buhalis tourism

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, technology in tourism-from information communication technologies to etourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: a perspective article.

Tourism Review

ISSN : 1660-5373

Article publication date: 20 September 2019

Issue publication date: 20 February 2020

Technology revolutionises the tourism industry and determines the strategy and competitiveness of tourism organisations and destinations. This paper aims to explore the transformational and disruptive nature of technology for tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on systematic research.

Technology innovations bring the entire range of stakeholders together in tourism service ecosystems. Technology-empowered tourism experiences increasingly support travellers to co-create value throughout all stages of travel. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) Tourism (2020-future) is driven by a range of disruptive technologies. Inevitably smart environments transform industry structures, processes and practices, having disruptive impacts for service innovation, strategy, management, marketing and competitiveness of everybody involved.

Originality/value

The paper synthesises developments in technology for tourism and proposes a future perspective.

• Information communication technologies
• Smart tourism
• Ambient intelligence tourism

Acknowledgements

The anonymous refereeing process for this paper was handled by Associate Editor Professor Cihan Cobanoglu.

Buhalis, D. (2020), "Technology in tourism-from information communication technologies to eTourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: a perspective article", Tourism Review , Vol. 75 No. 1, pp. 267-272. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-06-2019-0258

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles

All feedback is valuable.

Please share your general feedback

Report an issue or find answers to frequently asked questions

Contact Customer Support

Staff Profile Pages

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis

• 01202 961517
• dbuhalis at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
• http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9148-6090
• Professor in Marketing, Strategy and Innovation
• Dorset House D202, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitriosbuhalis/
• http://bournemouth.academia.edu/DimitriosBuhalis
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitriosbuhalis
• Business and management
• Computer science and informatics
• Hospitality
• Leisure management and marketing
• Strategic Management
• Tourism marketing
• Virtual Reality
• Link to this page
• Scan contact details

Copy and share the URL for this profile:

Use a QR Code reader on a mobile device to add this person as a contact:

Download contact details as VCard

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. He is Director of the eTourism Lab and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, at Bournemouth University Business School in England. He was recently Visiting Professor at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University SAR, China. He is the Editor in Chief of the most established Journal in Tourism: Tourism Review, and the Editor in Chief of the Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing. His research pioneers smart and ambient intelligence tourism with a particular focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and destination ecosystems management. Professor Buhalis has written and co-edited more than 25 books and 300 scientific articles. For more information, books, articles and presentations see www.buhalis.com. ..

He is a world expert in Strategy, Marketing, Technology, Tourism and Hospitality. His research is referenced widely, and Professor Dimitrios Buhalis was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher 2020, 2021 and 2022 by Clarivate™. The Highly Cited Researchers list identifies researchers who produced multiple papers ranking in the top 1% by citations for their chosen field or fields and year of publication, demonstrating significant influence among their peers. He is the 3rd most cited for tourism, 2nd most cited for hospitality, 10th on strategy, and 29th in Marketing on Google Scholar with more than 56500 citations and h-index 102. Professor Buhalis features in the Stanford University’s database of the world’s top 2% of scientists and was ranked #1088 (for 2021) and #8444 (throughout his career) in the world, out of around 200,000 researchers in all disciplines. He was also ranked #4 (for 2021) #7 (throughout his career) out of 140 researchers with Sport, Leisure & Tourism as their first discipline. The AD Scientific Index 2023 ranked Professor Buhalis on the top 0.3% for the last five years citations and the 0.5% of all citations as well as #5 in the world for strategic management. He was also included in the Top 30 Business and Management Scientists in the world by Research.com.

Dimitrios' current research focus includes: Real-Time and Nowness, Smart Tourism and Smart Hospitality, Social Media Context and Mobile Marketing (SoCoMo), Augmented Reality, Technology-enhanced Experience Management and Personalisation, Reputation and Social Media Strategies, Accessibility and Special Diet (Allergens) Tourism. Professor Buhalis is a well-known international speaker on trends, technology, marketing, tourism and Hospitality and works closely with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Professor Buhalis is an inspirational forward thinker that undertakes cutting-edge research, develops innovations and makes a major impact on global society. He works closely with the international tourism industry and is supporting tourism and hospitality organisations around the world with strategic marketing innovations using cutting-edge technologies.

Dimitrios is a Founding Member and past President (2010-2014) of the International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism (IFITT). He served as the First Vice President of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism (2017-2019). He also served as Vice President and Executive Board Member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Affiliate Members for the periods 2013-2015 and 2017-2019.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. Dimitrios is researching, lecturing, advising and facilitating progress in organisations globally, whilst his books and publications are studied widely by both students and professionals around the world. Dimitrios current research focus includes: Real-Time and Nowness, Smart Tourism and Smart Hospitality, Social Media Context and Mobile Marketing (SoCoMo), Augmented Reality, Technology-enhanced Experience Management and Personalisation, Reputation and Social Media Strategies, Accessibility and Special Diet (Allergens) Tourism.

Professor Buhalis has written and co-edited more than 20 books and 250 scientific articles. He has written or co-edited a total of about 20 books, including Tourism Business Frontiers and Tourism Management Dynamics published by Elsevier, eTourism: Strategic Information Technology for Tourism published by Pearson (Prentice Hall/Financial Times) and Tourism Distribution Channels (Thomson), Managing alliances in the global hospitality and tourism industry, Accessible Tourism, European Tourism Planning as well as a series of three books on IT and Tourism. He is currently working on four new books. He is the Editor in Chief of Tourism Review https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/tr the most established Journal in Tourism: Tourism Review, now and SSCI Journal in its 75th volume. .. He is also the Editor in Chief of the Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing https://eep.manuscriptmanager.net/.

His research is referenced widely, being the 2nd most cited for tourism and 1st most cited for hospitality 18th on strategy and 30th in Marketing on Google Scholar with more than 46500 citations and h-index 91.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher 2020 by Clarivate™. Dimitrios was also ranked #1976 (for 2019) [Table 7] and #14403 (through his career) [Table 6] in the world, out of 161442 researchers in all disciplines; and #5 (for 2019) #8 (through his career) out of 132 amongst researchers with Sport, Leisure & Tourism as their first discipline in the Baas, et al (2020) http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.2

Professor Buhalis is an inspirational forward thinker that undertakes cutting edge research, develops innovations and makes a major impact on global society. He works closely with the international tourism industry and is supporting tourism and hospitality organisations around the world with strategic marketing innovations using cutting edge technologies. His close collaborations with industry, governments and international organisations ensure that his conclusions have the utmost relevance and impact on the real world whilst constantly pushing the boundaries of knowledge and academic excellence. Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is a renown international speaker and conference facilitator. He frequently delivers keynote presentations, speeches, seminars and workshops in both academic and professional conferences globally.

Dimitrios' current research focus includes: Real-Time and Nowness, Smart Tourism and Smart Hospitality, Social Media Context and Mobile Marketing (SoCoMo), Augmented Reality, Technology-enhanced Experience Management and Personalisation, Reputation and Social Media Strategies, Accessibility and Special Diet (Allergens) Tourism.

• more information
• view in BU repository

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDGs:

"End poverty in all its forms everywhere"

Decent work and economic growth

"Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all"

Industry, innovation and infrastructure

"Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation"

Partnership for the Goals

"Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development"

Journal Articles

Conferences, internet publications, scholarly editions, phd students, profile of teaching pg, profile of teaching ug.

