Global Hospitality and

Tourism Management
Technologies

Patricia Ordez de Pablos

The University of Oviedo, Spain

Robert Tennyson
University of Minnesota, USA

Jingyuan Zhao
Harbin Institute of Technology, China
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Global hospitality and tourism management technologies / Patricia Ordonez de Pablos, Robert Tennyson, and Jingyuan
Zhao, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: This book is a comprehensive source of information for those interested in tourism and hospitality manage-
ment, approaches, and trends, and, covers the emerging research topics that will define the future of IT and cultural
development in the 21st century--Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-61350-041-5 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-61350-042-2 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61350-043-9 (print & perpetual
access) 1. Tourism--Management. 2. Hospitality industry. I. Ordsqez de Pablos, Patricia, 1975- II. Tennyson, Robert D. III.
Zhao, Jingyuan, 1968-
G155.A1G4877 2012
910.68--dc23
2011022136

British Cataloguing in Publication Data

A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
List of Reviewers
Patricia Ordez de Pablos, The University of Oviedo, Spain
Jingyuan Zhao, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Robert D. Tennyson, University of Minnesota, USA
Aliana M W Leong, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR.
Ashleigh K. Shelton, University of Minnesota, USA
Carmine Sellitto, Centre for Tourism and Services Research, Australia
Chad Lin, Curtin University, Australia
Deepak Chhabra, Arizona State University, USA
Eleonora Pantano, Department of Linguistics, University of Calabria, Italy
Fabiana Lorenzi, Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Brazil
Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China
John C. Crotts, College of Charleston, USA
Jose Emilio Labra Gayo, The University of Oviedo, Spain
Juan Manuel Cueva Lovelle, The University of Oviedo, Spain
Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China
Miltiadis D. Lytras, American College in Greece, Greece
Murat etin, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia
Neeta Baporikar, Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Sultanate of Oman
Rocco Servidio, Department of Linguistics, University of Calabria, Italy
Ruth Rios-Morales, University of Glion,Switzerland
Stan Karanasios, University of Leeds, UK
Stanley Loh, Universidade Catlica de Pelotas, Brazil
Stephen Burgess, Centre for Tourism and Services Research, Australia
Tao Chen, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Tienan Wang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Xi Li, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR
Zhiming Zhu, Hohai University, China
Table of Contents

Preface.................................................................................................................................................... vi

Chapter 1
Virtual Tourism: Functions, Profit Modes and Practices in China........................................................... 1
Jingyuan Zhao, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Patricia Ordez de Pablos, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain
Robert Tenysson, University of Minnesota, USA

Chapter 2
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Technology............................................................................................................................................. 12
Aliana M W Leong, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR
Xi Li, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao SAR

Chapter 3
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in the
Australian Hospitality and Tourism Sector............................................................................................ 27
Chad Lin, Curtin University, Australia

Chapter 4
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour: The Case of Pervasive Environments....................... 52
Eleonora Pantano, University of Calabria, Italy
Rocco Servidio, University of Calabria, Italy

Chapter 5
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing........................................... 72
Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China

Chapter 6
Two Tickets for Paradise: Gaming and Tourism.................................................................................... 91
Ashleigh K. Shelton, University of Minnesota, USA

Chapter 7
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry: The Problem of (Mis)use of Building Technology and
Language of Heritage........................................................................................................................... 102
Murat etin, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia
Chapter 8
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman.................................................................................. 116
Neeta Baporikar, Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Sultanate of Oman

Chapter 9
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry........................................................................... 136
Ruth Rios-Morales, University of Glion,Switzerland
John C. Crotts, College of Charleston, USA

Chapter 10
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience:A Case Study
of San-Fang Qi-Xiang in Fuzhou City, China..................................................................................... 151
Jiaming Liu, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China

Chapter 11
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications................................................................................ 165
Stan Karanasios, University of Leeds, UK
Stephen Burgess, Victoria University, Australia
Carmine Sellitto, Victoria University, Australia

Chapter 12
Personal Tour:A Multi-Agent Recommender System of Travel Packages.......................................... 178
Fabiana Lorenzi, Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Brazil
Stanley Loh, Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil & Universidade
Catlica de Pelotas, Brazil
Mara Abel, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Chapter 13
Management of World Heritage Sites:An Integrated Sustainable Marketing Approach..................... 189
Deepak Chhabra, Arizona State University, USA

Chapter 14
Research Review of OWOM:Chinese Cases....................................................................................... 207
Tao Chen, Harbin Institute of Technology & Nanjing Normal University & SanJiang University,
China
Zhiming Zhu, Hohai University, China
Tienan Wang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 224

About the Contributors..................................................................................................................... 251

Index.................................................................................................................................................... 256
vi

Preface

Tourism is a dynamic part of our economy. The global hospitality and tourism industry, which blends
the lodging, food, attractions, cultural and travel industries, is the worlds largest industry with $4.5
trillion in expenditures generating 212 million jobs. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) currently
projects that by the year 2010, 338 million people will be employed in the industry that will grow to
$8.4 trillion in expenditures.
The main objective of the book is for dynamic market forces such as global competition, changing
customer expectations, and new communication technology combined with career challenges due
to ongoing industry consolidation and corporate restructuring mandate continuous learning and the
sharing of ideas. The book will facilitate this need by providing strategic information and clear insights
to the world-wide hospitality and tourism issues as well as the role of IT in these industries. It aims to
be the leading source of information for all those interested in Tourism and Hospitality Management,
Approaches, and Trends as well as to cover the emerging research topics which are going to define the
future of IT and cultural and creativity development in the 21st century.
The books strategy aims to be the reference edition for all those interested on the strategic role of
information technologies towards the achievement of a long term competitive advantage in the hospitality
and tourism industry (with main emphasis to be paid on practical aspects) as well as to be the reference
edition for all those (policy makers, government officers, academics and practitioners) interested in
understanding applications of IT for tourism and hospitality management and for people thirsty to know
on how to address challenges for IT and tourism and hospitality in the 21st century.
Global Hospitality and Tourism Management Technologies is organized into 14 chapters which
provide insight on global hospitality and tourism management as a whole.
Chapter 1 (Virtual tourism: functions, profit modes and practices in China) focuses on functions and
profit models as well discussions on the application of virtual tourism in China. Although the research
on virtual tourism made great progress in China, there is still a gap compared with international research
on virtual tourism. With the promotion of virtual reality technology and the development of tourism
industries, virtual tourism will effectively meet the needs of tourists
Chapter 2 (A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Technology) indicates that with the help of high technology, improving the scenic RFID smart queuing
system will be the main function of queue management module.
Following the development of mass tourism, more and more scenic spots began to face the problem
of queue management; Fairness and effectiveness of queue management will directly affect the visitors
experience in the scenic area.
 vii

Chapter 3 (Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management in

the Australian Hospitality and Tourism Sector) proposes that the hospitality and tourism sector is one of
fastest growing sectors in Australia and in the world. In order to become more efficient and effective in
delivering products and services to customers via the use of ICT, hospitality and tourism organizations
have to rethink the ways in which they build relationships with their customers by initiating electronic
customer relationship management (eCRM) projects. Inappropriate eCRM decision-making and imple-
mentation can result in multi-million dollar losses, which can translate into a loss of competitiveness.
Chapter 4 (Advanced technologies and tourism behaviour: the case of pervasive environments) pro-
vides an overview of the most advanced technologies for tourism sector, with emphasis on pervasive
environments, which represent innovative systems based on an efficient integration of virtual reality
and affective world. The aim is to show how tourism industry might exploit the current advances in
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as virtual reality, web-based technologies,
mobile devices, etc., to catch tourists attention and gain competitive advantages over competitors. In
particular, these technologies are capable of promoting touristic destination in a global perspective and
affect potential tourist decision-making process, by investigating the main characteristics and possible
integrations.
Chapter 5 (Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation areas in Peri-urban Beijing) aims to identify
the factors which will influence the spatial distribution of peri-urban recreation areas, by analyzing the
collected data from questionnaires, online survey, documentation and field investigations. In order to
achieve sound information, relevant data from different management departments, owners and land-use
types involved in the case study area is collected.
Chapter 6 (Two Tickets for Paradise: Gaming and Tourism) begins by identifying linkage points
between advergames, tourism and three major mass communication theories/approachesmedia de-
pendency theory, uncertainty reduction theory, and uses and gratifications theory . These will serve as
examples of how advergames and hospitality can be integrated into theories and models attempting to
explain the impact of information technologies. They will also provide a springboard for considering
the nature of advergames with regards to tourism.
Chapter 7 (The role of architecture on tourism industry; the problem of (mis)use of building technol-
ogy and language of heritage) argues that power of tourism industry has reached, under the pressure of
global economics, to a capacity to turn even daily architecture into instruments of touristic show. In this
context, technology is utilized as an instrument to produce such iconography only as a surface articula-
tion. Thus, architecture becomes a commodity of touristic consumption in this current socio-economic
and cultural context.
Chapter 8 (Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman) touches base on the trends found in the
tourism Industry in Oman. It is also the main source of income generation for countries like Mauritius,
Spain etc. Oman being the second largest country in the Middle East possessing wealth of natural re-
sources has everything to offer to the tourists. It has a long coastline with pristine beaches, beautiful
mountains, and worlds best deserts with rolling sand dunes.
Chapter 9 (Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry) highlights where the changes in the
hotel sales business are occuring, why they are occuring, and what they mean to both buyers and sellers.
The intent of this overview is to inform hotel owners and investors who are considering such an invest-
ment as to the benefits that can potentially be derived from SFA. Furthermore, our intent is to provide
hospitality educators insights as to how SFA is changing the workplace of both meeting planners and
viii

hotel sales professionals so they can provide their students a realistic view of the software aids they may
need to master to be successful in their careers.
Chapter 10 (Tourism revitalization of historic district in perspective of tourist experience: A case
study of San-Fang Qi-Xiang in Fuzhou City, China) discusses the new thought of tourism revitaliza-
tion in historic district in perspective of tourist experience. Firstly, based on the deep analysis of tourist
experiences essential elements in historic districts, 6E experience mode is established to summarize
the tourist experience, which includes Estheticism and nostalgia, Education and culture, Entertainment
and leisure, Exchange and communication and Emotion sublimation. Meanwhile, how to build up and
enhance every single experience of 6E model in tourism revitalization of historic district is also explained.
Secondly, the application of 6E model is demonstrated elaborately in the case of Conceptual Planning of
Tourism Development in San-Fang Qi-Xiang Historic District in Fuzhou City. Considering the hierarchy
and comprehensibility of tourist experience and combined with site environment analysis, San-Fang
Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four function divisions: Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and
leisure lane, Antai water-front zone and Residential blocks for minority customization.
Chapter 11 (A classification of mobile tourism applications) introduces mobile technology and
discusses its emergence in the tourism industry. As has been the case with other Information Commu-
nication Technologies (ICTs), tourism has manifested as one of the most well suited sectors to mobile
technology and mobile applications. In contrast to other ICTs in the tourism domain however, mobile
applications are capable of enhancing the tourist experience at the destination, creating a paradigm shift
in how information is accessed and digested, and transactions performed. Nonetheless, little is known
concerning how mobile technologies are changing the landscape of tourism and tourist behaviour and
the content offered by tourism applications.
Chapter 12 (Personal Tour: a multi-agent recommender system of travel packages) describes the
Personal Tour, a multi-agent recommender system designed to help users to find best travel packages
according to their preferences. Personal Tour is based on the collaboration of multiple agents exchanging
information stored in their local knowledge bases. Based on the paradigm of the Distributed Artificial
Intelligence, a user recommendation request is divided into partial recommendations handled by different
agents, each one maintaining incomplete information that may be useful to compose a recommendation.
Chapter 13 (Management of World Heritage Sites: An Integrated Sustainable Marketing Approach)
seeks to use an integrated sustainable marketing paradigm to determine if a predetermined set of im-
portant indicators from the model are visibly implemented by the world heritage sites (WHS). More
specifically, the aim is to suggest add-ons to the heritage conservation principles so that a holistic and
integrated sustainable paradigm of heritage tourism can be devised. In the recent decades, the global/
world form of heritage has received unprecedented attention in heritage tourism, more so because it
brings with it a celebrity UNESCO status to the heritage site.
Chapter 14 (Research Review of OWOM: Chinese Cases) defines OWOM (Online Word-of-Mouth)
and discusses the connotation, communication process and communication effect, and practical appli-
cation, and put forward some managerial suggestions. As online shopping is regarded as a fashion in
china, online word-of-mouth has significant influences on shopping and therefore becomes an important
internet communication tool.

Patricia Ordez de Pablos, Robert Tennyson, and Jingyuan Zhao

 1

Chapter 1
Virtual Tourism:
Functions, Profit Modes and
Practices in China

Jingyuan Zhao
Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Patricia Ordez de Pablos

Universidad de Oviedo, Spain

Robert Tenysson
University of Minnesota, USA

ABSTRACT
Although the research on virtual tourism made great progress in China, there is still a gap compared
with international research on virtual tourism. With the promotion of virtual reality technology and the
development of tourism industries, virtual tourism will effectively meet the needs of tourists. This study
focuses on functions and profit models of virtual tourism in China, and also discusses on the application
of virtual tourism in China.

INTRODUCTION of Travelocity, Expedia, Yahoo Online and other

As the rapid development of information and In-
ternet technology, the industries of tourism, hotel
and entertainment are constantly introducing the
content of experience economy (Cooper, 2003),
and the virtual tourism focusing on the attractions
comes into being. The content of travel channel
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch001
websites becomes much richer. A vast virtual travel
market based on e-commerce and online travel
purchase is promoting the industries of tourism and
hospitality in the US with an increase of economic
scale from 180 billion US dollars in 2002 to 64
billion US dollars in 2007 (Law, Cheung, 2005).
Currently, more and more websites of travel have
been established to develop virtual tourism rapidly
(Frew, 2000; Lu, 2009).

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

China Internet Network Information Center
(CNNIC) pointed out in the 23rd China Internet De-
velopment Report, that in the end of 2008, Chinas
netizens had reached 298 million, and the coverage
had reached 22.6% beyond the global average;
the growth of Internet users was 88 million more
than that in 2007 with an annual growth rate of
41.9%. The network permeates into the life, work
and leisure of people through a variety of ways.
69.3% of Internet users think Internet saves the
time that people spend on visit in person, 59.1%
of Internet users would be monotonous without
the Internet, 82.5% of Internet users believe that
Internet strengthens the ties with friends, 27.6%
of Internet users believe that online transactions
are safe. In this context, the virtual technology,
which is a good media between tourism activities
and tourist, quickly joins the tourism field, and
has a huge impact on tourism industries.
Yang, Chen (2010) claimed that virtual tour-
ism of China is divided into two phases: the
initial period from 1999 to2004, and the period
of rapid development from 2005 to present. From
1999 to 2004, the virtual reality technology was
combined with the tourism industries, and virtual
tourism emerged. Considering imperfect virtual
reality technology in China, the development of
virtual tourism is not in-depth studied, scholars
mainly focus on basic theories, construction of
virtual travel system, tourism planning. From
2005 to now is the rapid development period of
virtual tourism in China. With the promotion of
Virtual Reality (VR) technology, more and more
tourism enterprises, government departments and
universities begin to play the advantages of virtual
technology to promote the development of tourism.
Although the research on virtual tourism made
great progress in China, there is still a gap com-
pared with the international research on virtual
tourism as well as the research on other tourism
products (Za, 2005). Moreover, virtual tourism
is a new subject relatively, the study of domestic
scholars focuses on the application and imple-
mentation of virtual tourism from a rather narrow
2
Virtual Tourism
perspective and scope, while international scholars
have paid a wide attention on virtual tourism from
1990s on (Xue, 2005). In addition, the study on
virtual tourism has the same problems as the other
study on tourism, such as uniform definition of
concept, lack of systematic theoretical system,
less innovation, few case studies combined with
practice, and so on. With the promotion of virtual
reality technology and the development of tour-
ism industries, related research is necessary to
explore theory and practice so that virtual tourism
effectively meets the needs of tourists.
This study focuses on the function and profit
models of virtual tourism, and also discusses on
the application of virtual tourism in China.
RESEARCH REVIEW
Review of International Studies
The current international research on virtual tour-
ism mainly focuses on three areas: definition and
extension of virtual tourism levels, key factors
of virtual tourism and relationship between vari-
ables, and interaction between impact variables
of virtual tourism.
Definition and Extension of
Virtual Tourism Levels
Law, Bai (2006) claimed that people concerned
about not only the access to information from
travel websites, but also the construction of travel
websites because it impacts the experience of
virtual tourism, and the levels of virtual tourism
were defined from cognitive, functional, emotional
perspectives based on different degree of involve-
ment. First, from the perspective of information
search and recommendations, Kim B. D., Kim
S.O. (2001), Barwise, Hammond, Elberse (2002)
claimed that virtual tourism was linear and text-
based, and it was a process of online browse and
provision of travel information. Second, from the
Virtual Tourism
perspective of network reservation and functional
service, Oppenheim, Shelby (1999), Lewis, Ka-
luber (2002) and Maeda et al. (2004) proposed
that virtual tourism and web design should try to
improve the format of image display instead of text
so as to increase the service quality of online travel.
Third, from the spiritual experience perspective
of virtual tourism, Siegal (1997), Senecal, Nantal
(2004), Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004), Blackshaw,
Nazzaro (2005) claimed that images and visual
design should be integrated to provide complete
experience for virtual tourism through creative
design so that visitors have access to convenient
site navigation, familiar environment, high-quality
information content, and product value.
Key Factors of Virtual Tourism and
Relationship between Variables
Lu (2009) summarized the features of virtual
tourism, namely usability, playfulness, and com-
plexity. Law, Bai (2006) made use of involvement
theory, and considered impact factors of virtual
tourism and key variables of evaluation under
circumstances of two cases - involvement and
non- involvement. Many scholars summarize the
critical factors that ensure the success of virtual
tourism, and claim that the most important factors
are convenience of websites, safety and perceived
risk, price level, and friendly user interface.
Interaction between Impact
Variables of Virtual Tourism
Han, Mills (2007) claimed that virtual tourism
was impacted by the factors of push and pull,
the former includes the price of virtual tourism,
distribution channels, websites performance,
promotions, direct mail and advertising; the lat-
ter includes the differentiation of virtual tourism,
perceived value, and perceived quality. In addition,
Schegg, Steiner, Gherissi-Labben, Murphy(2006)
researched on the role elements of virtual tourism,
and emphasized on the promotion roles of elements
including website content, service environment,
function of network transaction, and technology
of virtual tourism.
Review of Domestic Studies
Yang, Chen (2010) made a systematic summary on
virtual tourism of China, and claimed that the study
of virtual tourism mainly focused on three areas:
technology systems of virtual tourism, sceneries
of virtual tourism, and teaching of virtual tourism.
Technology Systems of Virtual Tourism
From the beginning of virtual tourism study to
present, scholars still pay attention to the relevant
technology systems of virtual tourism because the
virtual tourism results from the rapid development
of information technology, the combination of
tourism and information technology results in
a new form of tourism, and virtual tourism will
not exist with no information technology. Some
scholars discuss on how to build a reality system
of virtual tourism from the perspective of key
technologies and specific content (Xu, Wei, Yang,
2001; Feng, Su, 2001; Lu, Wang, Gou, Du, 2005;
Wang, Wei, 2005; Zhang, Liu, Mu, 2008). Regard-
ing the construction of virtual sceneries and the
choice of roaming mode, scholars put forward
different views from different perspectives. Liu
and Jia (2008) discuss on the direction of virtual
tourism, and claim that the development of grid
computing provides an ideal solution for large-
scale virtual tour environment, the lightweight
modeling tools are also a key research direction
based on virtual landscape of images, and the in-
teractive mode between virtual guide and virtual
tourist groups is more intelligent, which will be
next research topic.
Sceneries of Virtual Tourism
Regarding the study of virtual sceneries, scholars
focus on the changes brought by the application
3

of virtual reality technology in the marketing and
planning of sceneries. Zhang, Li, Wang (2000)
claimed that virtual tourism of existing attrac-
tions not only plays a role of pre-promotion, and
expand its influence and attraction to tourists, but
also to a certain extent meet the needs of tourism
and aesthetic appreciation for people who have
never been to the sceneries or cannot visit in per-
son. Yuan (2008) integrated sceneries into game
context by means of virtual reality technology, as
a scene of network game, the impact of sceneries
is increased through the spread of network game,
thereby achieve the marketing of sceneries. Feng,
Su (2001) claimed that in tourism planning, virtual
reality technology had more obvious advantages
than traditional planning method, for example, it
shows dynamical tourism planning and design to
the life to give people a sense of immersion, so
that tourism planning and design can be modi-
fied easily to stimulate creative inspiration and
ideas, and make planning more innovative. Wang
(2003) summarized the application of Cyberspace
technology in the virtual tourism planning from
four aspects, that is, provide virtual technology
platform for tour planning, design new virtual at-
tractions and tourism products, formulate market-
ing planning of virtual tour product, make policy
of virtual tourism planning, and build the security
system of Cyberspace. Wu, Wang (2004) proposed
the concept of GIServices based on the thinking
of Geo-information services to deal with the net-
work data storage and sharing, establish virtual
tourism planning program through independent
platform GeoEye3D, and achieve the roaming in
the virtual landscape through Java.
Teaching of Virtual Tourism
Yan (2008) claimed that experiment systems of
virtual reality improved teaching modes, enriched
teaching methods, broke the constraints of risk,
cost and time, and achieved the integration of
teaching and test. Chen (2007; 2008) summarized
4
Virtual Tourism
the application of virtual reality technology in the
experiment teaching of tourism from three aspects:
virtual systems of learning established by virtual
reality technology, virtual experiment teaching
systems, and teaching systems of virtual training.
Wei (2007) discussed on the support role of virtual
reality technology in the teaching of tourism from
the perspective of practical teaching of tourism,
and compared the effects in the teaching between
virtual reality technology and multimedia. Zhang
(2008) pointed out that conventional teaching
methods that most teachers used had problems
between teachers and students, which could be
solved through virtual reality technology by
means of its acceptability, interaction, immersion
and sensibility that could meet the requirements
of teaching experiment, such as situated learn-
ing interface, and human-computer interaction,
therefore virtual reality technology in practical
education systems of tourism would play a series
of roles to improve the experimental environment,
optimize the teaching process, enhance experi-
mental results, and cultivate innovative talents.
FUNCTIONS OF VIRTUAL TOURISM
Comparison between Travel
Experience and Mirror
Image Experience
Travel experience is a versatile leisure activity
including entertainment and learning (Li, 2008).
Tourists gain travel experience through paths of
realization, such as sightseeing, contact, imita-
tion and game (Xie, 2005). Travel experience
is finished in the real travel while mirror image
experience is conducted in the virtual reality
(Zheng, Ma, Li, 2010). Figure 1 shows the cor-
responding relationship between travel experience
and mirror image experience. The dotted line in
the middle of Figure 1 likes a mirror that separates
the real world and virtual world of tourism, and
Virtual Tourism
also achieves the corresponding relationship of
experience paths. Real tourism and virtual reality
have similar audio-visual senses, the formation of
expression, by which tourists feel the contexts of
tourism, is same, both real tour and virtual attrac-
tions can have psychological effects on tourists.
Virtual tourism is present in a specific space-
time framework. In the world of virtual reality,
visitors can have access to the similar experience
as real travel does through audio-visual way. In
addition, the social nature of human results in
tourists exchange with local residents and man-
agement personnel of attractions. In the virtual
world, the boundaries of social roles are elimi-
nated since the identities of people are virtual, so
that tourists have equal exchange and communi-
cation with other online tourists. Zheng, Ma, Li
(2010) claimed that travel experience and mirror
image experience had the similarity in terms of
realization paths and perception effects. Accord-
ing to survey, most of consumers are satisfied to
virtual tour experience.
Figure 1. Comparison of travel experience and mirror image experience
Features of Virtual Tourism
Virtual tourism has the following characteristics:
Transcend Time and Space. Virtual tour-
ism can present the world beyond time and
space for visitors whenever necessary.
Interactivity. In virtual tourism, the in-
teraction means communication between
people and computers. Virtual tourism uses a
variety of sensors to interact with the multi-
dimensional information space.
High-Technology. Virtual tourism is based
on virtual reality technology and information
technology, which core is Internet. With no
high-technology, virtual tourism cannot be
generated.
Economy. Virtual tourism is out of objec-
tive constraints, it reduces costs, avoids the
constraints of a variety of force majeure,
and makes travel cheaper.
5

Multi-sensation. Virtual tour environment
can give visitors multi-sensation of image,
sound, touch, experience and other percep-
tion.
Zhang, Ma, Zhang (2009) claimed that travel
demands of most people are difficult to meet fully
because of objective factors, such as time, space,
economy, and so on. Virtual tourism character-
ized by multi-dimensional interactive visualiza-
tion based on computer network is flexible and
convenient for people.
Functional Structure of
Virtual Tourism
Virtual tour website is an intelligent system that
integrates virtual travel experience, exchange
of visitors, tour information and online booking
service, and mainly includes following functional
modules:
Virtual Tour of Scenic Spots. Virtual tour
system represents scenarios in Network,
which is a core component of virtual tour-
ism. With navigation module and electronic
guide system, visitors can follow a preset
route system to roam, also can select line,
not only can watch scenic spots through the
display, but also can participate in game
plot, have dinner, and go shopping through
gestures and password so as to understand
the cultural and historical attractions and
gain experience.
Travel Information and Planning. The
development of virtual tourism has definite
relationship with real tourism, and virtual
tourism often plays a role of pre- experience.
Therefore, virtual tourism becomes a chan-
nel for potential tourists to obtain various
tourism-related information, and provides
6
Virtual Tourism
a service platform of network applications
to plan the itinerary.
Travel e-Commerce. Virtual landscapes and
virtual community is an important platform
of travel e-commerce for tourists to under-
stand, purchase and book travel-related
goods and services.
Virtual Travel Community. Virtual travel
community is a living space around the topic
of tour life through the Internet. Community
members widely communicate with each
other via text, voice and video, on the one
hand, they can share travel experiences with
other members, on the other hand, they can
have access to a variety of tourism knowledge
to prepare for real travel.
PROFIT MODES OF
VIRTUAL TOURISM
Zhang, Ma, Zhang (2009) claimed that the virtual
world is an emerging field of Internet, how to
achieve profits in the virtual tourism is still an
important issue to explore. Based on the basic
structure of virtual tourism system, at present profit
models of virtual tourism are following sections.
Marketing of Tourism Destination. Virtual
tour system plays a role of tangible show
for people before they have real travel of
destinations. In the mode of marketing,
websites of virtual tourism can receive a lot
of advertising. This is the main income of
virtual tourism websites.
Product Placement. When a website of vir-
tual travel with high popularity and a certain
scale of members, it can get advertising rev-
enue through commercial advertising, such
as customer brand hotels, restaurants, tea
houses, shopping malls as well as corporate
Virtual Tourism
logo, mascot and product advertising board
in a virtual landscape of virtual system.
Virtual Currencies and Items for Sale.
Virtual tourism can be combined with online
games to gain profits through sales of virtual
currencies and goods, and other ways in
the game. Tourists can induct transactions
of virtual travel equipments through the
exchange of virtual currencies, and create
own villa and hotel in the travel destination.
Tourism Revenue-Sharing. By means
of functions of information services and
route planning, websites of virtual travel
not only can help visitors with design and
implementation of tourism projects, but also
can recommend customers to scenic spots,
hotels, travel agencies, airlines, car rental
companies and other tourism enterprises, and
share tourism revenues with these tourism
enterprises.
Online Shopping and Booking. Virtual
tourism is closely related to real tourism. In
the e-commerce of tourism, when visitors in
virtual tourism have interest in correspond-
ing landscapes and articles, online shopping
and online reservation will generate profits.
Collection of Subscriptions. In the virtual
travel community, people form different
groups according to different interests of
travel, obtain highly social identity through
interpersonal interaction, find the sense of
attribution psychologically and emotionally,
and design self-image and space environ-
ment. Websites of virtual travel can charge
membership fees, and develop advanced
services for members.
The corresponding relationship between
functional structure and profit modes of virtual
tourism is shown in Figure 2, which shows the
sources of profits.
PRACTICES OF VIRTUAL TOURISM
IN CHINA
Tourism Websites of China
Chinas websites of tourism emerged in 1991,
in addition, portal sites also have information
about travel. These sites can provide more com-
prehensive online counseling service including
tourism-related food, shelter, transportation,
travel, entertainment, shopping and other aspects
(Li, Yao, Di, Li, 2009).
According to the statistics of Googles Page
Rank (PR), PR value of 60 tourist websites is
greater than or equal to 6, in which PR value of
3 websites is 8, namely official website of Bei-
jing Tourism Administration, official website of
National Tourism Administration, and eLong. PR
value of 7 websites is 7, PR value of 50 websites
is 6. Among 60 websites, the number of local
travel websites is 31 while the rest of websites is
involved in nationwide business.
Yu, Zheng (2009) divided domestic travel
websites into four categories: government-based
websites, store-based websites, network-based
websites and comprehensive websites. Govern-
ment-based websites of travel are official websites
of tourism bureaus focusing local tourism. Among
them, the National Tourism Administration is the
most authoritative website of travel. Store-based
websites of travel primarily rely on store to operate
product marketing of tourism. Although they have
own e-commerce, but they dont pay attention
to online sales. Wang (2008) claimed that China
Travel Service and CYTS line are representatives
of this type. Network-based websites of travel
mainly rely on sales of tourism products through
websites, including ticket booking, hotel booking
service, such as Ctrip, eLong. Comprehensive
travel websites cover the advantages of above two
travel websites, namely tourism marketing both
in stores and online, Shanghai Spring Travel is a
typical representative.
7

Figure 2. Functional structure and profit modes of virtual tourism
Application of Virtual Tourism
on Websites of Travel
Yu (2008) summarizes five presentation ways of
virtual tour system: text, 2-D images, 2.5-D virtual
scene, 3-D virtual scene and Multi-D virtual scene,
which are the development path of virtual tourism,
also the application paths of virtual technology in
the field of tourism.
Different types of travel websites have dif-
ferent demands and applications in terms of
virtual tourism. This study selects samples of
travel websites to introduce their applications of
virtual tourism. First, the official website of the
National Tourism Administration is selected as a
government-based website of tourism. Second,
the type of e-commerce websites, created by tour
enterprises for marketing, will be represented by
Ctrip. Third, the travel websites specializing in the
introduction of attractions, are professional net-
work of virtual tourism, such as China Panorama
network. Finally, a very representative website
of virtual travel is Virtual Forbidden City, and is
described as a separate type.
As shown in Table 1, the government website
is still in the lower level in terms of the application
of virtual tour technology, the government website
8
Virtual Tourism
focuses on the introduction of government policies
on tourism and the status of development, and
text description with graphic display about travel
agencies, hotels, transportation, entertainment
to give tourists an platform of intuitive, graphic
information display.
Ctrip and other business websites focus on
ticketing, hotel reservations, and have no break-
through in terms of the application of virtual
technology.
China Panorama and Virtual Forbidden City
are at the highest level of the application of virtual
technology. China Panorama provides virtual
tourism of attractions around the country with 360
degree 3-D realistic display of high definition. The
Palace Museum developed virtual Forbidden City,
it officially started in October 10, 2008. This is
the first virtual world in China to show important
historical and cultural attractions on the Internet.
But China Panorama and Virtual Forbidden City
still dont focus on the role of direct business, but
the role of potential tourists.
CONCLUSION
The main conclusions of this study are as follows.
Virtual Tourism
Table 1. Typical applications of virtual tourism on websites
National Tourism
Content Ctrip
Administration
Scenic spots Global assessment Choiceness
Hotel Global assessment Reservation system
Traffic - Reservation system
Entertainment - -
Shopping - -
Others Government affairs Tips
Virtual tourism characterized by multi-di-
mensional interactive visualization based
on computer network is flexible and con-
venient for people. Virtual tourism has the
following characteristics: transcend time
and space, interactivity, high-technology,
economy and multi-sensation.
The functions of virtual tourism websites
mainly include virtual tour of scenic spots,
travel information and planning, travel e-
commerce, and virtual travel community.
At present virtual tourism profits mainly
through marketing of tourism destinations,
product placement, virtual currencies and
items for sale, revenue sharing of tourism,
online shopping and booking, and collec-
tion of subscriptions.
In China, according to PR value, there are
60 tour websites with greater than or equal
6 PR value, and different travel websites
have different demands and applications in
terms of virtual tourism.
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11
12

Chapter 2
A Study on Tourist Management
in China Based on Radio
Frequency Identification
(RFID) Technology
Aliana M W Leong
Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau SAR

Xi Li
Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau SAR

ABSTRACT
In recent years, tourism in China developed into a massive industry. According to the statistics from the
National Tourism Administration of the Peoples Republic of China, the number of travelers has reached
16.1 billion in 2007 alone. On public holidays, most of the popular tourist attractions are filled to capacity,
receiving 100% or even reaching 300% capacity. This was reported during the celebration of the May 1
golden week in 2006. Another report said that Beijings Forbidden City accommodated more than twice
its maximum capacity on May 2, 2006. The Wutai Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Pingyao ancient town,
Tongli ancient town, Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang, the Potala Palace and other famous scenic spots
also peaked at 100% full capacity from May 2 to May 5 (Xinjing Newspaper, May 8, 2006). The huge
number of tourists resulted to a somewhat negative feedback as their quality of experience and interest
had substantially diminished because of overcrowding. In addition, tourist attractions faced a serious
challenge in service quality, security and sustainable usage of resources during high tourist season.

Faced with these challenges, a prediction system for tourist reception during high season has been
adopted by the National Tourism Administration of the Peoples Republic of China. The system is help-
ful for regulating the flow of tourists. However, from the microscopic point of view, it is necessary to
conduct management and instruction for travelers before and after their arrival. Recently, RFID (Radio
Frequency Identification) technology has been considered by tourist attraction managers.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch002

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a non-contact, automatic identification technology. Through

its radio frequency signal, RFID offers automatic target recognition and access to relevant and without
human intervention identification of work is made. RFID can work in various environments. It can iden-
tify fast moving objects and is capable of identifying multiple tags, in a rapid and convenient operation.
Since the 1990s, RFID technology has been widely used in commercial, logistics, property management
and other fields, but interest towards potential application to the needs of the tourism industry only
began in recent years.

THE CONNOTATION OF TOURIST The Management of Traveler

MANAGEMENT Demand and Preference

A tourist attraction mainly targets travelers who
are its consumers. From the consumers point of
view, the behavior and needs of tourists should
be highly valued by tourist attraction managers.
However, there is a feature that renders inseparable
the process of tourist production and consumption.
Travelers play not only the role of consumers but
also the key point of tourist attraction service.
Thus, managers of tourist attractions should
pay attention on the role of travelers along with
bringing travelers supervision into scenic spots
management.
In countries where a tourism economy is
highly developed, traveler management is widely
accepted. Traveler management mainly refers to
trying to meet the needs of travelers on the premise
of maintaining the sustainable environment and
resource development, which use the manner of
technology, education, economy, administration,
and law to manage travelers (Zhang Wen and Li
Na, 2007).
According to existing research, theories and
practices are mainly focused on the following
six aspects of traveler management: demand and
preference, behavior, capacity, safety, experience
and impact.
Management of Traveler Demand and Prefer-
ence refers to consumer preferences for particular
products and services of different tourists. Un-
derstanding and analyzing the needs and prefer-
ences of tourists in different aspects will help in
the provision of appropriate services to tourists.
Consequently, tourist demands and preferences in
the scenic area of product management and mar-
keting optimization, as well as tourism planning
and tourism industry, were all of great significance
(Bramwell,1998).
Scholars from other countries had conducted
in-depth studies of this topic. Um S.(1992)studied
the decision process of tourism destination and
believes there is a process of change passive to
active on tourists perceived needs. Stephen W.Li
Win(2001)suggests that there are significant dif-
ferences in preferences between the first time
travelers and returning costumers concerning
the demand for tourism products. Noam Shoval
(2004) analyzed the attraction preference towards
travelers from different cities and found out that
there is a distinct impact between the length of
stay, the times of travel and consumer behavior.
Meanwhile, Alison J.McIntosh(2004) categorized
tourism product preferences into five types: seek
novelty, to understand the local lifestyle, cultural
authenticity, communication with locals and ex-
change pleasure of learning opportunities with
locals. All these research results are expected
to assist managers understand the law of tourist

13
 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
attractions and behavior patterns of consumption
in order to further provide better services and
products, thereby enhancing the quality of travel
experience.
The Management of
Traveler Behavior
In tourist behavior management, current major
overseas research focuses on describing tourists
visiting the scenic spots in order to tap the law of
tourists visiting. The common used research tech-
nology and method includes: GIS (A geographic
information system). H. Randy Gimblett (1998)
combined location map and GIS data to use the
techniques and methods to track visitor behavior
monitoring and modeling to analyze tourist activi-
ties with the environment as well as the interactions
between scenic spots and visitors. In addition,
Martin Opperman (1997) conducted a study on the
behaviour difference between first-time travelers
and returning customers which showed that the
stay period and travel scale is more focused for
returning travelers.
The Management of
Traveler Capacity
The contradiction between the capacity and limi-
tation of tourist attraction resource and the large
amount needed from travelers sparked peoples
concern on the management capacity of tour-
ism attractions. In order to better coordinate the
relationship between travelers and scenic spots
capacity, scholars conducted researches mainly
focused on traveler flow forecast and capacity
forecast. J. Alan Wagar et al(1964) and proposed
the improved Recreation Carrying Capacity
Theory (RCC). This theory proposes that the
limitation of traveler capacity exists universally,
which includes ecological, social, philosophy
and management. Meanwhile, the United States
National Forest proposed Recreation Opportunity
Spectrum (ROS) Theory towards the application
14
model of tourist resource. The theory of tourism
resources conservation in accordance with the
demand for travel is divided into the following
six major types: the original area, no motor ve-
hicle traffic in half the original area, with motor
vehicle traffic in half the original area, with roads
in natural areas, rural and urban areas. Different
types of regions have their own characteristics of
determining tourist capacity.
The Management of Traveler Safety
Visitor safety management major deals with the
safety of tourists in tourist areas regarding various
elements of response analysis and research, such as
natural disasters and accidents and tourism crimes.
On the aspect of safety factors in the identifica-
tion, Mieczkowski (1995) divided safety-effect
factors into two types: natural threats and human
threats. Tsaur, et al (1997) targeted traffic, public
order and law, health care, housing, weather, at-
tractions and medical facilities, and analyzed the
eight scenic spots of tourists safety. Furthermore,
in the face of worsening global terrorist attacks in
recent years, many scholars conducted studies on
terrorism and security issues of tourists. Further,
crime has also an important impact on the safety
of tourists. Although scholars have conducted
researches on this issue, details on this will not
be dealt with because these studies focus more
on specific areas of crime in tourism.
The Management of
Traveler Experience
Visitors experience is a subjective feeling in-
volved in the tourism process. Tourism products
and services based on tourists perception are
related to situational factors: personal character-
istics, personality characteristics, surrounding
environment, tourism (Graefe AR, 1987). There-
fore, the existing studies on visitor management
experience involving some of the concerns of
tourists are mainly towards psychological, so-
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
ciological or anthropological point of view of
the tourist experience to enhance the quality of
visitor experience as references. M. S. Jackson
(1996) studied the impact of visitors through the
experience of the factor structure. M. Goossen
et al. (2000) divided the quality of recreational
experience into functional quality (Utilisation
Quality) and the perceived quality (Perception
Quality). These studies provide useful references
to understanding the visitor experience for further
enhancing the degree of tourists satisfaction.
The Management of Traveler Impact
Tourism behaviour is one of the central issues on
tourism management studies. Current researches
focus on the scenic tourist behavior and the eco-
logical impacts of economic and social impact
analysis and assessments. Impact of the ecological
environment for tourists, usually starts from the
behavioral characteristics of tourists and evaluates
the negative impact. Meiczkowski (1995) listed
the negative impact of tourism in the following
areas: overcrowding, over-exploitation, no rules,
recreation activities, waste pollution, car activities,
and effects on soil and vegetation.
However, the socio-economic impact, needs
anthropology and sociology with socio-economic
theory as the basis for analysis. Nicholas Haralam-
boulos, et al (1996) indicated that negative impacts
from visitors on economic and social aspect are
mainly: rising prices, drug abuse, damaged public
facilities: noisier environment, sexual harassment
and all kinds of crimes. In addition, scholars ana-
lyzed cultural integration and religion from the
perspective of the tourists on the negative social
impact of tourism destinations.
It is obvious that the Western visitor manage-
ment research has largely formed and established
frameworks and systems and provides a good
platform for visitor management practice and
innovation.
CURRENT SITUATION AND
CHALLENGES OF CHINAS
TOURIST MANAGEMENT
From the content and target point of view, Chinas
tourist attractions management can be divided into
two types: one is tourist attractions of resource
and environmental management-oriented form,
also commonly known as tourism object manage-
ment; the other is tourist attractions to tourists
as the main focus of the form, therefore, also
known as the main tourism management (Xia&
Chengzhao, 2006). China has long been focusing
attention on the management of resources and the
environmental tourism attractions, whereas visitor
management is relatively insufficient.
The Focal Point of Chinas
Tourist Management
According to several researches conducted
by Chinese scholars, China domestic tourism
management content is similar to those in other
countries, however, the target in each specific
case is slightly different. Liu Yanfeng, et al (2006)
and Guo Hongyan (2008) divided the focal point
of Chinas Domestic Tourism Management into
seven aspects: quantity management, diversion
measures, queue management, team management,
complaint management, interpretation system
construction and behavior management.
Quantity management aims to control and run
the number of tourists. Flow diversion measure
is under temporal and spatial rules of conduct for
tourists sightseeing behavior to reduce traffic
within local scenic spots in the temporal and spatial
concentration, as well as reduce the crowding of
local attractions to tourists.
Queue management establishes queuing ef-
ficiency to reduce or avoid boring monotonous
environment, further improving the ultimate
service experience of tourist attractions.
Team management is about scenic spots in the
light of team interaction, the size of the team, and
15
 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
travel arrangements for the purpose of enhancing
the tourists experience.
Complaint management is for the establish-
ment of effective channels to solve complaints
efficiently. The main purpose of interpretation
system is formed through various media to provide
information services at the same time, to divert
visitors, safety tips, and behavior management tips.
A shift from direct management into indirect man-
agement undeniably reflects the characteristics
of visitor management services. Tourist behavior
management is a process that constrains visitors
code of conduct and management.
The above description of domestic tourism
management has some parallels to the aforemen-
tioned Western visitors needs and preferences
on management, behavior management, capacity
management, security management, experience
management, and visitor impact management, but
also features Chinese management characteristics.
The above-mentioned seven areas compose the
main content of the current China domestic tour-
ism management.
The Characteristic of Chinas
Tourist Management
China has successfully transformed tourism re-
sources and environmental management as the
equally important models of visitor and manage-
ment, however, on the aspect of visitor manage-
ment, the improvement. Chinas domestic tourism
management embodies the following five features:
1. Protective tourism is the main implementa-
tion of visitor management.
The implementation of Chinas domestic tour-
ism management resources and environmental
protection in view of the natural and cultural
heritage tourist attractions and tourist resources
is relatively fragile (Fangyong, 2007).
Highly popular and attractive international
tourist attractions that particularly need better
16
management, such as Huangshan, the Forbidden
City, the Dunhuang Grottoes and many others
have gradually established a visitor management
system.
2. Resource management, environmental pro-
tection as the main purpose of tourists.
Tourists inevitably cause negative impact
on the environment. For this reason, Chinas
visitor management of tourist attractions mainly
focuses on the protection of the environment and
resources, while trying to control the behavior
of visitors and manage to achieve its resource
protection objectives. Due to the considerable
attention given to environmental protection, fac-
ing the visitor management, visitor experience
and environmental protection, most the tourist
attractions choose to neglect the tourists scenic
environment experience.
3. Tourists behavior management is the main
aspect.
Presently, the main form of China domestic
tourism management is behavior management,
such as coaching tourists on their environmental
responsibility and the behavior of tourists on the
appropriate constraints.
Wu Bihu (2001) classified Chinas tourist
scenic spot management into two types: direct
management and indirect management. Directly
management deals with the will and behavior
of tourists, such as restrictions on utilization
and limiting certain types of activities. Indirect
management is affected by changes in the factors
that tourists will and act to change the behavior
of their visitors, such as strengthening tourist
promotion. Ma Yong, Li Xi (2006) divided the
current visitor management of scenic spots in
Chinas into excitement-based management and
constraint management. The excitement-based
management is a flexible management, mainly
through communication and exchange, the full
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
capacity to stimulate self-restraint of tourists,
including education, demonstration and guidance;
whereas constraint management is also known
as mandatory management conducted through
the development of relevant rules of behavior
and using coercive power to protect the rule to
be observed.
Therefore, active and passive visitor behavior
management is the conventional method of the
current tourism attraction management.
4. Tourists Management Practice has strong
time characteristics.
Because of the unique vacations and travel
consumption patterns in China, the number of
tourist attractions shows obvious fluctuation char-
acteristics. For example, in 2009, Chinas annual
May 1, October 1, the Spring Festival and other
holiday period, the major number of tourists to
scenic spots dramatically increased. For example,
numerous tourist attractions are too overcrowded,
such as receiving 100% accommodation or even
reached over 300% tourists per day during the
May 1 golden week of 2006. Another report said
that the Beijing Forbidden City accommodation
was more than twice its maximum capacity on
May 2, 2006. Wutai Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain,
Pingyao ancient town, Tongli ancient town, Mo
Kao Grotto at Dunhuang, the Potala Palace and
other famous scenic spots showed full situations
from May 2 to May 5 (Xinjing Newspaper, May
8, 2006). The over-crowding has led to a negative
impact to travelers because of large numbers of
tourists in one place. The quality of experience
and interests declined because of serious over-
crowding. Consequently, tourist attractions faced
a serious challenge in service quality, security and
sustainable usage of resources during high seasons.
Therefore, Chinas tourist attractions manage-
ment reflects a relatively concentrated feature:
the visitor management emphasis is different at
different times, with some temporary and response
characteristics.
5. The method of tourist management is
singular.
Tourists management of China scenic spots
in specific manner is relatively singular. He
Fangyong (2007) summarized China tourist at-
tractions management approach as two methods:
soft and hard. The hard way includes restric-
tions of visitors to certain parts of activities, such
as closing or restricting the number of tourists
attractions or taking economic measures such as
charging high priced tickets. The soft method
includes marketing strategies, explanations, and
guidance of the planning and coordination of
measures.
In example of the rigid management method
is the every day reception at the Potala Palace
where there is a 2300-person maximum limit; but
a rapid growth in the number of visitors was seen
since the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.
The Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics
Bureau adopted winter and summer tickets float-
ing system for unique winter visitors, and summer
overcrowding conditions were imposed at the
Potala Palace (Cheng, 2010).
In the soft management method, the China
National Tourism Administration and the mass
media established strategic partnership on
forecast of traveler numbers during the Golden
Week holidays. The visitor forecast system in
the accommodation informed the mass media of
the numbers approaching the cordon. Through
the media, the public received tourists recep-
tion conditions, and tourists also made decisions
based on existing conditions, thus improving the
efficiency and quality of the reception area of the
scenic attraction.
The management of Chinese tourists is rela-
tively singular and lacks technical content. In the
future, tourists management of China should
make use of modern technology to increase the
effectiveness of visitor management.
17
 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
The Challenges of Chinas
Tourist Management
Although the managers of scenic areas have
considered visitor management as an important
part of business management, the development of
visitor management has been in a relatively short
period and now is faced with a series challenges
in three aspects:
1. Less awareness, neglects tourist manage-
ment, only paying attention to economic
benefits.
As mentioned above, visitor management
philosophy has yet to be known to all managers
attractions and accreditation. In majority of sce-
nic spots, there are conflicts and contradictions
between strict management and the short-term in-
terests of scenic spots. Implementation of modern
management strategies may reduce the number
of tourists and increase the input of scenic spots.
To this end, the economic interests of the scenic
spots are prioritized at the expense of the number
of visitors. In particular, the growth focuses on
sustainable contemporary development, this kill
the goose that lays the golden eggs style can be
considered detrimental to profits. For this rea-
son, strengthening the training of managers and
enhancing management awareness and capability
is urgent.
2. The number of visitors for the emergency
control of multi-mode, lack of prior forecasts
and ex-post control.
The tourist quantity control is the core element
of tourist managers as well as those of scenic
area directors. However, from the standpoint
of overseas tourists, this should be taken as a
whole. Not only should there be a correct vision
on tourism management, but it also it should start
right at the planning stage of construction of the
scenic areas. For example, behavior characteristic
18
needs to be considered fully from the servicing
facility design. Not only that the Chinese scenic
area tourist management often lacks the unifica-
tion on the plan and the management, but also
majority of temporary emergency processing
pattern are absent. The only started the related
mechanism on the tourist quantity during the gold
week celebrations. Thus, it can be seen that one
of the challenges of the tour is how to promote
the strategic management stratification plan, carry
out efficient management, as well as the entire
process in reverse afterwards.
3. Independent of each other, the need for
systematic and urgent integration.
As mentioned above, both the international
and domestic meaning of tourist management is
recognized. These contents can be divided into
several modules. The existence of these modules
is to coordinate the protection of scenic resources
and the environment in the improvement of the
quality of tourist experience, as well as the relation-
ship between the correlations. However, Chinas
tourist attractions in tourist management appear
to be relatively independent, more with a lack of
integrity and relevance, such as the number of
tourists attractions in building control systems,
guided systems, behavior and security manage-
ment system, the management tools and technical
methods of relevance, lack of effective integra-
tion. As a scenic area manager, only through the
integration of certain visitor management in the
various modules with the technical means can we
really expect to play out its effectiveness.
Interdisciplinary Research to Deepen
Visitor Management, the Program
Still Lacks a Workable Scheme
In recent years, with the continuous development
of visitor management, more and more scholars in
other disciplines began to get involved in tourism
attractions management fields, such as cross-
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
disciplinary approach with the tourists on the
scenic area management issues research, and had
achieved certain results and progress. Qiu yanqing,
et al (2010) analysed passenger traffic within the
scenic tourist season spatial and temporal varia-
tions; built sites for load balancing mathematical
programming model; and from dynamic forecast-
ing scheduling provides the analysis of tourists
streaming ideas in the Jiuzhaigou scenic spot in
Sichuan province. Zhang Jianhua, et al (2007)
analyzed the environmental impact of tourists
based on the environmental impact of building a
tourist function, and explored the function based
on the environmental impact of tourist attractions
visitors control measures. Researchers on Chinese
tourism will undoubtedly enrich the management
theory and methodology, but the research is still
in its theoretical stages and lacks maneuverability.
Evidently, some scholars had put forward a
view on the technical part of the visitor manage-
ment system. Ma Bin, et al (2009) proposed the
design and implementation of programs based on
radio frequency identification (RFID) and ARM
Intelligent Visitor Management System (IVMS).
The program mainly targeted tourists behavior
and safety management, with the update of visitor
information, automatic division, and left behind
alarm functions. An Wenkui, et al (2005) directed
against tourists in the visitor team management, a
form-based RF transceiver solutions for wireless
communication systems, equipped with suitable
identification, automatic division, start to remind,
left behind and other tips of alarm functions.
The design of these systems has a certain role in
promoting Chinas tourist attractions innovation
management. However, these studies are only for
certain specific groups of tourists whereas taking
the tourists in the management module as a whole
research and technical analysis has not yet been
successfully conducted.
POTENTIAL ANALYSIS OF RFID
TECHNOLOGY AND ITS USAGE IN
SCENIC SPOTS MANAGEMENT
RFID Technology
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification technol-
ogy) is the use of an object (typically referred
to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated
into a product or document for the purpose of
identification and tracking using radio waves. It
is through the radio frequency signal that RFID
automatically recognizes a target and accesses
relevant data. Through the use of RFID technol-
ogy, the identification of the work without hu-
man intervention can be conducted in a variety
of harsh environments. The first application of
this technology can be traced back to identifying
the enemy during World War II, but because the
application of the technology was expensive, it
was not immediately applied to other areas (China
Ministry of Science, 2006).
Since RFID has a non-contact feature and can
simultaneously identify multiple objects in the
operation, it can provide a variety of management
service functions, such as identity recognition,
traceability and other functions. Specifically,
based on RFID technology, the following main
functions can be achieved:
Identity recognition function. Acceptance
of service for each object or item to set a unique
identification code, therefore, in the radio fre-
quency identification systems, object-related
goods and services can be automatically identified
so as to provide personalized service. The uses
of electronic tickets at hotels and scenic spots
as well as in biological research field of animal
identification are typical examples.
Track back trajectory function. The radio
frequency identification technology has the unique
identification of properties. Thus, reading the
device with a range of information can describe
relevant goods and services to clients in the pro-
cess of receiving the flow path and travel status.
19
 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
Such feature is more for the food safety control
and management as well as document tracking
management.
Space positioning function. When RFID
technology and geographic information system
GIS technologies are combined, a more precise
spatial orientation function can be achieved.
This means while waiting for a clear identifica-
tion of each individuals specific spatial location
information, a better organization of services and
resources is possible.
Hardware-Based RFID Technology
The RFID technology system structure is divided
into hardware and software. Software is the use
of RFID technology related management applica-
tions, such as logistics management information
system and hotel access control system. The hard-
ware is composed of two parts, namely, read-write
unit and the electronic transceiver. In practical
applications, the read-write unit electromagnetic
pulse is sent through the antenna while the elec-
tronic transceiver receives the electromagnetic
pulse is stored in the transceiver unit of information
sent to the reader response, shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Module structure of RFID technology hardware
20
Reading and writing in the electronic transceiver
module interaction, the relevant information was
recorded, and passed through the information net-
work to the main control unit. In fact, the process
is on the non-contact data memory read, write, or
delete processing operation.
From specific technical terms, RFID technol-
ogy is mainly used for electronic transceiver main
body identification. Its two parts: one is for the
RFID radio frequency, and the second is for an
ultra-thin RFID chip antenna loop. RF parts as
the only identification code, and the antenna is
used in the electronic transceiver and the transmis-
sion of information between the reader units.
Based on RFID technology, using transceiver
frequency and power supply electronics, RFID
technology can be divided into low frequency,
high frequency and ultrahigh frequency (UHF)
and other types. The different types have differ-
ent performance characteristics, such as in ultra
high frequency RFID technology the distance of
its read-write characteristics can be 10 meters,
as well as the exchange of data. For electronic
transceiver, can be divided into passive and active
type according to its power supply.
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
Compared with bar code technology, magnetic
stripe and other ID technology, the advantages of
transceiver technology and the transceiver to read
between the wireless links are: read-write unit and
transceiver do not require contacts between the
visual. It can be completely integrated into the
interior of the product. The electronic transceivers
on the net and mechanical impact of environmental
factors are not sensitive to a very high reading
reliability with fast data acquisition capability.
In comparison with the global positioning system
GPS, RFID technology has the added advantage
of being relatively low-cost.
Potential Analysis on RFID
Technology on the Scenic
Spots Management
RFID application has been gradually understood
and valued in the tourism industry. In accordance
with technology usage, it can be generally applied
and shaped to the scope of conventional applica-
tion. The conventional transceiver is an electronic
application form for card-shaped objects, usu-
ally a credit card. The profiled application is an
electronic transceiver can be integrated in other
forms of goods. Conventional applications such as
access control system in a hotel, has been used on
RFID technology, like RFID access control cards
and the electronic transceiver modules together.
In addition to the conventional card-type RFID
technology, many countries in the tourism indus-
try have also introduced a special form of radio
frequency identification technology. The Great
Wolf Resorts Inc. is the largest indoor family-
oriented entertainment company that provides
holiday events services. The RFID wrist band
system was been used in Pennsylvania Pocono
Mountains resort area in 2006. Customers wearing
RFID wrist bands do not need to carry cash and
keys to open the door of their lodging cottages
or rooms. They can purchase food and souvenirs
and can pay for game activities. The wrist strap is
also for customer identification (Yunhui, 2008).
On the usage of RFID technology in tourist
attractionsmanagement in China, with continuous
deepening of digital services and items, the most
commonly used electronic access control system
or intelligent ticket management system is the
construction of scenic areas. In addition, visitors
in guided tours and team management using the
RFID application have been developed. Ma Bin, et
al (2009) tested a group of tourists in the manage-
ment process. The team introduced visitors with
RFID technology identification and provided each
guide a handheld PDA reader, which uses radio
frequency identification technology. The visitors
were held on the non-contact characteristics in the
implementation of specific services and manage-
ment. Based on RFID technology, An Wenkui, et
al (2005) designed an intelligent guide system for
tour guides and team interaction between visitors
provided identification. It included left behind
alarm, reminder and auto-start functions by name.
It may be inferred that in the current RFID
applications in China tourist attractions manage-
ment: electronic ticket is the manner most com-
monly used. There are more theoretical studies
on density control in personnel and it can be
traced back to food safety, whereas management
of tourist attractions is rarely involved (Yunhui,
2008). With the management concept of tourist
attractions and visitor management, the attention
of modern information technology and radio
frequency identification technologies, radio fre-
quency identification technology will provide a
wider range of applications.
SCENIC SPOTS MANAGEMENT
MODULE CONSTRUCTION
BASED ON RFID TECHNOLOGY
The main purpose of resources environment
and scenic tourist management experience is to
coordinate the specific content of foreign tourists
management. In general, it can be summarized in
the following areas: control and management of
21
 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
environmental capacity, visitor behavior manage-
ment, line up and demand management, and visitor
safety management. As the visitor management
characteristics of the object is an independent
individual tourist, RFID technology is used in the
management of scenic spots. Visitors can fill the
existing management system for their own matrix,
relatively independent of defects. This research
will have as a basis the RFID technology which
is the proposed tourist management system model
for the management of technological innovation.
It is expected to provide reference and inspiration
to a scenic area.
Tourists management with reference to the
content management system can be classified
into the following main modules: electronic ticket
function module, the scenic area of capacity moni-
toring and adjustment module, tourist spending
behavior characterization module, and intelligent
queue management module.
Electronic Ticket Function Module
Electronic ticket function module is the basic
component for the function of RFID technology,
which assists visitors to access entrance informa-
tion. Whether visitors choose to purchase tickets
on the network or the ticket office, they can collect
the basic information that can be identified with
the RFID system. This enables visitors the exact
corresponding information of travelers and their
behavior. In addition, the module should be able
to connect to the scenic spots within the external
marketing system, and settlement systems to
exchange data effectively. Usually, on building
blocks of electronic ticket system, the transceiver
will be integrated in the scenic area of electronic
tickets, and the main entrance in the scenic area
setting up the appropriate read and write devices
unit, to monitor visitors in and out within a state
scenic area. Please refer to Figure 2.
22
The Capacity Monitoring And
Adjustment Module Of A Scenic Area
The main function of monitoring spot capability
aims to coordinate the number of visitors and the
scenic space capacity.As visitors tour the scenic
area, the position in space is constantly changing
which gives challenges on volume control and
management of tourist attractions. Spatial loca-
tion information is usually collected for the global
positioning system approach (GPS), however, the
corresponding technical equipment is expensive
and difficult to spread universally in the scenic
area. To this end, using geographic information
system (GIS) and radio frequency identification
technology (RFID) can give the number of space
tourists information processing (Rong, et al, 2007)
(see Figure 3).
Its main principles are: first, to build a scenic
area of geographic information system, make
digital major attractions based on scenic spots of
the different districts. Next, in the different re-
gional and major scenic spots, set the UHF radio
frequency identification reader unit so the entrance
statistics of tourists numbers can be summarized.
In the end, the capacity threshold of the scenic
environment of prior studies and a real-time
evaluation of the number of tourists from differ-
ent regions, is more objectively accounted for
with the relationship between space capacity. With
some management tools, the behavior of tourists
and sightseeing activities are dynamically ad-
justed.
Tourist Consumer Behavior
Characterization Module
As the RFID system can invisibly record action
work completed, along with the information back
function, the system can assist in understanding
consumer preferences and behavior of tourists.
In turn, this will optimize product features and
improve management as well as enhance the tour-
ism experience. Specifically, the overall number
of scenic spots by construction, the shopping and
A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
Figure 2. Electronic ticket function module
leisure outlets, the tourist attractions and other
places to set the RFID reader modules, the differ-
ent tourist attractions in the scenic area within the
parameters of lodging, consumption and other data
in real-time acquisition, combined with tourism
would give information on a relatively complete
database of behavior characteristics of tourist
spending. With the establishment of the database,
the system will provide a more accurate and
comprehensive record of all visitors in the scenic
area and can help managers understand the tourist
attractions and a variety of products and services
needed than the traditional survey (Xilin, 2009).
Intelligent Queue
Management Module
Following the development of mass tourism, more
and more scenic spots began to face the problem of
queue management. Fairness and effectiveness of
queue management will directly affect the visitors
experience in the scenic area. Hence, with the help
of high technology, improving the scenic RFID
smart queuing system will be the main function
of queue management module.
With RFID technology, the uniqueness of
visitor identity offers the possibility of a practi-
cal and smart queue management. Visitors only
need to have their personal information in the
electronic ticket. That information can be passed
to the database of its visitors queuing system,
which can be fed back out of the waiting time for
tourists that offers visitors more time flexibility
and avoid waiting time.
Therefore, in the scenic area of visitor man-
agement, RFID technology can fully integrate
tourists information and tourist attractions for the
delivery of visitor management solutions more
23
 A Study on Tourist Management in China Based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
Figure 3. Inner structure diagram of capacity monitoring and adjustment module
effectively. However, achieving the scenic area
management system depends on the number of
building support, while hardware and software
will also demand higher requirements. For that
reason, tourist attractions, first need to properly
recognize and manage the content and objectives,
then the basis of long-term planning, system
layout-related hardware, and ultimately achieve a
systematic information management experience.
This will finally result to the achievement of the
purpose of tourist attractions.
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 27

