Chapter 4 Research Result for B2C Mobile Tourism Service Classification
5.4 System Implementation for B2C Mobile Tourism Service
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
The resulting output elements of a recommended tour plan include tour plan ID, sequence number of attractions/activities, types of attractions/activities (sightseeing, restaurant, hotel), attraction/activity ID, attraction/activity name, information of selected sightseeing spots (e.g. name, location, address, distance to the updated current location, sightseeing theme, suggested visiting time, etc.), information of selected restaurants (e.g.
name, location, address, distance to the updated current location, food type, suggested eating time, customer rating score, etc.), information of the selected hotel (e.g. name, location, address, distance to the updated current location, hotel class, room type, room rate, check-in/check-out times, facilities, distance to point-of-interest, customer rating score, etc.), as well as a map showing all selected attractions with their sequence numbers. Through using the attraction/activity ID, detailed information about the recommended sightseeing spots, restaurants, or hotel can be accessed and reviewed.
5.4 System Implementation for B2C Mobile Tourism Service
A prototype system that enables the delivery of the personalized location-based tour planning recommendation services is developed. In the system environment, system and application software in the back-end server side include Windows XP, Microsoft IIS Web Server 5.1, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, and Google Map API 3.0. The CHT Windows Mobile 5.0 Smart Phone Emulator is used as the client-side emulator.
Besides, one HTC 3G PDA phone and one Apple iPhone 4S are used for system evaluation.
Figure 18 presents the prototype system environment that allows tourists to use PDAs or smart phones for accessing the web-based applications and activating desired personalized location-based recommendation services. Sightseeing spots, restaurants, and hotels can be selected, or a packaged personalized tour plan can be generated based on tourists’
location-aware needs, preferences, constraints, and criteria.
Figure 18. B2C Prototype System Environment
44
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
In Figures 19-23, a few screenshots of the personalized location-based recommendation services are illustrated. As shown in Figure 19(A), the first screenshot shows the list of B2C mobile tourism services including restaurant, hotel, sightseeing spot, and tour plan recommendation services, as well as user profile management services. In Figure 19(B) and Figure 19(C), these two screenshots display user interactions for setting criteria for hotel recommendation services including maximum occupancy, search range, minimum hotel class, maximum room price, minimum customer rating, desired facility, and weights for each criterion. The fourth screenshot, as shown in Figure 19(D), is recommended hotel list with photos, names, hotel class, room rate, and distance from current location. Clicking on the photo or the name of the selected hotel will present the detailed information of the selected hotel, as show in Figures 19(E)-19(G). Detailed hotel information includes available room, pricing, available facility, hotel class, hotel phone number, hotel address, nearby MRT station, direction to the hotel, check-in time, check-out time, hotel briefings, nearby point-of-interests, and distance between the selected hotel and the corresponding point-of-interest. In Figure 19(H), the final screenshot is a Google Map display of the recommended hotel.
(A) (B) (C) (D)
(E) (F) (G) (H)
45
Figure 19. Output Screenshots of Hotel Recommendation Services
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
46
Figure 20 displays output screens of the sightseeing recommendation services. In Figure
20(A) is the s htseeing
recommendation services to specify their own sightseeing preferences including the maxi
(A) (B) (C) (D)
Figure 20. Output Screenshots of Sightseeing Recommendation Services
Figure 21 shows the screenshots of the restaurant recommendation services. Figure 21(A)
displays t rvices.
Preference criteria for restaurant recommendation include preferred food type, maximum search
riteria to activate the tour plan recommendation services. As mentioned, these item
election criteria input screen which allows users to interact with the sig
mum search range, sightseeing theme type, and weight between the search range and the sightseeing theme type. Figure 20(B) displays the recommended sightseeing spot based on the selection criteria. The system will automatically check the open days and open hours to filter closed sightseeing spots based on current day and time. Within the recommended sightseeing spot list is the photo and name of the sightseeing spot, the open hours, distance from current location, and the matching score. The detailed information will be retrieved when users click on the name or the photo of the recommended sightseeing spot, then they will see the name, sightseeing theme type, open hour, ticket price, address, nearby MRT, direction, briefing, and suggested visiting time of a selected sightseeing spot, as shown in Figures 20(C) and 20(D).
he interaction screen for users to activate the restaurant recommendation se
range, minimum customer rating, and the weight between search range and customer rating. Figure 21(B) presents the recommended restaurant list with photo, name, food type served, customer rating (in red star), distance between current location and recommended restaurant, and matching score. Figure 21(C) presents the detailed information of the recommended restaurant, including food type served, phone number, address, nearby MRT, open hour, recommended food, briefing, etc. In Figure 21(D) displays the Google Map of selected restaurant.
In Figure 22, from the left hand side to the right, the first two screenshots, shown in Figures 22(A) and 22(B), display user interactions for setting matching items and values, as well as evaluation c
s include search range, multiple sightseeing themes, lunch food type, dinner food type, restaurant ratings, hotel class and room rate, etc. The third screenshot, shown in Figure
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
22(C), presents the overview of the recommended tour plan with photos and names, sequence numbers (in red balloon), distances to the previous locations, suggested visiting time frames, and location maps of the recommended sightseeing spots, restaurants, and hotel. Clicking on these items will show enlarged pictures or detailed information of the corresponding places.
The right hand screenshot is a Google Map display that visually spots all the recommended places, shown in Figure 22(D).
47
(A) (B) (C) (D)
Figure 21. Output Screenshots of Restaurant Recommendation Services
(A) (B) (C) (D)
Figure 22. Output Screenshots of Tour Plan Recommendation Services
Figure 23 presents the screenshots of the user profile management services. Figures 23(A)
and 23(B) ximum
number of sightseeing spots, tour end time, restaurant criteria weighting, sightseeing criteria weighting, and hotel criteria weighting. Figures 23(C) and 23(D) display the drop down lists
present the personalized preferences about lunch time, dinner time, ma
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
48
for u
(A) (B) (C) (D)
Figure 23. Output Screenshots of User Profile Configuration Services
5.5 System
The system evaluation is made on a prototype system that is used by tourists for personalized and location-based tour planning recommendation via mobile devices. The ces is a HTC webs
ual mobile devices allow users to test the appl
sers to configure their own tour preferences, and these user profiles will be referenced in the tour plan recommendation services to support personalized recommendation.
Evaluation for B2C Mobile Tourism Service
mobile device used in the system evaluation for B2C mobile tourism servi
cellular phone with 3G mobile Internet access. Users activate the Web browser and launch the ite of the prototype system. They interact with the prototype system through the keyboard and touch screen of the mobile phone. There is no additional software or hardware need for interacting with the prototype system.
The system evaluation of the prototype system is performed through laboratory experiment with actual mobile devices and 3G mobile Internet connections. In the laboratory experiment, the user location is configured to a pre-specified geographical region in Taipei.
Actual mobile devices are chosen because act
ication in a real environment. Compared with emulators in the notebooks, the actual mobile devices reflect the real usage for mobile users. The user location is pre-defined because as a testing mobile service, it is possible for this study to access the location of the mobile phone number via 3G operators for privacy issues. Survey questionnaire is employed as a data collection method in the laboratory experiment. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. Testing candidates are randomly selected in a cafeteria at one university, and the purpose of the study is presented to the candidate to ask if he/she is willing to volunteer for the experiment.
At the beginning of the experiment, a brief orientation is provided to explain the details about this study as well as the procedures of the experiment. During the experiment, the
‧
ototype system is introduced to the participants, including a description of main features provided by the prototype system and screen shots of each mobile tourism servi
ervices and seven questions for demographic data collection. Six criteria for the system evaluation of the B2C mob
early half of them have mobile Internet access experience. 86%
respondents have domestic budget travelling experience, and 50% respondents have domestic grou
participant is given a HTC mobile device with 3G mobile Internet access capability. A quick review of the pr
ce. Participants are encouraged to do some hands-on to make sure that they are comfortable with the 3G mobile devices and they know how to access the prototype website via browsers of the 3G mobile devices by themselves. Furthermore, they are encouraged to practice with the prototype system to familiarize themselves with the menus and functionalities of the mobile tourism services. Then, the participants are asked to perform some typical tour planning tasks using the mobile tourism services of the prototype system.
Typical tour planning tasks are to find a restaurant, to search for a hotel, to locate some interesting sightseeing spots, and to build a tour plan, etc. Users have to test all functions of the prototype system and to complete the system evaluation questionnaire.
Table 16 shows the outline of the survey questionnaire for the system evaluation of the B2C mobile tourism services. There are total twenty-nine questions in the survey questionnaire for the system evaluation of the B2C mobile tourism services, including twenty-two questions for system evaluation of the B2C mobile tourism s
ile tourism services are user interface & layout, functionality, ease of use, understandability, satisfaction, and intention for future use. We have three questions for user interface & layout criteria, four for functionality criteria, four for ease of use criteria, three for understandability criteria, three for satisfaction criteria, and five for intention for future use criteria. The seven demographic data include mobile phone use experiences, mobile Internet access experiences, travel experiences, gender, age range, educational level and email/phone number. The 5-point Likert scale was used, ranging from “1=strongly disagree” to
“5=strongly agree”. The Chinese version of the system evaluation survey questionnaire is shown in Appendix 4.
