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Front Matter |
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Abstract
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RESA - An Automated Speech Based Hotel Room Booking Call Centre Agent |
Klemens Waldhör,Claudia Freidl,Fritz Fessler,Gert Starha |
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Abstract
In this project an automated call centre agent (RESA) for hotel booking via telephone was developed. RESA supports standard bookings of hotel rooms using a software solution based on human language technology (HLT), especially speech technology. This article concerns itself with the implementation of RESA, describes some evaluation results and discusses the advantages of using such a technology for the guest and the hotel.
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A Speech Dialog System (SDS) as an Additional Communication Channel in Tourism — a Vision for the De |
Anita Zehrer,Tatjana Hobbhahn |
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Abstract
IT in tourism helps to reduce information gaps among suppliers by providing information on market products, and among consumers by reducing the complexity of decision making. Mobile tourist information applications for in-trip information services are developed in different ways. Speech technology offers a similar in-trip information system in the form of a telephony speech dialog systems (SDS), which provides diverse information via a telephone voice interface in a dialog of question and answer. The idea of a destination speech dialog system so far solely exists in theory. The system can be reached by tourists via a (mobile) telephone in the destination where they receive information on sights, accommodation, opening hours, entrance fees, the weather, etc. The exploratory qualitative study adopts a supplier-centred approach, interviewing ten tourism suppliers and IT experts. Besides the study results on SDS, the paper gives insights into the structure and information content, image effects, marketing ideas, and directions for future research.
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Connecting Destinations with an Ontology-Based e-Tourism Planner |
Roopa Jakkilinki,Mladen Georgievski,Nalin Sharda |
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Abstract
This paper presents the underlying structure and operation of a semantic web based intelligent tour planning tool. The semantic web is the future of the web and it can support the development of a wide range of intelligent services. Ontologies form the core of the semantic web; they provide a common understanding of domains and allow people and machines to communicate effectively to develop intelligent applications. The proposed tour planner has inbuilt intelligence which allows it to generate travel plans by matching the traveller requirements and vendor offerings stored in conjunction with the travel ontology.
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A High Level Model for Developing Intelligent Visual Travel Recommender Systems |
Mohan Ponnada,Nalin Sharda |
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Abstract
This paper presents the model of an Intelligent Visual Travel Recommender system (IV-TRS). IV-TRS is a system that makes use of visual information such as images and video, along with audio, to present a virtual tour of the destination. The IV-TRS model is divided into three layers, namely . and . layers. The IV-TRS makes use of the TRIPS (Tour Recommendation using Image-Based Planning with SCORM) concept to bring together relevant tourism data stored in the form of Sharable Content Objects (SCOs). The Augmented Web Layer consists of data stored as SCO’s built on the SCORM standard with their location is resolved by CORDRA. SCORM (.) is a model that defines how information is to be stored, referenced and used by packaging data with metadata. CORDRA (.) is a model that aims to locate and reference SCORM repositories over the web. The Intelligence Layer provides the reasoning engine of the system, and can be built on Semantic Web technology, Expert Systems technology, or Artificial Neural Networks. For this research, we focus on the Semantic Web technology for building the Intelligence Layer. The Application layer is made up of two components; namely, Search and Presentation. The Sea
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Developing a Conversational Travel Advisor with ADVISOR SUITE |
Dietmar Jannach,Markus Zanker,Markus Jessenitschnig,Oskar Seidler |
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Abstract
Due to the inherent complexity of building highly-interactive and personalized web applications, the development of a web-based travel advisory system can be a costly and time-consuming task. We see this as one of the major obstacles to a more widespread adoption of such systems in particular with respect to small and medium-sized companies and e-Tourism platforms. The goal of the ADVISOR SUITE project discussed in this paper is thus to provide an off-the-shelf framework and development environment that allows us to build intelligent and easy-to-maintain advisory applications in a cost-efficient way: The main pillars of the presented system are therefore an integrated graphical modelling-environment, the provision of different domain-independent recommendation algorithms, as well as model-based mechanisms to fully generate functional web applications based on declarative definitions in a central knowledge repository. The paper discusses the core concepts and main functionalities of the system by means of an example of an interactive travel advisor developed for an Austrian spa resort.
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Web-based Recommenders for Personalized City Tours: A Usage Analysis |
Ronny Kramer,Marko Modsching,Klaus ten Hagen,Ulrike Gretzel |
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Abstract
The World Wide Web provides information for most tourist locations and thus has enormous influence on tourists’ decisions. However, Web applications rarely support all phases of tour planning. The city of Görlitz offers website visitors an opportunity to plan individual city tours in advance by specifying personal interests and tour preferences. Using this information, the system creates a personalized tour plan with content and navigational information displayed online or sent per email as a PDF document. Analyses of the usage data indicate that most of the average use time of 9 minutes is spent looking at the recommended tour, which suggests that users had a general interest in the recommendations made. Based on the overall use behavior, two kinds of users were identified: concrete planners and destination explorers. A comparison of the web-based application with the mobile version suggests the Web a more user-friendly environment than mobile devices.