Chapter 3
Key Issues in the
Implementation of Electronic
Customer Relationship
Management in the Australian
Hospitality and Tourism Sector
Chad Lin
Curtin University, Australia

ABSTRACT
The hospitality and tourism sector is one of fastest growing sectors in Australia and in the world. In
order to become more efficient and effective in delivering products and services to customers via the
use of ICT, hospitality and tourism organizations have to rethink the ways in which they build relation-
ships with their customers by initiating electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) projects.
Inappropriate eCRM decision-making and implementation can result in multi-million dollar losses, which
can translate into a loss of competitiveness. Therefore, the case study approach was conducted to: (1)
identify potential ICT costs and risk factors involved in eCRM initiatives in general; and (2) identify
and examine key issues in the implementation of eCRM in the Australian hospitality and tourism sector.
The contribution of this book chapter is two-fold. First, it offers hospitality and tourism executives with
a more realistic insight about the impact of their eCRM investments on their business. Second, potential
key issues, costs and risk factors associated with eCRM implementation are presented to assist these
organizations in dealing with these challenges.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch003

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
INTRODUCTION
The hospitality and tourism sector is one of fast-
est growing sectors in Australia and in the world.
However, global information and communication
technology (ICT) spending as a percentage of total
organizational expenses by hospitality and tour-
ism organizations has been predicted by Gartner
Research to increase only marginally from 3.9%
in 2009 to 4.4% in 2010 (Potter et al., 2010). In
order to become more efficient and effective in
delivering products and services to customers
via the use of ICT, many hospitality and tourism
organizations have started to rethink the ways in
which they build relationships with their custom-
ers by initiating electronic customer relationship
management (eCRM) projects (Jang et al., 2006;
Singala, 2008). According to Karakostas et al.
(2005), a 5% increase in customer retention can
result in an 18% reduction in operating costs.
Although there have been widespread agree-
ment that CRM/eCRM has a direct and indirect
impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty, sales and
profit, key issues in the implementation of eCRM
have not been well researched (Feinberg et al.,
2002). It has been reported that stalled or failed
CRM projects are often the result of organizations
lacking a thorough understanding of what CRM
initiatives and implementation entail (Chen and
Popovich, 2003; Hendricks et al., 2007; Krigs-
man, 2009). Moreover, many studies reported that
CRM implementations do not return the expected
ROI (Foley, 2002). For example, CRM failure
rates conducted by various research institutions
(e.g. Gartner, Bulter, AMR, Forrester Research)
between 2001 and 2009 varied widely, ranging
from 18% to 70% (Krigsman, 2009). CRM ranked
in the bottom three categories among 25 popular
tools evaluated for customer satisfaction in a Bain
& Company survey of 451 senior executives in
2001 (Mello, 2002).
The high eCRM/CRM failure rate might be
due to the fact that senior management tends
to be myopic when considering their ICT deci-
28
sions (Ernst and Young, 1999). Needless to say,
providing good pre-decision information to
senior managers becomes critical as inaccurate
evaluation processes may reward and encourage
suboptimal ICT investment projects (Rose et al.,
2004). Thus, there is a need to identify potential
risk factors and key issues for the implementation
of eCRM so as to offer management with a more
realistic insight about the impact of their invest-
ment on their business. Therefore, case study was
conducted to: (1) identify potential ICT costs
and risk factors involved in eCRM initiatives in
general; and (2) identify and examine key issues
in the implementation of eCRM in the Australian
hospitality and tourism sector.
This chapter first reviews relevant literature
with respect to history and characteristics of
CRM/eCRM. The literature review section also
presents some important factors to consider before
implementing eCRM as well as difficulties and
challenges in identifying relevant eCRM costs and
risk factors. Key findings and issues from the case
studies are then presented. The chapter examines
these findings and issues in light of these hospital-
ity and tourism organizations eCRM implementa-
tion and management practices, and concludes by
a section of discussion and conclusions.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a
comprehensive business and marketing strategy
that integrates technology, process and business
activities around the customer (Anton & Hoeck,
2002). The objectives of a CRM process are to
shape customers perceptions of the organization
and its products through identifying customers,
creating customer knowledge and building com-
mitted customer relationships (Ragins & Greco,
2003). A well-designed and well-resourced CRM
could be used to flag up potential problems and
assist in resolving them (Easton & Araujo, 2003).
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
It is a broad term that has evolved from systems
such as Marketing Information Systems, Database
Marketing, Decision Support Systems, Call Centre
Management, and Transaction Support Systems
and can cover a wide array of technologies and
business processes (Woodcock & Starky, 2001).
CRM is also a term for methodologies, processes,
systems and software that help an organization to
manage customer relationships in an organized
and effective manner (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002).
The aim is to create loyal customers so that the
relationship can flourish over a long period of
time (Kohli et al., 2001).
CRM software vendors seem to use the word
indiscriminately to refer to any system that fa-
cilitates better relationships with its customers.
This can be at a number of levels, ranging from
facilitated transactions, higher retention rates, bet-
ter marketing, and lower transaction and service
costs. It is emerging as an important technology
tool that is used by many businesses as a way to
maximize existing business models, create new
revenue streams, and increase new growth in
existing markets (EPS, 2001). Traditionally, a set
of CRM software and systems is generally imple-
mented to support organizational functions by: (a)
analyzing customer data gathered throughout the
business; (b) automating and streamlining sales
and customer support functions; (c) managing the
flow of information in and out of the centers that
handle customer transactions; and (d) planning
and managing marketing and sales strategies and
campaigns (CIO, 2000).
Several researchers have attempted to define
CRM. For example, Nargundkar and Srivastava
(2002) have defined CRM as a process which
can span end-to-end operations thus integrating
all relationships from suppliers to the consumers
and each business entity in this value chain can
be viewed as the preceding businesss customer,
transforming the value chain into a chain of
customers. Similarly, Goodhue et al (2002) have
defined CRM as an application or initiative
designed to help an organization optimize interac-
tions with customers, suppliers, or prospects via
one or more touch points such as a call center,
sales person, distributor, store, branch office, Web,
or e-mail for the purpose of acquiring, retaining,
or cross-selling customers while Kim et al. (2003)
have described it as a managerial tool or effort to
manage business interactions with customers by
combining business processes and technologies
that seek to understand a companys customers.
Chen and Ching (2004) have pointed out that a
CRM is an ICT process or methodology that helps
an organization to retain customers in order to to
enhance the effectiveness of relationship market-
ing practices. On the other hand, du Plessis and
Boon (2004) have defined CRM as the building
and managing of customer relationships on an
organizational level through understanding, an-
ticipating and managing of customer needs, based
on knowledge gained of the customer, to increase
organizational effectiveness and efficiency and
thereby increasing profitability.
Furthermore, Zablah et al. (2004) have stated
that CRM is a continuous process that involves
the development and leveraging of market intel-
ligence for the purpose of building and maintain-
ing a profit-maximizing portfolio of customer
relationships. Effective CRM implementation
is assumed to lead to bottom line benefits for the
organization (Tschohl, 2001; Wilson et al., 2007).
It has been found that eCRM implementation ef-
forts by organizations correlate with the perceived
degree of eCRM received from the organiza-
tion and this can often translate into customers
loyalty (Lee-Kelley et al., 2003). The goal of
CRM is to optimize revenue, profitability, and
customer satisfaction by organizing the businesss
processes toward providing high quality service
to the customer (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). A good
understanding of the businesss CRM strategy is
important as a guiding framework in all stages
of the development and implementation of a or-
ganizational customer-centric business strategy
that encompasses all activities of the organization
(Nargundkar & Srivastava, 2002; Tan et al., 2002).
29
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
History of eCRM
The development of CRM applications began in
the early 1990s (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). The first
generation of applications was single-functions
solutions designed to support a specific set of em-
ployees such as a helpdesk, the sales, and market-
ing departments. The second generation of CRM
applications began to increase the functionality
of the software to include a suite of interoperable
modules that included marketing, sales, analytics,
customer service, and call centre support functions.
The goal was to enable corporate employees to
provide a full range services to customers by using
a common set of CRM-integrated databases and
third-party applications (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002).
In recent years, CRM has shifted more into the
forefront of ICT spending as the percentage of IT
budgets spent on specific business and technology
initiatives increases (Sechrest, 2003). Advances in
IT have provided businesses with an opportunity
to deliver CRM functions more effectively. The
use of such technologies to deliver CRM has lead
to the emergence of electronic customer relation-
ship management (eCRM) and specialist software
vendors in the marketplace. This new generation
of customer relationship management products
is called eCRM because it supports the multiple
electronic channels that are now available to
customers (Bernett & Kuhn, 2002). The e is
usually dropped when speaking about eCRM when
it refers to CRM that has technology-facilitated
interfaces with customers in a broad electronic
commerce context which goes beyond the web
(Chen & Chen, 2004). It is commonly referred to
as one element of CRM that specifically focuses
on new digital channels of communication (web
and wireless) and uses the web to create a holistic
approach to internal and external communica-
tion (EPS, 2001) or as a collection of methods
and techniques which are adopted to capture,
retain, analyze, and productively utilize informa-
tion about customers (or potential customers) for
the purposes of pre-sales support, making sales
30
and arranging delivery, and providing post-sales
support (Steinmueller, 2002).
In addition, eCRM is capable of extending the
traditional CRM methods and techniques by in-
tegrating technologies of new electronic channels,
such as Web, wireless, and voice technologies,
and combines them with e-business applications
into the overall enterprise CRM strategy (Pan
and Lee, 2003) and the source of customer data is
normally collected from the customer interactions
with the Web and Internet-based systems (Kara-
kostas et al., 2005). Moreover, it usually involves
a combination of hardware, software, processes,
applications, and management commitment
(Fjermestad & Romano, 2003). Hence, eCRM
is generally considered to be a subset of CRM,
meaning that eCRM is one more channel through
which an organization can deploy its customer
relationship management strategy (Dyche, 2001).
eCRM differs from CRM is three important ways
as it: (1) includes email, wireless channels, and
web; (2) supports marketing, sales and service,
and is often integrated with Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) systems; and (3) is enterprise-
ready rather than focused on departments or call
centers and extends to cover partner channels
such as extranets (Dyche, 2001; EPS, 2001; Pan
& Lee, 2003).
Characteristics of eCRM
eCRM is essentially database technologies, offers
opportunities for interaction with the customer
and for records to be kept of this interaction,
and has the potential for mass customization for
customers (McKay & Marshall, 2004). It also
allows organizations to learn more about their
customers through acquisition and analysis of
customer data as well as to customize their prod-
ucts and services in order to satisfy the needs of
their customers (Moon, 2000). In general, eCRM
falls into three main types: operational, analytical
and collaborative (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003;
Hewson Consulting, 2000).
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
Operational eCRM is concerned with the cus-
tomer touch points such as automating sales force
while the analytical eCRM requires technology
to process large amounts of customer data and to
analyze customer data (Fjermestad & Romano,
2003; Sigala, 2004). Collaborative eCRM is a
business model based upon an enterprise architec-
ture designed to meet organizations complex and
dynamic environment and it focuses on creating
a real-time eCRM infrastructure for enterprise
sales, service, marketing, and product develop-
ment to better support customer requirements
(eBest, 2003). In the long run, analytical eCRM,
operational eCRM, and collaborative eCRM will
move closer together to overcome the complexities
and breadth of components required in order to
collect better customer data to improve the qual-
ity of customer service, and, as a result, increase
customer satisfaction and loyalty. Disconnects
between analytics and operations may result in
negative customer experience and the loss of op-
portunities for the organizations. Nelson (2001)
described that 75% of customers who defect to
a competitor claim that they were satisfied with
the organization from which they have defected.
eCRM can also be classified into four types
(Karimi et al., 2001): (1) customer focused eCRM
businesses these systems enable organizations
to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of
customer service, marketing online sales by
automation; (2) operations focused eCRM busi-
nesses these systems benefit organizations in
supply chain management, order management
and service field by using database information
to forecast demand, reduce overall production
costs and improve lead time/quality at a lower
cost; (3) both operational and customer focused
eCRM businesses; and (4) businesses that do not
focus their eCRM development at either front.
Additionally, a well-designed eCRM system
address all the following three important eCRM
components to certain extent: (1) applications;
(2) infrastructure; and (3) transformation (Good-
hue et al., 2002) and shares the following four
distinct characteristics (Zeng et al., 2003): (1)
Relationship management the features include
items such as instant service response based on
customer input and customer service centers that
help customer solve their questions; (2) Salesforce
automation the functions include automation of
sales promotion analysis, automatically tracking
a customers account history for repeated sales;
(3) Use of technology it includes enabling new
technology and skills to deliver value and to
merge the information with eCRM solutions, and
to provide key performance indicators; and (4)
Opportunity management the features include
the flexibility to manage unpredictable growth
and a good forecasting framework to integrate
sales history with sales projections.
The most popular eCRM applications include
database marketing, telephone call centers, and
web marketing (Goodhue et al., 2002). Executive
approval for these applications are often easier to
obtain and the costs and risks are relatively low
(Goodhue et al., 2002). Most organizations first
implement these applications at the local level
as they are often not ready to integrate all their
systems together (Deloitte Consulting, 2003;
Ward 2001). According to Ab Hamid (2005), the
most popular e-CRM tools used by organizations
to facilitate the provision of customer service are
emails and websites containing product reviews.
On the other hand, the infrastructure that supports
eCRM applications play an important role in suc-
cessful implementation of eCRM. Needless to
say, an organizations eCRM strategy will only be
successful if its infrastructure supports it (Book,
1999). IT infrastructure in electronic commerce
initiatives such as eCRM has been shown to be
critical to successful implementation (Kumar,
2004; Lewis & Byrd, 2003). The infrastructure has
two components: (1) a technical IT infrastructure
which is a set of tangible, shared, and physical
IT resources and capabilities; and (2) human IT
infrastructure which includes the necessary indi-
vidual skills and knowledge required to develop,
maintain, and support organizations in their abili-
31
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
ties to leverage the technical infrastructure (Chen
and Chen, 2004; Chen and Ching, 2004).
The up-front costs for the eCRM infrastructure
can be a lot higher than the individual eCRM
applications although the benefits are also
higher (Goodhue et al., 2002). Most successful
organizations approach electronic commerce ap-
plications such as eCRM as a complete business
strategy, in which non-technical factors such as
philosophy, people, processes and technology are
all organized around delivering superior value to
customers (BrainSell Technologies, 2003; Chan
and Swatman, 2003; Zablah et al., 2004). In order
to become a truly customer-centric organization,
a major organization transformation is required.
This often involves careful management of or-
ganizational changes and an extensive shift in
organizational business practices and culture
(Goodhue et al., 2002; Kennaugh, 2000). The
payoff can be high but the transformation can also
be expensive, slow and painful for organizations
to undertake and is fraught with opportunities for
failure (Richards, 2001).
Common Factors to Consider
before Implementing an eCRM
eCRM is more than IT and software packages. It is
about business change and this often involves with
people, processes, technology, and other factors,
which are paramount to successful implementation
of eCRM (Fjermestad & Romano, 2003). Some
of the major factors that need to be considered
before the implementation of eCRM initiatives
are as follows:
The employees;
Change management;
The customers;
The business goals and measurements;
The integration factors;
The IT, organizational and EC infrastruc-
ture and capabilities; and
The management.
32
The Employees
Employees are the often-neglected stakeholders
in the success or failure of an eCRM initiative
(Dailey and OBrien, 2003; McCalla et al., 2003).
A study by Fjermestad and Romano (2003) has
found that the limited success of eCRM imple-
mentations can be attributed to perceived usability
of the systems and resistance by the employees.
However, when one factors in relationship man-
agement practices that engage employees in the
change process, one can circumvent significant
resistance and actually speed up implementation
(Dailey & OBrien, 2003).
Knowledge on customers will have to be man-
aged to ensure that what the services organizations
provide will address customer needs (du Plessis
& Boon, 2004). Hays and Hill (2001) have found
that higher levels of both employees learning
and motivation/vision positively affect perceived
service quality. Human resources-related IT appli-
cations enable companies to deposit and distribute
knowledge and training materials over the Internet
and provide employees to utilize the virtual space
or channel as a means or a supplement of learn-
ing (Andreua & Ciborrab, 1996). Akbar (2003)
shows the link between knowledge creation and
individual learning by examining differences in
levels of knowledge and their relationship with
creativity and knowledge creating behaviors.
Therefore, organizations need to leverage and
manage existing employee knowledge and motiva-
tion to accelerate implementation by: (a) moving
managers and employees to quickly buy-in to
eCRM implementation (Alt & Puschmann, 2004);
(b) reflecting productively on what actions or new
behaviors need to be adopted by organizations
(e.g. teamwork and decision-making) (Dailey and
OBrien, 2003); (c) having clear job description,
common motivations and goals, and good reward
mechanisms for employees (Frazer-Robinson,
2001; McKay & Marshall, 2004); and (d) giv-
ing proper and necessary training to everyone
involved in the eCRM implementations as high
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
levels of participation and involvement can have
a significant influence on the success of IT or e-
commerce project implementation (Brendler &
Loyle, 2001; Foley, 2002; Power, 2004; Terry &
Standing, 2004). Indeed, eCRM should become
every employees job (McKeen & Smith, 2003)
and involvement of users with a participative cul-
ture for the eCRM project can be more effective
than solely investing in training programs (Power,
2004). Organizations are more likely to succeed if
they properly educate their employees about the
business benefits of eCRM and train them to use
it properly (Mello, 2002).
Change Management
Electronic commerce technologies such as eCRM,
data mining, intelligent call centers and the like
introduce profound changes to business processes
in enhancing customer relations (Kotorov, 2002).
Significant business change occurs when there is
a change in the way that things are undertaken.
The decision-making and planning processes have
to keep up with the business needs to implement
changes by embracing a new culture of adopting
eCRM (Goodhue et al., 2002).
The success of change management depends
largely on the level of user resistance and sys-
tems usability issue can often be related to user
resistance (Markus, 1983). According to Tan et al.
(2002), the more commitments from stakehold-
ers to the transformation of business strategy,
the more likely eCRM implementation succeeds.
Therefore, strategies should be formulated to
promote acceptance on eCRM initiatives (Jiang
et al., 2000). The chance of change management
being successful can be increased by (a) getting
top management support (Foley, 2002; Wixom &
Watson, 2001); (b) having users involved in the
design process (Kohli et al., 2001; Lin and Shao,
2000); (c) designing a system that responds flaw-
lessly to users requests (Fjermestad & Romano,
2003; Tan et al., 2002); (d) bringing systems in
within budget and time; (e) embracing and includ-
ing trading partners and customers in your eCRM
program (Fingar, 2003; Steinmueller, 2002); (f)
providing timely and accurate information to all
stakeholders; (h) have a phased implementation
approach (Kennaugh, 2000; Steinmueller, 2002)
or split long-term eCRM projects into manageable
subprojects (Alt and Puschmann, 2004); and (g)
speeding up the eCRM learning process (McKeen
& Smith, 2003).
It is important to ensure that those who are on
the side of changes move forward and those who
are undecided or anti move out because changes
will only happen successfully if everybody wants
it (Frazer-Robinson, 2001). After all, the senior
management has the overall responsibility to
educate everyone with respect to CRM and the
role it will play in the organization (McKeen &
Smith, 2003).
The Customers
eCRM implementations can only be successful if
it meets customer needs. Organizations should en-
sure strategies, processes, and eCRM application
functionality are aligned (Stifler, 2001). According
to Kiely (2001), 50% of customers did not want
to have a relationship with organizations and only
8% of customers felt they have benefited from the
implementation of eCRM. Therefore, organiza-
tions have to manage knowledge about customers
and adopt a good customer-centric strategy so it
will improve their ability to acquire, serve and
retain the best customers and to increase their
loyalty and spending with the organizations (Chen
and Chen, 2004; Mello, 2002). In addition, orga-
nizations must be fully mindful of the customers
current status and history, and they must be equally
in tune with the nature and style of the relationship
(Frazer-Robinson, 2001). It is important to think
eCRM as an ongoing, ever-changing business
program that is an integral part of organizations
overall corporate, customer-centric business strat-
egy. Organizations should assess and understand
customer satisfaction (McKeen & Smith, 2003).
33
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
Finally, customer priorities should be set along a
cost to serve rationale which develops hierarchies
of customer service levels aligned with customer
lifetime values (Frazer-Robinson, 2001).
The Business Goals and
Measurements
Effective eCRM involves clearly articulated and
prioritized goals and proper measurements for
the customer experience and commitment start-
ing at the very top (Alt and Puschmann, 2004;
McKeen and Smith, 2003; Ragins and Greco,
2003). eCRM solutions should be evaluated in
terms of effectiveness and efficiency in order
to identify opportunity improvement areas at all
levels of the organization in order to achieve the
expected return (Pan and Lee, 2003; Stifler, 2001).
Measurable business goals need to be established
as it is important to define the specific business
benefits that an organization expects its eCRM
project to deliver (Croteau & Li, 2003; Iacovou
et al., 1995). Moreover, many eCRM projects do
have significant intangible benefits/costs which
can only be quantified on a best guess basis
so they have to be measured and dealt with ef-
fectively (Hewson Consulting, 2000). Finally,
organizations should also monitor and track the
systems effectiveness, with an eye to continuously
improving performance (Foley, 2002; Kennaugh,
2000; Tan et al., 2002).
The Integration Factors
Good integration of organization and practices are
generally regarded in the literature as essential on
successful eCRM as they will provide visibility
to customer and supplier data and allow online
information sharing and transaction execution
across the value chain (Alt and Puschmann, 2004;
Barua et al, 2004; Pan and Lee, 2003; Steinmuel-
ler, 2002). According to Adebanjo (2003), three
key dimensions of eCRM integration are required:
technical, functional and cultural. However, only
34
18% of organizations had fully integrated their
eCRM systems although three-quarters of all
responding organizations cited this as their top
priority (Ward, 2001). Hence, it is important for
organizations to choose an eCRM solution and a
vendor that can integrate their different systems
and deal with historical and current data and chan-
nel integration issues because it impacts business
processes as much as technology (Deloitte Con-
sulting, 2003; Kos et al., 2001; Peppard, 2001).
Furthermore, the IT sections must work with their
business partners to produce an eCRM architecture
in order to: (a) identify the components of the
eCRM strategy; (b) map these components into
a integrated plan; and (c) order these components
into a priority sequence (McKeen & Smith, 2003).
Finally, a good integration with other enterprise
systems such as enterprise resource planning
(ERP) and supply chain management (SCM)
allows organizations to offer good quality and
low price products through speedy distribution
channels, obtain good demand forecasting and
delivery designing information, and enhance the
integration between front-end electronic com-
merce capability and back-end IT infrastructure
(Tan et al., 2002; Zhu, 2004).
The IT, Organizational, and EC
Infrastructure and Capabilities
As mentioned, the IT infrastructure (such as
networking and storage / data management) that
supports eCRM applications plays an important
role in successful implementation of eCRM. Effec-
tive eCRM implementations require appropriate
organizational infrastructure to support it (Tan
et al., 2002). For instance, a well planned data
warehouse can assist organizations in mining the
historical data to identify sales trends and new
opportunities as well as to offer easier and timely
access to key customer information (Goodhue et
al., 2002; Tan et al., 2002). Furthermore, organi-
zations electronic commerce capability is also
critical in the success of eCRM implementation
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
which will lead to improved operational and
financial performance (Barua et al., 2004; Zhu
& Kraemer, 2002). Finally, the eCRM systems
have to be set up in the way that both customers
and users within organizations perceive them to
be of some use to them (Chen & Chen, 2004).
The Management
Top management support and good management
practices were found to be related to the realization
eCRM benefits (Pan and Lee, 2003; Sigala, 2004).
Organizations should ensure that eCRM projects
and the four important infrastructures strategy,
process, technology and change management are
managed properly and effectively. The selected
business and customer strategy should drive the
underlying processes, which should in turn influ-
ence the technology selection and customization,
and they should all be rolled out together as a single
change management initiative that involves user
training on both the new processes and technology
(Alt & Puschmann, 2004; Foley, 2002; Hewson
Consulting, 2000; Kennaugh, 2000; Rigby et al.,
2002). A good management for customer process
should integrate all customer touch points (Fingar,
2003). Additionally, senior managers should en-
sure that business plans and customer strategies are
aligned with company vision and goals, and these
are effectively communicated to all employees
with the organizations (Brendler and Loyle, 2001).
After all, eCRM success and benefits realization
depends on the development of effective eCRM
strategies and adoption of strategic orientation
(Pan and Lee, 2003; Sigala, 2004). Furthermore,
senior executives should ensure that they provide
sufficient management leadership and obtain
necessary organizational commitment towards
the eCRM projects (Chen and Chen, 2004). Ef-
fective management of employees can result in
effective implementation of electronic commerce
initiatives (Power, 2004). Finally, proper evalu-
ation and allocation of sufficient organizational,
financial and technical resources are critical to
eCRM projects success (Iacovou et al., 1995).
These processes should be carried out to identify
areas for continuous improvement for organiza-
tions (Kohli et al., 2001).
Difficulties in Identifying eCRM
Costs and Risk Factors
The concept of eCRM is at the heart of an or-
ganizations ability to extract benefits from its
customers, employees, and business partners.
According to Chen and Chen (2004), organiza-
tions implement eCRM for different reasons
and its implementation brings both tangible and
intangible benefits to the organizations. In fact, a
Gartner survey of retail companies indicated that
52% of respondents rated eCRM as one of their
highest business priorities (OConnor, 2002).
However, as mentioned previously, eCRM had
received a lot of attention on extremely high fail-
ure rates, unhappy customers and wasted money
(Feinberg et al., 2002; Fjermestad and Romano,
2003). While most eCRM vendors promised lots
of benefits and dramatic return on investment
results, it is difficult to substantiate their claims
without proper evaluation. For example, an Ac-
centure global study of government agencies in
15 countries found that 90% of the respondents
said their agencies have not yet delivered superior
customer service (eCRM Guide, 2003). Another
research conducted by Capgemini indicated that
52% of organizations surveyed could not measure
their eCRM investments in terms of costs and
risks (Capgemini, 2004).
While most eCRM vendors promised lots of
benefits and dramatic return on investment results,
it is difficult to substantiate their claims without
proper evaluation process by organizations. It is
not a software product organizations can simply go
out and buy without proper evaluation beforehand
(Fingar, 2003). In fact, a study found that around
20% of business executives claimed that eCRM
initiatives had damaged customer relationship
(Kekoe, 2002). Therefore, organizations need to
35
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
carefully assess the costs and risks that can be
brought in by the implementation of eCRM initia-
tives. In any case, the goals of measuring eCRM
are to increase customer satisfaction, identify and
reduce costs and risks of customer interaction,
promote sales and create effective marketing
campaigns, and increase overall organizational
efficiency (Bulusu & Paracha, 2001).
Despite the plethora of IT investment evalua-
tion research undertaken, the availability of many
evaluation methodologies, and the huge spending
on IT projects (e.g. eCRM), many organizations
still do not know how to conduct proper evaluation
of these types of investment (Lin et al., 2005; Lin
and Pervan, 2003; Standing and Lin, 2007). The
nature of electronic commerce technology (e.g.
eCRM) makes it financially and technically more
difficult for managers to identify and measure costs
and risks in eCRM projects (Kleist, 2003; Lin et
al., 2007). The less precisely bounded environment
of electronic commerce technology such as eCRM
adds more complexity to the IT measurement
problem as this type of investment is physically
distributed between suppliers and customers,
making the evaluation process of identifying
costs and risks even more difficult (Torkzadeh
and Dhillon, 2002). Consequently, many service
organizations (e.g. those in hospital and tourism
industry) are faced with a dilemma, that is, how to
manage the performance of an enterprise system
that has both an internal and external focus and
thus adds value for stakeholders (Dibb, 2001; Lin
et al., 2005; Tsao et al., 2004). In many cases,
evaluation is often ignored or carried out inef-
ficiently or ineffectively because it is deemed an
elusive and complex process (Serafeimidis and
Smithson, 2003).
There are several difficulties associated with
the study of such a link. Firstly, whilst factors af-
fecting the depth of such relationships have long
been studied in the marketing field, the idea of
looking at the impact of technology on relation-
ships is relatively new (Rigby et al., 2002). Con-
sequently, limited literature exists in the marketing
36
area that is of direct relevance. Secondly, the
use of the term eCRM to describe wide-ranging
software systems has led to confusion over its
precise meaning (Kotorov, 2002). Thirdly, the dif-
ficulty in measuring eCRM stems from an unclear
understanding of where the organizations started
and what the measure for customer management
performance was before these investments were
made (Steinmueller, 2002). It is difficult to at-
tribute increased revenue, for example, to one
specific cause, and it is also difficult to relate
financial returns and costs to any customer service
improvements (Capgemini, 2004).
Another difficulty is to identify the potential
risks of investing in eCRM as well as defining ap-
propriate costs to measure because investments in
most eCRM systems have been taken as a matter
of faith (Hewson Consulting, 2000). Costs and
risks are important factors to identify and evaluate
when organizations pursue their eCRM strategies
(Kim et al., 2003). By critically comparing the
risks, costs and benefits of each project with the
key issues, explicit decision can be made about
which to approve, which to terminate, and which
to amend. However, many eCRM costs, and risks
are difficult to quantify or identify. They need to
be examined in the context of strategic alignment
with respect to organizational eCRM strategies
and operations.
Although several studies had attempted to
evaluate eCRM, almost all of these studies evaluate
only some aspects of eCRM. For example, Jutla et
al. (2001) measured only eCRM readiness using
a comprehensive customer-focused evaluation
framework while Verhoef and Donkers (2001)
attempted to predict and evaluate customer poten-
tial value in insurance industry. Stamoulis et al.
(2002) appraised customer interaction in the com-
munication channel. Kim et al. (2003) assessed
the effectiveness of eCRM from four perspectives
only: customer knowledge, customer interaction,
customer value, and customer satisfaction. Mc-
Calla et al. (2003) analyzed employees behavior
through the inclusion of emotions. Mendes-Filho
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
and Fontes (2004) measured eCRM usage in
the Brazilian Health Insurance sector. As these
studies only examined some aspects of eCRM,
senior executives within organizations still face
with difficulties in identifying and measuring the
intangible, indirect costs and potential risk factors
of eCRM implementation. Therefore, a research
study is warranted to identify costs and potential
risks of eCRM implementation.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
AND METHODOLOGY
As mentioned earlier, the key objectives of this
book chapter are to:
identify potential ICT costs and risk fac-
tors involved in eCRM initiatives in gen-
eral; and
identify and examine key issues in the
implementation of eCRM in the Australian
hospitality and tourism sector.
The study reported in this paper utilized the
case study research approach. According to Re-
menyi and Williams (1996) and Tellis (1997), case
study is one of the most frequently used research
methods in information systems research. Case
study utilizing semi-structured interviews (tape-
recorded), observation, and document review
were employed for this research, since the need
for using multiple sources of data arises from the
ethical need to increase the reliability and validity
of the research processes (Tellis, 1997). Before
case study was commenced, initial understanding
of the eCRM implementation process was synthe-
sized from the literature to provide an initial basis
for study. Issues, problems, costs, and risk factors
affecting eCRM implementation were identified.
A series of interviews were conducted with senior
managers and key personnel from 8 hospitality
and tourism organizations to gain an overview of
the business processes and issues of their eCRM
investments. Some of these organizations custom-
ers were also interviewed. At least two interviews
were conducted for each organization.
The questions asked during the interview
were related to these organizations eCRM proj-
ects, the objectives, benefits, costs and risks of
implementing an eCRM project, IT investment
evaluation methodologies deployed, benefits
realization process used, and change manage-
ment. Company documentation such as internal
reports, eCRM project reports, and eCRM analysis
reports were also obtained and analyzed. During
the analysis process, the researcher compared and
contrasted the findings with the literature, taking
into account both the positive and negative find-
ings. The researcher also conducted the analysis
through integrating and triangulating facts from
the above-mentioned data sources (e.g. interviews,
observation, annual reports, project reports). The
company documents provided some useful means
of corroborating data from the other sources (e.g.
observation and interview data) and expanded
on details in order to eliminate or minimize the
weakness of human memory when dealing with
history. Moreover, participants interviewed were
from different levels of management and therefore,
should provide different perspectives. Further-
more, tracing the conclusions to the interview
data was maintained as the chain of evidence.
The qualitative content analysis was then used to
analyze the qualitative data (Miles & Huberman,
1994). Hopefully, these steps should enhance the
construct validity, reliability and overall quality
of the research (Yin, 1994).
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Costs and risks are important factors to identify
and evaluate when hospitality and tourism or-
ganizations pursue their eCRM strategies. By
critically comparing the risks and costs of each
eCRM project with the potential benefits, explicit
decision can be made about which to approve,
37
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
which to terminate and which to amend. Several
costs and risks for eCRM implementation have
been identified in this study. The eCRM costs
have been classified as direct and indirect costs
(Table 1) while two types of eCRM risks have
been identified: technical and business (Table 2).
eCRM Costs
It is often difficult to assess the true costs of a
particular ICT investment (e.g. eCRM) as many
approaches have difficulty in identifying and
assessing all costs, especially the indirect costs
(Peacock & Tanniru, 2005). Direct costs are those
that can be attributed to the implementation and
operation of new eCRM technology (e.g. hard-
ware, software and installation costs) whereas
the indirect costs associated with the adoption of
eCRM are often more significant than the direct
costs and are generally more difficult to control
and determine (e.g. system integration costs)
(Love et al., 2005). The results revealed that those
hospitality and tourism organizations which had
more success with their eCRM were those which
had considered fully their direct and indirect costs
before the implementation.
This study had found that most hospitality and
tourism organizations had difficulties in identi-
fying indirect costs. Most of the costs of imple-
mentation an eCRM system mentioned by these
organizations were direct costs. Many hospitality
Table 1. Direct and indirect eCRM costs
Costs of eCRM
Direct Costs
Administration
Consultancy and staff
Data and hardware maintenance
Employee training
Hardware and accessories
Security
Software and hardware installation
Software and licenses
38
and tourism organizations appeared to have dif-
ficulties in identifying and determining indirect
costs or were ignorant about the potential costs of
implementing eCRM systems. When asked about
the costs for implementing eCRM, one senior
manager said: The system has to be maintained
by someone. I do not know the details as I am only
involved in selling the products and in using the
system, not administration of the company. The
most obvious direct costs mentioned were costs of
the eCRM system and its hardware accessories,
maintenance costs, and employees training costs.
Indirect costs mentioned by the organizations were
largely related to the costs of data conversion and
change management initiatives to overcome user
resistance.
eCRM Risks
Delivering value of eCRM begins with defining
the expected high-level outcomes before a project
is approved and continues through the identi-
fication, profiling, tracking and embedding of
benefits. This also involves assessing risk against
the proposed outcome to confirm how value can
best be achieved as working with new technology
always introduces certain levels of risks. Most or-
ganizations regard eCRM as extremely important
for achieving business success (Chen & Chen,
2004), and to achieve the success risks have to
be managed effectively. Assessing the impact of
Indirect Costs
Customer complains and dissatisfaction management
Data management and conversion
Employee time and workload
Lost productivity
Re-engineering and user resistance
System integration
Systems configuration
Time pressure
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
Table 2. Technical and business eCRM risks
eCRM Risks
Technical Risks
Data accuracy and timeliness
Data backup
Data integration and software incompatibility problems
Inappropriate evaluation practices
Inappropriate speed of change
Security and privacy issues
risk for the eCRM systems is important as risk is
inherent in the benefits, in the assumptions used to
solidify intangibles, and in the eCRM investment
itself (Richards, 2001). Therefore, identification
of risks in implementing eCRM is important and
it can assist organizations in understanding and
minimizing them during the implementation of
eCRM applications. Several categories of risks
have been identified in the literature (e.g. Parker
et al., 1988). For the purpose of this research,
eCRM risks have been classified into two cat-
egories: technical and business (Goodhue et al.,
2002; Rigby and Ledingham, 2004).
Key Issues
Almost all hospitality and tourism organizations
interviewed saw the implementation of eCRM
systems as a vehicle for bringing benefits to them-
selves and to increase customer satisfaction but
many of their users were unhappy about using the
eCRM systems. A closer look revealed that most of
these organizations failed to understand and proper
manage the changes required for implementation
of eCRM systems. They also failed to undertake
proper pre-project justification and evaluation
processes for their eCRM systems. Moreover,
no process was established by the responding
organizations to ensure that the expected benefits
were realized after the implementation of eCRM.
Some of the key issues identified in this study
with respect to the implementation of eCRM by
hospitality and tourism organizations are presented
in the following sections.
Business Risks
Lack of clear business objectives
Lack of customer/user involvements
Politics and vested interests
Poor implementation
Poor planning and management of eCRM
Users/employees resistance
Process vs. Software Driven
The biggest myth for any IT implementation is
that technology alone can deliver the biggest
return (Capgemini, 2004). Surprisingly, many
organizations allowed some of their business
processes to be turned into software driven by
their eCRM systems. Some were driven by the
software rather than their own organizational
processes. Much of their existing processes were
altered in an attempt to make their eCRM system
work without realizing that IT should be used
only as a key enabler of their customer manage-
ment strategies. For instance, several respondents
stated that the software had provided some of the
best practices for organizations to follow. Many
organizations had difficulty in implementing an
effective eCRM application because they allowed
the eCRM software to drive their approaches to
customer management and to force them to retrofit
customer strategies to match their CRM packages
(Park and Kim, 2003).
In addition, not all participants believed that
business must drive eCRM implementation. The
more successful organizations would insist on
business driven approach. Those who initially
thought that the eCRM was the solution to their
problems were disappointed. For example, one se-
nior sale consultant indicated: The eCRM system
is not well integrated with other systemthere
are lots of complains about the eCRM system from
myself and other staff members This system is
really a time waster as it crashes very often. IT
is just one enabler of process change (Grover et
39
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
al., 1998) and it only enables or creates a capabil-
ity to derive benefits. The insistence of process
driven would force the eCRM vendor to provide
the products not on the merits of technology or
broad integration, but on the products ability to
affect performance or deliver expected benefits
(Fingar, 2003). More importantly, as one interview
participant pointed out that it had to continuously to
gather user requirements and modified the eCRM
systems accordingly. Indeed, the business process
must supersede the application as the organizing
concept for eCRM software (Fingar, 2003).
Requirements of eCRM vs.
Job Responsibility
The use of the eCRM system within an organiza-
tion depended on the job responsibility. Different
people (depending on the positions they held) had
different needs of eCRM system and used it differ-
ently. The top management tended to use eCRM
more often and considered the strategic benefits
when using it. For example, the operation manager
of a hotel said: the eCRM has allowed us to keep
proper accounting records, sales information and
customer data. We can also use it to do useful
planningit also saves us some costs. On the
other hand, the middle-level managers and low-
level users tended to look for benefits arising from
eCRM from the tactical/operational perspectives.
Other stakeholders and users would use it more
widely and effectively if the benefits expected
could be related to them. The office supervisor of
the same hotel said: I still believe that the new
system is not as flexible and versatile as the old
system. I am still more comfortable using the old
manual system.
Linkage between the Outcomes
and Organizational Objectives
There was a lack of obvious linkage between the
expected outcomes of the eCRM implementation
and organizational objectives in most of the hos-
40
pitality and tourism organizations interviewed. In
general, customer related benefits (e.g. improved
customer satisfaction, relationship and services)
were most often mentioned benefits by these
organizations. Other benefits mentioned by the
respondents were: improved information response
time, consolidate customer information/data, and
ease of review of customer contact information
before making sales calls. Better understanding
of customers and markets segmentation, reduced
costs of providing product and service, and time
saving were also mentioned by many organiza-
tions. According to Ward (2001), only 50% of the
responding organizations were happy with their
ability to existing customers and 33% were happy
with their level of customer services. Responding
organizations were most unhappy with their abil-
ity to segment customers as well as to cross-sell
and up-sell to customers (15%) (Ward, 2001).
The finding here confirms that the ultimate factor
that determines an Internet application (such as
eCRM) success is providing a satisfactory user
experience (King and Liou, 2004).
Increase accuracy and simplified sales forecast
call and report preparation was also mentioned by
many organizations. The eCRM was not seen as a
tool to quickly provide information to customers;
rather it was used to increase sales by using it to
track customers. In addition, increases in revenue
and profitability were not high on most organiza-
tions expected benefit lists. Most hospitality and
tourism organizations did not see eCRM as a tool
that would enable to increase their profits and
revenue in the short term. Furthermore, most or-
ganizations interviewed used eCRM because their
competitors were already using it or to improved
customer services, instead of implementing it to
gain competitive advantages.
System Integration
Most of the hospitality and tourism organizations
interviewed either had decided not to integrate
their eCRM system with other functions or had
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
difficulties in doing so. They implemented eCRM
just to obtain gains promised by the vendors. For
example, one coordinator of a hospitality and tour-
ism organization said: no, eCRM is not going to
be integrated with our other functions at the mo-
ment. It is going to be used for quick enquiries.
Proper integration of eCRM and other functions
of organizations clearly required a lot of mana-
gerial, financial, and technical resources as well
as organizational capabilities. The opportunities
for cross-selling and up-selling were hence been
hampered by the lack of integration with other
functions. Furthermore, only larger hospitality
and tourism organizations which had more sophis-
ticated eCRM and had been using it for a while
had seen the integration of various functions as a
main benefit. In fact, only one organization had
its eCRM extensively integrate with other func-
tions within the organization. This is consistent
with the finding by Steinmueller (2002) in which
most organizations did not seem to be moving
towards higher levels of integration in the short
term and integration occurred in a piece-meal and
incremental fashion. The strategies employed were
mainly towards getting tangible short-term gains
(Steinmueller, 2002).
Lack of Project Evaluation Process
Less than one quarter of the hospitality and tour-
ism organizations interviewed had an evaluation
process (ie. Scorecard, KPI analysis, qualitative
and quantitative analysis). The rest were simply
relied on their senior managements impressions
or gut feeling/intuition. When asked about the
evaluation process, one participant said: I have
said to myself how much time it takes and what the
efficiency is? If it can give me nil gain or plus gain
thats good. If it gives me negative gain then I am
not interested. Most organizations indicated that
they did not have the capability and resources to
do so or they did not know they had no evaluation
process. One senior project manager even did not
know about the evaluation process and suggested
the executive director might be responsible for
doing the evaluation. While almost all of them
thought it would be worthwhile to do it, most of
them simply did not do it or relied on their intuition.
This is consistent with finding by Karakostas et
al. (2005) where most of the respondents did not
have an universal acceptance of metrics and failed
to evaluate the performance of their eCRM. The
following factors were mentioned by organizations
interviewed that had affected an organizations
ability to evaluate their eCRM: IT resources,
organizational resources, change management,
pressures from customers and competitors, nature
of business / industry, complexity of eCRM, use
of eCRM / acceptance by users and customers,
and size of the organizations.
Lack of Benefits Realization Process
Virtually no formal benefits realization meth-
odology or process was adopted by any of the
responding hospitality and tourism organizations.
Those who indicated some process existed were
actually referring to the informal evaluation
mechanisms such as KPIs. No formal IT benefits
realization methodology (such as the Cranfield
Process Model of Benefit Management (Ward et
al., 1996)), technique, or process was mentioned
or specified by any of the participants or in any
available documents. Only one hospitality and
tourism organization had used some sort of in-
formal benefits realization process on its eCRM
project. Overall, the result is consistent with other
research whereby IT benefits realization process
was not adopted by most organizations (e.g. Lin
and Pervan, 2003; Ward et al., 1996). The fact
that no hospitality and tourism organizations had
a benefits management methodology or process
was not really surprising as much attention ap-
peared to be centered on ways of justifying the
implementation of eCRM projects and systems,
with little effort being extended to ensuring that the
benefits expected from these projects are realized.
41
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
Usage of eCRM
According to Kumar (2004), it is important to
consider IT usage when evaluating any IT ini-
tiatives such as eCRM since value depends on
usage of IT and not on investment alone. Almost
all of the hospitality and tourism organizations
interviewed agreed that the adoption of an eCRM
system was an important factor for the future suc-
cess of the organization. However, these systems
were not used widely and effectively in most of
these organizations due to several reasons. While
all respondents indicated that it was important to
utilize eCRM, only a handful of them indicated
that they had utilized it effectively. Many organi-
zations stated that they had insufficient technical
and financial resources to implement the sort of
eCRM system they required.
The other often-cited reason for not using
eCRM by system users was that they were often
forced to use the eCRM systems without much
incentive. When asked about the incentives given
by the organization to use the eCRM system, one
system user indicated: I dont think we were
encouraged or asked to involve in the designing
and implementing of the systemthe system
was not easy to use Those organizations who ing the eCRM, they were often considered from
were more positive about their eCRM system had
implemented more sophisticated eCRM which
provided employees with timely and accurate
information as well as necessary training. Senior
management had to use the systems themselves
first and assessed the employees performance
based on the eCRM reports. Several senior manag-
ers indicated that careful information requirements
determination process and getting stakeholders
involved early on were important for the success
of eCRM implementation.
Lack of User Involvement
The use of eCRM was generally forced upon
the employees by the senior management. Many
stakeholders and users within the organizations
42
interviewed said they were not extensively
consulted beforehand and were not involved in
the designing and implementation of the eCRM
systems. For example, when asked about her
involvement of the eCRM project, one senior
account manager said: I am not too sure as I am
really not involved in the initial implementation of
the system..I am not very knowledgeable about
the system. The best person to speak to is probably
our sales manager..our IT person is responsible
for implementing the system. I am responsible
for maintaining the system as an account man-
ager. It is surprising that the account manager
was responsible for maintaining the system but
was not involved in the implementation of the
eCRM project. Those organizations which kept
the users and customers in the dark would tend
to have low usage for their eCRM. Furthermore,
many benefits expected from the implementa-
tion of the eCRM projects were mainly tailored
for the customers and the senior managers. Very
seldom the benefits for the users were considered
thoroughly. For example, although usability of
the system was mentioned by almost all of the
organizations interviewed as one of the most
important factors considered before implement-
the perspective of the top management, not the
employees and other users.
Gap in Theory and Practice in Risk
Assessment by Most Organizations
Almost all hospitality and tourism organizations
admitted that issues such as managing employee
resistance to change, over-reliance on eCRM
system, inadequate evaluation, and poor imple-
mentation of eCRM were the potential risks for
having an eCRM system. In addition, several
respondents interviewed were concerned about the
data backup or data conversion process from the
other systems to the eCRM. There were also some
concerns about the security issues with eCRM by
many organizations interviewed. Agents in travel-
Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
ling organizations, for example, were extremely
concerned about the currency of the data within
their eCRM systems. This was because they did
not want to share their customer data with their
colleagues. Furthermore, most organizations
admitted that eCRM success and failure were
often defined based on by their managements
impressions or gut feeling rather than evidence
via proper evaluation. There was also some rec-
ognition of the lack of clear business objectives
for implementing the eCRM for most organiza-
tions when confronted with the question. Despite
all these potential risks, only two organizations
indicated that they had carried out decent risk
assessments before the implementation of their
eCRM systems. Most organizations did not do
proper risk assessments of their eCRM systems.
For example, one senior sales consultant said:
No, I do not think we have ever tried to evaluate
the system and its potential risks. We are thinking
to use other eCRM systems but have no financial
resources to do so.
Lack of Proper Change Management
by Many Organizations
According to Alter (2004), 63% of the organi-
zations indicated that CRM systems required a
major culture change. In addition, it is clear that
complementary organizational resources such as
change initiatives interact with IT in the process
of value generation (Melville et al., 2004). How-
ever, according to the interview data, it appeared
that most organizations top management was not
aware that there was some dissatisfaction among
their employees or users regarding the implemen-
tation of eCRM. It was a bit surprising that to find
that employees reaction about implementing the
system was not taken into account by most orga-
nizations. One senior sales manager said: But I
have to say that I still prefer the old system. I am
accustomed to the old system. However, when
asked about whether there were resistance about
using the system a senior executive of a hotel said:
Yes, I think the system is very successful and all
staff members are happy with the system.
Although most senior managers knew good
change management was a critical part of suc-
cessful implementation of eCRM, it appeared
that there was some resistance by users during
the implementation of these systems. Very few
organizations had taken steps to manage the
change and to involve users in the designing and
implementation phases. Many employees and
users complained about not being consulted and
informed about the eCRM implementation as well
as about not being involved in the early selection
of the eCRM systems. They were unhappy about
being forced to use the system. When asked about
the consultation given about using the eCRM
system, one system user: I think from what we
have seen there is a lot of information required
to input into the system to make it work. I can-
not see how staff are going to see it as a posi-
tive..At the moment it sounds just so easy
You dont know how much time it is taking you
and how mandatory fields you actually have to
complete to make it successful. Moreover, they
hoped that senior management would spend more
time getting user requirements, instead of telling
them that they just had to use the eCRM system.
Those organizations which had more successful
implementation of eCRM were those ones which
had managed the changes better.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The eCRM has generated a lot of discussion about
its effectiveness and risks among many organiza-
tions and researchers. eCRM remains a priority for
organizations, even as economic conditions cause
IT budgets to be scrutinized. The results show that
objectives/reasons for implementing the eCRM
systems by hospitality and tourism organizations
varied greatly. The objectives mentioned by most
organizations were basically customer-related
benefits (e.g. improving customer satisfaction) that
43
 Key Issues in the Implementation of Electronic Customer Relationship Management
were expected to be delivered by the eCRM sys-
tems. However, most organizations interviewed
appeared to fail in some ways to conduct a proper
assessment of business needs before implement-
ing eCRM. Pre-project planning and justification
processes were not properly carried out to assess
the needs and feasibility of the eCRM projects.
Most users were not involved in the initial phases
of implementing eCRM systems and the use of
eCRM was generally forced upon them by the
senior management. This was often done without
any incentives to the users. Those organizations
which were more positive about their eCRM
and had implemented more sophisticated and
business-driven eCRM had provided employees
with timely and accurate information as well as
necessary training.
In addition, the extent to which the eCRM
system was used was largely depending on factors
such as the level of user involvement, the degree
of system integration, and type of job responsi-
bilities. Most of eCRM systems adopted by the
organizations interviewed were not integrated with
other systems within the organizations. In fact,
only one was effectively integrated with most of
the functions within the organization.
Moreover, most organizations did not carry
out pre-project justification processes. Only half
of the organizations interviewed had some sort of
justification process. Those which did carry out had
very basic form of justification processes such as
assessment of the vendors demo or simple cost/
benefit analysis. Moreover, most organizations
claimed to use a variety of criteria to evaluate the
IT projects. However, only less than a quarter of
the organizations interviewed had carried out some
sort of evaluation processes (ie. scorecard, KPI
analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis).
Furthermore, almost no formal IT benefits
realization methodology, technique, or process
was mentioned or specified by any of the partici-
pants or any contract documents. This is really a
cause for concern as successful eCRM requires
that organizations allocate sufficient resources for
44
building customer relationships and continuously
evaluating eCRM initiatives. The evaluation and
benefits realization mechanisms can expedite the
organizational learning process and help make
eCRM work to the benefits of all customers and
external partners, whether viewed from a narrow
buyer/seller perspective or a broader supply chain
perspective (McGaughey, 2002).
The major limitation of the present study relates
to the generalizability of the research findings. The
study involved only eight hospitality and tourism
organizations in Australia and the findings are
based on the Australian context. Therefore, the
results need to be read in this context and can-
not be readily generalizable beyond this study. It
would be interesting to conduct the research in
other countries and in different industries.
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51
52

Chapter 4
Advanced Technologies
and Tourist Behaviour:
The Case of Pervasive Environments

Eleonora Pantano
University of Calabria, Italy

Rocco Servidio
University of Calabria, Italy

ABSTRACT
The chapter provides an overview of the most advanced technologies for tourism sector, with emphasis on
pervasive environments, which represent innovative systems based on an efficient integration of virtual
reality and affective world. The aim is to show how tourism industry might exploit the current advances
in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as virtual reality, web-based technologies,
mobile devices, etc., to catch tourists attention and gain competitive advantages over competitors. In
particular, these technologies are capable of promoting touristic destination in a global perspective and
affect potential tourist decision-making process, by investigating the main characteristics and possible
integrations. Moreover, especially pervasive environments are efficient tools to entertain and attract
tourists interest, by showing potential destinations in an innovative and exciting way capable of influ-
encing users decision-making process.

