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

Associated Press @ hacked Twitter account

"Twitter Testing Two-Step Authorisation To Foil Hacking Attempts" >>>

Using Self-Efficacy to measure primary school teachers’ perception of ICT: results from two studies

Francesca Fanni, Isabella Rega, & Lorenzo Cantoni (2013, April 19). Using Self-Efficacy to measure primary school teachers’ perception of ICT: results from two studies. International Journal of Education and Development using ICT [Online], 9(1). 

Available in pdf at: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/include/getdoc.php?id=5401&article=1528&mode=pdf. 

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.
 

Silenzio e ascolto: seminario all'Università della Svizzera italiana

Martedì 9 aprile 2013, ore 17.30
Aula A21, campus di Lugano

Il Consigliere di Stato, direttore del Dipartimento dell'educazione, della cultura e dello sport, sarà il relatore d'onore alla prima lezione del seminario Silenzio e ascolto organizzato dalla Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione dell'USI. 

Il termine “comunicazione”, dopo il periodo dell’entusiasmo a cavallo tra la fine degli anni Novanta e l’inizio di questo secolo, corre oggi il rischio di venire frainteso e svilito. Una considerazione riduttiva dei destinatari come semplici “target” (bersagli) da colpire ha infatti frenato una più profonda riflessione sulla valenza dell’ascolto, componente in realtà fondante dell’intero processo comunicativo. Si tratta di ripensare la comunicazione nel suo significato autentico di condivisione di un valore – secondo la sua etimologia: communicatio, da cum (con) e munus (valore) –, reinterpretandola quale elemento fondamentale di ogni attività umana e della vita sociale.

La Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione dell’USI, nell’intento di superare ogni visione riduttiva e di sottolineare l’importanza dell’ascolto, ha organizzato un seminario – dedicato agli studenti ma aperto al pubblico – incentrato sul tema del silenzio e dell’ascolto, tenuto da quattro professori della Facoltà (Lorenzo Cantoni, Eddo Rigotti, Carlo Ossola, Maurizio Viroli).

happy Easter!

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

the book Internet presented on one of the largest daily newspapers in Iran

in case you don't read Persian, you may try it via Google Translator >>>

Giovani e social network

un intervento a Teleticino (5 marzo 2013), insieme a Daniele Parenti, Marco Giovannelli e Luca Botturi, nel programma I conti in tasca, diretto da Alfonso Tuor >>>

graduated!

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

Merry Christmas and a great 2013!

Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), The Adoration of the Magi
(1495-1505), Distemper on convas

listening...

eGovernment class

New Media for Tourism Communication & eTourism Lab

with very smart eurocampus 2012 master students of Intercultural Communication

working on Culture and Online Communication in Coimbra (Portugal) @Universidate Aberta.

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