A Classification of U-Commerce Location Based Tourism Applications

Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research - Victoria University

Andrew Stein[HREF1], Lecturer School of Information Systems[HREF2] , PO Box 14428, Melbourne City , Victoria, 8001. Andrew.stein@vu.edu.au

Paul Hawking[HREF3], Senior Lecturer School of Information Systems[HREF4] , PO Box 14428, Melbourne City , Victoria, 8001. Paul.hawking@vu.edu.au

Dr Pramod Sharma [HREF5], Senior Lecturer School of Geography, Planning and Architecture[HREF6] University of Queensland, Queensland 4072. p.sharma@uq.edu.au

Abstract

Several mega trends are converging giving rise to the reality of the wide spread commercialization of location based Travel/Tourism systems. Tourism is both a leading revenue generator worldwide and an umbrella industry that enhances regional, SME, cultural, sports and many other industry sectors. It is in essence an information-based industry that is emerging from a sluggish 2002. Location Based Tourism Systems (LBTS) are computerized systems that depend on the automated detection of the location of a target (e.g. a tourist on the move, a tour vehicle) to either deliver or collect information. Currently mobile phones are seen as the obvious (but not the only) means of information delivery/collection for LBTS applications and this technology has considerable potential for the Australian tourism industry. This paper aims to assess the state of knowledge regarding LBTS applications, present a range of applications from around the globe, classify the applications into a schema and then explore potential LBTS applications. Findings show that three types of applications are emerging into the market space, consumer revenue generation applications, supplier applications and information provision portal type applications. It is apparent much innovation is taking place with LBTS development and the emergent LBTS application market is seeking to create revenue from the convergence of the Internet access, cell phone ubiquity and tourism.

Introduction

Worldwide US$515 billion was spent in 2003 on international tourism activities with 694 million international tourist arrivals recorded in 2003 (WTTC, 2004). The US Travel & Tourism sector is estimated to constitute 10.5% of GDP and is expected to grow 4.1% per year from 2005 - 2014 (Barnes, 2003). Tourism accounts for 4.5% of Australia's gross domestic product (WTTC, 2004). Latest figures show overnight domestic visitors spent $39.9 billion, international visitors $10.7 billion and day visitors $12 billion in Australia. The maturation of location based systems either through GPS, cell-phone triangulation, wireless networks or RFID's coupled with the growth in adventure or discovery tourism has created the need for web-based access to location-based information for both tourism operators and consumers. Currently location based stakeholders propagate information via many platforms. Location based vendors (Navman) typically market their products though retail type web sites. Location based value adding organisations (AAA) have developed portals to support their operations. Regional tourism centres (Outback Queensland Tourism) keep vertical web sites covering tourist activities based on their geographic areas. Location based applications creators (Magellan) sell through a range of channels. Finally consumers of location based products/services need to access many different information sources in either push/pull mode. This paper seeks to look at a range of LBTS applications to ascertain the "state of play" and then classify the applications into an existing framework. The aim is to ascertain the established LBTS applications as well as the emerging innovative LBTS applications.

Literature Analysis

U-Commerce and the Components of LBTS Applications

The evolution of e-commerce into m-commerce and then into u-commerce is facilitated by the emergence of four U-forces; ubiquity, universality, uniqueness and unity (Watson, 2004). Ubiquity related to the "anytime-anywhere" access focus, the mobile phone with the associated network is fast bringing to reality the Ubiquity U-force. The convergence of network access is enabling universality, creation of the consumer device that can read any network giving hope to the " anytime anywhere" mantra necessary for the U-force. The ability to individualize information and provide pull information based upon location, time, role or some combination brings the promise of the Unique U-force. Synchronisation of the access device, information provision, software driver will be essential pre-requisites for the Unison U-force. Watson defines U-commerce, The use of ubiquitous networks to support personalised and uninterrupted communications and transactions between an organisation and its various stakeholders to provide a level of value over, above and beyond traditional commerce (Watson, 2002). There are three elements of any LBTS application; geographic focus, content focus and revenue focus. All LBTS applications and business models depend on tracking and positioning of a mobile device, this could be a mobile phone, purpose built GPS reader, wireless token or even an RFID chip/antenna. Tracking and positioning rely upon location awareness and locative media. Location awareness ( Brown & Chalmers, 2003) refers to information about the present (synchronous-where am I?) as well as the past (asynchronous-where was I?). Locative media infers several awareness facets: presence, location both absolute and relative, direction and place. For the tourism industry LBTS applications that involve location awareness and locative media could include roadside assistance for hired vehicles or coach/bus parties, tracking of hikers or off-road tourists in remote areas. LBTS can utilize information that can be requested by a consumer or subscriber (PULL) or information automatically sent to a subscriber who has opted in for push services from an LBS content provider (PUSH). In the tourism industry this could include personal position information such as "Where am I?" (Accommodation, restaurants, theatres, hospitals, banks etc) and "Where is?" (Maps, tourist guides and weather and traffic alerts). LBTS can also be used for targeted advertising, provision of public information from government providers and yellow pages information. The main potential revenue models for LBTS (D'Roza, 2003; Agrawal, 2003) include: § Per request charging, § By subscription charging, § Combination of above, and, § Revenue sharing with mobile operators. Revenue sharing is problematic while LBTS revenue is low (Agrawal & Agrawal, 2003) and it may be necessary to investigate and adopt internet-based electronic commerce B2C and B2B models to address transaction issues such as micro-payments, account consolidation, third party coupon-account and debit accounts.

