Skip to main content

From Paradigmatic to Syntagmatic Communities: A Socio-Semiotic Approach to the Evolution Pattern of Online Travel Communities

  • Conference paper
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009
  • 2684 Accesses

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an observatory research which explores the users’ participation in three different travel related virtual communities. The behaviour of the first top ten users has been observed in three different timeframes recording both outcoming interactions (e.g. from the studied user to other users) and incoming ones (e.g. from other users to the studied one). Then, a socio-semiotic linguistic approach has been adopted to explain the users’ behaviour and to hypothesize a possible evolution pattern for the communities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Anderson, C. (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. Hyperion, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arsal, I., Backman, S., Baldwin, E. (2008). Influence of the online travel community on travel decisions. Information Technology and Travel & Tourism 2008, Vienna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baggio, R., Antonioli Corigliano, M., Tallinucci, V. (2007). The websites of a tourism destination: a network analysis. Information Technology and Travel & Tourism, 2007 Ljubljana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis, D. (2003). eTourism: Information technology for strategic tourism management. Prentice Hall, Harlow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantoni, L., FarĂ©, M., Bolchini, D., Inversini, A., Giulieri, F. (2007). European Cities and Web Tourism Communication, An Indicators-based Pilot Study. Proceedings of the Travel Distribution Summit, Europe, Research Conference, Axon Imprint, London, pp. 45–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantoni, L., Tardini, S. (2006). Internet (Routledge Introductions to Media and Communications). London-New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantoni, L., FarĂ©, M., Tardini, S. (2006). A Communicative Approach to Web Communication: the Pragmatic Behavior of Internet Search Engines. QWERTY. Rivista italiana di tecnologia cultura e formazione, 1 (1), pp. 49–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, H.H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gretzel, U., Yu-Lan, Y., Fesenmaier, D. (2000). Preparing for the New Economy: Advertising Strategies and Change in Destination Marketing Organizations, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 146–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gretzel, U., Fesenmaier, D., O’Leary, J.T. (2006). The transformation of consumer behaviour. In D. Buhalis, C. Costa (ed.), Tourism Business Frontiers, Elsevier, pp. 9–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henzinger, M. (2007) Search Technology for the Internet. Science, 317(5837) pp. 468–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hotho, A., Jaschke, R., Schmitz, C., Stumme, G. (2006). Trend Detection in Folksonomies. First International Conference on Semantics and Digital Media Technologies (SAMT), pp. 56–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lechner, U., & Schmid, B.F. (2000). Communities and Media. Towards a Reconstruction of Communities on Media. In E. Sprague (ed.), Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2000), Washington, D.C.: IEEE Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McWilliam, G. (2000). Building Stronger Brands through Online Communities, Sloan Management Review.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niininen, O., Buhalis, D., March, R. (2007) Customer empowerment in tourism through consumer centric marketing. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nisbet, R.A. (1966). The sociological tradition. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Reilly, T. (2005). What Is Web 2.0. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/ what-is-web-20.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poon, A. (1993). Tourism, Technology and Competitive Strategies, Wallingford, CT: CAB International, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preece, J. (2000). Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability, Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold, H. (1993b). A slice of life in my virtual community. In L.M. Harasim (ed.), Global Networks. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 57–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold, H., (1993a). The virtual community. Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Retrieved March 9, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tardini, S. and Cantoni, L. (2009). Development of IT and Virtual Communities. In M. Pagani (ed.), Encyclopedia of Multimedia Technology and Networking. Hershey-New York: Information Science Reference, pp. 349–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tardini, S., and Cantoni, L. (2005). A semiotic approach to online communities: belonging, interest and identity in websites’ and videogames’ communities. In Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference e-Society 2005 (pp. 371–8), IADIS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tussyadiah, I.P. and Fesenmaier, DR. (2007). Interpreting Tourist Experiences from First-Person Stories: A Foundation for Mobile Guides. Proceedings of The 15th European Conference on Information Systems Switzerland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., and Fesenmaier, DR. (2004). Towards understanding members’ general participation in and active contribution to an online travel communities. Tourism Management

    Google Scholar 

  • Werthner, H.-Klein S. (1999). Information Technology and Tourism — A Challenging Relationship. Wien-New York, Springer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiang, Z., Wober, K. and Fesenmaier, DR. (2008) Representation of the Online Tourism Domain in Search Engine. Journal of Travel Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yahoo Developer Website: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/pattern.php?pattern=topx last access October, 2008.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag/Wien

About this paper

Cite this paper

Cantoni, L., Tardini, S., Inversini, A., Marchiori, E. (2009). From Paradigmatic to Syntagmatic Communities: A Socio-Semiotic Approach to the Evolution Pattern of Online Travel Communities. In: Höpken, W., Gretzel, U., Law, R. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-93971-0_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-93971-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-93970-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-211-93971-0

Publish with us

Policies and ethics