Destinations, the Industry, and Peer-To-Peer as one of my 2016-2017 lectures at the University of Bergamo

IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017
Destinations, the Industry,
and Peer-To-Peer
Destinations, Industry, P2P. Lecture 03, November 17, 2016

IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017
What Are We Talking About Today?
slide 2Destinations, Industry, P2P. Lecture 03, November 17, 2016
1. Managing Globality
2. Destinations
3. The Industry
4. OTAs & Metasearch Engines
5. Travel Communities
6. Blogs, Publisher & Affiliations
7. Peer-To-Peer

Managing Globality
Jean-Pierre Lozato-Giotart
“Tourism is the management of
globality”

Destination? What Is This?
A territory?
A product?
A network?

Destinations As Territories
“A physical space in which a visitor spends at least one overnight.
It includes tourism products such as support services and attractions, and
tourism resources within one day’s return travel time.
It has physical and administrative boundaries defining its management, images
and perceptions defining its market competitiveness.
Local tourism destinations incorporate various stakeholders often including a
host community, and can nest and network to form larger destinations.”
The World Tourism Organization (WTO), 1999, 2007

Destinations As Offers
“A bundle of activities and factors of
attractiveness situated in a specific place
(site, locality, destination) [which] can provide
a well-constructed and integrated tourism
offer, that represents a distinctive system of
tourism hospitality enhancing local resources
and culture.”
Maurizio Rispoli, Michele Tamma, Economists,
Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, 1995

“The destination is a place ‘created’ and defined
by the visitor,
to which the visitor is attracted
and in which he moves freely in/with the mass.”
Nothing less and nothing more than a network.
Pietro Beritelli, Institute for Systemic
Management and Public Governance, University
of St. Gallen, Destinations’ Consultant, 2014
Destinations As Networks

IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017 slide 8IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017
The Destination’s Network
Visitors
Locals
Managers
Image credit to id-vacation.blogspot.com
The Place

Destination Management Organizations
Does the M stand for Management?
Or for Marketing?
What should a DMO care for?
Can a DMO rule a local tourism
network?
Can a DMO run a territory?
Can a DMO even lead a community?
Or has it basically to sell an area’s
tourism products? Period.

Stakeholder noun
[countable]
Someone who has invested
money into something, or
who has some important
connection with it, and
therefore is affected by its
success or failure.
Stakeholder in...
– Citizens should be
stakeholders in the society
they live in. Definition from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Image credit to infinityimmigration.com, BC, Canada
slide 10
We’re All Stakeholders

Destinations Are Made By
Their Stakeholders
Destinations, Industry, P2P. Lecture 03, November 17, 2016 slide 11

Different Sorts of Tourists
Short-break tourists?
Young tourists? Backpackers?
Cultural tourists?
Families? Vacationers?
Businessmen?
“Silent” tourists?
Their needs are different. How to satisfy all those different needs?
slide 12
Image credit to Getty Images

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
DMOs [Destination
Management or Marketing
Organizations]
(or LTBs, Local Tourist
Boards, or RTBs, Regional
Tourist Boards)
Either public
or private/public funding
Attracting visitors to the
destination; marketing the
destination and local actors;
informing and assisting
visitors before, during and
after their visit
Destination Management Organizations
Categories of Tourism Websites (1) – The Public, or Consortia
slide 13

DMSs, Destination Management Systems
In terms of digital management of tourism destinations, there’s more to be
considered. Let’s introduce the Destination Management System, or DMS.
DMSs are based on digital platforms. They rely on content management systems
intended to drive local tourism operators to cooperate with one another. This in
instrumental to manage a local tourism system –- or, if you prefer, a destination
as a network.
In fact, DMSs are based on a network approach as far as tourism operators (local
authorities, hotels, restaurants, museums, art galleries...) are concerned
... or, rather, DMS are supposed to be based on a network approach.
The story of Tiscover provides examples.
slide 14

The Industry
© 2015 Peanuts Worldwide LLC
In short, the tourism industry
includes
• Travel Suppliers
• Travel Agents
• Peer-To-Peer
... and, well, people ...
slide 15

Back to the basics
When you come across a website somehow dealing with tourism, can you say
what is it for?
Can you spell its
• Category?
• Model?
• Main Task?
slide 16