• Arkadiusz Tomczyk, 2023. Personalisation through co-creation: Pricing strategy and willingness to pay , (In progress)
• Mattia Rainoldi, 2023. MANAGING WORK AND LEISURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A PRACTICE EXPLORATION OF DIGITAL WORK , (In progress)
• Elecia Bethune, 2024. Tourism Resilience , (In progress)
• Kaiti Shang, 2024. The Influence of Live Streaming on Live Streamers’ Travel Behaviour , (In progress)
• Kamonpa Wangkuanklang, 2025. Developing Smart Agritourism Ecosystems: towards improving local communities’ quality of life from the perspective of agritourism stakeholders , (In progress)
• Andrew Spencer, 2014. The determinants of firm technology adoption: strategic management implications for travel industry retailers , (Completed)
• Ivana Rihova, 2014. Consumers as producers: customer-to-customer co-creation in the context of festival experiences , (Completed)
• Barbara Neuhofer, 2015. An Exploration of the Technology Enhanced Tourist Experience , (Completed)
• John Fotis, 2015. The use of social media and its impacts on consumer behaviour: The context of holiday travel , (Completed)
• Zornitza Yovcheva, 2015. User-Centred Design of Smartphone Augmented Reality in Urban Tourism Context , (Completed)
• Ivana Rihova . Consumers as producers: the dimensions of consumer-to-consumer co-creation in the event experience
• John Fotis . The impact of social media in consumer behaviour: Focus on leisure travel
• Jessika Weber . Augmented Reality Gaming: A New Paradigm for Tourist Experience?
• Nicolas Gregori . The Service of Now: Innovative service marketing delivery using social media networking: Learning from review websites in the tourism/hospitality industry
• Zornitza Yovcheva . User-Centred Design for Smartphone Context-Aware Augmented Reality Applications in Tourism
• Barbara Neuhofer. Technology Enhanced Tourist Experiences: a holistic exploration of how technology can enhance tourist experiences
• Elecia Bethune. Real Time Response and Resilience and Technology
• Kaiti Shang. Streaming in Tourism
• Kamonpa Wangkuanklang,. Smart Tourism and Rural Development
• Katerina Volchek. Big Data and Personalisation
• Mark Ashton. Robotics and Automation: impacts on Hospitality service delivery
• Mattia Rainoldi. work and leisure in the digital age: A practice exploration of digital work
• Tomasz Tomczyk. Personalisation and Revenue Management
• Vicky Loi. The influence of e-WOM on travel decisions: the use of mobile devices at destination
• Tourism Industry
• MSc Dissertation
• Digital Destinations & Social Media: ‘Make or Break’ (ESRC, 08 Nov 2013). Awarded
• ESRC Digital Destinations: Exchanging Digital Technology Knowledge in Local Tourism Economies (ESRC, 21 Aug 2012). Awarded
• Australian Tourism Digital Workshop (Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW), 12 Jul 2012). Awarded
• Advanced Training for Hotel Group Management Training program (PESTANA, 20 Feb 2011). Awarded
• Research for the Benefit of SMEs" : Identifier: FP7-SME-2011-BSG. Research for the Benefit of SME Associations" (FP7-SME, 01 Jan 2011). Awarded
• John Kent Institute for Tourism (John Kent, 01 Oct 2009). Awarded
• Determinants for Complaints on e-Channels by Hotel Customers (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 01 Sep 2009). Awarded
• eAccess+the eAccessibility Network of Excellence (FP7, PSP-ICT, 01 Jan 2009). Awarded
• A Retrospective Analysis of eTourism Research (Hong Komg University, 07 Nov 2007). Awarded
• iSeT: intergrated Suite for e-Tourism (European Commission, 01 Oct 2007). Awarded
• Usability of DMO Websites in Mainland China (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 07 Apr 2006). Awarded

External Responsibilities

• United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Vice President Affiliate Members (2012-), http://www.unwto.org/

Qualifications

Memberships.

• PhD in PhD (University of Surrey, 1996)
• MSc in Tourism Management (University of Surrey, 1991)
• BSc (Hons) in Business Administration (University of the Aegean, 1989)
• Journal Paper of the Year Award Second Place for "Community Crosstalk: An Exploratory Analysis of Destination and Festival EWOM (International Federation for IT and Travel Tourism, 2016)
• AM2014 Events & Experiential Marketing Best Paper in Track Prize with co-authors Dr Nigel Williams, Dr Alessandro Inversini and Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis for Social Media and Festivals as Destination Marketing Tool: A study on Twitter Conversations sponsored by Wiley (Academy of Marketing, 2014)
• President of IFITT (IFITT, 2010)
• International Academy for the Study of Tourism, Fellow (2010-), http://www.tourismscholars.org/
• International Federation of Information Technology for Travel and Tourism - IFITT (President), Fellow,

Social Media Links

Website links.

• External Media & Press
• Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ProfessorDimitriosBuhalis
• LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitriosbuhalis/
• Twitter, @buhalis
• Academia.edu, http://bournemouth.academia.edu/DimitriosBuhalis
• LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitriosbuhalis
• Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/ProfessorDimitriosBuhalis
• http://buhalis.blogspot.com/
• http://www.buhalis.com/

External Media and Press

• Falling pound boost UK appeal to international tourists, China Daily, 25 Nov 2022. https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202210/25/WS63573b0ca310fd2b29e7e592.html
• Publications
• Outreach & Engagement
• Affiliations & Background
• Media, Social Media & Networking

Citations per year

Duplicate citations, merged citations, add co-authors co-authors, cited by view all, co-authors view all.

The "Good Tourism" Blog

For diverse perspectives on sustainable tourism & responsible travel ... because travel & tourism is everyone's business., prof dimitrios buhalis on ‘overtourism’ and the ‘democratisation of tourism’.

There’s always a ten­sion between rights and respons­ib­il­it­ies; the prom­ise of free­dom for one­self and the poten­tial to infringe upon others. 

This is play­ing out in debates about travel & tour­ism, and about what ‘pro­gress’ looks like. 

For Dimitri­os Buhal­is, prag­mat­ic prob­lem-solv­ing is key to achiev­ing win-win out­comes … for the bil­lions who won’t be denied their dreams.

Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci inter­viewed Prof Buhal­is for a  Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view . For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Jim Butcher reflects. [ The full tran­script is on Substack .]

Who is Professor Dimitrios Buhalis?

Pro­fess­or Dimitri­os Buhal­is is one of the best known and respec­ted experts on glob­al tour­ism. A long stand­ing pro­fess­or at Bournemouth Uni­ver­sity in the UK, he is a stra­tegic man­age­ment and mar­ket­ing expert spe­cial­ising in inform­a­tion and com­mu­nic­a­tion tech­no­logy applic­a­tions in the tour­ism, travel, hos­pit­al­ity, and leis­ure indus­tries. He has writ­ten and co-edited more than 25 books and 300 sci­entif­ic articles. 

The ‘democratisation of tourism’

Dimitri­os Buhal­is is a fan of the demo­crat­isa­tion of tour­ism . This is a term that seems to have become less pop­u­lar today com­pared to a few dec­ades ago, when it was gen­er­ally taken as mean­ing the pro­gress involved in more people being able to travel for leisure. 

The pro­gress nar­rat­ive seems to have been some­what over­taken by a sense that tour­ism, and soci­ety in gen­er­al, is push­ing against, or has sur­passed, nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al limits.

That lat­ter view is reflec­ted in the ubi­quity of ‘over­tour­ism’. Since the inven­tion of the word – set out in Prof Buhalis’s inter­view – numer­ous books, papers, con­fer­ences, NGOs, and glob­al bod­ies have adop­ted it as good coin.

‘There’s no such thing as overtourism!’

But Dimitri­os Buhal­is is unequivocal: 

“[T]here is no such thing as overtourism!” 

… or at least as it’s often dis­cussed. To be pre­cise, over­tour­ism is less of “an incon­test­able truth” and more a label applied to many dif­fer­ent capa­city-related issues that attend the demo­crat­isa­tion of tourism. 

