Some 25 Years of eTourism as one of my 2018-2019 lectures at the University of Bergamo

ITforTourismServices,UniBg2018-2019
Some25YearsofeTourism
imagecredittoCapedCoaching
Some25YearsofeTourism.Lecture01,October2,2018

ITforTourismServices,UniBg2018-2019ITforTourismServices,UniBg2018-2019
What Are We Talking About Today?
Some25YearsofeTourism.Lecture01,October2,2018 page2
1. IT & Digital
2. IT & Tourism
3. More Needs
4. Experience
5. The Industry And DMOs
6. Social, Mobile & Big Data
7. Our Calendar This Year
imagecredit
toTravelers.com

Preconditions to These Lectures
Theselectures’syllabus,aspublishedonthewebsiteoftheUniversityof
Bergamo,requiresthatyoufulfillsomepreconditions.Heretheyare.
Englishproficiency;systematic useofe-mail,webnavigation,social
networking,and mobilecommunication;willingnesstokeepintouchona
professionallevelthroughsocialnetworksand/ore-learningplatforms.
Recognizingthetechnicalnatureofwebnavigation:basicunderstanding of
operatingsystems,communicationprotocolsamongcomputers,andthehtml.
Therefore,theselecturesare takingyourawarenessofoperatingsystems,
communicationprotocolsamongcomputers,andthe html,asgranted.

IT & Digital
Theselecturesareentitled ITforTourismServices.
ITstandsforInformationTechnology,whichistheuseofcomputerstostore,
retrieve,transmit,andmanipulatedata,orinformation.ITisconsideredtobea
subsetofInformationandCommunicationTechnologies(ICT).
Alldatathatacomputerprocessesmustbeencodeddigitally.
Thewordsabovearequoted fromtheEnglish–i.e.global–editionofWikipedia.
Though Wikipediacannot beconsidered anacademicsource,yourlecturer
stronglybelievesitsglobaleditioncanbequotedinanacademicenvironment
asreasonably astheEncyclopediaBritannica oranyotherfact-checkedsource,
theauthors ofwhicharepublished.

What Is Digital?
DigitalderivesfromtheLatinwordDigitus,meaningfinger.
Inshort,digitaliswhatcanberepresentedwithnumbers,whichcanbe
countedwithfingers.
Digitalisopposedtoanalogue(analog,intheUSA)whichisrelatedtowhatis
notcountable:whatcannotbeconsideredwithinadiscretesetofelements.
page5Some25YearsofeTourism.Lecture01,October2,2018

A Real Wave, and a Digital Wave
page6
TheMP3lossycompressionworksby
reducing(orapproximating)theaccuracy
ofcertain partsofacontinuoussoundthat
areconsidered tobebeyondtheauditory
resolutionabilityofmostpeople.
Thismethodisreferred toasperceptual
coding.Itusespsychoacousticmodelsto
discardorreduceprecisionofcomponents
lessaudibletohumanhearing.
Source: Wikipedia

A Cello vs. an iPod
imagecreditto30cc

Mechanical vs. Digital Watches
Amechanicalwatchisanalogueinasmuchastheposition
ofeachofitsthreehands(hours,minutesand seconds)
canrepresent anyoftheinfinitepointsformingthecircle
ofthewatchitself–pointsthatcannotbenumbered.
page8
Inadigitalwatch,
instead, onlythe
figureswhichmakeup
hours,minutesand
seconds areusually
represented–onlythe
86,400moments(24
hoursx60minutesx60
seconds)makingup
theseconds ofaday.

Painting, Photographs, and Pixels
Anoiloncanvas painting,orawatercolour,oratraditional
photograph(aphotographbasedonachemicalfilm)consistsof
aninfinitenumberofpointsinaninfiniterangeofcolours.
Apaintingorachemicalphotographcanbedigitized(scanned,
forinstance)andtranslatedintoa digitalphotowhereits
surfaceisrepresented asdividedintoadiscretenumberof
“points”(usuallysmallsquarescalledpixels).
Eachpixelreproducesonlyonecolour inanavailablerangeof
16,777,216(acombinationof256shadesofred,256ofgreenand
256ofblue–according tothewidelyused RGBcolourmodel).

