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The Case of Switzerland During the Last 20 Years

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Tourism and Leisure

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have been recognized for quite some time (cf. Buhalis, 2003, p. 338; Scaglione & Murphy, 2012) as a key tool for marketing and distribution in tourism. Actually, not only do they offer opportunities in terms of information diffusion (24*7*365) on product and service presentation, pricing strategies and promotions (last-minute, location-based offers, etc.), but also they broaden selling opportunities for tourism suppliers including getting customer feedback from social media sites.

During the last 20 years, various papers at the AIEST conference have followed the ICT evolution using Switzerland tourism sectors for case studies. These studies focused on either diffusion and implementation (Perruchoud-Massy, Scaglione, Schegg, & Murphy, 2005; Scaglione, Ismail, Trabichet, & Murphy, 2010; Scaglione, Johnson, & Trabichet, 2010, 2011; Scaglione, Schegg, Steiner, & Murphy, 2004a; Schegg, Scaglione, Liebrich, & Murphy, 2007; Varini, Scaglione, & Schegg, 2011) or the impact on revenue generated by ICTs in Switzerland (Scaglione, Schegg, & Murphy, 2006, 2009)

The central aim of the present research is to describe the evolution of ICT adoption and implementation in the Swiss tourism sector and in conclusion to show the importance of supporting innovation policy through the whole process but also to show the possible thread of Online Travel Agencies (OTA) for the hospitality sector. This research reviews empirical results and spells out the role of public policy in accompanying the ICT adoption and implementation processes in Switzerland.

Last but not least, this paper is a tribute to the president of AIEST, Professor Peter Keller, by showing his role during the early stages of ICT adoption and implementation in Switzerland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Tourism, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland Valais, Valais, Switzerland

    Prof. Dr. Miriam Scaglione & Prof. Dr. Roland Schegg

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  1. Prof. Dr. Miriam Scaglione
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  2. Prof. Dr. Roland Schegg
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Correspondence to Miriam Scaglione .

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  1. Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany

    Harald Pechlaner

  2. Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO), Vienna, Austria

    Egon Smeral

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Scaglione, M., Schegg, R. (2015). The Case of Switzerland During the Last 20 Years. In: Pechlaner, H., Smeral, E. (eds) Tourism and Leisure. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06660-4_12

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