Dynamic Digital Divide in Tourism
Tourism is leading the diffusion of information and communication technologies in commerce, revolutionizing the creation and consumption of tourism products and services, structures and systems of its operations and delivery, making the social and economic impacts across its entire value chain as well as it's peripheral sectors, benefitting travelers, workers, and the businesses worldwide.
The evolution of a highly-skilled, highly-informed and highly-demanding traveler, who wishes to explore new destinations and live new experiences, has inspired new technical and non-technical developments like low-cost carriers, fast trains, Airbnb, and uber driven shared services as well as the internet.
The emergence of Innovative technologies and their utilization are increasingly critical in determining tourist consumer experience and behavior. These technologies affect tourist's entire decision-making process, from browsing and searching product/ destination information to comparing alternatives, to personalizing itineraries online for consumption... to sharing and tweeting information as well as experiences.
But! Who are these trailblazers? What is their demography? What is the percentage of such people able to make use of ICT to engage in meaningful travel experiences? Are all service providers/ businesses across the entire value chain of the industry engaged to make use of the ICT to deliver meaningful services?
Are all destinations around the world engaged to make use of ICT to create/ communicate meaningful services?
Does disparities in possessing, controlling, processing, crafting, showcasing, communicating and distributing tourism services/ information exist?
Do they have any impact on tourism development, consumption, distribution, and operation?
Are only the rich and technologically resourceful players who have the available technical tools and the cognition to use them effectively are only going to pocket the benefits and, enjoy rewards of the digital revolution?
The OECD defines the digital divide as the gap between individuals, households, businesses, and geographies at different socio-economic levels with regard to their opportunities to access ICT and to the use of the internet for a wide variety of activities.
The global digital divide refers to the divergence of ICT access and usage between various industrialized and developing worldwide economies.
The social digital divide refers to the Gap between the people included and excluded in using ICT in each country.
In total, the digital divide is between human capital and human digital skills, telecom infrastructure and connectivity, policy and regulations, income, age, gender, culture, ethnicity, literacy, education, language, disabilities, security, ethical accountabilities, and geographical location.
Having access to technology does not necessarily mean that people will use technology wisely and effectively. This is because of a number of reasons such as lack of time, knowledge, trust, content, availability and high-speed internet.
Additionally, there is also another group of people who are categorized as those who want and those who do not want to access technology.
Not last but the least we cannot leave out the group of people who are categorized as those who are able and able-nots (disabled) to access the technology.
It is a much wider gap than that was in the earlier century between people who have and who have-not, between the developed and developing economies between people in the rural and the urban areas, between the educated and the uneducated.
This implies that on both demand and supply side of the tourism industry, at both origin and destination countries, the engagement with ICT is not only concerned with the issue of access but also how tourists and businesses develop their ICT skills and how are they able to use the available resources online, how motivated they are to use them and what resources they have to be efficient.
This creates a multidimensional approach to analyze the gap in terms of 1) gaps in access, 2) gaps in skills, 3) gaps in use 4) gaps in engagement with ICT and the gaps in environment in which they operate.
Variabilities in digital inclusions and exclusions have a major impact on tourism competitiveness, as it creates and deepens the social and economic disparities between tourists and destinations. Often SME's with low ICT are cut off from electronic distribution channels and e-commerce and are at the risk of becoming invisible, not only they are excluded from the considerable set of their prospective customers but they also still struggle with the expertise capital and technology that could enable them to promote their product and developing suitable tools for attracting new markets.
The disequilibrium between the digitally included & skilled and digitally excluded tourists & destinations lead to an asymmetrical development of the global tourism system. The level of disequilibrium of both source markets and destinations determines the industry's digital connectivity formation and that in return influences the power relationships between the markets, the tourist regions as well as between shareholders. The irony of the situation is that when the full process of appropriation for a specific tool is completed, a new innovation arrives and the process starts again, the consequence is the greater degree of the digital divide.
