Rui Raposo

Social media as a communication and marketing tool in tourism: an analysis of online activities from international key player DMO

Abstract The widespread use of Web 2.0 applications and the increasing number of social media applications are producing radical changes in tourism destination promotion. Destination Management Organizations (DMO) must be able to adapt and meet the challenges placed by new interaction and communication paradigms in the tourism sector. This paper describes a study done in which we analysed a set of national DMO and outlined and compared the use of social media applications in their communication activities. Shared practices and trends were identified and deconstructed according to a set of indicators and results enabled us to believe that, despite the differences in size and structure, there are some trends and shared practices worth adopting and exploring when designing social media communication strategies.

Comparison of Emerging Information Visualization Tools for Higher Education

Information Visualization online tools have gradually found its way into various contexts of use and Higher Education Institutions are not an exception. The considerable amount of data and information continuously produced in Higher Education Institutions provide Information Visualization professionals an interesting set of challenges which, if looked through a broader perspective all share a common goal: to assist and contribute to decision making. However, tools presently available, or in an ongoing stage, take different approaches regarding interface, interaction and goal design in Higher Education Institutions, Information Visualization tools. This paper presents a review and analysis of some Higher Education Institution Information Visualization online tools, according to an up-to-date theoretical framework. Its conclusions include some final thoughts on what is driving, or not, work and outcomes in this particular context of use.

Construction of a web-based geographical information system – the case of “Ria de Aveiro” region

Abstract “Ria de Aveiro” is a branded tourism region site, in the Central region of Portugal, which comprises a variety of natural and cultural tourist products and resources, which needs to be integrated in a way to enhance the promotion and management of this destination. In this way, Ria de Aveiro web-based Geographical Information System (GIS) was developed, providing an integrated platform aimed to better manage the tourism activity in this region. In this paper, it is pretended to demonstrate the potential use of GISs and spatial analysis in tourism planning, and to evaluate the ability of GIS as a tool to support integrated management of tourism.

Visualization of News Access Activity in the SAPO News Website

This paper holds as its core objective the report of the research developed towards the conceptualisation and prototyping of an Information Visualisation system capable of providing a quick and accurate view of the set of data collected by the SAPO Broker web service regarding access activity in the SAPO news website. SAPO Broker, a real-time monitoring application that collects data generated by every type of activity within the SAPO Web Portal. The research presented and its results undertook two major challenges: i) design a visual metaphor capable of integrating news related collected data for a specific target audience, technology setup and context of use; ii) design user friendly and context valid interaction tools able to assist data analysis and help improve news editorial related tasks. Throughout this paper the need for transdisciplinary teamwork and diverse scientific knowledge correlation is reinforced, as we believe it should be when the core issue is Information Visualisation.

GeoVisualisation of SAPO Search Activity

The objective of this paper is to report on the research inherent to the conceptualisation and prototyping of an Information Visualisation system centred on the task of conveying meaning to user interaction data collected by the SAPO Broker web service. SAPO Broker, a real-time monitoring application that collects data regarding activity within the SAPO Web Portal, collects a large set of data with the main purpose of assisting visualisation and analysis of tasks linked to georeferenced web searches performed on the portal. The research and its results where guided according to two major challenges: i) design an appropriate visual metaphor capable of appropriately integrating the collected data for a specific target audience, technology set and context of use; ii) design intuitive and relevant interaction tools able to assist this particular data analysis.