Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Alan A. Lew
School/Work Place : Northern Arizona University, USA
Contact : alan.lew@nau.edu
Year : 2007

"Web 2.0" is a term used to refer to the emerging new wave of innovation on the Internet. Some see it as a second high-tech wave, marking the recovery from the technology and Internet "bust" at the end of the 1990s (O'Reilly 2005). Characteristics of Web 2.0 are:

  1. data, information and technology are open source, rather than hidden under proprietary ownership;
  2. new applications and web sites are making the global marketplace of ideas and products open to everyone, which is allowing new businesses can be established without the huge start up funds from venture capitalists that were common in the 1990s; and
  3. these new applications and web sites are democratizing the tools of production, enabling greater diversity, allowing more customized streams of information and sales, and fostering the emergence of “a billion niche markets.”

These concepts resonate in trends that have taken place in travel and tourism, and the related term “Travel 2.0” is coming into increasing use.

Social software (sometime referred to as Social Media and New Media) are computer mediated forms of communication that can provide opportunities for collaboration, social networking, social learning, and community building. There are many different types of social software, and more are emerging all the time. Some social software is closely integrated with face-to-face socializing and professional networking, such as in a social club. The following are examples of the major types of social software currently in use:

  • Blogs and Podcasts
  • Collaborative software - Cooperative work environments / systems
  • Instant Messaging
  • Internet Relay Chat (chat rooms)
  • Internet forums (bulletin boards)
  • Folskonomy / Tagging
  • Social network services (centralized)
  • Social network search engines (decentralized)
  • Social guides (recommend real world places/services)
  • Social bookmarking (posting lists of favorites for others to see – furl, del.icio.us)
  • Social Citations (sharing article references - for academics)
  • Peer-to-peer social networks (file sharing – photos, blogs, instant messages,)
  • Virtual presence (meeting in virtual/online worlds)
  • Virtual worlds and Massively-Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs)
  • Wikis / Collaborative real-time editing

It is unclear as yet what the best business models may be for using the new open source Web 2.0 technology. However, from the many examples cited above, that is not stopping people from trying. Some areas in which social software may be used to leverage long tail markets for business purposes include:

  • Listening to markets and consumers. By providing a public sounding board or forum for consumers of a company's products, a company can demonstrate its transparency and trustworthiness. Businesses need to be open to being trashed by consumers, in order to both learn from them and to build their trust.
  • Creating user communities. Social networks can be created through open source Web sites. Such a Web site would include reasons for people to feel a part of the community of other users. Users would need to feel that they are benefiting from belonging to the website.
  • Creating business alliances. This is similar to creating a user community, but involves a community of businesses who are working together either formally or informally. This approach is also known as the “distributed business model.” Most social software is not only conducive to internet-base marketing, but can also be readilyapplied to teaching tourism concepts. Social software continuously evolving in exciting ways thatoffer considerable opportunity to enhance online and hybrid classes.

The first part of this presentation will review how social software are being used in higher education teaching today. The second part of the presentation will describe my experience in using social software tools (with some focus on blogs, podcasts and wikis) for the last three semesters, culminating in a Spring 2007 course on “Sustainable Tourism Planning.” That course immersed the students in social media and sustainable tourism in a fully online class environment. Student challenges, successes and overall opinions of this experience will be discussed.


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
182 Think Tank XV The operational challenges of community-based tourism ... file 15883 Jul 27, 2015

Community-based tourism is increasingly being developed and promoted as a means of reducing poverty in developing countries assisting local communities to meet their needs through the offering of a tourism product. The Swaziland Tourism Auth...

Author: S. E. Lukhele & K. F. Mearns 

Year: 2015 

181 Think Tank XII Origins, Evolution and Potential Future of the Coastal... file 15390 Nov 06, 2013

Coastal caravan parks in Australia are in decline due to the conversion of beachfront land to higher yielding forms of commercial enterprise (Prideaux and McClymont, 2006; Tourism Research Australia, 2007). The resulting reduction in accommo...

Author: Rod Caldicott & Pascal Scherrer 

Year: 2012 

180 Think Tank XIV Bird-watching Routes as Collaborative Stakeholderships... file 15274 Jun 27, 2014

Although there are numerous birding trails with varying levels of success, prior to this study, little research existed as to how birding trails are designed, implemented and managed. Thus, the study posed and answered the following research...

Author: Krisztian Vas 

Year: 2014 

179 Think Tank XI What Do Tourism Students Know About Sustainability and... file 15254 Oct 14, 2013

The topic of sustainable tourism education has only recently started to emerge in the tourism literature. A few tourism scholars have raised concerns about the need to prepare future tourism professionals for real life planning and manageme...

Author: Blanca A. Camargo & Ulrike Gretzel 

Year: 2011 

178 Think Tank V Knowledge Management for Tourism Crises and Disasters file 15186 Oct 13, 2013

Tourism is especially vulnerable to disasters and, being fragmented, often its response is difficult to initiate and coordinate. It is also information intensive and when in chaos its information needs are exacerbated. The paper aims to deve...

Author: Nina Mistilis & Pauline Sheldon 

Year: 2005 

177 Think Tank XIII Using Tourism to Build Social Capital in Communities: ... file 14917 Nov 06, 2013

Despite considerable discussion about how tourism could or should contribute to sustainable destination development, there is little evidence that the practice of tourism planning or development has altered in any significant way in the last...

