What tourists want to know: An analysis of questions asked at visitor information centres
| Autor: | De Ascaniis Silvia, Gretzel Ulrike, Mistilis Nina |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Popis: | Visitor Information Centres (VICs) represent an important tool for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) in promoting local tourism products and services. Recent studies have pointed out that VICs are still key providers of en route information despite the growing use of Internet and mobile technologies and are effective in supporting and even changing tourists’ trip plans. The research presented in this paper investigated unexplored aspects of the interaction between VICs and their visitors which are: the type of questions asked (i.e. information recommendation or confirmation) their level of specificity the most frequent objects of inquiry and the query sequence. A corpus of face to face questions from a local VIC in New South Wales Australia served as the data. Results show that the questions asked are very specific and have a strong geographic component. The findings help in better understanding the contemporary role of VICs as well as their management for effective information provision and also provide insights into tourists’ en route decision making behaviour. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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