Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 42 (2020) 256–257
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhtm
Guest editorial: Towards a better understanding of technology in tourism
1. Introduction
Technology continues to impact our daily lives. Technological ad-
vances have also revolutionised travel behaviour and the tourism in-
dustry (Buhalis & Law, 2008). The Journal of Hospitality & Tourism
Management (JHTM) presents a special section in this issue. Selected
papers presented at CAUTHE 2019 were invited to submit to a special
issue for a peer-review process and potential publication in the special
issue of JHTM. Finally, three papers were accepted for publication.
These papers draw attention to two major issues. Firstly, user-centered
technology design to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction.
Secondly, the analysis of big data to support decision making.
User-centered design approaches are essential to provide positive
benefits from technology use. When technology is not designed with the
end-user in mind, the outcome might be situations where it “bites back”
(Tenner, 1996). Uncomfortable encounters with technology that stem
from technical failure or poorly designed user interfaces may frustrate
and annoy tourists (Wang, So, & Sparks, 2017). Limited research has
focused on the negative emotional outcomes of tourists when they are
interacting with technology that bites back. Oktadiana and Pearce de-
scribe such negative outcomes from interacting with technology that is
not designed with the end-users in mind.
The increasing adoption of gamification techniques is aimed to
provide more enjoyment and engagement during tourism experiences.
While there are distinctions between gamification and serious games,
their effect in terms of engagement or experiential value gained by
users depends on the design of the game and the context of its im-
plementation (Sigala, 2015). The paper by Coghlan and Carter shows
that it is valuable to consider the learning outcomes of games particu-
larly in the context of nature-based tourism.
In our ever-changing and dynamic world, destinations require
knowledge about their competitive environment for effective decision
making. Tourism organisations have increasing access to big data
through various means such as Google Trends, Facebook Analytics or
TripAdvsior reviews. Tourism managers use these types of data as a
performance measure and/or to better understand their customers'
perception and satisfaction (Dinis, Breda, Costa, & Pacheco, 2019; Xie,
Zhang, Zhang, Singh, & Lee, 2016). However, making sense of big data
can be challenging (Sigala, Beer, Hodgson, & O'Connor, 2019). If
tourism organisations are to reap the benefits of big data, they need to
know about the best ways to analyse such large amounts of data.
Learning about frameworks or analysis processes that provide these
organisations with practical implications of using big data will help
them gain insights that fit their unique contexts. Acquiring knowledge
on accessing and analysing big data that focuses on external environ-
ments enables tourism managers to enhance their competitive in-
telligence (Köseoglu, Morvillo, Altin, De Martino, & Okumus, 2019;
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.01.013
Available online 31 January 2020
1447-6770/ © 2020 CAUTHE - COUNCIL FOR AUSTRALASIAN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY EDUCATION. Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
T
Sheehan, Vargas-Sánchez, Presenza, & Abbate, 2016).
2. Presentation of the papers in the special section
In the first paper titled “Losing touch: Uncomfortable encounters with
tourism technology”, Oktadiana and Pearce reflect on a previous holiday
to develop an autoethnographic account which outlines the difficulties
that tourists have when interacting with technology. They argue that
tourist-technology interfaces can sometimes generate a sense of being
out of touch with contemporary service environments. Such un-
comfortable encounters lead to negative emotions including stress,
pressure, and annoyance, especially when there are only limited or no
human support services available. What becomes clear is, that pro-
viding adequate instructions is an important consideration with uti-
lizing technology. If no appropriate instructions or information is pro-
vided with any type of technology, then it may prove unpopular with
consumers.
The article by Coghlan and Carter with the title “Serious games as
interpretive tools in complex natural tourist attractions” investigates the
use of technology aimed at enhancing tourist's learning and engage-
ment with a nature-based tourism destination. The authors have de-
veloped a VR game that acts as an interpretive tool for the Great Barrier
Reef. The study outlines the users' emotional reactions when interacting
with the technology, paying particular attention to “pain points” to
uncover any issues in the game's design. These technologies may lead to
better sustainability outcomes by educating individuals about current
issues such as climate change. For example, it was surprising to find out
that some of Coghlan and Carter's research participants were unaware
of coral bleaching, considering the publicity this topic has received in
the past few years. Yet, the authors also recognise the importance of
providing appropriate instructions with their serious game to ensure
that users gain the most benefit from the technology.
