Smart tourism has generated a new paradigm in the tourism industry, propelled by the revolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2014). This has been enabled by tourism organisations and destinations operating as an ecosystem (Boes et al., 2016). A range of technologies, such as smartphones, sensors and beacons, as well as software and applications, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, big data, internet of everything (IoT), cloud computing, autonomous vehicles and drones, have been used to support interoperability and interconnectivity (Buhalis and Leung, 2018). Smart tourism encompasses networked ICT, providing opportunities for both tourism consumers and organisations (Li et al., 2017). Wang et al. (2013) suggests that smart tourism destinations consist of three main components, namely, cloud services, IoT and enduser internet service system.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply institutional theory to demonstrate if and how mimetic, coercive and normative pressures shape technology adoption in hotels and lead to institutional isomorphism.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a qualitative approach involving interviews with managers representing 20 different hotels. A theory-driven thematic analysis was carried out with institutional theory concepts serving as guidance. The data analysis involved three phases, namely, pre-analysis, exploration and finalizing of results. Nvivo software was used to assist with the coding.
Findings
The results show signs of isomorphism on a large scale across several items related to technology adoption practices and uses of technological tools. For instance, hoteliers adopt similar standards, feel the need to mimic competition and all strive to be well-evaluated on sites such as TripAdvisor to achieve legitimacy in the marketplace. In contrast, coercive pressures from trade associations or other governing bodies seem to have little influence on technology adoption decisions. Instead, consumers are seen as powerful agents driving technology adoption in the industry. Regarding normative pressures, certification from third parties is perceived as a more important source of legitimization than recognition from government institutions or trade associations.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the still limited literature on institutional theory in tourism and provides an alternative perspective to understanding technology adoption from a rational technology acceptance model point-of-view.
Evaluation; Results Visualization.. The framework was tested empirically during the FIFA World Cup 2014 at Curitiba (Brazil) as one of the main host city destinations. The research focused on mining of Twitter content with tourist services ontology (hospitality, food & beverages and transportation). In total 58,686 valid messages were collected, analyzed and associated with an application ontology. Content analysis demonstrated an accurate, real time reflection of tourism services. The framework is effective to collect relevant content and identify popular topics in social media towards strategic and operational tourism management. A better understanding of dynamic conversations facilitates better and faster decision making and a rapid response in real time that can support tourism organization and destination competitiveness.
This study focuses on the evaluation of the tourist destination advertising effectiveness. The destination advertising response DAR model was used to analyze data on the effectiveness of destination promotional campaigns on visitor expenditure, in six trip facets: destination, accommodations, attractions, restaurants, events, and shopping. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to identify any differences in total destination spending among the groups of those visitors influenced for each trip facet. A multiple regression analysis was performed to discriminate the performance of the travel facets expenditures in the estimation of total expenditures. Significant results indicate that the “destination,” “accommodations,” and “restaurants” facets directly influence the total expenditures. Self-planners had the highest variance, explaining in total visitor expenditure compared to the regression analysis results of the other two groups (i.e. travel agencies and online travel agencies). The study also explores how destinations can improve their competitiveness on tourist advertising by using technologies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.