Assortative Matching of Tourists and Destinations: Agents or Algorithms?

Abstract

We propose that assortative matching, a well-established paradigm in other industry sectors and academic disciplines, can underpin the concept of destination matching. This provides a new foundation to integrate research concepts and terminology in destination marketing and destination choice. We argue that the commercial tourism industry already applies destination matching approaches, with three historical phases. Initially, matching of tourists and destinations relied on the tacit expertise of specialist agents. This still applies in specialist subsectors. For generalist travel and accommodation, human agents were partially replaced by online travel agents, OTAs, which are customised algorithms operating only in the travel sector. These still exist, but their share price trends suggest decreasing significance. Currently, automated assortative algorithms use multiple sources of digital data to push appealing offers to potential purchasers, across all retail sectors. Digital marketing strategies for tourism products, enterprises, and destinations are now just one category of generalised product–purchaser matching, using entirely automated algorithms. Researchers do not have access to proprietary algorithms, but we can identify which components they incorporate by analysing their underlying patents. We propose that theories of destination marketing and choice need to reflect these recent and rapid real-world changes via deliberate analysis of destination matching.

Digital Destination Matching: Practices, Priorities and Predictions

“…As each of these commentaries demonstrates, the concept of destination matching can trigger new conjectures relevant to tourism marketing; and these can point towards potential new research topics and directions, beyond the many already addressed within the fields of destination choice and marketing [1]. Analysing actual travel agent practices, we find that digital marketing through social media and search engines is a very widespread way to gain new customers, but that tourists also expect personal contacts, especially for repeat bookings.…”

“…From a research perspective, the initial premise for destination matching framework [1] was that the practical shift to generalized digital marketing through social media and search engines is already well underway and essentially irreversible, and therefore, that tourism research should reflect this. The commentaries here show firstly, that the shift has indeed already happened; and secondly, that this points to a need for future research on tourist responses and agent strategies for fragmented information within different cultural contexts.…”

“…A central premise of the destination-matching framework [1,2] is that tourists now use search engines and social media to identify destinations, enterprises and products to plan their purchases; therefore, tourism destinations and enterprises necessarily use the same search engines and social media platforms to pitch propositions directly to individual purchasers. In this section, that premise is subject to empirical test, through interviews with individual travel agents.…”

“…New technological capabilities, including those revealed through patents [1], can now complement these techniques by tracking customer interests more closely, to provide realistic, unbiased, and precise data on perceptions, attitudes, and responses to destination stimuli [40][41][42][43]. Some of these are covert, using digital device cameras, microphones, and location indicators.…”

“…The analysis of destination matching, as the interaction between destination marketing and destination choice [1,2], can potentially provide new insights into tourism research, including aspects related to sustainability. Here, we offer a set of five short commentaries on current practices, future predictions, and research priorities.…”