Smartphone-Mediated Tourist Experiences

Smartphone-Mediated Tourist Experiences PDF Author: Faiz Izwan Anuar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The synergy of smartphone, mobile applications (apps) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology has the potential to mediate tourism experiences to great extents. The advent of AR apps on smartphones provides a dynamic solution for tourists by helping convey destinations' meanings and creates positive experiences via interactive tourist information and services almost anywhere, anytime. As a result, tourists are increasingly using AR travel apps at destinations to create more memorable travel experiences. Despite vast literature on tourists' experiences, there is limited research focusing on understanding the use of smartphones and AR apps for tourism. A critical review of the literature indicates that there is a need to develop a richer theoretical framework that describes the use of smartphones and AR apps for travel. In addition, there is a need to understand tourists' experiences with smartphone-mediated technology. In particular, literature on understanding of the use of smartphones and apps for travel is largely established from a quantitative perspective, and it is argued that this perspective cannot provide an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms that affect the use of smartphones and travel apps, which in turn shapes the travel experience. The present qualitative study was designed to understand the current use and possible benefits of smartphone-mediated tourism experiences with AR apps. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of AR apps on tourists' experiences. The study sought to understand how tourists used AR apps, which specific interactions with the mobile devices were afforded, what emotions were evoked through interaction with the AR technology, and how the technology mediated tourist's experiences. Based on this notion, the study attempted to generate an inductive middle-range theory on smartphone-mediated tourism experiences using grounded theory method. An iPhone AR app was developed for the Texas A&M University campus to better understand how tourists used the AR app and how this use influenced their travel experiences. Forty-four participants inclusive of students, prospective students and visitors of Texas A&M University were recruited for the study. To aid theory building and enhance the solidity of the smartphone-mediated travel experience theory, the study included a control group, which involve individual, group and guided tours that only use a brochure/campus booklet or listen to a human tour guide. The AR app was tested on 10 individuals and 10 groups. For the control group, 6 individuals and 6 groups used brochure/campus booklet while touring the sites and 6 individuals and 6 groups listen to the tour-guide. This comparison provided detailed understanding of what happens in the absence of technology in travel experience, and a focus on apprehending what AR technology adds. Data were collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews with the participants and then transcribed and imported into ATLAS.TI 7.0 software for analysis. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data. The interview data were coded and presented in five major sections representing the research questions. The results of the study provided theoretical contributions in understanding the smartphone-mediated tourism experiences and offered practical implications for app design and interpretative services for tourist sites. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/149342

Smartphone-Mediated Tourist Experiences

Smartphone-Mediated Tourist Experiences PDF Author: Faiz Izwan Anuar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The synergy of smartphone, mobile applications (apps) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology has the potential to mediate tourism experiences to great extents. The advent of AR apps on smartphones provides a dynamic solution for tourists by helping convey destinations' meanings and creates positive experiences via interactive tourist information and services almost anywhere, anytime. As a result, tourists are increasingly using AR travel apps at destinations to create more memorable travel experiences. Despite vast literature on tourists' experiences, there is limited research focusing on understanding the use of smartphones and AR apps for tourism. A critical review of the literature indicates that there is a need to develop a richer theoretical framework that describes the use of smartphones and AR apps for travel. In addition, there is a need to understand tourists' experiences with smartphone-mediated technology. In particular, literature on understanding of the use of smartphones and apps for travel is largely established from a quantitative perspective, and it is argued that this perspective cannot provide an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms that affect the use of smartphones and travel apps, which in turn shapes the travel experience. The present qualitative study was designed to understand the current use and possible benefits of smartphone-mediated tourism experiences with AR apps. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of AR apps on tourists' experiences. The study sought to understand how tourists used AR apps, which specific interactions with the mobile devices were afforded, what emotions were evoked through interaction with the AR technology, and how the technology mediated tourist's experiences. Based on this notion, the study attempted to generate an inductive middle-range theory on smartphone-mediated tourism experiences using grounded theory method. An iPhone AR app was developed for the Texas A&M University campus to better understand how tourists used the AR app and how this use influenced their travel experiences. Forty-four participants inclusive of students, prospective students and visitors of Texas A&M University were recruited for the study. To aid theory building and enhance the solidity of the smartphone-mediated travel experience theory, the study included a control group, which involve individual, group and guided tours that only use a brochure/campus booklet or listen to a human tour guide. The AR app was tested on 10 individuals and 10 groups. For the control group, 6 individuals and 6 groups used brochure/campus booklet while touring the sites and 6 individuals and 6 groups listen to the tour-guide. This comparison provided detailed understanding of what happens in the absence of technology in travel experience, and a focus on apprehending what AR technology adds. Data were collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews with the participants and then transcribed and imported into ATLAS.TI 7.0 software for analysis. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data. The interview data were coded and presented in five major sections representing the research questions. The results of the study provided theoretical contributions in understanding the smartphone-mediated tourism experiences and offered practical implications for app design and interpretative services for tourist sites. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/149342