Prof Buhal­is is clear that these issues can be pretty severe and import­ant for the com­munit­ies host­ing tour­ism. But he makes two fur­ther points, equally important:

First, the emphas­is on those who lose out from ‘over­tour­ism’ neg­lects the fact that there are win­ners too with­in loc­al com­munit­ies. Gentri­fic­a­tion in itself may cre­ate prob­lems to be addressed, but it can be accom­pan­ied by improve­ments that bene­fit com­munit­ies as a whole. 

Second, there are pro­spect­ive solu­tions to prob­lems in the realm of policy and plan­ning. Buhal­is believes in “the import­ance of com­pre­hens­ive plan­ning, sus­tain­able man­age­ment prac­tices, and innov­at­ive mar­ket­ing ini­ti­at­ives to ensure a more har­mo­ni­ous and enjoy­able exper­i­ence for all involved parties”. 

There are, pro­spect­ively, ‘win-win’ scenarios.

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” posts tagged ‘ Car­ry­ing capa­city, mass tour­ism, and over­tour­ism ’

Win-win for the billions

So, unlike some of his peers, Dimitri­os Buhal­is is not pre­pared to throw the baby out with the bathwa­ter. Prob­lems exist, and we should try to address them ration­ally. But the demo­crat­isa­tion of tour­ism still stands as pro­gress for the increas­ing num­bers able to bene­fit from it.

It’s a really import­ant com­mon-sense point to con­sider. Only a frac­tion of the world’s pop­u­la­tion are inter­na­tion­al tour­ists. The major­ity dream of travel, in the way that many cit­izens of rich­er coun­tries did even a few gen­er­a­tions ago. Poorer soci­et­ies are grow­ing eco­nom­ic­ally. Demo­crat­isa­tion continues. 

Real­ists like Prof Buhal­is ori­ent them­selves to the solv­ing of prac­tic­al prob­lems. More power to him. It’s import­ant to solve them, too, because tour­ism is no longer a lux­ury for the few, but a staple of the lives of many. 

What we con­sider a lux­ury and what we think of as a neces­sity is his­tor­ic­ally con­tin­gent. Innov­a­tions such as low-cost car­ri­ers and AirB­nB have increased pos­sib­il­it­ies and raised the expect­a­tions of many.

And travel is part of the social fab­ric now. In a telling pas­sage Buhal­is states:

“It is really very import­ant to under­stand how crit­ic­al it is for indi­vidu­als to travel and to engage with oth­er soci­et­ies. It facil­it­ates import­ant aspects of social life for indi­vidu­als, friends and fam­il­ies […] I feel we’ve taken travel for gran­ted and become rather blasé about the bene­fits of leis­ure travel.”

Again, an import­ant point in my view. 

A labour of love

On our blog Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions we’ve fea­tured heart­felt art­icles show­ing how the clos­ure of travel dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic dimin­ished fam­ily bonds , soci­ab­il­ity and con­vi­vi­al­ity; a life lived to the full. 

That ‘hol­i­days make memor­ies’ is a cliche, but true non­ethe­less. Bonds are formed across the gen­er­a­tions when we travel togeth­er to see rel­at­ives; and across space when we make new acquaint­ances in dis­tant places. 

Dimitri­os Buhal­is is a prag­mat­ist and an optim­ist. He’s across the big issues too. 

On the ques­tion of research, he says it “should lead to address­ing major soci­et­al chal­lenges, and tour­ism can be a key instrument”. 

You get the impres­sion that for him, doing so is a labour of love.

Don’t miss all the oth­er great  “Good Tour­ism” Insight Interviews

Con­tents ^

What do you think? 

Share your own thoughts   in a com­ment below. ( SIGN IN  or  REGISTER  first. After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.)

Or  write a  “GT” Insight  or  “GT” Insight Bite  of your own.  The “Good Tour­ism” Blog  wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes.   “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please …

About the author

Jim Butcher   is a lec­turer and writer who has writ­ten a num­ber of  books  on the soci­ology and polit­ics of tour­ism. Dr Butcher blogs at  Polit­ics of Tour­ism , tweets at  @jimbutcher2 , and is the founder of  Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions .

About the Tourism’s Horizon Interviews

“Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner  Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions , in col­lab­or­a­tion with “GT”, has sought the can­did views of well-known and respec­ted experts on tourism’s past, present, and future. 

The Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­views involves  Jim Butcher ,  Vil­helmi­ina Vain­ikka ,  Peter Smith ,  Saverio Francesco   Ber­to­lu­cci ,  Dav­id Jar­ratt , and  Sudip­ta Sarkar  as  inter­view­ers .  The “Good Tour­ism” Blog  will pub­lish their high­lights and com­ment­ary as “GT” Insights. 

Read the full tran­scripts of each inter­view on  Tourism’s Horizon’s substack .

Featured image (top of post)

Pro­fess­or Dimitri­os Buhal­is. Image source .

‘Dimitri­os Buhal­is is unequi­voc­al: “[T]here is no such thing as over­tour­ism!” … or at least as it’s often discussed.’ 

Related posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Privacy Overview

• Architecture and Design
• Asian and Pacific Studies
• Business and Economics
• Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Computer Sciences
• Cultural Studies
• Engineering
• General Interest
• Geosciences
• Industrial Chemistry
• Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Library and Information Science, Book Studies
• Life Sciences
• Linguistics and Semiotics
• Literary Studies
• Materials Sciences
• Mathematics
• Social Sciences
• Sports and Recreation
• Theology and Religion
• Publish your article
• The role of authors
• Promoting your article
• Abstracting & indexing
• Publishing Ethics
• Why publish with De Gruyter
• How to publish with De Gruyter
• Our book series
• Our subject areas
• Your digital product at De Gruyter
• Contribute to our reference works
• Product information
• Tools & resources
• Product Information
• Promotional Materials
• Orders and Inquiries
• FAQ for Library Suppliers and Book Sellers
• Repository Policy
• Free access policy
• Open Access agreements
• Database portals
• For Authors
• Customer service
• People + Culture
• Journal Management
• How to join us
• Working at De Gruyter
• Mission & Vision
• De Gruyter Foundation
• De Gruyter Ebound
• Our Responsibility
• Partner publishers

Your purchase has been completed. Your documents are now available to view.

Related Papers

e-Review of Tourism Research

María García-Hernández , SOFIA MENDOZA DE MIGUEL

This research note explores how cities that develop a smart city and/or smart destination strategy approach the management of overtourism. A group of cities with uneven tourism pressure in Spain and Portugal have been expressly selected. Using a qualitative methodology, the findings show that overtourism is a complex phenomenon comprising highly diverse processes and constitutes a localised problem in specific areas of each city. The measures for addressing overtourism include regulatory measures and the occasional use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). There is a need for an increasing use of technology that could have a wider scope if the smart city/destination strategy were more consolidated from a holistic point of view. and [email protected] Josep A. Ivars-Baidal is an Associate Professor at the University of Alicante. His research focuses on tourism policy, innovation and management and planning of tourism destinations. María García Hernández is an Associate Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid. Her research works focuses on urban tourism, cultural tourism and management and planning of tourism destinations.

Journal of Yasuda Women's University

Assuming a central role within contemporary creative economies, tourism activities registered a significant growth over the last decades, despite the concerns often raised regarding environmental impacts and sustainability, in particular when observing problems of "overtourism". This growth implied the emergence of new and highly qualified jobs in the tourism sector, regarding the design and management of services and facilities, business and territorial planning, advanced marketing and communication techniques or the integration of digital technologies into different aspects of tourism activities, in particular those related to cultural heritage and creativity. However, problems and concerns with global impact, like those related to climate change or the recent covid-19 pandemics, clearly question this process of continuous growth. This work frames these new problems within the evolution of tourism activities, education and research in the last decades, suggesting that tourism will keep a significant socioeconomic importance, even if there is a shift from international to domestic travels. A more clear focus on high value added rather than on mass demand and the importance of creativity, health and safety in tourism provision imply the development and training of high-skilled labor for different tasks in the tourism sector, both at the private and public levels.