Another Way to Digitalize Images
Note,however,thatthere’s
anotherapproachtodigital
images.
Beyond pixel“squares”,
digitalgraphiccanbe
designedandmanaged
throughvectors.
Portionsofspacearedefined
byBéziercurves.
page10
imagecreditstothewindowsclub,nepero.net

Waves and Bits
Many technologiesrelyondigitaltoreproduceawave(asoundoralightwave)
thatwasoriginallyanalogue.
page11
Amodem,asthosecurrentlyusedforADSLconnections,
convertsananaloguesoundsignalthatcanbesentthrough
telephonewiresintoadigitalsignal,ofthesortrequested
bycomputersorotherelectronicdevicesworkingbybits
(1/0).
(Bytheway,ADSLstandsfor
AsymmetricDigitalSubscriberLine)

Bits vs. Bytes
Abit(abinarydigit)isthebasicunitofinformationincomputing;
itistheamountofinformationstoredbyadigitaldeviceorother
physicalsystemthatexistsinoneof twopossibledistinctstates.
These maybethe twostablestatesof aflip-flop,twopositionsofanelectrical
switch,twodistinctvoltage orcurrentlevelsallowedbyacircuit,twodistinctlevels
oflightintensity,twodirectionsofmagnetization orpolarization,etc.
Thebyte,instead,isaunitofdigitalinformationincomputingand
telecommunications,thatmostcommonlyconsistsof eightbits.
Historically,abytewasthenumberofbitsused toencode asinglecharacteroftext
inacomputerandforthisreason itisthebasicaddressable elementinmany
computerarchitectures.
page12
1/0
Yes/No
True/False
Thisiscalleda
BooleanDataType.

ASCII Characters
Everytimea
computerdeals
withacharachter,
itdealsinfact
withaBoolean
stringofeight1/0.

Digital Is a Revolution, of Course
Sociallyrelevant consequencesofbeingdigital include
InformationandCommunicationTechnologies(ADSL,broadband,Wi-Fi...)
Informationsharing (theInternet,the Web,mobilephones...)
E-mailandSocialNetworkingposts(sentandreceivedthroughtheInternet)
Sharingofmusicandvideos (Mp3,iTunes...)
Digitalhaschanged ourlives.Nonetheless, digitalisinnerlypoorerthan
analogueinasmuchasitconveys asimplifiedmessage.
(This,bytheway,mayimplythatdigitalcommunicationisinvariablypoorer
thanpersonalcommunication.
Let’snotforgetit,whencommunicatingthroughtheInternet.)

Communicating In Person
Thebestwaytocommunicateismeetingsomeoneinperson.
It’stherealthing –uncountableand,ifyouwant,analogue.
Whenyoucallher/himthroughavideophone(or VoIP,like
Skype),youmissatleastthephysicalcontextaroundher/him.
Whenyoucallher/himonthephone,youmissthephysical
context,andyoudon’tseeher/him.
Whenyousendher/himane-mailmessage,youmissthe
physicalcontext,youdon’tseeher/him,andyoudon’tknow
whenandwhereshe/hewillread.

Digital Communication
Whenyousendher/himatextmessage,youmissthe
physicalcontext,youdon’tseeher/him,youdon’tknow
whenandwhereshe/hewillread,andyoumustkeepitshort.
Whenpostsomething ontheWeb,youmissthephysical
context,youdon’tseeyouraudience,youdon’t knowwhen
andwhereyouraudiencewillread,youmustkeepitshort,
andyoudon’tknow–orwillknowlittleof–youraudience.
page16
Let’snotforgetallthis,whencommunicatingthroughtheInternet!

Digital Is “poor”, Yet Very Powerful
Weshouldnot,however,forgetthegreat
powerofdigital.
“Poor”communicationandrelationships –
Facebook“friends”arenotnecessarilyfriends
–areparalleledbyanenormousquantitative
increaseincommunication,relationships,
andsocialinfluence.
 Fakenews,forinstance,areverypowerful.
Wetalkless,butcantalkto manymorepeople.And candomanymorethings.
imagecredittoMashable

“Being digital” as a 1995 Book
“Iamoptimisticbynature.However,everytechnologyorgiftofscience
hasadarkside.Beingdigitalisnoexception.
Thenextdecade[1995-2005] willseecasesofintellectual-property
abuseandinvasionofour privacy.Wewillexperiencedigital
vandalism,softwarepiracy,anddatathievery.
Worstofall,wewillwitnessthelossofmanyjobs.[…]
Itishere.Itisnow.Itisalmostgeneticinitsnature,inthateach
generationwillbecomemore digitalthantheprecedingone.
Thecontrolbitsofthatdigitalfutureare more thanever beforeinthehandsofthe
young.Nothingcouldmake mehappier.”
—NicholasNegroponte,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology(MIT)

Coding
Howdoesdigitalwork?It’snot
simplyamatterofreducingthings
intobitsandbytes.
It’salsoamatterofmakingmachines
tooperate.Thisisdonebycoding.
Coded instructionsgivento
machinesinorder tomakethem
processoperationsarecalled
algorythms.
Let’squoteWikipediaagain.
imagecredittoRowanSimpson