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013 PDF Author: Lorenzo Cantoni
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642363091
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
​The papers presented in this volume advance the state of the art in social media and Web 2.0, electronic tourism marketing, web site and search engine optimization, technology adoption and diffusion, online communities, tourism management and decision support, eLearning, mobile technologies and applications in tourism, recommender systems, e-intermediaries and networks in tourism, customer research in e-tourism and user generated content. The volume collects research papers of prominent scholars from around the world with a disciplinary background in the fields of social or computer sciences. The book covers the most significant topics within the study field of electronic tourism and addresses both, academics and practitioners interested in the latest advances in the electronic travel and tourism domain.

Mediating the Tourist Experience

Mediating the Tourist Experience PDF Author: Jo-Anne Lester
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317098498
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
Traditionally, tourism media has referred to the image of destinations constructed through media texts such as brochures and postcards, with increasing attention towards other mediascapes such as films and television. Yet, with prolific advancements in technologies of media communication, such traditional formats have experienced a shift in the productive and consumptive practices through which they come into being. The possibilities of production and subsequent consumption are unequivocally changing the ways in which tourists imagine, understand and engage with destinations. This book therefore explores the role of tourism media and mediating practices in the development of non-linear processes of communication and understanding as both producers and consumers come together to negotiate the tourist experience. In varying ways it examines the emergent relationships and connections between media practices and tourism practices, everyday experiences and encounters of place. Collectively, the authors in this book address a range of media and technologies from brochures, television, video and film to mediated virtual spaces, such as e-brochures, Internet cultures, social networks, and Google Earth. In doing so, the book highlights the continued significance of media in tourism contexts; recognising both traditional and newer technologies, and the non-linear, continuous cycle of mediated representations and experiences.

Quality Tourism Experiences

Quality Tourism Experiences PDF Author: Gayle Jennings
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0750678119
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The book draws together writers from different backgrounds and interdisciplinary interests and research methodologies, as a consequence, the book provides a model of the way researchers can work together to illuminate an area and to provide multiple representations and interpretations of that area. Moreover the book demonstrates interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and intradisciplinary approaches and collaborations. Kathleen Andereck, Ph. D., Arizona State University West Sue Beeton, Ph. D., La Trobe University Heather E. Bowen, Ph. D., George Mason University Kelly S.-

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012 PDF Author: Matthias Fuchs
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783709111413
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 530

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Book Description
The papers presented in this volume advance the state of the art in social media and Web 2.0, electronic tourism marketing, web site and search engine optimization, technology adoption and diffusion, online communities, tourism management and decision support, eLearning, mobile technologies and applications in tourism, recommender systems, e-intermediaries and networks in tourism, customer research in e-tourism and user generated content. The volume collects research papers of prominent scholars from around the world with a disciplinary background in the fields of social or computer sciences. The book covers among the most significant topics within the study field of electronic tourism and, likewise, addresses academics and practitioners interested in latest advancements in the electronic travel and tourism domain.

Positive Tourism

Positive Tourism PDF Author: Sebastian Filep
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317478908
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Tourism affects millions of individuals, numerous societies and environments in multiple, nuanced and overlapping ways. While it can be viewed as a frivolous leisure pursuit or simply a large industry, with potentially destructive impacts, it might also be understood in terms of its effects on human fulfilment, the good life and greater well-being. This book calls for positive tourism, principally grounded in theories from positive psychology (the study of what makes life worth living), and the development of a body of knowledge that explains what characterises optimal tourist experiences, what enables host communities to flourish and what encourages workers in tourism to thrive. Through original research studies reported in this international volume we aim to further develop this knowledge. The intersections between ongoing and traditionally inspired applications of psychology in tourism and this new thrust in psychological inquiry promise to refresh and challenge tourism research. This book will appeal to researchers and academics in tourism, leisure, positive psychology, management and related fields as well as graduate students, professionals and policy makers.

