1) The document discusses SoCoMo (social, contextual, and mobile) marketing for travel and tourism. It presents both the opportunities and challenges of using social media, location data, and contextual information from mobile devices to provide personalized experiences for tourists. 2) A conceptual framework is developed and evaluated showing how SoCoMo marketing can help tourists get relevant information during all stages of travel to better cope with unexpected situations. It also allows marketers to create more convenient and personalized tourism experiences through highly context-related information. 3) However, challenges like privacy concerns, technological limitations of mobile devices, and data costs must be addressed. Future advances in context-aware services and semantic web technologies may help maximize the potential

1. SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and
Tourism
Dimitrios Buhalis & Marie-Kristin Foerste
eTourism Lab
Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
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2. Agenda
• Introduction
– Problem
– Previous research
• Method
• Evaluation Results
– Conceptual Framework
– SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism
– Conclusion
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3. Introduction
- Problem-
Central Aim of Marketing
To provide customers with:
The Right Product
 At the Right Time
 To the Right Place
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4. Introduction
- Problem-
Mobile Social Media Marketing
Social media
•To address consumer needs and preferences
•To react upon market trends
•To develop deep personal relationships between customers and
businesses (co-creation personalisation  customer
satisfaction)
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5. Introduction
- ProblemSocial Media + Mobile
•Growth of mobile adoption (driven by their ability to stay socially
connected)
•Mobile Social Activity: Customers share opinions and decisions in the
moment of action
•Mobile devices are used in situations where preferences tend to vary
•+ location-based technologies: marketers can connect this information
with their need for information from the immediate
environment
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6. Introduction
- ProblemLocation-based social networks:
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7. Introduction
- Problem-
Location-based Services
•Identification of the location of the consumer
•Creation of location-specific offers based on the preferences
and behaviors that the consumer has revealed on social media
 ‘SoLoMo’
Powerful opportunity to serve the multi-channel and
multi-experienced customer
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8. Introduction
- ProblemThere is more than location!
Context:
“Any information that can be used to characterise the
situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place,
or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between
a user and an application, including the user and applications
themselves” (Abowd and Dey 1999)
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9. Introduction
- Problem-
Contextual Information
External Contextual
Information
•
•
•
•
•
•
Location
Season/Time
Humidity
Light
Weather
Social Environment
Internal Contextual
Information
• Tasks (e.g. to look for a
job)
• Emotional status (sad,
happy, etc.)
• Goals
• Personal events
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10. Introduction
- Problem-
• Mobile Devices are said to have the biggest potential for contextrelevant information
• Latest generation devices are equipped with sensors
- Optical sensors
- Audio sensors
- Motion sensors
- Bio sensors
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11. Introduction
- Problem-
Sensors make mobile devices aware of the situation in which they are
used and of the tasks that the user will perform in the near future,
(Context-Awareness)
 Up to date, situation-specific information while customer is on the
move creates additional meaning to the information
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12. Introduction
- Previous ResearchRelated Studies
•Tussyadiah (2012): Location-based social network (LBSNs)
marketing
Research Gaps
•Limitations in the area of social media in combination with
location-based marketing
•Lack of studies concerning a broader concept of social media
and context marketing combinations
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13. Method
• Conceptual Study
1. Desk Research
2. Conceptual Framework
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14. Evaluation Results
-Conceptual FrameworkConceptual Framework
--
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15. Evaluation Results
- Conceptual Framework-
Advantages of SoCoMo Marketing
Consumer
Supplier
• Personalized, situation- • Long-term loyalty
specific information
• Increased Co-creation
(added value)
• Opportunity to
compete with larger
• More satisfaction
businesses
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16. Evaluation Results
- SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism-
Tourist Perspective:
•Effective response to the fundamental need of
tourist: information during all stages of the travel experience
•Acquisition of unforeseen information to cope with unexpected
situations
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17. Evaluation Results
- SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism-
Marketing Perspective:
•Powerful communication
•Higher degrees of personalisation
•Supply with highly context-related information can lead to
unplanned travel behavior
•Creation of more convenient tourism experiences
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18. Evaluation Results
- SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism-
Challenges:
•Privacy Concerns
•Prices of mobile data in other countries
•Technological limitations
- GPS functions quickly drain the battery power
- Graphical nature depends on screen sizes
- Display of texts, fonts and graphics varies with different mobile
devices
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19. Evaluation Results
- Conclusion-
• Growing amount of devices that allow marketers to generate
situation-aware information
• In tourism SoCoMo marketing can contribute to a more
satisfying experience.
• In the near future:
 Context-aware services will be enhanced with more
information that is transmitted without the consumer’s consent
 Semantic web will bring about technologies that recognize and
understand the meaning of content and therefore maximize the
potentials of SoCoMo marketing
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20. ENTER 2014 Research Track
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