Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Other authors talk about the consumer agency (Arnould and Thompson 2005), which is
related to value creation and consumer/tourist performance that requires competencies and
ability to create a sense of consumption activity and generate creative knowledge. This creative
learning through the diversion offers a source of innovation and sustainable competitive
advantage for the company.
A
new tourist
who is a co-producer
The
new tourist
becomes a producer able to create a new meaning of the company's offer (Certeau
1990) to fi t with his needs. The joint production of goods and services between the company
and the customer is not a new idea; for example fast food or supermarkets have gained some of
their success through customer participation in order to reduce production costs. Historically,
consumer participation in service production was fi rst studied as a strategy to improve productivity
by using the client as a source of free labour, thereby achieving a lower price (Fitzsimmons 1985;
Mills and Morris 1986). In the CCT perspective, a number of authors have proposed to expand
the notion of consumer/tourist participation to the experiential domain, as it helps to guide the
consumer towards a consumption experience related or not to the marketplace, which may
bring him satisfaction (Ladwein 2004). In this sense, co-production is related to active participation
that refl ects the consumer/tourist involvement in shaping the company's offer (Cermak, File and
Price 1994).
Authors such as Cova and Dalli (2009) and Dujarier (2008) show in their works that the
co-producer status of the modern consumer is a direct consequence of consumer empowerment
thanks to the use of digital technology as well as ICTs and Internet as a source of information.
Indeed, with the democratization of the use of digital technologies, new consumption knowledge
in terms of creation and sharing information on consumption have emerged through online
communities.
The
new tourist
who is seeking intermediation
New tourists have also evolved drastically in the way they relate to information provided within
a service context. Indeed, contemporary tourists are still keen to learn from a destination/
culture/attraction, but in a lot of instances the transmission of knowledge has taken new modes
of interpretation. The dominating vision now is to provide information mixed with entertainment,
an approach also known as edutainment (Hertzman, Anderson and Rowley 2008). This can take
different forms: smartphone applications, interactive devices, serious games, cultural treasure
hunts, live interpretation, historical re-enactments, story-telling, etc. Those new forms of
interpretation respond to a need from visitors to engage with local history and culture but in
a lighter approach: they want to know what is essential and important about a place but not in a
detailed and formal way.
To summarize, the six characteristics of the new tourist/consumer identifi ed through the use
of a CCT perspective as a conceptual framework may open up discussions and simulate debate
among consumer and tourism researchers by thinking around a number of theoretical aspects
and related marketing implications. Therefore, researchers and marketers should go beyond the
tangible and the cognitive side and focus more on the dimensions described above when studying
consumer/tourist behaviours. This will help professionals to adapt their offers as well as co-create
and share values with a consumer/tourist who is paradoxical, emotional, empowered, well
informed, competent, ethical and responsible.