LBTS Market Stakeholders

Stakeholders in LBTS fall into three basic categories: infrastructure providers, tourism content providers, tourism providers and consumers (including current and potential tourists).

Infrastructure providers include:
Infrastructure providers are involved in hardware, network and software provision. In our classification we include application developers and retailers as providers. These include:
§ GPS positioning data providers (US Gov, new Euro consortia),
§ Hardware providers of handsets and other mobile devices such as PDAs (eg Nokia, Ericsson, HP, Toshiba, Palm),
§ Mobile network providers and carriers (e.g. Telstra, Optus),
§ Mobile Operators who piggyback off network providers (e.g. Primus, Orange),
§ GIS and LBS middleware positioning system providers (e.g. MapMakers Australia, MapTrax), and,
§ General application providers (e.g. Navman, Vindigo).

Tourism Providers include:
Tourism providers include specific product providers such as travel agents, airlines, itinerary providers, hospitality providers, vehicle rental providers and various government agencies: Tourist product providers who would use LBTS include travel agents, airlines, package providers and itinerary providers.
§ Hospitality providers include hotels, bed and breakfasts, caravan parks, resorts etc,
§ Vehicle rental providers include car and bike rental companies, and,
§ Government tourism include government tourism-centers, national parks etc.

Tourism Content Providers include:
Content providers would fill the market space by acting as the content link between providers and consumers. Examples of content providers include map makers (Rich Map Engine-UK), location information (Vindego - US) and touring information (Voz in ze boz - Fr).

Consumers include:
Consumers include the general public who are traveling as tourists or are seeking tourism information, niche market tourists who are particularly seeking LBTS and members of the tourism industry who on-sell services.

The Tourism Lifecycle and Applications

Four trends were identified by the WTO in their 2003 Tourism Highlights report:
§ Low-cost airlines were rapidly expanding,
§ The Internet dominates information collection and tour booking,
§ The advent of non-organized touring, and,
§ The evolution of "do-it-yourself" travel.

Traditionally the travel and tourism industry has been a leading adopter of innovative technology. The latest iteration involves the adoption of mobile devices, ubiquitous computing, user-friendly interfaces and location awareness, which has created the need for "Ambient Intelligence" (www.cordis.lu) and the concordant business term U-Commerce. The dominant computer interface for tourism is "lean forward" with ambient intelligence promising "laid-back" relaxed and enjoyable interactions (Werthner & Klein, 1999). Ambient intelligence promises the ability to personalise and localise tourist activities and the integration of features with narrative concepts that can enhance on-tour activities (Nova, 2004; Gretzel & Fesenmaier, 2002). The inherent mobility of tourism earmarks Location Based Tourism Systems as "the next big thing" in travel and tourism technology (Berger et al, 2004). LBTS technology has considerable potential for applications in the Australian tourism industry in all three phases of the touring life cycle (Lehner & Seibold, 2004).

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The touring life cycle can be segmented into three phases:
§ Planning - encompasses many location enabled information sharing processes. Data management is the crucial information activity in this phase,
§ Touring - spans the time when the tourist visits, wanders, stays and generally is "on the ground". Digital delivery of location based information has huge potential in this phase, and,
§ Reminiscing - takes in the after tour experience and can involve sharing of information including recommender systems (Gretzel & Fesenmaier, 2002).

