Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
implications of smartphone adoption and contextually aware 3G/4G-enabled Internet
applications on tourist experiences, which is discussed later in this section.
In terms of m-commerce in tourism, Kim, Park and Morrison (2008) identifi ed how
important interactive mobile technology would be for tourism and hospitality services in the
future, in that:
M-commerce not only extends the benefi ts of the Web, but also allows for unique services
enabled by the convergence of the Internet with mobile technologies. Travel service
providers will fi nd new ways to increase customer loyalty, generate supplemental revenue
streams and reduce operating costs.
(Kim, Park and Morrison 2008: 394)
They identifi ed that perceived usefulness and ease of use were important factors affecting
respondents' intentions towards mobile technology, and that usefulness was perceived as being
more important.
Watson
et al.
(2004) had earlier identifi ed that mobile phones would revolutionise access to
Internet technology and consequently services, and thus create new commercial applications
(
u
-
commerce
opportunities). In terms of the impact on marketing, they argued that mobile
commerce would add value in four main ways: through:
Amplifi cation
: creating value by extend-
ing or enhancing the conscious interaction with the phenomena;
Attenuation
: creating value by
reducing the necessity of consciously interacting with the phenomena;
Contextual
: processes that
are time-space specifi c and add value through their specifi city; and
Transcension
: processes
that create value by transcending or enabling transcension, of the conventional constraints
of time and space (Watson
et al.
2004: 320).
The ability of the tourism and travel industries to harness these opportunities for contextual
and ubiquitous business development has yet to be realized, however. Lee and Mills remind us
that quality and relevance are still paramount to commercial applications of mobile technologies
for service development. They found that tourists were more likely to repeat purchase and use
mobile Internet services when they were satisfi ed with the product and service offered via the
mobile platform and consumers found there was room for improvement before m-commerce
could be fully optimized in the tourism industry (Lee and Mills 2010).
However, the current situation is very dynamic. Marentakis and Emiris (2010) proposed a
conceptual model of the potential for location aware auctions of tourism services, recognizing
that the ability of tourism service providers to offer last minute, locationally-relevant discounted
products and services could help manage yields more effectively. There is currently a great deal
of activity in developing effective marketing that harnesses social media networks. A number
of studies have proposed useful technological solutions to enhance the tourism marketing
value of user-generated online information about destinations, such as photographs and
descriptions of places in order to reduce 'noise' and enhance the usability of the information for
a range of purposes (see Hao,Cai, Wang, Xiao,Yang, Pang and Zhang 2010 for example). In terms
of opportunities for advertisers, compared with traditional broadcast advertising channels, mobile
advertising offers businesses the opportunity to deliver personalized and interactive messages
according to a consumer's unique location and environment (Chen and Hsieh 2011).
Mobile applications and the tourist experience
Early research in this fi eld focused on the development, user-testing and application of mobile
devices such as PDA's applied to interactivity within learning and visiting experiences of
