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Adaptive Strategies to Technological Change: Understanding Travellers Using the Internet for Trip Planning

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014

Abstract

With recent developments in technology including social media and mobile computing, the Internet offers many tools for today’s travellers. Based upon a large six year study of American travellers’ use of the Internet, this study identifies the strategies travellers develop in response to the complex technological environment over a period of time. The results show that American travellers have adopted six distinct strategies in terms of their behavioural responses to the use of the Internet for travel planning. These strategies are relatively stable and can be described by a relatively limited number of information sources and channels. This study advances our understanding of the impact of ICT on travel behaviour and offers insights for the development of new communication strategies for tourism businesses.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA

    Zheng Xiang

  2. School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HKSAR, China

    Dan Wang

  3. National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

    Daniel R. Fesenmaier

Authors
  1. Zheng Xiang
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  2. Dan Wang
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  3. Daniel R. Fesenmaier
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zheng Xiang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Zheng Xiang

  2. Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA

    Iis Tussyadiah

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© 2013 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Xiang, Z., Wang, D., Fesenmaier, D.R. (2013). Adaptive Strategies to Technological Change: Understanding Travellers Using the Internet for Trip Planning. In: Xiang, Z., Tussyadiah, I. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03973-2_30

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