ENTER2018 eTourism Conference presentation

1. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 1
Smart tourism destinations and higher
tourism education in Spain. Are we ready for
this new management approach?
Francisco Femenia-Serra
Tourism Research Institute-University of Alicante, Spain
paco.femenia@ua.es
https://iuit.ua.es/

2. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 2
OUTLINE
1. Research background
2. Methods
3. Results
4. Conclusions
5. Limitations

3. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 3
1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND
The concept and principles of the smart tourism destination are gradually
accepted as a valid new destination management approach, a novel framework to
understand destinations functioning (Jovicic, 2016; 2017; Ivars-Baidal et al., 2017)
In these destinations, the intensive use of ICTs by all
the interrelated stakeholders and an orchestrated
employment of generated big data are the base of
improved public and private services and better
experiences for tourists (Buhalis & Amaranggana,
2014; Choe & Fesenmaier, 2017; Wang et al., 2016)

4. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 4
Destinations are in a transition towards smartness, so prepared
human resources with great mastery of ICTs will be required to
manage them both from a public and private perspectives.
Tourism higher education should
provide the needed knowledge and
skills to future managers (or at least
a big part of it)

5. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 5
Theoretical foundations
-ICTs will be critical in
destinations management
-Educational requirements for
managers unspecified
-Few studies and situation may have
changed since last ones
-Students’ view is missing
-Research has focused on the balance between vocational and
theoretical sides of education (Airey, Dredge, & Gross, 2015)
-ICTs are usually researched as a tool to learn (e-Learning), but
not as an object of study themselves. Few studies have
addressed the place of ICTs on tourism curriculum (Munar &
Bødker, 2015)
STDs as
destination
management
approach
ICTs and
Spanish
higher
education
ICTs and
higher
tourism
education

6. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 6
Objective: To discern in which degree current superior tourism
education is providing the required formation for this new
destinations management approach, by taking the case of Spain.
Research question: Is higher tourism education currently providing
the needed theoretical foundations and practical skills for future
smart tourism destinations managers?
How do students assess the education they
are receiving in these matters?
And which are these?

7. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 7
Why Spain?
Strong public support: projects and programs to help develop more
smart destinations
Many DMOs are already looking for prepared professionals able to
analyse data, master new technologies and help them to improve
their tasks and enhance tourists’ experiences

8. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 8
2. METHODS
2.1. Literature-based identification of ICT-related knowledge
fields and skills that can be relevant for future STD managers.
• Social media managing
• Big data analytics
• Database management
• Spatial analysis and visualisation tools
• Advanced web management
• Online marketing
• More classical: Informatics for business, Word processors, GDSs…
General frameworks: Very concrete subjects would restrain flexibility

9. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 9
2.2. Survey to students
Objective :
1. Testing their awareness of the smart destination concept and their opinion of
the relevance of ICTs in the future of tourism
• Qualtrics © Questionnaire distributed to tourism students of four public
Spanish universities. Students of Degree in Tourism, Degree in Tourism and
Business Administration plus students of Master in Tourism Management
• Distributed through link, sent by teacher-student communication platforms.
2. Gathering students’ assessment of the education they are receiving in the
specified matters useful for future STD managers

10. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 10
2.3. Content analysis
Objective:
2. To obtain deeper knowledge of the real position of ICTs in Spanish tourism
curriculum > specified for smart destinations management
• Content analysis of the tourism programmes offered by public universities
1. To contrast the results of the questionnaire

11. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 11
Selection criteria and process
n
Spanish public universities 50
Offering tourism programmes
Degree:
‘Tourism’
‘Tourism & Business Administration’
Master:
‘Tourism Management and/or Planning’
38
38
11
15
Programmes with 1 or more ICT-related courses 59
Programmes without any formation in ICTs 5
Compulsory ICT courses by programme (mean) 1,08
Optional ICT courses by programme (mean) 0,7
Total offered ICT courses by programme (mean) 1,78
Queried through keywords to
find any ICT-related course
Grouped to develop
categories
exhaustive, mutually
exclusive and independent
(Holsti, 1969)
Grounded in the review of the courses and
observed patterns
Examination of each
syllabus

12. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 12
Categories
(types of courses)
Keywords
Smartness ‘smart’, ‘smartness’ ‘intelligent’, ‘intelligence’,
‘system’*
Digital marketing
and electronic
intermediation
‘digital’, ‘electronic’, ‘e- ‘
‘internet’ ‘online’, ‘web’
Social Media ‘social media’, ‘social network, ‘2.0’, ‘networks’
ICTs (generic)
‘ICTs’, ‘Information and Communication
technologies’, ‘Information and Communication
technology’, ‘Technology’, ‘Technological’,
‘Technologies’, ‘new technologies’, ‘information’*
Informatics
‘Informatics’, ‘office’
‘software’, ‘computerised’, ‘computer’,
‘programme’, ‘processor’
Data Analysis and
Big data
‘database’ ’big data’, ‘data’, ‘analytics’, ‘information’,
‘system’, ‘Information system’
Geographical
systems
‘GIS’, ‘Geographic information systems’, ‘system’,
‘Remote sensing’, ‘GPS’, ‘geo’
GDS ‘GDS’, ‘global distribution systems’
Coding scheme

13. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 13
3. RESULTS
3.1. Survey: participants’ profile
n
Total participants 407
Mean age 21,43
Gender
Female
Male
310
97
Nationality
Spanish
Other
358
49
Studying
Degree in Tourism
Degree in Tourism+Business
Master in Tourism
275
98
34

14. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 14
3.2. Students’ awareness of smart tourism destinations
Have you ever heard about ‘smart tourism destinations’?

15. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 15
What would you say smart tourism destinations are about?

16. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 16
Which three factors you think will have a greater impact on tourism in the
forthcoming years? (Total answers, three most selected):

17. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 17
3.3. Students’ assessment of formation in ICTs
How would you mark the formation on ICTs in your current
programme so far? (in %)
Only 25%
%

18. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 18
%

19. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 19
3.3. Content analysis: ICT courses in
the Spanish tourism curricula
Categories
(types of
courses)
Keywords Frequency
Compuls
Opt.
Smartness ‘smart’, ‘smartness’ ‘intelligent’, ‘intelligence’, ‘system’* 1
1
Digital marketing
and electronic
intermediation
‘digital’, ‘electronic’, ‘e- ‘, ‘internet’ ‘online’, ‘web’ 9
1
8
Social Media ‘social media’, ‘social network, ‘2.0’, ‘networks’ 3
1
2
ICTs (generic)
‘ICTs’, ‘Information and Communication technologies’,
‘Information and Communication technology’, ‘Technology’,
‘Technological’, ‘Technologies’, ‘new technologies’,‘information’*
26
19
7
Informatics ‘Informatics’, ‘office’, ‘software’, ‘computerised’, ‘computer’,
‘programme’, ‘processor’ 36
28
8
Data Analysis
and Big data
‘database’ ’big data’, ‘data’, ‘analytics’, ‘information’, ‘system’,
‘Information system’ 25
15
10
Geographical
systems
‘GIS’, ‘Geographic information systems’, ‘system’, ‘Remote
sensing’, “GPS’, ‘geo’ 9
2
7
GDS ‘GDS’, ‘global distribution systems’ 5 4
1
Many more innovative and ICT-
advanced courses are optional

20. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 20
4. CONCLUSIONS
According to the findings, current tourism higher education isn’t
preparing future managers of smart destinations properly from a
theoretical and applied perspective in Spain.
There is a gap between the relevance of ICTs for tourism, which
the own students recognise, and the precarious position the
formation on ICTs occupies in the Spanish curricula.

21. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 21
• Students believe ICTs will be the biggest driver of change in tourism in
the forthcoming years. They recognise the concept of STDs and relate
several concepts to it adequately
• They think they aren’t receiving an appropriate formation in ICTs in
general, and in the established requirements necessary for facing the
smart destination approach as future managers
• Content analysis matches with survey findings: better perceived topics
by students are the most present in the syllabuses

22. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 22
 The inclusion of ICT courses in the Spanish tourism curricula is minimal.
Most them are outdated and based on overcome tools and concepts
 No specific effort has been made in the tourism curriculum design over the
last years to cope with the most recent ICTs

23. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 23
Implications
• Need to rethink ICTs in tourism education in the country: more space,
maybe in complementary courses: seminars, workshops…
• ICTs should be studied both as a powerful tool (practical side) but also from
a reflective perspective > great impact on our society and in tourism
• Using the smart tourism and destination ‘umbrella’ there could be a shift
into this direction

24. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 24
5. LIMITATIONS
• Purposive sampling: selection of universities participating in R&D project
• Content analysis only for public universities: Spanish private universities have
more freedom to design their programmes
• Deeper examination of content of courses could add more information:
limited public information becomes a problem

25. ENTER 2018 Research Track Slide Number 25
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
TACK SÅ MYCKET!
paco.femenia@ua.es
@PacoFemenia
Francisco Femenia-Serra