The emerging smart event experience: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

Purpose The use of “special events” as an attractor for destinations in the smart tourism paradigm has been suggested as one element of an effective destination strategy. This study aims to create new understandings of this potentiality by exploring an event from a participant perspective in smart tourism contexts by creating a model integrating factors impacting the smart event experience. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted five online focus groups by using Facebook secret groups to engage spectators of an international sports event. Discussions focussed on the digital event experience with particular reference to the event app. A subsequent interpretative phenomenological analysis facilitated the examination of how people make sense of this digital phenomenon and the impact on the overall event experience. Findings The findings demonstrate an increasing demand for real-time event integrative information, with more immersive and augmented experiences often sought by users. This has significant implications for the management of the digital event experience for all event stakeholders. Research limitations/implications This study is limited in its analysis of the smart event experience because of the use of a purposive sample from the International NW200 Event in Northern Ireland, which may limit the generalisability of research findings. Originality/value The study therefore, meets a critical gap in existent literature by providing the first event experience model in a smart tourism context and presenting the interlocking elements through the 4P’s (people, processes, personalisation and places) and 7R’s (rituals, realms, realities, renewal, review, relational and resourcing) of digital event experience.

Role and effect of traditional markets: The internationally awarded case of Barcelos

“…Artificial intelligence, or AI, and automation solutions have made remarkable changes in the travel industry, making processes fast and convenient (Davenport et al, 2020). The sector delivers real added value for consumers by integrating AI into booking platforms and online searches (Bustard et al, 2019). In this sense, it is critical to provide traditional markets with strategies aimed at reaching, acting, converting, and engaging customers as well as allowing locals, visitors, and tourists to experience regional products, handicrafts, traditions, and gastronomy with pleasure and sustainably from an economic, social, and environmental point of view (Baggio, 2019;Davenport et al, 2020;Scheyvens & Laeis, 2019;Tussyadiah & Miller, 2019).…”

“…Further, predictive analytics (PA) uses advanced analysis techniques that leverage historical data to uncover real-time insights and predict future motivations for events (Bustard et al, 2019;Y. Fu et al, 2019).…”

“…This would open the window to integrate dispersed public and private tourism-oriented data sources in new tailored tourism experiences and, thus, add more value to the destination (Mountzouri et al, 2020). The appearance of tourism-related technologies such as virtual assistant and real-time image recognition are being exported to smaller cities, increasing the demand for rural environments, creating new services and professional opportunities increasing the sustainability of tourist destinations, and helping reduce seasonality and overcrowding in bigger cities (Baggio, 2019;Bustard et al, 2019;Scheyvens & Laeis, 2019;Tussyadiah & Miller, 2019).…”

Recognizing events 4.0: the digital maturity of events

“…As technology and digital technologies circle every aspect of an event organisation's activities, it is prudent to suggest that the survival, and future success of events can depend upon digital maturity and transformation (Li et al , 2018). Bustard et al (2019) considers the adoption of digital technologies as an emerging era of ubiquity in computing intelligence that provides the potential of the interconnectedness of experience through multiple stakeholders. However, dealing with digital maturity requires careful attention as Neuhofer (2016) urges caution advising that applied technology solutions have proven to have the ability to create or destruct the value of the experience.…”

From WOM to aWOM – the evolution of unpaid influence: a perspective article

“…They can be used to summarize text eWOM, to create text outputs from non-human sources such as sensors that exhibit the format, content and valence of credible eWOM (Tikhonov and Yamshchikov, 2018). AI-generated content is distributed via virtual assistant platforms such as Alexa (Amazon) and software robots (chatbots) (Bustard et al, 2019). In addition to content, AI tools can evaluate interactions with outputs to autonomously evaluate customer engagement with content and plan future outputs.…”