Algorythms According to Wikipedia
“Inmathematicsandcomputerscience,analgorithmisanunambiguous
specificationofhowtosolveaclassofproblems.
Algorithmscanperformcalculation,dataprocessingandautomatedreasoning
tasks.Asaneffectivemethod,analgorithmcanbeexpressedwithin afinite
amountofspaceandtimeandinawell-definedformallanguageforcalculating
afunction.
Starting fromaninitialstateandinitialinput(perhapsempty),theinstructions
describeacomputationthat, whenexecuted,proceedsthrough afinitenumber
ofwell-definedsuccessivestates,eventuallyproducing‘output’and
terminating atafinalendingstate.”

Can Digital Machinery Learn?
Machinescanbeinstructednotsimplytoproduceoutputs.
Theycanalsobeinstructedtomimichumanintelligence, processingpiecesof
informationinawayreplicatedfromhumanintelligencebutmuchfaster.
Thisisgenerically calledtheArtificialIntelligence(AI).
Forexample,whenFacebookprovidesyouwithadvertisementbasedonwhat
youlookedatbeforehand, orGoogledeliversanswerstoyoursearches which
arebasedonthepagesyoupreviouslyvisited,theseareinstancesofAI.
FacebookandGooglehavelearntfromyourpreviousbehaviourontheNet.
Theiralgorythmshavebeencodedtomakeyouseefirst –oronly–content
thatisclosertoallthatFacebookorGooglehaverecordedyoudidbefore.

Machines Learn
imagecredittoGeneticLiteracyProject

Digital, Market Capitalization, Power
Asearlyasin
August2016the
threebiggest
companiesinthe
worldbelongedto
theInformation
Technology
sector.
Source: TheEconomist

Digital, Share Prices, Power
Aboutanyear
later,inOctober
2017,similar
conclusionscould
bedrawninterms
ofshareprices
andtheirrise.
Source: FinancialTimes

A Warning, Just In Case
Onepointshouldbeunderlined,justincase.
Bynowayyourlecturermeansthat numbersare
poor–orevendangerous.
Onthecontrary, numbersareafundamental
component ofscience,whichisessentialfor
anypossibleabilitytounderstandreality.
Onlyconsider thatanyattempttocoderealityin
Booleantermsisnotthesamethingasreality.
E.g.fakenewshavenothingtodowithscience,
exactlyliketheyhavenothingtodowithreality. ApixeledGalileo,byChineseartistAiWeiwei

IT & Tourism
ThedigitalrevolutionandtheInformationTechnologies
(IT)havehadastrongimpact ontourism.
Traditionaltouroperators,likeTUIorCarlson,andtravel
retailersnolongerdominate thetouristmarket.
Somecallthisprocessdisintermediation.
Thismeansthat today TravelProviders–likeAirFrance,
DeutscheBahn,orAccor–canselltheirtouristservices
andproductsdirectlytofinalcustomers,andnolonger
need traditionalagentsliketouroperators,travel
retailersorticketoffices.

Thisistrue,butit’snotonlyamatterofdisintermediation...
Actually,OnlineTravelAgents(OTAs,orOLTAs)like
Booking.com,Expedia,TripAdvisorandAirbnbdonotsimply
“disintermediate”.
Theynowrunadifferentsortofintermediationbetween
TravelProducersandfinalcustomers.
BigOTAslikeBooking.com,Expedia,TripAdvisorandAirbnb
–thoughspringingfromdiversestories,and adopting
diversemodels–havenowallsucceededin takingthe
placeoftraditional touroperatorsand travelretailers.
Online Travel Agents

Travel Providers vs. Travel Agents
Adistinctionshouldalwaysbemade
betweentravelprovidersandtravelagents.
 Travelprovidersprovidetravelproducts.
 TravelproviderscansellthroughtheWeb
theproductstheyproduce.
o Travelagentsdonotprovide travel
products.
o Travelagentscanonlysellthroughthe
Websomeoneelse’stravelproducts.

Ok, But The Places?
Thiscourse,however,does notdealwiththetouristindustryonly.
Itmainlydealswithtourists,touristplaces,andthe peoplewhoinhabittourist
imagecredittoinfinityimmigration.com,BC,Canada
places:thelocals.
Afundamentalroleintourism
isperformedbythewayin
whichlocalsorganizetourism.
Localorganizations which
organize tourismarecalled
DestinationManagement
Organizations(DMOs).

