Tourism, information technologies and sustainability: an exploratory review

ABSTRACT

Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the fundamental changes in the global tourism system related to the emergence of information technologies (IT), and, specifically, the rise of social media. Opportunities to search travel-related information, to reserve and book, evaluate and judge; to receive travel advice and to communicate one's mobility patterns have all profoundly changed the practices of performing tourism, with concomitant repercussions for the management and marketing of businesses and destinations. This paper provides a discussion of the implications of these changes for the sustainability of the global tourism system. Based on an exploratory research design, key changes in the tourism system are identified and discussed with regard to their environmental, socio-cultural and psychological, as well as economic significance. The paper concludes that IT affects the tourism system in numerous and complex ways, with mixed outcomes for sustainability: while most changes would currently appear to be ambivalent – and some outright negative – there is considerable potential for IT to support more sustainable tourism. Yet, this would require considerable changes in the tourism system on global, national and individual business' levels, and require tourism academics to probe many new issues.

关于旅游业，信息技术和可持续性的探索性研究回顾

摘要：近年来，信息技术特别是社交媒体的涌现使全球旅游体系发生了根本转变，旅游实践方式、企业和目的地管理营销也随之改变。基于探索性研究设计，从环境、社会文化、心理和经济意义上确定及详述了当中的关键转变，讨论了其对全球可持续旅游体系的启示，总结出信息技术对旅游体系的影响多面复杂，对可持续性的当前影响多为矛盾或消极结果，但存在支持可持续旅游的巨大潜力。这要求体系中各个层级做出改变，要求学者着手研究许多新问题。

KEYWORDS:

• Information technology
• social media
• reservation platforms
• sustainable tourism

关键字:

• 信息技术
• 社交媒体
• 预定平台
• 可持续旅游

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Erratum

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to his colleagues at the Western Norway Research Institute, who are always willing to share their knowledge on the latest developments in social media, platforms, apps and IT more generally. Thomas Vith helped to collect data on platform user numbers. A special thanks goes to Bernard Lane, for his always careful editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The terms “information communication technology” (ICT) and “information technology” (IT) are used interchangeably in this paper, subsuming social media.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stefan Gössling

Stefan Gössling is a professor at the School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden, as well as at the Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Sweden. He is also a research coordinator at the Western Norway Research Institute. Stefan studied geography and biology, and holds a PhD in human ecology. He is interested in all aspects of sustainable tourism, transport and mobility, resource use and climate change.