinct group of tourism related applications that have emerged alongside the proliferation of smart-phones. These include location-based services such as navigation and orientation tools (i.e. Google Maps), and a range of other travel tools such as translators (i.e. iPhone translator), currency converters (.i.e. iCurrency Converter), flight trackers (i.e. flightview.com), and contextaware restaurant recommenders (i.e. ZAGAT To Go). These can be described as complementary mobile travel tools, and are distinct from tourism guides and range in their sophistication. For

A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications

example, a currency converter can be described as a ‘dressed-up’ calculator, while flight tracking applications have more sophisticated capabilities. Further, many of these tools are distinct as they can be used in everyday life, not just in the travel scenario. The literature concerning this later group of mobile travel applications reveals little. Consequently, there is scarcity of understanding concerning these applications, despite their ability to transform the travel experience. Google Maps, unsurprisingly, has featured in the literature to some extent. For instance, Riegelsberger and Nakhimovsky (2008) from Google discussed a two-week field trial of Google Maps for Mobile (in London, Manchester, Hamburg, and Munich); however, they examined the application through the lens of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), rather than an analysis of the characteristics and delivery features.

We propose a two tier categorisation of mobile tourism applications: destination guides and travel tools. However, whilst we distinguish between the two sets of mobile tourism applications, there is potential for considerable overlap. For instance, a destination guide may have a restaurant finder or navigation feature built into it. We also form a distinction between downloadable applications and mobile web enabled applications. Much debate has centred on the downloadable applications versus solely browser based application, and which will succeed as the dominant platform. For instance, pre-installed applications in the main cannot be updated and therefore suffer the same problems as books and other traditional sources. Figure 1 sets a taxonomy based on general principles of the applications.

Figure 1. Taxonomy of tourism applications

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EVALUATION OF MOBILE TOURISM APPLICATIONS The previous section outlined a frame of reference for categorising tourism application. Beyond this, there is also a need to understand and evaluate mobile applications, for a number of reasons. From a design perspective, unlike windows-based applications there is no standard user interface for smart-phones and a range of competing devices and thus capabilities and functions, resulting in a lack of standardization and different directions of innovation. Therefore, it is difficult to develop applications for the mobile environment that will behave in a similar manner on all devices and in different environments. From a theoretical perspective, mobile technologies have challenged existing theoretical frames of information access and use by transforming the spatial and temporal context. From a tourism perspective, it is clear that for destinations and operators alike there is a fundamental need to understand how mobile applications work in order to adapt strategies accordingly to meet the needs of potential visitors. Further, as mobile broadband subscriptions overtook fixed broadband subscriptions in 2008 (ITU, 2009b), there is a need to understand the characteristics of mobile applications and how they are utilized in order to shape the next wave of mobile tourism applications and best prepare actors in the tourism industry. Previous attempts to evaluate mobile applications have focused on mobile tourist guides and applications and investigated specific issues at the prototyping and pilot stage, such as support for maps or mobility issues, the kinds of services which were offered and how these services are delivered to the end-user (Eisenhauer, Oppermann, & Schmidt-Belz, 2003; Grün, Werthner, Proll, Retschitzegger, & Schwinger, 2008; Kray & Baus, 2003). Against this backdrop, there is also significant inquiry into mobile technology from the perspective of HCI (Kjeldskov J., 2004; Uden, Valderas, & Pastor, 2008), which has informed

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the mobile application research and development. Studies have also developed frameworks in order to measure usability of the physical artifact (Heo, Ham, Park, Song, & Yoon, 2009), the user interface (Ismail, Osman, & Wahab, 2009; Lee, Hong, Smith-Jackson, Nussbaum, & Tomioka, 2006), heuristics, prototypes and design (Economou, Gavalas, Kenteris, & Tsekouras, 2008; Kenteris, et al., 2009), and how mobile applications can add value to destinations and tourists alike (Nielsen, 2004). However, a review of the literature reveals little concerning how actual applications may be evaluated based on their characteristics. Internet frameworks that have been developed and used in order to categorise virtual market spaces created by the Internet, such as Anghern’s (1997) ICDT model, while successfully applied to Internet and tourism (Karanasios & Burgess, 2006), become problematic when applied to mobile technologies. This is because mobile technologies have introduced a new frame of reference concerning how information and communication is exchanged, and therefore a new paradigm is required that captures the spatial and temporal changes facilitated by mobile technologies. Some authors have classified mobile applications based on navigation, information, advertising, tracking, billing and emergency features and their underlying technologies and services (Giaglis, 2003), or based on transaction management, content delivery and telemetry services (Senn, 2000). Varshney & Vetter (2002) developed a more detailed scheme that classified mobile applications based on activity, such as product location and shopping, mobile advertising and distance education amongst others. Andreou et al., (2002) suggested that one way to classify mobile services and applications is based on the functionality they provide to the mobile users. This kind of classification results in two major classes: the directory and the transaction-oriented services and applications. The major distinction between these two classes of services is that in the case of the former a mobile user performs only read

A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications

requests to the directory, whereas in the latter a user performs read and write requests to the transaction server, although they do acknowledge that there is an overlap between both classes. Others have sought to use benefit related categories of mobile technologies, in order to categorise mobile application features (Clarke, 2001; Sheng, Nah, & Siau, 2005; Siau, 2001; Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2006). These usually include notions of ubiquity, convenience, flexibility, interactivity, personalisation and or localisation. However, whilst useful in understanding some generic applications, such structures are overly simplistic, and provide little basis for understanding dynamic tourism applications. Further, benefits such as ubiquity and convenience are now a ‘given’ in the sphere of smart-phone technology. Grün et al., (2008) developed a framework that considers the services offered to tourists during their on-trip phase and the delivery aspects of these services in terms of customizing information around points

of interests (POIs). The framework is based on three delivery factors: Service Delivery, Service Initiation and Service Customisation and is illustrated in Figure 2. There are three dimensions to the framework. The delivery dimension includes information (that may be accessed), transaction (reservations, bookings and ticketing), community (social integration and networking) and distribution (receive digital products) activities that may be undertaken using a mobile application (Grün, et al., 2008). The customisation dimension refers to the extent that information sent to the user is customized, characterized by the awareness of the current user situation (considering context factors such as device, user profile, location or time) and by the notion of adaptation of services with respect to the context (Grün, et al., 2008). The following two examples provide some delineation between context and adaptation:

Figure 2. Tourism application delivery mechanisms, adapted from Grün, et al. (2008)

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Table 1. Mobile tourism application evaluation framework Framework Dimension

Service Delivery

Customisation

Initiation

Application type

Feature

Criteria used to evaluate smart phone application

Information

User receives information about objects of interests

Transaction

User is able to initiate a tourism transaction via the smart phone application. For example booking a flight, restaurant, etc*

Community

User is provided with opportunities to participate in real-time feedback allowing tourism operators to be rated, reviewed (blogs) etc

Context

The awareness of the current users situation considering context factors such as device, user profile, location or time

Adaptation

Adaptation of services with respect to the context

Push

Information is automatically sent to user without any explicit request

Pull

Requested user-triggered search process for specific information. Includes user triggered or opt-in push services

Pre-installed –Live

Applications that are downloaded to the phone, directly over a mobile network or from a computer that once initiated access to mobile network

Pre-installed -Static

Applications that are downloaded to the phone, directly over a mobile network or from a computer that once initiated do not access the mobile network

Web based

Mobile applications that are not downloaded but are accessed through the mobile phone browser (therefore requiring some download)

Source: Adapted from Kenteris (2009) and Grün, et al. (2008), * Refers to transactions made through the application, not where there is a link to another tourism service mobile website

1. Context factors. Plain tailored content delivered to a user based on location or basic user profile, for example, where to eat based on users current location or postcode. 2. Adaptation. Based on location, user profile (preferences) and pre-stored trip information a user may be advised where to eat based on, food preferences, current location, nearby restaurant opening times, public transport information, and five-star rating. In many ways, this acts as a recommender service based on the user’s personal interests and the current location (Schmidt-Belz & Poslad, 2003). The initiation of delivery dimension can be classified into either pull (user-triggered search processes) and push services (automatically delivered information, without explicit user request) (Grün, et al., 2008). The former may be improved by including contextual information that may be automatically retrieved. An example of the lat-

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ter is the mobile tourism application prototype CRUMPET, which gives pro-active unobtrusive ‘tips’ to the user when they neared a sight that may be of interest (Schmidt-Belz & Poslad, 2003).

THE STUDY In order to augment our understanding of mobile applications in tourism in the next phase of our research we will evaluate the characteristics of a number of tourism mobile applications, using the framework proposed in Table 1 below. Similar approaches have been used by other authors (Grün, et al., 2008; Schwinger, et al., 2002). The framework is based on the categorisation of mobile application proposed and the model developed by Grün, et al., (2008). Unlike, Grün, et al., (2008) we have ommited Distribution as a Delivery feature, as there is little basis for delivering products via a mobile phone. Furthermore, it is a confusing distinction, as the information delivered to mobile phones

A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications

is dynamic and may be in many forms. Grün, et al.(2008) also found that no mobile applications ‘delivered’ information products and services. Other studies that have applied the ICDT model (Angehrn, 1997) to tourism and the electronic space have omitted the distribution space reasoning there was no electronic product to distribute (Karanasios & Burgess, 2006). In order to select a representative sample of applications we propose the following selection criteria: 1. The applications should be a Business-toConsumer application that can be used during travel rather than during post or pre-travel. 2. The application should be designed for use on one or more smart-phone type, therefore a qualifier is that it should be mobile web based or a downloadable application, rather than an SMS or voice based service. 3. In order to include a sample of a range of travel tools the applications should represent a range downloadable applications and web enabled applications for comparison and include a spread of tourism activities i.e. flights, restaurants, accommodation, visiting attractions and so forth. We make a clear distinction between smartphones and WAP enabled phones. Whilst some applications may be accessible on WAP phones, we are predominately concerned with smart-phone technology. Other studies have shown that certain applications designed for smart-phones have not been realized for extremely limited devices such as WAP phones (Schmidt-Belz & Poslad, 2003). At the same time, we recognise some applications may be designed for more than one platform. Table 1 outlines the evaluation frame of reference that will be adopted for our study, which has been derived from Figure 1 and Figure 2.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS It is unequivocal that mobile applications represent the next wave of information access and use, altering the way many people interface with and experience a destination. In this paper we presented a discussion on the emergence of mobile applications in the tourism sector and proposed a frame of reference that can be used to categorise the diverse range of applications available. Further, we presented a framework for evaluating mobile tourism applications and outlined our future study. The next phase of our research will validate the relevance of the framework and provide a better understanding of mobile tourism applications and their characteristics. It is important to place some limitations on the embryonic work presented in this paper. First, we have generalised the service delivery elements to refer to the maximum capability of an individual feature of a mobile tourism application. Similarly, in some cases not all the functions may be available on all types of smart-phones. We will attempt to counter these limitations by evaluating the applications across a number of smart-phone platforms, where applicable. Further, the framework is only capable of examining the characteristics of the tourism applications that are identifiable through its use. It is beyond the exposition of our analysis to capture the HCI elements, technical specifications or issues relating to information behaviour. These however, provide fruitful areas of future research, particular those relating to information behaviour and mobile applications from the perspective of the user. A further limitation of our study is the temporal constraint, this is because the applications will increase in sophistication, as will the handsets and network technologies. Therefore, we will capture a snapshot of the tourism mobile application panorama. Nonetheless, the evaluation framework proposed is representative literature and will suit the purpose of our exercise.

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Chapter 12

Personal Tour:

A Multi-Agent Recommender System of Travel Packages Fabiana Lorenzi Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Brazil Stanley Loh Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil & Universidade Católica de Pelotas, Brazil Mara Abel Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

ABSTRACT This chapter describes the Personal Tour: a multi-agent recommender system designed to help users to find best travel packages according to their preferences. Personal Tour is based on the collaboration of multiple agents exchanging information stored in their local knowledge bases. Based on the paradigm of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence, a user recommendation request is divided into partial recommendations handled by different agents, each one maintaining incomplete information that may be useful to compose a recommendation.

INTRODUCTION Users of e-Commerce Web sites still face the information overload problem. Recommender Systems (RSs) have been proposed and developed to cope with this problem (Resnick et al., 1994), and more in general to support the information selection and decision making processes on eDOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch012

Commerce Web sites. These systems are being applied in different domains (Gunawardana & Meek, 2009). Multi-agent recommender systems are being used for managing information from different sources in domains where the knowledge is distributed. Agents are able to retrieve, filter and use information that may be relevant to recommendation decision process.

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Personal Tour

This paper presents Personal Tour, a multiagent recommender system that helps users to find travel packages according to their preferences. Agents can exploit knowledge about previous recommendations in order to determine solutions that suit the wishes and needs of a customer. They are able to aggregate information and match the recommendations with the information that the user is looking for. Personal Tour has features that help to generate better recommendations, such as: •

•

• •

Agents are able to perform parts of the recommendation (for example, locomotion ways) in order to cooperate for presenting the final recommendation to the user (the whole travel package); Agents are able to exchange information with other agents from the community when necessary; Agents become experts in specific part of the recommendation; Agents have specific knowledge (for example, alternative flights from different companies) and they are able to search for information needed for the recommendation in their own knowledge bases.

This paper is organized as follow: presented first is the related work in multi-agent recommender systems, followed by the Personal Tour and its components, then some experiments done in order to validate the system are discussed and finally, the last section presents some conclusions and future work.

RELATED WORK Multi-agent models have been applied to retrieve, filter and use information relevant to the requested recommendations. MAPWEB (Camacho et al., 2006), for example, is a multi-agent approach that plans travels according to the preferences of the

user. It has 4 different agents: UserAgent, that is responsible for the communication between the user and the system; the PlannerAgent, that is responsible for planning the travel; the Webbot, that is responsible for searching information in Internet; and the CoachAgent that acts like a coach for the group of agents, controlling them and assigning tasks to them. The agents are able to store the generated plans as cases and use these cases to build new plans. The disadvantage of MAPWEB is the fact that the CoachAgent controls and manages the tasks and it controls the possible communications and indicates who must help who. Moreover, there is no process to validate the knowledge of the agents. Agents may work with outdated information during the planning process generating bad recommendations. In Personal Tour there is no central knowledge or task manager, so the division of tasks is made by common agree among the agents in the system and according to the specialty of each agent. SmartClient (Torrens et al., 2002) is another multi-agent system applied in the tourism domain that helps the user to plan a flight route by representing the space of solutions (recommendations) as constraint satisfaction problems. Users define the departure city, the cities they want to visit and the travel dates. With these preferences in hand, the system builds a constraint satisfaction network able to exploit the possible routes. This approach has a couple of disadvantages. First, it collects route information from the server only once to avoid several costly accesses. That limits the search space because and it is not possible for the user to modify the preferences and to refine the query. Secondly, the domain variables involved in the constraint network are fixed by the system and it is not possible to explore solutions that are not originally in the search space. In Personal Tour users may criticize the recommendation received, refining the query through the modification of the informed preferences.

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Personal Tour

MAPWEB and SmartClient differ from Personal Tour in three aspects. First, in Personal Tour, an agent is fully autonomous and it can decide which task it will perform according to the specific knowledge it has. Second, agents are able to become experts in some part of the recommendation through their confidence degrees. Third, agents are able to assume information during the recommendation process in cases of missing information necessary to generate a recommendation.

