Iason Koufodontis (p), Eleni Gaki

Virginie Picon-lefebvre

In Greece, as well as in many other countries, tourism policy and management are administered and organized at two distinct levels. Tourism ministry and national organizations have the task of branding and promoting the country as a whole, while regions and municipalities focus in the promotion of the local tourism product. Typically, the local authorities have undertaken the tasks of destination management or marketing and tourism policy implementation in line with the central policies. Private sector supplements the role of authorities and furthermore, often has its own agenda regarding the promotion of certain aspects of the destination and specific tourism related resources. This paper is based on primary research on a large sample including several Greek regions and initially it examines the basic demographics of local policy makers at the individual executive level, covering both sectors, public and private. Findings show that the profile of the policy makers does not match in all characteristics what would typically be expected. Further analysis of the data collected is focused around the attitudes of the policy makers regarding the impact and accuracy of user generated online social media content. Findings suggest local executives are not only acknowledging and often fully accepting the collective online opinions of the tourists related to local destinations and tourism resources; they also appear willing to adjust their own views and attitudes in order to match the interpretations and expectations of the demand side.

Pierre-Olaf Schut (p)

José de Santos

The development of connected stadiums has become a primary requirement to improve the customer experience (Jäger, 2013). What is actually meant by the phrase "connected stadium"? The first technical step is to facilitate network connection for all spectators. The next stage is to offer additional services and deploy an adapted marketing strategy (Bal & Fleck, 2016). As these innovative devices are implemented, the resulting effects are uncertain and cannot be easily controlled. What can be expected? Improved customer experience? Increased consumption? Greater customer loyalty? Change in the audience's behaviour?

The present study aims to analyse the case of the Roland Garros tennis stadium which is also invested in the digital race (Hammond, 2014). The French Open, one of the four Grand Slam events, is held there every year. This famous tournament gathered 471,000 spectators and 31 million viewers in 2017. The organizers are constantly trying to improve the user experience, in particular through digital tools. Every year this commitment is translated into the deployment of dedicated applications for smartphones and tablets

What are the effects of these tools on the spectators? How do they use them and how much do these applications alter their ways of enjoying the Roland Garros tournament? To answer these questions, we shall conduct a questionnaire survey of spectators of the 2018 tournament from May 27 to June 10.

We plan to interview a sample of 500 spectators on the following themes: what are their connected devices, how do they use them in and out of the stadium (before and after the tournament), how do they combine the show taking place before their eyes and the digital experience, and what do they expect from these tools (satisfied / disappointed)?

The results of the questionnaires will be processed through a specific survey processing software (Modalisa®). The basic sorting, cross-sorting, principal component analyses and factorial analyses of correspondences should allow us to give intelligibility to the uses of the applications and the behavioural changes they entail. In addition, a typology of spectators will help to better understand and target customers through their use of digital devices.

Insofar as the survey has not yet been carried out, we cannot deliver the main results at this time. Through this survey, we aim to show the actual uses of a connected stadium and better understand the fast evolving behaviour and expectations of users in a context of rapid technological change.

José de Santos (p), Susana Bernardino, José Ribeiro, André Freitas

Pierre-Olaf Schut

See document - full (draft) paper

Vojtěch Kuna (p), Petra Horáčková , Lukáš Makovský

Iason Koufodontis

During the recent decades, the world has experienced an unprecedented increase in global tourism. While many positive effects on local economies have been identified, recently, negative effects of mass tourism on certain destinations have received more exposure as well. In some cases these lead to public backslash and policy reaction. The most discussed negative aspects include market shifts and crowding of popular places, leading to decreased utility of local residents. In Prague, the rapid market liberalization in the 1990s lead to a sharp change in use of city center towards offices, shops and tourism, followed by a gradual decrease in population. Prague Strategic Plan assessed the increasing touristification and depopulation of the city center as one of the issues Prague will be facing in the near future. In trying to implement economically efficient solutions, the policy makers are interested in approximate monetary evaluations of negative effects of tourism on the city center. As a first step towards this assessment, we study the effects of crowding in the city center on Prague locals. We use geotagged photo data from Flickr and cell phone location data to estimate tourist movement patterns through the city center and the resulting densities of people in public space. Furthermore, we compare our results to previous studies of public space crowding and estimate utility effects using utility function based on existing literature. We find several places where crowding reaches levels resulting in significant utility loss.

Virginie Picon-lefebvre (p)

Vojtěch Kuna

see extended abstract