References

§  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License, 9^th November (2010), Location-based services. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_Based_Services [Accessed 1st October 2010]

§  Mullins L. (2010) Management & Organisational Behaviour, (9^th Edition), Harlow: Prentice Hall.

§  How has technology made our lives better (2008) Directed by David Pogue [Video] Available at http://bigthink.com/ideas/977 [Accessed 26th October 2010]

§  Mark Wilson (2009) Gizmodo: Mark. 29^th December. Available at http://gizmodo.com/5435446/has-technology-made-things-better-or-worse [Accessed 26th October 2010]

§  How is technology changing the way we live (2007) Directed by Jagdish Bhagwati [Video] Available at http://bigthink.com/ideas/5010 [Accessed 26th October 2010]

§  Google Maps for the iPhone (2008) Directed by GoogleMobileBlog [Video] Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL7w5AeCkXo [Accessed 26^th October 2010]

§  Google Maps for the iPhone (2008) Directed by GoogleMobileBlog [Video] Available at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUunR91VzI [Accessed 26^th October 2010]

§  Kotler P, Bowen T. B, Makens C. J (1996). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. 4^th edition. Consumer Markets and Consumer Buying Behavior. United States of America: Prentice Hall.

§  Human Kinetics (2005)Introduction to recreation and leisure [Online]. Available at http://books.google.com/books?id=35-ZqQ_IviEC&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=People+travel+for+many+purposes:+on+business,+for+recreation,+education,+and&source=bl&ots=2pBTrWmsvl&sig=mPpj9jbycfb69viATIzHqB5tI6I&hl=en&ei=5QfQTOuqGd7a4wb_5ezMBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=People%20travel%20for%20many%20purposes%3A%20on%20business%2C%20for%20recreation%2C%20education%2C%20and&f=false [Accessed 26^th October 2010]

§  Berendien Lubbe (2005) Tourism Management in Southern Africa [Online]. Available at http://books.google.com/books?id=kmJPwmorZFcC&pg=PT217&lpg=PT217&dq=new+technologies+allow+more+flexible+access+travelling&source=bl&ots=Hv4h68xGZC&sig=QRyT3eh3ZScqOr2EtPp-ZL2M054&hl=en&ei=0hLQTJuWAcOOjAe-huW-Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 26^th October 2010]

§  UNT (2006). Student Money Management Center’s top 10 holiday spending mistakes. Available at http://www.unt.edu/newuntfeatures/toptenspending.htm [Accessed 8th November 2010]

§  Today’s Youth Travelers: Tomorrow’s Global Nomads. New Horizons in Independent Youth and Student Travel. A Report for the International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC) and the Association of Tourism and Leisure Education-Amsterdam - September 2003. [Online]. Available at http://www.atlas-euro.org/pages/pdf/FINAL_Full_report.pdf [Accessed 8th November 2010]

§  Graig Nathanson (2002-2010). Spending Money: The Difference Between “need” and “Want”. Senior Magazine Online. (n.k) [Online]. Available at  http://www.seniormag.com/caregiverresources/articles/caregiverarticles/money/spending-money.htm [Accessed 8th November 2010]

§   Schiller H. J, Voisard A. (2004). Location Based Services. Morgan Kaufmann series in data management systems. [Online]. Available at http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wj19b5wVfXAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=location+based+services&source=bl&ots=laTs4qrfLj&sig=1kL2EiUAQ9N8V5oLjyEykDZDzU0&hl=sv&ei=yTTZTO2xO5CRjAe60cyTCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 8^th November 2010]

Concept

The concept is based on an application which people are going to use during the trip. Many, when coming home from a holiday have been without money which often happens as people are not paying as much attention on the spending costs during the stay in another country (UNT 2006).
The application is going to help travellers travelling domestically and around the world with an application, which is a budget guide. It will calculate the budget a customer has and will provide the customer with tips on attractions, restaurants and hotels which are suitable for the customers’ budget. The calculation application is going to be accessed with help of location based services such as Google maps which will provide customers with knowledge of the area where customers are situated or the route customers are intending to follow.