THE PERSONAL TOUR RECOMMENDER SYSTEM Personal Tour is a multi-agent recommender system designed to help users to find best travel packages according to their preferences. It is based on the collaboration of multiple agents exchanging information stored in their local knowledge bases, following the Distributed Artificial Intelligence paradigm. This multi-agent recommender system was projected to be used in travel agencies where travel agents have to deal with specific customers’ needs and broad knowledge about tourism options, have to exchange information among them and many times they have to suppose information about customers in order to generate recommendation of a travel package. Due the multi-agent feature, the system may be used for different travel agents at same time, solving several recommendation requests in an asynchronous way. A user recommendation request is divided into partial recommendations (different travel services) handled by different agents, each one maintaining incomplete information that may be useful to compose a recommendation and accomplishing part of the whole task.

Cycle of Recommendation A cycle of recommendation in Personal Tour, as shown in Figure 1, starts collecting the prefer-

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ences from the user through the main interface (step 1) for each travel service (flight, hotel and attractions). These preferences are used to create the tasks of the recommendation that will be performed by the agents of the system (step 2). In step 3, agents choose tasks to solve (according to their confidence in each travel service) and from this moment they start to perform the tasks searching for the information necessary to compose the recommendation. Agents have two ways of searching information: local, when agents search in their knowledge base (step 4a); or in the community, when agents cooperate, communicating to each other to get the information (step 4b). The local knowledge base is composed by historical data from other customers’ travels, storing each recommendation presented to the customer (information about flights, hotels and attractions generated by the system to each request of the user). This information is structured as cases following the Case-based Reasoning approach, where the description of the problem is the user’s request and the description of the solution is the recommendation presented by the agents. After the task is solved, agents change the status of the performed task (step 5) and the results of all tasks are returned to the interface (step 6) that is responsible for presenting the whole recommendation to the user (step 7). To complete the cycle of recommendation, the user evaluates the recommendation received and this evaluation is stored in the agents’ knowledge base (step 8). The combination of agents with the decomposition of the customer request in small parts (tasks) is a feature that allows Personal Tour to present a complete recommendation to customers and this is an important feature to a recommender system applied in the tourism domain. After receiving the customer’s preferences, Personal Tour creates the list L of tasks and the available agents are able to choose tasks to perform. An interesting feature of Personal Tour is the fact that the available tasks are interdependent

Personal Tour

Figure 1. A recommendation cycle in Personal Tour

but agents may perform them asynchronously. For example, tasks of hotel and attractions are dependent of the flight information and they should be performed after receiving the information provided by flight task. However, agents have an assumption component that helps to deal with this issue (this will be further explained in the section Assumptions).

Customer Profile The customer model in Personal Tour is composed by the preferences of the customer for each

travel service informed in the main interface and it is represented by U t {i1, , im } where each im represents a preference. Every time the customer asks for a new recommendation, the current preferences are stored in a new XML file. This file is named with the customer name and the current date. The set of all XML files of the customers compose the customer profile and may be used to infer information about the customer when necessary. Figure 2 shows an example of the XML file with a request of the customer.

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Personal Tour

Figure 2. Example of the XML file with a customer request

Agents Personal Tour consists of a set of agents defined as C = {a1, a2 , , an } , where we assume that agents work in a cooperative way and they know each other. An agent is able to perform a part of the recommendation in response to a user query. Figure 3 shows the agent architecture with its main components that are: •

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Knowledge. An agent has its knowledge base where it stores all recommendations

•

performed. The knowledge is stored in the knowledge base as cases and each customer request generates 3 cases (a case of flight, a case of hotel and a case of attraction); Assumptions. An agent is capable of assuming some information in order to perform a task. These assumptions are related to the data that is not available as the time the agent needs it during the recommendation process; for example, agent1 is performing a task of hotel and it needs information about the flight (that is being performed by

Personal Tour

Figure 3. Architecture of the agent

•

agent3). If it does not receive the information from agent3, if may assume this information in order to solve the task; Specialization. Agents become experts in some type of task and this specialization helps agents to decide which task they should perform during the recommendation process.

When an agent does not have information necessary to complete the chosen task, we say that agents cooperate. In Personal Tour, this cooperation is considered a capability of the agent and it is given by the communication among agents that exchange information in order to complete its part of the recommendation.

Local Knowledge/Case Base Each agent has a case-base where all the tasks performed are stored as cases. Each case is composed by the description of the problem (that is represented by the set of preferences informed by the user) and the description of the solution (represented by the recommendation generated by the agent and the evaluation given by the user to this recommendation). Each case is composed by:

•

•

The Request of the User. The query is the set of needs and preferences chosen by the user. The Recommendation. The recommendation generated by the agent to the travel service.

Assumptions As tasks are interdependent, some of them should be performed before others. However, as the agents work asynchronously, sometimes the order of tasks is not respected by the agents and it may cause lack of information during the recommendation process. Assumptions allow agents to reason with incomplete information (by making guesses), i.e., they represent knowledge that the agent supposes to believe. When an agent is performing a task that depends on the result from another one, it may assume information rather than waiting for the information from other agent. For example, if agent1 is performing hotel task, it needs information about the flight in order to know which hotel is better to recommend but the flight task is being performed by agent2. It may happen that agent2 take too long to solve its task or it may become unavailable during the recommendation process. These problems can generate a large, even more

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than expected, delay in the answering time which is not good for the system. In order to use assumptions during the recommendation process it is necessary to formulate the set of assumptions that agents may access. We propose two different methods to generate the set of assumptions during the recommendation process: •

•

The most popular option in the community of users. If the customer has no profile in the system yet, then the agent sums the number of occurrence of each option for each attribute in the past travels of all customers stored and the most popular option will be used by the agent as assumption; Similar Cases. The agent searches for the most similar customer in its case base and uses the options to the new customer. In order to find the most similar customer, the agent uses the similarity measure, comparing attributes of the new customer with all customers in its knowledge base. Here, it is necessary to define a threshold that represents how much the case is similar to the new customer.

In Personal Tour the hotel and attraction tasks depend on the information from the flight task. Regarding the hotel task, for instance, the agent needs information about the arrival time in order to accomplish its recommendation. The use of assumptions in the recommendation process guarantees that agents are able to complete their tasks even when there is lack of information during the recommendation process and in an acceptable time for the user, without jeopardizing the performance of the system.

Specialization In Personal Tour, an agent may become expert in a specific travel service during the recommendation cycles. The agent has one confidence degree for

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each travel service (flight, hotel and attractions). These confidence degrees represent how much the agent is expert in each travel service and agents use them to choose the tasks to perform. The confidence degrees of each agent are updated according to the new evaluations received from the customer. The new evaluation may increase (if the customer liked the recommendation presented by the agent) or decrease (if the customer did not like it) the agent confidence degree for the travel service. If the user’s evaluation was positive, then the confidence degree will be increased which means that the agent will become more expert in the travel service. On the other hand, if the user’s evaluation was negative, the confidence degree will be decreased.

Customers Evaluations The customer has an important role in the recommendation process evaluating the recommendations presented by the system. After receiving the final recommendation, the customer evaluates each item of each travel service with a rate: “I like it” (represented by 1) or “I did not like it” (represented by 0). This evaluation is used to update the confidence degrees of the agents. The confidence degrees are increased or decreased according to the received evaluations. Thus, the evaluation model is represented by a vector E = e (i1, r1 ), ..., e (i m , rm ) , that

{

}

describes the evaluation of the user about the recommendation item received (rm ) , considering the preference informed by the user in the query (im ) . The final evaluation rate to each travel service is a value between the range [0, 1]. Equation 1 shows how the final evaluation rate (v ( t n )) is calculated to each travel service, where m is the number of attributes for the travel

Personal Tour

service and e (i j, rj ) is the evaluation rate for the attribute i j . v(t n

∑ )=

m j =1

e(im , , rm ) m



(1)

We consider good recommendation when v tn = 0.5 , i.e., when user has rated as “I liked it” at least half of the attributes recommended.

Updating the Confidence Degrees The task evaluation is then used in the agent confidence degree computation so that the agent increases the confidence regarding a travel service when it solves the task in a better way. As the confidence degree represents how much an agent is becoming an expert in a specific travel service, it is used by the agent to choose the task it will perform. Thus, agents consider their confidence degrees when they choose the next task to perform. When L is available, the agent will choose one task that belongs to the travel service with the greater confidence degree. For example, if its confidence degree is 0.4 in flight, 0.6 in hotel and 0.2 in attraction, the agent will choose a hotel task to perform because it has more expertise in hotel tasks than others. We use Equation 2 to update confidence degrees where: •

z is the number of evaluations received for the travel service t n performed by a i ; Ө is the number of days elapsed since the evaluation; T is a constant that defines the weight of the evaluation v ( t n ) in the update of the

• •

confidence degrees of the agents. tn ai , ai

T

∑ =

z x =1

(t )

(vx n × e−τθ )

∑

z x =1

e−τθ



(2)

T tn ai, ai returns a value between 0 and 1, where 0 represents the minimum confidence degree of a i in the travel service t and 1 represents the

maximum confidence degree of a i in the travel

service t . T has to be set according to the number of days (Ө) the evaluation lasts. An important feature of the specialization applied in Personal Tour is that when updating the confidence degrees in each agent it considers that most recent evaluations have more influence than old evaluations.

Cooperation In Personal Tour, agents are able to cooperate with each other, exchanging information during the recommendation process. When an agent does not find in its knowledge base the information necessary to generate the recommendation requested in the task, it may communicate with other agents, asking for the information. For example, if a 3 is solving an attraction task and it does not have information about attractions in Lisbon City, it may ask to other agents in the community. In this cooperation process, the agent sends a message to all available agents in the community asking for the information. Then, it chooses the first agent that answered and stores the received information in its knowledge base. However, it might happen that nobody in the community has the information and nobody will answer. In this case, the agent will starts its assumption component in order to generate the recommendation. We defined a waiting time of 30s, before uses assumptions.

EXPERIMENTS Experiments were done to validate the Personal Tour. The first step was the knowledge acquisition where 300 cases were obtained from real custom-

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ers of a travel agency, to create the case-bases of the agents. Each case represents one travel and is composed with flight, hotel and attractions information that corresponds to 900 performed tasks. As different users may use the system at same time, more than 3 agents are necessary in the system to have a good performance. In our experiments, 10 agents were created in the community. The cases obtained from the travel agency were randomly stored in the knowledge bases agents. The agents are not seen by the user and they run background in the system. Figure 4 shows the main interface where the user interacts with Personal Tour. In order to generate a recommendation, agents need to know the needs of the user, such as, destination, departure date and number of passengers. In this first version, only one destination may be selected. This issue is being worked for the next version. As mentioned previously, a travel package must be composed by three travel services: flight, hotel and attractions (but the customer may choose which travel services he wants in the travel package). An important feature of the Personal Tour is that these preferences are dynamic and the user may insert a new feature in the request moment. The Personal Tour was run in a travel agency for 2 months (June and July/2010) in order to validate the recommendations generated by the agents. During these experimental months, the recommendations requested by the customers were generated in two ways in parallel: by a human travel agent (the expert of the travel agency) and by the Personal Tour (by the agents of the system). The human travel expert is a travel agent that works in a travel agency for more than 15 years and is expert in travel packages recommendations. Both recommendations were showed to the customers that evaluated them. As shown in the Customers Evaluations section, the user evaluates all the attributes of the recommendation with a rate 0 or 1 (negative/positive), in each travel service (flight, hotel and attractions). The evaluation by attribute will be used in future improvements of

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Personal Tour where agents will generate a new recommendation according to the negative rates of the user and update the user profile. Next, we asked the customers to evaluate the recommendations received (the travel package) and to indicate which one they prefer to buy (with the rate “I would like to buy it” or “I would not like to buy it”). Thus, the number of recommended travel packages that the customers would like to buy was considered as a metric. From the 73 travel packages recommended by the Personal Tour, 66 travel packages were rated with “I would like to buy it”, i.e., and 61 travel packages recommended by the expert were indicated as “I would like to buy it” which represents 83.56%. Table 1 shows the percentage of purchasable travel packages during the experimental months of Personal Tour. We can see that agents had performance superior to the expert in the generation of the recommendations. We claim that the results of the purchasable travel packages using the system was better due the fact that the specific knowledge is distributed over agents that are capable of cooperate and assume information during the recommendation process. In real travel agency, the recommendation is performed by only one human travel agent, in a centralized way. Distributing the knowledge in different agents and letting them become experts in travel services improve the quality of the recommendations.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK This paper presented a multi-agent recommender system, called Personal Tour, applied to the tourism domain in order to recommend travel packages. A recommendation is divided in tasks and each agent is responsible to perform some tasks. Agents work in a cooperative way to recommend travel packages to the user.

Personal Tour

Figure 4. Personal Tour main interface

Agents become experts in a specific travel service over time. We can say that agents become travel agents, where each one has specific knowledge and the cooperation among them results in good recommendations. This feature helps the system to mimic what happens in a travel agency where each travel agent has specific knowledge about a travel service and the cooperation among all them generates the final recommendation to the customer. Personal Tour has an assumption component that enables agents to assume information during the recommendation process when there is lack of information to generate a recommendation. The system was tested in a real travel agency and the results obtained after two months of use showed that Personal Tour is capable of improving the recommendations presented to customers, due

the fact that agents have their knowledge bases and they cooperate during the recommendation process. Decomposing the problem and distribute it to several different agents that become more and more specialized can yield good recommendations, even when applied to tourism that is a complex domain that needs specific knowledge distributed over different sources. Personal Tour is applied in the tourism domain but we believe that the approach may help customers in other applications that deal with dynamic and distributed knowledge to generate recommendations. As future work we want to develop a mechanism to validate the assumptions used by agents in the recommendation process. In this version of Personal Tour, agents generate and manipulate assumptions but we do not consider what happen

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Table 1. Percentage of purchasable travel packages in the experimental months Method of recommendation

Percentage of purchasable travel packages

Personal Tour

90.41

Human Expert

83.56

when an assumption received a negative evaluation and this is important to improve the process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was partially supported by the project PERSONAL TOUR: an intelligent software for personalized tourism packages, under support from CNPQ (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Brasil, grant n. 561408/2010-6) and from FINEP (Agência Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos - Brasil, program PRIME).

