MU researchers show how Web 2.0, social and mobile communities shape tourist experiences
September 24, 2017
Lidija Lalicic and Astrid Dickinger from the Department of Tourism and Service Management have recently had their chapter entitled 'Tourist-driven innovations in social media: an opportunity for tourism organizations' published in Marianna Sigala and Ulikre Gretzel's edited book: Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality.
The book chapter illustrates how the development of Web 2.0, social media platforms and mobile computing communities allows tourists to become independent actors in the experience network. The chapter refers to the concept of tourist-driven innovation. This concept demonstrates the new ways tourists are traveling and acting as a part of the experience network supported by social media. Furthermore, the chapter illustrates a solid framework towards developing new perspectives about tourist-driven innovation for tourism organizations.
Various forms of business model innovations are identified for businesses to optimally deal with this phenomenon in a strategic way. In doing so, they show how the future of innovation processes of tourism firm’s starts with learning from the independently acting tourists.
As Lidija and Astrid state in their book chapter, "consumer-centric thinking cannot be ignored any longer by practitioners when aiming for effective business model innovation."