In addition, the chapter outlines the possible implications for both marketers and tourists.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch004

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
INTRODUCTION
The increasing competition among territories
forces the tourism industry to develop new
marketing strategies capable of spreading the
touristic potentiality of the territory, in order to
attract more touristic flows (Dwyer et al., 2009;
Zhang et al., 2009; Pantano and Naccarato, 2010).
Form a tourists point of view, the industry tries
to develop the offer which best fits consumers
needs, whereas from a managerial point of view,
the industry tries to develop new strategies capable
of maximizing the profitability of local business,
of optimizing the impact of tourism by ensuring
a sustainable balance between economic benefits
and socio-cultural and environments effects, of
improving the quality of life of the local popula-
tion (Buhalis, 2000).
In recent years the innovation in the touristic
sector, in terms of new kinds of tourism (i.e. gastro-
nomic tourism, beer tourism, etc.) and innovative
technological tools (i.e. recommendation systems,
virtual reality, etc.) has both reduced the cost of
products/services delivering (Shaw and Williams,
2009) and modified the traditional components of
the marketing mix in order to gain competitive
advantages. In this scenario, innovative strate-
gies must take into account the communication
potentiality of the advanced technologies with the
purpose to maintain existing visitors and attract
new ones. Therefore, the key issue is the identifi-
cation of the most performing tools for promoting
and revaluating the territories.
To achieve this goal, it is possible to exploit
the current advances in Information and Com-
munication Technology (ICT). In fact, previous
studies has showed the relationships between
tourism and advanced technologies from different
standpoints (Buhalis and Law, 2008), as mobile
devices (Cutr et al., 2008; Kemperman et al.,
2009), virtual reality (Guttentag, 2010), adaptive
museum guides (Pianesi et al., 2009) and latest as
pervasive environments (Pantano and Servidio,
2009). In one hand, these tools offer an innovative
and effective way for communicating the touristic
products to consumers and, as a consequence, for
influencing their final choice; on the other one,
they offer to managers the possibility to both
monitoring the tourists behaviour and prefer-
ences, and exploit it for the development of new
efficient communication strategies.
The first part of the chapter focuses on the
most advanced technologies for tourism sector, by
investigating on one hand the state of the art of the
current ones used in the field (i.e. virtual reality,
web based tools, etc) for attracting new touristic
flows, on the other one on the previous studies
on tourists acceptance of these technologies, as
well as on their emotional response; whereas the
second part focused on the analysis of pervasive
environments and on their application to a par-
ticular territory (Calabria Region, Southern Italy),
with emphasis on the promotion of its historical
resources thought this technology, in order to point
out the effectiveness of the pervasive environments
and their usage scenario, as well as their implica-
tions for both marketers and tourists.
BACKGROUND
Virtual Reality
A large deal of research highlighted the new
advances in Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) might affect the tourism sector
(Buhalis and Molinaroli, 2003; Buhalis and Law,
2008), in terms of enhancing the collaboration
between tourist operator and traveller, by involving
tourists in the product creation process (Ingvar et
al., 2007), and providing more detailed informa-
tion about the destinations offer. In this context,
the most used tools are web-based communities
and portals, and mobile devices. Especially the
web tools play an important role on the diffusion
of tourist information to wide targets (UNWTO,
2001). Since there is a rapid increasing of ITCs
53

in tourism, new technologies would be utilized to
extend the current business models.
These technologies are mainly based on the
virtual reality applications which are capable
of providing virtual reconstructions of the real
destinations capable of improving the human
feeling of presence. In fact, these reconstruc-
tions provide a more realistic representation of
the environments, by focusing on the integration
of virtual agents (Gutirrez et al., 2008; Brunetti
and Servidio, 2010). Furthermore, the reconstruc-
tion may refer to a single object, a building, a
landscape and it becomes very effective in the
case of archaeological ruins. In this case the re-
construction allows to both compare a virtual view
of the original state of the object and the current
one, and virtual touch and manipulate the object
without damaging it, as well as it allows to achieve
more information on the ancient use, involved
materials and so on (Alfano and Pantano, 2010;
Cutr et al., 2008). Figure 1 shows a meaningful
example of comparison between the real object
and the reconstructed one, available at the web
site: http://www.virtualmg.net.
The left part of the image shows a picture of
a gold crown founded in the zone of Crotone
(Southern Italy), belonging of the treasure of the
goddess Hera Lacinia (IV cent. B.D.). It is cur-
rently preserved in a reliquary in the Museum of
Crotone (Southern Italy). Instead, the right part
Figure 1. A finding from the Hera Lacinia treasure (on the left), and its virtual reconstruction (on the right)
54
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
represents the crown virtual reconstruction. In
this way, users may play the crown as in a video-
game and, as a consequence, understand better
its meaning, thus they are able to exploit the
potentiality of the game as useful learning tool
(Ke, 2008; Paraskeva et al., 2010). Accordingly,
archaeological parks and findings can be pro-
moted in a global perspective and are capable of
catching the interest of a wider part of population
(Fritz et al., 2005; Pantano and Naccarato, 2010).
According to Pantano and Servidio (2009),
virtual reality promotes tourism resources by
supporting:
The creation of innovative customized
touristic products. Virtual reality tools sup-
port the developing of new digital environ-
ments, such as interactive scenarios, where
humans may find interactive and useful
information about the destinations. These
environments consist of landscapes, par-
ticular areas such as museums, parks, and
so on. The interaction with the environ-
ments allows tourists to ease achieve the
needed information in an entertaining and
fast way, improving the touristic commu-
nication process.
The visitors experience. The high level of
interactivity of the virtual environments
improves the link between entertainment
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
and education, by providing a more en-
gaging touristic and educational experi-
ence. In fact, visitors are exposed to differ-
ent attraction stimuli together, capable of
catching their interest and influencing their
expectations.
The design of new marketing strategies to
promote touristic landscapes. The virtual
scenarios are detailed and rich of infor-
mation, available for a large part of users
though ease and useful tools. Hence, vir-
tual reality introduces new tools capable
of both supporting tourists during the de-
cision-making process, by providing high
customized information, and involving
them emotionally during the digital explo-
ration of the reconstructed scenarios.
In this way, virtual reality tools enrich the
users consciousness of the touristic destination,
due to their ease diffusion via web and users
mobile devices.
Although virtual reality offers important issues
for the tourism sector, there are some limitations
which should be taken into account. For instance,
some researches demonstrated that virtual reality
might reduce the need for travelling (Williams and
Hobson, 1995), due to the offer of digital electronic
experiences, whereas other one maintain that this
technology is capable of better communicating
Figure 2. Example of visualization of virtual reconstructions though mobile devices
the touristic destinations and, as consequences,
of motivating individuals to really discover the
place (Arnold, 2005).
Web Based Tools and
Mobile Devices
Concerning the online context, web communities
and web portals dedicated to promotion of tour-
ism attractiveness or local heritage offer to users
the possibility to browse in the virtual scenarios
(Figure 2), play with the virtual reconstructions of
objects, enjoy the enhanced learning experience,
as well as share experience and ask for sugges-
tions to other users. In fact, users can access to
the archaeological sites through an Internet con-
nection, and discover the potential destination by
their own place. Furthermore, integrated online
recommendations system support users in the
choice of the best touristic package, by focusing
on his/her own profile.
Especially in the field of cultural heritage,
museums, arts galleries, archaeological parks are
exploiting these tools to catch potential visitors
interests, by developing new web sites which
makes an extensive use of the virtual reality. For
instance, the National Museum of Science and
Industry (London, UK), has created a website
(http://www.ingenious.org.uk/), which collects
images and texts of cultural significance and al-
55

lows users to create their web galleries or their
favorite visiting tours. Other noteworthy examples
are the British Museum (http://www.britishmu-
seum.org/explore/explore_introduction.aspx) and
the Louvre (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/dossiers/
liste_ei.jsp?bmLocale=en), which realized an e-
version of the offline museums, with the aim of
diffusing cultural contents by allowing the 3D
online exploration of museum collections. In fact,
users might choose their preferred objects, virtu-
ally play them, ask for more information, as well
as create their own digital tour.
Therefore, online destination discovering be-
comes an entertaining and interactive experience,
and the users feel involved in the creation on the
best package for their own requests. As opposed
to the web based tools, the mobile devices pro-
mote the destination in situ. In fact, tourists may
really access to the place of interest and ask for
more information through his/her own mobile by
particular mobile applications (Cutr et al., 2008)
(Figure 2).
Figure 2 shows an example of mobile applica-
tion for the archaeological park of Lokroi (South-
ern Italy). Visitors accesses to the site (left), runs
the mobile application, focuses the camera on his/
her location and visualize the virtual reconstruction
of the original state of the current ruin (right). Since
the difficult contextualization of current ruins in
a historical scenario, these applications become
very efficient for the promotion of archaeological
heritage. For instance, in the case of archaeologi-
cal parks, several applications allow tourist who
accesses to the site to point the mobile camera on
an object and visualize its virtual reconstruction on
the display, as well as an integrated system for the
geographical position recognition indentifies au-
tomatically user position and display information
related to that place based on these information.
Tourists can download podcasts (file directories
for iPhone, iPad, iPod), and use the mobile devices
as a touristic guide, which provides explanatory
audio and video on the potential touristic tours.
Hence, consumers follow their own mobile as it
56
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
was a personal traveller guide. Meaningful ex-
amples are the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art,
New York) and the Chateau de Versailles (France)
which allow to free download though both the
web site (http://www.moma.org for MoMa; http://
en.chateauversailles.fr/application-iphone-en for
Versailles) and iTunes Store applications for iPod
with all information capable of supporting and
helping tourists during the visit to the museum.
The available contents for MoMa are related to
collections (paintings, photos), design, archi-
tecture, temporary and permanent exhibitions.
Concerning Versailles, the application supports
tourists during their visit of the famous gardens.
In fact, it has been developed especially to be
used remotely or while in the gardens. During
the remote virtual visit, the application includes
several videos, rich of detail on the dcor, hidden
parts of the chateau, different perspectives and so
on. Furthermore, a satellite view zoom in linked
to a commentary related to the objects (fountains,
statues, etc.) provide an interesting virtual visit
of the place; whereas the interactive tour of the
gardens allows users to find the favourite path
through the geo-positioning systems and get
customized information. In particular, the system
identifies the users position and the most interest-
ing object close to him, thus it starts a film which
explains in details the history, the functioning, etc.
of the object. In addition, the application Vision+
allows user to insert the world of enhanced real-
ity in order to start filming whats around him/
herself. Especially the rapid diffusion of iPad
might rapidly become the most used mobiles for
delivering touristic information and overview of
the possible packages, due to their high quality
of display and computational efficiency.
Hence, the benefits for territories which devel-
oped similar mobile applications are numerous:
The interactivity of the application is ca-
pable of enhancing the visiting experience,
becoming more completing and enjoy-
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
ing if compared to the traditional touristic
guides.
Discovering and learning processes in situ
become more exiting and amusing.
The innovativeness of these technologies
is capable of attracting also that part of
population usually not interested in cul-
tural heritage or in archaeology.
The availability of these applications for a
limited number of destinations might influence
consumers decision making, who may prefer a
destination which offers this innovative service.
For this reason, many territories are developing this
kind of application in order to gain a competitive
advantage over their competitors.
Tourists Acceptance of
New Technologies
Most of the current studies on tourism behaviour
are focused on the use of the web tools to buy
touristic product, by investigating the consum-
ers loyalty and trust in the shopping online of a
touristic package (Kim et al., 2009; Wang and
Wang, in press; Kim et al., in press). In particu-
lar, they are aimed at the investigation of users
evaluation of web sites in terms of usability and
ease of use (Morosan and Jeong, 2008, Servidio
et al., 2009; Law and Buhalis, 2010). To date,
only few researches direct their awareness on the
real tourist intention of using the most advanced
technologies like adaptive museum guides (Pianesi
et al., 2009), or on the effect that virtual reality
might have on their behaviour (Wang et al., 2008).
These studies outline the importance of involve-
ment in the service creation for the acceptance
of the technology, as well as the weak influence
of tourists attitude towards art on the choice of
using the technology.
Virtual environments promoted via web
make the memorization of touristic information
easier (Wang et al., 2008); as a consequence this
process affects their expectations. Indeed, these
systems present the visual information of the
touristic place in a more efficient way, so that
consumers can prefer these ones rather than the
traditional touristic guides (Chiou et al., 2008).
Buhalis and OConnor (2005) outlined how the
use of Internet-based virtual reality applications
is capable of enhancing tourists experience, as
well as of becoming a practical tool for gaining
a competitive advantage for territories.
Most of the researches focused on the users
acceptance of a technology make an extensive
use of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
mainly devoted to the tourists acceptance to
use web tools to achieve more information on a
touristic destination, which involves a quantita-
tive analysis with final users. This model is based
mainly on four variables (Davies, 1989): perceived
ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude and
behavioral intention. Its aim is to investigate the
users attitude towards a new technology, as well
as their acceptance in terms of intention of use
and affective use (Hossian and de Silva, 2009;
Hsu and Lin, 2008; Kwon and Wen, 2010). In
fact, the model is based on the previous Theory
of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Be-
havior (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). In particular,
perceived ease of use represents the degree to
which users believe that the use of the technology
requires no effort (Chung and Tan, 2004; Davis,
1989); whereas perceived usefulness represents
the degree to which users believe that the use
of the technology enhances their performance
(Chung and Tan, 2004; Davis, 1989).
Despite the large numbers of researches on
users acceptance of technologies, there is still a
lack of study concerning how the tourist accept
the new technologies like virtual environments,
and how these technologies supports decision-
making of a destination.
57

Tourist Computer Interaction
Several studies connected to the application of
advanced technologies to tourism focused on the
development of new tools capable of improving
users interaction, with emphasis on the best users
interface. In fact, in the virtual scenarios the de-
sign of a correct interface plays a key role, due to
the cognitive aspects related the communication
modalities between user and computer involved.
The Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) field
provides the framework of this research (Hewett
et al., 2009). HCI is a multidisciplinary approach
which enables new technologies to consist of an
ease and pleasant design. It requires a creative
design of new products, as well as knowledge
related to how the new technological solutions
might improve the potential users life style
(Carroll, 2000; Sears and Jacko, 2009). HCI pro-
vides correlations between the field of Industrial
Engineering and Cognitive Psychology, with
the purpose to develop user-friendly graphical
interfaces, which can exploit the advances in the
vision, speech recognition, 3D graphics fields
(Thompson and Azvine, 2006).
At beginning, the research in HCI was more
focused on the analysis of the technological as-
pects of these correlations, by mainly focusing on
computer interfaces. Recently, literature proposes
more approaches, focused also on the organiza-
tional, social and cognitive aspects, with the aim
to support and facilitate the interaction between
user and system interface. Since many travellers
use Internet to search information or explore
touristic destination, HCI has become an interest-
ing topic also for tourism researches focused on
the development of best web systems capable of
influencing tourists choice, with consequences on
the emerging of new interdisciplinary sectors like
the eTourism (Buhalis and Law, 2008; Buhalis and
OConnor, 2006). Hence, the high spread of the
ICT services has been influenced by the increas-
ing availability to share traditional user interfaces
with other systems like mobile devices. The new
58
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
technologies offer innovative and entertaining
way to deliver touristic information. For instance,
the quality of the images becomes an influenc-
ing factor in the decision-making process, due to
their key role on the motivational and emotional
mechanisms involved in the tourists behaviour.
Furthermore, an important field of research
connected to the HCI is related to the development
of efficient Graphical User Interface (GUI), which
aim is to design the best system for interacting
with a computer though graphic manipulation of
objects. In fact, it focuses on the basic manipula-
tion idea, which enables user to ease interact with
the displayed objects.
Virtual reality aims to facilitate the user-to-
user communication making the visualization of
the touristic scenario more realistic. Concerning
the virtual reality techniques, they might be bet-
ter understood as broad framework including a
computer-mediated and multisensory experience,
which facilitates the access to the information
in a different way. More in detail, virtual reality
refers to a computer simulation that creates an
image of a world that appears to our senses in
much the same way we perceive the real world,
or physical reality (Craig, Sherman, and Will,
2009). Moreover, the development of innovative
interactive virtual environments should include
new tourist-computer interaction modalities,
which combine latest communication ways more
efficient in catching visitors attention.
In this scenario, several researches showed
how the objects rotation improves the percep-
tion quality of the interface, with influence on
the subsequent purchasing behaviour. In fact, the
objects rotation allows consumers to perceive the
properties of the product affecting the three types
of responses (Park, Stoel, and Lennon, 2008):
(1) cognitive (how the consumer perceives the
information related to the product), (2) affective
(mood involved in the emotional responses), and
(3) conative (personal attitude which influences
the consumer behavioural intention).
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER
The focus of this chapter is to describe how ad-
vanced technologies, with emphasis on pervasive
environments, might influence tourists behaviour.
In fact, the current advanced in technology aim at
fulfils tourists curiosity by giving them the oppor-
tunity to see a realistic preview of the destination
place. Consequently, the visual representation
of the touristic places plays a significant role in
aiding decision-making process, by influencing
individuals beliefs.
Understanding the most effective tools for at-
tracting tourists is an emerging issue. To achieve
this task, advanced technologies propose new suc-
cessful tools based on the idea to create a strong
territorial image capable of influencing tourists
destination choice. These ones support tourists
in creation of a cognitive image of the territory
attractiveness.
This chapter shows a comparison among the
most used technologies tourism sector, by un-
derlying their main characteristics. The chapter
highlights how the pervasive environments have
the potentiality to catch more tourists, due to
their innovativeness. In addition, it is important
to outline the main implications for both tour-
ists, in terms of influences on their behaviour,
and marketers, in order to develop new efficient
destination marketing strategies.
THE FOCUS ON CALABRIA REGION
We chose the case of Calabria region (Southern
Italy) due to its particular attractiveness in a tour-
istic perspective. In particular, the region possess
an enormous inheritance from the point of view
of art, culture, nature, history and archaeology,
which has the potentialities to catch the attention
of an international audience but which is not fully
known.
For instance, the resources of major interest
and importance are those dating from the period of
Greek colonisation, which has come to be known
as Magna Graecia. In fact, many products and
artefacts recall ancient Greek traditions and often
reflect the finds in the region from the ancient
Greek era which ran from the VIII Century B.C.
to the 1st Century A.D..
Nevertheless, Calabria has a very strong arts
and crafts tradition involved in the production of
local food specialties (such as salami and other
pork products, various kinds of cheese, liqueurs
made from locally grown plants and herbs) as
well as gold jewelry and musical instruments,
while there is a strong growth in the production of
cultural goods and services led by local museums
and the universities. In fact, it is possible to exploit
Calabrian strengths, due to the particular atten-
tion shown by foreign tourists: indeed, according
to a recent research carried out by the Tourism
Observatory for the Calabria Region, Calabria is
perceived by foreign tourists as a place where it
is still possible to enjoy the flavors of different
local traditions; moreover the research carried out
that the 24.7% of the people interviewed associ-
ated Calabria with gastronomy and local products
and this figure was even higher concerning the
Japanese tourists at 31.8%.
Despite these elements, Calabria region needs
to be presented in a touristic perspective capable
of attracting different touristic target and promote
its resources in a global perspective. Therefore,
especially the pervasive environments are ca-
pable of presenting the region as an interesting
and fascinating for Italian and foreign tourists, in
order to outline unique characteristics capable of
attracting several audiences and give them the tool
for deeply understanding the territory.
59

THE ROLE OF PERVASIVE
ENVIRONMENTS
Pervasive Environments
Architecture
Currently, the most advanced technologies can be
represented by the pervasive environments. These
systems are based on a decentralized computing
landscape (Hansmann et al., 2003), and consist of
a digital world (a virtual reconstruction of objects,
scenarios, etc.) and the real users who have the
feeling of immersion in the digital context by the
ad hoc interface (Steventon and Wright, 2006).
The pervasive environments can be applied suc-
cessfully to several fields (ibid., 2006):
Supply chain, through the use of Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID), which
consists of tags attached to the goods,
which allows to ease monitoring the good
movements, with many advantages for the
supply chain management.
Environmental monitoring, through a con-
tinuous monitoring of the environmental
variables, in order to evaluate environmen-
tal changes. They are especially used in the
monitoring of coastal erosion.
Leisure experiences. Pervasive environ-
ments can be exploited to develop more
interactive and exciting museum or trav-
eler guides, as well as to create new leisure
experiences such as situated games.
Healthcare in order to ease and fast moni-
toring the health of patients for diagnostic
and preventive aims.
Emergency response, in emergency situ-
ations which require rapid and detailed
information;
Intelligent car to support drivers (parking,
drive in dangerous situations such as in bad
weather, etc.).
60
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
Design. These system support designer in
the developing of new products (i.e. cars,
buildings, etc.), as well as to virtual evalu-
ate their impact in the environment.
Efficient pervasive environments can be real-
ized by exploiting the stereoscopic tools, which
consist of a special screen connected to a computer
which allows the combination of two images of
the same object from two different points of view,
which creates the 3D effect. In this way, tourists
visualize 3D images through the use of glasses
with polarized lens. Figure 3 shows a scheme of
the stereoscopic system for visualization of 3D
environments.
From a touristic point of view, pervasive en-
vironments provide users the possibility to virtu-
ally discover the touristic destination, by exploit-
ing the virtual reality tools and integrating in an
efficient way several input and output devices, in
order to make the user-computer interaction more
comfortable and improve their usefulness and
ease of use perception. In particular, tourists may
explore the environment and interact with the 3D
objects and scenarios by living a realistic experi-
ence capable of enhancing the visit. The system
might recognize their position and movements by
identifying the shadow or the body direction
through a camera, and so on. Based on these data,
system modifies the displayed images by giving
users a more realistic feeling of presence. These
multimodal interactions improve the level of in-
teractivity, and as consequence it may affect the
users satisfaction. These interactions provide an
immersive experience in the virtual environment,
by both supporting the visualization of 3D objects
and scenarios, and allowing them to manipulate
the scene, by simulating a real context. Hence,
they have the possibility to virtually explore the
attractiveness of the touristic place as it is real.
These powerful interactions are capable of affect-
ing tourists decision-making process, by influenc-
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
Figure 3. Stereoscopic system for visualization of 3D environments
ing the creation of a detailed mental model of the
destination.
Moreover, current researches in the tourism
sector are focusing on the developing of more
realistic virtual environments based on the use of
intelligent agents and systems capable of improv-
ing the touristic experience. For instance, these
systems can be very effective for the promotion
of territories characterized by a high archaeologi-
cal value. A meaningful example is the Calabria
region. Previous studies (Pantano and Naccarato,
2010; Pantano and Servidio, 2009) outlined the
usage of these tools for promotion of Calabrian
archaeological heritage. Figure 4 shows a mean-
ingful example of reconstruction of the two ancient
statues Bronzes of Riace (V cent. B.D.), which
represent the symbol of the region itself (Pantano
and Servidio, 2009).
These preliminary studies (Pantano and Nac-
carato, 2010; Pantano and Servidio, 2009) high-
lighted the tourists interest on these environments,
in terms of quality of delivered information, pos-
sibility to taste in advance the destination, in-
novative way for achieving useful information on
the destination. In particular, users may be more
attracted by these tools than a traditional touristic
guide.
Main Characteristics
The purposes of the application of pervasive
environments to a territory are several. They can
be summarized as follows:
The pervasive environments solicit an
original and global vision of the territory
as an attractive touristic destination, with
many consequences for the local economy.
The pervasive environments allow to deep-
ly understanding the territory from several
points of view, by proposing the most ex-
citing local amenities and places.
61

Figure 4. Stereoscopic visualization of Bronzes of Riace
The pervasive environments provide use-
ful knowledge on the history and culture
of a territory, in an ease and interactive
way, with consequences for the learning
process.
The pervasive environments allow tour-
ists to live a new and engaging experience,
which can motivate them to force others to
live the same one.
Furthermore, the targets can be several. In
fact, these system can be attractive for seg-
ments of population with different inter-
ests, due to the characteristic of providing
a wide range of information (archaeology,
landscapes, museums, etc.), furthermore
their innovativeness of the environments
become an attractive elements for the
young part of population more interested
in new technologies.
In conclusion, it is possible to summarize the
main new technologies adopted in the sector with
the related characteristics (Table 1).
62
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
Mobile devices, web based systems and per-
vasive environments have the common charac-
teristic to provide virtual reconstruction in a fast
and ease way. In fact, though these technologies
user can explore, interact and play with the vir-
tual reconstructions of objects, environments,
buildings, by accessing to the needed information
in an interactive and innovative way, by exploring
the environment though a personalized tour.
Hence, users might achieve high customized in-
formation, enhancing the searching process.
Furthermore, in the case of mobile devices, a
system for the geographical position recognition
allows the mobile application to propose different
tours or new information on the users current
location, whereas the web portals are capable of
suggesting possible tours or touristic packages on
the base of users profiles (in terms of past behav-
iours, needs and preferences, and so on).
In opposite, pervasive environments provide
also a multimodal interaction capable of improving
the realism of the visited scenario, though several
input devices and interaction modalities. Conse-
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour

Table 1. Most used technologies and related characteristics

Mobile devices Web portals Web-based Pervasive environments

communities

Virtual reconstructions X X X X
Interactivity X X X X
Recommendations systems - X - -
Customized information X X X X
Personalized tours X X - X
Recognition of tourists geographical position X - - -
Multimodal interaction - - - X
Supporting decision making X X X X
Supporting learning X X X X

quently, all these systems provide useful informa-
tion for tourists destination choice, capable of both
influencing the user decision-making and learning
process, though the innovativeness and quality of
information displaying. As a consequence, per-
vasive environments offer several options for the
choice of the best alternative, though innovative
and more attractive tourism contents.
Impact on Tourists Behaviour
Advanced technologies, and especially pervasive
environments might affect tourists perception of
destination. In particular, they might affect the
three main aspects of the process (Solomon, 2010):
various associations made by tourists dur-
ing the experience.
Accordingly, the introduction of advanced
technologies such as pervasive environments
might affect the traditional decision-making
process based on five steps: need recognition (1),
search for information (2), pre-purchase evaluation
(3), purchase/consumption (4), post-consumption
evaluation (5) (Solomon, 2010; Blackwell et al.,
2006).
In particular, it is possible to analyse how
these innovative technologies influence the dif-
ferent steps in order to understand their possible
influence on tourists behaviour;

Exposure. The technologies present the 1. Need recognition. Pervasive environments

product in an innovative way, by giving us-
ers the possibility to focus on some details
or to make comparisons.
Perceptive selection. Potential tourist pays
attention to some stimuli rather than oth-
ers, the technologies can influence this as-
pect by catching users attention on some
particulars rather than others.
Interpretation. On the basis of information
provided, users attribute a particular mean-
ing to the stimuli, which are influenced by
support potential tourists in the virtual
discovering of the possible destinations,
by showing the main attractions and char-
acteristics. As a consequence, they propose
alternatives capable of stimulating the
emerging of new needs;
2. Search for information. Pervasive environ-
ments provide fast and useful information
on destinations, by allowing users to focus
on the one which best fits their interests.
Furthermore, they provide the possibility to
ease make a comparison among territories;

63

3. Pre-purchase evaluation. On the basis of
the achieved information, tourists have
sufficient elements to make the choice. In
this way, pervasive environments support
consumers decision making process;
4. Purchase/consumption. To date, pervasive
environments do not support the online pay-
ment, nor the possibility to automatically
calculate the total amount of the touristic
package or to choose among different pay-
ments options. However, further develop-
ment might integrate these functions in the
pervasive systems, in order to improve the
consumers shopping experience and the
subsequent satisfaction.
5. Post-consumption evaluation. The provided
information on the destinations reduce the
risk related to the choice and, as a conse-
quence, improves both the quality of the
immersive experience, and the loyalty to
the supplier who provided the service (i.e.
travel agencies, archaeological park, Public
Administrations, etc.) and to the region.
Since the users active participation in the
production of the touristic package and in-
formation service (Bharadwaj et al., 2009;
Grant et al., 2010) the total service quality
improves. In fact, the high level of inter-
activity which characterizes the pervasive
environments, as well as the multimodal
interaction allows users to ease interact with
both the objects and the provided information
in order to get a more customized service.
Furthermore, the speed, the quality, and
the richness of the service allow users to
save time. Therefore, the decision-making
process becomes an entertaining experience
with positive influences on tourists buying
behaviour.
Furthermore, there are some issues which
should be taken into account: tourists may choose
to exploit or not the available pervasive environ-
64
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
ments. Indeed, this option might generate positive
attitudes towards both this technology and the
suppliers who provide this system (Reinders et
al., 2008).
IMPLICATIONS
Implications for Tourists
The results of our study provide several impli-
cations for both the application of pervasive
environments to promote territorial assets and
to direct subjects attention towards a particular
destination. Since the competition among ter-
ritories is growing, tourism industry is forced to
design and develop innovative tools to make more
attractive the touristic experience. New electronic
devices and virtual environments devoted to the
promotion of a positive territorial image are more
focused on to emphasize the authenticity of the
touristic place. In fact, they allow to the potential
tourist to reveal the users intention to visit the
place and to return again there. In this way, these
services improve territorial image and authentic-
ity formation, tourists satisfaction, by providing
several detailed information in an innovative way.
Since these advanced technologies provide new
and high customized information, increasing the
probability to purchase the best touristic package
by reducing the risk connected to the purchase.
Hence, tourist expectations regarding the
destination reflect both the virtual experience and
the promotional messages provided by suppliers
through this channel. Since the choice of a par-
ticular destination depends on the attractiveness
of the provided messages likely to be drawn, the
suppliers inferences on these technologies are
capable of affecting tourists behaviour. In fact,
positive expectations may represent indicators of
a positive image of certain destination (Kolar and
Zabkar, 2009). These remarks can be considered
an emerging attempt to investigate empirically the
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
influence of advanced technologies on tourists
decision-making process.
Despite several researches carried out a
negative effect of an excess of the information
amount (Sicilia and Ruiz, 2010), the fun provided
by these technologies might mediate this effect.
Furthermore, tourists can live new engaging ex-
perience which can be available also for people
with disabilities, in order to make destinations
more accessible also for this part of population.
Implications for Marketers
Managers can use these results in order to develop
new efficient strategies based on the use of ad-
vanced technologies for promotion of territories,
as well as tour operators and touristic agencies
might take into account the potentialities of these
ones to catch tourists attention and interests.
Managers should take into account the key role
played by the fun provided by these interactive
media which are capable of influencing users
evaluation of touristic product. Due to the strict
link between the attractiveness of the messages
and the choice of that product, they should focus
on the development of new technologies for the
best communication and interaction modality.
In fact, these findings are important in interac-
tive technologies where managers might exploit
the opportunities to involve users in the touristic
package creation process. Therefore, they need to
consider the effect of a high level of interactivity
and innovativeness on the possibility to add much
more advertising to the touristic information pro-
moted by these technologies, which are capable
of moderating the negative effects caused by an
excess of information.
In fact, managers should identify the best mes-
sages to be promoted via these technologies and
the territories which can achieve more advantages,
by exploiting also the tools offered by the new
advances in 3D computer graphics. The territories
can be promoted in a global perspective, and easy
catch the attention of foreign potential tourists.
Hence, the territories which exploit the use of
advanced technologies could achieve competitive
advantages and a larger market segment.
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
Although there is a large deal of research in the
users acceptance of advanced technologies for
achieving touristic information, there is still a
lack concerning the best integration of different
technologies for the creation of a new one which
best satisfies consumers needs and capable of
better influencing their choice of destination.
Further researches might focus on the compari-
son of the use of the same technology for different
territories in order to deeply understand how the
most efficient for each kind of territory. Different
quantitative analysis might be based on sample of
different ages, in order to understand which target
is most influenced by one technologies, and how
the is more efficient for a particular range of age.
Moreover, the use of pervasive environments
related hotel booking promotion is still underde-
veloped. In fact, many studies services carried out
the influence of e-word-of mouth communication
through virtual communities, social networking
systems, blogs etc. (Ye et al., 2010; Xiang and
Gretzel, 2010), but the effect of virtual exploration
on tourists choice is not totally investigated yet.
Hotel managers could take into account the
possibility to create virtual tour, iPad/iPhone
applications related to the rooms and facilities in
order to give users the possibility to discover the
hotel attraction before the booking and reduce
the risk involved in the choice. With the same
purposes, it is possible to give travel agencies
already equipped with systems for stereoscopic
visualization virtual reconstruction of rooms and
amenities in order to allow users to discover and
test the hotel offer through an immersive and
interesting experience.
In addition, touristic consumption of virtual
destination might become a social experience,
65

hence consumer could prefer creating and consum-
ing their favourite touristic package in the virtual
scenario than a traditional one, thus marketers
should identify how exploit pervasive environ-
ments also in loci, in order to understand how tour-
ists make use of these systems and which factors
affect their participation to the virtual scenarios.
CONCLUSION
The advanced technologies like virtual reality,
web-based technologies, mobile applications,
and pervasive environments provide new effec-
tive tools to communicate touristic products in
an innovative and interactive way. Since these
technologies offer interactive, ease of use, use-
ful tools for searching information related to the
touristic destination, the tourist choice might be
influenced by these factors. In fact, tourists have
the possibility to achieve fast and customized
information, as well as to virtual explore the
destination offer, in order to reduce the perceived
risk toward the destination. Hence, in one hand
these technologies are powerful tools for tourists
decision; on the other one they provide information
on users preferences and need which managers
can exploit to develop new efficient strategies for
better communicating the territory.
Noteworthy characteristics of these systems
are they capacity of preserve, promote, diffuse,
and personalize touristic contents, by exploiting
digital technologies. In particular, pervasive en-
vironments allow to:
Create a powerful network between differ-
ent actors (potential tourists, tour opera-
tors, travel agencies, marketers, suppliers,
etc.), by supporting the development of a
common network of knowledge. This net-
work might increase the visibility of tour-
istic contents, promoting the knowledge
sharing among actors. These resources can
66
Advanced Technologies and Tourist Behaviour
be exploited to create innovative applica-
tion for delivering touristic information.
Develop a touristic repository of digital
contents. The current technological infra-
structure provides a good level of inno-
vation capable of managing an enormous
amount of information.
To design experimental research by using
these contents. In other words, these tools
might supply the creation of a common
touristic system, which manages different
collections of cultural assets and objects.
In conclusion, the purpose of the pervasive
environments is to increase the destination at-
tractiveness by providing informative contents in
an exciting and innovative way. In this process,
both quality of the images and interactive system
functionalities influence the service quality of
delivered touristic contents.
Indeed, pervasive environments represent an
innovative way to communicate touristic contents,
attract new touristic flows, and develop tour-
ists loyalty towards destinations, by improving
both. Hence, tourism industry needs to identify
alternative way to communicate the enormous
amount of authenticity and attractiveness of the
touristic places.
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Destination Marketing: Particular kind of
marketing which considers the destination as the
product to be promoted, in order to promote the
territory, attract more touristic flows and gain
advantages for the local economic development.
Graphical User Interface (GUI): The user
interfaces which allow people to interact with
computer programs by using visual modalities.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): It
concerns the study of design, evaluation and
implementation of interactive systems for hu-
man use (Hewett et al., 2009), by exploiting the
advances in the vision, speech recognition, 3D
graphics fields (Thompson and Azvine, 2006).
Pervasive Environments: Systems based on
a decentralized computing landscape, consist of a
digital world (a virtual reconstruction of objects,
scenarios, etc.) and the real users who has the
feeling of immersion in the digital context by ad
hoc interface.
Tourism Behaviour: Study of the human be-
haviour from a touristic perspective. In particular,
it investigates the motivational mechanism con-
nected with the desire to travel and the particular
behaviour showed with travelling.
Tourist Technology Acceptance: The degree
of which a tourist accept to use the particular tech-
nology. It can be evaluated through the Technology
Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989), mainly based
on the variables: perceived ease of use (how users
think the use of the technology enhance the job
performance), perceived usefulness (how users
think the use of the technology doesnt require a
mental effort) of the technology, attitude (users
feeling related to the technology), behavioral
intention (by the use of technology).
Virtual Reality: Technique which allows
to digital reproduce and display objects and
scenarios, by exploiting computer graphic tools.
71
72

Chapter 5
Factors of Spatial Distribution
of Recreation Areas in
Peri-Urban Beijing
Jiaming Liu
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China

ABSTRACT
With the increase of disposable income and leisure time, recreation has become an important lifestyle
of urban residents in China. Peri-urban recreation areas, as the important one, could not only meet the
outdoor recreational demands of both tourists and residents, but also contribute to sustaining urban
ecological security. Rational spatial patterns for recreational land use will mediate the contradictions
between urban sprawl and natural preservation, and, economic growth and social development. Based
on the case study of peripheral urban areas in Beijing, this chapter aims to identify the factors which
will influence the spatial distribution of peri-urban recreation areas, by analyzing the collected data
from questionnaires, online survey, documentation and field investigations. In order to achieve sound
information, relevant data from different management departments, owners and land-use types involved
in the case study area is collected. A sampling database for peri-urban recreation areas in Beijing is
established, and GIS spatial analyses as well as statistic analyses are applied. The result indicates that
spatial distribution of recreation areas is majorly influenced by four factors, e.g. tourism attractions and
environmental conditions, policy and spatial governance, consumption demand and preference, land price
and availability. The influencing mechanism of each factor towards different type of recreation areas is
various. Tourism attractions and environmental conditions are dominant factors for public recreation
areas. Commercial recreation areas are highly related with accessibility. Agricultural recreation areas
are usually attached to special farmlands near large-scaled scenic areas. Meanwhile, recreational

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch005

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

business clusters have appeared in suburbs influenced by mass recreation market growth. Controlled by
the land price, commercial recreation areas are differentiated on their scales and developing intensity.
Policy and spatial governance have made arrangements of recreation areas more balancing and more
human-oriented. A peri-urban recreation area model is therefore established on basis of this analysis,
which can guide urban planning and designing, land-use planning and recreation resource development.

INTRODUCTION each type are identified by the methods of spatial

Peri-urban recreation areas, as the main outdoor
playing places for tourists and urban residents at
leisure time, are important components of urban
recreational system. In the last two decades, with
the rapid expansion of urban built-up area in China,
the isolation between human and nature turns
to be distinct, and the conflict between leisure
demands and recreation supplies becomes more
and more acute. The tendency of metropolitan
residents who escape from their routine life and
touch the nature in peri-urban areas on weekends
and holidays has turned to be a popularized. Rec-
reation areas could be divided into three types:
public recreation area, commercial recreation
area and affiliated recreation area, according to
suppliers, operators and objectives of land use
and its service functions (Figure.1). Based on the
case study of Beijing metropolis, the influencing
factors of different types of peri-urban recreation
areas are analyzed and the dominant factors for
division and statistical analysis, so as to provide
significant guides for Chinas urban tourism and
recreation resources management and planning.
In contrast to the hundreds years development
on empirical study in western countries, literature
on tourism and recreation literature is still weak
in China. Researches on recreation areas involve
multi-disciplines, e.g. tourism, geography, urban
and landscape sciences. Geographers and urban
scholars began to showcase their concerns on the
recreation phenomenon from the mid and later
19th Century. They have pointed out a number of
theories concerning the distribution of recreation
areas, which have been applied to urban planning
and construction. At the end of 1950s, the United
States initiated a park movement and Central Park,
New York, which was proposed by F.L.Olmsterd
who pushed the movement to the summit. In the
early of the twenties century, Wilderness Protec-
tion Regulation was enacted and implemented in
national parks. These theories and practices as-

Figure 1. Classification of recreation areas in suburbs

73
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
sured that western countries kept harmony between
human and nature in the process of urbanization.
Functionalism urban planning, sprang up at the
early stage of World War II, put the distribution
of recreation areas on a very important position.
After World War II, a number of researchers began
to focus on recreation opportunity. Since 1960s,
based on the tourist behavior investigation, re-
searchers tried to divide the tourism space around
the urban into different circle layers according to
visiting probability. Wilderness Planning Manu-
al recorded a relatively formal zoning method in
the early time. In 1962, Outdoor Recreation Re-
sources Review Commission (ORRRC) proposed
a 6-division system. In 1982, the United States
Forest Service drew up the 6-division system for
Recreation Opportunity Spectrum, which is per-
ceived as a widely used classification for tourism
space: primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized,
semi-primitive motorized, roaded natural, rural
and urban. In 1977, Tourism and Recreation De-
velopment was published and its theory was ap-
proved and widely applied by tourism planners
all over the world. It classified tourist destinations
in suburbs according to capacity and described
their features from the perspective of urban
population, outdoor recreation behavior and types
of tourist destination.
With the expansion of urban population and
economic growth in China, the distribution is-
sues of recreation areas distribution have been
gradually aroused attention. Temporal and spatial
differentiation of recreation areas was empha-
sized by tourism researchers in the exploration
process of planning theories. The major study
fields include: (1) geographical differentiation
of recreation areas in suburbs, especially spatial
structural models on Recreation Belt Around
Metropolis (ReBAM), which classified recreation
areas in suburbs into several circle layers in view
of demand and supply (Wu, 2001). Over 60 jour-
nal papers have been published in the ReBAM
area since 2001; (2) recreation land-use policy,
recreation activities, and recreation landscape
74
product differentiation (Wang & Guo, 2000; Yang
& Liu, 2001); (3) recreation area per capita and
ideal model of recreation areas distribution (Liu
& Wang, 2009), Wu and Han (2003) proposed
the spatial model of tourism as semi-circle belt
around seaport metropolis, such as Dalian city.
Based on Gunns urban-to-remote destination
concept (Gunn, 1988), Zhang & Zhao (2005)
pointed out that the distribution of recreation
areas in urban suburbs illustrates the multi-layer
rings; (4) driving forces of spatial patterns of
recreation areas. Wu (2001) put forward that the
formation of ReRAM was controlled by land price
and demand. Wu suggested that accessibility and
scenic spots agglomeration index had significant
effects on the special flows of recreation in urban
suburbs. Bian (2003) indicated that urban tourism
space layout is influenced by resources, location,
market, social economy and tourism traffic, etc.
Lands for recreation in suburbs can be divided
into three categories and they were regulated by
planning, land policy, land price, demands and
consumers preference. (Liu & Wang, 2007). The
allocation mechanisms of these three categories
are distinguished (Wang & Liu, 2010).
Researches on recreation areas has a history
over one hundred years in western countries,
whilst in China, the study in this field is still in
the emergence stage. On the one hand, due to the
inconsistent cognition of recreation areas from
different perspective of several subjects like
landscape, tourism and urban, it is difficult to
describe the real pattern of urban recreation areas
from a single view. On the other hand, most of the
researches focus on macro-perspective but lack
of microcosmic study, because of the lack of data
support. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the
influencing factors of recreation areas by means
of investigating the situations of Beijing suburbs.
Finally, the objective of this paper is to establish
the foundation for figuring out the optimization
approach and allocation rule of recreation areas.
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This paper adopts Beijing as the study area. It
has a population of 16.95 million in 2008, and
covers about 16410 square kilometers. Currently,
Beijing has 26 national or municipal scenic areas,
hundreds of resorts and cultural villages, which
provide urban residents with a number of recre-
ation sites and various activities. Furthermore,
the complicated and diversified topographies
in Beijing suburbs offer plenty of elements for
analyzing the influencing factors of distribution.
GIS spatial analysis is a major method that we
used in this paper. The municipal map of Beijing,
published by Sino-maps Publishing House, at a
scale of 1:290 000, was adopted as the working
base map. Basic map database is established by
arcgis9.2, and information layers include back-
ground layer (grid image), administrative division
layer (planar data), contour layer (striation data),
lake layer (planar data), river layer (striation data),
railway layer, national highway and provincial
highway layer and county road layer (striation
data). Artificially digital is adopted in every data
layer to precisely locate the geographical position.
Scenic attractions are obtained from the offi-
cial websites of every countys Tourism Bureau,
relevant published materials and public maps.
Commercial recreation areas have been con-
firmed by telephone in order to make sure their
operation situations. Reference books consist
of Beijing Tourism Graph Collection (Science
Table 1. Samples of different tourism and recreation areas
Types of Recreation areas Sub-types of Recreation areas
National or municipal scenic areas
Historic and cultural relics spots
Public recreation areas
peri-urban parks
Forestry recreation areas
Commercial recreation areas Resorts, sports areas, skiing areas, etc.
Affiliated recreation areas Agricultural recreation gardens
Total
Press, 1990), Beijing Tourist Attractions (Rural
Reading Materials Press House, 2000), Bejing
Suburb Tourism Map Collection (Celestial Map
Publishing House, 2001), Beijing Suburb Scenery
Tour Guidance (Chinese Forestry Press, 2001),
Tourism and Leisure Guidance of Beijing and
Suburbs (Shandong Map Publishing House, 2007),
Beijing Living Map Atlas (Sinomaps, 2008) and
Exquisite and Theme Itinerary of Beijing Tour
Series which is published by Beijing Tourism
Bureau(2008). All the data above-mentioned are
updated at the end of 2007.
Public recreation areas have definite area,
explicit boundary and lower economic threshold
for tourists. It belongs to landscape and scenic
spots, urban Greenland and park land use with
government as their operator. Commercial recre-
ation areas are operated by enterprises and institu-
tions; affiliated recreation areas have not changed
their purpose of land use as farmland and rural
residential area, but recreation function is added
to make them become a complementary type for
the specific recreation areas. Affiliated recreation
areas are operated by township government or
local residents who are collective ownership.
This paper chooses 161 public recreation spots,
114 commercial recreation spots and 222 affili-
ated recreation spots (Table.1). Every sampling
spots spatial location, scale and the other land
information is recorded. The spatial position of
every recreation spot is accurate to administrative
village level (Figure.2).
Samples
26
19
76
40
114
222
497
75
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
This paper is an empirical study based on
the previous researches. According to resources
background, policy, demand of residents and law
of land supply (Liu and Wang, 2007), the influenc-
ing factors of spatial distribution for three types
of recreation areas are verified one by one and the
major influencing factor of every type is identified.
FINDINGS AND RESULTS
There are various factors influencing the spatial
distribution pattern of recreation areas, among
which tourism attractions and environmental con-
ditions, policy and spatial governance, consump-
tion demand and preference, and land price and
availability are the four major factors, according
to our preliminary study.
Tourism Attractions and
Environmental Conditions
Tourism attractions and environmental conditions
are the primary factors and have strong positive
correlation with recreation sites distribution. It is
found that all the three types of recreation areas
have high relations with tourism attractions and
environmental conditions, but they are exposed
to different influencing strength and mechanism.
Public Recreation Areas
and Topographies
Public recreation areas, having positive relation-
ship with tourism attractions and environmental
conditions restricted by topographies, are mainly
allocated in the western and northern mountain
areas of Beijing city (Figure 2). Beijing Urban
Development Strategy has positioned the western
and northern areas as an ecological belt, which is
mainly used for tourism, recreation activities and
ecological industries. The designated principle
of national or municipal scenic spots, which are
important public recreation areas, is to judge an
76
area whether possessing both natural and human
scenery, functioned as peoples travel, leisure and
scientific research base. Public recreation areas,
which are mainly comprised of national and
municipal scenic spot system, cover more than
13% of Beijings territory and build up the basic
framework of urban recreation areas. Scenic spots
are mainly designated in the western and northern
mountain areas and there are no scenic spots in
southeast plain area. Commercial and affiliated
recreation areas dont have obvious relation with
topographies.
Commercial Recreation Areas and
Water Bodies
Beijing city possesses five water systems: Yong-
ding River, Chaobai River, Wenyu River, Juma
River and Ju River. Juma River is located at
southwest part of Beijing city and it flows through
Fangshan district, while the famous Shidu national
scenic spot is a section of the Juma River basin.
Yongding River, where Miaofeng Mountain and
Baihua Mountain are located, is flowing from
Langfang district through Daxing district, to
Shi Jingshan district and Men Tougou district.
Wenyu River flows from Tongzhou district to
Shunyi district and Changping district, and it
was the north starting point of Beijing-Hangzhou
ancient Grand Canal. Chaobai River runs through
Shunyi district, Miyun county, Huairou district
and Yanqing district and a lot of famous national
and municipal-level scenic spots, recreation and
vacation facilities are concentrated in this area.
Ju River is flowing inside Pinggu district and lots
of leisure and agricultural facilities,are allocated
on the two sides of the river. Besides, Beijing has
two water based recreation areas the Ming Tombs
reservoir tourism and recreation areas and the Qing
Longxia tourist resorts, and three water resource
protection zones, i.e. Miyun reservoir, Huairou
reservoir and Guanting reservoir.
According to the investigation in the 114 resort
villages and recreation sites, some results could
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 2. Basic data layers and sampling points of different tourism and recreation areas

be got by correlation analysis with water system.
About 43% of the commercial recreation areas
are located at the 2-kilometer buffer area near
water system (Figure 3). The total area in the
2-kilometer buffer area is up to 1939km2 and the
average density of commercial recreation areas
is a sampling point /45.1 km2. However, the aver-
age density outside buffer area is a sampling point
/215.9 km2, which is less than 1/4 of the 2-kilo-
meter buffer area near water system. Moreover,
there are several areas which have apparent cor-
relations between recreation site number and
water bodies. Miyun reservoir area has an average
density of a sampling point /19.4 km2, Ming
Tombs reservoir area has an average density of
a sampling point /7.1 km2, and Wenyu river area
has an average density of a sampling point/ 33.5
km2. Therefore, commercial recreation areas
mainly locate near water bodies and have appar-
ent hydrotaxis.

77
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 3. Connection between commercial recreation areas and water system

Affiliated Recreation Areas and persimmon picking, and promoted organic

and Agricultural Planting
Agricultural recreation areas can be divided
into two types: picking orchards and cultural
villages. Picking orchards are closely related
with traditional urban agriculture products and
qualities. Miao Fengshan Town, Men Tougou
District, owing the highest density of agricultural
recreation sites, is famous for its long history of
fruit planting (Cao et al., 2006). Benefiting from
its natural attractions as Miao Fengshan and
cultural attractions as Tan Zhe Temple, this town
has developed a number of picking agro culture
activities, such as cherry picking, pear picking
vegetables planting and poultry rising. Meanwhile,
village-based resorts have also been established
by providing accommodation, entertainment and
the other recreation activities. Benefiting from its
location to conduct agricultural industrialization,
considerable traditional agricultural areas, like
Miao Fengshan Town, have established the urban
agriculture development model facing to leisure
market of urban residents. The other agriculture
recreation sampling points, which have the same
development mode, are centralized in Beiwu
Town in Shunyi District, Xiji Town in Tongzhou
District, Caiyu Town and Pang Gezhuang Town
in Daxing District.

78
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
Policy Factors and
Spatial Regulations
Considering ecological security and spatial regula-
tion, spatial distribution of recreation areas is also
significantly influenced by policy factors. Urban
planning plays a leading role in organizing urban
functions. Methodologies of urban planning, tak-
ing Howards Garden City and Modern Urban Gre-
enway Movement for examples, have made vital
effects on allocation of recreation lands in suburbs.
Howards Garden City Theory was put forward
at the end of 19th Century and the beginning of
20th Century, facing with the conflicts between
urban and rural isolation. It emphasized that green
land should be maintained around the city in order
to restrict urban expansion and promote part of
the urban function transition from central city to
satellite cities. Central city and satellite cities were
isolated by the permanent green land. Meanwhile,
the permanent green land began to take on the
responsibility of recreation function in industrial
cities to provide residents with opportunities of
getting close to nature. Western urban construction
has practiced and proved this theory.
Policy and Planning Modifies
the Uneven Status of Public
Recreation Areas Distribution
Public recreation areas make significant contribu-
tion to shaping the urban function. Firstly, public
recreation areas have infrastructures that supply
recreation sites for urban residents. Secondly,
public recreation areas are functioned as barriers
of maintaining urban ecological security. There-
fore, establishing an adequately and reasonably
distributed public recreation areas system is one
of the targets of urban planning and management.
Beijing has constructed two urban isolated green
belts and several green wedges ranging from
suburbs to central city. The planning goal of Two
isolated green belts, three green corridors, eight
water systems and nine agricultural zones was
made as the development tasks of green space
in The Master Planning of Beijing Land Use
2006-2020. In order to modify the uneven status
of Beijing recreation areas distribution, which
is attributed to the characteristics of terrain, the
southern and eastern part will be developed as
public recreation areas that combine agricultural
landscape with artificial Greenland and artificial
theme parks. With the influence of policy and
planning, the uneven status of public recreation
areas distribution has been improved.
Public Recreation Areas Form the
Backbone of the Recreation Pattern
The concept of matrixpatchcorridor elicited
from Landscape Ecology is widely used in urban
greening construction in China. Rural environment
that supports urban development is the natural
matrices, urban constructed areas are artificially
interfered patches. For the purpose of keeping
the properties of landscape, corridors should be
constructed in the patches in order to break up
the isolation between patches and matrices.
Therefore, corridor construction has become
one of the most important ways of improving
urban landscape patterns. Singapore, New York
and London have planned to build up ecological
corridor network (greenway) covering the entire
cities so that natural area could communicate
with urban core. Beijing public recreation areas
have the similar development trend and currently
they are in the stage of transferring from belt
structure to network structure. The scenic spots
in Beijing suburbs are regarded as matrices of
regional landscape. The constant expansion of
urban constructed area has resulted in the isolation
between central city and matrices. By means of
spatial cluster analysis, urban parks and suburb
parks illustrate circle belts distribution. Firstly,
peri-urban circle recreation belt for residents
emerges between 5th ring road and 6th ring road.
30% of peri-urban parks are located in this circle
zone and the peri-urban parks in this range, such
79
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
as the Fragrant hills park, the Badachu park, the
Water park in Shunyi District etc., possess the
highest visiting frequency. Furthermore, all the
newly built suburb parks emerge in this circle
layer and they are making up the latitude lines
of Beijing recreation network system. Secondly,
urban parks are centralized along the four traffic
arteries as Jing-Shi highway, Jing-Shen highway,
Jing-Cheng Highway and Badaling Highway. The
traffic artery recreation corridors are organized as
the longitude lines of Beijing recreation network
system. Therefore, a recreation corridor network
structure is tentatively built up. Thirdly, Beijing
green belt planning goal of two isolated green
belts, three green corridors, eight water systems
and nine agricultural zones, based on water
systems (eight water systems) and main traffic
arteries (two isolated circle green belts, three
green corridors), help to build up the peri-urban
recreation areas framework.
New Countryside Construction
Stimulates the Rapid Development
of Agricultural Recreation Areas
The primary driving force of folklore-hamlet
construction and development comes from
policy. Central government and Beijing govern-
ment advocate the peri-urban agriculture tourism
development as an important way of alleviating
poverty and developing a platform of agricultural
industrialization and they provide countryside
with governmental support from the aspects of
capital investment, infrastructure construction,
staff training, procedures, taxes and marketing
(Zou, 2005). Agricultural recreation areas are
amphibious, because they can be used as both farm
land and tourism destination with their agricultural
environment. Most of the agricultural recreation
areas in Beijing suburbs are apparently pushed
by relative policies, especially the policy of New
Countryside Construction (Long et al., 2010).
80
Consumption Demand
Growth and Preference
Distribution of recreation areas is the compromise
result between land supplier and demander (Wu
B.H., 2001). Income increase, holiday system
alteration, pursuit of health life and eager of
getting close to nature have stimulated the rapid
growth of urban residents tourism and recreation
demands, while urban tourism and recreation sites
and facilities are too scarce to meet the tourism and
recreation needs (Liu and Wang, 2007). World fa-
mous parks, as Temple of Heaven and Beihai Park,
are crowded in holiday, and still undertake double
responsibilities of tourism and recreation for
residents. Investigation shows that the increased
visitors in Tao Ranting Park mainly come from
local residents who own annual pass cards (Niu,
2005). This phenomenon indicates the vigorous
demand for tourism and recreation in metropolis
and the lack of recreation spaces and facilities.
The two-day weekend short vacation system was
put into practice in 1995 and the first three Golden
Week long vacation system was executed in 1998.
The new vacation system implemented in China
has 4 smaller Golden Weeks. According to the data
from 221 Action Plan research report, more than
2/3 of Beijing urban families visit suburbs every
year in purpose of travel and leisure and 16.9%
of these families visit suburbs 3 to 5 times. 80%
of Chinese urban residents travel destinations are
centralized in the 500 kilometers far away from
downtown, 37% are allocated in the 15 kilometers
far away from downtown, and 24% is allocated in
the range from 15 to 50 kilometers (Wu, 1997).
Visiting rate of residents in metropolis gradually
reduces with the increase of distance, accord with
the principle of distant decay. However, there is an
anti-decay phenomenon that tourists increase with
the increase of visiting distance. The distance from
the intersection between the visiting-increasing
area and visiting-declining area to downtown is
the threshold distance. Distant decay phenomenon
appears when it surpasses threshold distance.
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
From the perspective of recreation areas structure,
recreation sites are relatively centralized around
the threshold distance while recreation sites are
dispersed outside the threshold distance.
Commercial Recreation
Areas and Traffic Arteries
The reason that why threshold distance occurs in
recreation areas distribution is originated from
residents pursuit of Tourism Utility Maximiza-
tion, which can be attributed to different traffic
conditions (Wu, 1996). The operator of commer-
cial recreation areas is enterprise whose aim is
accumulating commercial profits and cultivating
tourist markets. From the perspective of geo-
graphical space, it means that the enterprises are
inclined to get close to main traffic line in purpose
of reducing the time and spending cost of tourists.
Among the 114 sampling points, 40 of them are
located inside the 2-kilometer buffer area along
main traffic lines, possessing 35% of the entire
sampling points. In Beijing city, the average den-
sity of commercial sampling points is a sampling
point/151.4 km2. The whole area of commercial
sampling points inside the 2-kilometer buffer
area along main traffic lines is approximately
4131km2 and its average density is a sampling
point/103.2 km2. The average density of com-
mercial sampling points outside the 2-kilometer
buffer area is a sampling point /177.4 km2. The
average density of commercial sampling points
in the 2-kilometer buffer area along the outer part
of 5th ring road is a sampling point/56.8km2. The
average density of commercial sampling points
in the 2-kilometer buffer area along 6th ring road
is a sampling point/48.2 km2. The average density
of commercial sampling points in the 2-kilometer
buffer area along Badaling Highway is a sampling
point/17.3km2, only 10 percent of the outer zone.
Recreation sampling points are obviously central-
ized along main traffic lines. Therefore, we can
predict a trend that recreation sampling points in
Beijing suburbs have strong correlation with main
traffic lines. The commercial recreation areas
centralize along 5th ring road and 6th ring road
has become an extremely apparent phenomenon.
Furthermore, other several highways, as Badaling
Highway in northwest direction, Airport Highway
in northeast direction, Jing-Cheng Highway and
Jing-Shi Highway in southwest direction, radiating
from downtown area through suburbs are actually
functioned as tourism and recreation corridors
of urban residents (Figure 4).
Commercial Recreation Areas and
Cluster Distribution
Another reason why threshold distance occurs
in recreation areas distribution is recreation sites
clustering around the famous scenic spot. A large
number of holiday villages are clustered around
Miyun reservoir and tourists could enjoy plenty of
recreation activities, including hot spring, sports,
picking and whiff. Without doubt, the attraction
of Miyun reservoir is the core of these existing
holiday villages. Furthermore, the cluster effect
of these holiday villages raises the attraction and
amenity of Miyun reservoir. Industrial cluster
development could bring advantages to enterprises
on market and information sharing. As above men-
tioned, commercial recreation areas are distributed
along main traffic lines and a lot of recreation
centralized distribution areas have appeared, tak-
ing Badaling Highway area, 5th ring road area, 6th
ring road area and Wenyu River area for examples.
By means of density analysis of sampling points
(Figure 5), the Western Hills between northwest
of 5th ring road and 6th ring road, Qinglong Gorge
area, Yanxi Lake area, Xiao Tangshan Town at
the north bank of Wenyu Rivers middle part and
Lucheng Town Canal area in Tongzhou District
are the most centralized commercial recreation
areas in Beijing. Bai Hebao reservoir area, Badal-
ing Town, Tanzhe Temple area, Miyun reservoir
area, Yudu Hill area, Jinhai Lake area are also
commercial recreation centralized destinations.
Finally, Pang Gezhuang Town of Daxing District,
81
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 4. Connection between commercial recreation areas and transport

Wangping Town of Men Tougou District, Cuan
Dixia Village, Lingshan area, Huairou reservoir
and Shen Lingyu area are in the early stage of
commercial recreation clustering. Development
of commercial recreation clusters could enlarge
tourism and recreation market according to the
above analysis.
Agriculture Recreation Areas and
Famous Scenic Spots
By density analysis of agriculture recreation areas
in Figure 6, we could find out that the recreation
areas with the highest density are near famous
scenic spots, such as Miaofeng mountain Town,
Shidu Town of Fangshan District, Ju Yongguan
Great Wall area of Changping District and Mu
Tianyu Great Wall of Huairou District. Shidu
Town, relying on famous scenic area nearby, have
developed folklore accommodation product for a
long time, and now possesses six special folklore
hamlets. The history and mode of agricultural
recreation development both in Ju Yongguan
Great Wall area of Changping District and in Mu
Tianyu Great Wall of Huairou District is quite
similar with that of Shidu Town. They are mainly
providing tourists with folklore accommodation
product. Some affiliated recreation centralized
development areas with the same function include
Hanhe Town in Fangshan District, Si Matai Great

82
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 5. Density analysis of commercial recreation areas

Wall area in Miyun District, Badaling Great Wall
area in Yanqing District and Ju Yongguan Great
Wall area in Changping District. Resorts, sports,
healthy, recreation sites, small-scale amusement
parks and tourist facilities have a trend to cluster
near famous scenic spots. In this way, they could
take advantages of the scenic spots, Superstar
brand effect and tourist market and provide the
scenic spots with accommodation and catering
services. As the complimentary element of hotels,
agricultural recreation areas are based upon their
own resources to develop unique reception and
services in purpose of catering tourists demand.
Land Price and Land Supply
The distance decay is one of basic principles in
geographical sciences. It is also existed in geo-
graphic differentiation of recreation activity, site
density and intensity. The recreation land value
in different locations is different. The farther the
distance is away from downtown, the lower the
land price as well as visiting probability are. As
a result, the land development intensity is reduc-
ing and the quality of recreation environment is
increasing (Figure 7). The change of recreation
value leads to the changes on recreation product
types and scale. In China, the land price in met-
ropolitan suburbs is sharply decreasing, because

83
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Figure 6. Density analysis of country resorts in Beijing

the ownership of urban land and agricultural land
are different. In 2010, the new towns in Beijing
suburbs require that the investment intensity of
industrial project should be higher than 60 million
yuan per hectare; as to the suburbs or exurb like
Daxing, Fangshan and Changping, the restriction
is 40 million yuan per hectare; as to mountainous
exurb, the restriction reduces to 30 million yuan
per hectare. Therefore, the intensity of recreation
areas is gradually decreasing from city to suburbs,
and to exurb.\
In view of the area size and investment scale,
golf courses, ski arena and turfs belong to large-
scale commercial recreation areas. The average
site area of golf course is 97.5 ha and the largest
area reaches to 200 ha, which is equivalent to that
of Beijing Botanical Garden. Holiday villages are
relatively smaller and they usually possess sev-
eral ha to tens of ha.
In view of the distance from downtown, ski
arena is the farthest recreation areas, the next is
holiday village, and golf course, turf and tourism
real estate are the nearest to city center (Figure
8). The average distance of ski arena to city cen-
ter is 58 kilometers. Among all the ski arenas,
Yongding ski arena is the nearest with a distance
of 27 kilometers and Yun Foshan ski arena is the
farthest with a distance of 70 kilometers. Holiday
villages are most extensive and common in Bei-
jing suburb, and occupy the biggest percentage

84
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
Figure 7. Distance attenuation rules of recreation areas
of the recreation sampling points, but they show
disperse distribution with an average distance of
49 kilometers. However, most of the holiday vil-
lages are generally allocated in the distance from
20 kilometers to 100 kilometers. The average
distance of amusement parks is equal to holiday
villages. Golf course, ski arena and tourism real
estate are located around 30 kilometers. With
the increase of distance, land price gradually
decreases. Therefore, under the absolute control
of market mechanism, the recreation areas which
earn strong profit ability will be distributed in
the suburbs. Otherwise, they will be located in
the exurb. From the research result, resort villa,
golf course, turf, restaurant and hotel, amusement
park, holiday village and ski arena are distributed
in sequence from downtown to exurb. Real estate
and golf courses are distributed in urban suburbs;
the next is ski arena, amusement park and holiday
village, and holiday villages are mainly located
in urban exurb. So it is consistent with the law of
distance decay for recreation areas.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Peri-urban recreation areas have shown differ-
ent types in terms of the influences of the four
distribution factors. Beijing city can be divided
to four circle zones: inner city recreation zone
(within 15 kilometers), suburb recreation zone
(15-30 kilometers), middle suburb recreation zone
(30-50 kilometers), exurb recreation zone (50-100
kilometers). The inner bound of suburb is the 5th
ring road and the first isolated Green belt, where
urban parks, suburb parks and second homes
are distributed in sequence. Golf courses, turfs,
holiday villages, agricultural recreation orchards
and folklore-hamlets are the primary types of
recreation sites in the middle suburb. Other types
of land-use such as amusement parks, ski resorts,
scenic spots, cultural villages and themed farms
are distributed in sequence in exurb (Figure 9).
85
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
Figure 8. Statistics of average area and distance of commercial recreational areas (Left: Average area,
Unit: ha, Right: Average Distance, Unit: km)
Influencing Factors of Peri-Urban
Recreation Areas Distribution
The distribution of peri-urban recreation area is
influenced by tourism attractions and environ-
mental conditions, policy factors and planning
regulation, road accessibility, demand and land
supply. This paper has identified the above items
by adopting spatial analysis on the three types of
recreation areas. Resource background, demand
and land supply are natural factors, while policy
is a human factor which can be manipulated to
adjust market malfunction of recreation areas.
86
The Dominant Factors of Different
Recreation Areas Types
The four influencing factors have different influ-
ences towards various types of recreation areas
(see Table 2). Public recreation areas are inclined
to be quasi-public goods and they are signifi-
cantly affected by policy factors, and the same
phenomenon could be found in western countries
(Geoghegan,2002;Maruani & Cohen,2007). Dis-
tribution of commercial recreation areas shows its
feature of apparent hydrotaxis except for demand
and supply factors. Affiliated recreation areas have
high correlation with tourism attractions, environ-
mental quality, policy, demand and supply factors.
They are inclined to distribute near famous scenic
spots and they are usually promoted by policy.
Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing
Figure 9. Distribution rules of recreation areas in Beijing
Existing Problems in Distribution
and Development of Peri-Urban
Recreation Areas
Firstly, recreation areas are generally distributed
in sequence but partially conflicted with demand.
As abovementioned, the products in Beijing peri-
urban recreation areas are differentiated with
distance. The easily accessible zones within 50 ki-
lometers from downtown are mainly dominated by
high-grade recreation projects, like golf courses,
turfs, luxurious resorts and holiday villages, only
upper class people can enjoy these recreational
facilities. Public recreation areas are a small num-
ber of urban parks and peri-urban parks. However,
excessive land occupation, low efficiency of land
use and high economic threshold has occurred to
golf courses, turfs and resort villas. Therefore, the
lack of contribution to public recreation needs is a
problem. Secondly, even though recreation areas
occupy a large amount of land, facility shortage
leads to low efficiency of recreation land uses.
Beijing national and municipal scenic spots pos-
sesses 13% of the total areas, however, the open
spaces which could satisfy with residents recre-
ation needs are mainly distributed in the remote
area of low visiting frequency. Meanwhile, most
of them are forested land and farmland, only a
minority of the land has been used as the actual
recreation areas. The accessibility and leisure
facilities construction should be improved, that is
to say, development of commercial and affiliated
recreation areas should be encouraged. Thirdly,
urbanization stimulated by real estate appeared in
the development of commercial recreation areas
and agricultural recreation areas. Second home,
a kind of commercial recreation sampling points,
is for holiday use, not for daily residential use.
Nevertheless, it is an obvious trend that the sec-
ond home is transformed into the first home. The
features of lower floor area ratio, holiday villas for
non-daily use and timesharing apartments are not
87
 Factors of Spatial Distribution of Recreation Areas in Peri-Urban Beijing

Table 2. Influencing factors of peri-urban recreation areas distribution

Type Sub-type Influencing factors

Attractions Policy Demand Land supply
Public recreation areas Scenic spots *** *** * *
Urban parks * *** * *
Forestry recreation areas ** *** * *
Commercial recreation areas Holiday villages, ski arenas, etc. ** * *** **
Affiliated recreation areas Agricultural recreation areas * * ** *
(Notes: ***, very important; **, important; *, less important)

existed in peri-urban real estate projects. Instead,
residential quarters with high floor area ratio,
which has caused urban population to move to
suburbs disorderly, are distributed in suburbs. The
over-concentration of population has destroyed
the substrate landscape of suburbs and has led to
the disorder expansion of built-up areas.
THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS
be encouraged to develop tourism and recreation,
with forms of agricultural picking gardens and
native-product-themed agricultural villages.
Combined with new countryside construction,
the villages which are around famous scenic
spots should be encouraged to develop catering
services, middle and high-level accommodation
facilities to satisfy the demands of tourists and
local residents in scenic spots.