University of Bergamo

Federica Burini

This collection of papers has been written by the international team of scholars teaching at the Master Course in Planning and Management of Tourism Systems of the University of Bergamo, while the Covid-19 emergency was spreading in all parts of the World and especially in the territory of Bergamo. The main aim of the work is to face the topic of Tourism in the case of exogenous shocks, like the Covid-19 pandemic, reflecting on their impacts on territories, communities and heritage both during and after the crisis. The papers adopt different disciplinary approaches and methods, trying to give a multi-focused gaze to the complexity of a global phenomenon and to possible forms of recovery. This collection is addressed to students and researchers studying in the tourism sector, who are in search of answers in this time of change and crisis. We believe that after reading this volume they won't have all the answers to their dilemmas, but they will reflect about them, they will receive proposals for specific approaches, methodologies, sources, references, examples, useful for the future of their own research.

Tourism Facing a Pandemic: From Crisis to Recovery

raffaella pulejo , Patrizia Anesa

This collection of papers has been written by the international team of scholars teaching at the Master Course in Planning and Management of Tourism Systems of the University of Bergamo, while the Covid-19 emergency was spreading in all parts of the World and especially in the territory of Bergamo. The main aim of the work is to face the topic of Tourism in the case of exogenous shocks, like the Covid-19 pandemic, reflecting on their impacts on territories, communities and heritage both during and after the crisis. The papers adopt different disciplinary approaches and methods, trying to give a multi-focused gaze to the complexity of a global phenomenon and to possible forms of recovery. Raffaella Pulejo's papers (pp.243-250), focuses on some contemporary art practices which are based on local ground and reshape the notion of space, time and social interaction. Against the background of big international events, typical in the contemporary art system and now forbidden, artists' works might suggest new paths in the tourism domain.

Shohel Md. Nafi

The aim of the study was to examine the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism. Qualitative analysis was adopted, whereas data were collected from secondary sources like journals, newspapers, statistical data obtained from international to urism organizations, and websites on COVID-19 incidences in tourism. Due to the outbreak, it had a severe adverse impact on tourism and employment. Airlines have canceled flights, and hotels are almost vacant; thus, supporting tourism agencies face substantial economic losses and employ ment cuts. This study develops a framework with a recovery plan for future tourism across a slogan: putting people first and travel tomorrow.

Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing

Mark Camilleri , Professor Dimitrios Buhalis

Distribution is the most critical marketing function for tourism as it determines competitiveness and profitability (Buhalis & Laws, 2001). This term is defined as the mechanism that optimises the physical transportation of commodities and brings supply to demand. It effectively determines the visibility and accessibility of products and services to the marketplace. Effective channel management investigates consumer requirements, establishes supply chains and facilitates access to products and services. In tourism, logistics are reversed as consumers go to destinations to consumer products and experiences. Communication and distribution channels need to be established between potential tourists and principals, in order for a trip to be realised. Tourism distribution channels determine the visibility of tourism organisations and whether they are included in the customer's decision set. Tourism principals, including transportation and accommodation service providers, can either distribute their products directly to consumers or may rely on different intermediaries, including online and offline tour operators and/or travel agents, to reach consumers. Tour operators and travel agents support travel, hospitality and tourism businesses in their marketing and promotions, as they enable them to reach more customers in different markets (Camilleri, 2018). Figure 1 illustrates how travel distribution’s value chain has evolved to become more flexible, dynamic, and customer centric as well as to progress direct distribution.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis

Annual Review of Territorial Governance in the Western Balkans

Rudina Toto , Marjan Nikolov , Merita Toska (Boka) , Besmira Dyca , Milan Husar

During the last few decades, extreme weather events and global and regional economic crises have been forcing us to rethink the way that governments approach territorial development. The inherent links between social, economic, and ecological systems are proving to be increasingly signicant, and exist only in a complex whole characterised by multiple feedbacks (Berkes et al. 2002). In this light, managing the relationship between the social, economic, and ecological aspects of development is of paramount importance for those interested in establishing sustainable development trajectories in the long-run. This is particularly true since the COVID-19 pandemic has added further entropy to the picture of socio-ecological interactions. During the early stages of the pandemic, decision making, regulations, and communication had converged at the national level. However, throughout the course of the pandemic, there has been growing room for improvement in policy-making. As such, there is a need to rethink development objectives and their governance according to a new long-term perspective – one that takes better account of dierent issues and needs. Key concepts such as multi-level governance, place-based development, circular economy, and the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals can all help Western Balkan countries to achieve a better quality of life while preserving productivity, social inclusion, and the environment (Cotella and Vitale Brovarone, 2020).

Handbook of e-Tourism

Juho Pesonen

Information and communication technologies are major drivers of change. Also in tourism, businesses and entire destinations have to find new business models to stay competitive and relevant. Utilizing the possibilities of digital technologies in developing new business models is called digital transformation. This chapter examines what digital transformation in tourism is and how technology affects leadership and management in tourism organizations. Digital transformation is conceptualized as a creative process activated by knowledge management and knowledge transfer which, in turn, aims at creating new business possibilities and models, respectively. By drawing on extensive literature on topics connected to digital transformation, such as tourism management, leadership, knowledge and change management, as well as creativity, the chapter at hand discusses the current state of digital transformation management in tourism. A research outlook for the future of digital transformation management in tourism is finally proposed.

Marcin Kalinowski , Marek Dylewski

From an economic viewpoint, tourism is heralded as bringing income to local communities. From an ecological standpoint, tourism poses a threat to environments. Sustainable tourism should leave a minimum negative impact on the places visited and preferably have rather positive impact on society. The digitization of the tourism economy is conducive to increasing the efciency of enterprises operations, but also have positive impact on consumers. The objectives of the study are: to seek an answer to the question whether there is a relationship between the development of the tourism industry and GDP growth. Based on it there are two specifc questions: What is a relationship between the level of development of digitization (e-commerce) and the development of the tourism industry and what is a relationship between the development of the tourism industry and sustainability factors? The originality of our research results among others results from three groups of variables use in the analysis (ICT group, SDG group and E&T group). Our research explores the factors afecting the tourism industry and relations of the digitization of tourism economy, sustainability and economy growth.

