Special Issue of the Journal Destination Management & Marketing
Advances in Destination Management & Marketing in the Era of Big Data & Smart Tourism
Deadline: June 30th, 2019
Guest editors
Prof. Dr. Marianna Sigala
University of South Australia, Adelaida, Australia
Dr. Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain
Dr. Arthur Huang
University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA
About the Special Issue
Advances in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) continuously challenge and transform destination management strategies and practices. ICT provide Destination Management Organizations (DMO) with not only new tools (hardware, software, infoware, and netware) but also new approaches to monitor and manage the destination resources, to improve the experiences of tourists and the quality of life of residents, and to enhance the interactions among the different stakeholders in the destination (Reinhold et al., 2018). For example, IoT sensors and devices (e.g., water consumption sensors, energy consumption sensors, electric appliances) can be used to collect a massive amount of data on destination resources. Different kinds of tracking devices (beacons, smartphones, wearables, and other specific GPS devices) can monitor the flow and movement of tourists and tourism resources. User-generated data from social media and online platforms can be used to investigate tourists’ needs, attitudes, emotions, and satisfaction with services. As large volumes of data at both microscopic and macroscopic levels become increasingly available, the potential and affordances of big data to advance and transform destination management and marketing is enormous (Li et al., 2018).
Although the features and characteristics of these evolving ICT have been heavily discussed and analyzed in literature, less research is devoted to exploring their applications and impact on destination management and marketing as well as the evolving concept of smart destinations (Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2014; Gretzel et al., 2015). There is a great need for helping industry professionals, destination managers, and researchers alike to advance their knowledge and practices in integrating ICT to enhance the quality and performance of services, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to preserve the natural, cultural, and historic resources.
This special issue aims to publish original research that will advance the understanding of the applications and implications of big data and ICT in destination management and marketing. Theoretical, empirical, experimental, and case study research contributions are welcome. All contributions should clearly address the practical and theoretical implications of the research reported.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Technologies and tools for gathering and mining big data in tourism
- Acquisition, aggregation, consolidation, and analysis of big data from traditional (e.g., questionnaires, interviews) and new sources
- Emergent methodologies and tools (e.g. machine learning and artificial intelligence) for data-driven tourism destination management and marketing
- Tourists’ behavior modeling and consumption patterns’ mining
- Strategies and practices for enriching, transforming and managing tourism experiences
- Big data for improving the management of destination resources, tourists’ flow management, and addressing overtourism
- Interoperability of data, syntax, and systems between geographically overlapping tourist destinations
- Ethical and privacy issues regarding big data
- Organizational and human resource issues in relation to big data for destination management and marketing
- Co-creation and big data in destination management and marketing
- Data-driven smart destination planning and management
- Tourism resilience and sustainability in the context of big data
- Use big data in cultural and historic heritage preservation and the use of the heritage in enhancing local economy and local citizens’ quality of life
This Special Issue is built upon the Special Issue on Smart Destinations for the Journal of Destination Marketing & Management in 2015 (Volume, 4, Issue 3). This Special Issue is intended to publish high-quality original papers featuring the most recent advances in the development of theories, models, tools, and applications in era of big data and smart tourism.
Authors presenting their papers at the 1st International Conference on Smart Tourism, Smart Cities, and Enabling Technologies are particularly encouraged to submit to this Special Issue. For conference information please refer to: https://hospitality.ucf.edu/smartconference2019/.
Submission process and guidelines
Authors interested in submitting a paper to this special issue should e-mail their abstracts of 300~500 words to one of the SI guest editors by June 30th, 2019. The authors should use “Abstract for Big Data SI in Journal of Destination Marketing & Management” as the title of the email.
- Marianna Sigala – Marianna.Sigala@unisa.edu.au
- Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal – jacques.bulchand@ulpgc.es
- Arthur Huang – arthur.huang@ucf.edu
Important dates
- Open Call: February 1st, 2019
- Abstract due: June 30th, 2019
- First Round Decisions: July 15th, 2019
- Full Paper Due: September 30th, 2019
- Final Decision Date: February 29th, 2020
- Publication Date: May 31st, 2020
References
Buhalis, D., & Amaranggana, A. (2014). Smart tourism destinations. In: Z. Xiang, & I. Tussyadiah (Eds.), Information and communication technologies in tourism, 2014 (pp. 553–564). Vienna, Austria: Springer
Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., Xiang, Z., & Koo, C. (2015). Smart tourism: foundations and developments. Electronic Markets, 25(3), 179-188.
Li, J., Xu, L., Tang, L., Wang, S., & Li, L. (2018). Big data in tourism research: A literature review. Tourism Management, 68, 301-323.
Reinhold, S., Laesser, C., & Beritelli, P. (2018). The 2016 St. Gallen Consensus on Advances in Destination Management. Journal of destination marketing & management, 8, 426-431.