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 91

Chapter 6
Two Tickets for Paradise:
Gaming and Tourism

Ashleigh K. Shelton
University of Minnesota, USA

ABSTRACT
While popular commentary about information technologies rages, little academic inquiry has actually
sought to understand and explain advergames as either an extension of travel information seeking be-
havior in general, or as a unique phenomenon. The use of digital media speaks to larger issues in cul-
tural, psychological, and behavioral studies, and so this chapter also should be relevant not just to new
media scholars and social scientists, but to a range of those working in the hospitality industry as well.

This chapter begins by identifying linkage points between advergames, tourism and three major mass
communication theories/approachesmedia dependency theory (Ball Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; DeFleur
& Ball-Rokeach, 1989), uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975), and uses and gratifi-
cations theory (Blumler & Katz, 1974). These will serve as examples of how advergames and hospitality
can be integrated into theories and models attempting to explain the impact of information technologies.
They will also provide a springboard for considering the nature of advergames with regards to tourism.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch006

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

INTRODUCTION
Travel and hospitality is an important sector of our
economy. According to the United Nations World
Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism (e.g.,
lodging, restaurants, attractions, transportation,
and cruise lines) accounts for the worlds largest
industry, generating more than $852 billion in
2009, and is expected to provide 296 million jobs
by 2019. Today, the business volume of tourism
equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, food
products or automobiles. Tourism has become one
of the major players in international commerce,
and represents at the same time one of the main
income sources for many developing countries
(UNWTO, 2010). With business booming, travel
websites have become increasingly prevalent and
are commonly used by those planning trips and
vacations.
While popular commentary about information
technologies rages, little academic inquiry has
actually sought to understand and explain online
environments (e.g., advergames) as either an ex-
tension of travel information seeking behavior in
general, or as a unique phenomenon. The use of
digital media speaks to larger issues in cultural,
psychological, and behavioral studies, and so this
chapter also should be relevant not just to new
media scholars and social scientists, but to a range
of those working in the hospitality industry as well.
This chapter begins by identifying linkage
points between advergames, tourism and three
major mass communication theories/approaches
media system dependency theory (Ball Rokeach
& DeFleur, 1976; DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach,
1989), uncertainty reduction theory (Berger &
Calabrese, 1975), and the uses and gratifications
perspective (Blumler & Katz, 1974). These will
serve as examples of how advergames and tour-
ism can be integrated into theories and models
attempting to explain the impact of information
technologies. They will also provide a springboard
for considering the nature of advergames with
regards to tourism.
92
Two Tickets for Paradise
Within each of these sections/research areas,
attempts will be made to identify concepts related
to advergames (e.g., persuasion, knowledge acqui-
sition) and discuss their place in the tourism and
hospitality industry. In addition, future directions
for research involving the relationships will be
laid out. Ultimately, this chapter will highlight
the importance of advergames to considerations
of tourism, and in doing so it will shine new light
on different strategies and approaches for those
working in the industry.
VIDEO GAMES
Not unlike the internet and cellular phones, video
games are such a predominant part of our popular
culture that it is hard to imagine a time before they
existed. Originally seen as an experiment, novelty,
or toy, video games were created in the early 1970s
and developed into a product of mass consumption.
They quickly expanded into a multi-billion-dollar
industry by the mid-1980s (Wolf, 2001), and this
was just the beginning. The popularity of video
game entertainment has boomed in recent years;
in 2008, the game industry reaped colossal profits
of $21.4 billion in the U.S., up a record-shattering
19.4% from $18 billion the previous year (NPD
Group, 2009). According to a 2005 Nielsen En-
tertainment study, individuals are now spending
more money on video games than on music, and
more Americans play video games than go out to
the movies (NPD Group, 2009), lending support
to the suggestion that video game play is displac-
ing other media use (Slocombe, 2005). Yet, what
do we actually know about online gaming (e.g.,
advergames) in regards to tourism and hospitality?
ADVERGAMES
There is a growing awareness in the corporate
world of the pervasiveness and importance of
virtual consumption, or the way players behave
Two Tickets for Paradise
when consuming in-game products and services
(Drennan & Keeffe, 2007). Large corporations
such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sun
Microsystems, Adidas/Reebok, Toyota and Star-
wood Hotels have rapidly been entering the virtual
worlds of Massively Multi-player Online Role-
Playing Games (MMORPGs) through advertising
and participation (Siklos, 2006). Many types of
organizations are starting to use advergames as
a part of their marketing strategy. Their aim is to
improve branding, to boost product awareness, and
collect detailed data about existing and potential
customers, clients, and supporters (Winkler &
Buckner, 2006, pp. 24).
Gaming provides an interactive platform for
companies to communicate with target audiences
in a much different way than traditional media
(Adweek Media, 2009). In fact, a recent Nielsen
Game study revealed that 36% of gamers who were
exposed to an in-game advertisement purchased,
discussed, or researched the item (Beirne, 2008).
However, few studies to date have examined
the relationship between the tourism industry
and advergames, or the delivery of advertising
messages through electronic games [ which]
aims to build brand awareness, to offer product
information, and to provide a means to compare
similar products (Hernandez, Chapa, Minor,
Maldonado & Barranzuela, 2004, pp. 117). How
could this new and exciting technology impact
the hospitality industry?
Several studies explored the level of recogni-
tion/recall of products, brands and companies in
advergames and whether product placement af-
fects consumers attitudes towards advertising, the
game and the product (Hernandez, Chapa, Minor,
Maldonado & Barranzuela, 2004; Chaney, Lin &
Chaney, 2004; Nelson, 2005; Winkler & Buckner,
2006; Wise, Bolls, Kim, Venkataraman & Meyer,
2008). Lee, Choi, Quilliam and Cole (2009) dis-
cussed how marketers use advergames to promote
food, specifically candy, gum and products high
in sugar, to children and found that fewer than 3%
of the games attempted to educate children about
nutritional and health issues. Conversely, Pempek
and Calvert (2009) examined how advergames af-
fect the consumption of healthy and non-healthy
snacks by low-income African American children
and found that this marketing strategy can actu-
ally promote healthier food and beverage choices,
which ultimately could help to stave off the obesity
epidemic. Additionally, Jin and Bolebruch (2009)
investigated the effects of spokes-avatars physi-
cal characteristics in terms of humanness (versus
non-humanness) on consumers evaluation of their
physical attractiveness and the information value
of the advertisement message (pp. 51). They
found that avatar-based advertising in Second
Life leads to increased product involvement and
positive attitudes toward a product.
Although only a handful of studies concerning
the effects of advergames on consumers attitudes
and behaviors and childrens eating habits exist,
one cannot deny the popularity of gaming and
its importance in interactive advertising now and
in the future. Previous examinations have been
successful at incorporating marketing strategies
and consumer behavior, and by posing impor-
tant questions and tackling relevant topics, past
work on advergames has created the stepping
stones for further examination of a flourishing
area of research. Nevertheless, no prior research
has empirically tested the impact of advergames
on tourism, and little attention has actually been
directed towards uncovering the relationships
between mass communication literature and the
tourism industry. This is a valuable consideration
for media scholars and anyone else interested in
the ability of advergames to affect outcomes of
tourism website use. A full consideration of link-
ages between hospitality and gaming is beyond
the scope of this chapter, but it will illustrate how
three prominent mass communication theories
relate to the industry and attempt to explain the
impact of advergames.
93

MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY,
GAMING AND TOURISM
According to media system dependency (MSD)
theory (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Ball-
Rokeach, 1985; DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989),
people have preferred media for acquiring in-
formation about different topics, and the more
they use those media the more persuasive those
technologies become. Understanding when, why
and how the media influence an individuals feel-
ings, beliefs or behavior is based on the level to
which the individual depends on the mass media
as an information source.
A general area of great interest to media schol-
ars is dependency, and this well-known theory
(MSD) has often been applied to mass media
research studies. Morton and Duck (2000) studied
the relationship between social identity and media
dependency in the prediction of safe sex attitudes
in the gay community. Another scholar (Switzer,
1985) used the MSD theory to observe the role
of the press in segregated South Africa. A further
example of research using MSD is Tosun and
Lajunens (2009) study examining young adults
passion for and obsession with Internet activities.
Schulz, Zeh and Quiring (2005) looked at German
citizens media use and dependency and the impact
it had on voter behavior. Additionally, MSD was
used to evaluate several crisis situations, including
the eruption of Mount St. Helens (Hirschberg, Dill-
man & Ball-Rokeach, 1986), the SARS epidemic
in China (Tai & Sun, 2007) and the 9/11 attacks
(Matsaganis & Payne, 2005; Kim, Jung, Cohen &
Ball-Rokeach, 2004). Unfortunately these studies
only focus on very specific and limited situa-
tions and do not necessarily link back to larger
questions regarding society, the user, levels of
potential uncertainty, etc. Looking at impacts of
and responses to advergames on tourism websites
could potentially fill these gaps.
94
Two Tickets for Paradise
The dependency relationships people develop
with the media are contingent upon two factors:
an individuals goals (understanding, orientation,
and play) and the resources (gathering, process-
ing, and disseminating) provided by the media
(DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989).
Goals
The types of media dependency interactions that
people develop are motivated by three important
goals: (1) understanding, (2) orientation, and (3)
play. In terms of gaming and the tourism industry,
understanding simply means the desire to use an
advergame on the travel website to learn more
about a location. What is this place like? What
are the cultures, rules, customs, people, etc. like?
What am I like in comparison?
Orientation refers to an individuals behavior.
What should I do if I go there? What attractions
should I see? What do I eat? How can I interact
with the locals? What is appropriate or effective
behavior/communication in this place?
Play refers to enjoyment, stimulation, or relax-
ation. What can I do for fun when I visit this place?
What activities can I enjoy with my family? By
myself? Where can I go to relax? It is important
to note that none of these goals, or any additional
ones, can readily be achieved without access to
recourses, particularly information.
Resources
DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989) posit that the
media controls three types of dependency-
engendering information sources, to which others
have to have access in order to attain their goals
(pp. 303). These three recourses are information
(1) gathering/creating, (2) processing, and (3)
dissemination. For example, people rely on the
resources, or information, that travel agencies
control in order to attain their personal goals.
Two Tickets for Paradise
The travel agency must first send someone out
to gather information about particular locations,
vacations, amenities, etc. that an individual needs
to know or is interested in learning about before
booking a trip.
Information processing refers to the transfor-
mation of raw information that has been gathered
or created (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989, pp.
303). During this step travel agencies process,
develop and manage a travel agents accounts so
that they can fit into a story on their website.
Lastly, travel agencies main goal is to disseminate
the gathered and processed information, which
could be accomplished through an advergame
on their website.
Of course its important to mention that media
dependency is a two-way street. Travel agencies
have their own goals and need to make money,
to be considered legitimate, and to remain stable.
These companies rely on people to purchase their
packages, recommend them to their friends, etc.
Without these recourses from individuals, travel
agencies stability and economic welfare would
be severely jeopardized (pp. 305).
What exactly does all of this mean for the
tourism industry? According to Ball-Rokeach,
Rokeach and Grube (1984) the greater the media
dependency, the greater the level of attention dur-
ing exposure, the greater the level of affect toward
the message and it senders, and the greater the
likelihood or post exposure communication about
the message and thus, the greater the probability
of message effects intended (pp. 13). Specifically,
tourism services can use interactive strategies
like advergames to aid in knowledge acquisition
and persuade people to take certain vacations,
upgrade to more expensive packages, engage
in recreational opportunities, etc. Additionally,
if hospitality services build a reliance on online
information, they can develop a profile of who
will be more persuaded by information in that
forum and they can customize and market certain
travel packages accordingly.
UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION,
INFORMATION SEEKING,
GAMING AND TOURISM
When planning for a vacation, individuals often
experience high levels of ambiguity or uncertainty.
Brashers (2001) explains that uncertainty exists
when details of situations are ambiguous, complex,
unpredictable, or probabilistic; when information
is unavailable or inconsistent; and when people
feel insecure in their own state of knowledge or
their state of knowledge in general (pp. 478).
According to uncertainty reduction theory (URT),
feelings of ambiguity can motivate people to
engage in information seeking behaviors in order
to reduce doubt and alleviate anxiety (Berger &
Calabrese, 1975). A lack of information may also
produce a feeling of loss of control and associated
stress. In these unstable or unknown situations,
a primary means of obtaining information and
knowledge is through the mass media, and per-
haps technologies such as advergames could help
minimize feelings of anxiety by showing specific
attractions/locations, providing information about
certain packages, offering ideas about recreational
activities, etc.
Ramierez, Walther, Burgoon, and Sunnafrank
(2002) argued that people seek out information
in their attempts to maintain cognitive harmony.
Uncertainty is an inherently uncomfortable state,
and information seeking is a common cognitive
strategy when that uncertainty is directly related
to a perceived threat. An individual is motivated
by a lack of information, and they convert this
motivation into a goal-driven task. Subsequently,
interactions with different sources of information
are required in order to obtain the needed informa-
tion and eliminate uncertainty. At this point, they
can assess their progress and determine whether
or not they received sufficient information, or if
they need to search further.
The majority of uncertainty reduction and
information seeking research focuses on inter-
personal relationships, healthcare, the workforce,
95

and crises. URT, originally conceptualized by
Berger and Calabrese (1975), offered insight into
the ways people deal with the beginning stages
of interpersonal relationships. Parks and Adelman
(1983) took it a step further and studied the com-
munication patterns of romantic partners. URT
has also been used to explain uncertainty in the
workplace: uncertainty about how to do a job,
what to expect in performance appraisals, and how
to manage relationships with others (Brashers,
2001, pp. 479). The healthcare industry draws on
URT, noting that patients who have severe and
life-threatening illnesses tend to actually avoid
seeking out information (Case, Andrews, Johnson
& Allard, 2005; Leydon et. al., 2000). Additionally,
URT was used to evaluate information seeking
behaviors in those who were victims of several
crises, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Lach-
lan, Spence & Seeger, 2009), Hurricane Katrina
(Lachlan, Spence & Griffin, 2009; Spence, Lach-
lan, Burke & Seeger, 2007) and the 35W Bridge
collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Lachlan,
Spence, Nelson & Shelton, 2010).
There are obviously numerous outlets for
acquiring travel information: friends, family mem-
bers, websites, books, brochures, travel agents, etc.
Yet visiting a hospitality website and playing an
advergame may lead to better results, not neces-
sarily in regards to information gathering, but in
overall feelings of contentment and comfort for
the user. Research shows that more participation in
the decision making process leads to higher levels
of satisfaction (Wheeless, Wheeless & Howard,
1984). Participation in making decisions involves
more than an individual communicating to others
about the trip. It is important that the advergame
actually addresses the areas of uncertainty that
exist and allows people to realize and attempt to
alleviate areas of uncertainty by playing the game.
Reducing uncertainty when planning a trip has
applicability in order to allow individuals to feel
more satisfied with their decisions. By playing an
advergame, an individual is actively participating
and choosing their next step. This technology
96
Two Tickets for Paradise
allows them the opportunity to become involved
with the information messages, and should lead
to a greater sense of comfort and certainty.
USES AND GRATIFICATIONS,
GAMING AND TOURISM
In the mass communication field, the uses and
gratifications (U&G) perspective (Blumler &
Katz, 1974), has been applied to examine the
motivations behind peoples choices in media
use and the success of these choices in meeting
underlying social and psychological needs. More
specifically, the U&G perspective states, in part,
that people perceive a variety of problems and pos-
sible solutions to those problems. Based on their
perceptions, people develop different motives for
gratification-seeking or problem-solving behavior,
which they meet through media consumption or
non-media-based activity (Lucas & Sherry, 2004,
pp 502). This model assumes that media use (and
other activities) plays a functional role for people.
People are goal-oriented in their behaviors and
they actively engage in activities in order to try to
achieve desired goals. For example, some people
may browse the internet to stay updated and to
search for information; others may play video
games to meet their need for entertainment.
The U&G perspective has been used in several
studies to develop taxonomies of motives for why
people use technology and new media (Sherry,
Lucas, Greenberg & Lachlan, 2006; Song, Larose,
Eastin & Lin 2004; Stafford, Kline, & Rankin,
2004). Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) found five
distinct motivations for using the Internet (inter-
personal utility, pass time, information seeking,
convenience, and entertainment). Other research-
ers have identified different needs that prompt the
use of various new media innovations and content
such as: VCRs (Cohen, Levy, & Golden, 1988;
Rubin & Rubin, 1989), videotext (Atwater, Heeter,
& Brown, 1985), remote control devices (Perse
& Ferguson, 1993), newspapers (Berelson, 1949;
Two Tickets for Paradise
Elliott & Rosenberg, 1987), radio (Herzog, 1940,
1944; Mendelsohn, 1964), email (Dimmick, Kline,
& Stafford, 2000), and video games (Sherry et al.,
2006). Most recently, Shelton (2010) developed
a list of nine motivations specifically geared to-
wards users of Second Life, a unique MMORPG
with a thriving economy where virtual goods and
services are purchased with real money (fantasy,
customization, role-playing, relationships, so-
cialization, escapism, relaxation, advancement/
challenge, and competition).
Games and tourism websites require audi-
ence members to become active media users.
For example, users may actively play an online
game or search a website for company informa-
tion by clicking on hyperlinks. This suggests that
advergames and websites are more goal-oriented
mediums than traditional media and that the us-
ers are aware of the needs they are attempting to
gratify. It is important to remember, however, that
tourism websites and advergames compete with
other sources of need satisfaction (friends, family
members, books, brochures, travel agents, etc.),
therefore these offerings need to be as informative
and entertaining as possible.
Motivations for engaging in advergames would
seem to be a fruitful avenue for tourism research.
In line with the U&G perspective, gratifications
sought, coupled with media use, will determine
whether or not those gratifications are met. Vincent
and Basil (1997) also explain that this perspective
predicts that the medium used is also determined
by viewers motivations and satisfactions with
previous use of that medium (pp. 382). The
next step would be to model user motivations as
an outcome of various predictors so that these
results will have more practical implications for
advertisers in the hospitality industry. A uses and
gratifications perspective seems ideal to apply to
future research in this area, however, one might
want to adopt different behavioral theory ap-
proaches (e.g., the Theory of Reasoned Action)
in the future as we move ahead in this vein.
CONCLUSION
This chapter highlights the potential for ad-
vergames and the tourism industry to work in
tandem. Advergames may not only positively
impact enjoyment of the searching process, but
also other positive outcomes such as persuasion
and knowledge acquisition. Future research should
attempt to link these outcomes to media theory,
tourism websites and advergames. This will help
advance knowledge of how travelers are affected
by emerging popular media. Given the plethora of
content available in on tourism websites, future
research should attempt to delve further into how
exactly the advergames are being used. Indeed,
there are a host of content areas from traditional
media effects research that can be examined in
the new domain of advergames.
Bearing in mind the standing video games
culturally occupy it cannot be ignored that social
effects are present. Future work should address the
many possible outcomes of advergames used in the
tourism industry in an attempt to better understand
this important and increasingly popular feature of
video game technology. However, since effects
cannot be inferred from content, surveys and ex-
periments should also be conducted. Surveys can
examine motives for advergame use, knowledge
acquisition through the site, and related measures,
while experiments can address the cognitive,
affective, and behavioral effects of advergames.
As with many forms of new media, advergames
are in a continual process of evolution and change,
and future research should attempt to track trends
in the development and use of these technolo-
gies. Advergames are indicative of how young
people are relying on digital media technologies
in increasing numbers, and these are obviously
important to them, but will these technologies
remain popular in their current form? Or will they
become more virtual, like the burgeoning Second
Life online gaming community where individuals
can use their avatars to travel? Time and research
will provide answers to these and other important
97

questions. Although the relationship between ad-
vergames and tourism websites is only beginning
to be explored, additional research on its impact
enjoyment, persuasion and knowledge acquisi-
tion is essential to the tourism industry, video
game producers, sponsors, and consumer-interest
groups, as well as to our own understanding of
tourism and the individuals who choose to travel.
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101
102

Chapter 7
The Role of Architecture
on Tourism Industry:
The Problem of (Mis)use of Building
Technology and Language of Heritage

Murat etin
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to shed light on the nature of architecture, its technological and cultural ramifications
on tourism industry. It elucidates the background of issues regarding the interaction between the fields
of cultural production (architecture) and cultural consumption (tourism). The chapter argues that power
of tourism industry has reached, under the pressure of global economics, to a capacity to turn even daily
architecture into instruments of touristic show. In this context, technology is utilized as an instrument
to produce such iconography only as a surface articulation. Thus, architecture becomes a commodity
of touristic consumption in this current socio-economic and cultural context. The pressure of tourism
industry seems to create a significant split between the architecture and its location in terms of specific
cultural roots. This tendency is discussed as a potential threat to sustainability of tourism industry itself
since it damages its own very source, that is to say, richness of cultural differences.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch007

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
INTRODUCTION
Within the framework of the relationships among
tourism management, approaches, global tourism
trends and technology, this chapter aims to cast
light on the status of architecture and its techno-
logical as well as cultural ramifications on the
ongoing tendencies in tourism industry (Adorno,
1991). The main focus of this chapter is on the
use of global building technologies at the peril
of local architecture which is a cultural asset for
tourism (Bourdieu, 1993). In other words, building
technology is tackled as a means which interferes
in between tourism and heritage, and disturbs their
natural, or rather, organic relationship (Fowler,
1993). Along this purpose, the economic, social,
cultural and philiosophical background of this
disturbance is elucidated with specific reference
to the field of architecture (Lasansky, 2004).
Tourism, as one of the most rapidly growing
sectors in the world in regard to economical,
technological and social transformations, fa-
cilitates significant interactions and transactions
among different countries (MacCannell, 1999).
After various successive stages of evolution and
self-criticism in regard to the issues of exces-
sive consumption (Slater, 1999) and thus loss of
natural and cultural resources, targets of tourism
has started to be shifted from an industry that
was developed along the axis of 3S (sun, sand,
sea) mass tourism which has been isolated from
the culture and economy of the loci, towards one
that is organized along the axis of 3E (education,
entertainment, environment) under the influence
of increasing concern for issues such as sustain-
ability, conservation of both heritage and nature,
etc. (Ellul, 1997). Thus, impact of tourism on
tangible and intangible assets of cultural heritage
has been placed to the center of tourism industry
(Chambers, 1997; Pickard, 2001). In that regard,
relationships between tourism, city planning,
heritage conservation, restoration and architecture
(Baud-Bovy & Lawson, 1998; Var & Gunn, 2002)
have gained utmost importance particularly from
the viewpoint of sociological impacts of tourism
activity on the cities it is performed (Ockman,
2005). On another yet parallel line, architecture
has taken the lead in tourism as the main object
of touristic activity and has recently generated
a specialized type called architecture tourism
whereby specialist trips are organized around the
cities worldwide to visit contemporary buildings
designed by well-known architects as well as his-
torically important or traditionally characteristic
buildings (Kahvecioglu & Ciravoglu, 2007).
Tourism movement, which boomed par-
ticularly during 1980s, introduced a very dense
and over urbanization causing; not only major
damages to coastal zones via massive construc-
tions, but also to local life by means of conver-
sion of local economies for only tourists, which
gradually resulting in the decline of these towns
during off-seasons, and eventually destroying
both local economy and social life. Nonetheless,
despite many negative consequences, tourism
activity continued its growth and became the
center of global social, cultural and economic
life. Therefore, the phenomenon of tourism, in
which diverse parameters play complex roles,
necessitates an intense interaction among sec-
tors and disciplines. Among these disciplines,
architecture stands out as a leading actor since it
not only facilitates investments, synthesizes the
requirements of comfort and entertainment or
organizes activities, technologies and spaces, but
also creates identities and produces the imagery
and iconography associated with branding of the
tourism investors. Today, hence, tourism industry
and architecture are in a comprehensive and very
close interaction.
As a matter of fact, authentically historical
architectural edifices have always triggered
tourism (Stoller, 1989) by their values as either
being witnesses to historical events, or repre-
senting various phenomena, or merely by their
monumentality, originality or other assets. These
unique masterpieces or contexts used to render
certain destinations more advenageous over the
103

others. Thus, relatively disadventageous locations
in terms of touristic attractions have developed
various strategies to overcome their position by
the utilization of architecture again (Donald,
2007) due to its representation capacity. One of
these strategies has been to create their own iconic
symbols through contemporary architecture and
its new forms by well-known designers, who are
promoted as celebrities, while the other strategy
being to simulate unique buildings and cities in
these inopportune places which has no relevance
to the location of the original. Recently, tourism
industry seems to be promoting not only fake
copies of historically important or well-known
buildings, cities but also their kitsch and eclectic
collage, such as monuments, pyramids, palaces,
urban plazas and even the whole city of Venice
in resorts. The consequences of this trend, which
is referred as Las Vegas effect or WoW effect, economic system seeks various ways not only
will be discussed below. Regarding the other, and
relatively more ethical strategy, such contempo-
rary architectural edifice itself can transform its
location into a magnet of touristic attraction by its
own very existence. The most typical example og
this sort is the town of Bilbao in Spain becoming a
touristic place by the construction of Guggenheim
Museum building by Frank Gehry and radically
transforming towns economy, which is defined
in literature as Bilbao effect (Zulaika, 2003).
As a result of this strong connection and inter-
action between architecture and tourism, tourism
industry gained a remarkable power over archi-
tecture. In this context, having gone way beyond
the reasonable touristic demand to experience
architecture in its original location, this power
has reached to a capacity to be able to turn daily
architecture into instruments of touristic show.
More precisely, tourism, when reached to the
required level of demand, can have the power to
transform buildings totally or partially. That is to
say, touristic demand can easily force develop-
ers, owners, local administrators, governers and
finally architects to convert, for instance, religious
buildings to art galleries, parliament buildings to
104
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
recreation areas, skyscrapers to panoramic towers,
private houses to museums etc. Doubtlessly, such
phenomena could easily be explained by mate-
rial aspects. From economical viewpoint, to start
with, one may suggest that although demand is
assumed to create the supply according to classical
economics, demand can be artificially created and
stimulated in order to maximize the profitability
of the capital. Space and time appear as two ma-
jor obstacles for the circulation of global capital
(Yirtici, 2005). Space and time, in conventional
terms, are bounded by local context, that is to
say, by geography and its specific spatial charac-
teristics and own rhythm of time. Nevertheless,
global economy requires such a local resistance
to be eliminated simply because homogeneity
will increase the fluidity of of global capital (Bau-
man, 1997). Therefore, the currently dominating
to break the links with locality, time and space
but also to reconstruct them in an abstract level.
Along this goal, it utilizes building technology to
materialize this deconstruction and reconstruction
of space-time relationship. Manifestations and
ramifications of these radical transformations will
be discussed below.
Therefore, this section will address the issue
of technology in tourism, and particularly that
of building technology, as a socio-cultural issue.
The argument developed in this section is cen-
tered on the notion of authenticity, its vitality for
sustainability of local economy, and thus, local
everyday life.
TOURISM, CULTURE AND
ARCHITECTURE
Tourism has originally stemmed from the human
need to other cultures, to experience heterogeneity
of life and the diversity of its cultural products,
artefacts on earth (Giddens, 1991). Thus, the
travels, which used to be real adventures due to
problems regarding transportation difficulties,
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
safety and cost issues, had gradually started to
be encouraged by technological advances par-
ticularly in transportation during 19th century. In
other words, tourism, which started as a cultural
enterprise, still places cultural activity onto its
center no matter how much it is also associated
with disciplines such as economis, logistics, etc.
Franklin (2003) defines tourism not only as a
cultural activity but also as a part of the phenom-
enon of globalization. The difference of tourism,
today, is its homogenizing effect which occurs in
two mutually interacting channels. Firstly, tour-
ism industry supply tourists everywhere with
more or less similar services, uniform catering,
hosting, and even the same artificial climate as
well as standard packages to the extent that they
provide them even with similar physical and
spatial settings. The aforementioned Vegas or
WoW effects are polarized manifestations of
such homogenization of the globe through tourism.
Secondly, tourists, in return, develop a behavior
in which they are interested more in the artificial
experiences, simulations and pseudo-local gift
items (that are mostly produced in China) than
the genuine, authentic and salient features of the
place and its people.
Holiday villages are typical examples of this
where guests, whose only contact with local cul-
ture is gift shops either pre-arranged by the tour
agency if not another in the duty-free just before
they leave the place at the end of their vacation,
are isolated from the everyday, real surrounding
of their destination. In an age of violence, crime
and terror, the underlying fears of people yield
in such a degree of isolation and artificialization
even in vacations, which defeats its initial purpose
of tourism that was to discover, encounter and
interact with the other (Giddens, 1991).
Thus, this homogenizing behavioural cycle and
the superficial interest in local culture develop a
state-of-mind of their own. In other words, being
tourist becomes an (ephemeral, distancing, super-
ficial) attitude towards life in general. Eventually,
everyday life and touristic life becomes inseper-
able (Erkal, 2007). The border which seperates
them first blurs, then finally collapses. Thus, the
global world envisaged by those who favoured
its homogenization becomes merely touristic;
entertaining on short-term basis yet monotonous
in the long run. On a similar note, Hannerz (2006)
suggests that tourists are becoming a significantly
influential social group to shape the city social
life and public realm due to increasing mobility
in the age of fast travel, information technology
and global economy. Referring to Culler (1989)s
studies on semiology of tourism, he emphasizes
the point that tourist as people staying in a place
too short to assess their environment through nei-
ther function nor context but rather throughtheir
guidebooks, cameras, and thus, images, icons and
associated events. This type of short-term percep-
tion and assessment which eventually exerts power
on the city to turn everything into a spectacular
show for tourists through signs (Barthes, 1977)
including spaces they experience. In other words,
for tourists, sign value of an architectural edifice
merits more than its use value. Thus, function,
as one of the essentials of architecture, becomes
suspended and reduced to the level of an object
that is consumed visually (Alsayyad, 2001). How
architectural product looks for a tourist gains more
importance than what it is produced for and what
it contains. In this context, architecture inevitably
becomes a part of the whole tour package disposed
for pleasure and entertainment. Consequently,
it is no longer part of its local culture although
tourism is based on the idea of selling culture
a significant part of which is characterized by its
unique architecture that is conditioned by local
social dynamics.
Nonetheless, contemporary architecture with
its new technologies and new language seems to
be replacing the authentic local products of archi-
tecture. Thus, tourism of architecture, which has
a siginificant shares in the global tourism activity,
is overemphasized so much that architecture of
tourism is considered as a field of specializa-
tion within the discipline of architectural design.
105

Particularly, considerable amount of tourism in
developed countries is oriented towards products
of architecture, some of which create attraction
due to their historical value whereas most of
which attract due to their capacity to represent
contemporary architecture.
Architecture, particularly for tourism, becomes
a commodity of consumption (Appadurai, 1988).
By the same token, architecture is considered as a
global asset in a world of intense communication
through help of technology. So, administrations
and developers compete with eachother to create
their own architectural assets for increasing their
share from the tourism market if they do not already
have their own existing architectural stock to be
marketed through tourism sector. In this process,
the use and value of architecture as tourism object
are reduced to temporary stage sets for being re-
placed with new icons (Hughes, 1991) to surprise
the spectator and signs for every new show that
is to be staged to satisfy the demands of rapidly
growing tourism industry. Such a consciousness
and desire to produce architecture as show even-
tually result in an inflation of iconic buildings
and promotion of kitsch buildings against the
real value of genuine architectural products that
reflect the true culture of a loci. At this point, the
issues of heritage conservation and renewal arise
as mechanisms of safeguarding the sustainability
of local cultures.
Having repeated that building technology is
discussed here as a cultural issue, this chapter
argues that concepts of technology and language
are mis-interpreted in architecture, particularly
when its relation to tourism industry is considered.
While the language is conceived as a mere iconog-
raphy devoid of its cultural components; from its
production processes, from social, geographical
or climatic factors, the technology is conceived
as an instrument to produce this iconography as
if it is merely a surface surface articulation like a
stage set for a show. That is why the architectural
literature takes a critical stance towards what is
called Vegas Effect. As a matter of fact, tourism
106
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
cannot sustain even itself, not only local life, by
relying purely on creating shows and temporary
settings unless some effort is made to revive the
culture through conservation and rehabilitation.
In regard to the relationship between tourism and
architecture, technology could only be judiciously
and critically applied to serve the rehabilitation
of the disturbed balance between tectonics and
skin, building and facade, real and fake, actual and
virtual, signified and signifier, content and form,
meaning and icon, in sum, between architecture
and show. Therefore, the issue of misinterpreta-
tion is tackled on two fronts; visual language and
building technology. The following successive
sections address these two interrelated issues
respectively.
MIS-INTERPRETATION
OF CULTURE AND ITS
ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE
This section argues that pressure of tourism
industry and consumerist misinterpretation of
local cultures (Slater, 1999) and their architec-
tural languages seem to have created a peculiar
type of urban-architectural forgery that is usually
reduced to skin-deep faade mimicry of local
architectural features which results in distorted
eclecticism of Disney Architecture or Las Vegas
Strip Architecture, background, sources, roots and
aims of which are different from socio-cultural
context of cities at stake. Therefore, the city
of collective memory (Boyer, 1996) seems to
have been replaced by the postmodern condition
(Lyotard, 1984; Jameson, 1991; Harvey, 1991)
of city becoming a place of show and display
(Debord, 1967). The architecture as show and
display can so easily and quickly be consumed
that global cities which are in competition to at-
tract more tourists have to produce new shows,
new signs and icons new buildings serve for that
purpose (Urry, 1995). Thus, seductive outlook of
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
their new icons have to fascinate the minds of the
new tourist population.
Although monuments gradually lose their
power on the collective memory, the demand for
new icon buildings does not decrease. That is the
reason why bigger buildings, with strange sculp-
tural forms as enigmatic signifiers (Jencks, 1995)
are still being built by stararchitects (as celebri-
ties and even superheroes) as remedies (Figure
1) for all the ills of the contemporary city that
is rapidly losing its past, heritage and thus char-
acter. After economic success of Bilbao effect,
developers demand has profoundly increased for
iconic despite various socio-cultural concerns and
drawbacks. Thus, these iconic buildings multiply
through mimetic processes (Blackmore, 1999).
In a world and time dominated by technology
and media; the ambiguity and speculations cre-
ated by iconic architecture has gradually been
accepted as a means of being mediatic. Not only
ambigous sculptural forms (Gelernter, 1995) but
also language produced by techniques of copy
and collage turns into architecture a spectacular
show and display. These techniques are imple-
mented in such an exaggerated and distorted
Figure 1. Buildings for tourism as enigmatic icons and star architects as superheroes; A collage of
Guggenheim Museum building silhouette in Bilbao, Spain guarded by architects Frank Gehry and Zaha
Hadid ( 2010 Murat Cetin)
manner to make the show more interesting for
tourists that the end product is not more than
kitsch. This trend not only affects the exterior
image but gradually space program and content
of the building as well. Thus, architecture loses
its grounds by becoming a skin (Semper, 1989),
a mask or a cover rather than what it exists for.
Consequently, a process which turns office sky-
scrapers to watchtowers or worship spaces to
galleries is being witnessed.
Architectural product accommodates two types
of values; use and meaning (Guzer, 2007). While
premodern era was characterized by the fact that
meaning was collectively produced by the society
(Rapoport, 1982) modernity defined the meaning
value over its use value (Perez-Gomez, 1983). In
other words, a rational link or correlation between
the tectonic existence of an architectural edifice
and its formal and artistic expression was inquired
until the end of the twentieth century. However,
together with post-modern consumption society,
these two values are divorced and new value
judgements started to influence architectural
products, too, as in all channels of consumption
objects. Consequently, aspects of meaning and
107

identity have started to compete and challenge
the functional aspects of buildings. Thus, today,
aspects of meaning and identity, which once was
the contribution of architect, directly became a
program input defined clearly by developers,
investors, corporate institutions or governments
particularly in tourism industry to boost up the
economy of a city. The manifestations of refunc-
tioning of architecture as an instrument of prestige
and economic generator could be observed in a
wide spectrum ranging from Mitterands Paris
Effect in Europe to Dubai Effect on the Middle
East region.
Doubtlessly, functional flexibilities brought by
technological advances and the resulting physical
and spatial transformations have an accelerating
impact on the process of the divorce between use
and meaning values. Therefore, the next section
will elucidate the advances of technology that
paved the way for such a radical cultural trans-
formation in the way we built our environment.
MIS-INTERPRETATION OF
BUILDING TECHNOLOGY
In addition to obvious and direct relation between
building and technology, there is a very subtle and
indirect relation between tourism and technology.
The advances in technology profoundly change
not only the way people live but also how they
perceive. This gradual transformation may eventu-
ally shift human cognitive schemata which would
lead to a new phase, and thus, state of human
existance. No matter how far and distant such a
phase may seem, consequences of abrupt leaps in
this transformation process that are implemented
through our fascination with technology might de
destructive since our biological and mental ties
with reality, nature, location, culture and tradition
have not yet been totally removed. Therefore the
relation between these strong ties and evolving
technology should be re-considered particularly
108
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
in the fields of cultural production (architecture)
and cultural consumption (tourism).
This section will address the issue of techno-
logical advances and their impact on architecture
on two channels; first one is IT based technologies
the other is construction technologies. Both types
of technologies are discussed from the viewpoint
of their pressure on the transformation of culture
and architecture as one of its subsets.
Impact of IT and Media on the
Reality of Architecture
As a matter of fact, all commodities (including
space) needed continuously changing faces in
Post-Fordist production systems. Technology is
utilized to enable commodities to change very
quickly. Particularly, IT based technologies and
media technologies were favoured to overcome
the sheer physicality and materialty of real life
which stand as major obstacles in this context of
rapid and frequent changes occurring in high-speed
(Virilio, 1998). Thus, simulation and virtual reality
found their ground to flourish in such a context
(Baudrillard, 1994). They served the demands of
economic system so well that they have finally
become an addiction today. Most aspects of life
are shifting towards simulated spaces in todayss
post information society. Within the current
euphoria of information technologies such as 4G
telecommunication, worldwide web, electronic
trade, electronic state, virtual social networks etc.,
our living and perception have been significantly
altered since the 19th century, particularly in the
last few decades. Architecture is not an excep-
tion to this transformation; and neither is tourism
industry (Pease et al., 2007).
Ucar (2007) draws attention to a 19th century
invention and comments on its influence of the
development of tourism; La Nature coup dil,
or widely known as Panorama by Robert Barker
(Parcell, 1996). He suggests that although they
disappeared in 20th century, it can be considered
as an evolution because they are still in our daily
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
lives as a notion of virtual reality. Interactive
cameras and web-based programs to combine our
photographs provide us with panoramic images
with 360 degrees views. In fact, panorama in the
19th century was more than a device to provide
360 degree images, but was more of a studiously
choreographed magical stage performance to
puzzle the viewer (Oettermann, 1997). The tech-
niques developed by panorama had paved the
way for advances in photography and movies.
Similar to present times, the rising demand for
knowledge in an age of information boom follow-
ing the widespread dissemination of books had
created an intellectual aura of experiencing this
new information about others. No matter how
difficult, expensive and dangerous the travel was,
the demand to see other places, people, cultures,
landscapes, buildings, food, artifacts etc. was
met by bringing those locations to the people
through this new technological initiative what
is later called in North America as Cyclorama.
This need was intended to be satisfied with a
unique technology based on providing virtually
realistic images. It was achieved by applying
principles carefully derived from the disciplines
of painting, optics, theatre and architecture with
the available technology of the time. So, first
seeds of todays architecture as a mediatic show
or icon were planted by invention of panorama
in the 19th century.
Under the pressure of the demand for con-
tinuously changing faces in the current economic
system, architecture, thus, is in a difficult position
between the masses as its consumer and corporate
sector as its financer. Therefore, architecture seems
to have developed a double-faced attitude with the
help of image-oriented cultural infrastructureand
technological superstructure in order to overcome
this paradox caused by the sudden and radical
shift in capital ownership. The new power (of the
corporate capital) and her (artistic and spatial)
weapons should be disguised in a seducing new
skin (Till, 1999). Market demand for such dis-
guise seems to have reached almost to a level of
fetishist obsession with newer forms (Pietz, 1993).
Hence, architecture has recently started to serve
as a new package in order to market the products
of corporate building sector. Marketing through a
new package necessitated the use of a new media
(Ramonet, 2002). In a society which has dogmatic
belief in media, the arts have also been pumped-up
by the media and its related technologies. What is
unfamiliar, interesting (no matter how strange it
could be), has become the most wanted feature in
this tv/video/internet oriented media (McLuhan et
al., 1989). Hence, new types of spaces have been
emerging with the strangest possible forms and
iconographic language.
Radical leaps in technological advances,
profoundly transform the way people conceive
art (Mitchell, 1994). The concept of simulation
(Baudrillard, 1994) with the help of increased
ability of computation seems to have enabled the
creation of a marketable imagery of space (Fou-
cault, 1973). Although this new visual revolution
is welcomed by the profession, the real problem
was the possibility of realising this abstract image
in concrete with the current building technologies.
Moreover, further production, re-production and
re-presentation of this new space unavoidably (yet
magically) blurred the borders between real and
virtual (Mitchell, 1996). Inevitable consequences
of this phenomenon were manifold. It was meant
to weaken the tectonic conditions and traditions
in which architecture is evolved. Its seductive
nature was meant to cause one to discard its true
assets simply because of its market value. Its
popular merits seem to have pushed its social
responsibilities aside. The question is whether it
is architecture any longer.
109

Impact of Building Technology on
the Materiality of Architecture
Another channel in which technological advances
make significant impact on architectureof tourism
is the building technology. Traditionally, building
activity and architectural language as its cultural
expression were conditioned by the limitations
of material, available workmanship, principles
of economy, and conventions of construction
techniques that were lenient with forces of nature.
Currently, on the contrary, construction technol-
ogy has been usuriously pushed in a direction to
enable architects and enginners producing images
to satisfy this aforementioned demand of touristic
consumption. Production of steel in vast amounts
as well as advances in steel construction has ini-
tially started the process of a reform in architecture
starting from the 19th century onwards.
During the 20th century, developments in
glass technology enabled to go beyond the exist-
ing limitations of construction. Recently, glass
technology is developed into such a level that
it is no longer merely a material that provides
transparency, view and light through windows,
but an intelligent environmental control shell,
and moreover, a structural component of build-
ings. In parallel to these developments, inventions
and advances in material science engouraged the
use of various alloys, compositions, chemicals,
plastics and special fabrics in building industry.
The increasing use of these materials in com-
bination with various forms of steel structures
also initiated a shift from load bearing systems
to tensile systems in construction of buildings.
Furthermore, the remarkable progress in the field
of electronics, nano technology, artificial intel-
ligence, remote communication systems paved
the way for the age of smart buildings (Seltzer,
1992). Consequently, conventional tectonics of
building was replaced by the tectonics of skin
architecture largely determined by the use of a
wide variety of curtain wall faades.
110
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
All of these developments have rapidly and
totally altered the very nature of architecture as
a functional and aesthetic shelter into a display
shell. Like the billboards of Las Vegas strip, the
tourism architecture has turned into a circus where
jugglers of archirtecture perform their skills of
acrobacy of forms and images with buildings
in shape of; for instance, boats, transatlantics,
spaceships, burgers, cakes, toys, animals, plants,
fruits, hills, rocks, clouds, daily devices, instru-
ments, iPods, tv screens or buildings as replicas of
Topkapi Palace, Kremlin Palace, or of Venice with
its water canals, or Moscow with its plazas etc. In
sum, architecture has turned into artistic creation
of interesting objects that also accommodates hu-
man functions, that is to say, buildings that look
like anything but architecture. In this context,
emergent building technology encourages creation
of fake facades which may look like traditional
architecture. Moreover, contemporary materials
and techniques allow architects to produce mim-
icry of history through forms and figures borrowed
arbitrarily from past without any reference to its
context or constituent conditions. Nonetheless,
this anachronistic attitude as well as flattening
of whole history and its associated aspects into a
skin-deep cosmetic surface treatment will serve
nothing but to terminate the existing weak ties and
connections of humans to their roots in nature,
place and culture. By the same token, this will,
soon, result in tourism industry to sabotage its own
resources that are mainly embedded in the cultural
content of localities unless an alternative strategy
is established regarding the relationship between
culture and tourism. Development of strategies for
sustainability of local cultures requires an empha-
sis on the thorough and rigorous study of genuine
cultures, their multi-faceted aspects and contexts
rather than its visual replication. Therefore, at this
point, the emphasis must be given to the issue of
architectural heritage and its conservation.
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
GENUINE CULTURAL ASSETS
AND CONSERVATION OF
ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE
Although tourism industry may invest on other as-
sets to increase its profit, historical and traditional
context is the most valuable and sustainable asset
for tourism industry (Maciocco & Serreli, 2009;
Ulled Merino et al., 1986). The first and the most
important salient feature of this asset, that is to say,
traditional context is its originality. The priority
of tourism industry must not only to provide a
certain level of comfort to its customers but also
assure the sustainability of this vulnerable cultural
asset both as a means of protecting its own invest-
ment as well as a social responsibility. Genuinely
traditional architecture is the main element in the
manifestation of this cultural asset (Singh 2007).
Authentic architectural heritage should not be
sacrificed for the artificial architecture of theme
hotels via kitsch replication of the genuine in ir-
relevant locations and contexts with fake materials
and false proportions. The objectives of tourism
industry to generate new virtual environments to
stimulate tourists fantasy world through these
theme hotels seem to have followed the easiest
path and inevitably ended up with production of
very cheap and non-creative images via various
packages. The profits accumulated through this
populist initiative can neither justify the damage
given to cultural assets nor legitimize the extra
cost paid by communities have to pay to sustain
their everday lives and cultural existence (Lefe-
bvre, 1991). Furthermore, the enormous cost that
will be required for these buildings to be removed
or replaced once their fake imagery is outdated
must not be forgotten. Similar to the damages
tourism investments caused during 1980s via the
destruction of nature, forests and coasts, the cur-
rent developments will create damages that are
not only very hard and costly to compensate but
also irreversible in terms of socio-cultural rami-
fications. Thus, any investment that is intended
to serve tourism industry should discourage the
production of this fake history through WoW
effect created by these theme hotel chains.
The objective of tourism industry should focus
on contributing to local culture by architecture
whether it is a restoration or conservation of a
product of authentic culture or a construction of
a new product of Bilbao Effect, but definitely
not by promotion of replicas which will degrade
the originals.
Architectural edifices, particularly master-
pieces have always attracted attention. Therefore,
they play a major role in the tourism income of
their region as well as their country. The impor-
tance of Eiffel Tower or Louvre Palace for Paris,
Big Ben Clock Tower and Buckingham Palace
for London, Hagia Sophia Museum, Suleymaniye
Mosque and Topkapi Palace for Istanbul is crucial
for their tourism potential. Nevertheless, none of
these edifices stand out individually, on the con-
trary, as an integral part of the pattern constituted
by the cultural assets of the city in which they
are located. Moreover, they acquire their value
through time as a historical asset whereas the cur-
rent buildings are immediately put into the center
of attention via marketing strategies right after the
moment after their production if not during their
planning and production phases. Unfortunately,
new architecture, when conceived as a tool for
tourism, has become a part of a process which
homogenizes and monotonizes the environment
at the peril of genuine qualities.
Therefore, tourism industry should seek ways
of collaborating with the discipline of conservation
of architectural heritage in addition to sponsoring
and managing the restoration of cultural heritage
that is under the threat of deterioration (Orbasli,
2000). Nonetheless, conservation merely for tour-
ist is not a favourable or sustainable solution either.
Instead, local communities must be supported
to maintain their living and producing to enable
them sustaining themselves without the help of
tourism during off-seasons. Therefore, tourism
industry should take initiatives in boosting local
economies and take measures against sweeping
111

effects of global economy simply to ensure the
continuity its base of existence. Along this path,
ties with local history, local nature, local materi-
als, local arts and crafts and local rituals should
be enhanced with integrated strategies. Only
then, the devastating effects of tourism on culture
could not only be prevented but on the contrary be
reversed towards serving the local communities
and sustainability of cultures around the globe so
that tourism could sustain itself without inventing
and investing on new shows forever.
CONCLUSION
This chapter elucidates the impact of tourism on
social and cultural values and assets with specific
reference to its strong mutual interaction with
architecture. This interaction is tackled from the
perspective of the conservation of cultural heritage
and its sustainable development. It is argued that
this interaction is threatened by economic and
technological pressures and needs for an urgent
shift from the current reduction of cultural assets
and traditional features into superficial icons or
surface articulations towards conservation of au-
thentic character and genuine products to assure
its own sustainability.
As discussed above in detail, tourism industry is
undergoing a rapid expansion causing the breakage
of its link between space, time under pressure of
capitalist economics to either create or stimulate
the demand (Harvey, 1985). Along this line of
homogenizing action, it utilizes architecture as a
means to globally create artificial and exaggerated
settings for its spectacular shows legitimizing the
promotion of populist and kitsch culture at the
peril of locality and genuinity. Misplacement of
place-specific assets or features to create these
new spatial settings causes cultural confusions.
The fact that genuine urban-architectural language
which reflects this harmony of space and time
is very attractive for tourist seems to be usually
subdued in favour of architecture that looks like
112
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
Disneyworld or Las Vegas Strip, which too, might
attract tourists in specific context since they are the
authentic products of the (space-time) context they
are formed within. However, other cities should
avoid replicating this type of populist products.
They rather should keep them in a distance to
highlight their own assets.
Particularly, this difference is blurred in societ-
ies where critical culture is not very well estab-
lished (Guzer, 2007). In other words, buildings that
are pumped up with exaggerated scale, material
and formal expressions as well as naively direct
references to history could easily be confused
with avant-garde architectural experiments. Such
an attitude not only creates a conflict between the
real functional or tectonic values of building and
its sign values (Baudrillard, 1981) but also renders
architecture as an exaggerated product of fashion
or daily values of taste(lessness) rather than a
product of special design process. The major dif-
ference, however, lies in the following distinction;
between creating an attractive architecture and
using architecture to attract people, or between
turning architectural product into a sign and using
existing signs to make architecture.
Doubtlessly, the use of architecture as an in-
strument of prestige can and should be considered
as a positive ground for architecture. However,
productive use of this ground for architecture is
only possible through widespread establishment
of the critical culture, that is to say, through not
only a certain distance from easily consumable
direct references to history but also a process of
abstraction and interpretation of existing knowl-
edge rather than that of instant products made
up of popular signs and icons. Hence, space is
essentially a public commodity, and therefore,
it can be monopolised neither by the capital nor
by the architect. On the other hand, a new vision
and understanding the ontological transformation
that architecture is undergoing is also needed
for the discipline of architecture (Yirtici, 2007).
For architecture to become the subject rather
than object of the current social reality in which
The Role of Architecture on Tourism Industry
architecture exists, architecture has to develop
its own tactics that are critical yet not exclusive
of the global economic logic which shakes all
known phenomena so far. Consequently, tourism
industry should develop ways to heal the severe
split between the architecture and its location in
terms of cultural roots specific to location caused
by the pressures exerted by mechanisms of global
economy.
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Virilio, P. (1998). Speed and Politics; An Essay on
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Dromology, Semiotext(e). New York: Columbia
Stoller, P. (1989). The Taste of Ethnographic University Press.
Things: The Senses in Anthropology. Philadelphia,
Yirtici, H. (2005). Cagdas Kapitalizmin Mekansal
PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Orgutlenmesi. Istanbul, Turkey: stanbul Bilgi
Tafuri, M. (1973). Architecture and Utopia; De- niversitesi Yayinlari.
sign and Capitalist Development. Cambridge,
Yirtici, H., (2007). Turizmin Nesnesi Olan
MA: MIT Press.
Mimarln Ekonomi Politii. Mimarlik, 336.
Till, J. (1999). The Vanity of Form. The
Zulaika, J. (2003). Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa:
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doi:10.1080/136023699373990
Textbooks.

