Miriam Scaglione

An Exploratory Field Study of Web 2.0 in Tourism

The Web 2.0 concept comprises a second generation of Web-based services, such as social networking sites and wikis, and is becoming an important element in travel planning and buying. This paper adds to Web 2.0 tourism studies, investigating Web 2.0 applications and technologies present with almost 3,000 tourism businesses — destination management organisations, mountain railways, travel agencies and hotel organisations. The low presence of Web 2.0 technologies and applications on tourism enterprise websites suggests that most tourism enterprises are at an early stage in applying Web 2.0 concepts to their businesses. Using diffusion of innovations theory, the results show that enterprises having adopted websites early (early adopters and early majority) also lead in the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies.

Internet Use by Hospitality SMEs in Alpine Destinations

This study examined Internet use by a representative sample of 182 hospitality enterprises from six Alpine destinations — Germany (Allgau), Austria (Bodensee-Vorarlberg, Kleinwalsertal and Montafon) and Switzerland (Davos and Savognin) — within the framework of the eFitness Benchmarking project. The study adds to the limited research of evolving IT adoption in tourism and shows that the website age reflects the presence of advanced website features and IT usage. Clustering techniques classified the accommodation enterprises into four clusters based on website features. The clusters illustrate how adoption evolves from basic to advanced IT use. In line with prior research, there were significant positive relationships between cluster membership and firm size, category and affiliation.

Investigating Domain Name Diffusion across Swiss Accommodation Enterprises

This study applies diffusion of innovations to investigate if domain name registrations by different accommodation enterprises in Switzerland follow the typical diffusion pattern of other technologies. The study analysed the time series of more than 2100 names registered by small Swiss enterprises — Auberge, Gasthaus and Pension — in the Swiss .ch domain and compared their diffusion pattern with those of hotels. In line with previous research, the results show significant differences in the dynamic of adopting domain names across accommodation types.

Strategic Visitor Flows (SVF) Analysis Using Mobile Data

‘Visitor flows’ (VF) is defined as the generalized spatial movement patterns of travellers and have always been relevant in tourism studies. Nowadays, VFs are important for understanding travel networks which go beyond the specific spatial dimension to include informational or virtual dimensions such as travellers experiences. Travel network modelling is not only a valuable marketing tool helping to increase value in the supply chain but also it challenges the traditional organization of destination management organizations (DMO’s). DMO’s have to reshape their governance model from a static-central model to a dynamic network; destination managers have to change from flows of powers to power of flows (Castells, 1989). VF in this broader picture moves from merely descriptive to strategic VF (SVF). The aim of this research is to show empirical evidence of SVF in the Fribourg region in Switzerland by exploiting mobile phone data.

Distribution channel and efficiency: An Analytic Hierarchy Process approach

This paper investigates the efficiency of the ratio benefit to cost in a given hotel, taking into account (as a discriminatory variable), the distribution channels (DCs) available for that hotel; namely, direct, Expedia, Booking.com, Venere and other travel agencies. The microeconomic case study will address the concerns owners have about the efficiency of each channel. Operational and transactional factors are included to ensure the holistic nature of the analysis and the hierarchical aspect enables the splitting of either the cost or revenue into levels which include weights of each leaf in the tree. Operational costs include breakfast, cost of the occupied room, guest laundry services and other food/beverage consumption. Transactional cost includes commissions paid to credit card and distribution channels. The Analytic Hierarchy Process is a powerful tool, which is suitable for this kind of framework. The ratio between revenue and cost for each channel gives the final ranking of efficiency. The primary data are transactions collected from the property management system of the hotel over a six week period. Participant observation provided a precise view of different check-in times for each channel and this factor is also included in the framework of cost.