RELATED PAPERS

Transforming Tourism: Regional Perspectives on a Global Phenomenon

Dr Igor Calzada, MBA, FeRSA

Boletín de la Asociación de Geógrafos Españoles

Sustainability

María García-Hernández , MANUEL DE LA CALLE VAQUERO , SOFIA MENDOZA DE MIGUEL

MDPI Publisher

Aan Jaelani (SCOPUS ID: 57195963463)

business ethics and leadership

Mary Constantoglou

Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies

Dr. Burhanettin Zengin

European Union (TRAN committee)

David Jarratt , Richard Weston , Natàlia Ferrer-Roca

TQM Journal

Fabio Cassia

Sónia Moreira Cabeça

Angeliki Mitropoulou

SeyedehOMsalameh Pourhashemi

Mateusz Naramski

Dr Prabhakar Singh bhadouria

Goodfellow Publishers

Mark Camilleri

A Research Agenda for Creative Tourism

greg richards , Nancy Duxbury

Conference on Managing Tourism Across Continents

Filiz GÜMÜŞ DÖNMEZ

ICT in Education

Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Sudies

Alexander Trupp

Contrast Reports Serie, 9

Jordi Gascón

CEFAGE-UE Working Paper

Cecilia Pasquinelli

Rebuilding Tourism and Hospitality Sectors COVID-19 Crisis, Policy Solutions and the Way Forward

R.S.S.W Arachchi , Athula Gnanapala

Athula Gnanapala , R.S.S.W Arachchi

Conférence AFMAT 2019

David Perrain

AITM SCHOOL OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT , NEPAL

Ramesh Kunwar

Informes en contraste, 9

Sri Lanka Economic Research Conference 2020, Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, Badulla, Sri Lanka,

WHMS Samarathunga

Economics of Agriculture, Year 66, No. 3, 2019

Estela Núñez-Barriopedro , Pedro Cuesta-Valiño

Polish Journal of Management Studies

Aleksandr Gusakov , Adnan ul Haque

Informes en contrast, 9

Alessandro Inversini

Antonio Paolo Russo , Giacomo-Maria Salerno

Luiz Mendes Filho

James Kennell , Nicola MacLeod

Journal of Ekonomi

Fatih Günay , Engin Bayraktaroğlu

Studia Periegetica

Zygmunt Kruczek , Zygmunt KRUCZEK

Francesc González Reverté

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Connections Between a Tourist Destination, the Digital Ecosystem, and ICT Actors

• Conference paper
• Open Access
• First Online: 25 June 2024
• Cite this conference paper

You have full access to this open access conference paper

• Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6058-9537 4 , 5 ,
• Volha Herasimovich   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0858-1009 4 ,
• Basagaitz Guereño-Omil   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6264-6435 5 &
• Daniela Thiel-Ellul   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3311-6195 4  

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

Included in the following conference series:

• International Conference on Tourism and Information and Communication Technologies

103 Accesses

The tourism sector and tourist destinations are undergoing a digital transition in order to improve their resilience and competitiveness. The way in which tourist destinations address this digital transition differs, as some incorporate more technology in their ecosystem than others, giving rise to the emergence of different types of digital tourism networks. This study seeks to determine the different ways in which a tourist destination connects with a digital ecosystem, specifically focusing on the connections with ICT actors. It is based on the theoretical framework of tourism as an ecosystem. Using web crawling, network data have been compiled on 670 tourism actors and more than 36,000 websites to which they are connected through hyperlinks. The most frequently linked entities of the discovered digital ecosystem have been identified and classified (n = 447), distinguishing between 13 types of ICT actors. The results show how the online destination network has been incorporated into the digital ecosystem. The study reveals that the configuration of the digital ecosystem surrounding a tourist destination is characterised by the different levels of importance for the network of destination actors in which the ICT actors play a central role.

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download conference paper PDF

• Tourist destination
• Digital ecosystem
• Online network

1 Introduction

The tourism sector is currently immersed in a digital transition process in an attempt to improve its resilience and strategic autonomy (Koens et al., 2021 ). Digital technologies have a profound impact on the tourism industry and the digital environment is gaining increasing importance for improving the competitiveness of destinations and facilitating its transition towards smart solutions. The way in which tourist destinations approach the digital transition differs (Gretzel, 2022 ), as some incorporate more technology in their ecosystem than others: technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, and virtual reality. The result is the emergence of different structural configurations of digital tourism networks.

Understanding these configurations is vitally important for managing the digital transition in tourism, as the ICTs have the potential to modify value chains, profoundly influence the operations and strategies of tourism companies and change the power dynamics between actors (Baggio & Del Chiappa, 2013 ; Januszewska et al., 2015 ). The interaction between the ICT actors and tourism actors is important to integrate technology and facilitate technological innovations in tourism (Buhalis, 2003 ).

This study seeks to determine the different ways in which a tourist destination connects with a digital ecosystem, specifically focusing on the connections with the technological actors. The research adopts an unusual perspective as it uses Hyperlink Network Analysis (HNA). HNA constitutes “an important basis for the more complete empirical analysis of tourism digital ecosystems” (Baggio, 2022 : 1551). The theoretical framework of this study is based on the concept of tourism as an ecosystem, drawing upon the notions of the digital ecosystem, the digital business ecosystem, and the smart tourism ecosystem (Baggio, 2022 ; Baggio & Del Chiappa, 2013 ; Gretzel et al., 2015 ; Nachira et al., 2007 ).

2 Related Literature

2.1 a tourist destination as a business ecosystem.

A tourist destination is a complex system made up of interdependent social and economic actors that interact with one another and jointly produce experiences for tourism (Baggio, 2008 ). Their competitiveness is conditioned by their environment and geographical, economic, cultural, political, and technological characteristics (Gómez-Vega & Picazo-Tadeo, 2019 ; Gretzel et al., 2015 ). Therefore, in order to fully understand and manage the complexity of the destination it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach that takes into account the economic, technological, environmental, social and cultural dimensions.

A tourist destination can also be understood as a business ecosystem whose principal components are organisations, including suppliers, clients, competitors and another series of actors that interact and evolve jointly to create and contribute value (Baggio, 2022 ). The actors are integrated into the environment, which can significantly influence the power relations within the ecosystem (Gretzel et al., 2015 ).

Given the growing incorporation of ICTs in the operations of tourism organisations (Buhalis, 2020 ), it is important to determine the role of the digital environment and its actors in relation to the tourism ecosystem. This has led to conceptualisations such as the “tourism digital (business) ecosystem” (Baggio, 2022 ; Baggio & Del Chiappa, 2013 ) and the “smart tourism ecosystem” (Gretzel et al., 2015 ).

A digital business ecosystem (DBE) is a socio-economic and technical system composed of actors from the real world (public and private), digital objects, and technical infrastructures (Baggio 2022 ; Nachira et al., 2007 ). The emergence of digital ecosystems has been facilitated by the convergence of three networks: ICT networks, social networks, and knowledge networks (Nachira et al., 2007 ). As a result, a tourism organisation is represented in a DBE by a physical component and a virtual component (their technological representations such as websites), that co-evolve and intertwine to form a single entity (Baggio, 2022 ).

The websites of destination actors, interconnected through hyperlinks, form an online destination network (ODN). It is important to note that hyperlinks connecting websites also function as a form of interorganisational communication, specifically representational communication (Shumate et al., 2017 ), which is usually overlooked due to the perception that it is less efficient than direct face-to-face or technologically mediated direct communication. Representational communication is based on an organisation positioning itself with others and these connections are communicated to third parties, including the public. It may be considered as a type of “name dropping”, which can reveal important inter-organisational relations (Shumate et al., 2017 : 16).

The ODN is important as the websites seem to be the principal instruments for doing business in the tourism sector (Law et al., 2004 ; Wang & Fesenmaier, 2006 ). Similarly, hyperlinks are also used as service tools for providing value added to visitors, facilitating access to useful resources (Zach et al., 2019 ). Furthermore, the websites and the hyperlink network that connect them constitute an important instrument for giving visibility to a destination (Raisi et al., 2018 ; Ying et al., 2016 ).

As an ODN is a network of websites and hyperlinks, it forms part of a wider digital ecosystem. Therefore, the connections of the ODN with other online entities provide an initial approach to the different configurations by which a tourist destination is connected to the digital ecosystem.

2.2 ICT Actors: Supply of ICT Products to Tourism

Distinguishing the different types of ICTs to which the actors of the destination are connected can provide a deeper understanding of the place that a destination occupies in the digital ecosystem. However, this analysis is complicated, due to the difficulties in defining the ICTs as they embody a wide variety of technologies with different purposes. Furthermore, conducting an inventory of all of the ICTs is a real challenge as the websites incorporate different technologies in different ways.

