In the previous editions of the INTO Seminar, held since 2004, several topics have been covered, all of them related todifferent tourism products such as cultural, nautical or health as well as marketing tools as branding. New ways to face the sustainability of the sector have also been discused, including topics such as the climate change. On the other hand, other issues that have been covered are those related to the evolution of the implemented technologies in the tourismsector: it aims to examine the tourist behaviour and to make use of these new technologies to create and/ make tourist destinations become sustainable. . These topics have been deeply discussed with the aim to accelerateinnovation in the key knowledge areas which makethe tourist product value chain more competitive.
In this IX edition of the INTO Seminar, it has been proposed as a topic “Social Media&Tourism Industry”. Internet and social network, online marketing, web 2.0 have significantly changed the rules and opened a scenario of new opportunities for the tourism industry. Not only for the advantages related to technological change but also mainly for the inherent social change. Social media provide new channels for the production and circulation of meaning in the tourism experience and imagination. These media can be regarded as a novel form of collective value creation. They provide a fast-evolving technological structure shaping tourism cultures on and offline.
The Directorate General of Universities, Research and Transfer of Knowledge and the BIT Foundation of the Government of the Balearic Islands opt once again to provide the innovation in tourism with debate arena, with the firm target of promoting the knowledge transfer within the tourism industry of the Balearic Islands.
The first session the new digital tourist profile will be discussed, as well as new socio-cultural habits and, at the same time, the wayhow knowledge, communication and sociability in tourism that used to take place in aphysical space-time context, now are happening in the digitalized one. Digital media knowledge and links between virtual and non-virtual communication will be adressed. The session will also include a workshop examining the influence of new technologies changing this so-called “digital tourist” behavior, as well as his decision-making proocedures and tourism experiences.
Thesecond session will tackle the analysis of the dataflow (or Big Data) at different stages of the digital tourist process of travelling such as destination choice, sales experience in the destination, as well as the pre and post trip. On the other hand, the iusse of Smart Tourist and Smart Destinations will be dealt, in reply to the needs of the new digital tourist profileusing smart and sustainable knowledge toimplement infrastructures and strategies tfo improve mobility, energy supply systems, and complete tourist experiences fully customized, for instance
Finally, in a third session which includes a practical part , a workshop will be held with the aim to explore practical data collection, as well as analysing ways for the analysis of place making through what is known as‘walking methods’ and the role this might play in design of IT products for tourism.