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116

Chapter 8
Emerging Trends in Tourism
Industry in Oman
Neeta Baporikar
Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Sultanate of Oman

ABSTRACT
Tourism industry is the largest industry world wide and is the main source of economic development
of countries like Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai. It is also the main source of income generation for
countries like Mauritius, Spain etc. Oman being the second largest country in the Middle East possessing
wealth of natural resources has everything to offer to the tourists. It has a long coastline with pristine
beaches, beautiful mountains, and worlds best deserts with rolling sand dunes. With breath taking
Khareef festival of Salalah, Musundam in the Khasab region which is referred to as Norway of Arabia
and Bhala with its forts and castles being listed in the UNESCO world heritage monuments, Oman is
one among the best ten countries of the world for tourists to travel (International Travel Magazine). This
chapter attempts to review the strategic approach adopted for tourism development, gives the SWOT
analysis for the tourism industry and discusses the emerging trends of tourism and related sectors like
hospitality, travel and aviation, training and education with special reference to Sultanate of Oman.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch008

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
BACKGROUND
The importance of the tourism system for eco-
nomic development in Oman has been clearly
acknowledged in the development strategies and
plans. Despite the recognition of the potential
significance of the tourism system for economic
development there have been few detailed and
comprehensive studies of the structure, dynamics
and potential opportunities of tourism develop-
ment. Moreover, the research that has appeared
tends to be extremely narrow in sectored and/or
spatial focus. This in turn renders it unhelpful in
terms of a more general understanding the trends
and the need of the strategic approach for tour-
ism management in Oman. In the context of such
limitations and in particular the lack of detailed
research covering the tourism sector as a whole,
strategic management of tourism is difficult to
undertake.
Purpose of the Project
To gather relevant data to understand the
trends and dynamics of the tourism econ-
omy in Oman and the challenges that con-
front it.
To provide the basis for an action plan and
a set of strategic development interven-
tions to assist tourism service providers,
and to maximise the impact of tourism
development.
Objectives:
1. Understand the trends and effectiveness of
government policy,
2. Identify impact on growth of related business.
3. Gaps in implementation of tourism policy
The core objectives of the research are first, to
gather relevant data to understand the trends and
dynamics of the tourism of Oman and the chal-
lenges those confront it and then to provide the
basis for an action plan, and a set of strategic de-
velopment interventions, to assist tourism service
providers, and to maximize the impact of tourism
development within Oman.
Questions for Investigation
and Research Approach
The research questions to be addressed here
are directly related to the above objectives. The
research approach and research outputs relate to
the core questions of the investigation and the
research approach begins from the basis that at
the national level a growing body of research has
been undertaken on the general issues concerning
tourism development in Oman.
The research approach that is used involved
several stages of analysis:
First an outline of the importance of tour-
ism as an economic activity in Oman is
provided.
Second, the current policy frameworks
that guide tourism development in Oman
are analysed and a review of the domestic
tourism structure is made.
Third, a detailed description and analysis
of current tourism trends, with specific at-
tention to international and domestic tour-
ism is considered, a macro-analysis and
profile of the tourism economy in Oman is
made and an analysis is given of the key
features of the most important role-players
in the Oman tourism system.
Fourthly, the fallout of tourism develop-
ment namely need of trained manpower
leading to creation of educational institu-
tions thereby facilitating the national ob-
jective of Omanisation is also discussed.
117

Data Sources and Methodology
As compared to other economic sectors, such as
agriculture, manufacturing or mining for which
there is considerable official data at the national
level, the tourism sector is distinguished by the
poor state of official data collection. It is, therefore,
not surprising that there is minimal official infor-
mation upon which to provide a macro-analysis
of the tourism sector. Given this context the first
major task of this investigation was to collect
and compile relevant data. This information was
collected from the information offices of the lo-
cal authorities and Tourisms web-directories. It
has to be noted that the methodology used might
have led to certain tourism information or data
being over-looked. On the other hand, however,
the methodology works on the same basic search
behaviour of potential tourists and tourism sector.
This data was augmented with survey material
collected during March and April 2009.
This chapter also examines how many regions/
communities have been able to improve their tour-
ism levels effectively in recent years. It particularly
focuses on the Oman (GCC countries) strategy for
tourism in the past few years and how it has ac-
complished its goals. It analyzes their strategic plan
according to the insights and trends identified in a
critical review of the peer-reviewed and scholarly
literature. The further analysis presented is based
on informal discussions with tourism officials and
tourism product providers/enterprises. In terms of
the tourism enterprises the focus of the discus-
sions was upon the organization, development
and problems of tourism enterprises operating in
all spheres of the provincial tourism economy.
In doing so, a deliberate attempt has been made
to get as many views as possible so as to capture
as wide a range of opinions as possible on core
issues surrounding the tourism sector.
118
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
INTRODUCTION
The Sultanate of Oman occupies the south eastern
tip of the Arabian Peninsula - 300,000 sq. km pos-
sessing about 1,700 km of coastline having most
diverse landscape including fjord-like rugged
mountains in the far north, magnificent tracts of
desert and a lush south possessing rich variety of
flora and fauna together with panoramic beauty of
mountain ranges. Evidence of a glorious ancient
past is spread all over the country boasting more
than 500 forts, castles, and towers. The varied
geography makes for a wide range of climatic
conditions. The best time of the year to visit Oman
is between October and April, when the weather is
pleasant, warm in the day and cool in the evening.
The average temperature is 25-35 degree C dur-
ing the day which plummets to 17-19degree C.
Oman enjoys many unique features of rich
culture and traditional lifestyle in almost every
aspect. People are friendly and offer incomparable
hospitality. Historically, Oman is a seafaring na-
tion. Prior to discovery of oil in 1967, the countrys
economy was based mainly on agriculture and
fishing. Oil production has significantly changed
the economic and social characteristics of the
country and provided the resources for rapid
economic development and rise in the peoples
income levels, especially since His Majesty Sultan
Qaboos bin Said took over the throne in 1970.
Omanis are followers of Islam and tolerant
with a great sense of humour. Oman is a safe,
inexpensive country in which to travel to, with
much to see and a lot to experience (McQuillan,
2001). In contrast to many other countries in the
region, an important feature of Oman for continu-
ing its development of international trade including
tourism is its tolerance of foreigners, religions
and lifestyles, social beliefs, customs, and its
traditional Arabic flavour. Two of the slogans used
in promoting Oman are The Essence of Arabia
and bring a friend to Oman. The slogans refer
to the nature of the Omani people and promising
the visitors that they will experience something
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
unique and different. Oman has been identified by
a leading travel magazine Conde Naste Travel-
ler as one of the ten best countries in the world
for tourism. Tourism Industry is relatively new
to Oman. A lot of new tourism and hospitality
projects are coming up throughout the country.
This has enhanced the employment opportunities
in the industry. However, the awareness among
the Omani public has to improve to consider a
career in the tourism industry.
COUNTRY PROFILE OF OMAN
The Sultanate of Oman is located on the south-
east of the Arabian Peninsula and has an area of
approximately 309,5002 km. It is bordered on
the west by Saudi Arabia, to the northwest lie
the United Arab Emirates and to the southwest
is Yemen. The east coast meets with the Arabian
Sea and the Gulf of Oman. In the south of the Sul-
tanate is Salalah, the administrative capital of the
Dhofar region. The capital of Oman is Muscat, a
cosmopolitan, but relaxed city, free from the hustle
and bustle found in many of other capital cities in
the gulf. Oman is a surprisingly a green country,
particularly in Dhofar, due to its location on the
monsoon paths. Landscaping and beautification
are priorities of the municipalities, and gardens,
parks and grassy knolls line the main highway.
The countryside is varied, from rugged mountain
ranges to desert sands, to green and, lush wadis
(riverbeds). The climate in Muscat is markedly
different from that in Dhofar: during the winter,
Muscat enjoys temperatures of, average, 30 De-
grees Celsius, and dropping to around 18 Celsius
at night. However, in the summer, Muscat bakes
in 45-48 degree Celsius, while Dhofar cools down
in the light monsoon rain.
The Omani people are friendly and welcoming
to visitors. Although Arabic is their main language,
English is spoken frequently and is often used as
the lingua franca. Despite their relaxed air, the
Omanis are quite conservative people and respect
their privacy and, in particular, their religion should
always be observed. Modesty is the keyword in
how to dress. Women should wear loose, long
garments, ensuring that their shoulders and knees
are covered. Men should wear long trousers and
tops with sleeves. Swimming costumes are fine
for the beach or the pool. During the holy month
of Ramadan, all Muslims fast during the hours of
daylight. Visitors to the country should remember
that eating, drinking and smoking is not allowed
in public at this time.
His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said is Omans
ruler. He acceded to the throne in 1970 and in
the span of 34 years has transformed the country
into one, which boasts of modern and advanced
healthcare systems, education, telecommunica-
tions networks and a stable economy. Although the
Sultan has ultimate power in governing the country,
various ministries perform the daily administra-
tion of the land. The Sultan is a well-respected
leader, both at home and in the international arena.
In recognition of his role in Middle East peace
keeping, the National Council on US-Arab Rela-
tions presented him with the International Peace
Award in 1988.
Culture
The majority of Omanis are Ibadi Muslims, fol-
lowers of Abd Allah ibn Ibad. Around 25% are
Sunni Muslims and live primarily in Sur and
the surrounding area and in Dhofar. The Shia
minority lives along the Al Batinah coast in the
Muscat-Matrah region. Ibadism is an outgrowth
of the Kharijite movement, a variant form of Islam
practiced by descendants of a sect that seceded
from the principal Muslim body after the death of
the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632. Adherence
to Ibadism accounts in part for Omans historical
isolation.
The research showed that the differences in
regions of Oman represent a challenge for policy-
makers seeking to introduce sustainable tourism
development initiatives into a potentially fragile
119

and sensitive cultural environment. However, the
Oman Tourism Strategic Plan is comprehensive
and ambitious initiative designed to provide all
regions with a wide range of developmental
programs that can serve to promote employment
and living standards for the large percentage of
indigenous people living there. The research also
showed, though, that such development initiatives
must be approached thoughtfully to avoid harming
the very things about a particular region that make
it attractive to niche travelers in the first place,
and this is especially the case with the people of
the Oman today.
Tourism and GDP
The development of tourism has become one of
the key objectives of Omani development plan-
ning, as it is particularly suited to creating jobs
for young Omanis. Omans development plan
concerning tourism is focused on attracting foreign
investment in projects such as hotels, golf courses,
and theme parks. This industry offers a variety of
employment opportunities for a rapidly expanding
Omani workforce, but is dependent on develop-
ing education and training institutions to support
growth (MOM). The current limit on tourists is
set at 50,000 a year, but the government plans to
expand that number to 100,000 in ten years, and
728,000 by 2020 which can be accomplished
through easing of visa rules. All of these must be
accomplished while balancing Omans delicate
environment as only 1% of Omans land is under
cultivation and hence resources such as water and
land must be used wisely.
The tourism sector in Oman is solely man-
aged by the government. The newly established
Ministry of Tourism has been entrusted with four
key objectives aiming to:
Increase the tourism sector contribution to
the GDP from current 0.8% to about 5% by
the year 2020.
120
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
Increase the level of employment of Omani
nationals in the sector from current 37% to
90% by the year 2010.
Increase average annual growth rate of
income from tourism by about 7% for the
period 2005-2010, and be responsible for
the promotion and marketing of Oman as a
tourist destination.
Tourism Development Plans
The governments detailed master plan, called the
Tourism Priority Action Plan, identifies integrated
tourism development projects for five regions in
Oman together with a marketing programme for
each of these regions, which will present a new,
clear and distinct national brand, Oman - The
Essence of Arabia (MOT). The focus will be on
eco-tourism, sun, sea and sand facilities, cultural
and heritage attractions, adventure tourism, coastal
resorts and leisure retreat resorts. Plans to estab-
lish an alternative destination different from the
commercial throng of Dubai on the Gulf tourism
map are considered to offer quality tourism to both
GCC and nationals of farther countries with more
sedate and culturally-enriched experience (MOT).
The Interior regions also boast many historic
structures perhaps the best known is in the city
of Bahla whose fort is on the UNESCO World
Heritage list. Other cities in the interior such as
Nizwa, Salalah, and Barka each are also distinct
for their traditional industries such as Jewellery,
Tourism Development Strategy
The government of Oman has developed a strategy
to create national economy based on increasing
private enterprise. The strategy is based on using
its oil revenues (which are small by Middle East-
ern standards) to finance its initial modernization
of basic infrastructure and education. All of this
was overseen by a Development Council which
is currently in its Fifth Five Year Development
Plan. Development has been focused on three
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
areas, the first is basic industry mainly in the
mineral sector in which Oman has rich deposits
of gold, copper, chromites, asbestos, manganese,
gypsum, limestone, marble, and coal, the second
area is agriculture and fishing and the third sec-
tor is tourism. (MONE) Omans development
plan concerning tourism is focused on attracting
foreign investment in projects such as hotels, golf
courses, and theme parks. This industry would
offer a variety of employment opportunities for
the rapidly expanding Omani workforce who is
dependent on developing education and training
institutions to support growth. The visa restric-
tions on tourists were eased starting in 1987 as the
Omani government has sought to slowly expand
tourist numbers as infrastructure and facilities
are expanded to meet increased demand. The
current limit on tourists is set at 50,000 a year
and the government plans to increase this number
to 100.000 in ten years, and to 728,000 by 2020.
Omans Hospitality
Industry on the Move
The tourism sector had plenty to celebrate in recent
years. Hoteliers enjoyed strong profitability in
2007 with remarkable increase in the number of
GCC business travelers, European leisure guests
and Meeting Incentive Conferences and Exhibi-
tions (MICE) business. With a number of five star
resorts opening up in Oman, there is no doubt this
is designed to encourage further development of
the tourism sector. With highest occupancy rates
ever the trend is going to gather momentum in
subsequent years. Oman can boast 10, 000 hotel
rooms with 1,500 at five-star level, all of which
are in Muscat, (Appendix 1).
The fast-expanding portfolio of hotels and
hotel apartments posted very encouraging per-
formance in the past two years. The occupancy
rates in all the hotels are continuously on the rise
as a result of new tourism projects and expected
to reach occupancy of 100 per cent. Apart from
these hotels there are budget hotels, apartment
hotels, camps, youth hostels and guest houses
throughout the country.
Demand and Supply
As predicted by the Ministry of Tourism, there is
shortage of 1000 rooms. This shortfall in the rooms
will be met by the upcoming new hospitality proj-
ects in the country. There is also a lot of demand
in the aviation sector as the national carrier Oman
Air started new international routes and permitted
other international airlines to operate. This can be
seen by the expansion of the Muscat international
airport. The ministry of civil aviation and transport
is planning to open new airports in the industrial
city of Sohar, tourist wilayt of Ras-al-Hadd.
A large number of cruise liners call on Sultan
Qaboos port in Muscat and in the port of Salalah.
During the current season, it is expected that 40
to 45 ships with about 25,000 tourists would be
visiting the Sultanate. Hence, there is requirement
for local transport, meal on land in the leading
hotels or restaurants.
According to World Tourism Report (2002)
the tourism sector has:
Accounted for 10.6 percent of world GDP
Employer of 200 million people or 7.8 per-
cent of global work force
Travel and tourism will support the cre-
ation of more than 5.5 million jobs per year
during the 2000s
Leading producer of tax revenues.
Tourism in Oman
From the above we can see the vast potential in
the international tourism industry, and in Oman
also there is lot of scope to rise to the international
levels. Apart from these, especially during certain
periods like the Khareef season in Salalah it is dif-
ficult to get accommodation and to meet out this
121

demand there are a lot of new upcoming projects
there. How planned development of tourism is
promoted by the ministry of tourism? What are
the special categorized tourism activities unique
to Oman and how tourism is likely to be Omans
largest industry from the point of - both employ-
ment and revenue generation?
Few people really understand tourism, but that
does not seem to stop them from commenting on it
and telling willing audiences how tourism should
work. Indeed, tourism is one of those activities that
produce an inordinate number of instant experts
who confuse emotions and feelings with fact.
(McKercher and Du Cros, 2002)
Tracing the evolution of tourism and hospitality
industry, one can clearly see that it was started on
a very small scale. Most hospitality establishments
like inns, motels, restaurants etc, were entirely
managed by family members. This is how one of
the worlds largest industries today had a humble
beginning. In olden days the number of people
travelled was less, due the affordability of travel
which was once considered as a luxury and it
was only for the people of high society. After
the industrial revolution the life style changed in
Europe and it spread to rest of the world. Then
when transportation developed it became more
convenient and easier for people to travel both long
and short distances thereby creating more tourists
as the number of people travelling increased tre-
mendously. Then with stress levels increasing due
to pressured jobs, touring and travelling became a
leisure seeking activity and the volume of business
saw an exponential growth. This compelled and
brought about the change in the operations of the
tourism and hospitality industry, the resultant being
professionalism of tourism sector - the need for
professional approach in managing the industry.
This has had a snow ball effect of demand for the
new discipline of studies in the area of tourism and
hospitality world wide. Today, travel and tourism
has become part of the peoples regular activity,
122
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
for the economies world wide the sector generates
not only revenues but is also a great provider of
employment. Approximately 77 million people
are employed in the industry worldwide (Allan
Collier).
Oman with many unique features of rich culture
and traditional lifestyle in almost every aspect,
and people being friendly who offer incomparable
hospitality, is also rightly eying the tourism de-
velopment as a means for economic development.
Omanis are followers of Islam and tolerant with a
great sense of humor. Oman is a safe, inexpensive
country in which to travel to, with much to see
and a lot to experience (McQuillan, 2001).
In contrast to many other countries in the re-
gion, an important feature of Oman for continuing
its development of international trade including
tourism is its tolerance of foreigners, religions
and lifestyles, social beliefs, customs, and its
traditional Arabic flavour. Two of the slogans used
in promoting Oman are The Essence of Arabia
and bring a friend to Oman. The slogans refer
to the nature of the Omani people and promising
the visitors that they will experience something
unique and different. Oman has been identified by
a leading travel magazine Conde Nast Traveller
as one of the ten best countries in the world for
tourism yet tourism as an industry is relatively
new to Oman. A lot of new tourism and hospitality
projects are coming up throughout the country.
This has enhanced the employment opportunities
in the industry. However, the locals lack awareness
and this need to be improved.
Before highlighting clearly as to what are the
current trends, some discussion of how tourism
works needs be to be embarked upon. Next few
paragraphs highlight what the key characteristics
of tourism are, how it is that attractions drive
tourism, and that there are a number of factors
that impact upon visitation levels.
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
KEY CHARACTERISTICS
OF TOURISM IN OMAN
Tourism is a commercial activity: Businesses enter
the tourism sector to profit from those who travel.
States and provinces advance tourism because it
generates new money for their jurisdictions. Whilst
the tourist travels to satisfy inner needs such as
escape, rest, recreation, status, or learning, the
product providers aim at profits. Tourism is unique
in that the bulk of revenue is generated by facili-
tators of experiences rather than by experience
providers. The tourism industry enables tourists
to consume experiences, but does not necessar-
ily provide the experiences themselves. Indeed,
only a small fraction of the cost of a tour is spent
at what can be termed designated attractions; the
rest is spent on transport, accommodation, food,
drink, tips, sightseeing and commissions to the
travel trade. Yet, it is the attractions that draw
tourists to a region in the first place, enabling the
rest of the benefits to accrue.
Tourism involves the consumption of experi-
ences: Tourists satisfy their personal needs by
experiencing enjoyable activities tourism is
thus a form of consumption. Unlike most other
economic activities that enjoy a virtually exclusive
hegemony over the use or consumption of their
resources, tourism resources are typically part of
the public domain or are intrinsically linked to the
social fabric of the host community.
Tourism is entertainment: Tourism experi-
ences, especially the culturally - or event-centered
variety, have their bases in entertainment. To be
successful, and therefore commercially viable, the
tourism product must be manipulated and pack-
aged in such a way that it can be easily accessed
by the public. Tight tour schedules, limited time
budgets and the need to process large numbers
of visitors mean that the product must often be
regulated to match fixed consumption times in
order for the experience to be a guaranteed one.
Clearly the experiences may incorporate an ele-
ment of didacticism, but their primary role is to
entertain. Even museums and art galleries whose
ostensible rationale is to provide education and
cultural enlightenment have recognized that they
are de facto in the entertainment business and
have arranged their displays accordingly. The
reason is that only a small number of tourists are
really in search of learning. Most are travelling for
pleasure, or to satisfy escapist impulses, reasons,
and therefore wish to enjoy. Some account for
this phenomenon as being a manifestation of the
modern consumerist lifestyle; tourism is an end
in itself and not, in the first instance, a means to
any loftier goal.
Tourism has both positive and negative effects:
One of the great myths promoted by sector tourism
agencies and NGOs is that by controlling supply,
the adverse impacts of tourism can be controlled.
Although this may be true at an operational level
where undesirable elements can be refused entry
or forcibly removed, the global history of rampant
tourism development, even under a supply-driven
approach, illustrates that this policy rarely works
on a regional or national basis. The great chal-
lenge for any destination is to control the genie of
tourism once it is let out of its bottle. The history
of spontaneous development and the resultant
social and environmental costs associated with
it attest to the challenge faced by any destination
that seeks to promote tourism. The best that gov-
ernments can do is hope to influence the direction
tourism will take.
Tourism is a demand-driven activity that is
difficult to control: Tourism is fundamentally a
demand-driven activity that is influenced more
by market forces (tourists and the industry that
seeks to satisfy tourists needs), rather than by
governments that try to control or manage it.
Tourism, tourists and the industry itself behave in
a manner similar to a bottom-up, self-organizing,
living ecosystem that cannot be controlled using
traditional supply systems. Further, it has been the
experience of many researchers that advocates of
supply-side controlled tourism are often elitist in
their attitudes. They assert that encouraging the
123

right type of development will attract the right
type of provider, which will appeal to the right
travel distributor who will reach the right type
of tourist. This person is usually posited as an
affluent experienced traveller who is aware of
and sensitive to local culture, its heritage and
natural ecosystems, and who will want to stay in
local accommodation, eat locally produced food,
and be content with very basic facilities all this
while paying high tariffs. The problem is that this
type of person represents only a tiny portion of
the travelling public. How does one satisfy the
needs of the vast majority of tourists, those who
do not fit this ideal description? They are not go-
ing to stop travelling: they will continue to make
demands for affordable services and facilities.
Factors Influencing Visitation Levels
Access and proximity dictate the potential num-
ber of visitors: Demand for tourism products
are influenced by a range of factors, including
distance decay, market access, and time avail-
ability. The distance decay theory suggests that
demand for tourist attractions varies inversely
with distance travelled; that is, demand declines
exponentially as distance increases. Similarly,
market access states that demand is influenced
by the number of similar, competing products or
destinations available between the tourists home
base and the prospective product or destination.
Time availability has been shown to accentuate or
minimize the effect of market access and distance
decay. The proximity of an attraction to a large
population base, a major tourist destination, or a
gateway will influence its potential visitation and
consequently how the asset is to be used. Demand
influences the revenue generation potential for the
asset, which should, in turn, have a bearing on the
levels of development and investment. The basic
rule of thumb is that attractions that are located
close to large populations or tourist centres will
124
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
attract significantly larger numbers of visitors
than more distant attractions.
Time availability influences the quality and
depth of experiences sought: Most tourists are
travelling on finite time budgets, with many having
their time strictly controlled by tour operators, or
personal commitments. They have only a limited
amount of time available at any one destination
and, being rational consumers, will choose to
spend that time in the most cost-effective manner.
As such, many tourists will seek to consume as
many experiences as possible during their stay
and will show a predilection for those activities
that can be consumed quickly and effortlessly,
and where they feel their experience is a guar-
anteed one. Especially when cultural tourism
participation is an incidental aspect of a trip, the
amount of time a tourist is willing to allocate to
relate experiences will hinge on the amount of
discretionary time available and the number of
competing uses for that time. Those experiences
that entail large chunks of time will tend to be
avoided if an attractive alternative exists. It has
to be kept in mind that in tourism terms, large
blocks of time are reckoned in hours, and not
days. A useful way of looking at time budgets,
proximity and their implications for the type of
leisure tourism people are willing to engage in,
is given by Strydom (1994) in Table 1.
Strategic Context
His Majestys Vision of Tourism in Oman:
The tourism industry is well qualified to offer
career opportunities to Omanis. It is well capable
of serving the aims of regional development, since
its benefits will cover all regions. On this basis
we should prepare a new strategy to develop this
sector so it can stand on its own feet in a severely
competitive, flexible and diversified international
market. (Speech of his Majesty Sultan Qaboos
bin Said - 29th National Day)
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
Table 1. Time-budgets and travel distances
Free Time Travel Distance
One day 30-80 km
Weekend 160-250 km
Short holiday (less than two weeks) 640-1000 km
Long holiday (more than two weeks) 1600 km
Source: Strydom (1994)
Recent government policy stresses the potential
contribution of the sector to the Oman economy:
Tourism and the whole of the hospitality industry,
together, hold out the prospect of phenomenal
growth, both in the number of people employed
and in the massive financial investment which
can be attracted. The Ministry of Tourism also
recognizes tourism as a key part of developing
the Oman economy. As per Ministry of National
Economy, the tourism industry is to generate 5%
of GDP by 2020, compared to 1% in 2000. The
Development Strategy hence must recognize the
country and regions as a major tourism develop-
ment opportunity and policy should be directed to:
To realize the potential contribution of tourism
and leisure to the economy, building the role of
this region both as a tourism destination in its own
right and also as the regional hub and gateway to
middle east.
The strategy must also promote Oman as a
major tourism destination and gateway based on
the international attraction of its deserts, wadis
and heritage resource
Where Are They Now?
Review of the performance of the tourism sector
in Oman country reveals that:
So far Oman has performed credibly well as
a tourism destination in the past five years
as reflected by the baseline indicators:
Tourism spend has increased.
Number of Visitors increased.
Direct and indirect employment in tourism
industry increased.
Accommodation/hotel rooms increased.
There is significant potential within the
city and its sub-regional hinterland which
is partly being met, but which can be de-
veloped much further.
The investment record in the past decade
has been substantial and continues to be
at a high level especially from the private
sector.
The strategic weaknesses tend to lie in the
broad areas of image, marketing, management
and presentation, all of which can be addressed
effectively. A SWOT analysis is prepared in detail
for the Tourism Sector (Appendix 2).
If Oman does not want to miss the opportunity
and encash the potential of growth in tourism in-
dustry world wide then the tourism vision should
be to: Create a vibrant international country in an
attractive environment, embracing also a vibrant
sea, rugged mountains and rural area, all with a
welcoming user-friendly tourism infrastructure.
This vision embraces that of an historic nation with
an acknowledged world status; of a cultured city
noted for its hospitality, performing arts and of a
key tourism centre essential to the exploration of
and experience of the Middle East.
The primary appeal of Oman will be based on
its historic essence and on its key location. The
discerning domestic and overseas tourist will find
it essential to have visited the area and experience
the developing quality tourism products. A well-
managed environment both urban and rural will
be coupled with a variety of new and refreshed
products, delivered by enthusiastic and well-
trained staff and giving good value for money.
125

How to Get There?
The guiding principles for the development of
the strategy and the future management of the
industrys development are widely accepted and
based on the following core beliefs:
Sustainable Tourism. The worldwide accep-
tance of this concept is an essential principle
of all future tourism development. The future
management of natural, man-made and human
assets is critically important for the long-term
sustainability of any tourism industry in general
and Oman in particular. Developments which
adversely impact the environment, which are short-
term, high volume, and opportunistic in nature
should be avoided. Key aspects of a sustainable
tourism policy include land use; management of
the physical environment; conservation of natural
and cultural heritage sites; development of market
led products; and investment in human resources.
Profitability. The tourism industry in Oman
has had poor investment returns for many years
and only in the past decade particularly the latter
half has there been a welcome rise in profitability.
Businesses must derive an adequate profit to ensure
continued expansion through investment. Profit-
ability needs to be improved through increased
utilization of the assets within the sector for
example increased occupancy rates of accom-
modation providers or more visitors through an
attraction. Profitability can be assisted through the
introduction of greater efficiencies for example
co-operative marketing, or through ensuring that
increases in volume sales are not achieved on low
price competition strategies.
Selective Investment. Future investment strate-
gies will need to be highly selective and clearly
targeted. In an area where there has been sub-
stantial investment by both the public and private
sector and where there is currently more taking
place, care must be exercised in the direction and
scope of what is to follow. So too is the issue of
comparison with investment priorities across the
Border where differing regimes may be in place
126
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
and where duplication of effort is possible. Iden-
tifying clear market gaps is essential.
Targeted Marketing. It must be stated that
this has to be a clear guiding principle, although
it is necessary to point out that this principle is
demonstrably already in place. However, com-
placency should be avoided especially as fast
changing delivery mechanisms become the norm,
through the continual change in IT capabilities.
The choice of markets, products and segments
for the future must not be assumed to be as it is
today. A continuous review process is necessary to
determine the appropriateness of the products in
the area and the type of tourism sought. The rate of
change elsewhere may render a product obsolete
much more quickly than the provider thinks. An
outward looking industry well informed of trends
and new products is essential for future success.
Public Private Sector Partnership. It is gener-
ally recognized in the tourism world that successful
destinations are those where a partnership has been
built up between the public and private sectors.
Partnership may however need to extend beyond
marketing and into strategic planning / develop-
ment issues. It may also need to develop a more
effective two way process to ensure that the balance
of risk does not seem to lie disproportionately on
any side public or private.
Principles into Action
To achieve a substantial and sustainable increase in
tourism revenue while reflecting the five guiding
principles, there is a need to take strategic action
in four key areas. They are:
1. Product development. To ensure the contin-
ued development of the range of attractors
within the area and provide new things to
do for the visitor. Much of the effort in this
will be focused into improving the existing
attractions to make them accessible and to
fulfill their tourism role as magnets for the
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
area. Some accommodation work will also
be required.
2. Marketing. To continue to develop the
destination marketing capacity and other
support agencies to ensure that best practice
continues, while implementing changes that
an All Oman approach may require. Beyond
destination marketing lies the need for the
existing attractions to devote the appropriate
effort and budget to undertaking their own
marketing role.
3. Quality assurance. To ensure that the qual-
ity of the product delivered lives up to the
expectations of the visitor. In a world that
is so competitive for tourism this becomes
increasingly important. This is true of the
public, private and voluntary sectors and
embraces issues ranging from signposting, to
litter, to unhelpful staff and to opening hours.
This is an important issue in the delivery of
tourism growth in a sub-region surrounded
by high quality competition.
4. Management and co-ordination. Though the
achievements of the Ministry of Tourism
have been notable and substantial, there
is however a gap in the tourism delivery
mechanism, in that the development role in
tourism must be addressed. The links with
other agencies and new departments are
now more complex than ever and therefore
co-ordination for tourism must be given a
higher priority and resource.
OMAN: TOURISM TRENDS
(POTENTIAL)
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) fore-
casts Omans Travel & Tourism Economy GDP
to reach OMR 2,265 million by 2018, contribut-
ing to 11.1% of National Accounts and demand
would witness 5% real growth (annualized) over
the years 2009-18.
Thus what is the tourism potential emerging
trends which will contribute to the development
strategy in the light of the current tourism system
needs to be understood.. This part highlights what
draws tourists, to which areas they are so drawn,
and the types of tourism products that might most
productively aid the development of the tourism
in Oman.
Food Availability
Everything required for an international tourist
is available here. The social life is good for all
religions. Food of variety including leading in-
ternational fast food chain of restaurants, coffee
shops namely, MacDonalds, K.F.C, Pizza Hut,
Dominos Pizza, Hardee, Chilis, Altazaj, Star
Bucks, and Costas is available as these interna-
tional brands have their outlets throughout Oman.
Halal meat and all variety of fish are available. In
addition, quality vegetarian food is also available
throughout the country.
Special Categorized
Tourism Activities
1. Adventure Tourism
Cave Exploration, Cave Jumping.
Oman offers some of the most hair-
raising cave exploration in the world
for experienced and fit cavers. One of
the most famous caves is the Majlis
Al-Jinn; the second largest under-
ground chamber in the world. This
is an extremely difficult cave to ne-
gotiate, and it is important that the
expedition is not undertaken lightly
and without professional guidance.
A popular cave for the less intrepid is
Al Hoota Cave which comprises an
underground cavern and subterranean
lake system. Many caves in Oman
are, essentially, underground wadis.
127

Diving- Scuba Diving, Snorkeling.
With 1700 Km of coastline, and clean,
unpolluted waters, Oman is one of the
best in the diving world. The waters
of Oman represent an underwater
paradise for diving and snorkeling
with its wide variety of marine flora
and fauna. Oman has good sea con-
ditions with an average visibility of
20-30 meters. There are many superb
dive sites around the capital area, in-
cluding Cemetery Bay, Fahal Island
and Dimaniyyat Islands. The sea-life
is abundant regardless of chosen site
with a variety of hard and soft corals
present and shoals of spectacular fish
everywhere. The Gulf of Oman pro-
vides for excellent tropical Coral Sea
diving and is home to 85 genera of
hard and soft corals and 900 species
of fish. Night dives are popular due
phosphorescence in Omans waters.
Wahiba Sands. The Wahiba Sands,
a romantic desert with rolling sand
dunes, varying from deep red to a rich
honey color, is stretching to a very
vast area in this region. It is the tra-
ditional home of the hardy Bedouin
community who survive in these
harsh desert conditions and moving
sands? The moving sands can be pro-
moted as a tourist attraction.
Canyoning. Canyons in Oman include
some abscaling, scrambling over and
around rocks. There are small 20 me-
ter drops to long hundred meter multi
- pitch drops as in the Majlis Al Jinn
Cave. Some of the wadis have pools.
The tourists who seek adventurism
can undertake canyoning.
The Snake Gorge. The Snake Gorge
walk actually entails three kilome-
ters of walking, wading through
pools, swimming, and scrambling
128
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
over boulders in the gorge between
two cliffs, to eventually come out at
Al-Zamman. . The only light in this
cave is that coming from the mouth of
the cave. Indeed, the whole journey
is both a physical and a mental chal-
lenge and thus, should not be taken
lightly. Its like a roller coaster ride,
or like white water rafting without
the raft. One will never know what to
expect. Once the walk is completed,
one feels a sense of achievement.
Physical fitness does not have to be
a prerequisite for crossing the gorge.
Mountain Biking in Oman. Travel
deep into the Hajar Mountains on re-
mote trails through traditional Omani
villages where the locals show true
Omani hospitality and provide a wel-
come resting place with platters of
fresh fruit grown on the green pla-
teaus of the mountain range which
reaches some 3000m. Stunning single
track, challenging terrain, beautiful
scenery and seldom visited villages,
thats what this holiday is all about.
This is pure Omani mountain biking
at its very best.
2. Health and Sports
Rock Climbing. There are many
craggy mountains and steep sea cliffs
in Oman to tempt the rock-climber.
The Sultanate provides everything
to an interested climber: from sports
climbing and rigging to multi pitch
routes bolted or traditional where
the rocks are high as 250 M.
Trekking. Above 1,900 m altitude
trekking is possible all year round;
however, the season is generally from
September to May with peak period
being October to April. The country-
side is mostly rugged and the trails
are loose, but trekking is by far the
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
best way to enjoy Omans spectacular
mountain-landscape.
Bull Fighting. In the bull fighting are-
na at the Fort of Barka, bloodless bull
fight takes place. Bulls of similar size
pitted against each other in a boister-
ous battle. The fight is fairly short, but
enthusiastically received by the audi-
ence, and the bulls suffer little or no
injury, unlike in Spanish bull fighting.
Generally, they are held on holidays
and celebration days, either early in
the morning, or late afternoon, when
it is cooler. The popularity of the bull-
fighting sport has increased in recent
years which can attract the tourists.
Camel Racing. The camel is a vital
part of the fabric of Omani Society,
for it represents a deeply appreciated
and highly valued tradition, which
justifies the high appraisal of camel
racing in this part of the world. Camel
races are held at tracks in almost all
country regions. The races are gener-
ally held on public holidays and dur-
ing the annual National Day celebra-
tions. Camels are carefully bred for
racing and undergo intensive training
in order to compete at national and in-
ternational levels.
Game Fishing. The Gulf of Oman is
rich in marine life including Marlin,
Sailfish, Yellow fin Tuna and Dorado.
Those who are interested in game
fishing can really enjoy it here.
Sindbad classic international com-
petition is held every year at Muscat.
This year winners were from Sidab
fishing Community.
3. Leisure
Desert Safari. The immense desert
landscape of Oman is welcoming
the tourists and locals alike to ex-
plore. From the dunes of Sharqiyah
(Wahiba) Sands in ASharqiya
Region to the Omani section of the
massive plains of Al-Ruba Al-Khali
(Empty Quarter) in Dhofar; by 4WD
or on camels. Camel Safari is a new
service in Oman. Safaris go Bedouin
style, riding and living in the desert
properly with guides.
Dolphin & Whale Watching. Dolphins
are popular in Omans coastal wa-
ter and whales are occasionally
seen. Fahal Island is a good site to
spot Dolphins in hundreds roaming
around or following the tuna. Spinner,
Common and some Bottlenose dol-
phins are the main types.
Travel and tourism is emerging as one of the
main pillars of the Omani economy, and hence
of the Omani governments seventh 5-year plan
(2006-2010). With regard to tourism, Omans
Vision 2020 revolves around five areas of focus -
establishing Oman as a regional travel and tourism
hub, increasing the contribution of the industry to
GDP to not less than 3%, increasing the participa-
tion of the private sector and activating its role
in the development of various tourism activities,
attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and
increasing the Omanisation percentage of the
industry to 80%. On a regional front, the Middle
Easts investment in travel and tourism is expected
to skyrocket over the forecast period, as at least
US$1 trillion is to be injected into hotels, resorts,
attractions and associated infrastructure between
2007 and 2020. Oman holds a considerable share
of this capital injection, as HM Sultan Qaboos bin
Said and the Omani government has allocated an
appropriate budget to take the sultanates tourism
objectives forward. The governments budget-
ary efforts were further complemented with the
amending of a number of laws and regulations
to attract FDI into the vibrant travel and tourism
industry, where all such efforts are part of Vision
2020.
129

With the motto Tourism Enriches in place,
Oman is moving forward with its seventh 5-year
plan and Vision 2020 with a strong focus on the
fledgling travel and tourism industry. The govern-
ments focus on travel and tourism is driven by the
objective to diversify its sources of income, taking
into consideration the economys over-dependence
on oil and gas. With full government backing, a
recently established Ministry of Tourism, with
effective marketing and promotional campaigns
overseas, and an attractive FDI environment, the
Omani travel and tourism industry is reaching
new heights. The most recent emerging trends
in tourism are:
Luxury Travel
Luxury travel is emerging as a major segment in
Omani tourism, and in light of the developments
underway, the greatest focus will likely be on the
countrys resort accommodation. The sultanates
resorts cater for almost every luxury need, ranging
from small hotels to large facilities. The industrys
up market resort segment will most likely continue
to be shaped by two distinct types of experience
- the boutique resort and the fully-fledged hotel.
Cleared for Take off
With the government fully backing the carriers
expansion plans, Oman Air is heading towards a
complete makeover during the forecast period.
The major catalyst at Oman Air in 2007 was the
governments move to re-capitalize the airline
by injecting OR37 million, thus taking its stake
in the airline from 33.8% to 81% and providing
the much-needed funds to pursue the airlines
expansion strategy. This move was followed by
further developments across the board like pull-
ing out as a shareholder from Gulf Air, extending
long-haul flights to Europe and Asia, working on
an extensive re-branding exercise and setting a
new benchmark in service and comfort with its
new aircraft.
130
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
Cruise Control
The cruise line category is picking up again and
has been developing strongly in recent years, in
spite of the complete drop off in 2003, largely due
to the war in Iraq. The sultanates virgin cruise
category has been the focus of world-leading cruise
lines that started adding Oman to their schedules.
This list includes Silversea, Costa Crociere, P&O
Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Oceania Cruises, and
others. As for domestic tourism, various dhow
excursions are available from Salalah to the Mu-
sandam Peninsula.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above, it is clear that there is ample
scope for development of sustainable tourism
and related industries in Oman. The growth in the
Tourism and Hospitality industries has been good
in the past few years since Oman is an attractive
tourist destination apart from being very safe for
tourists. However, to accelerate the expansion
and provide further impetus to tourism sector the
following are the recommendations:
1. Increase the awareness among the citizens
regarding the tourism sector, the difference
between services and servitude, respect for
tourism professionals, especially in interior
places.
2. Develop basic infrastructure and amenities
in the tourist spots, proper location maps and
road pointers including road signs need to be
there on highways and junctions to facilitate
travellers.
3. Good and decent restaurants of varying price
range to cater to all classes of tourists serving
authentic Omani food need to be developed.
4. Expose youth to tourism aspects at schools
so that they can seek career opportunities in
Tourism and Hospitality sector in future.
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman
5. The Omani youth should be encouraged
to learn more foreign languages especially
English, German and French etc so that they
can be professional tour guides, with good
communication skills.
The support sectors like local transport, foreign
exchange facilities, tourist guidance centres etc
should also be well developed otherwise these
will have a negative impact on tourism sector if
the quality of support service is not maintained.
Oman has great opportunity and vast potential to
be a prime tourist destination, a development that
would significantly grow the emerging economy.
To date, though, the tourist potential is largely
untapped and hampered by improper focus and
lack of planning. But there is movement afoot to
change this situation. Oman should set out to ag-
gressively and strategically promote the nations
riches in cultural attractions through various
communications mediums reaching external au-
diences (strategic marketing). Moreover, because
the population in certain nations or regions will
have greater affinity or interest in travelling to
Oman - for various reasons - the strategic market-
ing efforts should focus particularly on reaching
these markets (international and regional markets
promotion). If long-term tourism policy is to be
successful, there is a need to re think. A more
strategic approach for tourism development is
required and building large five-star establish-
ments on the beachfront, owned by large foreign
corporations is not the way forward. The invest-
ments in tourism should come from within. The
government has the opportunity to team up with
the banks and help finance and underwrite smaller
and locally driven tourism projects. Hence, in
my view, the smaller projects will have a less
destructive impact on our environment and will
also spread the benefits of tourism to all parts of
the country thus giving rise to a local supply and
demand chain, a vital ingredient for job creation
and also help to achieve the goal of Omanisation.
CONCLUSION
The tourism industry in Oman is comparatively
new and a relatively small part of the total economy
but has been growing quite rapidly. The major-
ity of tourists arrives in Oman from other GCC
countries and therefore has reason to think it will
be impacted less by the global financial crisis
than most other destinations. According to H.E,
Rajha Abdulamir, Omans Tourism Minister,
foreign investors have given assurances to push
on with tourism projects in Oman despite the
global credit turmoil. All foreign investors, who
are building resorts or planning to do so, have
pledged to continue with their projects as this
projects are important in their contribution to the
economy and the government is committed to
give its support, she added (Newswire Reuters).
Oman has allocated around 15 sites for tourism
developments it estimates will cost US$20 billion
over seven years, as part of plans to lure visitors.
Projects include the $400 million Muscat Golf
Course, theUS$7 billion Blue City, the US$2
billion Salam Yiti resort by Dubai Holding and
the Murya resorts project, planned by a unit of
Egypts Orascom Development Holding. Oman
attracted some 650,000 tourists in 2007, 12 percent
more than a year earlier. The goal, set in 2002, is
to reach one million visitors in 2009. According
to the latest figures, in 2008 tourism accounted
for just fewer than 4% of Omans GDP. However,
the Sultanate plans to target wealthy niche tour-
ists by focusing on cultural, environmental and
adventure packages. The government also intends
to upgrade tourism infrastructure and increase its
overseas advertising, with a particular focus on
the EU, the US and Asia. The exploration of a
tourism development is dependent upon a number
of different inputs. These include the institutional
environment in which tourism enterprises func-
tion, the profile of the tourists in terms of personal
characteristics and associated tourism needs and
desires, and tourism products on offer. However,
one cannot afford to ignore the impact of tourism
131

on hospitality industry which will have a snowball
effect for generation employment for locals. This
in turn calls for further strengthening tourism
education and training. Hence, the tourism sector
will need to carefully chalk out its strategy and be
adaptable to the demands of the evolving global
economy based on the emergent trends.
WEBSITES
Retrieved from www.omaninfo.com/cgi-bin/
journal/
Euromonitor International.(2011). Retrieved from
www.euromonitor.com/
Oman Information Center.(n.d.). Retrieved from
www.omaninfo.com/
Omagine. (2008). Retrieved from www.omagine.
com
Ministry of Information. (2010). Retrieved from
www.omanet.om
Middle East Business and Financial news. (1996).
Retrieved from www.ameinfo.com/
Market Research. (1999). Retrieved from www.
marketresearch.com
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133
 Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

APPENDIX 1 (TABLE 2)

Table 2. Hotel star ratings

S.No Name of the Hotel Category Location Number of Rooms

Al-Bustan Palace 5 Star Muscat 250
Muscat Inter Continental 5 Star Qurum Beach 265
Grand Hyatt 5 Star Qurum Beach 280
Sheraton Oman 5 Star Ruwi 230
The Cedi Muscat 5 Star North Ghubra 151
Hilton Shalala 5 Star Salalah 157
Crownne Plaza Resort 5 Star Salalah 153
Bar-Al-Jissah Resort and Spa (Shangri-La) 5 Star Qantab 680
Al-Husun,Al-Waha,Al-Bander
Crowne Plaza-Muscat 4 Star Qurum 200
Holiday Inn Medina 4 Star Ghala 87
Holiday inn Muscat 4 Star Al-Khuwair 123
Radisson SaS 4 Star Al-Khuwair 156
Al-Falaj 4 Star CBDRuwi 143
Ramada 4 Star Qurum Beach 92
Ramee 4 Star Qurum Beach 92
Haffah House - Muscat 4 Star Ruwi 120
Haffah House - Salalah 4 Star Salalah (Dhofar) 63 rooms,
46 beach villas
Golden Tulip Seeb 4 Star P.O. BOX 69 PC 111 177
Al-Sawadi Beach Resort Other Star Al-Sawadi (Al-Batinah 100 spacious chalet-style
guest rooms
Sohar Beach Hotel Other Star Sohar (Al-Batinah)
Sur Plaza Other Star Sur (ASharqiyah 108
Nizwa Hotel Other Star Sur (ASharqiyah 123

134
Emerging Trends in Tourism Industry in Oman

APPENDIX 2 (TABLE 3)

Table 3. SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1. Historic City 1. Uncertain image
2. Possible world heritage site 2. Conservative
3. Sea location; 3. Mixed marketing message
4. Proximity to Deserts, Mountains 4. Attraction availability
5. Recent and current investment 5. Sea unused
6. Culture and tradition 6. Rural area underused;
7. Events and festivals 7. Lack of identification
8. Pleasant rural hinterland
9. Friendly People
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
1. The ability of the area to appeal to the various market segments 1. The overall level of popularity and demand from outside the
by providing appropriate attractors, services and accommodation country.
in order to compete effectively with other destinations; 2. The prevailing exchange rate;
2. The competitiveness of the area in terms of value based quality 3. The level of stability and perceived level of peace in the com-
delivered for the price paid by the visitor; munity;
3. Marketing effectiveness in attracting visitors to the area. 4. Demand for day trips and holidays within Oman and GCC
reflecting the state of the economy, life style patterns and the
socio-demographic mix of the population

135
136

Chapter 9
Sales Force Technology for
the Hospitality Industry
Ruth Rios-Morales
University of Glion,Switzerland

John C. Crotts
College of Charleston, USA

ABSTRACT
Advancements in Sales Force Automation (SFA) is rapidly changing the landscape in how meeting plan-
ners and hotel sales professionals do business with one another. This chapter highlights where those
changes are occuring, why they are occuring, and what they mean to both buyers and sellers. The intent
of this overview is to inform hotel owners and investors who are considering such an investment as to
the benefits that can potentially be derived from SFA. Furthermore, our intent is to provide hospitality
educators insights as to how SFA is changing the workplace of both meeting planners and hotel sales
professionals so they can provide their students a realistic view of the software aids they may need to
master to be successful in their careers.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch009

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
INTRODUCTION
Sales Force Automation (SFA) technology as
applied to group sales departments of hotels and
convention centers is the focus of this chapter. The
group sales process has changed dramatically over
the past two decades, evolving from paper bound
filing systems for individual properties to fully
integrated software solutions for multiple proper-
ties stretching from the prospecting, to contracts,
then on again to the execution of the events and
billing systems. The intent of this chapter is to
provide readers a broad overview of current SFA
functions and the potential benefits for investing
in such technology.
There are many producers of SFA dedicated
to hotel, resort and convention center group sales
which vary widely in cost and functionality.
Managers considering such an investment should
reach out to multiple SFA vendors, take the time
to carefully explain their business processes to
them, and review each SFA vendors proposed
solutions. No one system fits all, where most
SFA systems can be packaged and scaled to each
clients needs.
WHY MAKE THE INVESTMENT?
Investments in SFA usually require high capital
outlays and should always be made as to its return
on investment, as measured in gains in efficien-
cies and effectiveness. Todays SFA packages are
interfaced with property management and catering
management systems elimiating the need to re-
key in information on an event from the original
sales proposal to the clients final billing. The time
saved is but one measure of efficiency. Effective-
ness refers to the SFA system to increase sales.
The growing use of E-bid systems (electronic
request for proposals) among meeting planners,
where the first hotel to respond with an attractive
and competitively priced offer often wins the
business, is but one example of SFA abilities to
improve a sales forces effectiveness in reaching
and converting new customers. In additional, SFA
systems designed specifically for hotel chains
field sales forces has enabled companies to form
deeper cooperative relationships with their key
customers where one salesperson can meet all
their meeting and event requirements within their
chain of properties.
Not all commercial lodging and events facili-
ties may find the investment worthwhile. Small
boutique inns and special events facilities can get
by just fine using a standard suite of Microsoft
Office combined with a good website. However,
today most larger group hotels, as well as chains,
consider SFA tools are not an option but a neces-
sity for business success. In 2007, the worldwide
investment on SFA tools was $3.2 billion and
is expected to reach $9 billion in 2012 (Cascio
2009). However, ask a hotel Director of Sales,
and most will acknowledge that most companies
do not maximize the full potential of their SFA
tools. Acceptance of technology investment at
both the management and sales force levels is at
best mixed in the hospitality industry. A long line
of research in the information systems literature
has been focused on explaining the adoption and
acceptance of such aids (Cascio 2009, Mallin
& DelVecchio 2008, Williams & Plouffe 2007,
Schillewaer, Ahearne, Franbach & Moenaert 2005,
Jones, Sundaram & Chin 2002).
Perhaps the best model for predicting and ex-
plaining why some companies and sales persons
readily accept technology, while others do not, is
the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Ven-
kates, Morris, Davis & Davis 2003,Venkatesh &
Davis 2000, Davis 1989). According to TAM, the
acceptance of software aids is determined by two
beliefs: the perceived usefulness (i.e., the extent
to which the company and/or salesperson believes
the system will improve his/her job performance)
and perceived ease of use (i.e., the extent to which
a company and/or company considers the system
to be free of effort).
137

Over the years, research has supported the
basic premise of TAM but has also added to it,
suggesting that the following factors also play
important roles:
competitive pressures,
customer influences,
personal innovativeness, and
abilities in using a computer.
Customers expect from salespersons timely and
accurate information, prompt answers to requests,
and marketing expertise. Moreover, research has
shown that the most important dimension of a
business satisfaction with a supplier is having
satisfactory interactions with the suppliers sales
managers (Boujena, Johnston & Merunka 2009).
Sales people today are using SFA tools to enhance
their performance in five main ways (Ahearne,
Jones, Rapp & Mathieu 2008, Avlonitis & Pana-
gopoulos 2005, Agnihothri, Sivasubramania &
Simmons 2002). They are increases in:
Productivity
Information processing
Communications effectiveness
Perceived competence, and
Customer relationship quality
Because of these influences and potential for
competitive advantages, young computer-literate
hospitality sales professionals wishing to make
their mark in the industry may be at an advantage.
Technology and the internet are changing the rules
and landscape of hospitality and the meeting in-
dustries. Its impact has gone beyond influencing
its business strategies, but has been transforming
the social structure of the global business com-
munity. So much business is being done through
e-commerce that the technologically savvy have a
strong edge over their technophobic counterparts.
We have organized this chapter as follows.
First, we will describe hospitality sales automation
software used in selling guestrooms and meeting
138
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
facilities. Then we will discuss catering sales and
management systems. Though both processes are
generally handled by the same software system,
users tend to specialize in their areas of respon-
sibility. For example, a hotels group sales staff
will use only those aspects that involve selling
guestrooms and services to prospects, while
catering will use the system to plan, monitor,
and manage catering events. In this chapter are
screenshots from one of the leading hospitality
sales automation systems MICROS systems
OPERA-- to illustrate each function.
CONTACT MANAGEMENT
AND SALES PROPECTING
On any given day, a hotel sales persons schedule
will have appointments, follow-ups, and other
tasks to perform. Sales people are also responsible
for responding to inquiries and Requests-For-
Proposals (RFPs) or E-bidsand doing so quickly.
For small properties, all this can be performed
with a well designed website supported by a
manual system that is well thought out and well
managed using schedulers, ledgers, and both
historic and teaser files. However, SFA tools not
only automates the process, but offers features
through which a salesperson can stand out from
the competition.
Account Management
All sales offices organize their sales managers to
cover the marketplace by assigning each to either
a geographic territory or a specific market segment
to develop. Within this territory or segment, the
sales manager will have existing accounts made up
of businesses that have traditionally re-purchased
or re-booked with their hotel or convention center.
The sales managers initial task is to familiarize
themselves with each account and organize them
into an appropriate contact management system
in order to serve and develop the account.
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
In recent years sales managers have increas-
ingly moved away from the view that all customer
accounts should be treated equally, accepting the
reality that customers vary in terms of the value
they provide (and can potentially provide) the
selling organization (Richards & Jones 2009,
McNeil & Crotts 2005, Hunt & Morgan 1995).
After carefully reviewing each account, they are
labeled into one of several groupings such as:
A accountsestablished accounts that
generate a high level of business to ones
firm. These accounts warrant greatest at-
tention in the form of staying abreast of the
clients full range of business needs, moni-
toring how well your company is meeting
their needs and expectations, and generally
trying to strengthen and expand the busi-
ness relationship. Through personal sales
calls and telephone and email communi-
cations, you stay in frequent contact with
these clients.
B accountsconsists of high-potential
accounts. They may be established ac-
counts that are already providing a reason-
able level of business, but have a potential
to provide more (for example, by winning
other pieces of their business away from
competitors). These may warrant your at-
tention at the same frequencies as A ac-
counts, perhaps even more.
C accountsconsist of potential new ac-
counts or established accounts with medi-
um potential. Staying in contact is impor-
tant but scheduled less frequently.
D accountscomposed of potential new
or established accounts with low potential.
Follow-up on these accounts comes last
after all other accounts have been handled.
The purpose in organizing ones accounts this
way is to help a sales manager allocate his or her
time time in such a way that they meet their sales
goals. Again, A accounts should receive the most
attention given that they provide a firm a recurring
stream of business that it wants to preserve and
where possible expand. Next a communication
plan is agreed to with the Director of Sales as to
how frequently and what means the sales person
uses to stay in contact with the client. Over time
a sales manager will discover how and when each
client prefers being contacted and adjust their plans
according. A manual filing system, or use of the
contact management software found in Microsoft
Office, can help one stay organized in staying up
with these account management responsibilities.
However virtually all SFA technologies enable
staff to perform at a much higher level of efficiency
and effectiveness.
The world of meeting and events planners
grows more complex year after year, where their
employers are requiring them to achieve greater
productivity in planning and managing more
events at lower costs. SFA technologies not only
allows a sales manager to keep current contact
information on each meeting planner, it also allows
them retain and retrieve quickly the customized
service requirements of all their former events
(see Figure 1).
The Account Management aspect of a SFA
system allows a sales manager to view all past,
present and future business of the client in a
single window, both at his or her property as well
as within their hotel chain. In addition, the system
allows the sales manager to check guest room and
meeting facilities availability at any hotel within
their hotel chain organization, including room
type availability, minimum acceptable rates, and
citywide information. All this allows the sales
manager to quickly respond to a customers re-
quests with reliable and accurate information
saving both the client and sales manager time and
effort. Such advancements in SFA capabilities
have enabled Marriotts Sales Force One program
to succeed, where meeting planners have one sales
person they can go to in satisfying all their needs
within Mariotts corporated owned and managed
hotels and resorts.
139

Figure 1. Example of Account Management dashboard allowing sales managers to manage tasks and
track all events scheduled at their property
Lead Capturing and Sales Channels
A sales managers role also involves pursuing new
customers, requiring prospecting and the use of
lead capturing systems. Traditionally, the most
productive way of generating leads was through
networking, tradeshows, and making cold-calls.
Though these are still valuable, a variety of inter-
net based sales channels have been added to the
salespersons arsenal.
List brokers have emerged that today can pro-
vide the sales manager with the names, contact
addresses, and meeting requirements of meeting
and events planners unheard of a decade ago.
Meeting planners generally input their meeting
requirements into such databases to avoid be-
ing called on by sales managers who facilities
140
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
cannot meet their needs. The lists can be upload
into a contact management system (described
in the previous section), partially out the list of
propects to be contacted across the list of daily
tasks. The most advanced systems will merge
new contact lists with existing contacts in an ef-
fort to eliminate any duplicate leads. Moreover,
SFA systems designed for hotel chains both sort
and exports the leads to properties that can meet
the meeting planners requirements honoring the
list brokers commitment to the meeting planner
and sales manager that the lists meets the needs
of both parties.
In the last few years, a number of sales chan-
nels have emerged allowing meeting planners to
be more proactive in identifying hotels that can
meet their needs and sending them a request-for
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
proposal (RFP) or E-bid. Just like consumers who
have been able to logon to websites to check price
and availability of hotels at a destination, systems
like Cvent, Starcite and MeetingBroker as well
as a host of intranet systems designed for Helms-
Brisco or Conferences Direct meeting planners,
provides meeting planners an efficient means to
identify suitable options before sending an RFP.
The use of such sales channels has to date been
adopted by the experienced corporate meeting
planner who knows their groups requirements,
and often sees little value in interacting with a
hotel sales managers in their initial research. The
ability to research all hotels in a geographical
area and send the selected hotels an RFP, saves
the meeting planner time and effort in narrowing
possible options of hotels in which to negotiate.
These systems though efficient, often frustrate
hotel sales managers since they provide them little
opportunities to consult directly with the meeting
planner. However, in such an environment the sales
manager must reel in their consultative selling
instincts and provide the prospect a reasonable
price based upon the requirements provided. Here
again, SFA technologies allows the sales manger
to build an attractive proposal and return it as
an email attachment with relative ease. Speed is
important to such E-bids, underscoring the hotel
sales adage that the first to respond is the first
in line to win the business. In this circumstance,
the experienced meeting planner has a clear
understanding of their budget and for efficiency
purposes will book with a facility that can meet
their requirements and price points (see Figure 2).
EVENT MANAGEMENT AND
CATERING SYSTEM
The key difference between hospitality sales
force automation and virtually any other kind
of sales automation (finance, pharmaceuticals,
manufacturing, etc.) is that hospitality sales au-
tomates the whole process from prospectingto
selling to delivering the goods. In a hotel,
that means ensuring that the customer gets the
right guestrooms and, where necessary, that all the
events and catering activities go off as planned.
On the guestroom side, the SFA system passes
the inventory management task off to the hotels
property management system (PMS), but the event
management and catering side is managed within
the sales and catering system.
Event management and catering, in this con-
text, means everything from reserving the needed
function space for a group, to ensuring that the
space is correctly set up and that the necessary
meals, audio-visual equipment, computers, and
everything else the group needs is there on time
and properly charged for.
In many ways, this can be seen as the most
complex part of a sales and event management
system. The hotel must manage innumerable ele-
ments of a meeting, right down to the last detail,
in an accurate and efficient way. The catering and
convention services managers using this part of
the sales and catering system, are responsible for
generating a high volume of extremely accurate
work on a production basis every day. In addi-
tion, detailed forecasting and reporting on final
results is of great importance to management.
The efficiency of the sales and catering system
is critical to productivity and profitability in this
department.
There are 5 key components in the event
management and catering portion of the system:
the function diarythe efficient, auto-
mated version of the big physical book
which used to manage the function room
inventory;
event management,which manages all
elements of an event to be held in a func-
tion room;
the banquet event ordera dynamic con-
tract with the customer detailing what the
hotel will provide at the event and what it
will cost;
141
 Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

