Neutrality of electronic tourism: its trace on the digital tourist and digital transformation of tourism industry
Abstract
Electronic tourism (e-tourism) has led to a radical change in the tourism industry. However, there are still gaps with respect to the neutrality of e-tourism where the concern remains to know if the liberating or repressive features of digital technologies are a key point for the digital tourist to maintain his co-creative role and be a driver of the digital transformation of the industry. Based on the fact that the technology is not neutral, the purpose of this article is to identify the liberating and repressive features of e-tourism with a focus on the digital tourist. From this, analyze if these features have led to the digital transformation of the industry. An exploratory bibliographic review was carried out that allowed the analysis around four e-tourism scenarios that include the behavior of the digital tourist, content creation, the digital tourist as a prosumer, and risks in e-tourism. The findings show that the scenarios could manifest both features. However, our analysis places e-tourism as a liberator of the digital tourist, because it tends to project characteristics of compatibility, accessibility and responsibility through the participation, collaboration, and variety of information it provides.
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