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REFERENCES Camacho, D., Molina, J. M., Borrajo, D., & Aler, R. (2002). Multi-agent plan based information gathering. [Hingham, MA.]. Applied Intelligence, 25(1), 59–71. doi:10.1007/s10489-006-8866-z Gunawardana, A., & Meek, C. (2009). A unified approach to building hybrid recommender systems. In Proceedings of the third ACM conference on Recommender systems - RecSys’09, (pp. 117–124) New York:ACM. Macho, S., Torrens, M., & Faltings, B. (2000) A multi-agent recommender system for planning meetings. In Workshop on Agent-Based Recommender Systems (WARS’2000). Resnick, P., Iacovou, N., Suchak, M., Bergstrom, P., & Riedl, J. (1994). GroupLens: an open architecture for collaborative filtering of netnews. In ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, (pp.175–186). Torrens, M., Faltings, B., & Pu, P. (2002). SmartClient: constraint satisfaction as a paradigm for scaleable intelligent information systems. CONSTRAINTS: an International Journal, 7(1), 49–69. doi:10.1023/A:1017940426216

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Chapter 13

Management of World Heritage Sites: An Integrated Sustainable Marketing Approach Deepak Chhabra Arizona State University, USA

ABSTRACT This study seeks to determine sustainable efforts by the world heritage sites (WHS). By gauging the effectiveness and efforts of the WHS to convey viable social, environmental, and economic use of their resource through the medium of website marketing, effort is made to highlight the extent to which sustainability initiatives are visible in the vision and mission and signature websites. In doing so, it makes a significant contribution in heritage tourism literature and communicates a critical assessment of sustainability initiatives to the WHS management and respective states. Mixed results are presented. Although, the World Heritage Convention supports an exhaustive list of site-centric heritage sustainability initiatives associated with conservation and authenticity, other aspects of sustainability such as host community concerns, social and viable economic impact considerations to date have received less attention.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch013

Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Management of World Heritage Sites

INTRODUCTION In the recent years, the world heritage sites have witnessed a phenomenal growth in visitation numbers (Li, Wu & Cai, 2008). Despite the emerging significance of world heritage, it continues to share a dialectic and complex relationship with tourism (Boyd & Butler, 1997). A divide exists between scholars of cultural heritage and scholars of tourism on heritage tourism impacts. According to Lyon, the “practitioners involved in the design of heritage as a visitor attraction face professionals whose interest is focused on the resource and its protection rather than on the question of public access” (2007:62). From a tourism perspective, heritage is a commodity purposefully designed to satisfy the needs of contemporary audience. In line with this view, Taylor (2001) maintains that heritage tourism is motivated by monetary benefits. It has been suggested that dialectic relationship between tourism and heritage can be nurtured through the use of strategic tools such as certifications and sustainable marketing (Chhabra 2010; Lyon 2007). Although sustainability is at the forefront of the ideology behind the world heritage movement today (Aas, Ladkin & Fletcher 2005), it offers limited value due to its somewhat narrow focus on conservation and authenticity thereby denying a broader and integrated approach. In the light of the emerging significance of an integrated perspective of sustainability in heritage tourism, this study seeks to use an integrated sustainable marketing paradigm to determine if a predetermined set of important indicators from the model are visibly implemented by the world heritage sites (WHS). More specifically, the aim is to suggest add-ons to the heritage conservation principles so that a holistic and integrated sustainable paradigm of heritage tourism can be devised. In the recent decades, the global/world form of heritage has received unprecedented attention in heritage tourism, more so because it brings with it a celebrity UNESCO status to the heritage site. The accolade has become a reference point and “a

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measure of quality, trademark, and an authenticity stamp for the heritage tourist” (Rakic and Chambers 2007: 146). The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) aims to facilitate the identification and conservation of cultural and natural heritage across the globe that is considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embedded in the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (adopted by UNESCO in 1972). In brief, the UNESCO’s World Heritage mission is multifold: •

•

•

•

•

•

•

to encourage countries to sign the World Heritage Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage; to encourage States Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List; to encourage States Parties to establish management plans and set up reporting systems on the state of conservation of their WHS; to help States Parties safeguard World Heritage properties by providing technical assistance and professional training; provide emergency assistance for WHS in immediate danger; to support States Parties’ public awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation; to encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage; and to encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage (UNESCO 2010).

The appreciated UNESCO honor has also surfaced as a major marketing tool in the recent years for the world heritage site managers (Lyon 2007; Rakic & Leask, 2006; Rakic & Chambers,

Management of World Heritage Sites

2007). That said, it has also been posited that the “concept of ‘World Heritage’ has drifted from its original purpose. It has become an accreditation scheme, used either to serve the purposes of the tourism industry or for the purposes of nation building” (Rakic & Chambers, 2007: 146). The intention of the original idea was to bestow unique and universal value to selected heritage and advocate support for its conservation. However, recent motivations have extended to nation building, identity and an attraction towards the potential economic numerations by promoting tourism at these. Several authors note that the conservation of heritage sites is being compromised today for financial gains (Bregalia 2005; Drost 1992; Hede, 2007; Winter, 2007). Much blame rests on the tourism industry in that it continues to tap the marketing potential of this designation and as a result, the world heritage has become commodified and is being exploited for contemporary hedonistic pursuits. This view is supported by Winter (2007) in his study of the Angkor Heritage Site. The author reported that the political elite are eager to maximize the World Heritage Listing status as a ‘cash cow’ for tourism development (Winter, 2007:32). Much of the documented literature, thus, reports that heritage shares a problematic relationship with tourism in regard to the WHS (Hede, 2007). The reasons can be attributed to conflicting aims (Drost, 1992). For instance, the goal of a heritage organization is to protect and preserve whereas tourism objectives are slanted towards commercial gains. Conservation and maintenance efforts are affected by wear and tear of increased tourist visitations (Lyon, 2007). Other issues include increased site deterioration and inconvenience and intrusion for the surrounding host communities (Breglia, 2005). Also, misuse of heritage has been reported in terms of the tension between the universal and the national, which implies that there is a conflict between local values bestowed on the site versus universal values imposed by the United Nations and international tourism.

Highlighting issues related to a heritage site (Angkor) as associated with “archaeological preservation, urban growth, and tourism development” (Winter, 2007: 32), the author stresses on the need for an integrated holistic examination of multiple factors to promote sustained use of heritage sites. Parallel to the aforementioned concerns and impacts has emerged an established need for alternative measures to plan, develop and promote sustainable use of the sites and their surrounding environments. Evidence exists of efforts to seek a compromise between heritage and tourism and use of tourism as a tool to promote and conserve heritage (Coetzee et al., 2006; Nuryunti, 1996). It has been postulated that ultimately, heritage and tourism are mutually dependent partners in that “operators and destinations can use them to add value to their products and local services which, in turn, generates greater income from tourists while the heritage sites achieve higher revenues” (Fyall & Rakic, 2006: 162). The use of such ‘iconic’ sites is often deemed indispensable to the marketing of destinations. The WHS can be used as landmarks to enhance destination image by marketing managers to lure both domestic and international tourists. Also, such images characterize dominant and reminiscent symbols of a country’s identity. Being endorsed with the UNESCO logo, for example, not only embodies a sign of ‘quality’ but also captures the attention of potential tourist markets. Nevertheless, the application of tools to promote WHS such as tourism marketing has been condemned for its partial approach towards growth and neglect of externalities on natural, social, and cultural environments (Jamrozy, 2007). Guerin (2000) holds that heritage practitioners are skeptical about the usefulness of marketing in the promotion and preservation of authentic heritage. This view is strengthened by the limited focus in this field of study. For instance, Collison and Spears (2010) conducted field research and used secondary data to figure out marketing strategies to attract cultural and heritage tourists

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Management of World Heritage Sites

to the Marshall Islands. Implications of these strategies on sustainability were remiss. Fullerton, McGettigan and Stephens (2010) have called for marketers to create a balance between visitation impacts and preservation of cultural and heritage resources. Fullerton et al. (2010) suggest demarketing strategies to attract selected group of tourists or reduce visitations to protect the heritage sites. Demarketing can thus be used as a tool to enforce sustainable marketing guidelines. For viable use of heritage sites, it is therefore important that sustainable marketing strategies are devised. The sustainable perspective calls for a holistic, unbiased, and responsible view of marketing (Haywood, 1990; Walle, 1998) which takes current and potential impacts of tourism into consideration. According to Kilbourne, responsible marketing needs to extend beyond microenvironments and promote “sustainable consumption and quality of life and expand the domain of inquiry to include technological, political and economic benefits and costs of consumption, thus challenging the paradigm itself” (1998: 642). In other words, it is implied that marketing strategies should be guided by natural, social, and cultural environments. Sustainable tourism marketing can be defined as a form of marketing that takes cultural, social, economic and environmental perspectives into consideration (Chhabra 2010; Fullerton et al. 2010; Sirakaya, Jamal & Choi 2001). It has been pointed out that sustainable measures can enhance marketing competitiveness in heritage tourism. To date, few studies have examined marketing strategies employed by the WHS from a sustainability perspective although they suggest use of sustainable measures in marketing. Also, a holistic and integrated perspective is required. This paper aims to fill this lacuna by examining marketing efforts of the WHS through evaluation of mission statements and signature websites to gauge the extent to which sustainability is embraced. The mission statement is important because responsible strategies have to form the foundation of

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any organization that supports tourism (Aguilar, 2009) and they serve as a starting point to highlight the key functions of an organization. Therefore, a list of sustainable development indicators can help gauge effectiveness of sustainable promotion efforts in the mission statement and the textual content of the signature websites. The aim of this chapter therefore is to identify gaps between mission statements and the website marketing content and suggest how WHS can use website marketing in a sustainable manner to achieve viable economic, cultural, and social benefits for the site and the host community. In other words, online information can generate awareness and sensitivity towards the visited site. In fact, the effect of online digital information on image formation is being increasingly recognized by the heritage tourism industry (Choi, Lehto & Morrison 2007). Current trends have shifted towards the use of website texts and pictures to promote and advertise destinations. Thus, the underlying purpose of this study is to advocate sustainable development of tourism through the use of marketing tools. In sum, the underlying objective of this study is to review the marketing strategies utilized by the WHS based on a predetermined set of sustainable indicators.

LITERATURE REVIEW A plethora of studies suggest sustainable tourism guidelines for the WHS. For instance, Coetzee, Niekerk and Saayman (2006) suggest adherence of economic guidelines to promote responsible tourism at a WHS. Their study focused on different stakeholders of tourism (such as the government, communities, product owners and investors) and examined their commitment towards viable economic impacts in a rural region in South Africa. They suggested viable economic measures such as integration of economic impacts in the tourism development plans; maximization of local economic benefits by diminishing leakages and

Management of World Heritage Sites

increasing linkages in the region; involvement of local community in the decision making process and ensuring they benefit from tourism; ensuring responsible marketing strategies are employed; and providing equal business opportunities to all stakeholders of tourism. Coetzee et al. (2006) surveyed forty-three stakeholders of tourism from the accommodation, recreation, and retail sectors and their results indicated that the stakeholders are not concerned with social and economic viability although evidence showed that they were environmentally sensitive. Coetzee et al. (2006) called for emphasis on fair trade, training and education, and high multiplier effects to promote economic health of the local communities. Wager examined Angkor heritage site and noted that zoning plan can assist in promoting sustainable development of natural and cultural resources and can help obtain a balance between “strict protection of archaeological sites and planned development of tourism and urban and rural development in a rural zone” (1995: 515). Aas, Ladkin and Fletcher (2005) investigated the relationship between heritage management and tourism development at Luang Prabang (a WHS in Laos), based on five aspects: communication channels between heritage and tourism stakeholders, income generation for heritage, local community involvement in the decision making process and tourism activities, and an evaluation of the extent of effectiveness of stakeholder collaboration. The authors (2005) highlighted numerous issues associated with collaboration such as lack of dialogue between the private and public sector, poor direction and leadership to pursue sustainable goals, issues connected to the user pays principle, and local community involvement. The authors found that the right to participate did not translate into an ability to participate. The major challenge was seen to lie in raising the capability of stakeholders to participate in a meaningful manner. Despite the barriers, a somewhat hopeful picture is portrayed due to emerging initiatives although inherent is-

sues associated with achieving effective symbiosis between stakeholders of heritage management and tourism development were unveiled. Another study by Li, Yu and Cai pointed out that there are conflicts between heritage management and tourism development and stated these were “more pronounced in developing countries” (2008: 308). Key threats identified are excessive demand and use through increased visitation. Garrod and Fyall (2000) noted that the heritage site managers are often challenged in their efforts to achieve sustainable outcomes such as balancing conservation goals with financial objectives. Excessive visitation challenges sustainable goals of the site and delicate equilibrium is needed between visitor use and conservation (Li et al., 2005). A report by UNESCO identified three major challenges to successful management of heritage sites in North America: respect for cultural diversity and intangible heritage, involving host communities in the decision making process and sharing benefits with them, sustaining traditional cultures and economic benefits and protection of biological diversity (UNESCO 2002). Yet another study by Saipradist and Staiff (2007) on a world heritage site (Ayutthaya) in Thailand reinforced the significance of effective and authentic interpretation to generate appreciation for the cultural and heritage values of the site. The authors called for an ongoing examination of interpretive content used at the site. Lyon (2007) analyzed three sites in the United Kingdom and demonstrated the significance of value-led participative management and conservation. Hede (2007) examined the relationship between heritage and tourism at WHS in Australia and New Zealand and brought to the forefront issues associated with the associated status such as threat to the heritage brand, threat to conservation of heritage, how to engage tourists in a meaningful manner, and meaningful co-operative strategies between stakeholders. Boyd and Butler (1997) highlighted maintenance of partnerships, learning environment, conservation and authenticity to

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be the key challenges for heritage organizations involved with tourism. In light of the aforementioned evidence, some recurrent themes can be identified as crucial for sustainable use of the WHS. These are conservation, authenticity, economic viability, stakeholder collaborations and effective partnerships, and host community involvement in the tourism development process. It is important to note that these have appeared in a somewhat fragmented manner. Evidently, there is a lack of integrated plans to embrace sustainable measures on a holistic scale by custodians of heritage tourism. Nevertheless, they unravel some legitimate concerns with regard to the use of heritage for tourism purposes. These obviously need to be addressed as tourism can still play a significant role to provide social, economic and cultural benefits to the host communities. Sustainable marketing is one way to resolve these problems. Against the notion that sustainable marketing is an oxymoron and delusion (Clarke, 2002), recent studies support the use of marketing to promote sustainable use of heritage sites. Although few marketing paradigms have appeared is heritage tourism literature, extended inferences for this study can be drawn from general sustainable marketing frameworks.

Sustainable Marketing Paradigms Jamorozy (2007) suggests the need to shift from economic driven goals toward sustainable promotion in his new sustainable marketing paradigm. His model was based on the sustainable development criteria established by the Brundtland Report (WCED 1987). The author argued that a sustainable marketing philosophy needs to incorporate societal, consumer, and environmental schools of thought. His model was triangle shaped with “three dimensions of sustainability: economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection” (Jamorozy, 2007: 124). The author argued that marketing needs to maximize by focusing on all three dimensions and focus should center on

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marketing of green products, social equity in terms of benefit for society and promoting non-profit measures for a fair community environment, and advocacy of healthy and clean natural environment. In other words, the sustainability locus rested on a triple bottomline approach. Du Cros (2001) presented a two-dimensional scale: conservation and commodification. The author created a matrix thereby implying that dynamic relationship exists between conservation and commodification in terms of heritage robusticity and market appeal. According to the author, “within the matrix, heritage places can be plotted based on their appeal to tourists and their robusticity or ability to withstand high levels of visitation. Helia (2007) emphasized on collaborations between different stakeholders of tourism for the success of strategic sustainable marketing. The author maintained that heritage tourism involves an “amalgam of service offerings” (Helia, 2007:255). The underlying argument for this crucial approach is the broad interest appeal tourism holds for a variety of stakeholders, both public and private. Examples of organizations include intermediaries, suppliers, competitors, the government and the cross-sector organizations. Sustainable tourism marketing model presented by the author called for equilibrium between environmental and socio-economic perspectives. Chhabra (2009) presented a sustainable marketing model (SHTM) which she later modified based on her study of several heritage institutions across the globe. Her initial model highlighted the significance of the mission statement and communication mix, market segmentation, macro and micro environments, partnerships and research. The author implied that marketing decisions should be based on conservation principles and local community involvement and benefits. Her later body of work highlighted additional elements for successful sustainable marketing: visitor mindfulness, interpretation authenticity and viable economic to the model (Chhabra, 2010). Chhabra tested her modified model on museums, historic

Management of World Heritage Sites

houses, heritage hotels, and festivals and made further additions to the model associated with enterprise management and civic engagement. Fullerton, McGettigan and Stephens (2010) explored the potential role of marketing in visitor management. The authors maintained that careful management of tourists through marketing can minimize impacts and help to retain authenticity of heritage. Responsible marketing strategies are thus required for long term heritage health of sites (McKercher et al., 2004). It is argued that sustainability emphasis can make an organization competitive. Additionally, a perusal of literature identifies the following indicators in heritage tourism which can help to measure sustainability levels: cultural, economic, ecological, social, partnership, and heritage (in the context of conservation and authenticity). It has been noted that the traditional heritage institutions continue to use the objective version of authenticity. Objective authenticity is often described as traditional, genuine, pristine, “flow of life, not interfered with by the ‘framing’ of sights, sites, objects, and events for touristic purposes, by various overt markers” (Cohen, 2007: 76); and ‘cool’ (Selwyn, 1996). It is argued that the heritage suppliers should embrace sustainable development by using a strategic marketing perspective. Furthermore, Chhabra (2010) pointed out the significance of a holistic approach to promote both intergenerational and intra-generational equity. Use of sustainable indicators is one way to gauge sustainability and suggest future course of action.

Sustainable Indicators Sustainable indicators are important in that they can serve as a pathway of principles that form the core mission of the heritage sites and their sustained use in tourism. According to the United Nations-World Tourism Organization, the indicator development process can help respond to risks triggered by the negative impacts of tourism.

Aguilar maintains that indicators are a response to the anticipated risks associated with the key assets of a destination and provide summary information on the levels of effort being made to plan or protect the destination (Manning, 1999 cited in Aguilar). According to Manning (2007), indicators should have the following characteristics: specific, objective, reliable and replicable, and sensitive to visitor use as level of use changes. Additionally, their measurement must be easy and cost effective and be monitored regularly. Specific guidelines for indicators were suggested by Sirakaya et al. (2001) and these were inclusion of all levels of society to enable consideration of a broad range of socio-economic, cultural, natural and political environments; manageable and easy application to diverse environments; reflection of local community views and involvement; strategic vision, that is, taking long term benefits in to consideration; organized development of indicators to ensure that they are “strong, quantifiable, affordable and capable of providing and integrated analysis of definite and general conditions of the sustainability of the destination and its natural and cultural resource” (Aguilar, 2009: 21). Also, it has been argued that the sustainability indicators should be divided into subsets to enable measurement at the micro level because sustainability can have broad connotations. A plethora of studies have confirmed that the majority of the externalities to tourism attractions occur in the social, cultural, ecological, and economic environments (Marsh 1999; Carbone 2005; Choi & Sirikaya 2006). A sub-set of indicators for each externality category can help measure extent of impacts in an ongoing manner. Ecological indicators relate to a diverse set of items which define environmental sustainability centered on efforts to reduce negative impacts on the environment (Carbone 2005) by ensuring compatibility with the vital ecological processes and biological processes (Mill & Morrison, 2006).

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According to Aguilar (2009), social and cultural sustainability refers to efforts to conserve and protect traditional rituals and customs, so they are not impacted by demonstration effects such as the tourist lifestyles. Also, is included the need to reduce any possible conflicts that may arise from unequal distribution of tourism benefits (Carbone 2005). Although culture evolves and is not static, it is important to control harmful effects, and educate tourists to behave in a responsible manner so that the local culture is not vulnerable to demonstration effects. The underlying efforts of social and cultural sustainability are to ensure that tourism development strengthens community identity (Mill and Morrison, 2006) in addition to improving the tourist and host relationships and interactions. Retaining authenticity and conservation of heritage belongs to the heritage category. Economic sustainability advocates equity of economic benefits both for the current and future generations (Mill and Morrison, 2006).

METHODOLOGY Approximately 911 heritage sites currently exist in the world and these are marked on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Of these, 704 are cultural sites, 180 are natural sites and 27 are mixed. These are distributed between 151 countries (State Parties) across the globe and include internationally renowned sites such as the Taj Mahal in India, Statue of Liberty in the United States, Uluru in Figure 1. An integrated sustainable marketing model

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Australia, and Stonehenge in the UK. The signature Websites and mission statements of approximately 130 WHS were examined to determine the extent to which sustainable measures are pursued and visibly implemented. Efforts were made to include at least one from each country. The end data resulted in 100 countries. The mission statements and signature websites of the WHS were examined using the content analysis method and evaluated based on four fundamental tenets of sustainability: socio-economic benefits, heritage and cultural integrity, environmental integrity and institutional benefits (see Figure 1). Also, certification documents of the WHS were scanned to identify sustainable marketing indices.

Indicators Mission Statement Indicators As pointed in documented literature, the mission statement is a brief statement defining the core purpose of a business or organization. It is an important statement because it defines the business and provides an overview of its objectives. For an organization to be sustainable, it is crucial for the mission statement to emphasize on sustainable contributions. Literature has suggested the inclusion of following terms to reinforce a promise and commitment towards sustainability (Aguilar, 2009; Chhabra, 2009; Lyon, 2007): heritage, cultural, social, economic, and environmental. This study defines a mission statement

Management of World Heritage Sites

as promoting sustainability if it strives to make contributions towards the local economy and the host community in addition to producing viable social, cultural and environmental impacts and promoting site heritage in the context of conservation and authenticity and striving to use effective interpretation to inform the audience so that they can behave in a sustainable manner.

Website Indicators Ecological Indicators: A variety of environmental indicators are presented by previous literature such as biodiversity; maintenance of natural state; maintaining carrying capacity, and adopting recycling practices (Choi & Sirakaya, 2006; Manning, 1999). For the purpose of this study, the following ecological indicators are used: carrying capacity and recycling practices.

Economic Indicators Tangible measures of economic sustainability have included assessment of employment opportunities and income distribution (Nelson & Payne, 1993). Carbone (2005) also refers to the extent additional income is provided to locals as compensation for intrusion and inconvenience due to tourist presence. Harris and Nelson’s (1993) list of economic indicators include local ownership, gender equity, ethnic equity, local employment and training and support, emphasis on strong linkages. Choi & Sirikaya (2006) identified a similar set of indicators such as local employment including employment growth and unemployment rate, income distribution/capital leakage and linkage, capital formation in the community/investment, percentage of repeat tourists, seasonal nature of tourist visitation, economic well-being in terms of comparable wages, new GDP (measure of economic welfare), economic stability of the hosts, nature of labor and labor conditions and income earned by the local government. This study uses the following indicators: increase in local wage;

generate income for locals and produce employment benefits; and promote investment in the local region.

Heritage and Cultural Indicators For the purpose of this study, the following site heritage sustainability indicators are used: maintain authenticity; conservation of cultural heritage; interpretation for cultural education. Cultural indicators are defined by the following measures: respect for local community heritage; and advocacy of culturally appropriate activities and behavior.

Social Indicators Several social sustainability measures are proposed by documented literature such as aligned with the community vision, community control and plans to check intrusion, maintaining spiritual and aesthetic values, and quality of life (Harris and Nelson 1993). Other indicators include monitoring of social relations and changes in subsistence activities, family structures and decision making strategies in the allocation of resources (Nelson & Payne 1993). Choi and Sirakaya (2006) also present an extensive list of indicators such as social cohesion, community health and safety and quality of life. For the purpose of this study, based on the corpus of existing information, the following social indicators were used: mention of social costs such as intrusion, crime, demonstration effect, and improving quality of life and standard of living.

General/Institutional Indicators In addition to the foregoing indicators, some indicators cross over to multiple categories and hence are often grouped under ‘Institutional’ indicators. Most recurring measures of sustainable tourism in documented literature as summarized by Miller (2001) are the ones which: maximize economic

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benefit, self-regulatory, observe carrying capacity, promote intergenerational equality, make efficient use of resources, utilize the technology based approach, take a long term view, enable local involvement, encourages local revitalization, improve level of natural capital stock, ensure resident satisfaction, ensure customer satisfaction, maintain levels of natural capital stock, and contain well developed tourism plans. Aguilar (2009) stressed on five priorities based on Miller’s study: strategic view, carefully planned tourism development, efficient use of local resources, facilitate local community involvement and maintain existing levels of natural capital stock. Hassan (2000) also advocated cooperation and partnership between the public and private sectors as a core purpose of a sustainable model and emphasized on building relationships and alliances to strengthen local community resources and produce viable economic benefits in a way suitable to the local environment. The underlying objectives of Hassan’s model were: (1) to educate all stakeholders of tourism of the significant relationship between tourism development and environment sustainability. (2) to promote equitable opportunities between local and non-local tourism developers (3) to strive to provide best quality service to the tourists. (4) to generate support for the host community (5) to enhance local quality of life and life style (6) to ensure a balanced approach by taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental necessities in the tourism planning and development programs (7) to determine thresholds of social and environmental carrying capacity of the destination (8) to measure impacts on the ecology in an ongoing manner (9) to conserve the local culture and support local heritage and values (10) to develop training and educational programs so that human resource skills are enhanced. For the purpose of this study, the following institutional indicators are used: long term view/ survival; well developed tourism plans; intergenerational equity; stakeholder collaboration/part-

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nerships; local community involvement; customer satisfaction; local resident satisfaction; emphasis on ongoing research; code of ethics for tourists; and educating/training the local community.

FINDINGS Mission Statement The examined WHS are found to actively embrace the vision laid down by the World Heritage Convention by highlighting the need for enhanced training and expertise of site personnel, strategic management plans, protection and conservation of culture and heritage, and international outreach. As Table 1 reveals, the majority of these mission statements of the WHS strive to promote conservation and cultural sustainability of the site, thereby endorsing the core criteria laid by the World Heritage Convention. Close to 50% also emphasize on maintaining objective authenticity of their site. This is followed by efforts to promote social and environmental sustainability in terms of minimizing social costs and reducing tourism impact on the site environment. One third of the mission statements highlight significance of effective interpretation. Least attention is given to local community concerns and efforts to promote viable economic benefits. No mention of stakeholder collaborations was noted. Based on these findings, the vision and mission of the majority of the WHS can be best defined as profoundly site-centric in terms of protection, conservation, authenticity, expertise, and international outreach.

Signature Website Indicators Economic and Ecological: Approximately 86 of the 130 WHS featured economic and/or ecological indicators. As Table 2 illustrates, with regard to the presence of economic measures on the signature websites, approximately 60% emphasize on in-

Management of World Heritage Sites

Table 1. Mission statement indicators Indicator

Frequency N=130

Social

41.0

Economic

13.8

Local Community

20.7

Conservation

65.5

Authenticity

48.3

Interpretation

31.0

Cultural

70.0

Environmental

40.0

crease in investment through donations. However, this interest is site-centric and does not extend to secure funds for the benefit of the surrounding environment and host community. A substantial percentage, although less than half, of the websites demonstrate efforts to generate income for the local community through tourism and less than 10% illustrate evidence of providing employment benefits for the surrounding communities. As is evident from Table 2, least emphasis is given to recycling practices and carrying capacity. It appears that economic viability measures are still in their infancy stage. Coetzee et al. (2006) concur with these results and suggest that the economic health of the host communities should be taken into consideration for successful sustainable efforts. Visible adherence to a variety of ecological indicators is required to obtain a harmonious equilibrium between use of the site Table 2. Economic and ecological indicators Economic

Frequency N=86

Generate income for locals

39.5

Employment benefits

9.0

Increase in investment

60.6

Ecological Recycling practices

13.9

Carrying capacity

12.8

and surrounding areas which provide a passage to their entry. Increasing visitation numbers to these sites and their peripheral areas will continue to impose a drain on the natural resources (Li et al. 2008). Cultural: cultural indicators are defined as measures that promote authenticity and conservation of cultural heritage presented at the WHS. Also, included under this umbrella are indicators which promote respect for the host culture and promote culturally appropriate activities for the local communities. Authenticity and conservation were emphasized in 90% of the websites. Also, the other cultural indicators are significantly highlighted throughout the website content. As Table 3 shows, maximum emphasis is placed on cultural preservation indicators because these form the underpinnings of the WHS nomination criteria. Similar results were reported by (Hede 2007; Winter 2007). However, most of the WHS websites demonstrate less attention and sensitivity towards the host community culture because there is no mention of code of behavior or information about the host community culture. Social: With regard to social indicators, the majority of the websites failed to feature concern or efforts to minimize social costs generated by tourism on the host communities. Approximately 21% of the evaluated websites are found to mention one or more of the listed social indicators. Only 16% highlight the need to generate local employment to enhance quality of life or seek to advocate increase in local wage so that the standard of living of the host community may be enhanced. These results confirm the lack of social sustainability attempts reported by previous studies (Wager 1995; Li et al. 2008). Institutional: This section included a variety of measures that can help gauge sustainability initiatives of the WHS through website marketing. The findings report pronounced emphasis on stakeholder collaboration and partnerships. A further analysis of the website content shows that the majority of the websites promote stake-

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Table 3. Cultural indicators

Further Explorations

Indicator

Frequency N=130

Authenticity

93

Conservation of cultural heritage

90.7

Respect cultural heritage

80.2

Culturally appropriate

80.2

holders associated with the tourism businesses such as lodging, transportation, restaurants, and retail (see Table 4). Also, a substantial number (50%) of the websites mention coordination or partnerships with stakeholders whose interests are centered on conservation, education, architecture, and research. Well developed tourism plans were found to be site-centric. That is, the documents downloaded from the website show that management strategies focus on visitor traffic and site management issues. Although other sustainability criteria were emphasized, they were mostly concerned with the site resources and interests. Involvement of the host community in decision making processes was minimal and code of ethics for tourists as a guide to appropriate behavior were remiss.

Table 4. Institutional indicators Indicator

Frequency N=125

Stakeholder collaboration/partnership

83.7

Well developed tourism plans

74.4

Local community involvement at the site

73.2

Intergenerational equity

70.9

Long term survival

69.8

Customer satisfaction

61.6

Education/training for the community

61.6

Emphasis on ongoing research

58.1

Local resident satisfaction

38.4

Code of ethics for tourists

19.8

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Efforts are made to identify the WHS with the highest and lowest level of adherence to the majority of the sustainability measures under consideration. Additionally, efforts are made to gather information on the political environments, other site-specific particularities and type of stakeholder involvement at the site. For instance, an insight was gained into the political status of the country, the urban or rural nature of the site location, type of ownership, and specific characteristics of the surrounding community. The sites that rank high on the overall sustainability index (in order) are Škocjan Caves (Slovenia), Tongariro National Park (New Zealand), Kizhi Pogost, (Russia), and the Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn (Estonia). The Škocjan Caves have gained worldwide recognition and the state has committed itself to doing everything in its power to conserve and protect this outstanding natural site. In addition to crafting programs for the protection and development of the Park, the site authorities monitor and analyze the status of natural and cultural heritage in an ongoing manner. Other tasks include promotion of the caves, research, education, and infrastructure maintenance. Co-operation with local residents is considered important. Location specific attributes include being in a developed and democratic country, mixed nature of stakeholders, and active involvement of the local community. Tongariro National Park was established in 1887 and became the first national park in New Zealand. It is recognized as a dual World Heritage area because of its unique cultural and natural value. It is a living evidence of Maori culture, has outstanding volcanic features and is also home to many native creatures. Its distinct characteristics include location in a developed and democratic country, mixed nature of the stakeholders, and evidence of active involvement of the Maori community.