Travel Connections

Travel Connections PDF Author: Jennie Germann Molz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136337032
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Living in a world that is increasingly ‘on the move’ means that many of us now rely on mobile devices, social media, and networking technologies to coordinate togetherness with our social networks even when we are apart. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in the emerging practices of ‘interactive travel’. Today’s travellers are more likely than ever to pack a laptop or a mobile phone and to use these devices to stay in touch with friends and family members – as well as to connect with strangers and other travellers – while they are on the road. New practices such as location-aware navigating, travel blogging, flashpacking and Couchsurfing now shape the way travellers engage with each other, with their social networks, and with the world around them. Travel Connections prompts a rethinking of the key paradigms in tourism studies in the digital age. Interactive travel calls into question longstanding tourism concepts such as landscape, the tourist gaze, hospitality, authenticity and escape. The book proposes a range of new concepts to describe the way tourists inhabit the world and engage with their social networks in the twenty-first century: smart tourism, the mediated gaze, mobile conviviality, re-enchantment and embrace. Based on intensive fieldwork with interactive travellers, Travel Connections offers a detailed account of this emerging phenomenon and uncovers the new forms of mediated and face-to-face togetherness that become possible in a mobile world. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, tourism and hospitality, new media, cosmopolitanism studies, mobility studies and cultural studies.

Gen Y

Gen Y PDF Author: Alba-María Martínez-Sala
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Smartphones have revolutionized the tourism industry due to their ability to create and improve the tourist experience, mostly among young users, especially those belonging to the Generation Y (Gen Y). Millennials, as the Generation Y is often referred to, stand out for their ability to travel more frequently and for longer periods, as well as for their often-addictive use of smartphones. Despite nomophobia is not a recent phenomenon, there are few research works on information and communication technologies and tourism that address the effects of smartphone use on the tourist experience. The objective of this exploratory study is to describe the feelings Gen Y experiences as a result of use smartphones during their travels, their tourism functionality, and the relationship between the two. The study is based on the application of an online survey to a representative sample. The results confirm the problems associated with smartphone use, especially among young people (16,Äì19) and the existence of a correlation between smartphone use for tourist purposes and a positive travel experience. It has confirmed that they experience negative feelings and emotions. The study presents crucial information that destination marketing organizations can use to successfully integrate smartphones into their digital marketing and communication strategies.

New Technology and Mediated Chinese Tourists

New Technology and Mediated Chinese Tourists PDF Author: Han Shen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000885976
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
This book aims to curate a collection of articles to showcase the latest work and biggest trends shaping the global tourism industry in the past two decades - new technology and the Chinese tourists. While the emergence of new technology continues to propel the evolution of the tourism industry, Chinese tourists as a dominating market have won increasing attention across worldwide destinations. On one hand, the vast advancement of technology has fundamentally shifted the way Chinese tourists travel. On the other hand, the arrival of technologically savvy Chinese tourists has provoked tourism providers and destinations to adopt innovative technology (e.g., mobile payment). Standing on the edge of the third decade of the twenty-first century, the tourism industry and scholarly community are facing unprecedented challenges amidst exciting opportunities. Particularly, this line of research is perhaps timelier than ever, with the pandemic physically distancing people whilst augmenting technology's function in mediating social interactions and connecting lives beyond geographic boundaries. New Technology and Mediated Chinese Tourists will be a great resource for researchers and students of Tourism and Hospitality including those interested to understand how innovation and technology is embedded in the tourism industry. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of China Tourism Research.

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014 PDF Author: Zheng Xiang
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3319039733
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 874

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Book Description
The papers presented in this volume advance the state-of-the-art research on social media and Web 2.0, electronic tourism marketing, website development and evaluation, search engine marketing and optimization, IT adoption and diffusion, virtual travel communities, mobile technologies, management information systems in tourism, eLearning, recommender systems for tourism businesses and destinations and electronic distribution for hospitality and travel products. This book covers the most significant topics contributed by prominent scholars from around the world and is suitable for both academics and practitioners who are interested in the latest developments in e-Tourism.