Digitaltechnologieshavepavedthewaytointeresting
andappealingnewwaysofsellingtouristservices,
productsandplacesdirectlytofinalcustomers.
Oneofthefirsthasbeentheso-calledLastMinute,
whichofferlatetraveldeals.
Appealing Technologies
AnotherisDynamicPackaging–oftenconnected
withRecommendationSystems–whichallows
customerstobuildtheirowntravelitinerariesby
consultingrecommendations fromprevious
touristsand assemblingservicesaccordingly.
imagecredittoDepositphotos
imagecredittobug-software.com

Digital Has Invaded Tourism
Thisinnovationprocessisfastandstillongoing, andwereallydon’tknow
whichnewtechnologies willaffectthetourismworldinthefuture.
Recentinstanceshave
beenUberandAirbnb,
twoDisruptorswhichnow
drivethemarket,but
beganoperationsonly
sevenoreightyearsago.
Tourismhascometobeconsidered aleadinginnovationfield,whichan
aggressiveindustryplatformlikeSkifthasprioritized.SomeSkiftslidesfollow.

Skifthistory 1

Skifthistory 2

Skifthistory 3

More Needs
Ontheotherhand,digitalhasallowedtouriststo
decidemoreconsciouslywheretogo
knowmoreaboutplaces tobevisited
askmoreneedstobefulfilledbytouristoperators.
Technologicalevolutions,infact,havebeenrelevantnotonly
totouristoperators.
Quitetheopposite:theattitudeoftravelers’behaviourhas
changedconsiderably,too.
Today,touristsneed arangeofinformation before,duringand
aftertheirtravelexperience–andtheysharethisinformation!
imagecredittoTravelers.com

Before, During & After
Todaytripsarenotonlyplannedbeforedeparture,butalso
constantly modified,transformed and remodeledduring
theexperience,dueto
stimuliarisingfromthetripitselfaswellasthanksto
recommendationsofothertourists whohadsimilar
experiencesinthesamedestination,while
datagathered duringthetrip,likephotosandcomments
posted,helpremembering andrethinking afterwards.
Touristdestinationscannowcooperateinaco-creationoftouristexperience.

Experience
Afactortobeconsidered istheexperientialnatureofthe
tourismproduct–asresearch byPine&Gilmorehave
begununderliningsince1999.
Whentouriststravel,aswellaswhentheygetbackfrom
atrip,theytendto sharetheirexperiencewithfamilyand
friends,aspartakersduringtheholiday.
Thisiswhycommunicationpracticessuchaswordof
mouthandrecommendationshavebeensuccessfulin
tourismcommunicationevenbeforetheInternet arrived.
ThekeywordforthisprocessisUserGeneratedContent(UGC).

TripAdvisor
ThefirstwebsitetotakeoffthankstotheeWordofMouth
(eWOM)–andactuallytheveryfirstplatformtogather
UserGeneratedContentonamassscale–wasTripAdvisor.
Althoughithasbeenturnedintosomethingverycloseto
anOnlineTravelAgent inrecent years,TripAdvisorwas
borninFebruary2000asatouristcommunity.
Asitsfounders said,“Westartedasasitewherewewerefocused moreonthose officialwordsfrom
guidebooks ornewspapers ormagazines.
Wealsohad abuttonintheverybeginning thatsaid,‘Visitors,addyourownreview’,and prettysoon the
numberofaverage consumer reviewsfarsurpassed thenumberof‘professional reviews’.”

The Industry and DMOs
AswesawfromtheSkifthistory, ITandtourismhavelongbeenparalleland
rapidlygrowingphenomena.
page39
 Thetourismindustry beganusingITtoimprove
transportation, intermediationandhospitalityshortly
afterWW2.ThoseweretheyearswhenComputer
ReservationsSystems(CRS)–laterGlobalDistribution
Systems(GDS),likeSabreandAmadeus –wereborn.
 ThentheInterneterafullystarted(1991-2002),andboththeindustryand
DestinationManagementOrganizations(DMOs)begandevelopingwebsites,in
ordertocommunicatesmoothly withtheirpotentialcustomers.
imagecredittohotelseye

Customer Care & Support
 In1991-2002DMOsinvolvedlocalactors–or,rather,
triedtoinvolvelocalactors... –bycentralizingand
distributingtouristinformationandservicesfromvarious
partnersintheirowndestinations’territories.
 However,duringthefollowingdecadesoftheInternet
era(2002-today)thechangehasbeenmoreradical.
OperatorsandDMOshaveshiftedfromcreating
technologicalartifacts,likewebsites,tocustomercareand
increased supporttothetourists’decision-makingprocess.
page40
Asalreadyobserved,destinationscannowtry co-creatingthetouristexperience.

