Luxury in Hospitality: an Analysis of Online Reviews of Chinese and Indian Hotels

Luxury tourism has a multiple identity and can be interpreted from different perspectives. However, understanding the elements and emotions involved in a luxury tourism experience are essential to identify guests’ expectations.
The new webatelier.net report by Laura Malinverno, Asta Adukaite and Lorenzo Cantoni, is looking at how travelers comment online about luxury Chinese and Indian hotels: “Luxury in Hospitality: an Analysis of Online Reviews of Chinese and Indian Hotels. April 2013.”
This research is based on the analysis of user-generated contents (UGC) from the Hotel Reviews Website TripAdvisor.com. Reviews written about Chinese and Indian luxury hotels, namely 5*+, were selected to explore elements and perceptions emerging from guests’ comments. 390 reviews were analyzed, 8 dimensions divided into 78 categories were identified as elements of the luxury hotels experience. Moreover, five luxury characteristics, extracted from previous research, were tested to verify this existing structure for the case of luxury tourism. Results showed that luxury concept is a dynamic and changing element in the context of luxury Chinese and Indian hotels, and that UGCs can be a useful tool to understand expectations of prospective guests, and priorities of luxury experiences.
To download the report, follow the next link: http://www.webatelier.net/luxury-hotels

Switzerland in the eyes of Chinese travellers

The World Tourism Organization has confirmed yesterday that China’s expenditure on travel abroad reached US$ 102 billion in 2012, making it the first tourism source market in the world in terms of spending. Moreover UNWTO estimates that by 2020 there will be 100 million Chinese tourists traveling around the world. Additionally, Switzerland is a dream destination for 80% of Chinese youth aged 20 to 45 years. It makes a great  growth opportunity for Swiss tourism and hospitality industry.
The new webatelier.net report by Tu Hu, Nadzeya Kalbaska, Lorenzo Cantoni, is looking at how Switzerland is perceived by Chinese travellers: “A picturesque online representation of Switzerland: a research conducted on Chinese social network Weibo. April 2013.”
To download the report, follow the next link: http://www.webatelier.net/swiss-images

eLearning in hospitality and tourism mini-track

webatelier.net researchers, prof. Lorenzo Cantoni and Nadzeya Kalbaska, in collaboration with Oriol Miralbell (Open University of Catalonia) and with the support of IFITT (International Federation for IT in Travel and Tourism) are organizing a special mini-track dedicated to the understanding of the “Role of eLearning Applications within the tourism and hospitality sector”.
The mini-track will be a part of the 3rd International Conference on Tourism Management and Tourism Related Issues, and will be held in Barcelona (Spain) on October 3-4, 2013.
for more info see the call for papers on www.elearning4tourism.com.
 

La «seconda vita» digitale delle riviste di turismo

Giulio Lizzi, Lorenzo Cantoni, La «seconda vita» digitale delle riviste di turismo, «Problemi dell'informazione», 3 (2012), pp. 365-380, doi: 10.1445/72865

Wikipedia Takes On Travel Industry With Wikivoyage

on Wired >>>

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013

Cantoni, Lorenzo and Xiang, Zheng (Eds.) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013Proceedings of the International Conference in Innsbruck, Austria, January 22-25, 2013
Berlin - Heidelberg: Springer, 2013
The (draft) cover!

 

and  the dedicated page on Springer website

New Media for Tourism Communication & eTourism Lab

Innovation Touristique and two more events

theese days I'm presenting @:

• Colloque «Les voies de l’innovation touristique» (Chambéry [FR], Novembre 15-16, 2012) on Online communication of tourism destinations: reputation, maturity and eLearning (La communication en ligne des destinations touristiques: réputation, maturité et apprentissage en ligne)
• 10° Swiss International Holiday Exhibition (Lugano, November 16 - 18, 2012) on eLearning for tourism destinations, a new marketing opportunity
• European Master in Intercultural Communication (EMICC), EUROCAMPUS 2012 (Coimbra, Portugal) on Culture and Online Communication

UK travel agents’ evaluation of eLearning courses offered by destinations : An exploratory study

Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education
Volume 12, Issue 1, April 2013, Pages 7–14
UK travel agents’ evaluation of eLearning courses offered by destinations : An exploratory study 
by Nadzeya Kalbaska, Hee Andy Lee, Lorenzo Cantoni, Rob Law

Progetto INTERREG: Laghi e Monti Life

Seguendo un approccio centrato sull’ascolto, sono state condotte interviste a 279 turisti in visita nell’area del Ticino e del Distretto Turistico dei Laghi in Piemonte. 
È possibile scaricare gratuitamente il report.

Online Communication of the Catholic World Youth Days

by Lorenzo Cantoni, Miriam Stefania & Silvia De Ascaniis, in Kevin Griffin & Razaq Ra (eds.), Reflecting on Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, ATLAS, 2012
ISBN: 978-90-75775-53-2

Google AuthorRank promises major changes for travel search

from Tnooz >>>

a great experience at the University of Eastern Finland

acting as opponent at the doctoral defence of Carolina Islas Sedano
Joensuu (Finland), September 4, 2012
Topic: Hypercontextualised Games 
Custodian: Prof. Erkki Sutinen

How Jeffery Boyd took Priceline from dot-bomb to highflier

a story by Fortune >>>

Symposium: Global tools, local needs

I'll be at the University of Eastern Finland (in Joensuu) to be opponent in a PhD discussion, as well as to participate to the Global tools, local needs Symposium, at the IMPDET (International Multidisciplinary PhD Studies in Educational Technology) >>>

Wikipedia parent to launch travel guide with Wikitravel rebels

on Skift >>>

Ticino Switzerland Travel Specialist featured in TES MAGAZINE

Read the interview here (in German).
Subscribe to Ticino Turismo eLearning Platform here (in English).

Labs' residential seminar (dieta) in Miglieglia

Mobile Access to Knowledge (A2K)

Marta Pucciarelli & Lorenzo Cantoni (Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland), Mobile Access to Knowledge (A2K), presentation held at the Scientific m-Learning seminar, ICTP - Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy).

you can see the program, the video of the presentation, as well as the videos of the entire seminar.

a very interesting campaign by the Ministry of Tourism in Macedonia

a very interesting viral campaign addressed to local people to promote a change in attitudes and behaviours toward tourists. 

How to evaluate it? (here a very negative evaluation)