The system evaluation of the B2C mobile tourism services is based on a sample of twenty-eight recruited students with 50% female. Nearly 80% respondents belong to age under thirty because the main respondents are university students. All of the respondents have mobile phones, and n
p travelling experience. As for oversea travelling experience, 39% respondents have oversea budget travelling experience, and 75% respondents have oversea group travelling experience. Based on a 5-point Likert scale (1 as strongly disagree and 5 as strongly agree), the average scores of the six criteria including user interface & layout, functionality, ease of use, understandability, satisfaction, and intention for future use are 3.87, 4.07, 4.10, 4.45, 3.76, and 3.81 respectively with the overall average score being above 3.70. This system evaluation of the B2C mobile tourism services indicates that the average scores of the criteria of understandability, ease of use, and functionality are above 4, which means that this prototype system is easy to understand, easy to use, and useful for travel use. This result indicates that the system analysis, design and development processes are carefully designed and implemented, and thus the prototype system is feasible and useful. Overall, the outcome indicates positively the applicability of the proposed framework and methods of system development for B2C mobile tourism services.
‧
Table 16. System Evaluation of the B2C Mobile Tourism Services
Part I: System EvaluationNo Criteria Questions
1 User interface &
layout
(Q1) I like using the interface of the system.
(Q2) The organization of information presented by the system was clear.
(Q3) The interface of this system was pleasant to use.
2 Functionality (Q4) This system has all the functions and capabilities that I expect it to have.
(Q5) This information retrieved by the system was effective in helping me to complete the task.
(Q6) This system was suitable for my travel.
(Q7) I found the whole tour plan recommendation function useful.
3 Ease of use (Q8) It was simple to use this system.
(Q9) It was easy to find the information I needed.
(Q10) The information provided with this system was clear.
(Q11) Overall, this system was easy to use.
4 Understandability (Q12) It was easy to learn to use the system.
(Q13) There was not too much information to read before I can use this system.
(Q14) The information provided by this system was easy to understand.
5 Satisfaction (Q15) I felt comfortable using this system.
(Q16) I enjoyed constructing my travel plans through this system.
(Q17) Overall, I am satisfied with this system.
6 Intention for future use
(Q18) I was able to make a tour plan quickly using this system.
(Q19) As far as I know, there are no such mobile services.
(Q20) I believe I could become productive quickly using this system.
(Q21) This system was able to convince me that the recommendations are of value.
(Q22) From my current experience with using this system, I think I would use such system.
Part II: Demographic data 1 Do you use mobile phone? yes or no
2 Did you ever access Internet via WAP, GPRT, 3G or PHS? yes or no
3 What are your travell ,
domestic group trave nd/or oversea group travelling ing experiences (multiple choices)? domestic budge travelling lling, oversea budget travelling a
4 Gender: male or female
5 Age: Below 20, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 or above 60
6 Educational level: High school, junior college, college or university, master or PhD 7 Email or phone number (only for academic research)
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
51
C
Classification
For B2E mobile tourisms services, the need of a classification framework for mobile service development and evaluation within the management context is significant and strong (Chen and Nath, 2004; Rangone and Renga, 2006). To deal with the emerging mobile tourism service issues in the B2E sector, this study aims at identifying, classifying, and evaluating useful mobile services for employees in the tourism industry based on a multi-dimensional perspective approach. For accomplishing the B2E research objectives, we first propose a tourism-related B2E mobile service classification framework with four management levels and three functional concerns to categorize identified existing and potential intra-organizational mobile tourism services. Classified B2E mobile tourism services are then evaluated in terms of three specified criteria, namely, importance, feasibility, and cost-benefit effectiveness. The proposed B2E mobile tourism service classification framework is also evaluated in terms of fitness and soundness of the mapping of the proposed B2E mobile tourism services and the corresponding slot within the proposed B2E mobile tourism service classification framework. We expect that the B2E mobile tourism service classification framework and evaluation scheme can serve as a guideline for reviewing and categorizing current B2E mobile solutions, and further facilitating the development and delivery of value-added B2E mobile services.
