François Bédard

E-Tourism Portal: A Case Study in Ontology-Driven Development

Software development is a fairly complex activity, that is both labour-intensive and knowledge-rich, and systematically delivering high-quality software that addresses the users’ needs, on-time, and within budget, remains an elusive goal. This is even more true for internet applications presents additional challenges, including, 1) a predominance of the highly volatile interaction logic, and 2) stronger time-to-market pressures. Model-driven development purports to alleviate the problem by slicing the development process into a sequence of semantics-preserving transformations that start with a computation-independent model, through to an architecture-neutral platform independent model (PIM), all the way to platform-specific model or code at the other end. That is the idea(l). In general, however, the semantic gap between the CIM and PIM is such that the transition between them is hard to formalize. In this paper, we present a case study where we used an ontology to drive the development of an e-tourism portal. Our project showed that it is possible to drive the development of an internet application from a semantic description of the business entities, and illustrated the effectiveness of this approach during maintenance. It also highlighted the kinds of trade-offs we needed to make to reconcile somewhat lofty design principles with the imperative of producing a product with reasonable quality.

Implementation of a Destination Management System Interface in Tourist Information Centres and its Impact

The aim of this paper is to understand the conditions for a successful implementation by the tourism ministry of a North American tourist destination of a destination management system (DMS) interface in local tourism information centres (TICs) located in its territory, and to comprehend the context, objectives, and impact of such an initiative. The Bedard model for adaptation to information technology (IT) in the service sector was used as the theoretical framework in this research. Two main data collection sources were employed: face-to-face interviews with the Ministry’s project leader and phone interviews with the TIC coordinators participating in the DMS interface implementation. Main findings show that TICs located in major urban centres are using DMSs to make reservations, while TICs located in more rural areas prefer to maintain direct contact with hotels. Working relationship, training, financial support and technical support were identified as main factors in adopting the interface.

Tomorrow’s Travel Agency: A Survey of Adaptation And Positioning Strategics to New Technologies in Services

The tourism industry faces several major challenges in the new millenium. Sweeping changes in the technologies of services, changes in consumers demographics and sophistication, rapid developments in information technologies all combine to challenge the traditional approaches of travel agencies to the industry. Although the challenges are similar worlwide, several adaptation / positioning strategics may be available to various key players. Although there is no research data available yet, major thinkers of the industry, like Eastman (1997), Loverseed (1999), Oppermann (1999), Poon (1993), Sheldon (1994), Skapinker (1999), Van Rekom and Teunissen (1999) and Vellas and Becherel (1999) have predicted that survival of travel agencies in the near future will be predicated on evolving from a generalist to a specialized approach.

Case Studies in Sociocultural Innovation

This chapter provides a series of case studies to enhance the chapters in this section of the book, particularly focusing upon how tourism intelligence underpins cultural and social innovation in city tourism and product development. These case studies extend the material and concepts in the chapters by examining the issues in detail. Whilst the case study approach has sparked debate in the research literature, particularly focussing around the ability of researchers to generalise more widely from single cases, it is the aim of this chapter to build upon the chapters using real life examples. The case studies work especially well at the local scale by drawing together the many different elements of tourism, their linkages and the relevant stakeholders as they focus on one particular place.

Authenticity and Tourism: What TripAdvisor Reviews Reveal About Authentic Travel to Marrakech

Ubiquitous in commercials and tourism brochures, the term authenticity is used in a wide array of meanings ranging from objective to subjective. In an attempt to overcome this deficiency, this article aims to identify how tourists define the authenticity of a travel experience. For this, it engages in a semantic analysis of reviews posted in TripAdvisor by travelers to Marrakech and its surroundings. The platform was chosen among others due to its currently predominant role in assisting tourists and helping them share their experiences. A total of 361 reviews were collected from 160 tourism establishments—40 each of four types of establishments, being the riad guest house, hotel, restaurant, and rural guest house—selected from the ranking of the best tourism establishments proposed by TripAdvisor. The three dimensions of authenticity found in the literature—originality, singularity and identity—were then associated with the four types of tourist accommodations. The “originality” dimension proved to be strongly associated with riad guest houses, the “singularity” dimension with hotels and restaurants, and the “identity” dimension with rural guest houses.