How it is going to work?
Customers have to download the application onto the iPhone before going on the trip. On the chosen destination, the customer has to choose what they want to do, by using multiple choice suggestions in the iPhone application. Populate the total budget the customer intends to spend during the holiday as well as providing how many days a customer intends to stay at that destination. A screen with the calculation will pop- up, listing matching hotels, attractions and dining places which are the most affordable for the customers’ budget. The application is also going to recommend places such as supermarkets and become more specific for some customers who want a more cost effective means to stay within budget, it will save money on food and assist the customer in getting the most out of the travel experience.

Who is the customer?
The customers are students/backpackers with limited money resources and who want to get the most out of their travel experience. Holidays can be spent differently depending on how much money people have to spend when travelling (Kotler et el 1996). Therefore, the concept is going to be targeted on students who cannot afford everything, but who want to experience the most they can within the budget. On holidays students tend to be quite irresponsible and careless with money they have as students buy products impulsively or overuse credit cards too much (UNT 2006), but at the same time students have less expenditure per day as they are usually not family travellers and prefer staying in cheaper and locally organised accommodation (ISTC 2003). http://www.atlaseuro.org/pages/pdf/FINAL_Full_report.pdf  Students pay less attention to small costs, which in fact are the big costs in the end. Students pay more for unimportant costs such various offers in the shops (Graig Nathanson 2002-2010).

How it is going to help customers?
The calculation application is going to provide customers with attractions, hotels, restaurants and supermarkets with costs which are suitable for the customer’s budget. The concept is also going to be able to raise the importance of nutritious food by providing restaurants and supermarkets with organic food with less attention to places such as MacDonald’s and Pizza Hut which are the cheap fast food chains.
The application is also going to provide time and distance to each place. As you enter the preferred attraction, restaurant or hotel, the application will give the customer a detailed description on distance and time. If a customer for example booked an attraction tour and a dinner in the restaurant, the application will notify whether the customer is on target with time. It will therefore help customer manage the time on holiday, manage the budget and at the same time get most out of the holiday experience.

Possible technologies involved

A few years ago people had to use a traditional way to find a holiday by using paper based maps or travel guides. Today it is almost no longer used as people find for example Google maps much more convenient and therefore  will move even further from today’s paper map model. (Schiller H, J et el 2004)

The technologies which are going to be used in the concept are location based services as well as a mobile application.

 

Location based services can be defined as “services that integrate mobile device’s location or position as to provide added value to a user” (Schiller H, J et el 2004).  Location based services give users a broad variety of access to personalized, local content. The application is enabled by GPS-equipped phones, where users can find everything from a emergency application to finding a friend, places, routing as well as it providing distance and time information ( Schiller H, J et el 2004).    

The heart of the LBS system is the location engine, which include soft components that make intelligence to digital map data. The most important functions are geocording, reverse geocording and routing (Schiller H, J et el 2004). Geocording is the one which converse street address to latitude and longitude. The problem occurs when misspelling is added into the application and makes it more difficult to find the right direction. Reverse geocording is the process of gathering the location of the nearest road segment to a place with specified longitude and latitude (Schiller H, J et el 2004). Last but not least routing is the one which calculate the course based on for example origin and destination and also the one which provides drivers/walkers with travel time, speed, turn restrictions etc (Schiller H, J et el 2004).

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7116985-0-large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7116985.html&usg=__rsLd1EM0cd9-zYT0Xr8l80jk3BY=&h=2329&w=2084&sz=439&hl=sv&start=89&zoom=0&tbnid=Hzhww1_3GuMr7M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlocation%2Bbased%2Bservices%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dsv%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1362%26bih%3D508%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=312&ei=GUTZTObXGNS7jAe71NX_CQ&oei=FUTZTPb6IIGxhAfO77zRAg&esq=3&page=8&ndsp=11&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:89&tx=87&ty=110

As my application is going to provide customers with travel time, distance, possible turn restrictions the application will help customers to come on time for a booking in a restaurant or a guided tour around the destination as well as it minimise stress on preferred destination. When arriving at the destination, the customer has to choose what they want to do, by using multiple choice suggestions in the iPhone application. It will make recommendations and provide advice which will be more specific for individual customers, as everybody has various tastes in entertainment, food and purposes for travelling (Human Kinetics 2006). It will therefore be personalised. The customer then has to enter the budget which will be spent during the holiday as well as acknowledge the application with how many days the holiday is going to last. A screen with the calculation will pop- up, listing matching hotels, attractions and dining places which are the most affordable for the customers’ budget and lifestyle. The application will also recommend places such as supermarkets and become more specific for some customers who have a more restricted budget, but who prefer to eat healthier. This will help save money on food and provide more money for those who would rather spend it on their travel experience. The application is therefore flexible depending upon the individuals’ priorities and budget constraints.