In a broad sense, ICT refers to “both different types of communications networks and the technologies used in them” (OECD, 2023 ). It encompasses “the use of all possible means and methods offered by information technologies in the communication process (transfer of information)” (Januszewska et al., 2015 : 66). The ICT sector is comprised of both “manufacturing and services industries whose products capture, transmit or display data and information electronically” (UN, 2005 : 39).

Within the context of tourism, ICT products are defined as “the entire range of electronic tools that facilitate the operational and strategic management of organizations by enabling them to manage their information, functions and processes as well as to communicate interactively with their stakeholders, enabling them to achieve their mission and objects” (Buhalis, 2003 : 7). Taking into account the utility significance that is attributed to ICTs in tourism, it is important to distinguish the ICT actors focused on the provision of ICT technology and, in particular, the technology that is directly designed for tourism as specific layers of the digital ecosystem.

The success of the digital transition, particularly for destinations advancing towards smartness, does not depend solely on the availability and improvement of technology (the “hard” aspect of the transition) but also on the actors of the ecosystem who represent and use this technology and collaborate, co-creating value (“soft” competences such as the attitude towards innovation) (Boes et al., 2016 ). Therefore, the human element is essential, which suggests that those involved in the digital transition should be considered as being as important as the technology itself.

Different tourism actors can be expected to have different connections with ICT actors, due to the interconnection between the “real” and “virtual” and the social and economic factors that underlie the structure of the network (Gonzalez-Bailon, 2009 ). Therefore, it is necessary to (a) explore which ICT actors are connected to the online destination network; and (b) understand whether different actors of the online destination network are connected to ICT actors in different ways.

3 Methodology

3.1 operationalisation of concepts.

In order to research the digital ecosystem, we have analysed the different web entities, such as websites and the hyperlinks that connect them. In this study, the ICT actors have been defined as websites that principally present ICT products and/or actors that produce ICT products (companies). The ICT products refer to the tools and services used for the electronic/digital transmission of data/information at any time of the communication process (sending, transmission, data reception).

3.2 Data Collection

The data of the online destination network (ODN) have been gathered in the province of Gipuzkoa in Spain, whose largest city, Donostia-San Sebastián, has recently been accredited as a Smart Destination by SEGITTUR (a state-owned company for the management of tourism innovation and technologies in Spain) (DTI, 2023 ). The research employs an experimental design and utilises a convenience sample, drawing initial data from readily accessible directories provided by the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa.

In 2021, the competent public administration facilitated an initial list of tourism actors that included 1,199 organisations from the directory of businesses and tourism activities of the Basque Country (Euskadi.eus, 2021 ). The authors updated the database twice: in January 2022 and April 2023. Entities that were not active were eliminated and new agents were added with their websites. The data represented six types of tourism agents: accommodations (57%), travel agencies and other reservation services (10%), destination management organisations (2.8%), natural and cultural resources (7.6%), sports and recreational activities (9.3%), and tourism-related public bodies (13.3%).

After compiling the directory, the web crawler Hyphe (Jacomy et al., 2016 ) was used to collect hyperlink data from the websites of tourism organisations (N = 690) in April 2023. The web crawler could not access 20 websites (2.9%), which were excluded from the final sample (N = 670). During the crawling, more than 36,000 websites hyperlinked by the ODN were discovered, together with more than 47,000 connections. Given that some actors were represented online with two or more different web domains, the sample was cleaned to guarantee that the actors were represented only once in the group of websites that obtained five or more links (for example, Euskadi.net and Euskadi.eus were merged into one web entity).

3.3 Elaboration of the Typology of ICT Actors

Due to the limited research resources, only a sample of the most popular discovered web entities was used to elaborate a typology of the ICT actors. The sample included entities with five or more links from the tourism actors of the ODN (N = 447). The elaboration of the typology was based on the analysis of information from the websites, the descriptions of the websites by the artificial intelligence of the search engine Bing, and Wikipedia entries. Following the descriptive analysis, a comprehensive coding scheme was developed to identify 13 distinct categories of ICT actors. This scheme was subsequently employed by two independent coders to categorize the websites.

3.4 Data Analysis

The data were analysed using quantitative metrics of Social Network Analysis and a qualitative analysis of the visual representation of the network with the help of Gephi 0.10.1 (Bastian et al., 2009 ).

4.1 The Online Destination Network Incorporated into the Digital Ecosystem

The online destination network (ODN, N = 670) was integrated into the broader web—multiple websites connected through hyperlinks, constituting a discovered digital ecosystem (N = 36,813) (Fig.  1 ). The ODN connections with the discovered digital ecosystem were highly uneven, forming a power law L-curve distribution. Two types of entities were identified around the ODN: the entities linked by at least two tourism actors (n = 2374, 6%) and the majority of entities which were connected with only one tourism actor (n = 34,439, 94%) (Fig.  1 ). Thus, the ODN was integrated into a shared digital area and a non-shared digital area, characterised by clusters around specific tourism actors. The areas indicate commonalities and differences in the choices and interests of the tourism actors.

The online destination network (ODN) within the digital ecosystem

The most popular entities of the discovered digital ecosystem (with five or more links from the ODN) made up approximately one-fifth of the shared area (n = 447, 19%) and represented the strongest common point of the ODN. Although the ICT actors as a group constituted the minority of the “popular” discovered ecosystem (22.6%), some of them were the most important nodes of the network, appearing as the network’s centre of attraction.

ODN (green, N = 670, 2%). Discovered digital ecosystem (all colours except green, N = 36,813, 98%). Most popular discovered entities, linked by five or more tourism actors (red, yellow, and black, n = 447): ICT actors (red, n = 101, 22,6%), non-ICT actors (yellow, n = 344, 77,0%), unidentified actors (black, n = 2, 0.4%). Less popular discovered entities: blue (2–4 links), grey (1 link). The shared area of the discovered ecosystem: red, yellow, blue, and black (n = 2374, 6%). The non-shared area : grey (n = 34,439, 94%). The colour of the links shows which type of entity they are connected to. Size: the importance, or the number of links that point at the actor (indegree).

4.2 Varying Connections of Tourism Actors to ICT Actors

The analysis distinguished 13 types of ICT actors (Table 1 ). Of these, three types represented tourism-related ICT actors: travel platforms, leisure platforms, and tourism management software (34.7%). Social media were the most popular actors, accounting for about 39% of all links, yet constituting only 11.9% of total actors. These were followed by software development and electronics (12.2% of the links for 5% of the actors) and multifunctional web portals (12.1% of links for 2% of actors). The tourism-related ICT actors accounted for only 13% of all links, three times less than social media, while they constituted approximately a third of all of the actors (34.7%).

There seems to be a stable predominance of certain ICT actors in the digital ecosystem, as seven of the ten principal ICT actors were the same as those in a similar research project covering the years 2013–2018 (cf. Zach et al., 2019 ) (Table 2 ).

The web entities that were subject to the grouping procedures described in the methodology section: 1, 4, 7, 8, 10.

The actors closely related to the public domain (tourism-related public bodies, destination management organisations, natural and cultural resources) tended to have a higher proportion of links (>50%) to actors not related to the ICTs than to those related to the ICTs. On the contrary, businesses of accommodations, sports and recreational activities, and travel agencies and other reservation services had a greater proportion of links to ICT actors (≥ 60%) (Fig.  2 a).

Connections of the tourism agents with the ICT actors ( a ) and ICT actors specialised in tourism ( b ). 1—accommodations; 2—travel agencies and other reservation services; 3—sports and recreational activities; 4—tourism-related public bodies; 5—destination management organisations; 6—natural and cultural resources. The percentages represent the proportion of total links to the most popular discovered entities of the digital ecosystem (n = 445), except for those entities that could not be classified (n = 2)

Furthermore, tourism actors displayed differences in the way in which they referred to the different types of ICT actors: tourism-related and non-tourism ICT actors (Fig.  2 b). While the majority of the sectors did not exceed the 10% barrier in terms of links to tourism-related ICT actors, two sectors stood out in their relations with tourism-related ICT agents: accommodation (17%) and the DMOs (27%), which were the most active users of the tourism-related technologies.

