Putting together Touristology and Web Engineering!

Business Model in Tourism / How Web Engineering fits in each model / is there a difference between knowing the path and walking the path (examples and personal experiences)?

This summer I have been working at my Web Engineering skills. One of the most gratifying things of returning to Touristology after working at Web Engineering  is to feel that you are a genius, basically because  I have clearer frameworks (by the way, I have the same feeling when I change from English to Catalan or Spanish!!!).

But I strongly believe that Touristology, Web Engineering and English make a good combination, even though some of my students think otherwise. Can we work It Out? 

I want to put together Business Models and Technological Schemes and try to forecast the future of the tourism sector. As the Beatles say “Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong”

So, here I’m trying to put together Touristology and Web Engineering!

This summer in Catalonia (and in the rest of the world!) it had been a strong argument about the necessity to change the business model of some tourist destinations. Exactly what do they refer when they said that? Sometimes I believe that they don’t know what a business model mean but they use this expression because sounds right (I believe that because I have been listening the same for the last 20 years!!!).

Basically, we have just two Business Models in Tourism:

1) Mass Tourism: Price and economy of scale orientated. Demand looking for the cheaper price. Supply and intermediaries focus on maximize revenues by increasing the number of tourist.

2) Specialize Tourism: Add value oriented. Demand willing to pay the right price in order to get what is important to them. This can be related to the travel or something that they get through the travel (experience, international contacts, new perspective, new segments, new markets, the feeling that your friends are not define anymore by geographical boundaries BUT for similar or complementary interest/hobbies/taste …). Supply focus on maximize the profit, both for increasing the price and for increasing the margin thanks to control the chain of value (topics already discuss in this blog). Intermediaries also specialized following long-tail and pro-am theories.

All the rest of sometimes called Tourism models are in reality typologies of Tourism (cultural, scientific, ecotourism, MICE….). Which will be Mass or Specialize depending on the rules define above. It isn’t Specialize better of Mass or the other way around. They are just two clear different business model!

How web engineering fits in these two models?

Do you think that Google and Facebook are an important component of you chain of value?

It depends on the Business Model!!! Surely they are important for mass tourism BUT they are merely complementary in the specialize one. In Specialize tourism is far more important that you develop YOUR Google (A place where your customers, your employees and members of the chain of value find everything they will need) and YOUR Facebook (A place to share, to find, to build…).

Who does have to think the whole application? A Touristologist or a Web Engineerer? Do you think that a Touristologist must know the technological scheme or he can leave all this topics to the engineers?

Do you believe that www.travelmuse.com or www.tripit.com will revolutionize the tourism sector?

Are they focus on Mass or Specialize tourism? Can we develop something better? Must we combine Touristology with Web Engineering?

My motto had always been knowing the path and walking the path. So, in the next posts I will try to combine interesting examples with personal experiences. It will be difficult and time consuming BUT IT WILL BE FUN!!! 

I hope you like it and if you want to comment or ask anything … Make yourself at home! At the end of the day this is not MY blog it’s OUR blog. The blog of the ones that believe that Touristology is a science!!!