Toward a Characterisation of the Maturity of Organisational Online Capabilities: The Case of Hotel Distribution in Morocco

Applying the resource-based view (RBV), this article examines two organisational capabilities in the hotel distribution sector: strategic alignment and dynamic capabilities. Exploratory interviews conducted with business managers (BMs) and technology managers (TMs) from the hotel sector allowed to operationalise three constructs used in this research: the maturity of strategic online alignment, the maturity of dynamic online capabilities, and organisational performance. A subsequent questionnaire survey administered among BMs and TMs from 101 hotels in Morocco then allowed to validate the three hypotheses of this research: H1 Strategic alignment maturity has a direct and positive effect on the maturity of dynamic online capabilities; H2 The maturity of dynamic online capabilities is significantly linked to organisational performance; H3 The maturity of strategic online alignment is significantly linked to organisational performance.

Identification of Six Socio-types of Internet Users and their Impact on the Interactivity of Tourism Websites

Many studies have shown that Internet users do not form a homogenous group in regard to the way in which they appropriate websites. Socio-demographic profiling (age, sex, education, social status) is the usual method for explaining the different website usages of Internet users. This article proposes a new approach — that of socio-types — to understand and manage the different usages. Laboratory observation sessions were conducted about Internet users and their appropriation of the website of a destination management organization. These sessions allowed to identify six socio-types among Internet users of tourism sites: (i) the “Explorer”, (ii) the “Agenda Setter”, (iii) the “Demanding Type”, (iv) the “Party Type”, (v) the “What To Do Type” and (vi) the “Google Addict”. A good knowledge of each of those socio-types will prove very useful for managers in charge of building or redesigning a website. Moreover, that knowledge will make the managers more aware of the need to invest in the interactivity of their websites so that each visitor, whatever his/her socio-type, can find their area of interest.

The Practices of Internet Users in Their Appropriation of Websites of Destination Management Organizations

This paper sheds light on the way in which Internet users appropriate tourism websites. We refer to a study conducted on users of a website of a destination management organization (DMO) in Canada. That study, which includes extensive conversations held with the users, has the following hypothesis: Actors-producers of information tend to apply a logic of mass dissemination of information, whereas actors-users tend to apply an interactive, personalized and one-to-one communication logic. The results seem to confirm the thesis of our paper. Comments and suggestions gathered during the interviews allowed to identify many discrepancies between the actors-producers and the actors-users. For one, the information offered by the actors-producers did not meet the information demands of the actors-users of the site. Neither did certain ergonomic functionalities offered on the site respond to the ergonomic functionalities requested by the users. The results allow to go beyond a simple identification of discrepancies. The user comments constitute valuable information for website designers and managers who wish to reduce those discrepancies. Our paper demonstrates some of the many possibilities for making improvements. These include tree structure, symbols and icons, and above all, interactivity. As early as 1986, Rogers identified interactivity as a chief determinant of user acceptance. He defined interactivity as “the capacity of the new communication systems to respond to users almost like an individual who is taking part in a conversation”. Interactivity is also a notion at the centre of the debate on user autonomy (Kim and Lee, 2002). Supporters of the appropriation approach recognize interactivity as a main prerequisite for proceeding with the evaluation of websites. Researchers studying interactive communication acknowledge the potential of the Internet to promote exchanges and study new ways of communicating. Many of these researchers find that the Internet is still regarded more as an extension of a mass dissemination tool rather than an occasion to explore new communication methods: To communicate in networks in an interactive and personalized way would pose new challenges for the actors-producers of information as well as the actors-users, as underlined by Castells (2001). To date, very few studies on tourism websites have applied the appropriation theory to try and understand user appropriation. With this paper, we hope to offer an original contribution to research on that topic.

Case Study of the Successful Strategic Transformation of a “Bricks-and-Mortar” Travel Agency into a “Clicks-and- Mortar” Business —Lessons Learned from a Small, Independent Travel Agency in Canada

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have changed the competitive environment for intermediaries in the travel business. Long-established companies find it very difficult to fundamentally restructure their business practices to meet the changing demands. Yet, some of these travel agencies have been able to accomplish this restructuring. The purpose of this paper is to present the case study of the successful strategic transformation of a small, independent “Bricks-and-Mortar” travel agency into a “Clicks-and-Mortar” business.