Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Tourism: Concepts and Developments

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Social Media Marketing in Tourism and Hospitality

  • 9095 Accesses

Abstract

Advancements of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have generated deep changes in the tourism sector affecting customers as well as suppliers. Travelers are more demanding and look for differentiated and personalized services. ICTs, and especially Web 2.0, offer new opportunities and resources to improve tourism organizations and destinations, competitiveness, and profitability. The first chapter discusses the evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 through the analysis of main concepts and definitions about the topic. Moreover, on the basis of literature review, a classification of social media is proposed. The main features of each type of media are examined offering specific examples of applications in the tourism industry. Finally, main trends and streams of research about social media in tourism are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Even if Web 2.0 does not represent a technical update of the WWW, some basic functionalities become very important and necessary for its operational effectiveness. Some of them are (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010): Adobe Flash, a multimedia and software platform used to add animation, interactivity and audio/video on web pages; Rich Site Summary/Really Simple Syndication (RSS), uses Web feeds to provide users frequently updated content (news headline, audio, video, etc.) in a customized way; Asynchronous Java Script (AJAX), a group of technologies and interrelated techniques that provide a method for exchanging data asynchronously between browser and server to avoid full page reloads.

  2. 2.

    According to Gasser and Palfrey (2007) “ICT interoperability is what we might describe as the ability to transfer and render useful data and other information across systems (which may include organizations), applications, or components.” Although the more widespread definition focuses in particular on technological aspects, interoperability is a broad concept which can change according to the context in which it is applied.

  3. 3.

    This topic will be dealt with in-depth in the next sections.

  4. 4.

    The word “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian word “quick,” WikiWiki (www.wikipedia.com).

  5. 5.

    See www.wikipedia.com consulted October 2013.

  6. 6.

    For further insights on the conceptualization of SOC, see McMillan and Chavis (1986).

  7. 7.

    A study of Nacht and Chaney (2007) found that intranet blogs can be very useful for training and, in general, for communication with staff members, especially when they are based in different locations.

  8. 8.

    The names of the hotel and the guest were intentionally removed.

  9. 9.

    The hotel name in this example is intentionally a fictional name.

  10. 10.

    Many SNSs offer some form of privacy by allowing their users to choose a public, private or limited viewing profile. Privacy policies of SNSs differ depending on the social network. Chapter 6 offers a more in-depth analysis of privacy implications.

  11. 11.

    The initial purpose of Mark Zuckerberg upon creating Facebook was to allow university students to create and maintain social relations.

  12. 12.

    In online virtual games players can create their avatars who can change in each game but derive inspiration from existing characters. New games are trying to multiply the possibility of free choices within this process.

  13. 13.

    The study reports about the results for France (influential, 30 %; extremely influential, 19 %), Germany (influential, 37 %; extremely influential, 23 %), and UK (influential, 39 %; extremely influential, 22 %).

  14. 14.

    The classification of the travel planning process in pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip was proposed by Engel, Blackwell and Miniard in 1990 and is one of the most widely used by scholars in research on social media influence on travel-decision making.

  15. 15.

    The study TripAdvisor/TripBarometer (2013) found that travelers are more and more connected also during the trip and main activities are uploading photo (39 %) and news (34 %) on social networks and finding activities to do at the destination (33 %). The research was conducted on 15,595 TripAdvisor users in the period December 2012–January 2013.

References

  • Anderson CK (2012) The impact of social media on lodging performance. Cornell Hosp Rep 12(5):4–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Antonioli Corigliano M, Baggio R (2004) Italian tourism on the internet-new business models. In: Weiermair K, Mathies C (eds) The tourism and leisure industry-shaping the future. The Haworth Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Birdsall WF (2007) Web 2.0 as a social movement. Webology 4(2). http://www.webology.ir/2007/v4n2/a40.html. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Blackshaw P, Nazzaro M (2006) Consumer-generated media (CGM) 101. Word-of-mouth in the age of the web-fortified consumer, 2nd edn. Nielsen BuzzMetrics, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanchard AL, Markus ML (2004) The experienced sense of a virtual community: characteristics and processes. ACM SIGMIS Database 35(1):64–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd DM, Ellison NB (2010) Social network sites: definition, history, and scholarship. IEEE Eng Manag Rev 38(3):16–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandenburger AM, Nalebuff BJ (1996) Co-opetition. Doubleday, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandenburger AM, Stuart S (1996) Value-based business strategy. J Econ Manag Strategy 5(1):5–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis D (1998) Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry. Tour Manag 19(5):409–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis D (2003) eTourism: information technology for strategic tourism management. Pearson Education, Harlow

    Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis D, Law R (2008) Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the internet—the state of eTourism research. Tour Manag 29(4):609–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis D, O’Connor P (2005) Information communication technology revolutionizing tourism. Tour Recreat Res 30(3):7–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Buttle F (1998) Word of mouth: understanding and managing referral marketing. J Strateg Mark 6(3):241–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatterjee P (2001) Online reviews: do consumers use them? Adv Consum Res 28:129–133

    Google Scholar 

  • Chevalier JA, Mayzlin D (2006) The effect of word of mouth on sales: online book reviews. J Mark 43(3):345–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cho K, Chung TR, King WR, Schunn C (2008) Peer-based computer-supported knowledge refinement: an empirical investigation. Commun ACM 51(3):83–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ComScore—Expedia Media Solutions (2013) Travel content Journey. http://attraction.ttracanada.ca/travel-content-journey/#.U4USI0CjJdo. Accessed Feb 2014

  • Constantinides E, Fountain S (2008) Web 2.0: conceptual foundations and marketing issues. J Direct Data Digit Mark Pract 9(3):231–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dellarocas C (2003) The digitization of word of mouth: promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms. Manag Sci 49(10):1407–1424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dellarocas C, Zhang XM (2007) Exploring the value of online product review in forecasting sales: the case of motion pictures. J Interact Mark 21(4):23–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eftekhari MH, Barzegar Z, Isaai MT (2011) Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 evolution: reviewing the impacts on tourism development and opportunities. Hum-Comput Interact Tour Cult Herit Lect Notes Comput Sci 6529:184–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engel JF, Blackwell RD, Miniard PW (1990) Consumer behavior. Dryden Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Fallis D (2008) Toward an epistemology of Wikipedia. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol 59(10):1662–1674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garibaldi R, Peretta R (2011) Facebook in tourism. Destinazioni turistiche e Social Network. Franco Angeli, Milano

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasser U, Palfrey J (2007) Breaking down digital barriers: when and how ICT interoperability drives innovation. Berkman Publication Series. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/pubrelease/interop/pdfs/interop-breaking-barriers.pdf. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Giles J (2005) Internet encyclopedias go head to head. Nature 438:900–901

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorman GE (2007) A tale of information ethics and encyclopedias; or, is Wikipedia just another internet scam? Online Inf Rev 31:273–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gretzel U (2007) Online travel review study: role and impact of online travel reviews. Texas A&M University, Laboratory for Intelligent Systems in Tourism, College Station

    Google Scholar 

  • Grönroos C (2000) Service management and marketing: a customer relationship management approach. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinonen K (2011) Consumer activity in social media: managerial approaches to consumers’ social media behavior. J Consum Behav 10(6):356–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inversini A, Marchiori E, Dedekind C, Cantoni L (2010) Applying a conceptual framework to analyze online reputation of tourism destinations. In: Gretzel U, Law R, Fuchs M (eds) Information and communication technologies in tourism 2010. Proceedings of the international conference in Lugano. Switzerland, February 10–12. Springer, Wien–New York, pp 321–332

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan AM, Haenlein M (2010) Users of the world, unite! the challenges and opportunities of social media. Bus Horiz 53(1):59–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan AM, Haenlein M (2011) The early bird catches the news: nine things you should know about micro-blogging. Bus Horiz 54(1):55–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim W, Jeong O, Lee S (2010) On social web sites. Inf Syst 35(2):215–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laczniak RN, De Carlo TE, Ramaswami SN (2001) Consumers’ responses to negative word-of-mouth communication: an attribution theory perspective. J Consum Psychol 11(1):57–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law R, Leung R, Buhalis D (2008) Information technology applications in hospitality and tourism: a review of publications from 2005 to 2007. J Travel Tour Mark 26(5):599–623

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee F, Vogel D, Limayem M (2003) Virtual community informatics: a review and research agenda. J Inf Technol Theory Appl 5(1):47–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung D, Law R, Van Hoof H, Buhalis D (2013) Social media in tourism and hospitality: a literature review. J Travel Tour Mark 30(1–2):3–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leung D, Lee HA, Law R (2011) Adopting Web 2.0 technologies on chain and independent hotel websites: a case study of hotels in Hong Kong. In: Law R, Fuchs M, Ricci F (eds) Information and communication technologies in tourism. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin YS, Huang JY (2006) Internet blogs as a tourism marketing medium: a case study. J Bus Res 59:1201–1205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magnus PD (2006) Epistemology and the Wikipedia. In: Paper presented at the North American computing and philosophy conference. http://hdl.handle.net/1951/42589. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Mangold WG, Faulds DJ (2009) Social media: the new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Bus Horiz 52(4):357–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mauri AG (2012) Hotel revenue management. Principles and practices, Pearson, Milan