In the article “Online popularity of destinations in Australia: The Polya
Urn modelling approach of search engine data”, Lau and Koo use Google
online searches as a proxy for destination popularity of Australia and
France. The study shows that the applicability of the Polya Urn model
differs depending on the origins of Google searches and the destination
country being searched. Lau and Koo show how the tourism sector can
make better use of Google Trends data. Recognising the importance of
adequate instructions, the clearly outlined method section by Lau and
Koo is essential in providing sufficient information to other researchers
when using Google Trends data to replicate the Polya Urn process
model with big data of other destinations.
3. Travel trend prediction and future tourism research
Technology is increasingly omnipresent and intended to generate

seamless processes and customer value through dynamic co-creation,
personalisation and adaptation to context (Buhalis & Sinarta, 2019).
However, the paper by Oktadiana and Pearce indicates that the con-
trary can sometimes be the case, showing that technology is not always
effective in providing solutions to customer problems. Future studies
may examine negative encounters of tourists with technology, in-
cluding inefficient or failing systems, information loss, limited language
capabilities, or via the removal of human touch (Townsend, 2017).
Not all tourists are “techno-human tourists” (Sigala, 2018, p. 153)
who are equally ready and keen to use technology, which may have
negative outcomes for the tourists’ wellbeing and their social interac-
tions (Ayeh, 2018). Future studies are needed into emotional aspects,
especially in relation to “pain points” or episodes when technology is
malfunctioning or biting back. The emotional aspects may vary by
culture, type of technology, and target market segments (Kattara & El-
Said, 2013). Knowledge of this kind may lead to improvements related
to the design, development and prototyping, implementation and in-
tegration of technology into the tourism system.
Taking a user-centered design approach highlights that the use of
technology in tourism needs to be based on an iterative process in-
cluding thinking about the goal of the technology (what are the bene-
fits; who is to benefit; etc.), prototyping the technology and pre-testing
its usefulness from the user's perspective, then making appropriate re-
finements to the technology to ensure it fulfils its intended purpose.
Often this is easier said than done as Coghlan and Carter point out in
their article. There are clear limitations in applying technology since it
involves a costly and difficult process that might be outside the scope of
many tourism businesses. Future research may investigate the barriers
that prevent tourism organisations from adopting certain types of
technology.
The use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will in-
crease beyond simply being used for marketing purposes, but also in
tourism interpretation to enhance the tourists' knowledge about a
particular attraction or destination as suggested by Coghlan and Carter.
Future research may examine how tourism operators can integrate VR
and AR more proactively to enhance tourists’ learning with specific
tourism settings.
The use of big data in tourism and hospitality will become in-
creasingly important to ensure continuous innovation. While accessing
big data is becoming easier than ever before, limited research has been
conducted on what are the best methods to analyse big data to provide
insights that fit the context of specific tourism organisations. Lau and
Koo used the Google search volume of two destinations as a proxy for
online destination popularity. Knowledge of this kind is helpful for
destination marketing organisations (DMOs) in enhancing the effec-
tiveness of their online marketing strategies, potentially leading to a
competitive advantage. Future studies into providing suitable in-
formation and instructions of analysing big data would be valuable for
tourism organisations at the micro and macro level.
In conclusion, user-centered design approaches acknowledge that
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Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 42 (2020) 256–257
the tourist as a customer is critical. Tourists will continue to demand
seamless and personalised transactional encounters irrespective of
whether they are facilitated by humans, through automation or artifi-
cial intelligence. Likewise, tourism businesses will increasingly rely on
big data to streamline their processes when interacting with customers.
Any future research endeavours in these topic areas should deliver
abundant opportunities for tourism innovation.
The guest editor would like to acknowledge the encouragement,
guidance and support of Professor Marianna Sigala (Editor-in-Chief of
JHTM) in the preparation of this special section. The reviewers of the
papers are also acknowledged with gratitude for the constructive
comments in ensuring the quality of all papers.
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Lecturer in Tourism
Anja Pabel
School of Business and Law, Central Queensland University, 42-52 Abbott
Street & Shields Street, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia
E-mail address: a.pabel@cqu.edu.au.