Further Open Tourism Examples and Cases Philipp Allerstorfer, Kim Boes, Igor Gula, Zsofia Horvath, and Emre Ronay This book covers a number of case studies, thus providing several practical insights into the industry. However, there are numerous other examples related to Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing, Co-Creation and Collaborative Consumption in Tour- ism, that are worthy of being presented to the reader. We therefore collected, structured and edited a total of 51 examples, based on our contribution-utiliza- tion-matrix. Each example is structured in the same way, first by providing a brief description of the activity. The Idea, purpose and the outcome of the project are listed as well as the company/creator, the country and the website link, for one to pursue further information. P. Allerstorfer Johannes Kepler Universita¨t, Linz, Austria e-mail: [email protected] K. Boes Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK e-mail: [email protected] I. Gula (*) MODUL University Vienna, Wien, Austria e-mail: [email protected] Z. Horvath • E. Ronay Salzburg University of Applied Science, Salzburg, Austria e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 447 R. Egger et al. (eds.), Open Tourism, Tourism on the Verge, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-54089-9 448 Further Open Tourism Examples and Cases Open Tourism Structure Risk / Concreteness / Commitment Open Boundaries Engagement + Seekers + - fund / invest - share / produce Provide ICT - generate / publish - announce, tender - create / prototype Create Call - arrange, identify private Solvers’ Seekers’ Contribution Utilization Initiative activities activities - talk / be analysed Inform public Search - investigate, read - evaluate / recommend - listen, watch ICT - - Solvers Open Boundaries Fig. 1 Open tourism structure, see the first chapter of this book (Source: Own illustration) 1 Inform 1.1 Talk/be analysed 1. Smile land games Description Idea: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) launched a series of interactive Social Media games, branded under the name “Smile Land” that incorporate designs taken from the national icons of Thailand.a The games allow travellers to experience Thailand intuitively in an enter- taining way. More than 200 points of interests can be discovered in the games, via the process of transforming into a virtual traveller coming to Thailand. During this journey, hidden treasures can be found at certain places and collected as tokens, which authenticate one’s visitb Purpose: The games are part of a digital marketing strategy initiated by the TAT. The target markets are young people using Social Media and smartphones. The TAT aims to reach one billion potential users worldwide and to enhance awareness of Thailand’s tourism industryc Outcome: Five interactive games that provide an entertaining perspective while raising aware- ness of Thailand have been developed. Potential visitors and travellers who are unfamiliar with Thailand, thus have the opportunity to partake in a pre-travel experience (continued) Further Open Tourism Examples and Cases 449 Country Company/creator Website Thailand Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) http://www.smilelandgame.com/ aURL: http://www.tatnews.org/media-releases-2011/item/238-tat-launches-smile-land-games-on- social-networking-media, accessed on 18.08.2014 bURL: http://www.smilelandgame.com/gameinfo.php, accessed on 18.08.2014 cURL: http://www.thaitravelblogs.com/2011/06/tat-launches-smile-land-games-for-facebook- and-ipad/, accessed on 18.08.2014 1.2 Evaluate/recommend 2. ZAGAT Descriptiona Idea: Zagat provides an information database, helping users to find various restaurants, ranging from the obscure noodle shop in New York, to the newest celebrity chef-owned restaurant in London. Zagat shows detailed ratings given to the restaurants. In addition, reviews and lists are displayed that are based on feedback from every day customers. This makes Zagat a reliable and accurate source of information to discover the most favourable places to eat and drink Purpose: For every category that is being rated, surveys are conducted with regular and returning customers. The knowledge of these expert customers, their awarded points and ratings, and amusing quotes, offer internet users a comprehensive guide. The scoring system of Zagat is unique as it requires that the reviewer evaluates the restaurant according to separate components, based on a scale of 30 points Outcome: Zagat has gained a lot of attention over the past few years. The Associated Press named Zagat as “the world’s most influential travel and food guide”, while The New York Times described it as “a necessity second only to a valid credit card” Country Company/creator Website State of New York, USA Tim and Nina Zagat http://www.zagat.com/ aURL: http://www.zagat.com/about-us, accessed on 18.08.2014 3. TripAdvisor Descriptiona Idea: TripAdvisor claims to be the biggest travel website worldwide. The website enables users to plan their perfect trip based on the experiences of other travellers, and to share their own