Who’s Who?
If you’re in serious doubt about a website’s Model, finding out who owns the
second-level domain name may be worthwhile.
To do so, you can consult the whois form on websites like whois.net, where
owners of the “international” domain names, the first level of which is .com, .net,
.org, .biz, .tv, .travel or the like, are usually found.
National domains instead, the first level of which coincide with national states’
acronyms -– like .pl for Poland, .it for Italy, or .uk for the United Kingdom –- should
be searched for by consulting the individual national registration authorities.
slide 17

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Travel Suppliers
(Air France, Deutsche Bahn,
Trenitalia, RyanAir, Accor,
Holiday Inn, Hertz etc.)
Online sale of tourism
services (flights, hotels, car
rentals etc.) mostly produced
by the suppliers themselves
Selling services directly
(no agents)
Travel Suppliers
Categories of Tourism Websites (2) – Big Private, or Public
slide 18
... and we’re not dealing here with B2B GDSs like Amadeus or Sabre...

“Amadeus”? What Is That?
Amadeus IT Group SA /æməˈdeɪʊs aɪ tiː ɡrʊp/ is a multinational IT Provider for
the global travel and tourism industry.
Amadeus was originally created as a neutral global distribution system (GDS) by
Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa and SAS in 1987 in order to connect providers'
content with travel agencies and consumers in real time.
The creation of Amadeus was intended to offer a European alternative to Sabre,
the American GDS.
slide 19
Source: Wikipedia, accessed 20160703

An Amadeus Report
A suggested link from the 44111 Program
slide 20

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Pre-Digital Agents
(big like TUI and Amex,
or small like SmallWorld
and local travel shops)
Intermediation of tourism
services mostly not produced
by them
Selling travel packages
Travel Agents
Categories of Tourism Websites (3) – Big or Small Private
slide 21

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Online Travel Agents
(OTA or OLTA, like
Travelocity, Expedia,
Booking.com, Priceline,
Venere, HostelWorld,
eDreams etc.)
Online intermediation and
sale of tourism services
(flights, accommodation, car
rentals, packaged tours etc.)
mostly not produced by
agents
Cashing brokerage rates
(under different specific
models: Expedia’s differs
from Booking.com’s)
Online Travel Agents (OTA, OLTA)
Categories of Tourism Websites (4) – Big Private
slide 22

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Travel Metasearch Engines
(or fare aggregators, like
Trivago, Kayak, Mobissimo
etc.)
Online comparison of
tourism services and their
fares (flights,
accommodation, car rentals,
packaged tours etc.) mostly
offered by Online Travel
Agents
Cashing intermediation,
mostly from Online Travel
Agents
Travel Metasearch Engines
slide 23

IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017IT for Tourism Managers, UniBg 2016-2017 Destinations, Industry, P2P. Lecture 03, November 17, 2016
1. Doing Nothing. A DMO can choose not to
mention hotel accommodation at all.
Several national tourist boards adopt this policy,
as many DMOs are statutorily not allowed to
advice visitors as far as accommodation is
concerned, and are not allowed to sell anything.
But an essential service is missing.
slide 24
Digital? What Can Destinations Do?
It is perhaps appropriate to introduce here the issue of which policy can a
destination adopt, when it deals with selling its tourism services –- starting from
hotel chambers –- to the general public. Here are the four available options
(but note that they can combine with one another).

3. Building Its Own Platform. A DMO can build its
own hotel reservation system, as a public
component of its DMS.
Although this is an expensive option –- and visitors
would still use their favourite OTAs –- this is the
most thorough choice: the DMO fully takes care of,
represents and promotes the hotels in its territory.
slide 25
More Choices for the DMOs
2. Linking To The Hotels’ Websites. A DMO can list the local hotels, and add links
to the hotels’ websites. In practice, this is often the only viable choice.
A service is formally provided, but visitors won't use it very much: it’s easier, for
them, referring to an OTA website.

4. Dealing With An OTA. Finally, a DMO can find an agreement with an OTA or a
Travel Metasearch Engine.
An hotel reservation service is somehow provided, and the DMO can get some
profits through an affiliation agreement.
slide 26
Coming To Terms With The Enemy
Although this is the cheapest and quickest option,
critics might observe that, by doing so, the DMO
looses all its control on accommodation policies,
and abandons all the accommodation businesses
in its own area –- which a DMO should take care of,
represent and promote –- to the OTA’s will.

