Search Results (11)

This study investigates the integration of digital technologies in leading European museums to enhance heritage interpretation, increase visitor engagement, and contribute to sustainable tourism. As museums increasingly adapt to the digital age, they seek innovative solutions to enrich the visitor experience while promoting sustainability. This research uses a content analysis approach to examine the strategies employed by four prominent museums—the Louvre, the British Museum, the Prado Museum, and the Rijksmuseum. Key digital initiatives, including virtual tours, educational apps, and online collections, are identified as central components of their efforts to improve accessibility, facilitate interactive learning, and attract a wider global audience. Our findings highlight that these digital innovations not only provide visitors with more engaging and informative experiences but also align with sustainability objectives such as reducing carbon footprints and supporting cultural preservation. This study concludes that by leveraging smart technologies, museums are evolving into dynamic, globally connected institutions that strike a balance between conservation and visitor engagement, thereby fostering a more sustainable and inclusive approach to heritage tourism. Full article

In the digital era, user-generated online reviews serve as a valuable resource for understanding visitor experiences in cultural institutions. This study analyses sentiments and thematic trends in TripAdvisor reviews of mountain museums, using Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modelling and sentiment analysis. A dataset of 2157 reviews from ten museums was classified into local and non-local perspectives, revealing significant differences in visitor expectations. Findings indicate that local visitors prioritize historical authenticity and educational value, whereas non-local visitors emphasize aesthetic appeal, interactivity, and cultural immersion. Sentiment analysis highlights generally positive perceptions, with business travellers and groups of friends reporting the highest satisfaction levels. Comparative analysis across visitor types reveals distinct engagement patterns, with families valuing child-friendly exhibits, couples seeking cultural enrichment, and solo travellers focusing on intellectual depth. These insights inform strategic recommendations for museum management, including multilingual content, interactive elements, and guided tours dedicated to specific visitor profiles. Despite limitations related to lack of real-time feedback, this research demonstrates the potential of sentiment analysis in enhancing museum experiences. Future studies should integrate multimodal analysis and real-time tracking to further refine visitor experience evaluation. Full article

During the COVID-19 epidemic, countries enacted autonomous measures to suspend long-distance travel. As a result, people used online platforms to share perspectives and disseminate their knowledge and skills. Internet learning content thus emerged as a primary solution. This study was conducted to assess the reactions of users to virtual tours. Participants were introduced to the 360-degree panoramic photography system of cultural monuments of the Taipei City Government and participated in an online cultural tour. A closed-ended questionnaire was distributed for their response. After compiling data from 31 participants, we analyzed the link between users’ demographic characteristics and their satisfaction levels with the online panoramic tour system. We discovered higher satisfaction rates of people with incomes exceeding that of the average participant. 83% of participants stated a willingness to explore scenic attractions virtually instead of physically traveling when unable to do so. The results of this study contribute to understanding the context of users’ post-visit satisfaction. The information gathered can be used to improve cultural heritage websites in terms of design, navigation, and cultural education, enabling virtual access to cultural sites and enriching users’ knowledge from home. Full article

In this study, big data analysis on Korea’s “online tour”, which emerged as an alternative to satisfy tourism needs after COVID-19, was conducted. After extracting keywords through text mining for 24,073 posts from the top three most frequently visited social media platforms, Naver, Daum, and Google, to gather tour information in Korea, frequency analysis and TF-IDF analysis were run. In addition, network analyses, such as centrality and convergence of iteration correlation (CONCOR) analyses, were performed. The results showed: First, the sense of presence via local live streaming is crucial. It is vital to prepare a suitable video environment where tourists can immerse themselves in the tour. Second, the interaction between travel agencies, local guides, and tourists is important because it can expand tourists’ travel experiences. Third, the importance of online tour program content was revealed. It is necessary to increase the demand by designing various programs tailored to the audience. Fourth, new possibilities for local travel that had been neglected were uncovered. Fifth, the importance of online tourism production support was highlighted. The role of the government must be expanded to reinforce the digital capabilities of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to create jobs. Although the scope of this study is limited to Korea, it can definitely be used as a regional strategy. Full article

The aim of this research was to address the issues in virtual-reality technologies and gamification within the context of immersive technologies. The author drew together, in a hybrid methodology, the principles of virtual touring and online training, as these need to be understood by destination and tourism professionals. The emphasis was on the utility of innovative multimedia and multimodal technological tools for modern content creation, which led to an online training process for travel agents, the role of gamification and how a virtual platform could be developed to promote a tourism destination during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author based the research on a case study of an immersive platform of a Greek destination and on the degree of the user response to the virtual technology and content. The study also included a comparison between two platforms: one using conventional content and one using multimedia content. The author methodologically used VAR models to describe the cogeneration process of multiple variables over time to investigate the relationships between these variables. The results led to a preference for immersive platforms, which can be a guide for corresponding platforms that are concerned with the promotion of destinations. Full article