All this disequilibrium, gap, inequalities, asymmetries, and variation dynamics create a Dynamic Digital Divide in Tourism and swift bridging solutions are required for the true beauty of the Tourism industry to unfold for all of us.
(Inspired by the works of Prof. D. Buhalis)
The evolution of a highly-skilled, highly-informed and highly-demanding traveler, who wishes to explore new destinations and live new experiences, has inspired new technical and non-technical developments like low-cost carriers, fast trains, Airbnb, and uber driven shared services as well as the internet.
The emergence of Innovative technologies and their utilization are increasingly critical in determining tourist consumer experience and behavior. These technologies affect tourist's entire decision-making process, from browsing and searching product/ destination information to comparing alternatives, to personalizing itineraries online for consumption... to sharing and tweeting information as well as experiences.
But! Who are these trailblazers? What is their demography? What is the percentage of such people able to make use of ICT to engage in meaningful travel experiences? Are all service providers/ businesses across the entire value chain of the industry engaged to make use of the ICT to deliver meaningful services?
Are all destinations around the world engaged to make use of ICT to create/ communicate meaningful services?
Does disparities in possessing, controlling, processing, crafting, showcasing, communicating and distributing tourism services/ information exist?
Do they have any impact on tourism development, consumption, distribution, and operation?
Are only the rich and technologically resourceful players who have the available technical tools and the cognition to use them effectively are only going to pocket the benefits and, enjoy rewards of the digital revolution?
The OECD defines the digital divide as the gap between individuals, households, businesses, and geographies at different socio-economic levels with regard to their opportunities to access ICT and to the use of the internet for a wide variety of activities.
The global digital divide refers to the divergence of ICT access and usage between various industrialized and developing worldwide economies.
The social digital divide refers to the Gap between the people included and excluded in using ICT in each country.
In total, the digital divide is between human capital and human digital skills, telecom infrastructure and connectivity, policy and regulations, income, age, gender, culture, ethnicity, literacy, education, language, disabilities, security, ethical accountabilities, and geographical location.
Having access to technology does not necessarily mean that people will use technology wisely and effectively. This is because of a number of reasons such as lack of time, knowledge, trust, content, availability and high-speed internet.
Additionally, there is also another group of people who are categorized as those who want and those who do not want to access technology.
Not last but the least we cannot leave out the group of people who are categorized as those who are able and able-nots (disabled) to access the technology.
It is a much wider gap than that was in the earlier century between people who have and who have-not, between the developed and developing economies between people in the rural and the urban areas, between the educated and the uneducated.
This implies that on both demand and supply side of the tourism industry, at both origin and destination countries, the engagement with ICT is not only concerned with the issue of access but also how tourists and businesses develop their ICT skills and how are they able to use the available resources online, how motivated they are to use them and what resources they have to be efficient.
This creates a multidimensional approach to analyze the gap in terms of 1) gaps in access, 2) gaps in skills, 3) gaps in use 4) gaps in engagement with ICT and the gaps in environment in which they operate.
Variabilities in digital inclusions and exclusions have a major impact on tourism competitiveness, as it creates and deepens the social and economic disparities between tourists and destinations. Often SME's with low ICT are cut off from electronic distribution channels and e-commerce and are at the risk of becoming invisible, not only they are excluded from the considerable set of their prospective customers but they also still struggle with the expertise capital and technology that could enable them to promote their product and developing suitable tools for attracting new markets.
The disequilibrium between the digitally included & skilled and digitally excluded tourists & destinations lead to an asymmetrical development of the global tourism system. The level of disequilibrium of both source markets and destinations determines the industry's digital connectivity formation and that in return influences the power relationships between the markets, the tourist regions as well as between shareholders. The irony of the situation is that when the full process of appropriation for a specific tool is completed, a new innovation arrives and the process starts again, the consequence is the greater degree of the digital divide.
All this disequilibrium, gap, inequalities, asymmetries, and variation dynamics create a Dynamic Digital Divide in Tourism and swift bridging solutions are required for the true beauty of the Tourism industry to unfold for all of us.
(Inspired by the works of Prof. D. Buhalis)
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