An Investigation of Leapfrogging and Web 2.0 Implementation

This paper investigates the leapfrog phenomenon, particularly late adopters of the Internet bypassing early Internet adopters in the implementation of Web 2.0 in tourism. Even though the Diffusion of Innovation theory covers many aspects of innovation adoption and implementation, implementation stage research remains sparse and perhaps no research has investigated the leapfrog phenomenon across different adopter categories. Thus, this study used a software robot to generate reports on Web 2.0 and User Active Features (UAF) by Swiss tourism websites. Moreover, this study used the Wayback Machine to classify website adopter categories and then investigate the leapfrogging phenomenon across adopter categories. The results suggest a link between adopter categories and the odds of implementation of at least one UAF or Web 2.0 feature. However, the findings only showed a slight leapfrogging phenomenon between Laggards and the Late Majority in the UAF model. This research helps fill the gap on implementation stage research by the analysis of Web 2.0 features implemented in tourism.

Film Tourism and Its Impact on Residents Quality of Life: A Multi Logit Analysis

Past research has confirmed film tourism emerging as a major growth sector for research in tourism and a driver of tourism development for many destinations. To date, there has been relatively substantial literature on the subject, yet this paper tries to shed some light on the quality of life perception with respect to the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Earlier research results have shown different impacts of film tourism on the quality of life of the local community, and the perceptions and attitudes of residents towards tourism, but no research has shown neither how nor how much these perceptions and attitudes change according to a change in the demographic profile of the local community. The empirical findings show that: age, income, education and marital status have a significant impact on residents’ attitude towards film tourism. Factor analysis resulted in 4 latent factors which drive residents’ perception about quality of life, viz., Community Pride, Personal Benefits, Negative Environmental effect and Negative Social effect. The results have shown that a variation in the demographic profile of the resident community determines a variation in the attitudes towards tourism impacts. In a time of mass movement of people, man power and immigration, changes in the demographic profile of residents are very likely and this research shows that it should be taken into consideration when managing tourism destinations and planning new tourism policies.

Strategic visitor flows and destination management organization

The relevance of the monitoring of visitor flows (VF), namely the general or aggregate patterns of travellers’ movements in a given area is twofold. On the one hand, they are relevant for the spatial description of travel networks. On the other hand, VF patterns are challenging traditional organization of destination management (DM) and are becoming a strategic tool. VFs are useful for reshaping the DM organization’s governance model from a static-central model to a dynamic network. The aim of this research is to estimate SVF using the data movement recorded by a test carried out with an anonymised and highly aggregated mobile phone data set, provided by Swisscom—the major Swiss mobile company. This research sheds some light on the relevance of VF in the understanding and improving of DM organization governance. Furthermore, it provides evidence of the existence of SVF at different levels of geographical scale obtained by network analysis techniques.

What Constitutes Health Tourism: An Ayurvedic Viewpoint. Role of Social Venture Capital in Rejuvenating Ayurveda Tradition

From the emergence of ancient civilisations during 3500 BCE, people started traveling in search of food and shelter. Subsequently traveling took place for trade as well as for capturing territories. Then came the concept of god, people started traveling for religious reasons and eventually pilgrimage traveling got mixed up with miracle healing also. Over the years the concept of heath care started gaining prominence and presently health tourism as well as medical tourism are gaining more and more importance around the world. Though health tourism is very ancient practice [use of Complementary Alternative Medicines (CAM), and of which the most prominent one is Ayurveda dating back 5000 years], medical tourism got prominence in the course of European colonisation and the developments of Allopathic treatments [commonly known as Modern Medicine (MM)] during the last century. This paper explores the origin, development, growth, decline and revival of health tourism products (CAM), along with medical tourism products (MM). Issues surrounding health and medical tourism in todays environment are critically analysed in this paper with a special focus on Ayurveda practices in India based on the four basic ingredients (viz.; Bhishak, Dravyani, Upasthata, and the Rogi) and their present status in India. Due to its low cost advantage, small waiting time, and zero side effects, people (mostly from western and European countries) resorting to CAM is gaining more prominence in Asian countries (especially in India, Singapore, and Malaysia) where heavy investments are made for the future growth potential. Literature review shows that health tourism, around the world in general and India in particular, will become more significant in the near future. From that perspective, proper initiative should be taken by the authorities for promoting Ayurveda as a unique health tourism product emphasizing no medical side effects which in turn will attract more people resulting in the development of a profitable and sustainable health tourism industry in the region. By capitalizing on the transformational capability of social venture capital, CAM (especially Ayurveda tradition) in India and elsewhere can be rejuvenated in the coming years.