impressions. TripAdvisor manages websites with 23 other travel media brands and operates in 43 countries all over the world Purpose: TripAdvisor provides reviews from travellers and a wide range of travel planning features, such as price comparison of various booking pages. The website provides a platform where travellers can retrieve information, recommendations and advice from other travellers, to plan their trip. Every minute, 60 more contributions are added to the database.b Outcome: With more than 280 million visitors per month, over 100 million reviews, ideas and insights that cover more than four million accommodations, restaurants and attractions, TripAdvisor has become the largest travel community in the world (continued) 450 Further Open Tourism Examples and Cases 3. TripAdvisor Country Company/creator Website State of Massachusetts, USA Stephen Kaufer http://www.tripadvisor.com/ aURL: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/PressCenter-c6-About_Us.html, accessed on 18.08.2014 bURL: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/help/gettingstarted, accessed on 18.08.2014 4. Tripwolf Descriptiona Idea: Tripwolf is an online travel guide, which was founded in 2008. The travel guide is also available for mobile phones as an iPhone or Android app. The website comprises of up-to-the- minute information and high quality travel tips by combining mainstream travel information provided by travel guides such as Marco Polo and Footprint, with information provided by thousands of travellers located worldwide Purpose: The user can browse through the website to find relevant information on destinations. For instance, information on thousands of points of interest, restaurants and hotels are available. In addition, users can create an individually customized travel guide which can be downloaded. Currently, more than 200 guides of the world’s most beautiful destinations are available as in-app downloads. New guides are being added constantly Outcome: The Tripwolf mobile travel map is currently one of the most successful personal travel guides on the market, with more than three million personal travel guides and around 1.6 million app downloads. The webpage is available in five different languages Country Company/creator Website Austria Sebastian Heinzel http://www.tripwolf.com/ aURL: http://www.tripwolf.com/en/page/about, accessed on 18.08.2014 5. Qype Descriptiona Idea: Qype is Europe’s leading consumer review site which was founded in 2006. It supports consumers who are seeking to make informed decisions on every day issues at home or on a trip. The idea revolutionized the way consumers were doing research and how they were deciding on which goods and services to patronize Purpose: It provides a database with information that can be retrieved. New places can be discovered and shared. In addition, thorough and candid reviews are given based on restaurants, shops, hairdressers or even plumbers in more than 160,000 cities and towns around the world. The Qype App assists consumers by giving them instant access to reviews whenever they want Outcome: Over three million reviews have been written and more than 900,000 places in Europe have been reviewed. The site is currently available in nine languages and attracts more than 15 million visits per month. It has over two million registered users in 166 countries. New content is uploaded every 10 s while every 7 s, a user conducts a local search via Qype Country Company/creator Website Germany Stephan Uhrenbacher http://www.qype.co.uk/ aURL: http://www.qype.co.uk/impressum, accessed on 18.08.2014 Further Open Tourism Examples and Cases 451 2 Create 2.1 Generate/publish 6. Wizard Istanbul Description Idea: WizardIstanbul.com is an online travel guide for people travelling to Istanbul. Its mission is to provide better Istanbul experiences. It offers useful and important information for people spending their time in Istanbul, which are created by the authors on the one hand, and insights and tips based on the questions which users asked about Istanbul on the other hand. WizardIstanbul.com has grown into a professional organisation consisting of 15 people Purpose: People who “love Istanbul very much” come together and share their information, experiences and insights. Users can ask questions about Istanbul in selected categories. The questions can be asked via the website, Facebook or Twitter and will be answered within 30 min, 24 h a day. Users can also contribute to the website with their own texts and articles about Istanbul, and submit their impressions of Istanbul as well Outcome: Crowdsourced online travel guide for Istanbul whose recommendations are based on the user-generated content Country Company/creator Website Turkey Mehmet Cihangir http://wizardistanbul.com/ 7. “Global Youth Campaign”, Fan photo of the week Description Idea: The destination New South Wales (NSW) conceptualized the “Global Youth Campaign” Purpose: The “Global Youth Campaign” aims to get people together to talk about their experi- ences in New South Wales. Moreover, users can share their favourite places or secret spots online.