There are many activities that can be undertaken within these phases. These are shown in Figure 1. The range of activities that can be supported by the application of LBTS include on-tour support for tourists (in enhancing visitor interpretation, multi-lingual commentaries and associated services); visitor data collection, visitor monitoring, and impacts management. The range of potential LBTS applications spans all phases of the touring life cycle including:
§ Location specific portals providing specialist resources and information to consumers of location based services, (eg. Cyberguides).
§ Tourism tracking including GPS tracking supports adventure tourists in remote locations (www.travelbyGPS.com),
§ Position based sightseeing information for specific sites or venues (Poslad et al, 2001)(CRUMPET) including position-based commentary systems such as feature triggered multilingual (Brown & Chalmers, 2003; Woodfruff, 2001) commentary for exhibitions, museums (www.equator.ac.ik), national parks and tours vehicles, and,
§ Location based recommender systems for providing individualized (www.ski-europe.cm) tourism advice at any stage of the touring lifecycle.

Methodology

The primary objective of the study was to source a range of LBTS applications present these applications in a meta classification and then to re-classify them into a framework provided by Giaglis (2002). The LBTS applications were sourced by a key word search through an Internet search engine. The meta classification used the classifying parameters, access technology, location technology, information push or pull, online or offline module and finally a classification based upon the type of user. The main research questions presented include:
· What are the classifying parameters of emerging LBTS applications?
· Does the Giaglis framework still apply to LBTS as sourced in this research?
· What potential LBTS applications emerge from this research?

Meta Classification

The following table (See Table 1) gives 30 examples of location based tourism applications. The applications have been classified according to location, access technology, location technology, information access and whether there is an online component. Further an overall classification of applications focus has been derived. The application classification include; consumer application, supplier application and portal application. These classifications are based upon the major users of the location-based information that the application provides.

Discussion

LBTS Application Evolution

Consumer applications (Avis Assist; Avant Go) dominate the market space, this would be expected as the quest to generate revenue out of cell networks and cell access to value-added information advances. The cell phone coupled with GPS technology seems to be (GP Mobile; Falk City Guide) replacing the specialist PDA equipped with GPS. GPS enabled car-based navigation handsets (Smartnav; Goviamoto) are examples of the use of small-scale specialist handsets equipped in the consumer's car. On the supplier side (Rich Map Info; Accenture) revenue generation is possible in the provision of LBTS services to corporate consumers. Vertical portals (Open Motion; Map TP) are also appearing filling the need for LBTS stakeholders. Applications that have online components will promise to give multiple channel access to LBTS information. This could emulate the successful Web/Networkrk/Cell combination for the provision of cell phone ring tones, LBTS information could be sourced on the Internet through a search device and then pushed onto the cell phone. A first generation classification of "Mobile Location Services" or alternatively known as LBS is provided by Giaglis (2002). This classification can be used as an analytical toolkit or an actionable framework to help understand this emerging market space. Below find the 30 LBTS application cross-referenced within the Giaglis framework (See Table 2). There is an obvious proliferation of LBTS applications in the navigation and information services classifications. Even if our analysis of LBTS is not exhaustive these two areas seem to be advanced in consumer acceptance. There will also be a crossover of Giaglis classifications. Information service type LBTS applications obviously will be designed to generate revenue from advertising. The take up of even simple LBTS in Australia has been slow although the car navigation system is seen as a value-adding product in car sales. It is not clear what consumers want or need from LBTS. It is not clear whether consumers are aware of LBTS and applications. Another major issue is the lack of content providers, the lack of availability of attractive services for consumers and the lack of new players in the LBTS market.

Locate, Meet and Match

The power of travel and tourism to drive acceptance of IT enabled change is obvious in the adoption of the Web in travel applications. Let us go forward to 2010 and see what may be possible in LBTS applications. You have just turned 55 and you have access to your accumulated retirement funds. You have traveled overseas before but now wish to take advantage of your retirement funds, your projected 8 or so years of good health and travel to all the places you see on numerous travel programs. Sometimes you will be traveling with your partner (Grey Travelers) and sometimes you wish to travel alone (Lone Ranger). You were hesitant at first about mobile phones but have used the Internet heavily for the last 10 years and mobile phones for the last 8 years. You are not so familiar with Bluetooth and RFID technology. You are planning for two trips, one to the First World War battlefields of Europe, as your grandfather was a stretcher-bearer with the First AIF. This trip you will do alone. The second trip will be to Italy with your partner as she is of Italian heritage. In planning for the trip you sign up for Locate, Meet and Match services through an LBTS enabled travel application. When you sign up you give the service your personal details and credit worthiness, your travel likes and dislikes and travel preferences are recorded and you sign in for permission marketing with an assortment of travel related products and services. These are tailored very specifically to your travel likes and dislikes and the tailoring is done through a recommender system. When you sign up you also accept location based billing, this means that services you acquire can be billed depending on your physical location. As part of the service you are given three interfaced pieces of technology. The first piece of technology is inherent in the sign up process. This is Web enabled and though a user and password you can add/edit/view all the LM&M service details. The second piece of technology is a GPS and Bluetooth and RFID enabled Generation 5 mobile phone (This is in 2010). This phone can be located either externally within 1 meter by GPS or internally by A-GPS all though Europe. The phone is your window into the LM&M application. It also can be "hot fixed" to automatically download your pre-selected information at docking stations at airports and hotels or to allow you to selectively download travel information as you go. This is billed based upon you location. For example you find yourself in Sienna and on a whim decide to stay several nights, you request accommodation information this would be billed differently (billed higher) than if you were in Rome seeking that information. The third piece of technology is an RFID enabled amulet that carries a long lasting active RFID chip interfaced with your mobile phone. The bracelet and phone set are linked to provide absolute location determination. There are also several security measures that can be activated, if the phone and bracelet are physically separated by 100 meters a warning is registered in the LM&M system. The bracelet can also activate a distress call that if it not cancelled in 10 minutes triggers an emergency response dispatch anywhere in the world.