Figure 2. Example of an E-Bid or web proposal

142
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
Figure 3. Example of a function room display or scheduler
the banquet checkthe final bill for an
event; and
various forecast and production reports
that make it possible to manage the depart-
ment profitably.
The Function Diary
The automated function diary provides a real-time,
up-to-the-minute function room inventory for
a single property or any number of properties in
a hotel chain.
The function diary, sometimes called a sched-
uler, is used by the sales manager to display func-
tion space, functions, and guestroom availability
for any selected property. The diary can be viewed
by a specific day of the week, or weeks to identify
function space availability. The colors and sym-
bols on the event bars vary and can display status,
setup, combinations of rooms, etc. If the cursor is
placed over an event, the window shows a detailed
view of that specific event. Events may be edited
by clicking and dragging or double-clicking and
opening an editable detail form. There are several
key parts of any automated function diary.
The Function Room Display
This is where you can review all the attributes of
a function room, from ceiling height to capacity
with various set-ups. You also select and sort sets
of function rooms, showing just the rooms in a
certain wing or specific hotel, perhaps. This is
particularly important in a hotel cluster where sales
managers reviewing availability could quickly find
suitable space, even though they may not know
a specific hotels function space characteristics.
The ability to search for suitable space is further
enhanced by features that offer access to room
photos, layouts, and links to the corporate meet-
ing planning website for the chain (see Figure 3).
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The Event Display
This is where users create and edit events, obligat-
ing the appropriate function room inventory as they
go. The automated function diary allows the user
to draw an event from start-time to end-time
in the desired function room. If the event has a
Definite status, (usually an event with a signed
contract on file) the space is firmly obligated and
cannot be used by anyone for any other booking.
A Prospect or Tentative event might not obligate
the space: a Definite event would be allowed to
book over it. Catering managers can move an
event or change the event start and end times by
just dragging and dropping the bar for that event.
Users can also view or edit event details from here.
When changes are made here, there is no need to
update information anywhere else. One change
changes it in all places.
Figure 4. Example of an event display
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Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
The event display also shows events with an
option on the space, if the current event is can-
celled or moved and events which are still pending
(PEN). On a daily basis, the catering or function
space manager checks the TBA queue using the
on-screen or printed reports to properly assign
the events (see Figure 4).
Guestroom Availability Overview
When checking on whether the hotel can ac-
commodate a group on a certain date, it is often
necessary to check for guestroom and function
room availability at the same time. The function
room diary optionally shows various the remain-
ing availability of guestrooms.
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
Configuration OptionsViews
Many kinds of users do many types of tasks in
the function diary, from checking availability to
managing function room inventory. Users can
modify the diary as they go, to meet their needs.
They can create named views of specific sets of
function rooms for use as needed. They change
the range of dates being viewed. The colors and
text can be changed to show the information
considered most important at the moment (event
status, conference name, which properties are
visible, etc.)
Event Management
Each individual event in a group booking requires
detailed attention to ensure that clients get just what
they expect. Effective event management starts
with setting up the system at installation time. The
Director of Catering establishes the item types
(Food, Beverage, AV, Labor, Computers, etc.) most
appropriate for that hotel. These item types can
then be grouped into the revenue categories needed
by management and the accounting department
for forecasting and production reporting. Finally,
the DOC identifies the types of events most com-
monly needed at that hotel (Meeting, Breakfast,
Morning Break, Lunch, etc.) and determines the
normal revenue pattern for each type of event.
When this initial set-up is done with care, the
property will have a reasonable catering forecast.
How? Because, when a sales manager or catering
manager creates an event of a certain type, the
system automatically forecasts the income from
that event. This is the forecast the hotel uses until
the actual event details are added, which might
be at a much later point.
When it is time to detail the events for a
booking, key elements of the event will probably
already have been defined:
the type of event will have been established;
a room will have been assigned; and,
the attendance will have been estimated,
though the catering services manager may
later enter a more exact figure, or even a
guarantee.
So now, the catering manager will establish the
setup and detail the other catering services to be
provided, such as meeting materials, audio-visual
support, coffee breaks, or full meals.
One of the most powerful catering benefits
of automating is that all the catering items used
by the hotel are stored in the system and can be
efficiently selected for use in specific events.
If the lists of catering items are built with care,
then they will be displayed as desired on Banquet
Event Orders (BEOs), as well as creating an ac-
curate forecast of future catering revenue with a
minimum of effort.
Throughout the planning period, while working
with the client to determine menus and other needs,
the catering manager can select, edit, and replace
catering items as needed. When the time comes
for the client to approve the BEO, everything is
close to being settled.
The software can make specific or universal
changes. For example, suppose a group will be
in-house for a meeting for four days. The Catering
Manager created the event entries when the book-
ing was confirmed. Now the group is finalizing
their plans and has decided that for all of their
breakfasts they will have the same items. Instead
of entering this change four separate times, the
Catering Manager can tell the software to change
all breakfasts for the group. Once this is done,
all items will be displayed on the merged BEO.
145

Banquet Event Orders (BEO)
The activity of the catering office revolves around
creation of the BEOs, which serve not only as the
contracts with the client, specifying every detail,
but as the internal communication about events,
used by every department in the hotel. The four
key tasks of successful BEO automation are:
with minimum fuss, making the BEO look
just right for the client,
sending it to the client,
making changes efficiently (since BEOs
change constantly, until the event actually
happens), and
making it easy and efficient for the hotel
staff to use.
The BEO must be attractive and understand-
able to the customer. Some items will be priced
a la carte, others on consumption, others as part
of an audio-visual package, and other items will
have no price at all. Some items will need a special
annotation (Set-up at the back of the room). Oth-
ers will need bold-face type or some other special
emphasis, such as highlighting (see Figure 5).
An automated BEO provides the opportunity
to create as many types of BEOs as might be
neededone for weddings, another for group
meetings, etc. In addition, it allows the catering
manager to create most BEOs without further
editing, but still allows direct editing on the BEO
to provide special notes and highlighting as
needed. Then, as changes are made to the BEO
and new data is merged into it, these edits are
retained.
Sending It to the Client
It used to be necessary to print and fax or over-
night the initial BEOs and each of the changes
to the client a time-consuming process. Now,
in an automated BEO, the catering manager just
e-mails the set of BEOs to the customer for review
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Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
and comment and, then, when each BEO is final,
for printing and signaturea far more efficient
process.
Making Changes Efficiently
After a BEO is created, it will change frequently.
The catering manager can quickly substitute one
item for another, quickly merge the BEO again,
and see the result. A change log is often part of
the BEO to track all of the changes, who made
them, and when resulting in an automated trail
of changes.
Making It Efficient for the Hotel Staff
The property has the option of creating a differ-
ent BEO laid out for the chef, banquet services,
and other staff. This can be e-mailed or printed,
depending on the state of automation in the hotel.
It can also be posted to an internal web site that
allows the various departments to review and
organize their BEOs on-line and print them as
needed. They can also see, either on-line or in
reports, just the catering items of concern to them,
making the whole process much more efficient
than the paper-based process was.
Many of the managers that are part of BEO
distribution are responsible for staffing depart-
ments like banquets, bartenders, and wait staff. The
automation of all items associated to a BEO offers
an on-screen diary of events and corresponding
items. This makes it easy for staff charged with
setup of audio-visual equipment (for example),
to know how many staffers are needed and how
many projection systems will be needed in the
next seven days.
Banquet Check
The banquet check is the final bill for a specific
BEO. At this point, the sales and catering system
almost becomes an accounting system. After an
event is completed, the banquet captain makes
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry

Figure 5. Example of an SFA generated banquet event order

147
 Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
any final adjustments to the items the client con-
sumed (how many bottles of wine, any additional
AV equipment, etc.) and prints a banquet check
for the client to sign. When the group departs,
all these banquet checks are combined with all
other charges for the conference into a master
bill for the client.
Catering Reports
Producing hotel sales and catering reports have
been among the most time-consuming tasks in
hotels. Data often got pulled from a variety of
systems and re-aggregated in a variety of ways
for various purposes. Now, with the newer auto-
mated systems, will a simple click of a button all
relevant data is automatically retrieved, analyzed,
and presented for frequently used reports. Options
for ad hoc or modified reports are available as
well (see Figure 6).
Figure 6. Example of an SFA generated catering report
148
RECENT INNOVATIONS
Recent innovations to hospitality SFA include are
numerous. They include:
Web-based BEOs. BEOs historically in-
volved a lot of paper where the client was
required to send back an original signed copy;
and annotated copies of the BEO are copied
and passed around the hotel, etc. Today, the
signed BEO is posted to the web for client
comment and approval. Then the completed
BEO will be available on the web to hotel
departments.
Wireless Events Management and Catering.
Wireless catering applications are now avail-
able in many systems that allow events and
catering managers to see everything they
need for an event from a PDA anywhere,
any time.
Campaign Management. Most all SFA sys-
tems contain a simple mail merge function
where customized letters and emails can be
personalized for a targeted distribution list
of clients and prospects. The most advanced
Sales Force Technology for the Hospitality Industry
systems today allow a sales manager to
customize newsletters, brochures and cou-
pons for their distribution lists that can be
distributed in HTML or CSV formats. Once
distributed, the sales managers contact man-
agement system is automatically updated
showing when the client was contacted as a
part of the promotional campaign as well as
when they opened and viewed the campaign
document on the internet. Future advances
on the horizon will allow for customized
campaigns of this nature to be delivered to
individual guests. Each campaigns revenue
code will allow for efficient tracking of rev-
enue derived from each campaign as well
(see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Example of a campaign management feature from the design to finished brochure ready to
be emailed
CONCLUSION
SFA technology provides several ways in which
to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
hospitality sales managers. However, such SFA
software should be considered a sales tool and
not a replacement of sales activity. In addition,
for such systems to work effectively, they must
be maintained constantly. Management must
determine if the investment in SFA is worth the
financial cost in acquiring and maintaining such
a system as well as their staffs time and effort in
learning how to use it. We encourage companies
to consider the future in choosing the best course
of action.
149

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indmarman.2005.11.003
 151

Chapter 10
Tourism Revitalization of
Historic District in Perspective
of Tourist Experience:
A Case Study of San-Fang Qi-
Xiang in Fuzhou City, China

Jiaming Liu
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, China

ABSTRACT
Presently, similar development mode and analogical tourist experience as two key problems have ap-
peared to tourism development in domestic historic districts. This chapter discusses the new thought
of tourism revitalization in historic districts in the perspective of tourist experience. Firstly, based on
the deep analysis of tourist experiences essential elements in historic districts, 6E experience mode is
established to summarize the tourist experience, which includes Estheticism and nostalgia, Education
and culture, Entertainment and leisure, Exchange and communication and Emotion sublimation.
Meanwhile, how to build up and enhance every single experience of 6E model in tourism revitalization
of historic district is also explained. Secondly, the application of 6E model is demonstrated elaborately
in the case of Conceptual Planning of Tourism Development in San-Fang Qi-Xiang Historic District
in Fuzhou City. Considering the hierarchy and comprehensibility of tourist experience and combined
with site environment analysis, San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four function divi-
sions: Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane, Antai water-front zone and Residential blocks
for minority customization. The four divisions are distinguished by degrees of bustling and tranquility
as well as the hierarchy of experience. This chapter concludes that it is beneficial to utilize 6E model
to segment function division and plan products in tourism revitalization of historic districts, because
it helps to revitalize and create a fresh appearance with historical continuation in cultural, social and
economic aspects. Therefore, it is perceived as a sustainable thought of development.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch010

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
INTRODUCTION
The multiple inner values of historic districts,
including aesthetic, artistic, historic, cultural and
humanistic value, have made them become sig-
nificant cultural heritage. With the contradiction
of rapid economic development, historic district
protection and residents living demand, tourism
revitalization has been regarded as an efficient
way of embedding historic district into the mod-
ern city in terms of spatial and temporal pattern.
Tourism function was introduced to historic district
reconstruction and renewal in western countries in
the early time and tourism has become a leading
role in historic district protection and economic
revitalization (Cleland, 2002). Since 1960s, tour-
ism revitalization has been widely practiced in
domestic historic districts and this way has been
approved by some researchers. However, some
problems, including similar development mode,
analogical tourist experience and tourism product,
have occurred in tourism development of historic
districts and destroyed both their unique value and
urban individuality. With these problems, tourism
revitalization could not meet tourist demand to
some degree. Because of its specialty of tourism
resource, historic district development is always
placed in an extremely sensitive environment
which is influenced by so many complicated fac-
tors. This paper will discuss the new thought of
tourism product design and function allocation in
historic districts, in order to reduce the contradic-
tion between protection and development as well
as to fulfill the tourists satisfaction.
Currently, most of the researchers have focused
their studies on demonstration and analyzed
how to use cultural heritage, attract tourists and
facilitate urban rejuvenation (Tiesdell & Heath,
2006). How to balance social benefit with eco-
nomic benefit and how to resolve the conflict
between protection and development has been
paid close attention (Tiesdell, 1995; Sim, 1996;
Caffyn, 1999). Principles of tourism exploita-
tion and tourism product design were concluded
152
(Chang, 2005; Lui, 2000). Some researchers
pointed out two developing models which were
host and guest amalgamation model and low
density, high quality model in the perspective
of tourist consumption experience and historic
district protection (Shen et al, 2003). However,
only a few theses have been focused on the study
of historic district revitalization in terms of tour-
ist experience. By building up specified model,
some foreign researchers put forward that tourism
product and services should be supplied according
to tourists involvement and place attachment in
order to meet tourist expectation (Gross, 2008).
Some domestic researchers suggested that hu-
man involving activities and the form experience
should be placed attention on in the process of
historic district revitalization (Zhang, 2002) and
the idea of shaping commercial characteristic in
Qing Hefang historic district of Hang Zhou was
proposed based on the investigation of field work
(Wang & Chen, 2008). The previous study mainly
emphasized on general tourist experience and
discussed the reuse of historic districts. How to
analyze tourism revitalization from the perspec-
tive of the tourist experience in historic districts
and put forward some new thought of tourism
function allocation and product design is the key
point of this paper.
TOURIST EXPERIENCE AND
6E EXPERIENCE MODEL
Definition and Characteristic
Basically, experience is a period of time that
people spend in an individual way and earn a
series of memories worth remembering (Pine &
Gilmore, 2002). Experience is natively existed
in travelling and it is perceived as an inherent
feature of tourism, because people travel for a
pursuit of unforgettable tourism experience and
memories (Li, Zhang & Zheng, 2005). Therefore,
tourism experience can be described as a process
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
when tourists participate in observing, admiring,
associating and consuming, so that their feel-
ings, physical strength and consciousness reach
to a specific level and combine to be a splendid
experience.
Hierarchy and comprehensiveness can be
regarded as two of the most important features
of tourism experience. (1) Tourism experience
hierarchy is mainly affected by tourists subjec-
tive preferences, including the differences of
tourists personality, knowledge and experience.
Meanwhile, it is also influenced by preexistence,
interference, action and result (Yu & Zhang, 2005).
According to the degree of participation of travel-
ing activities, tourism experience can be divided
into three layers: surface layer, middle level and
deep layer (Huang, 2004). Mr. Li Jinglong intro-
duced Maslows theory of requirement level to
identify the hierarchy of tourism experience: foot
of mountain, peak and plateau. The experi-
ence of foot of mountain can be described as a
flash of absolutely happy and a feeling of self-
affirmation, which is a kind of general emotion;
Peak is a point that tourist could make full use
of his potential and obtain the feeling of strong,
confidence and self-domination; Plateau is a
placid reaction to a fantastic, awesome, holy and
powerful tourism situation and to an existence
value (Li, Zhang & Zheng, 2005). Experience
hierarchy demonstrates the experience distinction
of different tourists according to their degree of
activity and emotion participation. It also reveals
the degree of challenge that tourists have to put
effort on in order to receive the corresponding
experience: deeper experience, bigger challenge.
And the degree of challenge is laid on individual
difference of tourists and tourism product design-
ing method. (2) Comprehensiveness is another ob-
vious feature of tourism experience, as experience
quality depends on so many complicated factors,
including catering, accommodation, transporta-
tion, sightseeing, shopping, entertainment and
the other uncontrollable factors. Furthermore, the
theory of tourism function system also explains
the one-stop experience demand of tourists (Yang
& Lui, 1998), that is to say, tourists need to fulfill
all their demand in a specific area where servicing
facilities are concentrated (Zheng, 2008). Espe-
cially, with the new trend of tourism consumption,
experience comprehensiveness has been paid more
attention in the process of building up tourism
destination. Nowadays, the way of developing
tourism resource has appeared diversification and
comprehensiveness.
The 6E Tourism Experience
Model of Historic District
Pine II and Gilmore generalized the tourism
experience as 4E (Figure 1) according to de-
gree of participation and the relationship with
circumstance: entertainment, education, escape
and estheticism. At present, 4E model has made
a significant influence in the tourism experience
research field (Li, Zhang & Zheng, 2005) and
this model can be applied to general tourists in
general tourism destination. Nevertheless, 4E cant
cover the entire experience element of tourists in
historic district with the special tourism value and
the new trend of tourism consumption concept in
the age of experience economy. This paper man-
ages to put forward a 6E experience model which
generalizes the tourists experience in historic
districts (Table 1).
Estheticism and Nostalgia
Estheticism is the most straightforward feeling
that tourists obtain when they are visiting the
historic buildings and streets. Nostalgia, which
distinguished with the other types of tourism
attractions, usually accompanies with estheti-
cism experience in historic districts. Nostalgia is
peoples psychological need of chasing for historic
memories in the perspective of space and time, so
that they could gain psychological satisfaction.
We should follow two pieces of principles
while creating estheticism and nostalgia experi-
153
 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
Figure 1. Experience model of 4E
ence: (1) Creation of place spirit. Place spirit can
be defined as the sense of direction and identity to
a specific group in a specific space which is en-
dowed with certain culture and history (Fei, 1999).
People could engender sense of belonging, sense
of security and sense of nostalgia by interacting
with certain places. The above mentioned sense
that tourists earn in historic district is obviously
distinguished from the estheticism experience of
general tourists in general tourism destinations.
From the perspective of planning and designing,
the utilization of spatial pattern, building eleva-
tion, street and furnishings decoration are essential
in the creation of place spirit (Zheng, 2004). (2)
Portray of authenticity. Authenticity is the basis of
estheticism and nostalgia experience. Wang Ning
classified authenticity into two parts based on
the relationship between tourism experience and
landscape: objective authenticity and constitutive
authenticity (Wang, 1999). Constitutive authentic-
ity is the key point in portraying authenticity of
historic district, as it is produced by the projection
of tourists and tourism manufactures imagina-
tion, expectation, preference, belief and capability
154
on the object. As to the portray of authenticity,
we ought to emphasize both physical dimension
and unphysical dimension. On one hand, street
texture and architecture style should be concerned;
on the other hand, the local humanistic life style
and living atmosphere should also be emphasized.
Education and Culture
When tourists visit historic heritages, old build-
ings and museums, they proactively participate
in absorbing new information and conducting
self-enhancement. In this way, tourists achieve
education and culture experience. Compared with
general tourism activities, education and culture
experience is the most important feature of heri-
tage tourism. Because heritage resources could
provide tourists with profound history, unique
estheticism and artistic value, plentiful knowledge
and information and humanistic anecdote and they
could cater tourists thirst for knowledge and the
pursuit of elegant culture enjoyment. Museums
and exhibition halls are commonly and repeat-
edly used in the creation of education and culture
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

Table 1. 6E model of tourist experience in historic district

Experience Behavior Core attraction Material carrier

Observation Spatial texture
Historic buildings
Estheticism Yearning Architectural style
Reconstruction of previous time
Seeking Place spirit
Study Historical event
Museum
Education Investigation Anecdotes of celebrity
Former residence of celebrities
Ponder Regional culture
Involvement Leisure circumstance Shops
Entertainment Enjoyment Joyful activity Dining services
Recreation Recreation Entertainment show
Role conversion
Retiracy Transposition Site for theme experience
Escape Fresh experience
Seeking for novelty Creative industry
Theme activity
Association Public space Commercial club
Exchange Communication Social stie Business club
Esteem Esteem and honor Private space
Movement Harmony of feeling with scenery
Image of landscape
Emotion Self-identity Spiritual resonance
Reshaping of history and culture
Self-promotion Place characteristic

experience, but this way could not satisfy tourists
taste any more. In the practice, we need to pay
attention to points: (1) Improving the diversity of
culture transmission and education method while
avoiding single business industries. (2) In line with
the market demand, transforming the culture and
education resources to recreation product with the
consideration of culture, economy and leisure.
Entertainment and Leisure
Entertainment and leisure experience is infil-
trated in the entire process of tourism activities.
Tourists passively receive external information
and response with a happy reaction. They could
joviality body and mind, refresh spirits and relax
oneself by participating to entertainment and
leisure activities. Even though historic districts
possess rich culture, its unique feature of place,
sense of nostalgia and long history provides urban
tourists who are chasing for new, compensation
and disengagement with a distinguished cir-
cumstance for leisure and tourism. Meanwhile,
economic development and globalization also
significantly influences the transformation of
tourism consumption concept. Nowadays, more
and more sightseeing tourism product has been
replaced by leisure and entertainment activities.
The spiritual enjoyment from the consumption of
environment and site is much more attractive than
material enjoyment of substance consumption. In
the design of leisure and entertainment, two points
should be placed attention to: (1) Making full use
of the spirit of historic district and introducing
diversified commercial industries, like leisure and
entertainment, to create an integrative recreation
space gearing to the market. (2) Placing restric-
tions on the scale of entertainment industries and
preventing the cultural and historic context from
being destroyed.
Escape and Retiracy
Escape and retiracy is a status that people tem-
porarily leaves his place of usual residence and
stays in a totally new tourism environment. In
this way, tourists could find out fresh experience
and acquire spiritual peace by playing a role

155
 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
which is totally different from his real identity.
The architecture style and residents living style
of historic districts are brightly contrasted to real
daily life. However, this contrast is rightly the fresh
experience that tourists chase for. Two ways of
constructing escape and retiracy experience: (1)
Providing tourists with the memorable experi-
ence of life elsewhere by creating comfortable,
peaceful and glamorous theme environment, like
theme bars, dining rooms and cinemas. (2) With
the combination of culture, history and creative
industries, constructing cultural experience space
and applying diversified methods to deepen sense
of history and culture, like Impression display.
Exchange and Communication
Actually, a journey is an experience of exchange
and communication. Tourists in historic districts
usually have strong desire to communicate with
local residents in order to learn more about regional
culture and their living style. Furthermore, more
and more people are inclined to get together in
the tea houses or bars in historic districts to en-
joy social life, as the unique environment could
provide people with comfortable and respectable
atmosphere. For example, bars and tea houses
have become the best places of hosting younger
generations dates, relatives home parties and
business chatting. Exchange and social activity in
historic district is the reflection of human beings
communication need in nature. It is also regarded
as the conversion of human beings living style
and social life in new age of economy. Two points
that we have to pay attention to: (1) Constructing
public space in line with the texture of historic
districts. Utilizing square and waterfront area and
building up social spaces which could concentrate
tourists. (2) Gearing to the demand of the market
which mainly contains white collars and business
elites, club houses and parties can be allocated to
establish private social spaces.
156
Emotion and Sublimation
Emotion and sublimation is the highest degree of
objective experience. It is the status that human
being deeply ponder over in historic district by
observing the real landscape, deliberating history
and culture and thinking deeply about the value
of nation and nationality. Therefore, tourists
could acquire self-promotion and self-fulfillment
when their emotion and landscape combines and
reaches to resonance. In this situation, emotion
and sublimation experience is similar to pla-
teau experience: a placid reaction to a fantastic,
awesome, holy and powerful tourism situation
and to an existence value. Substantially, emo-
tion and sublimation experience is distinct from
estheticism and nostalgia experience, according
to the following reasons: Firstly, in terms of the
degree of experience hierarchy, estheticism and
nostalgia still stays at the surface stage, like
visual sense and auditory sense, while emotion
and sublimation experience helps humankind
conduct rational cognition on history, culture and
national spirit in the status of self-promotion and
self-fulfillment. Secondly, in terms of the length
of experience duration, emotion and sublimation
experience could keep a much longer time which
exceeds the entire travel time or even reserves in
ones remaining years. Finally, in terms of the
difficulty of experience obtaining, it is quite hard
for tourists to acquire emotion and sublimation
experience because they have to possess plentiful
personal experience, enough historic and cultural
knowledge and sensitive perceptual ability. At
same time, whether tourists could earn emotion
and sublimation experience is also influenced by
the existence of place spirit and some occasional
factors. Therefore, the construction of emotion
and sublimation experience will take more chal-
lenges and put on more efforts: (1) Enhancing
the portray of place spirit. Emotion expression
and artistic design concept should be applied to
reconstruction and regeneration of old buildings,
old streets and landscapes, in order to create a
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
perfect harmony of feelings with the scenery. (2)
Remolding and enhancing the theme of history
and culture. History or culture could remind hu-
man of their memories in the old days, by means
of art performance.
CASE STUDY: SAN-FANG QI-XIANG
Background and Current Situation
Background of Revitalizaton
San-Fang Qi-Xiang, located in city center of Fu-
zhou, is 40.2 hectares. It was established in Jin and
Tang dynasty and thrived in the late Qing dynasty.
From the Republic of China to after liberation,
San-Fang Qi-Xiang gradually developed to be
commercial center and residential area. However,
due to historical and human factors, a lot of long-
time old buildings have been severely destroyed.
Furthermore, the government of Fuzhou signed
an agreement with a company called Min Chang
in 1993, who earned the land use right of San-
Fang Qi-Xiang and utilize the land to conduct
real estate development. Unfortunately, the first
phase project seriously damaged the architectural
appearance and only two Fang and five Xiang
were preserved. In 2005, facing with the crucial
moment of retrievable protection for San-Fang
Qi-Xiang, government terminated the agreement
with Min Chang company and withdrew its land
use right. With this background, Conceptual
Planning of Tourism Development in San-Fang
Qi-Xiang Historic District in Fuzhou City, as a
core mission, was included into Promotion Plan
For Tourism Development in Fuzhou, in order
to build up a brand new San-Fang Qi-Xiang
which will become 5A tourism area and elegant
residential community.
Resource Value and Market Analysis
At present, 28 cultural relics protection units, 34
preserved buildings and 97 historic buildings are
preserved in San-Fang Qi-Xiang. These heritages
endow this area with both significant protection
value and distinguished resource value: (1) The
complete and distinctive fishbone pattern is
perceived as living fossil of urban construction
in ancient China. (2) A large number of well-
preserved old buildings make up a Museum of
Ancient architecture. (3) Diversified and restful
space is outstandingly represented the traditional
residential pattern. (4) The ancient architectures
are possessed with very Fuzhou characteristic.
(5) Abundant human resource is the evidence of
development of Modern History of China, the
centralized reflection of urban spirit, the complex
of folk culture as well as the carrier of Fujian and
Taiwan cultures.
The reconstructed San-Fang Qi-Xiang mainly
face with two markets: one is tourists from the other
cities, the other is local residents for recreation.
In the new era of leisure, tourism consumption is
inclined to be more diversified and more recre-
ational (Wang, 2006). The single way of displaying
for culture and history couldnt satisfy modern
tourists demand and tourists begin to place more
attention to the consumption on historic space
and life style. As a result, tourism product system
should be enlarged with the principle of increasing
participation, experience and enjoyment.
Strategic Positioning
As to the development strategy position of San-
Fang Qi-Xiang, we need to elaborate from multi-
dimension. Firstly, Fuzhou tourism industry is
in the critical stage of breaking bottle-neck and
conducting fast development. Urban tourism
should take on the responsibility of developing.
Secondly, San-Fang Qi-Xiang is located in the
commercial and cultural center of Fuzhou city
(Figure 2, Figure 3). It has become the most
157
 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
Figure 2. Cultural circle of Fuzhou and the location of San-Fang Qi-Xiang
potential area in RBD system because of its loca-
tion advantage and distinguished resource value.
Thirdly, experience tourism product is a new trend
of tourism market demand and it is also the blank
of Fuzhou tourism product system. Fourthly, with
the consideration of San-Fang Qi-Xiangs strong
desire to declare world heritage, the residential
function and ecological condition should be
preserved. Fifthly, the profound historical lesson
and expensive protection cost requires San-Fang
Qi-Xiang to seek a way of combining heritage
protection and economic independence. Above all,
the overall strategy position of San-Fang Qi-Xiang
should be described as following: Residential
function plays the most important role in San-
Fang Qi-Xiang while culture, leisure, commercial
and tourism industries will gradually develop and
158
finally San-Fang Qi-Xiang will come into a typical
historic district with plentiful Fuzhou-style ancient
buildings and cultural characteristic. Meanwhile,
San-Fang Qi-Xiang will take on the responsibility
of developing tourism industry and make a big
contribution to urban revitalization.
Function Division and Product
Design on the Basis of 6E Mode
Based on the protection demand of historic district,
the analysis on the culture and history of San-Fang
Qi-Xiang, the evaluation of the demand of tour-
ism market and considering the degree of tourists
participation, the six experience elements could
be classified into three layers (Figure 4): surface
layer, middle layer and deep level.
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

Figure 3. Commercial circle of Fuzhou and the location of San-Fang Qi-Xiang

According to the hierarchy and comprehensive-
ness of experience, combining with the analysis
of environment, under the guidance of the theory
of place spirit and the theory of tourism function
system, 6E mode can be applied to conduct func-
tion division and product design in San-Fang
Qi-Xiang. Considering the degrees of bustling
and tranquility, the hierarchy of experience, spa-
tial pattern and environmental analysis, San-Fang
Qi-Xiang historic district is divided into four
function divisions (Figure 5, Figure 6): Nanhou
old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane, An Tai
water-front zone and Residential blocks for mi-
nority customization. Nanhou old street mall is a
surface experience zone, which is the most bustling
area with a large variety of entertainment, leisure,
estheticism and nostalgia activities in order to
satisfy general tourists needs. Warmth and leisure
lane is not as bustling as Nanhou old street mall.
It could provide tourists with an experience be-
tween surface and middle layer. Education, cul-
tural and leisure product are located in this area.
An Tai river is relatively tranquil and it could
provide tourists with an experience between
middle and deep layer. Escape, social and enter-
tainment activities are the most important product
of this area. Residential block for minority cus-
tomization is the most tranquil division in San-
Fang Qi-Xiang which could meet a minority
markets need. Escape, social, emotion and sub-
limation activities are located in this division.

159
 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience

Figure 4. Hierarchy of tourist experience

Figure 5. Function division of San-Fang Qi-Xiang based on tourist experience

160
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
Figure 6. Function layout of every division
Nanhou Old Street Mall: Entertainment
and Estheticism
Nanhou old street is the most bustling area in
San-Fang Qi-Xiang, because it has a commercial
history of a thousand years. Even though it pos-
sessed a large variety of commercial industries,
the renewal for all of the traditional industries is
not consistent with tourists experience demand
in the modern age of leisure. The reconstructed
Nanhou old street, with a theme of Mall, will
mainly develop cultural, commercial, sightsee-
ing and leisure industries. The mall will provide
general tourists with entertainment, leisure,
estheticism, nostalgia, culture and education
experience. Boutiques, galleries, restaurants are
the core attractions of entertainment and leisure
product. The ancient hotels, lantern festival and
night market in old street are the core attractions of
estheticism and nostalgia product. Wax museums,
folk culture museums and tea museums are the
core attractions of education and culture product.
Warmth and Leisure Lane:
Education and Leisure
The five lanes are located between Nan street and
Nanhou old street, so its not so bustling as Nanhou
old street. Many former residences of celebrities
comprise of the profound history and culture of
this area. However, the way of developing muse-
ums in the former residences of celebrities is not
consistent with tourists demand. With the theme
of warmth and leisure, the five lanes are classified
into two function divisions: Cultural display and
leisure zone and private living quarter. Cultural
display and leisure zone, where is in the north of
Huang Xiang, will build up book stores, museums
161
 Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
and galleries to display the profound culture and
supply education experience to tourists. Private
living quarter is located in the south of Huang
Xiang. With the concept of private life, private
bookshops, private restaurants, private museums
and private gardens will be allocated in the area
to create leisure and escape spaces for tourists.
An Tai River Water-Front
Zone: Entertainment,
Estheticism and Exchange
An Tai River water-front zone is functioned as
the green belt between San-Fang Qi-Xiang and
the outer urban space. It occupies the biggest
potential of building up public and leisure space
because old bridges, old trees, river and old archi-
tectures are centralized in this area. Combined the
pleased water-frond landscape and the social and
consumption demand of tourists, An Tai River is
divided into two belts: Water-front architectural
belt and Water-front landscape belt. Water-front
architectural belt is the western part of the river
and the previous spatial texture will be well pre-
served. Tea houses, concerts, pleasure boats and
cafes should be built along this belt to create an
architecture axis of escape and estheticism experi-
ence. Water-front landscape belt is the southern
part of the river and there are many inconsistent
buildings in this area currently. Therefore, the first
step is to reconstruct the inconsistent buildings,
increase the green space and renovate the water-
front space. Bars, cafes, galleries, spring heath
center and theaters will be established to create
a leisure axis for general tourists.
Residential Block for Minority
Customization: Exchange and Emotion
Three Fang is the most tranquil area in San-Fang
Qi-Xiang historic district, so it is easily created
to be a vision full of escape and emotion experi-
162
ence. Yi Jin Fang, Wen Ru Fang and Guang Lu
Fang are placed from north to south in this area.
It is also famous for a large number of historical
heritages, like OuYang garden, the former resi-
dence of Chen Chengqi and so on. On the basis
of the social demand of high-end consumers,
three Fang is developed as a residential block for
minority customization which includes a large
variety of club houses and creative industries. Yi
Jin Fang only preserves its northwest part and it
will become a creative industry zone, in which
4D theme performance and creation base will be
allocated, to fulfill the needs of sublimation and
emotion. Wen Ru Fang will be constructed as a
club house zone, where personal clubs and liter-
ary salons are allocated to provide tourists with
exchange and escape experience. Guang Lu Fang
is a high-end hotel service zone, where spring
hotels and high-end hotels will be allocated to
cater tourists vacation need.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The demand of tourists in historic district is
obviously differentiated from general tourists
in the other tourism destinations. Based on the
analysis of tourism experience element in historic
district, this paper put forward a 6E experience
model which includes Estheticism and nostalgia,
Education and culture, Entertainment and leisure,
Escape and retiracy, Exchange and communica-
tion, Emotion and sublimation. It also pointed
out how to create every experience in historic
district by means of product design and functional
allocation. The hierarchy and comprehensiveness
of tourism experience has a significant applica-
tion in the division segment and product design.
The hierarchy of tourism experience makes sure
that every division can be distinguished accord-
ing to the different demand of different market.
The comprehensiveness of tourism experience
Tourism Revitalization of Historic District in Perspective of Tourist Experience
requires a large variety of industries to combine
and improve its economic vigor. In terms of the
relationship between protection and develop-
ment, tourism revitalization of historic district in
perspective of tourist experience is a sustainable
developing concept. On one hand, based on the
tourists experience demand, the authenticity of
historic district should be well protected by plan-
ners and designers. On the other hand, the diversi-
fied demand of tourists requires the development
of historic district to be consistent with the urban
development.
The revitalization of San-Fang Qi-Xiang is
based on the hierarchy and comprehensiveness
of tourism experience. With the analysis of en-
vironment and under the guidance of the theory
of place spirit and the theory of tourism function
system, 6E model is applied to the division segment
and product design. San-Fang Qi-Xiang historic
district is divided into four function divisions:
Nanhou old street mall, Warmth and leisure lane,
Antai water-front zone and Residential blocks
for minority customization. The four divisions
are distinguished by degrees of bustling and
tranquility as well as the hierarchy of experience.
6E model has proposed a new thought for the
revitalization of historic districts. However, in the
practice, the planning of historic district are also
influenced by surrounding environment, target
position, consumption ability and the one-stop
demand of tourists.
Experience is a very complicated feeling and
every experience element is connected with each
other. Therefore, how to apply the hierarchy of
tourism experience to the division segment and
how to allocate the six experiences in a harmoni-
ous ratio is the key point in the future research.
Furthermore, due to the differences of resource
value, protection status and urban hierarchy, it
is may not be essential to create the experience
from six aspects.
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Chang, H. (2005). Tourist utilization of con-
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164
 165

Chapter 11
A Classification of Mobile
Tourism Applications
Stan Karanasios
University of Leeds, UK

Stephen Burgess
Victoria University, Australia

Carmine Sellitto
Victoria University, Australia

ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces mobile technology and discusses its emergence in the tourism industry. As has
been the case with other Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), tourism has manifested as
one of the most well suited sectors to mobile technology and mobile applications. In contrast to other
ICTs in the tourism domain however, mobile applications are capable of enhancing the tourist experi-
ence at the destination, creating a paradigm shift in how information is accessed and digested, and
transactions performed. Nonetheless, little is known concerning how mobile technologies are changing
the landscape of tourism and tourist behaviour and the content offered by tourism applications. In or-
der to address the scarcity of research in this emergent area this paper focuses on mobile applications
in the tourism industry and based on a literature survey proposes a framework for evaluating mobile
tourism applications.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch011

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

INTRODUCTION
Information Communication Technologies (ICT)
have become a critical element of the tourism
industry, forming the info-structure (Buhalis
& Law, 2008) and the foundation of information
access and use. Mobile phones, in particular, are
changing the tourism landscape and the modus
operandi of destinations, attractions and traditional
tourism information sources, as they seek to match
the evolving needs of tourists, who demand high-
speed access to relevant information and media
content on the move. In 2008, the number of
mobile subscribers worldwide reached over four
billion (ITU, 2009a). Amongst the proliferation
of mobile phones, the smart-phone in particular
offers advanced capabilities, comparable with
PC-like functionality, often equipped with features
such as keyboards or touch screens (Charlesworth,
2009; Park & Chen, 2007).
Before discussing mobile technologies and
applications in the tourism sector, it is useful to
begin by examining the overarching historic re-
lationship between ICT and tourism. Tourism has
long been recognised as an information-based, and
information-intensive industry, well suited to ICT
(Inkpen, 1994; Poon, 1993; Sheldon, 1997). Over
the last ten years in particular, there has been an
increase in research concentrating on the Internet
and small and large scale operators (Buhalis, 2004;
Carroll & Siguaw, 2003; Karanasios & Burgess,
2008), government tourism boards (Raventos,
2006), and tourist behaviour (Davidson & Yu,
2005). Furthermore, research has shown that the
preferences and behaviour of tourists have shifted
away from standardised packages, designed by
tour operators, to individualized products, spe-
cifically tailored to customer needs and interests
(WTO, 2001), leading to a higher involvement of
customers in the planning process (Buhalis, 1999)
of which the ICT becomes an important part.
Given the suitability between ICT and tourism,
it is no surprise that tourism has emerged as one
of the most well suited sectors for mobile appli-
166
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
cations. In contrast to other ICTs in the tourism
domain however, mobile applications are capable
of enhancing the tourist experience at the destina-
tion, creating a paradigm shift in how informa-
tion is accessed and digested, and transactions
performed. Werthner and Ricci (2004) suggested
that tourists expect to get access to services and
information from various devices, whenever
and wherever they need it. Others have reasoned
that smart-phones have improved the traveller
experience (Mamaghani, 2009) and that mobile
travel will soon become a must-have utility for
travellers (Langelund, 2007 p. 286). Supporting
this, analysis of tourist backpacker trends reveals
that tourists desire mobile applications that match
the capabilities of their smart-phones (Pearce,
Murphy, & Brymer, 2009).
Destinations management organisations, aware
of visitor behaviour, are developing mobile ap-
plications in order to differentiate themselves
from other destinations and cater to tourism
demands. Hyun, Lee, & Hu (2009) argued that
value-added mobile services through destination
management organisations should be strategically
developed to enhance awareness of a destination,
satisfy travel experience, and create destination
loyalty. Further, it has been suggested that large
and mid-sized travel suppliers and intermediaries
are likely to launch mobile services in order to
stake a claim for their brand in the mobile sphere
(Langelund, 2007). Nonetheless, little is known
concerning how mobile technologies are changing
the landscape of tourism, tourist behaviour and
experience in relation to the content delivery of
tourism applications.
In this paper we propose a frame of reference
for the categorisation of mobile tourism appli-
cations and a framework for evaluating mobile
tourism applications. This paper is organised as
follows. The next section discusses the emergence
of mobile tourism applications and the cumulative
research in the field. Following this, we outline a
means to categorise mobile tourism applications
based on their inherent characteristics. Building
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
on this we then propose a framework that can
be used to evaluate mobile tourism applications
based on their characteristics. We then outline
our future study in which we will validate the
proposed framework and expand knowledge on
the characteristics of mobile applications in the
tourism domain.
LITERATURE SURVEY ON MOBILE
TOURISM APPLICATIONS
The extant literature informs us there is already
some use of mobile tourism applications and in-
novative mobile data use such as mobile cultural
guides (Alfaro, 2005), use of mobile information
systems at sporting events (Peters, Piazolo, Koster,
& Promberger), mobile check-in (Mamaghani,
2009), mobile positioning data to track tourists
movements (Ahas, Aasa, Roose, Mark, & Silm,
2008) and the use of mobile technology in order
to receive payments (Karanasios, 2008). More
broadly, mobile phones have been used for some
time as a communication medium to coordinate
tourism activities. A review of the grey literature
also reveals a variety of innovative navigation,
entertainment and travel mobile applications
available on the market. According to Gartner
(2009), Symbian accounted for 49 percent of
worldwide smart-phone operating systems (OS)
market share in the first quarter of 2009, down
from 57 percent share in the first quarter of 2008.
RIMs smart-phone OS market share reached 20
percent in the first quarter of 2009, up from 13
percent share in the first quarter of the previous
year. The iPhone OS accounted for 11 percent
of the market, up from 5 percent market share in
the first quarter of 2008, however it is clear that
the iPhone, and in particular its iTunes platform,
continues to reshape the mobile market landscape.
Mobile applications as a whole have expe-
rienced limited success in the tourism domain.
Moreover, many tourism applications reported
in the academic literature appear to be in the
conceptual or prototype phase, and it is unclear
if they have experienced any live deployment or
commercialisation. One reason for the lack of
appropriation and success is due to the lack of an
in-depth study and design from the perspective
of the specific characteristics of tourism. Rather,
design has taken place in deterministic and techno-
centric fashion. Along these lines, Chalmers (2003)
and Schwinger (2002) suggested it is the social
aspect of leisure, or its context, that may be the
most important yet most challenging to support.
And despite the ability of context-awareness to
provide timely information in context and dynamic
adaptation the early literature suggests that it
has not been embedded in tourism applications
(Schwinger, et al., 2002). Moreover, there are a
range of privacy and invasive repercussions asso-
ciated with the technology. In fact, the emergence
of mobile location services have paved the way
for potentially intrusive marketing strategies and a
range of trust issues (Giaglis, Kourouthanassis, &
Tsamakos, 2003; Xu & Gutierrez, 2006). Another
factor of relevance is that while we have seen an
exponential increase in the number of mobile
devices around the world, smart-phones are not as
widely diffused in many parts of the world. Mov-
ing forward towards 4G and mobile broadband,
we are likely to see a greater mismatch of mobile
devices and applications and network technology.
Despite this, these emergent mobile broadband
technologies will further transform the tourism
sector, although this has not featured heavily in
the tourism literature. Buhalis and Law (2008)
mentioned the potential of emergent technologies
such as WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability
for microwave Access) in the tourism domain,
which is a mobile broadband technology offering
higher speeds than 3G or Wi-Fi, vehicular use,
triple play services and improved connectivity
(Roh & Yanover, 2009). This is important as it
is widely expected that mobile tourism applica-
tions are likely to grow. Juniper Research (2006)
predict that the total global market for all forms
of mobile leisure, mobile sport, and information
167

data services (content and messaging), including
alerts, SMS and MMS messaging/information
services, chatting, wallpaper and images, video
clips, streamed video, is estimated to grow to
around $9.5 billion by 2011.
Most existing mobile tourism solutions either
represent of-the-shelf applications with rigidly
defined content or involve portable devices with
networking capabilities that access tourist content
with the requirement of continuous wireless net-
work coverage (Kenteris, Gavalas, & Economou,
2009). Most of these are a combination of down-
loadable applications with online capabilities, or
are operated from a web enabled website. Location
and context-aware applications remain the killer
application, and many tourism related applica-
tions are bundled with some form of location aware
feature. Dey (2001 p. 5) define context as any
information that can be used to characterize the
situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place,
or object that is considered relevant to the interac-
tion between a user and an application, including
the user and applications themselves. Therefore,
context-aware mobile tourism applications are
concerned with the convergence of location, activ-
ity, identity and time in order to provide adapted
information and services. For example, Murshid
an application for tourists visiting the United Arab
Emirates embodies context-awareness, sensing
the users context, analysing it, and providing the
most suitable guidance accordingly. The system
uses a context model that includes the user loca-
tion, user profile, current date, event information,
and user interaction (Echtibi, Zemerly, & Berri,
2009). At the same time, research has pointed
to the absence and lack of user familiarity with
context-aware services, as many context-aware
applications exist only as conceptual research
prototypes (Goh, Ang, Alton, & Lee, 2009) and
existing systems provide only trivial information
(Schning, Hecht, & Starosielski, 2008).
168
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
A CLASSIFICATION FOR
TOURISM APPLICATIONS
A review of the extant literature reveals that mobile
tourism applications have covered a wide range
of tools and functionality. This has suggested a
degree of confusion in the mobile application
sector, as the unmanageable number of diverse
functionalities and devices continue to grow. In
order to help distinguish between tourism ap-
plications a frame of reference is required that
accounts for the range of characteristics of the
applications. Kenteris (2009 p.104) categorised
existing commercial applications and research
approaches in the field of mobile tourism within
three main categories:
Tourist or museum guides with pre-in-
stalled applications that cannot be custom-
ized according to user preferences.
Mobile devices used to access mobile web
portals to browse tourist information.
Mobile electronic guides devices using
either wireless or mobile network connec-
tions to access context-aware services.
There is an unclear distinction however
between an application in the sense that it is
downloaded on the mobile device and the access
of a mobile enabled website from the handset,
due to the overlap between the two. Furthermore,
beyond mobile tourist guides, there is another
distinct group of tourism related applications
that have emerged alongside the proliferation
of smart-phones. These include location-based
services such as navigation and orientation tools
(i.e. Google Maps), and a range of other travel
tools such as translators (i.e. iPhone translator),
currency converters (.i.e. iCurrency Converter),
flight trackers (i.e. flightview.com), and context-
aware restaurant recommenders (i.e. ZAGAT To
Go). These can be described as complementary
mobile travel tools, and are distinct from tour-
ism guides and range in their sophistication. For
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
example, a currency converter can be described
as a dressed-up calculator, while flight tracking
applications have more sophisticated capabili-
ties. Further, many of these tools are distinct as
they can be used in everyday life, not just in the
travel scenario. The literature concerning this later
group of mobile travel applications reveals little.
Consequently, there is scarcity of understanding
concerning these applications, despite their ability
to transform the travel experience. Google Maps,
unsurprisingly, has featured in the literature to
some extent. For instance, Riegelsberger and
Nakhimovsky (2008) from Google discussed a
two-week field trial of Google Maps for Mobile
(in London, Manchester, Hamburg, and Munich);
however, they examined the application through
the lens of Human Computer Interaction (HCI),
rather than an analysis of the characteristics and
delivery features.
Figure 1. Taxonomy of tourism applications
We propose a two tier categorisation of mobile
tourism applications: destination guides and travel
tools. However, whilst we distinguish between the
two sets of mobile tourism applications, there is
potential for considerable overlap. For instance, a
destination guide may have a restaurant finder or
navigation feature built into it. We also form a dis-
tinction between downloadable applications and
mobile web enabled applications. Much debate has
centred on the downloadable applications versus
solely browser based application, and which will
succeed as the dominant platform. For instance,
pre-installed applications in the main cannot be
updated and therefore suffer the same problems
as books and other traditional sources. Figure 1
sets a taxonomy based on general principles of
the applications.
169

EVALUATION OF MOBILE TOURISM
APPLICATIONS
The previous section outlined a frame of reference
for categorising tourism application. Beyond this,
there is also a need to understand and evaluate
mobile applications, for a number of reasons.
From a design perspective, unlike windows-based
applications there is no standard user interface for
smart-phones and a range of competing devices
and thus capabilities and functions, resulting in
a lack of standardization and different directions
of innovation. Therefore, it is difficult to develop
applications for the mobile environment that will
behave in a similar manner on all devices and in
different environments. From a theoretical per-
spective, mobile technologies have challenged
existing theoretical frames of information access
and use by transforming the spatial and temporal
context. From a tourism perspective, it is clear
that for destinations and operators alike there is
a fundamental need to understand how mobile
applications work in order to adapt strategies
accordingly to meet the needs of potential visi-
tors. Further, as mobile broadband subscriptions
overtook fixed broadband subscriptions in 2008
(ITU, 2009b), there is a need to understand the
characteristics of mobile applications and how
they are utilized in order to shape the next wave
of mobile tourism applications and best prepare
actors in the tourism industry.
Previous attempts to evaluate mobile applica-
tions have focused on mobile tourist guides and
applications and investigated specific issues at
the prototyping and pilot stage, such as support
for maps or mobility issues, the kinds of services
which were offered and how these services are
delivered to the end-user (Eisenhauer, Oppermann,
& Schmidt-Belz, 2003; Grn, Werthner, Proll,
Retschitzegger, & Schwinger, 2008; Kray &
Baus, 2003). Against this backdrop, there is also
significant inquiry into mobile technology from
the perspective of HCI (Kjeldskov J., 2004; Uden,
Valderas, & Pastor, 2008), which has informed
170
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
the mobile application research and development.
Studies have also developed frameworks in order
to measure usability of the physical artifact (Heo,
Ham, Park, Song, & Yoon, 2009), the user inter-
face (Ismail, Osman, & Wahab, 2009; Lee, Hong,
Smith-Jackson, Nussbaum, & Tomioka, 2006),
heuristics, prototypes and design (Economou,
Gavalas, Kenteris, & Tsekouras, 2008; Kenteris,
et al., 2009), and how mobile applications can add
value to destinations and tourists alike (Nielsen,
2004). However, a review of the literature reveals
little concerning how actual applications may be
evaluated based on their characteristics.
Internet frameworks that have been developed
and used in order to categorise virtual market
spaces created by the Internet, such as Angherns
(1997) ICDT model, while successfully applied
to Internet and tourism (Karanasios & Burgess,
2006), become problematic when applied to
mobile technologies. This is because mobile tech-
nologies have introduced a new frame of reference
concerning how information and communication
is exchanged, and therefore a new paradigm is
required that captures the spatial and temporal
changes facilitated by mobile technologies.
Some authors have classified mobile ap-
plications based on navigation, information,
advertising, tracking, billing and emergency
features and their underlying technologies and
services (Giaglis, 2003), or based on transaction
management, content delivery and telemetry
services (Senn, 2000). Varshney & Vetter (2002)
developed a more detailed scheme that classified
mobile applications based on activity, such as
product location and shopping, mobile advertising
and distance education amongst others. Andreou
et al., (2002) suggested that one way to classify
mobile services and applications is based on the
functionality they provide to the mobile users. This
kind of classification results in two major classes:
the directory and the transaction-oriented services
and applications. The major distinction between
these two classes of services is that in the case
of the former a mobile user performs only read
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
requests to the directory, whereas in the latter a
user performs read and write requests to the trans-
action server, although they do acknowledge that
there is an overlap between both classes. Others
have sought to use benefit related categories of
mobile technologies, in order to categorise mobile
application features (Clarke, 2001; Sheng, Nah, &
Siau, 2005; Siau, 2001; Turban, Leidner, McLean,
& Wetherbe, 2006). These usually include notions
of ubiquity, convenience, flexibility, interactivity,
personalisation and or localisation. However,
whilst useful in understanding some generic ap-
plications, such structures are overly simplistic,
and provide little basis for understanding dynamic
tourism applications. Further, benefits such as
ubiquity and convenience are now a given in
the sphere of smart-phone technology. Grn et
al., (2008) developed a framework that considers
the services offered to tourists during their on-trip
phase and the delivery aspects of these services in
terms of customizing information around points
Figure 2. Tourism application delivery mechanisms, adapted from Grn, et al. (2008)
of interests (POIs). The framework is based on
three delivery factors: Service Delivery, Service
Initiation and Service Customisation and is il-
lustrated in Figure 2.
There are three dimensions to the framework.
The delivery dimension includes information (that
may be accessed), transaction (reservations, book-
ings and ticketing), community (social integration
and networking) and distribution (receive digital
products) activities that may be undertaken using
a mobile application (Grn, et al., 2008). The
customisation dimension refers to the extent that
information sent to the user is customized, char-
acterized by the awareness of the current user
situation (considering context factors such as
device, user profile, location or time) and by the
notion of adaptation of services with respect to
the context (Grn, et al., 2008). The following
two examples provide some delineation between
context and adaptation:
171

Table 1. Mobile tourism application evaluation framework
Framework Feature
Dimension
Information
Transaction
Service Delivery
Community
Context
Customisation
Adaptation
Push
Initiation
Pull
Pre-installed Live
Application type Pre-installed -Static
Web based
Source: Adapted from Kenteris (2009) and Grn, et al. (2008),
* Refers to transactions made through the application, not where there is a link to another tourism service mobile website
1. Context factors. Plain tailored content de-
livered to a user based on location or basic
user profile, for example, where to eat based
on users current location or postcode.
2. Adaptation. Based on location, user profile
(preferences) and pre-stored trip information
a user may be advised where to eat based on,
food preferences, current location, nearby
restaurant opening times, public transport
information, and five-star rating. In many
ways, this acts as a recommender service
based on the users personal interests and
the current location (Schmidt-Belz & Poslad,
2003).
The initiation of delivery dimension can be
classified into either pull (user-triggered search
processes) and push services (automatically de-
livered information, without explicit user request)
(Grn, et al., 2008). The former may be improved
by including contextual information that may be
automatically retrieved. An example of the lat-
172
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
Criteria used to evaluate smart phone application
User receives information about objects of interests
User is able to initiate a tourism transaction via the smart phone application. For
example booking a flight, restaurant, etc*
User is provided with opportunities to participate in real-time feedback allowing
tourism operators to be rated, reviewed (blogs) etc
The awareness of the current users situation considering context factors such as
device, user profile, location or time
Adaptation of services with respect to the context
Information is automatically sent to user without any explicit request
Requested user-triggered search process for specific information. Includes user
triggered or opt-in push services
Applications that are downloaded to the phone, directly over a mobile network or
from a computer that once initiated access to mobile network
Applications that are downloaded to the phone, directly over a mobile network or
from a computer that once initiated do not access the mobile network
Mobile applications that are not downloaded but are accessed through the mobile
phone browser (therefore requiring some download)
ter is the mobile tourism application prototype
CRUMPET, which gives pro-active unobtrusive
tips to the user when they neared a sight that
may be of interest (Schmidt-Belz & Poslad, 2003).
THE STUDY
In order to augment our understanding of mobile
applications in tourism in the next phase of our
research we will evaluate the characteristics of a
number of tourism mobile applications, using the
framework proposed in Table 1 below. Similar ap-
proaches have been used by other authors (Grn, et
al., 2008; Schwinger, et al., 2002). The framework
is based on the categorisation of mobile application
proposed and the model developed by Grn, et al.,
(2008). Unlike, Grn, et al., (2008) we have om-
mited Distribution as a Delivery feature, as there
is little basis for delivering products via a mobile
phone. Furthermore, it is a confusing distinction,
as the information delivered to mobile phones
A Classification of Mobile Tourism Applications
is dynamic and may be in many forms. Grn, et
al.(2008) also found that no mobile applications
delivered information products and services.
Other studies that have applied the ICDT model
(Angehrn, 1997) to tourism and the electronic
space have omitted the distribution space reason-
ing there was no electronic product to distribute
(Karanasios & Burgess, 2006). In order to select a
representative sample of applications we propose
the following selection criteria:
1. The applications should be a Business-to-
Consumer application that can be used during
travel rather than during post or
pre-travel.
2. The application should be designed for use
on one or more smart-phone type, therefore
a qualifier is that it should be mobile web
based or a downloadable application, rather
than an SMS or voice based service.
3. In order to include a sample of a range of
travel tools the applications should represent
a range downloadable applications and web
enabled applications for comparison and
include a spread of tourism activities i.e.
flights, restaurants, accommodation, visiting
attractions and so forth.
We make a clear distinction between smart-
phones and WAP enabled phones. Whilst some
applications may be accessible on WAP phones,
we are predominately concerned with smart-phone
technology. Other studies have shown that certain
applications designed for smart-phones have not
been realized for extremely limited devices such
as WAP phones (Schmidt-Belz & Poslad, 2003).
At the same time, we recognise some applications
may be designed for more than one platform. Table
1 outlines the evaluation frame of reference that
will be adopted for our study, which has been
derived from Figure 1 and Figure 2.
DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUDING REMARKS
It is unequivocal that mobile applications repre-
sent the next wave of information access and use,
altering the way many people interface with and
experience a destination. In this paper we presented
a discussion on the emergence of mobile applica-
tions in the tourism sector and proposed a frame
of reference that can be used to categorise the
diverse range of applications available. Further,
we presented a framework for evaluating mobile
tourism applications and outlined our future study.
The next phase of our research will validate the
relevance of the framework and provide a better
understanding of mobile tourism applications and
their characteristics.
It is important to place some limitations on the
embryonic work presented in this paper. First, we
have generalised the service delivery elements to
refer to the maximum capability of an individual
feature of a mobile tourism application. Similarly,
in some cases not all the functions may be available
on all types of smart-phones. We will attempt to
counter these limitations by evaluating the applica-
tions across a number of smart-phone platforms,
where applicable. Further, the framework is only
capable of examining the characteristics of the
tourism applications that are identifiable through
its use. It is beyond the exposition of our analysis to
capture the HCI elements, technical specifications
or issues relating to information behaviour. These
however, provide fruitful areas of future research,
particular those relating to information behaviour
and mobile applications from the perspective of
the user. A further limitation of our study is the
temporal constraint, this is because the applica-
tions will increase in sophistication, as will the
handsets and network technologies. Therefore,
we will capture a snapshot of the tourism mobile
application panorama. Nonetheless, the evaluation
framework proposed is representative literature
and will suit the purpose of our exercise.
173

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178

Chapter 12
Personal Tour:
A Multi-Agent Recommender
System of Travel Packages

Fabiana Lorenzi
Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil, Brazil

Stanley Loh
Invenio Software Inteligente & Universidade Luterana do Brasil & Universidade Catlica de Pelotas,
Brazil

Mara Abel
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the Personal Tour: a multi-agent recommender system designed to help users to
find best travel packages according to their preferences. Personal Tour is based on the collaboration of
multiple agents exchanging information stored in their local knowledge bases. Based on the paradigm
of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence, a user recommendation request is divided into partial recom-
mendations handled by different agents, each one maintaining incomplete information that may be useful
to compose a recommendation.

INTRODUCTION Commerce Web sites. These systems are being

Users of e-Commerce Web sites still face the
information overload problem. Recommender
Systems (RSs) have been proposed and developed
to cope with this problem (Resnick et al., 1994),
and more in general to support the information
selection and decision making processes on e-
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch012
applied in different domains (Gunawardana &
Meek, 2009).
Multi-agent recommender systems are being
used for managing information from different
sources in domains where the knowledge is
distributed. Agents are able to retrieve, filter and
use information that may be relevant to recom-
mendation decision process.