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Consumer Behaviour in e-Tourism |
Annette Steinbauer,Hannes Werthner |
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Abstract
During the last decades Tourism as an information intensive business has been strongly affected by the rapid changes in technology, especially the Internet,. One of the major results is the changing in traveller’s behaviour. Therefore the challenge of identifying, attracting and retaining customers in the online market as well as the issue of understanding consumer’s perceptions is becoming a critical success factor. The aim of this paper is to identify the determinants that influence potential travellers to use the Internet for travel planning and to show their interrelations. A major result of these findings is a causal model of e-tourism usage. Constructs such as Internet affinity, attitudes and self-efficacy prove to have a major impact on the actual use of the Internet for travel planning, whereas moderating variables such as gender or customer involvement prove to be important as well.
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Similarities in Information Search of City Break Travelers — A Web Usage Mining Exercise |
Karl Wöber |
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Abstract
This paper focuses on understanding the competitive situation in European city tourism based on log file analysis of keywords entered by users on .. It applies various text analysis steps in order to extract significant patterns from the queries made by the users. Multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) is used for constructing a map of similarities based on the unaided responses gained from the users’ information requests. Multiple regression analysis between the most frequently used terms entered by the users and the geometrical representation generated by the MDS provides additional insights in the semantics defining competitive differences between 32 city break destinations in Europe. Findings comprise information on cities that can be considered as rivals in regard to the information demanded by the users of the web portal. As it becomes clear in which areas cities are perceived as similar, this findings can be used by city (tourism) managers in order to revise their communication plan regarding their own city if desired.
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Quo Vadis Homo Turisticus? Towards a Picture-based Tourist Profiler |
Helmut Berger,Michaela Denk,Michael Dittenbach,Dieter Merkl,Andreas Pesenhofer |
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Abstract
The World Wide Web has become an important source of information for tourists planning their vacation. So, destination recommendation systems supporting users in their decision making process by suggesting suitable holiday destinations or packages based on user profiles are a vivid area of research. Considering the complex and often tedious task to obtain such profiles we are exploring a new direction to manufacture user profiles. Having in mind that a picture paints a thousand words we conducted an online survey that allows investigating the relationship between tourism-related photographs and tourist types. In a nutshell, our findings show a significant relationship between different tourist types and the preference for particular visual impressions conveyed by photographs. Thus, tourist types can be determined by representative photos without necessarily requesting users to provide additional information.
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Adaptation of Storytelling to Mobile Entertainment Service for Site-Specific Cultural and Historical |
HyunJeong Kim,John Schliesser |
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Abstract
This study emerged from the question of how mobile handsets can change the nature of cultural and historical tourism in ubiquitous city environments. The paper describes the development of a new and entertaining type of mobile tour guide system that positions the mobile handset as a key delivery system for site-specific cultural and historical information. The central objective of the project was to organize a cultural and historical walking tour around the mobile handset and its unique advantages (i.e. portability, multi-media capacity, access to wireless internet, and location-aware potential) and then integrate this tour with a historical story and role-playing game that would deepen the mobile user’s interest in the sites being visited, and enhance his or her overall experience of the area. After prototyping and user testing, new strategies for developing mobile ‘edutainment content’ to deliver cultural historical content of location were considered.
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Behavioural Impacts of Mobile Tour Guides |
Ronny Kramer,Marko Modsching,Klaus ten Hagen,Ulrike Gretzel |
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Abstract
Electronic tour guides have been developed to personalise guided tours. Also, in contrast to traditional tours, electronic tour guides allow their users to abandon or modify tours at any time. Research as to whether users take advantage of these added capabilities is currently not available. A field trial was conducted comparing the behaviour of tourists as they were using a Planner providing a personalized guided tour and an Explorer displaying the current location in a map and supplying information about sights on request. The results indicate that users differ significantly in the way and extent to which they take advantage of both mobile applications. It seems that the Planner satisfies the demand for guided tours additionally leaving much needed room for spontaneous deviations. Surprisingly, tour duration, walking distances and number of sights visited using these different mobile applications were similar to traditional guided tours.
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Mobile Positioning Data in Tourism Studies and Monitoring: Case Study in Tartu, Estonia |
Rein Ahas,Anto Aasa,Siiri Silm,Margus Tiru |
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Abstract
We introduce mobile positioning based data sources in tourism studies using the case study of tourism in Tartu, Estonia. Mobile positioning data is a promising source for tourism geography as it is one easiest and most cost effective sources for investigating the flows of tourists with relatively good spatial and temporal coverage. Mobile positioning data allows one to link the digital track of visitors with visited events and locations retrospectively. The data also has potential for the development of real-time monitoring tools for tourism planning and management, as it has been tested in Estonia with “Positium Tourism Barometer”. The biggest problem with positioning data is privacy and surveillance, and those issues needs to be addressed and discussed very carefully.