    Google Scholar 

  • McMillan DW, Chavis DM (1986) Sense of community: a definition and theory. J Commun Psychol 14:6–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Munar AM (2010) Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding. Int J Cult Tour Hosp Res 5(3):291–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Munar AM, Gyimothy S, Cai L (2013) Tourism social media: a new research agenda. In: Munar AM, Gyimothy S, Cai L (eds) Tourism social media. Transformations in identity, community and culture. Emerald, Bingley

    Google Scholar 

  • Musser J, O’Reilly T (2006) Web 2.0 principles and best practices, O’Reilly radar report. http://oreilly.com/catalog/web2report/chapter/web20_report_excerpt.pdf. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Nacht R, Chaney P (2007) Realty blogging: build your brand and out-smart your competition. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen (2012a) How digital influences how we shop around the world. http://fi.nielsen.com/site/documents/NielsenGlobalDigitalShoppingReportAugust2012.pdf. Accessed Aug 2013

  • Nielsen (2012b) State of the media: the social media report 2012. http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/reports/2012/state-of-the-media-the-social-media-report-2012.html. Accessed Aug 2013

  • Noone BM, McGuire KA, Rohlfs KV (2011) Social media meets hotel revenue management: opportunities, issues and unanswered questions. J Revenue Pricing Manag 10(4):293–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor P (1999) Electronic information distribution in tourism & hospitality. CAB, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Reilly T (2005) Web 2.0: compact definition. http://radar.oreilly.com/2005/10/web-20-compact-definition.html. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) (2007) Participative web: user-created content. http://www.oecd.org/internet/ieconomy/38393115.pdf. Accessed June 2013

  • Pan B, MacLaurin T, Crotts JC (2007) Travel blogs and the implications for destination marketing. J Travel Res 46(1):35–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PhoCusWright (2013a) Optimizing the mobile travel experience. http://www.phocuswright.com/free_reports/optimizing-the-mobile-travel-experience. Accessed Nov 2013

  • PhocusWright (2013b) Travel and technology survey 2013. http://www.phocuswright.com/products/4276. Accessed March 2014

  • PwC (2013) Demystifying the online shopper: 10 myths of multichannel retailing. http://www.pwc.com/et_EE/EE/publications/assets/pub/10_myths_multichannel.pdf. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Rector LH (2008) Comparison of Wikipedia and other encyclopedias for accuracy, breadth, and depth in historical articles. Ref Serv Rev 36(1):7–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmalleger D, Carson D (2008) Blogs in tourism: changing approaches to information exchange. J Vacat Mark 14(2):99–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shao G (2009) Understanding the appeal of user-generated media: a uses and gratification perspective. Internet Res 19(1):7–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stankov U, Lazic L, Dragicevic V (2010) The extent of use of basic Facebook user-generated content by the national tourism organizations in Europe. Eur J Tour Res 3(2):105–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Statisticbrain (2013) Twitter statistics. http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/ Accessed Nov 2013

  • Sung Y, Kim Y, Kwon O, Moon J (2010) An explorative study of Korean consumer participation in virtual brand communities in social network sites. J Glob Mark 23(5):430–445

    Google Scholar 

  • Thevenot G (2007) Blogging as a social media. Tour Hosp Res 7(3–4):287–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • TripAdvisor/TripBarometer (2013) http://www.tripadvisor.com/TripAdvisorInsights/TripBarometer-en-US#tab=0. Accessed Jan 2014

  • Wang Y, Yu Q, Fesenmaier DR (2002) Defining the virtual tourist community: implications for tourism marketing. Tour Manag 23(4):407–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson A, Murphy H, Fierro JC (2012) Hospitality and travel the nature and implications of user-generated content. Cornell Hosp Q 53(3):220–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf PC (2006) Travel 2.0 confronts the establishment. http://www.phocuswright.com/research_updates/travel-20-confronts-the-establishment. Accessed Sept 2013

  • Xiang Z, Gretzel U (2010) Role of social media in online travel information search. Tour Manag 31:179–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeithaml VA, Parasuraman A, Berry LL (1985) Problems and strategies in services marketing. J Mark 49(2):33–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, Economics and Cultures, University of Insubria, Como, Italy

    Roberta Minazzi

Authors
  1. Roberta Minazzi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberta Minazzi .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Minazzi, R. (2015). Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Tourism: Concepts and Developments. In: Social Media Marketing in Tourism and Hospitality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05182-6_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation