Barbara Neuhofer

Smart technologies for personalized experiences: a case study in the hospitality domain

Recent advances in the field of technology have led to the emergence of innovative technological smart solutions providing unprecedented opportunities for application in the tourism and hospitality industry. With intensified competition in the tourism market place, it has become paramount for businesses to explore the potential of technologies, not only to optimize existing processes but facilitate the creation of more meaningful and personalized services and experiences. This study aims to bridge the current knowledge gap between smart technologies and experience personalization to understand how smart mobile technologies can facilitate personalized experiences in the context of the hospitality industry. By adopting a qualitative case study approach, this paper makes a two-fold contribution; it a) identifies the requirements of smart technologies for experience creation, including information aggregation, ubiquitous mobile connectedness and real time synchronization and b) highlights how smart technology integration can lead to two distinct levels of personalized tourism experiences. The paper concludes with the development of a model depicting the dynamic process of experience personalization and a discussion of the strategic implications for tourism and hospitality management and research.

High Tech for High Touch Experiences: A Case Study From the Hospitality Industry

Experiences represent the core of the tourism and hospitality industry. Companies seek to create unique and personalised experiences by addressing the needs and wants of contemporary consumers who are looking for something new. While the importance of experiences is unquestioned, the understanding of how to use technology to create personalised experiences is limited in tourism theory and practice. Based on this rationale, this paper aims to explore how companies can strategically use technology to create personalised high-touch guest experiences. Following a single case study approach, this paper contributes by developing a process model proposing technology as a platform of co-creation. A two-fold information and experience flow is introduced between companies and consumers throughout multiple experience touch points. This exploratory study suggests high-tech as a critical factor in the co-creation and facilitation of high-touch experiences.

Value Co-creation and Co-destruction in Connected Tourist Experiences

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a key resource that has transformed travel and tourist experiences. Due to the increasing ubiquity and mobility of ICTs, they have become integral in creating connected experiences that interlink travel with everyday life. While recent studies have investigated value co-creation and the enhancement of experiences through ICTs, there is less knowledge about potential value co-destruction when ICTs come into place. This paper provides a first exploratory study to examine technology resource integration by looking at the dichotomous relationship of value co-creation and value co-destruction in connected tourist experiences. By adopting a qualitative in-depth methodology, this study has identified six dimensions, which highlight how value can be created and destroyed through connectedness. The paper contributes to service-dominant logic, resource integration and value creation discourses in a tourism and technology context, for which several theoretical and practical limitations are discussed.

Technology as a Catalyst of Change: Enablers and Barriers of the Tourist Experience and Their Consequences

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had a major impact on the way people experience travel. Tourism research and management have been increasingly interested in exploring the role of ICTs as a potential catalyst of change that enhances tourist experiences. While generic technology adoption barriers are known, there is little knowledge about the specific technological enablers and barriers that determine the potential enhancement of tourist experiences. This paper thus addresses a timely matter as it identifies the key enablers and barriers as well as their implied consequences that shape the enhancement of tourist experiences. Through an exploratory qualitative approach, this study contributes by developing a two-factor model of experience enablers and barriers. Theoretical implications are discussed and strategic implications for tourism management and policy are provided on what actions need to be taken to convert existing ICTs insufficiencies into potential experience enablers.

Co-creation Through Technology: Dimensions of Social Connectedness

With the increasing mobility and the emergence of social information and communication technologies, the tourist has turned into a connected consumer. In using the range of technologies available, tourists are now able to connect with their social circles to engage, share and co-create their tourist experiences online. While the significance of co-creation has been widely recognised, there is a major gap in understanding on what levels technology-facilitated co-creation can occur. This paper therefore aims to uncover the dimensions of social connectedness and develop a differentiated knowledge of how exactly tourists co-create through ICTs. The findings reveal six distinct dimensions that can be positioned on a social intensity continuum, ranging from disconnection to social co-living of the experience. In revealing social connectedness to everyday life and the home environment, this study highlights key implications for the existing theoretical understanding of tourist experience portrayed as a reversal from of the everyday life. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

An analysis of the perceived value of touristic location based services.

Location based services have gained increasing importance for the tourism industry in recent years. However, a real breakthrough to the mass market has not been fully achieved yet, due to a number of potential reasons, inter alia, institutional circumstances, drawbacks in technology and missing understanding of the real values inherent in location based services. Preliminary literature still indicates a lack of research in terms of understanding consumers’ perceptions towards location based services from a consumer-centric rather than a technology-focused perspective. Therefore, the aim of this particular study is to investigate the actual consumer perceived value of touristic location based services. An exploratory sequential strategy is applied to develop and test a six-dimensional measurement scale. The findings suggest the extension of the original model by two new value dimensions, namely informational and convenience value. Further need for research and managerial implications are provided.

Innovation Through Co-creation: Towards an Understanding of Technology-Facilitated Co-creation Processes in Tourism

Society and industries have undergone a profound shift as consumers have shifted from the idea of merely buying products towards playing an active role in the consumption process. With intensified competitiveness and dynamics on a global scale, businesses have increasingly recognised opportunities to differentiate themselves by empowering and involving consumers in the co-creation of their consumption experiences. Recent literature has recognised this trend by depicting consumers in multiple roles as participants of the crowd, co-producers of products and services and co-creators of experiences and value. The possibilities for consumers and companies to engage and co-create in the consumption process have been particularly driven by technology as a main catalyst of change. While recent studies have produced a large body of knowledge on co-creation processes, its understanding through the lens of technology in the specific context of tourism remains scarce. In light of these developments, this chapter aims to examine the notion of consumer involvement for innovation through technology-facilitated co-creation. This chapter contributes in that it a) interlinks innovation, co-creation and technology, b) develops a classification of technology-facilitated co-creation processes in the context of tourism and c) provides relevant implications for current tourism research and practice.