http://www.brothersoft.com/mobile/google-maps-for-mobile-4530.html  

Customer's needs

People have almost unlimited wants, but limited resources (Kotler et al 1996). Therefore when buying a product, customers want to receive satisfaction in quality as well as good value for money (Kotler et el 1996). When buying a certain product, a customer is influenced by various factors such as family life-cycle, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle etc. A customer, who is young and unmarried, might spend more on entertainment, while married couples with children have other costs to think about. Also occupation is very important, as it affects customers buying behavior and their choice and decisions to buy a product (Kotler et el 1996).

Last but not least, lifestyle influences people’s choices too. One person might have a completely different pattern of living than another person (Kotler et al 1996). For example, where the customer prefers to stay overnight, in a hotel or in cheap hostel? What does the customer want to eat, a sandwich or a three course meal?

http://business.latech.edu/~bbabin/MKT530/CVF.jpg 

There are many ideas behind why people travel. For some it is only an educational purpose, whilst others consider it an entertainment pass time. People travel for recreation, to meet business partners or just visit friends and families (Human Kinetics 2006).

If looking back only a few years ago, travelling required serious preparation: booking with the help of travel agents, buying guidebooks and maps, collecting brochures, catalogues and leaflets (Human Kinetics 2006).  Today everything has changed as innovative technologies allow more flexible access to information, booking services, and other tourist support. Therefore, on-the-spot travelling becomes more flexible ( Berendien Lubbe 2005)  



My technological journey begins here

Douglas ( cited in Mullins 2010:443) "Living as we do in a society that is technologically extremely advanced", I had a dilemma to choose on whether I wanted my concept based on a specific technology or a technology which would compliment and improve another technology.

As technology has advanced, most people find it easier to use the devices which exist today, for instance a mobile phone (Creative Common's Licence 2009) http://bigthink.com/ideas/977. This survey gives information on whether technology has made things better or worse.

http://gizmodo.com/5435446/has-technology-made-things-better-or-worse 

By contrast, a few years ago people had to use a traditional way to plan a route with the help of a paper based map or a travel guide. Today  it is less common as technologies like Google maps provide a  much more convenient, quicker and cost effective solution. However, there are many improvements left to investigate and to create. Technology is changing all the time and thats what makes it so special and unique. http://bigthink.com/ideas/5010

By using Google maps it is much easier to get access to any of places with additional information about the place and distance, not just locally, but also internationally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL7w5AeCkXo&feature=channel   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUunR91VzI Therefore I got an idea to develop something further on a concept which already exists by utilising both Google maps and the iPhone. My idea came after listening
to my classmates discussions on world travel technologies where I got a basic overview of various technologies and therefore, I thought that to create something which can improve already existing innovations would be relevant in relation to my task. 

A world of technologies

The primary steps which I need to take before I start developing my concept, are to research about various technologies which we are surrounded by today as well as all the technologies which are going to be available in the near future. I am still quite confused what my concept is going to be about and therefore while doing this research I hope it will give me some more ideas.

The list of technologies we have nowadays is vast. I have researched about technologies such as Mashups, Location Based Services, Augmented Reality, Mobile apps and Holography, but I only chose some of them which attracted my attention the most. Those are Location Based Services and Mobile Applications.

http://www.hrtc.org/attachments/wysiwyg/10/world.jpg

Location Based Services

A location-based service (LBS) is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile device through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device

LBS services include services to identify a location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the whereabouts of a friend or employee. LBS services include parcel tracking and vehicle tracking services. They include personalized weather services and even location-based games. They are an example of telecommunication convergence.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_Based_Services)

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/Google_maps_candlestick_map.gif 

Mobile application

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Juniper-Forecast-Mobile-App-Downloads-To-Reach-25-Billion-By-2015.jpg

Welcome to around_the_world.

As student at Oxford Brookes University I have been given to do an assignment task for Tourism & Hospitality Information System module U54003. The task is going to be about developing an original concept which has the capability to provide a useful technological product or service to hospitality and/or tourism businesses.