In the context of football’s globalisation, some of the most important football clubs (FCs) can currently be classified as ‘entertainment multinationals’. Sport hospitality provides opportunities to maximise club stadiums’ use so that they can increase clubs’ annual turnover and function as branding platforms. This study sought to identify the main narratives shared online about—and the dimensions of—visitors’ experiences with top football brands in stadium tours. The data collected for this research comprised 400 text reviews for 10 European FCs’ stadiums (i.e., 4000 reviews) written by visitors in the post-experience phase. Content analysis of these Web reviews was conducted using Leximancer software. The results confirm the existence of 15 themes: fan, tour, stadium, team, museum, room, staff, game, (best) place, ticket, seating, recommend(ation), food, shop and attraction. Most researchers have examined stadium tours from a supply-side perspective. The present study’s aim was, therefore, to contribute to the existing literature by analysing stadium tours’ dimensions from the visitors’ point of view. Stadium tours and museum visits are important sources of revenue that contribute to FCs’ economic sustainability. Offering outstanding customer experiences is thus of utmost importance to maximise club stadiums’ usage and strengthen fans’ engagement. Full article

Tourists’ experiential perceptions and specific behaviors are of importance to facilitate geographers’ and planners’ understanding of landscape surroundings. In addition, the potentially significant role of online user generated content (UGC) in tourism landscape research has only received limited attention, especially in the era of artificial intelligence. The motivation of the present study is to understand international tourists’ online reviews of Mt. Huangshan in China. Through a state-of-the-art natural language processing network (BERT) analyzing posted reviews across international tourists, our results facilitate relevant landscape development and design decisions. Second, the proposed analytic method can be an exemplified model to inspire relevant landscape planners and decision-makers to conduct future researches. Through the clustering results, several key topics are revealed, including international tourists’ perceptual image of Mt. Huangshan, tour route planning, and negative experience of staying. Full article

Surgery can be a difficult and unfamiliar experience for children and their families. We examined the ability of existing information to help families feel better prepared for surgery at the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) and evaluated the best way to enhance its content and accessibility. We developed an online survey for families who have had surgery at ACH. Participants were recruited through pre-existing patient networks and from the ACH Short Stay Unit (SSU) between October 2018 and October 2019. The survey asked participants to evaluate the information available to prepare them for surgery and requested suggestions for improvement. Our survey results show that those who completed the in-person Surgery 101 program felt significantly more prepared for surgery. Of those who did not attend; 40% would have been interested in participating but were unaware that the program existed; and 17% planned to attend but were unable to; due to work or travel distance. Participants felt additional resources via online content or paper handouts would be most valuable. We used this information to prepare an online accessible summary of the Surgery 101 program and tour in the form of a video to reach more Albertan families preparing for surgery for their children Full article

The evolution of the high-quality 3D archaeological representations from niche products to integrated online media has not yet been completed. Digital archives of the field often lack multimodal data interoperability, user interaction and intelligibility. A web-based cultural heritage archive that compensates for these issues is presented in this paper. The multi-resolution 3D models constitute the core of the visualization on top of which supportive documentation data and multimedia content are spatial and logical connected. Our holistic approach focuses on the dynamic manipulation of the 3D scene through the development of advanced navigation mechanisms and information retrieval tools. Users parse the multi-modal content in a geo-referenced way through interactive annotation systems over cultural points of interest and automatic narrative tours. Multiple 3D and 2D viewpoints are enabled in real-time to support data inspection. The implementation exploits front-end programming languages, 3D graphic libraries and visualization frameworks to handle efficiently the asynchronous operations and preserve the initial assets’ accuracy. The choice of Greece’s Meteora, UNESCO world site, as a case study accounts for the platform’s applicability to complex geometries and large-scale historical environments. Full article

Destinations are competing every day to attract more tourists and increase tourism receipts. In order to maintain tourists’ interests in the destination and expect sustainable income from tourism, understanding tourists’ perceptions of the destination is a critical task for destination managers. Tourists’ continuous visitation can be ensured when destinations are perceived to be positive and attractive. Therefore, this study examines destination attributes that are fundamental elements of the destination and tourists’ experiences. More specifically, this study investigates the destination attributes that are perceived to be positive by tourists using online reviews. Online reviews were analyzed with content analysis techniques and the quantified content was statically compared with the star rating provided by tourists. In addition, the influence of destination attributes on other conation dimensions-attitude and behavior-was analyzed. Destination attributes that have an influence on the star rating showed similar results to the attitude. However, behavior dimensions only had a significant influence for tour guides’ quality of the destination. Full article

The spatial behavior of tourists is an important part of the research on congestion management and sustainable planning of tourism destinations. Combined with user-generated content (UGC) and site-based survey data, this study conducted an overlaying analysis between street network configurations that resulted from space syntax and tourist preferences. Based on space syntax, tourist movement is influenced by the distribution of scenic spots and the structure of tourist trails in scenic mountain areas. The results reveal that the distribution of scenic spots has a significant impact on tourist flow and visitors’ choices of entrance to the mountain; the volume of online sign-ins is highly correlated with landscape attention, axial control values and the local integration value of the trails; and tourists’ attention focuses on the entrance area and the few tourist-sight markers. This study advances the understanding of the spatial patterns of within-destination tourist behavior; this knowledge will be helpful in alleviating congestion in mountain scenic areas and providing effective guidance for tourists to plan an ideal tour route. Full article