Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 10.2
Industry examples of technology enhanced tourism experiences
Industry examples
Technology enhanced tourism experience
Hospitality experiences
Inamo Restaurant London
Enhanced dining experience through eTable technology
Sol Melia Hotels
Enhanced guest experience through social media person-to-person
interaction between staff and guests
Destination experiences
Visit Britain
Enhanced co-creation and engagement; mobile, user-generated
application Love UK
Thailand
Enhanced pre-destination experience through websites featuring
videos, images and user-generated stories
New Zealand
Enhanced pre-travel experience through interactive trip planner with
integrated maps, price range and activities
Hong Kong
Enhanced destination navigation through augmented reality
applications for more space information
Cruise experience
Royal Caribbean
Enhanced on-board experience through digital signage to get
directions, restaurant options, events, guest service etc.
Norwegian
Enhanced cruise experience through Norwegian iConcierge app to
make reservations and check activities and communicate with other
smart phone users
Airline experiences
British Airways
Enhanced in-flight customer experience through mobile technology
use for cabin crew
KLM
Enhanced co-creation through social media engagement; facilitate
pre-travel C2C co-creation through social seating programme
whole spectrum of technology enhanced tourism experiences can be created. Whether it is
co-creation with consumers through social media engagement (Visit Britain), interactive travel
planners and platforms (Thailand, New Zealand) or the facilitation of customer-to-customer
co-creation (KLM), the potential use applications for ICTs are manifold. Whatever type of
experience is created, the industry needs to follow the underlying principles, which are:
1 to put the tourist consumer and his/her needs fi rst;
2 allow for an active involvement in the co-creation process; and
3 understand, based on the particularities of the sector, how to implement ICTs to enhance
this process best.
Conclusions and outlook on the future
The developments of experiences, consumer co-creation and technologies have caused a
signifi cant impact on tourism marketing in offering both unprecedented opportunities and at
the same time rising challenges for experience creation in the future. This chapter had the aim
to critically refl ect upon the advances up to date and discuss a paradigm shift towards the creation
of technology enhanced tourism experiences. It has fi rst provided a review of the theoretical
developments of experiences and discussed that the biggest challenge, and at the same time,
