Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

tom Dieck, M. Claudia; Jung, Timothy; Han, Dai-In

2016 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-09-2015-0036

PurposeRecent advancements in wearable computing offer opportunities for art galleries to provide a unique experience. However, to ensure successful implementation of this new technology in the visitor industry, it is essential to understand user requirements from a visitor’s point of view. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate visitors’ requirements for the development of a wearable smart glasses augmented reality (AR) application in the museum and art gallery context.Design/methodology/approachInterviews with 28 art gallery visitors were conducted and an affinity diagram technique was used to analyze the interviews.FindingsThe findings reveal that wearable AR is in its infancy and that technical and design issues have to be overcome for a full adoption. It reveals that content requirement, functional requirement, comfort, experience and resistance are important when developing and implementing the wearable AR application in the museum and art gallery contexts.Originality/valueMapping user requirements in the wearable smart glasses AR context using an affinity diagram is a new approach and therefore contributes to the creation of knowledge in the tourism domain. Practically, the area of wearable technologies and AR within the tourism and visitor industry context is still relatively unexplored, and the present paper provides a first foundation for the implementation of wearable smart glasses AR applications in the museum and art gallery context.

Trojan, Jakub

2016 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-07-2015-0028

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose the platform for effective transformation of points of interests (POIs) into augmented reality (AR), specifically into the three major software tools – Junaio, Layar and Wikitude. The objective is to facilitate the creation of POIs for common users of these programs and, thus, encourage the general public to participate in the formation of a new concept of applications using AR and location-based services.Design/methodology/approachThe subject of this study was analysis of methods used for POI dynamisation under the context of location-based services. This paper suggests methodology based on database format transformation. It is focused on the creation of platform for automated geotagged POI transformation into AR.FindingsThe research results in prototype of online platform which is capable to automatically transform geotagged POI to three major AR applications. It discusses also the model implementation of this platform in Czech national tourist authority.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper presents a proof-of-concept of dynamisation and transformation of an unspecified number of POIs stored in a simple table database and their transformation into the AR.Practical implicationsServices of AR are brought for the masses to effectively dynamise tourist information.Social implicationsResults could make the process of multimedialising data (POIs) more suitable for masses.Originality/valueThis paper presents a proof-of-concept of dynamisation and transformation of an unspecified number of POIs stored in a simple table database and their transfer into the three major AR applications.

Canziani, Bonnie Farber; Welsh, Dianne H.B.

2016 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-02-2016-0009

PurposeThe study aims to offer a general review of website evaluation, with particular application to the winery tourism field. Automated website evaluation is explored as a complementary tool in the evaluation of small and medium enterprise (SME) winery websites.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a mixed-method investigation including a critical review of winery website evaluation literature and analysis of winery website scores generated through a free service of a commercial automated evaluation scoring system.FindingsNo standards currently exist for winery website evaluation metrics and current evaluation processes suffer from human rater bias. An automated evaluation scoring system used in the study was able to discriminate between a sample of known best practice websites and other independently formed samples representing average wineries in the USA and in North Carolina.Research limitations/implicationsWineries and other small business tourism firms can benefit by incorporating automated website evaluation and benchmarking into their internet strategies. Reported human rater limitations noted in manual evaluation may be minimized using automated rating technology. Automated evaluation system metrics tend to be updated more frequently and offer better alignment with trending consumer expectations for website design.Originality/valueThe current study used an automated website quality evaluation tool that serves to move winery website design efforts forward and supports the goals of reputation management for tourism businesses relying on internet marketing.