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Personal Tour
This paper presents Personal Tour, a multi-
agent recommender system that helps users to find
travel packages according to their preferences.
Agents can exploit knowledge about previous
recommendations in order to determine solutions
that suit the wishes and needs of a customer. They
are able to aggregate information and match the
recommendations with the information that the
user is looking for.
Personal Tour has features that help to generate
better recommendations, such as:
Agents are able to perform parts of the rec-
ommendation (for example, locomotion
ways) in order to cooperate for presenting
the final recommendation to the user (the
whole travel package);
Agents are able to exchange information
with other agents from the community
when necessary;
Agents become experts in specific part of
the recommendation;
Agents have specific knowledge (for ex-
ample, alternative flights from different
companies) and they are able to search for
information needed for the recommenda-
tion in their own knowledge bases.
This paper is organized as follow: presented
first is the related work in multi-agent recom-
mender systems, followed by the Personal Tour
and its components, then some experiments done
in order to validate the system are discussed and
finally, the last section presents some conclusions
and future work.
RELATED WORK
Multi-agent models have been applied to retrieve,
filter and use information relevant to the requested
recommendations. MAPWEB (Camacho et al.,
2006), for example, is a multi-agent approach that
plans travels according to the preferences of the
user. It has 4 different agents: UserAgent, that is
responsible for the communication between the
user and the system; the PlannerAgent, that is
responsible for planning the travel; the Webbot,
that is responsible for searching information in
Internet; and the CoachAgent that acts like a
coach for the group of agents, controlling them
and assigning tasks to them. The agents are able
to store the generated plans as cases and use these
cases to build new plans.
The disadvantage of MAPWEB is the fact that
the CoachAgent controls and manages the tasks
and it controls the possible communications and
indicates who must help who. Moreover, there
is no process to validate the knowledge of the
agents. Agents may work with outdated informa-
tion during the planning process generating bad
recommendations. In Personal Tour there is no
central knowledge or task manager, so the divi-
sion of tasks is made by common agree among
the agents in the system and according to the
specialty of each agent.
SmartClient (Torrens et al., 2002) is another
multi-agent system applied in the tourism domain
that helps the user to plan a flight route by repre-
senting the space of solutions (recommendations)
as constraint satisfaction problems. Users define
the departure city, the cities they want to visit
and the travel dates. With these preferences in
hand, the system builds a constraint satisfaction
network able to exploit the possible routes. This
approach has a couple of disadvantages. First, it
collects route information from the server only
once to avoid several costly accesses. That limits
the search space because and it is not possible for
the user to modify the preferences and to refine the
query. Secondly, the domain variables involved
in the constraint network are fixed by the system
and it is not possible to explore solutions that are
not originally in the search space. In Personal Tour
users may criticize the recommendation received,
refining the query through the modification of the
informed preferences.
179

MAPWEB and SmartClient differ from Per-
sonal Tour in three aspects. First, in Personal Tour,
an agent is fully autonomous and it can decide
which task it will perform according to the specific
knowledge it has. Second, agents are able to be-
come experts in some part of the recommendation
through their confidence degrees. Third, agents
are able to assume information during the recom-
mendation process in cases of missing information
necessary to generate a recommendation.
THE PERSONAL TOUR
RECOMMENDER SYSTEM
Personal Tour is a multi-agent recommender
system designed to help users to find best travel
packages according to their preferences. It is based
on the collaboration of multiple agents exchanging
information stored in their local knowledge bases,
following the Distributed Artificial Intelligence
paradigm.
This multi-agent recommender system was
projected to be used in travel agencies where travel
agents have to deal with specific customers needs
and broad knowledge about tourism options, have
to exchange information among them and many
times they have to suppose information about
customers in order to generate recommendation
of a travel package. Due the multi-agent feature,
the system may be used for different travel agents
at same time, solving several recommendation
requests in an asynchronous way.
A user recommendation request is divided into
partial recommendations (different travel services)
handled by different agents, each one maintain-
ing incomplete information that may be useful to
compose a recommendation and accomplishing
part of the whole task.
Cycle of Recommendation
A cycle of recommendation in Personal Tour, as
shown in Figure 1, starts collecting the prefer-
180
Personal Tour
ences from the user through the main interface
(step 1) for each travel service (flight, hotel and
attractions). These preferences are used to cre-
ate the tasks of the recommendation that will be
performed by the agents of the system (step 2).
In step 3, agents choose tasks to solve (accord-
ing to their confidence in each travel service)
and from this moment they start to perform the
tasks searching for the information necessary to
compose the recommendation. Agents have two
ways of searching information: local, when agents
search in their knowledge base (step 4a); or in the
community, when agents cooperate, communicat-
ing to each other to get the information (step 4b).
The local knowledge base is composed by
historical data from other customers travels, stor-
ing each recommendation presented to the cus-
tomer (information about flights, hotels and at-
tractions generated by the system to each request
of the user). This information is structured as
cases following the Case-based Reasoning ap-
proach, where the description of the problem is
the users request and the description of the solu-
tion is the recommendation presented by the
agents.
After the task is solved, agents change the status
of the performed task (step 5) and the results of
all tasks are returned to the interface (step 6) that
is responsible for presenting the whole recom-
mendation to the user (step 7). To complete the
cycle of recommendation, the user evaluates the
recommendation received and this evaluation is
stored in the agents knowledge base (step 8).
The combination of agents with the decomposi-
tion of the customer request in small parts (tasks)
is a feature that allows Personal Tour to present a
complete recommendation to customers and this
is an important feature to a recommender system
applied in the tourism domain.
After receiving the customers preferences,
Personal Tour creates the list L of tasks and the
available agents are able to choose tasks to per-
form. An interesting feature of Personal Tour is
the fact that the available tasks are interdependent
Personal Tour
Figure 1. A recommendation cycle in Personal Tour
but agents may perform them asynchronously.
For example, tasks of hotel and attractions are
dependent of the flight information and they
should be performed after receiving the infor-
mation provided by flight task. However, agents
have an assumption component that helps to deal
with this issue (this will be further explained in
the section Assumptions).
Customer Profile
The customer model in Personal Tour is composed
by the preferences of the customer for each
travel service informed in the main interface and
it is represented by U t {i1, , im } where each im
represents a preference.
Every time the customer asks for a new rec-
ommendation, the current preferences are stored
in a new XML file. This file is named with the
customer name and the current date. The set of all
XML files of the customers compose the customer
profile and may be used to infer information about
the customer when necessary. Figure 2 shows an
example of the XML file with a request of the
customer.
181

Figure 2. Example of the XML file with a customer request
Agents
Personal Tour consists of a set of agents defined
as C = {a1, a2 , , an } , where we assume that
agents work in a cooperative way and they know
each other.
An agent is able to perform a part of the rec-
ommendation in response to a user query. Figure
3 shows the agent architecture with its main
components that are:
Knowledge. An agent has its knowledge
base where it stores all recommendations
182
Personal Tour
performed. The knowledge is stored in the
knowledge base as cases and each custom-
er request generates 3 cases (a case of
flight, a case of hotel and a case of
attraction);
Assumptions. An agent is capable of assum-
ing some information in order to perform a
task. These assumptions are related to the
data that is not available as the time the
agent needs it during the recommendation
process; for example, agent1 is perform-
ing a task of hotel and it needs information
about the flight (that is being performed by
Personal Tour
Figure 3. Architecture of the agent
agent3). If it does not receive the informa-
tion from agent3, if may assume this infor-
mation in order to solve the task;
Specialization. Agents become experts in
some type of task and this specialization
helps agents to decide which task they
should perform during the recommenda-
tion process.
When an agent does not have information
necessary to complete the chosen task, we say that
agents cooperate. In Personal Tour, this coopera-
tion is considered a capability of the agent and
it is given by the communication among agents
that exchange information in order to complete
its part of the recommendation.
Local Knowledge/Case Base
Each agent has a case-base where all the tasks
performed are stored as cases. Each case is com-
posed by the description of the problem (that is
represented by the set of preferences informed
by the user) and the description of the solution
(represented by the recommendation generated by
the agent and the evaluation given by the user to
this recommendation).
Each case is composed by:
The Request of the User. The query is the
set of needs and preferences chosen by the
user.
The Recommendation. The recommenda-
tion generated by the agent to the travel
service.
Assumptions
As tasks are interdependent, some of them should
be performed before others. However, as the agents
work asynchronously, sometimes the order of tasks
is not respected by the agents and it may cause
lack of information during the recommendation
process. Assumptions allow agents to reason with
incomplete information (by making guesses), i.e.,
they represent knowledge that the agent supposes
to believe.
When an agent is performing a task that
depends on the result from another one, it may
assume information rather than waiting for the
information from other agent. For example, if
agent1 is performing hotel task, it needs informa-
tion about the flight in order to know which hotel
is better to recommend but the flight task is being
performed by agent2. It may happen that agent2
take too long to solve its task or it may become
unavailable during the recommendation process.
These problems can generate a large, even more
183

than expected, delay in the answering time which
is not good for the system.
In order to use assumptions during the recom-
mendation process it is necessary to formulate
the set of assumptions that agents may access.
We propose two different methods to generate
the set of assumptions during the recommenda-
tion process:
The most popular option in the community
of users. If the customer has no profile in
the system yet, then the agent sums the
number of occurrence of each option for
each attribute in the past travels of all cus-
tomers stored and the most popular option
will be used by the agent as assumption;
Similar Cases. The agent searches for the
most similar customer in its case base and
uses the options to the new customer. In
order to find the most similar customer, the
agent uses the similarity measure, compar-
ing attributes of the new customer with all
customers in its knowledge base. Here, it
is necessary to define a threshold that rep-
resents how much the case is similar to the
new customer.
In Personal Tour the hotel and attraction tasks
depend on the information from the flight task.
Regarding the hotel task, for instance, the agent
needs information about the arrival time in order
to accomplish its recommendation.
The use of assumptions in the recommendation
process guarantees that agents are able to complete
their tasks even when there is lack of information
during the recommendation process and in an ac-
ceptable time for the user, without jeopardizing
the performance of the system.
Specialization
In Personal Tour, an agent may become expert in a
specific travel service during the recommendation
cycles. The agent has one confidence degree for
184
Personal Tour
each travel service (flight, hotel and attractions).
These confidence degrees represent how much the
agent is expert in each travel service and agents
use them to choose the tasks to perform.
The confidence degrees of each agent are up-
dated according to the new evaluations received
from the customer. The new evaluation may
increase (if the customer liked the recommenda-
tion presented by the agent) or decrease (if the
customer did not like it) the agent confidence
degree for the travel service.
If the users evaluation was positive, then
the confidence degree will be increased which
means that the agent will become more expert in
the travel service. On the other hand, if the users
evaluation was negative, the confidence degree
will be decreased.
Customers Evaluations
The customer has an important role in the recom-
mendation process evaluating the recommenda-
tions presented by the system. After receiving the
final recommendation, the customer evaluates
each item of each travel service with a rate: I
like it (represented by 1) or I did not like it
(represented by 0). This evaluation is used to
update the confidence degrees of the agents. The
confidence degrees are increased or decreased
according to the received evaluations.
Thus, the evaluation model is represented by
{ }
a vector E = e (i1, r1 ), ..., e (i m , rm ) , that
describes the evaluation of the user about the
recommendation item received (rm ) , considering
the preference informed by the user in the query
(im ) . The final evaluation rate to each travel
service is a value between the range [0, 1].
Equation 1 shows how the final evaluation
rate (v ( t n )) is calculated to each travel service,
where m is the number of attributes for the travel
Personal Tour

service and e (i j, rj ) is the evaluation rate for the
attribute i j .
m maximum confidence degree of a i in the travel
v(t n )=
j =1
e(im , , rm )
(1)
m
We consider good recommendation when
v tn = 0.5 , i.e., when user has rated as I liked
it at least half of the attributes recommended.
Updating the Confidence Degrees
The task evaluation is then used in the agent
confidence degree computation so that the agent
increases the confidence regarding a travel service
when it solves the task in a better way.
As the confidence degree represents how much
an agent is becoming an expert in a specific travel
service, it is used by the agent to choose the task
it will perform. Thus, agents consider their con-
fidence degrees when they choose the next task
to perform. When L is available, the agent will
choose one task that belongs to the travel service
with the greater confidence degree. For example,
if its confidence degree is 0.4 in flight, 0.6 in hotel
and 0.2 in attraction, the agent will choose a hotel
task to perform because it has more expertise in
hotel tasks than others.
We use Equation 2 to update confidence de-
grees where:
z is the number of evaluations received for
the travel service t n performed by a i ;
is the number of days elapsed since the
evaluation;
T is a constant that defines the weight of
the evaluation v ( t n ) in the update of the
confidence degrees of the agents.
T tn ai, ai returns a value between 0 and 1, where
0 represents the minimum confidence degree of
a i in the travel service t and 1 represents the
service t . T has to be set according to the number
of days () the evaluation lasts.
An important feature of the specialization ap-
plied in Personal Tour is that when updating the
confidence degrees in each agent it considers that
most recent evaluations have more influence than
old evaluations.
Cooperation
In Personal Tour, agents are able to cooperate with
each other, exchanging information during the
recommendation process. When an agent does
not find in its knowledge base the information
necessary to generate the recommendation re-
quested in the task, it may communicate with
other agents, asking for the information. For
example, if a 3 is solving an attraction task and it
does not have information about attractions in
Lisbon City, it may ask to other agents in the
community.
In this cooperation process, the agent sends a
message to all available agents in the community
asking for the information. Then, it chooses the
first agent that answered and stores the received
information in its knowledge base.
However, it might happen that nobody in
the community has the information and nobody
will answer. In this case, the agent will starts its
assumption component in order to generate the
recommendation. We defined a waiting time of
30s, before uses assumptions.
EXPERIMENTS

z Experiments were done to validate the Personal

(t )
tn
(vx n e )
T ai , ai
= x =1
z
(2) Tour. The first step was the knowledge acquisition
x =1
e where 300 cases were obtained from real custom-

185

ers of a travel agency, to create the case-bases of
the agents. Each case represents one travel and is
composed with flight, hotel and attractions infor-
mation that corresponds to 900 performed tasks.
As different users may use the system at same
time, more than 3 agents are necessary in the
system to have a good performance. In our experi-
ments, 10 agents were created in the community.
The cases obtained from the travel agency were
randomly stored in the knowledge bases agents.
The agents are not seen by the user and they run
background in the system.
Figure 4 shows the main interface where the
user interacts with Personal Tour. In order to gen-
erate a recommendation, agents need to know the
needs of the user, such as, destination, departure
date and number of passengers. In this first ver-
sion, only one destination may be selected. This
issue is being worked for the next version.
As mentioned previously, a travel package
must be composed by three travel services: flight,
hotel and attractions (but the customer may choose
which travel services he wants in the travel pack-
age). An important feature of the Personal Tour
is that these preferences are dynamic and the user
may insert a new feature in the request moment.
The Personal Tour was run in a travel agency
for 2 months (June and July/2010) in order to
validate the recommendations generated by the
agents. During these experimental months, the
recommendations requested by the customers were
generated in two ways in parallel: by a human travel
agent (the expert of the travel agency) and by the
Personal Tour (by the agents of the system). The
human travel expert is a travel agent that works
in a travel agency for more than 15 years and is
expert in travel packages recommendations.
Both recommendations were showed to the
customers that evaluated them. As shown in the
Customers Evaluations section, the user evaluates
all the attributes of the recommendation with a rate
0 or 1 (negative/positive), in each travel service
(flight, hotel and attractions). The evaluation by
attribute will be used in future improvements of
186
Personal Tour
Personal Tour where agents will generate a new
recommendation according to the negative rates
of the user and update the user profile. Next,
we asked the customers to evaluate the recom-
mendations received (the travel package) and to
indicate which one they prefer to buy (with the
rate I would like to buy it or I would not like
to buy it).
Thus, the number of recommended travel
packages that the customers would like to buy
was considered as a metric. From the 73 travel
packages recommended by the Personal Tour, 66
travel packages were rated with I would like to
buy it, i.e., and 61 travel packages recommended
by the expert were indicated as I would like to
buy it which represents 83.56%.
Table 1 shows the percentage of purchasable
travel packages during the experimental months
of Personal Tour. We can see that agents had per-
formance superior to the expert in the generation
of the recommendations.
We claim that the results of the purchasable
travel packages using the system was better due
the fact that the specific knowledge is distributed
over agents that are capable of cooperate and as-
sume information during the recommendation
process. In real travel agency, the recommendation
is performed by only one human travel agent, in
a centralized way. Distributing the knowledge in
different agents and letting them become experts
in travel services improve the quality of the rec-
ommendations.
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This paper presented a multi-agent recommender
system, called Personal Tour, applied to the tourism
domain in order to recommend travel packages.
A recommendation is divided in tasks and each
agent is responsible to perform some tasks. Agents
work in a cooperative way to recommend travel
packages to the user.
Personal Tour
Figure 4. Personal Tour main interface
Agents become experts in a specific travel
service over time. We can say that agents become
travel agents, where each one has specific knowl-
edge and the cooperation among them results in
good recommendations. This feature helps the
system to mimic what happens in a travel agency
where each travel agent has specific knowledge
about a travel service and the cooperation among
all them generates the final recommendation to
the customer.
Personal Tour has an assumption component
that enables agents to assume information during
the recommendation process when there is lack
of information to generate a recommendation.
The system was tested in a real travel agency
and the results obtained after two months of use
showed that Personal Tour is capable of improving
the recommendations presented to customers, due
the fact that agents have their knowledge bases
and they cooperate during the recommendation
process.
Decomposing the problem and distribute it
to several different agents that become more and
more specialized can yield good recommenda-
tions, even when applied to tourism that is a
complex domain that needs specific knowledge
distributed over different sources. Personal Tour
is applied in the tourism domain but we believe
that the approach may help customers in other ap-
plications that deal with dynamic and distributed
knowledge to generate recommendations.
As future work we want to develop a mecha-
nism to validate the assumptions used by agents
in the recommendation process. In this version
of Personal Tour, agents generate and manipulate
assumptions but we do not consider what happen
187

Table 1. Percentage of purchasable travel
packages in the experimental months
Method of recommendation Percentage of purchasable
travel packages
Personal Tour 90.41
Human Expert 83.56
when an assumption received a negative evalua-
tion and this is important to improve the process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was partially supported by the project
PERSONAL TOUR: an intelligent software for
personalized tourism packages, under support
from CNPQ (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvi-
mento Cientfico e Tecnolgico - Brasil, grant
n. 561408/2010-6) and from FINEP (Agncia
Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos - Brasil,
program PRIME).
188
Personal Tour
REFERENCES
Camacho, D., Molina, J. M., Borrajo, D., & Aler,
R. (2002). Multi-agent plan based information
gathering. [Hingham, MA.]. Applied Intelligence,
25(1), 5971. doi:10.1007/s10489-006-8866-z
Gunawardana, A., & Meek, C. (2009). A uni-
fied approach to building hybrid recommender
systems. In Proceedings of the third ACM con-
ference on Recommender systems - RecSys09,
(pp. 117124) New York:ACM.
Macho, S., Torrens, M., & Faltings, B. (2000) A
multi-agent recommender system for planning
meetings. In Workshop on Agent-Based Recom-
mender Systems (WARS2000).
Resnick, P., Iacovou, N., Suchak, M., Bergstrom,
P., & Riedl, J. (1994). GroupLens: an open ar-
chitecture for collaborative filtering of netnews.
In ACM Conference on Computer-Supported
Cooperative Work, (pp.175186).
Torrens, M., Faltings, B., & Pu, P. (2002). Smart-
Client: constraint satisfaction as a paradigm for
scaleable intelligent information systems. CON-
STRAINTS: an International Journal, 7(1), 4969.
doi:10.1023/A:1017940426216
 189

Chapter 13
Management of World
Heritage Sites:
An Integrated Sustainable
Marketing Approach

Deepak Chhabra
Arizona State University, USA

ABSTRACT
This study seeks to determine sustainable efforts by the world heritage sites (WHS). By gauging the effec-
tiveness and efforts of the WHS to convey viable social, environmental, and economic use of their resource
through the medium of website marketing, effort is made to highlight the extent to which sustainability
initiatives are visible in the vision and mission and signature websites. In doing so, it makes a significant
contribution in heritage tourism literature and communicates a critical assessment of sustainability
initiatives to the WHS management and respective states. Mixed results are presented. Although, the
World Heritage Convention supports an exhaustive list of site-centric heritage sustainability initiatives
associated with conservation and authenticity, other aspects of sustainability such as host community
concerns, social and viable economic impact considerations to date have received less attention.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch013

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

INTRODUCTION
In the recent years, the world heritage sites have
witnessed a phenomenal growth in visitation num-
bers (Li, Wu & Cai, 2008). Despite the emerging
significance of world heritage, it continues to
share a dialectic and complex relationship with
tourism (Boyd & Butler, 1997). A divide exists
between scholars of cultural heritage and scholars
of tourism on heritage tourism impacts. According
to Lyon, the practitioners involved in the design
of heritage as a visitor attraction face professionals
whose interest is focused on the resource and its
protection rather than on the question of public
access (2007:62). From a tourism perspective,
heritage is a commodity purposefully designed
to satisfy the needs of contemporary audience.
In line with this view, Taylor (2001) maintains
that heritage tourism is motivated by monetary
benefits. It has been suggested that dialectic re-
lationship between tourism and heritage can be
nurtured through the use of strategic tools such as
certifications and sustainable marketing (Chhabra
2010; Lyon 2007). Although sustainability is at the
forefront of the ideology behind the world heritage
movement today (Aas, Ladkin & Fletcher 2005),
it offers limited value due to its somewhat narrow
focus on conservation and authenticity thereby
denying a broader and integrated approach.
In the light of the emerging significance of an
integrated perspective of sustainability in heritage
tourism, this study seeks to use an integrated
sustainable marketing paradigm to determine if
a predetermined set of important indicators from
the model are visibly implemented by the world
heritage sites (WHS). More specifically, the aim
is to suggest add-ons to the heritage conservation
principles so that a holistic and integrated sustain-
able paradigm of heritage tourism can be devised.
In the recent decades, the global/world form of
heritage has received unprecedented attention in
heritage tourism, more so because it brings with
it a celebrity UNESCO status to the heritage site.
The accolade has become a reference point and a
190
Management of World Heritage Sites
measure of quality, trademark, and an authenticity
stamp for the heritage tourist (Rakic and Cham-
bers 2007: 146). The UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
aims to facilitate the identification and conserva-
tion of cultural and natural heritage across the
globe that is considered to be of outstanding value
to humanity. This is embedded in the Convention
concerning the Protection of the World Cultural
and Natural Heritage (adopted by UNESCO in
1972). In brief, the UNESCOs World Heritage
mission is multifold:
to encourage countries to sign the World
Heritage Convention and to ensure the
protection of their natural and cultural
heritage;
to encourage States Parties to the
Convention to nominate sites within their
national territory for inclusion on the
World Heritage List;
to encourage States Parties to establish
management plans and set up reporting
systems on the state of conservation of
their WHS;
to help States Parties safeguard World
Heritage properties by providing techni-
cal assistance and professional training;
provide emergency assistance for WHS in
immediate danger;
to support States Parties public aware-
ness-building activities for World Heritage
conservation;
to encourage participation of the local pop-
ulation in the preservation of their cultural
and natural heritage; and
to encourage international cooperation in
the conservation of our worlds cultural
and natural heritage (UNESCO 2010).
The appreciated UNESCO honor has also
surfaced as a major marketing tool in the recent
years for the world heritage site managers (Lyon
2007; Rakic & Leask, 2006; Rakic & Chambers,
Management of World Heritage Sites
2007). That said, it has also been posited that the
concept of World Heritage has drifted from its (Angkor) as associated with archaeological
original purpose. It has become an accreditation
scheme, used either to serve the purposes of the
tourism industry or for the purposes of nation
building (Rakic & Chambers, 2007: 146).
The intention of the original idea was to
bestow unique and universal value to selected
heritage and advocate support for its conserva-
tion. However, recent motivations have extended
to nation building, identity and an attraction
towards the potential economic numerations by
promoting tourism at these. Several authors note
that the conservation of heritage sites is being
compromised today for financial gains (Bregalia
2005; Drost 1992; Hede, 2007; Winter, 2007).
Much blame rests on the tourism industry in that
it continues to tap the marketing potential of this
designation and as a result, the world heritage
has become commodified and is being exploited
for contemporary hedonistic pursuits. This view
is supported by Winter (2007) in his study of the
Angkor Heritage Site. The author reported that
the political elite are eager to maximize the World
Heritage Listing status as a cash cow for tourism
development (Winter, 2007:32).
Much of the documented literature, thus, re-
ports that heritage shares a problematic relation-
ship with tourism in regard to the WHS (Hede,
2007). The reasons can be attributed to conflicting
aims (Drost, 1992). For instance, the goal of a
heritage organization is to protect and preserve
whereas tourism objectives are slanted towards
commercial gains. Conservation and maintenance
efforts are affected by wear and tear of increased
tourist visitations (Lyon, 2007). Other issues
include increased site deterioration and inconve-
nience and intrusion for the surrounding host com-
munities (Breglia, 2005). Also, misuse of heritage
has been reported in terms of the tension between
the universal and the national, which implies that
there is a conflict between local values bestowed
on the site versus universal values imposed by the
United Nations and international tourism.
Highlighting issues related to a heritage site
preservation, urban growth, and tourism develop-
ment (Winter, 2007: 32), the author stresses on
the need for an integrated holistic examination of
multiple factors to promote sustained use of heri-
tage sites. Parallel to the aforementioned concerns
and impacts has emerged an established need for
alternative measures to plan, develop and promote
sustainable use of the sites and their surrounding
environments. Evidence exists of efforts to seek
a compromise between heritage and tourism and
use of tourism as a tool to promote and conserve
heritage (Coetzee et al., 2006; Nuryunti, 1996).
It has been postulated that ultimately, heritage
and tourism are mutually dependent partners in
that operators and destinations can use them
to add value to their products and local services
which, in turn, generates greater income from
tourists while the heritage sites achieve higher
revenues (Fyall & Rakic, 2006: 162). The use
of such iconic sites is often deemed indispens-
able to the marketing of destinations. The WHS
can be used as landmarks to enhance destination
image by marketing managers to lure both domes-
tic and international tourists. Also, such images
characterize dominant and reminiscent symbols
of a countrys identity. Being endorsed with the
UNESCO logo, for example, not only embodies
a sign of quality but also captures the atten-
tion of potential tourist markets. Nevertheless,
the application of tools to promote WHS such
as tourism marketing has been condemned for
its partial approach towards growth and neglect
of externalities on natural, social, and cultural
environments (Jamrozy, 2007).
Guerin (2000) holds that heritage practitioners
are skeptical about the usefulness of marketing
in the promotion and preservation of authentic
heritage. This view is strengthened by the limited
focus in this field of study. For instance, Colli-
son and Spears (2010) conducted field research
and used secondary data to figure out marketing
strategies to attract cultural and heritage tourists
191

to the Marshall Islands. Implications of these
strategies on sustainability were remiss. Fullerton,
McGettigan and Stephens (2010) have called for
marketers to create a balance between visitation
impacts and preservation of cultural and heritage
resources. Fullerton et al. (2010) suggest demar-
keting strategies to attract selected group of tourists
or reduce visitations to protect the heritage sites.
Demarketing can thus be used as a tool to enforce
sustainable marketing guidelines.
For viable use of heritage sites, it is therefore
important that sustainable marketing strategies
are devised. The sustainable perspective calls
for a holistic, unbiased, and responsible view of
marketing (Haywood, 1990; Walle, 1998) which
takes current and potential impacts of tourism
into consideration. According to Kilbourne,
responsible marketing needs to extend beyond
microenvironments and promote sustainable con-
sumption and quality of life and expand the domain
of inquiry to include technological, political and
economic benefits and costs of consumption, thus
challenging the paradigm itself (1998: 642). In
other words, it is implied that marketing strategies
should be guided by natural, social, and cultural
environments. Sustainable tourism marketing
can be defined as a form of marketing that takes
cultural, social, economic and environmental
perspectives into consideration (Chhabra 2010;
Fullerton et al. 2010; Sirakaya, Jamal & Choi
2001). It has been pointed out that sustainable
measures can enhance marketing competitiveness
in heritage tourism.
To date, few studies have examined marketing
strategies employed by the WHS from a sustain-
ability perspective although they suggest use of
sustainable measures in marketing. Also, a holistic
and integrated perspective is required. This paper
aims to fill this lacuna by examining marketing
efforts of the WHS through evaluation of mission
statements and signature websites to gauge the
extent to which sustainability is embraced. The
mission statement is important because respon-
sible strategies have to form the foundation of
192
Management of World Heritage Sites
any organization that supports tourism (Aguilar,
2009) and they serve as a starting point to highlight
the key functions of an organization. Therefore,
a list of sustainable development indicators can
help gauge effectiveness of sustainable promotion
efforts in the mission statement and the textual
content of the signature websites.
The aim of this chapter therefore is to identify
gaps between mission statements and the website
marketing content and suggest how WHS can
use website marketing in a sustainable manner to
achieve viable economic, cultural, and social ben-
efits for the site and the host community. In other
words, online information can generate awareness
and sensitivity towards the visited site. In fact,
the effect of online digital information on image
formation is being increasingly recognized by the
heritage tourism industry (Choi, Lehto & Mor-
rison 2007). Current trends have shifted towards
the use of website texts and pictures to promote
and advertise destinations. Thus, the underlying
purpose of this study is to advocate sustainable
development of tourism through the use of mar-
keting tools. In sum, the underlying objective of
this study is to review the marketing strategies
utilized by the WHS based on a predetermined
set of sustainable indicators.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A plethora of studies suggest sustainable tourism
guidelines for the WHS. For instance, Coetzee,
Niekerk and Saayman (2006) suggest adherence
of economic guidelines to promote responsible
tourism at a WHS. Their study focused on different
stakeholders of tourism (such as the government,
communities, product owners and investors) and
examined their commitment towards viable eco-
nomic impacts in a rural region in South Africa.
They suggested viable economic measures such
as integration of economic impacts in the tour-
ism development plans; maximization of local
economic benefits by diminishing leakages and
Management of World Heritage Sites
increasing linkages in the region; involvement of
local community in the decision making process
and ensuring they benefit from tourism; ensuring
responsible marketing strategies are employed;
and providing equal business opportunities to all
stakeholders of tourism.
Coetzee et al. (2006) surveyed forty-three
stakeholders of tourism from the accommodation,
recreation, and retail sectors and their results indi-
cated that the stakeholders are not concerned with
social and economic viability although evidence
showed that they were environmentally sensitive.
Coetzee et al. (2006) called for emphasis on fair
trade, training and education, and high multiplier
effects to promote economic health of the local
communities.
Wager examined Angkor heritage site and
noted that zoning plan can assist in promoting
sustainable development of natural and cultural
resources and can help obtain a balance between
strict protection of archaeological sites and
planned development of tourism and urban and
rural development in a rural zone (1995: 515).
Aas, Ladkin and Fletcher (2005) investigated the
relationship between heritage management and
tourism development at Luang Prabang (a WHS in
Laos), based on five aspects: communication chan-
nels between heritage and tourism stakeholders,
income generation for heritage, local community
involvement in the decision making process and
tourism activities, and an evaluation of the extent
of effectiveness of stakeholder collaboration. The
authors (2005) highlighted numerous issues asso-
ciated with collaboration such as lack of dialogue
between the private and public sector, poor direc-
tion and leadership to pursue sustainable goals,
issues connected to the user pays principle, and
local community involvement. The authors found
that the right to participate did not translate into
an ability to participate. The major challenge was
seen to lie in raising the capability of stakeholders
to participate in a meaningful manner. Despite the
barriers, a somewhat hopeful picture is portrayed
due to emerging initiatives although inherent is-
sues associated with achieving effective symbiosis
between stakeholders of heritage management and
tourism development were unveiled.
Another study by Li, Yu and Cai pointed out
that there are conflicts between heritage manage-
ment and tourism development and stated these
were more pronounced in developing countries
(2008: 308). Key threats identified are excessive
demand and use through increased visitation.
Garrod and Fyall (2000) noted that the heritage
site managers are often challenged in their efforts
to achieve sustainable outcomes such as balanc-
ing conservation goals with financial objectives.
Excessive visitation challenges sustainable goals
of the site and delicate equilibrium is needed
between visitor use and conservation (Li et al.,
2005). A report by UNESCO identified three
major challenges to successful management of
heritage sites in North America: respect for cultural
diversity and intangible heritage, involving host
communities in the decision making process and
sharing benefits with them, sustaining traditional
cultures and economic benefits and protection of
biological diversity (UNESCO 2002).
Yet another study by Saipradist and Staiff
(2007) on a world heritage site (Ayutthaya) in
Thailand reinforced the significance of effective
and authentic interpretation to generate apprecia-
tion for the cultural and heritage values of the
site. The authors called for an ongoing examina-
tion of interpretive content used at the site. Lyon
(2007) analyzed three sites in the United Kingdom
and demonstrated the significance of value-led
participative management and conservation.
Hede (2007) examined the relationship between
heritage and tourism at WHS in Australia and
New Zealand and brought to the forefront issues
associated with the associated status such as threat
to the heritage brand, threat to conservation of
heritage, how to engage tourists in a meaningful
manner, and meaningful co-operative strategies
between stakeholders. Boyd and Butler (1997)
highlighted maintenance of partnerships, learning
environment, conservation and authenticity to
193

be the key challenges for heritage organizations
involved with tourism.
In light of the aforementioned evidence, some
recurrent themes can be identified as crucial for
sustainable use of the WHS. These are conserva-
tion, authenticity, economic viability, stakeholder
collaborations and effective partnerships, and host
community involvement in the tourism develop-
ment process. It is important to note that these
have appeared in a somewhat fragmented manner.
Evidently, there is a lack of integrated plans to
embrace sustainable measures on a holistic scale
by custodians of heritage tourism. Nevertheless,
they unravel some legitimate concerns with regard
to the use of heritage for tourism purposes. These
obviously need to be addressed as tourism can still
play a significant role to provide social, economic
and cultural benefits to the host communities.
Sustainable marketing is one way to resolve
these problems. Against the notion that sustainable
marketing is an oxymoron and delusion (Clarke,
2002), recent studies support the use of market-
ing to promote sustainable use of heritage sites.
Although few marketing paradigms have appeared
is heritage tourism literature, extended inferences
for this study can be drawn from general sustain-
able marketing frameworks.
Sustainable Marketing Paradigms
Jamorozy (2007) suggests the need to shift from
economic driven goals toward sustainable promo-
tion in his new sustainable marketing paradigm.
His model was based on the sustainable develop-
ment criteria established by the Brundtland Report
(WCED 1987). The author argued that a sustain-
able marketing philosophy needs to incorporate
societal, consumer, and environmental schools
of thought. His model was triangle shaped with
three dimensions of sustainability: economic
viability, social equity, and environmental protec-
tion (Jamorozy, 2007: 124). The author argued
that marketing needs to maximize by focusing on
all three dimensions and focus should center on
194
Management of World Heritage Sites
marketing of green products, social equity in terms
of benefit for society and promoting non-profit
measures for a fair community environment, and
advocacy of healthy and clean natural environ-
ment. In other words, the sustainability locus
rested on a triple bottomline approach.
Du Cros (2001) presented a two-dimensional
scale: conservation and commodification. The
author created a matrix thereby implying that
dynamic relationship exists between conserva-
tion and commodification in terms of heritage
robusticity and market appeal. According to the
author, within the matrix, heritage places can be
plotted based on their appeal to tourists and their
robusticity or ability to withstand high levels of
visitation. Helia (2007) emphasized on collabora-
tions between different stakeholders of tourism
for the success of strategic sustainable market-
ing. The author maintained that heritage tour-
ism involves an amalgam of service offerings
(Helia, 2007:255). The underlying argument for
this crucial approach is the broad interest appeal
tourism holds for a variety of stakeholders, both
public and private. Examples of organizations
include intermediaries, suppliers, competitors, the
government and the cross-sector organizations.
Sustainable tourism marketing model presented
by the author called for equilibrium between
environmental and socio-economic perspectives.
Chhabra (2009) presented a sustainable mar-
keting model (SHTM) which she later modified
based on her study of several heritage institutions
across the globe. Her initial model highlighted the
significance of the mission statement and com-
munication mix, market segmentation, macro and
micro environments, partnerships and research.
The author implied that marketing decisions
should be based on conservation principles and
local community involvement and benefits. Her
later body of work highlighted additional ele-
ments for successful sustainable marketing: visitor
mindfulness, interpretation authenticity and viable
economic to the model (Chhabra, 2010). Chhabra
tested her modified model on museums, historic
Management of World Heritage Sites
houses, heritage hotels, and festivals and made
further additions to the model associated with
enterprise management and civic engagement.
Fullerton, McGettigan and Stephens (2010) ex-
plored the potential role of marketing in visitor
management. The authors maintained that careful
management of tourists through marketing can
minimize impacts and help to retain authenticity
of heritage.
Responsible marketing strategies are thus re-
quired for long term heritage health of sites (McK-
ercher et al., 2004). It is argued that sustainability
emphasis can make an organization competitive.
Additionally, a perusal of literature identifies the
following indicators in heritage tourism which
can help to measure sustainability levels: cul-
tural, economic, ecological, social, partnership,
and heritage (in the context of conservation and
authenticity). It has been noted that the traditional
heritage institutions continue to use the objective
version of authenticity. Objective authenticity is
often described as traditional, genuine, pristine,
flow of life, not interfered with by the framing
of sights, sites, objects, and events for touristic
purposes, by various overt markers (Cohen, 2007:
76); and cool (Selwyn, 1996). It is argued that
the heritage suppliers should embrace sustain-
able development by using a strategic marketing
perspective. Furthermore, Chhabra (2010) pointed
out the significance of a holistic approach to pro-
mote both intergenerational and intra-generational
equity. Use of sustainable indicators is one way
to gauge sustainability and suggest future course
of action.
Sustainable Indicators
Sustainable indicators are important in that they
can serve as a pathway of principles that form
the core mission of the heritage sites and their
sustained use in tourism. According to the United
Nations-World Tourism Organization, the indica-
tor development process can help respond to risks
triggered by the negative impacts of tourism.
Aguilar maintains that indicators are a response to
the anticipated risks associated with the key assets
of a destination and provide summary informa-
tion on the levels of effort being made to plan or
protect the destination (Manning, 1999 cited in
Aguilar). According to Manning (2007), indicators
should have the following characteristics: specific,
objective, reliable and replicable, and sensitive to
visitor use as level of use changes. Additionally,
their measurement must be easy and cost effective
and be monitored regularly.
Specific guidelines for indicators were sug-
gested by Sirakaya et al. (2001) and these were
inclusion of all levels of society to enable con-
sideration of a broad range of socio-economic,
cultural, natural and political environments;
manageable and easy application to diverse en-
vironments; reflection of local community views
and involvement; strategic vision, that is, taking
long term benefits in to consideration; organized
development of indicators to ensure that they are
strong, quantifiable, affordable and capable of
providing and integrated analysis of definite and
general conditions of the sustainability of the
destination and its natural and cultural resource
(Aguilar, 2009: 21).
Also, it has been argued that the sustainability
indicators should be divided into subsets to enable
measurement at the micro level because sustain-
ability can have broad connotations. A plethora
of studies have confirmed that the majority of
the externalities to tourism attractions occur in
the social, cultural, ecological, and economic
environments (Marsh 1999; Carbone 2005; Choi
& Sirikaya 2006). A sub-set of indicators for each
externality category can help measure extent of
impacts in an ongoing manner. Ecological indica-
tors relate to a diverse set of items which define
environmental sustainability centered on efforts
to reduce negative impacts on the environment
(Carbone 2005) by ensuring compatibility with the
vital ecological processes and biological processes
(Mill & Morrison, 2006).
195

According to Aguilar (2009), social and cul-
tural sustainability refers to efforts to conserve
and protect traditional rituals and customs, so
they are not impacted by demonstration effects
such as the tourist lifestyles. Also, is included the
need to reduce any possible conflicts that may
arise from unequal distribution of tourism benefits
(Carbone 2005). Although culture evolves and is
not static, it is important to control harmful effects,
and educate tourists to behave in a responsible
manner so that the local culture is not vulnerable
to demonstration effects. The underlying efforts
of social and cultural sustainability are to ensure
that tourism development strengthens community
identity (Mill and Morrison, 2006) in addition to
improving the tourist and host relationships and
interactions. Retaining authenticity and conserva-
tion of heritage belongs to the heritage category.
Economic sustainability advocates equity of
economic benefits both for the current and future
generations (Mill and Morrison, 2006).
METHODOLOGY
Approximately 911 heritage sites currently exist
in the world and these are marked on UNESCOs
World Heritage List. Of these, 704 are cultural
sites, 180 are natural sites and 27 are mixed. These
are distributed between 151 countries (State Par-
ties) across the globe and include internationally
renowned sites such as the Taj Mahal in India,
Statue of Liberty in the United States, Uluru in
Figure 1. An integrated sustainable marketing model
196
Management of World Heritage Sites
Australia, and Stonehenge in the UK. The signature
Websites and mission statements of approximately
130 WHS were examined to determine the ex-
tent to which sustainable measures are pursued
and visibly implemented. Efforts were made to
include at least one from each country. The end
data resulted in 100 countries. The mission state-
ments and signature websites of the WHS were
examined using the content analysis method and
evaluated based on four fundamental tenets of
sustainability: socio-economic benefits, heritage
and cultural integrity, environmental integrity and
institutional benefits (see Figure 1). Also, certi-
fication documents of the WHS were scanned to
identify sustainable marketing indices.
Indicators
Mission Statement Indicators
As pointed in documented literature, the mission
statement is a brief statement defining the core
purpose of a business or organization. It is an
important statement because it defines the busi-
ness and provides an overview of its objectives.
For an organization to be sustainable, it is crucial
for the mission statement to emphasize on sus-
tainable contributions. Literature has suggested
the inclusion of following terms to reinforce a
promise and commitment towards sustainability
(Aguilar, 2009; Chhabra, 2009; Lyon, 2007):
heritage, cultural, social, economic, and environ-
mental. This study defines a mission statement
Management of World Heritage Sites
as promoting sustainability if it strives to make
contributions towards the local economy and the
host community in addition to producing viable
social, cultural and environmental impacts and
promoting site heritage in the context of conserva-
tion and authenticity and striving to use effective
interpretation to inform the audience so that they
can behave in a sustainable manner.
Website Indicators
Ecological Indicators: A variety of environmental
indicators are presented by previous literature
such as biodiversity; maintenance of natural
state; maintaining carrying capacity, and adopt-
ing recycling practices (Choi & Sirakaya, 2006;
Manning, 1999). For the purpose of this study, the
following ecological indicators are used: carrying
capacity and recycling practices.
Economic Indicators
Tangible measures of economic sustainability
have included assessment of employment op-
portunities and income distribution (Nelson &
Payne, 1993). Carbone (2005) also refers to the
extent additional income is provided to locals as
compensation for intrusion and inconvenience due
to tourist presence. Harris and Nelsons (1993) list
of economic indicators include local ownership,
gender equity, ethnic equity, local employment and
training and support, emphasis on strong linkages.
Choi & Sirikaya (2006) identified a similar set of
indicators such as local employment including
employment growth and unemployment rate,
income distribution/capital leakage and linkage,
capital formation in the community/investment,
percentage of repeat tourists, seasonal nature of
tourist visitation, economic well-being in terms
of comparable wages, new GDP (measure of eco-
nomic welfare), economic stability of the hosts,
nature of labor and labor conditions and income
earned by the local government. This study uses
the following indicators: increase in local wage;
generate income for locals and produce employ-
ment benefits; and promote investment in the
local region.
Heritage and Cultural Indicators
For the purpose of this study, the following
site heritage sustainability indicators are used:
maintain authenticity; conservation of cultural
heritage; interpretation for cultural education.
Cultural indicators are defined by the following
measures: respect for local community heritage;
and advocacy of culturally appropriate activities
and behavior.
Social Indicators
Several social sustainability measures are pro-
posed by documented literature such as aligned
with the community vision, community control
and plans to check intrusion, maintaining spiritual
and aesthetic values, and quality of life (Harris and
Nelson 1993). Other indicators include monitor-
ing of social relations and changes in subsistence
activities, family structures and decision making
strategies in the allocation of resources (Nelson
& Payne 1993). Choi and Sirakaya (2006) also
present an extensive list of indicators such as
social cohesion, community health and safety
and quality of life. For the purpose of this study,
based on the corpus of existing information, the
following social indicators were used: mention
of social costs such as intrusion, crime, demon-
stration effect, and improving quality of life and
standard of living.
General/Institutional Indicators
In addition to the foregoing indicators, some indi-
cators cross over to multiple categories and hence
are often grouped under Institutional indicators.
Most recurring measures of sustainable tourism in
documented literature as summarized by Miller
(2001) are the ones which: maximize economic
197

benefit, self-regulatory, observe carrying capac-
ity, promote intergenerational equality, make
efficient use of resources, utilize the technology
based approach, take a long term view, enable
local involvement, encourages local revitaliza-
tion, improve level of natural capital stock, ensure
resident satisfaction, ensure customer satisfac-
tion, maintain levels of natural capital stock, and
contain well developed tourism plans. Aguilar
(2009) stressed on five priorities based on Millers
study: strategic view, carefully planned tourism
development, efficient use of local resources, fa-
cilitate local community involvement and maintain
existing levels of natural capital stock.
Hassan (2000) also advocated cooperation
and partnership between the public and private
sectors as a core purpose of a sustainable model
and emphasized on building relationships and al-
liances to strengthen local community resources
and produce viable economic benefits in a way
suitable to the local environment. The underlying
objectives of Hassans model were: (1) to educate
all stakeholders of tourism of the significant
relationship between tourism development and
environment sustainability. (2) to promote equi-
table opportunities between local and non-local
tourism developers (3) to strive to provide best
quality service to the tourists. (4) to generate
support for the host community (5) to enhance
local quality of life and life style (6) to ensure a
balanced approach by taking into consideration
the economic, social and environmental neces-
sities in the tourism planning and development
programs (7) to determine thresholds of social and
environmental carrying capacity of the destination
(8) to measure impacts on the ecology in an ongo-
ing manner (9) to conserve the local culture and
support local heritage and values (10) to develop
training and educational programs so that human
resource skills are enhanced.
For the purpose of this study, the following
institutional indicators are used: long term view/
survival; well developed tourism plans; intergen-
erational equity; stakeholder collaboration/part-
198
Management of World Heritage Sites
nerships; local community involvement; customer
satisfaction; local resident satisfaction; emphasis
on ongoing research; code of ethics for tourists;
and educating/training the local community.
FINDINGS
Mission Statement
The examined WHS are found to actively em-
brace the vision laid down by the World Heritage
Convention by highlighting the need for enhanced
training and expertise of site personnel, strategic
management plans, protection and conservation
of culture and heritage, and international outreach.
As Table 1 reveals, the majority of these mission
statements of the WHS strive to promote con-
servation and cultural sustainability of the site,
thereby endorsing the core criteria laid by the
World Heritage Convention.
Close to 50% also emphasize on maintaining
objective authenticity of their site. This is followed
by efforts to promote social and environmental
sustainability in terms of minimizing social costs
and reducing tourism impact on the site environ-
ment. One third of the mission statements highlight
significance of effective interpretation. Least at-
tention is given to local community concerns and
efforts to promote viable economic benefits. No
mention of stakeholder collaborations was noted.
Based on these findings, the vision and mission
of the majority of the WHS can be best defined
as profoundly site-centric in terms of protection,
conservation, authenticity, expertise, and interna-
tional outreach.
Signature Website Indicators
Economic and Ecological: Approximately 86 of
the 130 WHS featured economic and/or ecological
indicators. As Table 2 illustrates, with regard to the
presence of economic measures on the signature
websites, approximately 60% emphasize on in-
Management of World Heritage Sites

Table 1. Mission statement indicators

and surrounding areas which provide a passage
Indicator Frequency to their entry. Increasing visitation numbers to
N=130 these sites and their peripheral areas will con-
Social 41.0 tinue to impose a drain on the natural resources
Economic 13.8 (Li et al. 2008).
Local Community 20.7 Cultural: cultural indicators are defined as
Conservation 65.5 measures that promote authenticity and conser-
Authenticity 48.3 vation of cultural heritage presented at the WHS.
Interpretation 31.0 Also, included under this umbrella are indicators
Cultural 70.0 which promote respect for the host culture and
Environmental 40.0 promote culturally appropriate activities for the
local communities. Authenticity and conservation
were emphasized in 90% of the websites. Also,
crease in investment through donations. However, the other cultural indicators are significantly
this interest is site-centric and does not extend to highlighted throughout the website content.
secure funds for the benefit of the surrounding As Table 3 shows, maximum emphasis is
environment and host community. placed on cultural preservation indicators be-
A substantial percentage, although less than cause these form the underpinnings of the WHS
half, of the websites demonstrate efforts to gener- nomination criteria. Similar results were reported
ate income for the local community through by (Hede 2007; Winter 2007). However, most of
tourism and less than 10% illustrate evidence of the WHS websites demonstrate less attention and
providing employment benefits for the surround- sensitivity towards the host community culture
ing communities. As is evident from Table 2, least because there is no mention of code of behavior
emphasis is given to recycling practices and car- or information about the host community culture.
rying capacity. It appears that economic viability Social: With regard to social indicators, the
measures are still in their infancy stage. Coetzee majority of the websites failed to feature concern
et al. (2006) concur with these results and suggest or efforts to minimize social costs generated by
that the economic health of the host communities tourism on the host communities. Approximately
should be taken into consideration for successful 21% of the evaluated websites are found to men-
sustainable efforts. Visible adherence to a variety tion one or more of the listed social indicators.
of ecological indicators is required to obtain a Only 16% highlight the need to generate local
harmonious equilibrium between use of the site employment to enhance quality of life or seek to
advocate increase in local wage so that the standard
of living of the host community may be enhanced.
Table 2. Economic and ecological indicators These results confirm the lack of social sustain-
ability attempts reported by previous studies
Economic Frequency (Wager 1995; Li et al. 2008).
N=86
Institutional: This section included a variety
Generate income for locals 39.5
of measures that can help gauge sustainability
Employment benefits 9.0
initiatives of the WHS through website market-
Increase in investment 60.6
ing. The findings report pronounced emphasis
Ecological
on stakeholder collaboration and partnerships.
Recycling practices 13.9
A further analysis of the website content shows
Carrying capacity 12.8
that the majority of the websites promote stake-

199
 Management of World Heritage Sites

Table 3. Cultural indicators

Further Explorations
Indicator Frequency
N=130 Efforts are made to identify the WHS with the
Authenticity 93 highest and lowest level of adherence to the ma-
Conservation of cultural heritage 90.7 jority of the sustainability measures under consid-
Respect cultural heritage 80.2 eration. Additionally, efforts are made to gather
Culturally appropriate 80.2 information on the political environments, other
site-specific particularities and type of stakeholder
involvement at the site. For instance, an insight
holders associated with the tourism businesses was gained into the political status of the country,
such as lodging, transportation, restaurants, and the urban or rural nature of the site location, type
retail (see Table 4). Also, a substantial number of ownership, and specific characteristics of the
(50%) of the websites mention coordination or surrounding community.
partnerships with stakeholders whose interests are The sites that rank high on the overall sustain-
centered on conservation, education, architecture, ability index (in order) are kocjan Caves (Slo-
and research. venia), Tongariro National Park (New Zealand),
Well developed tourism plans were found to Kizhi Pogost, (Russia), and the Historic Centre
be site-centric. That is, the documents down- (Old Town) of Tallinn (Estonia). The kocjan
loaded from the website show that management Caves have gained worldwide recognition and the
strategies focus on visitor traffic and site manage- state has committed itself to doing everything in
ment issues. Although other sustainability criteria its power to conserve and protect this outstanding
were emphasized, they were mostly concerned natural site. In addition to crafting programs for
with the site resources and interests. Involvement the protection and development of the Park, the
of the host community in decision making pro- site authorities monitor and analyze the status
cesses was minimal and code of ethics for tourists of natural and cultural heritage in an ongoing
as a guide to appropriate behavior were remiss. manner. Other tasks include promotion of the
caves, research, education, and infrastructure
maintenance. Co-operation with local residents is
considered important. Location specific attributes
include being in a developed and democratic
Table 4. Institutional indicators country, mixed nature of stakeholders, and active
involvement of the local community.
Indicator Frequency
N=125 Tongariro National Park was established in
Stakeholder collaboration/partnership 83.7
1887 and became the first national park in New
Well developed tourism plans 74.4
Zealand. It is recognized as a dual World Heritage
Local community involvement at the site 73.2
area because of its unique cultural and natural
value. It is a living evidence of Maori culture, has
Intergenerational equity 70.9
outstanding volcanic features and is also home to
Long term survival 69.8
many native creatures. Its distinct characteristics
Customer satisfaction 61.6
include location in a developed and democratic
Education/training for the community 61.6
country, mixed nature of the stakeholders, and
Emphasis on ongoing research 58.1
evidence of active involvement of the Maori
Local resident satisfaction 38.4
community.
Code of ethics for tourists 19.8

200
Management of World Heritage Sites
Kizhi Pogost is an open air museum located
in Russia which has a democratic government
now. This WHS has received paramount attention
because of its efforts to preserve its prized collec-
tions. Education and research are also emphasized
by the site managers. The next WHS, Tallinn is
famous for its historic center and was nominated
as the European Capital of Culture for 2011. This
honor is part the European Union initiative to
provide European cities with an opportunity to
showcase their cultural offerings at an interna-
tional level. Tallinn is well known for its creative
works, ecological souvenirs and spiritual/cultural
connections with the seashore. It is located in a
democratic and developed country. Evidence also
exists of pronounced emphasis on learning and
advancement in technology. The host community
also plays a prominent role in the planning of
events in the old town. Stakeholders listed on the
website were found to predominantly belong to
the tourism industry.
Minimum sustainability emphasis is noted in
the following sites (in order): Historic Centres
of Berat and Gjirokastra (Albania), Sewell Min-
ing Town (Chile), Port, Fortresses and Group
of Monuments in Cartagena (Columbia), and
Old Havana and its Fortifications (Cuba). The
two historic towns of Berat and Gjirokastra are
located in central Albania and are recognized as
a rare example of Ottoman style of architecture.
Berat is witness to the coexistence of various
religious and cultural communities. It features a
castle, citadel, and several mosques. Gjirokastra
features a collection of unique two-story houses,
a bazaar, a mosque and two churches. They bear
witness to the wealth and immense variety of urban
and architectural heritage. The cultural integrity
and authenticity of the two towns is retained but
a series of illegal constructions in the late 1990s
has compromised its sanctity. More commercial
emphasis appears to shadow sustainable planning.
Sewell Mining Town has the largest copper
mine in the world and was built by the Braden Cop-
per Company in 1905. The town was constructed
on a terrain which is very steep for vehicles and
accessible through rail only. Next, Fortresses
and Group of Monuments Cartagena is a large
city seaport located on the coast of Colombia. It
was founded in 1533 and was a main center of
early Spanish settlements in the Americas. It is
known for its defense strategy - a walled military
fortress to protect the city from pirates. The Cuban
capital Havana was founded by the Spanish and
is recognized as one of the oldest cities in the
contemporary world. It is known for its trading
port and its strong fortifications. It also contains
an important shipyard. Common finding to these
aforementioned sites is that they are all located in
developing countries, lack evidence of host com-
munity involvement, and emphasize engagement
with tourism stakeholders only.
CONCLUSION
The World Heritage Convention supports an ex-
haustive list of site-centric heritage sustainability
issues associated with conservation and authentic-
ity. However, less attention appears to be directed
to the other crucial aspects of sustainability.
Content analysis of mission statements, website
content, and certification documents support this
view. Host community concerns, stakeholder col-
laborations, social and viable economic impact
considerations receive comparatively less or ineq-
uitable attention in most of the WHS. This paper
analyzes the mission statements and signature
websites to gauge visible efforts of sustainable
management based on presupposed indicators
related to social, economic, and environmental
responsibility. Additionally, it looks at the certi-
fication documents of the WHS. It breaks ground
by using an integrated approach and highlights
apparent hiatus to stir further scholarly interest
(McCool, Moisey and Nickerson 2001). Several
limitations exist with regard to the measurement
technique employed to gauge sustainability and
this study was unable to evaluate other promo-
201

tional collateral beside the signature websites
due to budgetary and time constraints. However,
this study makes an important effort and useful
inferences for future investigation can be drawn
from the results.
First, the mission statements are examined. It
appears that the World Heritage Convention has
trained its members to conform judiciously to the
heritage conservation and authenticity guidelines
whereas other indicators of sustainability fail to
feature prominently in the sustainability equation.
Moreover, insofar as the website analysis reflects,
the themes are visibly couched mostly in terms
of the priorities set by the convention.
Few websites advocate links with NGOs,
social and community interest groups in addition
to demonstrating weak sustainable supply chain
initiatives and extended stakeholder collaborations
and partnerships between the public and private
sectors. Similar results are reported by Aas, Ladkin
and Fletcher (2005), Saipradist and Staiff (2007)
and Hede (2007). Also, very few sites provide
evidence of ongoing research to monitor visitor
impacts and include programs to education to
tourists, stakeholders and the host communities.
Li et al. (2008) also concur with these findings
and confirm the need for ongoing monitoring
to detect critical levels of carrying capacity in a
timely manner so that further amelioration of the
site and its surrounding environment is prevented.
Hassan (2000) suggests inclusion of criteria such
as a reinforcement program for the preservation
of the culture/heritage of the sites and the local
communities and argues for substantial efforts
to meet the expectations of citizen/civic groups,
tourism stakeholders, NGOs, and the non-tourism
private sector. Heritage tourism guidelines should
thus incorporate long term interests of the host
communities. For instance, Wagers (1995) study
suggests a zoning plan for the Angkor World
Heritage Site to integrate tourism efforts with
conservation and local community interests.
Furthermore, heritage tourism planning should
focus on a themed tourism environment which
202
Management of World Heritage Sites
is complimentary to the world heritage site and
the host community culture. What is required is
a code of ethical operations in addition to the
expected code of ethical behavior expected from
the visiting audience. Also, strategies such as
high price theory or demarketing can be pursued
to attract selected audience who seek meaningful
and sustained experiences. In this way, carrying
capacity guidelines can be reinforced for both the
WHS and its surrounding environments (Wager
1995). Integrated and strategic sustainability of
heritage tourism is thus crucial to maintain the des-
tination attractiveness and enhance prospects and
competitiveness in the long term (Wager 1995).
A number of conclusions can be drawn in
the light of this study. It is important to remem-
ber that each WHS is a separate entity and is
bestowed with distinct features specific to its
location and host community environment. It is
also tremendously impacted by the political and
cultural values and other related particularities of
the host country. Hence capturing its essence and
magnitude through a limited set of heritage and
intangible indices limits its existing and future
value. Its purpose needs to extend beyond the
guidelines set by the World Heritage Convention.
It is crucial to employ a glocal (a mix of global
and local) perspective to understand and gauge
successful growth and vitality of heritage tourism
initiatives and promote a value-laden educational
experience.
Although symbiosis between heritage manage-
ment and tourism development is besotted with
inherent challenges, efforts can be made to strike an
equilibrium between protection and conservation
and planned development of heritage tourism so
that a level-playing field can be designed (Wager
1995). A discussion of development issues is also
required to raise the knowledge and understand-
ing of varied stakeholder views and constraints,
which in turn can lead to a wider collaboration
and formulation of alliances (Aas et al. 2005:45).
Also, mounting pressures such as carrying capac-
Management of World Heritage Sites
ity, budget deficit, and political ambitions need
to be handled in a strategic manner.
In sum, this study suggests avoidance of site-
centric perspectives to accomplish successful
integrated sustainable development. Arguably,
sustainability is much more than a function of
the heritage site environment alone. Clearly, this
concept embraces a much broader socio-economic
and environmental spectre of exploitation of
adjacent resources. As argued by Hassan, it is
crucial for future tourism development plans to
be compatible with the environment to main its
market competitiveness (2000: 242). Integrated
sustainable marketing can thus help promote
cultural, social, economic and environmental
integrity of the heritage site and its surrounding
host community resources to successfully manage
the growing tourism demand. This can be accom-
plished by highlighting sustainable objectives
clearly in the mission statement and formulating
strategic plans to implement them.
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 207

Chapter 14
Research Review of OWOM:
Chinese Cases

Tao Chen
Harbin Institute of Technology & Nanjing Normal University & SanJiang University, China

Zhiming Zhu
Hohai University, China

Tienan Wang
Harbin Institute of Technology, China

ABSTRACT
Internet has been an important communication tool. The population of netizens has become the largest
all over the world. Online shopping is regarded as a fashion in china. Online word-of-mouth has signifi-
cant influences on shopping. Chinese researchers did researches on OWOM (Online Word-of-Mouth),
discussed the connotation, communication process and communication effect, and practical application,
and put forward some managerial suggestions. This chapter reviews those researches, summarizes and
describes the future research direction and hope that it can instruct and contribute Chinese researchers.