Social Media
Wecansaythatfourrecentdevelopmentsrelatedto
theriseoftheInformationandCommunication
Technologieshavecontributedandarestill
contributingtotheshift.
page41
1.Theso-calledWeb2.0andsocialnetworking platforms–
likeFacebook,Twitter,Instagram,orGoogle+,aswellas
communitieslikeFlickr,YouTube,orTripAdvisoritself–have
turnedtheattentionoftouristoperatorsanddestinations (or,
actually,someofthem...)to abetterinteractionwithtourists.

Mobile, GPS, and Broadband
2.Morerecently,mobiledevices(smartphonesandtablets)
haveemergedandconsolidated onaglobalscale,making
highcomputingpowerand constantconnectivityavailable
toawideraudience.Obviously,userstakeadvantage of
theseopportunitiesduringtheirtravelexperience,too.
3.Moreover, smartphonesnow“know”wheretheirowners
arelocated,thankstotheGlobalPositioningSystem(GPS).
4.Inaddition,thefirstyearsinthesecurrentdecadesofthe
Internet erahavewitnessedtheexpansionofhigh-speed
connections, orbroadband.
page42

Social as the Default State
Thesocial networking trend wasidentified(and
denounced)byAndrewKeenasearlyasin2012.
Inhisbook#digitalvertigo hewrotethat
“ThesocialhasbecomethedefaultsettingoftheInternet.”
Now,socialnetworking hascombinedwiththediffusion
ofsmartphones andthespreadingof broadband
communication–increasinglyreleasedthrough Wi-Fi
connectivity–tothepointthatthebasicsituationtobe
consideredbyDMOsandtourismmanagersismobilesocial.
page43

Networks & Big Data
Socialnetworking platforms,smartphones, geopositioning
andwi-ficombinetogenerate hugesetsofdata. Theyare
whatwe’vebecomeaccustomedtorefertoasBigData.
Bigorsmallthat theycanbe,these“bigdata”arenot
homogeneous,andhavedifferentowners.
Yettheycan–theoretically, atleast–begathered,
analyzed, processedbyAI,andused.
BigDatacanbeusedbytourismmanagers–likeyou,too,
maybeinthefuture–tounderstand howusersbehave,try
co-creatingtheirexperience,andinfluencethemtobuy.
Source: Google

Today’s Key Points
1. Digital Is Poorer Than Reality
2. Digital Is Very Powerful
3. Digital Has Invaded Tourism
4. Tourists’ Needs Have Increased
5. Social Is The Default State
6. Mobile Is The Basic Situation
7. ‘‘Big Data’’ Can/Must Be Used
imagecreditto30cc

Our Program This Year
Ok.Thisisenough,forourfirstmeeting.
Now,let’sconsiderhowandwhenwewilldealwithallthisbeforeChristmas.
 NetworksandSocialNetworks:WebPresence
 MobilecommunicationandGeopositioning
 DataAnalysisand WebReputation
 Design:ContentandUsability
 Qualityandqualityevaluation
 Big-BangDisruptions
 YOU
October
November
December>Yourdeliveryofqualityevaluations

Now a Calendar In Detail
01.Today
Some
25Years
ofeTourism
02.Thursday,Oct4
Networks
&SocialNetworks.
WebPresence
04. Thursday, Oct11
Mobile,Smartphones,
Wi-Fi,andApps
03.Tuesday, Oct9
Destinations,
theIndustry,
andPeer-To-Peer
06.Thursday, Oct18
WebReputation:
Likes,Engagement
&Sentiment
05.Tuesday, Oct16
Analytics,Insights,
Cookies,andthe
Disappearing
Privacy
07. Tuesday, Oct23
Design:Content,
Copyright
&CreativeCommons

Approaching the Assessment
08.Tuesday,Oct30
Design:Usability,
Gamification,
Augmented&Virtual
Reality
09.Thursday,Nov1st
Quality,Standards,
Models&Meta-Models.
The7Loci
11.Tuesday,Nov 20
WebPresence
QualityReporting
12.Thursday,Nov22
Big-Bang
Disruptions
andTourism
13.Tuesday,Dec 4
Yourreports’
presentation:
1stgroup
14. Tuesday,Dec11
Yourreports’
presentation:
2ndgroup
15.Thursday,Dec13
Yourreports’
presentation:
3rdgroup
10.Tuesday,Nov13
WebPresence.
A7Loci
Evaluation
Model

Thanks For Your Attention
Picturefrom the2017-2018Course

Some 25 Years of eTourism as one of my 2018-2019 lectures at the University of Bergamo

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