Management of World Heritage Sites

Kizhi Pogost is an open air museum located in Russia which has a democratic government now. This WHS has received paramount attention because of its efforts to preserve its prized collections. Education and research are also emphasized by the site managers. The next WHS, Tallinn is famous for its historic center and was nominated as the European Capital of Culture for 2011. This honor is part the European Union initiative to provide European cities with an opportunity to showcase their cultural offerings at an international level. Tallinn is well known for its creative works, ecological souvenirs and spiritual/cultural connections with the seashore. It is located in a democratic and developed country. Evidence also exists of pronounced emphasis on learning and advancement in technology. The host community also plays a prominent role in the planning of events in the old town. Stakeholders listed on the website were found to predominantly belong to the tourism industry. Minimum sustainability emphasis is noted in the following sites (in order): Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra (Albania), Sewell Mining Town (Chile), Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments in Cartagena (Columbia), and Old Havana and its Fortifications (Cuba). The two historic towns of Berat and Gjirokastra are located in central Albania and are recognized as a rare example of Ottoman style of architecture. Berat is witness to the coexistence of various religious and cultural communities. It features a castle, citadel, and several mosques. Gjirokastra features a collection of unique two-story houses, a bazaar, a mosque and two churches. They bear witness to the wealth and immense variety of urban and architectural heritage. The cultural integrity and authenticity of the two towns is retained but a series of illegal constructions in the late 1990s has compromised its sanctity. More commercial emphasis appears to shadow sustainable planning. Sewell Mining Town has the largest copper mine in the world and was built by the Braden Copper Company in 1905. The town was constructed

on a terrain which is very steep for vehicles and accessible through rail only. Next, Fortresses and Group of Monuments Cartagena is a large city seaport located on the coast of Colombia. It was founded in 1533 and was a main center of early Spanish settlements in the Americas. It is known for its defense strategy - a walled military fortress to protect the city from pirates. The Cuban capital Havana was founded by the Spanish and is recognized as one of the oldest cities in the contemporary world. It is known for its trading port and its strong fortifications. It also contains an important shipyard. Common finding to these aforementioned sites is that they are all located in developing countries, lack evidence of host community involvement, and emphasize engagement with tourism stakeholders only.

CONCLUSION The World Heritage Convention supports an exhaustive list of site-centric heritage sustainability issues associated with conservation and authenticity. However, less attention appears to be directed to the other crucial aspects of sustainability. Content analysis of mission statements, website content, and certification documents support this view. Host community concerns, stakeholder collaborations, social and viable economic impact considerations receive comparatively less or inequitable attention in most of the WHS. This paper analyzes the mission statements and signature websites to gauge visible efforts of sustainable management based on presupposed indicators related to social, economic, and environmental responsibility. Additionally, it looks at the certification documents of the WHS. It breaks ground by using an integrated approach and highlights apparent hiatus to stir further scholarly interest (McCool, Moisey and Nickerson 2001). Several limitations exist with regard to the measurement technique employed to gauge sustainability and this study was unable to evaluate other promo-

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tional collateral beside the signature websites due to budgetary and time constraints. However, this study makes an important effort and useful inferences for future investigation can be drawn from the results. First, the mission statements are examined. It appears that the World Heritage Convention has trained its members to conform judiciously to the heritage conservation and authenticity guidelines whereas other indicators of sustainability fail to feature prominently in the sustainability equation. Moreover, insofar as the website analysis reflects, the themes are visibly couched mostly in terms of the priorities set by the convention. Few websites advocate links with NGOs, social and community interest groups in addition to demonstrating weak sustainable supply chain initiatives and extended stakeholder collaborations and partnerships between the public and private sectors. Similar results are reported by Aas, Ladkin and Fletcher (2005), Saipradist and Staiff (2007) and Hede (2007). Also, very few sites provide evidence of ongoing research to monitor visitor impacts and include programs to education to tourists, stakeholders and the host communities. Li et al. (2008) also concur with these findings and confirm the need for ongoing monitoring to detect critical levels of carrying capacity in a timely manner so that further amelioration of the site and its surrounding environment is prevented. Hassan (2000) suggests inclusion of criteria such as a reinforcement program for the preservation of the culture/heritage of the sites and the local communities and argues for substantial efforts to meet the expectations of citizen/civic groups, tourism stakeholders, NGOs, and the non-tourism private sector. Heritage tourism guidelines should thus incorporate long term interests of the host communities. For instance, Wager’s (1995) study suggests a zoning plan for the Angkor World Heritage Site to integrate tourism efforts with conservation and local community interests. Furthermore, heritage tourism planning should focus on a themed tourism environment which

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is complimentary to the world heritage site and the host community culture. What is required is a code of ethical operations in addition to the expected code of ethical behavior expected from the visiting audience. Also, strategies such as high price theory or demarketing can be pursued to attract selected audience who seek meaningful and sustained experiences. In this way, carrying capacity guidelines can be reinforced for both the WHS and its surrounding environments (Wager 1995). Integrated and strategic sustainability of heritage tourism is thus crucial to maintain the destination attractiveness and enhance prospects and competitiveness in the long term (Wager 1995). A number of conclusions can be drawn in the light of this study. It is important to remember that each WHS is a separate entity and is bestowed with distinct features specific to its location and host community environment. It is also tremendously impacted by the political and cultural values and other related particularities of the host country. Hence capturing its essence and magnitude through a limited set of heritage and intangible indices limits its existing and future value. Its purpose needs to extend beyond the guidelines set by the World Heritage Convention. It is crucial to employ a glocal (a mix of global and local) perspective to understand and gauge successful growth and vitality of heritage tourism initiatives and promote a value-laden educational experience. Although symbiosis between heritage management and tourism development is besotted with inherent challenges, efforts can be made to strike an equilibrium between protection and conservation and planned development of heritage tourism so that a level-playing field can be designed (Wager 1995). A discussion of development issues is also required to raise the knowledge and understanding of varied stakeholder views and constraints, “which in turn can lead to a wider collaboration and formulation of alliances” (Aas et al. 2005:45). Also, mounting pressures such as carrying capac-

Management of World Heritage Sites

ity, budget deficit, and political ambitions need to be handled in a strategic manner. In sum, this study suggests avoidance of sitecentric perspectives to accomplish successful integrated sustainable development. Arguably, sustainability is much more than a function of the heritage site environment alone. Clearly, this concept embraces a much broader socio-economic and environmental spectre of exploitation of adjacent resources. As argued by Hassan, “it is crucial for future tourism development plans to be compatible with the environment to main its market competitiveness” (2000: 242). Integrated sustainable marketing can thus help promote cultural, social, economic and environmental integrity of the heritage site and its surrounding host community resources to successfully manage the growing tourism demand. This can be accomplished by highlighting sustainable objectives clearly in the mission statement and formulating strategic plans to implement them.

Caserta, S., & Russo, A. (2002). More Means Worse: Asymmetric Information, Spatial Displacement and Sustainable Heritage Tourism. Journal of Cultural Economics, 26, 245–260. doi:10.1023/A:1019905923457

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Chapter 14

Research Review of OWOM: Chinese Cases

Tao Chen Harbin Institute of Technology & Nanjing Normal University & SanJiang University, China Zhiming Zhu Hohai University, China Tienan Wang Harbin Institute of Technology, China

ABSTRACT Internet has been an important communication tool. The population of netizens has become the largest all over the world. Online shopping is regarded as a fashion in china. Online word-of-mouth has significant influences on shopping. Chinese researchers did researches on OWOM (Online Word-of-Mouth), discussed the connotation, communication process and communication effect, and practical application, and put forward some managerial suggestions. This chapter reviews those researches, summarizes and describes the future research direction and hope that it can instruct and contribute Chinese researchers.

INTRODUCTION Internet has been one of the most important tools among people. According to the recent statistic data from CNNIC, the population of Chinese netizens, surpassing that of USA, has reached to 253 million by the late of June, 2008. 25% of those netizens are fond of online shopping; by the end of 2009, the number has reached to a new peak of 384 million, with an annual growing rate of 28.9%, and annual popularity of 28.9%. With

the improvement of internet consumer environment, more and more users are involved in online shopping. The number of netizens with online shopping experience has reached over 100 million. The total value of online shopping has reached 238.3 billion. Ecommerce which has been listed as one of the 10 leading internet application is being accepted by netizens gradually for its low price, rich products and flexibility(Fu,2008). According to the survey of China Internet Information Center (CNNIC) 2009, 53.9% of online users will search and read related online

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch014

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Research Review of OWOM

comments of each product before purchasing decisions are made; 78.9% of online users will search and read related online comments before buying most of the products; more than 90% of netizens will issue comments on the websites from which those goods were bought. Word-of-mouth has an increasingly important role in online consumption. Online word-of-mouth plays an important role in the consumers’ decision-making process and behavior transmissions. More and more enterprises have realized the business opportunities. Online word-of-mouth marketing practical activities are increasing gradually. Researchers both home and abroad did lots of researches from different aspects and gave many valuable suggestions. This paper summarizes current Chinese OWOM research situation in order to arouse more concerns.

CONNOTATION OF OWOM Definition of WOM WOM (word of mouth) is the exchange and communication of information about the attributes, experiences and suppliers of products or services between consumers. WOM is regarded as one of the most important factors influencing consumers buying (especially for the imitators). Compared with other information channels, such as advertising, WOM is believed more credible by consumers; as a result they are more easily to be accepted by the consumers. Availability of internet enables customers to collect the product information and related comments when browsing web pages. And customers can share their own experiences, opinions and related knowledge about certain products, which consists of WOM (Fu, 2008) Fu (2008) regarded OWOM, which can be transferred to the masses through the internet, as the positive or negative comments about products or companies from potential, final users or previous customers. OWOM can be transferred through

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online community, newsgroup, BBS and so on. Bi, Hu (2010) thinks that divergences of the name of WOM through the media of computers are existed, for examples: Internet Word-of-Mouth, Online Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouse, Electronic Word-of-Mouth, Virtual Word-of-Mouth and so on. Zhang,Li (2008)claimed that recent concerns on the formation of OWOM could be divided into two groups. The first group regarded the rating the online products or services of consumers as OWOM, which is simple in form, easy to be quantified, and has already been adopted by most researchers; the others tend to regard the words or comments issued by the consumers on the internet as OWOM. The differences between these two methods lies on the form of OWOM, and there connotations are the same, which means the informal communication and exchange of the features, using experiences and ownership of products or services though internet. In a word, the definition and connotation of OWOM remains no difference with the traditional WOM. The key is the media being used and the communication advantages brought by OWOM (Bi, Hu, 2010). The number of Chinese literature of OWOM is still very small, and the definition still needs unification.

Features and Factors of OWOM Features of OWOM Traditional OWOM is communicated through mouth to mouth. The core definition between current domestic research and traditional OWOM remains the same, which means the informal communication of the recognition, attitude and comments of products and services between consumers(Fu, 2008). But there are still differences between them. Compared with traditional communication pattern, OWOM possesses the following features(Zhang, Li, 2008):

Research Review of OWOM

1. Bidirectional. Through internet, organization and consumers can achieve bidirectional communication. Not only can organizations and product information be transferred to consumers with low cost and unprecedented large scale. What’s more, consumers’ information can be known directly by organizations through internet for the first time. Producers can monitor the consumers’ feedbacks any time, thus can know consumers’ opinions about products or services in time and accurately so that to respond promptly to consumers. 2. Easy measurable. Before the application of internet, WOM is usually transferred by words, which is invisible, and difficult to grasp. It is difficult and time consuming to measure, and is impossible to realize most of the time. Producers and researchers cannot measure not even to say make quick respond to those WOM information, and make use of WOM to do effective marketing. While during the era of internet, the development of internet change the transfer of WOM into visible, and provide immense conveniences for researchers and producers. Because of this process, WOM based on internet has been a research hotspot as well as hot marketing and public method. 3. Large in scale and number. For consumers, the cost of issuing their own consumption experiences is very low; consumers can issue its own experiences at any time, at any places, which create the large scale and large number of OWOM online. 4. Good controllability. The anonymity of internet makes it possible for the producers to manipulate the OWOM information. Because of the virtuality of the internet, producers can issue fake WOM information on the internet to harm competitors or raise its own reputation. This may mislead the purchasing decision of consumers.

The differences between OWOM and traditional WOM (Zhang, Dong, 2009; Bi, 2009) is summarized in Table 1.

Factors of OWOM Current research (Fu, 2008) thinks that factors of OWOM include: 1) senders, referring to the consumers who initially publish his or her opinions and comments on some products or services, and also referring to those who reprints others’ comments; 2) information, referring to the digital files of words, sound and video, that can be searched, attained and understood; 3) receivers, referring to those people who get initially or passively get those information.

CONTEXT OF CHINESE OWOM The media rather than the essence of OWOM and traditional WOM is different, thus the research framework of OWOM is the same as that of WOM. Differences only lie on the concrete factors. At present, Chinese researchers mainly did their researches from the information senders, receivers and information (Lai, Zhu, 2009). Through the analysis of recent literatures, future research directions are summarized as seen in Figure 1.

Communication of OWOM Communication Motivation of OWOM By learning traditional OWOM communication motivation, many researches of OWOM involve motivation analysis, and discussed the motivation categories. Fu (2008) thinks that communication motivation is an important aspect of OWOM research. Social intercourse desire, economic motivation, concerns on other consumers and improving one’s own values are the main motivations. The communication motivation of OWOM can be divided into positive communication

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Table 1. Differences between OWOM and WOM WOM

OWOM

Spreading scale and speed

Slow and limited by location

Fast and without the limitation of space and time

Form

Mainly conversation, with the aid of gestures. Without the media of internet.

Mainly words, and also sounds, pictures, video and so on, with diverse and vivid patterns.

Social relationship

Information is from acquaintances.

Information is from strangers.

Measurability

Difficult for consumers to know the quality and quantity of information.

Easy for consumers to know the quality and quantity of information.

Controllability

Without controllability

With compared controllability

Quantity and scale

Small

large

Figure 1. Framework of Chinese OWOM researches

motivation and negative communication motivation, the differences between which, Fu (2008), Bi and Hu (2010), other domestic researchers mainly agree with the foreign research. Positive motivation includes: product involvement, selfenhancement, information platform assistance, releasing negative mood, social benefits, helping to promote enterprises, caring other consumers, economic motivation and so on; Negative motivation includes: altruism, reducing anxiety,

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revenge and searching advices. However, social intercourse desire, economic motivation, caring other consumers, and self-enhancement, are the main communication motivations.

Searching Motivation of OWOM Fu (2008) thinks that the most fundamental motivation of concerning OWOM information is to shorten decision-making time, reduce decision-

Research Review of OWOM

making risks and get desirable decision-making results. The concrete searching motivations are as followed. First, search information to support buying decisions. Second, search information to support his or her past purchasing decisions. Third, search information just for fun. On the basis of Technology Acceptance Model and OWOM literature, Bi (2009) established a TAM OWOM model. This model includes three aspects: individual attributes, perceived OWOM aspects, origins of OWOM and introduces 7 variables.

Information Features of OWOM and Approaches Interests of OWOM can increase the audience’s acceptance and involvement of information. OWOM information possesses the media features, thus information features should be researched from media features. Besides, the quantity, evaluation direction and dispersion of OWOM also affect the communication effect of OWOM. The larger the quantity of OWOM is, the more possible the consumers know the information (Bi, Hu, 2010). Compared with the WOM, OWOM has internet as its interact platform (such as email, online community, blogs, BBS, searching engine and so on). Gao, Ma (2010) discussed communication approaches, mainly focusing on blogs, professional websites, online community.

