Tourism and the smartphone app: capabilities, emerging practice and scope in the travel domain

Abstract

Based on its advanced computing capabilities and ubiquity, the smartphone has rapidly been adopted as a tourism travel tool. With a growing number of users and a wide variety of applications emerging, the smartphone is fundamentally altering our current use and understanding of the transport network and tourism travel. Based on a review of smartphone apps, this article evaluates the current functionalities used in the domestic tourism travel domain and highlights where the next major developments lie. Then, at a more conceptual level, the article analyses how the smartphone mediates tourism travel and the role it might play in more collaborative and dynamic travel decisions to facilitate sustainable travel. Some emerging research challenges are discussed.

Consumer behaviour in tourism: Concepts, influences and opportunities

“…For example, existing research on alternative evaluation frequently employs choice sets approaches (Decrop, 2010;see Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005, for a review of these models), but little consideration is given to how technology affects the development of choice sets. Some recent studies uncover how technology changes the tourist experience during the trip, including how smartphones influence the touristic experience (Dickinson et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2012) and what influences the level of usage and interaction with WebGIS (Chang & Caneday, 2011). Given the ever-growing access to and usage of mobile technologies, future research should focus on examining how these technologies are impacting the ways in which tourists experience destinations.…”

The Role of Mobile Applications in the Consumer Experience at Music Festivals

“…Pine and Gilmore (1999) would define this as an "escapist experience" (p. 33) as attendees travel Another significant development into which app developers are tapping is web 2.0. The power of social media is evident from the tourism field where user-generated feeds such as Facebook and Twitter frequently reveal travel problems ahead of national news broadcasts (Dickinson et al, 2012), and user reviews are exerting a powerful force on industry operations (Buhalis & Law, 2008). Within the festival environment, where consumers are coproducers of the experience, the unique capacity of smartphones to connect users to other festival attendees, festival organizers, as well as other social settings, is providing a more relational experience.…”

“…This will be true of the festival context, which is attracting the attention of computer scientists keen to provide services to a captive audience of young consumers (see, e.g., Driver & Clarke, 2008). In a tourism setting, Dickinson et al (2012) describe how the smartphone provides a new sociotechnical substrate that provides users with local knowledge in an unfamiliar environment. Such knowledge in a festival context might be unforeseen variations to the schedule, the fastest route back to your tent, or notification that an area is closed due to flooding.…”

“…However, given that some apps integrate an element of social networking, it might be worthwhile including a travel posts section so users can provide live updates about travel problems. This web 2.0 feature has been acknowledged as a useful feature for travel communities (Dickinson et al, 2012). In addition, festival manages might consider providing live travel updates regarding travel problems in the immediate vicinity of the festival, though to be useful this would require constant updates.…”

E-Book Reading Applications – Innovative Technology as a Response to Growing Consumer Preferences and Its Implications for Tourism

“…Due to its capability to link people to remote information sources, exchange location-based data and social information, it became an irreplaceable and "powerful tool for tourists" (Dickinson et al, 2014). Owing to the usefulness and the rapid diffusion of mobile technology in the tourism context, a wide range of mobile Apps emerged: travel and transport related Apps, tourist-specific Apps, socialnetworking Apps and Apps extending social networking to the information tourists might find useful (Dickinson et al, 2014). Mobile devices enable their users to install and use the Apps based on their interests, needs and preferences.…”