Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
35
Challenges of tourism marketing
in the digital, global economy
Simon Hudson
Introduction
In 1999, Steven Spielberg convened a three-day think tank to gather insights from 23 top
futurists for the making of his sci-fi thriller
Minority Report
which depicted the world of 2054.
The goal was to create a realistic view of a plausible future. Projecting out from the present day's
marketing and media technologies - barcode scanners, GPS devices, Bluetooth-enabled cell
phones and TiVo personal video recorders - the fi lmmakers gave shape to an advertising-
saturated society where billboards call out to you on a fi rst-name basis, cereal boxes broadcast
animated commercials, newspapers deliver news instantly over a broadband wireless network,
holographic hosts greet you by name at retail stores and where biometric retina scans deduct the
cost of goods instantly from your bank account.
The technologies portrayed in the fi lm were far from science fi ction, and today many are in
use or are in development - an indication of the rapid pace of technological development.
Wireless newspapers and magazines that stream news updates - like the
USA Today
seen in the
fi lm - are extensions of 'digital paper' technologies currently being developed. Meanwhile,
today's GPS and wireless network technologies are close to the place-based, personalized
advertising that provides a backdrop for the fi lm's city scenes. GPS-based technologies are used
by wireless carriers to target ads to users in specifi c locations; and new Wi-Fi based Location
Enabled Networks (LENs) carve up a wireless network into discrete segments that target users
passing through a specifi ed location. As users pass access points, content can be served up based
on their position. Of course, for all their commercial potential, these technologies are not free of
ethical considerations - a point the movie drives home with a heavy hand (Mathieson 2002).
However, what we are witnessing is a rapidly changing communications environment dominated
by digital technology - and Spielberg's futuristic world is already upon us.
This chapter looks at this new digital era of marketing communications as it applies to
tourism, a digital era dominated by social media. The chapter begins with an introduction
to today's digital marketing environment, and is followed by an analysis of the consumer decision
process in the new digital world. The third section takes a close look at social media and
shows how tourism marketers are embracing social media because of its potential for engage-
ment and collaboration with consumers. The next part of the chapter outlines the challenges
