Abstract

The digital information age has changed global tourism in profound ways. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are pervasive, and they have become inextricably linked with contemporary consumer cultures. ICTs represent affordances: to apprise, plan, order, network, socialize, stream, transact and rate. These are remunerated with concessions in the form of consumer data that is used to determine product/service marketability, and to predict and manipulate consumer choices. As a result, ICTs have profoundly changed society, with repercussions for identity formation, social norms, and business structures. Tourism is at the forefront of these developments: as a driver of ICT introductions, an arena for testing & trialing, and a global market. This paper critically examines these developments and its linkages to tourism and sustainability goals, concluding that existing academic assessments are optimistic, simplistic and monocausal, with a focus on business and marketing opportunities. Tourism appears to have developed through four stages of ICT adoption - opportunity, disruption, immersion and usurpation -, which reflect on new opportunities and risks, and the need for more critical evaluations of the implications of the ICT economy.

摘要

数字信息时代已经深刻地改变了全球旅游业。信息和通信技术（ICT）无处不在，它们已经与当代的消费者文化密不可分。ICT代表着能力：评估，计划，订购，联网，社交，流媒体，交易和评分。这些以优惠的形式以消费者数据的形式来补偿，这些数据被用于确定产品/服务的可销售性以及预测和操纵消费者的选择。结果，ICT彻底改变了社会，对身份形成，社会规范和业务结构产生了影响。旅游业处于这些发展的最前沿：作为ICT引进的驱动器，测试和试验的舞台以及全球市场。本文对这些发展及其与旅游业和可持续发展目标之间的联系进行了批判性研究，认为现有的学术评估是乐观，简单和单因的，重点是商业和营销机会。旅游业似乎已经经历了信息通信技术采用的四个阶段-机会，破坏，沉浸和篡夺，这反映了新的机会和风险，以及需要对信息通信技术经济的影响进行更严格的评估。