Communication Effect of OWOM Communication effect of OWOM——as consumers’ information exchange, should be researched more than its communication process. Communication effect refers to the psychological or behavioral reaction of consumers, and its effect to enterprises. Zhang, Sun (2008) and Liu, Yang (2008) summarized western OWOM communication effect or negative OWOM separately, and mainly did research from consumers and enterprises. With the increasing socialization of OWOM and internet (Zheng, Xiong, 2008),

OWOM has already covered almost all social fields that include commercial consumption activities. It encourages cooperation of average consumers, and is a double-edged sword, which has both constructive and harmful function to internet culture and social environment.

Influencing Factors of OWOM Communication Many researches begin to focus on the effect of consumers features on OWOM communication. The main focus is as followed: 1. Relationship Strength. There are two contrary results: one is that relationship strength between information senders and receivers is a key factor that affects information communication effect (Bi, Hu, 2010). Studies have showed that the stronger the relationship strength is, the better the OWOM effect is, and the better the communication effect is OWOM communication origins can be divided into two kinds, strong connection and weak connection. The more they know each other, the stronger their relationship strength is. Wang (2004) did research on the influences of individual specialty and relationship on consumer buying decision taking the emails as an example. He found that relationship has greater influence on services compared with products. Liu,Yang (2008)thinks that the stronger the relationship, the higher the trustworthiness is and thus greater influences on consumers buying. However, OWOM communication mainly occurs between senders and receivers with weak relationship. However, Jiang et al. (2010) finds that relationship between senders and receivers have little influences on consumers’ buying through reliability analysis, validity analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis. The reasons may be that traditional researches are conducted

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between friends and acquaintances; however, consumers usually exchange ideas between strangers, whose relationship has little effect on OWOM effect. 2. Trust. There are two contrary research results. Liu,Yang (2008)think that trust not only play an important role in relationship marketing, but also is an important indicator in ecommerce profit. On the basis of trust, under the high independence and involvement information exchange pattern, perceived risks and uncertainty can be reduced effectively. During the process of OWOM communication, the higher the consumers trust tendency is, the closer the relationship between consumers and websites, the higher the trustworthiness of the websites, then the greater the influence of OWOM on consumers’ buying decision. Zhang, Li (2008) think that the trust of consumers on OWOM is very important. The independence has a positive relationship with the inner motivation to search OWOM and thus the OWOM information is easier to be accepted by consumers. The others think that consumer individual trust tendency has little influences on consumer buying decision (Jiang,et al.2010). The reason may be internet technological vitality and high anonymity. Virtual internet environment has weakened the influences of consumers’ individual trust tendency on OWOM effect. 3. Perceived Risks. Dong et al.(2005) pointes that prior literatures concerns little on online shopping perceived risks and he thinks that internet retailers’ core service risks, online shopping risks, individual privacy risks, fake goods risks are the main factors that influence consumers. Liu,Yang (2008)thinks that perceived risks reflect the consumers’ dependence of consumers. The higher the consumers’ perceived risks are, the greater the consumers’ dependence of OWOM.

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4. Internet Involvement. Han (1997) thinks that the deeper of a person’s self involvement in an event, the more difficult he or she accepts opposite opinions, the greater his or her discrimination ability, and the bigger of OWOM communication effect. 5. Specialty. It includes both senders’ and receivers’ specialty (Fu, 2008;Bi, Hu,2010). Different receivers may have different opinions on the same OWOM. Compared with senders’ communication ability, receivers’ communication ability have greater influences on communication effect and is the main determining factors influencing communication quality and consumers’ buying decisions. Factors that affect receivers’ ability include individual features, education background, and specialty knowledge and so on. 6. Product Types. Zhang, Li (2008) thinks that the effects of OWOM are subjected by product types from recent researches. 7. Re-Communication Intention. Chen, Zhang (2008) thinks that re-communication is the only motivation source, whose determine factors is the core of mechanism of WOM communication research. According to communication convinces theory, empirical studies on influencing factors of OWOM, which is conducted from origins, content, and acceptance of WOM, shows that trustworthiness of the origins, interests of contents, altruistic motivation of WOM accepters and self-enhancement motivation are key factors of OWOM re-communication. Interests of OWOM information is the most important factors that affecting re-communication intention. The trustworthiness of WOM source has significant positive effect on recommunication intentions, while specialty and objectivity has little effect. Altruistic motivation of accepters and self-enhancement motivation has significant effect on re-

Research Review of OWOM

communication intention, while out-going personality of accepters has little effect. 8. Gender. Social linguists think that an obvious difference between male and female are their social communication aims. Liu, Yang (2008) thinks that the communication aims of male and female are different. Besides, Miao,Cheng (2010) establishes a theoretical model describing OWOM re-communication intention and affecting factors from three aspects of trustworthiness, context features and re-communication motivation of accepters. His research choose hot BBS forum as subjects, collected 363 sample data, and did factor analysis with the aid of LISREL8.8 and SPSS17.0 software packages. Goodnessof-fit test of structural equation model and the results of hypothesis testing show that: interest and vividness, and entertainment motivation have significant effect on positive re-communication intention; altruistic motivation and trustworthiness of OWOM information source have significant effect on negative re-communication intention.

Influences on Consumers’ Buying Intention and Buying Behaviors 1. WOM information affects consumers’ behaviors: Fu (2008) thinks that WOM information affects consumers’ behaviors. Consumers may accept the recommended products or services under positive WOM; Consumers may abandon the products or services complained by senders under negative WOM. Lots researches concerns about the moderating effect of the factors that influence the functions of WOM on consumers’ buying attention. Bi, Hu (2010) thinks that evaluation direction of OWOM refers to the ranking of some products or services, which represents the consumers’ satisfaction. Positive WOM can strengthen consumer’s expectation, while negative

WOM brings contrary effect. Dispersion of OWOM means the distribution of OWOM on different virtual communities. The higher the dispersion of OWOM, the more consumers it can reach, and the better the effect of OWM. Ge (2009) thinks that OWOM has different influences on consumer’s behaviors. 2. Effects of negative OWOM is more significant than that of positive OWOM: Jin (2007) concludes that effects of negative OWOM is obviously more significant than that of positive OWOM through empirical studies, which is consistent with the prior researches. When OWOM information is subjective evaluation, and when it is high involvement products or receivers’ involvements of the products is high, both negative and positive OWOM effect will be amplified. Jin Li-yin finds that subjective evaluation OWOM information is more influential than objective factual OWOM, especially those high involvement products with higher price and more functions. 3. The comparison of effect of OWOM and traditional WOM on consumers buying decisions: Xi, et al. (2008) discuss the influence of internet and traditional WOM on consumers’ buying decisions from senders’ characteristics, information features and receivers’ characteristics. He finds that senders’ professional ability, receivers’ trust tendency, perceived risks have significant influences on the effect of WOM, while professional ability of accepters and information features have little effects. Researches find that trust tendency have greater influences on the effect of WOM because receivers of OWOM can perceive more financial or functional risks for the weak OWOM relationship strength. 4. Influences of OWOM and perceived value on customers buying intention: Li (2010) summarizes the factor characteristics of OWOM and perceived value on the basis

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Research Review of OWOM

of available literatures. Empirical research shows that positive OWOM have positive effect on perceived value, and further positively affects customers’ buying intention. OWOM directly influences buying intention. (OWOM and functional value have significantly positive relationship, functional value and consumers’ buying intention have significant positive relationship, and OWOM and consumers’ buying intention have significant positively relationship.) 5. Influences of OWOM communication on customers’ brand awareness: Gong et al. (2010) analyze the effect of OWOM on brand awareness, build OWOM brand awareness model, and put forward that it is of practical significance that enterprises should increase customers’ brand awareness. 6. Effect of trustworthiness of OWOM on buying behaviors: Li, Yue (2009) analyzes the influencing factors of positive and negative OWOM trustworthiness and how these two factors influence consumers’ trust and buying behaviors to dealers. Data analysis shows that homophiles, trustworthiness of websites and trust tendency have significant effects on both positive and negative OWOM while communicators’ specialty only have significant effect on positive OWOM. Positive OWOM trustworthiness significantly positively influences consumers’ trust of business dealer, but not dramatically affects purchase intention, which is affected by dealers’ trust and fourthly affects purchase behavior. Conversely, negative word-of-mouth credibility also negative influences consumers’ trust on dealers and purchase intention, but there is no significant relationship between dealers’ trust, purchase intention and purchasing behavior. With 397 university students as a sample for online purchase experiment research, Sun, Liu (2009) adopting 2×2×2×2between groups of experimental design, the results showed

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the positive relationship between the amount and type of online word-of-mouth and credibility of information, as well as information credibility and purchase intention. 7. Importance ranking of affecting factors of OWOM on consumers’ purchase intention: From perceived consumer’s point of view, and by referring TAM theory, Bi (2009) constructs conceptual model of the OWOM affecting consumers’ purchase intention. The empirical research shows that, the relation strength, trust tendency, perceived usefulness significantly positive influences on purchase intention. Perceived risk, perception professional significant negative influences on purchase intention. Network involvement and trust tendency have positive correlation. Among them: relationship strength is the most important factors influencing purchase intention, followed by trust tendency. Perception specialty is the most important factors which negatively influences purchase intention, followed by perceived risks. Internet involvement and purchase intention is not directly relevant, but it indirectly positively influences purchase intention by perceived usability and perceived usefulness on. Internet involvement and trust tendency are positively correlated. 8. Function of OWOM information structure on consumer information perceived usefulness: Sun,Liu (2009) validates research hypothesis by taking 2×2×2×2 examinee factorial experiments. The results of the study showed the number, length and types of OWOM played a role on consumer perceived usefulness. OWOM length together with WOM quantity and WOM types has significant effect on consumer perceived usefulness. According to this conclusion, B2C sites can enhance consumer perceived information usefulness to eventually promote products sales by controlling word-of-mouth quantity, the length and the type of OWOM.

Research Review of OWOM

9. Influencing mechanism research of OWOM on consumer products attitude: Song et al. (2009) puts forward influencing mechanism of OWOM on consumer product attitude characteristics based on the main differences of OWOM and traditional WOM. With network film critics as the research background, experimental method is being used to testify the mechanism. Research results show that OWOM arguments quality and the online community reliability will positively influence consumer products attitude, and involvement has significant interaction respectively with OWOM argument quality and community reliability.

Influences on Enterprises Sales The positive effect of OWOM marketing can promote the enterprise image, conclude brand loyalty, lower marketing costs and so on (Wang, 2010). 1. Influences of OWOM value on sales revenue: Lu,Hua (2009) puts forward that sales revenue brought by OWOM can be quantified by OWOM quantity, ranking and negative through empirical research of online restaurant comments, and further puts forward the price has adjustment effect of OWOM. The empirical analysis of public comment of restaurant on DianPing website shows that the number of OWOM, scoring and negative comment has significant influence on sales income; price adjusting effects still exists, for example the importance of reputation rating marginal increases for products with higher price, but as price rises, the value brought by WOM quantity diminishes, even negative. 2. Influences of OWOM on enterprises trustworthiness: Lin, Dai (2008) provides OWOM trust theoretical model through the research of tourism destinations OWOM credibility influencing factors, which in-

cludes information factors, OWOM senders specialty, similarity of senders and receivers, background factors and interaction factors of senders and receivers as influencing factors of tourism destination OWOM credibility. Chai (2009) puts forward the number of tourism OWOM, types and tourism product experience types affects pre-evaluation of the potential tourists, thus influences their behaviors. Tourism destination should launch targeted marketing strategy to enhance the enterprise’s trust.

Measurement of OWOM Communication Effect Zhang, Dong (2009) think OWOM effect can be classified from the degree of time and quantification. In terms of time, OWOM effect can be divided into short-term and long-term effect. Short-term effect mainly reflects in consumers’ pre-purchase and first purchase process, and long-term effects are mainly embodied in consumers repeat purchase, habitual purchase and propagation behavior and so on. From quantificational degree, OWOM effect may quantify sales performance but may not clearly quantified. However, it has remarkable qualitative effect on enterprise performance, which is mainly embodied in OWOM short period of enterprise product promoting campaign role and long-term for corporate brand reputation of cultivating function. Zhang, Li (2008) analyze four aspects of the measurement of OWOM, its relations with consumers purchase, influencing factors and the constraints, and interprets the measurement of OWOM from three angles of quantity, price, and discrete degrees. Two aspects are summarized form the relationship of OWOM and consumer, one is to make a summary of the relationship between individual perception and purchasing motivation; the other is searching the relationship between OWOM and sales revenue as a whole

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through an empirical research, so as to determine the definition and characteristics of OWOM.

Practical Application and Instruction of OWOM The Application of OWOM in Industry OWOM have been widely applied on tourism industry, sports industry, and hotel management as well as notebook, clothing industry and so on. For instance: 1. Influences of OWOM on notebook. Zhao,Chen (2008) analyzes the OWOM communication of BBS taking notebook computers BBS as an example. Speech frequency, members interaction pattern is different in different notebook computer. Relevant enterprises can contact some senior netizens to do OWOM marketing planning, to enhance the brand image, and to carry on OWOM by the connectivity and sharing of Internet. 2. Influences of OWOM on clothes buying intention. In the review of domestic and foreign relevant researches, Fang et al.(2010)sets up a model of the OWOM information pressure and opinion leaders’ influence on garment consumers purchase intention, from consumers brand orientation and product orientation. The study finds that OWOM information pressure, opinion leaders attitude of garment consumers have significant influences, on garment consumers’ attitude; OWOM information through the influences of the information receiver’s attitude toward the brand furtherly affects the consumer clothing purchase intention. In virtual network environment, consumer product oral evaluation are the most true embodiment, garment enterprises should be concerned about the interaction process of reputation. Enterprises should increase

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concerns on OWOM interaction to gain product improvements, in order to enhance the brand competitiveness. 3. OWOM communication and digital products sales. Based on the previous research findings, Huang, Dai (2010) divides current internet medias according to the different communication forms, and explores different roles of different communication forms. Researches finds that dialogue and consultation form of media influences OWOM audience deeper compared with registration form, dialogue form. Thereby OWOM communication has obvious effects on digital products. OWOM communicated by different communication form are also different in its effects on consumers.

