Ulrike Gretzel

Use and impact of online travel reviews

Consumer-generated content (CGC) is growing in importance. Especially online travel reviews written by consumers are ever more available and used to inform travel-related decisions. A Web-based survey of users of the most prominent travel review site, TripAdvisor, was conducted to investigate how other travellers’ reviews inform the trip planning process. Since current CGC statistics show generational and gender differences, the study also aimed at examining whether those carry over into the realm of travel review use. The results show that reviews are used mostly to inform accommodation decisions and are currently not used much for en route travel planning. Gender differences were found for perceived impacts of reviews, with females reaping greater benefits from using reviews, especially in terms of enjoyment and idea generation. Age differences occurred across a variety of perceptions and use behaviours. Implications for travel marketing and travel information systems design are provided.

Success Factors for Destination Marketing Web Sites: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis:

Destination marketing organizations invest considerable amounts of money in the development of Web sites as part of their overall promotion efforts. With increasing pressure on their budgets, it becomes ever more important for these organizations to assess the effectiveness of their Web sites, evaluate the return on their investments, and derive feedback on necessary improvements. Web site evaluation measures have been proposed in many ways and various contexts over the past decade. The study presented in this article used a qualitative meta-analysis methodology to synthesize the diverse findings. A unified framework of commonly used Web site success factors emerged from the analysis and included a total of nine factors: (1) information quality; (2) ease of use; (3) responsiveness; (4) security/privacy; (5) visual appearance; (6) trust; (7) interactivity; (8) personalization; and (9) fulfillment. Additional factors to further inform Web evaluation efforts were identified based on Werthner and Kleins dimensions of Web communication. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future research.

Preparing for the New Economy: Advertising Strategies and Change in Destination Marketing Organizations

Information technology, especially the World Wide Web, has had a tremendous impact on the tourism industry over the past years. It is difficult for most destination marketing organizations, however, to keep pace with the evolution of new technologies, the emergence of innovative advertising strategies, the changes in the consumer market, and the growing competition due to increasing globalization. The National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce organized a workshop in an effort to identify effective strategies for tourism advertising on the Internet. The results indicated that information technology has led to a number of profound changes in the assumptions underlying communication strategies. It was concluded that the change occurring in the new economy involves a rethinking of who partners and competitors are and how networks with other organizations can increase organizational capacity to learn. Thus, it is argued that success of destination marketing organizations in the new economy is more about change in approach than technology itself.

Searching for the Future: Challenges Faced by Destination Marketing Organizations:

Threats in the external environment and changes in the industry’s markets and structures have challenged destination marketing organizations to change in fundamental ways. The strategic responses to these developments are essentially decisions to proactively shape, adapt to, or passively struggle through a crisis. Envisioning the future of tourism and examining possible ways of reaching various future scenarios are essential exercises in this process of deciding which strategic approach to adopt. In response to the increasing need for new visions of the future of tourism and particularly destination marketing, leading destination marketers from the midwestern United States were invited to participate in a large focus group to discuss the specific challenges encountered by their organizations. This article summarizes the issues raised and their implications for destination marketing organizations as well as tourism research.

Smart tourism: foundations and developments

Smart tourism is a new buzzword applied to describe the increasing reliance of tourism destinations, their industries and their tourists on emerging forms of ICT that allow for massive amounts of data to be transformed into value propositions. However, it remains ill-defined as a concept, which hinders its theoretical development. The paper defines smart tourism, sheds light on current smart tourism trends, and then lays out its technological and business foundations. This is followed by a brief discussion on the prospects and drawbacks of smart tourism. The paper further draws attention to the great need for research to inform smart tourism development and management.

Comparison of Deceptive and Truthful Travel Reviews

As the use of online reviews grows, so does the risk of providers trying to influence review postings through the submission of false reviews. It is difficult for users of online review platforms to detect deception as important cues are missing in online environments. Automatic screening technologies promise a reduction in the risk but need to be informed by research as to how to classify reviews as suspicious. Using findings from deception theory, a study was conducted to compare the language structure of deceptive and truthful hotel reviews. The results show that deceptive and truthful reviews are different in terms of lexical complexity, the use of first person pronouns, the inclusion of brand names, and their sentiment. However, the results suggest that it might be difficult to distinguish between deceptive and truthful reviews based on structural properties.

Internet Technology Use by American Convention and Visitors Bureaus

Adoption and diffusion theories are used to explain key factors affecting the use of Internet technology by American convention and visitors bureaus. Organizational properties, leader characteristics, and technology-activity fit are assumed to determine the extent and length of information technology (IT) use. A survey conducted among American convention and visitors bureaus indicates that bureaus can be classified into five adopter groups (laggards, sophisticated followers, knowledge adopters, early light adopters, and late light adopters), which follow two different paths of technology implementation and use. Bureaus along these paths differ substantially in terms of their use of applications, their perceptions of IT, and the impacts of IT on their activities. Education and knowledge of bureau leaders and the perceived usefulness of IT also affect the bureaus’ potential to become knowledge adopters.

Persuasion in Recommender Systems

Recommender systems persuade as well as recommend. This study investigated some factors that influence the perceived fit of the recommendations a system provides and user perceptions of the preference-elicitation process. The findings indicate that the relevance, transparency, duration, and required effort of the elicitation process are important cues for value, which in turn influences the users enjoyment of the process and the perceived fit of the recommendation with the users preferences.

Conceptual foundations for understanding smart tourism ecosystems

Using digital ecosystems and smart business networks as conceptual building blocks, this paper defines, describes and illustrates the idea of a smart tourism ecosystem (STE). It further draws on conceptualizations of smart technologies, smart cities and smart tourism to envision new ways in which value is created, exchanged and consumed in the STE. Technologies essential to the functioning of an STE are described and it is argued that data emerging from these technologies are the driver for new business models, interaction paradigms and even new species. Critical questions regarding the need for regulatory intervention and innovative research are raised.

Tourism Managers’ Adoption of Marketing Decision Support Systems

This article draws on a survey among tourism managers located in 30 different European countries to explain key factors affecting the success of an Internet-based marketing decision support systems. A structural equation model that extends the generally accepted Technology Acceptance Model is proposed and tested to assess the relationships among the following constructs: experience, task-related factors, user attitude, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness of the system, and actual use behavior. The results indicate that the actual use of the system is strongly dependent on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. The study also revealed a statistically significant relationship between the user’s experience and his or her attitude of information technology in general. In addition, a strong influence of the complexity and the time pressure experienced in the work environment on perceived usefulness was observed. Implications focus on user support, especially more detailed information on system content and functionality.