The conference Special Tracks

Special Tracks

 

Tourism and hospitality generate revenue, produce thousands of jobs, improve infrastructure, and foster cultural interchange between tourists and locals. 

During the coronavirus, tourism was the most affected industry and will be the last sector to recover from the pandemic (Kvitkova et al., 2021).  As a consequence, to improve recovery, the development and implementation of new digital technologies (Marrucci et al., 2022) and Information and communication technologies (ICT; Antti Pesonen, 2013) to enhance online reputation management (ORM; Cillo et al., 2021) in the tourism and hospitality industry (Li et al., 2022) have accelerated at an unprecedented rate (Hu et al., 2023). Whereas on the one hand, digital technologies such as mobile technologies, VR/AR, and contactless payment has changed the dynamics of hospitality and tourism; on the other hand, the importance of online reputation management (ORM) in the tourism and hospitality industry is to recognize as growing at the same pace. Managers at a hotel or a tourist attraction are starting to realize the significance of their establishment's or location's reputation (Rialti et al., 2023).  Due to tourism's dependence on digital technology, this situation is widespread. The tourism and hospitality industry's fast expansion and the constant pursuit of strategic advantage and operational excellence create a significant danger of underestimating digital technology's larger benefits (Syed et al., 2023).    Marrucci et al. (2022) noticed how similar technical pathways converge on a single technology that may help any context. In difficult circumstances, adopting a new technology may make the difference between success and failure. 

Since digitization, tourism and hospitality have focused on online reputation management. In today's technologically competitive world, more individuals read, monitor, and share content that may harm businesses and create heavy losses, making online reputation management crucial for tourism. A corporation must build website quality, information quality, favourable recommendations, and prevent damages (Filieri et al., 2015),  data processing, data facilitation, data sharing, data communication, data selection, and data-driven innovations in tourism marketing, energy monitoring, and waste management (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2022). Understanding the significance of their online and offline reputations, businesses must take into account customer feedback, criticism, and recommendations (Perez-Aranda et al., 2019) from customers as being of value and endeavour to create and develop a robust reputation. Guest and tourist interaction in this digital world creates several hospitality and tourism opportunities. In response to these difficulties, the tourist sector has integrated reputation management into its strategic planning. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the contemporary tourist sector has also grown significantly. The way tourist businesses operate, connect with customers and value their stakeholders has been radically altered.

In such a context, hotel and tourist organizations must learn how to use such technology and capitalize on potential while addressing industry difficulties, especially post-COVID-19. However, research on hospitality and tourism online reputation management and its future effects is scarce. Thus, researchers should create meaningful models to evaluate how practitioners might utilize such technologies into ORM tactics and how visitors are reacting in these aspects. In such a regard, the aim of the conference is to collect paper on digital technologies and their application in hospitality and tourism online reputation management. Potential manuscripts for this conference issue may include, but are not limited to, the following topics pertaining to one of the four tracks of the conference: 

 

1. The impact of ICT on visitor behavior 
2. Technology adoption in tourism hospitality: an organizational perspective
3. Digital technology for strategic marketing and marketing communications in tourism and hospitality
4. ORM by museum and destinations

 

 SPECIALS TRACKS

 

• The impact of information and communication technologies on visitor behavior

Track chairs: Giacomo Marzi and Anna Marrucci

• Technology adoption in tourism hospitality and organization perspective

Track Chairs: Zuzana Kvitkova  and Lamberto Zollo

• Digital technology for strategic marketing and marketing communications in tourism and hospitality

Track Chairs: Raffaele Filieri and Carlos Flavian

• Online reputation management in hotels, hospitality and museum

Track Chairs: Riccardo Rialti and Justin Paul