Tourism actors showed similar preferences when establishing links with social media, which were those most frequently used links compared to other types of ICT actors. Social media accounted for at least a third of the links to ICT actors in each tourism sector (from 33 to 53%). The higher percentages of links to social media was observed in the sectors of natural and cultural resources (53%), sports and recreational activities (46%), and travel agencies and other reservation services (46%). The second and third most popular ICT actors within tourism sectors were mainly the “multifunctional web portals” and “software development and electronics” actors, each receiving less than half the attention that social media received. Within this context of shared preferences, the DMOs stood out as they had a greater tendency to link with “travel platforms”, which constituted 15% of all of their links.

5 Discussion

This study contributes to a better understanding of the digital business ecosystem of tourism, shedding light on the different configurations between tourism actors and the broader digital ecosystem, including the ICT actors. The different configurations analysed indicate different processes through which the various stakeholders become embedded in the digital ecosystem.

The results of this study reveal a highly disproportionate distribution in the degree of connectivity, with a few web entities being strongly connected to the destination and the majority being weakly connected, which is similar to the global structure of the Web, with few highly connected hubs and the lowly connected majority (Barabási et al., 2000 ). The existence of “shared areas”, commonly linked by the destination actors, indicates possible common interests between tourism actors.

The presence of ICT actors in the nucleus of the shared area underlines the crucial role of ICTs in tourist destinations. The very small change observed in the nucleus of the ICTs compared to the most popular websites in a similar previous study (Zach et al., 2019 ) suggests a stable dominance of certain ICT agents in the tourism sector.

This coherence in choices is also evident in the prominent position of social media platforms within the overall digital ecosystem and within particular tourism sectors. The results confirm the solid incorporation of Web 2.0 into the tourism digital business ecosystem and ratify the evolution of social media as crucial platforms in the tourism sector (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014 ).

The variances in how tourism sectors were linked to ICT and non-ICT actors, particularly between tourism sectors related to the public domain and business-focused stakeholders, suggest the role of underlying social and economic determinants. This is consistent with prior research highlighting the significance of these factors on the Web’s structure (Gonzalez-Bailon, 2009 ). Likewise, socio-economic factors may be the reason why accommodations and DMOs had more incentives to connect to tourism-related ICTs than other tourism actors. These findings highlight the duality of tourism actors in the digital business ecosystem, where they are represented by both real-world actors and digital objects intertwined into a single entity.

One important direction for future research is the comparison of different configurations of Smart Destinations and destinations with a less developed incorporation of technology in different economic, cultural, and political environments.

Baggio, R. (2008). Symptoms of complexity in a tourism system. Tourism Analysis, 13 (1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354208784548797

Article   Google Scholar  

Baggio, R. (2022). Digital ecosystems, complexity, and tourism networks. In Z. Xiang, M. Fuchs, U. Gretzel, & W. Höpken (Eds.), Handbook of e-Tourism (pp. 1545–1564). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05324-6_91-1

Baggio, R., & Del Chiappa, G. (2013). Tourism destinations as digital business ecosystems. In L. Cantoni, Z. Xiang (Eds.), Information and communication technologies in tourism 2013. Proceedings of the International Conference in Innsbruck, Austria (pp. 183–194). Springer, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36309-2_16

Barabási, A. L., Albert, R., & Jeong, H. (2000). Scale-free characteristics of random networks: The topology of the world-wide web. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications, 281 (1), 69–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-4371(00)00018-2

Bastian, M., Heymann, S., & Jacomy, M. (2009). Gephi: An open source software for exploring and manipulating networks. In W. W. Cohen & N. Nicolov (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media , San Jose, USA (Vol. 3, issue no. 1, pp. 361–362). https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v3i1.13937

Boes, K., Buhalis, D., & Inversini, A. (2016). Smart tourism destinations: Ecosystems for tourism destination competitiveness. International Journal of Tourism Cities, 2 (2), 108–124. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-12-2015-0032

Buhalis, D. (2003). eTourism: Information technology for strategic tourism management . Harlow, Prentice Hall-Financial Times.

Google Scholar  

Buhalis, D. (2020). Technology in tourism-from information communication technologies to eTourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: A perspective article. Tourism Review, 75 (1), 267–272. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-06-2019-0258

DTI. (2023). Donostia/San Sebastián obtiene el distintivo Destino Turístico Inteligente . https://www.destinosinteligentes.es/donostia-san-sebastian-obtiene-el-distintivo-destino-turistico-inteligente/ . Accessed 15 Jan 2023.

Euskadi.eus. (2021). Registro de empresas y actividades turísticas de Euskadi . https://www.euskadi.eus/registro/registro-de-empresas-y-actividades-turisticas-de-euskadi/web01-tramite/es/ . Accessed 10 April 2023.

Gómez-Vega, M., & Picazo-Tadeo, A. J. (2019). Ranking world tourist destinations with a composite indicator of competitiveness: To weigh or not to weigh? Tourism Management, 72 , 281–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.11.006

Gonzalez-Bailon, S. (2009). Opening the black box of link formation: Social factors underlying the structure of the web. Social Networks, 31 (4), 271–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2009.07.003

Gretzel, U. (2022). The Smart DMO: A new step in the digital transformation of destination management organizations. European Journal of Tourism Research 30 . https://doi.org/10.54055/ejtr.v30i.2589

Gretzel, U., Werthner, H., Koo, C., & Lamsfus, C. (2015). Conceptual foundations for understanding smart tourism ecosystems. Computers in Human Behavior, 50 , 558–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.043

Jacomy, M., Girard, P., Ooghe-Tabanou, B.,& Venturini, T. (2016). Hyphe, a curation-oriented approach to web crawling for the social sciences. In K. P. Gummadi, M. Strohmaier (Eds.), Proceedings of the Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media , Cologne, Germany (Vol. 10, issue no. 1, pp. 595–598). https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/14777

Januszewska, M., Jaremen, D., & Nawrocka, E. (2015). The effects of the use of ICT by tourism enterprises. Service Management 16 , 65–73. https://doi.org/10.18276/smt.2015.16-07

Koens, K., Font, W., & Neuhofer, B. (2021). Compilation stakeholder survey results: Intermediary deliverable . https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/48355/attachments/1/translations/en/renditions/native . Accessed 10 April 2023.

Law, R., Leung, K., & Wong, R. J. (2004). The impact of the Internet on travel agencies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16 (2), 100–107. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110410519982

Nachira, F., Dini, P., & Nicolai, A. (2007). A network of digital business ecosystems for Europe: Roots, processes and perspectives. In European Commission, Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media, F. Nachira, A. Nicolai, P. Dini, M. Le Louarn, L. Rivera Leon (Eds.) Digital business ecosystems (pp. 1–20). Publications Office. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/53e45e55-4bd2-42a4-ad25-27b339b051e0. Accessed 10 April 2023.

OECD. (2023). Information and communication technology (ICT) . https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/information-and-communication-technology-ict/indicator-group/english_04df17c2-en . Accessed 26 May 2023.

Raisi, H., Baggio, R., Barratt-Pugh, L., & Willson, G. (2018). Hyperlink network analysis of a tourism destination. Journal of Travel Research, 57 (5), 671–686. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287517708256

Shumate, M., Atouba, Y., Cooper, K. R., & Pilny, A. (2017). Interorganizational communication. In C. Scott, L. Lewis (Eds.) The international encyclopedia of organizational communication (pp. 1–24). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118955567.WBIEOC117.