Two of the most popular services offered by LM&M are the Locate & Meet, Locate & Date and the Locate & Track service. In the Locate & Meet service your physical location and travel preferences are matched and you are informed when like travelers are in your vicinity. They also have signed into LM&M and are receptive to co-travel if the meeting is amenable. On your WW1 battlefields travel you meet up with a tour group that is also registered with LM&M. This allows you to find tour groups you can join when they are in your vicinity (1, 5 or 10 Kilometers). Billing is done by matching locations when you meet other LM&M travelers if you are still located together (after 1 hour) billing will be the "Meet" rate. Billing also varies depending upon the likelihood of a match, Florence L&M is low-priced, Sienna L&M is more expensive because there is less likelihood of meeting other L&M travelers. It is also possible that local tour guides sign into LM&M as touring service providers. In Positano you find three tour guides that match your request for tours and locate the closest. Locate & Date is also popular and extends the Locate and Meet concept. This service is normally signed up by young single travelers and can locate, match and set up dates between like travelers and or travelers and locals. The billing for this service is at a premium and there are many price points applicable. Security would be an issue with this service but the tracking of both phones allows for risks minimization. Conversely privacy is also a concern and LM&M have extensive global privacy procedures built into their systems. In the Locate & Track module tracking of the phone & amulet is a major selling point with parents. You sign your young backpacking son into the service and can track his location from the web at home.

From the list of applications in Table 1 above we see many of the fictitious LM&M applications are already in operation. Travel and tourism could become powerful drivers for the adoption of location based or u-commerce applications. The technology seems to be waiting for a business opportunity to grab it. Travel and tourism is heavily information dependant, it has massive revenue potential and location is inherent in tourist activities. Conversely there are crucial questions relating to security and privacy. Security and privacy issues centre on an individual's desire to guard against intrusion, or breach of confidence. Location profiling, including tracking of the user, and characteristics associated with tracking, such as speed of movement, positional accuracy, and the relevance of information to the user can also create privacy issues. Individuals may not be aware of the location information being disclosed. Security and data management issues concern the ownership of data and the accountability and duty of care regarding location information and the security of stored location data from unauthorized access.

Conclusion

There is much potential in LBTS, but just as the plethora of dot.com applications failed to realize a business return innovative LBTS must be able to prove a viable business case to survive. There will be a shakeout of industry players as revenue models for LBTS either flourish or falter in the consumer driven marketplace. Any U-Commerce LBTS application will need to the address issues of security, privacy and the likely uses and misuses of human tracking systems. Issues relating to how LBTS, GPS, and cell phone technologies can be modified to ensure socially acceptable use will be important and as new technology brings new legal questions and it would be necessary to explore what new laws and international agreements are needed. Further work need to be done monitoring both the emerging technological and business marketplace for LBTS. Tourism is a fantastic revenue rich market driver for technological innovations and the emerging mobile computing field offers much potential in developing consumer friendly applications. It is possible that when the tourism juggernaut meets the mobile computing behemoth the next "killer" application will be born.

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Hypertext References

HREF1

http://www.business.vu.edu.au/staff/stein

HREF2

http://www.business.vu.edu.au

HREF3

http://www.business.vu.edu.au/staff/hawking

HREF4

http://www.business.vu.edu.au

HREF5

http://www.gpa.uq.edu.au/staff/teach.asp?sname=SharmaPramod

HREF6

http://www.gpa.uq.edu.au

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