A similar -– yet more compelling –- issue
must be addressed by hoteliers.
Destinations can choose to avoid OTAs,
but hotels actually can’t.
People are increasingly accustomed to
book through their favourite OTA, and
hotels which are not listed on OTAs run
the risk of becoming invisible.
slide 27
Hoteliers and E-Commerce

On the other hand, OTA obviously charge a percentage on reservations placed
through them –- which erodes the hoteliers’ income.
Although dealing with private enterprises is beyond the scope of these lectures,
this issue has at least to be mentioned here.
Some materials on management of tourism businesses –- relating to previous
workshops held by your lecturer –- are available from the IT for Tourism Managers
webpage at the University website
http://www.unibg.it/struttura/en_struttura.asp?corso=44111
slide 28
Management of Tourism Businesses

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Travel Communities (first of
all, Tripadvisor)
Online comparison of
tourism services (often
accommodation, food and
points of interest) through
user-generated content:
tipically, customer reviews
Cashing advertisings (though
recently TripAdvisor has
become something very very
close to an OTA)
Travel Communities
slide 29
Is it still a travel
community?

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Travel Blogs (or travelogue,
like PeterGreenberg,
NomadicMatt, DigitalNomad,
etc.)
None – though some travel
bloggers increasingly act as
professional travel writers or
journalists. Affiliation is also
possible
Informing on personal
travels, possibly making
profits through agreements
with DMOs or publishers,
and/or marginal profits
through affiliations
Travel Blogs
Categories of Tourism Websites (7) – Small Private
slide 30

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Travel Publishers
(Frommer’s, Lonely Planet,
Touring Club Italiano,
Michelin etc.)
Sale of guidebooks, travel
books or digital content,
mostly produced by the
publishers themselves
Selling books or digital
content directly (no
intermediation). Also selling
massive digital content to
destinations or companies.
Travel Publishers
Categories of Tourism Websites (8) – Private
slide 31

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Small Businesses
or Amateurs (like
CiaoMilano)
Sponsorship and/or
advertisements on the
website; possibly sale of
digital content; affiliation
Informing on a tourist area,
and possibly making
marginal profits through
affiliations
Unofficial “Destinations”, and Affiliation
slide 32

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Accommodation Suppliers
(Family-run private hotel, Bed
& Breakfast, Farmhouse, like
frances.it)
Online sale of tourism
services (hospitality)
produced by the suppliers
themselves
Selling services directly (no
intermediation)
or
selling through
Online Travel Agents and/or
DMOs
Small Service Suppliers
slide 33

Peer-To-Peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or
networking is a distributed
application architecture that
partitions tasks or work loads
between peers.
Peers are equally privileged,
equipotent participants in the
application.
They are said to form a peer-to-
peer network of nodes.
slide 34

General Category
of Tourism Websites
Model Main Task
Accommodation Brokers
(like AirB&B, Wimdu,
Couchsurfing, etc.)
Online intermediation of
accommodation either
provided by small business
or made available by citizens
Cashing brokerage rates, if
any.
(Some of these websites
disguise as sharing economy.)
Accommodation Brokers
Categories of Tourism Websites (6) – Private
slide 35

Airbnb

Uber
Uber Technologies Inc. is an American multinational online transportation
network company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It develops,
markets and operates the Uber mobile app, which allows consumers with
smartphones to submit a trip request which is then routed to Uber drivers who
use their own cars.
As of May 2016, the service was available in over 66 countries and 449 cities worldwide.
Since Uber's launch, several other companies have replicated its Model, a trend that has come to be
referred to as "Uberification“.
slide 37

Peer-To-Peer, or P2P
“Consumers are expected to increasingly turn to peer-to-peer travel services,
which represent today the best answer to some of their needs, while large travel
companies are likely to gradually embrace the peer-to-peer trend.”
Source: World Travel & Tourism Council, “Online Travel in 2016: Mobile Channel and Peer-to-Peer
Travel Services Drivers of Growth”, Medium, January 27, 2016

The Rise Of Peer-To-Peer Travel Services
Source: World Travel
& Tourism Council,
“Online Travel in
2016: Mobile Channel
and Peer-to-Peer
Travel Services
Drivers of Growth”,
Medium, January 27,
2016

Sharing Economy

Crowd-Based Capitalism?
Sharing isn’t new. Giving someone a ride, having a guest
in your spare room, running errands for someone,
participating in a supper club—these are not revolutionary
concepts. What is new, in the “sharing economy,” is that
you are not helping a friend for free; you are providing
these services to a stranger for money.
Arun Sundararajan explains the transition to what he
describes as “crowd-based capitalism”—- a new way of
organizing economic activity that may supplant the
traditional corporate-centered model.

Sharing Economy?

Airbnb Hosts’ Guidebook

Google Local Guides

Contributing?

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