Digital media and technology in the tourism sector — Coexistence of opportunities and challenges
As an important part of the service industries, the tourism sector affects many aspects of people’s daily life. After a series of lockdown policies during the Covid-19 pandemic, tourism around the world has finally survived ‘winter’ and now is seeing a new ‘spring’! Digital media and technology have played a positive role in the transformation and upgrading of tourism through integrating data more efficiently, enhancing the convenience and comfort of visitor experiences by forming industrial chains, creating featured cultural products and so on, which are conducive to promoting the sustainable development in the tourism sector.
Opportunities
How can you visit museums and travel around the world during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns? How can tourism be revitalized in this post-pandemic era to improve economic efficiency? Digital media and technology could better address these opportunities.
A ‘ virtual travelling’ model
During the Covid-19 pandemic, approximately 85,000 museums all over the world were temporarily closed, accounting for 90.9% of the total amount. Museums across China launched more than 2,000 online exhibitions with the number of more than 5 billion views, and they used social media platforms such as WeChat and TikTok to broadcast live online, attracting audiences to live online exhibitions while allowing them to receive professional explanations of artifacts.
Additionally, specialised virtual reality technology will also enable visits to world-famous sites, allowing the tourism industry to seize new opportunities for progress even in the face of operational difficulties during Covid-19 pandemic through the use of digital technology.
Data collection — ‘Personalized’ travel plan
Based on traditional information collection, the use of online booking and ticketing can accumulate more precise consumption data to further improve the supply of travel programs. For example, the big data platform can make recommendations and planning schemes based on tourists’ interests and implement personalised marketing strategies. The establishment of smart tourism model for ‘Internet➕’ is also a good opportunity to seize the benefits of data technology nowadays.
‘One-stop shop’ for travelling
In order to provide better travel experience, the tourism industry is working with other service industries to make it possible for tourists to enjoy among the combination of hospitality, local catering, shopping and entertainment without having to make additional plans. Disneyland Parks and Universal Resorts all over the world use their unique apps allowing tourists to learn about and book featured rides along with the in-park accommodation and food, supplying holistic and special experiences.
The Ctrip, one of China’s leading travel companies, offers a range of services such as airline booking, hotel reservations and tourist attractions recommendations through an online service model which could provide global tourists with suitable and preferable trips by just entering their expected destinations. It also affords one-stop corporate travel service platform especially designed for the people who need business trips.
Meanwhile, the hotel self-check-in, robotic room service, virtual tour guides and the ‘Smart Guestroom’ suggested by Diana00 in her post are multiple choices for the tourists in accommodation regarding digital technology, which could create new interactions and explore inventive business models between tourism and hospitality sectors.
Cultural Tourism — Digital Creative Products
The creation and marketing of tourism products constitutes a crucial part in the tourism sector. In the development of tourism cultural and creative goods, both the use of materials and the level of craftsmanship need to be combined with digital technology, so that they could reflect a high-end quality experience for customers in terms of visual, tactile and cultural interactions.
The Henan Provincial Museum in China has created a 3D version of its digital cultural and creative products, showing valuable artifacts in history through 3D-technology. The Dunhuang Research Institute has also launched the ‘Cloud Tour in Dunhuang’ App, which is a highly innovative product that combines frescoes with sound and images to reflect the historical mythology through digital media.
Challenges
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the online travelling models have met the people’s demands to a certain extent, which could be seen as a successful attempt and innovation in digital media and technology. However, technology could be a ‘double-edged sword’ which brings efficiency and convenience to the tourism industry together with the potential loopholes and challenges.
Cybersecurity risks and data privacy
As Jinsol pointed out the cybersecurity risks in financial banking sector regarding the digital transactions in the previous post, the problem may also exist in tourism industry. The security risks associated with the collection of personal preferences at the initial stage and the subsequent requirements to provide private information to book a trip. Travel companies are suggested to have high quality of cybersecurity strategy and risk management in facing the threats of cyberattacks.
Issues of information authenticity and updating
While improving the branding strategy and economic efficiency of tourist attractions through online business operations, it is also crucial to ensure a high quality and authentic offline experience for visitors. Today, the problem of incorrect reporting or customer scamming through the fraud information is one of the key challenges for digital media, where it may be encountered in booking tickets or hotel reservations.
Intra-sectoral differentiation
The tourism industry is very inclusive and has different styles. Some theme parks and museums can be operated online according to their typical features while more niche destinations such as rural tourism or ecotourism that adopting the natural scenery as the main ‘selling point’ seems to be more difficult to attract tourists through the application of data media to completely display the local characteristics. Critically speaking, the choice of natural landscape as a tourist destination depends more on people’s personal preferences where the influence of digital media could be limited.
Proposal
With the advancement and application of digital technology, the tourism industry has shown a tendency to be in high demand with it in both the pandemic and post-pandemic era. How to optimize and upgrade tourism by taking into account its own characteristics and satisfy the varying needs of tourists may constitute key factors for the more effective use of digital media and technology in the future. Along with the easier accessibility and better customer services, the possible gaps in data privacy and information security are expected to be filled in order to drive the escalation of tourism sector. A more comprehensive, improved and convenient tourism experience along with the efficient integration with other sectors could be achieved in conjunction with the further development of digital media and technology.