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CAIPS: A Context-Aware Information Push Service in Tourism |
Thomas Beer,Matthias Fuchs,Wolfram Höpken,Jörg Rasinger,Hannes Werthner |
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Abstract
A context-aware information push service provides the user with tailored information regarding her/his actual situation (the . is also referred as .). This paper motivates and discusses the development of a context-aware information push service. A survey is presented motivating the implementation of such a system. Further, key requirements are identified leading to a description of the system architecture, thereby giving insight into how the requirements are tackled. Finally, the rule language which is used to formally declare push processes and the inference engine translating such rules into concrete push messages is explained in detail. The push service presented in this paper is part of the overall .Planner system, a framework for mobile tourist guides (.).
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Exploring Tourist Satisfaction with Mobile Technology |
JungKook Lee,Juline E. Mills |
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Abstract
Wireless access with handled devices is a promising addition to the WWW and traditional electronic business. Handheld devices provide convenience, portable access, and large amounts of information to travelers. Many mobile commerce application models have been developed, however, limited research exists on mobile users’ perspectives with regard to satisfaction towards mobile technology. There is a need to develop an understanding of travelers’ satisfaction with mobile commerce in order to gain optimum competitive advantage. In this paper, we adapted and developed the American Customer Satisfaction Model (ACSM) to m-commerce in the tourism industry. The results of this study suggest that the degree of perception and perceived value are key factors affecting mobile travelers’ satisfaction with mobile experiences. Satisfaction, in turn, influences the extent of intention to continue to use mobile devices during travel.
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Combination of Information Sources in Travel Planning A Cross-national Study |
Ingvar Tjostheim,Iis P. Tussyadiah,Sigrid Oterholm Hoem |
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Abstract
This paper presents results from a study about the Internet as an information source for travel planning based on interviews with travelers in 13 countries in 2005. In 1997, a similar large scale survey was carried out in 15 European countries. The study shows a dramatic but well known change in information sources used by travelers since 1997. The Internet has become the most preferred information source by approximately 50% of the travelers. Travelers using the Internet as their primary source of information mostly combine it with other sources such as friends and relatives, brochures, guidebooks, and travel agents. A logistic regression analysis was performed in order to study the significance of demographics and countries on the preference of Internet as the first information source.
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Virtual Travel Communities: Self-Reported Experiences and Satisfaction |
Svetlana Stepchenkova,Juline E. Mills,Hua Jiang |
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Abstract
Virtual communities have revolutionized the way people interact and have important marketing implications as a viable business model, particularly in the tourism industry. Virtual travel communities (VTCs) in general provide service benefits sought by community members along with pleasurable VTC experiences. This is a challenging task, since multiple factors, social, psychological, and technology used, contribute to end users’ satisfaction with VTCs. This study examined experiences related by VTC members at different satisfaction levels in seven VTCs using CATPAC content analysis software. Implications for technology designers and virtual community managers are discussed.
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Virtual Tourism Content Network TANDEM - A Prototype for the Austrian Tourism Industry |
Roman Egger,Jakob Hörl,Brigitte Jellinek,Mario Jooss |
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Abstract
Tourism is considered to be a highly information-intensive business, and there can be no doubt that information and communications technologies (ICTs) have made an impressive contribution in recent years by influencing and forming the market in an innovative way at both the process and product levels. The use of the Internet, in particular, has made destinations and their service providers aware of numerous possibilities and chances to optimise their performance and competitiveness. Virtual networks can assist small structures in saving time and money and increasing flexibility and quality while boosting receptiveness to innovation. This paper pursues two basic objectives. First, it discusses the significance of participating in a Virtual Tourism Network System for Small and Medium Sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs). Second, it introduces a prototype designed for the Austrian tourism industry that is based on these assumptions.
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Assessing eBusiness Models of U.S. Destination Marketing Organizations |
Tanvi Kothari,Daniel R Fesenmaier |
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Abstract
Information technology has made it imperative for destination marketing organizations to adapt their traditional business models in order to keep pace with emerging advertising strategies, changes in the consumer market, and growing competition. This paper reports on a study of the eBusiness models used by 555 American convention and visitors’ bureaus. The results of the study indicate that despite the high rate of adoption of web marketing in the tourism industry most bureaus are still using the most basic business model for their bureaus web marketing strategies. The paper discusses the implications of these findings and offers ideas for future research.
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Architectural Scenarios Supporting e-Business Models for a DMS |
Claudio Petti,Gianluca Solazzo |
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Abstract
Following recent studies and analysis conducted about Business Models for DMSs, this paper aims at discussing the interrelationships between destinations’ configurations, business models, and architectural strategy for DMS platforms. In particular this work draws on recent attempts aimed at matching DMS business models design with specific characteristics of target destinations, to extend the same considerations towards the identification of the appropriate technological architectures and enabling software applications. In this aim a framework for selecting the appropriate DMS architecture is presented. The result of this analysis will thus lead to the identification of a set of technological architectures according to the different configurations that a destination might present.
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发表于 2025-3-21 17:22:49