INTRODUCTION the improvement of internet consumer environ-

Internet has been one of the most important tools
among people. According to the recent statistic
data from CNNIC, the population of Chinese
netizens, surpassing that of USA, has reached
to 253 million by the late of June, 2008. 25% of
those netizens are fond of online shopping; by
the end of 2009, the number has reached to a new
peak of 384 million, with an annual growing rate
of 28.9%, and annual popularity of 28.9%. With
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-041-5.ch014
ment, more and more users are involved in online
shopping. The number of netizens with online
shopping experience has reached over 100 million.
The total value of online shopping has reached
238.3 billion. Ecommerce which has been listed as
one of the 10 leading internet application is being
accepted by netizens gradually for its low price,
rich products and flexibility(Fu,2008).
According to the survey of China Internet
Information Center (CNNIC) 2009, 53.9% of
online users will search and read related online

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

comments of each product before purchasing deci-
sions are made; 78.9% of online users will search
and read related online comments before buying
most of the products; more than 90% of netizens
will issue comments on the websites from which
those goods were bought. Word-of-mouth has an
increasingly important role in online consumption.
Online word-of-mouth plays an important role
in the consumers decision-making process and
behavior transmissions. More and more enterprises
have realized the business opportunities. Online
word-of-mouth marketing practical activities are
increasing gradually. Researchers both home and
abroad did lots of researches from different aspects
and gave many valuable suggestions. This paper
summarizes current Chinese OWOM research
situation in order to arouse more concerns.
CONNOTATION OF OWOM
Definition of WOM
WOM (word of mouth) is the exchange and
communication of information about the attri-
butes, experiences and suppliers of products or
services between consumers. WOM is regarded
as one of the most important factors influencing
consumers buying (especially for the imitators).
Compared with other information channels, such
as advertising, WOM is believed more credible
by consumers; as a result they are more easily
to be accepted by the consumers. Availability of
internet enables customers to collect the product
information and related comments when browsing
web pages. And customers can share their own
experiences, opinions and related knowledge
about certain products, which consists of WOM
(Fu, 2008)
Fu (2008) regarded OWOM, which can be
transferred to the masses through the internet, as
the positive or negative comments about products
or companies from potential, final users or previ-
ous customers. OWOM can be transferred through
208
Research Review of OWOM
online community, newsgroup, BBS and so on.
Bi, Hu (2010) thinks that divergences of the name
of WOM through the media of computers are
existed, for examples: Internet Word-of-Mouth,
Online Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouse, Elec-
tronic Word-of-Mouth, Virtual Word-of-Mouth
and so on. Zhang,Li (2008)claimed that recent
concerns on the formation of OWOM could be
divided into two groups. The first group regarded
the rating the online products or services of con-
sumers as OWOM, which is simple in form, easy
to be quantified, and has already been adopted by
most researchers; the others tend to regard the
words or comments issued by the consumers on
the internet as OWOM. The differences between
these two methods lies on the form of OWOM,
and there connotations are the same, which means
the informal communication and exchange of
the features, using experiences and ownership of
products or services though internet.
In a word, the definition and connotation of
OWOM remains no difference with the traditional
WOM. The key is the media being used and the
communication advantages brought by OWOM
(Bi, Hu, 2010). The number of Chinese literature
of OWOM is still very small, and the definition
still needs unification.
Features and Factors of OWOM
Features of OWOM
Traditional OWOM is communicated through
mouth to mouth. The core definition between
current domestic research and traditional OWOM
remains the same, which means the informal
communication of the recognition, attitude and
comments of products and services between
consumers(Fu, 2008). But there are still differ-
ences between them. Compared with traditional
communication pattern, OWOM possesses the
following features(Zhang, Li, 2008):
Research Review of OWOM
1. Bidirectional. Through internet, organization
and consumers can achieve bidirectional
communication. Not only can organizations
and product information be transferred to
consumers with low cost and unprecedented
large scale. Whats more, consumers infor-
mation can be known directly by organiza-
tions through internet for the first time.
Producers can monitor the consumers feed-
backs any time, thus can know consumers
opinions about products or services in time
and accurately so that to respond promptly
to consumers.
2. Easy measurable. Before the application
of internet, WOM is usually transferred by
words, which is invisible, and difficult to
grasp. It is difficult and time consuming to
measure, and is impossible to realize most of
the time. Producers and researchers cannot
measure not even to say make quick respond
to those WOM information, and make use
of WOM to do effective marketing. While
during the era of internet, the development
of internet change the transfer of WOM into
visible, and provide immense conveniences
for researchers and producers. Because of
this process, WOM based on internet has
been a research hotspot as well as hot mar-
keting and public method.
3. Large in scale and number. For consumers,
the cost of issuing their own consumption
experiences is very low; consumers can is-
sue its own experiences at any time, at any
places, which create the large scale and large
number of OWOM online.
4. Good controllability. The anonymity of
internet makes it possible for the produc-
ers to manipulate the OWOM information.
Because of the virtuality of the internet,
producers can issue fake WOM information
on the internet to harm competitors or raise
its own reputation. This may mislead the
purchasing decision of consumers.
The differences between OWOM and tradi-
tional WOM (Zhang, Dong, 2009; Bi, 2009) is
summarized in Table 1.
Factors of OWOM
Current research (Fu, 2008) thinks that factors
of OWOM include: 1) senders, referring to the
consumers who initially publish his or her opinions
and comments on some products or services, and
also referring to those who reprints others com-
ments; 2) information, referring to the digital files
of words, sound and video, that can be searched,
attained and understood; 3) receivers, referring
to those people who get initially or passively get
those information.
CONTEXT OF CHINESE OWOM
The media rather than the essence of OWOM and
traditional WOM is different, thus the research
framework of OWOM is the same as that of WOM.
Differences only lie on the concrete factors. At
present, Chinese researchers mainly did their
researches from the information senders, receiv-
ers and information (Lai, Zhu, 2009). Through
the analysis of recent literatures, future research
directions are summarized as seen in Figure 1.
Communication of OWOM
Communication Motivation of OWOM
By learning traditional OWOM communication
motivation, many researches of OWOM involve
motivation analysis, and discussed the motivation
categories. Fu (2008) thinks that communication
motivation is an important aspect of OWOM
research. Social intercourse desire, economic
motivation, concerns on other consumers and im-
proving ones own values are the main motivations.
The communication motivation of OWOM
can be divided into positive communication
209

Table 1. Differences between OWOM and WOM
WOM
Spreading scale and speed Slow and limited by location
Form Mainly conversation, with the aid
of gestures. Without the media of
internet.
Social relationship Information is from acquaintances.
Measurability Difficult for consumers to know the
quality and quantity of information.
Controllability Without controllability
Quantity and scale Small
Figure 1. Framework of Chinese OWOM researches
motivation and negative communication motiva-
tion, the differences between which, Fu (2008),
Bi and Hu (2010), other domestic researchers
mainly agree with the foreign research. Positive
motivation includes: product involvement, self-
enhancement, information platform assistance,
releasing negative mood, social benefits, helping
to promote enterprises, caring other consum-
ers, economic motivation and so on; Negative
motivation includes: altruism, reducing anxiety,
210
Research Review of OWOM
OWOM
Fast and without the limitation of space and time
Mainly words, and also sounds, pictures, video and so on, with
diverse and vivid patterns.
Information is from strangers.
Easy for consumers to know the quality and quantity of informa-
tion.
With compared controllability
large
revenge and searching advices. However, social
intercourse desire, economic motivation, caring
other consumers, and self-enhancement, are the
main communication motivations.
Searching Motivation of OWOM
Fu (2008) thinks that the most fundamental mo-
tivation of concerning OWOM information is to
shorten decision-making time, reduce decision-
Research Review of OWOM
making risks and get desirable decision-making
results. The concrete searching motivations are
as followed. First, search information to support
buying decisions. Second, search information
to support his or her past purchasing decisions.
Third, search information just for fun. On the
basis of Technology Acceptance Model and
OWOM literature, Bi (2009) established a TAM
OWOM model. This model includes three aspects:
individual attributes, perceived OWOM aspects,
origins of OWOM and introduces 7 variables.
Information Features of
OWOM and Approaches
Interests of OWOM can increase the audiences ac-
ceptance and involvement of information. OWOM
information possesses the media features, thus
information features should be researched from
media features. Besides, the quantity, evaluation
direction and dispersion of OWOM also affect
the communication effect of OWOM. The larger
the quantity of OWOM is, the more possible the
consumers know the information (Bi, Hu, 2010).
Compared with the WOM, OWOM has internet
as its interact platform (such as email, online
community, blogs, BBS, searching engine and so
on). Gao, Ma (2010) discussed communication
approaches, mainly focusing on blogs, profes-
sional websites, online community.
Communication Effect of OWOM
Communication effect of OWOMas consum-
ers information exchange, should be researched
more than its communication process. Com-
munication effect refers to the psychological or
behavioral reaction of consumers, and its effect
to enterprises. Zhang, Sun (2008) and Liu, Yang
(2008) summarized western OWOM commu-
nication effect or negative OWOM separately,
and mainly did research from consumers and
enterprises. With the increasing socialization
of OWOM and internet (Zheng, Xiong, 2008),
OWOM has already covered almost all social
fields that include commercial consumption
activities. It encourages cooperation of average
consumers, and is a double-edged sword, which
has both constructive and harmful function to
internet culture and social environment.
Influencing Factors of
OWOM Communication
Many researches begin to focus on the effect of
consumers features on OWOM communication.
The main focus is as followed:
1. Relationship Strength. There are two con-
trary results: one is that relationship strength
between information senders and receivers
is a key factor that affects information com-
munication effect (Bi, Hu, 2010). Studies
have showed that the stronger the relation-
ship strength is, the better the OWOM effect
is, and the better the communication effect
is OWOM communication origins can be
divided into two kinds, strong connection
and weak connection. The more they know
each other, the stronger their relationship
strength is. Wang (2004) did research on
the influences of individual specialty and
relationship on consumer buying decision
taking the emails as an example. He found
that relationship has greater influence on
services compared with products. Liu,Yang
(2008)thinks that the stronger the relation-
ship, the higher the trustworthiness is and
thus greater influences on consumers buying.
However, OWOM communication mainly
occurs between senders and receivers with
weak relationship. However, Jiang et al.
(2010) finds that relationship between
senders and receivers have little influences
on consumers buying through reliability
analysis, validity analysis, correlation analy-
sis, regression analysis. The reasons may
be that traditional researches are conducted
211

between friends and acquaintances; however,
consumers usually exchange ideas between
strangers, whose relationship has little effect
on OWOM effect.
2. Trust. There are two contrary research results.
Liu,Yang (2008)think that trust not only play
an important role in relationship marketing,
but also is an important indicator in ecom-
merce profit. On the basis of trust, under
the high independence and involvement
information exchange pattern, perceived
risks and uncertainty can be reduced ef-
fectively. During the process of OWOM
communication, the higher the consumers
trust tendency is, the closer the relation-
ship between consumers and websites, the
higher the trustworthiness of the websites,
then the greater the influence of OWOM
on consumers buying decision. Zhang, Li
(2008) think that the trust of consumers on
OWOM is very important. The indepen-
dence has a positive relationship with the
inner motivation to search OWOM and thus
the OWOM information is easier to be ac-
cepted by consumers. The others think that
consumer individual trust tendency has little
influences on consumer buying decision
(Jiang,et al.2010). The reason may be internet
technological vitality and high anonymity.
Virtual internet environment has weakened
the influences of consumers individual trust
tendency on OWOM effect.
3. Perceived Risks. Dong et al.(2005) pointes
that prior literatures concerns little on online
shopping perceived risks and he thinks that
internet retailers core service risks, online
shopping risks, individual privacy risks,
fake goods risks are the main factors that
influence consumers. Liu,Yang (2008)thinks
that perceived risks reflect the consumers
dependence of consumers. The higher the
consumers perceived risks are, the greater
the consumers dependence of OWOM.
212
Research Review of OWOM
4. Internet Involvement. Han (1997) thinks that
the deeper of a persons self involvement
in an event, the more difficult he or she ac-
cepts opposite opinions, the greater his or
her discrimination ability, and the bigger of
OWOM communication effect.
5. Specialty. It includes both senders and re-
ceivers specialty (Fu, 2008;Bi, Hu,2010).
Different receivers may have different opin-
ions on the same OWOM. Compared with
senders communication ability, receivers
communication ability have greater influ-
ences on communication effect and is the
main determining factors influencing com-
munication quality and consumers buying
decisions. Factors that affect receivers
ability include individual features, education
background, and specialty knowledge and
so on.
6. Product Types. Zhang, Li (2008) thinks
that the effects of OWOM are subjected by
product types from recent researches.
7. Re-Communication Intention. Chen, Zhang
(2008) thinks that re-communication is the
only motivation source, whose determine
factors is the core of mechanism of WOM
communication research. According to
communication convinces theory, empirical
studies on influencing factors of OWOM,
which is conducted from origins, content, and
acceptance of WOM, shows that trustwor-
thiness of the origins, interests of contents,
altruistic motivation of WOM accepters and
self-enhancement motivation are key factors
of OWOM re-communication. Interests of
OWOM information is the most important
factors that affecting re-communication
intention. The trustworthiness of WOM
source has significant positive effect on re-
communication intentions, while specialty
and objectivity has little effect. Altruistic
motivation of accepters and self-enhance-
ment motivation has significant effect on re-
Research Review of OWOM
communication intention, while out-going
personality of accepters has little effect.
8. Gender. Social linguists think that an obvi-
ous difference between male and female are
their social communication aims. Liu, Yang
(2008) thinks that the communication aims
of male and female are different. Besides,
Miao,Cheng (2010) establishes a theoretical
model describing OWOM re-communica-
tion intention and affecting factors from three
aspects of trustworthiness, context features
and re-communication motivation of accept-
ers. His research choose hot BBS forum as
subjects, collected 363 sample data, and did
factor analysis with the aid of LISREL8.8
and SPSS17.0 software packages. Goodness-
of-fit test of structural equation model and
the results of hypothesis testing show that:
interest and vividness, and entertainment
motivation have significant effect on posi-
tive re-communication intention; altruistic
motivation and trustworthiness of OWOM
information source have significant effect
on negative re-communication intention.
Influences on Consumers Buying
Intention and Buying Behaviors
1. WOM information affects consumers
behaviors: Fu (2008) thinks that WOM
information affects consumers behaviors.
Consumers may accept the recommended
products or services under positive WOM;
Consumers may abandon the products
or services complained by senders under
negative WOM. Lots researches concerns
about the moderating effect of the factors
that influence the functions of WOM on
consumers buying attention. Bi, Hu (2010)
thinks that evaluation direction of OWOM
refers to the ranking of some products or
services, which represents the consumers
satisfaction. Positive WOM can strengthen
consumers expectation, while negative
WOM brings contrary effect. Dispersion of
OWOM means the distribution of OWOM on
different virtual communities. The higher the
dispersion of OWOM, the more consumers it
can reach, and the better the effect of OWM.
Ge (2009) thinks that OWOM has different
influences on consumers behaviors.
2. Effects of negative OWOM is more signifi-
cant than that of positive OWOM: Jin (2007)
concludes that effects of negative OWOM
is obviously more significant than that of
positive OWOM through empirical studies,
which is consistent with the prior researches.
When OWOM information is subjective
evaluation, and when it is high involvement
products or receivers involvements of the
products is high, both negative and positive
OWOM effect will be amplified. Jin Li-yin
finds that subjective evaluation OWOM
information is more influential than objec-
tive factual OWOM, especially those high
involvement products with higher price and
more functions.
3. The comparison of effect of OWOM and
traditional WOM on consumers buying
decisions: Xi, et al. (2008) discuss the
influence of internet and traditional WOM
on consumers buying decisions from send-
ers characteristics, information features
and receivers characteristics. He finds that
senders professional ability, receivers trust
tendency, perceived risks have significant
influences on the effect of WOM, while pro-
fessional ability of accepters and information
features have little effects. Researches find
that trust tendency have greater influences
on the effect of WOM because receivers
of OWOM can perceive more financial or
functional risks for the weak OWOM rela-
tionship strength.
4. Influences of OWOM and perceived value
on customers buying intention: Li (2010)
summarizes the factor characteristics of
OWOM and perceived value on the basis
213

of available literatures. Empirical research
shows that positive OWOM have positive
effect on perceived value, and further posi-
tively affects customers buying intention.
OWOM directly influences buying inten-
tion. (OWOM and functional value have
significantly positive relationship, functional
value and consumers buying intention have
significant positive relationship, and OWOM
and consumers buying intention have sig-
nificant positively relationship.)
5. Influences of OWOM communication on
customers brand awareness: Gong et al.
(2010) analyze the effect of OWOM on brand
awareness, build OWOM brand awareness
model, and put forward that it is of practical
significance that enterprises should increase
customers brand awareness.
6. Effect of trustworthiness of OWOM on buy-
ing behaviors: Li, Yue (2009) analyzes the
influencing factors of positive and negative
OWOM trustworthiness and how these
two factors influence consumers trust and
buying behaviors to dealers. Data analysis
shows that homophiles, trustworthiness of
websites and trust tendency have signifi-
cant effects on both positive and negative
OWOM while communicators specialty
only have significant effect on positive
OWOM. Positive OWOM trustworthiness
significantly positively influences consum-
ers trust of business dealer, but not dramati-
cally affects purchase intention, which is af-
fected by dealers trust and fourthly affects
purchase behavior. Conversely, negative
word-of-mouth credibility also negative
influences consumers trust on dealers and
purchase intention, but there is no significant
relationship between dealers trust, purchase
intention and purchasing behavior. With 397
university students as a sample for online
purchase experiment research, Sun, Liu
(2009) adopting 2222between groups
of experimental design, the results showed
214
Research Review of OWOM
the positive relationship between the amount
and type of online word-of-mouth and cred-
ibility of information, as well as information
credibility and purchase intention.
7. Importance ranking of affecting factors of
OWOM on consumers purchase intention:
From perceived consumers point of view,
and by referring TAM theory, Bi (2009)
constructs conceptual model of the OWOM
affecting consumers purchase intention. The
empirical research shows that, the relation
strength, trust tendency, perceived usefulness
significantly positive influences on purchase
intention. Perceived risk, perception profes-
sional significant negative influences on
purchase intention. Network involvement
and trust tendency have positive correla-
tion. Among them: relationship strength is
the most important factors influencing pur-
chase intention, followed by trust tendency.
Perception specialty is the most important
factors which negatively influences purchase
intention, followed by perceived risks.
Internet involvement and purchase inten-
tion is not directly relevant, but it indirectly
positively influences purchase intention by
perceived usability and perceived usefulness
on. Internet involvement and trust tendency
are positively correlated.
8. Function of OWOM information structure on
consumer information perceived usefulness:
Sun,Liu (2009) validates research hypothesis
by taking 2222 examinee factorial ex-
periments. The results of the study showed
the number, length and types of OWOM
played a role on consumer perceived useful-
ness. OWOM length together with WOM
quantity and WOM types has significant
effect on consumer perceived usefulness.
According to this conclusion, B2C sites can
enhance consumer perceived information
usefulness to eventually promote products
sales by controlling word-of-mouth quantity,
the length and the type of OWOM.
Research Review of OWOM
9. Influencing mechanism research of OWOM
on consumer products attitude: Song et al.
(2009) puts forward influencing mechanism
of OWOM on consumer product attitude
characteristics based on the main differences
of OWOM and traditional WOM. With
network film critics as the research back-
ground, experimental method is being used
to testify the mechanism. Research results
show that OWOM arguments quality and
the online community reliability will posi-
tively influence consumer products attitude,
and involvement has significant interaction
respectively with OWOM argument quality
and community reliability.
Influences on Enterprises Sales
The positive effect of OWOM marketing can pro-
mote the enterprise image, conclude brand loyalty,
lower marketing costs and so on (Wang, 2010).
1. Influences of OWOM value on sales revenue:
Lu,Hua (2009) puts forward that sales rev-
enue brought by OWOM can be quantified
by OWOM quantity, ranking and negative
through empirical research of online restau-
rant comments, and further puts forward the
price has adjustment effect of OWOM. The
empirical analysis of public comment of
restaurant on DianPing website shows that
the number of OWOM, scoring and negative
comment has significant influence on sales
income; price adjusting effects still exists, for
example the importance of reputation rating
marginal increases for products with higher
price, but as price rises, the value brought by
WOM quantity diminishes, even negative.
2. Influences of OWOM on enterprises
trustworthiness: Lin, Dai (2008) provides
OWOM trust theoretical model through the
research of tourism destinations OWOM
credibility influencing factors, which in-
cludes information factors, OWOM senders
specialty, similarity of senders and receivers,
background factors and interaction factors of
senders and receivers as influencing factors
of tourism destination OWOM credibility.
Chai (2009) puts forward the number of
tourism OWOM, types and tourism product
experience types affects pre-evaluation of the
potential tourists, thus influences their be-
haviors. Tourism destination should launch
targeted marketing strategy to enhance the
enterprises trust.
Measurement of OWOM
Communication Effect
Zhang, Dong (2009) think OWOM effect can be
classified from the degree of time and quantifica-
tion. In terms of time, OWOM effect can be divided
into short-term and long-term effect. Short-term
effect mainly reflects in consumers pre-purchase
and first purchase process, and long-term effects
are mainly embodied in consumers repeat pur-
chase, habitual purchase and propagation behavior
and so on. From quantificational degree, OWOM
effect may quantify sales performance but may
not clearly quantified. However, it has remark-
able qualitative effect on enterprise performance,
which is mainly embodied in OWOM short period
of enterprise product promoting campaign role
and long-term for corporate brand reputation of
cultivating function.
Zhang, Li (2008) analyze four aspects of
the measurement of OWOM, its relations with
consumers purchase, influencing factors and the
constraints, and interprets the measurement of
OWOM from three angles of quantity, price, and
discrete degrees. Two aspects are summarized
form the relationship of OWOM and consumer,
one is to make a summary of the relationship
between individual perception and purchasing
motivation; the other is searching the relationship
between OWOM and sales revenue as a whole
215

through an empirical research, so as to determine
the definition and characteristics of OWOM.
Practical Application and
Instruction of OWOM
The Application of OWOM in Industry
OWOM have been widely applied on tourism
industry, sports industry, and hotel management
as well as notebook, clothing industry and so on.
For instance:
1. Influences of OWOM on notebook.
Zhao,Chen (2008) analyzes the OWOM
communication of BBS taking notebook
computers BBS as an example. Speech
frequency, members interaction pattern is
different in different notebook computer.
Relevant enterprises can contact some senior
netizens to do OWOM marketing planning,
to enhance the brand image, and to carry on
OWOM by the connectivity and sharing of
Internet.
2. Influences of OWOM on clothes buy-
ing intention. In the review of domestic
and foreign relevant researches, Fang et
al.(2010)sets up a model of the OWOM
information pressure and opinion leaders
influence on garment consumers purchase
intention, from consumers brand orientation
and product orientation. The study finds
that OWOM information pressure, opinion
leaders attitude of garment consumers have
significant influences, on garment consum-
ers attitude; OWOM information through
the influences of the information receivers
attitude toward the brand furtherly affects
the consumer clothing purchase intention.
In virtual network environment, consumer
product oral evaluation are the most true
embodiment, garment enterprises should
be concerned about the interaction process
of reputation. Enterprises should increase
216
Research Review of OWOM
concerns on OWOM interaction to gain
product improvements, in order to enhance
the brand competitiveness.
3. OWOM communication and digital prod-
ucts sales. Based on the previous research
findings, Huang, Dai (2010) divides current
internet medias according to the different
communication forms, and explores dif-
ferent roles of different communication
forms. Researches finds that dialogue and
consultation form of media influences
OWOM audience deeper compared with
registration form, dialogue form. Thereby
OWOM communication has obvious effects
on digital products. OWOM communicated
by different communication form are also
different in its effects on consumers.
Enlightments of OWOM On Enterprises
Enterprise should place importance on product
quality and after-sales service, develop itself opin-
ion leaders, emphasis OWOM morality, seriously
face negative reputation, solid product image, and
advance OWOM marketing in the interactive pro-
cess (Wang, Liu,2010). OWOM marketing tactics:
the competitive advantage of enterprises should
be built on for consumers, enterprise and society
offering superior value skills (Guo, Shen, 2009).
Luo, Zhang (2010) proposes marketing strategies
under the network environment from the rational
person, social people and systematic people.
Enterprises should be OWOM maker, positive
OWOM amplifiers, and negative OWOM guide.
Enterprises launch OWOM marketing strategy
mainly as follows:
1. Enhance consumers production knowledge
and experiences. Guo,Yang (2006) consid-
ers the best OWOM does not come from
perfect sales budget or advertising, but from
the product characteristic and good user
experiences. Enterprises should motivate
consumers needs and desires of finding
Research Review of OWOM
certain commodity information; increase
consumer products and professional knowl-
edge through advertising activity, suggest
a reliable sources to consumer. Therefore,
enterprises should actively provide com-
modity information, and educate consumers
to build right product knowledge concept.
Enterprises may set up 24-hour customer
service center, enterprises official website
and commodity discussion area and so on to
provide round-the-clock enterprise service
and technical assistance. On the one hand,
serve customers and educate customers; on
the other hand enterprises also can under-
stand customer needs and market trends.
Consumers should be encouraged to use
and evaluate product or service, which can
increase interaction between consumers and
enterprises, and increase the understanding
of consumer demand.
2. Increase the trustworthiness of virtual com-
munity (Bi, Hu, 2010.) First, besides the tradi-
tional technology besides, non-technological
methods combined way should be adopted,
and OWOM trust system should be perfected,
thus the sellers network manipulation can be
prevented, and buyer participate in evalua-
tion and honest opinion should be promoted
to make OWOM healthily operated. Second,
the enterprise should pay more attention to
consumers professional comments from
those independent third party websites. If
producers provides community BBS by
their own, they should encourage consum-
ers interaction and discussion who have
similar hobbies and interests, and should try
to keep organizers justice and independent
to increase consumers trust on comments of
the sites. Third, it is an effective guarantee to
spread true, clear and specific information to
consumers (Li,Yue,2009;Guo, Shen, 2009).
3. Manage opinion leaders (Bi, Hu, 2010).
Enterprise should seek, encourage and guide
reliable and trustworthy OWOM commu-
nicators to promote companys brand and
product to more people. The communication
of OWOM should actively use community
opinion leaders, who can influence other
members of the community due to special
skills, knowledge and personality. Research
shows that the stronger the opinion leaders
influence, the higher the receivers participa-
tion online discussion of frequency (Wang,
Liu, 2010;Xiong,2010;Li,2009)
4. Management negative OWOM. Ma,Mo
(2010) does research on the countermea-
sure of negative OWOM effect from the
gender, price and brand cognitive. The
virtual characteristics of negative OWOM
make its trustworthiness weaker than that
of traditional negative OWOM. Compared
with traditional negative WOM, OWOM
spreads faster and affects wider. Enterprises
should pay more attention to negative WOM
information, continue to monitor OWOM
of their company and service, respond to
consumer to consumer complaints timely
and quickly, and put forward the solutions
of problems properly. A special department
of consumer could be set up for tracking,
collect, classification, summarizing the
enterprises OWOM information in order
to comprehensively understand consumers
attitude, especially negative attitude, of the
enterprises brands, products, and services
(Bi, Hu, 2010).
5. Conduct OWOM marketing by the aid of
Web2.0. Huang et al. (2002) puts forward to
use the discussion groups and chat rooms,
bulletin board, and other electronic media to
carry out OWOM marketing. Xiong (2010)
thinks effective WOM marketing strategy
should be developed on the basis of Web
2.0. Mainly is the brand strategy and com-
munication strategy. Brand strategy: to opti-
mize product characteristics, improve brand
experience; pay attention to the network
of brand image value of etiquette mainte-
217

nance, emphasizing creative advertising
and brand construction; communicate real,
clear and specific information to consumers.
Communication strategy: search the Internet
client community, develop opinion leaders
in the reference group formed in mainstream
opinion.
6. Completes OWOM information warn-
ing work. Li (2010) analyses the current
monitoring market of enterprise OWOM
information. Basically, a market has formed
with baidu as a search portal, with yahoo
and Banner as its gateway. With the increas-
ing of the function of OWOM, the rise of
the OWOM information monitoring will
become important component of the en-
terprise crisis pre-warning work. Li (2009)
discusses the establishment pre-warning
OWOM information management methods
when referencing the success of an enterprise
practice. Through constructing enterprise
community communication platform, enter-
prises can track netizens feedback, timely
release enterprise echo control of flow; and
can direct influences by setting the issues,
guiding consensus, cultivate community
opinion leader.
7. Improve the weak link relationship of OWOM
parties to maintain OWOM credibility. Peng
(2009) builds an OWOM game model from
information asymmetry angle, and points
out that in the long run the effectiveness of
OWOM will gradually blurred. During this
process, trustworthiness of OWOM can be
maintained through the improvement of the
weak link relationship between both parties.
8. Seeking cooperation to promote OWOM
communication. Xu (2007) think OWOM
public product attributes restricts the con-
sumer behavior of OWOM communication,
thus cause certain difficulties to enterprises
carrying out OWOM marketing strategies.
An enterprise may reduce the negative of
public product attributes of OWOM and
218
Research Review of OWOM
promote consumer positive OWOM spread
through seeking the cooperatively social
value oriented consumers support.
Problems of OWOM Marketing
Zhang,Li (2008) think that some limitations and
problems are existing for vendors to implement
effective OWOM marketing through network,to
react quickly to consumers opinions and feed-
backs, to improve your own products and services,
or to conveys consumer voice. The current ques-
tions are summarized as followed:
1. The virtuality of network provide the possibil-
ity for certain organization to manipulation.
They are use false identity spreading false
information, destroying the competitors
OWOM or raising their own OWOM.
However, there are also study shows that if
there are two manufacturers manipulating
the OWOM in the case, the equilibrium of
OWOM will not be changed, but product
sales will not change either (Zhang &Li,
2008).
2. Trustworthiness of internet operators.
Another problem related with OWOM is
concerned with network operators. Internet
is the media of OWOM, therefore, the cred-
ibility of the operators directly related to
recipients for OWOM trust. OWOM can
be widely accepted only the receivers of
OWOM know a lot about the operation
feedback mechanism (Zhang &Li, 2008).
3. The trust of netizens on OWOM has already
declined. Qu (2009) issued 144 questionnaire
of OWOM trust status and pointed out that
the OWOM trust crisis make netizens trust
on OWOM has dropped. Product quality
and publicity of no match is the most basic
reasons. And in the light of the analysis
of the causes and solutions, product qual-
ity needs protection, and the credibility of
Research Review of OWOM
OWOM should be promoted for the healthy
development of online word-of-mouth.
OWOM POSSIBLE EMPHASIS
OF THE FUTURE STUDY
According to Chinese literature review and
OWOM statistics, domestic researches focus
mainly on OWOM communication effect and
OWOM marketing strategies. From the overall
trends on look, there are many comparability of
the recent 2 years researches. However domestic
OWOM research is not mature. The domestic study
is mainly description research, a high proportion
of 52 percent. Internationally, description type of
research is not seen as the strict form. Experimen-
tal methods are not enough in China. Generally
speaking domestic research mainly focuses on the
concepts and factual description, and experiential
data and empirical research is of lower involves
(Shao, et al.,2010). There are many areas worth
scholars to explore.
1. In the receivers of professional knowledge
and effect of OWOM communication, pre-
vious researches are of no agreement view,
which worth deep research in the future (Fu,
2008). Due to the classification of virtual
community, which may represent the pro-
fessional level of senders, the classification
may affect their purchasing behavior.
2. OWOM mechanism. Many scholars concern
effects of OWOM on consumers purchasing
effects, but few concerns about this impact
mechanism. Some scholars abroad use
trustworthiness of OWOM as moderating
variables, but domestic researchers didnt
concern this respect (Fu, 2008; Shao, et
al.,2010).
3. Yet few scholars did systematic researches
on OWOM on different consumers purchase
decision process. Consumers shopping
decision-making is a complex, multi-step
process, including a series of psychological
stage. Because at each stage consumers
motivation and psychological condition is
different, WOM information effect of each
stage may have differences. But many of
the literature research conclusions often
only involve the effect of large or small, of
positive or negative. In fact, the influence
of OWOM does not occurred at a point in
time, but a complete process. So discussions
on consumers decision-making process of
all phases of influence are more valuable.
Therefore, this can be a future direction(Fu,
2008; Bi, Hu, 2009).
4. Literatures of neutral. WOM are less. Simply
put OWOM into positive and negative, but
in fact there are many OWOM information
referring not only product advantages and
disadvantages. But there is little literature
about neutral WOM. It is a meaningful
task to analysis OWOM with both posi-
tive and negative suggestions. Generally
speaking, the effect of both negative and
positive OWOM exists at the same time.
When negative OWOM exists, enterprises
may take some remedial measures, such as
providing interpretation, etc. whether these
remedial measures would have impact on
word-of-mouth dissemination hasnt been
examined. Future research should pay more
attention on neutral word-of-mouth (Bi, Hu,
2010; Jin, 2007; Shao, et al.2010).
5. Heavy consumers perspective and light
enterprise perspective. Previous researches
paid more attention on consumer decision-
making and behavior intention influence. As
for enterprises suggestions of management
are discussed only. The purpose of online
word-of-mouth dissemination should be
guiding marketing activities, so, the view of
the OWOM marketing theory and practice
of research is much more important (Bi, Hu,
2010).
219

6. Synchronous interaction level of transmis-
sion channels of public effects study will be a
valuable direction. OWOM channels include
email, blogs, network reviews, discussion
boards, MSN, QQ, fly letters synchronous
and asynchronous communication mode.
Synchronous communication OWOM often
more targeted with more personalization and
timeliness, which may be of vital significance
(Bi, Hu, 2009).
7. Network deceptive OWOM. There are some
deceptive false information on the internet.
How to control and eliminate deceptive
reputation OWOM is an important problem
during marketing process (Shao, et al.,2010).
8. The combination of consumer psychology
research may become an important research
field in the future. Current research focuses
on word-of-mouth information of measure-
ment. When will consumers initiative or pas-
sivity accepts search online word-of-mouth
information is another research direction
(Zhang, Li, 2008).
9. Online word-of-mouth marketing principles.
American word-of-mouth marketing associ-
ation advocates word-of-mouth marketing
principles includes protection and respect
consumer; ROI honest principle, namely re-
lations, evaluation, identity; honesty respect
shall rules; responsible for handling and
minors relations; promote honest about next
communication; ensure privacy and licenses
(Liu, 2008). Chinas online word-of-mouth
marketing ethics need confirmed as soon as
possible.
10. The universality of OWOM research. The
basic of current empirical research is the
selection of a particular industry word-of-
mouth information analysis, but influence
mechanism of OWOM to different trades
differs. Many empirical researches are about
food, computer, music, movies, books, etc,
so the conclusion is not generality. And
the conclusions of the researches are of no
220
Research Review of OWOM
system (Bi, Hu, 2009). Future empirical
researches can involve more fields and more
comprehensive commercial word-of-mouth
information, making a conclusion more
accurate.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Chinas domestic previous researches for OWOM
are the same in the definition and connotations as
traditional OWOM. The key is to emphasize the
media Internet, and thanks to the Internet
spreading advantage brought by the new features
of OWOM. OWOM research has just started
and literature quantity is small, and the concept
definition remains to be unified. In addition, the
differences of traditional WOM and OWOM are
explained separately and some suggestions are
put forward.
The number of Chinese literatures in interna-
tional academic journal is small, and researches
typically confined to the hotel sales performance,
especially the two types of consumer reviews and
reviews the influence of editor for consumers
(Zhang, et al., 2010).OWOM for hotel manage-
ment strategic impact (Li, Liang, 2009), online cus-
tomers community of users network evaluation to
new users search for information online shopping
information adoption decision research (Cheung,
et al.,2008). These instructions on study published
in the international and domestic published quan-
tity is very disproportionate (through index.htm
retrieval Chinese published OWOM publications
about more than 80), this needs Chinese scholars
dares to submit papers to international journals,
and get international counterparts approbate,
in order to obtain discourse commensurate the
Chinas international position.
Research Review of OWOM
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Special thanks to the national natural science
foundation across organizational information
system of diffusion, adopt and user behavioral
research (grant No.: 70971031), research on
strategic investment decision making and
risk management from investors perspective
(NO71031003), and Sanjiang University research
projects K08010 funding.
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 251

About the Contributors

Patricia Ordez de Pablos is a professor in the Department of Business Administration at The

University of Oviedo (Spain). She received her degree in Business Administration and PhD from The
University of Oviedo and completed her education in the London School of Economics and Political
Science. Her research focuses on Strategic Management, Knowledge Management, Intellectual Capital
and IT. She serves as Executive Editor of the International Journal of Learning and Intellectual and the
International Journal of Strategic Change Management. She also serves as Associate Editor of Behav-
iour and Information Technology.

Robert D. Tennyson is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. He is

editor of a professional journal, Computers in Human Behavior. He also serves on editorial boards for
four other journals. His research and publications include topics on problem solving, concept learning,
intelligent systems, testing and measurement, instructional design, and advanced learning technologies.
He has directed NATO sponsored workshops and advanced study institutes on automated instructional
design and delivery in Spain and Norway. He has authored over 200 journal articles, books and book
chapters.

Jingyuan Zhao is a Post-doctoral Fellow at School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technolo-

gies (China), and an Associate Professor at School of Management, Beijing Union University (China).
Her Ph.D. is in Management Science and Engineering from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and
University Science and Technologies of China (USTC). Dr. Zhaos expertise is on regional innovation
management, high-tech industry cluster, knowledge management, technologies diffusion, organization
learning. She serves as a Guest Editor for several international journals and is an Invited Reviewer for
China state-run newspaper West Times to provide comments on the economy.

***

Mara Abel is graduated in Geology and doctor in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence. She is
a professor in Knowledge Engineering at the Institute of Informatics of Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, where she leads several initiatives in entrepreneurship. Her main focus
on research is related to study alternatives for representing visual knowledge, developing applications
in petroleum reservoir analysis area. She is also the co-founder of the company ENDEEPER Rock
Knowledge System, an spin-off of her research group.
 About the Contributors

Neeta Baporikar is on an academic assignment with Sultanate of Oman, Ministry of Higher Educa-
tion (MOHE), Salalah College of Applied Sciences-IBA Programme. Prior to this she is been a Professor
Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship in I2IT Pune, India and BITS International Centre. She
holds a Doctorate in Management from University of Pune, Masters degree in Business Administration
(Distinction) and Law (Hons.) degree and has more than two and half decades of experience in industry,
training, research and academics teaching/consulting - both at national and international level. Apart from
this she is also an Accredited Management Teacher (AIMA), Qualified Trainer (ISTD) and PhD-Guide,
Faculty of Management, University of Pune and Board Member of Academic in accredited B-Schools.

Stephen Burgess has research and teaching interests that include the use of ICTs in small businesses
(particularly in the tourism field), the strategic use of ICTs, and B2C electronic commerce. He has re-
ceived a number of competitive research grants in these areas. He has completed several studies related
to website features in small businesses and how well websites function over time, including his PhD
from Monash University, Australia (completed in 2002). He has authored/ edited three books and special
editions of journals in topics related to the use of ICTs in small business and been track chair at the inter-
national ISOneWorld, IRMA, Conf-IRM and ACIS conferences in related areas. More recently, Stephen
has extended his research interests to include the use of websites by community based organisations.

Murat etin has completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Middle East Technical Uni-
versity, Department of Architecture. He was awarded by the Higher Education Council for a scholar-
ship to conduct his doctoral studies at Sheffield University in United Kingdom. He participated various
international conferences and published papers in journals and books. After his return, he taught at
Balkesir University, Department of Architecture and Yeditepe University as an Assistant Professor. He
also won a citation awards in one urban design competition and one architectural conservation project
competition. He currently teaches at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.

Deepak Chhabra teaches at Arizona State University, USA. Her research interests include sustain-
able development and marketing of different forms of tourism with special focus on heritage and gaming
tourism.

Tao Chen is a Doctoral candidates of Management School, Harbin Institute of technology; Engi-
neer of Business School, Sanjiang University; Research Direction: Management Information System,
Decision-making.

John C. Crotts, Ph. D., is a Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the College of
Charleston located in Charleston, SC, USA. Prior to this position, he lectured in the Advanced Business
Programme on tourism subjects at Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand and was Director of the
Center for Tourism Research and Development at the University of Florida. His research encompasses
the areas of economic psychology, tourism marketing, and sales strategy, and management of cooperative
alliances. John received his PhD in Leisure Studies and Services from the University of Oregon in 1989.

252
About the Contributors

Stan Karanasios is a Research Fellow at the AIMTech Research Group at the University of Leeds in
the United Kingdom. His research interests include ICT and development, ICT and the environment and
ICT and small business. He has significant experience in the diffusion of wireless and mobile technologies.

Aliana M W Leong is the Dean of the Faculty of International Tourism and the Director of School of
Continuing Studies in Macau University of Science and Technology. Her research interests are Tourism
Management and Adult Education. Aliana has published 3 monographs, edited 3 books and published
over 80 papers in refereed journals, books, international and regional conferences proceedings in Eu-
rope, East Asia, China, and America. She is also the editor of the Journal of Macau Adult Education. As
a chief investigator, Aliana has conducted over ten research projects funded by public institutions and
Macau foundation in the recent five years.

Xi Li, Associate Professor of Faculty of International Tourism, Macau University of Science and
Technology. Dr. Lis research interests are Destination Management and Event Management. Since 2000,
Dr. Li has participated in over 20 research projects as the team member and published over 30 academic
papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings.

Chad Lin is a Research Fellow at he Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control, Curtin
University, Australia. Dr Lin has conducted extensive research in the areas of: e-commerce, e-health,
health communication, health informatics, IS/IT investment evaluation and benefits realization, IS/IT
outsourcing, IT adoption and diffusion, RFID, social marketing, strategic alliance in healthcare, and virtual
teams. He has authored more than 100 internationally refereed journal articles (e.g. Decision Support
Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information and Management, International Journal
of Electronic Commerce, European Journal of Marketing, Technovation, Medical Journal of Australia,
and ANZ Journal of Public Health), book chapters, and conference papers in the last five years. He has
served as an associate editor or a member of editorial review board for 7 international journals and as a
reviewer for 11 other international journals. He is currently a member of the Research & Development
Committee in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University.

Jiaming Liu obtained Ph.D. in Tourism Development and Management from Peking University
(China), and Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tourism Economics from Nankai University (China). Cur-
rently, he is a Associate Research in Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,
Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), and the Chief Designer for Center of Tourism Research and Plan-
ning, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS). Dr. Lius expertise is on urban tourism, tourist and holiday
resort area, tourism site development and management, and community tourism. As chief researcher, he
successfully secured and finished 50 projects of planning, of which two projects are funded by National
Natural Science Foundation of China, and his research work has resulted in 50 publications, as well as
two translations.

Fabiana Lorenzi has a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Rio Grande
do Sul (UFRGS) and she is a professor in Lutheran University of Brazil. She works as consultant at
Invenio Softare Inteligente and her interests include recommendation systems, case-based reasoning
and multi-agent systems.

253
 About the Contributors

Stanley Loh is a Professor in the Catholic University of Pelotas, in the Lutheran University of Brazil
and in the Senac Technology Faculty. He has a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science. He also works as
consultant in IT companies (Invenio, InText Mining and ADS Digital). His interests include recom-
mendation systems, text mining, web search and knowledge management.

Eleonora Pantano, PhD, M.Eng. is a Post doc research fellow at University of Calabria (Italy). Her
research interests are related to the applications of advanced technologies to retailing and tourism, with
emphasis on the investigation of consumer behaviour in pervasive environments. She has been Assistant
teacher of Integrated Marketing Communication, Engineering Faculty, University of Calabria (January
2006- 2008); Visiting lecturer at College of Business, University of Illinois (USA) (May-July 2009);
Visiting lecturer at Master in Business and Administration (MBA) Marketing Module at the Faculty of
Economics & Business, University of Zagreb (HR), 2009. Furthermore, she is member of the Edito-
rial Board of numerous international journals, and editor of the special issue of Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services on Applications of New Technologies to Retailing, 17 (3). She was the Highly
Commended Award winner of the 2008/2009 Emerald/EMRBI Business Research Award for Young
Researchers, with the contribution Consumers behaviour and local products: a perception model.

Ruth Rios-Morales is Deputy Director of Research at Les RochesGruyere, University of Applied

Sciences, Switzerland. Ruth is also Country Director for Switzerland of the EuroMed Research Busi-
ness Institute. Ruth holds a BSc in Economics, MSc in International Economics and a PhD in Politics
of International Business from the University of Ulster, UK. Before joining Les RochesGruyere, Ruth
taught international business at the School of Business Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Ruth has also
taught international business and finance in Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. Ruth has conducted ad-
vanced research in international business and finance, her research has been acknowledged by UNCTAD
and the World Bank.

Carmine Sellitto has investigated innovation, e-commerce/marketing adoption across a variety of

business domains including tourism providers and Australian-based wineries. He gained his PhD from
RMIT University where he was awarded the student prize for his PhD in the area of innovation. Dr
Sellitto has published widely on topics associated with e-business, information management and tech-
nology, website analysis, tourism and IT, Internet-marketing, information quality and the adoption of
technology by small business

Rocco Servidio is Assistant Professor in General Psychology at the Department of Linguistics,

Faculty of Humanities, University of Calabria (Italy). His research interests include web usability,
Human-Computer Interaction, and eLearning systems. He works also in the field of information and com-
munication technologies applied to tourism investigating how these technologies can affect the tourism.

Ashleigh K. Shelton joined the U of M School of Journalism and Mass Communication program in
the fall of 2007 after graduating summa cum laude and top of her class from the University of Minnesota
Duluth. She earned her BA in Communication with departmental honors. She also has been a Graduate
Instructor for several years and cant imagine a more rewarding experience. Ashleighs current and past

254
About the Contributors

research interests include: presence, video games, social networking sites, and digital media technologies.
She loves to spend her spare time with media as much as she loves to study it. She enjoys horseback
riding, the theatre, 70s/80s rock music, Facebook, going to movies, and playing video games of all
genres from Resident Evil, God of War, and Madden, to Mario Kart, Guitar Hero, and Zelda.

Tienan Wang, Professor of Management School, Harbin Institute of technology; Ph.D.;Research

Direction: Management Information System; Strategic management theory

Zhiming Zhu, Vice Professor of Business School, Hohai University, Ph.D.; Research Direction:
Management Information System.

255
256

Index

Symbols C
4E model (4E) 153-154 Calabria region 53, 59, 61
6E model (6E) 151-153, 155, 158-159, 162-163 call centers 30-31, 33
Camel Racing 129
A Campaign Management 148-149
case studies 2, 28
Account Management 138-140, 150 catering 83, 88, 105, 137-138, 141, 144-146, 148,
adaptive museum guides 53, 57, 69 153
advergames 91-101 Cave Exploration 127
after-sales service 216 China 1-3, 7-12, 15-19, 21, 24-26, 72-74, 79-80, 83,
Agncia Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos 89-90, 94, 101, 105, 151, 157, 163-164, 205,
(FINEP) 188 207, 219-222
An Tai River 159, 162 China Internet Network Information Center
architectural heritage 110-111, 201 (CNNIC) 2, 207
architecture of tourism 105 China Travel Service 7
ARM Intelligent Visitor Management System commodification 194
(IVMS) 19 communication effect 207, 211-212, 215, 219
Australia 9, 27-28, 44, 48, 101, 113, 115, 165, 193, communication process 54, 207, 211
196, 204 community control 197
automatic division 19 Complaint management 15-16
avatar-based advertising 93, 99 conative 58, 69
Conde Nast Traveller 122
B Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfico e
Banquet Event Orders (BEOs) 141, 145-148 Tecnolgico (CNPQ) 188
beer tourism 53 conservation 14, 24, 103, 106, 110-112, 114, 126,
Beijing 7, 12, 17, 25-26, 72-76, 79-81, 84-85, 87- 163-164, 189-191, 193-202, 205
90, 163-164, 222 constitutive authenticity 154
Beijing Tourism Administration 7 construction technologies 108
Beijing Urban Development Strategy 76 contemporary architecture 104-106
Bilbao effect 104, 107, 111 Context factors 171-172
brand awareness 93, 214 corridors 79-81, 88
brand image 216-217 cost to serve 34
Bull Fighting 129 Cranfield Process Model of Benefit Management 41
Business-to-Consumer 173 Ctrip 7-8
buying behaviors 213-214 cultural authenticity 13
buying intention 213-214, 216 cultural consumption 102, 108

Copyright 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Index
cultural heritage 16, 55, 57, 66-68, 70, 103, 111-
112, 126, 132, 152, 164, 190, 197, 199-200,
204
Cultural Indicators 197, 199-200
cultural production 102, 108, 113
Customer relationship 27-28, 30, 35, 44-47, 49-51,
138
customer relationship management (CRM) 27-30,
33, 39, 43-51, 150
D 154, 158, 163-164, 189-206
database marketing 10, 29, 31, 45, 50
database technologies 30
data mining 33
Destination Marketing 59, 71, 127, 203
digital environments 54
Director of Catering (DOC) 45, 145
district revitalization 152
domestic tourism 15-16, 117, 130, 132
Dubai Effect 108
E
E-bids 138, 141
Ecological Indicators 195, 197-199
e-commerce 1, 6-10, 33, 45-46, 48, 50-51, 138,
175-176, 178
electronic customer relationship management
(eCRM) 27-49
electronic guide system 6
electronic ticket function 22-23
Emergency response 60
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 30, 34, 46
Estheticism 151, 153-154, 156, 159, 161-162
evaluation process 35-36, 41
Event management 141, 145
F iPhone 56, 65, 167-168
foreign direct investment (FDI) 129-130
foreign tourists management 21
Fuzhou City (Fuzhou) 151, 157-159
G kitsch 104, 106-107, 111-112
Gaming 68, 91-98
gastronomic tourism 53
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) 120-121, 125, 127,
129, 131, 197
geographic information system (GIS) 14, 20, 22,
72, 75
global economy 104-105, 112-113, 132
global positioning system approach (GPS) 21-22
glocal 202
Graphical User Interface (GUI) 58, 71
grid image 75
H
Hera Lacinia 54
Heritage 16, 55-57, 61, 66-68, 70, 102-103, 106-
107, 110-114, 116, 120, 124-126, 132, 152,
Heritage tourism 154, 163, 189-190, 192, 194-195,
202-205
hierarchy 151, 153, 156, 159-160, 162-163
Historic district 151-159, 162-163
homophiles 214
Hospitality and Tourism Industry 27
Hotel sales 136, 138, 141, 148, 220
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) 58, 71, 169-
170, 173, 175-176
humanness 93
hydrotaxis 77, 86
I
Identity recognition function 19
Industries of Tourism and Hospitality 1
Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) 9-10, 28, 49, 52-53, 68, 114, 165-166,
174
Information seeking 91-92, 95-96, 98-99
information society 108
innovation 2, 15, 19, 22, 53, 66, 170, 175
Institutional Indicators 197-198, 200
intelligent queue management 22-23
interactive scenarios 54
International Travel Magazine 116
involvement theory 3
IT 30-34, 36-37, 39, 41-45, 48-50, 108, 126
K
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 31, 41
L
Las Vegas effect 104
Luxury travel 130
257
 Index

M Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission

(ORRRC) 74
main tourism management 15
Management and co-ordination 127 P
Management of Traveler Demand and Preference
13 patches 79
MAPWEB 179-180 pending (PEN) 144
market malfunction 86 Perception Quality 15, 58
Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games Perceptive selection 63
(MMORPGs) 93 Peri-urban 72-73, 79-80, 85-88
matrixpatchcorridor 79 Peri-urban recreation areas 72-73, 80, 85-88
media system dependency (MSD) theory 92, 94, 99 Personal Tour 178-188
Meeting Incentive Conferences and Exhibitions pervasive environments 52-53, 59-66, 68, 71
(MICE) 121 place spirit 154, 156, 159, 163
Ministry of National Economy (MONE) 121, 125, planar data 75
132 potential tourists 6, 8, 63, 65-66, 118, 215
Ministry of Tourism (MOT) 120-122, 125, 127, Pre-purchase evaluation 63-64
130, 132 Product development 24, 31, 126
Mission Statement 189, 192, 194, 196, 198-199, Product Placement 6, 9, 93, 101
203 product quality 216, 218
mobile devices 52-53, 55-56, 58, 62, 167-168, 174 Profit modes 1, 6-8
modeling tools 3 property management system (PMS) 141
MOM 120 Public Private Sector Partnership 126
Multi-agent recommender systems 178-179 push services 172
multimodal interactions 60
multi-sensation 6, 9 Q
Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) 56 Quality assurance 127
Quantity management 15
N Queue management 15, 22-23
Nanhou old street 151, 159, 161, 163
National Museum of Science and Industry 55 R
National Tourism Administration 7-8, 12, 17, 24 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) 12-13, 19-
navigation module 6 24, 26, 60
Need recognition 63 Real tourism 5-7
netizens 2, 207-208, 216, 218 Recommender Systems (RSs) 178-179, 188
Nostalgia 151, 153-156, 159, 161-162 re-communication 212-213
notion of adaptation 171 recreation areas 72-89, 104
Recreation Belt Around Metropolis (ReBAM) 74,
O 89
objective authenticity 154, 195, 198 Recreation Carrying Capacity Theory (RCC) 14
offline museums 56 Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) 14, 74, 88
Oman 116-132 Relationship management 27-28, 30-32, 44-47,
Omanis 118-122, 124, 128-131 49-51
Omanisation 117, 129, 131 Requests-For-Proposals (RFPs) 138
online tourists 5 resources environment 21
online transactions 2 retiracy 155-156, 162
online travel 1, 3, 69 robusticity 194
Online Word-of-mouth (OWOM) 207-223
Opportunity management 31

258
Index

S Tourism Revenue-Sharing 7
Sales Force Automation (SFA) 31, 136-141, 147-
150
San-Fang Qi-Xiang 151, 157-163
sceneries of virtual tourism 3
scenic tourist management experience 21
Second Life 93, 97, 99-100
Selective Investment 126
situated learning interface 4
skin architecture 110
Social Indicators 197, 199
socio-economic theory 15
Space positioning function 20
Spatial distribution 72, 76, 79
spatial regulation 79
strategic marketing 131, 195
striation data 75
sublimation 151, 156, 159, 162
supply chain management (SCM) 31, 34, 46, 60, 69
Sustainable development 112, 189, 192-195, 203-
205
Sustainable marketing 189-190, 192, 194, 196, 203
sustainable marketing model (SHTM) 194, 196
Sustainable Tourism 119, 126, 130, 174-176, 192,
194, 197, 203-205
system integration 38, 40, 44
tourism sector 27-28, 37, 52-53, 55, 59, 61, 106,
117-118, 120-123, 125, 130-132, 166-167, 173
Tourism Utility Maximization 81
tourist attractions 11-13, 15-19, 21-26, 75, 124, 164
tourist capacity 14
Tourist experience 15, 18, 151-152, 155, 160, 163,
165-166
touristic landscapes 55
Tourist management 12-13, 15-18, 21-22, 24-25
tourist spending behavior 22
Tourist Technology Acceptance 71
tour planning 4
Track back trajectory function 19
traditional architecture 110-111
travel websites 2, 7-9, 92
U
ultrahigh frequency (UHF) 20, 22
uncertainty reduction theory (URT) 91-92, 95-96,
100
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN-
WTO) 53, 69, 92, 101
urban tourism 11, 24, 73-74, 80, 88, 157
Use of technology 31, 71
uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective 92, 96-97

T V
Targeted Marketing 126, 215 video games 92, 96-101
teaching of virtual tourism 3-4 virtual currencies 7, 9
Team management 15, 19, 21 Virtual Forbidden City 8
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) 57, 71, 137- Virtual Reality (VR) 1-2, 4-5, 9-11, 52-55, 57-58,
138, 150, 211, 214, 221 60, 66-68, 70-71, 108-109
technology systems of virtual tourism 3 Virtual Tourism 1-11
Theory of Planned Behavior 57 virtual tourism system 6
Theory of Reasoned Action 57, 97 virtual tourist groups 3
three dimensional (3D) 56, 58, 60-61, 65, 71, 98 visitor management 14-19, 21-23, 25-26, 195
tourism activities 2, 122, 127, 129, 154-155, 167,
173, 193 W
Tourism and Hospitality Industry 92, 122 Wahiba Sands 128
Tourism and Recreation Development 74 WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) 173
tourism behaviour 15, 57, 71 water system 77-78, 88
tourism crimes 14 Web 2.0 217
tourism experience 10, 22, 152-154, 162-164 Web-based BEOs 148
tourism movement 103 web communities 55
tourism object management 15 web marketing 31
tourism of architecture 105 wireless communication systems 19
tourism products 2, 4, 7, 13-14, 68, 124-125, 127, Wireless Events Management and Catering 148
131 word of mouth (WOM) 208-215, 217, 219-223

259
 Index

World Heritage Convention (WHC) 189-190, 198, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) 127
201-202, 205-206 WoW effect 104, 111
World Heritage List (WHL) 120, 190, 196
world heritage sites (WHS) 189-194, 196, 198-205 X
XML file 181-182

260