UN. (2005). Core ICT indicators: partnerships on measuring ICT for development. https://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/partnership/material/CoreICTIndicators.pdf . Accessed 26 May 2023.

Wang, Y., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2006). Identifying the success factors of web-based marketing strategy: An investigation of convention and visitors bureaus in the United States. Journal of Travel Research, 44 (3), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287505279007

Ying, T., Norman, W. C., & Zhou, Y. (2016). Online networking in the tourism industry: A webometrics and hyperlink network analysis. Journal of Travel Research, 55 (1), 16–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287514532371

Zach, F. J., Xiang, Z., & Baggio, R. (2019). Analysing linkage between ICT and US state tourism websites. Review Tourism Research, 17 (3), 306–316.

Zeng, B., & Gerritsen, R. (2014). What do we know about social media in tourism? A review. Tourism Management Perspectives, 10 , 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2014.01.001

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Grant PID2021-127893OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Nebrija University, Sta. Cruz de Marcenado 27, 28015, Madrid, Spain

Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal, Volha Herasimovich & Daniela Thiel-Ellul

University of Deusto, Camino de Mundaiz, 50, 20012, San Sebastián, Spain

Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal & Basagaitz Guereño-Omil

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aurkene Alzua-Sorzabal .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Computer science, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain

Antonio J. Guevara Plaza

Campus de Teatinos, Universidad de Málaga, Fac de Turismo, Málaga, Málaga, Spain

Alfonso Cerezo Medina

Department of Geography, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

Enrique Navarro Jurado

Rights and permissions

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s)

About this paper

Cite this paper.

Alzua-Sorzabal, A., Herasimovich, V., Guereño-Omil, B., Thiel-Ellul, D. (2024). Connections Between a Tourist Destination, the Digital Ecosystem, and ICT Actors. In: Guevara Plaza, A.J., Cerezo Medina, A., Navarro Jurado, E. (eds) Tourism and ICTs: Advances in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability. TURITEC 2023. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52607-7_20

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52607-7_20

Published : 25 June 2024

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-52606-0

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-52607-7

eBook Packages : Business and Management Business and Management (R0)

Share this paper

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

buhalis.com

Dimitrios Buhalis at Bournemouth University Research Festival of Learning

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis has been working on technology enabled strategic marketing for over three decades! He has been been researching the disruptive nature of technology for strategic management and marketing and is constantly looking for tools and methods to develop products and services and strengthening their competitiveness. Numerous PhD students from around the world are part of the knowledge cocreation process and the leading research themes. 

Much of this research has been developed in collaboration with a global network of researchers as well as research teams at Hong Kong Polytechnic University , China (Professors Rob Law and Haiyan Song); Aveiro University , Portugal (Professor Carlos Costa); Salzburg University of Applied Science , Austria (Professors Roman Egger and Barbara Neuhofer) and University Technology Sydney , Australia (Professor Simon Darcy).

  Professor Dimitrios Buhalis current research areas include:

Buhalis VR Virtual Reality Lab 2

• Strategic Management and Marketing Value Chain and Value System optimisation Distribution channels for tourism and hospitality  Real time cocreation and the service of now tourism  Experience economy and Peer to Peer services
• Social media engagement and technology-enabled cocreation of experiences Consumer requirements and  experience cocreation tourism/leisure experience and consumer behaviour  Reputation management on-line  Social Media Return on Investment  Social media, human resources and employment Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences Gaming, gamification and Tourism 
• Accessible tourism and tourism for all  Inclusive design and design for all  Abilities and disabilities management  Tourism and travel for the disabled Allergens (Gluten, Lactose, Sugar, etc Free food) Inclusive hospitality  Travel with Diabetes  Dine with a Gluten Free Diet

His research career started at the Business School of the University of the Aegean in Greece when he was appointed in 1997 by Professor Nicolas Litinas as a research assistant for with the STAR European Project. The STAR project was exploring how telecoms (fax was the innovation of that time!) can support Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Buhalis was put in charge of the tourism and hospitality sectors and SMEs in the Aegean region in Greece whilst on the third year of his BBA degree. Since 1987, Buhalis has been researching on digital marketing and exploring how technology can revolutionise strategic management and marketing in the vertical market of tourism and hospitality . 

Dimitrios Buhalis with his teachers Professors Chris Cooper, John Fletcher, Stephen Wanhill

He effectively invented eTourism, as documented in the eTourism book published in 2003, as an area exploring how technology can revolutionise production and distribution of tourism and hospitality organisations and destinations. As part of his STAR contribution he designed in 1989 the first Destination Management System in the world (the System Aegean) that was trialled during the 1990-1992 period in Greece. This innovative concept was the developed later as part of Dimitrios PhD at the University of Surrey and was published in 1993 as  Regional Integrated Computer Information Reservation Management Systems (RICIRMS) as a strategic tool for the small and medium tourism enterprises, Tourism Management.   In parallel the Gulliver system was developed in Ireland, also through STAR funding . Both systems were the pioneers of Destination Management Systems that proliferated the market later. 

Buhalis has been researching the use of technology and digital tools for strategic management and marketing. First proprietary systems, such as Property Management Systems (PMS) and Global Distribution Systems (GDS)  that enabled organisations to better organise and manage their inventory and distribution. Distributed systems such as Destination Management Systems (DMS) and eventually internet based systems. The development of the internet enabled organisations to employ distributed systems and use Web 1.o platforms to communicate their offerings and facilitate eCommerce transactions. The development of social media and the Web 2.0 era supported interactivity with consumers and stakeholders through two way communications and engagement. More recently, the Web 3.0 environment propels smart tourism and agility  through machine to machine communication, big data, the internet of things and artificial intelligence. 

Dimitrios Buhalis with the IFITT Presidents Hannes Werthner, Josef Margreiter, Andrew Frew,

Professor Buhalis has also be playing a very active role in developing the community to expand this research area. Dimitrios is an active ENTER and the International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism  (IFITT) Founding Member since 1994. He was Board Member (1996-2005), Vice President (2000-2005) and then President (2010-2014) of the  International Federation for Information Technologies in Travel and Tourism (IFITT) . He chaired more that 10 ENTER conferences in several roles and engaged Researchers, PhD Students, Industry and Destinations in dynamic knowledge cocreation. IFITT and the ENTER Conferences have been instrumental for the development of the eTourism global community and to establish it as a credible research field.

More recently, after his election to the International Academy for the Study of Tourism in 2009 and his then election as First Vice President in 2017, Buhalis collaborates closely with the executive to develop the global tourism community and encourage tourism knowledge cocreation globally. 

Academy for the Study of Tourism, Meeting in Atrium Hotel, Rhodes, Greece

Dimitrios Buhalis with Journal Editors

This research has been published in a variety of top journals including Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Review, Current Issues of Tourism, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, Information Technology & Tourism, Journal of China Tourism Research, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, International Journal of Tourism Cities, Journal of Tourism Futures, Tourism Tribune, Estudios Turísticos, FIU Hospitality Review, The Cornell Hotel Restaurant Administration Quarterly, PASOS, China Tourism Research, Tourism Recreation Research, International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Turistica: Trimestrale di Economica-Management-Marketing, International Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Administration Journal, Pacific Tourism Review, Progress in Tourism and Hospitality Research, as well as generic Marketing and Information Journals such as Journal of Marketing Management, The Service Industries Journal, Information & Management, Information & Management, Electronic Markets, International Journal of Fuzzy System Applications, International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Journal of Service Management, International Journal of Online Marketing, International Journal of Information Management, Qualitative Market Research, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Education and Training. 

Privacy Overview