Enlightments of OWOM On Enterprises Enterprise should place importance on product quality and after-sales service, develop itself opinion leaders, emphasis OWOM morality, seriously face negative reputation, solid product image, and advance OWOM marketing in the interactive process (Wang, Liu,2010). OWOM marketing tactics: the competitive advantage of enterprises should be built on for consumers, enterprise and society offering superior value skills (Guo, Shen, 2009). Luo, Zhang (2010) proposes marketing strategies under the network environment from the rational person, social people and systematic people. Enterprises should be OWOM maker, positive OWOM amplifiers, and negative OWOM guide. Enterprises launch OWOM marketing strategy mainly as follows: 1. Enhance consumers’ production knowledge and experiences. Guo,Yang (2006) considers the best OWOM does not come from perfect sales budget or advertising, but from the product characteristic and good user experiences. Enterprises should motivate consumers’ needs and desires of finding

Research Review of OWOM

certain commodity information; increase consumer products and professional knowledge through advertising activity, suggest a reliable sources to consumer. Therefore, enterprises should actively provide commodity information, and educate consumers to build right product knowledge concept. Enterprises may set up 24-hour customer service center, enterprise’s official website and commodity discussion area and so on to provide round-the-clock enterprise service and technical assistance. On the one hand, serve customers and educate customers; on the other hand enterprises also can understand customer needs and market trends. Consumers should be encouraged to use and evaluate product or service, which can increase interaction between consumers and enterprises, and increase the understanding of consumer demand. 2. Increase the trustworthiness of virtual community (Bi, Hu, 2010.) First, besides the traditional technology besides, non-technological methods combined way should be adopted, and OWOM trust system should be perfected, thus the seller’s network manipulation can be prevented, and buyer participate in evaluation and honest opinion should be promoted to make OWOM healthily operated. Second, the enterprise should pay more attention to consumers’ professional comments from those independent third party websites. If producers provides community BBS by their own, they should encourage consumers’ interaction and discussion who have similar hobbies and interests, and should try to keep organizers’ justice and independent to increase consumers’ trust on comments of the sites. Third, it is an effective guarantee to spread true, clear and specific information to consumers (Li,Yue,2009;Guo, Shen, 2009). 3. Manage opinion leaders (Bi, Hu, 2010). Enterprise should seek, encourage and guide reliable and trustworthy OWOM commu-

nicators to promote company’s brand and product to more people. The communication of OWOM should actively use community opinion leaders, who can influence other members of the community due to special skills, knowledge and personality. Research shows that the stronger the opinion leader’s influence, the higher the receivers’ participation online discussion of frequency (Wang, Liu, 2010;Xiong,2010;Li,2009) 4. Management negative OWOM. Ma,Mo (2010) does research on the countermeasure of negative OWOM effect from the gender, price and brand cognitive. The virtual characteristics of negative OWOM make its trustworthiness weaker than that of traditional negative OWOM. Compared with traditional negative WOM, OWOM spreads faster and affects wider. Enterprises should pay more attention to negative WOM information, continue to monitor OWOM of their company and service, respond to consumer to consumer complaints timely and quickly, and put forward the solutions of problems properly. A special department of consumer could be set up for tracking, collect, classification, summarizing the enterprise’s OWOM information in order to comprehensively understand consumers’ attitude, especially negative attitude, of the enterprises’ brands, products, and services (Bi, Hu, 2010). 5. Conduct OWOM marketing by the aid of Web2.0. Huang et al. (2002) puts forward to use the discussion groups and chat rooms, bulletin board, and other electronic media to carry out OWOM marketing. Xiong (2010) thinks effective WOM marketing strategy should be developed on the basis of Web 2.0. Mainly is the brand strategy and communication strategy. Brand strategy: to optimize product characteristics, improve brand experience; pay attention to the network of brand image value of etiquette mainte-

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nance, emphasizing creative advertising and brand construction; communicate real, clear and specific information to consumers. Communication strategy: search the Internet client community, develop opinion leaders in the reference group formed in mainstream opinion. 6. Completes OWOM information warning work. Li (2010) analyses the current monitoring market of enterprise OWOM information. Basically, a market has formed with baidu as a search portal, with yahoo and Banner as its gateway. With the increasing of the function of OWOM, the rise of the OWOM information monitoring will become important component of the enterprise crisis pre-warning work. Li (2009) discusses the establishment pre-warning OWOM information management methods when referencing the success of an enterprise practice. Through constructing enterprise community communication platform, enterprises can track netizens feedback, timely release enterprise echo control of flow; and can direct influences by setting the issues, guiding consensus, cultivate community opinion leader. 7. Improve the weak link relationship of OWOM parties to maintain OWOM credibility. Peng (2009) builds an OWOM game model from information asymmetry angle, and points out that in the long run the effectiveness of OWOM will gradually blurred. During this process, trustworthiness of OWOM can be maintained through the improvement of the weak link relationship between both parties. 8. Seeking cooperation to promote OWOM communication. Xu (2007) think OWOM public product attributes restricts the consumer behavior of OWOM communication, thus cause certain difficulties to enterprise’s carrying out OWOM marketing strategies. An enterprise may reduce the negative of public product attributes of OWOM and

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promote consumer positive OWOM spread through seeking the cooperatively social value oriented consumers’ support.

Problems of OWOM Marketing Zhang,Li (2008) think that some limitations and problems are existing for vendors to implement effective OWOM marketing through network,to react quickly to consumer’s opinions and feedbacks, to improve your own products and services, or to conveys consumer voice. The current questions are summarized as followed: 1. The virtuality of network provide the possibility for certain organization to manipulation. They are use false identity spreading false information, destroying the competitor’s OWOM or raising their own OWOM. However, there are also study shows that if there are two manufacturers manipulating the OWOM in the case, the equilibrium of OWOM will not be changed, but product sales will not change either (Zhang &Li, 2008). 2. Trustworthiness of internet operators. Another problem related with OWOM is concerned with network operators. Internet is the media of OWOM, therefore, the credibility of the operators directly related to recipients for OWOM trust. OWOM can be widely accepted only the receivers of OWOM know a lot about the operation feedback mechanism (Zhang &Li, 2008). 3. The trust of netizens on OWOM has already declined. Qu (2009) issued 144 questionnaire of OWOM trust status and pointed out that the OWOM trust crisis make netizens’ trust on OWOM has dropped. Product quality and publicity of no match is the most basic reasons. And in the light of the analysis of the causes and solutions, product quality needs protection, and the credibility of

Research Review of OWOM

OWOM should be promoted for the healthy development of online word-of-mouth.

OWOM POSSIBLE EMPHASIS OF THE FUTURE STUDY According to Chinese literature review and OWOM statistics, domestic researches focus mainly on OWOM communication effect and OWOM marketing strategies. From the overall trends on look, there are many comparability of the recent 2 years’ researches. However domestic OWOM research is not mature. The domestic study is mainly description research, a high proportion of 52 percent. Internationally, description type of research is not seen as the strict form. Experimental methods are not enough in China. Generally speaking domestic research mainly focuses on the concepts and factual description, and experiential data and empirical research is of lower involves (Shao, et al.,2010). There are many areas worth scholars to explore. 1. In the receivers of professional knowledge and effect of OWOM communication, previous researches are of no agreement view, which worth deep research in the future (Fu, 2008). Due to the classification of virtual community, which may represent the professional level of senders, the classification may affect their purchasing behavior. 2. OWOM mechanism. Many scholars concern effects of OWOM on consumers’ purchasing effects, but few concerns about this impact mechanism. Some scholars abroad use trustworthiness of OWOM as moderating variables, but domestic researchers didn’t concern this respect (Fu, 2008; Shao, et al.,2010). 3. Yet few scholars did systematic researches on OWOM on different consumers purchase decision process. Consumers shopping decision-making is a complex, multi-step

process, including a series of psychological stage. Because at each stage consumers’ motivation and psychological condition is different, WOM information effect of each stage may have differences. But many of the literature research conclusions often only involve the effect of large or small, of positive or negative. In fact, the influence of OWOM does not occurred at a point in time, but a complete process. So discussions on consumers’ decision-making process of all phases of influence are more valuable. Therefore, this can be a future direction(Fu, 2008; Bi, Hu, 2009). 4. Literatures of neutral. WOM are less. Simply put OWOM into positive and negative, but in fact there are many OWOM information referring not only product advantages and disadvantages. But there is little literature about neutral WOM. It is a meaningful task to analysis OWOM with both positive and negative suggestions. Generally speaking, the effect of both negative and positive OWOM exists at the same time. When negative OWOM exists, enterprises may take some remedial measures, such as providing interpretation, etc. whether these remedial measures would have impact on word-of-mouth dissemination hasn’t been examined. Future research should pay more attention on neutral word-of-mouth (Bi, Hu, 2010; Jin, 2007; Shao, et al.2010). 5. Heavy consumers perspective and light enterprise perspective. Previous researches paid more attention on consumer decisionmaking and behavior intention influence. As for enterprises suggestions of management are discussed only. The purpose of online word-of-mouth dissemination should be guiding marketing activities, so, the view of the OWOM marketing theory and practice of research is much more important (Bi, Hu, 2010).

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6. Synchronous interaction level of transmission channels of public effects study will be a valuable direction. OWOM channels include email, blogs, network reviews, discussion boards, MSN, QQ, fly letters synchronous and asynchronous communication mode. Synchronous communication OWOM often more targeted with more personalization and timeliness, which may be of vital significance (Bi, Hu, 2009). 7. Network deceptive OWOM. There are some deceptive false information on the internet. How to control and eliminate deceptive reputation OWOM is an important problem during marketing process (Shao, et al.,2010). 8. The combination of consumer psychology research may become an important research field in the future. Current research focuses on word-of-mouth information of measurement. When will consumers initiative or passivity accepts search online word-of-mouth information is another research direction (Zhang, Li, 2008). 9. Online word-of-mouth marketing principles. American word-of-mouth marketing association advocates “word-of-mouth marketing principles” includes protection and respect consumer; ROI honest principle, namely relations, evaluation, identity; honesty respect shall rules; responsible for handling and minors relations; promote honest about next communication; ensure privacy and licenses (Liu, 2008). China’s online word-of-mouth marketing ethics need confirmed as soon as possible. 10. The universality of OWOM research. The basic of current empirical research is the selection of a particular industry word-ofmouth information analysis, but influence mechanism of OWOM to different trades differs. Many empirical researches are about food, computer, music, movies, books, etc, so the conclusion is not generality. And the conclusions of the researches are of no

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system (Bi, Hu, 2009). Future empirical researches can involve more fields and more comprehensive commercial word-of-mouth information, making a conclusion more accurate.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION China’s domestic previous researches for OWOM are the same in the definition and connotations as traditional OWOM. The key is to emphasize the media—— Internet, and thanks to the Internet spreading advantage brought by the new features of OWOM. OWOM research has just started and literature quantity is small, and the concept definition remains to be unified. In addition, the differences of traditional WOM and OWOM are explained separately and some suggestions are put forward. The number of Chinese literatures in international academic journal is small, and researches typically confined to the hotel sales performance, especially the two types of consumer reviews and reviews the influence of editor for consumers (Zhang, et al., 2010).OWOM for hotel management strategic impact (Li, Liang, 2009), online customers community of users network evaluation to new users search for information online shopping information adoption decision research (Cheung, et al.,2008). These instructions on study published in the international and domestic published quantity is very disproportionate (through index.htm retrieval Chinese published OWOM publications about more than 80), this needs Chinese scholars dares to submit papers to international journals, and get international counterparts approbate, in order to obtain discourse commensurate the China’s international position.

Research Review of OWOM

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Special thanks to the national natural science foundation “across organizational information system of diffusion, adopt and user behavioral research” (grant No.: 70971031), “research on strategic investment decision –making and risk management from investors’ perspective” (NO71031003), and Sanjiang University research projects K08010 funding.

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About the Contributors

Patricia Ordóñez de Pablos is a professor in the Department of Business Administration at The University of Oviedo (Spain). She received her degree in Business Administration and PhD from The University of Oviedo and completed her education in the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on Strategic Management, Knowledge Management, Intellectual Capital and IT. She serves as Executive Editor of the International Journal of Learning and Intellectual and the International Journal of Strategic Change Management. She also serves as Associate Editor of Behaviour and Information Technology. Robert D. Tennyson is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is editor of a professional journal, Computers in Human Behavior. He also serves on editorial boards for four other journals. His research and publications include topics on problem solving, concept learning, intelligent systems, testing and measurement, instructional design, and advanced learning technologies. He has directed NATO sponsored workshops and advanced study institutes on automated instructional design and delivery in Spain and Norway. He has authored over 200 journal articles, books and book chapters. Jingyuan Zhao is a Post-doctoral Fellow at School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technologies (China), and an Associate Professor at School of Management, Beijing Union University (China). Her Ph.D. is in Management Science and Engineering from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and University Science and Technologies of China (USTC). Dr. Zhao’s expertise is on regional innovation management, high-tech industry cluster, knowledge management, technologies diffusion, organization learning. She serves as a Guest Editor for several international journals and is an Invited Reviewer for China’ state-run newspaper West Times to provide comments on the economy. *** Mara Abel is graduated in Geology and doctor in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence. She is a professor in Knowledge Engineering at the Institute of Informatics of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, where she leads several initiatives in entrepreneurship. Her main focus on research is related to study alternatives for representing visual knowledge, developing applications in petroleum reservoir analysis area. She is also the co-founder of the company ENDEEPER Rock Knowledge System, an spin-off of her research group.

About the Contributors

Neeta Baporikar is on an academic assignment with Sultanate of Oman, Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Salalah College of Applied Sciences-IBA Programme. Prior to this she is been a Professor – Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship in I2IT Pune, India and BITS International Centre. She holds a Doctorate in Management from University of Pune, Master’s degree in Business Administration (Distinction) and Law (Hons.) degree and has more than two and half decades of experience in industry, training, research and academics – teaching/consulting - both at national and international level. Apart from this she is also an Accredited Management Teacher (AIMA), Qualified Trainer (ISTD) and PhD-Guide, Faculty of Management, University of Pune and Board Member of Academic in accredited B-Schools. Stephen Burgess has research and teaching interests that include the use of ICTs in small businesses (particularly in the tourism field), the strategic use of ICTs, and B2C electronic commerce. He has received a number of competitive research grants in these areas. He has completed several studies related to website features in small businesses and how well websites function over time, including his PhD from Monash University, Australia (completed in 2002). He has authored/ edited three books and special editions of journals in topics related to the use of ICTs in small business and been track chair at the international ISOneWorld, IRMA, Conf-IRM and ACIS conferences in related areas. More recently, Stephen has extended his research interests to include the use of websites by community based organisations. Murat Çetin has completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Middle East Technical University, Department of Architecture. He was awarded by the Higher Education Council for a scholarship to conduct his doctoral studies at Sheffield University in United Kingdom. He participated various international conferences and published papers in journals and books. After his return, he taught at Balıkesir University, Department of Architecture and Yeditepe University as an Assistant Professor. He also won a citation awards in one urban design competition and one architectural conservation project competition. He currently teaches at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. Deepak Chhabra teaches at Arizona State University, USA. Her research interests include sustainable development and marketing of different forms of tourism with special focus on heritage and gaming tourism. Tao Chen is a Doctoral candidates of Management School, Harbin Institute of technology; Engineer of Business School, Sanjiang University; Research Direction: Management Information System, Decision-making. John C. Crotts, Ph. D., is a Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the College of Charleston located in Charleston, SC, USA. Prior to this position, he lectured in the Advanced Business Programme on tourism subjects at Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand and was Director of the Center for Tourism Research and Development at the University of Florida. His research encompasses the areas of economic psychology, tourism marketing, and sales strategy, and management of cooperative alliances. John received his PhD in Leisure Studies and Services from the University of Oregon in 1989.