Author: Gianna Moscardo, Andrea Schurmann, Elena Konovalov & Nancy G. McGehee 

Year: 2013 

176 Think Tank VI Testing Clarkson’s Typical Corporate and Stakeholder I... file 14731 Oct 13, 2013

In today’s world of growing concern over the social and environmental effect of tourism, the responsibility for the future of our society is moving from simply relying on our political leaders and interest groups towards the concept that cor...

Author: Catrina Papaleo & Sue Beeton 

Year: 2006 

175 Think Tank VII Tourism Resource Teams: Innovation with and for touris... file 14454 Oct 13, 2013

Communities have a variety of interest levels in tourism overall, including sustainable tourism (WTO, 2002). While we have witnessed increased awareness and discussions about sustainability and sustainable tourism, there is often a lack of s...

Author: Cynthia Messer, Ingrid Schneider & Okechukwu Ukaga 

Year: 2007 

174 Think Tank XVIII Visitor management in protected areas file 14307 Jan 07, 2019

Key words: tourism management, tourism planning, visitor management, protected areas, New Zealand

Author: Julia Nina Albrecht 

Year: 2018 

173 Think Tank V Reflecting or Directing Perceptions? Fox Media’s Respo... file 14217 Oct 13, 2013

Disasters at tourism destinations often receive extensive reporting in the news media, particularly when one or more of their own nationals are affected. From terrorism to natural disasters, the stories of tourists and, more recently, their ...

Author: Sue Beeton 

Year: 2005 

172 Think Tank VII There's No Such Thing as Sustainable Tourism: Innovati... file 13599 Oct 13, 2013

Innovation can come in many forms but all of these share three common elements - creativity, a problem solving approach and a new way of thinking. This paper proposes that current approaches to tourism and sustainable regional development h...

Author: Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2007 

171 Think Tank XIV Sustainable tourism, market failures and the challenge... file 13551 Jul 07, 2014

David's presentation outlines the major market failures in tourism production and consumption and questions the changing role of (public sector) governments in market regulation and ‘economic’ development. The presentation focuses specifical...

Author: David G. Simmons 

Year: 2014 

170 Think Tank X Is Ecotourism a Strategy for Regional Economic Develop... file 13124 Oct 13, 2013

The state of Uttarakhand (in the Himalayas) in which the two case studies were conducted is trying to expand its already existing strength in the tourism sector as well. Tourism is estimated to make up for about 20% of GDP in Uttarakhand in...

Author: Harald Pechlaner & Christopher Reuter 

Year: 2010 

169 Think Tank IX Sustainable Tourism Development Plan for the Old City ... file 13049 Oct 13, 2013

This research aims to propose a sustainable tourism development plan for the City of Nan. Since the year 2000, Nan civil society leaders, national and international stakeholders have tried to develop Nan into a world heritage destination. I...

Author: Donruetai Kovathanakul 

Year: 2009 

168 Think Tank VII Learning as Prerequisite for Innovations in Tourism - ... file 12710 Oct 13, 2013

This article reports on an ongoing project that focuses on learning and innovation as prerequisites for sustainable tourism in a transnational environment defined by the European North Sea Region. According to Buhalis (2000: 113) providing i...

Author: Janne Liburd & Anja Hergesell 

Year: 2007 

167 Think Tank IX The Role of Values in Sustainable Tourism Education file 12696 Oct 13, 2013

This presentation discusses the role of values in the context of sustainable tourism education. However, it does not seek to engage in the debate about the definition of Sustainable Tourism nor the differences between this concept and Sustai...

Author: Christian Schott 

Year: 2009 

166 Think Tank XIV Values in Tourism Higher Education: the Case of Europe... file 12629 Jun 26, 2014

The primary rationale for embedding values-based learning in tourism higher education is to engage students’ learning-to-learn and learning-to-be, rather than simply learning about a topic, such as tourism management or sustainability (Libur...

Author: Tanja Mihalič, Janne J. Liburd & Jaume Guia 

Year: 2014 

165 OPA award A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Sustainab... file 12553 Jun 26, 2014

Emerging tourist destinations can challenge ecological, economic, social, and quality of life barriers. These issues draw attention towards the consequences of increasing complexity that are often found as a tourist marketing system grows an...

Author: Sarah Duffy & Larry Dwyer 

Year: 2014 

OPA: 2014 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

164 Think Tank X The Impact of Climate Change on Alpine Leisure Tourism... file 12372 Oct 13, 2013

This paper presents an interacting multi-agent model as a new method of examining the impact of climate change on Alpine leisure tourism and ski areas in a complex interacting model network. Since tourism varies at a small scale concerning ...

Author: Alexander Dingeldey & Anja Soboll 

Year: 2010 

163 Think Tank VII Practical Interpretations of a Dynamic Model of Sustai... file 12280 Oct 13, 2013

"Operational definitions of tourism sustainability require details regarding what is to be sustained, for whom it is to be sustained, and the level at which it is to be sustained." This is the introductory sentence to "A Dynamic Model of Sus...

Author: Timothy Tyrrell & Robert Johnston 

Year: 2007 

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