In the subsequent sections, this study is organized as follows. Section 6.1 provides literature reviews on B2E mobile tourism service classification. Section 6.2 describes the research method for B2E mobile tourism service classification. Section 6.3 presents the research results of the B2E mobile tourism service classification. In section 6.4, discussions on B2E research results are presented.
6.1 Literature Review on B2E Mobile Tourism Service Classification
In the tourism market, travel agencies are facing fierce competition for years. It is important for tourism companies to offer value-added products and services with better qualities, as well as to increase the human resources capabilities for survival and sustaining the businesses (Garces, et. al, 2004; Tsai, Huang, and Lin, 2005; Wu, 2006). Companies recognize that the key to satisfy tourist demands is to emphasize the overall quality of service, including pre-trip sales, on-site operations, and post-trip feedbacks. Moreover, tourism companies belong to a labor- and knowledge-intensive industry, and one of the key issues to motivate employees is to build attractive incentive plans and learning programs. Typical employee groups in the travel agencies are sales people, tour leaders, tour guides, tour operation centers, line managers, and executives, etc. Although employees are empowered by electronic commerce applications, most application functions are not applicable when employees are on the move, and the service outcome mainly relies on individual experiences and reactions. Since it is clear that most of the employees are on the move most of the time,
hapter 6 Extension to B2E Mobile Tourism Service
‧
the needs for mobile communication, agile responses, learning organizations, and
Among researchers tr amework for analyzing mobile
services, Chen and Nath (2 mework to study the business
opportunities made possible by wireless technologies within organizational contexts. In their fram
auto
phic independence enabled by wireless solutions for enterprise workers are transient, mobile and remote. The changes in work processes include
obile distributed works in various aspects, and emphasizes the needs of mobile employee empowerment such as mobile decision support applications. Leem, Suh, and
knowledge-oriented services are strong.
ied to develop an evaluation fr 004) use the impact/value fra
ework, the impacts include time, mobility, relationship, and location, and the values include efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. However, the contents of mobile services are still unclear. Lyytinen and Yoo (2002) present a four-level framework including individual, team, organizational, and inter-organizational levels for examining a series of mobile commerce issues. They indicate that mobile services provide essential information to remote collaborators. They further call for research efforts on new aspects of information availability (overload) and their impacts on learning and performance within organizations, as well as on new impact measures of organizational learning and agility empowered by mobile services in addition to traditional performance measures like efficiency and effectiveness of decision making. Grun et al (2008) present an evaluation framework for classifying and evaluating mobile tourist guides. Design dimensions of mobile services comprise service delivery, service customization, and service initiation. Using mobile brokerage service as an example, Lu, Zhang, and Wang (2009) propose a multidimensional framework for measuring mobile service quality. Interaction, outcome, and environment qualities are identified as primary dimensions that further consisted of multiple sub-dimensions.
When specifically focusing on the topic of B2E mobile services, few works are found in the literature. Rangone and Renga (2006) report an exploratory study to investigate the B2E mobile Internet applications in Italian. Their study focuses on sales- and field-force
mation applications via wireless devices and infrastructures. The main ideas behind these applications are efficiency and investment paybacks. However, intrinsic mobile values and managerial thinking are left behind in their portfolio of B2E mobile internet applications.
Barnes (2004) uses mobility, process, and market to position the mobile works in organizations. Three levels of geogra
automaton, decision support, and transformation. The value proposition includes mobile channel access, mobile service value, and mobile service creation. This model provides an intuitive assessment of m
Kim (2004) suggest a B2B/B2E model classification approach based on Porter’s value chain perspective. Their B2B/B2E model is further subdivided into six representative models including firm infrastructure, procurement & inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing & sales, and after service & system support. The firm infrastructure refers to a mobile solution supporting a firm’s general decision making and information sharing. This classification approach offers a good explanation for the manufacturing industry based on functional and operational views. Nevertheless, several key components are still missing; for instance, knowledge management and learning that are vital to the creation of organizational values and employee competence are omitted in the classification. Furthermore, this approach does not separate the strategic and managerial levels from the operational level to address and specify B2E mobile service needs in different organization levels.
To capture the characteristics of emerging mobile services for B2E applications, this
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
53
ation purpose, multi-dimensional perspectives are adopted to take into account managerial and functional features simultaneously. Both manage
services from previous litera
paper aims at identifying, classifying, and evaluating useful mobile services for employees in the tourism industry. For the classific
paper aims at identifying, classifying, and evaluating useful mobile services for employees in the tourism industry. For the classific