252

About the Contributors

Stan Karanasios is a Research Fellow at the AIMTech Research Group at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. His research interests include ICT and development, ICT and the environment and ICT and small business. He has significant experience in the diffusion of wireless and mobile technologies. Aliana M W Leong is the Dean of the Faculty of International Tourism and the Director of School of Continuing Studies in Macau University of Science and Technology. Her research interests are Tourism Management and Adult Education. Aliana has published 3 monographs, edited 3 books and published over 80 papers in refereed journals, books, international and regional conferences proceedings in Europe, East Asia, China, and America. She is also the editor of the Journal of Macau Adult Education. As a chief investigator, Aliana has conducted over ten research projects funded by public institutions and Macau foundation in the recent five years. Xi Li, Associate Professor of Faculty of International Tourism, Macau University of Science and Technology. Dr. Li’s research interests are Destination Management and Event Management. Since 2000, Dr. Li has participated in over 20 research projects as the team member and published over 30 academic papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. Chad Lin is a Research Fellow at he Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Curtin University, Australia. Dr Lin has conducted extensive research in the areas of: e-commerce, e-health, health communication, health informatics, IS/IT investment evaluation and benefits realization, IS/IT outsourcing, IT adoption and diffusion, RFID, social marketing, strategic alliance in healthcare, and virtual teams. He has authored more than 100 internationally refereed journal articles (e.g. Decision Support Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information and Management, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, European Journal of Marketing, Technovation, Medical Journal of Australia, and ANZ Journal of Public Health), book chapters, and conference papers in the last five years. He has served as an associate editor or a member of editorial review board for 7 international journals and as a reviewer for 11 other international journals. He is currently a member of the Research & Development Committee in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University. Jiaming Liu obtained Ph.D. in Tourism Development and Management from Peking University (China), and Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tourism Economics from Nankai University (China). Currently, he is a Associate Research in Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), and the Chief Designer for Center of Tourism Research and Planning, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS). Dr. Liu’s expertise is on urban tourism, tourist and holiday resort area, tourism site development and management, and community tourism. As chief researcher, he successfully secured and finished 50 projects of planning, of which two projects are funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, and his research work has resulted in 50 publications, as well as two translations. Fabiana Lorenzi has a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and she is a professor in Lutheran University of Brazil. She works as consultant at Invenio Softare Inteligente and her interests include recommendation systems, case-based reasoning and multi-agent systems.

253

About the Contributors

Stanley Loh is a Professor in the Catholic University of Pelotas, in the Lutheran University of Brazil and in the Senac Technology Faculty. He has a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science. He also works as consultant in IT companies (Invenio, InText Mining and ADS Digital). His interests include recommendation systems, text mining, web search and knowledge management. Eleonora Pantano, PhD, M.Eng. is a Post doc research fellow at University of Calabria (Italy). Her research interests are related to the applications of advanced technologies to retailing and tourism, with emphasis on the investigation of consumer behaviour in pervasive environments. She has been Assistant teacher of Integrated Marketing Communication, Engineering Faculty, University of Calabria (January 2006- 2008); Visiting lecturer at College of Business, University of Illinois (USA) (May-July 2009); Visiting lecturer at Master in Business and Administration (MBA) Marketing Module at the Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Zagreb (HR), 2009. Furthermore, she is member of the Editorial Board of numerous international journals, and editor of the special issue of Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services on Applications of New Technologies to Retailing, 17 (3). She was the Highly Commended Award winner of the 2008/2009 Emerald/EMRBI Business Research Award for Young Researchers, with the contribution “Consumer’s behaviour and local products: a perception model”. Ruth Rios-Morales is Deputy Director of Research at Les Roches–Gruyere, University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. Ruth is also Country Director for Switzerland of the EuroMed Research Business Institute. Ruth holds a BSc in Economics, MSc in International Economics and a PhD in Politics of International Business from the University of Ulster, UK. Before joining Les Roches–Gruyere, Ruth taught international business at the School of Business Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Ruth has also taught international business and finance in Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. Ruth has conducted advanced research in international business and finance, her research has been acknowledged by UNCTAD and the World Bank. Carmine Sellitto has investigated innovation, e-commerce/marketing adoption across a variety of business domains including tourism providers and Australian-based wineries. He gained his PhD from RMIT University where he was awarded the student prize for his PhD in the area of innovation. Dr Sellitto has published widely on topics associated with e-business, information management and technology, website analysis, tourism and IT, Internet-marketing, information quality and the adoption of technology by small business Rocco Servidio is Assistant Professor in General Psychology at the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Calabria (Italy). His research interests include web usability, Human-Computer Interaction, and eLearning systems. He works also in the field of information and communication technologies applied to tourism investigating how these technologies can affect the tourism. Ashleigh K. Shelton joined the U of M School of Journalism and Mass Communication program in the fall of 2007 after graduating summa cum laude and top of her class from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She earned her BA in Communication with departmental honors. She also has been a Graduate Instructor for several years and can’t imagine a more rewarding experience. Ashleigh’s current and past

254

About the Contributors

research interests include: presence, video games, social networking sites, and digital media technologies. She loves to spend her spare time with media as much as she loves to study it. She enjoys horseback riding, the theatre, 70’s/80’s rock music, Facebook, going to movies, and playing video games of all genres from Resident Evil, God of War, and Madden, to Mario Kart, Guitar Hero, and Zelda. Tienan Wang, Professor of Management School, Harbin Institute of technology; Ph.D.;Research Direction: Management Information System; Strategic management theory Zhiming Zhu, Vice Professor of Business School, Hohai University, Ph.D.; Research Direction: Management Information System.

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256

Index

Symbols

C

4E model (4E) 153-154 6E model (6E) 151-153, 155, 158-159, 162-163

Calabria region 53, 59, 61 call centers 30-31, 33 Camel Racing 129 Campaign Management 148-149 case studies 2, 28 catering 83, 88, 105, 137-138, 141, 144-146, 148, 153 Cave Exploration 127 China 1-3, 7-12, 15-19, 21, 24-26, 72-74, 79-80, 83, 89-90, 94, 101, 105, 151, 157, 163-164, 205, 207, 219-222 China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) 2, 207 China Travel Service 7 commodification 194 communication effect 207, 211-212, 215, 219 communication process 54, 207, 211 community control 197 Complaint management 15-16 conative 58, 69 Conde Nast Traveller 122 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ) 188 conservation 14, 24, 103, 106, 110-112, 114, 126, 163-164, 189-191, 193-202, 205 constitutive authenticity 154 construction technologies 108 contemporary architecture 104-106 Context factors 171-172 corridors 79-81, 88 cost to serve 34 Cranfield Process Model of Benefit Management 41 Ctrip 7-8 cultural authenticity 13 cultural consumption 102, 108

A Account Management 138-140, 150 adaptive museum guides 53, 57, 69 advergames 91-101 after-sales service 216 Agência Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) 188 An Tai River 159, 162 architectural heritage 110-111, 201 architecture of tourism 105 ARM Intelligent Visitor Management System (IVMS) 19 Australia 9, 27-28, 44, 48, 101, 113, 115, 165, 193, 196, 204 automatic division 19 avatar-based advertising 93, 99

B Banquet Event Orders (BEOs) 141, 145-148 beer tourism 53 Beijing 7, 12, 17, 25-26, 72-76, 79-81, 84-85, 8790, 163-164, 222 Beijing Tourism Administration 7 Beijing Urban Development Strategy 76 Bilbao effect 104, 107, 111 brand awareness 93, 214 brand image 216-217 Bull Fighting 129 Business-to-Consumer 173 buying behaviors 213-214 buying intention 213-214, 216

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Index

cultural heritage 16, 55, 57, 66-68, 70, 103, 111112, 126, 132, 152, 164, 190, 197, 199-200, 204 Cultural Indicators 197, 199-200 cultural production 102, 108, 113 Customer relationship 27-28, 30, 35, 44-47, 49-51, 138 customer relationship management (CRM) 27-30, 33, 39, 43-51, 150

D database marketing 10, 29, 31, 45, 50 database technologies 30 data mining 33 Destination Marketing 59, 71, 127, 203 digital environments 54 Director of Catering (DOC) 45, 145 district revitalization 152 domestic tourism 15-16, 117, 130, 132 Dubai Effect 108

E E-bids 138, 141 Ecological Indicators 195, 197-199 e-commerce 1, 6-10, 33, 45-46, 48, 50-51, 138, 175-176, 178 electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) 27-49 electronic guide system 6 electronic ticket function 22-23 Emergency response 60 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 30, 34, 46 Estheticism 151, 153-154, 156, 159, 161-162 evaluation process 35-36, 41 Event management 141, 145

F foreign direct investment (FDI) 129-130 foreign tourists’ management 21 Fuzhou City (Fuzhou) 151, 157-159

G Gaming 68, 91-98 gastronomic tourism 53 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) 120-121, 125, 127, 129, 131, 197 geographic information system (GIS) 14, 20, 22, 72, 75 global economy 104-105, 112-113, 132

global positioning system approach (GPS) 21-22 glocal 202 Graphical User Interface (GUI) 58, 71 grid image 75

H Hera Lacinia 54 Heritage 16, 55-57, 61, 66-68, 70, 102-103, 106107, 110-114, 116, 120, 124-126, 132, 152, 154, 158, 163-164, 189-206 Heritage tourism 154, 163, 189-190, 192, 194-195, 202-205 hierarchy 151, 153, 156, 159-160, 162-163 Historic district 151-159, 162-163 homophiles 214 Hospitality and Tourism Industry 27 Hotel sales 136, 138, 141, 148, 220 Human Computer Interaction (HCI) 58, 71, 169170, 173, 175-176 humanness 93 hydrotaxis 77, 86

I Identity recognition function 19 Industries of Tourism and Hospitality 1 Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) 9-10, 28, 49, 52-53, 68, 114, 165-166, 174 Information seeking 91-92, 95-96, 98-99 information society 108 innovation 2, 15, 19, 22, 53, 66, 170, 175 Institutional Indicators 197-198, 200 intelligent queue management 22-23 interactive scenarios 54 International Travel Magazine 116 involvement theory 3 iPhone 56, 65, 167-168 IT 30-34, 36-37, 39, 41-45, 48-50, 108, 126

K Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 31, 41 kitsch 104, 106-107, 111-112

L Las Vegas effect 104 Luxury travel 130

257

Index

M main tourism management 15 Management and co-ordination 127 Management of Traveler Demand and Preference 13 MAPWEB 179-180 market malfunction 86 Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) 93 matrix—patch—corridor 79 media system dependency (MSD) theory 92, 94, 99 Meeting Incentive Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) 121 Ministry of National Economy (MONE) 121, 125, 132 Ministry of Tourism (MOT) 120-122, 125, 127, 130, 132 Mission Statement 189, 192, 194, 196, 198-199, 203 mobile devices 52-53, 55-56, 58, 62, 167-168, 174 modeling tools 3 MOM 120 Multi-agent recommender systems 178-179 multimodal interactions 60 multi-sensation 6, 9 Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) 56

N Nanhou old street 151, 159, 161, 163 National Museum of Science and Industry 55 National Tourism Administration 7-8, 12, 17, 24 navigation module 6 Need recognition 63 netizens 2, 207-208, 216, 218 Nostalgia 151, 153-156, 159, 161-162 notion of adaptation 171

O objective authenticity 154, 195, 198 offline museums 56 Oman 116-132 Omanis 118-122, 124, 128-131 Omanisation 117, 129, 131 online tourists 5 online transactions 2 online travel 1, 3, 69 Online Word-of-mouth (OWOM) 207-223 Opportunity management 31

258

Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission (ORRRC) 74

P patches 79 pending (PEN) 144 Perception Quality 15, 58 Perceptive selection 63 Peri-urban 72-73, 79-80, 85-88 Peri-urban recreation areas 72-73, 80, 85-88 Personal Tour 178-188 pervasive environments 52-53, 59-66, 68, 71 place spirit 154, 156, 159, 163 planar data 75 potential tourists 6, 8, 63, 65-66, 118, 215 Pre-purchase evaluation 63-64 Product development 24, 31, 126 Product Placement 6, 9, 93, 101 product quality 216, 218 Profit modes 1, 6-8 property management system (PMS) 141 Public Private Sector Partnership 126 push services 172

Q Quality assurance 127 Quantity management 15 Queue management 15, 22-23

R Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) 12-13, 1924, 26, 60 Real tourism 5-7 Recommender Systems (RSs) 178-179, 188 re-communication 212-213 recreation areas 72-89, 104 Recreation Belt Around Metropolis (ReBAM) 74, 89 Recreation Carrying Capacity Theory (RCC) 14 Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) 14, 74, 88 Relationship management 27-28, 30-32, 44-47, 49-51 Requests-For-Proposals (RFPs) 138 resources environment 21 retiracy 155-156, 162 robusticity 194

Index

S Sales Force Automation (SFA) 31, 136-141, 147150 San-Fang Qi-Xiang 151, 157-163 sceneries of virtual tourism 3 scenic tourist management experience 21 Second Life 93, 97, 99-100 Selective Investment 126 situated learning interface 4 skin architecture 110 Social Indicators 197, 199 socio-economic theory 15 Space positioning function 20 Spatial distribution 72, 76, 79 spatial regulation 79 strategic marketing 131, 195 striation data 75 sublimation 151, 156, 159, 162 supply chain management (SCM) 31, 34, 46, 60, 69 Sustainable development 112, 189, 192-195, 203205 Sustainable marketing 189-190, 192, 194, 196, 203 sustainable marketing model (SHTM) 194, 196 Sustainable Tourism 119, 126, 130, 174-176, 192, 194, 197, 203-205 system integration 38, 40, 44

T Targeted Marketing 126, 215 teaching of virtual tourism 3-4 Team management 15, 19, 21 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) 57, 71, 137138, 150, 211, 214, 221 technology systems of virtual tourism 3 Theory of Planned Behavior 57 Theory of Reasoned Action 57, 97 three dimensional (3D) 56, 58, 60-61, 65, 71, 98 tourism activities 2, 122, 127, 129, 154-155, 167, 173, 193 Tourism and Hospitality Industry 92, 122 Tourism and Recreation Development 74 tourism behaviour 15, 57, 71 tourism crimes 14 tourism experience 10, 22, 152-154, 162-164 tourism movement 103 tourism object management 15 tourism of architecture 105 tourism products 2, 4, 7, 13-14, 68, 124-125, 127, 131

Tourism Revenue-Sharing 7 tourism sector 27-28, 37, 52-53, 55, 59, 61, 106, 117-118, 120-123, 125, 130-132, 166-167, 173 Tourism Utility Maximization 81 tourist attractions 11-13, 15-19, 21-26, 75, 124, 164 tourist capacity 14 Tourist experience 15, 18, 151-152, 155, 160, 163, 165-166 touristic landscapes 55 Tourist management 12-13, 15-18, 21-22, 24-25 tourist spending behavior 22 Tourist Technology Acceptance 71 tour planning 4 Track back trajectory function 19 traditional architecture 110-111 travel websites 2, 7-9, 92

U ultrahigh frequency (UHF) 20, 22 uncertainty reduction theory (URT) 91-92, 95-96, 100 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) 53, 69, 92, 101 urban tourism 11, 24, 73-74, 80, 88, 157 Use of technology 31, 71 uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective 92, 96-97

V video games 92, 96-101 virtual currencies 7, 9 Virtual Forbidden City 8 Virtual Reality (VR) 1-2, 4-5, 9-11, 52-55, 57-58, 60, 66-68, 70-71, 108-109 Virtual Tourism 1-11 virtual tourism system 6 virtual tourist groups 3 visitor management 14-19, 21-23, 25-26, 195

W Wahiba Sands 128 WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) 173 water system 77-78, 88 Web 2.0 217 Web-based BEOs 148 web communities 55 web marketing 31 wireless communication systems 19 Wireless Events Management and Catering 148 word of mouth (WOM) 208-215, 217, 219-223

259

Index

World Heritage Convention (WHC) 189-190, 198, 201-202, 205-206 World Heritage List (WHL) 120, 190, 196 world heritage sites (WHS) 189-194, 196, 198-205

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) 127 WoW effect 104, 111

X XML file 181-182

260