Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
developers, Aurasma uses advanced image and pattern recognition to recognize and understand
real-world images and objects in much in way the human brain does. It then seamlessly blends
the real-world with rich interactive content such as videos and animations called 'Auras'. Auras
can be created for printed images, product packaging, clothing, physical places and users can even
use the app to create and share their own.
To capture the public's attention and further entice travel to Hawaii and Mexico, these
destinations used Aurasma's ability to visually transport their vacation hotspots to potential
travellers. In Chicago and San Francisco, pedestrians could position their mobile devices over
outdoor print ads of Hawaii, and use Aurasma to see the printed ads dissolve into videos of
Hawaii. Those interested in getting more information could then tap on their mobile touch
screen and were automatically directed to gohawaii.com. Mexico used Aurasma to offer exclusive
content to media and key infl uencers in North America via postcards. When the Aurasma viewer
saw the front of the postcard, the image triggered a series of video testimonials from recent trips
to Mexico. To incentivize recipients to unlock the digital content and watch the video, marketers
also included a nice prize. One lucky viewer could win an iPad 2.
Conclusion
In retrospect, the marketing landscape has clearly changed in the last decade for tourism
marketers. The ability to choose the most effective mix of online and offl ine marketing channels
has become a critical issue, but the integration of online marketing within overall marketing
strategy is complicated by diversity in current and emerging online applications. In addition, the
challenges with new media, such as user concerns about privacy, the loss of control for marketers
over the consumer evaluation process and the problems of measuring the return on investment
and its impact on the bottom line are yet to be resolved. Marketers are aware that traditional
communications channels have retained their historically favoured attributes, especially trust and
reliability of information (Danaher and Rossiter 2011). But they are unsure if existing marketing
communications models such as advertising persuasion, consumer behaviour, and 'reach,
frequency, and impact' apply in online media (Valos, Ewing and Powell 2010). To accommodate
a digital world, more research is needed to guide tourism marketers, and research must adopt
new approaches to theory and method. Most of the research about digital media deals with small
behavioural questions about online behaviour and, even then, the work is often quickly outdated
(Mulhern 2009). Research on a deeper level, exploring consumer emotional and behavioural
responses to digital media for example is needed (Page and Mapstone 2010). One fruitful avenue
of further research could be the examination of social media's infl uence on brand relationship
quality (BRQ), described as a customer-based indicator of the strength and depth of the person-
brand relationship (Fournier 1998). Future research could also address which social media
applications have the most success across different customer age groups. If researchers can identify
exactly how, when and where social media infl uences consumers, it will help marketers craft
marketing strategies that take advantage of social media's unique ability to engage with consumers
(Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin 2012).
The digital revolution has upended business as usual in almost all industries, and travel is not
an exception (Carey
et al
. 2012). Consumers are empowered by information. They have near-
access to their fl ight, hotel and car-rental options; virtual price-transparency; and the ability to
play suppliers off against one another. The game, according to many, is delivering a superior
customer experience. As we have seen in this chapter, some companies are using technology to
shape this experience, and we can expect more to come. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for example,
are launching a service that allows its passengers to use their Facebook or LinkedIn profi les to
