An Evaluation of a Contextual Computing Approach to Visitor Information Systems
Contextual computing is becoming an increasingly important research field in tourism. It is essential to have a substantial understanding of how these systems work and to measure the extent to which real visitors are ready and willing to use them. Thus, t
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Abstract Contextual computing is becoming an increasingly important research field in tourism. It is essential to have a substantial understanding of how these systems work and to measure the extent to which real visitors are ready and willing to use them. Thus, this study proposes a two level evaluation that measures the technical performance of a particular contextual computing system, named CONCERT, according to various variables on the one hand, and that assesses the extent to which visitor experience improves by using these types of services. A series of key relationships have been found between the results of the technical and user evaluations. The findings of the user evaluation provide significant insight into the role of contextual computing services in tourism to increase visitors' experience. Keywords: Mobile Experience.
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Services;
Technology Acceptance;
Contextual Computing;
User
Introduction
The current state of the art technology enables contextual computing services in tourism (Beer, Fuchs, H6pken, Rasinger & Werthner, 2007; H6pken, Fuchs, Zanker, Beer, Eybl, Flores, Gordea, Jessenitsching, Kerner, Linke, Rasinge & Schabl, 2006; Lamsfus, Alzua, Martin & Salvador, 2010). Typically, a visitor is a person in a visiting situation (UNWTO, 2008), who may be more or less familiar and aware of useful information that is available about the place. This kind of place unfamiliarity and lack of knowledge vary from place to place and from person to person. They therefore form an important part of the personal context of a visitor in a particular place. In addition, meaningful context information does not only rely on such kind of external data, but is also affected by other cultural, personal and social factors (Lamsfus, Alzua-Sorzabal, Martin & Salvador, 2010). Tourists are intensive mobile device users. However, the increasing amount of (structured and unstructured) tourism information on the Internet together with the interaction difficulties posed by mobile devices due to their small screens and keyboards make it a real challenge to find useful information in an active way (search, browse and select information) at the visit time and place. On the other hand, the typical pre-loaded or compiled tourism guides offer more accessible visitor
R. Law et al. (eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2011 © Springer-Verlag/Wien 2011
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information, at least pre-filtered by location. These can either have book format or be some sort of mobile (electronic) visitor guide. However, any of these formats require active browsing, pre-knowledge of the organisation of the content and active selection of the corresponding reading. The widespread adoption of traditional pull communication technology-based (such as 3G, Wi-Fi and so on) download and streaming services, their problems of coverage and price (especially under roaming conditions) and the decrease in price of hard memory storage and player systems (e.g., iPod) give rise to the following questions: could particular sectors (due to their
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