Meehan, Kevin; Lunney, Tom; Curran, Kevin; McCaughey, Aiden

2016 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-10-2014-0064

PurposeManufacturers of smartphone devices are increasingly utilising a diverse range of sensors. This innovation has enabled developers to accurately determine a user’s current context. One area that has been significantly enhanced by the increased use of context in mobile applications is tourism. Traditionally, tour guide applications rely heavily on location and essentially ignore other types of context. This has led to problems of inappropriate suggestions and tourists experiencing information overload. These problems can be mitigated if appropriate personalisation and content filtering is performed. This research proposes an intelligent context-aware recommender system that aims to minimise the highlighted problems.Design/methodology/approachIntelligent reasoning was performed to determine the weight or importance of different types of environmental and temporal context. Environmental context such as the weather outside can have an impact on the suitability of tourist attractions. Temporal context can be the time of day or season; this is particularly important in tourism as it is largely a seasonal activity. Social context such as social media can potentially provide an indication of the “mood” of an attraction. These types of contexts are combined with location data and the context of the user to provide a more effective recommendation to tourists. The evaluation of the system is a user study that utilised both qualitative and quantitative methods, involving 40 participants of differing gender, age group, number of children and marital status.FindingsThis study revealed that the participants selected the context-based recommendation at a significantly higher level than either location-based recommendation or random recommendation. It was clear from analysing the questionnaire results that location is not the only influencing factor when deciding on a tourist attraction to visit.Research limitations/implicationsTo effectively determine the success of the recommender system, various combinations of contextual conditions were simulated. Simulating contexts provided the ability to randomly assign different contextual conditions to ensure an effective recommendation under all circumstances. This is not a reflection of the “real world”, because in a “real world” field study the majority of the contextual conditions will be similar. For example, if a tourist visited numerous attractions in one day, then it is likely that the weather conditions would be the same for the majority of the day, especially in the summer season.Practical implicationsUtilising this type of recommender system would allow the tourists to “go their own way” rather than following a prescribed route. By using this system, tourists can co-create their own experience using both social media and mobile technology. This increases the need to retain user preferences and have it available for multiple destinations. The application will be able to learn further through multiple trips, and as a result, the personalisation aspect will be incrementally refined over time. This extensible aspect is increasingly important as personalisation is gradually more effective as more data is collated.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the body of knowledge that currently exists regarding the study of utilising contextual conditions in mobile recommender systems. The novelty of the system proposed by this research is the combination of various types of temporal, environmental and personal context data to inform a recommendation in an extensible tourism application. Also, performing sentiment analysis on social media data has not previously been integrated into a tourist recommender system. The evaluation concludes that this research provides clear evidence for the benefits of combining social media data with environmental and temporal context to provide an effective recommendation.

Erdem, Mehmet; Jiang, Lan

2016 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-10-2014-0058

PurposeThe purpose of this research study is to present an overview of hotel revenue management (RM) research articles published in scholarly journals during the 2001-2013 period while offering a direction for future research that focuses on RM in the hotel industry context.Design/methodology/approachUsing Boolean search keywords across the period of 2001 to 2013, a total of 83 hotel RM-related research journal articles were queried. To ensure that all the identified articles were hotel-RM related, each article was independently reviewed; 70 research journal articles were identified as relevant for inclusion in this study.FindingsRM has been and will continue to be a critical tool for the hotel industry, especially since the rise of its perceived strategic role among hoteliers. The RM process is shifting from a tactical to a strategic approach. Also, RM has become more technology driven and it is becoming more customer-centric. Hoteliers should spend more effort and resources on training and educating revenue managers.Research limitationsThe content analysis is limited to the databases available to the research team.Practical implicationsThis study serves as a resource for scholars interested in RM research in the hotel industry and documents the focus of RM research and the key issues offered by scholars.Originality/valueNo study has previously offered an overview of RM research articles focusing on the hotel industry (covering the years since 2000). The manuscript serves as framework for scholars who may wish to identify existing research patterns and pursue new directions.

Makki, Abdullah M.; Singh, Dipendra; Ozturk, Ahmet Bulent

2016 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/JHTT-12-2015-0050

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate the influence of a hotel’s listing on the last-minute hotel booking app, HotelTonight, and average daily rate (ADR) on the hotel’s net operating income (NOI). The study examines the mediating effect of hotel occupancy rate on the relationships between ADR and hotel app usage in terms of NOI.Design/methodology/approachThe data for the study was graciously provided by Smith Travel Research, Inc. for 80 hotels located in the top Florida destinations listed on the HotelTonight app. Hierarchical multiple regression with a mediation effect was used in the study to test the mediating effect of occupancy between hotel app usage and ADR with NOI.FindingsThe research results show a positive association between a hotel’s HotelTonight listing and ADR in terms of its NOI. Occupancy is found to have a full mediation effect between a hotel’s usage of the mobile app and NOI.Originality/valueMobile apps that specialize in last-minute hotel bookings have proliferated in recent years by providing hotels a mobile platform to increase hotel occupancy. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the effect these apps have on a hotel’s bottom line profitability or NOI.