ENTER2019

1. A S O L U T I O N F O R D E S T I N A T I O N S ?
HUSNA ZAINAL ABIDIN
SUPERVISORS
PROFESSOR CAROLINE SCARLES
DR CHRISTINE LUNDBERG
Understanding B2B and B2C User Behaviour on Next Generation
Platforms of DMOs

2. 1
2
3
Critique the role of digital platforms as mechanisms for realising cultures of sharing
and collaboration between local businesses
Create an understanding for the role in which DMOs become points of consolidation and
collaboration for local businesses and organisations
Critique digital platform design and functionality on end user experience creation

3. 31 January 2019 ENTER2019 – Research Track
WHERE IS TOURISM HEADED?
THE FUTURE AND COLLABORATION
companies that do not build new synergies with
the economic and social players around them are
likely to miss out on strategic breakthroughs,
overlook emerging markets with growth potential
or be left behind (World Economic Forum, 2018)
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Enabling the travel ecosystem. Digital platforms
that enable ecosystem alliances will continue to
emerge, as asset and information sharing become
increasingly important (Bain & Company, 2018) “Digital advances provide opportunities to tourism in
order to enhance inclusiveness, community
empowerment and efficient resource management...”
(UNWTO)
“We are too slow, DMOs need a new core business,”
(Wonderful Copenhagen, 2017)
Page 3

4. 31 January 2019 ENTER2019 – Research Track Page 4
(Heo, 2016; Saito and Ruhanen, 2017)
Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) need to re-establish their online
presence through competitive services and/or provide more support towards tourism
organisations/businesses (Xiang et al., 2015)
WHAT
NEEDS
TO BE
DONE?
DIGITAL COLLABORATION
(Buhalis and Law, 2008; Chuang et al., 2017)

5. “TECHNOLOGY &
COLLABORATION
K E Y T O I N T E R N A T I O N A L
T R A V E L G R O W T H &
S E C U R I T Y ”
- World Economic Forum (2017)

6. ▪ ONE WAY COMMUNICATION
▪ EVENT UPDATE
31 January 2019 ENTER2019 – Research Track Page 6

7. ▪ DIGITAL PLATFORM
▪ EXPERIENCE DESIGN
▪ B2B2C

8. 31 January 2019 ENTER2019 – Research Track Page 8

11. W H O A R E T H E Y ?

12. To enhance the visitor experience in using a DMO’s
digital platform through better digital platform
functionalities and unique products
To facilitate organizational collaboration through a
DMO’s digital platform with the end goal of improving
organizational process and visitor experience.

13. • Director of visitor attraction
• Over 30 years of experience
• Forward thinking
• Fairly familiar to digital
technologies
• Open to collaboration, discussion
and new ideas
• Limited resources i.e. finance,
time, skills and knowledge
• Unaware of potential
collaborators around
• Concerns over platform
privacy and transparency
• Enhancing organizational
collaboration
• Improving organizational
efficiency and expertise
• Increasing profit
• Contribute towards society
• Increasing traffic to website
• Networking and organisational
matchmaking opportunities
• Knowledge sharing by the
DMO and other businesses
(trends and best practices etc.)
• Collaborate to develop new
products

14. • Head of Marketing of visitor
attraction
• 6 years of working experience
• Passion for tourism and the
community
• Extrovert and hardworking
• Constant need to do multiple
entries of similar updates
• Lack of affordable staff
training
• The opportunity cost of
physical meeting times
• Not knowing which marketing
channels would be best to use
• Increase awareness of
organisation to potential
consumers
• Develop creative marketing
campaigns and engage
with the best channels of
communication
• To have better marketing
skills and management of
time
• Better social media integration on
digital platform
• Integration of data to reduce time
updating on multiple channels
• Knowledge sharing and access to
resources (i.e marketing templates)
• Management platform (reduce
time spent meeting face-to-face)
• Easy access to marketing
collaborations (radios, publications
etc.)

15. • 65-70 years old
• Retired
• Living in Surrey
• Day trips
• Travels by car
• Difficulty in finding
information on websites
• Lack of trust and authenticity
on websites
• Tourist information
• Simple website navigation
• Authentic places/restaurants to
visit
• Emotional engagement
• Weather
• Low familiarity of searching on
the internet.
• Depends on word of mouth
• Print advertisement/catalogue.
• Enjoys reading Lonely Planet
book to explore a destination.
• Enjoys wine tourism, nature
walks and galleries.
• Enjoys spending time with
family, particularly with
grandchildren to gardens
• Making the most out of the
free time, to rest, relax and
leisure

16. • 25 years old
• Young professional
• Single
• Living in Surrey
• Day trips and
weekend trips
• Travels by public
transport
• Enjoys exploring nature,
going for walks and doing
outdoor activities.
• Doesn’t mind travelling solo
but also enjoys planning for
trips with friends.
• Too many information online
• Difficulty in planning a detailed
itinerary
• Uninspiring websites
• Taking too long to plan travels
• Percieved biasness of a DMO
website
• Quick
Inspiration
• Personalised
itinerary
• Maps
• Events
• Weather
• Reviews
• Price
comparison
• Chatbox
• Public
transport
information
• Integration of
social media
• Very good with technology in
searching travel information
• Uses Google to search for
destination inspiration and
activities.
• Refers to Youtube, blogs,
Pinterest, Instagram and other
social media

17. BUSINESSES
“The role of a tourist board is well becoming a hub. Well, I think
it's kind of like a spider’s web and at the centre you have the destination management
organisation With all strands of the web going out.”
“that's the kind of things that I would look for from a tourist board website to do, is to
help guild me to make decisions”
“we need to know other businesses in town, other organisations in town. it helps us
reach new audiences.”
“everybody's got their own specific sort of element that they bring into the collaboration
that's important, as well as some, you know, people are offering different things.”
“well It'll be wonderful to form a closer relationship with other companies. you want
them to be more aware of who we are and what we do. we can offer all sorts of benefits
to their staff.”
HUB GUIDANCE NETWORKING
KNOWLEDGE SHARING AWARENESS

18. VISITORS
“Generally, there’s too many information…I don’t know where to start. You
can see that they have multiple of headings and sub headings. When you
click inside, you don’t really find anything much.”
“one website can never serve as a one stop shop. One can never rely only
on one thing.”
“The identity is not clear now, given so many platforms are doing it at the
same time.”
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
APPREHENSION IDENTITY

19. Contributing towards
theoretical
understanding in
digital collaboration
theory and destination
management
Provide a design framework of a digital
platform that will stimulate the
economic drive, community building
and overall sustainability of a
destination.

20. h.zainalabidin@surrey.ac.uk
Twitter: Husnaaa_za
LinkedIn: Husna Zainal Abidin