Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management

What does Web 4.0 Promise for Tourism Ecosystem? A Qualitative Research on Tourism Ecosystem Stakeholders’ Awareness
Hülya Kurgun, Osman Avşar Kurgun, Erdem Aktaş

Abstract
The major motivation of this study is stemmed from the fact that web 4.0 will reveal new structures in consumer, service, stakeholder and business models in the tourism ecosystem. Technologies such as intelligent agents, big data, internet of objects and augmented reality will be important factors in this change. The main purpose of the research is to determine the stakeholders' awareness about the changes that the web 4.0 arguments may have on the tourism products and services, tourist profiles, business models and stakeholders in the tourism ecosystem. The study also aims to explore the stakeholders' predictions about this issue. The research was conducted through semi-structured interview with 18 participants including hotel enterprise directors, owners of travel agencies, public institution managers, non-governmental organization managers and academicians that play a supporting role in the tourism ecosystem in Izmir destination. The results revealed that the majority of stakeholders are aware of web 4.0 and its potential impacts. In addition, participants believe that web 4.0 will create new business models in which technology-producing stakeholders are involved, new tourist services that benefit from augmented reality and similar technologies and new tourist consumer profiles that will demand these tourist services.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jthm.v6n1a6