Impact on tourism supply

Many tourism suppliers are using Podcasting as a marketing as well as a communication tool. For example, Jumeirah hotel uploads podcasts on its website for delivering its potential customers what is happening in its properties at any minutes, and-or delivering to users the experiences of VIPs that have stayed at their property. Tate Gallery enables their visitors that have experienced their paintings and exhibition to record themselves, upload their audio-video on the Tate Gallery website, which other can later download it and use it as a mobile guide into the gallery and-or as a interpretation and marketing information of the gallery’s exhibits. Orbitz provides podcasting of many destinations that travelers can download to their MP3 players and use them as guides while visiting the destination. In a similar way, MGM Grand Hotel Las Vegas has lauded online video on its website under the title “Maximum Vegas” in order to better illustrates to its potential guests the experience and services of its hotel and gaming resort.

Metaverses – Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)

Metaverses are three dimensional virtual worlds whereby Internet users collaboratively play “online MMORPG games” with others. However, these platforms are wrongly perceived as “simple games” and “virtual” worlds, since most times they represent an extension to our physical day-to-day world to which users add new socio-economic and political situations. MMORPG are games that are played by numerous players (e.g. millions of users) and they could be considered as an intermediate step from ‘computer’ to ‘ambient’ era. Some of these games (e.g. World of Warcraft) develop around a theme defining the goals of the game, while other games such as Second Life encourage a free-style of playing, allowing the users to make what they want out of it. Although it is difficult to measure the size and growth of such games, it is estimated that the market for massively multiplayer online games is now worth more than $1bn in the West world. For example, one can simply consider the size of and growth of Second Life itself. Second Life has more than 5 million users (April 2007), while about half a billion US$ are being transacted every year on Second Life’s website.

Impact on tourism demand

Tourists and travelers participate in such games either for fun and-or for ways of expression of oneself and for task – accomplishment satisfaction. For example, many people dream and try to become and excel on a profession that they could not achieve in the real life, try to design a new product and service hoping that somebody that is looking for new talents will find and recruit them.

Impact on tourism supply

Many tourism and travel related companies have already created their representative offices and headquarters in Second Life. Embassies and Tourism Authorities of many countries have created their offices conducting marketing and promotions, famous Islands have created their Second Life virtual islands, Hyatt used Second Life for consulting architects and their guests on how to improve their hotel design and architecture, while Second Life users created and designed the first Aloft hotel which in real life will open and operate in 2008. The use of Second Life for market research and exploitation of users for generating and testing new product ideas and new advertisement campaigns is huge, e.g. Toyota first tested the campaign of its new brand Scion on Second Life and then broadcasted widely in real life. Other companies, e.g. CNN, are recruiting and identifying new talents (e.g. journalists) in Second Life.

Tagging

Tagging represents a new way for categorizing information. Users tag a piece of content (e.g. an audio, a picture, a word) with a meaning (a word or phrase) and then this information is categorized in categories based on this meaning. Tagging can be used for saving and sorting ones content as well as sharing with others. For example, one can save its favorites websites in deli.cious, tag website with some meaning based on which they are sorted in categories, while others can use these users’ generated categories of favorites and tags for identifying appropriate websites. In this vein, tagging has a great effect on how search engines identify and present information results in keyword searches to users.